Latest / The Nerdy Photographer Podcast / 155 - Beyond Trends: Building a Genuine Presence as a Photographer

Transcript

155 - Beyond Trends: Building a Genuine Presence as a Photographer · The Nerdy Photographer Podcast

• 0:06
  Casey Fatchett: Hello there. Welcome to the nerdy
• 0:10
  photographer podcast. I am your host. Casey Fatchett, in
• 0:15
  addition to providing informative and entertaining
• 0:18
  photography information, I also go on adventures with the crew
• 0:23
  of the starship Fibonacci.
• 0:27
  What do you think?
• 0:31
  Yeah, there's still something off about the delivery. Oh, hey,
• 0:34
  folks, fib and I were just testing a new synthetic version
• 0:38
  of me that he put together. I think it just, it just lacks my
• 0:42
  authentic voice. Fib, speaking of authenticity in this episode,
• 0:46
  I speak with photographer Linda Alita about remaining authentic
• 0:49
  in the social media generation. That conversation after the
• 0:53
  break. Fib, why are you so interested in creating alternate
• 0:58
  versions of me for security, and both intrigued and frightened.
• 1:09
  Hey, photographers, are you tired of using the same stale
• 1:11
  poses with your clients, resulting in stiff and unnatural
• 1:14
  photos? Consider using, let's be real prompts instead. Prompts
• 1:18
  are not just a list of poses. They're designed to help you
• 1:21
  create a more engaging, fun environment for your photo
• 1:24
  subjects, resulting in more natural and authentic images
• 1:27
  with nerdy photographers, let's be real. Prompts. You'll have a
• 1:30
  unique set of prompts for couples, weddings, families and
• 1:32
  individuals, ensuring that you never run out of ideas. Prompts
• 1:36
  are particularly helpful for clients who are nervous or self
• 1:39
  conscious about having their picture taken by giving them
• 1:41
  something else to focus on, they can become more relaxed, and
• 1:44
  their reactions will be more authentic and less guarded.
• 1:47
  Using, let's be real, prompts will not only help you create
• 1:50
  more fresh and dynamic images, but it will also increase your
• 1:53
  confidence and your client's confidence in you. You'll be
• 1:57
  able to handle difficult situations and subjects with
• 1:59
  ease, resulting in more satisfied clients and a stronger
• 2:03
  photography business. So start using, let's be real, prompts
• 2:07
  from the nerdy photographer today, and elevate your
• 2:09
  photography to the next level. Go to nerdy photographer.com and
• 2:12
  go to our store, or click the link in the Episode Notes, and
• 2:15
  get started creating authentic, engaging images today. You do
• 2:23
  you have your own website? Are you tired of dealing with slow
• 2:26
  loading pages and poor support from your current web hosting
• 2:29
  company? Consider switching to SiteGround the top rated web
• 2:31
  hosting company that provides 24/7 support and super fast
• 2:35
  hosting speeds. Sitegrounds platform is built on the premium
• 2:38
  Google Cloud infrastructure, ensuring top reliability,
• 2:41
  security and speed for your website. Their fast network and
• 2:44
  storage provide optimal site speed and a high level of
• 2:47
  redundancy. So you can trust that your website will be up and
• 2:50
  running smoothly at all times. With sitegrounds, ultra fast
• 2:53
  server setup, your pages will load 30% faster on average,
• 2:57
  giving your visitors a better user experience in improving
• 3:00
  your website's SEO and with hosting starting from just 199
• 3:04
  per month, it's affordable for any budget. Plus, if you're not
• 3:07
  completely satisfied, SiteGround offers a 30 day money back
• 3:10
  guarantee. Don't suffer with a terrible web hosting company any
• 3:14
  longer. Make the switch to SiteGround and experience top
• 3:16
  level support, super fast hosting and a reliable, secure
• 3:20
  platform for your website. I spent years with a web hosting
• 3:23
  company that was absolutely terrible. My site was constantly
• 3:27
  getting hacked and support was nearly impossible to get a hold
• 3:30
  of since switching to SiteGround. All of those
• 3:32
  problems are in the past. Just visit nerdy photographer comm
• 3:35
  slash recommends slash SiteGround or click the link in
• 3:39
  the Episode Notes to get started and begin enjoying faster, more
• 3:42
  reliable web hosting today.
• 3:53
  Hello and welcome to the nerdy photographer podcast. Oh, before
• 3:56
  I start that, last name pronunciation, Alita. Oh, Alita.
• 4:02
  Yeah, actually, my middle name, okay, so is that how you want to
• 4:06
  be referred to? Yeah, okay, just making sure, as people like
• 4:11
  slaughter my last name all the time. All right, start that
• 4:16
  again. Hello and welcome to the nerdy photographer podcast. I'm
• 4:21
  your host, Casey Fatchett, and I am here this episode with Linda
• 4:25
  Alita. Linda, welcome to the show.
• 4:27
  Linda Alida: Thank you for having me.
• 4:29
  Casey Fatchett: Before we get into the meat of the
• 4:31
  conversation, we'll start with a dice breaker. It's a nine What
• 4:35
  is the worst investment you've made in photography, whether
• 4:40
  it's business related gear, whether it was the worst
• 4:43
  purchase or investment thief.
• 4:46
  Linda Alida: Okay, it's really silly, but, like, a monopod, I
• 4:49
  know that that's stupid, but like, it was just a waste of $20
• 4:53
  and the only reason I bought it is because I thought I should
• 4:55
  buy it because the person that I was working with was going to be
• 4:58
  using one. And I have never used it. It is sat in my closet and,
• 5:04
  like, just flecked in dust, and I realized it's just silly and
• 5:07
  it's just a cheap little thing, but like, the fact that I bought
• 5:10
  it just because I thought I should was, like, a bad choice
• 5:13
  on my parts.
• 5:14
  Casey Fatchett: Man, well, like I have found uses for monopods,
• 5:16
  even if it hasn't had anything to do with my like, putting my
• 5:21
  camera on it. Like, I have, I think, three, but I wanted to,
• 5:25
  like, really narrow, like, really small and lightweight
• 5:28
  that I use, and I put a flash on sometimes, and I just hold it
• 5:30
  up, like, to get some, like, so I don't have to set up a light
• 5:34
  stand or something. But there are so many other little things
• 5:37
  that I have purchased over time where I'm like, I'm gonna need
• 5:39
  that. And then I'm like, I never needed that. There's little
• 5:42
  things that you like. What is the what am I really getting out
• 5:45
  of this piece of gear? Is it just, like, satisfy some sort
• 5:49
  of, I don't know, on, like, some need or urge that, or thought
• 5:56
  that this is, like, this is what's gonna make the suck over
• 6:00
  the top, yeah, oh, man, you know how many crappy white balancing
• 6:05
  effect things that I bought, like the lens cap, there's a
• 6:08
  little thing that, like, it was basically looked like a it's
• 6:11
  like a plastic handle with a little crystal thing in it that
• 6:15
  you put it over your lens and get you A custom white balance
• 6:20
  like, you know what? Nope, never use any of those. Never like
• 6:24
  bringing and I've since found one on my like, I have a free
• 6:29
  app on my phone that's both a light meter and a will tell you,
• 6:33
  like, the color temperature. It's really it's not the best,
• 6:39
  but it will like, color temperature is very good. As far
• 6:43
  as exposure, it'll get you pretty close, and you can, you
• 6:46
  can move from there, but, like, it can't do, like, flash or
• 6:48
  anything like that, yeah, but it's
• 6:48
  Linda Alida: something like, indoors is one of my hardest
• 6:48
  things. Like, that's a struggle for me with flash and
• 6:48
  everything, because, like, I do a lot of like, Indian weddings
• 6:56
  and like these little restaurants where everything is
• 7:01
  red and yellow and it is awful. Like, I'm sitting here
• 7:06
  struggling through a wedding right now, and I'm just like, I
• 7:09
  wish I had something that was just like consistent, like, it's
• 7:12
  all over. It's like 2500 to like 5000 on my like, ISO or white
• 7:16
  phone. So I'm just dying right now.
• 7:18
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, they have all those things that throw off
• 7:20
  really hot tones, and you're just like, oh, man, what am I?
• 7:25
  What's going right?
• 7:28
  Linda Alida: So I can't throw everything into black and white.
• 7:32
  Casey Fatchett: There's, it's the funny thing. It's like, I'll
• 7:33
  get clients who'll come back to me and say, like, Oh, can we
• 7:36
  have that in color? And I'm like, sometime, and I don't
• 7:38
  remember, like, it's been a month or whatever since I edited
• 7:43
  it like, like, Sure, it might not look great in color, and
• 7:48
  there might be a reason they determine that it's black and
• 7:51
  white. We'll take a look. We'll see what's going on. But to give
• 7:55
  people kind of a background on you, like, what, what is the
• 7:58
  what is your photography journey been like.
• 8:04
  Linda Alida: So it's really eclectic and weird. And I have
• 8:07
  danced around like my story is like a photographer, like,
• 8:11
  whenever people ask, kind of directing them towards, like,
• 8:14
  the points that I want them to hear. It's always been a part of
• 8:19
  my life. My dad, actually, his degree is in art, studio art
• 8:23
  focused on photography. So he kind of wanted to be a
• 8:27
  photographer, but never really got into it. So I always had a
• 8:30
  camera in my hand growing up, but it was just because it was
• 8:33
  such like a part of my life. I didn't really think about it as
• 8:37
  a career. And I actually, like you, kind of went more towards
• 8:39
  journalism and ended up as the yearbook editor in chief because
• 8:44
  I really wanted to tell more written stories and then use the
• 8:47
  camera as like a way to support what I was writing. And
• 8:51
  actually, my undergrad is TV, radio communications, and so
• 8:57
  with a mass communications focus, when I switched over. I
• 9:01
  dropped out for a little while, but I so I was I really didn't
• 9:07
  think photos were going to be where I was going. And then I
• 9:11
  was at a play date with a girlfriend, and she showed me
• 9:14
  the most gorgeous picture of her daughter, and it was backlit,
• 9:18
  and it was beautiful. And I didn't have a camera, and I
• 9:21
  hadn't had a camera in years, and I was like, I want a camera,
• 9:25
  and I want to take pictures, and I want pictures of my kids. And
• 9:30
  so it took me about six years after that to get an actual,
• 9:33
  like, digital camera, and that was what 2014 and I started just
• 9:38
  taking pictures of, like, my kids and their sports games and
• 9:41
  their school and their scouts, and like, I would carry my
• 9:45
  camera literally everywhere and tell people, I want to be a
• 9:49
  photographer and I want to take photos. But I didn't, like,
• 9:52
  really push it until about 2021 when, like, after the pandemic,
• 9:57
  and I was just getting really tired of. Of not having people
• 10:03
  to photograph, like I was begging people to but I was
• 10:06
  like, I'm going to, like, start pushing this fully. And so I
• 10:10
  started pushing the family stuff. And that was really hard,
• 10:13
  because people have been using me for free for so long that it
• 10:16
  was hard to convince them that now I had value. So that's when
• 10:19
  I started going for second shooting jobs and heading
• 10:22
  towards the wedding industry. I've, like, if I can get, like,
• 10:26
  sports games with like, 300 photos and deliver them in a
• 10:30
  week, and they're, like, nice and beautiful, I can handle a
• 10:32
  wedding. But, like, I didn't have any experience, so I
• 10:36
  started second shooting, and it's kind of like, grown from
• 10:39
  there.
• 10:40
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, I mean, it's in you. I mean weddings,
• 10:43
  Jerry, Jerry Jonas, or somebody, I just recently saw something
• 10:47
  you said, like, weddings are like the best training ground
• 10:50
  for any kind of photography, because you do pretty much every
• 10:53
  kind of photography at a wedding. But, yeah, you get in
• 10:59
  there, they've got a whole I've got a whole other episode coming
• 11:02
  up about using being assisting and being a second shooter, and
• 11:08
  how I can help teach you all sorts of stuff. It's everybody's
• 11:14
  got a different journey. I think that what you're talking about,
• 11:16
  though, is something that I've heard a lot of people say, like
• 11:19
  the just struck by the the need like to be connected to the
• 11:25
  subjects, and wanting more out of it, and then answers like,
• 11:30
  more than your phone can do, and more than your like, whatever
• 11:35
  like you have at the moment you like we Use, there's a craving
• 11:39
  for more.
• 11:42
  Linda Alida: It's what's that? That gap, where the knowledge
• 11:46
  gap? Yes. So every single time that I would learn something, I
• 11:49
  would look at my photo and go, but it's still missing this, and
• 11:51
  it's still missing that. And I would just keep wanting to get
• 11:54
  better and better. And I was running out like I started with
• 11:58
  the Nike on D 30 220 14. So I was shooting sports games with a
• 12:03
  kit lens, and, like, it was stupid, but I at some point I
• 12:08
  wanted a full frame camera to, like, really make it better,
• 12:12
  like I was, I mean, it was hard to do, but I was getting the
• 12:15
  images I wanted. And then I was, like, hitting my limits. And so
• 12:18
  you just want to keep growing and getting better. And what can
• 12:21
  you change? Or what can you learn? Well, it's
• 12:24
  Casey Fatchett: one of those conversations we have a lot.
• 12:25
  It's like, yeah. Like, people say, like, oh, gear doesn't
• 12:27
  matter. Well, gear doesn't matter until it matters. Like,
• 12:30
  there are certain things like you have. I never had, like, a
• 12:35
  super telephoto lens. I usually, like, add a 70 to 200 and I was
• 12:39
  like, this is fine, fine, whatever. But then I started
• 12:42
  going and doing like, you know, we were traveling, and we'd see
• 12:45
  wildlife, and my wife be like, You need something to get you
• 12:48
  closer. And then, strangely, like, I got this, like, 150 to
• 12:54
  600 which is like, super, super telephoto. And then I started
• 13:00
  getting these corporate jobs where I was, like, super far
• 13:03
  away, and I, like, from wherever the subject was. I was like,
• 13:06
  hey, it's a good thing. I've got this now, because, like, this is
• 13:09
  helping me out. When I was I did a cricket, cricket match, like,
• 13:13
  you can't, like, be close to any part of the, like, where the
• 13:16
  action is. And so, like, yeah, I've got that thing out of like,
• 13:19
  600 like, all day, you know, photographing this cricket match
• 13:23
  because, like, the but because even the 7200 wouldn't get me
• 13:27
  nearly close enough for that stuff. It doesn't matter until
• 13:31
  it matters. So I totally understand that.
• 13:35
  Linda Alida: Yeah, just purchase it to solve a need. Once you
• 13:37
  start purchasing it to solve a need, you're on the right track
• 13:40
  but all these people who sit there and purchase things and
• 13:42
  think it's going to take their photography to the next level,
• 13:44
  I'm just like, you're wasting
• 13:46
  Casey Fatchett: money, yeah, unless you know what it is like,
• 13:50
  as I used to see people like, back in the day in the wedding
• 13:53
  industry, way before you got involved in weddings, there was
• 13:56
  tilt shift was a big trend for a while. Like, people doing like,
• 14:01
  tilt shift portraits. It's like, two years or three years, I
• 14:05
  think maybe two years. But like, Yeah, this is the really hip
• 14:08
  thing to do, is like, these, these tilt shift camera
• 14:11
  portraits. And I would talk to other photographers and like,
• 14:14
  I'm gonna get a tilt shift camera and I'm like, for what
• 14:17
  five photos that you take at a wedding? Like, I'm sorry, but
• 14:20
  like, I don't see, like, a, I'm not a trend person, but like, B,
• 14:24
  like, you're gonna spend $3,500 on a lens that you're gonna use
• 14:28
  for five minutes at a wedding, and then you're not gonna use it
• 14:33
  at any other point. And they're like, oh yeah. Like, there's,
• 14:37
  there's some times where you you don't need it, right?
• 14:42
  Linda Alida: Well, and so you know that all my, my, I do all
• 14:46
  my work on pretty much two lenses, right? Like, it's the
• 14:49
  105 and the 24 to 70 with the z6 two. Like, that's pretty much my
• 14:53
  entire portfolio. I mean, there's the $6 teh lens, which I
• 14:57
  freaking love, and it's manual focus. But. I don't bring that
• 15:00
  home weddings. I pretty much everything is that 105 and the
• 15:03
  2470 the 105 specifically was because I couldn't afford the 85
• 15:08
  and I wanted the compression. The 105 was only $900 versus
• 15:13
  3200 for the 85 and I got the macro, which is what led to me
• 15:17
  doing a macro. So like you, you can do things for cheaper. You
• 15:24
  can solve problems without spending an excessive amount of
• 15:28
  money. And that's one thing I want to, like, tell
• 15:30
  photographers a lot of times, like, stop spending money to
• 15:33
  solve your problems. Start with, like, what you have around you,
• 15:37
  yeah.
• 15:37
  Casey Fatchett: Like, start like, think about what you need.
• 15:40
  Think about what you're trying. I think the biggest problem a
• 15:44
  lot of people have is they don't actually envision what they're
• 15:48
  going for, what they're what they're trying to create, like
• 15:54
  the they think that and social media is a huge part of this,
• 16:01
  because people will, like, go, like, oh, well, you know, like,
• 16:04
  I am, you're comparing yourself to other people. And yeah, like,
• 16:08
  I've got to have that lens, because that's what so and so
• 16:11
  uses, and their pictures are so amazing, or whatever. And like,
• 16:15
  that comparison just destroys you, sometimes just eats away at
• 16:21
  your own creativity. It really does. Should we talk about the
• 16:25
  social media stuff? Yeah, I think we should. How. I mean,
• 16:28
  how do you feel that your own identity as a photographer and
• 16:33
  an artist has changed and evolved by sharing your photos
• 16:38
  on social media?
• 16:41
  Linda Alida: So we have to start with the fact that, like, I
• 16:42
  wasn't really on social media until I started my business.
• 16:45
  Like, I had a personal Facebook account where I showed the
• 16:49
  photos that I was taking with my friends and family, but it was
• 16:52
  locked down in private. There was no like, sharing it with the
• 16:55
  rest of the world. I didn't care about that kind of stuff. I
• 16:58
  really just cared about making sure that the people that I
• 17:00
  like, loved and cared about, had good photos of their, you know,
• 17:03
  people that are around them. So social media didn't shape my
• 17:07
  photography in the beginning when I was learning, which is
• 17:10
  really kind of cool, because I just had to experiment with my
• 17:14
  camera and figure out, like, editing on my own, what I
• 17:18
  personally liked. I didn't have social media telling me this is
• 17:22
  what you should be doing. This is what's popular. This is like,
• 17:25
  who you should be following and talking to and stuff. And so
• 17:28
  when I came in to the industry, I like, I put it in the
• 17:31
  interview thing. I had no idea who Jose via was, or jasmine
• 17:34
  star. Like, I showed up at a wedding and somebody was asking
• 17:37
  me, and I'm like, should I know them? Like, I don't. Like, I
• 17:41
  feel really bad. I have no clue. Like, I seriously. And so when
• 17:49
  thread started, I had zero followers, and I was talking to
• 17:54
  the void, and I was like, I've just like, I don't know what I'm
• 17:57
  doing, but I'm going to start sharing the things that I really
• 18:00
  enjoy, and I'm going to start talking to people. And I really
• 18:05
  had no clue who anyone was, so I was interacting with big
• 18:09
  accounts, and had no freaking clue that they were big accounts
• 18:12
  over on Instagram, because I don't go over there, right?
• 18:14
  Casey Fatchett: Because it also threads like, somebody could
• 18:16
  have 100,000 or 200,000 followers on Instagram, and
• 18:19
  they've got 200 on threads, because they just aren't like,
• 18:23
  you know, super active on threads, or whatever the case
• 18:26
  may be. You know, I've seen like, people who have, like, so
• 18:30
  many followers on Instagram, but then they like, you know, we've
• 18:33
  got 1000 or 1200 here. So it's so they seem more approachable
• 18:37
  and in a way, like there's and they are threads, I think, is
• 18:41
  kind of a has kind of a leveling effect,
• 18:46
  Linda Alida: exactly, and that's it, because it's so level the
• 18:48
  the playing field. I just talked to people like they were my
• 18:51
  peers, and treated them like they were peers. And because I
• 18:56
  generally have a good head on my shoulders, I like to think, as
• 18:58
  far as like, the photography stuff, people can like, respect
• 19:02
  that, and I didn't treat it like I was trying to like, I don't I
• 19:07
  do not think that it is anybody's job to take me up with
• 19:11
  them. Like, I want to have photo friends and everything, and I'm
• 19:14
  happy to help and everything. But it is not my job to make
• 19:17
  your career for you, and it's not their job to make my career.
• 19:21
  For me, it's my job to sit there and do interesting things, and
• 19:25
  maybe they're going to want to be a part of that if they find
• 19:27
  it interesting, right? But like, I and that's, that's how I treat
• 19:31
  it. And I think a lot of people go wrong when they sit there and
• 19:34
  try to, like, I don't know, make friends just for the sake of
• 19:38
  like, what they can do for you.
• 19:40
  Casey Fatchett: They think that the clout is going to somehow,
• 19:42
  like, Oh, they're like, if I can get them to respond to one of my
• 19:45
  images, or I can get them to whatever, then that's gonna,
• 19:50
  that's gonna be the magic bullet that, like, changes my
• 19:53
  trajectory as far as my photography career. Like, no,
• 19:56
  it's not like, that's,
• 19:57
  Linda Alida: there's literally nothing that you can do. You on
• 20:00
  so like on social media or talking to other people that is
• 20:03
  going to help your business, you're going to have to sit
• 20:06
  there and get out there, market yourself, do your website, do
• 20:09
  your own stuff and do creative things. You cannot expect anyone
• 20:13
  to hold your hand and do anything for you. And I have
• 20:17
  this conversation with people all the time, and it makes them
• 20:20
  so mad, but, like, it's true, like I and I think that's part
• 20:25
  of the reasons that why, like, I do find success talking to
• 20:28
  bigger accounts is because I don't have any kind of
• 20:32
  expectations. I'm just there to hang out and be cool and share
• 20:36
  the things that I love too, and love on them, because I really
• 20:40
  do love, like, these people's work, you know,
• 20:43
  Casey Fatchett: yeah, and thing that that's, I mean, I've had
• 20:45
  some similar experiences, because I think it's part of,
• 20:48
  like every like being in New York and like running into
• 20:52
  celebrities all the time, you like, realize that, hey, they're
• 20:54
  just people. Treat them like people. And, you know, say
• 20:58
  something nice, and, you know, like be, you know, and if it can
• 21:03
  be is, like, an obscure reference that they understand,
• 21:05
  then, you know, they're, they'll probably more likely to feel
• 21:08
  comfortable because they're like, oh, you know something
• 21:11
  about me, or whatever the case may be. But having, like, done
• 21:14
  this for the show, even, like, I will just throw out there, like,
• 21:17
  Hey, you should come on my show, just because, you know, it's,
• 21:21
  you know, what's the worst gonna happen? They don't respond like,
• 21:25
  great, fine. But it's actually led to, like, some interactions
• 21:30
  that you know, these people I admire, or people whose work I
• 21:35
  think other people should know about. And, you know, I'm not
• 21:39
  expecting them to, like, make me famous, or more like, spread My
• 21:44
  Word about me, like, I'm literally, wanted to have a
• 21:46
  conversation with you, not, and build a community or and
• 21:53
  speaking of which, when was the one, was the moment, or was
• 21:55
  there? Was there a turning point where you felt like, like social
• 21:58
  media was it wasn't you talking about like I just was having
• 22:02
  conversations with people and not realizing who they were,
• 22:07
  what, if they were a big deal or not big deal. In air quotes for
• 22:11
  those people who are just listening, they're saying big
• 22:13
  deal. What point did you realize you were building a community,
• 22:17
  or that you could build a community on social media,
• 22:22
  Linda Alida: I think it was when I realized I wanted to stop
• 22:24
  selling to photographers. Because, like, here's the thing,
• 22:26
  when you're on social media, I don't know if you've noticed
• 22:29
  that there's, like, two kinds of people. There's the people who
• 22:31
  are selling to their Well, I guess there's three. There's the
• 22:34
  people who are selling to their clients, and they are just
• 22:36
  talking at you, and they have no, like, actual concern about
• 22:40
  what like they kind of want your engagement, but they don't care
• 22:43
  about what you have to do with your engagement. Then you've got
• 22:46
  the people who are just like, spewing their life and like
• 22:48
  they're just out there living in whatever. And then you have the
• 22:51
  people who are selling to other photographers, like we talked
• 22:53
  about, where they're literally expecting that if they show some
• 22:59
  piece of work that is cool enough, they will suddenly be
• 23:03
  like in a cult or club. They are everything opens up and like,
• 23:08
  and suddenly their career is made for them and stuff. And I
• 23:12
  feel like a lot of hobbyists are out there on social media
• 23:16
  specifically doing that. And I was like, okay, that's not the
• 23:19
  club I want to be in. I want to be in the actual club of the
• 23:23
  people that are doing the cool thing. So how do I get there?
• 23:25
  And how do I get there without, like, you know, just glomming on
• 23:30
  to them. So I was like, I'm going to start one being
• 23:33
  inspired. Like, what are these people doing? So I started,
• 23:36
  like, looking at like, I started getting out in the world, going
• 23:38
  out on photo walks, and, like, meeting other people, because
• 23:42
  that's what you do if you want to create, is you go and meet
• 23:46
  other people, and you have to talk to them about what they're
• 23:48
  doing and what they're interested in. And the more that
• 23:52
  I talk to people, and it just it really helped me to grow. And I
• 23:58
  was like, I want to help you grow too. Like, like, we it's a
• 24:02
  rising tide. We all grow together. Like, seriously, I
• 24:06
  love being able to sit down and, like, help somebody with their
• 24:10
  website, like, the little problem or something, because
• 24:13
  when I have an issue and I'm like, concerned about something,
• 24:15
  I can go to them and ask them a question too, and like me, and
• 24:20
  that's when my focus became more of that. So, like, I stopped
• 24:23
  trying to, like, get noticed, and I start, and that's, yeah.
• 24:27
  So that makes sense.
• 24:28
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, it totally makes sense. I mean, it's, it's
• 24:30
  more of, like, you create the community that you want to be
• 24:36
  in, in a way, like it's the, you know, you're not just out there
• 24:42
  trying to get ahead of everybody. You're actually,
• 24:46
  genuinely, I think that having a genuine interaction with people
• 24:52
  and taking interest in what they you know, what they do and what
• 24:57
  they create, and you know what's going. Some of them, that's how
• 25:01
  you build connections, right?
• 25:03
  Linda Alida: And there's a client for everybody, there's a
• 25:06
  there's an somebody is going to, like, you know, your stuff and
• 25:11
  everybody else's stuff, like, they're just because you do
• 25:15
  something different than me doesn't mean that. Like, you
• 25:17
  know, you're not valuable. And like, if it's a thing, you're
• 25:20
  more valuable because you're teaching me about something that
• 25:22
  I don't something that I don't know and don't do. So like that,
• 25:25
  that's the other thing, is like, when I started to learn that I
• 25:28
  could learn from these other people too, and like that shared
• 25:31
  knowledge, it's just, it's so beautiful.
• 25:35
  Casey Fatchett: And there's also a sense of like, like people
• 25:37
  expecting that every one of their followers on social media
• 25:43
  are only concerned with their account. Like, there's this hot
• 25:46
  like, why isn't everyone who follows me commenting or liking
• 25:51
  or whatever? And yes, the algorithms have some issues.
• 25:55
  Depends on what platform you're on. Like, what is going on? But
• 25:59
  like, there, you also have to have a sense that, like you are
• 26:01
  just a portion of what these people have curated for
• 26:07
  themselves. And like not thinking that you they are
• 26:11
  obsessed with you. 24/7, and they're going to be just like
• 26:15
  waiting for the next thing that you have to say or post,
• 26:19
  whatever like, and just like you know, you have to, you have to
• 26:24
  create that space, and, like, you know, make it open to a
• 26:27
  bunch of people and ever so that they can come in and come and go
• 26:31
  as they please, well.
• 26:33
  Linda Alida: And to be honest, like I kind of utilize that like
• 26:36
  in what as soon as I realized the web that, like the algorithm
• 26:40
  threads and the way that it connects people, and then it
• 26:43
  shows you your friends comments and everything. So my friends
• 26:47
  would be commenting on somebody else's post, so I go and see
• 26:50
  what they were doing and follow that person. And so it creates
• 26:53
  this exponential like, it seriously, just grows
• 26:57
  everything. And so, like, there's nothing wrong with them
• 27:00
  enjoying other people, because it's bringing more people to
• 27:03
  you. It's bringing more people into your community. So I would
• 27:06
  rather see people who are out there and enjoying other people.
• 27:09
  I want to see them sharing and growing because those are the
• 27:13
  people that are going to be coming back and like, they're
• 27:16
  loyal supporters, the fact that they're coming back to you,
• 27:18
  yeah?
• 27:19
  Casey Fatchett: And also like, you know, you get to see what
• 27:21
  else they like, Yeah, what else is going on? Like that. To say
• 27:25
  that that's a one thing I really love about threads is like being
• 27:29
  able to see other people's like their comments showing up, and
• 27:32
  you get and not just like their comment but like the thing that
• 27:35
  they commented on showing up in threads. And you're able to be
• 27:38
  like, Oh, well, hey. Like, that's, that's pretty cool, like
• 27:41
  that. I'm interested in that too. That's, let's dive into
• 27:45
  that a little bit more. Yeah, I think that that's, you know,
• 27:48
  understanding the interconnectedness and how it
• 27:53
  benefits everybody, and not just thinking about ourselves
• 27:58
  Linda Alida: and using it kind of as a strategy. It's like to
• 28:00
  really, like get yourself known a little bit. I mean, it really
• 28:03
  does kind of work that way. But like, friends is just kind of,
• 28:07
  to me, I've visualized it as a big party, and everybody's
• 28:10
  standing around in like groups talking about different things,
• 28:13
  and you can just kind of show up in a different group and, like,
• 28:17
  the point is, though, to join the conversation. It drives me
• 28:20
  crazy when people jump in and talk at me and I'm like, did you
• 28:23
  care about what I had to say? Do you want to hear, do you want to
• 28:26
  read what everybody else is talking about? Or do you just
• 28:29
  want to make it all about you?
• 28:30
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, let's see, like, I'm going to dive in and,
• 28:32
  like, not paying any attention to what is going on, and like,
• 28:37
  I'm just going to jump into this and like, I'm going to be it's
• 28:42
  the people trying to have main character energy in social media
• 28:47
  and not realizing that that doesn't happen. It's just not
• 28:52
  the way things go. So do you feel like you're talking about,
• 28:58
  like, making these connections with people online in, you know,
• 29:02
  building a community, whatever do you find that sharing more
• 29:05
  personal stories and information like I just as an example, I
• 29:12
  find that when I talk about something that went into making
• 29:15
  a photo, like, what's going on with me, in my head or in my
• 29:19
  life, when I make a photo, gives lot of people, like, a way,
• 29:25
  another way of connecting with it. But do you feel that sharing
• 29:28
  that sort of thing has helped deepen connections with people
• 29:31
  you interact with 100% seriously?
• 29:35
  Linda Alida: Like, it started with like, like, I thought
• 29:39
  threads had to be professional. At first, I fell into that trap
• 29:44
  a little bit because I was scared. And then a friend and I
• 29:47
  were talking, and I told him I was broken, and I and he was
• 29:50
  like, You're not a toy. Humans aren't objects. You can't be
• 29:53
  broken. And I was like, I am anxiety ridden and depressed,
• 29:58
  and I work out at what. Well, I talk to friends, I exercise like
• 30:03
  or I do mindful meditation, I write, I take photos, I create,
• 30:07
  I cook, I I spend time with like the people I love, I do therapy,
• 30:11
  I literally do everything that you need to do to not have
• 30:16
  anxiety and depression. And I still have anxiety and
• 30:19
  depression. You know what that means. It's not logical. You
• 30:23
  cannot just talk your way out of the mental health illness. It
• 30:27
  wouldn't be a mental health illness if it was logical. So it
• 30:32
  doesn't matter, like what other people think and stuff. And so I
• 30:35
  made this really angry post, and I ranted, and I attached a photo
• 30:40
  to it, and it went kind of viral for me. It was like 800 likes or
• 30:43
  something, which is huge for me at that point. I still think
• 30:47
  that's pretty big for anybody now, yeah, because I think I'm
• 30:50
  at like 60 or something normally, but like, it was
• 30:54
  really huge. And the fact that people connected to it,
• 30:57
  connected to that story, I started to, like, really share
• 31:01
  more of what was going on, because then I was able to
• 31:06
  understand and accept what I was doing within myself as being
• 31:10
  okay. This is, this is who I am. That Yosemite picture that's
• 31:15
  like, like, my pin post has a very personal story to it. Like
• 31:19
  I that story is in there for a reason, because it's sort of
• 31:24
  like I am going to show up in this world, whether you like it
• 31:29
  or not. I will make way and room forever other people too, but I
• 31:34
  am here, and I'm going to show up in my way. And that's how I
• 31:38
  try to show up online. And I want other people to show up
• 31:41
  online, because I feel like we are more connected to people
• 31:48
  than things. And so when we can sit there and understand where
• 31:53
  people are coming from, other people feel more open with
• 31:56
  sharing where they're coming from, and then I can learn from
• 31:59
  them, and we can it allows vulnerability in a way that that
• 32:07
  I think would take too long for me to get to with other people,
• 32:11
  like, in other ways if I wasn't being vulnerable, you know,
• 32:13
  yeah,
• 32:14
  Casey Fatchett: I think that that you, you let people know.
• 32:19
  It's like, I don't use the term safe space, but like, like that,
• 32:22
  that you're okay. Like that you're okay. Like you, by
• 32:26
  putting it out there, you are letting people know, like, it's
• 32:30
  okay to share this with me. It's okay to talk about these things
• 32:34
  with me. If that is the like you are, this community of people
• 32:38
  who feel like minded or whatever. Like, you are welcome
• 32:41
  here. You're welcome to share your story. Come on in, you
• 32:45
  know, like, follow if you want to. If not, you can just watch.
• 32:49
  And like, that's the other thing. It's like, yeah, if
• 32:52
  people who are just observing these things, like, and there
• 32:55
  are times when I've seen a post, any social media platform,
• 32:59
  whatever, there's times where it's like, that has affected me
• 33:03
  personally, like, on some level, and I may not like, interact
• 33:06
  with it, because I just don't want to, like, I'm not feeling
• 33:09
  it at that point, like, I want to put myself out there at that
• 33:12
  moment in the comments and be like, Hey, this is what was
• 33:15
  going on with me. But I know that that is someplace I can go.
• 33:21
  Yeah, I can go back to and be like, hey. It's like, I know
• 33:26
  that this is a, this is sharing this type of information. I have
• 33:31
  to anxiety, depression, it's, this is a chemical. Yeah, it is.
• 33:39
  But it's the isn't it? But yeah, that's like, it's a chemical
• 33:45
  thing. And like, I was talking to a friend who had gone to
• 33:50
  therapy for the first time and been dealing with depression,
• 33:54
  and was like, you know, several months through therapy wise,
• 34:01
  like their therapist and said, like, Oh, do you want to
• 34:03
  continue? You seem to be doing really well. Do you want to
• 34:06
  continue doing this? And they had said to me, like, I know you
• 34:09
  do therapy, you go to therapy. And I'm very open about it. I
• 34:13
  think everybody should probably be in therapy. But was the the
• 34:17
  whole thing of like, well, for me it's not a matter of like,
• 34:21
  oh, it's gonna be better enough. You know, after like, six months
• 34:26
  or whatever of going to therapy, this is a constant thing, and
• 34:30
  it's just something like, Yeah, I'm just letting them know,
• 34:33
  like, I'm happy for you that you worked out whatever your issue
• 34:37
  was. But like, you know, for me, it does. And he was very like,
• 34:43
  like, well, thank you for sharing that with me. Yeah, I
• 34:46
  feel like that's like, Yeah, this is just, this is who I am.
• 34:49
  And like, the anxiety doesn't just go away, but like, like,
• 34:54
  our connection as friends has become deeper because of that
• 34:58
  sharing of information.
• 35:00
  Linda Alida: Education, they you have a relate like you've shared
• 35:04
  experience. It's that shared experience, like, seriously, and
• 35:07
  there are so many shared experiences that we all have. We
• 35:11
  are the human experiences is. We like to think about it as being
• 35:15
  very unique, but it is. It is very similar across the board
• 35:18
  for a lot of us, and we forget that we feel so alone all the
• 35:22
  time, and by sharing, you can find other people, and it's just
• 35:27
  it's so much more comforting to know that I'm not alone. You
• 35:31
  know, it just feels good,
• 35:33
  Casey Fatchett: and it's a matter of being vulnerable, I
• 35:36
  think, which I think is hard for a lot of people to do online,
• 35:42
  because it can be a cold, cruel world on the internet.
• 35:47
  Linda Alida: So mean, no one cares, Linda, no one cares
• 35:53
  talking about it.
• 35:54
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, don't. Don't talk about it. I had a
• 35:59
  it's, it's hard because, like, Yeah, I'm part of my anxiety.
• 36:06
  It's, which is weird because I was a theater person, and, you
• 36:09
  know, like, performed a lot, and now there's sort of a as I've
• 36:15
  gotten older, the anxiety has creeped into, like, putting
• 36:18
  myself out there, like, just visually, or whatever, there's
• 36:22
  some body image issues, and I did a reel on Instagram. Gotta
• 36:31
  be a two years ago. Now, maybe they went viral and got like,
• 36:35
  millions of views, millions of views, hundreds of 1000s of
• 36:41
  likes, but like, the two or three jerks who like, came in
• 36:45
  there and would be like, You should lose some weight, or
• 36:48
  whatever it's like, and that just like makes me like, but I'm
• 36:52
  like, No, I've got to be like, there's so much positivity out
• 36:57
  here. And by being open and vulnerable. And, you know, like,
• 37:03
  I have forged all of these new connections, and there's a lot
• 37:07
  more positive coming in. I mean, how do you personally, like,
• 37:12
  deal with being vulnerable online, and it can help us
• 37:18
  connect more with like, deeply with with people. But how do you
• 37:21
  feel about like making like opening yourself up in that way?
• 37:27
  Linda Alida: I mean, it's terrifying every single time I
• 37:29
  do like, it's to be fair, like, even with threads, you get the
• 37:33
  watered down version. Because I do, I use glass dot photo. It's
• 37:38
  like my favorite little place to hide and stuff it at my account
• 37:41
  is locked down, so you do have to pay if you want to go and see
• 37:44
  that, not me. So I'm not making any money off this. I have,
• 37:48
  like, I seriously, just that's where I hear diary. But like, in
• 37:51
  practice, what I want to say sometimes, because some of the
• 37:56
  topics that I talk about are really, really like spot stirs,
• 38:03
  like child support and abuse and like parental neglect. It's,
• 38:12
  it's really hard. It's talk about heavy, because people have
• 38:18
  their own ideas of what happened, even like they expect
• 38:23
  that you're going to be hiding something or telling the tale in
• 38:26
  a way that makes you look better, you know, like you're
• 38:30
  not going to tell me everything. You're going to you're going to
• 38:33
  make yourself look the best you can. And I try to strip all of
• 38:37
  that away. I i get to the deepest cores of my like, back
• 38:43
  of my mind, the fears, the thoughts, the it is incredibly
• 38:51
  vulnerable and it's terrifying, but I get a lot of confidence in
• 39:00
  my art, when I do so and I get confidence in who I am as a
• 39:04
  person, I get a lot of support from other people who have felt
• 39:09
  the same way but don't know how to express it, or have been
• 39:12
  through similar situations. And honestly, I'm so grateful for
• 39:17
  those people, because, like, true, like, it is really hard,
• 39:20
  especially when people, like, I said, say, literally, on my
• 39:23
  post, no one cares. Like, you're just doing this for the
• 39:26
  attention. Yeah, and I'm not, I really am not, like,
• 39:31
  Casey Fatchett: you want to, like, really. I mean, people are
• 39:37
  like, Oh, you're doing this retention. There's, there's a, I
• 39:41
  feel like there's a number of, any number of reasons you could
• 39:44
  be doing the catharsis. There could be like, you know, just
• 39:48
  like, so someone else hears what's going on. Like, there's,
• 39:54
  there's like, a need to be seen, or to to matter, to like, to
• 39:57
  have it out there. Somewhere in the world that somebody else
• 40:02
  knows what's going on,
• 40:06
  Linda Alida: huge and honestly, well, and also, as a
• 40:08
  communications major, like, I don't I had to go through this
• 40:12
  whole like process to in the beginning of like, is there
• 40:14
  anything wrong with attention seeking? And there was a lot of
• 40:17
  times where a lot of my posts have been focused on me trying
• 40:21
  to accept the fact that I'm an attention seeking human who
• 40:24
  needs business, and if you want to succeed within this industry,
• 40:28
  I am going to have to ask for your attention. So that is
• 40:32
  separate from me, like kind of like spewing my emotional trauma
• 40:37
  to a certain extent, but I had to go through this whole process
• 40:43
  of, is there anything wrong with with getting attention from
• 40:48
  other humans, and is Is it okay to be in this world as this
• 40:53
  person? And I finally came to the conclusion that you are not
• 40:56
  required to come to my page. I am not forcing you to come and
• 41:00
  read what I'm saying. I'm not asked like you are showing up
• 41:05
  there, because you've found however or whatever I am not
• 41:09
  coming on your posts and like spewing, I am sharing. So
• 41:12
  welcome to my thoughts. Welcome here. It's really helping me. I
• 41:17
  hope it helps you, but you, it's not meant for you, which I that
• 41:22
  also pissed people off when I said that, because, like, people
• 41:25
  didn't understand it, like they thought I was just trying to be
• 41:28
  like a bitch and like, you know, push people away. And I'm like,
• 41:31
  no, no, I am doing this for me, but I'm also sharing it because
• 41:37
  I also need that for me.
• 41:40
  Casey Fatchett: Well, just meaning, it's not performative.
• 41:43
  It's this is my way of releasing this of what's inside me, and I
• 41:48
  think that there's that sort of openness. Is people are unused
• 42:01
  to it. In a lot of ways, I think that there's a lot of people who
• 42:05
  are just like, Oh, you must be doing this for attention. Or,
• 42:08
  you know, this is, who knows what this is like, No, this is
• 42:12
  me just speaking about what's going on with me. And, yeah, I
• 42:20
  think that there's a lot that there's a lot to be gained from
• 42:24
  that. There's like, like, you said, I'm not forcing anybody to
• 42:28
  come and be part of this. You can choose to be a part of it or
• 42:33
  not. Like, that's that's entirely on you. You don't have
• 42:36
  to. You don't have to, like it. You don't have to, you know, as
• 42:42
  we used to do back in the old days, you can always turn the
• 42:44
  channel. You can always change the channel, dial it down, find
• 42:49
  another station to go to. If this is what you what your cup
• 42:54
  of tea is.
• 42:56
  Linda Alida: There's millions of options out there, tons of them
• 42:59
  and like, that's the thing is, you can't please everybody. I
• 43:02
  don't want to and not and that's the other to a certain extent,
• 43:06
  people are entitled. They think that the world and content is
• 43:09
  created for them, which I mean to a certain like, I do direct
• 43:13
  my content to, like, talk to, you know, a specific person,
• 43:17
  kind of, like, I'm but
• 43:19
  Casey Fatchett: it's marketing
• 43:22
  Linda Alida: but I can't please everyone, so obviously it's
• 43:25
  going to talk to a specific person that might not be you,
• 43:28
  and there is nothing wrong with that. And when people sit there
• 43:30
  and tell me that they don't like what I'm creating, I'm like,
• 43:33
  okay, then it's not for you. What do you want me to say? You
• 43:36
  want me to apologize? Like I'm not going to sorry, yeah, sorry
• 43:40
  for nothing.
• 43:41
  Casey Fatchett: Sorry. They, well, they, they're surprised
• 43:44
  that you're not like they get mad putting it you don't think
• 43:48
  I'm the most important person around your who you who did not
• 43:54
  know I existed until I came and commented on your thing that you
• 43:59
  put out into the world and telling you that I didn't, I
• 44:02
  didn't like it. They're experts on me, right? Aren't you going
• 44:06
  to change everything that you do and change your personal self to
• 44:10
  accommodate me? That kind of gets like social media can be,
• 44:21
  you said, as a community, it can be both supportive and lift you
• 44:29
  up rising tide, all those wonderful things, but it can
• 44:33
  also be challenging, like super challenging. And how do you are
• 44:38
  there any particular ways that, like, it has been unexpectedly
• 44:43
  either or both of those things for you.
• 44:47
  Linda Alida: So I kind of like told you in the pre interview
• 44:52
  thing about Johnson Thorpe telling me that I was autistic
• 44:54
  at WPPI, we were on a photo walk, and I don't even know how
• 44:58
  it came up, but he was like. Looking at me, and I was like,
• 45:01
  What are you doing? Like, why are you calling me out? That
• 45:06
  forced a little bit of a journey, because I'd been like,
• 45:08
  sort of like, working through it in my own mind, because threads
• 45:11
  really opened my eyes to some of the behaviors that I might have.
• 45:16
  So that kind of threw me off. And that was a fun journey where
• 45:21
  I, like, had to start talking about it and, like, learning,
• 45:24
  okay, maybe some of the stuff that I'm doing might be coming
• 45:27
  from a different place than what I had originally had thought.
• 45:31
  There was also just a moments where, like, I've had fights
• 45:34
  with people on social media, like other photographers, where,
• 45:39
  like, that's really just, like, it feels really crappy when the
• 45:44
  community and you aren't getting along, like there was, there's
• 45:47
  actually one of somebody that you interviewed that blocked me,
• 45:51
  like, really early on in the threads thing, because I think
• 45:54
  that they thought that I was one of those people that was trying
• 45:57
  to, like, glom on or whatever. And I, oh, my God. I felt so
• 46:01
  guilty and awful, and I was like, What did I do? And I had
• 46:05
  to, like, really think about what I was like, doing online,
• 46:09
  and like, what it like appeared like I was doing that was hard,
• 46:15
  but like, they came back, they unblocked me later, but I still
• 46:19
  don't know what happened there, but I don't really care at this
• 46:24
  point. It's just it was, it was hard taking that moment of how
• 46:32
  much does this matter to me? Because I don't really know
• 46:35
  them, and I don't really like and just because they are really
• 46:39
  big in the community and leaders and stuff. Does it matter if
• 46:44
  I'm, you know, being excluded by this person? Actually, I found a
• 46:48
  whole community of people who were excluded by him, and we all
• 46:51
  banded together, and we became the underdogs, and we would just
• 46:54
  kind of like laugh about it, because it was just so funny to
• 46:57
  watch him block all these people while claiming community. So it
• 47:01
  created my own little community.
• 47:03
  Casey Fatchett: So you found, you found the outcasts group,
• 47:08
  Linda Alida: and I like the outcast group. The Outcast group
• 47:11
  is more fun, yeah.
• 47:13
  Casey Fatchett: I mean, that's always kind of the one that I've
• 47:16
  been a part of from since I was a teenager, the lurking on the
• 47:25
  outside, like, when I go to a conference or workshop or
• 47:29
  something, and I'm always sort of like the person, like,
• 47:32
  leaning up against the wall at the back, kind of like, and I'll
• 47:37
  say something, because I don't know, Is this was growing up
• 47:41
  sort of thing that a very deep voice and it carries, and so I
• 47:46
  would turn into a whole other thing, because I would mumble,
• 47:50
  because I was, like, speaking under my breath, because I
• 47:52
  didn't want to be heard. But like, the few people who were,
• 47:55
  like, closest to me could always could hear what I say, and then,
• 47:58
  you know, like, and I'm a smart ass is just the make make some
• 48:02
  sort of sarcastic comment about something, and the people around
• 48:05
  me would like chuckle and laugh. I'm like, well, you're giving it
• 48:08
  away. Don't, don't laugh, because, like that, I'm going to
• 48:11
  draw attention to myself, which is what I'm really trying not to
• 48:15
  do. But, like, that's end up finding that sort of thing in
• 48:21
  person where I have, like, some social anxiety, it's much easier
• 48:26
  for me to deal with people online at least first and like,
• 48:29
  get kind of, like, break the ice a little bit. And I always tell
• 48:33
  people like, you know, once I get to know you and feel
• 48:36
  comfortable with you, I'm an open book. I will tell you
• 48:39
  anything, but if I have not met you, like, it's really hard for
• 48:43
  me to, like, go up to people I don't know and say anything to
• 48:48
  them. So, like, you know, making connections at workshops and
• 48:51
  conferences is really hard for me, and I usually find that when
• 48:55
  it has when it happens is because I made a joke about
• 48:57
  something, and they kind of like, Oh, that was funny. And
• 48:59
  then we connect on being that, sort of, like, having that
• 49:03
  similar sense of humor, or being on the, you know, the outside
• 49:08
  looking in sort of thing and, like, make that connection that
• 49:11
  way.
• 49:13
  Linda Alida: I got really lucky with WPPI. That was my first
• 49:16
  year, actually the only year I've gone. But a girlfriend that
• 49:19
  I was there with got drunk and walked up to David hakamaki and
• 49:23
  introduced herself, and then walked away and left me to talk
• 49:27
  to him. And I was like, hey. So we started talking photos, and I
• 49:32
  showed him an image that I had been like posting on glass, and
• 49:36
  he said, You need to turn it upside down when you're looking
• 49:39
  at the photo like that. Take a moment just turn it upside down
• 49:43
  and look at it in a different direction. And then he started
• 49:47
  talking about the light like, you know, like light has the
• 49:51
  zero to 255, whatever. And so the fact that I knew that fact,
• 49:54
  and knew how to, like, adjust that within Photoshop and
• 49:57
  everything, he was like, oh, you know your stuff. Yes, and I,
• 50:01
  that's when he was, like, so now we're besties. And he took me
• 50:04
  around and, like, I got to go, like, he introduced me to
• 50:06
  Lindsay Adler and Jonathan Thorpe. And he, like, lit, like,
• 50:09
  the owners of Fundy, like, I he took me to Cliff Mautner is now
• 50:14
  on my friends list. Like, it's been really fun. It was really
• 50:19
  fun. But, like, I got Johnny, creative, Johnny, Edward, yeah,
• 50:23
  yeah. That was so much fun. So but like, that's how I ended up
• 50:27
  getting to meet all those people. But it was so like,
• 50:30
  random and by chance and like, people should just start going
• 50:35
  up to people and introducing yourself, but it's too scary to
• 50:37
  do. That is,
• 50:39
  Casey Fatchett: I mean, like and like I said, people like, people
• 50:42
  who know me find it really hard to believe, because they're
• 50:46
  like, how can What do you mean? Like, you're like, you know, the
• 50:49
  person will go up and do karaoke before anybody else, or, you
• 50:53
  know, will go up and, like, you used to get up on stage in front
• 50:55
  of 1000s of people and and like, Yeah, but there's something so
• 51:00
  much more intimate about going up to someone you don't know and
• 51:05
  being like, pay attention to me. I think that's the thing that
• 51:09
  they could really talk about. Being open like that almost made
• 51:12
  me feel like weepy. Like even saying it was just like, it's
• 51:15
  like, Oh, hey, you know, like, do I matter to this person? Do I
• 51:19
  like that? And that's like, that's the fight that's always
• 51:21
  happening, you know, waiting for me is it going up to somebody
• 51:25
  and be like, Hey, my name is Casey. Like, I like, I'm hoping
• 51:29
  we make it happen. You know, we keep going back and forth,
• 51:32
  because scheduling something like Joe McNally is supposed to
• 51:35
  be coming on the show at some point, because I met him at a he
• 51:39
  was doing a workshop near me, and, you know, great workshop,
• 51:44
  whatever. I was walking outside as he happened to be like,
• 51:48
  loading his truck. And I was like, I'm gonna, like, go up and
• 51:51
  say hi and like, say Hey, you wanna come on the show? And he
• 51:54
  was like, super nice. It's like, very sweet. Then it was like,
• 51:59
  Yeah, let's, let's. We've been, like, going back and forth via
• 52:02
  email, but he's like, constantly out of the country and like, you
• 52:05
  know, I've got these three workshops like that are coming
• 52:07
  up that are all in a row, and like, trying to he just keeps
• 52:07
  writing me back, going, like, I have not blown you off, which,
• 52:13
  right there is, like, a super nice thing. But you know, it was
• 52:16
  such a that was such a moment for me to be like, Oh yeah, I
• 52:21
  can walk up to people and just say hi. It's still hard, but
• 52:25
  like, finding that it's scary.
• 52:27
  Linda Alida: And I know that I have a personality that reads
• 52:31
  outgoing and energetic, but I have so much social anxiety too.
• 52:35
  Like, seriously, that's I read personality online as energetic,
• 52:40
  and if you meet me in person, I will probably put on that
• 52:43
  energetic show. But, like, it's hard and difficult, and I have
• 52:48
  to, like, psych myself out, like, completely.
• 52:51
  Casey Fatchett: This takes me a total different like, there's
• 52:53
  sort of a you put on a, I don't want to call it a mask, but it's
• 52:57
  like, there's a persona that you put on sometimes to try to like,
• 53:02
  you know, and I feel like doing weddings. It's not necessarily a
• 53:06
  persona, but it like there is a more energetic version of myself
• 53:11
  that I that I bring to weddings, because I need to be able to
• 53:17
  take charge as, like the lead photographer. I need to be able
• 53:20
  to all these things that need to happen. If I'm a second shooter,
• 53:23
  I'm like, I'm like, in my like, Hey, this is great. I don't have
• 53:27
  to do anything to stand over the corner talk to anybody. Like,
• 53:31
  it's usually for a friend of mine. So it's like, we're, you
• 53:33
  know, like having our, you know, little coffee clutch in the, you
• 53:37
  know, in the downtime, whatever.
• 53:42
  Linda Alida: Doesn't it feel like a performance? It feels
• 53:44
  like because, literally, I mean, like, I changed it, obviously,
• 53:46
  to suit the people, but like, I'm going through the exact same
• 53:50
  motions. I mean, it depends on the wedding and everything, but
• 53:53
  you have every at a certain point it becomes formulaic, or
• 53:59
  an act of almost, like, just like, not like, I'm in the
• 54:02
  moment, but like, I don't know there's, does that make sense?
• 54:06
  Casey Fatchett: I understand what you're saying. And it's
• 54:08
  funny because, like, I just did an interview with Susan
• 54:11
  stripling, who's the wedding photographer, and we're both
• 54:16
  theater people, and we were talking about, like, you know,
• 54:20
  why do you think there's so many theater people in weddings, not
• 54:25
  just photography, but photography, but, like, wedding
• 54:25
  planners, makeup artists, all the things. And we were saying,
• 54:27
  like, well, there's, there is a performative aspect. It is very
• 54:30
  much like theater in a way. Yeah, because there's a
• 54:35
  structure, usually, like a two or three act structure, where
• 54:39
  you're like, Okay, so this is what's happening first. Then
• 54:42
  it's this. And it all like, it's not exactly the same, but it's
• 54:46
  very similar to all the other ones that you do. Like two
• 54:49
  people are going to say their vows and whatever. Then there's
• 54:52
  most likely going to be food and some sort of celebration.
• 54:55
  Afterwards, there is a getting ready portion of the day. Like
• 54:57
  there's these three distinct. Yeah, periods that you know you
• 55:02
  may have less or more depending on what their personal
• 55:06
  preferences are, but there is that sort of, like, I am playing
• 55:11
  a character aspect to that, like as well and but it's we were
• 55:15
  talking about like a you practice, you can practice, and
• 55:18
  you can get prepared, and you can have your lists of all the
• 55:21
  things that are going on, but then on the day of like,
• 55:24
  anything can go wrong, and you have to improvise and be like,
• 55:27
  you know, go with that. But yeah, there is a I would say
• 55:32
  that, that on weddings, people get the like, I said, the best
• 55:35
  version of myself, but the most caring version of myself,
• 55:41
  because I like my not to say that I don't care generally, but
• 55:45
  like, I think that I'm a people pleaser, and I'm doing my best
• 55:51
  to make sure that everyone is taken care of, especially the
• 55:56
  couple and where I'm saying, like, I am here for you. You can
• 56:01
  give me the high sign, like you need some time to yourselves. I
• 56:04
  will throw myself on the grenade of your like your crazy aunt who
• 56:09
  wants to make the whole day about herself. I will take that
• 56:14
  explosion. I will do that like these. You know, there's there's
• 56:18
  I will do whatever my clients need me to do, and that is not
• 56:20
  necessarily like, a how I'm like, just in mid general life,
• 56:20
  I, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go over there and I'm
• 56:25
  gonna say to that lady, hey, leave those people alone. Stop
• 56:30
  complaining. You know that. That's not you know, but you
• 56:34
  know, as my clients, I become, you know, done weddings. You're
• 56:39
  a therapist, you're comedian, you're, you know, 1800 different
• 56:43
  things to these, like this couple and their families. And
• 56:46
  you're not just, like, standing around going click the whole
• 56:50
  time.
• 56:51
  Linda Alida: Well, you just have your like, you said, so like you
• 56:54
  went through it. I have the exact same thing that I tell my
• 56:57
  clients. I'm here for you today, anything that you need, anything
• 57:00
  that you want. I'm here to, like, help make sure that that
• 57:02
  happens for you, and, like, take care of it. There's no anxiety
• 57:06
  today. Like, I was like, There's that's one of those. Like, I
• 57:09
  have these little one liners that, like, I will use with all
• 57:12
  of my clients, but I know my role to play throughout the day.
• 57:16
  And I know, you know I was listening to your episode with
• 57:18
  brandy, and it's like, I know when I'm supposed to be there. I
• 57:21
  know when I'm not supposed to be there. I know when I'm supposed
• 57:26
  to, you know, go and push like you said that that crazy ant out
• 57:30
  of the way, because he will get that on weddings. There's, you
• 57:33
  know, I know when dad is peeing in the bushes at the ceremony
• 57:37
  site. And I will, you know, subtly take care of that stuff
• 57:40
  so that my clients don't have to worry about it and everything.
• 57:43
  Because, you
• 57:44
  Casey Fatchett: know, yeah, it's like, oh, I can. I can tell when
• 57:47
  people are like, I need a break. So I will go up to them and be
• 57:52
  like, Hey, can I pull you guys aside for like, a minute, take
• 57:52
  some photos, and then get out of the way of everybody else and be
• 57:52
  like, we don't need to take any pictures. You guys just need a
• 57:58
  minute. How did you know? Like, I couldn't tell that's my job.
• 58:03
  That's part of my job is to, like, you know, see that those
• 58:06
  things are happening. And like, you know, you learn. The more
• 58:10
  you do it, the more you know. And like, sometimes people are
• 58:13
  just really, really good. I find that people were successful in
• 58:17
  that realm. I think in most realms of photography, you have
• 58:21
  to be able to read people. And whether you're like you know,
• 58:28
  whether that is marketing yourself or whatever you is, a
• 58:31
  better you are able to read people that generally, the more
• 58:34
  quote, unquote, successful you will be, because you can, you
• 58:38
  can understand their needs. Some people use that for evil. I
• 58:42
  think some people, I
• 58:42
  Linda Alida: think it's psychology, like, a lot of it is
• 58:45
  psychology like people are like, when you understand people and
• 58:49
  like your journalism background and like theater background, you
• 58:53
  have to get into the minds the people that you are
• 58:56
  interviewing. You have to get into the minds of the people
• 58:59
  that you are playing and which means that you have to
• 59:01
  understand what they're going through, and you have to
• 59:03
  understand what you can do as a person to like help them through
• 59:07
  that. And so when you have that understanding, you can all it's
• 59:12
  not even a thought. I don't even think about it these days. It's
• 59:14
  just like I know what I need to do to take care of you in that
• 59:17
  moment, because I know psychologically, this is what we
• 59:20
  is best for you, and it's going to help me in the end, to get
• 59:23
  what I need. And I think a lot of people don't realize that
• 59:28
  most of it in psychology, like getting people into that moment,
• 59:34
  the
• 59:35
  Casey Fatchett: term we're looking for there is empathy,
• 59:38
  yeah, being able to be empathetic and understand what
• 59:43
  other people are feeling and get into their mindset. Is how you
• 59:48
  better serve them, how you better like, I tell people,
• 59:52
  like, if you were dealing with clients in any way at all,
• 59:55
  you're in a service industry, you are providing something for.
• 1:00:00
  That person, whether it's it's not just photos. Usually it's
• 1:00:03
  like, there's, there's some sort of experience that they want to
• 1:00:10
  get out of this. And that's why people are like, I want to be a
• 1:00:10
  luxury wedding photographer. I'm like, do you even know what that
• 1:00:10
  means? Because there's that that means a whole other thing. It's
• 1:00:14
  not just getting paid more money, it's providing a whole
• 1:00:17
  different kind of service that for your clients, and
• 1:00:23
  understanding whether or not those are the are those the
• 1:00:25
  people you want to be dealing with, but also like
• 1:00:27
  understanding whether that or not that's the like I have done,
• 1:00:33
  very pricey, whatever you want to call it, like luxurious in in
• 1:00:38
  budget weddings. But I am not a luxury wedding photographer, and
• 1:00:42
  nor were they looking for what I would term luxury wedding
• 1:00:46
  photography, because that's a different thing. They were
• 1:00:49
  looking for someone who like, connects with people on a
• 1:00:52
  personal level, and is for me, it's about bringing out their
• 1:00:57
  personality and who they are, as opposed to coming in and being
• 1:01:01
  like, it's gonna look like this, and it's gonna like, here's this
• 1:01:04
  shot that I do at every wedding that everybody wants me to
• 1:01:07
  recreate at every wedding. Like, no, we're not doing that. We're
• 1:01:09
  gonna find something that works for you. So, yeah, that's that,
• 1:01:13
  I think that's the like people need to understand how to
• 1:01:19
  connect with other people. Like, I think that feels like the
• 1:01:23
  recurring theme of our whole conversation today is like
• 1:01:28
  making connections,
• 1:01:30
  Linda Alida: which is so funny, because like I like I said I am
• 1:01:32
  autistic, and like I have so we all have social anxiety and all
• 1:01:36
  this other stuff. It like there are so many obstacles to it that
• 1:01:41
  I don't view it as an excuse for people. Because you have you
• 1:01:45
  noticed that people get all these excuses for why they can't
• 1:01:48
  do things, and I'm like, I don't care what can you do? Tell me
• 1:01:51
  what you can do. I just don't care to hear about what you
• 1:01:54
  can't do. Tell me what you can do, and how do you do it.
• 1:01:57
  Because there are ways to overcome things, and if you can
• 1:02:01
  find actually, that's what you're telling me. When you tell
• 1:02:05
  me what you can't do is you're telling me you're not very
• 1:02:06
  creative because or that you don't want.
• 1:02:10
  Yes, and that's the thing I want people in my life who are
• 1:02:14
  looking for the solutions, who are working through the problems
• 1:02:18
  and like even though that we have these issues, we are still
• 1:02:22
  pushing through, and that's what makes us whole, people who are
• 1:02:25
  able, you know, to be connected to others.
• 1:02:27
  Casey Fatchett: Well, that kind of brings me to one of my
• 1:02:29
  questions, what advice would you give to photographers who are
• 1:02:33
  trying to use social media, which can tend to be like, hey,
• 1:02:38
  it's trends. We're going to reward a trend and try to be
• 1:02:41
  unique and true to yourself. How do you how? What advice would
• 1:02:44
  you give to photographers who are like battling with that?
• 1:02:48
  Linda Alida: I would start talking about, first of all, the
• 1:02:51
  topics that are actually important and passionate to you,
• 1:02:53
  because you can tell when people are not actually passionate
• 1:02:56
  about things, or they don't have a deep connection to it, because
• 1:03:00
  they're just talking to talk, and like you are not going to
• 1:03:04
  garner any interest when you're just talking to talk. And if you
• 1:03:08
  have an actual excitement and interest and passion about
• 1:03:11
  things, it is visceral. People can feel it, and they want to be
• 1:03:16
  around that. People like to be where the party is at. They like
• 1:03:19
  to be around smiley happy people who are having fun. And you
• 1:03:23
  don't have to be a smiley happy person, but you do have to have
• 1:03:26
  passion and want to share that and not feel like you're shaming
• 1:03:31
  other people for their choices and stuff like it's just you
• 1:03:37
  need to be your own self and get over all the other crap, and
• 1:03:42
  just be in the world, sharing passionately. And I think that's
• 1:03:46
  the thing that I want more from people is, is, let's see you.
• 1:03:49
  Let's see what drives you, and connect to other people outside
• 1:03:53
  of your your industry. Like I you'll notice that I
• 1:03:57
  specifically, I mean, I do interact with photographers, but
• 1:04:00
  I also interact with pen makers, writers, poets, potters,
• 1:04:06
  literally any kind of creative medium out there is going to
• 1:04:12
  like be more interesting to me. One, because I'm inspired by
• 1:04:15
  what they're doing, and it then informs my art. But two, I can
• 1:04:19
  have conversations about the creative aspects from a
• 1:04:22
  different perspective. But I promise you that my writer
• 1:04:25
  friends are all having imposter syndrome. They're all having
• 1:04:27
  like, you know, sales conferences thrown at them, and
• 1:04:30
  like, we can make you money and get published today and find
• 1:04:34
  your audience. And like, they're all going quick. But here's the
• 1:04:38
  thing, if they're liking your work and you're liking their
• 1:04:40
  work, they probably are going to have friends that also like your
• 1:04:43
  work, and it's like you're going to connect again.
• 1:04:46
  Casey Fatchett: Making that web of connections is, you know,
• 1:04:49
  like, and I there's a reason this is called the nerdy
• 1:04:53
  photographer. Like I am a big movie nerd, and I love comic
• 1:04:57
  books and, you know, music and all these things. And there's
• 1:05:03
  those are things I connect with as well, but it has led to
• 1:05:06
  people listen to this show who are not photographers. They just
• 1:05:09
  listen to it because they enjoy the conversations that I have
• 1:05:11
  with people. And there's just a really nerdy aspect to it. So
• 1:05:15
  it's like you making connections with people on on different
• 1:05:18
  levels, and it's not always in being true to yourself leads to
• 1:05:23
  greater connections, like stronger bonds and connections
• 1:05:26
  than rage bait stuff like, that's like, the such a huge
• 1:05:31
  trend on threads right now is just like the rage baiting,
• 1:05:34
  because people are, oh, I'm gonna get engagement. And it's
• 1:05:36
  like, for what, for what people are gonna hate you. Like, like,
• 1:05:40
  this is like, you know, or just be, like, annoyed with your what
• 1:05:44
  you do? Like, do you think that's gonna make people come
• 1:05:46
  back?
• 1:05:47
  Linda Alida: Did you see that whole fight I had with the one
• 1:05:49
  guy? Oh, my God. It was because he was just like, well, I need
• 1:05:54
  this to get engagement. And I'm like, do you though, or is that
• 1:05:57
  a story that you're telling yourself? It's crazy, right?
• 1:06:01
  Because it's, it really is lazy to sit there and just piss
• 1:06:05
  people off, which I say in the shame of, like, totally like to
• 1:06:08
  argue with people online. But like, it's just, it is lazy. If
• 1:06:12
  you cannot get people to pay attention to you without angry
• 1:06:18
  people, just for the fun of it, then there's something wrong
• 1:06:20
  with you and I have no interest in talking
• 1:06:22
  Casey Fatchett: to you. Yeah. I mean, my wife is always like,
• 1:06:24
  are you getting into fights online? Nope. She's like, No,
• 1:06:30
  you are. I can tell your body language is saying that you're
• 1:06:34
  like, furiously in your head creating a the next like reply
• 1:06:40
  to whatever they've said. The guy who wanted to change like F
• 1:06:45
  stop to like a, I don't know if you remember that like, it was
• 1:06:48
  like last week, some when we're talking is on threads, and he's
• 1:06:52
  like, we should just change the F stop to just a instead of an
• 1:06:55
  F, because, you know, we're talking about aperture, and it
• 1:06:58
  has nothing to do with f. And I was like, yeah, it does. It's
• 1:07:01
  focal length. It's an equation. It's focal length divided by the
• 1:07:06
  number that's the width of the aperture. He goes, Yeah, yeah, I
• 1:07:10
  know that. But like, You're talking like beginning
• 1:07:12
  photographers, they don't understand that. That confuses
• 1:07:15
  them. And I'm like, so they shouldn't This is not a
• 1:07:18
  difficult guy. This isn't a difficult concept to comprehend.
• 1:07:21
  They shouldn't learn about this or understand what that means.
• 1:07:25
  He's like, No, I'm just saying we should say a because we're
• 1:07:28
  talking about aperture, and it can mean the other thing, but
• 1:07:31
  like, but
• 1:07:37
  Linda Alida: debate team and an argument without evidence is an
• 1:07:40
  assertion, and your assertion is full of shit. I'm sorry. I'm
• 1:07:44
  sorry.
• 1:07:44
  Casey Fatchett: That's fine. You can swear in this nothing
• 1:07:51
  stopping you here, not on wedding days, I promise. Yeah,
• 1:07:54
  oh yeah, I try to, like, when I'm around children, whatever,
• 1:07:58
  they can talk less like a sailor. The Yeah, but it's just
• 1:08:04
  like, Okay, well, we should just change it on your whim, of,
• 1:08:08
  like, this will be easier. Like, no, it's actually that. I mean,
• 1:08:13
  it's, it's not easier. It doesn't make any sense what
• 1:08:17
  you're talking about. Just because, like, I think it should
• 1:08:21
  be this letter instead of, you know, an F. I'm like, What are
• 1:08:27
  you getting out of this? Like, what do you think? Again, it's a
• 1:08:30
  certain way. What engagement Are you truly getting? You're just,
• 1:08:34
  like, making people angry or upset or like, to get your what?
• 1:08:41
  50 interactions? Um, some posts that people are,
• 1:08:45
  Linda Alida: which can we talk about? Like, I seriously, I
• 1:08:47
  really just want to yell at the Internet and be like it like I
• 1:08:50
  was hitting over a million views monthly there. You know what it
• 1:08:53
  didn't do for me, get me more clients or business like it
• 1:08:55
  definitely connected me to other people. But like you said it,
• 1:08:58
  when you're hitting that kind of an audience, all it does is
• 1:09:01
  bring in the people who yell at you and shame you, and it's not
• 1:09:05
  you're not connecting with the quality of the people that you
• 1:09:09
  were when you're at the smaller one. So I have definitely pulled
• 1:09:14
  back my presence online on threads, just because I prefer
• 1:09:18
  this quieter less. You know, seen thing, which is, I know,
• 1:09:23
  especially because I'm like, right in the beginning of my
• 1:09:26
  wedding career and everything, but like, I need to be seen. But
• 1:09:29
  I just, I don't care. Like social media is not where I'm
• 1:09:32
  going to find my clients, or at least not on threads.
• 1:09:34
  Casey Fatchett: Well, I think that the the difference there is
• 1:09:37
  that you have to in this is like, what a tale is old as
• 1:09:44
  time. Who are you trying to talk to? Who are you trying to
• 1:09:48
  attract? Like, I see all these photographers who, like, post
• 1:09:52
  these, like rage baby things, and you know, are doing all this
• 1:09:57
  stuff, or, like, talking poorly about clients. Clients. Why are
• 1:10:01
  you talking poorly about clients on, like, leave that stuff for
• 1:10:05
  your in person. Conversations with your friends. If you're,
• 1:10:07
  like, really upset about something that somebody did,
• 1:10:10
  unless this person did something, you know, borderline
• 1:10:12
  criminal or whatever, like, I would most likely leave it out
• 1:10:16
  of the public forum. But you'll see these people like, Oh my
• 1:10:19
  gosh. Can you believe like this client, and they're like, show
• 1:10:21
  pictures, like from the wedding or whatever it wasn't I'm like,
• 1:10:25
  What is What do you like? What message are you sending to
• 1:10:28
  future clients that if you don't like me or you don't like this
• 1:10:33
  isn't the perfect situation for you, that you're going to try to
• 1:10:36
  shame me online. Like this is like, he is like, it goes both
• 1:10:40
  ways. Where you have the people complain about the clients who
• 1:10:42
  are like, Oh, they wanted their money back, or they wanted this
• 1:10:45
  blah, blah, blah, how are you better? By like, then, like,
• 1:10:50
  shaming people, like showing their pictures and being like,
• 1:10:53
  Oh, can you believe they chose this for their wedding? And I'm
• 1:10:56
  like, what?
• 1:10:58
  Linda Alida: Well, we've always heard that thing. Like, you
• 1:11:00
  know, the big gossip in town, you don't share your, you know,
• 1:11:04
  your personal information with the big gossip because, you know
• 1:11:07
  it's going to go everywhere. It's like, it's the same thing.
• 1:11:10
  If you're gossiping about your clients online, do you think
• 1:11:13
  that they're going to want to come to you? Like, it's just,
• 1:11:16
  yeah, not going
• 1:11:17
  Casey Fatchett: to happen. Yeah. And it's like, Who are you
• 1:11:20
  trying to attract? And it's like, there's a reason that
• 1:11:22
  this, the clarity photographer is separate from my business. I
• 1:11:28
  talk differently to my clients than I do when I'm trying to
• 1:11:32
  talk to photographers. I'm not gonna talk about the same
• 1:11:34
  subjects. And that's one of the things that's always like, kind
• 1:11:37
  of like, boggled my mind that they're like, photographers who
• 1:11:39
  are just like, I'm gonna have this whole like, it's also still
• 1:11:42
  just me, and it's the same account where I'm, like, trying
• 1:11:45
  to get people to hire me, where I'm also gonna talk about the
• 1:11:47
  needs of photographers. And it's like, but what are your
• 1:11:51
  potential clients gonna come here and, like, they see you
• 1:11:53
  trying to sell to other photographers? Yeah, it's why
• 1:11:57
  aren't you paying, like, doing the job that you're getting
• 1:12:00
  hired for as a photographer for, like, your clients, instead of
• 1:12:03
  like, doing that. Why are we? Why am I here? Why am I hearing
• 1:12:07
  all of this talk about photographers? Which is why I
• 1:12:10
  was like, I gotta keep it when I started one, I was like, Nope,
• 1:12:12
  it's gonna be separate. It's a different thing. It is not like,
• 1:12:15
  where I talk to clients about, you know, like, what they need
• 1:12:20
  to understand from you know, me as a corporate photographer or
• 1:12:24
  wedding photographer, portraits, whatever I'm doing, I'm not
• 1:12:27
  talking to the same audience, yeah, but I see that a lot from
• 1:12:32
  people who are just like, I'm gonna, like, try to get all this
• 1:12:34
  attention from other photographers. And then it's
• 1:12:36
  like, you look at their account, they're like, they're trying to
• 1:12:38
  get hired by people, trying to get hired by clients.
• 1:12:41
  Photographers are not hiring you.
• 1:12:43
  Linda Alida: That's exactly it. That last last bit is what the
• 1:12:46
  photographers are not hiring you. That's like, I am not going
• 1:12:49
  to get hired by another photographer, because they can
• 1:12:52
  do what I can do. There's no freaking point in selling to
• 1:12:56
  other photographers. So sell to your clients, which is that I
• 1:13:00
  was covering my face because, like, I'm, I really do need to
• 1:13:03
  separate my landscape and print stuff from my, like, business
• 1:13:06
  side I'm working on. It's really hard. That's kind of where,
• 1:13:11
  like, that's what kind of built my threads. Stuff is a lot of
• 1:13:15
  that stuff. So it's, it's sort of helped me grow a little bit,
• 1:13:19
  but it really should get separated.
• 1:13:22
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, it's one of those things that, like, I've
• 1:13:24
  struggled with for many years, like when I started out, I was
• 1:13:27
  more of a generalist, before I got into weddings, and I sort of
• 1:13:34
  niched down to weddings. And I was like, I've still got all
• 1:13:37
  this other stuff on my website. And so I was like, Okay, I'm
• 1:13:41
  gonna redo, and I'm gonna have this stuff here, and I'm gonna
• 1:13:45
  have, like, I had a portfolio that was kind of on a hidden
• 1:13:48
  part of the website, like, so somebody came to me, or they
• 1:13:50
  were looking for something, I could send it to them. But now
• 1:13:55
  it's like, I've got it, like, I have two separate websites. I've
• 1:13:59
  got, well, kind of three. I've got one that's for wedding
• 1:14:04
  engagements, that's all it's about. And I've got one that is,
• 1:14:08
  like, corporate events portraits and like, other portraits and
• 1:14:13
  events, like, basically it's events and portrait stuff
• 1:14:16
  separate from weddings. And then I've got my, like, art stuff, so
• 1:14:20
  like, that's where I go for like, my flowers and landscapes
• 1:14:24
  and things like that that people are looking for. Just like they
• 1:14:30
  can just sit there and look at the pictures. They don't
• 1:14:32
  necessarily have to buy something, but if they want to
• 1:14:34
  buy a buy a print, they can buy a print or in the other stuff,
• 1:14:37
  keeping it separate, because people were coming to me for
• 1:14:39
  corporate gigs. Don't want to sit there and look at wedding
• 1:14:42
  photos. They're like, why am I talking Why are you talking to
• 1:14:44
  me about weddings? And I had, like, other friends who were
• 1:14:47
  doctors, who had, like, all the stuff and, like, the same
• 1:14:49
  website. Now she's like, I'm confused. If I'm a client, like,
• 1:14:52
  you have to think about who you're talking to. Like, well,
• 1:14:56
  Linda Alida: and I was talking to Ian over at demon view. Via.
• 1:15:00
  To the other day, and it's like, your website is kind of like a
• 1:15:04
  house, and that they're you get to direct, well, I guess, no,
• 1:15:07
  you're directing them through like your website, like how you
• 1:15:10
  want them to move through it. And so you have to think about,
• 1:15:13
  like, you know, what you're presenting to them, how you're
• 1:15:16
  presenting to it, and like, every, every choice that you
• 1:15:19
  make is going to help them, you know, move to, you know, from
• 1:15:25
  the welcome page to your blog or to your portfolio, that
• 1:15:29
  contacting. And as you sit there and think about your clients
• 1:15:33
  going through your website, how would you personally, you know,
• 1:15:37
  go through it and think about, what do you want them to do? How
• 1:15:41
  do you want them to move? Where do you want them to go? And then
• 1:15:44
  design it that way?
• 1:15:45
  Casey Fatchett: Yeah, you have to design the experience for
• 1:15:47
  them. Like, like, there has to be a flow. This is like, a, you
• 1:15:51
  know, like, okay, they start here, then I go here. Like,
• 1:15:55
  there's something I spent a lot of time on when I was doing my
• 1:15:58
  wedding website was like, they're going to start on this
• 1:16:01
  first page, and then there's a couple of different places they
• 1:16:03
  can go. But eventually, every page, the goal is to either move
• 1:16:08
  them to the next place along the line or to get them to reach
• 1:16:11
  out. Those are the two choices. Like, either we're going to the
• 1:16:14
  next stop on the story, or you're contacting me. Because
• 1:16:18
  eventually the goal is, you want them to contact you and, like,
• 1:16:22
  so you can, like, talk about getting hired that this, that is
• 1:16:26
  the goal. It's not just to, like, let them sit. Oh, we,
• 1:16:30
  like, I had somebody when I was, like, giving, I was doing a
• 1:16:34
  workshop for wedding photographers, and I was talking
• 1:16:38
  about, like, you know, you need to check your analytics and,
• 1:16:40
  like, see what's happening. And I was like, what's the average
• 1:16:42
  amount of time that somebody spends on your website? And I
• 1:16:46
  had this one photographer who said, like, oh, you know, I've
• 1:16:48
  got people who spend like, two hours. Like, it's like, almost
• 1:16:52
  two hours. I'm like, two hours, what? Like, who's spending two
• 1:16:55
  hours on your website? I'm like, I think that people are, well, I
• 1:17:00
  said, like, I think that you're looking at that the wrong way.
• 1:17:04
  Yeah, you don't want people sitting on your website for two
• 1:17:07
  hours because either A, they're confused, or B, they left and
• 1:17:11
  the tab is open and they are not paying attention to
• 1:17:15
  Linda Alida: Nobody's staring at your website for two hours. I
• 1:17:17
  promise you that dude, you
• 1:17:19
  Casey Fatchett: kind of want to get that down to maybe 20
• 1:17:20
  minutes at the most, so that they've gone through everything.
• 1:17:24
  They've maybe stopped and looked at a blog post. Maybe they've
• 1:17:26
  been like, gotten into the galleries, whatever. But then
• 1:17:29
  they've made their decision, you know, they've moved on to, like,
• 1:17:33
  whether we're not working to contact you. Like they shouldn't
• 1:17:36
  be. Like, the goal is not to have them on there for as long
• 1:17:40
  as possible. But like, make it confusing for them to get
• 1:17:43
  through. They should, they should always know how to get in
• 1:17:46
  touch with you. They should always, like, that should be
• 1:17:48
  like, easy to do from any page,
• 1:17:52
  Linda Alida: no obstacles. Because the more obstacles they
• 1:17:54
  have, the less likely they are to contact you. Right? Make it
• 1:17:57
  easy. Honestly, I think a lot of things that people don't think
• 1:18:01
  about. And one of the things that really changed for me was
• 1:18:06
  the golden rule of, like, treat others the way that you want to
• 1:18:08
  be treated. And that's how I run my business. Because I had no
• 1:18:12
  idea what I was doing in the beginning, and I was, like,
• 1:18:14
  trying to do what I thought a professional photographer should
• 1:18:18
  do, and they're going to, you know, do everything in this
• 1:18:20
  certain way, and respond in this certain way and all that. And I
• 1:18:23
  finally was like, I can't do this. It is making me far too
• 1:18:26
  anxious. I need to know this information, and I'm going to
• 1:18:29
  tell them that this is going to make me happy, and I want to do
• 1:18:31
  the best job that I can for them, and I'm going to just do
• 1:18:35
  what I think is going to be the best thing for them, and the way
• 1:18:39
  that I would want to be treated as a person, and that's my
• 1:18:43
  ultimate deciding factor. Now, how would I want to be treated?
• 1:18:48
  And that's how I treat my clients.
• 1:18:55
  Casey Fatchett: Hey, photographers, are you ready for
• 1:18:57
  a website? Glow up. Get supercharged with style cloud.
• 1:19:01
  Style cloud offers beautifully designed, high performing
• 1:19:03
  website templates built just for creatives like you, whether
• 1:19:07
  you're showcasing weddings, portraits or passion projects,
• 1:19:10
  you'll look as good online as your work does in print. Were
• 1:19:14
  you left high and dry and wondering what you were going to
• 1:19:16
  do with your flow themes website when the company shut down? No
• 1:19:20
  problem. Style cloud makes migrating your flow theme site
• 1:19:23
  easy. Your content moves over, no stress, no mess, plus import
• 1:19:28
  your images directly from your pic time galleries, no
• 1:19:32
  downloading, no re uploading, just seamless integration and
• 1:19:35
  stunning design. Visit nerdy photographer comm slash
• 1:19:38
  recommends slash style cloud or visit the link in the Episode
• 1:19:42
  Notes, save 15% when you use code, nerdy photo 15 at
• 1:19:47
  checkout, that's nerdy photographer. COMM slash
• 1:19:50
  recommends slash style cloud and use code nerdy photo 15 style
• 1:19:55
  cloud isn't just a template, it's a launch pad for your
• 1:19:58
  brand. Get started to. Day.
• 1:20:05
  Hey there, nerdy photo crew, there's one thing you should
• 1:20:08
  never be caught without as a professional photographer, and
• 1:20:10
  that's a good contract, both for dealing with your clients and
• 1:20:15
  dealing with subcontractors that you may work with along the way.
• 1:20:19
  Be sure to head over to nerdy photographer.com and go to our
• 1:20:22
  shop and find our contract templates for portrait
• 1:20:26
  photography, event photography, wedding photography, as well as
• 1:20:30
  dealing with second photographers, associate
• 1:20:32
  photographers and any other subcontractors you might have
• 1:20:36
  check it out and keep your business safe. You
• 1:20:45
  Hey, now for my favorite part of the show, what's that? Say?
• 1:20:51
  Useless information. This is always death. Linda.
• 1:20:58
  Do you think the cold weather can actually give you a cold.
• 1:21:03
  Linda Alida: No,
• 1:21:05
  Casey Fatchett: that's right. Cold is not caused by the
• 1:21:07
  temperature, different than you can catch pneumonia or whatever
• 1:21:12
  you can get, but like hypothermia from that. But
• 1:21:15
  they're actually colds are caused viruses, yeah, which is
• 1:21:19
  airborne. You can get the cold virus by shaking hands with an
• 1:21:23
  infected person, touching something that they have they've
• 1:21:27
  touched, like a phone, door handle. Colds are more prevalent
• 1:21:32
  during colder months because people tend to spend more time
• 1:21:36
  together, together, inside, in enclosed spaces where they're
• 1:21:40
  not people, how'd I get a cold in the summer? Is one of the
• 1:21:44
  things that people always be like, Oh, I've got a summer
• 1:21:48
  cold. Well, it's not because there's cold weather. You didn't
• 1:21:52
  get hypothermia because you didn't get hypothermia because
• 1:21:56
  of, you know, it's it's hot out. Linda, thank you very much for
• 1:22:00
  being on the show. I really enjoyed having you on. Where can
• 1:22:05
  people find you?
• 1:22:07
  Linda Alida: Thank you so much for having me. This is really
• 1:22:09
  fun. I have an Instagram, Linda, underscore, Alita underscore,
• 1:22:14
  and a website. I also threads, obviously, clearly, I like, Why
• 1:22:19
  did I start with because that's what I'm supposed to do. See,
• 1:22:23
  even I can't. But threads is really where I live and play,
• 1:22:26
  and if you want to interact with me the most, then then threads.
• 1:22:30
  But I also have a website, Linda lita.com so I
• 1:22:32
  Casey Fatchett: will include all those links in the Episode Notes
• 1:22:35
  for folks who want to connect with Linda. You're welcome back
• 1:22:40
  anytime.
• 1:22:42
  Linda Alida: Oh, thank you so much.
• 1:22:51
  Casey Fatchett: Welcome back. Many thanks to Linda Alita for
• 1:22:57
  being on the show. Be sure to check the Episode notes for
• 1:23:04
  Linda's links so you can follow along with her. While you are
• 1:23:11
  following, be sure to follow the nerdy photographer at the nerdy
• 1:23:19
  photo on all major social media platforms such as Instagram,
• 1:23:26
  threads, Tiktok, blue sky, Reddit, etc, etc. That's at the
• 1:23:33
  nerdy photo, no dots, underscores or dashes. Well, I
• 1:23:40
  get it. I say a lot of the same things over and over again, but
• 1:23:47
  it's how I deliver that information. Oh, really, yes,
• 1:23:54
  and until next time, stay safe and stay dirty. Hey, stop that.
• 1:24:01
  That's not funny. Shut it off.