Today, we are talking all  about our 2021 Photography Mastermind!

Back when the pandemic hit, Michael and I were really struggling. It was just a lot to be receiving all these phone calls and emails from brides who were rescheduling and asking for our advice on how to navigate this global pandemic while planning a wedding.  And we were really missing out on our community of other wedding professionals that we had built over the years that we used to regularly meet with in person, which we couldn’t really do any more because of COVID.  

The Coronavirus

So what we decided to do was to ask if there were others in the wedding industry that were struggling with this, and if they wanted to meet on a weekly basis. We got a huge response and ended up getting together with five other photographers and led them in a Mastermind.

Over the past eight months we’ve met regularly to talk through all of this craziness that we were all going through. It was so helpful to hear from others on strategies, contract addendums, and just support throughout this crazy time. And it turned into much more than just navigating through a pandemic; we were helping each other with many different parts of our business, talking through topics that we each wanted to improve on, and grew closer together through it all.

It was great to be able to figure out a way to actually grow our business while in the midst of something that was causing businesses to struggle, especially in the wedding industry, and so much of that credit goes to this mastermind group.

We just believe really strongly in this mastermind, so much so that we decided to open up a mastermind for other photographers specifically focused on achieving their 2021 goals.

If you’ve never heard of a mastermind, or been part of one, here are a few points below that will help you decide if it’s a good fit for you.

What is a mastermind?

A Mastermind is a group of people that come together to work collectively and meet regularly to help each other grow in areas of struggle, and contribute and encourage in the growth of others. In our upcoming 2021 photography Mastermind we will be the leaders and facilitators to help guide the mastermind through group topic discussion and one on one meetings. 

This Mastermind will help you identify areas in your business that you are strong in and use your knowledge to help others in the group in those areas. The areas that you are weak in or areas you need help with, there’s going to be someone else in the group that’s good at that. The point of the group is to work as a collective rather than as an individual, which photography is a profession where are you are a one (or two) person team. You’re in charge of every aspect of your business, so it’s nice to have a group of people that can feed into your business and help you grow as you do the same for others. 

Who is this 2021 photography mastermind for?

There are Masterminds on anything and everything out there. But we are specifically looking for wedding and portrait photographers that are wanting to reach their 2021 goals. We will be working on a set curriculum to target different aspects of your workflow and help you refine and improve them, which will allow you to have more time to be able to set and reach your goals.

Michael and I believe that having  a strong workflow will allow you to work and reach those long term goals and dreams, because you will have the time in your business to spend on it. We aren’t specifically focusing on only business goals; we believe that having a strong workflow would give you more time to focus on your goals regardless if they are for your business or personal.

The Mastermind will be mainly focused on two points. You’re going to be working on setting goals that are specific to your business that we can help you achieve, while working on different aspects of your business that might be eating up a lot of time, that don’t necessarily need to. So you can spend more time achieving those goals.

What does our 2021 photography mastermind specifically include?

We will be starting the week of January 5 and go through 12 weeks of meetings. Nine of the meetings will be in group meetings with a specific topic and open discussion, and three of the meetings will be one on one coaching calls where are you can talk to Laura and I specifically about areas of your business that you want to work on. Not familiar with us? Get to know us a little more by visiting our website or listen to our first audio blog!

Our entire curriculum is laid out on our site so go check it out here. Along with these meetings, we will also be giving you homework assignments that will encourage you to dive into the different aspects that we will be talking about each week. These homework tasks will help you and support you in your goal setting. We will also give you guys a workbook we have created for the Mastermind specifically. This will be a place where you can write notes, follow along, and where your homework will be as well so you can reference this throughout the year.

We will also be setting up a Facebook page and Instagram pod for everyone in the Mastermind to be able to continually ask questions, get feedback, and just talk long after the mastermind is finished. As a final bonus you also get six extra weeks of email access to just Michael and I. So if you have a question or idea after the Mastermind is over and you need to reach out or bounce it off someone, we are here.

Why a mastermind and not a workshop?

Michael and I have been wedding photographers since 2011. Throughout this time we’ve done a ton of education for our business. We have done workshops, online courses, community groups and meet ups, and what we have found is that there is one huge difference between the Mastermind and other options out there. With a Mastermind, you get specific, targeted, help with your business in areas you need help with.

A workshop is great if there is something you want to learn from an educator that you really love. If you need help with posing, and you know someone who specializes in that, you could take their workshop. They will give you all their tips for posing and hopefully help incorporate those ideas into your business. But if there’s something specific that you have a lot of different questions about in your business, or need to talk through an idea or problem you are struggling with, you wouldn’t really get a chance to ask those questions at a workshop or online course.

Benefits of a Mastermind

In a Mastermind, you work with a group of professionals that will pour information & advice about that topic into you. And with our 2021 Photography Mastermind specifically, you’ll get three different times when you can speak just Michael and I. We can spend some one-on-one time to talk about those different aspects you defined that you would like to target. It’s a lot different than workshop. With a workshop you’ll get one focused topic and maybe a day or two to work on that through an educator, whereas a Mastermind is really going to work on a ton of different things specifically targeted to the help that you need. A Mastermind will also give you a number of different perspectives, ideas, & opinions on parts of your business where you need help. It will also give you an idea on what has and hasn’t worked for others in your industry.

If you have any other questions, please reach out, or if you are unsure if this is a good fit for you, we’d be happy to talk to you more about it. Join us for our 2021 Mastermind and let’s reach our goals!!!