The Exchanges

Q You had a wedding experience that wasn't what you wanted it to be, so what was that wedding experience, what, what was it like, and why was it not what you wanted it to be?

A The time that we were engaged was about six months, and I had brought up to my now husband and my family and stuff that I wanted to elope, and of course, as one can imagine, there was a little bit of blowback. Ultimately, I fell victim to those societal expectations and those norms that people want to Follow for weddings. And we ended up having about a hundred to a 120 person wedding on my parents' ranch. And a lot of that time was spent with me organizing things. And I didn't have a day that really represented me or our relationship. And my husband, Brian had kind of realized he wanted to elope a little bit too far down the planning road. So it was a larger wedding. And ultimately I didn't really enjoy myself. My husband didn't really enjoy himself. And we didn't really get to spend time together on the day, and we really, really felt the day didn't represent us.

AI assessment note: “I didn't have a day that really represented me or our relationship.”

Q experience that. I haven't had a ceremony, but I know that with my wife, we also had the societal pressure, and in Vietnam, I think the pressure is even more, because it's about giving the parents space. How long from when you had these feelings of, I'm not happy with this, until you decided to make your own company? To help other people to have the experience they did want.

A So I had done part-time wedding photography for several years up to that point. It was only a couple of months after our own wedding that I decided to focus and niche down into just elopement photography and just photographing intimate weddings and adventure elopements with 20 to 25 guests or less. It happened with one couple who had hired me a few months after my own wedding. And they were having some planning issues, and you could tell that the bride was stressed out, and we had talked, and I, I asked her what's going on. She just vented and said, I wish, I wish we could elope at a waterfall with like five people, and I, I told her why, why don't you? She's like, we can do that? I said, yeah, and I told her my story, and that was what changed everything for me, realizing that there were a significant amount of other people out there that felt like I did In regards to their wedding.

AI assessment note: “It was only a couple of months after our own wedding that I decided to focus”

Q What was the hardest thing about starting your company?

A I think that was probably it. The, getting over the fear of, how am I going to make money? How am I going to be successful with this niche that no one in town seems to understand? There's a lot of resources It's about how to actually start a business, you know, filing your articles of organization, that sort of thing. I worked in a law firm before, so I was already familiar with a lot of the business and contract law. So that stuff wasn't scary. It really was finding the clientele for a particular niche that hadn't blown up yet. And, you know, back then I w I came in right after the ground floor was laid for adventure elopement being a niche. And now it has just exploded, partially because of COVID, but because it has gained more traction just in general.

AI assessment note: “It really was finding the clientele for a particular niche that hadn't blown up yet.”

Q Did you have any fears about getting into this business?

A Oh yeah. 100%. And I think, I think those fears are good to acknowledge and good to at least have in the beginning because I come from a small town and every photographer here is a jack of all trades, a generalist. So they do newborns, senior photos, weddings, headshots, uh, real estate photography, anything that would get kind of referred their way. And with The income, the average income of our town, and the traditions of our town , it was very concerning that I wouldn't be able to have enough clients and referrals to support a full-time elopement photography career. That was a significant worry. I ended up that shifted mindset of realizing that I'm able to serve more than just my town, and now I have one couple in the past three years that has actually booked me that has been A local couple. Everyone usually comes from at least a 180 miles away, if not across the country or across the world.

AI assessment note: “it was very concerning that I wouldn't be able to have enough clients”

Q What's something you've learned recently that you're either looking to implement or have already started implementing in your business or your life?

A You know, I think this might be an answer that's not given very commonly, you know, because everyone wants to talk about business hacks and these organizational hacks or, or outsourcing hacks, you know, and while I have recently outsourced my editing so I could spend more time doing other things, something that I have learned that is very important is managing work-life balance, and so, you know, I have got an office, so I, I'm not working from home. I, I go into my office with my assistant. I come home, and yes, well, I do occasional things at home. The balance allows me to be my best self in order to serve my couples and my clients. So the, the knowledge that you can only serve someone to only a certain capacity if you are not, you know, 100% energized and your, your cup is not 100% filled. So take care of yourself in a effort of conscious selfishness in order to be able to perform the best of your ability for your clients.

AI assessment note: “something that I have learned that is very important is managing work-life balance”

Q And how do people find you and what percentage of those people are from word of mouth?

A For me, word of mouth is actually one of my least documented ways of referrals. I have really great SEO and I'm working on shifting my SEO currently because I currently have a trademark and that needed to have some adjustments on my website. I have great SEO. I also have a great evergreen content usage with Pinterest and reusing those over social platforms. I have a very active blog, so a lot of people find me via SEO and Google. That is my highest rank referral for inquiries, as well as my highest booking referral. You know, word of mouth is actually very, very, very low, and the booking rate for the few word of mouths I do get is very low, and I've found through research and tracking all this stuff, it's because elopements don't tend to have all those guests there that actually get to see you interact and work in person, and I've found that for Traditional wedding photographers, word of mouth is a lot higher because of that. On top of that, eloping is not nearly as popular as a traditional wedding, and so even though they might think you do great images, if you don't photograph their type of wedding, you know, it is what it is. On top of that, I've found that, at least in my niche, word of mouth referrals are typically looking for a certain price point, and I usually tend to be out of that price point.

AI assessment note: “a lot of people find me via SEO and Google... word of mouth is actually very, very, very low”

Q So how do you manage all of the travel?

A So how couples book me is depending on where they want to go. I provide certain collection options, package options for them. That include my travel. So I've calculated all the travel out based on certain areas. And with that, I book myself, uh, and everything. I also am sort of a partially a planner for them. So I help them with, hey, do you need Airbnb recommendations? Um, all this stuff, so it's sort of, you know, a way for passive income because I have an Airbnb affiliate or associate, uh, associate profile, so I can earn passive income that way. With the travel, they don't have to worry about me at all, and I sort of block out my time during the year in regards to what location is best during what time of year, and so I might go back to locations, um, multiple times a year, but it's not So spread out there. They're very much in chunks throughout the year in order to maximize my time. It also serving them as well, because I am very clear in this is when I will be there because this is the best time of year to go. You don't want to go during another time. And so it kind of serves a lot of different purposes for how I set up travel.

AI assessment note: “I sort of block out my time during the year in regards to what location”

Q What is the most important thing you've learned? Through all of this so far.

A One of the most important things I've learned is service. My business is not just about providing an elopement day and photos. Eloping is not about the photos for me. And I say it on my website. Uh, so I want to be able to serve them by helping them craft a day that is representative of them. That is something that will transfer into the rest of their lives by, you know, feeling more empowered and feeling more self-aware and being able to grow in who they are as a couple. And so that's, that's my why, and that's why I want to be able to serve them. And I've found that finding your why and being able to serve in that capacity, while we always want to Price ourselves profitably and, and talk about the finances and be very aware. I have found that that has been a primary reason of why I am so successful financially, because it isn't selling. It isn't, you know, pushing something. It is genuinely wanting to serve the couple and, you know, giving them options to, you know, upgrade their album collections or upgrade their wedding collections, their, their photography collections. And if not, if that's not the right choice for them, Totally great. But looking at that and looking at that, you know, add on aspect as a way to serve them and genuinely believing that, that has helped me and been the most important thing, I think, in order for me to be successful.

AI assessment note: “One of the most important things I've learned is service.”