82: How to Get in Front of New Audiences to Strategically Grow Your Small Business featuring Jamie Fisher

So you’ve got an email list, but it just doesn’t seem to be growing. It feels like you’re reaching out to the same people over and over again, and you’re spinning your wheels. In this episode, photography business mentor and photographer Jamie Fisher is here to share her secrets for getting in front of new people, growing your audience, and strategically growing your small business along the way.

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Dolly DeLong: Hello and welcome back to the Systems and Workflow Magic Podcast. I am your systems and workflow, BFF Dolly DeLong, and I just wanna say thank you for being here today. Whether it’s your first time tuning in, or you’ve been a frequent listener since day one, thank you so much for letting me share some systems and workflow tips with you this week.

So this week we are speaking to Jamie Fisher of Jamie Fisher Collective, and Jamie is not only going to be chatting with us about how to start developing systems and strategies to get in front of more audiences because we all would love to have that within our own businesses to get more clients, I’m sure. But you get to hear a little sneak peek Preview of Jamie’s topic for the Systems and Workflow Magic Summit, the email marketing edition since we are in the middle of a series featuring some of the amazing speakers of the summit, and believe it or not, the summit is coming up so soon. So after listening to this episode, if you haven’t done so already, be sure to grab your free ticket to the free Email Marketing Summit so that you can learn more about the systems workflows and the backend puzzle pieces you need to put into place for email marketing to better impact your own creative business. 

So before we dive in, Jamie, do you mind introducing yourself to the systems and workflow magic audience and just tell them all the things about you? 

Jamie Fisher: Oh, I would be honored. I am so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

There is, I feel like I could just word-vomit a ton of stuff. But I’ll just let you in on what is most important. I am a photographer and educator and just hearing you say Jamie Fisher Collective, this is like a little side note, but for a very long time, that collective part was truly just me.

And so hearing you say it now and over the past two years, I’ve now actually have a team. I’m like, whoop, it’s real. It just makes it so exciting. But I am a photographer with my team and an educator. I grew up in all of my grandparents which has shaped, I think, the way that I share information, the way that I serve clients, the way that I teach.

And we have three children who I just fiercely love. They are so neat to rediscover the world with. I am blessed to be a grandma loving, newborn smelling, cackle laughing. I will be cheering on the sidelines for you as a business mentor or photographer, but truly when it all comes down to it, like I am just all in for people.

And I want everyone all small business owners, especially moms, to be able to serve the communities that they love while cultivating the lives that they deserve. 

Dolly DeLong: Oh, Jamie, you have such a sweetheart. I just want you to know that for everybody, for just transparency sake. Two things. One, speaking of motherhood, you all know I’m a mom, Blaise, my oldest is sick from school today, so you might hear him in the background. I am letting him sit on the couch and watch me record this podcast episode and he’s doing pretty good right now, I would think. So if you hear his little voice, that’s him and two, Jamie has just such a heart of gold. I just wanted to reiterate she really is a great cheerleader and this is my first time meeting her, obviously not in person, through Zoom. We’re actually talking to each other. It’s not just an Instagram conversation. This is, we’re finally meeting in real life, and I’m just so excited to have her on. So thank you so much for being here. 

Jamie Fisher: Oh yes, I have been a longtime listener as well, so being here is surreal too.

Dolly DeLong: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. And I like, let’s just segue into the topic, I really am excited to dive into your topic because I wanna help my listeners know and understand how getting in front of more audiences. It’s not just strategic to help their business, but it’s a, it will impact their email list growth as well.

And I’m really excited about diving into this topic today. And you know this, Jamie, but I’m just gonna remind all the listeners on this podcast, I love treating every episode like it’s a mastermind. Everybody can have strategies and takeaways from the podcast episode cuz I don’t like fluff.

I just want to be action oriented and I want listeners to come and leave feeling like they listened in and they got a lot of value. And so I’m really excited about this talk and I’m really excited for what you are going to share with the audience today. Saying all that, let’s dive into the topic of how to get in front of more audiences.

Jamie Fisher: Oh, I love it. Before we really dive into it, I just wanna talk about the difficulty of it and what people in my experience have faced. I work with photographers, but a lot of hurdles that we work through are really in the backend strategies and systems. And they apply to all small businesses no matter what industry you are in.

And what has really come up is they’re finding themselves in one or more of these following categories that just make them stuck. As far as thinking about how can they, and where do they go to get in front of more audiences. So this can come and look like heavy competition, a lack of marketing, changing industries, or technologies, or limiting budgets.

All these things can just create an area of stuck for them and they have so many other things happening in their businesses. So they are busy people and the things that are working and are propelling them forward, they might be inclined to just retreat from going after new audiences and implementing things like the magic of email marketing. 

Dolly DeLong: Yeah. This is even a really good topic for I guess seasoned business owners as well who are used to their own versions of marketing, what’s been working for them, and sometimes what is working for them may dry up or they may have to try something new.

And trying something new for a seasoned business owner can feel intimidating or draining to even learn. And so I’m bringing this up because if you are a seasoned business owner, if you’ve owned a business for five years or more, don’t tune Jamie out. Listen in because you might want to hit refresh on this new way of getting in front of new audiences to better impact the bottom line of your business and to even grow your email list.

And she has so much to share. And so I just wanted to reiterate this is for everyone today. 

Jamie Fisher: It truly is. And I have gotten stuck in that as well. Until somebody came to me and asked the question, they were actually moving to a new location. And so they were asking advice and strategy to formulate around, how do we get in front of people?

And after that discussion, I was like, oh, I have been in the same place, physical location for almost 15 years in my business. Am I falling into that trap as well? Am I just super comfortable that I’m not going out to these different audiences or even just to say hi? I’m not even putting myself out in these places because the things that I’ve grown accustomed to are just, they’re comfortable when they’re working.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah. And sometimes the older, I’m not saying that we’re old, but the older our business gets I don’t want you to be like, what does she call me a grandma? No. The older our business gets or the more experienced or years we put in, it does feel okay, let’s just stick to this routine.

It’s worked. And it sometimes it can feel, for me, again I’m reiterating this, I’m raising my hand. It can feel so draining just to think about, oh gosh, I have to sit down and learn something new. Even though I love systems and workflows, I’m preaching about it. About applying a new system to your life every quarter, but sometimes just thinking about it in the season of motherhood can be so draining. And again, I’m just being real. I’m just like riffing right now. But somebody’s okay, Dolly, shut up. Let her talk. Let her share her audience growth techniques. I’m so sorry. I just had to say that. 

Jamie Fisher: No, everything that you’re saying, I’m you guys, I know you can’t see me, but I’m over here shaking my head yes to everything that you just said, especially when it comes to either changing of the industry or technology within your industry. That can seem extremely daunting when you are also raising children.

Your time is already limited, and you want to put that into things that are, I don’t wanna say a sure thing, but much more tried and true rather than learning an entirely new system. Or just being in front of people that have no idea who you are, or what you do. So it can just leave you again in a place where you’re like, eh, that sounds nice for her, but I’m not gonna go forward.

Dolly DeLong: Exactly. Exactly. So I’m glad we’re tackling this topic today because you’re gonna be preaching to me and I’m gonna be applying this to my business, I promise. 

Jamie Fisher: When it comes to all of this, I had this here to bring up as a point, and it is not, it’s just tough love. And I have said this to myself, but all of those things that we just talked about, can be stopping points from you going forward.

That’s just a nice way to say their excuses. Right? They are not just holding small businesses back, but they’re putting them in jeopardy. And when you can completely break those down and reframe them. Then we have something we can actually work with. We have the opportunity to grow and see the full potential of why you and I and all of these business owners were given this gift and the freedom of running our own businesses in the first place.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, exactly. Okay, I’m excited. Jamie, let’s dive in. 

Jamie Fisher: So when it comes to getting in front of fresh new audiences and email marketing I just want to share, I’ll share a full list with everybody in a minute because it is really exciting just to think of what could be. But in case you’re a person who’s not completely sold on the idea of email marketing yet, I just, I need to show you, in my opinion, how no matter the avenue that you choose to grow in, it’s imperative to implement and to have an email marketing strategy.

So there are three things that I think are, I don’t wanna say like a duh moment, but you’ve heard it before of places that you can grow. So if I say, Hey, Dolly, rattle off a few places where you could get in front of a new audience. I think everyone could say, social media.

A new platform that you’re not on, that’s a given. But if you’re going into social media, you have beautiful work or a product or service, you understand the strategies and your caption or description writing is impeccable, you can have all of these things perfected.

You’re even an early adopter of any new features that this platform rolls out, but the only link that you have is to your website and that’s it. You’re doing yourself and the people that you’re there to serve a disservice. And if you are going to an in-person event, again, you can go there with a mission, you can show up for people, you can have amazing conversations.

And then once you go back to the day-to-day, if you have no system to follow up or engage further with them, what have you really done? Because an event, can be a one, two, I’ll say four days probably max in what we’re used to the situation. If you’re not making an impact there to convert them, you just cut yourself off at the knees.

In any of these aspects you’re going and growing yourself and trying to expand your audience. If you don’t have a system and an email marketing nurturing sequence behind that, you’re really just losing your potential. And I feel like eventually, you’ll run out of steam.

So when you think about how much time that you’re spending in the places that you are already in, cause we talked about, the comfort of those places. Even if you are really comfortable in those places and you’re showing up, if you don’t use the email marketing system, the demand for your content, your service, your product, even you, if you’re the face of everything, you are just putting so much heavier of an unnecessary weight on everything else that you do, and you’ve just, you’ve shortened all the time periods significantly.

So if you don’t convert them in that time, you’ve just totally lost them. The good news is that we can get in front of fresh audiences and we can do things that aren’t as demanding of our time in the day today. So I am all for putting in the work upfront and making sure it is a solid system.

So it’s working for me and I can go on to the next thing because I’m a creative, I’m not happy in one thing. I don’t wanna be sitting there writing an email, sending it out, writing an email, sending it out. 

Dolly DeLong: Yes. I totally agree with you because you got things too. You’re Jamie Fisher Collective.

We’re laughing about it, but it’s true, you’ve got a team to lead. You’re multi-passionate and you have many hats. 

Jamie Fisher: Yes. Yes. And I was just thinking about my husband and I had our photos taken at the Cherry Blossoms in DC. And when we were there, this is like how a business brain works, but when we were there, I’m like, oh, these are so beautiful. But they’re only there for a very short time period. And the only reason that they’re able to bloom like that and be so beautiful is because they have been properly cared for over the entirety of the rest of the year. I think they maybe peak for three weeks, I would argue to say it’s two weeks really before they just start turning back to green.

But that alone, that the nurturing, the pruning, the watering, all of that. Is for the big event, right? And for the conversion of sales, for your audience to grow, for them to talk about you, all of these things and caring for those trees in DC is exactly what it’s like running your business and getting in front of everybody, and you wanna be able to nurture them so that they are there to experience all of the magic.

Dolly DeLong: I love that analogy so much. That’s such a good analogy. I love that. I’m gonna have to go through the show, re-watch this or re-listen to this and listen to what you’re saying again and again to remind myself because it is so true. I hope as a listener, even if you are, again, you are brand new to email marketing or you’re too afraid to do email marketing, think of it how Jamie was sharing, you are nurturing a relationship slowly over time with your new, hopefully, your new subscribers because you, one, you need to build a community around your business.

And two, it’s a business, you want to produce a service for them to make them feel a transformation of some sort. And with the char, I don’t know if I’m reaching for this analogy with the cherry tree blossoms, their service is not only just to look beautiful and gorgeous for the backdrop of the photos, but to have a purpose for a very limited amount of time, but in order to fulfill that purpose, to reach a peak, I don’t know, blossom, I’m probably saying butchering all these terms because I know nothing about cherry blossom trees. But the workers had to actually prune them and water them and make sure that they were ready, for that beautiful peak window, so I love that analogy so much. This will be a carousel, an Instagram carousel. I’m just letting you know 

Jamie Fisher: if you want a fun fact on how much it actually generates for DC it’s over a hundred million dollars.

Dolly DeLong: Whoa. 

Jamie Fisher: So watering, pruning, mulching, all of that yes. Is for a really good reason. 

Dolly DeLong: Yes. Yes. So if you need a good, another good analogy or example, real life with email marketing. Let’s say you are a photographer, because I know both Jamie and I work as photographers, that’s one of our hats for our businesses.

Let’s say you have this one event that you do year after year. Yes, you may do other events, but this one year. For a fact, it brings you a lot of income, but you don’t, shouldn’t just assume oh, it’s made me the same amount every year. I don’t really need to market it.

I don’t really need to talk about it. You do need to talk about it, you do need to market it. You do need to get more eyes on it. And so that is something that you would do in email marketing, sorry. And that’s exactly the cycle you would go through. 

Jamie Fisher: And all of those things, I just feel like email marketing isn’t talked about enough. Or utilized enough, but it’s so magical. So do you wanna dive into 

Dolly DeLong: Sorry, I was just getting really excited about that analogy and that was a perfect analogy. Okay. Let’s talk about how to get in front of more audiences.

Jamie Fisher: Okay. This was actually really fun for me to come up with this list because a lot of these things are new things. Like I said, I, was very transparent. I got in the comfortable zone, and so these were things that I had either started doing in my own business. Some of these are actually what Dolly and I are doing right now.

There are so many different ways to get in front of a new audience and let them know that you have something, that you have something to give. We had talked a little bit about new to you social media platforms. This might be a given in your brain, but a way to utilize these platforms is to do fun and engaging things.

So we don’t wanna just be present, we don’t wanna just make a profile on a new social media platform and make it another task for us to do. You can create challenges with rewards to encourage the sharing of your content. You can create call to actions to spark engagement and really use it as an entryway into your own business ecosystem.

Another thing that you can dive into is blog series. Now, this not only gives you content where you can point people to, so like we talked about, when you’re in an in-person event you obviously on your social media platforms could point people towards content that you’ve already carefully curated and made sure, this is your absolute best, right?

If somebody reaches out to you and asks you a question and you are sick with the flu. And you are checking a message and you see it. You’re not in the best head space, right? You’re probably really foggy in that moment, even though you know how to help these people. But if you have a blog series about it, you can easily point them to that, from your bed.

Then go back to sleep. So it really creates a resource not only for yourself, but it makes Google really happy about your business. So you can do this. Here are some action things that you can do with blogs. You can create local guides for your actual physical area of where you are, if that is going to help your business and bring people in.

You can review products, whether it’s physical or online, something that does solve a problem for the people that you are working with and something that you’re familiar with. And you could also pull in other experts of your industry to add value to your client’s entire experience. So just say that you are a wedding photographer, you’re not in charge of everything during that day.

You could pull all of these vendors that they’re going to use to create this one beautiful experience. And now they don’t just have the input of the photographer, but they have it from the florist, the cake artist, and the venue. It really helps shape them and also build trust in you as to what their day could look like and who they can turn to so that they don’t feel so lost.

This is all blogging stuff that I would do on my own platform. However, you could also guest blog or you could give value-driven content on a podcast. You could attend an in-person event and this just isn’t going and making connections, having good time, eating good food, and only taking, I don’t want you to go to an event and write down, have a notebook filled of things that can propel you forward without also giving, because that is, that one-way street is gonna stay a one-way street.

And if you are there taking notes, what is the purpose of them, of anyone interacting with you, creating a relationship with you or broadening anything about that? 

So I would go into any in-person event or online event where it is interactive with a mission and a purpose. Do a little digging as to who’s gonna be there and go with the intention of “How can I add value to someone else’s experience?”. So this could literally be physically while you’re there, like helping clean up with the host. That makes an impression. It makes you human, it makes you memorable, and it also should feel good. It shouldn’t feel like a task that you’re just doing to get something.

But you could also have resources ready to be able to share, and that way you can add to your email list while you’re there as well. You bring them into your world, you’re helping them, and you are growing your reach while you are there. So like we said, that two day, four day, however long that event is.

You are just exponentially growing your reach and the life of your presence at that event, if you have email marketing in place, that you can nurture them. 

Dolly DeLong: I love that you’ve reminded the listeners it’s not just getting and giving or we are receiving everything at these events. Although, going to in-person events is fun to soak in knowledge and learn and meet everyone. But we also need to realize to be giving value to other people at these events as well. And when you were mentioning that, the thought came to mind that this seems like a longer term strategy rather than a short-term strategy because you’re slowly…

I guess you’re slowly planting, you may be immediately planting seeds when you meet people, but your actions sometimes take time to take root in people’s minds. And so this to me, I see this as a long-term strategy, and in relationship building because relationships, they take time.

They take a long time to flourish and to nourish and to water and to grow. A lot of my really good friends did not become my best friends in five minutes. They became my best friends over time. But that first initial interaction of us meeting each other and it was a good first impression, or sometimes maybe it wasn’t a first good impression, but you realize oh, this is a give and take.

Hopefully that makes sense. I, again, Jamie, I told you at the beginning of this conversation, I can be pretty long-winded and my listeners are like yes, she can be. But I hope that made sense. 

 Jamie Fisher: I like your use of the analogy. You are planting seeds, you are cultivating growth. I love it. 

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, so it’s something I definitely see as a long-term strategy.

Jamie Fisher: Absolutely. Absolutely. And all of that, like going back to our like gardening analogy here, 

Dolly DeLong: I’m not a gardener. I just want everyone to know, not a gardener, not a green thumb, no green thumbs. 

Jamie Fisher: So all of that helps you grow those strong roots, right? You’re not gonna just fall over in a windstorm.

You are creating all of these touch points to where you’re gonna be top of mind. If you go to an event, I’m sure you have photos with yourself, with people at an event, and you’re like, I don’t even remember their name. Yes, they were nice. We had a good time, but if there’s nothing there that they were giving to you directly, it is hard to remember every single person that you came in contact with.

Dolly DeLong: That’s so true. That is so true. I love that.

Jamie Fisher: Let’s go into, I have two more things on my list. Let’s just say that everyone listening is on board with email marketing, and they have already done those. They have already done those three, explored all of those, yes. 

Here’s two more. 

So collaborations and influencer marketing. This can be so incredibly powerful. However, I will say it needs to make sense. It needs to make sense not only for you and the person that you are collaborating with, but it has to above all else make sense to the people that you are actually providing a service  for in this matchup. Or it just doesn’t work and it’s almost like a waste of your efforts. So pitching and pairing up to expand your network needs to give value from both of you to both audiences as well. So tangibly this could look like, I actually don’t know what they’re called, but I love watching these videos of cookie designers when they’re icing them. Have you ever watched it? I feel like it’s therapeutic. 

Dolly DeLong: No, but it sounds delicious. I need, look at these videos right now. 

Jamie Fisher:  If you are, I apologize if anybody out there, if cookie designer is not the correct term, I’m fairly certain it is not.

But if you make these magical treats and you sync up with a balloon arch artist, then that is something that you guys are now taking both of your audiences and you’re serving the same people at an event. You could be a brand designer and a brand photographer and come up with a really amazing service to provide somebody that they would’ve already been utilizing the two services anyway, right?

That’s still part of their journey. But by you being the professional and the expert and already making that pairing for them, it takes away like decisions that they have to make. So that’s very helpful in today’s world, when I feel like everybody has decision fatigue. This could also work really well with a clothing stylist and local boutiques.

Dolly, I don’t know if these are popping up everywhere where you live, but we have had boutiques just popping up like crazy and I’m here for it. I love it. 

Dolly DeLong: Maybe I need to be more mindful of looking at that. I need to, I am a boy mom through and through, so I feel like I never have an opportunity to look at boutiques, but I will be on the lookout for that.

Jamie Fisher: I’ll say I was exposed to it from another mom who has older children, so she’s actually had time to look. But Gettysburg is a great place for these.

Dolly DeLong: Ooh. Oh, I will have to definitely check that out, then.

Jamie Fisher: Yes, there are tons of them. I know I briefly glossed over, you can make Google happy with the blogging content, but Google, I feel sometimes gets really overlooked as far as widening your audience and getting in front of people.

And it shouldn’t, because Google is king. You really need to make Google happy with the value driven content from your blog, like we talked about, or just going and keeping your Google business profile is up to date. It’s incredible the businesses that I have just come across naturally and I’ve gone to look at just their hours of operation or when can I come and I’m trying to play my day because we have three kids and they’re on different schedules, and I’m like, oh, now I have to call a number and if it’s just there and you make it easy. It is so much better for the person on the other side trying to reach out and, and be part of your business. But it also shows Google that you are a running, functioning, professional, real business in a world full of bots or whatever else we have going on.

Dolly DeLong:  I’m glad you brought that up. If you are listening and you’re wondering “How do I update my Google Business profile?” I actually have a podcast episode about that featuring Rebekah Read of Rebekah Read Creative and I will link that podcast episode because she hits exactly those points and she talks about the importance of being found on Google as well.

Jamie Fisher: Oh, that’s so exciting. I didn’t even know that.

Dolly DeLong: Yeah, so I will link that podcast episode. 

Jamie Fisher: I love all of that. I have three little bonuses that can be promoted anywhere, but this will help you also reach and engage with audiences no matter what platform that you choose. And these are actually things that I have done specifically over the past year.

So I have seen what comes from this. I’ve also seen the freedom in my own brain space when you can reuse content but in a whole new way. It is just so helpful. But you can do this through a tip series where the only way that people can access that is directly through email. So this helps extremely well with your email marketing because it’s the only way they can access it.

It is not on your blog, it is not on your website. This is the only place they can get it if they opt into your email. Mine in particular is co-hosted with another creative and we do a 52 week series. So an entire year of weekly content emails. So that is an idea for you to build that email list and get people on that list and seeing the value in a list too, because we don’t just want to sit here and say, do email marketing, sign everybody up and then let it all fall to pieces.

There has to be purpose and structure and all of that behind it. But number two is instructional video series, and in this it can point back to your free tip series of your emails. So you can give smaller bite size videos, and now the retention and the attention span of people is getting shorter and shorter.

So if you have an email that lists five to seven things, you could just make one video of each of those pieces. Now you have one email that’s now seven videos, and in each of those videos, you can point them back to getting on your email list if they want to know more or they want it, all in one chunk.

And then another one is, what we, I feel like we do all the time, but having freebie value-driven downloads and do not forget the nurture sequence on the back end of that. It’s not just, hey, here you go, here’s how you do it. There is always more. I feel that you can help people, not only to keep them within your own business ecosystem, but just to complete their journey.

I don’t think that this should be a quick stop, like a fast food restaurant, right? I want you to come and have all of the servings. I got off of our planting seeds.  

Dolly DeLong: It’s okay, let’s talk about servings now. 

Jamie Fisher: I just want you to have the whole experience because I believe that if you are a business owner, it takes a very special person.

I’m not saying this just because I’m a business owner, but through conversation with just my husband who is the total opposite of me. There are things where he has said to me, I just, our brains work so differently and something that I’m excited about would make him maybe more nervous. So it just takes a different type of person to have a business and I’ve been reminded of that and I truly feel like all business owners were put there for a reason and your business exists for a reason.

So I just think that you’re really doing everyone a disservice if you are not putting yourself in front of new audiences that could use your help, if you are not giving them more than just what you had promised, and if you’re not exposing them to all that you have to offer.

Dolly DeLong: Let’s go back to the plant analogy, and if you’re not nourishing them, when they convert as a new subscriber or a new email list, and then you just let them fall flat, they will either lose interest, they’ll forget about you. They won’t, you won’t stay top of mind, and so you will continue, you gave some really good nurturing advice as well.

I love all these points. I’ve been writing them out and I have seven points from you. You are bringing, you are making my audience, you’re nurturing them, which is awesome, and you’re helping them see the value of getting, not only getting in front of new audiences, but nurturing your email list as well.

I’m gonna ask you an off the cuff question that wasn’t in your list of questions. And don’t worry, Jamie, it’s not a crazy question, but, I can’t think of a crazy question off the top of my head, but this goes along the lines of email marketing. When did you start your journey with email marketing and did you have, and this is a twofold question, did you have any hesitations about it?

Jamie Fisher: Let me see. My first time dipping my toe into email marketing was a fall flat approach. I was like, oh, I know that I need an email list. Everybody says I need an email list. Here’s a form to fill out. And did they hear from me? Not after the first email and all good intentions. But I think, gosh, I don’t know when it really became prominent to me.

A lot of my clients are recurring clients and I think I put a lot of weight on the experience there ensuring that, that they would be like walking, talking billboards which they were, and I loved it. And our relationships, everything in person was so strong. I just loved all of that.

But oh, actually it just came to me. I know when, what made me say this is right for me and I need to be doing this. So I mentioned before that I’m a newborn smelling photographer. I love newborns, and I just feel like in those first two weeks, they just have the best smell in the world.

Dolly DeLong: Yes, they do. They really do. 

Jamie Fisher: Yeah. I just can’t help it. Every time I would kiss or hug our babies, I was literally inhaling them. But when I’m working with clients I still hug and kiss their babies, but. When I’m working with clients and photographing newborns, that is a very small time in their life.

And that first year they are growing so rapidly and they’re learning new things. And my thought was like, there is so much emphasis put on newborn photography. It’s almost you have a baby, you’re going to have a newborn shoot, right? But what about those other milestones? They are learning so much in that first year, and how can I make sure that number one, I’m not overwhelming them in that first year because they’re busy.

But I also don’t want them to get to year one, year two, year three and look back and say oh, I really wish that I could remember that little scoot thing they did instead of crawling. You wanna capture those things and so for me it was, okay, how can I do this and not be intrusive, but just be helpful And email marketing was the answer for that.

Dolly DeLong: I love that so much, and I love that you also inserted that a lot of your audience is you’re meeting them in person, you’re serving them through photography, but I just also want to remind the listeners, this doesn’t just apply to photography, that one-on-one service, this also applies to your services that are not in person, if that makes sense. This applies to pretty much everything that you offer within your business. 

Jamie Fisher: Absolutely, because they’re not gonna know how you can help them or really what problems they have until maybe sometimes it’s too late or somebody else put themselves in front of them and so they jumped ship from you thinking, oh Jamie can’t help me with this and all because I didn’t tell them, they don’t know unless I tell them. 

Dolly DeLong: Exactly. Exactly. Jamie, I know like we could go on and on and talk about email marketing and talk about the power of email marketing and I just wanna say thank you so much for being so transparent with my audience about all these tips and also just how your journey with email marketing started.

You even said, it fell flat and like you just had to keep on going and learn and pivot and learn some more. So thank you for being transparent because a lot of business owners, they make email marketing sound like, oh yes, it’s the easiest thing ever and I never failed at it. But the thing is like we’re all learning and growing and I’m so happy you shared that with my audience and it is transformative for sure.

Do you mind sharing with the audience, what you will be speaking on at the Systems and Workflow Magic Summit?

Jamie Fisher: Absolutely. So if you haven’t guessed, we’re gonna do a deep dive into the strategies of getting you seen in more places. But we are actually going to set up the systems for you to be able to show up consistently to those new audiences. So we are watering and pruning and ensuring that they’re not just there for your festival, but they’re coming to see the monuments, they’re dining at your restaurants, they’re literally here for it all. And we’ll do this through a step-by-step strategy to put that in place for you.

Dolly DeLong: And again, if you have been listening to this series, and if you have not snagged your free ticket yet to the Systems and Workflow Magic Summit, the email marketing edition, then you can grab that free ticket in the show notes, and you can also follow, give Jamie a follow and get to know her. And Jamie, how can people connect with you, find you, follow you, work with you, tell ’em all the things.

Jamie Fisher: Absolutely. I have a beautiful website now that truly serves you.

Dolly DeLong: You have a gorgeous website. It’s gorgeous. 

Jamie Fisher: Yes, it is all done by Kelsey. There is no way that I would have been able to accomplish that. But I knew my current system wasn’t working, and so now I just, I love pointing people to the website because they’re dedicated spots no matter what you would be coming to me for, giving you all the information that you have. So that is just www.jamiefishercollective.com. Everything is there. I am a huge Instagrammer. I love being in DMs and having actual conversations. So the messages I just say, is an open door policy.

I will be there doing video messages, voice messages, anything that I can just to continue the conversation. So it is always there if you have any questions. And I do have a freebie to help everybody today as well.

Dolly DeLong: Yes. Tell us about the freebie.

Jamie Fisher: Okay we are talking all about how to get in front of new audiences, right?

But I wanna make sure that when you’re in front of those audiences, that you are standing out because one of those difficulties that we talked about earlier, is feeling like you could be lost in a crowd. There’s too much competition. Somebody’s already doing it, why should you show up?

And so I have a free resource that is called From Stale to Scroll Stopping. And this gives you three ways to level up your small business within branding photos. So you don’t have to be a photographer to do this, you just need to be a small business owner that wants to stand out. And so this resource gives you a plan that actually provides 30 specific prompts, ensuring that you’re not lost in the crowd.

So I know I say three, it’s three big categories, but I give you very specific prompts so that you’re just not another business owner, like smiling with a cup of coffee in your hand.

Dolly DeLong: I like that. I just want to say hopefully this will make you feel really good about yourself because I was like, I’m gonna poke fun at you, Jamie. 

Jamie comes on the show. She’s like, “I have three points to share.” and then she shares seven points that are so juicy. And then she’s I have a freebie that is three points, but it’s actually 30 points. 

And I’m like, Jamie is over-delivering, and I was sharing this with her before we hit record, but she has a really good educator heart because she wants to make sure that listeners, that my listeners and her followers and her students, that they understand how to get from point A to point B and she knows that there are sub points that they need along the way, a roadmap. And so the fact of the matter is that she cares and she wants you to understand every single point. There’s a lot of educators that don’t care about their students that way. So I just have to give props to you, Jamie and embarrass you virtually right now.

And she’s turning red right now. 

Jamie Fisher: I feel like I’m gonna have tears. I’m like, Dolly. 

Dolly DeLong: I’m serious. I’m absolutely serious. And I’m not like saying that just to just to say that I’m, I genuinely mean that. So for those of you who are listening in who haven’t met Jamie yet, go give her a follow and all of her information will be in the show notes.

And she’s one of our speakers at the Systems and Workflow Magic Summit, so you can get to know her more, even through listening to her topic about email marketing and. I just, again, I wanna thank you for taking your time to be on this podcast. And for those of you who have listened in, thank you so much for tuning in.

I know this was a longer episode, but it was jam packed and I’m so excited for you guys to take action. As always, stay streamlined and magical, you, amazing muggle you, and I will talk to you all next week.