Montana Diaries Creative Business Blog

Experimenting and taking creative risks in 2022

Hellloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, on today’s episode I’m going to be talking about experimenting and taking creative risks — I freaking knowww that creative business can slowly turn into factory work, especially with portfolio consistency and client expectations, so let’s talk about the who, what, when, where, and how of staying creative when you make money from your creativity. This episode is dedicated to Morgannnn, the owner of Elizabeth Samuel Photography, who suggested the topic on Instagram — she asked specifically about double exposures and creative edits. Remember, you can alwayssss let me know what topics you want covered on the pod!

When you make money from your creativity you need a different creative outlet lol

Okeyyy, let’s get into this — I’m obsessed with creativity and business and what it is to make money from creativity, so this topic gets me pretty fired up. Let me start by saying this: When you make money from your creativity, you either need a different creative outlet or you need to figure out how to continue nurturing your creativity that you’ve monetized — honestly, I think you need to do both things because I don’t think the second thing is 100% possible all the time. Let me explain.

I’m an avid reader. My real life, no bullshit, no irony involved dream is to be a novelist — I have stick figure self portraits from early elementary school with speech bubbles saying that when I grow up, I want to be a writer. Except I spelled “writer” wrong, with two t’s.

Soooo I went to college, and I studied english literature and creative writing alongside my more practical communication studies major which yes obviously that’s a joke of a major but don’t tell that to 17 year old me making life decisions, but oh my god did I do anything possible to avoid reading and writing once those things became obligations.

It became obvious to me that it wasn’t good for my brain to make reading and writing a job. Everyone gets so hung up on doing work that you’re passionate about because we’ve made what we do for a living such a huge part of our identity and personality — we’ve made what we do synonymous with who we ARE. Butttt here’s what I realized is true for me: I do like editing video and photos, I love aesthetics and I’m good at planning things while staying flexible because it makes me feel in control, which it’s always good when your occupation is well suited to your pathologies. I like business. It feels good to MAKE SOMETHING for someone that has an impact and makes them feel good and to be able to make money doing that.

But I can’t say my ego or sense of self or concept of myself as a creative or worth in general is tied to, like, wedding films. Thank God.

I have to be honest in saying that I think it’s a mistake to tie your finances to your creativity and, like, artistic ego. And I think that’s what we’re talking about here, when a creative turns their real hobby and their actual creative outlet into something that makes money…and then they lose the joy of play and experimentation and all of that good stuff because now there’s pressure and expectation and, yes, fear attached to doing the thing that they once did for fun. Because it’s a job.

Read big magic

Here’s where I tell you to read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. And, listen, I’m not the type to gatekeep books — if you’re not a reader or you don’t have time, then please consider buying the audiobook and LISTENING to Big Magic — Liz reads it herself and it’s beautiful.

I spoke on this in a recent episode about money, which I’ll link in the shownotes, but Big Magic made me realize that as long as I was supporting myself then I didn’t actually care how I made money. My number one obligation, for my entire life, is to the pursuit of creativity. To being interested and interesting, to creating more than I consume, to keeping my heart open to magic and ideas — to not being beholden to money and obligation and others’ expectations.

But, like, it’s nice to make money with creative business. Welcome to this entire Podcast.

Consume content that makes you want to create

On the back of that book recommendation, let me also encourage you to consume content that makes you feel the urge to create something. Start being critical of the state of mind you get in when you’re consuming — are you watching Netflix to shut your brain off and mindlessly consume? Are you scrolling TikTok to do the same thing? Or do you seek out media that inspires you, that lights a fire under you, that spurs you to action? If you’re feeling a lull in your creativity, if you’re tending toward burnout, all I’m saying is that part of the problem might be the way you’re consuming — not necessarily your creative process in general.

Systemizing your creative business

Speaking of the creative process — you should have one.

I’m sorry, I’m that guy that systemizes creativity. I know, I know — you want freedom and whimsy and inspiration, you’re an arteest.

But actually, I’m sorry, you’re the one who has made your creativity your job. You have a responsibility, for the sake of the health of your business and your own sanity, to come up with systems and frameworks to exist within so that the WORK part of your work can get done and then your creativity can flourish. Structure breeds creativity, I promise.

Here’s another writing example: Have you ever tried writing long form content, like an easy or a blog post, and the blinking cursor on the blank page was just way too overwhelming and you couldn’t write anything at all? Have you tried outlining instead? Have you tried setting a timer and brain dumping? Having something, ANYTHING on the page helps you write faster, spoiler alert. Take this podcast, for example — if I didn’t have a framework… it would never get done. Ever. I have an intro and outro format that provides structure. I usually have a topic, and then I set a timer for five minutes to brain dump points. I then bold those points and consider them mini topics. The one we’re on right now is “systemizing your creative business.” Then, I set ten minute timers to write without judgement under every bolded point. Just throwing up words on the page, everything I think about the bolded point. The timer puts the pressure on for work, but it takes it off for the words sounding good — I’m literally just typing how I talk.

Afterward, I edit and then when I’m recording I’m likely to riff a bit and expand on some things, but the process and structure BREEDS the creativity. The freedom of a blank page just causes paralyzation and overthinking and procrastination. This applies to all creative work, I really believe that.

We like to romanticize creativity, and trust me, I believe there’s plenty of room for the romantic side of creation…but it isn’t all that. It’s work. It’s process.

Experimenting when you make money from your creativity

Now, back to the main point of this episode, experimenting when you make money from your creativity. Is it possible to stay creative, to experiment, to grow, to innovate when you have paying customers and clients that expect a certain thing from you?

Sure. But with caveats.

You do need to deliver work that’s consistent with your portfolio but idk there’s nothing wrong with putting weird experimental artsy shit alongside that other work — this is honestly where being a human comes in and curating your personal branding to make people expect that out of you. During sessions when I’m trying something new I’m literally like “k imma get a lil weird now” and then I lay on the ground usually for some dope ass sick ass angles idk, also the original question that made me think of this topic in the first place was about double exposures and creative edits for video and how I use fractals… you guys, I’m not techy or particularly talented or anything, I try weird shit and have fun and figure out how to stay sane in my job — I don’t ask for permission to try things out or over research or over think, if I want to do something and I don’t know how to do it then I Google it and then just freaking do it, creativity is NOT THAT SERIOUS — if you feel anxious about a client complaining about the experimental stuff you delivered alongside the regular stuff, here’s a fun blanket response, this is for photographers but feel free to shift it to whatever creative service you do: Oh my goodness, I’m so thrilled you loved some of the photos in your gallery more than others! It’s such a huge brand value of mine to deliver content that is consistent with the rest of my portfolio and I’m over the moon you found a few in your gallery that suit you — I also understand you noticed the experimental stuff I included! How fun are those!? Thanks so much for letting me get weird during our session, it keeps me creative! You’ll prolly see the fun ones on my social media, and I’m so pumped to see what you do with the others! Message me when you print them so I can see!

See how I’m coming from a place of positivity, of service, and reminding my client that they don’t have to love every photo in the gallery and I’m fulfilling my contractual obligation by delivering the amount of photos promised in my signature style? There’s no need to be defensive because you didn’t do anything wrong.

If you absolutely do not want to get weird with clients, then you need to style your own shoots and get creative on your own time. The only thing I’ll say to this is I do have a friend who does this often and then shoots and edits super clean with her real clients but thennnnn sometimes feels frustrated that she doesn’t book more creative clients. See the disconnect there?

In conclusion, you guys, creativity isn’t serious idk why we make it life or death, I don’t mean to be blase about your insecurities but maybe that’s something you need — like idk, nobody needs what we do and we aren’t performing surgery or anything and I don’t think you need to overthink this just create create create and put pretty things into the world and weird things and things maybe only you will like because we’re going to die eventually, maybe soon, and your legacy shouldn’t be cookie cutter generic bullshit. Was that helpful?

I’ve been talking about Liz Gilbert too much, I sound like a fangirl and I’m sorry, but there was this great moment in her podcast she used to do where she and her guest, I’m so sorry I don’t remember the exact context — but they were talking about a musician they loved that put out this batshit album that sounded nothing like his previous work, and the guest hated it but then came to admire it because it was experimental and weird and he acknowledged that he wasn’t put on this earth to be a song writer monkey. A modern day example would be Ed Sheeran — I know he’s kinda considered white bread as far as singer song writers go but I do find him brilliant, and he put out that collaboration album where every song was a collab and nothing fit together and it was experimental and odd, and truly I think I skip every song when it comes up on shuffle because it’s just not my thing but — goddamn, good for you Ed Sheeran. You aren’t my song writer monkey.

And to you, my dear listener — you aren’t a factory. You aren’t a photography monkey or a jewelry designer monkey or a painter monkey or a graphic design monkey or any kind of monkey at all besides the bit of genetic makeup we share with monkeys, you’re a creative being. You make money from your creativity so you have contractual obligations and an obligation to your clients to produce work they hired you to do with the expectation that it will look similar to your other work, but other than that? It’s not that serious. You WON capitalism, you’re making money out of nothing, out of things you make. You make a living with creativity. You survive and feed yourself by playingggg — you have to nurture that bit of you that needs to create, to play, to be free so you can avoid burnout and keep winning. Hooray, you’re doing the thing, friend, now don’t ruin it by getting too serious. You’re not a monkeyyyy.

I’m dying, that whole metaphor didn’t really work but ya know? I’m trusting that the spirit behind it might. Leave it to me to mix creativity with competition, you’ve unlocked the exact reason I’m exhausting to everyone who loves me.

hey, photog friend!

If you’ve been wanting to learn videography with the gear you already own, I have a free guide just for you!

Resources

FREE Starter Guide for Photographers Ready to Learn Videography

Join the Montana Diaries Podcast Community on Facebook!

Shayna Lloyd 8/4/22 Shayna Lloyd 8/4/22

31: Online marketing for creative business in 2022

Online marketing for creative business in 2022

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN…

1. Why video is KING online, AKA why YOU should incorporate video into your business strategy

2. The leg up that hybrid shooters have in the photo + video industries and why it IS possible to learn with your existing equipment

3. Action steps you can take RIGHT NOW toward incorporating video content!

Online marketing for creative business in 2022

psssttt…

join us in the Facebook group, your space for talking all things creativity + business!

Online marketing for creative business in 2022

Hellloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, on today’s episode I’m going to be talking allll about online marketing for creative entrepreneurs in 2022. I get asked about this topic allll the freaking time, but this episode is a special shout out to Whitney Jones, who suggested this topic in the Montana Diaries Podcast Facebook Group! Soooo here’s your reminder to join the group — you can post about anything related to business or creativity, and also ask questions that will be turned into episodes.

WHY I THINK SEO AND MARKETING ARE IMPORTANT/A CONSTANT CONVERSATION IN THE CREATIVE BUSINESS SPACE

Ahhhh, marketing for creative business. Listen, I know it’s easily the sexiest and most fun thing about creative business — everyone wants to try allll of the tips and tricks when it comes to marketing because it’s fun and it feels like a needle mover, but let me encourage you right at the top of this episode to dedicate yourself to figuring out what it would take to be SUCCESSFUL with marketing.

Becauseeeee I feel like a lot of creative business owners make marketing their jobs. Like, every day. And let the actual business things fall to the side.

I also know that social media strategy dominates the marketing conversation but here’s one hard truth: likes and followers and comments don’t move the needle forward in your business. Followers are not clients.

PEOPLE LOVE TALKING ABOUT MARKETING BUT NOT ABOUT SELLING LOL

People love talking about marketing, but not so much about selling. I’ve heard it all — that selling feels icky, that you don’t want to bug people, that it’s rude.

Can we please just act like a business and make money a simpleeeee math equation for a second? How much is your main offer? How much money do you need to make in a year? How many sales is it to reach that amount? Perf, that’s how many people you need to convert into clients or buyers. Everyone wants 10,000 followers but you don’t freaking need 10,000 clients — hopefully just being armed with the knowledge of what your real number is can empower you to serve those people. Now let’s get into my marketing suggestions for you to implement in 2022.

Now, to the actual selling bit: We have to get it out of our heads that selling is icky — you have a produce or service with value. Presenting your offer is valuable to the buyers who need or want your product. Good marketing will get your product or service in front of the people who want to buy it.

Here’s an example: When I was looking for a lifestyle photographer to photograph my newborn in our home, I could not freaking find one. I was searching hashtags like #missoulanewbornlifestyle #missoulalifestylephotographer and #missoulanewbornphotographer and nobodyyyyy was blatantly advertising what I was looking for. I feel like in-home lifestyle photographers have to exist, but they weren’t selling to me. It wouldn’t have been icky or salesy for them to figure out how to get in front of me — it would have been HELPFUL to me.

So what the heck are these lifestyle photographers doing? Slapping up random IG or Facebook posts every day without ever taking the time to talk about their offers? Where is the strategy to get in front of me? Maybe they’re marketing every day, but are they strategizing? Are they selling?

HERE ARE MY SUGGESTIONS FOR OTHER CREATIVE BUSINESS OWNERS IN 2022

Define your offers really well so that you know exactly the types of buyers you’re trying to get in front of.
Don’t make your social strategy the be-all-end-all of your business — being active on social media is great, but you don’t own social media platforms and they can go away at any time. Instead, I suggest implementing a content marketing strategy that can be repurposed across platforms. I talk about this a tonnnn in the episode we just did on batching, so be sure to go check it out — the link is in the shownotes
SEO — Search engine optimization, bb. Soooo taking the steps to figure out how to make your offer as searchable as humanly possible — I do this with weekly blog posts packed with key words I’d like to rank for on Google. The most helpful way to this I’ve found involves video, so if you’d like a more in-depth explanation on that then pleaseeee feel free to snag my free resource at montanadiaries.com/learnvideo ! I can also do an episode on this strategy in the future if you want that, so let me know.
Referrals — Past clients + customers can be a huuugggeee asset, so serve the heck out of them and ASK for their reviews and for them to tell their friends about you. Sometimes an email or a text can get you leads right away — people want to support you, especially if you serve them well. On the other side of this, there could be other businesses that work well with your product or service. Do strategic collaborations or ask them how YOU CAN SERVE THEM in exchange for their referral.
Paid ads — I’ve always been a huge believer in Facebook ads, but I’m diving a bit deeper into TikTok and Pinterest in 2022. My thing with ads is that if they’re converting, then there really isn’t any amount of money that I wouldn’t spend on them.
Other — Other ideas I’ve heard of include getting your brochures or magazines into other businesses that make sense, a photographer in the Facebook group said she’s trying out putting her canvases in businesses in hospitals as displayed artwork, it’s always a good idea to show your face in your community so trade shows and pop ups are always a great idea. But I’m including this “other” category because I’d loovveee to hear from YOU about out of the box marketing strategies you’ve tried or you want to try, so go to the Facebook community and let us know what you’re cooking up and how it’s going!

WHAT I’M FOCUSING ON IN MY BUSINESS FOR MARKETING

Soooo, I thought it might be helpful and maybe a lil fun to take my business through the six steps I just covered so you can see what I’m focusing on marketing wise in 2022.

So, if number 1 is defining my offers — my main offer is elopement videography and photography, with my secondary offers being smaller multimedia sessions like couples and engagements and some branding work. I know how many elopements I need to reach my financial goals, so everything I do for content marketing is focused on serving my elopement audience and reaching that amount of sales. Butttt for my smaller offers, I’ll mostly engage on stories or ask friends in the areas I’m targeting to help me spread the word about specials. I’ll talk a bit more about this in a future episode because I have some segmented financial goals this year making me take on more random sessions. On the education side of the business, my main offer is my course Videography for Photographers and the mentorship calls for creative entrepreneurs.
Point two is where I said don’t make social media the entirety of your strategy, and so what I do is I make sure to have one piece of original content per week on my website that I then repurpose for social media — you can hear all about my content batching strategy in the last episode of the pod. I’ll link it in the show notes — buttt, basically, for the elopement side this might be a blog post about how to pick a destination location for your adventure elopement — soooo, then, I would make IG posts and TiKToks/Reels that steal points from the blog post that week. I might have a YouTube video that goes along with it that gets posted to YouTube, maybe I cut up that video for the other socials. I’ll have pinterest graphics that lead back to the blog post. See what I mean? Make one piece of original content that serves the overarching goal, which is serving potential buyers of your main offering. Strategy driven doesn’t have to mean complicated.
SEO — my SEO plan relies pretty heavily on my blog content and putting in words and phrases that I want to rank in search for. Northwest Montana, elopement videography, video education, Glacier National Park, photography course — these are all example. My biggest SEO tip that serves me well is integrating YouTube videos on my website that contain titles that I want to rank in search for, like Glacier National Park Elopement Videographer. Learn more about this strategy in a free class I host at montanadiaries.com/learnvideo!
4 is referrals and I’m lucky to have incredible couples on the service side of my business who do tend to tag me and talk me up to their friends. Honestly, though, it’s really my vendor relationships that do the most as far as referrals go and I take my vendor relationships really really seriously — I always always always come from a place of service with other vendors. I send them content from our shoots, I offer head shots when I see them on location, I try to gas them up on social media. On the education side of the business, I’m diligent about collecting reviews and using the heck out of those reviews in everything educational I do, like this podcast! I also run affiliate launches where affiliates get a commission for referring people to my paid offerings.
Paid ads — I would love to do a follow up on this point in a couple of months when I have some data to share, so let me know if that’s something you want! I’m going to be running TikTok ads and Pinterest ads for the education side of my business, but I can absolutely do the same thing for the photo/video side to test out some methods for you guys.
Number 6 was the “other” category, and while I don’t really do in-person markets as much anymore, I am testing out the “OPP” strategy with other people’s platforms — this basically just means pitching to get on other people’s podcasts as much as possible to expand our reach.

Resources

FREE Starter Guide for Photographers Ready to Learn Videography

Join the Montana Diaries Podcast Community on Facebook!

Shayna Lloyd 7/28/22 Shayna Lloyd 7/28/22

30: ALL about how I handle MONEY in my business!

ALL about how I handle MONEY in my business!

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN…

1. Why video is KING online, AKA why YOU should incorporate video into your business strategy

2. The leg up that hybrid shooters have in the photo + video industries and why it IS possible to learn with your existing equipment

3. Action steps you can take RIGHT NOW toward incorporating video content!

ALL about how I handle MONEY in my business!

psssttt…

join us in the Facebook group, your space for talking all things creativity + business!

ALL about how I handle MONEY in my business!

Hellloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, on today’s episode we’re talking moneyyyy, baby. I’ll take you through why I make it such a big point to be open about money, my personal money values, why I was so conservative at the beginning of my business, how money flows through my business, my money distribution system, and how I handle goal setting with money. Be sure to stick with me until the end because I’ll give you a free resource to help you create a system for handling money in your creative business AND will take you through the goal setting process I use with students in my mentorship calls to figure out how the heck to reverse engineer your financial goals and figure out EXACTLY how much you should be making each month and how to make that happen.

WHY I MAKE IT SUCH A POINT TO BE OPEN ABOUT MONEY AND TALK ABOUT IT A LOT

First, I want to talk for a second about whyyyy I make it such a point to talk about money and be open about it. Something you should know about me is that I don’t feel particularly emotionally attached to money —

The shame attached to money + the taboo of talking about money keeps class lines intact, it keeps people poor and proud, it keeps women in the dark about gender pay gaps in their industries. I believe so strongly in the proximity principle, too, the idea that surrounding yourself with people and ideas that align with where you want to be makes those dreams possible — I remember going to New York for the first time and going to readings and sitting down with real working writers and that industry become less…mystical and far away and whatever else, and finally feeling like 1. My dreams were possible and 2. Not being sure if I wanted the BUSINESS of story and writing to be how I made money. I remember the power of networking and finding a strong support system of women in the photography industry and leaning on each other to blowwww up our businesses and travel the world together, I remember how finding community and being transparent about business and money changed everything for me. I grew up in a household with a lottttt of financial trauma and weirdness around business and money and debt and it made me run the otherrrr way from that mindset when I came into adulthood — I was head in the sand about my bank account, I spent like crazy and gave without a passing thought and paid for everything and spent what I made because I didn’t freaking want to be the person always asking how much something cost or looking for a deal instead of having a nice experience and enjoying nice things. Whichhhhh I would way rather be that version of myself than the alternative I grew up with, but still. There was a happy middle ground. Mostly I just didn’t want to have anyyyy emotional attachments to money whatsoever, which isn’t…I don’t know, sustainable or realistic in a capitalist society. And I don’t HATE capitalism, I kind of nothing it, which I recognize is privileged. But I own a business and money these days is just… gamified, I guess.

The media I consumed while coming of age that informed how I feel about money: The Minimalists, Rent; La Vi Boheme + Big Magic — Elizabeth Gilbert saying she didn’t want to ask writing to finance her life, that she also wanted to stand on her own two feet financially and to have someone else support her was infantilizing and to infantilize oneself is demeaning to the soul. I got it into my head that I wouldn’t have any ego about how I made money, that I just needed to be able to support myself, and that’s served me well. Nothing realllyyyyy feels like life or death in my business, I’m going to figure out how to make money. I’m scrappy.

MY PERSONAL MONEY VALUES

Soooo…all of this brings me to my personal money values that I hold today. My twenties are almost over, I feel like I have enoughish perspective to quantify this for you. If I’m being totally 100% honest — I still feel a lot of, just…dissociation still, when I think about money. I don’t feel any particularly strong attachment to it, but it isn’t all la vi boheme like I romanticized when I was younger. There are things I want — I want to be financially free, which to me means debt free and to own the things that I have. If you know me in real life, you know that my husband and I don’t own nice cars or many frivolous things. I want to own a piece of Montana, I want to cultivate a home. I want to earn those things with our own money, that is very very very important to me and to be honest there are people in our lives that don’t understand how important it is and don’t really respect it. I don’t want..excess in my life, I don’t want to hoard money — I want to FEEL abundant but I want to do whatever I can to not become a person that chases the feeling of abundance by buying things. I want to travel the world.

Buttt I still have this thing where I don’t want to feel fear of losing money, I don’t want to feel fear of losing nice things. I pretty much refuse to. If I ever start feeling that way, I tell myself to stop. And it shouldn’t be as simple as that probably but ya girl has some brain chemistry things going on — there isn’t a better way to describe it then I choose to feel nothing about money things most of the time. If that sounds completely foreign to you then please know that I get it — if you can relate and you’ve done better at putting words to this than I can, then please reach out, I’d love to talk about it.

WHY I WAS SO CONSERVATIVE AT THE BEGINNING OF MY BUSINESS + DAVE RAMSEY

Soooo let’s talk about why I was soooo freaking conservative in my business, especially in the beginning, and our boi Dave Ramsey.

I don’t subscribe to Dave Ramsey’s values in general and I don’t think those are are good with money need to be as extreme as he is, but finding Dave Ramsey straight out of college was a freaking blessingggg — I was in debt and I needed a roadmap and for someone to say it was possible to live debt free. So that’s the plan Brandon and I followed in our personal life in the beginning of our marriage, but the ideals also bled over into Montana Diaries — thank goodness!! Becausseeeee I was so against debt and I was being so conservative with my money, I didn’t go crazy with equipment or tech or subscriptions or anything frivolous. We were barebones in the business for years — I only upgraded equipment when I had the money, I slept in my car after travel weddings, I was the definition of bootstrapped.

Thank goodnesssss — I’m so freaking grateful to have a business today that isn’t built off of stress and debit and credit and I grew alongside my business. I think being frugal and debt free keeps you creative, too. You aren’t beholden to anything and also people are hiring based off of your existing portfolio and you get to blow them away every year with your improved equipment.

CHANGING HOW I REQUEST + RECEIVE MONEY — HONEYBOOK

Sooo now that I’ve painted a picture of how conservative I’ve been in my business, I do want to talk about systems that have really served me and helped me grow, and the first way I systemized how money is handled in my business happened when I changed our process for requesting and receiving money.

In the beginning, my clients paid with check, cash, or through PayPal and everything was a bit scattered and messy. I never really knew when I was getting paid, which resulted in me making the majority of our money during the three months of peak wedding season and being pretty dry the rest of the year. There was a huge cash flow problem in the business and no actual system.

This sounds like a freaking ad, I swear — but for real, everything changed in the business when I FINALLY bit the bullet and got a CRM. I honestly chose Honeybook because literally every podcast I listened to advertised it, and now I’m one of them, I’m such a cliche. But Honeybook is amazing and I love it and I understand now. Here’s a simplified version of how the workflow works: I created an inquiry form in Honeybook that I then embedded in the contact page on my website, so when people fill it out, a project is automatically created on Honeybook. Honeybook is connected to my email inbox, so the filled out form also goes to my inbox.

I have PDFs related to all of my services that I’ve uploaded to my library on Honeybook, so depending on their requests or questions, I just attach the PDF that serves my client best from my library and it gets sent to their email. If they chose a date on the form, the project that was automatically created also gets added to my calendar as a “tentative project.” Which is soooo nice, it makes it so quick to see if I’m available, because I’ll also get a warning about date conflicts.

I alsoooo add all of my meetings and calls and personal time to my calendar, so that warning comes up if projects conflict with those too.

So, when a client agrees to book, I create a proposal which is where their invoice and contract can live all in one place. I’m able to create their payment plan with dates that also get added to my calendar so I know when payments are being made, and then they sign their contract and make the payment online from the same link. Once they pay their retainer and sign the contract, they’re booked officially in my calendar aanndddd honeybook is connected to my bank account, so the payment goes in their automatically.

It’s now SO MUCH EASIER to keep track of the cash flowing through my business, and having a system for requesting and receiving money now has made everything so much more efficient, and I’m able to visually see where the money is coming from and how much more I need to focus on making each month.

Honeybook is dope — you know I have to get my affiliate link in here, it’s montanadiaries.com/honeybook — just get it if you haven’t. Seriously. It does so much more than I’ve even outlined here.

CREATING A SYSTEM FOR MONEY — HOW PROFIT FIRST HELPED ME

Now I want to talk more about the actual system we have for distributing our money once it’s in the account — we’ve modeled our system after the method in the book Profit First, which I highly recommend. Anddddd it’s largely due to how my monkey brain works, let me explain:

When I was in college, I had a lot of jobs, but my most consistent job was waitressing. I would come home with a consistent 80-100 in ones and fives. I think my portion of the rent in college was $375 per month, and I used an envelope system to make sure I was saving the correct amount. I had a January envelope under my bed, so I’d get home from work and stuff my stack of cash in the envelope. Once the envelope reached $375, it would get sealed, and then I would start my February envelope. I was always 6 months ahead on rent because of this envelope method — I knew that my brain needed a physical container to understand what my money was for, and that I would respect it and even forget about it once it was in that physical container. It served me well.

I’m big on working with my brain, not against it.

Aannddd when I found out about Profit First, I realized it was a really similar concept to the envelope method.

A super watered down version, here we go: Basically, I have five bank accounts — Income, Operating Expenses, Owners Comp, Profit, and Taxes. Money flows into the income account, and then I distribute it as follows: 35% to OpEx, 35% to Owner’s Comp, 5% to Profit, 25% to taxes. I distribute it whenever, but I make sure it’s caught up on the 10th and the 25th of each month because I pay myself on those days and I make sure my P&L excel sheet is caught up — would Quickbooks be better? Probably, but this is what I do.

I truly believe that having a plan for your money will enable you to reach whatever goals you want to reach, and this system removes every bit of emotion I might have with how my money is allocated — I know my brain, I do my best to be kind to it. I work with my mind, not against it. Here’s the thing: The operating expenses account is for business spending — there’s no debate about whether or not to use that money because it’s in that account to be used. The percentage that goes to the owner’s pay account is there TO PAY ME, so I’m never able to make excuses not to pay myself. Systems work, they eliminate emotional decision making — defer to the system.

HOW I WORK THROUGH MONEY GOALS WITH STUDENTS + MY METHOD — REVERSE ENGINEERING HOW MUCH MONEY I NEED, GAMIFYING, MONEY ISN’T SCARY IT’S JUST MATH LOL

Nowwww let’s talk about how I work through money goals with students during mentorship calls and my method for reverse engineering how much money you need — I like to make it a game. Money is just points. Money is just math. It isn’t scary, I promise.

You know I’m bigggg into reverse engineering goals, so financial goals are no different. I do a super super super simplified version of the bucket method on mentor calls — the amounts are shifted and the amount of buckets is smaller so I don’t freak people out, but it’s the same concept. I’ll take you through it now:

What is the ideal amount of money you would like to make in a year? A lot of people have noooo idea how to answer this question, so here’s how I frame it: how much money does it take to live comfortably? If your business is a side job, if your partner is the main bread winner — pretend worst case scenario happens and you lose your main job or your partner loses their main job and you have to upkeep your lifestyle. Mortgage, car maintenance, bills, groceries, lifestyle expenses, fun money, everything. How much money would that realistically take? Okay, you have a number to work with now. I think it’s always a great goal to make your business profitable enough that it could finance your life, at least.

Let’s be conservative here and pretend the amount you came up with is $50,000. That’s $50,000 paid out to YOU and not $50,000 that you make in your business. I like to make the numbers easy and make the goals feel superrrr achievable, even if they’re going to be hard work, so I tell my students to plan on paying themselves 50%, put 25% in a tax account, and 25% in the business account for operating expenses.

That means, in our hypothetical scenario — if you want to make 50,000 with your business, then the business needs to make $100,000. Are you still with me?

Now, that total amount for a goal might still seem abstract and a bit far away if you’re at the beginning stages of business. This is where reverse engineering comes in, or working backwards from our main goal. If you’re a service based business, what is the average cost of a client or what is the cost of your main offer? For me, the average client pays around 5,000 — sooo 100,000 divided by 5,000 is 20. I need 20 weddings and elopements if I want my business to reach six figures,that goal feels really doable to me and so then I’d focus my marketing efforts on achieving that goal. But if you don’t have a high ticket offer, it’s still doable! Let’s go even further on the math. Sticking with a photography example — what is a portrait session worth? $500, to low ball it? 100,000 divided by 500 is 200 clients in the calendar year — that seems like a lot. But 200 divided by 12 months is 16 clients. 16 sessions in 1 month still feels like a lot to me, but maybe it doesn’t to you. But these are numbers that are starting to feel possible, they’re starting to make the overarching goal feel realistic. If I was in this position I would think: How can I increase the spend of these clients? Can I make these sessions worth more? Can I upsell prints and albums? Can I add an offer to my suite? Can I run mini sessions or specials every month at that price point that can help me meet these quantity goals without me running around like a chicken with my head cut off? How can I make this possible?

If you’re a product based business, what is your highest selling offer? Maybe you sell hand made earrings or you make skincare products — yes, maybe I’m calling out some of my fave creatives who I know listen to the pod, ha! But let’s say your highest selling product is around $15 — $100,000 might seem so far away. Let’s do the math. $100,000 divided by 15 is 6,666 sales — divide that by 12, it’s around 555 sales per month. Don’t let the math be scary — know the numbers, even the estimates like we’re doing now.

KNOWING what your sales goal per month is will EMPOWER you to make marketing decisions. You’ll pay attention to what marketing channels are bringing people over to your website, what is actually causing people to inquire with you for your services and then how many of those people turn into leads. For product based businesses, you’ll see who is clicking to the website and then what percentage of your traffic turns into paid customers. Once you know that percentage, you’ll have a goal for how many people need to click on your website in the first place, which helps you make decisions for running paid ads if you go that route. It’s not scary, it’s MATH.

And even more than math… money almost turns into a point system with you know your numbers, it turns into a game. You know how in video games you get rewarded with points and if you get enough points you get to the next level? Just think of your money goals like that.

One last thing: Make yourself a visual indicator for tracking your money. A thermometer to color in as you make sales is my favorite one. Do what you can to make your finances fun, because why the heck not. Goal setting in this way doesn’t have to be a scary weird thing — you can’t achieve your big goals unless you define them clearly, you need to know where you’re going.

Resources

FREE Starter Guide for Photographers Ready to Learn Videography

Join the Montana Diaries Podcast Community on Facebook!

Shayna Lloyd 7/21/22 Shayna Lloyd 7/21/22

28: Making Montana Diaries: My photo/video business story!

Making Montana Diaires: My photo/video business story!

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN…

1. Why video is KING online, AKA why YOU should incorporate video into your business strategy

2. The leg up that hybrid shooters have in the photo + video industries and why it IS possible to learn with your existing equipment

3. Action steps you can take RIGHT NOW toward incorporating video content!

Making Montana Diaires: My photo/video business story!

psssttt…

join us in the Facebook group, your space for talking all things creativity + business!

Making Montana Diaires: My photo/video business story!

Hellloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, on today’s episode I’ll be telling you my business storyyyy — so freaking exciting, right!? Well, I do get asked a lot about how the frick I started by business with both photo and video and what that process was like for me, so hopefully I can demystify the industry a bit for you with my experience and this episode will also help you get to know me a bit better. You all know I’m an open book about alllll things business and creativity, so if you have any questions after this episode then by all means just ask!

COLLEGE YOUTUBE CHANNEL LOL

When I was in college, I had a hobby YouTube channel where my roommates and I would make just about the dumbest videos you can imagine — I really didn’t know what I was doing or know the concept of personal branding or niching or funneling to a paid offer. It was just dumb fun.

During the years I had this personal YouTube channel, though, travel diaries were blowing upppp on YouTube and I was obsessed. My husband, welp boyfriend at the time, Brandon and I are from NW Montana and we spent our summers there hiking and fishing in the most picturesque place you can imagine. Think Glacier National Park if it wasn’t infested with people — that’s where we grew up. So I started a mini-series on my channel called Montana Diaries — play on travel diaries, super original, I know — but I would just vlog our adventures. I even bought a drone for that sick ass dope ass drone footage, I was one of those. Think any basic blonde influencer from the 2010s and that’s who I loved, but nobody more than Hailey Devine — I was obsesseddd with Hailey Devine and I still freaking check up on this woman every once and a while — she had a legit chokehold on me. But she was a videographer who actually got paid to do this fun thing that I just did for fun — companies and brands and tourism boards would pay her to take videos and photos in the most beautiful places I could only dream of visiting. She wasn’t an ~influencer~ in the traditional sense — she was a master of her craft, a real talented filmmaker and business woman but she was cool and chill and funny. She turned more to family and lifestyle content later, which I’m not really into, but mannnn — all of this is just to say that the YouTube thing was just a silly goofy thing that I did until it wasn’t. I finally had something modeling a career that I actually kind of wanted — the Devines even started posting weddings that they filmed, and my wheels were really turning toward the end of my college career. I don’t think I thought that this would be my career, but the idea of having such a fun side job was starting to seem really cool.

WHAT THE BEGINNING OF MY BUSINESS WAS LIKE

Soooo that brings us to the beginning of the business, I guess. I know educators in the photography and videography space are always preaching “you’ll shoot what you share” and it’s kinda annoying, and I’m so sorry, but it’s true. I had no business sense or any idea what I was doing, but I started getting inquiries from real clients just from the YouTube stuff I was sharing. Some students from my college had me take their graduation photos, the owner of the volleyball club that I coached for hired me for her WEDDING which I’m so grateful for but I really had no business shooting, and then by the time I graduated college in 2017 I really started to think about what a real business could be. Bran and I were engaged by this point — we went to colleges four hours apart and he had a year left when I graduated, so I moved to his college town. I remember we were dreaming up this side business — we thought we’d work for tourism boards mostly and make content for the parks, which is funny because we ended up becoming friends with a dude that literally has the job we ideated back then and thought was so impossible — I’ll have to get him on the pod to get his perspective on what it’s like, but he was a TUMBLR boi back then and I literally followed him. It’s just so funny to think about now.

That summer of 2017 we did five free weddings, mostly for friends, and we took on a ton of outdoor branding work — it was very Montana, think lodges and fly fishing outfitters. So it was a lot of portfolio building mixed with paid work — I think we made something like $25,000 that first summer and I didn’t save a freaking penny, it was all going to equipment and traveling costs and I paid our rent that year because Bran had to finish up school and then student teach. But that $25,000 blew our mindssss — we couldn’t believe we could get paid to do what we were doing, it was just so fun. Our work was atrocious, but that’s just retrospect. I think people literally hired us because we owned a drone — I don’t want to be dramatic either but I think we might have been one of like three videographers in the state. It’s so funny to look back on — I was never not working, I was a waitress and I freelanced for an online certification company that taught HVACR education so I was freaking making slideshows about commercial boiler systems and I took on every singleeeee photography project that came up. Brandon’s college was in a small town and there was this weird boudoir boom in that town — I swear I did like 45 boudoir shoots in the spring of 2018 for like $50 each, and it wasn’t like the creative weirdo artsy tasteful female gaze boudoir that I do now, it was like — porn poses and white women holding guns with fish lips. I’m not kidding.

I was so run down and burned out by the time Bran graduated — I was so grateful to get the hellll out of there, for the fresh start. But I was also a little lost — I was still in the mindset that videography and photography was a side business for me, I still didn’t know that it could be a full time career for me or that full time was something I even wanted. On top of that, we moved to a realllyyyyy small town for his first teaching job and it honestly just felt really lonely trying to integrate into yet another close knit Montana community.

I think what’s always a little weird timeline-wise in my business story is trying to explain why and how the traveling got so crazy every summer — buttt it makes more sense if you think about the wedding market: weddings book out about a year in advance, so my 2018 couples had booked when people mostly knew me in central Montana in 2017 and then my 2019 couples were a mix of central Montana and Southwest Montana…soooo while I had moved to different regions of Montana every single year of my business, I ended up traveling hoursss to my weddings every week because my clientele were so spread out and I said yes to EVERYTHING. There was no rhyme or reason, it was crazy — and Montana is huge, if you didn’t know that. At the end of the 2019 wedding season I knew a few things: I knew I wanted to niche (mostly) to adventurous couples and let go of a lot of the branding and family work. I knew I wanted to be more high end, so I needed to raise the quality of my portfolio to the price point I needed to reach. I knew as the years passed without me getting a real adult corporate job I was getting more and more unemployable…so I needed to start acting more like an entrepreneur and less like a hobbyist.

Aannnddd then I found out I was pregnant at the end of 2019, so it was time to get realllyyyy focused. Oh, and I was due in August of 2020 soooo… yes, right in the middle of wedding season. We quit booking weddings right when we found out we were pregnant, so we were at about half capacity for the next season which…hurt, I guess, the realization that I couldn’t make the amount of money I wanted to make. That I wasn’t contributing toward our financial goals. I remember New Year’s Eve, I told Brandon “2020…will not be my year, but ya know what? 2021 will be.” That was our joke, that I would make 2020 about setting us up for success in 2021.

Ohhhhh my gosh, what an omen. Did I cause COVID? Am I the drama?

Obviously, it turned out to be a blessinnngggg that we had prepared for a slow year in 2020. In March, I made the quick decision to make everything as easy as possible for our clients — to reach out and offer help and let anyone reschedule that wanted to and to put up zeroooo fuss for cancellations, and just going into the pandemic with that mindset helped a lot. I used face to camera video, talking heads, to talk people through getting married in the pandemic the best that I could and this weirdly established me more as something who did talking head videos to educate, which is kinda funny. I worked so hard, SO hard. I was scared…I don’t know how to even put words to this time. We were pre-vaccine, I had to honor my contracts and work weddings but I was also very aware that if I tested positive before labor then I would be giving birth alone, without Brandon, and they warned me that they would take my baby from me and dispose of my breast milk immediately after birth. I’ve never talked about this — I just honestly didn’t know how to handle it, I didn’t know how to live the two lives we were living where I was pretty much in constant isolation in our remote town and taking walks alone every day but then once a week I was traveling and covering the weddings that didn’t cancel. And the political climate wasn’t great — the protests and the fighting and the businesses getting called out. So I was taking notes on how I wanted to show my ideals in the business better in the future but also kinda shoving those feelings under the rug to deal with at a later time. SO I basically felt like a hypocrite in every aspect of my life, and I felt extra sensitive to any judgement because obviously I was judging myself too. Ya know, cute 2020 things. I should say that I never did get COVID when I was pregnant, and Bran was able to be there during the birth, thank goodness.

But I was thinking a lot about BUSINESS. I was consuming a crazy amount of business content — I learned about SEO, branding, educational content, passive income, client experience, systems, money, I was consuming, consuming, consuming business content like crazy. It’s hard to condense all of this into a quick, easy story but the month or two before Lucy was born was…insane, I guess. I got burned realllyyyyy badly with a collaborative project and it left a really bad taste in my mouth, and I was really hurt and hysterical about it. This experience changed the business in ways I’ve never come out and said — I became hyper focused on what having a personal brand actually meant, I knew I would neverrrr speak negatively about this experience online even though this person deserved it, and I became obsessed with contracts and having clearly defined communication boundaries. I’ve never given my phone number out again and I’m better for it. I also jumped on everyyyy opportunity to shoot in NW Montana because we were pivoting our marketing to that area — we were finallyyyyy laying the groundwork to live and grow where we’ve always wanted to be. And Brandon’s family lives right outside of Glacier National Park, so that also kinda solved my “where do I put the baby while I’m shooting” dilemma.

The new niche of adventurous couples and the focus on branding made one thing that we suspected suppperrrr clear: the most attractive thing about us, besides being connected to the mountains and Montana lifestyle and laid back weddings, is that we could offer both video AND photo with one team. What also became clear, is that other photographers were starting to want to do the same thing.

WHEN I STARTED TO GET QUESTIONS FROM PHOTOGS…

It might be obvious by this point — with all of the business education and planning I was doing during my pregnancy and crazy pivoting in 2020, that I was becoming interested in selling a digital product — what not a lot of people know is that at the time, I thoughtttt I wanted to make a HUGE high ticket course teaching wedding videography business. My “thing” has always been that I over-deliver video and that I’m faster than the market average at editing and I deliver way more than others are delivering— I would deliver the full ceremony, speeches, reception cut, AND highlight film at a high ticket price without charging hourly packages. I was a full service videographer booking out every year WITHOUT a big social media following. I didn’t follow industry standards with how I ran by business and I was doing well with that — all of that is still true, but nobody really cares about any of that — and that’s an important thing to know before creating a product.

In September of 2020, I took Digital Course Academy taught by one of my favorite female entrepreneurs Amy Porterfield and thank goodness; that course requires a tonnnnn of market research and messaging work. I’m so grateful every day that I was throwing up polls on my Instagram stories, teasing that I was creating something cool, and getting creatives on calls. My ideas were a wedding videography business course, a creative business systems course, a marketing course for creatives with low social media numbers like me. None of these are BAD ideas, but they weren’t things my peers wanted from me.

Instead, I started getting DMs from photographers asking questions about video. Like, a lot of DMs. My sweet friend Laurin Kluver even DMed me saying “pleasseee tell me you’re doing videography education!” I think it was that DM where I was like “...yes, yes I am.”

So, I wasn’t giving up on my other course and education and digital product dreams — I started this Podcast as a general creative business podcast, after all. Butttt it became so clear to me that something I thought was easy and took for granted, which was my ability to do videography and photography in the same session using one camera setup, was something photographers REALLY wanted to learn how to do but felt overwhelmed by, scared to do, they thought it would cost a ton of money in new equipment, and they thought the learning curve for editing was too much.

I hired my friend Maddie, an incredible branding photographer, to come crash on my couch for a week in October of 2020 and we curated shoots in almost every niche of photography so I could showcase how I captured photos AND videos within those same shoots. And that was going to be it…butttt, well, let me tell ya about Clubhouse.

CLUBHOUSE IS WHEN I REALIZED HOW MANY PHOTOGRAPHERS WANTED TO LEARN VIDEO BUT HAD BLOCKS

I know Clubhouse was a bit of a fever dream, but it’s where I finalllyyyyy realized two things: the importance of meeting people where they’re at and serving them from that place, and the power of networking and finding community.

I met my dear friend Chris Mai being know-it-alls together in photography rooms, and it’s where I started talking to people like Jaci, Dawn Jarvis, and Dawn Charles. These are all big hitters in the industry that I never really bothered to network with, and it’s such a shame because they’re cool as shit. I started filling up my podcast roster with these creatives and educators that I really respected, and it was a huge game changer, one that I’m ridiculously grateful for. I alsoooo started hosting rooms in clubhouse where I was testing out videography education for photographers, and the questions photographers had about video were making my head spin. So at the beginning of 2021, I outlined talking head videos for the course I was launching that reflected what photographers were ACTUALLY asking about video — thanks, Clubhouse.

The first launch of Videography for Photographers was in March of 2021 — I hired Nicola Dixon to help me with that launch, and we also became friends. So freaking fun getting to know that woman — we’re actually really similar, both creative writers who want to be authors but also find a lot of creativity in business. She helped me figure out how to warm up my audience and get over the last bit of fear about selling to a small audience, and she also made me make a financial goal for the launch. I met the financial goal, which I immediately used allllll of that money to hire a brand and web designer which made me look legitimate, which I guess is important. Thankssss Nikki Fanshaw, let me know if you want the best brand and web designer ever and I’ll send you her way.

Soooo just like that, we’re at the point where my business pretty much formed into what it is today.

WHAT MY BUSINESS IS LIKE NOW

I’ve spent the last year refining how I teach and figuring out where photographers get stuck, and I’m so proud of the system we have for teaching photographers video in the most simple freaking way possible — and it’s not about making you a VIDEOGRAPHER if that’s not what you want, it’s about utilizing video in your photography business. I’ve split up the course into three sections — mechanics, where I teach the HOW of hybrid shooting and editing photos and videos using super simple language, storytelling is the next module where I teach my thought process behind shooting and editing for story and how each niche can benefit from thinking about story, and then the implementation module is all about strategy and figuring out how to make video work for your unique business.

As for the service side of my business, I’m obsessed with figuring out how to make my client experience the best it can possibly be and delivering the best possible content and highest possible quantity — I’m still doing my own thing with structuring my packages and making my business work for me.

FREE VIDEO CLASS!!

Nowwww I have to tell you about an awesome free resource that I really think you’ll benefit from if you’ve made it this far in the podcast! It’s a free class for photographers, HOW TO UPLEVEL YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS USING VIDEO — this free class teaches you everything you need to know about integrating video into your photography biz without buying new equipment, getting super techy, or wasting your precious time! So pleaseeeee head over to montanadiaries.com/learnvideo to take the free class — that’s montanadiaries.com/learnvideo and there are other free resources at the bottom of that page as well.

Resources

FREE Starter Guide for Photographers Ready to Learn Videography

Join the Montana Diaries Podcast Community on Facebook!

Shayna Lloyd 4/28/22 Shayna Lloyd 4/28/22

26: 5 steps to systemizing your content strategy!

5 steps to systemizing your content strategy! We’re talking alllll about batching, friend.

“Instagram is no longer a photo sharing app.”

When head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said that via an IGTV video this summer, I watched as photographers freaked the eff out on photography Facebook groups, on their stories, and yepppp my DMs.

Sooo… I wrote a free guide for YOU, photog friend. This guide is a DEEP DIVE into video marketing for photographers — not only do I provide tangible, actionable strategy for batching video content for YouTube, IGTV, Facebook, TikTok, and Reels, but I take the time to discuss the WHY of it all. Aannndddd this isn’t one of those guides where I throw up information on you that you have no hope of implementing during your busy photo season — I’m a working videographer and photographer, so I freaking get the struggle to implement a content creation strategy. As always, I’m here to meet you where you’re at with what you have

5 steps to systemizing your content strategy!

psssttt…

join us in the Facebook group, your space for talking all things creativity + business!

Let’s talk batching.

When I batch content, that means I’m aware of what I’m trying to DO with my content during the time period I’m batching for. I know exactly when I’m posting it and why I’m posting it. It’s brainless and emotionless by the time I actually post — soooo this helps me be process oriented rather than product oriented. When you’re process oriented, you’re carrying out the system without worrying about the result. If I were to create and post in real time every day, I might get discouraged by video views or other vanity metrics and not post the next day because my brain would say, what’s the point? Butttt since everything is done, I’m removed from emotions about the product and I’ll instead just focus on the process of carrying out the system. The content is batched and done — I just need to finish the process by posting.

WHY I BELIEVE IN BATCH CREATING CONTENT

So, to begin this episode on batch creating content I want to start by explaining a bit about WHY I believe so strongly in batching. I’ve tried it both ways, friend — I’ve flown by the seed of my pants with my business and I’ve batched and planned like a crazy person, and the second method is how things freaking get done.

I lack focus, I get really emotionally attached to results, and my mental health goes in wavessss and all of these things are a freaking recipe for disaster if there aren’t systems in place. Sooo what does it mean to have batching a part of your system? Batching is the process of grouping like tasks together and just getting them all done at once — so when it comes to batching content, this means producing a tonnnn of content all at once and having a plan for when it gets put out and what the purpose of the content is.

When I batch content, that means I’m aware of what I’m trying to DO with my content during the time period I’m batching for. I know exactly when I’m posting it and why I’m posting it. It’s brainless and emotionless by the time I actually post — soooo this helps me be process oriented rather than product oriented. When you’re process oriented, you’re carrying out the system without worrying about the result. If I were to create and post in real time every day, I might get discouraged by video views or other vanity metrics and not post the next day because my brain would say, what’s the point? Butttt since everything is done, I’m removed from emotions about the product and I’ll instead just focus on the process of carrying out the system. The content is batched and done — I just need to finish the process by posting.

So, productivity and systems and efficiency wise, batching is great because it’s a better use of my time. Mental health wise, batching is great because it removes emotion from the result and doesn’t require much energy when it comes time to actually post.

Next, we’ll get into the actual steps to batching content, and that’s also where we’ll talk about another benefit of batching — which is being super focused and strategy driven with the actual content you’re batching.

STEPS TO BATCHING CONTENT

I’m adopting a strategy that I’m adapting from one of my mentors in business, Amy Porterfield — she teaches to make 1 piece of original content per week, and I’ve found this serves me really well when it comes to serving my audience.

Define the time period you’re batching for — start monthly, it’ll feel more manageable — you can work up to quarterly later if monthly batching feels easy. So, basically, if you’re sitting down to write a month of content — that’s one per week, so about four pieces of amazing original content. That’s not too bad, right!?
Reverse engineering what we’re trying to sell — so basically defining our money makers and promotions that will be going on during the time period we’re batching for. Like, in July, I don’t think I’ll be trying to push my course much for wedding photographers because they’ll be in the middle of their busy season — it wouldn’t make much sense to target them, they’re too busy for a course. Instead, I might write content aimed at branding photographers.
Brain dumping ways to serve customers and potential customers — this goes hand in hand with the above point, obviously, but goes a little deeper into brainstorming ways you can SERVE the people you ARE talking to. If we go with the first example, I want to create content that serves brand photographers? Well, I could talk about ways brand photographers could be upselling video, how video helps their clients and would be attractive, ways to do it that won’t be much extra work, how they can position themselves as the expert for THEIR clients, etc. I would make a big list like that and you know what? A lot of the ideas won’t be good, but my page won’t be empty anymore and the rest of the process will be much easier.
Big piece of content > aim for 1 per week
1. Brain dump what goes into that piece of content — I’m working on having frameworks for mine, which I’ll get into later
2. Set a timer and write poorly!
3. Set another timer to edit
Have a system for repurposing those big, juicy pieces of content across platforms. That’s right — noooo more content made just for social media. Your piece of original content for that week can easilllyyyy be made into social media posts for the week that will work everywhere, with a little bit of tuning up.

Resources

FREE Starter Guide for Photographers Ready to Learn Videography