Episode 223

full
Published on:

7th Jul 2025

3 Bottlenecks That Burn Photographers Out Every Fall (and How to Fix them)

Fall family photography season is almost here, and if you're already bracing for the wave of inquiries, back-to-back sessions, and late-night editing marathons — this episode is your survival guide. I’m walking you through the three biggest bottlenecks that leave photographers overwhelmed every single fall… and exactly how to fix them before you hit burnout.

This one’s short and actionable, and yes — I’m absolutely inviting you to stop being the bottleneck in your own business.

Find it quickly:

00:00 — Why this episode is your fall prep wake-up call

01:18 — Bottleneck #1: Editing will eat you alive (human vs. AI)

05:22 — Bottleneck #2: You still don’t have a 5-minute booking process

08:21 — Bottleneck #3: You’re still sending every client email yourself

10:24 — Why automation still needs personality

11:14 — What the Workflow Fast Pass is (and why I built it)

13:54 — Let this fall season feel different


👇 LINKS MENTIONED:

🔗 Workflow Fast Pass (Only 10 beta spots available): https://coliejames.com/automation

🔗 Client Experience Freebie: https://coliejames.com/workflows

🔗 More from me: https://coliejames.com

🎙 Listen to the podcast: https://coliejames.com/podcast

📸 Follow on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@coliejames

Transcript
Colie:

Hello.

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Hello y'all and welcome back

to Business First Creatives.

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It's July, it's hot, and yes, it's

my birthday month, but today's

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real gift for me to you is helping

you not burn and crash this fall.

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Okay.

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I do wanna say this episode is mostly

for family photographers, and so if

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you are not a family photographer,

I do still think that there's always

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some value in listening to me tell

you to outsource your things and feel

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more confident in your workflows.

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But the examples that I'm giving in

today's episode are specifically for

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family photographers who are about

to get hit with like the wave of

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inquiries that comes every single year.

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Okay.

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And that's because family photography

season is coming and it's coming fast.

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And if your inbox hasn't already started

dinging with inquiries, it will soon.

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Once the kids are back in school,

those floodgates are going to open.

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I feel like after the pandemic,

the inquiries are coming later and

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later, but they are still coming.

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If you're not prepared, you are going

to be crying in a closet hiding from

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your family come November because

of the decisions that you make now.

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So I really want to help you avoid that.

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This episode is short and sweet,

and we are going to walk through

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the three biggest bottlenecks that

crush photographers every fall.

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And here's the thing, these are totally

fixable now before it's too late.

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All right, let's get into it.

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Bottleneck number one, editing

is going to eat you alive.

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Now, I used to be one of those

photographers who swore up and

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down, no one can edit like me.

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Special Snowflake syndrome, right?

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But in 2016, I literally

couldn't see my screen, and so

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outsourcing was no longer optional.

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Now, I don't need you guys to go

blind like I did in order to be

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forced to at least try outsourcing.

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I want you to try it before

you absolutely say no to it.

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You need to start now.

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Okay, so in order to get the process

started, here's what I need you to do.

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First, I need you to decide whether or not

you want to invest in a human editor or an

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AI editor, because yes, now in 2025, you

have that option, and the AI editing tools

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out there are absolutely fabulous, but.

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If you want to start with a

human editor, you've got choices.

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Not only can you hire like an individual

freelance editor in order to get

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things started, you can also try

out a company like the Image Salon.

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But before you do this, I don't

want anybody waiting until

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fall to start that process.

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I want you to choose two to three

of your past galleries, and I want

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you to send them to the editors.

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In order to see what kind

of editing comes back.

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Now, almost all of these, like human

editors that you will hire, will

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want to see samples of your work.

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Some of them will actually get on

a call and build a profile and edit

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live with you so that you can give

them real time feedback in what you

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like and what you don't like about the

editing process as they are doing it.

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You have these options with human

editors, but if you don't wanna go

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the human editor route, you can do AI

editing tools like imaging tools like

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Imagine After Shoot, even Image Salon has

human editors and they also have an AI

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editing tool, are all solid options, but.

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The prep process for AI

editing is very different.

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You are not gonna send them just two

or three of your previous sessions.

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You're going to send them hundreds,

if not thousands of your edited

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files so that the AI tools can train

themselves on your editing process

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and create a profile unique to you.

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Now, that's not the only way

that you can do AI editing.

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You can actually use like pre-done

profiles at most of these companies

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to where it will take like profiles

that they've already created based

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on a specific photographer's work

or just something in general,

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like colorful and punchy, and

you can apply those to your work.

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I personally feel like everything else

that I've talked about related to ai,

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the more context you give it related

to your sessions and your editing,

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the better output you're going to get.

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But here's the kicker.

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No matter which route you choose.

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Now here in July, in the middle of

summer is when you should start that

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process because no one should be trying

to get editing, you know, inside of

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your business in October when you're

already flooded with completed sessions.

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Okay, let's talk about bottleneck number

two, and that is your booking process.

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Every single service provider, whether

you're a photographer, a website

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designer, a copywriter, whatever it is,

needs a five minute booking process.

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That starts with a templated

proposal where you are asking the

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client to choose the services or

just confirm them, and that can be

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customized in less than five minutes.

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Like if you don't wanna offer someone

everything that you typically do, you can

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quickly customize it before you send it.

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But the first part is the services.

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The second part is that contract,

and the third part is the invoice.

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Now, two ways that people push back on

me when I tell them that they need this.

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No, everything in my business is custom.

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No, it's not.

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I have honestly never met a business

owner where everything was customized.

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I've been doing this for five years.

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Guys, there are parts of your process

that are in fact the same from client

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to client or from offer to offer,

because I'm not telling you that you

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only need one proposal template for

your entire business if you have three.

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Four, five very different offers.

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You can create a proposal template for

every single one of those offers and

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which one you're sending to a client.

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You can take five minutes to

customize it before you send it.

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That is totally possible.

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And that contract, y'all, you have no

idea how many people tell me no, my

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contract has to be customized every time.

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And so I push back and I say,

okay, what needs to be customized?

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And they tell me and I'm like, well, no,

they could get that off the proposal.

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Your CRMs will take the offers and

the like, you know what's included and

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the price and all of those details.

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Your CRMs will take that from the services

selection on your proposal, your quote,

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your smart file, and it will transfer

it to the contract with just a field,

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a custom field that you can tell it.

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Then there's the invoice.

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I know people are like,

well, no, you know, I have to

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customize the payment plan.

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I encourage you to find a way to make it

more standardized for everyone, because

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every time you say something has to be

customized, I hear booking friction.

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I hear you.

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Stopping the process and putting

yourself in there as the bottleneck

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in order to get these leads.

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Booked has actual clients, okay?

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Every CRM that you could possibly

be getting has a way to connect the

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services, the contract, and the invoice.

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Everybody needs a five

minute booking process, okay?

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So.

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I want everyone.

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If this is something that's been on

your to-do list, absolutely do it

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now and honestly do that immediately

so that the next inquiry that you

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get for a fall session can get your

new five minute booking process.

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Make it easy, make it fast,

and make it mostly standard.

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Okay, that's the first two bottlenecks.

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This last one is where people start

to feel a certain kind of way, and

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it's sneaky because you feel like

manually replying to every single one

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of your clients makes it personal.

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And it doesn't.

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It just makes you a slave to your phone

or your computer every hour, every

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minute, every day that you own a business.

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You feel like it's luxury, but really

it's killing your fault conversion rate.

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Because every minute that it takes

you to watch your inbox and see that

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you got an inquiry, and then go sit

down and write them a completely from

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scratch, personalized email, is a

minute that if they've inquired with

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more people than just you, they're

probably gonna go with the people who

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gave them the information fastest.

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Now, does that mean that I'm

saying you automatically send

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them everything related to booking

your services when they inquire?

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Absolutely not.

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But what you don't want there to

be is like this huge gap between

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when they inquire with you and

when they actually hear from you.

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Now your inquiry, your first

response builds trust with the lead.

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I want it to be an automated

branded reply within 30 seconds.

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Okay?

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People expect it now.

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Automation is something

that is here to stay.

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What should that email, what

should that response say?

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It should always give them the next step.

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It should totally sound like you,

and it should give them something

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to look at, chomp at, think about

before you personally respond to them.

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Now, that also gives you a

little bit of wiggle room.

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You should no longer feel like

you have to immediately watch

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your phone or your computer.

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Every waking minute so that you are not

losing inquiries or dropping the ball.

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This is really gonna give you a sense

of ease and release some of the stress

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that you are feeling about missing

things inside of your client experience.

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And this is why I built

the workflow FastPass now.

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If you want to learn about what

should be in your client experience,

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I have an amazing freebie that

will walk you through that.

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If you go to Colie james.com/workflow.

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What I hear a lot of people telling me is

that they don't have time to build their

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own workflows, or if they take the time

to build the workflows, they're never

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confident enough to actually use them.

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They're afraid that they

did something wrong.

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They're afraid that the wrong email

is gonna go out or that you know it's

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not gonna work as expected, or that

it's gonna depend on a form going out.

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And then they realize three

weeks later it was never sent.

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Okay.

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There are still too many of you

that are too scared to use the tools

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that you are actually paying for.

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So if you're nodding along and thinking,

yes, Colie, that's totally my life.

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Okay?

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I want you to listen to this.

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The workflow, FastPass is minute new,

AI powered, human reviewed offer.

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I wanna explain.

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So when you purchase your

very own workflow, fast pass.

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This is what's going to happen.

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You're gonna fill out a quick intake form.

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It is not like this lengthy

thing where you have to tell

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me all about your business.

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It's really gonna ask you some

straightforward questions that

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are gonna help me design the

perfect workflow for your business.

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Do you wanna have a consultation call?

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Yes or no?

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Do you wanna follow up with

clients if you make the offer?

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They don't respond.

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These are questions that all of

us are going to be able to answer

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without a lot of thought and stress.

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And so once you hit submit on that form,

it is going to be run through one of my

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AI assistants and they are trained on

my workflow and automation strategies.

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I have one for HoneyBook

and one for Dubsado.

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It is going to build your

entire workflow for me.

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I'm talking about your inquiry

workflow, your booking workflow, your

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onboarding workflow, your delivery

workflow, and your offboarding workflow.

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All five of those are gonna be built

by my AI assistant, and then I am

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personally going to review every single

step the triggers, the emails that it's

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suggesting, and make sure that there

are no red flags before you get it.

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The real kicker, I am going to be

delivering these within 72 hours

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of you submitting your intake form.

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So at the end of three days, you

could have a completely mapped out

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automation blueprint in your hands

where you are going to be able to go

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into your CRM and just push buttons

to build your entire workflow.

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Now, even though I know it's

going to work, I am also going

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to show you step by step.

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In a training video, how to

test the entire system so that

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you feel most confident using

it inside of your business.

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But no more figuring it out from scratch.

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No more binging YouTube or

trying to DIY it yourself.

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Just a custom workflow built for

your business, reviewed by me.

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Your favorite client

experience, system strategist.

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Okay, and so today this

offer is available.

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There are only 10 beta

spots available at 1 97.

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If you would like one, please

go to Colie james.com/automation

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and grab one today.

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But coming back around to the

whole point of this podcast

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episode this year can be different.

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What I really want from you is to come

out on the other side of Fall family

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photography session and not feel the same

way that you may have felt last year.

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I want everyone to be like,

wow, that was a great season.

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I can't wait for next year.

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Instead of, oh my God, I don't

know if I can ever do that again.

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Guys, fix the bottlenecks now.

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Outsource your editing.

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Get that five minute booking process set

up, and finally create some workflows that

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are gonna help automate and streamline

your client experience going forward.

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I don't want anybody to go

into fall season with a lot of

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caffeine and crossed fingers.

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This year you can go into your

fall booking season more confident,

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and on the other end realize that

there is a version of you and your

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business where you are not stressed

and burnt out at the end of the year.

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Alright, that's it for this episode.

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See you next time.

Show artwork for Business-First Creatives

About the Podcast

Business-First Creatives

Every creative deserves to turn their craft into a business that brings them joy and profit. Here you'll find a no-BS approach to what it takes to put the business first, prioritizing the systems and strategies that will actually move the needle and ensure your creative business is profitable rather than an expensive side-hustle. Your host is Colie James, a Disney-loving family photographer, and filmmaker turned Workflow and Automations Guru who helps creative service providers automate their sh*t, reclaim their time and get back to living!