Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's
definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, and you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator. And this is the business Journey podcast. Hey, friends, welcome back to another episode of the business journey Podcast. Today we're talking about some tips for what to do and how to pose your families when the dad is just not into it. Thankfully, this doesn't happen as often as I feel like people think it does. But occasionally, it still happens. And so I want you to feel equipped, like you have a plan for what to do in case you come across a dad that's just not wanting pictures and how to deal with it, how to still pose your families in a way like we talked about last week, that just helps elevate that client experience, help them to feel comfortable in their session with you. So we're going to have some tips here for you. But before we jump into that, I did want to let you know that I am hosting a free posing class this week, it's going to happen on Wednesday and Thursday, there are three chances to join. It's called Keys to effortless family posing say goodbye to awkward and stiff. So if you are wanting to really dive in and get comfortable with the idea of posing your families, so that you don't feel awkward, but your clients also don't feel awkward, then this class is for you. We're going to dive super deep into all things posing specifically for families, not just families with toddlers, although you know, those are my favorite. But also, you know, families with older kids with adult kids all different, you know, big families, small families, things like that. So we're going to jump into that this week, on Wednesday and Thursday, you can sign up today, it's completely free. At Rebecca rice photo.com/posing-class. I've had people asking me for a posing class like this for a very long time. And so I'm super excited to be able to finally offer it to you guys. And we get to hang out again completely for free. We get to come hang out. It's live so you guys can interact with me. And we will have a live q&a at the end. So you can ask any question you have, whether it's about family posing, or just business, whatever, I'm an open book, but I'm really, really pumped to be hanging out with you guys. So there will be a replay available for those of you if you're just not able to make any of the times live, that's okay. It's always better live. But if you can't catch it live, that's okay. It's still valuable information. And so you can catch the replay, but only if you sign up. So if you're not signed up, you won't get the replay link. Okay, so be sure to tune into that. And so Oh, I don't know, if I gave you the website for that just in case, it's Rebecca rice photo.com/posing-class. And we're gonna link it in the show notes for you guys, too. So that you can have it, it'll be all over my social media, you know, all the places, it shouldn't be hard to find, but definitely get signed up for that. Okay, so let me paint a picture for you here. As we jump into our topic today, you get to the session, your family is dressed perfectly, you have an awesome location, the lighting is beautiful. And you go to start working with your family. And you can just sense that there's some tension and that dad just doesn't want to be there. He's not into it. He's only there because his wife dragged him there. Like it's just one of those families that you know that the dad just didn't want to get pictures done. And you know, I've had a handful of sessions like this, and the dad could be an awesome person, but for whatever reason, he just gets super stressed and doesn't like taking pictures. So there are some things that we can do to help alleviate some of these problems. Because if he doesn't want to be there, most of the time, you can tell in the photos that he doesn't want to be there so we can do some things strategically to help ease you know that burden or the stress that he may be feeling and I'm going to give you some of those tips today.
The first thing which I talked about at pretty great length last week if you didn't listen to last week's episode, definitely go give it a listen But the first thing that you can do, when you're in that situation where dad's just not into it is you can be confident in your posing. Because if Dad senses any sort of hesitation, he's already not wanting to be there, like you don't want to give him any ammunition to use against you or his wife or whoever for not wanting to be there. And so by you bringing confidence, it can help extinguish some of that fire that may be there. So be confident in the words that you say, in the actions that you use, you know, the way that you pose your families, don't let the dad's attitude affect you. That's one thing that you're going to have to I think of it the way that like, I treat my kids that if my kids are having a bad attitude, I don't want that to ruin my day or my, you know, whatever activity we're doing. And so they can plow all they want, but I control my own attitude. And so the same kind of goes for that dad that just doesn't want to be there. If he's gonna sit there and pout, let him pout, but I'm not going to let it affect me. So I'm going to keep my attitude high, I'm going to keep my confidence high. And you know, move forward from there. The next thing that you can do is you can keep things moving, because I can say that dad's just hate waiting around, right? I think people in general hate waiting around. But if you have a dad that doesn't want to be there, he doesn't want to waste time, keep things moving, the faster that you can get things done, the better. And this is one of those scenarios where mini sessions come in very handy. Because if there's a dad that didn't want to take pictures, if he can just give you 10 minutes of focus time, then you can be done. And you can promise him that. And so, you know, I one time had a dad show up to a mini session, straight up just cracked open a beer right there while we were doing photos, and I don't know if that's like how his wife bribed him to be there. But, you know, he was sitting there with his beer, you know, I posed the family and in between shots, he would take sips. Like, okay, then. So my job was to move this as quickly as possible to make sure that he can just be done with and so I tell them, and I'll tell them straight up, if you know, Dad's giving me an attitude, I'll say, Listen, this session is for 10 minutes, I need you to focus for 10 minutes, and then you can be done. All I need, you know, give your wife 10 minutes of, you know, at least smile or at least cooperate. And then you know, we'll go from there. And so one thing that really helps me keep things moving, is I have a posing workflow. So we're going to talk about this next week in depth, so I won't go too much into it. But essentially, I have a set of poses that I do or groupings that I do in order, every single time with every single family I work with. So by having that in place, it helps me to know what's coming next. And I don't have to pause and think about it. So keep things moving. And you know, it'll that will help for sure. And I want to mention, while we're like part of part of the way through this, that most dads are not this way. And like I said this, dads like this are few and far between most dads are super cooperative, they're really glad to be there. They love capturing, you know, memories with their families, these are going to be few and far between. I just felt like that was worth mentioning. That will happen probably at some point, but is it going to be every single session, not a chance. So you can take a little deep breath that you won't have to implement these, you know, all that often. Okay,
so we talked about being confident, we talked about keeping things moving. The third thing that you can do is if he's being a baby, talk to mom, talk to the adult, instead, that if he's not wanting to cooperate, he's acting like a child, then don't talk to him, you can talk to the mom and talk to him like a child, right, as you're posing the rest of the kids pose dad, but any like major direction, just communicate to the mom and let her deal with the child or, you know, you deal with the child with the rest of the kids. And so this may sound a little bit harsh, but honestly, like, it's just not worth your energy to fight with some dad that doesn't want to be there. So just ignore him and talk to the mom. And if he wants to have that bad attitude, that's what you know, that's what he's gonna get is the treatment. If he's actually like, child, he's gonna be treated like child. And so I don't know that that will necessarily help the cause at that point. But it'll help you knowing that you can speak to an adult and not somebody that's an adult acting like a child. Gosh, this all sounds so harsh. I'm really sorry if this sounds harsh, but I mean, sometimes you just you I want you to feel equipped whenever you you know, encounter a situation like this. So the last thing that you can do, and it's probably the most important is if you have a dad that's just not into it, is to encourage mom the entire time because let's think about it. She's probably really embarrassed that this is happening. She's probably very fresh. straighted that this was not necessarily how she envisioned Family Photos going, I'm sure she had some expectations in her mind of how it would go. And this is just not panning out, and living up to those expectations. And so by us providing that encouragement, real time, it's not going to make it all together better, because they still have to ride in the car home together, right? It's not gonna make it all together better. But it will help that mom feel seen, it'll help that mom feel like she's worth something. And she's valuable, and that her memories and her expectation of this time is valued. In these situations. Like I said, they don't happen often. But when they do, I am like, overly encouraging mom to let her know, these photos are looking great. Her kids are amazing. She did an amazing job raising them like she's such a good mom. She's so patient, like, I will just lay it on thick, because she needs that extra encouragement. I feel like as moms, we all need a little extra encouragement sometimes. And so in a situation like this, like take advantage of that moment, and be able to encourage important that mom, and be really reassuring that we got the photos that we needed. Her kids did great. And we got what we needed. And so I know that sounds like you know, how does that help a situation? It really does, okay, because that mom needs to hear that reassurance. And so I've had a time where a mom after a session like that she was texting me apologizing. And that was another opportunity to be able to pour into her to say, Listen, you don't have to apologize, that wasn't your fault, right? You chose to have that kind of attitude. And you can't control that, I got to just encourage her that she's doing an amazing job. That, you know, I'm glad that we got to work together that I got to capture these memories for her and really try to focus on the positive that came out of the session, the fact that you know, we were able to capture these moments and kids grow so fast. And so we were able to freeze time and I can't wait for her to see the gallery, to be able to just appreciate those photos and have something to look back on when her kids are bigger. Focusing on the big picture really, really helps. So those are some practical things. This episodes like short and sweet. But those are some practical things that you can do. When dad is giving you a hard time or just not into it. It's not always fun, I will be the first to say like when those kinds of sessions happen, it's going to be a little bit of a challenge to get through it. But keep your head held high and know that not all clients are like this. And I feel like if you have this plan going in, then you'll feel more equipped for how to handle the situation. So I promise next week's episode is going to be a lot more fun, a lot lighter, not so heavy. And we're talking all about next week about my posing workflow. But I want you to see the good and the bad. Like I want you to feel confident in your posing in all kinds of areas, not just when things are going great, but also when things are going a little bit rough. So take this as you will hopefully it's helpful for you. Don't forget to register for my free posing class that's happening this week. It's on Wednesday and Thursday, you have three chances to watch live. You can register today at Rebecca rice soto.com/posing-class. And again, if you forgot what it was about, we're talking about keys to effortless family posing say goodbye to awkward and stiff. So I hope to see you guys there. I'd love to you know see your name in the chat and you know get to answer your questions in the live q&a at the end. So I love love love anytime I get to interact with you guys in real time. And so that would be a great chance and I hope to see you there. With that. We'll go ahead and close out for this week. And I'll see you next week. Bye guys.
