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

Lawrence , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I started my journey in photography seven years ago. I discovered my love for photography because I realized that capturing memories lasts a lifetime, and people need photos. It started as a hobby; all I had was my phone. I would take pictures on my phone and use an editing app called Snap Seed to edit photos. I’ve gained a lot of inspiration and guidance by subscribing to other photographers on YouTube University. Eventually, I decided to get a real camera, which was the Canon Rebel t5i, to start practicing shooting anything from people to landscapes, plants, animals, and artwork. The camera I chose to get was a recommendation from YouTube. I searched for beginner-friendly professional cameras, which were on the list then.

Regarding the education needed to develop the skill, I invested in online courses and free resources that discussed various subjects such as camera settings, lighting and exposure, and photo editing using Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. Three years later, I started to get into video primarily because I had a YouTube channel. At that time, I was educating people about health and fitness and showing them behind-the-scenes videos of photoshoots I’ve been doing. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t change anything to speed up the process. I can learn quickly and adapt to changes. One obstacle that stood in the way of learning more was funding. Investing in educational courses and upgrading my gear costs money, so I have done my best with what I have, producing impressive results.

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.

Since I was young, I’ve wanted to become a business owner. My inspiration to pursue this path came from my older sister, who was also a business owner. I gained practical knowledge of the business world by participating in various network marketing companies while studying business at North Carolina A&T State University. These companies taught me how to run a business, build a team, and sell products or services. In 2016, I began photography as a hobby. I received positive feedback from people who saw my photos, encouraging me to continue. Initially, I used my smartphone and a photo editing app called Snap Seed to take pictures. I eventually purchased a professional camera and began practicing with friends. I learned much about photography through online courses and watching numerous YouTube videos.

My fascination with fitness began in 2017 as I embarked on a weight loss journey. By incorporating Herbalife Nutrition products, healthy eating habits, and consistent workout routines, I shed 35 pounds in just six months. My journey inspired me to educate and assist millennials in achieving their fitness goals by using Herbalife products or by implementing personalized and sustainable methods that fit their personalities and lifestyles. Through my passion for fitness and photography, I combined fitness and photography into one brand, and Fit Life Media was born during the pandemic in 2020. I also created a YouTube channel that same year where I provide fitness and photography tips.

Through my business, I help entrepreneurs capture authentic brand photos and videos to be seen online and attract their ideal clients. I also help millennials who desire to get in shape and maintain their well-being. What separates my business from others is our customer-centric approach, wherein we prioritize the needs of our clients and customize our services accordingly. We also regularly solicit feedback from our customers to continually improve and enhance their experience with the business. I am very proud to have a team to help carry out the mission, as I have a videographer, an assistant creative director, a photo retoucher, and a video editor. Last year, I was doing these tasks alone, but with the influence of my mentor, I decided to outsource these tasks to them. Having a team has helped lighten the load on me so I can focus on more critical roles.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I keep in touch with my clients by sending them weekly to biweekly newsletters through email. I get better engagement using emails than I do on social media. In these emails, I send them content that pertains to business updates, specials, and educational materials. It’s hard to keep in touch with people through social media, especially since we don’t own the platform, but with email, we can be directly in someone else’s inbox. People always check their emails, and there is a high return on investment when using it as a marketing strategy, so why not use it? If you don’t have an email marketing system, I suggest using MailChimp or ConvertKit. As far as how to use them, I recommend going on YouTube.

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

Before building an audience on social media, you have to figure out which platform you want to use and whether your target audience is on it. Let’s take Instagram as an example. To grow on that platform, you must ensure your profile looks good and that you have a business or a professional account to track the data on your profile. Your profile is like a mini website on social media; you want to show the best content there to get people to want to follow and engage with your content. You want to have a profile pic of you, a good bio that tells what you do and a call to action, relevant links (i.e., website, portfolio), and at least nine posts on your feed to get started. Next, you want to put out content that falls into these three pillars: inspiring, educational, or entertaining, according to your niche. After making a few posts, look at the data on each one and find out which is performing the best as far as the best engagement (views, likes, comments, saves, and shares). When you find the one that’s performing the best, create more similar content. If you struggle with content ideas, I periodically use Chat GPT to get started. If you have money to spare and want to increase your followers faster, you can run a traffic ad on Instagram to have people visit your profile as a call to action. If you decide to run ads, make sure you have your profile up to date; otherwise, people aren’t going to have a good reason to follow you. This is how I built my audience on Instagram through organic posts and social media ads.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fitlifemedia.biz
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_fitlifemedia/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@FitLifeMedia?si=oluwVvOVCz1s4-iu