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EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RUNNING A PHOTO BIZ
Freebie : Our Wedding Day Schedule
grab our free WEDDING DAY SCHEDULE These are the very templates we base all our wedding day schedules off – with a First Look and a No First Look option. We hope you find it super helpful! See How We Do It! It’s been so helpful for us to send our clients schedules...
The Wedding Photography Timeline We Love
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 202 [TRAINING] If you're frustrated with your wedding days always running late, which means you're not getting enough time for photos and your couple feels rushed all day long, then it's...
Parentpreneur: How To Run a Business While Raising Little Kids
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 201 [NARRATIVE EPISODE] Running a photography business is hard. Running a photography business while raising kids under three years old is even harder. There's so many questions about how to...
When Should You Leave Your Day Job?
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 109 [TRAINING EPISODE] You're working a full time job, but you're also running a creative business on the side that's growing rapidly. In fact, you're spending just as much time on your...
What It’s Really Like to Take a Big Risk
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 108 [NARRATIVE EPISODE] In early 2019, we signed a lease on a brand new studio - an empty 4,000 square foot warehouse with industrial offices...
Four Things We Do That Turn Our Inquiries into Bookings
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 107 [TRAINING EPISODE] Responding to inquiries is frustrating. Especially when most of your leads don't ever write back. How can you get people to...
How to Stay in a Growth Mindset with Julia Woods
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 106 [INTERVIEW EPISODE] What are you believing to be true right now that is keeping you out of your vision? What could be just as true, if not MORE true, than that? These are questions that...
Six Tools That Run Everything in Our Business
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 105 [TRAINING EPISODE] As a photographer, if your business is going to survive, you need to deliver two things: Beautiful images A great client experience However, its so easy to get...
Balance, Boundaries, and Overwork | as a Parent and Photographer with Shay Cochrane
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 104 [INTERVIEW EPISODE] Do you overwork? Shay Cochrane would say it's harder to admit than we think. In an industry where fear, distraction, and social validation drive us to spend more time at...
The Creative’s Battle: | Why it Took Me Two Years to Launch a Podcast
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 103 [NARRATIVE EPISODE] I shouted from the rooftops that I was launching a podcast… but then I didn’t… for two years. It was embarrassing, defeating, and discouraging. I made all kinds of...
The Bullseye Method | Five Simple Steps to Build a Social Media System
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode 102 [TRAINING EPISODE] Does your social media look less like a strategy and more like throwing a wet paper towel against a wall and seeing what sticks? Do you feel like no matter what you do, you...
How We Built a Dreamie Business
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify Creative Rising Episode #101 [TRAINING EPISODE] Are you a wedding photographer that’s ready to finally start shooting the clients you want? Are you wondering how to actually find them and book them? Before the world...
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GRAB SOME TEA, SETTLE IN, & CHECK OUT OUR FAVORITE BINGE-WORTHY BLOG POSTS
HOW DO I GET MORE (AND BETTER) WEDDING INQUIRIES?
Every wedding photographer desperately wants to know the quick answer to this one question: “How in the world do I get more wedding inquiries???" So in this mega-post, I’m sharing how to build a solid marketing STRATEGY – the same one that has continually brought high quality wedding inquiries to our business for the past ten years.

SIX EMAIL TEMPLATES YOU SHOULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT
A full inbox causes so much stress in my life that it’s the #1 thing that pulls me away from important work. So what's my single most effective weapon against ‘email overwhelm’? EMAIL TEMPLATES. Here’s my pick for the six email templates that every wedding photographer should have in their business and why.

HOW TO SHOOT BEAUTIFUL PORTRAITS IN HARSH SUNLIGHT
When it comes to lighting, wedding days are totally against us as wedding photographers. Most of the time, we’re shooting the First Look, wedding party and family portraits ALL in the harsh afternoon sun. So how do Jeff and I handle the tough light to shoot soft, natural skin tones in super harsh sun? Check out my six technical tips…
CREATIVE RISING
the podcastA show about what it’s really like to run a PHOTOGRAPHY business

We teach photographers to build life-giving businesses that they absolutely love.
About Us
We're Jeff & Erin
We’re Jeff and Erin Youngren – and it’s our mission to help you thrive not just as a wedding photographer, but as a business owner. It’s time to set aside the stress and comparison of a hustle mindset, and build a life-giving business instead.
We met in college, got married, and started corporate jobs before we discovered (and fell in love with) wedding photography. But like many creative entrepreneurs, we were booking anything we could, strapped to our laptops and living dangerously close to burnout.
So we dug in and learned how to build a thriving business that supports our dream life – instead of a joyless business that runs a stressed-out life.
Today, we photograph only 10 Dreamie weddings per year, but we also run two other wedding brands plus a commercial studio in San Diego, CA. And we do it by only working the hours that fit into our life. The other hours? We spend those living a joyful life raising our two beautiful sons, James and Samuel.
hugs,
Jeff and Erin