A NEW WAY TO RUN A PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS, WITHOUT STUDIOS, TRAVEL DAYS, OR GEOGRAPHIC LIMITS.

It matters who holds the camera.

Worldviews are shaped by the people telling the story but women are rarely behind the lens.

The Goldenbrand exists to change that.

Through photography, creative direction, and a global community of women learning to photograph themselves, Lisa Haukom is helping more creative women show their work clearly, and make money doing it.

Founded by

LISA HAUKOM

ABOUT LISA

The Goldenbrand is where creative women and brands come to clarify their vision and bring their work into the world.

The Goldenbrand is a creative studio and community built around creative direction, strategic advice, and photography for women building meaningful work.

Because today the work doesn’t just live in studios, notebooks, or kitchens. It lives online.

On Websites, Substack posts,Launches, Press features, and Social platforms. All of them ask for images and story.More often than not, they ask for you. The Goldenbrand is where women learn how to meet that moment with ease.

LISA'S WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN

WHEN WOMEN SHOW THEIR WORK CLEARLY, OPPORTUNITY AND MONEY FOLLOW.

STEP INTO
GOLDENBRAND WORLD

I LOVE THIS!

Photo Club
The Membership Space.
A creative community for women founders, artists, and writers building something meaningful and wanting support showing up for their work online. You'll find courses, live coaching, cowering, and more.

Editorial Content Sessions (Remote)
Professional Editorial Images - create in your own space.
Lisa directs your photo session through your iPhone to create a library of images for your website, Substack, press, and socials.

Private Advisory
Most Direct Way to Work With Lisa. For those who want Lisa's eyes on their work while they build their brand. Together you'll refine your visuals, creative direction, and strategy so your work reaches the people it's meant for. This is where bigger ideas, launches, and sustainable growth take shape.

Remote Photography Method
Lisa is A Fan of More Money in the Hands of Women.
A new way to run a photography business without studios, travel days, or geographic restrictions.

Office Hours
A Quick Way to Get Perspective.

The No Bad Photos
Method to Photograph Yourself.
A self-paced course.

Steal My Week of Self-Portrait Prompts.

7 simple ideas you can try at home using just your iPhone and natural light.

SEND THEM TO ME!

BIG NEWS, OUR SUBSTACK IS ON THE RISING CHARTS!
If you enjoy the thinking behind The Goldenbrand. This is where it lives.

I LOVE THIS!

One thing about me: if something interests me, I’m going to figure it out.

Photography.
Remote photo shoots.
Launching a Substack.
Building a creative community.
Putting together a book.
Running Photo Club.

I’m curious.
I’m a little nosy.
And when I want to understand something, I sit with it until I figure it out.

That’s how most of this started.

I photographed myself every day for thirty days because I wanted to understand why women feel so strange in front of a camera.

I started directing photo shoots remotely because I moved to a tiny town and still needed to run a business.

I started writing on Substack because I had too many ideas to keep to myself.

And Photo Club grew out of all of it. A place where women can experiment with their images, share their work, ask questions, try new ideas, and figure things out together.

So when people ask how I know how to do so many things…

I try things.
I pay attention.
And then I share what I learn with other women.

Big love to everyone inside Photo Club doing exactly the same thing. ♥️

Wait… that was shot remotely?
Through an iPhone?

Welcome to the “wait, what?” part of remote photography.
(Part one.)

These images were photographed remotely through my clients’ iPhones while I directed the session from miles away.

A few of them ended up in magazines.

I started working this way after moving away from Los Angeles and realizing I needed a different way to run my photography business.

Turns out directing the shoot matters more than where the photographer is standing.

If you’re curious about how it works, the Remote Photography Method is linked in my bio.

Big love to the brilliant women featured here:
@abby_lane_design
@triciacaracappaart
@cariscomeback
@stwsmarketing
@robinzachary
@gayjegersart
@embracethespacebetween
@robindavissonart

Can you show me how to do this in my own photography business?

Absolutely.

The short version is, you’re not tied to a specific location anymore. You can direct professional photo sessions remotely, work with clients anywhere in the world, and build a photography business around your creative direction instead of your travel schedule.

It’s the exact system I used to rebuild my own photography business, and it’s now something I teach to photographers who want a more flexible, creative way to work.

The Remote Photography Method walks through the structure, from how the sessions are set up to the pieces I add that make the experience feel extra special for clients.

If you’re a photographer or creative director who’s curious about running shoots without geographic restrictions, you can learn more through the link in my bio.

And if you want help applying it to your specific business

• Office Hours are perfect for troubleshooting, feedback, or working through your first sessions.
• Private Advisory is where we build the entire structure together.

I’m excited to share this with you! xx Lisa

Trust me, you’re the best person to tell your own story.

No one understands your expressions, your moods, your weird little creative instincts better than you do. That’s the whole point of learning how to make your own self-portraits.

It’s not about performing for the camera. It’s about recognizing yourself when you see the photo.

If you’ve ever been curious about trying it, come join us.

A new group is starting March 24 inside Photo Club and we’ll spend six weeks creating self-portraits together in a workshop-style challenge.

I’ll show you how.

Follow @thegoldenbrandco and come make photos with us.

Happy International Women’s Day.

I adore you.
Especially the woman who sometimes feels like she hasn’t quite found her people yet.

You’re probably doing far better than you think.

And somewhere out here, a whole group of us are wishing we could be a little bit more like you. Keep going. ♥️

P.S. If you’re on my email list, there’s a little love waiting for you in your inbox.

Cover photo for @deshapeacock
Everything else via Pinterest

Self-Portrait Idea Bank, Please Steal Freely
And mood boards, did I mention there are so many mood boards for you to steal?

These are only available on my Substack, I would never get to keep this from you. Link in my bio.
Have fun!! 💋
ps. Did I make it weird? ;)

Steal my list.
Seriously.

I just shared 30 self-portrait ideas when you don’t know what to shoot on my Substack, IWNGTFY.

And if prompts like this are your kind of creative playground, our six-week self-portrait challenge starts March 24, exclusively inside Photo Club.

Doors are open.xx Links in bio.

What have you got to lose?

Seven tiny acts of self-respect, and nobody but you has to know.

This is a week of self-portrait prompts that might just change the way you see yourself. Save this reel so you can try all seven photography prompts, then come back and tell me all about it.

If you want more like this, head to my bio for No Bad Photos, a practical self-portrait course for women. No photography experience necessary. @thegoldenbrandco link in bio.♥️

A weird thing happens when you post a photo of your face.

Engagement goes up, up, up.

You’ve probably noticed it too. I certainly did.

Which creates a strange tension for a lot of women building businesses, brands, and creative work online. Because visibility matters. Of course we care if something lands.

And at the same time, leaving your face hanging out there to be judged at will can make your nervous system do backflips.

It certainly did for me.

Part of the reason I built an entire body of work around self-photography is because I needed it first. There was a time I didn’t like the woman I saw in photos very much. I didn’t have much respect for her either. And if I felt that way… how could anyone else?

So I started practicing.

The Six-Week Self-Portrait Challenge inside Photo Club is the structure that came out of that practice a proven way to build comfort, skill, and self-trust without frying your nervous system in the process.

Details in the carousel. 💋

Challenge begins March 24 exclusively inside Photo Club membership.

PS. Still deciding between No Bad Photos course and the Club? Scroll back for those details.

In my experience, it matters who is holding the camera.

The person holding it has the power
the power of the narrative,
the power of the story,
the power to decide what gets kept and what gets deleted.

For a long time, women have been handed the image and told to adjust to it.

I’m interested in what happens when you’re the one creating it.

I want that person to be you.

I’m Lisa, founder of Goldenbrand and Photo Club. I photograph artists and founders in their own spaces, often remotely, and I build spaces where women rewrite the story of who they think they should be, photograph by photograph.

No “Bad” Photos is
A practical self-portrait course for women. No photography experience necessary.

Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more content like this. 💋♥️

I’m Lisa Haukom founder of The Goldenbrand and Photo Club, also the woman who built a body of work around changing how women are seen.

I photograph artists, creatives, and founders in their spaces and places remotely, through their iPhones. I’m kind of known for it. That and teaching women self-portrait photography.

Everything you see here was created remotely and I have one remote session open for March for you.

If you’re in the mood for something different. My six-week self-portrait experience begins March 23 with a live workshop inside Photo Club.

Browse the link in my bio.
Follow @thegoldenbrand for more.

There’s almost something annoying about realizing you could’ve been doing this all along. You could’ve been fully this version of yourself the entire time.

That’s what you’re looking at here.

These are self-portraits taken by women inside Photo Club. Made on smartphones, with little or no photography experience. In bedrooms and kitchens and living rooms, with dishes in the sink and kids down the hall and work still open on the laptop. Women with full lives. Founders, writers, designers, mothers, entrepreneurs. Possibly even the woman sitting next to you at the coffee shop right now ;)

This isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about expressing who you already are.

We believe beauty is how you express yourself. And everyone deserves to show up fully as themselves. Self-portraits are the method we choose for that.

Photo Club is open.
The Six-Week Challenge begins March 24.
We start with a 90-minute workshop at 11 AM and then we get to work.

@thegoldenbrandco link in bio for more.

Keep creating even when someone doesn’t get it. That’s where the real freedom starts.

I get messages all the time that say, “I know I should take your course.”
“I know I should join.”

And I want to gently say this,

I can’t want this for you.

You have to decide that you’re done waiting. You have to decide you want to see yourself differently. That part is yours, I am not your gatekeeper, and I will not judge you for it. And yes, that’s the hardest part.

No one is sitting around thinking you’re conceited. No one is keeping score. And if you don’t want anyone to know you’re doing this, they don’t have to. You can do it quietly. You can do it for yourself.

That’s how I started. Alone. In my own house. With a camera and a decision.

I just wish I’d had a room full of women doing it alongside me.

That’s why I started Photo Club. That’s why I built No Bad Photos.

Because it’s easier to stay with something brave when you aren’t the only one doing it.

If you feel the pull, trust that.
If you’re waiting for someone to nudge you, this is it.

After that, it’s yours. 💋💋 Lisa

The hardest part isn’t the photos you don’t have.
It’s the decade of evidence you quietly erase.

When you avoid the camera for ten years, you don’t just skip documenting birthdays or trips or random Tuesdays. You skip seeing yourself change. You miss the slow accumulation of proof that you were here, you were alive in your body, you were becoming someone.

What actually hurts later isn’t, “I hate how I looked.”
It’s, “Why did I believe I didn’t deserve to be remembered?”

Avoiding the camera trains your brain to associate visibility with danger. Over time, that belief leaks into how you show up socially, creatively, professionally. You stop trusting mirrors. You stop trusting your own reflection as real.

And then one day, ten years have passed, and you realize the cost wasn’t vanity.

It was self-recognition. xx Lisa 💋

Today we are celebrating 🥂

I just told a client her story and photographs were accepted for an upcoming print magazine, we are buzzing over here!

It was photos of her house that first pulled me in, a gorgeous 127-year-old Victorian she restored herself. By hand! (swoon swoon) Then I heard her story, and she had my heart too.

During her divorce she chose the house instead of child support so her children could have one stable place to grow. And then she rebuilt it, room by room, decade by decade with grit and devotion.

Photographing her space, shaping her story, felt like documenting a living archive, every corner the result of a decision, every detail layered with history and care. Helping it find its home in print is the cherry on top.

It’s coming in the Summer issue of WHERE Women Create, which is a perfect fit. 🫶

If you are creative, we need more stories like this. We need more stories of your resilience. More matriarchs building a living lineage of care and beauty. More proof that steady devotion, applied over time, can alter the trajectory of a family.

I cannot wait for you to see it!

this is what I would tell you.

Not how I would light you, pose you, or which lens I would use.

I’d tell you this has very little to do with photography and everything to do you.

Spending this time with yourself, getting to know and trust yourself in this very vulnerable and joyful way.

I started my 30-day dare at forty because I didn’t want to look back at sixty and realize I’d spent decades avoiding myself. I’ve sat across from women older than me who told me what they wish they had done. This isn’t going on my list.

Inside Photo Club, women take their own photos. With their iPhones. In their actual homes. This is not one of the regrets we’re going to have.

We’re warming up for the six-week Photo Challenge over on Substack right now. The challenge runs inside Photo Club in March.

Come warm up with us. xx 💋 Lisa

It certainly can’t hurt.

The next Photo Challenge starts in March in Photo Club.
But first I’m spending February with you for camera-roll archaeology, POV shaping, visual language learning, and a little creative troublemaking.

💋Come play with us on Substack. @thegoldenbrandco link in bio for more. (Psst, email subscribers get a free week of IWNGTFY.)

xx 💋 Lisa

PS. My slippers are @myluvons

In Photo Club, we’ve been practicing something very unsexy but wildly effective
making less, then using it better.

You really only need two types of content in rotation:

solid B-roll video
face-to-camera clips

Here’s how one B-roll clip becomes five pieces of content.

1. Film 3–7 seconds with movement
Walk into the frame. Pan across your workspace. Catch the light doing its thing.

2. Slow it down to ~0.7
Instantly calmer and more cinematic. Our nervous system will thank you.

3. Make it loop
Duplicate the first second and drop it at the end to make a loop. Super Satisfying to watch.

4. Stack it
Pair that clip with a close-up, a second angle, or a detail shot.
Layer it with original audio or a voiceover about something happening off screen.

5. Change the text, not the footage
Same clip. New angle.
What you’re working on.
What you’re loving.
What you’re side-eyeing.
What’s been sitting on your mind all week.

This exact approach lives inside Photo Club (hi, Video Playbook 👋), along with the rest of the Goldenbrand digital ecosystem for people who don’t dig living on their phone.

Because being “always ready to post” shouldn’t mean being constantly online. It should mean you’ve built a smarter little system behind the scenes.

Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more.

I’m very, very good at this side of the internet. If you want to learn to photograph yourself, your work, your space, this is for you!

Over on Substack, I’m spending the next few weeks doing my favorite thing, showing you exactly how to do this.

For the next four weeks, I will be warming things up,
stirring the pot,
and pulling women into a creative space where being seen gets easier and a lot more fun.

Then we take it straight into Photo Club (the photo taking part) in March and actually do the thing together.

PS. You’ve already spent enough time being full of everyone else’s opinions. That job is exhausting.
And unpaid.

It’s better over here.💋
Come play with us on Substack.
@thegoldenbrandco link in bio

You are not here to be full of everyone else.
That job is exhausting.
And unpaid.

It is true not everyone likes it when women realize their power. That has never been a useful reason not to do it.

@thegoldenbrandco for more 💋

Thank you @lacsonravello for outfitting me so beautifully.

I need to learn embroidery.

Spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately preparing for the March Photo Challenge in the Club. Also found a few hobbies for myself along the way. ;)

You know that moment when a Big Name account follows you?

And suddenly you’re hyper-aware of…everything?
Yeah. That.

Here’s what I actually do when I feel myself start second-guessing:

✌️ I don’t change the post I was about to share.
✌️ I don’t hide or make it weird.
✌️ If I was about to stir the pot, I stir the pot.
✌️ I remind myself, they followed for a reason. Probably not because I was behaving.
✌️ If I’ve said it before and it’s still true, I’ll say it again.
✌️ I zoom out and remember, I was fine 30 seconds ago.
✌️ I text someone who knows me in real life, not someone impressed by follower counts, and let them bring me back to earth.

If my stomach flips a little?
That’s usually the right direction.

And then I post it.

Because you are not being watched in spite of your art. You are being watched because of it.

Keep going! Pinky promise. 🤙

It’s a good thing Winnie and my slippers are so cute. @myluvons

You will never be more happy to be proven wrong, trust me.

Instead of pretending we all wake up ready to stand in front of a camera one day and poof, confidence! We’re doing this instead.

Meet me on Substack for four weeks of camera roll archaeology. Because my friend, your camera roll is trying to tell you something.

This is the pre-work inside the Photo Club membership, the exact steps members take to get the beautiful self-portraits you see in my feed. And yes, you can do it too.

I’ll see you on Substack. @thegoldenbrandco for link to IWNGTFY. ✌️💌

Happy weekend friends.
Treat yourself.
Okay love you, bye. ✌️💋

If curiosity is your love language, I made you a IWNGTFY reading list.

8 Substacks worth your eyes, your tabs, and your next hyperfixation. Go wander, it’s a good one. Link @thegoldenbrandco bio. ✌️💋

Answer honestly.

Do we look alike? ;)

Hey, I’m Lisa 👋

I had to learn slowly, sometimes painfully, that I didn’t need to change who I was to be visible. And what I actually needed was a way to stay myself while being seen.

And I was doing that while… living.
Aging.
Working.
Wanting more/Wanting less
Going through things.
Being a woman in my 40s with a full, complicated, very real life.

I couldn’t find anyone talking about that part.
So I figured it out on my own.
And then I built the things I wish I’d had.

If I were you I’d start here -> with No Bad Photos.
Then scroll back in the feed for:
— No Bad Photos vs. Photo Club
— What’s inside Photo Club
— The six-week Photo Club Challenge

Everything here connects.
Nothing here will ask you to become someone else.
xx 💋 Lisa (and Winnie)

You know what they say.
An evil eye a day keeps the [not today, Satan] away.
This is a customizable situation.
Insert your most [pressing issue].

I’m in a book!
All the heart eyes for this stunning compilation by Women Create and Susan Harold. Congratulations on your book and thank you for including two of my projects with @westrosedesign and @embracethespacebetween .

Absolutely overwhelmed and over the moon.
🫶 These would make beautiful gifts for friends. Find yours at local booksellers.

How I did it.

When I moved from Los Angeles to a small coastal town in Oregon, I genuinely thought my photography business was over.

No studios.
No local client base.
No easy “just pop by for a shoot.”

What I didn’t realize yet was that the thing I thought would end my work would actually change how I built it.

I stopped organizing my business around location and started designing it around process.

That’s how I built a photography practice without studios, without travel days, and without being in the same room as my clients and why my work became more sustainable, more flexible, and more creatively satisfying than it had ever been before.

Remote photography isn’t a loophole. It’s a system.

And because photographers kept asking how this actually works I put everything I use inside the Remote Photographer’s Roadmap.

It covers:
– how to structure remote shoots professionally
– what clients actually need from you (and what they don’t)
– the tech, prep, and workflow that make it seamless
– and how to offer this confidently as a real service, not a workaround

If you’re a photographer building a business outside a big city, or trying to design one that fits your life, start there.

Link in bio @thegoldenbrandco

👇
If you’re honest: what part of running your photography business feels the most limiting right now?

When I started, I truly didn’t know what I was doing. I was figuring it out in real time repeating what worked, laughing at what didn’t, and relying on a handful of very patient clients who trusted me while I trusted the process. I was screenshotting Zoom calls, experimenting with new tools, photographing through my clients’ iPhones.

People close to me didn’t always get it. Some were worried. Some were skeptical. More than a few told me I couldn’t make a real business this way or that no one would ever pay for it. And honestly, there were days I wondered the same thing.

Being able to tell the full story meant more to me than I expected. Remote photography confuses people, and having the space to connect all the dots, from leaving Los Angeles, to landing in a small coastal town, to needing to keep working and supporting my family, felt incredibly validating. Not because it proved anyone wrong, but because it made the path make sense.

I hope it reaches the women who need a little confirmation right now. If your way doesn’t look like everyone else’s, that doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.

It might mean you’re building something new.
xx 💋 Lisa

Thank you @abby_lane_design for letting us share your beautiful home. ♥️

That’s the setup.

Gear is nice, and it absolutely has a time and place. But everything I film is on my iPhone. Same with Photo Club members. No studios No fancy rigs.

And really, the hard part isn’t the tech.
The hard part is having a regulated enough nervous system to actually try and then hit post.

That’s why No Bad Photos exists. It’s the self-paced course that helps you get comfortable being seen before you worry about aesthetics or gear. Start there. Fancy setups can come later, or not 😏.

Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more.
xx 💋 Lisa

The world’s gone crazy. My heart hurts. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Thank goodness my slippers are cute @myluvons

Yes, I shoot clients remotely.
No, it’s not complicated.

People are still asking how I shoot clients remotely even after writing a full feature on it for Where Women Create and talking through the process on video.

So here it is, plainly:

I direct and photograph clients remotely in real time.
I guide light, framing, movement, and setup from my end.
They’re in their space. I’m in mine.
The images are intentional, editorial, and deeply human.

This isn’t a workaround.
It’s a method.

If you’re a photographer paying attention and thinking,
“Wait… I could add this to my own business,”
you’re right.

I made The Remote Photographer’s Roadmap with the exact resources, PDFs, workflows, and technical setup you need to do this yourself, without guessing or reinventing the wheel.

And if you’re here because you want to book a shoot with me?
That’s available too. Link’s in my bio.🫶

Different paths. Same philosophy:
meet people where they are
and make the work fit real life♥️💋

I can teach you where to stand.
What light to use.
How to frame the shot.
Which edits actually matter.

And I do.

But none of that is the reason people finally hit post.

The thing that changes everything is point of view.

Not your angle.
Not your outfit.
Not the algorithm.

Point of view is how you see yourself and what you decide this image means.

When you know:
what you’re trying to say
what this photo is for
and who you’re speaking to

posting stops being a negotiation & becomes a decision.

That’s No Bad Photos.
The technical stuff matters but the reason it works is because we change how you recognize yourself in the image. (Oh hey girl)

No one else can do that part for you, not even me. 🫶

And once it clicks?
You just post.

xx 💋 Lisa @thegoldenbrandco for more.

It’s tempting to pick up the camera and start creating and posting content, but you will save so much time and heartache if you do this first.

Your point of view will guide:
– what you film
– what you keep
– what you want to say & how you show it
– how you want your work to feel
– what belongs in your world/ who is invited to your dinner party.

When you build a clear point of view and when you articulate what matters to you, the right people find their way in.

Link in my bio to read the sect post and create your own geek list to really tailor your personal point of view. Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more.

xx Lisa💋

Photo Club lore incoming ✌️

It’s five years since I took the first group of women through this photo challenge. Now we have a thriving community of alumni & members many of whom have had their own feature on my Substack showcasing their self portraits.

And Photo club has grown so much since then with the community, the support and all the resource resources a creative or founder needs to be visible online.

Plus when you become a member, you get access to our course for people that hate being on camera No Bad Photos and all previous photo challenges.

link in my bio to learn more or DM me with any questions you might have. xx 💋 Lisa

Did you hear? Believability is in.

I’ve been beating this drum for five years, while living it alongside a community of women rooted in a very simple belief: beauty and relevance don’t expire.

I need you to know something.
If you’ve spent the last few years looking at online visual branding and thinking, “This wasn’t built for someone who looks like me / lives like me / has my actual life,” you weren’t being dramatic.

You were being accurate.

What’s replacing it now is something much harder to fake and far more compelling, real representation. Images that align with how people actually recognize their world. After years of signaling aspiration, brands and creatives are realizing that when perfect becomes easy, trust gets harder.

TLDR -> As I’ve been saying all along, you are the best person to make your own visual content.

Photo Club members are way ahead of the curve here but the Birthday week sale is still on and No Bad Photos is still live and yes, it’s for you.
✨ Use code BIRTHDAY20YAY for 20% off ✨

@substack links in bio. Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more content like this.

If you’re waiting to feel confident before taking photos, you’ll wait forever.

Confidence is a byproduct of repetition, not a prerequisite.

Make it exist first.

Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more
Part 2 coming soon!

Cathartic liberation from the rules, roles, and rituals were done, pretending to care about.

in my previous Substack posts we’ve reclaimed our hotness by unabashedly indulging in our most petty, unhinged deep dives.

We’ve curated our deeply personal, gloriously nerdy Geek Lists. We’ve rewritten the rules of taking up space and declared loudly, we won’t and don’t want to take up space “like men” thank you very much.

We’ve even explored my most private and frankly traumatic experiences with floods and duck shoes (it’s okay, you can laugh, I do).

Since this is a totally safe space and I’ve earned your trust, right? Now? Now we burn.

Allow me to reveal the queen of all self-love checkmates: The Burn Book - your list of all the silent, suffocating ways we shrink, that never served us anyway.

I’ll see you over on @substack xx Lisa
Follow @thegoldenbrandco for more💋

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@thegoldenbrandco

It matters who holds the camera. Worldviews are shaped by the people telling the story but women are rarely behind the lens.