Many photographers focus on the photography side of their business and don’t prioritize things like putting systems into place or building an email list from the beginning. This results in photographers treating their business as more of a side gig. 

Today, I’m talking with Noella Andres, former photographer turned Online Business Manager for photographers, and she wants you to start treating your business like a business, and she has great advice for how to do just that.

She’s sharing tangible ways to set up systems that will give you more freedom and flexibility, how to stay consistent with those systems, important marketing approaches (that you may be avoiding), and why a business coach can help you not only focus on your goals but execute them, too.

Your photography business is just that—a business. Having a business plan, revisiting it, building an email list … these examples and more from this episode will, I hope, help you to be open to building the foundational pieces that will set you up for your version of success.

What’s in this episode:

• [02:27] Noella’s passion for helping photographers with their back end business 
• [07:03] Noelle’s favorite tools for staying organized in business and her advice for staying consistent with systems
• [13:26] How Noella helps her clients overcome tricky marketing challenges and how to take advantage of an overlooked marketing tool: the email list!
• [17:26] How Noella’s definition of success has changed post burnout, her advice on setting goals, and why you might want to consider investing in a business coach
• [28:17] Why it’s okay to pivot in your business, and how to treat your business like a business, not a side gig, whether you’re just starting out or years in

Tune in to this episode with Noella Andres to get inspiration for building systems and automation that bring flexibility to your business!

SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher

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Resources Mentioned

Toggl

HoneyBook

ClickUp

Meet Noella

Noella has successfully run two photography businesses but after her children headed off to school, she decided it was time to pivot her career so that she could be available more for her family. Staying true to her photography roots, she launched an Online Business Manager brand that allowed her to help other photographers tackle their back end business. She has now helped dozens of photographers launch, grow, and scale their photography business through her OBM service, providing marketing strategies and 1:1 mentorship.

Her passion and biggest achievement is helping photographers find freedom. She tackles the to-do list so that they can be the visionary in their own brand. She has led many online classes through Emotional Storytelling, Evolve Workshops, Grove Photographer and in person at Click Away.

Connect with Noella

Noella’s website

Follow Noella on Instagram

Follow Well Curated Academy on Facebook

Did this episode with Noella Andres inspire you to get your systems and automations in place? Check out this episode from Annemie Tonken that offers you even more insight on finding alignment in your business!

Transcript

[00:00:00] Noella Andres Since burning out, my definition has completely changed. Before, if you had asked me, success would have been like a pile of clients, a pile of money. It now means having the time to be successful in other areas of my life. Being a successful wife, being a successful mom, having great friendships, having the time to bake or read or do whatever it is I want. So for me, that’s 100%. What success means is having the systems in my business that allowed me to walk away and and take part in the other passions that I have. Yeah, I mean, money’s great, but at the end of the day, time is is you can’t get it back. Money I’ll always make back. 

[00:00:41] Lisa DiGeso Welcome to the Art and Soul Show where we dive into heart opening chats on photography, business, life and that messy in between. I’m your host, Lisa DiGeso, a mom, a photographer and entrepreneur, and I’ll be sharing honest conversations and advice for photographers with insight on mindset, entrepreneurship and creativity. The goal of this podcast is for you to be able to gain insights and strategies that will get you real results. Because let’s face it, having a photography business can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. This is the place you can go when you need a boost of encouragement, a kick in the pants and inspiration to pick up your camera. This is the art and soul show. Hello, my beautiful friends. Welcome back to the show today. I’m super excited to dive in with Noella Andres. She has run two successful photography businesses, but after her children started school, she decided it was time to pivot her career so that she could be more available for her family. Staying true to her photography roots, she launched an online business manager brand that allowed her to help other photographers tackle their back end businesses. She now helps photographers launch, grow and scale their photography businesses through her coaching, providing marketing strategies and 1 to 1 mentorship. Welcome, Noella. 

[00:02:00] Noella Andres Hello. I’m so happy to be here. 

[00:02:03] Lisa DiGeso I’m so happy to have you. 

[00:02:05] Noella Andres I just like I love you and I adore you. And I’ve been stalking you forever, so I’m super excited. 

[00:02:10] Lisa DiGeso Well, we just discovered before we even started recording that we’re both Canadians, so we were pretty pumped. And we just found out Noella actually vacations in my area, which is pretty cool. 

[00:02:20] Noella Andres Yes, I wish I would have known earlier. I totally would have went knocking on your door. 

[00:02:23] Lisa DiGeso Seriously. So tell us really who you are and what you’re passionate about. 

[00:02:27] Noella Andres Well, like you said, my name is Noella. I am mom. I have two kids. They’re both kind of teenagers, 12 and 15. I have ten chickens. Two cats and a dog. Was a photographer, like you said, for a long time. I’d say like between eight and ten years. I was doing wedding photography, which was a very fantastic option for me when my kids were little and I could stay at home with them Monday to Friday during the day and then, you know, do my thing evenings and weekends. But soon as they went to school, I never saw my kids, which I feel like is a problem a lot of photographers have and don’t necessarily talk about as women. So I had to kind of pivot and find something that I could do that allowed me to stay home. I got really lucky and connected with this beautiful photographer out of Paris who filled my schedule up really quick. And so I kind of started helping her with all her backend work, doing blogging and social media and things like that. So that’s kind of work related. But on another scale, I just built a home on an acreage trying to dip my fingers into homesteading, which is why I have the chickens. Oh yeah. So we got ten chickens last year and it’s been an adventure and I’m kind of still obsessed with them. But yeah, really passionate about learning more about homesteading and like canning and gardening. I want to, I want may have a dream of opening a flower farm. So we’ll see how that goes. But that’s right. Now what I’m really excited about. 

[00:03:42] Lisa DiGeso I love it. My sister has chickens. So have you seen like the arms that you can get to put on the chicken? 

[00:03:49] Noella Andres Well, my husband just sent me a picture of it because I have a branding session of me coming up next week, and I’m like, really crazy about my chickens lately. So everybody’s sending me all these props and things that I got, like, little, like, fedoras for my chickens. I’m going to bring one into the house for the photo shoot. But yes, my husband sent me the arms. 

[00:04:07] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Have you seen the ones where they have, like, the little baby chicks and they make skirts out of. Oh, like what I see is. 

[00:04:15] Noella Andres What I need to post once about my chickens. And now I’m getting all the chicken meme sent to me. I love it, though, because I’m trying. I’m trying to. With the chicken now and now with all the cost of eggs and all those memes, I’m like, you guys. Suckers. Like, I’m sitting in here with my buckets of eggs. It’s great. 

[00:04:30] Lisa DiGeso So I read recently that you have moved away from Hustle Culture, and I have really as well. So in what ways have you figured out how to work smarter and not harder? And what advice do you have for those that are still struggling on that hamster wheel? 

[00:04:44] Noella Andres Oh, good question. Because, yes, like I did, I burnt out really, really bad in 2018. Actually, I had it. I had a marketing agency. I had several staff members, like between ten and 12, dozens of clients, and everything on the outside looked really great, but obviously on the inside I was slowly dying a slow death. But I figured, you know, I learned a lot from that experience. And working smarter, not harder is definitely one of them. So I think my biggest takeaways from that was having systems in place. And I think as creatives generally, we do not have a lot of really great systems in place, generally kind of go with the flow, maybe a little stereotype there, but I think systems for like culling, file management, backing images up, where you’re storing certain things in your images, having automations. Again, something I don’t. There’s so many systems right now that can automate things, you know, marketing, marketing strategy, there’s automations we could do for that. Our CRMs like Honey Book or Dubsado or whatever it is we use. I was really impressed with your automations with the podcast that you have going out. Another one is just time chunking. I’m like the queen of Time chunking. My phone is on do not disturb. I don’t. All my notifications are off when I’m in my little chunk, my little zone. So those are kind of the top threes like systems, automation, and time chunking. But also the biggest takeaway for me was that knowing my why, why I’m even doing this, and I think a lot of when I ask people, when I ask my clients, what is your why? Often they’ll give me kind of a generic response like, Well, I want to make money or I want to help families have beautiful photos. And I kind of turn around and I say, Well, what’s your personal life like? That’s your business. Why? But why are you in this business? And understanding and knowing that really helped me. So for me, I started my business literally because I wanted more flexibility and I wanted more freedom in my life. And when I started getting more and more, more and more busy and I was letting my clients run my life, I really had to check in with myself. And why? Why am I doing this? It’s actually producing the opposite result of why. So I think really digging deep and figuring out why, why, why are you personally in this industry? And money is not the answer. Like money is people we want to say we want to you know, we want a six figure basis. But that’s not really why you’re doing this. 

[00:07:03] Lisa DiGeso No. Not at all. And for me, it’s funny because I had done that and I was like, Honestly, I just want some recognition. I want to be seen. I want to feel like seen. Yeah. And that was like the entire reason I started my business and probably the reason why I ran myself ragged for years and like, and finally when I was like, okay, like, maybe is like, is what you’re doing actually working? Are you making yourself sick, trying to be seen, Right. 

[00:07:27] Noella Andres Yeah. 

[00:07:28] Lisa DiGeso And so, yeah, like you got to question yourself and say, is this actually worth worth with? For me, it wasn’t. So yeah, I changed things. 

[00:07:37] Noella Andres I totally I closed my entire agency down. I said goodbye to some of the most amazing clients I’ve ever worked with, but at the end of the day, I wasn’t showing up for them and I wasn’t showing up for my family. And I was definitely doing myself a disservice. 

[00:07:49] Lisa DiGeso Do you do batching at all? Like. 

[00:07:51] Noella Andres Like everything. Yeah. So when I do my time chunks, everything is batched. It makes everything so much easier. And I and I feel like when you have even I wish I could show you my calendar right now, but I time chunk and I color block and I even use timers for everything. Yeah, I’m a little neurotic about it, about productivity. 

[00:08:11] Lisa DiGeso I love it. I love it. You have to be like you have to be. Because I think I find I probably go on the opposite where I give myself too big of a container with no constraints. And when I don’t have constraints, I’m completely aimless. 

[00:08:24] Noella Andres Well, yeah, you spiral. I feel the same way. Like I just sit at my desk and I spiral. I’m like, Well, I have so much to do. What do I do? And then I get nothing done. Yeah. So when I’m time chunking, I actually, like, put in my calendar what I’m doing during that chunk specifically, like if it’s what client I’m working on, if it’s group coaching prep, if it’s admin or email or bookkeeping, I chunk it all. 

[00:08:44] Lisa DiGeso I love it. What we’ve been doing it for the last few years as we batch make my son’s lunches on Sunday. And so like, everything is pretty much made for the entire week except for like the sandwich that he makes before, like fresh day. And so everything like it’s all he takes in like 2 minutes, he’s 13 more and it’s all done. And then you just grabs the bag and, like, throws it in. 

[00:09:02] Noella Andres Yeah. You know, it’s funny. I batched. I like, plan my whole business, like my professional life, but I really should start doing that personally because I do. Yeah. Have kids. That would be useful. 

[00:09:12] Lisa DiGeso It’s so handy. And then it just makes things easier. And even like we’ve been doing it for meal prep, it’s like, I’ll like marinate chickens and freeze them and then just pull it out in the morning. And I’m like, I got marinade chicken for the air fryer. So dinner’s ready made. Yeah. So anywhere I can batch. 

[00:09:25] Noella Andres I know that I need to do that in my personal life. I’m really great at it in my my business life, but not personal. 

[00:09:31] Lisa DiGeso And I’m the opposite. 

[00:09:33] Lisa DiGeso I’m going to work on my business. 

[00:09:36] Lisa DiGeso So what are your favorite tools for staying organized in business? 

[00:09:40] Noella Andres Calendar. I love my Google like Google Drive. Google Calendar. Google is like my life right now, but I also I’m going to say one that I bet you not a lot of people would think of, but I used a toggle. It’s a time tracking program and I use it to track everything that I’m doing so that when I’m planning ahead, I know. Okay, well, it takes me 2 hours to do these two blog posts. I also tell my clients to use toggl to because even when they’re coming up with pricing for packaging, I’m like, Well, how long did it take you with that last client from start to finish? And then you can kind of figure out your cost of doing business anyways. So toggl is something I use every day. I also use click up, which is just like a project management system. There’s other ones like Asana. I’ve been using click up lately though, and I really do like it. I can keep track of all my tasks and even actually have a time tracking program like portion kind of built into that. Honeybook. I know there’s other ones, but I use honey book. I love honey book. I think back of when I was like a full time wedding photographer and honey book didn’t exist and I was writing out my invoices in word. And sending them. So those are like the three, three or four main tools like Honeybook, Google toggl and click up. Yeah, I use those several times a day. 

[00:10:50] Noella Andres I love that. It’s so incredible because I remember when I first got started, like, I really like it was paper. Everything. Paper. Like it was like all my contracts were paper. Like the. My calendar, everything. Like if I lost my paper calendar, I was screwed. 

[00:11:03] Noella Andres I know. 

[00:11:05] Lisa DiGeso And it happened because I was not organized. So. 

[00:11:08] Noella Andres And I think about it. I’m like, as as business owners now, we’re really spoiled. Like, thinking back, I actually was just filing my 2021, like, files, tax files, financial stuff, and saw like 2013 and 2014 files, and they were like so thick because it was like every single thing was printed. I was like, shred, shred, shred. Yes. 

[00:11:28] Lisa DiGeso It’s crazy. I love it. Now, what would you say is key to staying on track and achieving what you want for your business? Because it is so easy to start, But staying consistent with your systems can be really tricky. 

[00:11:41] Noella Andres Yeah, it is very tricky. So I mean, again, once you burn out, you really realize quickly how these systems can improve your life. So I think you kind of have to hit rock bottom to really want to be consistent. Yeah, but I, I mean, so for me to stay on track, what I do every year is I actually plan out my entire year. I have these again, I wish I could show you, but I have these like giant calendar like by the month. So, like, huge like it takes up my entire wall If I put the whole year up and I plan as far as in advance and then I break everything down into smaller tasks. And I think that that helps me, you know, rather than thinking like, Oh, I want to plan this thing eight months from now, if it’s broken down into smaller pieces and kind of divvied out throughout the year, it makes it a lot easier. But also, I only do three things a day. I mean, if I get more done, great. But I, I know myself enough to know that if I don’t accomplish what I set out for that day, I get really disappointed and kind of like hard on myself. So every day I put three things on my to do list. That’s it. And if I get done more, great. But then I feel like I’ve accomplished it and I can stay on track a little easier if it the expectations are low. 

[00:12:50] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I love that. I love that you It’s funny that you mention that because I just recently did my whole year. So I have all these calendars in my office and then I put Post-its when we’re going to have our vacations and like Post-its on there when because I try to plan my fun first and then I’m like, and then I plan my work around after that. But what I found fascinating is when you look at it, you realize how little time we have in a year. 

[00:13:15] Noella Andres Yes, I know. 

[00:13:16] Lisa DiGeso Right? It was like shocking. 

[00:13:19] Noella Andres And that’s why I feel it’s so important to plan in advance, because if you don’t, it sneaks up on you so quickly. 

[00:13:24] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:13:25] Noella Andres Yeah. 

[00:13:26] Lisa DiGeso Love it. So what would you say is the biggest marketing challenge you see for your clients, and how do you help them get over it? 

[00:13:33] Noella Andres That’s a good question and I really have a lot of answers to that one. But I think speaking to photographers in particular, one of the biggest challenges is it’s extremely overwhelming and they don’t do it. Also, photographers, they don’t treat their business like a business either. And so I find what happens is a lot of photographers that I’ve seen in the past is they treat their marketing like a portfolio rather than as a lead generator. They post a pretty photo of this kid on a beach and they talk. The caption is talking about how it was warm out and the kid was so well behaved in the mom’s hair was beautiful and the sun was setting. Or they post a caption that’s like live love, laughter or something like that. So they treat their marketing like a portfolio rather than really thinking of it as a way of bringing in clients. So for me, I always ask my clients, my marketing clients, how is that serving future clients? How is that serving your future potential business? Is that caption providing value to people looking at you, wanting to book, or are you using your marketing as a way of showcasing your work? Or When I see is sneak peeks, right? Sneak peeks are for the client that you just shot. They’re not actually serving potential clients. Potential clients don’t really care about sneak peeks. It’s not providing anything valuable to them. So I always tell my clients to pay attention to the questions they get. So say, for example, the feedback you’re getting from potential clients is, I don’t know what to wear, or I’m worried that my kids are going to be too much trouble for you. Use those questions as a way of serving those potential clients in your strategy. So address that. Hey you, are you worried about your kid not behaving on the beach? Don’t worry. I love kids and I come with bubbles in my back pocket. And yes, I think that’s the biggest challenge is kind of trying to switch the mindset of using marketing as just a portfolio piece and instead really challenging them to think about what the captions can say. And that would really convince somebody that’s the photographer for me in the captions, not just by looking at the picture. 

[00:15:34] Lisa DiGeso So right. So you see it as like a sales and education tool versus just like a pretty picture. 

[00:15:39] Noella Andres Yeah. And I’m. That’s at the root of marketing. That’s what it is, right? We’re all just trying to get more clients. And I think you can do it, you know, And don’t you don’t. Sales pitch after sales pitch. And for me, the golden rule is to serve oversell, but use it as a way of serving them, providing valuable education, calming their nerves, telling them about how great of an experience that they’re going to have, not talking about the great experience your past client had. 

[00:16:04] Lisa DiGeso Right. 

[00:16:05] Noella Andres And then the other marketing challenges. Photographers don’t like email marketing lists. So that’s my big that’s like my biggest. 

[00:16:12] Lisa DiGeso Girl I know I know. 

[00:16:15] Noella Andres So that I mean, I’m I could go on and on about email marketing, but I feel like when photographers start their business, the first thing they do is start an Instagram account and a Facebook page missing huge potential with email marketing. 

[00:16:28] Lisa DiGeso Well, because we started our photography business or our photography education platform back in 2012 and this was like kind of the Wild West of social media, right? But we all have always had the belief of if Facebook and Instagram and all of these platforms went down, your list is gold. Yeah, you need that information. 

[00:16:50] Noella Andres People don’t realize that, that you’re they’re basically building their business on someone else’s platform. And that’s just crazy to me. No other business would do that. Yeah, but yeah. And so I say start your email list like day one. I always catch people, photographers, ten years after they started the business. And I’m like, all the amount of subscribers you could have and yeah. 

[00:17:09] Lisa DiGeso And even just capturing the leads that come through on your website and funneling them that into like some it’s like a once a month or once every six months email just something where you’re capturing nurture, right? 

[00:17:20] Noella Andres Yeah, You have to nurture those relationships from the beginning and I don’t I’m not comfortable doing that on someone else’s land. 

[00:17:26] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Yeah, 100%. All right. So I believe it’s so important for us to discover our own definition of success, because when we don’t know where we’re going, how do we know that we’re going to get there? So I have to ask you, what is your definition of success and what does it mean to you? 

[00:17:42] Noella Andres It’s a good question. Since burning out, my definition has completely changed. Before, if you had asked me, success would have been like a pile of clients, a pile of money. It now means having the time to be successful in other areas of my life. Being a successful wife, being a successful mom, having great friendships, having the time to bake or read or do whatever it is I want. So for me, that’s 100%. What success means is having the systems in my business that allow me to walk away and and take part in the other passions that I have. Yeah, I mean, money is great, but at the end of the day, time is, is you can’t get it back. Money I’ll always make back. 

[00:18:19] Lisa DiGeso Yep. I love that. That’s a good answer. I feel the same way. I went through the whole burnout at one point. It was like being seen and being recognized was like my litmus of success. And then I, you know, I had a really good conversation with a family friend who’s now since passed, and it was all about time, you know, And it truly is like, that’s one thing we don’t get back. 

[00:18:40] Noella Andres Yeah, it’s unfortunate. And I mean, that is part of the reason why I do what I do in my business is it’s unfortunate that a lot of us need to burn out to learn these lessons, but it is avoidable. You can learn in other ways. And that’s why I do my best to try and teach, you know, systems and automations and everything I can possible. 

[00:18:57] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. 

[00:18:57] Noella Andres For a business to be successful without burning out. 

[00:19:01] Lisa DiGeso I love it. So I think so many photographers are really hesitant to invest in a business coach. So can you share how you help your clients and why having a coach can help you reach your goals so much faster? 

[00:19:14] Noella Andres Yeah, so there’s I mean, there’s so many different methods of coaching and so many different types of of coaches. The type of coaching that I do is very action based. So I’m not like mindset coach. I don’t talk about the, the fluffy stuff. So to say I’m very action based in that I look at my clients goals, whether they’re long term or their short term, and I help my clients break them down into smaller chunks and create very specific plans. So like step one, step two, this is how you’re going to do it. If you follow this formula, this ABC is going to happen or X, Y, Z. So I, I think photographers feel like they’re not going to get something. I think their biggest fear is that they’re not going to get something out of it. And so for me, it’s really like I the way that I do it is really learn what they want to get out of it, and then I just help them create the path. So even when we’re not together, even after our time is done, they still have the systems in the past in place to reach the goals. Even once they’re done paying my invoice at the end of the month, I really want to help them kind of understand the steps and also figure out what it is that’s in their way of reaching those, taking those steps. So often they kind of know more or less what they have to do. Like a lot of the information is, well, everything is available online right now. You can Google like, how do I do this? And it’s available, but I think I really help to break the steps down and help them understand because there’s a lot of big terms in the marketing world like sales funnel. No one knows what a sales funnel is. half the people don’t even know what email marketing is. So I think I think really helping them understand each step along the way and creating that path for them is how I do it. And I think just really telling them that it’s action based and that it’s really based on their goals really helps to break through the hesitation. But it is scary. Coaches are often a lot of money and you don’t know what you’re getting. And I think you really have to understand what type of coach you’re working with and if they’re the right right one for you. Like, like I said, I’m action based. I’m not teaching you about money mindset or something like that. 

[00:21:13] Lisa DiGeso Now, what would you do if you had, say, a new client who was not even sure of their goals yet? Like, where would they start? 

[00:21:21] Noella Andres Yeah, well, I mean, I think again, going back to the very roots of it, what is your why and where are you going? So mission statements and vision statements, that’s another thing that I find a lot of photographers don’t have. So for me, the very if somebody doesn’t know what their goals are, we go all the way right back down to creating a business plan for them, which again, is something that photographers do not have. They do not have a business plan. Photographers don’t often treat their business like a business. And so that’s the very root of it, is let’s go back down, create a business plan, let’s figure out what type of clients you want to work with. Who are your competitors? What is your mission statement, what is your why, and what is your vision statement? Once you know what your vision statement is, once you kind of know what you want to achieve in one year or five years, then we can be like, okay, well, to get there, these are maybe some goals that we need to put into place. And then how do we break it down even further from there? Really big picture. It’s the big picture all the way down to like tiny little tasks as far as put this email in place. Like, it can be very specific tasks, but I think funneling it down is important. 

[00:22:18] Lisa DiGeso I think what’s like also, I don’t think just when you do your business plan, once it’s one and done, like how often should you be like going back in and revisiting it, revisiting it? 

[00:22:28] Noella Andres I mean, I revisit mine once a year because it gets constantly changing. And also my strengths, my weaknesses, my, you know, it all changes. It’s all in flux. And that’s part of when I work through businesses plan, business plan, just kind of figuring out like your strengths or weakness opportunities. But you know, your swot, it’s one word I like to throw around that confuses people or your USP. What is your unique selling proposition? And it all changes. It changes regularly. So I definitely think doing your your business plan once a year. 

[00:22:56] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I know because it’s funny because like I honestly with my photography business, I probably haven’t done a business plan for it in like at least five years. 

[00:23:03] Noella Andres I mean, it’s great that you even did one because I meet very few photographers who have one in place. Yeah, which is interesting because a photographer, we we treat our photography business very poorly. Like most photographers, we don’t treat it like a real business and we want to be seen as a real business, but we really need to go back to the roots and set up these systems and the business plan and everything like that. 

[00:23:27] Lisa DiGeso It’s so true. I love that. So you ready for our Lightning round? 

[00:23:32] Noella Andres Okay. Yeah. 

[00:23:34] Lisa DiGeso Coffee or tea? 

[00:23:35] Noella Andres Coffee, 100%. 

[00:23:36] Lisa DiGeso Last thing you did for yourself as an indulgence. 

[00:23:39] Noella Andres I bought a Twix bar and I ate it without sharing it. 

[00:23:43] Lisa DiGeso Oh, yeah. 

[00:23:45] Noella Andres I’m so proud of myself. 

[00:23:46] Lisa DiGeso Morning person or night owl. 

[00:23:49] Noella Andres Morning. I get up every day around 530. I know. I’m like, I’m in bed by 930. I’m like an old lady. 

[00:23:55] Lisa DiGeso Love it. I’m trying. I’m trying to train myself to be just, like, somewhere in between. 

[00:24:01] Noella Andres Yeah, like somewhere in five. Seems a little excessive. I don’t suggest. 

[00:24:05] Lisa DiGeso What did you want to be when you grew up? 

[00:24:08] Noella Andres A marine biologist, which I can’t swim, actually. So very ironic. 

[00:24:12] Lisa DiGeso Did you grow up in Manitoba too? 

[00:24:14] Noella Andres I grew up. Yeah. I’m. I’m actually surrounded by lakes. Manitoba has got lakes everywhere. I can’t swim. And I was determined to to move to Vancouver and be a marine biologist. So was determined. 

[00:24:24] Lisa DiGeso Which Is funny because I actually took in grade 12 marine biology career prep and I and I did not want to be a marine biologist. So I was the just the only option that I thought was available to me. 

[00:24:36] Noella Andres You know, I think I watched Free Willy a lot when I was a kid. So I think that’s where that is. 

[00:24:43] Lisa DiGeso I love that, what is your go to karaoke jam or that song you sing in the car when no one’s listening? 

[00:24:49] Noella Andres Mariah Carey Fantasy. I don’t know. I always I’m like a nineties kid. I don’t like. That was my jam. 

[00:24:55] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. What three things do you want to be remembered for? 

[00:24:58] Noella Andres Being a good cook. So I, you know, I remember my growing up, my dad spending a lot of time in the kitchen and I just kind of like, you know, the smells and the sights and I want my kids to remember me being in the kitchen, which sounds so like dated, but whatever, working hard, you know, I make sure that they see me work. I don’t try and work and hide it. I want them to see me working, but not overworking, of course, and good gardening. Gardening. I want them to think of like the stuff that I made, you know, like, yeah, I, you know, I think of again, growing up, it’s like you remember your grandma’s delicious soup and, you know, you remember spending time in the dirt and that’s what I want. I want that. 

[00:25:35] Lisa DiGeso I love that. So what do you like to cook the most? 

[00:25:38] Noella Andres Sour dough. Anything sourdough. I’m really into it. 

[00:25:41] Lisa DiGeso You’re like the second person in two days that’s been talking to me about sourdough. 

[00:25:45] Noella Andres Yeah, I’ve been doing it since before it became cool to do, but I love it because it’s slow. Like you have to have everything right. It’s a slow fermentation. It’s not a rushed process. I like the whole, like, experience of it, right? 

[00:25:58] Lisa DiGeso So is it you’re still your starter? Does your starter have a name? 

[00:26:01] Noella Andres A Julie Yeah, I don’t know why, but that’s just what it is. 

[00:26:03] Lisa DiGeso I love it. So is Julie older than COVID? 

[00:26:07] Noella Andres Oh, hundred percent of that for sure older than COVID and I make everything with it. I just did Sourdough Pop Tarts for my kids bake sale and they were like the first to sell out. 

[00:26:17] Lisa DiGeso And I gotta try it. I’ve been gluten free for about eight years, so I would loved you figure out how to do, like a gluten free sour dough. 

[00:26:24] Noella Andres No, You know, most of our dough, though, does not have a lot of gluten because the fermentation process eats the gluten. Yeah, a lot of people can have it. 

[00:26:32] Lisa DiGeso Know. Interesting. I will, because I’m not celiac. I just like I’ve said, you should avoid it. I’ll come. 

[00:26:37] Noella Andres Out and I’ll make you bread and. 

[00:26:38] Lisa DiGeso I love it. Yes. So what’s for dinner tonight? 

[00:26:42] Noella Andres Oh, Mexican steak. Like doing some steak bowls, you know, with everything in the bowl. So good. 

[00:26:48] Lisa DiGeso Favorite guilty or not guilty Pleasure. 

[00:26:51] Noella Andres Books. So I. I have a I buy a lot of books, but I don’t read them, which makes them guilty. 

[00:26:58] Lisa DiGeso same. It’s two it’s two hobbies one is a buying book a hobby and one is a reading book hobby. I don’t see my hobby. 

[00:27:03] Noella Andres Yeah, I buy, but I read. 

[00:27:05] Lisa DiGeso I have the same hobby. It’s a it’s now called a collection. 

[00:27:08] Noella Andres There you go. Yeah. There you go. That’s for sure mine. 

[00:27:12] Lisa DiGeso well, I’m inquisitive about food today. So what’s your favorite comfort food? 

[00:27:16] Noella Andres Mashed potatoes. Lots of butter. Yeah. 

[00:27:19] Lisa DiGeso Yeah. Where do you feel most centered and happy? 

[00:27:23] Noella Andres You might know of this place, but Tofino my favorite. Like I. We go there. Before COVID, we were going every year for, like, six weeks. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s just like the perfect mix of, like, the ocean, the sand. There’s like, deep forest there and there’s just, like, good vibes all around. I love it there. 

[00:27:39] Lisa DiGeso I love it. Well, Tofino is on for listeners that don’t know where it is. It’s on the West Coast, on the on Vancouver Island. And that’s actually where I got engaged and where I had my honeymoon. Oh. 

[00:27:51] Noella Andres It’s just magical. It’s like the furthest west you can go, you know? And it’s just it’s just beautiful there. And secluded. 

[00:27:56] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I love it, too. What are you most grateful for in this season of life? 

[00:28:01] Noella Andres You know, with all the media scaring me and making me worry about inflation and the egg shortages and the meat shortage. I’m very grateful that we now live on an acreage and I can just like grow my stuff. So that’s definitely like, you know, as for getting out of winter and getting into spring, I’m getting excited for gardening season. 

[00:28:17] Lisa DiGeso What has been the best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given? 

[00:28:20] Noella Andres It’s okay to pivot, so I feel like we’re really in I don’t know if it’s my parents generation, but I feel like I’ve really been fed, you know, that you have to like, do this job and stick it, stick with stick it out like, you know, work hard and stick it out for the rest your life. And I had a business coach, actually, ironically, my first client, who was a photographer and turned into a business coach, but she really encouraged me that, you know, like if you don’t love it or if it’s not a hell yeah, it’s a hell no. 

[00:28:46] Noella Andres And yeah. 

[00:28:47] Noella Andres It’s okay to pivot. And I really had to, especially after my burnout, really had to give myself permission to pivot when it’s necessary. 

[00:28:55] Lisa DiGeso Permission to pivot. I love that. What advice do you have for someone just starting out in their photography career? 

[00:29:01] Noella Andres Treat it like a business. I think I’d say start an email list right from the very beginning and also put a solid business plan in place and it’s okay to pivot. I think those are kind of like the three main things I wish someone told me when I was first starting out and also really get to know who your ideal client is because a lot of photographers spend a lot of time marketing to the wrong people, working with people they know they should be working with or they get those bad vibes from. So just really, really understanding who you want to work with and the type of people and, and really spending your time on those ones, even showcasing that kind of work on your website. And I think often when I tell people to know who their ideal client is, they’re like, Well, how do I how do I you know, because I my advice is always to showcase that work. You know, show show your ideal clients on your website, in your Instagram. And if you don’t already work with those people, start a style shoot, do, do whatever it is you got to do to showcase that work and work with those people. Because in the end, it’s just your life will be so much easier. 

[00:29:59] Lisa DiGeso She’s here. I love that. That’s good advice. So where can our listeners learn more from you? 

[00:30:03] Noella Andres Best spot is my website. My Instagram currently has chicken photos, NoellaAndres.com and then join one of my email lists because I do send out a lot of emails that kind of get to know me and I provide a lot of like good business value in my emails. 

[00:30:18] Lisa DiGeso So I love to end my interviews just with this last question and it is what are you currently curious about or artistically curious about? 

[00:30:27] Noella Andres AI. So yes, I’m just curious to see where it takes the photography industry, because I know I remember when Instagram kind of pivoted and started doing reels and all that. All the photographers were freaking out and, you know, and it, it. I mean, it’s. I don’t love it, but it hasn’t gone away. And so I’m kind of I’m curious, like, what’s going to happen with AI? Like how how are photographers going to pivot their work to accept what’s going on with AI? Like AI is everywhere. Like it’s there’s software now to cull your photos, there’s software to write your blog post, write your Instagram captions. You can create beautiful images now with AI. So I’m just kind of waiting. I know there’s a lot of photographers freaking out about it. I’m just curious to see how we pivot and accept it and what that looks like. 

[00:31:07] Lisa DiGeso Totally. You know, what he reminds me of is like, remember back when, like there was film cameras and digital and like and how like the film photographers were freaking out and everything’s is everyone’s going to die, right? Yeah. And it’s like built in them and like, we just adopted it and you know how to use it and how to use it as a tool. 

[00:31:23] Noella Andres Yeah, and that’s exactly it. Like, how are we can you start using AI? You know, I just think we’re in an interesting time. It’s coming whether we like it or not. Yeah, and I know everybody’s worried about it. I mean, even my world marketing it. You don’t need a copywriter now. You don’t need. So there’s a lot of stuff you don’t know because of it, but I’m just. Yeah, how are we going to pivot and how is it going to how are we going to accept it and work with it? 

[00:31:43] Lisa DiGeso Yeah, I think it’s interesting too. I love it. Well, Noella, I thank you for joining me today. 

[00:31:47] Noella Andres Yes, thank you. I’m so happy. I can’t wait to hear this all. 

[00:31:53] Lisa DiGeso Oh my beautiful friends. Thank you so much for tuning into this conversation. I hope you loved it just as much as I did. I am sending you so much of my light and my love today and every single day. We will see you next time. I wanted to take a moment to ask you a little favor. I so appreciate you spending your time with me and tuning in and listening to the show. I would be so incredibly grateful if you could take a quick moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your review helps other photographers discover the podcast and learn how to grow their own photography businesses and gain confidence to go after their dreams. It also means the world to me personally and helps me know what content you find most helpful. Thank you so much for your support and for being part of our amazing community.