April 21, 2025 • 18 mins
In this episode, host Alora discusses the current downturn in inquiries and how societal changes are affecting consumer behavior beyond the wedding industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back toanother episode on the podcast.
I am so excited you guys areloving this series.
It's actually so fun to come upwith these episodes and I pretty
much just.
Outline them in a notes app or Iwill talk into my phone while
I'm driving'cause that's whenall my ideas come to me.
But anyway, you guys are eatenup, so I'm gonna give you what
(00:22):
you want and I want to talk alittle bit about drum roll
please.
I don't play the drums,obviously.
Why inquiries are down and whatthat means.
And everybody's freaking outright now about the possibility
of another recession.
Oh my gosh.
(00:42):
As a millennial, I feel likeI've lived through so many
historical, dramatic events thatI am done.
I can't even explain to you.
Yeah, if you've been born in thenineties I remember I was in
fifth grade when nine 11happened and they were like,
Hey, so the twin towersexploded.
Everybody has to go home.
(01:03):
And I was 11.
I was like, what do you mean thetowers exploded?
Floated.
Look, it was less than a half aday y'all.
We came in and I think we leftin the middle of lunchtime,
which was probably like 10:00 AMSo yeah, crazy.
And with all the talk of I don'tknow.
I don't watch the news.
I actually prefer to be a littledelusional.
I like to be a little out of theloop.
It actually gives me all of mypeace and sanity.
(01:27):
If you agree, send me a DM so Iknow somebody else is in the
same position as me, but yeah, Ijust, I'm not really a news
girl.
I used to watch the news all thetime and I found myself getting
depressed and I was like, huh,nope.
No more.
I can't hear about somebody'sdog dying down the street in the
city today.
But anyways, yeah.
So with all the talk about thisrecession talk and people being
(01:48):
worried and a lot of timespeople that.
Are not, my students are sayingthat couples aren't booking,
couples are ghosting.
They haven't had inquiries inmonths, which is a severe
problem.
And I think it's time to discussit because I personally think
the world itself is shifting,right?
(02:08):
Couples, buyers, like ingeneral, like the marketing, the
business world as a whole isshifting and changing.
I don't think it's necessarilyjust a wedding trend anymore.
Now that the aftershocks of thepandemic have completely leveled
out.
I'm starting to think that ourworld is completely different.
It will never go back to how itwas in 2019, no matter how hard
(02:30):
we try.
I remember when there used to belike 24 hour stores open.
How many of those are open now?
I remember somebody on threadsbeing like, does anybody
remember being out, after 8:00PM like it seems everything is
closed around 9:00 PM anyway, soI just think the world itself is
changing.
I think the way people arebuying is changing and yes, with
(02:52):
all this like possibility ofrecession talk, I always notice
that when the economy ischanging, I've noticed that, of
course, we notice the gasprices, but I also notice places
like Aldi, or what was it?
Dollar General, Dollar Tree,those places were increasing and
like The non-essentials areclosing down, for example,
(03:13):
forever 21.
It's going out of business.
Is JC Penny going out ofbusiness or are they just going
online?
And I've noticed too, a lot ofstores are going online because,
nobody's really shopping instore like they used to and with
Amazon taking over and prettymuch anything online, taking
over.
I was gonna buy something andWalmart sometimes will have a
(03:34):
same day delivery with no extracharge, which is insane.
So it's like, why do I need togo to the store if I can have
same day delivery if I justpurchase in a half an hour?
So things are changing.
I think the way people arebuying is evolving and one thing
I do think is essential isweddings.
'cause people, I think peopleare always gonna get married and
(03:54):
I think people are always goingto value photography.
And we all know that the 2% ofthe world, the people who are
wealthy, are not affected by thethings that all of us average
people are affected by.
So I personally don't believethat if you're in the high end
market, you're going to strugglebecause the rich usually get
(04:15):
richer in a recession.
I was watching about investmentsand stocks and how they're
investing and how theycapitalize on the 2008 crash and
all of these other thingsthey're actually getting
wealthier and they're smarterabout the way they spend their
money, and they make their moneywork for them.
I don't know if we're going intoa recession, but I do know the
way that people are buying isdifferent.
(04:37):
I am aware of that.
I do think the way that even uswe're shopping has changed and
thinking about, like even therestaurants we go to, I have to
make sure that there's a.
Certain amount of five starratings.
If there are way too many onestar, I'm not leaving my house
for that.
No.
I would rather just have takeoutsomeplace that I know and trust
already than having to trysomething new.
(04:58):
But that's just me personally.
I don't think that's actuallyaffiliated with this entire
conversation.
But that being said is yes,things are changing.
Okay.
And I just wanted to address itand say, I know that inquiries
are down, but.
In my program right now, westill have girls booking.
we still have girls gettingfeatured.
So I'm wondering if that seven Kand above tier is actually doing
(05:21):
just fine.
I don't know.
Or maybe it's just my girlsbecause they have all the
marketing strategies, Whichleads me to my topic today is
how to attract, align, dreamwedding couples right now.
And so the first thing I wannatalk about is how we are
approaching social media or anykind of fast paced marketing
platform is that there is thisthing that I have created on my
(05:43):
own Called the creator versusconsumer rule.
And so that means is that I wantyou to approach social media
specifically Instagram as acreator versus a consumer,
because if you approach it as aconsumer, then you're always
gonna be imbalanced.
You're always gonna have thecomparison trap.
You're always gonna be stuck.
(06:03):
And then because you'reingesting so much content,
you're actually crippling yourown creativity, and so you're
not going to be able to postanything.
This is what I've come up within terms of the creator role.
So creator would essentially besomebody who's posting, who's
engaging, who's sharing behindthe scenes and then gets off the
app without an emotionalattachment to it being like,
(06:26):
this is where my people are.
I'm having conversations, I amposting awareness.
I'm getting visibility.
I'm encouraging awareness withmy brand, and then moving on to
the next thing that you need toget off your plate versus a
consumer who is constantly onInstagram, scrolling
indefinitely, rotting in bed,and then stuck in the comparison
(06:49):
trap of comparing your work tosomebody else.
Comparing what you're chargingto, what someone else is
charging, comparing styles,looking for trends.
And while I think trends areimportant,'cause I do think that
it's a part of market research,I think that if you're
constantly doing it, then it'snot good for you.
Which is why I am a littlehesitant even when I'm teaching
about market research becauseyou can get so caught up in the
(07:10):
research that your firstinstinct will be to research
something before you dosomething or take action.
And I believe that's just no wayfor a CEO to act.
So how to get out of thecomparison trap essentially is
to remember that.
The internet is fake and I meanthat in the kindest way possible
(07:31):
that everything that we post iscurated.
I can even share some stuff withyou right now.
Like I don't always post mykids.
Every once in a while I'll postsomething cute and funny that I
think people will like and thinkthat people will resonate with
because.
People love that real authenticcontent, but even my real
authentic content is curated.
If my son was saying somethingsilly, I'm not gonna post the
(07:52):
full two minute audio, maybemore of a ten second audio and
the ten second audio That Ithink is the funniest versus
sharing the entire thing.
So in a sense, that is carefullycurated, whereas people will do
a photo dump, but they're notgonna share the bad stuff.
They're only gonna share thegood stuff because nobody wants
to be.
I always wanna say this, I hopenobody's name is Nancy, but a
(08:13):
negative Nancy.
And you're just, you're lookingat the 1% of someone's life and
you're looking at the 1% ofmaybe their best content.
And also after TikTok was quoteunquote gonna get taken down.
I realize that influencers lie.
And they lie a lot because theconfessions that have come from
(08:35):
them being like since TikTok isgonna be deleted tomorrow, I'm
just gonna let you know thisisn't my house.
Or I don't even eat the foodthat I take videos of.
Or I actually, insert Mistruthhere, right?
I already know that everythingon social media isn't real
because when you're aphotographer you know that we
(08:56):
design our own flat lays and wedo pose our couples, or if
you've been in a shoot or ifyou've ever worked with models
you know that everything isperfectly curated with the
production team and then noteverything is real for me.
I learned that nothing is real.
When I shot a wedding for areality TV show, my first year
of business and reality TV showis fake Like everything that
(09:20):
happened, they pretty muchsabotaged this girl's wedding,
paid her$20,000.
She was a teenager.
And they were like, Hey, yeah,so we're gonna sabotage your
wedding.
Basically listen to everythingthat we tell you to do, but
we're giving you 20 K.
And so they did that and theyinitiated fights rumors.
(09:40):
They've made the bride crypretty much the whole day.
And they would always have ascript like.
Oh my gosh.
Your makeup artist messed up onpurpose.
What do you have to say to herif you could say something to
her right now?
And first of all, the makeupartist didn't mess up and they
didn't mess up on purpose, andthey actually called the makeup
artist to fix the quote unquotemakeup afterwards.
So I was like, oh, wait aminute.
(10:02):
Like you, no television's fake,but it was really fake.
Oh, that's a whole tangent.
But now you know.
Like for me, I think that it'sso easy for me not to get caught
up in comparison.
'cause I just know everything'scurated.
And the internet is fake.
And that is my pedestal that Iwill stand on.
So how to think like a creatorinstead versus getting caught up
(10:24):
in the comparison trap of doom.
Remember that you're usingsocial media apps as a free
marketing platform or any appthat you're using other than
your blog, because you're payingfor that.
You're using it as a freemarketing platform, right?
People wanna see the creatorbehind the scenes and they wanna
get to know who they're hiring.
So show up.
(10:45):
People do care.
If they didn't care, theywouldn't have followed you.
You wouldn't have followers.
You'd have zero followers,right?
But people want to follow along.
So what should you do?
Show up, post something.
Entertain us, make us laugh, orbe yourself and we can see if we
(11:08):
resonate or if we agree withyou.
It just helps you really get toknow the creator.
And I think weddingphotographers have this better
than any other industry everbecause we literally get hired
to be ourselves and photographsomeone's day in our style.
So the whole point is likedifferentiation and them making
a connection with you, whenInstagram stories launched
(11:29):
because they were copying off aSnapchat.
Yes.
I have been around a long time.
So when Instagram storieslaunched and I posted my
daughter pretty much every day.
She was only six months, she waslaughing at something, she was
crawling, getting stuck, eatingsomething.
Who knows, six months is, it's awild, it was a wild time for me
'cause my daughter crawled veryearly, so she'd been busy all
her life and sharing that withpeople applying back, I had no
(11:52):
idea were my future couples andthey ended up booking me because
they loved my daughter, guys.
Now I do think the personalbrand has shifted a lot more
since then.
It's not just posting your lifeand hoping people book you, but
without being intentional.
Me just showing up, beingmyself, sharing my ideas,
sharing my daughter, and I don'tsuggest people do that now, and
(12:13):
also to be fair, like homegirlwas invited to three weddings
and I, and we brought her, myhusband would bring her, and
he's like, I just don't know whyI'm bringing her to this
wedding.
And I was like they asked forher to come to the reception.
So they came and she was like, Ithink she stopped coming when
she was like 18 months.
But anyway, it works.
This is proof about the personalbrand guys.
If people really make aconnection with you and they
(12:34):
feel like they know you and I,you don't have to be friends
with your couples, but.
I don't know.
It worked for me.
So share yourself.
I was having a conversation withmy web designer about this
actually yesterday, and I justthink if you just show up as
yourself, you're good.
It's not even that complicated.
It's not even that hard.
Just put something out there,whatever you're comfortable
(12:56):
sharing, of course, and findways to relate it back to
business if possible, but that'sthe only way you're gonna make
it, because as the industrygrows, as business grows, as
people come and go.
They're gonna be comparingwhoever they feel the closest
to.
Now, another thing you can do isjust remember you get what you
give.
I have so many photographersthat were booking intensives
(13:18):
with me, and they were like, I'mnot getting inquiries.
And I'm like, okay.
Are you marketing?
No.
Oh, okay.
Why?
Why not?
And it's why am I not gettinginquiries?
I was like, okay, you expecteverything to come to you with
no effort.
This is not what book have youread?
This is, it's not that easy.
It's not, we're not on cruisecontrol.
And if you are on cruisecontrol, don't be upset if you
(13:38):
get one inquiry a month.
Honestly, like marketing is allabout effort and it's just
showing up.
That's really all marketing isshowing up.
Putting your stuff out there,putting your best work out
there, attracting those aligneddream couples with the best
images that you have, with thebest stories you can tell.
and that's why in our signaturewedding photography program, we
(13:59):
teach you a tried and true fourpart marketing strategy.
Which covers all grounds.
It's not just, oh, post this onsocial media and you'll get
bookings.
It's not really that simple, butit is a nice deep dive strategy,
it covers the whole marketingball game.
Yeah, but it does start withsocial media because that will
(14:22):
be the easiest visibility andit's free.
Now, if you wanna be an adsgirly, that's fine.
Go ahead.
Pay for those bookings.
I am behind it.
But I do think before you payfor ads that we need to know if
your strategy is gonna work.
It's almost like you're wastingmoney if everything is not.
Perfectly pieced together.
(14:42):
Your message is clear.
Your dream couple is clear.
If you don't even know who DreamCouple is, please don't pay for
ads because you don't know whatyou're gonna get.
And then you're gonna be madabout what you get because you
didn't know what you wereputting out there.
And even having no strategy is astrategy, right?
It's just a scrappy one.
And we just need to be moreintentional also, don't give up.
Okay?
Don't give up.
(15:03):
You have to learn to hypeyourself up, which is why I
think mindset is probably one ofthe most important things you
can learn.
Because if you don't have thestrength and the mindset to
really back your own self up, beyour own height woman, it's
gonna be difficult.
And I don't know, I think maybethat's why our marketing
(15:23):
challenge did so good.
Like one of our students got sixinquiries.
One of'em booked three weddings.
It was actually insane.
And I was like, oh, so all youhad to do was post every day for
30 days and you got sixinquiries.
Huh.
That's amazing.
And really all it was justpositioning prompts That covered
all of the sales psychologygrounds because there's actually
(15:46):
a process, and it's step by stepto warm people up to who you
are, what you offer, and whyyou, it's not as simple as
curate your portfolio and you'regonna get dream couples.
I mean, Maybe it could be, butif you take it a step further
and really implement like asales strategy behind it, and be
very intentional and breadcrumbit as you go along, as you post
(16:07):
in your stories, we'll just useInstagram as an example because
apparently selling on Instagramhas some, been something I've
been doing for years and I just,I don't know.
It works guys' let's see.
My daughter was born in 2017, soI've been selling on stories
unbeknownst to myself since2017, and it works, and it's the
easiest platform to get the hangof.
Go all the way, invest all ofyour time into it just to
(16:30):
challenge yourself and you mightbe surprised to figure out what
you find.
So if you loved this episode andyou want more, don't forget to
RSVP for my free masterclass howto book 10 K weddings this year
on April 22nd at 12:00 PMEastern, I am gonna be walking
through a marketing campaignIt's gonna be so fun.
And you know me, I love amarketing campaign.
(16:50):
I love data and statistics andstrategies.
And so I'm gonna break thatapart for you and walk you
through what that looks like andhow having good marketing could
really make or break yourbusiness.
And just positioning your brainand thinking about things in a
more.
CEO way, all right.
That's it for this episode.
I hope this will help you getout of the comparison trap, and
(17:14):
really understand how toapproach marketing from a
creator versus a consumer path.
All right.
I will see you in next week'sepisode, And don't forget to
RSVP for my class and I will seeyou soon.
Bye.
Hello and welcome back toanother episode on the podcast.
I am so excited you guys areloving this series.
It's actually so fun to come upwith these episodes and I pretty
much just.
Outline them in a notes app or Iwill talk into my phone while
I'm driving'cause that's whenall my ideas come to me.
But anyway, you guys are eatenup, so I'm gonna give you what
(00:22):
you want and I want to talk alittle bit about drum roll
please.
I don't play the drums,obviously.
Why inquiries are down and whatthat means.
And everybody's freaking outright now about the possibility
of another recession.
Oh my gosh.
(00:42):
As a millennial, I feel likeI've lived through so many
historical, dramatic events thatI am done.
I can't even explain to you.
Yeah, if you've been born in thenineties I remember I was in
fifth grade when nine 11happened and they were like,
Hey, so the twin towersexploded.
Everybody has to go home.
(01:03):
And I was 11.
I was like, what do you mean thetowers exploded?
Floated.
Look, it was less than a half aday y'all.
We came in and I think we leftin the middle of lunchtime,
which was probably like 10:00 AMSo yeah, crazy.
And with all the talk of I don'tknow.
I don't watch the news.
I actually prefer to be a littledelusional.
I like to be a little out of theloop.
It actually gives me all of mypeace and sanity.
(01:27):
If you agree, send me a DM so Iknow somebody else is in the
same position as me, but yeah, Ijust, I'm not really a news
girl.
I used to watch the news all thetime and I found myself getting
depressed and I was like, huh,nope.
No more.
I can't hear about somebody'sdog dying down the street in the
city today.
But anyways, yeah.
So with all the talk about thisrecession talk and people being
(01:48):
worried and a lot of timespeople that.
Are not, my students are sayingthat couples aren't booking,
couples are ghosting.
They haven't had inquiries inmonths, which is a severe
problem.
And I think it's time to discussit because I personally think
the world itself is shifting,right?
(02:08):
Couples, buyers, like ingeneral, like the marketing, the
business world as a whole isshifting and changing.
I don't think it's necessarilyjust a wedding trend anymore.
Now that the aftershocks of thepandemic have completely leveled
out.
I'm starting to think that ourworld is completely different.
It will never go back to how itwas in 2019, no matter how hard
(02:30):
we try.
I remember when there used to belike 24 hour stores open.
How many of those are open now?
I remember somebody on threadsbeing like, does anybody
remember being out, after 8:00PM like it seems everything is
closed around 9:00 PM anyway, soI just think the world itself is
changing.
I think the way people arebuying is changing and yes, with
(02:52):
all this like possibility ofrecession talk, I always notice
that when the economy ischanging, I've noticed that, of
course, we notice the gasprices, but I also notice places
like Aldi, or what was it?
Dollar General, Dollar Tree,those places were increasing and
like The non-essentials areclosing down, for example,
(03:13):
forever 21.
It's going out of business.
Is JC Penny going out ofbusiness or are they just going
online?
And I've noticed too, a lot ofstores are going online because,
nobody's really shopping instore like they used to and with
Amazon taking over and prettymuch anything online, taking
over.
I was gonna buy something andWalmart sometimes will have a
(03:34):
same day delivery with no extracharge, which is insane.
So it's like, why do I need togo to the store if I can have
same day delivery if I justpurchase in a half an hour?
So things are changing.
I think the way people arebuying is evolving and one thing
I do think is essential isweddings.
'cause people, I think peopleare always gonna get married and
(03:54):
I think people are always goingto value photography.
And we all know that the 2% ofthe world, the people who are
wealthy, are not affected by thethings that all of us average
people are affected by.
So I personally don't believethat if you're in the high end
market, you're going to strugglebecause the rich usually get
(04:15):
richer in a recession.
I was watching about investmentsand stocks and how they're
investing and how theycapitalize on the 2008 crash and
all of these other thingsthey're actually getting
wealthier and they're smarterabout the way they spend their
money, and they make their moneywork for them.
I don't know if we're going intoa recession, but I do know the
way that people are buying isdifferent.
(04:37):
I am aware of that.
I do think the way that even uswe're shopping has changed and
thinking about, like even therestaurants we go to, I have to
make sure that there's a.
Certain amount of five starratings.
If there are way too many onestar, I'm not leaving my house
for that.
No.
I would rather just have takeoutsomeplace that I know and trust
already than having to trysomething new.
(04:58):
But that's just me personally.
I don't think that's actuallyaffiliated with this entire
conversation.
But that being said is yes,things are changing.
Okay.
And I just wanted to address itand say, I know that inquiries
are down, but.
In my program right now, westill have girls booking.
we still have girls gettingfeatured.
So I'm wondering if that seven Kand above tier is actually doing
(05:21):
just fine.
I don't know.
Or maybe it's just my girlsbecause they have all the
marketing strategies, Whichleads me to my topic today is
how to attract, align, dreamwedding couples right now.
And so the first thing I wannatalk about is how we are
approaching social media or anykind of fast paced marketing
platform is that there is thisthing that I have created on my
(05:43):
own Called the creator versusconsumer rule.
And so that means is that I wantyou to approach social media
specifically Instagram as acreator versus a consumer,
because if you approach it as aconsumer, then you're always
gonna be imbalanced.
You're always gonna have thecomparison trap.
You're always gonna be stuck.
(06:03):
And then because you'reingesting so much content,
you're actually crippling yourown creativity, and so you're
not going to be able to postanything.
This is what I've come up within terms of the creator role.
So creator would essentially besomebody who's posting, who's
engaging, who's sharing behindthe scenes and then gets off the
app without an emotionalattachment to it being like,
(06:26):
this is where my people are.
I'm having conversations, I amposting awareness.
I'm getting visibility.
I'm encouraging awareness withmy brand, and then moving on to
the next thing that you need toget off your plate versus a
consumer who is constantly onInstagram, scrolling
indefinitely, rotting in bed,and then stuck in the comparison
(06:49):
trap of comparing your work tosomebody else.
Comparing what you're chargingto, what someone else is
charging, comparing styles,looking for trends.
And while I think trends areimportant,'cause I do think that
it's a part of market research,I think that if you're
constantly doing it, then it'snot good for you.
Which is why I am a littlehesitant even when I'm teaching
about market research becauseyou can get so caught up in the
(07:10):
research that your firstinstinct will be to research
something before you dosomething or take action.
And I believe that's just no wayfor a CEO to act.
So how to get out of thecomparison trap essentially is
to remember that.
The internet is fake and I meanthat in the kindest way possible
(07:31):
that everything that we post iscurated.
I can even share some stuff withyou right now.
Like I don't always post mykids.
Every once in a while I'll postsomething cute and funny that I
think people will like and thinkthat people will resonate with
because.
People love that real authenticcontent, but even my real
authentic content is curated.
If my son was saying somethingsilly, I'm not gonna post the
(07:52):
full two minute audio, maybemore of a ten second audio and
the ten second audio That Ithink is the funniest versus
sharing the entire thing.
So in a sense, that is carefullycurated, whereas people will do
a photo dump, but they're notgonna share the bad stuff.
They're only gonna share thegood stuff because nobody wants
to be.
I always wanna say this, I hopenobody's name is Nancy, but a
(08:13):
negative Nancy.
And you're just, you're lookingat the 1% of someone's life and
you're looking at the 1% ofmaybe their best content.
And also after TikTok was quoteunquote gonna get taken down.
I realize that influencers lie.
And they lie a lot because theconfessions that have come from
(08:35):
them being like since TikTok isgonna be deleted tomorrow, I'm
just gonna let you know thisisn't my house.
Or I don't even eat the foodthat I take videos of.
Or I actually, insert Mistruthhere, right?
I already know that everythingon social media isn't real
because when you're aphotographer you know that we
(08:56):
design our own flat lays and wedo pose our couples, or if
you've been in a shoot or ifyou've ever worked with models
you know that everything isperfectly curated with the
production team and then noteverything is real for me.
I learned that nothing is real.
When I shot a wedding for areality TV show, my first year
of business and reality TV showis fake Like everything that
(09:20):
happened, they pretty muchsabotaged this girl's wedding,
paid her$20,000.
She was a teenager.
And they were like, Hey, yeah,so we're gonna sabotage your
wedding.
Basically listen to everythingthat we tell you to do, but
we're giving you 20 K.
And so they did that and theyinitiated fights rumors.
(09:40):
They've made the bride crypretty much the whole day.
And they would always have ascript like.
Oh my gosh.
Your makeup artist messed up onpurpose.
What do you have to say to herif you could say something to
her right now?
And first of all, the makeupartist didn't mess up and they
didn't mess up on purpose, andthey actually called the makeup
artist to fix the quote unquotemakeup afterwards.
So I was like, oh, wait aminute.
(10:02):
Like you, no television's fake,but it was really fake.
Oh, that's a whole tangent.
But now you know.
Like for me, I think that it'sso easy for me not to get caught
up in comparison.
'cause I just know everything'scurated.
And the internet is fake.
And that is my pedestal that Iwill stand on.
So how to think like a creatorinstead versus getting caught up
(10:24):
in the comparison trap of doom.
Remember that you're usingsocial media apps as a free
marketing platform or any appthat you're using other than
your blog, because you're payingfor that.
You're using it as a freemarketing platform, right?
People wanna see the creatorbehind the scenes and they wanna
get to know who they're hiring.
So show up.
(10:45):
People do care.
If they didn't care, theywouldn't have followed you.
You wouldn't have followers.
You'd have zero followers,right?
But people want to follow along.
So what should you do?
Show up, post something.
Entertain us, make us laugh, orbe yourself and we can see if we
(11:08):
resonate or if we agree withyou.
It just helps you really get toknow the creator.
And I think weddingphotographers have this better
than any other industry everbecause we literally get hired
to be ourselves and photographsomeone's day in our style.
So the whole point is likedifferentiation and them making
a connection with you, whenInstagram stories launched
(11:29):
because they were copying off aSnapchat.
Yes.
I have been around a long time.
So when Instagram storieslaunched and I posted my
daughter pretty much every day.
She was only six months, she waslaughing at something, she was
crawling, getting stuck, eatingsomething.
Who knows, six months is, it's awild, it was a wild time for me
'cause my daughter crawled veryearly, so she'd been busy all
her life and sharing that withpeople applying back, I had no
(11:52):
idea were my future couples andthey ended up booking me because
they loved my daughter, guys.
Now I do think the personalbrand has shifted a lot more
since then.
It's not just posting your lifeand hoping people book you, but
without being intentional.
Me just showing up, beingmyself, sharing my ideas,
sharing my daughter, and I don'tsuggest people do that now, and
(12:13):
also to be fair, like homegirlwas invited to three weddings
and I, and we brought her, myhusband would bring her, and
he's like, I just don't know whyI'm bringing her to this
wedding.
And I was like they asked forher to come to the reception.
So they came and she was like, Ithink she stopped coming when
she was like 18 months.
But anyway, it works.
This is proof about the personalbrand guys.
If people really make aconnection with you and they
(12:34):
feel like they know you and I,you don't have to be friends
with your couples, but.
I don't know.
It worked for me.
So share yourself.
I was having a conversation withmy web designer about this
actually yesterday, and I justthink if you just show up as
yourself, you're good.
It's not even that complicated.
It's not even that hard.
Just put something out there,whatever you're comfortable
(12:56):
sharing, of course, and findways to relate it back to
business if possible, but that'sthe only way you're gonna make
it, because as the industrygrows, as business grows, as
people come and go.
They're gonna be comparingwhoever they feel the closest
to.
Now, another thing you can do isjust remember you get what you
give.
I have so many photographersthat were booking intensives
(13:18):
with me, and they were like, I'mnot getting inquiries.
And I'm like, okay.
Are you marketing?
No.
Oh, okay.
Why?
Why not?
And it's why am I not gettinginquiries?
I was like, okay, you expecteverything to come to you with
no effort.
This is not what book have youread?
This is, it's not that easy.
It's not, we're not on cruisecontrol.
And if you are on cruisecontrol, don't be upset if you
(13:38):
get one inquiry a month.
Honestly, like marketing is allabout effort and it's just
showing up.
That's really all marketing isshowing up.
Putting your stuff out there,putting your best work out
there, attracting those aligneddream couples with the best
images that you have, with thebest stories you can tell.
and that's why in our signaturewedding photography program, we
(13:59):
teach you a tried and true fourpart marketing strategy.
Which covers all grounds.
It's not just, oh, post this onsocial media and you'll get
bookings.
It's not really that simple, butit is a nice deep dive strategy,
it covers the whole marketingball game.
Yeah, but it does start withsocial media because that will
(14:22):
be the easiest visibility andit's free.
Now, if you wanna be an adsgirly, that's fine.
Go ahead.
Pay for those bookings.
I am behind it.
But I do think before you payfor ads that we need to know if
your strategy is gonna work.
It's almost like you're wastingmoney if everything is not.
Perfectly pieced together.
(14:42):
Your message is clear.
Your dream couple is clear.
If you don't even know who DreamCouple is, please don't pay for
ads because you don't know whatyou're gonna get.
And then you're gonna be madabout what you get because you
didn't know what you wereputting out there.
And even having no strategy is astrategy, right?
It's just a scrappy one.
And we just need to be moreintentional also, don't give up.
Okay?
Don't give up.
(15:03):
You have to learn to hypeyourself up, which is why I
think mindset is probably one ofthe most important things you
can learn.
Because if you don't have thestrength and the mindset to
really back your own self up, beyour own height woman, it's
gonna be difficult.
And I don't know, I think maybethat's why our marketing
(15:23):
challenge did so good.
Like one of our students got sixinquiries.
One of'em booked three weddings.
It was actually insane.
And I was like, oh, so all youhad to do was post every day for
30 days and you got sixinquiries.
Huh.
That's amazing.
And really all it was justpositioning prompts That covered
all of the sales psychologygrounds because there's actually
(15:46):
a process, and it's step by stepto warm people up to who you
are, what you offer, and whyyou, it's not as simple as
curate your portfolio and you'regonna get dream couples.
I mean, Maybe it could be, butif you take it a step further
and really implement like asales strategy behind it, and be
very intentional and breadcrumbit as you go along, as you post
(16:07):
in your stories, we'll just useInstagram as an example because
apparently selling on Instagramhas some, been something I've
been doing for years and I just,I don't know.
It works guys' let's see.
My daughter was born in 2017, soI've been selling on stories
unbeknownst to myself since2017, and it works, and it's the
easiest platform to get the hangof.
Go all the way, invest all ofyour time into it just to
(16:30):
challenge yourself and you mightbe surprised to figure out what
you find.
So if you loved this episode andyou want more, don't forget to
RSVP for my free masterclass howto book 10 K weddings this year
on April 22nd at 12:00 PMEastern, I am gonna be walking
through a marketing campaignIt's gonna be so fun.
And you know me, I love amarketing campaign.
(16:50):
I love data and statistics andstrategies.
And so I'm gonna break thatapart for you and walk you
through what that looks like andhow having good marketing could
really make or break yourbusiness.
And just positioning your brainand thinking about things in a
more.
CEO way, all right.
That's it for this episode.
I hope this will help you getout of the comparison trap, and
(17:14):
really understand how toapproach marketing from a
creator versus a consumer path.
All right.
I will see you in next week'sepisode, And don't forget to
RSVP for my class and I will seeyou soon.
Bye.
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