Is the Wedding Photography Summit Worth it?
Jai Long’s Workshop for Wedding Photographers //
Is it worth paying 7$ to gain knowledge that will help you not only further grow your business but also help you grow as a person?
The answer is clearly a no-brainer! I mean, some of us spend 7$ on Starbucks.
So, yes, it is sooo worth it!
Disclaimer: I need to preface this article by saying that I am in no way being compensated to write this review. My aim is to help wedding photographers build a thriving brand and business – and one of the way that I do that is by sharing my honest opinions about workshops/summits/conferences that I have attended.
I have attended the Wedding Photography Summit each and every time since it started a year ago. After the first Summit, I was fortunate enough to get Jai on my podcast as my very first guest! Jai is business coach, educator, creative entrepreneur and photographer – yes, he does all the things! I am very grateful for him taking the time to chat with me and getting me out of my comfort zone to actually have a guest on my podcast – truly the push I needed! We talked about “The Future of Wedding Photography Workshops”. He hosted the first Summit when most of the world was on lockdown due to the pandemic – it had a massive impact on the wedding industry. As a number of workshops and conferences were being cancelled left and right, Jai decided to put on this virtual Summit to help photographers around the world navigate these challenges and provide education to help them in their businesses. To listen to our entire conversation, check out My Wedding Season – The Podcast, Episode 08.
The third installment of the Summit was held on November 23rd and 24th 2021 and the speaker line-up was insane! I just want to quickly back-up and mention that the headliner for the last Summit was GaryVee – yup, the GOAT of business and marketing (aka The Wine Guy, or most currently, the NFT dude lol)! Anyway, the speakers were incredible! I absolutley loved hearing from Chuy, whom my husband, Tim, and I had interviewed a couple of years ago on Beloved Stories – he was gracious enough to answer all our questions about “Diversity & Inclusion” in the wedding photography industry. His Summit talk was live and interactive, which made it such a fun experience!
Jasmine Star brought the house down with her intimate knowledge about the industry and her keen insights about building a brand on social media. I loved her no-nonsense approach and the way that she just states facts “I want you to take action… you cannot complain about the results you did not get, for the work that you did not do.” Do yourself a favor and read that 2x!
In terms of being inspired and being emotionally moved, Jennifer Moher and Anna (Ginger’s Eye’s) absolutely blew me away!
Here are a couple of quotes that stuck out to me:
❝I realised that having a whole bunch of likes and followers didn’t pay the bills and it wasn’t fulfilling. So I really began to slow down and I started ignoring the rat race all together. I became dedicated to deeply understanding myself and infusing parts of my own story into the stories that I told for others. And what it allowed me to do was produce work that I was finally proud of – work that my clients loved, but also work that fulfilled me.❞
– Jennifer Moher
❝Understanding yourself on a more profound level will lead you to find your own creative voice… So the idea is that your colours don’t have to be exactly the same. Clients don’t have to wear the same tones all the time. You can use colour as a protagonist as well. Meaning that it will be the main element in the picture – to set the mood; to highlight the particularities of your subjects and to reveal some important details.❞
– Anna (Ginger’s Eyes)
Asha Bailey and Jonas Peterson explained their approach to client experience:
❝Every part of your business that you can elevate and make it look a little bit better or tweak it so that it is a bit more practical, a little bit more functional for your couples and your clients. It makes the world of difference!❞
– Asha Bailey
❝I think that if you go with an amount of love and care, put yourself out of the equation, and it’s how can I care for these people? What can I do to help them both heal both today and down the line? How can I preserve these relationships for the future? For their kids? For themselves? When these people aren’t around anymore. That’s important to me.❞
– Jonas Peterson
In addition, the other speakers were Dawn Charles who taught us how to edit in Lightroom; John Branch how talked about starting a YouTube channel; Leelou who illustrated how we can add emotion on websites and of course Jai Long who provided us with insights on business and mindset.
And aaaaaallll this for just 7$!
So let me ask you: is it worth it?
Feel free to DM me on Instagram (@aidaglowik) to share your thoughts.
Cheering you on,
Aida