Keeping It Candid is BACK! (Season 2 Premiere)

Sandra Henderson (00:00.318)
It feels so surreal to be saying these words, but we are officially back for season two of Keeping It Candid.

(Intro Music)

Welcome to Keeping It Candid. I’m your host, Sandra Henderson, an international wedding and family photographer and business coach. I help wedding photographers use systems to build out the back end of their businesses to gain control and continue to thrive no matter what life throws their way. And on a more personal note, I’m a strong Enneagram three-wing two who’s obsessed with tacos, and my love for travelling combined with navigating chronic illness life are just two of the many things that drive my passion for all things, systems, workflows, and beating burnout as a business owner. Join me every week for a candid behind-the-scenes look at what it’s really like working as a wedding photographer, where I’ll give you actionable steps to take your business to the next level. Absolutely no fluff here, friends! So go grab your favorite notebook and pen and let’s dive into this week’s episode.

(Music fades)

Sandra Henderson (00:56.15)
Now, if you’re new around here, I want to take a quick second to introduce myself. My name is Sandra Henderson. I am a wedding and family photographer, a systems expert, and your host of Keeping It Candid. We’re back for season two, like I mentioned, and this year it is going to be even better than ever. If you’re a podcast listener, I’m sure you hear that all the time. I know people are always saying it, but I promise you around here, I really mean it.

Last year, I was just winging it. I was having fun. I was showing up messy and just trying to learn all the ins and outs of what it means to have a podcast and be a podcast host. And I loved every second of it. But this year or this season, I wanna show up a little less messy. I wanna have a little more fun and things are going to be way more unfiltered than they were last season. But before we dive into all the goodness that is coming along in the next few months, let’s take a quick second to catch up.

Since May, it has been wedding season up here in Canada. I have had weddings on the go. I’ve had many sessions on the go. I ran the beta round of my very first boot camp program for wedding photographers, and that was absolutely amazing. I’ve launched a ton of freebies and a ton of new services, including VIP days, HoneyBook housekeeping, HoneyBook moving day account setups, and so much more. I’ve really loved diving into.

just different ways that I can serve other wedding photographers to help them take some of the work off their plate and just make running a business a little bit easier for them. It has been amazing and I didn’t ever think I would be able to find something that I love to do as much as I love photography. And I’m so happy to have proven myself wrong with this. So if I’ve had the chance to work with you over the last few months, I wanna give you a huge thank you for being a part of that because without you then I wouldn’t have found this new love.

On the personal side of things, my stepson turned 16 in June and he’s learning how to drive. So I have decided to start researching retirement homes because I feel like that is essentially the next step that is happening at this point. Because I’m pretty sure I blinked and he turned from 2 to 16. So now the next time I blink, that logic says that I will be moving into a nursing home. So.

Sandra Henderson (03:12.63)
That’s kind of how things are feeling here. I’m feeling a little old these days, but I have to say, I like I’m gonna knock on wood as I say this, but raising a teenager has been the total opposite of what I expected it to be. Now he is only 16. We’re not out of the woods yet. We’ve still got a few years left to go, but so far it has just been so much fun having him a little bit older and watching him just

grow into his personality and figure out who he is and starting to develop a style and things like that. It has been awesome. So I’m really enjoying that aside from the part where I feel so old. Now for my husband, Matt, for anybody who doesn’t know back in 2021, he was diagnosed with type two diabetes. And since then he has been working so hard to take control of his health. And we were so excited to find out that he has gotten his

blood sugar levels back down to pre-diabetic levels and is officially on his way to remission. So that is super exciting and I’m so proud of him for all the work that he’s done to just make things better for himself. And then for me, if you are a new listener, you may not know this already, but if you have been following along for a while, you know that I have stage four endometriosis. We are a household of chronic illnesses around here.

I finally got in to see a new specialist for endometriosis back in July and I had been waiting for about two years for this appointment so I was really happy when it finally came. We are on a new management plan right now and that I am not taking any sort of medication or hormone for symptom management. We are trying to get my body back down to a baseline to see exactly what’s going on and to help prepare us to go in for another surgery hopefully in 2024.

It has not been a fun time going off all these medications. They were all hormone medications. And if you’ve ever had to take hormone medications yourself or if you’ve ever had your hormones go completely out of whack, you know, it’s not easy. It’s not the same as like when we were going through puberty and things like that. Like there’s definitely similarities, but it’s a little different. There was a lot of sleepless nights. There was a lot of days where I just haven’t felt like myself, but.

Sandra Henderson (05:33.482)
It’s getting better and better each day. And when it comes to my health, I’m always fine to do things and to push past hurdles if it means that we’re working towards something bigger and that’s what we are doing now. So it’s just kind of a pain in the ass that we have to get through, but it’ll be worth it just to prepare to go in for another surgery down the road. So that’s kind of.

a little update of what’s been going on over the spring and summer months since season one of the podcast ended. Now I mentioned at the beginning of this that season two is going to be so much better than season one was. So I want to give you a little bit of a sneak peek of what you can expect. So I already said that we are going to be more unfiltered, we’re going to have so much fun along the way. And one way that I’m going to be doing that is that I am ditching the script.

In season one, I definitely typed up my episodes ahead of time, aside from the interviews, but when it was just me talking, I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I was going to say, exactly how I wanted to say it, and wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss a thing. And I loved it. I think that it all went really well. But I want the episodes where I don’t have a guess to be just as conversational as the ones that do.

So this year I am ditching the script and let me tell you guys, I am so freaking nervous about this. I have a feeling that I am going to be doing a lot more editing than I ever did last year, but I think it’s gonna be worth it. And so speaking of those interviews, some of the guests that we have lined up, I’m not gonna tell you who they are, but some of the topics that you can expect for us to be talking more about.

We’re going to be talking about using AI for your business. We’re going to be talking about consistency and marketing, accessibility in the wedding industry. And of course, all the workflow strategies and tips for your systems processes of automations that you could ever need, because that hasn’t changed at all since the last season. I am still your systems obsessed bestie. And I want to share all the ways that you can just make work easier for yourself as a wedding photographer.

Sandra Henderson (07:49.09)
So this season you can still expect weekly episodes every Wednesday. Last season they were released every Tuesday. Well, I shouldn’t say every Tuesday because like I said, I was kind of just winging it and having fun. And so the episodes definitely did not drop every Tuesday. But this year they will be coming out every Wednesday. And if you’re looking for a little bit more in between those episodes, I would love to invite you to come over to the wedding photography unfiltered community on Facebook to hang out there.

It’s been a little bit quiet during busy season because I honestly just didn’t have the time. I had a lot of editing and things like that on the go. A lot of other things going on personally that I had to take care of. And so it’s been a little bit quiet in there, but things are going to be picking back up again now that fall is here. And I know that you are going to love this space as much as I do. If you’re all about community and all about learning from one another and supporting one another and just making the wedding photography industry a better place, then

this group is 100% for you, head over to facebook.com forward slash groups, forward slash wedding photography unfiltered and come and join because we would love to have you there. Okay friends, those are all of my updates. We are gonna be back next week with our very first guest, the one and only Michelle Harris, join me to talk about the number one reason why people are getting ghosted by potential wedding inquiries and what you can be doing to fix the problem.

something that I know I go through all the time. And so I know that other photographers are definitely gonna be able to relate. So if that’s something that you need a little help with as we head into this year’s engagement season, then definitely make sure you check back next Wednesday and I will have all of that goodness ready for you on whatever your favorite podcast player is. And then what kind of podcast host would I be if I didn’t take a quick second to ask if you could head over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review for keeping it candid.

It means so much to me to have your support and to hear what you have to say about the show. You will find the link in my show notes or you can just type Keeping It Candid into your favorite podcast player. Okay friends, I am gonna wrap things up here. This went so well as I was recording without a script and just some notes to go by. We’ll see how I feel about it once I get started with editing. But welcome back and thank you so much again for being here.

(Outro Music)

Sandra Henderson (10:10.094)

Thank you so much for listening. 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 and TikTok just search @simplysandrayvonne. And if you’re loving this podcast, I’d be so honoured if you’d go ahead and hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Until next time!

(Music fades)

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About Sandra

Sandra Henderson is a wedding photographer, business coach, and podcast host based in Ontario, Canada. She specializes in helping wedding photographers create strategic systems for their businesses to help them get their time back so they can spend it doing the things they love most. As an entrepreneur who also navigates chronic illness life, Sandra also takes a unique approach to using systems that will help businesses thrive no matter what life throws your way.

On a personal note, she loves tacos, 90’s music, travelling, and spending time at home with her husband, stepson, and two cats!

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