The Podcast

What if you could get booked in places you actually want to travel to? That’s exactly what photographer Jaime Bugbee King has done. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Jaime built a family photography business that doesn’t just rely on her local market. She strategically markets to destinations like Palm Springs, ranks there on Google, and books premium sessions while turning work trips into mini getaways. And the wildest part? She did it while raising young kids, managing a hous

There’s a version of running a photography business where you stay neutral. You don’t say too much.You keep things “safe.”You focus on the work, not the worldview. And for a long time, that worked. But it’s getting harder to maintain. In this episode, I sat down with Maddie Peschong to talk about something a lot of photographers are thinking about—but not always saying out loud: What happens when your values start showing up in your business… whether you planned for it or no

If I were starting my photography business from scratch today, in 2026, knowing what I know now… I would do a lot of things differently. Not because what I did was wrong. It worked.But it took longer than it needed to. When I started in 2012, the landscape was completely different. Social media actually gave you visibility. Lifestyle family photography felt new. You could post something and people would see it. Now? It’s louder. More crowded. More saturated. So if I were bran

Lydia runs her photography business intentionally part time. Her capacity fills fast, usually by early summer. But inquiries keep coming, and she didn’t want to shut everything down completely, because you never know when a dream inquiry might land. At first, her solution was what most of us do. She referred overflow inquiries to other local photographers.

In this episode, I’m joined by Kate DeCoste, a photographer in Wahoo, Nebraska (population under 5,000), who specializes in seniors, headshots, and single subject portraiture. Kate is also the host of The One Behind The Lens podcast, so she fully gets the behind the scenes side of running a business, not just the creative part.

We talked pricing, money mindset, and the unsexy (but necessary) financial literacy that makes pricing feel grounded instead of emotional.

In this conversation, I sat down with Tiffany Crenshaw of Animal House Photography in North Alabama to talk about something that does not get nearly enough airtime in our industry: in person networking.

If you are in that stage where you are doing the work, trying everything, learning fast, and still wondering when it’s going to click, this episode is for you. Rachel Larsen Weaver came back on the podcast as my first return guest, which felt right, because I could genuinely listen to her talk all day. This time we dug into the origin story. Not the polished version where someone “followed their passion” and magically landed in the right niche. The version with detours, side

Alan is New York based, and his work spans food, portraits, macro, and still life. But the part that hooked me was not just the images. It was the way he talks about building a creative life that actually supports you, instead of slowly wrecking you.

There’s something powerful about hearing how someone actually built their photography business. Not the polished Instagram version.Not the “overnight success” story.The real one. In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Becca Lueck, owner of Becca Jean Photography , and we pull back the curtain on what it looked like for her to build a sustainable, evolving photography business from the ground up. This conversation is part of my How I Built This series, where we break

In this episode of How I Built This, I sat down with Maddie Peschong of Maddie Peschong Photography and co-founder of White Space Studio in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. What stood out to me immediately is that Maddie doesn’t just think like a photographer. She thinks like a CEO.

A lot of photographers treat marketing and sales like two different things. Post pretty work. Hope someone inquires. Send pricing. Cross fingers. Helena sees it differently.

Whether or not you built one intentionally, you have a sales funnel.

Most of us are not afraid of strategy. We’re afraid of rejection. We do not want to be told no.We do not want to feel annoying.We do not want to feel like we are bothering people.We do not want to come across as pushy or desperate.

If you have ADHD and you run a photography business, you probably know this feeling. Some days you can do a week’s worth of work in a single sprint. Other days, replying to one email feels like pushing a refrigerator up a hill.

I have not conquered my ADHD. I am not perfectly organized. I still forget things. I still procrastinate. I still avoid tasks that feel overwhelming. But I can say with full confidence that without the tools I’m about to share, I probably would have quit years ago.

Christi coaches creatives to stop moralizing productivity, stop forcing themselves into systems that don’t fit, and start building a business that supports their energy, their nervous system, and their creativity.

What it is actually like to run a photography business with ADHD. Elena, founder of Elena S Blair Education, has built an incredibly successful photography brand and education platform while being deeply honest about how her brain works.

We talk CRMs, automations, follow ups, and the kind of backend structure that makes your business feel calmer without turning you into a robot.

We talked about how to upsell video without burning out, and she came in with a simple five step framework that honestly made me want to open my camera and toggle to video immediately.