We were lucky to catch up with Chelsea Schmidt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chelsea, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I think every business owner has the thought of what it would be like to wake up, go into work, and leave work at 5 pm without constantly checking emails after the end of the business day, at least once a week. It’s a really curious thought and my mind does wonder what life would be like. To be fair, my mind wanders a lot and I think that’s from not only curiosity but that fact that my brain doesn’t shut off. I quickly come back to my own reality of chaos, but also freedom. Everything I have around me including not only my possessions, but my community and my team, came from the craziness of owning my own business. That’s something a regular job could have never given me. You’ll never love anyone’s business as much as you love your own because when it’s yours, everything is on the line. I think that taught me and is still teaching me so much about hustle and the heart behind it. I think at the end of the day, knowing everything that a “regular job” could give you and still choosing every single high and every single low from owning your own business is the difference between a business owner who has the grit and one who doesn’t. I wouldn’t give any of this up if I tried. I honestly think that I would become bored! There is also something so incredible about reflecting on the life that you have given to yourself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I actually started as a wedding photographer in high school. Since I own a few different brands, I feel like I live a double life that people don’t know about. I photographed my first wedding at 15 years old. I was handing out business cards in high school. Very weird, but business is and has always been so fun. After growing up in Virginia Beach, I decided I would attend VCU and ultimately, I loved Richmond so much that I’ve lived here for over 8 years now. School was never something I was really great at or even liked much but college gave me the opportunity to truly shine at networking. The local community is so vibrant that I naturally started meeting more small business owners and that was my in to “branding photography.” Ever since then, I decided it was my personal mission to dig deep into branding photography and showcase women business owners in a way that was not shy, romantic, and bridal (like my wedding work). This is something that needs to be celebrate and showcased powerfully! Fast forward to today, I photograph powerful women weekly and it’s so incredible to hear their stories while I capture it with my photography. My mission hasn’t changed much, I am still working constantly on being able to represent powerful women and their story through photography whether it be in their posing, the sets me and my team create, or even what we ask them to wear. The crazy thing is that now we offer so many more services — which is beyond what my college self could have even dreamed of. We help women showcase their brands not only through photography but through Instagram management, brand design, and web design. My overall mission is simple. Help women-owned small business owners make more money because at my core, I truly believe women deserve to make more money and to do it completely unapologetically.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that was so instilled into entrepreneur minds everywhere around the 2015 to 2020 time frame was hustle. You can’t get anywhere if you don’t hustle and hustle HARD. Good things come to those that hustle or “girl boss”. Honestly, I am a hater of the word “girl boss” and the constant hustle doesn’t resonate with me anymore. Firstly, I am not a girl boss. I am a successful business owner. I am just a boss — and a good one. I used to think it was normal to constantly hustle, miss social events, be knee deep in emails at 10 pm. Thankfully, that is not my truth anymore. Don’t get me wrong, you absolutely do need to put a ton of effort and hustle into your business, especially at the beginning. But my philosophy is to work smarter, not harder. I find so much joy in putting together workflows and life hacking my work to work for me. There is no need to do everything in your business manually and spend more time on small tasks than you absolutely need to. After putting in hours and hours into these workflows and finally putting more strict systems and boundaries into place, my constant need to hustle has settled. I am finally (and still) relearning how to enjoy my life outside of work. I am trying to relearn how to tell people about me that doesn’t involve the work I do. I’m finally sitting on my couch and realizing I do deserve to just watch TV and that doesn’t mean I’m lazy. While half of this is putting in the work to be able to relax more later, the other half is completely a mindset shift. It’s really scary to put boundaries into place with clients. You think they won’t understand or will go to someone more eager for their work but honestly my clients have been cheering me on with every boundary I set. And I find that when I send work like edited photos immediately, they don’t even look at the final product until a few days later. It’s such a simple but huge lesson that I am so grateful to have unlearned.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am very specific with the content I put out and who it will resonate with. The photos I take for my business are very much on the “girlier” end with how I dress, how I involve pinks and makeup in the photos, and even the fun poses we do! While those photos are fun, the captions I make are slightly on the more serious side with a few cuss words thrown in to communicate to people that we are fun but we are serious about the work we do and who we do it for. I believe that’s what attracts our audience on socials. I want to provide a fresh take on serious business work. I think for someone that is starting a new brand and wants to attract a specific audience, they need to dig deep into themselves or their personal brand heart and do some soul searching. Figure out who your dream client would be, what their name is, where you can find them, what they do for a living, etc and also hang out in those social spaces. You will find your people there in the small business accounts you interact with, network with in person, etc. The second step would be to brand your business correctly the first time around. I know it’s very very easy to put a quick logo together and launch a website template but hiring a team of designers and telling them about your dream client will have all of the forces working with you. Knowing who you are wanting to serve and allowing your brand to speak to them will bring in clients easier than constantly seeking them out. Attract them and nurture them!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.brand-gloss.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/brand_gloss
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/brandglossrva