Need help booking more weddings? Wanna become a local favorite? Ready to fill your calendar with DREAM couples?
Welcome back to another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly. We did it! Thank you for listening and supporting my first ever series, Amplify Your Weddings, on this passion podcast. Over the last few months, I had the honor of interviewing some of my favorite people and business experts as well as dropping educational episodes to help you build your confidence as a wedding photographer and to help your business grow organically! I thought it would be fun to share an episode recap to highlight each part of the series and leave you with a quick key tip or take away if you’re in the middle of a busy season or just want the cliff notes version. Let’s dive in, babe!
On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.
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Review the Show Notes:
Creating Magnetic Experiences (1:33)
Creating Perfect Timelines (3:17)
Showcasing Vendors (4:02)
Amplifying Your Weddings with Events (4:57)
Working With Rowdy Groomsmen (6:03)
Collecting Reviews (7:43)
Creating Core Memories (9:48)
Creating Reels + TikToks (11:25)
Preparing for Tech Fails with Dawn Richardson (13:07)
Adding Value with Video with Julianna, Mira Mira Co (14:06)
Creating An Online Shop with Brooke Michelle (15:20)
Boosting Pinterest with Jen Vazquez (16:57)
Creating A Vibe with Kim Baker (19:15)
Story Telling with Akua Konadu (22:54)
Outsourcing Your Editing with Alisa McCormick (24:42)
Adding Albums with Amandarose Szezorack (26:56)
Creating Workflows and Systems with Laura Murphy (29:48)
Building Wealth with Erinn Bridgman (31:52)
Rocking Your Wedding Fair Booth (32:52)
FAQ for Photographers (34:56)
How To Insta Story Your Next Wedding (36:17)
Creating A More Inclusive and LGBTQ Friendly Business with Ty Z. Wilson (37:42)
Blogging and SEO with Vanessa Hicks (38:48)
7 Key Tips for your next styled shoot (39:41)
Mentioned in this Episode:
Tune in to any of the episodes from the Amplify Your Weddings Series!
The Greenhouse: Resource Garden
Review the Transcript:
Hey cutie, we did it. Thank you for listening and supporting my first ever series on this passion podcast, I have the honor of interviewing some of my favorite people and business experts. And I really hope you get the chance to meet each of these speakers in real life, if you’re just joining the party now, over the past several months, I’ve been dropping educational episodes and inspiring interviews to help you build your confidence as a wedding photographer, and to help your business grow organically. I thought it’d be fun to share an episode recap to highlight each of the series and leave you with a quick key tip or takeaway. If you’re in the middle of a busy season, or just want the cliffnotes version. I get it. Sometimes we’re on the struggle bus and we just need the fun facts. As a reminder, I know you’re amazing and your heart is centered with creating an incredible wedding experience for your couples and their families. I see you and I want to help you thrive. Welcome to Kiana Marie weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at Kiana murray.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party. Ready? Let’s go.
All right, so let’s kick off this series with episode number 25. Creating magnetic experiences. If you’re only relying on the quality of your images, you’re missing out, creating experiences helping your couples feel taken care of. And setting the tone for the day really helps reduce stress. This is the kickoff to the series helping you gain confidence. So when you roll in on wedding days, you feel prepared. I believe photographers dance with the responsibility of capturing things candidly, but also taking the initiative to spark moments as well. Tune into this episode to learn how you can create special moments, and maybe even some fun things that your couples weren’t expecting or anticipating on their wedding day, and how you can be a superhero throughout the entire wedding day experience. And before we move on to the next episode, I want to share this one key tip that I absolutely love doing every wedding I love creating a moment for either the flower girl or a niece or even maybe the little little ring bearer.
I love creating a dancing moment with a couple. So I say this because this is a moment that sometimes there’s some photos on Pinterest swirling around. But it’s just such a sweet moment that that little girl will forever remember slow dancing with her uncle on the wedding day or her soon to be uncle for example. And it’s just a great way, an example for you to spark these kinds of moments. So yes, we are absolutely there to just document the day and let things unfold naturally. But that’s a perfect example of a quick and very just special moment that you can add an add value to your couples experience on the wedding day. You have to tune in for more little tidbits like that. Number 26 is all about creating perfect timelines. This episode was created to help photographers educate their dream couples about creating the perfect timeline. Okay, yes, brides and grooms. If you’re listening, this will be very informative, but it’s directed for photographers to gain trust and set your wedding day up for success. The biggest key tip from this podcast is that people will associate their emotions with photographs. It’s like their feelings are being baked into the pictures. So even if brides spent literally a million dollars on their wedding, and love every detail, but if they feel rushed or flustered, they will most likely hate their photos. And those emotions, maybe even subconsciously will flood back. Happy people take pretty pictures, episode number 27 showcasing vendors. If you’re really stumped with expanding your network and desperate for new weddings on your calendar, this is the episode for you consider taking extra care of your vendors at your next wedding. The majority of my referrals come from trusted vendors, and I’m forever grateful and thankful for them. In this episode, I share a ton of ideas to help you connect, showcase and highlight vendors and venues.
Plus it’s also a great cheat sheet for when you need a creative boost for photographing details. Sometimes you feel stumped. Sometimes you kind of run out of those creative juices. This is a great episode to kind of kick those back up again and help you photograph with the vendors in mind. When in doubt shoot for your vendors while you were genuinely helping other businesses in turn or literally creating free marketing for our wedding photography business as well. So go listen to that one before your next wedding. Number 28 is all about amplifying your weddings with events. Have you ever considered hosting an event to help boost increase? In this episode, I introduce you to three different types of clients that you should consider celebrating. The best key tip from this episode is to remind yourself that everyone wants to feel connected and loved. One of the best events that I love to host every year is a date night out for my wedding couples. This is a great way to stay top of mind share your appreciation, snap anniversary photos, which is a total bonus and celebrate marriage. I’ve hosted country bar nights wine tasting and picnics in the park. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive or super fancy. This is just one example of the type of client to create events for tune in and listen to this episode to learn more about the two different types of clients you should be creating events for to help you boost your brand awareness. I will say this a million times over.
I am all about the long game and I love celebrating so episode 28 should be really fun to listen to and it may encourage you to check your calendar and potentially start hosting your next event. Number 29. Working with rowdy groomsmen, if working with handsome but or roughhousing groomsmen it makes you feel a little annoyed and maybe even roll your eyes. Consider the fact that capturing groomsmen portraits is one of the best and I literally say this with capital letters. It is one of the best marketing tools to capitalize during your wedding day. Now think about it. Most of these groomsmen have been in multiple weddings this year, or at least have attended a handful of weddings recently. They’ve worked with a ton of photographers and wedding vendors and you know they have their opinions. If you can win them over you’ll earn some crazy brownie points for future referrals for sure. With this episode, I break down a shortlist and gameplan to help set you up for success. The best key tip for this episode is to start groomsmen portraits with individual shots with the groom, like so with the groom and with each groomsmen, so I literally will just line them up, I’ll have the groom stand in one spot that has open shade, and it’s typically in a cooler spot. Typically I’ll have the groomsmen and all the other gentlemen kind of hanging out in the shade if possible, so they’re not in the hot sun.
And then I have them line up and go boom, boom, boom, each individually. Instead of starting with the group shot, I start with them in a line so they can see how quick and efficient I am. This gets them paying attention and asserts a bit of authority and confidence in your photography. Calm your nerves and create an incredible cheer squad with these gentlemen, that leaves the boys telling you that was it. Wow, that was so easy. So check out episode 29 for tons of key tips to help you work with rowdy groomsmen. I really love this episode. It’s a lot of fun. Episode number 30 is all about collecting reviews. This is a great episode to tune into. If you’re feeling like you’re getting a ton of praise while you’re hugging everyone to buy on the wedding night. But your inbox is hearing crickets, I created a whole blog post on how to write a review for my clients and may love it. The biggest takeaway from this episode is to remember that your clients want to support you and share their appreciation. Many just don’t know how to or need a boost to help get them started. Tune in for more key tips for collecting genuine and grateful reviews.
And where exactly to ask them to post it. I want to leave you with one key tip that I think is really important when you are sending your like your actual galleries. So when you’re delivering a gallery, whether it’s an engagement session, or a family shoot even or absolutely your wedding galleries, I always add a little sentence in the bottom. And this episode will go into way more detail about this. But I basically just leave them with a quick little reminder and say, Hey, I really hope that you take a moment to scroll through your photos. But please, please, please let me know that you receive them. And what this does is I can tell you like I don’t even have I don’t have the statistics or the exact numbers. But I would say about 80% of all of my clients that read that will send a quick response back and they share praise and they will literally tech or they’ll either text me or they’ll send an email response and say, oh my gosh, these are amazing. We love you. Thank you so much Kiana. This was the best day ever you capture a day so beautifully. It could be a great things we receive them can’t wait to look later. But oftentimes, it’s just like a sentence or two of praise. And honestly, they’re the best sound bites or best copy or reviews. So that’s just a little key tip that I want to share with you today if you don’t have time to listen to the entire episode, but you definitely should go back and listen to that one because it will literally change your life when it comes to requesting and kind of almost making a Mad Libs request for your couples. So people just don’t feel like it’s just creative writing and then they never ever write a review. All right, and number 31 is creating core memories.
This is another episode that breaks down sentimental moments that you can sprinkle into the wedding day to have your couples looking back at their photos and feel Being so in love and happy. My biggest fear personally is that couples will look back at their photos and think, Wow photographer was so creative or she was so artistic. And no, I want them to look back at their photos and not even see me only see how in love they are. One take away from this episode actually has nothing to do with your couple. It’s important to me to capture young families on wedding days as a core memory. I have a photograph of my mom, my dad and my brother and I that I love and I am forever grateful that the wedding photographer made us pause and take this picture, especially after the pandemic Lovato everyone is dressing up and feeling good. gain even more brand awareness and potentially book Future mini sessions or portrait shoots with these sweet families. That will be so grateful. And honestly, that is a picture sitting here on my desk that I just, it just means the world to me. So when I see young families today, you know, parents, with their children, parents with grandparents, and I see these, these families, my heart just goes back to that photo of my family and I want to recreate that for them. And they are so grateful. And don’t be weird about whipping out like their phone either. So if if they you can kind of see they’re struggling and maybe looking for someone to take a picture, take a professional photo to take that cell phone picture to it’s just just something I would do. All right. And number 32 is all about creating reels and tic TOCs.
I love this episode because I share a bundle of ideas to easily capture behind the scenes and video content to create evergreen content. Which if you’re not sure what evergreen means it just means that it just lives forever. And it makes sense. Yes, trends are fun that they can be so fleeting. Listen to this episode for a ton of easy, real and Tiktok ideas. Learn how to boost brand awareness, create genuine connection with vendors and highlight your favorite venues. The best key tip from this episode is that you don’t have to set up your tripod and dance in your kitchen. No shade. Even though dancing in a kitchen is my favorite thing to do. But you catch my drift. You’re already doing the hard work baby. Just record it and share it if I can live like give you one key tip for this entire episode for this entire podcast for like my entire existence as a photography educator and cheerleader. Just record what you’re doing. Okay.
I love creating reels that showcase an entire wedding day in less than 30 seconds. So No Go There is your key tip for this episode. Just whip out your phone literally record about three to five seconds throughout each kind of like checkpoint of the day. And then at the end of the day or later that week. throw together a cover photo with with a professional image from your day. And add some cute music that can be trendy music and that can be fun. And just show quick clips throughout the day your couples will adore it. vendors will be so thrilled to share it. It’ll just kind of create a little spark on you know, our local social media and that’s when you’re gonna get those referrals. They’re super easy, and they’re super impactful. Episode 33 We talk with Don Richardson and it’s all about preparing for tech fails. Let’s be honest, isn’t that your biggest fear? Can you imagine explaining to a bride? Oh, sorry, I don’t have any of your images because my external hard drive crashed. I would die.
I love this candid but educational conversation with one of my industry besties Dawn, she crushes your fears and geeks out on the best gear and system to keep our most valuable and prices work safe and archived. The biggest key tip from this chat is that it’s never too early to backup your backups as you continue to book more weddings which I know you will stay safe. This is totally just some big sister advice but I wouldn’t confidently shoot a wedding unless my camera has a double card reader as a backup. Don has an entire website and shop dedicated to helping you feel confident with your tech check out tech savvy creative today. Episode 34 is all about adding value with video with Giuliana with Mira Mira comb Have you considered adding video not just for behind the scenes but to increase your value and bottom line while you’re shooting weddings. My friend Jules is a talented hybrid videographer and photographer she shares a ton of education but honestly she should be charging for my biggest takeaway from this episode is that the only way you’re going to get better at something new is to simply start. Personally I’m always paralyzed by perfection but Jules encourages us to just try start capturing video without charging your next couples and just keep practicing. Soon you can increase your pricing and create epic videos for your weddings and business marketing. When you get a chance you have to check out Mira Mira CO on Instagram and Jules has the most adorable naturally lit beautiful studio I’m in Austin, Texas and I can’t wait to go visit one day. I’m secretly her biggest fan and I’m just so proud of all the work that she has been doing and capturing and creating for other small businesses too. So she’s another one that I you know, if you want to be friends with me if we’re friends in real life, you’re gonna love Jules steel, so go find her. All right, and number 35, creating an online shop with Brooke. Michelle.
Have you ever wanted to start an online shop and sell products, physical products, T shirts, coffee mugs or anything? I love this bright and fun conversation with my sweet friend Brooke. I met Brooke years ago at a hope Taylor workshop in Virginia. And we’ve been cheerleading and supporting each other’s businesses since I purchased Brookes DIY your merch shop guide and I’ve been working behind the scenes to get my own product shop up and running. It’s a great way to easily add an additional stream of income. Brooke has a brilliant idea for making a cute conversation starter with your T shirts, the perfect icebreakers to easily share more about your business. So if you’re ever thinking, gosh, you know, I want to meet new people and I want to talk to people about my business. But I don’t want to sound annoying or I don’t want to sound salesy. Well imagine if you had a super cute t that alluded to the fact that you were a wedding photographer, or that you were a photographer, or just something something cute and random. That would be the great icebreaker for someone else to come and just start asking you questions about your business. I mean, it’s truly a no brainer. And Brooke goes through this entire process on how she creates merchandise for not only photographers but for couples and especially bachelorette girls that are planning their fun batch weekend’s you have to check out this episode. It’s so fun. This is a combo that you need to add to your playlist and stockbroker on tick tock on Instagram. She’s so fun, bright and inspiring. Check out her shop today. She is under everything broke Michelle. Episode 36 is all about boosting Pinterest with Jen Vasquez. What if I told you Pinterest is so much more than just pretty squirrels.
Jen dumps a ton of knowledge marketing tips and education for photographers and small business owners to attract a ton of traffic through Pinterest. Start using Pinterest to grow your brand awareness instead of just saving recipes, no hate there. Those are fun. I do that literally every day. But if you’re not using Pinterest to actively grow your business, you’re missing out baby. Jen blew me away with her easy workflows. So Pinterest doesn’t have to feel like another thing to add to your plate. It can be fun and efficient, while creating magnetic content for your dream couples to find you. Jen also has a ton of education and offers the best Pinterest coaching to help you shine online. And then of course, just a quick key tip, when it comes to Pinterest is I actually learned this kind of like Pinterest hacking strategy from Jen, where she talked about that some of our pins can be so beautiful, right? They’re typically a little bit more of the pastel colors. They’re very wedding II bright and natural. And even if you’re in the more of the dark and moody vibes to there’s still a little bit I would say on the light side, right like natural colors, imagery of couples, but Jen had a great idea to kind of like shock the scroll a little bit and use kind of annoying colors. And when I say annoying, I don’t mean colors are annoying, but I mean like bright and vibrant. So use a black background with a neon, neon yellow or use a deep deep blue with a bright bright orange. Something that is just eye catching that doesn’t really look romantic and wedding because what that’s going to do is that’s going to help your pin stand out amongst other pins.
Now, this isn’t something that needs to be branded to you, right this is literally just a strategy to sprinkle in some of these pins. So it literally is an eye catcher for others with really great font and imagery that makes your dream couples identifiable like they can actually see that and makes them want to click for more. So anyway, that was just a fun key tip that I couldn’t go without sharing that with you. All right, and episode 37 is all about creating a vibe with Kim Baker. Kim is a talented makeup and hair stylist that I love sharing about in this episode Kim shares her secrets for creating a chill and calm environment for wedding mornings. Getting ready moments can be chaotic, but they truly set the tone for the day. Tune into this episode to learn how to make your clients feel well taken care of and loved before their wedding day. I’m all about good vibes and good energy. And one thing that I love about Kim is she invest a lot of her time and energy and her expertise in her clients prior to her wedding day. And think about it that makes sense right because she is working with people’s again. And wouldn’t it be amazing for a makeup artist to I mean year in advance, if not six months in advance before the wedding day to create a morning routine and a night routine, with the right products and just healthy habits to remind her brides to prepare for. So the day of she has this beautiful canvas of skin and her clients already without even you know, starting their wedding day know that they’re in good hands with Kim before she even pulls out one makeup brush the day of their wedding, they already feel like they have a friend and Kim.
They know that she’s an expert. So even though this is a whole series for wedding photographers, I had to slip Kim in here and just introduce you to Kim Baker, because she truly is a dear friend that I’m just inspired by. And she is just all over Instagram, she is truly truly a marketing queen. And I love that when I work with her on wedding mornings, I feel calm. And what’s funny, and I can go on a rant about this, but I have an energy that when I walk in like I can. I can kind of control things with my vibes and my energy, but it’s so refreshing to walk into a room and already have those calm feelings and those calm bytes. So if that sounds like something that maybe you struggle with, or you relate to in any way, Episode 37 Creating a vibe with Ken Baker is for you. So go check that out.
Hey, buddy photographers, after sharing sneak peeks Do you hear crickets? Now I’m talking about after a wedding day where you completely blew away the wedding experience. As soon as you were packing up, you knew that the bridesmaids and wedding guests were raving about you and excited to work with you again. But where are those emails? Where are those inquiries? And where are those booking contracts to make sure that you are secured for the next wedding? Well, what if I told you it was as simple as whipping out your phone, capturing a handful of behind the scenes videos and sharing them online. I have a free guide for you. It’s all about quick and easy ways to capture those behind the scenes videos for organic referrals, local followers, and building genuine brand awareness. Okay, this is a fun guide that you absolutely have to download today so you can look over and steady before your next wedding. Because let’s be honest, wouldn’t it be incredible if you can book your next wedding while working your next wedding. Run don’t walk to grab this free guide called Book More wedding. Capturing behind the scenes to help boost easy referrals. You can find this link in the show notes are also on my Instagram in my lead page. Hurry, hurry, hurry, you’re going to want this to start booking more dream weddings.
Episode 38 is storytelling with Akua. Once again, if you’re only depending on the quality of your photos to sell your business, you’re missing out Bob Akua shares how we can make a deep impact, create buzz and sell our work through stories. People connect to stories. If you’re feeling boring, and not too sure how to tell your own story. Or maybe you’re always feeling stumped with captions and typing a blog post about your couples. Listen to this episode, we chat about how you can pull a story out of literally anything. I love it Akua teaches us how to break our story into pieces so we don’t feel like a broken record. Follow along with Akula and listen to her adorable and impactful podcast. Here’s the T for more inspirational and inspiring stories. One key tip that I loved about this episode was the fact that she can like I said she can literally pull a story out of anything. And I love that reminder that even when we feel boring, even when we feel like we have nothing exciting to share. Or maybe if if we’re lucky, we may not have a trauma, right.
I feel like most stories have to deal with some trauma. And although I’m sure all of us underlining, have experienced some crazy stuff in our past and those wounds are now scars that we can share about and that we can maybe you know inspire or just help others feel understood. That is That’s powerful. But this is a reminder and we really we go into depth about this that sometimes our stories don’t have to be dramatic. They can be fun, and they can be light hearted and they can be inspiring in the best way. So if you need help with some storytelling, and some coming up with some cool stuff to say about your pictures and stuff, definitely check out episode number 38 with a cooler. Episode 39 is all about outsourcing your editing with Alisa McCormick. Are you drowning in edits and spending your life behind your laptop? If I remember right you pursued photography and creating your own business so you can live life on your own terms. Make your own schedule and Create a life you love. So why are your eyes going cross eyed and you keep missing out on family memories with your favorite humans? Elisa, my own personal real human photography editor breaks down the fears about sourcing. I love that we chat about the transition, but between maintaining to growing your business. And this is really important because I feel after a certain point in your writing photography, you are kind of stuck, like you almost kind of create this plateau for yourself.
And I’m only speaking from experience, where if you’re bogged down by sitting behind your laptop, or behind your computer for hours and hours during the week trying to complete these edits and get them done on time. How are you making time to market and grow and amplify your business? Right? So this is a great conversation to kind of crush those fears. And you know, I even kind of share my timeline with you in this episode about how I started releasing weddings and how it is completely impacted my life. The second half of this episode, Elisa shares about an incredible opportunity to begin your own editing business. So this was kind of like a double whammy, it totally could have been broken up into two episodes. But I love this because you can work as much or as little as you want to create an income from anywhere in the world, as long as you have Wi Fi. So check out her educational resources and her course to learn all about the ABCs of photo editing. I love Elisa and I’m so grateful for her. Honestly, if I didn’t have outsourcing. There’s no way I would even have this podcast. So if you love listening to this podcast, and you feel encouraged and you’ve learned at least one thing from the podcast from Kiana Maria weekly, you can think of Lisa because she has allowed me to have that freedom to play and to to have more time for this. So thank you, Lisa. Episode 40 is all about adding albums with Amanda rose. I was shocked to learn that my bestie Amanda rose added an additional $50,000 in sales in 2020. Okay, 2020 When everything flatlined, she was able to add an additional 50k I had to repeat that. This is the combo you need to bookmark and save for later if you’re looking to increase your profits without adding a ton more weddings to your calendar. Now don’t get me wrong. A lot of us are in that boat or we are desperate to book more weddings and to fill our calendar. But let’s say you’re sitting that already about 15 to 20 you booked and you’re thinking, Gosh, I don’t want to do more weddings. I just want to maximize and increase my profits for the wedding as I already have done. One key tip that blew me away for helping to book more weddings was when Amanda rose shared a secret for creating venue albums.
Now we’ve all heard of venue albums before, right? But this is what shocked me. She suggests going to your dream venue or requesting a tour because you can’t just show up. Okay, please don’t show up guys. Make sure that you make an appointment. And you pick a time of day that has beautiful light either go I would say like early, early morning or early afternoon and request a tour and asked to photograph your visit. Most of the time they’re going to be so cool about it they’ll be grateful. But it is important to ask so you don’t just show up, take those images and create an album to showcase a blank canvas for future couples to see the venue and location ideas. Okay, that was mind boggling to me because I always felt this resistance about creating albums for venues and less I’ve shot a wedding there. Don’t let that stop you babe Okay, so if you have a dream venue in your neighborhood, or I would say you know within your radius or even out of out of state if you are visiting someplace and you want to get into a new market out of state, this is a great opportunity to just go shoot and then create an album and I think honestly, I truly believe couples would actually prefer that because then they can create their own visions and they could see almost kind of like a blank canvas and like a blank slate for what they can have visions for their own wedding gift this album to the venue’s and they can place it in their office or in their showroom to help boost referrals and walk in increase to hit your inbox. This is such a brilliant idea for relocating and not having actual wedding photos there. Just keep your eyes peeled because aegs go to our my bestie Amanda rose will be releasing an album course and this is something that you don’t want to miss. So make sure you’re following AGS photo art on Instagram, and stay tuned for tons of education coming your way. Because this girl Amanda rose she’s got going on I love her so much.
Episode 41 We are almost there guys. We are cranking through these creating workflows and systems with Laura Murphy. We can be the most talented photographers with the best personalities But if your back office business is a hot mess, you’ll constantly be spinning your wheels. Laura is one of my photography besties and goes through an efficient workflow to help you cut your work week in half and basically use honey book to act as a part time admin assistant. Utilizing workflows creating email templates, and perfecting your client experience will help your business bloom. While your current clients are well taken care of. Laura also offers a ton of education products and courses to help keep your sanity. Check out Laura Lee creative for more details. One of my favorite parts of this episode is honestly just a realization that you can break down your workweek. So let’s say for example, you have 20 Weddings on the books and you’re near have a couple of question mark weddings that you’re hoping to book. Could you imagine every morning instead of freaking out about who needs what, who you know who needs to schedule their engagement session or you know, who needs their questionnaires and just email templates and stuff. Like if you can just go to your honey book page, and just look at your tasks for the day. And ignite a couple emails that are already triggered. So you don’t have to think about it.
You just have to hit send. Oh my gosh, that would literally turn your week, your workday from a five to six hour workday at your laptop to literally less than 10 minutes. 15 minutes. Maybe it’s just it’s just mind boggling. So check out Laura Murphy. She is another one of my besties who I met through the rising tide society. We met at one of the leaders retreats and I sat next to her at one of those breakout lunches and she has just been a bestie and an N and encouraged her ever since. So, like I said, once again, I’m telling you guys if you vibe with me and we’re friends in real life, or we would love to be friends in real life, these are the people that you would love to Episode 42 is all about building wealth with Aaron Bridgman. Once again, I know you started your business to create freedom, freedom to create your own schedule, live by your own rules, and most importantly, financial freedom. Erin has a background in wedding photography and pivoted into teaching small business owners about building wealth and knowing their numbers. Aaron believes that wealthy woman will change the world and I couldn’t agree more. Tune into this episode to learn about managing your chaotic income and creating wealthy habits. Erin also has a bunch of resources and offers coaching for photographers and creatives that need some help managing their numbers. Check her out on Instagram, she’s so fun has the cutest graphics and the most adorable little daughters.
I just love that she truly is an inspiration to remind us that we didn’t go into this as a hobby to just do it for fun. We can know our numbers and build wealth. And I just I just love this conversation with her. So you gotta check that out. Episode 43 rocking your next wedding fair booth, thinking of signing up for a wedding fair tune into this episode to help you feel prepared and consider giveaways that every couple will appreciate. Even if they already hired their dream photographer. I’m all about creating brand awareness and growing strong roots in your hometown. My favorite key tip from this episode is to keep an eye out for local neighborhood business or craft fairs that are typically affordable, like super affordable, and a great way to get your name out there and to meet more local families that will keep you in mind when looking for a photographer. So don’t get me wrong going after those big convention center status, wedding fairs and bridal expos. I mean, those are fun. And that is a great way to get out there and to meet other vendors, but don’t sleep on your local like holiday fairs, okay, and your local fundraisers in your neighborhood or even at your children’s schools show up to those career days. I mean, I am all about slow growth and deep roots. And that starts in your community that starts in your hometown. And, you know, sometimes I think there may be some pushback thinking, well, that’s not where my ideal client is, you know, my neighborhood isn’t full of the wealthiest people that I would actually want to work with and no judgment there. I totally understand if that’s kind of a resistance that you feel about signing up for a local vendor fair. But just remember, and I’ve always said this, everyone knows someone getting married everyone. So even if these aren’t your ideal clients, or maybe you’re showing up to a career day and you know for a fact that just by showing up with your booth and showing up with your canvases that you’re probably not going to book a wedding that day, I get it.
But once again, you are top of mind and you will create brand awareness and just local followers and encouragers that will be happy to support your business when the opportunity comes. Episode 44 FAQ for photographers do you You have a frequently asked question page on your website. Take some time to listen to this episode as I help break down a ton of questions to answer that your dream client may not even think about asking, share expertise and drop hints throughout the wedding experience. Plus, use this list of questions to crank out an endless supply of content ideas. My biggest key tip for the FAQ is to consider the things that keep your brides up at night. For example, what happens if I the photographer wakes up sick on the wedding day? What are my COVID policies? How do I create their semi custom wedding album? And what does that even mean? I love being two to three steps ahead of my clients. So grab the free guide in the show notes on the episode on this blog. So check out if you go to my blog and check out episode 44 FAQ for photographers. I have a free download where I literally list out I type out all the questions mentioned in this episode to help you start cranking out content and answering these questions right away.
In this episode I break down how you can take one frequently asked question and turn it into a YouTube video an Insta story turned into a highlight. Turn it into an email template. You can turn it into a real or tick tock literally the possibilities are endless. But this is just a great Kickstarter for you. Episode 45 How to Answer story your next wedding. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I go crazy over Insta story in weddings? Do I like showing off my weddings? Well, yes, but most importantly, I love gaining local loyal followers, building brand awareness and making genuine friendships with local vendors and dream venue coordinators. In this episode I give you a crash course on what to record how to easily capture behind the scenes videos on your phone. So it’s really that easy, and how to strategize, posting it need more support. With this I have a mini course created just for you. Check out amplify your weddings to learn how to book your next wedding while working your next wedding head to Kiana marie.com/shop to check out the greenhouse, your resource garden packed with guides templates, freebies and education to help your business bloom. My biggest key tip from this episode is once again as a reminder, I will say this over and over and over again. You are already doing the hard work baby. You were already hustling creating a wedding experience that your couples are just so grateful to have you as a photographer, but people online and people that are searching for you need to be able to see that.
Okay, do not limit your marketing to just wedding days. Let’s amplify it and let’s go big and just create a ripple effect that people will literally just start searching for you and create that magnetic content. Episode 46 creating a more inclusive and LGBTQ friendly business with Ty Z Wilson. Many of us are turning away dream clients and not even realizing it. Can you imagine? What if it was just a tiny tweak to our website copy and online presence that we can make a huge impact by helping others feel welcome and accepted. Ty is one of my industry besties that I met at a show at United and I can’t imagine my life without him now, I asked some juicy questions that you may be thinking but too nervous to ask. The biggest key tip from this conversation is that we may all be very different individuals, but we each just want to feel loved and accepted. Listen to this episode to help your business reflect those values online. Ty has a great LGBTQ glossary on his website to help you feel more confident with terms and identities. And just all those questions that may be lingering about being more inclusive. Go check out Tyrese Wilson, you can follow them on Instagram. It’ll lead you to his website and go grab that download today. Episode 47, blogging and SEO with Vanessa Hicks. No baby blogging is not dead and Vanessa is here to bring blogs back to life. Vanessa Hicks is another bestie that I met through the rising tide society when she lived in Monterey, California and I was in San Jose, California. Since then Vanessa has lived in Hawaii moved her business multiple times around the country as a military family. So she knows her SEO and she is so generous to teach us her secrets. I was shocked to learn the lifetime of a blog post averages seven years over an Instagram post that lives for about 72 hours if we’re lucky.
I love this conversation and encourage you to stop scrolling Instagram and start creating blogs that your dream clients are praying to find. Let’s show up online and help Google find us. Episode 48 This is the last episode of the series seven key tips for your next style shoot. After over 15 years of attending styled shoots around the world and hosting my own styled shoots. I’ve learned a lot and I can’t wait for you to hear this one. My boy SR voice comes out on this one for sure. The number one key tip from this episode is that most photographers think styled shoots are just fake weddings that help your website look prettier. When in reality if you maximize your efforts at your next style shoot you can walk away with new photographer besties literally you feel like this is a competition you feel like people are you know, these butts are in your way and elbows are in your way and you know, some people may actually annoy you. But if you’re kind I promise that those photographers will literally be your next best friends and may even help you with referrals when they’re booked for wedding dates, right? You can share referrals. It’s awesome. That’s also a great way for you to build genuine friendships with vendors and to get your foot in the door with Dream venues. Before Your Next style shoot. Make sure you give this episode a listen.
If you need more support and education with photography, check out the greenhouse every season. I keep adding more products and love helping your business grow through every season. If you’re still here, thanks so much for listening and joining my first ever complete series on the podcast. I am so excited. I can’t wait to see your growth and watch you shine online. I know you’re already providing an excellent in person experience. Now we just need to help amplify your weddings. Cheers to attracting dream clients that feed us when a couple eats and drop our names as soon as our besties are engaged. This is a wrap on a series but stay tuned for next week’s episode with a big announcement and big reveal. This is a celebration and kick off just the thing I’ve been working on for years. Honestly years I’ve been dragging my feet and I cannot wait to share more. Always in forever cheering for you baby. Keep dancing. Love you.
That’s a wrap on another episode of Kiana Murray weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at Kiana murray.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing.
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