Brand Like a Boss
Your ultimate point of difference in a saturated industry is YOU. In this section I'll break down the main three ingredients in creating a sustainable brand that has pushed me into booking incredible couples who genuinely want me involved in their lovefest rather than just another thing on their to do list. In turn creating a really bespoke experience, where they appreciate me on a personal level not just professionally.
Your why and purpose to pursing your creative ventures is your anchor. It projects what your ultimate mission statement is and injects what personally aligns with you. This can be different for everyone and I've found personally finding my why on an emotional level has helped significantly in how I market myself, building confidence in what I offer and has grounded me in how I interact with my couples.
Make she your why is ultimately what drives you and brings you happiness, as that's what's going to stand the test of time and get you through when things feel a bit overwhelming.
My why has chopped and changed so much the longer I stay in the industry, initially my why was to make money from a creative outlet - simple enough right? With more experience under my belt my why has evolved into knowing that I can give a kickass experience and knowing my purpose is to make people feel like absolute rockstars in the process, because in turn that makes me feel amazing. It's what drives me in my weddings, my mentoring and general life.
Picking a why that has purpose is important and I'll explain why with a little story of a friend of mine. I have a very talented friend in the industry, she's larger than life, can connect with anyone and just is sunshine in human form. Honestly a massive inspiration to everyone she meets. When she started her business she had a goal to just wanted to shoot high-end, luxury weddings and she branded herself exactly as such and was very successful doing so. In turn, her marketing reflected an aspect of herself but didn't truly showcase her as a person and years later she realized that the demographic she was targeting wasn't what set her soul on fire and her passion soon became burden. Which is what I want you to avoid losing that spark by chasing something that sounds good in theory but isn't fundamentally why you enjoy shooting.
She told me she wished she put herself out there as authentically herself as the big, bright, bubbly, insanely talented human being and didn't change herself to fit an ideal aesthetic, because in turn she would have attracted couples that truly valued her and chose her for what she had to offer on a personal level rather than her style. Don't get me wrong style is important, but we'll get to that later on. With a few tweaks she could have also had the best of both worlds and I w