Welcome to The Wedding CEO Podcast, where we discuss all things marketing, sales, and scaling, so you can become the CEO of your life and business. I'm Alora Rachelle, and I've been a wedding photographer for over a decade, and now I'm sharing all of my secrets so you can stop sacrificing your time and make more money like a CEO.

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Welcome back to The Wedding CEO Podcast. In this episode, we're going to be diving into something that came to my mind while I was driving, because I just remember what it was like, when I finally developed systems in my business, raise my prices, was booking less weddings, but also have more money, more profits, and more time. It almost seemed too good to be true. I already had this outlined initially, but then one of my students sent me a DM, it turns out working less and making more money is a very suitable lifestyle for me. I'd like to thank The Wedding CEO. It's so true, though, I'm just chilling on a Wednesday and getting paid. Honestly, we love to see it. I just remember the feeling. 

I want to talk about today how I feel that self care can make you rich as a creative. Now, this can be two ways we could be rich in life, it could be rich in experiences, it could just be rich in rest, and it could be rich in money. So we're going to dive into it. 

Number one, I believe that when you rest you reset. I know there was a saying like back in the 90s if you ever seen the movie Clueless where he was like, Babe, you need some R&R, rest and relaxation? Honestly, when you take care of yourself, I feel like your business does better. Because the person behind the business is going to be having the energy, they're going to be recharged, and they feel rested. 

Number two, I think when you rest you create from a place of excitement. 

Number three, when you rest, your mind clears. You can finally feel and see what really matters. 

Number four, when you rest, all of a sudden you just have the energy to get the things done. 

Number five, when you rest, you're just an all around better person to be around with to work with, if you know, you know. 

What is the first thing that you do for me? As much as I can, I have to have a morning routine. I'm a millennial. Yes, I know, a morning routine. Groundbreaking. But for me, it's simple. It's very simple. It's like, I have to make my kids lunches in the morning. I get up as soon as my alarm goes off at 7:30am, I drink coffee, and I sit down for like 10 minutes. Then after I drop my kids off at school, I'll read the Bible, I'll say a quick prayer, and that's it. That's my morning routine. It's not always the same all the time. But it essentially is just one or two things that I do for myself. Before I even get to work, I ground myself in those few things, just being alone with myself. Then I'm already a better person for the rest of the day. 

Essentially, I'm saying take some time for yourself. Maybe it's just me, but I've always kind of just woke up and went straight to the computer, woke up and went straight to my emails, woke up and went straight to social media (Tiktok and Instagram) and that information that I received or what I was scrolling on is what started my day. Essentially, whatever you put into your mind, your eyes, whatever you're ingesting first thing in the morning is going to be how your day is gonna go. You have to think to yourself, what is something that I can do that doesn't involve going straight to work, or logging on social media to start my day? It could be drama, it could be memes, and it could be fun stuff. But I personally think that when you start your day off of social media on some wavelength, some of the information is out of your control. Unless you have a folder that's like memes that make me happy in the morning and you click that saved collection. Most of the reels are like complaining, at least on the side of the internet that I am because I am a parent and I have kids. A lot of the memes and reels that I see is like people are complaining about being a parent or complaining about their kids ask them for this and that. I think sarcasm is something that naturally comes to me so I love being sarcastic about things and being like, this is my life, whatever, this is what's going to be buried.  But I'm wondering if I should definitely take a different spin on that.

My word of the year is contentment. In other words, gratitude, and I'm like, is this making me feel content? Is this making me feel thankful? Probably not. So I'm learning to kind of like pull back from some things that determined my day in a negative way, or just kind of getting rid of it entirely. 

Last year, there was one of these videos where they said that if you sleep next to your phone while it's charging, it emits a lot of radioactive frequencies that basically microwave your mind. Crazy. I was freaking out about that. I would always charge my phone in my office. Then somewhere I kind of just stopped and started charging it next to me. I'm like, Oh, my mind is microwaved. It's microwave. Now I'm at a point where I'm like, you know what, though, to be able to like, wake up peacefully, and I have a sunrise alarm. Like, the sun is going, the Asian chimes are going like, maybe I could just leave it at that, and start charging my phone back in my room. Hold me accountable y'all for real. 

But all that to say, you don't need a crazy morning routine, you don't need something intense or like wake up at 5:00am and get 50 things done. I did that before and I was tired by 7:00pm. While everybody else was getting ready for dinner. I was in bed because I'd been up since 5:00am. I don't know how people do that. Once you get to 5:00pm, you're already at 12 hours of nonstop going, how can you make it 15,17, 20 hours going. That's my opinion on the 5:00am day. 

I've noticed something about me when it comes to self care is I like being alone as much as possible before I have to dedicate my entire day to my family. Solitude is just a must for me. It's a non negotiable. Even with my phone, it's always on Do Not Disturb. There are very few people on my favorites list. My parents are in one of those people. But most of the time I leave my phone in different rooms. I even triple hack them like yeah, it's on Do Not Disturb. But also for the next half an hour to an hour, nobody can get a hold of me. Taking phone breaks can also be something really beneficial to you. It could just be one of those self care things right? Not just social media breaks. But literally hours without touching your phone. Literally hours where you're not seeing what other people are doing. You're not being sold to, there's not an ad coming on the screen saying, you need this thing on Amazon that you obviously don't need because you lived your entire life without it. Me, I have been influenced so many times because something aesthetic that makes my life easier. 

Like yesterday, I was looking at one of those retractable white clean circular chargers. It was like, damn charger to get it. 

I was like, Oh my gosh, can I need this? 

He's like, No, you don't. 

I was like, Yes, I do. 

He's like, you don't even charge your phone that much during the day to even use that. 

I was like, oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, the iPhone does not die like that. I was like nevermind, and I swiped past. 

But see, that's how easy it is to influence. I don't know if it's just me, but I know us as women. I love anything that makes my space look clean and it's also functional. So I'm like, Oh, I have to buy it. I'm never going to use it. But I need it. There's some other things you can do that self care besides putting on a face mask or sitting on the couch and binging a television show or whatever. 

But there are so many other things you can do like be alone. Something I used to do in the past when I was very overwhelmed with my roster of weddings to edit. When you have a huge editing queue, what do you do? You procrastinate, go to brunch instead. You go to Target, you go to Barnes and Noble, and you do other things. But those things would actually help me clear my mind. Because I wasn't sitting at the computer just staring at the images being like, alright, and Lord, you have to do this, like let's do this. I would literally hype myself up, never do it. Eventually I outsource that. But during that time, we didn't have a choice. It's like, okay, I don't have like the income yet to do that. So I need to go outside really quick, clear my head and then come back and do the work. It works for me every single time. 

I heard about this where they say the third place, you have home and you have work. My third place was Barnes and Noble. I would just go in there, I would look at books, and I would read the back and never pick it up. But I will read the back and just kind of look at what the pics are, what everybody's reading, like some kind of escapism. For me, in order to want to do work or to get creative ideas, I need some sort of escape from the mundane. I don't want to feel like I have to do something. I don't know if it's because I'm like left handed and my brain is different. But I need all mines clear before I just dive into work. I don't know anybody that wakes up and is like, Man, oh man, I love to accomplish 10 things today and get it all done with a smile. Then I'm going to go spend some money. 

This is the plan that I have created on how to create this work life harmony business. Inside of The Wedding CEO, we teach you how to make your 100k plan, which is like how are you going to make this money? How many weddings are going to book how many portrait sessions etc. But also, where are you going to take care of yourself. Set aside all the personal dates, the people that are graduating, the people that are getting married, you know, especially if you're standing up in a wedding, or other friend's birthday parties, and all of these things. Because if you do not set that time aside, I always say this something else will take precedence. If you don't say Oh, I'm not available because of x or I'm holding this for x, the inquiry comes your way and you missed that event. If something is planned like a party or a workshop, then all of a sudden you miss that event.

While I do believe that you sacrifice a little bit of both to make the business grow, yes, you need to make time. Yes, you need to make time for business to grow, you need to take up on networking opportunities and make sure that you're staying afloat in your business. But also, like have one category dedicated to like personal data, even if it's you not working on Fridays. I would never book engagement sessions on Fridays, because Friday was my day. It was actually Mondays and Fridays. Monday, I was recovering from the wedding usually took me like two days to recover. Plus Monday, I was working on their sneak peeks, and I would deliver them on Monday or Tuesday. Then Fridays, was just a meeting, like I would do something I wanted to do. I wasn't editing, I wasn't messing with my workflow, I wasn't sending out weddings to be edited, I wasn't working on my website, like any of those things. It was just a day dedicated for myself. Which I think is where summer Fridays came from, it's like just don't work on Fridays. 

For you what is a personal day that you could take off that you already don't want to work on that day anyway, and your business won't fall apart if you take it off? I know some people that say Wednesdays are hard, because it's hump day, take Wednesday off and work on Friday. But I personally just think that we need to really value our time, we need to take better care of ourselves. Because when we fall out the ship sinks, okay?

We teach three main pillars that support you, as a CEO to have this happy and sustainable business. You have to ask yourself these questions, How hard are you working? Are you truly living? Are you happy? Then we base our goals on those three main foundations. 

For example, my main personal goal is to have 3 to 4 vacations a year. I already booked three, which makes me so happy. So that I changed it from 3 to 4, because you can never have too many vacations, right? But for some, that's the bare minimum. For me, it was never the standard to have a personal vacation, where I wasn't bringing my laptop for work, where I wasn't checking up on emails, where I wasn't editing this, editing that, even doing podcasts interviews, I always was working. You can get so caught up in the hustle phase of your business where you're really trying to bring it off the ground and you're like, Okay, well, I need to do whatever it takes to get this done. It's just me, and I'm trying to bring in the income, I need to make sure I'm marketing, creating content, but then you're gonna get to a place where the inquiries are coming in steadily. But your schedule is not sustainable. You don't have working hours. You work way more than your nine to five and you feel like you're always on the edge of burnout, and you're resentful, you're angry, and you're bitter. Then, they're like, Well, I don't know anything else. Because I started my business hustling, I don't know how to like pull back, right. So you need to make sure you have non-negotiables in your life and business. That's where the harmony pieces right? Away from your work, away from your phone, your laptop. 

Harmony for me is connection. Whether it's my family, my friends, whoever it is you want to spend time with, whether it's your pet, I don't care, whatever brings you joy, make time for that piece. Don't just make time for self care, and then work, self care and work. Like we are humans. Humans need connection. Humans need a community. I don't know anybody in the world that's like, yeah, I never need anybody in my life. I can just be alone and I'm happy with that. Are you happy, though? Because that's not how we were wired. Human beings need to be around other people. When a mom has a kid, they always say it takes a village, right? Because you need other people. You always have and always will be. That's a hill to die on. 

When you think about self care and how it can make you rich, as a creative, I want to really think from the perspective of like, how can it make you rich in life? How can you take a day off and take care of yourself? Then while you're taking time off for yourself, those ideas are going to come. I have had the best ideas while I was driving to a place that made me happy. Whether that was like getting donuts, or going to crumble, or whatever the case was. I was so happy because I was just listening to music. I'm the kind of person, I need to have the sun on my face for it to be a good day. I don't know about you, but I just I love the sun. The sun gives me my energy. It's my vitamin D. It's my best friend. So usually in the summer, I feel like all my creative ideas just come and they flow and it's so exciting. I'm going to the beach, and I'm doing this and that. For some of you that don't live in the Midwest, and you always have the sun and the beach, man, you are so lucky. Just, oh my gosh, just know that I wish I was you. But the rest of us that have like anywhere from 4 to 6 months of winter, spring, and summer. It's my sacred seasons. 

So anyway, all that to say is make sure that you're taking time for yourself, make sure you develop some kind of business schedule where it's like I won't work more than x amount of hours a week. For me, I was working 10 hours a week at the peak of my business. It felt really good because my systems are automated. The images being outsourced alone saved me like 30 hours of wedding. I mean, I would spend about 5 hours calling. I had to take breaks. Because if you stare at 5,000 images forever, your eyes start twitching and then things get blurry. So you gotta take breaks, and you gotta take a lunch. Then the next day, you'll try to conquer it. Then you have to categorize all the images, or at least, this is what I did in Lightroom. I would categorize getting ready, first look, ceremony, and all those other things, and that would take forever. Then I would edit them in sections, it just took so long, so long. Just outsource it. Like roll it into your pricing. If you can take away anything from this episode, self care could just be outsourcing your wedding images. 

I'm just gonna leave you on a good note. Make sure to prioritize self care this year. It's February, it's not too late. We still have so many months in the year, we're only two months in. Remember, hustle and burnout is so 2019. 

If you're excited to dive into all the things so that you can take time for self care, raise your prices, relaunch your business, make your 100k plan, all those things, join us for our free live on February 22, 2024 at 12:00pm, Eastern Time. The link should be in the show notes. If you're on Instagram, just reply class, and my bot will send you the link. 

I will see you inside and we're gonna talk about all of the things and then you'll be extended the opportunity to work with me inside of The Wedding CEO, where we're going to literally teach you all these things. You're going to be hearing a couple of case studies for my students. It's been crazy. I just love this program. I love teaching wedding photographers, because I know so many of them quit because of burnout. So many of them quit because some people can't get past 50k. Some people like, I'm so close to 100k but it's so unsustainable. I want to just throw in the towel. You guys come in this masterclass. I'm going to tell you all my secrets I'm gonna walk you through my journey if you're tired to hear my burnout journey, I'm sorry. That's what makes me, me. I will see you in the master class on February 22nd.

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Wait, don't go yet. If you loved today's episode, I would love if you took five seconds to leave a rating and a five star review. If you do send me a DM so I can give you a virtual hug and of course a shout out. Now, if you're ready to grow your photography business, I invite you to join the waitlist for The Wedding CEO.

The Wedding CEO is my signature program for wedding photographers who are ready to make 100k with half of their weekends free. You're ready to finally book higher ticket weddings. You can spend your time freely, whether it's creating more income strings, being present with family and friends or just working less like a CEO is supposed. Join the wait list for when we open the doors on February 22nd, 2024.

If you've seen my Instagram, then you'll know we have students making five figure months, launching their dream brands, doubling their prices, taking vacations, and more. Which are lifetime skills that you can take with you even if you decide to leave the industry.

Link in the show notes. I'll see you inside.