Keeping you accountable and on track to your goals
Running a creative business can be a lonely journey, juggling your creative drive, goals and dreams whilst figuring out how to financially support yourself and create a business from your craft.
honest and real feedback
There are endless methods and options when growing a business, and doing it alone can be confusing and daunting. Online courses and workshops are great for levelling up your education and knowledge, but it can be difficult to decide what the most pressing action to take today can be.
Mentoring
Professional mentoring is there as guidance, someone to bounce your ideas off, draw inspiration from, question and get honest feedback on whether what your doing is working, and how to best maximise your time.
90 Day Plan
Goal setting is crucial when growing a business. There should be thought and consideration put into where you put your energy, and designing a 90 day plan is powerful. Sticking to it can be hard. My 90 day mentoring plan has fortnightly sessions to help you objectively review and continue on your goals.
You need reliable and trustworthy advice
Friends & Family
They have your best interest at heart, but their default is to often encourage you to take it easy, not take the jump or the risk. I love my friends and family dearly, but historically they've not been my best mentors.
Online Courses
If you have knowledge gaps, online courses are brilliant. They're cost effective ways to educate yourself. They often lack accountability though. Their version of this is often an online group or forum to keep you accountable, with very little, if any 1:1 time with the coach.
Facebook Communities
Very limited advice in here, it's generally people who want to show off their achievements to others, or have very specific questions asked. Feedback is worth what you pay for here.
I'm Brendan, your mentor and guide
My promise to you is the acceptance and openness that your business IS different to others. I successfully left my healthcare job and scaled a multi 6-figure creative photography business which has given me the freedom to travel for 4 months with my family, pay down our house, purchase a new business, and live a life I genuinely love and a business that supports it. I'm not here to 'flex' my own achievements though, in fact, here's the truth... there's photographers out there that bring in more money, more bookings, more 'success' than me.
What I have been able to achieve is a photography & videography business that in 2024 had over 300 leads, grew an instagram account to over 24k followers & had over 33k website visitors. I have a VA that manages my admin and wedding albums, and a videographer for my filming and editing. Most importantly, the business I've built has been incredibly sustainable, needing only 20 hours a week of my time.
Instead of metrics though, I want you to think of me as your favourite high school teacher, someone who is invested in your success. I love the business I've built, but I don't have plans to scale my own creative business beyond where it currently is. I'm perfectly content. I now want to focus on helping others be their best selves and have their own business of their dreams.
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INVESTMENT
SINGLE SESSION
90 Day GOal Setter
Ongoing Mentoring
If you've got goals, but need accountability and advice to stick to them
Starting out
You need advice on how to get from 0-1. How to start, building a website, getting systems in place and how to land those first clients. This was me in 2017.
Scaling Your business
This looks different for everyone. For some it can be increasing how much you charge, increasing the quantity you shoot, or the services you offer. Over the last 3 years I've managed up to 68 weddings in a year, scaled my packages to over $10,000 each and included videography as a core offering in my business.
Starting your next 'thing'
Sounds crazy right, leaving that creative business behind? But for some, (like me) we have big dreams, and think long into the future. Navigating these challenging ideas and thoughts on your own is exhausting and the advice you get from friends and family is there to protect you, not see you grow.
What Does your dream business look like?
Having that 'dream business' is great, but planning it out on paper and taking action are very different. Think about the priorities you had a month ago compared to now. Did you action them? Are you closer to your goals? Do you have anyone to keep you accountable?
We'll build an ongoing, professional relationship of accountability. not only will our regular check ins be helpful, but it's also knowing one is only around the corner that keeps you on track.
Having someone external assess and provide feedback is so important. As a sole business owner, we don't have employees to bounce ideas off, rather we either internalise everything, or ask people who have no experience.
I'm not here to protect your feelings, I'm here to help you grow. When going to a friend or colleague for advice, they need to both give you feedback and manage a personal relationship. I hope to build a strong mentorship relationship with you, one built on transparency and honesty.
Look beyond what's due today
Being swamped and overwhelmed with what you need to do today is what holds most of us back. "I'll get to those big dreams eventually". Our mentoring sessions are designed to find out where you are now, assess your workload and look at how you can manage both, understanding that you are an individual in your workload capacity, and what you love.
It has been through having big dreams that I've been able to scale my creative business, automate a large proportion of it, then focus on scaling to my next ambitious goal, all whilst maintaining a healthy family life.
take a look at what a mentoring session looks like
Well it's different for everyone. The below list are some recorded mentoring sessions I've held with photographers over the years. Chatting through their pain points, giving ideas, and providing some advice to get them to their next step.
Konrad Brewski - How to scale in both volume and increase services offered. - Watch Here
Liam Spencer - Differentiation in a crowded market. It's one thing to make great work, but how do you differentiate yourself from others - Watch Here
Rhiley Murphy - How to define your own niche and then dominate. - Watch Here
Ajet Shehaj - Understanding client avatars & how to market directly to them. - Watch Here
Outsource this or that
It's true that a huge part of growth comes with buying back our time. I've done this in many ways. Editors, associates, virtual assistants. What works for me now wasn't what all the generic online information said would work though.
Editing is often seen as the 'lowest hanging fruit', but for me, it's something that I enjoyed. Take that away, and I lost the love of photography in general. Instead, I've worked with my VA to completely outsource my admin. I went from stressing over the emails I had to send for 3 hours a day, to not having to do it at all. If you want to scale beyond what you can manage on your own, outsourcing becomes essential. Wrong decisions can cost a lot of money though.
What's important to you?
You are an individual, and whilst generic educational content is great, it meets the needs of the 'average', it doesn't always cater to you and your needs.
Personalised Advice just for you
1:1 time is essential to break down what's important to you, and only you. We can look at your workload together and make not only the sensible decisions and plan for it, but the right one.
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Let's create that dream wedding business
The Time To Invest in yourself is today.
Doing it alone is hard. Really hard. Let's work together to focus on your goals, set clear achievable targets and keep you accountable while you grow.
Want to know if this is right for you?
Head to my instagram and send me a voice message, that's how you'll reach me directly.
