Jai is a business coach for photographers and creative entrepreneurs and helps you make your break and live your day dream. He also hosts the Make Your Break Podcast and leads the Six Figure Business Map Course.

Today Jai is sharing how we can overcome the fear of rejection and remove those roadblocks in your life and in business.

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.

Get 30% off your first order by going to lightdarkco.com/freedom

You business needs to either be LOVED or it needs to be NEEDED. As a luxury service like wedding photography, we’re not needed. So focus on creative desire and love around your brand.

In the US 70-80% of all weddings don’t get photographed, either due to budget or lack of need for professional photography.

Look at your recent wedding gallery and see if you can choose 20 frames that tell the full story of the day. And at your next wedding, try to shoot 20 frames that tell more of the story. Still shoot more than 20, but focusing on those 20 will mold you into a better photographer who can tell more in one frame than most can in many.

We have a fear of truly putting ourselves out there because what if we draw the attention of someone who would reject us. We often play it safe instead of doing what we love.

Business and life is a continuum and too often we think that if we fail in one things, that’s it. But it’s the same as ending a day and then waking up for the next. You can move forward again.

You bet on your business every day. If that fails one day, you can still save up money to begin again. Every time you try, you are learning something new, you’re build your confidence, your knowledge of business, and how to interact with people. You’re setting yourself up for success.

Competence equals confidence. The more you learn about what you need to be doing, the more confident you will be in doing that thing.

Find Jai Long at:

jailong.co

Make Your Break Podcast

What Are We Loving?

What Jai is loving:

Getting to speak on stage again.

What John is loving:

Dancing in the rain with the family

We record each episode LIVE in our Facebook group and we would love to connect with you there. You can join at Light + Dark Photography Podcast Group on Facebook.

Follow us at

www.instagram.com/lightdarkco

www.instagram.com/allheartphoto

This Mini Course helps you define your brand, identify your target clients, and market to them clearly and intentionally.

Find the workbook to go along with these episodes at lightdarkco.com/podcast/131.

I highly encourage you to download it and fill it out as you’re listening. It’s only 3 pages long so don’t worry about endless forms and questions. This will get you started with becoming a better marketer of your services.

To watch the full videos and slides presentation you can find them in the Facebook Community and search for Marketing.

This Mini Course helps you define your brand, identify your target clients, and market to them clearly and intentionally.

Find the workbook to go along with these episodes at lightdarkco.com/podcast/131.

I highly encourage you to download it and fill it out as you’re listening. It’s only 3 pages long so don’t worry about endless forms and questions. This will get you started with becoming a better marketer of your services.

To watch the full videos and slides presentation you can find them in the Facebook Community and search for Marketing.

This Mini Course helps you define your brand, identify your target clients, and market to them clearly and intentionally.

Find the workbook to go along with these episodes at lightdarkco.com/podcast/131.

I highly encourage you to download it and fill it out as you’re listening. It’s only 3 pages long so don’t worry about endless forms and questions. This will get you started with becoming a better marketer of your services.

To watch the full videos and slides presentation you can find them in the Facebook Community and search for Marketing.

Alora Rachelle is a wedding photographer, business coach for wedding photographers where she specializes in teaching systems, outsourcing, and creating a white-glove experience for your clients.

She’s also the host the Hello CEO podcast and today Alora is sharing some ways that you can become the CEO your business needs.

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.

Get 30% off your first order by going to lightdarkco.com/freedom

Your mindset is one of the most overlooked indicators that you’re working in your business and not running your business. Not charging enough to be profitable, or doing everything manually in your business.

We often don’t trust ourselves to do the hard things because we’re worried we’ll make a mistake. So instead we research it until we have a headache and then do nothing.

The market is only saturated for those who copy what everyone else is doing. Differentiated yourself and your brand.

When you start felling burnout and when you’re constantly turning down opportunities to meet up with friends, or spend time with your family in order to work more, you are wearing too many hats. You need to delegate to others and set up automations in order to gain back control of your business.

The Covey Matrix helps you determine what tasks need YOU, which ones need to be delegated and which ones you should drop or postpone.

Here is what that Covey Matrix looks like.

Find Alora at

alorarachelle.com

Hello CEO Podcast

The Wedding CEO Coaching Program

Free Wedding Editorial Class

What Are We Loving?

What Alora is loving:

Finding her hobbies - Interior Design

What John is loving:

Book - More Than This by Patrick Ness

How to Create Instagram Reels with John Mansfield

This Mini Episode, John shares his process on how he creates reels, from start to publish.

Sponsor: ScanDisk Extreme Pro SD cards

Check out our favorite SD cards at Lightdarkco.com/scandisk

Step 1 in creating Reels and Tiktoks is to scroll and view some reels. Get some inspiration before you start creating.

Look for audio and videos that match your brand voice and personality. If you aren’t a dancing and pointing at words type person (Hi, me neither) then don’t do those trends.

Step 2 - Save videos and audio to your saved collection folder on IG.

You can do this by hitting the three little dots at the bottom right of the reel, and “save to collection.”

Look for audio that is trending. You’ll see that when the bottom left of the video which has the audio title has changed from a musical note to an upward graph arrow. That means it’s trending.

Step 3 - Schedule a day to brainstorm in your notes app about ideas for each audio you saved.

I write down the audio name, the idea for the reel, any text or graphics I’ll add on, and then move on to the next audio.

Step 4 - Once you have 3-5 reels planned out, set a time to record the video for each. Record them and save to your drafts.

Step 5 - Add the text, gifs, graphics, and captions to a video from your drafts and get it ready to publish.

Include a Call to Action either in the text of the video or in the caption itself.

Step 6 - Once it’s published, engage with your audience. Like and comment on their posts/stories. Look through the people who engaged with your most recent post and engage with them. This will tell the algorithm that there is a strong connection between your accounts and this raises the probability that your reel will be shared to their feed.

Step 7 - Repeat

Find John at

allheartphoto.com

instagram.com/allheartphoto

allheartphoto.com/education

We record each episode LIVE in our Facebook group and we would love to connect with you there. You can join at Light + Dark Photography Podcast Group on Facebook.

Follow us at

www.instagram.com/lightdarkco

www.instagram.com/allheartphoto

My guest on the show today is Charlotte Isaac.

She is the is a business operations consultant based in Sydney Australia. She believes that life is too dawn short to not live it the way you want to. So she helps business owners grow faster and further by streamlining and managing their clients and systems primarily through the CRM, Dubsado.

And Today Charlotte is sharing some tips on how you can uplevel your CRM into an operational powerhouse.

Check out Charlotte’s Free Mini Course - 7 Steps to Automation

And save 30% off your first month or year of Dubsado with Charlotte’s offer here.

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.

Get 30% off your first order by going to lightdarkco.com/freedom

A CRM is a Client Relationship Manager, and they look after your clients from start to finished. Organizing and automating emails, questionnaires, contracts, and all of the documentation and notes for each of your clients.

A lot of leave our 9-5 jobs to run our own business and we end up running 24/7. But we need to realize that we make the rules, and we don’t have to work all the time if we don’t want to.

Explore your CRM and get to know all the tools and templates it has for you. Some of those lesser thought of tools are the following.

Set up templates for your when you receive a lead, and that whole lead nurturing process.

Set up templates and automations for following up when you don’t hear back from someone.

Ask for testimonials at the end of your process with your clients.

If you have to look after all your clients without setting up any automations, you’ll often miss important touch points because you have to physically send out each email and questionnaire.

Don’t panic if you can’t capture every template, automation and tool in one go, just try to be as intentional as you can and build as you go.

A great to begin streamlining your process is to walk away from your computer and write down every step of your client process. That will highlight the areas you can automate through your CRM.

Systems are often seen as a dampener to creativity, but setting up systems to take more work off your hands allows you more time to be creative in your work.

Find Charlotte at

charlotteisaac.com

instagram.com/charlotteisaachq

Charlotte’s Free Mini Course - 7 Steps to Automation

What Are We Loving?

What Charlotte is loving:

Decaf Coffee

What John is loving:

Summer Water Activities with the kids

We record each episode LIVE in our Facebook group and we would love to connect with you there. You can join at Light + Dark Photography Podcast Group on Facebook.

Follow us at

www.instagram.com/lightdarkco

www.instagram.com/allheartphoto

My guest on the show today is Sandra Coan.

She is the premiere newborn, maternity, and family photographer in Seattle, Washington. She’s a business coach, a podcast host, an educator, author, and she is amazing at taking artificial light and creating a natural look for her photos.

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.

Get 30% off your first order by going to lightdarkco.com/freedom

By learning how to use artificial light in a natural way, you’re creating more freedom for yourself in your business. In how you can control light, and the creativity you can access by being in control of your light source instead of relying on a sunny day and good weather.

You are in control when you can control the light.

People often think of artificial light as the harsh, direct flash, shooting at f/11 style from the early ‘90s. With just a few pieces of gear you can create the softest, natural looking light with artificial light.

Light is light, so when you’re looking to get into working with artificial light, think of the power of the light, the shape and size of your light, and the distance from your subject. Reverse engineer the light of your naturally lit photos and try to match that with the power, size and distance of your artificial light.

Sandra’s preferred gear:

Westcott FJ200 Strobe

Westcott 7'Ft Parabolic White Umbrella

Three Umbrella Set

A lot of the Pinteresty type newborn photos you see take a lot of skill, a lot of preparation, and require a lot of safety to properly execute. Sadly, a lot of photographers who start in newborn photography don’t realize that a lot of those poses are composites of multiple images and babies end up getting injured.

So research your poses and keep your babies safe.

Here is Sandra Coan’s class on Newborn Safety

Sandra does a lot of baby-led posing so that they are in natural positions and much safer. Plus they look like themselves, just as they are.

Find what you love doing and go for that. There are people out there looking for exactly that thing.

When you find what you love, and do it loudly by marketing and sharing about it, that’s what is going to set you apart in the saturated market of so many photographers doing the same thing.

Cat Photographer - the.cattams.family on Tiktok - PurfectPose on Instagram

Find Sandra at

sandracoaneducation.com

instagram.com/sandracoan

tiktok.com/@sandracoanphotography

Beyond Natural Light Podcast

Beyond Natural Light Facebook Group

Crafting the Natural Light Look - Book

What Are We Loving?

What Sandra is loving:

the Weather in Seattle

Tiktok - Follow her here

What John is loving:

Movie - Spiderhead (Netflix)

We record each episode LIVE in our Facebook group and we would love to connect with you there. You can join at Light + Dark Photography Podcast Group on Facebook.

Follow us at

www.instagram.com/lightdarkco

www.instagram.com/allheartphoto

This Mini Episode, John shares some tips on posing same-sex couples as well as some ideas you might want to incorporate into every photoshoot

The short answer is that you should photograph same-sex couples the same way that you photograph any other couple. But the problem lays in how we photograph couples.

Many photographers pose couples in masculine and feminine roles; the groom does this, the bride does that. I suggest to not pigeonhole anyone into a certain type of posing.

If you typically have the groom (in hetero couples) in more masculine poses such as wrapping his arms around the bride, or giving piggyback rides, or following when being lead by the bride down the path, then it’ll be more difficult to photograph any couple who doesn’t have an obviously more masculine presenting partner.

So, instead of only having one of the partners do things like bear hug or cuddle, switch it up throughout the session.

Get to know your couple before their photoshoot. This will allow you to photograph them in the most comfortable poses for them and their relationship.

Pose them according to their personalities and notice is they are uncomfortable in certain roles.

Love is love, couples are all different, no matter who they are in relationship with. Treat them as a couple in love with each other, and capture that love the best way possible by allowing them to show that love to each other in their own way.

Find John at

allheartphoto.com

instagram.com/allheartphoto

allheartphoto.com/education

We record each episode LIVE in our Facebook group and we would love to connect with you there. You can join at Light + Dark Photography Podcast Group on Facebook.

Follow us at

www.instagram.com/lightdarkco

www.instagram.com/allheartphoto

My guest on the show today is Bernel Westbrook.

She is the owner and lead designer at Branded by Bernel, a full service branding and web design company. She's also the host of the Branded by Bernel Podcast where she shares branding tips and obsesses over the details so you don't have to.

And Today Bernel is sharing her top 3 ways you can grow your business outside of social media.

Sponsor: Táve

Receive an extended 60 day free trial of Táve at Lightdarkco.com/tave

Look for ways to grow your business but also ways that you can balance your life too.

Find areas that you can automate, and schedule some self care. You can't take care of your business well if you aren't taking care of yourself well.

One of the main reasons you should be looking for ways to grow your business outside of social media is because social media can be very mentally exhausting.

You can spend a lot of time on social media on your captions, on recording your reels, planning out content and you don't always see a reward for all your hard work.

One area you can focus on is referrals. If you are wondering how to get referrals from your clients, just ask for them. You'd be surprised what people want to do if you just ask.

Give your clients incentives or referral links for perks when they send people your way. You can even send them a questionnaire to help them formulate a review that would help lead more potential clients to you.

You can talk yourself up all day, but when potential clients hear about your services from a trusted friend, they will act on that referral much more often and with more trust in your experience.

A lead magnet is a freebie or highly discounted item that you use to to draw people in like a magnet.

You can use these to attract potential clients, provide them with value, and get them on your email list.

Provide your email list with valuable tips that speak to their pain points.

You can place your lead magnets in many different pages. A couple locations that get the most interaction are on your services page, and your resources page.

On your services page it tells them that you see they are at least interested in working with you, and then you can hit them extra value with your freebie.

If you have your lead magnet as a pop-up, place that pop-up on your about page or services page, not on your home page. You will get a much higher click rate being on a secondary page.

Another great way to grow outside of social media is to network. Meet other professionals at events, ask to be a guest on a podcast, attend your local Rising Tide Society (come join mine if you're in the area), and go to conferences to network nationally and internationally too.

Make a list of 3 clients you enjoyed working with, reach out to them and let them know that you loved working with them and you are currently adding some referrals and reviews on your website and you'd love if they could provide you one.

Find Bernel at

brandedbybernel.com

instagram.com/brandedbybernel

Branded by Bernel Podcast

What Are We Loving?

What Bernel is loving:

Food - Trying new restaurants like Velvet Taco in Charlotte, NC

What John is loving:

Scheduling time for selfcare - Evenings off, weekends without photoshoots, going on actual vacations

We record each episode LIVE in our Facebook group and we would love to connect with you there. You can join at Light + Dark Photography Podcast Group on Facebook.

Follow us at

www.instagram.com/lightdarkco

www.instagram.com/allheartphoto