Description:

In this episode of the Pursue Purpose Podcast, I’m sharing how you can stand out in a saturated market and build a business that’s true to you. I talk about my own experience navigating the crowded photography industry, what I’ve learned about personal branding, developing your unique style, and building real relationships that lead to lasting success. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the competition or unsure how to set yourself apart, this episode will give you practical steps and encouragement to carve out your own space and grow a purposeful, sustainable business. As a Wedding Photographer in Seattle I have been in business for over a decade. I have moved locations and although I still do San Diego Wedding Photography I have experienced what it was like to start from scrach and then start over again in a new market. I hope my insights help you!

Transcript:

Welcome to the Pursue Purpose Podcast. This podcast is for ambitious women who want to cultivate a meaningful life in the pursuit of their purpose. After achieving the highest level of academic success, yet feeling unfulfilled, I was left wondering what was next. I discovered my purpose in helping women feel seen, understand their self worth, and live their best lives.

I quit my scientific career path for a life full of freedom and flexibility. And now I want to teach and inspire other women to pursue their purpose. Thank you for being here, and let's get started.

Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Pursue Purpose Podcast. Today I am talking about breaking out of a saturated industry. How to market yourself and stand out among the crowd. And of course, I'm doing this from a photography perspective. But if you're in a different industry, you can probably still take away relevant information from this.

I actually recently got back from a conference. It's called Hybrid Co. It's for photographers who shoot both film and digital photography. A lot of them are wedding photographers. And it was really cool to be able to go and see some of my online friends, people that I've known for many, many years.

I've been in this community for so long, and I've always wanted to go to this conference, but I was never able to because I had my nine to five and with the nine to five and the two kids and all of the things. I just felt like being away for four or five days for a conference just wasn't in the cards until this year.

So it was really amazing to go and get to see everyone. And it's funny because some people recognized me, some of them didn't even know why I looked familiar necessarily, but it is weird because we see each other's faces online in posts. I have actual online friends, but to see them in person is different.

And so it was really exciting and cool to get to connect with people in person. Being recognized wasn't something that I was expecting, but that made me realize that in a sea of photographers, somehow I have stood out to some people. That being said, there's also 300 people at this conference and most people didn't know who I was.

And so of course, there's work to do there. Because we're all doing the same things. We're all contributing to the noise on social media where we're posting the same kinds of images. And when you think about your clients, if you think about brides looking for a photographer, there's a lot out there and it's overwhelming and it's hard to sift through and know who is the person that is your ideal photographer for you.

The right personality, the right style, all of those things. And so to be able to stand out of that sea of images or a sea of people, it's crucial to be able to run a solid business. So that's what I want to talk about today.

For me, it has always been about investing in myself and the education of either on the photography side or on the business side to continue to find ways to improve and grow. Nothing that I want to say today is going to be that short term quick fix all of a sudden. You've gone viral and you stand out. It's really about putting in small nuggets of pieces that will help you grow slowly over time. If you're looking for this to be a career long term, that's really what you need to be thinking about. Your end goal years from now. What is your actual purpose and where do you want to take your career and business and life.

And so thinking more on the terms of what pieces can I put into place now to slowly grow over time and then stand out amongst the crowd. Those are the things that I want you to be thinking about.

When I first started photography in 2013 shooting weddings, our brand was called Whiskers and Willow Photography. It was my husband and I. It was not cat related, but I got a lot of questions about are we cat people because it says whiskers. But it was actually supposed to be a nod to my husband, masculine, whiskers versus Willow being feminine. And so it's supposed to be the masculine and feminine. I think around that time, that brand, the brand names for a lot of creative companies were something and something. And I wanted words that were easy to remember and spell.

Slowly over the years, I noticed that the trend toward a higher end luxury brand was actually branding your name. You becoming your own brand, your own personal brand, and being able to be that face of your business as you as a person. And I also think it contributes to the memorability of I spoke with Jacqueline, and then you look her up and it's Jacqueline Benet or whatever. Having that recognizability of who your name is versus I spoke with Jacqueline and who, what was her brand name again? Something with a W, can't remember. It doesn't always hit or land. I know some companies even now where I'm like, what was their, they have numbers in their brand. And I can't remember what numbers they are, so it's harder to search and find them again.

In 2020, early 2021 is when I rebranded to Jacqueline Benet Photography. Part of it was because I was wanting to do more portraiture. I was pushing my portrait side of my business forward more than my wedding side. And while my husband still shoots with me as a second shooter for weddings, I really wanted to do more women's portraiture, so boudoir, maternity, motherhood, and all of that. And so I wanted to rebrand so that I could not only feel more authentic in who I am and the things that I wanted to do and speak directly to the women that I wanted to work with.

But also, my husband wasn't really a part of any of that. He wasn't interested in doing any of the other aspects of the business. He is a great second shooter and loves doing that. But it was me pushing the business forward. So from the business side of things, it made sense to kind of take it over completely.

While he still is there, of course, second shooting and all of that. But it also leveled up my brand in general. Whiskers and Willow was very much a light and airy pastel. Everything's pretty and floral. And Jacqueline Benet is a lot more refined and elevated, and I think it speaks a lot more to the women that I want to work with.

While I was doing that rebrand, I also had to get very clear on who those women were because if you think about it, there's a lot of people out there who like different styles, different things. There's people who you connect with and people who you don't resonate as much with their story or them.

It's getting clear on who are these women who really will resonate with you and your story and also connect with you from a creative standpoint and also from a personal standpoint.

And I think that's helped me stand out and reach those specific people. So that's one thing you want to consider is consider how many clients you actually need here when you think about a saturated market. Especially in the photography sense, there are so many people out there who can just start a photography business. There's no barrier to entry. So of course, it's going to be always saturated and there's always going to be a lot of people. You kind of have to just ignore that, drown out all of those noisy things happening online. And just stay clear on how many clients do you actually need.

Who are those clients? The more niche you can figure out who you're speaking to, I think the better for figuring out how to break through the noise or how to stand out. Because it's those people that you really want to reach and who will resonate with you and your message and your point of view as an artist.

You really don't need thousands of clients a year. You don't need to reach that many people. But you need to be more clear on your brand, your messaging, all of that in order to stand out. Because it's you that's going to make it different from everyone else. It's your backstory, your personality, the things you like to do, the way you approach your business professionally, the way you show up by email, how quickly do you respond to things. All of these things incorporated into your brand and brand messaging will be ways that your specific client will resonate and want to reach out to you.

Work on that. Work on developing your own style. There's a lot of style trends that kind of come and go, especially in the photography space right now. There used to be the light and airy pastel film look, fine art film look for the first seven years of my business. And then around covid times is when people started transitioning and it was also when Fuji film was discontinued, people started transitioning away from that pastel light and airy look.

A lot of people are doing more of a darker, moodier, but still really pretty, edgier look I would say. You could potentially just follow that trend, but then now you're going to mix into all of the other people that are following that trend. And everyone's influenced by everyone. So now you'll have brides who see that look and they want it. So that's the one thing. You could follow that trend and say, I want to capture these brides who want this look. Or maybe you stay true to what you've been doing or develop your own style or do something that's different, that stands out differently, that your ideal clients will be attracted to.

You really need to get clear on that. If your ideal clients love that edgy look, then maybe you need to slowly start transitioning towards that look. If your ideal clients don't, then think about that. But you still need to stay true to yourself and what you love as an artist. The only way to do that really is to play and experiment.

You don't have to show everything that you are shooting, but set up shoots to play around, experiment, try different editing styles, figure it out. It might take time to really solidify your voice and the way that you show up. And it's okay if your brand evolves, your style evolves, that's okay too. But it is important to develop what it is that you stand for, your own style, and stop looking at everyone else. Don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Of course, it's beautiful to support each other, but it can also influence you to the point that now you're showing up in the same ways as everyone else, and now you're contributing to being another person in that sea of saturation.

The more you can stand out, the better. But you have to do it in a way that is clear and aligned with who your clients are.

Networking is incredibly important. Everyone has always said that to me throughout my entire science career, and I think the older I get, the more I understand. Networking isn't necessarily showing up at a networking event, being like, how am I going to talk to these random people? It's building relationships with people. True lasting relationships, real relationships, being around people you want to work with. You don't really know who those people are until you actually meet them.

You could meet some people online and have the online friends that I was talking about. But I think one thing that this past year where I've been dedicating more time to being in person with people and going to conferences and stuff has really helped me understand the power of that because within a 30-second conversation, you feel so much more connected to someone when you've networked and talked to them in person than when you've written them a DM or commented on their post or whatever.

My very first publication in the wedding space was with Magnolia Rouge, which is an international publication. That came about because I decided to go to a floral workshop. It wasn't what you think of if you're in the wedding space today as a floral workshop, but it was a florist who wanted to show people how to do an arrangement.

I signed up. I didn't know that many people in San Diego around that time in the creative industry. I was still doing a lot of the science stuff. I showed up to that. I met one of her friends who did calligraphy, and then we connected in person. We decided to put on a styled shoot together and we banded together and brought all our creative ideas. Someone had brought their wedding dress, we got stuff out of our houses like chairs and tables, our florist made the flowers, her friend was our model as a bride. We were scrappy. We just did it because it was fun and creative.

We ended up actually getting published in Magnolia Rouge, which was amazing. I also have a shot from that styled shoot that was recognized at the San Diego fair where they have the photography section. You can submit art to the fairgrounds and they'll have exhibits about different photo pieces and all sorts of genres. It's hard to get into, and I actually got one of my photos from that shoot recognized there and that's amazing. That was my very first foray. The only way that it came about was because I went to an in-person workshop. It was just a class on how to arrange flowers, and I met people there.

You never know what kind of opportunities will come up when you say yes to certain things. The more we can be in person, actually the better. I loved working from home and being behind my camera at my desk and doing things virtually, but the power of in person really can't be beat.

That is my encouragement to you, that you should get out there and network and find your next opportunities and just be open to whatever may come from that. It might not even be what you're thinking it will be. You're not going there to ask for business. You're just being open to who you meet and what kinds of opportunities might come your way.

The last thing is really figuring out who your ideal client is. As I mentioned before, my rebrand was really pivotal and for me to stand out more amongst the sea of people. I still have a lot of work to do there, I think. Obviously, there's tons and tons of people out there. I am not the most prolific photographer, shooting lots of weddings per year, and I don't have a ton of shoots to even share, but I keep putting myself out there as much as I can and slowly growing over time, building those relationships and being very clear on who it is that I want to work with and who I'm speaking to.

I actually had to do a lot of self-reflection to figure out even who I am and what I stand for, my values, and who resonates with those things. Who am I so that I could talk to clients who might feel similarly. Once I got more clear on myself, it was much easier to figure out who my ideal client was.

Hopefully, that's all very helpful for you as you're thinking about breaking out of a saturated market and standing out among a sea of everyone doing the same things. Again, you don't need a thousand clients a year. You really just need to find those clients that resonate with you and your point of view and your messaging and getting clear on that — that's going to serve you well.

You don't have to be the top photographer in your area. You don't have to get a ton of awards. You can have a really solid business. You could even do it — I've heard of people doing it — just all word of mouth. You can do it just by networking, building relationships, and you don't have to be doing TikTok dances to get there.

Hopefully that's helpful and I will see you guys next time. Thanks.

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