A few weeks ago I sent a survey to my email list asking them to identify their biggest business struggle. A little over 100 people responded, and of those 100 people 71% identified marketing as their biggest struggle.
And honestly, that doesn’t really surprise me. I’ve been mentoring and coaching other photographers for over a decade and photographers often tell me that marketing is their biggest struggle…
But, what does that even mean?
The truth is “marketing” is an umbrella term.
When you say you’re struggling with “marketing” that can mean a ton of different problems.
Are clients not finding you at all? That’s a visibility problem.
Are they finding you but not reaching out? That’s a communication problem.
Are they reaching out but then disappearing, like ghosting? That’s a conversion problem.
And while these are all technically marketing problems, they are not the same. And they don’t have the same solution.
Marketing is not one problem.
It’s at least ten. Maybe more… And when you try to fix all of them at once — when you buy a course that promises to teach you everything about marketing your photography business — you end up overwhelmed, and in my experience, when people are overwhelmed, they freeze, and get nothing done. Sound familiar?
I’ve watched this happen to thousands of photographers over my 27 years in this industry.
They invest in education. They get a ton of information. And then life happens, the course sits unfinished, and three months later nothing has changed.
And I think that is because the courses are too big. And The problems are too vague.
Especially when it comes to marketing
I want to quickly share my solution to this, and then tell you WHY this matters now more than ever.
So first of all, this summer I’m introducing something i’mcalling the sprint model. As in, to run a sprint- a short, intense burst of maximum effort.
With the sprint, instead trying to fix all of your marketing at once, we choose one specific problem, and we solve it — completely — in six focused weeks.
One lesson per week. One assignment per week. One clear result at the end.
When that problem is solved, we move on to the next one.
One sprint at a time. One result at a time.
And I’m starting with visibility, because Google just made a HUGE announcement to how they are running search that is already having a big impact on how your clients are finding you, whether you realize it or not.
As of a few weeks ago, when you open Google to search for something, there is a little button that says: AI Mode.
And what that means is that Google has officially built AI directly into search — meaning instead of showing people a list of links and letting them choose which one to click on, Google is now just answering questions directly by telling them what it thinks, and then recommending two to three choices to choose from.
This is the biggest change to search in like 20 years. Suddenly showing up on page one isn’t the name of the game, now we need to make sure that AI is recommending us to potential clients.
Yikes.
And I know what you might be thinking: great, another thing that’s going to make it harder for me to be found.
I want to reframe that completely.
Because here’s what this change actually means for photographers like you:
When AI makes a recommendation, it doesn’t make up answers.
It pulls information from somewhere. It looks for the clearest, most helpful, most trustworthy sources it can find — and uses those to build its response.
The sources it trusts most are things you can build into your visibility strategy in a relatively short amount of time – hence the six week sprint.
The photographers who have built this foundation are the ones showing up in AI answers right now.
They’re the ones being recommended when a new mom asks Google’s AI to find a newborn photographer in her city.
They’re the ones whose blog posts get cited when a parent asks ChatGPT how to prepare for a newborn session.
The photographers who haven’t built it yet? They’re getting harder to find by the day.
Here’s the opportunity: most photographers have no idea this shift is happening. Which means the window to get ahead of it — is open right now.
And that is precisely why I’m launching my Visibility Sprint is next week!
Here’s exactly what we build together in just 6 weeks:
Week 1 — Clarity Before we touch anything else, we get crystal clear on who your client is and what they’re actually searching for. You’ll use our custom AI tool to produce your complete strategic foundation — your ideal client profile, your positioning sentence, and your local keyword seeds. This is the north star for everything else we build. By the end of week one: you know exactly what you want to be found for.
Week 2 — We’re going to work on your home base We add the right words to your website — client-centered, locally optimized, structured so Google knows what you do and your clients feel like they’ve found the right person within five seconds.
Week 3 — Content worth quoting You’ll write and publish one blog post that answers a question your clients are already asking — and you’ll learn how to structure it so AI search tools can find it, understand it, and cite it. Again, my team has built a custom AI writing tool makes this easier for you because I know that you are a photographer, not a writer.
Week 4 — We set up or fully optimize your Google Business Profile — the free tool that puts you in the local map results and feeds directly into AI search answers for local queries.
Week 5 — Make AI trust you We audit your listings, fix inconsistencies, and get you listed on the directories that matter — because AI search verifies you by cross-referencing your information across the internet. So were going to make sure you are set up for that
Week 6 — The visibility loop We zoom out, look at what you’ve built, and you run your own search — in incognito mode — to see yourself showing up in places you weren’t six weeks ago.
Every week: one clear lesson, one focused assignment, templates and swipe files, custom AI tool access, and personalized feedback from me on your homework.
I’ve added the link to join the waitlist here, so be sure to click on that and sign up. Enrollment will open to the waitlist first.
And here’s your free gift for joining the waitlist:
The Visibility Audit — a complete checklist that shows you exactly where your visibility foundation stands right now. Website, content, Google Business Profile, trust signals — every piece of the puzzle in one place.
Eep! I’m so excited about this!
This has been kind of a long episode, but I do want to leave you with just one last thing.
Listen, the photographers who are fully booked right now — they’re not better photographers than you.
They’re just easier to find.
Their ideal clients can find them on Google.
They show up in AI search results.
Their Google Business Profile appears in the map section when someone searches for a photographer in their city.
Their blog posts answer the questions their clients are asking.
The visibility foundation they’ve built keeps working while they sleep. While they’re in the studio. While they’re editing. While they’re at their kids’ school play.
And you can build that too… and you can do it just six weeks.
Enrollment opens soon, so join the waitlist— waitlist members get first access.
