What happens when your business starts to pivot? In today’s episode, I’m diving into crafting your brand to stay trustworthy, no matter what season you’re in. I’m sharing 5 ways to pivot proof your business so that you can stay connected with your community, even as things shift and expand.

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:

People Buy You, Not Just Your Product (2:15)

B-Roll Builds Trust In Real Time (6:52)

Documenting Vendors And Clients Creates Forever Referrals (11:29)

B-Roll Makes Pivoting Easy And Less Scary  (17:30)

B-Roll Makes You The Only Option (19:25)

How To Start Pivot Proofing Today (21:40)

Mentioned In This Episode:

Episode 196: Why Your Content Isn’t Working (Let’s Fix It!): quiannamarieblog.com/2025/06/23/196-why-your-content-isnt-working-lets-fix-it

Podcast Portal Live: checkout.feliciaromero.com/podcast-portal-live

Book Quianna: quiannamarie.com/book

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

The Green House Resource Garden:  https://quiannamarie.com/shop

Review the Transcript:

?Hey, hey. Welcome back to Quianna Marie Weekly, the podcast for business owners, creatives, and dream chasers who are ready to build a brand that feels like home, shows up like the expert, and evolves like a story that’s just getting started. I’m your host, Quianna, and today we’re diving into something. I know you’ve been thinking about what happens when your business starts to pivot.

What happens when you launch a new offer, when your services shift, when life takes you in a new direction? Or maybe you’re in a new season of life and your offers and services remain the same, but your business is taking a back seat for the needs of your family. Well, let’s talk all about how to pivot proof your business so your brand stays flexible, trustworthy, and totally binge-worthy no matter what season you’re in.

If you’ve been here for a while, you know my business has pivoted a lot. I started with weddings, added branding, launched a podcast. Hey, I’m so happy you’re here. I began coaching and mentoring and somewhere along the way I realized that what’s kept my audience connected through all of these seasons of business and life and moving out of state is my ability to show up consistently through behind the scenes content.

It’s the B roll. It’s the real life moments that make people stick around even when our offers change. Okay, so I just want to take this moment.

Now, I want you to cuddle up with a notebook, or maybe you are going on your hot girl walk. And I really wanna let this sink in. I want this to be part conversation, part education, and lessons that really hit home for you.

Your business is going to grow, your passions will shift. And if you’re building a brand that’s stuck in one version of yourself, you’re gonna feel trapped. Today, I wanna walk you through five ways to pivot, proof your business so you can grow, scale, evolve, and still feel deeply connected to your community, your audience, your friends, family, and followers as things shift and expand.

All right, so let’s break down these five tips. You know me, oh my gosh, babe, I love a good list. So let’s get started with key tip number one. People buy you, not just your product. When you prioritize behind the scenes content, you’re not just showing up and showing what you sell. You’re showing who you are.

Your dream clients fall in love with you, the way you move, the way you laugh, the way you work behind the scenes. They’re following your story, not just your client’s photo albums, transformations, new homes or results that you deliver. They’re falling in love with the way you troubleshoot your personality, your tenacity, and all of the tiny baby steps you are taking to achieve your dreams.

When people trust you, they will follow you anywhere. Through any pivot, every price increase, every big idea, they will back you up. So I have a story to share. When I was a full-time photographer, I remember I was just starting to dabble in coaching. I was coaching photographers, I was mentoring and helping business owners with their content and marketing strategy.

I was pitching myself to be on podcast and even pitching to speak on stages for events, conferences, workshops. I was popping into masterminds. I was doing all the things to show up as an authority and as a marketing and content coach during the thick of it. I wasn’t blasting these speaking opportunities or even mentoring because I didn’t want my brides to think I was taking my time away from editing their galleries.

I. Or giving them the attention they deserved before their wedding. Like there was nothing worse than literally being on an airplane on my way to go speak on stage at a conference and having a bride slip into my dms and ask, oh my gosh, key. I hope you’re having the best time. When can we expect our photos?

Oh my gosh. Like that gave me the chills. It sank my heart. Clearly. I was way above schedule, like between you and I. I was not behind on delivering her images. I was planning on delivering them even early than I had promised her. But because they saw me flying and living my best life, there was that piece of, wait, don’t forget about me.

And I don’t like that energy. I don’t like that perceived action that I am sharing online. I. So I didn’t share as much about my coaching and speaking right away. It took me time. Plus I didn’t want my couples to stress about traveling. I. So for me, for example, because I’m such an empath and I’m so well aware of what others are thinking, most of the time, I probably make this up, let’s be honest.

But let’s say for example, I was traveling for an event, something that wasn’t a wedding, something that wasn’t a family emergency. I was just traveling for business, right? If I was somewhere far away, let’s say I was in Dallas, Texas, showing up on stage. I would make sure that I would fly home on a date that would allow me to drive if I had to.

Right. So if the wedding was on Saturday, I was not flying in on Friday night or Saturday morning, oh my God. That gives me like so much anxiety about traveling for something so important. But I literally would plan to be home if I could help it by that Tuesday or that Wednesday night. So if it took me two to three days of driving through all day through the night to get to my couple.

Like as a last resort, I made sure I had that time right. Just ’cause I’m crazy. But I will tell you the moment I started sharing more confidently about what I was doing, I was way ahead on those deliverables for sharing galleries and just, you know, getting all my stuff back that I had promise for my couples.

There was something that shifted and I instantly went from just a wedding photographer to a leader, to an authority in my industry, and it’s crazy how my couples were. I. Literally cheering me on. They were so proud. They were sharing that I was speaking. They were literally sharing and adding to their stories on Instagram and telling their friends, oh, you have to book Kiana because she’s not only our photographer, but she’s also teaching other photographers.

Right? Like that was such a huge thing and. I know I’m telling you this kind of long tangent, but I wanted to share that story with you, that this is what happens when we do share, when we are proactive about sticking to what our deliverables are, but we’re also opening up a whole new opportunity for your current clients, your past clients, your family and friends to support you.

Ooh, so I want you to think about that and how you can apply that to your business as you do start to kind of pivot and open your arms to scale. Key tip number two, B-roll builds trust in real time. Behind the scenes content is proof that you’re in it. It’s proof that you’re doing the work, serving your clients, and showing up with so much love and confidence.

Trust isn’t built in the perfect post. It’s built in the unfiltered moments. It’s the messy middle. It’s the client experience. It’s things that are happening right now, right. People wanna work with business owners who are consistent. Your B-roll shows that you’re reliable, approachable, and in demand. This is a huge like bold font and in demand sharing photos and B-roll videos of the behind the scenes work that you’re already doing, highlights your offers, and does the selling for you.

Okay, so I wanna also take you down memory lane really fast and share about this experience for a brand session with a hairstylist. Okay, so once I had this opportunity to photograph this brand session, we went above and beyond for this shoot. I’m talking like she went all out, hair, makeup, done. She got her nails done.

We brought in all of the props. I. We captured headshot, client experience, consultations. We documented before and after reveal. It’s like literally I was there all day for this client experience. This is what like way back in the day when I just stay for hours and hours and hours and it was so worth it, right?

Because we were getting those before and after reveals. I helped capture B-roll footage of her products, tools, and even shared talking head videos about the products she loves, how to use them, all the hair care stuff, and how to take care of your extensions. While we were recording those talking head videos, which I love to do, I saw wefts of extensions, like literally like it was human hair, like hanging in her cupboard, right?

Like in her like storage thing. And I asked her if we could take some photos with her, holding them, sharing the quality of the extensions, and really just showcasing that that’s something that she offers. After our session, she started posting her updated branding photos and tons of content that we captured during her session.

Within that first week of posting, three of her current clients reached out, and I wanna make sure that I make that clear that their current clients, these weren’t just rando strangers or someone that came across on a hashtag, those people were coming into. I wanna really highlight the fact that they were current clients that reached out to ask about extensions and wanted to book their next visit to include hair extensions.

They didn’t even know. And Veronica, the hairstylist I was working with sent me the screenshots and was so ecstatic to share that those B roll clips that were almost missed helped generate two of those three inquiries to invest in extensions at their next visit. Not only did these two extension appointments help cover her branding, photography, investing with me.

Hello, ROI instantly, but it built in recurring revenue for those clients that kept coming back as their extensions grew out. And I also wanna make this clear. Like I mentioned, they were current clients. They weren’t even aware that Veronica offered this. They sat in her chair, talked about kids, talked about their marriage, talked about life, and you know, just talked about all the normal things that you would talk about with your hairstylist.

But because her cupboard was closed, keeping her area tidy, the clients that reached out, like they didn’t even know that that’s what she offered. They did not even know that hair extensions was a part of her brand. And I will tell you this. Veronica was posting about it. She was sharing it on Instagram, she was sharing it on her stories.

She was sharing client testimonials, which are so powerful, but she literally wasn’t even speaking about hair extensions with the client that was in her chair. So the client like this is proof that everyone, even if they’re in our world, even if they’re paying clients, may not even be aware of what we offer.

I hope this lands to remind you, are you actually sharing your whole client experience? Are you a photographer that wants to sell more wedding albums or boost print sales? How are you showing through your content that even shows that’s something you offer if you’re a realtor and you’re expanding to not only sell and buy homes, but you’re offering mentoring to your growing team and other realtors locally in your area to help their real estate business grow.

How are you sharing that? Are you hoping your content already has clients sold before hopping on a sales call, or are you done hustling to produce content 24 7? It’s time to start prioritizing B roll of the work you’re already doing and sharing the products, merch programs, and offers you have available to sell.

B-roll really is the secret to bulletproof your business. Okay. And key tip number three, documenting vendors and clients creates forever referrals. I just mentioned this in last week’s episode. If you miss that, make sure to make a note and add episode number 1 96, why your Content isn’t working. Let’s fix it.

We’ll cover way more of this concept, but it’s worth mentioning for this conversation again, when you use B-roll to capture the people around you, your clients, vendors, collaborations, and local businesses, and your industry besties. You become their favorite cheerleader. People remember how you made them feel and how you made them look online.

Okay, I wanna repeat that real quick. People remember how you made them feel and how you made them look online. Think about that for a sec. I want you to imagine a time when you met one of your mentors in real life at a recent conference, or maybe a new powerhouse woman sitting next to you at an event.

The real life connection ignited some sparks. You know, the, oh my God, I just met you and I wanna be your best friend vibes. Share more about workflows. What’s working with ads right now? How you’re marketing your business. What podcasts are you obsessing over? And what books are on your nightstand, kind of instant soul connections.

Now imagine taking that real life connection and then sharing a post or introducing them online with your favorite takeaways, or really just shouting them out and bringing more brand awareness to their personal brand or business. Wow. Talk about the jackpot of a connection that happened in real life and keeps sizzling even after the event, after you go home, after you take your hair down and you go into troll mode weeks later, you can repost stuff and that spark gets reignited.

Creating experiences, capturing those moments and posting them online is the easiest way to showcase your brand while highlighting theirs too. The more you celebrate others with behind the scenes, the more you become the business. They can’t stop referring. To this day, I’m still getting inquiries from vendors and venues I’ve worked with because I left a lasting impression with my B-roll stories and social media marketing for them years ago.

It’s insane. I’m not even kidding. I’m not even exaggerating when I say I’m still getting wedding inquiries years after I. Have stopped shooting weddings. Right. And I never say never. You know how that goes. I think I may pick it up in the future once a wedding photographer. Always a wedding photographer.

Right. But that’s not something that I’m actively promoting. Okay. And real quick, I also wanna share a real life connection recently that’s led to more opportunities. Years ago when my friend Felicia Romero started hosting live podcast events, I used to purchase a ticket to attend and bring my camera to document conversations with Lindsay Marie, the founder of Powerhouse Women, Lori Harder, the co-founder of Glowy Business Mentor and highly sought after speaker Heidi Powell, another local gem that’s a transformational coach fitness trainer, featured on dozens of magazine covers.

Jen Kennedy, A Money Mindset and Wealth Expander. Angie Lee, the podcaster and brand strategist with small boobs and a big heart legit. That’s what it says on her Instagram. I love her so much. These powerhouse women are all just a handful of conversations that I’ve had the opportunity to get in the room with photograph capture behind the scenes videos and share about them.

Each one of these remarkable women have reshared my content and a handful of them have even followed me back. This is huge, and I even wanna mention again in case you missed it. I paid to be there. So Felicia has invested in me. She’s paid me to show up and capture and document content for her, but in the beginning she didn’t.

I showed up. I bought the ticket to get myself in the room. Went above and beyond to photograph content and marketing collateral for her. And she’s been sharing it. Getting myself in the room supporting my soul sister Felicia, and showcasing their brands and businesses has led to host multiple events with Felicia.

In fact, this August, Felicia and I are co-hosting the podcast portal Live an event you don’t wanna miss if you’re a podcaster or have a desire to start your own one day. Join us for a podcast portal live. It’s a one day in-person all inclusive workshop designed to get your podcast created, launch, and out into the world with confidence and clarity.

This is not just a workshop. This is a launchpad. This room full of fire freedom and female voices rising is somewhere you are not gonna wanna miss. You’ll walk away with a clear and aligned podcasting concept. Your show name, description, ready to go, your podcast cover art. That’s right. I will be photographing headshots for you to update either update if you already have an existing podcast or have a beautiful podcast cover to just hit the ground running.

Your podcast intro and outro scripts, some music direction tips on what to do for music and how to do deal with all those copyrights and stuff for music. The tech tools and templates to launch your show confidently. Oh my gosh. All this growth strategy, monetization help, and really just the confidence to book high level guests and build powerful conversations.

Ooh, it’s gonna be so good. Send me a DM for the link to learn more about the podcast portal live, or head over to the show notes to learn more and grab your ticket before we sell out. To share that none of this would be possible without getting myself in the room, investing in my brand awareness, and sharing the behind the scenes moments.

If I would’ve just showed up to the podcasting event and left without highlighting these special guests, I think I would’ve easily been forgotten. Just another eager face in the room. Sharing the B-roll helped me be remembered. This is why I always love to share that being well known is wonderful, but becoming someone worth knowing is even more memorable.

B-roll is a shortcut to becoming memorable. Okay, number four, this key tip number four. B-roll makes pivoting easy and less scary. When you consistently show up behind the scenes. You don’t have to start from scratch. When you pivot, you’ve already brought your audience along for the ride. If you’re launching something new, testing a new offer, or shifting your niche, your community won’t feel shocked.

They won’t be like, what the heck is going on? They’ll feel included. This is why I love encouraging my students and clients to share more about their big picture goals and not just their offers and current life on repeat. Share those big, lofty goals. If you need to move out of state to live in a small basement for a new job, offer, share about it.

Don’t leave your community guessing or left in the dark for an easy way to build trust and connection. If you’re bringing home a puppy share about any training struggles, you and your family may be having to build even more relatability, even if it has nothing to do with your photography business or your upcoming retreat you’re hosting, or anything that you go got going on in your business.

If you’re working towards living off the grid with your family, share the baby steps and investments you’re making now to get you closer and closer to that goal. It may look like sharing recipes, gardening from a small kitchen counter herb garden instead of the dream. Joanna Gaines Farmhouse Garden.

Right? Share the in-between moments and the heart behind your mission. I’m so thankful I’ve taken my audience on this wild ride from the beginning. They know my heart, they’ve seen the hustle and support me as I continue to talk about it on the podcast, like literally, hello. I’m so happy you’re here. You get to be alongside me on this journey.

You’re reaching for your goals and big dreams. I’m reaching for mine and we are literally linking arms to do this together. Whether that’s chatting about it on the podcast as it continues to scale, launching new digital products, future merch, just sharing the journey. Oh, I just, I love it so much. Alright, and key tip number five B-roll makes you the only option I.

There are a billion photographers, a million coaches, and a zillion businesses out there. What makes you stand out is how you show up, how you serve, how you connect, how you make people feel behind the scenes. Your B-roll positions you as the only option because it proves your value and shows your personality.

I have a question for you. If a mom of three is stuck between two local photographers for family photos, the price is right for both. She loves both of their vibes, and the schedules match up too. So picking a date isn’t an issue. What makes her pull out her credit card for one and not the other? Sure.

Maybe one booking system is easier than the other, or she’s received a raving referral and we all want what our friends have, right? But at the end of the day, our dream clients pick us because of who we are, the stories we share, how we present ourselves, and through connection points. This mom may have picked a photographer over another because they drive the same SUV, maybe because they have the same snickerdoodle dogs and I, I call them snickerdoodles.

I don’t know what they’re called, but you know the, the hyperallergenic ones. Um, my cousin Eliana, her little dog, Remy, is, I call him a stick oodle dog. But maybe that’s something they have in common. Maybe they’re from the same hometown. Maybe they’re interested in being a plant lady, but seem to have more of a black dying thumb than a green thumb, right?

When it boils down to who she’s picking, it may come down to price and maybe convenience, but it really is up to us to show who we are authentically online to create these connection points. It really does come down to who she feels safest with, who she feels is the expert. This is why I’m passionate about sharing my travels, business investments I make for events, conferences, and mentoring.

I love sharing testimonials, real life experiences on the job planning content days, sharing my day in the life of a busy business owner and documenting as many relatable moments as possible. So when the time comes, I’m the only option. Not only am I sharing the client experience, but I’m proving I’m worth investing in.

All right. I love a good recap with some action steps to get this going. We can create a marketing plan, but if we all know what to do without taking the actual steps, these ideas will be stuck on our Pinterest and our vision boards without coming to life. Let’s recap these key tips real fast. So how are we gonna start pivot proofing today?

Let’s get this going. Number one, people buy you not just your products capture. B roll of your current offers, client experiences, and daily work. It can be as simple as taking a quick photo on your phone or capturing a handful of five to eight second video clips. Start prioritizing these today. Number two B-roll builds trust in real time.

Show your face, share what you’re selling and your client experience. Please, please, please do it now and don’t wait for perfection. Number three, documenting vendors and clients creates forever referrals. Celebrate vendors, clients, and industry friends in your stories. Shout them out like your business depends on it because it really does.

Number four B-roll makes pivoting easy and way less scary. Keep showing up even when you’re evolving. Bring your audience along. I wanna see the messy middle, the highlight reels and sacrifices you’re making to reach your goals. Think of your business like a weight loss plan, documenting your journey, like your audience is your accountability partner.

Number five B-roll makes you the only option. Start now your future self will. Thank you babe. Prove through your content that you’re the best and only option for your dream clients. Nobody can hire you if you’re hiding behind your phone. Now, if you’re ready to start showing up now and create content that supports your next pivot, let’s book your brand session.

I would love to help you capture your client experience, your personality, and your magic so you always have content that keeps working for you. Let’s book your next brand session now. Okay, so head over to keanu marie.com/book and we can hop on a call. We can literally. Pick a date right now. It could maybe even be later today when we hop on a call, we can start brainstorming and planning your dream brand session.

We are just one phone call. One click away from making that a reality. And if you’re ready to confidently show up behind the scenes and build a visual bank of content that proves your value, my mini course Bloom with B-Roll is waiting for you. It’s simple, it’s quick, and will help you start showing up without spending more time on your phone.

Check it out@keanamarie.com slash b-roll. That’s Q-I-A-N-N-A murray.com/b ROLL. That’s B-roll without the little dash. All right, my love. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope this episode gave you the gentle kick in the booty you needed to start showing up with more confidence and ease. Remember, your community wants to support you through your pivots, but they can’t support you if they don’t see you and don’t even know you exist.

You’ve got this and I am always cheering you on. Until next time, keep blooming, keep showing up and keep sharing your magic. Okay? Love you, XO xq. Hope you have a great day. That’s a wrap on another episode of Kiana 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 kiana marie.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.

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