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[00:00:13] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Taylor. it is, uh, so nice to have you on our show, after being on your show. And, I am curious, um, before we dig into all the fun topics we're gonna talk about today, you just hosted an event, right?
[00:00:26] Taylor Isselhard: I did. Yeah.
[00:00:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I hadn't had, how'd it go? Yeah.
[00:00:30] Taylor Isselhard: so awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It was our first workshop retreat, um, my friend Jesse Herman and I hosted, and, it was pretty transformational. Just a really cool perspective to be on that end of it, and seemed to really get a lot out of it.
[00:00:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And remind me, _even though you're in New York, this event was in Florida, am I right?_
[00:00:49] Taylor Isselhard: _No, it was in, it was in New York still._
[00:00:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: _It was in New York. Okay. Okay._
[00:00:52] Taylor Isselhard: _soon before that, so that's probably,_
[00:00:54] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: _Okay. I remember something about Florida._
[00:00:56] Taylor Isselhard: _Yeah Yeah_
_yeah. I was, I, I had a, a wedding down in Florida so that,_[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: _Okay, cool._
[00:01:00] Taylor Isselhard: _yeah no it was like_
_western New York area, just south of Buffalo. So if you're a Bills fan, _it was like, you know, 45 minutes south of that area.
[00:01:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Nice, nice. That's awesome. Sweet.
How many, uh, how many people did you have, uh, uh, at the event?
[00:01:15] Taylor Isselhard: yeah. so we had five photographers. Um, it was cool. Three were from the general area,
[00:01:19] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:01:20] Taylor Isselhard: but one was from Alaska, one was from Colorado. So it was pretty cool just to have like different perspectives and just.
[00:01:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:01:28] Taylor Isselhard: from different areas come and experience it, but we also had like, I think nine different models come through for the different styled shoots
[00:01:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Nice.
[00:01:37] Taylor Isselhard: guest
experts come in.
So, uh, it was a pretty incredible experience.
[00:01:41] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That is, that is awesome. Um. Cool for the person in Colorado, but the person in Alaska definitely won.
[00:01:48] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah
[00:01:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's a, that's a heck of a hike.
[00:01:51] Taylor Isselhard: I was like
oh, wow. Like we were like getting, you know, filling out the information, checking out the attendees information and I was
[00:01:56] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Taylor Isselhard: my friend Jessie. I was like, we literally have somebody coming from [00:02:00] Alaska.
[00:02:00] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's so cool. Yeah.
[00:02:02] Taylor Isselhard: across the country cannot mess
this up.
[00:02:06] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:02:07] Taylor Isselhard: confident
we were gonna do well. But yeah, dude, it was, it was really cool to see everyone come away with. Stuff and you know, just getting responses from them, hearing that like, you know, we're implementing this or we're doing this, or I got this big
[00:02:19] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:02:20] Taylor Isselhard: and it That's the stuff you love to see.
[00:02:22] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Sweet. So good.
[00:02:23] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah
[00:02:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so, so let's, let's dive into, um, some of the workflow items that, are working well in your, in your business. So, the first thing. That you mentioned is consistency, what you mentioned to me before we, uh, started recording, consistency in your client experience, but not just for your couples, but for everybody that was involved.
[00:02:48] Taylor Isselhard: Could you, could you dig into that? Um, because you might think, like thinking about a wedding photography, thinking about engagement photography, thinking about family photography. [00:03:00] for me, in my case, proposal photography, I.the, the consistency is crucial for the actual couples. Right. sure.
[00:03:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: but, but you mentioned everybody involved and I'm so curious if you can expand on that.
[00:03:16] Taylor Isselhard: For sure. Yeah. I'll, I'll start with kind of with just the couple first and
[00:03:19] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:03:19] Taylor Isselhard: kind of
lead into the other aspect. So, one of my ultimate goals is that the client experience is phenomenal from start to finish,
[00:03:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:03:28] Taylor Isselhard: anybody
else wants to bring to their clients. And it comes down to it too, I always think about, you know, if I'm working with one couple then one of their friends engaged and then wants to work with me. I want them to know that they get the same overall phenomenal experience that their other friends got. And when I go dig deeper into what I want to provide to them, I'm always thinking about, you know, what are the things that they wouldn't expect, and what are the things [00:04:00] that are going to truly help them not have to think as much?
I always tell them on
[00:04:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm.
[00:04:05] Taylor Isselhard: calls when I'm working with any couple, I'm like, you know, my ultimate goal is when we get to your wedding day, the less thinking that you have to do. The better
[00:04:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:04:13] Taylor Isselhard: as
a part of that client experience piece of it. But of course it comes down to like scheduling the final call, you know, making sure that everything is smooth throughout the transition and communication process, to ensure that the clients are having a great time. And also feel like they're well taken care of.
there's also the part of the client experience where they don't really think about it or have to worry about it, but it's a part of it is your communication with the other vendors that you're
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working with, and also the consistency and the experience that you provide everyone that's involved at the wedding.
So
when it comes to my. communication with the other vendors. Like I want them to know that I'm here to work together. So I'm providing, especially like the dj, the videographer, if there is [00:05:00] one, the content creator, the coordinator, wedding planner, whoever's involved on the day of, that's gonna be with me throughout the entire wedding day.
I want everyone to be on the same page. And I want that type of communication to be consistent from wedding after wedding. So when it gets to about, you know, a month out, I've already had my final call with a couple, um, but I'm also sharing that same document with all of those vendors so that way we're all on the same page.
So when we're showing up on the wedding day. We're all good to go. We've all communicated. We've all met, especially if it's a vendor that I haven't worked with before. And if I can have that consistency in being sure that I'm communicating well with everybody that's involved working with this couple, then I feel like the overall experience for them is going to even be more elevated
[00:05:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm.
[00:05:45] Taylor Isselhard: without them even knowing.
[00:05:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. When, when, um, when it's a you, you, I was gonna ask you something that, and you, you, you started bringing up a little bit, so, which I was happy about. when, when there's a vendor, let's say there's a DJ right, that you've, you've never worked with [00:06:00] before, are you asking your couple who the other vendors are?
ahead of time, I'm assuming Yes. Um, to know if, if you've worked with 'em before or not, but, when is somebody you know, you haven't worked with before? Are you asking your couples for the contact, contact information, or are you just googling it and finding it yourself and then reaching out yourself?
Mm-hmm.
[00:06:17] Taylor Isselhard: great question. So as a part of the final document that we complete together, you know,
there's the
timeline, the family picture variations, pretty standard stuff. Um, but I also have a portion in the document that they have to list all the vendors that are associated with the wedding day that they've hired. With their emails like it's a requirement. And I explain to them that it's a great way for me to be able to connect with them ahead of time so that we all can work well together and make sure that everybody is on the same page, especially when it comes to the timeline piece of it.
[00:06:48] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:06:49] Taylor Isselhard: it's also just a great way to be able to provide them other vendors' photos after the couple gets 'em, of course.
To be
able to utilize it and they love that portion of it, so that way then you're not scrambling [00:07:00] around trying to, figure out a way to get their contact information to be able to share the photos
[00:07:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Are,
[00:07:05] Taylor Isselhard: as well.
[00:07:06] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: are you using a gallery solution that has a vendor feature built in or are you just sending the, the, just the regular gallery link?
[00:07:12] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah, so I know in pic time there is that option
where it
will use that, you know, AI feature to be able to be like, oh, the videographer, or like the dj, and like they're gonna get a lot of dance floor photos and stuff. I just like to typically share the whole gallery.
It just
makes it easier. And then that way they
[00:07:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:07:28] Taylor Isselhard: of the photos they want to use.
[00:07:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:07:30] Taylor Isselhard: Of course, I'm like, you know, tag me, credit me, blah, blah, blah.
[00:07:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right.
[00:07:33] Taylor Isselhard: as a part of copyright issues and all that. But yeah, it's just a great way to build a great relationship with the vendors ahead of time as well, so that
way when
[00:07:42] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:07:42] Taylor Isselhard: working together again, you have that established trust
[00:07:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:07:46] Taylor Isselhard: relationship.
[00:07:48] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Um, just to dig in even further, the vendor stuff, I, this is one of my favorite things is, is networking with, with like,
[00:07:53] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah
[00:07:54] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: with just no matter what type of genre photography you do, there's always another [00:08:00] company related, right. That you could network with, right? So I'm always interested in this, in this stuff.
when you share your gallery with, the client, right? Let's say you are. For me in particular, I know that I share low res down digital files with them, right? They have the ability to download thousand megapixel at the longest length photos to share on Facebook or whatever they wanna do.they don't just get the high res for, for free.
They need to either buy a print or buy the high res. when it comes to vendors, I would give a higher quality photo digital file, right? So they might wanna do more with it. What are you doing? Are you, are you doing what I'm doing or are you, what, what are you doing for that?
[00:08:45] Taylor Isselhard: no, great question. For the vendors specifically, or For
[00:08:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. you both, but I, I'm, I'm more curious in the vendor side, I guess in, in the, for this conversation, but I'm both.
[00:08:54] Taylor Isselhard: Okay. So for the couples, I mean, I do provide the websites and high resolution, because [00:09:00] with weddings, it, it just allows them the opportunity to order and print the photos that they want. You know, so that it just works well with, with what I do. Um, I mean,
[00:09:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:09] Taylor Isselhard: like
the wedding albums and stuff, I have a process if they
wanna purchase one. But for the vendors, I do provide websites and hybrid resolution as well. Um, because I do explain that the websites is typically nice for social media and so on.
And even if they wanna use some on their webpage, but I also provide 'em the high resolution. So that way then, if they are. some, stuff to, for marketing purposes, you know, prints or postcards or whatever they want to utilize and for they have that option. that way then there's just the freedom of it.
and, you know, of course going back to the piece about like, you know, they need, they need to credit me, they need to provide that type of, um, credibility for it. But, I just want to give them. opportunity to be able to be excited about being a part of this experience with me
[00:09:59] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:09:59] Taylor Isselhard: [00:10:00] the photos that they can get.
[00:10:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. And that, I think that comes back to the consistency. Having that for vendor, after vendor, after vendor, but then also, you know, couple after couple after couple, family of the couple after, you know, and so on. Um, they're all getting the same experience. They all get to do what they want, how they want, um, with what you're, with, what you're doing.
[00:10:22] Taylor Isselhard: Right. so that's really good. galleries to the couple too. 'cause I'll even give 'em like a checklist of things they need to do ahead of time before they even view the photos.
[00:10:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:31] Taylor Isselhard: experience of it is also really great. And it's also
[00:10:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:10:35] Taylor Isselhard: them to, you know, do a viewing party with family and friends
[00:10:39] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right.
[00:10:40] Taylor Isselhard: they've had time to look at the photos.
[00:10:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
True, true.you, you mentioned ano another thing that was going well that was also consistency, and that is related to your website, which. Um, is another favorite topic of mind. can you, can you share, what, what you, what is going [00:11:00] well, consistency wise, when it comes to your website?
[00:11:03] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah. Yeah. So back in the fall, I was just kind of curious of what page I was on in Google when I
was
[00:11:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:12] Taylor Isselhard: for my area wedding photography. So Rochester, New York wedding photographer, Rochester wedding photographer, and then I'm like. I kept scrolling from page after page. I'm like, what the frick man?
heck am I
You know?
[00:11:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:11:25] Taylor Isselhard: like six or seven back in the fall for these key words, and I'm like, if I want more people to find me in this area of inquiry referral source on Google specifically. I need to start working on this and be consistent with it.I actually got some information, from, his name is Joe with SEO by Joe. Really cool dude, um, out of Colorado. But he talks about consistency in, in blog posting
[00:11:51] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:11:52] Taylor Isselhard: advantage of that, utilizing those key words. He's like, if you really want to be able to increase your Google [00:12:00] ranking, utilizing blog posts, like you've gotta go weekly. If you wanna really increase it faster, I mean, you can start with biweekly and monthly, but I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna go all in.
So back in late fall, probably November time, I started blogging weekly. I made it a goal of mine to continuously blog weekly for an entire year and see what that would do with my SEO.
And
after six months, I'm now on page two that, and I'm like, my goal is to obviously get to page one,
but
because of the. Statistic that most people don't even go past page one, let alone page two when they're
searching
[00:12:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:12:39] Taylor Isselhard: that was important to me 'cause I'm like, if I'm on page six, I was never getting Google inquiries truthfully
that
but now I am and It's
[00:12:48] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. And it's only gonna get harder because now you've got, not only do you have social media that falls into the page one results, right? but you're also getting, now the AI stuff, you have [00:13:00] ads, right, that are also there on page one, but you also have the AI stuff that's fairly new still. and becoming the default now, especially on Google, that you're going to see the Ai, AI results.
So now you have to make sure that you are not only optimized for. Search engines, but optimized for the LLMs, the, these, these AI chat systems, right? The chat GPTs, the Geminis, et cetera.which is a whole nother thing of do you want these ais to scrape your website? 'cause now they're also scraping your images.
Or do you wanna block it? If you block it, now you're not showing up an AI search result. So it's a, a catch 22 here, right?
[00:13:43] Taylor Isselhard: it's a battle. It's a consistent battle.
[00:13:45] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:13:46] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah.
[00:13:47] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: a, big investment into my SEO optimization in general, just using keywords across all platforms, even in,
yeah.
[00:13:53] Taylor Isselhard: my, uh, social media posts, any, anything
[00:13:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: C
[00:13:56] Taylor Isselhard: is Google related.
[00:13:57] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Can you, can you give us an idea of [00:14:00] so weekly now for a year? So you're talking 52 blog articles, let's say in 2024, right? it's a lot right? For anybody.
[00:14:10] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah.
[00:14:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: One, are you outsourcing the content writing at all? Right. Or are you doing it all yourself? And two, can you give us one or two examples of what you might blog about, that is helping your, your main keyword that you want?
[00:14:27] Taylor Isselhard: For sure.so what's really been helping me?
Well, first of all, I actually do it all myself.
Um
[00:14:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:14:34] Taylor Isselhard: I, I think, so I know you, I can outsource if I wanted
to
but when it comes to writing the blogs, you know, I was there, I was at that wedding. So I do use AI to help. Get the blog post started with the description piece of it, you know, just typing it out and being like, you know, write a, 800 word blog post.
And then I give it a lot of information. But what it, what really helps is [00:15:00] being able to, ask chat GBT to use keywords within the post itself to be able to help, you know, optimize that in that way. but I do enjoy writing about the wedding day itself, and I think that's what people overcomplicate is.
I'm like. Just write about the wedding day. Write about a few of the key moments that you really loved about that wedding day you loved about the couple. Because I feel like there's, an over complication that people make writing blog posts. You know, it doesn't have to be complicated,
just
it's simply just talk about it, especially
[00:15:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:15:30] Taylor Isselhard: sometimes what I'll do after a wedding, while I'm downloading the photos, I'm just. Putting in like a notes thing that says, you know, these are a few of my favorite moments from this wedding day, and this is why.
fresh
[00:15:41] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:15:42] Taylor Isselhard: my mind and I'm
[00:15:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I might even recommend using, um, a tool like, um, I have two of them. One is cast magic, the other one is called Voice notes,
[00:15:53] Taylor Isselhard: Mm
[00:15:54] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: where right after the wedding you're in the car packing up, you're, you're [00:16:00] cooling down, right, clearing your head, but it's still top of mind. You open up voice notes, you open up cast magic, whichever.
Whichever one, there's so many apps that do this and you just spit it all out there, right? Um, in audio form, you don't have to write anything, but then it logs it and then you, the next day or next week, whenever you're ready to start blogging about it, you can go to it and, and have a chat with your voice memo and then help it, you know, it helped get you started on the, on the blog article that way.
Um, that could be a good way to like take the. Mental stress of, I have to write a blog article right. About this,
[00:16:37] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah
[00:16:38] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: you know, a little bit off your plate. 'cause now it's, it, it's truly top of mind. Um, but you don't actually have to even write anything. You're just spitting out your, your words from the day.
[00:16:48] Taylor Isselhard: I don't like physically type,
[00:16:50] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:16:50] Taylor Isselhard: the notes that I'm like just, uh, doing like the voice,
[00:16:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:16:54] Taylor Isselhard: in a sense. But
[00:16:55] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:16:55] Taylor Isselhard: that's
good to know about those apps. That'd be
[00:16:57] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, voice, voice [00:17:00] notes, you can record it itself. But they also now in, in its own app, but they also now have, WhatsApp integration. So you can either use the, the, which is great for people that are not in the US 'cause WhatsApp is far more popular outside the US than it is inside the us.
But, what's cool is. Its integration, it, there's two WhatsApp like channels. One is you can record in WhatsApp to voice notes. And the other one is you can ask it questions in through WhatsApp. So you can basically test text, message your notes. It's the weirdest thing, but um, also very cool at the same time, so,
[00:17:33] Taylor Isselhard: yeah.
nerding out with I
[00:17:36] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:17:38] Taylor Isselhard: Like those
like I, it's, it's mind blowing how many different AI apps there.
[00:17:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:17:43] Taylor Isselhard: Like people just don't even think about it
because it's still
like up and coming. Like, yeah, it's been around for several years now, but dude,
[00:17:52] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah,
[00:17:52] Taylor Isselhard: pretty sweet.
it really is. It really is. that strategy just so that way then, like when I'm trying to write these blog posts,
[00:17:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah,
[00:17:59] Taylor Isselhard: to like look back through the [00:18:00] photos and be like, remember what happened and all that stuff. That way it's, it's just setting yourself up for success for
these
blog posts.
[00:18:07] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah.
Um, when you, when you were. Just to dig into the SEOA bit, um, a bit more. When you're doing the, the titles of the blog post, for example, are you titling it by your couple's name or you're titling it by like, beautiful wedding at so and so's venue, right? Getting the venue, which now is location, like, is that the approach you're taking?
[00:18:30] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah.
Yeah, I'll, I'll typically, put the venue name in the title,
[00:18:34] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Great.
[00:18:35] Taylor Isselhard: I, I think that's a lot more powerful 'cause I can put the couple's name in the, when I'm writing about the blog post
and
you know, but like, when people are searching for wedding venues, it'd be nice if my blog post about this venue for this couple shows up.
[00:18:49] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:18:49] Taylor Isselhard: but
like, you know, it, it just targets those keywords better in that way. 'cause then I use, you know, uh. like Rochester, New York wedding venues, somewhere in the blog post as [00:19:00] well, to help, with that SEO optimization.
[00:19:02] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Do you have a Rochester New York wedding venue Landing page?
[00:19:08] Taylor Isselhard: So I have create great question. I have created a blog post about
[00:19:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay.
[00:19:13]
Taylor Isselhard: New York wedding venues, that I wrote last year, but it is on my to-do list to write one.
[00:19:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And doing that and then linking with like another image, right? To each of those blog articles for each of those venues,
[00:19:27] Taylor Isselhard: Yes
[00:19:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: now telling Google like, Hey, I've got it all here.
[00:19:31] Taylor Isselhard: Right
[00:19:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's ready for you.
[00:19:33] Taylor Isselhard: outbound links, right?
[00:19:35] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: outbound would be going to another, like if you were to linking, if you were to be linking to the actual venues website.
Which I would recommend on the blog article, but not necessarily on like a landing page for yourself. Um, but internal linking, it's sort of like, I think they call it the skyscraper, where it's like top bottom, being like the top floor is like, uh, the landing page with everything, and then everything below it [00:20:00] is all the blog articles related to that main topic.
So yeah
[00:20:04] Taylor Isselhard: yeah.
yeah yeah
Yeah. yeah, yeah, Because then that, because I wanna go back to your second question about the type of
[00:20:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep.
[00:20:10] Taylor Isselhard: posts
[00:20:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep.
[00:20:11] Taylor Isselhard: so I, I do blog a lot about the weddings that I do, sometimes
[00:20:16] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:20:16] Taylor Isselhard: sessions that I do, because I know it's a great way for, I. Inquiring couples to be able to check out, you know, what the type of work that I have in different venues and different settings. but I also, have written about different venues and I plan to do that even more about, you know, like top Rochester, New York wedding venues or talk about venues specifically and why they are a great spot for these types of weddings and be able to showcase my photos specifically from those venues. 'cause I, I know that the venues themselves love. To see that and they will share those articles and I, I think it's just a great way to collaborate with those, those venues as well
[00:20:56] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Sweet. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Ven [00:21:00] venues love seeing, seeing, um, photographers talk about them,
[00:21:03] Taylor Isselhard: Oh yeah They're
[00:21:04] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so,
[00:21:05] Taylor Isselhard: sweet cause
it doesn't, I don't think it happens that often. So
[00:21:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah.
[00:21:11] Taylor Isselhard: to optimize that type of relationship as
[00:21:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah,
[00:21:14] Taylor Isselhard: it just being a blog post
[00:21:17] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. And, and by the way, it doesn't have to be just venues like. There's a photo that was shared. we're, we're recording this early June, I think at the end of May. There was a photo shared in the Imagine Community that was a venue plastered with flowers,
top to bottom, floor, wall, ceiling, tables.
They were covered in flowers. That, that photo drove a lot of discussion. 'cause it was like, what the heck's going on here? It's a beautiful photo. Um, that is something to blog about. To get back to the florist. and double, double whammy actually. 'cause now you're talking florist and venue. They came together to do that, obviously, like that's not just the florist doing [00:22:00] it.
They had to get approval.
[00:22:00] Taylor Isselhard: Right right
[00:22:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: s so like that in itself, that one photo, is a blog article that could drive a whole lot of discussion and, and, and, uh, some good networking juice and some potentially some good SEO juice in there as well for. For the florist, you know, but on your own site. so anyway, it goes beyond just the venues.
It could be anything, right? it could be it.
[00:22:25] Taylor Isselhard: engagement session ideas for
[00:22:27] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:22:27] Taylor Isselhard: you know, engagement session locations for
[00:22:29] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah,
[00:22:30] Taylor Isselhard: area. Yeah, there's, there is so much you can do and it's good to diversify and because it also shows your knowledge in the
[00:22:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah.
[00:22:37] Taylor Isselhard: and your also your relationships with these people.
couples
love to see that. They're like, oh, he's worked here before, or, oh, he has a good relationship with them and he's really
knowledgeable about
this location or this type of topic and niche in this industry.
[00:22:50] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep.
Um, I wanna dive into now one area of your workflow that you are struggling with, but you're working towards [00:23:00] improving, right? Maybe this is your goal for the rest of 2025. Even though right now we're in the beginning of like crazy wedding season, so probably not. Um, but maybe it's your goal for the beginning of 2026, right.
which we're, we're approaching. but the one area of your workflow that you're struggling with, that you're working on approving, you mentioned to me is your CRM workflow, that you're not taking full advantage of what you have,
[00:23:23] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah
[00:23:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: offered to you. Can you, um, dig into that a bit? Like what are you using?
what. To what extent are you using it, and what do you think you're missing out on?
[00:23:33] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah.
so I currently use HoneyBook and I, I believe it's a great CRM.
[00:23:38] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:39] Taylor Isselhard: just
has so much to offer and, uh, I, I use it in a way for like my contracts, my invoicing, my questionnaires, and so on. Um, and it's great. I. But I, I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of the features that HoneyBook actually offers. You know, I, I heard on the, the vendor table, mom, Michael.
[00:23:56] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:56] Taylor Isselhard: talk
about how they use like the, uh, the [00:24:00] ai, like, uh, like they record the conversations in their, in their, um, when they have consult calls and HoneyBook will translate it and summarize the conversation. And, and then there's also just some other features that I feel like they're, they're creating and developing that I'm not staying on top of and taking advantage of that could ultimately help my workflow improve and take less off of me because I, so that's what CRMs are for, is they're to take. Certain workloads off of you. So that way you can focus on the areas in your business that will make you more money
and
be able to help you improve client experience and that way then you're not investing in areas of your business that are in a sense worth maybe 30 to $40 an hour and you can invest in areas of your business that are gonna ultimately make you 200 to 300 to $500 an hour. So. I, I do believe it's important think about that taking time to invest in these areas of your CRM. Like maybe it takes you a couple hours, but it can save you so [00:25:00] much time, long term.
And I'm solely
trying to get better at it 'cause I know it'll be good for me. That's, that's the thing about being an entrepreneur and a business owner is that, there's, there's always areas of your business that you can grow in, um, that you can improve on. and, you know, I'm just giving you this as a spiel to explain that I don't have it all together. You know,
I'm there's still all
[00:25:21] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: No one's perfect.
[00:25:23] Taylor Isselhard: right? There's
[00:25:24] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:25:24] Taylor Isselhard: opportunities to grow and
[00:25:26] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Taylor Isselhard: be able to be more efficient in the way that you run your business. So
[00:25:32] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yep.
[00:25:32] Taylor Isselhard: Your hours are decreased on the small tasks, so that way then you can focus on the big goals for your business.
[00:25:39] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.you, so one of the things that you, that you brought up was, um, the, the, recording of conversations. It's, it's AI doing things. It also has, um, the AI writing feature for its. Emails and stuff that are all now like learning from the way that you've communicated with your clients and stuff. But, um, for those who don't [00:26:00] use,A CRM that has conversation recording capabilities, like what HoneyBook does, if you're doing your, your consult, your, your IPS calls, whatever it might be with a Zoom or Google Meet, those have note taking built in now.
Like you don't need a third party tool. Um. But if your CRM and you're, if you're using your CRM for monitoring conversations and things like that, or having the con, if your CRM even offers its own built in conversation tool, using what's built in always ideal, rather than having to install browser extensions and do all this other stuff, again, like going back to ai, like AI has been around for
quite some time, right?
It wasn't talked about big time until about, I would say five years ago. and in those five years, it's come so far, the fact that now things are built in, things are, so efficient, so streamlined is just a, it, it's a game [00:27:00] changing thing for, for, for many businesses. So using what tools have to offer you without you having to search for another thing.
[00:27:08] Taylor Isselhard: And another thing is, is a big win. Absolutely.
[00:27:12] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, are you using HoneyBook like AI analysis for, like lead evaluations and stuff like that?
[00:27:19] Taylor Isselhard: Oh yeah. To like kinda see where the differentiation is between the type of leads that you get.
[00:27:25] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:27:25] Taylor Isselhard: yeah. I love, love data.
That's where like
love
looking at the numbers and like, that's where I also nerd out a little bit. I love to see and like that was some of the information I shared at the workshop.
My, uh, friend Jesse and I
[00:27:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:38] Taylor Isselhard: lead
is I, I showed. Where like all my referral sources
[00:27:43] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:27:43] Taylor Isselhard: over the past, like, you know, six months. And it was really cool to see, uh, where I'm strong in and where I need to improve in. And
[00:27:53] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right.
[00:27:53] Taylor Isselhard: what I explained. Like back in the fall my Google inquiries were like almost nothing.
[00:27:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:27:59] Taylor Isselhard: really cool is you [00:28:00] can utilize those tools to help you figure out where you can improve in some areas while the other areas that you're efficient and successful in
[00:28:08] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:28:08] Taylor Isselhard: almost like coasting for you.
[00:28:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Um, what is your top refer, if you don't mind me asking? Like, where, where, what source?
[00:28:17] Taylor Isselhard: I would say, uh, vendor referrals. So venues,
[00:28:20] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Nice. That's, I mean, that's, that's a good problem to have.
[00:28:25] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah no I just I'm
truthfully so grateful for it because
I
I, never ask them to put me on their preferred
[00:28:33] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.
[00:28:34] Taylor Isselhard: It's just about creating those great relationships, that
[00:28:37] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah,
[00:28:37] Taylor Isselhard: early on. but yeah,
[00:28:39] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah,
[00:28:39] Taylor Isselhard: I always feel pretty honored when someone reaches out to me because the venue recommended me.
[00:28:44] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. I, I would say like as photographers, of course we want Google to, to be rank, we want to be ranking well on Google, right? but word of mouth, no matter where. The word of mouth comes from word of mouth, always [00:29:00] wins, right?
[00:29:00] Taylor Isselhard: the best.
[00:29:01] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And if word of mouth is coming from a vendor, uh, a venue or any vendor, that is a huge, huge win for us.
as photographers. So.
[00:29:11] Taylor Isselhard: Because there's just that our added of trust already built in that you like, you almost have to, you almost get to take away that first step of knowing that you can provide a great experience because somebody already them, you do like it. It's already taken away. Some of that, that pressure there.
[00:29:30] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah.I'm gonna ask you one more question before we wrap this up, and that is, um. W
hat advice, if you had to, could give, advice to an aspiring photographer, somebody who's just getting started out, started, started out, um, whether, whether it's wedding, whether it's family, whether it's engagement, whatever it might be, right?
It's, it's people though. It's people photography. Let's go with that. what advice would you give for somebody who's brand new? They, maybe they have experience with photography, [00:30:00] but they've never thought about business until now. Now they're getting into business.
[00:30:06] Taylor Isselhard: Okay. So they have the, the, the skillset, but they're trying to figure out how to make this actually
[00:30:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: They dunno what to do with it. Yeah.
[00:30:12] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah
Yeah.
Best piece of advice is to network and build relationships with people in the industry that are well established, and you are going to run into people that are not going to be a good fit or they're not going to be interested, but you can't let that deter you from trying to find the right people that are going to invest in you too. mean, there's gonna people that are gonna say no, or there's people gonna maybe that are going to charge for their time, which is fine. It's about finding the right people in the community that you want to establish a relationship with, that are going to invest in you and be a part of your journey and building you up in, the right way.
So, and there's opportunities through that, through, you know, Facebook and Instagram groups. there's networking events. You know, anything that you can do to try to find [00:31:00] and build those relationships
[00:31:02] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Amazing.
[00:31:03] Taylor Isselhard: the ultimate driver in your success early on
[00:31:06] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So good. Yeah.
[00:31:08] Taylor Isselhard: Truthfully
[00:31:09] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, you never wanna stop doing that, doing that stuff,
[00:31:13] Taylor Isselhard: no
[00:31:14] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: together with, you know.another photographer's had a business for a while, and just take them out for coffee, or for lunch and just talk and shop and do it often. Right.or when's your next event? When's your, when's your next, uh, workshop coming.
You got another one? Planning. Cool.
[00:31:30] Taylor Isselhard: So we, uh, we are in the beginning stages of planning.
Our
next one, which we're really excited about, so we haven't given out much details yet, but it will be next spring, and we're, we're super pumped about it.
[00:31:41] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so on that note, can you share with those listening, um, and this will be in the show notes as well, where can people, um, learn more about you? Hello there. learn more about you. you know, dig into, check out all of your incredible photography. And of course, I. Find out when your next workshop, oh, and also you have a podcast, so you could share that too.
[00:31:59] Taylor Isselhard: [00:32:00] See Oh yeah that thing
Okay.
One second
Okay. I'm almost done. Yes, go ahead. Bye. Yes. It's a
marshmallow
[00:32:11] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Kids gotta love them.
[00:32:14] Taylor Isselhard: so yeah, you can find me just for my photography, uh, information. TPI photography is my website, tpi photography.com. And also my Instagram is TPI photography, TikTok, Facebook, you don't have to worry about fighting me on Facebook.
It's okay. Nobody
really does anymore
But Instagram and TikTok is where I'm mainly at. And then our. Workshop page is called Thrive Wedding Workshop, all one word the Instagram page. That's where we have some information. We're gonna start building out a actual website for that soon, just to be able to provide more in depth information. But you can find us at Thrive Wedding Workshop on Instagram, and you can also check out my podcast, the Wedding Lens Lounge Podcast on Apple and Spotify.
[00:32:58] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: And I may link to the [00:33:00] episode where I was the guest on the.
[00:33:01] Taylor Isselhard: dude you have to I would
I anything
less,
[00:33:05] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, that's the way it goes. That's the way it goes.
[00:33:09] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah dude that was
such a fun conversation too.
[00:33:10] Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. It really was. Taylor, thank you for, um, for, for hopping in chatting with me, sharing all of your insights. Uh, I, I'm, you know, we've been wanting to do this for a while, so I'm glad that we were able to do it and, yeah. I look forward to everybody hearing all of what you shared.
[00:33:26] Taylor Isselhard: Yeah, dude, thanks for having me. It was an honor and always enjoyed chatting with you.