EP 9: Networking Before You Move

00:00:07 [Alison]
Hey.
00:00:07 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.

00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.

00:00:21 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.

00:00:34 [Melissa]
Alright, guys.
00:00:34 [Melissa]
So last time, we talked about how to announce that you’re moving.
00:00:38 [Melissa]
We dove into what, you know, things to consider, where to announce, and how to announce to your past clients and letting future clients know.
00:00:46 [Melissa]
This week, we’re gonna talk about networking before you move.
00:00:50 [Melissa]
So Allison and I were just chatting about this, the pro at moving.

00:00:53 [Melissa]
You know, she has done it so many times.
00:00:55 [Melissa]
I think she’s got a checklist on everything too.
00:00:57 [Melissa]
You know?

00:00:58 [Alison]
Whereas Right.
00:00:59 [Alison]
You can download it in the show notes.

00:01:01 [Melissa]
Whereas my first move, I was like, I don’t I don’t I don’t know.
00:01:05 [Melissa]
I gotta find a new dentist.
00:01:06 [Melissa]
I gotta find new, like and I’m not gonna lie y’all.
00:01:08 [Melissa]
It took me forever.
00:01:09 [Melissa]
And in fact, the only reason I’m bringing up dentists is we I just found a dentist for here now in Virginia.

00:01:15 [Melissa]
So so just think about there’s a lot of stuff that you’ve gotta figure out when you’re moving to a new area, and it can be really overwhelming.
00:01:21 [Melissa]
And so starting this before you even gonna help out with that.
00:01:25 [Melissa]
So we’re gonna cover a bunch of different ways that we’ve done research for new areas.
00:01:29 [Melissa]
Like I said, Allison’s the pro because she’s done it over and over, but I can definitely give you that, oh my goodness, I’m terrified of moving perspective, and what do I do?
00:01:37 [Melissa]
So, Allison, you wanna kick it off?

00:01:39 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:01:39 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:01:40 [Alison]
Okay.
00:01:40 [Alison]
So kind of in line with some of our previous episodes all about Instagram, you need to be searching your Instagram hashtags about your new place.
00:01:48 [Alison]
Small businesses using a lot of local language, like whether that’s an area code or just the city or the state, business, moms, work from home, what have you.

00:01:58 [Alison]
Start digging deep into the small businesses that are on Instagram that are showing up, posting in their stories, posting reels.
00:02:06 [Alison]
Follow them.
00:02:07 [Alison]
Get into their accounts, look at what they’re sharing, what Instagram hashtags they’re using and their posts, and just follow.
00:02:14 [Alison]
You can be an observer for a while, but, ultimately, the goal is to connect and network, so you’re gonna wanna engage, comment, like, reshare, reshare, reshare.
00:02:24 [Alison]
That’s actually how I started my, like, a podcast, about Oahu was I was following people from Virginia.

00:02:32 [Alison]
I found some really cool accounts.
00:02:34 [Alison]
One it’s called roller skate oahu actually is my was the first one I think I started following.
00:02:38 [Alison]
I just thought they had a really cool vibe.
00:02:39 [Alison]
I was so attracted to what they were doing, and they’re they just seemed so fun that I was following them and resharing them.
00:02:45 [Alison]
And they ended up being one of the first episodes of the podcast when I got here.

00:02:49 [Alison]
So and it all started on Instagram.

00:02:51 [Melissa]
For me, y’all know that I Instagram’s not my fave.
00:02:54 [Melissa]
I mean, I love sharing photos and stuff, but I am definitely an old school Facebook girl.
00:02:59 [Melissa]
So for me, I immediately started looking for Facebook groups.
00:03:02 [Melissa]
So, you know, Facebook groups for moms, for, small businesses.
00:03:06 [Melissa]
I know Allison’s done some for military photographers, that kind of thing.

00:03:10 [Melissa]
And and really the idea was that they’re already there.
00:03:14 [Melissa]
They already know the things that are going on.
00:03:16 [Melissa]
Local small business groups, military groups, regional interests.
00:03:20 [Melissa]
So, basically, you know, for starters, I would start with photographer groups.
00:03:23 [Melissa]
Look for second shooter groups, styled shoots, referrals.

00:03:26 [Melissa]
I mean, there’s always for whatever your city is, like, different photographer groups.
00:03:30 [Melissa]
They can be good for referrals.
00:03:31 [Melissa]
They can also not be good for referrals depending on what’s getting referred out there.
00:03:36 [Melissa]
Mom groups are really great for just kinda getting a vibe of the moms.
00:03:40 [Melissa]
I know a lot about South Florida when we moved down there.

00:03:43 [Melissa]
And so as I was doing these blog posts about different businesses in South Florida, I relied on the moms groups.
00:03:49 [Melissa]
You know?
00:03:50 [Melissa]
I didn’t necessarily go in and post and say, hey.
00:03:52 [Melissa]
I’m gonna do a blog post on this particular whatever.
00:03:56 [Melissa]
I just went in and started searching the group and then, like, looking at who was being referred.

00:04:00 [Melissa]
And you I mean, you’re gonna do that anyway for finding pediatricians, finding doctors, finding all that kind of stuff.
00:04:04 [Melissa]
Hairstylists.
00:04:06 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:04:06 [Melissa]
Hairstylists, especially.
00:04:07 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:04:08 [Melissa]
So you’re gonna do that.
00:04:09 [Melissa]
And although, actually, hairstylists is the one spot that I go over to Instacore.

00:04:12 [Alison]
Oh, wow.
00:04:13 [Alison]
That’s crazy.

00:04:14 [Melissa]
Because then I can see all the photos of their work kind of thing.
00:04:17 [Melissa]
But when you’re doing that research, keep in mind, there’s other people who wanna know that same exact information.
00:04:22 [Melissa]
You know?
00:04:23 [Melissa]
I’ve definitely if I’m looking for hairstylists or something or doctors here in Charlottesville and I come across a post that somebody’s already done the research, sweet.
00:04:30 [Melissa]
Like, that’s what I wanna find out and see.

00:04:33 [Alison]
You’ve definitely kept me in Facebook because I would burn it and walk away if if it didn’t have any value.
00:04:40 [Alison]
If I if it were up to me, I would.
00:04:41 [Alison]
But, like, you find so much inform to me, Melissa’s in Facebook all the damn time.
00:04:46 [Alison]
But she’s not.
00:04:48 [Alison]
But she keeps reminding me.

00:04:49 [Alison]
And I did that same thing.
00:04:50 [Alison]
I posted I was actually doing blog post research in a mom group in Hawaii because I wanted to make a like a list of their favorite stores or Hawaii based brands.
00:05:00 [Alison]
And that was super fast and super easy, and there were tons of comments.

00:05:04 [Alison]
And they’re like, oh, I would love to have

00:05:06 [Alison]
a list of those.
00:05:07 [Alison]
So log research.

00:05:09 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:10 [Melissa]
Definitely.
00:05:10 [Melissa]
You guys can look for local small business groups.
00:05:13 [Melissa]
When I was down in South Florida, I group, and we’ll cover more about those.
00:05:17 [Melissa]
But they weren’t necessarily so much Facebook based versus when I got here to Charlottesville.

00:05:23 [Melissa]
There is a very big, boss babes group here for Charlottesville that’s all Facebook based.
00:05:27 [Melissa]
So all their events are run through there.
00:05:30 [Melissa]
You know, they’ve got a whole, group that you can post on there and ask questions or, you know, let people know, hey.
00:05:36 [Melissa]
This is what I’m selling, that kind of thing.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
Allison, I know you’ve gotten you’ve done more with the military groups than I have.

00:05:41 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:41 [Alison]
So there’s tons of military.
00:05:43 [Alison]
There’s every every base has a Facebook community and, you know, Marine Corps Base Hawaii has a community page.
00:05:48 [Alison]
They have a selling page.
00:05:49 [Alison]
They have a garden page.

00:05:50 [Alison]
They have a spouse’s page.
00:05:51 [Alison]
There’s an officer spouse’s page.
00:05:52 [Alison]
There’s a, you know, there’s everything and that’s specific only to one base.
00:05:56 [Alison]
That’s not even Oahu spouses.
00:05:58 [Alison]
And then every branch has or I’m assuming every branch has a global group.

00:06:02 [Alison]
Like, the Marine Corps officer spouse page is an epic treasure trove of wisdom and knowledge.
00:06:09 [Alison]
I mean, that’s how I got honest to god, this is how I got the recommendation for the organics sheets that we got was through a military spouse global.
00:06:18 [Alison]
There is lots of opinions, lots of, like, experience about a couple brands, and that’s how we bought we chose where to buy our sheets from.
00:06:26 [Alison]
So, there’s multiple level levels.
00:06:29 [Alison]
There’s gonna be moms.

00:06:30 [Alison]
There’s going to be a girlfriend’s group.
00:06:32 [Alison]
There’s gonna be all kinds of them.
00:06:33 [Alison]
So the military niche on its own is gonna be or can be a treasure trove at all levels.

00:06:41 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:06:41 [Melissa]
And then you get into, you know, regional type interests.
00:06:45 [Melissa]
So South Florida is huge for baby moons and stuff like that, people traveling.
00:06:49 [Melissa]
I know Allison’s like the queen of moving to vacation spots and getting that kind of traffic.

00:06:54 [Alison]
It has been really helpful.
00:06:55 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:06:56 [Alison]
So that’s another a lot about here in Hawaii is everybody wanting travel tips.
00:07:01 [Alison]
So there’s, you know, travel tips for every island.
00:07:03 [Alison]
There’s travel tips for the whole state.

00:07:05 [Alison]
I mean, we’re talking, like, specific Facebook groups for the state, each island.
00:07:09 [Alison]
And there’s even one there’s a really big, very active one for Disney Aulani.
00:07:13 [Alison]
So it’s a single resort.
00:07:14 [Alison]
It has tens of thousands of people in it.
00:07:18 [Alison]
It’s people are posting in it every, I think, five to 10.

00:07:21 [Alison]
It’s incredibly active.
00:07:22 [Alison]
And you can even be a sponsored verified vendor through whoever owns the ad or owns the Facebook group.
00:07:28 [Alison]
But that’s been another avenue of referrals, but also sharing blog posts, getting information, blog post research, and then just kind of seeing what else is out there and and what everybody else is doing as well.

00:07:41 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:42 [Melissa]
And then even your larger photography groups.
00:07:44 [Melissa]
You know, obviously, as Allison said, I always have, like, a Facebook tab open because I’m always in groups.
00:07:49 [Melissa]
I don’t really hang out on my newsfeed so much, but I’m constantly in and, you know, as I answer questions on SEO in different groups and stuff like that, I’ve run across people who lived in Charlottesville.
00:08:00 [Melissa]
And so then when they found out, oh, you’re moving here too, you know, I was able to, like, kinda meet make friends with them and stuff.

00:08:06 [Melissa]
And, actually, there’s a local girl here that she and I already got together for, like, a coffee date and stuff just to kinda get to know each other.
00:08:11 [Melissa]
So reach out to those groups that you love and just make a post like, hey.
00:08:15 [Melissa]
I’m moving to blah blah blah area.
00:08:16 [Melissa]
Who’s there?
00:08:17 [Melissa]
Like, you know, as much obviously, there’s whole community and then there’s competition, and there’s gotta be some ways to kinda bridge the gap.

00:08:23 [Melissa]
Like, you know, when I had my coffee date with Amy, we sit there and, like, pull out our business plans and marketing plans and pricing structure and, like, compare notes or anything.
00:08:31 [Melissa]
But did we commiserate over some things?
00:08:33 [Melissa]
Heck.
00:08:33 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:08:33 [Melissa]
We did.

00:08:34 [Melissa]
Did we talk about how rough 2023 was?
00:08:37 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:08:37 [Melissa]
We did.
00:08:38 [Melissa]
So you can still make friends with people without feeling like, oh my gosh.
00:08:42 [Melissa]
You know?

00:08:43 [Melissa]
This is the competition.
00:08:43 [Melissa]
What are we doing?

00:08:45 [Alison]
And it’s this is almost what you’re talking about, Melissa, is almost the online version of how you and I met in person.
00:08:51 [Alison]
You were the only other photographer to ever come up to me in person, real life, and introduce yourself.
00:08:57 [Alison]
Like, I try to do that most photo sessions where I see other people, at least will say, hey.
00:09:01 [Alison]
Like, we’re doing the same thing.
00:09:03 [Alison]
Like, acknowledge their presence instead of, like like a, you know, stay in your lane kind of vibe.

00:09:08 [Alison]
I try to be very open and friendly and introduce myself and ask names.
00:09:11 [Alison]
And if if we’ve got time, like, past share Instagram handles or something.
00:09:15 [Alison]
But this is just an online version of saying, hey, how are you doing?
00:09:20 [Alison]
My name is Allison.
00:09:21 [Alison]
I wanna be your friend.

00:09:22 [Alison]
Like, look where that one little introduction has gotten us, Melissa, so many years ago in a dark parking lot.

00:09:29 [Alison]
Well and

00:09:29 [Melissa]
that’s the other thing too.
00:09:30 [Melissa]
You know, researching other local photographers who are, I’m gonna say, competition in air quotes kind of thing.
00:09:36 [Melissa]
Because, obviously, I’d met Alice, worked out really great with Instagram.
00:09:39 [Melissa]
You know, when I moved down to South Florida, I started looking at who are the other photographers that are down here that are gonna be actually gonna be my competition.
00:09:46 [Melissa]
And for me, someone who’s gonna be my competition is someone who has a very similar style and very similar pricing structure.

00:09:53 [Melissa]
If they have a similar style and they’re charging a third of what I charge, they’re not they’re not my competition.
00:09:57 [Melissa]
Like, that’s just they’re gonna burn themselves out, so I don’t worry about that.
00:10:00 [Melissa]
But I look at it as an opportunity instead of being like, oh gosh.
00:10:03 [Melissa]
She’s doing better than me.
00:10:04 [Melissa]
She’s got more bookings than me.

00:10:06 [Melissa]
I look at it more of like, hey.
00:10:07 [Melissa]
I’m coming to town.
00:10:08 [Melissa]
And the way one of the girls down in South Florida is I reached out and I was like, hey.
00:10:12 [Melissa]
I’m coming to town, which I know immediately is like, oh, great.
00:10:15 [Melissa]
Other photographer.

00:10:16 [Melissa]
But I was like, I’ve looked at your work and I’ve looked at your you know, what you have on your website, and you are similar style style and similar pricing structure to me.
00:10:23 [Melissa]
And I think I put in quotes like, good job, girl, because, you know, I’m always trying to push people to make sure you’re profitable.
00:10:29 [Melissa]
And I said, hey.
00:10:30 [Melissa]
I’m only taking on a certain amount of sessions every month, so I’m gonna put you at the top of my list as a referral.
00:10:35 [Melissa]
So and she was like, oh, thanks.

00:10:37 [Melissa]
I mean, who’s gonna argue with somebody saying, hey, I’d like to refer you?
00:10:41 [Melissa]
Right.
00:10:41 [Melissa]
And usually, they’ll reciprocate, you know, kinda thing.
00:10:43 [Melissa]
And I did refer people to her, and she referred people to me, and we never actually got a chance to connect in person.
00:10:48 [Melissa]
I had so many photographers in South Florida that were like, you left before we could meet you.

00:10:52 [Melissa]
I was like, sorry.

00:10:55 [Alison]
Like, that was my plan all along.
00:10:57 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:10:59 [Alison]
Oh, my gosh.
00:11:00 [Alison]
That that’s a that’s brilliant.
00:11:01 [Alison]
And the same thing can happen through a Facebook group or an Instagram.

00:11:05 [Alison]
And it’s I’m remembering now that when we were in Quantico, somebody I never met was going on maternity leave and referred sessions to me.
00:11:13 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:13 [Alison]
And we never even so much as had a phone call conversation.
00:11:16 [Alison]
So that’s that’s awesome.
00:11:18 [Alison]
Okay.

00:11:18 [Alison]
So next up, up, so we’ve talked about Instagram.
00:11:20 [Alison]
We’ve talked about Facebook.
00:11:22 [Alison]
Facebook is a big one.
00:11:23 [Alison]
Coworking spaces.
00:11:24 [Alison]
So this was something new to me, this most recent move.

00:11:27 [Alison]
Maybe not new to this move.
00:11:29 [Alison]
I learned about coworking space doing some, like, marketing work with a firm.
00:11:33 [Alison]
Particular place in the Hampton, Georgia area had three locations, and it was just it was my first time seeing this.
00:11:39 [Alison]
Right?
00:11:39 [Alison]
So you’ve got this one big kind of cafe looking room, and then there are all these rooms.

00:11:44 [Alison]
Being a member there, you could come for a certain number of days or hours and just mingle.
00:11:48 [Alison]
I mean, people were talking.
00:11:50 [Alison]
People were actually doing work.
00:11:51 [Alison]
There is just such a fun vibe, and they had all these events, intentional networking events.
00:11:57 [Alison]
There were cookies out for everybody on most Wednesdays.

00:12:00 [Alison]
There were beverage events.
00:12:01 [Alison]
There were lunch and learns, all kinds of stuff going on.
00:12:04 [Alison]
So when we moved to Hawaii, I would look for the same thing, and I found it.
00:12:09 [Alison]
There’s actually a whole bunch of them, but the one I went with was Tree Health Coworking.
00:12:13 [Alison]
So they had two locations, sip it smaller.

00:12:16 [Alison]
They had monthly events that they hosted, lunch and learns for kind of a professional development, almost weekly, what we call in Hawaii, a pauhana.
00:12:23 [Alison]
That’s just the happy hour where we get together and have beverages, shake hands, chit chat about what’s going on.

00:12:29 [Melissa]
That’s where I got jealous of y’all because I was looking at co working spaces, and I was like, mine doesn’t have happy hours.
00:12:34 [Melissa]
Mine doesn’t have all this stuff.
00:12:35 [Melissa]
And so then I was like, I need to find some better co working spaces like Allison.

00:12:39 [Alison]
That’s yeah.
00:12:40 [Alison]
Well and so it was a double edged thing.
00:12:42 [Alison]
So I became a virtual member before I ever moved.
00:12:45 [Alison]
That’s another really powerful Mhmm.
00:12:47 [Alison]
So while I was still in Virginia, I had a mailing address in Hawaii.

00:12:51 [Alison]
I was a virtual member kind of getting the benefit of that, but then I also had once I arrived, I had kind of a stockpile of days where I could go in and work, and then I had access to every event that they hosted.
00:13:02 [Alison]
And I had access to the events they hosted at both locations.
00:13:05 [Alison]
And so that became a really cool network to figure out what was going on.
00:13:10 [Alison]
I was getting these monthly emails about events and nonprofits and other businesses on island, what other people were doing, and then in person opportunity, like friends just to be a human.

00:13:21 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:21 [Melissa]
Definitely.
00:13:22 [Melissa]
And, you know, with co working spaces and stuff like that, sometimes it’s just nice to get out of your space and into somewhere else and get work done.
00:13:29 [Melissa]
I mean, yeah, you can do the whole coffee shop thing, but, you know, sometimes it’s nice to have, like, a space that you don’t feel guilty sitting in a in their spot for, like, eight hours.
00:13:38 [Melissa]
Absolutely.

00:13:39 [Alison]
And other people to talk to you don’t feel like you’re being a weirdo in the coffee shop.
00:13:42 [Alison]
You’re, like, can actually talk to the other people around.

00:13:45 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:45 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:46 [Melissa]
So beyond co working spaces, the other thing to look at is spaces to reshoots.
00:13:50 [Melissa]
You know, I’m sure we’ll do an episode because Allison’s gonna talk about scouting and things like that in a future episode.
00:13:56 [Melissa]
But you’re moving to a new new area.

00:13:58 [Melissa]
You don’t know where to go do sessions.
00:14:00 [Melissa]
I mean, I’m still figuring out here in my area of, like, what parks and stuff are nearby to offer as locations for clients.
00:14:07 [Melissa]
But if you like to shoot indoors or if you like to have studios or anything like that, two great options that I know we both have utilized is home studio list and pure space.
00:14:15 [Melissa]
So I’ve used these mostly for branding sessions, but there was a house down in, South Florida that everybody used for branding, for mini sessions, for Christmas.
00:14:27 [Melissa]
Like, that lady actually, I talked to her.

00:14:29 [Melissa]
She was an interior decorator, and so she had her house listed.
00:14:32 [Melissa]
And so it was one of those that, like, I could pick pick it out a mile away when I would see put photos posted because it was beautiful.
00:14:37 [Melissa]
And then pure space can be good for if you just need office space.
00:14:40 [Melissa]
I think there was a point where we were packing up the house, the movers were there, and I was supposed to be recording a pod

00:15:45 [Melissa]
Ask for with someone, and I ended up having to go out to PureSpace.
00:15:48 [Melissa]
I literally rented the conference room of an apartment complex for an hour because they had it on there, and it was cheap.
00:15:54 [Melissa]
Wow.
00:15:54 [Melissa]
It was, like, $50.
00:15:55 [Melissa]
And I was like, it’s worth that to do it.

00:15:57 [Melissa]
So, you know, there’s a lot of options for things like that, especially if you’re moving and you you might be in transition, you’re not able to get settled into your spot yet and you need a place to work.
00:16:06 [Melissa]
But just for having that that list of places that you can use for client shoots, especially if you do branding and headshots or if you’re doing some kind of, like, mini session setup, that can be a really good place to to take a look and see if they have events.

00:16:20 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:16:20 [Alison]
I used Home Studio List down in Charleston.
00:16:22 [Alison]
So I was state we were in Virginia Beach and a mini session event at a home in West Ashland Of Charleston.
00:16:30 [Alison]
And so I was able to work while I was home, kind of pay for my trip down there, and then I ended up getting featured on Home Studio List.
00:16:37 [Alison]
So, Helene, if you’re listening to this, you live in Hawaii, Home Studio List doesn’t have anybody listed on Oahu.

00:16:43 [Alison]
So I’m kind of on a little mini mission to get a couple places listed out there because there’s not there’s nothing out here.

00:16:50 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:16:50 [Melissa]
I don’t think there’s a lot here in Charlottesville either.
00:16:54 [Melissa]
I think I when I looked at it, you had to go further out because I did have a branding session recently where we we were really specific and I was able to find a great space in Richmond that was actually a studio space.
00:17:02 [Melissa]
So there can be a few things, you know, but I will say home studio lists.
00:17:06 [Melissa]
Like there’s a lot of interesting places, I think in Miami that were like, high rise, like, modern apartments, and then there was, like, the interior designer’s house, which was beautiful.

00:17:17 [Alison]
Hey.
00:17:17 [Alison]
Yes.
00:17:18 [Alison]
I’m talking to you.
00:17:19 [Alison]
How are you feeling about this move?
00:17:21 [Alison]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got something for you.

00:17:24 [Alison]
I want you to grab my pre move checklist to make things a little easier.
00:17:28 [Alison]
Even if you’re not sure where you’re going yet, it’s not too early to start.
00:17:31 [Alison]
But you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.
00:17:34 [Alison]
So head over to alisonbell.co, that’s alisonwith one l, b e l l dot co, to get your list.
00:17:41 [Alison]
You got this.

00:17:42 [Melissa]
So, yeah, so that kinda gives you the spaces and stuff.
00:17:45 [Melissa]
And then really kinda getting into, like, county business resources and stuff.
00:17:49 [Melissa]
I feel like I’ve not explored, like, small business administration as much as other small businesses do.
00:17:56 [Melissa]
You know?
00:17:57 [Melissa]
Right.

00:17:58 [Melissa]
We had I can’t remember where I saw it.
00:18:00 [Melissa]
I think it oh, I think it was I joined a group here, and it’s like the small business women of Flavanna County.
00:18:07 [Melissa]
And I always laugh because it’s I’ve been corrected.
00:18:09 [Melissa]
It’s not Flavanna.
00:18:10 [Melissa]
It’s Flavanna, which, I feel like you have to Central Virginia accent.

00:18:14 [Melissa]
In my head, I remember it as Vanna White, so it’s Flavanna.
00:18:17 [Melissa]
And they were co hosting I think it was like a show me the money or something was the name of the thing, and I was like, alright.
00:18:24 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:18:24 [Melissa]
Let’s do this.
00:18:25 [Melissa]
And, and it was with the Small Business Administration.

00:18:28 [Melissa]
And I’m sitting there with all these people who run, like, wineries and, like, dog grooming and, like, they’re all these more brick and mortar style small businesses, but the resources and stuff that the SBA provides is awesome.
00:18:42 [Melissa]
I actually am supposed to set up an appointment with them, basically redo a business plan kind of thing.
00:18:47 [Melissa]
I’m not looking to get investment money right now or anything like that, but the last time I did a business plan was, I don’t know, three houses ago.
00:18:54 [Melissa]
Like, it’s been a while.
00:18:56 [Melissa]
And so my business has changed a lot, and it probably would be a good opportunity for me to sit down with them and have them like, I know all the answers.

00:19:04 [Melissa]
Just I need somebody to ask me the questions and then fill out and, you know, kinda have a what’s the path

00:19:09 [Alison]
and stuff?
00:19:09 [Alison]
That accountability and the hand holding.
00:19:11 [Alison]
And the SBA for the state that you’re going to is also gonna be a great resource, your local permitting and licensure and taxing information.
00:19:19 [Alison]
So I actually I paid $15 to do the SBAs how to start a business in Hawaii class.
00:19:24 [Alison]
It was virtual.

00:19:26 [Alison]
And it was very useful, but they missed a lot too.
00:19:29 [Alison]
But it was a great place to start.
00:19:31 [Alison]
I felt like I had dotted all my i’s, crossed all my t’s by doing that.
00:19:35 [Alison]
So highly recommend getting that done for getting legal in your new place.

00:19:38 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:38 [Melissa]
And with the getting legal, especially when it comes to photography and stuff, guys, make sure you’re checking out sales tax tax and stuff for your new area because it may have been where you were before, and then it may be completely different in your new spot, especially when it comes to whether sales tax is charged on photography services or goods.
00:19:56 [Melissa]
Even in Virginia, that can be really confusing.
00:19:58 [Melissa]
So contacting your local SBA and seeing, you know, if they have anybody that they work with already that might be able to guide you can be helpful on that.
00:20:05 [Melissa]
And then networking groups.

00:20:07 [Melissa]
So that was a big thing.
00:20:08 [Melissa]
I also was talking about, like, with making friends and stuff with where you’re going.
00:20:11 [Melissa]
I really struggled with that.
00:20:13 [Melissa]
I mean, we always tell our kids when they’re, you know, they’re in a new school, we’re like, go say hi.
00:20:16 [Melissa]
Go make friends.

00:20:17 [Melissa]
And but as adults, I think, you know, I’m terrible at it.
00:20:21 [Melissa]
Like, I didn’t make a lot of friends down in South Florida until I was like, alright.
00:20:25 [Melissa]
I’ve got to get out of the house.
00:20:27 [Melissa]
I’ve got to meet some people.
00:20:28 [Melissa]
I came across a women’s now called FemCity, and they are, like, international.

00:20:30 [Melissa]
So, you know, check and see if there’s one local to you.
00:20:33 [Melissa]
I think for me here now, it’s down in Roanoke, which is a couple hours, so it’s a little bit more than what I would wanna do.
00:20:39 [Melissa]
But we met once a month and had a luncheon.
00:20:41 [Melissa]
And so we would go out to lunch, and there would be, like, a topic we would talk about.
00:20:44 [Melissa]
We would all do the introduction.

00:20:46 [Melissa]
This is what I do, blah blah blah.
00:20:47 [Melissa]
But that group was, like, such a lifesaver for me of, like, having a place every month to go and hang out with these girls.
00:20:54 [Melissa]
And then there was a Facebook group that we had for it that we could all talk.
00:20:57 [Melissa]
And then we did their networking events and things like that.
00:20:59 [Melissa]
And so I really I do monthly luncheons and those girls, like, I’ve walked in at times where, like, business was going great, and I’ve walked in at times where business wasn’t.

00:21:06 [Melissa]
And just being able to talk to other small business owners, especially female business owners, was just really, really impactful for me.
00:21:14 [Melissa]
That’s awesome.

00:21:15 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:21:15 [Alison]
Another one I got to know for the first time in Virginia Beach was BNI.
00:21:20 [Alison]
When we say networking groups, we’re talking, like, outside of Facebook, social media, they’re kind of freestanding organizations, but BNI, so that’s BNI, because I I think I had to ask somebody, like, 10 times.
00:21:32 [Alison]
I’m like, there’s BNI.
00:21:33 [Alison]
It is that.

00:21:33 [Alison]
So it is a very costly networking group where it’s international, but

00:21:33 [Alison]
they get these cell phones.
00:21:36 [Alison]
Costly networking group where it’s international, but they get these cells together and they don’t have more than, I guess, really chapters.
00:21:43 [Alison]
There can be dozens of chapters in a city, but each particular meeting or chapter only has one person in each profession.
00:21:51 [Alison]
So they might I know realtors are really competitive for finding a new BNI group.
00:21:56 [Alison]
So there’s, like, one realtor, one photographer, one dog groomer, one lawyer, tax guy, whatever, and every week.

00:22:04 [Alison]
And there is it’s a really powerful group because you’re required to do so much homework and to bring so much to the table each week.
00:22:10 [Alison]
It is very expensive.
00:22:12 [Alison]
So when you’re moving, some of my tips and tricks are you guest.
00:22:15 [Alison]
Find somebody who is already in a group.
00:22:17 [Alison]
They have the opportunity to bring a guest, like, every week, and it gets them point.

00:22:21 [Alison]
It ticks off something on their checklist, if they’re able to bring a guest.
00:22:24 [Alison]
And so and it’s free.
00:22:25 [Alison]
So you can go be a guest with somebody.
00:22:28 [Alison]
You can also get a substitute.
00:22:29 [Alison]
So they meet every week, but if somebody is traveling or has something pressing where they care meeting, they’re supposed to get a sub to stand in their place.

00:22:39 [Alison]
And so I was a substitute for somebody, where I went and I I spoke for her.
00:22:43 [Alison]
I said, hey.
00:22:44 [Alison]
I’m subbing for Kelly Shepherd.
00:22:46 [Alison]
She is a and she gave me her like, I just read it off the off the text she gave me.
00:22:50 [Alison]
And then I got to introduce myself and say who I was.

00:22:53 [Alison]
And then if you don’t personally know anybody who’s in BNI, you can reach out to them and say, hey, I would like to try out some groups to see if anything fits.
00:23:02 [Alison]
I’m a photographer and, you know, what what’s available in my area and very much want to build more people.
00:23:08 [Alison]
They want people to try it out and join.
00:23:11 [Alison]
So we will tell you all the available groups for a photographer or a copywriter or a what have you, And you can go participate, meet people, introduce yourself, sell yourself, share, connect.
00:23:24 [Alison]
And if you never join, it’s okay.

00:23:27 [Alison]
You can just go be a guest.
00:23:28 [Alison]
You can just try it out, sit in on it, meet people, take their business cards, and say it’s, you know, you can either join and you can you can join.
00:23:36 [Alison]
I’m not trying to say be deceitful, like, do you but if you don’t join, there’s no harm, no foul.
00:23:41 [Alison]
So those are some free ways to get part of BNI.

00:23:44 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:23:44 [Melissa]
And then like I mentioned before, that Facebook group that I found, Boss Babes, I was actually just looking really quickly.
00:23:49 [Melissa]
There are a lot of Boss Babes networking groups.
00:23:52 [Melissa]
I don’t know.
00:23:53 [Melissa]
Like, I know with FemCity, it was if you go to femcity.com, it’s a huge organization.

00:23:59 [Melissa]
You’re gonna find all the stuff.
00:24:00 [Melissa]
Just on a quick search for Boss Babes Networking, there’s a lot of different ones.
00:24:04 [Melissa]
It looks like there’s not one in particular, but you may be able to find by going through that, find something that’s local to you.
00:24:10 [Melissa]
Just looking for that kind of thing.
00:24:11 [Melissa]
Even going into those Facebook mom groups, going into the photography groups or the local business groups and just asking like, hey.

00:24:17 [Melissa]
Are there any networking groups for women that meet in person in the area?
00:24:22 [Melissa]
You can check with your Chamber of Commerce, local like, we just talked about local small biz networking groups.
00:24:27 [Melissa]
Those you can find, like, we were talking about through the co working spaces, just doing some research and asking.
00:24:32 [Melissa]
There’s Tuesdays Together, I think, is still going on with Rising Tide Society.
00:24:36 [Melissa]
I know with COVID, things have, like, scaled back with them on meetings and stuff, but I think a lot of them are trying to get back to meetings.

00:24:42 [Melissa]
One of the things I liked with Tuesdays Together is it wasn’t all photographers.
00:24:45 [Melissa]
You know?
00:24:45 [Melissa]
There were other artists in there and things like that, but those can be good ways.
00:24:49 [Melissa]
But definitely, you know, find you gotta find your tribe in your new location.
00:24:52 [Melissa]
You’ve built a tribe in your old location, and now you’ve gotta find a new one.

00:24:56 [Melissa]
And it’s overwhelming and scary.
00:24:57 [Melissa]
But, you know, if you’re sending your kids to a new school and telling them to go make friends, like, get out and do it yourself too.

00:25:02 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:25:02 [Alison]
Take your own advice, mama.

00:25:04 [Alison]
That’s awesome.
00:25:05 [Alison]
Okay.
00:25:05 [Alison]
And so the last one that we have for this, you

00:25:08 [Alison]
know, networking before you move is industry specific groups.
00:25:11 [Alison]
So very similar, you know, the larger networking groups.
00:25:14 [Alison]
You wanna find something that’s kind of in our niche.
00:25:16 [Alison]
So we just mentioned rising tide society.
00:25:18 [Alison]
You want to join them, follow them.

00:25:21 [Alison]
You want to get, things like NAPCP.
00:25:23 [Alison]
So National Association they actually just changed their name.

00:25:25 [Melissa]
Changed it.
00:25:26 [Melissa]
I was gonna say.

00:25:26 [Alison]
It was the National Association of Portrait Professional Child Photographers.
00:25:31 [Alison]
Now it’s the National Association of Portrait and Child Photographers.
00:25:35 [Alison]
I love them.
00:25:35 [Alison]
That’s actually how I met my first photography friend here in Oahu was through NAPCP.
00:25:41 [Alison]
So I am an ambassador for them, or I was for 2023, maybe for ’20 who knows?

00:25:46 [Alison]
But we connected.
00:25:47 [Alison]
Heather reached out.
00:25:48 [Alison]
We were part of a small group.
00:25:49 [Alison]
We were hosting events on behalf of, NAPCPP NAPCP, just like we’re saying here, here, like, just pulling the community together.
00:25:57 [Alison]
And she was like, oh my gosh.

00:25:59 [Alison]
I actually live in the next town over from where you’re gonna be stationed.
00:26:02 [Alison]
We’ve gotten together for coffee multiple times.
00:26:04 [Alison]
She’s introduced me, albeit mostly virtually via email, to other photographers in the area, which has led me to this next tip.
00:26:12 [Alison]
She told me about Fotocon Hawaii, which is a Hawaii based photo conference.
00:26:17 [Alison]
So it’s a four day thing with professionals.

00:26:20 [Alison]
We’re talking like, y’all there’s classes on shark portraits.
00:26:23 [Alison]
There’s a whole class where you can go fly in a helicopter and aerial shoots.
00:26:27 [Alison]
Like, that’s cool.
00:26:28 [Alison]
I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in any other conference.
00:26:31 [Alison]
And so I’m going to this conference this weekend, to hear from people who are local to Hawaii, professionals, maybe get a few tidbits about business and creativity, but I’m really going the real value is rubbing elbows with other people I’ve met virtually, but also meeting new people.

00:26:47 [Alison]
And so that’s the next step is look into conferences.
00:26:50 [Alison]
Are there a state PPA?
00:26:51 [Alison]
What does that stand for?
00:26:53 [Alison]
Professional Photographers of America?

00:26:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:26:55 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:26:55 [Alison]
Okay.
00:26:56 [Alison]
So look into your there you know, PPA is national thing, but then a lot of states have a state level organization while they’ll have their own state level conference.
00:27:03 [Alison]
They’ll

00:27:04 [Melissa]
also Virginia has VPPA, which is Virginia Yeah.

00:27:07 [Alison]
Exactly.
00:27:07 [Alison]
And they’re actually Virginia’s really, active.
00:27:10 [Alison]
And then they’ll have regular meetings.
00:27:12 [Alison]
So you could be meeting once a month or every other week doing special classes, offshoots of your state level PPA.
00:27:18 [Alison]
Whatever industry you’re in, whether that is copywriting or jewelry making or what have you, like, look for those industry specific things.

00:27:27 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:27:27 [Melissa]
I mean, with the PPA, I remember when I first joined, we were doing a big, like, a big thing where it was, like, one day or one weekend they had designated for, like, a learning, and they had all these different people putting on classes.
00:27:38 [Melissa]
And I remember driving up to Arlington and having a class with a lady who was a studio newborn photographer, and she and I are still friends on Facebook.
00:27:45 [Melissa]
A couple of the other girls who were in that group, we’re still friends with them.
00:27:49 [Melissa]
And, like, now, you know, it’s for them, I do see them in my feed per se, and I keep up on their life more so.

00:27:54 [Melissa]
But so they know my name, I know their names kinda thing, and and that was probably, like, fifteen years ago that I took those those classes and stuff.

00:28:00 [Alison]
So PA is still doing that.
00:28:02 [Alison]
So every fall and every spring, they have a week of workshops, and a lot of them some of them are virtual, but a lot of them are in person.
00:28:07 [Alison]
And so in order to be a workshop host, you have gone through a vetting process.
00:28:12 [Alison]
You’ve done an application.
00:28:14 [Alison]
So it’s a really great way to learn from other people, but also connect.

00:28:18 [Alison]
Just have fun.
00:28:19 [Alison]
Awesome, guys.
00:28:20 [Alison]
Well, that is our tips on networking before you move.
00:28:24 [Alison]
So just to rehash, you need to be looking through Instagram hashtags.
00:28:27 [Alison]
You need to be looking through those local Facebook groups, co working spaces, rental spaces for photo business resources like the small business administration, networking group, like global non industry specific networking groups.

00:28:41 [Alison]
And then your industry specific groups are all gonna have lots of resources and, of course, at the state, global, and regional level, the city level too.
00:28:49 [Alison]
So no end of research before you move.
00:28:53 [Alison]
So, guys, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
00:28:57 [Alison]
We’ve got freebies in the link.
00:28:58 [Alison]
So if you need a checklist of some of these things, hit the link in the show notes, and, we’ll get it out to you as soon as possible.

00:29:04 [Melissa]
Thanks.
00:29:04 [Melissa]
Bye bye.

00:29:07 [Alison]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:29:09 [Alison]
If you’re enjoying this show, would you do two things for us?
00:29:11 [Alison]
First, leave a review.
00:29:13 [Alison]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:29:14 [Alison]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:29:19 [Alison]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:29:22 [Alison]
If you have any questions, reach out to Allison on Instagram at Allison Bell Photog or Melissa in her Facebook group, Raise Your Ranking.
00:29:29 [Alison]
Check the show notes for links.