We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tara Emerson . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tara below.

Tara , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

We own a 5th generation family farm here in North Dakota. My husband grew up on this farm but I did not. I grew up always visiting my grandparents family farm and lived all over the place. So I had a romantic view of farming. For many years I did not feel like I belonged here. Everyone knew so much more than I did so I immersed myself into my family and photography. As our farm grew so did my passion for photography. My responsibility on the farm also grew. So here comes my greatest lesson… It takes a lot of grit and focused determination to create any type of business. The ability to be so strong in oneself that your worth and value can’t be determined by your client or leaders in the family business. The farm faces so many external challenges like weather, bug and markets. You have absolutely no control. You just keep going. Your mindset changes to solution based. Everyday presents a challenge to solve even when things are going well. It makes you grateful for where you are and gives you a chance everyday to reevaluate your plans. Running a photography business in the middle of nowhere is similar. You have to work harder to find your ideal clients where the population of the entire state is less than 800,000. You constantly evaluate where you are and where you are going. And the ability to not take it personally if things don’t go right is key. You keep your head up and get back out there.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I am a wife, mom, farmer and photographer in the very northeast corner of North Dakota. After a battle with secondary infertility, I had my second child and with that my passion for photography really bloomed. I bought myself a nice camera to really enjoy these long awaited moments with my sons but it turns out I was awful. So I dug into learning and always shooting, which was the easy part because all of a sudden I had 4 kids to capture. I have so many passions in my photography business it was hard to reign it in. My focus is lifestyle families, seniors and brand photography. I love all of these categories because it really allows me to highlight our humanness. Every human is so different so why should we shoot and edit all our clients the same? Getting to know my clients heart really makes the experience worthwhile. The farm provides us with thousands of acres that allows me to find the most unique locations that my clients really love and might not see everyday. I am with my clients every step of the shoot. From the first inquiry, styling (which can be tricky with a family) locations, props, hair and makeup, custom art and card creation services. Coming to the farm for a shoot is hard to explain until you experience it. Every client feedback I have had is that it is so relaxing and fun. The farm seems to posses an ancient knowing that calms our nervous system and gives us the gift of connecting with our true selves. That calm reflects back at us in the photographs. You might also get to see a kitty or some other farm animal. what could be better?!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Small business is really big here in our small towns. My neighboring town has a huge shopping event that is ended by a light parade. Its a lot of fun! My friend has a service based business so on Small Business Saturday she always invited locals that have home based businesses to occupy her front space. I usually do a Photo Booth where you receive a polaroid with my name on the bottom. Its always a success and I fill up my holiday spots from this. Last year my friend did a major pivot in her business and I no longer had a place to serve. I was feeling pretty down because I had not been invited by anyone in the community to come back. Early one morning I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and I created my own vendor show. Within 3 weeks I created Christmas in the Barn. The barn got cleaned out, decorated with Christmas and was filled to the max with vendors, and a booth for myself. The whole family pitched in. My husband made Neapolitan pizza to order with hot apple cider and my girls took orders. The barn was so full of people I couldn’t believe my eyes! There were over 250 people that came to this barn in the middle of nowhere. People came from 55 miles away. Everyone that I was able to talk to said it was like walking into a Hallmark movie. I was so relieved and my heart was full. I never thought such a silly idea could be so welcomed. I am so grateful that I was able to fill my holiday spots and fill everyone’s hearts with Christmas spirit. It was such a big risk to have that many people here at one time. Honestly, we didn’t think anyone would show up. It was windy the day before which just blows any warm air right through. We were also expecting a snow storm but it stayed away until the following day. We spent so much on heaters, lights and food but it was worth it! We were blessed to the max. I am incredibly grateful to our vendors and everyone who supported the event.

We hope to keep this event a tradition here on the farm.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Right now I use monthly emails through flodesk. They have streamlined beautiful emails for me. My clients are so much more engaged when the emails are beautiful. Emails are sometimes updates on life, new mini session plans and education. I love engaging with my clients on social media. I have had a major life event lately that has kept me from posting and emailing lately but I know I get back to it. I would say facebook and instagram is where I have found most of my clients. I have clients drive from an hour away to have a truly unique session.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taraemersonphotography.com
• Instagram: taraemersonphotography@instagram.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taraemersonphotography