What does it mean to pivot in your business? In today’s episode, I’m diving deep into how you can be more strategic with your offers and grow your business no matter what challenges may come your way. I’m here to not only cheer you on, but to give you solid education, action lists, and encouragement in order to help your business pivot and thrive through every season. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by The Green House, my resource garden for photographers! Let me help you AMPLIFY your heart online and in real life to turn bridesmaids into future brides through templates, workshops, and freebies!

Review the Show Notes:

Doing It ALL (1:42)

How My Business Plans Works Today (2:56)

Experiment To Find What Works For You (5:09)

The Green House: A Resource Garden For Your Photography Journey (7:06)

Mentioned in this Episode:

The Green House

Review the Transcript:

Welcome to Quianna Marie weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at quiannamarie.com/podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party ready loves though?

What exactly is a pivot? When I hear pivot? I imagine Ross and Chandler from friends squeezing a couch up a stairwell with Rachel offering no help whatsoever wishing Monica was there to help her with her superstring Yes, that’s physically pivoting a couch. But what does it mean to pivot your business? Think of mayonnaise and the great pivot of aoli sauce. With Mayo still on the shelves in grocery stores that grandmother’s only pick up for homemade tuna and casserole these days. I can’t imagine a Bougie brunch or a side of French fries without aoli sauce, that oil and garlic blend turned something that was about to go out of business into a staple on burgers. And among our favorite depths. I mentioned the importance of creating multiple offers in the last episode the seasons of a photographer episode number 50.

If you skip that one, make sure to add it to your playlist. But I want to dig a little deeper and explain how to be more strategic instead of offering a ton of random photo shoots and always being available for any project or photography request. I know my business has survived over the last decade, especially over the last couple of years, because I had a handful of services and types of photoshoots that I offered seasonally. But before I dig into the seasons, I can’t go on without mentioning that I truly did it all in the beginning and honestly, that’s what I’m encouraging you to do as well. Every experience family business and adventure I’ve ever had the honor of photographing truly align me with the direction of a business today.

When I first started my tagline written on my website and all my business cards, literally those old school business cards was that I was your photographer. First I started with your engagement. Then wedding your secret boudoir shoot to gift your hubby, the morning of your wedding, baby bump and maternity sessions followed by a cake smash for your baby’s first birthday. And then of course family mini sessions to repeat year after year, then I would start that same experience over for your sister, your best friend and any appreciated referrals. That business plan has kept my business thriving and growing. Now I know that isn’t the case for everyone. And we each have our own niches and comfort levels. But I want to explain how that system or business plan is still working today. I’m still that photographer for many. But instead of tagging along to every single milestone for each of my couples, I now offer limited weddings and offer seasonal photoshoots as a mega mini session experience. So basically, I’m still offering affordable options for families to work with me year after year, and for recently engaged brides to experience a luxury boudoir experience.

But the secret is offering limited mini sessions throughout the year, and then also offering premium photoshoot experiences for families and businesses if they can’t make those designated weekends or those mini session dates. So what does that look like? Well, in addition to my normal wedding workflow, I’m also offering Crusher content mini sessions for brands and businesses, family mini sessions and boudoir mini sessions. Seasonally, I’ll be breaking down those marathon days with tons of mini session education in upcoming episodes. So please make sure to subscribe and don’t want to miss those. These many sessions are all affordable and offer quick touch points for my past clients as well as welcoming new families into my business. If a family or business would love to have a more personalized experience by picking the location with a more flexible date, they’ll be investing more for their photoshoots. The magic of these seasons is that every month wedding payments are rolling in Thank you honey book for my easy payment plans and my virtual admin support.

So I don’t have to think about it money literally just pours into my account every month, plus floods of cash injections from these mini session marathon days. This way, I’m still offering a handful of different types of photography. Without my inbox flooded with requests and juggling a ton of different things throughout the year. Could you imagine just having a whole bunch of random things come in and then trying to schedule them and then you know even if you are being strategic and blocking your availability for photoshoots it can just get so crazy. When a request comes in for a certain type of shoot. I can give them a heads up that I’ll be offering those mini sessions on on a specific date in the near future, or they’re welcome to schedule more premium, which just means more expensive experience based on my availability.

Now you’re thinking, well, that’s science for you key, but I don’t want to juggle all that I don’t want to do that. I just, that’s just too much for me. I’m only sharing my own experiences and things that have worked for me. So I encourage you to dabble with a bunch of different offers until you find a groove, and you continue to light up behind the camera. It doesn’t make any sense for me to say, hey, go try doing boudoir photography,

why don’t you try doing more content shoots, if those don’t light you up. And that doesn’t even sound fun in the beginning. I’m kind of like a parent when I asked these, you know, when I asked your kids to try new foods, like try it at least once, because it may sound intimidating, or it may look like not so fun or something that you maybe think or you maybe you’re thinking you’re not good at, that’s totally normal. But just like a little picky eater trying to eat some vegetables, like just try it once you may be surprised. Since I’m such a people person. I love staying connected with families throughout the years. It helps my brand stay alive with new generations. And honestly, it’s a great way to attract repeat business. I love it.

I literally love it when I photograph the flower girl’s family at a wedding. And then they book me for many sessions that next fall. It makes my heart happy when one of my brides invites her bestie to join her boudoir shoot, and it ended up being the first vendor that friend reaches out to when she gets engaged. When one of my past brides decides to turn her hobby into a business and needs headshots for her new website, my heart explodes not really I get so excited. We go grab coffee, we hop on a zoom chat that she’s still in California or somewhere where we just don’t have the time to actually meet face to face. And we just dump a whole bunch of marketing ideas and my heart is just flooded with so much joy because I just love that I’m that go to person for her.

Like she sees my business, pivoting and flexing and expanding and knows that she can count on me to help with those marketing and all that social media stuff and just just helping her business thrive from a little tiny seat. You see, my approach to business has always been people over profits. If you can understand people, you will forever understand business, never the other way around. This is why I created the greenhouse, your resource garden for your photography journey. Starting with weddings, I’ll be unlocking gardens every season. Throughout your photography timeline, you will be more than likely offering different types of photography and I’m here not only to cheer you on, but to offer solid education, Action List and encouragement to help your business pivot and thrive through every season. We didn’t pick up a camera to just make money. We decided to pursue photography because we’d love life. We cherish families. And we seriously love creating moments worth documenting.

If you’re anything like me, I love my camera. But I don’t like going out just kind of creating things. I love going out and creating moments, gathering families, gathering my friends, hosting parties and giving us a reason to take pictures right I feel like sometimes we get that backwards where Oh as soon as I have my camera in my hand this magic is going to appear in front of me and and you can meet artists and you can make everything look beautiful. But no like that’s not where my heart is my heart is in the gathering is creating those adventures in creating moments worth photographing, and I’m sure if you’re anything like me, that may sound like your game plan to.

I currently have a handful of digital products. And I’m almost ready to start releasing mini courses and digital workshops that will rock your world. Check out quiannamarie.com/shop to explore the greenhouse today. I’ve been in the industry for a long time. And I’m happy to start sharing education that I wish existed five to 10 years ago, this greenhouse is seriously created for you, baby, I want you to thrive. I want you to be able to expand your business to push and pull to create new offers. I mean, I’m telling you right now, like during the pandemic, it was really tough, right? I mean, my business as a wedding photographer was shut down. It was illegal for me to gather in large groups or you know, for some time, and so I really had to pivot. And I’m sure you’ve seen if you’ve been following me for a while I’ve been posting really fun home studio days. So I literally took my living room and popped up a backdrop and I was able to create a studio inside my home. This literally saved me I photographed content shoots, branding, shoots, headshots. I even did a really sweet maternity session in my living room. It was able to help my business create almost an extra $2,000 A month simply by turning my living room into a photo studio.

So if you’re new to the game, hear it. Welcome to the party. I’m really scrappy. I love being resourceful and For the greenhouse, this is your resource garden, use it, take a peek in there, kind of wiggle around, make yourself at home and just truly dive into the education and that I know and I have been true like everything has been tried, tested and proved to create those profits, create those genuine connections for genuine referrals and to help your business thrive Let’s plant some seeds and let’s grow baby All right, I am so so thankful you’re here today if you have you know gotten any green lights or if anything has clicked please let me know please leave a review anything is just so appreciated to help this business and this passion project continue to grow. And I cannot wait to see you thrive. Love you. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at quia.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing.