Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carisa Downs. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Carisa, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

So, when I was 18 I opted out of traditional college. I took 2 years at a local community college to get my basics, and then I started photography with a cheap camera and zero skill. It’s obvious to me now, looking back, that my pre-frontal cortex hadn’t finished baking, but at the time it intuitively felt right to me and thus I started my very risky type B business. Photography helped to support me throughout my twenties, through two pregnancies babies I stayed home with, through all my other jobs, and through living in multiple cities across the US, but I didn’t have the know-how or consistency to make it really thrive. When my kids were old enough and I no longer had to stay home with them, I was in my early 30’s and faced with the big questions of, what I had done? what I was doing? and what I was going to do? Suddenly I felt the weight of the risk 20-year-old me had flippantly taken to not get an education. I didn’t have a stable career or know how to get one. That was when I took photography 100% seriously. In one year I learned all the skills I hadn’t learned in the last 12, I bought the equipment I needed to book real gigs, and I invested the boatload of time my fledgling business had always needed to take off. In that year my photography business made enough money to send me back to school, plus a lot extra.

20-year-old me didn’t really know herself, but she knew she loved to take pictures. Fifteen years later, I am so grateful to my photography business for being a great friend to me while I found myself and for providing more than enough room for me to grow into the powerful woman I’m becoming.

Carisa, 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?

My name is Carisa Downs and I’m a wedding photographer down South at Golden Sunday Images. I started as a budget-friendly photographer while learning my craft, and as I grew I found my niche in dreamy, feminine, true-to-color art for the whimsical bride.

I still do a lot of family photography and work with kiddos locally, and serving my client families who keep coming back every year is some of the most rewarding work I do. I love a good mini session theme, I love noticing teeny-tiny details for my clients to remember and go “aww,” I love texture and movement and good backlighting. When I ask my clients why they choose me, they’ve frequently told me that my work draws them, but my personality keeps them. I’m a people’s girl. I genuinely enjoy meeting strangers, making the space feel comfortable, getting a real laugh or three, and making my clients feel better when they leave than they did when they walked in. Being with people and making them feel special and beautiful is a “golden Sunday” to me.

I plan to have a lot of years in this business ahead of me, but so far, I’m the most proud of really being able to make my clients happy. Their prints, albums, canvases, profile pictures, photo dumps, and texts after they receive their galleries make all the long self-taught hours worth it.

In my Instagram bio, I wrote “you’re gonna like me.” I think that’s what I most want folks to know. To me, building a luxury business isn’t only about the finished product; it’s about the experience. And I pride myself on giving people a truly comfortable, fun, five-star, enjoyable experience from start to finish.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Definitely! I’ll never forget the first time I put myself out there as a baby photographer. I had another part-time job and I was going to community college. One day in my office at work, it hit me out of nowhere – I want to photograph weddings. And I really mean it hit me out of nowhere – I’d never had any desire to take photos before. I followed the itch immediately, as you do when you’re 20, and I posted on Facebook, “I kind of want to start photographing weddings.” I kid you not, people started commenting with generous little opportunities – not for weddings at first, but for lower-stakes experiences. I just followed the Facebook comments, made a Facebook business page, used picmonkey (does anyone remember picmonkey?) to make a watermark, and I was off to the races. I cringe now to think of the work I did back then with no experience, gear, or portfolio. But I grin to think of the family and friends from my small town who immediately believed in and supported me.

When I was ready, it was Facebook (Meta) again who enabled me to scale up. I had moved cities three times when I was ready to scale, and had very little local clientele where I live now. It was Meta ads that gave me 90% of the clients I have now, if not more. I had learned some ad best practices from a prior marketing job I had in California, and it didn’t take long to go from 0 to 100. Obviously one has to have a little cash to invest in ads, which can be hard when business isn’t yet off the ground. But I have always found that investing a small percentage of my last session income in future ads makes more and more sessions. Every bit of ad spend I’ve ever invested has been worth it!

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I’m not saying this is best practice, but I read a study not too long ago on the type of client communication that creates the most conversions, and it was texting. After reading that, I put a phone number field in my inquiry forms and my first touch-point now is always to text a potential client right back. Not everyone may feel comfy being texted and if they don’t respond, that’s totally fine! I don’t spam whatsoever. But I get ghosted so much less often when I text my clients and potential clients directly. Clients and returning clients get texts throughout every stage of their process, and I save returning clients in my phone’s contact list like friends. Bringing communication to where people are naturally communicating the most has been key to fostering brand loyalty for me. I’m not just an another brand in their email. I’m Carisa, texting them “hey :)”

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits

All by me at Golden Sunday Images