Are you waiting to book your brand shoot? Come on babe, the time to book is now! In today’s episode, I’m breaking down the timeline of branding sessions and explaining why booking now will make all the difference in your next launch. 

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:

Your Branding Photos Are More Than Just Pretty Pictures (2:30)

Personal Brands That Inspire (3:59)

Strategy And Logistics For Your Next Photoshoot (8:16)

The First Inquiry (9:11)

Your Shoot Day (11:39)

Editing And Delivery (12:19)

Mentioned In This Episode:

Book Your VIP Day: quiannamarie.com/vip

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

The Green House Resource Garden: quiannamarie.com/shop

The Branding Series Episode 150: quiannamarieblog.com/2024/08/05/building-authority-with-a-branding-photoshoot

Review the Transcript:

Welcome back to Quianna Marie Weekly, the podcast where we chat all about making business feel less overwhelming and more joyful, while giving you the tools and encouragement to actually grow and thrive through every season. Today we’re talking about something that I think it’s overlooked way too often.

The timeline of branding sessions, because let’s be honest, if you’re a business owner, coach, event host, or you’ve got a big sale coming up, you cannot just snap your fingers the week before and expect to have all of your photos, videos, graphics, and marketing content ready to go when it’s time for you to launch your next offer.

I know you’ll be overqualified, and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Booking a brand shoot is like the pregame of the pregame. Imagine hosting a party, going through all of the work to prepare, gives so much attention to every little detail, and then forget to send the invite. Only your mom and best friend show up because they’ve heard you talking about it for weeks.

Did you catch that? Your best friend and your mom only knew because you chatted with them on the phone every day about it for weeks? They don’t watch all of your stories. They’re not hopping in on your lives. They just love you and only know what you tell them. What are you telling your community? What are you doing to become discovered online?

How are your dream clients not only becoming aware of your launch, how are they learning more about it qualifying themselves as something that they need, sharing with their friends, investing, and actually freaking excited about your launch? It all starts with the brand session. We need to celebrate your launch and get ahead of all the planning so you have your professional photos, client experience, moments behind the scenes, and all of the content you need for a successful launch.

I wanna break down exactly what this looks like from inquiry to photo shoot, to having all of your photos of B-roll clips in hand ready to promote your offers. This episode will help you see why booking now not next month or maybe someday, will make all of the difference in your next launch or selling out your future events.

Today’s episode is brought to you by the greenhouse, the resource garden for photographers, business owners and dreamers pop in the shop to grab guides, templates, mini courses, and a handful of Reiss to help your business bloom through every season. Head over to keanu marie.com/shop to learn more. Make sure to grab the mini course of B bloom with B-roll to not only prime your audience with B-roll clips before your next launch.

Get started proving your value, sharing your personality, and generating leads, simply sharing the hard work you’re already doing. Head over to quiannamarie.com/shop to learn more. Okay, let’s get this party started. I first wanna share why branding photos are more than just pretty pictures. Your brand photos are an extension of your energy.

They help prove your value and provide a cohesive look for your business. It’s not about being the hottest or looking the skinniest with the flashiest and brightest or neutral colors. Neutral colors are having a moment. No, no, no, no, no. Having updated branding is truly a confidence booster. Not only will your confidence skyrocket through the roof, but you’ll legit build confidence with your students, clients, and customers that they’re making the right choice by investing in you.

Branding sessions aren’t just headshot. They’re storytelling tools for your mission and upcoming launch. Photos equal trust. People buy faster when they can see who they’re buying from. B-roll clips equal fuel for your reels, stories, ads, and emails. Without fresh content, you’ll end up recycling old stuff and your audience will notice, or should I say, they may not notice without something fresh to catch their attention.

Imagine planning a retreat or workshop, and when you go to post about it, you’re still using photos from two years ago. Not only does it feel outdated, but it doesn’t match the vibe of what you’re actually selling today. That’s why your future self is going to thank you for planning your branding session now today.

Let’s get on it. Every season, every year, you’re growing, expanding, and elevating your presence both online and in real life. Your branding photos need to reflect that. I wanna share a handful of business owners and personal brands that I love and learn from daily. Please, please go check out. Jamie Sea.

Jamie is a course builder and teaches business owners to package up their knowledge to go from selling one-to-one, to one to many. She’s not just a course creator, though. She teaches mindset, money hacks. Energetics and nervous system regulation to hold wealth. I’ve been a huge fan of Kaitlyn James, the wedding photographer, educator, speaker, and podcast host.

Kaitlyn has not only made herself a millionaire off of her personal brand and business education, but she teaches thousands of photographers how to get their business on lock, backed by a personal brand with incredible client experience touchpoints. I also wanna mention my all time favorite dream big sister Jasmine Starr.

Jasmine has been educating me through her blogs, YouTube, her podcast, and all of her offers since I was in college. She’s a globally recognized and award-winning photographer, content creator and educator. And today she’s running a record breaking podcast and building a holding company to consult and invest into growing businesses.

Jenna Kutcher is another one that I have to add to my list. She’s another podcaster and educator with photography roots too. She’s an author, a mama, and a huge affiliate for some of the largest personal brands and offers. Have you seen Jenna’s colors lately? Jenna has always been on top of her branding, watching, and learning from her.

For years, I’ve kept up with her branding every year and sometimes a couple times a year. Jenna’s website often feels refreshed, shiny, and new with the touch of timeless vibes too. She has multiple offers in her shop, and I love how different outfits and visuals support different marketing and promos for her different offers.

She just recently got her colors analyzed by house of color, her brand colors, backdrops outfits, and even letting her natural, darker roots pull through for her hair, like you know, the roots in her. Has created some powerful visual side story commercial break. I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to get my colors analyzed by my friend Michelle, right here locally in Chandler, Arizona.

We discovered that I’m a winter and lately my colors have been popping. If you haven’t seen my pink pants lately on my stories, you have got to go find them. I gotta tag them in the show notes because they just make me feel so good. But anyway, I wanted to slide in with that plug for my friend Michelle Lindsay.

Check her out on Instagram and plan your color analysis before your next brand shoot. So back to these brands and mega educators. Each of these personal brands are inspiring, similar, but also very different at the same time.

The one thread that I wanna point out that runs through each of their business plans is that they invest in brand shoots. Big time Brand shoots typically once a year, if not more often than once a year. As their businesses grow and expand, they elevate their online presence to match their energy. It’s almost as if their communities expect an upgrade or level up simply because they see the behind the scenes of their next brand session.

Their audience knows something is coming because they’re setting the scene for something new on the horizon. Sharing the behind the scenes of your next brand shoot is like a cheat code to share that something new is coming soon. It builds hype, generates brand awareness, and creates curiosity for what’s next.

Take a peek at some pop culture history in the making these days with Taylor Swift and dropping her photos with the pre-orders for her next album. The next showgirl era is here, and all of us swifties are eating it up. So how can we learn from these legends that are making an impact and breaking the internet?

They understand the power of a kick ass photo shoot. These entrepreneurs, business owners, and scaling online coaches get it. They know what’s up. They’re investing in photo shoots as a marketing and content plan, not just to look put together in fancy. They’re taking this content bank to the bank baby. If you look up to women in business like Powerhouse founder Lindsay Marie, her bestie Lori Harder, Jen Gottlieb.

Amy Porterfield, Mel Robbins, or even the fricking Kardashians, love them or hate them. They’re making bank. It all starts with a photo shoot and content day to get that energy captured and celebrated. Now that I’m feeling all pumped and excited for your turn to get in front of the camera, let’s chat about the strategy and logistics and all those timeline details for your next photo shoot.

I’m literally your biggest fan and don’t wanna see your next launch or offer flop. Let’s scale it to the moon, baby. By the way, as always, I need you to know right now that it would be an honor to be your photographer. If you’re just tuning in now for the first time, or I’ve been in your ear for a while, I need you to know that I’m already your biggest fan and it would be an honor to be your branding photographer.

But I also wanna be realistic that I can’t photograph every brand and support you depending on where you live. Not only do we live in different parts of the country, but my calendar also fills up quickly with branding sessions. So please, even if we don’t end up working together and you decide to not fly out to Phoenix or book me to travel to you, which is totally a possibility.

By the way, this timeline will be helpful for any brand working with any photographer. Alright, let’s get started with step one and that first inquiry. Let’s say that you are ready. You’re ready to step into that next era, sell out your new offer, and to finally have your audience trust you. You have your next launch offer or event mapped out and on the calendar it’s time to start planning and getting the ball rolling.

The first phase of inquiry and booking details takes about two weeks to two months. That’s typically about my like sweet spot when it comes to actually planning and getting stuff on the calendar within that timeframe. For choosing locations, brainstorming outfits, props, and possibly looking hair and makeup.

We’ll secure the studio or a site rental if needed. Together we’ll develop your shot list and collaborate for B roll ideas and confirm any clients. We’ll use your friends or models or anyone needed to capture that client experience moment for you. Oh my gosh, those are so fun. And that takes planning too.

Like we have to get on people’s schedules. We have to figure out what they’re planning to wear. All those details take time. This alone can take a week or two, plus any scheduling needed to get us on the calendar. As a photographer, I needed to wait for team members to fly in products and prototypes to be ready, backdrops with the perfect shade of color needed to be delivered.

Truck wraps to be completed on fleets of vehicles branded shirts with logos buildouts for brick and mortar shops, or even waiting on decals for mobile bars. Things take time and we need to get started as soon as possible to get these things prepared and ready for our shoot. I don’t want you to make the mistake of waiting.

Start building your wait list with images that you love and content that helps you feel so excited for this next launch. Because let’s be honest, if you’re not excited, if you’re not pumped about it, why should anybody else, right? So if you want photos for Black Friday, you should already be booking your shoot here in September or October at the latest.

If you’re hosting a January retreat, you need to shoot before the holidays even hit. If you’re planning a summer 2026 workshop or event, it’s never too early to plan ahead. Let’s make your plan and roll out your content way in advance. More time to promote is always better than feeling last minute and confused while you’re not getting the signups or selling out your event.

Y’all need more time than an Amazon Prime delivery to spread brand awareness and make some scaling sales online. This isn’t me being pushy. This is just the reality of marketing timelines. If you wanna sell, you have to give yourself a runway, and that means fresh photos and videos in your pocket before you’re scrambling last minute.

Step number two, shoot day. This is literally my favorite, and these days fly by. Whether you’re planning a power hour or extended VIP day, we’ll spend a couple hours together capturing B roll, professional photos, multiple outfits, and a variety of locations to stretch your content for months. This is like the Super Bowl and feels like Christmas morning for me.

They’re so fun, full of energy and incredibly impactful. It’s amazing how much we can cover in one day. The fact that you can use the behind the scenes and B-roll clips to use immediately is so powerful. Yes, this is just one day, but it can literally help fuel months, if not years worth of content. It’s insane.

Okay, so step three, editing and delivery. It takes about a week for a turnaround time for your whole gallery. As a brand new photographer, I check every photo, edit for sharpness, adjust the color, the contrast. I toss a blinking or wonky shots and try to clean up as many duplicates as I can. So you have a, a robust gallery filled with variety, but aren’t overwhelmed with too many options.

It’s truly a joy to send that link that looks like a Pinterest style online gallery with copyrights and image licensing. For you to have unlimited downloads on unlimited devices, you’ll have months of content right at your fingertips. Let’s think about launches like planting a garden. Did you know that Citters trees can take a couple years to grow their fruit?

Good things take time. We gotta plant our seeds, nourish our plants with love, attention, and I’m here to remind you to document the process. You can’t expect to harvest tomatoes if you plant the seeds the day before dinner, right? Your branding session is the seed. It takes time to grow into graphics posts, and campaigns, build that brand awareness, and to get people excited about what’s ahead by booking.

Now you’re buying time and peace of mind. It’s not about being extra, it’s about being prepared. Instead of thinking I’ll book later or maybe sometime soon. Ask yourself, what would future me want already done and ready to go? I love thinking about Future Me. I love talking about future Keanu. Last year I had a client who booked a session in September.

We planned her shots around her holiday offer, and because she had her content ready by mid-November, her Black Friday campaign felt polished and she sold out in two days. Yes, we were a little sweaty wearing sweaters in the studio trying to blast the ac and we even brought in a Beyonce fan to try to keep us cool.

And while we were like, literally we were, we were sweating while we were wearing, I wasn’t wearing these, I was literally wearing a, a short romper, but she was wearing cozy clothes and sweaters and pants, and it was worth it because we were way ahead of her marketing and promos. With her photos done in advance, she not only sold out her products within two days of her Black Friday sale, but she also had all of the marketing materials done for her affiliate team to continue more of her digital sales.

So even though her like physical products were sold out, she had digital and online offers and courses, and all those affiliates lined up with swipe copy. Done. So literally well into the holidays, well into Christmas when she was baking, spending time with family, going to all of those kids’ recitals and stuff during the busy season of the holidays, she was literally making money like, this is so insane.

This is what can happen for you too. You are a big deal my love. You deserve photos that don’t just make you feel proud, but actually feel like you marketing content that does the selling for you without you in the room or before you even speak. That’s the power of a photo shoot. I want you to see your business as a powerful brand that it is.

Your offers are incredible. Your clients deserve to see you show up with confidence, and your marketing deserves to be as strong as your skills. The truth is, if you’ve been waiting to book a branding session until later, this is your sign right now. Like, if I can literally give myself a throwback to Jeff Foxworthy, Liz is your sign later will be too late if you’re trying to launch something big.

The time is now. If you’re ready to book your branding session, let’s do it. Head over to QuiannaMarie.com/vip to learn more about my VIP day experience, or connect with me on Instagram at @quiannamarie to start this conversation. Let’s get you those photos and B-roll clips so your next launch doesn’t just look good.

It sells out. Make sure to check out the entire branding series on the podcast too. Add episodes number one 50 to 1 71. Yes, there’s literally an entire series packed with coaching calls, mentoring in tons of hacks. To prepare you for a successful branding session, tune to hear from my business besties like Bree Pair, Xayli Barklay, Jillian Murphy, Rachael Leigh, Jerra Bean, Anette Oran, Felicia Romero, Sara Dunn, Meg Marie, Maddie Peschong, Risa Kostas and so much more.

Literally, this entire BRANDING SERIES was created for you and your growing business. Until next time, keep blooming, keep shining, and let’s get you booked and blooming with fresh content. Come say hi and start planning your session in the dms with me on Instagram. Oh my gosh, babe, I cannot wait to dream with you.

And I’m always, always cheering for you. 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 www.QuiannaMarie.com/podcast, I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app.

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Until next time, keep on on dancing.