Start 2027 with a plan you're still following in March.
You know the pattern. The bookings dry up, the panic sets in and suddenly you're marketing like mad. Then the diary fills, the marketing stops, and a few months later you're wondering why the enquiries have gone quiet again. None of that is a lack of effort, it's what happens when you're not working from a plan.
This is where you take control of your marketing for the whole of 2027: two Thursdays in January, in a room with other photographers, with me planning my own year on screen beside you. So that the next time a quiet week comes round, you're not floundering and wondering why the bookings aren't coming in, because the plan already has that week on it, and you know what you did in February to fill it.
You'll leave with three goals you chose, the number behind the money one, and your whole year's marketing on one page, with a date on everything.
The Year You Choose
Three goals, twelve months and the marketing plan to reach them.
£45 · live on Zoom · Thursdays 7 and 14 January 2027, 12:30pm
Secure checkout via Podia · two live 90-minute sessions · the recordings afterwards for everyone in the room
It's the first week of January, the diary's quiet, and the question arrives: how am I going to get clients this year?
Nobody thinks about next year in December. December is Christmas presents and the nativity play and Christmas jumper day and the party you said yes to back in October, and if there's a spare hour it goes on the Christmas shoots. The thinking starts in that odd, quiet week between Christmas and New Year, and by the first week of January it has a voice: things are quiet, so this is the moment to sit down and work out how this year is going to go.
And then the usual thing happens. You open a notebook, you write down some goals, maybe you buy a planner (it's lovely), and by the middle of February you're either too busy to look at it or too quiet to feel like it. The planner ends up under the post, and you're back to marketing in a panic whenever the enquiries dry up.
- Your marketing happens when the diary looks thin, and stops the moment it fills up again.
- You've set goals before, on your own, in January, and never looked at them again.
- You'd love to feel in charge of this business for once, instead of reacting to it.
- You've had a good year in places and a flat one in others, and you couldn't say for certain which months were which.
- You know roughly where your clients came from. Roughly.
That first one is the big one, and I'd put money on it being yours, because it's every photographer's. The bookings dry up, the panic sets in, and suddenly you're posting every day, emailing everyone you've ever photographed and googling how ads work. It works, a bit, and the diary fills. Then you're rammed, the marketing is the first thing to fall by the wayside, and three months later the enquiries fall with it, because nobody was out there bringing them in while you were shooting.
Peak, trough, peak, trough. It will keep happening until you've got a plan you're working towards, with time set aside for the marketing in the busy months as well as the quiet ones. That's what you build in this course, and it's why you leave with every campaign's start date on one page, not a list of good intentions.
What we remember about a year and what the year actually did are often two different stories.
And a plan has to be built on the second one.
I do this every year before I plan anything, and it's one of the most valuable things I learned when I was learning how to market my business (on a marketing course, years ago, and I haven't skipped a year since). The months you remember as quiet aren't always the quiet ones. The client type you think of as your bread and butter isn't always the one that paid best. The marketing you were proudest of isn't always the marketing that brought the enquiries in.
Until you've put the numbers next to the memories, you're planning next year from a story, and quite possibly the wrong one. So before anyone in this course plans a thing, we look back at the year we've just had. We look at 2026 properly, on paper, with the numbers in front of us.
The Year You Had: an honest look at 2026, on paper, in about an hour
The Year You Had is a six-page worksheet, and it's waiting for you inside the course on Podia the moment you book. Print it and fill it in by pen, or type your answers straight into the PDF, whichever you'll actually do. What matters is that you sit down with it properly, phone face down and no other tabs open, and really write. It takes about an hour, and it's the hour everything else in this course is built on. It opens with a short note from me on why I look back before I plan anything, and then it gives you four pages.
Business and life side by side: your best decision, your proudest moment, and the lesson you'd hand to last January's you.
The disappointments, the flops, the frustrations that kept coming back, and the challenge you didn't see coming.
What held you back, split into what you could control and what you couldn't, and then the one thing that would have changed the most.
Shoots completed, average booking value and enquiries by month, written next to what you thought happened.
There's one optional Claude prompt on the last page, five minutes, for when the pages are full. It works on Claude's free plan, and you don't need to pay a penny to start. The paid plan buys you longer sittings, not different results.
Book the course, download the worksheet from Podia, and do it whenever December lets you, with a coffee, somewhere comfortable. Session one starts from it.
Then we choose the year. Together, in a room, with the numbers in front of us.
The Year You Choose is two live 90-minute sessions on Zoom, a week apart: Thursday 7 January and Thursday 14 January 2027, 12:30pm to 2pm UK time. Everyone plans in parallel. I plan my own 2027 on the screen while you plan yours, so you're never staring at a blank page wondering what a finished one looks like.
- Read your look back. Which months brought the enquiries, which client type paid best, and what marketing was running in the two months before your busiest one. (That last question is the one almost nobody asks, and it tells you when next year's marketing has to start.)
- More of, less of, and your hours. Two columns, then an honest look at a normal week and a school-holiday week, because a plan sized for the hours you wish you had is a plan you'll abandon.
- Three goals, and the money bridge. Everything you want by the end of 2027, across business, money, health and lifestyle, then the three that make the cut. Each one has to pass a test: specific, measurable, dated inside the year, a stretch, and owned by one quarter. Then we turn your money goal into shoots, your shoots into enquiries, and spread them across the months that bring them.
- What could stop you, and what you'll do each week. For each goal, what you need and by when, the two or three weekly actions you control, and an if-then plan for the obstacle most likely to turn up.
Plus your questions, answered in the room.
The week between: finish your goal pages, pull your blocked dates for 2027, mark your surge months, and run the first Claude prompt to pressure-test your three goals.
- Your twelve months on one page. Blocked dates first (school holidays, half-terms, the wedding, the trip, rest). Then your seasonal surges. Then every campaign, launch and moment, and for each one we count back to when the marketing starts and what has to be built before it can. The whole year on one spread.
- One quarter planned, and the monthly review. My own first quarter of 2027 on screen, then everyone plans theirs. Before the call ends, a monthly review date and a quarterly reset date go into your diary, with a small Claude ritual for the review.
Then you're paired with a partner. You swap your three goals and agree a date in March when you'll ask each other how it's going.
What you take away
- Two printed packs, one for each session.
- Your twelve-month spread as a standalone printable, for the wall.
- Three Claude prompts, written out, for pressure-testing your goals, dating your plan and running your monthly review.
- The recordings of both sessions, on Podia from Monday 18 January.
- A partner, and a date in March.
One honest line about what it doesn't do: it doesn't write your posts, your emails or your blogs. The plan ends at a planned first quarter with every campaign's start date on it. Running it week by week is what my other courses teach.
£45 · live on Zoom · Thursdays 7 and 14 January 2027, 12:30pm
Secure checkout via Podia · two live 90-minute sessions · the recordings afterwards for everyone in the room
A planning course you do alone is the workbook nobody finishes.
Planning on your own has a flaw, and it's got nothing to do with willpower. So this course is built the other way round.
- No deadlineso it waits for a quieter week that never comes.
- Nobody to compare notes withso you can't tell whether your plan is sensible or a fantasy.
- Nobody asking in Marchso the plan drifts and nobody notices.
- A deadlineSession two is a week after session one, and your goal pages need finishing for it.
- A roomOther photographers planning in parallel, and me planning mine on screen.
- A partnerOne photographer, your three goals swapped, and a date in March to check in.
Telling a crowd your goals does less than you'd think, and telling one person who'll ask you in March does a great deal more.
There's no community to join and no group to keep up with. Two sessions, a partner, and your year.
I'll be planning mine on screen, decisions included.
Everything I teach, I've tested myself, and this is the one I test every single year. I'll be doing my own look back and my own plan live in the room, so you'll see the real version: the goals I pick and the ones I drop, the weeks I block out for my family, and where the marketing starts for each part of my year.
- More proposals
- More webinars and online teaching
- Events
- Newborns
You'll watch me work out the rest.
Every bit of it runs in Claude, the one AI tool I actually use. You do the pages yourself first, then Claude pressure-tests your goals, dates your plan and runs your monthly review, all from your own words.
For any photographer with a year behind them and a diary to fill.
- Families
- Weddings
- Newborns
- Headshots
- Dogs
- Brands
- A big city
- A village
- The UK
- Anywhere else
It lands hardest if you've been in business a year or more, you've got a year you can look back at, and you keep starting January with good intentions and no plan that survives February.
In your first year? You can still do it. If you don't have a year of enquiries yet, the worksheet tells you to use your clients' year instead: when they look, when they book, and what they're planning for. Your plan gets built on that.
I'm not going to invent a countdown. The calendar did it for me.
end of the Sunday
12:30pm, the goals
12:30pm, the year
Booking closes at the end of Sunday 3 January. That's the only deadline, and it's a real one, because everyone needs a place booked and a worksheet done before we start.
Book now, and The Year You Had is yours to do whenever December lets you, or in that quiet week between Christmas and New Year, which is when most of us start thinking about the year ahead anyway. By the time 7 January comes round the looking back is done, and all that's left is the choosing.
£45 · live on Zoom · Thursdays 7 and 14 January 2027, 12:30pm
Secure checkout via Podia · two live 90-minute sessions · the recordings afterwards for everyone in the room
Great questions, honest answers
What is The Year You Choose?
The Year You Choose is a live planning course for photographers, taught over two 90-minute Zoom sessions on Thursday 7 and Thursday 14 January 2027 by Kirsty Hamilton, a London photographer and former journalist. In session one you choose three goals for the year and work out the number behind your money goal; in session two you put your twelve months on one page, with every campaign's marketing start date on it, plan your first quarter and set a monthly review. It starts from The Year You Had, a looking-back worksheet that comes with the course and takes an honest look at the year just gone. Everyone in the room gets both session packs, three Claude prompts, the recordings of both sessions afterwards and a partner to check in with in March. It costs £45.
When are the sessions, and how long are they?
Thursday 7 January and Thursday 14 January 2027, 12:30pm to 2pm UK time, 90 minutes each, on Zoom. The recordings of both go on Podia from Monday 18 January.
When does booking close?
At the end of Sunday 3 January 2027, four days before session one, so that everyone has a place booked and the worksheet done before we start. There's no waiting list after that.
Do I have to do The Year You Had first?
Yes, because session one starts from it. It takes about an hour, and it's inside the course on Podia the moment you book, so you can get it done before January.
Will the sessions be recorded?
Yes. Everyone in the room gets the recordings of both sessions on Podia from Monday 18 January, so you can go back over anything you want to revisit.
What's the partner, and do I have to have one?
At the end of session two you're paired with one other photographer in the room. You swap your three goals and agree a date in March to ask each other how it's going. That's all it is: one person, one date, and no group to keep up with. It's the bit that stops the plan drifting.
Do I need a paid Claude plan?
No. It works on Claude's free plan, and you don't need to pay a penny to start. The paid plan buys you longer sittings, not different results. You'll do most of the thinking yourself, on the worksheet and in the room; Claude is for pressure-testing, dating and reviewing what you've written.
I've never used Claude. Will I keep up?
Yes. The three prompts are written out for you, and I'll show you exactly where each one goes. If you can copy and paste, you can do this.
I'm in my first year. Is this for me?
Yes. If you don't have a year of enquiries to look back on yet, the worksheet tells you to use your clients' year instead: when they look, when they book, and what they're planning for. Your plan gets built on that.
Will it work for what I photograph, or outside the UK?
Yes. The method works from your own year and your clients' year, so it works whatever you photograph and wherever you are: families or weddings, newborns or headshots, dogs or brands. The sessions run on UK time.
Does it tell me what to post?
No. It doesn't write your posts, your emails or your blogs. You leave with three goals, the number behind the money one, a twelve-month plan with every campaign's start date on it and your first quarter planned. Running that plan week by week is what my other courses teach.
How much time does it take?
About an hour for The Year You Had before January, two 90-minute sessions a week apart, and an hour or so of homework in between. By the end of 14 January your whole year is planned, which is a good deal less time than you'd spend wondering about it.
What's included?
Two live 90-minute sessions on Zoom, two printed packs (one for each session), your twelve-month spread as a standalone printable, three Claude prompts written out, the recordings of both sessions on Podia from 18 January, and a partner with a date in March.
How long do I have the recordings and the packs?
For as long as the course is live, with every update included. I don't promise lifetime access on anything, because I'd rather keep a course current than frozen.
Can I get a refund?
Once your place is booked I can't refund it, which is the same on every Podia course. If something's gone wrong with your booking or your access, email me and I'll sort it.
Secure checkout via Podia · two live 90-minute sessions · the recordings afterwards for everyone in the room
Imagine it's the third week of January and your year is already on the wall.
You've got one page in front of you with twelve months on it. The school holidays are blocked out, the family trip is in, and so is the week you've given yourself to do nothing at all. Your three goals are at the top, and under the money one there's a number that isn't a wish any more: it's a count of shoots and a count of enquiries, spread across the months that bring them.
You know when your spring marketing starts, because you counted back from the date you need it to land, and you know what has to be built before it can. On the first Monday of February you'll sit down for half an hour with Claude and your numbers and check how January went, because the date's in the diary. So is the one in March, when a photographer you met in the room is going to message you and ask.
And if the diary fills in the spring, you'll be able to point at the week in February when you started working for it, instead of calling it luck.
That's where this road goes. The Year You Choose is where it starts.
Secure checkout via Podia · two live 90-minute sessions · the recordings afterwards for everyone in the room
Page last updated: November 2026