Tue - August 14, 2007

Wed - July 18, 2007

Wed - July 11, 2007

Back from Aruba - in TN this Week for the BBC :)

Phew - it's been quite a busy few days!

Bridget & Wei's wedding in Aruba was AMAZING and the design team is quick at work processing everything so I hope to get some pics up soon :) In the meantime checkout a small pic I have of their ceremony & reception site way down on the beach ... gorgeous!





I'm in Chattanooga, TN this week as Garrett and Joy Nudd are so graciously hosting my Business Boot Camp here. The group here is awesome and I've got so much to blog about but we're about to start a marathon of a day so I'll be back later with more...


Cherio!!

Posted at 09:23 AM     Read More  

Tue - May 8, 2007

When the going gets tough... get help, get zzzs, and get creative.

I'm home alive and well for all those who have been asking "so did you survive the weekend?" ... Just a little zoned out to say the least. Yesterday I was on my way home from awesome opening day at the new Buckhead and fell asleep at the traffic light for a few seconds. I think I actually started dreaming. Or as up-and-coming-ninja/author so eloquently put it: "There was one point at lunch today when I looked across the table and you seemed to be somewhat zoned out, I was going to say something in case you suddenly did a face plant into your mashed potatoes, but then you spoke so I knew you were still conscious!"

Last night Lindsey, Jessica, JJ, and Shannon showed up early for Fusion and as they got comfy on the couch I poured myself a glass of water and then proceeded to lift the glass not-quite-far-enough to my mouth and dumped it all over the floor in front of me instead. Um yeah.... what's a girl to do?

Sleep.

But there are only so many hours in a day and I've got to be up to pack and head to the airport by 5:30am so I can be in Chicago by 8am to give a seminar at 11am.

Thank God for all the amazing people who have been taking a load off for me these past few hours, days, weeks, years. Amy for daring delirious DR travels with me. Katie, Chris, and Matt were such an amazing team to work with on Saturday. Unexpected help showed up bright and early on Sunday AM to aid in keeping an unusually large group of 23 7-year-olds in order. Friends and family taking a load off in any way possible and providing a good laugh for all intent purposes of keeping one sane. Today was SUCH a productive day with Marcus here working on house stuff and Audrey here plowing through photo biz work... that I'm confident I can take this team-work attitude with me to Chicago tomorrow. I've also been contemplating the joys of simplicity a LOT lately due to the impending, cramping, annoying, frustrating clutter in my world... so I'll be packing lightly again to say the least. This is the 5th or 6th seminar I've done at the Pictage conferences and these are so much fun because it's like a big family reunion.

The creative part will have to wait for tomorrow. The topic is "Brand Camp" and it will be geeky, fun, and I'll need help because I'm pretty tired. Anyone who comes gets to find out about my clutter, fuzzy vision, and KISSing!!!

Until then... xoxoxoxo MUAHHH!


The 1st Annual...ah, memoooories....




A David-sandwich panel last year... need to keep 'em separated! LOL.

Posted at 02:10 AM     Read More  

Fri - March 23, 2007

Meet Audrey

Meet Audrey: My amazing part-time assistant, office manager, marketing gal, and photo/album editor! This post is LONG, long overdue and I can't believe it's been SIX months since she started working with me!! It was right before I went to NYC for our first seminar that Audrey started and I put her to work shot-gun style. With little training or in-person instruction she took over a lot of my day-to-day communications and organization tasks while I was out of town 24/7. I can't imagine getting through this past half-year without her and Pictage! I have my Hurricane Wilma Wedding couple (Leslie and Mark ) to thank for referring her to me :)


I took a few shots of her back in January right after I closed on the new house, before the move took place.




Many of you have had the pleasure of chatting with her on the phone, trading emails, and working on album designs with her already. Feel free to leave Audrey some blog and/or email luv (but not TOOO much as this beauty has already tied the knot!! ) If you want to check out some of her recent work check out the SLIDESHOW GALLERY as she's been putting together awesome shows and updating the site using Dreamweaver!

Hey... maybe I can eventually outsource my blogging to Audrey too ;) j/k!!

Posted at 08:34 PM     Read More  

Wed - February 28, 2007

When school dreams become a reality

When I was two, I walked through the doors of the Montessori schools in Medina, Ohio. I learned to read at the young age of four and could serve a plate of peeled, cut carrot sticks to my fellow classmates before the kids in regular nursery school knew how to count. I was by no means a wonder-child, just a product of the unique hands-on-teaching that Montessori provides.

Two years into college, I met Mr. Merek Jones who would be my partner-in-crime (business partner) through the duration of time in FSU's exclusive Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management program. Our last project together in business school was to write a complete business plan. As fate would have it, we decided to focus on something that might just become a reality: opening a series of Montessori schools in the Detroit, Michigan area. The plan showed strong numbers and a profitable future for the community and the business owners alike.

Upon graduation Merek moved to Michigan to take on the challenge.

Today (with me sick as a dog in bed) we chatted over a double-Vonage connection about how crazy it is that our plans HAVE become a reality.

After years of working in the trenches, building schools from the ground-up, hiring, training, marketing, enrolling, programing... three School House Montessori schools stand strong enough on their own to allow for Merek to move to NC soon to break ground on a new multi-million dollar school. We discussed how much in awe we were of being able to see text-book examples and plans WORK in the real world with lots of determination and application.

One thing Merek and I have always had in common is talking through our ideas out loud and dreaming big. Merek dreamed big and rallied the troops together in his area and caught the attention of state and national government. While Montessori celebrates it's 100 year anniversary this year, the nation will celebrate Montessori as well with this week being "National Montessori Education Week." Sooo cool!

Posted at 12:25 PM     Read More  

Wed - February 21, 2007

the DVDs are IN !!

There's something about having the DVDs in bulk, printed, reproduced, FINISHED that feels Fan-tastic!
(some lucky ones got the pre-run already)

As many already know from previous posts , this process has taken me a lifetime to learn (and roughly 90k in education $s) so I'm really excited to finally have a way to share this with others in a way that is manageable.

When I was covering the "numbers" in previous seminars, we never had enough time to REALLY get through the process completely. So we broke it down into steps and that is what this DVD is about. This is NOT a "get rich quick" thing. Sorry, that might never happen in the world of professional photography ;)

What this IS jam-packed with is applicable step-by-step info on how to:

- Set goals, determine values

- Figure out what SALARY you should make

- TRACK Income & Expenses

- Understand the different types of Expenses and the FUNCTION they serve

- Find out HOW MUCH you take home out of every DOLLAR

- Find out how much you need to make to STAY in business

- Make business decisions based on FACTS

- KEEP more of the money you make

- PLAN for the future

- Determine the STORY that your numbers tell

- Come up with packages/pricing that is a WIN for both you and clients

- Be a legitimate, tax-paying, accountant-hiring business that will LAST longer than the typical < 5 years mark



This is GOOD NEWS for EVERYONE. Right now, the average home-based wedding/portrait photographer makes less than $33,000/year. Many make much less. Ouch.

If you are a photographer, I can promise a 200%+ ROI (return on investment) in going through this complete process .... easily. If you are a client (of any photographer) - this is great for the industry because we'll all still be in business years from now and will be adding more value to what we provide to you.

I want to thank Rafael, Audrey, and Marcus - without them this would not be a reality. Also, Anne Monteith, Scott Kurkian, Judy Grann, Julia Woods, and Beth Moore for your wisdom, willingness to share and council, and be so supportive about getting this message out!

*** CLICK HERE to WATCH what IT IS ALL ABOUT ***

If you're a Pictage Partner they are running specials now ;) Check out the Biz Blog for more info.

Posted at 06:10 PM     Read More  

Thu - January 25, 2007

The Foundation

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." - Mat 8:24-27





I'm in the middle of a move with a big seminar and a DVD project deadline looming around the corner and have been thrown another curve ball. You see, the reason I'm moving into this house is because of a dramatic change I made this past year...

I finally APPLIED everything I learned in those agonizing business/finance classes to my own business. You see, I was part of this very small program in college (in addition to the marketing program at FSU) ... ESBM - Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management - and we spent a WHOLE semester just looking at financial statements. I HATE math. Loath it. Failed Finance101 and had to take it over once I figured out I needed to use a financial calculator. LOL. So we would get these case studies - the same ones they used at the Harvard Business School - comprised of a brief history of a company, who their main players are, and a few financial statements. Our assignment was to look at this information and determine how to fix the company's problems or find more areas for opportunity.

One of the main things I learned is that - like my photography - numbers tell as story too. They told stories of whether a company was healthy or not. If they were about to go bankrupt, if they needed to spend more on marketing, less on employees, or get rid of an entire product line. The numbers showed symptoms of deep-seeded problems and we would be able to go to the root of the problem and help fix it from there.

But what's even more important is that I learned how running your business based on your numbers provides a solid foundation that most businesses fail to establish. When I ran my own numbers early last year (and thought I was doing really well), I found out I wasn't making ANY money off my business. SCARY. Once I knew where I stood, I was able to diagnose the problems (just like I did back in biz school), make adjustments, and hire people to keep up with the numbers. Now I am able to constantly monitor progress and make decisions based on fact, not gut-feeling or emotion. What's even scarier is that through private consultations with other photographers and with Xtreme seminars, I'm finding that 95% of photography companies have NO IDEA that they're not making/LOOSING money on every job. All the hard work, emotions, and money invested for nothing. Squat. Zip. Nothing but a fatter waistline because somehow with the evolution of digital photography we think we have to photoshop every image just because the program exists.

I also came to the understanding that there were previously no benchmarks to measure our business by (as they have in other industries) and decided to go through the process of becoming an Approved Business Instructor for PPA so that I could learn from the founders the financial specifics as they pertain to photography. During the process, they released the 2005 Studio Benchmark Survey and the results were shocking - yet not - since I'd seen how many businesses were failing financially. We finally have a benchmark to measure against for the first time in the history of wedding/portrait photography and I realized how desperately education is needed in this industry to keep others from making the same mistakes I have.

Many seminars and classes later (of teaching this stuff), I determined that it was not something pretty, fun, or even possible to put our minds and hands around in any short period of time. It's a process that has taken me years and years to digest and fully understand. How could I possibly help others see what I see when I look at the numbers? We decided that going through the process fully with a real life example was the only answer. And thus, the Profit Center DVD was born. The DVD goes through the process step-by-step, in 10 lessons, so our xtreme folks can go through one lesson at a time and run their own numbers between lessons... one... step...at... a.... time. It's not an easy process but those who have gone through it are changed forever ... and their businesses are on the right track now.

... so here is my curve ball. The DVD goes to press and ships next week. We had a few tweaks to make. And yesterday we found out 80% of the work (3-4 weeks worth) was LOST. GONE. UNDONE. :( :( On top of it all, there's the move this weekend, company in town, and regular work and seminar stuff to prepare. This has been a nightmare project so far.

But I KNOW without a doubt in my mind how much this is needed. How much life change happens when we have this solid foundation to work off of. And it's gone on too long that we don't have people teaching the business side of photography. Sure, folks talk about marketing, branding, packaging, workflow, etc. But everything is a wash if it's not all founded on the foundation of understanding our numbers. All the marketing in the world, the best equipment and suppliers, the most outstanding portfolio of work... it all stands on the foundation of running your business based on the numbers. EVERYTHING. Why spend 1,000s of $$s on marketing if I don't make a dime off of the business? What are our clients to do if we don't manage our business the right way... resulting in us being out of business a year from now?

So I glue myself to this task and tell myself... one...step....at...a...time.




"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." - Mat 8:24-27

Posted at 05:56 PM     Read More  

Tue - September 12, 2006

Rewind

I've been a slacker-blogger these past few weeks but for good reason. Friday night I arrived home late from LA and for the first time in months I feel like there is time to breath... even if only for a few days. I've been having some fun playing with DJ's Showit Borders that make your digital pics look like the old-school film that I started with 6-7 years ago.


So let me rewind over the past two weeks:

Last week I was in LA for the 2nd Annual Pictage Partner Conference and they had me speaking three times so I was pretty much working the entire trip.

I gave my Financial/Numbers seminar Thursday afternoon and was mentally and physically exhausted from lack of sleep/food but really excited that so many showed up to learn about the "Not-fun-but-necessary" part of the business. I even caught one of the participants popping an advil afterwards and turned to me and said "but it was so worth it"!! Lol.

The feedback from the sessions has been great and I know that it was well worth the time and endless hours put into these seminars, but I was a bit sad that there was not more time to visit with my friends. I did however get to unwind (and eat for the first time that day!) on Thursday with some friends in Santa Monica.




Sarah Barlow , Me and Crystal




KK and Me at the PartnerCon hotel



Rewind to Thursday morning - I was on a panel with David Salmone, David Jay , and Pepper Nix - we discussed the importance of community and Salmone was hilarious and tried to make it a debate. Gotta luv those NYers!!

Here again is me as the filling in the David sandwich:




On Wednesday afternoon, my xtreme partner Jessica and I gave a seminar on Marketing and Sales to a pretty large group. This was the first time the two of us spoke together and it went great which is good because we've got LOTs more of these to do and it was a great rehearsal for XtremeNYC coming up in less than two months.




I know Jess and some others took some other pics of the action so I'll see about posting more up once I get them :)


Rewind to Tuesday. NBC and travel-day.

I ended up in LA, practicing for the seminars, chowing on yummy room service, and hanging with OSP friends at Shula's and dangling our toes in the hot tub .... after a long flight from ATL.

The day actually started in ATL at about 5am because I'd gotten home late the night before from FL and needed to do laundry, pack, and get ready for the NBC interview. At 11am we taped the final Going to the Chapel at NBC - LIVE - and I went on air again to present Stephanie and Matt with a wedding album.

My friend Darren came along and he grabbed these shots after a quick how-to-use-a-5D-lesson.



A group of us after we wrapped the show. BB Webb - owner of the Carl House, Lei Lydel - founder of AtlantaBridal.com , The Newlyweds - Stephanie and Matt, Hostess of Atlanta and Company - Holly Firfer , and Me.



It's been such a blast going through all this and really getting to know the other vendors and people at NBC.
After the show we grabbed a quick lunch across the street before I had to jet off to the airport to catch my flight to LA.


Rewind to Labor Day Weekend.

I was super grateful to share a ride down to the Labor Day Retreat with my friends Kimberly and Sean who drove my car most of the way so I could catch up on sleep and get work done.

Me and Kim




As is tradition with LDR travels, we decided to be adventurous and stop at the first ho-bunk dig we found at the side of the road once we determined it was lunch-time. Here's where we landed Friday afternoon in some unnamed stretch of road in LA (lower Alabama):



Let me tell you - this place what hoppin'! I think this pic gives an accurate glimpse of the restaurant's ambiance:



Best of all - it's called "It Don't Matter" !!



They thought it was funny to make me stand in front of this sign with a tooth pick and since I was no longer the one controlling the drive I obliged:



Overall, I would give this place a 2 out of 5 stars. Okay, maybe a 1. Really though, it don't matter!


The weekend was sooooo needed - relaxing, fun, rejuvenating - and flew by waaaaay tooooo fast. There were about 800 singles there and I think we met 600 of them - at least it felt like we knew almost everyone by the time we left!! For the first time in a long time I was really sad to be traveling home. It was filled with lots of great sermons from Francis Chan , awesome music, great lunches and dinners with friends new and old, beach volleyball, floating around in the ocean for hours tossing a football and frisbee.....

Some good-old 80's dancing fun. Oh yes, we were tearing up the dance floor with the "lawn mower"!!



A lua on the beach




....they had a big fire pit, limbo, hula dancers, live music, and a fire dancer! Wish I had brought my "real" camera down!!




On the last night, we had a service and ended up on the beach to watch about 40 get baptized in the ocean at sunset. It was soooo amazingly beautiful out and the perfect way to end the trip.



Now can I really rewind to LDR again and do it all over, pretty please??

Posted at 11:09 AM     Read More  

Tue - September 5, 2006

liana in LA this week - speaking 3 times at Pictage Partner Conference - leave us a message

Last year I had the awesome opportunity to speak about marketing and business at Pictage's 1st Annual Partner Conference in LA and I'm headed to the airport straight from the NBC studios today to catch a flight to LA for the 2nd Annual Conference.

As you can see from the schedule , it's going to be a pretty jam-packed few days - they have me speaking not once, not twice - but THREE times this year - yikes!! In addition, there are lots of meetings, mentoring session to benefit Thirst Relief International, and other stuff planned that's not on there. Needless to say, we'll be out of the loop for a few days but leave a message or shoot us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can :)

Posted at 09:03 AM     Read More  

Live on NBC this morning at 11 AM

Phew... what an AWESOME weekend! Words do not do it justice and I'm afraid I did not bring my camera and being short on time I will not even attempt to describe how amazing (and much needed) the retreat was this weekend.

So on to the new stuff.... we're LIVE today on NBC for the final episode of Going to the Chapel on Atlanta and Company. If you're in the area check it out at 11 today!!

Posted at 08:57 AM     Read More  

Tue - July 25, 2006

Love keeps me busy

LOVE must be in the air because we're booking up quickly for this fall and all of next year!



It's a crazy-busy next few months for us (LOTS of travel as always!!!)
Here are some of the highlights:




July
28 - Miller Family Extravaganza in Atlanta, GA
29 - Thirst Relief International Benefit Party in Atlanta, GA

August
6-9 - Conway, Arkansas
12 - Wedding in Atlanta, GA
13 - NBC Wedding in GA
23-28 - Wedding in Akron/Canton, Ohio

September
1-4 - Retreat in Destin, FL
5-9 - Speaking at 2nd Annual Pictage Partner Conference (2 seminars + panel) in Los Angles, CA
15-17 - Wedding in Cleveland, Ohio

October
7-9 - Wedding in Sedona, AZ
9-? - Orange County, CA
21 - Wedding in Atlanta, GA
27-31 - Xtreme Seminar in New York, NY

November
1 - Last Day Xtreme Seminar in NYC
2-4 - PhotoPlus Expo in NYC
6-7 - 2nd Annual OSP-South in Tennessee
11-22 - Londrina, Brazil



Also, I'm REALLY excited about February and May next year. February because we're doing our 2nd big xtreme event and May because it's going to be like May this past year ... TOTALLY wedding-crazy!! It's TEN months away and we're already almost completely booked (and double-weekend-booked) for the month. I think we've gotten a total of 16 inquiries for the same weekend in May - it's a popular time for sure!

February
Xtreme Retreat in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

May
A bunch of weddings in Atlanta, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.

Posted at 08:45 PM     Read More  

Thu - July 13, 2006

Christmas in July

This time last year, I decided to make the switch from Nikon-bodied Fuji Digital to Canon.

I started with the 20D and the 24-70mm f2.8 lens and that setup has taken me through sooooo much. I'm a very firm believer in making the best of what you've got and also that it's not the equipment but the eye that makes the difference.

Case in point: I still have my first digital SLR - the Fuji S1 (yes, S1 - not S2 or S3 - the good ole boy who takes 20 seconds to save a picture). I've got some cheap glass to go along with it and it's all seen much better days. It NEVER fails though that I REALLY can rely on this equipment for some of my favorite shots still. I LOVE the color of the Fuji and will probably keep it just for that ...to use when the speed really doesn't matter.

Taken with the S1 in February 06 with a cheapo-lens:





Nonetheless, I've been slowly building up my Canon arsenal and added some new toys to the mix this week including the 5D which is AMAZING because it has a full-frame chip and is like using a film camera again!!

They arrived on Monday and it was like Christmas in July here! Also not shown are a bunch of other flash-toys including additional clips and trinkets that will allow me to do some MEGA ninja-off-camera-flash stuff :)




I also got the 85mm and 100mm macro which I absolutely LOVE. I plugged in some tasty custom-color settings and tested out the 100 Macro on the 5D for this pic of the yummy fruit I've been snacking on all week:




Can't wait to try out all the new toys in the next few weeks and in August when things get slammed again :)

Posted at 11:14 PM     Read More  

Sat - July 1, 2006

Soon-to-be in-sync after 7 Habits in LA

This past week, I was in Los Angeles attending Franklin Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People training. The funny thing is that I've had the book for over 5 years now and it never sparked enough interest over all the others in my collection to really get into it. When I walked out of class on Friday afternoon though I wondered why every school and college in the nation isn't teaching this stuff !!

There were so many AWESOME points made and lessons learned and they did a really awesome job facilitating the class so it was never a snoozer. I'm excited to get home and sync ALL of my contacts/calendars/lists/memos/notes with Outlook, all of my computers, my treo, and planning tools - for a completely mobile and synchronized solution - and that's only a small tid-bit tip that's going to make my life a lot easier. I'll see about posting more when I have my notes in front of me because there really are some awesome concepts and quotes that I took down and would love to share.



Snapshots from the lobby of the Biltmore (where I stayed this week during the training).


I was surprised how nice downtown LA is - I'd only been to the Hollywood Blvd area before and had no idea this whole other downtown area existed!!


Friday afternoon, I lounged in a park area on one of the rooftops in the warm sun and waited for 6pm to roll around. The guys at Starbucks made me a special orange slushy concoction on the house, and I wondered why anyone would ever want to live outside of California.



to be continued....

Posted at 03:22 AM     Read More  

Wed - May 31, 2006

100-a-day, unsynced, but fresh (paint)

This weekend was GRAND! We broke a liana-record of least amount of emails in any given time period and i was grateful for the time away from all of my gadgets so I could get some SERIOUS spring-organizing done. On any given day - Monday and Thursday being the worst - we get in an average of 100-160+ emails in each main account (and there are many accounts) ... and I'm a Nazi about keeping my inbox cleaned out. I have slacked! *please forgive :) ;) *



Amidst all the insanity lately, my Treo650 was blessed with a bug that left me with the only option of resetting it, loosing ALL of my emails that go through the wireless system (I use this MORE than I do outlook or Mac mail!) AND all of my phone numbers/contacts are erased from it (luckily there are backups, but still I am left un-synced and feel sooooo out of it!) Can anyone remember a time when we didn't depend so much on technology to communicate??

On a positive note, the home of lianaPHOTOGRAPHY now has a completely new layout, a few new friendly pieces of furniture, and a fresh coat of our beloved brand-colored blue-green on one wall :) :) We're saying goodbye to a lot of equipment that is still in its prime but no longer used....mainly studio lights and the like...

Sadly, the sudden halt of the email floods did not last for long.... bing, there comes another dozen. Two weekends ago I remember complaining about my trigger finger being numb only to discover it was from the mouse, not the trigger! Yikes!

I'm excited that our busy season has reached it's peak and now I'll be tumbling down trying to get caught up on everything that I've been putting aside, including email and some fun projects to watch out for.... ahhhem, caughxtreme2caugh, ahhheemmmme.... ;)

Posted at 10:35 PM     Read More