We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hallie Haupt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hallie below.

Hallie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I was told my entire life leading up to college, by people very close to me at that time in my life, that “You won’t make photography a career.” Naturally as a young girl around people who were so successful in their lives, I believed them. They had years of experience ahead of me. Some of them were even business owners, they knew what it took. I let many years go by where I told myself the exact same things those people told me. I wouldn’t make it a career. I wouldn’t make money. I needed to do something else with my life. I entered college, knowing it wasn’t right for me at that time, after a family member threatened to not help me with tuition if I didn’t go right out of high school. Wasted two years of college taking classes, switching majors constantly and just felt really lost. I ended up liking college, the independence it gave me and the people I was meeting. So, I ultimately made the decision to take a few business courses mixed with photography classes. I loved it so much that I enrolled in a program tailored to that. Taking a risk, jumping into the unknown and not letting those people talk me down anymore. After 4 years I graduated with a degree in media and communications. I was able to get a full time job with that degree, making more money than I ever thought I’d make at my age. I then used the things I learned from college, my degree and my full time job to make my Photography business really thrive. I am still a full time working career woman with a photo business on the side and more successful than I ever imagined. Surely more successful than those people who were close to me in the early stages thought I’d be. I took a risk to believe in myself, my drive, my abilities and created a life that I love living.

Hallie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

For anyone reading who may not know who I am. My name is Hallie Renee, I was born and raised in a small town located in Lapeer County, Michigan. I fell in love with photography at a really young age. When I was young I would take my dad’s smart phone and run around my grandmothers yard taking photos of tree’s, flowers, bee’s and anything I thought looked cool at 12 years old. At 13 I was given my first cell phone and I am really aging myself here but it was a dark purple Motorola flip phone. The camera was horrible on that thing and I resorted to stealing my dad’s phone time and time again to take photos. Then the Instagram app, which was new at that time, started to gain popularity. I would log into the app on my dad’s smart phone and upload all of my photos on Instagram. My parents saw how much I loved taking photos and sharing them that they bought me my first DSLR camera at 15 years old. I then went on to photograph events in my small town. That led to taking senior photos for people I went to high school with, to the weddings of family members and has taken me all the way to where I am today!

Now I am a Metro Detroit Photographer specializing in Weddings, Couples and Boudoir. I have been doing this consistently since 2018, officially registering my business a few years after that and have been booking up like crazy. Making this a sustainable living and doing what I love every day. Since I had two very different sectors of my business I like to market and brand my weddings and couples photography as timeless, sharp and fun with my specialization of candid raw moments. While my boudoir photography is moody, sexy and I really focus on giving my clients a comfortable, confidence boosting experience.

I am most proud of who I have become as an individual after navigating the path of being a business owner. It hasn’t been easy and some days can be really hard. At the end of every day though, I remind myself who I’ve become, the obstacles I have pushed through and how much I have accomplished. Which means everything to me.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is the way of the world connecting you to potential clients, industry peers, and networking events. I knew it was something I had to get under wraps with my photography business. I was able to take a few things away from my full time career in marketing and bring that over to my photography career. Which has helped a lot.

Social media is always changing. The content each platform choses to push can change almost daily, the trends are always changing and the content people want to see will vary from time to time. When growing your social media it is very important to pay attention to your pages demographics and analytics. This will give you an idea of who your target audience is, what content they like seeing more, and being consistent with what those demographics are giving you. Always remember every platform is different and every account is different. What the photographer or business owner from one company is doing might not work for you. It can be a lot of testing, trial and error but once you get the hang of it you can really thrive with it.

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

Word of mouth from past clients and marketing on social media.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://halliereneephotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/halliereneephotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/halliereneephotography
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hallie-renee-photography/
• Other: Newsletter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7koHsSjwVnwFcJnTRA4iMroT72L0icALGTLhOAfowexqL_A/viewform?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAab6YcDFcAexUgypEMDgZa07JXtaECEH5kXd7SeoUGJJ3HW0-mKejcLQoXs_aem_8MNnrguEw_YaJ8CQvBIUJw

Image Credits

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