Boost Your Visibility | Grow Your Business with Brenda Eckhardt
Resource for creative entrepreneurs seeking to grow their product or service-based businesses while prioritizing family and well-being. Hosted by Brenda Eckhardt, a successful photographer and brand strategist, this podcast offers the latest strategies and how-to's to increase online visibility, work smarter, avoid burnout, and find inspiration for both professional and personal growth.
Boost Your Visibility | Grow Your Business with Brenda Eckhardt
How To Build a Photography Business in 2025: What I Did vs. What I'd Do
Ever wonder what it really takes to build a thriving photography business in today’s fast-paced world? Everyone has a camera, and this career is not for the faint of heart. Looking back at my 20-year journey, I’ve managed to evolve, scale, and continuously bridge the gap between how I started my business and how I’d do it if starting from scratch 2025. In this episode, I get real about the steps I took back then—the wins, the mistakes, and everything in between—and compare them to the strategies I’d use today to launch and grow a successful photography and marketing business in 2024.
From learning to adapt to social media trends to building lasting client relationships, I’ll share the lessons that have shaped my approach to entrepreneurship. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your current strategy, this episode is packed with actionable tips to help you navigate today’s business landscape.
Stay tuned as I uncover the strategies that have helped build my successful photography business. From leveraging the power of Google reviews to maintaining consistent branding and engaging effectively on social media, I’ve learned the importance of adapting to trends and client preferences. Discover the significance of genuine five-star reviews and the evolving nature of social media engagement, especially among high school seniors. By understanding these dynamics, I’ve managed to connect better with clients and maintain a balance between professional success and personal fulfillment. I invite you to engage with our conversation further, and your feedback is invaluable as we continue on this journey together.
Let’s dive into the evolution of business-building together, and as always, I’d love to hear how you’re applying these insights to your own journey. Because sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come when we reimagine what’s possible. #entrepreneurjourney #smallbusinesssuccess #photographerlife #marketingstrategies #businessgrowth
Please give a thumbs-up & subscribe!
===
Free Guide
===
Instagram
My business really exploded with senior photography.
Speaker 1:Then I discovered the power of five-star reviews. Welcome to another episode of Boost your Visibility. Today we're gonna talk about how to grow your business, how I grew my business and what I would do differently. So my main core of my business is photography.
Speaker 1:I started out as a newborn photographer. I knew no one in the town that I am in. Now we moved from many miles away and we had young kids and this was just something that helped me to replace my radiology career so that I could be home with my kids and have a lot of flexibility. So what I did to grow my business was because I worked with newborns in the beginning. I worked with newborns in the beginning. It was mostly just getting out there with my kids and meeting people and forcing this extreme introverted nature that I have to get out and meet people. It's very, very hard for me. I am not an extrovert by any means and it was very good for my kids that I got out and, you know, took them to play groups and different activities and met other moms who, of course, saw me with my camera and I would take pictures just for fun and share them and, naturally, without me asking or pushing it. People would ask me hey, could you just take some pictures of my family? And that grew into family photography, pictures of my family and that grew into family photography. Well, it wasn't long before someone that was a newborn client it was her second marriage. She also had a high school senior and she asked me if I would take her daughter's senior pictures. And I'm like whoa, that is a totally different thing that I am not qualified for. I was young and new and still new and a little nervous doing newborn photography and I'm like I cannot do it. And she really talked me into it. She's like I love what you did for my baby and now I would like for you to take senior pictures of my daughter. I just feel like you're easy to be around and that really is a key is just really being myself, being yourself and being super authentic and real with people and they're just naturally attracted to working with you. So that started the whole growth of my business. My business really exploded with senior photography.
Speaker 1:I never would have thought, because for the first two or three years that I was working with seniors I would say you know, I'm a newborn photographer. I just I don't do senior pictures, but because you know Tawny, who was my first senior, I'll do your pictures too. And I kept saying that over and over. And after two or three years, I'm like well, I guess I take senior pictures. Now, two or three years, I'm like, well, I guess I take senior pictures. Now I have this whole portfolio and I was still learning and I was willing to make mistakes and learn.
Speaker 1:And then I got to know the idea of a spokesmodel program. Now, I don't know that that would work in this current time, because in order to have a spokesmodel program that works, you really need to have representation of people from very different groups, and there's a lot of heated debate about what that would mean. And for me at the time I just thought, like a high schooler, I'm like, okay, so I want someone that's like the president of the chess club. I would like someone that's in cheer. I would love to have somebody that's more of a book the chess club, I would like someone that's in cheer. I would love to have somebody that's more of a book reader, introvert, like myself, just a really balanced group of people.
Speaker 1:And I started out by only having four. It was twin boys that played football, and then two girls that one had a horse and the other didn't really have an activity outside of school, but she was just up for pretty pictures. And that's what we did. And that Caveat was in order for them to get quite a discount on senior pictures. They had to share those pictures on social media and they did. And at that time that's when Facebook was in its prime, but it still, to this day, works on Instagram. I don't use a spokesmodel program anymore, but I do find very creative ways to encourage my seniors to share their pictures and I'm going to get into that. But the spokes model program was huge for me. That grew into a revenue generator in and of itself. The last year that I had done it was 2020, 2019 to 2020. And I had 20 spokesels.
Speaker 1:So they received six mini sessions from March of their junior year all the way through senior year, and together they helped to decide what the themes were, and by themes it was mostly locations, so it was whatever was cool at the time. We did the sunflower field for one. We did winter, of course, you know, with hats, mittens, you know, cute coats, whatever. We did the carnival, where we went really early to our local carnival and they sat on the rides and like, brought cotton candy and just did more themed pictures and then at the end, the last two mini sessions were just done by themselves, not in a group setting, with all the other spokesmodels. Then their family pictures that was a part. They got a lot for that money and a lot for that time. During that time they were posting on Instagram and tagging me. It worked, it was powerful.
Speaker 1:Then COVID happened and changed everything. It worked and it was powerful. And then COVID happened and changed everything and it was. I'm not glad COVID happened, but it was a way of me being able to release that because I was not in grow mode anymore and it wasn't necessary. I just really loved working with those seniors, getting to know them during, you know, six sessions. There's nothing like that because by the time we got to their own unique session and toward the end of the experience usually July of their senior year I just really knew them. I knew the angles they liked, I knew their style and we just really understood each other and the pictures were always amazing. As a result, we were just so comfortable with each other and it was fun and we laughed a lot, so the spokesmodel program was huge.
Speaker 1:Then I discovered the power of five-star reviews. Now, if I were to do one thing right now, in 2024, 2025, if I were brand new, what I would focus on is having a website that has good wording, that talks to Google with a lot of local wording meaning Madison, wisconsin senior pictures, verona, wisconsin senior photographer, that kind of thing but have it in very natural wording on the website and I would focus on five-star reviews because people do search Google. They also now have connected Bing to ChatGPT, which people are replacing Google searches with. Often they're going to ChatGPT and asking either verbally or typing in, who's the best landscaper in Chicago? And what comes up the listings on Bing. Well, if you go into Google Business, you can connect to Bing and whenever you make a change on Google Business, it automatically updates on Bing. So you can see the power of understanding social media or online organic marketing, and that became a passion for me Once I started to see that Google really changed the game, because I was one of three photographers when I first started out in my area.
Speaker 1:There were only three real photographers and I don't even know that I was real, but I got to see the beginning of the real usefulness of Google in business and the beginning of Facebook and Instagram, and it's been fun to watch how that use changed and how it grows every day. It's totally different now and again. I'll talk about that in a minute here. So spokesmodel program Google reviews. I also did a lot of volunteering at our high school. I didn't just show up at games like the creeper with a camera. I would contact coaches and say, hey, I'm a photographer you probably had never heard of me, but trying to grow my business. If there's ever an opportunity to do either free pictures at a game or at a practice just for fun, or taking pictures for their senior banners, I'm all for it. I did it all for free because I should have been charging at certain points, but the amount, the volume of people that came to me because they knew me and they saw me out on the sidelines or at a basketball game or at a dance recital with my camera, I just became that person that everybody goes to.
Speaker 1:And that spokesmodel program showing up for everything possible within the high school and my daughter's dance studio was huge and just getting to be. You know, being good to people goes so so far. But as all those things were happening, as I was really working extremely hard to make all of those things happen, I was making sure I was asking for Google reviews every single time. When someone would say we're so grateful, we love your work, I would say the biggest compliment you can give me is a five-star review. The biggest compliment you can give me is a five-star review.
Speaker 1:If I were to start over again website Google business like get that, set up your Google business and ask for five-star reviews from everybody you can. Don't ask your mom and your cousins and don't have friends do it for no reason. Google is picking up on all that stuff. It needs to be real people that give thoughtful reviews. Please search my name online, actually Search Brenda Eckhart, and read the reviews that people have given. And it's not again me being braggy McBragerson's. There is power in really being real with people and just caring about people, and Google reviews really made a huge difference for my business and I look at my Google reviews as my literal legacy for my kids, my grandkids. For them. They'll be there forever and they can read that and see that what I did mattered to someone Super important and I know I take things very seriously, but that comes with success too right, like I actually really care, and I know that you actually really care about whatever it is that you're trying to build, so I would get a website set up, I would get Google reviews going and, of course, be on all the platforms with the same exact name. Don't change it. Don't have slightly different names per platform, like TikTok is your own name and then your Instagram is your business name. Don't do that. Have it all be the same thing and I always recommend using your name that's searchable and don't you want to build like a real business where people actually feel like they know you and they can like you're the person to go to. So if I were rebuilding now on Instagram, let's just use that as an example.
Speaker 1:The days are gone of high school seniors or families tagging their photographer. The loyalty isn't there, even if they adore you and you're their person. I have customers that have come to me every year for the last 20 years that still have not liked my Facebook page or followed me on Instagram, and the reason and I've asked why because I keep inviting them or I keep, you know, bringing it up at their session each year. Like as a joke, like why aren't you following me? Why are you not following me on Instagram? I want to post your pictures. They're private.
Speaker 1:People are very, very private and they don't want to look like they're flaunting anything. A lot of people don't want everybody knowing their business or who they use as a service provider of any kind. People are very, very private and that includes high school seniors. They will never be the first to post their senior pictures. They usually like it if I post and tag them, because that is not as in the face of their followers, if that makes sense, like it's a compliment to them that their photographer posted their pictures, and then usually they'll share it to their stories. And that's the first, the first step, like the first baby step. That helps them to feel less awkward about sharing their senior pictures. So that's usually done.
Speaker 1:You know, senior pictures are taken June to October. So usually in June, july, august they're being tagged by their photographers. If their photographers know how to squeeze social media for all it's worth, for free, like Instagram, like I do, they tag their clients. So these seniors then share it to their stories and then usually in September, senior Pictures Sunday starts, where high school seniors use the hashtag SPS as a thing, or even as a caption, and they'll post like a series of three senior pictures that are all very, very similar same outfit, same location and they mind you have a hundred other senior pictures that they could post, but they are not going to blast them all out there like seniors did in 2018, 2010. They're not going to put a whole album up. They're curating their content just like we business owners do, and some of the things that they do is so cool, like one senior picture and you slide in its's. Next it's a baby picture and then they have a really cute caption of we did it, you know, like graduation. Who would have thought this little girl would be in, you know, in this off whatever. That's a lame example, but you get the idea. They're just so awesome with their curation of how they post and, as marketers, I can tell you that businesses will need to be doing that in a year.
Speaker 1:Thoughtfulness like that and the curation of a post sounds like a lot of work. It's really not. It's just really paying attention to what is coming in social media and authenticity is coming in social media for next year. Curation, but not overdone, not obnoxious. So that's pretty much how I started my business. I mean, there was a heck of a lot of work. I made sure that I was available to my kids number one, but if they were in school, I was working and when I saw that the bus was coming down the road, I locked the studio and went in the house and made supper with them and did homework. So now was I always here.
Speaker 1:No, things got really busy and really crazy for a while and I had to reel it back in, because it's easy to get sort of addicted to knowing you're the person that everybody wants to go to for senior pictures and getting caught up in that. I'm no longer caught up in that. I'm probably not even that person anymore, which is amazing. This is my favorite part of my career right now, because I don't have to care, I don't need to be everybody's everything and I do this because I love it. I could easily be done with photography, but I feel like senior pictures are like a part of my soul. Maybe I'm stunted as a 16 year old, I don't know, but I learned so much about marketing from them that it's insane. I don't script these podcasts. I try to keep it as real as I can and I'm really trying to reflect on on how I grew my business and really it was just getting involved in my community and for me it wasn't necessarily like downtown business groups or networking groups or anything like that. I tried that. That's not me. I am not a social person, I'm a one-on-one person. You put me one-on-one with anybody and usually we end up being like amazing friends for a really long time, if not forever, but you put me in a room full of people and I feel like I want to die. So, yeah, I hope this gives some background on how I grew my business.
Speaker 1:I mean, obviously, leveraging organic marketing was huge and keeping up with the growth of Instagram, facebook, now TikTok and finding ways to leverage. I'm still kind of on the bench with TikTok. That doesn't mean that I'm not using it or going to use it. I'm just not going to jump in until I fully understand where my if my people are there and how they want to receive the information there, because I need to kind of detox from the Instagram aesthetic thing of 2020. You know what I mean? Like everybody had their perfect feed and I had to buy into all that because that's what people wanted, even from businesses.
Speaker 1:And now I feel like in a lot of ways I'm sort of dumbing down. Even though I have professional pictures you know, professional videos, reels for, like, if I'm working with a remodeler and making these incredible reels, I'm still trying to figure out how can I really talk about that on TikTok and not make it look too over produced. That makes sense. It's hard to be an artist on something like TikTok because people want to be sitting in the front seat of their car, they want to feel like they're talking to you face to face, like this, and they don't really want to see perfect. They want to see real and raw. So I have a list of conversations that I'm looking to start on TikTok when I'm ready.
Speaker 1:I'm just not quite ready and I have a lot of other things I'm doing. I'm creating a course. I have something that could really help you. If you're and I'm not trying to hard sell this and just telling you what I've created and if you want it, great, and if you don't, that's okay I created the five-star formula, which helps you to know how to ask for five-star reviews, how to time your ask, what exactly to say and how to respond to five-star reviews so that you can get your digital footprint really started. That would be a number one first thing I would do if you ever wanted to work with me. Before you do anything, I would buy the five-star formula, use it it's not expensive and implement it into your business. Figure out how you can make it a part of your process so that you can get those five-star reviews rolling in. You can't just ask 20 people in an email for five-star reviews and expect success. Not to mention, google is now shutting down Google business accounts people that get more than a few reviews within a week, so that's a big, big no-no. But the good thing to do is to get your reviews rolling organically and that will really help you to grow naturally in your business.
Speaker 1:Now, thinking from a photographer perspective, because I know a lot of photographers listen to this podcast we're going into a quieter season and this is typically when I go through and make a list of what worked well for me and what didn't and I start to fix those things that need to be fixed and plan for the spring and it's natural to convince yourself, pretty much from March to June, that you're going out of business. Nobody cares, you're irrelevant, you're. You know, nobody wants your work, it's out of style. All the things that artists have go through their mind when there's no work to be had, because it's just seasonal. And then July 4th comes and goes and you wonder why you ever thought that and wish that somebody would turn the faucet down a little bit. So there's a natural dance to how the season goes, and I'm sure that's the case with any business, and that's just the part of the fun, right? It keeps us on our toes and keeps us growing.
Speaker 1:So I hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you have questions. I would love it if you subscribed or hit the like button on my podcast. If you're on iTunes, I would love it if you gave a review. I appreciate you being here and I'm always here if you have questions, and I look forward to talking to you on the next episode.
