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

Hannah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made?

The best investment I ever made was to further my education into the wedding filmmaking industry. I went to college and studied film, radio, and broadcast television for 4 years. After college, I worked with a production company in Dallas, TX, and I did other commercial production jobs on the side all while trying to be a wedding filmmaker with the hopes of launching the business someday. I was fresh out of college, which meant I was very broke. More education was going to be a big financial sacrifice, but I understood that in order to make money, you must invest it wisely. Thanks to the help of my educators and mentors, I was able to get my footing in this industry and learn the valuable skills to market our creativity.

Hannah, 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?

I’ve been creative since the start. I found myself diving deep into music and making silly videos with my brother and friends. Nothing would motivate me more to do homework if it meant I could somehow turn it into a fun video presentation.

As time flew by, I pursued a film degree at the University of North Texas. I graduated in May 2019 and then worked in Dallas at a production company for 2 years, winning two Silver Medallion Awards during my time there for moving storytelling and editing. On January 1, 2022, I transitioned into the full-time business owner of Hans Film & Photo, LLC, and my boss became my business partner who livestreams weddings for our couples.

I got married to my husband, Joshua Lee, on July 17th, 2021. Our marriage covenant is for life together, and it is so peaceful and redeeming. We value the love every couple has and are overjoyed when they ask our team to join them on their wedding day. Now that I’ve finally experienced the wedding planning process myself, I understand how stressful it can be! Photographers can sometimes be unofficial planners, and our team is here for you every step of the way. Your media team is one of the most important decisions you have to make, and we want to make it as easy for you as possible for a stress-free and successful wedding day!

We’re so proud of our production team. Everyone at Hans has been hand-picked for their talent, servant heart, and work ethic. We show up to your event with joy and professionalism. We all come from different backgrounds and have great interest in all the different kinds of love stories that come our way! We’re here to be our couples’ biggest fans.

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

Building an audience through social media is challenging. No joke. When I began my business in 2019, it was hard just to get 50 followers. And as a media-oriented business, it’s important that people see that others follow you and like your stuff, particularly through Instagram. At the start of 2022, it had grown to around 120 followers. Even my dog’s social media account had more than me. At the start of 2022, I had around 200 followers. When I went full time with my business, I relentlessly attended bridal shows, open houses, networking events, and other forms of organic marketing. In about 5 months, we hit 1000 followers within the local DFW area. I personally believe that the best kinds of followers are the ones you can make a personal impression on.

Another way we market our services is through Facebook and Instagram ads. I will also use necessary hashtags and tag any other vendors that we work with. Believe it or not, #dallasweddingvideographer actually works and has randomly booked me clients.

I’m still trying to find the secret of being the Instagram algorithm’s best friend. I’ve had a few posts go viral from what I imagine to be proper keyword usage, but I am no expert when it comes to growing a following. But what I do know, is that I don’t have to compete with my fellow photographers and videographers. Instead, I see them as people to befriend, learn from, grow with, and even refer them to potential clients when we’re already booked. It’s not always about growing a following. That will come in time. What matters most to us right now is having quality people surrounding us, who trust our capabilities and refer us faithfully to clients.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for us have been referrals from other vendors in the wedding industry. I originally thought it would be through the ads we pay a lot of money for. But it’s actually not surprising to me that referrals are our biggest source. A vendor referral is very strong. Usually, they have already been hired by the couple when we get referred, or they are already booked, and we happen to have the event date available. So not only does the couple trust us from the vendor referral, but they know we work well together. Quite often we are referred to couples by venues, photographers, videographers, and wedding planners.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hansfilmandphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hansfilmandphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hansfilmandphoto
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-mcginty-734607119/

Image Credits
Behind the scenes ceremony photo provided by Photography by R. A. Claborn.