How To Uplevel Your Photography Business

Speaker 1: 0:00

On this episode of she's crafted to thrive. Our guest is Angie MacPherson . She is a wedding and branding photographer and I'm so excited to have her on the show. Ladies , she shares her own personal journey of starting a photography business as well as up leveling it along the way. So stay tuned.

Speaker 2: 0:19

[inaudible]

Speaker 3: 0:20

welcome to. She's crafted to thrive. I'm your host, Nikita Williams. And this show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real, everyday struggles. Oh , juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and harmony as women. We have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here. We'll , you'll see that you're now alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey. On this podcast, we'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Okay .

Speaker 1: 1:00

I'm so excited to have Angie MacPherson on, on. She's crafted to thrive. Um, I've been following her for a minute. She is a photographer and just, I feel, I don't even know her that well, but I feel like she's just an overall fun person and I'm so excited to have her on the show.

Speaker 4: 1:19

Yay. Well, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Yes. I'm so glad you said yes. Like I think every time someone says yes to me on the podcast, I'm just like doing like a happy dance like for a week .

Speaker 4: 1:32

Well, I'm, I'm super honored and like flier that you asked, so I'm doing a happy dance with .

Speaker 1: 1:38

Yeah . So , um , as always, I always like to ask everybody to tell my audience a little bit about who they are, what they do, where they're located, because that's a big important piece, especially when you're photographers . So just let us know all that jazz.

Speaker 4: 1:53

Yes. So I am a photographer. I'm a wedding and branding photographer in Virginia and I have been running this business for just over six years and I'm obsessed with marketing and branding and entrepreneurship and helping other people you know , that are interested in pursuing this, you know, passionate, creative, you know, entrepreneurial lifestyle. I'm interested in helping them you know , get better and take things to the next level. So I just absolutely love what I do.

Speaker 1: 2:22

That's awesome. So how long have you been doing it?

Speaker 4: 2:26

I'm just over six years.

Speaker 1: 2:27

Wow. That's awesome.

Speaker 4: 2:30

Yeah, I started , um, I was working full time , um, in marketing at a concert than you and I , I got to a point where my day to day was a little bit , um, routine. I want to try something new to be creative on the side . And so I, you know, brought my camera and went out and you know , shot the beach and shot the camera, you know, I'm pregnant, you know, my, so I just started photographing and then I just found this community in my local area. You know, once he picked up a camera or any type of passion, you start to Google and like connect with people cause it was just like me shooting and posting and , and not being able to talk to anybody about it. Um, you know, it's for my husband, he didn't really understand. And so I sound as community and sweating community and I , Oh well shoot, let me start shooting weddings . And this turned into this brand new lifestyle of, you know, being a community and helping each other out. And then eventually I was like, I don't want to work anymore. I want to do this, you know I want to do this full time. My husband was like What... And so I told him to , you know what , let's make some goals . I say, let me know three months of , you know, salary, you know, just in case something happens and let me have a goal of like, you know, 15 weddings for the next year coming up. And so I had like those two things and I, you know, I , this was August, so my birthday, January, if it breaks, I want to start the next year, you know, a full time. And I hustled my butt for the next four to six months. I, you know, hustle hard on social media and really just like freehand my website and really started putting myself out there. And the weddings came and awesome clients came and I was able to save and I just stepped out on faith and quit my job and my boss was actually good for you. You know, you inspire me to do something. And I just never looked back. There was three years ago and every year has just been better and better and I'm meeting the most amazing people and having those amazing experiences. So like I said, I'm so obsessed with this. That's awesome. That is so cool that, okay , so you've been photography for six years, but it took you three years to kind of get to, Hey, I'm like, this is a real life business. Yeah. And honestly, I don't think I would have gotten there without community honestly and without seeing other people do it first because even though I had this drive to shoot weddings and make money and live this lifestyle, if I would have never seen that people doing it or heard of people talking about like that's when I started listening to podcasts, I started listening to podcasts . People talk about my morning routine. I'm like, my morning routine is getting in the car and getting to work. And if he will talk about waking up is day and I'm like, is that real life to people? Do people live like I want it, you know, like let's do this. And so I love listening to podcasts. Even now, I love listening to like what people at the next level always wanting to get through the next level. So I love that you have a podcast that he shared is so much your listeners an impact, you know, podcasts showing up on social media and talking about your life . All of these things help people to take it to the next level.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Yeah, you said something really powerful and it's something that I've always known that and that's kind of, you know, outside thought of my own selfish reasons of doing a podcast, which was so that it had content and I can talk to people versus logging. I mean that's a whole nother story, but you said something that you could reach somewhere that you could see someone had already done it. Like you could reach up. And I think when we're first starting out, we sometimes like start focusing on everyone that's doing exactly the same thing that we're doing, thinking, you know, we're all gonna help each other go up to the next level, which is true to some degree that we can help each other get there. But you have to look ahead of you. Yes . That right. Yeah,

Speaker 4: 6:52

absolutely. And you have to, I love that you have to look ahead and you have to look outside of what you're doing as well because so many people will want to emulate this same lifestyle, same business model as the person a couple of years ahead of them. I'm like, you're missing out on so many different ideas on, in different industries, you know, because as photographers we all look kind of to the same people and are impacted by the same people, but wanting to look elsewhere and you're starting to switch up the game. You starting to do things that people in your league have not seen before and that's your ideal clients have not seen before. That's going to push you a little bit more ahead of the game. That's kind of what I started to do with, with branding and branding myself, is that I would go to these feeds of photographers and it's all photos of their clients, all photos of their products and services, but me being like a entertainment celebrity TV junkie started following these like celebrities and TV people and influencers. I'm like, man, they're posting a lot of photos. Like my girl is Tamara Mori, and I'm obsessed with her upset. I watched her on her talk show. I go to her website and I'm like on her Instagram and I can just connect with her because it's always photos of herself or family , what she's eating, what she's doing, and I'm like, how do you show up like that? Because I want people to come and see me and not always just my portfolio work because everyone can take great photos. Everyone can, everyone can, you know , provide these great experiences, but people look us people book people, they don't put things in a book. They book people and preach it. When you show up in that way, it's hard. It's hard to turn those people away. Who, who your style and the macros you're talking about . You know, like I said this year will pass , you know, 18 months or more photos of myself showing more of myself and Instagram stories and people are just are just putting me in a different bracket compared to other Brandon October's other wedding photographers and I love it and I didn't get that by looking up and looking at what other wedding photographers, cause they're all doing the same rate but we have to sell ourselves basically we have to show up and that's how we get the clients that appreciate us and don't just appreciate, Oh she's this price, she provides this type of out , this album. It's so much better for you and your client and show up that way. Cause they already know you before they even acquire with you.

Speaker 1: 9:33

Exactly. Oh my gosh. I hope that all the time like I have, I have, I come from a world where networking is how I, pretty much, I've done my whole life of business, anything I've ever done. And so there's so much competition, there's so much everybody doing the same thing. So the only thing that really makes you stand out or be the person that someone wants to work with is yourself. So you've got to be that person. But if you don't know who that person is, I hate, I know if I know, you know I'm talking about when you go to for photography your brand page and you can't find a picture of them or you don't know who they are, you just know that they take pretty pictures. You have no idea about who, what they look like. Do they have a family. It's a disconnect too to serving who you want to serve. Like it's a disconnect. And I love that you just said that. Like I just, yes , preach. I love it. So I want to go back to something you said earlier, which was um, cause a lot of people in my audience are kind of in that middle of like transitioning from doing their daily grind to wanting to pursue their full time creative business or they are in their creative business full time, but they have life going on like their mother, their wife, all these things. How did you find that to grow ?

Speaker 4: 11:07

It took some time, girl. It gives me my feelings , just thinking about how much I just poured into this business and did nothing else for so long. Like it took me some time and my husband's like, hello? Like you come home and you are editing, you know? And so it , it took a wake up call me to even get to the point of, okay, I need to do this for my family. I need to do this for me. And so I've got to call him . I was like thinking, you know, I need to start running my business. Like I ran, you know, deep do my full time job. I had to start time. I had a break in the day and I had a time to go home and I didn't just come to work and say, okay, what am I gonna work on today? It was a vision for the week. All right, what needs to be, how can I get there? How can I maximize my time? And so now I run my business same way on usually Monday mornings or even Sunday nights. If I have nothing else to do, I'll sit down and just kind of upstate . Okay, what's my agenda? You know, especially with social media planning, social media planning can take more time and so can um , just showing up and trying to kill something on social media. That's even more time actual planning in advance. Now I take a look at my week and say, you know , a topic for my email list and I just didn't have planning time. Okay, these are what I'm going to post on social media Monday through Friday I have plan , which is , you know , an Instagram . I'll get my photos, I'll even write my captions at that time. I just take one to two hours and completely plan out the content for my, the week and so that, you know, Facebook automatically I schedule it, it goes out without a push of a button and then Instagram will have playlists , so that handles the content. So I'm not spending time in my week. They day spend so much time on Instagram coming up with the polls , choosing a photo right in the cap caption . It takes so long for someone like me who loves gum on the gram honestly. And so now I get it done the beginning of the week . So the only time I'm in Instagram during the week is actually like 10 to 15 minutes engaging with my commenters or I'll put on a hashtag and connect with other, you know, with other people instead of like doing all the brain work there . So that takes so much of my time off of my plate as a com as it relates to content planning. And then of course the actual balance of doing the work, which is photo shoots and editing and things like that. You know, now I come to a point where I'm like, okay, I'm only going to shoot one thing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that's going to eat up the rest of my month when it comes to emailing and all that stuff. So I do what works best for me and my schedule. And for me that's kind of like spreading out the shoots. You know, I do a lot of outsourcing. You know, I outsource my grocery shopping to Instacart, any in business, you know, cause you have to think what your time was worth , you know, if you could . So I have a virtual assistant that I pay . Um, I started her at $10 an hour now . And so I'm like, do I want to be spending my time pinning on Pinterest or you know, doing these little jobs for $15 an hour. My time is worth way more than $15 an hour. I need to be spending my time on the $100 an hour on jobs instead of the $15 an hour job. So I always tell people to think of what you can offer us . And it doesn't have to be somebody you're paying somebody $15 multiple times and be like, is there something that you can move off your plate that takes you an hour or two weeks where you can just pay someone five $15 to do it? And you can spend that hour and two hours doing something that's like revenue-generating , you know, like I launched a shop and I outsource a little things or like I'll come up with a concept, right . All the content of the ebook and I sent it to her because I don't need to be sitting in Canberra, Photoshop, designing things and moving things around, push off, push off to a cousin who needs some money, push off Instagram and really focus on, I'm talking to , I'm talking to people who are really trying to Uplevel and balance and focus on making more money. Same things over and over, having the same year over and over, making the same amount of money over and over. I'm talking to people who are trying to Uplevel and are like, forget this, I'm ready to move up. Outsource, outsource, outsource as much as you can.

Speaker 1: 15:44

Yeah, that is, that's so important. I mean we can't do everything

Speaker 4: 15:49

like

Speaker 1: 15:50

we'd like to, I think we can do everything, but reality is that's not true. Um , so I love how you said that cause a lot of people will feel like, you know, the whole , that money like the, you know, like they can't let it go but it's going to be the death of them if they don't because they trying to do everything right.

Speaker 4: 16:09

And that was me for so long. I'm like, Oh gosh, I don't want to pay someone cause I can do it. You know, I have time. Like sure I have time, but how do I want to be spending that time? You know, sometimes I'll, you know , just outsource things cause I want to go to Busch gardens with my family. You know, like that's worth, that's worth, you know, to pay somebody for two hours to do something that's two hours with my family. That's way worth more than $15 an hour. You know? I know it all starts with creating those procedures where it makes it easy. Cause a lot of my issue was one, I didn't want to give up the money, which I've gotten over . And two , I'm a control freak. And so I'm like , well I just don't want to give this up to somebody. They're going to ruin it or they're not going to do it how I would do it. And that's not a sit down and make those step-by-step documents. Here's how you do this here. You know, if she's creating an ebook, me here, my branding colors, here are my shapes. If you know she's editing something, I need to make sure that she's good with Raymond. So whoever you're hiring, make sure you're doing your part them so that they can do something exactly how you would do or even better. Okay. Yes I agree. So I love that you have kind of found that

Speaker 1: 17:20

that place where it's like you got to let some things go in order to grow, like you gotta do it right. So what inspired you to make that mine ? Does that change? Like, what shifted for you in your mind that said, okay cause we can talk all day long about, you know, Oh now I decided to do this and I'm doing it. But something mentally have to change for you to find to make that decision. Look I got a piece , I want to do this stuff,

Speaker 4: 17:46

I'm just not going to make it . What changed for me was the stress of I got to the point in my business where I felt in my full time job of doing the same thing over and over and I'm like Whoa, that's not what I signed up for. You know, I designed that. I signed up for this creative entrepreneurial entrepreneurial journey where I could have Fridays off and go to the movies or you know, plan a trip . I don't want to do this Monday through Friday , you know, 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM with the same things over and over. I want to know what else my mind think of when I have the time cause I just , I didn't have the mental space. All. I was doing the stressing about editing and posting on social media and delivering galleries like that . That was my day to day. That's literally like the same thing every day . It reminded me of my old time , my old job, and I'm like, no, I want to shoot outside of my state. I want to create eBooks and courses. I want to have Fridays off and push these small things to the side. I can't come up with ideas. I can't come up with new strategies. I can't come up with more ways to make money. And so that's when I, that's when I had the turning point there is when I was looking at the same things, the same emails every single day. I was like, I'm done. All right . It's time to make a move.

Speaker 1: 19:09

Yeah. Yeah. You know? Um, yeah. You get tired. As my mom would say, you will change when you get tired. Things will change when you get sick and tired of something. Realize, okay, this is not working.

Speaker 4: 19:24

Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Speaker 1: 19:27

So I wanted to ask you a question because I know that we were talking, you were talking about, you know, you love to travel and do photography and things like that. I know cause I follow you on your Instagram, you travel a lot doing photography. Like I think first of all like that's like serious big girl goals. Like for any photographer to like get out of their location and like

Speaker 4: 19:50

a crew of people who are like, yes, can photography me in California or New York or how did you put that into your business? Because I think that's a really interesting thing because not everyone can do that. How did you bring that about ? Yeah, so I love this question because it might be different. Um, I know you asked what for me, I like to travel, you know, for my business as far as like going to workshops and I'm going to like retreats and things like that. And so I started to think, you know what , when I go places I need to just put out a call and say, Hey, I'm going to be in California. Does anybody want to book me for a shoot? So I started doing that a year or two ago and it just works so well. And so it might look like I , Hey, I booked the session and I'm going to take a trip to a workshop or you know, I just feel like visiting Maryland or Orleans or something and I just, I work around it. For example, I'm going to Miami in April with my sisters . So I put a call up there like, Hey, you just take these photos . It might seem like I travel so often. I probably travel maybe four or five times a year, but it looks like I travel so often because I have great images from when it goes to the next, you know, I did three shoots in new Orleans. They were amazing. So I actually had someone reach out to me, so it wasn't like I was going to reach out and I was like, all right, who else can I shoot in new Orleans ? So I'm there, you know? And so, you know, I post these throughout the year, so I have these great photos and people see me and they're like, Oh, well she travels for shoots, you know, will you come to Texas? Will you come to, it's going to see it. I'm like, sure. You know? So that's why with any business, when you're trying to do something, so if you're trying to shoot or you're trying to travel, fitted in your portfolio any way that you can, and then use those images to market yourself as such, you know , so you know, I actually , California, I've shot in North Carolina , in new Orleans and Maryland. And so those are always in my rotation. So some people I'll post the other day I posted a photo in California. Oh, Hey, are you in California? I'm not right now but I can be if you're trying to book something. And so just keeping that in your rotation. That's awesome. That's great tips. Um , work it in, sprinkle it in. I love that. It doesn't have to be like an extra step, right ? It doesn't have to be like, Oh, make a Facebook ad saying you're going, you know, you're not taking photo shoots in California and blah blah blah. You know, you can just go to the next state over. If you've got a really fun stage, a couple hours across the state line, you know, make a little road trip. It doesn't have to be this big deal. Somehow reach out, fit into your portfolio and shoot a ton of behind the scenes while you're there. Stories . And I do like a little wall from new Orleans and just like really taking people on the journey and come home. Hey, I'm on the plan. Had to California to do a branding issue . You know, I'm walking down the French quarter, you know, this is what we're doing at night. Really ? Yeah. I love that. The journey is so important now when it comes to like marketing anything, like nobody just wants to see the end. They want to see like the whole from the beginning, middle, the good, the ugly, but not so pretty everything . They want to see it. And that really helps people connect to us. Like for real , it makes us , Oh, you're a real person. You didn't just like one day wake up and it was like beautiful. You know what I was thought of when I was in new Orleans, I was posting so many videos and stories. I had people who found me through like a hashtag or like a location and then you put , you know, I'm in the French quarter and people found me. They found me journey . That's awesome. That is so cool. I can't help but love Instagram for that kind of stuff. Like this is awesome.

Speaker 1: 24:03

So , um, this is a question I always ask and I think it's one of the bigger ones that most people are like, how did you get to where you were despite dealing with all the negative noise in your own head and maybe what other people have told you because you said you were doing something, you were working full time, and when you decided that you weren't , weren't going to do that, your husband was even like,

Speaker 4: 24:30

Mmm .

Speaker 1: 24:33

Tell us a little bit more about that kind of journey.

Speaker 4: 24:36

Yeah. So before I could convince him I had to convince myself. And so it really starts with that self confidence and, and putting those fears to the side. Like, yes, we're all going to be afraid to do something. We're all gonna be afraid to, you know, for what people might think. You know, we all have different fears and I, you know, some, I went to a conference this past year and James would more , I loved them . He said something about, you know, of course I'm going to have these fears, but we can make up new stories that can overpower the fears. You know , the fears might not go away, but we can always come up with these stories. And so I love that because that's, that's what I did. You know, years ago when I was trying to quit put my job, I could've listened to, Oh , you're not going to be successful, you're not going to book enough weddings or you know, you're just not gonna go pay your bills. Instead of like working from the fear. I can work from the possibility instead . Oh, I could shoot double the weddings that I am trying to get and I can meet so many more people to collaborate with. I , instead of focusing on the scary parts of not making it in this business, I focused on what could be done and listening to that and really living in that really helped me to move to the next level and not be so scared to take a leap.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Yeah. So now that you're, you've taken that week, you're , you're doing this full time and you're loving it, what are some new things that you're like, afraid or challenges that you're like, I've had to who you know,

Speaker 4: 26:06

right, right. Um, yes, there's this phrase called new new level new devil that I heard this and I listened to their fears, fears, and now that doesn't phase me anymore, but I have these new fears that phase me. I'm sure people who are way beyond me had the fears that I'm having now. And so I always have to think there's always going to be something that I'm fearful about, but I can always come up with that new possibility, that new optimistic opportunity that's going to help me move past me . So right now, you know, now that I'm at this next level compared to where I was in the beginning, you know, my fears are, you know, can I, can I sustain this? Can I come up with new ideas? How long can I shoot weddings before the next new 25 year old wedding photographer ? There's all these new fears and how I battle that is new possibilities. Okay, I can do more courses and help these people move along. I can range into branding work. You know, I love marketing and I love writing and I love helping out working from those fears. I'm working from the possibilities.

Speaker 1: 27:23

I love that. Working from the possibilities. That will be a quotable. I'm working from the [inaudible] .

Speaker 4: 27:32

So now that

Speaker 1: 27:34

you are doing, I mean you're a photographer and now you're really focusing on, we're doing weddings and other things, but now you're really focusing on branding, which is such a new world for, I shouldn't say it's really new to me. It's just changed faces. Like the world of branding. Photography has just changed faces to more of a photographer thing versus an influencer thing . For you, how are you marrying that into what you're doing now? Because let me tell you, it's looks awesome from what you're doing, but how did you like shift? Like, Oh, I want to do branding, photography and now I want to do a course and now I want to do freebies on this. And, and now you , I think you have like a course course like um, where people can work with you. Tell us a little bit more how you even branched into that world.

Speaker 4: 28:21

Yeah . Yeah. So my, like I said, my background is in marketing, marketing and PR and advertising. You know, I went to school for eight years marketing. So the , the one thing I missed about working full time and was like the marketing aspect. And even though I did that you , we do that as business owners. I got really intentional in my, in my business with marketing and advertising and NPR and all that great stuff. And so the way I got into branding was, you know, when, like I said, when I was looking at all these influencers and posting photos, I started doing it for myself and you know, my friend and I would swap and come up with these great captions to go along and I was like, Whoa, the amount of inquiries I'm getting, like people are really upleveling my business. And at this time I was already teaching marketing courses. I was already, you know , doing one on one mentoring with photographers. But I was like, I can marry my, for my love of photography, I could marry my level photography and my love for marketing and create this new niche in my business, which is the best of both worlds. I love talking to entrepreneurs, I love talking business. I love helping people come up with ways to grow their business. And I love photography. So the fact that I can create this package where I'm providing photos to grow your business and put yourself out there just like I did, just like , you know, it's helping me grow my business. It's just like the dream job. You created your own dream job.

Speaker 1: 30:02

Just like, I don't want that job and I love this one and I kind of want that job again, but let's just mix it.

Speaker 4: 30:07

Right. Look a little event diagram basically.

Speaker 1: 30:10

Yeah, exactly. I love it. So if you were to give advice to anyone that is, and I say anyone really, it's my audience is creative women, whether they're a photographer, a maker, an artisan of some sort who's like looking at this road and like terrified, like where to start, what to do, what would you give them? What would you tell them?

Speaker 4: 30:35

Ooh , I would say show up for your audience as you, and that's w in your photos, in your captions and your resources that you provide. Be the authority in whatever you are doing. You know? Um , like I said, there's going to be a thousand other photographers and wedding planners and Harris house or whatever, hundreds of millions of them out there. But what sets you apart is you, so tell your own story. Don't let people come up with ideas, but the amount of pictures of bouquets they see on your Instagram, that's not your story. What is your story? How can you help these people? And they serve these people. So she'll Vizio. And like I said, that can be anything. Your captions , the way you write and emails and what you blog about your photos, just the authority as yourself.

Speaker 1: 31:29

I love that. I love, yeah, there is no better authority on what you do then you,

Speaker 4: 31:37

we all have these backgrounds and these experiences and these highs and lows and just share it. You know, you can help so many people. You can help your clients, you can help, you know , colleagues, you know, and , and so people say, Oh, I don't like following other photographers, you know, competition, forget all that. I mean, come on now. Like we have our own, I just, I , I can't deal with people. And I'm like, you're not the only photographer out there. The more you know, referrals as you can give each other and the more you can look each other up. You know, haven't been as Betsy, Betsy is also a photographer and I was just talking to her yesterday. I was like, we both go through these highs and lows. Well , I'm high and she's low or I'm really low and she's high and thank God we have each other. Because imagine if we were just running this race by ourselves and you know, had nobody to talk to. Like, we need people who do similar things as us. We do different things as we need it . We need a circle, you know, a couple of people in our circle that can help us, you know , um , deal with the hard times and celebrate the great times. Like don't be afraid to have a little community stop being so scared somebody stealing your ideas or stealing your clients, you know , just choose the right people.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Exactly. So true. True. Um, what is it? Choose your tribe.

Speaker 4: 33:06

Yes. I love that.

Speaker 1: 33:09

I mean we have, we can invite, we can't, you know, have our own, we can't choose who our family is.

Speaker 4: 33:16

Right.

Speaker 1: 33:20

Life was given to you that we changed something in your life or in your business.

Speaker 4: 33:27

Yeah. Um , my advice always come from podcasts . So people have been telling me things all day, but if I'm in my car and I hear a little nugget and it's something James [inaudible] says, he says, what got you here won't get you there. And I love that because I feel that I received that. Like I said, I did the same things over and over and over and it got me the whole air . You know, what got you to this point was great, but it's not going to get you to the next level. It's going to keep you where you are. So if you want to try something new, try something different. I different strategy, a different way of thinking. So much of entrepreneurship starts with the mindset. You know , people who live in the scarcity mindset versus who live in the abundancy mindset, like live in abundance. Ego so nervous that you don't have enough weddings or money or, or any of the type of thing that you do. Um , just focus on, like I said, the possibility and that abundance is coming to you. It's not going to come to you if you're worried about the next video , paycheck and invoice , all that stuff live . You know, and this is a part of that that like , Liz , you know from the vision, like from where you want to be, don't live from what you're scared of, what you're nervous about. You know, if you want to be the six figure earner per year, what are those six figure earners do every day? Do they sit on Instagram for five hours? They have morning routines and living their mind open up. So it's a work from the vision of where you want to be instead of where you were because what got you here? I love it. I love all of that.

Speaker 1: 35:16

Such great advice. Um, so of course I wanna know tools. I wanna know tools that you're using your business now or that you first started because as a photographer and for me as like way back when when I did photography, there are a lot of tools and then it can kind of, you know, drive you a little crazy. What tools have you found that amazing for you and your photography business?

Speaker 4: 35:41

Yeah, I'll just go with my main tools I that I use every day. Uh, number one is 17 hats. So it's just a client management system. So some people might use HoneyBook though . Sato other things, just make sure you have a client management system that can send out invoices, collect payments , um, you don't have contracts signed , you know, use one, one of these back in the day I was like printing out a contract and mailing it to my client and waiting, Oh my gosh, this is the nineties one of the customer, was it CRM, customer relationship management system. So that's my number one tool is to have one of those. And then having something that allows us to schedule. So plan , you know , is great for Pinterest. Instagram tailwind is great for Pinterest. Facebook, you can just schedule right in the platform. You know your blog , WordPress, you can schedule everything given a chance to be automated, automate your invoice reminders and your questionnaires and plainly and Pinterest , all that stuff you can automate. So having a CRM, having scheduling tools, and then a third one, my calendar, Oh my gosh, just having a good calendar, writing things down, putting them in my Google calendar that syncs to my phone and just, you know, I've , I've known so many people who have like, Oh my gosh. I'm like , how do you do that? You need to have a calendar . Yeah. How do you double book

Speaker 1: 37:28

the same thing now I don't understand double booking, especially with calendars, Calendly, which you can set it and forget it.

Speaker 4: 37:41

Yeah. Well thank you so much for being here and telling us

Speaker 1: 37:45

not your story. It's like there's so many good gems in here. I'm just so excited that you came on.

Speaker 4: 37:51

Well, I'm so , so happy that you had me. This was so fun. I just loved talking business to , you know , other, you know, powerful female entrepreneurs. I'm just like so flattered that you , well, you're awesome. So of course.

Speaker 1: 38:05

So tell me, tell me and everyone else how, where they can find you, what you have coming up, what's new, what's happening for you in your business? Just give me the spiel.

Speaker 4: 38:16

Yeah, yeah. So you can find me an Angie macpherson.com . Um , I have some helpful blogs. I have some helpful videos. I even have a shop with a bunch of low priced products and help you grow your social media and actually plan a personal writing photo shoot that's been like my highest seller was like a 14 page ebook telling you how to choose new locations and props and outfits and all that good stuff. Um, and then you can also find me on Instagram. I love to talk on Instagram. I love to DM. I'll send you a voice memo half the time.

Speaker 5: 38:50

All right ladies, thank you for listening in . I hope this conversation inspired you. Be sure to subscribe and tell a friend that's it on this episode. And yes, you are crafted to thrive.