104: Becky Tranter – Working Productively With ‘Fix It’ Energy & Using Your Business Data Analysis To Fuel Growth

The goods are coming. Um, yeah. So we are in a big old saturated world and, and I think one thing going back to kind of, like I said, reflecting on where I started, um, I don’t think enough of us embrace the actual person that we are as the individual of our business. Um, and I think standing out in front of or above the crowd or above the, the competitive number of people you might or might not know you’re in, like when a couple sort of says, Oh, hey, yeah, we’re speaking to you in seven of the photographers. If people want to connect with you as an individual, if you’re not visibly out there connecting and I am not saying that every single person needs to start dancing on TikTok. That is not what I’m saying. But there are so many ways that you can be visible, like posting on your stories doesn’t have to be you. There’s a doggo in the corner. Quite often she makes it to the Instagram stories because I don’t want to show my face.

And annoyingly, she gets more likes of anything that goes up than any amazing picture or anything that I think that I’m saying is amazing. So it’s always more likes. So, you know, be invisible on whatever platform you’ve chosen Is is, I think, crucial for how then couples are going to connect like they more and more and more people want to feel understood. They want to know the experience they’re going to have with you. And they want to feel like, you know, you’re able to blend in as well as be their professional on the day. And for me, like, yeah, okay, you can write lists like, I love wine, hate fish, you can write that kind of list. But if you can get your personality across, then absolutely you’re standing out above the crowd. You might just be a little bit more visible and able. Therefore, without even doing a consultation call, without even knowing that people are connecting with you in a way that you didn’t even realise.

Yeah, so for me, I spent quite a long time and obviously good old studio ninja like the workflows and the ability to bespoke that I don’t think people capitalize on that. And I’ve got like three wedding photography packages and each of those have a different workflow. I also have a different workflow for what I call that discovery phase because we’re busy people, right? We forget.

And as much as I’m like Ditches standard template, part of my workflow says, Hey Bex, remember to go in and look at what the couples inquiry form was. So before I then send out like a pricing guide to them, I go back and I read what the inquiry state the inquiry form is and okay, there’s things like date and, you know, venue. But I asked things like what are you really looking forward to about your wedding day? Like, you know, um, is there anything about me and my work that you’ve really connected with? If you’ve got any light initial worries about wedding photography? Because straight away I want to bespoke a message. That goes back to them. So have like a standardized form that has lots of replace here things in to make things much more personalized. Um, and I have things that go out that then follow that that is automated like something I’ve written about, um, finding your right photographer. So I don’t want to just leave a lead semi warm.

I want to get personal. Um, I even use in the discovery phase, I’ve done a video because I recognize at the moment it used to be sort of pre-COVID that people would inquire with you and then they’d jump on a call or they’d meet you face to face. And pretty much once you got to that that side, you’d already weren’t in the competition with the other photographers. They’d kind of made that decision up and they just wanted to meet you. Whereas now it’s like they’ll have a zoom call with seven, eight, five other photographers, and sometimes you don’t make it to the zoom call. And I started to pick up on that. So I personalized that approach, did a video that’s just like, Hey guys, thank you so much for inquiring. Um, if you’ve not followed me on Instagram or you’re not on social media or even if you are, this is the kind of thing that I do on a day. This is the things that I want you to know about. But if you want to jump on a call, we’ll go through your wedding day.

And so I’ve used it to personalize in that way. Um, and then I think people, um. Yeah, they kind of need to look at some of the information and think, how am I? Am I adding a template in or like during, during a 12 months run up to a wedding? What what kind of experience am I telling that the couple are going to have? And if it’s really personal, but I only speak to them twice in a year. How is that being personal? So you can kind of work through what that experience is you want your couple to have and then really hone in on your workflow and be okay. What needs to be automated that feels okay. So I’ve got like an automation that like so many months before their wedding, I just say, Hey, it must start to feel overwhelming. Um, if you’ve reached that stage, I want you to hit reply and I want you to tell me what’s going on because I’m here to help. Um, sometimes if I’ve written a blog, um, I’ll just add that into the automation and, like, send it out.

Sometimes I’ll do it on their own. Um, but I think what people don’t do with workflows is think about how once again, they’re solving the problem that their couples might be having. There are standard things that we know our couples go through. Um, and I want the Google review to be epic. Like I, I say to people, you’re booking more than a photographer. You’re booking the experience from the moment you book through to way after when like, you know, your wedding’s done and you’ve had all your images, but I’m too busy to remember everything. So get in that workflow that meets you and your brand and whatever experience it is that you want to offer. You know, we have downtimes. We have times where we can go, I need to do Fixer Energy today. And one of the things is I’m going to get a load of biscuits and I’m just going to spend the time doing my workflow. And, and sometimes what I think we forget is like, not so long ago I had quite a few couples saying, Oh, hey, um, when do we get that form from you that we talked about? And it started to become a repeat thing and I was just like, Hm, I need to go in and fix something here because there’s a standard thing that I’m not telling my couples and they’re clearly worried about something and I want to get to them before they get worried.

So then I built, like, worked my way back and I was like, okay, three months before their wedding, they’ve got an email that’s like, Hey, over the next three months, this is what’s going to happen. And if you’re worried about like what your final payment is, just click here, you can see your invoice, you can see what you’ve been paid and the rest is payable, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I think sometimes I know that people can find things overwhelming, but using the system, using Studio Ninja to take some of that away, you’re offering such an elevated experience and yet a lot of that’s automated, yet you’ve written it to feel really personal.