Podcast Ep 373 - The Only Way to Get Photography Clients (and Keep It Simple)

What’s the one way to get photography clients? In this episode, Heather Lahtinen shares her refreshingly simple philosophy on how to consistently book clients—without the overwhelm. You’ll learn the core marketing strategy she teaches in Elevate, how your thoughts fuel your results, and why you don’t need to wait for inquiries to land in your inbox—you can go out and create clients.

Plus, Heather announces her new challenge: Four Clients in Four Weeks, starting August 19th. It's time to stop waiting and start winning—with confidence, clarity, and simplicity. ! 👉 https://flourishacademy.mykajabi.com/4-clients-in-4-weeks-challenge

Show Notes

• Why marketing doesn't need to feel salesy, spammy, or overwhelming
• How your thinking—not your to-do list—is the real source of overwhelm
• What an “offer” actually means (hint: it’s not always a sale!)
• How to create clients instead of waiting.
• Why this challenge is exactly what you need before slow season hits

How to Support the Podcast:

• Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please like, share, and leave a review.
• If you like the content, please share with your friends by posting on social media so that we can reach and impact more people.

Join our next free coaching workshop: www.getcoachedbyheather.com

Connect:

Heather Lahtinen: Website, Facebook, Instagram

TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast and today I'm talking about the only

way the one way to get photography clients My name is Heather Lahtinen I'm a

photographer educator and entrepreneur and I founded the Flourish Academy as a

resource for photographers of all levels We want to help you pursue your passion on

your own terms because we believe there is room for everyone in this podcast We

focus on creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are

really holding you back in business and life. I have a very simple straightforward

approach to marketing. I think the only thing you need to do is number one,

meet people. Number two, tell them you are a photographer and then number three,

make them an offer. And the reason I have this philosophy that's so simple is

because I like to tell people Heather equals simple, I have to keep it simple for

my own brain, but I also want to help other people, namely photographers feel like

they can do this. Like it's more approachable. It is simple, but it's certainly

nuanced because we have extensive training inside of our elevate program on meeting

people than on your self concept, you know, telling people that you are a

photographer, some people aren't able to do that yet because it's not their identity.

And then making an offer, well, your offer is also simple. It's simply your product

plus your service plus your value. But when I say make an offer, I don't

necessarily mean you meet someone and you say, "Hey, hire me as your photographer."

It might just mean an offer to connect because then you form a relationship and you

nurture that over time. And probably the number one thing I'm focused on in my

teaching and my coaching. Okay, wait, let me think about this. This might not be,

the number one thing is, how do I speed up everyone making more money? I want you

to get more clients. But then I'm also thinking, how can I do that in a way that

reduces overwhelm? Because photographers tend to feel overwhelmed, like there's a lot

that they need to do. And I want to keep it simple and fun and straightforward. So

I want to help prevent overwhelm. But if I'm being honest, I know that I can't

eliminate that completely, but I do want to frame it differently for you because I

truly believe that you are not overwhelmed in the way that you think you are.

You are not overwhelmed by your circumstances, the events in your life,

or your to -do list. You are overwhelmed by your thoughts. I try to remind myself

of this when I get into this feeling, I'm like, Heather, you are not overwhelmed.

You're just overwhelmed by your thinking, how you are thinking about these things you

need to accomplish or get done or even understand. Because the truth is,

if you weren't thinking, if you didn't have the ability to think, you wouldn't be

overwhelmed, that's the truth. But if you were to work with me and you had the

thought, Heather makes everything simple and I have a resource both with her and the

other photographers inside of Elevate, this is easier than I thought. I have those

resources, I have support, you wouldn't feel as overwhelmed, you would feel less

overwhelmed and then you would start to work with me and I would say really,

honestly, your only job is to get paying clients in front of your lens, everything

else is fluff, so let's not take on the overwhelm, you make a list and you get it

done when you can. The overwhelm comes from the thinking,

which means it's completely and entirely preventable. Okay, maybe not so much.

It creeps in or just pops up and you're like, "I'm feeling overwhelmed." But that's

when you can catch it and say, "Oh, because I'm thinking I have all of these

things I have to do and learn. I don't know what I'm doing." But if you think

about it again differently, like I suggested, Heather makes everything simple. I have

resources. I have support. It's easier than I think. I can figure this out. If you

repeat those thoughts, then you will not feel overwhelmed. You'll just be like,

"Yeah, okay, this is what we're doing." And I think overwhelm can also come from

feeling like you are not in control. Many photographers are anxious because they're

waiting for inquiries to come into or email inbox or they're just waiting for a

referral, a client to reach out to them, a friend of a client, whatever that looks

like, you're waiting instead of going out and creating clients.

And my job is to empower you to go get clients whenever you want,

whenever you feel like it. So you're not at the mercy of your inbox. So if you've

ever struggled to get clients or you feel nervous about a slow season, I really

want to help you. I started working on this I don't know a few weeks months ago.

I'm calling it the four clients in four weeks challenge. So it's obviously pretty

straightforward. I want to teach you how to go out and get clients and this is

without any ads or maybe discounting or doing things for free,

like nothing weird like that. Just straight up going out and getting clients when

you want to get clients. And of course, if it's coming from me, it's simple, but

it's without overwhelm and it's without feeling salesy or like you're bothering

people. I don't think you got into photography for it to be stressful or horrible

or give you these terrible feelings. So I want to keep it light and fun and

straightforward because I really believe that getting clients and growing your business

isn't about luck. It's about finding a system or process that works for you and

that is easy to replicate. And oftentimes photographers will tell me but you know

it's probably my pricing Or it could be the economy, or maybe people don't value,

they just don't value what I do. But I think those thoughts are actually exactly

what is holding them back. It's like this lack of confidence in their offer,

avoiding action, over complicating everything, which leads to more overwhelm.

Because when you believe these things and you believe that no one is booking, you

stop showing up, maybe you don't meet people and tell them your photographer and

make offers, but when you believe that everything is working, it's easier than you

think, your work is valuable, you just move differently, you show up differently.

I want to empower you to share your work with confidence in the meeting people and

offering your services in a way that feels natural and not pushy.

And I really want you to join me in this challenge because I'm gonna be so

straight in your face and it's going to be simple and hilarious. And hopefully

that's what breaks through. You know, you see something in a new and different way

and you're like, oh, okay, I get it and I can do it. So this challenge is coming

up very soon. Did I say this? I don't think I did. It's August 19th. It's for

four weeks, four clients in four weeks, it's at 2 p .m. Eastern, there will be

replays available. I'll have the link in the show notes. But also, if you go to

getcoachedbyheather .com, that's where I talk about our fast track coaching, I'll make

sure I have the link on that page as well so you can just jump in. And also, the

timing of this was very purposeful. So we're heading into August and September and

the busy season for most photographers. I wanted to teach it to you now so that

when you enter the upcoming potential of the slow season, that is the first quarter

of the next year. I want you to be prepared with this system,

with this process. You will have done it so it will be proven and then you'll have

more confidence and then you'll just go execute and everything's going to be great.

Remember, everything is hard until it's not. Everything is challenging until it's not.

And then it's easy for life. I just want you to imagine what it would feel like

if you weren't worried all of the time about getting bookings or inquiries or people

referring you. That's just very disempowering. So instead of being disempowered, I

want to empower you to create the clients you want, grow your business, how you

wish to grow it. And by the way, that doesn't mean constant clients all the time.

You might wish to have a ton of clients in one season and then you might wish to

take some time off. I just want you to feel in control of it. So make sure you

please sign up for this challenge for clients in four weeks. Tell your friends about

it. The link is in the show notes. Go to getcoachbyheather .com. I can't wait to

see you there. I hope that you found this useful. I'll see you in the next

episode.