Are you ready for the fall busy season? In today’s episode, I’m replaying a conversation from the This Can’t Be That Hard podcast with Annemie Tonken. Annemie and I are sharing our strategy for the approaching busy season, plus how we take care of ourselves alongside our business.
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
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This episode is brought to you by Marketing That Attracts, my new course that will give you clarity on your marketing strategy and attract your ideal clients. In this course, you will learn five organic marketing strategies for photographers and advice for how to implement them into your business. Join today and get access to even more additional resources like templates, trainings, and organizational tools.
Review the Show Notes:
Anticipating the needs of the season (10:38)
What happens after gallery delivery? (13:30)
Set boundaries around your availability (17:11)
How to reinforce your boundaries (22:07)
Review your support system (25:33)
Connect with Annemie:
Website thiscantbethathard.com
Connect with Sabrina:
Instagram: instagram.com/sabrinagebhardtphotography
Review the Transcript:
Sabrina: In this episode of the Shoot It Straight podcast, I am replaying an interview that I had with my dear friend, Annamie Tonkin of This Can’t Be That Hard. And on this episode, we were talking about Steps you can take to help you transition out of a slower season and into a busier season. I think this is the perfect time for a replay because we are ramping up for fall busy season.
And even if you have had a really slow year so far, this episode is hitting just at the right time for you to be able to put things in place to support you during fall busy season. So give this episode a listen, and I know you’re going to love it. Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gephardt.
Here, I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing business, motherhood, And life myself, along with my guests, we’ll get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in yet willing to talk about the hard stuff to the shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Annemie: I was thinking the other day about the upcoming shift in season and how many. Times over the years that I’ve been in business, I have spent so much time thinking about What I’m going to do during the slow season, right? The first quarter of the year. And I tend to daydream about that a lot during my busiest season of the year, which is the fourth quarter.
So I’m like constantly preparing for that downtime and what I’m going to do to work on my business and sort of take some rest and go on trips or, you know, all of the above, uh, I do a lot of planning for that. But what I haven’t been great about doing over the years is planning for that transition back into not my busiest season, but certainly like as things start to pick up.
It’s almost like the frog in the boiling water, right? Where as it starts to get busy, it doesn’t always hit all at once. And so what can happen is all of these best laid plans that you’ve made over Q1 start to unravel because you just. Kind of fall back into the same old routines and ruts and bad habits that you’ve always had in your business.
So, as I was thinking about that, I was doing what I always do in situations like this, and reaching for my phone to call my friend Sabrina. because she always has great advice and insight on how to manage transitions and how to plan for things and how to create intentional white space in your calendar and all of, all of those kinds of things.
And then I thought, why keep this conversation all to myself? Why not invite Sabrina onto the show so I can have this conversation, get the information that I need, and also share it with all of you. So if you’ve been around for a minute, you know, Sabrina Gebhardt, she’s a very good friend of mine, an amazing podcast host, photographer, business person, all of the above.
But her superpower is definitely this kind of intentionality and I need it sometimes. And I imagine that some of you do too. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Sabrina. Welcome to this can’t be that hard. My name is Annamie Tonkin and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love.
Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business. Doesn’t have to be that hard. You can do it and I can show you how.
Sabrina, welcome back to this. Can’t be that hard. It is so lovely to see your smiling face on my, uh, on my zoom screen here. How are you?
Sabrina: I’m so good. I’m so glad to be back. I always love chatting with you and where our discussion goes. How many times have I been on now? I was trying to think this morning.
I I’ve totally lost
Annemie: count. Okay. So, and this is just going to be like a. geeky biz friend aside, I have spent a lot of my sort of downtime this slow season, reorganizing the entire back end of this can’t be that hard using air table. And I could talk for many episodes on just that and how revolutionary it’s been.
But one of the things that we are now working on is the backlog of our podcast. episodes so that we have this, like, instantly searchable, super easy way to navigate, you know, I mean, like, I’m coming up on 250 episodes and it’s, it gets to be a lot to try and remember, like, when did I talk to who and when I feel like my gut instinct is that you have been on the show, I think this is time number four, but it could be more, it could be maybe one less and in a month or so once we’ve got all the back data, um, entered, um, I’ll be able to tell you for sure.
Yeah, I, it’s been a bunch. It’s been a
Sabrina: bunch. And they’ve all been great conversations. So I’m so glad to be here today.
Annemie: Well, it’s always so high value. I mean, that’s the thing. Like I am more than happy to bring. You on the show anytime because I know that every time you’re going to, you’re going to come and we’re going to have a conversation about stuff that is highly relevant to everybody listening and also to me.
I love, uh, I love your sort of approach and just your very, I don’t know what the word is, but it’s like this very, uh, approachable way to manage your time and think about boundaries and all of those important things. Um, you’ve just got, you’re like the friend that you call when you’re like, blah, I’m going crazy and I need help.
And you’re like the voice of reason. And I feel like you’re, you’re probably that way. All the time, but certainly when we’re talking about business stuff. So it’s great.
Sabrina: Yeah, I love that. That feels very on brand for me, especially the way I coach women. I mean, that’s exactly how we set up our relationship.
So I love that.
Annemie: Yeah. Oh, well, good. I this is all part of leaning into your strengths, doing what comes naturally to you. You have you have found that thing for sure. So we’re kind of talking on that topic today about, you know, we’re, we’re coming into what, no matter where people are in the world, this season is changing.
We’re sort of moving into the next season. And oftentimes. The three months, two or three months after the holidays are kind of the downtime. Obviously, there are exceptions to that. Newborns come when they come. Business, actually, a lot of like brand photographers and stuff get busy in the first quarter.
But by and large, if you are, you know, photographing weddings or portraits, that first quarter of the year is often the On the slower side. So this is a time when many of us take advantage of that downtime to take on projects, spend some really good rest time, you know, spend time with families, go on vacation, go to conferences, all those kinds of things.
And I believe that one of the episodes that I know that we have talked before about like how to prepare for that slow time, like how to line, you know, get your ducks lined up so that you can make the most of that time. And so I’m excited today to talk kind of about the other side of the coin, which is transitioning back from that period of rest and rejuvenation and kind of getting geared up for what’s to come.
And so I’m really excited to kind of hear your take and your sort of thoughtful approach, which is sometimes better than my like, whoa, okay, now I’m busy. That’s, uh, that’s my approach. So yeah, let’s just jump right in.
Sabrina: I’m really excited about this topic. And I love that you suggested it because I don’t think this gets asked enough.
I think people are really intentional about slow season because they’re ready to slow down. They’re ready to do the projects that have been on the back burner. But then they get antsy and nervous and a little panicky. And so when the inquiries start coming in, people are like, Yes, let’s go. And they just take off and start booking and never look back.
And they miss this really important part. opportunity to set them up for success. And so I think I am really excited that you brought this up today.
Annemie: Yeah. Well, and actually that kind of reminds me, as I said at the end, you know, in that saying, like, during this downtime, what is one thing that people do?
This is often conference season. Like there are a lot of photography conferences that happen in the first quarter, not all of them, certainly, but many. And one of the things that often happens at a conference is like you go in and you’ve got this like you put on your, you know, business hat and you’re learning all these things and you’re networking and you, you know, all these things.
And the, because I ran a conference for six years, I know how at the end everybody has this sort of like. look on their face and unless you carve out time to say, okay, now we are going to sit down and intentionally like, create space where you’re not bringing more information in, but rather you’re taking all the stuff that you have learned and sort of absorbed over the past few days and you’re putting it on your calendar or you’re making a list and you’re, you know, giving yourself priorities because you can’t walk away from something like that with, and then go back to real life without any sort of reflection and hope to actually take action on those things.
So I kind of feel like in some ways. We’re doing the same thing. It’s not this season of overwhelm necessarily, but it is such a massive shift, or it can be such a quick and massive shift, that if you don’t, if you don’t get really, uh, intentional about it, you, you can kind of lose. some of the threads of what, you know, your, your plans were in that downtime.
Sabrina: Yeah,
Annemie: exactly. So when you are coaching and when you are talking to people and when you’re working in your own business on this, what are some of the, what are some of the basics? Like as we get into this season, what are you doing to kind of plan for this transition?
Sabrina: Yeah, so there’s a handful of things that I encourage people to kind of touch on in their business.
And you said the word reflection. Reflection is huge because it’s really important to use what happened last year is a guide for this next year. And the first place that I like to start is with workflows and systems when you’re communicating with clients or with your C. R. M. And the easiest place to start is Where were their holes last year?
What questions were you constantly getting asked that you were having to answer that could be put into a workflow so that it’s not, you’re not being asked, right? Or were clients constantly showing up late to things? And do you need to put in a reminder about timing? Do you need to put in something about wardrobe and fingernail polish and band aids and things like that, right?
Like what issues came up repeatedly that you can say, okay, I’m going to take, I’m going to actually stop and look at these. Is there a way I can address these? Is there something, an email I can write, a blog I can direct them to, something I need to add to the client prep guide? How can I address this so that the issue stops happening?
Annemie: Yeah. And if you’re like new to CRMs, let’s say that setting up a CRM or switching CRMs was one of your major projects over the, that downtime, whenever you’re Sort of redoing a workflow, there’s always going to be adjustments. And certainly if you’re doing it for the first time, you’re going to miss things like that.
We’re always fine tuning. So I love this idea of going back through and almost, I mean, you could almost put yourself through your workflow and, you know, try as you might. I know it’s hard with like the curse of knowledge. We, we kind of know what we’re, what we know, but try and put yourself on that receiving end.
Like I’m a. Um, client who knows nothing about what it is to be photographed or about how this person’s process works, receive all those emails and see how that feels. See if you like, you know, can come up with questions that you could answer. I recently talked about how good service is really all about anticipating people’s needs.
And, you know, it’s like if you’re answering a question that someone is sending you, you’re playing defense. If you can, if you can sort of get into the like, I’m going to proactively answer that. It’s not always going to mean that everybody’s going to read it or watch your video or whatever, but at least you have made it possible for people to know that.
Sabrina: Yeah. I mean, in a perfect world, your clients don’t have any questions and they feel fully supported and they show up knowing what to do, what to expect and everything is smooth. So how can you make that happen? Right. Another thing I think that’s really important for people to consider is not just, The front end workflow.
But what happens after gallery delivery? Mm-Hmm. . So are you seeing the Google reviews come through that you want? Are you seeing clients upgrade their galleries? Like you want or place print orders like you want? Or are those things not going as well? Because that’s also a workflow thing. Yeah. So if, you know, if everything on the front end is, is going great, clients are showing up, they’re prepared, they’re not asking a ton of questions.
Perfect. But what can be tightened up or made better on the post gallery delivery side as well? Do you need more emails? Do you need videos? What needs to be added to kind of get that part of your business running smoothly to?
Annemie: Yeah. And you know, I think that that is an ongoing thing, even if you have a business that where things really do work smoothly.
In some ways, sometimes, like, we get to a place, and this is a, it’s a good place to be, where we are, like, our complacency can be our biggest enemy, and so, giving yourself a little challenge, like, this year, I want to sell more albums, because I know that albums are the thing that, like, really lights my ideal clients up, and that, you know, brings them back year after year, or whatever.
Just goals that are going to be sort of like the cherry on top of an already well working business can, even though your clients aren’t necessarily going to feel that it is. It ends up serving them better and it keeps you actively engaged in that process.
Sabrina: Yeah,
Annemie: exactly. I love that point.
Sabrina: One of the things I’m asked about the most as a business coach for photographers is marketing.
Students want to know how to find their ideal clients. How often should they email their list? How can they use social media effectively? What makes a good blog post? You get it. Marketing is a beast. And if you’re like most photographers, you’re overwhelmed and probably pretty frustrated with the marketing part of your business.
My friend, if this sounds familiar, hear me when I say this, you are completely normal. There is so much out there about marketing books, blogs, courses, coaches, gurus, marketing specialists, and social media accounts. And they’re all telling you to do something different unless you actually went to college for a marketing degree.
It’s no wonder you’re confused. You started your business because you love taking photos, not because you’re a marketing genius, but the truth is that marketing does play a big role. You do have to find clients. You do have to make money. And therefore marketing is something that you do need to learn. If you’re going to run a profitable and sustainable business for the long run, the great news is I’m here to help.
In my new course, marketing that attracts, I’m helping you filter through the noise and sharing five organic marketing strategies that actually work for photographers. And I’m giving you the inside scoop on how to do them ideas for what they can look like in your business and all the resources you need to have confidence and clarity to market your business.
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Check out marketing that attracts at the link in the show notes to learn more. Now back to the show.
Annemie: So we go through, we kind of review what has been working, not working, make sure that the, the work that we’ve done during the down season has kind of. We’ve gotten it as far as we can get it from just like an intellectual standpoint, obviously, everything has to be road tested. And then what, what’s the next step?
Sabrina: Yeah. So I am a huge advocate of planning your time. It’s like one of my content pillars, you know, and I think it’s really important, like I mentioned at start of the episode, people get excited when the inquiries start coming in and they immediately are like, yes, I will book every single thing. And they kind of disregard their calendar and the future months ahead because they’re just so excited to have inquiries and sessions again and be getting paid again.
And I get it. But if you take some time to intentionally get your calendar in order and set some parameters around your availability and when you’re not available, that is going to serve you so much better in the long run that that practical tip right there could be the thing that keeps you out of burnout by the end of the year is managing your time and saying, okay, and this is partially.
Looking at your personal life and your business mixed together, right? Like when are you available? When do you want to be available for your kids and family and vacations? When do you want time off? But also you can look at it from a financial perspective and you should. How much are you charging? How much do you want to make?
Therefore, how many sessions do you need to shoot to make that math a reality? You know? And so if you really only need to shoot two sessions a week, why are you cramming in more than that? You know, so being really intentional with planning for your availability and your time off can really serve somebody well before they get into busy season.
Annemie: Yeah, and you know, it has a side benefit as well. I think that we all have that fear that if we say no, To a time or to a, you know, the, somebody wants something during this week that then that person is going to drop us and, you know, never call back. And that may be true, certainly. And I cannot help but think of my 14 year old who just got himself a girlfriend, although he wouldn’t call it that.
He says, we’re talking. He has been like freaking out because I have rules about when he’s allowed to have his phone and he has to turn it in at night and all this and he’s like, what if she, what if she writes or what if she, you know, tries to message me? And my answer has been, look, if she’s interested, and you, I mean, you can let her know, like, my mom takes my phone, or you can just, you know, not let her know.
I mean, you say you’re talking, but um, but if that is enough to push her away, then like, I don’t know what to tell you other than like, that’s not, that doesn’t have a whole lot of a future. Anyway. But there is something to be said for a little bit of like scarcity. Yeah. It does give you a little like, oh, not always available at the drop of a hat.
And what works in this case in middle school, I think also works out in the real world. I, as I have gotten busier with this can’t be that hard and have taken on fewer photography clients, it is wild to me how Like saying no, oftentimes people will be like, okay, what about this date? What about this? And I, yeah, I mean, it’s like, I wish I had known that.
10 years ago.
Sabrina: Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s one of those things, I mean, if you are photographing births or weddings or first 40 eights, there really is a time boundary there. And maybe this client, you can’t serve this client, and that’s unfortunate, but you can’t serve everyone. All of the other categories have flexibility involved and.
You saying you’re not available that week or that month, that should not be the thing that pushes them away. And I think, you know, this goes back to, we could talk about marketing, we can talk about your website, we can talk about copywriting, all of these things to pull in the right people that want to work with you regardless of your availability.
And so. Being brave enough to say, this is when I’m available, this is the next time that I could potentially work with you and say no, when you have to, when it’s not a good fit, I have found the universe always reward you for that bravery. Always. And it feels so good. It’s something that if you struggle with this, I think it really only takes you one or two times of flexing that muscle and seeing how you get rewarded.
Maybe you say no to this one person and you’re freaking out because you’ve never said no before. And then two days later you get an inquiry from your ideal client and it’s like the universe saying, Bravo, Sabrina, pat on the back. You did the right thing.
Annemie: Yeah.
Sabrina: It only takes a couple of times for you to learn, okay, this isn’t that scary.
There are more clients. saying no is not going to be the end of my business.
Annemie: So how do you, just from like a practical perspective, Do you have a recommendation for how someone goes about, like, reminding themselves at this stage, like, maybe when things, inquiries are really starting to come in or whatever, like, how do you remind yourself of those boundaries and really kind of cement those into place?
Sabrina: Yeah, I have a really kind of antiquated system for this, but it works for me. I am a very visual person. Uh, I actually just read for the second time the book atomic habits and it talks in part of that book about how visual cues are the strongest and when we can see something, we’re more likely to remember that thing.
It’s the theory behind like put your gym clothes out the night before and you don’t have your supplements on the counter and those things, which I do all of those things. So for me, if I can see. see a visual reminder of something, I will do the thing. So I literally have like a check box on every week in my paper planner.
I am happiest with one, maybe two sessions a week. That’s where I feel creatively inspired. I’m not stressed out. I’m making the money I need to make. And I literally check the box when the session’s there. And so. So when I have an inquiry come in, I’m flipping pages in my planner until there’s an open box and I see that I have availability that week.
That simple system works for me. Some people have certain days of the month that they want to shoot, you know, they want to shoot Fridays and Saturdays or, or. whatever that is. And you can literally draw a little box on those days that these are open until a name is, is in that box. You know, they’re available and when they’re full, they’re full.
There’s all kinds of ways. It’s kind of similar to like a habit tracker, you know, where you’re like checking, did you drink your water today? Did you, it’s the same kind of thing. So it’s not a really fancy system, but that is what works for me.
Annemie: Well, and that little dopamine hit of like checking a box. Yeah, I mean it, I feel like, antiquated or not, that, uh, that pings somewhere deep.
And actually, speaking of sort of the psychology piece of it, I also think that in addition to creating a little bit of scarcity, you are helping your Potential clients when they say, Okay, you know, like, Oh, great, I’d love to schedule if your response is wonderful when, you know, let’s say it’s just like a family session or an engagement session where there’s plenty of, you know, there’s three months before they’re going to get married or whatever.
If you just say, when do you want to, that’s a big ask for someone to, to kind of just look at three months of time and try and pull that together. Versus if you say, wonderful, would this date or this date work? They can say neither of those work, but it’s a much easier thing for them to determine than asking them to come up with the first thing.
So I actually believe that you’re really serving your clients by doing that as well.
Sabrina: Yeah, I agree. It’s very similar to if my husband and I are going out on a date and he says, where do you want to go? And I’m like, uh, I don’t know. Right. Versus if we say, okay, what about this one, this one, or this one? Out of those three, where do you, I mean, that feels like such an easier decision to not have to consider all of the options.
So I love that comparisons. That’s absolutely true. It’s you’re serving them by giving them options and times and not making this decision.
Annemie: Yeah, so again, kind of a win win for you and your clients. We’ve talked about recommitting to your boundaries, planning your time. What else do we need to be doing as we enter this season?
Sabrina: Yeah, I think the, the last really big thing is to review your support system and where you need to be. Maybe need more help. Um, and again, this is a reflection piece. This is a think back to last year when you were busy. What did you wish you have? What? What would have made things easier, better, smoother, faster, any of those things.
And for a lot of listeners who are moms, maybe that’s just more child care. right? Maybe you need your kids in an extra day of preschool next year, or you need a nanny one day a week. But it could also be maybe it’s time for you to finally outsource your editing and get that process started. Maybe it’s time for you to bring on a V.
A. Or another support system. So is it time for you to get more help so that you can offload some tasks, free up your time, take some pressure off of you
Annemie: and offloading tasks. is I love doing that in business. It’s a write off. It’s great. Offloading tasks can also look like hiring a housekeeper or having your housekeeper come every week instead of every other week.
It could mean subscribing to a service that delivers your groceries, meal planning, like all kinds of things that take a lot of time. It’s like life admin, right? Many of us who run our own businesses, whether we are men or women, oftentimes we have partners who have. Jobs outside the home. Not always certainly, but when that is the case, I have certainly found in my own life.
That I become the, in fact, later today, I am taking the 14 year old that we talked about, who is home from school because he’s got a sore throat situation going on. I’m taking him to the pediatrician. I am in charge of that because I have the more flexible schedule. And certain things like that are unavoidable.
And actually, you know, it’s part of the beauty of working for yourself. But those, like, life admin things that we often get Saddled with or you know become by default our jobs. Those can also be outsourced. So yep Just wanted to plug for that because yeah I struggle with like I feel guilty about it sometimes but um, but when I look at it as like That’s freeing me up so I can make money and I’m not only providing, continuing to provide for my family, but I’m also like providing for these people that I’m outsourcing that work to.
Sabrina: Yeah. And it’s, it’s not just freeing up your time to make more money. It’s freeing up your mental energy and taking stress off because you know, when you’re an entrepreneur and you’re in charge of running your house, we have this invisible burden that we are carrying. And a lot of it is the life admin stuff that is.
Taking up so much mental energy that we’re not able to do the things in our business. Well, you know, that’s oftentimes what causes us to drop balls, to forget things, to, to not send the email, whatever. And if we can alleviate some of that stress by increasing our support system, help us focus on our business better.
I mean, that’s another really big part of it. So when you think back to last year during busy season, what were you struggling with and how can you connect the dots and get support for that thing so that you have alleviated a stress
Annemie: Absolutely. Especially for people who work in the home, when there is that lack of separation, that can be a really hard thing.
But as soon as you kind of give yourself that gift, I was going to say that permission, but like it is a gift. The amount of space that it clears up, like it really can be, make all the difference. Yeah.
Sabrina: And it’s, it’s one of those things. And I get pushed back on this a lot is. But I don’t need that support right now.
Okay, that may be true. This may be something that you don’t actually need until September or October. But you will not have the bandwidth to onboard or start a new routine with anybody at that point. You have to do that now so that you’re rocking and rolling come the time that you actually need the support.
Annemie: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, hiring someone, especially if we take it back to like in your business, whether that’s an editor or a VA, those are not, it’s not a light switch. You don’t just like hire a VA and then all of your admin is taken care of. You have to onboard that person. You have to train that person according to your systems.
You have to give them them. the tools that they need to support you. And same thing with an editor. And if you try and jump in when you are sinking, that’s, it’s a recipe for disaster. Sabrina, these are all such good reminders slash I need to sit down and do this myself, but I am, uh, I am ever so grateful for your kind of level headed approach to all of it.
I know that You’ve been on the show many times and I hope that any of our listeners at this point know who you are. But let everybody know where they can find you just in case they’re not already connected.
Sabrina: Yeah. Come find me on Instagram. I love to chat and meet friends over there. It’s at Sabrina Gebhardt photography.
I also have a podcast that Annamie’s been on several times called a shoot it straight. So you can give that a listen sometime, but Instagram is the place to find me day to day. So come say hello.
Annemie: Love it. You will definitely want to add her podcast to your role. It is so good. Excellent. Well, until next time, my friend, I will, uh, I’ll talk to you soon.
Thanks so much. Bye. Thanks for having me. Well, that’s it for this week’s episode of this can’t be that hard. I’ll be back. Same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you can find more information about this episode along with all the relevant links, notes, and downloads at this can’t be that hard. com slash learn.
If you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button even better, share the love by leaving a review in iTunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.
