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All you need is good light and emotion. And tea. Must have tea.

fionamargo

In the Family Photographer Marketing Society, I cr

In the Family Photographer Marketing Society, I created this guide to go hand and hand with our main topic this week: using patterns in marketing to help with decision fatigue.
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If you are a family photographer who is struggling with marketing, come join us and snag a copy!
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What is the Society? It all takes place right here on a private Instagram. There is no course to complete or keep up with, just weekly information about a wide variety of marketing topics and a weekly live go answer all your questions! It’s all there to go back to if you get stuck. I’m also there to support via DM as well. It’s only $21/mo ⭐️
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Since it’s inception in September, there are now 180 posts/topics! This week we are also covering instagram captions + specific keyword SEO tips.
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☘️link in bio☘️

Last night I got to frolic (literally - check my s

Last night I got to frolic (literally - check my stories) and each sessions after this long period of limited sessions reminds me how much I love the work that I do. I don’t know another job where I could a)wear whatever I want b)hike, explore and play with friends old and new c) have zero bosses 👀 d)be my true + extremely silly self

Comparison is a dream killer. That’s the cold, h

Comparison is a dream killer. That’s the cold, hard truth. More beautiful dreams fail due to the FEAR of failure rather actually failing.
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The first thing to recognize is that we have created a really nerve wracking way to share our heart-centered art. We create it and IMMEDIATELY throw it out to the judgement (or so we perceive) of other artists, many of whom we also perceive are “better” than us.
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But you aren’t putting art here for other photographers. You are putting your art out here to attract *mostly* non-artist humans who want to hire you.
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YOUR feed looks like 10,000 photographers. Their feed looks wayyyyyyy different. They see mostly the posts of friends, family, brands and random likes. Your art to them is ALREADY beautiful. So stop competing with Susan from Salt Lake (made up human) because you two ARE NOT COMPETING for the attention of your local client. -even if you are there’s plenty of business to go around-
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Comparison is based in fear. You putting yourself out here on social media is terrifying for your brain. This is your brain on fear: what if we fail 😩😫🤯what if that girl from junior year sees us talk on our stories 🤮🥴😵 what if we are ignored 😧😑😬 omg. None of this is helpful.
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Here let me help: you WILL fail. You will flop on your face and be invisible. That’s NORMAL for anyone putting themselves out there. Remember- you are a rare breed for even trying.
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⭐️ so proud of you ⭐️
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Lastly, there is only one person on planet earth with your unique combination of: personality, compassion, style, artist eye, use of light, sense of humor. You are one of kind, baby. So there’s no competition until cloning is mainstream.
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So! Eyes on your own road. Your very own bumpy, beautiful road. We need you out here ❤️

You don’t need anyone’s permission to start ex

You don’t need anyone’s permission to start except your own.
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We’ve all heard that quote and I feel like it can go in one ear and out the other, but it’s extremely valuable. Women especially are often taught to wait until they are invited to the stage. But the chances of someone inviting you into the future you want is low. SO LOW!
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What to do then?
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Step over the nice little velvet rope (your fears) blocking the path to the stage and invite your own damn self on the stage and speak.

“Fear is a bad advisor” especially in this spa

“Fear is a bad advisor” especially in this space. You belong here. You can speak here. You are free to try anything and everything you want to try. The challenge: next time you bump into a fear wall, override and do the damn thing anyway! This will give you sooooo much confidence the next time you face a year.
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Always wanted to go live? Try it!
Want to put together a styled shoot? Do it!
Want to rebrand and start saying no to sessions you don’t love? Goooo!

Fear is not your best advisor ❤️

Thinking about being a Mother to daughters today.

Thinking about being a Mother to daughters today. I feel… weird sometimes being a woman. I don’t like feeling undervalued, I don’t like the thought of my own wants and needs and the wants and needs of my daughters decided by other people.
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My job as a mother this year is harder than last because I have to explain hard things to my daughters about what motherhood might mean in the future: an experience forced by voters rather chosen joyfully when they are ready.
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I am a mother. I’m mad.

Instagram is annoying for family photographers. -

Instagram is annoying for family photographers.
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There, I said it.
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It used to be really fun and I think many of us remember those days and definitely took them for granted. Not only is the app moving away from static photos 🥲, they are pushing video and even then engagement is hit or miss.
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These days, Instagram requires you to be data scientist. You must unemotionally try and fail and succeed at many different types of content - which is super freaking hard when the thing you sharing is your art (and your heart).
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I’ve found that leaning into a plan that is built from individual content pillars and hyper focused on what I’m actually trying to book in the coming months, removes a lot of the negative emotion that comes with feelings of invisibility that can often pop up on this app.
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That is why I made this simple document to help you plan out each week!
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The document is available to students in the Family Photographer Marketing Society - my monthly marketing membership for family photographers!
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It’s only $21/mo includes my foundational marketing course, access to the private Instagram where we talk about everything marketing from SEO, to messaging to utilizing reviews in content and over 150 other topics. Plus weekly lives and access to me for more personalized help!
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Check it out!
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❤️link in bio❤️

This job requires quite a few hats:
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•artist
•content creator
•editor
•copy writer
•accountant
•marketer
•gallery uploader and deliverer
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It can be both extremely overwhelming and often extremely scary to juggle all these tasks because you have a lot on the line: your success as a family photographer.
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Before I had productivity systems in place, I would look at this tiny mountain of tasks, get overwhelmed and scroll on Instagram for hours instead- which let me tell you, NOTHING feels better than scrolling Instagram in a crappy headspace 👀🙈🥴
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Here was the game changer for me: when I have a chunk of time to devote to working ON my business, I focus on results-based tasks ONLY. These are tasks that l lead to a result (a marketing email, a helpful post about upcoming sessions, going live on social media to chat about upcoming offerings, sending invoices) The opposite of this would be passive tasks (editing, market research, scrolling and feeling sad lol).
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Once you’ve decided that you are going to focus on these tasks, know this: you’ll likely run headlong into some fear blocks (fear or judgement, fear of showing up). Prepare for these feelings and get ready overcome them. Your brain is trying to protect you but this time your brain doesn’t know better. Trying, failing and trying again is the foundation of this industry. Your brain is trying to protect you from “failure” but failure is the only way to get vital marketing data.
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These tasks are so important because they lead to confidence, sessions on the calendar and clarity.
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The thing that will make you actually do these tasks is that you’ll need to keep the promise to yourself that you’ll stick to your list. Growth comes in action just as much as thought work. The difference between where you are now and where you want to be is action. It’s easy to write a list, harder to execute. You are likely good at keeping your word to your friends, family and colleagues but this is your chance to keep the promise that you’ll do these “scarier” tasks even though it’s easier to go back to the scroll instead.
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Be a productive employee to your business by focusing on the tasks that lead to results ❤️❤️

Spring sessions are under way! Wellllll…. About

Spring sessions are under way! Wellllll…. About half of them are continually being rescheduled due to rain. WASHINGTON- get it together!!!
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Ever so thankful for flexible clients ❤️

If you are struggling with WHAT to say, think abou

If you are struggling with WHAT to say, think about this: “how could I make $100 today”. This pushes you to focus on messaging and marketing that has an end point in mind- my booking fee is $100. How can I get a booking today? That marketing is totally different than passive marketing that doesn’t ask for a sale.
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Struggling with where you want to market? Lean into your strengths and work to become the master of THREE and three alone marketing channels.
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Maybe that’s email list, ig stories and Pinterest. Maybe it’s Reels, blogging and TikTok. Pick three, ignore the rest!

Unless your booking system is very unique, I encou

A little mountain availability update: summer moun

A little mountain availability update: summer mountain sessions are booked.
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I’ll have some more spots for Fall but I won’t know those dates until I have a better handle on our soccer schedule which I won’t know until June ❤️
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I wish so much I had a machine to make more days in the summer but they are only so many!

A few steps that helped me overcome comparison: -

A few steps that helped me overcome comparison:
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1 learn to appreciate without trying to take
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2 using social media as a tool
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3 tie your success to something bigger

In the Family Photographer Marketing Society (my m

The disaster of 2020/2021 continued… - 2019 was

The disaster of 2020/2021 continued…
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2019 was my best year ever financially in the photography industry. It’s extremely rewarding to build something where you can make more money than you ever did as an employee. Early 2020 Fiona was filled with absolute glee about the coming year. 👀
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Needless to say, everyone had a shitty 2020 unless they were somehow completely insulated from the outside world. Business-wise, my success was tied to the outside world so like most photographers, my year ground to a stop and momentum never returned that year (understandably so- pandemic + happy family photos are definitely a very odd pair).
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I pride myself on my bounce back abilities. It’s always been one of the things I appreciate the most about my personality.
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Despite 2020’s dismal number of sessions and the loss of my studio in Seattle (the ferries also took an extreme nose dive in 2020-21 making reliability leaving my island home impossible), I was back in high spirits in early 2021. I splurged on a business coach to help me figure out my plan with teaching/courses.
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April + May passed happily until….a fuzzy little love of mine traumatically left us. We spent a *lot* of money trying to save her, only to be left empty handed and hearted in a silent house where a great light once lived.
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She took my ambition with her when she died. I felt so many things. Blame- if only I’d been home that day. Fear- who was I after this loss? Embarrassment- we spent a ton of savings to save nothing and that my business coach splurge dissolved into broken ideas.
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Throughout 2021, the bounce back remained illusive. There was just….grey where business hopes and dreams once lived.
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I knew time was the only healer and slowly, ever so slowly color returned to my view of the future. All of this coincided with a shift I knew I needed in my business as too many adventurous sessions were taking my away from my kids (whose prime time became the exact time I was gone for sessions). But time HAS helped. I feel hopeful again. So if you are stuck, be patient ❤️
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This post is not a comparison to the hurt + sadness anyone felt over the past two years, just my story 🦋

Marketing Monday lives! - I’ll be going live ev

Marketing Monday lives!
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I’ll be going live every Monday to talk about all things family photography marketing!
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Todays topic: the changing behavior of our clients on social media. They are less likely to share and post our work, how can we be better educators/marketers?

We just returned from our trip to Santa Cruz, Big

We just returned from our trip to Santa Cruz, Big Sur + San Francisco where we lucked out with perfect weather every single day and it was such a nice change from the rainy Pacific Northwest.
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I will definitely be going back to that area next Spring and I'm going to put some shoots in my Black Friday sale so keep an eye out for those.
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My girls have reached an age where they are so easy and fun to travel with. Of course we have our moments of snicklefritz- that’s what we call it in our family when everyone is prickly. But more like traveling with two friends than two kids and their willingness to explore and be in front of my camera is something I'm very grateful for.
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I returned to a snow prediction in the Pacific Northwest, which is not my favorite. This year has been very slow to start off sunny which is always really hard on my mental health because being in the sun made me realize how much I struggle in the dark.
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I'm going to be talking a little bit about mental health and how it affected my business in 2021. It was until I was looking back through my year for taxes did I realize the nose dive that happened after we traumatically lost Loa (our dog). As a very ambitious person, comparing the last few years with 2020 and 2021 was an added sting and made me feel all those lovely faily vibes 😵‍💫
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Keep an eye out for that this week + I hope you guys have a great Monday.

Hiiiii! - Well, I finished my experiment of not po

Hiiiii!
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Well, I finished my experiment of not posting a static image on my feed for one month. I meant to make more reels than I did but those suckers do suck time to create!
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I noticed my stories did a lot better without static images - why? No idea. So weird and dumb.
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As a marketing aficionado, I love experiments! We should never get stuck in complacency when marketing as these apps AND consumer behaviors are always shifting.
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I’ve loved the community I’ve built on this app, but this experiment has shown me that I don’t need all the pressure I put on myself. Instead of posting randomly and getting sucked into scrolling, it’s a much better use our time to post strategically and significantly reduce the scroll.
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The other main tip I’ve learned as I leaned more on stories, is that if I let my stories expire, then post a story with an engagement sticker- those stories do the best.
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This next month, I’ll be experimenting with carousel posts and story telling reels. Follow along! You can use any tips I get from my bumbling journey.
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Happy Spring!
~Fiona the overall wearing 12 year old who is actually 37

In my stories, I did a poll about how IG is feelin

In my stories, I did a poll about how IG is feeling a bit *off* if you are trying to post static images (I’m included in this group- I’ve played with reels but love sharing images most of all).
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IG has made it clear that they want to focus on video (teens and video creators to be exact)- where does that leave us static image creators? Because I’m very picky about the time I use for marketing, I simply cannot spend a lot of time in a marketing space to be invisible. It’s not about being IG famous + having thousands of followers, it’s about the equation of time and visibility. Right now, it feels off balance: too much time, too little visibility. 10 people saw my last post within the first hour it was posted. 10 people in a room who would like to hire me for my audience is a wonderful audience but we all know that many people who engage with our content here don’t end up on our calendar. We need visibility.
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I certainly wouldn’t spend an hour creating a image-laden speech just to speak to an empty room- and I don’t want that for you either.
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Picture Fiona shouting no literally no one: “hello! Here is my work! These are my best sessions! I want to help you get images like these! ….Hello?” 👀 times that exact scenario by many photographers.
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Actions on IG that resulted in bookings in 2018 are tough to replicate in 2022. So what’s the answer?
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Unfortunately, it means you need to differentiate or become invisible. If you like marketing mostly on IG, you need to switch up your strategy and become a player in the IG game. If the idea of creating video content feels the same as stomping on your own toes, it’s ok to mix up your marketing strategy OFF the ole gram.
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This might mean becoming more involved in your local community, focusing your attention delighting past clients and asking for referrals, partnering with other local influencers/service providers/social moms in your area, print marketing, local ads, email marketing. Not all marketing is done here. Just as you feel IG fatigue, your potential client might feel that as well- reach them in a new way!
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I’ll be doing a bit of a study + this will be my last static post of March. I’ll share my results!

This tiny little fist tho

This tiny little fist tho

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