Do you feel overwhelmed when it comes to showing up online? In today’s episode, I’m sharing one of my key tips for consistently posting and sharing about my business. I’m diving into how and why I am always capturing behind the scenes content, and how that has kept my business alive and thriving. 

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 FREE Book More Weddings guide. Learn how to easily capture behind the scenes video for organic referrals, local followers, and increased brand awareness. You want to make sure you have this before your next wedding! 

Review the Show Notes: 

Sharing My Personality (5:05)

Sharing My Expertise (5:59)

Cross-Promoting With Other Businesses (7:07)

Sharing The Journey (8:31)

Increasing My Profits (12:27)

Capture The Process (14:11)

Create 3-5 Second Videos (14:48)

Sharing On Social Media (16:39)

Capture BTS To Share With Your Best Friend (17:39)

Review the Transcript:

Just yesterday, I had the honor of French braiding my tiny besties hair before her very first tea ballgame. Now, for our family, this is a big deal because we are ballplayers, we grew up playing softball for as long as I can remember. And it is tradition to have your hair French braided, super tightly, it always felt like my mom would pull an extra two inches out of my hair, like my hair would grow to four inches because she was yanking on it so much. And that’s just a fond memory I have of growing up. And so when it was my tiny besties, so she’s my cousin’s daughter, and I just call her my bestie. She had her first tee ball game, and I brought her over her house before the game.

She was nibbling on her chicken nuggets and getting ready talking about the game. And I asked her, I said, Okay, babe, how are you feeling? Like, are you excited for your first game, and she gave me this look. And this little one is a very confident little girl, if you’ve been following me for a long time, you know, you’ve seen her pop up on my feed. And she literally looks like she could be my daughter, I love her so much. And she looked at me with that look, and said she was really nervous. And so I told her, I said, You know what, here’s the thing, there’s going to be a lot of eyes on you, people are going to be excited to see you.

And if you know, my family, for one little girls first tee ball game, there’s about nine of us that showed up. Right. And so and many of there would have been many more, but they’re, you know, uh, we’re unfortunately out of town, or maybe working still, not all of us were there. But she would have had a full team supporting her and her family to watch her. And so she was really nervous about that. And then, of course, meeting new people and having more eyes on her.

I told her, I said, “Hey, baby, this same connection. And this same feeling that creates the feeling of being nervous, is the same feeling that you get when you’re feeling excited. So maybe next time you think you’re feeling nervous, you’re not actually feeling nervous, you’re actually feeling excited.”

Then I saw that little sparkle in her eye. And right away, she looked at me and said, did your angels tell you that? And I said they did? Maybe they did. Because I’m always talking about how my angels talk to me. And, you know, we make a joke about it. But I do get these downloads and these really fun ideas.

And I told her, I said, My angels are telling me to tell you, babe, and it just completely changed the trajectory of her day, she had a great game, I photographed it like it was a World Series. It was just a really fun experience. And so I want to share that story with you. Because I will be talking about behind the scenes today, you’re probably thinking what is this little story has to do with capturing behind the scenes. And I think this is really important to remind you that as you are continuing to show up online and sharing your message and sharing your heart.

Please don’t forget that when you’re feeling nervous. It’s literally the same neurons firing in your brain. And we’re actually receiving those thinking that it’s feeling nervous, but maybe it’s actually you’re just really excited. And I want you to think about that for a second before I really dig into these tips. And all this fun facts about creating behind the scenes is I want you to think about the possibilities. Like I think a lot of times we think, Oh showing up online, we’re gonna sound silly, or we’re gonna look stupid, or we’re gonna make grammar mistakes, and I hate to break it to sister but like, those things are gonna happen anyway. So we just have to just do it right, like just get it out there. It does get easier.

But instead of thinking about all the horrible things that could go wrong, it could we instead talk about everything that can go right. And the possibilities of us showing up and connecting with Dream clients, Dream customers and dream couples that are literally begging to work with us, but they don’t even know that we exist yet. Right.

Let’s stop thinking about all the horrible things that can go wrong, and look forward to all of the magic. In today’s episode, I’ll be diving in to how to capture behind the scenes, and I’ll be sharing five ways capturing behind the scenes has kept my business alive and thriving. Let’s get this party started. Babe. I’m so so happy you’re here. Welcome to Kiana 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 Kiana Marie.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, let’s go!

Alright, let’s dive into five key tips. And basically reasons actually why I prioritize capturing behind the scenes for my daily Life for my business and just an extra little extension of my hand on my phone. Let’s dive into number one, it helps share my personality. Okay, so the reason why I’m obsessed with behind the scenes is because it truly is a real snippet of me of the real meat. And I want you to think about that for a second too. Because as you are continuing to share about your offers and your services, you are naturally an expert, maybe it’s taken time and some courses or some education for you and lots of experience to get to this point in your business. But not everybody can relate to exactly what you do in your business, right.

We need to show up and other ways that people can say, oh, oh my gosh, she’s just like me, or Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe he does that, too, right? Like, these are the moments that we need to look for. And it’s just a great way for you to organically and very naturally share your personality. And I’ll dive into more examples about these later. But let’s keep going. Number two shares my expertise. So the more that you’re sharing behind the scenes, the more people are going to believe that you’re an expert. I don’t know what it is about the internet.

But people always believe what they see online. It used to be Don’t believe everything you read, and don’t believe everything you see online, right. And I think that can actually work to our advantage because we are showing up consistently sharing that we are sharing our offers, we’re sharing our experiences, and we’re actually doing the work. Right. So and I want you to think about that for a second too. Because there’s so many photographers out there. I think I’ve mentioned this before in the podcast, that they are constantly busy.

They’re constantly filled, their calendars are filled with Dream couples and crazy traveling and destinations. And if they’re not actually sharing the behind the scenes of that if they’re not utilizing social media to share that. There’s no question that comes in that people are thinking, Hey, are you still in business, like you’ll actually get DMS or emails asking if you’re still alive. And if you’re still offering your services because they don’t like they’re not seeing it online. Okay, so we have to think about that too. And then number three, is a great way to cross promote with other businesses.

Now, this is a great opportunity for us to literally double our network with one collaboration. And behind the scenes, it’s such an easy way to do this, consider the next time you grab a coffee with a friend or you actually do create a networking meetup with other business owners, maybe they’re in the same industry as you or something completely different.

For example, let’s say you go get your hair done, right, make sure you’re tagging them, make sure that you were creating maybe a cute little reel, or maybe the fact that you picked up a nice coffee for your hairstylist on the way maybe you’re you know, you have that three o’clock appointment and you’re bringing her a little snack or something, post about it, share about it, because this is a great way for that stylist who may not be in your industry at all can reshare that. And of course they’ll be happy to because Hello, you’re creating really easy intangible content for them to share as well. But then hello, you’ve just expanded your network, like you doubled it without one post. Now we all know that our algorithms are fighting against us.

And our views are just decreasing and decreasing, right? But the more that we can show up and collaborate with others, we’re gonna tap into their feeds and their audiences as well. So behind the scenes is this secret to boosting more brand awareness? Number four, share the journey. Okay, this is the one thing that honestly has saved my butt throughout the move to Arizona. Throughout the pivots throughout all of the different offers and all the fun things that I’ve been doing in my life. I have been the one thread and all of it right like it’s me Kiana. Like this is my story. This is my journey, and you have this story as well for you in your life, and your business and your family and your experiences. So one thing that behind the scenes has really helped my business kind of stay alive and keep, I call it the heartbeat of my business through all these pivots has been because I’m sharing behind the scenes as I’m sharing that I love my cowboy boots. I love country music. I love spending time with family and exploring and being off the grid.

These are all things that ring true literally forever. Like I don’t think that’ll ever change about me as a human. But the offers that I’m offering, for example, I’m still a photographer, right? I’ve really, really slow down on booking weddings. I’m booking, very luxury, very limited weddings per year. And that’s something that has completely changed. I used to book over 40 weddings a year and now I’m booking maybe five, which is drastically different. Right? But because I’ve been sharing behind the scenes and sharing them posting more about content and branding shoots and having so much fun capturing your next era. I mean, that was something that came up with my friend Felicia literally this morning we were photographing a Sunrise goddess shoot. And I looked at her and I’m like, This is what I want to do. Like, this is so fun. It’s not exactly full branding photoshoots. But it’s capturing the in between moments, right?

It’s like tons of content generation, for business owners and creatives, and even just making women feel absolutely beautiful feeling like a goddess. I mean, I’m all for that, right. But if I’m only posting one specific thing, for example, wedding photography, wedding vendors, wedding venues, weddings, weddings, weddings, it’s just all I’m ever posting and what I’m kind of hiding behind in my business or on my social media, as I start to post those things, it can be very confusing, right? So I chose over the last 10 to 15 years, I’ve been recording all this fun stuff, either on my cell phone, or on my actual camera. And I’ve just been dripping it to share the evolution of my experience. And that has helped me pivot, turn crash and burn and roll with the waves, right? And so I just highly encourage you to start adding behind the scenes to your workflow as well. So if pivots do come, and I promise they will, I had changes and new offers, it seems way more cohesive, yes, you’re gonna lose some people. And that’s totally normal, because they may not have an interest in exactly what you’re offering today. But you’re going to find some true fans that love you unconditionally, no matter what you do, and they’re gonna love it. And I also want to share to you a quick example about as as well, I want to think about Joanna Gaines.

Okay, I think I’ve given this example before, but on any given day, Joanna Gaines, and Chip Gaines, they could sell you a sofa, they could sell you a candle, they could sell a cupcake or recipe to a sourdough recipe, right? They can even sell you a frickin house. Okay, like, there were so many things. She has paint samples, I’m looking around my room right now, right? They have plans, right? Like live plants you can purchase from her and cute coffee mugs and cozy blankets. And there’s just an empire attached to that, right. And I think that is such a beautiful example of how sharing behind the scenes and sharing snippets of their life actually feels really organic when they do bring in new offers, because it’s just who they are. Right?

So think about that as you continue to start capturing behind the scenes. And then number five, increase my profits, this is a huge one. Because the more you share behind the scenes, the more in demand that you look online, you’re building your credibility, you’re building your experiences, and you’re really truly sharing your expertise, right, I’ve kind of shared that already. Definitely a crossover on this one here. But follow me for a second, okay. And when you think about that, because the more that you’re showing up online, and more that you are showing, like, Hey, this is why I am the best at this. And this is why I’m overqualified to offer the service or the your photographer or whatever it is that you’re offering, the more people are going to want to sign up with you or book you or work with you. And then this is just a huge trickle effect. Because then the more people that you are booking, the easier it is to increase your profits by increasing your prices. Right. And I think this is important too.

This could be a whole different podcast episode about increasing your profits. Because I mean, I think you inherently are absolutely priceless. You are beyond valuable, right? Like there’s no price tag that you can put on you or your offers. But if people aren’t seeing it online, if people aren’t creating that perceived value that you are producing for yourself through your marketing and through your behind the scenes and through your social media, like who’s going to believe that? Right? And so behind the scenes is a great way to do that. Now I want to dive into how exactly I’m creating behind the scenes, I love the the why, like, why I do this, right? Like, I don’t think it’s fair for me to be like, Okay, we know go capture behind the scenes without giving you a little bit of 10 of action steps for this. Okay, so number one, capture the process.

Okay, so when it comes to behind the scenes, I want to do a quick little mindset check for you really fast, okay? And consider capturing the process of your next photo shoot of the next meal that you’re preparing either for yourself, maybe you’re doing some meal prepping, or you’re hosting an event, and you are maybe in charge of food, like what does that process look like? Or maybe even your client experience? Like what does that process look like? Consider capturing behind the scenes for that. Okay, so I want to give you a little mindset before I’m just diving into these how to tips. And then number two, you’re going to want to create three to five second videos on your phone.

And if that sounds really intimidating, you think ah like audio, and I don’t know my hand is too shaky. or maybe you’re just very unfamiliar with video, I say start now because you’re only going to get better and your steady hand is only going to get smoother and a little more professional looking even with your phone, the more you practice, okay, so like start now, even if it was scary, but if it really isn’t an option for you, and it’s just, like paralyzing you for moving forward, then I suggest just taking a quick phone pick. Okay. And this is really important too, because there’s something about the, I don’t know, I don’t want to call it the essence. But there’s something about the essence of our phones, that just make it so much more realistic. And even though let’s say, for example, you take a photo on your phone, and you know, that’s an iPhone picture, even though they’re, they’re getting better and better and better. And rivaling our cameras every day, they really are. But you know the difference between a DSLR like actual professional camera from a phone, but there’s something about that phone picture that just seems so much more real and authentic, and less edited or curated as at DSLR. Right?

Do you know what I’m trying to get out here. So when you’re sharing behind the scenes, even if you are nervous about video, I highly encourage you to just snap a couple iPhone Pics or whatever phone you have in your pocket, grab photos from that device, in addition to of course shoot beautiful photos as well. But there’s something that just makes it a little more trustworthy and relatable when you are sharing the behind the scenes with your phone. And so that’s just something you can do throughout that process, just grab a handful of those throughout your experience either, like I said at your next photo shoot or at your next event. And then number three sharing on social media. So this is this is where the magic happens. Okay, you actually have to get online. And the reason why I tried to be really vague about this, and why don’t go all in on social media statistics and tick tock algorithms and all the different social media platforms is because as you know, every single day, they’re changing.

And in fact, if I were to pick up my phone today, and show you a hack on your phone, the interfaces may look different, the fonts may be different, the buttons may not be in the same place. Like it’s just insane to me how different they are yet we’re all we’re all using them, like in different capacities. And so I just want that to be a gentle reminder that it doesn’t matter what platform you’re using. But the behind the scenes and actually capturing that video is where it starts. Okay, so get it online tag vendors, collaborate with other businesses and your friends, and let those social media connections just kind of sparkle like glitter all over social media. Now, if this is still a little bit confusing, hang on here, I have one last example for you. And I almost want you to assume that you are capturing behind the scenes, as if you would share an event with your best friend. Okay, now, this is going to be such a fun exercise for you.

I wanted to leave you with this thought because sometimes it’s easy for me to you know, as your big sister as your cheerleader, and as your content generator and your photo bestie like to just tell you what to do and say now go do it. But sometimes I know it can be a little nerve racking. So let’s get excited about it. Okay, so going back to my little tiny bestie about her T ball game, I kind of want to tie this in at the end here to share. Like, if we just shift that mindset from being nervous about it and being excited to share something with your best friend, maybe we’ll be on to something Okay, here, so just don’t get lost, you’re gonna follow me for a second. Okay. Now let’s say we are going to an event. And I’m going to pretend that this event is a piece of your client experience. Okay, so let’s say for example, you were hosting a client Appreciation Day, which I’m totally going to shout out my friend Angela, who had just hosted one recently, I’ll definitely post about her in the show notes. So you can go back to her episode and listen to her excellent client experience events and how it’s adding so much value to her.

And of course, she’s creating behind the scenes for that. So let’s say you are hosting a client experience event for yourself. I also want you to think about at the same time, sorry, I have all my analogies. I want you to also consider that you’re having this conversation with your best friend as you are planning, executing and sharing this event. Okay, so when you go to a party, or you go to an event, do you often maybe send over a couple outfit ideas to your best friend, maybe it’s a group of friends, maybe it’s just your sister, or one person. But sometimes we are sending outfit ideas and asking, Hey, what do you think? Should I wear these shoes? Should I wear these jeans? What do you think, right? This is the exact same type of content that I suggest you create for your social media for your appreciation event too, right? So like, maybe you’re not actually sharing your actual outfit, something that you’d be excited to share with your friend, but maybe you’re posting on social media. Hey, I’m going to be ordering these balloon arches.

What Bender, do you recommend, right? And boom, you’re going to get an influx of referrals of shout outs, which I think are so awesome and a great way to drum up business for other local businesses. Or maybe you’re asking something, maybe you already have that vendor in mind. And you’re asking, Hey, what color should the balloon arch be, and you share a couple of ideas, and you’re boosting engagement with that, do you see what I’m saying? This kind of stuff can be so fun, and take that excitement and just blow it up instead of making it nervous and awkward and weird. And something we forget about. Okay. And so let’s say that you are preparing for this event. And then throughout the moment, now, think about this tool, I love sharing this idea where you’re just capturing things during the event, you’re not sitting there posting. And we do this in real life, too, right. So maybe we’re having a girlfriend’s night over.

Or maybe we are going to one of our kids baseball games or football games. Typically, we’re just in the moment, right, we just want to be there in the moment, we don’t want to take a cute video and then make a reel right there. While all the action that’s going on right in front of our faces, right? We don’t want to just capture and post we want to capture, put our phone away. And this is this same exact advice I want to give you for attending your next client appreciation event or another piece of your client experience. Just capture the event, and then slip your phone back in your pocket and be very present for that event. Just as if your friend was waiting at home, you’re going to get to her later, you’re going to share all this stuff later. But do not share anything live yet. And then, at the end, this is the fun part.

Just like I talked about social media like this is how the magic actually happens. Just as you would FaceTime your best friend, I highly encourage you to hop on live, or maybe just hop onto your Insta Stories, and share your face and share your experience with your best friend, which of course in the social media realm, and our business realm is sharing that with your, your dream clients. Right. So speaking to one person sharing about the event being excited about it up on that and and it’s interesting too, I even noticed this with my podcast as well. I try my hardest not to have a podcasting voice.

Like I used to have a preschool voice or I don’t know, if you have a mom like mine, that she would pick up the phone. Like she literally would be yelling at us screaming about us not eating our food, or we need to clean up or put our shoes on. And then someone would call and she would be like, I don’t know. And we’re like, oh my gosh, that’s your phone voice. Right. That’s like it resonated with anybody. But we definitely grew up with that. And I definitely have that voice. And I’m trying to like trying to just have a normal voice here on the podcast, even though I’m smiling a lot as I’m speaking. But definitely use that as practice, right?

Like you wouldn’t hop onto FaceTime with your best friend and try to speak like you’re talking in Times New Roman in a professional, right, you would just be talking to your best friend like, Hey, babe, hi, like, you would just talk to them. And so this is just a fun way for you to wrap up those behind the scenes from your next event is actually share about it, share what you loved about it share any fun surprises. Don’t let that event pass by weeks and months later. And then think about oh, shoot, I should have shared that. And, you know, I really don’t believe timelines typically exist on social media, you can always go back and share things before I’m always posting things from the past. But this is just a gentle reminder, like, get it done like that night or within a couple of days. So it’s fresh on your mind. And just like you would share all the juicy details with your best friend. Share that with your audience.

All right, babe. So that wraps up the key tips for behind the scenes and how capturing behind the scenes has kept my business alive and thriving and how I want it to help your business thrive, as well. I hope you found this episode really encouraging. And I cannot wait to see some of your behind the scenes. So please do me a humongous favor.

I would love love love for you to grab a screenshot of this episode or maybe even a selfie or something that you’re doing to capture some behind the scenes while you’re listening. So if you’re walking your dog, if you’re doing the dishes, or if you’re on on the treadmill or at all maybe you are in an airplane somewhere, please, please please let me know where you’re at while you’re listening. Send me a DM posted tagged me I will absolutely reshare it and I’m just so so happy you’re here.

You have a beautiful life and you have an incredible business and you are passionate and professional at everything that you do. We just need more people to see it. Okay, we just need your gifts to be shared with the world and the right people will find you so please don’t be nervous about social media. Don’t be nervous about success, or about having the light shine on you. Turn that nervousness into excitement. All right, I’m always cheering for you, babe. I hope you have a beautiful day and can’t wait to see you soon. Okay, love you. Bye.

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 quiannamarie.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing