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The Two Books You Need Right Now To Grow Your Business by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

I first heard about these two books over podcasts. Are you surprised? By now you shouldn’t be.

The first is the “Artists Way” by Julia Cameron

This book is what allowed me to creatively break through to get to the mindset where I needed to be to actually take myself and my business seriously.

The premise of this book is that it helps you to unlock your creativity. Lets be real honest here – as soon as we get into high school and then move into college, the creativity is beat right out of us. The real world doesn’t like when we don’t conform, so our creative thinking goes right out the window.

OR we’re too distracted by trying to make money, party, look good on social media, etc., to actually take time to be creative. Because well, that is a “waste of time,” when you could be doing something to make you money. Right?

So wrong.

Some of the top athletes, CEO’s and most successful people in their fields take time to just sit and think.

Don’t believe me? Ryan Holiday does this, major companies and Silicon Valley have what are called “think tanks,” where they creatively come up with solutions to problems or create ideas for things to make money.

You can’t expect to grow your business if you don’t designate time to dream big and come up with new ideas.

And no, the five minutes in the shower don’t count. You need large amounts of dedicated time DAILY to do this. I do this three times a day.

WHAT? But you’re busy! You work and have two jobs!

I know. I fit it in. Right in the morning, when I drive to work and when I drive home. Those are my 2.5 hours a day to think.

You don’t have to have this much time, but because I live so far away from my work, I have this “luxury.”

So how did the “Artists Way” help me in the first place?

Morning Pages. Total breakthrough machine.

How it works is that you write and don’t stop until you have filled three pages each morning. Yes in the morning.

This allows you to brain dump anything that is blocking you from thinking clearly, get your ideas out so they aren’t bouncing around and blocking you once again. It allows you to work through feelings, ideas, whatever.

It helped me because I have ideas and don’t know how to execute them. I need to talk them through and writing them out allows me to look at my idea from point a to point z because its on paper!

There are so many advantages from doing just the morning pages, but there are other excersize’s people can do.

Don’t take my word for it. When you research top performers like Tim Ferris, you notice there is a trend where the most successful people in their industries do something similar to this.

the book the daily stoic, an iphone, pen and lipgloss on a table

Now, the other book is totally in another area: Philosophy.

Don’t zone out on me here. I totally thought the same thing too.

“Ugh, really? Do I have to?”

Yes. It is digestible. My favorite author of all time as you know by now is Ryan Holiday. He has written so many good books that honestly helped me re-frame my mindset, but I’ll talk about that in another post.

This book, “The Daily Stoic” has one piece of wisdom for you each day and it seriously sets the tone for how I think about problems.

The way I use the information from the book is this:

  • If I approach my problems from a different perspective and different angle, maybe I will have a better outlook, suffer less, and use my problems as a stepping stone or opportunity.

This book allows you to re-frame the way you think so that you can approach problems and life in a way that sets you up for success. Totally amazing right?

This is the one thing I keep telling people: you need to change your mindset about how you approach your business.

Why? If you do the same thing over and over with the same results, why don’t you do it a different way? Maybe you’d get what you wanted: success.

the book the daily stoic on a couch with an iphone and pillows

So… this book and other books I talk about (Gary Vaynerchuck and Crushing It) totally do that.

If you want to grow your business, you have to invest in yourself and your business intelligence. You want to know your stuff right? Well start learning, and don’t stop.

I wrote a “short” overview of all the things I’ve done to grow my business HERE in case you’re interested in looking at that too!

Have any books you think I should read? Drop them below:

Thanks for reading friends!

XO,

Casi

The One Secret to Be Efficient With Time in Your Business by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

We all complain about not having enough time to do our work. I don’t think we really have an issue with time, but rather how we use it. I stumbled upon this efficiency method years ago but didn’t know the name of it. Now I do and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Before you start, prioritize. We all know our own schedules and the priority of things that need to be done. So essentially you and only you know which items are the most important. This is the one thing that you have to think about and the rest is easy. I promise.

 

I’m talking about the Ivy Lee method. Lauryn Evarts from The Skinny Confidential talks about it, James Clear, author of Atomic Habits talks about it in his book and tons of other successful people use it to cut through the noise and get things done.

 

How it works:

  1. You have a list of items you have to do right? We all do.
  2. What you do is you list the top six most important things in order that they need to be done.
  3. The kicker is that you can’t move to the second item or anything else until the first item is done. You also need to remove any distractions and focus completely on the task at hand until you are done. Then you can move to the next item.

This is extremely effective and I think is the perfect antidote to all of the technology, calendars, noise and social media that gets us off task in the first place.

If you’re someone who has your to-do list on three different calendars, sticky notes, two notebooks, and a planner, then you really need to boil it down to one central place.

For me, I have a google document that I essentially word vomit onto and list all my goals, ideas, to-do items, and keep it there. I pull the most important things out of it and put on my list for the day.

 

 

To be clear, I look at my google doc and physically write down my list of six items on a piece of paper. Then I don’t have any of the other items distracting me.

I usually do this the night before. I look at my calendar and see what I have to do the next day, what items are needing me to do them right away, and those definitely get priority.

This method isn’t complicated but that is the genius in it. It is so simple and easy to do that you eliminate “decision fatigue” and can get rolling right away on your work.

Anyone ever stare at their inbox and wonder what they should start working on? Yep. Same here. This method allows you to just list all the things you need to do, prioritize them and get them done. Nothing weighing on your mind or distracting you.

Let me know if you employ this and how effective it is for you! I would really love to hear!

 

Any other methods that work for you drop them below!

 

All the best,

Casi

Why blogging is your business’ secret weapon by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

Blogging seems to have become a dirty word with business owners. That and SEO are scary things to most people. I firmly believe they are critical to growing your business and give you an edge considering your competitors don’t want to do them either.

I have a few reasons why you need to be blogging yesterday and what it actually does for your business:

  • Grows your Know / Like / Trust value with customers and peers
  • SEO: Casts a larger net to capture more keywords
  • Become an authority to help others
  • Repurpose content to use on other social media platforms
  • Helps you answer customers frequently asked questions

 

Know/Like/Trust:

 

Your customers want to know who the person is behind the website and brand. They can’t unless you’re constantly engaging them, showing them your expertise and providing new content. The way that I like to do this is create blog posts for other photographers on the gear I use, how I manage my workflow and other tips I can give to help them with their business. For couples, I have discussed how to elope in Oregon, the details of planning the timeline for your wedding, etc. These blog posts allow them to see that I care and that I know what I’m doing.

 

SEO:

 

When your customers type something into a search bar, you want to be able to rank for all of those keywords, right? Well blog post titles are exactly what should pop up on those searches. So when you make your blog posts, they should be targeted to answer questions that they might pose. All the questions. Take time to research what they are searching for, and answer those questions in posts. It will cast a huge keyword net and capture more people that way.

 

Become an Authority:

 

When you blog, you allow people to see you are an expert in your field. Your peers as well as customers will come to you for answers and as a result, you increase your brand loyalty. We all want that right? Well you have to give your customers, peers and everyone else reasons why they should trust you. Being consistent and giving good content is the way to do that.

 

Repurpose Content:

 

Ever feel like you are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to creating good content for all the platforms? Well when you create a blog post, you can use that in your emails, direct people to your website by linking it on facebook, etc. Pinterest is huge and having your blog posts constantly looping in Pinterest is a great way to repurpose content, especially what I call “evergreen” content. Evergreen content is content that can be useful no matter how old it is. Things like “what photography gear I use for weddings” is an example because this probably won’t change from year to year, and it’s helpful for new photographers. Repurposing content and recycling won’t make your viewers and clients get annoyed, because most likely they may not see the post, they might have forgotten, or you have a large number of new customers that haven’t seen it.

 

Helps to FAQ’s from customers and peers:

 

I get about six or seven DM’s a day from other photographers asking about my gear, or what I have done to grow my business, and this is great! However, my answers never change. If they do, I update my blog post. I want to give the same consistent, and well thought answer to everyone. So what I can do is direct them to that blog post and they can re-read it as much as they want. Plus it has pretty pictures and links to other resources, but that’s beside the point. Why is this critical? It saves you time and allows you to maintain a great relationship by giving them a good answer.

How to get people to read your post?  Use social media! As soon as I make a new blog post, I:

 

  • Put a link to my post on my personal and business Facebook page
  • Put a link on LinkedIn. It’s algorithm is super user friendly and similar to what Facebook and Instagram were like five years ago
  • Talk about it in your Instagram stories while you’re at it
  • Put the link in your bio on your Instagram page
  • Send the new blog post out to your email list
  • Share the post with people you think would be interested

 

So save yourself time, invest in blogging because it will do more for your business than you realize. If you don’t feel like you’re a great writer, have someone proofread. As long as what you are delivering is good content and not fluff, you will see how it helps you and your customers.

 

Let me know what you think! Share this and message me with questions on all my social media accounts!

 

XO,

Casi

How automation and batching your work will save your business by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

You started your business because you had a cool idea, were creative, or wanted to spend more time working on doing what you love, right? Then the good old business hammer hit you hard and you had less and less time to be creative and actually do what you wanted to in the first place.

How automation and batching your work will save your business

This is where you need to automate. I’m not saying that you have to outsource everything you do, but you need to think about the tasks that you do over and over again and find a way to make them happen automatically. Sometimes there aren’t ways to automate tasks that take a human touch, things like DM’s, client phone calls, reaching out to other businesses, and the way I manage those are to batch like work together.

Thankfully there are innovative businesses who have created tools to automate daily tasks. I’m going to chat with you about how to identify those tasks and which businesses I love to use. I’ll also talk about my process for work batching.

Which tasks do you have to do over and over for each new customer or client? For me it included:

  • Sending a welcome email with information about my business and what I offered.
  • Sending a proposal, invoice, questionnaire and timeline all in separate emails using different programs like paypal, docusign, google docs, google sheets. All are great but waste time because they’re in different locations.
  • Depositing client retainer fees into my checking account.
  • Putting clients wedding dates on my calendar.
  • Setting up thank you emails and gifts.
  • Periodic check in emails.
  • One year anniversary email.
  • Editing and delivery of photos.
  • Gathering email addresses from photographers and sending out email marketing campaigns.

2) Which resources would allow me to automate many of these tasks? I found that I wasn’t the only one who wanted this solution. There are many CRM services, or Customer Relationship Management programs.

 

  • Honeybook allows me to keep my communication, contracts, proposals, invoices, questionnaires, and timelines all in one location.
  • It also allows me to fill up my calendar automatically so I don’t forget to write down a clients date.
  • Client payments are automatically collected and deposited into my account and reminders for payment are sent to clients at specific intervals.
  • Check-in emails are sent to clients periodically.
  • For editing and delivery of photos, on especially large weddings, I can outsource my editing to companies like Photographers’s Edit, or Freedom Edits and they can edit things like reception photos, candids, or other shots that only need a light touch. This saves hours of time.
  • For gathering email addresses, I use a plugin from MailChimp on my website and it gathers emails and compiles them into a list for me. I create campaigns to be sent to my mailing list at specific dates through the year.
  • Finally I use Tailwind to plan my Instagram and Pinterest feed to auto post for me.

Automation and batching your work will save your business

What are the activities that you could do all at one time that you can’t automate? These are things that involve the human aspect of your business.

 

  • For me, I like to respond to all of my Facebook and Instagram comments once in the morning and once in the evening. I have a unique way of doing it though. I go onto my business Facebook page and then I can respond to comments on Facebook as well as Instagram. It is the coolest feature! I bet you didn’t know you could do that! Let’s be honest, if you try to respond to all social media comments throughout the day, you can get super distracted and waste so much time scrolling. I try to eliminate that and only engage with others and respond to comments and DM’s.
  • I batch work tasks that are the creative parts of my business. Each day of the week has something different.
    • Sundays are for scheduling out my social media posts and plugging them into Instagram and Pinterest. I also review my calendar for the week so I know what I should be doing each day.
    • Mondays are for writing blog posts.
    • Tuesdays are for updating my website with any necessary information, additions to my galleries or blog posts.
    • Wednesdays are my day off. Usually I need to meal prep for the rest of the week and catch up on household things. You know, normal life stuff.
    • Thursdays are for shooting content for my blog. If I talk about my gear, I need to take photos of it for example to go along with the post. If I have a few blog posts coming up, I like to batch all the photos that will go into those posts and get them ready for posting to my site.
    • Fridays are creative days. I get to dream big and strategize. This is probably the most important day. Your business will not thrive and grow if you’re not trying new things and finding new ways to expand.
    • Saturdays are open mainly because I usually have to go grocery shopping, go shoot an engagement or other projects that take me from the house when its not wedding season.

How automation and batching your work will save your business

There are so many things you can do to save time. It really depends on the kind of business you are in, but utilizing work batching and automation will allow you to free up time and be efficient so that you can focus on what you got into the business for in the first place – to have freedom and create. Take the time to set up these systems to run for you and you will see that you can regain control over that work/life balance.

 

Let me know if this helps you out! Drop a line or message me over on my social accounts!

 

All the best,

Casi

Why investing in SEO is worth it by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

Let me start by saying SEO is not as scary as you think. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is only ambiguous because there isn’t an exact formula or clear cut answer as to how to do it. Why? Because SEO is essentially about making your website easier to find on google searches, but doing it with the client or customer in mind. 

Why is it worth it? Well, when you want to find a new Thai restaurant, or reviews for a product, or even how to make something, where do you typically go? To the internet. So do your customers and clients! More and more people are searching for local vendors and local businesses. You want your business to pop up in a search, right? I started this summer knowing zero about how to make SEO work for me, and now (six months later) I am ranking on page one for “McMinnville Wedding Photographer.”

So what are the main reasons you would want to take the plunge? What makes it worth it for you?

 

1) Competitive Edge: Many of your competitors aren’t investing time into it because they don’t think they need to, and they don’t want to learn. This is pretty true for my niche, wedding photography. There aren’t many solo photographers spending the time on this, so it makes it super easy for me to get to the top.

 

2) Visibility for your brand: Organic search is probably the number one way that drives traffic websites. This is higher than referral traffic (where social media or other sites refer people to your website). So wouldn’t you want to pop up in a search to make it easier on your customers to find what they’re looking for?

 

3) Customers are looking locally: You know how you type in, “coffee shops near me?” well your customers are doing that too. If you can get your name on google and have your local customers see you in a search, you have a higher chance of converting them to paying customers. The best tip I have for this is to set up your “Google My Business” account. Then ask customers to give you reviews to help build credibility!

 

4) SEO is pretty cheap: Monetarily its cheap, but it takes time to get the hang of it. One of the best ways to get your website to work for you and get noticed in the black hole of the internet is to use SEO as a beacon of light to attract your customers. It costs nearly nothing but your time and I consider it probably the only way to get your website to rank when customers search for your kind of products or services.

 

5) Your business needs to adapt or be left behind: It isn’t a matter of if your business will fall behind without SEO, but when. Customers rely heavily on search engines to find solutions and products. This will only increase, so you should do yourself a solid and get on the train. It isn’t as scary as you think.

 

I personally had the best mentor with this. Catalina Jean over at SEO is Fun walked me through how to apply SEO specifically to my website. There isn’t a one size fits all because everyone has different search terms and issues with optimizing their sites, but she spends time and will analyze your business and what you need to do. Head over to SEOisFun.co to see what she does!

 

You can also go to MOZ.com and they give amazing free education on the topic. They also have the capacity to work with you and your company on SEO. I reference them when I want to learn something new on my own.

 

What are some next steps for you?

  • Make sure you have your website built. If you don’t, you might want to talk with an SEO expert first. It is best to build your website with SEO in mind.
  • Start to invest time into learning about SEO and how to optimize your website so it will show up for your ideal customer.

 

Keep going friends! I know you can do this!

Best,

Casi