Workflows with Lindsay Coulter

Lindsay Coulter: [00:00:00] I send people guides for their engagement session that gives them an idea of the locations that I like to shoot. Some outfit ideas, some like inspo for the type of session they can have. So if they wanna have a go to a brewery and sit down and have a beer, cool. If they wanna go for a walk in a park, cool. Workflows is a podcast about saving you time and money in your photography business as a photographer and content Creator who struggles with dyslexia, colorblindness, introversion, and anxiety stemming from years of being bullied as a child, workflows have been my rock. I have workflows for every aspect of my life. That's why I am happy to bring you Workflows, a podcast presented by Imagen. As a company dedicated to saving you time and money in your photography business, it makes sense to enhance and expand the conversation to all things workflows. Tune in to hear stories, strategies, and tools that can be your rock. Hear from people just like you. [00:01:00] Put the camera down for a little. Connect those headphones and get to work with Workflows. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Lindsay Coulter is a wedding and portrait photographer capturing timeless and on trend photographs for couples worldwide. Although residing in Canada, Lindsay's passion for finding beauty in small details and capturing canon moments has taken her places like Australia, Bermuda, St. Martin, Mexico, and Italy. She loves the outdoors and preferred beach houses in Malibu or cabins in the Pacific Northwest. Lindsay takes pride in getting to know each couple's unique story. In essence, believing that inclusion and equality are fundamental to her personal and professional life. She cherishes the idea of photography as a way to look back on moments in time and remember how you felt wanting couples to be taken back to their special day, no matter how much time has passed. Without further ado, here's [00:02:00] my conversation with my friend Lindsay. Lindsay we spoke last, last we spoke, you were in, in beautiful Hawaii Lindsay Coulter: I was, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: back in Canada. Lindsay Coulter: I know. Can you believe it? I had to leave. I'm so upset about that. They were like, you're not an American citizen. You must leave. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: clients at home. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: But how'd that go? Because I mean, so I thought you were just going for, for, for vacation originally, but it turns out you were there for not a conference. Lindsay Coulter: Yes. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so, so how, how was the whole trip Lindsay Coulter: Ugh. It was so good. So yeah, Taylor and I went for a few days on our own, just. For pleasure. It's a long flight from Toronto. So we went for a few days to just get acclimatized to get settled in. And then, yeah, we had a few days with the focal, not a conference which was super fun. We had photographers from [00:03:00] all over the world fly in to learn from some really awesome educators, which is, yeah, it was a blast. It's, I feel like it's always fun getting to like, shoot with other photographers and see how everybody works and does their own thing. The whole idea of not a conference is, well, it's pretty self-explanatory, the idea that you are learning in not a conference setting. So, we set up like styled shoots and we have models and and we just try to set up these like really beautiful experiences for photographers to not only build their portfolio, but also to learn from some really awesome mentors. So, yeah, it was fun. It was really fun. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I often find it's the little things that really make those type of events more, more impactful. Like, it's not necessarily like, here's, here's why this lighting equipment is good for this situation or this lens is good for this situation, but I set my camera this way because of this. Like, that [00:04:00] little, little, little, little thing. Lindsay Coulter: Yes. It'll be like the thing that you didn't realize was a pain point for you. And like I, I personally don't. Like necessarily when I, you know, I go to WPPI don't necessarily go for the same types of things that I think a newer photographer would go for, right? Like, I go, I like the socialization. I like to ask my friends what kind of stuff they're shooting right now, what their workflows are looking like. You can have more intimate conversations with people when, you know, you're standing at a booth or whatever and having a conversation. So, you know, I really get a lot of value out of that. And although I, you know, I think there's a, a really great use for a traditional conference. I think it's also really great to yeah, learn those like little tidbits of things that mentors don't even realize are like, So impactful when they're saying it. It's the thing that an attendee's like, wait a second, you do what? [00:05:00] Like, you know, Nicole Ashley literally licks her thumb and smears a thumbprint on her lens to get like a more directional lens flare. Like Sure. Have I heard that done In other concepts, yes. But physically seeing someone do it and now understanding more of a breakdown of exactly how she shoots a shoot, like, or how she, how she creates an image is like, it's very cool. It's very impactful. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. I l I love that little stuff. It, it really does. I mean, the, the first time I learned about Back, back button focus was at a, an event like that, or a workshop like that. And and the what Ashley Ray was saying in the livestream that we did where, like shooting in black and white while in RAW you know, like I've been doing that for years and I learned that at a workshop and it changed my, it changed the game, right? It's Lindsay Coulter: And it's so funny because I think, I think it's like a couple, there's a couple of reasons why stuff like that is so important. Because one, if you are a [00:06:00] photographer that went the traditional route with school for a photography school and you learn, you probably learn from a person that was in their like peak of actually shooting with clients 10 to 15 years before, probably, that's my guess, right? Like they're now working at like our local college, the educators there, there's, they're fantastic artists and photographers, but they're not necessarily using the most current Fuji camera. They're not nec, you know what I mean? Like they don't know the exact like methodology of new editing systems that are available. So like they'll give you a really great overall picture, but. Even if you go that traditional route, you're still gonna be missing out on newer, more current methods. And for most of us, most of us didn't go that route. Most of us like are self-taught or taught through friends or whatever. Sorry. I feel like my dog's panting is getting so aggressive right now. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's, it's okay. Lindsay Coulter: For anybody watching this, my dog is having a little freak out cuz we had an accidental fire alarm go off and he's just, so, if [00:07:00] you hear the panting, it's, it's not me having an asthma attack. But yeah, I, even for those of us, like I'm self-taught, you know, technically through learning from other friends and everything as most of us are it's wild. The number of things that I think are like, that's obvious isn't it, that are not obvious at all, that people just don't know. And it takes a lot of like guts to ask a question and sometimes you don't even know that you have the question. Do you know what I mean? Like, you have to know something in order to know. That you don't know it. So there's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot to learn from just watching somebody go through, like setting up a shot, taking the image, creating the image, and then, you know, actually editing and delivering it. Like, there's a lot to learn in that whole process. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, so let's, let's start with the in-camera part. [00:08:00] So my first question I ask every guest is, is what is one thing you do for the photographic process behind the camera while you're at the, at the wedding, doing the portraits, whatever it is that has saved you time. Lindsay Coulter: You know what's so funny? I listen to, I listen to your podcast all the time, and I'm like, man, I don't even know how I would answer that. And now, here I am in this, I'm in this, in, in this spot, and I'm, I'm to answer that question, that has saved me time. In camera. Oh my gosh. My dog, Richard, sit, sit down. I'm delaying cuz I, I don't know the answer. You know, I, I think personally it really comes down to knowing my clients. I don't know if that's like, that's not necessarily the answer, probably like camera wise that you're thinking of. But getting to know my clients a little bit better. Because one of the things that I find takes the most time in actually setting up a shot and creating an image is them fussing [00:09:00] or fidgeting or being uncomfortable. And it takes time for them to actually get comfortable with me, for us to create an image together if we haven't like, taken a little bit of a walk together. So one of the first things I like to do is like, kind of just move. I don't wanna just like pull my camera and be like immediately like, let's get going and let's start shooting. So I think the thing that saves me the most time truthfully, is. Feeling is not, is literally not shooting. It's feeling, feeling it out and taking some time because yeah, the second that I just pull the camera out too soon, if they're not ready for it you know, it, it makes them feel a little bit uncomfortable. So letting them know that I am keeping an eye on things, I'll physically say it. Like I'll actually say out loud, hair's looking great, buttons are all done up, and like sort of go through my mental checklist out loud so they know. That I've looked for those things so they can then like remove that from their own mind. Because a lot of the time, you know, [00:10:00] we all know as portrait photographers, the clients are like, does my hair look okay? How's this outfit looking? You know, they start fussing and fidgeting and I'm like, you're fine. I've looked at it, I'm looking at you. You know? So we just remove all of that by just getting right into it and going, trying to move a little bit and not shooting and ask how the day is going. Ask what they're up to ask what they're most excited for at their wedding or whatever. Right. And just sort of taking a moment to be like humans before me being a photographer and them being the subject. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I love that answer. You know, you're, you're, you're the first guest to give an answer that actually had nothing to do with the camera, and I love it. I love it Lindsay Coulter: Well, you know what, I, I'll be honest. I like, I do care about cameras, obviously. You kind of have to, I don't care about them. That much. I, I care about my cameras enough to know like, is this the right tool for me? Is it the best one? You know, I [00:11:00] shoot on Canon R six s and I have no loyalty when it comes to cameras. Like I shot on Nikon for the first eight years of my business, and the second that I tried the R six, I was like, sell it all. I don't care. There's no better tool for me than this one because of the auto eye detection. You know, in the Mark two, the AI auto eye detection is insane. It actually tracks your eye to Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, Lindsay Coulter: look at what I'm looking at and what I would try to be focusing on in a scene. I had no love lost. I was like, if Nycom wants to come out with a product that can properly compete with this, sure, I would love to not sell all Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Which they did. They did, Lindsay Coulter: They they did right? They did. That was a little too late for Scott Wyden Kivowitz: A little late. Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: The, you know, the camera's light, it does all the things that I need it to do. And so for me, that's what gear is. Gear is not necessarily like, and I know most photographers probably feel a similar-ish way. The the camera's not the, [00:12:00] the end goal. For me it's like the means to the end. So for me, yeah, it is more so about the experience and then the camera's like the tool that can hopefully make that happen For me, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. So you have also been somebody who has been teaching other photographers about business. Lately you've been on a little, little rampage about the mini shoots. The, the mini sessions, Lindsay Coulter: have been on a rampage. It was an unintentional rampage, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Oh yeah. Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: get a little bit spicy. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. Yeah. So we're not gonna get into like that specifically. But for anybody who's listening or watching and wants to see what Lindsay has to say about mini sessions definitely check out her, her socials. Lindsay Coulter: I do wanna be clear, I believe in a mini session. I just believe in a profitable mini session. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yes. Exactly. Exactly. Lindsay Coulter: People are gonna come with, come to my house with pitchforks like this girl doesn't believe in minis. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, so what is one thing you do for your [00:13:00] business as, as somebody who not only is running a very successful photography business, but also educates a lot of photographers about business, what is one thing you do for your business that saves you time or money and what we're gonna get to imagine? So let's avoid Imagenin this entire thing until we get to imagine. Lindsay Coulter: Okay. Sounds good. You know, for me my biggest pain point is communication. It's like, I feel like between Instagram text messages, like I'm always trying to streamline emails. There's so many ways that people can contact us as photographers and I'm always trying to figure out how to get less communication and to have more efficient communication. Cause I don't wanna just like not communicate with my clients and then have them show up unprepared and wondering what the heck I'm thinking. This is like a zoo happening right here. This cat just going for a [00:14:00] tour in jungle. So interestingly enough, this is not at all what I thought would happen but. Mm. A year and a half ago I switched websites over to a focal website and I publicly put all of my packages and my wedding pricing online, and I put all of it available so that I, it's one less email that I get. It was so interesting than the number of people. Can you get down please? Oh gosh. It's gonna get scary. I'm not gonna do it. Anybody that knows a cat knows that that was the look of murder, she was not gonna help me there. Sorry to anybody who's listening to this, they're just like, what is Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, yeah. What's, there's panting, there's, there's, there's, get down. Yeah. Oh, she Lindsay Coulter: a cat losing her mind behind me. The The initial inquiry emails would bog down my inbox more than I realized, just for people to be [00:15:00] priced out, for me to not be the photographer for them. So we're just like chatting for no good reason. And putting my pricing online and having my pri my packages publicly available for people to actually book has been huge for me in the last year and a half. I really hesitated. You know, it's really not super common still in the photography industry, especially wedding photography, for us to put our full pricing available for us to show our hand and say, this is what I charge. You know, the starting price is really, really common. And for anybody who struggles with like getting lots of leads and. Feeling like the percentage of leads that you're getting to the conversion does not align. I highly recommend putting your pricing online. You know, I do still have a note that says I offer custom packages, like if none of these fit your, fit your day or what you're looking for, like, let me know. But it's basically [00:16:00] streamlined my process so that people, when they inquire it, inquires with the package that they're interested in booking. So I no longer have to ask them, which package are you interested in? And I just come back with like a templated email that says either we can book in a call and here's my calendar and you can just book in with me. Or if you're ready to book, which it's surprising how many people are, if you're ready to book, like, let me know and I'll just send over the details. And some of them, it's like a couple of quick messages back and forth and they're like, yeah, no problem. Take my money. And then through my website, I can send them my contract and invoice. It's like such a streamlined system. Whereas before I had like, you know, square that I was sending them a payment through square Stripe and then I would send them a PDF contract and it was just so many moving parts. That, you know, through like the focal website, backend system, I'm able to keep it all in a much more concise spot. I had, I've tried other CRMs, you know, and I'm sure like anybody who's [00:17:00] tried a crm, you know how much time is involved in setting it up and like, I paid for I think a year and a half of like 17 hats once because I signed up for the first month. I went to go set it up and then I just was like, this is awful. I can't handle the setup process. And for some people maybe it works really, really well. But I wanted like a CRM that was like way simpler. It just had the things I needed and nothing else. Like, I don't necessarily need a ton of automation. I just need enough to like, Make my life and my client's life easier. Um, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's one of the things about the photography industry is there's, there's, the competition is there for pretty much anything you want in, in the industry, whether it's cameras or software or accessories, like so many things that do the same exact thing. S it, it, it really, a lot of the times, like for you, comes down to. The look and feel of it for yourself, like if you are comfortable with it, [00:18:00] then maybe 17 hats is or is not the way to go versus Lindsay Coulter: like I have friends that swear by it. You know? I do. I have friends that are obsessed with 17 hats in HoneyBook, and I'm, obviously, they don't become as big as they are without having loyal customers that truly love their systems. But, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: and, and it's the same thing whether you're going with like a MagMod versus a rogue flash system, like the same, they do the same exact thing. They both offer Lindsay Coulter: you like the buttons that are on this one? Yeah. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. It's literally just the look and feel. And so I like so many other photographers, when I first started out, I worked in a camera store and when people would come in and they would say, what should I, which point and shoot should I get? Right? This is what back in the point and shoot days were, that was the thing. Should I get Annik icon or Kaden? I'd say pick it up. They do the same exact thing. Pick it up and see which one feels better in your hands. That's the one you should get. Like that's what it comes down to. Lindsay Coulter: I truly, I truly believe in that so much like the physicality of [00:19:00] an actual physical device. But I also think photographers, it's an aesthetic industry. We, we care about aesthetics, we care about how things look and feel. Even if your vibe is minimalism and you don't necessarily care, that's still your aesthetic, right? Like even if you're, even if your vibe is like really, really like high end and fine tuned, then maybe you want you know, a more. Elaborate system, like a HoneyBook or something. All of these, like all of these little pieces that make us up as creatives are also what make us up as business owners. It's really interesting, like the things that people really, personality wise enjoy and match for them. Those same things carry over, not just through how you create an image, but also how you deliver your service as a business owner. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So let's, let's move towards the delivery part first with part of the post-production process is editing. Now again, we'll get to imagine, but pre imagine, let's say, what is [00:20:00] one thing that you that you have done, that you do for your editing that has saved you time? Lindsay Coulter: Well, I will say Imagenhas changed it cuz I feel like I, a lot of what I did do before Imagenis probably quite different now. know, I, I used to run like. An a portraiture over all of my ImagenAI's in, in Photoshop as like a droplet or like an automation basically. And I would run it on all of my Imageners and that was really, really helpful. I feel like it's gonna be hard for me to not talk about, Imagenbecause it has completely changed my entire like post-production and, and editing workflow. What can I say about that? I, I guess Scott Wyden Kivowitz: portraiture were you doing, you were doing just like light skin smoothing or was it like a bunch of additional edits beyond skin Lindsay Coulter: I, so I used like the actual you know, [00:21:00] plugin that you can purchase and then it was light skin smoothing, like an, an eye enhancement. And I, I toned it way down. Like, I dunno if you've ever used like the actual portraiture. It's, it's very, it can be very intense which is not really my style. So I kind of had it apply and then dragged it down to like 60% intensity. And then I would, so I would export all of my Imageners from Lightroom and then I would run all of the finished Imageners through that to give like an overall skin smoothing and, and an overall sort of enhancement. The thing that I found that was really helpful is that it made it so that I didn't have to do individual masking on photos, but as you know, if you've used it, it doesn't work well on every single photo. So, you know, I was applying it on Imageners that didn't necessarily need it. Or I didn't, or I didn't like it, how it would apply on every photo. But by the time I was running it through, you know, 800 Imageners, I'm not gonna go back and be like, oh, I'm gonna re-export those photos through Lightroom. Like, that wasn't happening for me. [00:22:00] But it did save me a lot of time pulling Imageners from Lightroom into Photoshop individually. So that was like a really big time saver and I still really like that software or service I plug in. I don't know what we're gonna call that one specifically, but I did really enjoy it. Yeah, honestly, I, I did use post like I prior to, ImagenI used to outsource all of my editing because I just couldn't keep up with it. So, I pre pandemic was shooting like 50 to 60 weddings a year, a few hundred family branding portrait sessions. The, the time was just not there for me to physically sit down and edit photos myself. So I was, you know, I've tried all, I've tried everything. I've tried like an individual editor sitting in my studio beside me, asking me questions, which is a really great way for me to actually train someone. I've tried, you know, [00:23:00] outsource, I've tried every single outsourcing service. I think I said this on our live round table. I, if, if it exists, I have tried it. I could tell you stories about all of them. I won't, but but I've tried them all. They all have. Similar problems and a few of them have good things. And, and in the end, you know, it was what was available to me at the time. And it worked. And obviously I delivered my client's Imageners using them. So they were, they were fine. Sometimes I would still have to go back and completely re-edit things, so that wasn't like super stellar. As anybody who's ever used an outsourcing company knows that sometimes you get things back and you're like, awesome. And then the next, the exact next day you'll get a wedding back and you'll be like, who did this? Yeah, did you edit this in the dark? And then you edit the other half in a bright orange room. Like how did, literally, how did this come back to me like this? So, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I mean, I like to say that like, you know, there's a lot of fantastic human editors out there. [00:24:00] I mean, as you've experienced, you know, you can get one back that's just good to go. But one of the, one of the advantages of, of or disadvantages, rather, of a human editor is not only just the environment and the lights and at that exact moment, but also the emotional state of the person at the time that they're editing your photos if they're in a bad mood. Lindsay Coulter: Yes. Yeah. That's part of the reason why I wanted to remove the editing from my hands. So, you know, being the person that has worked with that client from the start. Then being the person that shot their session for them has gone to back it up and all of that, and then is getting the emails from them after the fact. I don't want to be emotionally tied to some of those sessions while I'm editing them either, you know, you can Imagenall of the different ways, like most of my clients are amazing. During the pandemic, I did not want to edit most of my client's sessions because I was like scarred by them. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: Like [00:25:00] truthfully, I, you know, in where, where we live in Ontario up in Canada, we were locked down for longer than anywhere in the world at one point. So like with like a full. Like a full lockdown where I wasn't able to work. We were locked down for a really consistent amount of time, which led to a lot of really serious struggles between photographers and their clients, and I understood their perspective. I got it. I would be really frustrated dealing with the things that they were dealing with as well. But it's also really hard to have somebody breathing down your neck and like fighting you on money and arguing with you on rescheduling, and then be like, let me put my heart and soul into your editing. It's hard. It's truly hard, right? So I felt like I was doing them a better service by me not being the one to touch every single photo in their gallery. You know, I'm still gonna do the final process of going through every single one and making sure that they're [00:26:00] all polished and ready to go. But some of my clients, I was like, I think that you would. You'll like it more if I'm not editing this with my emotion behind this right now. So yeah, you're totally right. Like when you remove the human component from it you know, there are certainly challenges by removing a human from a, from an editing, you know, system. But so far what I have seen in doing that is, is, is far more upside than downside. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Awesome. So we, you know, moving even further towards the delivery aspect normally I would, I would take a break and ask you a completely different, I would change the topic completely but I'm gonna wait until after this question to change the topic. But what is one thing you do after a session? You know, you've done the editing, you've, everything's all good to go. What is one thing you do after a session that has increased business? Lindsay Coulter: That is increased [00:27:00] business. Oh man. I feel like there's a few things. So, I deliver all of my images through pixieset. So I think that most people can probably relate to this. If you deliver images in any way, that's not a USB key. If you, if you deliver images in an online gallery of sorts. So there's a couple of things that I like to do after a session to like, you know, Make sure that people like me essentially, which is how, make sure that people, you know, tell people about me and it increases my business. But one of them is that I, I try to deliver Previews quickly back to my clients. Most of my clients have it included in their, their wedding day package which is something that I added on out of necessity because a few years ago, it was probably the first time that people were ever expecting to see photos within a day or two after a shoot or a wedding. And, You know, [00:28:00] photographers are posting online sneak peeks. And I was like, how are you doing that? Like, you must have nothing going on within a couple of days after these shoots. So then you of course get clients saying, Hey, can I have photos a couple of days after the wedding? And if everybody else in their hemisphere is getting their photos back or some photos back within a couple of days after, then I'm looking like I don't care enough or I'm too busy for them or whatever. Right? So I did want to include it in my packages in, in my more like popular packages to provide some value to it to show people that, like it does pull me out of my regular workflow to create preview Imageners for you right away. And then for the people that booked like a, a smaller package, I had it as an add-on that they could add on. So those people were less likely if they did only book me for a smaller package, they were much less likely to bug me the next day saying, Hey, when are our photos gonna be ready? Cuz they know that it's a thing that they could have purchased. In the end, I still try [00:29:00] to provide people with some, some Previews really quickly if possible. Obviously that's changed now that I can do that, like almost instantly. Without too much stress. Like I do a lot of back to back weddings. So the idea of like shooting a wedding on a Friday and a Saturday and then having like two to five family sessions on a Sunday and somehow getting Previews back to the Friday and Saturday people without, like losing my mind before that was insane. I still did it, but it was insane. But delivering Previews to people really quickly is a really huge thing. And then the other thing, you know, delivering a really nicely curated gallery, I think is so important. I think that photographers have the tendency to over-deliver Imageners and to deliver like, Everything they think is fine, you know, so they'll deliver five images that are really too similar to each other and put the onus on their client to decide which one is the better image. And I personally feel like [00:30:00] if your client has to go between, oh, is it this one or this one, this one or this one, like we've done them a disservice. Mirrorless cameras have made that really hard though, because you can shoot so many really good in focus, images really, really quickly. Which means that you have to do an even better job on your cull. But delivering a really nicely curated gallery in the end, breaking it up into sections that make it really easy to digest. So I do like part one, two, and three. So I'm not dividing them up into like getting ready, you know, different sections of the day. Some people do that, that's totally fine. I just find like part one, two and three works for me and it makes it easier to digest. And then in my final template email, I think the final template email gets like the, the final delivery email. I call it a template, but cuz that's, I I template all of my, if I can make it a template, it's gonna be a template. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: course. Lindsay Coulter: but if in that final [00:31:00] delivery email, I think there's a few things that are really important to say. One of them is like you pumped their tires and say like, I loved your wedding day. It was so fun for me. And then you say something specific like, you know, your first dance, I like still am thinking about the song you chose. So sweet. Right. You say something really nice. Then you tell them, you know, how to download their Imageners, how to make favorites, how to, like, you make it easy for them. And then you ask for the review. And I think it's so often overlooked to ask for a review. This is the time when people wanna give you a review. They're like in awe. They're looking at your photos and they're like, this is crazy. I can't believe you did this for us. So I send that ask in the preview delivery that I send and in the final delivery. So it's like a double parted reminder. And I have a lot of really good reviews because of that. So yeah, I think it's so important about being intentional about every single step of like the, the delivery and how people get ImagenAI's. And also just waiting the right amount of time. You know, I think we talked [00:32:00] about this on our like live round table. If I deliver Imageners too quickly, there is something to be said for like, like all of the Imageners too quickly. There's something to be said for people being like, what's the value here? Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right. Yeah. Did you take, you take did you care enough? Lindsay Coulter: you care? And, and also I think it's just too fresh in their minds, even if they believe I literally dropped everything from the second that their wedding ended until the time I delivered it. Which sometimes, like, maybe they do believe that even if they believe that I just edited straight through for one week. I think that it's still too fresh in their minds and people need to have a little bit of they need to miss their wedding a little bit more in order to really, truly appreciate the value. You know, we as photographers know that the Imageners we deliver increase in value over time. My wedding photos mean more to me now than they did the day that they were shot for many reasons. [00:33:00] You know, my family photos from 10 years ago mean more to me now than they did 10 years ago. We know that. But our clients don't necessarily know that. So I think giving them a little bit of breathing room to, to really feel like, wow, that was such a special day. And like, look at these photos that document like way more and way better than I could have ever expected that they would. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Awesome. That's very well said. A lot of good Lindsay Coulter: Thank you. Thank you. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So before we move into the big juicy part of this, of this conversation, we're gonna lighten it up real quick and you're gonna pick a color. Lindsay Coulter: Um, Interview deck. Okay. I'm going with green. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You're going with green. Okay. Now, you cannot blame me for what question you get cuz you're picking this. Tell me when to stop. Lindsay Coulter: Stop. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay. This is all Lindsay Coulter: I'm like nervous now. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay. Lindsay Coulter: I'm sweating. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: What.[00:34:00] Lindsay Coulter: We now, now is the time when we really need to hear Richard panting in the back to like get the, get the anxiety. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Okay. I'm going to give you a, a pass if you want to go to a new one. Lindsay Coulter: Oh, it's that bad. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's just a, it's an interesting one. Lindsay Coulter: Okay. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Okay. I'll, we're gonna read it to you, and if you wanna pass, we'll go for, we'll go for the one that's next on, Lindsay Coulter: Is it bad? Scott Wyden Kivowitz: No, no, it's just a, I don't know. I just don't know if you're gonna have a, an answer that you're gonna be happy with. Lindsay Coulter: Okay. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: What antiquated invention do you still use? Lindsay Coulter: Antiquated invention. Do I still use, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: you. Yeah. That's why I'm like, you can pass if you want to. Lindsay Coulter: like, I need to google exactly what antiquated means? Because I feel like I, I, yeah. Old-fashioned or outdated? Well, no, I can answer that actually easily. I still use a Canon AE one, which is like, I think an antiquated [00:35:00] invention. It's really making it an absolute comeback right now, but but yeah, I use a Canon, a E one film camera. I Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm. Lindsay Coulter: love it. Absolutely not an invention I guess that needs to be used anymore. I could probably emulate most of what it does in you know, an R six. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: and no. I don't know. I feel like most antiquated inventions, if they're kicking around, there's a reason for it, whether it's nostalgia or. Yeah, I don't know. For me, the reason that I use it truthfully is because I use it a lot for my personal, just like family photos and travel. Because I don't have to do anything to the images afterwards, I just am like, here you go. And I give them to the lab and then they come back to me and I'm like, you're beautiful. And it's like a very heavily curated, like maybe it's only two photos from an entire trip, you know? I love it. It's like it brings you back to like your [00:36:00] childhood when you would go through an actual album and it's not 5,000 ImagenAI's and it's not overwhelming. It's just like, oh, I love that. So, yeah. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I, I, I, I definitely think it's like on a roll of 36, it was typically like one photo that would you be like, really happy with, and then the rest would be like all right. So Lindsay Coulter: like, I, I don't know if you shoot much film, do you shoot film at all? Scott, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: not as much as I want to. I've got a whole bunch on the shelf behind me, and I, I, not as much as I want to, but Lindsay Coulter: Yeah, so I think because I don't shoot like super often on film, like I don't shoot it for clients that they know of. I shoot a couple of frames at almost every wedding. And I don't tell them that I'm doing it. Sometimes they can hear it and they're like, what's going on over there? Scott Wyden Kivowitz: That's a different noise. Lindsay Coulter: But it's not a thing that I sell them on. I do it as like a little nice if it works out kind of thing. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm. Lindsay Coulter: One of the interesting things about most film [00:37:00] cameras is you have absolutely no idea if they work until you've processed your first role of film through them. So like, or if they work well, you know, I, this is my fourth AE one that I've had one of them just like sputtered oil or something all over the inside of the film. So like, it was an interesting effect, but it was not what I wanted. I shot an entire roll of film in Iceland, and I felt like it wasn't really, like, when I cranked it, I felt like it wasn't really doing anything. And then when I released the entire roll, nothing released. Like I hit the, the release button on the bottom and nothing released. And I was like, did that just not shoot at all? And I have no idea. It's still an absolute mystery to me. And everybody that was around me during Iceland, like, I have no idea what happened, but basically there are like five frames on a roll of 36. And I, I know in my mind some of those photos would've been so gorgeous, but they'll just live in my mind now more because I actually [00:38:00] remember making them. But they, they were never made, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. Lindsay Coulter: were never actually created. But you know, that's the, that's the downside to film. And part of the reason why I will not shoot it for clients as a like guarantee because. I, I'm a big fan of backups. I'm a real, real big fan of, of backups. There's a reason why it's antiquated. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, there's not to foreshadow too much, but there's a reason why Imagen's getting into offering backups, and this is one of them, Lindsay Coulter: Seriously. Backups are, are so important. I think like, I, I have a tendency to get very stressed out during wedding season. I'm sure no other photographer does, right? Nobody else just me. I, I do have a Scott Wyden Kivowitz: the only one. Lindsay Coulter: I'm the only one I know I'm working on it. September, October, for me tends to be a very, very like, emotionally [00:39:00] distressing time for a few reasons, right? It's like if you have the backlog of the summer breathing down your neck, then you're looking down the barrel of what's gonna be a really busy fall and. I also usually have travel coming up sometime in the fall. You know, like, you gotta way up north. You gotta go to Europe for, or like, you know, a family trip in November, something coming up. Right. And I'm like, I feel like I'm being sandwiched by all of these responsibilities and pressures. One of the biggest things that I think of when I'm stressed, I like wake up in the middle of the night, like, I didn't back up that shoot, or I didn't back up that wedding. You know, like it's never happened before. I've never, I've never not backed something up. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: But those things make me lose sleep. And, you know, traveling a lot really compounds that. So I basically have come up with my own personal set of backups for every single [00:40:00] thing that I've ever created in anxiety over like, did I format those cards and shoot over them? So now I don't format any cards until I've delivered galleries to all of my for sessions or for weddings. I don't, I don't format any cards and I just like have this like locked case of so many SD cards. You know, I back up in multiple places obviously, as everybody does, but backing things up online is a really huge thing so that you can actually physically see when you're traveling. Like, are they there? Cuz if they're in your online spot, they're in your other spot at home as well, right? Like we have a fireproof safe. You just come up every single, whenever my clients ask me like, what are your backups? I'm like, Any possible worst case scenario you can think of. I've had a nightmare about, I've literally lost sleep over. And so instead of just continuing that, which is like a terrible way to run your business and a terrible way to live your life, I'm just like, let's just create a process for it. [00:41:00] Let's just like, let's just build that out of reality. So it's literally not a thing anymore because I don't need more stress in my life, and it's just I can't be creative when I'm stressed. I, I truly can't, if I'm financially stressed, if I'm stressed about losing images if I'm stressed about my inbox from a stress about anything, like going into a wedding is just, it's hard, right? It's like trudging through quicksand. So yeah, I think anywhere that you feel like stressed, it's like, Ugh, just get rid of it. Let's just, let's solve it out. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Let me ask you a question before we dive into the next question, cuz the next one's a pretty heavy duty one. Let's say you're using Imagen cull and edit, right for the full that full process. Imagine while the photos were uploading to cull right first, Lindsay Coulter: Yeah. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: we were backing up your catalog with your RAW photos for you and [00:42:00] you don't have to think about Lindsay Coulter: bonkers. That's bonkers. Yeah. So Scott Wyden Kivowitz: like keeping it in that simple workflow where you're already using it to cull anyway, to then eventually edit. We are just storing it for you as your disaster recovery. Would that, would that reduce or remove your anxiety of, Lindsay Coulter: yeah. Massively, massively. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so welcome to the future. Lindsay Coulter: that's so amazing. That is so awesome. Wow. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: cool. Yeah. The the, Lindsay Coulter: really huge. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, the prototypes for it are, are pretty, pretty, pretty sweet. So I'm very excited about it. For, for it to like Lindsay Coulter: And it backs up. Does it back up the culled catalog? It backs up the catalog. So everything Scott Wyden Kivowitz: full catalog and then we'll call for you and then without you having to re-upload it or anything. You're just, we're just, we're uploading, basically, we're, basically what's happening is we, we'd be uploading your backup, you know, to, to backup and then you would do cull and edit anything else in the future. Send to your gallery, all [00:43:00] from that backed up original catalog. Lindsay Coulter: That's very cool. That's very, very cool. Well, I'm excited about that. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, it's gonna be, it's gonna be a lot of fun when it's out. I'm very excited as well. So, we're running out of time, but I want to try to get to these last couple questions. This next one is a pretty heavy duty one, so let's see if you can break it down. points. Can you share from a 30,000 foot view down a, a view that you're very familiar with because you travel a lot? An outline, breakdown of your workflow from lead to delivery. Lindsay Coulter: Oh yeah. Okay. I totally can and I can, I can do this in an efficient way cuz I just built a course that's actually coming out very soon. I don't know when this podcast episode's coming out, but it'll probably be out by then. June 1st. Okay, so yeah, my course will be out. So, I can tell you this cuz I literally [00:44:00] basically made a course on like my start to finish how I run things. So, a lead comes in, I've already told you, you know, they, they inquire hopefully with an actual package. I respond with a templated email with all the things that I already told you. You know, here's a Calendly link. Get booked in. Let's say they choose that option. We book a meeting I respond. You know, after the, the meeting and I'm, I'm pretty like direct about, about that after meeting. Like, they know after the meeting if we're, if they're booking or not usually. So I usually just send them the contract and invoice right away. Which is all done through the focal backend system, which is awesome. People pay generally within an hour. If you're not accepting credit card payments grow up. No, I'm just kidding. But accept credit card payments. Try build it into your pricing if you must, but, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's so easy at this point[00:45:00] Lindsay Coulter: People really wanna pay with a credit card, you know, like they really do. In, in Canada it's even more important cuz we don't have Cash App and Venmo, it's not a thing. So it's really challenging for people to pay us in any other way. They can send an TRAC transfer, they have to go into their online banking, they have to set up a password, it's a whole scene. Nobody wants to do that. So I accept credit card payments. Then, you know, we set up an engagement session usually. Sometime soon-ish. I I send people guides for their engagement session that gives them an idea of the locations that I like to shoot. Some outfit ideas, some like inspo for the type of session they can have. So if they wanna have a go to a brewery and sit down and have a beer, cool. If they wanna go for a walk in a park, cool. Here are like all of the options so they don't feel like they have to reinvent the wheel on anything. After the engagement session delivery, like I said, you know, I send them through pixie set, I send them their Imageners with like a nice buttoned [00:46:00] up. Templated email, basically telling them what's coming next which is then getting into wedding planning. Usually there's a pretty big gap, right? So say there's like an eight month gap or something. A couple of months beforehand, I'll send them an email asking them now, actually. I've, I've just been started to send them out questionnaires. Like I said, I didn't really love a crm, so, I felt like the, that was the best way for me to send out questions before was just like I would send them a few specific questions in an email. So now I'm sending them a questionnaire that's built into the same backend dashboard system of my website. That just asks them like some details about where are you getting ready? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, all the standard things that we need to know about where should I be and when. And then I actually create a photo timeline for my clients. I don't really like being given when, cuz they don't know, you know, they don't know what's best as far as the photography schedule. [00:47:00] And again, I tried it to remove as much homework for my clients as I can. So I, oh, I skipped through some, oh no I didn't. I'm, I'm like, wait, what, what bullet point am I on? No. So I, I send them all of these things, just asking them where am I supposed to be and when, you know, and then I create the itinerary for them. I think the itinerary is so important for so many reasons, cuz like the pre-production is the production essentially, you know, like that. Pre-planning is how we ensure that there is enough time to get really nice flat lays or to make sure we have lots of time for couples portraits and family photos and all the things that are priorities for my clients. Day of the wedding, I do the thing. We shoot the wedding. It's always nice. I show up really early, like an hour early to most weddings, and I just sit in the parking lot and drink a water and chill out with my second I go at dinner time. This is like a really crucial part of my [00:48:00] workflow that's like very, very new. I process everything and call it, and then I immediately during dinner, upload that catalog to Imagenand have everything that's been shot up until that time. Edited and done. I know you're shocked, Scott, you've never heard this before. Nobody does this. No. But like literally up until dinnertime now everything is basically edited so I can then go through at dinner cuz there's usually too much downtime and I, I can't stand downtime on a wedding day, but there is usually too much downtime on a wedding day during dinner when you're waiting for courses and speeches. So I actually go through and start making my selects for their Previews and I'm gonna send them the next day. After the wedding, I go home and do a full, proper backup and then finish doing the call and edit through Imagenof the rest of those Imageners, which is like usually only, I [00:49:00] don't know, four or 500 Imageners that I've shot after dinner into the reception, depending on how long the day is. Next morning. I pretty much finish everything. I go through every single image and it's like a next, next, next, next, next. And I then mark things that need to be delivered as Previews. And I make another mark for things that need to be more finely retouched. And that's a step that I never used to do fine retouching. Like I would leave exit signs in. I would leave flyaways in when you're delivering a thousand Imageners, 50 weddings over, it's just not possible to do all of that. And I kind of believed like, oh, my clients aren't expecting that. And they probably weren't because that's not what I was showing. I wasn't showing really, really polished Imageners on my Instagram or website because I wasn't doing that. So I don't think that they were expecting it. But now I'm able to actually go through and, because I want to spend time, I enjoy editing ImagenAI's. Like I want to, [00:50:00] I want to spend some time polishing their photos. But now it gives me the ability to actually like truly. Invest in, in like the Imageners, you know, in the like principal, like photo book, Imageners. Those are the ones that I'm actually spending the time like really, really spending time on. I'll do an export and then upload, and then I'll sit on them sometimes for a little bit. I'll deliver obviously the Previews right away, and then I'll sit on the rest of them for a little bit. Sometimes I'll go back to them and see if I need to, you know, make any changes or if fresh eyes a couple weeks later have changed anything for me. But for the most part just ship it, ready to go. Deliver the online gallery and then wait for them to send me a nice review. I'm trying to think if I missed anything in there. I feel like Scott Wyden Kivowitz: do you use to to design your albums?[00:51:00] Lindsay Coulter: oh Great question. I use, this is, so this is really janky actually. I use kiss. They're, they're, they're designer to design my albums and then I actually make do you mean like photo books when you say albums? Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Lindsay Coulter: I'm, I'm not saying albums and then we're thinking online gallery albums. I use the KISS Designer. It's really, really nice. I pay for like their premium service in order to get all of their templates unlocked. And then I actually, I use Wooden Banana for my albums cuz their albums are so beautiful and I think aesthetically they're really a lot more in line with what my clients are looking for. And their price point is phenomenal, like really, really phenomenal. Kiss's price point is just like, so I. Out of line of what I think my clients would be interested in paying. And even if they were, it [00:52:00] would really eat into the amount that I would be able to make. But wood and bananas albums are, are really, really gorgeous. And I also for clients that have purchased like one of my more top tier packages, I, I send along like a u USB and print box and you can get matching USB and print boxes custom made through with a banana. So Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Nice. I always, I, I love, I love the wood, wooden banana as a, as a brand, and I always thought it was funny that like they make things that are not wood. Like, you know, Lindsay Coulter: I know Scott Wyden Kivowitz: there's, I mean, I mean, I guess tech technically paper Lindsay Coulter: not gonna forget that. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Lindsay Coulter: Yeah, I saw, I saw their products in person for the first time at one of the way north that I went to, I think in Italy maybe a few years ago. And I was stunned. I was like, velvet. This is just, it's very unique. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: I Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: really love the imprinting. They're just, they're doing really cool things and their service is really, really exceptional. So yeah, [00:53:00] I'm a really big fan of, of of their photo books. But yeah, editing or actually creating the the albums Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm. Lindsay Coulter: I probably should switch to Fundi at some point. It's just one of those things that I haven't done yet in the, in the workflow. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. Yeah. I feel like, so I've never used the KISS designer, but I, I feel like the one that I have tried, they're all very similar in use. Lindsay Coulter: a drag and drop kind of Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah. Yeah. The thing is, I always come back to Fundi. It's the OG Lindsay Coulter: Yeah. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: about designers and, you know, it just, yeah. It's Lindsay Coulter: Yeah, all I really care about is being able to make sure that I'm not including duplicate Imageners in, in a gallery. You know, like you need to make sure that your album builder is like giving you a flag, like you've already used this image or whatever. And then the ability to send it to my clients wi with it being like white labeled. You know, there are some album builders that are like, this is from, you know, if it said this is from kiss, I'm like, well that's not awesome cuz now all my [00:54:00] client has to do is go and find out how much this book actually physically cost, right? So I need it to be white labeled. The, the Kiss builder is, is very nice for that. But I'm sure the funny one, I'll switch after this conversation. Scott, now you've got me thinking about it. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Well, I'm not saying you have to switch, but, Lindsay Coulter: I don't create that many albums. I, I really don't do a ton every year. It's something that I would really like to do more of. But before, this is gonna sound like an immediate Imagenplug, but truly before, ImagenI didn't have time. To be thinking about more steps in the workflow of more services that I could offer my clients. I'm like, please don't order an album from me. I do not have time to be doing that right now. Right. Like Scott Wyden Kivowitz: so Lindsay Coulter: just barely getting things delivered to them. Nevermind like, oh yeah, let's add another six weeks to this relationship. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Right. Right. So you're, you're, you're, you're just, you're getting into what is one of my next questions. Let's just get right to that question.[00:55:00] How did Imagen impact your life? Lindsay Coulter: Yeah. Okay. So crazy. I feel like. Photographers do have the tendency to be like, this changed my life. You know, like this, this system changed my life. There are not many things that I will say that about. I've been a photographer for 10 years. There are not many things that I will say that about. Like, oh, this changed my life, changed my photography business. Sure. Changed my workflow. Sure. Changed my efficiency. Sure. But Imagenliterally changed my life because I was struggling so hard to just, I wanted to provide my clients with. A luxury service and I think involved in a luxury service is really great communication, really great delivery times, a really beautiful end product, a really great in-person experience. And I always felt like my editing workflow was the thing that put the breaks on that [00:56:00] because I could do an amazing job, but if I deliver a wedding two weeks late, immediately their opinion of everything I did up until that point is gonna change. Right? Like being on the receiving end of, you know, having been the client that maybe gets photos back longer than you expected. It hurts the relationship between you and the photographer regardless of how good of a job they've done. And that's such a bummer. And I didn't want all of that hard work that I had done to. Impact my relationship with my clients. So not now. The reason why it doesn't just like impact my photography business, it impacted my whole life, is because I had such bad anxiety about editing. I was missing family get togethers if I was at them. I was like frazzled. I was like almost like mad. Like, why are you even asking me about how work is, you know how work is, I'm freaking out. I'm burnt out, I'm [00:57:00] behind. I shouldn't even be here right now. And I've never asked my parents, but I would imagine that they would be like, you weren't like a super fun person to be around sometimes because you would come to these family get togethers with like sort of a, i I need to be back at my computer feeling right now. Right. Even when I was outsourcing. Like I had one really bad experience where I had an outsourcing company drop the ball on a wedding before Christmas. And I'm like, one of my sort of rules for myself is that I deliver everything before Christmas. Even if I shot that wedding on like December 20th. I deliver all of my stuff before Christmas because I know clients are gonna be with their families and they really wanna be able to show over the holidays, right? Whether that be Christmas or whatever. But I wanna make sure that they are able to show their family their Imageners while they're together for the holidays. And I had an outsourcing company really heavily drop the ball on a wedding that I had shot in November. So it's not like they didn't have a lot of lead time. They did. [00:58:00] And they dropped the ball on their customer service and they dropped the ball on the editing. And I ended up editing that entire wedding over the Christmas holidays so that I could get them back at least before the New Year's and. That really soured my entire opinion of outsourcing as a whole, because I felt like, it's interesting, you think, Imagen. People think that they're losing control, but actually you're gaining it all back, right? Like they think, they think in giving the control over to ai, that they're, they're losing something in some way. That's how I felt about outsourcing. I felt like I was giving all of my, you know, I was like, here is this gorgeous wedding I'm giving you, and please make it nice, you know, and, and you just hope that they don't decide that day's a magenta day, you know, like you, you really have no idea what you're gonna get back. And if you get it back on a day that you're already behind and it's really bad, then that's a really, that can be a really stressful thing and can be really bad for your own [00:59:00] mental health, for your relationships with your clients, your relationships with the people in your life. Just overall really, really crummy. And then, you know, it changes how you feel about the overall finished product. You feel like you're hesitantly delivering a gallery that maybe isn't as awesome as it should be and, or it's really awesome, but it took a whole heck of a lot to get there. So that's kind of it, you know, there's a lot of like emotional baggage tied up in, in some of that delivery Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Mm-hmm. Lindsay Coulter: ever since sort of switching everything over. So I delivered every single shoot that I did last year through Imagen. Every Single Thing. So I think I, well I, I know how many photos it was in the end because I ended up creating a new profile off of it. So it was 22,000 images that I ended up processing through Imagen last year. And I went to the cottage, I was present. It was lovely. I [01:00:00] had way less stress about like, am I missing files or have I not backed something up? Even though, like I said, I've never been a thing that I've ever done before, but it's still it's just. When you're stressed about something, your brain goes to the easiest thing that you could stress about. Right? It's like, what's the first thing I Scott Wyden Kivowitz: piles and piles and piles and piles. Yeah. Yeah. Lindsay Coulter: think like, did I not back things up? The great thing is that I'm like the gallery's done. Like I don't have anything to think about. Like, if I wanted to, I could pull up the entire catalog right now and physically see it and know everything's all good. Like, you know, it just, it removed so many barriers that were like really huge pain points for me in my business at every level, not just the editing level. Right. Like, I, I do a lot of family sessions in the fall and I remember there have been many sessions that I show up to the ga, the we to the family session. Literally like, I better not overshoot right now cuz I don't have time to edit [01:01:00] all of these and to go through all of them and to deliver a ton if I overshoot. So now I'm like holding myself back creatively because of the editing process. So it's not just the editing process that gets impacted by it, it's like everything, you know? You know, not only that, but the financial side of things. Outsourcing the equivalent of 22,000 images or more, whatever. That's, that's a very expensive day. So I was spending like well over $10,000 a year on outsourcing. Like well over one year I think I spent close to $20,000 on outsourcing. And. Last year I spent like 2,500 on like a lot of, on a lot of photos to be edited. So, you know, I, I truly can't say enough. I really can't. Like, I'm so grateful not only to Imagen for like existing and continuing to evolve in the areas that we need but [01:02:00] also to the photographers that talk about it. It's part of the reason that I talk about it so much because I'm like, I wouldn't have wanted to experience what, five more years of my life like it was in the future. So I'm trying to save people from that because it, it, it is what's gonna lead to burnout. It's what's going to lead to photographers really having a not great time with their businesses and then just quitting cuz they're just not going to be able to handle it anymore. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, that kind of, that kind of anxiety, stressful, pileups, it just inevitable will, will lead to a breakdown of, of at some point. Lindsay Coulter: It has to right it, that that stress has to go somewhere. It can't live in your body forever. So you're either gonna get physically sick, you're gonna get mentally sick. It, it's going to, like we all know photographers, I think every single full-time photographer knows someone who has disappeared and who has ghosted and who has left clients and who has moved away because their [01:03:00] backlog became so insurmountable that they literally couldn't even Imagen a way out. They just disappeared. And to me, that's so sad. Like I've had people's clients reach out to me saying, Do you know where this person is? And I'm like, no. And they've just like literally changed their name and left the city. So I don't know what to say to you, but it's so crazy to me that there's such a simple solution. And so I think it's so important that, you know, the photographers that do use it, keep sharing, keep telling people about it you know, it's, it's the kind thing to do. It's the, like, I, every time I talk about it, either the photographers that I speak to are like, oh yeah, I'm already in like, completely invested. Like, don't stop selling, you know? Or they're like, this is what I've been waiting for, thank you so much. And they're like beyond grateful. So, yeah. Thanks for creating like one heck of a product and, and every single thing that you're doing, like keeps improving. Like I, I, no, I just told you that I just [01:04:00] updated my profile using the adjustments tool. Like, wow, what a cool. Because again, if you're using like an outsourcing company, you want to explain to them, okay, this year I'd like to go a little bit warmer and I'd like my you know, my yellow specifically, to be a little bit less saturated. You're going to, that's, that's a six month process before they start figuring that out for you. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah. And now you can do it instantly. Instantly. Both. Lindsay Coulter: Instantly, like the last few sessions that I have processed through are literally perfect, like quite literally perfect. Like they are export, ready, done. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: It's Lindsay Coulter: So, yeah. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: So, I mean, on behalf of everybody at Imagen, very happy that we are very happy that we're able to help rid of all that anxiety for you. I know backups are still, still there, but, and I, I get it cuz I'm the same way. Eventually [01:05:00] that'll get, you know, that'll be gone from your Lindsay Coulter: I can't wait. I'm so excited. I'll just, I'll just text you all the things that stress me out in my life and you guys will be like, here's some, first of all, first of all, call your therapist, you lunatic. But like I say that as a person who happily goes to therapy, I'm not insulting people who go to therapy. Yeah. You know, I think therapy and Imagen those are like the two things that change my life. Yeah. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: yeah, yeah. Hey, I'm, I'm right there with you, right there with you. So, Lindsay where can listeners learn, learn more about you, connect with you, and of course, see your incredible photography. Lindsay Coulter: Oh, thank you. Instagram is like a pretty good hub to find me what I'm up to. I share on my stories fairly often. Pretty much every day I'm there hanging out. So it's l Coulter, c o u l t e r, photo on Instagram. And then. From there, you can find all of my links. My [01:06:00] course is at betterthanbooked.com. You can find that if you're interested in, you know, figuring out how to become like a really well booked photographer, but one that's like actually really happy in their life too. I think that's like a really huge thing that's missing in the photography industry is like, yeah, do you wanna be a six figure burnt out photographer or a six figure thriving and happy and content and peaceful photographer? And that's like my goal. You know, be surrounded by plants and hi, well hydrated people. That's all we need. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: You are surrounded by plants, whether you're in your house or in your studio, there's always plants near you. Lindsay Coulter: Uh, Honestly, I just, I think it's like a good symbol of, of growth and thriving. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, I wish, I wish that in my dungeon of an office studio, I had a little bit of sunlight that I could take advantage of for real plants, but Lindsay Coulter: You could totally have real plants in there. You could get like a couple of little grow lights. No problem. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: I could, but I've got a fake bonzai as a, as a karate [01:07:00] nerd. I've got a fake bonzai back there, Lindsay Coulter: That's pretty cool though. I feel like that that's allowed, that's allowed. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Yeah, Lindsay Coulter: Your setup is pretty sweet. Scott, Scott Wyden Kivowitz: thank you. So thank you Lindsay, for, for this awesome chat. I know that there's a ton of takeaways for all the listeners out there, so, I, I really appreciate you taking the time and chatting with me and sharing all of your insights about all of your workflows and all that fun stuff. Lindsay Coulter: thank you so much for having me. Thanks again for making such a stellar product. It's it's seriously a joy. I love it and I love working with you guys, so thanks for having me on. Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Thank you Lindsay, so much for that incredible conversation. I know there are so many great takeaways for all the workflows, listeners. You have been listening to workflows Presented by Imagen to hear more from workflows, to find links to our guests, and for an exclusive offer. For workflows, listeners, please go to [01:08:00] imagen-ai.com/podcast and be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time.