Where are you in your business journey? You may be feeling behind or it could just be the second season of friends! In today’s episode, I’m continuing my mindset series with a solo episode all about taking your time to mindfully build the business of your dreams. Comparing this to season two of the TV series Friends, it’s important to check in with where you are in your story!

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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Review The Show Notes:

A Girls Night Out (3:10)

Season Two Of Friends (3:57)

Takeaways From The Kelsea Ballerini Concert (7:56)

The Vibes Were Chill (8:24)

Calls To Action (10:39)

Flodesk (13:09)

Fan Engagement (13:53)

Cover Songs (15:23)

Mentioned In This Episode:

Flodesk: quiannamarie.com/flodesk

Easy B-Roll Ideas For Business Owners: quiannamarie.com/broll

Review the Transcript:

I’m slipping in a solo episode this week to share a huge mindset shift that completely changed the trajectory of my life and my perception of my timeline, big goals and personal life. I’m a huge fan of country music. One of my favorite things about live concerts are all of the little behind the scenes and mic drop moments from the singers and the musicians.

I love hearing the backstory about how a song or lyrics came to be. Yes, dancing sparkly outfits and singing until we lose our voices are always fun too. To me, singers and performers are the ultimate example of entrepreneurship. They are their own brand and they’re navigating the music. Industry’s pivots.

New technology, social media, and growth every single day. The strategies that worked to release albums Boo Sales and share their music decades ago are like dust in the wind compared to how they have to market themselves and sell their music today. Just recently, I had a super fun bestie date with my soul sisters, Felicia and Steph, with my cousin Kayla, my first and longest best friend.

We clinked to Shirley Temples and grabbed supper before the Kelsea Ballerini concert in downtown Phoenix. MaRynn Taylor opened up for Kelsea and this girl was incredible. She belted her lyrics and had great energy before one of her songs. She asked the crowd, are any of you all fans of the TV show?

Friends and with a cheer of millennials of all ages? We all screamed. Yes. I’ve been a raving fan of friends for literally decades, and I’ve seen every single episode dozens of times. It’s the show that put me to sleep for years. Even was the background TV that I would watch while editing weddings and photo galleries.

To say I’m obsessed with friends would be an understatement. Little did I know that her next couple of sentences would completely change my mindset. Oh my gosh. It was life changing. For today’s episode, we’re gonna unpack this truth bomb that MaRynn Taylor shared with us, and then we’re gonna dive deeper to relate your business and client experience to a concert.

I’ll be sharing big takeaways that inspired me during the show. Creative ways to connect with your audience and how to build a thriving community that helps you feel relatable, approachable, and still the expert that you are. How are you dropping mic drop moments to share online, but still offer these touchpoints and experiences that only your clients get to experience with you?

Ooh, it’s going to be so good. Ready? Let’s get this party started.

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 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? Let’s go.

Okay, so setting the scene for this girl’s night, my cousin Cayla had already bought tickets for the two of us and literally the next day, Steph reached out to connect and planned a country girls night. Since I already had tickets with Kayla, we decided to enjoy a fun dinner together and then sit in our own seats for the Kelsea Ballerini concert.

And, you know, backstory on Cayla, I wanna start here. She’s the boss. She is one of the hardest working humans I know. She’s the eldest daughter on both sides of her family, and she gets things done. We’re only four months apart, and she’s been by my side. We’re the happiest, hardest, most challenging and monumental days of my life.

Throw in Sunday suppers, danced, competitions, graduations, and every holiday in between. She’s my ride or die. She’s my longest built in best friend. Okay, so back to the concert. We get to our seats and we’re literally mesmerized by MaRynn Taylor. She’s an opener for Kelsea. She’s bubbly, super relatable, and we love the lyrics of her songs.

Jumping right into her question about friends, she asked the crowd if we were fans of the show, and of course, we all screamed. Yes. She told us a story about how one day her cousin called her and felt defeated. She said that all of her friends were getting married. Starting their families settling into their careers and buying houses.

She felt behind. She felt like she couldn’t keep up or like she was missing out on life. MaRynn smiled and told her, it’s okay, girl. You’re only on the second season of friends. Instant tears. I got the chills, and my cousin Cayla, and I looked at each other with tears in her eyes. I started bawling and not quite the sweet, teary-eyed emotions like Cayla had on her face, and not exactly as dramatic as like a Kim Kardashian cry, but the tears were flowing.

I resonated with that so much. Not only because I’ve been a fan of friends for decades, and I’ve watched the entire series hundreds of times, but because I felt that in my gut for the last decade or maybe even longer, I’ve have felt behind. I feel like the Monica Geller. I’m a mother without my own children, yet I’m a wife without a husband yet.

I know Mike is in line, but we’re not married. I often question if I’m even worthy enough to be those things because it hasn’t happened for me yet. Even though my business has continued to thrive, pivot and expand out of state, sometimes I feel like that’s the only thing in life I can control. All of my cousins are married and starting their families.

Well, Luke, our baby cousin, and when I say baby, he is literally just graduated from college. So I’m technically not the last one of us cousins to get married. But I felt this undeniable connection to those lyrics. This was the cutest introduction to MaRynn Taylor’s song, season Two of Friends. It’s catchy, relatable, and legit.

I was crying. No, I’m not even kidding. You have to go to Spotify or Apple Music wherever you get your new music, and you need to look up Season two of Friends by Marin Taylor. It, oh my gosh, it’s so cute. Now. This was a mindset shift for me. Within seconds, everything made sense.

Second Season of Friends

I was still on season two in my life and honestly, even in my business in season two of Friends Ross was dating Julie, Chandler and Joey lose Ben on the bus!

Dr. Ramore dies leaving Joey unemployed. Phoebe meets her biological dad for the first time, and together everyone watches the old high school prom videos and Ross and Rachel kiss and end up getting together. It’s literally chaos. All of the characters are growing up in the city. They’re figuring out their careers.

I mean, in this season, Rachel is still working at the coffee shop. She hasn’t even tapped into her dream in the fashion industry.

I relate to this so much because in this season of my life, I’m pivoting my business. Mike and I just bought our first fixer wrapper and we’re planning to turn that into a long-term rental.

One day I’m rocking the anti-life, but still so excited and hopeful to plan a wedding of our own into hopefully start our family soon. I don’t have it all figured out, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s better than okay. I’m proud of the life I’m living. I’m grateful for every choice, every path, and every turn that has led me to where I am today.

Those episodes and seasons will roll out and debut when they’re ready, when I’m ready. I’m so grateful that this mindset shift hit me like a ton of bricks standing in my white cowboy boots next to my forever Best friend Cayla. It was an uncontrollable cry that I absolutely needed. Like legit. We were sitting there and I had no napkins.

I had like, we didn’t even have any snacks ’cause we had dinner. So like, there was nothing to wipe my eyes with. I was just, and then, you know what happens to like, when you’re a little bit sweaty, a little bit and then like your eyes start to burn from the salt on your skin. And I just, I could not stop crying.

It just kept coming. Okay. Okay, so let’s break down some moments from the concert that I’m excited to share with you today. Not only am I a huge fan of music and feeling my heart hounding from the drums and feeling the instruments rattle my bones, I’m like a sponge, soaking up everything. I’m a forever learner, and especially when it comes to events, my creative juices are overflowing now.

You know, I love a good list. So let’s break down four takeaways that blew me away from the Kelsea Ballerini concert

1 – The Concert Vibes Were Chill

Number one, The vibes were chill. I don’t know if it was because it was a glorified girl’s night with only a couple of men sprinkled here and there, like they were legit dads or boyfriends or husbands for date night.

But as soon as I walked into the event center, there was this calming feeling. It felt safe, glittery, and friendly. That was my first initial reaction. Now, there were lines and it was busy, and we had to go through the metal detector and check our purses, like a normal entrance to a concert, but even that felt easy and streamlined.

Typically, country concerts are flooded with bur men, beer, lots of beer, and fans of all ages. We have young kids that are probably, let’s be honest, underage drinking all the way up to the oldies, right? I mean, the energy is high, and if we don’t hold hands walking through the crowds, we may get lost. It got me thinking, how is this energy created and how do you build your community to act a certain way or to embody this feeling of chill vibes?

Well, I noticed a couple times on the big screens before the openers came out with reminders to be kind. It literally said on the big screen, please don’t throw things. All are welcome, sing with your whole heart. And it kept reminding everyone to be kind. This got me thinking how important it’s to set the precedence for your community as you continue to build it.

It takes more effort than just a Facebook group question or check mark to show that you read the rules before entering the group. Building a community built on inclusion, trust, safety, and kindness sometimes means more than just the leader and facilitator to practice those values. We need to preach it too.

So I ask you, how often are you laying out clear expectations for your clients and your community? Are you reminding them to be kind? Are you sharing stories with them that prove your authority and share your values? I know this sounds kind of extreme and sort of a stretch from those neon lights that were thrown up on the background of the stage, but I couldn’t wait to share these takeaways with you because they really do matter.

How are you setting the stage for your business? How are you not only sharing your expectations, but are you enforcing those roles? Are you holding community members, coaching clients, and your audience accountable? Ooh, I just thought that was a really good takeaway and I was excited to share that with you.

2 – Call To Actions

Okay, so number two, call to actions. Before Kelsea even stepped on stage, she had signs up on her backdrop and even a video introduction to thank us for coming and shared a QR code to donate to a charity that she’s passionate about. I thought this was genius. So I’m not sure how the ticket sales work. I don’t think Kelsea and her team actually get access to our emails, Ticketmaster at StubHub or the event center, hold onto those emails after we buy our tickets and flood us with upcoming events and deals and sales.

And now that I think about it, I’ve never gotten emails directly from the artist or singer after attending the show. And I’m curious, have you like, I would love to know if that’s something that you get access to or you’ve even noticed. Having that QR code up to donate was literally genius. Not only did it help raise funds for her passion project, but it also captured emails and was a brilliant top of funnel.

Clearly she has a captivated audience. All of us in our seats are just waiting for the show to start, and it sort of gamified the experience, gave us something to do, and I don’t know about you, but every time I donate, I feel good. Like a rush comes through me. Even just donating $5, $10 or $20 adds up so fast, and again, it makes me feel a part of something.

Now, imagine that feeling of excitement and anticipation before the show starts. Then adding this layer of gratitude and kindness with a donation. Oh my gosh, brilliant. Like this was so good. Okay. But I also wanna make sure I’m hitting home with the brilliant takeaway that Kelsey probably adds thousands of subscribers to her email list per show.

I’m willing to bet that with each tour, like if you think of an entire list of concerts, she’s probably stacking over a hundred thousand emails in email subscribers just from her fans. I did a quick search and noticed that she has almost 750,000 YouTube subscribers and over 4 million followers on Instagram.

That’s a lot of eyes on her, but you know what? She doesn’t own that exposure. That is why I think it’s genius to build up her email list, and I mean, I can already imagine the amount of backend work with segments based on location that can help fine tune future ticket sales, merch, upcoming events, and new music.

I mentioned earlier why I’m obsessed with the music industry because they’re experiencing pivots too. They not only have to keep up with their new album drops cutthroat competition, but now social media too. Having a list of raving fans that legit love you because they clearly already bought a ticket is brilliant.

That is why I’m a huge fan of Flodesk!

Flodesk is the prettiest and easiest email marketing platform that helps you build list, drag and drop graphics, and create emails that my clients, family and community actually want to open This takeaway from Kelsea was huge, and I’m here to remind you the importance of building your email list today.

Head over to QuiannaMarie.com/flodesk to get started today. Through Flodesk, you can collect emails, deliver your freebies, and nurture your current past and future clients. Flodesk is super user-friendly and worth a try. Check out QuiannaMarie.com/flodesk to start your free trial today.

Alright, let’s roll right into takeaway number three. Fan engagement with an entire crowd. Eager to hear her music. It was life changing to see Kelsea take the stage and make time to read signs that her fans made for her. The entire crowd celebrated a recent engagement. I. And even best friends celebrating a girl’s trip.

Apparently these two besties haven’t seen each other in years, and this concert brought one friend to fly across the country to come into town to finally see her friend and to meet her friend’s. 2-year-old baby. For the first time, I was mesmerized that Kelsea took the time to engage with her crowd, take selfies, and speak to her crowd like the real, hardworking and loyal fans that they are.

This got me thinking, how am I engaging with my family, friends, and following? Am I genuinely responding to their engagement? Am I starting conversations to check in on them? How are you engaging with your clients and audience? It doesn’t matter if we have 500 followers or 5 million followers, sometimes it takes just one conversation to create a raving fan for life.

Even if your audience is leaving hearts or emoji reactions and make sure to follow up with them, send video messages and voice memos more often. I truly believe that your audience will go deeper and become more loyal when we simply connect with them and acknowledge our gratitude that they’re real humans and they have real choices, right?

Like their time is valuable and they’re choosing to spend that time on our platform engaging with us. We owe it to them to build those relationships and those friendships and to make those lasting connections. Okay.

4 – Cover Songs

Number four, we are rounding up with number four cover songs. When new openers come out, we don’t always know them very well and oftentimes it’s our first time ever meeting them and hearing their music, which is why I love going live to concerts.

’cause this is the first time I’ve met and I say met. This is the first time I was exposed to MaRynn Taylor and I am now a forever fan, like Instant Follower. I’m following her on TikTok. I’m engaging with her on TikTok. I’ve already sent her dms on Instagram. I mean, like, it was just, it’s, I fell in love at first sight with MaRynn Taylor.

Now it’s pretty common for artists to play a popular song that everyone knows to get the party started. Of course, with almost an entire audience of women playing the classic Shania Twain’s, let’s Go Girls Was a big hit. The takeaway from this was that even though it’s their time on the stage to play their music, playing something that’s familiar helps the vibes vibe, if that makes sense.

And it gets everyone singing along. Which reminds me of trending sounds today on social media. Trending sounds can be fun, especially when they’re comically aligned with your business, your personality, or the message you’re trying to share. This is why it’s so important to create your own original content.

Literally play your own songs. People, okay? You’re on stage, you have your platform. We should be hearing your own music while only sprinkling in the trends. Trust me. Trends are fun, entertaining, but they’re nowhere near as impactful as your own voice and your own songs. And for us on social media, I mean our own stories, sharing our client wins and experiences and generating original content.

Those types of content pieces may not go viral, but they’re vital for proving your authority and sharing that you are the expert. So cheers to splashing trends, sounds here and there. And don’t forget that your business is like your own concert. Get people sharing your organic content and loving you for you.

I wanted to come up with a fifth takeaway for you, because I thought five would just be like super solid, but I think these four were were pretty good.

CREATING THE VIBE FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

So to recap, let’s touch base about number one, creating the vibe for your community by setting expectations and holding yourself, your team, and your community accountable for those vibes.

CREATING CALL TO ACTIONS

Number two, creating a call to action with your events. Every podcast, interview, every post, every reel, every TikTok. I challenge you to gamify your content and give your audience something to do by engaging with your content. If I could go back in time, I would prioritize building my email list, overgrowing my following on Instagram.

Literally, if I could just go back, that’s what I would focus on. This is your sign to get started with Flodesk and start growing your email list today. The more subscribers you have, the more money you make. It’s really that simple, and there’s so much to unpack with that, but that’s the strategy. Make sure to check out QuiannaMarie.com/flodesk to get started today.

FAN ENGAGEMENT

Okay, and number three, fan engagement. This is your sign to reply, babe. Okay? Comment back, engage and interact with your current past and future clients.

CREATE YOUR OWN CONTENT

Number four, prioritize your own organic content and have some fun with trending audios and trends here and there. If you happen to have amnesia and forget everything that we just talked about and everything I shared with this episode, I hope you walk away with this one reminder.

We’re only on the second season of friends. We have time. You’re still in the building phase, figuring things out, creating your small circle of friends and business besties. We don’t have to have it all figured out yet, and that’s okay. It’s just me and you on this orange couch supporting each other endlessly.

I’m cheering for you and I hope this mindset shift in this entire mindset series is serving you well. I also wanna mention that as my business continues to grow, pivot, and expand, I’ve been documenting this growth since the very beginning. Check out QuiannaMarie.com/broll or DM ME B-roll to grab this free guide to get started recording your life, business, and your client experience today.

You are incredible my love, and we need more people to know about you. When we share the B-roll of our life and business, we can easily build authority, prove our value, and attract align clients simply being ourselves. Go grab that guide today and start some B-roll by tagging me so I can see it cheer for you and re-share.

I legit will be re-sharing all the B-roll that you tag me in. I am literally your Biggestest fan! Keep on dancing, baby. I am. So proud of you!!!!

May your business continue to bloom through every season. Okay, love you. Can’t wait to chat next week. 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 QuiannaMarie.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 on dancing.