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Instagram Captions that get your couples to say HECK YES! Lindsey Roman
103 Plays3 years ago
Calling all wedding photographers and pros that want to write better Instagram captions. You are going to love this episode.
Lindsey Roman is a business coach, social media marketing aficionado, and photographer based out of Lawrence, Kansas. She’s one of the founders of The Heart University and she co-hosts The Heart & Hustle Podcast, a top business podcast for creative entrepreneurs. Lindsey’s mission is to help women know their worth, value, and identity in who they are and boldly do what they were created to do. When she’s not speaking, teaching, or dancing on Instagram, you can find her spending quality time traveling and adventuring with her daughters Eloise & Annalise and husband Andrew.
I've been following Lindsey for years and really put her heart into her social media and she now has 48k follower that are huge fans. She built her business brick by brick and treats every follower like her friends (even when she had 150 followers). Right before the interview, she was nursing her 2 month old, what a trooper.
Today you will learn
- How to write sensational captions
-The mindset to have while writing captions
-Her number #1 tip to getting a HECK YES from your dream clients
Connect with Lindsey Roman
You can buy the caption playbook here
https://theheartuniversity.mykajabi.com/offers/2jRjLhXZ/checkout
https://www.instagram.com/mrslindseyroman/
https://theheartuniversity.com/the-podcast
https://theheartuniversity.com/conference
Connect with Carissa
Coaching IG: @carissawoo
Photography IG: @carissawoophotography
Download a free guide on how to become a lead generating machine HERE
Watch my free 20 lead generation masterclass https://carissa-woo.mykajabi.com/registration-page...
Thank you to our sponsors Photobooth Supply. Buy the Photo Booth
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Lindsay Roman
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, your host, Carissa Wu. If you're loving my podcast, please subscribe, leave me a review, take a screenshot, do all the things, and I will love you forever. So I have a very special guest. I have Lindsay Roman from Heart and Hustle podcast in the house. Her social media has been lit for years and years.
00:00:21
Speaker
you have to check her out. Her reels are hilarious and her energy is contagious. This episode is going to blow your mind and you will have a new perspective on writing IG captions after listening to it. Enjoy!
Podcast Focus and Milestone
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise, some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:06
Speaker
time hacks because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:01:29
Speaker
Hey guys, welcome to Heck Yes. It's Carissa Wu, as you know, and I have a very special guest, Mundi Roman. And she is a co-host of my favorite podcast for learning professionals, Heart and Hustle. And she is a business coach and I've been admiring your work and your hustle for so many years. I think I found you on like, Jenna Kutcher's podcast, like
00:01:50
Speaker
four, five, six years ago. I'm so excited to come back. Welcome, Lindsay. Well, thank you so much, Krista, for having me. It is an honor to be here. Yay. Congrats on your 200th episode. How does it feel? It feels wild. We were just talking before this started recording, but podcasting for that long, it feels like a really great milestone, so I'll take it. Yeah. Do you have any advice for me, like a newbie? I only have 20 episodes.
Podcast Episode Title Strategies
00:02:20
Speaker
Okay, um, I would start like just like cultivating and really Listening to what your audience wants as far as like episode topics Okay, and I think giving them what they want and then also making the episode titles what I found is like we do this like just Experimenting on what the episode title would be called to get people to listen to it. So what should we name our title today? something definitely about like Instagram captions like
00:02:46
Speaker
the best Instagram captions to get you to soar. I'm thinking about Instagram captions though. Yes, yes, yes. We're going to talk all about captions because I purchase your heart captions playbook and I use it for my coaching business pretty much. You know, you always ask a question like, did you use a 20 captions? And I always say yes.
Heart Captions Playbook
00:03:10
Speaker
That's amazing. Yeah. No, that's awesome. We created that just to help people that like,
00:03:15
Speaker
love writing but don't necessarily, either they know that that's just not the talent that they have or they just don't have time. And we basically give them templates and frameworks for 20 captions for the month and you get 20 captions every single month and then you can go in and spend five minutes tweaking them to your own business, your own brand voice. And that way you never have to approach Instagram with the concept of like, what do I have to say today? I don't know.
00:03:40
Speaker
stressed, like all of that. Yes, they tell me so much because I hate writing like many people. So I just go into your captions and I'm like, okay, what can I implement about myself? And you just make it so easy and you make it sound fun and you jazz it up and you kind of like help me tell the story of what I'm trying to tell my future students. So thank you for that. That's the goal. So thank you for saying that.
00:04:02
Speaker
And let's just talk about Amy Porterfield going on your show for your 200 episode. If you guys don't know her, she is like the queen of online marketing and digital courses. But how is that? She's pretty famous in like our industry, right? Yeah, she is. She's so, so nice in person. I just I love her and I respect her so much.
00:04:21
Speaker
Oh yeah, that was such a good episode. And how you were talking about her, like if you guys don't know her, you're living under a rock and like you're a super fan girl and you're just so excited and pumped for her to be on your show. Like that's how I feel about you. Well, thank you so much. That's such an honor. Yeah. And this morning I was running late and you kind of understand because of mom life and it gave me like five more minutes to nurse. I was, I had a coaching call and then I had like a tiny little break.
00:04:50
Speaker
and then I had this interview so it was the perfect little gap to nurse my baby because I'm back off maternity leave and so I'm trying to navigate the whole motherhood, breastfeeding and also working thing so it was actually great for me. Oh that's good. Do you have two girls? We do, yeah. We have two. Oh I'm sure. So much in common. That's so awesome. That's awesome. So is that three year old Anna?
00:05:12
Speaker
two and a half and then zero, basically a two month old. Oh my God, congratulations.
Career Transition and Growth
00:05:17
Speaker
Thank you. You look amazing. You look so good. So tell the audience like a little bit of your backstory, like how you became a now like business coach. I know you're a photographer, but kind of walk us through your journey.
00:05:31
Speaker
Totally, totally. Well, I started out as a photographer in Kansas. I went to KU, which I'm rocking the KU for anyone who's watching this on YouTube. I'm rocking a University of Kansas sweatshirt right now, but I went to KU, majored in theater and film, and then minored in business, thinking that I was going to go off to Hollywood, make it big as an actress.
00:05:51
Speaker
And then I graduated and I did not do that. I don't know where the mindset was. I was just like, I'm not ready for that quite yet. And so I started just cultivating the talents and gifts that I had while working for my church kind of that year after. And I really had always loved photography. So I kind of started diving into starting a photo business and well first just like cultivating that skill and then it kind of just developed and blossomed into a photo business. And as I was starting to do that, I wanted to get more of the adventurous elopement vibes of
00:06:20
Speaker
of type of photography, and I lived in kids at the time, so I was like, well, let's start traveling. So I started traveling around trying to build up that business, and it was good pretty well, and then my husband joined the Coast Guard, and that moved us to Hawaii, which was convenient for me, I always say, because I think just my love for adventure and getting that more elopement, like candid, like whatever you want to call it, photos, and Hawaii matched very well, so my business
00:06:49
Speaker
went really successful once we moved to Hawaii. And then as I was there, I started getting asked to mentor a lot.
The Heart Workshop and University
00:06:57
Speaker
So that kind of got me a little bit into mentorship, just people being like, hey, what are you doing? How are you doing this? It's working for you. Can you give me some tips? And so I started diving into one-on-one mentorships and coaching. And then a little bit after that, me and my business bestie, Evie Rupp, she was also a wedding photographer at the time. We started doing a wedding photography workshop called The Heart Workshop.
00:07:19
Speaker
Um, and we did not think it would like, I mean, you always hope things that you do are successful, but we just did not anticipate at all the response to our first one. And so we were like, Oh, we have something here. Let's do this. And so after that first workshop, we just fell in love with teaching and to pouring into others, especially other women and other photographers and creatives. And so we started doing more workshops and as it started growing, like we got to the point where we realized,
00:07:43
Speaker
our demand for these workshops like we could just stop photography right now do workshops a hundred percent full time and we would still not have enough. Just because we wanted them to be really intimate so pivoting and still doing workshops but we opened up an online course and that kind of blossoms us into what is now known the heart university which is a company for education.
00:08:04
Speaker
for creative entrepreneurs and photographers. Um, and we just do, uh, those, we do little workshops. Well, we had to stop for COVID, but hopefully eventually, but we do those. We do, um, an online course that started off with photography and now we have a bunch of online courses we do with the heart and hustle podcast, which you were so kindly talking about. You have an online shop for digital products and templates and things like that. And we just, uh, we're launching our first conference.
00:08:31
Speaker
in April. So that's going to be our first business conference. So we're doing national Tennessee in April. So tell me more about the heart university. Like, do you guys have a framework? Like what's your secret sauce? Woo factor. Like, um, do you guys like specialize in certain things? Totally, totally. So I think the, it goes back to the name, which it obviously was called the heart workshop before we changed it to be just from workshops to obviously like an education company. But we always go back to the word heart.
00:08:58
Speaker
that came from us brainstorming what our first workshop was going to be called. And we were like, what do we want to call it? And I asked Evie, we were just brain dumping in the car and I was like, why do you want to teach other people? Like what about you wants to do that? And she started blabbing and just like saying like, why she wanted to do it. And she kept saying the word heart, like, Hey, it's just like, I want to get into people's hearts. And like, I want to
00:09:20
Speaker
pull something out of them that they know that they're worthy, that they're made in the image of God and that they can do big things in their life or whatever. We just kept repeating the word heart and I was like, the heart, the heart university. Well, it was a heart workshop at the time, but how I kind of described that is we cover both the hardcore business strategies and also the mindset and the heart behind
00:09:43
Speaker
Us as human beings, us as people, how to, because I think to be successful in business, you have to have both. Like if you're a mess and a wreck as a human being, you can have all the business strategies in the world and you're going to hit a brick wall eventually. Likewise, you could be like a real fantastic human being in person, but if you don't have the business strategies, you could be just a nice person that's not going far. Yeah, exactly. You need both. That's also why we called the podcast, the Heart and Hustle podcast, because I think that pairs the two together pretty well, but that's kind of like,
00:10:11
Speaker
our secret sauce is we don't just focus on the hardcore business strategy, we also focus on the human beings behind them as well.
Social Media and Branding
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, I've always felt like that of you have just known you from Instagram, but you always gave like your heart like you were like breastfeeding, and just like, talking and giving and, you know, giving your time to people and like sharing like how you, you know, got to where you are. And you're just kind of like,
00:10:35
Speaker
lay it all out literally. You're literally with the breastfeed. Yeah and I feel like you just are very heartful in like your photographs like you're authentic and it just seems so like genuine and real and I think like that's what people are gravitated towards you but with that said I wanted to ask because I'm more of a newer business coach for wedding photographers um what has been your biggest struggle in business being a coach and how did you overcome it?
00:11:03
Speaker
Ooh, I think it would probably be the pivot from full-time photography to full-time business coaching. Thank you for saying that because I'm in that position right now, so keep going. Okay, perfect, perfect. I think it's because I get asked this so many times of like, okay, if you're in that pivot and it's not even from photography to business coaching, it could be any pivot, right? But I know a lot of your audience and you obviously and a lot of people that ask me are in that specific
00:11:29
Speaker
niche of wedding photographer or just photographer and wanting to kind of pivot into either education for photographers or education wider. And a lot of people ask me, they're like, okay, especially on Instagram, do you have one account for that? Which is what I did. I never made a separate account for my coaching. Or once I transitioned my kind of main account towards mostly coaching, I didn't have a separate Instagram for my photography. And I still stand behind that. But I also will say sometimes I go back and I'm like,
00:11:59
Speaker
If I ever wanted to pick up photography again, now that I am a coach and that's kind of where my Instagram is sitting as far as the niche, I'm almost like, would I make a separate Instagram for photography? I'm like, I don't know. So I see why people do both, but I would say just the transition
00:12:18
Speaker
I think is hard in the sense of like, if you have a workflow, like I had workflows and just systems set up for all my wedding photography clients. And then especially through HoneyBook, that's just what I use. And then once I started introducing coaching clients into that,
00:12:35
Speaker
I was like, oh, I have to have two separate, like completely separate workflows for these people because they're, I mean, it's completely separate service, right? So I think just the logistical transfer of that, because it also doesn't happen. It's not like cold Turkey, like where I was just like, okay, a hundred percent stop wedding photography and start coaching. There was like an overlap and I'm still doing a couple of weddings here and there. So I still have to like balance both of those. It's hard. It is, it is. It's like, I mean, it's two different businesses. So it's, yeah.
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for saying that because I'm trying to stop wedding photography, but it's like the only way I make money. So I'm just like funding my coaching business with my photography clients. I will say the one tip that I could give is when you're starting to transition in a pivot, I would say let your online presence slowly reflect like the percentage of the two different businesses of what money. So it's like, okay, say you're a wedding photographer, a hundred percent of your income is coming from wedding photography.
00:13:31
Speaker
your Instagram niche or the content that you're putting online is probably gated to like people that want to book you for weddings or photography clients, right? So as you start integrating your other niche of the pivot that you're bringing, for my example, was like coaching and online business, I started to realize more people and more people were asking me questions on
00:13:53
Speaker
okay, how do you do this on Instagram? Hey, how did you grow your business? So I was like, okay, there's a demand here for content for business owners, not just photography clients. So I started slowly interweaving and obviously this is on the example of just using one account. If you do whatever you want, but this is on one account. I started slowly pouring in like, okay, one post a week.
00:14:14
Speaker
to business. So then it was like, okay, it was 100 and now it might be 80 for photography clients percent and then 20% business. Yeah. And then as my income and as I started getting booked for coaching more, that started to like go down. So I would make less posts for just wedding photography and more towards
00:14:32
Speaker
coaching and like, yeah, that's actually, that's actually a really good tip. I have two separate accounts, but I, I think I should be posting more about my coaching business on my photography page because there are like, you know, photographers that follow me and they obviously follow you. Well, that's what I found is like it, when you did it on one or when I did it on one account, I would start getting booked for photographers for sessions, like my photography clients, photographers,
00:14:59
Speaker
But then also my coaching students were also photographers. So it was funny. It was like they almost like we're the one and the same. That's awesome. I wanted to ask this question about the wedding photography world. What do you think the biggest struggle for wedding photographers is right now in this like saturated market? And how do you think
00:15:18
Speaker
Like what's the best like heck yes to get their dream clients and kind of like a long question but like how like what is the industry like right now would you say and like how do people like overcome this crazy saturated market.
Effective Instagram Captions
00:15:34
Speaker
I think because it's over saturated.
00:15:38
Speaker
people don't give themselves enough credit. I think they think like, oh, I have to follow in line with what the big shots are doing. Or, oh, I see someone that's famous over here in the wedding photography world doing this. My work has to look exactly like hers or his. And I think we fall in line into this hamster wheel of following what everyone else is doing versus actually
00:16:00
Speaker
Owning who you are, owning what your talents are, what style you love, and actually standing firm in that. And really understanding what makes someone, especially in an oversaturated field, at the end of the day, you can have the best photos, but we're all using the same presets, kind of. We're all using the same cameras.
00:16:19
Speaker
It's like your photos could look very, very similar to somebody else's what's going to make a couple choose you for their wedding over somebody else. It's you like it's your personality. It's your pizzazz. So show that stand out like by being you and not that's what I would say.
00:16:35
Speaker
Oh, I totally agree because I stopped looking at the green wedding shoes and 100 other cakes because I just didn't want to feel less than, oh, my stuff is not as good. I should be doing this and doing that. Just do it. Go to a venue and see what you like the best. You don't have to look on the website. What stands out to you? You just frickin' eyes, right? Legit.
00:17:01
Speaker
We're going to go into our hot topic. Tell us what our hot topic is and why you chose it. I kind of chose it for you, but I respect it. We're going to talk about Instagram captions, kind of like what we said at the beginning, how I suggested titling this episode. We're talking about Instagram captions because Carissa took my caption playbook that I offered from the heart university. Like I said, it's a subscription that gives 20 Instagram caption templates to our customers every single month. And
00:17:30
Speaker
You really liked it. So you were like, let's talk about captions. We're going to go deep. Cool. Okay. So captions, that's why what we're going to talk about. So take it away with, or why would you need good captions? Let's talk about that first.
00:17:45
Speaker
Okay, all right. I'm gonna try not to go off too much or step up too much on my soapbox. Um, I think with Instagram, specifically, it is such a visual platform, right? And especially in the industry for photographers, photos are our safe place. They're they're what we think sell our work or like sell ourselves to get clients, which is true. If you have crappy photos, you're probably not going to get hired a ton, like
00:18:09
Speaker
That's the truth. Like photos are very important. I'm not negating the importance or the power of incredible imagery, especially on Instagram and online. I just think, however, the biggest factor that makes people grow on the gram, unless you're like freaking just stellar, like Kaylee from Kansas with the incredible imagery. I freaking love her. She just shot my family and it was amazing, but like not everyone has like the artistry
00:18:35
Speaker
of her, right? And we can try to get to that. But what I'm saying is everybody online, like what really grows an audience and what really gains
00:18:45
Speaker
a bot in like audience that becomes clients is connection. And connection can happen in photos a little bit. But really where I find especially for me and my personal experience where I grew the most with my Instagram was utilizing captions to connect and to one educate and then draw in like my expertise and then entertain. So like that's kind of where I stand on captions why I'm so big on them because it's it's like
00:19:13
Speaker
You're giving your audience, if you're doing a really rad photo and posting that and then completely ignoring the caption, you're only serving them half of what you could be. Or you're only hitting like the half of the people on Instagram that, like there are some people out there that maybe they just focus on the photo, double tap and move on. But there's another huge section of the market of people that are scrolling that want connection, that are craving inspiration, that are craving encouragement and reliability that you can offer through captions.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you've been like ahead of the game for a long time. You've been writing those lengthy, really good captions for a long time. I think people have caught on a little bit more now, but do you think your like theater background has helped you with like showing, doing all five senses and like maybe like your scripts and like being theatrical, like just being like, here, this is who I am.
00:20:03
Speaker
Acting prepared me to like, you're learning to especially like going to auditions, like you're selling yourself for a role, which is very similar kind of to like personal branding and getting someone to buy your product or service. Uh huh. Yes, I was told I was a theater kid too. So
00:20:21
Speaker
That's awesome. Okay, so let's go into tip number one about writing captions. Awesome. Okay. The first thing I would say is you absolutely, absolutely need a hook. So when I say hook is
00:20:36
Speaker
when you're scrolling and you see the first two lines on Instagram before you have to click more, which I feel like you didn't used to have to do this, but now, dang, dang Instagram. Made it more difficult for us. We're talking about captions and pulling people in and really making them connected to what we have to say. The hook just gets you, gets eyes to be intrigued to actually click the read more, to actually read the juice and the goodness that you have to share.
00:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you're really good at these captions, even like you were giving me advice about, you know, podcasting, like your titles of the episodes are very catchy. So I mean, that was great advice for me. So I actually am going to make a list of like, what are people
00:21:19
Speaker
going to engage with or and pull my audience what do they actually want and then make the title good so it's catchy and I like that word sensational totally yeah and just wording everything so people actually want to look because obviously we're in a world where there's just so much content out there so why why would they stop in school for you and I like how you say like
00:21:41
Speaker
Yeah, it's people are you have to have a pre photo, you have to have good work and good photos, obviously. But there's so much more with the caption that you could tell and like draw the audience audience in so that they connect to you. So that's totally our form. But you can take it away with tip number two.
00:21:59
Speaker
Hey guys, you all know me. I'm Carissa Wu and I'm a coach for wedding photographers. I've also been a wedding photographer for over a decade so I've been through it all. I was a shy, awkward girl and I've come so far. I'm now beyond passionate about helping wedding photographers not struggle how I did for so many years.
Storytelling and Client Engagement
00:22:19
Speaker
It was six years into my business, and I was so tired of being ghosted, nickel-undimed, and hearing the dreaded words, we went a different direction. I also knew I needed to find a way to not rely on referrals or paying $350 a month for the knot to get my leads. I didn't want to have anxiety about when my next payday was going to come, and I wanted to scale my business. Fast forward to now, I created my very own stack system to help wedding photographers get constant leads
00:22:47
Speaker
and master the dreaded sales call and get a heck yes in 24 hours or less and charge more than $4K or $5K or $6K. No more waiting around guys, this is our livelihood, our artistry and our passion and we deserve to be respected, valued and paid for what we are worth. I've helped so many wedding photographers.
00:23:06
Speaker
Watch my 20 minute masterclass all about lead generation and closing the sale. The link is in the bio. You don't want to miss out on the wedding boom and you don't want to miss out on booking your calendar for 2022. It's engagement season, guys, so you don't want to miss this. See you guys soon. Number two, we're going to move on to like the actual body of the caption, like.
00:23:27
Speaker
Which is basically like the meat like what are you actually writing about and I think the biggest mistake I see people make is Like I said, we don't plan ahead in our in our content batching. So we just get to today like what's today to Thursday? It's a Thursday I'm like, oh crap. I need to post Instagram, but I didn't plan anything. I don't have any idea So what happens we open the app and then we feel stressed. We're like, okay, let's find a photo. Let's just pick something Okay
00:23:54
Speaker
People tell me that I should share myself so okay I went to the store I went to target it like in what I find is so many
00:24:02
Speaker
captions don't utilize that storytelling pull of that naturally humans are attracted to so it'll just be like this like long ramble of Almost like a thought process of what I did today or like I went to the store I did this and we think that that's like trying to be personable, but then like no one cares So what I always think what I'm going to write a caption or prepping my content in advance Which I highly recommend you do which is why the caption playbook is helpful. Um is how
00:24:32
Speaker
can I one, like stay in my niche and serve my ideal client, but then also how can what I say, what am I trying to say?
00:24:42
Speaker
Words are hard. I feel like I'm spotting one brain. Can I still use the excuse of pregnancy brain? Every time I go to post on Instagram, I think to myself,
00:25:02
Speaker
How can I do justice to this post or to this photo? I don't want to waste someone's time by reading my caption and not give them something life-changing and now that when I say that that doesn't mean that it has to be like
00:25:15
Speaker
the freaking like Rosetta Stone on your light. Like it doesn't have to be like so insightful and wow, that really touched my heart. Like it, it could make someone's day just by making them laugh, giving them a tip or I mean, it could be encouraging or insightful. Sure. But how I just, I think so many people, especially photographers, when we pair it with like a really epic photo, we're just like lovers on a cliff. Great. Done. Thursday's, Thursday's post is checkmarked and
00:25:43
Speaker
I think that's where we fall short is like people don't give a rat's ass that it says lovers on a clip. Like that's not serving them. So how could you, especially for photographers, how could you tell their story? Like the couple in the photo? Could you tell their story? Could you tell the story of the actual session? Like what happened on the session? How you interacted with them? Like what it was like? Could you tell a tip?
00:26:06
Speaker
of like, hey, three outfit ideas for your next engagement session or what to do in prepping for your engagement session or maybe you're not an engagement photographer or wedding photographer. You could do ways to prep for your senior session or fears that I'm going to squash about your next photo shoot. Things like that where it's like
00:26:25
Speaker
You're giving tips, you're giving encouragement, and then I count the third category as giving entertainment or personal life. I think reels nowadays are really, really great for that. And you can still utilize captions with reels. I don't think captions are maybe as relevant for every single reel, depending on what the reel is. But captions are still a great way to tell stories, and I think that's what people are forgetting when we're approaching our content last minute day of, just trying to get something out just to stay up with the game, right?
00:26:54
Speaker
yeah i think you're right i mean i know you're right i i try to think of something that happens at a wedding and jot it in my notes like my last wedding on saturday um the bride and groom was coming out to the for the grand entrance and i didn't want to throw the dj in the bus but the music just stopped
00:27:12
Speaker
And I think some of the brides would be kind of mad about that. But she just was so cute. And she made the whole crowd just seeing like 24 karat Bruno Mars with her and just like throwing her hands in the air. And I thought that was so special. And I was like, Okay, I probably can't remember that, but I'm just gonna jot in my notes. So when I, you know, post a photo, I can write that fun caption like what a cool bride she is.
00:27:35
Speaker
I love that you said that because that's actually something that I teach my students is if you're if you're struggling with telling stories or having like enough like things to pull from for a photo, like say you have oodles of photos, but you're like, well, I can't tell their engagement story every single time I share a photo from the session. Yeah, or a wedding. It doesn't matter. That's a great tip is
00:27:54
Speaker
Whenever I get an inquiry, if they wrote how they met, I take notes of that. Whenever I meet them for the session, I'll talk and I'll ask them questions like, hey, what was your first impression of each other? You can pull stories from people in a bunch of different ways. All after the session, write that down, whether in a voice memo or whether just writing notes so I don't forget it later. But same thing, especially with wedding questionnaires, you can ask them a bunch of different questions that you could
00:28:20
Speaker
It's literally gold ready for Instagram captions or blog posts, like right there. Oh, that's so good. This is going to help so many people and it's helping me so much because, you know, I've gotten lazy with the captions. Sometimes I used to go deep into it, but it just, it makes it like so much more special too, for like the couple to see it. Like, wow, she really got us. And you know, other potential buyers to be like, wow, she really connects with their clients and really gets them and really cares about their story.
00:28:47
Speaker
Well, and I will say like, yes, online marketing is great, but also word of mouth is great too. And if you like blow a client away, that's obviously the best way to get word of mouth is like people recommending and sharing you. But imagine you did a session or a wedding for a couple, and then they see you tell like such a beautiful story from their wedding day versus like,
00:29:08
Speaker
Joe and Sarah was days was magical double tap. Yeah, like they're gonna be much more touched if you actually tell a story from their engagement or their wedding day versus just like posting it just to post it and they're gonna share like that's great client experience even in marketing.
00:29:26
Speaker
Totally like it's all about like getting those referrals like on the spot like those people ready to buy the engaged couples at the wedding Like waddling ever move and you have no idea they're watching you So everyone's watching eyes on you, okay, so just recap number one the hook obviously if you got to have a good hook number two you just pretty much explain like the body like really that mindset of
00:29:51
Speaker
When you go write a post, you need to make someone's day. You need to motivate them. You need to teach them something. You need to entertain them somehow. You're trying to make their day a little bit better, and that's not by telling them what you ate for lunch. That's a very good mindset. I've never heard that before, so thank you for that. I guess you could take it away with tip number three.
Importance of Captions and CTAs
00:30:16
Speaker
Totally totally one. I'll just like simplify tip number two because it is a little bit loftier. Okay, basically telling a story by either Like making their day which the way I break that up is Inspiring them encouraging them educating them and or entertaining them like that's pretty much it Rotate through those okay, and you'll be set to go. All right. Yeah, I mean I listen to your episode about reels and you kind of
00:30:41
Speaker
kind of summed it up in that way too. So it made it like easier for me to understand like what I should be posting on reels too. So you make everything simple. Moving on to tip number three, let's finish out the caption with a CTA. Now I feel like everybody already knows this and already like rolls their eyes at like, you know, I have to ask a question. Okay. There's such importance in it more than just like,
00:31:06
Speaker
Okay, well, why do we have to ask questions? It's because if you're not inviting your audience to communicate with you, then why would they come purchase from you or buy from you when you're asking for the sale later? So it's like baby steps to learning, teaching them to slowly interact with you. And you can do CTAs in a multitude of different ways. Obviously, we're talking about captions.
00:31:27
Speaker
I'm specifically talking about captions, but you could do them in stories. You can do them in reels. You can do them a bunch of different ways. So when I mean a CTA, it's call to action at the end of your post. So whatever your caption was about, say it was a teaching moment.
00:31:41
Speaker
Let's use photographers for example say it was teaching them the best I'm trying to think off the top my head three tips for Why you should do a first look or three reasons why you should do a first look right? Maybe that's what your captions about you could end your CTA and invite people into conversation Did you do a first look at your wedding or are you thinking about doing a first look at your wedding? Because I think the other thing is people
00:32:05
Speaker
People think that, okay, I have to ask a question. Ask a question. So their first immediate thought is just to throw out the first question that pops in their head that's kind of stupid and lame. It's like, oh, leave emojis if you like it. First looks. It's like, okay, well, how does that actually still serve somebody?
00:32:21
Speaker
don't just ask the question just to ask it. Like genuinely ask the question and then respond, which this gets into engagement, but it all flows into captions in my opinion. If you're asking a question and people are responding, freaking respond back because that's like being in an in-person conversation and then asking a question and they respond and then you just like walk away. It's like,
00:32:41
Speaker
Hey, how was your day? And Carissa says it. And then I just like turn around a while. I know totally dumb and like, right. Right, right. Um, and so I will say with this, I get a lot of because I say this a lot and I get a lot of feedback that's like, okay, Lindsay, cool for you with like 40 something followers or 40,000 followers, like
00:32:57
Speaker
I have 500 or 100 and nobody responds to my CTAs, Lindsey, so I'm not doing it. And I would say to you, I've been doing this since 2015 when I also had 100 followers and I still ask questions. And to every single comment that happened or that people responded to, I responded with like a sentence long
00:33:19
Speaker
response. I went to their feed to see what their first name was, if it wasn't in their username. I looked at their feed and I said, hey, by the way, I really love this post. I didn't have to follow them necessarily if I didn't really truly want to, but I made the effort to go above and beyond to make sure that they knew I wasn't the kind of person that was just going to
00:33:39
Speaker
Ask a question and then be like whatever I'm just asking for engagement Like show that you actually care about people and I promise you that will come back They will learn that eventually even if you're not getting crickets if you're getting crickets right now Keep doing it keep showing up keep asking questions and using polls and in question boxes and stories And I know right now it might be a struggle and you're like, okay, nothing's happening No one's responding keep doing it and with those question boxes. This is going to stories. I'm not even on captions anymore
00:34:08
Speaker
With those question boxes on stories, if nobody's asking you a question or putting something in, go to your own freaking question box and fill it out and then post it with the answer. I was just talking to my friend about that. I think you really got hyped up about that. I did. I'm really passionate.
00:34:28
Speaker
I'm really passionate about because so many people, that's the number one thing because we all know about CTAs and it's like, okay, but no one responds to me. So what's the point? And it's like, well, if I would have stopped doing that in 2015, I wouldn't have got to where I am now. You have to keep doing it. Even when it sucks, even when no one comments but your grandma, you have to keep going.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, you are a true testament of just building your business brick by brick, person by person, caring about each single person that steps into your ground, using it as a platform to really serve every single person, not as a whole, but as every single person that comes into your feed. Thank you for saying that because I think it's so easy, especially online, especially on Instagram.
00:35:11
Speaker
Like we're all trying to chase a higher number, right? We all want more followers, but I think we often forget that all of those followers are actual human beings. And then we complain that like, Oh, we only have 200 followers. We only have 500 followers. And what I say to that is imagine you standing on a podium in front of a room of 500 people. That's still public speaking, honey. Like that, like that's still, that's still terrifying. And so I always like, it was, I mean, maybe when you're following grows, it freaks me out because it freaks me out. Like,
00:35:40
Speaker
When I imagine my follower count in like a stadium and me speaking to them and I'm like the whole night lowered. Okay. Yeah, it's amazing. And when our followers are so engaged, so that's really terrifying. But I mean, that's what everyone wants. That's what everyone's going for. So if you have to remember that every single person that follows you is a human being. So even if you got three comments on your posts, that's three people who took time out of their day to interact with you. That's a blessing and count that.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yes, I love it. Okay, we'll go into a rapid fire question. These are like, I feel like I'm building with energy because you have such good energy. Okay, great. Okay, so by the time I post this, I think it's going to be around Christmas time. And that's when everyone, you know, puts a ring on it during Christmas dinner in front of the family or you know, intimately. That's true.
Genuine Client Communication
00:36:28
Speaker
What how do your because I know your coach so how do these your students or these photographers get a heck yes from their dream clients and more like the business side because I know like you could be amazing at your work but like how do we get like these people coming in and how do we get that heck yes, I feel like it goes back to personal branding and like showing up and
00:36:52
Speaker
and explaining why you're different. Just like how we said, the world of photography is oversaturated. So how can you show up and showcase your personality in all aspects of your business? So on social media, on your website, in your emails, and how does that all speak true to who you are? Because again, I really, too, feel like when people are wedding shopping and they're reaching out to photographers or any wedding vendor,
00:37:18
Speaker
I think the name of the game is truly a yes budget does have a factor in it. But if you have your starting prices on your website, then they probably already know that they can somewhat afford you or whoever they're reaching out to. So I think the name of the game is truly who can like connect with that person the fastest. So if you're not responding to client inquiries within 24 hours, I think you've already lost the game because if they're reaching out to five photographers,
00:37:44
Speaker
It's whoever reaches out to them first that they connect with. So one, respond that quickly. Like actually have a good customer service on that aspect, which obviously have boundaries with the holidays. I get that. Like I'm not saying be a workaholic, but also be fast. If you can. Um, but then also something I see from the business end is photographers that are responding back to clients that are like, Hey, thank you so much for inquiring. It's an honor. Congrats on your engagement. Here's my pricing below. I would love to work with you. Like that's it. How many times?
00:38:14
Speaker
raise your hand if you're listening to this, like low key, it's fine. Just do yourself. If that, if I just basically said what your, what your email back to clients, because the, I think the reason or the way that you can stand out is to not say that and say actually what, like be a human being, don't be a robot. And so I think we get that confused because we're like, Oh, but we need to be professional. We're professional business people. And it's like, you can be professional and still use slang words. Professional means responding back fast.
00:38:43
Speaker
succinct and actually going through and following through with what you say, but you can still be professional and be like, hey, girl, or whatever. Yeah, obviously be you be. Yeah. But for example, my response to wedding clients, I think my subject line literally was like, you know, when you hit the keyboard and you're like, that was literally it. And I think I said, like, prepare for a very excited email.
00:39:06
Speaker
And that's just so true of who I am as a person. And then my email response, I kid you not, is so freaking long. And some people might disagree with that. That's OK if people disagree, because there's different strategies of email, of how to pull people in. And I say this at the beginning. I say, hey, this email is hella long, because I want to give you every ounce of info you possibly need.
00:39:28
Speaker
to know if I'm the right fit or, and it's a heck yes. Or if we're not the best fit and that's okay. And I say that like, that's okay. Cause you don't want to be like a needy clingy boyfriend and trying to get the client. Like you want to like stand your ground, be like, Hey, this is who I am. Here's who I am. All that. Oh my God. And in that email,
00:39:47
Speaker
I would say be you and say what the experience of working with you is going to look like. And so for me, I say, hey, I'm not the photographer for everybody. This is how I work. I am very energetic. I'm going to dance around you and get you grooving and moving. I'm very candid. I don't focus on very stiff poses. And again, this is just me speaking from my personal. Every photographer is different.
00:40:11
Speaker
I say that in the first email because again, I want to attract and repel and make sure that who like the people that are reaching out if they're not the best fit that I don't want them to book me like no, goodbye. And if they are the right fit, I want that to come across immediately. Because I think a lot of times people in the photography industry, they're like, Okay, well, how do I get my clients to loosen up or like to be
00:40:32
Speaker
like really fun. And it's like, well, have you prepped them for that before you get to the session? Like if you're a boring, just like robot, yeah. Email communication and on your website up until the session. And then you're like, make out. They're going to be like, what? You know?
00:40:50
Speaker
So I would say just wrap it up to go back to your question of like, how do I get a heck yes from clients? How do I stand out is to actually be you and put that into your email communication. Put that on your website. Like explain the experience and explain how them booking you is different than them booking any other photographer. Oh, that was so good. Lindsay. I think like your answer was just a breath of fresh air because it literally is just like, how do you shine to the world? Like,
00:41:18
Speaker
Don't try to be anyone else that you're not. Don't try to copy someone else. Don't try to think you're less than and then you give up. Just be you and share that to the world and share how you stand out and just work on that personal brand, which is so fun. You could take cute pictures with your friends and stuff. Exactly. I read a good caption by your templates and just knock them all out. That's so good. That was such a strong, powerful answer. I have to just back it up.
00:41:47
Speaker
Slow it down a little bit. Didn't you say that this was rapid fire and that I literally spent like 10 minutes answering that question? No, I love it. That was like the best answer. I freaking ever changed my life. But what is your favorite Christmas movie? Oh, oh, oh.
00:42:00
Speaker
Oh, because we're in the holidays now. Okay, it's a tie between Home Alone or Elf. Although, okay, actually, I don't know if I can decide between Home Alone 1 or 2. Home Alone 3 with that different actor is trash, so we don't even talk about that one. I think I really like New York, but no, the first one. Okay, no, I don't know. I'm torn. Home Alone or Elf? Yeah, number one's the best. Okay, where do you see yourself in three months with a magic wand? I know you already have like five bazillion magic wands, but where do you see your taking your business?
00:42:29
Speaker
in three months. Uh-huh. I always said 90-day thing. That's such a unique question because I feel like most people are like, where do you see yourself in five years? I like the three months thing. Okay. Oh, that's like weirdly because you have to be weirdly specific with three months. Okay. I hope to still be breastfeeding. That was a random answer.
00:42:51
Speaker
We only, I was only able to do three months of breastfeeding with my first baby Eloise. And so I'm at two months right now. So I hope in three months, I'm still, that would be like six months of her being alive. Uh, I hope to still be breastfeeding, still rocking and rolling on the heart, um, prepping up for our, uh, conference. Cause that's an eight. So, uh, I hope that that's sold out in three months. That would be cool. Um, and I hope to really find balance and,
00:43:19
Speaker
have a game plan going into 2022, which that will have happened by that point, hopefully, and just having a really clear picture of where that's going to go into the rest of quarters of 2022. Oh, I love that. Can you ask me a question since you're a podcaster? Oh, yes, yes. A business question or a personal fun question? It doesn't matter. Okay. What's your favorite food?
00:43:43
Speaker
Rice is life. Rice is life. I love Rice. Okay. And then what's your biggest advice for our listeners? Or well, let me refine this question. What would you say to baby Carissa when she first started her business? Oh. What advice would you give? Yeah, I think just what you said. I should have just listened to this conversation 12 years ago. But I think explaining on your website who you serve and who you don't serve and be like,
00:44:13
Speaker
Are we a fit or are we not? And I think I would have said like, yeah, just chill the fuck out. Like, you don't have to take everything. Yeah. You don't get business. Like, you're not going to be poor. Like, I have that, like, like, if you don't work, you die type of mentality. Right. Right. Like, and I have to tell myself that over and over again, like, you know, the money is going to come. Students will come. It's going to happen. I feel like everyone is chasing more and they're chasing more and more and more. And it's like,
00:44:43
Speaker
you need to learn to rest and to have peace and space in your life as well. Yeah. And that's why I like what you said about your, the three month thing, like your vision, like you need to work on your vision. And that's what we could have another podcast about that, you know, talking about creating this vision for 2022, which would be such a cool topic, but I really want to focus on the vision and making a peaceful life for myself, not so hustle. I mean, yeah, hustle, like heart and hustle, it's the perfect blend of
00:45:10
Speaker
what you have to do to be successful. But now since I've been doing this for 12 years and have two kids like you, it's kind of like I want peace. I want to make a lot of fucking money, but I want peace. I want to have days where I could just do nothing. Right. Well, because we started our businesses to have freedom not to be a slave to our businesses.
00:45:30
Speaker
Yes, exactly. So I wish we could talk more about that because it's so powerful. But oh my God, I got so much from this episode. And I know all the listeners will too. But just tell everyone like where to find you and more about like how to work with you. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, first off of all, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm so stoked to be here. So you can find me on the ground. That's where I hang out the most. That's where I'm dancing and snuggling my newborns at Mrs. Lindsey Roman.
00:45:57
Speaker
And you can find my company at The Heart University on Instagram. And then our websites is just correlate with that, which is lindsayroman.com and theheartuniversity.com. And if you are really interested in everything that we talked about with captions and you're like, I need help. I need some templates that I can just like have handed to me and go off really easily and just rock and roll with those. You get 20 captions every single month with our subscription. So it's thecaptionplaybook.com. So that's where you can find that. Thank you, Lindsay. This is so cool. Of course. Thank you for having me.
00:46:30
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros.