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Brilliant Business Advice from a Yogipreneur

June 1, 2017 by Kayla Ferguson 1 Comment

Brilliant Business Advice from a Yogipreneur

Very rarely does the entrepreneurial path—or any path—take us in the direction we expect. Frustrating setbacks, unexpected breakthroughs and unanticipated turns and opportunities mark the success of every entrepreneur. Mary Haberski, an LA-based corporate and private yoga instructor, is no exception.

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A 15-year yoga practitioner, Mary moved to Los Angeles from Chicago with the intention of pursuing yoga as a full-time career. In 2013, she began to more fully develop the spiritual side of her yoga practice after completing a yoga teacher-training course in India. It was upon returning to Los Angeles after her time in India that she began to see how her yoga practice and business was going to develop.

“I moved out to California with the intention to be a yoga instructor, but to be honest I had a picture of it being a certain way; me traveling internationally, doing retreats…but it’s kind of taken a life form of its own,” Mary said about moving West. “I’m just trying to keep up with where it’s taking me.”

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Mary offers both public and private yoga instruction, working with the Los Angeles Unified School District, private schools and private clients in varying capacities. And while this is a market with a lot of potential and a place she fits very well, it wasn’t how she originally saw herself working in the Los Angeles yoga community.

“I never planned to work with children, but up until now I’ve worked with thousands of children teaching yoga and meditation,” Mary said specifically about her work with LAUSD and private schools. “I thought I would be a powerflow vinyasa teacher, and now I work with children and sometimes elderly people. My heart is a little more geared towards people who don’t believe yoga is available to them…It’s not what I had envisioned for myself but it’s been going in that direction.”

The Los Angeles yoga market is highly saturated, something that Mary says can be a roadblock to making a consistent living. In some ways though, this has worked in Mary’s favor and has allowed her to find the places that most benefit from what she has to offer as a teacher.

“What I have come to find is that I’m not a studio teacher,” Mary explained. “I prefer working with smaller groups and individuals because I can physically touch people and part of my teaching is to be in more detailed alignment and use my gifts as a healer with hands-on healing through massage and pressure points.”

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And, aside from the closer relationships she is able to develop with her clients as a non-studio instructor, she appreciates the sincerity of the clients that don’t “fit in” with the mainstream LA yoga scene. “I feel that when I’m working with kids and the elderly, while there can be resistance, there isn’t as much of an ego behind it,” Mary explained.

Since 2013, Mary has been able to create a yoga business away from the yoga studios and suggested the saturation of the LA yoga industry as an unlikely asset in defining what she has to offer.

“As a teacher no one can offer what you have to offer,” Mary explained. “Spirit moves through each of us in a unique way, especially those of us who are teachers and healers….I don’t believe that we can ever have too many teachers. People just need to start branching out into other communities and other places.”

Yoga by nature is a splendid teacher, reminding us to be patient, flexible and accepting of what comes. Yoga as a practice and a lifestyle embodies that of the entrepreneurial spirit, cultivating awareness, acceptance and an ever-changing balance of giving and receiving.

female entrepenuers

In both her business and in her life, Mary has embodied the essence of both yoga and entrepreneurship in a way that other aspiring entrepreneurs should seek to emulate. When asked what advice she would offer aspiring entrepreneurs, Mary offered some very down to Earth guidance.

“Until you are comfortable on the financial aspect solely from doing your work, don’t quit your day job. It will add more pressure, more stress and in reality stifle your creativity,” Mary said emphatically. “Don’t think you are deterring from your dreams because you are doing something else (for income). It’s actually the opposite. The universe responds to your action with more for you.”

Despite the spiritual nature of Mary’s work and lifestyle, she notes some very definite and down-to-earth lessons for aspiring female entrepreneurs.

“As women, we have to fight harder for more money and more of our value to remind ourselves that we are valuable and we are worthy of a higher price point,” said Mary, a sentiment felt by women at every professional level. “We need to expect more from ourselves. Because nobody is going to offer that to you if you don’t ask. You have to be able to ask for what you know you are worth.”

Mary admitted that this was a difficult lesson to learn, but she has benefited noticeably since putting it into practice. “Whatever it is that you are doing, nobody will do it like you do it,” she continued. “You will have doubt and worry and you will want to quit. That’s normal. You have to be patient with yourself. Go easy on yourself (and) don’t get caught up in the unicorn story. It’s rare that someone is an instant success….More than likely you will have to do a lot of work to get to where you want to go so you can become the person you need to be.”

Filed Under: Boost Profits, Featured1, HUSTLE, INSPIRE, WELLNESS Tagged With: female entrepreneurs, kayla ferguson, los angeles, wellness, yoga, yoga business

Everything You Need to Know About the Instagram Shadowban

April 21, 2017 by Ty Merkel 11 Comments

Everything You Need to Know About the Instagram Shadowban

If you are reading this article then you’ve probably heard of the next big Instagram plague— far worse than the non chronological feed debacle and a thousand times worse than the infamous Instagram purge of 2014. The shadow ban. It’s here and it will seriously wreck your precious Instagram account. Whether you’ve been affected or not, read on to discover what causes it, how you can avoid it, and how you can un-shadowban your account.

What is an Instagram Shadowban?

The Instagram shadowban is when your hashtags become unsearchable, undiscoverable, and for all intents and purposes, invisible to anyone outside of your current followers.

You can still use hashtags and from your perspective everything seems dandy. When you click through your tags, your photos pop up where they should. Although, when a stranger searches for a hashtag that’s linked to your photo, like #pnw for example, your post will be totally missing on the gallery page, while other people’s photos are still displayed.

This hashtag specific ban means you will have a difficult time gaining a following, especially if you are a smaller account. Reversely, if you have painstakingly built a fantastic profile with a large fanbase, that account might become stagnant.

How do I know if I’ve been shadow banned?

Believe it or not, some people’s accounts have been banned for months and they are just noticing. Other users notice almost immediately. The primary sign is that you’ll see a drastic drop in engagement, and upon more investigation you’ll realize that virtually all of your likes and comments are coming from your current followers.

If you’ve noticed this downward trend, then you can conduct a hashtag test. You simply put up a new post and tag your photo with an underused hashtag that doesn’t get many updates. Then while you are still on your own account, click through to the hashtag gallery and look at precisely where your photo is located.

Then log onto another account that doesn’t follow/ interact with your profile. If your hashtag pops up, congrats, your account is in the clear. Sleep easy. But if the photo doesn’t show up where it should, you might be shadowbanned.

Update: Now you can use this shadowban checker.

Why did my account get shadow banned?

So you might be asking, why? Why me? I’m not a robot, I don’t use any third party apps, I don’t post nudes —I’m a maternity photographer for goodness sake!

Instagram hasn’t acknowledged this shadowban, let alone stated what actions will land you in time out. After exhaustive research, here is what might be causing your shadowban:

#1 You are using a broken or banned hashtag

We all know that certain tags like #booty is banned. Yet, sometimes perfectly innocent hashtags get overrun with so much spam and nudity that Instagram decides to nix the entire hashtag rather than sort through the rubbish. For example, #Newyears, #Instagirl, #eggplant and even #kansas are banned tags. Also, if you incorporate one banned hashtag into your post, it can essentially poison your entire set and render you invisible on all other legit hashtag galleries.

#2 You are using the same hashtags over and over again

Do you use the same set of 30 hashtags every time you post? Do you only switch up the last tag or two? Well, that might look a little spammy, as Instagram flags any repeat comments (or captions) you post.

#3 You’ve gone on liking sprees and mass following/ unfollowing

Instagram has a limit on how many actions you can make in an hour and if you go on a spree, IG will eventually block that action and say that you can’t use that feature for a while. But even if you don’t go over the limit, Instagram might recognize these surges of engagement as an Instagram bot on a liking rampage.

#4 Other users have reported you

Anyone you interact with can report your actions to Instagram HQ, and this is the one area of IG customer service where they act swiftly. So if you have been spamming, following/unfollowing rapidly, posting nude photos, stealing photos, or posting weird comments— some people might report your inappropriate behaviour, and you could be shadow banned instead of having your account outright deleted. Also, if you have been using the following/ unfollowing method you might be following/ unfollowing the same person a bunch of times, so much that they notice and report you.

#5 Using any kind of instagram automation software

This goes without saying but any service that claims to boost your account or perform any actions on Instagram on your behalf might be sabotaging you. In simple terms, anything automated is directly against Instagram’s terms of service. But maybe you have the automation set to slow speed, to mimic human actions on IG? Well, Instagram will find out anyways, because one minute your automation service is liking photos from an IP address in Washington then a few minutes later you comment on some posts from an IP address in New York. The algorithm will immediately recognize all of that as shifty behavior.

Is this a glitch or is Instagram doing it on purpose?

Instagram has released a statement vaguely addressing the invisible hashtag issue…

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As you would guess, not many people are happy with this answer (and that’s putting it lightly).

The gist is that you should simply not lean on hashtags for growth and instead focus on other avenues, like creating good content and reaching out to potential followers. But hashtags are the main discovery mechanism on Instagram and growing your account without them is like going back to dial up internet.

Additionally, from what we’ve researched no one has personally heard back from Instagram if they reported this issue on the app. So for now, we are in the dark and at the mercy of the Instagram gods. But there are three valid theories which will help you make sense of the hysteria.

#1 Since this summer, Instagram has been changing their algorithms. Why? To crack down on automation services and Instagram bots. So one possibility is that the system is a little overzealous and is incorrectly punishing regular accounts. If this is true, the problem will be remedied when Instagram “gets the resources” and makes their algorithm smart enough to differentiate between bots and normal users, like yourself.

#2 Some people suspect that not enough business users are paying for ads on Instagram, especially considering Facebook’s acquisition of IG. So this could be the beginning of a pay-to-play system that has already been implemented on Facebook for businesses. Where your engagement is lowered automatically by the algorithm and you have run some ads to bring engagement back up.

#3 Many people suspect Instagram is deflecting from the issue, and will just continue to silence various accounts that appear spammy or don’t “behave well” via IG’s mostly unwritten engagement rules. Never communicating with the accounts as to not cause alarm. Scaring people straight with the constant threat of a shadow ban seems like an effective way to punish users who use get-followers-quick tactics.

How can I get my account back to normal?

We know, it sounds hopeless. Instagram’s customer support is notoriously silent in these sort of situations. But here’s what some other users have done to get the hashtag rights reinstated:

#1 Immediately stop suspicious activity

That means no more sprees of any kind. Make sure to do everything in even measure. What seems safe is to engage for a few minutes (5-10) every hour, like a few photos, post a unique comment specific to the post or photo, follow a new user, and like another photo in that order essentially. Don’t move too fast and don’t perform too many actions in a row or excessively.

#2 Revoke API permissions

Remember that one time you signed up for a follower tracker app and gave them your login info? Well, that could be the sole reason you are banned. So log onto your account and make sure that no other applications have access to your account. Additionally, if you have dabbled in any automation services in the past, they won’t show up on this authorized permissions page, because automation programs don’t use Instagram’s API in that way. If you can’t remember what service you used, or you are roped into some godforsaken annual plan, you’ll have to change your password to cut off the automation service.

#3 Switch from a business account to a personal account

It is possible that Instagram is trying to coax you into using ads. Businesses rely on engagement to increase sales, so decreasing reach could definitely force people to use sponsored posts. Reverting back to a personal account might be a way around this.

#4 Take a sabbatical

Take a few days off. Sign off and don’t log back in. No liking, no posts, and no following. Then when you get back on, ease back in slowly, and engage like you are being watched (because you probably are).

#5 Avoid growth hacks and engagement groups

Using 60 hashtags in your comment and caption? Following and unfollowing people by tracking them with a tracker app? Joined up with an engagement group that promises to like each other’s photos at a certain hour, in a certain way? Stop. It. All. These hacks may work for a brief second but if you get shadow banned then it’s all kind of pointless right?

#6 Delete questionable content

If you have posted anything that might be deemed questionable (this applies for hashtags too) go ahead and delete it. Getting rid of banned or reported clutter on your page might do the trick.
In the end, what matters is that you avoid anything spammy or questionable. If you follow these rules and recommendations there’s a good chance you can get your account back to normal. Have any of you been banned? Have any of these solutions helped? Anything that we missed? Let us know in the comments below!

Filed Under: Featured, Featured1, Friday Feature, MOTIVATE, ONLINE, SOCIAL, TIPS & TRICKS, Ty Merkel, USA Tagged With: Hashtag Glitch, Hashtags, Instagram, Shadowban, Shadowbanned, Social Media

Where to Find Stunning Stock Photos for Absolutely Free

February 2, 2017 by Ty Merkel 5 Comments

Where to Find Stunning Stock Photos for Absolutely Free

Ah, stock photos. When done right, they can really spice up your work, while also saving you some major time and energy. Good stock photos give visual power to the stories you need to tell. They allow you spend less time creating content for your blog posts and more time creating a beautiful product for your client. But that’s only if those stock shots are visually captivating.

Obviously, there are some brilliant creatives out there (you might be one of them!) that create stunning stock photos and if you can, you should turn to these photographers for your stock needs. But if you can’t for whatever reason, free stock photo banks are a helpful tool for upstart photographers looking to enhance their blogs and social media game.

Read on to learn how you can find your own high-resolution stock photos for free.

Licensing Legalities

First, the legal stuff (sorry, I’ll try to keep this interesting). The free photographs available on the sites listed below fall into two categories: CC0, and CC.

CC0: Creative Commons zero license means that you can use the photos in any way you’d like—copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Take care to remember that these photos can be used for personal and commercial purposes but cannot be sold or redistributed (aka trying to pass off the photo as your own intellectual property).

CC Attribution: Creative Commons with attribution means that you can use the photo in any way you want, as long as you credit the creator of the photo. Attribution is simple: next to the aformentioned stock photograph, write ‘Photo by x’ with a link back to their website or their profile on the licensing site.

It’s usually all as simple as that, but this small legal blurb compels me to say this: I’m a photog not a lawyer, so triple-check the licensing before you click that download button.

1. Pexels

Where to find free stock photos

Pexels is one of the first places I go to find incredible free stock photos. All of its more than 25,000 images are not only free for you to use in any way you choose, but they’re all tagged and searchable. I can’t tell you how hugely convenient this is when you need to find exactly the right photo that conveys just the right mood for your project or landing page. Amazingly, some 3,000 images are added each and every month to its database. Pexels is essentially becoming the Google of free, beautiful stock photography. It even has a growing library of free videos.

Licence Type: CC0

2. Unsplash

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Unsplash offers a massive, searchable collection of jaw-dropping, high-resolution photos with everything from whimsical work spaces to NatGeo-style photographs of foxes. If you subscribe to its email list, then you get 10 of its best snaps delivered hot and fresh straight to your inbox every 10 days. You can also make a personalized home feed that highlights photos you’re interested in. The site also has a handy feature that displays curated collections of images such as “Women At Work” or “Fashion Startups.” Attribution is preferred but not required. Next to Pexels, this is one of my all-time favorites.

Licence Type: CC0

3. Death to Stock 

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Death to Stock photographs are insanely gorgeous. Join their mailing list and a pack of 10 photos within a certain category (categories like “mountains,” and “coffee shop”) will be delivered to your inbox each month.

Death to Stock also offers a paid plan where you get an extra 10 photos each month. At the end of the day, Death to Stock excels because their quality in photo style and usability is the best in the biz. But they have their own licensing agreement which you can read more about here.

License Type: Photograph End User License

4. Life of Pix 

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Life of Pix is a photo service created by the LEEROY creative agency and it is chock-full of free, high-resolution images for any project. Also, if you are interested in donating a few shots for some exposure, there’s a chance that the Life of Pix site will highlight you as a “Photographer of the Week” and if so, they will plug your work on their social media outlets and website (for free).

Licence Type: CC0

5. Tookapic

tookapics

Tookapic is a curated collection that offers both paid and free stock photographs. It is characterized by its moody, hyper-stylized, people-centered snapshots. You can filter by free photos which can be used for personal and commercial projects, although you must attribute the photo to the artist and link back to Tookapic website.

Licence Type: CC w/ attribution

6. Pixabay

PIXABAY

Pixabay is stock marketplace that offers over 850,000 photographs, illustrations, vectors, graphics, and videos, all free of charge. A large portion of their photos could be classified as art pieces, and are as glossy and attention-grabbing as any magazine cover page.

Licence Type: CC0

7. Kaboom Pics

kaboompics.com_Working in the group

Kaboom Pics is a collection of super high quality, editorial-style photographs that covers everything from fashion to food. It’s easy to browse since you can search via keywords and hashtags. Even though Kaboom is a CC0, the site’s owner does love it when you throw some attribution their way.

Licence Type: CC0

8. FreeStocks.org 

free stocks

FreeStocks offers a wide range of shots for personal and commercial projects. You can browse narrow categories (everything from iphone on desk to girl drinking smoothie), and you can search trending hashtags, which is nifty.

Licence Type: CC0

9. Negative Space

negative space shot

Negative Space releases 20 new photos every week loaded with plenty of street and workflow scenes. Their collections are searchable by category, color and copy space. Here attribution isn’t required.

Licence Type: CC0

10. Epicantus

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Epicantus contains Pinterest-perfect photography by Daria, visual & UX designer extraordinaire. These minimalist images with a french blogger edge were specifically created for landing pages, blog posts and the like. All of Daria’s original shots are free and up for grabs for commercial and personal use.

Licence Type: CC0

11. Jay Mantri 

jaymantri

Jay Mantri offers a stunning collection of simple, minimalistic images. These lovingly crafted images showcase stunning architecture, rich landscapes, and his beloved oxford kicks. He releases seven new photos every Thursday. You can search and filter the images by date and hashtags. 

Licence Type: CC0

Thus concludes our tour of sites with jaw-dropping, free stock photos. When you’re in a pinch, or looking to optimize the heck out of your workflow, turn to these stock photo gods. 

And remember: Enjoy, and attribute responsibly!

Filed Under: Boost Profits, Featured1, ORGANISE, SHOOT, Starting Out, TIPS & TRICKS, Ty Merkel, Uncategorized

Beyond the Law: My Unlikely Path to Professional Photography

January 31, 2017 by Jen Dziuvenis Leave a Comment

Beyond the Law: My Unlikely Path to Professional Photography

 Ten years ago, I was finishing my last year of law school, preparing for the bar exam, and looking forward to a stressful career sitting behind a desk, navigating the American legal system. If you had told me that nearly a decade later I’d be getting paid to follow adventurous couples into the backcountry or jetting off to Iceland to photograph an elopement, I would have told you that you were nuts.

But that’s where I am and I wanted to share a bit about how I got here.

As with many of the best changes in life, my move into the world of professional photography was brought on by some pretty extreme discomfort. My “real” job had been making me miserable for way too long when one day I hit a breaking point. I realized that the small amount of money I was taking home after I paid for our son’s daycare wasn’t worth the anxiety I was experiencing at work … and that continuing to do what I was doing was the definition of insanity.

That night I had a heart-to-heart with my family, drank a couple glasses of wine, and mustered up a heaping dose of courage. There may have been some tears. Turning in my resignation the following day was equal parts scary and liberating. I didn’t know what was next but I was damn sure that I needed to be doing something different.

Beyond the Law: My Unlikely Path to Professional Photography

All images by Jen Dziuvenis.

At that time I had been doing photography as a hobby for several years, mostly taking pictures of pretty landscapes and crazy cyclists ripping up trails in the mountains. Friends had asked me to take their family photos or suggested that I shoot their weddings and I had flatly refused. “That’s not really what I do …” were the words that came out of my mouth.

“No freaking way!” is what I said in my head.

Being a wedding photographer couldn’t have been farther off my radar. I didn’t especially enjoy going to weddings. Why would I want to photograph them?

Then one day, through the magic of social media, I stumbled on photographers who were doing stuff that I loved — work that spoke to my sense of adventure and search for authentic connection. People like Ben Sasso and Jordan Voth completely changed my idea of what wedding and portrait photography could be. Stiff, awkward poses were replaced with real emotion, undeniable human connection, and some of the most incredible landscapes on earth. A fire had been lit.

Beyond the Law: My Unlikely Path to Professional Photography

I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try my hand at photographing humans. I begged my friends to model for me and answered Craigslist ads looking for photographers. I connected with an online community of local photographers and did some second shooting at weddings. I agree when a friend offered to pay me to shoot her own wedding day.

I was scared as hell and full of doubt. I did it anyway.


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In a span of a few months photography went from an expensive hobby to a baby business that was bringing in enough money to convince me that this could actually be a thing. I booked a few weddings, doubled my rates, and booked some more. I invested in training and equipment. I landed my first international destination wedding. I had photos go wildly viral. For a very new business, I was having far more success than I had ever imagined was possible.

mandydavidDC-561

That’s not to say that it’s been easy or that I’ve been able to turn this into a fulltime gig overnight. Even with quick success, it’s slow going and a huge percentage of what I make goes straight back into the business. I’m working harder than I ever have — and doing it for less money.

And yanno what? I’m loving every damn minute of it.

I had a regularly occurring meeting at my last job that caused me considerable anxiety. Every few weeks it would pop up on my schedule and I’d curse and cringe. I left it on my calendar when I quit that job as a constant reminder of why I left. That message still pops up every two weeks but now it doesn’t cause me angst. Now it makes me feel proud. It’s a reminder that I left that world behind, took control of my life, and am hustling like hell to pursue my passions.

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Filed Under: Featured1, HUSTLE, INSPIRE, Jen Dziuvenis, LIFE, MOTIVATE, SHOOT, Starting Out, WORK IT

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