(Intro with music)

Welcome to Keeping it Candid – Wedding Photography Unfiltered for photographers who want to keep it real. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, international wedding and family photographer and educator with a Marie Kondo style approach to running a business – you know, keeping things simple and getting rid of anything that doesn’t bring you joy!. More importantly, I’m a strong enneagram 3w2 who is obsessed with tacos, and my love for travelling is one of many things that drives my passion for all things systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me twice a month 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 grab your favourite notebook and pen, and let’s dive into this week’s episode.

(Episode 003)

For some wedding photographers, spring season is already underway, but for all of my Canadian and northern US friends, we’re just about to get started!

I don’t know about you, but I’m SO excited to get behind my camera again. The last two years had me under lockdown restrictions in the spring because of the pandemic, so I haven’t been able to host my spring mini sessions or get a ‘normal’ start to my season since 2019! It’s so crazy to think about, and I’m so glad this year is starting to look a little more like it should.

I always start getting pre-busy season anxiety as we get closer and closer to the spring. It’s a huge adjustment after a relatively quiet and slow-paced winter where I spend most days working behind the scenes, doing things like making sure my systems and workflows in Honeybook are all in order, updating my website, planning my calendar for the year ahead… All the things I know I won’t have as much time to get to once all that snow melts. And then, come May, it’s like a night-and-day difference, waking up one morning to a fast-paced “busy season” that couldn’t be more opposite than those winter months!

Anyone who struggles with anxiety knows it’s not always rational – I’ve been doing this for more than nine years now and it still starts the same way every year. I worry about showing up as my best self to serve my clients. I worry about managing my workload while also navigating chronic illness life. I worry about work/life balance. I worry about all the unknowns.

All of those worries and the negative thoughts and feelings all eventually lead to the same road – the absolute dread of feeling burnt out at the end of the season.

Burnout is a serious struggle for wedding photographers. Really, all business owners. We wear 20 different hats on a daily basis and the mental capacity it all requires takes more out of you than the physical requirements of the job most days, without us even realizing it. You just keep going and going and going, until one day, you hit a wall. You’re exhausted. You’re feeling uninspired and like you’ve been doing the same poses at the same locations for months with no way to really express yourself creatively. You don’t want to show up on social media because you keep getting lost in the comparison game, and the idea of having to spend another minute in your inbox is making you want to delete your inbox altogether.

You might even wonder, why am I doing this?

Eventually, though, you come out the other side and remember your why. You remember all the things that make you love your job and that led you to a career in wedding photography in the first place. You come up with new ideas, and the idea of creating gets exciting again. You confidently handle emails in your inbox and start finding the fun in social media again too.

Sounds MUCH better, right?! And if you’ve ever struggled with burnout, I know you can relate.

Going through severe burnout myself more than once, along with my own personal struggles with anxiety and depression, led me to almost closing down my business a few years ago.

I literally vowed to myself that it was never going to happen again and that I NEEDED to make some changes to ensure it stayed that way.

So this week, I’m sharing five of those very changes that I made, so you can implement them in your business too, and stop burnout before it happens!

Make this year the first time you get to November feeling confident and accomplished instead of exhausted and burnt out. Start your busy season with intentional, proactive actions to stop the fires from happening altogether so you don’t have to worry about putting them out down the road.

The first change is one I’ve already talked about on the podcast more than once, and I promise you, it won’t be the last time I talk about it either!

Any guesses?

PRIORITIZE taking time off! This year, no more saying “I just need to get through the next few weeks of craziness and then I’ll get a day off.” If you don’t prioritize it and book it into your calendar the same way you would a wedding or a portrait session, it’s not likely going to happen. There will always be one more thing to do until the day you wake up exhausted, overworked, and – you guessed it – completely burnt out.

Most often when we talk about burnout, we talk about how it impacts photographers at the end of busy season, but the truth is, it can happen any time. After a wedding, after launching a new product or service, after writing out a month’s worth of content all at once… It looks different and feels different for everyone. And that’s why I am such a huge advocate for building time off into your schedule to help avoid burnout before it happens. Your body and mind need to rest!

I always think of a quote by the Dalai Lama when I talk about taking time off. He was asked what surprised him most about humanity, and he said “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.”

I think it speaks to the conversation around burnout SO well, because as business owners in a seasonal industry, we do typically have less time to bring in our income than someone who works a 9-5 in the corporate world. So what do we do? We fill our calendars with as many weddings and sessions as we can, and put off everything else until we quote-unquote “have time”. 

But taking control of your calendar and giving yourself time is one of the most impactful ways you can start fighting burnout.

Speaking of taking control of your calendar… It’s time to get reasonable about the number of clients you’re taking on at one time.

I totally understand the feeling like you have to take anything and everything that comes your way to be able to hit your financial goals. BUT there’s more to running a photography business than physically taking photos, and there’s more to life than just working all the time.

If you have the capacity to do 75 weddings in a year, then by all means, do you friend.

But I’m going to go out on a limb and say, that doesn’t apply to many people.

It sounds great but that kind of workload isn’t sustainable when you start factoring in things like marketing, accounting, editing, and having a life outside of work. All it takes is one thing to come up unexpectedly and all of a sudden everything feels like it’s falling apart.

Remember that it’s impossible to be all the things to everyone all the time – no matter how much that inner people pleaser tries to tell you otherwise.

Start by taking a look at your calendar from last year – were there any weeks or months that you remember thinking, “what have I done? This is WAY too much!”? Count how many bookings you had in that timeframe, and decide how many you can feasibly take on before you hit that point again.

Now, I know you’re thinking – okay Sandra, but I still have bills to pay and financial goals I want to hit… How do I do that if I’m purposely turning away money?

Well, the simplest answer is, raise your prices. If you charged $500 per session and had 10 sessions in a week, you generated $5000, but you were overworked and exhausted in the end. To be able to hit that same $5000 goal, you could do 8 sessions at $625 each, or 5 sessions at $1000 each. If doubling your prices seems too daunting, don’t worry. Try increasing it in smaller increments every few bookings you get. Also consider adding print and album sales into your sales strategy to help offset what you need to charge for a session! 5 sessions at $625, with $375 in print sales per session, will also generate $5000.

By limiting the number of clients you take on at one time, you’re giving yourself the ability to give the clients that you do have an exceptional experience. And more importantly it will give you the confidence to raise your prices so you can continue to support yourself and live comfortably while taking on less work.

Another really simple way you can do less work is by turning on your auto-responder in your inbox!

I turned my auto-responder on one day in 2019 and it’s been on ever since. I literally never looked back! It was such a game changer because it cut the last of the ties I had to my inbox – you know, those unhealthy patterns of checking my emails constantly and feeling like I needed to reply right away.

With my auto-responder on, anyone contacting me knows what to expect, like when I’ll be back in my office and how long it typically takes me to respond. I can relax knowing everyone is taken care of and no one is left wondering what’s going on.

One of the MOST COMMON things I hear from my clients as they are searching for wedding vendors to hire, is that they sent someone an email and weeks had passed but they had yet to hear any sort of reply. This even happened to me when I was planning my own wedding!

If it’s ever happened to you, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, it doesn’t leave a great lasting impression. And it regularly takes income out of the pockets of a business owner – moreso than intentionally taking on less clients ever could!

Try addding a little personality to your auto-responder – it doesn’t have to be the super formal, impersonal corporate-style response that we used to see in the past. Write in the same way you would talk to someone as if were you having this conversation in person, add some gifs just for fun, and most importantly – add any information that will put their mind at ease. If you use a CRM system like Honeybook, you can even have a questionnaire included in your auto-responder to start collecting information from someone without you ever having to be at your computer.

The fourth change I made is arguably one of the best tech decisions I ever made as a business owner. I set up an online booking system for meetings and sessions! Let me tell you – you don’t realize how much time it REALLY takes to email back and forth with someone until you don’t have to do it anymore. Giving them options for dates and times you’re available, only to then have them reply and say none of those work for them, going through this over and over until you finally find something that works for everyone. An online booking system takes out all of the guesswork!

I use Calendly because I love how user-friendly it is. I set my master availability, AND have it connected to my Google Calendar so I never have to worry about getting double-booked accidentally. You can take a look at how I’ve set it all up in my business by heading to lifeisbeautifulphoto.ca/booking – I’ve used Calendly’s embed feature to build it right into my website, which is great for SEO, too!

My clients can now view every date and time available at a glance, and book whatever works best for them right there.

One important thing I wanted to mention about this is that this booking page is not a page featured anywhere if you’re just browsing through my website for information. I still like to have a chance to personally connect with potential clients first, and then I send them the booking link myself when the time comes. That way I also never get random, impersonal bookings from total strangers either!

The final change I want to share with you today is one I typically get the most pushback on. But stick with me.

If you’ve been listening to this episode and you keep thinking, “Okay, but I don’t WANT to take more time away from my camera to do the backend work. I hate the backend work. I fill my soul behind my camera and that’s what matters most to me,” then this is going to be the strongest recommendation I can make –

It’s time to consider outsourcing.

We can’t make more hours in the day, and we can only do so much ourselves. So whether you want to give yourself more time behind your camera, more time to work in your business, or more time to spend with your family and friends, outsourcing the tasks you don’t personally HAVE TO do yourself is the best way to get more time to do those things you want to be doing.

This could look like outsourcing your editing or wedding album design. It could look like outsourcing your finances to a bookkeeper or an accountant, or even hiring a housekeeper or a nanny to help you out at home.

One thing I want to make abundantly clear – 

There is no shame in outsourcing.

It’s not cheating. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy or frivolous or any of the negative things society has tried to make us believe about asking for help.

Like I said, one person can only do so much, and life is too short to be weighed down by all the things you don’t enjoy doing.

For myself, I started outsourcing my editing first. It is truly the thing I like least about being a photographer. For years I came up with reasons as to why it would never work. I told myself I couldn’t trust anyone else to be able to edit the way I do because I had a vision of how I wanted the final outcome to look. I told myself I couldn’t afford it.

And I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong, friends, let me tell you.

It did take a bit of trial and error to find an editor that I meshed with perfectly, but when it happened, it was like pure magic. I edit some photos as sneak peeks, and then my editor uses those as a reference to finish the rest of the wedding. She’s not applying any of her own creative style to it! When I get the gallery back, I love loading up Lightroom and watching the photos edit themselves as the metadata updates. From there I go through to put some of my own finishing touches on everything before I export and prep the gallery to send to my client.

What used to take me literal days now gets wrapped up in just a few hours. And I couldn’t be happier!

My clients have no idea that it’s not me, personally, who is editing their photos. And the ones that do? They truly do not care. When I have mentioned it to a client, they have all responded with overwhelming support. Then when they get their photos even faster than they expected because I only had to do a fraction of the work myself, they’re wowed by the experience, too. As long as the final outcome of the photos they’re receiving is what they’re expecting, it really doesn’t matter who is doing the editing.

To offset the cost, all I had to do was raise my prices by $25 for portraits and $200 for weddings. I pay my editor per image, so sometimes it will work out to a little less, sometimes it will work out to a little more, but overall the cost is TOTALLY reasonable and I definitely regretted not taking this step in my business sooner.

Ok – that wraps up the five changes I made, and you can too, to stop burnout before it happens.

Here’s a quick recap:

1. Prioritize taking time off and book it into your calendar the same way you would a wedding or a portrait session
2. Take control of your calendar and be realistic about the number of clients you can take on at one time
3. Create a permanent auto-responder for your inbox
4. Set up an online booking calendar for meetings and sessions
5. Start outsourcing anything that doesn’t NEED to be done by specifically by you

It’s time to redefine the word hustle. It doesn’t have to mean 20 hour non-stop, back-to-back workdays at the sacrifice of anything and everything else. That’s not the only way to success. It works for some people but it’s not sustainable for most. You deserve more than that. You deserve to have a full, fulfilling life, and I hope today’s tips will help you achieve that and so much more.

Before I go, make sure you head to my website, simplysandrayvonne.ca/keepingitcandid, to check out the Show Notes – you’ll find some discounts, links, and more for all the things I talked about on today’s episode!

(Outro with music)

Thanks so much for listening to Keeping It Candid: Wedding Photography Unfiltered with Sandra Henderson! You can find full show notes from today’s episode at simplysandrayvonne.ca/keepingitcandid. In the meantime – let’s connect! You can find me on Instagram @simplysandrayvonne, and on Facebook in The Wedding Photography: Unfiltered Community! If you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honoured if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave me a review!

Until next time!

---

Ok – remember those discounts and resources I promised?!

Here are all of my faves that I talked about this episode:

Honeybook – Get your first year for $1/month!

Calendly – Online Booking System

Google Workspace – A Google service for businesses. Redirect your domain email through GMail for added security and tons of features, like auto-responders and scheduling emails! Use code Y9Q9UGFDTWHW7XE

(Intro with music)

(Intro with music)

Welcome to Keeping it Candid – Wedding Photography Unfiltered for photographers who want to keep it real. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, international wedding and family photographer and educator with a Marie Kondo style approach to running a business – you know, keeping things simple and getting rid of anything that doesn’t bring you joy!. More importantly, I’m a strong enneagram 3w2 who is obsessed with tacos, and my love for travelling is one of many things that drives my passion for all things systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me twice a month 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 grab your favourite notebook and pen, and let’s dive into this week’s episode.

(Episode 002)

Do you ever feel like you’re running on a hamster wheel in your wedding photography business? Always busy, going through the motions day to day, but never actually getting anywhere? Your to-do list never gets any shorter, that day off you were waiting for never arrives, and you just don’t feel any closer to achieving your goals?

Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Friends, you are not alone! I’ve been there and I know so many other wedding photographers who can relate.

… but does it have to be this way?

Absolutely not!

A few years ago I started feeling a little desperate for some sort of order and routine in my day-to-day schedule. I’ve tried every time management system out there. They all have their pro’s and con’s, but in the end none of them suited my style of working. I was just about ready to give up and stick with my life on that hamster wheel, when I made one small change.

As a photography business owner, every day isn’t meant to be a day behind your camera – there’s a whole other side of your business that needs your attention to ensure your success. So, that’s what inspired me to dedicate Mondays every week to be my CEO Day. 

I don’t book sessions, meetings, or appointments on Mondays. I take half the day to work on all of the backend tasks that NEED to get done in order to keep my business doors open. More specifically, admin work like reviewing my upcoming schedules and availability, and financials – like paying staff and bills, updating my bookkeeping records, and making sure I know exactly what’s coming in and going out of my accounts.

When that’s all done for the day, I close out my computer and take the rest of the day off. Especially during wedding season, this is a non-negotiable part of my schedule! Clients aren’t getting the best version of me when I’ve been working all week and weekend without taking any time off to rest and recover afterward.

All of a sudden, Mondays truly became my favourite day of the week. I genuinely look forward to the quiet time behind the scenes where I can make sure everything at Life is Beautiful Photography is running smoothly and it’s given me so much more confidence as a business owner because I know exactly what’s happening in every aspect of my business.

Even though it worked so well, it still wasn’t enough if I’m being honest. I really wanted that feeling of excitement for the day ahead to happen every day of the week – not just on Mondays.

My business coach recommended a book called Free To Focus by Michael Hyatt, and it opened up a whole world for me about how to organize the rest.

Each day of my week now has a theme, and I’m going to go through what each of those look like.

So, I already mentioned that Mondays are my CEO days.

Next up – Tuesdays are Development Days. I think investing in yourself through education and development is SO important as a wedding photographer regardless of how long you’ve been in the industry. So Tuesdays are a day where I do just that. I take courses, practice new techniques, and really pour into myself as a business owner.

Then, Wednesdays are Client Days – a day completely dedicated to client-facing work like editing, meetings, writing timelines, and of course, getting behind my camera!

Thursdays are Marketing Days, where I’m working on creating new graphics for social media, writing captions, blogging, planning new sales and promotions, and updating my website.

Then to wrap up the week, Fridays are Catch-up days! Let’s be real – just because I’ve dedicated time to something, doesn’t mean it’s always going to work out that way. Shit happens. So I leave my Fridays open to catch up on anything that I might have missed or not finished earlier in the week.

Another reason I’ve chosen to leave Friday as a catch-up day, is that I actually scale down throughout my entire week – kicking things off with the tasks that require the most energy and mental capacity – for me, that’s anything involving numbers! – and leaving design and creative tasks for later in the week. I’m intentionally giving myself time to re-energize before the weekend.

Saturdays from May to November are another client day! Like most photographers, I’m behind my camera almost every single Saturday. If I don’t have anything booked? I’ll do a bit of work in the morning before my husband and stepson wake up, and then take the rest of the day off – Saturdays with nothing going on are few and far between and I’m going to take full advantage of them when I can!

Last but not least, that brings us to Sundays. At least three of four Sundays per month, I don’t work in any capacity. No emails, no sessions, nothing.

Notice how I’m intentionally building time off into my schedule every week?

REST is so important and I don’t play when it comes to this! In the end, it doesn’t matter how well we plan or how organized we are, it’s never going to be sustainable if we aren’t making rest a priority.

The final piece of the puzzle that really made these themed days so successful for me, was realizing that just because the day has a theme, doesn’t mean I can’t work on anything else.

Yes, Mondays and Wednesdays are for admin and client work, but I’m still in my inbox responding to clients the rest of the week. And I’m not only taking photos on Wednesdays and no other day. It just means I’m focusing the bulk of my energy on the tasks of the day, and after those are done, I can work on anything else I want. It means I also have the time and capacity to worry about all the other things going on outside of work, too, like doctors appointments, grocery shopping, and watching my stepson’s baseball games.

If this kind of structure is speaking to your soul, you definitely want to check out that book I mentioned, Free To Focus by Michael Hyatt. It’s all about achieving more while doing less, and managing your time and energy while focusing on what’s most important.

My biggest takeaway was Michaels’ approach to choosing a “Big 3” each week – three tasks that are most important to complete, that will drive me towards achieving my goals and moving forward with my business.

Here’s what that looks like for me this week:

*Launch a new episode of Keeping It Candid

*Finish designing graphics for the rest of April’s content

*Deliver two client galleries

I still have that never-ending to-do list, don’t get me wrong, as a business owner there is literally always something else to do – but it’s now in a separate space within Asana, the task management system I use. I’m not staring at this overwhelmingly long list wondering where to start. Instead, I’m picking out the most relevant and needed tasks for the week. My daily to-do list never has more than 10 things on it, and I am actually getting things done and checking them off my list.

The act of physically checking these tasks off has a whole other benefit that has nothing at all to do with accomplishments and everything to do with personal health.

Each time you complete something and check it off a list, a small amount of serotonin is sent to your brain. Serotonin is one of those good chemicals our body naturally creates – it contributes to boosting your mood, helping you sleep better, and keeping your internal organs functioning the way they should be.

It’s literally good for your health AND your business to keep your to-do lists small and manageable so you can actually complete the things you need to do.

Pretty amazing, right?!

So with all those benefits in mind, here are a few quick tips for getting started with creating theme days in your week:

First, decide on any non-negotiables you have, like dates or events you don’t want to miss out on, and times that you will take off work.

Then, pick one day where you will no longer take on any sort of client work. Call it your CEO Day or Admin Day or even something clever to add a little bit of fun into the mix.

Then, lastly, start choosing your “Big 3” tasks each week. Not just three tasks that need to get done, but more importantly, three tasks that, when done, will get you that much closer to achieving your goals.

From there, fill in the blanks how you’d like! And remember, it’s not permanent. If you try it out and it’s not flowing the way you want it to, make some adjustments. I tried moving development days to Thursdays, and marketing to Tuesdays for a few weeks. All that ended up happening was I was adding more and more work onto my plate for Fridays when I had to catch up. It really wasn’t suiting my energy so, I switched back! There’s nothing wrong with trying things out.

That’s it, friends! That’s how easy it is to get started. And while you’re working away at creating your ideal workweek, don’t forget to join the Wedding Photography: Unfiltered Community on Facebook to get support from other wedding photographers just like you who are ready to take control of all of that chaos, too.

I can’t wait to see you there! I’ll be back again in two weeks with our next episode!

(Outro with music)

Thanks so much for listening to Keeping It Candid: Wedding Photography Unfiltered with Sandra Henderson! You can find full show notes from today’s episode at simplysandrayvonne.ca/keepingitcandid. In the meantime – let’s connect! You can find me on Instagram @simplysandrayvonne, and on Facebook in The Wedding Photography: Unfiltered Community! If you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honoured if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave me a review!

Until next time!

(Intro with music)

Welcome to Keeping it Candid – Wedding Photography Unfiltered for photographers who want to keep it real. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, international wedding and family photographer and educator with a Marie Kondo style approach to running a business – you know, keeping things simple and getting rid of anything that doesn’t bring you joy!. More importantly, I’m a strong enneagram 3w2 who is obsessed with tacos, and my love for travelling is one of many things that drives my passion for all things systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me twice a month 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 grab your favourite notebook and pen, and let’s dive into this week’s episode.

(Episode 001)

Welcome friends, to the very first episode of Keeping It Candid – Wedding Photography Unfiltered with yours truly, Sandra Henderson.

This podcast is all about what it’s really like working as a wedding photographer. An unfiltered, no-fluff, behind-the-scenes look – because keeping it real is what I do best, and I think it’s how we truly grow as photographers and business owners. Sugar-coated half-answers and veiled lessons aren’t helping anyone so you’re not going to find any of that here!

This week, I wanted to start things off with a little ‘get to know you’ episode – sharing a bit about the adventures that led me to where I am today, and all about what to expect this season on the podcast!

I’ve been working as a wedding photographer for more than a decade, and just celebrated nine years as a business owner at the beginning of March. But I’m actually in a life-long relationship with photography. It started with me begging my parents to buy me disposable cameras all the time in elementary school – do you guys remember those?! Talk about nostalgia that I miss some days.

When I went to high school I took a photography class as soon as I could, and that’s where I learned how to develop my own prints and 35mm film. Shout-out to my high school photography teacher, Mr. Stocco, who to this day is still one of the biggest inspirations in my life.

Next came college – a couple of times. When I was 19 and a new student in a new city, I was really struggling with depression and anxiety. Going to class was at the bottom of my list of priorities. I ended up flunking out during my first year, but after a few years of working I knew it was “now or never” and I decided to apply to college one more time. That was the decision that changed it all.

I graduated two years later, worked with some local photographers, and less than a year after that, in 2013 Life is Beautiful Photography was born.

When I started my business, I dreamed of multi-wedding weekends, back-to-back sessions, and hundreds of clients stepping in front of my camera every year. 

I shot my first wedding in 2014.

Then two more in 2015.

12 in 2016, including my first destination wedding.

In 2017 I had 27 weddings on my calendar, and by 2019 I had photographed weddings in five different countries.

This was it. This was what I had been dreaming of and I was SO so excited.

But there was a whole other side of things that I hadn’t planned for. Something no one really talks all that much about…

… And that was keeping the back-end of my business going when I was spending every second behind my camera. And not to mention, trying to have a life outside of work.

I’ll be honest – in 2018 almost every session and wedding gallery for my clients was delivered past its deadline. I was constantly apologizing to everyone, regularly putting out fires because I couldn’t stay on top of the work that needed to be done. I wasn’t showing up on social media. I wasn’t blogging. I was avoiding my inbox at all costs. And I definitely wasn’t taking time off to rest and refill my energy so that I could keep showing up to do my best work.

All of a sudden I was working 16 hour days, 7 days a week, and my to-do list just kept getting longer. I wasn’t happy. My clients weren’t happy, and I was completely burnt out. My business was in a downward spiral.

I’ll never forget the day when my husband, Matt, called me from work. I was sitting on my couch crying, ready to give this all up for good. Through tears, I said “I can’t keep doing this. I have to close my business.”

One thing I can always rely on Matt for though is stopping me from making rash decisions. And that’s exactly what he did that day. He reminded me how hard I had worked and how far I had come. He told me to just remove myself from it all and take a break so I could come back with a clear perspective and really decide what was going to be best for me. Which, around these parts, usually means he’s suggested I go take a nap! Naps are one of my favourite things in life and they make everything a little better. I think everyone should be able to work nap time into their days, but maybe I’ll save that for another episode because legit – I can talk about the benefits of napping forever.

Anyway – that takes us to 2020. When everyone’s world was rocked. And on top of all things pandemic, I also had to navigate something that was contributing to my physical and mental burnout.

Less than a month before the whole world shut down, I was diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. I could also talk for hours about what that all means – but a little summary for context – endometriosis is an incurable disease that causes chronic pain and inflammation among a myriad of other things. 

It forced me to make a lot of changes. Like, a LOT. And within the next year, I changed more than I think I have in my entire life. All for the good though – and it’s what would eventually lead me here, to starting this podcast.

I knew that if I wanted to continue growing this business I’d worked so hard to build, I was going to have to find a way to work differently while still maintaining financial stability.

SURE! That sounds easy enough, right?!

Well, it turns out, it actually was a lot easier than I expected it to be.

I started making small changes to the systems, workflows, and processes I was using behind the scenes. Things like creating a permanent auto-responder, outsourcing my editing, and finding amazing client and task management tools that worked the way I needed them to. I began realizing just how important proper systems are – not only for my health and wellbeing, but for the success of my business, and for the incredible experience that I want each and every client that I work with to have.

Finally, things were starting to fall back into place. I was exceeding deadlines, referrals were back to being one of my main sources of revenue, and even though I was prioritizing myself first, my clients were happier than ever. I realized that the people who want to work with me understand and respect the fact that I’m human and can’t be all the things to all the people all the time. If that’s what a client needs or wants, they’ll absolutely be able to find another photographer who can serve them best. I tried that and like I said – no one was happy! Running a business isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of deal. I was done trying to do things the way that everyone else was saying that I should be!

And as I was making these changes, I started noticing how many other wedding photographers who, each with their own reasons, were struggling in the same ways I was.

They were saying things like:

“I just need to get through the next couple of weeks and then my life will calm down and I can get caught up.”

“Things are just too crazy right now, I’m exhausted.”

“I’m so behind in editing/emails/blogging/social media.”

“I’m not where I should be at this point in business.”

I’ve said all of that and more myself, so I knew exactly how they were feeling. And if I know you, you can probably relate to some of these, too.

I became so passionate about wanting wedding photographers – my friends, colleagues, and especially newcomers in the industry – to never feel like that again. 

So throughout this season I’ll be dropping new episodes every two weeks, and we’ll be talking about things like structuring your workweek, building a network of dream-team vendors, creating systems for social media, giving your clients such an amazing experience that they sing your praises from the rooftops, and so much more. Because you deserve to have the business you dreamed of having long before you ever decided to do the work to make it happen. And you deserve to have the LIFE that goes along with it, too!

I heard a quote years ago when I was first starting out. I’m totally paraphrasing, but it was something along the lines of “No one ever started a business because they wanted to work more.”

We start businesses because we dream of the freedom and fulfillment that comes with pursuing our passions. To escape the 40-hour workweeks inside a cubicle where we have to ask permission for a day off. Trading it in, instead, for the excitement that we get when we’re behind our cameras. To be able to travel the world and be home with our families and spend every single birthday celebrating with the people we love the most.

You deserve it all, friends, and my goal is to give you actionable takeaways in every episode to be able to do just that.

And in between each episode?! Come join me and so many other incredible wedding photographers just like you in the Wedding Photography: Unfiltered community on Facebook! It’s a space to ask questions, get feedback, join in conversations – plus a few perks along the way that I am so excited about, like open office hours where you’ll be able to join me on a video call for one-on-one coaching!

For a link to join, and to stay up-to-date with everything happening here at Keeping It Candid, head to my website – simplysandrayvonne.ca/keepingitcandid/

Ok, before I sign off – Remember how I said there would be actionable steps in every episode?! 

This one is no exception!

Go into your calendar right now and set aside at least one day each month throughout busy season that you will intentionally take off work. That means no emails, no editing, no camera – a day where you give yourself permission to lay in front of the tv, go for a walk, scroll through social media for as long as you want to, hang out with your family and friends – whatever it is that fills your heart and soul. Just because you’re a business owner doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to time off – your health legitimately requires it, both physically and mentally. The first step to creating the business and life that you’ve always dreamed of is actually putting yourself and your wellbeing first!

And on that note – thank you SO much for being here, friends!! I’m so excited to have you along on this podcast adventure with me this season. I’ll be back in two weeks with a brand new episode!

(Outro with music)

Thanks so much for listening to Keeping It Candid: Wedding Photography Unfiltered with Sandra Henderson! You can find full show notes from today’s episode at simplysandrayvonne.ca/keepingitcandid. In the meantime – let’s connect! You can find me on Instagram @simplysandrayvonne, and on Facebook in The Wedding Photography: Unfiltered Community! If you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honoured if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave me a review!

Until next time!

Hey friends, you’re listening to Keeping It Candid: Wedding Photography Unfiltered with Sandra Henderson – that’s me!

I’m an international wedding photographer and educator, and this podcast is for wedding photographers who are ready to say goodbye to burnout forever, focusing your energy on all the things you love about being in this industry instead.

I’ll be keeping it real – talking candidly about all the ways to make your business everything you’ve always dreamed it could be – fulfilling, something you’re proud of – AND one that gives you a life you love living.

Make sure you subscribe on your favourite podcast player to get notified when the first episode drops in a couple of weeks!