We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leshay Reed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Leshay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

If I could go back in time, I would not have started my business any sooner. I started my business as a side hustle while working full-time in higher education. Although I knew I loved social media, I didn’t understand how to make it my career and at the time, I was not ready to be a business owner. In my 20s, my weekends were spent traveling to see friends and celebrating at weddings, baby showers, bachelorette parties, and bridal showers! Over the years, I’ve actually been to over 30 bachelorette parties!! Now, I’m at a point in my life where my personal calendar has slowed down, which has allowed space for my business calendar to thrive, so the timing sometimes feels serendipitous!

Leshay, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always loved social media, so in true millennial fashion, I decided it would be a great side hustle. While working full-time and attending grad school, I took on a couple of clients managing their social media accounts. I was enjoying my work and the connections I was making. Over time, I began to meet more business owners who wanted support with their social media. I had to decide whether to keep taking my vacation days from my full-time job to do my side hustle or to jump into it fully. So, I decided to take the leap!

In August 2022, I launched Hype Queen Media and thought my focus would be in social media management. However, Hype Queen Media transformed into a full-service social media management and content creation agency in just under a year. I have a handful of clients whose accounts I run entirely, but 80% of my business is now capturing content! Unsurprisingly, people are mainly consuming video content currently since content is Queen, so I leaned into this request and began capturing more behind-the-scenes content. The majority of my clients are luxury wedding vendors, so while I was capturing the content of showcasing their work on wedding days, I also began to capture a range of couples on their special day and realized how much fun I had doing it! I researched and found this was popular on the East and West Coast but not as big in the Midwest. So, I launched my “Wedding Day Content Creation” services!

Wedding Day Content Creation is new to the lineup of vendors people add to their wedding days. So what exactly is it? I attend weddings and capture behind-the-scenes footage for couples throughout the day on my iPhone, and the next day, they wake up to all the raw footage on their phone from their best day ever! I’m not there to replace a photographer or videographer, I am there to capture the moments that might not make the wedding video. As well as the fun trending videos they want to post on their TikTok or the silly moments they’ll want to look back on in addition to the heartfelt ones. Wedding photos and videos take a while to get back, and rightfully so but by getting content the next day, couples can share and relive those fun moments while they wait! Although I’m based in St. Louis, I also have weddings and events booked in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Kansas City, and I’m open to traveling even more. I love weddings, and being able to capture wedding day content for couples and vendors has been such a joy!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Not everyone is your client. When you start a business, this is a hard pill to swallow because although you are excited to start, there’s also a fear of “what if I don’t make any money.” This is a valid fear, but then I think you fall into a hole of just accepting clients that are not the right fit for you. When I first started managing social media, I thought I could manage anyone’s account, and it would come easy to me. But I quickly realized that there are just some things I don’t know how to market. So I got into a situation where I had taken on clients and spent a ton of extra time researching only to understand it on a surface level, which is fine but not how I like to know my clients and their brands. Once I realized my niche and ideal clients, creating marketing plans, content ideas, and building campaigns became much easier and more fun. It can be hard to learn to be patient with the right people and brands, but they will come, and you will be much happier!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe I have built a strong reputation because I’m not afraid to put myself out there! Years before I began capturing wedding content, I knew I was drawn to weddings and thought maybe I wanted to be a wedding planner. I would reach out to planners and ask them to shadow and tag along for the day. From there, I connected with different vendors, helped with photo shoots, and even modeled in a few styled wedding shoots, which was a lot of fun! Weddings are a lot of fun but I knew being a wedding planner was not the job for me. Spending so much time working weddings and attending as a guest helped me understand how to be the best wedding day cheerleader I can be. I can capture great content because, over time, I’ve learned the big and small things that are important on a wedding day. I understand how to get the shot, but I always stay out of the photographer and videographer’s way. Sometimes things go wrong on a wedding day, maybe it’s something big like the cake falling over or something small like the Bride wants a piece of gum. I carry a mini emergency kit with me in case there are small things I can do to capture the best content for my couples and vendors and help the day run smoothly.

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits
Trent Broglin Photography, Mike Cassimatis Photography, North Arrow Creative, Maddie K Photography