We've all had that experience where we meet with a couple and the first thing they say is, 'Ok. So, what do we do?" Your first though it to figure out a way to force laughter and a connection so that you can pretend to capture natural emotions. Well, I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way. You can have fun and create natural emotion without it being fake. Check out these two simple techniques to use when photographing your next couple's session. Join the email list: www.uvsucommunity.com My most recent interview on the Sprout Studio Business of Photography Podcast : Building A Multicultural Photography Business: https://getsproutstudio.com/418/ If you are wanting to book me for any photography needs: www.mylesberrio.com PLEASE REMEMBER TO LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW! IT'S THE MOST HELPFUL THING YOU CAN DO TO HELP THIS SHOW CONTINUE!

I was hired for the Netflix show Love is Blind featuring my photography services and it has been one of the best experiences of my life. This episode is much longer than the average episodes, but for good reason. I touch on some of my experience as a photographer on the show, what happened with one of my photos from the show that went viral and thoughts from my heart on Amber and Barnett's relationship. If you are a fan of this show, I hope this episode does justice and follows with an awesome 5-star review! Love Is Blind Wedding Gallery: Amber & Barnett http://www.mylesberrio.com/netflix-wedding-2020 The viral facebook post I talk about on the podcast (over 20,000 shares and counting) https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmyles.berrio%2Fposts%2F10221093069423844&width=500" Join the coolest group of photographers: The Email List Community www.uvsucommunity.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9FZCdBBrco/ Please don't forget to leave me a 5-star review!

Destination wedding photography typically sounds like a unicorn experience that happens by chance. I thought the same thing originally, but overtime I realized there were some real key things any photographer could do in order to start on a destination photography career. Whether it's photographing destination weddings or opening up the opportunity for you to have bookings outside of your general area, these tips can be applied to move you into a destination photography experience all around. My voice is a little unflattering in this episode due to the winter season, but these principles are still worth the listen.

Advertising for your business is extremely important. It is not enough to rely solely on word of mouth advertising. As photographers, especially starting off, the business aspects of paying an advertising agency to help expose your business can be pretty daunting. On today's episode I discuss whether or not you should even advertise with paid advertising and how to help make that decision if you're unsure or on the fence. This episode has a philosophy for every kind of photographer, not just wedding photographers. I use the example of my own experience with the Knot and walk you through exactly how to help make that decision for you. Resources Our Photography Community www.uvsucommunity.com (www.uvsucommunity.com)

Wow, today's episode is powerful. I've officially launched a new segment to various episodes on this episode called "Food for Thought." This segment will randomly show up throughout the beginning of various episodes and is designed to simply get the mental wheels turning on things you can do and solve for in your own business while I discuss other topics in more detail. Before you learn how to double your reviews, it's important to know why they're important. I share 3 reasons why reviews are key to building a successful photography business. A review is a great way for future clients to know what to expect when booking you from clients who have already put their trust in you Reviews are incredible advertising tools for your business that are 100% FREE Reviews are actually easier than we think to get I talk about why they are easier to receive then we think; primarily because it just takes simply asking for the review. "Very rarely will you have a customer reach out to you and do the work to leave you a review. You have to ask for the review." (4:50)Then we go into how do exactly ask for reviews without coming off demanding or in a way that doesn't really motivate your client to leave a review -- writing reviews take work. Here's a great tip to try for your business when asking for reviews. Modify it however it best works for you and your brand/personality, but still apply the principle regardless. Tip: "If you enjoyed working with me..." -- "..it would really help other couples know what to expect when they book with me." (some variation of 'If you enjoyed' and 'it would help') Principle: You always want to give your clients a positive incentive in motivating them to do any kind of work. A.k.a., leaving you a review. After you understand the importance of reviews, you begin asking for reviews in a way that's positively reinforcing your client's actions in writing you a review, the key to doubling the amount of reviews is; Asking for more reviews from several of the parties that were a part of the photography session. Hear how I break this down whether you're a portrait photographer, wedding photographer, family photographer etc. Ending today's episode was very special to me because it allows me to step into more of my overall mission in helping photographers build a business through faith and not just sales. I share one of my favorite bible versus from Philippians 4:6. Hear how this applies to us as photographers. Photographer Resources uvsucommunity.com (uvsucommunity.com) If you're wanting to connect with me on a deeper level and receive even more tips on how to grow your photography business head over to UVSU Community (www.uvsucommunity.com) where hundreds of photographers are a part of building a community over competition environment. Honeybook.com (http://share.honeybook.com/myles584) HoneyBook is my LIFE SAFER guys. Seriously, from organizing all of my photography related inquires in once place, to making sure I never double book a wedding and so much more, it is the foundation to running my business. Here you can get 50% off your entire year of saving your business so much stress. (http://share.honeybook.com/myles584) Flodesk (https://flodesk.com/c/U39IB6) If you're a creative you know how important powerful and impactful emails are to your email community. I've used MailChimp and Convertkit for emails and nothing, I mean NOTHING compares to Flodesk. (https://flodesk.com/c/U39IB6)

As the podcast world continues to skyrocket, I'm here to separate from the saturation with something a little different for photographers looking to grow their business. I'm not a "retired photographer" who now wants to have a talk show with a lot of extra free time. I'm an active commercial and wedding photographer dad building my business full-time and learning new things every single day. The question I hear so many photographers asking me is, "how do I go full-time in my photography business?" Even more importantly, many photographers ask themselves, "can I even do this full-time?" The answer is an enormous YES, but it does take hard work, true dedication and learning your craft. That is why on this episode I share why I record shorter than longer digestible podcast episodes. I don't want you to sit through an hour and a half of an inspiring story, when I can spend 15-20 minutes sharing with you EXACTLY how to apply one or two things to your business that will help grow your business in each episode. There's a time and place for everything and I have many resources that will inspire you and can share many stories of photographers that will motivate you. Although, my focus is not to take you on a journey of comparison or competition with others. My focus is to take you on a journey of self-improvement and competing with who you were yesterday. It doesn't matter what my favorite lenses are. It doesn't matter what's in another photographers bag. What if I can just share with you exactly how I figured out exactly the lenses I wanted to use and saved me thousands of dollars from buying everything you see out in the market. I share why it's amazing to be a part of the (www.uvsucommunity.com) where you'll find even deeper support, more connections with photographers on their journey to building their dream career and many resources I give away that helped build my business from a hobby to traveling the world and working with some of the largest brands in the world and celebrities. If you like my style and you want to grow your photography business, be sure to SUBSCRIBE!

Your website as a photographer is such a crucial element to the success of your photography career. In this episode I talk about why it's important to have a website and the key thing you need to focus on to optimize your site. Think about having a clothing brand but having no physical location for people to buy your clothes at the store or no website for people to buy online. You need to have a website and it needs to be curated in a way that suits your potential client's needs. (head over to uvsucommunity.com to find resources on the basic essentials you need for a successful photography website that won't keep you procrastinating on creating one if you don't have one yet) While having a website is a great start to your photography journey, many photographers make the mistake of only focusing on what they emotionally enjoy in their work to display on their website. You're not hiring yourself for photography services, so your focus needs to be on your visitors' experience when they land on your site. This is the key thing you need to know in order to optimize your site. Your website analytics. It's not just enough to focus on the content of your site but you need to know the data of what's going on when your potential client lands on your site. I talk about the 3 major website providers most of us know about. Squarespace Wix Wordpress I primarily focus on Squarespace in this episode because that's what I use and remember, I don't claim to be an "expert". I'm simply sharing from my own experience what has helped or hurt me throughout my photography career. Although, having done a little research to save you some time, Wordpress does not have an analytics program built in to their site because Wordpress is what is called an "open source" website. Though, there are an enormous amount of awesome plugins that can get the job done but these are just a few; Google Analytics (Free and easy to install) Heap Crazy Egg WP Statistics Wix is a little easier than Wordpress in the event that it does actually have analytics software already installed into their website for their users. Here's a link to the article that explains how to set that up. Adding Your Google Analytics to Your Wix Site (https://support.wix.com/en/article/adding-your-google-analytics-tracking-id-to-your-wix-site) Squarespace is amazing when it comes to their analytics. They, too, have analytics built right into their site for users. It was an easy couple of clicks to have it "unlocked" basically under the "Analytics" tab when you login to your Squarespace back office. This is powerful information. These are some of the questions you need to be asking yourself. Do you know who is visiting your website Do you know what they're doing once they land on your site Do you know where they're coming from Do you know what keywords or blogposts that are driving the most visitors to your site "If you know the data to your website you won't have to hit the bullseye with blindfolds" I then go in to what types of data Squarespace provides to you from your sales, demographics, keywords, popular content and more. Popular Content This information is the bomb. It's also the "actionable tip" I encourage you to focus on from today's episode. Remember, my focus is to give you at least one actionable thing you can do to apply to your business and cause growth rather than being overwhelmed with information that leads you paralyzed. The popular content data of your Squarespace back office can strategically be used to understand where most of your visitors are landing on after they open your site. This is important because in terms of optimization on your site, if you know what content is popular, you can focus on driving more of an experience and more of your attention to that section, thus driving more traffic to your site and creating a better...