Struggling to Stand Out? The Photography Branding Secrets You Can’t Afford to Ignore!

Welcome to the Cowgirls with Cameras podcast. I'm Kim with Kim Beer Photography and Be More Business.

Cara with Fast Horse Photography.

And I'm Phyllis with Phyllis Burchett Photo. Good morning, both of you.

It is early and it is cold.

Good morning.

Well, we're about to be in Arizona, which somebody posted. It was going to be in the eighties there and I'm not prepared to pack for the eighties. Like I was packing a stack of sweaters and now I'm going to have to like rethink all the layers. So.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yep, it's 80 plus degrees every day.

I, that's what it says. Yeah. I wasn't prepared for that. Usually it's in the forties of the morning.

Are you kidding? Like, seriously?

Seriously.

I am totally not prepared for that. It's hoodie weather. It's winter here.

But it's still supposed to be cold in the morning so we have to like think layers. I'm just not prepared for this situation.

Yeah, but not cold, cold. Not like cold, it's like it's been here.

Well, that's true.

I, cold there is different than cold here. It is negative 10 this morning.

Yes. Well, it's too.

I'm sorry. That sounds miserable.

And there's like seven inches of snow out there.

that's pretty. It's 29 degrees here. Super windy. And I know, we don't have the pretty snow to look forward to. We have a...

and you don't even have the cool snow.

tell you what I will pack some up and send it off to Georgia.

Okay, if you can figure out how to do that, I would be extremely happy. I want enough to cover my yard though.

Ha ha.

I have I have 750 acres of the stuff I think I can cover.

And after selling five, I only have 24 left, so that'll cover it.

you

Oh, goodness. what have, other than the horrid weather and the fact that I am not completely prepared this morning, as Cara has reminded me, how are you two doing? What are you up to?

All right.

I'm sorry. I'm grumpy. was up all night. My husband was spent sick all night and I kept slept in the guest room, I kept jumping up and checking on him every time he got up and just making sure he wasn't getting too like over the top from being super sick. And, yeah, I've been editing like crazy because that's the season I'm in right now, trying to get portraits out to people.

And getting ready for viewing appointments and ordering artwork and receiving artwork, delivering artwork. And, well, I'll you talk about the other thing that we've been doing since you've been doing, you've been living in it more than I have this last couple of weeks.

Who is you? Me? You mean my full-time job for the last two weeks that I have been of community building? Yes. yeah, you want, don't, Phyllis, why don't you go and then I'll launch into.

I would say you. You Kim.

of community, community.

Well.

I was going to say let me talk first because yours is going to be more interesting probably. Well actually I've just been, let's see, well I went to, since I talked to you guys I have been to South Dakota. Yep, I've been to South Dakota. It was so much fun. A good friend of mine and I flew into South Dakota to Rapid City and we hung out in Walls, my favorite town, Walls, South Dakota, and went to the Badlands for a couple

that's right.

the days to photograph and

we then we met a new friend Mackenzie Myers. She's the Minnesota farm girl on Facebook and I'm sorry on Instagram and she has a photography business and she was working the stock show but she was able to hang out with our to help help us get a shoot together or she got to shoot together for us on that Sunday with a bunch of her wonderful friends. had so much fun with Maxi and Alan and Charlie and

John and Baxter and my gosh it was it was like an afternoon of laughter and fun and just just a really really great at a great day of shooting and then Valentine's week I don't know why but for some reason it was a lot of galentine stuff for me we yeah well since I don't have a that kind of significant other other than my dog

That's nice. I hate Valentine's Day.

It was all we just had a bunch of girl stuff It was well and some of it was just catching up from the holidays that we were so busy during the holidays We were finally getting stuff done and then the ranch and office work and trying to get stuff done for the community for Kim And my newsletter and some editing. That's what I've been doing. So Kim off to you talk about community

Well, well, I will I do want to catch everybody up on one other thing, though, that I guess well, it was my birthday on Sunday. And.

That's right. Happy birthday to you.

Yes, it was.

So, but it's funny you mentioned Galentine's Day. So being a two days past Valentine's baby, I always get all the Valentine's Day stuff for my birthday because it's all on sale by the time the 16th of February rolls around. everyone who knows me always buys me discount heart merchandise.

for my birthday. It's always an interesting I know Phyllis is born close to Christmas. So I imagine you get recycled Christmas gifts as well. It's interesting when you're born. Carrie, you're not born near a holiday. So on Mother's Day, okay.

My birth, I was born on mother's day, but it only is like every so many years that it falls on it now, but.

as

Yeah, actually being born in the holidays for me just means that, this is your Christmas and your birthday present. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, my husband, Ed, his birthday is on Christmas Eve. So he totally gets, we totally have that in my family too. And my mother's birthday is on Valentine's day. So it's part of the reason I hate Valentine's day is cause my mother was always like making it miserable. Like, cause it's her birthday, not Valentine's day. And she didn't like all the heart stuff, I guess. I don't know. So I don't, I don't have, I just don't care for Valentine's day.

Anyway.

Yes.

I have embraced the heart stuff. I'm totally OK with getting heart stuff for my birthday. Valentine's Day, I enjoy kind of the pink and red theme. Anyway, all of that is a side, because there's much more exciting news going on in our world. And that is the launch of the official Cowgirls with Cameras community. And I have been working on this for months now. And it's been a flurry of activities

Good.

since the first of the year and very excited about launching the community and very excited that we have officially let beta testers in as of yesterday, which by the time you guys listen to this podcast, by the time it's published and you're listening to it in your car or in your tractor or wherever you're listening, we will actually be up and running. So you can head over to our website and there will be a page on there. It's not currently there in this particular moment.

or recording, it will be by the time you hear this and you can go and I do I have added an additional assignment that actually needs

Now you have a deadline.

all while we're on the road.

it just it needs to be up there before we actually leave. it'll be good. I will have it done. And very, very, I feel like I have been nesting. So I've been creating, you know, like that thing where you like, clean up your house and you nest and you decorate because you're going to have a big party and have a lot of people over.

And you want to have fun activities and scheduled and you've got like places set up for people, you purposely set up little situations for people to get interactive with each other. And that's what I've been doing for the past two months, but I've been doing digitally in this community. And a little rundown of what you can expect. There's a free version of the community that you can access. It is limited.

to a few free courses and basically a small open discussion thread and then some more in-depth information about us. Like it's gonna give you a little bit more contact with us than say our website would. And a little more intimate contact even than social media.

And then if you decide to move into becoming an official founding herd member, so that's gonna be for the next year, we're doing this at a special price, you can become a founding herd member, get grandfathered in for that for a while, and you can expect to find a pretty in-depth equine photography for beginners course, and if you need to brush up on your skills, this is a great place for you to go, it's seven plus hours.

of all kinds of stuff that all three of us have contributed. I feel I'm very proud of it. I'm sure somebody's gonna come along and point out something I did wrong, but it's all good. Please tell me where it's at and I will fix it, but I'm very thrilled with how it came out and excited for people to get in there and learn and watch. And then we have some more advanced courses that people can get into and take. And that is just the

You should be, it's amazing.

the very basis of it. It's really set up for our community to be able to talk to each other, to meet each other, to learn, to ask questions, to understand, you know, come celebrate your wins, come bring your challenges, and there's a warm audience there that'll cheer for you or hand you suggestions, help you out, give you a hand up.

It's just, I think it's gonna be a wonderful situation for a lot of people. our, when the first beta testers like claimed their memberships, it was so much fun to let them in and all of the learning curve and figuring out how to do that. It's been a blast, but it's been a lot of, it's been almost consuming for me since the first of the year. So, yay!

It's pretty impressive, Kim. You've done a great job.

You've been amazing.

Thank you, thank you. I will take those accolades. All right, so are we ready to launch into this particular month's episode? we?

Yeah.

Yeah, I think, before we get started, can we real quick just remind people we've got a couple of really great events right now that are starting to fill up. we're we've got our cottonwood ranch event in Nevada, which is our learning experience. And we've also got our trappers Lake lodge event, which is our adventure and it's a perfect for fall color. If you're looking for fall color with horses, I won't go into detail because we've talked about them so many times, but definitely head over to our events page because these events.

Mm-hmm. Yep.

No worries. No worries. Awesome. Yeah, so for the next few episodes, we are going to be breaking down a topic that I think is very much of interest to a lot of our audience and that is establishing yourself as a photographer.

instead of waiting until the end, in case we lose folks. So yes, let's jump into the topic.

And this is a journey that we three have all undertaken, and I'm sure a lot of you out there listening have undertaken. And hopefully, even if you're established as a photographer, this will help you give just a few thoughts of how you might expand, grow, improve, or change how you're showing up in the world as a photographer. So the first thing we wanted to talk about was building your photography brand.

And to me, when we talk about photography brand and establishing yourself as a photographer, now, I'm going to, I know that this really leans into business, but what I'm going to talk about is going to lean into those of you who don't necessarily have a photography business, but you're really serious with your hobby and you want to develop a style and you want to develop a brand for yourself. And

I think of that as personal branding versus professional branding. And for photography, those two worlds really, really dovetail with each other. You can't really separate the two because the photographer is the business. And at the end of the day, everything that I'm going to talk about, at least in the part of this about developing your own style, which is what I'm going to discuss, this is true whether you're developing a personal brand

even just for yourself or whether you're developing a public brand that you are going to bring out into the world as a photography business. So we've had other episodes where we talked a lot about developing style and starting to really explore how you want to express yourself in a consistent way. I think as a business owner,

a lot of photographers feel really pushed into developing a very specific style, like people will hire me. And I think a lot of that came from the Instagram era. of all of the filters in Instagram, there was a certain look that a lot of photographers would start to adopt. And then their clients began to expect that look from them. And it became, yeah, and they felt trapped in it. I really think

feel trapped in it.

that that particular influence, although it's still in our world, I think the filter influence is fading away. What do you guys think about that? Do you think it's, do you see it fading the influence of the Instagram filter fading away?

I don't think the filter's going anywhere, but I think those trends that people hop on, like I think that's where people get stuck in their style. Like they hop on a trend and then they flow with it. And then that trend starts to away, but they're still kind of stuck there. And like, what do I do with my style now? Like, where do I go from here? And yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm stuck because this is it and it's dated now, right? Because trends are that way. Trends in and of themselves are dated. So, Phyllis, you were going to say something. So let me give you a space.

I'm not really into trends, so that's hard for me to, you know, I can't. Yeah.

And I perfect thank you for that because that's exactly the point I want to make is that when you're looking at your style, don't feel like you have to be pressured into that Instagram kind of style situation. There's there's a lot to developing your own unique style in in how you work and what your photographs are for some people style is like the

the look and feel of their images. and it's over the body of your work as well. think another place people get stuck on style is they think every photo has to match that style. And that's not necessarily true. There are some photographers that shoot only in black and white. And that's what their clients expect. There are other photographers that have a really what I would call a demure style that's that's very floaty and airy. There's other photographers that have that

harsh reality that they've they've pushed on for gritty and and it sometimes fits with what your genre is like where you're shooting even in the Western industry there's different genres inside of our industry and especially if you blanket it out to the entire equestrian industry there's a lot out there that you can fall into for different styles that fit what you're shooting.

The thing that I want to encourage you to do is to make your style flexible and creative. And I also want to expand that to say your style can also be the experience that you provide for your clients or for your subjects. For me, a lot of my photography, commercial photography was more about the experience that the client could expect with me.

than it necessarily was about some type of a filter or a certain look to the photos. I'm able to adapt to what my clients needed and that experience became what sold people to work with me. So I think that it's important to not set so many boundaries when we say develop your style or...

to feel particularly pressured to do that and say, can't become an established photographer until I have an established style. I don't think those two things go together. The thing I do want to mention in this area of developing your unique style is that the place that you do need to set the boundaries and you do need to define yourself if you're establishing yourself as a photography business is in your client experience.

you

and in how you do business, because those are the things that are going to bring the right people to your door and repel the people that will not be happy with you. So the way that you do this is think about who your ideal client is. Like, who do you want to have as an ideal client? What would that person be? And if you're brand new to business, that may be a stretch. You may have to make the person up.

If you've been working for even just a little bit of time and had even a few clients, you'll start to identify the ones that are really easy and breezy and light and fun to work with and the ones where they're always constantly a challenge. And it's not necessarily that the people themselves are the challenge. I want to exclude that. I'm not talking about the Karens that show up in your world. Sorry to all the Karens out there who are not Karens, but.

that that sort of attitude. That's not what I'm discussing. I'm just saying that sometimes people's expectations are easier for us to fulfill than others. So let me give you an example because I'm being kind of rambly and vague. For me, need I need clients come to me because I will push them out of their comfort boundary and exploring things. Okay, that's one. But in order

for me to be successful with that, I have to have a client who's willing to step out of their boundary, right? Who's willing to step out of the hard edges that they've created for themselves. And I'm talking about in marketing and in photography both. So, and also in my gestalt practice, you got to step into some authenticity there that is really out of your comfort zone. If you're not willing to do that, then you and I are going to be butting heads constantly.

you're not going to be happy with my services and I am not going to have a fun time being the service provider. So that's what I'm talking about. Think about the person that is going to bring the most joy and happiness to your workday. That's the person you want to gear your experience toward and create everything around making that experience stellar for that person. And

If you do well in developing your style of how you work, how you do it here, then naturally the people who don't fit that won't be attracted to want to come into it, correct? So that's the ultimate goal in developing your own unique style. So two different paths. There's the creative style that we're looking at and the way that you actually work as a photographer.

And then in establishing yourself in a photography business, there's also the style that you're gonna create as a business owner and within your client experience. Does that make sense?

think so, yeah.

Awesome. All right. So I will get off my soapbox about client experience. And I do want to refer you to one book if you are a baby entrepreneur or if you're an entrepreneur who hasn't read it. And that is good grief. The E-Myth Revisited. Man pulled that out of the north end of my brain.

Man, I was afraid I was going to have to start guessing.

you

I'm going to tell you some warnings. knew exactly what book I wanted to talk about, but it whipped right on up there. So it's the E-Myth Revisited. And you definitely want the E-Myth Revisited, not the E-Myth, because it was updated for a more current type of a situation. And when you read the book, you're going to go, what is Kim telling me to do? Is she telling me to start a franchise? No, I'm not. I'm not telling you to start a franchise.

you

you

What I'm telling you to do is to learn from the franchise model, which he talks about, about defining a way that we do it here. And I think that when you are establishing yourself as a photographer and you're thinking about brand, that is the number one thing that should be on your list. And so frequently, it is the thing that you do five years into your business. So I'm just saying start early.

I had a quote this week or that I think fits what you're saying about client experience too, Kim. was, your brand isn't what you do, it's how you make people feel. And I think that fits perfectly for what you were talking about. So, yeah.

Yeah, it's because it is it's about their experience that they have with you. Not necessarily what you do. But I think as photographers, we we do. Because our work is visual. There are expectations.

All right, who's going next?

I guess I am. mean, if we're going in order. Go Phyllis. I'm going to talk about creating a strong online presence. a lot of times when people, my first thought when you gave me that topic to talk about this week was just social media. But really, online presence is so much more than social media. Because if you want to create a really, really good online presence for your business, you really

Phyllis.

really need to include so many different things. Number one, think, is a good professional website.

Then you go into marketing your business with SEO and your blogs and utilizing social media and maybe even showcasing your work through sharing, like online sharing galleries to get your work out there and seen by a different, know, more audiences than just your, what your, don't pinhole yourself, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And then of course staying really active and engaged on all of these platforms.

We're going to talk a little bit about your website first. It should make a really strong impact on visitors, because I think your first impression when they open up your website is really key. Make sure that your, this is one of my pet peeves for people that have websites, is make sure your contact information is really displayed prominently and your location. I've been to photographers' websites and I don't have a clue where they're from, where they're based out of.

That happens to a lot of, mean, like a lot of people don't put that on there. And I think they're being purposeful about that, maybe because they want to work like nationwide. I'm not really sure, but yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you do that, if you want to work nationwide, you can stay based in Missouri working internationally. I mean, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I mean there's ways around it. I still think you should include where you're based out of Yeah, and then also adding a blog to share your work and connect with your audience Blogging and email marketing are excellent ways to engage with your audience and build relationships Big one is of course to optimize a search engine optimization or SEO This will increase your visibility and reach a much wider audience and I would really strongly consider hiring a

SEO expert to work with who can help you with optimizing your website and it'll improve your search engine ranking for your website. That's I think really important because I don't have any I don't have a clue about SEO and I think it's very helpful to hire somebody that does. Is that is that something you do Kim?

It's not something I personally do any longer because I teach more of it than anything. I do think a lot of the thing I want to say about search engine optimization and hiring somebody is don't hire people who email you. This is one of the places on the internet that is the biggest scammies of the planet. So if companies are reaching out to you saying, I can optimize your website, ignore them.

man, yes.

you should do is to talk to other photographers, other people who are business owners even, and then ask them who they're using for SEO. And make sure you ask them what their results are, like what have what has actually been the realization of working with that individual because they may have fallen for the scam and will refer you the scammer. And then when you find reputable people, then

find them through referrals because again, this is a place where you cannot depend on people reaching out and sales pitching you because they're going to do something. It's not that they, most of them aren't nefarious and they do actually do something, but it's not what you're paying for and it's a huge scam.

Yeah, they stay just inside the law so they can't get in trouble because they actually do something, but it's definitely not, not what they promise you. Let's put it that

Yeah, I agree with that. think I get probably on average of five to ten emails almost daily of people like, we've been to your website and you know, yes, you have a major problem.

There's a problem. I'm like, rude.

Yeah, most of those are bots. They're just AIs that are coming in visiting and saying, she has a form. Let's make sure we tell her about her website is. Yeah. Those are not people you want to hire. But a good SEO person is worth their weight in gold because they'll help you develop a strategy. And photography is one of those things that people Google. And they will look for you in a search engine.

Yeah.

But yeah.

Well, I was going to, that's another point too about websites is I know for me sometimes if I'm checking out a photographer or even another business, I will go see if they have a website. If they don't have a website, I'm kind of starting to wonder if they're legit. So I think that that's something to keep in mind is your website is really central to your online presence and should be the first place that potential clients want to go to see your work.

So I think it's really crucial to have a great online, your portfolio, all your galleries, have them item, you know, have them categorized on your website and show your best work. Really, really think about putting your best work on your website. Don't skimp on that. That'll demonstrate your expertise and your style of, you know, what you're doing and what you want to be hired for, the work that you want to be hired for.

In addition to having a portfolio gallery on your website, there's so many great online sharing platforms that you can showcase your work with. When choosing an online gallery platform, consider their reputation, their user base, and their reach. I mean, I remember back when Flickr was the big one. It was like one of the first big ones. But now we have 500 picks. Behance, I think, that's through Adobe, right? Behance is, yeah. Yeah.

It's for you to show your portfolio. Yeah.

And it gets your work out there and seen. think for me, even having work, you don't think of this as being an online gallery sharing site, but even Fire Art America really leads to unexpected sales because it gets your work out there and seen. If you're active on some of these websites, you'll get seen even more. We talked about online photo contests last time.

And I think that's another great way. You can consider that as a way to get your work seen. Because that's really helped for me. then we're going to go into social media and why it's a crucial aspect of building a really strong online presence for your businesses. Make sure your profile reflects your brand and style and stays consistent with what you have on your website. Your content that you post should be engaging and shareable.

post things behind the scenes of your shoots, showing off your unique style, sharing tips and tutorials I think is always helpful, people like those. Collaborating with other photographers or businesses, sharing client testimonials is all great ways that you can do that. But social media isn't just about promoting work, for me it's mostly about engaging with your audience and building a community of...

followers and people that you might want to work with. So that's why think that responding to comments and messages is really key and even going into their pages and commenting on their work, not just commenting on what they've told, you know, come to your page and made remarks about. Go to their page and see what they're doing.

Regularly updating your website and all your social media platforms with new content really helps keep your audience engaged and informed about what you're doing in your business and your current projects. Think about utilizing a content calendar, which I've thought about, but I don't do. But I know people that do and it seems to really, really help keep that content calendar in place to help with posting and keeping your online presence current.

You

A successful online presence requires a lot of effort, constant effort, and engagement. That's it. Consistent, yes. Yes, yes. Yes.

Yeah, and consistent, constant and consistent. Consistency is so key. The only thing I would add here is that

your website is a fantastic place to show off your work. Social media is a good place to start being seen as a photographer to start being known as someone who takes pictures because that's an easy place for you to start to establish those things. But you your website is one step removed from you and social media has a has an entity in between you and your client. So one of the things that I recommend for people really early on, if you want to

photography as a business is to make sure you get an email marketing software set up, and that you start getting people converted over into giving you their email address. Because it's that's the place where you really start to be able to make conversions into clients. And it's not a subject I know we want to talk about here. But it is the it is a prong of this experience that you need to really concentrate on from the get go. Don't wait, start right from

think everybody, a lot of people wait too late and it's like an afterthought. Now I've established things, now I can get this part going. And it's, then it's so much work.

Yeah, as in marketing.

It is. Well, as a marketing professional, I have people come to me as business owners that are three, four years in and are like, can I do better with my marketing? And one of my first things is what your email database look like. I don't really have one. And I haven't really emailed anybody in 100 years. And I'm like, OK, but here's the deal. And I would say their number one regret from the people that I talk to that have been established in business is, I should have done that sooner.

Yeah.

And even if you're not communicating on a regular basis, getting the collection of the emails, and then, you know, starting into some type of a regular or semi regular communication with people, it really does boost you because it keeps you top of mind, because your website and your social social media can get lost in the algorithm. And websites unless somebody is actively looking for it or at it, they're not top of mind, but email shows up in their inbox when they're not thinking. So anyway,

That's true. So in terms of building your photography brand, I'm going to talk about the importance of consistency in your work and consistency in your messaging. So I wanted to start by saying, like, why does consistency matter in equine photography? For starters, it builds brand recognition and trust. And both Phyllis and Kim have already talked about that a little bit, Kim, in terms of

images and having, you know, really consistent looking imagery and Phyllis about online presence and having a consistent message there. your client should be able to recognize your work instantly. I always like to think like Phyllis and are great examples of this. can see, I can be scrolling on social media and see a Kim image pop up before I know it's Kim or see a Phyllis image pop up before I even know and go and look at Phyllis. And that is

That's huge. mean, so your client should be able to recognize your work, whether it's on social media or in a magazine. So having kind of that consistency that people can trust and recognize is really important. This is gonna help you establish your professionalism. Inconsistent work or messaging can make you look very amateur and unreliable. I actually have it in my contract that what my clients have seen, I'll ask them straight up, I'll be like, have you spent some time?

know, reviewing my work. I want to know that they've seen my work. And then I will say, then I assume that since you've reviewed my work and we're having this conversation that you're comfortable with my work. And as a photographer, I want to assure you that what you've seen is what you should expect from me. I'm not going to change my style. I'm not going to do wild and crazy things between now and your photo shoot date. So I actually have that conversation with all of my clients at the time of booking and it's in my contract, which

might seem a little over the top, but that's just kind of who I am. Like that's how I help reassure my clients that what they see is what they should expect to get. Which is why when people, when you see people out in the world and they're using other photographers work to advertise a project that they want to work on or to advertise something that they would like to be able to photograph, that becomes a problem for them because they, if that's not their work, if it's not their style, they may not be able to deliver that.

So just keep that in mind when you're thinking about being consistent in your work. Having that work consistency is gonna help you attract the right clients like Kim mentioned. You know, wanna find the people that want to be with you for your work. They wanna be with you for your messaging. They wanna be with you because of the way that you conduct business. And having a consistent style and a message will just draw your people to you and help weed out those people that are not for you. So a lot of people would say,

Well, Cara, you talk about, you know, really high end wall art. You talk about expensive priced wall art. I talk about that because when I talk about and show online wall galleries and giant framed portraits on the wall, the people that want a digital file to save to their phone or they just need a new social profile are not going to contact me. And it takes, kind of gets rid of some of that.

excessive inquiry of people that are just not right for me. So the more that I speak to the type of work that I want to provide and the type of clients that I want, the more I speak to those people, the more those people find me. And the more the people that I don't really have a desire to work with kind of drop off. inconsistency can hurt your photography, and, or your photography business. can confuse your potential clients.

If your work in messaging constantly change, how can your clients know what to expect from you? I think that's huge. It can make it a lot harder to all. It also makes it a lot harder to stand out when you blend into the crowd or when your style lacks a clear identity. So I think when we are first starting out, we might try a lot of new things out and that's totally normal and natural. But when you're really kind of honing in,

Mm-hmm.

on your style and you're ready to put a product out into the world to be recognizable for you, that's gonna be the thing that people will say, that's a Cara photo, that's a Kim photo, that's a Phyllis photo. But when you're going through those kind of growing pains of testing things out, you're gonna have a harder time standing out because you either look like everyone else, your work looks like everyone else, or people are not really sure what kind of work you provide.

I do think it's important to say, because we're talking about sticking with a style or choosing a style, but I don't know about you guys, but for me, my work has changed as I've grown as a photographer over the years. And I think some photographers get stuck with, this is my style. And then they get afraid to change their style or make their style more true to them at that time. Like they are going through phases of change and growth.

And so I think there's a balance you have to find there. Like I hope that I continue just like I do today. I look back at the images I created 10 years ago and I'm like, wow, I've grown a lot or that's embarrassing that I put that out into the world or I might have all these feelings about that personally. And I hope in 10 years, I feel that way a little bit again about the work I'm creating today. Do you have any thoughts around that Kim, like why we're here?

I do actually I do I it's interesting that you say that I think there's a couple of influences that happen. think one I've said this all throughout that course I created photography is this the most complex simple thing you will ever learn how to do because it's hard it's pressing a button right but behind that button press there's a monumental amount of information and understanding and creativity and control and I do think that there's

a there's a curve and I'm not even going to call it a learning curve there's a growth curve that you go through with the technology and the technical aspect and the skills and the creativity that there are things that I did as a as a young photographer

Mm-hmm.

simply because that's what I understood. And as a more seasoned 30 year plus veteran of photography, actually, I think I'm crossing over into 40 years now, since my first paid job, I am really starting to, you know, I mean, it's I have grown, my skills have grown, my ability to capture things has grown. Here's the thing, though, that hasn't changed for me. And the thing that I think has been consistent since the very beginning

and the very first pieces of work I had published up into the ones that I've most recently had published within the last two months is that my work plays on the connection that horses have with people or with.

And sometimes there's not a person in the photo, but it connects us to them. And I think that has been a consistent style for me throughout. So sometimes when we think about style, we think back to that Instagram filter type of a thing. That's not always what you're aiming for here.

what you're aiming for is the style of what you bring to the situation, right? So I do think people get stuck in it. But I think if when you feel when you're feeling stuck, and you try some new things, look at the new things alongside of the place that you are stuck and look for the pattern or the commonality to say, wait a minute, there's a different thread to it.

So there's a different thread here. There's a thread that connects all of this, but it's not the thread that I may have thought it was five years ago.

Thank you for that and I didn't mean to lead us astray but I did want to just kind of pull that point in in case there's people that are maybe earlier in their journey and trying to think, well, what if I change and grow? I hope I change and grow. So kind of back to how inconsistency can hurt your photography or your photography business. Once again, you really run the risk of attracting the wrong audience and you might end up with clients who just aren't a good fit for your work or your brand.

If you're working with people that aren't a good fit for you, that's where you're going to lead to unsatisfied clients. That's where you're going to lead to decreased referrals. You're going to have a decrease in repeat clients. When, when people are getting that inconsistency, they, they will return to you. They will come back to you if they had a good experience and they know they're going to get that same level of service, that same level of quality and experience every time. And I honestly feel like.

for me that has been one of the biggest things that helped my business was I did what you said where you're talking about establishing your process. I'm the only person working in my business, but I still have my own little operations manual. you, know, like this is how I work with every client and that consistency, my clients can say to someone they're thinking about referring to me, they can say, well, every time I've worked with Cara, this has been her process.

And then that client comes to me and I get that exact same experience. So that's creating consistency in that work. okay. So I will never, I always try to like pull some actionable steps. So I put together a list of four things that you can do right now to improve your consistency in your work. So the first thing you can do, and this is a, this is a something that I did last year. I went through and did a portfolio audit and a social media audit.

So look at your past work that you've got out in the world. Remove images that no longer align with your style and brand. Go to your website. If you haven't done that in a while, go to your website and do that. And still to this day, I went on Google Images. For example, I went on Google, where I Google my business and there was stuff on there. I removed stuff that was old and not representing my work. So spend your time. Think about all those places that your work's out there that you have control of and clean that up.

Make sure your best work is out there. Also, refine your message. So this is also some work I did with a mentor last year. I really sat down and refined my message. And then I went through and I made sure that my website, my social media descriptions, LinkedIn, all my marketing materials communicated that message in a clear and consistent way. And that meant taking my main message and

making sure that it had Instagram character numbers and then it fit Facebook character numbers and then it fit LinkedIn and it was something that was consistent even though each of those platforms require something different in terms of character count and give you different options. So that's something that we can all do right away. Okay, here's the third thing that you can do right now. Make sure your profile image is consistent across platforms.

so that no matter where people come in contact with you, if they look at their profile, they know it's you. So like anywhere that your brand shows up, it's instantly recognizable. Your website, social media, and marketing materials should also share a cohesive look. So think about your colors, your fonts, imagery, your logo placement, those types of things. These are things that you can start working on to just build consistency across your brand.

the last thing that you can start doing quickly is getting feedback. getting feedback is always a good idea. matter what go through, think about people in your life that you trust, maybe some trusted peers or past clients. you know, talk to them and ask them if they can instantly recognize your work in messaging or cross platforms. that's how you start to know that your work is consistent. Do you hear people say, know, wow, I saw this image and I knew immediately it was yours.

or I opened up a magazine and I saw this picture and I knew it was yours. Like I said earlier, I can spot a Phyllis and Kim image a mile away, just scrolling through. I can say, that's a Kim. And sure enough, it'll be a Kim image or that's a Phyllis and sure enough, or all. Another person that I do this for is Terry, Terry Cage photography. I have seen her images in magazines. I've taken a picture of it, not knowing it's hers, texted her and said, hey, I saw this picture. It looks like a Terry.

And she'll be like, it is mine. And I, it's like, can spot them a mile away. I'm sure you have other people, other photographers in your life that you are on, like on the top of your brain that you're thinking that about. So anyway, those are four things you can do right now to start building consistency in your brand messaging. Did you guys have anything you wanted to add to that?

No, I'm good. I think you did a great job. And those four things are really important things to help get you to get you to the consistency in your messaging that is ideal for you to start bringing in clients. And everybody, the only thing I want to add is folks, this is a marathon, not a sprint. It is something you're going to be doing and it is never finished. You are always honing it and always making it better.

And with that, I do want to say that's what we want to do here with our brand, our messaging, the things that we're doing is we always want to make it better, more consistent, more interesting for you and more useful for you. yeah, join us on social media, come check out our community. We'd love to see you in there and we'll see you at an event or something in the near future.