The phone’s gone quiet, inquiries have dried up, and it’s tempting to treat this as dead time. Marcus disagrees — and he’s using it himself right now to get ready for the September rush. He runs through the moves worth making while the pressure’s off, from a proper look at whether your website still represents the work you actually want, to a low-key way of staying on past clients’ radar without ever selling to them. There’s also a blind spot most photographers don’t think to check: whether everything with your name on it, from your website to your pricing document, is still telling the same story about your business, and why that consistency matters more than ever with Google and AI both scanning across everywhere you show up. Plus why the quiet season is exactly the wrong time to just watch videos about a skill instead of learning it properly, and the one planning move that saves your future self when September turns into chaos. For any brand photographer whose website has quietly drifted out of date, this is the nudge to fix it before the busy season does it for you.
Business Planining is the episode to listen to next if the quiet season has you thinking ahead.
00:01.53
Sam Hollis
Hello Marcus and hello listeners. How is everything with you Marcus?
00:05.82
Marcus Ahmad
everything Everything’s great. And let’s also not forget our viewers. Hi to our viewers as well. Those people who are unfortunate enough to see us in the…
00:10.35
Sam Hollis
Viewers.
00:14.29
Sam Hollis
What’s up with our faces? Are you alright Marcus?
00:15.35
Marcus Ahmad
yeah
00:16.36
Sam Hollis
Hello to viewers as well as listeners. And yes, you can listen on all the podcast channels and view on YouTube.
00:22.14
Marcus Ahmad
You can indeed.
00:31.77
Marcus Ahmad
ha No, we’re talking about work, Sam. But not hopefully not too honest work. Okay, so today i want to talk about the holiday season because for a lot of photographers, this time the year is a bit of a problem.
01:37.43
Marcus Ahmad
so So today, Sam, I want to talk about the holiday season. Because for a lot of photographers, this time the year can be a bit of a problem.
01:47.80
Marcus Ahmad
The phone, it might go quiet. Inquiries dry up and it’s easy to start worrying. But here’s the thing. The holiday season is not a problem. It’s an opportunity.
02:03.04
Sam Hollis
Excellent let’s continue.
02:03.13
Marcus Ahmad
the yeah. yeah So for the photographers who come out of summer in the best shape are the ones who have used the quiet time well. So today I’m going to give you a simple list of things you can do right now, this month, to make sure that when September arrives you’re ready.
02:23.08
Sam Hollis
Perfect.
02:24.02
Marcus Ahmad
So the first thing, and all these things, Sam, I’m actually doing myself at the moment, okay? so I’m not just saying you should be doing it, but I don’t have to. I’m doing all these things myself.
02:34.30
Marcus Ahmad
And I’ve set aside the month of August to, you’ll be glad to hear this, to update my website, my portfolio.
02:40.19
Sam Hollis
Excellent. Good to hear it. So yeah, so watch, keep out with Marcus on LinkedIn and stay in touch, to see how he’s doing so you can kind of see how you’re doing in comparison. That’d be really nice, wouldn’t it, Marcus? See how other listeners are doing too.
02:49.87
Marcus Ahmad
That’d be perfect, Sam. Yeah, we love that.
02:52.06
Sam Hollis
And viewers. Right, Marcus, go on then. Number one.
02:54.10
Marcus Ahmad
So your website, so when was the last time you updated it? I mean really updated it, not just add a few images, but look at it properly and ask, does this still represent the work I want to be doing?
03:08.60
Marcus Ahmad
Because we know what happens, you might get busy, you you shoot great work, and it just ends up on the hard drive somewhere forgotten about. Well, the holiday season is the time to fix that.
03:20.60
Sam Hollis
ah Perfect. And as you say, we all often update little bits of our website, but it’s then the whole picture can get messy. It’s not often we do exactly what you’re suggesting and take a step back and let’s look at it at ah as a whole.
03:32.63
Marcus Ahmad
Well, it takes time, Sam, you know, and there’s other things going on when, you know, during the rest of the year. um Like for me, I’m just switching my, you know, I’m putting my website, I’m going to change a bit more focus on the commercial work, more the branding work, as opposed to the personal branding.
03:38.10
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
03:48.71
Marcus Ahmad
And I’m also pushing my education side more. So, you know, and I enjoy doing it. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good fun, you know, playing around with it. You know, once it’s there, it’s not so difficult or starting as if if you’re starting from fresh.
04:01.91
Sam Hollis
yeah perfect.
04:02.46
Marcus Ahmad
So what you want to do is go through your recent shoots, pull out the best images and get them on that website. And while you’re there, look at the work that’s been sitting there for two or three years. Is it still the best you can do?
04:16.86
Marcus Ahmad
If the answer is no, simple, take it down. Your website should show the work you want more of, not the work you’re used to doing.
04:27.77
Marcus Ahmad
We’ve discussed this on many shows before, haven’t we, Sam?
04:29.37
Sam Hollis
Yeah, and that’s so common, isn’t it? that These are the sorts of things I used to do two, three years ago, but actually I’m doing completely different work now, but it’s not shown.
04:37.50
Marcus Ahmad
Exactly. And I’m in that situation. I’m going to be honest about that. You know, my website is probably about two years behind out of date. So there we go.
04:45.53
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
04:45.82
Marcus Ahmad
um OK, next, what can you do is I would say shoot something for yourself, a personal project, not for a client, not for money, just for you, because the holiday season is, again, perfect. The pressure is off.
05:00.73
Marcus Ahmad
And if you’ve got gaps in your portfolio, um this is a great time to fill those gaps. you know they might Or there might be a lighting technique you want to try out. Well, now is the time.
05:14.10
Marcus Ahmad
Personal project.
05:14.03
Sam Hollis
Perfect. Time for experiments and trying your own thing.
05:15.06
Marcus Ahmad
Yes.
05:18.00
Sam Hollis
It’s a bit more fun, but also can feed into your technique, feed into your real work, into your professional work.
05:23.14
Marcus Ahmad
Exactly, exactly, Sam. I mean, that’s beauty of a personal, one of the beauties of a personal project. And also, as you say, trying out different techniques. You know, personal projects do two things. They keep your work sharp and they fill the gaps in, as I’ve said.
05:39.26
Marcus Ahmad
So some of my best portfolio images have come from shoots I did purely for myself, not waiting for a client to give me permission, just doing what I love.
05:49.50
Sam Hollis
Perfect. Yeah, amazing.
05:51.99
Marcus Ahmad
Okay, and another thing I’ve done recently is, and it’s a simple one, is to reach out to past clients.
05:59.06
Sam Hollis
Perfect. Yeah, build those relationships.
06:02.97
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, you’re not there to sell anything. you just want You just have to say hello. A quick message. How are things going? How are the images still working hard for you? That’s it.
06:11.83
Sam Hollis
Yeah, amazing.
06:13.88
Marcus Ahmad
but yeah yeah And the reason we want to do this, Sam, is because, you know, if you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. Your your your past clients are best your best sort source of repeat business and referrals, but only if they’re thinking about you.
06:29.02
Marcus Ahmad
And that simple message will yeah that simple message will keep them in mind.
06:29.59
Sam Hollis
Amazing.
06:33.26
Marcus Ahmad
Sorry, Sam, you’re going say.
06:33.56
Sam Hollis
Amazing. I’m just going to say there’s actually a show coming very shortly where I’m talking about exactly that. I’m going to go into more detail. It is such a big thing, isn’t it?
06:42.90
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, yeah, perfect.
06:43.00
Sam Hollis
They already know, like, and trust you. They already like your work. you know They’re far easier to persuade than somebody completely new, aren’t they?
06:50.46
Marcus Ahmad
Exactly, Sam. And the way I did it, basically, I came up with three different emails for three different types of client, my personal branding, my commercial branding, and my education side, and just sent them out, you know, with a little heart change to put their name in there. That’s all you need to do. And it was done in, you know, half a day.
07:08.62
Sam Hollis
Yeah. Yeah.
07:10.94
Marcus Ahmad
Okay, so on the same tip, tip um we we want to have a look at your marketing materials. Your website, we’ve talked about. Your LinkedIn profile, Sam, you mentioned that. Your email signature, your pricing document. Do all these say the same thing?
07:28.15
Marcus Ahmad
Do they look like they belong to the same business? Because if they don’t, do something about it.
07:36.92
Marcus Ahmad
Things can get updated in a rush. A price changes here, a bio gets rewritten there, and before long, nothing quite matches.
07:47.06
Sam Hollis
That’s it.
07:47.16
Marcus Ahmad
Again, yeah.
07:47.19
Sam Hollis
And your brand can evolve over time, can’t it? So it could be that some of your assets you’ve made three, four years ago, and some of them are recent, and just gradually your brand has changed subtly. And so the old ones, if you don’t look, but you you know you can keep using, but when you go back, that’s certainly quite different.
08:01.84
Marcus Ahmad
Sam, I’ll give you a little secret here. I’ve just changed my email signature around, my sort of picture that i use.
08:07.81
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
08:08.26
Marcus Ahmad
And it was with me with short hair and my, with short hair. And I thought, oh God, it’s so out day. And it was a really nice picture. And I sort of’ still look slim, the same slimness.
08:18.74
Marcus Ahmad
But I actually, what I did was I chopped my head off and put my new head on the old picture.
08:27.19
Marcus Ahmad
I know, bit naughty.
08:27.61
Sam Hollis
Excellent.
08:28.51
Marcus Ahmad
That’s just between you and I, Sam.
08:28.61
Sam Hollis
Okay, don’t tell him.
08:30.07
Marcus Ahmad
Nobody’s listening.
08:31.48
Sam Hollis
Okay, nobody should be chopping Marcus’s head off.
08:34.39
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. so go through everything. Make sure it’s consistent. Make sure it’s current and make sure it actually represents where your business is right now. Because when September arrives and inquiries start coming in, the first thing a potential client good is going to do is look you up.
08:54.42
Marcus Ahmad
So make sure what they find reflects the reflex the photographer you are today.
08:54.70
Sam Hollis
Okay.
09:00.08
Sam Hollis
Perfect. And that fits in so well with SEO and getting found in AI, because what they’re doing is they’re not just looking at your website, they’re looking at all the other places you are in the web, and they’re doing the same as other people. They’re looking for that match and coherence.
09:12.16
Sam Hollis
You know, that business name, the same.
09:12.61
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah.
09:14.24
Sam Hollis
l It’s amazing how many people don’t even have that business name exactly the same in all the different places. You know, your business name must be identical. The descriptions don’t need to be identical, but they all need to give the same message as to what you’re doing, not one say you photograph dogs and the next say you photograph weddings.
09:28.24
Sam Hollis
They all need to be consistent, but no need to be identical. And yeah, people are looking, and people won’t look across different things, but you don’t know where they’ll find you. It could be LinkedIn, it could be Google This, it could be a website, but Google and AI are looking across all those things and they’re looking for consistency.
09:38.02
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah.
09:44.01
Sam Hollis
And the more consistent you are, and the more of those points there are, the more you’re going to get found on the Google search and recommended by AI.
09:51.83
Marcus Ahmad
Sam, do you think now, especially with the AI search, that is that is going to become more critical to have that common commonality across all your branding?
09:59.01
Sam Hollis
I think it always has been because it’s been the Google search to you with AI, maybe a little bit more, but it, you know, is the more, or is it just the Google, some of the Google stuff shifting to AI? You know, I think it’s always been important and we just need to yeah make sure we do it, keep that consistency. Like with everything else you said, it’s easy for it to drift over time. You need to over off and have a big look at everything and am I super consistent?
10:20.75
Sam Hollis
And to all of the places that aren’t my website, mention my website, because that means Google and I also can link it together and realize it’s the same business.
10:27.35
Marcus Ahmad
Cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, Sam, we’re almost there. So um the next one is really important, and it is use the holiday season to learn something.
10:38.34
Sam Hollis
Oh.
10:38.46
Marcus Ahmad
Not actually, you know, watching YouTube videos and telling yourself you’re developing. Actually, go there and learn something you can use. A technique you’ve been putting off, a piece of self software you’ve never properly got to grips with, or maybe it’s Flash.
10:56.06
Marcus Ahmad
um and that’s probably a good place to put a little plug in, Sam, if you don’t mind, for my Flash Masterclass this time, coming up on the 9th of September in my Bristol studio.
11:08.81
Sam Hollis
Amazing. And how do people get full details book on?
11:12.02
Marcus Ahmad
so i’ll tell I’ll give the details, Sam. it’s I’m only doing four places only. It’s $2.75 per person. um And if you want to walk away from one day knowing exactly how to use Flash confidently on any shoot, this is it. And Sam, to answer a question, they can find out the details. People can find out the details on my website and book in at marcusahmad.com slash flash hyphen masterclass.
11:40.14
Sam Hollis
Perfect. That’s the first time Marcus has ever done a duor weft web address in one shoot. That is amazing. Right, Marcus.
11:47.24
Marcus Ahmad
I’ve been practicing. I’ve been practicing. Okay, here’s the last one.
11:50.59
Sam Hollis
Perfect.
11:51.68
Marcus Ahmad
Here’s the last one, Sam. And possibly, possibly the most important. um So the last one is plan your content for the next quarter. September to December is insanely busy.
12:02.05
Sam Hollis
Amazing.
12:06.10
Marcus Ahmad
Events, corporate work, Christmas campaigns, you know, that is my busiest time the up of the year. And well the first thing that goes, the fourth of the list is my content. So get it done now when you’ve still got time to think.
12:20.66
Sam Hollis
Perfect. And then what about a holiday too?
12:21.64
Marcus Ahmad
Just
12:25.08
Marcus Ahmad
Oh, gosh. Yeah, that’s what that goes. Well, let me finish what I’m saying. But obviously, we’ll talk about holiday day in a minute.
12:29.29
Sam Hollis
Okay, we’ll come on to that one.
12:31.16
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. So, you know, look, just going back to the content, decide what you’re going to post on LinkedIn, decide what the next few newsletters issues are going to be. And, you know, for me, deciding what podcast episodes you want to record or for eyes I should say, Sam.
12:45.30
Marcus Ahmad
Even a rough plan is better than nothing.
12:45.21
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
12:49.14
Marcus Ahmad
Because a rough plan means when October arrives and you’re in the middle of back-to-back shoots, you’re not just starting from zero. Every time you need to put something out.
12:57.53
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
13:00.15
Sam Hollis
Amazing. And you can schedule too, can’t you? mean, I wouldn’t suggest you schedule posts all the way to Christmas because you’re probably going want to include things you’re doing. But you could certainly schedule, you know, schedule a good way ahead from today.
13:06.96
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. Yeah.
13:09.66
Sam Hollis
and you may even want to schedule, say, once a week right up to Christmas, and then you can fill in other stuff with what you’re doing. But yeah, scheduling, if you’ve got time, can save you so much time in advance because you’ve got stuff going out.
13:19.86
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, and it’s easily done. I must admit, I’m not a scheduler i myself. I just tend to get it done and then just quickly post it on the day and then I can deal with it at the time.
13:26.87
Sam Hollis
Yep.
13:28.42
Marcus Ahmad
But Sam, are you do you use scheduling?
13:32.40
Sam Hollis
I’m one of those hot and cold so sometimes and I’m like really into it and and and then other times I don’t use it at all so yeah you know depends on the the day the week and the month but when I’m really focusing on it I tend to because otherwise I find it can suck out too much you can so easily spend so much time doing it well if I go right I’ve got an hour now I’ll schedule you know two weeks of stuff bang bang bang it does make it more efficient
13:34.39
Marcus Ahmad
and Okay.
13:56.22
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, each to road. Each to the road, Sam. It’s all out there.
13:58.52
Sam Hollis
exactly that’s it
13:58.97
Marcus Ahmad
You’ve just got to find what works for you. So there it is. Six things you can do during the holiday season. Update your portfolio. Shoot a personal project. Reach out to past clients.
14:11.45
Marcus Ahmad
sort your marketing materials, learn something, maybe a flash masterclass, and plan your content. None of them are complicated, but all of them will make a difference. And for those photographers who treat the holiday season as dead time, we’ll start September exactly where they left off in July. the ones who use it in september use it well will start off in September more visible and better prepared.
14:39.67
Marcus Ahmad
Which one do you want to be?
14:42.00
Sam Hollis
Perfect, Marcus. Thank you. and And what about the break? Because I think that is an important part, stepping back, getting a rest, doing something completely different, not having to think about it.
14:45.34
Marcus Ahmad
Yes.
14:51.38
Sam Hollis
that I don’t know. don’t mean just like chilling for the whole period, but you know out of the period, taking one week, two weeks and going, right, going to step away, take a break. And then almost, I think you come back and you’re much able to then do all the stuff you’re talking about and be more focused.
15:03.93
Marcus Ahmad
I agree, Sam, but that do you not find in the sort of modern era that we’re in now or the era we’re in now that August, everything seems to shut down just like the continent. I mean, and you we never really used to do that in the UK, did we, in the same way we’re doing it now?
15:20.12
Sam Hollis
What I don’t know, the thing I find that makes it that that just is difficult is holidays. And then especially if you’re dealing with single person businesses, not too bad because they’re either there or they’re not, you know, if you mean, and somebody might be away for week, but then the back. But if you’re dealing with slightly bigger businesses, I find it’s always, it’s being someone other and they’re away. And then when they’re back, their boss is away, so they can’t quite make a decision. and And it’s just that kind of, you know, that over that period,
15:45.42
Sam Hollis
Probably everybody’s going to take a break and that kind of one person is and then somebody else in the same business and somebody else in the same business, especially in one business, they’ll try and stagger bit of it so they’re not all away at once. It tends to just slow that decision making process.
15:58.30
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. I mean, just going back to was saying, I think, you know, and the reason I so of’ say that, I think in in August, a lot of people are away these days. You know, the lot of people are away. And I just think it’s a good opportunity for me. It’s saying what I’ll be doing on, but I’ll certainly be taking a break is break as well. look I’m no saint. I’ll certainly be taking a break. And, you know, i also took a break early in the year as well. So i’ in mind to keep this time…
16:25.23
Marcus Ahmad
for working on my, the website is the main one that takes the most most time out of all that list I’ve given there.
16:31.87
Sam Hollis
Perfect. Amazing. That sounds a very comprehensive list, Marcus. Excellent. Thank you for all of that.
16:37.56
Marcus Ahmad
Thank you, Sam. Nice to see you.
16:39.05
Sam Hollis
Yeah, I’ll see you next week.
16:40.22
Marcus Ahmad
See you next week, mate.
