We were lucky to catch up with Jess Strohm recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jess, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.

I have a media production company with my dad and I absolutely love it. It has helped me advance my career and gain experiences I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do on my own! Especially when thinking about the world of photo and video, there is so much delicious history. So many intricacies and techniques that speak volumes through an image. I am a big believer in learning from the greats before us. Having that opportunity to learn from my dad who has worked on so many incredible productions, I wouldn’t trade it for anything! Even my sister works with us as a prop stylist. I’m so grateful to be taking advantage of this opportunity to work with my family, we’ve always been really close.

Boundaries can be tricky, but clear communication and setting expectations sets us back on track every time.

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 am the owner, creative director and producer of my production company, gen.boutique! As a father-daughter production company, we bridge ‘big brand’ quality with a family-owned feel, empowering mission-driven brands with strategic video and photography. We partner closely with clients to provide content to assist and strengthen their marketing strategies, provide tangible business results, and tell their company story. We work with a beautiful network to provide creative agency services at any scale to provide a boutique experience for our clients. Creating our company, gen.boutique in the heart of Minneapolis, MN!

I love analyzing brands to create imaginative, fresh solutions for them. To me it’s like one big puzzle! I am completely driven by creating beautiful visuals that resonate with audiences. I’m also a professional dancer, so I’ve been obsessed with the big picture and small details from a very young age. From the lighting to the set, outfits and music – it’s all production to me!

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

Every time I pitch a concept feels like a risk to me. One memory that really stands out was when I was pitching to a healthcare company on a brand anthem piece. They wanted something outside of the box to showcase the way they incorporate art and mental health as a part of their business. Both of these things are very important to me personally, so I spent a lot of time researching and creating concepts. Since everything was so different than what they had done before, I was pretty nervous to present. But I did my power pose and worked through it! We landed the project and it’s still one of my favorite projects we’ve done this far.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I highly recommend working with someone outside of your business to lay down a strategy! Social media is hard. And it’s even harder when you’re so close to your own business. That makes it really difficult to have an outsider perspective and know what people want to see. No one can be an expert at everything! Now that we have a strategy in place, it is so much easier for me to plan what to post and have confidence that I’m posting with purpose. We’re still growing ours for sure. 🤭

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gen.boutique/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gen.boutique/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551573045971
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gen-boutique/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-P1o1I88tWqdB_5WdmA1Gg

Image Credits
Peel Design Co (image of myself) gen.boutique (remaining images)