Watch the recording of our first Facebook Live video below! Or scroll down to read the transcript of the video.
After watching the video above, please respond to the questions below:
Video Outline:
INTRODUCTION
- Personal
- I’m Liz and I live in the United States in Virginia!
- Married for 11 years to my wonderful husband and we have two daughters: 7, Sunday (not ice cream shop) and 4, Izzie.
- Fun fact: I had one of my daughter’s at home, and one in the hospital. I am grateful to share that both of my births were good experiences for me. You can read both of my birth stories on my website (www.liz-cook.com)
- I have a bachelor’s degree in Communications.
- I started my photography business while still in college and I have been running it for 13 ½ years.
- I started with weddings and did very well with that for a while.
- In 2009 my older sister asked me to take pictures at the birth of her youngest baby and I was bit by the bug! I remember walking away from that experience thinking “THIS is what I was born to do!”
- I balanced weddings + birth photography for a few years until I started receiving a lot of requests from my clients to photograph their babies. I transferred my focus from weddings to babies/families and I now have a brick and mortar studio attached to my home where my primary focus has been maternity, newborn and family portraits.
- In 2016 I partnered with my dear friend Emily to start Every Birth Photographer, an online business for birth photographers where we offer digital birth photography business education resources and in-person birth photography workshops.
- Throughout the last 13 years I have been through more than a handful of challenges as a business owner…
- I have struggled with balancing birth photography while having babies
- I experienced a traumatic birth while very pregnant myself and struggling with Perinatal Anxiety
- As a result of that, I worked through the difficult decision to move from a planned home birth to a planned hospital birth.
- I have balanced birth photography while running a flourishing studio portrait business
- I found childcare countless times for my children while being on-call with a husband who traveled for work
- And there are so many other nitty gritty challenges I’ve journeyed through that come along with being an entrepreneur, a birth photographer, and someone who holds her family very closely. I know many of you can relate!
- IAPBP + Me
- At first I was hesitant, but I gave the decision some time.
- Now – I am THRILLED at this opportunity to bring my experience to this new venture.
- I told Jason & Lyndsay from the start that should this happen, I would be transitioning my business to eventually become a part time/hobby venture while focusing on making IAPBP a full time job. And I meant it. It’s going to take some time and I do not have plans to completely close my business, but I have big dreams for IAPBP and YOU.
FUTURE IDEAS & PLANS
On that note! I want to share with you all some of the ideas and possibilities I have on paper.
All of these are ideas. Nothing has been set into motion yet.
It is important to me that I remain as transparent as appropriate with you all. My main goal in the coming months/years is this:
“To re-establish a feeling of community ownership among the members of IAPBP while connecting them to one another, expectant parents, and the birth photography community.”
That said, here are a few ideas I have jotted down:
- Long Term (6 months or further)
- Brand Refresh
- Website Update / Member Database Upgrade
- Hosting meet-ups at popular photography conferences
- Nurturing a platform that brings other industry leaders together for our members (YOU) to hear about other business and educational resources available to you.
- Becoming a platform for YOU. Helping to connect you to the resources you need.
- What do you need? Lyndsay and Jason have suggested…
- Certification program
- Business education
- Trauma Processing Resources
- Short Term (within the next few months)
- Gaining your trust. Communicating with YOU and involving you in the process. This is YOUR community.
- I hope to pop into the Members’ Only Facebook Group every few weeks for a sort of “State of the Union” Live Video to keep you posted on what we are doing and what our options are for any upcoming projects.
- Please read the emails we send – I will try to keep them short and to the point!
- Learning the business:
- There are a lot of moving pieces and I am still in communication with Jason & Lyndsay on a regular basis.
- Beginning in the next couple of months we will be experimenting with social media ads to garner more attention to the site. We want to attract parents from around the world so they can find you!
- Gaining your trust. Communicating with YOU and involving you in the process. This is YOUR community.
- Already started:
- Increased activity on Instagram
- Communicate with you more frequently and openly
- Free Gift! I’ve created a Social Media Calendar for Birth Photographers
HOW YOU CAN BE INVOLVED / HELP
- Communicate with me!!
- There are many ways to do this!
- Email: membership@birthphotographers.com
- Schedule a meeting with me. Email for more info.
- Connect in the Facebook Group.
- Read the emails we send!
- Feedback! Please share!
- There are many ways to do this!
- Interact with the community!!
- Social Media: You may have seen those memes about how you can support small businesses… follow, like, comment!
- Hang out in the #birthphotogs tag and interact with your community members, too!
- Connect in the Facebook Group.
- Look out for upcoming weekly themes for image calls to share over social media!
- Look out for some fun things coming to IG stories soon 🙂
- Social Media: You may have seen those memes about how you can support small businesses… follow, like, comment!
- If you are interested in helping:
- We are looking to build a team for instagram! If you are interested in helping to spread the beauty of birth while also increasing your own instagram numbers, please reach out! Email me at membership@birthphotographers.com
- We are in need of translators and/or proofreaders who speak other languages. If you speak two or more languages fluently and are interested in being a part of moving the birth photography industry forward, please reach out!
- Call to Action: Survey
- Please fill out the super fast survey found at the top of this page!