429: Elle Payne – When business and service become the motivator over great photography

Premium Members, click here to access this interview in the premium area.

Elle Payne of www.alwaysbellephotography.com.au is a Melbourne, Australia based newborn photographer. I've been pushing her for an interview for a long time!

Not only is Elle one of the warmest and beautiful people you'll come across, but also a business savvy, motivated go-getter who is committed to creating more than a job for herself as a photographer. Elle is zoned in on building a one million dollar photography business.

I've been lucky enough to witness Elle's growth through her PhotoBizX membership as she's taken on a variety of photography business coaches and mentors, contributed to mastermind groups and, more than anything, implemented a ton of ideas along the way while adapting and growing her business.

In this interview, Elle shares how she's achieved her growth and success through marketing, sales, pricing, customer service, SEO, website improvements, taking on staff, outsourcing, and a commitment to learning and implementing.

If you don't come away motivated about your business after hearing this interview, you'll need to check for a pulse. ??

Here's some more of what we cover in the interview:

• The growth cycle for Always Belle over the years
• Revenue and turnover
• How working with business coaches rockets your sales
• How Elle has systematized her business
• Why you need to put systems in place for your business
• Elle's approach to work and life balance
• How to achieve a million-dollar photography business
• Elle's weekly work structure
• How to be productive as a business owner and still be a great mum and wife
• Why you need to create mind maps for your business
• Elle's secret to dramatically increasing sales
• Following Sue Bryce' reveal wall before progressing
• Elle's sales strategy for generating more sales
• Elle's sales session processes in detail
• Packages and best-selling products
• The need to change your mindset to have a successful business
• The importance of having the right products for your business
• The best lead generation strategy to implement in your business
• The need to prioritize and implementing SEO for your website

What’s on Offer for Premium Members

If you’re a premium member, you should have received an email with links to your version of this interview – the full length and more revealing version where you hear the absolute best tips and advice from every guest.

If you’re on the fence about becoming a premium member, join with the $1 trial today and get access to the FULL interviews each week, get access to an amazing back catalogue of interviews and ALL future interviews delivered automatically to your phone or tablet.

Plus special member-only interviews.

My passion is the business side of things. That's where the challenge is for me in getting people in the door and watching my average sales go up and having happy clients at the end. – Elle Payne

You'll also receive access to the members-only Secret Facebook Group where you can connect with other Premium Members and interview guests to help, support and motivate you to take ideas you hear in each episode and put them into action. There are also FB live video tutorials, role-play interviews and special live interviews happening in the group. You will not find more friendly, more motivated, caring and sharing photographers online.

Seriously, that's not all.

In addition to everything above, you'll get access to and instructions on forming or joining a MasterMind Group with other premium members. These groups are super motivating, make you accountable and build friendships with other pro photographers with similar motives to you – to build a more successful photography business.

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Elle shared. Is there something you heard that excited or motivated you to the point where you thought, yeah, I'm going to do that! If so, let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments below, let me know what your takeaways were, what you plan to implement in your business as a result of what you heard in today's episode.

I really want to create a business and not a job. – Elle Payne

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Elle or if you just want to say thanks for coming on the show, feel free to add them in the comments area below.

iTunes Reviews and Shout-outs

Each week I check for any new iTunes reviews and it's always a buzz to receive these… for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it's confirmation that I'm on the right track with the interviews and that they really are helping you improve your photography business. That's awesome!

Secondly, iTunes is the biggest search engine when it comes to podcasts and it's your reviews and ratings that help other photographers find PhotoBizX. More listeners mean more interviews and ultimately a better show.

I don't want clients to just buy wall art. With my pricelist and how my prices are set up is that I want them to buy the prit box and then I want them to buy something for the wall. – Elle Payne

If you have left a review in the past, thank you! If you haven't and you'd like to, head to https://photobizx.com/itunes and you can leave some honest feedback and a rating which will help both me and the show and I'll be sure to thank you on the show and add a link to your website or blog if you let me know the URL of your website and your name.

Alternatively, if you've left a review for PhotoBizX and are looking for more backlinks to help your SEO, leave a review for the new Photography Xperiment Podcast and email me your keywords or keyword phrase and where you'd like me to link to.

Another great way to get a backlink to your site is to send a video testimonial. It doesn't need to be fancy and your phone will be perfect. Click record and tell me how PhotoBizX has made a difference to you and your photography business.

LinkedIn Training for Photographers – it's not too late to join!

LinkedIn is the most underused social platform by photographers but is a goldmine if you know what you're doing, and you have a fully optimised profile while posting the right type of content.

If you've no idea where to start or have been floundering on the platform, I have you covered!

Well… not me personally, but Jeff Brown, the LinkedIn expert and photography business coach.
Jeff is presenting a 4 part in-depth Live Training Event for you – starting this week.

At $97, this is, I believe, set to be the best value training offered via PhotoBizX.

You can see more details and reserve your spot here: https://photobizx.com/linkedin​

This will be business changing training and can transform your business if you put into practice what Jeff teaches you.

​The price will be going up to $197 after the event.​

The live sessions will be recorded. You'll have access to them to rewatch if you need to.

You don't have to attend the live sessions to get the most from this training.

And YES, there is a money-back guarantee on this training, like anything from me. If you don't get what you hoped from the training, let me know and I'll happily refund you.

​Reserve your spot and don't miss this training: https://photobizx.com/linkedin​

Hope to see you later this week

NOTE: I've literally just opened my account on LinkedIn right before the training started. I had no idea where to start or what to do — to generate leads or attract clients.
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This is all you need to get started, a LinkedIn account.

Jeff has assured me that I'll be 100% set to have LinkedIn working like a lead generation machine following this training.
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I'll be going through this with you and implementing/learning as we go.
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Get registered, come and join me and over 30 other PBX listeners, it's no risk: https://photobizx.com/linkedin​

Personal Branding Mentoring Program with Paula Brennan

Paula Brennan was interviewed for the podcast a couple of months ago and she had heads spinning with talk about $10k personal branding photography days!

Paula went on to share a ton of actionable ideas on how to grow your personal branding photography business – or get started in the genre.

Missed the interview? Check it out here: https://photobizx.com/paula-brennan-conversion-and-nurturing-trumps-photography-lead-generation-numbers

If you love what you learnt from Paula, she is opening up her “Breakthrough Mentoring Program” this month.

Breakthrough is a step-by-step mentoring & implementation program created by Paula – a working professional photographer – that shows you the exact blueprint to attract and pre-sell intelligently priced personal brand packages, how to create systems to save your time and build a tribe of loyal repeat clients, ALL with personal guidance and support to push past your blocks and barriers that may have slowed you down so far.

Details of the program are here: https://photobizx.com/breakthrough

NOTE: Premium Members who take on this training can receive a $400 rebate. Make sure you join with the link above and send me your receipt and PayPal email address, so I can process the rebate for you. Any questions, ask away at andrew@photobizx.com