We were lucky to catch up with Danniell Gillette recently and have shared our conversation below.
Danniell, appreciate you joining us today. Taking care of customers isn’t just good business – it is often one of the main reasons folks went into business in the first place. So, we’d love to get a conversation going around how to best help clients feel appreciated – maybe you can share something you’ve done or seen someone do that’s been really effective at helping a customer feel valued?
As a photographer we understand that everything we feel shows in our work. This is just as much true as for our clients. I would say this happens more so with children then adults but all in all we are only as good as our clients are. Any time I have a photoshoot that involves children I let the family know that we are there for them. If you want them to participate you have to include them. When I first see the children and they are younger, I usually let them look at the camera, take a few shots of their family and then try to move them in the shots. But sometimes it just isn’t their day. In cases like this I am more then happy to reschedule. Yes this can be a pain for the parents but I never want my clients to have photos with the kids screaming or have upset faces. We all have those days and as children grow they seem to have more of those days then we do as adults.
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 back background and context?
I have always loved photography but it wasn’t until 2017 that I started really putting myself out there. February of 2021 I wanted more with my photography so I started school to get my bachelors in fine arts with a focus in photography at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design located in Colorado. As I grew as a photographer and found my niche I realized that I wanted to do more with my work. For my clients I specialize in maternity, family, graduation and portrait photography but as a personal photographer I enjoy working in black and white. I started working with teens in 2019 to use photography to help them work through suicide attempts. This is not therapeutic by no means but it gives them a way to tell their story and if they would like to use it to raise awareness of this silence disease, then awesome! After finding my niche and what I wanted to do with my work, I decided why stop with my bachelors. So this December I will complete my bachelors and February 2024 I will start my masters in photography at Academy of Art University in California. Art is all around us and I want the best for my clients so learning with some of the best will help me provide the latest editing and techniques to give them just that. Everything we do we do to better ourselves for a better outcome for our clients.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My cofounder/business partner is Jaclyn Galloway. She is one of the most amazing souls I have ever met and she has been my partner since 2021. Jaclyn’s two daughters and my daughter played on the same softball team. My daughter started in 2019 and was on the level down from her daughters. When I started the Teens Against Suicide Awareness photos I asked any of the older girls if they would like to work with me on a group photo. I had no clue at the time that one of her daughters was greatly affected by this. She pulled me aside after speaking with the girls and immediately said her two girls would like to do it. This sparked our friendship. In 2021 her youngest daughter Nicole had been struggling a little more then most and her mom volunteered her as a model for me. The first shoot we did was an extension to teens against suicide for my class. Little did we know what modeling would do for Nicole. Nicole has been my only model for all of my personal work since she started with me in 2021. She has been in several magazines and she is more confident then I have ever seen her. Thanks to her mom for the push. Nicole is one of my second shooters with big events while her mom helps me with all of the business side. She has been my rock and biggest supporter with my business and in life itself!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media is a beast and it truly is harder then we realize from a personal standpoint. It seems a lot easier to get friends personally then it is to get people to follow you as a business. But you will ALWAYS hear the best advertisement is word of mouth. Unfortunately word of mouth can make or break you. When I first started it felt so hard getting the first 200 people. I would try giving away prints or free mini sessions to whoever would get the most people to like the page and follow us but that only worked so much. What I have found that has worked lately is joining local groups around my area. Then I posted my personal landscape photos and dropped my link in the comments to bring people to my page. This helped a lot and it helped see when someone was looking for my service in my area as well. Your friends are a great word of mouth for you as well. I can’t tell you how many tag me in chats where someone is looking for a photographer. But aside from all of that I have had one more that has helped a lot. This may come as a surprise but other photographers have been amazing supporters as well. I am followed by and I follow a lot of photographers all over the US but even some in other countries. And even though that sounds weird but we feed off of one another, we support one another but most of all we refer one another. I have had clients come from Massachusetts’s and reach out saying they were suggested from a photographer in their hometown. Or Illinois when another client was coming to Charleston for vacation and they were looking for someone local. Word of mouth travels all over and you never know when your work may impress someone and leave a mark.
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