Episode #34: Taking Fabulous Photos, Dating as a Nomad and Running a Wedding Photography Business Remotely with Lydia Baikalova

Episode Summary

Lydia Baikalova tells her story of growing up poor in Ukraine, learning to speak English at age 13 and developing her entrepreneurial drive out of necessity to make money. She then shares her acting trajectory which eventually led her to Los Angeles. After years of modeling and acting, she explains how she decided to start a wedding photography business that she eventually scaled to over 25 staff. She explains how she build the systems and processes and infrastructure that now allows her to run it remotely while traveling the world. She shares specific tips on hiring, systems building, and scaling a service-based business as well as artistic and creative businesses. She then offers tips on how everyone can take better photos, for Instagram or anywhere else, and look fabulous. Lydia then goes on to talk about her passion for travel and the nomadic lifestyle. She shares her insights on personal growth, relationship building, and dating while traveling the world as a nomad. She also recounts some of her top travel experiences, adventures, mishaps, and favorite places. She talks about her love for tango, free-diving, and her passion or learning new skills as she travels. She also recounts her experiences in South Africa, explains how “Burning Man” events have impacted her life, and shares her views about having “nice things”. She also discusses the expansion of her business, the opening of boudoir division, and that why that is so significant to her. She also shares her specific morning routine, day structure, and productivity tips. Full Show Notes Available at www.TheMaverickShow.com

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What You'll Learn

How to scale a service based business and manage it remotely
How to take fabulous photos and look great in your everyday pics
How to date and build meaningful connections as a nomad

Links From the Episode

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LYDIA’s RECOMMENDED BOOK

Mindset: The Psychology Of Success by Dr. Carol Dweck

EVENTS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED

RECOMMENDED APP AND SOFTWARE

RECOMMENDED CHANNEL

Productivity Game

LOCATION WHERE THE INTERVIEW TOOK PLACE

Cape Town

CITY WHERE LYDIA IS FROM

Kiev, Ukraine

LYDIA’S TOP 3 FAVORITE TRAVEL DESTINATION

LYDIA’S TOP 3 BUCKET LIST DESTINATION

Check Flight Prices to Any of These Destinations

CONTACT LYDIA

Time Stamped Show Notes

[2:45] LYDIA’S EXPERIENCE IN CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

Co-Living in Cape Town
Attending Afrika Burn
What the Burning Man Principles Mean to Her

[9:50] HOW LYDIA DESIGNS HER LIFESTYLE AND STRUCTURES HER TRAVEL

Slow-Traveling the World as a Part-Time Nomad

[11:20] LYDIA’S BACKGROUND GROWING UP IN UKRAINE AND MOVING TO LA

Learning English in Ukraine as a Kid
Growing Up with Humble Beginnings and Being Inspired by Her Mother
Learning to Hustle and Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Lydia’s first business in Kiev
Learning to Overcome Rejection and Developing Grit
Lydia’s Acting Career in Ukraine
Moving to Los Angeles to Pursue an Acting Career
Why Lydia gave up her Acting Career to Pursue Entrepreneurship and World Travel

[21:41] LYDIA’S PATH TO DEVELOPING AND SCALING HER PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS

Trying to Make Money Selling Headshots to Actors
Buying her First Camera
Learning her Craft
Shooting her First Wedding
Starting to Scale Her Business
Creating Systems and Processes
Lydia’s Scaling Formula for a Service-Based Business
Eliminating, Automating and Delegating
Mistakes and Lessons Learned in Hiring and Scaling
Differentiation and Creating a Niche Style
Training Photographers on How to “Direct” Shoots
Training Staff on Communicating with Clients
Managing a Remote Team While Traveling The World
Realizing Everything is Your Responsibility
The Importance of Integrity
Empowering and Respecting Your Staff
Managing Her Team Remotely While Traveling
Realizing Everything is the Responsibility of the Business Owner
Doubling Her Business Through Scaling

[41:55] LYDIA’S TIPS FOR TAKING FABULOUS PHOTOS IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE

Avoiding the #1 Mistakes People Make When Taking Photos of Themselves
Lydia’s Top Tip for Taking Amazing Pics

[45:09] SCALING AN ARTISTIC CREATIVE BUSINESS

Training Your Staff By Showing Them “Your Why”
Allowing Staff to Integrate Some of Their Own Creative Expression

[48:49] LESSONS LYDIA LEARNED FROM CHALLENGES AND SETBACKS

Finding the Right People and Trusting Them
Dealing with Dips in Quality While Scaling

[50:46] HOW LYDIA MANAGES HER TEAM WHILE TRAVELING THE WORLD

Hiring Managers
Outsourcing Post-Production to Ukraine
Communicating with a Distributed Team All Over the World
Relying on Well-Documented Systems and Processes

[53:52] HOW AND WHY LYDIA TRAVELS

Why Lydia Travels
How and Why She Prioritizes “Skill-Development” As She Travels
Swimming with Dolphins
Getting Arrested in Brazil
Her Love of Free Diving

[1:03:07] LYDIA’S REFLECTIONS ON NOMAD RELATIONSHIPS

Why Traveling Will Not Solve Your Problems
How to Be Happy with Yourself Wherever You Are
Nomadic Friendships
Dating, Love and Relationships as a Digital Nomad
The Value of Location Independence in Making Relationships Work
How Travel Helps You Realize the Urgency of Connecting with People Faster

[1:18:21] LYDIA’S REFLECTIONS ON THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF HAVING NICE STUFF

Matching How You Look with Who You Want to Be
How Certain Material Items Can ‘Tools’ for Creating Particular Emotional States

[1:25:21] LYDIA’S NEW BOUDOUIR DIVISION

Why Lydia Values Boudoir Photography So Much
Explaining the Gift She Wants to Give to Women

[1:28:18] LYDIA’S MORNING ROUTINE AND DAY STRUCTURE

[1:32:20] THE LIGHTNING ROUND

Lydia’s #1 Book She Recommends
The One Piece of Advice She Would Give to Her 18-Year Old Self
Lydia’s Top Travel Hack
Top 3 Favorite Travel Destinations of All Time
Top 3 Bucket List Destinations

About the Guest

Lydia Baikalova

Lydia Baikalova is a location independent entrepreneur, photographer, world-traveler and the co-founder and owner of “The I Do Photography”, one of the top-rated wedding photography and videography companies in Los Angeles. Her company has done over 800 Weddings taken over 2 Million photos and received over 300 5-star reviews and numerous prestigious awards. Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, Lydia moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to pursue an acting career. She started her photography business with her brother in 2012 with just a used camera and one lens. Over the past 7 years Lydia has scaled her business to 20 shooters, 5 editors, 3 managers and automated it so she is no longer required to shoot or manage on regular basis and can spend her time traveling the world, writing, speaking, snowboarding, free diving, tango dancing, and starting new businesses. She has been to 37 countries and is fluent Russian, Ukranian and English.