August 21, 2025 • 31 mins
Julie's brand new Big Gorgeous Goals: Official Workbook can be ordered now!
Jennifer Yeh, COO of Shoott, transformed her startup photography business from $800K to over $10M in revenue in just six years by expertly connecting photographers with busy families. She shares her journey of pivoting from targeting influencers to serving moms, navigating major challenges like iOS privacy changes, and maintaining company values while scaling across 60 cities.
Jennifer Yeh is the co-founder and COO of Shoott, a female-led startup revolutionizing access to professional photography across 60+ cities. With over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, operations, and creative problem-solving, she specializes in streamlining processes and driving growth. Jennifer’s leadership has helped Shoott scale from $800K to over $10 million in annual revenue while maintaining a lean, efficient team. Passionate about innovation and lifelong learning, she combines her expertise in the performing arts, economics, technology, and marketing to help organizations do more with less and turn challenges into opportunities.
You can connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.
You can also learn more about Shoott on their website, LinkedIn or Instagram.
You can connect with Julie on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Find Julie's writing at her blog or by ordering her book Big Gorgeous Goals and the brand new official companion workbook!
What did you think of this conversation? We'd love if you'd rate or review our show!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
FIGURE 8 UPDATE
Hello listeners, thank you for your continued support and interest in my show. You may have noticed that Figure 8 is on a little hiatus right now, please enjoy the catalogue of episodes we have built up for you!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Julie (00:04):
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book BigGorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure 8.
(01:07):
Today I am in conversation withJennifer Yeh, and Jennifer is
in charge of a reallyinteresting business called
Shoott and prior to that, she'sdone a whole lot of really
interesting and diverse things,like creating a children's
clothing line, freelancing as abrand manager for local small
businesses, procuring bids withFortune 500 companies, and so a
(01:31):
real range, and I think thatleads to such interesting and
rich stories.
Her current startup you knowshe's led them from the early
days to over 9 million ofrevenue in just five years.
So amazing progress and how yougrow a business, make it
(01:52):
profitable and scale up.
Lots of stories there and I'msuper interested to chat with
her today, so welcome Jennifer.
Jennifer (02:00):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Julie (02:02):
Yeah, thanks for joining me.
I'm so interested in yourjourney because my own path has
been very eclectic and I thinkit makes it so interesting what
you get to tackle and why and Imean how would you say you think
that's helped you.
Jennifer (02:17):
Yeah.
So I think the benefit ofhaving I like your term eclectic
because it definitely is I likeyour term eclectic because it
definitely is is that I think itgives you a lot of breadth of
experience and different kind ofexperience, so that when you do
go into a new situation for me,especially going into shoot as
a COO it gives you a differentperspective than maybe what
(02:40):
other people may have.
And I think a lot of timesthat's good, because it really
helps with innovation andhelping to see things from not
just everybody else'sperspective but from something
new that oftentimes will enableus to solve a problem in a way
that we haven't thought ofbefore.
And that is really goodsometimes because it helps us
(03:03):
not get stuck in the rut oftrying things that everybody
else has tried but maybe hasn'tworked so well.
For example, you know we canthink of more creative ways of
going about something and thenget around it faster and more
efficiently, right.
Julie (03:18):
Well, and it is interesting because, you know,
I've seen in my experience wherepeople who can be successful in
some of those Fortune 500companies cannot always
translate down to somethingthat's very tiny.
Jennifer (03:32):
Yes, you have to be really nimble with the way you
think right, because everysituation is different and I
think when you're so used topivoting a lot or doing a lot of
different things, you learn topick up context a lot faster,
because you have to, and thenyou're not stuck in one mode of
thinking Like it's just it'seasier to, I think, learn, learn
new things, because you'realways doing new things.
(03:54):
Yeah.
Julie (03:55):
Yes, well, and it strikes me that like that, learning new
things and doing new thingsreally kind of has characterized
you, that you don't stop moving, you're always.
You know, your hands are alwaysin something and you're always
doing something different.
Jennifer (04:08):
Yeah, for sure.
I thi nk one of the things thatreally drive me and motivate me
is curiosity and doing lots ofdifferent things, and even now,
in my position, having to wearso many different hats uh,
continues to kind of feed mymotor to there's something new
to learn right and something newto master, and yeah,
Julie (04:28):
Yeah, and like how did you then come in sort of 2018,
how did you come to shoot andhow did you, you know, it's such
an interesting business.
I think, um, you know, and Imean beautiful photography is
something people want,especially when they have
important moments in their livesor children or those kinds of
(04:48):
things.
They want to document thosemoments.
Jennifer (04:50):
Yeah for sure.
So actually in 2018, at thebeginning part of it, I was
still working in corporateAmerica founder had another
co-founder that she met and theywere like hey, let's start a
photography company that canboth benefit you know, everyday
people consumers, but alsophotographers and helping them
(05:12):
have a much better gig lifebalance to be able to do what
they love.
And as they were talking aboutit and started kind of trying
new things, they were like wereally need somebody, like a
third person who, you know, canhelp think for us, who can help
execute and do all that stuff.
And she immediately thought ofme.
So she basically called me upone day.
She's like hey, I have a newopportunity for you.
(05:33):
Would you be interested?
And obviously me saying oh,this is something new.
I can learn so much from doingsomething like this.
It was a little scary becauseit is I'm going from something
very stable to something that'sa little bit unknown was
exciting for me.
So that's that's how I gotinvolved.
Julie (05:50):
Nice, and I mean you had some pretty immediate success.
Jennifer (05:56):
Yes, so we were, I would say, the first year, maybe
the first half of the year.
It was a little hard in thesense that we were still really
trying to figure out who ourideal customer was, because we
started the business thinkingthat it would be more
influencers, because at thattime Instagram was really
picking up and the influencercommunity was really starting to
(06:17):
grow.
But we realized really quicklythat it actually wasn't
influencers, it was families,just by fluke.
We were like, hey, this is kindof working, kind of not.
And we started in New York Cityand we were like you know, new
Jersey is right next door, whydon't we just go there and just
see what happens?
And what we found out waseverybody who signed up were all
moms.
And we're like, hold on, thatmakes sense, right, because
(06:39):
they're looking to capture thosemilestones.
Julie (06:46):
And from there on out we really took off.
Yeah, it's so interesting,right, Like just how?
Yeah, you don't even know.
You're searching for yourproduct, market fit basically.
Jennifer (06:53):
Yeah, or we realized that we were wrong in terms of
like who we thought would be ourcustomer base and instead of,
you know, trying to be like no,we need to make it work.
This should work.
We're like all right, let'sjust go to where it does work.
Julie (07:07):
Yeah Well, and moms are sort of evergreen.
There is a new mom every howmany seconds being made.
Jennifer (07:15):
So, you know, women are the key decision makers in
health care?
Julie (07:18):
Yes, they are.
Jennifer (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, in terms of, like, controlling those
financial decisions and the onewho wants those photos to put
around their house and thosekinds of things
And they're in control of theschedule, so they know when it's
possible.
Julie (07:33):
Exactly Yeah, and so how did you know I
mean, you got all moms thatsigned up with that one in New
Jersey how did you know you werekind of on to something?
Jennifer (07:43):
So after that we were like all right, it seems like
moms are our key demographic.
So it was pretty simple in thesense that then we went back to
New York City and we startedmarketing it to specifically to
moms.
So that took off.
And then we're like okay, let'sjust start expanding.
So we extended into the suburbs, started expanding into
different cities.
So we next went to Californiabecause we're like what are the
(08:05):
largest cities in the US?
Right, that's, you're going tohave a lot more people to try it
out, a lot more data to tobasically test out.
And from there it was just verysimple in a sense.
We started advertising a lotmore on Facebook, because that's
where most of the moms were,and it was a little bit like
shooting fish in a barrel upuntil iOS 14 privacy changes
(08:28):
came along.
That different story really hadto pivot for that.
But all in all, it's alwaysbeen moms and really women who
are going through major lifemilestones.
Julie (08:37):
Right, and so you're just a quick, you're going to shoot
, you match photographers andpeople looking for photography.
Jennifer (08:47):
Yeah, so we're a little bit different.
So a lot of platforms actuallydo that.
Where you can put in yourinformation, they find a
photographer, connect the two ofyou.
So we do something a littledifferent in the sense that we
actually put up the schedule onthe site and clients can go and
they'll find what works for themand their schedule.
And then we take a look at allthe photographers in our network
, look at their schedules andsay who is actually available,
(09:10):
who is a good fit for what thesepeople are looking for, and
then we match them on the backend.
So what ends up happening is aphotographer only needs to show
up in one location, like anoutdoor park, and the clients
will basically follow to them.
They have a day of back-to-backsessions.
Julie (09:24):
Nice, so they don't have to worry about how they control
that calendar.
So you kind of make it easy forthem, yes, and you make it easy
for the clients to pick thetime of day they want and where
they want to go in terms oflocation and that sort of thing
Exactly.
Jennifer (09:40):
We have everything picked out and it's free.
It's free for them to bookthere.
We have everything picked outand it's free.
It's free for them to book.
There's no risk involved.
So that is.
That helps moms a lot, becauseyou don't want to put up a lot
of money upfront, get somethingyou don't like and then not be
able to get the money back.
Julie (09:54):
Yeah, yep, so you start out in the biggest cities in
America and then you grow andyou grow fast.
Jennifer (10:01):
At that point, yes, yeah, and you grow fast at that
point.
Yes, yeah, so we actually grewthe most during COVID because at
that time we've specialized inoutdoor photo shoots.
We were one of the fewactivities that people could
actually do outdoors that werenaturally distanced, and we also
figured out a way to hirephotographers remotely.
We used to actually go intoeach city and we would test
(10:24):
shoot everybody, but we found away to do that virtually so that
we didn't have to do thatanymore, and so because of that,
we could open up a citybasically in like five minutes
Amazing.
Julie (10:35):
And when you think about how you build a scalable
business.
It was not scalable for you tokeep going to every city and
test shooting.
Jennifer (10:44):
No, it wasn't.
It was not scalable for you tokeep going to every city and
test shooting Like no, it wasfun.
You probably would.
Julie (10:47):
I bet it was fun and you probably would have kept doing
it if you could have.
Jennifer (10:51):
Yes, yes, and that is one of the kind of beautiful
things about challengessometimes Like they can feel
really difficult, really scary,but then that's also an
opportunity to become reallycreative.
Yeah.
Julie (11:06):
Yeah, yeah, and to think about how you can solve your
problems differently.
Right, yeah, exactly, yeah,yeah.
So, as you were growing, whatkind of investments did you have
to make?
I mean, you know people talkabout running out, technology
doesn't work anymore, all ofthose things.
What were the things that werekey milestones for you on that
journey?
Jennifer (11:25):
Yeah, so I would say the very first thing Okay.
So when we first started wecreated what we call MVP right,
minimum Biobar products.
So we did that.
On a lot of you know, freedatabase softwares are out there
.
We're like, let's just see ifit works.
Growth we were like, okay, nowwe actually need to redevelop
(11:55):
and revamp our entire backend sothat it could actually support
that volume.
So we basically spent a year andactually built a real database,
rebuilt a lot of the tools,rebuilt the website, everything
so that we could sustain,because the last thing we wanted
was to have so much demand andhave everything break and that's
bad for brand image, that'sjust bad all around.
So that was the first key thingthat we did and along with that
(12:16):
we also started to hire morepeople on our tech team.
So our tech team, ourdevelopers, are all in-house.
We don't outsource that, andthat obviously was very
expensive but very well worth it, and because of that we've been
able to continue to grow at therate that we have been growing.
So that was the first mostimportant thing.
(12:37):
And then I would say the nextkey piece of investment was
really in marketing.
So the majority of our expensesis actually in marketing.
It's about, I would say, maybe40% of our expenditures, and
because our service in itself issomething that once people try,
they really love.
So our challenge was to makesure just to get enough to get
(12:57):
in front of enough people.
It's really a numbers game forus, right?
So we spent a lot of money onmarketing, invested a lot.
We had, you know, our angelfunders and you know, friends
and family around to help usfund that, and so we spent a lot
of money on Google ads,facebook ads, instagram ads and
such.
Julie (13:14):
Yeah, and how did you know you would need to get
investors?
At what point could you seethat and were you interested in
doing that?
Is that Did you think of itwhen you started the business?
How did that come around?
Jennifer (13:26):
Yeah.
So when we first started, wedefinitely knew that we needed
investment, just because neithermy co-founder or I have the
money to be able to do that.
But our other co-founder heactually has a great network and
he does also like investing onthe side for himself, so he
basically helped us run that endof it.
So we did a very small roundwith just friends and family and
(13:49):
just to get us off the groundso we could at least pay people
to be on the team and do thebasic things like that.
And after that we had debatedand then we had started doing
the more like venture capitalistround and we decided not to go
that route.
I mean, there's a lot of prosand cons to that and one of the
things that we realized was thatwe wanted to retain the
autonomy to be able to makecertain decisions based on what
(14:12):
we saw.
And because we're run by womenand a lot of investors tend to
be men and this was very much afemale product we wanted to
retain the autonomy to be ableto make certain decisions on our
own and not be constrained byhaving to hit certain KPIs by a
certain date and then have thatbe at the expense of something
that we cared about, so tomaintain our brand and what we
(14:33):
wanted the brand to stand for.
So we decided not to go thatroute and since then, obviously
it's taken us a little bitlonger to perhaps grow to what
we finally hit 10 million lastyear but I think we did that
while maintaining all the valuesthat we wanted to keep and the
way we wanted to run thebusiness and our team and our
culture and such.
Julie (14:51):
Yeah, well, congratulations, because 10
million is a big, a big, big,big finish line, starting line
to the next one, but a bigmilestone for you.
Jennifer (15:02):
For sure, for sure, we're very happy.
Julie (15:04):
Yeah.
Now you talk about how youincreased revenue while keeping
your head count the same, or ormaking it smaller, and I know
that we've talked about.
You know, in 2021,.
You had some very harddecisions to make.
Yes, yeah.
Jennifer (15:20):
So we had to cut down on people, partly because up
until 2021, our directive ourmind was very much just grow as
fast as we can.
It doesn't matter how muchmoney our investors were.
Our friends and family werelike, you know, if you just need
money to borrow, that's fine.
But then the iOS privacychanges and all of a sudden, our
(15:40):
entire marketing stack lookeddifferent because all of a
sudden, the CPAs were just sohigh.
We're like, oh no, if this isgoing to be sort of the future
where, you know, the entiremarketing industry was changing,
we can't continue to run atthis pace and with this mindset
and expect to be able to stay inbusiness.
So, all of a sudden, in themiddle of the year, in June, we
were like, all right, instead ofgrowing as fast as we can, we
(16:03):
now need to manage really hardfor expenses and profitability.
So it's a completely differentgoal.
Expenses and profitability soit's a completely different goal
.
So because of that, we did haveto let some people go, because
we're like you know, these arereally nice to have things that
we want for a brand, but interms of, you know, getting in
front of enough people andmanage for expenses, it's not a
necessity.
(16:23):
So what we did, we had to getrid of those roles and sometimes
we would consolidate some ofthose tasks into other people.
Other people would take overand do that.
So we have to learn to do morewith less, but not so much that
we burned people out.
So the way we did that actuallywas through really good process
cleanup.
So if you ever really sit downand you we don't we don't like
(16:47):
to micromanage, but we sat downwith people and we're like all
right, just kind of show us whatyou do day to day.
And even from that simple stepof asking and just watching, we
were able to pinpoint a lot ofplaces where it was really
inefficient.
We're like, okay, great, here'san easy way for you to do this
faster and that way that savesyou time so you could do more,
or you, you won't be burnt out,right, you won't have too much
on your plate.
And that's kind of where AIautomation, all this stuff came
(17:10):
in.
We're like where does it makesense to fit this in so that we
still maintain the same standardquality without sacrificing too
much resources and time?
Julie (17:20):
Yeah, and how did it change kind of like how you
market and the marketing thatyou do?
Jennifer (17:34):
Yeah, so, surprisingly , we started trying to do a lot
more, um, things that weren'tnecessarily dependent on, like
facebook and really facebook,because that was what impacted
the most.
So we that's why, actually, whenwe started getting on tiktok,
we're like, all right, we needto find other platforms to reach
our audience, and we were ableto grow you subscriber list, our
followers list, pretty well,but nothing still worked better
than Facebook.
(17:55):
And I think over time, we foundother companies.
For example, one company thatwe use is called Black Crow AI
and what they do is they scorepeople who come on our site so
that we could target them better, so they basically get around
the whole privacy issue.
Obviously, the people who optin and they're able to help us
curate a better list of peoplewho have higher intent, and
(18:17):
using technologies like that, wewere able to start bringing
down that CPA back down to closeto where it was at.
But it took a lot of researchand a lot of and trying a lot of
different companies, cause Ithink everybody at that time was
trying to figure it out andnobody really knew what was
happening.
So we would try a company, testit out and then maybe we try a
different one until we landed onsomebody that we thought was
(18:39):
worth it.
Julie (18:41):
Yeah, I think it is really interesting, and it is.
It shows you the benefit ofdiversifying too right, Like you
know, and getting into TikTokand having like different
channels where you arecultivating people.
Jennifer (18:55):
Yeah, the other thing that we did was you know, we
often get solicitations throughemail saying like, hey, I'm a
company, I do X, y and Z andwhile most people might just be
like, oh, that's spam orwhatever, we actually look at a
lot of them and we'll get oncalls, even if we're like it's
probably not right.
But doing so helps us one tomake sure that we stay at the
(19:17):
forefront of what people aretrying to do, so that eventually
we can find somebody.
We know the questions to ask,we know what's out there and
what's possible and what's not.
Julie (19:25):
Right, yeah, and you start to be able to.
I would think you are educatingyourself as well about like, as
you have these calls, you'relike okay, no, that might be
possible, and it helps to likeadjudicate really what you're
seeing.
Jennifer (19:40):
Yeah, you learn so much actually from calls like
that because you can ask so manyquestions, right yeah?
Julie (19:47):
Yeah, but thinking that it's valuable to take the time
when there's a million otherthings pressing on you is
sometimes hard, I think it is.
Jennifer (19:55):
It is and we try to make the time, and because
there's two of us in terms ofthe co-founders, sometimes we
might take them together,sometimes we'll take them
separately and then we'll comeback together, but it's good to
have to continue to evolve ourknowledge of what people are
trying to do out there tocontinue to evolve our knowledge
of what people are trying to doout there.
Julie (20:13):
Well, and yeah, and I just think it's things are
changing so fast, right?
Jennifer (20:24):
Yeah for sure, especially with AI and
everything.
I feel like it's the same withbeing a human being or being in
a relationship.
Right, things are always goingto evolve and you have to grow
alongside of that in order tostay relevant.
Order not to yeah.
Julie (20:35):
Yeah, no, and it's true.
I think also like just livingin that technology world and
having you know all thedifferent pieces that come
together of how you attractclients, how you push them down
through your website and convertthem.
All of those pieces.
Things are changing so quickly.
Jennifer (20:53):
Yes, Every day Things are changing, so you have to
really stay on top of everything.
There's no room to be lazy.
Julie (21:02):
Yes, well, and where where are the moms?
Cause the mom demographic isalways changing too, in terms of
where they're meeting up andwhere they're finding each other
, exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah,and so now.
So you hit that turning pointof you need to change, and you
need to change fast, because youknow you've got to make some
changes.
You have now managed to get toover $10 million in revenue.
(21:27):
So two years, two, three yearslater, you were able to really
make that shift.
Yes, yeah, and so now you'reback on the growth path, and
what would you say like?
I think one of the things thathappens after you kind of come
to 10 million is you start someof those processes, start
breaking again.
Right, you're in that nextshift mode.
(21:48):
When you cross over, you'reexactly right.
Jennifer (21:50):
Yes, so we're actually right in the middle of
re-looking at all our processesas we speak.
So one of the things that wehaven't ever gotten around to
doing was really, reallydocumenting all of our internal
platforms that we've built forourselves and the website to be
like what are all the differentthings that is available for us
as tools, because our developerswork very fast.
(22:12):
When you work so fast,sometimes you forget what you've
done and everything like that.
Right.
So we're in the process ofdocumenting that because, like I
said, mentioned before, aswe're doing that, that's when we
start to see the holes and thecracks and the things that we
need to fix or things that werelike hey, this is a little
outdated.
Hey, there's now an AI tool oran agentic thing where we can
(22:35):
actually put in there to makethings a little more efficient,
a little faster, a little better.
Right, but it's it's.
It's.
It's tedious work, but it'svery necessary, and we have
found that the more we do that,the better we are able to
actually have what a lot ofpeople like to call work-life
balance.
Right.
If we document things, thatmeans somebody else can easily
come in and do that job.
So if you need to take a breakor something happens.
(22:57):
You need to take care ofsomething.
We can all do that and we cancontinue to grow without burning
out, because burnout is so realand if we're not careful and we
burn out, then our company isdone right.
So we have to make sure we takecare of people at the same time
.
Julie (23:10):
Yeah, well, especially I mean the trajectory right of
like being at 800K in 2018 andhitting 10 million six years
later, like that's a lot ofchange and a lot of upward
momentum.
Yes, which is I mean don't getme wrong, it's what we all want
as entrepreneurs.
But it's not an easy path.
(23:30):
In terms of that, like thelearning curve and the
constantly thinking, you knowwhy do I feel like I know what
I'm doing, Something's going on?
Because you always feel alittle bit off balance when
things are changing so quickly.
Jennifer (23:44):
Yes, for sure, and I think one of the key things that
we've learned is that wheneverthese things, these challenges,
come and we're feelingoverwhelmed, we'll give
ourselves, you know, fiveminutes to feel overwhelmed and
then we're like all right, let'slook at this from a different
perspective.
It's not, it's not a bad thing.
This is like it's almost like agame for us, right?
Ooh, can we overcome this?
(24:06):
Like what is this?
Can we solve it?
So I think, when we turn,basically when we set aside our
emotions of feeling overwhelmedand looking at it more from an
objective point of view, ithelps us work past that to then
actually be on a more productiveyou know line of thinking,
instead of just feeling like, ohmy God, how are we going to do
this?
This is so scary, because thatcan hold you back, right.
Julie (24:29):
Absolutely Fear.
Yes, your fear is one of thethings that will cause you to
not do the things right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then it'sfiguring out.
You know okay.
So you know what's the worstthing that can go wrong.
How am I going to watch for it?
What will we do if we seethings starting to go in the
wrong direction?
How are we going to retreatthose kinds of things?
(24:50):
Right, but if you stop moving?
I mean, the risk is and I thinkyou know, with all the turmoil
in the world right now, even therisk is we try to protect
everything we have, but thatmight be like, you know, the
sand is falling through yourfingers and really you should be
looking for the opportunity.
Jennifer (25:07):
Yes, so one thing that we always say to each other,
like you know, every day it'slike what is the next right
thing to do?
So always looking to take thenext action right, yeah.
Julie (25:19):
I think that's really great advice, like not looking
for where you what you need todo in a year, but like, okay,
what's next, and then what'snext and then what you know, so
that it's those steps you'recontinuing to step forward yeah,
for sure, otherwise it is.
It is really overwhelming yeah,yeah, yeah, for sure.
And so now you're in 60 citiesacross the US, and what's next?
Jennifer (25:44):
So we're hoping to keep on expanding because
obviously there's more cities,but also we're thinking about
expanding to Canada and probablyMexico, so those are definitely
on the docket.
For us.
There's a lot of, obviously,paperwork and legal stuff to get
through, but we do, we wouldlike to expand to those places
because obviously there's alsomany families there and yeah,
(26:07):
yeah, and big cities and peopleare always looking for great
photos.
Julie (26:10):
Yeah, like, what are those?
What are the baseline thingsthat would make it attractive
for you?
Jennifer (26:15):
right, yeah, and we hear the same and we're in a lot
of like local mom groups justto continue to listen to what
moms are talking about, andobviously you know there are
moms everywhere and you knowfinding affordable photographers
and documenting thosemilestones is really important.
It's more important.
It may not always feelimportant at the moment, in the
moment, but later on down theline, when you're looking back,
(26:38):
that's when you wish you haddone some of those things, had
more photos.
Julie (26:41):
Nobody ever wishes Well.
I think in the moment of tryingto manage your photos you feel
maybe like you had less photos,but from a memories perspective
you never wish you had lessphotos.
Jennifer (26:53):
Yeah, and it becomes like a family tradition too.
Right.
Julie (26:55):
It's like every summer, every holiday season, the family
gets together really quick, 30minutes outdoors, and then yeah
doors and then yeah Well, and Isuppose the interesting part too
would be, if you're travelingsomewhere to a different city
with to get together with alarger part of your family, like
there's a lot of opportunitiesfor you to capture people
(27:16):
through all kinds of differentevents that are happening in
their lives.
Jennifer (27:20):
And a lot of people do that, because last thing you
really want is for one person tobe running back and forth right
, so everybody can kind ofactually enjoy.
It's not just something you do,but it's actually an experience
that you can enjoy, you know,really interacting with each
other and having somebodyprofessional capture those
special moments.
So it becomes really genuinetoo and it's fun for everybody.
Julie (27:43):
And I would think also from the photographer,
photographer's side, it is agreat, you know, filling a full
day with shoots you know adifferent family every hour or
45 minutes or whatever it isthat you know puts a whole day
together would also be quiteappealing.
Jennifer (28:02):
Yeah.
So the thing that we reallywanted to do for photographers
is to take away all the sort oflogistical back office types of
things that are just a pain inthe butt to do, so that they can
just do what they love, right,and we're really great for, I
would say, photographers whowant that supplemental income.
So photographers can have theirown side business, they can do
(28:22):
their own weddings, they canhave their own thing, but if
they have maybe like half a dayon a weekend to spare, instead
of having to exert that effortthemselves to find people to
fill that, like we do it forthem.
So it's a win-win situation,right?
If they can use us to filltheir time and likewise we use
them to make our clients happy.
Julie (28:42):
Yeah, I think that's a really great thing.
And so more cities, moreofferings, more all the things,
more countries, yeah.
Jennifer (28:51):
And hopefully at some point.
You know we've been trying tothink of ways to partner even
more with you know salons orpeople who do makeup or clothing
rental, clothing companiesright, especially if you're
getting a maternity session thatyou may not want to buy a dress
you wear one time but you canrent something really beautiful
and have that you know aestheticof having a beautiful maternity
(29:13):
photo to remember for all time.
So there's lots of differentancillary services that we can
definitely fold in and that'ssomething we're working on to
just add more value and makethat process even better for
clients.
Julie (29:26):
Well, and I mean, what you speak about really is, yeah,
more cities building revenuethat way, more offerings
building revenue that way, and,and hopefully, you.
I mean it feels like you have alot of runway ahead of you and
it's going to be really excitingto watch you grow.
Yeah, no for sure.
Good.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me today and sharing
(29:46):
about your going concern.
I always love chatting withpeople and hearing about what
they're doing in the world.
So thank you, yeah, no, thankyou, okay, take care.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
(30:07):
Figure 8 isn't just a podcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon anywhere you might live.
For more about my growth andleadership training programs
(30:37):
visit www.
juliellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that's www.
julieellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8.
Welcome to Figure 8, where we feature inspiring
stories of women entrepreneurswho have grown their businesses
to seven and eight figuresrevenue.
If you're in the mix of growinga bigger business, these
stories are for you.
Join us as we explore where thetough spots are, how to
overcome them and how to prepareyourself for the next portion
(00:27):
of the climb.
I'm your host, Julie Ellis.
I'm an author, entrepreneur anda growth and leadership coach
who co-founded, grew and exitedan eight-figure business.
This led me to exploring whysome women achieve great things,
and that led to my book BigGorgeous Goals.
(00:47):
Let's explore the systems,processes and people that help
us grow our businesses to newheights.
If you're interested in growingyour business, this podcast
will help.
Now let's get going.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of Figure 8.
(01:07):
Today I am in conversation withJennifer Yeh, and Jennifer is
in charge of a reallyinteresting business called
Shoott and prior to that, she'sdone a whole lot of really
interesting and diverse things,like creating a children's
clothing line, freelancing as abrand manager for local small
businesses, procuring bids withFortune 500 companies, and so a
(01:31):
real range, and I think thatleads to such interesting and
rich stories.
Her current startup you knowshe's led them from the early
days to over 9 million ofrevenue in just five years.
So amazing progress and how yougrow a business, make it
(01:52):
profitable and scale up.
Lots of stories there and I'msuper interested to chat with
her today, so welcome Jennifer.
Jennifer (02:00):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Julie (02:02):
Yeah, thanks for joining me.
I'm so interested in yourjourney because my own path has
been very eclectic and I thinkit makes it so interesting what
you get to tackle and why and Imean how would you say you think
that's helped you.
Jennifer (02:17):
Yeah.
So I think the benefit ofhaving I like your term eclectic
because it definitely is I likeyour term eclectic because it
definitely is is that I think itgives you a lot of breadth of
experience and different kind ofexperience, so that when you do
go into a new situation for me,especially going into shoot as
a COO it gives you a differentperspective than maybe what
(02:40):
other people may have.
And I think a lot of timesthat's good, because it really
helps with innovation andhelping to see things from not
just everybody else'sperspective but from something
new that oftentimes will enableus to solve a problem in a way
that we haven't thought ofbefore.
And that is really goodsometimes because it helps us
(03:03):
not get stuck in the rut oftrying things that everybody
else has tried but maybe hasn'tworked so well.
For example, you know we canthink of more creative ways of
going about something and thenget around it faster and more
efficiently, right.
Julie (03:18):
Well, and it is interesting because, you know,
I've seen in my experience wherepeople who can be successful in
some of those Fortune 500companies cannot always
translate down to somethingthat's very tiny.
Jennifer (03:32):
Yes, you have to be really nimble with the way you
think right, because everysituation is different and I
think when you're so used topivoting a lot or doing a lot of
different things, you learn topick up context a lot faster,
because you have to, and thenyou're not stuck in one mode of
thinking Like it's just it'seasier to, I think, learn, learn
new things, because you'realways doing new things.
(03:54):
Yeah.
Julie (03:55):
Yes, well, and it strikes me that like that, learning new
things and doing new thingsreally kind of has characterized
you, that you don't stop moving, you're always.
You know, your hands are alwaysin something and you're always
doing something different.
Jennifer (04:08):
Yeah, for sure.
I thi nk one of the things thatreally drive me and motivate me
is curiosity and doing lots ofdifferent things, and even now,
in my position, having to wearso many different hats uh,
continues to kind of feed mymotor to there's something new
to learn right and something newto master, and yeah,
Julie (04:28):
Yeah, and like how did you then come in sort of 2018,
how did you come to shoot andhow did you, you know, it's such
an interesting business.
I think, um, you know, and Imean beautiful photography is
something people want,especially when they have
important moments in their livesor children or those kinds of
(04:48):
things.
They want to document thosemoments.
Jennifer (04:50):
Yeah for sure.
So actually in 2018, at thebeginning part of it, I was
still working in corporateAmerica founder had another
co-founder that she met and theywere like hey, let's start a
photography company that canboth benefit you know, everyday
people consumers, but alsophotographers and helping them
(05:12):
have a much better gig lifebalance to be able to do what
they love.
And as they were talking aboutit and started kind of trying
new things, they were like wereally need somebody, like a
third person who, you know, canhelp think for us, who can help
execute and do all that stuff.
And she immediately thought ofme.
So she basically called me upone day.
She's like hey, I have a newopportunity for you.
(05:33):
Would you be interested?
And obviously me saying oh,this is something new.
I can learn so much from doingsomething like this.
It was a little scary becauseit is I'm going from something
very stable to something that'sa little bit unknown was
exciting for me.
So that's that's how I gotinvolved.
Julie (05:50):
Nice, and I mean you had some pretty immediate success.
Jennifer (05:56):
Yes, so we were, I would say, the first year, maybe
the first half of the year.
It was a little hard in thesense that we were still really
trying to figure out who ourideal customer was, because we
started the business thinkingthat it would be more
influencers, because at thattime Instagram was really
picking up and the influencercommunity was really starting to
(06:17):
grow.
But we realized really quicklythat it actually wasn't
influencers, it was families,just by fluke.
We were like, hey, this is kindof working, kind of not.
And we started in New York Cityand we were like you know, new
Jersey is right next door, whydon't we just go there and just
see what happens?
And what we found out waseverybody who signed up were all
moms.
And we're like, hold on, thatmakes sense, right, because
(06:39):
they're looking to capture thosemilestones.
Julie (06:46):
And from there on out we really took off.
Yeah, it's so interesting,right, Like just how?
Yeah, you don't even know.
You're searching for yourproduct, market fit basically.
Jennifer (06:53):
Yeah, or we realized that we were wrong in terms of
like who we thought would be ourcustomer base and instead of,
you know, trying to be like no,we need to make it work.
This should work.
We're like all right, let'sjust go to where it does work.
Julie (07:07):
Yeah Well, and moms are sort of evergreen.
There is a new mom every howmany seconds being made.
Jennifer (07:15):
So, you know, women are the key decision makers in
health care?
Julie (07:18):
Yes, they are.
Jennifer (07:19):
Yeah, yeah, in terms of, like, controlling those
financial decisions and the onewho wants those photos to put
around their house and thosekinds of things
And they're in control of theschedule, so they know when it's
possible.
Julie (07:33):
Exactly Yeah, and so how did you know I
mean, you got all moms thatsigned up with that one in New
Jersey how did you know you werekind of on to something?
Jennifer (07:43):
So after that we were like all right, it seems like
moms are our key demographic.
So it was pretty simple in thesense that then we went back to
New York City and we startedmarketing it to specifically to
moms.
So that took off.
And then we're like okay, let'sjust start expanding.
So we extended into the suburbs, started expanding into
different cities.
So we next went to Californiabecause we're like what are the
(08:05):
largest cities in the US?
Right, that's, you're going tohave a lot more people to try it
out, a lot more data to tobasically test out.
And from there it was just verysimple in a sense.
We started advertising a lotmore on Facebook, because that's
where most of the moms were,and it was a little bit like
shooting fish in a barrel upuntil iOS 14 privacy changes
(08:28):
came along.
That different story really hadto pivot for that.
But all in all, it's alwaysbeen moms and really women who
are going through major lifemilestones.
Julie (08:37):
Right, and so you're just a quick, you're going to shoot
, you match photographers andpeople looking for photography.
Jennifer (08:47):
Yeah, so we're a little bit different.
So a lot of platforms actuallydo that.
Where you can put in yourinformation, they find a
photographer, connect the two ofyou.
So we do something a littledifferent in the sense that we
actually put up the schedule onthe site and clients can go and
they'll find what works for themand their schedule.
And then we take a look at allthe photographers in our network
, look at their schedules andsay who is actually available,
(09:10):
who is a good fit for what thesepeople are looking for, and
then we match them on the backend.
So what ends up happening is aphotographer only needs to show
up in one location, like anoutdoor park, and the clients
will basically follow to them.
They have a day of back-to-backsessions.
Julie (09:24):
Nice, so they don't have to worry about how they control
that calendar.
So you kind of make it easy forthem, yes, and you make it easy
for the clients to pick thetime of day they want and where
they want to go in terms oflocation and that sort of thing
Exactly.
Jennifer (09:40):
We have everything picked out and it's free.
It's free for them to bookthere.
We have everything picked outand it's free.
It's free for them to book.
There's no risk involved.
So that is.
That helps moms a lot, becauseyou don't want to put up a lot
of money upfront, get somethingyou don't like and then not be
able to get the money back.
Julie (09:54):
Yeah, yep, so you start out in the biggest cities in
America and then you grow andyou grow fast.
Jennifer (10:01):
At that point, yes, yeah, and you grow fast at that
point.
Yes, yeah, so we actually grewthe most during COVID because at
that time we've specialized inoutdoor photo shoots.
We were one of the fewactivities that people could
actually do outdoors that werenaturally distanced, and we also
figured out a way to hirephotographers remotely.
We used to actually go intoeach city and we would test
(10:24):
shoot everybody, but we found away to do that virtually so that
we didn't have to do thatanymore, and so because of that,
we could open up a citybasically in like five minutes
Amazing.
Julie (10:35):
And when you think about how you build a scalable
business.
It was not scalable for you tokeep going to every city and
test shooting.
Jennifer (10:44):
No, it wasn't.
It was not scalable for you tokeep going to every city and
test shooting Like no, it wasfun.
You probably would.
Julie (10:47):
I bet it was fun and you probably would have kept doing
it if you could have.
Jennifer (10:51):
Yes, yes, and that is one of the kind of beautiful
things about challengessometimes Like they can feel
really difficult, really scary,but then that's also an
opportunity to become reallycreative.
Yeah.
Julie (11:06):
Yeah, yeah, and to think about how you can solve your
problems differently.
Right, yeah, exactly, yeah,yeah.
So, as you were growing, whatkind of investments did you have
to make?
I mean, you know people talkabout running out, technology
doesn't work anymore, all ofthose things.
What were the things that werekey milestones for you on that
journey?
Jennifer (11:25):
Yeah, so I would say the very first thing Okay.
So when we first started wecreated what we call MVP right,
minimum Biobar products.
So we did that.
On a lot of you know, freedatabase softwares are out there
.
We're like, let's just see ifit works.
Growth we were like, okay, nowwe actually need to redevelop
(11:55):
and revamp our entire backend sothat it could actually support
that volume.
So we basically spent a year andactually built a real database,
rebuilt a lot of the tools,rebuilt the website, everything
so that we could sustain,because the last thing we wanted
was to have so much demand andhave everything break and that's
bad for brand image, that'sjust bad all around.
So that was the first key thingthat we did and along with that
(12:16):
we also started to hire morepeople on our tech team.
So our tech team, ourdevelopers, are all in-house.
We don't outsource that, andthat obviously was very
expensive but very well worth it, and because of that we've been
able to continue to grow at therate that we have been growing.
So that was the first mostimportant thing.
(12:37):
And then I would say the nextkey piece of investment was
really in marketing.
So the majority of our expensesis actually in marketing.
It's about, I would say, maybe40% of our expenditures, and
because our service in itself issomething that once people try,
they really love.
So our challenge was to makesure just to get enough to get
(12:57):
in front of enough people.
It's really a numbers game forus, right?
So we spent a lot of money onmarketing, invested a lot.
We had, you know, our angelfunders and you know, friends
and family around to help usfund that, and so we spent a lot
of money on Google ads,facebook ads, instagram ads and
such.
Julie (13:14):
Yeah, and how did you know you would need to get
investors?
At what point could you seethat and were you interested in
doing that?
Is that Did you think of itwhen you started the business?
How did that come around?
Jennifer (13:26):
Yeah.
So when we first started, wedefinitely knew that we needed
investment, just because neithermy co-founder or I have the
money to be able to do that.
But our other co-founder heactually has a great network and
he does also like investing onthe side for himself, so he
basically helped us run that endof it.
So we did a very small roundwith just friends and family and
(13:49):
just to get us off the groundso we could at least pay people
to be on the team and do thebasic things like that.
And after that we had debatedand then we had started doing
the more like venture capitalistround and we decided not to go
that route.
I mean, there's a lot of prosand cons to that and one of the
things that we realized was thatwe wanted to retain the
autonomy to be able to makecertain decisions based on what
(14:12):
we saw.
And because we're run by womenand a lot of investors tend to
be men and this was very much afemale product we wanted to
retain the autonomy to be ableto make certain decisions on our
own and not be constrained byhaving to hit certain KPIs by a
certain date and then have thatbe at the expense of something
that we cared about, so tomaintain our brand and what we
(14:33):
wanted the brand to stand for.
So we decided not to go thatroute and since then, obviously
it's taken us a little bitlonger to perhaps grow to what
we finally hit 10 million lastyear but I think we did that
while maintaining all the valuesthat we wanted to keep and the
way we wanted to run thebusiness and our team and our
culture and such.
Julie (14:51):
Yeah, well, congratulations, because 10
million is a big, a big, big,big finish line, starting line
to the next one, but a bigmilestone for you.
Jennifer (15:02):
For sure, for sure, we're very happy.
Julie (15:04):
Yeah.
Now you talk about how youincreased revenue while keeping
your head count the same, or ormaking it smaller, and I know
that we've talked about.
You know, in 2021,.
You had some very harddecisions to make.
Yes, yeah.
Jennifer (15:20):
So we had to cut down on people, partly because up
until 2021, our directive ourmind was very much just grow as
fast as we can.
It doesn't matter how muchmoney our investors were.
Our friends and family werelike, you know, if you just need
money to borrow, that's fine.
But then the iOS privacychanges and all of a sudden, our
(15:40):
entire marketing stack lookeddifferent because all of a
sudden, the CPAs were just sohigh.
We're like, oh no, if this isgoing to be sort of the future
where, you know, the entiremarketing industry was changing,
we can't continue to run atthis pace and with this mindset
and expect to be able to stay inbusiness.
So, all of a sudden, in themiddle of the year, in June, we
were like, all right, instead ofgrowing as fast as we can, we
(16:03):
now need to manage really hardfor expenses and profitability.
So it's a completely differentgoal.
Expenses and profitability soit's a completely different goal
.
So because of that, we did haveto let some people go, because
we're like you know, these arereally nice to have things that
we want for a brand, but interms of, you know, getting in
front of enough people andmanage for expenses, it's not a
necessity.
(16:23):
So what we did, we had to getrid of those roles and sometimes
we would consolidate some ofthose tasks into other people.
Other people would take overand do that.
So we have to learn to do morewith less, but not so much that
we burned people out.
So the way we did that actuallywas through really good process
cleanup.
So if you ever really sit downand you we don't we don't like
(16:47):
to micromanage, but we sat downwith people and we're like all
right, just kind of show us whatyou do day to day.
And even from that simple stepof asking and just watching, we
were able to pinpoint a lot ofplaces where it was really
inefficient.
We're like, okay, great, here'san easy way for you to do this
faster and that way that savesyou time so you could do more,
or you, you won't be burnt out,right, you won't have too much
on your plate.
And that's kind of where AIautomation, all this stuff came
(17:10):
in.
We're like where does it makesense to fit this in so that we
still maintain the same standardquality without sacrificing too
much resources and time?
Julie (17:20):
Yeah, and how did it change kind of like how you
market and the marketing thatyou do?
Jennifer (17:34):
Yeah, so, surprisingly , we started trying to do a lot
more, um, things that weren'tnecessarily dependent on, like
facebook and really facebook,because that was what impacted
the most.
So we that's why, actually, whenwe started getting on tiktok,
we're like, all right, we needto find other platforms to reach
our audience, and we were ableto grow you subscriber list, our
followers list, pretty well,but nothing still worked better
than Facebook.
(17:55):
And I think over time, we foundother companies.
For example, one company thatwe use is called Black Crow AI
and what they do is they scorepeople who come on our site so
that we could target them better, so they basically get around
the whole privacy issue.
Obviously, the people who optin and they're able to help us
curate a better list of peoplewho have higher intent, and
(18:17):
using technologies like that, wewere able to start bringing
down that CPA back down to closeto where it was at.
But it took a lot of researchand a lot of and trying a lot of
different companies, cause Ithink everybody at that time was
trying to figure it out andnobody really knew what was
happening.
So we would try a company, testit out and then maybe we try a
different one until we landed onsomebody that we thought was
(18:39):
worth it.
Julie (18:41):
Yeah, I think it is really interesting, and it is.
It shows you the benefit ofdiversifying too right, Like you
know, and getting into TikTokand having like different
channels where you arecultivating people.
Jennifer (18:55):
Yeah, the other thing that we did was you know, we
often get solicitations throughemail saying like, hey, I'm a
company, I do X, y and Z andwhile most people might just be
like, oh, that's spam orwhatever, we actually look at a
lot of them and we'll get oncalls, even if we're like it's
probably not right.
But doing so helps us one tomake sure that we stay at the
(19:17):
forefront of what people aretrying to do, so that eventually
we can find somebody.
We know the questions to ask,we know what's out there and
what's possible and what's not.
Julie (19:25):
Right, yeah, and you start to be able to.
I would think you are educatingyourself as well about like, as
you have these calls, you'relike okay, no, that might be
possible, and it helps to likeadjudicate really what you're
seeing.
Jennifer (19:40):
Yeah, you learn so much actually from calls like
that because you can ask so manyquestions, right yeah?
Julie (19:47):
Yeah, but thinking that it's valuable to take the time
when there's a million otherthings pressing on you is
sometimes hard, I think it is.
Jennifer (19:55):
It is and we try to make the time, and because
there's two of us in terms ofthe co-founders, sometimes we
might take them together,sometimes we'll take them
separately and then we'll comeback together, but it's good to
have to continue to evolve ourknowledge of what people are
trying to do out there tocontinue to evolve our knowledge
of what people are trying to doout there.
Julie (20:13):
Well, and yeah, and I just think it's things are
changing so fast, right?
Jennifer (20:24):
Yeah for sure, especially with AI and
everything.
I feel like it's the same withbeing a human being or being in
a relationship.
Right, things are always goingto evolve and you have to grow
alongside of that in order tostay relevant.
Order not to yeah.
Julie (20:35):
Yeah, no, and it's true.
I think also like just livingin that technology world and
having you know all thedifferent pieces that come
together of how you attractclients, how you push them down
through your website and convertthem.
All of those pieces.
Things are changing so quickly.
Jennifer (20:53):
Yes, Every day Things are changing, so you have to
really stay on top of everything.
There's no room to be lazy.
Julie (21:02):
Yes, well, and where where are the moms?
Cause the mom demographic isalways changing too, in terms of
where they're meeting up andwhere they're finding each other
, exactly, exactly, yeah, yeah,and so now.
So you hit that turning pointof you need to change, and you
need to change fast, because youknow you've got to make some
changes.
You have now managed to get toover $10 million in revenue.
(21:27):
So two years, two, three yearslater, you were able to really
make that shift.
Yes, yeah, and so now you'reback on the growth path, and
what would you say like?
I think one of the things thathappens after you kind of come
to 10 million is you start someof those processes, start
breaking again.
Right, you're in that nextshift mode.
(21:48):
When you cross over, you'reexactly right.
Jennifer (21:50):
Yes, so we're actually right in the middle of
re-looking at all our processesas we speak.
So one of the things that wehaven't ever gotten around to
doing was really, reallydocumenting all of our internal
platforms that we've built forourselves and the website to be
like what are all the differentthings that is available for us
as tools, because our developerswork very fast.
(22:12):
When you work so fast,sometimes you forget what you've
done and everything like that.
Right.
So we're in the process ofdocumenting that because, like I
said, mentioned before, aswe're doing that, that's when we
start to see the holes and thecracks and the things that we
need to fix or things that werelike hey, this is a little
outdated.
Hey, there's now an AI tool oran agentic thing where we can
(22:35):
actually put in there to makethings a little more efficient,
a little faster, a little better.
Right, but it's it's.
It's.
It's tedious work, but it'svery necessary, and we have
found that the more we do that,the better we are able to
actually have what a lot ofpeople like to call work-life
balance.
Right.
If we document things, thatmeans somebody else can easily
come in and do that job.
So if you need to take a breakor something happens.
(22:57):
You need to take care ofsomething.
We can all do that and we cancontinue to grow without burning
out, because burnout is so realand if we're not careful and we
burn out, then our company isdone right.
So we have to make sure we takecare of people at the same time
.
Julie (23:10):
Yeah, well, especially I mean the trajectory right of
like being at 800K in 2018 andhitting 10 million six years
later, like that's a lot ofchange and a lot of upward
momentum.
Yes, which is I mean don't getme wrong, it's what we all want
as entrepreneurs.
But it's not an easy path.
(23:30):
In terms of that, like thelearning curve and the
constantly thinking, you knowwhy do I feel like I know what
I'm doing, Something's going on?
Because you always feel alittle bit off balance when
things are changing so quickly.
Jennifer (23:44):
Yes, for sure, and I think one of the key things that
we've learned is that wheneverthese things, these challenges,
come and we're feelingoverwhelmed, we'll give
ourselves, you know, fiveminutes to feel overwhelmed and
then we're like all right, let'slook at this from a different
perspective.
It's not, it's not a bad thing.
This is like it's almost like agame for us, right?
Ooh, can we overcome this?
(24:06):
Like what is this?
Can we solve it?
So I think, when we turn,basically when we set aside our
emotions of feeling overwhelmedand looking at it more from an
objective point of view, ithelps us work past that to then
actually be on a more productiveyou know line of thinking,
instead of just feeling like, ohmy God, how are we going to do
this?
This is so scary, because thatcan hold you back, right.
Julie (24:29):
Absolutely Fear.
Yes, your fear is one of thethings that will cause you to
not do the things right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then it'sfiguring out.
You know okay.
So you know what's the worstthing that can go wrong.
How am I going to watch for it?
What will we do if we seethings starting to go in the
wrong direction?
How are we going to retreatthose kinds of things?
(24:50):
Right, but if you stop moving?
I mean, the risk is and I thinkyou know, with all the turmoil
in the world right now, even therisk is we try to protect
everything we have, but thatmight be like, you know, the
sand is falling through yourfingers and really you should be
looking for the opportunity.
Jennifer (25:07):
Yes, so one thing that we always say to each other,
like you know, every day it'slike what is the next right
thing to do?
So always looking to take thenext action right, yeah.
Julie (25:19):
I think that's really great advice, like not looking
for where you what you need todo in a year, but like, okay,
what's next, and then what'snext and then what you know, so
that it's those steps you'recontinuing to step forward yeah,
for sure, otherwise it is.
It is really overwhelming yeah,yeah, yeah, for sure.
And so now you're in 60 citiesacross the US, and what's next?
Jennifer (25:44):
So we're hoping to keep on expanding because
obviously there's more cities,but also we're thinking about
expanding to Canada and probablyMexico, so those are definitely
on the docket.
For us.
There's a lot of, obviously,paperwork and legal stuff to get
through, but we do, we wouldlike to expand to those places
because obviously there's alsomany families there and yeah,
(26:07):
yeah, and big cities and peopleare always looking for great
photos.
Julie (26:10):
Yeah, like, what are those?
What are the baseline thingsthat would make it attractive
for you?
Jennifer (26:15):
right, yeah, and we hear the same and we're in a lot
of like local mom groups justto continue to listen to what
moms are talking about, andobviously you know there are
moms everywhere and you knowfinding affordable photographers
and documenting thosemilestones is really important.
It's more important.
It may not always feelimportant at the moment, in the
moment, but later on down theline, when you're looking back,
(26:38):
that's when you wish you haddone some of those things, had
more photos.
Julie (26:41):
Nobody ever wishes Well.
I think in the moment of tryingto manage your photos you feel
maybe like you had less photos,but from a memories perspective
you never wish you had lessphotos.
Jennifer (26:53):
Yeah, and it becomes like a family tradition too.
Right.
Julie (26:55):
It's like every summer, every holiday season, the family
gets together really quick, 30minutes outdoors, and then yeah
doors and then yeah Well, and Isuppose the interesting part too
would be, if you're travelingsomewhere to a different city
with to get together with alarger part of your family, like
there's a lot of opportunitiesfor you to capture people
(27:16):
through all kinds of differentevents that are happening in
their lives.
Jennifer (27:20):
And a lot of people do that, because last thing you
really want is for one person tobe running back and forth right
, so everybody can kind ofactually enjoy.
It's not just something you do,but it's actually an experience
that you can enjoy, you know,really interacting with each
other and having somebodyprofessional capture those
special moments.
So it becomes really genuinetoo and it's fun for everybody.
Julie (27:43):
And I would think also from the photographer,
photographer's side, it is agreat, you know, filling a full
day with shoots you know adifferent family every hour or
45 minutes or whatever it isthat you know puts a whole day
together would also be quiteappealing.
Jennifer (28:02):
Yeah.
So the thing that we reallywanted to do for photographers
is to take away all the sort oflogistical back office types of
things that are just a pain inthe butt to do, so that they can
just do what they love, right,and we're really great for, I
would say, photographers whowant that supplemental income.
So photographers can have theirown side business, they can do
(28:22):
their own weddings, they canhave their own thing, but if
they have maybe like half a dayon a weekend to spare, instead
of having to exert that effortthemselves to find people to
fill that, like we do it forthem.
So it's a win-win situation,right?
If they can use us to filltheir time and likewise we use
them to make our clients happy.
Julie (28:42):
Yeah, I think that's a really great thing.
And so more cities, moreofferings, more all the things,
more countries, yeah.
Jennifer (28:51):
And hopefully at some point.
You know we've been trying tothink of ways to partner even
more with you know salons orpeople who do makeup or clothing
rental, clothing companiesright, especially if you're
getting a maternity session thatyou may not want to buy a dress
you wear one time but you canrent something really beautiful
and have that you know aestheticof having a beautiful maternity
(29:13):
photo to remember for all time.
So there's lots of differentancillary services that we can
definitely fold in and that'ssomething we're working on to
just add more value and makethat process even better for
clients.
Julie (29:26):
Well, and I mean, what you speak about really is, yeah,
more cities building revenuethat way, more offerings
building revenue that way, and,and hopefully, you.
I mean it feels like you have alot of runway ahead of you and
it's going to be really excitingto watch you grow.
Yeah, no for sure.
Good.
Well, thank you so much forjoining me today and sharing
(29:46):
about your going concern.
I always love chatting withpeople and hearing about what
they're doing in the world.
So thank you, yeah, no, thankyou, okay, take care.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Please remember to hitsubscribe on your favorite
podcast platform so you won'tmiss any episodes.
(30:07):
Figure 8 isn't just a podcast.
It's a way of seeing the big,gorgeous goals of women
entrepreneurs coming to life.
If you're interested inlearning more, you can find my
book Big Gorgeous Goals onAmazon anywhere you might live.
For more about my growth andleadership training programs
(30:37):
visit www.
juliellis.
ca to see how we might worktogether.
Read my blog or sign up to getyour free diagnostic.
Are you ready for growth?
Once again, that's www.
julieellis.
ca.
When we work together, we allwin.
See you again soon for anotherepisode of Figure 8.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.