Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shannon Leiner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shannon, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I spent my whole life loving photography. My mom worked in a studio for a time as a kid, and when she purchased her first professional camera to take photos at home I was obsessed. I probably went through an intense amount of film as a child, but my parents were good about it. As cameras were more accessible and I grew up I would always have a camera around and quickly became the friend who had all of the pictures from events and nights out. When I finished high school I decided to work in a portrait studio while I was in college. I have health issues and I was caring for my father who was ill so I never considered photography anything but something I enjoyed. I played it safe and made sure I was always working somewhere. As I got older my health wasn’t great, but it was manageable. However, my father needed more care. So we as a family worked our schedules around it and I started adding freelance photography to the list of jobs I was doing. When Covid hit and I was forced to stay still for the first time in my life I was finally able to get into a good habit of caring for my health. When my father passed during the year I sat with everything and I decided I was just going to go for it. I was over playing it safe and since everyone was rebuilding it was the perfect time to just take the leap. So in the middle of the pandemic I started looking for a small studio that I could utilize for family photos. I started taking extra classes and doing research and expanded into boudoir by January of 2021. I kept my team small and my space clean and safe and built as the world started opening back up. Then when May 2021 rolled around I was ready to start hosting creative photography events. There are ups and downs but I’m so glad that I just went for it because now I can focus all of my energy on my own business and I love it.

Shannon, 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 come from a family of creatives. I grew up oil painting, china painting, taking pictures, singing and dancing. My family was crazy talented and I loved creating with them. When I started focusing more on photography I always looked at it as just another branch of art. Now my business focuses on both boudoir and creative photography as an extension of that mindset. I like to use photography to let me clients see themselves as what they are, which is truly art. Sometimes that’s seeing their body in a new light via a boudoir session and sometimes it’s letting their inner child come out and play dress up in a Viking creative shoot. I always want to encourage people to come see me when they just want to enjoy some freedom. Freedom to be silly, to be sexy, to be dark, to be quirky; whatever lets them have the most fun.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

While I enjoy social media and what it can do to reach new people, I am very old school in the way I approach growing my clientele. I like to keep my focus on referrals and word of mouth. A lot of my clients are sent to me by my current clients, which helps with their comfort coming in to see a boudoir photographer quite a bit. I like to build relationships with related businesses so that we can offer our services to each other’s clienteles since we have built that trust and confidence with them.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

One of my many jobs for a while was working as a freelance photographer. I would shoot family, friends, small events and even engagement sessions. That turned into friends of friends and family and so on. One of the key moments that shifted my thought about making it into a business was a one two punch of doing an old friends’ engagement session and taking some family photos of my nephews. When my Uncle saw the pictures he just said to anyone who would listen that I was meant to be doing photography and that everyone knew it. That same day my friend reached out after seeing her engagement photos and basically told me I was being silly not taking the leap and doing it full time. So when I decided to finally do it after some big life changes I started small with a little refurbished chicken coop doing family photos. I set the year goal of having a bigger space and adding boudoir, which I managed to do in 3 months. My 3 year goal of expanding into creative and holding events happened in 8 months. Now my new goals are lined up and I am enjoying my work in all of it forms as it grows with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: focusbyshannonleigh.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_byshannonleigh/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/focusphotori