The Truth? I Never Really Niched Down — Until Now [2025 Replay]

Colie: 00:00:26

Hey y'all.

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Let's get into another replay today.

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We're gonna go back to

from: 2023

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Should you niche down?

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Before we hit play, I feel compelled

to tell you where I am at now.

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I have officially removed the

contact page from my photography

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website, but it doesn't mean that

I'm out of the photography world.

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In fact, I am doubling down on serving

photographers inside of the systems part

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of my business, and I'm going even deeper

by expanding the templates that I've made

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to include branding photographers, wedding

photographers, and senior photographers.

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So for the last two years, I've

been quietly expanding my course.

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Well, maybe it wasn't so quiet,

but I changed it from the CRM

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Blueprint for Photographers to

the CRM Blueprint for Creative.

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But at my core, I have always been a

photographer, and I feel like that is one

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of the parts of my marketing messaging

that was so strong, you know, systems

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built by me for you in the same way

that I ran my own photography business.

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So I am happy to announce that from

now on I am going to be talking

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directly to photographers again.

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There is going to be a shift in

photography episodes on this podcast,

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as well as the messaging that I put

out throughout my marketing channels.

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So today we're gonna go back to one of

those OG questions, should you niche down?

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Spoiler alert, there's no one

right answer, but this episode

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will help you make a smarter one.

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Okay, let's listen to

the original episode.

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Hello, hello and welcome back to the

Business First Creatives podcast.

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You know, I don't shy away from

a controversial topic, but I

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feel like I've been listening to

several podcasts and also seeing

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conversations inside of Facebook groups

about the topic of nicheing down.

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I've discussed the topic with a few

different guests on this podcast,

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but I feel like it's a topic that

just keeps on coming back around.

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And while everyone has their opinions

on whether or not you should niche down,

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I just wanted to talk about it today.

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Okay.

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So I have primarily offered one

type of photography the entire

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time that I've been a photographer,

and that is documentary sessions.

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Whether that means a family in their

house or someone giving birth, or

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you know, a humanitarian trip to

Mexico for a commercial client.

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Like, the type of photography that

I do is incredibly niche like it's

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documentary, but I do offer that

service in many different ways.

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I will come to your house, I will

document, you know, a homecoming

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when your kid is coming from a

mission or your spouse is coming

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home from a military engagement.

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Like, I will do anything as long as it

is real and I do not have to pose you.

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So that's my previous

experience in like nicheing.

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I don't take pictures of families outside.

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I don't do babies in a basket, like I

don't do any of those kinds of things.

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Now, when it comes to the systems

side of my business, I started doing

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something that was incredibly niche.

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I helped photographers do the backend

of their business, in Dubsado.

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So that's one specific

client and one specific tool.

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Now, in the idea of photographers,

I even really specialized

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in family photographers.

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Um, the first few setups, and I

would say, yeah, I would say the

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first few setups over the first

few months, um, I was really only

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marketing to family photographers.

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And in fact, my course, the CRM

blueprint for Photographers is

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technically for family photographers.

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I say everywhere that I can, If

you are a family photographer,

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this is the perfect fit for you.

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Every email, every template, was

specifically created for you.

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And then I get the messages that

are like, Hey, Colie, like, can

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I really not join your course?

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And I always tell them, no, absolutely

you can come into the course.

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I just like to warn everyone,

that I designed the course for

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family photographers because I

feel like we get left out of a

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lot of different conversations.

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Like there's a lot of tools

for wedding photographers.

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I mean, everywhere.

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There's email templates, there's

people giving courses, and I feel like

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besides the creative aspect of family

photography, we don't have that many

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educational resources like other genres.

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So I did create my course to kind

of fill that need, but also I did it

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because I'm a family photographer, guys.

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Like that's what I know.

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I sell the course as you know, this is

what I've done inside of my business.

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So I'm basically giving you, you know,

access to all of the tools that I use

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inside my own family photography business.

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And I certainly would not feel comfortable

creating a course, specifically for

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wedding photographers, when I have

never shot a wedding in my life.

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Now I've done birth guys, I've dabbled in

branding and commercial photography, but

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I have legitimately never shot a wedding.

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And so, I mean, knock on wood, never say

never, but you guys are not gonna see

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me putting courses out here and putting

offers out here for wedding photographers.

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That just doesn't make sense.

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I don't have the authority in that space.

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To be able to talk about the

wins that I've gotten in my own

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business to help you get those,

like it just doesn't make sense.

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But what I will say is that when

I talk about systems offerings, I

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specifically talked to photographers.

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Now for a hot minute,

guys and for a hot minute.

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I mean like seven months.

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I really tried hard to talk to all

creative service entrepreneurs.

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I mean, you may have heard that word

come out of my mouth a time or two.

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I was really trying to expand who I was

offering my done for you services to.

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I even played around with expanding

the course to offer different versions

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for different people, but at the

end of the day, guys, I am lazy and

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so I'm gonna do what I know, and

I just felt like, creative service

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entrepreneurs are hiring me anyways.

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Even if I am talking about

everything specific to photographers.

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I mean, they're dropping in my dms,

they're sending me contact forms.

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They're saying, Hey, Colie, like,

do you only work with photographers?

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And then I tell them, no, I mean I, I'll

absolutely help you with your business.

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But for me, doing all of my front face

marketing, my front face messaging

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towards photographers helps me give

a very clear message of who I am

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and what I offer and who I serve.

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Can I do it for other people?

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Absolutely.

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Do I do it for other people?

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I sure do.

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But if you niche down, if you talk to one

kind of person, it makes your life easier,

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even if you're willing to do other things.

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So like on the subject of

birth photography, there are

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no birth photos on my website.

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I don't even think that there's a

mention of birth photography, unless

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you land on my contact form and it

happens to be, or at least it was, one

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of the options in the dropdown menu.

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But like birth photography

is not something that I offer

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to everybody off the street.

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Like, you have to be one of my

clients for me to go to the hospital

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with you or be in your birth space

and photograph that amazing moment.

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You know, one of my previous clients or

related to one of my previous clients.

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All right guys, so what

about you and your business?

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Cuz I've talked a lot about me.

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Have you niched down in your business?

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Have you seen any specific gains,

from either nicheing down in

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the offers that you have or the

specific clients that you go after?

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I would love to know.

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So hit me up in the DMs on Instagram

if you wanna talk about it.

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Man, two years later, niching down

didn't just make my marketing easier.

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It made my systems smarter.

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But what's different in 2025, I've

learned that you can expand without

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losing your niche, especially when

you're backend is dialed in, which is

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why coming in July of 2025, there are

going to be expanded toolkits inside

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of the CRM blueprint for creatives that

cover wedding photographers, branding

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photographers, and senior photographers.

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So yes, there are still the original

templates well updated for family

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photographers as well as a more

general set for creatives like website

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designers, copywriters, et cetera.

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But everyone deserves systems that

work just as hard as you do, and

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so I am expanding the course to

really talk to more photographers,

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while keeping the focus on photography.

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So if you're a photographer who's ready to

stop duct taping your experience together,

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my course is officially open to you.

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All the emails, all the automations, all

the tools that helped me build my very

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own photography business and help hundreds

of other photographers do the same,

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even if I am no longer shooting clients.

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So check the show notes to peek inside

the course or DM me @coliejames , if

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you're wondering if it's a fit.

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Alright, that's it for this

episode, y'all see you next time.