Photospark

Did you guys know that March is Women's History Month? We wanted to take advantage of that, and chat a bit about what it's like to be a female business owner. Women tend to face obstacles and challenges that men don't always face. We invited San Diego photographer Monica Royal to be a guest this week & she was the perfect person to chat about this topic with! Monica has experienced many of these hurdles herself, and talks with us about how to be assertive and quit apologizing, which leads to more effective communication. Download from iTunes Here DISCLAIMER: While we recorded this particular episode with women in mind, we are well-aware that there are also many men out there who struggle with effective communication and suffer from these same obstacles! This episode isn't intended to exclude anyone, so you'll likely get some great tips from listening, no matter your gender! Photo Credit: Monica Royal Key Takeaways Quit apologizing!! We are ALL most likely guilty of apologizing way more than we nee

No matter how long you've been in business as a photographer, it's a guarantee that you will be asked to work for free at some point. Whether it's a friend or family member looking for a hook up, a wedding vendor looking for photos of their product and offering "exposure" in return, or a charity looking for a donation, we're constantly bombarded with opportunities to give away our time & photos for free. Local photographer Cavin Elizabeth (Cavin Elizabeth Photography) knows this struggle well! In fact, in 2015 she calculated that she gave away thousands of dollars in free photography services. This is obviously a crippling amount. She learned a lot of lessons about working for free in this year, and she's on the show to chat with us about what she learned! Photo Credit: Arielle Levy Key Takeaways How could working for free HELP your business? Make sure the job you are taking benefits YOU. Figure out criteria to help judge these jobs, and run every potential free shoot through your criteria before sayin

We think one of the hardest aspects of working in the wedding industry is staying inspired and ahead of the current trends. It's so easy to browse wedding magazines & inspirational, styled blog posts, but by the time you figure out what's currently trendy, it's probably almost too late to actually use it! Kim Sayatovic is the founder and chief creative officer of Belladeux Event Design, a full-service wedding and event design firm based in New Orleans. She was the perfect person to chat with about staying inspired in the wedding industry because she is creative, artistic, and full of advice! Tune in to the podcast to hear some tips about staying inspired (along with some hilarious stories about New Orleans & the south in general... including some wacky bride ideas), but feel free to read our favorite points below! Key Takeaways Don't look for inspiration... create inspiration! The best way to be unique & stay ahead of the trend is to find your own inspiration! Pinterest & blogs are great, b

Ok this episode was hard to do... why? Well, we were stuck in a studio on a rainy day while our interview-ee was hanging out on a freaking beach in Mexico!! MAN! We were so jealous. Isn't technology awesome?? Anyway, our lucky guest this week is Adam Fried from Simply Color Lab & ShootQ! He came on the show to chat about tools for automation, and we definitely had some questions about how to make the most out of client management software. ^^ Ashley and Julie had the chance to hang out with Adam in Las Vegas last week at WPPI! Key Takeaways Why should we use automation software? Photographers are super creative, but oftentimes that makes running a business a little difficult for us. These days, it's not just about who can take the best photo, it's also about who's the most organized, who can respond back to a lead faster, etc. Using tools for automation helps us rise above the rest of the pack, because we look more professional, stay more organized, and thus book more shoots. Ashley has mentioned that

We are SO excited for WPPI next week (well, Ashley & Julie are... Kate ended up bailing because of mom reasons) and we're brainstorming ways to get the most out of it! We're excited to hopefully meet some listeners, and there are some very cool PhotoSpark plans in the works! We thought this would be a perfect time to have Anne Simone & Kayla Harrison on the podcast! These two work for Shoot Proof; Anne is a content developer & Kayla is a community builder, and they recently collaborated on an awesome blog post all about getting the most out of photography trade shows and conventions. We chatted even more in-depth with them on the show... check out our three favorite tips below! Key Takeaways: Figure out your priorities. When thinking about photography trade shows and conventions, it's easy to get overwhelmed with all the things to do, people to see, and fun stuff to buy. Take the time to put together a top three list. You can actually do a lot of these (top three products to purchase, top three

Hello there, loyal listeners! We can't wait to share this week's episode with you guys. We'll admit, when we first thought about having a LinkedIn expert on the show, we were a bit nervous about whether or not we'd find the topic relevant for photographers. I mean... LinkedIn always seemed like a great resource and networking tool for people in the corporate world, but it never really occurred to us that we can and SHOULD be using it for our photography businesses! We invited Mary Fain Brandt, Owner & Chief Inspiration Officer at Mary Fain Brandt Career Coaching & The LinkedIn Bakery on the show to give us some LinkedIn advice relevant to our field of photography. Tune in to hear her awesome tips (we could have chatted with her ALL day, seriously), but here are three of our favorites! Key Takeaways There are over 460 MILLION people on LinkedIn. We could stop right there and not even talk any further about this and that ALONE should be the reason to create and perfect your LinkedIn profile. That's a

There's a really interesting trend when discussing profitability as photographers. It seems very black and white. Half of photographers talk about how money isn't important. They talk a lot about being super picky with jobs you take, shooting for passion, not profit, and being sure not to work too much because you might "sell out." On the other side, the other half of photographers talk about money money money. How to make more money, get more clients, and be more successful. We've definitely noticed this split before... and truth is, neither of these business models make sense for most people!! Of course we'd all LOVE to be super picky and only take jobs we're ridiculously excited about, but at the end of the day we have to turn a profit... and there's nothing wrong with that! Jasmine Fitzwilliam is an amazingly talented photographer and business owner here in San Diego. She has spent a LOT of time making a "brand plan" (we'll talk about that more below!) and knows exactly where she wants to be in her busin

Photo Cred: La Vida Creations Hello everyone! We are hoping your 2017 has been going great so far. We've been super busy here at PhotoSpark so far this year. We've been recording episodes, planning new show topics, discussing our WPPI strategies, and more. We figured this is a great time to remind ourselves about the importance of keeping our clients happy, and who better to chat about that with than Bethel Nathan! She's the awesome wedding officiant/business-woman extraordinaire who runs both Ceremonies by Bethel and Elevate by Bethel. She is also an absolute EXPERT in the customer journey (I mean... have you SEEN her Wedding Wire reviews?!) so we knew she'd be the perfect person to have on the show! If you think about it, your clients' journeys begin the moment they know they need your service... that part is mostly out of your control. Once they reach out to you, you are in complete control of how their customer journey unfolds from start to finish. We want to make sure this is a positive journey! Tune i

If you're a wedding photographer, you've likely worked hand in hand with wedding planners and coordinators to achieve the best wedding possible for your clients. This can always be a tough relationship to navigate though... how much contact is too much? When should you contact the coordinator/planner? What do you do if you have a problem with the timeline? The ever-amazing Courtney Tibbets of After The Engagement joined us in the PhotoSpark studio to help us learn the secrets of working with a wedding planner! Not only is she a breath of fresh air (this chick DEFINITELY knows her brand & runs a seamless, amazing business!), but she's also a wealth of knowledge in all things wedding related. Tune in to hear her awesome interview, but check out the post below to hear some of Courtney's tips regarding working with a wedding planner! Key Takeaways: Figure out what you can do for them. If you're interested working with a wedding planner, it's not a bad idea to get on their good side. The best way to get the

It's no secret that when it comes to the planning of family photos (or let's be honest... most everything), moms are typically the ones contacting photographers & organizing everything. So it's SUPER important that we don't forget the importance of networking with moms. To chat about this, we invited Jillian Darlington to join us in the studio. Jillian is a mom herself, and the CEO of MomCo App. In addition to running her own company, she is also a SheKnows Expert, a member of the Today Show Parenting Team, brand ambassador, and regular parenting expert on Fox5 and CW6 News in San Diego. MomCo is a FREE app that allows moms to locate and connect with potential mom friends that live close to them with similarly-aged children and common interests. It's a fantastic resource for moms, and also a great place for networking with moms, as Jillian discusses in our episode! We have picked our three favorite tips for networking with moms from Jillian... check out the blog below! For more awesome tips, be sure to t

Hello everyone! We hope the holiday season has been treating you all well so far! If you guys are anything like us, your plates are CRAZY full right now. Photoshoots, family obligations, holiday parties with friends... the list goes on & on. And to top it all off, you probably have 50 bajillion photos to edit. YIKES. Post production is definitely a huge part of what we do as photographers, and your efficiency with post production can make or break your business! Leon Sandoval joined us a few weeks ago to chat about outsourcing (he's the awesome owner of Essential Edit... listen to his episode HERE), and he's back this week to share some common mistakes photographers make during their post production phase! He lists 7 deadly sins in the episode... keep reading to hear our three favorites, and tune in to hear the complete list! Our Three Favorite Post Production "Sins" Overthinking: We photographers tend to overthink EVERYTHING when it comes to post production!. We overthink what images to give the client

This week, we're slowing it down a bit & just hanging out with your lovely PhotoSpark hosts!! We have all had some crazy things going on in our lives, both personal and business, and we figured we'd take some time to check in & chit chat about what's been going on with each of us lately. So we hope you enjoy these PhotoSpark host updates! So... what have we been up to?? Ashley DuChene Ashley recently attended her second Coast to Coast Yelp event at Yelp Headquarters in San Francisco! This time was even cooler than the first though, because she was a part of the advisor alliance for the event. This meant she had the chance to give a 40 minute presentation about how to get more Yelp reviews. She was a little nervous at first, but she totally rocked it (we all knew she would)! She had to do her speech three separate times, in front of different audiences. She also attended a women's breakfast, which allowed her to connect with other women business owners (which we totally love) and share stories about t

This week, we decided to show some love for our wedding photographer listeners and talk about arguably the MOST important part of planning (and photographing!) a wedding... wedding day timelines!! To chat about this, we brought in epic wedding photographer Derek Chad! Derek goes over his top rules for wedding day timelines... tune in to hear all of them, but check out a few of our favorites below! Key Takeaways: Be VERY involved in the creation of your couples' wedding day timelines. Not everyone has a wedding planner, and if your couple doesn't, this is your chance to create the perfect timeline. Make sure you're knowledgeable enough to know how much time you need for family photos, bridal party photos, and couple photos. We always suggest giving yourself extra time if possible. If there IS a wedding planner, still make sure you triple check the schedule and that it works for you. Not every planner knows how long photography takes, and it's your responsibility to be pushy if necessary to get the amount of

Well hello there November!! I know I'm not just speaking for myself when I say 2016 has FLOWN by. I can't believe we are already full swing into the holiday portrait session madness! If you guys are anything like us, you're slightly drowning in photo shoots, emails, phone calls, and.... retouching!!! Outsourcing retouching has always been a long term goal for me, but I never really knew how to go about doing it. What company should I hire? How would I deliver the images? Do I have to cull them first? I had a million questions. Thankfully, we brought Leon Sandoval on the show this week! Leon is the owner of Essential Edit, a company that provides post production services to photographers! They offer everything from culling to color correction to full retouching, so he was the perfect person to chat to about outsourcing retouching! Key Takeaways: Why outsource retouching? Outsourcing retouching essentially allows you to shoot more and work less! The more you shoot, the more money you can make. Let's face it,

Mark Mikelat joins us in studio this week to chat about TWITTER! Twitter is a mystery to us.. we'll just come out and say it: We kinda suck at Twitter. We don't understand the whole 140 characters or less, abbreviations, acronyms, etc jam that is Twitter. So we REALLY needed to have Mark in-studio to help us! Mark is an online marketing expert who specializes in helping small businesses with their marketing systems. As small business owners, the biggest mistake we can make is being great at what we do (photography... what what!) but not learning how to properly market ourselves so nobody knows we exist. So here are some tips from Mark on how to get your voice heard on Twitter! Be sure to tune in for more: Key Points: Understand the advantages and disadvantages of Twitter (and other social media networks): Mark used the following analogy to describe Twitter marketing vs. Facebook marketing: Twitter marketing is like a conversation in a hallway. It's super fast but it's dispersed. You might only be chatting f

If you guys joined us last week, you'll remember Jeff & Erin Youngren of The Youngrens.  These two are amazing photographers & business-people... they run three separate photography businesses here in San Diego which takes an insane amount of work & organization! While we have a million topics we'd like to chat with them about, today we're speaking with them specifically about running an associate photography business. This can be a great way to make some additional income as a photographer, but it definitely takes some skill and business sense to make it successful! Jeff & Erin run Clove & Kin, which is an associate portrait studio completely separate from their other brands, so they're the perfect people to chat with about running an associate photography business! Here are some of our favorite tips from our episode... but be sure to listen for even more awesome info from these guys! Key Takeaways: How do you know if an associate business is right for you? If you've hit a ceiling in

If I said the word "dreamie," what would you think of?? Well, if you're Erin Youngren, you'd think of your PERFECT dream client. You know the type... the ones you just click with instantly. They're those clients with the perfect job, perfect style, and perfect personality to fit your brand. Erin & Jeff Youngren have perfected their brand (actually... their brandS; they have three!!!) & are experts in finding their dreamies; their dream clients! We are SO excited to be joined by them in studio... they're KINDA a big deal here in San Diego, so we are flattered they wanted to hang out with us for an hour and chit chat about their branding tips & dream clients! Key Takeaways: Build a business that is LIFE GIVING. There's nothing worse than driving home from a photoshoot feeling like you didn't get paid enough for the job you just did, and feeling like you're so glad that job is over. That means that particular job (and client) was NOT meant for you. The best way to build a life giving business is b

PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Watson Photography We're SO excited to chat this week with Meghan Ely of OFD Consulting. Meghan has a RAD job... she basically works with wedding professionals to help them get published & market themselves! The world of wedding public relations is a tricky one to navigate, so it's great to have an expert in the field on the show to help us with some tips on how to make it easier! Key Takeaways: What are some things we as photographers focus on from a wedding public relations standpoint? Photographers should focus on getting real weddings published both in blogs and in print: select images, write the couple's story, and find your place in media. When you're in a saturated market, you can also try to gain third party credibility. Ideally, you want to be the "expert" and be the go-to person for quotes from credible sources like The Knot or Wedding Wire. If you've been in business a long time, you can look to elevate your brand among your peers. This includes things like speaking enga

photo credit: Hello Foto Studio (Jen Acosta) Hello everyone!! We're so excited to share another episode of PhotoSpark with you guys. Melissa McClure joins us as a special guest this week while we chat about what it's like to step over to the other side of the lens! It's super important as photographers that we get OUR photos taken every now and then (we suggest at least once a year!) for SO many reasons. The ladies of PhotoSpark have recently stepped in front of the camera for two half-day branding photoshoots, and we realized we learned quite a bit by doing so! Melissa is the perfect guest for this episode too because she's no stranger to getting her photo taken... and she's getting married next year so she brings another level of knowledge to this episode! Here are some of the best things we've learned from being on the other side of the lens! Key Takeaways: The importance of great outfits (and how to pick them!): One of the most common questions we get asked by clients is "what should I wear and how shou

Hello everyone! We all agree that one of the most valuable and awesome parts of being part of a close knit photographer community is getting to ask each other for advice. We're lucky enough to have a TON of awesome photographers here in San Diego that we constantly ask advice from, and we hope you guys do too! However, just in case you don't, we figured we'd take an entire episode just for answering listener questions! If you have a question about something, chances are a bunch of other people do too! We grabbed a few favorite questions from our email & social media for this episode... if you have a question you want answered on the air, drop us a line!! Listener Question Highlights I'd like some tips on how to gain confidence to turn away clients that might not be the best fit. Sometimes I struggle with taking sessions that aren't right for me, and I don't enjoy the work. Don't worry if you aren't booked up for the year yet; it's only the beginning of fall! If you take a shoot you're not quite excited