Guest Speaking + Workshops + Consultations
Sheri Oneal is a photographer, visual storyteller, fine artist, and creative mentor known for empowering artists and creators to thrive through storytelling, education, and art. As a group speaker and mentor, her goal is always to see individuals grow their creativity and improve their businesses.
For 10 years, as an adjunct instructor at Nossi College of Art, she offered her expertise in educating students in business and marketing, preparing them as entrepreneurs upon graduation.
As a successful self-employed business owner in the commercial photography industry, Sheri brings insight and experience from her own success to help others prepare for the road ahead. Her knowledge provides great insight for those starting a business in any creative field.
*Consultations, Guest speaking, and workshop fees are determined based on several factors, including time commitment, location, necessary materials, the number of attendees, and other specific details required for each event.
Common Questions
She is available as a guest speaker to discuss the commercial photography industry or any of the sessions listed here. She also offers one-on-one consultations on topics designed to help photographers, artists, and other creatives successfully launch their self-employed businesses.
What does a consultation include?
Sheri offers personalized, in-person consultations in Nashville, lasting between 1 and 1.5 hours. Each session is customized to your marketing needs, providing Sheri’s expertise on the selected topic, along with a PDF outline of the key discussions.
How do I choose?
Sheri helps clients pinpoint the session that will most benefit their business right now. For those considering several topics, Sheri can guide them in determining the ideal sequence to maximize their learning. Every consultation is tailored to perfectly align with the client and their brand.
What do I need to do before my session?
To ensure a highly effective consultation, Sheri follows a personalized approach. First, clients are asked to provide an outline of their current or planned business. Next, they should share their specific goals for the session.
Following an initial phone conversation, Sheri will customize the session in advance, ensuring clients walk away with the precise tools needed to achieve their objectives.
Once these goals have been discussed, clients can purchase their session via PayPal to secure a calendar date.
Take Better Smartphone Photos
Guest Speaker Workshop Event
Are your photos falling flat? This workshop offers the solution—no experience required! It reveals simple yet powerful techniques to elevate your photographs to the next level using just your smartphone. You won’t need fancy equipment or years of experience—just the right know-how!
This workshop demystifies the art of photography, breaking down key concepts into easy-to-understand techniques you can use immediately. From composition and lighting to editing and more, you’ll learn how to capture stunning images that truly tell your story.
You’ll receive inspiring examples, recommendations for helpful apps, and personalized guidance to help you develop your unique style. This workshop is ideal for businesses looking to boost their social media presence or capture professional-quality images in the field.
Session A
Defining Your Niche And Business Roadmap
In this session, Sheri helps clients outline and define their strengths as a service provider or the unique aspects of their product. Clients will determine their exact market and the specific work opportunities within that market. They will also assess whether their product or service should primarily appeal to consumer or commercial markets. A key component of the session involves researching potential clients and developing strategies for effective outreach.
Session B
Understanding Your Competition
In this session, clients will research and identify their competitors, understanding their strategies and market position. They will then uncover unique ways to differentiate themselves and rise above the competition. A key focus is on developing unique offerings by leveraging their own creativity. Sheri guides them through brainstorming techniques and encourages out-of-the-box thinking, ensuring their service or product truly stands out in the market.
Session C
Crafting Your Brand Message
In this session, clients learn to design their offerings based on their market’s specific demands. They will determine exactly what their market wants and select their main keywords to ensure effective communication. Sheri then helps them outline the essential details of their elevator pitch, mission statement, bio, and tagline, all tailored to their unique business model. This entire process centers on developing a brand that showcases their product or service to their market in a distinctly clear and compelling way.
Session D
Determining The Cost To Run Your Business
Does one know what it will truly cost to run their business? Having a budget and understanding the expenses involved in both starting and maintaining a business is crucial for success. But how does one determine business costs if they haven’t even started yet?
In this session, Sheri helps clients develop a comprehensive list of potential business expenses tailored to their specific business model. She also assists in creating a list of personal living expenses and outlining an estimated monthly budget. Using these personal and estimated business expenses, clients will develop their CODB (Cost Of Doing Business) budget, ensuring they have a clear understanding of the financial investment required to grow their business.
Session E
Developing Your Brand Identity
Your brand is crucial for a successful business, as it’s how customers directly connect with you, your service, or your product. In this session, clients will develop the essential elements their brand should include and define its visual identity. They’ll determine the mood, color scheme, and other vital visual components needed to create cohesive business materials.
Sheri guides clients on how to create a brand-style template that can be used for developing marketing materials such as websites, social media share templates, and business cards. She also offers insight into services that will help them build their own marketing assets once their brand style is established.
Session F
SEO Essentials for Online Visibility
In this session, clients learn the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and its crucial importance for all online activities. Sheri helps them understand how to strengthen their website content to boost their online presence among competitors. She shares strategies for making site content more appealing to both Google search and potential customers.
The session also covers how to properly size images and what essential information to include for ALT tags, descriptions, and image titles. Understanding the significance of these elements is vital for maintaining a healthy website and ensuring potential clients can find them online.
Session G
Integrating SEO with Brand Development
Once SEO principles are understood, the next step is to design precisely what you plan to sell based on your target market. In this session, clients will determine what their market truly wants and how to effectively reach them using keywords.
Leveraging proper SEO elements, they will research and pinpoint the right keywords to attract their desired market. Depending on their business model, Sheri helps them outline crucial details, ensuring their content and chosen keywords successfully connect their brand and market. Using these refined elements, clients will then develop a compelling elevator pitch, mission statement, bio, and tagline. This entire process is centered on showcasing their product or service to their market in a distinctly clear and impactful way.
Session H
Mastering Time Management
In this session, clients will discover the best methods to manage their time efficiently. Sheri shares insights into potential apps and software that can significantly boost their productivity.
They will explore tools that facilitate direct scheduling of calendar appointments with clients, effective time blocking strategies, streamlined task development, and proper resource allocation for successful planning. The goal is for clients to leave with practical tools to optimize their daily workflow.
Session I
Developing Your Chart Of Accounts For Quickbooks
This session helps clients develop a comprehensive chart of accounts for their income and expenses. Sheri offers potential list items tailored to their specific business services and expenditures. She also shares the basic setup of these items in QuickBooks, which simplifies tax allocation. Clients will ultimately develop their own customized list, encompassing the unique financial aspects of their independent small business.
Session J
Developing Your Cost Of Doing Business
Prerequisite: Session D – Determine The Cost To Run Your Business.
In this session, Sheri shows clients how to price their work effectively based on their market. She works with them to understand how to combine their personal and business expenses with projected income to create an average daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly budget cost outline for running their business. This crucial preparation ensures they understand the financial commitment involved in operating their desired business while maintaining their desired lifestyle.
Session K
Understanding What To Charge
Before selling a product or service, it’s essential to determine its market value and the time required for successful delivery. In this session, Sheri walks clients through the steps of how to price their service or product effectively.
Clients will research their competitors and market to understand the true value of their offerings. Using this information, they will determine their own pricing strategy and develop a tailored list of potential products and services. Sheri also provides valuable tips on how this financial information can be utilized within QuickBooks.
Session L
Bidding, Estimates And Invoices
How does one effectively bid on a job? This session offers various methods for understanding a client’s needs, determining usage rights, and accounting for possible expenses, all to develop a robust estimate, proposal, and invoice.
Sheri shares strategies for presenting this information clearly to the client and outlines what should be included in each document. She also provides tips for developing project steps and ensuring timely follow-up with clients. After this session, participants will be equipped to create their own professional estimates, proposals, and invoices.
Contact me!
Are you looking for a guest speaker or in need of a personalized consultation?
Contact Sheri Oneal today and let her know how she can help!
Here is what others are saying about Sheri!
“Thank you for speaking at ArtCamp on Saturday. It was the best seminar I attended. You were clear, had actionable steps to achieve goals, and were really engaging. Thank you again – wonderful, inspiring stuff!”
~Alison Logan
Arts Coordinator at Battle Ground Academy
“I wanted to thank you again for such an inspiring talk you gave at the Art Camp event. It really was the best seminar I attended. Wishing you the best.”
~Jeff Frazier
Freelance Photographer at Jeff Frazier Photographs
“Sheri, your classes have been my favorite general ed classes! I love the way you teach. You know how to break things down for students to understand easily. You are hilarious! I love how you are a teacher but yet you let your kids have fun in class and make jokes with you! You are awesome and I have learned so much from you! I am definitely going to miss you! Thank you for all that you have done!”
~Hannah Ingram
Freelance Photographer at Hannah Ingram Photography
“Sheri’s Business of Photography course taught me how to better communicate with others. Whether it be through an elevator pitch, a mission statement, a resume, or any other business channel, she helped me hone my skills to the point where I felt very confident when I had to communicate with others about my business. Upon graduation, I researched businesses in my area. I sent my resume and portfolio out to those I was interested in working with as a photographer. I was contacted a few days later by Joey Stewart of Stewartography, he said my resume and portfolio were very impressive and he would like to interview me for a position. When I went for the interview, I was prepared and excited, I spoke confidently while giving my elevator pitch and speaking of my experiences. I was hired that same day and I love working for them. Sheri prepared me very well and that self-confidence helped me land my first job less than a month out of college. Sheri truly cares about her students and their success. I am very thankful I had her as an instructor.”
~Dusty Draper
Wedding & Engagement Photographer for Stewartography