EP 1: Moving Is Scary

00:00:08 [Alison]
Hey, I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:11 [Melissa]
Hey, I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:17 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through business relocation.

00:00:22 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges, and now we want to share our experience with you.
00:00:26 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.
00:00:34 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:35 [Alison]
I’m Allison.

00:00:36 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:00:36 [Melissa]
I’m Melissa.

00:00:38 [Alison]
We’re, we’re biz besties bringing our polos public.
00:00:41 [Alison]
If you’re not sure what a polo is, just DM us.
00:00:44 [Alison]
We’ve, we’ve been chatting with each other over Marco Polo for four years now?

00:00:50 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:00:50 [Melissa]
I wanna say that’s probably about it.
00:00:52 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:00:52 [Alison]
What are we talking about today?
00:00:54 [Alison]
We are talking about the elephant in the room.
00:00:58 [Alison]
Moving is scary.
00:00:59 [Alison]
Regardless of why you’re moving, moving your business, whether it’s with the military like we are, or if it’s because of another type of job, or it’s just because you wanna move home, or it’s something you’ve always wanted to do, moving your business that you’ve built up from the ground, made stable and successful, and ripping it all out to another location, it it’s just scary.
00:01:22 [Alison]
It doesn’t matter why and it doesn’t for what reason.

00:01:24 [Alison]
It’s scary at every turn.

00:01:26 [Melissa]
Moving

00:01:27 [Alison]
sucks.
00:01:28 [Alison]
Yep.
00:01:28 [Alison]
So, like, what are the things that make it so scary?

00:01:36 [Melissa]
You know, not knowing where you’re going, like not knowing the area, not knowing the city, what the clients are like.
00:01:44 [Melissa]
I when I did our move, our first move, I went from growing up in the same same state and knowing about the state and knowing about the clients and knowing how every was everything was, but then move a completely different state all the way from DC down to Miami and having, like, a whole, like, culture shock per se and not knowing anything about anything down there.

00:02:06 [Alison]
Yeah, absolutely.
00:02:08 [Alison]
Like every, like you, as particularly having grown up in the town you were working in, you knew about photography locations, but you also knew demographics of your town, the unwritten, the unwritten side of personality and I don’t know.
00:02:24 [Alison]
What’s the nice way of saying like wealth?

00:02:27 [Melissa]
Well, knowing what clients come from

00:02:30 [Alison]
and Target clients.
00:02:31 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:02:31 [Alison]
The, all that ICA stuff was just innate knowledge for you.

00:02:35 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:02:37 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:02:38 [Alison]
And then when it’s when it comes to moving as well, like having the idea of having to relearn all that in a new town that you did not grow up in, but also not having a timeline or knowing where you’re moving.
00:02:49 [Alison]
Like all of my moves with the military, I know eighteen months out, a year out that I’m moving somewhere, but I don’t know where until at least I think this last time we had, we got orders only five months out.
00:03:07 [Alison]
I think that they cut the order and we arrived in July.
00:03:10 [Alison]
But we, I knew for a whole year that we were moving.

00:03:12 [Alison]
I knew eighteen months out that we were going to be moving.
00:03:15 [Alison]
I didn’t know for sure that it was definitely going to happen until the fall, so September timeframe.
00:03:20 [Alison]
And then we had an idea of where we were going, but then we didn’t have orders until January, and then we arrived in July.
00:03:27 [Alison]
So like that whole time knowing that, hey, we kinda wanna stay longer in this in Virginia, but we’re not sure if that’s gonna be a good career move for my husband.
00:03:38 [Alison]
What’s gonna happen?

00:03:39 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:03:39 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:03:41 [Alison]
That’s I mean, you know what’s happening in in especially having done this before.
00:03:46 [Alison]
I was so ready to just do something, just to know, so I could take action.

00:03:52 [Melissa]
But having Yeah.
00:03:54 [Melissa]
We knew in, like, November that we were gonna be my husband wanted to move, get out of the area kind of thing.
00:04:01 [Melissa]
But we didn’t know where.
00:04:02 [Melissa]
Like, he was applying for different places.
00:04:04 [Melissa]
So we knew, like, okay.

00:04:05 [Melissa]
We’re gonna be moving, like you said, but I don’t I don’t

00:04:07 [Alison]
know where we’re moving, so

00:04:08 [Melissa]
I can’t do anything yet.
00:04:10 [Melissa]
And then it wasn’t until February, like, okay.
00:04:12 [Melissa]
Now job’s been accepted.
00:04:14 [Melissa]
Here we go, and we’re gonna land in July.
00:04:17 [Melissa]
So it’s like you’re waiting, waiting, waiting, and then you’re like, oh, you know, like a horse race.

00:04:20 [Melissa]
And then it’s like bam, out the gate.
00:04:22 [Melissa]
Go.

00:04:23 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:04:23 [Alison]
And there’s there’s really without a location, you really there’s very little you can do.
00:04:27 [Alison]
I mean, there’s some things you can do to prep and kind of give you a good baseline for success in your business, but there’s very little you can do.
00:04:33 [Alison]
It’s it’s all location based.
00:04:36 [Alison]
Because learning a new city, a new state, like where are you going to live?

00:04:39 [Alison]
Are you going to be close to a decent photo locations?
00:04:42 [Alison]
Are where’s the ideal client located?
00:04:44 [Alison]
What town?
00:04:45 [Alison]
What demographic?
00:04:46 [Alison]
What

00:04:46 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:04:47 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:04:47 [Melissa]
The ideal client location, I went from knowing exactly where my ideal clients were, where all my bookings came from, to a new area that I knew nothing about.
00:04:55 [Melissa]
I was literally asking our realtor, like, hey, let me describe my ideal client for you, and you tell me where they live.
00:05:01 [Melissa]
Was she right?

00:05:01 [Melissa]
Not where she no.
00:05:02 [Melissa]
She wasn’t right.
00:05:04 [Melissa]
So then I spent six months marketing to an area that I think yielded two clients, maybe three clients out of two years kinda thing versus the I needed to be marketing to once I got in there.
00:05:17 [Melissa]
Like, that was that was multiple clients a month, all, like, you know, the right client.
00:05:22 [Melissa]
So yeah.

00:05:23 [Alison]
And it all takes time.
00:05:25 [Alison]
And what’s the one thing we don’t have in the military?
00:05:28 [Alison]
Time.
00:05:29 [Alison]
The one thing.
00:05:30 [Alison]
Okay.

00:05:31 [Alison]
So what else so what else is scary about moving our business?
00:05:34 [Alison]
It’s it’s ripping out all the things we built.
00:05:38 [Alison]
So for me, the longest time I’ve ever been in a duty station was three and a half years.
00:05:42 [Alison]
It’s been as little as one year.
00:05:44 [Alison]
But that was kind of during COVID, we really count that, but the longest we’ve ever been in one place was three and a half years.

00:05:51 [Alison]
And so you go from this stable, predictable calendar of bookings, sell out mini sessions sometimes within hours.
00:06:01 [Alison]
I think the biggest thing for me is also being the master of that location.
00:06:06 [Alison]
Once I’ve been there for a couple years, like you’ve you’ve seen the sun in all its seasons.
00:06:12 [Alison]
So you’ve got those those few locations where I’m really comfortable with my client.
00:06:18 [Alison]
I know where the sun is gonna be in October, and I know where it’s gonna be in May, and I know exactly what part what location, where we’re gonna be at and where the shade’s gonna be so I can focus on my people and not worry about

00:06:29 [Melissa]
the light.
00:06:30 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:06:30 [Melissa]
Also knowing, like, okay, I don’t want to drive to that area during this time of day because traffic’s gonna suck.
00:06:37 [Melissa]
And, like, being in a new area, not knowing that and then finding yourself driving three hours for sessions or whatever because you picked the wrong dick in the wrong location.

00:06:46 [Alison]
Specifically after daylight savings time.
00:06:49 [Alison]
Yep.
00:06:49 [Alison]
Yep.
00:06:50 [Alison]
You know, like, during the summer, this is a great location because the sun is setting at 07:00, 08:00.
00:06:55 [Alison]
And then all of a sudden, you’ve rescheduled a session from October to the second week in November and daylight savings time has happened and now the sun is setting at 04:30, 05:00 and you’re hitting your face against the wall because now you’re spending an hour in traffic.

00:07:11 [Alison]
Daylight savings time.
00:07:14 [Alison]
But also like being a master of a bureau location also goes into having all of those deep prepared for your clients and really having expertise to prepare them.
00:07:25 [Alison]
Like there was so I do a lot of beach sessions, and I’m a fan of no shoes on the beach.
00:07:30 [Alison]
But there was this one location that was super popular in Virginia.
00:07:34 [Alison]
And it was all sandy.

00:07:35 [Alison]
It was near some water.
00:07:36 [Alison]
It was more inland, but it wasn’t a true beach.
00:07:38 [Alison]
And it was lined with forest, so there were sand spurs everywhere.
00:07:43 [Alison]
I had every email booking confirmation.
00:07:45 [Alison]
I had prep emails automated to go out.

00:07:48 [Alison]
I even had an Instagram reel on if you were going to Pleasure House Point, the three things you need to know.
00:07:54 [Alison]
There is not a toilet.
00:07:55 [Alison]
There are sand spurs, so put sandals on your toddler and bring bug spray.
00:08:00 [Alison]
Like it’s a nature preserve, there’s no mosquito joe sprayed at this place.
00:08:04 [Alison]
Okay.

00:08:05 [Alison]
And I had all the content.
00:08:06 [Alison]
Did all my clients use every single piece?
00:08:08 [Alison]
I don’t know.
00:08:09 [Alison]
But I had it and if they were looking for it, it was available to them.
00:08:13 [Alison]
And it was systemized and automated and I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time.

00:08:18 [Alison]
So that kind of stuff, that kind of expertise, that kind of mastery and that kind of automation just gets ripped out.

00:08:26 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:27 [Melissa]
I mean, and even just going from you’ve got I know you’ve had a lot of locations where you’ve been near the beach.
00:08:34 [Melissa]
I was at a location where it was like field, field, field, field, field.
00:08:38 [Melissa]
And so I knew all the stuff for field, you know, like, there’s a certain look for field.
00:08:43 [Melissa]
And then suddenly, I’m in a location that’s beach.

00:08:46 [Melissa]
And now it’s like, okay.
00:08:47 [Melissa]
Well, now I’ve gotta learn, you know, how to deal with the crowds on the beach versus an empty field and not having to worry about that and making sure the light, you know, where’s the light coming from and stuff like that.
00:08:57 [Melissa]
And

00:08:57 [Alison]
then now I’m

00:08:59 [Melissa]
worry about greens.
00:09:00 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:09:00 [Melissa]
Now I’m back to, like, field, but also, like, mountains now.
00:09:03 [Melissa]
And so now it’s a whole new new spot to learn.
00:09:06 [Melissa]
And, yeah.

00:09:07 [Alison]
That one year we were in yeah.
00:09:08 [Alison]
That one year we were in Quantico and I was not near the water threw me for a loop.

00:09:13 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:09:13 [Melissa]
And that was, like, my home base.
00:09:15 [Melissa]
Like, I was good with that.
00:09:16 [Melissa]
And then going to the beach, it was like, I think I was messaging you and I was like, dude, what do you do about wind?
00:09:20 [Melissa]
Like, holy cow.

00:09:23 [Alison]
Oh, oh, yeah.
00:09:23 [Alison]
I remember that.
00:09:24 [Alison]
I was like, yeah.
00:09:24 [Alison]
You just gotta get with it.
00:09:26 [Alison]
It’s Bobby Thin.

00:09:27 [Melissa]
I remember I had a guy one time who had, like, longish hair.
00:09:30 [Melissa]
And so if I positioned her so that the wind was blowing back on her, he had, like, this mohawk going on.
00:09:36 [Melissa]
And I was just like, oh my god.
00:09:37 [Melissa]
I don’t know what now.

00:09:39 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:09:39 [Alison]
In the moment, it’s hard.
00:09:41 [Alison]
But, yeah, that’s another thing of like being the master of of your location is I always bring bobby pins, but I also have automated emails that tell my clients to have backup for hair because there are times when we’ll reschedule for wind.
00:09:53 [Alison]
But by and large, there’s wind at the beach and you just can’t avoid it.

00:09:56 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:09:56 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:09:57 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:09:58 [Alison]
So what about, what about your SEO and your content blogging?

00:10:02 [Melissa]
Oh, gosh.
00:10:02 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:03 [Melissa]
So to go from knowing your page one, top, you know, top five, top three for your end and steady inquiries coming in where, like, I don’t have to mess with social media.
00:10:14 [Melissa]
I don’t have to worry about it because I always have inquiries coming in from that to being like, okay.
00:10:19 [Melissa]
Well, we’re about to go tank that.

00:10:20 [Melissa]
Like, there’s you and I have had these conversations several times of like, alright.
00:10:24 [Melissa]
Well, I’m about to go pull the plug and let everything I’ve done for the last however many years go right down the drain and then start over in a new spot and try to climb my way back up there and stuff.
00:10:35 [Melissa]
And it’s super frustrating to, like, to go from page one and all of that to, like, now you’re free and now you’re you’re struggling and you’re it’s and it takes time.

00:10:44 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:10:44 [Alison]
And it’s time it’s time not only, like, waiting for Google to find you valid enough to serve your content, but it’s also the time to research the new place to write the blogs so that Google will think you’re an expert in valid search result.
00:11:02 [Alison]
Like this time to, you know, when you’re moving to a new town that you’ve never been to, a state you’ve never been to, particularly for me, I’ve never been to Hawaii.
00:11:08 [Alison]
I’ve never even lived on the West Coast.
00:11:10 [Alison]
I have lived in coast, Japan and Missouri for six months.

00:11:15 [Alison]
Like that’s that’s it.
00:11:16 [Alison]
So coming out to Hawaii and not knowing left from right, like, what was the name of the island I was moving to?
00:11:23 [Alison]
How was that different from the other islands?
00:11:25 [Alison]
What’s, you know, the Windward side, the Leeward side, like, is Waikiki a city?
00:11:29 [Alison]
I don’t know.

00:11:29 [Alison]
I had to figure all that out from scratch online.
00:11:33 [Alison]
And there’s and it’s so hard to just discern left from right when all you’re doing is Googling, without physically being there.
00:11:41 [Alison]
But then, you know, much less to have to research the best where what are the best restaurants with kids?
00:11:46 [Alison]
What are the best prenatal massage masseuses, three d ultrasound services, and things for those ideal clients, like, in order to provide content for your blog, for your SEO so that you are showing up for the people who might ultimately want to hire you as a photographer.

00:12:04 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:04 [Melissa]
And the best part is when you’ve done all of that and you’re showing up and you’re getting clicks and then you move.
00:12:09 [Melissa]
And then now, not only do you have to, like, establish yourself in the new area, but you’re still getting traffic from the old area and Google’s like, where are you?
00:12:19 [Melissa]
And you’re like, I don’t know right now.

00:12:21 [Alison]
Right.
00:12:22 [Alison]
And then, or if you’ve done a really good job at that research and you’ve created a blog post that is really helpful and really serving a need.
00:12:30 [Alison]
Like I wrote the top five family friendly restaurants in Virginia Beach.
00:12:34 [Alison]
At the height of vacation season, it got 600 clicks in a single month.
00:12:40 [Alison]
Archiving that post.

00:12:42 [Melissa]
Right.

00:12:43 [Alison]
Get rid of that, but it’s not serving me either.
00:12:46 [Alison]
And to away from that and and to not be able to serve those clients and to have done all that work and be like, well, it can stay there, but it’s not helping me.
00:12:54 [Alison]
It’s it’s a struggle.

00:12:56 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:56 [Melissa]
And then to figure out what’s gonna be that topic or that post in the next location and and getting, you know, just getting it Yeah.
00:13:04 [Melissa]
Planted again so those seeds can grow and stuff.

00:13:08 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:08 [Alison]
And I think that the next last thing in align with all of that is the email list

00:13:12 [Speaker 3]
building.

00:13:13 [Alison]
You know, I’m not we can’t I’ve you know, you build up several 100 emails and just to go over to Hawaii and start with zero again.

00:13:21 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:22 [Melissa]
And I mean, if you think about it too, like, that email list could can book you out at different times.
00:13:28 [Melissa]
So I used my email list to book my calendar before we moved from Virginia.
00:13:32 [Melissa]
I’m used it to book up mini sessions.
00:13:35 [Melissa]
You know, I had grown that list for years.

00:13:37 [Melissa]
And then moving down to South Florida, it’s like starting over from scratch.
00:13:41 [Melissa]
And my husband was like, well, are you gonna do Christmas minis this year, like red truck?
00:13:44 [Melissa]
And I was like, well, for starters, I don’t know anybody who has a red truck.
00:13:47 [Melissa]
So because we’re new and I don’t know anybody in

00:13:49 [Alison]
the area.

00:13:49 [Melissa]
And also don’t have an email list of past clients to feed to.
00:13:53 [Melissa]
Sure.
00:13:54 [Melissa]
I could try and run Facebook ads and I could compete with everybody else, but, you know, it’s so much easier when you have an email list and you can send those out and book things up from that.
00:14:03 [Melissa]
And so when you’re starting over again, and even now we’re back in Virginia, but we’re in a completely different spot.
00:14:08 [Melissa]
So my email list is for clients three hours away.

00:14:11 [Melissa]
Like, I’m not trying to go up there again.
00:14:13 [Melissa]
So those kind of are just archive in my flow desk of, like, that segment Northern Virginia, just let it sit there because I don’t have anything for it.

00:14:21 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:14:21 [Alison]
And it’s funny you mentioned Christmas and seasonality.
00:14:24 [Alison]
Like just checking my October search console, my second highest perform maybe a second or third highest performing, result page was Christmas truck minis from the last two years.
00:14:35 [Alison]
I think it was actually a blog post I did from the very first year I ever did it, which was three years ago.
00:14:41 [Alison]
Similar.

00:14:41 [Alison]
I had a truck.
00:14:42 [Alison]
I found somebody on next door with a truck because I didn’t know anybody else.

00:15:45 [Alison]
I built it up slowly from there, and I’ve had three people email me this year asking, hey.
00:15:50 [Alison]
Are you doing this?
00:15:51 [Alison]
Because they didn’t know I moved.
00:15:52 [Alison]
Or two of them said, hey, I know you’re not moving.
00:15:54 [Alison]
You you have moved and you’re not doing them.

00:15:56 [Alison]
Do you know anybody else who is?
00:15:57 [Alison]
And I was like, oh,

00:15:58 [Melissa]
yeah.
00:15:58 [Melissa]
I’m sorry.
00:15:59 [Melissa]
Honestly, you’ll probably see those results go up even higher on searches because I’ve noticed in clients’ SEO report that Santa Santa searchings, like doubled exploded in the last week from every everybody’s like, oh, it’s November.
00:16:14 [Melissa]
We need pictures, seasonal pictures or whatever.
00:16:16 [Melissa]
And so I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a ton more hits on that on your website for that this month.

00:16:22 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:16:22 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:16:22 [Alison]
Pro tip, book your Santa stuff before October.

00:16:26 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:16:26 [Alison]
Okay.
00:16:27 [Alison]
So oh, what about your membership clients?

00:16:30 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:16:31 [Melissa]
Oh, that was that sucks.
00:16:33 [Melissa]
I love my membership clients.
00:16:34 [Melissa]
So with a membership, I see my clients for maternity, six month sitter, and first birthday.
00:16:39 [Melissa]
And I love seeing those clients over and over again.

00:16:42 [Melissa]
I love watching those babies grow up.
00:16:44 [Melissa]
And so then to have to reach out to them and say, hey.
00:16:46 [Melissa]
I know you booked into this membership, but we’re moving.
00:16:49 [Melissa]
And a lot of them, I gave them the choice of, like, get another session with me before we leave, or, you know, I’ll refund half your membership fee.
00:16:57 [Melissa]
Like, I I’m not the type that’s gonna hold on to money, you know, when especially when I’m the one having to cancel it.

00:17:03 [Melissa]
And so it was kind of a mix.
00:17:04 [Melissa]
I had some clients that we were able to go ahead and get that session in before they left.
00:17:08 [Melissa]
And for others, just that milestone for it to be, you know, worthwhile for them to do it.
00:17:13 [Melissa]
And so I just refunded, like, half the membership fee on that.
00:17:17 [Melissa]
But you know, and then it takes a while for it to get started back up in the next place.

00:17:21 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:17:22 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:17:22 [Alison]
And, and every, every location is different.
00:17:26 [Alison]
I stumbled upon in Virginia, the, this traveling, extended family, beach week clientele.
00:17:34 [Alison]
So I had people, all of my clients were, very seasonal in the summer months from all over the Eastern Seaboard, coming to Virginia for vacation for a week and then leaving.

00:17:44 [Alison]
So I couldn’t execute a membership there.
00:17:44 [Alison]
I love the idea of it, but I’ve never been in a place where I had location that was, in Alabama where I wasn’t near a military duty station at all or a vacation destination.
00:18:00 [Alison]
And it took me eighteen months to realize word-of-mouth was not gonna serve me at all because everybody there knew somebody to cut their hair, to be their photographer, to everything.
00:18:09 [Alison]
You know, they weren’t a transient community and it took me a long cut out.
00:18:14 [Alison]
And then here now that I’m in Hawaii, it’s very obviously a travel travel destination.

00:18:19 [Alison]
And so, yeah, I have, all of my clients are one time one off one off people traveling to Hawaii.
00:18:26 [Alison]
But we say all these things, you know, to identify and address the fear and the elephant in the room of moving.
00:18:32 [Alison]
Like, it’s it is real.
00:18:35 [Alison]
You should be scared.
00:18:38 [Alison]
But it doesn’t mean it has to to rule it.

00:18:41 [Alison]
You know, I think of Hermione and Harry Potter, like fear of the name only increases the fear of the thing itself.
00:18:46 [Alison]
Like we name these, we address them, we call it for what it is, and then we mitigate that fear by making a plan.
00:18:55 [Alison]
So when we make a plan, I think we first think of, Melissa, this was your thing.
00:19:00 [Alison]
What are your strengths?
00:19:02 [Alison]
What what do you like to do in your business?

00:19:04 [Alison]
Because I really like Instagram and you do not.

00:19:08 [Melissa]
No.
00:19:09 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:09 [Melissa]
For me, it’s gonna be SEO.
00:19:11 [Melissa]
Instagram, I just I have I I can get on board with it to a but I just cannot keep up with the constant of it.
00:19:18 [Melissa]
I am much more like, let me do my blogging, let me do my SEO, and then, like, let that grow and then not have to worry about it.

00:19:25 [Melissa]
Whereas Instagram, like the constant upkeep, I just I can’t handle it.
00:19:29 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:19:29 [Alison]
And in your business, if you haven’t done it before, it is very much like running two businesses at the same time.
00:19:36 [Alison]
You know, you’ve got your one foot at in your location.
00:19:39 [Alison]
Like, I was in Virginia Beach still trying to book up.
00:19:41 [Alison]
You know, there the workout in Virginia is very seasonal, at the beach.
00:19:46 [Alison]
At the same time, I was trying to or launch from scratch a the same business in Hawaii.

00:19:50 [Alison]
So it very much felt like I was, had, you know, a foot in each state at the same time, which can be pretty stressful.
00:19:56 [Alison]
So, like, identify your strengths.
00:19:59 [Alison]
What do you actually enjoy doing in order to make your plan?
00:20:02 [Alison]
Let that be your filter.
00:20:03 [Alison]
If you don’t love social media, then don’t feel like you need to do it, you know, at first or, ever if you really don’t want to.

00:20:11 [Alison]
But Start with your shoulders.

00:20:14 [Melissa]
For me, even though I knew, like, I don’t love social media, I was like, alright.
00:20:18 [Melissa]
I at least need to do, like, some hashtag research and get some posts and get some images out there for Instagram, you know, because sometimes that can be the more short term thing.
00:20:29 [Melissa]
Love social media.
00:20:30 [Melissa]
I would definitely encourage you to, like, give it a shot, you know, at least you know, you don’t have to put all your eggs in that basket, but don’t don’t sit there and just be like, oh, that hasn’t worked for me before.
00:20:39 [Melissa]
You know, at least make sure you’ve covered your basis on that one.

00:20:42 [Alison]
For sure.
00:20:42 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:20:43 [Alison]
I think that’s good.
00:20:44 [Alison]
That’s a good point.
00:20:45 [Alison]
So when it comes to planning, we talked about you’d mentioned hashtag research.

00:20:49 [Alison]
You mentioned mentioned SEO.
00:20:51 [Alison]
What are you doing for SEO?
00:20:52 [Alison]
What what needs to be planned out?

00:20:55 [Melissa]
You know, you gotta figure out your keywords for that new location.
00:20:57 [Melissa]
And Allison and I have learned probably through our moves that you can you can change out your keywords sooner than you think you can.
00:21:07 [Melissa]
So if you are someone yeah.
00:21:09 [Melissa]
If you are someone who thinks like, well, I can’t change my keywords until I’m in my new location, you are behind the ball.
00:21:16 [Melissa]
We have been in Virginia now for four months, five months, somewhere around that time frame, four and a half months.

00:21:23 [Melissa]
I still get inquiries every week for Florida.
00:21:26 [Melissa]
Like

00:21:27 [Alison]
Oh, lord.
00:21:28 [Alison]
I

00:21:28 [Melissa]
mean, it’s kind

00:21:29 [Alison]
of a so fun.

00:21:30 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:21:31 [Melissa]
Like, I and I think, like, keywords, I’m still, like, bottom of page one, but what’s funny is my website at bottom of page one for something Miami related, yet the website act still it says Charlottesville.
00:21:42 [Melissa]
Like and I’m like, I don’t if you’re like, come on, Google.
00:21:44 [Melissa]
Like, catch up or whatever.
00:21:46 [Melissa]
And so I realize now, you know, I could have made that I think I did make the switch as soon as possible when I did mine because I booked out South Florida, same as I booked out Virginia before I left.

00:21:57 [Melissa]
Like, I knew I was leaving.
00:21:58 [Melissa]
I hit up clients.
00:21:59 [Melissa]
I hit up membership clients.
00:22:00 [Melissa]
I got sessions on the books, so that I wasn’t having new clients during that last, like, four months.
00:22:06 [Melissa]
I I booked it out with old clients.

00:22:08 [Melissa]
But, you know, if I’d known, if I’d had more time, I I could have switched my keywords earlier and, you know, tried to get the ball rolling in my new location sooner because I’m like I said, I’m still getting stuff from my old location.
00:22:20 [Melissa]
I have so many photographers in South Florida that I send referrals to that, I think one of them, like, owes me a photo session or something because I’ve sent her a ton of stuff.

00:22:29 [Alison]
Man, I wish, I wish we were more like the real estate industry with finder fees.
00:22:33 [Alison]
I feel like we did have some pro streamlining professionalism in that area.
00:22:38 [Alison]
Okay.
00:22:38 [Alison]
So as you were saying that I hadn’t checked my SEO edge in a while.
00:22:41 [Alison]
And so I my keyword in Virginia Beach, I am still fifteen, seventeen, 18 results on Google.

00:22:48 [Alison]
I am still in the top 20 for all four of my re, words that I was, targeting for Virginian Beach.
00:22:55 [Alison]
And I moved I switched over five months ago.
00:23:01 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:23:01 [Alison]
Easy.
00:23:02 [Alison]
Five months ago.

00:23:03 [Alison]
So, yeah, to your point, it’s it’s more than what you think.
00:23:06 [Alison]
Okay.
00:23:06 [Alison]
And then social media.
00:23:08 [Alison]
You got a fun story about that one.

00:23:11 [Melissa]
So, yeah, social media this is actually how this is Allison and I’s origin story.
00:23:16 [Melissa]
So in a time where I was, like, trying to pay a little bit more attention to Instagram, which kind of cycles around, like, every six months or so I put in some effort on it.
00:23:25 [Melissa]
I was looking for hashtags, you know, local, and I think I must come across, like, a Quantico hashtag.
00:23:31 [Melissa]
And I saw she had a post for, like, half price mini session.
00:23:34 [Melissa]
I’m not gonna lie y’all.

00:23:35 [Melissa]
My first thought was, are you kidding me?
00:23:37 [Melissa]
Mini sessions are already cheap enough and half price and making a profit.
00:23:40 [Melissa]
But I hadn’t met Allison at that point, so I didn’t know she actually had a plan on that and everything.
00:23:43 [Melissa]
And, no, she was not giving away the farm for, like, half price.
00:23:47 [Melissa]
But I reached out because I was like, alright.

00:23:49 [Melissa]
Well because I think once I dug in, I was like, oh, okay.
00:23:51 [Melissa]
No.
00:23:51 [Melissa]
This isn’t this isn’t what I was afraid it was.
00:23:55 [Melissa]
So I think I just reached out in the DMs.
00:23:56 [Melissa]
It was like, hey.

00:23:57 [Melissa]
I see you’re coming to town or you’re here or what.
00:23:59 [Melissa]
I don’t even know.
00:24:00 [Melissa]
But we started chatting through Instagram.
00:24:02 [Melissa]
And then, one night, I was up near Quantico doing a session for, the best man from our wedding and his wife and their kid.
00:24:09 [Melissa]
And I walked by with a family, and I look and I was like, oh.

00:24:14 [Melissa]
My husband’s best friend was like, what what’s going on?
00:24:16 [Melissa]
And I was like, I think that’s the girl I’ve been chatting with on Instagram.
00:24:19 [Melissa]
I mean, it was like we’re on, like, a dating app or whatever, and I spied you out in the wild.
00:24:23 [Melissa]
And so, I wasn’t gonna go follow you into a session though.
00:24:26 [Melissa]
Like, that seemed really weird

00:24:28 [Alison]
in the woods.

00:24:29 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:24:30 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:24:30 [Melissa]
In the woods.
00:24:31 [Melissa]
So I you know, we finished up our session and came back to the car and I was chit chatting with him, and I saw Allison finished up with her session.
00:24:36 [Melissa]
And I I, like, cut the conversation off with him.

00:24:38 [Melissa]
I was like, oh, there she is.
00:24:39 [Melissa]
I gotta go.
00:24:42 [Melissa]
I was like, hey.
00:24:46 [Melissa]
I’m Melissa.
00:24:47 [Melissa]
We’ve been chatting through DMs.

00:24:48 [Melissa]
Like, we didn’t know the other one was gonna be there or anything like that.
00:24:50 [Melissa]
It was completely random.
00:24:52 [Melissa]
So

00:24:52 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:24:53 [Alison]
And, you were the first time you were the first photographer ever to approach me and introduce yourself instead of the other way around.
00:24:58 [Alison]
Usually, I am that person that’s, you know, interrupting sessions just to say hello and be friendly.
00:25:03 [Alison]
So that was awesome.
00:25:04 [Alison]
And here we are four years later, polos and polos later doing a podcast.

00:25:09 [Alison]
So social media does matter, friends.

00:25:12 [Melissa]
And, like, that’s the other thing.
00:25:14 [Melissa]
Like, coming here to Charlottesville, I found one of the other photographers that’s in this area.
00:25:19 [Melissa]
She was in some other Facebook groups with me.
00:25:21 [Melissa]
And so I reached out to her just to be like, hey.
00:25:23 [Melissa]
Let’s get together for coffee.

00:25:24 [Melissa]
And she and I got together, and we had a great chat, and we’re gonna hang out again.
00:25:28 [Melissa]
Like, that can also be a way she loves family sessions.
00:25:31 [Melissa]
I’m trying to get away from families as much.
00:25:33 [Melissa]
And so it’s like an easy one.
00:25:34 [Melissa]
If I get family referral, I’m just gonna send them to her.

00:25:36 [Melissa]
And if she gets more newborn referrals than she can take on because she’s more part time, you know, she’s happy sending them to me, that kind of thing.

00:25:43 [Alison]
So That’s awesome.
00:25:44 [Alison]
That’s awesome.
00:25:45 [Alison]
Alright.
00:25:45 [Alison]
So we have SEO, social media, email is the next thing.
00:25:51 [Alison]
We talked about filling up, booking up those clients with a full email list, and your previous location.

00:25:58 [Alison]
You got to start it up again.
00:25:59 [Alison]
So how how are we going to start up a brand new email marketing list?
00:26:03 [Alison]
It’s gonna start from zero and it’s gonna start the same way you did it before, but you’ve got to plan that out.
00:26:07 [Alison]
Like, when are you gonna start?
00:26:09 [Alison]
How are you gonna how are you gonna generate them in the new location?

00:26:12 [Alison]
And it’s it’s usually going to be tied in with your SEO of some sort to build up that that email marketing.
00:26:19 [Alison]
And then the first time, I’ve only ever done this one.
00:26:21 [Alison]
Our final tip for today, I’ve only ever done it once, but it was the best thing I could have done.
00:26:26 [Alison]
One trip.
00:26:27 [Alison]
I had never been out to Hawaii.

00:26:28 [Alison]
My husband had been out here, several times on TDY on February something.
00:26:33 [Alison]
I don’t know what it stands for y’all.
00:26:34 [Alison]
Temporary orders.
00:26:35 [Alison]
So we were able to get childcare.
00:26:36 [Alison]
My mom kept our boys back in Virginia and we flew out on points, stayed in the BOQ, the the government paid for it.

00:26:44 [Alison]
My business rented a car so I could travel the island.
00:26:47 [Alison]
I already had in mind business locations.
00:26:49 [Alison]
I had a meeting with my with an insurance agent because Hawaii has some weird permitting insurance requirements.
00:26:54 [Alison]
I did a whole lot of stuff, which is for a whole another, to be honest, for scouting.
00:27:00 [Alison]
And it was the best thing I could have done and to bring it full circle so that I had photos and content for SEO and social media in order to grow my email list, my Google ranking, and my presence in a duty duty station location.

00:27:14 [Alison]
I can’t stop saying it.
00:27:16 [Alison]
I give up.
00:27:17 [Alison]
Just gonna go with it.
00:27:18 [Alison]
So is there anything else you would add to that, Melissa?

00:27:21 [Melissa]
I don’t think so.
00:27:22 [Melissa]
I mean, definitely having that scouting trip is nice just to just to kinda get to know that area a little bit.
00:27:28 [Melissa]
We didn’t do a scouting trip to Miami, but we did coming back to Virginia just for, you know, house hunting and stuff like that.
00:27:35 [Melissa]
So that’s an easy one to tack it onto.
00:27:36 [Melissa]
If you’re if you’re having to do house hunting and stuff, you know, go and and just kinda you know, even if you go beforehand and kinda figure out through some stalking of, like, what are some parks or something like that or and the location thing too can be really good.

00:27:51 [Melissa]
Maybe it makes the decision on where you’re gonna live.
00:27:53 [Melissa]
Like, for us, you know, we really were planning out how close could we could I get to or how you know, getting in between Charlottesville and like, how far out could we go from Charlottesville that still gave my husband a decent commute, but got us got me close enough to target Richmond and stuff.
00:28:09 [Melissa]
So keep that in mind with your scouting trips of, like, get to know the cities around you and and fig and that might play into where you actually land when you move because it may be maybe you’re the breadwinner and you need to be closer to a bigger city to pull in the clientele you need.

00:28:24 [Alison]
That’s smart.
00:28:24 [Alison]
That’s really smart.
00:28:25 [Alison]
So all of these things are an easy, quick plan that you can do, if you know where you’re going.
00:28:32 [Alison]
But start making plans even if you have to fill in the blanks later about location, whether that’s the city, state, what have you.
00:28:39 [Alison]
You can start making a plan, even if it’s a skeleton of a plan and you have to fill in the blanks later.

00:28:44 [Alison]
And these are all topics we’re gonna dive deeper into with future episodes because each one of these could be a whole like episode series.
00:28:50 [Alison]
So, thank you guys.
00:28:52 [Alison]
If you found any of this helpful, let us know.
00:28:55 [Alison]
Let us know.
00:28:56 [Alison]
We’ve got the links in the show notes for, how to reach out to us.

00:28:59 [Alison]
So share this with a friend, leave a review.
00:29:02 [Alison]
Thanks so much for listening.

00:29:08 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:29:09 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:29:12 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:29:14 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:29:15 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:29:20 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:29:23 [Melissa]
If you have any questions, reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog or Melissa in her Facebook group, Raise Your Ranking.
00:29:30 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links.