"Reaching out to Lindsey about photography mentoring has been the smartest thing I've done in my adult life, I swear. When I contacted her I was feeling so defeated and frustrated with myself and she has totally turned that around for me. I had this awesome camera and this love for taking photos, but the more I shot, the more I realized I really had no idea what I was doing and felt I was just getting lucky with some of the "good" shots I had. I really wanted to branch out, make my dream of a photography business come true but knew I couldn't do that on point-and-shoot-luck and had NO clue where to begin learning. When I inquired with Lindsey, she said mentoring wasn't a service she had offered in the past but 'yes - she was totally willing to teach me and could I start Monday!'
I was so nervous and excited all at once and she seemed genuinely excited about it too, which made me that much more eager to learn. Two Starbucks meetings and a photoshoot session later and I'm feeling more confident in my photos than I ever could have imagined. Lindsey gave me SO much knowledge in both shooting as well as the business side of it all in a total of about 5 hours, I'm seriously so amazed! She answered any question I could come up with and never once made me feel the slightest bit dumb for not knowing even the simple answers. Lindsey is an awesome teacher and I'm so happy I contacted her! I have a ton of practicing to do, but cannot wait to book another lesson with her sometime, it has been totally worth it! (Really, my 'before Lindsey' photo's are almost embarrassing and now I can't wait to show of my new and improved work!)"
-Shannon Sarillo
Mentoring
Mentoring other photographers & creatives has always been a goal of mine. I have a passion for growing businesses and getting people EXCITED about the freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur. So when my first mentee, Shannon, reached out to me in 2016 asking if I'd ever thought of offering mentoring, I jumped at my opportunity to help her. Since it was my first go at it, I offered her all the money back if it wasn't what she had envisioned. We met only two times and the above "before and after" is the result. In our first two-hour meeting we went over camera gear, shooting in manual (which she had no clue how to adjust her Nikon D3200 settings - so I showed her!), Lightroom basics, my workflow, the programs I use to create efficiency in my editing, and how to start AND grow a photography business from the ground up. The meeting FLEW by. I talked non-stop and Shannon soaked it all in.
The next meeting we scheduled a few weeks later so she could practice shooting manual. Her sister has hopes of creating a fashion blog so she was the perfect test subject for us! I walked Shannon through how I would pose her, what angles worked well and what didn't, what settings she should start at, what lighting was good, and how to generally run a session with people you just met for the first time & most importantly -- how to make it not awkward! We then headed to Starbucks to edit the session together. One of Shannon's pitfalls was always over-editing a photo and wasting a ton of time doing it. So I went over how I'd edit each photo in just a few clicks. She was mind-blown!
Now, with dozens of mentoring sessions under my belt, I pack 8 years of business knowledge into 3 hours of hands on learning with me. I'm not kidding when I say I spill all my secrets to how I grew my business to where it is today. No question is off limits!
The first steps in any new venture is an investment. And you can spend years learning and failing at the hands of Youtube or other online educators, or we can pack it all in a few hours and you'll be lightyears ahead of where you started. I can't imagine how much faster my business would have grown with a mentor setting me on the right path from the beginning. Telling me what programs to use, gear to invest in, teaching me about lighting mistakes, and all their editing tips and tricks -- it would have been a game changer for me! If you think I can do that for your business, let's chat!
Below is feedback from my first mentee, Shannon:
Investment
option 1
option 2
3 hours of coaching
*covers shooting in manual / understanding lighting / running a portrait session / editing / my workflow / gear / building a business
$750
2 hours of coaching
*covers shooting in manual / understanding lighting / camera basics / editing basics