Burnout is not sexy. It is not a badge of honor. It’s actually pretty freaking scary if we’re being honest, so my commitment in my coaching program is that my clients DON’T synonymize burnout with success. You can be radically successful and grow your business without burning out, and I’m here to show you how. 

Pricing to Grow Your Business Without Burning Out

A luxury brand gives clients its time. Period, full stop. People are not paying for you to be running around with your head cut off. They are paying for a service, and it’s essential you deliver on that service. This means limiting your clients. I could not provide the same experience if I were taking jobs every day of the week. I would be doing them a disservice, and I would burn out so quickly. What you need to do is provide a value with your time and price accordingly. 

If your goal is $10,000 a month, you need 8 weddings at $1,250 each instead of 20 at $500 each. Each luxury client will have a larger portion of your time and a better experience. Your pricing needs to be aligned with your value. You’re not giving a $500 experience; you are offering a $1,200 experience. Once you grow, you’ll continue to provide more value, and it’s essential to review your prices annually to ensure you’re keeping pace with value. 

List your prices on your website, then don’t be afraid to tailor them to what the couple needs. Do not box yourself in, you’re the boss, babe! Your rules go.

Inquiry Calls

There will be no second date if the first date isn’t good. I have all my couples fill out a questionnaire from the beginning to see if we are a good fit. Now, I will say that having an authentic website helps you get more good first dates from the start! Couples looking at my website know before we even talk that Honeybee Weddings are all about adventure, experience, and having a damn good time. Couples who want a traditional wedding won’t usually seek me out, as it won’t be a good fit when I encourage them to hike up their dress and cross a river with me.

Assume that all the clients who reach out already have an interest in you. BELIEVE that this is yours to lose. They are already interested! They swiped right! These couples already WANT you to be their wedding photographer. Don’t be nervous. They believe in you already, so you need to believe in yourself and show them your magic! What makes your photography different? Have some banter with them! Being your naturally wonderful self will prevent burnout. TBH, I would get burned out if this felt like a stuffy sales call every time. Building a connection with the couple is half the fun! Enjoy!

Blogging with SEO Gold

I will shout from the rooftops that people are SLEEPING on blogs! Instagram is great, it’s cute, and it’s gotten me some leads. But blogging? Honey, that’s the fountain that keeps running. I wrote ONE blog on Iceland, and now I’ve been there four times. And guess what? I didn’t have to reshare it constantly. Didn’t have to move it around on a feed. I. DON’T. TOUCH. IT. And yet, the inquiries keep coming in YEARS later. 

Here’s a fun hack: write a blog about somewhere you WANT to go. Do the research, make the plan, and post the blog. I’ve had several blogs that brought in couples for places I hadn’t travelled to yet! With all the research, I’ll head out a few days before them. Scout the shit out of the location and give my couples the BEST experience. You should have a business where you and your couple are winning together all the damn time!

Grow Your Business Without Burning Out by Building a Team

Forbes lists building a team that operates without you as number two on their tip list for scaling a business. “A business is not truly scalable if it depends on the CEO for every decision. Michael Gerber, author of “The E‑Myth Revisited,” emphasizes that many entrepreneurs fail because they never make the transition from operator to architect, working in the business rather than on the company.” Read the whole article here.

That encompasses your internal photography team, shout out to The Hive for me! And your external outsourced team. Shoutout to the behind the scenes world builders that I will now have to name! Kelsey’s crew? Honeybee Backend Babes? Will keep workshopping that… point is, both groups are essential for the business model, and while I guide them, I have trained them and trust them a million percent. I can’t take on everything, and truth be told- I don’t want to! I want to be romping around with my couples, and having a team allows me to focus on that experience.

Internal Team

I have a whole course on how to train your team, which is important AF. When you’re ready to grow, you need to bring on photographers who share your values and understand your brand. If you are posting on social media for a second shooter at random, they won’t be able to provide the same level of service, which isn’t what your couples deserve and is also stressful AF for you. Are they even going to show up???

Your banding includes who you and your clients are, and how associates should interact with couples. Your brand needs to be consistent. Whether a couple is working with you or your associate photographer, they should be getting the same experience, the same photos. This is why choosing an associate photographer is so important- your reputation is on the line! Does their portfolio look similar to yours? Do the way they view clients and the way they approach them match your style? Your associate photographer is a reflection of you, so make sure their values align with yours and then train them up!

If you’re looking for more about this in particular, check out:

Build an Associate Photography Team – Make it WORK for you!

If you have a team but need some help training them, check out:

Train Your Team Workbook

Outsource Your Team to Grow Your Business Without Burning Out

Complementary to your in-house photography team is your outsourced admin team. My blogger? Amazing! My social media manager? The FREAKING best! My assistant? Could not do it without her! What do all these people have in common? They are excellent in their field and trained in my brand. They amplify everything I do so our couples (the most important people in this!!) get an amazing, seamless, fun AF experience. 

A lot of the pushback I get isn’t that photographers don’t think this is important, but that they don’t feel they have the time to train. I promise you, invest in training ONCE, and it will serve you for the rest of your career. I hired my blogger in 2022, and she’s been rocking with the brand ever since!

Know Who You Are and CELEBRATE!

It’s easy to get burned out when you’re pretending to be someone else. That requires a lot of work. Also, you’re great the way you are, bestie. Once you embrace what you like – catch me fighting for equality, highlighting elopements, and debating the superiority of Harry Potter houses. This is who I am. If couples like it, GREAT! We’re going to have the best time together. If not, there are 2.1 million people who marry each year. I’m not worried about the ones who aren’t for me. You’ll grow your business without burning out by focusing on the wins, not on the clients who don’t book.

It’s equally IMPORTANT to make it clear who you are and what you believe in on the photographer side as much as on the client side. I’m not concerned with other photographers. They’re not my competition. I support them, I wish them the best, hell, I’ve even recommended them to couples I think would be a better fit for them. The couples meant for me will find me and book with me, as long as I keep being unapologetically authentic. 

Grow Your Business without Burning Out by Prioritizing Habits and Consistency

The secret sauce to life is creating good habits and being consistent. You go for a walk every day, and you get stronger. You make it a habit, and it no longer hangs over your head like a dark cloud that you have to do. It’s just part of who you are. Being someone who has this good routine will save you from burnout, really, cause that mental anxiety is gone. That running to-do list in your head is gone. It’s written down, you’re checking it off, you’re girl buying and trusting yourself that it will get done. 

30 Habits to create a successful photography business

Girl, Bye

The habit I am most proud of is the Girl, Bye ritual. As part of BOSS UP!, my group coaching course, I encourage everyone to come up with a “GIRL BYE” ritual. As business owners who work from home, it can be hard to walk away from our desks. Establishing a ritual to get outta there will help separate your work from your personal time. My GIRL BYE ritual is: 

• Write down my to-dos for the next day
• Shut down the computer
• Gratitude journal
• Literally shut the office door

It sounds so simple, and it is, but it is also unbelievably impactful. Practice this every night, and it will turn into a habit that gives you so much mental peace. I solemnly swear this is such an easy way to grow your business without burning out. The cognitive overload will get you before the task list does!

Grow Your Business Without Burning Out by Getting the F Outside

Lastly, get the F outside. One day, I was walking in the woods near my house. I could hear the birds, see the wind moving the trees, hear the ground under my feet, and smell that pine tree smell. I had no agenda; I was just walking. All at once, this idea HITS me. I chase the idea – What if I could change how my business worked and the clients I attract by recognizing the problem every wedding couple has – that it’s stressful AF to plan a wedding.

What if I could tell couples they could have something different? What if I told them they could have something that felt more LIKE THEM?! That’s when I took the first step toward shifting my business to elopements. I use the same messaging years later to run my now multiple six-figure elopement photography biz. Since then, I take time out of my workday every day for active rest. I became unstoppable. The BIG ideas were flowing! 

Being outside is the natural way to combat burnout. You’re not worried about burnout when you’re checking out flying squirrels and watching the clouds reshape.

If you’re thinking, “Kels, that all sounds good, but I’m still not sure…” Then check out my coaching program. I am here to help entrepreneurs and creatives transform their businesses and attract their dream clients.

Coaching for elopement photographers