Are you ending the year strong, making tons of connections and getting inspired for what’s to come? Or are you taking the more restful route, doing less in your business and filling your cup instead? Now is the time to evaluate your end-of-year goals and decide which path is best for you. In today’s episode, I’m breaking down three content hacks that will help you to feel fulfilled and rested while still making an impact in your business.
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:
Three Content Buckets For The End Of The Year (5:57)
Thankful And Grateful (6:36)
Black Friday Sales (9:04)
Holiday Cheer (13:07)
No New Content (15:27)
Mentioned In This Episode:
Review the Transcript:
Do you feel like you’re at a fork in the road right now? Now I’m all about my visuals. So I’d love for us to all be in a car right now, coming to a fork in the road. Now, literally, I want you to pretend that we are in this pretend car. We are on our way for a road trip.
And we come to like, we’re on our way to this unknown destination with our besties. Before we even begin, I want to share we’re safe. Okay, so like nobody, this is not like a kidnapping hostage situation. But we have all the right gear packed in our luggage, we have the right shoes, and even the outfits we would need with plenty of snacks for this weekend adventure. Now there’s three friends in the car with us. And I want you to go ahead, please close your eyes.
If you’re actually driving in real life, do not close your eyes. But if you can, please just close your eyes for a quick second, I want you to actually visualize those three besties that are in the car with you. Okay, and actually, I want you to go ahead and think about where they’ll be seated in the car. Like, you know how you have certain friends that always ride shotgun, or friends that maybe just kind of sit in the back and they don’t care. And there was always a designated driver. That’s the one that always drives right. So why do you think of those friends?
I also want you to think to Yes, who’s in the car? Who specifically is with you? Is it your sister? Your best friend from high school? Is it your business? Besties since we’re totally pretending here, I think it’s totally okay to pretend that some of your besties that maybe live across the country or even out of this country are with us now. Okay, so I want you to pretend that there’s about four of us driving in this car. Now. I get it this logistically doesn’t even sound real like your your mind and your body is going this is so dumb. No way. Could there be a car full of ladies in this vehicle ready to go on this adventure?
Not knowing where they are, and yet they have everything packed. Okay, it’s totally just a game. So, I just want you to pretend that we are on the road and we are going to this unknown destination. Now we come to this fork in the road and need to make a decision. If we decide to turn right. This path leads to a manifesting event with shiny outfits. Powerful mentors and encouraging coaches. Taking this right turn will power through the end of the year with big sales hustle.
Closing out these last couple of months with grit and power. I’m talking about like, whoo, you’re waking up early to crush your goals. You are crunching your numbers you are creating new offers. You’re repurposing your past offers maybe making some bundles for Black Friday. Like there’s just so much power going on that it is paving the way for next year.
This weekend will be crushed with opportunities, tons of expansion and new connections to help you reach your end of the year goals. Okay, so remember that so if we turn right on this imaginary path or this road. Now, if we collectively decide to take the road on the left, this road leads to a cabin nestled beneath the tall trees near Lake in the mountains.
Everyone has their own lavish bedroom with plenty of nooks for reading a gorgeous kitchen for cooking and baking, and even a hot tub to sip some wine and relax with a huge, huge, comfortable couch for movie nights with cozy blankets.
There’s literally no schedule to worry about. You’re completely kid free. And we only have to worry about is what bag salad we’re making for lunch, or which wine to pair with cheese before our little happy hour in the evening. Right? This weekend adventure will leave us feeling refreshed, relaxed and rejuvenated. So what are you going to pick? The catch is is that everyone must agree which way to go.
Or maybe win by a vote. Now let me ask you, are you second guessing which besties you selected to have in your pretend car earlier? Because literally that would be me thinking oh gosh, I want both of these. I don’t I do I want both?
I can’t decide. Okay, so why am I making you choose? Well, now is the best time ever to evaluate our end of the year goals. I challenge you to not think of these goals as checkpoints to check off your list or using them to increase your sales or simply to do more, do more, do more. Maybe the answer to your prayers this season is to simply do less.
In today’s episode, we’re going to break down to the end of the year lazy content hacks to help you feel fulfilled and rested while still making an impact with your business and creating deeper connections with clients, family and friends.
I’ll be sharing my own personal detox and how I’m entering a business identity shift and what all be doing to still share my heart without feeling empty and burnt out. Like I feel like there’s a magic medium where we can do a little bit of both. Maybe it’s one at a time. time turning right towards those like powerhouse women just making things happen versus going to the left or it’s a little bit more slow growth rest and love and grace. Right.
So, buckle up, buttercup. Let’s in it. We’re in it for a really fun ride. Let’s get this episode started. Welcome to Quianna 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 QuiannaMarie.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 loves though.
Let’s break down the three content buckets for the end of the year. Now please note that within each of these buckets, we can literally capture a million photos, intentional videos, and easy behind the scenes video clips, which can then be shared to any platform that you desire. Right?
I’m talking about YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram threads, tick tock Facebook, your email list, your website, even your blog, the possibilities are endless. So I hope that you kind of can go through this checklist here with these buckets to help you generate ideas that not only take less time, but more importantly make you feel better and impactful with your limited time. All right, so let’s dive into the first one which is just a quick blanket statement literally blanket thankful and grateful.
Now is the perfect time to plan a shoot with a professional photographer or invest in a tripod to take your own cozy photos. I challenge you to pull out your leggings and soft sweaters, jammies and loungewear.
For this one, I suggest creating short video clips of you reading, typing on your laptop baking, going for a stroll in the park with your dog decorating for fall or doing anything that feels cozy and cuddly for this season. Even if you’re in Arizona and it’s still hot. It’s really fun to pretend that it’s cozy and chilly. As we roll into this season.
If you’re tapping into affiliate marketing, this would be a great opportunity to share book recommendations, the tools you use for your business reshare your own offers and share your own end of the year traditions. I personally love sending snail mail, sharing a thoughtful card or postcard to send it the mail for my current and past clients brings me so much joy. It’s literally my favorite. I have a whole snail mail kit in the greenhouse.
The resource garden for photographers and entrepreneurs are waiting just for you. This snail mail kit includes easy drag and drop Canva templates to create postcards, cards, return mailing address, stickers, and so much more. I love sending these around Thanksgiving to share how thankful I am for their business, and even keep a stack to share any time of the year.
I even include a postcard template that shares a quick list of five reasons why you’re resilient, right? And that could be like why your Blink, why your loved why I’m grateful for you, right? There’s so many different words or ways that you can share your your grace and Your thankfulness for your clients.
And they’re completely editable. So you can change all the details, swap out the fonts, swap out the photos, swap out the words, check out the shop at QuiannaMarie.com/shop. To learn more about this snail mail kit, grab it today. And you can literally have it completed.
I use all my prints through like I create them through the digital template through Canva. And then I actually just print them through Vistaprint. And they come to my house literally within five or six days. It’s really really fast. But the time I just decided to do it, and then you can send them off right before Thanksgiving or anytime this season. Okay, so let’s roll into the next content bucket of super easy, lazy hacks that you can start creating content today for Black Friday sales.
Okay, so the earlier you can plan for Black Friday sales, the better. I’ve seen businesses scramble to offer new offers like literally creating things out of thin air, just to meet like to make that hustle before that Black Friday and then that Cyber Monday deal. And honestly, I’ve also seen really great companies just bundle their existing products together and sell that for like literally a lazy girl hack. So they’re not in this hustle to create something new.
They’re just offering some discounted prices for things that have been bundled together. Now, I challenge you to make a game plan for your Black Friday offers and if you don’t have anything to sell online yet, right or maybe that’s not even your wheelhouse or something you’re not considering I’d consider creating a favorites list to boost your affiliate sales. Those and connect with other like other core course creators, coaches online stores that may be offering affiliate sales when you share their courses or digital products.
So I mean, if you have an Amazon storefront, this is the best time to create a favorites list, right? Like, I can already think of a million things like Black Friday sales for your favorite photographer, Black Friday sales for your favorite mama on the go, right, or for the sister that has everything, here’s a list of my favorites. And these can be everything from $25 guests to 50 your guests to big ticket items. This is your time to be creative and kind of lean in to other affiliate sales opportunities that are outside of your business.
Think of the things that you can promote or share just by simply sharing a blog post or sharing an Instagram post or even a story or a tick tock make it fun. And ask people to ask you for that link. And you can send that and that’s a great way to kind of boost in sales. Now, to be perfectly honest, I am not making a ton in affiliate sales yet, like I am growing and I am increasing those numbers every month. But it does take time. So it is a slow growth situation.
But if you’re kind of desperate thinking, Well, I gotta do something, right, creating this one, affiliate sales can really go a long way. But I also want to remind you on that same breath is that you don’t have to, okay, so if you’re thinking, Gosh, I I’m just too late to the game here. I don’t have anything planned. And this time is just creeping up on you. It’s okay to take a deep breath and literally take a nap. Okay, there’s truly no need to do what everyone else is doing unless you feel aligned and confident with your sales strategy. Right. So a couple things that I would do for some Black Friday sales that are Black Friday II, but also not actually sales are some educational content right now is a great time, especially if you’re a photographer planning for engagement season. It’s just, it’s here, right?
I feel like people get engaged all year round. But there’s something about that time that between November and about, like basically Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day that a lot of rings are popping up on our feeds, right. And so now’s a good time to share educational content to why you are the expert, right? Sharing your past work being really intentional about what you’re sharing. So you’re top of mind, okay, we don’t want to get lost in the shuffle of only sales during this time.
We also want to be a breath of fresh air that sharing inspiration and really fun engagement for our couples that are planning to get engaged. Same thing for realtors and in their homes. Right. I mean, now’s a great time to really showcase Hey, if you decided to put an offer on a home by November 15, by December 15, we could have escrow closed, and you can be in your home by Christmas, right?
These are the types of things that we need to start generating these content ideas for and then having a bank of content at your next shoot to easily create this right. So that’s kind of the wrap up for Black Friday sales. Let’s roll into the next one. All right, so I have holiday cheer for the last content bucket here and call me crazy, but I actually love wrapping gifts.
I love picking cute and neutral paper to wrap for photoshoots like literally I’m the goofy one taking photos in my living room with an empty doTERRA and Amazon box and I think that’s hilarious because the doTERRA boxes I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, that company with essential oils but they have the perfect square boxes. I don’t know I just love them so much. They’re perfect for gifts and wrapping presents. And all my family thinks they’re getting like a diffuser, but then they opened it up and obviously it’s just like another gift we use that box for but they’re great.
And of course Amazon boxes are those great rectangular boxes. We all know that Amazon ships things like in a huger box unnecessary so I think those are really fun to pretend wrap. Now while everyone is busy buying last minute gifts, you’ll be so happy that you already have a content bank filled with photos and behind the scenes videos to share without staring at your phone trying to come up with something to post you could dress up in heels and have like this like super super cute velvet dress or keep it casual with cute Christmas pajamas right like there’s just like I feel like there’s just no in between like you’re either like on your way to this ball or gala wearing this like gorgeous like Christmassy vibe December, kind of like holiday cheer fancy look or you’re literally in your matching pajamas with your kids and your nieces and nephews like that’s just like so fun to me, right?
These are fun shoots that you can start planning for now. And you don’t need to be in a cabin in the woods in the snow to have the same shoots right. There are so many local studios and so many incredible, credible photographers that will have referrals for you that you can take these like Wonderland photos In studios, right or even in your own home, if you’re one of those that gets your tree up real fast, I highly encourage you to take some really cozy photos in your own home.
The shoots are perfect for now. And then you can even pop champagne and a sparkly dress to have in your vault to post for New Year’s. Okay, so this is the time to start doing these now. Okay, before December even rolls around, and we get in the thick of this end of the year, hustle and bustle, as a challenge, an extra bonus, I challenge you to not come up with any new content. Now I know this sounds ridiculous, because I literally just gave us three reasons and three big buckets to create just a buttload of content as a wrap up the year.
But on a side note, or kind of I should say like, as we’re wrapping up this conversation, I’m not even joking, when I say please be very intentional about going back into your archives, and actually sharing or resharing stuff that you all ready, have, if you’ve been following closely to Quianna Marie Weekly, and to this podcast and to all the stuff that I have popping up on social media, you know that I’m always encouraging you to literally whip out your phone and record what you’re already doing.
Right, we need to get out of this like creating mode and more than just capturing mode, because they’ve you’re already doing the hard work, right, you’re already showing up, you’re already creating these incredible client experiences, we just need to see it now. Especially this time of year, when people are busy and kind of doing their own things and filling in their calendar was stuff.
If you don’t have time to squeeze any like any extra photo shoot into your calendar this season, now’s a great time to go back through your old staff and create new content without creating new content.
Okay, that sounds confusing. I’m sorry, but I think you know what I mean, right? Like, we’re not actually recording new things, or just kind of crazy creating compilations of past videos and photos that we can share. And I even encourage you to go back to some old posts, and not just reshare them. So like I, I highly encourage you not to just like scroll down and then hit the little airplane to reshare. But actually download that video and repost it.
It feels brand new to the platform, right. And then Instagram can be kind of sneaky, where they’re thinking, Oh, she just grabbed this video from maybe tic toc or from another platform and then threw it up. But I highly encourage you to maybe like add a different song or maybe add a little bit of a text bubble or something.
Just a little edit here in there, add a sticker or something fun, just so it looks brand new to the platform. Okay, I truly believe that you’ll get better engagement with that. Okay, so with a little planning now we can roll into this season feeling prepared with a content bank ready to serve you and your dream clients without the hustle and bustle of this crazy season.
Personally, I think it’s possible to do a little bit of both. On one hand, I love to be in the room with powerful business owners, entrepreneurs and dreamers. And on the other hand, my body, soul and mind are craving slow mornings, with coffee, baking and dancing in the kitchen and experiencing a hibernating season just like the bears. But I’d love to know which road you would choose today. And for this next season, before we hit the end of the year.
What does your soul need? Ask yourself what matters most to you? How do you want to spend your days? What fills your cup? Literally? Is it tea, coffee, water or your favorite cocktail? And what emotionally fills your cup? Where are you leaking? Where are you draining your energy and spinning your wheels. I hope you found this episode encouraging with a handful of ideas to start preparing for the end of the year.
Personally, I’m experiencing an identity shift that will leave me healing from limiting beliefs, growing through some growing pains and refining my offers and what I’m shooting these days. Over the last 20 years of my business. I’ve been photographing families weddings, boudoir, cake, smashes proposals, branding for businesses, products and everything in between.
Heck, I’ve even photographed a couple of funerals. I’m not joking. I’m forever grateful for each of these experiences and working hard behind the scenes to develop education workshops and digital courses to share my heart knowledge and experiences to help you build a business that you’re not only proud of, but a business that has deep roots to last for generations.
No matter which way you turn on the path ahead. It’ll be the best decision to lean into your intuition. Trust your gut and find grace with your faith. This is your reminder to turn off your GPS and just drive drive towards new opportunities that feel right and you’ll never be left behind. I’m sending you so much love and grace from Arizona. Today’s episode is brought to you by the green house the resource garden for photographers and entrepreneurs. Make sure to check out this digital shop over growing with digital products, free guides, templates, and mini courses to help your business thrive.
Thanks so much for listening and sharing this episode with a friend that desperately needs some lazy girl content hacks and needs her voice and message to be shared!
If you liked this episode, be sure to check out episode number 87 Crush Your Content At Your Next Brand Shoot on Quianna Marie Weekly. This episode is packed with ideas to not only plan your next shoot, but to maximize your content creation before during and after your shoot. I’m forever cheering for you babe and keep on dancing and I can’t wait to chat soon next week. Okay, love you. Bye. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie 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’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancin.
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