Hey hey friend! I’m Lindsey Roman, and I’m a destination elopement and wedding photographer based in Oahu, Hawaii. I’m also a social media influencer and online business and marketing educator.
My passion for showcasing couples in love and telling stories through the medium of photography led me to specialize in destination weddings and elopements. My day can look very different depending on if I’m doing a session or wedding that day, but for this article, I’ll focus specifically on a typical office day.
My personal growth journey has been so unexpected! I did not plan to become a wedding photographer; I had my sights set on becoming an actress and even majored in Theatre/Film in college to achieve that goal.
After college, I completed an internship with my church where I fell into the social media marketing world, and I LOVED every second of it! Photography had always been a hobby of mine, and those two things merged as I created my business.
Photography was a gateway into online entrepreneurship, which I am absolutely in love with! I love my job and the fact that I get to work from home, which is a dream since I’m going to be a mom in June!
The lesson that has been most valuable for me to learn over the past few years is how to balance work and life. When you have a job that brings you so much joy, it can be hard to stop working and remember to actually take breaks and rest. I would literally work sunup to sundown because my job doesn’t feel like the typical “job”.
Over the years though, it’s been a really good challenge to create balance and boundaries between my work hours and what is actual “work” rather than what is real life –– especially when having a personal brand on social media is literally part of my everyday life!
For example, if I’m out to dinner with my husband, that’s our time. I’ve learned to be very intentional with how much of my life is my business and my brand versus the family time that I want to cultivate with my husband (and our soon to be little girl!) It’s been a struggle at some points, but we want to model the value of family time rather than a life consumed by technology.
Finding the balance of being an online influencer, marketer, and educator while still having those boundaries of limiting technology as much as possible and enjoying the moment is a continual work in progress!
Office Days
These are the days when I’m not shooting a session or wedding. It involves A LOT of time in front of a computer screen for editing sessions, creating content for my website and social media feeds, or building our business education course!
Here are the basic tasks that I knock out on an office day:
- Storying and posting relevant content onto my Instagram and Facebook
- Social media marketing
- Answering emails (for clients, business education, and influencer opportunities)
- Reviewing locales for destination clients
- Planning wedding day timelines
- Researching brands for organic collaborations
- Booking flights/lodging/transportation for upcoming destination shoots
- Content creation
- Writing blog posts
So here is what a typical office day in my life looks like:
6:30 a.m. –– Wake up, make coffee and breakfast.
7:00 a.m. –– Quiet time reading my Bible, listening to worship music, starting my day with the Lord.
7:30 a.m. –– Get ready for the day –– i.e showering, light makeup, fixing my hair. I keep it simple; island life has definitely rubbed off on me!
8:00 a.m. –– Check my email inbox- I try and respond to clients and inquiries within a few hours of their email to me!
9:00 a.m. –– Take content photos as needed.
I take a variety of different photos for my Instagram feed and collaboration opportunities. I mainly use my camera and tripod to capture this content!
10:00 a.m. –– Prep content for the day.
For collaborations, I caption those photos and schedule them to post or story.
For Instagram, I plan the posts and captions in my feed at the beginning of the week and schedule times for me to post them throughout the week. I use UNUM for this, which actually reminds me when to post –– it’s such a lifesaver!
11:00 a.m. –– Batch work
This varies based on the day, but I spend a couple of hours on a specific day each week to create blog posts, online educational material, marketing strategies, etc. for the next week or so.
I assign a different task to each day so that I can focus 100% on that one area. I’ve found I’m much more productive when I’m focused on one task rather than bouncing back and forth between tasks.
I’ve planned out topics months ahead of schedule, so when it’s time to batch, I already have a list of topics to pull from; I’m not searching for ideas! My goal is to have at least 2-3 months of work already prepped and ready to post, especially since my schedule is about to drastically change with Baby Roman’s debut soon!
For blog posts, once I’ve prepped the material, I put the draft of the blog post and the accompanying photos into a Google Drive folder that is shared with my assistant. She then uploads the photos into BlogStomp, which is a GREAT tool to publish photos and collages for your website. She edits the written post as needed and arranges the photos in BlogStomp. After everything is finalized, she preps all the pieces on my website and schedules it to post.
1:00 p.m. –– I always eat lunch a little bit late! I usually let my brain just slow down after a busy morning, so as I’m eating, I’ll read, watch a TV show, or just listen to music. If I don’t give myself a break during the day, I know I’ll get a little burned out later from staring at a screen too much!
2:00 p.m. –– I don’t do this every day, but since my virtual assistant actually lives 20 minutes away, we like to meet fairly often for a working afternoon coffee. It’s so great to be able to communicate face-to-face, which is part of my job I LOVE! We are able to virtually collaborate on projects using Monday.com, which is an amazing project management tool, but meeting in person is an added perk.
Since she manages parts of my social outreach (Pinterest, mailing lists, collaborations, etc) we review those aspects of my business and plan strategies. We plan logistics on incoming collaborations and outreach opportunities for brands that are an organic fit for my business and my followers.
We also look at the next few months of my travel schedule in my Google calendar and begin planning flights/lodging/transportation. She has actually color-coded my calendar so all the flights are one color, lodging is another, and transportation is a third color! It’s really helpful, and all the confirmation numbers and pertinent details are listed in the event descriptions.
Since my assistant is also the assistant for our business education company, The Heart University, we also discuss plans and strategies for developing new content and anticipating logistics for future launches. We also offer in-person workshops, and she and I research lodging for upcoming workshops, brainstorm options for welcome gifts, plan styled shoots, reach out to vendors, and a whole host of other tasks!
4:00 p.m. –– I head back home and break working for the day. My husband is usually home from work around that time as well, and we spend time together sharing our day with each other and snuggling with our cat, Tako. Pregnancy is also no joke, and I’ve started taking mini-naps around 4:30 or so; I’ve got to catch up on the sleep I’m about to miss!
5:00 p.m. –– Andrew will start cooking dinner (he is the chef in our house!!!), and I’ll read a book or take care of household tasks.
5:30 p.m. –– Dinnertime!!!
6:00 p.m. –– We are HUGE board game fanatics and we usually head over to a friend’s house to play Settlers of Catan and spend quality time with friends.
8:30 p.m. –– We head back home and settle in for the night. We are both in bed by 9:30 or so!
The biggest challenge in my day is turning off work when Andrew gets home. I have to intentionally stop myself and focus on nurturing our relationship and giving ourselves time with each other. Specifically blocking in time for fun, leisure activities, reading books, and cultivating relationships is a vital part of life and has really helped me to fully be present in the moment, rather than living my life staring at a screen!
