Optimize Your Photo Processes and Reduce Stress with Lindsay Coulter

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Lindsay Coulter (00:00):
Get your systems in order for your
workflow.
Have a spreadsheet.
It doesn't have to be sexy.
You don't have to spend a ton ofmoney on a big CRM and all this
stuff.
I literally use a Google sheetsdocument to tell me what I have
on the go, what's coming up, howmuch money it's making me.
It's just like a very simple,basic spreadsheet.

Raymond Hatfield (00:24):
Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography
Podcast.
I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield.
And today we are chatting withwedding photographer, Lindsay
Coulter, about what's essentialwhen learning photography and
starting a business.
But first, 70 percent of peopleabandon their online shopping
carts before checking out?
If you're trying to sell prints,that is a lot of money that you
could be leaving on the table.

(00:45):
Well, worry no more.
With CloudSpot's abandoned cardemail feature, your clients can
be automatically reminded tofinish their purchase without
you lifting a single finger.
your free CloudSpot accounttoday over at deliverphotos.
com.
Now, this episode is for thoseof you feeling overwhelmed by
all of the, should do's inphotography.

(01:07):
You know what I'm talking about.
You watch like five or sixYouTube videos about the
business of photography andimmediately you feel so behind,
right?
There's so many different thingsthat you're being told what to
do.
Do you do it all?
Do you pick and choose?
How do you know what to pick?
Well, today's guest, LindseyCoulter, who's been shooting
weddings for more than 10 years,is going to share with you all

(01:28):
of the mistakes that she made,not only when learning
photography, but also whenstarting and growing her
photography business, as well aswhat she's cutting out and what
she's going deeper with as herbusiness continues to mature.
So in today's episode, you'regoing to learn the importance of
creating a workflow from shuttersnap all the way to delivery.

(01:48):
Why delivering an exceptionalclient experience is far more
important than the gear that youuse, and to a degree, even the
quality of the images that youdeliver, and why we need to take
care of ourselves and maintainour own mental and physical
health, not in addition to, butbecause we oftentimes have such

(02:09):
a busy schedule.
You know, and remember,listening to the podcast should
not be a passive experience.
You're listening right now tobecome a better photographer.
So listen, listen actively, takenotes on your phone, the things
that you hear and take action.
That's the only way that you'regoing to get better.
So with that, let's go ahead andget on into today's interview

(02:31):
with Lindsay Coulter.

Raymond Hatfield (3) (02:33):
Lindsey, when did you know that
photography was going to firstplay an important role in your
life?
Ha

I probably first knew that it was going to
be important in my life in 2012.
I was 22 years old and, inuniversity for environment and
geography, something totallyunrelated to where I am now.
a guy named Taylor Jackson slidinto my DMS

ha.

and they didn't call it that then.
I just thought the guy was beingweird on Facebook.
And I had followed his blog fora really long time.
for those of you who don't know,Taylor Jackson is my husband
now, but at that time it wasjust a guy in my town that took
photos.
And I followed his wedding blogjust cause I was a 20 something

(03:19):
year old girl in his town.
And, so I knew who he was.
We ended up going on a dateagainst my better judgment cause
who goes on a date with somerandom guy from social media,
but I did.

Oh, me.
And I'll tell you a story aboutthat afterwards.
But yeah, that's a comment.
Yeah, especially around thattime.
That was more normal than it isnow.
Yeah.

It was like people used social media as like
a dating app.
It was so funny.
And it was actually, it startedon Twitter because I responded
to a tweet of his about fear andloathing in Las Vegas.
And then he like went and lookedme up on Facebook and was like,
we have a lot of mutual friendsin common.
I was like, is this a pickup?
So yeah, we hung out.
We went on a couple of datesand.

(04:00):
He basically said, I'm busyevery single weekend with
weddings.
So if you want to hang outanymore, you're going to have to
pick up a camera and be mysecond

No way.
Ha ha ha.
Ha

I think we started dating in May and June,
July, August, September, Iliterally learned how to be a
photographer.
I

ha.

first few weddings at weddings that like
didn't have a secondphotographer hired, not to make
him sound like, like the worstphotographer to hire.
pretty quickly, I wasn't sure ifit was going to be my career,
but I was like, Oh, this isgoing to be a part of my life
here because there was no easein with Taylor and I, we were
just full on, um, we wereserious right away.
So I was like, well, whateverthis is, I guess it's going to

(04:40):
be a thing in my life in somecapacity.
I don't think I could haveexpected my own career to be
what it is now in those daysthough.

Help me figure out the wrapping your
head around the decision to say,I know that I'm in school to
learn this, but actually I'mgoing to forget all about that
and choose this career pathgoing forward.

Yeah.
It wasn't easy at all.
It came with a lot of stress andit actually came with a lot of
like complications cause myparents both worked at the
university that I was going to.
So, there was no hiding that Iwas not going to be using my
degree.
Like they were very aware ofwhat was happening.
It was pretty gradual at first.

(05:22):
I was working at a restaurant.
I was teaching piano.
I was teaching yoga.
I was also in school full time.
So I was busy.
Like I was just a busy person.
I liked being busy and I likedrunning my own businesses in the
teaching piano and yoga.
And I had a co op job working ata hydro company, for one of my
school terms.
So instead of going to classes,I went and worked at a hydro

(05:44):
company.
As you can imagine, you're notreally like a popular person
working in conservation.
Management, like energyconservation at a hydro company.
Cause the only reason that theyget paid is because people
consume energy.
So I realized really quickly,like, Oh, this thing I went to
school for is going to be hard.
And it's not going to allow methe flexibility that, every 20

(06:07):
something year old dreams oflike being able to travel and
run their own, even if you're anemployee, you always hope that
you're going to have someautonomy.
And I realized that that's,that's not.
That's not the career path Ihave chosen here at all.
And at the same time, there'sthis parallel where I'm going
and shooting weddings withTaylor and he just has like a
really nice life.
He's traveling all the time.

(06:29):
He's literally hanging out withpeople on the best day of their
lives over and over again.
And he's getting to createstuff.
And I'd always been in thecreative space.
I went to a special arts schoolfor high school.
So I'd always been like in thearts, but just in my experience
and what everybody had alwaystold me that that wasn't a

(06:49):
career path.
That was like a thing that youdo fun that, and you have a real
job.
So it took me a really long timeto wrap my head around, like not
having the comfort of a steadyincome and, coming from two
parents that worked at auniversity, like all I had ever
known was like a normal life.

Yeah, nine to five job and yeah, all that
stuff.
Yeah.

And my dad had his own small business when I
was younger and it was hard.
It was always feast and famine.
And so I, I knew I didn't wantthat.
So when I decided to sort of dipa toe into starting my own
business, it was really like,well, I'll do this while I still
finish my degree.
So that I knew that there wasstill an option there for me to

(07:33):
get a job if this didn't end upworking out.
But for me, I just was like,well, there's ever going to be a
time when I'm going to reallygive this the old college try,
it's when I have noresponsibilities whatsoever.
Like my apartment costs 333 amonth.
I was making that just in tipsat the bar that I worked at, you

(07:55):
know, so there was really norisk for me in starting a
business.
So I just kind of whippedtogether a website and saw what
happened and it kind of just, itjust all fell into place really
organically.
And it's not natural.
I know it's really abnormal.
And I hope that like the newerphotographer is listening.
Don't think like, yeah, you canjust, decide to not have a full

(08:16):
time career, job, and you canjust be a photographer in your
first year.
Cause that's what happened forme.
And I was like, shooting 30weddings a year in my first year
and then

Wow.

It's like really abnormal.
But I

Yes.

source from, you know, my boyfriend,

Yeah.

a really well established photographer.
So I always tell people like youcan't look at somebody else's
journey and hope that that couldbe yours or wonder why it's not
yours.
all sort of happens in sequenceexactly how it's supposed to for
each person.
But,

Yeah.

I could have hoped it to be.
It wasn't like one day I had toquit a job.
I graduated from university andI would remember feeling this
like relief, like, Oh my God, Ijust get to do photography now
because I had been doing so manythings.
And on top of this full timeschooling that I was like, well,
this is a relief now that I justget to do this and like, just

(09:14):
get to do this.
I mean, I was just, I was doinga lot.
I was doing all of the thingsand trying to figure out what
worked for me basically.

You don't book 30 and then 50 weddings and
not have much to do.
There's a lot that goes onobviously behind the scenes more
than just those weekends.
But, um,

what I was doing, right?
Like workflow wise, nothing.
I

yeah.

like, you might think because I had this well
established photographer, in ourhome, that that would mean that
I had the best workflows and allof that.
But I actually totally disagreedwith most of the ways how Taylor
ran his business

Oh, funny.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Like we run our businesses very differently.
So.
I was doing it all from scratch,but it was almost worse because
I was seeing how he was doingit, trying it that way, and then
realizing that's not for me,instead of just like, I don't
know, I don't know what normalpeople do.
They just research and they getsoftware and they just hope for
the best.
I don't know.

I've never been a wedding photographer
before, so I don't know what todo here.
Yeah, in all these weirdsituations.
Yeah.

I'd

Yeah.

to a wedding.
I'd been to one wedding

Oh, really?
That's funny.

I'd never even been to once.
I didn't even know what toexpect.

Yeah.
Well, okay.
Let's, rewind a little bit and Iwant to know, what it was like
just being a handed a camera, ata wedding.
Like when you're, you know, whenyou hadn't been to a wedding
before, like was that learningcurve for you?
How did you learn photography?
What was the most difficult partin that?
How did you get over it?
That was a big question.
I apologize.

No, that's okay.
It's a really good questionbecause I, all the way through
learning how to be aphotographer and how to run a
business, I always rememberedthinking, you have to remember
this because at some pointyou're, you're going to know all
of this stuff and somebody isgoing to ask you basically this
question and you're not going toremember cause that's how it

(11:06):
goes.
I would ask all theseexperienced photographers Taylor
included other people that Iknew and they just wouldn't
know.
They'd be like, would ask them,how did you get started?
Or, what should I know?
Cause you don't know what youdon't know

Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.

sucks in comparison to what you're
seeing.
It just does.
and I remember thinking like,have to remember self.
We have to remember, how hardthis was.
So one of the first things thatI did was I shot on aperture
priority.
That was like easy modeessentially, instead of having
to know like the triangle of ISOshutter, like everything

(11:42):
understand all of it, it tooksome of the guesswork out of it
for me, right?
It was doing some of itautomatically Which allowed me
to focus on composition and onlike the human experience.
So the first few weddings I didwith Taylor, I just walked up to
people and tried to be like anormal human, which I think
helped that I had been teachingyoga and, teaching piano because

(12:04):
the human thing was really all Iknew and working at a bar, so I
was like, okay, I'll lean onthat side of things.
But my skillset was so farbehind.
I knew when pictures lookedgood, but I had no idea why.
I knew what kind of images Iliked to create, but I had no
idea how I had made them and Icouldn't figure out how to make
them again.
aperture priority saved me inthose early days, just getting

(12:26):
me comfortable with having aDSLR in my hands.
Cause that was not a thing.
And then my next thing that wasreally hard for me was always
trying to figure out what lens Iwas supposed to put on it.
Because when I was secondshooting for Taylor, the
decision was made for me.
He handed me a camera with alens on it.
But then the next year when Iwas shooting for myself, I was
like, I have to make thesedecisions.

(12:46):
Like, that's a lot.
Like how am I supposed to knowwhich lens to use in what
moment?

And it's so much more than like, I think
a lot of new photographersthink, Oh, if something's far
away, I'll just use a telephoto.
If something's close up, I'lluse a wide angle lens,

Right.

so much more as you found that goes into
it than just, am I using atelephoto lens?
Cause it's far away

Yes.

So, is that what you're talking about?

yeah, well, and, because I didn't understand
why I liked certain looks ofphotos, I didn't understand, oh,
it's because it has a reallyshallow depth of field.

Mm.

didn't understand that, certain lenses
flare in different ways thanothers.
I didn't understand that, um,what I didn't realize was that I
really liked prime lensesbecause when I first started I
just shot on a 24 70 becausethat's like a pretty safe lens.

Yeah.

have a new second start for me and they are
newer to photography, wellthey're not usually a second if
they're newer, but if I havesomebody working for me that's
newer into it, I'll put them ona 24 70 and say, like, have at
her.
Get comfortable with this beforewe go anywhere else.
The other option would be to putthem on a 50 say, you're going
to zoom with your legs.

Yeah.

But what really helped me in those early days
was removing some of the optionsbecause I was working at so many
jobs.
I actually had a really big kit.
I was buying used gear fromTaylor.
I was buying used gear from ourlocal shop.
So I had like a really big sizekit and I wouldn't necessarily
recommend that.
Like I think having less.
you to understand that lens andwhat it looks like and how it

(14:17):
works really, really well andthe limitations of it.
And then you move on to the nextone.
Like, so start with the 50 1.
8, start with like the cheapestlens in your bag and just get
really good at shooting familiesand babies.
Weddings, if you dare, uh, andget really good at doing that on
one lens.
I actually shot almost an entireseason on the Sigma art 51.

(14:41):
4.

how cool.

just because I just loved it.
I

Yeah.

well, giving yourself like a little bit of a
limitation, actually sometimesis, is helpful to your learning
experience.
And just, I think the overallclient experience, because
you're not fumbling with lensesand caps and you're not the
person that looks confused andscared.

Yeah.
Yeah.
It's funny.
I feel almost the exact same wayabout shooting primes.
It's that, suddenly I'm notalways guessing myself as far
as, well, should I go wide forthis?
Should I, you know, zoom in forthis?
Because again, it's more thanjust how far away is the subject
that determines what your focallength should be.
And I found that if I have 35on, well, I'm going to make it
work.

(15:21):
If I have 85 on, I'm going tomake whatever I want

Mm

work.
And that's, that's all that youcan do, right?
Yeah.
You have to be creative becauseof the constraints that you're
given.
So if you can artificially giveyourself those constraints,
that's like a, don't know, aphoto hack, I guess, that you
can get to, to becoming morecreative.
So that's great.

and there are people that will tell you like
you could just ask somebody whatare the lenses I should use for
different parts of the day?
You know, I've done

sure.

of my wedding days where I just say, like, I
usually try to walk into awedding ceremony with, or a
wedding day, to getting readywith something really simple,
like a 35 on, because I don'twant the people's first reaction
to be like, Oh wow, thephotographer is here.
Cause I walk in with like a 70to 200 or even a 24 to 70.
It looks really intimidating.

(16:09):
Right.
So there are really like nowthat I've been doing this for
over 10 years, like there aresome logistical reasons why I do
that, that actually don't haveanything to do with like the
outcome of the image necessarilyso much as like the feeling when
I walk in a room.
And so watching BTS of otherpeople and like, I've been
talking about weddings.
I do all different kinds ofshoots.
I do families and babies andbranding and stuff, but

(16:31):
listening to other photographersthat are experienced in their,
um, about the types of lensesthey recommend for certain types
of day.
Maybe that's the helpful thingfor some photographers, like
just actually following aworksheet or something that
other people have suggested.

That right there is the whole reason why I
created the podcast.
I've shared this on the podcastbefore.
I went to school forcinematography, not photography.
So even though there's a lot ofsimilarities, once I started to
get into weddings, I felt like abit of a fraud, right?
Like, am I forgetting something?
Am I not doing something right?
And just being able to have apodcast here to be able to reach
out to photographers and justfind out like, what are you

(17:08):
doing?
And, and why, is extremelyhelpful.
And it helped me get through 10years of weddings.

of

Yeah.

on the right track,

Mm hmm,

actually totally, that's totally normal.
And I mean, this many years in,I still have friends that we do
things so differently from eachother that, like, this is the
hill we'll die on, like, that

yeah,

You shouldn't do that.
But like, how do we know?

yeah

to photography school, every educator is going
to teach a different way ofdoing things.
Like, there's, is where it's anart and not just, you know,
there is no exact way to do it.

Right.
Oh, that's good.
Yeah.
That is where it's the art.
It's the, it's a personaldecisions, that you're making.
That's good.
well, I want to, talk real quickabout a conversation that we had
at imaging USA this year, whichwas, you were telling me that
one thing that you're working onis being more intentional in
your business, going deeperrather than, trying to do more

(17:59):
things.
Tell me about that.
You know, you've been doing thisfor 10 plus years.
So what does that look like?
What sorts of changes are youlooking to make in your
business?
And why is this coming about?

Yeah.
I loved our chat imaging.
It was like so brief.
We were just hanging out at theimagine table, but I was like,
Oh, you are a born interviewer.
That's a great question.
mean, 10 plus years is a reallylong time to be in business.
I'll say that comes withconstant, learning.
constant.
There's never a time when I'mnot learning and I'm not trying

(18:30):
something new.
And that can be exhausting.
if you are in the photographyspace, if you're wanting to be a
photographer, you're probablyaware that it's like constantly
changing.
Also social media is changing.
Marketing is changing.
SEO changes.
Google removed a hundred from myGoogle listing yesterday.
So that's a thing I have toreact to.
COVID existed and I had to reactto like,

Yeah.

a completely different way of doing things.
I, AI started, we were like, Oh,I guess we'll edit with AI.
I switched to mirrorless.
Now I'm switching from Canonback to Nikon.
It's like one thing afteranother that never really truly
ends.
And there are still someconstants in it, regardless of
what like the ebbs and flows ofwhat is happening around me and

(19:16):
the world.
Around my business that I haveto react to.
And one of those constants isthat I, I always want my
client's experience to beexceptional.
And that was always a thing inmy early days that I wanted my
clients to feel like, wow, whata great customer service
experience that we had withLindsay.
And anybody who says thatphotography is just an art is

(19:38):
missing something so hugebecause photography is a service
industry.
We are only in existence becausepeople hire us.
That's it.
And the second we stop servingour clients and wanting to know
what is it that you are lookingfor, that's when we've
completely lost the plot.

(19:58):
So, I have absolutely lost theplot over the years, right?
There have been times where Ihave focused on the wrong
things.
I have been chasing numbers onInstagram.
I have been worried about whatthe trends are because I hired a
22 year old assistant and I waslike, Oh my gosh, this girl's
going to eat my lunch and allthese young girls are going to

(20:19):
come in and take my business.
And then I got in that scarcitymindset.
And that really killed thingsfor me for a period of time.
And like, yeah.
if I come back to the reality ofmy business is good, my business
is strong.
I create really good work for myclients.
What do I want to do more of?
The thing that I realized that Iwant to do more of is just doing
really, really good work for myclients.

(20:43):
that sort of, I talk about thisa little bit because I have a, a
course, where I teach sort ofmindset and skill set because
it's a thing.
I think that all photographers,those two things has these like
large pillars make up a reallysuccessful business.
But if your mindset is bad, butyour skill set is good.
It will fail.
there's so many talentedphotographers out there that get

(21:06):
bogged down in comparison onsocial media and worrying about
gear when gear is just not themost important thing.
It's obviously important, butit's not the only thing.
They're worried about what'strendy and what's cool.
And then they forget.
Like, what's your value?
Why are you doing this?
And so for me, like my sort ofcore values are like, I want to

(21:27):
have fun.
I want my business to be fun.
And I know that that's like aluxury that we have, but it is a
luxury.
We have your business can befun.
Like it can be

Yeah.
You get to choose your heart.
Yeah.

Of course, of course, like it can be
enjoyable.
It doesn't have to suck.
I know that

Yeah.

sometimes, but it doesn't have to.
I want to be profitable, andsustainable, like not just
profitable for peaks andvalleys.
Like I want it to be profitableyear over year, in a way that
makes sense for me and for myclients.
I don't want to create goodwork.
I think with those sort ofvalues in mind, and every year I
try to like reset.

(22:05):
What do I want to do differentlyor the same this year?
The thing that keeps coming upfor me is, know, have taken time
aside to like do more educatingand to work with brands and to
do public speaking.
And that's all great.
That's awesome.
that doesn't feed my values,which is, I want to create good

(22:26):
work for my clients.
I want to be profitable.
I want to have fun.
Like, It's not feeding into allthree of those categories.
Sometimes it's one or the other,but it's never all three of
those.
But like the thing that I cancontrol is like this thing that
I actually built here, year overyear.
And like, if it survived COVID,it can survive anything.
That's how I

Yeah.

Um, I've been doing this for so long, like,
especially in Canada, we werelocked down

Uh,

long.
yeah, this year I'm kind of justcoming back to like, if I was a
client hiring me, what would myexperience be like?
And I just want to know, like, Iwant to, like, I want to
workshop it again.
I want to almost become abeginner photographer again,
like instead of just doingthings the way I've always done
them and like, oh, this works.
This is good.
which has never really been myMO, like.

(23:12):
I'm not the latest adopter ofall time, but like, I was slow
to, into AI editing or, I wasslow to switch over to
mirrorless.
And if I had jumped onto thosethings sooner, I think it would
have been a better experiencefor my clients.
But you don't know what youdon't know.

right.

but for me, I'm kind of just looking at
everything from the first personto never hear me to think I want
to do wedding photos and I needa wedding photographer.
Like what's that experience looklike for somebody searching me
out, finding a website, gettinghit with a contact form.
They have to fill that out.

(23:48):
Going back and forth on pricing.
Like, what's that wholeexperience feel like?
And then what does it feel likebeing on the other side of the
camera for your engagementphotos?
And feeling nervous and anxious.
Like, do they feel prepared?
Do they feel well taken care of?
Do they feel like they lookgreat and they know it?
Or do they feel likeuncomfortable and like I haven't
prepared them?
So,

Mm hmm.

I kind of just want to go through and figure
out where the holes are in mybusiness.
If that makes sense.

Of course, well, there's this, um,

right?
It's just been like, I builtthis thing literally brick by
brick.
And I'm just like, well, whereare their holes?

yeah, yeah, there's this, this
question that I try to tackleevery year in some sort of year
end review, which is when Ithink about my business, what
feels broken?
And when, when you can answerthat, because, I think we can
get so, wrapped up in, inbusyness, right?
Well, if I'm working on SEO orwhatever, that, that's not a bad
thing.
That's a good thing, but it maynot be the right thing, right?

(24:44):
So asking yourself what feelsbroken, is kind of one of the
similar things that I do.
but how do you plan on, um,Figuring that out.
just focus on the clientexperience part of it right now.
Is it just surveying your, yourclients?
is it you going through, workingwith another photographer, like
hiring them and seeing whatthey're doing?

(25:04):
How do you plan to go deeperinto client experience this
year?

So there's a couple of things that I'm, doing
currently and, and planning ondoing more of.
One of the things that I reallywant to do is I try to do it
every year.
I don't know that I did it lastyear COVID because,

Everything got hard during COVID.
Yeah.

everything got hard during COVID, but I wasn't

(25:46):
I spending time on client calls?
what months felt hard and thentrying to correlate why they
felt hard.
so I feel like as on sexy asthat is like doing an audit of
your own calendar because ourcalendars, They shouldn't rule
us, but like they do kind of runthe show.
Right.

Yeah.

in knowing where we spent our time, it's a
pretty good indicator of how weran our business.

just that I can get some clarity.
When it comes to your calendar,are you putting in things like,
are you blocking off time forcertain tasks or is your
calendar just the appointments?
Okay.

I don't do that.
That would make it like, wow,the audit would be

Yeah.

effective if I did that.
No, I have like, it's fairlygeneral.
So it'll be like travel.
it's sessions, it's weddings.
it's any client calls that Itake, any type of like podcasts
or interview or anything else.
Like that's, I'll call it anextracurricular that I do.
That's fine.
I've got family time in there.
in auditing my calendar, it'sactually how I realized that I

(26:49):
wanted.
Take long weekends off.

Hmm.

we're blessed.
We have a lot of long weekendsand I would say there's like one
every month starting in April,maybe even,

So you just don't book weddings during
these long weekend weekends.

Yes,

Love it.

doing,

Booking three weddings instead of none.
Yeah.

three because I was like, well, if I'm going to
shoot this thing up, I'm goingto do the whole thing, which is
how you end up with 50 or 60weddings in a

Yeah.

way.

And burnt out.

that's crazy.
Because I would do a Thursday,Friday, Saturday, or a Friday,
Saturday, Sunday on a longweekend.
And

Woo!

brutal.

Yeah.

it wasn't fun.
It wasn't fun.
I don't care how much moneyyou're making.
That's not fun.
And the thing that I realizedwas like, my business was
supposed to give me freedom andnow I'm losing time.
My family owns a cottage, onGeorgian Bay.
It's beautiful.
My aunt and uncle have had acottage for since before I was

(27:49):
born.
So the cottage has always beenlike a place.
And I, Americans don't really dolike the cottage, I

No.
Not really.
Yeah.
Yeah.

It's not, it's not mine.
it is my privilege that I get togo there.
It's not my cottage.
but it was a huge eye opener forme when I was looking at my
calendar and I was like, thatworth it?
Like, my cousins are gettingolder.
There's only so many years whenthey're going to think that I'm
cool and they want to hang outwith me.
And I, they don't think I'm coolfor the record.

(28:20):
But they will go paddle boardingwith me

Yeah.

think that's a win, you know?
And they'll play Scrabble withme on the dock.
And I remember, like their momdoing the same thing with me
when I was a kid and how muchthat impacted my life and to
think that they don't have thatbecause it's just like their
parents and their grandparentsup at the cottage and they don't
have this like other relativethere,

In between ages.
Yeah.
Long weekends.
Yeah.

And I was like, I want that.
Like, I want that for them.
I want that for me.
I want that for our wholefamily.
I want us to spend timetogether.
And.
I would always tell myself I'llgo up to the cottage through the
week when I have time, but Ididn't go to the cottage for
five years.

Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah,

money.

yeah.
you

what?

For what?
Ha ha ha.

There's no plan here.
So this is a really long windedanswer of doing that.
That audit really can help inreally big ways and it makes you
realize like what, what's liketruly missing.
and in me figuring out what'smissing on my side of things,
we'll likely figure out what'smissing for my clients.
Right?
Because if I'm not loving it,There's no way that they're
loving it.

(29:57):
just no way.
And I don't care.
Like, I worked my butt off thoseweekends, but the Sunday or the
Monday wedding, whatever it wason the third wedding is always
getting a lesser version of mebecause it's just not possible

Of course.

at a hundred percent eight to 12 hour wedding
days in a row.
Plus travel.
That's not possible.

Yeah.
Okay.
help explain this because I'vetalked to newer photographers
before.
And cause I've, I've always hada rule that I won't do three
weddings because I did threeweddings in a row once.
And I was just as you found, I'mgiving my, a much lesser version
of myself.
And their argument is.
You have three eight hour days,like, oh, that sucks to be you.

(30:39):
You know what I mean?

Yeah.

I go to work five days a week, eight
hours a day.
But, there's a different mentalmode, I think, that you're in,
when you're, you're tasked tocreate something, for a couple.
How would you explain that tothem, right?
Because it, it can be adifficult conversation, but
we're not comparing apples toapples here.

No, it's definitely not the same.
I've had an eight hour day in anoffice and I'm acutely aware
that that is

Yeah.

kind of day that we're having when we are
doing the emotional labor oftrying to make a bride feel like
they're the most beautifulthey've ever looked and trying
to soften weird family stuffthat's going on in the other
room and you're trying to likemanage people's expectations
around no, we can't do anindividual photo of the mother

(31:25):
in law with every single personat this wedding individually on
her own.
No, that's not going to happentoday.
You're probably managing asecond photographer while you're
probably talking so muchthroughout a wedding day, trying
to direct people and give theminformation and tell them what's
coming next and what to expectand then posing them and being
creative.
Creativity does not happen whenyou're burnt out.

(31:47):
That is the thing I know 100percent for sure.
I can have poses that I'm like,yep, I could do this.
Like the back of my hand.
I know the location I'm going togo.
I shoot at this venue all thetime.
It's not a big deal.
There are situations where Iwill do multiple weddings.
If one of the weddings is ashorter day, or if one of those
weddings is at a venue that I'mreally comfortable being at, and

(32:10):
I know, like, it's, it's goingto be super easy for me, and I
know that.
I will say, I think that when Iwas starting out, years old
starting this doing a

lot easier.
Yeah.

was easier for me, right?
Like I didn't get that like itwould get a wedding hangover for
sure But like this is insane Idon't think I've ever told
anybody this but like I would goout to the bar on a Friday night
after my Friday Wedding

Oh, wow.

and shoot a Saturday

Yeah.

cuz I was a kid I was

woman.
Yeah.

I was making more money than I had ever seen
before right?
So like If I don't have apeppermint tea now by 9 p.
m.
the night before our wedding,I'm going to regret it.
You know what I

Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Useless the next day.
Yeah.

to like make it sound like, Oh, you know, I'm
34.
Not to make it sound like, Oh,like when you turn 30, it all
changes.
But truly like some thingschange and your priorities do
change.
And

Yeah.

willingness to accept feeling physically crappy
on a wedding day has I have notolerance for feeling physically
bad.
So that's why I personally willnot do three weddings on a
weekend anymore.
unless it's like, I've got twoweddings booked and the third
one is like a best friend andshe's like,

Sure.

must shoot my wedding.
You know,

Yeah,

there's always an extenuating circumstance that
will come around.
but I just don't feel like we'redoing our best work physically,
mentally, emotionally,definitely not creatively when
we're doing that kind of workback to back.

yeah, I just heard this recently, I
don't remember his name, butlike there's some world class
chess player or something, andscientists hooked him up to a
bunch of probes or whatever, andfound that in like a five hour
game of chess that he wouldplay, his brain was so locked
in, and he would expel, I don'tknow, use, I don't know what the
right term is.
5, 000 calories.

(33:57):
Like, just in that time, inthat, like, 4 or 5 hour span,
because his brain is so lockedin.
And it's like, when, I broughtit back to weddings at that
moment.
I was like, yeah, that's why thenext day, I'm like, nobody can
talk to me today.
like, I just need time torecharge.

too, right?
Like, they do feel physicallybad because other thing I used
to do is I just used to drink alike, giant black coffee in the
morning.
I would eat a bagel from TimHortons on my way to the wedding
and then I wouldn't eat againuntil dinner.

Yeah.
Heh, heh, heh, heh.

bread and then I'm a vegetarian and so the
first thing would be pasta andthen I'm just like I'm just
spiking and crashing all daylong and then you wake up the
next day and you're like,

Carb coma.
Yeah, exactly.

bad?
And then my workflow would suck

Mm.

two days after that wedding, I was useless.

Mm.
Yeah.

I am still not perfect.
There is no perfect way.
I don't think to, to efficientlyfuel yourself on a wedding day.
It's unfortunately, some thingsare probably going to give, but
like.
I do try to get like, a proteinshake or something into me in
the morning at home.
And then I bring some healthyish thing to eat while

Yeah.

the car, moving from location to location or
something.
And then I did actually starteating fish again because
specifically wedding meals wasalways pasta.
And I

Yeah.
Yeah,

I think, trying to figure out how we fuel
ourselves is, It's an importantfactor for sure, in the whole
space.
But yeah, when I was younger, Ididn't have any idea.
But now when I'm doing that thenext day after a wedding, I
could get up and I could go fora walk.
I can then start calling thewedding if I haven't called it
already the night before.
Like I have energy still.
There isn't this crash.

(35:49):
And it is nice over here.
I will say for those of you whoare still on the Red Bull diet,
like join us.
It's nice, to drink water andnot feel crappy the day after a
wedding.
I am still on a Red Bull diet.
I'm not going to lie to you.

It's so hard to kick.
I know.

too much.
We have a Red Bull fridge in ourstudio

Are you kidding?

Yeah,

my dream.
That is so awesome.
And I see so many of them onFacebook Marketplace.
I don't know if

Bull.

Like, I don't know if they're like
promotional things that thedistributors give to gas
stations or whatever, but I wantone.

So

Yeah, bars.

Cause a friend of ours, manages a bar up the
street from our studio.

Yeah.

they just get a bunch of them because they, they
push a lot of Red Bull.
And so he just asked the guy,Hey, like our friends have an
office.
Can we have an extra one?
And they said, yes.

I'm so jealous.
I'm so jealous.

Bull fridge.
it's always well stocked.
So if you come to visit us inWaterloo, you can join.

I'm gonna have to grab a Red Bull, yeah,
for sure.
Uh, one of the things that I'vebeen trying to do lately, and
this isn't exactly photographyrelated, but is to cut my
caffeine, to not have anycaffeine past, like, 11am.
because one of the things that Ifound was that when I sit in
front of a computer and I'mediting, and, or you're working
on your website, or you're doingall these things, especially in

(37:10):
these winter months, you wantsomething warm.
So you're gonna drink I would gothrough like a pot of coffee a
day, you know?

you're trying to figure out why your anxiety
is so

Yes, exactly.
Exactly.

racing?

Yeah.

of my own actions?
It couldn't be.

No way.
Yeah, can't be.

started drinking peppermint tea.
Truthfully, like I don't thinkwe talk about this enough and I
will, I will always be the firstperson to talk about it.
Being a photographer and runninga photography business, allows
us a lot of freedom and thefreedom to choose is really
exciting, but the freedom tochoose also, if we're not really
conscious of our choices can putyou in a really bad physical and

(37:49):
mental state.
Right?
So like, It wasn't uncommon forme to be like, Oh, it's four
o'clock.
I'm going to have a glass ofwine while I

Yeah.
Yeah.

think like the mummy coffee, then wine culture,
that's all over social media.
I'm not a mom, but I like, Ifollow enough mom influencers
that it's.
It's rampant.
It's everywhere that it'stotally normalized to go What do
they call it from nine to wineor something like that?
So so I mean like from areformed party girl who I just

(38:20):
told you that I would go out tothe bar After a wedding.

Yeah.

don't think anybody is terribly surprised
that while I'm editing I wouldbe like, why wouldn't I have a
glass of wine?
Like, who's my

We're adults.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, who's gonna tell me no?
Yeah.

It started at five.
Then it would go to four duringthe pandemic.
All bets were off.
There were

Yeah, noon.

made there.

Yeah.

like, whatever.
And that comes withrepercussions.
It comes with like, I don't carewhat you say, if you wake up in
the morning with a headache,it's because you are hungover.
Even if you think, oh, I justhad a couple glasses of wine
with my friends.
But you do that for five days ina row or four days in a row, or
you just do it mindlessly whileyou're editing.
'cause you're in an editinghole.

(39:03):
it's mindlessness.
Right.
And I think the overwhelm of thenumber of decisions that we have
to make as photographers becauseour businesses on our lives are
so intertwined.
There's not really a separationof church and state.
I'm very fortunate that I havethis studio.
I share it with Taylor and ourfriend Tim and physical building
outside of our home.

(39:24):
I can walk to it, which isreally nice, but it's not in my
house.
I'm really unlikely to crackopen a bottle of wine here.
But if you work from home, It'sa different space.
You're in your home.
So it's really easy to, whetherit's caffeine intake or whether
it's alcohol or whatever yourlittle vices that you think is

(39:44):
harmless, it does catch up,right?
And, thankfully, I just amconstantly analyzing different
areas of my life.
So it doesn't take too long forme to be like, this is not how I
feel like doing this.
This is not what I want to bedoing.
So I am still very much addictedto caffeine.
Um, my 4pm, sometimes 3pmglasses of wine have ended.

(40:06):
The other thing I'll say is it'salso weird when you're a wedding
photographer is that you loseyour weekends and when you're,
you know, lose your weekends.
But when you're in yourtwenties.
That was really hard for me toreconcile.
I was like, well, I still wantto be fun.
I don't want to lose out on thistime in my life.
So I would say Monday andTuesdays are my weekend.

(40:26):
Well, Monday and Tuesday beingmy weekend, sometimes I would
end up doing a shoot on Monday.

Mm hmm.

means Tuesday and Wednesday are my weekend,
but I probably still had like adrink or something on the
Monday.
So it's just, it all becomes alittle bit gray

Yep.
Gray.

I'm not suggesting we all become sober.
if that's something that youneed, that is absolutely, what
we should all do, but, or whatyou should do.
But I think, for me, it was justabout being conscious, conscious
of all the decisions that I'mmaking in my life, whether it's
not moving my body enough, it'snot going to the cottage with my
family.
It's, I was drinking wine when Ishouldn't have been drinking

(41:04):
wine and drinking coffee when Ishouldn't have been drinking
coffee.
Like, it's just, I think, I knowthat there are a lot of, a lot
of decisions for us to make, butdon't let the decisions we have
to make for our businessovershadow the decisions that we
make for our lives.
Like,

Mm hmm.

the big one.
It's

Oh, wow.

you're making these decisions for your
business and that's theforefront and I get the grind,
it's addictive.
It's like, Oh, I did thisamazing thing for my website.
I got to do that again.
I did this, that worked.
I booked this, that worked.
And we just get so hyper fixatedon that.
That there's a reason why youdon't see a lot of 40 plus year

(41:43):
old photographers.

Yeah, they burn out.
Yeah

focused on the business that they forget to
focus on the human life behindthe business.

So much to think of there, wow Lindsay, uh,
uh, So, what this kind ofreminds me of is that, like, um,
One of the things, I mean, I gotout of weddings, part of it was
from burnout, for sure, I wasn'ttaking care of myself, like I
should have, But then I look atguys like Joe McNally, who have
been doing it for decades, Andit's so interesting because, I
feel like, now obviously I don'tknow any of his personal

(42:14):
routines, I don't know how,like, it's all set up, but I
know that he has support, and Iknow that he has a team, and it
seems to me, from the outsidelooking in, that, he made a
conscious effort to not burnout, but instead, rust out.
Like, it takes longer, uh, torust than it does burn out.

(42:35):
And that's why today he is, hisage and he's still going and
giving these workshops aroundthe world.
And he's teaching and he's, he'sstill happy.
He still has so much energy togive.
And I can only imagine, that itcomes from a lot of taking care
of himself, that personalhealth, the, the, his spirit
with his family and

huge for me because

yeah,

I remember when I got into it.
I thought, well, this will befor a while, not forever.
then I loved it and I was like,well, how do I make it forever
then?

uh,

Because I don't want to have to give this up.
I don't want to have to, if Ichoose to, that's one thing, but
I don't want to have to, I don'twant to be forced out because I
burn out because I took on morework than I could handle and I
stopped delivering on time or,because I, I wasn't charging
enough.
And so this wasn't sustainable,and sometimes you don't realize

(43:31):
that.
Um, and a couple years down theline that what we're charging is
not sustainable.
Because, if you're aphotographer, you're probably
not really great at bookkeeping.
Um, and you're probably notreally great at analyzing the
data from those books.
Right.
So we sometimes don't realize ituntil it's a couple of years
down the line and that's okay.
Like whenever you figure it out,that's all right.
But I do remember it being aconscious decision of mine.

(43:52):
Like if I do this, it's going tobe, sustainable way.
and I think the only way to dothat is to really focus on the
business as a whole, as a reallyholistic thing.
And if you, as the CEO, founder,whatever you are of your
business are unwell, It's

it's not going to turn out well, yep,
yep.

no.

So then, I know that we're running out of
time, so this will probably bemy last question for you, which
is, you making to your offeringsand to your pricing to make sure
that not only is it profitablysustainable, but also mentally
sustainable for you as well?

Yeah.
So, I mean, I went from shooting50 weddings a year, in 2019 I
had 50 weddings booked 55, Ithink booked for 2020

Didn't happen.

no, and it really, it didn't happen in a
big way.
And, I just remember thinkingduring that time, I never want
to reschedule 55 weddings again,

Ha ha ha.

and everything is going well.
And in previous years, basicallyfrom 2013 until 2019, I'd had a
good run.
worst I had ever had was oneyear.
I had six weddings canceled.
That was not a good so much ofit, they were smaller, they were

(45:30):
not the same thing, it reallybrought me back to the
remembering.
I want more time with my family.
I want more time.
I mean, all, all I was doing wasgoing for walks.
and in order to do that, I needto take on less work.
And so I started being reallyintentional about capping my

(45:50):
wedding bookings at 30 weddingsa year, which is still lots.
Like it's still a healthycalendar on top

Okay.

a portrait business.
but, now I, I've realized like,well, the easiest way for me to
do that is to just charge morebecause I am still making the
same number, I'm still makingthe same amount that I was when
I was doing 50 plus weddings at35.
If the demand is there to shoot50 plus weddings, the demand
will be there whether your priceis 5, 000 You know what I mean?

(46:20):
Like it's

Raymond Hatfield (3 (46:20):
Absolutely.

a difference for the client.
If they want to work with you,they will work with you.
Like that is a thing.
And I'm, I know that I'mprivileged in a position in my
business to be able to do that.
I don't recommend brand newphotographers taking pricing
advice from somebody that's 10years in necessarily.
Because what I charge, if youeven try to model yourself after

(46:43):
that, your business willprobably not succeed unless you
have a killer portfolio somehowto back that up.
I hope, obviously listening tothis with a grain of salt, but I
increased my prices and it wasterrifying, like absolutely
terrifying.
The first month I was likecrickets.
This is it.
I have to, I'm going todowngrade my pricing.
I have all my pricing public.
it's all on my website.

(47:03):
I know that's like contentiousfor people, but, I just have it
all out there.
I think in the industry thatwe're in, we want to make it as
easy for people to, know whatthey're getting into as
possible.
So that's why I think it'simportant not just to have a
starting price, but to just putit there.
Like I have no problem with it.
There's no secret.
don't come up with differentpackages based on people's
personality

ha ha.
Yeah.

this is

It is what it is.
Yeah.

may be a discount based on you working at
one of my preferred venues.
That's totally fair.
But this is the price that itstarts at.
So this year moving forward, insort of bringing that in even
further and dialing that in evenfurther I actually am going to
be increasing my prices again.
It's been a couple of years it'sbeen a couple of years.
I increased them during covidthen I increased them again in

(47:49):
2023 I think end of 2023 So i'mcurrently still working on the
pricing that I was offering in2023 2024 and life has gotten a
lot more expensive since thoseyears and our businesses have
all gotten a lot more expensive.
And one of the joys of thisbusiness is that I don't have to

(48:10):
go to a boss and say, Hey, can Ihave a 2 percent raise because
of inflation?
Like I can just, to do that andI have to do that actually in
order for this year to be justas profitable if not more than
last year, that that's anecessity.
It's not even necessarily like Ithink I want to do, I don't need
to be making more money.
I just need to be making whatfeels like the same as last
year.
so the prices unfortunately aregoing to have to go up.

(48:33):
It's just how things are.
But I

Mm hmm.
Uh, yeah.

people are happily spending 50 bucks on an
Uber.
Then a family session should notbe 300.
Like that is crazy.
These things should be valueddifferently, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

and that then to answer your question in the
part two is reminding people ofwhy this matters, So in my
marketing efforts remindingpeople of why photography is
still so important the worldfeels heavy It feels really hard
for a lot of people.
I totally understand thatreminding them of what's good in
life is really important and andYear over year, we're going to

(49:15):
look back at these photos and belike, yeah, that was a hard year
or yeah, that was a rough timefor my family or, times were
tight, but we still made thetime to get together as a family
and document like this joy thatwe have, weddings are a
different beast because thosewill still be there.
Go off.
It's really wild.
I used to always say weddingsare recession proof, but they're
not pandemic proof.

(49:35):
But I truly do believe that theyare recession proof.

Um,

will spend whatever they had planned on
spending for their wedding,regardless of what is going on
in the world.
And we create recessions.
We create them by telling peoplethat there are recessions, and
nobody's spending, and theindustry's screwed, and weddings
are down across the board.
We're the ones creating thatwhole narrative, and then our
clients buy it, and then theystop spending as a whole, right?

(50:02):
So, we need to remind them,like, your wedding happens.
It should not, what you chooseto invest on it shouldn't be
based on how the economy isdoing at that time.
Within reason, obviously.

course, yeah Yeah

are the two most important things, then you
should always still invest inthose regardless of what those
cost.
so yeah, kind of bringing thatback to reminding my clients of
that.
And then the other thing, thisis a really tangible thing that
I'm gonna be working on isrevamping all of my guides for
my clients.
So I have guides to help thempick their outfits for their
engagement sessions and, to showthem locations that I typically

(50:43):
shoot at.
Cause a lot of my clients aren'tfrom this area, but they'll come
here for their engagementsession.
So showing them example photosof that and just updating those
images so that they feel currentbecause people feel cared for
when they open a guide thatlooks like it was made this year
and not five years ago, right?

Yeah Oh,

these photos are so 2015 like what's
happening here.
I want the editing style to bewhat I'm currently using all of
that.
And then the other thing thatI'm going to be doing, and I
haven't announced this reallyanywhere is that I'm going to be
changing my delivery time to bemuch shorter.

really

I think that I've been at the four to six
week mark for wedding deliveriesfor a really long time.
I don't think that's what myclients want anymore.
And it doesn't need to be thatanymore.

doesn't need to be, that's right, yeah.

You

Yeah.

like I use imagine to edit my images.
I could have their photos backto them within a week.
I choose not to because I thinkthat there is some value loss
when they get them backinstantly.

Yeah yeah.

but doing a little bit more of a cull,
that's the other thing that Ihave been really bad at.
I've been over delivering imageslike numbers of images because
it's just too easy to editphotos and deliver 1500 photos.
So tightening up that sort ofthe deliverable, both in
timeline and what they'regetting.

(52:02):
That's sort of the, that's oneof the next big things.
So to answer your question, I'm,throwing the whole kitchen out
and I'm just pulling back onething and saying, let's start
over.

No, that was, that was incredibly
insightful and I appreciate, allof that.
have a question about thedelivery time though here.
cause this was one thing that Idid in my business as well is
that, I was relativelyefficient, especially as you
know, when you shoot it right incamera, the edits can go by much
quicker.
so I would always promise 30days.
In fact, I had a guarantee thatthey'd get it within 30 days.

(52:33):
Otherwise, I'd start to pay themback.
Right?

gosh.

Well, yeah,

a crazy move.
Like

it was Well

something goes wrong in your world.

No, I know, yeah, risk.
But honestly, it paid off,massive, because

that people would have in you would be huge.

yeah, I said that I'd pay you back 500 a
week, after the 30 days if Ididn't get you the, uh, the
images in time.
And, as you said, like, itimmediately built that trust.
I was like, that's how confidentI am.

Yeah.

was a few wedding photographers here in
Indy that made it on the newsbecause they had just skipped
town.
And, like, there was this, like,fear, and there was a lot of
fear that this was going tocontinue to happen, and you
didn't know who to trust.
And since you don't hire awedding photographer all the
time, that's how I built trustwith my clients.
And it was really helpful, thatthey'd get it within 30 days.

Honestly, that's a really, really fun.
I've never heard of anybodydoing a guarantee, but it's such
a phenomenal idea because Ithink trust is lower in our
industry than ever before rightnow.

Oh, for sure.
For sure.

there are so many photographers skipping
town.

Mm hmm.

health is a huge reason for it, I think,
that they just get overwhelmed,their businesses aren't
sustainable, they freak

Yep.

they're like, screw it, I'm just not gonna do
any of this.
But those

Yeah.

photos.
And like, there's goodphotographers in our area doing
that still.
Like, there's

Ugh.

our town that has over a hundred one star
reviews.
He's like, he's just

Oh my gosh.

people, but charging 7, 500 for a wedding.
So actually I'm like intrigued.
I'm really inspired by this.
For the people that come to meand they do seem nervous.
Maybe I'll tell them, I'll giveyou a guarantee.
Why wouldn't I?
will

I, I promise you it will help.
Yeah, no, exactly.
I promise you it'll help.
but the thing is, is that Iwould often get it to them
within, like, two weeks.
So, my guarantee was 30 days.
But then I, so I would make apromise, but then I would over
deliver by delivering it withintwo weeks.
Is that still the same approach?
Or would your, marketing behere, be like, you're gonna get

(54:34):
it within two weeks, no matterwhat, to just set that up front?

think

I mean, that, that's a personal
question.

Yeah.
I

Yeah.

say maximum of four instead of doing the four
to six, because truthfully Ithink that leaves some ambiguity
and four to six is just whatTaylor did.
And I've just done it for 10years.
Truthfully.
That's just like what I've done.

Yeah.

six just felt right.
and I have delivered weddingssooner.
And I felt like, and this iswhere we never really know, but
I felt like my clients didn'tlike their photos as much or
they didn't value them as much.
Or I started getting requests.
Can you edit this?
Can you do this?
Because it's still too fresh intheir minds.
So I would say I will say fourweeks.

(55:16):
And I will probably do, I'lljust deliver them within three
would be my thought.
I don't think I'll do two.

That's a lot of pressure, especially with
the volume of weddings and othershoots.
Yeah.

other shoots that I'm doing too, if I was
just doing weddings, two weekswould be completely reasonable.
you know, if you throw one tripin there,

Oh, yeah.

to happen.
Right.
And, You know, in this years, Ihave seen how quickly life will
throw me a curve ball and it'sreally hard to be editing from a
bad, mental state, something'swrong with your family or
whatever.
And it's nice to give yourself alittle bit of leg room.
So yeah, I'll probably stilltell them four weeks.
And I'm going to keep thatguaranteed delivery thing in

(56:01):
mind for the people that seem tobe worried

On the fence.

reason because it's

Because it's happened.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.

And it's probably happened to one of
their bridesmaids or something.
Like, yeah, it's bad how oftenit's happening.
So the one thing I will say tothe photographers that are
listening to this, the beginnerphotographers that are listening
to this, get your systems inorder for your workflow.
Have a spreadsheet.
It doesn't have to be sexy.
You don't have to spend a ton ofmoney on a big CRM and all this

(56:32):
stuff.
I literally use a Google sheetsdocument to tell me what I have
on the go, what's coming up, howmuch money it's making me.
It's just like a very simple,basic spreadsheet,

Wow.

It also tells me when I shot it or when I'm
going to be shooting it and it'sdue date.
And then I color code it withtrackers of like, this one's
green.
It's in progress.
This one's yellow.
It's coming up on its due date.
And red is like, this one isdue.
Like you need to deliver thisnow.
It's so simple, but somethinglike that, removes the guesswork

(57:05):
out of what's coming up, ittakes that huge weight off your
shoulders of, oh my gosh, theediting is so overwhelming.
If you are lucky enough to be ina position to have a lot of
work, where the editing mightfeel overwhelming, don't ghost
your clients.
Literally don't ghost yourclients.
There's photographers that willprobably edit those weddings for
free for you.

Yeah,

so that you don't ruin the reputation of
this whole industry.
And I've done it.
I've edited photos for peoplejust so that their clients don't
go and say,

same.

is happening in our city.
Can you believe they're gettingaway with this?
And yes, I can believe they'regetting away with it.
It's bad, but it keepshappening.

Yeah, I know.
I know

So get that it's a mental health problem.
I think it's a huge, I mean,mental health is like, it's its
own epidemic right now, all overthe world, but especially North
America.
And photographers are, arereally heavily impacted by it.
We don't have, a lot of us don'thave great health insurance, and
we're not taking good physicalcare of ourselves and mental
care of ourselves, and thensometimes the train comes off

(58:05):
the tracks.
So, don't let it be you.

the train comes off the tracks.
It does.
Sometimes it does.
So, well, Lindsay, we'redefinitely at the end of our
time here.
I appreciate you being so,willing to share as much as you
have today and, and being here.
But for those who are listeningright now and thinking, where
can we find out more aboutLindsay, where can we find, her
course offerings?
Where is the best place to findyou online?

So Instagram, unfortunately, is probably the,
the first go to, you can find meon Instagram.
My handle is L Coulter photo L CO U L T E R photo.
And from there I have, links tomy website for, weddings,
families, babies, and all thatfun stuff.
If you want to check out mywork.
and then I do have a course,it's called better than booked.

(58:48):
it's better than book.
com.
so if you're a photographer,that's like.
wanting to deep dive a littlebit further into how to have a
fun and sustainable, andprofitable business that focuses
on not just the skillset, butalso the mindset.
that's kind of the place foryou.
It does have a wedding focus,but it's really, it's universal.
All the tips in there.

Raymond Hatfield (59:09):
Okay, here is one action item from today's
interview with Lindsay Coulterthat you can implement to help
you become a betterphotographer.
Now, this is also, you know,life related, but do a time
audit on your photography.
Whether photography is just ahobby or if it is developing
into a business, discoveringwhere your time is going can

(59:30):
help you to see the things that,one, you don't actually love to
do, but two, also realize whatit is that you love most.
When you figure out what it isthat you love most, suddenly
scaling back on those thingsthat you love the least becomes
a whole lot easier.
And also, this is important,recognize where you're at in
your photography journey aswell.
You know, if you're new, new,new, new, new, like, you just

(59:53):
started this last week.
Your priorities are not to learneverything all at once.
It should be to just familiarizeyourself with your camera.
Spend the most amount of time onthat by doing things like photo
walks.
Now, if you've been doing it fora year or two, well then you
should be focusing on thingslike light or composition, and
that should determine where youspend your time.

(01:00:14):
In the beginning, spending onehour dedicated to learning
something, like going deep intoit, learning something like
light or composition will teachyou more in that one hour than
six, ten minute sessions overthe course of a month or two.
So focus on one thing.
I want to know what are yougoing to be spending your time
doing and what are you going tospend less time on?

(01:00:37):
Let us know in the free andincredibly supportive beginner
photography podcast community,which you can join right now by
heading over tobeginnerphotopod.
com forward slash group.
I hope to see you there.

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