walking. self portrait.

I can't say enough about the importance of getting a little exercise everyday. There are so many benefits! Not only do you feel great because you got out of the house and felt the air brush across your face, got your heart rate up a little, and felt your muscles move your mind was cleared and opened for ideas.

Ideas. That's probably one of my favorite things about walking. I LOVE ideas and when I take a walk I come home so full of them I have to rush to get them all written before I lose them. (I'm thinking about getting myself one of those tiny recorders that doctors have in the movies and walking with it. I'm sure I'll look quite the sight.)

It's wonderful to go out in the brisk morning air of February and walk around a dirt trail or around my neighborhood, free from the confines of the walls of my house, free of noise, free of requests for backpacks and homework being signed. I love my home and I love my family...and I love my walks.

Get out and take that walk today. Realize that you're doing it not just for your health but for your brain and your creativity. That makes it even more worth it!

What makes you feel healthy in your body, mind, and spirit?

happy. LIFE.

You don't have to be a photographer to GIVE.

Anyone can give...$5 saves a life. To donate go to: www.thirstrelief.org

If you're a photographer and you want to have an amazing mentor...click here:

http://thirstrelief.shootq.com/ 

The auctions start ending tonight at 10pm EST.

happy giving.

my husband gets 15 minutes. every night.  no matter what.

(So, no.  I can't count.  Obviously.  This really is tip #12.  Yes, I know that the last LOVE. LIFE. tip. was #15 but like I said.  I can't count.  That's why I'm an artist and not a scientist...and why I have a bookkeeper.)

Every time I say "My husband gets 15 minutes.  Every night.  No matter what."  when I'm talking to a room of women they all break into a roar of laughter.  Because I really don't mean it the way it sounds.  I really mean it much more innocently.  But hey,  I'm all for giving husbands any kind of 15 minutes every night!

What I'm trying to say is to spend 15 minutes of time together but...doing a couple of things other than what you're thinking. 

First, I love reading the scriptures together and second, I don't like having money meetings together.  The thing is both of them go way too long when we do them and so I get to the point where I try to avoid the mention of reading scripture or talking about money. 

The reading scriptures part is fun but we always get to talking and before we know if we've spent the whole night reading and chatting and it's been wonderful.  We have great talks and my husband has these awesome insights but I don't want to do it again tomorrow night because...well...I'll get nothing else done.  I know.  Blasphemous.

The money meetings I really don't like.  They go way too long and I always end up thinking there's never enough money to go around...or something terribly pessimistic like that.  I get distracted.  Lose focus.  And it's all downhill from there.  Talk about numbers and my mind immediately takes a vacation.

The thing is, I know that both of these things are extremely important in my life.  I love the inspiration I get when I take time to connect with my husband and we chat about the day about things like...how we can be more in tune with the heavens and have more wisdom  as parents.  I need that and I think our marriage needs that. 

Talking about money is really vital to keeping a marriage on firm footing.  If you can't talk about money you're going to end up with problems.  So, I know we need to keep tabs on the budget, where the money's going, who needs new clothes, how we managed to spend THAT MUCH money on food this month, how much the orthodontist is going to be, and who will we be buying glasses for next?

So.  I made a plan.  Every night we spend 15 minutes talking about each of these things.  Yes.  15 minutes.  I even have this cute timer for it.  If the 15 minute timer dings and we're not done I'll set it for 5 more minutes and that means we need to wrap it up.  And I'm strict about it, too.  I don't want our whole night gone because that will just make me not want to do it tomorrow night.  (that sounds terrible, doesn't it?) 

To wrap things up when we talk about money we make notes in our little money book. We write what we talked about and what we're going to talk about tomorrow night so we don't just end up rehashing instead of moving forward.  That way when we sit down tomorrow night we can pick up right where we left off.  This short time also keeps me from going into a downward spiral about our financial future.  My husband's always saying, "Our financial future has never looked brighter.  It's awesome!  We have so much going for us."  And he's totally right!  But for me, if talking about money goes longer than about 20 minutes I'm done for in terms of a bright outlook.  I don't know what it is!  I'm silly that way, sometimes.

And we really do love doing our 15 minute sessions.  They've been great...even if the picture at the top looks like we're really in a serious conversation.  We do have fun and laugh a lot.  And that's always a good thing!!

So if you find yourself avoiding some of the things you enjoy because they just end up taking too long to do them consistently then get yourself a timer and break it down.  You'll be glad you did and you won't feel so overwhelmed.  Have fun.  Be creative.

And if the other kind of time with your husband (wink. wink.) feels the same way...get a timer.  You never know maybe you'll love it every night, too!!  (Did I just say that?)

love. LIFE.

**all images and video in this post are copyright SarahQ**

Next Week: Stephanie Roberts

Welcome, Sarah Q. I'm so excited to have you Women and Business series! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. 

(So many people are reading this post!  Please let SarahQ know that you appreciate her time and her sharing so openly by leaving her a note in the comments!  Thanks!)

What 5 things you do that have helped you the keep your sanity while being a mom, photographer and business woman?

That's a funny question since most of the time I feel like my sanity is nowhere to be found :) Trying to balance family time, work time and me time is so much harder than I ever thought it would be. There are a few things I've learned and done that have made things easier, though ...

1. Renting a studio space! As hard as it is to be away from the kids, it's so so so much easier to focus and get my work done in a clean, quiet environment. When I first started my business I thought working from home would be so perfect. I'd wake up, have breakfast with the kids, sit and get a little work done, take a break for playtime, watch Dr. Phil, work a little more and then spend a nice evening relaxing with my hubby. HA!! The reality was me at the computer with one toddler crying and hanging on my legs wanting to sit in my lap and the other one asking every five minutes how much longer I was going to have to work. I'd have to get up every couple of minutes to clean up spilled juice boxes, find missing shoes, kiss bumped knees and make snacks. All the distractions made it hard to get anything done so I was at the computer longer and longer every day, trying to catch up. It turned into an awful cycle - me working more hours meant the kids were even more restless, leaving me frustrated and exhausted, making all those hours of work less and less efficient. I finally broke down and said "THIS ISN'T WORKING!!!!" and found a studio space that I share with a photographer friend of mine. Since moving in, getting my work done has been so much easier! Even though it's tough saying goodbye to the kids for a few hours every day, it's been better for all of us. I feel more organized and more focused and get my work done in a fraction of the time it used to take. It's really nice to be able to come home and actually BE home, too. When I'm at the studio, I'm a businessperson. When I'm home, I'm a mom. Being a "supermom" doesn't mean you have to juggle everything at once. Sometimes it means having split personalities :)

2. Not saying yes to every single job. I have a hard time saying no sometimes. Okay, I have a hard time saying no ALL the time. I'm a people person and absolutely LOVE the shooting part of my job. Being at a wedding or a portrait session is so much fun for me that sometimes it's hard for me to turn work down. I'm a naturally positive person, so all I think about is how much fun it would be. I tend to forget about all the extra work that goes along with every single session. Drive time, planning time, shoot time, editing time, backup time, time, time, time, time, time! The first year I was in business I spent sooooo much time working that I got seriously overwhelmed and beyond frustrated, making life less than fun. Now I've learned how much I can handle and only book shoots when I have time for everything that goes along with them.

3. Charging more. #3 has a lot to do with #2. Another reason I felt I had to take every single job when I first started out was because we really needed the money. Even when I was exhausted and overwhelmed, when someone was ready to book, with checkbook in hand, it was hard to turn them away. I started shooting weddings just three years ago. My first year in business I shot more than 40 weddings! That sounds awesome and exciting, but in reality, it was insanity! I was actually LOSING money by giving away prints and albums and CDs and not charging nearly what I should have been. At the end of that first year, I was broke and tired and ready for a change. I doubled my pricing. A few months later, I doubled it again. By the end of my second year I had raised my rates enough and booked enough jobs to let my husband quit his regular full time job and start staying home with the kids. Deciding to never sell myself short has made the ABSOLUTE biggest difference in my life and business. All women should read this book : "Secrets of Six Figure Women" by Barbara Stanney. It's not a book about money as much as it's a book about our relationship with money and how women naturally shy away from their full potential to earn what they're worth. I highly recommend it!

4. Going with the flow and embracing organized chaos :) If you've ever seen Super Nanny you know she's a big believer in sheddjuells (that's british for schedules - ha!) She whips out her magic markers and sections off every hour of the day for each family she works with. I've always wanted to do that for our family but every time I've tried, it just doesn't work. Every day is different here at the Q house! My husband is a freelance artist and I'm a photographer so our work schedules change constantly depending on my shooting schedule and his art show schedules. For a while I was really frustrated that I couldn't work out a schedule that we could stick to. Now I know schedules just aren't for us! When we're busy, we trade off kid time and work time. When we're not so busy, we fill our days with fun stuff. It's definitely chaotic sometimes, but I wouldn't trade our crazy lives for anything else!

5. Outsourcing. The biggest thing I've learned since starting my own business is that trying to do everything myself is just disaster waiting to happen. There just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. For a while I thought I could juggle everything. Then I read a GREAT book - "The E-Myth Revisited" - and realized that in order to take my business to the next level, I HAD to have help. I started outsourcing all of my wedding album design and some of my editing. This year I plan to outsource a few more things to free up more of my time. And instead of filling all of my newly freed time with more work, I plan to work on myself, my health and my family.

What is life like for you on a daily basis?

Chaotic, but fun! I have a 3 year old and a 4 year old so every moment is filled with some kind of noise, some kind of drama and some kind of happiness. It's hard to even say what an average day is like in our house because every day really is different. Pretty much the only things I know every morning is that at some point 1) I'll have to get some work done, 2) The kids will make some sort of mess 3) My hubby will tell me that the kids are driving him crazy 4) One of the kids will need a bandaid 5) Whatever I'm wearing will end up with dirt, snot, pee, poop, puke or chocolate milk on it.

What do you think are the most important things you do as a mom and wife every day?

Every day I spend one-on-one time with each of the kids, even if it's just for 5 minutes each. My three year old is such a mama's boy. Sometimes I think he would crawl back into my womb if I'd let him. He loves to cuddle and be close and tells me I'm his best friend every day. Lately he's been wanting to do "Eskimo" stuff with me all the time. He'll crawl into my lap and say "Eskimo noses!" and we'll rub our noses together. Then he'll say "Eskimo cheeks!" and we'll rub our cheeks. After Eskimo eyes, ears, hair, chins and sometimes even teeth (ha!) he jumps down and runs off back into his room to play. Those two or three minutes we spent just being silly and close mean the world to me and I know they mean the world to him, too. I think all our kids need to know to be happy is that we're there for them and that we love them. All they really want from us is a tiny bit of attention. Those few minutes of love are more important than all the other hours spent cleaning up the house or washing their clothes. The same goes for being a good wife. I'm so lucky to have a wonderful, sweet, supportive and loving husband who tells me every single day how much he loves me. The few minutes we spend every day just talking one-on-one and being close to each other make all the hectic and frustrating parts of life more bearable.

What do you think are the top three things you must do as a business woman every day?

1. Stay on top of emails! I'm actually terrible at this and it's on my list of things to improve upon in '09. I think good communication with new and current clients is one of the most important things you can do to maintain good relationships. In the past, I've gotten so busy that I've taken days to respond to even the simplest questions from clients. I know it was frustrating for them and made them worry, so I'm making a conscious effort this year to respond to emails quicker and not leave people hanging.

2. Work a little bit on bigger projects. I used to be bad about putting off bigger projects (like editing entire weddings) until I had time to do the entire job at once. Now I try to do bigger jobs in smaller chunks. An hour of editing every night for a week is so much easier than finding 5 or 6 hours to sit and do everything at once. I'm working right now on a new kids photography website. In the past I would have stayed up three or four nights in a row, tweaking and playing with it until it was just right. Then I would have been grouchy and tired and behind on my other work because of all the time I put into that one big project. This time I'm working on it a little bit every day.

3. Tell people about your business! Advertising is expensive, but word of mouth is free! Every chance I get, I tell people I'm a wedding and family photographer. I don't do it in a pushy, annoying, salesperson kinda way - just in a casual conversation kinda way. That way the next time they need photos, they think of me. Even if they end up not hiring me, they might visit my site and show it to a friend who will.


Your branding is wonderful. I love it (and wish I would have thought of it!). What process did you go through to get something so perfect for your personality?

Thanks!!! I'm a naturally happy, easy going person. I've always been very positive and upbeat and silly. When I first started shooting weddings, I did what most newbies do and bought a template website to fill with photos. It was nice and clean and did an okay job, but it had absolutely NONE of my personality. I wanted something fun and cute and colorful that would weed out all the people looking for more traditional, old school style photographers. When ShowItSites launched, I was SO excited! Since I have a graphic design background it was easy for me to customize a site that was EXACTLY me. My slogan "Photography for Happy People" was such a no-brainer. I knew I only wanted to work with happy, fun, silly, quirky people like me so I decided to include the word "happy" in my logo. It's worked out exactly like I hoped ... nearly every inquiry I get says "I love your site! It's so much fun!" How cool is that!?


Is there anything you wish you would have done differently over the years as a mom/business woman? If so, what? and how would you do it if you had another chance at it?

I think if I could change anything I'd have not taken on so much work right from the beginning. I never expected business to boom as quickly as it did and the excitement of people really loving my work was intoxicating. It felt great to be in such high demand! I was seriously overworked, though, and didn't spend nearly as much quality time with my family as I should have. My baby boy had just been born when I started shooting weddings and now when I think back to him being a baby, all I remember is how busy I was all the time. I wish I had taken things a little slower and balanced life and work better. Then again, living is learning and if I hadn't messed up at first I might not be where I am now.

To see more of SarahQ's work, go to:

http://www.sarah-q.com
http://www.sarah-q-photo.blogspot.com

**all images and video in this post are copyright SarahQ**

The DeYoung Family from SarahQ on Vimeo.

The Nichols Family! from SarahQ on Vimeo.

Here's the LINK: http://thirstrelief.shootq.com

In a little more than 12 hours you'll have a chance to bid on these fabulous photographer mentors TONIGHT.

Kevin Kubota

Jeffery and Julia Woods

Vicki Taufer

Jasmine Star

David Jay

Mike Colon

Me Ra Koh

Anne Ruthman

Laura Novak

Bob Coates

Erin Hession

Jose Villa

Corey McNabb

Emilie Sommer

Michael + Anna Costa

Cliff Mautner

Dane Sanders

Jim and Lara Davis-Hicks

Bebb Studios: Jen and Stephen Bebb

Justin and Mary Marantz

David Beckstead

Nathan Holritz

Amber Holritz

Chris Humphreys

Millie Holloman

Davide Greene

Kelly Moore

Rodolfo Arpia

Jeff Jochum

Carla Ten Eyck

Carey Schumacher

Tim Holmes: Reddoor Creative...designer for Jessica Claire and Shootsac and me. :)

JVS

Image is Found: Nate and Jaclyn Kaiser

Jules Bianchi

Fred Egan

David Ziser

Sarah Petty

Lauren Clark

Carlos Baez

Cameron Ingalls

Andy and Angie Woods

happy bidding.