Podcast appearances and mentions of nancy ray photography

I recently shared the news that after this year, my twelfth year of business, the doors of Nancy Ray Photography will close. This was one of the hardest, most difficult decisions of my life. I love this work, I am going to miss this work, but the bottom line is this: God gently made it clear to me that this season has come to an end. This was a massive decision for me personally and for my family, and it all started one year ago. Today, it feels like I've turned the page into the next chapter of my life. Now, I'll be honest, I could've kept going. Part of me really, really wanted to just keep going. I was good at it. I was confident in it, but this quote from Richard Blackaby explains why I'm letting it go: "Our problem as leaders is we do everything we know to do. That's not enough. We need to do everything God wants us to do." That says it all. I just know that in order for me to everything that God wants me to do, I need to let this go. I simply know that God wants me to do something different. I'm going to walk you through how I got to this point and how I finally made the decision and how I listen to God's voice every step of the way. I'm going to share some questions, some hard questions, that I had to ask myself and I'm going to ask these questions to you, too. So I'm going to start this episode by asking these questions and hopefully as I share my story, you're going to understand a little bit more about what those questions mean. And as I finish the episode and come back and ask these questions again, maybe you'll have a fuller understanding about where you are today. My hope is that as I share how I navigated this huge decision, you'll hopefully walk away with some helpful tools for he next time that you step into a new season, too. For the full show notes, head to nancyray.com/podcast/133.   Resources from this episode: The Seasons of God, by Richard Blackaby Lioness Arising, by Lisa Bevere Ecclesiastes 3 Affiliate links have been used in this post! I do receive a commission when you choose to purchase through these links, and that helps me keep this podcast up and running—I truly appreciate when you choose to use them!

I've received a lot of questions about team-building and adding associates to my photography company over the last few years.  So, for this episode, I decided to go back to my own source of information for all things team building: Nancy Ray. Nancy is a believer, wife, mama, photographer, blogger, and speaker. She is the host of the Work and Play podcast, and she speaks regularly at several conferences and retreats, sharing her inspiration and providing practical resources for living and an integrated life.Nancy formerly owned Nancy Ray Photography - a flourishing wedding photography company with several associate photographers on the team! She has so much to share about this topic - listen in now!RESOURCES:WORK & PLAY PODCASTNancy Ray's WebsiteTop 3 Reasons I Built a Team (W&P Podcast) Hiring Part 1: 5 Ways to Know You're Ready (W&P Podcast) Hiring Part 2: Hiring the RIGHT Person and Keeping Them  (W&P Podcast)5 Ways to Become a Leader People Want to Follow   

You may know her as the fabulous owner of Nancy Ray Photography, maybe you’ve heard her podcast “work and play” with Nancy Ray, or maybe more recently you saw her on national television as her birth photo went viral! However you came to know her, Nancy Ray is a treat in itself and I cannot believe that she came on the show to share her heart, her story, and her incredible journey in life. It was such an honor to sit at her feet and LEARN. Learn about motherhood, marriage, finances, walking through different seasons, having a viral picture and so much MORE.   I came to know Nancy from working for the studio and film lab that developed her film. Nancy Ray photography is a Raleigh, NC based studio that offers FILM and digital photography.  Nancy teaches courses online and shares incredible tips and guidance on her podcast  “work and play” with Nancy Ray. Ever since learning of her, I have never for a moment missed out on encouragement. She is a light to this world and a true carrier of the Gospel in all she does! I am so grateful to have had the privilege of speaking with Nancy, I can’t wait for you to hear too!

Today's guest is a true gem! Nancy Ray is the owner of Nancy Ray Photography, podcast host of Work & Play with Nancy Ray, a speaker, the wife to Will, momma to three, and a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. We talk about everything from "why film photography? Is the hype real?" to why she closed the doors to her 12-year business to loneliness among women and why quality in community matters. Nancy is so wise, so kind, and so generous with her life and her words. This episode is a real treat and I hope you enjoy! XO

Our guest today is Olivia Suriano: Believer, wife, owner of Olivia Suriano Photography, and mama to Marlin - the black lab! She is passionate about fine art film photography, any and every ocean, and iced coffee, always iced! Today, you get to hear a candid conversation with one of my dearest friends and former Nancy Ray Photography team member, all about our last year in business and what it looks like to finish well. It was so refreshing to just have a straight-up friend on the podcast and I hope you get some valuable insight from the lessons that we learned in our last year of Nancy Ray Photography together.  For the full transcript, click here!   Resources from this episode: The Work & Play Cornerstore Olivia Suriano Photography Olivia Suriano’s Instagram Episode 004 - Seasons of Business Lypsyl Chapstick Oatly Barista Oat Milk Try Softer, by Aundi Kolber Affiliate links have been used in this post!!

For the last 12 years I've worked my tail off. I've built a business, Nancy Ray Photography, and I closed the doors at that business last year. I went from working six or seven days a week, no joke in the early years, especially with weddings and double wedding weekends, it's just crazy, to working four days a week after my first baby was born and I say four days a week, but it was Monday through Thursday plus weddings and sessions, so maybe five days a week. Then transitioning to working three days a week after babies two and three plus weddings and sessions again and now my hope is to keep it at one day a week and since I've closed my business, no weddings, no sessions. Doesn't it sound kind of awesome to work just one day a week? I think it does. That's kind of what I'm setting out to do this year. Obviously I have three little kids at home, so it's not that I'm not working on the other six days is just that my work has changed and I've changed my career a little bit so that I can just work "one day a week" and be home with the kiddos working at home the other six days. I'm really excited about it. Now, huge disclaimer at the start of this episode, I've never done this before. I've never worked this little before. Even as a record this, this is my first day back to work, meaning I have no real experience in this area of only working one day a week, but I thought it'd be fun, kind of like an experiment, just to invite you along for the ride. I'm going to tell you what I hope for my work to look like this year and then check back in with you in June six months later and tell you how it's actually going and what I've learned so far. So, that's what I'm going to do. For the full transcript, click here.   Resources from this episode: The Work & Play Cornerstore The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss Essentialism, by Greg McKeown My new workout shoes   Affiliate links have been used in this post!

I was introduced to the book Traction by my husband. We both love entrepreneurship and I get a lot of really great resources from him. And a few years back, he said, "Nance, you would really love this thing called the Entrepreneurial Operating System." I was like, "What are you talking about?" And he was like, "It was introduced to me. It's this book called Traction. It's really pretty incredible, and I think Nancy Ray Photography could really benefit from it." I was kind of like, "It sounds weird. Sure, I'll learn about it. But yeah—I'm good. I'm pretty sure I got this." Well, he introduces me to this book, Traction, and starts telling me all about what the Entrepreneurial Operating System is, also known as EOS. And as he starts to explain it, all the different components, how everything is organized and laid out, I'm like a sponge. I'm like, "Are you serious? This is answering so many questions that I've had about how to better run my meetings or organize people in my business." It put words to a lot of things that I didn't have words for.  It's very, very thorough, but it's not rocket science. It's not spreadsheets, and numbers, and things that I feel like are challenging in business. It's just basically this very simple structure of how to lay out and run your business. So if you can kind of get a visual in your head with me, picture a wheel, and it's divided like pizza slicer, right into six different pizza slices. This wheel, at the very center of it is the EOS model, which is your business. Your business is at the center of the wheel. EOS model is that the six parts are divided up and you have to really understand, know, work on all six components of your business well in order to have a healthy business. But once you get all six of those really addressed, running smoothly, your business will be in like the top 5% of businesses. It will run smoothly. It will flow. You'll know where you're going. You'll have clarity. You'll have decision making. You will have a track to run on. And I have found this to be so true.  So in today’s episode, I’m going to jump into the six pizza slices, if you will, the six categories of your business according to Traction or the Entrepreneurial Operating System.  For the full transcript, head to this episode's show notes!   Resources from this episode: The Work & Play Cornerstore C12   Affiliate links have been used in this post!

Back in 2012, Will and I were sitting across from each other in a coffee shop discussing the big picture future of my business, Nancy Ray Photography. We were at a crossroads trying to decide if we wanted to stay on the quote unquote, "Husband and wife team" route, that most photographers take, or if we wanted to do something different: take a risk and hire associate photographers to form a team. When Will and I began talking about what it would look like to actually hire someone, to actually grow our team, we started with a list of all of the risk involved and all of our fears. Basically we made a massive list of all the downsides to doing this. We knew it would take a lot of time and a lot of training. We knew that we would be inviting other people in to the business that we've built, that I would share all my secrets, that we didn't have a guarantee that it would work, that we would be changing something that's working just fine.  We realized that we'd have to release control over some things, that I would have to trust other people to edit the photos that I always edited, the photos that I take, really letting go of my creative control. I'd have to let go of the methods and processes that I learned the hard way with sweat and tears and I would just hand it over to someone and teach them. It honestly felt like I was giving away too much, even if I hired them.  But then we started making a list of what life would look like if we did build a team. We wouldn't have to be the ones to shoot every single wedding. We could serve more couples and more families. Will, my husband, would have the freedom to step away from Nancy Ray Photography if he ever wanted to do different work. We were so nervous and we honestly didn't know which direction that we wanted to go. There were pros and cons to both options and Will and I, unlike a lot of spouses, really worked well together. So after all of that, we decided to take the risk and build an associate team. It ended up being one of the best decisions I've ever made in my business, and today, I'm going to tell you why. For the full transcript, head to this episode's blog post!   Resources from this episode: Episode 004 - Seasons of Business Access the FREE Team Resource Vault Sign up for the Team Building Workshop!

I recently shared the news that after this year, my twelfth year of business, the doors of Nancy Ray Photography will close. This was one of the hardest, most difficult decisions of my life. I love this work, I am going to miss this work, but the bottom line is this: God gently made it clear to me that this season has come to an end. This was a massive decision for me personally and for my family, and it all started one year ago. Today, it feels like I've turned the page into the next chapter of my life. Now, I'll be honest, I could've kept going. Part of me really, really wanted to just keep going. I was good at it. I was confident in it, but this quote from Richard Blackaby explains why I'm letting it go: "Our problem as leaders is we do everything we know to do. That's not enough. We need to do everything God wants us to do." That says it all. I just know that in order for me to everything that God wants me to do, I need to let this go. I simply know that God wants me to do something different. I'm going to walk you through how I got to this point and how I finally made the decision and how I listen to God's voice every step of the way. I'm going to share some questions, some hard questions, that I had to ask myself and I'm going to ask these questions to you, too. So I'm going to start this episode by asking these questions and hopefully as I share my story, you're going to understand a little bit more about what those questions mean. And as I finish the episode and come back and ask these questions again, maybe you'll have a fuller understanding about where you are today. My hope is that as I share how I navigated this huge decision, you’ll hopefully walk away with some helpful tools for he next time that you step into a new season, too. For the full transcript, click here!   Resources from this episode: The Seasons of God, by Richard Blackaby Lioness Arising, by Lisa Bevere Ecclesiastes 3   Affiliate links have been used in this post!

Overwhelmed? Yeah me too. We often cry out for a more balanced life as we reach for our God given-goals. Somedays I think to myself is a balanced life possible? In today’s Podcast, Nancy Ray of Nancy Ray Photography will share her unique wisdom on this topic and her five-step process to eliminate overwhelm and restore joy. To gain more […] The post Eliminating Overwhelm appeared first on Treasured Ministries.

Full Service Wedding Planning Company Rebecca Rose Events founder, owner, and creative director Becca Atchison comes on the show to talk about how and why her pricing model is different than almost everyone else in the wedding planning industry, why she decided to bring a partner into her company, what she's most proud of (not being named top planner by Southern Living Magazine or a Planner to Follow by Martha Stewart Weddings, which she was), and that time her company was sued by a client. In addition to being a wedding planner and creative director, Becca is passionate about coaching and consulting, and you can find information about that on her education page on her website, https://www.rebeccaroseevents.com/education. Becca will also be speaking at The School of Styling in July. Clearly she has a lot going on (plus she's a mom with baby 2 on the way soon!), so we appreciate her coming to visit! Becca Atchison on the Job (Image by Jake and Heather Photography) Becca Atchison, Rebecca Rose Events and Rebecca Rose Creative (image by Jake and Heather Photography) Becca Atchison and Betsy Krug (image by Nancy Ray Photography) Becca Atchison (image by Nancy Ray Photography)   Rebecca Rose Events on Social Media: Instagram: @rroseevents Facebook: @rebeccaroseevents twitter: @rroseevents   Weddings for Real on Social Media: Instagram: @weddingsforreal Facebook: @weddingsforreal twitter: @weddingsforreal   Also, at the top of the show, Megan mentioned an online marketing seminar. It's at The Umstead Hotel in Cary NC on Monday, October 22nd, for a Brunch and Learn from 9:30AM-12PM. Here are some of the details, and you can sign up with Eventbrite. We can't wait to see you there! What you can expect from this intimate seminar:   An Insider’s Guide to Social Media Strategy & Etiquette, SEO Tips and Tricks, and Generating More Legit Inquiries!   The Social Media Strategy: • Breaking down Instagram components and how to maximize use of them for your business • How to build the right following and continue a steady growth of followers/future clients • Social Media Vendor Etiquette and how this translates into real life referrals • Best use of Instagram stories, polls, etc • What to post, what not to post, and best times to post • Tools and tips to streamline your Instagram posting   Millennials: How are millennials finding their wedding vendors? What factors determine whether you get the job? Learn some easy best practices for attracting and communicating with the generation that is your biggest client base.   The SEO Component: • Setting up/Refining your Google business page • Online directory tips to improve your rankings • Getting reviews (the formula Megan uses!) • Titles, tags and descriptions and how these help or hurt your business rankings • Writing SEO friendly and user friendly content for your site • Image optimization tips Sign up at Eventbrite. See you there! If you're a wedding vendor, go get Honeybook! At A Southern Soiree, we’ve been using Honeybook since February 2015. I think we were one of their very first clients, and it has truly been a life changer. They make proposals and contracts super easy to use on both our side and the client side. I think before Honeybook I would send proposals and contracts by email, and the client would have to mail the contract to us or fax it by efax. Proposals were in no way streamlined either, so this has made our lives so much better. As a consultant, whenever I sign up a vendor client, one of the very first recommendations I make is Honeybook. No need to complicate things – it works, it’s great…just get it. And if you follow this link, you get 50% off your first year of Honeybook, which is nice, but not nearly as nice as all the time you’re going to save. And if you have any questions about my experience, feel free to send me an email to megan@weddingsforreal.com.  Music for this episode by https://www.bensound.com. The host of the show is Megan Gillikin, owner and lead consultant at A Southern Soiree Wedding and Event Planning.  She's also available for wedding and hospitality business consulting and can be reached at megan@weddingsforreal.com. Weddings for Real is edited and produced by Jason Gillikin for Earfluence.

Today’s guest is Nancy Ray of Nancy Ray Photography. Nancy has built a thriving photography business in Raleigh, North Carolina area, so much so that a few years in the business she realized that something needed to change for her to be able to both continue to grow her business and for her family to live the life they wanted to live. She built a team. That’s exactly what we’re chatting about in today’s episode. Nancy shares with us how to know whether you’re ready to build a team, what she’s learned from her own experiences, insights into how to decide who to hire and how she evaluates candidates. Before we get to the interview, I want to mention that Nancy is launching another platform for creatives over at nancyray.com, where she’ll be sharing all of her best resources on life, work, home and faith. If it’s anything like the resources she’s made available in the past, you’re going to want to check it out. Also, if you’re interested in building a creative team, but would like someone to walk you through the process step-by-step, Nancy is opening the doors to her popular team-building course this fall, and you can find a link for that in the show notes. Be sure to check out the show notes at daveyandkrista.com for the resources we mentioned during the episode. I like to hear from you about what kind of content you like to see on the Brands that Book Podcast as we move forward. I’d also like to know what episodes you’ve enjoyed so far and why. To leave your feedback, head on over to Davey and Krista Facebook page and send us a message. The highlights: 04:35 Nancy shares about her photography business and how she eventually got to the point where she needed to hire someone. 09:31 How Nancy determined what role to hire first for her business (and the value of starting with an internship). 17:00 The differences between an employee and independent contractor. 19:53 Where your business should be at before considering hiring somebody. 23:22 Creating and sharing a job listing. 25:23 How Nancy sorts through the applications. 28:23 Why Nancy uses a multiple interview process when hiring. 31:04 The training and on-boarding process when someone is hired (and the importance of feedback). 35:31 Making sure employees are in the right fit. 37:42 Communicating with clients about associate photographers and marketing their work. 47:43 How having a team enabled Nancy to take a three month maternity leave. Nancy is a believer, wife, mama, photographer, blogger, and speaker. She owns Nancy Ray Photography and leads a small team of wedding and family photographers. Nancy speaks regularly at several conferences and retreats, sharing her inspiration and foundations in building a successful business and a balanced life. She is passionate about her faith in Jesus, financial stewardship, strong marriages, and seeing small businesses thrive for God’s kingdom. She lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband, Will, daughters Milly and Lyndon (with another on the way), and great dane, Winston. Find the show notes at https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-nancy-ray-episode-22.