469: Phillip Blume – How to take profitable mini sessions on the road to fund your travels

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

Phillip Blume of The Blumes first appeared on the podcast in episode 421, where he shared exactly how he and his wife are averaging $800 sales shooting mini sessions and consistently generating $10,000 in a single weekend without watering down their brand.

Since then, I've been chatting with Sophie, who works with the Blume's, and she was telling me they have done a lot of travelling in the past, and they're spending this next year RV'ing through the States, and they've come up with a solid strategy on how to do mini sessions successfully whilst on the road.

With travel becoming a thing again and with how well Phillip was received in the last interview by sharing a ton, my interest was piqued, and I asked for a follow-up interview.

In this episode, learn how to take profitable family portrait mini sessions on the road to fund your travels.

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

• Phillip's yearlong family travel plans and how he will fund them with mini sessions
• Renting your home when travelling long-term to offset costs
• Finding a consistent source of income while travelling on the road with photography
• Why you should not solely rely on Facebook Ads to market your photography business
• How to find email audiences in different states or countries
• The importance of building travel plans around people you know across states
• What to say to potential clients on your upcoming destination trips
• Utilising friends to send good word about your business to their network and invite them for mini sessions
• Should you expect the same sales averages for travelling mini sessions
• The need to send automated emails while on the road
• Philip's RV studio
• After sessions and IPS process while RV'ing
• Is it necessary to map out mini-session schedules before heading out on a yearlong trip
• The need to create a spreadsheet to compute your cost of doing business
• How to earn $1.5k from a 20-minute mini session
• How to add value to your business to generate bookings
• How to handle hesitations from would-be clients
• How trust leads to conversion and sales
• Back-up plans for when client homes are not suitable for photo sessions
• Phillip's shooting style for portrait sessions
• What to consider when location scouting for mini sessions
• You only need 10 minutes to have quality time with a client
• The importance of offering focused attention to clients
• How to manage children running wild while shooting family sessions
• Phillip's after-sales process
• Bringing physical samples on the road for your sales sessions
• Phillip's print fulfilment process
• Is it viable to do mini sessions while on the road even without an email list
• Why locally-driven businesses are the most powerful
• Will mini sessions work when travelling to new places where you know no one
• How to generate organic bookings while on the road
• What you will learn in the Mini Sessions course
• What is Photoflix and how does it work

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.

You can be really, really successful with Facebook Ads. But running Facebook Ads really well these days is an art and a business of its own. – Phillip Blume

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 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.

The Six Figure Blueprint

Ready to build your dream portrait business?

Kim Marie, who is well known by PhotoBizX listeners was interviewed for episode 420 of the podcast and covered: How to build a photography business to sell… and also presented the incredible training on utilising Expos to generate unlimited leads bookings and sales is launching a new online course, The Six-Figure Blueprint.

This training is only for photographers who are already generating $30k+ from their photography and is the perfect way to take your photography business to a whole new level – by someone who has actually done it.

To learn more about the training and what Kim is offering, here's the link: https://photobizx.com/kimmarie

Sometimes giving in to someone's demands or requests is not actually what's best for them. – Phillip Blume

Trust with the capital T is the number one characteristic that leads to conversions and sales in business. – Phillip Blume

ImagenAI — New Version Released

It feels like yesterday when Imagen created a new category of high-volume AI photo editing in 2020.

Since then photographers have been utilising Imagen to help cut their editing times.

Imagen has just launched a new version of its desktop app.

You get the same fantastic results from its AI replication of your editing style but the workflow is more streamlined to make your photo editing even faster.

If you haven't checked this out, you need to!

Get 1,500 free edits at https://photobizx.com/imagenAI

What is your big takeaway?

Following this interview, I’d love to know if you're taking anything away from what Phillip 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, and what you plan to implement in your business as a result of what you heard in today's episode.

Email marketing and interpersonal local marketing strategies that have been around since the dawn of time, those are just exponentially more impactful than social media posts or even paid social media ads. – Phillip Blume

If you have any questions that I missed, a specific question you’d like to ask Phillip 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 or Google 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 and Google are 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.

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 or https://photobizx.com/google 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.

If you are going to have a successful business, it has to be about serving other people, not yourself. – Phillip Blume

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.​

Here is the latest review…

★★★★★ EXCEPTIONAL PODCAST!

Via Apple Podcasts Craig Greenslade who shoots professional headshots from the UK on June 7th 2022.

The best podcast I've discovered on business since Shopify Masters.

Andrew is a great presenter with excellent guests that provide honest, real and actionable information on the photography business.

As a headshot photographer, I listen to the podcasts while I'm editing. It keeps me motivated and inspired to grow my business!