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

Nicole, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think being successful takes a whole lot of humility. You need to, as a brand owner/entrepreneur be willing to learn and adapt as well as accept when you’ve made a mistake and be willing to fix it.

I think a lot of leaders miss that part- being all knowing and unwilling to admit you’ve screwed up doesn’t make for long term success because no one wants to follow someone they’re afraid of communicating with. Being successful means a lot of different things but I truly believe that being successful means you’re setting an example for the people who are steps behind you while knowing at the same time that there is always someone steps ahead of you to aspire to as well.

Nicole, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’d like to say that my start in the photography world came from my dark room class in high school but the roots grow deeper than that. My mom and grandma both were hobbyists, my grandma always had a camera in her hand when she came to visit and as teens we would always cover our faces and complain that she was taking too many.

When she passed away and we inherited her countless boxes of prints it clicked for me- no pun intended- that she always had her camera because there was always a memory to capture. Sometimes, all we have left of people when they’re gone are memories and photos and I wanted to be the person to give that gift to others.

I started with families and kids- then maternity and babies, then everything, then weddings then boudoir and the only constant through it all was working with business owners. I thought, how great is it to create content for these entrepreneurs so they could turn around and use it to become more successful themselves? Then I really got into the strategy of it all, brand photography is a whole different kind of genre- it’s not a turn up and shoot kind of session- there is a LOT of planning, strategy, deep diving into the core of brands and how they function and who the person IS and who they talk to through their marketing. It’s fascinating and i love continuing to grow and focus my efforts on this niche.

What makes me stand out in the brand photography industry is that this isn’t just a job for me- I truly want my clients to use their images in a strategic way so their investment returns back to them ten fold. I focus on the energy side of it- how is my client feeling, what are they thinking about, how can we translate this into a single frame so their audience can get a better idea of the WHO?? I put my all into helping my clients create ON brand and ON purpose content for their own businesses.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When it comes to pivoting, call me Ross Geller. I have had MANY MANY pivots over the course of my photography career. A big one was during covid when I wasn’t able to do in person sessions for over 3 months. I was able to pivot into online offerings and coaching because I had branded myself instead of my business which meant the pivot was FAR easier and less stressful/confusing to my audience.

I knew I had to put shoots on hold so I focused on other things my audience needed instead of building a whole new audience. What ELSE could I help them with? Posing guides? How to take images with your phone? How to take better images of your food (since everyone and their mother was cooking and baking up a storm). The simplest way to pivot is to pivot your offerings instead of trying to pivot your audience.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Ab-so-friggen-lutely. I believe that if you’re not working towards goals then you’re just working and it’s not fun anymore.

My biggest goal is to create a summer program for teens who don’t feel that the traditional route of college is right for them. I was that person yet there were no resources for me and I went to school anyway- wasting a LOT of time and money.

This summer program will be for creative and business minded teens where they can learn from other people in that industry as their teachers. For example, photography classes taught by real photographers with successful businesses…graphic and web design classes by a successful designer with their own clients and so on. It’ll be a creative and business centered program with lessons like how to start an LLC and put money away for taxes and how to craft an invoice and contract along with the creative parts of each industry.

It’s a big idea and I have a lot of support and people willing to help and it’s going to be more like a summer 2023 kind of deal with micro classes on weekends and school breaks :) So keep an eye out!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nashvillebrandphotos.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/nicolebranderson
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nicolebranderson

Image Credits
All taken by me