I am excited for today.  I pulled two of my team members on just to let them ask questions that maybe you have been wanting to ask yourself. I’m going to let Madison and Courtney introduce themselves a little bit. 

Madison: Hello, I’m Madison Brown. I’m a CEO and owner of Madison Dearly Bookkeeping. I’m happy to be here. It’s gonna be fun.

Courtney: I am Courtney Albertson of Courtney Ann Virtual Solutions. I am Brooke’s content strategist and marketing guru. I am happy to be here and super excited to dive into some questions.

Introduction

Brooke: Today, we are going to dive into some fun questions to celebrate two years of podcasting. When I started this podcast two years ago, I was recording it to an audience of zero. Not one person that was sitting on eggshells waiting for me to release the podcast. It was just something that I felt called to do. Today, we are on the brink of 100,000 downloads and that blows my mind.

It’s a lot of hard work. I don’t think people realize how much work goes into podcasting. If you are a listener, you’re my favorite people. You’re the reason that the podcast has grown to where it is, so I just want to say thank you for that. Okay, let’s dive into questions.

Biggest Win

Madison: The first thing that I want to know is what is the biggest win that you’ve seen in your business since you decided to start working for yourself? 

Brooke: Yeah, that’s a great question. I feel like there’s been a lot of wins and a lot of failures. When I decided to truly launch out in the education side of my business, it’s my biggest win because I had no idea what was possible. So growing a group from 150 photographers who wanted to come on for an Instagram challenge for five days, and then sitting here and growing it to well over 7000 photographers in a year is mind blowing.

It was definitely God ordained. I have the right people. I’ve had other team members that are no longer on the team that definitely owe a tribute to to help me get there. I just love connecting with people. I think my biggest win is the community aspect. It’s not even a monetary thing. I just feel very aligned in what I’m doing and being able to help photographers along the way. Courtney, what’s your question?

Dreams & Favorites

Madison: If you could photograph any type of session, anywhere in the world, where would it be? And what type of session would it be?

Brooke: I can tell you it would be in Australia. I want to go there so bad! For the type of shoot, it’s a toss up between family or maternity, because I could easily make either one of those look really good over there. There’s a lot of variety. There’s a lot of cool outfits you can wear that you can’t wear, you know, in Oklahoma and in the background. That’s a fun one, for sure. Okay, Courtney, hit me with your next one. 

Courtney: What is your favorite animal and why?

Brooke: I have said a cheetah since I was 5, so I’m going with that. I wear a lot of Cheetah. I’m obsessed with the pattern of their fur, but they are also very smart and fast.

Madison: Okay. What is your enneagram number?

Brooke: I’m enneagram two, wing three. There has been a lot of controversy about the whole test, but I don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s interesting to see the tendencies we have. I use the results to look at my strengths and evaluate my weaknesses. Okay, Courtney, what’s next?

Top Questions

Courtney: What is the number one question you receive as a photographer?

Brooke: The biggest one as far as actual local clients are concerned is ‘what do I wear?’.

Courtney: Taking that to the education side, what’s the number one question you receive as an educator?

Brooke: It’s definitely ‘How do I book more clients?’ It is the hardest question to answer. I think that it is such a loaded question. The reason you are not booking clients may be that nobody knows what you’re the expert in. Even though you do a little bit of everything, they’re going to someone else who is actually is an expert in the specific area of photography they want.

The shortest answer I can possibly give is you know what you are actually worth. At the end of the day, something is out of place, or you are not clear on something, because if you were, everything would be able to flow together and you would have that framework that would help you book more clients. That’s the number one question I get and the hardest thing to answer.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Madison: The final question is what does success mean to you?

Brooke: Success to me means being fulfilled and walking in your purpose. A lot of us want to tie a number to success. I don’t think you’ll ever feel successful if you are in the wrong career or walking the wrong path. Success, to me, is literally complete fulfillment, because out of being fulfilled comes your joy, peace and freedom.

You both asked some good questions! I love that there’s like such a variety for everyone to hear. Thank you all for joining me!

Want to hear even more from my team and I as we celebrate this milestone? Just head over to the Book More Clients podcast. You can also find the podcast on iTunes and Spotify.

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