We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Griggs a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jessica, thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

This is a great question. Glad it was on the list of questions. So, I don’t believe we get anywhere by chance. I do believe everything is laid out by design. And we have to go through failures in order to grow and learn. Prior to owning LaRuche Photo, I owned another business. Won’t go into the details of that business. But it was another photo company. I had had this business for several years. When I moved to Georgia back in 2011, I promised myself that my business would take off. And it did. I met an amazing human being who I ended up partnering with. He was a good person, a man of God, and a loving husband with two amazing little boys. We clicked perfectly, and we became a great duo in our industry. I finally felt that with this partnership, my business would take off the way I wanted it to.

But God throws little irons in the fire from time to time. And you just have to trust the process. I trusted my business partner, so I trusted his judgement. I wanted to believe he was making a good decision. We met another guy, who my partner said was a great guy and we should bring him in. So with trust, and blinders on, even though my gut said NO, I said yes.

Was it a mistake? Yes. Was I supposed to learn from it? Absolutely. This 3rd partner destroyed the business from the inside out. He was wreck-less. He was immature, and he was self serving.

To be fair, I was having a lot of person issues with my marriage. We all partnered up during the year of 2013. In 2016, my marriage ended, I sold my forever home, ended up living with a roommate (First time in my life) and left the company to the 2 partners, without taking anything from it but my own equipment. People thought I was crazy, but my life just didn’t make sense anymore and I knew that company was going to fall flat, and I didn’t want to be in it when it happened. At the time I had already started working on the company I am in now, LaRuche Photo.

Within 2 years, just as I had predicted, that company fell flat on its face and they parted ways as well. The original partner reached out to me a couple years later, and in a roundabout way, apologized to me, and finally understood my reasoning for leaving. The 3rd partner had continued to destroy the business from the inside out. He ruined the reputation of that company and eventually ruined the remaining partnership he had in the business.

What did I learn from this? Well, I learned that you HAVE to go through hard stuff to get to the good stuff. Would I change anything about that? Absolutely not. Not at all. It was hard, but I learned SO much on what to do and what not to do in business. I never could have gotten to where I am now, financially, in that business. It was dead in the water before it got off the ground. Failure turned fortune :)

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We are a photo and video company. Our business, LaRuche Photo is about 75% real estate industry. We focus on working with real estate agents, builders, new neighborhoods, interior designers, remodels, stagers, luxury homes, and more. We pretty much can deliver all of the marketing assets a real estate agent or a property manager may need to get a home sold. We offer photography, video, drone photo and video, floor plans, 3D tours, matterport, Zillow tours, digital staging, twilight photos, etc.

I started LaRuche Creative (Now LaRuche Photo) back in 2016, then when I met my current husband, without hesitation, brought him into the company after some circumstances had changed in his work. It was the best decision I made. LaRuche Photo is now a team of 6 photographers, which include, real estate photographers, videographers, event photographers and wedding photographers.

We make it convenient for our clients to order, as our website is a full product shop. We also give all of our team members Supra access, so the agent doesn’t have to be present for our photographers to shoot. In 2022, we shot over 500 properties. So making it easy and convenient is our top priority. So is consistency. It’s what our clients love about our work. We have trained our entire team to shoot a specific way so that it doesn’t matter who shows up. We all have the ability to shoot the same.

I think this plays into my previous answer about what I am most proud of. After failing (by design, mind you), I was able to succeed, and succeed better than I ever imagined. To me, that’s a big proud moment. I worked hard to create a brand new business after the other business imploded, and I am more in love with this company than I ever was with the other one.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Oh this is a great question!! So, in 2020, when the world literally stopped, my first thought was, ‘omg, I am a photographer. I am not what they deem ‘essential’ business. Who is going to need a photographer in a pandemic’

Little did I know my entire world was about to change. See, what happened was this. When the world stopped, real estate did not. As a matter of fact, it blew up.

Real estate agents did not want to go to peoples homes. People did not want to go to homes to look at houses. But the housing industry went into boom mode. People were still moving. And even more so, people looking for bigger houses to work from home.

So who did they call? us! But at the time, we were only doing photos. So we had to up our game QUICKLY. Within 6 months, we were shooting 3D tours, Zillow tours, Drone, and even some video. Our business doubled that year, and has every year since then. We were happy to go to houses and shoot. And so we did! And I have to say, it was awesome getting on 285 and getting from Marietta to Lawrenceville in 20 minutes. HAH!

Have you ever had to pivot?

Well, I think this question goes hand in hand with the previous question. We pivoted by learning many more things in the business, in order to take the clients we needed to, that other photographers were not. Many photographers stayed in and declined business. We didn’t have that option, and went full steam ahead.

When I got divorced, I went from being a weekend wedding photographer, to finding another photography industry that kept me busy during the week, as it was crucial to spend my weekends with my son, who at the time was only 9. So it was important to make sure I could have a job while he was at school, and be there for him in the afternoons and weekends. So pivoting in my industry has always been crucial to growth.

Many say only have 1 niche in photography is key to success. I am not sure how much I believe that, considering how many types of photography I have learned. Weddings are seasonal, so is real estate, so filling in that void with headshots and events gives us year round work. This is crucial to our industry. Slow seasons don’t really exist for us. And when they do, it’s usually during the holidays, which is perfectly fine by us, as we get to spend more time with our kids.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laruchephoto.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/laruchephoto
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/laruchephoto
• Linkedin: www,linkedin.com/laruchephoto
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/laruchephoto

Image Credits
LaRuche Photo owns the rights to all photos submitted.