I booked 17 weddings and one month from Instagram. I know it sounds crazy. It was crazy. This is the founder story that I don't think I ever dive really deep into how this happened. I always just say, oh, I made six figures in a year and I worked really hard and it took two years and all these things, but I never really broke down that it all actually happened from Instagram. Okay. Back then, there was no ads. There was no reels. There was not even Instagram stories. It was just Instagram. 10 years ago, organic traffic was the only real way that you could build your business at the time, meta ads existed, but nobody really knew how to use them. There was very far and few between those that actually mastered ads. We were all just trying to really get word of mouth. I built my business from word of mouth and a Wix website, and I thought that was good to go. At the time we all had Instagram. As a millennial I have been around since. The launch and creation of Facebook, the launch and creation of Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest. And I think the really cool thing about US millennials not to brag, is that we have learned to evolve with change and adapt very quickly. And so I find that I'm still very tech savvy for being somebody who's 35, and there's people younger than me who dunno how to do things and dunno how to adapt to technology. I think that's because all of the major social media platforms had launched when we were either in high school or in college or in our early twenties. And so back to my story, Instagram had launched and we have all kind of been playing around with it, and so a few years after Instagram was created, and it was back then it was take a selfie, take a picture of your coffee, take a picture of your, really quirky, oh my gosh. What style was that? I'm trying to remember. Like the big glasses and the mustache. What was that? Oh, hipster. At the time we were just posting pictures of our hipster trends, our crazy hair. Very flat ironed, very burnt. Regrets. But when Instagram launched business profiles, that was when we, as small business owners have decided, okay, let's play around with this. Let's see what this is. And so back then, the Instagram gurus of that time were saying, if you wanna get noticed, if you want to get a lot of likes, and back then you guys, you would get hundreds of likes. On anything like it was chronological order. Everybody was on Instagram and we all just, it was very community based. There was no like crazy algorithm shifts, everybody was very supportive of each other, and so the gurus told you to post three to five times a day. You guys, and this is before Instagram stories because let's be real, Instagram stories stole that from Snapchat, and so figuring that out, posting three to five times a day and being like, you know what? I remember saying I need to curate my grid, because a grid was very big back then. That's why US, millennials are obsessed with aesthetics. I think it was forced upon us to always be aesthetic, and so we were curating our grids. Getting traction, getting comments, meeting new people online, which was really fun. And hashtags were also a big deal. But in the midst of that, I was posting three to five times a day, probably for a year or two. Without fail and decided, you know what, I'm just gonna keep posting and just see what happens. And so Jumpstarted my love for marketing, because marketing is really just about sharing your message. It's about getting visibility. It's just about being seen. And so at that time, I was posting multiple times a day and constantly talking about what I like to call now is my artist story, my unique positioning, my why, who I do this for, why I do it, things that matter to me. Basically saying if this is your vibe, like I'm the photographer for you, but by sharing my expertise, by sharing the way that I feel about my couples. And so with that consistent posting and putting myself out there with no results, Mindy, I maybe had a handful of weddings booked that year, but I kept showing up. I kept treating my couples very well, so they were referring me. I had friends and family still referring me, and so at the time it was working. It was slow, but it worked So fast forward to 2017 when I got home from the hospital from having my daughter, and then the Metro time said that I was the number one photographer to follow on Instagram, if you've been here for any length of time, you know the story, but the story had originated from Instagram. The story originated from me showing up with no results and just hoping things would work out. Now, I didn't necessarily have a strategy. I just knew that I wanted to put out what I wanted to attract. I've always been at the center of my heart, an attraction marketing girly, because I am very much interested in attract and repel. And while I believe, yes, like I don't believe in being desperate for clients, desperate for money because there's somebody else that's gonna come along. So I think in addition to attracting a repelling, you need to have an abundance mindset because if you book a client that is absolutely horrible from the beginning, guess what? They're going to be worse on the wedding day. Ask me how I know I have booked those things. Oh, I need the paycheck. And then when the wedding comes around, I felt terrible going there. I felt terrible going back. I felt terrible editing the pictures'cause it was like PTSD all over again and I remember telling myself, aor, the money was good, but guess what? You can always get more inquiries. You can always get more clients. You do not have to settle because you quote unquote need a paycheck. And so that's when I was very firm in my belief of there will always be another couple, there will always be another wedding, but I wanna make sure that I'm working with the couple that wants to work with me, and it's a beautiful relationship and it is really a beautiful relationship being a wedding photographer. Like you spend at least a year and a half of their booking in advance, but that doesn't seem to be the case lately. But you're spending at least a year of your time investing into this couple, taking photos of this couple, whether it's engagement, whether it's email, whether it's phone calls and timeline planning, like it is a very intimate thing and you're photographing memories that are gonna leave their legacy behind for their children, their grandchildren, to find these images. And you're the memory keeper. You're the memory keeper of the moment. When I think about grandparents that are not here, that I have photographed for my couples, even parents that were ill and they have those images, they have those moments. Like it's a really big deal, what we do. So I don't think you need to take the process lightly or the situation lightly, but I do think that now we can be strategic because Instagram has an algorithm. But I'm also noticing that when you post this way, that system that I had originally used since 2015 is now a messaging strategy for all of my clients, for all of my students. I am realizing that what is now called the Artist Story works on its own. And the thing about the templates that I have been dropping in my new membership in Demand, I have been dropping them every single week and they're very strategic. They're very much. It's not just, we haven't even done trend templates yet I haven't even been following trends. I'm just taking their messaging and their unique positioning and letting them drop in the Mad Libs and insert their own messaging, whatever it is they want to attract for them to put that in and then make a post. And I feel like the thing that is the hardest issue with anybody. Including myself is coming up with the caption. Yeah, and making sure the caption connects because right now I know people are just like putting things in chat, GBT, and everybody sounds like a robot. But I think it's important to like, don't miss the humanity. The human part of your business is you the photographer, you your personality, why this matters. That's really all we're doing is putting ourselves back into our business and not just being a rinse and repeat wedding photographer that anybody else can book. It's really connecting them to your heart, their story, and being able to tell a story with those things. And when you master this alone, you will always have content to share. I've had students, even in my wedding atelier program that have graduated and have gone to make six figures and beyond, and they're now charging 10 K for weddings. They just use the messaging now to make their own captions. They don't even need the templates because their messaging is them ultimately. And the really cool thing about being an artist right now is that. You will always stand out when you talk about what makes you different. And going back to, and when you think about things that way versus saying, oh, there's too many photographers. The market is saturated. Like, how many of you are there in the world right now? Exactly like you Carbon copy that have lived your experience, that have the stories you have to share, that have worked with the couple that you love working with, that have your distinct style. Like all of those things make you. And that's what we're doing inside of In Demand is we're taking that and we're putting that into the templates and making Instagram so easy to go in there, fill in your Madlibs post, get an inquiry, and. And it's so funny'cause I've had students that were like, yeah, I've been paying for ads and I've been wasting money, like wasting money on ads, been playing around with this. I've been doing this training that somebody said, this training, somebody else said, and I just wanna be able to make my own posts on Instagram and know that I'm gonna get an inquiry. And so the recent one that we've had, because we've just been testing it before I even launched this to the public she said, okay, so been using prompts and not just posting to post. And my inbox is filled with inquiries. Had three calls today and just received another inquiry just now. Fine, Laura. You were right and yes, I was right. And that made me so happy to hear over the weekend. I was like I love being right. But honestly, you admitting it in the weekly Wins channel makes it that much spicier. In demand at the founder's rate closes tomorrow night, 1159 or February 28th at midnight. One minute difference. Either way, this rate will never be available again. I have a community coach and I have a membership coach that are in my dms what's going on? Why did you launch this so cheap? And I'm like, because I want people to be able to lock in and make their investment back 10 times over within the first year. And that is a promise. You will make it 10 times over with how low this founder's rate is. I have another membership coach. She said, I can't even, I can't even believe you launched this to the public. You should have only launched this by DM to like several people. But I was like, I wanna give people the chance. Okay. Because I think about my students and what they're struggling with, and for years people have been like a Laura. I'm struggling with marketing, but I was selling wedding atelier. And Atelier is more about luxury, pricing, positioning, and sales. I've never had an offer where you could just join for a low rate, get a result, but also have that support and I am a no fluff girly. I will not waste your time. Okay. That's why there are already templates in there you can play with. I'm gonna be adding more. We're gonna be having guest experts. I'm actually having the girls vote on what they want because whoever joins at this founder's rate, we start March 9th and we are building it together live. You also get live access to me. I'm not gonna say everything on a recorded line that we're giving away, but just know you're gonna get the best of the best before we officially launch this to the public at the regular rate. But if you wanna lock in now for life at this crazy low rate, the link is in the show notes. And if you have any questions, send me a dm. I'll send you a voice message. I'll reply back. I check my phone more than I check my text messages. It's honestly a problem, but I wanna be able to support you. And also I just wanna have more wins This year. I wanna impact people on the largest scale possible. My goal will be to have a hundred photographers in this program constantly getting inquiries to the point where they're bored like, okay, aor, what's next? I'm making so much money. This is such an easy program to get results. I'm making friends. All the things, I have always been a community girl at heart, but I've never had the idea to make it into a membership. I've always been like I wanna make a membership, but. I want a membership that people get results. I don't want a membership where it's just community. Because you could join a Facebook group, you're probably in several Facebook groups, and Facebook groups are actually the death of me and I will not be going back. I do not have Facebook on my phone. I do not. I, no, I barely access it ever. But one thing I do love is getting people together, having a safe space where people belong, can ask questions, feel supported, like they matter, like they're being seen. I know that's one of my gifts as an Enneagram three Wing two. So if you wanna join us. Last call for the founders, right link is in the show notes. Ask me any questions. I cannot wait to support you guys and help you double triple 10 X your inquiries this year. It is not too late. March is the last month of Q1 and we still have 10 more months to go full throttle before you book those 20, 27 weddings before you give up on 2026. Let's get you there. Okay? And I would love to support you. Supporting people is my bread and butter. I love community, I love support, and I also love making sure you get a result as ASAP as possible. Okay, I will see you in the next episode. Have an amazing weekend, and let's get those inquiries.