Beetle & Frog

01/15/2025

11/30/2021

“OH MY GOD!” I hear My wife yelled from the our office down the hall...

It’s 2:30 pm and I’m about to hop on a zoom meeting just like any other day…

My son had been sitting quietly on the side of the bed watching his videos while I worked and right as the meeting starts he runs out of the room towards the office…

I saw some brown marks on his pants, but thought maybe it was just water because the pants were tan… no biggie, right?

That’s when it happened! “OH MY GOD!”

My wife said that he said
“Hi, mommy. Racoon!”
before she turned around and saw what he was talking about.

MAKEUP was EVERYWHERE!

It was on his face, on on this back (how did that get there?), and smeared all over the walls and floor..

It really made me think about how grateful I am to be able to work with clients who are flexible, understanding, and low stress.

For a long time I worked for really low rates because I didn’t understand the value of my time.

I wound up charging dirt cheap prices and working with clients who were overly critical, and I felt like a mouse clicker that they could control.

Definitely not the most fun situation to be in.

I always felt overworked and underpaid...

Everything changed when I realized that I was selling myself short by not valuing my time the way I should have been..

I started charging what I was actually worth, working with less clients for more money.

But if you don’t know what your costs are of doing business, you can’t confidently know what you’re worth, right?

That’s a common problem that I hear all the time…

It was even a problem my brother faced when I brought up the idea of turning his photography into a business.

So what should you even charge?

I've taken some time to build a business costs calculator specifically tailored to photographers that will show you exactly how much you need to make to run your business, pay yourself the salary you want, and give you the facts you need to finally have financial and time freedom.

I’m offering the calculator for free for serious photographers who are ready to start confidently charging and making more in their business before the end of the year.

Send me a DM and I’ll shoot it over to you.

11/11/2021

Ever been hacked on your website?

Have you had to deal with the complications of getting google to mark your website as “safe” again?

It’s a pain! And it’s time consuming! Definitely not something you’d want to do…

One of my clients recently got their website hacked.

The attacker duplicated the website into static pages and then added a randomizer to send out malicious phishing pages to victims where they’d get served pop up ads.

My client learned this only after Google marked the website as dangerous…

And by that time it was too late. The damage was done and he lost the site.

We worked together to build a new one in its place so he could get google to verify his site as safe again.

This process took almost a week and a half!

Because the website was dangerous, google revoked his ads; costing him valuable new acquisition.

All of this to say, be safe. Only use scripts, plugins, and themes that you know and trust.

And if you hire someone to help you, make sure they do the same for YOUR website.

It will save you time, headache, and hassle in the future.

11/05/2021

people always want to the best...

🔎 The best steakhouse
🔎 The best photographer
🔎 The best restaurant
🔎 The best.... WHATEVER

But does that first result actually mean that they're the "Best"??

Sometimes, sure maybe they are the best. But that's not always the case...

The game of search rankings takes a mixture of several things to make Google and other search engines to see you as "The Best"....

1.) Quality Engaging Content
2.) Relevent site content that is targeted
3.) How much organic traffic you're getting
4.) Reputation and Engagement
5.) User friendly experience

Google and other search engines want to serve searchers with QUALITY results whenever they can. So it's algorithm sorts through all possible sources to see if the results are....

Quality, relevant, current, engaging, and easy to use (fast to load and not malicious).

That's why everywhere you go you'll hear "content is king"! Because it will literally make or break your branding

So what do you do? How do you know that you're website is going to serve you like the best employee you've ever had?

You've gotta put in the work....

You've gotta make sure that it resonates with your audience.

You've gotta use the tools available to look at your sites performance and actively monitor what's working, and even more importantly...

What's NOT working.

Make the changes you need to make to get the best possible score.

Keep doing what's working, and change what's not serving you.

Running an online presence takes time and persistence.

Got a question about your SEO and how the Goog sees your business online?

Drop a comment below or send me a PM. I'm here to help!

11/03/2021

We live in a digital age of QR codes and tap to share contact info who needs business cards?

EVERYONE DOES

A business card is a way for you to build your brand and give someone a tangible thing to anchor to your interactions….

Like when you
⚡️Talk to someone at the store
⚡️ meet someone at dinner
⚡️ Stop and get coffee
⚡️ Help someone in need

A business card ties your connection with people giving them a physical piece of your brand.

What’s an interaction that you could have used a business card to help that connection become a client? Or what’s a client you’ve had that used your business card and that sealed the deal?

Let me know down in the comments!

——
🖨:
——

10/26/2021

Your time is valuable. Stop giving it away for free (unless you want to).

Every single one of us has something that we are truly passionate about in our businesses. We spend so much time running our businesses when we do choose to give something away, it should be because we want to and not because someone asked us to.

Exposure won’t pay your bills, but giving back to the community to forge relationships will.

Do what you love, and love what you do!

10/19/2021

At this time of year when you’re super busy, you don’t have time to not have time!

You’ve got Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Years…..

And theeeennn VALENTINE’S DAY!!

You’ve got sessions booked and invoices going out. Style guides, session reminders, retainer emails…..

I could go on and on…

All of these things are fundamental to running your business and staying on top of your calendar…

I’m sure just thinking of all this is giving you a mild sense of anxiety right now… it’s so much to do!

That’s exactly what we can help with. We can help remove some of those day to day tasks that get buried under hours of editing and just trying to make sure everything is sent out on time.

Post in the comments the one thing that you could use automated in your business.

It’s time to take back your time and start building systems to make your job easier.

10/13/2021

The best days include love and coffee!

This is how I get ready for a long day of design, development, meetings and ideation.

My design process starts out as a sketch every single time.

Sketching let’s the best ideas come out naturally and good ideas build better ideas.

And better ideas build GREAT ideas!

Designing brands or functional web apps takes planning and design for the way real people are going to use the product.

Whether it’s an intake form, a photo gallery, an interactive viewer, whatever it is….

It has to be designed with the end user in mind…

What’s gonna make
- them enjoy using it?
- their experience easy?
- make decisions faster (to make you more money)

“The best design is invisible.”

What are you working on today?

10/05/2021

Yesterday, the world literally stopped working!

What do I mean?

I talk to people every day that use social media to:

- Connect to their audience
- Maintain conversations
- Get new clients
- Generate new leads

For many, making a website was their least concern because all of their energy is spent on IG and FB.

"A website isn't really important right now because I do everything on Instagram."

"I have Instagram and Facebook, so I don't really need a place off social media to connect."

Sound familiar to anybody?

So what happened to them when their whole world stopped?

Their entire way of getting leads, communication, lead gen....
It all stopped!

Client's couldn't communicate with them, their entire marketing pipeline went down.

You're putting your entire business at risk If you're putting all of your eggs in the social media basket.

If you're a business owner that this sounds like you, you need a presence OUTSIDE of social media.

You need a website that works for you.

You need a brand that people remember and even when social media falls, they remember who you are and go to to get in touch with you.

Having your own online presence, a website that works for you, and a memorable brand is an investment into your business that will never go down if Facebook, or Instagram, or TikTok go down.

It's a place you can control that will be there, be reliable, and offer value to your business that social media can't always offer.

I can help with this. I build brands and websites that people remember.

Don't get stuck with this happening again. Send me a message so we can build you a Facebook/IG crash-proof website so you can avoid having this happen to you.

09/26/2021

Hello! 👋 I’m Zack your future brand designer!

Okay. Maybe not, but I’d love to talk to you about ways that I can help your business.

I’m 33 years old.

I have been a designer and web developer for 10 years.

I designed my very first website in Microsoft word.

I have the most amazing wife and a 2 year old son.

I have two dogs. Stewie is an 11 year old chihuahua, and Jasper is a 3 year old Great Dane.

Coffee is life.

I aspire to be a pilot so I can fly my family to awesome places for family vacations.

Thanks for the follow and I look forward to seeing you around!

— —
📸: Iliana Garcia Photography

08/06/2021

Sometimes to hit your goals you need someone to help you make the flip!

You've got goals and dreams that you want to make happen but need a little help to make it happen. And there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that!

It's part of growing!

That's why I help creative entrepreneurs reach their goals and gain time freedom by focusing their branding and strategy to the people who will pay them best.

Tired of trying everything to get to the next level but nothing you try is quite working right? Send me a DM! Let's chat about it!