Amanda Hedgepeth has a successful photography business, a thriving network marketing side hustle, a meaningful nonprofit, an engaged social media following, and THREE little girls! My head is spinning just thinking about all that is on this mama’s plate but she has MASTERED simplicity in order to create time management to be successful and present in all of her endeavors. I HAD to know her tips to share with you guys and she doesn’t hold back!

Notable timestamps:

7:50- How Amanda got started in social media
12:20- How sharing personal stories while incorporating tips that worked for her help grow an engaged audience on Instagram
12:55- How serving others increases engagement and following
13:45- Why boundaries are important when managing a creative business and a family
15:00- Using lists as a time management hack for influencers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and moms
25:00- How deluttering physical space can improve productivity
26:45- Amanda dives in to her morning routine and how it has been one of the biggest game changers in her time management
31:30- I loved this advice for morning routines not having to be daily
33:20- How Amanda uses IG breaks to reconnect with family and reignite the creative spark in her life and businesses (and also is able to batch LOADS of content)
39:00 Amanda discusses her nonprofit Homeless Looks Like why its so important to use your platform for good
43:00- Rapid Fire Questions

20% off code – CHRISTY in the Five Waves Shop: http://amandahedgepethphotography.com/printshop
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AmandaHedgepethOBX
Instagram: @amandahedgepethobx | @homelesslookslike

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Christy Keane: 00:05 You’re listening to the Mommy influencer podcast where we dive into motherhood, social media marketing, and hear from inspiring Mommy influencers, brands and industry experts to bring you the inside knowledge, tools and strategies to grow your influence in business through purposeful online content creation. I’m your host, Christy Keane and I’m a navy veteran and registered nurse turned stay at home mom turned full time motherhood influencer on track to be a six figure earner this year through social media marketing alone. So come in and cozy up mamas and get ready to take your influence to the next level.

Christy Keane: 00:44 Okay, Mama’s today. I have a friend on the podcast who is not only a completely joyful ball, a bubbly energy, but she is a boss. Amanda Hedgepeth runs a full time photography business and is the founder of the nonprofit Homeless Looks Like she does this all while juggling a thriving network marketing side hustle, and an engaged social media audience. And oh by the way, she has three young little girls who are just adorable, Aka the mermaid mafia. And I know for us listeners, that probably sounds like a lot, but Amanda’s cup is actually filled by living a really simple life. She actually in the last couple of years, picked up her family and moved to the outer banks where she just is able to get her creative energy and just live the slow life like a Nicholas Sparks book, how she always puts it, which I love. And she definitely uses lists and productive time management techniques to keep your priorities straight and I’m really excited for her to share some of these tips with you today.

Christy Keane: 01:47 And Amanda, you know I adore you and me and Amanda went to college together and she is actually probably the first person I messaged besides my mom and sister with my podcast intro because I feel like I messaged her because I knew she’s such a positive light and that she was going to be such a cheerleader and make me feel so good about it because she just has that energy about her and just, she’s just such a sweet soul. So Amanda, I’m so happy you’re on today. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. I’m so honored. I’m so glad you did this. I told you you have a beautiful podcast voice and it needed to happen. And I’m your cheerleader, so I’m glad you did this. Oh my gosh, you’re so sweet. I’m actually surprised you haven’t beaten me to the punch of a podcast sooner.

Christy Keane: 02:31 Like I had been waiting for your podcast or your book, like one of the two. I know what’s going to happen. That’s what I am seeing for you. But for listeners who don’t know you like I do, why don’t you tell them a little bit more about who you are and what you do. Well, thank you so much for having me again. I really appreciate it and I feel like you did a really good job of covering the basis when it comes to I am because, yeah, I picked up my family and we moved to the outer of North Carolina

Amanda H.: 03:00 when, um, our two year old at the time who is now seven, um, looked up in the sky when night after we went to the grocery store and she was like, why don’t we have stores here? We don’t have stores because we have this orange glow of the city. And she had just learned about space and stars and my husband and I get in the car and the House that night and we’re like, okay,

Christy Keane: 03:21 well we have to move camera needs stars. We got to go. So that

Amanda H.: 03:27 really where I like to like, you know, just start the intro of who I am. But honestly when it comes to like running the businesses and all that stuff, um, I was a rare breed of a woman who said, I want to start a business and I want to get pregnant. At the same time I want to start a family and a business. And everyone said, you really shouldn’t do that. Your Business is your baby and you know, you just need to work on that first. And I was like, no, I think I want both. I’m going to have both. And like I haven’t any enneagram one, you really can’t tell me what to do. So if you tell them

Christy Keane: 04:00 leave out, I’m probably going to do the opposite. So, um,

Amanda H.: 04:03 I did, I started my business and my family at the same time. Um, we have three daughters. We live on the outer banks in North Carolina. I’m a photographer for weddings, families on vacation, small businesses. Um, our nonprofit is called homeless looks like, like Christy mentioned. And what we do is we tell stories of people who are homeless, um, and all that came to fruition because my dad was homeless. And if you looked at this man who everybody adores, he’s a cheerleader. He is that guy that everyone just loves. You would never have thought that he was homeless and that that would happen to him. Um, and then additionally I do young living oils, essential oils and products, and just help people get started with like a little bit of a healthier lifestyle. And um, yeah, I mean we love it. Our daughter’s shirt three, five and seven. We got married here on the outer banks. I mean like

Christy Keane: 04:53 am years ago. We always get the date. Yeah, it’s nine years. Okay. 2010. Did you guys do your vow renewal there too? We did. Well and you know, do you know why we did a vow renewal? Um, tell me, tell me more. I feel like, I can’t remember, but I want to know. Okay. So the same little girl who pretty much made us move to the outer banks was upset looking at our wedding pictures because she wasn’t in them. And I was like, well cam, you know, you weren’t born yet. And she was like, I need to be at your wedding. And I’m like, oh my gosh, we are wedding because this child wants to be at our wedding. So we had like a five year just for fun down in Buxton on Hatteras island. And Alas, we found out two days before that we were having our third girl, we found out our third one on the way was a girl and so we were celebrating our five year vow renewal on the outer banks with three girls.

Christy Keane: 05:45 So it was so fun. I love it. I just remember looking at the pictures and being just like, I want to do that. I want to have a fun excuse to get dressed up again and take pictures and have the celebrate with you. But now you know little autumn who was in your tummy at the time. She’s going to be starting to ask like, wait a second, why were the big sisters thinker and I had to put our plan in that 10 year vow renewal here soon. You’re right. Oh my gosh. And you know what? They’ll get what they want cause they, they’re adorable and I’ll say yes. Well I want to invite. I definitely had invited. You’re so cute. I’m sorry I totally interrupted you because I love hearing about just all of the fun things your family does on the outer banks. But you can continue. If there’s anything else you want to share about you to the listeners.

Amanda H.: 06:33 No, I mean, you know, the only other thing I’ll say is we, um, I think that when it comes down to it, we are a family who runs Ge. Now I’m really logical, um, really, you know, like list oriented and all the things, but we run a little bit more on heart than logic, just a little bit. And when we do that and we combine the two, we make really good decisions. Um, and that’s why we live here and that’s why we have, you know, a simple life and house on the water. And, um, we’ve just always made sure on her like, you know, kind of seizing the day, but like logical.

Christy Keane: 07:11 I love that kind of what we’re known for. But there’s a lot of organization that goes behind the scenes to make all this stuff work. For sure. I know, I love that. And I love that you can feel that you put your family first and that dream and that vision of what you want your life to look like at the forefront. And it, you can feel that purpose in all the content you create and all of the businesses that you run. Like that is the first thing I think of when I think of you. So you are definitely nailing that.

Amanda H.: 07:36 Well thanks. Life comes first. Life has to always converse to run a good business,

Christy Keane: 07:40 a man, a man. I am myself and learning to, to definitely balance that. And with this being the mommy implements or podcasts, I always like to ask how you started growing a following on social media and how you got your first like five to 10,000 followers.

Amanda H.: 07:58 That is a great question. Um, and I have thought about this long and hard because I don’t remember a defining moment. It was very slow and steady. Um, but here’s what I’ve got for you. Um, we, uh, when I was a photographer, I am a photographer. When I started becoming a photographer, what I did was I always shared the journey. So there was always a behind the scenes. Here’s a picture of me taking pictures, um, and wait til you see the outcome look at before and after I, I was doing like this little by little education and sharing it for free all the time. I wasn’t living people cross boundaries, you know, to the point of like I’m so burned out answering every question but I gave what I could, I made up a lot of free content and shared it. I showed up pretty consistently and I think that the biggest reason because we’ve, I’ve never bought a follower a day in my life, everything organic all day long, which is shocking to me that we are at the 14 came mark having no like just living our life and posting about it.

Amanda H.: 08:58 But that’s the thing like people, people love being along for a ride and journey. And I think that when we moved to the outer banks, that’s when we had a big boom because people were like, oh my gosh, this is a huge leap of faith. It’s a huge leap of faith to leave everything that you know in one place, drive an hour and a half cells and change everything for your family. Um, and then our biggest thing that we share in our blogging and inspiring content download that I think you saw in our shop, um, we grew it because what we do is we try to say, okay, we have a problem. How can we fix it? And let’s share the journey of that. So doing Dave Ramsey by, by getting our finances together, a weight lost, a weight loss journey, um, a simple life journey. How can we get rid of all the clutter? We just share all the things that make our life better. And then we grow because people are on board with it. And it’s a real, it’s a real average Joe, not an expert. I’m not an expert. I’m just somebody that anybody can relate to sharing these things. And I think that it really resonates with people.

Christy Keane: 09:59 Yes. And it’s, and it’s inspiring. The life you have is something that you mentioned before. It’s especially for us outsiders looking in. It does feel like that Nicholas Sparks family among first and you know, there’s a reason why Nicholas Sparks is a bestselling author. You know, you get pulled into this environment and it’s so magical and you want to be a part of it. And the fact that you openly share how the, how you did the journey, how you got there, the ups, the downs, the realities of it. And it’s not just like, oh, we have 1 million bucks and we just want to pick up and move to the beach. Like, yeah, you’re willing to share the sacrifices that everyday moms need to see. Like, oh, she didn’t buy a new outfit for, you know, a year. I forgot you didn’t buy a new outfit for like a little while. I know you had, I remember a year, unless it was a work related thing. Well, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

Amanda H.: 10:58 Did it, I did it because that’s just what we had to do at the time and it was fine. And it teaches or taught us contentment and discipline, which is so hard nowadays. So hard, so hard.

Christy Keane: 11:08 It really is. Especially when on social media we’re seeing so many pretty things and everybody in new outfits and on like to know it, you know, you feel you’re triggered. Like I know I myself, I’m triggered to buy. Oh my gosh, I’d love that hat. Like I know, let me, yeah, to have it. Like we just trick ourselves into thinking that. So I think it’s so refreshing that you share a more realistic way for a mom with a family to have her dream life. And I know I myself and inspired, but I’ve actually looked into Dave Ramsey because of you and I really need to get on top of that. Like I think that would be life changing. So we’ll definitely have to have a side conversation about that. It’s all that stuff too. Think when

Amanda H.: 11:54 I share about stuff like that, I’m very type one very, very type one, very tight a, so it’s not from a perfection standpoint of like, look how perfect we’re doing with our finances. It’s like, okay, here’s what Dave Ramsey says, here’s how we’re going to adapt that and here’s how it’s working for us. And just like making things like we’re kind of simplify things so that people feel like it is an attainable thing. Like some people, I can’t do it perfectly. I’m not even going to try. But like we just, the way that we’ve shared, even with photography, I mean all the things that we’ve shared for seven years on Instagram, it’s just always been like, okay, here’s a way that I can do this. I’m not a pro at this. You can do it this way too. Here’s a shortcut. Just trying to make things easier. So yeah, that’s, that’s what we like to do. We like to simplify any and everything cause life is already hard and complicated. So let’s make it,

Christy Keane: 12:45 that is so true. And do you know, the other thing that I love that you touched on about growing your following and just your purpose overall when you share content is that you willingly give free free advice and help others. I think one thing that I’m noticing, the more that I interview influencers is that serving others makes them feel good and makes them feel like they have purpose in the space. But it really gets you results because people definitely want to peek into your life. But I think they are craving the ability to take something away to, to be able to create a, something similar for themselves. So I love that you are somebody who doesn’t tuck that in and hide it and keep it to yourself. You willingly scare. And I think that’s, that’s when people are really growing these days.

Amanda H.: 13:34 Yeah. And it builds, it builds trust as well. And um, you know, PE people can certainly tuck it away and not share it if they don’t want to. But I feel like it comes back to you tenfold when you give, as long as their boundaries in place and you’re not giving to the point of like, oh my gosh, I’m answering every specific DM to the point where I’m not with my family. Then you got a problem. But let’s say somebody asks you a question three times. If somebody asks you the same question three times, create a free download or create a blog post or resource and have that ready to go. Here’s the link. I’ve already answered that in this download. You’re welcome. Goodbye. You know, I mean there’s so many ways to fix like having an abundance of questions and all that stuff, but still be able to show up for people and then from there you can create things that are profitable. Okay. If you like that download, here’s a more detailed one for 1299 you’re welcome.

Christy Keane: 14:25 I love that. I actually need to figure out, I need to start getting on the Freebie, the downloadable, here’s the content that you guys are asking for training because I definitely find my like feeling not balanced because I am trying, I do want to help people but you know you start to give and give and give and then you get a little burnt out and then true. You have to make time for your family. And I think that’s why probably you’re really good with the boundaries and time management, but you do a lot of lists. And so I want you to tell me about the list and how they can help mom and influencers and entrepreneurs because I specifically saw you had a blogging game plan list and creating inspiring content list. And as soon as I saw that, I’m like, why am I not downloaded this yet? This is something that I need.

Amanda H.: 15:16 That is another thing. Um, that I would get so many questions about that I was like, okay, we need to make a, we need to make something about this. Because two things were coming up. How do I start a blog? And then how often do I blog and what do I do? And then the second one was, but I don’t have anything interesting to say. And that’s just not true. Everybody has something to share. And what I talked about earlier was like, go on a life bettering journey. Like pick something that you want to improve. Okay, I want to get my finances in order. I want to not shop for a month. I want to meal prep anything and share about that because people want to be along for a ride and they love watching progress. So we created a blogging download and inspiring content download and then a joint one that people can get as well.

Amanda H.: 15:59 And it just walks people through literally how to buy your URL. And then how often do you want to blog and the format and coming up with um, you know, categories and all that stuff. Um, we are, we are list, well we, hold on, let me back up. My husband is not a list freak. Uh, he kind of is now, but he’s a really tight, we really laid back like he’s just so laid back. What a beautiful gift to someone who is this severely type a. But um, those are some of the lists we have in the shop, but our, our love of list started with us getting married, having kids and then not being able to keep up with our household. Like all of a sudden there’s just like, okay, but who’s going to do the dishes? Why didn’t you take the trash out? Oh my gosh, we have another $40 late fee on this bill. How did that happen? So we started making like life lists that we call life low list and um, we have a daily, a weekly, monthly and it just, I mean there’s just no way I’d have three businesses without some sort of organization on the backend. It’s lifesaving. Absolutely.

Christy Keane: 17:03 Huh. And then what specifically for like a creative, do you include in the list like I def, is it similar to the life flow list and just being able to balance what you’re doing at home and what you’re doing on their creative side? Or are they more geared towards content creation or um, maybe how you organize your posts?

Amanda H.: 17:27 Um, so for the creative stuff, we’ve got the blogging and inspiring content one and that just helps people get started with creating like a blog as a home base or the inspiring content one is also great for social media. How do I come up with topics of things to share about that people will actually engage with? That’s a really good one. Um, for, we do also have a workflow for photographers. Um, download. That’s huge. And it is down to like your equipment checklist because I can’t tell you how many photographers have been, like I showed up for this wedding, I thought I had everything packed and I left my battery charging at home in the wall or I left this memory card. I cannot believe I didn’t get this memory card like, and so we just were like, okay, like we, we’ve been there. So we’ve got stuff for photographers, organization on the back end.

Amanda H.: 18:16 Um, how social media, we’ve got social media list, just how to create content and then how often to post, etc. It’s so multifaceted. Um, but it does help people stay organized because the problem is, I mean, if you want to be a creative, no matter what you’re doing, mommy, influencer, photographer, whatever, uh, a nurse who works full time, if you don’t have some sort of organization and home for all of these things, like you’re going to try to memorize it and keeping stuff in your head when you’re a mom, it’s, it doesn’t work. It disappears. That’s where mommy dream is. And so you’ve got to have a home for it. And that’s all the stuff is just getting, just getting yourself together. Um, because life is chaotic and it’s, it’s inevitable that you’re going to forget stuff. So why not organize what you can.

Christy Keane: 19:02 That’s right. Yes. And I love what you say about Mommy brain through this. So true. And I feel like I’m always talking about Jenna Kutcher and her podcast because I just adore her so much. But on her most recent episodes, she was talking about feeling like you have so many tabs open in your brain. And that is how I constantly feel. And I just, with the list when I’m thinking about it, it seems like it’d be good to just like check things off so I can close a tab. Move onto the next one.

Amanda H.: 19:36 Yes. Yeah. Close the tab. Um, you’re so right. You’re so right. It’s not about perfection. It’s actually about saying, I don’t feel like having everything memorized anymore. So here’s a list of, I mean our daily life lists, it’s this simple. It’s water, the plants, because guess what the plants use to always done. Now it says water at the plants. And so every morning there’s my husband or be watering the plants and they’re living. Um, we’ve got, uh, um, give the kids a vitamin because we used to always skip the vitamin and then why did we even buy them? It’s the simple daily things that we have no business trying to memorize while trying to create a podcast or while trying to run a photography business. Um, why not put it on paper and just people to check it off or put it on your phone or print it out and put it in a page protector and use a dry race Margaret and just scratch it out and like take a load off because there’s, you know, it’s just, it’s too much like the end, the more kids you add, you’ve got a third on the way.

Amanda H.: 20:41 You know what sister and I’ve got three. And the more you add, the crazier it gets. So not have like a home base and it’s, it’s truly not about perfection. It’s about giving yourself a break. And it has been amazing.

Christy Keane: 20:54 I love that it takes so much pressure off. And so where do you put your list? Do you, are you somebody who has paperless somewhere like on your fridge or do you have a dry erase board or do you use an app?

Amanda H.: 21:05 We have, um, so in the download that we have on our shop, we’ve got an option that shows people how to do it in Trello.

Christy Keane: 21:12 You know, about Trump going, I downloaded Trello and I so eagerly want to be a Trello person. I think there’s Trello or Asana that people talk about

Amanda H.: 21:23 and

Christy Keane: 21:24 I just, I haven’t mastered it yet. I haven’t, it hasn’t become in my routine yet.

Amanda H.: 21:30 Yeah. And you just nailed it. It has to be a part of routine. Um, and I am actually clean ’em on up right now cause it got a little cray cray. But, um, I have at the, at the front we have a really small house, but it is simplified, the cluttered, clean and there’s a table up front next to our shoes that has like, you know, library books that have to go back and you know, oh, sorry about that. That’s nice. Okay, no worries. Um, sorry. Um, we’ve got a table up front that’s blue and it is nice and clean, always wipe down. And it’s actually like our home base where we keep our life flow list and we always keep them there. I’m ready to go print it out with a pen and they’ve got the same things, you know, day in and out.

Amanda H.: 22:16 Like it’s got the vitamin, it’s got water plants, it’s got et Cetera, you know, put lavender in the diffuser for bedtime. But it also has these blanks on it where we’re just like, okay, there’s a doctor’s appointment. Okay, we need to go to the post office. Um, and we walk by it. It’s in a high traffic area. You cannot walk to the front door and pretend you didn’t see it. It’s right there. Um, so it’s just a smart place. But I think that the key to like paying attention to it is having it on a clean counter or space and not letting it blend into any messy background. Like it’s got to say

Christy Keane: 22:50 that is a good point because where we keep our papers right now, it’s where we keep all papers and it’s an, I mean, I need to Marie Kondo this area of my counter, but it’s just like a little counters. I love that. 1 million bills in a million pieces of paper. So I’m already imagining if I printed out one of these life low list and put it there, it would just get

Amanda H.: 23:09 totally mixed up in all of the clutter. I know. That’s right. You’re right. And it’s like when someone buys a planner and they’re like, this planner is going to change my life, but like their planner is in a pile of messy stuff so they don’t see it. You’re right. It does. It has to, there has to be a shift before the use of the list or the creation. There has to be some sort of a mindset shift. And, um, you know, like just a decluttering or something. My friend has a housekeeper coming to her house next week and she was like, I’m so excited but on, I feel like they’re just going to move the clutter to the side. And I was like, you need to this weekend so

Christy Keane: 23:45 you can appreciate that housekeeping. And she was like, you’re right. It’s the same thing. So true. I actually just had somebody come to the house yesterday to Spritz it up for summer time, but they did, they didn’t let her in. So I’m like, so, and then I was like, you know what, I, I can’t even appreciate that this space is probably cleaned because this lady had to just clean around this clutter and I should have taken care of it. That’s such a good point. That’s okay. You know, protect the point. We just did a mudroom, so I’m going to make a little, a little space. So maybe that’s where I’ll think about list. Yes. I love it. I your modern looks so good. I love, you know, there’s just something about decluttering, whether it’s, you know, a specific room in your house, like that is the first room in your house that in our house that we walked into and it was just, oh my gosh, just things everywhere.

Christy Keane: 24:35 Instant anxiety. As soon as I walked into my house there was no, yeah, there was no motivation for me to like, I don’t know. It just, yeah. Yeah. So now that I walk in I’m like, oh my gosh, this space is so homey and clean. It makes me want to come in and like I’m inspired to do the rest of my house. So yeah, it’s, Oh, it’s such a game changer. Getting rid of stuff and just simplify and like truly only having what you love and need is the, yeah. We wouldn’t have been able to move here if we had a ton of stuff cause we moved into a tiny, tiny condo. We just, we literally had to just sell a bunch of stuff and it just makes you feel better. But I don’t think people realize how much physical space has an effect on their emotional health.

Christy Keane: 25:16 It’s, it’s, there’s a direct, so true, it’s crazy the mindset shift that it has. And it’s almost like you have to declutter your brain too. Like we were saying like closing out the tasks. It’s like, oh my gosh. It’s like the clutter is just one other tab, the clutter in the house. It’s just one other tab in the clutter in my brain. Yeah. Yeah. And I know for me, um, one thing too that’s an open tab for is time management and just, I’m me and you were very similar in that. I’m definitely not a type one or a one on the enneagram. I love, I actually looked up my enneagram number after you and a few other people. I’m a three, which I definitely like through and through. I love it. I have a lot of three friends because we’re so, I’ve see so many similarities and parallels in some of them, but I’m definitely not organized.

Christy Keane: 26:06 I’m not type a like I, you would have such a hard time living with me. We can never be roommates. You would owe, you would hate being my roommate. I already know that. I know, but I would enjoy being your once a month come through and like what do you want me to organize? My Gosh, can we do that? Can we start that? I want to drill, I need to be a marine salted. I know she’s got consultants. I would be a pro. Like I don’t think they would even make me take the class I just passed. I think we should. That would be totally right in your space. I love it. And so one thing that you do that I’m really inspired by and I want you to talk more about is you have a really

Amanda H.: 26:50 strict morning routine, I feel like,

Christy Keane: 26:53 and I want to hear about that and how like that helps you balance time as a creative and as a mom.

Amanda H.: 26:58 Thank you for asking. Um, I am a rare breed, but I will say like, like I said before, this is not, this is not about perfection. I think when some people hear this, they’re like, well, that’s what a perfectionist does. It’s actually what a mom of three kids with three businesses has to do. Um, I get up every morning between four 30 and five. Um, because I, I do not have daycare and I have actually, I’ve always had a child with me for the past almost eight years, always in my care during the day. Um, it was a very, very, very rare occasion that I had a babysitter or someone to help. Very rare, like not even virtually not even know where they for me to mention, cause I don’t even know how many times it was so rare. So why I had to learn how to work with a baby and then two babies as in three little ones and house.

Amanda H.: 27:51 Um, and you know, then one goes to school, the other one goes to school. I still have a little one at home. She starts school this fall for the first time in eight years, I’m going to have three hours four times a week to myself. I don’t even know what to do. Amazing. But I have a feeling I’ve been training for this marathon. I have a feeling I’m going to crush it like a boss because I know that I have to get up early in the morning. Um, if I want, if I want to treat my clients right and if I want to stay on top of things and just feel like I can truly honor putting life first, I have to show up for my business even if it means five in the morning. Um, so granted we don’t have children that, you know, are our newborns anymore that wake up in the middle of the night.

Amanda H.: 28:33 So I am able to do that. But, um, a good example is yesterday I shot a session, family session and Kitty Hawk at around seven o’clock and I have already edited, I have cold edited and uploaded that entire gallery. And it is, I did that before. That is crazy. That is amazing. I had, it’s that now this is not very typical for me. Um, but this year it has been because I just was like, enough is enough. I mean if I have to get up early to get a headstart before, you know, the craziness of needing to do all the things for the kids and that’s what I need to do. And I was shocked that I felt a million times better getting up early and having that weight off my shoulders. Because if you’re a photographer or you’re somebody who has to deliver something to a client, oh my friend calls it the grim reaper.

Amanda H.: 29:21 It’s just sitting over your shoulder. You need to edit. Why are you eating breakfast? Your clients are waiting like it’s this like thing that haunts you through your day and through your weeks the longer it goes. So anyway, I, I ended up starting a morning routine. I do get up super early, um, emails come first, as many as I can get done and then I just get done whatever needs to get done and rotate on all three businesses and make sure people are taken care of. But it’s, it is a game changer to get up early. Even if you just start with like, I’m going to try 30 minutes earlier. Let me get up before my kids if I can. What time do your kids get to game changer if your ankle? Well, Cameron, my other type eight, gosh, she’s like my twin. Um, she was getting up at five 30 and I was like, you need to go back to bed. This is not, um, they’re, they’re all getting up at about like six o’clock, six 30 now. So, which is not bad. That means I get an hour and a half hour to myself and in that time you can get so much done.

Christy Keane: 30:18 It is true. And even just the, now this doesn’t happen in my household very often because I do not have a morning routine. It is, again, one of those things I want to start doing. Um, but now that I have a little bit of pregnancy insomnia, I am accidentally waking up a little bit early. And the other morning I had my coffee and was checking my emails in silence before the girls got up. And I was like, this feels good. Like, I know that extra couple of hours of sleep feels good, but then it’s, you know, I’m being woken up by a toddler and I immediately jumping into her breakfast and her needs and then it’s her sister’s awake and I’m doing that. And then by the time I can sit down and get something done, if there’s a time that I can sit down and get something done, it’s not coming at a time that I’m controlling. So yeah, I could see the beauty in having a morning routine. I don’t know if I could eat four 30 now you are, you are obese. You really are. That is amazing. And do you do this seven days a week? No, that’s all right.

Amanda H.: 31:24 I’m going to tell you when you said, because I know you’re a type three, um, you know, for you, just to say this is my Monday, Tuesday routine would be huge. Like that would be huge for you and I guarantee it would shock you how much you stay on top of things. Just picking late two days a week. Um, I do this Monday through Thursday and then Friday, sometimes I treat myself to sleep until five 30.

Christy Keane: 31:46 Ooh, man. Kitchen. I know. Right?

Amanda H.: 31:49 Rebel. Um, but then on the weekends I’ll quote unquote sleep in. But because I get up so early during the week, my sleeping, I’m still getting up early. I mean it’s like six, six 30 maybe. Um, so it ends up, so you end up just like naturally having more of your day and then you get that quiet time because the kids are sleeping in. Oh, it’s, it’s, it is a gift. And I love my girls. Everyone will tell you. Oh yeah, but

Christy Keane: 32:16 oh yeah, you can, I mean, your family can always come first, but you still have to have me time and a little quiet time and nobody can, nobody can juggle it all with the chaos of three kids running around them like all the time. So I, I definitely love the idea in the morning and routine and I love, I never thought about like for some reason when you hear morning routine, you think there’s a morning seven days a week. So if you like, yeah, it has to be like your every day routine. But you’re right. I could just do, cause me and my husband sort of rotate when we wake up with the girls. We try to give each other a break. So just on my mornings that I know I had to get out with them anyhow maybe I’ll try that and I and I’ll let you and the listeners know how it goes. I’m going to commit to it. I don’t know when I’m going to commit to it. Not this week.

Amanda H.: 33:02 That does make maybe next but you’re pregnant also. I mean I would take it easy and just like you do, you do things on your own terms.

Christy Keane: 33:10 It is true. It’s like I have to remember I’m not going to be getting a lot of sleep coming here soon. Yeah, for the best reason. I’m so, so excited about it. So another thing that you do that I would love for the listeners to hear more about and that I think a lot of people would be afraid to do in this space is you take Instagram breaks. And that to me is it’s, it’s refreshing. Like it sounds so good. I think I did a weekend one time and I was, I should not have been as proud of myself as I was, but it was like everything in my power to stay off of checking, like not even just not posting, just not going on and checking and seeing what everyone else around you is doing. It’s hard. So, right. Yeah. Honestly is truly an addiction. And I just, I would love to hear more about your Instagram breaks and how you use them, how long they are.

Amanda H.: 34:07 So, um, the year before last, I was just, I just honestly, I think it was like be the mediums all the time and answering so many questions and you know, I’m good on given the free content, but sometimes it, it got to be a little much. And I was like, all right, if I’m to the point of like not being able to hang out in that family because I’m answering this may DMZ, I probably need to give myself a break. But as, as an entrepreneur, I need to be clear, hi, I am taking a break. I will not be here. Um, I need to put that on my profile. I need to make a, um, an Instagram story about it. So people are aware and just also leading by example, I cannot talk about leading a simple life and being present with my kids and unplugging and all that stuff.

Amanda H.: 34:49 If I’m not doing it, I can’t, like I just can’t it then work. Um, and so for the first time in seven years, I took more than a week off social media. I actually took three weeks off in January, 2018 and the best way I can describe it is that time made sense. The time moved at a pace that actually made sense. I would look at the clock and not go, where did the day go? I’d be like, oh wow. It’s still early because checking your phone over and over, you just do not realize, but it actually takes chunks out of your day. And when time made sense in a day, it was a really different feeling. And then I fell in love with that and then I was like, am I ever coming back to social media? I don’t know. I don’t know. Um, but then I did and I was refreshed after three weeks. It felt like three months. So then

Amanda H.: 35:38 last July I took another three weeks off and then this past January I took a month off. And I will say it was a little much because I was trying to start my third business at the time. Um, but it was good and I, and I do these because it gives me a break from being so available and accessible to so many people. Cause that gets hard. It gets really hard and, and people really do respect it and they know that I’m going because I’ve already given them that information high. It will not be here from this date to this date. Um, and it works. It’s just worked out so well and yeah, you’re in your engagement might drop. I don’t care. I like my life more than my engagement and I like time making sense more and it’s been wonderful. So my engagement went down and then it skyrocketed back up after like a week. So it was fine, you know. But it’s one of my most favorite things to do at Marty cleaning July’s cause I’m doing one per quarter this time,

Christy Keane: 36:30 like two, three weeks. That’s amazing. And I’m sure your girls noticed too, like do they say anything where they can tell that mommy’s a little more present and not on her phone is much? Yes. Yes. Because they always say mommy works from her phone. She works through her phone. Um, and so what I do, because they’re sassy little chicken nuggets, I tell them, all right. Yeah. If you see mommy pick up her phone,

Amanda H.: 36:55 you need to say something to me, say, get off your phone mommy. And they’ll call me out. So they noticed because I’ve basically stopped picking up my phone unless it’s to like vox, my friends, um, or messaged my friends or something. So it’s really nice.

Christy Keane: 37:08 We, we all enjoy it so much. Love that. Yeah. My, my little, my oldest, I should say at night she’ll turn my phone over and she’d be like, keep your phone turned upside down mommy. And I’m like, oh. Like it’s like it’s brings your kids can bring such an awareness to how much time we’re, you know, spending on our phones and consuming just random stuff for hours throughout the day. It does add up and I love, I love that you said your engagement just hopped back up after, you know, you bounce back. It’s fine. They only took a week.

Amanda H.: 37:43 It’s fine. It only, it literally only takes a week. And here’s the other thing to consider. If you are never taking a break, you’re continually coming up with content. And that’s when people start putting out crappy content because they’re just putting stuff up just to put stuff up. And when we take a break and I have three weeks of pictures I’ve taken, I’ve got like this bank and I, I think this is something that we talked about but with Instagram and planning out content, I love plainly, I always use plainly, I don’t, I don’t do the auto post feature because I like to post the, I like to have control of what aims. I mean I like to have control. Um, and, and you don’t want it to post with like a typo or, or just like half written caption. So I use plainly and like taking these breaks give me, gives me an opportunity to create this big of beautiful pictures, worthy content, worth my time with other people’s time and just, it’s such a nice little reef.

Christy Keane: 38:36 I love that. That’s so it’s now I’m going to be a cheerleader for an ID break. It’s good. What are you going to break? And then you’re able to, you know, also batch content so that you’re able to spend even more time with your family. And that’s one of the big takeaways when I do these interviews I want moms to get is how they can manage their times to, to show up first as a mom and she’ll up first for your family and still be able to be you and have that other creative outlet. But I think that’s such a great tip.

Amanda H.: 39:09 Thanks. I love it. Yeah.

Christy Keane: 39:10 Oh, and tell me just real quick, a little bit more about how, what homeless looks like is and how that’s doing. Because I, I just love your heart. Like I never know what it’s bigger, like your talent or your heart. Thank you. Just keep having so much more to give and to share. And I love that you have used your platform and your talents to create this beautiful story and purpose to help the homeless. And I know you said your dad is the big inspiration for that, but what does homeless looks like doing now and um, just what’s the updates with it?

Amanda H.: 39:43 Well, just so you know, I think of when I think about people using their platform for good stuff, I always think about you. Do you remember when you po, when you first posted about Charlie and you were like, we just found out that she’s deaf and do you remember I messaged you and I said, I don’t know what it is. I said it. I said, I have a feeling that you’re going to do something really big and really good with this. It’s going to affect a lot of people. I’ve, I never think that I just had this,

Christy Keane: 40:11 I think back to that message from you all the time.

Amanda H.: 40:15 I loved, I had this, I was like, oh my God, I never tell people what to do or what they’re gonna do because I hate when people do that to me, but I, I’m telling you, I know something good’s going to come like something really bigger than you and you did. You’ve done that and I really appreciate people that have big platforms who are using it for something else. I just kind of got sick of being like, I mean, yes, we’re talking about Dave Ramsey. Yes, we’re doing all this stuff, whatever, and we are helping people. But I, you know, 14 k it might not be that much to some people, but the people who were there are very much our cheerleaders and they really support us and they really stick around and they’re there for us. So I just decided I need to do something bigger than me.

Amanda H.: 40:58 Um, that’s going to help people who have absolutely no voice, the very opposite of what it might look like, um, to, to somebody on my side. Why somebody who literally doesn’t have a voice, who will literally is invisible to others. So with homeless looks like the general, the general ideas that we just don’t know their, first of all, there’s a lot of vets. There’s a lot of vets who cannot get their benefits. There are people, it’s not just addicts, it’s not just people with poor life decisions. It’s people who don’t have a safety net. I mean, there’s people who have been in the foster care system who have escaped abuse, um, sex trafficking, all kinds of people end up homeless and we don’t know. But yet we all judge, you know, why don’t they just get a job? Why don’t they just do this? When you start talking to these people, you find out that guy has a degree to be an actual rocket scientist.

Amanda H.: 41:47 But he was so poor from taking his college classes. He has nowhere to live and that’s a vet who is, whose social security number got turned around on his stuff and can’t get their benefits. It’s just so important that we all hear our stories because I’m sure, I’m sure you know and I think I’ve seen it in your comment sometimes what it’s like for someone to make an assumption about you and judge based on what they see. And it goes both ways. Judging you based on, wow, we’ll look at her, what kind of problems she could because she have whatever and then looking at a homeless person. Well that’s their fault. There is so much more below the surface and if, if no one’s going to tell the stories of these people I am. So that’s kind of what we’re doing with it. And we do outreach, we hand them donuts and pizza and food and tee shirts and just make them feel like they’re loved. And because they don’t,

Christy Keane: 42:35 oh, I love that. I mean, and I, and I love that you get your girls involved, like just the things and even when you got your girls in Bob to do sign language with my girls and just getting them involved in homeless looks like it’s, you’re just sending such a message and send in such an example for them. And I am, I’m only imagining the things they’re going to do in their lifetime because of the example of you’ve set for them and I’m just really proud of you and everything you’re doing. So I like to end all my podcasts with a rapid fire series of questions. And you might’ve kind of touched on some of these with some of your responses to my previous questions, but we’ll go over them anyhow. My first question and my favorite question is, what do you influence that you are most proud of?

Amanda H.: 43:23 Oh Man. Okay. I have to near this down. Let me pick one. Should I pick two? Okay. Um, okay. Okay. If I, if I had to truly pick one, um, it would be probably the simple life stuff because, um, the cause it all ties back to all the other things that I am proud of influencing, like, you know, financial stability and all of the things. Um, the simple life stuff is most important to me because we really do get consumed nowadays with thinking like stuff makes us happy and it’s so dangerous to so many people. Um, and it’s hurting a lot of families and it’s hurting a lot of people. Um, so I think just living a simple life, knowing that you don’t have to own a lot or have a lot to be happy, um, and that it’s okay. It’s okay just to not have like all the shiny things and go out and buy it immediately. I would say the same life stuff for sure.

Christy Keane: 44:16 I like that get all sort of ties together. But I, when I, when I think of you and your page, I definitely that’s the first thing that sticks out and what I’ve always like felt inspired to do a little bit more of after I leave your pics. So I love them. I love that. And then how much time do you dedicate to social media? I know you have, uh, you know your hand in a lot of different pots, but specifically to social media, how much time do you dedicate it and what’s your biggest time management tip?

Amanda H.: 44:46 Um, my, I would say now I wonder how many hours I spend, but instead I’m going to give it a quick, easy format. Um, what I do is once a month I sit down with my plainly and I spend about an hour dragging and dropping pitchers to what day I want to post them. Um, cause I build up an image bank and then I kind of decide what I want to share. Bare minimum. I want to share three a week from this account, three week from, you know, the nonprofit account, et cetera. And then if I want to add moral add more like as we have experiences on the weekends and stuff. Um, but I use plan Lee and I try to make sure that I am just giving that one hour, the beginning of the month have a general idea of how many times the one to post and pre writing the captions on because that saves a lot of time. Doing the captions on the spot takes me a long time. Coming up with a post on the spot that day takes me a long time. I love to be able to use plainly a type that capital on the computer and same time

Christy Keane: 45:41 for sure. I have the same best time management advice, which is [inaudible] I use it every day and just, I don’t know, it just takes the pressure off. It is, it’s simple and clean. And then what about like scrolling, do you scroll your social media or focus on like, he knows some people say you have to engage this much to keep your engagement up and grow or what’s your philosophy there?

Amanda H.: 46:02 Um, I will usually spend one day a week, usually in the beginning of the week, kind of just like looking at what people are doing. Um, and scrolling through a little bit and just kind of catching up from the weekend and just seeing who I can talk to and just double tap and show, you know, show support for them. But the rest of the week I’m not really scrolling. It’s just like if the first picture pops up and I like it when I go to check my notifications, I’m like, oh, that’s great. Okay, that’s lily and maybe I’ll comment, but I try to keep like that engagement stuff on like Mondays if I can with the scrolling. Cause I don’t want to scroll every day. It will take up so much of my time.

Christy Keane: 46:39 It is a time suck for sure. But yeah. And then is there a mistake or something you would go back and change in the social media space if you could?

Amanda H.: 46:48 Um, I think I just talked about this yesterday. Gosh, I’m a pistol. Um, I would not apologize for how much I posted when I post because I don’t believe in spamming on your own account because I, and I think this comes from watching, um, people lose level ones and then go back to their social media and be like, oh, I, you know, I go to their social media page when I miss them. Um, I’m not going to apologize for what I post, how often they post, how many oppose when I posted nothing. Um, th this, ultimately, I think we all know this nowadays. This is kind of like the legacy we’re leaving behind. So last I posted three pictures of our family at the beach,

Christy Keane: 47:31 literally within minutes of each other and all my gosh, she broke. So the world is gonna end. I know people are like, yeah,

Amanda H.: 47:41 don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. And then I looked at my, uh, you know, the engagement in the likes and it was, it was out of this world I would like compared to what it normally is. And I was like, oh, see if as long as I honor myself and my family and kind of just do the things I want to do, it always ends up panning out for us on social media, we’re fine. Right. So I would not apologize. That would be

Christy Keane: 48:02 all the time. I love that. And you know what, if those pictures didn’t get the same likes and engagement and you were happy posting them and putting your time bought, that would be all that matters. Like it, you know, we just are so consumed with the numbers and yeah, you do. You do start to apologize. I actually backed off on my stories a lot and I was watching your story about not apologizing and I was like, you know what? She’s right. I don’t just show up. Like I’ll do, like I’ll start to do a story and then I’ll be like, oh no, that’s silly. Oh my gosh, I love it. I know I was, I was a little pistol yesterday. I was like, Oh, I’m living my actual life. Thank you. Good, nice. And that always comes first, like real life, mom life. All of that. Your Voice, I don’t want to apologize anymore. And if somebody doesn’t like it, there’s an unfollow button. That’s the beauty of it. They’re very, and then, um, what is your biggest advice for someone starting from zero?

Amanda H.: 48:54 That’s a really good question. Um, I think a lot of people will say, you know, you need to engage heavily and go in like an unlike, and there’s all these like tactics. I just feel like literally just show up, post what you want and take somebody on a journey, on a journey of yours that has a little bit of vulnerability there. So people get to see a true side of you and you don’t have to give everything. But you know, you also don’t want to sugarcoat everything. Um, so take them on a journey. Um, go like the people who inspire you and engage with that community because those are going to be your people. Um, and just be genuine and don’t expect stuff back from people. Because I think entitlement is the thing that is, um, is getting people down when it comes to building a following. But I’m doing all the right things, but I deserved it. But I went and I liked it unlike like this page and I went and commented on her stuff, but nobody owes anybody anything. And I think as quick as you adapt that mentality and you just show up like, hey, that’s all right, I’m here. If you like it, that’s fine. If not, that’s fine too. Like and just have like a humble mentality. I feel like you’ll grow faster. Cause I certainly never expected anything from anywhere. I’m shocked. We grew. Yeah.

Christy Keane: 50:05 The way they shot man. I love everything you said there because when I think of who I follow and why, it’s just because they are so 100% themselves and I, and I want to know about, yeah, apology when you’re in, when you start to try to please other people or try to do things just for the like or for the follow it. It just, yeah, you can smell it from a mile away and not hide it. Yeah. So I love that answer. I think that was perfect. And then people will always want to know about gear. So just real quick, just touch on what camera you use or be use your iPhone, any editing equipment or apps or just any app you can’t live without that makes your life in this space easier.

Amanda H.: 50:50 Um, plainly is my favorite APP. Light Room is my favorite editing app on the phone and on the computer I’ve used Lightroom, um, from day one with photography and I don’t even have any, well I’ve created my own presets based on like how I shoot, what the light normally looks like. I’m normally shooting on the beach, so I have this perfect natural reflector of sand coming back at my clients. Um, so I’ve created my own presets based on that in my light room because if you edit a certain way and you love it, you can click save preset and create your own. I know some people don’t know about that. Um, and I have a mark three. I have a canon mark three, which apparently has gone down significantly in price since I got, yeah. So enjoy that. Um, I love Canon, Canon, everything, Canon lenses. Um, and if you’re just starting out, I think it’s so awesome to get a canon mark three and get like a 51.2. That’s expensive though. So if you don’t have that, try 51.4, um, that’s a fixed focal length lens so you can’t zoom it, but it’s beautiful and it’s like, it’s like three 99 and it does the work of $1,000 Lens. It’s a great one. So that’s what I would recommend. I love,

Christy Keane: 52:02 I love you so much. I actually think when I started getting into photography, you had a blog post back. Yeah. Okay. I’m going back to like, oh, when I first got my, I think I bought a nifty 50 lens and it Canon and yes, because I read your blog post was one of the ones that I read that gave that advice. So that was really so far super helpful. And I think he wrote that years ago. But yeah, thank you for that. I did like a good lens. It doesn’t, even if you did a 50 on, you know, one of the cheaper Canon rebel cameras, just the lens alone just gives you a new appreciation for photography and what you can do. Just getting to know manual settings. Just take a day, a morning to just enjoy that. And yes, I love that.

Amanda H.: 52:51 You’re so right. And a Canon rebel has come a long way. You’re right. So like even the, even the bodies, the camera bodies that are cheaper and they’re like more beginner stuff like Canon rebel, they’ve come so far that, I mean, that’s what I started my business online. So you have to start somewhere and then you can use that as your backup. Yeah. If you ever upgrade. Great.

Christy Keane: 53:09 Boy, I love that. And where can listeners find you?

Amanda H.: 53:13 Okay, so I’m on Facebook at facebook.com/amanda Hedgepath Obx, Amanda Hedgepath Obx is also my main Instagram that is our main account with like family and photography and all the things. Um, we also have homeless looks like as well on Instagram. Um, and I’m, I’m pretty much, I’m in my dams pretty often. So if you need something, please DM me and ask. Um, life will, is Dave Ramsey, whatever it is, I tend to send voice messages back as Christie knows, cause they’re so invigorating for me on a computer. It’s just, it is a gift. If you’re in your dams a lot, it’s a gift. It’s not only a personal way to answer, um, but it’s efficient and I need efficiency because I have literally a million jobs and a million filters. So I have to do what I have to do. But that’s where our normally hanging out. And then you can always email me, Amanda and Amanda,

Christy Keane: 54:11 but don’t send me Facebook messages. I remember it. I just remember you saying that like a while back. I remember all these cause they get lost. It’s an event. It’s an abyss of like a thousand messages that we’ll never be ready. Okay. And I will include in the show notes where everybody can come find you and also a link to those lists because I’m myself, I need to take it on this light flow list. And

Amanda H.: 54:38 Yeah, I’ll give you a coupon code to, if people use Christie, they can get 22

Christy Keane: 54:43 oh my gosh. That is so sweet. That’s amazing. Thank you. I will include that coupon code with the links. And Amanda, thank you so much for coming on today. I know that you were able to get a sitter to be on and putting a mom in this space. It’s like there’s so many other things to juggle and work out to make a conversation like this happen. And I just appreciate you so much. I love everything that you’re doing. You inspire me every day. Your little girls inspire me every day and I just want them around my little girls because they’re just so, I definitely want to, I want to chat in person soon and just appreciate you. Thank you

Amanda H.: 55:23 so much for having me. You’re such a joy. We love you. You know my girls love you. It gets a little intense. There’s a lot of snuggle. Um, thank you. I really appreciate it. If you ever need anything, you know in a class

Christy Keane: 55:36 so much. Amanda, you guys, isn’t Amanda just the sweetest? I feel like you just hear her voice and it makes you smile and I’m so happy she was able to come out to the podcast today and I hope her tips helped you guys to be able to manage your time a little bit better and be more productive and I will keep you updated if I start that morning routine. I can tell you since I recorded the podcast with her last week, it has not started yet, but I fully intend to make that a habit after this baby gets here. If you liked today’s podcast, please subscribe and leave a five star review as you know, me and my family. Really, really appreciate it and don’t forget to head over to the mommy influencer podcast, Facebook group so that we can continue the conversation further. I want to know what your time management hacks are, what you’re using to create your, anything that we can dive into further from today’s podcast. Let’s talk about it. Thank you so much for tuning in. Guys.