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

My guest on the show today is Maddy Mahairas She is a returning guest, so check out episode 44 about the power of encouragement after this one.

She’s wedding photographer based in Tampa Florida and specializes in church worship photography too.

And Today we're talking about how you can create an workflow that saves you time and allows you to scale your business.

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.

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

When you receive a new lead, immediately send a text to connect unless they say that they prefer to communicate through email.

Don't be discouraged when you receive a lead who's just looking for prices. Consumers only know what they are given and prices are usually given in consumer products so that's what they have to begin with.

Ask questions to allow them to talk about themselves. Listen to them and learn about who your clients are.

Don't just ask how they got engaged or what their wedding colors are.

Have some photo inspiration and even some date night inspiration to share with them throughout the planning process.

As you are taking photos throughout the day, you can rate images in-camera so that your same day and next day sneak peeks are rated and ready to be edited without having to look through all of your photos.

You can use those rated images for your sneak peek gallery, and for creating a blog post.

Find Maddy at

Instagram.com/maddness.photography

maddnessphotography.com

What Are We Loving?

What Maddy is loving:

Book - Forgiving what you can't Forget - Lysa TerKeurst

What John is loving:

TV Show - Stranger Things Season 4 Part I (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 5 pieces of software that will save you time and energy, and create an elevated client experience.

Sponsor: ScanDisk Extreme Pro SD cards

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

Try Photo Mechanic Here

Quickly cull, organize and export your photos with custom metadata.

Photo Mechanic shaves hours of my culling time. It usually only takes me around 45 minutes to cull through 2500 images. This saves me 3-4 hours from my workflow when I culled before Photo Mechanic.

Try BackBlaze Here

Back up your photos, videos, and files with this cloud based storage backup system.

It’s easy and automated. You can quickly restore any files you need

Try BackBlaze and receive a free month of service.

Try JPEGmini Here

Compress your images to the smallest file size without compromising on quality.

It takes up less space on your hard drive, makes for quicker uploads, and easier downloads for your clients.

Try Gusto Here

Easy to manage payroll service, so you can organize direct deposit payments to contractors and employees.

Gusto also puts together all your payroll tax documents for you as well as your contractors.

You can set up a 401(k), 529 College Funds, HSA and FSA healthcare funds and more for yourself and your employees.

Try Gusto and Receive $100 back after you run your first payroll.

Try Pic-Time Here

Amazing image delivery gallery service.

It’s very customizable with style, color scheme, layout, branding and more.

The print sales campaigns that Pic-Time creates for you are so useful. Easily add them to your galleries and wait for the sales to roll in without having to schedule email campaigns, social media posts or anything.

Try Pic-Time for free and when you upgrade to a paid plan, get your first month free! Just use Promo code: HE9BB3 at checkout.

All the links to these software are affiliate links. We get a little kickback, while you get a deal on an amazing service. We don’t advertise for companies we don’t absolutely love, so know these are great.

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

L6zJxyZgvLhBh4cMBxhV

Michelle Harris is a destination wedding photographer based in Washington DC, a business coach, Speaker, and she hosts a fantastic community of hustling photographers.

Today we’re talking about 3 reasons why wedding photographers are getting ghosted and how you can fix them.

This episode is sponsored by Freedom Edits.

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

Whether you believe you can or your can't, you're right. If you truly believe you can get something done, then you absolutely can. It doesn't matter how many people around you don't believe it, if you believe it, then that confidence will help you succeed.

Getting ghosted is when you get an inquiry, send over your information, and then you get no response in return. They just turn into a ghost and are never seen again.

There is usually something that is missing and that's the reason why you're getting ghosted.

You need to pre-qualify your leads. Without pre-qualifying your leads, you'll receive a great number of leads, however not all of them will be a good fit for you. Especially when it comes to budget. So place your started price on top of your contact form. It doesn't matter where else on your website you have your pricing, place it at your contact form so you can pre-qualify those leads before they hit your inbox. This will save you and them time and energy.

Make every inquiry go through your contact form. Sometimes you'll get inquiries over Instagram but send them to your contact form to fill that out and to see that starting price.

Get your leads on the phone. Call them immediately and if they can't talk, you can tell them that you'll send over an email with the info.

It will probably feel uncomfortable to talk to them on the phone, but the impression that will last with them if far worth it, since no other photographers are getting them on the phone either.

You pricing may be confusing your leads. A La Carte (build your own) style is making your leads do a lot more work than they want to and that may be causing them to ghost.

If you have 3 or 4 collections in your pricing list, have an "All collections include" section that lists all the

line items that are included in every single collection. That way they aren't looking through 15 items in each collection trying to figure out what the difference is between the collections.

Don't offer a "complementary" engagement session. Nothing else in your collections are complementary, why is this?

When it's "free" it loses it's value to the couple. So include engagement sessions if you want, but have a value for them instead of telling your leads that it's complementary.

Don't include things in your collections that you don't want to do. If you don't like doing bridal portraits, don't offer them.

If you don't like rehearsals, don't offer that coverage. Only offer the things you want to photograph.

When setting your prices, don't have 99 at the end of your prices. That's a discount price. $1999 looks cheap and like a commodity. Round out your numbers. That'll look more upper scale and luxury.

Your investment guide does not need to have pages and pages of helpful tips and articles in order to share your prices.

This should be shared later or in a separate email. That is causing more confusion that it is providing help for them.

Find Michelle at

Instagram.com/mharris_studios

M Harris Hustlers

Hustle Vault

Master The City Workshops

What Are We Loving?

What Michelle is loving:

Podcasts

The Rich Man Podcast by Melanie Auburn

The Kelly Roach Show

Business and Life Podcast with Angela Henderson

What John is loving:

TV Show - Ozark Season 4 Part II (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 a few ways you can elevate your client experience to move yourself from Good to Great and cultivate clients who will rave about your services to others.

"Sponsor": ScanDisk Extreme Pro SD cards

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

Most clients can’t tell the difference between good and great photos, but they can tell the difference between good and great service.

By elevating your client experience will move you from good to great in their eyes and the referrals will start pouring in.

3 Ways to elevate your client experience:

• Gifts like welcome gifts, post cards, some of yours or their favorite things
• Guides and educational articles to help them prepare for your services
• Taking extra care and attention by asking them questions about themselves, and going above and beyond what they expect from you. Always deliver more value than they expect.

Check out more about elevating your client experience in episode 78 with the Elevate Photo Awards Team

Find John at

allheartphoto.com

instagram.com/allheartphoto

allheartphoto.com/education