>Follow Jenna on Facebook<
>Read more of her personal stories on her blog<
>Check out her website<

While I careened at a full gallop across a lush field on my pony, I screamed my head off, knowing that the end of this situation would end in pain. This was supposed to be an easy ride, because I had been bucked off the day before and Charlie was supposed to be a breeze. But as Charlie went faster and faster, with me clutching his mane in fear, I realized this was going to end badly. Sure enough, he came up on a fence that he realized he didn’t want to jump, so he spun to the right.

I flew to the left.

I landed on a cement road along the barbed wire fence, slamming my head so hard my helmet had shattered in the back. If I hadn’t been wearing that helmet, I’d be dead right now or vegetable in a hospital.

This is how I lived my life,: quickly, fearful and usually, I hurt myself. I always got back on the horse, but I kept the same mindset, the same fearful attitude. Eventually, the fear became so intense that in January this year, I dreaded riding. Every Wednesday, I would get a pit in my stomach, churning fear settling into my gut.  Finally, my best friend and riding instructor yelled at me, after I couldn’t even get our smallest pony into a canter, because I was terrified I’d fall off.

“Jenna, you can’t be afraid of falling off. You’re going to fall off. It’s going to hurt. But you should love riding enough that you do it anyway, regardless of risk. Either you make this canter happen or stop riding.” 

She’s my best friend for a reason. I swallowed my fear and damnit, I made that tiny pony canter. I shattered through months of built up fear, through sheer determination and frankly, I didn’t want to feel or look like a damn pansy. After I got off , I contemplated what this moment in time meant for me. I realized that this is what 2013 was going to present to me, whether I wanted it to or not. 2013 has been one of the hardest years ever, throwing curveball after curveball. I had a boyfriend dump me, I got laryngitis on the weekend I had a three day expo and a wedding, I started doing school full time with my business full time and I’m in debt up to my eyeballs. Yet, I knew that living in fear of the unknown was not how I wanted to function anymore.

I wanted to be honest. With everyone. About everything. I wanted to go balls to the wall, tell you about me and risk judgment by anonymous strangers. See, horses weren’t the only thing I was terrified about, it was/is people in general. I grew up abused, socially awkward and too weird for others to tolerate. As a result, I turned into an outwardly happy adult who told you nothing, nadda, zilch, about myself. I realized that this is probably why I have so few good friends, because I just don’t want to be hurt over and over again. Then I realized that I’m not alone. I’m not that damn special in this world, so if I felt isolated and afraid of the world, others probably did too.

So at the beginning of March, I wrote a blog about myself, where I told the whole world that my father had abused me as a child and that he was in prison. I told them I’ve been in jail, even if it was for the most ridiculous reason. And I was frightened out of my  mind. Terror settled in my stomach for two days after I posted that blog, the urge to just take it down so unbelievably strong. But I feel I have too much to offer, too much compassion to share, to be another one of those photographers who shows you nothing but their highlight reel of butterflies and rainbows.

You know what happened after that blog? Nothing. Nobody came to me and said, “oh my word, thank you Jenna for telling the world you’ve been abused. I was raped too and you’ve given me the hope I’ll be a millionaire one day and perhaps have a circus of dancing dogs.” On the other end, no one noticeably judged me for it either, although I’m sure it happened in closed chat rooms and texts. And that’s okay because that wasn’t the point. Living authentically has nothing to do with notoriety. Living authentically is alllllll about you, baby. Let me tell you the personal outcome of telling the world I had been raped.

I am happy.

It’s simple: if you open up to the world for yourself and with no ulterior motives, you will become happy. A switch had flipped for me. Suddenly, I dealt with stress better, I no longer feel like I need a man to make me happy and I have even stopped dating for a while, when before, I went on two a week.  I go out more, I reach out to people more frequently and hell, I relax more often. I had been heavily drinking but suddenly I didn’t feel the need to have a drink every single day.

I think when I decided to say, “Screw you, I’m sharing myself, whether you like me or not!!!!!” I think I realized I can be comfortable with who I am. Haters gonna hate, might as well give them a juicy topic to complain about!

My weirdness is still here in all of its glory, but I smile bigger when I dance in a grocery store. My dog and I have more educated conversations (just kidding, he isn’t educated). I’m not terrified if someone judges me for being raped, for going to jail, for having a GED or for being a freakin WEIRDO. But if sharing myself with people helps even just one person take the leap into living authentically, then awesome. I want to help people, to help this world become a better place, because you deserve more than surface Facebook updates and “what’s up” texts.

I know I’m not special. My story is far from original. So if I can do it without repercussion, you can too. You won’t lose as much as you think. Just try it this week. Write one blog about you, for you. Don’t think about who will read it, because remember, that isn’t the point.

By the way, I ride every Wednesday with a smile now. I have no fear of falling anymore.

At the convention there was a lot of talk about why we are here and what we do. Are we here being photographers so someday we can become that famous one? Sometimes we get really wrapped up in photography being all about ourselves and we forget that it’s about our clients.

One of the speakers at United, >Mary Marantz<, talked about why she was a photographer. She talked about ‘personality marketing,’ something I’ve been pushing and teaching to you guys about for a long time. She talked about how personality marketing has become the new commodity – how we’re all putting ourselves out there and marketing our personalities. Personality is the new commodity – we’re all doing it. She said even she herself does it. I know I do it too. I use my personality to attract the type of brides that I want in my business and that’s okay. But it’s also important to know that the personality of a photographer is not enduring over time. The photos are enduring. We can all push and market ourselves and our personalities, but we need to remember why we are here – to produce beautiful images and memories for our clients. That is what is enduring.

After her speech about personality marketing it made me realize that I may be going about marketing myself and making it all about me. I’m not enduring. After my client’s wedding is done I’m no longer in the picture and my photos are. It reminded me that I can’t make my business about me, myself and I. I want to bring it back to my clients. Sure…I can use my personality to ensure that I’m a good match for my clients. I can be funny and charming on social media, but I need to make sure it’s about my clients and that I’m providing them with a wonderful experience and the best photos possible of their weddings, babies and any other major life events. The photos we create are the most important part of our job. Our clients are the most important part, not us. I left the speech feeling selfish and different and wanting to focus on different things in my business.

She asked the crowd what the most important photo was to us and took some answers from others. It was weird because I thought the most important and memorable photo to me would be a wedding photo of my husband and I, but the very first photo that showed up in my brain was a photo of my grandparents. It’s this funny photo.

My mom has albums of photos of my brother and I growing up and the photos are not the most professional, they’re fun memories of our lives. When I first moved out of the house at 19 I remember I wanted to take a photo of my grandma and grandpa with me. My grandpa passed away years before. I remember that my mom wasn’t home when I went through the photo album and snagged a funny photo of the two of them. I never really paid much attention to what was happening in the photo, but I loved it because my grandpa – a rather quiet man was laughing with my grandma at the kitchen table. It’s the same kitchen table my grandma still has today and I love that kitchen, their house, and the smell of it all. I have so many fond memories of summers there.

It’s a small 4×6 photo and I put it in a glittery star and moon frame that I’ve had since middle school. I was that stylish when I moved out. The frame is kind of stupid and the photo in it is funny and yellowed. Like I said, I never really knew why they were laughing in the photo and I didn’t pay much attention.

It wasn’t until years later when my mom was over at my house that I learned what this photo was all about. I can’t remember where I was living at the time that she told me the story behind that photo. Apparently a button on my grandma’s blouse had come undone or she was really hot, I can’t quite remember, but her undergarments were peeking out the top and my grandparents were laughing about it at the kitchen table. Someone took a photo of that because it was so funny at the time. I’m glad I know the story behind that photo.

I’ve questioned for the last couple weeks why that was the photo that came to my mind when Mary Marantz asked us what the most important photo was to us. I mean, I have no control over my brain, why is that photo the one that popped up the minute she asked that question? I took that photo on a whim because it was one candid photo of my grandparents both smiling. She asked us why the photos we thought were the most important were the ones that made us want to be a photographer.

That photo of my grandparents and that memory of them laughing in the kitchen is something that has gone and passed. I don’t even know if I was in the kitchen when that happened, or if I was old enough at the time the photo was taken to know why they were laughing. My grandma will be 94 years old this year and my grandpa has been gone for a very long time. My grandma, the healthiest person I know, is now finally starting to have health issues and these years are some of the most important that I be a part of her life before it’s too late. Even though I was young when my grandpa passed I know what he looked like and sounded like when he did laugh. As I write these words, sitting in the back row of an airplane I can hear my grandma laughing and saying “oh go on.”

I guess that photo is the most important photo to be because it defines why photos are important. It’s a little blurry, aged, yellow, and slightly over exposed. But it is PERFECT.

I’m a photographer because I want to celebrate life, which is too short. I hope that even my imperfect images can remind my clients of the same things this one photo reminds me of. Thanks Mary Marantz for putting my mind and business back on the right track and reminding me of the most important things in life.

So, why are you a photographer?

Awesomesauce Store & Carrie Swails Photography

While I was in southern California I was blessed with many opportunities to work with a number of photographers some new, some industry leaders and some just regulars. I was also lucky enough to have this amazing opportunity that wasn’t at all photography related.

I’ve been a long time listener to an internet radio show called >The Pretty Good Podcast<. A Podcast is essentially talk radio that is accessible online. You can find The Pretty Good Podcast on iTunes. I listen to it every day and when I first started to listen to it I was going through a rough time with my day job and that was right when I first started to become a photographer, so in a way it’s sort of significant that the world turned around and Gina Grad and Randy Wang invited me to be a guest on the podcast while I was out at the Showit United photography conference. So one morning I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn and drove down from Santa Barbara into LA.

I have to say that after listening to The Pretty Good Podcast for years on a daily basis you start to feel like you know the hosts, Gina and Randy. Here I was driving down there and my stomach was doing flip flops thinking about how much I knew about them and they know nothing about me. What if I was a bad guest? Would it be weird? Would I say some dorky things on the show?

Everything went off without a hitch and they were the most friendly people in the world. The producer of the show, Elijah, is also a bit of a camera buff and the first thing I did when I arrived was take out my camera equipment and lenses and let him play with them the entire show.

I’m posting and sharing the link with you all here because being a guest on a show was kind of like something I could check off my ‘bucket list.’ I’m proud and honored I got to be there and be a part of the show that got me through a tough time in life. You can listen to the show >here< or find it on iTunes. Please be aware that the show is not PG rated. I do talk about some personal things and beliefs. It’s who I am and I’m proud of that person, even if that person might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Gina, Randy, and Elijah if you stumble across my blog post just know how wonderful it was for you to let me be on the show and thank you for inviting me into your home Randy! You guys are awesome and I have always thought you were, but meeting you in person finally confirmed that! Thanks for a wonderful opportunity that was seriously one of the highlights of my year!

I can’t wait to do it again next time!

The Showit United photography conference last week was a little bit like summer camp. You know the feeling when your parents send you off and you don’t know anyone at summer camp, but you make the absolute best friends while you are there. There’s something about a community at a summer camp that will always stick with you and give you wonderful memories even after the years have gone by since summer camp.

The Showit conference was like that. I went knowing no one, not knowing what I would learn, and not fully understanding how changed I would be when I left. We live in a cruel industry where on a daily basis over the internet all we see and hear is photographers putting each other down. How it’s possible for any of us to truly feel inspired when everything about being a photographer seems to be against you is truly beyond me. The Showit United conference is put on by www.showitfast.com, my favorite software company, and yet they are so much more. They’ve worked hard not only to develop this amazing software we can use to run our websites and online galleries, but they’ve put even more into the world than that – they’ve worked hard to develop the type of photography community that we’ve all dreamed of.

I had the absolute pleasure of learning from many talented and wonderful photographers at this conference. No, they are not the industry ‘celebrities,’ they are our industry leaders. My absolute favorite speech was the one made by Mary Marantz of >Justin & Mary< Did I plan on crying at this conference? Um…definitely not, but hey when you’re feeling so inspired that you’re brought to tears that can’t be a bad thing right?

Mary really touched on some topics in her speech that I loved. It’s been days since I heard it and I cannot stop thinking about it. She said, “We wear busy like a badge of honor.” And we so do. We get caught up in what the photography industry defines as success and forget what defines success on a personal level for us. We get caught up in Facebook likes, who is speaking at WPPI, who has the most awesome workshops, how much we’re getting paid, who has photographed more weddings then who.

All of this social media almost makes us get caught up in these checklists of what we need to do to be a successful photographer and it never seems to be enough. We keep wanting more and more and can’t be happy with what we already have. We hear someone say how many sessions they have to photograph this week, or how many more sessions they have to edit. We put it out there for everyone to see and we wear busy like a badge of honor.

Mary talked about how being too busy being a photographer has held her back in some ways and made her miss out on moments that she can never get back. We get caught up in being busy and sometimes we think that the busier we are the more successful we will be.

When we’re on our deathbeds we won’t care about how many Facebook likes we have, or that photographer who had 10 photo sessions in a week, or whose photos are better than whose. We should care about what type of industry we are leaving behind. Mary said, “Don’t be a success at an industry – be significant.” I couldn’t agree more. Speaking at huge conventions, booking huge expensive weddings, and all that isn’t significant – it really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. What matters is that time you spend with your kids, your family, your spouse and living a life full of things that really matter. It’s better to fail at the things that matter than to succeed at the things that don’t. I think that means that sometimes we all sacrifice to become more successful photographers and we shouldn’t be sacrificing our important relationships with others for business – or we’ll live a life of regret.

Don’t wear busy like a badge of honor. Live a life with no regrets.

Regret is a way to mourn your own life, while you are in it. – Mary Marantz

Awesomesauce Store & Carrie Swails Photography

The statistics for survival of small businesses are minimal and barely there at all. Have you watched the video blog on surviving as a small business? Check it out >here<. Chances aren’t good when we all decided to do this and not every one of us is going to make it, but that’s why you’re here reading this, right? To do whatever you can to make it!! Educating yourself even on the more negative side of owning a business is important. This is a basic list of reasons why not only photography businesses, but small businesses fail.

Now I don’t want you to look at this and feel heartbroken. I want you to look at this list and reflect and be able to see what you can change about your business. You don’t have to fail, no one has to fail! Being able to recognize what things could possibly cause failure and preventing them is a way to success!

1. Failure to Get Legit (get all your business licenses). If you need help with this check out my Get Legit Workshops >here<
2. Failure to Pay Taxes. It’s a sad day when I see a photographer get caught not paying taxes and the amount they owe is so overwhelming that they have to close their doors.
3. Forgetting to balance being a photographer with being a creative entrepreneur and always thinking of new ideas and challenging your business to be successful.
4. Burn Out. If you feel burnt out, consider what parts of the job you can delegate to automated computer services, a part time employee or someone else who can help you out.
5. Not having good time management skills. Time is money and the key to making your business worth your time and making a profit is using your time wisely. If you spend 10 hours editing a 2 hour portrait session time management should be a consideration. The fee your clients paid for that session might not spread out over how much time it’s costing you.
6. Failure to put in the hard work. Owning a business is hard work. Now you don’t only get to be a photographer, but you have to be the manager, the entrepreneur, the organizer, the assistant, the cleaner…and so many other titles. If you’re ready to open a business be ready to make a significant investment with your time, especially the first year.
7. Failure to charge enough to live off of. Sometimes photographers don’t raise their prices over time. You are worth it! Charge what you’re worth! If you’re not making a profit eventually, it will be harder to afford to live.
8. Failure to invest in quality equipment. Lots of us started our businesses with meager equipment, at best. Eventually we want to take the time to invest in quality equipment. Although having the best cameras and the best lenses don’t always produce the best photos, we know the photographer does. Taking the time to eventually invest in better equipment as time goes on will also help you not feel limited to what your starter camera can or can’t do.
9. Failure to invest in continuing education. This is even more important than investing in your equipment. You could have the best equipment in the world, but if you don’t have the photography and business knowledge to back it up how will your business succeed? It’s always important to be learning new things and challenging yourself with new information. If you’re interested in joining our free >Photography Awesomesauce Book Club<, please do! We’d love to learn with you!
10. Balancing your photography work life with your family and leisure life. Working all the time is going to cause you to burn out. Make sure you’re balancing your schedule and making time for the other things in your life. You should always prioritize your spouse, your children, and your family above your work.
11. Not having a back up plan. Sometimes something doesn’t work out in a small business and then we’re left standing there wondering what’s next. Creating a back up plan and having that for the worst case scenario ready to go is going to help you handle the tough times instead of giving up.
12. Not having a mentor or help! It’s hard to start in a freelance business like photography. There’s not always a lot of education available for photographers to figure out how to shoot in manual and run a business. It’s hard. Making sure that you have a person you know you can go to for help is very important. Sometimes business owners fail simply because they feel so alone in their world. P.S. You guys are always welcome to email me questions about photography or business (carrie[@]carrieswailsphotography.com) I try my best to answer everyone!
13. Too much business debt. This is a reason many small businesses fail. They get a business loan and the business isn’t going well and they can’t continue to pay for the loan for all the equipment they bought. In order to pay it off they have to get a regular 9-5 again.
14. Worrying too much about what everyone else is doing! I think this is a big one for us photographers. We live in such a visual world that we can have a hard time separating ourselves from it and not comparing our work and our business to someone else’s. We have to stop spending time worrying about what everyone else is doing so we can focus on what we should be doing and give our businesses the focused, undivided attention they need to succeed. (haha rhyme)
15. Practice! Sometimes I know I get down in the slower season and I wonder if things will ever pick up again. Keeping a positive attitude will help a business succeed. Getting out there and practicing even if you aren’t doing a paid session will help you remember what you loved most about photography in the first place.

Awesomesauce Store & Carrie Swails Photography

What what? You want to hear me be a dork and tell you how I became a photographer? It’s not that special, but here goes…

Awesomesauce Store & Carrie Swails Photography

2. There are 3 big parts to being a business owner. One is being the creative idea-maker, one is the manager who organizes everything, and the third is the person who does the actual job (the photographer).

3. Delegating small or odd jobs can be a huge lifesaver! Photography is hard to delegate, but you can use an editing service like www.photographersedit.com to outsource your editing. You can use a place like www.pixifi.com to streamline your booking process so it’s easier for your clients and yourself.

4. Your business should always be growing and changing for the better.

5. Always be looking for the things in your business that aren’t working the best, evaluate them, and make the change necessary to make it better.

6. The legal side of things is VERY important! Neglecting the knowledge of a solid contract, your taxes, sales taxes and business licenses can be fatal to a business. We’re having an awesome online class at the beginning of January about just this sort of thing. We’ll talk taxes, paperwork, contracts and everything you need to know. If you aren’t legal yet you can take the class! >Register here< Don’t worry the classes are held live and if you can’t make it and you’re registered you’ll still be able to watch the recording later!

7. Business Insurance. Being a registered as an LLC won’t save you from all the pitfalls and mistakes that may happen as a business owner, business insurance is even required by some places to be a photographer. Business insurance will help protect you and your finances in a worst-case scenario.

8. A business plan is probably one of the hardest things to write, but one of the most useful. A business with an actual plan will find it easier to follow through and be successful. A business plan helps you outline goals and expectations for your business and will help you measure your success without comparing yourself to everyone else. We have a business plan guide in our >Starting a Photography Business Packet<

9. One of the most important things I’ve learned about being a business owner is creating policies for myself to follow. It’s so easy as a photographer to overwork yourself and stay up late editing or doing something. By making my own rules for when I’m going to work, how I’m going to do it and limitations for myself I’m a much stronger business owner. Creating my own little ‘rule-book’ has helped me stay balanced between my life and work.

10. Don’t compare yourself to everyone out there who is doing the same business as you. Everyone is working at their own pace and their own style. If you spend a lot of time worrying about everyone else, that’s valued time you could have spent working on you and your business.

11. Many businesses today are statistically run based on what the business owner wants and sometimes we forget about what the business actually needs and what our customers are most interested in! These are important things to remember.

12. Being a business owner is fun. You can be creative and come up with new ideas and we get to take photos of people. When we run out of time the first thing to usually go is all that boring filling and accounting, but these are some of the most important tasks to a business. Leaving a paper trail for your taxes and business can be a life saver. I spend 1 day a month filing and recording my accounting – and even then it’s only a couple hours. A couple hours a month is totally doable, but I have to admit I really try hard to set aside time and a specific day to do it, because I hate it too.

13. Most people start a business because they are fed up with their 8-5 jobs or bosses. Business are a lot of work and one thing that changed for me after I started my business is that I really longed for those 8-5 hours when I could just go home and leave my work at work. Now I have to really manage myself so I’m not overworking or working when I should be taking a break.

14. Reading business books can be really good for you. The more you read and educate yourself the more ideas and things you’ll be able to learn about creating a successful business. We have a >Book Club< starting in January where we’ll be reading 1 book a month together.

15. It’s easy to lose yourself in your business. The first year you give it your all, your heart and soul and sometimes you forget all the other things that are important in life.

16. Have a space for you to do your work for your business where you can also shut the door at the end of the day and not have to mix it with the rest of your life.

17. Being a business owner is one of the most challenge and also most rewarding things you’ll ever do, if you can put your mind to it.

18. It takes awhile to figure everything out. A business won’t come immediately and it takes time and an investment to build up to the point you want.

19. Don’t be afraid to try new things. If they work – great and if they don’t, at least you learned something.

20. It’s easy to let the time aspect of being a business owner consume you. There are so many roles to play. Make sure you set aside time for work and for play.

In helping these ladies write their business plans I wanted them to truly focus on their goals. We’ve been talking a lot in classes and occasionally on the blog about measuring your success. As a small business owner we can only measure our success against the goals we create for ourselves. Everyone who is starting their photography business and trying to build it has different limitations in their lives, kids, families, dogs, full time jobs, part time jobs and more. This means that it’s easy as photographers when we’re still working that day job to not see ourselves as successful with our photography when we aren’t booking as much as the full time photographer down the street. But, how can you really compare yourself to them? Their life, background, experience, and situation is completely different than yours. I think that’s why setting goals for your business will help you define what is success for YOU and help you feel successful when you accomplish the things on your goal list a year later.

So here I am telling these photographers to write a business plan and focus on their goals. These workshop ladies are very talented and driven and many of them have only started their business within the last couple months. They’re a lot farther than I was in my first couple months! Their business plans came back to me with goals of doing one or more sessions per week and it was then I realized how much we as an industry truly do compare ourselves and create expectations for ourselves based on how ‘busy’ we think other photographers are.

The truth is that our industry has months that are insanely busy and months that are dull, boring, and have nothing. Eventually you may get to a point in your business where you can expect a certain amount of clients every year. However, it’s difficult to expect them on a regular basis. I think sometimes it’s hard for us to let go of that regular job where you learn to expect pay, work, and all of that on a schedule. Unfortunately photography is one of those things that doesn’t work on a schedule. It’s all over the place and I don’t want anyone who is starting their business or revamping it to have unrealistic expectations of getting one session or more per week. What’s going to happen if you create a goal for yourself like that and then you have a couple weeks with no sessions? You’re going to feel like a failure and you are not a failure simply because you have a couple free weeks.

That being said, I think we should still create goals, but we need to strive for them to be a perfect balance between realistic and challenging. We definitely want to challenge ourselves to work hard as business owners, but we also don’t want to set goals that are so unattainable we’re going to give up our passion for photography. If you’re in your first year or you’re further along and are still looking to build your business set your goals annually. After going over this with many of my workshop attendees I wanted to share it with everyone because I think it’s important and I think these goals are a huge part of your motivation, success, and confidence as a business owner. A great goal for your first year is to do 25 portrait sessions for the year. That averages out to approximately 2 a month, but don’t expect to do 2 a month. Expect to have some months where you do 5 or 6 and some months where you do 0. 25 sessions will require some hard work to get them in the door, but once you’ve done them you’re going to feel so accomplished for reaching that goal! And trust me, even some of the busiest photographers in the world, even some celebrity photographers don’t get 1 to 3 sessions per week.

It also goes without saying that some won’t reach their goals and that’s okay. I don’t always reach my goals, but usually with hard work I get darn close. 20 sessions out of 25…that’s still amazing and so close to your goal! This is what I mean by you measuring your own success. No one can tell you in this industry what success looks like, you’re the only one that can define it for you.

If you are interested in doing October’s 31 Days to a Better Photography Business workshop you can sign up >here<. If you’d like to do one-on-one mentoring with me sign up >here< and if you’d like some frozen yogurt I highly recommend Yogurtland.

1. Check Yourself – Are you seeing the situation clearly? Check the facts and compare them to your emotions before you respond to your clients.

2. Put Yourself in your Client’s Shoes – What is your client thinking about this difficult situation? Consider their perspective and try to understand why they are thinking or reacting the way they are.

3. Have a Practice Conversation – Imagine in your head how your difficult conversation would go. Practice approaching the client’s problem with an attitude of curiosity. Ask questions and make sure you listen before you respond.Practicing this before you have the conversation will help you think through all the possibilities of which way the difficult conversation could go and prepare for them.

4. Pick A Time – Having a difficult conversation with a client on their wedding day isn’t the right time and place, make sure you think through what time is going to be appropriate.

5. Empathize during the actual conversation by listening to your client first and letting them know that you do understand where they are coming from. Listen first and then say your part.

6. Let the outcome go once you’re done. The outcome could be positive or negative. Once your conversation is done, let it go and do your best to move on. If you listen and solve the problem holding onto it afterward will only give you grief and make it more difficult to work with that client in the future.

It’s great when confidence is one of those natural things for people, but unfortunately it’s not natural for everyone. So how can you develop confidence? It’s easier said than done. Sure, confidence is a key to a successful business, but many of us have to find it before we can have it.

1. Don’t set prices or sell things that you don’t believe in. I find it is so much easier for me to be a sales person and do my in-person product sales of photography items when I truly believe I would purchase what I’m offering.

2. Be comfortable with how you set up your business. What might work for one photographer may not work for everyone’s business set up. There are many different ways you can set up your business to achieve success. If you’re not comfortable with a certain way just because it’s the trend or someone else does it that way then don’t do it. You have to be comfortable with what you’re doing so you can be confident with it.

3. Practice! Yes, it’s a bit silly, but you have to practice talking about your products. Chat up your family and tell them about your new business and why you are offering things the way that you are. That’s practicing. Practice in your room when no one is home, or in front of a mirror. The more you talk about what you do and why the more confident you will become with it.

4. Confident people go through life taking any opportunities that are thrown their direction. The outcome of seizing these opportunities makes them generally more happy people.

5. Confidence shouldn’t be based in the skills you have or how professionally you dress. It’s about the truth of who you really are and being comfortable being yourself. First you need to accept that not everyone is going to think the same way as you, always agree with you, and think the same way. Make choices in life based on your morals and integrity and not based on what others think. By learning to make these choices despite what others think you are developing your own authentic confidence.

Carrie Swails Photography
Photography Awesomesauce 

When I started my business I had another full time job. It was a 9-5er and every day I had to come home to another pile of work on my desk, emails to answer, marketing to attend to, social networking to keep up on. It was easy to become so absorbed that I worked all day from 9 to 5 and came home and worked into the wee hours of the morning at times, collapsed into bed and did it all over again.

And the weekend? Don’t get me started on the weekend. I had to attend to shoots, edit photos, and schedule all my meetings on weekends. I remember 3 months straight where I did not have one single day where I wasn’t working. I’m not complaining, that’s what I chose and that hard work paid off. I wouldn’t do it any other way, but I could have done a much better job managing my time. Here’s a few tips that can help those of you balancing the full time job and building a business.

1. Make a Schedule for Yourself – Yep! This is good to do for anyone who owns their own business, but especially if you are trying to balance your time with your full time job, a part time job, family, kids, and your business. You will have much more limited hours to work at your business, and in order to be the most effective it’s great to plan to set aside a certain amount of time to work on your business. When that time is up, walk away and know that the next day’s hour or two you’ll get back to what you need to do.

2. Create a Goal List – For the week, for the day, for the month! Once you give yourself that schedule to stick to, give yourself a to-do list to knock out. If you run ahead of your schedule, great, relax (you deserve it!) and if you run out of time put it on the to-do list for the next day. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the social networking and caught up in looking at other photographers blogs or images and loose your time. If you have limited time to begin with you’re going to have to work even harder to use that time wisely. A list of your goals to accomplish for the day or for the week will help you use your limited time to it’s maximum potential.

3. Realize You Won’t Be Able to Do It All – Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could be super woman (or super man – no gender discrimination here) and work 8 hours a day, cook dinner, do a bit of picking up the house, play with the kids, walk the dogs, relax and get a couple hours of your business work in too as well as sleep at night? You can’t do it all and setting out trying to accomplish it all in one short day is setting yourself up for failure. Ask for help and prioritize what’s most important. When I was working full time and building my business I could not keep on top of the cleaning of our house and I also knew I wasn’t a productive worker in a messy and dirty environment. It was a worthwhile investment to pay a college student a little bit of money a week to help me keep on top of basic cleaning. I’d have asked my husband, Nick, but he was working as much as I was!

4. The Beauty of Doing Nothing – Ah yes the Italians know what this is. You can work your butt off every day and accomplish everything you planned to in the time you set aside to, but it’s really important to ensure you are getting some time off – from all your work to just hang out with your significant other, the kids, the family, the dogs and do nothing. Schedule yourself a day regularly ( and I mean schedule!!) where you won’t make any appointments or do any work. That sanity time will do wonders for your ability to be productive the rest of the week.

5. Celebrate Your Small Successes – It’s easy to get burnt out, feel like you don’t have enough time, worry about not getting enough business and lose confidence. When you’re starting out and trying to balance it all remember to give yourself that pat on the back when you have little accomplishments. It’s important you give yourself credit for what you are worth and the hard work you’ve been doing to get there. Sometimes your support system when you’re starting on this journey isn’t the best, and sometimes people are blessed with amazing families that believe in them. Either way you have to revel in the big accomplishments and especially the small ones.

Carrie Swails Photography

Reminder! Next Monday is our >Photographing in Manual Mode class<. The class is $15, if you are still shooting in Auto or need help truly understanding all those controls on your camera then this is the class for you. Once you have learned how to shoot in manual you will be more confident in your work! Next Wednesday we’re also doing a special >class specifically about White Balance<. If you struggle with white balance and you get a lot of yellow, cyan, or magenta tinted images this class is going to teach you everything you need to know to fix that easily!

Also we have two GREAT workshops for next month. >31 Days to a Better Photography Business< will be running next month as well as our new >Awesomesauce Business Workshop< with tons of personal mentoring and individualized learning!

People are always going to want the most for their money, and some people might want it more than others. So how do you say no when your client asks for a freebie, an extra hour, selective color edits, or other things you just don’t have time for? Sadly, I think all photographers go through a phase where it’s hard to say no. You know what I mean. You’re business is still getting on its feet and you feel as though if you say  no your client won’t like you, won’t refer you and you’ll get a bad reputation before you’ve even got your feet wet.

I’m here to tell you that it’s okay (and really it’s better than okay) to set some standards for yourself to follow. Learning to say no to things that you don’t want to do is always going to be hard, but it’s part of the job and it’s an important part in remaining professional, treating all your clients the same, and really getting paid for your hard work. Here are a few tips that can help you say no to those difficult requests.

1. Say ‘no’ followed with something that you would say ‘yes’ to. Offer your clients an alternative to their method. Does your client know you don’t produce selective color images where all but one object is in black and white? Tell them that you can do these, for an extra fee, $50 per image, since it’s not a part of your style or usual editing routine and takes extra time and effort. Do you have a client who wants to reschedule for a day you’re unavailable and she’s giving you a hard time? Tell her that while you are unavailable on that day, you are available on X day.

2. Say ‘no’ to the job in the beginning, but offer to find someone else that can help them with it. Ever get that feeling when you’re booking a new client that they are going to be high-maintenance. There are some clients that just are and they aren’t going to change. If you get the feeling this client is going to want all the extras, be very demanding tell them that you’re unfortunately booked for the foreseeable future, but you know a photographer who may be able to work with them instead. Yes, I’m telling you to pass off this horrible client to someone else, but maybe someone else is willing to work with them and has the patience of a saint and you don’t. It’s okay to be selective. Select clients who will further your business by bringing you in referrals, not clients that are going to make your job extra difficult.

3. Value your time and your money and stick to it. I’ve heard of this one all too many times. A photographer has a set price of $200 for a 2 hour portrait shoot, “Client” comes along and says they only want one hour so can they pay you $100 instead? Stick to your policies. Explain why a shoot takes two hours. Don’t let anyone haggle you down below what you’ve set your worth at. If they haggle you once, they’ll try it again later in their experience with you.

4. Be honest. Explain to your clients why you are saying no to something, what work goes into it, what it costs you to do whatever they’re asking and then leave it up to them. By being honest with your client and not hiding why you are saying no they can see the worth of the work that goes into what they are asking. If they still pressure you, say no and send them on their way.

5. Use kind words. Yes, sometimes clients don’t understand. Of course they don’t! Unless they’ve been a photographer it’s going to be very hard for them to relate to what goes on behind the scenes. Be patient and kind with how you say no and remember they might not know how hard you really work.

6. Say no with a smile.

7. Remember that saying no is a refusal, not a rejection. If you are saying no to your clients do your best to not make them feel bad or feel as though you are giving them a personal rejection, just refusing the offer.

8. Be assertive and don’t apologize for saying no unless it is necessary. You shouldn’t be sorry that you have to value what you’re worth. Sometimes when you apologize while saying no it can be interpreted as a weakness. Instead you can say, “unfortunately I’m unable to because of XYZ.”

9. Accept that you can’t always be nice and sometimes you do have to be firm. You can be firm and polite and that’s okay.

10. “The customer is always right” might be an okay saying in retail, but not in the world of custom photography.

Carrie Swails Photography

We have a couple awesome workshops coming up. If you didn’t have the time to do the 31 Days to a Better Photography Business workshop for the month of August you can sign up and reserve your spot for >September’s Online Workshop!<

I also just put out some information about an intensive, extended workshop (3 months!) that has private one on one sessions with me, group skypes, and even more information so we can get super in depth on revamping that business. If you’re interested in signing up please do! This workshop will also be starting on September 1st and will run through the end of November! >Register<

I have been touched by shootings and tragedies before of this nature. Growing up in Colorado meant we all knew Columbine and living in Norway as a teen made that shooting also hit home. This one hits home as well and I think it’s important we all keep the families of the victims close to our hearts today.  If I had a flag it would be flying half mast.

Please take a moment today to honor the victims of this tragedy and thank those community members who have been working tirelessly throughout the day to help others and to ensure everyone’s safety.

Hug your loved ones and appreciate the beauty of life.

“What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes part of us.” – Helen Keller

The very first goal I made my first summer in business was, “I want to photograph 5 weddings this year so I have a varied portfolio.” It didn’t matter to me how I accomplished photographing those weddings. I did some for free, some for ridiculously cheap, and some ended up being fairly pricey. I pounced on anyone I heard was getting married and occasionally overdid the sales pitch in effort to meet this goal. I probably didn’t run a very tidy business, but I accomplished and exceeded my goals. I photographed 15 weddings that year. It took the next year to really refine what I was doing as well as the process and I feel that now I’m only just settling into a good routine.

Setting that goal for myself changed my business and without creating something to work toward I don’t think I would have succeeded at all. I never wrote down that goal it was just always there somewhere in my left brain trying to keep me on track. As business grew I started setting more and more goals. Different goals. Yearly goals. Monthly goals. Small goals for individual sessions. Editing goals. Blogging goals. 100% of the time I’ve put my mind to it, I’ve exceeded those goals every single time.

As a full time business owner I now have a yearly business plan, mostly for myself, just to track these goals, plans, marketing, stats, and all that number-crunching business. Still though I make these small goals so I can accomplish little things in a big picture. These have been the foundation of my business and I would encourage anyone starting a business, or whose business seems stalled, or anyone feeling unmotivated to create some personal goals with regards to the business end of their photography – or the photography end of the photography.

Write them down. Keep ‘em in your brain. Blog your goals. Write a business plan. Research whatever you need to do in order to accomplish these goals.

I believe that if you create these goals for yourself, you’ve already done half the work to accomplish them.

Carrie Swails Photography

Next week we have two classes!! Monday, July 23rd is our free Catchlights and Sparkly eyes class. Class will start with a bit of information to help you with getting good catchlights and then the rest of the class is all Q &A for you guys, so bring your questions! Wednesday, July 25th is our Pricing Class. You guys asked for this class. We’ll talk about different pricing techniques, how to raise your prices, how to figure out where your prices should be, how to price products….and so much more. If you can’t make it to either of these classes live, you can still register and you’ll be able to watch the recording afterward!

Sure…you love photography, it’s one thing to love it and want to have it be your career and another thing to live, eat, breathe, and sleep photography. That’s usually when you’ll find your motivation for photography decreases and let me tell you the key to success in photography is diligence and hard work. It’s something you have to work hard every day at in order to succeed. Without motivation to do the hard work, how do you keep going?

That’s why finding motivation and keeping it are two separate stories. It’s rare that we can constantly keep motivation after we find it. We will always need to be finding it. If you’re having trouble finding it here are a few tips that can help you re-find that mojo.

1. Do a “photo a day” project for one month. Google some themes for each day and do your best to stick with it. If at the end of the month you’re still looking for that special something to keep you going, then keep your project going.

2. Join a Photography Group on Facebook, a photography forum, or a local group where you can meet and hang out with other photographers. Sharing your work, critiquing each other, and bouncing ideas off each other is a great way to get something fresh into your photography.

3. Take a photography class or workshop and learn something new. Sometimes seeing others enthusiasm and learning a new technique is enough to get you out there and photographing.

4. Start bringing your camera with you everywhere so every time you see something interesting you can photograph it.

5. Depending on what type of person you are, start following other photographers on Facebook, or block out those other photographers – whatever is easiest and will help you most.

6. Get new equipment, new editing software, new lenses. Rent! Trying out something new like a new lens or even a creative lens like a Lensbaby, might lead you do explore a whole new path of photography.

7. Explore another creative outlet. For me all the types of art I enjoy are all connected. I love to paint and do pottery and find I my mind wandering when I do these types of art wondering how it could be translated to photography.

8. Try taking a break altogether. This may not work for everyone, but if you put that camera down until you are just itching to use it again you  might find some new motivation along the way.

9. Research and try out a new type of photography. Do you usually do wedding photography? Try doing some landscape photography for a change of pace.

10.Finally, challenge yourself to see things in a new way. Challenge yourself to take a photo of the exact same thing every day for one month and watch how your creativity will be forced to blossom so each picture isn’t the same as the next.

There’s a free class at the end of August about dealing with your competition and keeping your inspiration. There are lots of seats left so sign up if that’s something you struggle with. The Photography Marketing class on July 16th is filling up. There are only a few seats left so make sure you grab one before it’s too late! Register for photography classes here.

Carrie Swails Photography