The Beginner Photography Podcast

Optimize Your Photo Processes and Reduce Stress with Lindsay Coulter

• Raymond Hatfield

Share episode

#542 Lindsay Coulter is a seasoned photographer with over a decade of experience. The episode explores Lindsay's journey from a university student studying geography to a flourishing photography career. Lindsay shares personal stories, starting with being introduced to photography by her now-husband, Taylor Jackson. The conversation highlights the importance of personal well-being, sustainable business practices, and maintaining a balance between personal and professional life. 

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. Transition to Photography - Lindsay discusses her unexpected journey into photography, which began through a chance encounter with her now-husband. Key takeaways include the importance of seizing unexpected opportunities and the benefits of learning from seasoned professionals.
  2. Building a Sustainable Business - Major points include the significance of setting boundaries, managing workload, and revisiting business models regularly for sustainability. Lindsay stresses the need to balance personal life with career demands.
  3. Client Experience and Service - Insights include improving client satisfaction by revamping the client experience. Real-world examples include updating delivery timelines and ensuring customer service is at the forefront of business operations.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • Aperture Priority: A camera mode that allows photographers to set specific aperture values while the camera selects the shutter speed, aiding beginners in focusing on composition.
  • Sustainable Business Practices: Approaches that ensure long-term business viability while balancing work and personal life, as discussed by Lindsay when setting limits on wedding bookings.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How can photographers balance personal well-being with business demands?
  2. What are the benefits of setting clear boundaries in both personal and professional contexts?
  3. How does focusing on client experience impact long-term business success?

RESOURCES:
Visit Lindsay Coulter's Website - https://www.lindsaycoulterphoto.com/
Follow Lindsay Coulter on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lcoulterphoto/
Check out Lindsay Coulter's Course - https://www.betterthanbooked.com/

Download your free copy of
46 Creative Photo Ideas to Get You Out of a Rut
at https://creativeimageideas.com/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Lindsay Coulter:

Get your systems in order for your workflow. Have a spreadsheet. It doesn't have to be sexy. You don't have to spend a ton of money on a big CRM and all this stuff. I literally use a Google sheets document to tell me what I have on the go, what's coming up, how much money it's making me. It's just like a very simple, basic spreadsheet.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield. And today we are chatting with wedding photographer, Lindsay Coulter, about what's essential when learning photography and starting a business. But first, 70 percent of people abandon their online shopping carts before checking out? If you're trying to sell prints, that is a lot of money that you could be leaving on the table. Well, worry no more. With CloudSpot's abandoned card email feature, your clients can be automatically reminded to finish their purchase without you lifting a single finger. your free CloudSpot account today over at deliverphotos. com. Now, this episode is for those of you feeling overwhelmed by all of the, should do's in photography. You know what I'm talking about. You watch like five or six YouTube videos about the business of photography and immediately you feel so behind, right? There's so many different things that you're being told what to do. Do you do it all? Do you pick and choose? How do you know what to pick? Well, today's guest, Lindsey Coulter, who's been shooting weddings for more than 10 years, is going to share with you all of the mistakes that she made, not only when learning photography, but also when starting and growing her photography business, as well as what she's cutting out and what she's going deeper with as her business continues to mature. So in today's episode, you're going to learn the importance of creating a workflow from shutter snap all the way to delivery. Why delivering an exceptional client experience is far more important than the gear that you use, and to a degree, even the quality of the images that you deliver, and why we need to take care of ourselves and maintain our own mental and physical health, not in addition to, but because we oftentimes have such a busy schedule. You know, and remember, listening to the podcast should not be a passive experience. You're listening right now to become a better photographer. So listen, listen actively, take notes on your phone, the things that you hear and take action. That's the only way that you're going to get better. So with that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Lindsay Coulter.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Lindsey, when did you know that photography was going to first play an important role in your life? Ha

Lindsay Coulter:

I probably first knew that it was going to be important in my life in 2012. I was 22 years old and, in university for environment and geography, something totally unrelated to where I am now. a guy named Taylor Jackson slid into my DMS

Raymond Hatfield (3):

ha.

Lindsay Coulter:

and they didn't call it that then. I just thought the guy was being weird on Facebook. And I had followed his blog for a really long time. for those of you who don't know, Taylor Jackson is my husband now, but at that time it was just a guy in my town that took photos. And I followed his wedding blog just cause I was a 20 something year old girl in his town. And, so I knew who he was. We ended up going on a date against my better judgment cause who goes on a date with some random guy from social media, but I did.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, me. And I'll tell you a story about that afterwards. But yeah, that's a comment. Yeah, especially around that time. That was more normal than it is now. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

It was like people used social media as like a dating app. It was so funny. And it was actually, it started on Twitter because I responded to a tweet of his about fear and loathing in Las Vegas. And then he like went and looked me up on Facebook and was like, we have a lot of mutual friends in common. I was like, is this a pickup? So yeah, we hung out. We went on a couple of dates and. He basically said, I'm busy every single weekend with weddings. So if you want to hang out anymore, you're going to have to pick up a camera and be my second

Raymond Hatfield (3):

No way. Ha ha ha. Ha

Lindsay Coulter:

I think we started dating in May and June, July, August, September, I literally learned how to be a photographer. I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

ha.

Lindsay Coulter:

first few weddings at weddings that like didn't have a second photographer hired, not to make him sound like, like the worst photographer to hire. pretty quickly, I wasn't sure if it was going to be my career, but I was like, Oh, this is going to be a part of my life here because there was no ease in with Taylor and I, we were just full on, um, we were serious right away. So I was like, well, whatever this is, I guess it's going to be a thing in my life in some capacity. I don't think I could have expected my own career to be what it is now in those days though.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Help me figure out the wrapping your head around the decision to say, I know that I'm in school to learn this, but actually I'm going to forget all about that and choose this career path going forward.

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah. It wasn't easy at all. It came with a lot of stress and it actually came with a lot of like complications cause my parents both worked at the university that I was going to. So, there was no hiding that I was not going to be using my degree. Like they were very aware of what was happening. It was pretty gradual at first. I was working at a restaurant. I was teaching piano. I was teaching yoga. I was also in school full time. So I was busy. Like I was just a busy person. I liked being busy and I liked running my own businesses in the teaching piano and yoga. And I had a co op job working at a hydro company, for one of my school terms. So instead of going to classes, I went and worked at a hydro company. As you can imagine, you're not really like a popular person working in conservation. Management, like energy conservation at a hydro company. Cause the only reason that they get paid is because people consume energy. So I realized really quickly, like, Oh, this thing I went to school for is going to be hard. And it's not going to allow me the flexibility that, every 20 something year old dreams of like being able to travel and run their own, even if you're an employee, you always hope that you're going to have some autonomy. And I realized that that's, that's not. That's not the career path I have chosen here at all. And at the same time, there's this parallel where I'm going and shooting weddings with Taylor and he just has like a really nice life. He's traveling all the time. He's literally hanging out with people on the best day of their lives over and over again. And he's getting to create stuff. And I'd always been in the creative space. I went to a special arts school for high school. So I'd always been like in the arts, but just in my experience and what everybody had always told me that that wasn't a career path. That was like a thing that you do fun that, and you have a real job. So it took me a really long time to wrap my head around, like not having the comfort of a steady income and, coming from two parents that worked at a university, like all I had ever known was like a normal life.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah, nine to five job and yeah, all that stuff. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

And my dad had his own small business when I was younger and it was hard. It was always feast and famine. And so I, I knew I didn't want that. So when I decided to sort of dip a toe into starting my own business, it was really like, well, I'll do this while I still finish my degree. So that I knew that there was still an option there for me to get a job if this didn't end up working out. But for me, I just was like, well, there's ever going to be a time when I'm going to really give this the old college try, it's when I have no responsibilities whatsoever. Like my apartment costs 333 a month. I was making that just in tips at the bar that I worked at, you know, so there was really no risk for me in starting a business. So I just kind of whipped together a website and saw what happened and it kind of just, it just all fell into place really organically. And it's not natural. I know it's really abnormal. And I hope that like the newer photographer is listening. Don't think like, yeah, you can just, decide to not have a full time career, job, and you can just be a photographer in your first year. Cause that's what happened for me. And I was like, shooting 30 weddings a year in my first year and then

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Wow.

Lindsay Coulter:

It's like really abnormal. But I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yes.

Lindsay Coulter:

source from, you know, my boyfriend,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

a really well established photographer. So I always tell people like you can't look at somebody else's journey and hope that that could be yours or wonder why it's not yours. all sort of happens in sequence exactly how it's supposed to for each person. But,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

I could have hoped it to be. It wasn't like one day I had to quit a job. I graduated from university and I would remember feeling this like relief, like, Oh my God, I just get to do photography now because I had been doing so many things. And on top of this full time schooling that I was like, well, this is a relief now that I just get to do this and like, just get to do this. I mean, I was just, I was doing a lot. I was doing all of the things and trying to figure out what worked for me basically.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

You don't book 30 and then 50 weddings and not have much to do. There's a lot that goes on obviously behind the scenes more than just those weekends. But, um,

Lindsay Coulter:

what I was doing, right? Like workflow wise, nothing. I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

like, you might think because I had this well established photographer, in our home, that that would mean that I had the best workflows and all of that. But I actually totally disagreed with most of the ways how Taylor ran his business

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, funny. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

Like we run our businesses very differently. So. I was doing it all from scratch, but it was almost worse because I was seeing how he was doing it, trying it that way, and then realizing that's not for me, instead of just like, I don't know, I don't know what normal people do. They just research and they get software and they just hope for the best. I don't know.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

I've never been a wedding photographer before, so I don't know what to do here. Yeah, in all these weird situations. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

I'd

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

to a wedding. I'd been to one wedding

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, really? That's funny.

Lindsay Coulter:

I'd never even been to once. I didn't even know what to expect.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Well, okay. Let's, rewind a little bit and I want to know, what it was like just being a handed a camera, at a wedding. Like when you're, you know, when you hadn't been to a wedding before, like was that learning curve for you? How did you learn photography? What was the most difficult part in that? How did you get over it? That was a big question. I apologize.

Lindsay Coulter:

No, that's okay. It's a really good question because I, all the way through learning how to be a photographer and how to run a business, I always remembered thinking, you have to remember this because at some point you're, you're going to know all of this stuff and somebody is going to ask you basically this question and you're not going to remember cause that's how it goes. I would ask all these experienced photographers Taylor included other people that I knew and they just wouldn't know. They'd be like, would ask them, how did you get started? Or, what should I know? Cause you don't know what you don't know

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

sucks in comparison to what you're seeing. It just does. and I remember thinking like, have to remember self. We have to remember, how hard this was. So one of the first things that I did was I shot on aperture priority. That was like easy mode essentially, instead of having to know like the triangle of ISO shutter, like everything understand all of it, it took some of the guesswork out of it for me, right? It was doing some of it automatically Which allowed me to focus on composition and on like the human experience. So the first few weddings I did with Taylor, I just walked up to people and tried to be like a normal human, which I think helped that I had been teaching yoga and, teaching piano because the human thing was really all I knew and working at a bar, so I was like, okay, I'll lean on that side of things. But my skillset was so far behind. I knew when pictures looked good, but I had no idea why. I knew what kind of images I liked to create, but I had no idea how I had made them and I couldn't figure out how to make them again. aperture priority saved me in those early days, just getting me comfortable with having a DSLR in my hands. Cause that was not a thing. And then my next thing that was really hard for me was always trying to figure out what lens I was supposed to put on it. Because when I was second shooting for Taylor, the decision was made for me. He handed me a camera with a lens on it. But then the next year when I was shooting for myself, I was like, I have to make these decisions. Like, that's a lot. Like how am I supposed to know which lens to use in what moment?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

And it's so much more than like, I think a lot of new photographers think, Oh, if something's far away, I'll just use a telephoto. If something's close up, I'll use a wide angle lens,

Lindsay Coulter:

Right.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

so much more as you found that goes into it than just, am I using a telephoto lens? Cause it's far away

Lindsay Coulter:

Yes.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

So, is that what you're talking about?

Lindsay Coulter:

yeah, well, and, because I didn't understand why I liked certain looks of photos, I didn't understand, oh, it's because it has a really shallow depth of field.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm.

Lindsay Coulter:

didn't understand that, certain lenses flare in different ways than others. I didn't understand that, um, what I didn't realize was that I really liked prime lenses because when I first started I just shot on a 24 70 because that's like a pretty safe lens.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

have a new second start for me and they are newer to photography, well they're not usually a second if they're newer, but if I have somebody working for me that's newer into it, I'll put them on a 24 70 and say, like, have at her. Get comfortable with this before we go anywhere else. The other option would be to put them on a 50 say, you're going to zoom with your legs.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

But what really helped me in those early days was removing some of the options because I was working at so many jobs. I actually had a really big kit. I was buying used gear from Taylor. I was buying used gear from our local shop. So I had like a really big size kit and I wouldn't necessarily recommend that. Like I think having less. you to understand that lens and what it looks like and how it works really, really well and the limitations of it. And then you move on to the next one. Like, so start with the 50 1. 8, start with like the cheapest lens in your bag and just get really good at shooting families and babies. Weddings, if you dare, uh, and get really good at doing that on one lens. I actually shot almost an entire season on the Sigma art 51. 4.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

how cool.

Lindsay Coulter:

just because I just loved it. I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

well, giving yourself like a little bit of a limitation, actually sometimes is, is helpful to your learning experience. And just, I think the overall client experience, because you're not fumbling with lenses and caps and you're not the person that looks confused and scared.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I feel almost the exact same way about shooting primes. It's that, suddenly I'm not always guessing myself as far as, well, should I go wide for this? Should I, you know, zoom in for this? Because again, it's more than just how far away is the subject that determines what your focal length should be. And I found that if I have 35 on, well, I'm going to make it work. If I have 85 on, I'm going to make whatever I want

Lindsay Coulter:

Mm

Raymond Hatfield (3):

work. And that's, that's all that you can do, right? Yeah. You have to be creative because of the constraints that you're given. So if you can artificially give yourself those constraints, that's like a, don't know, a photo hack, I guess, that you can get to, to becoming more creative. So that's great.

Lindsay Coulter:

and there are people that will tell you like you could just ask somebody what are the lenses I should use for different parts of the day? You know, I've done

Raymond Hatfield (3):

sure.

Lindsay Coulter:

of my wedding days where I just say, like, I usually try to walk into a wedding ceremony with, or a wedding day, to getting ready with something really simple, like a 35 on, because I don't want the people's first reaction to be like, Oh wow, the photographer is here. Cause I walk in with like a 70 to 200 or even a 24 to 70. It looks really intimidating. Right. So there are really like now that I've been doing this for over 10 years, like there are some logistical reasons why I do that, that actually don't have anything to do with like the outcome of the image necessarily so much as like the feeling when I walk in a room. And so watching BTS of other people and like, I've been talking about weddings. I do all different kinds of shoots. I do families and babies and branding and stuff, but listening to other photographers that are experienced in their, um, about the types of lenses they recommend for certain types of day. Maybe that's the helpful thing for some photographers, like just actually following a worksheet or something that other people have suggested.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

That right there is the whole reason why I created the podcast. I've shared this on the podcast before. I went to school for cinematography, not photography. So even though there's a lot of similarities, once I started to get into weddings, I felt like a bit of a fraud, right? Like, am I forgetting something? Am I not doing something right? And just being able to have a podcast here to be able to reach out to photographers and just find out like, what are you doing? And, and why, is extremely helpful. And it helped me get through 10 years of weddings.

Lindsay Coulter:

of

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

on the right track,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm hmm,

Lindsay Coulter:

actually totally, that's totally normal. And I mean, this many years in, I still have friends that we do things so differently from each other that, like, this is the hill we'll die on, like, that

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

You shouldn't do that. But like, how do we know?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah

Lindsay Coulter:

to photography school, every educator is going to teach a different way of doing things. Like, there's, is where it's an art and not just, you know, there is no exact way to do it.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Right. Oh, that's good. Yeah. That is where it's the art. It's the, it's a personal decisions, that you're making. That's good. well, I want to, talk real quick about a conversation that we had at imaging USA this year, which was, you were telling me that one thing that you're working on is being more intentional in your business, going deeper rather than, trying to do more things. Tell me about that. You know, you've been doing this for 10 plus years. So what does that look like? What sorts of changes are you looking to make in your business? And why is this coming about?

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah. I loved our chat imaging. It was like so brief. We were just hanging out at the imagine table, but I was like, Oh, you are a born interviewer. That's a great question. mean, 10 plus years is a really long time to be in business. I'll say that comes with constant, learning. constant. There's never a time when I'm not learning and I'm not trying something new. And that can be exhausting. if you are in the photography space, if you're wanting to be a photographer, you're probably aware that it's like constantly changing. Also social media is changing. Marketing is changing. SEO changes. Google removed a hundred from my Google listing yesterday. So that's a thing I have to react to. COVID existed and I had to react to like,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

a completely different way of doing things. I, AI started, we were like, Oh, I guess we'll edit with AI. I switched to mirrorless. Now I'm switching from Canon back to Nikon. It's like one thing after another that never really truly ends. And there are still some constants in it, regardless of what like the ebbs and flows of what is happening around me and the world. Around my business that I have to react to. And one of those constants is that I, I always want my client's experience to be exceptional. And that was always a thing in my early days that I wanted my clients to feel like, wow, what a great customer service experience that we had with Lindsay. And anybody who says that photography is just an art is missing something so huge because photography is a service industry. We are only in existence because people hire us. That's it. And the second we stop serving our clients and wanting to know what is it that you are looking for, that's when we've completely lost the plot. So, I have absolutely lost the plot over the years, right? There have been times where I have focused on the wrong things. I have been chasing numbers on Instagram. I have been worried about what the trends are because I hired a 22 year old assistant and I was like, Oh my gosh, this girl's going to eat my lunch and all these young girls are going to come in and take my business. And then I got in that scarcity mindset. And that really killed things for me for a period of time. And like, yeah. if I come back to the reality of my business is good, my business is strong. I create really good work for my clients. What do I want to do more of? The thing that I realized that I want to do more of is just doing really, really good work for my clients. that sort of, I talk about this a little bit because I have a, a course, where I teach sort of mindset and skill set because it's a thing. I think that all photographers, those two things has these like large pillars make up a really successful business. But if your mindset is bad, but your skill set is good. It will fail. there's so many talented photographers out there that get bogged down in comparison on social media and worrying about gear when gear is just not the most important thing. It's obviously important, but it's not the only thing. They're worried about what's trendy and what's cool. And then they forget. Like, what's your value? Why are you doing this? And so for me, like my sort of core values are like, I want to have fun. I want my business to be fun. And I know that that's like a luxury that we have, but it is a luxury. We have your business can be fun. Like it can be

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. You get to choose your heart. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

Of course, of course, like it can be enjoyable. It doesn't have to suck. I know that

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

sometimes, but it doesn't have to. I want to be profitable, and sustainable, like not just profitable for peaks and valleys. Like I want it to be profitable year over year, in a way that makes sense for me and for my clients. I don't want to create good work. I think with those sort of values in mind, and every year I try to like reset. What do I want to do differently or the same this year? The thing that keeps coming up for me is, know, have taken time aside to like do more educating and to work with brands and to do public speaking. And that's all great. That's awesome. that doesn't feed my values, which is, I want to create good work for my clients. I want to be profitable. I want to have fun. Like, It's not feeding into all three of those categories. Sometimes it's one or the other, but it's never all three of those. But like the thing that I can control is like this thing that I actually built here, year over year. And like, if it survived COVID, it can survive anything. That's how I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

Um, I've been doing this for so long, like, especially in Canada, we were locked down

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Uh,

Lindsay Coulter:

long. yeah, this year I'm kind of just coming back to like, if I was a client hiring me, what would my experience be like? And I just want to know, like, I want to, like, I want to workshop it again. I want to almost become a beginner photographer again, like instead of just doing things the way I've always done them and like, oh, this works. This is good. which has never really been my MO, like. I'm not the latest adopter of all time, but like, I was slow to, into AI editing or, I was slow to switch over to mirrorless. And if I had jumped onto those things sooner, I think it would have been a better experience for my clients. But you don't know what you don't know.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

right.

Lindsay Coulter:

but for me, I'm kind of just looking at everything from the first person to never hear me to think I want to do wedding photos and I need a wedding photographer. Like what's that experience look like for somebody searching me out, finding a website, getting hit with a contact form. They have to fill that out. Going back and forth on pricing. Like, what's that whole experience feel like? And then what does it feel like being on the other side of the camera for your engagement photos? And feeling nervous and anxious. Like, do they feel prepared? Do they feel well taken care of? Do they feel like they look great and they know it? Or do they feel like uncomfortable and like I haven't prepared them? So,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm hmm.

Lindsay Coulter:

I kind of just want to go through and figure out where the holes are in my business. If that makes sense.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Of course, well, there's this, um,

Lindsay Coulter:

right? It's just been like, I built this thing literally brick by brick. And I'm just like, well, where are their holes?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah, yeah, there's this, this question that I try to tackle every year in some sort of year end review, which is when I think about my business, what feels broken? And when, when you can answer that, because, I think we can get so, wrapped up in, in busyness, right? Well, if I'm working on SEO or whatever, that, that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing, but it may not be the right thing, right? So asking yourself what feels broken, is kind of one of the similar things that I do. but how do you plan on, um, Figuring that out. just focus on the client experience part of it right now. Is it just surveying your, your clients? is it you going through, working with another photographer, like hiring them and seeing what they're doing? How do you plan to go deeper into client experience this year?

Lindsay Coulter:

So there's a couple of things that I'm, doing currently and, and planning on doing more of. One of the things that I really want to do is I try to do it every year. I don't know that I did it last year COVID because,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Everything got hard during COVID. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

everything got hard during COVID, but I wasn't I spending time on client calls? what months felt hard and then trying to correlate why they felt hard. so I feel like as on sexy as that is like doing an audit of your own calendar because our calendars, They shouldn't rule us, but like they do kind of run the show. Right.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

in knowing where we spent our time, it's a pretty good indicator of how we ran our business.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

just that I can get some clarity. When it comes to your calendar, are you putting in things like, are you blocking off time for certain tasks or is your calendar just the appointments? Okay.

Lindsay Coulter:

I don't do that. That would make it like, wow, the audit would be

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

effective if I did that. No, I have like, it's fairly general. So it'll be like travel. it's sessions, it's weddings. it's any client calls that I take, any type of like podcasts or interview or anything else. Like that's, I'll call it an extracurricular that I do. That's fine. I've got family time in there. in auditing my calendar, it's actually how I realized that I wanted. Take long weekends off.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Hmm.

Lindsay Coulter:

we're blessed. We have a lot of long weekends and I would say there's like one every month starting in April, maybe even,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

So you just don't book weddings during these long weekend weekends.

Lindsay Coulter:

Yes,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Love it.

Lindsay Coulter:

doing,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Booking three weddings instead of none. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

three because I was like, well, if I'm going to shoot this thing up, I'm going to do the whole thing, which is how you end up with 50 or 60 weddings in a

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

way.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

And burnt out.

Lindsay Coulter:

that's crazy. Because I would do a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or a Friday, Saturday, Sunday on a long weekend. And

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Woo!

Lindsay Coulter:

brutal.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

it wasn't fun. It wasn't fun. I don't care how much money you're making. That's not fun. And the thing that I realized was like, my business was supposed to give me freedom and now I'm losing time. My family owns a cottage, on Georgian Bay. It's beautiful. My aunt and uncle have had a cottage for since before I was born. So the cottage has always been like a place. And I, Americans don't really do like the cottage, I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

No. Not really. Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

It's not, it's not mine. it is my privilege that I get to go there. It's not my cottage. but it was a huge eye opener for me when I was looking at my calendar and I was like, that worth it? Like, my cousins are getting older. There's only so many years when they're going to think that I'm cool and they want to hang out with me. And I, they don't think I'm cool for the record. But they will go paddle boarding with me

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

think that's a win, you know? And they'll play Scrabble with me on the dock. And I remember, like their mom doing the same thing with me when I was a kid and how much that impacted my life and to think that they don't have that because it's just like their parents and their grandparents up at the cottage and they don't have this like other relative there,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

In between ages. Yeah. Long weekends. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

And I was like, I want that. Like, I want that for them. I want that for me. I want that for our whole family. I want us to spend time together. And. I would always tell myself I'll go up to the cottage through the week when I have time, but I didn't go to the cottage for five years.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Wow. Yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

money.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah. you

Lindsay Coulter:

what?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

For what? Ha ha ha.

Lindsay Coulter:

There's no plan here. So this is a really long winded answer of doing that. That audit really can help in really big ways and it makes you realize like what, what's like truly missing. and in me figuring out what's missing on my side of things, we'll likely figure out what's missing for my clients. Right? Because if I'm not loving it, There's no way that they're loving it. just no way. And I don't care. Like, I worked my butt off those weekends, but the Sunday or the Monday wedding, whatever it was on the third wedding is always getting a lesser version of me because it's just not possible

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Of course.

Lindsay Coulter:

at a hundred percent eight to 12 hour wedding days in a row. Plus travel. That's not possible.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Okay. help explain this because I've talked to newer photographers before. And cause I've, I've always had a rule that I won't do three weddings because I did three weddings in a row once. And I was just as you found, I'm giving my, a much lesser version of myself. And their argument is. You have three eight hour days, like, oh, that sucks to be you. You know what I mean?

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

I go to work five days a week, eight hours a day. But, there's a different mental mode, I think, that you're in, when you're, you're tasked to create something, for a couple. How would you explain that to them, right? Because it, it can be a difficult conversation, but we're not comparing apples to apples here.

Lindsay Coulter:

No, it's definitely not the same. I've had an eight hour day in an office and I'm acutely aware that that is

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

kind of day that we're having when we are doing the emotional labor of trying to make a bride feel like they're the most beautiful they've ever looked and trying to soften weird family stuff that's going on in the other room and you're trying to like manage people's expectations around no, we can't do an individual photo of the mother in law with every single person at this wedding individually on her own. No, that's not going to happen today. You're probably managing a second photographer while you're probably talking so much throughout a wedding day, trying to direct people and give them information and tell them what's coming next and what to expect and then posing them and being creative. Creativity does not happen when you're burnt out. That is the thing I know 100 percent for sure. I can have poses that I'm like, yep, I could do this. Like the back of my hand. I know the location I'm going to go. I shoot at this venue all the time. It's not a big deal. There are situations where I will do multiple weddings. If one of the weddings is a shorter day, or if one of those weddings is at a venue that I'm really comfortable being at, and I know, like, it's, it's going to be super easy for me, and I know that. I will say, I think that when I was starting out, years old starting this doing a

Raymond Hatfield (3):

lot easier. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

was easier for me, right? Like I didn't get that like it would get a wedding hangover for sure But like this is insane I don't think I've ever told anybody this but like I would go out to the bar on a Friday night after my Friday Wedding

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, wow.

Lindsay Coulter:

and shoot a Saturday

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

cuz I was a kid I was

Raymond Hatfield (3):

woman. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

I was making more money than I had ever seen before right? So like If I don't have a peppermint tea now by 9 p. m. the night before our wedding, I'm going to regret it. You know what I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Useless the next day. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

to like make it sound like, Oh, you know, I'm 34. Not to make it sound like, Oh, like when you turn 30, it all changes. But truly like some things change and your priorities do change. And

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

willingness to accept feeling physically crappy on a wedding day has I have no tolerance for feeling physically bad. So that's why I personally will not do three weddings on a weekend anymore. unless it's like, I've got two weddings booked and the third one is like a best friend and she's like,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Sure.

Lindsay Coulter:

must shoot my wedding. You know,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

there's always an extenuating circumstance that will come around. but I just don't feel like we're doing our best work physically, mentally, emotionally, definitely not creatively when we're doing that kind of work back to back.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah, I just heard this recently, I don't remember his name, but like there's some world class chess player or something, and scientists hooked him up to a bunch of probes or whatever, and found that in like a five hour game of chess that he would play, his brain was so locked in, and he would expel, I don't know, use, I don't know what the right term is. 5, 000 calories. Like, just in that time, in that, like, 4 or 5 hour span, because his brain is so locked in. And it's like, when, I brought it back to weddings at that moment. I was like, yeah, that's why the next day, I'm like, nobody can talk to me today. like, I just need time to recharge.

Lindsay Coulter:

too, right? Like, they do feel physically bad because other thing I used to do is I just used to drink a like, giant black coffee in the morning. I would eat a bagel from Tim Hortons on my way to the wedding and then I wouldn't eat again until dinner.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Heh, heh, heh, heh.

Lindsay Coulter:

bread and then I'm a vegetarian and so the first thing would be pasta and then I'm just like I'm just spiking and crashing all day long and then you wake up the next day and you're like,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Carb coma. Yeah, exactly.

Lindsay Coulter:

bad? And then my workflow would suck

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm.

Lindsay Coulter:

two days after that wedding, I was useless.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

I am still not perfect. There is no perfect way. I don't think to, to efficiently fuel yourself on a wedding day. It's unfortunately, some things are probably going to give, but like. I do try to get like, a protein shake or something into me in the morning at home. And then I bring some healthy ish thing to eat while

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

the car, moving from location to location or something. And then I did actually start eating fish again because specifically wedding meals was always pasta. And I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

I think, trying to figure out how we fuel ourselves is, It's an important factor for sure, in the whole space. But yeah, when I was younger, I didn't have any idea. But now when I'm doing that the next day after a wedding, I could get up and I could go for a walk. I can then start calling the wedding if I haven't called it already the night before. Like I have energy still. There isn't this crash. And it is nice over here. I will say for those of you who are still on the Red Bull diet, like join us. It's nice, to drink water and not feel crappy the day after a wedding. I am still on a Red Bull diet. I'm not going to lie to you.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

It's so hard to kick. I know.

Lindsay Coulter:

too much. We have a Red Bull fridge in our studio

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Are you kidding?

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

my dream. That is so awesome. And I see so many of them on Facebook Marketplace. I don't know if

Lindsay Coulter:

Bull.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Like, I don't know if they're like promotional things that the distributors give to gas stations or whatever, but I want one.

Lindsay Coulter:

So

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah, bars.

Lindsay Coulter:

Cause a friend of ours, manages a bar up the street from our studio.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

they just get a bunch of them because they, they push a lot of Red Bull. And so he just asked the guy, Hey, like our friends have an office. Can we have an extra one? And they said, yes.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

I'm so jealous. I'm so jealous.

Lindsay Coulter:

Bull fridge. it's always well stocked. So if you come to visit us in Waterloo, you can join.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

I'm gonna have to grab a Red Bull, yeah, for sure. Uh, one of the things that I've been trying to do lately, and this isn't exactly photography related, but is to cut my caffeine, to not have any caffeine past, like, 11am. because one of the things that I found was that when I sit in front of a computer and I'm editing, and, or you're working on your website, or you're doing all these things, especially in these winter months, you want something warm. So you're gonna drink I would go through like a pot of coffee a day, you know?

Lindsay Coulter:

you're trying to figure out why your anxiety is so

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

Lindsay Coulter:

racing?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

of my own actions? It couldn't be.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

No way. Yeah, can't be.

Lindsay Coulter:

started drinking peppermint tea. Truthfully, like I don't think we talk about this enough and I will, I will always be the first person to talk about it. Being a photographer and running a photography business, allows us a lot of freedom and the freedom to choose is really exciting, but the freedom to choose also, if we're not really conscious of our choices can put you in a really bad physical and mental state. Right? So like, It wasn't uncommon for me to be like, Oh, it's four o'clock. I'm going to have a glass of wine while I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

think like the mummy coffee, then wine culture, that's all over social media. I'm not a mom, but I like, I follow enough mom influencers that it's. It's rampant. It's everywhere that it's totally normalized to go What do they call it from nine to wine or something like that? So so I mean like from a reformed party girl who I just told you that I would go out to the bar After a wedding.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

don't think anybody is terribly surprised that while I'm editing I would be like, why wouldn't I have a glass of wine? Like, who's my

Raymond Hatfield (3):

We're adults. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, who's gonna tell me no? Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

It started at five. Then it would go to four during the pandemic. All bets were off. There were

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah, noon.

Lindsay Coulter:

made there.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

like, whatever. And that comes with repercussions. It comes with like, I don't care what you say, if you wake up in the morning with a headache, it's because you are hungover. Even if you think, oh, I just had a couple glasses of wine with my friends. But you do that for five days in a row or four days in a row, or you just do it mindlessly while you're editing.'cause you're in an editing hole. it's mindlessness. Right. And I think the overwhelm of the number of decisions that we have to make as photographers because our businesses on our lives are so intertwined. There's not really a separation of church and state. I'm very fortunate that I have this studio. I share it with Taylor and our friend Tim and physical building outside of our home. I can walk to it, which is really nice, but it's not in my house. I'm really unlikely to crack open a bottle of wine here. But if you work from home, It's a different space. You're in your home. So it's really easy to, whether it's caffeine intake or whether it's alcohol or whatever your little vices that you think is harmless, it does catch up, right? And, thankfully, I just am constantly analyzing different areas of my life. So it doesn't take too long for me to be like, this is not how I feel like doing this. This is not what I want to be doing. So I am still very much addicted to caffeine. Um, my 4pm, sometimes 3pm glasses of wine have ended. The other thing I'll say is it's also weird when you're a wedding photographer is that you lose your weekends and when you're, you know, lose your weekends. But when you're in your twenties. That was really hard for me to reconcile. I was like, well, I still want to be fun. I don't want to lose out on this time in my life. So I would say Monday and Tuesdays are my weekend. Well, Monday and Tuesday being my weekend, sometimes I would end up doing a shoot on Monday.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm hmm.

Lindsay Coulter:

means Tuesday and Wednesday are my weekend, but I probably still had like a drink or something on the Monday. So it's just, it all becomes a little bit gray

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yep. Gray.

Lindsay Coulter:

I'm not suggesting we all become sober. if that's something that you need, that is absolutely, what we should all do, but, or what you should do. But I think, for me, it was just about being conscious, conscious of all the decisions that I'm making in my life, whether it's not moving my body enough, it's not going to the cottage with my family. It's, I was drinking wine when I shouldn't have been drinking wine and drinking coffee when I shouldn't have been drinking coffee. Like, it's just, I think, I know that there are a lot of, a lot of decisions for us to make, but don't let the decisions we have to make for our business overshadow the decisions that we make for our lives. Like,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm hmm.

Lindsay Coulter:

the big one. It's

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, wow.

Lindsay Coulter:

you're making these decisions for your business and that's the forefront and I get the grind, it's addictive. It's like, Oh, I did this amazing thing for my website. I got to do that again. I did this, that worked. I booked this, that worked. And we just get so hyper fixated on that. That there's a reason why you don't see a lot of 40 plus year old photographers.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah, they burn out. Yeah

Lindsay Coulter:

focused on the business that they forget to focus on the human life behind the business.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

So much to think of there, wow Lindsay, uh, uh, So, what this kind of reminds me of is that, like, um, One of the things, I mean, I got out of weddings, part of it was from burnout, for sure, I wasn't taking care of myself, like I should have, But then I look at guys like Joe McNally, who have been doing it for decades, And it's so interesting because, I feel like, now obviously I don't know any of his personal routines, I don't know how, like, it's all set up, but I know that he has support, and I know that he has a team, and it seems to me, from the outside looking in, that, he made a conscious effort to not burn out, but instead, rust out. You know what I mean? Like, it takes longer, uh, to rust than it does burn out. And that's why today he is, his age and he's still going and giving these workshops around the world. And he's teaching and he's, he's still happy. He still has so much energy to give. And I can only imagine, that it comes from a lot of taking care of himself, that personal health, the, the, his spirit with his family and

Lindsay Coulter:

huge for me because

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

I remember when I got into it. I thought, well, this will be for a while, not forever. then I loved it and I was like, well, how do I make it forever then?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

uh,

Lindsay Coulter:

Because I don't want to have to give this up. I don't want to have to, if I choose to, that's one thing, but I don't want to have to, I don't want to be forced out because I burn out because I took on more work than I could handle and I stopped delivering on time or, because I, I wasn't charging enough. And so this wasn't sustainable, and sometimes you don't realize that. Um, and a couple years down the line that what we're charging is not sustainable. Because, if you're a photographer, you're probably not really great at bookkeeping. Um, and you're probably not really great at analyzing the data from those books. Right. So we sometimes don't realize it until it's a couple of years down the line and that's okay. Like whenever you figure it out, that's all right. But I do remember it being a conscious decision of mine. Like if I do this, it's going to be, sustainable way. and I think the only way to do that is to really focus on the business as a whole, as a really holistic thing. And if you, as the CEO, founder, whatever you are of your business are unwell, It's

Raymond Hatfield (3):

it's not going to turn out well, yep, yep.

Lindsay Coulter:

no.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

So then, I know that we're running out of time, so this will probably be my last question for you, which is, you making to your offerings and to your pricing to make sure that not only is it profitably sustainable, but also mentally sustainable for you as well?

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah. So, I mean, I went from shooting 50 weddings a year, in 2019 I had 50 weddings booked 55, I think booked for 2020

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Didn't happen.

Lindsay Coulter:

no, and it really, it didn't happen in a big way. And, I just remember thinking during that time, I never want to reschedule 55 weddings again,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Ha ha ha.

Lindsay Coulter:

and everything is going well. And in previous years, basically from 2013 until 2019, I'd had a good run. worst I had ever had was one year. I had six weddings canceled. That was not a good so much of it, they were smaller, they were not the same thing, it really brought me back to the remembering. I want more time with my family. I want more time. I mean, all, all I was doing was going for walks. and in order to do that, I need to take on less work. And so I started being really intentional about capping my wedding bookings at 30 weddings a year, which is still lots. Like it's still a healthy calendar on top

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Okay.

Lindsay Coulter:

a portrait business. but, now I, I've realized like, well, the easiest way for me to do that is to just charge more because I am still making the same number, I'm still making the same amount that I was when I was doing 50 plus weddings at 35. If the demand is there to shoot 50 plus weddings, the demand will be there whether your price is 5, 000 You know what I mean? Like it's

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Absolutely.

Lindsay Coulter:

a difference for the client. If they want to work with you, they will work with you. Like that is a thing. And I'm, I know that I'm privileged in a position in my business to be able to do that. I don't recommend brand new photographers taking pricing advice from somebody that's 10 years in necessarily. Because what I charge, if you even try to model yourself after that, your business will probably not succeed unless you have a killer portfolio somehow to back that up. I hope, obviously listening to this with a grain of salt, but I increased my prices and it was terrifying, like absolutely terrifying. The first month I was like crickets. This is it. I have to, I'm going to downgrade my pricing. I have all my pricing public. it's all on my website. I know that's like contentious for people, but, I just have it all out there. I think in the industry that we're in, we want to make it as easy for people to, know what they're getting into as possible. So that's why I think it's important not just to have a starting price, but to just put it there. Like I have no problem with it. There's no secret. don't come up with different packages based on people's personality

Raymond Hatfield (3):

ha ha. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

this is

Raymond Hatfield (3):

It is what it is. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

may be a discount based on you working at one of my preferred venues. That's totally fair. But this is the price that it starts at. So this year moving forward, in sort of bringing that in even further and dialing that in even further I actually am going to be increasing my prices again. It's been a couple of years it's been a couple of years. I increased them during covid then I increased them again in 2023 I think end of 2023 So i'm currently still working on the pricing that I was offering in 2023 2024 and life has gotten a lot more expensive since those years and our businesses have all gotten a lot more expensive. And one of the joys of this business is that I don't have to go to a boss and say, Hey, can I have a 2 percent raise because of inflation? Like I can just, to do that and I have to do that actually in order for this year to be just as profitable if not more than last year, that that's a necessity. It's not even necessarily like I think I want to do, I don't need to be making more money. I just need to be making what feels like the same as last year. so the prices unfortunately are going to have to go up. It's just how things are. But I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm hmm. Uh, yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

people are happily spending 50 bucks on an Uber. Then a family session should not be 300. Like that is crazy. These things should be valued differently, right?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah, absolutely.

Lindsay Coulter:

and that then to answer your question in the part two is reminding people of why this matters, So in my marketing efforts reminding people of why photography is still so important the world feels heavy It feels really hard for a lot of people. I totally understand that reminding them of what's good in life is really important and and Year over year, we're going to look back at these photos and be like, yeah, that was a hard year or yeah, that was a rough time for my family or, times were tight, but we still made the time to get together as a family and document like this joy that we have, weddings are a different beast because those will still be there. Go off. It's really wild. I used to always say weddings are recession proof, but they're not pandemic proof. But I truly do believe that they are recession proof.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Um,

Lindsay Coulter:

will spend whatever they had planned on spending for their wedding, regardless of what is going on in the world. And we create recessions. We create them by telling people that there are recessions, and nobody's spending, and the industry's screwed, and weddings are down across the board. We're the ones creating that whole narrative, and then our clients buy it, and then they stop spending as a whole, right? So, we need to remind them, like, your wedding happens. It should not, what you choose to invest on it shouldn't be based on how the economy is doing at that time. Within reason, obviously.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

course, yeah Yeah

Lindsay Coulter:

are the two most important things, then you should always still invest in those regardless of what those cost. so yeah, kind of bringing that back to reminding my clients of that. And then the other thing, this is a really tangible thing that I'm gonna be working on is revamping all of my guides for my clients. So I have guides to help them pick their outfits for their engagement sessions and, to show them locations that I typically shoot at. Cause a lot of my clients aren't from this area, but they'll come here for their engagement session. So showing them example photos of that and just updating those images so that they feel current because people feel cared for when they open a guide that looks like it was made this year and not five years ago, right?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah Oh,

Lindsay Coulter:

these photos are so 2015 like what's happening here. I want the editing style to be what I'm currently using all of that. And then the other thing that I'm going to be doing, and I haven't announced this really anywhere is that I'm going to be changing my delivery time to be much shorter.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

really

Lindsay Coulter:

I think that I've been at the four to six week mark for wedding deliveries for a really long time. I don't think that's what my clients want anymore. And it doesn't need to be that anymore.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

doesn't need to be, that's right, yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

You

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

like I use imagine to edit my images. I could have their photos back to them within a week. I choose not to because I think that there is some value loss when they get them back instantly.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

but doing a little bit more of a cull, that's the other thing that I have been really bad at. I've been over delivering images like numbers of images because it's just too easy to edit photos and deliver 1500 photos. So tightening up that sort of the deliverable, both in timeline and what they're getting. That's sort of the, that's one of the next big things. So to answer your question, I'm, throwing the whole kitchen out and I'm just pulling back one thing and saying, let's start over.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

No, that was, that was incredibly insightful and I appreciate, all of that. have a question about the delivery time though here. cause this was one thing that I did in my business as well is that, I was relatively efficient, especially as you know, when you shoot it right in camera, the edits can go by much quicker. so I would always promise 30 days. In fact, I had a guarantee that they'd get it within 30 days. Otherwise, I'd start to pay them back. Right?

Lindsay Coulter:

gosh.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Well, yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

a crazy move. Like

Raymond Hatfield (3):

it was Well

Lindsay Coulter:

something goes wrong in your world.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

No, I know, yeah, risk. But honestly, it paid off, massive, because

Lindsay Coulter:

that people would have in you would be huge.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

yeah, I said that I'd pay you back 500 a week, after the 30 days if I didn't get you the, uh, the images in time. And, as you said, like, it immediately built that trust. I was like, that's how confident I am.

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

was a few wedding photographers here in Indy that made it on the news because they had just skipped town. And, like, there was this, like, fear, and there was a lot of fear that this was going to continue to happen, and you didn't know who to trust. And since you don't hire a wedding photographer all the time, that's how I built trust with my clients. And it was really helpful, that they'd get it within 30 days.

Lindsay Coulter:

Honestly, that's a really, really fun. I've never heard of anybody doing a guarantee, but it's such a phenomenal idea because I think trust is lower in our industry than ever before right now.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, for sure. For sure.

Lindsay Coulter:

there are so many photographers skipping town.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Mm hmm.

Lindsay Coulter:

health is a huge reason for it, I think, that they just get overwhelmed, their businesses aren't sustainable, they freak

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yep.

Lindsay Coulter:

they're like, screw it, I'm just not gonna do any of this. But those

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

photos. And like, there's good photographers in our area doing that still. Like, there's

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Ugh.

Lindsay Coulter:

our town that has over a hundred one star reviews. He's like, he's just

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh my gosh.

Lindsay Coulter:

people, but charging 7, 500 for a wedding. So actually I'm like intrigued. I'm really inspired by this. For the people that come to me and they do seem nervous. Maybe I'll tell them, I'll give you a guarantee. Why wouldn't I? will

Raymond Hatfield (3):

I, I promise you it will help. Yeah, no, exactly. I promise you it'll help. but the thing is, is that I would often get it to them within, like, two weeks. So, my guarantee was 30 days. But then I, so I would make a promise, but then I would over deliver by delivering it within two weeks. Is that still the same approach? Or would your, marketing be here, be like, you're gonna get it within two weeks, no matter what, to just set that up front?

Lindsay Coulter:

think

Raymond Hatfield (3):

I mean, that, that's a personal question.

Lindsay Coulter:

Yeah. I

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

say maximum of four instead of doing the four to six, because truthfully I think that leaves some ambiguity and four to six is just what Taylor did. And I've just done it for 10 years. Truthfully. That's just like what I've done. You know what I mean?

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

six just felt right. and I have delivered weddings sooner. And I felt like, and this is where we never really know, but I felt like my clients didn't like their photos as much or they didn't value them as much. Or I started getting requests. Can you edit this? Can you do this? Because it's still too fresh in their minds. So I would say I will say four weeks. And I will probably do, I'll just deliver them within three would be my thought. I don't think I'll do two.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

That's a lot of pressure, especially with the volume of weddings and other shoots. Yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

other shoots that I'm doing too, if I was just doing weddings, two weeks would be completely reasonable. you know, if you throw one trip in there,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Oh, yeah.

Lindsay Coulter:

to happen. Right. And, You know, in this years, I have seen how quickly life will throw me a curve ball and it's really hard to be editing from a bad, mental state, something's wrong with your family or whatever. And it's nice to give yourself a little bit of leg room. So yeah, I'll probably still tell them four weeks. And I'm going to keep that guaranteed delivery thing in mind for the people that seem to be worried

Raymond Hatfield (3):

On the fence.

Lindsay Coulter:

reason because it's

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Because it's happened. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Lindsay Coulter:

And it's probably happened to one of their bridesmaids or something. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's bad how often it's happening. So the one thing I will say to the photographers that are listening to this, the beginner photographers that are listening to this, get your systems in order for your workflow. Have a spreadsheet. It doesn't have to be sexy. You don't have to spend a ton of money on a big CRM and all this stuff. I literally use a Google sheets document to tell me what I have on the go, what's coming up, how much money it's making me. It's just like a very simple, basic spreadsheet,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Wow.

Lindsay Coulter:

It also tells me when I shot it or when I'm going to be shooting it and it's due date. And then I color code it with trackers of like, this one's green. It's in progress. This one's yellow. It's coming up on its due date. And red is like, this one is due. Like you need to deliver this now. It's so simple, but something like that, removes the guesswork out of what's coming up, it takes that huge weight off your shoulders of, oh my gosh, the editing is so overwhelming. If you are lucky enough to be in a position to have a lot of work, where the editing might feel overwhelming, don't ghost your clients. Literally don't ghost your clients. There's photographers that will probably edit those weddings for free for you.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah,

Lindsay Coulter:

so that you don't ruin the reputation of this whole industry. And I've done it. I've edited photos for people just so that their clients don't go and say,

Raymond Hatfield (3):

same.

Lindsay Coulter:

is happening in our city. Can you believe they're getting away with this? And yes, I can believe they're getting away with it. It's bad, but it keeps happening.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

Yeah, I know. I know

Lindsay Coulter:

So get that it's a mental health problem. I think it's a huge, I mean, mental health is like, it's its own epidemic right now, all over the world, but especially North America. And photographers are, are really heavily impacted by it. We don't have, a lot of us don't have great health insurance, and we're not taking good physical care of ourselves and mental care of ourselves, and then sometimes the train comes off the tracks. So, don't let it be you.

Raymond Hatfield (3):

the train comes off the tracks. It does. Sometimes it does. So, well, Lindsay, we're definitely at the end of our time here. I appreciate you being so, willing to share as much as you have today and, and being here. But for those who are listening right now and thinking, where can we find out more about Lindsay, where can we find, her course offerings? Where is the best place to find you online?

Lindsay Coulter:

So Instagram, unfortunately, is probably the, the first go to, you can find me on Instagram. My handle is L Coulter photo L C O U L T E R photo. And from there I have, links to my website for, weddings, families, babies, and all that fun stuff. If you want to check out my work. and then I do have a course, it's called better than booked. it's better than book. com. so if you're a photographer, that's like. wanting to deep dive a little bit further into how to have a fun and sustainable, and profitable business that focuses on not just the skillset, but also the mindset. that's kind of the place for you. It does have a wedding focus, but it's really, it's universal. All the tips in there.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay, here is one action item from today's interview with Lindsay Coulter that you can implement to help you become a better photographer. Now, this is also, you know, life related, but do a time audit on your photography. Whether photography is just a hobby or if it is developing into a business, discovering where your time is going can help you to see the things that, one, you don't actually love to do, but two, also realize what it is that you love most. When you figure out what it is that you love most, suddenly scaling back on those things that you love the least becomes a whole lot easier. And also, this is important, recognize where you're at in your photography journey as well. You know, if you're new, new, new, new, new, like, you just started this last week. Your priorities are not to learn everything all at once. It should be to just familiarize yourself with your camera. Spend the most amount of time on that by doing things like photo walks. Now, if you've been doing it for a year or two, well then you should be focusing on things like light or composition, and that should determine where you spend your time. In the beginning, spending one hour dedicated to learning something, like going deep into it, learning something like light or composition will teach you more in that one hour than six, ten minute sessions over the course of a month or two. So focus on one thing. I want to know what are you going to be spending your time doing and what are you going to spend less time on? Let us know in the free and incredibly supportive beginner photography podcast community, which you can join right now by heading over to beginnerphotopod. com forward slash group. I hope to see you there.