January is cold on the beach, and, this year, really stormy! So what is a San Diego beach photographer to do?
Answer: Avoid the beach at all costs and do something INDOORS! I got my business mastermind group together, and we made a day of refreshing our headshots. As self-employed entrepreneurs, it’s important to have fresh profile photos and website images regularly, and these winter months are the perfect time to do them. We hired a hair and makeup artist, my fellow photographer Liz came to help, everyone brought their favorite outfits, and I enjoyed using the natural light in my home to create these professional images. Here’s what our very productive day looked like, thanks to Mary Ann’s behind-the-scenes photos:


Now, introducing my incredible mastermind group:
JEAN KAISER
Jean is a realtor with who’s been helping San Diego families reach their real estate goals since 2002. Her promise is to buy and sell your home in 60 days, guaranteed, and she sticks to that! Jean spearheads our group of Christian entrepreneurs, along with Terri, and hosts our retreats at her beautiful East County home. She serves faithfully at her church and dotes on her three precious grandbabies. Jean is a brilliant home decorator/designer but will tell you it’s all no big deal.
TERRI PODLENSKI
Terri was my first friend in this group. She and I live in the same neighborhood and go to the same church, and I had seen her around enough to strike up a conversation at Rubio’s one day. During the pandemic we got together for a walk in our community, and that has turned into a twice-weekly hike in the hills of East County. Terri owns two marketing and brand strategy businesses, working with big-name international corporate clients on their event promotions and with Christian organizations with the goal to help them present themselves with excellence.
JEN NELSON
Dr. Jennifer Nelson, DC, owns Maverick Chiropractic Clinic, where she specializes in providing innovative total-body care for her clientele of primarily first responders and military personnel. Dr. Jen utilizes up-to-date, individualized assessment and treatment protocols and has a holistic view of health and wellness. Her goal is to hack into the patients’ lives and make small adjustments to their daily movements and habits to enable them the power to live a pain-free, healthy, and progressive lifestyle. I’m at Pilates three times a week due to Jen’s encouragement. She keeps us all on track.
MARY ANN MARIANI
Mary Ann trains people to make strong presentations. She was on the Macintosh launch team for Apple Computer and worked in leadership and development at Vignette Corporation and Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and she has devoted her career to helping people develop their communication and presentation skills through group facilitation and training services. Her passion for serving others and the Lord flows into her business, Kingdom Presenters, which she created to support communication in nonprofits and faith-based communities.
JILL ADDISON
When I met Jill, she was frustrated with the amazing business she had built. She had twin preschoolers, and her thriving company that creates explainer videos for financial planners took so much time, she was ready to let it go. Over the last two years, Jill has sold her business and become a real estate investor. Now she has the flexibility to do all the mom things with her kindergartners, and she’s working on an online training system to help other women invest successfully in real estate. Most recently, Jill gave a presentation to our group about the Sabbath and reminded us all how important it is to take time to rest.
. . . and thank you to the wonderful LIZ ROMEKA for taking a few shots of me at the end. It’s fun to have some new photos for my website and social media.
I’d love to do more branding and headshot photography in these winter months, so contact me if you’re interested in a weekday morning session.




























