279: Elena Blair – Content marketing for photographers and school portraiture with a killer difference

279: Elena Blair – Content marketing for photographers and school portraiture with a killer difference

 

Andrew Hellmich: Today's guest discovered photography when looking for an outlet after her home was broken into, which she says was one of the most violating experiences of her life. She's now obsessed with capturing families and newborns in a way that is artistic, real, romantic and full of life. Her other passion is showing women they can pursue their dream to become a photographer and that they can build a meaningful and profitable business. I'm talking about Elena Blair, who, in addition to her photography business, runs a fine art school portrait business, is co-owner of Blair and Thurston Retreats, is co-owner of Lady Boss Workshops and the co-host of the Creatively Unscripted Podcast. I have no idea where this interview will go, but I'm excited to have someone who sounds like Superwoman with us today. Elena, welcome.

Elena Blair: Thank you. That's a very nice intro. Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here.

Andrew Hellmich: Look, it's my pleasure. I mean, it sounds like you do so much. Do you have kids as well? I mean, what takes the main focus in your life?

Elena Blair: You know, I don't feel like there is one thing that takes the main focus. You know, I've heard a quote from Jeff Bezos, and he said, "You shouldn't worry about balance. It should be about harmony." And I really feel like I live that, I don't try to balance it. Some days I work a lot, and some days I don't work at all. Some days I'm with the kids a lot. And some days I hardly see them. So I just try to kind of go with what you know, what needs my attention at that particular time.

Andrew Hellmich: So well, in regard to the business side of things, I mean, it sounds like you have a lot of things on the go. Sounds like you work with other people quite a bit. How do you divide up your day? Or yes, a better question is, which businesses are doing the best for you financially.

Elena Blair: So you mean, like, out of all the things that I do?

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah

Elena Blair: Out of all the different endeavors, which is doing the best financially, I would say would have to be where I bring in the largest amount of revenue each year is with my education, the education side of my personal business. So my own workshops that I host, and that's just because, you know, you can reach so many more people online, such a huge volume. So with Lady Boss Workshops, which I co-own with my friend Sandra Cohn, and then my personal two workshops that I have running right now. That was my largest revenue stream last year, I would say, and then the second place of that would be my portrait business. So my lifestyle, family and newborn pictures makes brings them a significant income over six figures. And then my school business would be next, and then my retreats would be after that.

Andrew Hellmich: Wow

Elena Blair: But they're all pretty profitable. You know, when you learn how to run a business, the right, it's like, business is business. And so that's kind of, I think, why I'm able to implement these strategies so seamlessly is because, really, once you learn how to do it, it works for every kind of business, which is kind of cool.

Andrew Hellmich: Absolutely. So in saying that, then you help and teach and train a lot of other photographers, it sounds like, mainly women. Where do you see most people going wrong? Like, what is the biggest mistake that people are making when they go into business?

Elena Blair: When they go into business, I think that the biggest mistake that people make is that they don't know what they do. They don't know what it is that they do that makes them unique. And then the second biggest mistake that they make is that they don't know who they're communicating to. So they're wondering why they're not booking clients and why they're not making money or being able to get, you know, amount of money that they would like to be charging. And you look at what they're doing, and their website is, you know, or whatever, however they're displaying their work is kind of all over the place. You can't really tell what their unique gift is, because they're not showing you. And then they're trying to market to everybody, and then, in turn, they're not marketing to anyone. And so, you know, they're not doing the work to figure those things out, and those two simple concepts seem like people feel like they already know that stuff. But when you really dive into those two things, it makes a huge difference.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, okay, it does make sense. Straight away, I'm starting to think about a photographer that I was talking to recently based overseas in a European country, and she wants to focus on photographing gay and lesbian couples. That's her passion, and she's got a lot of work from gay and lesbian couples, but she's worried about offending straight couples and missing out on their bookings by pushing the gay and lesbian thing. So what would your advice be to someone like that?

Elena Blair: Well, my advice would be if she really feels passionate about wanting to only shoot gay and lesbian couples. Like, if that's really what she wants to do, I would encourage her to go hard in that direction, and I get what she's saying, because I think, you know, when you're new, and we've all been there, and you really just need to make money. Like, sometimes it's like, you know, you got to pay the bills, and so you don't want to turn away work, right? So you are kind of taking everything. Even though you have this passion point, there's something you know that got you going. So what I would advise her to do is only show on her website and social media gay and lesbian couples, and then even if she's taking other couples just to pay the bills, that's fine, but you don't ever have to put that in your portfolio. So that, I would say, go for. And that's an amazing niche. Anytime you can niche down like that much that's going to be huge for you, because you'll stand out.

Andrew Hellmich: I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that. But what about if you know, she comes back and says, "I just can't afford to risk not photographing or appealing to straight couples at this stage of my business, because I need the money", like you said, and that's something I think a lot of trainers overlook is the fact that the photographer needs to make money.

Elena Blair: Yeah, no, they need to make money. I mean, I guess so. Are you saying, like, what would I advise to her to still be able to attract straight couples that were..

Andrew Hellmich: Well, I guess is it okay to target both in the beginning, or should she have a separate website?

Elena Blair: That's a tough one, I think in the beginning. I mean, yes, it would be okay to target both. And I really feel like, honestly, what she's passionate about. I mean, now, I mean, I'd have to, like, look at her business and see what she's doing, but she's probably passionate more about, you know, love and connection and that kind of thing. And so it wouldn't be torturous for her to do those straight couple sessions, you know, build her brand and get some money. But, yeah, that's a tough one. I mean, I think if it's about financial stuff and she needs to do it. Yeah, she can sprinkle both into her portfolio, but I think that if that's not what she actually wants to do, like if she really does just want to do gay and lesbian couples, then I would probably advise her to do as many sessions as she could, to get a big portfolio and only target that niche, to be honest. But I get it when you're growing, you're growing, and sometimes you have to do weird things that you don't want to do just to make ends meet, and that's okay too. So.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, it's so nice to hear you say that. Like I said, I hear so many people preaching that this is the best way, but then they don't take into account the fact that, you know, we need to make money to get started. You know, it's difficult to specialize right in the beginning.

Elena Blair: Yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: So how about you? How did you, sorry? Go on..

Elena Blair: Sometimes you don't know what you want to do, and so when you're first starting, you just know you like photography. You really do need to try a bunch of different stuff as well. So there's no shame in that either. I mean, I feel like we all are growing and changing as humans in general, so it's okay to try different stuff in the beginning, while you're figuring out what it is you want to specialize on. I think that's totally fine.

Andrew Hellmich: Is that how you found that you know women were who you wanted to target for your training? Is that how you found that newborn and family photography was your thing?

Elena Blair: Well, those are two different things, but for family photography, I feel like it was a natural progression for me. I mean, I became a photographer because I had children and wanted to capture them beautifully, and family is just a big part of who I am in my life, like my own family that I grew up in, and then my children. So I felt passionate about that generally, and then the women part of it. The why I like to target women for teaching is because I really feel like our industry is really underrepresented by women. To be quite honest, it's still, you know, a male dominated industry, and a lot of women feel like what they're doing isn't serious because they started it because they were moms, or they started it, you know, out as a hobby, and now they want to make it into a business. And so I really like to empower women and show them that they can, you know, do it themselves. They can pay their own bills. They can grow big profitable businesses if they want to. And I feel like it just was an area that I didn't think was being represented that well in our industry. So that was kind of where I went. How I got started with that target.

Andrew Hellmich: So do men come through your training as well? Or is it 100% focused on women?

Elena Blair: No, men come through my trainings a lot actually. I mean my business, business Lady Boss Workshops, where we do business education is primarily women, although we do have some men in our community, which is kind of cool. My school photography workshop, tons of men in there. I don't feel like that when I'm targeting women as much. And my lifestyle posing class, I have a lot of men in that class as well. And I teach for Creative Live, which is, you know, totally split down the middle as far as who watches their work. So I would say that, yes, like, you know, when you're thinking about marketing, you do have to think about who you're speaking to. And generally, yeah, I'm speaking to women, but I do have men that come through my trainings as well.

Andrew Hellmich: Sure. So with your family photography business, how are the families finding you? What are you doing to stay booked?

Elena Blair: So I really believe in content marketing. So I mean, do you want me to explain what that is for you?

Andrew Hellmich: Sure. Yeah, let's do that. So you talking about inbound marketing?

Elena Blair: Content marketing, yeah, so meaning, like, you know, putting valuable content out that your consumer is going to really, you know, buy into, want to be a part of, and then I would say that it's more of like a long term marketing strategy. So when I'm doing anything on Facebook and Instagram and really good blogging, it's all speaking directly to my ideal client, and I speak to their, you know, needs and their values. And I have a lot of people who say that they've been watching me for years, and then finally they decide to invest in a session with me. And the way that I book, though, is I have a mailing list, and I book out a year in advance for my family work, because I try to only take two sessions a week, and so that books up pretty quick, because obviously there's some weeks that I don't do any sessions. And so instead of, you know, marketing in a way that says, like, "Book me, book me, I have this many sessions left", I kind of finesse them into my mailing list, and then I send out an announcement November before the next year, every year. Are saying that my schedule is open and I book out a year in advance almost every year. So, like I said, it's kind of a long term strategy, but it's all about that, you know, sharing your why, being really deeply rooted in what you do and why you do it, and sharing that every day so that people really want to be part of your brand. They want to be part of your brand story. Yeah, it's kind of complicated, right, but that's in a nutshell. That's basically what.

Andrew Hellmich: No, that's fine. So what are you doing to get people to get onto your mailing list?

Elena Blair: There's buttons all over my website. I would say that my website is a list building website for the various things that I offer of all different facets of my business. You know, from teaching to actually, portraits. I just say, like "I often book nearly a year in advance, so if you want to have first dibs on a session with me, make sure you're on my mailing list." You know that part of my marketing strategy, I really only reach out to my clients quarterly, and just kind of like a check in, sharing some, you know, recent blog posts and family sessions and whatnot, and then they get that big email in November, and I book out pretty fast.

Andrew Hellmich: So November is really the only email where you're offering sessions and getting people to book.

Elena Blair: Yeah

Andrew Hellmich: Wow. It really is only four emails a year. Because, I mean, everything else I read is we should be staying in touch more often. We should be doing once a month, once a fortnight.

Elena Blair: So that's for my portrait business. I mean, for my people that I educate, I send an email out once a week. I've been doing that religiously for two years, and it's the same thing, though. I send that email out once a week. It's always valuable content. I really believe in serving my people well, and so I serve them once a week with free content. And then when I'm selling something or I either they go through a funnel, if they came in with an opt in, but when I'm selling something, I don't feel bad about selling it to them, because it's only a couple times a year that I really have big marketing campaigns, and they've been getting so much free content from me that they're not annoyed by the marketing. And I just feel like as far as marketing strategy goes, I mean, when I see people complaining that their stuff isn't being seen on Facebook or Instagram. You look at what they're posting, and it's all just like direct marketing, like, "I have this open, I have this session open. I've got many sessions. I got this going on", and it's not what people want to hear anymore. They want to be served good content first. You know, you have to serve your people first. So, yeah, but for my portrait business, I mean, I just feel like that, checking in quarterly works well for them, it's kind of a balance. But..

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so when you say checking in quarterly, I get the checking in sort of phrase. Are you looking for a reply to those emails? Are you just saying, "Hey, I'm still here." Like, what are you saying in those emails? I know you're sharing some blog posts, but what else?

Elena Blair: Yeah, I'm just getting on the forefront of their mind. So I just sent the most recent one for this quarter. I believe that was last week. And I said, "Hello", and you know, I said we talked about, you know, "the weather's changing in Seattle, so it's family portrait season. It's kind of, we're stepping right into that finally. It's still raining a lot, but finally stepping into family portrait season." And so just kind of, you know, a friendly email in that way. And then I'm actually about to hire an associate. And so I just said, "Hey, for those of you that didn't get to get a session this year. Just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be hiring an associate, and it will be someone that I trust", and so I was letting them know about that, and kind of just, yeah, it's very friendly. It's not salesy at all. It's more like "Here I am. Don't forget about me. Sorry if you didn't get a session this year", reminding them of my work, reminding them of my voice and then inviting them to follow me on all my social media platforms to make sure that they're there, because I post on social media every single day, I think it's important to do that. And yeah, so it's just a really, you know, staying on the forefront of their mind and making sure they didn't forget me.

Andrew Hellmich: So and with that email that you send out, is that full of images? Is it purely text based? What is it?

Elena Blair: Purely text. You know, I rarely put big images in email. Sometimes it clogs up people's inboxes, and that's less likely to get seen. It might be sent to spam, if that's the case. But it's hyperlinked. You know, there's lots of links in there. Like I said, I show them, you know, family sessions that I've done recently, just so that they can see what's been going on. And, yeah, and that's it. It's pretty simple, but email marketing is effective. Email marketing bananas. I mean, when you get funnels and things set up, it's just kind of amazing. It's really what makes the most income, for sure.

Andrew Hellmich: So when you say funnel, I mean, as a marketer, I understand that. But if you're talking to a family portrait photographer, do they have a funnel?

Elena Blair: The way that I build my list for the people who are wanting photos, I have so many different businesses, the people who want photos..

Andrew Hellmich: Yes

Elena Blair: I don't put them into a funnel. I'm not really funneling them into anything. I don't want them to buy a digital product or I'm not a product based service. But when I'm talking about funnels, that's more for the people who are buying classes.

Andrew Hellmich: Sure, so other photographers, cool.

Elena Blair: Other photographers.

Andrew Hellmich: So when you talked about content marketing and putting great content out there that your readers or your potential clients want, is this like clothing guide? Is it location recommendation? What are in those posts that make them so good?

Elena Blair: Yes, and you know, this is what Google wants. Is good, valuable content. It's what they're looking for. They're looking for stuff, you know, content that people are staying and reading and sharing. And so I'll give you a bunch of examples of what I do that serves my portrait clients, but it also serves other photographers who are looking for these kind of tips, and then it also serves other people who are going to have family photos done that aren't going to have them done from me, that's good business. That's good marketing, too. You know, when you have as many eyes as you can, basically, you know, you want to make an impact on as many people as you can. So some of the things that I do, I have a clothing guide. If you don't have a what to wear guide, and you're a photographer, go write that blog post tomorrow, because it will go bananas. It always does anytime I share that I have a how to prepare your children on my blog, how to prepare dad, how to make mom look her best, how to pick a location. So it's not just how to pick locations in Seattle, it's like, how do you pick a location that's going to suit your family dynamics? So we get into that, trying to think of other ones that I have, why I shoot at golden hour. What is lifestyle photography? Why I don't pose newborns? I mean, the list goes on and on, and that is really great because it's sharing my philosophies. And so it really allows somebody who's thinking they want to have photos with me, to get to know me a little bit. And then it is also serving them with really good, valuable content. So when I am educating clients that have already booked, I send them to these blog posts. So these blog posts content that serves, you know, multiple, lots of different purposes, and that's good for me and it's good for them. And so that, why that's called Content Marketing, is there's some people who are going to stumble across something like that of mine. Maybe they found me on Pinterest, maybe they found me on Facebook. Maybe they found me on Google. They're looking for a family photographer. Maybe they don't like how much I'm charging, but they like my work because they keep coming back. They keep coming back. They get on my mailing list. They book a session with me. So, like I said, the long term strategy, you know, my marketing strategy, and what I teach in marketing is not like, you know, put this out there and say, "Book me. I have this many sessions available." You don't want that. You want people who are really buying into your brand and want to be part of your brand story.

Andrew Hellmich: Sure. So this is something you just build up over time, and you just keep adding to this content and keep linking to it and sharing it.

Elena Blair: Yep, absolutely. And if you have everything arranged in the right way on your back end of your website, then it's going to come up in search engines, which is good, so.

Andrew Hellmich: Cool. And I imagine I haven't looked at your blog post, but I imagine there's an opt in box or form on every blog post as well.

Elena Blair: Most blog posts, we put opt ins, yep, and there's a bar at the top for whatever thing that an announcement bar that I have on my website, my home page has all kinds of different opt ins on it, my list grows by hundreds a day. So yeah, it's not for portrait clients, though, when we're talking about two different things, list is pretty but I only do you know 100 family sessions a year about.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, but I mean, you can have a great business with 100 family portrait sessions a year.

Elena Blair: Yeah, you can.

Andrew Hellmich: Cool. You said that you post on social media every day, so I'm guessing this is across all of your businesses. What about just for family portrait and newborn photography?

Elena Blair: Yeah, every day. So, right? This is content marketing again. So like, if you hop on my Instagram, like today, I posted a picture of a little girl. And so it's my work that's being posted there. I tagged myself, you know, 'Seattle family photography', but my text was sort of more speaking to, you know, my ideal student, which is a woman who is feeling the struggles and pressures that are present in entrepreneurship. And so that one post advertises my work. So you know, I will show up on if somebody's looking for me on that hashtag, looking for a photographer, but it also is targeting my ideal student. So it's a double purpose. Well, I schedule all of my social media, my batch work. I don't ever post in real time. And I mean rarely, I shouldn't say, don't, ever, but rarely and that there, I always have a strategy as to who I'm speaking to, why I'm speaking to them.

Andrew Hellmich: Elena, what tool do you use for your scheduling?

Elena Blair: I use later.com. Love them.

Andrew Hellmich: And that will allow you to post directly into Instagram or just set a reminder?

Elena Blair: Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest and Twitter.

Andrew Hellmich: Very cool.

Elena Blair: Yeah, you can schedule it all and it automatically posts it. It's kind of magical.

Andrew Hellmich: Nice, nice. So would you put it like a day a week a day a month to do all your social media stuff?

Elena Blair: Usually, I am scheduled about two weeks in advance on Later. I use another program for Facebook, called MeetEdgar. Have you heard of it?

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, have.

Elena Blair: Yeah. I use MeetEdgar for Facebook, and I don't recommend that if you're only doing portraits. That's more because of my other part of my business, it's pretty expensive, so it's not really something that everybody needs, but I use Meet Edgar. And what I love about Meet Edgar is that he, I always say he like he's an actual person. I. Yeah, but it recycles your old content, which is such a good thing to do, I think that's a mistake a lot of us as content marketers make, is you post something and then it dies on the internet after it got that big hit. Well, you can repost your old stuff. There's no reason not to do that, and that's what MeetEdgar does, so.

Andrew Hellmich: Absolutely. So another alternative to that one, which is cheaper, is called Viral Tag. That's worth checking out for the listeners., if they're shooting portraits.

Elena Blair: I know of another service that recycles content like that. What I used to do for free before I did that is I had a content library doc, like a Google Doc, that just had all of the links that I copied and pasted and put there, and then I would just grab from there every day and post them.

Andrew Hellmich: Cool.

Elena Blair: So, yeah, that's what I used to do before I you know, we all start somewhere before I had the budget for this kind of stuff. So, yeah, you can do it for free, too.

Andrew Hellmich: Sure. Because, I mean, if you have a clothing guide or location guide blog post, I mean, there's no reason why you can't use it every six months, every 12 months.

Elena Blair: Absolutely, or every two months.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah

Elena Blair: You have to remember these algorithms are everyone complains about them. They're there to help us, though, they're there to help your user experience. So the average amount of people that sees your posts are one to 3%, it's a pretty small amount. So you can repost stuff. And you know, we're so connected to our work that we think everybody is, you know, going to be annoyed and seeing it multiple times, but most people didn't see it the last time, and it'll recycle it to new people. And so yeah, if you have a popular post, it's totally worth posting frequently, I think.

Andrew Hellmich: Yeah, I agree. How important is Pinterest to your business?

Elena Blair: Pinterest is pretty important to my business. People are probably like, brains are gonna explode and be like, "Oh my gosh, is she seriously using every single one of these platforms?" But yes, I am. So Pinterest, you know, it's not social media, it's a search engine. It works just like a search engine. It's all about keywords and that kind of thing. And so yes, I have a lot of clients I get through Pinterest actually, because think about how you use Pinterest. People are, you know, looking Seattle family photographer, Seattle newborn photographer, photography tips, or whatever it is that they're keywording in there, and that's how they're finding it. I'm now an educator for Adorama, and they found me on Pinterest. So, yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: So what about family photography clients? You know, newborn photography clients? Are they finding you through Pinterest? Or are you sending them to Pinterest?

Elena Blair: They're finding me through Pinterest. That's a pretty common referral source for me.

Andrew Hellmich: So what's the secret? What's the right way to utilize Pinterest?

Elena Blair: Oh, boy, that's a whole hour. That's a whole workshop. Let me tell you.

Andrew Hellmich: Well, give us the basics. Give us the basics.

Elena Blair: I would say that the first thing that you should remember about Pinterest is that it is not a social media site, it is a search engine. So the biggest thing that you can do for your website to optimize it for Pinterest is to make sure that your photos, that they are named correctly. So you don't want to just be like image 4567.JPEG, you know you want it to say Seattle family photographer, photography in Seattle, Seattle newborn photographer, things that people are going to be looking at. And then you want to optimize your website for Pinterest by having that little and almost all websites do this now, where you just hover over the picture and it makes that little you know, Pinterest pin, almost all website hosts have a way to turn that on, so you will definitely want to make sure you're doing that. And then the reason that I think it brings me so much business is that my boards are named Seattle family photographer, Seattle newborn photographer, Seattle maternity photographer, photography education, nothing fancy. I just have it named exactly what I want people to how I want people to find me. So it's really organized like that. And then all social media and this, I know I just said it wasn't social media, but I'm just in for all intents and purposes, all of these kinds of websites, Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, the algorithms like consistency. They want to see that you're a relevant to user, and that means you need to be using it every day. So for Pinterest, we schedule it on Later.

Andrew Hellmich: Right.

Elena Blair: It's how I use Pinterest, yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: So I look at your board now. So one of the first things that caught my attention was, I mean, everything looks beautiful on your Pinterest page or on your profile there. So I've clicked on one. It says, "Why does everyone hate the word pose?" And then it says, "Why knowing how to pose is a good thing." And you've got a photo of a family there which doesn't even look overly posed. That's a beautiful photo, but if I click on that, then it goes to a blog post on your website about posing.

Elena Blair: Yep. So there is a total example of how a piece of content serves my clients, because it's showing them, "Hey, this is my philosophy on posing. This is what it's going to feel like to have a session with me", which is great. That's like golden knowledge for them. And then it also serves my students, because I'm saying, "Hey, guess what? This is how you.." and I think there's an opt-in on that post. I'm sure from my posing guide.

Andrew Hellmich: There is.

Elena Blair: Yeah. Then that brings those people onto my mailing list, and I serve them with good content and then offer them to buy my posing guide. So one piece of content serving two different types of clients is that's how I do it.

Andrew Hellmich: It's so good. So do you only pin your own photos, or do you find other things that inspire you, like the way general people use Pinterest?

Elena Blair: I mostly only pin my own stuff or relevant content that I know will serve my people. So I do pin other like outfit ideas. I have boards about, you know, what to wear for family session, what to wear for a newborn session, and that kind of thing, so that I will pin other people's work for those so I will do that, but mostly it is my stuff, it's all me, and I know that I think people, that's hard for people to get used to. When you're learning how to market yourself, people don't want to be like, you know, seem like they're narcissistic or whatever, but this is your job to market yourself. So yeah, put yourself out.

Andrew Hellmich: So let's say, on Pinterest, if you use someone else's photo, let's say you're one of your guides for what to wear. For example, do you use to link that image to your blog post, or is that sort of a dodgy thing to do on Pinterest?

Elena Blair: No, I wouldn't do that. If I pin someone else's thing onto a board, it just, no, I wouldn't link it to my post. No.

Andrew Hellmich: Okay, so you'll have something then on that board.

Elena Blair: Yeah, some people with your pinning consistently like that, and somebody sees that pin, there's a chance that they're going to go to your boards because they saw who pinned it. That happens too.

Andrew Hellmich: Got it. Got it, okay.

Elena Blair: Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Hellmich: When I introduced you, I mentioned that you have a fine art school portrait business. What is that?

Elena Blair: So, fine art school portraits, or another common term, is boutique school photography, is just basically an elevated school photography experience. So, you know, instead of that cheesy, classic portrait that we all kind of got used to, it is a more artistic portrait, I shoot on a black background. I have students though, that use white and gray. You can use any background, and it's just more about actually capturing the child's personality in a school portrait, instead of just like that one cheesy photo that doesn't even look like your kid. And then the experience is a little bit more elevated for the parents, because I give them viewing galleries online, and they can choose between a bunch of different pictures, usually it's about five or 10, rather than just us picking the one. And then they are available in color and black and white. And then they can order more boutique products like canvases and digital files right from the gallery. So it's just a better experience on the school photography level basically.

 
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Andrew Hellmich: Elena, this has been fantastic. You've shared a ton, massive thanks for coming on. I know it's taken us a couple of times to get here, but I'm so rapt that we did.

Elena Blair: And I'm sorry if I'm all over the place, I feel like my business is multifaceted, so it's kind of hard to..

Andrew Hellmich: Not at all. This is fantastic. You know what? It's proof that people can do this. You know, you're doing so many different things and all successfully, or a lot of us are trying to just do one thing as well as you're doing a bunch. So it's definitely doable.

Elena Blair: Yes, it's totally doable. And that's where, you know, most of my education, that's what I want people to know, like, you can do this. And the reason I speak to women, maybe it's because I'm a mom, a woman who felt like I couldn't do it at the beginning. And I just want people to know like, "Hey, if I can do it, you can do it." And I don't have more hours in my day or a magic wand. You know, I just have a lot of determination, and that's what it takes, lots of work and determination, but it's pretty rewarding. I mean, you know this, it's an awesome job, so I want to see more people succeed.

Andrew Hellmich: Unreal, unreal. Now I'm going to add links to anything and everything that you've mentioned in the episode. I'll find all those different things. But where is the number one spot the listeners should go if they want to learn more about your courses and what you do?

Elena Blair: I would say go to my website. So www. E-L-E-N-A-S, as in Sam, B-L-A-I-R photography.com, so elenasblairphotography.com. On my home page, there's so much stuff just right there, all kinds of free resources. And then you'll find a link to my Instagram account, which I'm pretty active on Instagram, it's elenasblair_photography. And then Facebook is Facebook.com/ElenaSBlairPhotography. It's kind of the same everywhere. My name is the same everywhere across the board. But yeah, if you're looking for some good resources, I'd say definitely go to my website and kind of have a look around.

Andrew Hellmich: Unreal. I introduced you as a possible Superwoman, and now I'm convinced you are. Elena, thank you so much.

Elena Blair: I don't know about that, but thank you very much. I appreciate it.