Podcast Episodes for Equine Photographers Who Want to Build a Better Business

There are days when sitting down to read another article about running your photography business sounds perfectly reasonable.

And then there are days when you have 700 images to edit, three client emails waiting, a horse appointment after lunch, and approximately four functioning brain cells left.

Those are podcast days.

If you're looking for podcasts that can help you run an equine photography business, the episodes below cover marketing, time management, systems and workflows, branding, goal setting, and even posing horses with people. I've organized them by the problem you're trying to solve so you can skip directly to what you need.

I listen to podcasts when I'm driving, editing, or doing something else that doesn't require the language-processing part of my brain. And apparently I also talk on them quite a bit, because at some point being a frequent podcast guest turned into co-hosting The Business Animal Podcast.

So I could give you a giant list of every podcast episode I've ever appeared on.

I'm not going to do that.

Instead, let's start with the thing in your equine photography business that's currently making you nuts and find something that might actually help with it.

Marketing. Time management. Systems. Branding. Goals.

You know. All the things we somehow acquired responsibility for when we thought we were signing up to photograph horses.

If Your Marketing Feels Like a Bunch of Things You're Supposed to Be Doing

Marketing gets messy quickly.

Post on Instagram. Send emails. Write blogs. Make reels. Work on SEO. Go to networking events. Update your website. Start a Pinterest account because somebody somewhere swears Pinterest changed her life.

Pretty soon, you're doing an impressive amount of marketing without being particularly sure why you're doing half of it.

Or whether it's working.

If that sounds familiar, I'd start with one of these.

Building a Real Marketing Ecosystem Instead of Piecemeal Effort

This Business Animal episode looks at what happens when we stop treating every marketing activity like its own little island.

Social media is part of your marketing. So is your website. Your email list. Your relationships. Your referrals. The experience people have with your business.

The question is how those things work together.

Kim Beer and I also talk about creating marketing rhythms you can repeat and using systems and automation where they make sense.

Because the goal isn't to become excellent at maintaining 14 marketing channels.

The goal is to have marketing that actually helps the business.

Is Your Marketing Actually Working? How to Stop Guessing and Start Knowing

Doing the marketing is one thing.

Knowing whether the marketing is doing anything is another.

In this episode, we talk about practical ways to look at what's happening without requiring you to become a full-time data analyst.

That can be website analytics. Email performance. Social-media results. Asking clients how they found you.

Because “I posted a lot this month” is technically information.

It's just not particularly useful information.

How to Stand Out in a Crowded Local Market

There may be six other equine photographers working in your area.

There may be 26.

Either way, the answer probably isn't yelling louder.

This conversation gets into value proposition, brand, niche, and understanding who you're trying to reach without convincing yourself that you must photograph one extremely specific breed of horse owned by one extremely specific kind of person for the rest of your natural life.

If you've looked around your market and wondered, Why would somebody choose me?, this is a good conversation to have.

If There Are Never Enough Hours in Your Week

Photography businesses are sneaky.

The session might last two hours.

The business surrounding that two-hour session most certainly does not.

There are emails, preparation, travel, editing, ordering appointments, product orders, marketing, bookkeeping, website updates, and all the other things quietly eating Tuesday.

Time management is something I've talked about on several photography business podcasts over the years because it's something I've had to figure out in my own business.

Not because I discovered the perfect planner.

Because life required it.

Building a Work Week With Realistic Energy, Not Wishful Thinking

Kim and I work very differently, which is exactly why I like this conversation.

We talk about what happens when you plan your week for the imaginary version of yourself who apparently has unlimited energy, no interruptions, and never encounters a sick animal, technology problem, unexpected appointment, or puppy making a questionable life choice.

I have yet to meet her.

Instead, we talk about building a schedule around how you actually work, protecting your time and energy, and questioning productivity advice that simply doesn't work for you.

Time Management for Super Busy Photographers

I joined Luci Dumas on The Profitable Photographer specifically to talk about time management for photographers.

We get into automation, outsourcing, and ways to run the business more efficiently while still having an actual life outside of it.

Because becoming more successful at your photography business isn't particularly helpful if the reward is getting to work every waking hour.

Stable Shots with Betsy Bird

My conversation with Dorie Howell on Focal Points covers some similar territory from another angle.

We talk about task blocking, boundaries, organization, running a photography business while raising a family, and finding systems that work for the way you operate.

That's an important distinction.

The best organizational system isn't necessarily the prettiest planner, fanciest app, or method currently taking over Instagram.

It's the one you'll actually use.

If Your Business Is Being Held Together by Sticky Notes and Your Ability to Remember Things

At some point, “I'll remember” stops being a workflow.

Unfortunately, it usually stops working right around the time the business gets busy enough that you really, really need it to work.

Creating a System to Achieve Your Vision

I originally joined The Business Animal for this episode before becoming a co-host.

We talked about creating systems and workflows that support what you're actually trying to accomplish rather than adding systems simply because someone told you a “real business” is supposed to have them.

A useful system should make something easier, more consistent, or less dependent on your memory.

If maintaining the system becomes another full-time job, we may have gotten a little carried away.

If You're Still Trying to Figure Out What Your Brand Actually Is

Your brand is not your logo.

It's also not the font you spent three hours choosing when you should have gone to bed.

Those things can represent your brand. They aren't the whole thing.

Building a Brand From Scratch: The First 3 Decisions Every Entrepreneur Must Make

If you're building a new equine photography business, or realizing you've been running one for a while without intentionally thinking about the brand behind it, I'd start here.

Kim and I talk about three questions that go much deeper than colors and logos: what problem you're committed to solving, who you're not for, and how you want people to feel after working with you.

Those questions aren't always easy.

They're considerably more useful than spending another afternoon comparing shades of beige.

Understanding Brand Values with Betsy Bird

This is an older Business Animal episode from my guest days, but the subject still matters.

We talk about identifying the values behind a business and how those values affect the decisions you make, the experience you create, and the clients who connect with you.

Brand values shouldn't just be a handful of nice-sounding words sitting on your About page.

If they matter to your business, they should show up in how you run it.

If You Have Goals but Aren't Entirely Sure How You're Getting There

“Book more clients.”

“Make more money.”

“Grow the business.”

Those sound like goals until you try to make a Tuesday afternoon decision based on one of them.

Reaching Your Goals with Betsy Bird

This is another episode from my earlier Business Animal guest appearances.

We talk about taking a goal and turning it into something you can actually work toward.

Because writing down “grow my business” is easy.

Eventually Tuesday arrives and somebody has to decide what to do next.

That's the part that matters.

Want Something More Equine-Photography Specific?

Most of the episodes above deal with the business of being an equine photographer.

But sometimes you really do want to talk about photographing horses.

Posing People with Horses: The One Where We Answer Your Questions

I joined Kim and Cara on the Cowgirls with Cameras podcast to talk about posing horses and people together and answer questions related to the book Cara and I co-authored, Equine & Equestrian Photography Poses That Sell.

Because posing one person can be challenging enough.

Add a 1,200-pound animal who has suddenly become extremely interested in something happening three counties away, and things get more interesting.

You Don't Have to Listen to All of These

Seriously.

Please don't turn this article into another list you're now behind on.

Pick the problem that's bothering you right now.

If marketing is the problem, start there.

If your schedule is making you slightly feral, start with time management.

If your horse photography business depends on remembering 37 things at exactly the right moment, systems probably deserve your attention.

If you keep changing your colors, fonts, logo, website, and Instagram bio because something about the brand still doesn't feel right, start with branding.

Education is most useful when it helps you solve something you actually need to solve.

And when you hear something useful, don't just nod enthusiastically while driving down the interstate and then never think about it again.

Pick one thing.

Try it.

See whether it helps.

Then come back for another episode.

Preferably after you've figured out where you left the tripod.