Day 2: At a Glance | The Reset Conference

I think the topic of creative entrepreneurship is invaluable.

A lot of times, photographers are in this business for the love of it, Unfortunately, all the passion in the world will not put food on a table, pay the mortgage, or supply fuel to get to the next shoot. This class will give photographers concrete, practical ways to bring in more money, from learning IPS to adding lines of business. It will also cover a little bit of finance. We’ll get into the nitty gritty of starting up new lines of business, talk about the bones of how to actually do IPS, and leave with tools to put in place solid financial practices in our businesses.

Have you ever looked at a photo and wondered how the photographer got such a strong connection out of their subjects? Maybe you thought it had to be the right kind of client to be able to produce emotive images? In this class I will be sharing how I get emotion and connection from every session starting from pre session emails to how I foster a space where clients feel free to be themselves. We will be going over prompts I use as well as loose posing. Come join me in my class and let’s start photographing with feeling.

After several years of producing, shooting, and editing video-visual content for Grammy-Award winning artist, small businesses, larger corporations, and promotional companies, (while also producing quality promotional and video-marketing content for my own business),it finally dawned on me how many other cinematographers, photographers, businesses, and entrepreneurs neglect this part of their business.

If Fortune 500 companies continue to use video-marketing within their businesses, why don’t you?

I helped build the visual presence of a well-known promotional company that has hosted over 435 events, with an attendance rate of over 400,000 people and counting. This company has grown an audience of over 72,000 followers on social media, has been featured on OWN Television Network, and has been the host of worldwide tours.

Video visual-presence within your brand increases search engine optimization and it also helps you to stand out; especially if others within your industry or niche aren’t using video within their brand presence. Video visual-presence within your business is very important to your brand.  I’m here to introduce you to practical ways to use video-marketing within your business and more. You’ll learn why video-marketing is important, the best places to use video, valuable and practical tips for shooting and creating promotional videos (for your service-based business or products), why video visual presence is important for your business growth, and more.

Starting a business? Legally speaking, deciding on your business entity structure is one of your first steps. Lawyer Joey Vitale will walk you through your business entity choices, why LLCs are awesome, and what goes into forming one. He’ll also share his innovative “entrepreneurial setup” for people with multiple business ideas.

I mentor a lot of fellow photographers and the biggest complaint I get is “I’m not booking my ideal client, I hate the weddings I shoot” well, I have the solution for you and it’s not your portfolio that causing your problem, it all lies within your clients. In this course I will walk you through our process of connecting, courting and continuing with our clients to book future clients just like them.

You pull up to your shooting location and you see them before they see you. They’re already out of the car. Mom is fussing with hair and Dad is grumping in the corner on his phone. The kids all have the ‘why-do-I-have-to-wear-this’ look on their faces. And Mitzy, the family poodle, came along – unexpectedly – for your pictures. Along with Gram-Gram. And everyone is wearing khakis. And white shirts. Is it too late to turn around?

If this has ever happened to you (and let’s be honest – it happens to everyone), you may wonder why you ever quit your 9-5 office job. But fear not! There is a way to both find and prepare your clients for a brand of photography you love! But it’s more than just one or two steps – you need to think and create the brand you want to portray and help clients to feel confident with your experience. Join us as we break down the many steps necessary for you to have the brand of photography you first set out to produce.

Hearing high sales averages of other photographers when you are barely making it is never fun. How do you go from making zero or minimal profit to a salary that can sustain your family? Are you working for pennies and don’t even realize it? Are you trying to leave a corporate job but just cannot find the means to do so that will make it worth it to be fully self employed?

I have been there, I know it all too well, you are not alone. Five years ago I took the leap and left a very good salary with a major corporate bank to be a full time, self employed photographer. I took the chance that I could make it on my own and had to figure out a way to make at least the same income as I was making with the bank. I quickly surpassed that amount and then it doubled, and then it tripled! I went from photographing everything under the sun as I tried to make it work to fine tuning my business model in a way that allows me to specialize in senior portraits all year ’round.  I will help give you the tools you need to bring your sales to a point of profit, and share how I was able to do this in a gradual way and get to the point in my business that I have been able to maintain a high sales average for the last 3 years. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you!

Join Dana and learn the 5 base poses for almost any situation from seniors to couples.  You’ll learn new ways of incorporating emotional prompts to get more out of the session. You will walk away with the confidence to get amazing poses out of every session.

The comparison trap is a real problem that is hindering many people from producing their best work and it can’t be solved by pretty Instagram quotes. It affects everyone, in every level of business and in our hyper connected and social media driven world, its getting worse every day….comparison to others leading to a feeling of unworthiness or doubt about our own skills and abilities.

In this class we will discuss:

• How to recognize when comparison is happening
• Why comparison happens and what its doing to us as business owners
• 5 strategies for ditching the comparison trap and getting back on track

Learn tips and tricks to utilize all the tools at hand to optimize your SEO and website presence. Gain new clients by obtaining the best web presence you can!

This presentation is for the person who feels like you’re struggling with work/life “balance” and that your business may be placing a strain on your marriage. Yeah, not an easy thing to admit, but truth is, most of us at some point struggle to find the harmony in the chaos of our everyday lives and our relationships suffer as a result of it.

There’s simply so much to do and there appears to be not enough time to do it. You’re overwhelmed and stressed out with trying to keep up with it all. And your day-to-day life doesn’t truly reflect your values.  And even though you love what you do, you feel like your business may be placing a strain on your relationships, especially your marriage.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can build a successful business and have a strong and healthy marriage…at the same time. But not without intentional effort…and that’s exactly what this presentation will show you how to do.  How to build your business in a way that doesn’t strain your marriage…business-proof your marriage. In this presentation we will explore:

We’ll explore the following topics:

1. Understand the 7 commons strains that business can have on your marriage
2. Three strategies you can take to release the grip that your business has on you
3. The two main reasons why your spouse doesn’t support you the way you need in your business
4. 3 steps to make your marriage a top priority in your life, despite what stage you’re in your business & life

Come prepared to learn new ideas and strategies that you can apply right away to business proof your marriage, so you can have a great business and a great marriage.

Running your own business is exhilarating, and there are so many positive experiences that come along with being the boss. But sometimes it can feel like your self worth is wrapped up in the success or failure of your company. If business is good, you feel on top of the world, but if you suffer a setback, you feel completely worthless. The line between where your work ends and your identity begins becomes so blurry that at times it’s not visible at all. This class will help you to identify a healthy separation between the two, and to discover where your true identity lies.

As photographers, light is our medium and controlling it determines how our image is made, and often interpreted. See the difference studio lighting can make in your work, and remove the mystery and apprehension. Discover the equipment you need to begin shooting with studio lights and learn the classic lighting patterns for portraiture. “Simple can be harder than complex, but once you get there you can move mountains.” -Steve Jobs

Failure. It’s not something we like to think about, much less talk about, but it’s an integral part of every successful photographer’s journey. Fear of failure can cripple all of us, stopping us from pushing forward towards new goals and successes. As a photographer, you’re the boss so it’s quite easy to stay within your comfort zone. You are both your biggest cheerleader and your worst critic. In this class we will discuss specific ricks and fears that we face as photographers, whether we are in business or shoot just for our families. We will hear about the failures of some of the industry’s most successful photographers and how it led them to their successes of today.

Join Nicole Everson as she walks you through her approach to studio light during newborn sessions. Using a one light approach to create the soft natural light she loves with the consistency of studio strobes.

Feeling hungry? Itching to know how to take delicious food photos that will make your followers and clients say “Oooooh that looks amazing”? If you are craving to add more delicious food photos to your portfolio, recipes for your website’s blog, or you’re if you’re just hungry, this class is for you! In this course, I will walk the attendees through the basics of food photography and how to use food as a subject to tell a deeper, more enriching story. I will cover topics from lighting, camera settings, equipment, photography styles, working with clients and using the right props plus some handy tips and tricks for styling food.

Learn the simple tricks and mental switch to be able to sell more albums in less time. Get the roadmap to build the system to sell your wedding albums on autopilot with just a 30-minute meeting at the end of it. No more 4-hour meetings with 0 results. See how Jake built this simple system out of necessity, not luxury and how it’s gone on to help hundreds of photographers worldwide. Whatever your market, whatever your skill level, whatever your confidence, Sell more albums, with less work.

In an industry that can be filled with an overwhelming amount of hustle, competition, and burnout, Ashley shares how shooting personal projects made her feel more inspired in her work, life, and ultimately changed the direction of her photography.  She will walk you through her process of starting personal projects and help you start your own that reflects your style, fills your soul, and inspires your own photography journey.

Hiring a team can be intimidating, overwhelming, and confusing – but it doesn’t have to be! During this session, we’ll discuss the 3 key areas you should focus on to prepare your business for hiring a team. We’ll cover:

• processes and foundations you should have in place before hiring
• documents that will ease your transition from solopreneur to leader
• creating a plan for successfully on-boarding your new team member

By the end of the workshop, participants will understand what they need to do in order to prepare their business to hire a team. They will walk away with clear, actionable steps they can take right away, whether they’re ready to hire immediately or in six months.

How to create story-telling, “candid” images during your Newborn and Family sessions

Trained as a photojournalist, I have always been obsessed with capturing “candid” moments that tell a story. But do these moments just happen on their own?? Sometimes, but let’s be real, 90% of the time they don’t. Join me as I share my process of how to create joyful, “unposed” moments, and take away tips and tricks that will create lasting memories for your families and keep them coming back year after year!

Would you be prepared if you suddenly were faced with illness, a natural disaster or some other tragic event that either affected you or your business and what plans and processes do you have in place to press through and get back to work?

In March of 2017, our entire lives were sent into tailspin when I was on the way to teach at Reset Conference 2017 and was was diagnosed with heart failure.  That diagnoses had me in the hospital for 16 days, $300,000.00 in medical debt, daily appointments with a full medical team, and took both Ike and I out of work for 4 months (photography being our sole source of income).  This put us on the road to having to face what we were going to do as our lives were falling apart.

How do you plan for, cope through and bounce back from life’s hardest moments and move forward in business?  Ike and I hope to give you some things to think about and consider to fortify your business for life’s unexpected challenges and to help you create a plan that will allow you to get back to work in spite of what you might face.