Ready to build a business that prioritizes your peace and profit? In today’s episode, I’m continuing my mindset series and welcoming back educator and business strategist, Jamie Fisher. Jamie is diving deep into tips for better time management, stepping into education, and designing your business to make the most of your precious time. 

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.

Make sure you’ve hit that follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast player to get notified each week as we air new episodes!

Subscribe on Your Favorite Podcast Player

Apple Podcast App | Spotify | Amazon

Connect with Quianna

Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Pinterest

Today’s episode is brought to you by The Green House, my resource garden for photographers! Let me help you AMPLIFY your heart online and in real life to turn bridesmaids into future brides through templates, workshops, and freebies!

Review The Show Notes:

Booking More Clients Does Not Equal More Profit (6:20)

Pricing That Is Profitable And Sustainable (8:18)

Reverse-Engineering Your Time And Pricing (11:43)

Preparing Your Business With Strategies For Growth (17:50)

Setting Up Your Systems For Success (20:52)

From Employee To CEO-Level Time Management (27:47)

Getting Started With Outsourcing (30:02)

Adding An Education Side To Your Business (34:56)

Proving Your Authority To Yourself (39:53)

What’s Your Time Suck? (45:20)

Key Tip From Jamie (49:54)

Connect With Jamie:

Quiz: jamiefishercollective.com/time-suck

Website: jamiefishercollective.com

Instagram: instagram.com/jamiefishercollective

Episode 163: Building Community For Your Brand

Review the Transcript:

Quianna: Welcome to another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly. If you’re new here and tuning in for the first time, welcome. Pull up a chair or make sure your earbuds are fully charged. I’m so happy you’re here, and if you’re an OG and have been tuning in for a while, welcome back. I love you so much. One question I get all the time is how do I get asked to speak on stage?

How do I find online summits to present or be included in the lineup of guest speakers? Or another one that I get often in the dms or even in person, how do I become well known in my industry? The quick response is simply to show up online, prove your value, and continue doing what aligns yourself as the expert.

The more you do something, the more you become known for something locally in your market, and then add fuel to that by investing in your education. Travel for conferences and tap into its many networks and communities as possible. It’s up to you to decide what you wanna be known for and then going out and doing it.

Literally. It’s that simple. Of course we know it takes work. Lots of experiences and lots of trial and errors to find your niche and carve your reputation into your industry. As many of our service-based businesses continue to grow, many of us are exploring speaking opportunities, kick-starting online businesses, developing courses, and online education and mentoring.

Literally, the list goes on. A lot of us are experiencing growth and pivots with all of these business opportunities coming our way. Our time is evaporating into thin air. And if I’m being really honest over here, our time is lost to scrolling and juggling our busy lives. In addition to maintaining a thriving business while learning new hard things and pursuing basically another business within the business, right?

Those who get it, get it. Those who don’t, it’s coming. Today I have the honor of introducing you to the Queen of the Clock, Jamie Fisher. I connected with Jamie through mutual friends and the opportunity to speak on stage at a conference, which led me to the opportunity to join her recent retreat as an educator.

I can’t wait to connect the dots for you on that one. So stay tuned to the end of this episode when we share how we connected and became instant forever. Friends and soul sisters. Jamie Fisher is a legacy driven entrepreneur, passionate about preserving stories and helping creatives build a business of more, more impact, more alignment, more time freedom.

Literally all of my favorite things, and I’m sure those sound good to you too. As a photographer, she captures the fleeting moments of families ensuring their legacies live on for generations and specializes in multimedia sessions. Just telling me about the stories and family moments she’s captured has brought me to tears, and then seeing the videos, oh my gosh.

Like making me cry over strangers. It’s the happy tears that make your nose tickle with a pit in your throat. Kind of happy, sentimental tears, you know what I mean? Like the real ones. Through her work, she also supports the Alzheimer’s community, and now I lany down to sleep. Oh wait, there’s more. As an educator and business strategist, Jamie empowers creative entrepreneurs to build sustainable, profitable businesses that align with their values and long-term vision.

Through Jamie Fisher Collective, she provides coaching, education, and strategic guidance and financial forecasting, time management, and streamlined workflows, helping business owners step confidently into their CEO role without sacrificing what matters most. As a conference host, Jamie Co-leads Conquer Live a hands-on community-driven event designed to help photographers in their first five plus years of business overcome backend hurdles, strengthen their foundation and grow with clarity at the heart of it all.

Legacy, whether through the businesses she helps build or the stories she helps preserve. Jamie’s mission is to create lasting impact. I’m also happy to add that Jamie is a dear friend. An incredible mama softball coach and loves is being hot tea around the kitchen table. She’s the friend you only meet once, but feel like you’ve known for years.

Her soul is deep, her heart is kind, and she’s the biggest cheerleader for you and your business too. I love Jamie so much that she’s back on the podcast for a second time. After this episode, take a scroll back to episode number 1 68 Building Community with Jamie and Heather to hear even more about their Conquer community and their retreat.

Oh my gosh, we have so much to cover today. Today I’m stoked to chat more about time management, protecting your time to increase revenue, busting the myth that more bookings equals more profit. Pinpointing time suckers in our business, outsourcing and managing expectations, time and money as we expand and create new offers and step into education.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have tons of ideas and wish you could just clone yourself to tackle them all. I’m so thankful to get Jamie on the show to share some tangible strategies for prioritizing our best asset, our time. With a warm welcome. Let’s get Jamie on this show.

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. Sewed at kiana marie.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.

Hey, hey, hey. Welcome to the party, Jamie. It is such an honor to have you. Back on the show this time as a solo entrepreneur. Oh my goodness. How are you?

Jamie: Good. This is so exciting. I saw this on my calendar and I was like, oh, I get to be with Key today.

Quianna: Yes. Ah, best day ever. And I was feeling the same way. I know.

Every time I see you, I just feel, oh, just so invigorated. And I know we’re gonna get stuff done, but we’re also gonna have a lot of fun. So let’s dive into this first question, or really I should say a discussion. And I love, oh my gosh, Jamie. I love how you live by booking more clients does not equal more profit.

Booking More Clients Does Not Equal More Profit

So what does that mean for photographers and entrepreneurs where we sometimes get in this panic mode of, I just need to make more money, I just need to do more, and I will succeed, I will make more. So what exactly does that mean to you?

Jamie: Yeah, I, not that I love this so much, but it is like. Almost pre-programmed and conditioned into entrepreneurs before they ever make the decision of going into owning their business.

I feel like the idea of hard work and none of us are afraid of it, right? Or we wouldn’t be business owners. And so it is inherently in our brains of like, oh, we need to work harder. We need to work harder. It will come if we work harder. And so then that in turn changes to, you know, more clients equal more money, equal more success.

Pricing That Is Profitable And Sustainable

And honestly, in my experience, what I have seen is that just it kind of flips into more hours, more burnout, often less profit, because you’re just chasing, chasing, chasing. I think really like the first thing that I tell people just to stop and ask is, how many clients can I book? Like, how you need, you need to stop asking, you know, let’s, let’s just keep on going and more and more, more.

And let’s think about how much time and energy is it going to take. Do I actually want to spend. Booking these clients and fulfilling whatever the offers are, and then how much do I need to charge to make that work? So it’s a slight shift. Yes, you need clients, but it’s not always more, more, more, more.

Quianna: Yes. I love that shift and I love that you’re bringing this to the attention today for this conversation, we’re gonna be chatting all about time management pricing, and I feel like pricing has a big capital like letter experience where people just feel stuck or that’s what often leads to burnout. How can photographers ensure their pricing is profitable and sustainable?

I love that you said that word sustainable.

Jamie: Yeah. This is, um, I mean everything you think, you go into business to set up a business, right? And you very quickly realize that this business is just an extension of you, and it’s like this living, breathing thing. It flows both ways. So your energy into that business and whatever is built and whatever’s happening in that business also bleeds into your life.

And so when it comes to pricing and the income that is gonna be generated from that business, and inevitably allow you more freedom and more just impact that you can have in your life, in your family’s life, in your travel life, like whatever that looks like for you. You’re gonna want to really tailor that around a bigger picture than just what you want the business to look like.

Reverse-Engineering Your Time And Pricing

When it comes to pricing and making sure that’s sustainable, we wanna stay very, very far away from burnout. And underpricing yourself is a surefire way to be burnt out. When we’re thinking about what our offers are, we’re thinking how much time does it actually take to do this in a photographer’s standpoint?

It’s very quick to just say, oh, that’s an hour session. Oh, or That’s an eight hour wedding day, or whatever it may be. But that’s not all your time that you’re spending with that client. So very first thing we need to do is just open our minds and say, okay, from start to finish, how much time am I actually spending, you know, going through an executing this.

Then I like to look at that as a whole, that whole client journey. Then we’re looking at it in conjunction with our calendar and saying, you know, how much do I wanna bring home each month? How many of these clients can I actually serve well without burning out? And there you’ll find the balance, you know, if those numbers aren’t worth working.

Then it’s typically a pricing problem. And I say that with the caveat of like, your experience must match the value of your offer. So don’t take that as like, oh, I can charge whatever I want. It must match it. But I’m going under the assumption that I’m talking to people that are growing and constantly wanting to do better and serve better.

Quianna: Yes. Oh, I love this so much and I feel like sometimes. Like, I really wanna dig deeper into this reverse engineering that you’ve just kind of, you’ve kind of mentioned and kind of laid the groundwork for where we are aware, okay, these are X amount of clients that I wanna work with. This is the time allotted that I actually can commit to giving a client experience that I’m really proud of.

Right? Like, let’s start there. ’cause we do, we wanna make sure that we are allowing that time and even for ourselves too. So like you mentioned, you can add up these hours of the actual photo shoot exchange and you may, even if you’re a seasoned photographer, may even be calculating the actually editing time or I know we have tools to help speed that up today, which is fantastic.

I hope we can chat about that soon. I will say that we also need to have time in our schedule to enjoy life, right? Like we actually have to have time, like you mentioned, burnout, right? We can increase our prices. We have to make sure that we match that quality of the work. But if we get into this business for freedom, I.

Four choices to sustain and maybe even just add extra income for our families. We have to be able to look at our calendar with so much love and grace and schedule that accordingly. So can we work backwards? ’cause I do, I do feel, and I’m being totally transparent, I even do this today. I even look at other photographers and wonder, well what are they charging in New York?

What are they charging in Alabama right now? Right? Whatever. All across the world. So where can we begin with like this? Reverse engineering concept.

Jamie: Yeah. I love that you brought up about, you know, people charging differently based off of where they are too, because that all pricing is just such a bigger animal than slapping a price tag on something, right?

And saying, oh, this is what the direct cost is in front of me. You know, if there’s like tangible deliverables, that’s kind of easier to price because we do know how much it’s costing us, and then we can add in our time on top of that. But with a lot of service-based businesses. You know, we talked about the experience and so that’s going to be different no matter where, what location you’re in, the experience that you give is going to be different, and so because there’s nothing that we can just like follow.

It’s a must to reverse engineer this so that you have a business that doesn’t falter and go away after five years and you fall into that statistic. And so looking at this way pulled back, I always say that like Big red Xs are my, my BFFs. And so that is literally the first thing that I do. Even though pricing is established for me right now, I’m still constantly looking at that.

And so at the beginning of the year when I’m planning that big red marker comes out and I’m just putting X’s on my calendar, my family, and my time is going to come first. And so the income, you know, that I want to generate from the business is going to have to, it’s not. It’s not a, okay, we’re gonna let the business dictate, it’s going to have to fit in the time that I am giving it.

And so that’s really like. The first big step is you taking control of that and saying, I’m the CEO, I’m in charge of every little piece of this business and this business is going to work for me. But you can’t do that if you’re not intentional. And so the first time is, or the first step is blocking off your time and saying, we’re gonna fit this in, whatever it is.

So if we take a very tangible kind of play here and we say, okay, well I have like 10 weekends this fall, and that’s what I’m, what I’m photographing. Then you have 10 weekends to hit whatever your financial goal is. And when we see all of this is, I’m going off on like a little side note here. I love it, but I think it’s important because we see this a lot with social media fully booked.

I’m fully booked for, for the fall sold out. Like all of this stuff. What does that mean? It means something different to every single person. I just gave you the example of those 10 weekends. Another person could have 20, they could also have two. Like you have no idea. And so that’s where like, you know, just looking at what other people are doing, you don’t know unless you know the full backend of their business.

And also if you even want your life to mirror what they have, maybe they’re in a hustle season and you are not. It’s so different. So we take those, you know, 10 weekends available. We look at our client experience and then we say, okay, this is the price that we are gonna set with this offer. This is our goal where we need to hit, and this will.

X, Y, Z, whatever it needs to do. I think you talked about before, like intentionality with your business. It could be a full-time income. That scale is, you know, can be anything. If your business only needs to be able to take you and your family on vacation every year, that’s different too. If it takes care of, I don’t know, like private school or, or whatever, or you wanna go and get a vacation home.

So it all starts way back before you ever get to pricing as far as what you want your life to look like, and then how you want that business to support you.

Quianna: Oh, this is amazing. And I’m such a visual person, so I wanna revisit your big red X, like your big red marker. And I do, I wanna clarify. Let’s say I’m going through my calendar, and by the way, this doesn’t have to, this doesn’t have to happen on January 1st.

They can, this can be a reset, this could be a, just like a little. Update throughout the year, anytime of the year. I love this, but let’s say you’re going through your calendar and you’re marking off those Xs. Are those the days that you are working or that you’re saying that you’re committed to working?

Or are those your non-negotiable, non-working days? I just wanna make that clear.

Jamie: Yeah, correct. Non-negotiable. I am not working those days, so those will be, it could be specific days of the week. Um, when I started this, it was all because I did not, I was over working Sundays. I said, no more. We are not doing this.

And the only way I could ensure that, right, is if something was blocking it. And so I had automatic schedulers, you know, going out. I didn’t want that on there at all. But if I saw on my end, because I. I had a people pleasing problem. Um, if I saw on my end that like, oh, you really are available, then it couldn’t happen and so, or I’m sorry, it would, it would happen, you know, it would, I would be presented with that scenario and where I had to reestablish the boundary, so it also made it harder.

For me as a business owner, because number one in my head, I had already said no, right? It wasn’t on there, but I didn’t physically like write that big red X on there. So when it came in and it said, oh, I want a book, you know, such and such a day. Then I also had to again say, no. And depending on your personality, your values, like that can be really, really hard, especially in the creative world.

And so I am a huge proponent of like, let’s do it upfront and that’s it. Move on. Like you’ve already made that decision. We have other decisions we need to

Quianna: make. Yes. Oh yeah. Decision fatigue is a real thing and I’m so happy you said that. Oh my gosh. Okay, so let’s say we have those non-negotiable days.

They are off and then you have this just, let’s just say bucket of days that are left. Whether that for some people in certain parts of the country, especially for photography, that could be certain seasons, right? Like complete seasons are off the, off the board for even photos, right? Like so working within the days that you are allowed, what are some workflows or what are some systems or tools that we can implement in our business to maintain that pricing structure that we’re working towards?

Maintain our sanity. So we are prioritizing our family and all the good things that we really prioritize and got into business in the first place. And yeah, so like I would love to talk about those strategies and tools to actually make this work for you.

Jamie: I love that you said that, and I mean all of it points to you have to be ready for the growth before the growth happens.

We’re not gonna expect a garden to grow with just basic like soil and water. We need to tend to that area, like pull the grass, you know, put nutrients in the ground, like whatever it is that we need to do for that specific crop that we’re doing. And so same in your business too. You have to set your business up for the growth.

Otherwise, what happens is you have like an upside down business, right? Like people may love you and may really be connected to your offer and they’re pouring in and then here you are, well sorry, we’re on like audio as I’m juggling in the air, but here you are like, you know, you’re frantic just going from thing to thing to thing and oh, we can’t drop it.

Like all these people are coming in and that’s great. But you have no way to serve them. And so you know, you have to be ready for that growth. And so we look at systems to support the growth that’s happening. We look for systems to support, not the Jamie now, but the Jamie in five years. You know, that has a steady income or a steady stream of those inquiries.

And so that could look like automations in client onboarding. Those clear like boundaries and communication that we had talked about. One thing that you mentioned earlier that would be in here too, because you know those two things that I just mentioned are in almost the immediate, now these are like the soil and the water, but one of the things that you mentioned earlier was having that time on your calendar, that CEO time, and protecting that plus your rest.

So when I talk about CEO time, that is not client fulfillment. That is space to grow the business space for you to be the visionary. So if you have that plus rest. Oh my goodness. That is what is gonna set you up to flourish later.

Quianna: I love that. Yes. So where do we begin with a system? Like what does that look like?

Are we talking CRMs? Are we talking just, I mean really. I feel like the big umbrella or like the elephant in the room when this conversation is boundaries, right? So like first I feel like, okay, so I love a good checklist, so I feel like what you’re putting down is. Creating a list of things that literally help you feel successful, right?

Like what does success mean to you? What does that look like? I would love to just do a little recap here where we’re chatting, where it’s like, okay, we’re aware no matter what that number is. It could be, I’m just looking to make an extra thousand dollars a month for my family and at the end of the day, right?

Taxes aside, like that’s less than $20,000 a year, right? Like that’s insane. And maybe someone is thinking, no, I’m the breadwinner. I need to be clearing over a hundred KA year, maybe even 200 k with inflation this year. Right? That’s just insane. So after we have that like number, after, we’re aware of those non-negotiable dates and we are, we are prioritizing our rest, we are putting our family and all of our interests and hobbies first.

Then what’s next? Like how do we actually build that garden for our business?

Jamie: Yeah. So I think CRM is, is a non-negotiable. You need that, that is a very low cost employee for you. Totally. To handle all the clients that are, that are coming in and setting that up. I mean, CRMs now are so robust now that AI has infiltrated into all of our systems, basically, and making it a lot easier too.

To be able to execute just simple things. Like the very first thing is eliminating that back and forth, back and forth. You wanna make it such an easy! When they see what you’re offering and they’re like, I gotta have it. You gotta be able to give it to ’em, you know, so we don’t wanna make them jump through hoops.

And so setting up a CRM to be able to handle all of your clients, be able to give them the information that you are going to give every single person is a lot, is a lot easier. Just knowing that those people are handled and they don’t have to wait for you to be on the clock the next day. That is, I think, what is huge.

I know that if an inquiry comes in at 1:00 AM you know they’re going to get something. They’re gonna get a touch point. They’re gonna feel loved and served by me, and I will be dreaming. Yeah. But growth, um, growth without systems. Truly only magnifies the chaos that is there. And so we want to just put all of these things in place, have your calendar syncing up with a client onboarding system, and then we can, you know, get into more in depth tracking systems, you know, tracking leads and inquiries and making sure that something is always being out there as far as content goes.

But number one, CRM, something to handle, handle the people that you’re going to serve and increase your profit without needing more of your time.

Quianna: I, I love that. And I couldn’t agree more because when we don’t have that workflow, we don’t have that system. And I love that you mentioned it’s literally like an assistant for you. Like it’s the first step to outsourcing, I would suggest.

And it even adds so much to your client experience. I. It can increase your pricing, it could create more trust, right? Like more trust and, and just make the whole experience just so much better and smooth. And that’s what your clients want. They want fast action. And like you said, they wanna be able to buy it like they want to take action.

And the CRMs allow us to do that. So I really wanna chat more. Jamie, you are like the queen of the clock is like what I would like to call it. Like you are just like the time queen. I love it. You’re, and every time, sometimes we’ve never said that before. Yeah. I’m gonna

Jamie: make that feeling it. It’s going on the website.

Quianna: Yes, you are. And I’m serious because every time, and it’s so funny ’cause I feel like God always brings these little angels into my life exactly when I need them. And sometimes I’ll be busy working or. Or just kind of getting a little distracted. And I think if Jamie saw me, I don’t think she would be happy.

So, so with that in mind, I feel like I have that gift that was received from you, especially at your talk during Conquer Live, um, this January. So can we dive into, okay, we have the time now. We are putting our time into the CRM. Working on those workflows. We are prioritizing our clients, all the things.

Okay. So like, how do we not. Make our time just go down the drain. And how do we prioritize it for those revenue building tasks?

Jamie: Yes, that is key. That is key because once you’ve got your foundation set up, it then again, is so easy to just get your time sucked away and start doing tasks simply because you know how to do them.

And that doesn’t mean that you should be doing them. And so a good thing that I like to do still, this is I’m entering into, I’m at. 16 and a half, I think years in, and I’m still doing this right now on my computer. Toggle is running and it says that I am on a podcast right now. I love it. Like I know where my time is going.

Not to say that you have to do this all of the time, although I am on a streak and I am so proud of this, and if there were a badge that I could wear, like I truly would. Only because it has given me so much freedom and knowledge, and I have a constant knowing of where all of my time is going. But I am on almost two years straight of tracking my time and it’s, I think that’s crazy.

Quianna: That’s amazing. You do deserve a badge. I’m gonna send you a badge.

Jamie: But number one, you don’t have to be a crazy person like me. I would love if somebody would do it for, for 90 days. 30 days, I think is, that’s what, that’s what we do to, to create habit, right? So 30 days would be the goal. If you just track your time for a week, you would be amazed, amazed at where your time is actually going.

Number one, you start seeing yourself just become more efficient and working smarter just by the sheer fact of you have to tell somebody you know what you’re doing with your time. You’re writing it down, even though it’s just for you. It’s a lot harder for those people that have multiple tabs open on their computer.

It is so much harder to do that and flip to one tab to the next, because guess what? When you flip to that tab, you’re flipping to a new task. So you need to go back and you need to say, okay, my time has stopped and now we’re starting on this task. And so immediately that’s like the feedback that I, that I get from that immediately.

We are, we have positive momentum in that, but auditing your time is the best thing that you could do for yourself to see exactly where your time is going right now. And you talked about those non revenue generating tasks, right? You do not need to be in your inbox for an hour and a half every morning and looking for that to tell you what to do.

Like you are the business owner, you know what to do. And once you have, let’s just say, okay, you’re like, yep, I can do a week. That sounds great. We’re going to do that. We’re gonna track our time for a week. Then you can identify the gaps that is happening, whether it’s happening in your business or the gaps of time that are now being lost because you got stuck scrolling and you’re like, oh, ah, now I have to write that down.

Oh my goodness. Jamie’s gonna see that. I’m just kidding. You do not have to check in with me, but it will tell you. I, I’d like to think of it as this. I try to like remove myself from this when I’m looking at the reports of the time and I say, okay, if I were paying someone right now, and this is the report of what they’re doing with their time, would I be happy with that?

Doesn’t mean am I gonna be happy with the person. Of course, if they were scrolling on Instagram, you know, for an hour, sure. It’s am I making the most use out of this asset in my business? So that’s kind of what I’m looking for. And again, it all goes back to like, if your business isn’t built to support your life, it will quickly suffocate it.

And this is the perfect time, perfect way to figure out what’s happening inside of it.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. So what would you identify for a business that’s up and running and they maybe have really great systems. They’re, they’re running and now they’re ready to scale. So what does that look like from going from that kind of like employee vibe to the CEO energy of time management and actually allocating that time?

Right? So like maybe we can chat about outsourcing or like, what does that mean for you when it is time to scale and to really, really grow your business?

Jamie: It’s definitely a different, a different mindset, right? Because you’ve gone now to building a business that you’re proud of that’s up and running.

Inquiries are coming in, like on paper. It’s great, and you’re like, but I, it is time to grow. Like we have served this many people and I know we can create more impact. Then with that, you know, being able to have, have income that can go to bring on team members or outsourcing even more of that. So that you can just focus on whatever your zone of genius is.

It takes more systems and more tools. You’re either gonna have to support yourself and your time with systems or a person. So think about, you know, what makes sense. In that instance. But those are the two things that you’re going to need to decide, um, when you’re building a business. And so every time you have a new idea, because I don’t think any entrepreneur is short of ideas, right?

We’re only short of systems to support that. And so if you give me like a specific example we can workshop through like, okay, this would be for this or, or, you know, however you wanna do that.

Quianna: Yeah, no, I love this. I would love to kind of, almost kind of play with like two hands here, bringing back those little like invisible juggle balls here.

Let’s say someone is building a, a very sustainable business. Whether like, you know, photographers are going out, they’re shooting and they are maybe stepping into that educator space. Or there’s kind of dabbling into digital products and mini courses offers. So we’re kind of like straddling that line where business is good and it’s maintaining, and like you said, we’re ready for that impact.

Honestly, it feels like we are literally building another business side by side. So how does that work? What advice do you have for photographers and entrepreneurs? ’cause really any industry can align with these, these strategies. How do we go about maintaining what we’re having so we’re not like squashing something over here as we’re building something new?

What advice can you share about building both simultaneously?

Jamie: Yeah. I love that you said two separate businesses because it truly is, I. I don’t know what your own experience was in, in building your business, but what I have seen is that a safe, a safety net in my head of starting a new kind of leg of the business, right?

We’re not just offering like a new photography service. This is an entire kind of section of the business. In my brain, I am like, okay, I’m not going to expect truly any. Anything income-wise from this for two years, because we’re back in the building stage, like we’re starting over at baseline, we’re now getting to be known for something else, which takes time to build that trust and be able to bring that in.

And so any systems that can support you in that. My main one would be hand off anything you can for content creation. Because I would say that in that time period, you’re probably still creating your own content. So if you haven’t outsourced that, that would be like the next big thing. Outsource that, and that could be social media manager.

Sure. It also could be having somebody take over your blog so that your SEO doesn’t, you know, run out. It depends. The systems really depend on where your people are coming from in that other business. So where your traffic is coming from. Let’s say that this photographer gets everything from Instagram, then social media manager makes sense, right?

We don’t want those inquiries to dry up because we have systems to support them. Like we can handle it, but we can’t allow our reach to stop. And so anything that can support that, while more of your time is being allocated on this side will help immensely.

Quianna: Mm-hmm. Yes. I love this so much and I’m so, so happy that you shared that because I feel even back before, like personally when I started my business.

Before I even really took the leap to weddings full time, I, I was teaching preschool. I worked for a corporate job. I worked at Charter Joe’s. I used to work for the city of San Jose, which was my hometown, right? Like I used to do all this rec stuff and after school programs and summer camps. And I just remember realizing, hey, like this photography business, I cannot go full time in this and really take that leap of faith.

Until like the actual income balances out. Like you need that income safety net. And I feel like that kind of leaps forward into this next chapter where, well, it almost feels like for a lot of photographers that are starting to get into education, their photography business, like their baby business feels like a nine to five, right?

It feels like that. Like that’s like their solid, that’s their baby. They’ve grown it and they’re so proud of it and it’s still plugging along. And yet they’re ready to begin that next business. And I love, I’m so grateful that you shared that you gave yourself that grace of, you know, maybe you were, maybe money was trickling in, but it was going right back into the business, right?

Like you were not depending on that income for that extra piece. And that’s something I think more people need to hear and be aware of.

Jamie: Yeah. It’s, it, I kind of treated it as just like extra, right? Like I was not counting on that when I’m looking at my numbers, that photography business needed. To make a specific number and anything that came in from education that was just extra, depending on how hard you wanna go, you know, there’s so, there’s so many like nuances to building this, but if you are like, okay, this is set and I wanna a full force, like I am going to be everywhere.

Everyone’s gonna know my name in this first year and I’m gonna go hard and try to show up as in as many places as possible. You have to be realistic and understand that your time. Now you are. If you’re saying all of this, this is a very big yes right to education side, then you’re saying also a very big no to the photography side, and so to make sure that this area over here can still be sustainable.

In that instance, I would say if we’re going hard here, then you need hard support over on the photography side, and that’s when a person would be what my suggestion would be and say, okay, well we need a manager over here. It can be a project manager, it can be, you know, just like an extension of you. They are the photography manager of your business.

That way your job is, is only going and showing up at the sessions. Great. You know, whatever that could be. It could be that you also do the consults, but you, you also don’t need to, you can have somebody in that position and so that’s where it kind of gets a little nuanced. But I would say above all else.

Think of what brings you joy and can keep you going because your motor, like your vision for this business is what carries it through. And so we need to at all costs, protect that and then move forward with whatever that vision is.

Quianna: Yes. Ah, this is all so important. I would love to kind of shift the conversation.

I feel like it’s all very much connected. I love how it all makes like these full circle moments, but I would really love to chat about revenue driving tasks, like tapping into that CEO energy, right? Like let’s say for example, you have that help, whether it is an assistant, it’s A OBM, someone in there just getting things done and kind of running the show for you in the background.

What would you suggest we get started with first to actually hit some of those revenue driving tasks or skills? Is it a skillset, is it a mindset? Like where can we start with those? Like, let’s make more money and fuel this dream energy.

Jamie: All right. So which section are we talking about? What are we refueling?

Quianna: I love it. Let’s say, well, I’m gonna just say, let’s go into like the education piece. So let’s say that we are, we’re, you know, we’ve made it so far in this photography business, we’re excited to help other photographers. We’re excited to help even just our clients like creating products for our clients.

Like that’s a whole other untapped market I don’t think photographers are taking advantage of. So where can we start with that?

Jamie: So if we’re diving into that education side and we’re like, we really wanna, we wanna turn this up. Similarly to how you built the photography side, right? We need to address number one, how inquiries are coming in.

You know, what is our lead generation? Because if it’s not set yet and it’s dependent on us, we need to quickly set up a system to be able to do that. And so I would dive in there and say, okay, we’ll go with like our example before that networking. And we really need to get the trust out out there that people understand that we are an educator now.

Okay. Lots of little things can help that. So if you want like a checklist to start off with immediately, you need brand photos that reflect that because everybody has seen you with a camera in your hand. Everybody has seen you doing that. But you need photos, you need video, you need behind the scenes, like you need all of this.

Even if you’re getting on a Zoom call and offering, you know, some, you know, a couple of of free one-on-one sessions. Get some video of that. We need to establish in our brains that you are an educator. And so those are like number one steps. If we’re hitting it hard and we’re going in there to make sure that we are monetizing in that, again, we’re doing that in the same way that we would’ve done the photography side of things.

And we still need hard boundaries, so we don’t wanna forget. We don’t wanna forget what it’s like in those first two years. We also don’t wanna repeat any mistakes that we may have made making the first one right. You know, a lot more lessons. And so we can theoretically grow this a lot more quickly because we’re not gonna go there.

So we already know our boundaries. Those are set whenever we go to do that. But when an opportunity is finally presented, you are set up for success there. I think that is one of the main things and biggest lessons that I also learned. I was like, oh, Jamie, you’ve already been through this. Yeah, no, no. We have boundaries.

Yes.

Quianna: We do not. We do not do that. Yeah. Well, and I even, I’m even thinking too, like I’m literally seeing this on such a visual person with these two calendars, right? Where you have these two distinct businesses now, even though they are so intertwined and we still are, I call it like the Carrie Underwood of the band, right?

Like we still are the business, right? But you know, you can’t just like slam all this work into this next adventure into your current calendar. Like things need to be reallocated and moved around and prioritized efficiently so you can grow together.

Jamie: Yeah, I think that’s what comes, like I. What comes in really handy too with that visualization is planning out your marketing calendar based off of the offers that you set.

And again, here we are like stepping back again into what we talked about earlier, like reverse engineering that and how much time it takes you to actually fulfill whatever the offers are on your education side. And there you can look at it very simply and say, oh. I need to book three one-on-ones. I need to, uh, in my brain.

I wanna start a mastermind, uh, in the next six months or a year. So we’re gonna be working towards that in the future here. I’m gonna take these one-on-ones and I can replace that immediately and bring out one more people probably doubling or tripling my income. By doing a mastermind so we know like where we’re headed.

I think in that very first business, whatever that first business is, you don’t necessarily know where you’re headed because there’s so much to figure out. Even just like just the bare minimum systems. There’s so much to figure out, plus executing your offer and then you finally like step into that CEO mindset.

And then, you know, we want more and we wanna grow more, we wanna do more impact. And so here we’re in a unique position to be able to see and learn from our past and then move forward in that.

Quianna: Yes. Ah, this is so beautiful and so encouraging. I feel like that is something that we all need like a beautiful reminder about because like it’s all possible, but.

And one of the biggest kind of like downloads I was getting during this conversation was proving your authority, proving your authority with the action steps that you’re taking, right? With the systems that you’re, you’re creating with the client experiences that you’re sharing, and then really showing up, right?

Like actually being visible, whether that is going on podcast and kind of like doing a podcast tour and kind of sharing your expertise. Showing up to events, investing in your education. Um, this is huge because not only are you investing in kind of getting in the room and meeting new people, but that’s where opportunities come up.

I, I share this in the last episode that we were on, and that’s how we connected, right? I mean, like I was on stage speaking. You were like, I need to learn more about behind the scenes, and I got to come and speak at your event, like hunker live. I just, I couldn’t believe it. Like this is the power of showing up and having that confidence.

Having that confidence to know I have something to offer. I’m excited. And I have the, I have the income that’s supporting me while I’m growing this next adventure.

Jamie: It’s more like, it’s less about. Showing your authority to others and more about proving it to yourself. Because when you have trust in yourself, in all of these things that we’re doing, all the, you know, we can give a million checklists to, to be able to run through this and set up, set up your systems properly so that we don’t, you know, we’re staying far away from burnout.

But the underlying, like, you know, main tonality of all of this is that you have trust in yourself. Like this vision was put on your heart for a reason. If you are saying, yes, I’m accepting this mission and I’m gonna see, you know what, what we can do here, then the trust has to be within yourself. And if you are not showing up, if you’re not portraying yourself in that new vision, that inherently shows that you don’t trust yourself in that way, and other people won’t either.

Quianna: Oh my gosh. You’re like making me teary eyed over here. ’cause that’s exactly what I needed to hear. Oh, beautiful. So sister to sister, I feel like I need, I can keep talking to you forever, but like sister to sister, like business coach to mentor, friend to friend, like friend, all the things. What advice would you have for building trust from within?

Jamie: Well, I will tell you that this is something that was very, very hard for me personally, and I do believe that this is a different journey for each person. For me, I had come to a, a spot in my business where I realized that I had built this business that was successful on paper, but it was built for an unmarried person with no children.

And that’s clearly not what my life is now. But that was also that, that time when it looked like I was. You know, at my highest peak at that moment was also my lowest because I realized that I had built something that didn’t serve my life anymore. And so I tried really hard to not shift anything because I was like, oh, I already did it.

It works. Like why would I change it? It works. But my life had changed and other people were depending on me. And I’m not saying this to like toot my own horn, it’s just kind of a, a. A way to showcase what my inner like thought process was when I was building that business for one really is that I was putting myself completely last, and it showed because of the business that I had built.

Anybody wanted a session on whatever day. Yes, absolutely. I would get it done. I would get it done early. Like everything was yes, yes, yes, except for myself. Sometimes I feel like it takes you being in a position like that where you realize that you have put yourself last for too long, that now you have nothing else to give anybody else.

And it’s not until you look at the people that you love or the places that you wanna be, and you realize that you have to say no to them. That you realize that the trust that you had in yourself to be able to have this business, to steward it well, to be able to make the impact that you want, has somehow got off track.

Quianna: Oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing that vulnerable story. ’cause I feel I absolutely resonate with that, right? Like even for me personally, like a very, very personal level. I’ve changed my business. Like my business has been growing to open my arms for marriage, to accept my, like angel babies that haven’t come through yet.

And I’m not there yet, right? Like I, I, I have all the time in the world ’cause I don’t have my children yet, right? And so I’m just so curious, like how that has evolved where it’s kind of making me take a step back and think, wait a second, I’m not prioritizing my time because these kids that I have in my imagination aren’t here yet.

Like, I wanna be the best mom for them, but they’re not here yet. That can apply to literally anybody where you are chasing these really big goals or these big dreams. And, and as a driver, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, we call the shots on a lot, right? Like, oh my gosh, right? Like, we are in our, we are in our groove.

We are successful. Like it’s inevitable because it’s up to us. Then when other outside factors play into our family, when you start your family, when you start expanding, you actually, you lose control.

Jamie: Yeah. You need a lot more flexibility.

Quianna: Yes, yes. And then having that business, this is why this is a beautiful like full circle moment because that business.

Brings you back to those systems. It just needs that audit. And so I actually would love to kind of bring up your quiz and talking about your, your quiz all about times suck and where does this go? What is your time suck? Can you chat about that?

Jamie: This actually became as like, I. It came about as a necessary tool for what I was seeing.

The students that I was working with, it didn’t matter what they came for me for. Like they would have in their mind, okay, this is what, you know, inquiry comes in, they tell me all about themselves and what their problems are and what we’re gonna do. And I just started to see a trend and it didn’t matter what we were coming in to work together for, we had to take two or three steps back.

And adjust pricing or calendar, hands down every single root of the problem to where they wanted to go. They felt stuck in maybe, you know, four or five steps above doing these things, but when that foundation, it doesn’t support that, then we had to fix that somewhere. And so I started to see this trend.

And then as I was doing the same work again, how we talked about, you know, maybe you’re doing one-on-ones now and you’re like, oh, actually we can, we can maximize our effort here and turn this into a mastermind. Kind of the same deal here with the quiz. So I was helping people in this so many times over and over and over.

And then I thought, wow, I can really help a lot more people if we turn this into something fun. Just because, yeah, yeah. But also super actionable. And so I created the, what’s your time suck quiz, because nobody was knowing. I mean, that was the big question, right? Like, where is my time going? They could be in a position where they have no, you know, to them right now.

Right. They have no other responsibilities. And they’re like, I have all the time in the world. This could be my hustle season. This is my building season. Where is my time going? Like, I have no idea. And I’m like, I can tell you. Yeah. And so, um, I built this quiz. I spent a lot of time on it. I, I will never disclose how much time I spend on it.

It’s embarrassing. Yeah. But it is very wildly accurate. So if you go in there and take it, it’s really fun. Takes about five minutes. But it does kind of switch. Not only identifies where your time is going, so in your particular, in your particular mode, but it does switch the idea in your brain from going to reactive mode into intentionality.

And that’s what I think I love most about it because no matter what actual thing is, sucking your time away right now. That is the switch that needs to be flipped.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. I can’t wait to take it. Yes. Oh my gosh. That is amazing. And you’re right, I feel like sometimes I feel like that’s the best part is that after you take this quiz, you’re gonna realize, oh, so if I just stop doing these certain things, like Right.

Because that’s the thing. It’s like, oh, I’m not even aware that I am. Letting this time just go out the window. Oh my gosh. I can’t wait to see what’s really, all the time sucks for everybody.

Jamie: There’s four different types. Two of them are, are very popular and then another one is, is coming up. So I am, I’m kind of interested, I check it every once in a while to see, you know, kind of what people are getting.

But what I do want to, to really hit on here is that your time being sucked away from you can happen at any level. So this is not just when you’re in the beginning and you might feel a little more chaotic in your business. This happens at any level and what we talked about, you know, switching, adding that extra like arm to your business or switching out of, maybe you are completely out of employee mode, like you got this.

The CEO mode down, but we’re either building this new arm or we’re bringing on people into our business. We’re starting an associate team or whatever that may look like. The stuckness that happens, there isn’t employee mode. It’s now management mode, and that becomes the non, the non-revenue generating tasks that then people get stuck in.

And so. You know, this quiz, um, really is for everybody because we wanna keep you in the visionary CEO seat. Um, because if you get stuck in that management mode, even at a higher level, if there’s no visionary, I. Then comes the plateau, right? The growth can’t happen.

Quianna: Oh my gosh. I love it. And I even challenge people that if you’ve already taken this quiz before, now might be a good time to take it again to see what’s happening and as you continue to grow.

Oh my gosh, Jamie, this has been so good. And I love that you are prioritizing your time and prioritizing your time and, and sharing this with, with the ones that need it most. The ones that need this like. Almost like this little head shake or this little spark of inspiration to kinda like a little kick in the butt.

And uh, it’s been so good. So one question I love to ask every guest, what is your key tip? What is something that you wish you knew sooner or something you’d like to share with entrepreneurs today? I.

Jamie: Okay. Uh, I’m like, geez, only one I know. All right. I think I’m gonna go with that. Profit and peace do not have to compete.

They can coexist. I mean, all you need is a plan, right? I.

Quianna: Oh my gosh. Beautiful. Yes, and it starts with you and your quiz. It starts with getting that CRM and those workflows and those checklists, and really just doing those heart checks. Doing those moments of asking yourself, am I trusting myself? Am I leading from my heart?

Am I leading on this mission that I was born to do? Or am I just kind of swirling on Instagram and. Getting all these ideas that are flooding and taking me away from my mission. So I, I love this conversation. So Jamie, how can we connect with you? How can we be B at best?

Jamie: Oh, absolutely. Well, I am always in Instagram dms.

Yeah, me too. That’s just how I love, I know, like, I just, I love, I mean, technology is great and, you know, it can have negative, negative side effects, but the way that I use dms is to be very conversational. Um, if you send me a voice or a video. We’re BFFs immediately. So step out of your comfort zone. Send me, send me a DM like that, um, at Jamie Fisher Collective.

Um, it’s the same for the website. Literally the same anywhere, but I’m always in those dms.

Quianna: Yes. Oh my gosh. Well, it is such an honor to know you, to learn from you, to be inspired by you and to share this entrepreneurship journey with you. Thank you so much for dropping so much knowledge and a lot of inspiration with action steps, with reasons to go out and start.

Just tling all that time. I’m so excited.

Jamie: Thank you so much for having me. I loved this conversation and I hope it hope helps. Just, ugh, so many people I.

Quianna: Oh my heart. This was legit a coaching call, and I’m forever grateful for Jamie’s wisdom, friendship, and encouragement. Oh my gosh, like I literally have so many notes and I’m just so grateful for her vulnerability and being open to sharing these questions.

Some of these questions I asked her weren’t even on the list of questions, so they kind of were thrown at her, and I’m just so grateful for her sharing. So honestly and so beautifully. I hope you picked up some mic drop moments and leave this conversation feeling like you’re not alone as you continue to grow and scale your business.

Your Jamie is out there, my love. She’s coaching third base for her daughter’s softball team. She’s photographing legacy moments in your neighborhood. You can find her co-hosting retreats and speaking on stages at conferences, and popping up on podcasts all over the world. She’s out there ready to help you prioritize your time and make an impact.

Please make sure to follow along with Jamie @jamiefishercollective on Instagram, as well as @theconquercommunity on Instagram too for even more photography education and upcoming online summits and future retreats. I’m so thankful you joined this chat today, and I can’t wait to continue this mindset series.

Introducing you to my business besties mentors and the industry leaders that I admire. My network is your network, babe. If you found this episode helpful, please. Please share a screenshot and tag us. We would love to see where you’re up to while listening and share with a friend that maybe needs some time management help, too, right?

A little nudge, nudge. I appreciate you more than you know. Hope you have a beautiful and productive 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 QuiannaMarie.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 on dancing.

If you liked this podcast episode, you’re gunna LOVE these…

Six Figure Launch with Felicia Romero

Life and Business Adventures with Halle Heather

Creating A Legally Legit Business with Paige Griffith