The Wedding CEO: Photography Podcast

199. Rebrand Series: Behind the Styling of a Brand

Alora Rachelle Episode 199

In this episode of the rebrand series, Alora discusses planning photo shoots, working with a personal stylist, and the importance of mindset for success. 

00:00 Introduction to the Rebrand Series
00:22 Challenges of a Brand Session
01:12 Excitement for the Rebrand Launch
01:19 Student Success Stories
01:49 Planning Phase Two of the Program
02:39 Visualizing the Future
03:14 Building Partnerships
03:48 Reflecting on the Program's Success
04:23 Upcoming Pricing and Mindset Series
04:51 The Importance of Mindset
08:33 Balancing Art and Business
09:47 Engaging with the Audience
11:47 Conclusion and Future Plans

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Hello and welcome back to the rebrand series. This week is gonna be the brand session, which will eliminate about 90% of my stress to be honest with you. I thought that I was a stylist in my own right. I considered myself pretty easily put together. I can pretty much look at some basics. I had a statement piece and be like, yep, this is an outfit. I look great. I look put together. But when you are doing a photo shoot and you're taking that like up a notch of I don't know, to a hundred percent higher, it becomes a little bit more complicated, a little more detailed, and then coming up with poses and prompts and hiring people for this and hiring people for that. I cannot wait till Friday and this gonna be all over with. But I'm also just as excited because it has. I've done brand sessions for years. I've gotten them done. I've done them like it's no brainer. But being behind the camera does hit different and I'm sure every photographer out there can agree with me. Being on the other side is not necessarily the most fun thing we could ever do. It's something we don't prefer and that's why we're behind the camera essentially. But I think for me, it'll be good. And I'm pretty good at posing, so hopefully this just goes pretty well. In the meantime, we are wrapping things up and getting ready to go for this rebrand launch, and I'm really excited. I just got my case studies from all of my incredible students, my top 10 delivered and just like looking at their journey, looking at what they were pricing versus what they're priced now. Like data. I'm talking like to the cent, to the dime. Versus looking at a big spreadsheet, which I use Airtable and Airtable just say, oh, this person submitted this win. They submitted this win. This is how much they've made. Being like, Hey, this is what they charged when they came. This is what they're charging now. This is how much they made in a year. This is how much they've made when they renewed. And she just gave me a huge idea for creating a phase two for this program because I've been very hesitant. I've been like, okay, let's just focus on the main goal. But when you have more students hitting the promise, they're probably thinking, okay, what's next? Yes, they re-enroll because everybody loves the community. I have to say, I'm really good at cultivating a community as quoted by my friend Noella, but I just, I don't think community is enough reason to stay. There needs to be another goal attached to it, and so really excited to. Help photographers raise their prices, and then phase two can be focused on them booking 10 K weddings, and that is going to be invite only. And I am really excited for making this. Phase two and figuring out what that looks like. I am mapping out what circle is gonna look like. I just mapped it out yesterday, freehand, when my kids went to sleep and my husband went to the gym. I said, what do you know? I have all this time to myself, so let me map out what this is gonna look like. And I'm a visualist, like if you talk to me, all I hear and see are words. But if you show it to me, I'm all in. I'm ahead. I skipped ahead. Like I just, I do better with. With pictures and drawings and go figure. My daughter does pictures and drawings every single day, so we're in the same camp here and just looking at how we're gonna lay it out. And the partners that I have met in WPPI were just, it was so incredible, getting to meet everybody at the Visco party and this party and that party, and now we are getting those partnerships up and coming. I already have seven. Partnerships, that the alumni will get exclusive access to, discounts, trainings, exclusivity. It's just gonna be incredible. I, every day, every single day, I'm thinking about this program and I think it makes the anticipation. That much longer, but I don't know. I just, I love what I do and I'm glad that the one thing that I launched blindly back in 2022 is becoming the statement program in the industry. I know it already is, and I just cannot wait to welcome everybody in, and my goal is to have a hundred girls in this program. I know it's crazy and it's audacious, but that's what I want. I want a hundred women, making money while on maternity leave, growing a business with babies while traveling, all those things. It is just amazing what they have been able to achieve already and I'm just ready to dial it up. I really am. So if you didn't listen to my previous episode, I'm gonna be working on a price a pricing and mindset series, which. So excited because I have been getting so many questions about mindset and you guys specifically wanted a mindset series. I didn't know, listen, here's the thing. Caveat. I thought that people thought mindset was like woo, or just too flighty or yeah, I guess you can say that. Sure. Believe in yourself. I didn't think people really knew That mindset is like one of the biggest secrets to success. And I've known this, however, that is the only reason I have been able to scale my business, triple my prices. It was all from mindset. But you like also have to go through something in your life that brings you to this point where you're faced to make a decision being like, am I gonna stay here and complain or am I gonna take a blind decision? That could possibly be the biggest roadmap to my business success, and to be quite honest with you, like most businesses quit in the first year and most don't even make it past three years. If you're at four to five years, you're already an anomaly. Like why not take it to the next level? Like why not dial it up and see what we can do? Because at that point, you've already done all the hard work, right? You've already been wandering aimlessly and now you're ready for the direction, the strategy. You know that you're capable of hard things. You've done hard things. So let's take that and scale it and work less and make more. That is my motto in life. If I could make any merch, it would be work less, make more work hard, rest later, picture me in my poo bear vibes, but also working as hard as ticker to become poo bear. So what am I working on this week after the brand shoot is done on Friday? Which I guess at the time of this being published, it should be the next day. I am going to be working on my website and I honestly have an idea of how I want to look. The brand is finished, the brand photos will soon be done. And now it's time to put everything together and come up with this gorgeous website that I have dreamt so many nights about. And seeing how it all comes together is gonna be the best part. So can't wait for that. We are going to be having some of my new alumni who've actually just enrolled like a month ago that have already gotten crazy results. I'm talking like book their brand new highest package at their new prices and. Booked a five figure wedding and also an alumni who went from charging average prices to launching into the mid luxury and networking with planners. She said she was gonna do it. And she did. And so I just can't wait to bring them on here so they can share their stories. But yeah, I don't know. So for this shoot, I think the shoot has honestly been my biggest time suck is like buying clothes here and there and everywhere. And I, I almost feel. Like hiring a personal stylist has now helped me change the way that I dress and put outfits together. Like I'm, I, like I said, I thought I was good at what I was doing, but I feel very, just much more confident and like her hyping me up and her telling me what to do, Hey, I wore this'cause I was thinking about you. I was like, wait a minute, this is not just an outfit, this is a lifestyle. This is a lifestyle and I should just own it. I feel like for a long time I have held myself back and I'm only talking about this because I actually got off a one-on-one strategy call with a student. I. And I was, we were going over her brand personality and she was just like I just don't think it makes sense to share this because why should people care? And I'm like, they care because they followed you. Of course they care. Why would someone follow you on Instagram if they don't care about you and what you have to post and what you have to offer? And it's just that simple mindset shift there is like. Why do we de by default think that people don't care about us on, but they're following us, but they're hanging on for the ride, but they're signed up for our things. They're dialed in, they're commenting. Do you think that they're just posting it to be nice? It is just interesting how the mind of an artist can really be blocked from having the CEO mindset. It just, it really does blow my mind. Always does. And I am gonna have a series about from artists to CEO and like the difference and why I feel like sometimes artists can be terrible business owners and I can say that. I can say it'cause one, I have the proof, and two, I remember I started off as an artist first, but once you figure out the business, it'll come. But it's because they don't know how to run a business. They were an artist first. It's oh, you create good art and your art speaks for itself. You don't have to do anything else. And it's like wrong. If you wanna stay in business, you need to know how to run a business. It all goes hand in hand. But anyway, back to my point of like me always holding back from what I thought my style should be and feel like. Everything needs to be relatable because if you present as too bold, too no-nonsense, too confident, too effortless that you just won't be relatable. And the biggest thing I think, at least for me is I want to still be seen as a person. Like I, I don't want to be somebody that's unapproachable, that's too serious. I laugh at everything and I laugh really hard. Honestly, it's something that I just, even if I tried, I don't think I can ever change it like I say it all the time, but I'm seriously unserious. I'm serious about my business. I'm serious about getting stuff done. But everything else not serious. But that's my life. That's me. Sometimes type A and sometimes severely type B. So you guys voted on Instagram? Actually, let me pull up my phone right now. You guys voted on Instagram'cause I was like, Hey, you guys asked for this mindset series. What do you think should be the first episode? And what do you know? You guys actually picked how to finally get over yourself. I was like, I don't think I should put this because this is very spicy. I know people get offended, but you guys are not offended. You're like, give it to me. I wanna get over myself. I gotta get it together. This is the year, this is your year because I'm recording it right after this episode. I cannot wait. Because I wanna be your mindset business bestie in your back pocket. Be like, will you just do the thing? I love you so much. Bye. So second place, actually tied for second place is no one cares that you're busy and how journaling leads to creative strategy. And then the last is how to go from artist to business owner. Apparently you guys don't care. Like you're like, let me be an artist or let me just be the business owner. I get it. But the how to get over yourself. I will be forever crying about this I don't know. Should that be a sweatshirt as well? I don't know. Maybe. So a lot of good things coming up and then you should have already listened, but it went live. My take on the pricing dead zone and like how to avoid it, I, it's pretty much a mini masterclass. It was a training in the wedding, CEO version two. I think this is gonna be our fifth. Change like our curriculum overhaul. And I love changing curriculum because things change, strategies change, the industry changes, and so it just makes sense to refresh every year or so and freshen up on your strategies, making sure everything is like perfectly relatable to the year that people are applying this, right? And so number two, why no one is booking your highest packages. And then of course some more mindset series and why I think artists can be terrible business owners. A lot of spicy topics, and I hope you love them as much as I do, and apparently you do because you want to learn how to get over yourself this year. And we're gonna help you do it. All right guys, this is it for my rebrand series. I don't even know if this was basically just all Laura yapping away. Can we just call this that episode because we'll see what AI comes up with. But anyway, thank you guys for hanging out with me and listening to these podcasts. Can I just be so for real, the series has had the most downloads. Do you guys not care about my. Miss tips. Tell me all the juicy tea. Tell me what you're working on. I would've been launching these like years ago. Are you kidding me? You guys are blowing me away with the stats on these episodes. Blown away. And I think I'm gonna be even more blown away when this mindset series goes live because we're doing it. We're diving all in. No nonsense. For real. Maybe I should call this series Be so for real. I think I should do it. Oh, I don't know guys. I might put it in the Instagram, but I think I'm just gonna do it. Okay. Anyway, I'll see you in the next episode. Have an amazing week. Bye.

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