EP 10: Benefits of a Scouting Trip

00:00:03 [Melissa]
A scouting trip can be really great just to get the lay of the land, to see things in person that you can’t necessarily find online.
00:00:10 [Melissa]
Absolutely.
00:00:10 [Melissa]
And it’s personal and business.
00:00:12 [Melissa]
Both matter.
00:00:13 [Melissa]
Both absolutely matter here.

00:00:16 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:16 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:19 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, all three spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:25 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine business relocations.

00:00:30 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:36 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you steps to help you keep it moving.

00:00:42 [Melissa]
All right.
00:00:42 [Melissa]
This week, we are gonna talk about the benefits of a scouting trip.
00:00:46 [Melissa]
So, you know, scouting trip’s really where you’re gonna visit a new location before you actually get there.
00:00:50 [Melissa]
Any length of time works, and I think probably at least give yourself a week at the minimum.
00:00:55 [Melissa]
Otherwise, you’re basically there.

00:00:56 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:00:57 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:00:57 [Alison]
And this could be a long weekend, but the longer you’re there up to a week, like, the more you’re gonna get out of it and the more it’s gonna benefit you.
00:01:05 [Alison]
So I’ve only had the luxury of doing a scouting trip before we moved once out of seven moves, and it was incredibly beneficial.
00:01:12 [Alison]
It took a lot of legwork to be ready to really make it happen and get all the benefit out of it that I reaped.

00:01:18 [Alison]
It was a lot of legwork, but it was totally worth it.
00:01:21 [Alison]
I’m still using information I got from that scout.

00:01:24 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:25 [Melissa]
And, like, when we moved down to South Florida, we because we were a government move, they would pay for a scouting trip and stuff, but we really didn’t see a point because we knew right off the bat we weren’t gonna have a place to live.
00:01:34 [Melissa]
We were gonna be renting and stuff.
00:01:36 [Melissa]
And so we were like, well, we’ve got, like, four months to find a place, so there’s really no point in going.
00:01:41 [Melissa]
But on the flip side, coming back up here to Charlottesville area, we did do a scouting trip, a, for kind of a date weekend.

00:01:48 [Alison]
Yes.
00:01:49 [Alison]
That’s a great reason.

00:01:51 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:51 [Melissa]
Just to get to know the area, and, b, we knew coming up here that we were we really weren’t sure exactly where we were gonna live.
00:01:58 [Melissa]
We drew a circle around where our boat is and then around where my husband’s job was gonna be.
00:02:05 [Melissa]
And then we were trying to figure out, like, where they overlaps on commute wise and how far could we move the little pin drop or whatever away from his job to to be close to the boat, but then also close enough that he wasn’t gonna hate his commute because, honestly, all a lot of our moves have revolved around the fact that my husband used to commute to DC, and it was, like, two hours each way every day.

00:02:24 [Alison]
That’s a real reason.

00:02:26 [Melissa]
That’s Right.
00:02:27 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:02:27 [Alison]
Our moves have always been, of course, military affiliated and required.
00:02:32 [Alison]
We’re usually living on base, and if not, we’re doing the same thing.
00:02:35 [Alison]
Commute.
00:02:35 [Alison]
How long is the commute?
00:02:37 [Alison]
But this last move was so big.

00:02:39 [Alison]
Colin was going out to Hawaii for a conference already that we were able to secure childcare.
00:02:45 [Alison]
My mom came up for a whole week, and we were in Hawaii solo for five days.
00:02:51 [Alison]
It was amazing.

00:02:53 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:02:53 [Melissa]
For us, we I think we left, like, Thursday night and then came back, I think, on a Sunday.
00:02:58 [Melissa]
So ours was a quick turnaround because my mother-in-law came in to watch the kids and stuff.
00:03:02 [Melissa]
But, yeah, we were just in and out on what we needed to do.
00:03:05 [Melissa]
We knew ahead of time, like, alright, these are the things we were going to be doing, That’s some of the stuff that we’re gonna talk about.

00:03:10 [Melissa]
But a scouting trip can be really great just to get the lay of the land, to see things in person that you can’t necessarily find online.
00:03:17 [Melissa]
Absolutely.
00:03:17 [Melissa]
And it’s personal and business.

00:03:19 [Alison]
Both matter.
00:03:19 [Alison]
Both absolutely matter here.
00:03:20 [Alison]
So what matter here.
00:03:22 [Alison]
So what did you do?
00:03:23 [Alison]
What were you looking for when you went out on your scouting trip?

00:03:26 [Melissa]
Obviously, the biggest thing was housing.
00:03:28 [Melissa]
Housing and then schools.
00:03:30 [Melissa]
Amen.
00:03:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:03:32 [Melissa]
Again, moving back up here, we were gonna be in a rental for a while, and we actually knew that the first rental we booked was on the other Solidsville kind of thing.

00:03:41 [Melissa]
I think at that point, we were, like, two and a half hours from the boat.
00:03:44 [Melissa]
And we booked it because it was beautiful, and the kids were out of school, and we were, like, alright.
00:03:48 [Melissa]
Here we go.
00:03:49 [Melissa]
And then we knew once we got here, we were gonna be there for a little bit, and then we were gonna need to find a longer term rental until, that was gonna be closer to where we were gonna live and stuff.
00:03:57 [Melissa]
I think actually before we did the scouting trip, we may have just had the first one booked, and we didn’t know what we were doing after that.

00:04:02 [Melissa]
But then once we came here and we started checking out the areas and stuff, we started narrowing in on, okay, where are we gonna live?

00:04:08 [Alison]
This even sounds like your move, your most recent move too, like with us in rentals.

00:04:13 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:13 [Melissa]
No.
00:04:13 [Melissa]
That’s the way it always works and stuff.
00:04:15 [Melissa]
But knowing that we were gonna be living in a couple different places no matter what, school was a big thing.
00:04:19 [Melissa]
Like I said, we kinda narrowed in on some certain areas that fit within our little Venn diagram of commuting.

00:04:27 [Melissa]
And then the schools, I will say, was probably the biggest thing for us.
00:04:31 [Melissa]
I know that doesn’t have to do with business, but like Allison, I’ve talked about, you’re CEO of your family, not just your business, so it’s really important on making sure

00:04:38 [Alison]
all your employees are happy too.
00:04:40 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:04:41 [Alison]
And then personally speaking, if your kids are goals that you would want them to, nine times out of 10, your clients are gonna be in the same or similar area.

00:04:48 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:04:49 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:49 [Melissa]
And, like, for us, I know we we had one school that we had reached out ahead of time to tour, and then the other school, we did a really quick search because after we toured it, we were like, oh, that’s not gonna work.
00:05:00 [Melissa]
And, we wouldn’t have known that if we hadn’t done the in person tour.
00:05:03 [Melissa]
If we had just gone off of the website and stuff like that, we would have had no idea.

00:05:06 [Melissa]
But after the in person tour, y’all, they didn’t have computers.
00:05:08 [Melissa]
They were like, oh, yeah.
00:05:10 [Melissa]
We’ve heard of those things.
00:05:11 [Melissa]
I’m like, are you kidding me?
00:05:13 [Melissa]
But the second school just I did a quick Google search, and we literally showed up at their door right after they had sent all the students out.

00:05:20 [Melissa]
And the principal was like, yeah, I’ll give you a tour.
00:05:21 [Melissa]
Like, come on in.
00:05:22 [Melissa]
And, like, they were awesome.
00:05:23 [Melissa]
And so we wouldn’t have had that if we hadn’t done that scouting trip.
00:05:26 [Melissa]
So, yeah, the big things for personal, you know, the main thing is housing and then schools.

00:05:31 [Melissa]
And then you can start figuring out, like, where to eat, where your thing’s gonna be of, like, maybe your kids are in activities and stuff like that.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
Think about all of that stuff of you are reestablishing your life somewhere else.
00:05:41 [Melissa]
What are all of those elements that you need to find again?

00:05:44 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:44 [Alison]
The fun stuff.
00:05:45 [Alison]
Where to shop.
00:05:45 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:45 [Alison]
Hair stylist.

00:05:46 [Alison]
That good stuff.

00:05:47 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:48 [Melissa]
And even too, testing a commute.
00:05:50 [Melissa]
So while we were here and we had toured we’d met with our builder and stuff, and and we’d figured out, okay, I think this is the one we’re gonna put the contract down on.
00:05:57 [Melissa]
At that point, we literally left from a meeting with the builder and drove to where my husband’s job was.
00:06:02 [Melissa]
So that way he could go ahead and test out the commute.

00:06:05 [Melissa]
And we learned it was a lot of windy roads.
00:06:08 [Melissa]
But it was gonna be consistent, and so it’s been consistent.
00:06:10 [Melissa]
And then the other thing too with looking at housing and stuff is positioning yourself for different markets.
00:06:15 [Melissa]
So for myself, I wanted to be able to serve in Charlottesville.
00:06:19 [Melissa]
So if I was over on the other side of Charlottesville, I wouldn’t be able to serve Richmond.

00:06:23 [Melissa]
So I had to make sure I was in between the two, and so that kind of also factored into our little Venn diagram.

00:06:29 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:06:29 [Alison]
That’s so important.
00:06:30 [Alison]
And it’s funny you say that now that I’m thinking about it.
00:06:32 [Alison]
When we have our short list of where do we wanna moves, yeah, I wanna be on the East Coast close to my family.
00:06:38 [Alison]
However, the primary base that we could do doesn’t lend itself to any obvious answer for my job.

00:06:44 [Alison]
Like, the drive is so far between all the beaches from where he would work from where I could put sessions, particularly sessions that were profitable and life giving.
00:06:53 [Alison]
The areas were so spread out, there was no easy answer, and then where would the boys go to school in this?
00:06:59 [Alison]
We’re talking no overlap in a Venn diagram.
00:07:01 [Alison]
My work would be in one spot.
00:07:03 [Alison]
He would be 60 miles in another direction, and the boys would be 60 miles in an in another direction.

00:07:09 [Alison]
No overlap whatsoever.
00:07:10 [Alison]
And that informs if that’s not gonna work for us, then we should consider this where we are now.
00:07:16 [Alison]
Why?
00:07:16 [Alison]
So absolutely matters.

00:07:19 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:19 [Melissa]
So, obviously, that’s all the personal stuff, the business stuff.
00:07:21 [Melissa]
This is the stuff you guys are here for.
00:07:23 [Melissa]
When you are coming out to a location ahead of time, you are still gonna have to do a little bit of research beforehand.
00:07:29 [Melissa]
But even just driving around, if okay.

00:07:31 [Melissa]
This is approximately where we’re gonna live, and you just start driving around that area, you might find locations.
00:07:36 [Melissa]
You might start driving past.
00:07:37 [Melissa]
There’s a park down the road that I’m like, oh, looky there.
00:07:39 [Melissa]
There’s a park with a field.
00:07:40 [Melissa]
Perfect.

00:07:41 [Melissa]
There we go.
00:07:41 [Melissa]
I’m gonna add that to my list.
00:07:42 [Melissa]
You might run into other businesses.
00:07:44 [Melissa]
I think also driving through here, I noticed there’s a local boudoir photographer who’s got a studio, and so, no, we’re not gonna be competition or referring anybody.
00:07:52 [Melissa]
Now I know there’s another photographer who has a studio in my small town, that means there are people who are willing to spend money on photography, because you’re not gonna find her out in the middle of nowhere with no clients.

00:08:01 [Melissa]
Log content and stuff too can be great.
00:08:04 [Melissa]
But just figuring out what does your area look like, who are the other businesses that you can chat with there.

00:08:10 [Alison]
Now for scouting trip for your business.
00:08:13 [Alison]
We talked about all the personal stuff, but the business stuff is super fun.
00:08:16 [Alison]
So comes to the business side.
00:08:18 [Alison]
There’s all kinds of things you could be doing.
00:08:20 [Alison]
You could be scouting out new locations for photo sessions.

00:08:23 [Alison]
You can count other businesses.
00:08:25 [Alison]
Who else has your ideal client avatar?
00:08:27 [Alison]
Where are your people shopping?
00:08:28 [Alison]
Where are your people going to school?
00:08:30 [Alison]
Where are your people sending their kids to ballet, baseball, what have you?

00:08:34 [Alison]
And all of this would be for blog content.
00:08:36 [Alison]
Like, where are they shopping for themselves?
00:08:38 [Alison]
Where are they shopping for their kids?
00:08:40 [Alison]
You can go out and just find a fun little cutesy area, go shopping, find those boutiques on Instagram, follow them, buy something, share, tag them, and start building a virtual relationship, if you will.
00:08:53 [Alison]
But the business side of this, for me, when I came to Hawaii last year gosh.

00:08:58 [Alison]
So at the time of this recording, we’re coming up on one year ago, I did my scouting trip.
00:09:02 [Alison]
That’s crazy.
00:09:03 [Alison]
I had all these locations pinpoint.
00:09:05 [Alison]
I had done I had done my legality stuff.
00:09:08 [Alison]
Can I do this?

00:09:09 [Alison]
Can I can I do some pre move offer?
00:09:12 [Alison]
I’d been in the Facebook groups just like we were talking about last episode about that networking before you move and finding those collaborations before you ever even arrive.
00:09:20 [Alison]
I was had already done all that, got my ducks in a row, and I actually executed a pre move offer.
00:09:29 [Alison]
So for me, that pre move offer what took the form of many sessions.
00:09:33 [Alison]
So this is a really big topic, and it’s a really big priority taking, but it’s something you should really consider if you have the luxury of going out to your new place a few months, even if it’s just a few weeks, but a few months in advance would be better.

00:09:47 [Alison]
Because my overarching goal was to get blog content.
00:09:52 [Alison]
Hey.
00:09:52 [Alison]
Yes.
00:09:53 [Alison]
I’m talking to you.
00:09:53 [Alison]
How are you feeling about this move?

00:09:55 [Alison]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got something for you.
00:09:58 [Alison]
I want you to grab my pre move checklist to make things a little easier.
00:10:02 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re going yet, it’s not too early to start, but you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.
00:10:09 [Alison]
So head up to some bell.co, that’s Allison with 1l, b e l l dot co, to get your pre move checklist.
00:10:15 [Alison]
You got this.

00:10:17 [Alison]
So when I went out to Hawaii last March, I didn’t have photos of Hawaii.
00:10:21 [Alison]
Like, I had Okinawa, Japan, which is still an island, subtropic, similar, but different.

00:10:26 [Melissa]
I would argue that most people look at your blog probably would not be able to tell the difference between Okinawa and Hawaii.

00:10:31 [Alison]
And I totally agree.
00:10:33 [Alison]
I totally agree.
00:10:34 [Alison]
But there are some, like, my favorite place to shoot in Okinawa had a massive rock formation in the background and off in the distance.
00:10:40 [Alison]
That just doesn’t exist here in Hawaii.

00:10:42 [Melissa]
Oh, no.
00:10:42 [Melissa]
I had the same problem with going from Virginia to South Florida.
00:10:45 [Melissa]
Like, I literally went through my entire website and all of my portfolio.
00:10:49 [Melissa]
Any picture that had water was, like, now front and center on my website, because I knew I was going to a beach location.
00:10:55 [Melissa]
But the difference was I was, like, sharing, like, Potomac River, which if anybody’s in the DMV area, Potomac River is not is not pretty.

00:11:02 [Melissa]
It’s like a lake, basically, if even that, looks wise.
00:11:05 [Melissa]
But I was all over that.
00:11:07 [Melissa]
I just I’ve been working with a client who’s moving overseas.
00:11:09 [Melissa]
She’s military, and she wants to do all of these European things, and she’s gonna have to do exactly what you’re about to go into because she doesn’t have pictures of Europe.
00:11:17 [Melissa]
She has DC.

00:11:18 [Melissa]
Now she does have a few, I will say that, from when she’s taken trips and stuff.
00:11:21 [Melissa]
So she does have some really iconic things.
00:11:23 [Melissa]
But when you’re moving to a new area and it looks completely different than your old area, you’ve got to figure out how to get content.
00:11:29 [Melissa]
Because otherwise, you’re gonna get the question all the time of, oh, where’s that location?
00:11:33 [Melissa]
And you’re like, oh, yeah.

00:11:34 [Melissa]
That’s back in blah blah blah, and you get tired

00:11:36 [Alison]
of that.
00:11:36 [Alison]
And to your point, I’ve had some Okinawa photos on my website for about a year now, and I’ve only had one person ask, what beach is this?
00:11:44 [Alison]
Like, Japan, actually.
00:11:45 [Alison]
So yeah.
00:11:45 [Alison]
So it really does work, but you do need to think about getting, like, with

00:13:40 [Alison]
Legitimate content.
00:13:40 [Alison]
But also not just for blog content, you need to start working in your new area and getting a feel for the lay of the land, where the sun is, the location.
00:13:49 [Alison]
The other kind of expert things you need to start figuring out, is this decent parking?
00:13:53 [Alison]
What are we contending with?
00:13:54 [Alison]
Like, I did some sessions out on a beach that I had no idea until I got there is very popular for outrigger canoeing.

00:14:01 [Alison]
So I had a lot of editing of boats out of the back of my session.
00:14:04 [Alison]
We were contending with crowds even at 05:00 at night, which I didn’t even expect.
00:14:08 [Alison]
Parking was not easy, and you just don’t understand that and get a feel for it until you do it, and so that’s what I was able to do.
00:14:15 [Alison]
So for me, that was many sessions.
00:14:17 [Alison]
Now first and foremost, whatever your pre move offer is going to be needs to fit within your brand.

00:14:24 [Alison]
Right?
00:14:25 [Alison]
I offered mini sessions, but I wasn’t giving away digital files because I’m IPS, and so I offered a print credit for their time as if it needs to feel and be on brand with what you would do after you move.
00:14:37 [Alison]
Right?
00:14:37 [Alison]
You don’t wanna give them an experience that you’ll never do again or that they might share with friends and doesn’t exist anymore.
00:14:45 [Alison]
So it should be on should be on brand.

00:14:46 [Alison]
So what are you gonna offer?
00:14:48 [Alison]
You could do a model call.
00:14:49 [Alison]
It doesn’t have to be many sessions.
00:14:51 [Alison]
You could say, hey.
00:14:52 [Alison]
I’m looking for somebody to test out a couple locations, and you can be very clear that these are your stipulations.

00:14:57 [Alison]
This is what they’ll get.
00:14:58 [Alison]
This is what they’ll not get, x, y, and z.
00:15:01 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:15:01 [Melissa]
And I would say for model calls y’all, calls are great.
00:15:04 [Melissa]
You are in charge of the model call.
00:15:06 [Melissa]
If you are giving away your work for free, they are going to wear what you want them to wear, they are going to do the session, the time frame, the day, and the location you want them to do the session.
00:15:17 [Melissa]
If somebody’s, oh, I’d love to do your model call.
00:15:19 [Melissa]
We wanna do it on a Saturday at 05:00, and we’re gonna wear all black, and that doesn’t fit your brand, that’s not a model call.

00:15:26 [Melissa]
That’s you just working for free.
00:15:28 [Melissa]
So do not do that.
00:15:30 [Melissa]
Be upfront when you announce a model call.
00:15:33 [Melissa]
Let them know.
00:15:34 [Melissa]
And in fact, application process.

00:15:36 [Melissa]
Like, they have to apply.
00:15:38 [Melissa]
Make it very hard.
00:15:39 [Melissa]
Make them do some work.
00:15:40 [Melissa]
Don’t just put out there, hey, I’m looking for people to shoot for free for my portfolio because you are not gonna get what you want for your portfolio that way.
00:15:47 [Melissa]
You need to put some parameters in place for that.

00:15:50 [Melissa]
And I’ve done model calls when I shifted from weddings to newborns, and I want a cute nursery, so I made them submit pictures of their nursery.
00:15:56 [Melissa]
And let me tell y’all, I was picky.
00:15:58 [Melissa]
If it was covered in Winnie the Pooh, they did not make it through.

00:16:03 [Alison]
So true.
00:16:03 [Alison]
So I god.
00:16:04 [Alison]
I love it.
00:16:05 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:16:05 [Alison]
Absolutely.

00:16:06 [Alison]
So you’re working for free.
00:16:08 [Alison]
Typically, that’s how I got out of all the legalities.
00:16:11 [Alison]
So that’s another thing you wanna look into is before you start defining the offer, you need to figure out your legalities.
00:16:15 [Alison]
Right?
00:16:16 [Alison]
Like, what are the permits required?

00:16:18 [Alison]
What are you do you have to be a business?
00:16:19 [Alison]
Whatever.
00:16:20 [Alison]
But you haven’t moved there.
00:16:21 [Alison]
And if you’re doing it for free, I feel that just erases that whole question.
00:16:25 [Alison]
It just makes it a lot easier that the actual photograph, the photography, that session itself, there’s no exchanging of monies.

00:16:32 [Alison]
So I just felt free too if somebody was gonna ask me, like, I’m not charging them, and that’s true.
00:16:36 [Alison]
So make sure you’re staying within your whatever parameters.
00:16:40 [Alison]
You need to define what you’re gonna do, and you need to set it up weeks in advance.
00:16:44 [Alison]
So this is where all of my legwork came was.
00:16:46 [Alison]
I ran many sessions, so I need to have a location.

00:16:49 [Alison]
I needed to have people.
00:16:50 [Alison]
I needed to have a time frame, and I needed to know all of that before I’d ever been to Hawaii.
00:16:55 [Alison]
And so that was two months out.
00:16:57 [Alison]
I was figuring all that out.
00:16:58 [Alison]
I was knee deep into to researching where.

00:17:02 [Alison]
I was all kinds of deep diving Google.
00:17:05 [Alison]
I was deep diving permitting processes.
00:17:07 [Alison]
I was deep diving the film office.
00:17:09 [Alison]
The film what’s it called?
00:17:11 [Alison]
The Hawaii film office.

00:17:12 [Alison]
I think that’s it.
00:17:12 [Alison]
That’s it.
00:17:13 [Alison]
So those are the people.
00:17:14 [Alison]
Every state usually has one, which is a resource for movie crews.
00:17:18 [Alison]
That’s a really good movies are wanting to use these locations.

00:17:21 [Alison]
Maybe I will.
00:17:21 [Alison]
And then, obviously, just the sun.
00:17:23 [Alison]
How the sun works.
00:17:24 [Alison]
We all know this it’s the same sun in Mainland as it is in Hawaii.
00:17:27 [Alison]
Still rises in the East, so it’s in the West.

00:17:30 [Alison]
And so looking at a map and then based on where I was gonna be staying and where my people were, I picked a handful of locations, and I put it up there.
00:17:37 [Alison]
I set it up on you session.
00:17:38 [Alison]
It was an application process session itself, but I gave them a print credit to say thank you.
00:17:43 [Alison]
It was the middle of the week.
00:17:44 [Alison]
These people were getting their families dressed and ready after school on a weekday to help me.

00:17:51 [Alison]
And so I wanted to offer something as a thank you for that.
00:17:53 [Alison]
And then where are you gonna find your potential clients?
00:17:56 [Alison]
For me, that’s easy with military Facebook groups is what I used, but that’s something you’re gonna have to figure out.
00:18:00 [Alison]
And the hardest part of all of this is having it tied up in a pretty bow and doing it far enough in advance that you can fill those slots to do it.
00:18:08 [Alison]
So why do all this?

00:18:10 [Alison]
Simple blog content.
00:18:11 [Alison]
I came home and in the end of it, I had dozens dozens of family sessions that I had the model release for.
00:18:20 [Alison]
The appearance release was done.
00:18:22 [Alison]
I had different kinds of families.
00:18:23 [Alison]
I had extended families.

00:18:24 [Alison]
I had a maternity session in there.
00:18:27 [Alison]
I had all kinds of variety so that I could use all kinds of photos for Hawaii about Hawaii.
00:18:32 [Alison]
And to this day, I’m still using some of that content because some of them are some of my favorite photos of some iconic beaches that I don’t get to shoot as much as I would like to.
00:18:40 [Alison]
And I can’t tell you how beneficial that was because what I did about many sessions in Oahu is to this day still driving me the most organic search traffic from Google.

00:18:51 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:18:51 [Melissa]
And even if you can’t necessarily get people in front of your camera, like Allison just said, you can still do locations.
00:18:58 [Melissa]
You can do landscape stuff.
00:19:00 [Melissa]
You could have a post on moving to Hawaii or moving to wherever, and you’ve got it filled up with maybe some iconic imagery of that particular location.
00:19:07 [Melissa]
Like here for Charlottesville, obviously, it’d be pictures of the mountains for me and stuff.

00:19:11 [Melissa]
You could also swing by locations that maybe you’ve prefigured out and stuff, and look at them during times of day, like Allison was talking about, and take some photos of that location.
00:19:19 [Melissa]
So then, not only that, then when somebody asks you, oh, what do you recommend?
00:19:22 [Melissa]
You’ve got some photos.
00:19:23 [Melissa]
Even if there’s not a person in there, they can get a feel for what it’s gonna look like.
00:19:26 [Melissa]
Those businesses that Allison mentioned, going by and following them on Instagram, and shopping, and sharing their stuff, you could take pictures of some of those businesses, and then go back home and write blog content about them, about places to eat, about the schools like we talked about, preschools, camps for your kids, boutiques that you wanna shop in, hairstylist.

00:19:44 [Melissa]
For me, I have to look for a lash lady whenever I move.
00:19:47 [Melissa]
And then the big ones too, activities for fall and winter.
00:19:50 [Melissa]
Alice and I were chatting about this because this fall, I was looking up what are some things to do with my kids.
00:19:56 [Melissa]
I think it was fall or winter.
00:19:57 [Melissa]
I can’t remember.

00:19:57 [Melissa]
It might have been around the holidays.
00:19:58 [Melissa]
But I was looking up activities to do with my kids, I think, at Christmas time and stuff.
00:20:02 [Melissa]
And I was googling for that, and I found one article, and it was, like, three or four years old.
00:20:08 [Melissa]
And then I got mad because half the links for the classes were out of date because I wanted to take a wreath making class.
00:20:13 [Melissa]
And I was like, somebody needs to write an updated version of this.

00:20:16 [Melissa]
And I’m like, but it’s not gonna be me right now because I’m too busy.
00:20:19 [Melissa]
But now is the time to research it too.
00:20:21 [Melissa]
Like, research it ahead of time and get that post out there because people are looking for that stuff.
00:20:26 [Melissa]
You wanna think about you’re ingraining yourself into a whole community.
00:20:29 [Melissa]
So you wanna take a look at your previous community, and like we talked about, are your kids in sports?

00:20:35 [Melissa]
Are they taking ballet or something like that?
00:20:36 [Melissa]
You gotta find all of that, and all of that can be blog content.
00:20:40 [Melissa]
There’s a group here, a Facebook group, it’s like moving to Charlottesville.
00:20:44 [Melissa]
And if I get all of this stuff together, these types of blog posts and stuff, I could probably camp out in that group and share that info and drive traffic to my website.
00:20:53 [Melissa]
Like, I may not get a bunch of clients from it, but I might get some here and there, but I’m at least sharing helpful content, and I’m getting eyes on my web and local people sharing that kind of thing, which is gonna help drive traffic for the overall.

00:21:06 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:21:06 [Alison]
I I found that when I was moving so last spring when we were trying to find out baseball and soccer teams for some of my my boys, it was so confusing.
00:21:15 [Alison]
I used Facebook groups to help me out, but I still didn’t fully understand it.
00:21:18 [Alison]
Now that I’m on the other side of it, I have been compelled to write an explainer blog post, and that would get so many views, so many clicks in the military world, but they’re not my ICA.
00:21:30 [Alison]
So I like, just holding myself back there to focus on.
00:21:32 [Alison]
But maybe that is your ICA where you are.

00:21:34 [Alison]
Like, I’m focusing on people that are traveling in from out of town.
00:21:37 [Alison]
So if that wasn’t it, that would be a perfect blog post to to help people out.
00:21:42 [Alison]
Any question that’s being asked over and over again, answer it.
00:21:45 [Alison]
Answer it and put it out there.
00:21:46 [Alison]
Put it on socials.

00:21:47 [Alison]
But back to this scouting trip, how far out should you do?
00:21:51 [Alison]
So if you have the luxury of taking one and you get to plan when, I would say at least six months before your big move.
00:22:00 [Alison]
If you can go to your new location six months before you plan and come back with content, collaborator ideas, where you’re gonna live, boutiques, your ideal clients’ home base, if you will, their favorite Target or Costco or school, and then you can spend six months writing blog posts before you ever even leave, that would be pretty ideal.
00:22:22 [Alison]
Even if you could do it a year out and seems pretty far, but SEO takes so long to make.
00:22:28 [Alison]
I would do it at least six months if you get to if you have that option.

00:22:31 [Alison]
What do you think, Melissa?

00:22:33 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:22:33 [Melissa]
I think it’s hard because a lot of times, I think you don’t know that far out is the hard part.
00:22:37 [Melissa]
So I know for us, we found out in February that he got order like, orders got cut in February, March timeframe.
00:22:44 [Melissa]
And so we came here in May, and then we moved, like, a month later in June.
00:22:49 [Melissa]
So sometimes you’re not gonna have as much time, but that also means you may have to be doing a lot of this research ahead of time, which if you go back to our last episode nine, networking before you move, that can be a good spot to go ahead and get started with a lot of this stuff.

00:23:01 [Melissa]
And then you could even have, like, blogs pre written.
00:23:04 [Melissa]
And then on your scouting trip, okay, I’ve got to places because I wanna have some photos of this particular store or this particular location.
00:23:11 [Melissa]
And now you got a checklist when you are on your scouting trip.
00:23:14 [Melissa]
This is the content I need photo wise because I’ve already got these blog posts written.
00:23:18 [Melissa]
And then when you come back, you can just pop all that info in there.

00:23:21 [Melissa]
Even if in some respects, maybe you went ahead and wrote it and published it with some generic photos, and now you wanna go back and update your post and actually put in specific photos.
00:23:28 [Melissa]
Like you were saying, like we said, most people probably aren’t gonna be able to tell Japan from Hawaii, but once you have Hawaii photos, you just swap them out.
00:23:35 [Melissa]
Take out the Japan ones, put in the Hawaii ones, and just update the blog.
00:23:38 [Melissa]
Perfect.

00:23:39 [Alison]
And, guys, if you feel overwhelmed by any of this, don’t forget.
00:23:43 [Alison]
This is what Melissa and I do.
00:23:45 [Alison]
This is our jam.
00:23:45 [Alison]
This is what we do.
00:23:47 [Alison]
I have a whole checklist, a freebie in the show notes to get a whole checklist on what you should do before you move.

00:23:52 [Alison]
Just calm your brain.
00:23:54 [Alison]
And Melissa has a whole bunch

00:23:55 [Melissa]
of free content about Logging, keywords, all that kind of stuff.
00:23:59 [Melissa]
Where does she post and everything.
00:24:01 [Melissa]
Allison focuses more on really helping you with your move, and I keep to my lane of the SEO of that kind of thing.
00:24:09 [Melissa]
Which is a huge aspect.
00:24:10 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:24:10 [Melissa]
Figuring out the keywords and stuff, but Allison was my personal coach for the move.
00:24:14 [Melissa]
You have to remember, like we said before, you’re not only CEO of your business, you’re CEO of your family.
00:24:19 [Melissa]
And so moving is really hard.
00:24:22 [Melissa]
There’s a lot to do.
00:24:23 [Melissa]
We literally just moved into our new house last week.

00:24:25 [Melissa]
I’m surrounded by boxes still in my office.
00:24:28 [Melissa]
The rest of my house is unpacked, but I’m surrounded by boxes here.
00:24:32 [Melissa]
So just keep that in mind too.
00:24:33 [Melissa]
So I find her being a really good coach for helping me with the personal side of moving along with some of the business stuff that’s not related.
00:24:41 [Melissa]
Because that part, I was like, I’m good on that, but it’s all the other stuff that I needed help with.

00:24:46 [Alison]
Oh, that was really nice of you.
00:24:47 [Alison]
Thank you.
00:24:48 [Alison]
Guys, thank you.
00:24:49 [Alison]
That’s it for this episode.
00:24:50 [Alison]
We’ll see you next time.

00:24:51 [Alison]
Bye bye.

00:24:56 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:24:58 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:25:00 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:25:02 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:25:03 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:25:08 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:25:11 [Melissa]
If you have any questions, Allison on Instagram at alisonbellphotog or Melissa in her Facebook group, raise your ranking.
00:25:18 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links.