PhotoSpark

As business owners, it can be scary to be vocal about "controversial" topics. However, it's important to note that issues like race, human rights, and social justice are NOT controversial. They are incredibly important to recognize, talk about, and continue to educate ourselves on. We've always spoken the importance of letting your values show in your business, and standing up for what you believe it. With the current climate, it's even MORE so. We looked around recently & realized our photography community here in San Diego is VERY predominantly white. We've joined the conversation on ways to fix that, but honestly, we didn't really know the right way to go about it. And, we figured, as 2 white people, we definitely are not qualified to lead this discussion. We brought in Renata Williams of Lebanon Valley College & Faith Tiemann of SUNY Oneonta to help us break down exactly HOW to have conversations about diversity, be more inclusive, & talk about race in general.

Hello everyone! We missed you! Truth be told, we are both going through some crazy changes in our lives & schedules, and point blank, we've kinda ignored the podcast. We are SO sorry we've left you hanging, but we are back & we have some awesome episodes on the way! We just wanted to update you guys with what we've been up to & our stance on things like the EIDL loan, unemployment, and social distancing sessions/weddings. There is a LOT going on in the world today, and we are here for it and for YOU!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past couple weeks, you've likely seen Front Porch Sessions on Facebook. These are professional sessions of families at home on their porch. They've been highly controversial in the photography world; some people are loving them & finding ways to supplement their income or donate profits to causes, and other people are slamming them HARD, saying they are unprofessional and even illegal. So where do we lie on Front Porch Sessions? Are these a do or a don't?

In Part Two of our Coronavirus Series, we chat with Braden Drake all about contracts, client communication, & cash flow. He brought super valuable information to this show, and helped us with things we should add to our contracts for the future, ways to speak with your clients about your policies, and ways to help your cash flow during the Coronavirus crisis.

We don't even really know where to begin! We do know that COVID19 is a topic on everyone's mind, and we don't want to add to the panic or give anyone anxiety, but the truth of the matter is it's affecting small businesses on a level we've never seen before, and we know you're likely being affected. Wedding & portrait photographers alike are dealing with cancellations, reschedules, and a decline in inquiries. We wanted to reach out to you & provide some help and encouragement. Here are some survival tips for photographers dealing with COVID19.

We are SO excited to launch our brand new website redesign today! We didn't have a regular episode scheduled but we decided to pop on really quick to chat about the rebrand & as a bonus, throw Julie Ferneau some random rapid fire questions!

WPPI 2020 is here & bigger than ever! Whether you're a newbie or seasoned pro, we have some tips on surviving WPPI & getting the most out of your trip!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! We took a short hiatus to spend time with friends & family during the holidays. Well, and to edit millions of photos, but we are BACK! On the show today, we're chatting with Amy Gray, a San Diego based family portrait photographer who specializes in beach photography!

Julie & Kate discuss the new year & how to wrap up 2019 with a pretty bow. Tune in to hear how we're getting organized, prepping for taxes, thanking our clients, & starting 2020 with a clean slate!

Rachel Greiman of Green Chair Stories helps you bring your personality into your photography brand & attract your ideal clients with your website copy!

How do you know you are ready to rebrand your photography business? Britt & Kelsey of Launch Your Daydream are here to help! If you're feeling less than excited about your current brand, this is the episode for you!

Second shooting is amazing for a myriad of reasons. Not only does it allow you to practice & hone your skills, but it allows you to network with other photographers & make some money without the pressure of booking your own weddings.  In this episode, Julie chats about the do's & don'ts of second shooting.

If you've been in business for awhile, you'll know how often marketing methods change. When I first started, search engines were really the only way people would find your business. If you weren't paying for advertising, chances are you were struggling a bit. Then Facebook added business pages and that became the new place to be to nab new clients. Now, Instagram seems to be the way to go! Is anyone else here having a hard time growing your Instagram following? Julie & I have been working on upping our Instagram game lately (have you noticed?? Be sure to follow us!) & couldn't help but notice friend of the show Melissa McClure's amazingly successful Instagram account. This girl has 11.2k followers and gets HUNDREDS of likes and comments on her posts. We invited her to join us for a chat about growing your Instagram following! Key Takeaways Follow & Observe. Follow accounts that are doing what you want to be doing. Watch what they do! When do they post? How often do they post? What are their captions like? What type of content seems to be getting engagement? If you can watch and emulate your favorite accounts, you'll likely be on the right track to growing your Instagram following too! Quality over quantity. The most important aspect of Instagram is engagement. You want to have a LOT of likes and comments, and ideally you want to spark conversations in your comment section. Be sure to reply to every single comment you receive; that DOUBLES your comment number just by itself! DMs also count as engagement, so be sure you're messaging people back when they message you. You should also be messaging others... introduce yourself & let them know what you like about their content! Make sure your captions are fun & add calls to action... it's the best way to get people to comment! Get over your fear of stories & just do them already! We get it... stories are SCARY. The best stories usually involve other people seeing your face, and that's something most of us are terrified of. Do we have enough makeup on? Is our hair done? Are we a sweaty mess after a 10 hour wedding? NONE of those things matter... what matters is people seeing YOU & getting to know you beyond your images. Stories are a great way for potential & current clients to see glimpses into your personal life and they DON'T CARE if you have makeup on. In fact, the more real you come across, the better! Melissa has about 30 million more amazing tips during this episode regarding everything from hashtags to sketchy ways to grow your Instagram following, and more. Be sure to tune in to hear the rest! Also, be sure to check out Melissa at instagram.com/chasingbacklight as well as melissamcclure.com. And if you haven't heard her previous episodes, you can find them here: http://photosparkshow.com/episode-10-taxes-are-no-joke/ http://photosparkshow.com/the-other-side-of-the-lens/

What's more fun than a styled shoot? You not only get to take pretty pictures, but you get to meet new vendors, and basically design your ideal shoot! We always preach showing off what you want to shoot more of, and this is a GREAT way to do it! Sarah Kay Love joins us on today's episode! Sarah is a Creative Consultant, specializing in content strategy and digital marketing, devoted to helping companies build brands that differentiate themselves and increase business. She chats with us today about ALL things styled shoots, especially how to set them up, WHY to set them up, and how to get the most out of them! Here are a few of our favorite takeaways from this episode. Styled shoots help build vendor relationships: If your business comes through a large amount of referrals, this is ideal way to connect with industry leaders and gain recognition and make friends! It's also a great way to get to know the people you'll likely be working on future weddings with. You want to make the process as easy as possible for them, so we suggest explaining the expectations of the shoot clearly beforehand, as well as making the file delivery/download process quick & easy as well. If you're easy to work with, they're likely to refer you to their clients in the future! Market towards your ideal client: Again, this goes back to showing what you want to shoot. For example, setting up a high-end styled shoot will help you get into the high-end wedding market. It will give you a plethora of awesome images for your Instagram & blog, which will help you attract the right type of client. If you're wanting to go for more boho weddings, setting up a boho-themed shoot will attract that type of client. Basically, a styled shoot is a great way to showcase the type of work you want. Exposure! Ok normally "exposure" is a bad word in our industry. People often ask us for free stuff in exchange for exposure. Usually, that's not going to help you a ton, and we have always advised against it. However! Doing a styled shoot will get you in front of potential clients; they can see that your work reflects exactly the aesthetic they're looking for. It will also increase your SEO as you're tagging & being tagged by multiple vendors on Instagram, blog posts, etc. Styled shoots are also a great for publications. Focus on making your shoot as attractive & unique as possible, so it really stands out to publications.  

One of the hardest parts about running your own business and not having co-workers is the lack of water cooler conversation. We don't really have anyone we can vent to or ask advice from on a daily basis unless we connect with other photographers who understand! While we all LOVE our jobs, I'm sure, there are definitely times where it's not all rainbows & butterflies. In this episode, Julie & Kate commiserate a little about some of the less awesome parts of our jobs and common photographer pet peeves. We chat about frustrations & we help each other solve issues & work toward preventing them in the future! Here's just a quick sneak peek at some of the stuff we chat about on today's episode! "Reasonably priced" photo shoot seekers: I'm sure we've ALL received inquiries looking for a reasonably priced photographer. What does that even MEAN?! Do we cave in and give a discount if we're desperate enough?! The correct answer, of course, is NO... but when we receive these emails it can at times be tempting to negotiate with people. The solution to this is to make sure we know our value by figuring out our cost of doing business, goal-setting, and deciding how much our time is worth, and then stick to your guns!! Crickets upon file delivery: What's worse than delivering a gallery to a client and never hearing back?! NOTHING! It sucks! If you're anything like me, it makes you question whether or not they're happy with the photos, which in turn can make you question your talent & your work. Here's the thing... most people are really busy. They might not think that they need to reply. They know your work is good & they hired you because of it. They're going to assume that YOU know your work is good, and they don't need to tell you so. The solution? Reach out & follow up with past clients! Pop into their inbox & tell them you want to check in & make sure they received their gallery/prints/album and everything is good! This is a great way to tie your session up with a bow & ensure they have a good feeling about their shoot! Taking the blame for situations out of your control: Dad's late getting home from work, traffic on the way to the shoot is horrible, & baby spit up on their outfit, and by the time they arrive at their shoot, everyone is stressed beyond belief. And now it's up to you to take the reins and wrangle everyone into some awesome photos. There's only so much you can do. It's certainly frustrating when this happens, but you really want to do your best to manage expectations before the shoot even starts. Tell them about anything they need to know about the location (dog poop, flies, sand, etc). Try to emphasize the importance of picking outfits ahead of time & leaving work early... anything you can do to manage the stress of photo shoot day for your clients. "Can we just get like... ONE photo tomorrow for our Christmas cards/birthday invites/business card?" Nope. Hahaha, basically that's the gist of it. The best way to handle this situation is to have a rush policy/fee. Something like "gallery will be delivered within 48 hours for X amount of money," Make it high enough that most clients won't want to pay it (because it's definitely stressful), but high enough that if they DO pay it, it's worth it for you. We have a few more points in our vent sesh/brainstorming sesh, so be sure to tune into the episode. You can listen by clicking the link below. Be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes as well! Hugs, Julie & Kate

We are joined by Amber Dugger, founder of Profit For Keeps, a system developed for online entrepreneurs to end the stress and anxiety around numbers.  It is a holistic system combining personal finance and business cash flow strategies using Profit First and YNAB (You Need a Budget).  She has helped hundreds of coaches implement this system and has helped thousands more calculate revenue goals that actually make sense!

PhotoSpark Show Episode 103: Julie Ferneau & Kate Mills chat with the ladies of Launch your Daydream. They explain why it's important to niche down while giving action steps to attract the right clients. 

This episode of Photospark show is all about how to manage anxiety. We are giving real life suggestions you can start now to better yourself.  

  Kate is the Queen of email organization and let's just say... Julie has #emailgoals. This episode is all about email organization 101. Kate is sharing how to start, tackle and organize your email and gives us tips on how to manage it once you get it down to zero. Email maintenance is super important. First things first - A cluttered email inbox is the same as having a cluttered house. When you have a tidy house, let's be real, we feel on top of the world and ready to tackle our next project. When the house is messy and cluttered, your mind constantly thinks about it. Here's how to tackle your email inbox and get it completely organized. EMAIL CLEANUP GOAL is to get your email inbox to ZERO! Schedule time If you're scared of deleting emails, archive them. Just start. Scroll, Look, Select all, Delete. Repeat. Keep any important emails you have in your inbox or if you already have folders created, file them away EMAIL ORGANIZATION Create folders such as receipts, clients, follow-ups, vendors, etc. When you get your email down to just the important ones, respond to them in order of importance. EMAIL MAINTENANCE To prevent email buildup in the future, use unroll.me. It's life-changing and helps you get a handle on just how many companies you have opted in their email list and then immediately unsubscribes or rolls them up in one pretty little email. Don't subscribe to anything with your business email - give your gmail email instead Do try to use your business email for client and vendor communication. Stay on top of it. Schedule a time or two times each day for your email time. Use email templates. Either save drafts in gmail and copy and paste your email or use a CRM like ShootQ and have your templates set up in there. There you have it! Happy organizing, Sparksters! You got this! XO, Julie & Kate      

This is a SUPER exciting and important episode you guys! We're all sorts of celebrating today! This is our 100th episode which is SO incredible. Of course we're poppin' bottles for that one... We're doubling up the poppin' because it's Julie's birthday week. She is celebrating her New Years Eve birthday this year from Paris and she couldn't be more excited. She'll be sure to Instagram story the heck out of her trip so be sure to follow along @julieferneau. She's been known to pop ALL the bottles on her birthday. And the 3rd thing we're celebrating today is the early arrival of Kate's baby! She was born on Christmas Eve and she is truly perfect in every way! When we get photos we'll be sure to share them. Stay tuned for that! This is also the last episode of 2018. Let's talk about how fast the year went. It flew by so we're take a dive back into the past episodes and sharing 10 of our favorite tips that changed our businesses throughout the year. Favorite Tip 1 Erin Brant of The Leo Loves was a guest on Episode 73. She taught us to prioritize play over posing during photo shoots which is her wheelhouse. Her style is very candid, playful and fun. Favorite Tip 2 Meghan Brown of Two Bright Lights joined us on Episode 32 and shared so many valuable tips on getting published. A few of our reasons to get published are: Julie has now been published - which is a big deal for her! It establishes Credibility The backlinks from other blogs help your SEO You have additional things to share on social media. Who doesn't love getting published!? People love seeing themselves on blogs. Favorite Tip 3: Tracy Petrucci of Petrucci Marketing shared a wealth of knowledge in Episode 17 all about social media. One of the biggest takeaways was that Twitter has a big effect on SEO. Favorite Tip 4: Episode 36 with Bethel Nathan taught us to show what you want to book. Her episode was all about the modern couple. We as photographers and other creatives need to showcase and feature diversity on your website if you want to book more. Favorite Tip 5: Mary Fein Brandt is a LInkedIn expert. She was our Episode 59 guest and she served up bite-sized tips for us. With 460 MILLION people on LinkedIn, we listened up. Update your LinkedIn account right now by updating your headshot, bio and making sure you have a well-established page. Favorite Tip 6: Going way back to this oldie but goodie to Episode 9, with Melissa Mitchell of Melissa & Co where she dished out so many SEO tips, you have to go listen! It's a good one, we promise! BONUS: What we've learned over the the past 100 episodes: Done is better than perfect Sound quality does matter If we curse and offend someone, it's ok- 37 Setting a set recording schedule works and setting boundaries Planning meetings are essential Change will happen - embrace it We want to thank each and every one of you for listening and being a part of our family over the last 100 episodes! You are the best and give us the motivation to move forward and continuing this incredible podcast ride.  Here's to the next 100 episodes friends!  XO,  Julie & Kate http://photosparkshow.com/wp-admin/edit.php?paged=1

Heidi Thompson of Evolve Your Wedding Business is on PhotoSpark today talking about creating marketing plans for photography businesses!

As we bring 2018 to a close, many of us are re-evaluating our businesses, figuring out what's working & what's not working, and making goals for 2019. We figured this was an awesome time to invite Braden Drake onto the show to chat with us about business entities! Braden is a small business lawyer & tax lawyer here in San Diego, and he's a genius at making hard to grasp (and let's face it, boring) topics interesting!! On today's episode, Braden helps explain the differences between sole proprietorships, LLCs, and S-Corps.

It's so hard to balance work & family during the holidays! Today, we're chatting about business automation & giving you 6 ways your business can run itself!

Ok... I don't know about YOU guys, but there are DEFINITELY some things I have learned in the past ten (TEN!) years of running a photography business that I wish I knew when I started. We were chatting about these randomly last week and decided there's no better topic for our podcast! Whether you're a veteran photographer or just starting out, there are always changes you can implement in your business... it's NEVER too late! In our episode, we talk about TEN things we wish we knew when we started our photography business, but in the interest of keeping our blogs brief, we're just going to list our top five here. Tune in to Episode 96 to hear more! FIVE things we wish we knew when we started our photography business: Blogging really IS that important: Keeping your blog up to date is not only important for SEO purposes, but it also makes sure that potential clients can see that you're A) still in business and B) have your sh*t together (pardon my french!). Kate chooses to batch blog... she saves up images from each shoot in a folder on her computer & does a week of intensive blogging every 3-4 months or so. She post-dates if needed so blogs look consistent, and pre-dates posts for the months to come, to get her to her next batch blog date. It's easier for her than sitting down to blog on a daily or weekly basis, and still looks pretty consistent on her website! Be legit from the get-go: We mean this!! Get your business license, ficticious business name, DBA ("doing business as" registration), insurance, etc. File your taxes. PAY YOUR TAXES. Even better, SAVE money for your taxes!! Research locations you want to shoot in and see if they require a permit. Setting yourself up to be a 100% legitimate business as SOON as possible will not only relieve stress from your life, it will save you from penalties, and potentially losing your business. It will also garner respect from other, established photographers. Do this NOW if you haven't yet! It's not that hard!! Cut things you don't enjoy shooting: So simple, and yet so hard to actually do. Figure out your niche! Stop being a wedding/graduation/family/newborn/pet/red carpet/fashion/real estate/product photographer. Find what you love & what you're naturally good at and roll with it! Life is too short to spend time doing things you don't enjoy. The best part of running your own business is having the ability to eliminate stuff you don't want to do. So just do it already! Be consistent on social media: Post on Instagram daily. Share your favorite sessions on Facebook. Make sure you're reminding your clients that you're alive, and ensure that they see your recent work. There's nothing more sketchy than visitng a photographer's social media only to see they haven't posted in 2 years. Are they still in business? Are they still any good?! You have no idea because they haven't been consistent on social media. This is huge & important. You can even hire someone for this if you really aren't good at it. Invest in education over equipment: Nothing is more exciting than walking into a camera shop with $2k in your hand ready to spend on a new fancy lens. But at the end of the day, if you're not investing time (and possibly money) in education & learning HOW to run a business, it's not going to matter how pretty that lens makes your clients look, because you aren't going to have any. YouTube, CreativeLive, and podcasts are just a few avenues of FREE education in our photography world; you just have to invest the time. And there are a million other PAID education opportunities to jump on as well: workshops, mentoring sessions, online courses... it's SO worth your time and money to invest in learning both the technical and the business side of running your business! We hope you liked this quick recap of our episode... please tune in to hear us elaborate more on these topics & hear 5 MORE things we wish we knew when we started!

Hellllooooo listeners! This episode is a doozy! I'm NOT going to give away the big announcement here; you have to listen to the episode. But let's chat a bit about letting things GO & reducing workload. As business owners, we have to constantly be assessing whether or not things we are doing are right for us. This could be everything from niches of photography we're specializing in, to how we run our businesses, to side hustles, to personal projects. There's nothing worse than expending energy on something that isn't beneficial to us in some way. These decisions can be really hard. Sometimes we don't feel like letting go is the "right" thing to do, but when your gut is telling you that something isn't working anymore, it's very important to listen to that and explore it further. This episode is all about us letting go of things that aren't beneficial to us anymore. Whether it's due to extra stress, or it's just something we aren't interested in, the three of us chat about things we've had to let go, both in our business & personal lives. Here are some questions to ask yourself when you're dealing with a tough situation, and facing the possibility of letting something go. Is this benefitting me financially? At the end of the day, if you're looking at a business decision, money talks. Is what you're currently doing benefitting you financially? Is the time you're putting into it worth what you're getting out of it monetarily? If not, move to question 2! If it's not benefitting me financially, is it helping me build my business/brand? Good things take time. Not everything is going to have a financial return early on, and sometimes it's worth it to put in the hours & the grunt work because you're building your business & working toward that point. If it's not helping you build your business/brand, move to question 3! Does the joy that this adds to my life outweigh the stress this adds to my life? This is probably the deal breaker question! If what you're doing is stressing you out more than you think it should, and if it's not adding joy to your life to counteract that stress, it's probably time to let it go! We can't WAIT to have a Facebook group conversation about this topic & hear the things you guys have had to let go of over the years of building your businesses! Stay tuned for the official Facebook group announcement coming soon!

One of the COOLEST parts of our job is being able to travel & work at the same time! Whether we're taking destination shoots, or just bringing along our laptop for some on-the-go editing on the family vay-cay, working remotely is a huge benefit to photographers! During this episode, we'll cover some tips & tricks to working remotely, and share some stories of our experiences, trials, and tribulations. Key Takeaways: Eliminate distractions: This is probably the HARDEST thing to do while traveling remotely. In Julie's most recent experience, she was visiting family, so getting them to understand that even though she was physically in the room, she was not available to chit chat was a challenge. Sometimes you can solve this issue by heading to a coffee shop, library, or other comfortable, fairly quiet spot, but then you have the issue of privacy (especially when it comes to using the restroom... do you trust your neighbors to watch your stuff or do you pack everything up/take it with you only to risk losing your table? It's a hard problem to solve!). Setting boundaries with your family/friends is absolutely key to being successful at working remotely! It's probably a good idea to lay some groundwork ahead of time and let them know what to expect, so they aren't planning full days of activities when you're planning on working! Bring backup gear: This is crazy obvious for us, as we bring backup gear to every single shoot we do. But sometimes while traveling it's tempting not to! Extra gear is bulky & heavy, and it's SO easy to just say "eh, I probably won't need that, let's travel light." But that seems to be the time you need it the most! Just ask Kate, whose tripod broke literally SECONDS into the start of the most amazing northern light show in Iceland, and who ended up with one or two photos by balancing her camera on a trashcan lid in the middle of a field. Don't risk it!! Carry your gear: Don't EVER check your gear if you can avoid it by any means. For one thing, baggage handlers aren't gentle, and for another there's really no guarantee it's going to end up in the same city as you. This is true for personal vacations as well as destination shoots. It's just not worth it! We always use our camera bag as our "personal item" on the flight. At the very least, make sure your ESSENTIALS are with you. Camera, batteries (use the caps on the bottom to prevent a fire hazard!), charger, memory cards, flash, and 2 favorite lenses. If you have to check your tripod or reflector, those are fairly easy/inexpensive things to replace when you land if they get damaged or lost. We have TONS of tips for you guys in the podcast, so be sure to tune in! And stay tuned for the awesomely rad Facebook group we're creating... it's going to be SO much fun to get to interact with you guys on a daily basis! We can't wait! In the meantime, like us on Facebook to stay posted with updates on the group's progress & launch date!

It's been a bit of a crazy month in the photography world, wouldn't you guys agree?? As podcasters, we think it's important to keep ourselves updated on everything that goes on in our world beyond the lens, and the biggest thing this past month has definitely been the Meg Bitton drama!! For those of you who don't know what's going on, here's an article on PetaPixel that sums it up pretty well: https://petapixel.com/2018/09/06/renowned-child-photographer-under-fire-for-sexualizing-young-girls/ Read that, and you'll be all set to tune into our podcast to hear our opinions! As with anything, no publicity is bad publicity, right? We definitely agree that Meg Bitton knows what she's doing... she's riling people up and in turn she's attracting the type of photographers she wants to mentor to, and she's easily swatting the rest away. We talk all day long about finding our ideal client, right? If you're a wedding photographer interested in shooting offbeat weddings, you're only going to cater your website & your work toward offbeat brides & grooms, and you're not going to give a second thought about the brides and grooms that aren't digging your work. So how is this any different than that? On this episode, we discuss where to draw the line between finding your ideal client & putting your subjects in a potentially dangerous situation. We chat about money vs morals, how far one should go to become popular, and the possible repercussions of "art." What IS art? Where do we set the limit? Is there a difference between art shared online vs art in a museum or art gallery? What about the photographer... can female photographers get away with things that male photographers cannot? Or visa versa? This topic brings to light SO many questions & even we are torn in a few areas! But we definitely have our opinions overall, and we have no problem sharing them. Tune in to hear us chat, and be sure to come add your own opinion to our Facebook page!!   Download from iTunes Here

Can you guys believe we are basically in holiday rush season for portrait photographers already?! It's insane how fast these years go by. It doesn't help that we usually have to start thinking about the holidays in the summer while it's still a million degrees outside (at least here in San Diego it is!), but believe it or not... it's TIME! We decided this week's episode should be about various ways you can work smarter & not harder during your holiday rush! Ashley & Kate have learned a LOT as portrait photographers for over a decade, and we share some of the new stuff we've learned over the years that has made a huge difference in our holiday rush seasons. Tune in to hear the details, but here are some quick tips! Automate when possible! Kate uses http://bookedin.com while Ashley uses http://www.calendly.com. Both are awesome ways to automate your session bookings. Kate does mini sessions, so she uses BookedIn to make her availability clear & concise, and clients can book/pay for mini sessions automatically without even having to send her an email. Ashley doesn't do holiday minis, but she uses Calendly to let clients know when she's available & mark their desired date, after which she follows up with a phone call to seal the deal. Both have made a huge difference in our workflow, cutting out the back and forth of 50 million emails, and keeping the booking process as simple as possible for both our clients and ourselves! Set limits to avoid burnout- It's sooooooo hard to turn down money, isn't it?! But how many times have you taken on way too much overwhelmed yourself with work?! This is easy to do, especially during the holidays when most of us have a ton of family/friend commitments on our calendars as well. We suggest setting limits as much as possible, starting with an END date for holiday shoots. Clients need to understand our turnaround time, card company turnaround time, etc. and know that they can't book a shoot on December 20th and expect to get cards delivered before Christmas. Do your best to set a stop date (we suggest something in November!) and stick to your guns! Don't be afraid to try something new- For those of us who have been in business a while, it's easiest to just copy exactly what you did last year... and the year before, and the year before... especially when talking about mini sessions. However, it's never a bad idea to look at your systems and see if there's something you could change, to either make life easier for you or to make more money! For example, Kate used to offer 20-minute mini sessions for the holidays. She'd schedule two per hour, giving herself 10 minutes in between shoots to "change over." However, she realized she often never used this time, as her next clients were typically already ready to go as she finished up her prior shoot. SO she decided to price her minis slightly lower this year and make them for 15 minutes instead of 20. Her clients felt that the money saved was worth a 5 minute shorter shoot, and she was able to schedule FOUR per hour and double her income each day. She hasn't attempted this yet, so it might bite her in the butt if clients are late, but if it works, it's genius! Stay tuned to hear how it plays out! Let us know if there's anything you're changing up this year to make mini sessions easier for yourselves! Comment on our Facebook page & let's start a discussion!! ALSO stay tuned for our Facebook GROUP which is coming soon! We can't WAIT to connect with you guys on a regular basis on a super personal level!!! Exciting things are to come!!   Download from iTunes Here

Hellllooooooo PhotoSpark listeners!!! It's SO good to be on the airwaves chatting with you guys again. We missed you BIG time!!! If you want to hear the inside scoop on where we've been & why we took a little hiatus, be sure to listen to the episode. We want to be an open book with you guys & we got super vulnerable, so it's a good one! Basically, side hustles are freaking HARD. It's so hard to prioritize something (especially if it's not making you any money... YET) when you have a million other things on your plate. If you've ever attempted a side hustle, especially collaborating with other people, you'll know that oftentimes they fall to the back burner, and run the risk of disappearing altogether. So how do you keep everything working & flowing & growing? Here are a few tips! Consistency is KEY: Instead of just working on your side hustles whenever you get the chance, set a schedule for yourself. Whether this means a set weekly meeting time, set office hours, or a formal deadline, keeping your work times consistent will make sure you don't neglect your side hustle, which will lead to its demise! Use a planner: We can't stress enough how using a planner helps us keep all of our daily to-do lists and goals clearly written out and organized. We all make sure to keep our planners extra cute too, so they're colorful & fun to look at. There's something special about crossing an item off your to-do list, and the more you do it, the more motivated you are to do more! Accept the ebb & flow: Part of being successful in just about anything, is accepting that there will be high parts & low parts of whatever you're doing. Some days, you'll feel AMAZING about what you're doing. You'll be motivated, you're getting great feedback coming in, and you can't wait to tackle the day's to-do list. Other times, you might hit a slump. Maybe you're lacking creativity, having a hard time coming up with new ideas, and feeling overwhelmed & stressed. There's ALWAYS a light at the tunnel. You have to work to see it sometimes, and if it really truly isn't there, then it's time to reconsider your priorities, and decide if this side hustle is actually right for you! Long story short, we are BACK! And we are STOKED! New episodes will be released every OTHER Wednesday morning, so be sure to keep an eye out on iTunes or your chosen podcast subscription service! Download from iTunes Here

As with everything in business, you learn a lot of things as you go! Do you guys remember the first time you made a contract for your business? If you were smart, you purchased a photography one somewhere (preferably from a lawyer), but if you're like a lot of us, you probably started with a VERY basic contract template, and have added to it over the years. In this episode we'll be discussing our contracts: what they contain, what we've had to add over the years, and why they're important! Key Takeaways Portrait contracts are JUST as important as Wedding contracts. Recently in a group of ours, a bunch of photographers were having a conversation about whether or not portrait clients need contracts. The answer is 100% a resounding YES! Absolutely every single shoot you do should have a contract to go with it! This protects you, your client, EVERYTHING. So important! Sticking to the contract. This part is up to you. You can be as harsh or as easy going as you want with your contract once it's in place. For example, if you have a punctuality clause that states that your shoot begins at X time and ends at X time whether or not client shows up on time, and client shows up 15 minutes late, it's your call whether or not to honor that clause or to just tack on 15 minutes at the "end" of the shoot. This can be a struggle, because we want to appear kind, not stress the client out, etc, but at the same time, our time is valuable. Having a contract in place gives you protection so if you do decide to enforce your rules, nobody can complain. It also ensures that clients go into the shoot knowing what's to be expected of both parties, which can help prevent miscommunication issues. Things we've added: Drunk wedding guest/couple clauses Punctuality clauses Weather clauses Photo selection timeframe Album selection timeframe Wedding vendor meal inclusion Relevant Links: Ashley DuChene Kate Mills Julie Ferneau Download from iTunes Here  

If you guys haven't listened to last week's episode yet, you totally should! Last week we chatted all about goal planners and long term planning strategies. This week, we're continuing our "goals" episode and talking about daily planners! Daily planners are such an important tool to stay organized in your business as well as your personal life. I know personally for myself when I don't have an up to date planner, I end up with a million "to do" lists floating around both digitally and on scraps of paper, and I always feel like I'm forgetting something. Keeping up with your daily planner is a good way to avoid that! Key Takeaways Physical planners vs. digital ones: There are pros and cons to both physical and digital planners. Digital planners are great because you can take them everywhere with you via your phone, and you can easily sync appointments & calendars with other people. However, every time you pick up your phone, you run the risk of getting distracted... Facebook and Instagram are probably the number one culprits! For this reason, we love physical planners. There's also something really fun about physically putting pen to paper both to write out your tasks and to check them off. The downside of a physical planner, is you have to decide whether or not you want to take it with you everywhere you go, and it can be rather cumbersome. To each their own when it comes to this choice, but for today we're chatting about physical daily planners! Be as specific as possible in your planner. For example, don't just write "answer emails" in your planner. Write down exactly what you have to answer. Like "respond to Vanessa's inquiry" and "Send location details to Sam" and "Send thank you email to Fiona." By doing this, you see peoples' names and are reminded of the urgency you have to reply to them. If you just write "answer emails" every day, you'll start glancing over it, and it's easy to deem it unimportant. This way, you keep everything fresh for the day and make sure it catches your eye. Pick a planner that's right for you. Not all daily planners are considered equal! Here are some things to consider when choosing your planner: Does it need to be small enough to fit in your purse/laptop bag or will you be leaving it at home most days? What's your most important feature? To-do lists? Large boxes for day, week, or month? Is there enough space to write everything you need? Are there tabs and pages that you know you'll never use & are therefore a waste of space? Do you want something extremely minimalistic or do you want something fun? Stickers & doodles or professional writing only? Do you want something with a personalized cover or are you happy with a design you pick out at the store? We had a blast talking about this stuff this week, so be sure to tune in to the full episode to hear more about our planners & our techniques for keeping them up to date! Relevant Links: Simplified Planner by Emily Ley Download from iTunes Here Download from iTunes Here

HAPPY 2018 you guys!! We are so happy to bring you another year of PhotoSpark... can you believe we started planning this podcast in 2015? Feels like a lifetime ago! We all know how important it is to get your year off on the right foot... the new year always feels like a great time to re-evaluate our businesses (and our lives!) and see what's working for us and what isn't! Today, we're sharing part one of our two part episode about... PLANNERS! We're kicking off 2018 chatting about GOAL planners specifically today! What's a goal planner? Why should you have one? How are they different from daily planners? If these questions are in your mind... tune in to hear more! In this episode we are referring to Julie's current goal planner, which are the Cultivate What Matters Powersheets. They're SUPER awesome and you guys should check them out! So we're walking you a briefly through the steps these Powersheets take you through to plan your goals for 2018! Key Takeaways Brain dump your goals. When goal planning, sometimes it's hard to figure out where to start. A good technique is to just START. Just brain dump every single goal that crosses your mind. Don't worry about ranking them, categorizing them, or thinking about logistics. Just write them down. Spend some time really thinking about every single goal you have and get it out of your brain and on paper! You can worry about details and ranking later... brain dumping in your goal planner just a great way to get started & a great visual to have of all of your goals! Rank your priorities in 2018. There are SO many categories our goals can be arranged into. Of course, we have to find a way to prioritize some areas over others, or else we'll just go crazy. Here are the categories that Powersheets recommends using for your goals. It's a good idea to go through each category and rank it from 1-10 on its importance THIS year. What do you want to focus on this year? Finances Recreation Work Family Spouse/Significant Other Friends Health Have fun with it! The prettier your planner looks, the more likely you'll be to return to it every day & work on it! We suggest getting some fun sticker books, a fresh set of markers, and some great highlighters to help you keep your planner fun & pretty! This seems like kind of a frou-frou suggestion, but we promise it isn't! Anything you can add to your planner to make it fun, will keep you returning to it & keep you working with it! Ok, this is JUST a skim of the whole episode, which dives way more in depth into goal planners... so check it out! And again, if you'd like to check out Powersheets, just click the link! We promise we aren't getting paid anything to promote them (yet... eh, Powersheet people?) but the free promotion is a sign of how much we're loving this product! Tune in next week for part 2 of our "Planners" episode, where we dive into our daily planners! Relevant Links: Buy Powersheets Here Kate Mills  Julie Ferneau Ashley DuChene   Download from iTunes Here Download from iTunes Here    

Photo Cred: Your Face is Rad Today we are chatting about everyone's FAVORITE topic.... criticism!! If you guys are anything like me, the thought of having someone criticize you (in any way!) makes you get a little nauseous! It's a huge weakness of mine, and something I've had to really work on over the years, because it's a normal part of life! And it's actually a GOOD part of life! Criticism helps us grow, both in our business & in our personal lives. It's what you do with the criticism that makes all the difference. So here are a few tips from us here at PhotoSpark about handling criticism! Key Takeaways: Accepting it is a muscle. That's a confusing sentence, but what we mean by this is it takes time to build up your brain to accept criticism in a healthy way. It's a cognitive process that you have to really work on over and over again to improve. It's very easy to take things personally, and it's a trained exercise to take it without getting your feelings hurt or challenging your self worth. Learn to GIVE criticism properly. This is just as important as learning to receive criticism. In our industry, there are many areas where we can give others constructive (key word... constructive!) criticism, especially when dealing with assistants, editors, or second shooters. Everyone knows the old adage of giving a criticism sandwich (a compliment, followed by constructive criticism, followed up with another compliment). The more you are to be able to GIVE constructive criticism, the more likely you are to be able to take it as well. If it seems over the top, give yourself a break. Oftentimes, when people are criticizing you about something, there are external factors at play as well. ESPECIALLY with photography. When you go above & beyond to try to fix the problem but nothing is working, let yourself off the hook a little. If you're pleased with the images, and they're technically on par with the rest of your work, chances are there's something the client is feeling self-conscious about that is affecting their opinion of their shoot. Maybe the client put on a few pounds this year, or they were in a fight with their spouse & can see it in the images, or their kids didn't have a good enough nap so they can tell they aren't as smiley as usual. There are so many things that go on behind the scenes... sometimes it isn't our fault! We hope this episode came at a good time for you guys! We know with the year wrapping up, tensions can be a little high, so criticism can be extra painful. If you liked this episode, please subscribe to us on iTunes and leave us a positive review!!! Relevant Links: Ashley DuChene Kate Mills Julie Ferneau Download from iTunes Here Download from iTunes Here

HELLO PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHERS!!! (I had to put that in all caps to "yell" above the CHAOS that is the holiday portrait season so you guys could hear me). :) In all seriousness, who else is feeling totally drained right now?! Holiday portraits SHOULD be dwindling down (unless you have superhero-esque turnaround times), but even so, you should be coming to the end of your shoots for 2017. How are you guys feeling?! Over here, we're feeling pretty good this year, but still pretty stressed! Julie's off galavanting in Iowa (although, traveling for the holidays has its own set of stressors!), but Kate & Ashley were still rockin the family portraits up until last week, and I (Kate), still have a makeup day coming up this weekend! We decided now was a great time to chit chat about holiday burnout.. more specifically, how to avoid holiday burnout! Enjoy this PhotoSpark episode all about the holidays! Key Takeaways There's more to life than being busy. It's so easy to get caught up with being "busy." It's how we all respond to people when they ask us how we're doing this time of year. "Oh, I'm good, but I'm SO BUSY." Take a look at your daily life, and see if there's anything you can cut out to make it LESS busy. Can you imagine if we all felt relaxed & refreshed instead of feeling busy all the time? It's not an easy thing to do, but eliminating some unnecessary tasks during the holiday season can help us avoid holiday burnout. Maybe you do New Years cards instead of rushing to get your family Christmas cards out. Or maybe you skip making the cookies this year, or you hire someone to help keep your house clean for the rotating company that's streaming in. If there's something you can do to make yourself less busy, now's the time to do it! Pick an end date & stick with it. We're telling you this for next year, and we're also telling OURSELVES this for this year, because I'm pretty sure none of us succeeded in this this year. To be fair, I was SUPER close... but the crazy wildfires here in North County San Diego caused a few clients to need to reschedule their shoots, so I am ending up shooting past my "end" date. But usually, it's a good idea to pick a date at least a few weeks before the end of the year, as your final day for photos. It gives you something to look forward to, and also ensures that you won't be accidentally screwing over any clients with turnaround times. Shop online. If you're not on Amazon yet, come out of your cave, and sign up. Kate's a huge fan of Subscribe & Save as well; it can save you SO much money & time! We pretty much don't even go to the store anymore. Think of all the time you'll save this season buy buying online. Download from iTunes Here Download from iTunes Here  

Download from iTunes Here Oh man; do you guys remember school photo day?! I have very vivid memories of being like, 10 years old and sitting on that little stool, while some dude told me to put my feet on the "x" and tilt my head to the left, lean my shoulder down, chin up just a bit, and SMILE! School portraits have come a long way since then (for the lucky ones!), and this episode will explore the world of school portrait photography! There's nobody better to have on to discuss this than Natalie Chiles, who is ROCKING the school portrait niche in San Diego! She discusses how she built her business around school photography, as well as some tips & tricks for our listeners who might be interested in diving into school photography! Key Takeaways Modern School Portraiture: In a lot of areas, San Diego included, there's a bit of a monopoly on school photography. We still do have the big company that goes from school to school with their little stool & their 1-2 photos of each kid. However, preschools and private schools don't have to buy into this company! Natalie aims for private meetings with school administrators, where she discusses modern school portraiture, and how it differs from typical school portraits. She brings sample photos and talks about her process, and once they see her work, it's easy for the administrators to see how she's different and why they should go with her instead of the other guys! Be personal & take your time!! This is the difference between modern school portraiture and regular school portraits. Natalie aims to spend 2-3 minutes with each kid. She focuses completely on them, and chit chats with them to relate to them, get them to open up, and make them comfortable. Her goal is to get 5 different expressions to present to the parents, which differs greatly from a lot of the other companies who usually just pick the "best shot" and send it to the parents. Bring an assistant. School portrait day is a LOT of work. Sometimes there are hundreds of kids, so staying organized is KEY. Otherwise, there's a huge risk of mislabeling photos which makes for a huge mess when you're trying to deliver the right galleries to the right parents! Assistants can help with all that, as well as help get kids to smile, relax, and be comfortable in front of the camera. There are SO many more awesome points to hear on the episode. This is such a cool niche of photography that hasn't really been oversaturated yet! Please be sure to download off iTunes, or you can listen below!! Relevant Links: Natalie Chiles Photography

Have you guys heard about the BIG changes coming to ShootQ? We have, and we have been SO excited to see them roll out! If you aren't using ShootQ, you are missing out on a CRAZY valuable tool for your photography business. Chances are, if you're doing something manually in your business, ShootQ can take it over, and provide you with precious extra time! Emailing the same thing over and over? ShootQ can handle that. Still having clients sign their contracts in person? Let ShootQ email them a digital contract. Tired of collecting payments or sending invoices manually? Look no further. At this point, we're wondering if there's anything ShootQ CAN'T handle for us! We are SO excited about the changes, we invited Adam Fried back on the show to chat with us a bit about what's new, what's the same, and what to expect from the revamped ShootQ. Tune in to hear how you can take advantage of ShootQ to help you with your photography business! Key Takeaways Take FULL advantage of the free trial. Oftentimes, we'll sign up for a free trial for something, dip our toe in, and get so overwhelmed with the whole process that we don't really end up using whatever it is to it's full extent, which means we're just confused the whole 30 or 60 days or whatever, and end up not subscribing to the service at the end. So here's the awesome thing. ShootQ is designed to really help you with setting everything up. They help make the on boarding process fun, so you get incentives to complete your set up. There's always someone to help you, Don't be scared of change! If you already use ShootQ, don't be scared they're going to mix everything up on you! You have the option to keep things the same for as long as you like, and ShootQ is rolling out new features slowly, so you can very easily make the switch without feeling overwhelmed. Utilize questionnaires. Questionnaires are a GREAT way to know all sorts of things about your clients. From the very first inquiry, you can use a ShootQ questionnaire to find out more info about your client & what kind of shoot they're looking for. After the shoot, you can use a questionnaire to find out what worked, what didn't, and get honest feedback about your shoot. ShootQ has unlimited questionnaires you can send your clients, which makes the whole process very easy and streamlined! Keep track of all of your clients. ShootQ makes it SO easy to keep track of your clients. First off, obviously all their information is saved in your ShootQ, so you know their contact info. Also, you can look back on ALL your past shoots, and you can see notes you've made throughout the years. This is great for something like locations. You can make a note of what locations you've already used, so you know new locations to offer them. You can also note important things like birthdays and anniversaries, so you can send little notes or gifts on those big days! GO MOBILE. These guys are rolling out an AWESOME mobile app to go along with their service. It's going to be revamped, and easier to use than ever. You'll have all your client info at your fingertips, all the time. So if you forget something before the shoot (like dad's name... raise your hand if you've done that!), you can quickly look it up & save yourself! Of course, Adam talks about a LOT more ShootQ features, as well as shares a hilarious story about #vanlife. (You just have to listen, I can't explain that here!) So be sure to download this episode now! THANKS FOR LISTENING!! Have a great week everybody!   Download from iTunes Here Download from iTunes Here

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens... ... YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! EVERYBODY GETS A CAR!!!!! OK... maybe our Favorite Things episode isn't going to be AS exciting as the amazing musical, Sound of Music OR Oprah giving her whole audience cars. But we are pretty excited about it nonetheless! One of the things we tend to miss about having an office job is the interpersonal relationships you build in a setting like that. You're constantly chatting with co-workers (if you're lucky) about a myriad of topics, including things you're obsessed with at the moment! We decided to bring a bit of that atmosphere to the show this week, and we're talking about our Favorite Things!! Most of them are "semi" photography related, but we weren't too worried about that. We just wanted to dish about some stuff we've been loving lately!! Here's a highlight of our favorite things... tune in to hear more! Rothy's: Julie is OBSESSED with her new shoes. These shoes are made from recycled water bottles (yay!) and are SUPER cute and comfortable! The best part is, they're great for weddings & shoots because they're machine washable!! You don't want to be worried that your shoes are stinking up the hotel room when you're taking "getting ready" photos, so this is a huge plus! Go check them out, and if you buy with this link, you'll get a discount! (And Julie will get a hookup, so it's a win/win situation!) https://go.referralcandy.com/share/D8ZDD28 Podcasts: This is a GIVEN, but of course we are all obsessed with Podcasts! Podcasts help time pass faster, especially while driving or working, and they are educational AND entertaining! We plan on doing a whole episode on our favorite podcasts in the future, so definitely stay tuned for that! Playstation Vue: Cable is SO 2014. Kate & her husband have been cable free for quite awhile now, but have always hated not having live TV. Playstation Vue is a new app (you don't need a Playstation for it!) that you can stream to your TV via your phone, or Roku (or similar) device and you actually get live TV along with DVR, on demand, and more! It's great for mindlessly listening & "watching" Fixer Upper while editing shoots! Bandolier: This thing is rad. It's like a purse, meets a phone case, meets a wallet. It's a luxury product (not super cheap) but it replaces your phone case & purse! It's SO hard to describe so you have to go check it out yourself, but it's great for photoshoots because you can keep your essentials on your body, it hides your phone (so it doesn't look unprofessional), and it stays around your neck so it's nice & safe. Again, Julie's hooking it up with a referral code, so go check it out for yourself! https://go.referralcandy.com/share/C4X68PH Etsy: A lot of people think Etsy is just for handmade items, but there are a lot of awesome digital templates & business-related things on Etsy! It's a go-to place to find a designer, templates, contracts, client gifts, etc! Greetabl: Speaking of client gifts, Greetabl is an AMAZING gifting service! It's not just a packaged gift, it's totally personalized with pictures, text, etc. They have such cute stuff on their site, everything from cute office supplies to champagne gummy bears, and more. It's SO easy to order & send straight to your clients. We're obsessed with this company right now! Instagram Live: Ashley has been using Instagram Live for awhile now, and she's loving it! She can interact with fans & friends, and people get to see what she's up to at her shoots! IG Live will send out a notification to your followers, so it's a bit more celebrated than just doing a story or regular Instagram post. Lipsense: If you haven't heard of Lipsense yet, you must not be on social media. This is an awesome product that's basically long lasting lip color. It's a lip stain plus a gloss, and they have a bajillion options for both. The color does not transfer at all, even immediately upon application. It's perfect for wedding photographers because all you have to do is reapply the gloss throughout the day, and it will stay on forever! We hope you don't mind us gabbing about our favorite things!! Let us know if YOU have a favorite thing that we should know about and try! Download from iTunes Here    

We think one of the BIGGEST hurdles in owning your own business is pretty much being on your own timeline. Without a boss lurking around, it's very easy to put tasks off until later & chill on the couch bingewatching Grey's Anatomy instead of doing your work. The three of us definitely struggle with procrastination on a regular basis, so we decided to do an episode all about it! Tune in while we chitchat about ways we put off important tasks, haha, and hear how we deal with fixing it! LISTEN HERE!   Key Takeaways UNPLUG. We might be beating a dead horse on this one because we've totally talked about this in the past but it's the EASIEST way to keep yourself from procrastinating. Unplugging from social media, Netflix, texting, heck even your family sometimes will really help you be more efficient with your workflow. Just do it. This applies to that stuff that's awkward or hard that you just kind of don't want to deal with. The longer you put off that uncomfortable phone call, the harder it will be to make it. Ashley's strategy is to pick up the phone immediately and tackle the awkwardness. She makes a great point that she doesn't want her clients to linger on their feelings waiting for a response from her. The faster you just do whatever it is you aren't looking forward to, the easier it will be in the long run. Reward yourself. This is another thing that's tough about not being in a typical office job, you don't really get accolades for your hard work. I mean, at least not from other people. Clients loving their photos is amazing, but at the end of the day, a lot of us need little rewards along the way. This can be something as small as getting your nails done after finishing culling a long wedding, or as big as giving yourself a raise & increasing your prices! Set a goal, finish that goal, and reward yourself. Even tiny things like a cup of coffee or a 30 minute break to watch a TV show will go a long way in keeping you productive & preventing procrastination. Relevant Links Julie Ferneau Photography Chasing Daylight Photography Ashley DuChene Photography

HI EVERYONE!!! Wwwwwwww.... long time no see!! We are SOOO excited to bring you the new, revamped PhotoSpark... season TWO! This season is going to be full of awesome guests, new topics, and maybe even a few special get-togethers to meet you guys!! This first episode is just a quick one to catch you guys up on what's been going on in OUR lives since we last chatted, so tune in to hear some updates from the PhotoSpark ladies! Julie Ferneau For those of you who don't already know Julie, she's the wedding photographer of the group! She is a social butterfly who is amazing at keeping up with networking on TOP of her booming photography business! The past few months have been packed with second shooting gigs in addition to her own clients. Julie has had a few THREE wedding weekends over the summer, which to me is completely crazy! There's really no end to the "wedding season" in San Diego. The weather is amazing year round, and couples take advantage of the cooler fall and winter weather in addition to the spring & summer! So Julie has been knocking it out of the park all year! Julie gives some tips in this episode about second shooting, as well as outsourcing editing, which she has done for the very first time! For the listeners who have been with us for (almost) two years, you'll love to hear that Julie is outsourcing to Lauren Nygard, one of the original PhotoSpark hosts! She's a new mom now, living in North Carolina, and is helping Julie with editing & matched her style perfectly! Julie is loving the smooth process & having a little less on her plate! Ashley DuChene Ashley is a family & child photographer, who also takes on some corporate clients throughout the year! She is keeping busy for sure!! It's been a long road, but Ashley now officially has an assistant, who she trained to help with her photography business. The training process was lengthy; Ashley had to make training videos and teach her assistant all about photography, but she is SUCH a great fit for Ashley! Ashley is enjoying having someone write emails, make/answer phone calls, and help at shoots too! Her assistant has been taking behind the scenes video for Ashley's Instagram feed, so make sure you follow her to watch her stories/live updates! Ashley gives some tips about having an assistant in this episode. She talks about the benefits of an assistant, as well as the time it took to get everything in place. There were some financial commitments she had to make to get her started, and it's still a little tough for Ashley to be spending more money. She's DEFINITELY making more money though, so it has been worth it for her so far! Having an assistant & being able to delegate tasks has helped Ashley plow through this busy season successfully! Be sure to tune in to hear about her process! Kate Mills Kate is also a family & child photographer who is laughing at the term "busy season" because really it feels like we go from one busy season (summer) to the next (fall/holiday shoots). There isn't anything super new or exciting in her life at the moment, she's just trying to find that work/life balance & chats about how she is starting to wonder if there really IS a balance or if that is just a myth! Currently, she's doing her best to streamline her business better, which will really help get through this NEXT busy season and come out alive! The best thing she did this year was automating her mini session scheduling! She used BookedIN and set it up so clients could pick their desired date & location from her calendar. They'd click on the time slot they wanted, fill out their contact info, and pay their session fee via PayPal right then & there. This has helped TREMENDOUSLY and has cut out the back and forth that mini sessions usually bring! It also ensures Kate isn't chasing down any session payments. It took some time to set up, but saved a lot in the long run! Kate also speaks about mini sessions... a lot of photographers are moving away from them which is totally fine, but she finds that they do provide some financial security during the holidays. She talks about why she does them, some regrets about them, and how to make them work for you! THANK YOU so much you guys for your patience with the launch of Season Two! I promise we'll be good with our weekly episodes from here on out! Please feel free to check us out on social media & drop us a line!    

For this week's throwback episode, we decided to re-release a fan favorite episode about newborn photography with Sophie Crew! Sophie is a top photographer here in San Diego and her work is BEAUTIFUL. She joined us to chat about how she became a newborn photographer and what she's learned along the way, so we decided to re-share some of her tips on the blog! Download the episode to hear more about Sophie's story & how she gets those stunningly perfect shots! Sophie's Tips: Age- Ideal age for newborn photos is 7-8 days. However, she still has luck with older babies, even up to 4 weeks old! They just take a little longer to get to sleep, and they're a little bigger so poses and props are different sometimes. The 5 S's- A soothing technique for babies! The 5 S's are: Side/stomach position, shushing, swinging, swaddling, and sucking. It's her go-to when babies are super fussy and having trouble falling asleep! White Noise- When making white noise/shushing, make it REALLY loud. Like... way louder than you think you should. Babies love it because it reminds them of the womb! Maternity Photos- Sophie also photographs maternity clients; she suggests scheduling between 34 & 36 weeks. Feeding- Sophie always sends out a pre-shoot email to her parents before a newborn shoot. In this email she suggests they feed the baby RIGHT before leaving for the studio. She also suggests they arrive a little early to the studio to feed once more. A full baby is a sleepy, happy baby!! Length- Sophie's typical newborn session lasts approximately 3 hours. Be sure to download this episode to hear more tips from Sophie! And get excited about Season Two of PhotoSpark... coming soon! Follow us on Facebook to be the first to hear our special announcement! Relavent Links Sophie Crew   Download from iTunes Here

We LOVED recording this embarrassing stories episode last year... it's my absolute favorite personally. So we wanted to share it again while we prep for Season Two! This is definitely an episode you need to listen to to get the full impact, so this blog post won't really do it any justice! Ok... now that I'm listening to this, it's definitely mostly MY embarrassing stories (spoiler alert, Kate does the blog posts). So if you want to hear about the time I swallowed a fly and barfed during a shoot, ran into a client at a concert while reeeeally drunk, and/or the time I got pooped on by a pelican, tune in! Julie, Ashley, and guesthouse Terran DO contribute some funny stories too, don't get me wrong! But I'm starting to think this is maybe my issue.... hm..... Let us know what you think!! And PLEASE share some of your own embarrassing stories on our Facebook page to make me feel better!   Download from iTunes Here

This week, as we prep for Season Two of PhotoSpark, we decided to share another favorite episode with you guys. We know one of the biggest mistakes business owners make regarding taxes is waiting until the last minute to get everything together. At least, I know that's MY issue! So we are hoping that releasing this Throwback Episode again NOW in the middle of summer, you'll find inspiration to organize everything you have for 2017 so far... thus making your life easier come April of next year!   Key Takeaways: DO #1: Have a business checking account. One of our most important tax tips for photographers is to have separate accounts for your business and personal transactions. Melissa admits that she commingled the two for awhile (I’m not going to lie; I totally did too!) and it made things a bit of a mess when she got audited. She ended up having to claim income for deposits that weren’t actually business related, which cost her money in the end, because she couldn’t prove they were personal deposits (things like gifts for birthdays, payments from friends, etc). So definitely make sure you have two accounts and keep them separate! DO #2: Have a reputable CPA you can trust! The guy who was doing Melissa’s taxes at the time she was audited, kind of left her high & dry when it came down to it! He also wasn’t giving her advice that was 100% accurate, which ended up meaning she owed money to the IRS that she didn’t even know she owed. It’s very important to know whoever is helping you with your taxes (and yes, you SHOULD definitely have someone helping you with your taxes, unless maybe you were an accountant in your former life) is trustworthy & knows their stuff! DO #3: Keep a record of EVERYTHING. This is probably the number one tip in our tax tips episode, and it means keeping receipts, keeping contracts, keeping track of people who have worked for you under a 1099 form, gas logs, mileage logs, parking fees… EVERYTHING. And keep it organized as you go. Melissa learned the hard way that her auditor didn’t really care to see a shoebox full of random receipts! DON’T #1: Don’t be afraid to talk to the IRS. Kate can attest to this as well as Melissa, because she had a situation a few years ago that caused her to set up an installment plan with the IRS. She was nervous to call & get scolded, but in the end, the tax guy on the other end of the line was super nice, super helpful, and set up an installment plan for her pretty easily! DON’T #2: Don’t wait too long to find a tax person! Melissa’s tax person is pretty famous among San Diego photographers because she’s excellent at photography-related tax issues. She books up pretty instantly each year, so make sure you don’t procrastinate when looking for a CPA… chances are the good ones in your area will book up quickly too! Relevent Links: Melissa McClure Send us your Questions via email: photosparkshow@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photosparkshow Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photosparkshow/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/photosparkshow Subscribe: iTunes to download and subscribe to our podcast! Download from iTunes Here

We have some BIG news! We are launching SEASON TWO of PhotoSpark this summer! EEK! Season One was awesome... we have learned SO much about Podcasting & have enjoyed chatting with tons of special, amazing guests! We've applied so many of the lessons we've learned to our own businesses and are reaping the benefits. Now that we know exactly where we're headed, we decided to take a few weeks to get our content together for Season Two! In the meantime, please enjoy this throwback episode from last year! In this episode, we chat with Melissa Mitchell about improving SEO and Google results! Key Takeaways Image names MATTER. When you're blogging or adding images to a gallery on your website, you want to make sure they have keywords that represent exactly what you'd want them to pop up for in Google. Naming them after the client might be an easy way to keep your images organized, so you can go ahead and keep doing that for yourself, but when uploading online, you want to rename them. For example, if you did a wedding at the Hotel Del in San Diego, you'd name a handful of files "hotel-del-wedding-photography." This helps anyone who is googling that phrase to see your images pop up. The rest of the images in the set can be descriptive (like "bridal-portraits" or "beach-wedding-photography." Don't worry TOO much about consistency in old posts, but keep consistent with current ones. Melissa stresses consistency as key to improving SEO. You want to be blogging consistently, posting on social media consistently, and have a consistent style that pops up in Google. When it comes to style consistency, don't worry about going back into your archives and retouching old images to match your current style, but you should make sure all new blog posts are representative of this style. That way when your images pop up under a Google search, they're appealing to your current, target demographic. Link it up! The more often you link outward to other people, and the more often they link to you, the better! The bigger the website that is linking you the better (for example, a link on Style Me Pretty is going to get you tons of traffic and helps with improving SEO). Linking back to people additionally helps SEO but it's a great way to build community & relationships within your field. We hope you enjoyed this week's Throwback episode! We can't wait to bring you even more awesome guests like Melissa in Season Two of PhotoSpark!   Download from iTunes Here

This is a perfect time for photographers to start considering ways to improve their workflow. Wedding busy season is in full swing, so wedding photographers are realizing just how much work they're doing on a daily basis, and holiday season is right around the corner so family portrait photographers are trying to put strategies in place to make that as easy as possible. One of the best ways to streamline your photography business is by hiring an assistant! Hiring an assistant can be scary, so we're here to help! We invited Jennifer Dery on the show this week & she's worked with many assistants, second shooters, retouchers, etc... so she's the perfect person to chat with about this topic! Enjoy! Key Takeaways: Watch for good composition right off the bat. This tip applies to second shooters. Jennifer mentions that you can totally teach technical things like exposure, posing, etc... but you typically can't teach good composition. People tend to either have an eye for photography or not. You want to make sure you find someone who you don't have to sink a TON of time into training. There will of course be a learning curve for them, and plan on spending some time teaching & helping them help you, especially in the beginning, but the less time you have to spend on that the better! Find an assistant who shares your communication style with clients. One of the biggest concerns when hiring an assistant for client communication is that they will have a completely different "voice" than you do when speaking to clients. If you find someone who writes emails in a similar style AND chats with clients over the phone in a similar style, you're golden! You want to make sure you're not missing out on your ideal clients because your assistant isn't properly representing YOU. You also want to empower employees to make decisions, while also making sure they defer to you for client questions. They shouldn't take over the client relationship, they should add to it. This will help clients still feel connected to YOU and not just your assistant. Be honest and upfront with your job description. Not only do you want to make sure you find someone who is open to constructive criticism, you also have to make sure you find someone who is willing to do all the jobs you want to ask of them! Take some time before hiring an assistant to figure out exactly what you want them to do for you. Are they coming to your home? Working remotely? Are they expected to pick up your kids from time to time or are they ONLY doing photography related tasks? Will they be shooting during photoshoots or just holding equipment? All of these things are things to consider and should be included on paper in your assistant's job description. It's better to think of everything you need help with ahead of time, so you know they're up for the task! We hope you enjoyed this episode about hiring an assistant! Ashley's new assistant starts soon, so she's definitely going to be sharing about the process in future episodes and keeping us posted on how everything's going! Have you hired an assistant? Do you have any tips to add? Drop us a line on our Facebook page! Relavent Links http://www.jenniferdery.com http://www.buttersage.com  

Photo Cred: Amy & Jordan Photography As photographers, we have a lot of competition. Thanks to digital photography & improving technology, more photographers are coming out of the woodwork than ever before. The truth is, up to 85% of these new photography businesses will fail. Why is that? Well, this week we are trying to figure it out! Our guest Cole is a fantastic resource... he started a photography business almost 10 years ago & is now the creator of Cole's Classroom, an online resource for photographers. Cole joins us in the studio this week to talk about how to succeed in photography! Key Takeaways Ask for advice... but take it or leave it. Cole & Kate started their businesses in the same year, and it was right around the time digital photography was beginning to take over. There was a huge battle going on between up & coming digital photographers & portrait photographers who were struggling to keep their film businesses afloat. This led to a lot of harsh criticism of new photographers. One could argue, that harsh criticism is still there today. It's always a good idea to ask established photographers for critiques, because they most likely can help improve your photography. However,  know that everything is subjective. Take their advice into consideration, and then decide whether or not you want to take it. Photography is art, and at the end of the day, art is personal. The more time you spend perfecting YOUR art and YOUR style, the better you will succeed in photography! Be honest with yourself about what it takes. Being a successful photographer is HARD. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes, and unfortunately it isn't just taking photos. Many people who fail as photographers do so because they don't have the work ethic to run a successful business. They could have amazing photography skills, but at the end of the day if they aren't prepared to put tons of time and effort into their business, it will fail. Ask yourself if you have what it takes to get to where you want to go. Remember, success is different for every person. What does success mean to you? Check your pricing. We can ramble on about style and consistency and marketing and work ethic for hours, but at the end of the day, if your pricing isn't correct, you will not succeed in photography. If your prices are too low, you are undervaluing yourself, messing up the market for other photographers (which makes networking awkward), and you're likely to burn out because eventually the awe of doing photography for a living will wear off, and you'll be left feeling like you aren't getting paid what you're worth. On the flip side, if you're overcharging, you won't get booked. Many people talk about finding your ideal client (hello lady who drives a BMW and lives in a mansion overlooking the beach, right?!) but they fail to mention that only works if your work is good enough for that type of client. Don't be afraid to make adjustments to your pricing as needed depending on how many shoots you're booking. Relevant Links: Why 85% of Photographers Fail & How You Can Succeed Official Site - www.colesclassroom.com  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ColesClassroom/ Cole's Clique $1 Trial Special - https://www.colesclassroom.com/spark Download from iTunes Here

Isn't it just the coolest thing ever when you see a peer of yours do amazing things with their business?? We are totally excited to have Erin Brant on the show this week because she is totally doing that and more!! She recently finished her Clickin Moms Breakout (The Happy Now) which was a huge success AND she just announced she'll be presenting at Click Away 2018!! She joined us this week to chat about FUN! She is a big believer in candid photography... as in, prioritizing play over posing and she's here to tell us exactly what that means and how she tends to run her shoots! Key Takeaways Establish expectations with your clients. Clients who are in the market for candid photography can be difficult because sometimes they don't quite know exactly what they want. They might THINK they want all candid shots but then once the shoot starts it's clear they'd like some posed shots too. Erin makes sure to outline her expectations of the shoot beforehand. She knows a few shots she wants to get, and once those are done she can let the family play around and hang out. It's always a great idea to grab some posed shots along with your candid photography, because that gives the client some variety and options. Develop a rapport with the kids. Candid photography sessions are the perfect opportunity to chat & laugh with the kids in the family! You can point out cool stuff for them to do (look for shells, build a sand castle, play tag, etc) that helps you grab those candid shots you need. The more you connect with the kids, the more relaxed everyone will be and the better chance you have of getting great candid photos. Don't be afraid to get some more calm, emotional moments as well. Consider asking kids questions about their family like "what do you love about your mom?" to help this along & help the kids connect with their parents. These shoots are especially great for shy kids, who can totally just cuddle up with their mom or dad and not have to worry about standing still and smiling at the camera for an hour. Ideally, you'll reach the point where the camera isn't the focus at all. "Don't miss the great while looking for the perfect." Ooh isn't that such a good quote from Erin?? I LOVE IT! We can get so caught up with making sure everything is absolutely perfect that we miss the moments. I know I've had times where I'm messing with settings or something & miss a great TRUE candid moment between family members. If you connect with your clients in a real way, you'll see moments you might otherwise miss. Don't be afraid to let yourself get really personal with the family. Focus on the experience... if the family had a really great time at the shoot, they'll reflect that feeling when viewing the images. They won't care as much about a hair out of place or a crooked shirt... they'll be thinking of the fun they had as a family that day & the moments that were captured. If it isn't clear yet, Erin is an absolute rockstar when it comes to beautiful, candid photography & capturing deep, meaningful images of her clients! Be sure to download & listen to the full episode... it's a great one! And check out Erin online below! Relavent Links The Happy Now Website: The Leo Loves Facebook: The Leo Loves Clickin Moms Click Away Retreat 2018 Download from iTunes Here