I was NOT a marketing major. I’m not even someone that I think people should come to for advice on advertising or brand identity. What I AM is a business owner who works every day to try to figure this thing out. Of course, I’m happy to share with people what I’ve done to help put my business in the direction it’s heading. But I will also be the first to let you know that I have hired others to work with me whom I know has expertise and can point me in the right direction! I’m a strong advocate for outsourcing things within your business that you can’t do yourself. In fact, I don’t think a business owner should do everything themselves. There comes a point in a business owner’s journey where they should seek out help from others who know what they’re doing. I reached that point earlier this year and I have worked closely with several very talented people that helped me see things in a different way. These people helped me define my identity. They helped me understand where I wanted my business to go, and what I could do to get there. And they helped push me in a better direction.
Before you start to think that I’m copying what someone told me to do, please step back and change your mindset. Many months of soul searching, researching, and pinning ideas on Pinterest were poured into this journey. It didn’t happen overnight. And it didn’t happen because someone else told me this is what I should be doing. It happened because I took several key steps for myself and I made several key decisions for my business based on the vision I had. This vision wasn’t someone else’s. I invested the time, money, and energy into explaining my vision to someone who could help put that vision into motion. There’s a BIG difference here!
Five (almost six) years ago I walked into my photography business having a list of people who inspired me. Over the years this list has drastically changed. My shooting style has changed (thank heavens!). My artist eye has developed. My creativity has expanded. And the sources of my inspiration continue to grow. Looking back on where I started and where I am now I see a clear path that I took which has placed me exactly where I am right now. This wasn’t planned! Things happened to just fall into place for me this way. (An unexpected job layoff opened an opportunity for me to stay home with my daughter, raise her and run my business full time!) However, when I first started my business there was one thing that was very clear to me. EVERYONE was a photographer. And that list continued to grow every single year. Don’t get me wrong…that was GREAT!!! I enjoy watching new talent pop into my newsfeed on social media. I love following people’s journeys and learning more about how they got started and where they’re headed now. But that also meant that I needed to find my own identity in a market that continued to grow. I have watched established photographers who have been around for 20+ years close their doors and shut down their businesses because it was impossible to keep up with this growth. There are so many factors that can cause this to happen, which is for a different blog post. But as sad as it is to witness, there are lessons to be learned in it.
Finding your OWN identity is KEY to success. Especially in a market where it seems as if everyone is competing for the same clientele. And investing into LEARNING and GROWING your skill set is also KEY to success. You can’t continue to do the same thing over and over again and wonder why it’s not working. It’s not healthy. And it’s not going to make you successful.
Here’s what I did to find my own identity in an oversaturated market.
- I took the time to write down my goals for the year. At the beginning of every year when I was busy working on updating my marketing materials and doing a lot of the “behind-the-scenes” things photographers do in the winter, I made it a point to start setting clear cut goals for myself. These goals included everything from a 5-year-plan to much shorter, instant goals I could achieve quickly. Doing this helped with several things. It helped me feel like I was accomplishing something and moving forward whenever I started to see those short term goals being checked off my list. It was extremely rewarding and acted as a huge motivator to keep me going through the year! It also helped me define my short term goals better, based on where I wanted to end up in 5 years. It makes it SO much easier to make decisions for your business when you know where you want to go. If something doesn’t line up with your long-term goals, don’t agree to do it. It’s as simple as that!
- I searched for inspiration in other’s work. Pinterest. Magazines. Photographers. Designers. Calligraphers. Planners. I don’t care if someone isn’t in the same line of business as myself. If I find them inspiring in any manner I’m going to make it a point to follow their work and support their mission. The work that inspires me doesn’t only come from other photographers! And I think it’s so important to expand your inspiration outside of what you do. It’ll help to keep your own work inspirational and moving forward. But it might also help you to define your own style better. You’ll start to see what you like and what you don’t like.
- Even though I was searching for inspiration in certain places, I also decided to put blinders on in others. Let’s face it! It’s easy to get caught up in what other people around you are doing. It’s easy to look at someone’s perfectly curated social media life and think they’re successful. And it’s much easier to think if you copy what they’re doing, you’ll be successful too. That couldn’t be further from the truth! There came a point in my journey where I had to block certain people out of my newsfeed for various reasons. Either things I was seeing/reading put a dark cloud of funk over my inspiration OR I found myself comparing my work to theirs constantly – either way, it needed to stop. Comparison is a huge thief of joy. Not only does it steal joy right out from under your nose, but you’ll start to convince yourself that you’re not good enough or you’ll never get to where this other person is. Here’s the thing…they’re walking their own journey and writing their own story. Their family dynamic is much different than yours. Their ways to approach a wedding day and how they shoot things is much different than how you would do it. The paths they took to get to where they are now looks much different than yours does. And what I had to remind myself earlier this year is that’s okay! I want my clients to LOVE ME. I don’t want them to love a copy of someone else. This was enough motivation for me to focus more on myself and improving what I know how to do, and placing value in my own work! Comparison robs us blind!!!! So I made a conscious decision to stop giving it power.
- I’ve invested in my vision. The time invested into making my vision for my business a reality has been exponential. The financial investment was something I was completely prepared to provide because I knew beyond a doubt that I wanted to work with a killer design team that would put things in motion for me. I invested in workshops that I knew would line up with my vision because I wanted to learn from those who inspired me. The time it took me to plan all of this out has lasted a little longer than a year. And I’m still not done! You see, in order to be your true self and present your business in a way that aligns with your own vision (not a copy of someone else’s) you’ll have to be willing and able to be invested in your business. You can’t be afraid of outsourcing elements (your branding, design, marketing materials, coaching, education) that may help you see yourself in a new light and launch your dream. I am SO invested in my own vision that I have a clear idea of where I want to land, the clients I would dream of working with, the venues I would love to shoot at, the style of weddings I would be tickled to document, the income I would like to generate to support my family, the magical website that speaks volumes of my style, my marketing plan that will help fuel my goals – and so on, and so on. In order to separate yourself from everyone else around you…you need to be YOU!
Falling into a pit of repeated failures that you can’t seem to pull yourself out of is a terrible place to be. Finding yourself getting worked up over someone else’s success isn’t fair to you or them. Hoping that you’re able to duplicate something someone else is doing because “it’s working for them, so it must work for me” isn’t a healthy way to view business. There are people out there who are always going to try to find ways to copy something they see. But no one – not a single soul on this whole planet – can be you, except YOU. If you can get yourself to a point where you make a conscious decision to leave comparison and copying behind in order to find your true self, you’ll start to see a change in your business. For me, that change started when I noticed that I became more confident in my abilities. And once I realized that being ME was much better and easier than being someone else (or comparing myself to someone else) it freed up my mind to be more creative. You’ll be surprised how much wasted energy you put into comparison or copying. And you’ll be much more surprised at how freeing it feels to finally cut your own path in a market that feels oversaturated.
