The overarching theme this month is obviously winter. The extra time we have from not shooting out in 4 feet of snow. Now maybe you are out shooting in 4ft of snow. That’s awesome and you’re stronger than me for sure. But if you’re not shooting in 4ft of snow (like me) I don’t want you to get lazy or think that you cant do anything photography related for a whole season. If you have been listening for the past 2 weeks you will know that winter is an opportunity. And I want to help you take advantage of it! So I made a little list of things you should take care of this winter to better set yourself up for success this in 2019. 1: Your Social Media I know, I can hear the collective groans from you all. But it's not as in YOU HAVE TO DO IT to be a photographer. if photography is just a hobby and you don’t share your photos you don’t have to have a FB or instagram but there are a lot of photographers out there listening right now who use both, and they do it poorly. This tip is for them. I remember when I first made my FB and insta I didn’t post a lot. I thought I could I only post new content. I could never post the same photo twice. That’s just not the case. There are no instagram cops who will close your account if you post the same photo twice. Dont do it in a row of course but if you post the same photo once a month, no one will care as they will have forgot about it from the last time you posted it. Most photographers also forget that Social media is suppose to be social. It’s not an online classified ad. Too many photographers go on and just post sales and promotions. No one wants to ONLY be sold to. Make social media social. Tell the story of how you took a photo. Why you love shooting what you do. Ask questions. Have polls. A or B? That sort of stuff. Entertain your audience. Your photos don’t speak a thousand words and they don’t need to. People are so use to aimless scrolling, give them a reason to stop. Give them a reason to interact with your posts. the life of a photo is like 6 mins on instagram. You should be posting your work a minimum of once a day. “But I don’t have time for that!” I get it social is addicting and time consuming. I cant tell you how many times Ive needed to get on FB or Instagram to check something specific like an ad and then 20 mins later forgot why I was on there. That’s why I schedule out all of my social media. So that I don’t fall behind getting lost watching everyones stories and what not. And I can also strategically curate my brand through my captions. I use a program called Planoy which lets me schedule out my instagram posts for a whole month for free. It’s integral to sharing my message without getting too distracted and start scrolling.   And if you have a Facebook business page you have the ability schedule your posts built it! 2: Organization Next thing to work on is Organization. This can be so much more than just the photos on your computer which are everywhere and in random folders names "Untitled Folder 7" But lets talk about photos first. Use a dedicated hard drive just for work files. A 1tb hard drive can be purchased for $50. Having a fresh slate makes it easier to organize. I Have a folder called RHP for my business, then inside is folders for business or photo, in photos is engagements, weddings, portraits, and personal. Then in each of those folders its broken down by year, then in each year is a list of the clients I photographed, then inside that are folders for Raw, Selected (The photos I want to edit), and Edited the completed photos. So if Im looking for a specific engagement photo I could go RHP/Photos/Engagement/2014/Chris and Sally/Edited/ Chris and Sally Engagements 125.jpg Next place to get organized is your client management if you shoot portraits. Things like keeping track of where they are in the booking process, how they heard about you, when you want to follow up. There are tons of tools out there for track the client process. I use 17 hats which Im happy w