Find Your Focus

Making the switch to studio photography can seem daunting after working with the ease and beauty of natural lighting, but as Jessica explains in today's conversation, it might not be as hard as you think. Jessica decided to dive into her passion for photography full-time after she became a mother, and she left her job as a school teacher and started humbly in a spare bedroom at home. When she made the big step to get a studio space and move into the world of studio shooting, Jessica was pleasantly surprised by how well she managed! There are obvious learning curves and hurdles in the process, but our guest insists that if you put in a little research and put aside your fears you can find a practice that really fits your dreams. In our conversation, we get into the technical side of Jessica's work, how she has been aiming to pare things down to the essential elements, and her love of human faces! Tune in to hear it all on how you can make the jump to the studio! 

In today’s social media landscape, authenticity is one of the most important elements when creating an online presence for your business. Our guest today excels at this and is here to share some of her many insights on the topic. During our conversation with Neyssa Lee, we speak about how growing up in foster care and being adopted impacted her passion for photography, and how she came to run her own business photographing moms with their newborn babies and children. She speaks openly and honestly about the pain of miscarriage and why it’s so important to share these experiences with her clients, many of whom have had similar experiences. Listeners can also hear all about how Nyessa started incorporating reels, despite her apprehension, to great effect! We discuss how reels can be used to highlight your personality, educate clients about your brand and authentically reflect who you are. Tune in to hear all about Neyssa’s tips, tricks, and warnings for incorporating reels into your business. 

Being featured as a photographer on the first page of Google is no easy feat, but Valerie Clark knows how to do it! Born out of the need to move around a lot because of her husband's job, Valerie became a self-taught SEO expert, and she joins us on the show today to share some of her top tips. We discuss the keywords you should be using, the free resources provided by Google which will help with your SEO, the importance of having a blog, and why you need to be planning your SEO a few months ahead if you are going to be moving to another state. Valerie also highlights some of the common mistakes made in SEO, and how you can avoid these. If you are interested in learning more about the extremely valuable tool of SEO after this episode, Valerie shares how you can join her one-on-one coaching program, which is launching in April! 

You can be the most flexible, adaptable, and spontaneous when you are starting with a plan. Uncertainty isn’t specific to a pandemic. Uncertainty is the environment that everyone is operating in, and believe it or not, you can be more flexible when you are starting with a plan, rather than just free-wheeling it and operating with no plan. Today’s guest is Katie Wussow, a business coach, and finance teacher who teaches early-stage creative entrepreneurs the foundational financial and business strategies they need to turn their passions into profits. This episode explores the topic of planning for 2021 and how to revise and pivot your goals when needed. Tuning in, you will hear from Katie as she explains goal-setting in a way that takes away all of the stress. She also maps out how to pivot when your goals aren’t actually helping you to grow your business, goes over the mistakes she sees people make when setting goals, and shares her tips for planning during such uncertain times. Tune in today for all this and more!

Think back to when you were a senior in high school, or even where you find yourself today. What could be more amazing than a group of women connected by great memories and friendships? Having a community of girls who are going through the same thing as you are at the same time is so powerful! Welcome back to another episode of Find Your Focus. Today, you hear all about high school senior photography from Maddie Nichole. Maddie is a high school senior portrait photographer who has a senior program that is absolutely amazing and pretty genius. She doesn’t just take senior photos, she has created a senior tribe of girls that get together to participate in activities, adventures, and so much more during their senior year. During this interview, Maddie explains how it all works. There is so much that goes into the Senior Tribe that she’s created and she shares exactly what the girls get out of it, why it’s different from other senior programs, and the challenges that she has faced while running it. Tune in today for all this and more!

So many photographers, at some point in their career, are likely to find that they are struggling to book clients. We’ve brought Michelle Harris on the show today to discuss some of the reasons that you may not be booking clients and to hear her ideas on ways that you can solve this problem. As the most expensive photographer within a 50-mile radius of her home, Michelle explains why you should never price yourself cheaply, the best way to handle phone calls with potential clients, and the importance of never comparing your photography journey to anyone else’s! Michelle’s passion for her business will leave you feeling inspired and ready to take action to improve your own!

Today’s guest is Joe Dantone, a wedding photographer and commercial photographer. When he decided to grow his business by adding commercial photography services, he discovered that it was very different from the other genres he had experience in. In this episode, Joe shares his experience of taking the leap and exploring a new genre, explains how things like bids and contracts work with commercial photography, and goes over his tips for getting started with commercial photography, including always listening, getting on the phone with your clients, and creating spec work. Tune in today!

It’s one thing capturing moments on camera but preserving photographs can be a challenge in and of itself. That’s where Cathi Nelson comes in. Cathi offers white-glove services to clients that help them to preserve their most valuable photographic assets. Her company, The Photo Managers, also offers webinars, masterminds, and marketing classes to those wanting to generate income from managing photos. Kicking things off, Cathi tells us about the genesis behind her company and how she became a leading service provider in her field. We then ask her how about how she has navigated the pandemic and find out the reasons why business is booming. Later in the show, we ask Cathi to share more details about her business as she expands on possible opportunities to be had, how she scans hundreds, if not thousands of photographs, and how you can create and maintain long-term clients. To find out why photo preservation can be lucrative and time-efficient, be sure to join us today!

Building confidence in your business is often not about measuring it against a set of predefined standards, but simply about revolving it around your unique superpower. 

Today’s guest is LaJune King, a portrait and branding photographer from Texas, and she joins us to talk about her journey toward loving herself and owning her work. LaJune talks about how she got into photography and started to see her business grow, and about the hurdles she had to get over in this phase. She shares the insecurities she had and how she moved past them when she realized how good she was at giving clients an experience that was second to none. 

LaJune is also extremely passionate about representing Black families in moments of happiness as a counterpoint to systemic racism and she talks about this in an incredibly moving section of today’s discussion. 

From there, we talk about why LaJune frames her client journey as the ‘Pink Starburst Experience’ and the coaching she offers to help other photographers come up with their own versions of a tailored and distinctive customer experience. Tune in for an amazing conversation about finding your voice and sharing it to make the world a better place today!

Elopement is a sacred and special day that ought to be captured and stored forever. Yet, being an elopement photographer is vastly different from the role of a wedding photographer. Today we speak with adventure elopement photographer Megan MacPhail about her industry and its nuances. We kick off the show by finding out how Megan first got involved in the industry. After hearing about her challenges as a veterinary doctor, she tells us about her burning desire to pursue a career that would feed her soul and give her fire. Megan then tells us how she helps couples plan their elopements. We learn that many couples don’t have knowledge about the process, and it’s up to Megan to furnish her clients with concepts and big ideas. To do this, Megan needs to have an intimate knowledge of a variety of elopement locations. As her business grows, she travels to further corners of North America, expanding her own knowledge-base. To conclude the show we ask Megan to tell us about the most common mistakes she sees from novice elopement photographers. She touches on mindset, staying true to your “why”, and the need for quick turnaround times. Join us today and find out more about this growing niche!