You still have time to sign up for my free training on Thursday with Zenfolio! Learn how to make 4-figures with mini sessions. Register here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/e03c3d64-de85-419c-909c-8fd8f07286d1@f53224c4-9d71-44c1-9fad-19b66d9d1121

MacBook Pro Microphone: I am

resharing a podcast episode today

2

from 2023 called how I made $7,000

in one day with many sessions.

3

I've talked about many sessions,

a few times on the podcast.

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It's one of my favorite topics.

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Because I am a huge believer that many

sessions can be a great way to grow

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your brand and make you money, but it

does have to be done strategically.

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And I see a lot of photographers who

instead of doing it strategically use many

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sessions as a way to make a quick buck.

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And they're not thinking about the

longterm effects on their brand.

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I am teaching a free training

with Zenfolio this week and you

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still have time to register.

12

The training has called make

four figures with many sessions.

13

And I would love to see you there.

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I will put the link in

the podcast description.

15

So you can register for the free training

that is taking place this Thursday.

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And if you send me a DM on Instagram

with the word Zenfolio, Z E N F O L I O.

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I can also send you the

link to register there.

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I hope you enjoyed this episode.

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It's time to make big

bucks with many sessions.

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You're listening to Take It Personally,

a podcast for photographers about

21

the personal side of business

and the art of standing out.

22

Here I'll help you build a business

and a brand that is uniquely you.

23

If you want to attract dream

clients and stop looking at the

24

competition to decide your next move.

25

If you are ready to show up as a

confident branding authority to help

26

you serve your clients and consider

your goals and priorities too.

27

If you want to make your mark in a

new, underserved niche of photography,

28

then this is the place for you.

29

I'm your host Maddie Pachon, South

Dakota brand photographer and educator.

30

I'm a straight shooting, Instagram

obsessed, and Instagramer.

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Diehard Swifty who has built a multi

six figure business on the back of brand

32

photography all while raising a family.

33

And I know you can do the same.

34

Let's get ready to take it personally.

35

Hello, today we are talking

about mini sessions.

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This is quickly becoming one of

my favorite topics on the podcast.

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Because it's something that

I, um, am coming back to.

38

This is the second year that I've

talked about my January mini sessions.

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And it's really fun to come back

to something year after year and

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talk about what went well, what

didn't, what I would recommend.

41

It just feels like this is something

that we're kind of perfecting

42

over time, which is like, to be

honest, not typically how I roll.

43

I'm usually like a, you

know, morning of kind of gal.

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And so to have something that

I continue to come back to

45

and refine feels really cool.

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So.

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For those of you who are new to

the podcast, I would, uh, encourage

48

you to go back to episode 50

before listening to this one.

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And in that episode, I talk about how I

made 5, 000 in one day with mini sessions.

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A little bit of background.

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I offer mini sessions

typically once a year.

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I'll talk a little bit more

about the timeline of it all.

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Um, but up until now,

it's been once a year.

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I do them in January.

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I do a full day.

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I offer both brand mini sessions and

headshot mini sessions, which is strategic

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because I want the whole day to be full.

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And I know that a mini brand

session is not for everyone.

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And yeah, so that's what I

do, what I have been doing.

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And this year, I originally had a goal

to hit 6, 000 cause last year I did five.

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So I thought, you know, I'll do

a little bit better than that.

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And my business coach was

like, what if we did 10, 000?

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And so that kind of got my wheels

turning and doing the math and

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seeing like what was possible.

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I knew that 10, 000 would be

like more easily achieved if I

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offered an additional afternoon.

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Um, so like shot more sessions and

I didn't really want to do that.

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And so then the goal became 7, 000.

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Can I make 7, 000 in a

day of many sessions?

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Um, by the time this episode airs, I will

know what my final number is right now.

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I don't right now.

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I'm just under 7, 000 with quite a

few people still like looking at their

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galleries, haven't checked out yet.

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And so when I publish this episode,

I will publish final numbers.

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But I'm anticipating about 7, 000.

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So that's, you know, 2,

000 growth year over year.

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And this year just went so well.

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And so I'm really excited to have

this podcast to kind of unpack it.

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So the first thing that I want to talk

about, I'm running a program right now.

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I guess by the time this episode

airs, we will be getting ready to

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launch the second round of rebrand,

but right now this is actually

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our final week of the first round.

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And this question came up

that I thought was so good.

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And so I wanted to answer

this question first.

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And that was the whole point of rebrand

and the whole point of like my teaching

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to photographers is to create this

really amazing, high touch, high value

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package that you can charge four figures

for when it comes to brand photography.

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Like that's essentially what we're doing

in all of rebrand is like, let's get

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you to the point where you're charging

four figures for brand photography.

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It's super high touch.

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really high value.

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And then, you know, you only have

to take a couple of these sessions a

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month, which for the majority of my

clients is what they would prefer.

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They don't want to be

shooting every other day.

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And so my client asked me, like, if

we're supposed to be doing that, then

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how do we offer that in a mini package?

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Like everything that we're,

that we should be doing is like

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this high touch, high value.

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How do we make that smaller?

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And I was like, this is

such a good question.

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So here's the deal.

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It's a really good deal.

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That's what it comes down to.

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The mini sessions that I do once a year,

if people, you know, if they, let's

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talk about the, the brand session, not

the headshot session, because that's

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a bit different in a smaller package.

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But if someone buys a brand session

and then they upsell the gallery.

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So the way that I do these

sessions is they pay 350.

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For the session itself,

and that's 10 images.

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And then if they want more than

that, they can buy additional images.

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So for, I think it's like 25 an

image or something like that for

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250, they can get the whole gallery.

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For some of them, that's

a really killer deal.

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Cause some of these

galleries are actually huge.

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Like it's amazing what we can

do in 20 minutes, especially

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if it's a returning client and

we're just like really efficient.

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So it's a really killer deal.

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All in someone would be spending about

600 for potentially a gallery of like 50

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images now, granted it's all one location.

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It's all one outfit.

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There's, there's plenty of limitations,

but that's still a lot of photos.

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For 600, that's a fourth of

what I'm typically charging

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for a full brand session.

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It is a really good deal.

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That also makes it extremely

easy for me to sell.

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And that's kind of the

point of mini sessions.

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So yes, it's a really amazing deal.

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If you look at it on paper and you're

like, Maddie, why the heck are you

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charging a fourth of what you typically

charge for these mini sessions?

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Like it might not make sense.

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But because I'm able to stack them

throughout the day and, you know,

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walk away having made six, seven,

8, 000 in a day of many sessions,

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it's also a really good day for me.

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I talked a little bit about this

in episode 50, but I love this day.

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It's one of my favorite days of the year.

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I get to meet so many incredible people.

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I set goals for myself, like this last.

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Uh session day, I think I had I

think I ended up counting 25 people.

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We had some issues with like

Cancellations and reschedules because

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these poor people got stuck a few people

literally got stuck in their driveways.

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I live in South Dakota There's a lot of

snow we have an unreal amount of snow

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right now and the plows had come by and

like Locked people in their driveways.

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Basically it was a bad deal.

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So there were some issues like that,

but I think I had about 25 people

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on my calendar, that's 25 people

who need a headshot or who need a

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brand session, who I get to talk to

and be like, tell me about your job.

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Tell me about what you do.

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Why now?

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Like, why did you book a session now?

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Did you recently get a promotion?

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Like, this is why I

love brand photography.

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And this is why I started coaching.

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I love talking to business

owners and professionals.

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So I get to do that 25 times in one day.

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Are you kidding?

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Like it's so much fun.

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I mentioned this earlier, but these

are also so easy for me to sell.

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And that changed this year.

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That was the biggest change of like how

I approached sales for the mini session

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day, and now I'm getting ahead of myself.

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So I am going to pause for just a second

and we're going to walk through all of the

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things that I did this year to make 2, 000

more ish DVD, uh, than I did last year.

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Okay.

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So what I did differently this

time, some of this is different than

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last year and some of it is just

kind of amplified from last year.

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Last year, I talked about

launching with a wait list.

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I did that again this year, but

I feel like it was amplified.

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One, I had people on that

wait list from last year.

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Some of them had ended up

booking a session from last year.

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Some of them hadn't, but I already was

starting with like a pretty good wait

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list by the time I launched, I had over

a hundred people on this wait list.

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Now that might not sound like a

ton, but when I only have about

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25 spots, that's a lot of people,

especially like, this is just local.

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It's not like.

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I have a ton of people.

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Sometimes I'll have people drive from

out of town, but it's never very far.

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So it's a hundred local people

who are interested in the session.

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I was thrilled with that.

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And that was a big reason why I

raised the goal with my business

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coaches encouragement, because

it was like, Oh my gosh, I have a

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hundred people on this wait list.

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I only need 25 of them to say yes.

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One of the things that I did throughout

the year was anytime someone would

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get in touch about a headshot or even

like they would get in touch about

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a mini, mini brand session, which I

don't offer unless it's on mini day.

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I would just send them the wait list

and say, like, if you want that pricing,

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I offer them once a year in January.

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There you go.

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And so I was building this

waitlist throughout the year.

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And then I started building it

more publicly in about October.

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So I would just post on social media here

and there and say like, Hey, don't forget

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mini session day is coming up in January.

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Um, you can join this waitlist

to be the first to know.

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So I feel like I was a bit more planful

about how I was using the waitlist.

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I think last year.

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I started building the waitlist about

a month before, and that was fine.

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I would still, like, I would do that

again, but you could definitely see

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the difference between doing it a month

before and building it, like, all year.

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Um, and that was pretty evident this time.

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Now, this brings me to the question of,

am I going to do mini sessions once a

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year or make it more of a biannual thing?

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And I don't know what the answer to

that is yet, to be honest with you.

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Um, I do think a lot of why the mini

sessions sell as well as they do.

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is because there's scarcity, right?

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There's 25 spots a year.

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They're offered once a year.

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However, I also realized that one

day of the year is not going to

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work for everyone on the list.

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And so I have considered doing it

twice a year, like once in January and

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once in July or August, because July

especially tends to be pretty slow for me.

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But also it's slow because I want it to

be slow, so I can't decide how much I

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want to do that, but there is definitely

a risk of, you know, when I'm sending

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that waitlist out to build my waitlist

throughout the year, there's definitely

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a risk of people being like, lady, I am

not waiting nine months for a headshot.

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And I totally get that.

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Um, waiting six months for a headshot

might be too long for people.

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So I'm considering right now what that

would look like to do it twice a year.

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It makes me nervous that I would be

able to replicate, um, these numbers

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twice a year if it's not, like, quite

as scarce as it is right now with only

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offering them once a year, but it also

kind of sounds like a fun challenge.

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So, stay tuned for that.

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Do you ever get decision fatigue?

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I consider myself a pretty decisive

person, but as a business owner

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who makes a million decisions

every day, It can feel like a lot.

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And by the time my husband asks me where

I want to go for dinner, I am tapped.

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If one of the decisions you're making

right now as a photographer is, is

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offering brand photography, right?

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For me, let me help you.

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I am offering a free five day

mini course, all about making

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the move to brand photography.

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In it, I'll answer the five biggest

objections I hear from photographers

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wanting to make the move and give

you easy, actionable tips that you

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can start implementing immediately.

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To sign up for the mini

course, go to maddiepichon.

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com slash brand photographer.

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That's maddiepichon.

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com slash brand photographer.

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See you inside the mini course.

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Another thing that I did differently

this year was I filled almost

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the entire day Before I did a

single thing on social media.

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So when I was talking on social media and

building that wait list on social media,

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I was telling people that the email list

would get first access to book a spot, um,

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really trying to like drive home the point

that I wanted them to join the email list.

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I, I have been trying for the past.

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I don't know, probably three or

four years at this point to make it.

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So the majority of my sales

for anything are coming through

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email rather than social.

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I just, I love social media,

but one, I want social media

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to continue to be fun for me.

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I don't want to have to rely on

it to drive sales in my business.

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And two, it's like really unpredictable.

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So that's another reason why I don't

want to rely on it to drive sales.

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Like, what if I have a launch and

Instagram is down or my stuff,

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is it getting shown to people

or, you know, whatever there's,

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there's a million reasons why

I would rather depend on email.

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So I was really driving people over there.

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And then just kind of playing it by ear

as to how much I would end up booking

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up before I said something on Instagram.

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I knew that I was going to say something.

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on Instagram, but I didn't know when.

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And so I think Spots opened

up to the email list on

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Tuesday, January 3rd at 10 a.

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m.

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I had an email just ready to go out and

I did not open it up to social media

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until January 6th, which was Friday.

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And so by that point I had

the majority of the day full.

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The morning for sure was

like completely full.

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And then there were kind of some spots

scattered around in the afternoon.

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So that felt really good.

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And it also made me more confident

to sell the remaining spots because

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half of them were already booked.

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And so I wasn't coming from a

place of like, you know, book now

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these, these aren't going to last.

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And like, not really feeling that that's

the case you've probably experienced

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that, or like heard someone selling on,

on social media, like you need to book

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these spots because they're going to

fly off the shelves and you can kind of

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tell the difference, I think, between

someone who really believes that and

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like, wants you to act quickly because

they know that they're going to go.

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And honestly, that's how I felt

about the mini sessions, but you can

280

tell the difference between that.

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And someone who like kind of has

that, like that frantic, like

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scarcity, uh, mindset essentially.

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And the fact that I had half of the

day already booked before I said a

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single thing on Instagram or sold

them on Instagram, it just made me

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feel more confident to say like, Hey,

these spots are going really quickly.

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Make sure you grab one.

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So I don't know if that makes sense,

but that it just felt really good.

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Made it easier to sell.

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Another thing that I did, because

these felt so easy to sell, they

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felt like such a no brainer.

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Like, I literally, when I think

about mini session day, I'm like, why

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would you not book a mini session?

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That's genuinely how I feel.

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Everyone should book a mini session.

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Everyone needs a mini session.

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Everyone needs a bomb photo of

themselves that makes them feel good.

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Like, everyone should book a mini session.

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Because I feel that way.

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It was really easy for me to reach

out to people who I wanted to work

300

with and say, Hey, I think this

would be a really good fit for you.

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And so that's what I did.

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I sent direct messages to people and

I haven't done that before, but it

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felt so like genuine and authentic.

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And yeah, genuine is the best word for

it because I, I was really excited.

305

And there were a few people that I really

was like, I would love to work with you.

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Like, I would love for you to

come to the studio on this day.

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So letting myself be excited and invite

people in was a big difference from

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last year and it just felt really good.

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And I think I probably sent like five DMs

and I want to say only two of them, but

310

like, it wasn't a massive amount of people

who ended up booking because I sent DMS.

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But one person in particular who I've

wanted to work with for years, I sent

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her a DM and I was like, Hey, this is

a super thirsty, but like, I would love

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to work with you and I'm offering these

mini sessions and like, here you go.

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Here's the link.

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And I did send these DMs before

I announced it on social media.

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And so again, really trying to fill those

spots before I said anything on social.

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Um, and that was also something that I

said to them, like, Hey, you're getting

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early access, you're getting first access.

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I'll announce these on Friday,

but until then, like, I would

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love for you to grab a spot.

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And anyway, one person in

particular who I really wanted

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to work with ended up booking and

we had like, it was just so good.

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It was just so good.

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And I'm so thankful that I reached

out to her and like asked if she

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wanted to book a session because I

have been wanting to work with her.

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And sometimes people need to be

invited, you know, and they can

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always say no, not the right time.

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And I had one person who I would

really like to work with who said,

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Nope, we're not interested right now.

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I was like, okay, no, I had

multiple people say that.

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I had multiple people say that.

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And that's totally fine.

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Thank you.

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We are big fans of free

will up in here, right?

335

Like people can always tell

you it's not the right time.

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It's not something I'm interested

in, but it can also feel

337

really good to be invited.

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Because how many times have you thought

that you maybe want to do something

339

and then you start spiraling like, I

don't know if this is right for me.

340

Is this what I should do?

341

Is this how I should spend my money?

342

I don't think my business is actually

like would work with a mini session.

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Like I had a few people who said, I

kind of want to do one, but I don't

344

think it would work for my business.

345

And I was like, hold my beer.

346

Like, let me tell you

all the different ways.

347

That I can make this

work for your business.

348

So inviting people in and letting them

know, Hey, I was thinking about you.

349

I think you would be a great fit.

350

No pressure, but here's the link.

351

That can actually be a really

great way to make sales and also

352

to help someone make a decision.

353

Another thing that I did differently

with many sessions this year

354

is I slightly raised the price.

355

So this was something that I

wasn't going to do until kind

356

of the last minute last year.

357

Headshot mini sessions were a

hundred dollars for three images

358

and then upsells if they wanted

more or a brand mini session was

359

350 for 10 images also with upsells.

360

And I like that these are low priced.

361

I'm very happy with the price point.

362

The whole point is that

they are low priced.

363

However, As I was thinking about

it, I realized that last year

364

I ended up booking a lot of

headshot sessions, which is great.

365

Like typically I'm about 50 percent

headshots and 50 percent brand minis.

366

And the headshot sessions were

just really, really low priced.

367

And again, nothing wrong with that,

but I felt like I had a little bit

368

of wiggle room to raise that a bit

to give me a little bit more profit.

369

Uh, without making like massive changes.

370

And so this year I raised the

price from a hundred dollars for

371

a headshot mini session to $150

for a headshot mini session.

372

Um, this, I think, did make a

pretty significant difference.

373

I mean, you're talking about

what would that be, like a couple

374

hundred dollars after you have

booked 10 headshot mini sessions?

375

So I will likely, I mean, never

say never, but I don't super

376

anticipate these prices going up.

377

I like 150.

378

I like 350.

379

If they go up, it's probably going

to be looked by like 25 or 50.

380

And again, I don't know that they

will, cause I'm happy with the price

381

point, but that definitely did help.

382

So if you're doing a mini session day

like mine, and you're doing headshots and

383

brand mini sessions, and you're booking

a lot of headshots, Increasing that price

384

just a little bit just gives you a little

more wiggle room and makes it a bit

385

more worth your time because a hundred

dollars is a really low price point.

386

There's nothing wrong with it.

387

A hundred is great, but I was really

happy with 150 and I still booked,

388

I think the exact same amount

of headshots as I did last year.

389

I also changed my marketing strategy

around mini sessions this year.

390

And that was because of a secondary

goal that I had, which was, I want

391

to finish mini session day, having

made X amount of money, about 7, 000.

392

And I also want to have my

next couple of months booked.

393

Like I want to be booked

through about April.

394

And so I knew that it didn't make a

ton of sense to focus my marketing

395

just on booking mini session.

396

Because then once mini session day

had come and gone, or those spots

397

were booked or someone was busy

on that day, like that's kind of

398

where the call to action would end.

399

Like if they can't book a mini

session, what else is there?

400

And so instead I focused

on just brand photography.

401

the importance of brand photography,

the confidence boost of having great

402

photos of yourself, like why you should

book a brand photography session.

403

And then during the promotional

period of the mini session day, the

404

call to action, that's what changed.

405

So the call to action was book a

mini session, mini session day is

406

coming up, book a session here.

407

But the content was more focused

on general brand photography.

408

So this is a little bit nuanced,

but I, for example, then I would

409

not be saying things in a social

media post about look at all the

410

ways you can use only 10 images.

411

because ideally I want

them to book a big session.

412

Like I want them to book a full session.

413

And so I'm not saying things like, look

at all the things we can do with only

414

10 images or look at all of the photos

that we can get in just 20 minutes.

415

That was definitely an underlying

result, but I was more promoting.

416

Here's why you should

invest in brand photography.

417

Here's why having these

photos is so important.

418

Here's how it makes your marketing easier.

419

Those types of things.

420

So it's a small shift, but it

made a really big difference.

421

And I ended up with six inquiries

for larger brand sessions.

422

And again, I'm still doing consult

calls for those, but as of right now,

423

I'm booked through about March and

I'm anticipating that that will just

424

continue over the next couple of weeks.

425

Again, this is, I'm recording

this at the end of January.

426

So that felt like a huge win for me.

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And I know that that's what was

happening because I had people

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sending me DMS and saying.

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Hey, I'm not available for mini session

day, but I actually am interested in

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a full session or, Hey, I have a small

team, so I don't think that we make sense

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for mini session day, but I would love

to talk to you about a full session.

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So that feels like a really huge win

that I can walk away from a 7, 000 day.

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And have a pipeline of full

sessions that are ready to schedule

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for the next couple of months.

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So that was a change from last year.

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And I absolutely love

how it all worked out.

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The last thing that I did, and this

is something that my business coach

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has been really pushing with me over

the last couple of months, I tend to

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kind of like fizzle out toward the

end of launches, I get really excited

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at the beginning and then I'm like,

just kind of stopped talking about it.

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And so that was something that I did

not want to do this time because with

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something as small as a mini session

It is extremely likely that people

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will book up until the 11th hour.

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And I know that, but it's really

hard to keep talking about something

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when you're like, you know, thinking,

Oh, no, one's going to book.

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So I was really conscious this year about

promoting up until the very last minute.

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And I ended up booking a mini

session the day before the shoot.

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And I had like maybe an hour

left on my calendar to book.

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Like I was pretty booked up and

I still ended up booking a last

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minute mini session because I

promoted up until the very end.

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So that was really, I'm so glad

that that happened because I think

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it's very easy to just fizzle

out toward the ends of launches.

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You're like, Oh, people don't

want to hear from me anymore.

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Everyone is bored of this content.

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Like everyone is just sick of me.

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And so to see it work out the way

that I hoped it would was really cool.

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I also think that this was a little

bit easier to do because again, my

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marketing was not book a mini session.

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My marketing was the importance

of brand photography.

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So it felt a little bit.

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easier to keep talking about that and then

just slide in, Hey, book a mini session,

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as opposed to focusing really heavily on

here's why many sessions are so great.

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So those are all of the things

that I did differently or amplified

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from last year's mini session day.

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I'm so pleased with how this day went.

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Like it really is one of my

favorite days in my business.

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Getting to meet all of these

entrepreneurs and professionals.

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It is truly such a joy to be able to

talk to all of these people and just

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like spend the whole day at my studio

and create amazing photos for them and

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talk about how they're going to use

them and know that they're going to

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use these images to grow their business

or to grow their own personal brand.

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Like it's, I absolutely.

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Even if I made less money, I

would continue doing this day.

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And I think that that is a big

reason as to why it's worked

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because I, I so love it, like it's

really such a joyful day for me.

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And on top of that, to be able to

continue to come back year over year

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and refine it and really make it

better, not just for me, but also

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for my people feels really good.

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Thank you so much for listening

to Take It Personally.

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If you haven't already, would you head

over to iTunes and leave us a review?

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This is the best way to let other

photographers know about the show and

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help keep us creating content you crave.

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And if you want more tips and tools to

build your personal photography brand,

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head over to my website, MaddiePichon.

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com.

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Here, you can access my downloadable

ultimate personal brand session shot

487

list to get your clients singing

your praises and browse my blog for

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more trade secrets to help you hone

your craft and grow your business.

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Love to learn while you

listen, visit MaddiePachon.

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com and click on podcast for all things.

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Take it personally.

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From show notes to recent episodes

and incredible guest profiles.

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Remember friend, the most important part

of any brand is the people behind it.

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Branding and business is personal,

so let's take it personally.