In this episode, the guest is Angela Singleton, a Baltimore-based portraitist focusing on newborn photography. Angela Sanford’s work targets encapsulating the touching connection existing between parents and their children.
Key Points:
Background and Artistic Goal: Angela Singleton's passion for photography started while she was young and amplified when she had her own child. Angela aims to eternalize the emotional bond between parents and their children, focusing on the near-spiritual connection that the latter bring into the parents' lives. With the accelerating shift into the digital age and the risk of many memories being lost, Angela finds it crucial to provide her clients with a tangible memento to carry throughout their generations.
Work Process: Angela offers a high-touch concierge type of service, likening herself to a home-visiting doctor but in the photography context. Angela manages everything from start to finish, including custom planning, outfit selections, backdrop decisions, image selection, album design, and even installation of wall portraits.
CEO Hack: To improve her productivity and mental clarity Angela resorts to doing a “brain dump” by writing everything down and removing the negative aspects from her life.
CEO Nugget: ‘Be yourself' is Angela's nugget of wisdom for business success.
CEO Defined: Angela sees empowerment as the core of what defines a CEO.
Angela Singleton is also a devoted member of the Professional Photographers of America and offers her photographic services to “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” an organization providing bereavement photography.
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Transcription:
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Angela Singleton Teaser 00:00
I consider myself more like a high-touch concierge kind of service. You know how you used to have the doctors that would show up at your house? I'm pretty much that I'm your photographer that shows up at your house and I take care of everything.
Intro 00:15
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?
If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you are in search of.
This is the I AM CEO podcast.
Gresham Harkless 00:42
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we were purposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them, the business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners, and what I like to call CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.
This month we are focusing on finishing it out, fighting the good fight and closing out the job. I think just as important as it is to start something, it's even more important in how you conclude it or finish it out. So if you think of the different things that you can finish out, it could be everything from a project, it can be from a day, it could also be from a business in and of itself, and it can also, of course, be for the year. So when you think of finishing out, I want you to really think of these episodes, because what we're going to really focus on is the last question that we really asked, which is defining what it means to be a CEO.
All the creative, innovative, and I think truly insightful questions that we received from this question is really what we want to highlight during the show. But, of course, we want you to enjoy the entire episode to think about how you're going to finish things out and how you're going to finish things out strongly. So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Angela Singleton of angelasingleton.com. Angela, it's awesome to have you on the show.
Angela Singleton 02:15
Hey, how are you?
Gresham Harkless 02:16
Doing phenomenal. I appreciate you taking some time off. Before we start to jump in, I wanted to read a little bit more about Angela so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.
Angela is a portrait artist in the Baltimore metropolitan area with a specialty in newborn photography. Angela's artistic goal is to honor the compelling bond between a parent and child by documenting the connection that children bring to the lives of parents. Angela is a proud member of Professional Photographers of America and volunteers or service with Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep for bereavement photography.
Angela, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
Angela Singleton 02:51
Yes, I am.
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Gresham Harkless 02:53
Awesome. Let's do it. So I wanted to kick everything off with how things began. I wanted to hear about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.
Angela Singleton 03:00
Okay. Yeah, I'm very into it. I'm very excited of doing this. I appreciate you. You also reaching out to me for the opportunity. I've always had the love of photography and growing up in life. So I started as a young person In school of doing photography of itself. Once I had my daughter, I knew how important it was to make sure that I documented her life.
As time got on, I realized that with our generation of how it is right now in this digital age, there are more and more families that are going to have a lost generation because we're locked into taking pictures on our phones. So my whole goal with my business is to make sure that I have a tangible product, an item for their family to be able to continue their legacy and be able to show their family of what they were when they were growing up for the generations to come.
So that is pretty much the reason why I started my business.
Gresham Harkless 04:01
Awesome. I absolutely love that. It's that bond that I talked about when I read your bio, but it's also that legacy as you spoke to of what you're providing for these families and to be able to continue to pass on those stories and those memories and all those phenomenal moments.
Angela Singleton 04:16
Yes, definitely. Yeah, because unfortunately, everyone say that they will print stuff, but I've had it happen to me where I would say I will print an item and my computer crashed and I lost all the images. So, that's like my main focus to make sure.
Gresham Harkless 04:32
Yeah, yeah, you're absolutely right. Especially as you said, in this day and age to be able to have that kind of tangible asset as well too, is something that's huge.
I know I touched on a little bit when I read your bio, but can you take us through how you work with clients and exactly what that process looks?
Angela Singleton 04:47
Oh, definitely. So a lot of times, the best way that I try to explain my business, I consider myself more like a high touch concierge kind of service. You know how you used to have the doctors that would show up at your house? I'm pretty much that. I'm your photographer that shows up at your house and I take care of everything. I'm a start-to-finish photographer, which means that I take care of everything. All the custom planning from what you will wear to what props or backdrops that we will use for your baby session to even help you pick out your images that you will either have for your wall decor or design the album itself for my clients.
So my I want to make sure that my clients don't have to worry about anything. I noticed as time went on, I ended up offering another service with which is installation of their actual wall portraits because what I was finding was that a lot of my clients will get their delivery of their wall portraits and I'll be like, Hey, send me a picture. Let me see where you put your images up, cause that's what I would like to be able to see and be able to praise them on. And they'd be like, Oh it's still sitting on the floor. Okay, that's something I need to fix.
So I started offering installation so that I'll hang the artwork for them to make sure that they don't have to worry about that either.
Gresham Harkless 06:10
Yeah, no, I absolutely love that. We're so busy to be able to plan and do those high touch concierge service things that you've done, but then they're also still busy after it's done and they want to be able to have a place where it's going to go or not worry about a lot of those things. So I love that.
Angela Singleton 06:24
Yes, definitely, and especially with moms, new moms, whether it's your first baby or your fifth baby, you don't have time to worry about those things. So I love the fact that I'm able to walk them through the whole process and take care of it for them.
Gresham Harkless 06:38
Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and it can be for you personally or your business, but what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?
Angela Singleton 06:47
It's funny, because it took me a while to think about it, because you're like, huh, what would my secret sauce be? I have to go back to like I have this natural ability to be able to connect with my clients and also my babies. A lot of times as mothers, we're able to secretly be able to gravitate towards people who makes us feel more comfortable. A lot of the times I often find out that a lot of my parents end up calling me the baby whisperer, because I have this natural ability to be able to make babies feel comfortable.
For some reason, I haven't found a baby yet that doesn't love me. So knock on wood that it doesn't happen anytime soon. Being able to see parents watch me interact and be able to sue their babies, a lot of times they ask me, how do you do that? What was this or what did you do with that to get my baby to calm down so quickly? So I feel like everybody is given a natural gift, as far as what they're supposed to do in life. I believe that this is my gift. My gift is capturing those unforgettable moments for my clients through having that patience and the comfortability of families being comfortable with me handling their babies.
Gresham Harkless 08:04
Awesome. No, I love that. I appreciate you for breaking that down so much. because First of all, thank you for doing that. Secondly, I appreciate you for walking into that gift because I think so many times sometimes we identify guests and know what they are, but we're not actually walking into him.
I think it definitely takes somebody who's able to notice their gifts, see that gift, but also it's a walking in and be comfortable with that. Because I think so many times we don't do that. That's what we were given, as you said, from kind of birth to show and share with the world.
Angela Singleton 08:36
I definitely believe that. It took me a while to finally, because in life you're like, Oh, you don't want to be, an entrepreneur, or you definitely don't want to be a photographer, they're like, Oh, that's a job that not going to take care of your family.
But when it is a gift of yours, you have to pursue what your gift is.
Gresham Harkless 08:55
Yeah, absolutely and those doors and opportunities start to open up. I think sometimes those people that give advice, which I have definitely heard as well, too, sometimes it's because they're not in their gifts and they don't necessarily see the joy or have the passion for it as much. We can sometimes be clouded by those external influences when really, we should be walking in.
Angela Singleton 09:15
Exactly.
Gresham Harkless 09:16
Awesome. So I love that. I truly appreciate that. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an app, a book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?
Angela Singleton 09:31
For me, what I've been doing recently is that I've been taking the time to do like a brain dump, which means like every morning, instead of worrying about things that come to my mind, I take the time to write everything down and get it off of my mind. That way, I don't have to worry about the negative things that normally comes to entrepreneurs to be able to or the CEOs in period that comes to your mind because you do go through a phase of self doubt and wondering whether or not you did something right or not.
So by writing those things down every day, it comes to the forefront and allows me the opportunity to come up with a new positive mantra to be able to get rid of those negative aspects of my life.
Gresham Harkless 10:17
Yeah and that's definitely something that's huge. I think so many times, I've been guilty of this myself too, where you hold onto it or you push it in the back of your brain and you think it's gone, but it's never really gone. You're always thinking about it.
So to be able to have that regular practice of writing it out and releasing it, not only does it help from that standpoint, but it also gets it out of your brain. So you can focus on those more important, sometimes important about higher arching things that move the needle forward.
Angela Singleton 10:43
Yes.
Gresham Harkless 10:46
I love that. I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what might you tell your younger business self?
Angela Singleton 10:56
What I would definitely tell my younger self, if I was in a time machine and go back in time, it's that I would tell myself to be yourself. It's about your personality, who you are as an individual. That goes back to the gift that I feel that everybody is given in life. A lot of times, we try to be somebody else or try to imitate someone else thinking that's what the world wants, or that's what the world needs.
I wish that when I first started, I pushed more forward of who I am as an individual, because it took a little while for me to be able to finally get those clients who click with me and love me for me. They are looking for people that are exactly like you. So don't try to be somebody else. Be the best person that you could bet that you could possibly be.
Gresham Harkless 11:49
Absolutely be your best self. I think you're so right where I think sometimes we forget that we you know we might see somebody as successful or we try to adopt and imitate as you said exactly what they're doing. But not realizing that there are potential clients out there that are looking for you and who you are.
But if you're not being yourself, then they're not going to be able to find you so we have to not only do that, but also step into that in many of the ways that we're doing in our lives. Then I think that's when those opportunities and those people, those clients start to come about and start to enter our lives.
Angela Singleton 12:19
Yes, I agree .
Gresham Harkless 12:22
Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote and quote, CEOs on this show.
So Angela, what does being a CEO mean to you?
Angela Singleton 12:32
Okay. So, being a CEO to me is I think very empowering. Being one of the first college-bound family members in my family and being able to now own a business has shown buried leaps and bounds of things of life for me and having a younger daughter and being able to show her not only, you're raised up. Oh, you could do whatever you want to do.
You could do it if you put your heart into it, you could do it. But to be able to show my daughter that running a business and making it profitable, it's also something that has helped me through this whole process.
Gresham Harkless 13:14
I love that and that perspective. I love the word empowering, but you're so right where I think many times we forget that what we're doing on a regular basis is seen by so many people are making so much of an impact, not just in our lives, but in the lives of people that are looking up to us, whether it be children or family members.
I think to be able to continue to quote and quote blaze that trail and to be the first to do this and the first to implement that and really make that true impact is really inspiring is definitely a blessing and definitely a gift that we have as well, too.
Angela Singleton 13:47
Definitely because even within my generation, we're taught to work for somebody else and you don't realize how much hard work is put into it. It's also very encouraging and you get a lot of good vibes from it, not just the hard work, but being able to do this job too.
Gresham Harkless 14:04
Yeah, absolutely. Not even knowing sometimes you don't know that they're your reality is what you've experienced. If you don't know anything different than that, then it's not really reality. But I think as you have spoken to being able to do that and to build your business, not just for your daughter, but also reminding us as well, too, is that we get to paint our own picture.
We get to create our own portrait, so to speak, so that we can be and see the vision that we want to have in our lives.
Angela Singleton 14:31
Yes, you said it perfectly.
Gresham Harkless 14:34
Awesome, awesome. Angela, I truly appreciate that, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know.
And then, of course, how best they can get a whole view and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.
Angela Singleton 14:50
For me I don't think I have anything additional to add other than, I just love what I do and I think it is important that, when you get into a business, you have to love what you do because there will be hard days that, if you don't love what you do, it makes it harder for you to continue on doing what you do.
Gresham Harkless 15:11
Absolutely. And for people that want to get in hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that? You could definitely go to my website as mentioned in the beginning. It's angelasingleton.com. You could fill out either the contact form and get in touch me that way.
Or you could email me directly at hello@angelasingleton.com.
Angela Singleton 15:31
Awesome. Thank you so much again, Angela. We will have the link and information in the show notes. I think you're absolutely right. You hit the nail on the head when you said that, if you have a choice to love what you do or not do what you love, you should definitely do what you love just because it is especially when you're starting running business, a lot of things you have to manage a lot of work that you have to put in.
So why not love what you do while you're doing that? So I appreciate you for reminding us of that.
Gresham Harkless 15:54
Yes.
Angela Singleton 15:55
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you again, Angela. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
Outro 16:00
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Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
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