We recently connected with Rebecca Schroeder and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rebecca thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

When I first started my business, I didn’t even know if it could work or if I could really do it. So I started out by saying “yes” to every single job. Every inquiry, every couple, every long day with little pay – I said yes. My first year in business I had almost 100 gigs all ranging between $300-$1000. I had to spend a lot of start up money on software, equipment, marketing and taxes so I didn’t even breakeven really until my third year in business. I thought that by saying yes to every wedding was smart and that would get me off the ground faster. Which I guess it did, but I got burned out SO fast. I was constantly trying to catch up on editing, I was always working, it wasn’t fun or rewarding.

Also: no one ever really talks about how being an artist/business owner is so entangled with your personal life as well. This was one of my biggest obstacles in succeeding in my craft. In my first couple years of business, I was in an abusive and toxic marriage that significantly impacted my self esteem – therefore significantly impacting how I valued myself. I was taking every low budget gig because I didn’t value myself enough to chase after something more rewarding. For the first couple of years of being in business, I feel like it was a blur. I was always tired and trying to make things work both in my personal and professional life. Getting a divorce made me instantly bloom in business. Honestly, getting a divorce was probably the best business decision I could have ever made. It significantly increased my self esteem and success.
Opening a business is not for the faint of heart. It’s already a lot of pressure and work to do what you’re doing – but adding on a chaotic personal life – 10x harder. Huge shoutout to everyone out there who has had to fight for their business and to have a healthy personal life – that’s the real struggle right there.

In my first year of business, I made so many connections and my networking game was on point. I made it a goal to make people remember me. I wanted coordinators and photographers and DJs to know my face, remember the way I worked, and to recommend me to their future couples. I knew that if I could make a name for myself in the industry and back it up with my work, I could start relying on word of mouth rather than cold marketing.

Once I had met many vendors in the industry and had proved myself as a wedding filmmaker, I started making moves in the direction I wanted. I asked myself “who are my people?” and this helped me really focus and figure out where I wanted to take my business. I wanted to showcase and celebrate more LGBTQIA+ couples. I wanted to find couples that were more wild at heart and uninhibited. Couples that were quirky and weren’t afraid to break traditions when it came to their wedding day. I honed in on who I was as a person and how I could reflect and market that in my business.

Raising my prices has always terrified me. I think “well if I raise my prices, I’m going to miss out on income.” It’s been a struggle with a career that is so unpredictable and reliant on the economy, my thought is that if I just play it safe and stay at a lower budget for couples, then I can stay in business. Imposter syndrome kicks in HARD as an artist who is trying to convince people to invest in you. I remember many talks with my dad (also a business owner) who told me that the right people will always find me. I’ve had several pep talks with coordinators and photographers who pushed me to value myself higher. They told me that I’m actually missing out on the type of couples that I want because they are not taking me seriously with my lower prices. This kind of blew my mind and I realized that if I wanted to be valued for my art and talent, I needed to reflect that in presenting what I had to offer.

So that’s what I did. I raised my prices significantly, I started saying “no” to couples who didn’t fit my mission and “yes” to couples who valued the artistic flare that I could bring to the table, and pretty soon my business started generating six figures and the burnout started fading away. I was working with people who appreciated me as an artist and I was creating films that felt full of passion, story, humor, and magic. Now I’m only connecting with couples who are weird and in love and it’s been so fun and rewarding to be a part of.

Rebecca , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I grew up in a small, rural, conservative town in Texas and I never really felt like I fit in. There was a loud, colorful, bold me always trying to show up and never really being accepted. It wasn’t until I got to college and went for my three degrees in Film and Business and Artistic Entrepreneurship – where I really fell into my own and flourished. I have always been passionate about art, acceptance, and people and in becoming a business owner, I get to do that every day with wedding filmmaking.

So now, I am a wedding filmmaker based out of Austin, Texas. My run and gun filmmaking style is suited for couples who are looking for something different and tailored to them. I make wedding films for the wild at heart. For the weird, nontraditional, fun, and bold couples. I, myself, am queer and it has always been my goal to provide a safe, bright, beautiful place for everyone in and out of the LGBTQIA+ community. I want couples to bring every part of themselves – the more honest and raw, the better. That’s why you’ll never see me doing two videos exactly alike. Every couple has their story, their vibe, so each and every one of my films do, too. I embrace diversity, quirks, awkwardness, silliness and letting yourself be weird AF.

A lot of wedding films that you see are cheesy, boring, stuffy, and claim to be “cinematic and timeless”…..bleh. This is so boring to me and I want to give couples basically a time capsule of who they are in this moment in time. I see this amazing magic that happens where there is just love bursting from my couples that I want to capture it like lightning bugs. I want to jar it up in a bottle for them so they can always remember how in love they are.
I don’t use cheesy instrumental music, I don’t use tons of slow motion shots of blades of grass swaying in the wind, I don’t use static boring shots, and I don’t copy and paste one film to next. Each edit it intentional. Each story is different. Everything I do is in the name of the couple and I get to do it through my passion.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

For a while, I thought that in order to be successful, I had to fit in as much as I could. I felt like I had to look and blend in like everyone else. I was really wanting to be accepted in the industry and I thought I could accomplish that by being what I thought everyone else wanted me to be.

BOY WAS I WRONG. I realized what a waste it was to be anything but my true, authentic self. I decided to embrace who I was and become that in my business. So at first, my website and branding was a bit dull, muted, and “classic”. I was getting a lot generic clients this way. I finally did a whole 180 in matching my business with my personality and it paid off immediately. My website is now bold and rowdy. My Instagram content is joyful, funny, colorful, and loud. And because of this switch – because I aligned my business to match ME – I now have a solid reputation in my market as a bold creator for weird and badass clients. I am now getting referrals from coordinators and photographers for clients that are wild, fun, and intensely in love. For example, whenever I started truly embracing my bold, colorful, weird, queer self – those are the couples who started finding me. BUT – the conservative and more muted clients STOPPED inquiring with me all together and I am not getting referred by the industry to these types of couples. By representing myself accurately and fully on my online presence, the people who resonated with it were able to find me.

So really, making sure that my business looked like ME was the biggest growth I’ve seen for myself. It’s what helped me stand out and make a name for myself. I decided to break away from blending in. I decided to stop being scared of what others might think. Who I am isn’t for everyone. And that’s okay.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I started my business confident in my filmmaking skills but not in myself. I’ve always struggled to believe in myself and be confident in my body. I have always felt like I can’t be my full self because it won’t be accepted. Am I too loud? Do I embarrass people around me? Am I too much? Am I not enough? These are questions I’ve struggle with my whole life and were cemented in with my past relationship with my ex-husband. He made me feel like I was worth nothing. He made me feel like I was not wanted. I remember one of the last things he said to me was “You’re not gonna make it. You’re gonna fail. Your business is going to fail and you’re just going to wind up with nothing without me.” Not gonna lie, this was a real fear of mine and I believed him. I believed him and not in myself. Fast forward through breakdowns, tears, anger, realizations, epiphanies, and therapy – I am loud and proud. I am not too much. I am enough. My business is successful because I worked for it to be successful. I did not fail. I believe in myself and that’s what will push me forward. I gave too much power to what other people think when in reality, I am successful because of who I am and in spite of them. As soon as I stopped giving power to other people and invested that energy into myself, I bloomed like a beautiful Texas magnolia tree. I am so proud of who I’ve become and I’ve learned to hold onto that instead of giving it to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rebeccalynnfilms.com/texas-wedding-videographer
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebeccalynnfilms/