We were lucky to catch up with Kelly Meyer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? We’d love to hear the backstory the illustrates how you grew your brand.

I started Two Birds Media, LLC in my first college apartment way back in 2011. I was going to school for Film & Video at the time and I knew- both because I see how creatives are viewed in the workplace and because everyone made sure to say it to me- that a degree in film and video was probably going to be very difficult to make a living with. I also knew at that time that I did not want to spend my entire life working for someone else. I wanted to be my own boss. So I started my little business just offering basic editing and video services. I realized pretty quickly that I would need more equipment and resources to sustain a videography business, so I took a photography class and started working on building my photography skills instead. Photography was something I could realistically do alone, with limited equipment, and still make a decent additional income.

For the first few years I did any photography gig that came my way. I did everything from senior portraits to small weddings to baby showers- I did it all. I spent all of that time learning more about my craft, which I think is the thing that will make or break someone doing any kind of work like this. You have to be motivated to educate yourself and continue to grow. So as I learned I would slowly increase my pricing and my offerings to reflect my skill level and the equipment I could afford. I did not make a lot of income those first 5 years, but I was working a full time job alongside and I continued to invest back into myself and my equipment.

By 2015 I was doing all kinds of photography and had started to really get consistent wedding business. Then, in 2017 I took on a client that was one of my previous brides doing photography for her cosmetics and fashion companies, which was something totally new for me. I worked with her for about two years and I learned so much about product photography and working with models, and I also learned how to photograph a huge variety of skin tones and body shapes. It was a super valuable experience for me, but by 2019 I realized it was not the kind of photography I excelled at. I decided to focus on weddings, and continue to take families and seniors as additional areas. I realized that offering any and all kinds of photography was not really serving me, so I niched down and worked to build and sustain a client base in those specific areas.

Weirdly enough, 2020 was really then may company took off. I added videography to my services because I was finally at the place where I could support the amount of equipment needed and also hire additional people when it was necessary. Once I began to offer packages with photo and video together, I really saw a huge increase in business and began the process of leaving my regular day job to go full time. This took so much planning because during that same time frame I got married and bought a house. I had to carefully plan how I would transition from my steady income day job to being self-employed full time. It was absolutely something that took a. lot of consideration and planning. But here’s the best part: upon leaving my day job, my income from my business more than doubled in the first year. I was able to focus all of my energy on working on and in my business, and that directly fed my success.

If there’s anything to take away from my journey to where I am now, it is that perseverance is key. It takes a long time to not only build a business, but also to grow as an individual in such a way that you are able to keep the business thriving. Education is ongoing and always should be, both regarding your specific work and also business itself. You will make mistakes, but it’s how you learn and grow from those mistakes that will define your success. Don’t compare yourself to others! I know that sounds so basic, but we all do it and it can really hinder your ability to stay optimistic. Along with that, surround yourself with people better than you at what you want to do. You will only be as amazing as the people you are closest to, so make sure the group you’re taking notes from is made up of the best kinds of people. It took me over ten years to get my business to where I wanted it to be- and that’s ok! Keep your eyes on YOUR goals and everything you do will fall in line.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Kelly Meyer and I own Two Birds Media, LLC. I started my photography and videography company when I was in college and started out offering only photography because I could do it alone. Nowadays I have a really awesome team of people that I work with to offer photography and videography services, and we are growing more each day!

Two Birds Media, LLC is primarily a wedding photography and videography company, but we also offer family and senior portraits and lifestyle videography sessions. The core of what we do is all about helping people remember some of the most important moments of their lives, and we absolutely love that we get to witness those moments. I, Kelly, have very few photos and no videos from my childhood. My family never had family portraits taken, and there are only two photos from my parents’ wedding that I have ever seen, so I go into what I do knowing how valuable what I do is to people because I have never had the ability to look back on memories like that. My whole team feels the same way- we understand that some of the moments we capture are once in a lifetime moments. We take that seriously, but we also make sure that we are a positive, fun part of those moments.

One of the things that makes us truly unique is the experience we offer with any of our services. A huge focus of ours is not just capturing moments, but helping our clients remember those moments in the best, most positive and fun way. We are truly proud of the fact that our clients leave sessions so excited to see their photos and videos, and so relaxed and happy. We do everything we can to make working with us effortless and fun. We focus on customer service and it truly shows in the relationships we have built with our clients. Two Birds Media has been in business for over ten years, and to this day we still work with clients that were some of our original clients when we first started. Our work is bot just about snapping a picture or making a fun video, it’s about creating an experience that will become an amazing memory in and of itself.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The answer to this question has a few parts. With any small business in the world today, social media is obviously a huge consideration. I am terrible at social media. However, I made an effort to show up even when I was bad at it. For a long time Facebook was a huge source of new business. I had great success with it, especially for weddings, and Instagram has also been very useful to me especially as a way to showcase my photography work. However, social media has not been the only way I get business, nor should it be.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was to diversify my lead sources. I work really hard to provide an amazing experience for my clients, and I am confident that my clients love working with me. As part of this, I offer incentives for referrals like gift cards or credits for future sessions, etc. This has proved to be the most valuable source of growth for my company. Word of mouth marketing is free, it’s incredibly effective and genuine, and it also does something that almost no other form of advertising can do: it allows you to take your ideal client and have them refer you to other people just like them, thus creating a stream of ideal clients. In times when my fellow photographers and videographers were struggling because their main source of leads was JUST social media or JUST an advertising site, I thrived because people will always talk, and if you create a good relationship with your clients built on genuine interactions and trust, they will refer you.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest thing I had to unlearn when started my business was that there is a “right” way to do things. Most of the business classes I took in high school and college always implied that there was a specified, predetermined way to open and run a business and that was the only way one could be successful. For example, for years I poured all of my income back into my business and made very little money for myself, but didn’t see as much growth as I wanted. At some point I got sick of the struggle and I realized that there ARE NO RULES! I could run my business however it worked for me, as long as I paid my taxes and delivered the products and services I had promised. I also learned about the Profit First method of accounting for my business and I have never looked back.

Another example of this was with my branding. I had met with a branding coach who took one look at my colorful style and said I needed to tone it down and go more neutral with it if I wanted to be taken seriously as a professional.I kept hearing similar things from other photographers that I knew who had all jumped on the neutrals bandwagon, but that didn’t feel right to me. So, I found a branding professional who listened to me, learned about my personality and business, and created some incredible, super colorful and fun branding for me. and you know what? I have gotten nothing but compliments on it and have also been attracting many more of my ideal client because the branding speaks to what my company is about! I did what I knew was right for me against the judgement of others and it has worked out beautifully.

This is also relevant to lots of other areas of business. I realized that the way a 65 years old rich man would run a business was not going to be an effective template for my business, so I spent time learning about alternative business models that would work for me. I spent my time and money on education and learned how to run things in a sustainable way that worked for my life. Don’t get boxed in by what everyone else is saying you should do!

Contact Info:

• Website: twobirdsmediallc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twobirdsmedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twobirdsmediallc
• Other: Pixieset: https://twobirdsmediallc.pixieset.com