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

Mallory, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In my opinion some of the main ingredients for true success whether that be in entrepreneurship or really with any goal in life are discipline, commitment, self awareness/honesty and good planning. Having discipline is so important, it’s keeps you focused and on task. It requires you to shut out distractions that can take you off course. Commitment keeps you locked in for the long run, so you don’t give up the first time something doesn’t go right. Self awareness and honesty give you the ability to reflect on and address areas where you may need to make adjustments, changes or even start over. Lastly planning is the road map. You always need a plan to give you a guideline and a timeline on how to get where you want to be and how long it will take. I developed this view because I have had to implement it when starting my business and getting new clients. I’ve also used these steps in my personal life to achieve goals I’ve set for myself and it has worked tremendously for me.

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.

I am a photographer. My love for photography started when I was around 8 years old when my grandfather gave me his old Polaroid camera and the rest was history. In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, I decided to go out on a limb and start my photography business. So far since starting, I have photographed engagements, weddings, parties, maternity, children/families, boudoir, senior photos, professional headshots and Air Bnb website photos. I am most proud of my range and willingness to try new things for my clients. I enjoy assisting in finding locations for shoots and coming up with ideas when my clients are not sure about the direction they want to go in. I also strive to provide the vision my clients are looking for and deliver when they do come to me with their own ideas. My clients comfort during the shoot and happiness with my product is so important to me. I believe that is why I have had success with repeat customers and referrals.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

My best source of new clients have been word of mouth and social media. Starting out I posted a lot of my personal work on Facebook. This was done to promote and bring awareness to my new business venture. After some time I had potential clients reach out to me and so my journey began. My clients promote me on their pages and refer me to their friends and family. All the while I still continue to post on Facebook and Instagram and those avenues have both worked for me so far.

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

The biggest lesson I’ve had to unlearn was that you can’t be afraid to fail. When starting a new business or any new journey, fear of failure can sometimes tend to be at the forefront of your mind a lot. I know for me it was. It never stopped me, but thoughts of not making it came up a few times. The main reason for me was because I started my business at the beginning of a pandemic. I was concerned that people would not want to do photoshoots due to valid fears of covid spread. Another was due to cost, a lot of people dealt with financial strains off and on during covid due to job less or furloughing. I felt like a photoshoot may not be a priority or something people would be willing to spend money on at that time. Also, I often wondered if potential clients would want to take a chance on me, because I was new and less known. However over time I realized that while maybe some of those fears/concerns were legit, they weren’t a reason to not get started or give up once I did start.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/__snapitup__?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/snapitupllc?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
All photos are by me.