EP 88: Mini Mentoring with Christian Grant Moving from TN to GA

Ep 88 MM Christian Grant
===

[00:00:00]

Alison: All right guys. Welcome back to Get Booked. We have a mini mentoring episode today for you. One of my favorites and mini mentoring is where we have a photographer come on and we just talk business. Um, maybe something where we need a little bit of coaching, mentoring, or guidance, just a little brain dump. Um, and we give our best effort to have the best next steps, um, to, to make those changes worthwhile. So today, Christian Grant, thank you so much for being here.

Christian: Thanks for having.

Alison: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so first, tell us about, about yourself. What do you do? Where are you, what do you focus on? What’s your market like?

Christian: Uh, I am a, primarily a family photographer, uh, currently in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but moving, moving to the Atlanta area, um, uh, this summer.

Alison: Okay. All right, so you’re moving this summer. How, like do you have a date or a time like a firm? Week or month.

Christian: Uh, we’re just waiting for school to finish up in [00:01:00] May, so it will either be the very end of May or possibly the beginning of June is what we’re looking at, but we haven’t set a specific date yet.

Alison: Okay, cool. And when are you wanting to hit the ground running as a photographer in Atlanta.

Christian: Um, ideally in June. Um, but I, my family is, I grew up in that area. My family all lives in that area. I travel to that area often. I’m pretty familiar with that area already. Um, I wouldn’t mind Go ahead and

Alison: start.

Christian: I would Go ahead. Yeah. I would go ahead and book some. Clients in that area if, if I could, um, but I also still need to book as many as I can here locally before I move.

So that’s kind of what my hesitation with, with the move. How do I juggle both?

Alison: Yeah. You run two businesses? No,

Christian: Oh, great.

Alison: end of it. Um, you, you run two businesses. It is not too early or too late to go ahead [00:02:00] and start a Atlanta page or whatever. Are you targeting actual Atlanta or are you targeting one of the suburbs?

Christian: Uh, I’ve done some keyword research and I believe that Marietta photographer is gonna be the best keyword for my homepage. Uh, so that’s the one I’m planning to target with that. I do already have a, like another page set up that’s target targeting Alpharetta right now, just to like, go ahead and get some feelers out there.

Alison: Yeah.

Christian: But that’s all that I’ve done so far. I haven’t announced with that other page. Yeah, because that’s also close to where I’ll be

Alison: Okay, cool. What is the cer?

Melissa Arlena: I

Alison: Go ahead.

Melissa Arlena: What are the genres that you’re shooting again?

Christian: primarily family. But I mean, that would include maternity, lifestyle, newborn, um, you know, milestones, children.

Alison: Okay. So you are doing a, a lot of different stuff. Maternity, newborn. Okay. Because those are multiple keywords, right? Each of those niches is, could be its own target, right. What is your, um, what’s, [00:03:00] what’s your business model? Are you all inclusive? Hybrid IPS.

Christian: Uh, I follow the simple sales system.

Alison: Okay. All

Christian: So session, fee, and then collections after.

Alison: Yeah. And that’s for all. You have the same system for all or same price point for everything as well.

Christian: Yes.

Alison: Okay. Okay. I love that. I love that. Um, and then how many sessions a week or month is your goal?

Christian: Um, my goal would be like max five or six a month. Uh, I would prefer to do one or two a week.

Alison: Yeah, same. Same. That’s pretty good. That’s pretty good. Um, all right, cool. All right. So what have you done already to prepare for this move?

Christian: Not a lot. I mean, I’ve done the keyword research, uh, I, but I did go ahead and put up one page with targeting, you know, a, a keyword in that area. Um, I’ve, that’s pretty much it. I’ve mapped out when I’m going to announce to my email list first and then, [00:04:00] um, to my social media after and start changing over things on the website.

But that’s pretty much all I’ve done,

Alison: So when do you plan to do that announcement?

Christian: uh, in two weeks.

Alison: Okay, cool. Yeah, because you want to, you’ve got scarcity, you’ve got a real deadline and you want to use that to your, your, um, advantage. Right? So do you have an email list, there for Chattanooga?

Christian: I do.

Alison: Okay. What are you doing in Chattanooga right now? That works. Are you coming up in high end rankings on Google, or do you have lead magnets and email marketing?

Are you, are, is that already really well established?

Christian: Uh, I do, yeah. I rank, uh, really well on Google for my primary keywords that I, that I wanna rank for. Um, and then I do have an email list that I email twice a month that I’ve been doing regularly for the last six months, so, or more than six months actually. Okay. Uh, and then I blog, although I have paused because, so I’ve got like five or six blogs written, but I haven’t posted them [00:05:00] yet because I think I’m gonna, I’m probably just gonna save those for when I start blogging for my new keywords.

Alison: Okay.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. And I would say too, since you have been blogging, um, go and look at what blog posts are doing the best and see if there’s any that you can update

Christian: mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: the new location. Like obviously if it’s something of like five local whatevers, you’re not gonna be able to update that one, but. If it’s just like how to prepare for your Chattanooga family session, you could easily change that to Alpharetta or Marietta or Atlanta or something like that without having to like recreate the wheel on it.

Christian: That was, I was gonna ask that question is if I should go back through those old blog posts that are not like location specific and update any keywords that I can in there without breaking any links.

Melissa Arlena: Yes. Yeah. Alison and I have

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: this

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: funny because even with South Florida, ’cause that’s the thing, this is gonna last for a while. Like you’re still gonna get inquiries for Chattanooga when you’re in Atlanta and it’s gonna annoy you because you’re like, no, I want Atlanta ones.

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: I feel like every time I get an inquiry for [00:06:00] Florida, I go and look. ’cause I’m like, how did you find me? And it’s like playing Whack-a-Mole with like

Christian: Hmm.

Melissa Arlena: of. What suddenly starts popping up for these keywords and stuff. So yeah, if you can get a head start and start changing them, um, then that way you’ll start, you know, they’ll start, hopefully if they did well in Chattanooga, like, you know, or for that keyword here, then they should do well in the other location too.

Alison: Do

Christian: Okay.

Alison: um, since it, since you are so close and are willing to travel or could travel, do you already have content from area locations in Marietta?

Christian: I do, I have a little bit. Um, I need to get a whole lot more, but I do have some.

Alison: Okay. You know what I would do? Okay, I’m coming up with all these ideas, um, and then all these ideas, but I wanna make sure like I understand the whole scope. So one of the first things I would do, since you’re about to announce this out in two weeks, is I would really like. First you got, you got two things, right?

You really wanna book up Chattanooga. ’cause you don’t know what’s coming for, for you. In Atlanta, you’re, you feel like there’s a cliff, you’re barreling to it and you’re about to [00:07:00] go off of it, and you don’t know where you’re gonna land. Okay? That’s, that’s how it feels, right? So you really wanna max out Chattanooga. Um, and you’ve got this email announcement that’s about to go out, and so you want to squeeze everything you can out of it. Create scarcity. all the ways you can think of, of mind is how many sessions are you willing to book from here on out? Like you, you wanna map out what does it look like from, from right now to may, when and where are you willing to book, and how many sessions can you take? Create that scarcity. Maybe if it’s a lot, maybe, maybe. Tone it down a little bit. Just say I have seven sessions for, from now until, until then. I’m taking so many sessions a month. Um, and, and tell people there’s a deadline tell ’em often, like every email goes out. many sessions left. So many sessions, left.

So many, even if it’s not changing for a minute. ’cause it is a slow season like. keep that scarcity rolling with them. I love that you’re already booking. Um, emailing them so they’re gonna know what to expect. And then this is gonna be a big [00:08:00] journey, I think, on Instagram as well. Like you need to share every aspect of the journey.

Like, my VIPs already know what’s going on, my VIPs found this out on my email list. Here’s what’s, you know, make that big announcement. And then this is, this is a journey that is. inherently beneficial on social media. ’cause people wanna follow you. Where are you going? Why, how’s this hap? Like, how’s this going?

Like, how’s this gonna work for you? And so it’s, it’s just, it’s something people are already willing to be nosy about and lean into. So just share, just share and use it to your advantage, right? Like post the behind the scenes, share it on socials, create a reel about it. The before, during, and after, like really own it.

And, and don’t be afraid to. To share maybe ad nauseum to you, but not to everybody in the world. So, you know, just really use that to your advantage. Um, and then the second thing I would really do with that email list, like from the get go, ask for referrals, do they know? Chattanooga is so close to Atlanta.

You know, somebody knows somebody, right? [00:09:00] Like, like there’s plenty of people. So ask, Hey, do you know anybody in the Marietta area who would be interested? I’m considering. This is my next offer. I’m considering doing free mini sessions in June, right? Like it’s a slower month. It’s gonna be hot as the dickens, right?

June and July you’re, but you wanna hit the ground running. So like you need, you need to up content, you need to look busy, and you need to practice, right? And you need to give some real offers and create real rapport with people who are in your area. So I would say start with referrals. Who do you know in the Chattanooga area that’s having a baby that would love to do a model call? Um, who do you know that’s pregnant that would love to do a model call? Who do you know? What families do you know that would wanna participate in my free mini sessions? And they’re straight up free, right? They’re free. You got a caveat. You need them. They’re gonna be at a location of your choosing. You want them to wear X, Y, and Z, whatever, right?

Like there’s a trade off. Um, but. up some free things that you can get those referrals that are really enticing. And then, you know, say that, uh, offer that up [00:10:00] to your email list for the first couple months, and then make it go public. Hey, I’m gonna take these offers public. If you have anybody in mind, like, the time, let me know.

Um, just reply to this email and also while you get replies to emails for, for all of that, it’s really good for your, um, for your like non spammy juju. People are replying and talking back to you, so you’re, you’re killing a lot of, uh, birds with one stone there. Um, and so then,

Melissa Arlena: scouting like, ’cause I know Allison’s been really

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: she’ll go and scout locations and then. Use like those sessions to really figure out where is the light and

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: to be and what time do we need to be there?

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: lot less stress to do that on like a mini session that you know, than it is when like, okay, I have a paid client and I, what am I doing?

Alison: Yeah,

Melissa Arlena: and stuff.

Alison: the pressure’s off and because they’re not paying whatever permit processes exist. Pressure’s off. They’re not paying

Melissa Arlena: into.

Alison: like permit’s, not not an issue. But then also you get to see it. It’s so much easier. You, as the photographer, [00:11:00] learn and understand your light so much when you’re in one location for a whole hour and you have different types of clients.

Maybe you have couples, maybe you have a family with older kids, maybe you have a senior, maybe you have really young kids and you might figure out, ooh. quite great for like this bigger family, but really good for like, don’t know, like a couple session. You just really figure out a lot when the rubber hits the road, um, when you’re actually doing the work as opposed to taking your own kids out and making them, you know what I mean?

Like it’s just, it’s way more beneficial for everybody involved for a whole lot of reasons. And then on the back end, if they really love their photos, sales system. Maybe you earn something out of it and they get a little extra something out of it. Um, so that, that would be my, my top recommendations there.

Um, aside from blogging, of course you gotta blog until you’re little, I mean maybe even twice a month. Um, as

Christian: I know

Alison: can. Yeah.

Christian: that’s why I’ve been saving.

Melissa Arlena: yeah, and I would say too, like if you’re, if you’re putting out a new post and you’re updating an old post, like that’s, you know

Christian: That counts as two. [00:12:00] Okay.

Melissa Arlena: And then with that old post that you’re updating, um, go ahead and like basically have it republished with the updated date. Like Google still knows that

Christian: Okay.

Melissa Arlena: it two years ago,

Christian: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: date be fresher.

That’s like a newer thing with ai, that AI is paying attention. And if the date is old and the, it thinks the content’s old, it’s kind of skipping it. So if you can come in and refresh that post, update the keywords, check everything else, make sure it’s all good. And then go ahead and have it republished, then it’s basically, it’s not republishing as new.

’cause like I said, Google knows, but it still looks like it’s still updated content coming back out. So it kind of cuts your blogging a little bit ’cause you’re not constantly having to produce all these new posts and stuff

Alison: Yeah.

Christian: I spread that out over a couple of months, or should I go back through all my blog posts at one time and just bang them out?

Melissa Arlena: I would probably spread it out. I would

Christian: Okay.

Melissa Arlena: like if you’ve got the time, you know, and you’re getting these blog posts and stuff, um, I mean, ideally once a week I’d wanna be either a new blog post is coming out or an old blog post is getting refreshed. Whatever you’ve got time for during [00:13:00] that week, I wouldn’t do more than one a week.

’cause that’s just, that’s a little bit of overkill at that point.

Alison: I mean, you could do them at one time and then schedule them to republish

Christian: Oh.

Alison: fine. Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: could do that too. Yeah. Yeah. That’s

Alison: and that’ll, that’ll have the same effect. Do you have a list or a strategy that you’re planning to tackle for blogging the Marietta, Alpharetta Atlanta area?

Christian: Blogging is not my favorite thing, and I only do it because I have to. Uh, so I don’t have a strategy right now.

Alison: most, most people right now, so

Christian: True. My plan is to kind of like, some of the ones that are doing really well here, um, are like local ones that can’t, I can’t update and so I plan to redo those, but in the new area and hopefully those will also do well.

Um, so that’s my only plan for now is to kind of, I guess, copy what I already did, but in the new spot.

Alison: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Melissa Arlena: the same thing. I got to Florida, the first post I think I did was like maternity close. ’cause it did so well in Virginia that I was like, all right, let’s bang this one out. So

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: I think that’s a good strategy. [00:14:00] Look at which ones are doing well and then

Alison: Yeah. Some other things that are really local specific and really help you kind of switch and signal to Google are, um, time, date specific events happening in your area. So if you think about like. Easter, it’s not a huge holiday, but Easter events happening in Marietta for kids. And like every boutique or Easter bunny or some, somebody’s gonna Google that and you’re gonna have the date on it.

And it’s gonna be very specific to right now. And that can shoot to the top

Melissa Arlena: know this, but that’s the bonus blog post outline for TBC for this month, for the blogging club in February.

Alison: do this

Melissa Arlena: Easter

Alison: quarter. Every quarter I do the same thing for myself. So, um, but, but the.

Melissa Arlena: time you get down 4th of July.

Christian: True.

Alison: July, but then here, but here’s the kicker. Then you go and you share that in your Facebook groups and the mom groups that are spec

Christian: Mm-hmm.

Alison: to Atlanta, and you can bypass Google. All of a sudden you get this amazing anomaly happen in Google Analytics, that you’ve had this obscene number of clicks, direct [00:15:00] clicks to your content, and it’s going, where’s this coming from?

And getting all the clicks helps to validate its SEO, and it raises your entire website.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah, and

Alison: And then.

Melissa Arlena: run a.

Alison: And then you do it again for July 4th, and then you do it again for Memorial Day, and then you do it for things, things to do in the summer, things to do in the winter, and then you do it again for for Christmas.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: There you go. So yeah, focus on those things. Um, and actually we have a couple things between the blogging club stuff and then sharing some templates on, um, the best ways to crowdsource some of that information so you don’t have to do all the legwork yourself and sharing the, uh, templates. We’ve, I’ve got some of that as well, that that would be really helpful. So, yeah. Do

Melissa Arlena: I think,

Alison: you have.

Melissa Arlena: then I think like switching your website, that’s gonna be the big thing is just pick a date for that. out, you know, what your newborn keyword is, what your family, I know you were going with like the more generic Alpharetta and Marietta, but also probably for Atlanta it’s gonna be like Atlanta, newborn Atlanta maternity, stuff like that.

Um. And [00:16:00] you, I mean, the thing is, you’re definitely gonna, yes, your site is gonna drop in Google, but to be honest with you, there’s still, like I said there, I still get inquiries from Florida from years later that things are coming up. Um, but the faster you can start ranking, like Alison and I both have found, like we hang out on Google a lot longer.

Like how long were you like on page one for Virginia Beach? But you were in Hawaii?

Alison: I’m still a number one result for where to eat with kids in Virginia

Christian: No way.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: Mm-hmm. I’m still in the top three and I’ve been in Hawaii for two and a half years, but I wrote that blog post four years ago.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah.

Alison: I have not updated it.

Melissa Arlena: stuff.

Alison: I don’t update it. I’m not trying, going for the clicks. Um, but

Christian: So I.

Alison: I’m still up there.

Christian: I have a question about, um, so I, I have two like mini session dates that I’ve got planned. Before I move,

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Christian: I update everything else on my website to the new keywords, but leave my mini page as Chattanooga still until I’m done with those and then switch that over. ’cause I won’t be doing minis like [00:17:00] officially in the new spot, probably until fall or Christmas.

Melissa Arlena: Yes. And here’s a tip that Alison and I think we both forgot. Put a banner at the top of your website on you’re booking for Chattanooga until

Christian: Perfect.

Melissa Arlena: And then booking for Atlanta area starting on y date. Like

Alison: Every page.

Melissa Arlena: of every page. Um, and then that way people know when they’re there like.

Hey, wait, she came up for Chattanooga, but this says Atlanta, but they’ll see that banner at the top that you’re still booking for

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: Um, and so that can be, you know, and that just lets people know too, ’cause then those people come to the website like they’re seeing a hard date. Like, you are not taking sessions beyond this date.

Christian: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: if they wanna get it in there, get booked.

Alison: Yep.

Christian: perfect because I was definitely feeling some anxiety about like, how do I juggle both? And I think that’s a great way to, I didn’t wanna confuse people.

Melissa Arlena: Mm-hmm.

Alison: Yeah,

Christian: so I think that’s a great way Yeah. To not to make it clear.

Alison: yeah. And another thing,

Melissa Arlena: can do is like a little one on your blog,

Alison: yeah.

Christian: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: block for your blog, and then on those old posts for Chattanooga, you can just [00:18:00] drop that in there. That like once

Alison: Yeah.

Christian: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: so

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: of don’t contact me.

Alison: Yeah. And the one last thing along with those minis is you could, um, in July when it’s blistering hot and you, but you have time ’cause it’s fairly slow, you could reach out to collaborate with some of the children’s boutiques from ity boutiques, um, in the

Christian: Mm-hmm.

Alison: Um, I know there’s no shortage of them. Um, and you can see if they’re already working with a photographer, if they need like, model call where you could just photograph their inventory or even do in, in store. Many sessions as like a promo to just collaborate with them and, and get your word out on their email list as well. So,

Christian: Okay. Yeah. Perfect.

Alison: All right.

So, okay, so just to recap. Maximize the scarcity with your current email list as best you can. Um, with your email list. Ask for those referrals, um, and limit, limit limit, um, you know, communicate the limit and num, limited number of things coming up right. The banner across the bar is also gonna do that. Free mini sessions in [00:19:00] Atlanta, um, whether they’re indoor or outdoor or you collab with somebody. Um, ask for those referrals for those free minis. Um, do a model call for, um, for maternity and newborn options, um, just to, to keep that information going and make yourself look busy and also to practice in your new location. Um, then blogging.

Melissa Arlena: like when we talk about that kind of stuff, I know some people are like, ah, free what I’m gonna do. So like, no, you could do one. You

Alison: Yeah, you could do one set and you have three people I know the most. I, when I came out to Hawaii, I did two sets and I had three, three sets of families each. And then when I did Virginia Beach, I did three because there are three primary locations that I wanted to try out. And so I ended up doing like seven to nine families for free. Um. But it just depends on how much time and effort you wanna put into it. But the strategy’s the same, right? and then blogging, blog, blog, blog, blah, blog, blog, blog, and getting those fa uh, those mama Facebook groups. All right? All right, well, let us know how it goes. Keep us updated. Reach out to us on [00:20:00] Instagram.

Of course, if you have any follow up questions, we’re here for you as well. So, um, so awesome. So thanks so much for being on the show. We appreciate it.

Christian: Thank you guys.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. Thank you

Alison: All right.