My first interview is with my mentor Lucia Marecakova, a food photographer and coach, based in Turin, Italy. Lucia has left her corporate job to become a food photographer. After a few years, she created The Members Club, a place where passionate photographers learn to pursue their dreams while learning everything about photography.
She is a very passionate, kind and knowledgeable woman, willing to teach others how to pursue their photography dreams. I will be forever grateful for everything she has taught me and will teach me in the future. You can find her on Instagram www.instagram.com/foodlight.io/ The Members Club website : https://foodlight.io/members-club/ Lucia's website: https://foodlight.shop/ Questions: CC - What inspired you to start your business? LM - "Since my university times, I always wanted to have my own business. I even started a photography company, only to close it 3 months later. Wrong business partners, wrong time and place. After university, my ambition was to build a career in a corporation (human resources area). But things are different in reality than we imagine. It was after 5 years of working for a multinational, I was stuck because I didn’t want to continue working there, I couldn’t find another job, and I didn’t want to move to another town because I had just started dating my (current) boyfriend in the town I lived back then. The only option I had was to pursue a photography career and start my own business. So, I chose the relationship, as I also wanted to be flexible - whenever my partner needed to move because of his career while not sacrificing mine." CC - What is the one mistake you've made that taught you a valuable lesson? LM - "I’ve made many mistakes through the last few years, but the one I remember well was with one of my first photography clients. I skipped so many steps during the process, and it resulted in a complete failure. They even didn’t pay me and never will. There was an agency between me and the client. Back then I was a big introvert, very shy, not knowing what exactly I was doing. Looking at it now; I should have been more proactive, following every single step in the process, writing or calling the agency whenever I didn’t receive their answer within a few days; and being more pushy when the money hadn’t arrived." CC - If you were to start over, what would you do differently from the very beginning? LM - "When I think about the beginning, I wouldn’t necessarily change things. I would, however, try to focus on consistency and marketing. When I focused on growing my audience and my marketing, I was very consistent with content creation, newsletters, posting on social media, pitching to clients, and so on. Then, however, I got busy and had to stop some of the things. This is normal as when you have a business, and you are full-time there, you evaluate what you can do, and your priorities are shifting towards activities that bring you revenue. However, since that, I have never fully returned to being consistent in nurturing my audience and maintaining active contact with them. Marketing is something that doesn’t bring you revenue right now, but it shows its results in the long term." CC - What trends should aspiring/established food photographers keep an eye on? LM - "How the industry changes, styles of direction of the complexity of services that companies need. We can’t do it all and the needs of clients are growing into various services. So, what’s important is to network and create relationships with other professionals who can help you serve the client with something that you are not capable of. For example, graphic design, videography, food styling, or photography and so on. Plus, yes, AI technology is something that we constantly need to explore and include in our process to become faster at what we do. I am not talking about image-generating apps for our clients, but about certain tools in photoshop (for example), that help you retouch the image faster." CC - Can you describe a typical day in your life as a food photographer and coach? LM - "My day is not very typical for a food photographer, as most of my time goes into creating content and management of my members club, and coaching my members. I usually spend the early hours of the day on some urgent/important task; on other days, I focus on creating content for my students - organising, writing, editing lessons, etc.... Then, lunch break, quick TV series, and afternoon is dedicated to continuing on the task of the day, or some coaching calls. I usually create two block slots for each day, focusing on two tasks. Sometimes the day is full of calls, sometimes full of small different activities, and sometimes it’s all about photography and working for clients. It is very varied, and this is what I love about my job." CC - How important is it to have a coach/mentor. Should we get a mentor if we want to grow? LM - "Oh extremely. I have grown my business thanks to my business mentors I have since before I started my business. It’s extremely important as we don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time, but we can get inspired and supported and get the step-by-step process of how to build a business from them. Of course, copying business doesn’t work because you need to find your uniqueness (services); your market is different, as is your audience. But having a mentor can help you get the objective in certain situations that you can’t do yourself. So anytime I feel I am weak in some specific area, I search for a mentor who can help me improve. I know when I commit and get support there, I can learn it better and faster." CC - How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? LM - "I don’t (haha), because I love working, I am a workaholic. My personal life is my business life. I work until I can’t, and then I do some personal activities, such as a day in a spa or knitting; it resets my brain. Then, I start working a lot again. And all this repeats. I often continue working during the weekend if we stay inside our house. I literally stop working when I physically move outside my house or when I need to prepare food for guests coming 😀. We don’t have kids, so I can direct my entire focus on my business. And I don’t mind working that much, again, I love it." CC - How do you want to be remembered? LM - "I love this question, I haven't thought about it from this angle. My mission is to build a community, where food photographers can feel inspired, empowered, and supported, with the feeling of belonging to a family, because I know what it means to be lonely in my business. So, I want people to remember me as someone who helps them to do what they think is impossible, no matter if it’s creating a successful business in photography, or creating their dream food photography images as a hobby." CC - Any advice for photographers & entrepreneurs out there? LM - "Building a business is very hard and it’s a lonely journey. There are so many unknowns, but there is a solution to every challenge. My first advice is to see challenges instead of problems, and anytime you face a challenge, keep asking yourself how can I solve this? The second advice is to join a community, and get a mentor, or coach, as you don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time and alone. There is someone who is successful in what you want to do, just follow those people and learn from them. The third last (but maybe the most important) is the mindset. Work on your mindset because this is what makes a huge difference whether you succeed or not. I see this in many of my students, and I can see how the limiting beliefs affect their potential. It takes years to work on the mindset, so start immediately and believe in what you want to achieve." Thank you for your time Lucia, it was great finding out more about your journey.
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