SHOW NOTES: 010 Intuitive Systems with Sarahna Fernandes

(Intro 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 010)

I hope you’re ready to celebrate because it’s our 10th episode of Keeping It Candid!! I’m all about celebrating wins, no matter how small they may seem – and hitting 10 episodes is the small win in my books today.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve loved every bit of creating this podcast. It was something I had joked about doing with my friends for years, but I decided to take a leap and incorporate it into my business at the start of 2022 and everything fell into place in a way that was almost kismet, honestly.

I’ve learned so much already in such a short time and thinking about all that’s to come is so exciting. But before I dive into all the goods about to come your way today, let me just take a quick second to say thank you to everyone out there who has listened to Keeping It Candid. All of your reviews and feedback truly mean so much, so thank you for coming along on this adventure with me!! 

To celebrate this milestone, I’m so happy to have my very first guest on the show! I had the chance to connect with my friend Sarahna from Simply Organized Solutions a couple of weeks ago and trust me when I say, you’re going to love this interview.

Sarahna is a business systems architect who helps wedding professionals get their time back by helping them create better client experiences and work experiences by improving their systems and processes. She got her entrepreneurial start more than a decade ago when she worked as a wedding planner, and two years ago she pivoted her business to become a go-to expert on systems. If there’s one person who can really understand the importance of creating an efficient, organized system within your wedding business that works for YOU, it’s Sarahna.

She joined me to talk all about intuitive systems and what that looks like for a business within the wedding industry, why it’s so important to implement these types of processes ASAP no matter how long you’ve been in the industry for, and how to get started with creating intuitive systems yourself.

**Click here to get Sarahna’s freebie, a Business Systems Audit Workbook!**

(Interview)

Sandra: Well, thank you so much for being here, Sarahna, I’m so excited for our conversation today!

Before we get started, I would love if you would just take a second to introduce yourself and let everybody know your story and what you’re all about.

Sarahna: Not a problem. And thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Um, so my name is Sarahna Fernandes and my company is Simply Organized Solutions and I was, I am, a retired wedding planner, 12 years strong, and now I’m a business systems architect.

So that’s my own little title, ‘cause I really wanted to be a real architect, and then I was like, nah, it’s way too hard! haha

So when I got the chance to name myself, I went with business systems architect. But it is really what I do in the premise. I design and create and implement business systems for small female business owners. Um, I serve the wedding industry. That’s my jam, ‘cause I have so much experience in that field, but I also work with a ton of other creative entrepreneurs.

Like I love the other businesses ‘cause I get to learn, like, a fresh industry, and I dive into it and then I can be like, oh, that was fun! And then I bounce out and go into my other industry, which was pretty much my dream job. I knew in my life, whatever I wanted to do, I wanted to get immersed in a new thing and then change out and do another one and another one so it is the perfect job for me.

So now I build systems for business owners, I design the strategy behind it. I, my main objective is to build intuitive systems and systems that work for the real – for your real life.

So I’m a mom of two. I built this business during COVID basically. Weddings got shut down in, where I live, which is in Trinidad and Tobago, weddings got shut down. I now have no source of income. I’m at home with two small kids and a husband, who’s also an entrepreneur. He’s a landscaper. And I said, right, well, this is the right time to dive into this.

So I built this business two years now and, um, it had to work with my life because now I was at home with a four year- a toddler and another kid and doing all of the things.

So I did that poorly initially. So I was working late and hours and wasn’t sleeping and doing everything and driving myself insane. Then I had to stop and be like, okay, how do we do this smart? How do we do this intuitively? How do we do this so that it works with being a mom who’s gotta be in kindergarten class for two hours every morning and then do i- and then do client work and then stop to do lunch and play, and do all of the things.

So that is actually what my objective is when I work with clients. I understand their style of organizing, um, the psychology behind what’s driving them. I understand what their actual day-to-day life is. So sometimes I work with moms with small kids, sometimes I work with moms of very older kids, sometimes I’m working with single people who have no children and all of those things run different dynamics in your life. 

And I believe that a business should never overwhelm you. It should never feel draining. You’re in this to share your gift and your passion with the world to help other people.

You’re also in it to earn money, which is a resource that helps you live your life, but you wanna live that life. And, um, I’ve got a ton of friends who are photographers and I love them. Like, I always wanna be like, their assistant. I was like, can I second shoot. Is that a thing? Do you have an extra camera?

Sandra: If only we lived closer!

Sarahna: I know! I would so do it, right? And um, so I always was like, I get you, I get photographers. Like I’ve sat there with her girlfriend who had to bring her computer to a weekend at a beach house because she had to cull images and she had to start editing. And I’m like, this takes a lot of time! Haha So you’re doing this, you’re shooting on the weekends. And then what, what else? What else do you do? And she’s like, you know, this is it. This is work. And I’m like, no, this is not sustainable. We’ve gotta figure out a way, ‘cause also you’re running this business.

So you’re the CEO who needs to nurture each client and each lead while doing galleries and editing while preparing for the wedding ahead and remembering where the rain location is for this wedding of many.

And, you know, there’s just a lot of balls in the air. And you also need to enjoy your life and be able to go on vacation and be able to rest and be able to sustain an emergency. ‘Cause that’s another thing. That’s my, that’s my sub-objective – building every single business that will be able to take a sudden pause for an undisclosed amount of time.

Sandra: Yes. I love that.

Sarahna: That’s a big thing to ask, but I’m like no that’s life.

Sandra: Exactly. I know that all too well.

Sarahna: Ya. And this can be, and I tell people, I don’t, I don’t say it to scare you, but like I have to use the examples. What happens if you get physically injured? What happens if you get mentally injured? What happens if somebody else who’s not you, but you have to stop your life to help that person needs you? What happens if you just freaking need a break?

You have to be like, look, I’m out, I’m gone. Off the grid and I’m gone. But your business can’t stop and you don’t want it to stop. Your business is you. It’s an extension of you. It’s your passion. It’s your life, part of your life, I mean. But you need, you can design a business that can just wake up tomorrow and be like, oh, I gotta go. And it’s for one day, three days, three weeks. 

How do we work through that for your business? It may not be perfect. It’s not a little switch and it, you know, you switch over, but there’s ways for you to set it up so that that can happen. And you can take that weight off your shoulders, ‘cause I’ve been there. And I know a lot of us feel that way. If I stop – dun dun DUN – like, everything stops and clients aren’t, the clients are gonna be mad. I’m gonna lose money. And so I can’t. And I’ve lived in that, that feeling of can’t stop. That feeling drove me to work through the night and not sleep and be doing things and doing things and doing things. And telling my kids just now, just now, I need to finish this.

And of course, and you know this well, all that – your body will, your body will shut you down eventually. Some way or the other it’ll find a way to do it. It’ll start off kind of gentle and subtle first. So, you know, like your tummy will hurt, your skin will start doing odd things. And then it’s like, oh, you’re not listening. Okay, cool. We’ll wrap this up. 

Sandra: Right! I saw something on Instagram that was like, take time off before your body takes time off for you. And it’s so, so true!

Sarahna: Because your body is so gangster about it too. It’s not like, oh, you wanna do that? Okay, cool. I’m gonna shut you down for three months. Bye!

Sandra: Yeah,  exactly!

Sarahna: You could have just nudged me a little more! Thank you! Nope. We’re going down.

Sandra: No, it’s not messing around!

Sarahna: So that is my mission. That’s my vision. That’s my purpose. To help other people create the types of businesses and dream businesses that lets them earn income, share their gift with the world, and do it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm them. That gives them space. That gives them time.

And especially within the wedding industry, I have looked at so many vendors who have to do administrative work, and client servicing work and they’re glancing over at their actual gift, which is photography or florals or cake. And they’re squeezing how much time they’re getting to just do that. And you start to build up this resentment for one thing or the other or all of it. 

So you start being annoyed of client leads and your brain is like, how could you, how dare you do that? But I understand where that comes from because I experience it every so often. The client work, which is paying you, is taking you away from the thing you wanna do. And now you’re mad at the client work and you’re missing the thing you wanna do. And you’re like, I’m so angry. I have to do work! 

Then, then there’s the other voice that’s like, (gasp) don’t talk about the source of income. Shh. Do everything to service, the source of income. Like what do you, what are you even saying here?

And you, you, you do it and you’re pouting and you’re typing that proposal and you’re like angry because all you wanna do is go outside and shoot or go focus. Because then you feel like your, your little time that you have to do those things gets shorter and shorter and shorter because you’re in your inbox. And because you’re sending through agreements and you’re doing design proposals and you’re like, ugh, and it starts to just weigh on you. Right. And not everybody out the gate can hire a team. And in fact, not everybody’s ready to hire a team. And I see like, if you see people hire, cuz that’s what you’re hearing, just hire help. And you’re absolutely not prepared to hire help. And then it goes badly and then you get a little scar and you have some trauma from it. And you’re like, I don’t need help. I don’t want help. And you go back into octopus mode of doing everything and it just, it’s a perpetuating cycle.

And I’m a person that took a while to hire help because of past traumas with employees and stuff in another business. And there was no way I could have done it before I was ready. That’s also a thing I like to teach with my clients and that word intuitive. That’s what it means. It’s got to work for you in a genuine way, right? Not what you’re hearing, not what you’re seeing on social media, and not what you’re being mentored and coached to do.

You have to sit down quietly and dig deep and figure out, like, what works for you. There are a couple of people who a team will never work. It just won’t. That doesn’t mean they have to do everything themselves. That means we look at outsourcing certain things to a provider.

So it’s not a team member that you have to manage. It’s another high-level service provider, a colleague on your, on your kind of plain, that handles your editing, your accounting, because that’s, that’s their zone of genius, not yours, saving your time. But you don’t have to build a team. You don’t have to be the boss lady or whatever, of everything, but you need to pick and choose what’ll work for you.

So that’s what that word intuitive means when I’m using it. Figuring out what matches your organization style, your way of existing, and kind of fills you up with what you need. ‘Cause people need different things. Um, some people need to have a lot of company around them and life and mg and some people don’t like, they need solitude,  they need calm. And they need quiet so you gotta figure it out.

Cause again, I feel like we kind of listen to advice and we go, oh, apparently I need a team. And we run out and we hire a team and then we’re like, not ready to lead. Don’t like interacting. It’s not working. The person was a poor, not aligned choice and it just kind of spiraled, or sometimes it’s magic and this person now Takes things off of your shoulders, on your plates, and you’re over here, magically writing a book haha and, and, you know, your team is handling that over there. So it’s really about digging deep and figuring out what do you need to get to that dream business? Because we all have the dream. Sometimes it’s fuzzy, but we already really have that dream in our heart of what we like our, what we like our business to look like, how we like it to feel.

I dunno about you, but Fridays off is a thing in my world. Like, that’s my job.

Sandra: I love that. And I do love a good Friday – as I’m heading into a Friday wedding tomorrow, but I do love a good Friday off. I try to keep them low-key if I have wedding on a Saturday.

Sarahna: Exactly. I love Fridays off, the objectives of Fridays off. How many Fridays have I taken off? Not many, but not in that resentful way. In the way of like, you know what, it makes more sense to do that on Friday. We’ll do it. But then I’ll take another day off. I went, I had to get up to that permission. Um, fantastic book Finish by Jon Acuff helped me get over that sort of, like you said, Friday, you have not taken Fridays, shut this whole project down. That’s it. We failed. Move on with your life. 

Sandra: I’m definitely gonna have to check that out.

Sarahna: Please. It, it was permission ‘cause I’m that way. I’m a bit like focused on certain things. So like I’ve gotta start a new thing on the first of the month or on a Monday or like picking up and starting something on a Wednesday. Uhuh. No,  no worse yet. Like, uh, I have a thing with like numbers. Like it’s gotta be an even number. Or a zero haha like, so if you like, send me something and you’re like, I’d had this discussion. If the volume is on like 23. Oh no, no haha gotta go two or zero or 25, 25 will work.

Sandra: I used to drive my husband crazy, ’cause I’d go to the microwave and I’d put something in. Like if it had to be a minute, I would put it in for like 57 seconds. And he’s like, like why? And I’m like, I just felt like doing something different. I don’t know! Haha

Sarahna: haha I would have to train to be in your presence.  I’d have to be like, (inhales deeply) it’s okay!

Sandra: Deep breaths!

Sarahna: She’s allowed to exist at fifty-seven seconds. Oh my forehead! 

Sandra: That’s so funny. I love that.

Sarahna: So it, so, you know, things like that, like, okay. I did not take this Friday off. Cool. Let’s not abandon the whole project. Let’s look at next week. K, you know what? Wednesday apparently is a good day. We’re off, we’re doing something else. Right? Um, but yes, this is, this is where I live. This is where I exist – sitting with a client and figuring out what’s actually going to work and how do we get that done? So that’s my little spiel about all that.

Sandra: I love that. And I think in a time where, especially with platforms like Instagram and TikTok, there’s never been so many, you should be’s coming our way. Like everybody is telling us we should be doing X, Y, and Z. And I learned after trial and error of so many things, I was like, I can’t organize my work week. It doesn’t work for me. I’ve tried every system that everybody says I should be using and nothing works. But when I took the time to just, like, Stop trying to do what everybody else said and think about what I needed and what was gonna work best for my energy levels, for my health, for everything like that, and just put together my own schedule… A lot of people look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them how it’s built. Like, I edit on Wednesdays and that’s it. If I feel like it a different time of the week, I will. But other than that, I’m editing on Wednesdays. And I am, I have better turnaround times with my photos now than I ever have in almost 10 years in business with only editing one day a week, as opposed to editing every day. and then getting to a point where like, I’m so sick of editing that it’s the last thing that I wanna do, and I’m gonna be over here watching the same thing on Netflix for the hundredth time because I just don’t wanna edit.

Sarahna: That is perfection. So I, I had, I was working with a mindset coach who I adored, and one day she came up with the term she’s like, you need Flexible structure. Now we live in an era where we make stuff up haha words up, life up, jobs up, whatever, but it was one of those epiphanies to me.

Sandra: Yeah. I love that!

Sarahna: Flexible structure because that was where my core existed. So I’m one of those people. I’m an enneagram two with a wing three. If you’ve not done an enneagram test, it means that first and foremost, I’m a helper – enneagram two is helper. With anything. without instance. Like I, it’s almost, I have, I almost have little control over it. Like I would be holding five bags. And I would see a lady at the grocery who needs help with her groceries. And I’d be like, do you need help? And she’s like, you would say, and then I’d be like, hold on. I could manage. Hold on, gimme your one bag on this finger.

Sandra: I’m the opposite. I’m a three wing two.

Sarahna: Oh. And then I have that wing three thing, which is like, oh yeah, I’m gonna get shit done. 

Sandra: Ya, exactly. I’m get shit done with a little bit of the helper where you’re the helper with like a side of get shit done.

Sarahna: Get shit done, get shit done. And nobody messes with me. Like nothing, nothing scares me in that realm. I’m that person that’s like, oh, we have never, you, I need help editing video. And I’m like, uh, this can’t be hard. Let’s stop. Let’s figure this out. Let’s Google some stuff. Let’s go to YouTube. Let’s, let’s read a book. What are we doing here? What are we doing here? I, you, you, we need this done. It’s done. Right.

Um, but. In that same vein, like, I love energy. I am recharged by energy. So all my little life I was being trained to focus on one thing. do one thing at a time and do this. And you can’t do the other thing until you finish this one thing. And I got it done, but something felt hard about it. Right. And I always had this guilt. It was like, I really wanna read three books, but I’m not allowed to read the three books. And I started reading the three books and now I feel weird. 

And this goes on and on until I, and then, so I would have all these beautiful ideas. I wanna do all these different things and I was then being told, you know, you’re gonna get burnt out if you don’t do one thing at a time and let’s slow it all down. I reluctantly complied ’cause that was the best way to do things, until I reached to this beautiful mindset coach who was like, uh, no, because she looked at me and understood me, and was like, that’s how your batteries recharge. And it’s not flaky. It’s not jumping from, flitting from, thing to thing. It’s not a distraction. It’s not all those negative words that you’ve been told. It’s simply because you need this sort of flexible structure. Because at different times, certain – your passion and your gifts kind of rev up on one area and then another.

So again, I was like, you, I am a queen at creating a schedule down to like day, minutes and six o’clock and then it’s six 30 and I’m doing this. And I would do it for a couple days, maybe a week, and then something would go wrong and I would blame myself for not being disciplined and not be in all these other big words.

Sandra: Yes, I’ve been there.

Sarahna: Not being organized, ‘cause Lord helped me. I have built maybe three brands with the word organized in it.  simply organized weddings, simply organized homes. When I was, I am, a professional organized as well, cuz I love it. Simply organized solutions, which is my business arm. And there was so much guilt around that.

But the reality was that this week my brain needs me to write down on a notepad every minute of what’s going to happen tomorrow, in order for me to follow it. next week, my brain needs to lose the goddamn notepad. I don’t even know where it is right now. and wake up and be like, cool. So I have one thing today. Yeah, that’s good. All right, cool. And move on.

And until I settled into that and realized that all of it is disciplined, all of it is organized because I don’t, I don’t generally drop balls even when I’m in my zone of like I have not opened my, my planner. I – because I’ve built systems that protect me in all-the-things.

So we talk about that, where I have a planner, I love paper. I adore paper. I have notebooks, pens, everything about that, tactile sensory sort of feeling of writing things. I love it. My brain needs it, cuz it’s like casting a spell for me. Like if I write this down, it is written into existence, right?

Sandra: Yeah. It’s so true.

Sarahna: I also love Asana. I love Asana because it’s this beautiful myriad of little blocks of tidbits of information that I can drop and drag and click and the celebration shoots across my, my screen, those little touches make – they’re, they’re, they’re designed for people like me, but I then have calendars, Google and people are like, that’s redundant. How many things do you have? And I said, those things are what keep me moving and flexible within my structure. So if, if this is a week that I have not opened my custom-designed planner – I have a lady that custom designs it for me. If I don’t open that planner this week, my watch will tell me that I have an interview with Sandra and I’ll be like, oh shit, hold on. Got it! With it! There are weeks when everything tells me. And then there’s weeks where it’s one thing that says by the week you have X. So I build systems like that. We talk about, there’s not a one, there’s not a one fit for everyone. And even in that person, you have days, like you’ve got days when you’re not feeling great and everything has to change. Like we’re not editing this week. I’m not sitting down here in pain because Wednesdays it’s my editing day.

Sandra: Exactly.

Sarahna: And you, so you’ve gotta have these modes where cool. I went through a phase where I was like, I gotta be in bed by nine. I have to be in bed by nine. The sleep, my sleep health is. Not good. Let’s fix this. And then there’s other nights where I’m like, it’s actually advantageous for me to stay up, pump hard, get this done so I can get some freedom tomorrow to go to the park with my kids all day, but I don’t have to do that every week. And that’s not how I work now. But it’s okay if I hit a one night where it’s really, really late and I get stuff done and it’s not the lack of discipline and it’s not breaching protocols and not following my systems. It’s now the flexible structure that I need to give me the life that I really want. Which is freedom and joy and fun. And sometimes it’s quiet and easy. And then other times it is intense. And I am doing four back-to-back clients in the day while getting snacks for my kids every 30 minutes.  So.

And that’s what I like people to understand about businesses and systems. They’re organic, they’re living and breathing. They’re not these boring, strict confines that you kind of, those words sort of illicit. When you say systems and processes, you feel there’s a manual somewhere and you can’t do it differently and you can’t be creative.

And I feel a lot of creative people think that that a system is going to,,, automation and systems and processes are going to make my existence robotic and confined and boring and cookie cutter. Like when people tell me like, no, I don’t like to use email templates. I like, you know, I’m like, you don’t even know that my email is an email template.

Sandra: Right? Exactly!

Sarahna: I was like, it’s beautifully written. It’s written as hug. That I changed the name out, then I changed some tweaks and other stuff, so, okay. Hi Sandra. It was great to talk to you yesterday. Hi Jeanine. It was great to talk to you last week. All of the hugging and the warmth and the happiness is in that same email. And I go through it each time, but again, it does not take me 10 minutes to type out a whole email. It takes me two minutes to edit an existing, beautifully written email.

And today I don’t feel for that graphic so I can switch out that graphic. It took me three minutes. 

Sandra: Yeah, exactly. Right. All those little tricks can make such a difference

Sarahna: Such a difference! There’s ways. And I’m – I tell you what, you infuse your personality, you infuse your brown voice. You infuse the warmth that you want this individual to feel and to receive.

But – I don’t sit next to the lady who got the same email from me. This, this, we get locked in these things that there’s somehow like a point of comparison that you’re like, (gasp) did you get the same email as Lisa? And also I’m like, come on! You, you really think the emails you get from companies are individually written. You are aware that 250,000 people got this email today. you are not mad at them. You are not mad at these mailing lists that you’re on and be like, how dare you not customize. And there are some that I’ve received where the customization field didn’t work so you see the coding.

But you’re not mad! you’re – you don’t sit there expecting this from people, but we put that pressure on ourselves because we think this is what’s gonna get somebody through the door, right? Not feeling like our brides, our couples, or grooms, all these people that we deal with. Yes. This is their specialty. And they want you to hold their hand and they’ve invested resources to get that service back. Great. But these are not scary boogie people who are there to be like, mm-hmm that email seems a bit templated. No, no. Do it again.  it’s like –

Sandra: Oh my gosh. Could you imagine?!

Sandra: So when it comes to photographers who are just starting out in their businesses, how important do you think it is to get started with intuitive systems and setting those boundaries right away? Because I think a lot of the time when the conversation does come up, it’s people who have been in the industry for a little while who have burned themselves out, who have seen the other side, and who are now coming back to fix these things. And I do think that it requires a little bit more time when you’re first starting a business than it does when you have been in your industry for 20 years. But I’ve always wondered, as someone who did start it with the hustle culture, I love just kind of like talking about if you think it’s possible to set those boundaries right away, Um, or if you think that there’s room for a little bit of hustle culture in there and what that kind of looks like from your end

Sarahna: You know what, that’s a, it’s actually a really fantastic question. And I vacillate between two schools of thought. The sort of experience that I’ve gained, that I know you’ve gained, from going through, like going down a particular path – I don’t, I don’t genuinely think I could have come out of it having not taken that path. I came back from it, but I learned a lot about myself. 

But then the other school of thought there is, this is sort of the cycle of life. And as a parent, I get this. I’m not here to make sure my kids do make mistakes, but I’m here to assist with a couple of the lessons so they don’t have to experience every single lesson. So that’s their little foot up. Right. Um, if, if we’re almost thinking of the analogy of being in a university.

So basically – okay. You can come into your first year having taken certain courses in high school, so you then don’t have to take. Biology 101 – you’re, you’re past that. Right? Um, you can prepare yourself for certain things.

And, and again, similarly with a business, this is why mentors are great. This is why education and just reading is in fact, fantastic. You can learn from us. You’re gonna go through your own trials and your own stuff, but you don’t have to experience everything from scratch.

So, if you are a brand new business owner and you have the resources and again, each gen each, each year more resources get added. I started my business back in February of 2020. I was in business before that. So I’ve gone through that realm of  – before there was this easy access to a lot of information and beautiful books, And now where it’s just at hand and there’s these beautiful conferences, nice different things.

Use all of those as stepping stones. you don’t have to do every single thing. Right? So I think setting up businesses, setting up systems and boundaries from the beginning, now that you have access to information that can teach you the why and the how about these things is the best course of action.

However, this is coming back to the intuitive parts. when we design systems and businesses, and we are doing sort of like a piecing together based on other people, and based on advice versus based on what we personally need right now, that’s when the whole thing is unstable and it’s probably not gonna work.

So you’ll see somebody say, um, you know, charge what your worth and all these different things. Yes And no. So you’re new in this game. And especially for photographers, this works. You’re new in the game, and there’s a delicate balance between well, I’m new, So I’m gonna charge thousands less than the rest of the industry so I can grab work. Right.

You and I know that when you have that bottom out in an industry, it’s that spread is a problem, right? But at the same time, you have to then understand the respect of, I am now starting to shoot. I cannot come in matched to Sandra. It just can’t work. Right? Because there is a hierarchy. there is value with, I’ve been shooting weddings for forever, and you and I know, being able to take beautiful images and being able to navigate through a wedding day – two vastly different skill sets. Right.

Sandra: So true.

Sarahna: So, you know, that’s – when I do a timeline, my, and when I was a wedding planner, my timeline was based on photography, on your timeline. So I had to anchor when they, when we lost light, we had to – so this is the cutoff point. Everything has to happen before we lose light In terms of portraits. I have to, you have to understand the dynamics of a bride and groom who start like shutting down mid-portraits. And then your, the people who are paying you go, we’re done. We’re tired. We don’t wanna do it anymore. I have been the wedding planner who was like, excuse me, stand there and start smiling. But Sarahna, we’re done! I do not want to hear your words! Now, it seems mean, but I know the backside of that. You’re tired now. But later when you’re looking through your 300 images and you’re like, why don’t I have 600 images? It’s like, well, you stopped shooting haha and now you’re sad. Okay. We can’t recreate the day. We can’t go back out.  so suffer through it!

Sandra: So true.

Sarahna: Respectfully, because you’re gonna want it. So to recap, new business owners, I definitely want you to start off on the right foot, with a beautiful foundation, because it sets you up for success, but I need you to really dig into where you are on the journey.

And, but there’s also some common things – at all times, what your systems are there to do is to make life easier for you and to make life easier for your client. And to also the, the bonus is that those systems become part of your marketing, right? There is a difference between, and I’ve definitely experienced it. I’ve gotten jobs as a wedding planner, mainly because I responded well and time in a timely manner.

Sandra: Yeah. I hear that all the time in photography as well.

Sarahna: And also what the response was, what the response was. Again, I was not there waiting. I was never that person, but, because I had a very simple system in place and systems are this simple: I had a nice pre-written, um, message that was on my phone that I could copy and paste into anything and anywhere. So if you sent me a DM on Instagram, I could just go boop-boop, there. If you sent me an email, it was There. There was a way for me, I checked certain messages at a certain time. It’s not me being glued to something 24 hours. But in that message, it hit certain points. I once had a bride told me “you were the first person that said, congratulations on being engaged.”

I did it because I just, it was natural for me in a conversation. And that’s how I write. I write as if I’m talking. But I didn’t, until that day, realize how impactful it was. So now it’s a part of my thing. Like if you are coming to me and you’re engaged, this is joyful time. You’re excited. First thing, even if I’m telling you I’m booked, congratulations. There’s that, that, that little moment of respect and humanity, because again, that’s what we lose. We think, because everything’s digital, it doesn’t have to be human. Absolutely not. Right? But because that message was always sweet and personal and real. “Hey, you’re excited. I get it! This is what’s gonna happen next. I will -”

And this is also not to give information. This was literally to be like, I’m gonna check you back in two days haha But again, the difference between silence and no response and somebody being like, “oh my God, so excited. Congrats! Can you give me a day or two to get back to you with X, Y, Z?” That made a difference.

So these are the little systems that I, I want everybody to put in from the get-go. You are not here to be on call. I had to explain to my own daughter who’s eight. Who says, when I grew up, I’m gonna answer every email, like immediately. And I said, um, and I asked her like, why? “Cause I don’t like waiting for responses, so I don’t want to do that to anybody.”

I said, okay. And we had a long discussion for my poor eight-year-old about like two o’clock in the morning, two in the afternoon. Like you, you can’t be on call all the time. Most of our jobs aren’t emergencies, unless you are in an ER, where time is critical, everybody can wait. Every single person can wait.

And the more we practice it, and the more we train people is the more we will all chill out. And I said, and even the ER, doctors and nurses have to work shift because it cannot be sustained to just be responding to people immediately all the time. 

**Click here to get Sarahna’s freebie, a Business Systems Audit Workbook!**

Sandra: I’ve had colleagues talk about, um, pulling over to the side of the road because they got a new inquiry email came in while they were driving. And like, if that person can’t wait for you to get to your end destination for a reply… Then it’s like… They’re, they’re not the client for me! That’s for sure. Because like, there, there’s tons of photographers out there. Maybe they’ll find someone who has no boundaries or that is within their boundaries, but for me, like, absolutely not. I remember the days of replying to emails and inquiries at 11 o’clock at night, and I was getting the names wrong and I was missing details. And like, it was just creating more problems. It wasn’t actually doing anything beneficial for me.

Sarahna: It was. And actually now I have a, I did a proposal for a client the other night and it was 11 o’clock and I was done and I was like, no, I cannot send this. I cannot. And I, I scheduled it to go out at eight in the morning because I was like on principle, I’ve got to slow this down. And I was like, she’ll understand, she’ll get it. And I’m like, until you run into the person that doesn’t and that simple act of sending that proposal at 11 sets off… Sets a precedent that is now expected.

Sandra: Exactly.

Sarahna: And you don’t always know that about clients, right? You think they’ll be reasonable and then you’re like, oh, apparently. Okay, cool. So I have a, I now that’s when I made boundaries, like I don’t send things at strange times, even if I have to schedule it to go out at 5:00 AM so it looks like this was in your inbox before you woke up. I would rather take the hit of saying you got this the next morning, rather than just to be like, I did tell her I’d get it back today. It’s also a thing. These are part of your systems. The system is you nah, I don’t tell people you’re gonna get this back today. What I will do is I’ll say ‘I’m gonna work on it and try to get about you today, tomorrow for the latest.’ And I give myself time. And, I mean, these are based on life experiences. Like I’ve had, bobbin’ along your day and something just explodes it and you’re like, well, that was not planned for. Okay. It is about boundaries. It’s about pouring into the, the system and the world of slowing down. A lot of these cultures, that when you have other traumas, you get trapped in, right? Because again, if I’m pulling, pulling over the side of the road and we start to really dig deep on that, we’re probably dealing with some scarcity mindset issues. We’re probably dealing with some people-pleasing issues. This thing of like, what will make me a good business owner is if I am super responsive. What will make you a good business owner is being a good business owner and a service provider. And respectful of people.

Sandra: Yes. I love that so much.

Sarahna: And also demanding that respect because that’s how you respect people. Like you can’t be respectful of other people and then letting… And then taking shit. Being like, sure. You can do that to me, but I won’t do it back to anybody. And I preached about this because I have lived it. I’m living it. This is not because I’m an expert. This is because I am that person haha, who’s like, okay, I’m gonna be great to everyone. And every other people can treat me like crap, but that’s okay! I’m recovering from this. I am learning. There are days I’m super good at it. There are days I am not good at it. And I go (sigh).

Sandra: But those are the days that remind you why you work so hard towards being good at it 

Sarahna: and why I, why I’m forever learning and I’m forever training. And it’s also what makes me able to work with people from a place of deep empathy. Like you could come and tell me anything, like the first thing, and women I have observed, we’ve 0 society has this very comfortable talking shit about ourselves, like entering conversations, talking shit about ourselves. And you’re like, why?! Why was that called for?

So I’ve got to tell you, I, I live in Asana. I love Asana. I introduce people to Asana. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a man use the words “I’m not good with tech!”

Sandra: It’s it’s so true!

Sarahna: And I’m like, but you are no, no, no, no, no. I’m like, okay, let’s break this down. Logically, if you are on the zoom call with me, we can tick off ‘good with tech.’

Sandra: Right. My husband has been out of the tech industry for about 15 years now and he still talks about it like it was yesterday.

Sarahna: Good, again, you see these little connections. I have so many to tell me I’m not good with tech. You’re fine. You’re okay.

Sandra: Exactly. You’re using a high-tech thing to run your life in your hands all day. Every day. 

Sarahna: I, when I see people who are good at Instagram and TikTok, and then tell me they’re not good with technology I’m like, you are bat-shit crazy.

Sandra: Yeah. It’s so true.

Sarahna: Nothing is more convoluted and illogically designed, illogically designed!! Than social media platforms. Nothing is more illogically designed. It’s not intuitive. It’s not, they by nature of moving shit every five weeks. I’m like, where did they move the button? Where did you move the new button? Oh my gosh haha it’s never like an improvement. It’s always like, why would you put it there?

Sandra: Right. Yeah. Everything goes crazy. It’s never, like, anything to be excited about.

Sarahna: This is it. No. So this is it. People love to be like, oh, I’m not good at running a business. Oh, I’m not this. I’m not that. Yeah. You tell yourself that and you will believe it. Other things made you think that it’s true. Um, but I always think of it in very basic terms. I love basics. Most of my life is run by who, what, where, when, how, like I am literally writing. That’s how I write. I’ve created documents that literally have who, what – I love that basic fundamental principle because it covers everything you ever need to know.

So when you’re building your systems, that’s how I build my systems too. We answer all of those questions. So everything feels simple. Everything feels natural to you, but I work very hard to understand my clients and what is gonna work.

Because if you build systems, if you people say I have this, I’ve done this, I’ve tried this, it doesn’t work. And like, it doesn’t work because it wasn’t designed for you.

Sandra: Exactly.

Sarahna: All the time. Every time. Like I’ve looked at people’s, like I’ve used Asana, it didn’t work for me. I was like, can I see your Asana? And they’re like, yeah, sure. Go ahead. And I’m like, well, because you didn’t build it for you, you built it for somebody else. I don’t know who’s using this version haha but it’s not you. That’s why it didn’t work because Asana is logic. It’s logic on a computer screen. So it’s just that you’ve got to build it to like how your brain works. So my brain works very differently to a lot of other people and I’ve built for people where I’m like this isn’t how I would’ve designed it. But I do know that this is how Sandra’s brain is gonna wake up every morning and read it and receive the information and be able to continuously use a thing. And that’s what you need to dig deep on. And, and whatever it looks like – fine. I’ve had people tell me like, oh no, no, no. I hate paper. I can’t write things down on paper.

I respect you. That’s okay. But I’ve also had people that I’m like, no, you need a paper. Where’s your book. And it’s like, oh, well, if, if I put in Asana, it’ll be fine. I can’t put nothing in Asana alone – 

Sandra: Ya, I’m the same!

Sarahna – that I haven’t written down somewhere else. Certain things.

Sandra: Yeah. I just forget about it when it’s only in Asana.

Sarahna: Because my brain isn’t plugged into technology like that, where it’s like I’m guided by the computer. No, I gotta write that. I gotta feel it. I gotta do certain things. So that’s one of my main objectives, especially when you’re new.

It’s beautiful to be new. There’s tons of perks of being new. A lot of it is energy and this beautiful wonder. You gotta hustle because you gotta learn and feel what that feels like in order to kind of figure out what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. Cause there are people out here who need that, that rush of hustling.

And then there are people who it will disturb their whole soul. That feeling. Like, I was in a workshop with. Shanna Skidmore. And she said the words “I do not have Instagram.” 

Sandra: Right?! Yes. I was in that with you. It was like mind-blowing.

Sarahna: Boom!

Sandra: And I think she said she got rid of her account in 2017, which was like peak business on Instagram.

Sarahna: It’s like, what is happening with my whole life right now?! There are people who don’t have Instagram!

Sandra: Right!

Sarahna: I have a love, hate relationship with that app.

Sandra: Me too.

Sarahna: Um, and it’s cuz I don’t like being told what to do. Under zero circumstances do I like being told what to do.

Sandra: Um, so to wrap things up, I wanted to ask, if you can think of like one piece of advice or one starting point that would be a key takeaway for anyone wanting to get started in business, or, sorry, not get started in business, get started in business systems, um, whether they are new to the industry or if they’ve been around for a while, if there’s two different starting points that you would recommend, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Sarahna: Okay. Let me think through this. Instinctively, I wanna say your client’s experience, right? Because that’s your money maker. And actually, I, I have, I think I’ve either done a post or something about this. If you start with your client experience, that actually is the heart of all of your business systems, ‘cause it will now branch out to all your other things, even like how you run your accounting based on your client experience. And what I mean, my client experience is go back to some basic-basic questions. Like, how do I want my client to feel at all points? Like if they had to describe working with me. How does that, what does that sound like? What, how does that feel?

And so that client experience, I talk about five different, um, phases – nurturing. This is when they’re checking you out and they’re asking their questions. Onboarding when they’re like, yeah, I need to pay you. Where do I sign? Work in progress. So while you are working, be it before you shoot, when you’re shooting, anything like that. when you’re wedding planning, all these different things. Um, offboarding, like how do you wrap up and release this person? Get your money. Give them back their shit. Be like, cool, bye-bye. But leave them loving you!

And then legacy. So for a lot of people, they’re like, oh, do I really have a legacy phase? You do, and you don’t, if you’re not gonna shoot, like I had a rule, I’m not being your wedding planet twice. Like Uhuh. Unless you’re renewing some vows, don’t call me. I don’t, sorry. But legacy is about – how do I keep my name at the top of that person’s list and in their brain for years to come. That person needs to choose you for their wedding, and literally decades later, when their kid is getting married, be like, I wonder if Sandra still shoots weddings?! haha Let me call her, let me check her out. Right. But if you sit there and you start to build each of those phases, what happens – and I’m talking real simple things – a person can find me how? And you write out ‘well there’s IG’, there’s Hey, there’s wherever. And what, what happens next? Well, they might message me. And what happens next? And you just kinda build a system that covers those few bases. Nice and easy. When you’re working with someone you’re a human and you want them to feel loved. You want to re – you wanna reinforce and reassure them that they made a great choice financially as another person.

What little touches do you send off? And that can be, instead of only doing business emails or here’s your homework, or here’s what I need from you. It’s a person. There can be an email that comes from your wedding photographer that says, “Hey, I’m just checking in on you. You good?” Part of your system. Are you, you good? How you feeling? Doesn’t have to be anything else. It doesn’t have to type out to anything. But imagine somebody saying like ‘my photographer is the sweetest. I got these sweet little emails from her checking in on me.’ That’s where you want people to live, as opposed to like, well, to my photographer, so she asked me photography questions. I send her payments. We good. Sure haha

Sandra: It’s two totally different vibes!

Sarahna: Two totally different vibes! And you know, as a photographer, it’s so intimate. Like people don’t get how intimate photographers are. I am with you for the whole day. I’ve had grooms be like, Ew, photographers gonna be up in my face all day. And then they’re like, I never knew she was there. And you’re like, then that’s what she does. But during that wedding date, you might be there to see and do all the things – that mother-in-law tripping out on you. One of your bridesmaids trying to be the center of the show. Your groom crying, like straight up, breaking down crying. Like so many random things happen in that intimate space.

Sandra: It’s so true.

Sarahna: But then you have to let them go. And that’s the way I think about our job, we are like forever in your family and then there’s Sunday. And then you’re like, peace. What’s your name?  Which one were you? And I don’t mean that in a bad way, but that is part of the experience that we provide.

We can’t be best friends with every single human we work with. It feels like that. I, I promise you and you know, this, some of them you’re like, oh my God, like that person – we’re family now. But we can’t be! Right?! But you need that feeling in between. And if you build a system that helps you think through that, and it may not do it for you, and this is the thing, all systems aren’t automated, they aren’t running in the background.

That’s, that’s beautiful. Certain things can do that. Certain things can. But what it does for you, a system eliminates decision making and it’s, it sets your quality. If every client gets treated with a high level of quality, it does not matter if you are whatever part of your cycle. It does not matter if you’re feeling sick. It does not matter if you’re going through a phase where you are. You have no brain capacity. You are so – that system now – you log into your own system and you’re like, what happens next? What do I send this person next? Okay, cool. That’s what I love about systems. If you are down on a day and I will give an example, I had a dear friend, one of my best friends, possibly suddenly, heart attack at 42. Right? And your brain’s in a fog. You’re screwed. So like you’re functional, you could do things. But the last thing I needed my brain to spend any energy on was what happens next with this client? And what email do I send and what do I do this? So I love that I could just mindlessly open up a computer and be like, you get this, you do that. And now I can go back to doing whatever I need to do and focus on.

That’s what saves you. Having the things decided, checked through. That’s the emergency protocol that I want for people. Even if you have to still physically send the email and still do the things manually, the decision-making has now been removed from you. And you can trust that it sounds good. There’s no typos. There’s no, I forgot half the information. Like you, if you have a wedding Friday and something happens today and you cannot cancel on the person’s wedding. So you’ve got to muster up the strength to do said wedding. If you’ve got a system that has a checklist of what the hell you pack in your bag, you’re good. ‘Cause your brain can’t think through, I need these lenses. I need this. I need that. I need to make sure I pack so and so. I need to do this. So you wouldn’t have to be like, what do I need? What do I need? What do I need? If you’ve got a set checklist night before that goes out to that client that says here’s what. This is the venue. This is the, this that you don’t have to now think of, What do I normally do? That’s where I want you to live, in that capacity. So if you are new to this business, put it in from the beginning so that you’re not playing this constant catch-up.

Sandra: Yeah, exactly.

Sarahna: Because that, that catch-up part… A lot of the times and you, and I can say this, when we eventually put shit in place – was something went wrong!

Sandra: Ya, for sure. And that, it’s so hard to get caught up in negative head spaces. When you are in that catch-up mode. You start to internalize it all and blame yourself for things. And I can’t tell you the relief that I’ve felt on days when I haven’t been feeling well, I’ve had to get outta the office. And at some point something. I’ll think of something, an email that was supposed to go out or something like that. And I still, I kind of like get this little bit of panic and I rush to my computer and then I’m like, oh wait, it was already done, because my system was built out and that was taken care of days ago. And I didn’t really even have to think about it. And then I can just kind of like go back to resting and recovering so that I can come back faster instead of having to take more time out because I’m not giving myself the time that I need.

Sarahna: Completely. And at the beginning, what it does for you is it also sets you up to look fantastic. If you’re a new photographer and you’re sending out proper ass emails, you’re a boss. And it sets that too. The exact thing you’re trying to scream at the world. I’m good. Give me a chance, I’m good at this. Your systems help you be like, oh, this girl’s okay.

Sandra: Yeah. It’s not just about what you’re doing with your camera.

Sarahna: Yeah. And again, the world has, we have to do a little filter for people now. Like it is unfortunate, but it is a reality. This feeling of, I was just home and came up with an idea and now I’m a business owner. That’s how a lot of businesses start, granted, but there are a ton of people who are doing that, who can’t do it, who aren’t good at doing it, but there’s no distinction at the beginning of the race, right?

This is how you distinguish yourself. The difference in a well-written email – and well-written does not mean elaborate and long and dramatic. Put together, efficient, thoughtful email versus here – here’s your proposal. See proposal. Oh my God. And again, people are like, oh, people don’t make decisions on that. You don’t, you’re not even aware that you make decisions based on that. My husband and I have this fight all the time, ‘cause he’s like, I’m a landscaper. Just say, here’s your proposal. I’m done. I’m like, yes. And that works. But imagine the extra impact of, and imagine if somebody else sent a proposal, and their shit had a little more polish on it.

Sandra: Mm-hmm.

Sarahna: They could get that job above you simply because the communication and how it was received was more impactful. And that’s it. You’re new to business. You’ve gotta make a little splash in the water. The way to do that is by creating impact. It’s by showing a couple things: a well-designed system says communicates to a client, “I am organized. I am thoughtful. I’m focused on my business. I also want to do it well. I have that passion behind it. I have that desire.” That helps me translate to this person will work hard to take care of me. This person will work hard to honor the investment I’ve made in them. I can trust this person. That’s what systems do on the client-facing side.

On your side, it gives you freedom. It gives you time. It lets you breathe. It lets you have a life without having to pull over the side of the road to answer an inquiry from your phone. Right. So I definitely think if you’re near in the business, focus on your systems. Focus, focus, focus. Focus on the system that you need, then not your future “I’m 10 years in this game and I’m the hottest photographer out here” system. No, no, no. You will grow. And your systems change constantly. My systems change constantly, right? Because I want them to do different things at different times in my life.

Um, but you’ve gotta start with building a nice foundation. And if you’ve gotta pick a system to, to go into, start with your client experience, just move through. I am a person – and get a friend to help you. If I inquired and if I needed to sign the documents and I needed to do this. And again, we all think these are big fancy things that I need to spend a ton of money on that to me is a fallacy.

If you’re new and you’re only processing a certain small amount of proposals and clients, a CRM may not be for you, right? Because you’re still in the volume of being able to pull up that proposal and email it in a beautiful email and respond to the person as opposed to being like “click through to here and that’ll send you the auto brochure” – and that again, you are nurturing in this phase. You – ‘cause you need your personality to come through. If your volumes are high, then get a damn CRM because individual personal touch ain’t helping you when you can’t get through 40 inquiries per day. Right. Just not. Like then let it go out automatically and be okay with that. ‘Cause again, the actual decision-making comes in, different things. People think, oh, if you just get an automated brochure, I’m probably shopping six of ya’ll. Getting the information and making the decision is fine. If you know getting them to a call stage is where you’re at, get the other things quickly, get them on a call, get them on a call. Don’t blackmail them into a call! I cannot stand with people blackmail me into calls.

Sandra: Right?! I know.

Sarahna: It’s like you get nothing until you speak to me, and like, but I can fast-track this if I know you’re not the right fit for me. I’m smart. I can assess this. It’s not price shopping all the time, but sometimes I need to assess the situation. I don’t need to call you to assess the situation. Right.

So it’s to think through those things and keep them simple. We think things need to be elaborated and fancy. Most times just need to be connected and human. So all the bells and whistles are big CRMs, are big this, are schedulers, and all these things. They are lovely. But if they’re not used properly, they then create issues. If I have to sign up 14 different things, just to find out if you’re available for my date, I’m out. I’m just gone. Too much stuff! You think it’s fancy, but it’s like, no, just. You available for my date? Sweet. Let’s talk now, you know. But that’s it, that’s my advice.

Sandra: Um, I love that. That is amazing. I think that’s so helpful regardless of if you’re just starting out or if you are just looking to get more organized and get some more freedom back in your business. So thank you so much for that.

Sarahna: You’re so welcome.

Sandra: Um, before we end things off, I wanted to just ask where everybody can find you on social media so I can make sure they go give you a follow.

Sarahna: Sure, absolutely. No problem. So, um, I’m gonna sound like I, you, you can find me on IG. That’s where I hang out. It is really where I am though. So on Instagram, I’m actually Simply Organized by Sarahna – S-A-R-A-H-N-A. Um, and then you can always check out my website. That’s simplyorganizedsolutions.net. So there’s two different things, but I had to get over that. Domains be damned.

Sandra: Been there. I totally get it.

Sarahna: I’m okay with it. My name’s Sarahna and my company has solutions in it. It’ll be okay. Your brain can do it. 

Sandra: And next step will be doing 57 seconds on the microphone, or, microphone. Microwave.

Sarahna: Yeah. Yes. Slow slowly easy. But, um –

Sandra: Baby steps!

Sarahna: If you go to my website, I’ve got a beautiful freebie section that you can actually, and I really recommend this – I’ve got, um, a business audit workbook, so you can do a little audit on your own systems to figure out where you need your attention. ‘Cause that’s a big thing. People are like, uh, it’s all I need help with all. And where the hell do I start? And that sounds long and ex exhausting. So I’m not gonna start. It’s okay.

**Click here to get Sarahna’s freebie, a Business Systems Audit Workbook!**

Go do the quick audit. It’s a nice little PDF. It basically puts your shit in little quadrants of what you like and you’re good at. Which you don’t like, and which you’re not good at. And the two other versions in between there, and you kind of rank things and you figure out cool. My marketing actually needs the most help, not my client experience. So let me start there and get to client experience later. 

But that is a great freebie. Um, that’s anybody can, and I think it’s actually in my bio for my Instagram as well. You can just click and go directly to that.

Sandra: Perfect. I’ll make sure I include a link in the show notes for the episode as well. So that way everybody can easily go and find it.

Sarahna: Thank you. I do appreciate that, but yeah, it’s a really good resource to kind of figure out where the hell to start and put things in perspective, ‘cause there’s stuff that we think is a problem. Like Ill help people who’ll be like, oh my, my accounting, my accounting. It’s like, that’s actually lower down. You’ve just realized that it’s the like general admin of your business and the admin of your business is important. Especially if you have plans for team members and other humans, um, you gotta get that in check and laid it out somewhere. And that’s, I, that’s my focus, lay it out somewhere so you can see it and then other people can see it.

And then you kind of know what your business looks like. Cause a lot of people don’t know, they, ‘cause they’re busy working in the business. They don’t really have a macro view of how they’ve set up their business and how it runs and how to access stuff. And again, in my, in my beautiful preaching about emergency and planning for emergencies, first thing you do is lay out your whole business so you can see what it all looks like and where you need to tweak, where you need help and how somebody else could ever help you and step in and help you. Like that’s the first step. Like they’ve gotta learn what it is. It’s like walking into a shop, and you look around. There’s a counter with a cash register. These are some shelves. Product goes here. Storeroom is there. This is where the cash is. This is where the bill book is, you know, just things like, and I’m like that.I think about everything in real-life terms. And then I build and create things based on like, okay, how would this feel in real life? How would this sound in real life?  How would this work in real life? Um, so yeah, go check on that freebie. It’ll help you out a lot. 

Sandra: Yes, absolutely. Definitely. Make sure you go and grab a copy. Like I said, I’ll make sure the link is in the show notes and Sarahna will also have it on her website as well.

Well, thank you so much again for joining! This interview was absolutely amazing. I am so, so excited to get this out there so everybody can listen to it. And I look forward to many more connections with you.

Sarahna: Of course, you’re my girl. So I’m happy to come back and chat and we clearly can chat about so many things.

Sandra: Right. I love it.

(Interview Ends)

Ohmygosh. That interview was so, so good! I hope you loved listening as much as I did. Like I mentioned at the end of that interview, I’ve included the link to Sarahna’s freebie in the show notes for today’s episode, so head over to my website – simplysandrayvonne.ca/keepingitcandid – to grab your copy of the Business Systems Audit workbook and don’t forget to check out everything else Sarahna has available there as well. 

**Click here to get Sarahna’s freebie, a Business Systems Audit Workbook!**

On the next episode of Keeping It Candid, I’m chatting with my friend Cindy from Harborview Studios. She joined me to talk about why we shouldn’t be “giving 110%” to our clients as business owners, so make sure you check back in two weeks for that!

(Outro 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!

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About Sarahna

Sarahna Fernandes was a Wedding Planner for 12 years before she launched Simply Organized Solutions – a company dedicated to getting wedding pros and other creative entrepreneurs their time back Sarahna pivoted into her current role as a Business Systems Architect because she recognized a great opportunity to serve the industry she had fallen in love with in an even more impactful way. To date, she has had the amazing opportunity to work with entrepreneurs from several fields other than the wedding industry, and she has been successfully helping entrepreneurs create better client experiences AND work experiences by improving their systems & processes. She loves eclairs, reading, and spending time enjoying her family and friends!