The Importance Of Being Organized

On this episode of She's Crafted to Thrive, our guest is photographer Laura Neff. We talk about the importance of being organized, but let's be real, it's not really that easy for many photographers and creative entrepreneurs to get organized. We'll talk about Laura's journey to being what I call the queen of organization and workflows, and she'll share some of her tips and mindset shifts that will help you in your business. Welcome to She's Crafted to Thrive, a show for women in photography and other creative businesses. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles of juggling life and business while trying to maintain passion and balance. As women, we have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here where you'll see that you're not alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear, negative thoughts, And challenges are all part of the journey. On the podcast, you'll find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives. Hello, Laura. I'm so excited to have you on She's Crafted to Thrive. I'm super excited. I am just so glad that we have connected like a while ago, but I'm just so happy that we've kind of stayed connected and everything. And I'm just so happy to have you on. You are like Amazeballs. Amazing. Thank you, Nikita.

I'm so honored and excited to be here and be on the show and talk to everybody.

Yeah, I think our paths, as far as what we do and why we do it, are very similar. And that's why I think I gravitated to you so much, because I think it's wonderful what you're doing. So I'm saying this, but nobody knows what I'm talking about, maybe. So please tell us a little bit about you.

Sure. Um, so my name is Laura. I live in northern New Jersey and I have two businesses. One is Laura Lee Photography, and with that business I am a wedding photographer and a brand photographer for creative business owners. And I absolutely love and thrive on fun-loving couples who are adventurous and love to laugh. And I love creative entrepreneurs specifically for my brand photography side of my business because I just love the storytelling aspect. And I feel like creative entrepreneurs just have incredible stories and they're incredibly passionate about what they do. So I love being able to document that story so that they can showcase that to their audience and showcase their passion and their product in a really beautiful way. So I love brand photography, love wedding photography. I've been doing it since 2013 was when I shot my first wedding and It has been amazing. I have literally wanted to be a photographer since I was born, I think. In preschool, I actually drew a picture of a camera when they wanted to— when they asked me what I wanted to do when I was little. So I drew a picture of a camera and said I wanted to be a photographer when I grew up. And my mom was a photographer, so I think that's where that idea had come from. I just didn't really know any other career path as a 2-year-old. 2-year-old. So we had a darkroom in my house growing up, and we had a studio in my house. So I basically just grew up crawling around the darkroom with a camera in my hand, helping my mom— or probably not helping, probably ruining things that she was working on in the darkroom as a toddler. So I just grew up loving photography and always knowing that I wanted to do that. So right out of college, I did my first wedding. I actually did I did not go to school for photography, but knew very quickly after doing interior architecture in the real world, which is what I went to school for, that I knew right away after shooting my first wedding that I wanted to make it full-time. So that's basically that side of my business, and that's doing really well. I do about 20 weddings a year and a myriad of brand sessions a year, so I love those. And then on the other side of things, I have Laura Lee Creative, which is my business that started in unofficially in 2016 and then officially launched my website in 2017. And with Laura Lee Creative, I hope to equip and empower and inspire people to build a profitable business and fulfilling life that is designed to help them save time and make more money, ultimately so that they can profit from their passion and spend time with the people they love. So I focus on workflows and systems and productivity and time management tips and tricks and stuff like that so that people can work less, live more, and really just spend more time with their family and their friends or doing things that they love or that they're passionate about. So I just got really fired up when I think about the end result. And you know, it's all like techie when you're talking about workflows and systems and stuff, but it's so exciting when you get the feedback that somebody got to go on date night with their husband for the first time in months during busy season, or they got to make Valentine's Day treats with their kids, or they got to go paddleboarding or join the gym again because of all this time savings. Like just this morning, one of my coaching girls told me that now she's volunteering at her church because of all the time that she's saving, and she was so fulfilled by that. So saving time in your business just allows you to have more time to do things that you love in your life. And so that's the Laura Lee Creative side of my business. So that's the long story about who I am and what I do.

That is awesome. You have so much, like, you do so much, and it's crazy because your photography work is beautiful.

Like, it's gorgeous.

It's so like airy and free. I don't even know, like, it's just really— I like the way it makes me feel when I look at it. And then your business on the other side of that feels the same way, which is amazing because that means you're really connected with you, like how you are as a person and how you are as an artist and how you are as a business owner. So I think those two businesses like marry really well, which some people can find it really hard to do those type of things. And like it makes sense and people are not like, what is she doing?

Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. That is something that I had struggled with, not knowing if they should be together or separate, and I wanted them to kind of marry very seamlessly. So that was something that I had worked on a lot to make sure that everything kind of worked in tandem and worked with me as a person. And I think that's really what it came down to. So I love you saying that. I just really focus both businesses on what my personal values are, and my business values are very much the same as my personal values. So I think that's what helped both businesses work and seem very authentic to me and similar, even though they're very different.

I love it. I love it. I have the privilege of working with one of your clients, Christina, and I love her to death. And I was like, oh my gosh, you guys are like You, your business is not only like so branded, why? So are your clients. Like your clients match you, like they match like the kind of person you are, the personality. And I'm like, that is so awesome because that's so hard to accomplish in a business is working at the same like versions of you but in a different way. That makes any sense?

Yeah, no, it totally makes sense. And I literally feel like that every day, every time I get off a I'm on a coaching call with one of my clients or a mastermind call, or even after my retreat, which was in June, I'm just like, I just want to be best friends with all of these people. I'm just blown away at how amazing they are. And, you know, they say your vibe attracts your tribe. And I'm just so thankful for the tribe of people that have come into my life because of both businesses. And my boyfriend kind of tests— I probably say it once a day. I'm just like, I'm just blown away by my couples. My coaching clients and my retreat girls. And I just feel very thankful. So I appreciate you noticing that. And I am very grateful that that's the case.

Well, that's awesome. Well, I do want to start asking you a question. And I know it's the first question I usually ask everyone. And you kind of went into it a little bit when you were talking about who you are and what you do and everything. But kind of maybe deep dig a little bit deeper and tell me, like, why did you pursue this path in life? Because I think that sometimes we, we grow up thinking we're going to do something and then something changes, or life changes, or, you know, we always have those like pathways where we like choose to go this way or choose to go that way. And I didn't know you went to school for architecture. Is that what you just said earlier?

Yeah.

So yeah, what made you decide this path?

Yeah, so I'll try to merge the two businesses into one story, but essentially I got into photography because I wanted to tell stories. And I basically, like I said, I only knew photography as a career just because I was seeing that my mom doing that every day. And I always had a camera on me, whether it was vacation or taking pictures with my friends or just like landscapes and bugs and stuff like that when I was little. So I always had a camera on me, and I think it really just came down to telling stories and creating a deeper connection between me and my subjects and my subjects and each other. So that's what I try to do with wedding clients. I always tell people, I want you to be more in love by the end of your engagement session than you were when you came in. And I feel like I'm very successful in that and creating that authentic connection between the two of them. And so I love that photography preserves memories and it preserves people's legacies. And my grandparents are a great example of why I continue to love what I do. They've been married for going on 68 years and they just celebrated, uh, 67 years a few months ago. And I am just blown away. And when I get to look at their wedding pictures in their album, that to me is their legacy. And I have just always had that in the back of my mind and enjoyed their story. And so that is the photography side of things. And then I started to get into education totally on accident. So I can't really tell this story without telling my story of burnout. And I was working. So like I said, I went to school for interior architecture.. And I did that in the real world. I was a project manager at a design firm and everybody at the firm quit except for me. So I very quickly out of college became the lead designer at this very, very well established architecture design build firm. And I was all of a sudden at the age of 22 managing like projects in Hollywood and New York City and Boston and London and Mexico City and Chicago. And I was 22, had no idea what I was doing. I was good at design, but I didn't know the construction side of things, but I had to manage 60 construction workers at a time most of the time. So I really had to be organized at that job. And it was really just draining all of my energy. I was not cut out for hospitality design. So I ended up getting a job at a photo studio as an editor. And that was basically just a stepping stone for going full-time with my business because I knew I wasn't where I needed to be financially to be full-time photography. And I wanted to kind of get out of design into the photography realm. At least it was a commercial studio, so still kind of far from what I wanted to do. But I was working there and it was October and I had 15 weddings on the books for that year. And October, I probably had 5 or 6, and I was just feeling the weight of a full-time job and my business. And I felt like my business wasn't growing how I wanted it to grow because I couldn't dedicate time to it. And I was burning the candle at both ends, super, super burnt out, and to the point where I was crying every single day. And my boss called me into his office, and essentially he just gave me permission to quit. He was like, you are super burnt out. I don't want to see this for you. I know that your business is going to be successful, so if you need permission from me to quit— because he's like, I know you have the type of personality that feels really bad that you're going to leave us during a busy time— but he was like, you can't do this to yourself, so I'm giving you permission. If you want to quit, you you can quit and we'll find a replacement for you. So I quit that day and my last day was Halloween. So it was the last day of October. And then I spent 4 months creating workflows in my business because I spent 4 months trying to catch up from the season before, because I had no workflows in place, no systems, nothing was consistent. There was just random Post-it notes and to-do lists and pieces of paper all over the place. And So I was just like, I don't understand how people can actually run a business if they're not organized, because I just felt like I was reinventing the wheel every time I got a new client. And so I sat down at my dining room table, created workflows for my photography business, color-coded them, figured out who was going to do what in my business because my mom started working for me a few hours a week. And then I decided I was going to outsource everything. So I was just like color coding this lined piece of paper. I have it somewhere in my closet and I really want to dig it up. But, um, once I had that in place, I started to really feel like I had a lot more balance in my life. And I was getting asked by a lot of people in my local Tuesdays Together group what my workflows looked like and how I was saving so much time essentially and being so productive. So I started having people come over to my house and we would sit around my fire pit and I would kind of show them my workflows. So I sort of accidentally started mentoring. And then when people were like, oh my gosh, I feel like you saved my marriage. This is amazing now. And like just so much feedback came flooding, flooding back after our sessions, just positive reinforcement that they were saving time and getting their clients a better experience. And so that was all like totally on accident. I was never like, let's move into the education world. It was just like I fell face first into it. So I started mentoring and then so many people started asking me about my workflows that I was like, maybe I should create like a product because I can't mentor all these people asking me about it. So I created the Wedding Photographer's Playbook, was my first product that launched in 2017. And since then, it's just grown into a shop. I think we have like 14 products, a course coming out. And just when I think— I was sitting in my car the other day and I was just thinking about how— what the outcome is after people save all this time. And I got like really deep with these thoughts. I was just like, you know, if a parent can spend 20, 10, 20 more hours a week with their kid, maybe that kid when they grow up isn't going to have social anxiety that they might have had if their parent was just in front of a laptop all the time. Or maybe it is going to save a marriage because now they're spending all this time rekindling a relationship. Or maybe somebody is going to look in the mirror and love what they look like because they have all the time to go to the gym and fulfill that part of their life. So I just started thinking about visualizing all these outcomes of people saving time, and that has given me the motivation to continue running two businesses because it's definitely hard. But I know that was a long answer, but that's kind of the entire path of why and how I ended up here.

It was a long story, but it was a good one. It is so funny how the little pieces that we don't realize, like, end up connecting in a little— the burnout is real. Like, I think everyone that I've talked to, and I talk to, and just in general, like, they all have a story of some point being like, I can't do this, I don't know why I'm doing this, I can't do this, it's too much, I don't know why I'm doing it. And I feel like you, I feel like you in that story where you're like, the boss had to be like, yes, you can go. I'm kind of like that, but I'm not all the way like that. I do feel very connected to like the people that I work with and I don't want to let them down. But I also am very aware that at times you have to, like, you kind of have to in order to save yourself. But it's very rare that I hear a story where they're like, no, my boss told me I need to go.

Right. I was like, he was like, Laura, can you come into my office? I was like, crap, I'm going to get fired. And then he was just like, I'm giving you permission to quit because you're burnt out and I was grinding my teeth and apparently he had been grinding his teeth when he was my age and now he's deaf in one ear because he was like, did so much damage to his eardrum or like whatever that is. So he made me get a mouth guard and then after that he was like, okay, like you have to quit because I don't want you ending up in the hospital with an anxiety attack or something worse. I was very thankful to have a very understanding boss, and they were just so amazing at encouraging me to do my business. So I feel very blessed to have had that work experience.

Wow. Yeah. So how do you think that, that life, that life of architecture, like, set you up for this business? Like, the both of your businesses, how did it— I think that would have probably— I think that has a lot to do with your workflow.

World?

Because you probably have to do a lot of that. I do.

Yeah, I think it definitely started in college because I— we used to get our syllabus in the beginning of the semester and there just seemed like there was no possible way to get everything done that they wanted us to get done. And I— there were times in college where I stayed up 80 hours straight to get things done and One of my teachers was always like, work smarter, not harder. And I was like, okay, how the heck do I do that? And so I kind of was forced to figure it out. I finally figured it out my senior year of college, but I would just make all these plans and schedules of how every moving part of my syllabus had to get done for the semester. And then when I graduated and went into that project manager role, I really needed to learn how to Essentially, I was managing entire buildings being constructed or entire— maybe not so much buildings, we more so did restaurants and nightclubs, so they were like within a building, but an entire project for, you know, 9 to 12 months at a time between design and construction. So I would work with the construction manager on creating all these schedules for the project and just coordinating all these moving parts because as the lead designer, I had to coordinate the mechanical engineer and the electrician and the plumber and the carpenter and the furniture designer and all this stuff. So there were so many moving parts. So I think it taught me a lot about management and managing so many different facets at once, which I think is really helpful now that I'm running two businesses and not one. And I saw how much other people in the firm crumbled without organization. And projects would get delayed months because of it, because they weren't doing their job correctly. So when, when they all quit and I had to pick up their mess, I was really thankful that I have, you know, an organizational instinct to get everything back on track. And I knew as soon as I went full-time in my business, my mom started working for me, and that's kind of why I created my first workflow, because She was asking so many questions of how to get things done that I was handing off to her, and they were things I knew I wanted her to be doing over and over again, like formatting the blog or blog stomping my photography images together after a wedding. And rather than training her over and over again, I decided to make a procedure manual for my business. So we have an SOP for Laura Leigh Photography, and it's like 135 pages long, and it's ridiculous. Um, and that's essentially what The Wedding Photographer's Playbook is, is my SOP. Um, but it was definitely really helpful just being forced to project manage at a really young age and being forced to get organized and learn how to work smarter so that I didn't go totally insane. Um, really translated into both businesses in that organizational sense.

Yeah, no, totally. Yeah, no, I'm the same way. I can't, I can't function when there's no organization. And I don't understand it when I look at some other businesses and I just think, how are you, one, still in business? Two, how are you functioning like this? It would— I think it would stress me out to the point that I would be in the hospital with an ulcer or something, because I don't know how you can do— like, I don't know how you— I don't know how you— I don't know how you do that. Um, what do you mean you were there? What are you talking about?

Yeah, I ended up in the hospital, um, in college. I gave myself an anxiety attack, and that's kind of when things started to hit. I thought I was having a heart attack, so I got hooked up to an EKG. Like, my roommate, um, I was in the middle of class and my teacher was like, 'Laura, you don't look so good. Somebody take her to the hospital.' So her friend took me to the hospital and they hooked me up to an EKG because I was like, 'I think I'm having a heart attack,' and it ended up being my one and only anxiety attack. Thank God. I still suffer from anxiety, but like stress anxiety. I don't have the anxiety where I worry about things. It's just kind of overwhelm anxiety. But it has lessened so much now that I have systems and stuff in place. But yeah, that was not, not a fun hospital visit.

No, no, no, no. Well, so Tell me about, I know you're obviously known for your photography and you're known for education, but are there any little pieces of your business where people would be surprised?

Oh, this is what Laura does too. Yeah, I feel like there's so many pieces that I don't talk about enough. And even my coaching clients are like, wait, you have a shop? Wait, you have this? So I can, you know, I have a shop that has digital products in it that are like templates and workflow checklists and stuff. Stuff, mostly for photographers at this point, but I hope to add more for creatives in the future because I've done a lot of the work and now I just kind of have to put it into the shop. But one of the things, I guess a few of the other things I do are just one-on-one coaching and that is so fulfilling to me. And I don't think I've ever officially announced it. It just kind of like, I just let it organically happen. And if people find me, that's awesome. But I don't think I've ever put it into a newsletter or a blog or anything like that. Um, but I feel very thankful for the incredible coaching girls that I have. Um, but one of the things that has just been the biggest piece of my heart this year in my business is my retreat. And that is, uh, it was called the Fireside Retreat and we hosted that in June and it was literally the best week of my business. I was so fired up and fulfilled and the people that came were incredible and we did 4 days of learning and adventuring and building community and We just talked about creating workflows and creating systems and building like a very holistic life and business because I feel like most people's scales are way far to one side and it's usually the business side if they're entrepreneurs. And so we talked about how to put the important things first. And my slogan was live with intention, work with passion, value what matters. So that was what all of my talks centered around. So That's something that had gone on this year, and I hope to do more of that in the future. And it's not something I've talked about a lot. I just did like one blog post about it, but it's something that I know we'll definitely want to do more of in the future. And then the other thing that I— apparently I need to talk more about.

Yes, you do.

But the other thing, yeah, the other thing that we offer is done-for-you custom workflows. So I create custom workflows for business owners, all types of creatives. So like I've worked with hair and makeup artists and stationery designers and event planners and florists and everything to create custom workflows for their business. And then I actually implement them into their CRM for them. Um, I use HoneyBook and so I help them implement everything into HoneyBook so that their workflows can be automated because most people have no idea how to create a workflow. So, um, my course will be teaching photographers how to do that, but I can can't be all-encompassing and teach every type of creative how to do it. So we create custom workflows and implement them for them so that they can automate all their systems and save a lot of time. So that's something that I love doing because the end result is pretty cool.

Yeah, I knew about everything except that. I was like, wait, what? I did not know about that one. That's a— that's an awesome one. I wish I had known that because I— now that I'm— I say now, I've always talked to a lot of photographers, I hear so many of them, like, they're like, first of all, they don't have the patience. Half of them don't have the patience or the time to do it. They're like, I don't want to do it. Like, I don't want to make my own. Um, can you do it for me? And I kind of do it, but I don't do it. Like, I don't, I don't like doing it for them. Like, I just don't because it's not my thing. Like, my thing is coaching creators and photographers in their marketing, like what to do, what not to do, how to do it, doing like the done-for-you services like that. The workflow thing is like, girl, that's— I love you, but I need to send you to somebody else. So that's perfect. I didn't know that that was something that you did. So I now know. That's awesome.

Yeah. And that I feel like all of my services have happened on accident. Like I never planned on coaching and then somebody asked me if I would and I never planned on mentoring. For a full day. And then somebody asked me if I would, and that's kind of what happened with the Done For You workflows as well. Somebody was just like, well, can you put it into my system for me? And I was like, oh, well, yeah. So I did that. And, you know, we do that for— because I don't, you know, talk about that anywhere. We don't do too much, but we might do like 2 a month. And I would love to do more of them because I know most people— I think it was happening because my coaching clients, I was giving them the workflows and creating them for them and then saying like, hey, now go implement this into your CRM. And I would follow up with them 6 months later and be like, I haven't done it yet. And I was like, why haven't you done it? You're just like wasting time by not automating all of this. So I was like, just let me do it for you. And I feel like that's kind of how it all happened because people weren't— they were just like, that's so techie and I don't want— I just want somebody to do it for me. It's not fun. It's not it's not pretty. It's not pretty.

Yeah, that happened. It's not pretty. It's the mechanical— I feel like it's the mechanical piece of your business. Like, it's the thing that you— I mean, most creatives, they're creatives for a reason.

They love to do what they do.

It's very rare that they find a you where they like— yeah, like they're good at both, where they can like do the photography and be like artsy and free and, and then at the same time be like, I'm doing this, this, this, this, like this, like It's very, very slim.

Yes.

Agreed. Does that frustrate you? Do you sometimes feel like when you're working with a creative and you're like, I don't understand why you don't get this?

No, I feel like people understand the concept. I think my frustration is I just want to shake people to get them to realize how much time they're wasting by not having workflows and systems. Um, so to put it into perspective, when I started using my workflow, I think, um, I saved about 1,200 hours over the course of a year.

Wow.

So it was about 20 to 30 hours a week, and I brought my business down from like 40, 50 hours just for photography plus shooting down to like 10 hours a week.. And then my referrals increased by 1,200% because my clients were like, wow, I'm getting such an incredible experience and getting my photos in a week once on my honeymoon. And I'm, I'm excited about it. And you're giving me such an incredible experience ahead of time. Like I just ended up booking workflow clients, like custom workflow clients from vendors that I'm working with on a wedding because I introduced myself to them like 2 months out from the wedding. And they were like, wow, you're so organized. Do you Do you help people organize their business? And I was like, that's a strange question to ask. You must have heard about me somewhere. And so, so now I'm working with them, which is just like crazy. It just gives such a, such a better experience to everybody that you're working with when you are organized in the same time. So I feel like that's where my frustration comes because people don't see the benefit. It's hard to see the benefit until you have it happen to you. So yeah, that's where I'm just like, you could save so much time and have a life. And yeah, that's where my frustration comes. But most people understand the concept and then they're just like, okay, create it for me.

Yeah, the frustration part is real. It is real. I know I feel like that sometimes with my clients where they're like, they know they need to do the piece. I think the biggest piece that I struggle with, and I would imagine this is probably part of your workflow, is staying in contact with your clients, like past and like potential. And even if they said no to you, like they— if you touch— if you talk to them, that doesn't mean that they don't— maybe it's just not now. Like, that's my biggest thing with my marketing coaching.

I'm like, you need to communicate with these people.

You can't just 6 months after you've done this shoot and be like, hey, here's an email that talks about, you know, booking another session. And they're like, You just want my money. Yeah.

Yeah. Value, value, value.

Exactly. So what advice, well, before I get to the advice, like how do you, obviously workflows help you keep balanced and, you know, you're balanced, but how do you do that with like your family, two businesses, basically like your, your health, your wellness? How, how do you find balance in your life?

Yeah. So, um, I think one of the things that I had taught at the retreat was that it's really important to schedule your personal life before your business because it's very easy to overschedule your business, whether it's photo sessions or meetings or just like really anything. So one of the first things that we did at the retreat was just set boundaries around our business, whether that was a set amount of hours we were going to work every day or set up non-negotiables. So I have a non-negotiable. I don't have meetings, I don't have sessions, I don't— I typically don't have weddings on Sundays. Those are the one day that mine and my boyfriend's schedule overlaps that we both typically have off. So that is a very sacred day that I try to dedicate solely to hanging out with him or my family. Um, so I've set up a lot of non-negotiables like that. Like I'll only meet Tuesdays and Thursdays if I can help it. Um, I don't take more than 3 sessions in a week. So just setting up these boundaries around my schedule was the first thing that I really had to start implementing. And then I basically wrote down a list of all the things that I love to do and things that fulfill me. And I made sure that they were on my calendar somewhere. So for the month, so whether that was a date night or going paddleboarding or going kayaking or just going to the gym, um, or just like reading, taking time to read or watch Netflix or something. Like, I scheduled it into my calendar, and that was one of the exercises we did at the retreat, was just writing down 10 things that you miss right now because you're too busy, and then taking out your calendar and figuring out where you can put that into your month or your week. So I try to do that in each area of my life every month. If I'm like kind of just planning out in advance, like, all right, uh, you know, here's the day we're gonna have a date night because my boyfriend works 3 to 4 jobs and I have the 2 businesses. So we're both very busy. So we try to schedule out on the calendar, like, this is the day we're going to have a date night or we're going to go for a hike or something. So I'll schedule that out ahead of time because I feel like if I don't, it's just not going to happen. And then we're gonna be sitting around doing nothing on a nice day and be like, oh crap, we should have done something fun. So I try to schedule out ahead of time and set the boundaries and non-negotiables. And just also, I ask for help. I know what my zones of genius are, and I know that my time is better spent in my zone of genius than my zone of competence, or incompetence is what they call it. So I have hired an assistant, so I have a virtual assistant, and my mom is also part of my team. So she does a little bit for both businesses. She does the bookkeeping, and I know that she could bookkeep so much faster and more efficient than I could ever bookkeep because it is of no interest of me.

I never want it to be in my zone of genius.

I have no interest in learning about it. Same with Facebook ads. I'm just like, no, I just— I don't want to do it. So, um, there are just— I basically went through all the things in my business and I started— that I do or that I need to do, and I started rating what zone they were in. So it was zone of genius, which are the things I'm really great at. So that was just photography and creating content and educating and bringing value to people. And then zone of competence was things that I'm good at, but I don't necessarily need to be the one to do them. Um, and I'm— most people spend a lot of time in their zone of competence, like answering emails and scheduling meetings and Everybody can do that and everybody, you know, is good at doing that, but they don't necessarily have to be the one doing it. So I feel like most people spend a lot of time there. And then the zone of incompetence is basically the things that you struggle through that take up way more time than if somebody else were actually going to do that. And a good example of this would be 2 days ago, my windshield wiper stripped and I bought new windshield wipers and I was like, oh no, I'll put them on. It's fine. So I just like bought them at the auto parts store and went home and tried to figure out how to put them on. And then me and my mom spent an hour trying to figure out how to put windshield wipers on to no success. So then the next day I had to go back to the auto parts store and ask them to put them on for me. So I was like, if I had just given my zone of incompetence to somebody that is actually— it's in their zone of genius, then this would have been way more efficient. So I've just learned what my zones are, and I've found people who have their zone of genius as my zone of incompetence, and I've just really invested in people to help in both businesses and bring their zone of genius into my business to help scale that. So again, lots, lots of nuggets in there, but boundaries, non-negotiables, Scheduling life first, asking for help, knowing your zone of genius. Um, that would be my advice. And then obviously setting up workflows and systems to give you consistency in your business, because the biggest thing is just it helps you not reinvent the wheel every time. You know exactly what you have to do for each client. You have the templates, you have the email templates, the questionnaire templates, everything, every task all in place. So you're never wasting time writing to-do lists and wondering where a client is in the process. So that is— has all helped me tremendously in having—

that's awesome. Yeah, there were a couple good nuggets in there. Like, I'm like, when I listen back, I'll be like, okay, I need to write that down, write that down. They were all really good. I really like the point where you were saying that you need to like schedule, like put the things that you enjoy doing on your calendar. So if you like Like, for instance, my husband and I like to go to the beach, but we, I mean, we literally moved to Florida to be close to the beach. It doesn't happen that often. Part of it is because I have, I deal with a lot of chronic pain. So it's like at times you're like, oh, we should have went. And it's just like you said, like it's a, like a beautiful day and it's like, why aren't we doing anything? And it's like, ah, so it's a great, it's good advice to like plan that kind of stuff out. That's awesome.

Yeah, yeah, definitely helps.

I'm going to ask you this because I know my listeners and what I'm starting to— what I really like to do is like for people to like know the real grit of stuff. So what for you— my last question usually is what tools do you use? But I'm not going to ask you that because you just gave us like tons of tools and tips and all that kind of stuff. So what do you struggle with and how do you overcome it?

Oh, okay. Um, I struggle very much with selling my products and services, not on the photography side of things. Like, I know, and, and like, I know that my educational services are very good too, but I feel very weird talking about them. So I could talk about other people's services all day long, but I I have a very hard time talking about my own. So that is something I'm trying to overcome with just my mindset, because my— I know that I'm doing a disservice by not telling people these things exist. And I think I just need to tell myself over and over again that this is going to help them have more time with their family and their friends and doing things they love. And so that's something that I really need to overcome. Um, and that's, that's probably the biggest thing. And the second biggest thing is just, I love both my businesses so much. So even though I have the tools and the capacity to have work-life balance, I still find myself working all the time because I love it. And I know that that's not healthy in the long run. But my hope, like, I don't live with my boyfriend or anything, so my hope is that someday when we are married, we will both be able to drop the hustle a little bit and kick back a few notches and just have the foundation set up to be able to relax a little more in business. So I think I'm just way too much of an overachiever. And I put a lot of pressure on myself and then I'm always like, I feel like I sabotage my balance. I think that's the problem. I'm like, oh, I have all this balance and all this free time. How can I add 10 new projects onto my plate? Like, so that's my biggest thing. So I think I need to do a better job at realizing what projects fulfill me and bring the most value to my audience and my community and focusing on those instead of just doing things for the sake of doing them. So just, that's probably my two biggest struggles.

Yeah, those are really good ones. I think a lot of us struggle with that. Like finding, if you love what you do, you probably want to do it all the time. Like, that's just what you do. And even though you have the time to do it, it's kind of like, I can do it. I have the time because I have the time and I know how to do it. And I love that you said, learning to fill those pockets. If you're gonna do work, to fill the pockets with things that you want to do and you love to do versus like, I'm just doing it because I'm just doing this thing.

Busy.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I think, and I think that's a very common struggle with all of the entrepreneurial community and just like society in general these days. Like we always use busy as a good thing and I notice myself saying it all the time. Like I was just on the phone with my insurance company because I'm buying a new car and they were like, oh, how are you? I'm like, good, busy. And then everybody's response is like, oh, busy is good. And I'm like, is it? I don't know. Yeah. So I need to start changing my answer and I need to say, you know, I'm fulfilled. I'm doing things that fulfill me instead of I'm just doing things that keep me busy because that's not how anybody should live their life and nobody should live their life to just be busy all the time. It should be, "I'm fulfilled." That should be my new answer and everybody else's.

I like that. I like that. I think I might try that every now and then. You're right. I'm busy. I'm fulfilled. I like that. Yeah, me too. So tell us how we can find you online and anything you want us to take a look at after they listen to this.

Sure. So my website for the educational side of things, which I assume most people will be most interested in, is lauraleecreative.com. So L-A-U-R-A-L-E-E creative.com. And on Instagram, I'm @lauraleecreative. So that's easy. My Instagram will have links to every other website and everything. Photography is just lauraleephotography.co because .com was like $2,000. So not gonna get that. Um, so those are my two websites and my Instagram. And on Lauralee Creative, if you just go along the menu bar on the top, there's a link to my shop. So if there are any photographers that need help with workflow, there's a services tab which brings you to the more one-on-one, person-to-person stuff, whether it's retreat or coaching or mentoring or anything like that. And then the shop has products and a course coming up soon. And there's a ton of freebies if you scour the site. There's like 3, 3 freebies on the home page and 3 on the shop page and a ton on the blog. So I think the blog has an archive already of like 60 or 70 posts. So there's a lot, a lot of nuggets in there for people to, to read and find. And I talk about photography workflow and time management and task management and self-care and relationships and priorities and just a very overarching thing. Um, so that's all on the blog and people can also definitely look out for hopefully a podcast coming soon. So hopefully in the next couple months.

Awesome. Um, I'm, I'm not a photographer right now. I did it way back when, but for my business at Crafted to Thrive. I've used some of the tips just for my business that you have in your blog and stuff like that about workflows and like, especially when it comes to email. Oh my gosh, email is like so crazy. So there was a couple blog posts you did and I sent it to my girlfriends that are in network marketing and they're like in love with them. Like they, they're in love with the tips they thought I gave. I'm like, no, no, no. Lori gave this to me. I didn't know anything about this. Here's the blog post. You go read it. I don't know. So even if you're not a photographer, if you're a creative person or if you're just in business in general, like her blog is amazing. It's great and has lots of cool tips and things that you can use for your business to keep you focused and not all over the place. So I love it.

I love it.

You're welcome. Well, thank you so much for being on. I can't wait to hear and listen to your Podcasts. Yeah, I think this one's— Podcasts are fun.

I love—

I'm loving it. Like, I can't even lie. Like, at first I thought, okay, I mean, I knew I was going to like it, but I didn't know I was going to be like in love with it. But I'm like in love with it. I'm like, I can almost feel myself pivoting to doing it more like so turning it into some other part of my business, like a major part of it. Like, I'm just loving it. I'm so glad I was able to have you on. Thank you for your wisdom and your lovely stories and your words. I believe it will encourage people and I believe it'll keep them inspired to go on to know that you can do this and there are ways to do it better.

Yep. That's the biggest thing. Well, it was such an honor and it was so fun. I love podcast interviews and it was so great hanging out with you and I hope that this brings a lot of value to your audience and inspiration and encouragement. Um, but I'm just so happy to be here and thank you for having me.

All right, ladies, thank you for listening, and I hope this conversation inspired you. Be sure to subscribe and tell a friend. That's it on this episode, and yes, you are crafted to thrive.