You are listening to take it personally, a podcast for photographers about the personal side of business and the art of standing out. Here. I'll help you build a business and a brand that is uniquely you if you want to attract dream clients and stop looking at the competition to decide your next move. If you are ready to show up as a confident branding authority to help you serve your clients and consider your goals and priorities too. If you want to make your mark in a new, underserved niche of photography, then this is the place for you. I'm your host, Maddie Ashong, South Dakota brand photographer and educator. I'm a straight shooting Instagram obsessed. Diehard Swifty who has built a multi-six figure business on the back of brand photography all while raising a family, and I know you can do the same. Let's get ready to take it personally. We are in the heat of summer right now, and if you're anything like me, you don't really want to spend your summer working. However, you do wanna make sure that your business doesn't stop and specifically you don't stop making money while you're taking time off this summer or during any time of the year that you just wanna take a little break. And the key to being able to do that. Are through systems and automations. So today we are starting a short series on the podcast covering systems and automations in your brand photography business. And we're starting with the big one, the tool that I truly don't think I could run my business without, and that is a CRM. So we're gonna dive into why A CRM is the one tool that every brand photographer needs and why it's worth setting up sooner than later, even though I know that it feels like a beast to set it up, but I promise you it's going to save you so much time in the long run. If you are feeling overwhelmed with running your business, not the shooting part, right? Not like the being with client's part, but the running it part. This is probably. Why, if you have ever gotten an inquiry from a client that you would love to work with, but you're just overwhelmed at the thought of responding, even just responding to their inquiry because you're like, I don't know what to say in this reply email. I don't know what to send them. I don't have a good process when it comes to my proposal or my contract or my invoice, and then I have to onboard this client and then I have to plan the session, and then I have to shoot the session. That's the fun part. That's the easy part. But then I have to offboard the client and I don't have a good process for that. Or maybe you're listening to me talk right now and you're like, oh, I'm not doing any of this I am just shooting the session and calling it a day. We have to have a conversation and i'm glad you're here. We're coming into this without. Judgment of ourselves or other businesses because here's the thing, CRMs, while they are fantastic, and I always say my CRM was my assistant before I could hire an assistant, shout out to Kenzie, but truly my CRM, my client relationship manager was my assistant before I could actually afford one. However, I fully recognize that if you've ever looked at a tool like Dato or HoneyBook before, those are really the big two that I recommend. It just looks very overwhelming. It looks like there are a lot of moving parts. Maybe you've even considered using a smaller or a different CRM because it just feels like it would be less overwhelming and it's easier to set up. It is completely worth it for you to take some time to rip off that bandaid and to set something like this up because of the amount of time it's gonna save in your business. If you are sending contracts and Google Docs or invoices QuickBooks or emails from your inbox. You've got client details scattered across your notes app, random dms, notion documents. You need A CRM. If you're juggling too many tools, too many tabs and doing too many things manually, you need a CRM. And look, I'm not saying like the CRM is the only tool you're gonna use in your business. No. Like there are definitely other tools that we use as brand photographers. You need a gallery delivery software. Like there are other things that you need. Your CRM is going to be able to run so much of the backend of the client experience part of your business, which again, like that's the part that not to like beat a dead horse, that's the part that your client experiences. So this is arguably one of the most important pieces of your business. A CRM Short for Customer Relationship Management Tool. This is really the nerve center of your business and for brand photographers, that means one place to manage leads, some proposals, book clients get paid. Deliver prep materials and really keep track of every client interaction from inquiry to offboarding, even to rebooking. This is your client command center, and when you set it up right, it runs so much of your business for you. I have been. Utterly unplugged from my business for the last probably three weeks. If you're a mom in the summer, like we have full-time childcare and I'm still in the car half the day. I don't understand. So I have been so unplugged and I have closed over $10,000 worth of projects in the last couple of weeks. I should actually look up what the actual dollar amount is, but I know for a fact it is over $10,000 worth of projects, and that's because I have systems that are running for me. So when you set this up right. You have to do so much less. You have automated inquiry replies. So if someone sends you an inquiry and is interested in booking, they get an immediate email back that says, Hey, don't worry, your email has landed safe and sound in my inbox. They get booking workflows. So you send a proposal to start the process. You don't have to worry about, oh, by the way, you forgot to pay your invoice. Oh, by the way, your questionnaire's not filled out yet. Oh, by the way, you didn't sign your contract. Like, you don't have to worry about that because it's automated. The reminders, everything is automated. Payment reminders, that's a big one. If people haven't paid you and you're finding out about it three days later or three weeks later because you finally see that they haven't paid you, that can be something that's automated within your CRM. You don't have to send session prep emails and like manually send those because it's a part of your process that just runs seamlessly without you and so many other things that you can do. This is not just about looking professional, although that is a large piece of it because perception is everything, but it's also about creating a repeatable and consistent client experience that saves you time. And increases your referrals. I think too often photographers are slapping labels like luxury or premium on the services that they are providing without actually having a luxury or premium service. Really, bomb photography is not what makes you a luxury or premium photographer. Great client experience is. So now the big question, which one do you use? The two that come up most often. And if you Google like photography, CRMs, you're gonna see dub. You're gonna see HoneyBook. And those are the two that I recommend. I don't necessarily recommend other CRMs. Cloud Spot does have a really great CRM, but it doesn't have all of the capabilities of something like IDO and a HoneyBook does. I love Cloud Spot. They are my preferred gallery. Um, software, uh, but their CRM is just a little bit different than Dsto and HoneyBook because of those capabilities. So here's a little bit of a quick breakdown between DDO and HoneyBook. I have been vocal in the past about preferring Dodo over HoneyBook, and Dodo is the CRM that I use. Years ago when I made that decision, HoneyBook did not have as many of the capabilities that it has now. I have had the opportunity over the last couple of months to chat with the HoneyBook team to take a look behind the scenes of the HoneyBook CRM and kind of like dig around a little bit. I had a call with HoneyBook a couple of weeks ago. I have been so pleasantly surprised at the updates that they have made, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about this in future episodes. But really between these two CRMs at this point, it's kind of a flip of a coin. So I would say if you are on HoneyBook or Dodo, like. You're doing something right. That's great. If you're between the two, pick the one that you feel like, honestly, honestly, pick the one that you think you wanna spend the most time in. You wanna make sure that the CRM that you choose is a CRM that like you like to open it up every day. You like to spend time in there. I was on A CRM before I moved to Dato that. I just didn't like, the UI was not great, the user interface, it was just not my favorite. I didn't wanna spend time in there. And when it's your CRM, like you can and should spend time in your CRM, you're not like babysitting anything, but like, you should be opening it up and looking at that probably on a daily basis. And if you hate the look of it, you're not gonna want to do that. So pick the one that you want to spend time in. That feels like you could, uh, maybe understand how it works a little bit faster. If there's one that as you're kind of dinking around, like one that seems to make sense to you over the other, pick that one and know that it's pretty much a coin flip at this point. There are so many things that you can do. Try not to get intimidated that there are so many things that you can do because that's where I see a lot of photographers get stuck they're like, there's just so much capability here. I'm going to pick something that is less overwhelming. But then it's not able to really scale and grow with your business. And at some point you're gonna have to transfer everything into Dato or HoneyBook to be totally honest with you, and then you're starting over. Take it from experience that sucks. So pick one that can grow with you. Pick one between Dato or HoneyBook. Either one will change your life. Truly, it just depends on how, you want to run your business. Let's talk about a few things that your CRM can automate that will immediately free up free space in your brain, because these things are probably things that you're doing manually right now. So the first thing is inquiry replies. You can send a branded warm welcome email automatically the moment someone fills out your contact form. This is a great way to use automated emails in a way where people expect it. So I hear from so many photographers who are scared to use automations because they're worried that people are going to know that they're automated. This is an example of a place where people expect it to be automated. They expect that if they send an email through a contact form, they get an email back that says, got your email. I'll be in touch within 24 hours or 48 hours. They expect that, so give that to them. Use an inquiry response that is automated that you don't have to think about. So if you're away from your desk, or if it's a Tuesday evening, they're still going to get a thank you so much, email, and then you can get back to it the next day. You can also automate a lot of scheduling. You can integrate your calendar to offer discovery calls or sessions without that email back and forth. This is a huge way to decrease booking friction. I've talked before about discovery calls. I'm a huge fan of discovery calls in my business, and the way that I can get people on calls quickly is because I send the Dato scheduler in my initial. Inquiry email, and that particular email is not fully automated, but it is templated, so they get that initial automatic inquiry email. Thank you so much. Got your message. I get back on my computer the next morning, I pull up that templated email. I change a couple of things. It already has the scheduler inside of it, and I fire that off so I'm not over here spiraling about how to respond to an inquiry that I'm really excited about because I. Use the same template every single time. I just change a couple of things. So that's another area that scheduling can be automated. So you're not like, does this day work for you? Does this time work for you? Oh, that I have a meeting then. What about this? Nope. You're just sending your scheduler and calling it a day. Proposals are a big one, and we're gonna talk more about this in next week's episode where I have my friend Coley James on. She's also the person that I am doing a webinar with in the middle of July, on July 17th. And we're gonna dive even deeper into these automations that you can set up in your brand photography business. I was not using proposals until I started working with Coley, and I was feeling pretty good about the automations I had in my business. Proposals took it to a completely different level. If you are charging four figures plus for brand photography, which that's great, you should be, but your proposal does not match that luxury price point. We gotta talk. We talk a lot on this episode and I talk a lot in my business about positioning, about how people are perceiving your brand and how they see your brand in the market among other businesses and other brands. This is one of the ways that you can continue to truly position yourself. As that premium brand photographer, as that luxury brand photographer by having a luxury premium proposal, send one beautifully branded link with a proposal with your pricing, your contract, your invoice. Clients can pay and sign in minutes because they have all of the information they need, and you have wowed them with the proposal that matches the four figure price tag. You can also automate prep guides and reminders as brand photographers. There are definitely things that we do that cannot be automated or are difficult to automate. I teach putting together a brand shoot guide. I think it is an incredibly important part of the brand photography process, but it does take some time. Highly recommend outsourcing it to your VA if you can. But if you're doing it yourself, like it does take some time, so why not automate every other part of your business so you can spend that time on the shoot guide and not be panicked about wasting time on that. Making sure that your questionnaire is automated to go out, that any other prep guides or information or blog articles or whatever that, that is all automated to go out. You don't have to babysit it. You don't have to remember, oh, it's time to send the questionnaire. That happens automatically. And then if they don't fill the questionnaire out that there's a reminder that goes out. So you get your information in time to actually put together the shoot guide. You can automate emails like what to wear to your session, or Here's where to park at your session. And it's that sort of stuff that makes clients feel taken care of without you having to remember to do it every single time you book a client. And then follow up and thank yous. So making sure that you are ending your session with an automated review request. So one month after your session. Can't believe it's been a month. Would love to get your feedback. Would love to like get a referral from you or have you, you know, if you had a good experience, refer me to your friends. Having those touch points are part of what helps your client continue to talk about you with their friends and send more people their way. This opens up so many future booking opportunities, not just with referrals, but also with that client. Do you have a process in your business where clients feel invited to come back? Do your clients know that entrepreneurs should have one brand session done every single year? Do they know that? Because if they don't know that, and if that's not an automated part of your business, you're literally leaving money on the table. People are not going. To be booking because they don't understand that it's normal to get this session done every single year. These tiny moments build a brand experience that clients remember and that they refer from. So here's the thing, brand photography. It's different from wedding or family photography. Your clients are business owners and they expect professionalism, especially if you want to start attracting more of what I call commercial brand photography. So working with law firms and accounting firms and dentist's office and doing more corporate headshots, they're very familiar with working with a professional. And so you're gonna stand out like a sore thumb if you don't have. A professional process, you're also going to stand out in a positive way if you do have a professional process because so many photographers don't. So many photographers are still operating from that place of like how they used to operate when their photography business was a hobby. Or a side hustle. And when you are in that four figure price tag for your sessions, whether you're charging a thousand dollars or 2,500 or 5,000 or 7,000 or whatever it might be, you better have an experience starting with your booking process that matches that price tag. These clients are familiar with client portals and branded processes, and when you send a Google Doc contract or forget a prep email, that doesn't feel good for them, but when you greet them with a gorgeous onboarding process, a streamlined session prep guide and these timely reminders, you become a trusted partner and that leads to return, clients referrals, premium pricing, all the things that we want. If you are still in the, I will set that up later phase, I would love to laughingly challenge you because CRMs are not just for people with full calendars. They are for people who want to build businesses that scale. I. Don't understand how you can possibly scale without a CRM. I suppose you could, but it is a recipe for burnout. So even if you're only shooting a few sessions a month, start this now. Make your life even easier now. Get those systems in place so when you do have more inquiries or have more clients, you're not scrambling. Or you can be like me and like transition to shooting less and less just because it fits your. Lifestyle and you still have a process that ultimately practically runs without you. Uh, most CRMs do offer like trial periods or free starter accounts, so that's also a really good place to start. If you are looking at multiple CRMs, if you're choosing between Dato or HoneyBook, open a free account at both of them and see what one you prefer. In the show notes, I will put my affiliate link for both Dato and for HoneyBook so you can get started. So if you're looking for one business tool that will make the biggest difference in your workflow. It is A-C-R-M-A-C-R-M will save you time. It will save you money. I know that if you are in the beginning stages of, um, like getting tools in your business or outsourcing in your business, I totally understand that buying a CRM can feel like a pretty big leap, but I promise you it will save you time. And it will save you money. So whether you go with Doto or HoneyBook, set it up, automate what you can, your business is going to feel so much lighter and come back next week when I have an episode with my friend Coley James. We have a really fun surprise coming that I can't talk about yet, but we will talk about in next week's episode, and we've got a couple of weeks of really great episodes about automations and workflows and how you can. Help your business feel a little bit lighter this summer and well into fall. Busy season two. Thank you so much for listening to take it personally. If you haven't already, would you head over to iTunes and leave us a review? This is the best way to let other photographers know about the show and help keep us creating content you crave. And if you want more tips and tools to build your personal photography brand, head over to my website, maddie pong.com. Here you can access my downloadable ultimate personal brand session shot list to get your clients singing your praises and browse my blog for more trade secrets to help you hone your craft and grow your business. Love to learn while you listen. Visit maddie peon.com and click on podcast for all things. Take it personally. From show notes to recent episodes and incredible guest profiles, remember friend, the most important part of any brand is the people behind it. Branding and business is personal, so let's take it personally.