Welcome back to the podcast! I am really glad that you are here. I know this is a busy time of year, so just know that I appreciate you giving me a few minutes of your day.

Before we get into today’s episode, if you haven’t joined my 90 Day Challenge called Navigating Busy Season, be sure you do that. There’s a link in the podcast description for it. You will not regret it. That room is full of the most encouraging people ever! I am loving how they are pushing me. We are getting laser focused & intentional in so many areas of our lives. Burnout is a big thing, and it’s not only in the photography industry, so I want to help as many people as I can. If you know someone who could benefit from it, photographer or not, do the nice thing & share it with her too! This is for any business woman (or man) who wants to feel better at the end of quarter four than they did going in. We are going to be on fire & ready to take on 2024! Plus, challenges are lots more fun when you’re doing them with a friend. So, get in that room & bring a friend!

Today, I’m going to touch on a topic that you can probably relate to: the challenges of managing a busy season while trying to take care of your family, yourself, your health, and all the everyday life things.

If you are a new photographer and haven’t experienced this kind of stress and overwhelm yet, I still want you to listen to this episode. If I can save you from it, I’ve done my job.

I am getting so many DMs & messages right now. Here’s what they sound like:

“I am exhausted. Something’s got to give.”

“I need to dig myself out of this hole.”

“I’m just trying to survive right now.”

“I don’t know how this happened.”

“I don’t care if I ever pick up my camera again.”

Wow. I’m guessing if you’ve said or thought any of those things, that is not how you imagined this business would be. It certainly can’t be what you dreamed of.

So today I want to offer you some encouragement, some advice you can use right now in the middle of it and how to avoid this mess next year. I know it’s hectic and I want to help you break this cycle. It’s not sustainable.

How do you get into it in the first place?

Well, it’s exciting, right - seeing all those client emails and voicemails come in. They want the perfect time of year, they want the mini session deals and it’s just not fun to turn them down. I mean, who would turn down money?

Me. I would turn down money. And it’s not because I don’t love it or need it. Stay with me. This will make sense. I just want you to know that I understand that whirlwind of excitement when the books start filling up for fall.

I also understand what it feels like when that excitement comes to a screeching halt and reality kicks in. You have to plan these sessions, talk to every client, get all the emails out, do the style consults, schedule, reschedule because so and so got sick, reschedule again because of rain. And let’s not even discuss the ginormous mound of images to cull and edit, orders to process, and the albums and Christmas cards to design.

It really is exhausting. I went through way too many of these seasons and learned some really hard lessons along the way. I wrapped presents on Christmas Eve. I missed family time.

I can relate . . .

I finally had enough when we took the boys to Disney World in December after an insanely overbooked season. The park was decorated beautifully for Christmas with all the lights and fake Florida snow & I was finally starting to relax after getting it all wrapped up just before we left for vacation. We were standing in line & my phone rings. I don’t know why I picked it up, but I did.

And on the other end of the line was a client in complete panic because she hadn’t ordered enough Christmas cards. She begged & begged me to get her more because apparently this was a crisis moment for her. I fell right back into work mode, called the lab, figured out the order manually & had them overnight her another set of cards.

This took a while, of course, and I looked at my kids when it was all over & decided right then & there that I would never let a client be part of my vacation again. I made a multitude of mistakes in that moment, allowing boundaries to be crossed, not being present with my kids, not valuing myself and my time.

But that’s when my business changed. I got home from that vacation & tore my business apart all winter long because I was determined to never let anything close to that happen again.

Here’s some advice you can probably use right now while you’re in the middle of this mess:

I know you might feel guilty because work is getting put before your family. You’ve got a mountain of images to edit & clients to keep happy all in a short amount of time.

Guilt is normal. You are a human being. And if you are a parent, it is definitely normal to feel like this. You feel like you’re neglecting your kids. They are surviving on frozen pizza and cereal. You probably are too.

First, give yourself some grace, whether it’s your first busy season or your fifteenth. Whether you had no idea it would be this bad or you swore last year and the year before you wouldn’t let this happen again.

Forgive yourself, be kind to yourself. You aren’t gonna get it done any faster when you beat yourself up, okay?

Head down & get it done.

Remind yourself that you’ve done hard things before & you can do them again. You are 100% capable.

Have some conversations with the family. Explain to them what’s going on & why.

Ask for some extra support. But not in the middle of a meltdown. When everybody understands what is going on, when you all have a common goal, it’s way easier to get buy-in from your spouse & kids on doing a little more around the house.

Let go of some control. Outsource some editing. You do not have to edit every image. Let it go.

Batch things. Make all of your calls at one time of day. Send & answer emails at one time of day. Post to social media & get off your phone. Now is the time to get as efficient as possible & stop letting distractions get in the way of getting this work off your plate.

Now, how to avoid this mess next year . . .

I know the weather is different for everyone & our seasons can be different too, so take what you can from this. There’s no way I can individually coach your specific situation on a podcast, right?

But let’s talk about some practical & proactive ways to break this cycle in the future.

Planning is key. Laying out that year long calendar & figuring some things out at the beginning of the year is vital. If you know some of the big things going on in the year, if you know when you want to work & don’t want to work, you can start to create something a whole lot prettier next year.

Where I see most photographers get tripped up is not setting boundaries with their schedule and overestimating their capacity.

The goal is not to book as many clients as you possibly can. The goal is to make the amount of money you want to make based on the time you have to work with clients. If you can only successfully manage 6 clients from beginning to end each month, giving them the most amazing experience ever, and you only have a 7 month shooting window, then you need to be at a $2,500+ sales average to hit 6 figures in revenue.

What I see happen is that you didn't hit your sales averages because you’re priced too low. And then there is this panic towards the end of the year to get as many clients in the door as you possibly can to recover, so there is this mad dash to slash prices, do these mini sessions to inject some quick cash into your business for Christmas. And there’s the burnout problem.

It doesn’t have to look like this. You can get those higher sales. It takes some faith in yourself and your clients though. If you want that type of business, but you struggle to create it, I would suggest working with a business coach that can help you build that brand, understand marketing, correct your pricing structure, teach you how to do sales, coach you through these times when you let doubt get the best of you, which puts you back into situations like this.

That’s normally where issues come up. Even with clients I currently coach. They will tell me what their dream business is, we work to design it, but when things don’t happen as fast as they want, back to the bad habits they go - taking jobs they don’t really don’t want to take, chasing a shiny object & losing focus, creating some sort of discounted something that devalues their brand & leaves them overwhelmed.

And I would be lying if I said I didn’t make these same mistakes over and over again. I told you my story. It took me years to learn these hard lessons before it finally sunk in that there really was a different and much better way of doing business.

So I want to offer you some encouragement. You aren’t in this alone. The best of the best have been exactly where you are today. And I know and they do too, why you are here. You are just doing the best you can. And that is ok. That is admirable. You are fighting. You are working your ass off to provide for your family. You are doing what you think is the right thing to do. And I love that you are right here in the middle of it. It’s a beautiful mess to be in.

Here’s why. Here’s why I love that it’s hard. Because if it were easy, then everyone would do it. The ones who do the hard things, who experience this busy season craziness and the ones who finally have had enough & are determined to get out of it & build something amazing from the mess, are the ones who have a long standing business they can be proud of.

So here’s my best advice. Get yourself through it. You can absolutely do this. Put your head down & do the work. Rally the troops. Communicate clearly and ask for some extra support so that your family can enjoy the holidays together. That’s what it’s all about - them.

And when it’s over, get yourself a business coach that can fix this thing for you next year. If you’ve been around a while, you know I brag on my students inside Studio Secrets all the time. They are figuring it out. They are enjoying some down time. They are making huge sales. They are overcoming obstacles & transforming their businesses. You can 100% do that too.

If you’re an action taker, if you’re fed up, let’s go. I can always save you a spot for the next round of Studio Secrets. It’s coming and I’m only going to take 30 students this round. If you want to hold your spot, reach out to me on instagram and let me know. You don’t have to start right now. Get through the chaos & then we’ll roll this December.

Last thing - Because I know you have a lot going on & it’s super difficult to market in the middle of busy season, I did create a free resource to help make social media easier for you right now. It’s 30 ChatGPT prompts. Those are going to give you a little kickstart for your content & help you show up even when you have a lot going on. You can get it at www.seniorstudiosuccess.com/chatgpt.

Thank you for hanging out with me today. I really hope you feel more encouraged after listening to this. Seriously, you aren’t alone. If you just want to talk it out, I’m always a DM away on instagram. Reach out if you need to. Ok, that’s it for today.

My goal is to help you build a more profitable, productive & purposeful business so that you can spend more time doing what you love with the ones you love. Share this episode with a business friend in your life who is going through this busy season mess too & needs to hear it. I’ll see you over on instagram! Have a great week y’all!

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