Kirsty Knight:
Hello, my friend. So welcome to this very special episode of the podcast, where I’m going to be talking to the fabulous Amanda Hutchinson, who did a photo shoot for me, I think last year. Was it last year?
Amanda Hutchinson:
Last year or the year before? I can’t remember. It feels like a very long time ago, right?
Kirsty Knight:
But yeah, essentially I had that done so that I could have some high quality photos for my website, which was amazing. I was delighted with them. And my website is now live. I’m just going to say, I know, took me a while, but it’s there. But I wanted to have a conversation with her today because I want to bring in other business owners who offer different services from me, but who have actionable advice within their specific field and within just their lives in general. As a business owner, that can basically help you either save time or optimize your time and who are also willing to share what useful things have helped them and also what some of the struggles are like. We want to be honest about the challenges that we all have with running a business and having a life. Yeah. So I think we’re just going to dive in. Amanda, if you want to introduce yourself, thank you for joining us here today. Introduce yourself, tell me what you do. I mean, I’ve already said, but there we go. And then how you started your business and also what your party trick is. I just like to throw that one in.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Party trick? Oh, that’s a tough one. You didn’t warn me about. Oh, okay. So I am Amanda. I run AKP Branding stories and I am a branding photographer. So I basically get to spend my time photographing incredible business owners to help them show up online and I love it. And I’ve been in business nine years this year. I started in the wedding industry. I shot my last wedding this spring and I’d sort of been transitioning out of it for a while, but COVID sort of put a little bit of a spanner on the works on that one because my passion and my focus has been on telling the stories of business owners because everybody’s so different. And whilst you might have ten coaches in a room, they’ll all have their different take on things and their different personality and that’s where I get to be really creative. And I left the corporate world in 2019 having spent twelve years doing crisis management and contingency planning and helping businesses put plans in place for if things like a pandemic happened. And then it happened in 2020 and I was no longer in that industry and could just sit back and go, not my issue anymore.
Kirsty Knight:
I love that.
Amanda Hutchinson:
I’m also a mum of a very what’s the word they say? Spirited two year old.
Kirsty Knight:
Nice.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Yes.
Kirsty Knight:
We’re going to definitely talk more about that.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Yes.
Kirsty Knight:
Okay. And what is your party trick?
Amanda Hutchinson:
I don’t know if I have a party trick. I’m a very good host at party, but I don’t know that I’ve got my own party trick.
Kirsty Knight:
Is there anything you can do that would surprise people?
Amanda Hutchinson:
I think it surprises people that I used to train with the ice hockey team. I mean, you can’t reach out a party, but it definitely surprises people when I say that’s how me and my husband met was because we trained with the same ice hockey team.
Kirsty Knight:
Oh, that’s cool. I didn’t even know that there was ice hockey was really a thing here.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Yeah, it was at Coventry uni. And he was at Warwick uni. He was a much better player than me. He was on the A team.
Kirsty Knight:
But yeah, it was do you still play? Can you still play?
Amanda Hutchinson:
No, I don’t. And my hutch finished playing years ago because training is at like midnight when you’re not a professional. So they wait until they do all of the public skating and then they have the professional ice hockey players and then they basically go down the league. And so the rec teams are the ones that train at like midnight and you finish at 02:00 A.m. And it just wasn’t working with him then, having to travel for work. So, yeah, it wasn’t as fun as it was at Uni. I think he needs the whole team and social aspects around it as well.
Kirsty Knight:
I can’t believe they do training at midnight.
Amanda Hutchinson:
That’s crazy.
Kirsty Knight:
That’s ridiculous.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Commitment.
Kirsty Knight:
That is commitment. That’s also very cool. Okay, thank you for sharing that. So there is really two areas I wanted to talk to you about today. So the first, and we’re going to really dive into, because you have a little one that you’ve said Jack now two, and you had him in 2021, and obviously you have a business and at the time you were doing tons of weddings. So we’re going to dive into that and really just talk about the transition of how you went from having a business and no baby to baby and business and how you managed to juggle it all and the struggles you had and things that you put in place and you have managed to keep going with that have really helped you. I think that’d be super helpful for lots of people. And then we’re going to dive into some specific tips that you can give relating to your field of basically branding photo shoots, how you organize them, how you can be more intentional with them to basically optimize your time.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Perfect.
Kirsty Knight:
Okay, so tell me take me back to when just before Jack was born, maybe.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Okay, what was going on? So we went through IVF in lockdown. So there’s probably a little bit more planning that you can do than if you suddenly find out that you’re pregnant, because you know when you’re going to start going through the injections. We had the careful of the fact that lockdown, that we were in lockdown, there was COVID. So all of my 2020 weddings got moved into 2021, but I hadn’t planned any 2021 wedings, because I knew we were going to be doing IVF right? And so my plan had been I would go on maternity leave. What actually happened was a very long lockdown and Jack being born on the 17 May, which was the day they lifted restrictions, at which point all my 2020 couples went, we can get married. And so three weeks after giving birth, I was back shooting weddings. And I had with weddings and brand shoots, because I am generally booked like three or four months in advance. I had a 50 shoot backlog to get through after having just had a baby. So I had to be very organized and very efficient with my time and try and manage that with also having a very tiny newborn and not really being able to walk very well having just given birth. And I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a lot of that time, which is a big sacrifice I’ve had to kind of just come to peace with, because we waited seven years for Jack. And so to not have that memory of that time is hard. But Hutch and I work very much as a team, and so he had 13 weeks of parental leave, which I think is unheard of in the construction industry that that’s ever even agreed to. But his employers were amazing. And so it meant that he was home with Jack, being able to bond with Jack and do all of that kind of newborn care stuff. And I was dipping in and out with shoots, and I outsourced my editing because I was like, if I’ve got all of this shoot time to do one wedding can be 40 hours of editing. I was like, I am not willing to lose any more time than I have to. So my first big thing and I would do I mean, I still outsource my editing, but if we plan to have another one because we’ve got another embryo in the freezer, then again, I will look at what I can outsource and what needs me to do something so that I can take that pressure off myself and others. A family unit to do that. I love that the other thing I did that was massively in preparation because although we were in lockdown, some b, two b shoots could still happen if they were outside. And I shot with a long lens so I could be far away. So I was shooting until a month before my due date. And then when I stopped, I was bored senseless. So I batch cooked 50 meals so we didn’t have to do any cooking for the first 50 nights of Jack being in our life. And that included making little balls of cookie dough that I could then froze so that if we wanted a sweet treat, we could literally dump that in the oven and have freshly baked cookies. So batch cooking is something that even now we’ve moved house to a much smaller freezer. So it is a bit of a pain. But trying to meal plan. If we’re making a bolognaise, put a portion of that in the freezer so that if we’re having a really busy time or sometimes you just can’t bothered, then you’ve got healthy nourishing meals which helps them with your energy and helps with just feeling good about yourself. Rather than going I’m going to call the local pizza takeaway.
Kirsty Knight:
Right, I love that. And actually I think meal batching and meal prep gets quite a bad rap for some reason. I don’t know why, but a lot of you see courses online that are selling how to get more done without meal batching your cooking and stuff. And I’m like, I did that. I went through a period where I was doing because I was like, I don’t have time in the week and I don’t want to be cooking in the week. So at the weekends I would just make a big portion of lasagna and a big portion of something else on the Sunday. And then I would freeze four meals and it saved so much time because it saved the faff of getting it ready, the faf of cooking it and then afterwards cleaning it. It really does say literally like, oh, I’ve got this thing to put in the mic for a couple of minutes.
Amanda Hutchinson:
And it’s much more cost effective as well because if you’re buying smaller portions, particularly of any sort of meat or protein, it’s more expensive per kilo than if you’re buying a big part of it. I mean, we’ve got costco membership, so we were bulk buying on a colossal scale. But yeah, it meant that whilst I was at weddings and on shoots and Hutch was at home, he didn’t have to then think, I’ve got this tiny baby that we don’t know what to do with. Because we spent a lot of time thinking about getting pregnant and keeping the pregnancy, we didn’t really consider what do we do with said baby when it arrives? Because I don’t think we ever really believed that Jack would arrive. So when we got home we were, huh, what do we do now? So at least he didn’t have to think about what to cook because I’d already done that because I wasn’t allowed to do any painting or decorating. So I had to cook because what else was I going to do in lockdown as an eight month pregnant Wadling woman?
Kirsty Knight:
I think that’s a great use of your time. Very effective, very organized. Yeah, I love that. Okay, amazing. So we got two things. So outsourcing, editing, basically anything that you didn’t need to be there for and that’s something that I talk about all the time. That’s something that I definitely did in my campsite business to get me to the point where I could have total freedom from that business. To be fair, I don’t really work very much in that business at all now. And I was able to set up a coaching business on the side, like completely separate because I got people in to do jobs that I didn’t need to be there for. So I love that, being organized and meal prep. Amazing. Okay, so the other things that we talked about before was that you have used time blocking, which is something else that I teach, which you obviously learn in corporate and you utilize that. Do you still use that now?
Amanda Hutchinson:
I try to. Sometimes I forget to time block and I know that in that week I’m not as productive as I could have been. I’m much more productive when I do actually sit down in the week and go write what needs doing. So I’ve done it for this week because I’ve got no shoots and so I’ve been able to get loads done because next week is a very shoot heavy week so I won’t be able to do anything other than be behind the camera. But yeah, time blocking was really important in corporate because I was juggling being an employee and also having my own business. So I would go, right, what pockets of time do I have? I’ve got my commute, I’ve got a lunch break and I am taking that lunch break. If everyone else wants to sit and eat their sad sandwich at the desk, they can do. But I’ve got business to run so I’m going to go out and sit somewhere else so that I can work on my business without the risk of someone peering over my shoulder. I traveled a lot for work so I used a lot of the kind of commuting for that as well. So I mean, I can spend 3 hours on a train to do an hour meeting and 3 hours to come back. I’m like, well, that’s great. You’ve just paid me to do 6 hours of my business work because I’m on a train. So it is about using whatever available time you’ve got. Now I use it in nap time so Jack does a solid like two hour nap in the middle of the day. It was an easier transition going from two naps to one nap than it was when he went from three naps to two. Like losing that first drop of naps. His naps were still quite short and there was not a lot you can you kind of feel like you’re really time pressured to do something in 30 minutes whereas that drop down to one nap I was dreading. But it actually means now he naps for 2 hours and you can get a lot done in 2 hours.
Kirsty Knight:
Love that. What was the mindset that you had then or what was the driver for you to really utilize the pockets of time? Because sometimes even now I used to do this, now not so much. But I used to be like right, I’m going to use all the pockets of time. I think because I was trying to cram so much in I just didn’t have the space to not be doing it. Now I’m much more if I’m on a train, I’m like daydreaming and looking out the window. What kept you focused in like I need to get this done.
Amanda Hutchinson:
I think it’s the fact that my to do list never seemed to get smaller. So it was like I had so much to do when I was in corporate, I couldn’t do it when I was on client sites and it was long, long days. So I didn’t always want to then be working on an evening because I needed that downtime and I needed to sleep. I am not good on no sleep. Ironic seeing as I have a child. But I need to know that I’m getting some sleep and so I can’t be in the 05:00 a.m. Club unless I really have to.
Kirsty Knight:
Right? I love that and I actually love that because I want to help other people have a work life balance. And I think that you do have to use the time that you have available as best as you can. Particularly if you’re working and also trying to build a business. But what you said about not sacrificing sleep and not sacrificing some downtime, I think that’s so important because I think without those things you will burn out for sure. You just can’t make it sustainable. And so it’s picking and choosing like am I daydreaming on the train or am I saving that time for sleep and actually working on the train and knowing that ahead of time and making that conscious decision this is time for this. I think that’s where time blocking is so useful because you can be intentional with that. So I love that you said that.
Amanda Hutchinson:
And I think you’ve got to know when you work best. So like Paula who works with me on my social media, she works best at like 102:00 in the morning. I’m asleep then we’re almost a 24 hours covered operation in my business because when I’m up, she stays up much later than I am. But she’s busy in the morning with school runs and stuff like that. Whereas I’ll get out drop jacket nursery and I can be working by like 07:38 a.m.. But I’ve learned what I need to do to kind of keep my energy up so that I can be productive. Because if I’m tired, that two hour nap I’m going to faff in and I’m not going to get through stuff. Whereas if I’m feeling a bit more refreshed, it’s not going to be 100% refreshed when you’ve got a toddler. I just don’t believe that it’s possible, but I at least know that I can function and I’ll get lots done. Whereas if he’s been up every hour in the night and I’m tired, I’m not going to get a lot done in that 2 hours. I’m actually better off using that 2 hours to just have a bit of downtime, have a nap and maybe then work in the evening.
Kirsty Knight:
Right. Love that. Yeah. Okay. So the other thing that you spoke about before was about the importance of planning ahead and you planned sort of a month out because you have shoots and you have things, travel and all.
Amanda Hutchinson:
The rest of it.
Kirsty Knight:
And it wasn’t just planning your business stuff, it was planning for childcare planning with your other half. Hutch also like household management. Yeah. Can you say more about that?
Amanda Hutchinson:
Yeah, because we’ve always worked as a team, then everything we do is kind of split. And as a team, when I was working in corporate, I don’t think I cooked as a meal for god, months and months, if not maybe a couple of years straight. Because we’d both get home and I’d go straight to work on the business. Because we knew ultimately that we wanted to get to the business to a point where I could leave and then get it to a point where Hutch could leave, which is what he did on the 16 June. He left the corporate world and he’s now in the business with me. And so in order to do that, I had to prioritize the business, which meant that he prioritized making sure I was fed so I didn’t get hangry and help out around the house. Because he makes the mess just as much as I do. There’s none of this like, oh, I’ve done the bathroom for you. It’s like you’ll miss too. We’re a team.
Kirsty Knight:
I love that. Yeah. I definitely think that that’s missing in lots of people’s relationships. But yeah, the equal. Like, actually we’re both working together as.
Amanda Hutchinson:
A team and really early on in the business, a business coach said to me, if you’re a husband and wife team, you need to do a SWOT analysis on each other.
Kirsty Knight:
Good.
Amanda Hutchinson:
That is a big task to do in a relationship is to go, right, what are your strengths and what are you rubbish at? And she said, Take it out of the home, go and have go to a neutral environment. Like, don’t sit in your living room and do this, because if it turns into a row, you don’t want that in your home. Like, this is a business thing. What we found is that all of Hutch’s strengths within the business were my weaknesses and vice versa, so we could really evenly distribute what needed doing. And likewise, we do that in the house. I’ll do certain jobs, and Hutch will do other jobs because it just naturally sort of falls that, like, nobody likes cleaning bathrooms, but one of us has to do it.
Kirsty Knight:
That is so good. I’m like, Right, that’s on my to do list now. I’m like, right? Come on. I mean, don’t be wrong.
Amanda Hutchinson:
I do now have in the making an Asana board for household management, being like, right, this is all of the Jack stuff. This is all of the house stuff. This is when things need doing, just because it’s easier for me to remember what needs doing when. And I was like, great, I’m just going to project, manage that house. People are going to think I’m crazy, but it just means that I then don’t ever have to ask, oh, can you just do this? And feel like I’m falling into that stereotype of a nagging wife. We’ve come at it from a team. We’ve divide it up together.
Kirsty Knight:
It was a few years ago, and I wanted to be a bit more organized with the household stuff. And I found a woman I think called the Fly Lady. You ever heard of her? She’s like an American woman, I think, and she created this system for managing your household stuff, and it was like themed days. Like, you clean the car out on this day, you do chores on this day, you do, like, a blitz clean on this day. And it was so simple and so effective that I just started doing some of these things, and it just meant that the whole stuff got managed without me.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Really?
Kirsty Knight:
Yeah, without me really thinking about it. I was like, oh, yeah, it’s Sunday. I’m changing the bedline and type thing. It just made it much more structured.
Amanda Hutchinson:
And so much you don’t want to get to a weekend and think, oh, God, it’s Saturday morning. I now have to clean the entire house. That’s not a weekend job. There’s a reason that most cleaners are busy and booked out on Fridays, because people want their house clean for a weekend. So you don’t want to be going, oh, now I’ve got to do six loads of laundry, and it’s winter, so I can’t even hang it outside. So now my house looks like a laundry, and I’ve got to clean everything, and it’s like it’s trying to just find ways of making that work. And I know that I am really lucky that I have got a marriage where we are a team because I know that there are lots of people who do not have that dynamic at home. And it is very much on them to manage the house, manage the children, manage their business. And often it’s their business that gets pushed further down the list. And that’s the bit that’s them and their core identity. So I appreciate that. I have managed to find and keep a guy that has the same values as me.
Kirsty Knight:
Me too.
Amanda Hutchinson:
You two are the same.
Kirsty Knight:
I have a partner who does, yeah. I feel like, oh, yeah, we totally work well together, we split the household chores. Yeah. We support each other. When one of our businesses needs more effort or whatever, the other one sort of picks up the slack. And I think that that is hugely helpful. What would you say to someone who doesn’t have a supportive partner, if you like?
Amanda Hutchinson:
I think if you don’t have a supportive partner, first see if you can get that support within immediate friends or family. Whether it’s not that, can they help with childcare, can they be a sounding board, can they just sometimes that support is that you just need someone that you can go, oh, my God, I’ve got this client, or, I’ve got this issue. I had a bit of a rant yesterday because I was like, the train strikes have meant that four of my shoots next week are being postponed to an already busy calendar. And I was like, I had to spend time rearranging and making sure, actually that my clients were okay with the new plan and that it was still going to meet their deadlines. But if they can’t get to the shoot location, then that’s what we had to do and I was able to do that. But if you don’t have that in your partner or your household, where else can you get that support and what else can you outsource? So one of my jobs within our house is the ironing, and I, because I’ve been super busy, haven’t done any ironing for a while, and our ironing pile, I think, could probably grow legs and take over the spare bedroom. So I have booked for somebody to come and pick it up, iron it and deliver it back to me ironed, because I just need that gone, because it’s a mental load on my brain that I haven’t done it and I’m having to rifle through to get clothes in the morning for Jack and iron it each day. And I’m like, well, not for Jack, not ironing his clothes, but like, my stuff going to get covered in mud. At. You know, when Hutch went back to work and I was still getting through these shoots from COVID we chose to have a nanny two days a week, partly because the nurseries weren’t ideal in our immediate kind of catchment. We only had the one car, so it had to be somewhere that I could walk to and they didn’t offer the times that I would need to be able to travel for shoots. And I wanted that kind of reassurance that Jack was going to be okay being left at home with a stranger and it was going to be one on one. And I didn’t want him just like sitting in a corner on his own at nursery as a tiny baby because he was 1415 weeks old at that point. But it meant that on the days that I had our nanny Sandra, who was amazing with him and I didn’t have any shoots, I could work on the business. And so now that he’s at nursery, I have shoots. Some weeks are a bit squiffy, but normally I have shoots two days a week. He still goes to nursery on that third day because that’s my business day and it means now that I only then work nap times Mondays and Fridays because the rest of that time is Jack and Hutch time.
Kirsty Knight:
Oh, that’s lovely. I love your mindset around that because I think that a nanny probably doesn’t spring to mind for lots of people. They don’t think about it. Even my sister was struggling with she wanted to increase her work hours and she was looking at nursery and thinking that she didn’t want that particular nursery. And she basically was like, I have no other options. And I suggested a nanny and it hadn’t even crossed her mind. And I think that the barrier for people is that they see the cost. And the same with childcare, they see the cost and they don’t see it as an investment. They don’t see it as an investment in their business because it kind of is like if it’s freeing up time for you to build your business and your business is important to you and you want to have a successful business where you can make more money or have more freedom from it, more flexibility in the future. You have to do like the groundwork now. And that does sometimes mean prioritizing it and putting money into something else, whether it’s ironing, cleaning at home, whether it’s buying in meals or whatever, or hiring a nanny. I think it’s something that people don’t naturally default to. But I think it is an option that should be looked at if you’re serious about having your own.
Amanda Hutchinson:
I forget who told me about this exercise, but list down all of the things that you do in your life and your business and put a one, two or three pound sign by it in terms of how much it can generate and how much it costs to do so. Yes, I could sit there and do 50 million hour of ironing, which I think is what it’s going to take to get through that pile. Or I could sit and schedule my social media, which could bring me in two or three new brand shoots, which would more than cover the cost of somebody to have done the ironing in the first place. So if you’re going to outsource something and then. You’re going to sit on your behind and watch reruns of Grey’s Anatomy. It’s probably not a worthwhile investment for you to do and you could probably iron whilst you’re watching it at the same time. But if you look at it from, if I can afford to invest this money, can I make it back? And I do this with courses that I buy, with memberships that I’m like, is the network in this or the learning from this going to bring back a return on investment? And that kind of helps a lot. And also with Nannies, if they are offstead registered, which ours was, then you can get the child free tax lands, which everybody gets, which is like 500 pounds a quarter to offset the cost. Amazing. You can still get Nannies that you can get some of the childcare bits for that’s amazing.
Kirsty Knight:
Okay, thank you so much for sharing that. I think that’s super useful to consider. Is there anything else that you think, I mean, you mentioned before, we were talking before about sometimes there are certain sacrifices that you have to make. You’re not always going to be able to have it exactly how you want it, but really to aim to minimize them. Was your advice around that?
Amanda Hutchinson:
Yeah, like I said, the big sacrifice for me was the fact that I wasn’t 100% there with Jack when he was first born. And like I said, we waited seven years for him and to not have that time was a massive sacrifice. But there was also no choice because I had 15 weddings to shoot in 18 weeks. But anybody that I could have got to cover those weddings had 30 weddings to shoot in 18 weeks because they already had a full 2021 from people who booked in 2019, pre COVID and all of their postponed weddings. So sometimes there are sacrifices that you have to make and that’s either out of choice because you have to do a cost benefit way up or your hands are tied and you’ve got no choice. I couldn’t pay them their money back, I couldn’t get cover. And actually, morally, for myself, I couldn’t turn around to somebody three weeks before their wedding day and go, I’m not coming, because it would have devastated them. Having been through everything they’d gone through for their wedding, it would have ruined my business, like the reputational damage on that. And actually, what it means is that Hutch and Jack have got an amazing bond, and quite often dads get to miss out on that bit. And so they’ve got this amazing, you know, it’s brought us all together as a family. And Jack isn’t going to remember that I wasn’t there. So that’s how I’ve made peace with it. However, I will be well, hopefully we won’t have another pandemic, but should we go through IVF again, I will be taking that time off.
Kirsty Knight:
Right? And I love that because none of our journeys are error free or problem free, but if we can learn something from it, a see some good that’s happened because of it, which you can, or B take the lesson and then apply it to the next time, I think that literally, that’s all.
Amanda Hutchinson:
And Jack, for the next few years, is going to grow up wondering whether his mummy and daddy actually work. Because we don’t work other than shoot, that I can’t do on a nursery day, both of us will only be working either when he’s napping or when he’s a nursery.
Kirsty Knight:
I love that so much. Yeah. By prioritizing the business and by getting support and by doing all the things that you’ve done to get you to this place, you actually have built the life and you are carrying on building that life whereby you do have way more time freedom with your family. And it is quality time, it’s not.
Amanda Hutchinson:
But people need to cut themselves a little bit of slack. Like I said, my business is nine years old. I saw the long game, I knew that this is what we were. Yes, there’s been some curveballs along the way, but you cannot be all things to all people. And so if you can’t outsource, especially if you’re early on in your business and you just don’t have the funds in your business to do it, if you can’t outsource and you don’t have the support around you prioritize. The tasks that are things you enjoy and things that are income generating and everything else. All the shiny, fluffy stuff put to one side and grow the business till you can find some support and outsource that bit.
Kirsty Knight:
Yeah, I love that advice. And I say the same about extending the time frame, because I think that sometimes we’re in such a rush and we think we have to get there quickly. We think that it’s better there than here. And so we are hustling to get to that point in an unsustainable way, and it doesn’t feel good. And some of us burn out along the way, and some of us don’t do a great job. Like, we’re not actually moving as fast because we’re doing all the things badly instead of a few things well, so actually giving yourself permission to obviously you have to still have income coming in, but maybe that isn’t from your business. If you’re in the early stages, still be investing, still be learning, still be testing things, focusing on the things that really move the needle and then eventually you will.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Yeah, I mean, I was five years in corporate and running my business because I wanted to have a buffer and I wanted to have a sustainable business that would last. And it did, it survived. COVID a photographer who was not allowed to do really any work because I wasn’t allowed to see people, right.
Kirsty Knight:
And there were not no wedings allowed.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Which is a big proportion of my business then, but it survived because I’ve gone for the kind of slow and steady approach and ignored a lot of the noise, especially around the time that I set my business off of. You can make six figures overnight if you just drink this magic juice and it’s not real. And these overnight successes generally aren’t real because there’s just a lot of work that goes behind the scenes that you don’t see yeah.
Kirsty Knight:
That no one’s really sharing about. And even within that, I mean, even people who do start their businesses and do become fully booked, they have skill sets that they have developed over years or experience or strengths in certain areas. And not everyone is going to start at the same level, even if it looks like, oh, we’re starting the same time, we’ve got the similar things going on, that’s not how it works. And so I think that just being on your own journey, being super clear on your vision, and that’s one thing that really stands out to me for you particularly so clear on the future, like, this is where we’re headed, this is what the priority is. Let’s plan for it, let’s get organized for it. Let’s make sure that we’re playing the long game. I think that has served you so well and I think that maybe a lot of other people would benefit from taking that longer game approach.
Amanda Hutchinson:
If you then do hit a bit of a speed bump, you can just be like, Hang on, what is the vision? It’s like when a Satnav reroutes you, it still knows what your end goal is. It’s just you now might go the country scenic route, route instead, and just keep that in mind. For me, it was like, I don’t want to be working all the hours. Godsends. I don’t want to have gone from doing, like a 60 hours week in corporate to a 60 hours week in my business, because then I’m just employed by my own business and I think.
Kirsty Knight:
A lot of people are.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Great bosses. In my previous career, I don’t want to be my own bad boss.
Kirsty Knight:
I definitely was that, yeah.
Amanda Hutchinson:
And I beat myself. That was definitely a lot of battle. And I think actually what COVID did was it made me stop and what else was going to do? Because I’d left corporate in June 2019 and I so badly didn’t want to have to go back with my tail between my legs. And people thought I was mad for leaving such a secure salary and all of this. And I was like, I have to prove them wrong. And so I worked like an absolute demon and had this amazing success. I was knackered. And I remember saying to someone in February, I could really just do some time off. And then we went to Lockdown in March. I was like, well, that’s quite a lot of time off now, isn’t it? But I was able to kind of go back to basics and go, Right, well, let’s time block. Especially because I then had all of this time, I could have easily fritted time away, so let’s use it to build the business or kind of keep the business going. All of these projects that I’ve had in my head, I can use this time now. And it made me go back to the basics of how can I effectively and productively run my business without running myself into the ground.
Kirsty Knight:
Is that what you did? What you worked on in 2020 when you weren’t doing sort of optimizing behind the scenes stuff and making decisions for the strategy?
Amanda Hutchinson:
I had a lot of strategy. I put in a lot of systems. I relooked at all of my kind of automations, which actually having those automations in place was a godsend for lockdown because it meant I could so I used Dubsado and I could just send a link to all of my clients and say, this is the link to rebook your shoot. It has my latest availability. It will always be current and updated. Book something in, rather than what I would have had to have done is go back to everybody going, I’ve got these dates. ABCD. Oh, no, now that one’s gone. Sorry. That one I’m like, oh, it would have just been an absolute headache. But I looked at how I could further streamline all of that. So my client onboarding is all through Dubsado. I don’t have to sit there and write and update the contracts every time someone books. I don’t have to be the one that sets up and sends the invoice because their form populates all of that and sends it through. So, again, that was another investment in time and a system, but I don’t really have a lot of admin that I need to do.
Kirsty Knight:
Yeah, I love that. And it’s totally in line with what I teach and what I help clients do, because I think that and I wasn’t very organized at all. I don’t think. I’m naturally super organized. And I’m hopeless at tech, and I had so much resistance to work through it. But in the business that I really pulled back out of, I had to do the work to sit down and look at, okay, what has to happen with each of these customers as they book or as they’re looking, what is the sequence of events that has to happen? And then how can I automate it? And for me, it was a really simple answer of installing one software or sort of moving on to one booking platform that synced all the calendars, sent all the emails, and it literally removed about 4 hours a day of admin. For me, it was crazy. Systems delegating. Absolutely. Like, cleaning up and optimizing all the things in your business is always a good investment of your time, I think. Yeah. Amazing. Okay, so thank you so much for sharing all that. That’s so helpful. And then I thought, just to finish, specifically, because you’re a brand photographer, what are your tips that you can give around helping people optimize or get the best out of the shoots that you’ve done, helping them save time? Anything around that?
Amanda Hutchinson:
There’s probably two pieces to this. So if you are going to be having a shoot or you think that you are probably going to need a photo shoot at some point, be really intentional about what you want to get out of that shoot and what you need. So I’ve got a live example at the moment because I have my own brand shoot happening next month. So I have sat down and I’ve looked at my strategy and I’ve gone. What are my messages, what’s my messaging for the rest of the year? And what am I marketing, what am I pushing? What do I need these photos to tell in terms of a story? So I’m like, right, so I need some photos of me doing some work, not so much behind the camera because I’ve got a lot of photos of me taking photos. So now it’s about I’m going to be mentoring other photographers. So I need some photos of me pretending to talk on Zoom or going live. All the things that I make my clients do. I need some photos of me editing because a large proportion of time, although I outsource the editing, I’m still doing any retouching or I’m doing the quality side of it. So I need to show that I’m doing that bit and then all of the social media. So I need some laptop based stuff. People know that I am a mum and actually I’m sharing more and more about that juggle. I’m still not showing Jack on social media, but I know I need some photos of us as a family unit so that people can just get to know me behind the business a little bit more. Again, I tell my clients, do this. I am not a very visible brand photographer. I do hide behind my camera, my client photos a lot, but I have got too many clients that tell me off for it. So I am bored of being told off. So I’m going to do something about it. So I’m going to have Hutch and Jack are going to join me for some of the photos. I know I need some more actual portraits where I’m engaging with the camera. So I’ve planned for that in the shoot. And then I just need some for things like business birthday and me that I can superimpose some text on the side. So like negative space images. So I’ve looked at my strategy, I’ve looked at my marketing plan, I’ve looked at what gaps I’ve got in my images. And I’ve planned the shoot with my photographer to be like, these are the scenes we need to create and this is what I take my clients through. But I know that not every photographer does this level of planning. So if you’re working with a photographer who doesn’t do this level of planning, you do this level of planning for you. So you will get much more out of your shoot if you know what your strategy is and you know what your marketing plan is. Otherwise you’ll get some very lovely photos of you, but you won’t always have a need for them, like you won’t know how to use them. So if you are investing time, money and energy into having a photo shoot, you want to make sure that you’re going to get a return on that and that those photos will be able to market and sell you.
Kirsty Knight:
That’s super useful. I remember when we did my shoot, I mean, I actually wasn’t that clear because I was sort of changing direction a little bit. But the shoot that we did was very much just me in my natural environment. So it was me on the beach doing things that I enjoyed. And I was very decided I wanted some beach pictures because that is how I spend my free time and in the woods and with my dog and in the house and things like that, as well as like we did some podcast ones because I knew I had a podcast coming out. So it’s kind of weird because we were strangely strategic about all of the ones that we did, even though I wasn’t that clear. And now I really am doubling down on work life balance, like helping people have the time freedom in their business that I have. And so all of my photos work amazingly because I’ve got the podcast one. I’ve got a podcast, I’m in the woods and this is what I do with my time off. Like I am on the beach. And so, yeah, I think if I had done one, say, it wouldn’t have.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Worked and you and I talked about this and wouldn’t have worked at all. I was able to glean from the bits and pieces that you were saying was right, well, these are the scenes that we need to create. You mentioned a podcast and I was like, well then we may as well spend ten minutes just getting podcast photos. It’s like if anyone ever says to me, I’m going to write a book, right, well, we’ll at least get a photo of you holding a book that you can then later on in canva put your book cover on the front that you are going to be an author one day. Get that shot because then you can just drop your artwork onto the front and there you’ve got your marketing image for your book. But I also knew that you did photos with negative space kind of above and to the side. So we did photos of you kind of looking out across the beach so that you were looking towards your text. If you put it over there. So whilst you don’t feel that you were maybe that clear in the direction you were going, you were strategic. I wasn’t, because I’ve worked with now well over 200 business owners. I could pick the bits out of what you were telling me to go, fairly sure this is the direction she’s going to need. And I’ll just mold you into what I think you need for your shoot. Because a lot of my clients, yeah.
Kirsty Knight:
You did really well.
Amanda Hutchinson:
And they go, I just need some social media photos. I’m like, right? Okay.
Kirsty Knight:
Yes.
Amanda Hutchinson:
That’s why I’ve got such a big questionnaire. I want to understand the transformation you take your clients through. I want to know what your Hobies are, all of these things, because I know that that all creates story. And that’s why if you don’t work with a photographer who does all of that, but they take amazing photos and it’s exactly the vibe that you want, it doesn’t matter because you can do that work and you can go, Right, these are the bits of me that I want to be visible. And then you can say to your photographer, how can we bring this in? And then also, these are the services that I’ve got coming out. This is what I’m launching. Therefore, I need to know that I’ve got email, banner images, Facebook group images. So I need some landscape ones. I am going to be doing a whole load of reels or TikToks. I need some portrait ones that I can put text above my head, all of these sorts of things. If you are clear on what your marketing is, then you will know the images that you need for them.
Kirsty Knight:
Yeah, I love that. And, yeah, it was so helpful. And I don’t recommend people unless I’ve worked with them personally. Like, I’ll refer people, but I won’t say they’re amazing, but I will say Amanda’s photo shoot of me. I love all of the images, and I don’t love photos of me. Normally, I don’t look photogenic in any of them, and I’m like, oh, I look okay in all of these. And they all work really well for my business. So you nailed my brand, knew what your brand, knew what the hell my brand was. Yeah, I was pretty much just like.
Amanda Hutchinson:
You trusted me. And I think that’s the thing. Whoever you’re working with, in whatever capacity, if you trust them and trust their expertise, you’ll get the right results, even if you’re not 100% sure what those results are. I have no idea about reels, but I trust Paula, and she puts together all of my reels and they’re always on point. She sends them to me. It’s the same as Chantel on copy. She sends me the copy and I’m like, Yep, no changes, because I trust you, and you understand more about this than I do. And you’ve nailed the yeah. And then the final tip was once you’ve got your photos, especially if you end up having a longer shoot, like a half day shoot or full day shoot, you’re going to end up with over 100 photos. Or if you have multiple shoots, then you’re going to end up with loads. Like one of my clients I’ve worked with now for several years and I looked in a gallery and we’ve got like 1500 photos over the years. So you need to be organized in how you save them to your device, preferably two devices so you’ve got a backup, but rather than just saving it as June 2023 shoot with Amanda, that’s not going to help you look at those images and go, right, these are all the photos of me looking at the camera. Put those into a folder that says looking to camera. Because then if somebody comes to you, a journalist, and says, I need a PR headshot, you know they’re going to need something of you engaging with camera. You can go to that folder rather than scrolling through 100 of them. Some of those photos where you’re looking at camera, you might also be sat at your laptop and so copy those and any other laptop photos of you working into a folder of you working at laptop. So you’re basically creating a whole load of folders that might have some duplicate images in across them of the intention behind the photo or the kind of scene. So that for instance, if you’re working with a website designer and they say, oh, I could really do with a photo of you out running, you’d be like, that’s cool, I know exactly where they are. I’ve got these five photos of me running. Here they are in the folder, put them in. I mean, you could go one step further. And a client of mine, she puts all of hers into her Google Drive which actually helps her team. But then whenever she gets a press request she sends a link of her press ready photos to the Google drive and says take your pick of whichever one you think works best for the article and your just and she’s got that link saved on her phone and she can go here’s my bio, here’s my story, here’s the link and she can fire off that submission wherever she is in the world and it’s taking her ten minutes to pull it all.
Kirsty Knight:
That’s fabulous. And not just is it saving her time, but I think that a lot of opportunities get missed because we’re not that organized and we’re like, oh yeah, we’ll get to that later. I know I’ve been guilty of that before, and so I really work on my own stuff all the time, and so I’m always looking to improve my systems. But for sure, if you’re like, oh, I haven’t got that handy, or I haven’t got that right now, or I’ll do it later, and then you’re not organized enough to put it in your calendar and do it later. You might just miss that opportunity because you didn’t find a pocket of time to get it done. So not just is it only going to take you a couple of minutes if you’ve organized it, but actually you’ll get the opportunity. So you’re making the best use of the time that you put in to get that opportunity.
Amanda Hutchinson:
Same if you’re doing if you’re guesting on podcasts or doing training. Like, I have a folder that’s got my bio in and some photos, so when somebody says, oh, can I have your Bio? I send them that in the headshot. I’m not having to rewrite it every time, so it’s just then a really quick thing to do. Those are my two tips. Plan your shoe and organize your photos.
Kirsty Knight:
Yes. Love it. Well, thank you so much. Is there anything else that you want to add before I let people know how they can?
Amanda Hutchinson:
I’ve done a lot of chatting to people. Bless you for listening. If you’re still hanging on to the very end.
Kirsty Knight:
I think it was packed full of stuff, but I think it’s really useful stuff because it is like sharing your experience as to how you juggle things. Things that sometimes we’ve heard things but we just don’t remember to implement them. Like maybe you did try that before, maybe batch cooking before and then you totally just fell out of the habit of it and now you’re like, actually this could be really helpful if I just plan this for next week, because next week’s super busy and so that’s what I want this podcast to be, useful. So thank you so much for coming on, it’s been great fun. So tell my listeners how they can find you and if you have anything that you want to offer them.
Amanda Hutchinson:
So you can find me at AKP brandingstories on Instagram and Facebook, but mainly on Instagram is where I’m hanging out. My website is also Akpbrandingstories Co UK and if you go to the link in my Bio on Instagram, there is the ultimate brand Photography guide which basically has every image that you need for your business. So it tells you what to consider for sales pages, email headers, all of those. So it’s what I work through with all of my clients being like, right, do they need this, this and this to build my sheets?
Kirsty Knight:
Lovely. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming on and thank you for tuning in everyone. I hope this was super useful. Go find her. If you need any photography stuff doing, I highly recommend it and I’ll be back next week, so have a good one. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast and you are serious about getting back in control of your time yet you have not yet mastered your calendar, make sure you download my free Time Blocking 101 Guide. This will give you a really good foundation on which to build your own time system that works for you. The easiest way to get this is to go to my Instagram page at Kirsty Knightcoaching. That’s K-I-R-S-T-Y-K-N-I-G-H-T coaching. And click the link in my bio for it.
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