Tay Lee Photography

Hello, sweet readers. My, have I got news for you. Buckle up - it's gonna be a long post of awesomeness. :)

Before the news, you must have some back story. Recently, I resigned from my full time office job so I could fully invest my heart and soul into Tay Lee Photography. Having 40 more hours a week to throw into your business really makes a difference (who'da thunk it, right?).

So, last week and this week, I've been in learning mode: "How can I make my business better?". I have been watching some online courses from the wonderful CreativeLIVE.com. If you're an artist (especially a photographer) and enjoy learning, you should totally check out CreativeLIVE.com. It's AMAZING.

It works like this: CreativeLIVE hosts these real-life classes (usually about 3 days long) on all kinds of subjects - fine art photography, marketing, sales, pet photography, etc - in real-life classrooms with real-life students. The instructors are always these amazing, award-winning, ridiculously talented and smart people and you can't believe you get to listen to them speak. And here's where it gets more awesome - you get to watch a live streaming video of the class... for free. That's right. Free. You sign up and make a free account with CreativeLIVE and then you get emails sent to you that say things like, "Oh, hey. This awesome supernaturally intelligent alien is teaching this amazing class that you would die to be in. Click on this link to go watch it live for the whopping price of zero dollars." Holy. Moley. *clickclickclickclickCLICKCLICKCLICK*

Now, I could never take advantage of this awesomeness before when I had my day job. It's a little difficult for me to watch a live streaming class and pay attention and takes notes and all that when my boss wanted me to do actual work. Some people can have things on in the background, like a radio, while they're working, and I get that. Music in the background I can do. Someone talking to me in the background.. I can't do that. I would have just stopped working and listened to the course. Lol.

But NOW... yes, now, I can watch and learn. And boy, have I learned. I've watched 2 courses that have succeeded in changing my entire view on my work, where I am with my business, and where I want to go with my business. The first was a course by the unbelievable photographic artist, Brooke Shaden (you should totally Google her), whom inspired me to always be inspired by my work and to do work that means something to me on a deep level. And the second was by marketing guru Michael Port (you should Google him too - especially if you have your own small business) where he was teaching the unbelievable amazingness of his book "Book Yourself Solid". I bought the illustrated version because I couldn't NOT buy it after listening to him rock my world for 3 days straight. I feel simultaneously inspired, excited, and overwhelmed with ideas. (This is where I tell you the news I have.)

One of the major, major things, that Michael Port teaches is that, when first starting out in your business, you need to have a narrow target market. "WHUUU?", you say? "That's contrary to common thinking! You're supposed to be as broad as possible when you start out!" I know. That's what I thought too. When you start out in your own business, you think you should say 'yes' to EVERYTHING. Every offer, every opportunity, every possibility, every job. You feel like you need to take every chance you get because you need to make money and build your business, right? Wrong, says Michael Port. He says you need to have a niche. Here's an excerpt from his book that helps explain this crazy talk:

"Think of narrowing your market this way: which would you rather be - a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? It's much easier to carve out a very lucrative domain for yourself once you've identified a specific market. And once you're a big fish in a small pond, you'll get more invitations than you can handle to swim in other ponds."

Wow.

So then my thought process changed. And I started thinking... Ok.. what would my target market be? What would my niche be? My niche needs to be something that inspires me, because as both Brooke Shaden AND Michael Port said in their classes, you do your best work when you are inspired. So what would it be? What always inspires me?

Without fail, I have always been inspired by nature. Every time I have painted or drawn, since I was a child, it has been of nature - trees, the forest at night, branches, animals, etc. When I try, I seriously can not think of one instance where a piece of art I made didn’t include nature of some kind. It’s actually kind of ridiculous. Lol. But how will that be reflected in my photography?

So here’s another thing I’ve always been passionate about: helping women feel beautiful. Women are so much harder on themselves than men or children are on themselves. I want to help women feel beautiful in a natural way and to know that their beauty comes from within and that gives strength. Women in particular put so much of our own self worth and self value in the hands of others - in our relationships, in our friends and family, etc. I want to give women something beautiful, magical, and special that they can treasure forever and can pamper themselves with. Something they can look at and say, ‘Wow.. I am beautiful.‘

And therefore, the idea of my photography niche being beautiful, mysterious, and almost fantasy-like artistic images of women in enchanted forest/’Secret Garden’-like nature settings is born. I don’t have everything worked out yet - of course - and I have some shooting to do so I can build this portfolio up, but I have a strong idea in mind and I’m excited to run with that idea and let it consume me.

I’ve been working on the details: a new website ‘look’, a new blog 'look', a revised logo design, a new pricing structure, photography collections/packages (adolescent/teenage women, young women, bridal, maternity, woman and baby, etc... but always about women in nature, wearing very natural, flowy things [yes, I’m working on building a wardrobe], and giving women something beautiful, magical, and special), gift certificates (so you can give a gift to pamper a special woman in your life), and all that jazz. I will be dedicating much more time to each session with planning and collaborating with the client’s ideas to make it more personal and special for them. I was thinking of having my clients tell me their favorite quote - one that means something special to them and their life - and building a shoot ‘theme’ around that message/quote. (I’m having a lot of thoughts lately, can you tell?)

All in all, I can see the path Tay Lee Photography is turning down and I’m so giddy to see what walking this road will bring. For my current clients who have the most adorable little ones that I’ve taken photos of before (and believe you me - my clients have THE cutest kids ever), I’m not turning away from you or abandoning you. :) I love you all so much and will always be here for you. I’m just adjusting my focus as far as marketing and ‘target’ is concerned. <3

If you’re a woman reading this, leave a comment and tell me what you think about this idea. Would you like to do this? What would your quote/‘theme’ be for your shoot?

Hey look! You made it to the end! Go, you! ;)

Here are some links that pertain to all of that information up there. Just in case you wanna go have a looksee.

www.creativelive.com

www.michaelport.com

http://brookeshaden.com/gallery/

Thank you everyone!

Love,

Tay