Gosh, where do I start?!  The Reset Conference gets better and better each year, and I’m not just saying that because I’m now on staff as a part-time blogger!  I decided to go the self-proclaimed “nerdy” route and take all business classes on topics like law, marketing, corporate collaboration, systems, branding, social media, turning web traffic into clients, and time management.  I also heard most of the keynote speakers who talked on creating a brand and photographing men.  I didn’t take any photos with my big camera except for those during my shootout, so the photos below are all from the shootouts (and a few are courtesy of my friend Kristin at kDarling Photography!).

I wanted to share a few of my biggest takeaways from the conference, starting with my favorite speaker who I heard from TWICE — Dannie Fountain.

Dannie’s 2nd presentation focused on working with corporate clients, and she outlined for us a foolproof plan for reeling in big business.  She showed us that there are advantages for big businesses to work with small businesses and that we shouldn’t be afraid to seek out big opportunities.  Everything she said just seemed to click with me and I will definitely begin implementing her plan into my business.

Elle Danielle is a lawyer-turned-photographer, so she has a very interested perspective on my profession.  Her talk was on legal myths and truths for creatives, and while several of her points are things I already have put into place, I definitely picked up a few new items.  The first three things on my to-do list when I got home were to update my contract with these new things that I’d been missing. I’m all about protecting myself, while also being fair to my clients.  And sometimes we get bad advice on social media or there are gray areas, and Elle helped me to see a couple of those weak spots.

Courtney Slazinik is a website and SEO guru who runs the Click it up a Notch site. I heard Courtney speak at Reset a couple years ago and it was nice to see her changing her presentation to keep up with changes in the industry, Google, and social media.  My biggest takeaway from her presentation was to run a couple apps on my site to see if there is any wasted space and to see what the “hot spots” are where visitors are clicking the most.  I may also go back to having a static front page rather than my “blog page,” so watch for slight changes in the future!  Courtney also gave great tips for email newsletters which I’m going to start revamping soon.

I also sat in on a Q&A with Christina Ramirez, a high-volume senior photographer in San Antonio, along with two of my good friends, Suzy and Rebekah from Jukebox Photography in Champaign.  Christina gave some fantastic tips on pricing, packages, bonuses, senior rep programs, hair & makeup, plus much more.  She has a solid business model and it was awesome to hear her talk so confidently and passionately about it.

Lastly, one of my other enjoyable sessions was Jeff Rojas, a New York City photographer and author who has had his work featured in Elle and Esquire magazines.  Jeff literally wrote the book on Photographing Men, and he is phenomenal at it.  His approach is relatively simple but super efficient.  He encouraged us to converse with the people we’re photographing to learn their stories, use body language, forget posing, and everything else will fall into place.  Plus, he was hilarious!!

I can’t wait for next year’s Reset Conference!  The pressure will be on to top this year’s lineup!!

#reset2017 #theresetconference