MYTH 1: If I put my images out there, people will book with me.

You absolutely should be sharing your images everywhere and people will hire you from them. However, you likely will not stay booked out by this strategy. If you reach beyond your circle to a targeted market, you will have more exposure and be able to consistently bring in brides.

Wedding photographers must constantly be looking for new clients. The brides will likely come back to you for family photos in the future if you teach them to do this (which we do), but you will still need to be putting yourself in front of new brides all the time. This is done in a lot of different ways: social media, Pinterest, publications, shared blog posts, opt-ins (so you own their email and can market to them through email campaigns), and of course: paid ads.

Putting your images out there is not enough anymore.

MYTH 2: If I put an ad out asking people to hire me, they will.

No. This is absolutely false. I strongly believe in paid advertising because I know it will bring in new clients consistently, however, just putting an ad out there will not get you booked. This is a lie that leads to many photographers trying paid ads, not getting any leads and believing paid ads can’t work for them.

Paid advertising works when you think of it as an entertaining and educational campaign. We look at the ads from a storytelling point of view. Over a few months, we walk your potential clients through the story of why they should hire you so that when they go to book a photographer, you are the one they think of. While some of the ads will bring in new clients on their own, we expect the ad campaign to take 30 days before we see results. This is why just putting one ad that asks people right away to buy from you will likely not work.

MYTH 3: I can learn everything I need to know from a few coaching videos.

This is a myth sold to you by people who want you to buy their course. I sell a course like this that really does help, but no matter how many courses you take, if you are going to make money in this business, you are going to run out of time.

Booking more weddings and sessions already means giving up more of your time. This is why it is crucial to surround yourself with a team that can help you achieve your goals quickly while you focus on photography.

MYTH 4: I can use social media and my blog to attract my ideal clients without any paid marketing.

Yes, you can, but it might not be the best strategy and here’s why: while social media and your blog are great for showing who you are and what you know, you still need to make sure your posts get in front of people who are most likely to hire you. This is where ads come in.

We work hard on developing weekly blog posts that your ideal clients are most likely to read. We promote these blog posts and create dynamic ads highlighting the benefits of working with you. Without paid ads, you can still find success, but it may take longer and can often be more difficult with all the competition out there who are using ads.

If you want to get booked out quickly, paid advertising is the way to go (if you know how to create ads that will get clicks).

MYTH 5: There are so many people getting married. Finding 20 brides each year will be easy.

You would think it would be easy, but brides are picky. They need to find the right photographer based on the 3 P’s: Portfolio, Personality, & Price. If you know how to target the brides that are most likely to match your 3 P’s, then you will be able to book a lot of them easily without spending a lot on ads.

If you are just putting your work out there or targeting a large group of engaged people, you may end up wasting your ad money or being overwhelmed with the amount of people who ghost you or choose another photographer.

MYTH 6: I can handle all the pieces of my business. I’m not busy yet anyway.

As a business owner, it can be easy to think that you can handle it all right now, but if you are not trained and if you don’t have experience in web design, graphic design and marketing, it can take years to see the results you are hoping for. Can you stay afloat until then?

The most successful business owners figure out which parts of the business must be done by them and which can be done by other people. Then, they find and hire qualified people to handle those parts of the business. The best advice I was ever given was to hire people more qualified than me to take on specific tasks for my business. Basically: get out of my own way so I can have success.

I still struggle with this, because I love to be hands-on, but handing over parts of my business to people who are better than I am, was and is the best decision I ever made. While you may be able to handle the pieces of your business, should you? Are you the most qualified? Are you okay with learning and waiting to see a profit until you have things figured out? I wasn’t. I made changes, got help and saw immediate results.

MYTH 7: I can just hire people on Upwork or Fiver when I need help.

You could find, test out and spend $1000s with people on UpWork or Fiver do to a small portion of what we do, but do they know what brides are looking for? Do you really want to manage them?

Do they have 17 years of experience speaking the language of your target market? Most likely not. But we do.

With us, you won’t have to worry about wasting money on unqualified help and you don't have to manage our team of experts. We will provide you with a monthly report so you can guide your ship as a business owner.