The Curated Club with Kaihla Tonai

When we wander down a path that was never ours to begin with, one of two things can happen: we can either continually neglect and suppress ourselves in order to continue forging ahead, turning ourselves off from any sense of self, and numbing out to the glowing buzz of our physical world; or, we can begin to wake up to the innate inner nudges that are urging us to turn off and tune in. 

Today I'm giving you the permission that you need; to break free, to quit, to expand, to shift. Whatever it is that you're needing right now.

How can you take something that you love, but is only currently making some, if any money at all, and turn it into a career that supports you, or even supports your entire family?

In today's episode, I'm sharing a look in my own story, and how I went from part time job reject, to solely supporting our family of four with my job as a wedding photographer.

Today on the Curated Club, I am interviewing my first EVER podcast guest! Katrina from Crystal Bar Soap joins me to talk about her business, how she grew it from a simple idea into a huge business, and took a huge leap by transplanting her entire business into the United States.

We dive into putting in the years of hustle, finding balance, dealing with copycats, and doing everything with intention!

We hold ourselves back because we are afraid. Today I want to share with you how you can feel that fear, but learn to move through it so that you can grow and expand and come out stronger on the other side.

I'm breaking down five hard, but real truths that you might be needing to hear, so come and tune in and learn what you could shift in your business to grow past these pain points.

Being consistent extends so far beyond (and starts way before) when you edit an image. Come and hear my own thoughts on how you can be consistent in not only your editing, but in your work as a whole.

Do you find yourself complaining about the minor nuances of business or client interactions? Do you blame the filters your clients use on their wedding images the reason why you're not getting referrals? Or do you feel as though you can't seem to get out of your own way long enough to be able to move forward and find success?

In today's episode, I'm unpacking all of that alongside of you; you are so capable. Thank you for showing up.

In today’s episode, I’m jumping right into THREE WAYS that you can begin to capture more real moments in your sessions or on your wedding days right away. It’s so easy, especially if you’ve never been taught otherwise, to simply stick to a template or blueprint during all of your shooting opportunities, but today I want to break down that myth for you, and get you on your way to shooting with more depth and emotion as soon as your next session.

Before getting into the bulk of this episode, let’s first talk real quick about what SEO is, just in case some of you just aren’t sure what it’s all about. Yes, it stands for Search Engine Optimization, but what does that even mean? Essentially, your SEO is how optimized your website is to be ranked in Google searches, and although, of course you can hire someone to do this work for you, I believe that we can actually do a lot of this work on our own--with some in-depth guidance--and take the power of our searchability into our own hands.

The biggest thing that holds me back as a photographer and business owner, is my unrealistic expectations that I set for myself, paired with an incredibly unhealthy dose of negative self talk. 

I’ve always found myself to have a pretty strong sense of self-awareness, but having bits and pieces of my own soul’s truth bubble up to the surface even more frequently and in a more noticeable way happened after having kids; in being hyper-aware with my thoughts, words, and actions around them, I’ve also become hyper aware of everything - good and bad - that has become showing up for me over the last almost-three years.