2023: The Year of Intention
Photography Goals and new changes for 2023. This year brings a lot of wonderful new changes to our lives and we haven’t even started it yet. At the beginning of the year, we always sit down with our coaches to create a game plan on what we want to accomplish in the next 12 months. We go over mostly business strategy, and then on our own we also talk about all of our personal goals, our fitness goals, and our spiritual goals.
For us, it’s usually the perfect time to discuss what we want to get done this year and to encourage each other and make sure that we are on the same page for the business and our life path. This year, we had the pleasure of being able to bring our newest employee to the meeting! The best thing we did in 2021 was hire our VA. I knew, personally, that creating another human and bringing her into the world around the holidays was going to be another huge accomplishment and change in our lives, but the business needed to have its roots strong and secure because it’s engagement season!
Plus, a lot of our 2023 goals were actually dreamt up in 2022. EARLY 2022. Because when you want to make those big shifts and dreams happen, it takes more than 3 months of the “slow season” to make them come to fruition. I’m a huge believer in a version of what most people like to call “manifestation”. Do I believe that saying my goals and aspirations outloud to the “universe” is going to magically make them happen? Absolutely not. Do I believe that posting them here, online, in a permanent journal space that I know that YOU are reading is going to keep me accountable? Absolutely. Because I know one thing about myself and my husband, and it’s that our word is better than any contract you could put together. When we say we’re going to do something, we do it. And we do it with all our heart.
Wedding Photography Goals
We’ve talked about how blessed we were in 2022 with our wedding clients. We felt so aligned with who they were, what their visions were for their celebration, how they look at every single detail on the day and think “but how is this related to US” and they make it their own. One thing about our client’s is that they know what they want and they want their wedding to be unique to them. Sometimes that looks like hiring a chef from their favorite restaurant to be the catering company on their wedding day and creating a custom menu that is completely revolved around their family’s culture and heritage. Sometimes it looks like getting married at the groom’s family’s boys camp on a lake in Maine because that’s where he and his bride have spent every summer of their relationship together. No matter what the end result, we know that our couple’s are being intentional about what they decide on. Every single detail is intentional. And we want to make sure that we are a reflection of that.
We have always been planners and designers of the sessions and wedding photography that we produce. Every second of the day is well thought out in advance and we like it that way. That being said, we want to make sure that when our couple’s are choosing us (and we are choosing them) that this process is very clear to ensure that we are properly aligned. I know that we can do this better with our website copy and message, as well as conversations we have with potential clients before they agree to have us as their photographers.
Speaking of intentionality, we will also only be accepting 8-10 couples for 2023. We accepted 10 in 2022 and we felt very comfortable with that number in ensuring that our quality of work, turnaround time, communication and care was up to our standards, and we would like to keep it that way. So, if you have any plans on getting married in 2023, I would highly recommend reaching out to us sooner rather than later, as we only have a few spots left before we hit our maximum for the year.
Another subset of this topic is expanding our community outreach to make better friends in the industry. Because we service such a wide area of the DMV, it can often be difficult to create close, meaningful relationships with like minded vendors. Vendors who want to go above and beyond for their client’s and who really care about what they are producing. We want to very intentionally set out and connect with other business owners who love what they do and who align with our values.
Other Photography Goals
Here’s the big one for us. Financially speaking, anyway.
We are going to be opening our brick and mortar studio. Finally! After years of dreaming up a space of our own, and being let down by what exists in our area, we have decided to finally build our own studio out in the country.
Why out in the country? Andie – don’t you service clients from DC and the NOVA area? Yes, yes we do. And the thing that we love about our clients is that they are always looking for an experience. They want something special. They want the thoughtfulness of every detail to come into play. And for us, it makes most sense for us to build our studio that is going to be set on a hillside, overlooking a pond, surrounded by tall trees and a wide open space.
This studio will be able to service mostly our portrait client’s who have children, but we also want it to be a space that other vendors and small businesses in the area can utilize as a small gathering space for their teams. We want it to be a blank space that anyone can transform into anything, but a space that still feels comfortable and like “home”.
Our goal is to have this space ready for our clients only at the beginning of April, which is also what we are currently booked up to for portraits this year. Our next available portrait session date is April 4th (at the moment). If you are interested in having your session here, or just interested in dreaming up your session with us, please complete our contact form HERE. I would be happy to talk more about your vision for your family portraits.
Education Goals
Lastly, our goal this year with our education is to help as many photographers in the WORLD see the light at the end of the tunnel with where they are in their path to burn out. I can remember 5 years ago when we were working 36 weddings a year. On top of that, we were photographing family’s 3-4 times a week. It was exhausting. It was stressful. And it wasn’t profitable for the business. We knew that there was a better way to do business and we also knew that there was a better way to service our clients than just handing them a gallery link and saying “good luck! Have fun printing at CVS!”
That’s not real service. That’s not caring about your clients. It’s taking the easy way out and doing the care minimum. And that’s just not what we do.
So we found a better way. And we started to mentor other photographers one-on-one. And we realized that there had to be a better way to do THAT too. So we created our first IPS Masterclass and Coaching Program round in the fall of 2022. And this year, we plan to offer it again, only the new and improved version. A plan where you can work at your own pace and still have access to the coaching aspect when you need it.
This goal is set to happen in early 2023. I’m talking about the first quarter. It’s the first ship we want to set sail to to ensure that any photographer who is ready to really be intentional about their business, can be. If you’re one of those photographers – I would love to invite you to take a look at this page HERE for more information and download our free 6-Step Formula for how we service our wedding and portrait clients.
Personal Goals
2022 was actually an incredible year for personal goals. We became pregnant with our second daughter at the beginning of the year and she is due any day now. I joined a women’s bible study group and we meet every single Monday, without fail. We’ve made travel a priority and flew our family to Southern California for the first time, which was such an incredible week for us.
I created a new sleep and work routine to better my health and prepare for a better schedule that would work well for the family. We get outside EVERY DAY even if it’s raining. We really took charge of our health with intentional decisions about the food that we buy and where it comes from. This was HUGE for our health. We shopped smaller. We supported local farms and farms who only treat their animals with care. These are all goals that were set into motion in 2022 and we had a lot of trial and error time finding the businesses that didn’t just green wash what they were selling. So now, for 2023, we can walk into the year with our hearts set on fire about everything that we do, including where we buy the food that we put into our mouths.
