love. LIFE. Hello Friends! Over to the left you'll see all of the categories that you can check out. If you're a photographer make sure to check out the For Photographers page. I just launched the new Family GTKY kit and the NEW Insight Kits Blogsite!!! Click here to see the new site! LOVE. LIFE. TIPS. These posts will help anyone who is trying to keep or get back all of the things that they love in their life and/or business. The tips are packed with ways to manage a hectic life, kids, business, meaning, love...and more. Also, make sure you check out the new Women and Business series! (Click here) Also, see how Day with Davina can come to you. (Click here) My favorite pricing guide (that I wish I had when I started my business over 8 years ago). You need this guide! Easy as Pie. Click here to visit Served Up Fresh. (affiliate link) Thanks for stopping by...and don't forget to leave a comment...or two...I want to hear from YOU! And make sure to TELL A FRIEND! |
Entries from February 1, 2010 - February 28, 2010
Where is Love Affair?
clues.
I've just been on a great trip with Lauren, Millie, and Kelly. Oh how I love! getting together with them. We laugh a lot and every time we see each other...no matter how long it's been...it's like we were never a part. The only thing that would be better than that is if we didn't have to be apart...
So put Love Affair on your calendar for the second week in September!
And here are some clues for you about where it's at...
1. I've been to a workshop very near this city...
2. I went to this city when I was around 12 years old...
3. I had my first taste of Pei Wei while I was there...
Okay...so maybe those are obscure personal clues! I'll give you a little more to go on.
Tomorrow.
:)
fun. LIFE.
Thirst Relief Auction
Today is the day.
The Thirst Relief Auction is LIVE! It will be open until February 17th (tomorrow). So hurry and get the bid on the person you want to spend time with. You won't find a more perfect opportunity to give. You'll be helping Thirst Relief by getting clean water to villages around the world, saving lives, and growing your business at the same time.
There are over 100 photographers to bid on...make sure to make a list of your 5 or 10 favorites. If your favorite person goes out of your price range you can bid on someone else! No matter what you should be able to walk away from the auction with a great mentoring opportunity!
The best thing is that there are a lot of women on the Mentor Auction from the Women and Business series! So hurry and get your bid in here: http://thirstrelief.shootq.com
give. LIFE.
Women and Business: Mary Marantz
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***All images in this post are copyright Mary Marantz.***
NEXT WEEK: Jenn Bebb
{To nominate women you'd like to see in this series please list them in the comments-or if you have a question you'd like to see in the interviews--make sure to include your info in the comment fields so that I can get in touch with you- or write to me at: davina at davinafear dot com }
As always make sure to leave comments for the women who are featured. They like comments as much as I do I'm sure...let them know if you have questions or just to say thanks! for their insight and wisdom...
You can check out the rest of the series by clicking here. Tell a friend!
Mary, you have done really wonderful things in the past couple of years. You were on your way to a completely different career when you realized you weren't following your heart. Since deciding to do what you love and join Justin in photography you've grown your business, helped many other photographers with your Spread the Love tour, and started the Portrait House charity all in a short period of time. At the same time you are a caring and genuine person who is so good about giving to others. I've love the your approach to the industry, your business, and life. Thanks for being on Women and Business!
You were going to law school on your way to being a fantastic lawyer…what happened? What made you decide that you wanted to be a photographer?
For me, it wasn’t so much that I knew I wanted to be a photographer as it was that I knew I definitely didn’t want to be a lawyer. I knew that I wanted this business with Justin. I knew that I wanted our lives to be different and Un-Ordinary and to follow the road less traveled. But for the longest time, I didn’t know whether I would ever pick up a camera or not. In our company, I was the business side of the business. I was contracts and pricing and marketing manifestos. Because that stuff has always come easy for me. And it was an easy win. But photography...well that was a whole different beast. That was something that I could try and very easily fail at. And failing is NOT something I’m a big fan of. :) I did, of course, eventually end up picking up a camera and “Justin & Mary” was born. But if I’m being totally honest, it took a long time before I could bring myself to say the words “I am a photographer.” I would always say “We own a photography business,” or “We shoot weddings,” or “My husband went to school for photography.” But to call myself a photographer, to make a claim like that when I didn’t have any of the background or formal training that I thought was necessary to say something like that, well... I felt like a fraud. And I was embarrassed. But I am not embarrassed anymore. Hi, my name is Mary and I AM a photographer!! :) :)
What do you recommend women do who are just getting started in the industry?
If we had to start all over today back at zero, I know exactly what we’d do. We would price ourselves on the lower end of that “juicy middle” of the market for wherever we were (but not fall outside of that middle and go totally budget) and we would book as many weddings as we possibly could that first year out. We would also take care though, to make sure that the couples that we were booking were a good fit for us and that we would actually be able to make them happy. Then we’d just go crazy! We would rock out that year taking the best care we possibly could of all those clients, their vendors, and their friends & family. We would do the work to come up with a bangin’ customer experience, to get discs and cards out to all the vendors and locations quickly, and to give the friends & family a reason to come check out the pictures afterwards, so that they could start referring us too. When we were booked we would also give the best referrals possible to other photographers in our area that we respected. We would use that year to create a firestorm of word of mouth momentum from clients, vendors, and other photographers and get our name out there. And then we would start steadily raising our prices until we got to the price point & volume that we wanted. If there is just one word that can be gleaned from this advice, let it be this: Momentum. Because if you can build up a freight train of word of mouth momentum you can do pretty much anything with your business. For Justin & I, although we have set our prices to be more on the high end now, we still love doing high volume. Because we love our couples. And the more awesome people we get to work with, the more awesome people we have out there referring us to everybody!
What does your workflow look like? Do you outsource or keep everything in house?
Our workflow looks a lot like a pyramid, with Justin at the top (and OHH how he loves hearing that!) When we shoot a wedding, he takes it and downloads it and backs it up to our Drobo. Then he also puts it on three Lacie rugged drives. One comes to me for blogging, one goes to Julia for our vendor edits & discs, and one goes to our in-house editor for all the bulk adjustments. I will end up blogging somewhere around 100-150 images per wedding (which is a LOT, but here’s why...) and then that folder also becomes our favorites on Pictage and the set for our first mock ups of our albums. So then it’s all done! And then all of the edits (the blog, the vendors, and the bulk edits) go back to Justin to be backed up on our Drobo for the final folder. The whole process can be turned around in a week.
I’m sure many women see you and Justin and this fantastic marriage and business set up and they wish they could have the same thing but their husband is very happy in his job or wants nothing to do with joining their photography business or they are unmarried, etc. What advice do you have for them?
I think my answer to this question is the same one I would give to anyone who is just getting started and doesn’t feel like they have everything they need to run a successful business (whether that be the equipment, a studio, or a good support team), which is: you start with what you’ve got and you build from there. You start with you. How you view life & love & the world. Market that. Have a vision for your business and find good people who care about you and could catch that vision. You have to be careful with who you allow into your business, but once you do find someone who is the perfect fit don’t ever let them go! That’s how it is for us & Julia (who is a past bride of ours). We never could have imagined a more perfect fit for our company than her, and now that we have her we’re going to do everything we can to keep her! So work to build a team, even if that just means you have to start with yourself.
What do you do to keep your marriage fun? How do you keep your marriage safe from the stresses of your business?
You draw the line. Ask yourself, “If I could have all the worldly successes I ever dreamed of for my business, but in doing so it would mean that I would have to give up my marriage...would I do it?” I think all of us would obviously say no. But the thing is, those choices are made everyday when we aren’t even looking. It’s putting an album design above date night, an editing job before dinner. It’s staying on the computer just a little bit longer, which turns into all night. It’s losing who you are as a couple because of who you are as business partners. For the record, I think you can have both success in your marriage and success in your business. It doesn’t have to be either/or. But just remember the priority goes in that order. A good friend of ours, John Sanderson, twittered this: Married Photographers...remember it’s the first part that counts. It’s so true. So when the business is getting too stressful and it’s taking too much (and it will....it will take as much as you are willing to give it), we draw the line. We go and lay in the hammock, we hit up a movie, we take a walk with Cooper. We get away from the computer and away from business so that we can just be us again.
How do you fit so much into your life? You have a business, a tour, a charity you run, and more…
We are definitely guilty of taking on too much, and we are trying to be much better this year about leaving space for our lives. Of “making every last one of our choices, from the food we put in our mouths to the commitments we put on our calendar, something that moves us toward the life we love.” That being said, we are totally those people who would rather be busy than bored! And we love having a lot of irons in the fire. The best solution we’ve ever found for balancing those two is just being really structured with our time. I am not a person who naturally eats at the same time, works out at the same time, answers email at the same time. But what I’m finding is that the more structured we are with our routine, the more actually gets done. And it happens when it’s supposed to during “work hours,” instead of the time when we should be home relaxing together.
You have a “Spread the Love” tour and workshop that you’ve created. Tell me the basic idea of the tour and how it came about.
The basic idea of “Spread the Love” is that you have to go to work and build a business with Momentum, a business that actually works for you rather than it always being the other way around, in order to carve out a real and lasting space for getting your life back. We show you how to build that momentum and how to create the systems that will put your business to work for you, so you can start taking those steps back toward having a life. The dream for this workshop actually came about two and a half years ago when we were on our honeymoon. It just felt like something we had to do. Two years later, when it feels like we are at an all time epidemic scarcity of Hope...it just felt like now was the time.
I’ve gotten to chat with you on several occasions about keeping it real even when a person’s popularity gets bigger than life. You and Justin have certainly become extremely popular within the industry. I don’t know if I’ve met someone who doesn’t know you! What does it mean to you to keep it real and what steps have you taken to make that happen?
What does it mean to keep it real? That generally means taking a risk that you’ll look stupid. Or weak or scared or flawed or vulnerable. But you do it anyway because it’s the truth. And you know that a lot more good can come from telling the truth and risking looking stupid, than pretending to be more or better than you really are just because it makes you feel good. Because you start to realize that other people are listening to what you say and acting on it. And that if someone is going to go out and makes choices for their lives and take risks for their family based on what you said, it had better be the truth. So we try to just put it all out there- the good, the bad, the dirty laundry- on our blog and in our talks. If you see me in person and ask, I’ll be the first one to tell you we don’t have it all together. And we don’t. But we have figured out some things that work for us. And we’ll be happy to tell you about that too.
You are an excellent writer and you constantly post on your blog. What do you do to keep up with that? What’s your secret to being able to post so often?
Oh how I WISH there was some secret to posting often or quickly!! The truth is that it is a full time job. Every wedding post that goes up takes me about 8 hours or more to do. It’s a commitment! But it’s something that drives our business and is so responsible for any success we’ve been having. So I’m happy to commit to it. It’s also something I just love doing. Especially when we’re all caught up (not like the 24 posts we fell behind last year!) and we can blog things as they happen. When you’re still really excited about whatever it is you’re posting about, that makes it a lot easier!
What five suggestions do you have for women who are trying to have a more whole, content, and blissful life?
Be willing to let go. Whatever you’re doing that doesn’t fuel your business or your soul, be willing to let someone else take care of it.
Be authentic. Spend the time to figure out who you really are & what you really love. Then only be & do those things. Don’t let anyone else tell you it’s not good enough.
Be the CAN in your life, because there will always be an abundance of people willing to tell you you CAN’T
Take care of your financial house. Nothing is a greater enemy to bliss and contentment than stress over money.
Live life Un-Ordinary. Because extraordinary after all and when you think about it, really just breaks down to extra ordinary. More ordinary. And who wants to live a life like that?
To see more of Mary's work:
***All images in this post are copyright Mary Marantz.***
The Love Affair Party in VEGAS!
It's a LOVE AFFAIR Party!
You don't want to miss THIS party while you're at WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) in Vegas next month (March 4-11) if you're a photographer.
It's finally here...the annual 'photo industry’s premier expo and educational conference .'..you know you want to be there!
While you're there make sure to get to the Airhorns and Lasers party that Love Affair is throwing with a bunch of other super fun people.
You'll want to be there because there will be lots of dancing! I love dancing! I'd love to dance all night long...in fact, last year I did! Oh baby! We shut down the Hard Rock Cafe in Vegas dancing the night away (no drinking for me though...I've never had alcohol). I've been to WPPI for 4 years and dancing was definitely my most fun year. So...
Come join the party and keep checking back on the Airhorns and Lasers website and on the Love Affair blog for a chance to win tickets and other fun stuff! There will bel some announcements there soon...
Besides...you know you'll need to dance off all of that expensive food.
So who's going to Vegas?
party. LIFE.
Women and Business: Emilie Sommer
***All images in this post are copyright emilie inc.***
NEXT WEEK: Mary Marantz
{To nominate women you'd like to see in this series please list them in the comments-or if you have a question you'd like to see in the interviews--make sure to include your info in the comment fields so that I can get in touch with you- or write to me at: davina at davinafear dot com }
As always make sure to leave comments for the women who are featured. They like comments as much as I do I'm sure...let them know if you have questions or just to say thanks! for their insight and wisdom...
You can check out the rest of the series by clicking here. Tell a friend!
Emilie, You are an amazing woman! There are so many other words to describe you as well...caring, genuine, depth, visionary, organized, thoughtful, authentic. I am in awe of the amount you have accomplished in a short period of time since leaving your photographer/editor positions at major national newspapers. You have created a fantastic photographers workshop, started a charity from the ground up, moved into a new retail space studio, hired a number of employees, and gotten married! You ability to manage it all and keep a sense of abundance and not a feeling of being overwhelmed has my attention. Thanks so much for being here!
You have gotten married in the last year. How did that affect your business and the way you work with clients? What changes have you made?
Experiencing how my clients feel both from a planning perspective and the emotional level of the wedding day script has certainly impacted my business. With 250 weddings under my belt, brides often look to me for advice when making pre-wedding decisions and guidance on the actual day. I feel a greater sensitivity to the dynamics between a couple and the supporting relationships now, something I couldn’t have known from the inside-out previously. Getting married was wonderful, but exhaustingly stressful too!
What does your workflow look like? Do you outsource or keep everything in house?
Everything is done in-house. Leads and bookings are done by my studio manager with ShootQ. I edit every wedding in Lightroom (I have two associate photographers too), my production manager tones and uploads images to Pictage, my designer completes an album pre-design and I create a blog post all within a week after the event. It’s very structured, but works for us and allows us to approach each weekend’s weddings with a fresh start.
What do you do to help your clients be so comfortable with you during a photo shoot?
This may sound cheesy, but I am just my usual self. I don’t feel like I do anything different with my clients than I would do with my friends, and therefore always appreciate the compliments I receive from couples who liken me to just that, a friend.
What do you recommend women do who are just getting started in the industry?
Be active! Ask questions! Learn! But most importantly, seek out a mentor. I earned a degree in photojournalism from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University where I was the photo editor of the school’s daily newspaper, had multiple internships with different newspapers and studied abroad for a semester in London with National Geographic photographer Ed Kashi. I strongly believe in paying your dues/ slow-and-steady wins the race/ letting the kettle boil approach to learning vs reading a book or just buying a camera and calling oneself a photographer. There is no quick and painless path to being a photographer and starting a business. If you’re in this for the long haul, you need to be diligent and explore all avenues. There will be bumps in the road, but amazing successes too, as you find your way. And finding your own way is key, as everyone’s path to success is different. What worked for one person may not be right for the next. I pour my heart and soul into my business and that’s been my secret ingredient for success. If you don’t have passion for what you are doing, you’ll eventually burn out.
What do you do for fun…that has nothing to do with photography?
My favorite thing to do, hands-down, is to take our dogs to the beach. We’re fortunate to live on the coast in Maine just a few minutes from some of the prettiest beaches. Escaping there to run and romp with the dogs and throw the ball has become a much-needed escape to my day and place I have found such peace. Have you read the poem “maggie and milly and molly and may” by ee cummings? It ends with: “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.” If we’re not at the beach, we’re taking a Sunday adventure ride, something I’ve done since I was a kid with my father and now with my husband, where we get in the car and head nowhere in particular to explore without a planned destination.
What are you most proud of as a business woman?
My proudest moment was hanging my sign outside my studio. As a girl I used to play office. No, not house, office. I had a portable file with my imaginary customers I would tote around and talk to my parents about business transactions. I have no idea how that started or why, but have always dreamed of running my own business. I used to work at USA Today and the Washington Post as a photographer and photo editor, two remarkable achievements I still can’t quite believe are a part of my resume. But it was the process of creating and opening my own shop that makes me the most proud because it was 100% me achieving a lifetime goal. Tho business was just fine when I operated from my kitchen table, I skip through my studio door every morning with a smile on my face that doesn’t get old.
Overall, I think I am most proud of how much the emilie inc umbrella has grown. Aside from photographing weddings and running a studio with employees, I also started a non-profit (www.pinkinitiative.org), a national directory (www.newsweddingphotographers.com) and a photojournalism workshop (www.rootsworkshop.com). Next month I am starting an in-studio workshop series (http://blog.emilieinc.net/2010/01/branding-blogging-workshop-announcement.html).
What do you do to keep your marriage fun?
We’re so fortunate to be in the same industry (my husband J is the wedding development manager for liveBooks and shoots weddings with emilie inc. on the weekends. He used to be my account rep at Pictage back in the day and that’s how we met!) which enables us to have a solid common ground. Both of our jobs entail quite a bit of travel, which is a perfect balance for us to tickle our sense of adventure and escape from the everyday. Our routine is never quite the same which keeps things fresh and fun.
You have created great relationships with vendors in your area, how have you done that?
More than 80% of our brides are from out of state, most of whom we don’t meet until their wedding day (http://blog.emilieinc.net/2009/08/emilie-inc-2009-booking-trends.html). A few years ago, I started photographing the process of area vendors I love working with as a way to give these brides planning from afar an inside peek at their process and, in turn, massage those valued vendor relationships. At this point I am only paying to advertise on one website, as most of my work comes from word of mouth referrals. Vendor and venue relationships make up a huge percentage of those bookings. I prefer to link arms with like-minded talent and forge ahead together. http://blog.emilieinc.net/search/label/vendor%20tours
How have you made your business grow and thrive in such a small town?
Portland is a small business mecca, with very few large corporations to support the employment workforce. Therefore it has the infrastructure and resources in place to support and help grow small businesses like mine. I have no formal business training, my growth can be attributed to an exhaustive trail of trial and error. Now in my 7th year, simply put, my business has grown from never wavering from my initial model: to always love what I do and to provide a consistent superior customer experience.
What do you do to keep from feeling overwhelmed?
I tend to take on a lot, but rarely feel overwhelmed. Lists help! For me, I always prefer busy over bored, so am constantly looking for ways to improve and grow my business. I suppose if I ever reach a point where I feel uninspired, then it’s time to move on to something new.
You seem to be a very grounded, purpose driven person. What steps do you take when you make decisions?
First and foremost, I try to embrace risk. I’ve never been one to follow the pack, and instead prefer to be out in front forging my own way. Taking chances and trusting instinct is my personal compass. But for back-up, I always make a pros & cons list. May sound simple, but the age-old practice has helped me make major life decisions.
What three products or things help you stay organized?
iPhone, Google Docs, liveBooks, ShootQ.
You are the founder of pinkinitiative.org. What inspired you to create this organization and how do you fit it into your already busy life?
I was raised to always make time and money for charity. I came to a point with my business when it just made sense to give back, simply put, because I could. I chose to donate a portion of all my wedding profits to breast cancer research because it is a cause that is close to my heart and affected my family as a child. The response was humbling, somuchso that I decided it needed to grow beyond emilie inc. I formed a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2008 so that all wedding vendors could contribute to this worthy cause and it’s caught on like wildfire. We have more than 100 vendors from all over the country giving time and money, hosting grassroots events and creating products to benefit Pink Initiative. It’s mighty awesome.
You are an extremely genuine and caring person in an industry that can be very selfish and ego driven. How do you keep those aspects of you as strengths within your business?
I’m not sure I would know how to do it any other way. Since giving has always been part of my make-up, I feel the most purpose from helping others, not winning contests or receiving accolades. This summer I will be hosting the third Roots Workshop for a week in July on Cape Cod, an intimate photojournalism intensive with 12 students and 9 staffers under the same roof on the water. It’s a summer camp of sorts that achieves a gentle balance for serious learning in a beautiful surrounding. The lack of ego is what makes the experience magical and safe to push one’s boundaries.
What is something that you think women in the industry should not do?
Assimilate. It took me a long while to not feel pressured to adopt the latest trends and styles in our industry, but rather embrace my own and trust that there’s an audience for everyone. How boring it would be if everyone were exact replicas of each other.
What is something that you think women in the industry should do?
Support each other. When I moved to Portland from Washington, DC, I was surprised at how little sharing was going on among wedding photographers. Selfishly seeking girlfriends, I organized a twice-yearly luncheon for women wedding photographers. There were 12 of us at that first luncheon, now our group is more than 60 strong! It’s a saturated industry, but one of the most loving of all. We’re blessed to document joy, so it only makes sense to share that love and kindness in all aspects of our business, especially with our peers.
What five suggestions do you have for women who are trying to have a more whole, content, and blissful life?
If I knew that magic equation I’d be a multi-millionaire! Personally, I don’t think a perfect balance exists. I appreciate that everyone aspires to achieve a state of whole or else we would be a mighty dull species settling for second best. My contentment comes first from accepting who I am and all the good and bad that makes me me.
To see more of emilie's work:
www.newsweddingphotographers.com
***All images in this post are copyright emilie inc.***