68: How to create a system for your mini-sessions (for 2023) featuring Rebecca Rice | The systems and workflow magic podcast

Are you a photographer looking to increase productivity and create spectacular mini-photography sessions? Do you strive to provide an unforgettable, efficient experience for your clients? Get ready to learn from the best! Rebecca Rice, the queen of creating stunning mini-photography sessions, shares her trials, errors and successes in developing systems and processes in her business. If you are ready to take advantage of Rebecca’s behind-the-camera processes, guaranteeing beautiful results, this episode is for you!

The Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast is brought to you by Dolly DeLong Education. This podcast is for creative business owners who want to learn tangible steps to automate their business through workflows, systems, tools, and strategies to go from scattered to streamlined with purpose because even muggles can become automated wizards.

Meet Rebecca Rice

Rebecca Rice is a family photographer, educator, wife, and mom living in Nashville, TN. She’s a lover of mac-n-cheese, and you’ll probably hear her students call her the “Queen of Mini-Sessions.” She has a heart to equip aspiring and established photographers alike with the tools they need to create a profitable photography business so they can live a life of financial freedom.

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Are you a photographer who wants to learn how to incorporate SOPs in your business? I’ve created a free checklist with video tutorials and a Trello template. In this guide, I am pulling back the curtain on how to get started with SOPs for your creative business!

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Review the Show Notes

Getting started and structured with mini-sessions

Rebecca’s tried and true workflow that works the best for her

Getting into the nitty gritty of moving away from using a scheduler 

Communication for better lead conversion 

Organizing lead information for location-specific automation

Using a visual pipeline like Trello

Utilizing a CRM such as Dubsado or HoneyBook

Starting small now to implement  systematized sessions by fall

LINKS MENTIONED

Rebecca’s Free Class

SOPS for photographer’s resource

Dolly’s Resources on Minis in Dubsado

The Dubsado Mini Session Roadmap (Free Checklist For Minis Using Dubsado) 

CONNECT WITH REBECCA 

Website

The Business Journey Podcast

Shop The Collection

CONNECT WITH DOLLY 

instagram.com/dollydelongeducation

facebook.com/DollyDeLongEducation

pinterest.com/dollydelong

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REVIEW THE TRANSCRIPT:

Dolly Delong
Hi, and welcome back to another episode of the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am your systems-loving BFF, Dolly Delong. And this week, in honor of spring, being around the corner, I decided to invite one of my good friends in the creative industry, the queen of mini sessions herself, Rebecca Rice, on the show to talk about the systems she’s had to put into place for her own business in order to have an experience and excellent season of minis. So before she introduces herself, I wanted to do a little introduction about her. Rebecca, as mentioned, is the queen of many sessions. And she has built out a team across the US from locations such as Nashville, Texas, and Richmond, just to name a few. And her minis alone help her generate over six figures per year. So I knew she had to come on as the expert because I’ve had I know I have so many photographers and creative business owners who also are photographers who listen to this podcast. And since it’s officially 2023, I want to you to start thinking through and mapping out your own minis for 2023. Because, yes, it might be spring and you might be planning to do a fall mini-session. But it’s always good to start mapping out and strategizing your plans right now and early on. So before we chat systems and strategy, Rebecca, why not introduce yourself and tell the audience again, who you are, who you serve, and all just like all the cool things about you.

Rebecca Rice
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on here. I’m so excited. Of course, mini-sessions are my favorite topic of all time. So for those that are not familiar with me, I’m Rebecca Rice. I am located in Nashville, Tennessee, just like Dolly. We’re like local friends here, which is great. She was actually my first friend here in Nashville when we moved here, fun fact. So my family and I, my husband, and I have been married for about seven years, we have two amazing kids, and we moved here about two years ago from the Dallas area. So we like had to pick up everything we had left our family, and came to Nashville, and it has been just a wonderful season for us and we’ve loved every second of it. So I am a family photographer, and I teach family photographers how to grow their businesses. So I have lots of fun, I could literally talk about all things business, family photography, and mini sessions all day, I won’t bore you with all the things but I hope to be able to kind of shed some light on prepping and gearing up for spring mini’s season because it’s here guys, it may not feel like spring or whatever, I don’t know where you’re located kind of depends. But it’s here, it’s time to start thinking through your spring minis if you have not already, so I’m just so excited to be able to jump in.

Dolly Delong
Again, I want to thank you again for being here on the podcast. I know, Rebecca, you’re so busy. And I’m just so appreciative to have you as the guest expert today. So let’s just get to the heart of this episode. And let’s chat about your system for mini sessions because I know you have a very unique session that has been so successful for you that works for you. And I’m hoping that this strategy can help other family photographers and other photographers in general. Again, I know this is the third time I’ve mentioned this, but seriously, you are the queen of minis and let’s say the queen of minis was meeting with a new photographer who is new to minis. So let’s say you’re sitting down with somebody right now, where would you begin in telling them where to start to create a system for themselves for their businesses, specifically centered around the topic and many, it’s like, how would you advise them and where would you begin?

Rebecca Rice
Yeah, great question. So I feel like the very first thing when it comes to mini sessions is selecting your date and your time block and making sure that your minis are structured correctly because we can get into systems and workflows and all the things but if your minis are not structured correctly, you’re going to have problems with profitability down the road. And so I always suggest opening one date at a time, you can pencil in other dates for minis but don’t open them up until you are fully booked or almost fully booked on one date and then have time slots within that date. And so that looks like maybe you’re shooting two to three hours, 10 or 15-minute minis back to back, if you feel like you need a little bit of space, go ahead and put it in a little buffer, I you know, encourage you to get to the place where you don’t need the buffer that way you can, you know fit more minis in that time. But that’s the key here with mini-sessions, they’re not to be like one-off sessions that you just took any time, people can’t just select any day to be a mini-session day. These are, you know minis on the date that you the photographer choose, a location that you the photographer chooses, and in the time slot that you the photographer chooses. So the person, their only choice here is which time slot they want. So once you have that piece set, then as I mentioned, you want to advertise one date at a time. And the reason is to, you know, really control supply and demand. If you open up let’s say you’re planning on doing three dates of minis, if you open up all three dates, you have a ton of options for people to choose from. And there’s a lot of potential, especially if you’ve never done minis before, for there to be holes in your schedule. And I’d hate for you to book two minis on one day five minis on another and three on the last one. What if we could book all of those minis on one single date? And then once that date is full, then you can open up your second date. And people always ask well, like, what if you’re missing out on clients? Because they’re not available on that one date? Well, odds are they’ll ask you if you have another date. If you’re busy then or you know if you advertise your date, and they say hey, do you have any other dates available, then sure you can let them know the other ones you have penciled in, but publicly, you want to only focus on one date at a time. So when it comes to the actual process and workflow of booking these mini sessions, this is where I feel like that system and workflow magic really comes into play, is the booking process. Because this is where we can get so fun with our automations and our workflows and you know all the nerdy things. And if you don’t know me that well I am like a workflow and system nerd like, I, I love this stuff. And it’s like my brain goes there so quickly and so easily. And so this is something that I really enjoy. And because of that, I’ve tried out a lot of different systems when it comes to mini-sessions. You know, I’ve done the scheduler, I’ve done the automations I’ve done all these things. And when it came down to it, I am always optimizing to see okay, what works the best for my business, what works the best for me and my schedule, and things like that. And so the kind of workflow I’d like to walk you guys through is what I have found over lots of trial and error to be the thing that works best for me. And so before I go into all that I just wanted to preface like if you hear what I say, and you’re like Rebecca, that would never work for me, like, first of all, like maybe give it a try, just to see. But then if you truly have a system that works better, go with whatever system works the best for you. I think that that’s key when it comes to setting up systems in your business is you can’t just copy and paste from somebody else you’re gonna have to tweak you’re gonna have to like dive in to see, you know what works the best for you. And so I will share with you my whole system. And if you would like to copy and paste it, absolutely go for it. I have so many students that do that, and it works very well for them. But I just wanted to give you that little permission slip that if you’re like, I don’t really like that piece. Don’t do it. Take what works and then run with what doesn’t, I hope I’m like saying things Dolly that are like, okay.

Dolly Delong
I agree with here completely agree, I was actually gonna say like, I’m glad that you inserted that caveat of like, hey, like, take what you like, and you don’t have to run with everything I’m saying because I also have like, a system through a scheduler that I use that I help with my Dubsado clients. And one of my clients actually was like, I don’t really like this. I’m going to tweak this to fit my lifestyle and my schedule, and she did it and it works, and she compromised. So you guys, there’s no such thing as just one roadmap, you just have to figure out what works for you and your business. So I’m glad that you brought that up.

Rebecca Rice
Yeah, okay, good. So getting into the actual nitty gritty here, this is where it gets fun. So for me when I am going to book my minis, I actually moved away from using a scheduler I used one for years through HoneyBook, and then when I switched over to Dubsado years ago and use their scheduler with their automation and triggers and all the things. But the reason that I moved away from using a scheduler, there’s really, it’s kind of twofold. The first main reason is that I don’t like to show all of my available spots. For me, I like to control supply and demand and when I have a conversation with somebody, I give them three-time slot options in our conversation. So a lot of our bookings happen via Facebook Messenger or email. So either from my VIP email list from us sending out email blasts, or from Facebook Messenger, whether it’s they found me in a Facebook Group, or we’re running Facebook Ads, we run a lot of Facebook Ads, and they are Messenger Ads with the purpose of having a conversation. We’ve found that that just converts really, really well better than sending somebody to a scheduler ever did. And one of the biggest kinds of hang-ups that students have with using schedulers is they’re frustrated because there’s not really a way to follow up with leads. When somebody clicks over to your scheduler, and then for whatever reason, doesn’t fill it finish filling it out, or whatever, they get distracted. I know, I’m a busy mom. And so schedulers are really hard for me because I, you know, I click into it, and then all of a sudden, my three-year-old is running around naked, and I have to go like, grab him and tame him. And it’s like, all of a sudden, I don’t book and I lose the link or whatever. And just life happens. And so that’s one reason I don’t like schedulers is you can’t, there’s no follow up. Whereas in something like messenger, if you’re running like Facebook Ads, or from Facebook Groups or something, when you start a conversation, or they start the conversation through an Ad, a Messenger Ad, you then are able to follow up with every single lead, anybody that has expressed interest that just like if they were to click over to a scheduler, for me, they’re asking about time slots, I’m now able to follow up. And there are so many bookings that happen in follow-ups that it’s amazing, I used to not follow up, or I’d like to do it once. We follow up three times now with every single lead, and you’d be amazed how many people on the third follow-up, end up booking. And so anyway, it’s that kind of that was like a bonus when I was like not even gonna mention that one. But it’s true is follow-up makes a big difference. But I don’t like showing all of my available spots. So when I’m having a conversation in Messenger or an email, I give people three-time slot choices. The reason is, you know, I do 10-minute minis, and a lot of my students do 15-minute minis. And with that time slot, there’s not a whole lot of variation in times. And so it’s not going to be like if you don’t tell them that you’ve got your 5 pm open, you just say 4:30, 5:15, 5:45. What if 5 pm is open? It’s not going to make that big of a difference. Odds are they can make one of the other time slots work because they’re so close, they’re close enough that it’s not going to hinder them from booking. So what I do is by only giving three choices, I am one controlling supply and demand. But also, I am limiting the number of decisions that have to be made. But they’re not looking at 15 open time slots are 12 or whatever, that can be overwhelming. And that can be paralyzing to people. So instead, they have three choices, then the question becomes which of these three would you like to book? Not here are 15 choices for you to pick from. And then they’re like, oh my gosh, which one’s the best? What about lighting, it’s just, it’s paralyzing. The other reason that I don’t like to use a scheduler that I’d rather have the conversation with them is a lot of the times when I have a conversation and somebody either the date doesn’t work, or what they were wanting for a mini session really isn’t a mini session, I’m able to book something else from that lead. Whereas so like, let’s say there’s somebody that comes and has twin one-year-olds, that they’re wanting to do a quick cake smash as a mini session. Obviously, like anybody listening, that’s a family photographer, you know, that first, there’s no such thing as a quick cake smash two, if you have twin cakes matches, there’s no way zero possible way you can do that in 15 minutes for a mini session. So I would be able to educate the client and say, you know what, that’s actually a full session that would be a better fit for you. And guess what they’re like, you know what, you’re so right. And we’re able to book a full session from that lead. had they gone to a scheduler, that conversation couldn’t have happened, and they would either one decide, oh, you know what a mini is not going to work for me, oh, well, and then leave and go find somebody else. Or they would, you know, try to book the mini and then surprise you on the day of where all of a sudden they’ve got twin smash cakes, and you’ve got to fit them in because they already booked you weren’t able to have the conversation. So that’s the reason. That’s the main reason I don’t like schedulers. Does it cause a little bit of extra work for you? Sure. But I’m going to explain to you after that point. My mini-sessions process is about 90% automated except for this one little piece and to me, that one piece was worth it because of the number of leads I was losing and the number of bookings I was losing by automating that one. apiece. So I’m a fan of automation. But this one piece I was like, You know what? Let’s not and see what happens.

Dolly Delong
Hey photographers, this one is for you. So if you’re having trouble establishing what the heck a workflow is, what the heck an SOP is, and you’re just wanting to build traction toward learning how to apply it to your photography business. Listen up. I have a free checklist complete with video tutorials, and even a master Trello template for you to use on five popular SOPs for photographers who want to learn how to incorporate SOPs and workflows in their business. I am pulling back the curtain on how to get started with SOPs for your business, so that you feel more confident and have more clarity for your business. If you are interested in snagging this free checklist, this free video training, then head on over to the show notes or go to systemsandworkflowmagic.com/5-SOPs-for-photographers . That’s systemsandworkflowmagic.com/5-SOPs-for-photographers, and again, the link will be in the show notes. And you can access this free resource today. I hope that you continue to find the clarity and magic in workflows for your small business. I’ll talk to you later.

Okay, so I know that you manage a team of different photographers for the photography side of your business. So how, how do you guys communicate these three-time slots at a time? Because if one of the inquiries is for, let’s say Dallas, and then at the same time somebody’s inquiring for, I don’t know, it just I just am like asking this out loud, I’m like, wait, wait a minute like maybe you could? I don’t know. But is what I’m saying making sense?

Rebecca Rice
Let me repeat your question back to you. So are you asking if somebody reaches out and wants Dallas minis? And then a different person reaches out wanting minis in Richmond?

Dolly Delong

Yes, right.

Rebecca Rice

Okay, so in that case, that’s fine. We have a like a, we use Trello for this part. And so I’ll get to that part, super explaining it in just a second. But basically, we’ve got a Trello card that has the time slots for each set of mini-sessions. And so when we’re somebody asks about Dallas minis on this date, we just pull up that Trello card for that date. And we can see all of the time slots. And so we can give them our three slots and move from there. If the person is from Richmond, you know, on this location at this date, we just pull up that Trello card and we can see all of the time slots for that specific one.

Dolly Delong
Gotcha. And I’m guessing, like, if they decide over the phone, okay, yeah, I want September 16 at 4pm, for example, you just mark that off and your whole team knows?

Rebecca Rice
Yes exactly. So when the next piece from there, once they choose their time slot, the only information that I get from them is the time slot that they want and their email. So it makes it a very easy conversation of I give them the three choices, and I say, let me know which spot you want and also your email, and I will send over a contract and invoice to get it, you know, booked. So they tell me I would like 4pm on this date, here’s my email. I say great. So from there, we have a Dubsado form. We have one Dubsado form for all of our minis on one form. So in this one form, we put in all the client information. So we put you know, their name, their email, the date, the time slot, everything that they need for their mini and the trigger for us is the location, the location.

Dolly Delong
Sounds beautiful.

Rebecca Rice
I’m going to convert you, Dolly. The location is our workflow trigger because we have final info emails that go out that are specific to our location. And so that’s not something that I can have like autofill or auto-populate. So on our form, we have all the information and then the one thing that triggers is, you know that this is for Adriatica in McKinney, that’s in the Dallas area. And so we select that and we’ve got a workflow all of our workflows are exactly the same. The only difference is that the final info email where it talks about the location-specific details, like where to park and stuff like that how to get there.

Dolly Delong
You guys like are you listening to this? Like, I love that Rebecca, that you use one for because like, when I go in the back end, I’m sure it’s like this for other CRMs but when I go on the back end of other photographers Dubsado is there’s like 20 different lead capture forms for specific things. And that I think there has to be, there has to be a more streamlined way of doing this. And like, this is incredible. I love

Rebecca Rice
Yes, yeah. So the beautiful thing is everything that we put in the form, auto-populates into our contract into our invoice, and everything is done. So from the time we fill out the form, not the client. So the client gives us information, we fill it out, and it takes us two seconds. Because we’re not going to be distracted, we’re trying to get things off of our client’s plates, I want to take them out of the equation, that they’re not waiting for contract and invoice because they haven’t hit submit on that form. So we fill out the form. And as soon as we hit submit, that’s the last thing we have to do for the entire session. it auto-populates everything that needs to go into the contract into the invoice that’s using the custom map fields in dubsado. We have our you know, client experience guide goes out, our questionnaire goes out, our final info, the email goes out, every little piece in our client experience that happens, happens automated, and you know leading up to our session, we don’t have to do a single thing. So that’s like, where the magic really happens is as soon as we hit submit, our clients are fully taken care of and we do not have to touch it. And we’ve crafted our emails to answer any potential question that clients may have before they ever ask it. So we’re not stuck in the back and forth with tons of clients because we shoot high-volume mini sessions, especially in my associate team, I’ve got 18 associate photographers across six-ish states or cities.

Dolly Delong
The Rice empire, you guys.

Rebecca Rice
Yeah, we may have more than that. I don’t know, I’ve got a person that runs that side of things. But we’ve got 18 photographers, and that’s a high volume of mini-sessions. They shoot hundreds, literally hundreds of minis every season. And that would be a ton of back and forth in the inbox if we did not answer all the questions before they are asked. So we have crafted things so that it is so specific. And we know the common questions, so we get them answered before they ever have to ask them so that all they have to do is show up to the mini-session and they are ready and they feel prepared and ready to go.

Dolly Delong
I love it. Can I ask a question that just came into my head? Yes. Okay. So when you say you fill out that lead for them to like you do it manually to trigger off their workflow. Now, is this a proposal you’re filling out for them? Or is it a lead capture form?

Rebecca Rice
It’s a lead capture. So we do not fill out the proposal. That’s just extra steps that the client would have to do. And so we keep it all in one in the lead capture. And the trigger is the location, we’ve got a million different workflows for every single location that we can that we shoot at, but we just duplicate each one and swap out the final info email. So it’s not like a ton of work to set that piece of it up. So once the dubsado part is done, this is where Trello gets integrated. And Dolly, I know you’re a fan of Trello.

Dolly Delong
Yes, I don’t realize why people hate it so much but I’m like I love Trello.

Rebecca Rice
No, I think it’s the best. So from there, we use Trello to track the booking process and the post-processing of everything. Does Dubsado have checklists? Yes, but it’s very difficult, especially when you’re doing high volume to keep track of what project it’s for. And all the things, it just gets very muddy. So we implemented Trello. So once like we fill out the form, we don’t touch Dubsado, it just runs, it’s for the client side of things. It’s not really for our internal purposes. Internally, we have a Trello Board that we call our Photography Client Workflow Board. So in this board, basically, it has cards that it’s a massive checklist of every single part of our process from booking, to sending that lead capture, to post-processing, collecting images, getting them sent to our editor, exporting, backing up files, all the things and delivering the gallery. Basically, Trello picks up where Dubsado leaves off and we have it set up so that we can visually see who, first of all, what months everybody is booked in. So once they’ve booked, we have them in, you know, like a column for April, May, and June, each one has its own list so that we can see what sessions we have coming up. But then once the session is shot, they move down a visual-like pipeline, if you will, kind of like Dubsado has the pipeline, but I like this one better, that we have lists of like, okay, this session has been shocked. That’s a list we have a list for once it’s been shot, the images have been sent to our editor, right and so they’ll move to that list. The images have been received from our editor. The images have been sent to our client, you know, all of the pieces so we just move them down this visual pipeline as we’re checking things off on the list so that we can see it very clear where they are in the process. And I think it’s helpful if you’re a solopreneur. But I think it’s, it’s vital if you have a team, yes, because I have employees that work for me. And we have a lot of hands in the pot. And so at one point at one time, we could have, I don’t know three different people touch one Trello card and have like pieces of the checklist. And so we have to make sure everybody’s checking their stuff off, and everybody’s moving the card where it needs to go. In the event that let’s say, one of my team members, the girl that handles all our bookings, what if she gets sick, and she’s out for two weeks, I have to be able to jump in where I am not involved in my associate process at all. I don’t do the booking process, I don’t do the back end. But I should be able to jump into the Trello board and see exactly where every single one of our clients are in the process, I can look at the checklist and see what has been taken care of and what needs to happen. You know, my integrator, Kat, can jump in and she who is not a photographer, she can take a look at our card and see where it is in the process and what needs to be done and jump in and help. And so I think it’s something you should set up as a solopreneur. So that when you get to the point, they’re adding team members, that the process and I know Dolly preaches this all the time, have your SOPs because then the process is done and it’s created and it’s really easy to pass off to somebody else. And then you’re not freaking out trying to figure out what’s in your brain, what’s on paper, what does somebody else need to know? That it’s all in one place. So that’s what Trello acts as for us is like getting things out of our brains. And into a place where everybody can see it. Everybody knows what’s going on. And we don’t have anything on like random sticky notes on our desk, or like, you know, like, I think back to when it was just me and I had stuff everywhere. Like I there was no good way for me to keep track of everything like that I had a CRM, but it has its limitations. And so, you know, I would literally write on a sticky note what sessions I was editing right now so that I wouldn’t forget who I was working on. And so Trello has eliminated the need for that. And it’s gotten things out of my brain.

Dolly Delong
For those of you who are listening who might be either brand new to systems or workflow or brand new to the podcast in general. So when Rebecca and I are talking about Trello, it is a project management tool like ClickUp, or Asana, or Monday. And Dubsado is a CRM tool like a Customer Relationship Management tool like HoneyBook is, or 17Hats. That’s all I can think of, I’m sure there are 1000s of other CRM tools, but those are the top three I can think of off the top of my head. So I just wanted to differentiate between the two. If you’re wondering, okay, what is the CRM? What is a project management tool? This is what Rebecca is referring to.

Rebecca Rice
Yes. And it’s important to know also that our clients, they see only their one Dubsado project like they’re getting emails from Dubsado and that’s it. Trello is fully internal, our clients never see it. It’s never like out there. It’s literally just for us to keep track of everything. So that’s a good way to like kind of differentiate it too. And all like communication with the client happens through Dubsado, not through Trello. Trello is for internal for my team to be able to talk to each other and for us to know where things are in the process.

Dolly Delong
I do want to say one thing, not to obviously you, you know this already, Rebecca, but for the listener who is also brand new to all these new project management systems and tools and CRMs, another reminder is that a CRM is not equal to an email service provider. I don’t want you to walk away from this conversation thinking, oh, I can do this within my email service provider like that is completely separate from Dubsado or HoneyBook. I just want to make that clear to everyone who’s listening.

Unknown Speaker
Yes, absolutely. So I know like I’ve thrown a lot at everybody today. But that’s like our overall process. And it has taken us years to refine that. And so if you’re listening, and it’s like, super overwhelming to you don’t feel like you have to implement all of that right up front. Maybe just pick one piece and say, okay, you know, the way that I’m doing stuff in Dubsado works right now but maybe I can add a little bit in Trello, or maybe you’re like, you know what, schedulers just are not really working for me. Maybe I can try Rebecca’s thing of creating a lead capture form instead. But start small and then build off from there. Don’t feel like you have to overhaul the entire thing before like, don’t let that be the reason that you don’t book spring minis, I don’t want you to get paralyzed and all the things that you feel like you have to do that all of a sudden, now it’s spring minis time and you’re not booking so maybe pick like one or two pieces and implement and then add to it as you go. And then eventually you’ll have maybe by the fall you’ll have the full system built out because that’s what I hate to see is people like feel like they have so many things that they have to do that then they don’t book. And it’s like, at the end of the day, booking is revenue. Your workflow, although it makes it easier for you, and you can do things faster and more efficiently, it’s not a direct revenue source. So you have to get the revenue coming in to be able to book more.

Dolly Delong
I am just so thankful and grateful for your time again, Rebecca, and you’ve shared so much wisdom with us. And I will be linking a lot of your resources and products even in the show notes. Because Rebecca again, she teaches other family photographers how to run their family photography business. So I know she has a wealth of resources in her shop. And that can help you out with these things, specifically. And speaking of resources, Rebecca, you have something for my audience, and it’s about a class. Do you mind sharing about that?

Rebecca Rice
Yes, I do. So if you are hungry to learn more about mini sessions, specifically, marketing mini sessions, better, how to get in front of more people and increase the revenue that comes from your mini sessions. This class, I would love to invite you to it. It’s all about marketing. And we go over so much of the stuff we covered today is like scraping the tip of the iceberg of all things mini-sessions. And so you can check that out, I’m sure dolly will link it for you. But if you want to type it in rebeccaricephoto.com/minis-class. It’s totally free, no strings attached. Students leave with pages and pages of notes. I’m a very no-fluff teacher, if you haven’t gathered that so far from this podcast. But I would love to invite you to join us in that class. And I know that it’ll be helpful for you as you get jumping into spring minis.

Dolly Delong
Awesome. Thank you so much, Rebecca. And again, I will link everything in the shownotes so that you can connect with Rebecca and Rebecca, do you mind sharing your Instagram handle with everyone?

Rebecca Rice
Yes, I do have a team and people are always like, it’s not really you on Instagram. If you’re in my DMs, it’s me and my DMs. So @RebeccaRicePhotography, you can find me there. I love chatting with people in my DMs and answering questions and encouraging you or whatever. So please feel free to find me there and give me a follow and you know, we can chat or you can just kind of follow along I post helpful resources all the time for free. So you can find a ton of stuff there.

Dolly Delong
Oh, and then I’m putting you on the spot and even more Rebecca, can you share about your Podcast and YouTube channel?

Rebecca Rice
Yeah, I’ve got a podcast. It’s called the Business Journey Podcast. So you can find me just like search Rebecca Rice or Business Journey Podcast, and you’ll find it. And we do like short bite-sized episodes. So usually, like 15 minutes long and a lot of my students love that because they’re like super busy moms that don’t have time for a long podcast, which, if that’s you, you’re gonna love it. I have had some people that are like, please do longer episodes. I’m like, listen, I hear you, but also no. So but you can find we talk all about business and marketing and all kinds of stuff for family and portrait photographers. And I do have a YouTube channel if you just search Rebecca Rice, you’ll probably find it there. I have a new video go live every week where I’m sharing all kinds of stuff walking through, you know, business and tech things. I just did a whole series, you know, I’ve done stuff on FloDesk, I’ve done stuff on Dubsado all kinds of stuff. So and then, of course, you know, marketing and mini sessions and posing and all that kind of stuff. So you can find me there too.

Dolly Delong
You guys, Rebecca is the real deal. So go follow her and get to know her. And she’s wonderful. You’ll fall in love with her. So Rebecca is so good having you on the podcast. Thank you so much again. And I hope that your spring minis go well this year. And in closing, what is something you’re looking forward to in 2023?

Rebecca Rice
Oh, okay, I’m looking forward to just meeting so many more of you. I feel like this year, or I guess last year, I’m already getting my years mixed up. Last year, I got to meet so many of just my students and people in this photography community. And that’s just even growing this year because I’m speaking at a couple of conferences this year and I get to photograph students all over the nation. And so I think that’s what I’m most looking forward to is just connecting in person with even more listeners and students and just putting faces to names. I think that’s so beautiful that we get so lost in the world of social media of like, number of followers, and things like that. It’s like no, those are real people, so if I ever see you around, like please come say hi, I would love to like put a name and a face to a number and just get to know you.

Dolly Delong
She’s being truthful. She’s genuine, so awesome. Well, Rebecca, have a wonderful week and everyone else I hope you have a wonderful, streamlined, and magical week and I will chat with you next week. Bye.