Do you ever find yourself caught in a relentless tug-of-war between the demands of motherhood and the ambitious goals that you have for your photography business?

It’s like juggling a dozen spinning plates. You’ve got motherhood, business, household chores, self-care, all the things, and you’re desperately trying to keep them all in the air. But it just feels like at any moment, one might come crashing down, leaving you in just this whirlwind of chaos and stress.

You want to be there for your kids. He wants to be a present mom and their lives. But then when your business calls, you’ve got client inquiries and editing deadlines and the constant pressure to just keep growing and succeeding, the struggle is real.

You so desperately want to be both a loving mom and a thriving photographer. But it often feels like you’re falling short on both friends. Those moments of guilt and frustration sneak in while you’re editing photos, and your kids are playing alone. Or when you’re missing important family events because of a last minute client shoot.

It’s like trying to split yourself into two and the result? Well, it’s exhausting.

But here’s the thing. It doesn’t have to be this way.

You can regain control, create the balance you crave, and excel in both your motherhood and your business. I have some strategies and solutions that will help you conquer the endless battle and emerge as a competent, organized, and successful mom photographer.

Be ready to dig in and do the work, because if you want to be someone you’ve never been if you want to go somewhere you’ve never gone, then you have to do things you’ve never done before.

This is the first message in the series on how to get organized as a mom photographer. This is the overview, and I’ll continue to dig into more topics over the coming weeks.

This is also the first episode in my podcast rebrand to The Organized Mom Photographer Podcast!

The very first thing that I need you to do if you want to be organized as a mom photographer is:

1. Get Really Clear on Your Priorities

I have always had a business while raising my kiddos. And I wish that somebody at the very beginning would have asked me this question: What is your priority in your life? Is it your kids or is it growing a business, because we cannot have two priorities that are the main priority at the same time. One needs to take precedence over the other.

If your family relies on multiple incomes, then your business is likely the priority. But if your income does not rely on you to bring money to feed the family, and pay the bills, then your kids are the priority, so put that into perspective for yourself there.

This will help you as you are growing your photography business because if you know what your priority is, it helps eliminate any guilt that you might feel about one or the other.

Once you have answered what your priority is, ask yourself this question: How much time do you have to dedicate to your business?

I think everyone wants to feel like they are a present mom when they’re around their kids. But then when they are doing business, they want to feel like they are focused, they are efficient, and they are getting things done.

I am just going to save you years and years and years of trial and error, you must learn to separate the two: business and motherhood. And I know that it is hard. But I am here to support you.

And something new that I am doing for my listeners is I am handing out my Voxer username.

Ladies, this is the most incredible app, I use it with my business besties, I use it with my team, I use it with my students in my program. And so I want you to have access to me.

My Voxer username is afreehan

I want to hear from you, I want to be able to help you, and I want to connect with you!

So now that you are clear on your priorities, you can move on to step 2:

2. Prioritize Your Self-Care

Mama, you need to get organized with taking care of yourself first. And I have learned this the hard way.

If you are not taking care of yourself, then your family is not getting the best version of you. They’re getting what’s left of you. And so we have to learn how to advocate for our own self-care, we have to understand that it is not selfish to take care of ourselves.

And if you are a believer and a follower of Jesus, one of the most important pieces of self-care is going to be staying connected in the word and through prayer.

I truly believe once you learn how to take care of yourself, every other area of your life will start to feel easier, and your burden will feel lighter. And then you will start to realize that things are more clear because you have more mental capacity to take it on.

3. Stop Playing Small

Start taking your business seriously.

I actually am working on a masterclass for you guys called The Profit Shift. In it, I’m going to be talking through 3 critical ways to optimize your limited time, and how to maximize your revenue as a mom photographer. So I’m going to be diving more deeply into why it’s important to stop playing small and really take your business seriously.

You need to begin thinking of yourself as the CEO of your business.

I also talk about being the CEO of your motherhood: you are leading your family, and you are helping your husband lead and support your family. And so being the CEO helps that perspective and helps you really step in and lean into what that looks like.

And again, if you are a believer, and you follow Jesus, the CEO is actually God, and you are the copilot. But you still need to think like a CEO. You bring God with you on the journey. And he is the one who guides and leads your steps. But you still have to do work.

4. Set Up a Task Management System

I’ll do an entire episode on this, so be looking for that, but for now, I want you to know that if you are trying to keep track of all of your tasks in your head, or in multiple notebooks around your house, it’s not going to work for long.

Something’s going to fall through the cracks, especially as you start to get busier in your business.

if you want to be organized in your photography, business, you have to learn how to manage your tasks. And so I highly recommend using an online task management system, something like Asana, Clickup, or Trello. I use Asana and love it!

Asana is a task management system, not only for my business, but also for my personal life that I share with my team and my husband!

Overall, having a clear plan of where you’re going is absolutely crucial.

If you do not know what your goal is, or what your target is, you’re just going to be constantly spinning your wheels.

5. Streamline Your Processes and Create Automations

This is absolutely crucial if you want to have a sustainable business, and I think a lot of photographers are slightly intimidated when it comes to systems and automation because it feels really hard.

And truly a system and a process is anything that you do on repeat that you can create a checklist that you can then put into a CRM, like honeybook or 17 hats, or Dubsado, that automates parts of your system.

It’s true though, that you also have to be really careful about not just automating everything in your business, you want there to be personal touches along the way. You will have to have some manual work involved in your client journey.

There are just so many different pieces and components that go into really streamlining your processes and those automation, but they are so worth it to get set up.

As always, Mama I am here rooting for you. And you are not alone on this journey.

Resources:

1. Join the Waitlist for my Free Masterclass, The Profit Shift: 3 Strategies to Optimize Your Limited Time and Maximize Your Revenue as a Mom Photographer.
2. Message me on Voxer
3. Looking for tips and strategies for making motherhood and business easier? Join Our Free Community – The Organized Mom Photographer
4. Need support managing your time well and creating systems to streamline your Photography Business? Join the Efficient Mom Photographer (12 Week Group Coaching Program
5. Local to Gilbert/Mesa Arizona (For Mom Business Owners) Join our in person membership community
6. Have a question for me? Or a specific struggle you’re dealing with? I’ll address your question on the podcast. Submit your ‘Ask Ashley’ question here