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

Alanna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

Growing up, my grandpa would always tell me stories about the time he was an astronaut, a princess, a ballerina, or that time he was a cowboy… He would tell me tall tales, but deep within my soul, he planted the seed of a deep love of storytelling.

From the time I could type I was writing. (I also wrote a little bit before then, but I’ve always had terrible handwriting, so nobody could ever read what I had written and that’s just frustrating!) I remember writing short stories about princesses and pageantry, and children in foster care. If it spoke to my soul, I would come up with a story about it.

As I grew up, I learned to play several instruments and sing, and anytime I could get my hands on a camera, I was messing with it – changing the settings and learning as much as I could. I would use free editing software to overexpose and hyper pigment my photos, because I love the brightness and the boldness of color. In high school, I entered to fine arts competition, and brought home first place ribbons in both music and photography. That was an incredible experience, because at that point, I had never shared my photography with the world outside my home. After that win, I realized that that was something that was super special to me, but I didn’t pursue my love of Photography beyond that for many years.

Fast forward 10 years, and it is the year 2020 the world has shut down due to the Global Pandemic and everyone at home is going stir crazy. I took to social media to share music and the spoken word and whatever positivity I could share with the world. I wanted to do my part to lighten the heavy load that the world was facing. I believe there’s so much power in art, and art in all of its forms. A power to evoke emotion, pull somebody out of their darkness, help people understand their deepest feelings and traumas, and to ultimately heal.

Once Covid restrictions were lifted enough for me to go back to work, I worked very hard to rebuild my clientele as a hairstylist. I honed my skills as a social media content creator and photographer to help build my following and my business. Within my first year of business, my salon studio became profitable… But, after I began to battle a neurological disorder, I realized that being behind the chair was not a safe option for myself or my clients.

After I closed my studio, it felt like a part of my soul had died. My creativity was lost and wandering and didn’t have an outlet. I began to work with my local church creating content for their social media, and I had an opportunity to pick up a camera again for a community event, giving away brand new toys to those in need.

As I began to edit those photos, it was like everything clicked. Everything that I was passionate about was able to merge into one singular focus. As a hairstylist, my life was color, and as a writer, my life was words, but as a photographer, I get to tell stories in vivid color.

It is my passionate creativity that has led me to this place. Everyone has a story, and everybody is telling their story, but not everybody is looking to hear, or understand those stories. I’m listening. I want to know and understand your story – and then to share it with the world.

Now, as a wedding photographer, couples trust me not only to capture special moments, but to capture the essence of their love – to create art that speaks louder than any written or spoken word ever could. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but in my business, a picture could tell a thousand stories.

In the greater Houston area, there are hundreds of incredible photographers that make incredible art, but I believe the reason that I succeed is my deep passion to truly understand people, and help them tell the stories that they might not have the words to share on their own. A unique part of my process is, before the wedding, I will set a time to meet with the couple to learn their story. From the beginning until the present moment, I want to learn everything about that couple that I can. I want to understand what makes their love unique so that I can find those little moments on their wedding day that make it uniquely them.

Is it maybe a little unorthodox? Sure. Does it take several hours of working for free so that I can build these relationships? Yes. And it’s worth every single moment.

I don’t want to just be your wedding photographer. I want to be the person that you call for every big and important story that needs to be told. I want to be your personal Storyteller.

Alanna, 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?

Hi! I’m Alanna, your photographer and probably your new BFF, too! I’m what happens when you mix a little punk rock with sunshine, rainbows, way too much coffee, and a whole lot of Jesus. I am a wife, a dog mom, and an infertility warrior!

My career has taken many different forms over the years, from hairstyling, to social media management, to writing, to photography. I’m blessed that my life has been filled with an enormous amount of art and creativity.

I discovered my love for photography at a young age – stealing my mom’s point and shoot cameras when I wasn’t supposed to and using free online editing software as a teenager. I recently dug through the archives of my personal Facebook account and realized I’ve come a long way from over-exposed and oversaturated photos. Now I get to use my sparkly brain to share your story.

Enter Creative Chronicles Captured, or 3 C Design Co. for short. Can you tell I have an unyielding love of alliteration?

As a Couples, Family & Wedding Photographer, my singular goal is to capture and share the beauty of your unique love story. As a little girl I fell in love with fairytales and as an adult I believe that every story can be a fairytale if you just believe. I’m passionate about using my art to make your love story come alive, and impact your family and friends for generations to come.

3 C Design Co. exists to do just that – capture the magic of your real life fairytale.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I was 15 years old, I had my first seizure. It seemed like a one time trauma related incident, and it didn’t happen again for several years. When I was 19 I was at work, and in the middle of doing a task I briefly lost consciousness, came back to, and I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. When I was 24 I had several similar incidences in the course of three or four months. By the middle of 2020 I had more than a month where I spent a combined total of eight hours per day in a convulsive state.

My trade and my career up until that point had been in cosmetology. Handling sharp tools and chemicals that need truly focused monitoring, was required of me to do my job. Over the next couple of months and several doctors appointments we would find temporary fixes, but no real solutions or even a diagnosis for the problem.

In this same season, I was building my own business as a hairstylist in my own independent salon studio. Miraculously, I was able to keep the doors open and pay my expenses working the few good days a month between long stretches of very bad health days.

In 2021 right before I got married, I made the decision to close my studio and step away from doing hair because it wasn’t safe anymore. With no real answers and the temporary solutions wearing off, I couldn’t in good conscience continue on that career path, knowing that I could injure myself or someone else severely if I entered a seizure-like state.

At this point, I had invested thousands of dollars in my education, my growth and development, my equipment and my business. I. was. devastated. But, I am a hard-working gal, and I am both a doer and a fixer, so sitting at home and not working was not an option for me.

I took a job at a cute boutique in Tomball, Texas (shout out to Brittani at Jayden Layne). I truly loved being there, but my body still fought me at every turn. I was still having 15 to 20 small seizure episodes daily. I couldn’t drive. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I was miserable. I ultimately made the decision to leave and take time off to figure out what was going on with my body and hopefully find some answers. With the support of my incredible husband and my family I was able to take a couple months off work and find some real answers to what was going on with my body.

After getting some answers, and finding a treatment plan that worked, I knew that I couldn’t go back to a typical service or hospitality based career like I had been in my entire life. I had to find a way to bring in income to help support my family and take the pressure off of my husband – but I had to do it in a way that was low stress, and that I could work rest days into my schedule as needed.

I began doing more graphic design and content creation for my church, as well as a few friends who own small businesses. That was a nice little bonus here and there, but it wasn’t a sustainable way to contribute to my household.

I picked up a real camera for the first time in probably 10 years to work an event for my church where we were doing some incredible community outreach. That day, and that one decision truly changed the trajectory of my life and my career. I remembered just how much I loved being behind a camera and how much I loved creating visual art.

From there, I began to build my portfolio and learn everything I could. That was July 2022. In less than a year, I have gone back to my roots and built a thriving business! On the heels of one of the most difficult seasons of my life, I was blessed with the incredible opportunity to contribute to my household through something that I truly love.

To say I’ve had to pivot in my business and career is almost an understatement, but I’m truly thankful for the road that has brought me to where I am today.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Be relatable.

I cannot stress this enough. I have built two businesses and helped non-profit organizations and other small businesses grow with the primary strategy of, “being relatable”.

For years, businesses have marketed perfection and idealism to the masses, but in recent years, the masses have started to realize that this marked idea of perfection breeds chaos and discontentment in their lives. Enough is enough. Share the real in your reels. I’m not saying to put ALL of your business out there. Use discretion. But, we are seeing a trend in consumers that don’t want to be marketed to, they want to be seen and heard! You know what I say to that? Same. So much same.

I believe in a business model that puts people over profit. Will this make me a millionaire? Probably not, but that is not my goal. My goal is to build intentional relationships that turn into referral after referral because my clients KNOW me, and my clients TRUST me.

Even if you practice a different business model, being relatable should still be at the forefront of your growth strategies. People are drawn to the real and imperfect, because it makes them feel less alone.

If you want to grow, step away from the perfect grids and polished color story for a moment, and share something that makes your business feel like it is run by real people and not some random corporate robot. Excellence and consistency is important, but so is making Susie on your Instagram feed feel seen, and valued.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://3cdesignco.mypixieset.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/3cdesign.co/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/3CDesignCo

Image Credits
Relate Community Church Marley & Dan Kerri Hoy Beauty by GiGi The Brocks The Greers