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louiphotography · 3 years

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Listening to your gut…

Now let me start by saying I am not a professional writer, blogger, influencer, or really anything of the sort. However what I am, is a person, who has way too many thoughts rumbling around in my head. I’m not sure if it’s my upbringing, horoscope (if you believe in that stuff), or just the luck of the draw- but I have the most difficult time making a decision and sticking to it. I know that this isn’t abnormal for most, but I want to make sure I paint a picture for you… I used to move every year, my house is reorganized/remapped each month, I move onto a new role in my company each chance I get, and no matter what is going well in life I constantly focus on what isn’t.

So this has taken time to realize, I have worked for years to be less… “aloof”. However, it often puts me in a situation where I hear my gut telling me something, but I think that “Meg is just being Meg” so I don’t pull the trigger on opportunity. So with this snippet of my background, I’m sure you can imagine how these past few months of creating a business has been. When you see all of these famous & rich social media talents, I’m willing to bet the majority of them put in the work, and no one sees that struggle. The moment I decided to build this photography business I immediately put my insane organizational skills to work reviewing any information I could get my hands on… and became overwhelmed quicker than I could bat an eye. I am thankful for every piece of support, tips/tricks, and guidance that comes with social media but to feel you are behind everyone else in the game while collecting content ideas, feel SAD.

This last month I have tried to reflect on all I have learned, my failures, but most importantly what I wanted out of life. Months, no years, years ago I knew exactly what I wanted to do… I wanted to take photos while traveling. Now yes I understand everyone wants to travel the world and document that, however I’m not talking about Paris… I wanted to live in something with four wheels and brave the elements of backroads. There has never been a full week of my adult life that I haven’t wanted to just pack up and be free, and through photography that dream is slowly becoming a reality (or at least a happy compromise). However when you are first starting out, it is easy to fall into the traps of what you think you “should” be doing vs. what you want to. I have loved every session I’ve been a part of however I knew from the moment I started that I was purely building skills but not a body of work I would leverage long term. With the reflections, I’ve learned the things I felt I had to do were purely because of how I thought others would react… and I have to tell you, that is no way to live your life.

To say I want to be a travel photographer, blogger, or WHATEVER is like saying I want to be a millionaire… yes of course everyone does honey! So I figured that putting those dreams to the side, and focusing on building a lifestyle portfolio would be best. But… best for who? Certainly not best for me, not best for my clients, or business long term. So as I thought about this each night while I was trying to fall asleep, I started making a list of things to look out for when deciding if you are wrestling with a gut feeling you should trust, you are fearful, or you may make an emotional decision out of anger:

Does this decision have anything to do with what other people think? Fear

Does this decision keep you up at night, or pop into your head during “daydream” moments? Gut

Will this decision bring you or anyone in your life harm? Emotional reaction

Is this decision resulting from a possible trauma from your past? Fear

When you think about this it brings you calm, not panicky? Gut

Does this decision have anything to do with how you look (or think you look/will be perceived)? Fear

Can you see the pros/cons of this decision, or are you clouded by emotion, and think it’s 100% good or 100% bad (nothing truly is)? Emotional reaction

I can tell you that there have been choices in life that I wish I didn’t make, we are all human after all. However I want to stress that there is typically a root cause behind your choice and I want us to look for those “feelings” that bring us calm, joy, and excitement… Those are the decisions you should make, no matter how hard you have to work in order to see them through. Like I said before, this is not professional advice nor do I claim to have all the answers. I simply have a lot of thoughts, am working through creating a business, and feel it better for my mental health to get them down on paper. I hope that anyone finds even 1% of clarity through this quick post, and we can all take steps to do what will bring us joy going into this new year.

#newphotographybusiness #twincitiesphotography #minneapolisphotographer #photographer #photographybusiness #newphotographer #photography

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louiphotography · 3 years

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… When you look at your partner and say “hey I’m probably going to be gone once a month on a solo road trip”, there is a few different ways this can go. . . . . . I am so fortunate to have a boyfriend who appreciates my goals, ideas, and overzealous path to achieving those goals. I have loved every moment of getting into photography, it is truly a skill that takes time, and I know this will take years to find my “groove”. I wanted to be intentional with the new year, which means putting myself out in the universe to learn. Although the idea of road tripping all over the states seems like a dream come true, it feels that way often, but there is a whole other side that isn’t as glamorous. There is lonely moments, you have to be ultra cautious of your safety, and not everything works out the way you want it to. Personally I try to make these trips budget friendly, so I may car camp, and even portion out food (Chipotle burrito bowl w/ extra everything, and then split it into different Tupperware to eat for multiple meals). But anyone who is an avid roadtripper will tell you, those difficult moments, are worth the ones that take your breath away. I am no way hard core, but 2021 will be a year of growth, thank you in advance for joining me on these journeys! . . . . . #newphotographer #sonyphotography #sonycamera #photogallery #sonyhomies #sonyalphaclub #supportsmallbusinessowners #websitelaunch #growingbusiness #roadtripacrossamerica #supportingsmallbusinesses #photographyworld #primelens #mirrorlesscamera #launch #manualmode #primelenses #primelensphotography #keepcreating #creativesoul #createdaily #creativecommunity #creativespirit #workinprogess #minneapolisphotography #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #twincitiesphotographer #chooselocal #travelschedule https://www.instagram.com/p/CI03ZjYntZO/?igshid=4ck1e85anngg

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louiphotography · 3 years

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Scroll for full sneak peek •••••••• Had a wonderful day freezing my buns off with my sister! There is nothing more fun than shooting in a populated area- you get stares, smiles, and thumbs ups 🙋🏼‍♀️ Thank you @haileyostby for always being my most understanding model! / / / / (at Minneapolis, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIuNelglwYR/?igshid=swjlzysf45b9

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louiphotography · 3 years

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WE HAVE LAUUUUUNCHED & our books are now open for sessions. Feel free to check out our work at louiphotography.com- Connect with me to discuss your next project and discuss current deals! . . . . . . #newphotographer #sonyphotography #sonycamera #photogallery #sonyhomies #sonyalphaclub #supportsmallbusinessowners #websitelaunch #growingbusiness #newbusinessventure #supportingsmallbusinesses #photographyworld #primelens #mirrorlesscamera #launch #manualmode #primelenses #primelensphotography #keepcreating #creativesoul #createdaily #creativecommunity #creativespirit #workinprogess #minneapolisphotography #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #twincitiesphotographer #chooselocal #businesslaunch (at Minneapolis, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIjs1xiHTOc/?igshid=312v2zhahaef

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louiphotography · 3 years

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When a child starts throws a tantrum during your session... You tell the parents IT’S COMPLETELY OK!! Family sessions come with their moments, but it’s all part of the process. I think we can all agree that real life is never perfect, and although beautiful pictures are the goal, so is showing real love/family! I hope everyone is enjoying their genuinely crazy and loving family during this truly particular holiday season. We will get through this year!! . . . . . . #newphotographer #sonyphotography #sonycamera #photogallery #sonyhomies #sonyalphaclub #supportsmallbusinessowners #websitelaunch #growingbusiness #newbusinessventure #supportingsmallbusinesses #photographyworld #primelens #mirrorlesscamera #family #manualmode #primelenses #primelensphotography #keepcreating #creativesoul #createdaily #creativecommunity #creativespirit #workinprogess #minneapolisphotography #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #twincitiesphotographer #chooselocal #familyphotosession (at Coon Rapids, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIjrxCwHpBj/?igshid=16lq7ygsjuay4

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louiphotography · 3 years

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Why do we make the decisions we do? These last 8 years I’ve been playing the ladder game at my 9-5. I wasn’t “well off” growing up, so when I joined corporate America, it was ON 😂 I saw a life ahead of me that could give me all the things I needed: success and stability. I began working my tail off to get every promotion possible, and soon found myself extremely unhappy/overworked. I was working 50+ hours a week, salaried so no extra pay, and put myself in stressful roles only because they paid more. By 25, I was making more money then I thought I would ever, but I was also unhappier then I thought I’d ever be. I ended up turning to horrible vices that temporarily made me feel better, in turn of course they made life much worse. It wasn’t until the last year or so that the “haze” I’d been under, has finally started to dissolve. I started asking myself WHY was I doing certain things: why was I at this job, why was I continuously doing things I knew would bring me pain, and why wasn’t I doing things that brought me joy? Life is not easy, and many times we made the wrong move in order to learn, we are humans after all. This illustration hit my soul, as a reminder that we all go through things, often times we have regrets... but we should take a moment to show thankfulness for the phases. I wish each of you a swift last month of 2020, and more self-love & peace moving into the new year. Everything happens for a reason, and I am looking forward to applying lessons learned to the next phase of my journey! . . . . . . #newphotographer #sonyphotography #sonycamera #photogallery #sonyhomies #sonyalphaclub #supportsmallbusinessowners #websitelaunch #growingbusiness #newbusinessventure #supportingsmallbusinesses #photographyworld #primelens #mirrorlesscamera #createnomatterwhat #manualmode #primelenses #primelensphotography #keepcreating #creativesoul #createdaily #creativecommunity #creativespirit #workinprogess #minneapolisphotography #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #twincitiesphotographer #chooselocal #twincitiesseniorphoto Credit: @blessthemessy https://www.instagram.com/p/CIea_47nDMu/?igshid=1oagtcky7uu01

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louiphotography · 3 years

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Just a little sneak peek while I’m getting her gallery ready! . . . . . #newphotographer #sonyphotography #sonycamera #photogallery #sonyhomies #sonyalphaclub #supportsmallbusinessowners #websitelaunch #growingbusiness #newbusinessventure #supportingsmallbusinesses #photographyworld #primelens #mirrorlesscamera #createnomatterwhat #manualmode #primelenses #primelensphotography #keepcreating #creativesoul #createdaily #creativecommunity #creativespirit #workinprogess #minneapolisphotography #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #twincitiesphotographer #chooselocal #twincitiesseniorphoto (at Saint Paul, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIcD-HIn8sL/?igshid=madk3osfp00v

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louiphotography · 3 years

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Throw back to one of my favorite 2020 photos. I appreciate @haileyostby for braving the cold, and being willing to try anything for this shoot! . . . . . #newphotographer #sonyphotography #sonycamera #photogallery #sonyhomies #sonyalphaclub #supportsmallbusinessowners #websitelaunch #growingbusiness #newbusinessventure #supportingsmallbusinesses #photographyworld #primelens #mirrorlesscamera #createnomatterwhat #manualmode #primelenses #primelensphotography #keepcreating #creativesoul #createdaily #creativecommunity #creativespirit #workinprogess #minneapolisphotography #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #twincitiesphotographer #chooselocal #supportinglocal (at Munsinger Gardens) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIYdXGgHTGz/?igshid=165hpa81cwuct

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louiphotography · 3 years

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Starting a photography business… how to keep a sane mind.

By no means has this been easy, my current 9 to 5 is with a financial institution that changes processes/procedures almost daily… so it’s saying a lot that getting into photography has been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to work through. I want to take a few moments to discuss a few examples of how I structured my plan. By no means do you have to follow this as a guide, it’s simply a few tips I wish I had been given and hopefully you can learn from some of the hiccups I went through! Further below I will dive into each of these further however here’s a quick recap of the topics will cover in this post:

Social media

Organization

Helpful services to leverage

Portfolio

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Let’s first start off with social media. It’s easy to feel that this channel isn’t going to really make a difference in your business including learning, growth, and overall success… but you’d be wrong. Everything I know about photography (outside of “gut feelings”) is from self taught social media. Social media does not hand you the answers, but it gives you great direction to go off and practice until you find that best fit for YOU. Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Facebook, and YouTube are my main go-to’s. Not only does this give you an opportunity to find inspiration whether that be styles/locations but also things that could take you years to figure out… experienced photographers are happy to clue you in on. Often there are going to be demographics that you meet with each source, for example there are some people who just refuse to download TikTok, however you likely could still connect with them via Facebook or Pinterest.

Make sure that when you are first starting out and find a name/brand that you want to build, go through and create an account on each of the above platforms to reserve your name (or close to the name if not available). Whether or not you use each one, you at least want to avoid someone else from utilizing your handle on a social media site- that can get confusing! The other piece of advice I’d give is to get organized. We will discuss this more in the next section, however have a plan for social media usage. This could include ideas that come to you to post, when/how often you want to leverage each account, and tracking what you’ve done on each platform. I’ll provide you examples of what this looks like for me in the next section. To sum this up, leverage social media!

Avoid: setting up social media accounts before you have a set name. I did this before I registered my business, and my original idea ended up not being available through my state. Not fun to go change all emails/accounts and in some cases make new accounts! —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————Next up is organization, and it’s the topic I feel most passionate about. My corporate job has created a monster who loves spreadsheets and honestly it has helped my business immensely. It will be easiest to just bullet point the programs I use, and what I use them for:

Excel spreadsheet tabs

Items to do

Social media ideas

Social media usage tracker

Location wishlist

Shoot ideas

Shot lists

Expense Tracker (taxes)

Folders within external hard drive

Sessions- break down by year, subfolder for client, then within each client folder they have a “edits” subfolder, within that a “social media” subfolder

Social Media- subfolders for created IG posts, IG stories, Pinterest pins, TikTok, marketing, welcome guides, session guides, recap guides

Branding Pack- all the color schemes, logos, fonts that I use for my company brand

Business documents- anything related to registering the business, all emails saved from the state or IRS, receipts subfolder taxes

Purchases- where I keep any items I got from Creative Market (fonts/graphics)

Notes app

Post templates- I keep a note for each type of post I may make during the day, so I don’t have to find my commonly used format/hashtags for each social media platform

Ideas list (for when I’m on the go and can’t update my excel sheet) however I make it a point to update my excel each night before bed

Calendar app (I leverage this to schedule myself weekly tasks). For instance:

Monday- Engagement, check in with people and see how their weekend went, post your weekend in photos and post weekend challenge results

Tuesday- Content creation day for the next week (or more if possible for backup)

Wednesday- Schedule content for the next week (or more if possible)

Thursday- Weekly blog write up

Friday- Photography challenge jar to accomplish over the weekend

Saturday- Shoot as much as you can/focus on photography challenge/work on any extra “to-dos” such as Lightroom practice

Sunday- Shoot as much as you can/focus on photography challenge/work on any extra “to-dos” such as Photoshop practice

Even writing that felt like a lot… and truly it is. Starting a business and getting into the “groove” is NO JOKE. Now image this on top of your regular 9-5, actually having consistent photoshoots, the client management aspect, possibly having a family or spouse, and trying to manage your health both physical and mental. If you have a loved one that is starting a business, GIVE THEM A HUGE and maybe some Starbucks! Again these are not things you HAVE to do when starting your business, these are just items I feel work for me.

Avoid: Having NO organization plan whatsoever or feel as long as you take some notes here and there, it will be sufficient. There is so much information available to us that I would write down pages of information and when I’d review, it was too overwhelming and I would want to quit. Play around with it and see what works best for you!

Now let’s get into the systems/services I use that have really made a difference! Yes I pay for each one of these, it can add up, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

PicTime- Delivering client galleries on a professional platform and provides them high quality products for purchase (1 FREE month code- M275PS)

Honeybook- online service for client management, helps automate tasks for example “as soon as client sends in XYZ document, the system shoots them the contract to sign”. It saves so much time! (20% off)

Lightroom- Photo editing

Photo Mechanic- Photo culling system that helps me go through thousands of photos in a JIFFY prior to Lightroom importing, works in tandem with Lightroom to flag which photos you’d like to edit, and will import directly for you.

Canva- Program to build social media content, I also used this for building all guides for my business.

Creative Market- online marketplace for creatives to sell their graphics/fonts/templates. They also will have weekly freebies that are amazing!

Avoid: signing up for things before you need them. For instance, since I’m starting out and have minimal clients, I haven’t pulled the trigger on customized accounting or even quickbooks. Once I find a consistent client stream, I will certainly do this however I personally feel confident in my tracking/organization for taxes purposes at this time.. I’m not going to pay hundreds for an accountant before I actually need it. As small businesses starting up, money can be tight, I would really do your research on what you need vs. what you think you should do because you saw it on the internet. Again I am not a financial master, this is just my two cents!

Portfolio time! This is something that I was so worried about when starting… if I’m just starting, how am I supposed to get clients?! My honest answer- ASK PEOPLE! Ask your friends, mother, neighbor… anyone you feel comfortable working with! Not only does it give you a chance to practice, but they get free photos (saving hundreds mind you). Now, this also depends on what you want to shoot, but when you are starting you really should shoot anything purely for practice. This also helps you really nail down what you want, you may think couples are fun to shoot, but when practicing you find that families are where you have the most fun. The only way to really know is to shoot- for example I have such a huge passion for travel photography, my favorite photos I’ve taken are from trips. However there is no way to constantly practice traveling… I have a job, oh yea and Covid is a thing! I always have a blast shooting families/couples/individuals so for the time being I am throwing all my effort into creating the best experience/product for those clients. Eventually with practice I can get to that “end game” dream, but no one is above practicing and putting together a solid portfolio to show what you can do.

It will be very hard to get any paying client to trust you enough to book, without examples of what your results look like. If you are going to offer family shoots, I recommend having at least 2-3 full session examples you can showcase to a potential paying client. I also found that creating guides that not only showcase your work, set an expectation for pre & post session, and then having a professional gallery to deliver images is HUGE for the client experience. At the end of the day, there are a ton of photographers, but I want you to focus on how you set yourself apart in the experience you provide (this is what clients will remember and share)!

Avoid: Thinking your first session will be how your pictures will always look! Even if you like them, you will find your photography game will change/grow with each client. Take each session seriously, learn all you can, and try to prepare… but do NOT get dow on yourself if everything doesn’t go 100% perfect, as long as you take steps to avoid it the next session. This has been such a learning experience for me, and continues to be each day. I’m always happy to talk through things if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email or direct message at the below resources. Keep your chin up, it doesn’t get easier, but you will continue to get better!

E: [email protected]

@thelouiphotography

#newphotographybusiness #photographybusiness #newsmallbusiness #photography #photographer #minneapolisphotographer #twincitiesphotography #newphotographer

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