You’re at a place in your business where you’re ready to start diving into coaching or workshops, but it’s nerve-wracking, right?! Laylee Emadi spills the tea on this week’s episode of Keeping It Candid, unpacking red flags, beige flags, and green flags to look out for before you work with an educator!
Sandra Henderson (00:00.342)
When you’re investing in any sort of education in your business, whether that be working with a business coach or attending a workshop or a conference, there’s a lot of anxiety that goes in behind it because it is expensive and it also takes a lot of time and you want to make sure that this investment that you are putting into yourself and your business because it is an investment that you want to make sure that it’s actually going to pay off going forward and be worth all the energy that you put into it.
And then you also want to make sure that you can actually trust the people that you’re working with, right? Unfortunately, we have all experienced things where we have paid for something and we just don’t feel like we got the service that we were looking for from it. And my first experience trying to work with an educator in my business, unfortunately, was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had. And something that really set the tone for how I was going to invest in my education going forward, but also how I was going to be doing things as an educator.
Welcome to Keeping It Candid. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, an international wedding and family photographer and business coach. I help wedding photographers use systems to build out the back end of their businesses to gain control and continue to thrive no matter what life throws their way.
And on a more personal note, I’m a strong Enneagram 3-wing too, who is obsessed with tacos. And my love for traveling combined with navigating chronic illness life are just two of the many things that drive my passion for all things, systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me every week for a candid behind the scenes look at what it’s really like working as a wedding photographer, where I’ll give you actionable steps to take your business to the next level.
Absolutely no fluff here, friends, so go grab your favorite notebook and pen and let’s dive into this week’s episode.
Sandra Henderson (01:49.186)
Today on the podcast, we are talking all about red flags, beige flags, and green flags when it comes to educators in the wedding photography industry. But before we get into it all, I wanted to set the tone of the episode by telling a little bit of a story of my very first time getting involved with an educator and how it shaped where I am today as in the education space myself.
So I had been in business for about three years when some local photographers that were about a couple hours away from me, so local-ish, started advertising a workshop series that they were gonna be hosting every Sunday from May through October. They had different topics for every week and I was so excited about this because these photographers were huge in this area. I had been following them my entire time coming up as a wedding photographer all through college. I’m not gonna name any names here. They’re not in business anymore.
And honestly, they get all the bad karma that’s coming to them. You will see as this story continues on. But I just don’t wanna set myself up for any sort of legal bullshit coming my way. So I’m not gonna name who they are, but these photographers, they set up this workshop. I paid $450 upfront. You had to pay in full for the workshop and that was for a June date and then I was going to be taking one in August as well but I hadn’t put the money down on that yet, thankfully.
So after I submitted my payment and everything, time went on and I had never actually received any sort of information from the photographers that were hosting this. But because it was my first time working with an educator, this didn’t seem too off base for me. I knew that they were super busy with their own wedding clients and everything from what I was seeing online. So I just figured I would get something eventually.
And then it was the weekend of the workshop. And on the Saturday, I actually had a wedding and I was gonna be going to the workshop on the Sunday. And as we are on the way to the wedding, my assistant was driving and I checked my email and there was an email from these photographers saying that due to unforeseen circumstances, the workshop…
Sandra Henderson (04:08.962)
that was to happen the next day was cancelled and that they would be in touch within the next couple of days to get everybody set up with refunds and everything. So I was so disappointed but I had to go about doing the wedding and after a few days I still hadn’t heard anything so I went onto Facebook and I noticed that the events had been deleted and then I tried to find the website that didn’t seem to be around anymore either.
This is when I started getting red flags. I wish I’d had them sooner, but this is definitely when alarms were going off, red flags were popping up. I decided to send an email to the hosts of the workshop and ask them if there was any sort of update on when we would be receiving this refund. And I got an autoresponder email back saying that they were out of the office for a wedding and they would get back in touch with me as soon as they were back in the office on Monday.
So I wait another about a week, week and a half, and I still haven’t heard from them. So I decide to send another email to check in, and this time I get an autoresponder email telling me that they’re out of the office for a couple of weeks for vacation. So I again wait until they say that they are gonna be back in the office. I send another email, they still don’t hear anything.
And so I decide at this point to go into another email address. I was actually planning my own wedding at the time. So I went into the email address that I had for planning my wedding and I sent them a fake wedding inquiry. And wouldn’t you know it, within 15 minutes I had a response back asking if I wanted to set up a consultation. So I went over into my business email account and I sent them yet another email that didn’t get responded to.
Surprise, surprise. So a few days later, when they followed up with my fake wedding inquiry asking if I was interested in setting up a consultation, I decided to let my pettiness fly and I responded telling them no, I was actually just submitting a fake wedding inquiry to see if they were ignoring my emails, which apparently they were. So thanks for confirming that and I’ll be filing a fraud complaint with my credit card company. So that was actually the route that I had to go. And it took another…
Sandra Henderson (06:27.466)
I want to say month or so of the credit card company doing a fraud investigation and eventually I did receive my refund. And then that fall I was actually at a wedding at the wedding venue that these workshops were supposed to be hosted at and I was talking to one of the staff at the venue and explained the whole situation, told them about the workshop and they looked more and more shocked the longer I was speaking because here’s the real kicker.
These photographers had never actually booked this wedding venue for the workshops that they were advertising eight weeks of workshops for. Me talking to the staff was the first time that they had ever heard of these workshops. So I found out that it was a scam right from the very beginning. And let me tell you, it left the worst taste in my mouth when it came to these photographers, to whether or not you can trust your peers in the industry, if you can trust educators in the industry, like it was just the absolute worst experience to start off with.
Now, thankfully, every educator I’ve worked with since then, every coach I’ve worked with, every conference I’ve gone to, it has all been built with integrity, with people who know what they’re talking about, with people who are looking to help and serve you and not scam you from the very beginning.
And so I hope that story doesn’t scare you away from taking the leap yourself if you have not worked with an educator this far in your business. Aside from the impact it’s had on me with working with educators in the future, it has also had an incredible impact on me as an educator because there is no way in hell I will ever, ever get into a situation where something like that happens with somebody that I’m educating.
I want every client that I work with to walk away feeling confident, feeling like they not only got their money’s worth out of it, but got more than what they paid for out of it, that they are singing my praises hopefully, and that they just have a more simple streamlined approach so that they can go into their business and keep building this dream that they’ve been working towards for so long.
Sandra Henderson (08:42.334)
And it’s also what inspired me to reach out to my friend, Laylee Emadi to talk all about red, beige, and green flags that you see with wedding photographers in the industry, like I was mentioning back at the beginning. If you’ve never heard of Laylee, she is an educator, a speaker, and conference host with a heart for serving clients and fellow entrepreneurs through her coaching work, as the host of So Here’s the Thing podcast, and as the founder of the Creative Educator Conference.
She believes in leading with heartfelt encouragement and honest guidance. And as a long time entrepreneur, she’s not afraid to dig into tough topics or transparently share her own experiences, both the good and the bad. She’s passionate about her goal to equip you in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and build a life doing what you love.
Now, the person that I think about when I want real talk when it comes to the creative industry is Laylee. She is not kidding when she talks about being transparent and her own experiences, both the good and the bad. And so I cannot wait for you guys to listen to this interview so that it can better prepare you as you head into 2024 and start making those investments in yourself too.
Sandra Henderson
Thank you so much for joining me. It feels a little bit surreal after listening to your podcast for so many years. I absolutely love it.
And when I was thinking about doing this episode and I knew I needed someone to come on with like their real talk, unfiltered opinion on things, the one person I thought about was you. So Laylee, I would love if you could just quickly introduce yourself and let people know a little bit, wow, a little bit about what you’re all about before we dive in.
Laylee Emadi
Yeah, absolutely. First of all, that’s so kind. Thank you. I feel like, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but a lot of people associate me with like just the brutal honest truth, and I try to be kind when I share it. But I think it’s a good thing.
So I appreciate that and I’m so excited to be here. Yeah, like you said, I’m a podcaster. I’m a coach for educators and speakers, so it’s very meta, but I get to work with people on sharing their skillset really well and impacting their industry really well. And so I love doing that as well. And I also host the Creative Educator Conference, which does the same thing, but with guest speakers.
Sandra Henderson (10:55.198)
which I had the pleasure of attending earlier this year and it was absolutely incredible. You never would have known that it was the first time hosting this conference because it was perfection from start to finish. If anybody listening is interested in dipping their toe into the water in education, I definitely recommend checking it out because it was 10 months later now and I’m still pulling things that were so relevant and so helpful, so cannot recommend it enough.
And I totally agree that it is a good thing to have everybody associate you with the blunt opinions because you do, you don’t like, you’re not mean about it, but there are things that, you know, they need to be said and too many people dance around it and don’t wanna talk about it. So I love it, I think it’s a great thing.
Laylee Emadi
Thank you.
Sandra Henderson
So today we are gonna be talking a little bit more about coaching, but from the wedding photographer perspective of people who are going to be investing in coaching, whether it be for the first time or continuing their education. And we both know that there are educators of all kinds out there. I mean, you can say that about everything, but there’s definitely educators of all kinds out there. So today I wanted to kind of do a little like red flag, beige flag, green flag, and talk a little bit about what people should be keeping their eye out for as they are investing in education.
So why don’t we get the bad out of the way? Let’s start with the red flags, which I think is the real juicy one.
Laylee Emadi
Yeah. I mean, I think you’re right. First off, it’s really tricky when you’re investing in education in the wedding industry or in any creative space because I say this all the time as somebody who I started my education for educators with the Creative Educator Academy.
Which is like a program that kind of gives you the foundational tools for all different types of education in the creative space. And the reason that I did that and the reason I’m talking about that is because when I started in this industry 10 years ago, and I started in the photography industry in particular, there was, and there still is no regulation on who can call themselves an educator. There’s no kind of licensing or certificate or anything that takes you through.
You could literally tomorrow say, or today, you could right now go on Instagram and be like, I’m now an educator. And people do that. And they do it and it’s great. And maybe they have the knowledge and they have what it takes to actually call themselves an expert. But to call yourself an educator. And again, maybe it’s because this is kind of like my background is in actual education. So I was an actual teacher for just shy of a decade and I wrote curriculum for my school district.
And so I worked really hard to become an educator. And now, you know, seeing all these people out here calling themselves coaches, speakers, educators, course creators, but they have no qualifications to do so. Sometimes it’s fine. Sometimes you’re a natural teacher, but sometimes it’s not. And so I’m glad that we’re talking about this. So I want to get that out of the way by saying like that’s kind of the premise of what I base these like red flags and green flags off of that we’re going to be talking about is that there just is so little out there that will qualify somebody to be an incredible educator.
So you have to do like you the investor, you have to do like the research and the due diligence and look beyond Instagram followers to determine who is actually going to be like a good coach for you. So red flags I would look for right off the bat is people who are out here, like just stirring the pot just to get traction on social media. I think it’s great. Obviously, I based an entire podcast for the past five years off of like, quote unquote, unpopular opinions, but they’re not opinions that really stir the pot. Half the time an unpopular opinion is an opinion that everybody has, but nobody wants to talk about. Yeah. So I think that’s one really big red flag is just looking for people who are just attraction and followership and all the things. So that’s one red flag.
Another red flag is I think people who are only teaching and not doing what they’re teaching. And this is debatable. Like I feel like a lot of people, I don’t know how you feel about this, but like there’s a lot of educators out there. Like wedding photography is a perfect example of coaches who they get into coaching and they scaled back their photography and then they just stop doing photography, but they’re still teaching. And to me, there’s a certain timeframe where that’s okay. And it depends on the topic you’re teaching too, I think. But if you’re teaching marketing to book, and it’s been two or three years since you’ve booked, I mean, the tactics are not going to be the same. We just went through a global pandemic. There’s no way that it’s like this economy is completely different today than it was three years ago. Your marketing tactics and tools are likely outdated.
So that to me is a red flag.
Sandra: Yeah, for sure. I totally agree with you on that.
Laylee: Do you? Okay, that’s good. I’m always like, I don’t know how you feel about this.
Sandra Henderson
No, I think it makes a lot of sense. As you were saying that, I was thinking about educators that I know who started off in one industry, started teaching in it, and then kind of scaled back. The things that they’re teaching on focus on things like email marketing or systems or whatever the case may be. They’re not teaching you how to be a wedding photographer when they haven’t shot a wedding in 10 years. So I think that that’s super important.
Laylee Emadi
Yeah. I think if they are, that’s something I would question. But otherwise, I think, again, it’s topic dependent 100%. I agree with that. I could teach a wedding. I could coach a wedding photographer tomorrow and I haven’t shot a wedding since 2019, but I would never coach them on something that I’m not currently doing. So absolutely.
Sandra Henderson (17:03.542)
or systems or whatever, hiring, things that I’m still doing in my daily life. But I wouldn’t teach them on the newest gear or in particular, booking brides in this economy. That’s so specific and it’s something that you really have to be hands-on about. For sure. It’s giving me flashbacks of when I took photography in college. And it was like…
There was, I don’t regret it. There were great takeaways from it, but I will never forget being in a portrait class and having the teacher had like a string that was tied to the camp, like the tripod that he pulled out to meet up with our chins to make sure. And like, that’s how they used to do like school posing in like the seventies, eighties, nineties. I was in school in 2010. Like there was no need to still be teaching us that way. And like that.
served me no purpose. The only reason I remember it is because of how ridiculous it was, not because it like, you know, came in handy as I was getting into the photography industry. Oh my gosh, that’s so funny. I’m like remembering seeing that happening. Right. Yeah, so that’s what we were taught. So good. Okay, so I guess I’ll give like one more red flag. Okay. Yeah, sounds good. Okay. I’m trying to think of the best one.
I think probably the biggest one is people who are like being just cautious and conscientious when you’re doing your digging about like the people who are offering coaching is seeing how long have they actually been doing this because it’s so hard to tell like I tell people all the time when you want to start marketing yourself as an educator. I mean this is something I teach so I want people to be successful at it. I’m like okay so start sharing on the things that you know. But the red flag here and like the misstep that I see is when people…
start sharing what they know and they immediately start trying to charge what the coach is charging who has been around for years and years and has helped hundreds and hundreds of people versus like, I’ve helped one person and now I’m just getting started. So I would just look out for the red flag of people are always going to look their most confident and put their highlight reel on the internet. So it’s your job to see like, hey, how many people have you actually helped? Like, where are your testimonials and are they real people? Are they like, you know?
Sandra Henderson (19:21.814)
friends and family or the actual clients and other industry experts? Just digging into the show versus the proof. Yeah, absolutely. I think something that you said in the very beginning is super important in trying to just differentiate that as you were saying like an expert versus an educator. And the educator is going to have more than just the highlight reel that you’re going to be able to find to validate what they’re putting out there.
Yeah, absolutely. I think there is such a difference. For sure. All right. Why don’t we get into beige flags? Some things that maybe aren’t the worst thing, aren’t the best thing, but we’ll accept them if they happen. Yeah. I think a beige flag is people offering up their educational content on social. I always tell my students, nobody’s really thinking hard about what you’re putting out there.
start putting your content out, see what sticks. And so I think a beige flag is seeing somebody who’s sharing a lot of different educational content on a lot of different things, because they’re likely trying to figure out what their audience wants from them. Like it’s something that they’re likely qualified to talk about or to teach about, but they’re just trying to gauge like, okay, does my audience, if I’m a wedding photographer, does my audience wanna learn lighting from me, or do they wanna learn booking from me, or marketing from me? And so if they’re sharing a lot of tidbits here and there,
I don’t see that as like a red flag. I definitely see it as like a beige flag. Like they’re at an intermediate point and they’re just trying to figure out what’s gonna stick, but they’re not unqualified likely. I mean, you never know, but that would be for me a beige flag. Another beige flag I would say is, and this is kind of interesting. This also could be related back to like photography and the way that we price for photography. And you know how, you know, like the adage of like, oh, you’re gonna price yourself out or you’re gonna like price yourself under. Looking at…
I’ve worked with coaches who have charged like $400 for an hour long call. And then I’ve worked with coaches who have charged like $2,000 for an hour long call. And I guess some people would say pricing is a red flag. But to me, I just think it speaks to like, if I’m doing the research and it matches the experience that to me is a beige flag, like it’s fine with me. And I think just knowing what you want to invest and what you’re hoping to get out of it as a return.
Sandra Henderson (21:48.986)
it’s on you. So that’s why that’s probably why I would categorize that as beige. Yeah, I agree with that one too. I think what you’re getting out of the experience factors into the price that you’re paying.
We all know that feeling of like putting that money up and not getting what we were expecting out of it. And so that research comes along with it, but I totally agree that like price isn’t always a red flag. Some things are absolutely worth every penny when they’re really expensive and like I would still pay more for them. So.
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All right, let’s move into the green flags. What are some things that are like, yes, we love it when educators and coaches do this and we want more people to do it too? Yeah, I think one is just transparency. Like that to me is like the greenest of the green flag. Just less showmanship, less like showiness and more like I’m so confident in myself as an educator that I’m okay for you to see the rest of the behind the scenes.
Sandra Henderson (23:48.854)
Like you look at some of the top, not even in like wedding industry or photography industry, but the top like online educators and the top even like professional level, like professors, they’re the ones out there who are saying like, hey, I don’t know everything, but here is what I know and I’m really good at what I know. And so that’s kind of, I feel like I try to be really transparent and say like, you know, this is a season where I’m not doing X, Y, and Z.
because I’ve done X, Y, and Z to get here. And there’s, I have no shame in that. Like, I think that to me differentiates so much a beginning educator and an established, seasoned, experienced educator who can say like, I don’t need to be out here showing off like, how much money I make, what I’m doing to do it. You know, I just feel like the transparency of like, hey, this is what I’m great at. This is…
but I’m probably not, but I’m willing to connect the dots for you as well as I can and connect you to people who are even better than me. So that’s actually kind of a few green flags. I feel like the secondary green flag to that is just confidence in your ability and the willingness to say when you’re not great at something too.
Yeah, totally. I have never been in this situation where I’ve asked a business coach a question and they said, I don’t know, or I haven’t respected the hell out of them for it because I don’t want them to give me some sort of bullshit answer where they’re making something up. Like just own up to the fact that you are human and you don’t know everything. That’s totally fine. And like that to me is like I just respect an educator so much more in that sort of scenario. Yeah, same. And I think that it just shows experience.
I know as most educators who are entrepreneurs and most entrepreneurs who are successful are likely somewhere in like an Enneagram 3 vibe of like the achiever, they’re highly motivated, they really want that success. And so it is really difficult in the beginning to be able to say, I don’t know the answer to this, like I’m not great at this.
Sandra Henderson (26:04.87)
It is far more helpful to the person that you are being paid by to be honest and transparent about what you know and what you don’t. So if listeners are thinking about getting into the education space themselves, what advice would you give for them to encourage them to show up with integrity? Oh my gosh, I have so many things I would say. Probably the first thing I would say is if you want to become an ethical educator with integrity, which I highly suggest doing. You know, one…
I mean, a higher coach, hire somebody who has done it before, somebody qualified. I mean, you can hire me, but that’s not really where I’m going with that. It’s more so like finding somebody who has done it in the way that you respect and that you admire, not just the person with 200,000 Instagram followers who’s like churning out kind of lackluster education. So one, pay for the help, invest in the help, show up to things where other educators are.
I know there’s not a lot out there. I’m doing what I can to fix that with the conference and things of that nature. But like, you know, make the connections when you can and where you can. And then start showing up to serve instead of to sell. I know a lot of times we say selling is serving, but in this scenario, I would suggest giving before selling. So like giving some education, seeing where it lands. We talked about it in the beige.
flags, but like that truly is a base flag to me. If you’re getting started, you’re giving out that education and seeing who wants it, what they want with it, how they’re succeeding when using it, and then that will help guide you into paid offers. It’s a win-win, you know? Yeah, absolutely. One thing I’ve always thought as I’ve been getting into the education space, I’ve heard a lot of people bring it up to me, like if it was something that I was concerned about and hearing other people talk about how they have that concern is…
that they’re worried that they’re going to teach people to do it better than them. But the way that I see it is if you’re coming into the education space, that’s what you want essentially. That means that you’re a really good teacher and you want them to be successful in what you’re teaching them. So I think that it’s super important to kind of wrap your head around that too. Yeah, it’s actually really funny. When I first started offering education in the creative industry, I was doing…
Sandra Henderson (28:23.658)
workshops for wedding photographers. So like 15 to 20 people at beautiful venues with style shoots, you know, like back then. Sounds old. Back then that was like not every on every corner or whatever, but style shoots were not like, it was like kind of a big undertaking to do it. So I ended up doing it with a workshop and I’ll never forget one of them, one of my attendees was selected for like front.
Front page style me pretty and like, you know, it was huge and it was from the workshop styled shoot and I had to like sign off on it because style me pretty at the time was like, I don’t even know if they’re still around, but it was a big deal at the time. And I had never been, I had maybe once and definitely not like the front page, not like a big feature. I had maybe even featured on there once. So this student of mine was a hundred percent outperforming me at my own workshop. I mean, to be fair, I didn’t submit, but that’s…
That’s how it could have felt. I was elated. I was like, this is incredible. Because the mindset shift, like you mentioned, I completely agree with you, that you have to shift your mindset from, if you want to be an educator, that means you want your students to outshine you. If you wanna be the expert in the industry, in the top of your industry, then stay there. There’s no shame in that. There’s no reason to join another industry. And education is its own industry.
if your goal is to be the top of your industry only and to never have competitors. So you have to shift your mindset. And for me, I was like, my initial thought was, well, this is great publicity for me as a teacher, not, oh no, this person outshined me as a photographer. I didn’t even think as a photographer in that moment. I thought as the workshop host, I thought what an incredible achievement for my student who showed up and invested in my
at her level will see how beneficial my workshop is. I can help them, I can help more people, I can impact more people and I can make more change as opposed to, oh, her photography is better than mine, way, like, you have to choose, like what’s more important to you? Yeah, absolutely. And it is honestly the best feeling when a student comes back to you to tell you how well they’re doing. Like I was guest speaking to the college that I…
Sandra Henderson (30:43.67)
went to for photography. And I was just like, I think I was talking about social media. I was definitely that like, you know, expert wanting to turn educator that was just dipping their toe in the water and teaching all the things and going to the college photography program is kind of a great way to do that because they need to learn all the little bits of all the things. And I had one of the students about a week later message me on Facebook telling me that in four days they had more than doubled their Instagram following.
And I was just like, oh, I was so proud, like proud mama moment. And I was like, this gives me so much life. Like I need to keep pursuing this. So it’s just the best feeling. I want my students to come to me and be like, I’m doing so much better. Yeah. I think that’s something that you’ll know when you start offering education, like if it’s a good fit for you or not, be able to see like, how important is it to me that these people are thriving based off of my guidance, you know?
It’s funny how I kind of think of different educational experiences that I’ve had. I remember going to a workshop that had a styled shoot as part of it, and the host photographer gave herself the lead spot during the whole portrait session. And I was like, are you here for you? Are we a thing for all of us that are paying to be here? So yeah, things like that. It’s funny. You think back on it, and it’s like, oh yeah, there was a red flag for sure.
Yeah, if they’re placing their body in front of you, that’s a red flag. I mean, there’s a difference between like, I have to get this one shot for the vendor and then you go versus I’m going to shoot the whole time and you’re going to have to shoot around me. Yeah, exactly. All right. That was so helpful. I know that everybody listening is going to have such a better perspective heading into booking their next educational experience. But I do have one last fun little would you rather question.
So if you had to go back to one of your past careers, you already mentioned that you did wedding photography and for everybody that doesn’t know, Laylee was also a dance teacher. So would you rather go back to teaching dance full-time or go back to being a wedding photographer full-time? Oh my gosh, that’s the hardest question I’ve ever been asked. I like put together these would you rather questions. I’m like, I almost feel a little mean. Like I’m trying to make it really hard to choose from. That’s like, I mean, I’m not kidding. That’s the hardest question I’ve ever been asked.
Sandra Henderson (33:04.002)
because there’s so many things I loved about each and things that I really didn’t love about each. Yeah. I think at this point in my life, I think today I would choose dance teacher. Yeah. I liked the freedom of wedding photography, but I also didn’t like the lack of freedom of wedding. It’s such a toss up, but…
Teaching dance was so rewarding in so many other ways too. I mean, they both are. This is why it’s so hard. That was a… It’s like 1% dance teacher, 49% wedding photographer. For sure. I love that though. That’s a great answer. Well, thank you so much, Laili. This was such a fun conversation and I know it’s gonna be so helpful for everybody. Actually, before we jump off, could you just let everybody know where they can find you online so they can give you a follow?
Yeah, you can find me on Instagram @laylee_emadi, all the E’s in my name, or @thecreativeeducatorconference, also on Instagram. Perfect. Thank you for having me. Of course. So now that you know what to look out for as you head into off season and all of the educators are going to be launching tons of new offers because they always do this time of year.
I hope that you feel confident that you are going to get your money’s worth out of whatever it is that you’re paying for. Now this episode is dropping the middle of November just before Black Friday. And if you are listening to this around the time of recording, definitely keep an eye out because my coaching calls are going to be going on sale. Little spoiler alert, you can find all of that information on my website, simplysandriavon.ca.
And if you’re interested in checking out the Creative Educator Conference that Laylee was talking about during our interview, I want you to head over to the show notes or the description for today’s episode, and you’re going to find a link there to get all of the information. Unfortunately, I am not going to be going to the conference in 2024, but please don’t think that speaks negatively to the experience at all. A lot of times you go to a conference and you feel good when you’re walking away, but almost like…
Sandra Henderson (35:13.442)
were things that were missing. There’s something that you were hoping to get from it that you didn’t. But when I went to the Creative Educator Conference in 2023, it’s still 2023 in January, I left feeling like I got absolutely everything that I needed out of it. And this little birdie just wants to jump from the nest and try to fly for a little bit. When the conference happens in 2025, and I’m saying when because lately you have to keep doing this conference.
So when it comes back in 2025, I will definitely be there. And if any of you listening are looking to get into the education space, I can’t wait to connect with you there. Anyways, friends have an amazing rest of your week and we will talk again soon. Thank you so much for listening. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at simplysandryvonne.ca/keepingitcandid. In the meantime, let’s connect.
You can find me on Instagram and TikTok, just search SimplySandraYvonne. And if you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Until next time.
About Laylee
Laylee is an educator, speaker, and conference host with a heart for serving clients and fellow entrepreneurs through her coaching work, as the host of the So, Here’s the Thing Podcast, and as the founder of The Creative Educator Conference. She believes in leading with heartfelt encouragement and honest guidance. As a longtime entrepreneur, she’s not afraid to dig into tough topics or transparently share her own experiences—the good and the bad. Laylee is passionate about her goal to equip you in your ability to make a difference, create impact, and to build a life doing what you love.
On this week’s episode of Keeping It Candid, Sara Monika and I talking all about the freedom outsourcing can bring to your life, both personally and financially. This is one you absolutely don’t want to miss! Keep reading for the Show Notes, and head to your favourite podcast player to give it a listen.
Sandra Henderson (00:00.322)
Friends, it’s October 18th and fall busy season is officially underway up here in Canada. How’s everyone feeling? If you are anything like me, you’re probably feeling the weight of all of it right now. The overwhelm of everything that’s going on has really been setting in, but I am so, so happy because I actually just sent out my final wedding galleries for 2023.
I could not be more excited about that and to think that I’m not gonna have the weight of that carrying over as I head into some travel plans in November and then taking some time off for the holidays in December, it feels so good. I’ve literally never experienced this before in the 10 years that I’ve been in business, so I am definitely celebrating over here.
That being said, I am still super overwhelmed. I have a ton of portrait sessions happening. I already mentioned I’m getting ready to travel in November and there’s just so much going on with my husband and my stepson and all the things at home. So if you can relate, I want you to pop over into my DMs on Instagram at simplySandrEyvon. Tell me that I am not completely alone feeling this way and let’s support each other through what is.
definitely most trying time for any photographer at any point in the year. One way that you can take some things off your plate so that feeling of overwhelm doesn’t completely take you over is to start outsourcing. But I know that it’s a scary thing to wrap your head around for a few different reasons. There’s the cost, there’s the idea of giving up control.
But trust me when I tell you that there is so much freedom that’s waiting for you on the other side of those blocks in your mindset. A few weeks ago, I had the chance to connect with Sarah Monica, who is a fellow wedding photographer and educator based in Ontario, Canada, just a couple hours away from me, actually. She gave one of the best intros that I’ve ever had on this podcast, so I’m gonna let you hear what she is all about from her own words, because I am not gonna do it nearly as much justice.
Sandra Henderson (02:05.954)
but she is the go-to expert for all things outsourcing. During her interview, she shared a really transparent and unfiltered look at the impact that outsourcing has had on her business, both financially and in the bigger picture. And I know you are gonna have so many takeaways from this episode. Whether you’re ready to start outsourcing to an actual person, supporting another small business, or if you wanna start incorporating things like AI into how you do things, you deserve the freedom that comes along with taking things off of your to-do list.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Imagine AI, the best addition to my post wedding toolkit this year. I’ve said goodbye to long hours of culling and editing because Imagine AI has learned my preferences and knows exactly what photos I want and how I want them to look. I just get to go in afterward to add my finishing touches with masking and spot removal, and then everything is ready to export. Friends, please do not keep sleeping on incorporating Imagine AI into your workflow.
To get 1500 free edits, head to the episode description or the show notes to grab my affiliate link.
Welcome to Keeping It Candid. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, an international wedding and family photographer and business coach. I help wedding photographers use systems to build out the backend of their businesses to gain control and continue to thrive no matter what life throws their way.
And on a more personal note, I’m a strong Enneagram 3wing2 who’s obsessed with tacos. And my love for traveling combined with navigating chronic illness life are just two of the many things that drive my passion for all things systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me every week for a candid behind the scenes look at what it’s really like working as a wedding photographer, where I’ll give you actionable steps to take your business to the next level.
Absolutely no fluff here, friends, so go grab your favorite notebook and pen and let’s dive into this week’s episode.
Sandra Henderson (03:58.038)
Thank you so, so much for joining me, Sarah. I am so excited to have you here. So excited to have another fellow Canadian on the podcast. So before we get into all of the goodness that I know we have in store, if you could just take a quick little second to introduce yourself, that would be amazing. Let everybody know what you’re all about. Yeah, of course. Oh my gosh, all about, all the things. Okay, let’s go down the list. No joking. I’m like, it’s so funny. Sometimes I’m like.
Okay, let me just talk about my likes and dislikes and personality. I’m like, oh no, but maybe first let me talk about what kind of photography I love to do and all of that. So my name is Sarah Monica, but you can just call me Sarah. I used my middle name for my business name instead of my long ass Polish last name, which is too intense for anyone to remember. So it’s just Sarah. It’s not like a double whammy first name with two names. And yeah, I’ve been a photographer for 12 years now. I specialize in photographing.
free-spirited and adventurous couples on wedding days in more of a documentary style way where they can be super free on their wedding day and that’s the priority. And then I’m also an educator, I don’t know, educator guide, kind of all those things put together. I have a podcast, the Shine and Thrive Photography Podcast for about three years now. And yeah, it’s just been so much fun.
Like as soon as I hit that point in my business where I felt like everything was running like a well-oiled machine and I figured out so many things that I was like trying to figure out for so many years, I was like, oh my gosh, I just want to like share this with as many people as possible because it’s so helpful for me. So it just like naturally came about and it just feels so fun and organic to have kind of both of those pillars to my business right now. And I’m also a new mom, relatively new. Ben is a year and a half now.
and I’m engaged to my fiance Rory. We’ve been together for nine years and just some random things. I love dancing to EDM. I love anything to do with freedom, doing what I want when I want, traveling and having a ton of spaciousness in my life. And yeah, that’s a little bit me in a nutshell. I love that. That was easily the best introduction I’ve had on this podcast. That was so good. I feel like we could be best friends.
Sandra Henderson (06:18.178)
One thing that you said, I know we’re going to be diving into all the things about outsourcing and things like that, but one thing that you said during your intro that I want to dive into a little bit is something that I actually saw on your website when I was reaching out to invite you to join me for this interview, was that in your contact form, you actually specify specific types of weddings that you prefer to do and prefer not to do, and that you don’t take on weddings in dark venues. And I thought that this was…
amazing to see on someone’s contact form. So I would love to pick your brain about that a little bit. It was just kind of like a light bulb went off as you were saying that. Because I think that there are so many, I mean, in any career, there are so many different mindsets, but especially like in photography, you have people who are like just will take anything and everything because they want to work with everyone and they want the money to come in. And then on the like, polar opposite side of things you have
unfortunately, people who are discriminatory and only wanting to take on certain weddings, but there’s this middle ground where we have this creative freedom to say what we do and we don’t want to shoot without it being discriminatory. And so I would love to hear just like what brought you to a point to say, there’s nothing wrong with your wedding, but for my expertise, this is how I can best serve you. Oh, that’s such a great question. I love it. I love it. I love
I was totally that photographer that was more of a generalist for many years where I was like, I’ll take on anything and everything firstly because I was still exploring what I wanted. Secondly, because I really just wanted to be full-time ASAP. I just wanted to have my own business, not have another job. And so I did go through that chapter. And then when I realized when I went full-time, I was still kind of saying yes to certain types of weddings out of obligation.
of obligation and there was this like also guilt associated with it if I was gonna say like no I’m like am I being too much of a diva now is that like a thing to do where it’s like no I don’t want it and I had some conversations with other photographers in the industry many people felt that way too but a handful of them actually gave me some advice and oh my gosh who was it I don’t remember I think her name was Kayla but she this was so long ago.
Sandra Henderson (08:41.606)
I’ve been doing this for a while now. She said, well, I think our couples, if they hire us for their wedding, I think they deserve someone who fully 100% wants to be there, is so excited, and isn’t in the background thinking, oh, I wish I was shooting an outdoor wedding right now, or I wish I wasn’t in this hall. I could be so much more creative in a different place.
Because if our minds, if we’re not fully present and our minds are elsewhere, we’re actually not showing up in the best way possible and they deserve a photographer that gets excited about a church wedding or a hall wedding and there are photographers that want that. There are literally photographers that see things creatively and differently and are more than happy to shoot in those locations. So that’s what really like shifted that for me. And I realized there’s actually no point to feeling guilty.
and there is a way to like communicate this in a way where it’s beneficial for them. And so yeah, I have it on my contact page. I just write, I don’t accept weddings in dark spaces like churches and I say dark spaces because I mean, sometimes I take weddings on a dark space. It just depends on the venue if I’m creatively inspired. So but in general, I’m like, I don’t accept weddings in churches, banquet halls, golf courses because they’re not.
they’re not as conducive to my creative and candid approach. And it’s actually true in the sense that when I did photograph, let’s say at banquet halls, I shoot with a 50 millimeter and a 35 millimeter, literally 95 percent of the time. And so if I heard laughter and I shoot with those lenses because I really want the viewer to feel like they are right beside where that moment happened to feel that closeness. So that’s intentional. So if I heard laughter at all,
the other side of the freaking room, I would like run over but then people would be like, wait, what? Like she’s running, go to catch their attention. I wouldn’t be as stealth as I am now in like smaller spaces. And the moment would stop or I would miss it. Like it’s just like, it was affecting my joy, my happiness, my… And so I’m like, there’s nothing wrong with me just being more selective and saying, yes, this place is where I want to shoot. And I’m not going to lie, sometimes like…
Sandra Henderson (10:59.026)
Most of the time, it’s not like I tell couples, I actually ask about the venue in the contact form and then when they contact me, then I reply back saying, sorry, I don’t photograph in those spaces or sometimes I just say, I’m booked that day and that’s it. It keeps it easy. No one has to know, but the times that I did reply saying, it’s actually not a space that like I would photograph.
I would create the work that you expect from me best in because I would need different lenses. I say that because I care about you having the best experience possible. I think I want you to find a photographer that does create well in those spaces.” And they actually respond back saying, oh, wow, we appreciate your honesty because people would assume a business owner is a business owner. They want business. And so for them, it’s like this extra level of like…
customization experience and wanting the best for them, that they’re like, we really appreciate that, thank you. And then sending off referrals, like they’re well taken care of. So that’s my approach with that. And I really think that it just also like speaks to the fact that these people that are hiring us, they don’t have a photographic eye more often than not. They’re not in this industry. And so it’s up to us to educate them and say, these are the photos that you want, but it’s literally not possible to do in this space.
until we educate them with that information, they’re never gonna know about it. So I think that’s super important. And I love that you take that approach of just being like fully upfront and disclosing it all right from the get-go so that nobody’s disappointed down the road, including yourself, because there’s nothing worse than being in a space where you don’t feel creatively fulfilled. And also with that, I save my time too, because I used to notice that without me saying that on my contact page, I used to get so many inquiries for…
church weddings and church weddings for me specifically, again, I don’t like the vibe of like quiet must be on your best behavior. Like my branding who I am as a person is very like free spirited. I like being silly. I like again freedom being able to do what I want when I want. And so for me a church, although it’s like it’s a space that people other people gravitate to and feel at peace in and that’s amazing. I love that for them. It’s not a place I feel creatively inspired in.
Sandra Henderson (13:20.322)
So I’m like, I don’t want to be in a place where I feel like everyone has to be on their best behavior and quiet. And that’s just my perspective, right? And so it’s not that I’m like against, oh, churches are not cool or whatever. Like I genuinely, it’s just, it’s just a different vibe, different experience. And we all get to feel pulled to like the locations and vibes that we feel creative in. So, but yeah, it saves me time because I don’t get those inquiries.
anymore really. So I don’t have to spend extra time sitting at the computer being like, no, with like my template email, right? Also not on the backend too. That is the perfect lead into what we are actually connecting to talk about today is all about outsourcing and ways that you can save time and energy in your business, which is just like 1000% my jam. I could definitely relate, we were talking a little bit before we started recording.
just about trying to do all the things and how it can just leave you feeling so unfulfilled and How powerful it is to take things off your plate so you have more freedom in your life So yeah, I’m super excited for this topic What do you think are some hesitations that wedding photographers have towards outsourcing and getting started in the beginning? Oh my gosh I know them so intimately because I was that photographer that I was so hesitant I
I literally was so proud. It was this like proud like hustle and grind like badge of honor in a sense where I was like I give you guys a boutique experience which means I do everything myself like no one else touches it. It’s all done by me right? And I thought that was like…
The only, for some reason I had this illusion in my mind, that’s the only way to run a business that is successful, that is good, because if I have control over every single part of their experience, that means it’ll be exactly how I want it, that means I’ll get more referrals, and I’ll get booked more and I’ll be successful, right? I don’t know why I thought that, because there’s clearly so many examples in the world of successful businesses that have employees and get support.
Sandra Henderson (15:34.398)
like high-end restaurants or Apple, for example, right? And so I don’t know where that illusion came from, but I think possibly it could have come from the culture within the industry of everyone simply doing it themselves, right? Because I think I didn’t have anyone to shed a light on me as a small business owner, but that’s even a possibility to get help, to do things the way that I wanted them done. And when I was taught in school,
Sorry, when I learned photography in school, I went to a photography school in college. I have to ask where you went because I also went to Fanjia here in London. Oh, you went to Humber? Oh, yeah. We have these Canadian connections. I had looked at the Humber program, but I originally applied to Algonquin because they had film and I was doing film in high school.
And then I applied to, I think I applied to Humber and to Fanshawe as well. But as soon as I got my Fanshawe acceptance, I was like, that’s where I’m going. That’s awesome. Oh my God. That’s so funny because I looked at Fanshawe too and I’m like, well, which one’s closer to home? And so I did that. See, I was looking for the one that was furthest away from home. Oh, that’s amazing. I would have wanted that experience, but I was I was in a situation where I didn’t have a car. My parents were living paycheck to paycheck. I had to they both lost their jobs at some point. I had to.
literally it was a rough time in my life. Yeah. Plus, serving on the weekends, going to school full-time, I had to opt out of being part of the, what’s it called, volleyball, um, volleyball team in college. And they were actually doing so well. They were like number one and two in Canada and I got on the team, but then I couldn’t because my parents lost their jobs. Oh, it was a rough time, but I think it gave me that like grit that I have within me of like, I can do anything if I
Sandra Henderson (17:21.902)
probably ended up in Fanshawe because I’ve been like, I want that dorm experience, that like community experience. I’m so happy you got to experience that. Yeah, it was great. It’s definitely a great program. So any listeners that are Canadian, we definitely recommend some of our Ontario colleges for photography, which is so strange because like there’s so many people who are self-taught. And I definitely think like I’m glad that I went because it’s my learning style to just be in that sort of environment to learn things like lighting and flash and things like that.
I definitely by no means think that you absolutely have to go to post-secondary for photography. And so yeah, it’s always just so interesting to see the different approaches of how people got into the industry. Yeah, it’s so funny. It took me, it took, it was a two-year program. And I actually think I would have learned way faster not in the program. So I actually do the opposite. I like don’t recommend it. I’m like,
I had to also take English on the side. That was bullshit. I didn’t want to write essays. Like, oh, just so, it’s opposite. And what I was sort of, what I was going to say is like, we didn’t learn how to actually like have a team in college. Like they didn’t, they didn’t teach, they taught a lot of the photography skills, but those could have been taught in a so much less time. I don’t know what took them so long, honestly, because then they could have introduced other.
aspects like, okay, so you want a photography business, here’s how you communicate to train someone here, so you put a job application together. Like that wasn’t taught. And so that’s why I think I went into it with the illusion that I have to do everything myself. Right. So I think some of the things that pop up for photographers, like for them to hesitate even thinking about or starting to outsource is number one, it’s uncharted territory. Anything new that we’ve never done
And that’s just natural with growing our businesses. It’s natural, just like first learning our camera on manual. That was terrifying. I didn’t do it for a year. I procrastinated for a year. And then I’m like, what was I so scared of, right? So it’s just uncharted territory. It’s also counterintuitive because you’re thinking, wait, but I just shot this wedding and now I’m supposed to let go of like 100 bucks or 200 bucks to get it edited? Like…
Sandra Henderson (19:33.75)
what? That’s my money. Like I earned it, right? But what I’m noticing and what I’ve noticed so much over time, time and time and again for myself, my own experience, my students’ experience is successful photographers buy back their time in the areas that drain their energy so that then they can spend more of their time in the areas that excite them and give them more energy. And that is exactly how you grow your business.
faster but in an also sustainable way where you’re not burnt out. So it is counterintuitive and you it kind of what it requires of you is to take a leap of faith like all right I’m investing this money just like when you took a leap of faith of buying your first camera it was like thousands of dollars for the camera the lenses it’s like okay leap of faith here’s my money but then it’s an investment because it actually makes money for you right. Anyway I think I’m getting too ahead of myself but yeah another reason is
like obviously, so the money, they’re scared to let go of the money, but also loss of control. So assuming that if someone else takes over your editing or culling and it takes over is the wrong word because that’s what I used to think it would be. But you have final say, you get to quality check everything, but photographers assume that they will just like have a loss of control over the quality of what they get. And they’re also scared of being seen as less of an artist.
or even seeing themselves as less of an artist if they’re getting that support. It’s like, well, shouldn’t I be the one to finalize the look of the image, right? But what I’ve learned over time is that it’s literally a formula. Once you get your editing to a place where you’re like, okay, I kinda get it, now I know what I do to each image to get it to where I want it to be, I was just sitting there being like, this amount of warmth, this amount of exposure, add this. And it’s just like a formula. I felt like a robot. And I’m like, okay.
This is teachable to someone else. But those are the things that I think are holding photographers back. So uncharted territory, it’s counterintuitive. You don’t want to let go of your money. You feel like you’re going to lose control or nobody can do it as well as you can. Or feeling like you’re not as much of an artist or like an actual quote unquote business owner because you’re not doing everything yourself. Those are some of the things that come to mind.
Sandra Henderson (21:49.318)
I have definitely experienced all of those myself more than once over the last 10 years. So yeah, I can totally relate to that. And the idea of the like that we have to do everything ourselves. It’s something that actually just earlier this year, I realized is not just us who thinks that way. But there are other people who think that way too. And I’ve it’s been how many months since April and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the words that somebody had said to me, because photographers outsource their blogs to me.
And I do the writing and they’re like, well, how are their clients going to feel if they find out that somebody else is writing the blog? I’m like, but the blog literally has nothing to do with their capability of using their camera and producing great photos. And like we look at corporations and hospitals and all of these places that have somebody at the top and all of these people doing all the things below them.
I hate to say below them, but you know what I mean? Like in that system. Supporting the vision. Exactly. And so it’s so crazy to me that we think that artists and small business owners need to be doing everything all by themselves to be a legitimate professional. Yeah. And I think it’s also this illusion that you know how we can all be our own worst critic when it comes to, for example, our looks, the way we look, right? We can dissect ourselves. We know in the morning when I first wake up,
I think I look like this, I’ll fill in the blank, right? But then if I like do my hair and I do this, I’m ready to go out, I look like this, like fill in the blank, right? And so what I think we’re experiencing, but then on the outside looking in, if there’s another human like looking at you, they’re more drawn to what you have to offer with like your energy, the conversation, just the connection. They just want to be there for the connection. We don’t really care about that.
extra pimple you have right underneath your chin that someone can’t notice but you notice and it’s flaring out at you, right? So of course when we are in our business, we see everything. We know every single detail. But someone, just keep in mind someone looking in from the outside, they are literally just focused on your energy, the energy you’re showing up with, and your photos. Like, oh cool, cool photos, art, oh I like what I feel in the photos. They do not care about the how.
Sandra Henderson (24:05.846)
like a restaurant, what do you care about, right? And what comes to mind for me is I wanna go there, have a nice experience where I feel well taken care of, my needs are taken care of, which is my thirst and my hunger. But I also, whoever I’m going with, I just wanna have fun and connect. Do I care how the kitchen cooks the meal? Do I care like who sat me who didn’t? If I look at things the opposite way, if…
literally there was one person working at that restaurant and it was just the chef and the chef had to seat me and the chef had to get me my drink, the chef had to take my order while also making 20 other orders while then also somehow making sure that the quality was intact. It’s like, well, then I would notice that something is off and then I would be unhappy and then I would like never go back to that restaurant or recommend it and then that’s when that business feels that chef feels burnt out and that’s when he wants to quit and there’s no other way and business dies.
So it’s like that, it’s like if you get support in your business through outsourcing, the things that you think people will notice and judge you on and think you’re not a true artist is a total illusion. But the opposite, if you are overworked, burnt out, you’re constantly delivering things late and you’re working 12 to 15 hour days, you can’t catch up even when you’re working 12 to 15 hour days. That’s what people notice. They notice
the lower level of your energy. They can get upset because they paid you money and they’re not getting the level of attention they need. Or they were super excited for a date night and they didn’t get the images on time and they had to reschedule and who knows what went into that. Maybe they had a babysitter come, but then you’re like, sorry, I need two more nights. Those types of things are what people notice.
Sandra Henderson (25:53.938)
outsourcing can positively impact both your life and your business other than obviously like the taking work off your plate? What are some things that surprised you as you started alleviating all of your duties? Oh my god. Okay, first of all, you said duties. I’m so glad you just said that. I do that to my husband all the time. So good. For anybody that doesn’t know Chandler Bing from Friends. I love it. So good. Oh, that made my day. You know how many times I say that at a wedding?
And someone just looks at me like, I don’t get it. And I’m like, okay. Oh, that would make me so sad. There’s nothing worse than making like a solid reference at a wedding and nobody gets it. And you’re like, okay, I’m just gonna walk away. So now we’ll kind of get back on track. So those, yes, back to the duties. Perfect. So, okay, I love this question. I think before I dive into it, I mean, this is partially answering it. I did want to like paint the picture of like what happened to me.
with when I was hesitant to outsource and then when I actually was like, I’m, you know what, this isn’t sustainable. I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to try something new. So I, I’ve, what I found was I was shooting 15 weddings a year. This was back in 2015 and about 20 sessions or so. And I’ve just felt like I was hitting my head up against a wall, like over and over. I’m like, I want to grow my business, but boom, I can’t.
because I literally don’t have the capacity to take on any more weddings or sessions. And so that meant that I gave myself an income ceiling because I couldn’t actually get paid more, but I was still working, working on all the backend stuff. But when I finally was like, okay, I’m gonna let go first of the thing that I hate most, which was spending so much time editing. Well, like, I mean, let’s be more specific. I loved editing.
for an hour or two, because I got so creative and I got to see my images, but then the rest I was like, oh my god, I’m just a robot sitting here. I don’t want to be here. I want to be out there in the summer sun. You know what I’m saying. So I was like, okay, let me outsource the rest. Right? So that was like a freaking, it took some time to learn and figure things out. And I didn’t have it optimized then as I do now. But the result of me starting to
Sandra Henderson (28:11.122)
making, by the way, I like being super open to my numbers. So back then I was making $27,000 in take home income. So this is after taking away my expenses, my taxes and all of that. So it was only 27,000 and I was working 80 to 90 hour weeks from like May to November with 15 weddings and 20 sessions. I’m like, what the heck? Because I was also trying to grow the business and market like everything, right? Network. And so then
This is my result just one year later, one season later after beginning to outsource just my editing. I actually doubled my income. So I went to like, I think it was like $55,000 in take home income. And I cut my working time by like 30 to 40%.
huge. So I was literally experiencing just a year into outsourcing, working less and making more. And that’s when everything started shifting.
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I’m interrupting this episode for a quick second because I want to tell you all about something that I have used in my business day in and day out for more than six years now and I truly do not think that I could run my business without it. And that is Honeybook. Honeybook is an all-in-one CRM system that handles all the things that are client-facing.
Sending contracts and invoices, receiving payments, sending out questionnaires so you can get all those details to get ready for the wedding day, as well as having workflows and automations to start taking some of the work off of your plate, which I’m always a huge advocate for. There’s truly not enough time for me to talk about all of the incredible features that HoneyBook has. And if this is something that you’ve been thinking about trying out, or if you’re wanting to make the switch over to HoneyBook, this truly is the absolute best time to do it.
because HoneyBook is currently 50% off your first year. All you need to do to take advantage is head over to share.honeybook.com/Sandra and that will be applied to all new subscriptions. There are both monthly and annual plans available and annual plans as always will save you a little bit of money on top of that. And I hate saying these words, but in this economy, we know that every little bit counts.
Sandra Henderson (30:28.466)
So again, head over to share.honeybook.com forward slash Sandra to get 50% off your first year of HoneyBook. And so this is a lead in to you’re like, well, what are some of the unexpected things that come with that? So actually, let me just even paint the picture a bit further. So that was my experience a year later. I had to, it was a whole journey. I’ve never been taught how to do this. So there was like bumps in the road I had to figure out.
I had to switch editors many times, I had to hire a VA, then let go of a VA, get a new VA many times. But now I’m at the point where I’m working 25 to 30 hour weeks and this includes shooting. So this includes shooting even if I have like a 12 hour wedding day or two eight hour wedding days in a row or sessions. And I make a minimum $80,000 in take home income just from weddings and sessions.
So this isn’t even my education side of the business. So imagine that I went from working 80 to 90 hour weeks, making $27,000 take home income to 25 to 30 hour weeks, making 80,000 in take home income from like one pillar in my business. So that is just like- That is such a huge difference. Exactly. That is the picture that I wanna paint of like, if it’s possible for me, it’s possible for others.
And I’m really excited to talk about the ripple effect that creates in our lives because it’s not, yes, you save time in your business and you get to work on the things that like light you up more, that gives you more energy. Yes, you make more money, which is obviously we know that ripple effect. It like lowers our stress levels. It allows us to experience more experiences with our loved ones. It creates safety, that feeling of safety and security. I grew up in a household
intense debt and fights and arguments and my parents almost being divorced twice over it and this like scarcity and it was terrifying and it’s like I know how that can break up a family and affect relationships and the well-being of everybody and so I want to paint the picture of you can feel that safety around money you just need to buy back your time first and so
Sandra Henderson (32:48.166)
It’s really hard to unlearn some of that, like when you live with that as a child too, because that’s something that I realized as I was getting older is like, it’s hard to kind of put your like wrap your head around not having scarcity mindset around money. But I think that when you do like you’re saying start to see that ripple effect, it kind of starts to make it a little bit easier. I think it’s interesting because for some reason, I mean, everybody
like adopts these different beliefs. Mine was if I work hard enough, I’ll make enough money and then I’ll be secure and safe. But then what I realized is that at working hard, like actual grinding, working hard, yes, it gets you to a point. It got me to having a business in $27,000 in income. But then what I realized is to get to the next level of making even more money to feel extra safe.
it’s actually working smart that shifts everything. And so I wrote, I really wanted to like express everything that you can create in your own life intentionally when you do make the decision to buy your time back and be more intentional and proactive in your business and life. And so I actually, this is something I’m so excited about. It’s like the first time I’m actually saying it out loud and it’s a…
Manifesto that I created around the vision of the new lifestyle of the like the pretty much the free photographer like so if you think about the overworked the underpaid the burnt-out photographer like Let’s let’s help transition you into the liberated like free photographer So I’m gonna read this and I think this is literally when I read this Everyone will feel exactly what ripple effects are created through this. So here I go hustle and grind
No thanks. Starving artist, not into it. I’m stripping away the shoulds, the industry standards, and anything else that leaves me feeling constricted and small. I’m here to protect my greatest gift, my energy, my creativity, my presence, my flame, and I’m paid abundantly for it. My life feels like fun on Friday night and easy like Sunday morning. I choose pleasure over
Sandra Henderson (35:11.126)
beingness over busyness. I believe asking for help is sexy. The freedom to do what I want when I want turns me on, like taking a long spontaneous nature walk in the middle of a Wednesday just because I feel like it. I trust and dance with my intuitive nudges and flow through life like a calm and peaceful stream. I put my well-being first because when my cup overflows, it ripples to those I love.
Working smart is my superpower. If I want something, it’s already mine. I’m going to do things my way, the Omi way. I love that so, so much. Thank you for sharing that. That is incredible. I literally have goosebumps listening to you. So happy about that. Yeah, that was amazing. And it definitely paints the picture so, so perfectly. Yeah.
I’m like, that’s been a work in progress for so long. It feels so good that it’s all come together and that you got goosebumps. I’m like, yay, the intention happened as intended. Good, yeah, it definitely resonated with me for sure. I’m sure listeners will have that resonate with them as well because that was really good, really powerful. Thank you. I remember years ago, I have like…
I spent the last 10 years in my business trying to find the right person to credit this quote to but Google has served me no help in this situation. But the quote was something along the lines of nobody ever got into business for themselves to work more. And I think it’s so easy for us to get caught up in that because we’re hustling and we want to build that business and get our name out there and bring in all the clients. But
ultimately, like we could have worked less and made more money at a nine to five corporate job, like with your example of $27,000 take home for 90 hours of work, like that’s two paychecks, they’re like two weeks worth of work in one week. So like, you’re not that boss to your boss anymore. Why do we let ourselves treat that way? Right? Exactly. Yeah.
Sandra Henderson (37:17.666)
So for listeners who are just getting started in their outsourcing journey, is there any specific place that you recommend getting started? Yeah, so I have like three answers that come up for me for this. So first thing that pops into my head is what I did, which was like, pick the thing that takes away the most amount of your time and energy. And for that, that was like the big, I think it’s the big rock for most photographers is the editing.
And again, don’t hold on to the illusion that if you start outsourcing your editing, that means you have no creative say and even if you love editing, because there are photographers that love editing, there are photographers that are like meh, there are photographers that hate it, right? Everyone’s so different. And what I always suggest is like, do it your way. Like, you get to keep what you love and let go of what you hate, but pay attention. Get curious when you’re editing.
Is there a certain section of the day like, hello, probably portraits? Like most photographers are like, I love editing portraits and I want to let go of the rest, right? Then do that. Like that’s a beautiful place to get started because if you can just get started with getting more of your time back, a bigger chunk, that’s when you can like really feel it. It might be like there’s so many different ways like I teach this to my OMI students like there’s so many different ways you can go with outsourcing or editing and it could be like…
super budget friendly or if you want to invest a little bit more. So it also don’t hold on to the illusion that it’s expensive. It is not. There are options that I teach where you can literally get your editing outsourced for like $90 a wedding if you want, $80 a wedding. And the second idea that came to mind was if your nervous system isn’t yet feeling like regulated to like taking that big chunk of your business and like letting go of that.
then I would say go the opposite way and try with something small and digestible where you’re like, okay, well, yeah, I can like let go of that and then see how it feels. See that just have the experience of, I have my time back. There’s like a double of me right now in this moment. Like I’m doing this and there’s someone else doing that. It’s like, whoa, I want you to just like experience that because as soon as you do experience that, it becomes a game you start seeing how beneficial it is. And so with that,
Sandra Henderson (39:41.954)
Do something as simple as being like, I don’t wanna do my laundry or clean the house as much or cook and you can literally just put up a job posting for a side gig for someone to help five hours a week to start locally in your area and just let go of those five hours, get that time back, get that energy back and start there. And then the third answer, and this is like me, if I’m being honest, straight up, I would be like, I would suggest what, so what I have done throughout my career,
is I rather instead of figuring something out from scratch, I rather just like go to the person that has the answers that knows exactly how to do it. They figured it out through ups and downs and making mistakes and having wins and then they have the actual step-by-step process. I’d rather save my time and energy from that and then just like learn from that person. So I would suggest if what we’ve talked about in this episode resonated a lot with you and you’re like,
I’m ready, I’m so done with the overwork, with the burnout, with not making as much money as I want, then I would invite you to sign up for my Outsourcing Made Easy course because that is literally the fast track. Like I mentioned before, it took me freaking years to figure out how to do everything properly and that is all just figured out for you. You get to copy and paste my systems into your business, but doing it in a way that works for you. Again, it’s a lot of work.
We are all such unique beings that I would never say, this worked for me, so this needs to be, like how every photographer does it. No, I teach things in a way where you’ll learn the principles that are timeless, and that you can literally apply for the rest of your entrepreneurial career. That just work across the board in different areas too. So that’s what I would suggest, because why spend all of your time and money figuring it out when I can just literally show you how, so, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. And I know from my own experience, like when I first started outsourcing, it is stressful in the beginning. Like you do have to find that right fit. You were saying back at the beginning of our interview, you had to hire and rehire editors and VAs a few times and I definitely had my fair share of bad editing experiences. But just like everything, there’s the right fit for everybody. And when you find that person or that business, that’s the right fit for you to outsource to.
Sandra Henderson (42:08.098)
that freedom that you get for me anyway, I was almost addictive. I was like, okay, what else can I find to outsource because now I want to get rid of all of it and I don’t want to do anything that I don’t like doing. Yes, exactly. Oh my gosh. And then when you hear us talk about how we had to start and like we found someone we had to let them go rehire, try find someone new, like we both experienced that, right? What I, for those of you listening, I don’t want you to feel put off that you’ll have to go through that process.
because that is exactly what I just call it, owe me in short, outsourcing made easy, owe me. That’s what owe me eliminates. Like my students don’t have to go through that process because they know how to put together the job posting, how to know exactly what to look for in an interview, to look for red flags and to look for what actually aligns well with them. And then they are literally happy with the person right away 80% of the time. I can’t say 100% of the time, right? That’s impossible. I think.
But 80% of the time my students come back to me and be like, oh my God, I found this person in 24 hours and they’re killing it right away. At what? They like work on shit when I sleep and I wake up and it’s done and I’m happy. Like that’s what I’m talking about when they talk about the fast tracks. So you don’t have to go through that whole process that we did. Yeah, oh, I love that. There’s, I mean, when we were just starting out in the industry, there was nothing in terms of like education. I think that’s probably a big reason why we both ended up in post-secondary for photography.
there was somewhere that I was going with this and I just totally lost my train of thought. That’s okay. Anyway, we’ll just we’ll just skip that. It might come back to me. But yeah, I oh, that’s what I was gonna say. Like, when I when we were both starting out and going to post secondary back on that train of thought, there was not a lot.
out there in terms of education online and we felt like we had to do everything ourselves and we had to go through those trial and errors. And if I could go back and change anything, it would be that I would kind of start my business when there was all these other resources around because it really just makes so much sense to have people who this is their expertise handle the things that are not your expertise. I remember
Sandra Henderson (44:19.826)
going out for coffee with my business teacher from the Fanshawe Photography Program. And he was I was telling him how I was just going to learn to do my own taxes. I’m like, my mom’s an accountant. I can handle it. I do my own bookkeeping. It’ll take me a little while, but it’s not a big deal. I can learn it. And he was like, you know, when people say that their uncle is going to shoot their wedding for them like they probably shouldn’t.
And so just because you can do your taxes, you probably shouldn’t. And I was like, OK, fair. I really can’t argue with that logic. So I will not be learning how to do my taxes. I love that you had that injected and installed so early on because right. That’s amazing. He did that for you. Yeah, he’s the best.
So do you have any final takeaways for listeners to either motivate them to try outsourcing or maybe someone who has had a bad experience with outsourcing and you want to encourage them to keep going? Okay, so what comes to mind is imagine it’s winter time and you’re standing on top of a hill and there’s a ton of like powdery soft snow and it’s perfect for sledding.
and you look to the right and you see there’s like a path perfectly like cut out, carved out for like Christian people clearly sledding down it, having a blast, enjoying it. And it’s easy, it’s smooth. It’s because it’s already been used, the path has already been figured out. And then I want you to think of that path that you see to your right as like a new
neuropath as like a neuropathway in your brain that has been created over time. And those things in your brain now come to you easily like habits like brushing your teeth, you don’t even have to think about it. It’s like you tobogganing down that hill, I’m brushing my teeth, no big deal. It’s so smooth, smooth ride. Just like you now know how to use your camera on manual. It feels like you’re driving a car. And then you’re standing at the top of the hill and you’re like, yeah, I’ve been down that road many times and I know how to like do all this.
Sandra Henderson (46:27.358)
the tasks in my business, I figured them out, but I’ve reached a point and I just don’t want to go down that path anymore. I’m exhausted. I want to make more money. I want to actually truly be freaking free. I actually want to be free. I don’t want to be working in my business. I want to be working on my business. So when you look to the left, there’s just snow. No one has toboggan down there yet. And
You’re like, you know what, what’s the worst that can happen? I’m just gonna sit down and shimmy my butt and like keep shimmying and shimmying and shimmying and there’s resistance, there’s resistance. And you’re like, this isn’t fun yet. Okay, but you get all the way down after some time, you go back up the hill, like, okay, I’m going to go again. And every single time you go again, the path gets smoother and smoother and smoother. So this is me illustrating how you doing something a little bit differently.
will feel, you’ll feel resistance initially. And it might not feel as fun. It won’t be feel as fun as you shooting the most epic, like sunset moments of like, whatever you photograph couples, families, weddings, whatever, right? Like it might not feel that way. But as you keep going, it’ll become more fun and fun and smooth. And just like Sandra said, it becomes addictive, it becomes like a game, it becomes fun, because you’re actually creating the reality that you’ve thought was farfetched. But then it becomes
happens in front of you. So I would just keep that illustration in your mind and just know that just as well as you have figured things out up until now, if you desire this new lifestyle, this new quality of life, really, you are able to make it happen. You have it within you. And just remember that what got you here to this point is great. And you’re here and you did it. But what got you here won’t get you there.
And so something needs to change. And that is just the actions you take and the decisions you make. That analogy was incredible. I love how you use storytelling to paint pictures about things like this, because for me anyway, and I know for a lot of other people, like I resonate so much with stories. As you were saying that, I was like, I knew exactly where this Hill analogy was going. And I was like, oh my God, that’s the best way to explain it. I loved it. That was so good.
Sandra Henderson (48:51.094)
So I have one final question for you. This one is totally off topic, but just a little kind of fun would you rather question. So I want to take us back to like the early, late 80s, early 90s of photography. And would you rather bring back selective color in photos or hazy pose glamor shots? Oh my gosh. Okay, honestly, easy answer.
the hazy pose glamour shots and only because my mom actually, I think she went, she tried to do some modeling in her early 20s. And I remember randomly going through old photos and these popped up in like this grid format, which looks like film, but not film, it was printed and all these options for her. And I’m like, Mom, is this you? And she’s like, yeah, that’s what I thought I would be modeling. And I’m like…
These are so cool. This is amazing. It was like a peek into like, wow, my mom in her early twenties when I was in my early twenties and it was just so cool. So now it’s nostalgic for me. Yeah. Like the selective color. I’m a very like sentimental person. So yeah, selective color. I definitely, we all did it. I mean, I did it, but not for like, we’re all guilty creatively, but not for, I didn’t, I wasn’t around as a pro photographer and people were doing it for weddings, but I played around with it. We learned it in freaking Humber.
Right? Yeah, I definitely had like, this is how you do select color. Yeah, I learned it too. I used to like, I used to love doing pictures of bands. And I remember like, I had so many pictures where I flipped it into black and white. And then I’d like bring just the guitar back. Yeah. That’s awesome. So often I did that. But I actually, I remember growing up, so my mom didn’t have these glamour portraits from when she was like in her 20s. But
When I was, I want to say like late childhood years, early preteen years, somewhere in there, I remember my mom always talking about how she wanted to go and have these Glamour photos done and so one day her and a couple of her girlfriends did and I remember seeing it like framed up in her bedroom where they like had like a green feather boa on. Yes!
Sandra Henderson (51:06.566)
Awesome. Well, Sarah, this was such a fun interview. Thank you so much again for joining me. And I hope that we’ll get to connect in person one day soon since we’re not too far away from each other. Of course. And could I also just share a handful of resources that I have? Oh, yes, absolutely. I’d love that. Okay, awesome. So I have a handful of them because, you know, podcasts, they come out, people listen to them right away. Then other times it’s like a bit later and everyone has different needs too and they’re different chapters of their business.
So firstly, you can also, I also have a podcast, you can tune in at Shine and Thrive Photography podcast. And if you’re listening to this episode, the week it comes out, the following week is I am hosting something I only host once a year, which is a free live masterclass. And it’s called the Four Secrets to Having More Time, Freedom and Money While Avoiding Burnout as a Photographer.
Sandra Henderson (52:05.922)
going to, so you know how I was like giving you some numbers of like how much I made here and there and all of that. In this masterclass, I go really deep into like the nitty gritty like how much money I’ve spent on outsourcing in different years and how much time it saved me and I show you graphs. And so it really paints the picture of like what’s possible in different areas of your business. And I think it’s super helpful to see that.
So I definitely illustrate that. And in general, you’re going to learn a lot more about how you don’t have to choose between being overworked and making great money or having more free time and making less money. You’ll get to actually visually see, because we all love visuals as photographers, right? How to make it happen. And yeah, like past people that have attended the class said, like, it was just so nice to see real examples of actual numbers.
And I do want to be, I’m all about transparency and stuff. So for those of you that are literally like thinking, okay, I need a course like this and it sounds amazing. I would highly suggest that you sign up for this masterclass because you’re going to learn a ton during the masterclass and at the end, I’ll introduce the course to you and give you all the details on it and you can decide, oh yeah, this is perfect for me or maybe not yet. Or like, no, this isn’t for me. And so yeah, literally if you show up, you don’t get the,
course, you’re going to learn so much. And then if you show up and get the course, amazing. I’m so excited to support you. So you can find that at, you can sign up for the masterclass SarahMonica.com forward slash masterclass. Keep in mind that it’s best to show up live because you’ll actually be able to ask me questions live. There’s also going to be an exciting show up bonus or two. One of them is worth 500. So it’s just really exciting like to keep things exciting like that.
But if one of the times and dates don’t work for you, make sure to sign up anyway, because I’m going to make sure to take care of you. You’re going to get the replay. I don’t want you to miss out on learning or getting access to the course just because the date and time doesn’t work. So sign up anyway. And then also for those of you that are listening to this outside of the availability of the live masterclass, I also have another free resource, which is my actual three-hour post-wedding workflow checklist.
Sandra Henderson (54:25.546)
So it only takes me three hours of my time personally to get to work on a wedding after I’ve shot it. It’s game changing. It saves like 70% of your working time behind a computer. So you can get that at sarahmonica.com forward slash freedom. And then lastly, if you are listening to this episode specifically on October 23rd to October 26th, 2023, that means the doors to my Outsourcing Made Easy program are open.
and they’re only open for that four short day sign up window for, and I only open them once a year. So that’s why I’m like, you need to know about this. So you can go to sarahmonica.com forward slash freedom. All the information is there, everything you’re going to learn. And you can just DM me on Instagram with any questions you have. My Instagram is Sarah Monica photo. That’s Sarah no H Monica with a K photo. And I always only
ask clarifying questions to make sure it’s the right fit for you in this chapter. I have turned people away that were like too early in their business that it just didn’t make sense yet. So I’m always super honest, just part of my values. And that’s pretty much it. Those are all the resources. I like to take care of my community. I love that. Well, thank you so much for sharing and I will definitely make sure to have all of those links in the show notes as well to make it super easy for everybody to access. Of course. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again. This was such a fun interview.
And yeah, we’ll definitely connect again in the future for sure. 100%. Oh my gosh. Wait, where are you in Canada? I need to know. Yeah, I’m in London. Okay, that’s so amazing. I came here for college and then I just never left because I love it here. Amazing. I’m originally from just outside of Barrie though. Okay, cool.
Oh my gosh, we’re so close. This is so rare. I know, it never happens. There’s been a couple times recording interviews for the season. I’m having to navigate people’s Wi-Fi connection in Paris and things like that. So it’s so nice to be like, oh, our colleges, we actually know where that is. Oh, that’s awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for listening. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at simplysandryevon.ca forward slash keeping it candid.
Sandra Henderson (56:38.206)
In the meantime, let’s connect. You can find me on Instagram and TikTok, just search SimplySandraYvonne. And if you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honoured if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Until next time.
About Sara
Meet Sara Monika! She is an intuitive documentary wedding photographer, photography educator and host of the top-rated podcast, The Shine + Thrive Photography Podcast. A rebel at heart, Sara’s mission is to shift the paradigm of the photography industry, both for her wedding couples and her fellow photographers. As a photographer, she seeks to give her couples the gift of true candids, so they can be free and present on their wedding day. As an educator, Sara empowers photographers to build freedom-driven businesses on THEIR terms, so they can live fully and freely as artists while working smarter instead of harder. She does this through her transformative programs Intuitive Storytelling, Crystal Clear Marketing, and Outsourcing Made Easy, which have so far helped hundreds of photographers from all over the world on their journey. When she’s not working, you can find her dancing up a storm, enjoying some wine + cheese, spending time in nature, binging her favourite personal + business development podcasts and making lifelong memories with her fiance Rory and her little boy Ben. To find out more about Sara and her work, head to saramonika.com or follow her on IG over at @saramonikaphoto.
No matter who you are or how long you’ve been in the wedding industry for, self-care is so important. But for all of my friends who are wedding photographers with chronic illnesses, self-care is even more important than you would think.
When I first started my business back in 2013, I didn’t know that I had endometriosis. And even though since my diagnosis, I’ve been able to trace it back until I was about 12 years old, which realistically means that I was likely born with it, I didn’t actually start noticing any sort of impact on my life until 2017. And it wasn’t until 2020 that I started having to actively manage it day in and day out. So the decisions that I had to make when I was starting my business, even part way through my business, are entirely different now than the decisions that I have to make managing a chronic illness day in and day out along with my business.
So today I’m going to be talking all about self-care practices for wedding photographers with chronic illnesses and things that you can do to make your daily life better and to make sure that your schedule isn’t overwhelming you.
Welcome to Keeping It Candid. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, an international wedding and family photographer and business coach. I help wedding photographers use systems to build out the backend of their businesses to gain control and continue to thrive no matter what life throws their way.
And on a more personal note, I’m a strong Enneagram 3Wing2 who’s obsessed with tacos. And my love for travelling combined with navigating chronic illness life are just two of the many things that drive my passion for all things systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me every week for a candid behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like working as a wedding photographer, where I’ll give you actionable steps to take your business to the next level.
Absolutely no fluff here, friends, so go grab your favourite notebook and pen and let’s dive into this week’s episode.
Sandra Henderson (01:56.042)
So my first recommendation for self-care for wedding photographers with chronic illnesses is to incorporate Epsom salt baths into your routine. Now, like most natural remedies, there are widely varying opinions about the impact that Epsom salt baths have, what magnesium can do for your pain and things like that. But personally, I’ve seen a huge improvement in my life since I started doing this. And so that’s why I wanted to talk about it a little bit more.
I think what’s most important is not actually even using the Epsom salt. So if that’s not something that you want to do, then that’s totally fine. But taking the time to just press pause is so important and taking a bath is the perfect way to do that. Now pre-2022, I actually hated baths. I would always get so bored. It was like torture for my ADHD. I would get really hot in the water. Like I just, I hated baths.
But when I started just keeping it short and sweet, under 10 minutes, bringing a good book in with me, all of a sudden, I just really started enjoying taking this time out for my day. And for most people, hot water, regardless of the epsom salt, can help manage your pain levels. Now I say most because my best friend, actually, she doesn’t have a chronic illness, but she does deal with chronic pain from a past injury. And because of that, because of nerve damage that’s happened,
heat actually does the opposite for her than it does for me where I find heat and hot water to be a really relaxing thing and it helps my sore muscles. It actually makes her pain worse. So that’s something you obviously want to keep in mind when you’re figuring out what works for your pain and what doesn’t. No matter if you are looking for the temperature of your bath water or the way that you break down your schedule every day, I fully support doing things that work.
for you. If it doesn’t work for everybody else, that’s totally fine because they don’t matter. You need to just focus on yourself. So if that means taking a few minutes to have a bath, then I highly, highly recommend that. Now there’s this idea that using any sort of natural remedies for anything involving health doesn’t work. We all know that it exists. Some of us, myself included, have probably had those thoughts before, but here’s the thing. Even if it is all in our heads,
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If it works, what the fuck does it matter? It’s not hurting anybody else, it’s helping us. So if you are thinking to yourself, oh, it’s all in my head, it’s not actually gonna work, or some person said this, some person said that, I want you to push all of that out of your head and just give it a try. You never know until you try it, right? I hate when people feel the need to share their opinion on things like that, when they’re trying to almost negate the fact that.
it’s working for you and take that away from you, but it’s not impacting them. So don’t let them take that away. If something works for you, then let it work for you and just embrace that. Now, next, I highly, highly recommend massage therapy, chirophysiotherapy, acupuncture. If these are accessible to you, then I highly, highly recommend taking advantage of them.
I personally see a massage therapist and a chiropractor. My massage therapist helps me with my back and my shoulders with hip mobility. And my chiropractor is adjusting my wrist for me because my favorite lens is a 70 to 200. And if you’ve ever used that before, you know that bitch is heavy, especially after an eight, 10, 12 hour wedding day. So my chiropractor is always adjusting my wrist for me, also adjusting my hips and my back.
to make sure that I am keeping my pain levels down and that I am as mobile as possible for a highly physical job. I also am going to be starting pelvic floor physiotherapy. If you are familiar with endometriosis and you know that this is something that people say, can be really helpful and I’ve never done it before. I’m a little bit concerned, or I shouldn’t say concerned, that’s the wrong word to use. I have a little bit of anxiety about it just because I’ve never worked with a physiotherapist before.
but I’ve heard good things, so we’ll see how that goes in the new year. Now also making sure that you are eating properly on a wedding day. This is a huge, huge factor when it comes to self care. On a wedding day, you are pouring so much of yourself out for your clients. And so it is really important to make sure that you are not also forgetting yourself along the way. When I was first starting out as a second shooter, I would wake up and I’d probably have some pop.
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as I was getting ready because I was really, really healthy. I lived off of ginger ale and Coca-Cola and I wouldn’t eat breakfast, I wouldn’t eat lunch, I would get to the wedding and I’d be carrying around my bottle of ginger ale with me. And then sometime around, family photos and wedding party photos, my blood sugar would crash. I would start dry heaving behind my camera, I would start shaking, I would just get so, so sick. And so I would have to run.
find some juice or something to get my blood sugar back up. And the only meal I was eating all day was the meal that was being served during the reception. And so a lot of times it was actually six, seven o’clock before I was eating for the first time all day. And it is just mind blowing to think about that because I now many years later, 12 years later, like I need to have snacks with me all day long. I am.
I bring multiple bottles of water with me. I have to eat before I leave. If I have more than a like a couple hours of sessions in a row, I bring snacks with me. But making sure that you are eating properly and drinking lots of water and making sure you’re hydrated. These are things that are so important to your self-care. There’s nothing worse than the wedding hangover, right? I talked about that a lot at the end of the last season of the podcast. I think that was episode…
31 if you want to go back and check that out. But the wedding hangover it’s going to happen regardless, right? But if you’re not eating and drinking properly, it is just going to hit you that much harder. And so yeah, there’s a million reasons why that’s just so important. And then speaking of the impact that eating and drinking has on your body. We’re talking a little bit about our physical limitations here. Being realistic about your physical limitations is super important.
We’ve all seen those really gorgeous leather double harnesses, but personally I went with one that I found on Amazon that had a wider shoulder strap that was more foam because I just found it to be more comfortable. It definitely isn’t as aesthetically pleasing, but the purpose here is just because I needed to work within my physical limitations.
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Sandra Henderson (08:52.958)
I’m interrupting this episode for a quick second because I want to tell you all about something that I have used in my business day in and day out for more than six years now and I truly do not think that I could run my business without it. And that is HoneyBook. HoneyBook is an all-in-one CRM system that handles all the things that are client-facing. Sending contracts and invoices, receiving payments, sending out questionnaires so you can get all those details to get ready for the wedding day.
as well as having workflows and automations to start taking some of the work off of your plate, which I’m always a huge advocate for, there’s truly not enough time for me to talk about all of the incredible features that HoneyBook has. And if this is something that you’ve been thinking about trying out, or if you’re wanting to make the switch over to HoneyBook, this truly is the absolute best time to do it, because HoneyBook is currently 50% off your first year.
All you need to do to take advantage is head over to share.honeybook.com forward slash Sandra, and that will be applied to all new subscriptions. There are both monthly and annual plans available, and annual plans, as always, will save you a little bit of money on top of that. And I hate saying these words, but in this economy, we know that every little bit counts. So again, head over to share.honeybook.com forward slash Sandra to get 50% off your first year of Honeybook.
Now I used to have two cameras on each side of that harness, each with a lens on them. And one of those lenses was a 70 to 200. So we’re already adding so much more weight. And then once the reception came, there was also flashes on each of those cameras as well. So after about five, six hours of already being on my feet, and now I’m at the reception on my feet again, and I’m carrying around that much camera gear, it really starts to take an impact on your body. Even if you’re not.
really feeling it because you’re running on adrenaline and the excitement of the wedding day. So this year I actually scaled back. I switched back to just using a single camera. I do have a backup camera in my bag, but I’m actively just using one instead of having one on each hip. I also years ago decided to get a camera bag on wheels, so I’m no longer carrying everything around on my strap, so I’m no longer carrying everything around on my shoulder.
Sandra Henderson (11:08.462)
And years ago, I also bought a wagon. And if you’ve ever done a wedding with me before, you know how much I love this wagon. But it’s one of those four-wheel all-terrain wagons that you see a lot of parents using for their kids. And it is an absolute miracle on a wedding day. We can put my camera bag, my assistant’s camera bag, a cooler with water and all of our snacks and lunch and everything, light stands, tripod, jackets.
everything we could possibly need all fits inside this wagon and so my assistant and I can just wheel it around all day rather than having to move all of these bags and everything and we can just easily tuck it into a corner inside the venue so that it’s completely out of the way and not taking up too much space. I actually think I’m going to include the link to my Amazon storefront in the show notes because I got my wagon on Amazon.
and it has been with me for, I want to say maybe close to five years now. Those pandemic years really make everything a blur, but I’m pretty sure about five years now and honestly it’s one of the best purchases I’ve ever made. Another way that you can be realistic about the limitations that you have physically is just to keep an eye on the amount of time that you’re spending on your feet if that’s something that impacts you physically.
So when I’m standing around for long periods of time or if I’m walking for long periods of time, I usually start to have a lot of pain and tension in my pelvis and my lower back. And so I bought myself a pop-up stool, which you’ll also find inside that Amazon storefront I already mentioned. This stool can easily fit into that wagon. It can fit into a pocket in my camera bag. And I’m able to pop it out when I need to sit. And I just usually put it in the center aisle during the ceremony.
It’s a quite tall stool and I’m a pretty tall person as well. So when I’m sitting on this, not only am I completely unobtrusive to all of the guests, but I’m also able to still take photos from roughly the same perspective as I would if I was standing. So I’m not, you know, getting weird angles where I’m looking up everybody’s nostrils and things like that, and it’s super easy and discreet to just pop it open and then close it and pack it back up so I have seating available to me wherever I am going.
Sandra Henderson (13:21.726)
I also always carry around an ergonomic seat cushion. I have one that I’m sitting on right now that’s always in my office. I have one in my car and I have one that I bring on the go because these are an absolute game changer if you have any sort of hip, back or pelvis pain.
I highly, highly recommend getting an ergonomic seat cushion. And so I will put that on my stool if I need to, and I’ll also put that on my chair for the reception so that I am a little bit comfortable there, a little bit more comfortable there as well.
You can also put limitations on the number of hours that you’re working on a wedding day. I know a lot of photographers who put a limit on the amount of coverage that they offer at six hours because doing eight and 10 hour weddings just isn’t conducive to them physically. They won’t be able to give back to their couple in the way that the couple deserves and the way that the couple is expecting. And so that’s another really important takeaway from this. And again, driving that point home that you can do things the way that you want to.
and the way that works best for you. Every photographer might be offering six, eight, 10 hour packages, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t offer packages that look different. Earlier this year, I changed my packages to be four, six, and eight hours instead, because that’s more conducive to me, and it’s more in line with what my clients have always been looking for. And that leads me into one last takeaway. I want you to be realistic about your schedule.
We were just talking about the number of hours that you’re working on a wedding day, but what about all the other days, right? It’s super important to know what your limitations are, to set boundaries and not to overwork yourself. It is the absolute epitome of self care. For myself, in my photography business, I only do one wedding in a weekend. And if I have a wedding on a Saturday, I am not booking anything on a Sunday. Sunday is 100% a wedding hangover day for me. If I have
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portrait sessions, I limit myself to three in a day, unless it’s a day of mini sessions, and then I kind of treat that as I would a wedding. So for example, this is airing in October. Next weekend, I have my fall minis coming up and I have those booked all in one day and so we’re pretending like that’s a wedding day and there’s nothing booked for the following day. Things like that are super important to me to make sure that I’m able to stick with my
post wedding and post session workflows, getting sneak peeks out, getting those galleries delivered and things like that. If I’m overworking my schedule and I am burning myself out day in and day out, then I have nothing left in me to get all of that other work done. So that is super, super important. When it comes to freeing up your schedule, I cannot recommend things like outsourcing or utilizing AI resources enough.
It’s all about working smarter and not harder. And there’s absolutely no rule, no matter what anybody tries to tell you. There is no rule that says you as the photographer physically have to be the one who does every single thing in your business. If anybody has ever told you that this is your permission to laugh at them, share some expletives, whatever you need to do.
to feel better about telling them that this is not working for you and you’re gonna just keep doing your thing. But before I carry on too much into that tangent, it’s actually what next week’s podcast topic is all about, so I’m gonna save all of that goodness for then. But to quickly recap my recommendations for self-care for wedding photographers with carotid illnesses, first was pressing pause on your day, taking a bath, whether or not you’re incorporating Epsom salts, just doing something for you that presses pause on all of the…
things is super important. If it’s accessible to you, also taking advantage of massage therapy, chiro, physiotherapy, acupuncture, and other holistic ways of treating your pain. Making sure that you’re eating properly regularly, but especially on a wedding day and having proper amounts of water. Being realistic about your limitations on your feet, on the number of hours you’re able to work, on the amount of camera gear that you’re carrying around and the impact that is putting on your body.
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and being realistic about your schedule, knowing your limitations, not overworking yourself, and utilizing resources like AI and outsourcing your work so that you can work smarter instead of harder. Now, a few seconds ago, I talked about next week’s episode, and I am so excited to be joined by Sarah Monica, who is another Canadian photographer. She actually just lives a couple hours away from me, and we talked about all things outsourcing. Sarah is truly the number one person I think of when it comes to this topic,
The value that she gave in this episode is absolutely unreal. Like I don’t have the words to explain it, but she shares real numbers of what it looks like in her business before she started outsourcing and what her numbers look like now that she’s only working about 20 to 25 hours a week as a multi-business owner. Amazing, right? So if that is something that interests you, make sure you check back next Wednesday for all the goodness.
Until then, I would love to invite you to come and join the wedding photography unfiltered community on Facebook. This is a space for wedding photographers to come in, learn, support one another, and just embrace what it means to be a part of a community because that is so important as an entrepreneur is having a community that you can lean on and people to talk to who just get it.
So I would love to have you come over. You can find the link in the show notes and you can also go to facebook.com forward slash groups forward slash wedding photography unfiltered. All right friends, that’s it for me this week. I will see you next Wednesday.
Thank you so much for listening. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at simplysandryvonne.ca/keepingitcandid. In the meantime, let’s connect. You can find me on Instagram and TikTok, just search @SimplySandryYvonne. And if you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honoured if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Until next time.
About Sandra
Sandra Henderson is a wedding photographer, business coach, and podcast host based in Ontario, Canada. She specializes in helping wedding photographers create strategic systems for their businesses to help them get their time back so they can spend it doing the things they love most. As an entrepreneur who also navigates chronic illness life, Sandra also takes a unique approach to using systems that will help businesses thrive no matter what life throws your way.
On a personal note, she loves tacos, 90’s music, travelling, and spending time at home with her husband, step-son, and two cats!
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