Do you ever find yourself sitting down to work unsure of what to even focus on?

There are so many things you could be doing and even feel like you should be doing, but you’re just so overwhelmed with all the things..

So you just head into first responder mode, putting out the most immediate fires first. Never feeling like you’re in control or know what stay to focused on.

Today’s blog is going to be a little different.

Instead of sharing my perspective with you, I’m going to be featuring eight guests and sharing their most important pieces of advice for mom photographers when it comes to staying focused in your photography business. These guests also have something in common:

They are all speakers at the upcoming focused mom photographer summit!

I’m hosting a free, virtual event from August 8th through the 12th, 2022 that will help you purposefully organize your photography business so you can find balance, feel productive, and increase profitability without the full-time workload.

Let’s dive in and learn from these amazing guests!

Marina Anaya

Hi friend, I’m Marina of Marina Anaya photography. Saved by grace wife to my bestest friend, mama to a crazy toddler boy, and family photographer for the past 10 years. Okay.. I know you’ll probably agree that social media can be the biggest and most annoying distraction, but it is still a tool that can be very effective in bringing you business and helping you connect with other photographers.

One thing that I like to do to stay focused and be more intentional with my social media marketing is just setting a time.

And I know that this sounds so simple, but it really helps me keep myself accountable so that I don’t waste all of my time just scrolling and I have more time to actually serve my clients and nurture my family.

Just set a 15 to 30 minute timer as you’re creating your content or scrolling to find inspiration or interacting with your followers, you really don’t have to be there 24/7 to actually get business from social media. I promise. 

At the Focused Mom Photographer Summit, I’m going to be sharing three things that you can do to take the pressure off and simplify your social media strategy so that it’s less of that black hole that takes up all of your time.

And it’s way more fun and effective in actually bringing your ideal client. I’m going to be giving you a few of my secrets so that you can stand out and actually start to enjoy it again. I promise that social media can actually be fun and it doesn’t have to take a rocket scientist and10 hours a day for it to work for you too.

I really hope you’ll join us. And I cannot wait to see you there!

Hillary Jeanne Ungson

Hi mom photographers. My name is Hillary Jean and I am a business coach for creative entrepreneurs and photographers. After my first year of running my photography business full time, I hit a deep physical and emotional burnout.

Instead of giving up, I got clear on my long term goals and I started taking action.

This led to me growing a six figure brand photography business, where I was able to shoot less than once a week. And I love helping creatives grow their business with more freedom to do the same.

Biggest tip for mom photographers is to learn how to sell a high ticket photography experience.

This will allow you to shoot less without sacrificing your time or your revenue.

Once you have designed that experience and have priced yourself profitably, learn how to sell it. Get on the phone or on zoom calls with your potential clients, listen to their needs and figure out if they are a good fit for what you have to offer. Now, if they are a good fit, then present the experience you’ve designed with confidence.

Confidence is everything.

You are the expert.

You are the guide.

In the eyes of your customers, you are a creative genius to them. They are inquiring with you because they love your work and they want to work with you.

It’s not up to you to decide what they can or cannot afford. That is up to them. They make their own investment decisions.

And if it’s not a good fit, be okay with hearing and saying no. Get used to rejection because there are so many other clients that are a good fit for you out in the world. So the best way to get better at sales is to practice. Remember that every call you have, you’re only getting better. Sales is a skill set and it can be learned and it can also come from a place of service.

If you would like to learn more about selling high ticket photography packages, I want you to join me at the Focused Mom Photographer Summit. I’m going to be talking to you about the keys to selling four figure photography packages, and I hope to see you there!

Manali Sontakke

Hi guys, I’m Manali, a brand photographer and business coach for photographers based out of Virginia. One piece of advice that I have to stay focused on your business is to try quarterly planning instead of annual planning. Annual planning is when you create a bunch of really big dreams and goals for the upcoming 12 months. Versus quarterly planning, you take a look at what you want to focus on every 90 days.

So every single quarter you’re going to take some time away from running your day to day business to reflect on how the past quarter went and make a game plan for the upcoming 90 days.

This allows you to know exactly what you want to focus on over the upcoming 90 days and helps you make incremental progress on those big dreams and business goals that you have.

I recommend going into five different parts of your business to do your quarterly planning. First things first, you want to reflect on how the past 90 days went. And I want you to think over five big areas:

• Look at how you spent your time
• How your client experience was for your clients
• What your finances looked like
• How your marketing plan worked
• How you moved the needle forward on those business projects and dreams that you have

After you reflect on those five areas, then you’re going to take some time to make a game plan for the upcoming 90 days. Take a look at your calendar. Look at what personal and business things you have coming up. And then upcoming three months. Take a look at the shoots and the weddings that you have coming up in the quarter.

Do you have any weeks that are a little bit crazier in terms of client work or any weeks that are a little bit lighter in terms of shoots and weddings, where maybe you can work on some of the other parts of your business? It’s also helpful to have a game plan and a little look at the overview of your finances for the upcoming three months.

Are there any months where maybe you don’t have as much income coming in where maybe you could know that you need to market your services a little bit. And that goes into the marketing pillar.

Coming up with a brief marketing plan and an overview before you go to execute that plan in the upcoming three months can be really, really helpful.

You know that you are strategically tying your marketing back to your business goals. Bookings.

And then the last little pillar is business projects. Is there anything that you would love to incorporate or create over the upcoming 90 days? And I recommend taking some time to figure out when you are going to work on those projects, as well as taking the time to.

Break your big business projects down into action steps that you can then have, and then just work on executing during your 90 days.

So again, quarterly planning gives you an overview of your business and a high level perspective. It allows you to check in every 90 days. Figure out what’s most important for you to focus on and to move forward with purpose.

I hope that you’ll give quarterly planning a try, and I hope that it helps you focus better in your business.

If you want to hear more about the quarterly planning process, I hope that you’ll join me for the Focused Mom Photographer Summit, where I’ll be diving even deeper into this topic. I hope to catch you guys there!

Sabrina Gebhardt

Hey, my name is Sabrina Ghar. I am a lifestyle and family photographer in Fort worth, Texas, and I’ve been in business for almost 12 years. My talk in the Focused Mom Photographer Summit is all about burnout proofing your business.

I remember being a new photographer and how exciting and shiny and new everything was, all the things I wanted to do and this huge new passion I had and really quickly, all of that excitement turned into overwhelm and burnout.

And I hear this story over and over and over again from students I teach and from fellow photographers and it breaks my heart. I don’t want people to make the same mistakes that I did because it’s avoidable. During my talk, I am going to share three things that you can do right then and there that will help you set up your business in a sustainable way to help you avoid burnout as much as possible.

I really hope to see you there!

Anna Wright

Hey moms, I’m Anna Wright of Anna Wright photography. And I am so looking forward to joining you at the Focused Mom Photographer Summit. Some of you may know me as a wedding and portrait photographer, but before that, my background was in the army and an air force officer. So you could say that I’ve had some experience with the tough things that come with life.

I’ve been yelled at a lot. I’ve had to give a lot of really hard feedback to people.

But in doing all that it’s really helped me to learn how to be mentally tough and to seek and receive constructive criticism that will propel my business forward.

I’ve been in business for almost five years now and I feel like I’ve learned a lot along the way. There’s been a lot of ups and downs and a lot is zigzagging back and forth.

I’m just so happy for you that you’re investing back in your business and connecting with people who can help you grow. While also understanding that we’re moms first. So, welcome to the summit. We’re excited to have you!

And if I could just give you any piece of advice, it would be to tune out the noise.

There is so much noise in the photography world, really in the whole small business entrepreneurial world. Everybody has opinions. Everybody has ideas about what you should be doing. And I would love for you to just become so laser focused on what your business needs to succeed, that you can just tune that stuff out.

At the summit, I’m going to be talking to you about how to protect your peace as an artist, how to start developing that mental toughness, and how to look for constructive criticism. So that you can propel your business. I will see you soon moms, and I hope you’re having a great day.

Rachel Greiman

Hi, my name is Rachel Greiman and I own Green Chair Stories, a copywriting collective in Denver, Colorado, where we write websites for photographers. More importantly, I am a mom of two tiny little ones. 

I just wanted to come on here and say that I think the best thing that I ever did for my business was get really, really clear on my website about what I did and who I wanted to do it for.

I realized that my website didn’t really communicate my services very well. In the beginning of my business, it didn’t identify it. It didn’t help people identify. So they had to reach out. I was creating extra work for myself on the back end of inquiries, because I had to explain what my offers were, what I did, how I did it.

I didn’t have any of those processes clearly outlined on my website, so I found myself living in my inbox a lot more than I wanted to.

So a couple of years ago I completely rebranded my website. Got crystal clear on who I served and that has saved me so much time. And now when I work with photographers, especially moms, I always like to tell them that you can save yourself a lot of headache and mental space when your website is working for you.

That way you don’t have to be present for every single sale or every single step of the journey when people are deciding to buy from you or not. When you have a website that works for you, people come into your inbox already wanting to hire you. And then all you have to do is say, here’s the dates I’m available and they’re ready to book.

Joy Michelle Aleman 

Hi, my name is Joy Michelle and I am a photographer, business coach, and podcaster. Today, I want to share one piece of advice for mom photographers when it comes to staying focused in their photography business. And this is around the concept of time.

I think we often believe that we need better time management, maybe that’s tips or tactics, software, tools, hacks, whatever someone can give us so that we can better manage our time.

But really, I think we need mind management because the way that we think plays out in what we do.

Now, before you totally check out of this, I am an engram three and I am totally guilty of only wanting to focus on the tangible, the practical. Just give me the action steps. Right. But our minds are so important.

And focused time that we spend in our businesses is so important. So I’m going to give you one tangible tip, but I want to invite you to hear the rest of my talk all around time and the management of your time and the management of your mindset at the Focused Mom Photographer Summit. So I hope that you’ll come join me, but for today, I want to leave you with one tangible tip and that is:

Focus time is more easily attainable in your business when you have a proper place to store your ideas.

Now I know this could sound simple, but hear me out. You cannot do your best work when you’re holding 23 ideas or to-dos or half done projects all in your head. You need a place to get this out on paper so that you can then step into your highest operating self and be the CEO in your business.

So we’re going to talk about this and so much more at the Focused Mom Photographer Summit, and I hope to see you there.

Brooke Jefferson

Do you ever feel like you’re working so hard in your business that you’re dropping balls in your personal life? Hey, I’m Brooke Jefferson and I have felt this so many times in my life that you are not alone. I am here to tell you that you are not alone. I have the honor and privilege of being one of the speakers for the Focused Mom Photographer Summit, and we are going to be answering the question:

Is balance even possible?

I’m a Jesus follower, a wife of seven years, a mom to two kiddos, a family photographer for over eight years, a podcaster and a business coach. One of the areas that I enjoy working with my clients is balancing business and personal life. How to take control and feel like you are wearing all of the hats in your life, really, really well.

So I want to encourage you to come to the summit so that you can find the answer to whether or not balance is even possible. But one of the things that I really want you to be thinking about before the day arrives, and before you jump into the summit, is:

Where do I actually want my business to be? And what do I want my life to look like?

Because without vision, you won’t have any idea whether or not you are hitting goals, making progress or headed in the right direction.

So I want you to take some time and really focus on: What do I want all this to look like, what am I trying to achieve? What kind of impact am I looking to bring? Not only to my personal life, but to my family and to the world around me.

Really give yourself some time and space to journal and really cast vision for your life and your business. So when you come to my presentation during the summit, you will already have that vision casted and you’ll be able to walk through step by step of how to achieve that balance in your life.

I’m so excited to see you at this summit, and I hope that you go get your ticket right now! Trust me, you don’t want to miss out. It’s free. Why would you miss out? I will see you at the summit in August.

ACTION STEPS

Oh, my gosh, mama, are you fired up after reading those amazing tips? I know I am, and I am even more excited that those tips are just a small preview of the incredible information they will each be sharing during their presentation.

In addition to these eight speakers, you will also hear from 16 other speakers, including myself, covering a variety of topics, such as:

• Running your photography business like a CEO
• Minimizing distractions
• Streamlining your editing
• Affording a team
• Creating profit through selling artwork
• And so much more..

The Focused Mom Photographer Summit was designed with you in mind. I know your time is limited and valuable so each presentation is short, to the point, and only 15 to 20 minutes long. The presentation topics have been systematically selected with daily themes to help keep you focused and zone in on the areas you need help with the most.

Day one, we’ll focus on owning your role as the CEO.

Day two is all about managing your time well.

Day three will help you streamline your processes.

Day four is all about increasing your profitability.

This will be an event you won’t want to miss. Trust me. The FOMO is real. Head on over to grab your free ticket, you’ll be so glad you did.

We are here rooting for you and we cannot wait to come alongside you on your journey at the Focused Mom Photographer Summit. We can’t wait to see you there.

Resources:

• The Purpose Gathering Side Hustler to CEO Group Coaching Program
• Join our Facebook Community
• The Focused Mom Photographer Summit!
• Find me on Instagram: @thepurposegathering
• Passion to Profit Challenge!