← Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
Book More Photography Clients Podcast | Photography Business, Photography Leads, Marketing
3 Things Every Photographer Needs in Place for Their Best Year Yet
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Welcome to the Book More Clients Photography Podcast. You can stop spending hours on Google and YouTube because you just found your number one resource for growing a profitable and sustainable photography business. Hi, I'm Brooke Jefferson. I'm a believer wife, mama to two and Oklahoma family photographer. I left the classroom in 2018 to pursue my photography career full time. Now I'm here to help you do the same. In this podcast we're covering the most asked about topics including pricing, marketing, client experience and all things systems and workflows. You won't find any fluff or BS here. Just tried and true strategy. Are you ready? Grab your kids some snacks and charge those camera batteries. It's time to jump in. Foreign. Welcome back to the podcast. Happy 2026. I always say New Year's is my favorite holiday. I don't know why, I just love it. I love the fresh start. I love the idea of starting over or starting something new. And I'm excited that you are here. I have been doing this podcast going into my seventh year, which is so crazy to me. But I am here to tell you that this is going to be the best year yet on the podcast. So be sure to tune in every single Thursday for a brand new episode. This year I'm introducing a little bit of a different format and these came because you guys requested them, which is really exciting. I did a end of the year photographer survey and if you didn't see it, no problem. You can still fill it out and I will put it in the show notes of this episode. But it gave me such great feedback of where photographers are at and the questions that you guys have. And so what I decided to do was on the first Thursday of every month, the first episode of every month, that is going to be a coaching episode. So it's going to be me specifically, specifically coming on here and pretending like I'm one on one coaching you on a topic of choice. And then the last episode of every month is going to be a Behind the Scenes in My Own Business. This was the number one requested feedback that I got from the form was we just want to hear more of like what's actually happening in real time. What are you booking? What does it feel like? What does it look like? And so I'm going to be bringing you guys different topics of behind the Scenes in My Own Business on the last episode of every month. So and then in between they'll just be different types of episodes, mostly solo episodes, but occasionally I will sprinkle in a special guest or an interview. So I'm excited about this. I hope you are excited about this. Second thing, one last quick update and then we're going to get into today's episode. I wanted to do a update on my surgery recovery because I left you guys in December with a quick note at the beginning, beginning of of every episode, telling you that I was taking a little podcast break. I had prepared all of those episodes in advance and surgery went very well. This was probably the easiest, smoothest surgery and recovery that I've ever gone through. There really wasn't a lot of pain. I didn't need medicine. And so I'm three weeks out when I'm recording this. It is mid December and so I am doing well. So thank you so much for all of the prayers and the Instagram messages. I really, really appreciate this community and I'm excited to pick up the camera and start doing sessions again. This is the longest break I've ever had in 12 years of doing this business. And so, yeah, it feels. It feels strange, but I'm very thankful I gave myself an entire month off of business. Okay, let's dive in to three things you need in place to experience your best year yet. These are three things that I have coached myself on and I'm going to turn around and I'm going to coach you on the very same thing. I'm going to tell you what all three are and then we are going to break them down. So the three things that you need are your right mindset, tracking your stats and goals, and a brand that you are confident with. So let's break each one of these down. You need a positive mindset in order for 2026 to really be your best year yet in your business. If you feel that tug on your heart that photography is truly where you are meant to be, then there is purpose for you here. And you have believe that. You need to dig into those feelings of why you feel like you're called to photography and of the goals you have for your business and get really clear on your vision. Because on those hard days, the days that you feel like quitting, you'll need to refer back to this. This is what you're going to root yourself in. I have rooted myself in the promise that God will provide for me if he has gifted me with this business. And I am diligently working on it, meaning that I'm taking action. I'm not just sitting back passively thinking that God's going to do something with it, but I'm showing up and I'm putting in the work And I feel called to it, then I believe that he will provide. I believe that I will have a successful photography business. I'm going into my 12th year of photography and he has not failed me yet, not one single month. And so I want you to get a, like a positive mindset going into 2026. You have to believe that if you truly feel called to this, it will work in your favor. You've got to tell yourself that. Because if you don't believe that, then it doesn't matter how much coaching I give you or how much marketing strategy I tell you to do, it's not going to make a difference. If you don't believe that, it's going to. So make sure that you are stepping into 2026 with a clear mindset. Like I said, it is a brand new year. I am so thankful that January 1, 2026, fell on a Thursday because this is the very first thing you will hear going into 2026. And so I want you to believe with every fiber of your being that this is your year and you are going to show up and take action and watch your business grow. So promise me that you are going to work on your mindset. The second thing that you need, and this is a big one, this is not a fun one, okay, but this is one that you need to do. And if you're not doing this, you're making things harder for yourself. And then it's no wonder that you don't actually hit the goals that you made for yourself before the year started. So in order to hit those goals, you need to track them every single month. And it doesn't need to be a complicated process. I use a simple spreadsheet where I track the most important stats in my business and I want you to do the same thing. So, for example, your spreadsheet might look like the number of leads, the number of bookings, the session or packages that were booked for the month, your social media growth that you want to track, your email list, growth that you want to track, etc. All those examples plus some, I would recommend picking 5 to 7 things to track and then tracking those stats all year long. You don't want to have 12, you don't need to have 20. That's overwhelming. But I want you to think about, okay, what are the top five things that are needle movers in my business? So for example, if you are going to track social media growth, make sure that you are trying to grow the platform where you saw the most traction in 2025. So if you when you did your review for last year, and if you missed that, it's just a couple episodes back. But if you did that and you were like, okay, I. Facebook didn't bring me very much, but Instagram, I was able to book two or three sess sessions. Well, based on that review, you need to double down on Instagram. So you don't need to track anything on Facebook. You need to be tracking things on Instagram. Because in your mind, if you can grow your Instagram or increase your engagement, so maybe you're not trying to grow your following, you're just trying to nurture your following, then that is what you want to track. You want to track your engagement. So I hope that makes sense. Pick five to seven things that you want to track, create a very simple spreadsheet, and track it all 12 months of the year. This is going to help you because you're going to look back at this and you're going to be able to compare what did quarter one look like, which month was my highest? Right. Which month was my. My best leads or my best bookings. And that's going to help you create a strategy for your business all year long so you can see what's working and what's the not. And also, when we get to the end of 2026, you're going to have all of this data that is going to give you such an easy strategy going into 2027. Okay, so we're tracking your stats and goals, the last one, and this one is really important. You need to go into 2026 with a brand that you are proud of, a brand that truly represents you as a photographer, that attracts your ideal clients, and that is professional. Okay, we're not diying your stuff anymore. You need to really make sure that this is a goal for 2026, to have a brand that you feel proud of. And let me define what I'm talking about here. Your brand is the overall essence or presence of your photography business. So this is the visual aspects, this is the messaging and emotional aspects. This is just how people feel when they interact with your business, with your brand. Okay? If this is something that you can't afford to do right now, to hire a brand designer or to take a course on branding, I want you to make this your number one goal. To save up for, we're going to be diving way deeper into this topic in some upcoming podcast episodes. So don't worry. We're. I mean, I promise we will dig deep into this, but I want this to be on your radar. This is one of the things that we'll talk about in one of my behind the scenes episodes in my own business, because this is something that I'm doing right now is in real time. I'm just doing a brand refresh. I'm not really pivoting. I'm just bringing everything up to speed for 2026. A lot has changed and I kind of wanted to have new things going into 2026 and really dial it in into what my brand is about for both my photography business and for my education side, which is coaching you guys. So to recap, Here are the three things you need in place in 2026 to have your best year yet. Number one, get your mindset right. Number two, track your stats and goals every single month. And three have a brand that you are truly confident and proud of. I would love it so much if you could take just a minute, leave me a rating and review for this podcast. You this helps me get the podcast to the ears of more photographers who need to hear it and it gives me a chance to get direct feedback from you. Sometimes I feel like this podcasting journey is a one way road because I show up every day in your earbuds but I don't always get to hear from you and so I would love that so much if you would just take two seconds. Whether you're listening on Apple Podcast or Spotify, go ahead, leave the rating and review and that's it for me for this time. I cannot wait to see you next week. Go take action.