BIRD WILLIAMS: You’re listening to Bird Means Business Episode 64. 

Hi there, and welcome to the Bird Means Business podcast. I am so glad you're here, and I'm so glad that you're taking time out of your busy day to invest in your business, to invest in yourself, to invest in your legacy. Yeah, it gets that serious cause everything we're doing around our business is investing in our legacy, even when it comes down to planning a photo shoot. I'm so excited to talk with you about this today because one of the most clutch aspects of my marketing strategy is having professionally shot photos that I can easily pull from when I'm updating my website or social media, or even creating landing pages, and on and on. Y’all, it makes it so much easier to have these handy, and I am going to share with you all of my tips and tricks for planning a photo shoot on today's show. I'm so excited about it. 

But before we get into all of that, it’s Black History Month. So I'm adding a “Did You Know” segment to this month's episodes. And y’all this was inspired by my friend, Nina Harrison, who shares these incredible stories of African American trailblazers, inventors, business owners, many of which we've never learned about. Their contributions are pretty remarkable. So, did you know that Philip Bell Downing successfully filed at least five patents with the United States Patent Office? And one of the most successful among them? The street letter box. Yes. That blue USPS box where you go to drop your mail. How neat? Downing was born in Rhode Island in 1857, and both his father and grandfather were businessmen. Now before Downing's invention, if you wanted to send mail, you'd have to travel all the way to the post office. But now with Downing’s street letter box, you could simply drop off mail near your home, and there would be easy pickup by a letter carrier. His idea for the hinge opening prevented rain or snow from entering the box and damaging the mail. Pretty neat! So you can read the full blackpast.org article by clicking the link in the show notes. And I'm also going to link my girl, Nina's Instagram there for you as well, so that you can follow along and learn more about African American legends.

Now we're about to dive into the episode. And as we'll discuss, one of the key factors in a successful photo shoot is having a plan for the type of shots you want. This will help you get the most out of the hours that you're booking with your photographer, and the hours you're booking at your location. Developing a shot list and sending it to your photographer in advance, will help you feel so much more prepared and strategic. And I've got you covered with a great head start. You can go to the link in the show notes to download some shot list ideas of mine so that you can get the ball rolling as you prepare for your own photo shoot. 

All right, sound good? Good. Let's get into how to plan for a photo shoot. Step one, before you do anything else, I want you to start with why. Now, if you're a client of mine or a student of mine, you've likely heard me say this a lot. Start with why. I like to start with why in everything I do. Because understanding the purpose behind my actions and outlining the intentions for what I'm about to invest my time or my money or energy into? That's so important to me. 

Here are two perspectives for why you want to have a professional photo shoot. First, we're going to talk big picture, two things. Number one, it elevates your brand. Y’all, first impressions are everything. And remember, when it comes to your marketing efforts, you're walking a customer down a path, down the journey of know, like, and trust. They need to first know that your brand exists. Then they need to like you enough to follow along or want to learn more. And then finally they need to trust you enough to actually buy from you. It all starts with what they see when they know you, when a friend texts them a link to your website, or they're scrolling through Instagram and they see an ad on social media. Does what they see resonate with them? Does it express the value that they're going to get from interacting with your product or service? Also from that big picture perspective, having professional photos gives you more confidence, and makes it so much easier for you to have content to share. It basically removes one step in the content planning process. When I'm talking about content, I'm talking about social media posts, different email marketing campaigns you might do, landing pages for your lead magnets or freebies, your website. These are all pieces of content that you're having to put on these different platforms. And when you have professional photos, it removes one step in the process because you're not having to generate photos, every week or every month, as you're implementing your marketing strategy. You have this bank of photos that's already there ready for you. 

Now that we've kind of explored your why from a macro perspective, let's really zoom in to your specific photo shoot, the one that you're planning. You want to make sure that you understand the why or the purpose of this shoot before heading into it. Are you rebranding your business? Or maybe you're launching a new product or service and you're doing a photo shoot for that. Or are you jazzing up your website and just making it a lot better? Understanding the why will help direct the rest of your planning efforts, so it's so important to start there. 

Also, I want you to think about the overall branding and the message you want to convey through these photos. Are you trying to send over a cheery vibe? Or will the mood be super laid back? Or maybe you want these photos to give the feeling of very, very, very professional. Our family photographer, Matt Daniel, who I will link in the show notes, is incredible on so many levels. But I especially love what he does with this. He'll ask me a series of questions ahead of time when I reach out to him and say hey I'm ready to book another photo shoot. He will start to really ask questions to get an understanding of the looks that I want. And then he'll send over some mood boards and inspiration of different poses, different shots to ensure that we're on the same page. So, ultimately, when you think about your why and when you think about what you're preparing to do, you want to go into the shoot with a really good understanding of what you want to get out of it. This will give you more confidence, and ensure that you'll actually get the looks or the shots that you want. A photo shoot is an investment. It's an investment of your energy, planning, and getting everything together. It's an investment of your time. And it's also an investment of your money. You want to make sure that you don't just willy-nilly figure it out as you go. Instead, you're very intentional and strategic about it so that you can get the most out of it. 

This leads to step number two. Find a great photographer. First I want you to do your research and interview a few different photographers. I always, with almost anything I do, interview at least three people in that industry or whatever I'm hiring for. And I'm really trying to key into what kind of questions they're asking me as well and what they're focusing on during the interview or this consultation call to really vet if they're going to be the best partner for me. 

As you're looking at different photographers, first you want to see, do you like their work? As you look at their social media or their Instagram or their portfolio, do you like what you see? Also, do they have a good process? Do they make it easy to pay them, to book with them, and on and on? All of this will give you clues into what it'll be like actually working with them. Then, do they come highly recommended? And again, do they ask good questions in the interview? You don't want to just talk with them and you're saying everything. You want them to be asking you questions like what your mood is, what your why is for the photo shoot. You want to make sure that they're asking those kinds of engaging questions because that's going to show you that they're understanding holistically what it is you're trying to do. 

You're gonna want to also make sure that you give yourself a lot of time and space for this process. Here's my suggestion. Even if you're not looking to book a photographer right now. You're like, “Bird, I am looking to launch my business in September, and I have some time. I'm not really ready to book right now.” Well go ahead and follow some of these photographers online so that again you can kind of start to get a sense of their style and their process. And then when the time comes for you to actually book, you're gonna feel so much more confident. Cause what will likely happen is, you’ll start following a few photographers on social media. And one will post, again and again. I love their shots. These are really good. These are really good quality. And you'll start to gravitate toward one. So when it comes time to actually book, it'll be so much simpler. 

Now, you're gonna want to make sure that you look for a photographer that not only does great work, but one that you're going to feel comfortable with during the photo shoot. Because let's keep it real, photo shoots can be hella awkward. Or maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm just awkward. That is a very valid possibility. But for real, all of the fake laughing, or the poses that maybe you feel more uncomfortable than they actually look. And you know that feeling of your face getting really tight? Yeah. If you book with a photographer that you feel comfortable with, it will take all the pressure off. You want to make sure that you think of that as well. 

And speaking of taking the pressure off, step three. I want you to develop a shot list in advance, and I want you to send this to your photographer. A shot list is simply an organized list of poses or shots that you want to make sure your photographer captures during the photo shoot. Because like I said earlier, one thing that saves me so much time when I'm planning all my content, all my social media posting, and website updates, is having a bank of photos to choose from. And here's the key. Those are not just photos of me smiling at the camera. But photos with actual movement, with certain expressions, pointing, dancing, you know, making it fun. In developing my shot list, I actually think about what I will use these photos for. Again this goes back to step one, knowing your why. And I think of what I'll need to do to convey my point. So for example, I'll make sure that in my shot list, I'll write, “I want to get a photo where I'm holding my journal.” And I'm going to use this photo in a post where I'm talking about planning, for example. Or maybe I'll write in my shot list, “I want to make sure I get a photo with my finger on my chin while I'm looking up.” And I'm going to use that image for a landing page where I'm trying to send a message, I want to get you thinking. And then there's a picture of me actually thinking. So again, this is going to ensure that my entire feed isn't just photos of me smiling at the camera and really adds some character and relatability. You really want this diversity throughout your branding. For example, if you have a product based business, you don't want your social feeds to just show images of the product sitting on a table. But maybe you also want to have images of people using it, or wearing it, or eating it or whatever it might be. Maybe some behind-the-scenes photos of production, or the quality of ingredients. You just really want to get creative here. Now when it comes to developing your shot list, think about capturing photos that express what you do in your business as well. In my last photo shoot, I made sure to get images of me with my podcast setup so that I can use those images when I'm promoting my podcast. You also should include some casual everyday real life shots like you working with a client, or putting on your jacket, or having lunch. Another layer of shots to consider is just thinking about the products and services you want to promote, and what images you'll need alongside it. If you know that in a few months you're going to be promoting a yoga retreat, you may want to have some photos with multiple people doing yoga, and maybe even at the beach. 

When I sent my photographer, Matt, the shot list for our last photo shoot, he was super impressed. And he loved that I knew what I wanted so that we could make sure that we would make our time during the shoot, efficient, and ensure that we were happy with the end result. And I'm telling you, both you and your photographer will be so grateful that you've done this prep work too. And so that you don't have to just start from scratch with your own list, I have created a free download for you to pull some ideas from to get you started. So you can click the link in the show notes to download your Shot List Ideas Guide. 

Having a shot list will help inform the locations you shoot at, the outfits you choose, the props you bring, and on and on, all of which we're going to get to next. Step four is choose your locations. Location, or locations. When it comes to choosing a location, you can keep it as simple or go as big as you want, and as your budget will allow. In most cases, I would suggest getting photos from more than one location, again for having that versatility so that all of your photos don't look the same. Maybe you get some photos at the park, some at a coffee shop, some at your home or apartment, some at a studio space that you book. Now I want you to note that typically the more locations you shoot at, the more the pricing will increase with your photographer because they're having to pack everything up and move and readjust lighting and on and on with each location change. So, even if you decide to just shoot at your home, be sure to set up different backdrops and settings so that again, you have an assortment of looks throughout your branding. 

Now step five, I want you to decide on your outfits, and your props. Another way to diversify your look and make sure that you have different images throughout your branding is to have multiple outfit changes. This is so important. Even if you keep the same jeans on but you'd switch out the color or style of your top. It'll help make it look like you're in different outfits. 

Here's something I also learned from my first photo shoot. You may consider keeping a bulk of your outfits neutral and not too busy, so it isn't so obvious when you're using those images, again and again. If you have something very loud on, every time you post it it's going to be obvious and your followers are going to remember that outfit because it's super busy. Another thing to note is that the more outfit changes you have, the more you'll eat into the time you're taking, which could affect the pricing with your photographer, and the location you booked, for example, if you booked with a studio space. So that's something you just want to have in mind. But depending on the breadth of the photo shoot, I suggest having at least four to seven outfit changes, even if a few of these are just switching up the top that you're wearing. That will help you get a lot of different images to be able to place throughout your branding. 

Now when it comes to props, here's where you can get really creative and have some fun. Again, you'll consider the work you do in your business and what you want to convey there to decide on which props you'll use. For example, my using my podcast mic and computer in certain images to convey that I have a podcast. You can also get really fun with having a champagne toast or confetti to throw. And you can use those images for maybe a confirmation page that a customer will see once they've bought your product or service. That's fun right? So again this goes back to understanding the purpose and the vibe of the shoot, and your specific use for all of your photos. 

Now step six, I want you to make a photo shoot playlist. Remember how I told you that things can get awkward? Well having a playlist that can help you get in the zone ahead of the photo shoot is clutch. You know what songs get you hype or make you feel confident. And depending on the location, you could keep the music going during the actual photo shoot as well. And I'm telling you hearing that beat drop, or hearing Lizzo's, “I do my hair toss. Check my nails.” I'm telling you that might be exactly what you need to give you a boost of confidence or have you flash a big smile. 

Finally, step seven. Go and get it. Be confident. Make the most of it. Remember, these photos will invite people into your brand, into exploring your product or service as the solution to their problem. So, plan ahead and give it your all. 

One last note, you want to make sure to refresh your photos regularly. I say at the very least once a year. But honestly having even smaller photo shoots quarterly could be great to really keep things fresh and have relevant or seasonal images. 

Now as a reminder, I have hooked it up with a free Shot List Ideas Guide that you can download today and get started with planning your very own photo shoot. Go to the link in the show notes to grab your copy. 

As always, thank you so much for tuning into the Bird Means Business podcast, for subscribing on Apple Podcasts. And I would love it if you left me a review. That'd be super awesome because that's how more people will learn about the show. You can also follow Bird Mean Business on Spotify. And make sure that you tell every entrepreneur you know about this episode so that they can plan a great photo shoot for themselves as well. Sound good? 

All righty. Talk to you next week.