Per Our Last Email

We’re kicking off today’s episode with one more Harry Potter cocktail (this one’s a smoky activated charcoal margarita called “Skele-Gro”), and some news… Today’s episode is going to mark the end of an era — AKA, the season finale for a very long season 1! 🥺🥳 We’re so grateful for this podcast, the community, and all the stories this incredible show has taught us… and this ISN’T GOODBYE. We promise. We’ll be updating the podcast format to seasons for 2023 instead of weekly episodes, and we’ll still be staying on this account all the time to share funny content, memes, and all the relatable things. On this episode, you’ll get to hear about some real changes in our business (we’ve been SO busy) and the realization that we just can’t do it all… …but, like we said, it’s not goodbye. Promise. 💗 We’re knee-deep in prepping for season 2 already, so keep sending stories to us — and let us know if you have any suggestions for topics, guests, and/or sponsors! We’re here for it. Always. And we’ll be back so, so soon. Submit your stories and questions at perourlastemail.com, and we’ll do our best to read them as ridiculously as possible. Check out our lawyer approved contract: Commercial Photography Agreement Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

Meet Emma Maja — our Australian gal (who joined us at a wildly early hour bc of the time difference!), who’s a freelance graphic designer, illustrator, AND dog accessory and apparel designer! Today we’re kicking off with another Harry Potter themed cocktail (AKA, a frozen midori sour with a twist called Polyjuice Potion), and Emma dives on in with us over an espresso martini. We got to hear how Emma’s product-based business has informed her service-based business, all the things she’s learned in and out of freelance, and her journey as a designer — anchored, of course, by some killer stories. Duh. First, we get to hear about the TRUE AUDACITY of a client whose mission was to “empower women” but, well… hint, hint, DIDN’T. They treated her horribly, kept hinting towards ~future work opportunities~ and asked her to lower her already low rates… and you’re gonna cringe when you find out how much work Emma did for way too little money. We also hear about a client who reached out via Facebook Messenger and gave Emma ~the ick~ for a project that ended up having a total lack of boundaries… as they sometimes do. We loved having Emma on the show and hearing about everything from her practical advice to the lessons she’s learned along the way to the mistakes she’s made — and it’s a really good one. You know what to do! 😌 Follow Emma on IG at @emmamajadesign and check out her site at emmamajadesign.com Check out her dog accessory and apparel brand: Dogs of CBR Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

Today, meet Jason B. James — an incredible food and beverage photographer by day and DJ by night! We kicked off this episode with another Harry Potter-themed cocktail (we named this one Reparo — a gin cranberry sour inspired by Command Z, AKA the Photoshop shortcut that saves our lives). We loved hearing about how Jason transitioned from being a behavioral therapist to a photographer (AND a DJ) — and he told us how he describes his work as a little surreal, almost “like you microdosed” when looking at it. #weloveit You’ll get to hear about one of Jason’s events from hell during a NYE DJing gig gone wrong annnnnd his last straw before deciding freelance life was going to have to be the life for him. Because, as we all know… sometimes freelancing can be ROUGH, but man oh man is it better than anything else. 😂 Tune in now, pals! Submit your stories and questions at perourlastemail.com, and we’ll do our best to read them as ridiculously as possible. Follow Jason on IG at @jason.b.james and check out his website at jasonbjamesphoto.com Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

Who knew Per Our Last Email would be getting into unsolved mystery podcast territory? 👀 Our friends Cierra and James of Halves Studio, an incredible lifestyle + studio photography hybrid based in Brooklyn, NY, joined us on today's episode with a rather mysterious story. I mean... it's not every day you get shipped a 6-7K Louis Vuitton purse... Anywho... we dove right in over a couple of Butterbeer cocktails as Cierra and James shared their journey in creating Halves Studio, what it's like to run a photography studio with your life partner, their current relationship with social media, and the time a client told Cierra she'd be a "perfect fit" to create video content for their mom and baby product line. (Spoiler alert: she's not a mom) ...but honestly, how on earth does a Louis Vuitton bag just magically appear on one's doorstep?! Asking for a friend... Help us solve this mystery and listen on in. 🔍 You know you’re sitting on a good story that you’re just dying to share. Send it into perourlastemail.com. Submit the story now, deal with your conscience later. Follow Cierra and James on IG and TikTok at @halves_studio and check out their website at halvesstudio.com Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

In today’s episode, you get to meet the incredible women behind Four Course Media, Rylee and Laura! We’re kicking off this episode during the massive heat wave in San Jose (um, 108 degrees?! Bye), and Rylee & Laura contributed the cocktail for this month’s HARRY POTTER COCKTAIL THEME ✨ We dove in over a fernet and vermouth spritz cocktail named “The Leaky Cauldron” and talked about how they went from meeting in a Slack group for freelance photographers to starting their studio, which offers imagery, styling, recipe development and branding consulting for food and beverage brands. In the ep you’ll get to hear about how they style food with real, fresh ingredients, tackle food waste in the industry, and run their business living in different places (Rylee’s based in Denver and Laura in Chicago). You’ll also get to hear about a very insane, traumatic story (ugh) with a ridiculous, stressful, and absolute jerk of a client who was full of red flags — like, hi… can we NOT with clients who do things like nitpick, delay, and, um… send emails like “Did something upload incorrectly? The colors in these photos are not showing up as expected. Do you mind checking the link to see if that’s what you meant to send?” LIKE YES IT IS WHAT WE MEANT TO SEND, PHIL.* *Not the client’s real name. 😂 Anyways, this is a good one — and we can’t wait for you to tune in! Submit your stories and questions at perourlastemail.com, and we’ll do our best to read them as ridiculously as possible. Follow Laura and Rylee on IG at @fourcoursemedia and check out their website at fourcoursemedia.com Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

Today we’re talking to the incredible Megan Rizzo, an amazing creative, artist, and illustrator who’s worked with tons of companies (hello… like MTV, Sony, and BET!) — and we’re kicking off with a delightful college-themed cocktail that plays off of Jungle Juice, called “Welcome to the (Freelance) Jungle.” (Megan’s a new mom who’s taking it a little more low-key than we are, so she’s enjoying an apple juice mimosa while we breathe in memories of frat houses. Sigh.) There’s absolutely nothing better than a multi-faceted conversation about all the things, which is exactly how our conversation with Megan went — starting diving into her work, which she describes as “playful, bold, and comforting,” and how she draws inspiration from herself and her own struggles in her work (which includes #casual things like illustrating and writing children’s books). So freakin’ cool. Our favorite part of every guest ep is getting to hear stories from our fellow freelancers, and Megan tells us about a client who had wildly unrealistic expectations (AKA they wanted her to completely change her style) which obvi resulted in endless revisions… Oh and we also get to hear about an inquiry she received asking her to illustrate ✨sexual encounters✨ for a sexual poetry book. Ah, we love it. You guys know what to do! Send your most audacious stories, thoughts, highs and lows to perourlastemail.com. Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via Instagram, too. Follow Megan on IG at @daizydoodles and check out her website at daisyillustrations.com Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

And we are BACK with a good ole’ stories episode… arguably our most audacious one ever, so get ready! College cocktail month is still going strong, so we’re sipping on the lovely Adios, Mother****** that we’ve aptly renamed A Magical Freelancer, and kick off telling you guys about the ~audacity~ of a company who wanted to buy our images for $15 each. Love it. But, we digress — because the stories we have this week are INSANE. First, we hear from a listener whose client simply could NOTTTT understand why her prices had raised from pre-pandemic times — and who decided that she didn’t agree with renewal of licensing and usage, either. #nothx. Then we hear about a listener who got on a call with a potential client, only to LITERALLY hear the phrase “oh NO, we don’t work with budgets, it’s more about VALUE for us…” when she was explaining her budget. Spoiler alert… this means they didn’t want to pay. 😅 Then we have a commercial photographer from the food space talk about a vvvv passive-aggressive email from a potential client asking if the photos in her proposal were… HER PHOTOS (well yes, duh!), and shows us the email exchange. And then, to wrap up the most audacious stories episode yet, we have a really fun (AKA, triggering) story about an incredibly picky client who did not give AF about her having COVID or her instilling any kind of client boundaries. Oof. It’s a lot, huh?! Tune in to hear the tea. 🤟 Send your most audacious stories, thoughts, highs and lows to perourlastemail.com. Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via IG, too. Find us at @perourlastemail @weekendcreative!

Today’s episode kicks off with Lina Cordero of Onlychild Design, a branding and design studio, and we’re OBSESSED WITH HER… as you’ll be able to tell in this ep. 🤩 We’re continuing our theme of college cocktails this month (much to Elle’s distaste LOL), and drinking jager bombs we’ve called “Bomb Dot Com” — an ode to feeling of having amazing projects you’re proud of — and slightly wishing we were drinking palomas like Lina was. But, we digress. Lina talks about how and why she started Onlychild Design (um, hint… in her last corporate job, she was LITERALLY asked to make changes to a project while she was in labor. No thx), and we talk about good ole client red flags, picking the right clients, and NOT having a business you have to treat like a child. Then, as usj, we get to hear some incredible stories — including Lina’s worst ever discovery call (like, hi, a note to clients: can you not ask us ~why we’re having this call~ when you’re the one that booked it?!), a pro bono client who decided to reach out for changes almost 3 years later, being asked to work during labor, and when she accidentally deleted all of her client work from her computer. *dies* It’s seriously a good one, friends — head over to listen on in! Send your most audacious stories, thoughts, highs and lows to perourlastemail.com. Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via Instagram, too. Follow Lina on IG at @onlychildesign and check out her website at onlychildesign.com View some of Lina's Adobe Live Streams: Part 1 and Part 2 Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

Imagine getting trolled for a year and receiving not one but SEVERAL inquiries by someone pretending to be Lady Gaga... 😅 Wellllll... you can stop imagining because it *actually* happened. To whom you may ask? None other than the ~fabulous~ Marina Williams. We're over here pinching ourselves because we got to chat with one of the sweetest and most talented creative photographers in the industry. Not only does she create stunning work but she's not afraid to share what she knows via all of her educational resources. And. We. Are. Here. For. It. 👏 In this ep, you'll get to hear about Marina's favorite college cocktail, her freelance journey, the time she got to photograph Olivia Rodrigo shortly after "drivers license" exploded, social media fatigue (so it's not just us?!), and some of the toughest lessons she's had to learn while running her business. You know what to do - grab your cocktail and listen in! 🍸 Follow Marina on IG at @marinawphoto and check out her site at marinawilliamsphoto.com Check out her educational Patreon: Made To Make Find out more about her portfolio building event: Colorpop Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

On this week’s episode, we’re shakin’ it up with a good ole’ discussion topic… CONTRACT CLAUSES. But, before we dive in over key lime martinis (that we’ve named Offlime, because… #catchy), we get really, really real about the burnout and the exhaustion we’ve been feeling this past year — caused by the pandemic and by massive changes in our personal lives. We’re in this phase where we want to really focus on what’s important to us and what’s bringing us the most joy, you know?! We get a little deep, okay?! 😂 When we kick off our chat on contract clauses, we have a LOT to talk about — and a lot that you can probably relate to. We talk about copyright and licensing (and about how we’ve lost out on renewal fees and the like before we knew more about it), we talk about how we no longer release deliverables before final payment is made, and we also talk about the usability of the work we’re doing. It’s a good one — basically an episode of Suits, minus Meghan Markle and absolutely any professional legal education. Psst… we’re running low on stories over here, and we’d love to hear yours! Send us your most cringey, most hilarious, and most ✨educational✨ stories by tapping the link in our bio or going to perourlastemail.com/submit-your-story. Check out these resources: Illumination (Formerly Luke Studios)' Licensing and Pricing FAQ, The AOP Usage Calculator, and Getty Price Calculator View our lawyer approved contract: Commercial Photography Agreement Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

Guys, is there anything better than a stories episode?! NOPE — and get ready for this one! We’re still going strong with our OOO cocktail theme, and we kicked off this episode with a peach cocktail called “Less Work Mo Beaches” before talking about how we just recently celebrated 2 whole years of Per Our Last Email (!!!) and finished a Photography Bootcamp Adobe livestream that we had the time of our lives on! This stories episode is full of some goodies, starting off with a good ole’ fashioned SCAM ALERT (ugh, is there anything worse?!), talking about something we all now like to call the ✨bikini model debacle✨ and what happens when you connect your personal phone number to your Google My Business account. SOS. You know what to do, pals! Send your most audacious stories, thoughts, highs and lows to perourlastemail.com. Listen to Andrew Hochradel's episode: Oopsies Check out our week-long livestream with Adobe: Photography Bootcamp with Weekend Creative Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via IG, too. Find us at @perourlastemail @weekendcreative!

You know those cool, chic, insightful, and incredibly talented people that you see online and immediately want to be friends with? Yeah... that's Lauren Jones for us! 💫 And she did NOT disappoint in this episode ya'll. Long story short, we had the best time chatting it up with her about all things creative freelance, Colorado, portrait painting classes, Per Our Last Email's 2nd birthday, and her incredible Adobe Live that was one of our favorite streams we've hosted to date. Lauren also shares her journey into becoming a commercial fashion photographer, how being in the modeling industry helped her gain the trust of her clients, and the turbulent period when she quit her stable job to go freelance full-time DAYS before the COVID-19 lockdown. 😬 Oh and don't worry, she's got her fair share of nightmare freelance tales including the time she got ELABORATELY scammed, a client asking Lauren to just "add a sleeve" because the model's arms "look a little hairy," and the time she worked with a celebrity influencer who asked Lauren to digitally slim her down just so she could post the photos on her feed accompanied by captions like "love yourself the way you are." Big YIKES. It truly was a "pie in the sky" type of episode and we. are. here. for. it. 🥧 Send us your stories already. You know the ones we want to hear 👀 Head on over to perourlastemail.com! Follow Lauren on IG at @itslaurenjones and check out her site at itslaurenjones.com Watch her Adobe Live streams: Day 1 and Day 2 Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

We’re back with a STORIES EPISODE! But, tbh, we’re only really halfway back — AKA, Arabela forgot to make the cocktails & we had to pause to, well… make them. If you needed an insight into what our lives are looking like right now, there you go 😂 We’re kicking off with a couple of tinto de veranos, a Spanish wine cocktail that we had literally every single day while filming our @domestika course in Spain. While we start sipping, we catch up by talking about Elle and her husband’s ~faux whole 30,~ Arabela’s new position as a cat lady, AND our thoughts on all things Stranger Things. Then, we get into the stories — and they’re goodies. We talk about whether or not designers should require website credit at the bottom of their site designs, the CLASSIC TALE of someone sending over final files before final invoice (and our sweet listener describes this as when she “thought the freelance world was filled with rainbows, butterflies, paid invoices and common courtesy” 😂😭), and a good ole’ red flag client story involving a creepy home office meeting situation. 🥴🥴🥴 You know what to do, pals — let’s get into some freakin’ stories! And don’t forget to send in some wild tales of your own. 💀 Submit your stories and questions at perourlastemail.com, and we’ll do our best to read them as ridiculously as possible. View Rache De Luna's website templates, courses, and tutorials: Squarestylist Check out our lawyer approved contract: Commercial Photography Agreement Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

This week, we’re stepping into the creative world of Giulietta Pinna of Limonata Creative and Prop Up Shop. We’re chatting over some piña coladas, AKA "I Need A Vacation," a classic recipe that we just had to bring back for this month's OOO theme. Giulietta is an art director, prop and set stylist based in the Baltimore/DC area and to say that she's killing the game is an understatement. Not only is Giulietta an inspiration in the work she creates, but she's been doing some amazing stylist advocacy work and has even put out a photo stylist contract template of her own. She's an icon, she's a legend, and she IS the moment. 👏 So, she joined us in this episode to talk about her wild freelance journey (which had her jumping from being a marketer to becoming a certified sommelier – say what!), the challenges that stylists face in their industry today, and how she almost became a contestant on a tv show where participants have to guess whether an object is a food item or not... by taking a BITE of it. 😬 Oh, and then, she told us about a time when she was hired to art direct and style a luxury gift guide for a major publication but somehow they had an issue with crediting her roles correctly... *ugh* ...not to mention the body guards that hovered over her while she styled a 52K ring. Freelancing is truly wild and Giulietta had no shortage of stories in this ep! You know what to do. 🎙 You know you’re sitting on a good story that you’re just dying to share. Send it into perourlastemail.com. Submit the story now, deal with your conscience later. Follow Giulietta on IG at @limonatacreative and check out her website at limonatacreative.com Check out her studio and prop rentals: Prop Up Shop Shop her stylist agreement: Photo Stylist Contract Template Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

And, we’re BACK with part 2 of our 100th episode, feat. our BFFs at Little Drill! On this episode we’re diving in with James and Shelby’s most horrifying horror story — but we, of course, have to kick off with a random convo about Harry Styles and then how they’ve already been checking on their emails prior to this recording sesh and are already #bitter. Hence, the name of this episode's cocktail (which, reminder, are basil & lemon spritzes named ”Don’t Be Bitter”). James and Shelby’s story happened during a campaign with a top East Coast agency on two brands that we can GUARANTEE you’ve both consumed and bought. Lovely. This is a nice mixture of unrealistic expectations and a lack of boundaries, and it’s also a project that James and Shelby realized almost immediately they should have said “uh… no” to. Sigh. You’ll get to hear about firing a model who had too many wrinkles on her hands, about absolutely insane editing requests post-shoot, and a good ole’ realization that the ethos of the brand they were shooting for did NOT align with their public image. Episode’s live — you know what to do! 🥳 Send us your stories already. You know the ones we want to hear 👀 Head on over to perourlastemail.com! Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via IG, too. Find us at @perourlastemail @weekendcreative! Follow Shelby and James on IG at @littledrill and check out their site at littledrill.com Listen to Little Drill's episode: That's Where The Story Should Have Ended ft. Little Drill Check out their second episode with us on Per Our Last Email: Q&A with Little Drill Listen to Part 1 of this Two-Parter Episode: Pleasure Based Billing ft. Little Drill and Weekend Creative

Guys… WE MADE IT TO OUR 100TH EPISODE! 🥳🥳🥳 And, to celebrate, we’re bringing back our BFFs, James & Shelby of Little Drill, for a 2-parter episode (because, let’s be honest… if we didn’t split it up, you’d be listening to a 4 hour episode). This time, we’re both sharing an absolutely insane story over… …and the Weekend Creative fam (AKA, us) is up first. We’re diving in over basil & lemon spritzes aptly named ”Don’t Be Bitter,” which will make perfect sense once you hear today’s story. 🙃🙃🙃 So we’ve teased this story a few times on the pod, but now we’re sharing ALL the drama (now that we’ve recovered slightly from the trauma of it) with our god-awful landlords from our first studio… and all of the HELL we went through for the 2 years we leased that space. We’re talking about homeless people peeing and pooping in our stairs (and leaving needles, k?!), our zero-boundary landlord who didn’t let us change the temperature on our own, and the worst communication we’ve ever experienced. Oof. Plus, we’ll casually drop a little story in there about the time we almost got sued. 😭😂 And then, we’ll be back next week with Part 2, featuring Little Drill’s story of a nightmare project where everything went wrong, absolutely nothing went right, and ended with them blacklisted from one of the top ad agencies in NYC. Send us your stories already. You know the ones we want to hear 👀 Head on over to perourlastemail.com! Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via IG, too. Find us at @perourlastemail @weekendcreative! Follow Shelby and James on IG at @littledrill and check out their site at littledrill.com Listen to Little Drill's episode: That's Where The Story Should Have Ended ft. Little Drill Check out their second episode with us on Per Our Last Email: Q&A with Little Drill

On this week’s episode, meet Elise Swopes — AKA, one of the sweetest, coolest chicks on the internet and an all-around amazing human being and creative. Elise is a whole vibe (she came on wearing a fuzzy orange jacket, orange clips, AND had an orange drink & straw — we love to see it), and we dove in with a pink grapefruit spritz cocktail named “Pink Outside the Box.” We talked a lot about Elise’s super unconventional journey, about graduating college late (she just got her degree, so cool!), and about how NFTs have changed her whole career. We also get to hear about an event she photographed in Chicago that featured a really disconcerting, uncomfortable side of borderline animal cruelty and the time she ended up being on a hot air balloon that crashed — yes, CRASHED! — while working with a tourism board. Never a dull day, huh?! We also get to hear about passing on projects that don’t align, the weirdest inquiry she’s ever received, and what she’s learned about herself on her creative journey. This is a really, really good one — and you can listen now! Send your GIFs, memes, stories and thoughts to perourlastemail.com! Follow Elise on IG at @swopes and check out her site at swopes.info Check out her NFT creative community: Sunrise Art Club View her Adobe Live Streams: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

This week on Per Our Last Email we’re hanging out with graphic designer and artist Josiah Goldsmith! We jump right in over a cocktail we group-named “My Money Don’t Jiggle Jiggle, It Aperol” (LOL), and get to talk about all things British accents and South Korea culture with Josiah, who is — you guessed it — a Brit living in SK! We touched on a ton of topics during this episode, which is our very favorite kind of ep. From exploring creativity to the Korean design industry and everything in between, we really got into it (especially since it was only 8:30 AM for Josiah and he was drinking a cocktail right alongside us)! Josiah talks about a client with a Clip Art-esque logo who told him that he was demonic and the anti-Christ (yes… you read that right), and also talks about working with a client who hadn’t been paying him… only to realize that the business owed designers over $200,000 in total. K. This one is a goodie, and you’ll learn a ton from Josiah and his insights. You know what to do, pals! Send your most audacious stories, thoughts, highs and lows to perourlastemail.com. Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via Instagram, too. Follow Josiah at @thejosiahgoldsmith and check out his site at josiahgoldsmith.com Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

On today’s episode you get to meet Jenn Shore, the badass behind design agency Shore Creative (and our triplet flame — she wore a jumpsuit that said “tipsy” during our interview. Iconic). Over “Grey Rocking” cocktails we dove into learning how to turn failure into success and all about Jenn’s journey as an entrepreneur. We also heard about how she wants to become a “freelance matchmaker” of sorts, which is fab. We also got to listen tons of great stories — with notes! — about client red flags (like, no… you can’t have these assets until you pay me, ok?!), when an influencer stole her designs (🙃🙃🙃), and a good ole’ client meets block button action. You ready?! Dive on in with us (and hear about Jenn’s freelance inquiry warning signs cheat sheet, which is #everything). Send us your stories already. You know the ones we want to hear 👀 Head on over to perourlastemail.com! Follow Jenn on IG at @jenn_shore @shorecreative and check out her website at shore-creative.com Listen to Nicole's episode from Sprout Law: Gaslighting Inception Follow us on Instagram: @perourlastemail @weekendcreative

You guys know there are few things we love more than a great stories episode, and we’re starting off this week’s with a bang (AKA… stories). We’re diving in over citrusy cocktails named “Can I Pay You With (Sun) Exposure?” and cuddling with Elle’s new dog Cooper, who says hello at the beginning of the episode. (Bringing light to the clients who ask to pay you in exposure, ya know?) In this episode we hear about a freelancer who ended up doing a 12-hour trial shift — ugh, unpaid, of course — for an assistant job, a story that actually ends up being really helpful around how and why to fire a client, and some crazy wedding photo stories… including a bride who he later saw on Bumble. Ah. The freelance life is just such a charm. Psst… have some charm you want to share with us?! We’re always accepting new freelancer stories and would love to hear from you! Visit our website and tell us alllllll the tea, pals. Send your most audacious stories, thoughts, highs and lows to perourlastemail.com. Forever accepting memes, gifs and stress-relieving videos via IG, too. Find us at @perourlastemail @weekendcreative!