When selling (finally) feels like serving

If you’ve been in business long enough, you’ve most likely come up against the friction of marketing.  If you’re anything like me, you just wish your work would simply sell itself, or that marketing would come easy, without the icky sales-y feeling, and people would just fall in love with your work and want to book you without having to be told to.  

 For me, the perspective shift came one day when I learned that to sell well, is to serve well.  That is, that authentic marketing is an alignment of heart and mind delivered in a way that is true to you.  While this simple shift transformed my approach to marketing, I’ll be honest and tell you that it wasn’t magical and it wasn’t overnight.  

 Last week though, I received a few consecutive bookings that seemed to come out of the blue, like magic, it seemed.  Yet as we video called and emailed back and forth I realised that in fact, these bookings were simply the result of serving well and showing up honestly, not just once or twice, but for the longest time. 

One beautiful mother shared with me that my approach to photography had been pivotal at a turning point in her life almost a decade ago, that her life now looked incredibly different and it was a full circle moment to be able to reach out and book me for her own family.

Another couple booked me on a call for their wedding because even though they had just stumbled down an instagram rabbit hole to discover my work, they saw themselves in the moments that I had documented, like they were there,  and knew they had found their photographer.

A third booking came through a seed of trust that had been sown through witnessing a friend’s growing family being documented year on year, and knowing that my approach was the one they aligned with.

None of these bookings were magic.  

None of these were the result of overnight success. 

They were simply the product of doing (and sharing) this work I love, on repeat, from the very beginning.

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If you’ve been feeling the weight of the slow season and slower bookings, this is my encouragement to you to keep on keeping on, and to keep making and sharing this work you love.  Every time you do, you sow a seed that serves someone, somewhere - even if it’s not evident to you in the here and now.  

I hope this is the encouragement you needed to hear today.

Much love,

Trish x