Our Team
Ian McIntosh
Ian enjoys teaching and over the past few years he has lead many different workshops teaching people how to create great images and videos, including the “Smartphone Video Made Simple” workshop he's been teaching for the past 6 years.
Ian has loved photography since he picked up a camera as a teen, and has been a professional photographer and videographer since 2013. Before then, he enjoyed a long and successful career in sales and marketing. He enjoys many different styles of photography and loves creating images and videos of the world around him that tell stories. Ian is well known in the Barrie, Ontario area for his captivating fine art images, especially those of the Spirit Catcher.
Fun Fact: Ian's first career was as a musician. He studied classical music at the University of Toronto and travelled around North America and Europe as a professional musician, lugging his tuba everywhere he went!
Joanne Lougheed
Joanne loves to teach, and was a trainer and manager for most of her 30+ year career in the restaurant industry. She returned to school as a mature student in 2001 to become a teacher and has degrees in Education and Psychology.
Joanne has also loved photography since her teens, but she started making videos in front of the camera, not behind it! Joanne has been practicing yoga and meditation since discovering it in elementary school, and she began teaching yoga and meditation nearly 20 years ago. She's also a certified Mindfulness teacher. When COVID hit she and Ian created a video set at their yoga studio and took many of the studio classes online, offering both live and recorded classes.
Fun Fact: Joanne loves arts & crafts. She's been making fiber art since her mom taught her to knit and crochet as a child, and she's working on a blog to share her love of all things crafty with the world!
Our Story
"We like to say that we’re “Partners-in-Everything” because we’re partners in business, life , and love."
After a 30+ year career in the restaurant industry, Joanne decided to pursue her passion and teach yoga and meditation full-time shortly after meeting Ian in 2013. Ian left his 20+ career in sales and marketing and began offering photography services full-time in 2013.
"Together, we co-founded Flourish Vitality Centre in 2014. Flourish was home to both our yoga studio and photography business until we expanded in 2019 and moved the photography business to it’s own dedicated photo studio.
Like so many others in similar situations, we scrambled to move our businesses online when the pandemic began. It wasn't that difficult for us because we had the equipment we needed and we knew what to do with it! We quickly realized that for many of our friends and colleagues it wasn't so easy, so we began helping others overcome their challenges by offering formal and informal one-on-one mentoring and workshops. Over the last year we’ve learned more and more, not just about how to make videos, but also about the best way to teach others how to do it themselves!
We know many businesses are still struggling and as the pandemic continues, and some are just barely making it, so we wanted to find a way to help other business owners start making videos and reach the people who need what they offer. We understand that with the many hats most business owners wear making videos can seem overwhelming, so we wanted to make it as easy as possible. That’s why we developed our 90 minute Hands-On Workshop and our 6 session Fundamentals Course, which teach people step-by-step to make their own great videos.
Testimonials
"Informative and inviting. It is easier than I imagined.
I look forward to taking more courses with Ian & Joanne."
~ Meredith
"I loved that you made me make a video. Believe it or not,
I don’t feel shy about doing it now. Thank you."
~ Jane
Because people learn a lot more by doing than they do just watching or listening, we design everything we teach with fun and interactive learning activities and teach skills that can be put into practice immediately. By offering our courses and workshops live, we can answer people's questions as we go, offer feedback while they learn, and meet everyone wherever they are in their learning process.
We always encourage a growth mindset, which we strongly believe is key to success in everything. We enjoy answering peoples questions and helping them gain the skill and experience they need to continue to make videos long after class is over. Our students' success is our success and we love teaching this course as much as our students love taking it! We're grateful for the many people over the years that have trusted us to help them learn.
Many studies show that videos are the best way to reach people. Experts tell us that most people prefer watching videos over any other kind of content and it’s forecasted that the average person will spend 100 minutes every day watching online videos in 2021. We’ve made it our mission to help anyone who wants to learn to start making videos, and we have plans to develop many more workshops and courses so they can continue to learn new skills in the years to come.
When the pandemic is over, we look forward to travelling in our new-to-us and soon to be renovated travel trailer, offering online and in-person courses and workshops across Canada and beyond!"
