SMME EP 412: The Power of Personal Brand Photography with Brianna Shrader of Shy Heart Studios

7:53AM Apr 21, 2025

Speakers:

Keywords:

Brand photography

visual storytelling

personal brand

social media engagement

ROI tracking

brand narrative

client connection

professional images

brand update

loyalty programs

esthetician marketing

business growth

personal branding

photography process

brand strategy.

Welcome to Spa Marketing Made Easy, a podcast for spa owners who want to step up their leadership and business skills and step into the role as spa CEO. I'm your host. Daniela Woerner, CEO of Addo Aesthetics and Founder of the Growth Factor Framework Program, where we teach, coach and guide spa owners in scaling their spas to the next level of growth and unlocking freedom in their life and their business. I'm so glad you're here now. Let's dive into the show. Hello, my dears. Daniela here and welcome to the spa marketing Made Easy podcast. I just wrapped up a fun interview with Brianna, who is a brand photographer, and she shared some really powerful insights around visual storytelling for your brand. So she really puts it into an easy to understand perspective of why this is so important. So we did have a moment where the internet froze up for a second. So if you hear a bit of a pause, it's not your phone. Apologies for that, but it was such a great interview, I didn't want to discard it just for those you know 10 to 15 seconds that there was a pause. So let me go ahead and just do a quick read of her bio, and then we can jump right into that interview. Brianna isn't just the creative visionary behind shy heart studios, a leading Orange County photography powerhouse. She's a testament to the resilience and the power of reinvention. This mother, too and devoted wife, has a life story as vibrant as the images she captures, inspired by the cherished family albums, Brianna honored her craft with a BFA in Creative Photography from CSU Fullerton. Her path, however, wasn't without hurdles. Early in her career, she faced the collapse of a business partnership, forcing her to rebuild her dream from the ground up. Undeterred, she not only resurrected her business, but also steered through the tumultuous waters of a global pandemic, emerging stronger than ever as a full service photography studio with three consecutive record breaking profit years with over a decade of expertise, Brianna leads a team of 10 photographers, three dedicated office staff, capturing over 100 weddings annually. Her relaxed, fun filled approach allows clients true personalities to radiate. Brianna's talent lies in transforming fleeting moments into a treasured heirloom artwork, her authentic images reflecting the heart and soul of countless families, couples and brands. All right. So great interview, great perspective on the power of brand photography, how you can track ROI all of the good things. Give it a listen and enjoy. All right. Briana, welcome to the spell marketing Made Easy podcast. I think this is going to be such an impactful conversation to really, you know, social media images, there's so many people that don't like to be on camera, but the true power of what you can do with visual storytelling and being able to connect with your potential clients and patients. It it's just, it's priceless when you're able to connect with them on that level by letting them know who you are, absolutely and you know, we, we want to, I want to get into this conversation with you, and it's going to be interesting, because there's so many people, myself included, I haven't been on social media for over a year. Greatest decision I made in my life,

I'm gonna say, good for you, yeah, greatest

decision I made in my life. But that doesn't mean that my business doesn't have a social media presence. That doesn't mean that I'm still not creating pieces of content that help tell the story of who we are and what we're about. So tell me. Tell me about your kind of pathway. I know you started as a photographer, did weddings, and now you're into branding photography. What has that journey been like for you? And then, you know, what have you seen with the branding photography work?

Sure, so i Yes, I started out primarily as a wedding photographer, and during COVID, had to make a major shift, because weddings, I

know everybody, it's always like and then COVID, and then COVID, yeah.

And, you know, I let myself feel really sad for a year. I feel like I was losing my business. And then one day, I was like, All right, kind of put on those big girl pants and figure out what's next, figure out how I don't get caught in a situation like this ever again. So I expanded into full service family portrait photography from there and as a small business owner, as somebody who was trying to, like, reinvent myself, I really started to resonate with personal brands. I was I was somebody who for the entirety of my career, did not want my face on social media, did not want my voice on social media. I didn't like seeing myself on camera, so I hid behind my work. And when reels be. Came a thing, I was like, Oh, now I have to talk on camera. And I really, really shied away from it. And then when I started to occasionally post something personal about myself, I noticed a massive shift in engagement, and I started to realize what I think everybody is realizing these days, how much more people are creating that personal connection. So if you are looking at, let's say you are interested in getting Botox, or you're interested in starting to get a chemical peel or do more with your skincare that you've never done before, which is honestly kind of a funny side note too, because that was me in this last year. I never paid a whole lot of attention to that kind of self care until this year, and so it's a perfect example of, okay, I'm following these estheticians. I'm following these spas to learn tips and tricks on what I can do with my skin. And let's say you're following six or seven of them. The one that's going to stand out to you the most is the one that you know is also a working mom who has kids that she's dropping off at school every day, who likes to have a glass of wine on Friday night, because some that's something that resonates with you. So starting to like weave those personal stories in, in my opinion, and I think in the vast majority of people's opinions out there these days, is what is making people connect to brands more

can we? Can we pause there and get into like, healthy boundaries? Yes, because how do you like if you're creating a business that you want to sell, or if you just are concerned with in general privacy, or you're wanting to build something that you want people to go to your providers and not you. That's a big thing with estheticians. They're building up their practice and and everyone wants to go to them, but they need to build a team to get other people to go. How do we really establish and create kind of the things that we're comfortable talking about, the things that we want to put out there without over sharing?

That's such a great question, because that's very important to me. I don't put my children on my public social media accounts, but I do talk about being a mother. I will do little video clips of them from behind. I will tell stories about them. I don't use their names and I don't show their the front of their faces, I will occasionally do like a side profile, because my kids privacy is really important to me, but also I'm very entrenched in the world of AI as well, and I know what can be done with that kind of stuff. So it for me, personally, it's very concerning. So I have my private accounts where I only have friends and family, but on my public accounts, so that I can kind of weave those things together. I share, I share what I'm comfortable with, and that's what it comes down to, is what's your level of comfort, and if kids are off limits, then kids are off limits for you. And that is okay. You can still talk about being a parent. If that's something you want to talk about. You can still interweave those things in a way that makes you feel comfortable, and I think that it's really, really, really important that you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable and doesn't make you feel like you're using your family or you're using your drama or your trauma to get engagement. Another thing that I have heard from coaches of my own in the past, when we're talking about our stories, right? So a lot of us have a story of why we got to where we are. Sometimes there's trauma involved, and the key is because we also don't want to cross that line of of of trauma where we're sharing too much, and people are like, okay, sob story, sob story, right? So can

be, I mean, especially in the world of esthetics, a lot of people got into the industry because they had, you know, some type of issue with their skin, yeah, and and so like, that is a personal story that can be shared, and can be in the middle of A divorce, then maybe you don't, yeah. So,

so the idea is, you share something if you've healed from it, so if it's no longer causing you active pain and trauma, but it is a very important part of your story. Because maybe that divorce is why you opened your business as an esthetician. Maybe that catapulted you into, you know, leaving the business that you worked for for many years and made you decide that it was time to start your own. And so that is still a part of your journey. But you don't have to talk about the nitty gritty of how ugly it was, you know. So talk about the parts that you've healed from, which will still give that personal connection to people that'll be like, Oh my gosh, that happened to me. I went through a divorce, and then decided to reinvent myself too, you know, or I grew up with horrible acne, and I was, I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. That's part of your story. And then I healed from that, and here's how I did it, and here's the products I used, right? And here's what I use to reduce the scarring now that I have years later from, you know, not knowing how. Care for my skin as a teenager, and here's how you can use this to help your teenager, you know. So I think you can really interweave those if you're using the story as a way to share your journey without focusing on the overly heavy, if that makes sense.

So talk to me about this this idea of visual storytelling, and how we actually do that. What is the work that is required? So if I were to hire a brand photographer to come in and they're wanting to put together, you know, I don't know if it's called a storyboard or, you know, kind of a visualization of what is this journey going to look like. How are we going to tell who you are? Is that like a zoom call that you do with the brand photographer in advance? Like, what is this whole process to be able to convey whatever messaging you're trying to get out. So first,

I think the most important thing is to make sure that you are hiring a photographer who is actually a brand photographer, not that that's all they do, but that it is a facet of their business. Specifically, I think a lot of people get lost in I just need a good photographer, but they're not necessarily hiring somebody who actually works with brands, and the reason that's important is because if you work with a photographer like myself, Yes, I'll either have you come in and sit with me at my studio, or we'll get on a zoom call and we do a full discovery. I learn about your brand. I learn about what your brand message is. I learn a little bit about your personal life. I hear your story, and we together craft the narrative that you want your audience to hear from you. So that's a collaborative thing that's, I think, is super important. And a lot of photographers are like, Oh yeah, I'll take your head shots. But brand photography is not just head shots. It's, it's literally telling your story and giving your brand a visual narrative. And so finding somebody who's going to hash that all out with you and storyboard with you. Sometimes we do Pinterest. Sometimes they're just sending me, you know, pictures of things that they like and we want. I want to know are you, do you like the light, bright and airy look? Is that what your studio is like? I need to know what your studio space is, because those things need to tie together. If your studio space is a little bit more eclectic and dark and, you know, ethereal, then we're going to we're going to go places like that. So most, most brand photographers are going to offer you different things, like, you know, a refresh that's going to be on the shorter side, a half day, where you're going to be able to do a couple different locations and multiple outfits, or a full day where you're able to kind of tell a lot of information in one day, but make it look like it's done across many days. And that's really important too, because you want to get a lot of content in in in a short period of time, because we don't have we're business owners, we don't all have the time to be out getting photographed pretty regularly. So I always recommend my clients start off with like, a full day session where we do three to four locations and multiple outfits, and part of that day is focused on you as an esthetician in your space, we make sure that we get some clients involved so that we can show you at work. We also do, of course, beautiful head shots, because your website's going to need beautiful shots of you in different looks and things like that. And then we also tie in that personal so we finish at a wine bar, or we finish, you know, on the beach or something that brings that. You know, this is my life outside of work element to the story.

So for an esthetician looking for a brand photographer, you're in California, we'll obviously put your links below, but we have people all over the US and in Canada, what are the things that they should be looking for as they're interviewing? To understand, is this the right person for me?

So definitely asking them how they craft the story and how that process works. So I would say, if I back up a little bit, first and foremost, like I said previously, make sure that they actually do brand photography, and they don't just do headshots, or they're not just a family photographer whose style you like, because just like I would say, don't hire a family photographer who doesn't have anything about weddings on their website to go shoot your wedding. There's so much more involved in each facet of photography than just actual talent of taking the photos, and it's about how they bring out who you are. And so somebody who actually works with brands and knows how to tell that story and knows how to collaborate with you on crafting that story is really important. So that would be number one, is finding somebody who actually does have at least a focus on brand photography, and then two, asking them that process. What is your process? How do we. Figure out how this day is going to go. Do you help me choose outfits? Do you help me choose locations? Is it all on me? Do I have to do all the work? Is there a worksheet that you can provide me with, things that I should bring so I would want them to understand how much coaching is involved in the process of the session

we always talk about, you know, in our communities, the importance of ROI, and when we're looking at something like photography, brand photography, it can be unclear or challenging to track for some and a piece of advice that I want to share, and then I'd love to get your insight on it is when we're looking, you know, for spa, most of our clients are coming from Google, from Instagram or from referral. And the way that we can track those things, we're obviously tracking them in house, but we want to have a direct connection of, here's the amount of clients or patients that were booked directly from Instagram, that were that came to me directly from, you know, and maybe we use some of this brand photography. It's across all of your social platforms. It's on your Google business profile. It's on your website, right? So we're getting the benefit of it in multiple places. But when you track like, how much time and money have I spent on my Instagram profile, for example, and then if I can directly track how many patients have come to my practice from Instagram, then I can have some, you know, you never know totally for sure, but it's giving you at least some type of number of, yes, I'm absolutely I'm getting 20 new patients a month, and each patient is valued, you know, they're Spending X amount of money, my you know lifetime customer value is this, etc. Do you have any other insights or ways that you are tracking return on investment for a service like this? So

for a service like photography, that you're right is really tricky because you're using across all the platforms, but I think a good rule of thumb before you invest in it. If you have not yet invested in it, look at the quality of leads that you're getting from each of those and how many of them you're converting right? And then, after six months of a brand new feed, a brand new look on your website across all these check the difference in the quality of the leads that you got, and that can give you kind of an idea of were people coming in ready to spend in a different way than they were previously. So for my own personal brand as a photographer, I did a revamp last year, and previous to my revamp, previous to changing my messaging and my imagery across all of my platforms to service a wider clientele and a higher level of clientele, I was getting a lot of no's because people weren't interested in spending what my rates were, and that has shifted completely. The quality of leads that I'm getting now are so much higher they come in, they see my brand, they see what I offer, and they know that I'm not cheap just by looking at my feed. So if that, if that, I hope that's helpful, I would try to track that prior to the prior to the change, and then you can kind of measure that in in at least a rough way of how the quality of leads changes

energetically. Do you feel like it? You shifted when you because sometimes, when we do a brand update, I mean, we did an update in 2020, COVID, right? And then we, more recently, did another one, and just the way that I described what I did, or the confidence that I felt when someone would go to my website, or, you know, it's it's at a different level now that we've done what I considered a much needed update. And so energetically, do you feel like when you have the professional images or something that's kind of in alignment. Because, as you know, we were talking before, we're both at 10 years in business, both celebrating a decade. And you know, the person that I was when I started this business is different than the person that I was in 2020, is different than the person that I am now, right? And so it's kind of this. It's really like an ecosystem you know, that we're creating of how we show up, the confidence that we feel, because so much of charging a price and feeling comfortable about it, it's how you deliver absolutely and

how you present. It and yes. So to answer your question, 100% I carry myself very differently than I did 10 years ago as well. And I've shifted my brand. I've also changed my logo. I did that in 21 or 22 as well, completely redid my logo to have a more elegant look and feel. And then I followed that with a change in all of my imagery to make it look more professional. We did some studio shoots and things like that. And I mean, what I found too was I kind of found myself obsessing over my own website, and like being so excited for people to see the change, and that, in and of itself, shifted me too. I was like, Look at my new website. Go look at how everything is so different, you know? And, yeah, so, so definitely, there's an energetic shift when you, when you put yourself, it's a lot like, I think that that visualization where you're like, Okay, see yourself in five years in the big house with the massive business, and start walking today like that already exists, like you already have, that you've already achieved that. I feel like that's what changing your brand, it like catapults you into that mental next phase of elevation.

So I'm talking about this non stop with my growth factor clients and on the podcast. So if you guys regular listener. Sorry, you're going to hear this over and over again, but I listened to a podcast with Dr Ben Hardy, who's on a ton of podcast, and he said your future self determines your present reality, so the vision that you have for yourself is what affects the actions that you're taking in the day to day. And that was such a switch, because so many people are reactionary, while this happened in my past, and so I'm afraid, or I'm cautious, or I'm whatever you know, fearful that I'm going to fail. Well, your future self, if your future self is determining that it's kind of, there is no past to be worried about. We're kind of removing those limitations and focusing on what is possible for us. So it's same kind of concept. But yeah, I love that. I think it's such an important piece to be really confident about how you show up. Be proud. And I know for me, I was at a point where I was like, someone would go to our website, and I'll be like, but we really need an update or but we really, you know, it's

like you have to, like, give this like, don't judge me.

I haven't done an update since 2020, and COVID. But it's, you know, like, when you're in that space, you know that it's like, Okay, it's time to do something, because we need to, kind of, as you say, put your big girl panties on. And yes, you know, when you are just the way that you're representing yourself and positioning yourself. So if

you want a brand that is elevated, you have to show up with the brand that you want. If you want to be perceived as next level, if you want to be perceived as elegance, you have to show up that way. You just have to

something that, I think as well with kind of your online presence in Spa, there's a lot of talk around the Groupons of the world and discount shoppers. And should I discount and for me, like the whole point of marketing and branding is to build trust, to build trust and connection. Do I believe that this is the person who can solve the problem that I'm facing. And when someone is calling and they're just immediately asking you for price, your marketing is not working. And so how do we how do we solve that problem? You know, because we always, I like to always look at myself and say, Okay, well, what can I do to address this? What am I doing to attract this type of person, and if you are getting only price shoppers, look at your brand, look at your online presence. What are you doing? Are you only competing with price, or are you sharing your core values? Are you sharing what you are an expert in? Are you showing up with confidence in you know, what it is that you're able to solve for that person? Think that's a really important piece. That's again, kind of one of those squishy and tangible things, but it makes such a difference. Makes such a difference, absolutely,

yeah, I'm and it's like, you know, to touch on the discount thing too. Like, Ferrari doesn't offer discounts, you know. Like, do you want to be the Ferrari of the spa world, you know? And if you do, then you have to. Show up that way, right? It just comes back to the way that you show up. If you present yourself like Ferrari, people are not going to come through the door and be like, what can you do for me? You know what I mean, they're going to come in and be like, how do I get in how do I get in here? How do I get into that car? You know, rather than

fully agree, and I think it's important also in you know, 2024 has been a really challenging year for spa. As for most businesses, you don't have to turn directly to discounting. You can create micro offers absolutely. You can create things that will increase your client base or your patient base, so that you can have more time to build trust with them. So these are your 30 minute express services. These are, you know, like, what are these different things that you can do to let people get a taste of what it's like to do business with you once they've had that experience and they have that know, like and trust factor, it's going to be much easier to get them to commit to a higher priced service, because they believe and they trust that you are the one that's going to give them the experience that they're looking For.

Absolutely I think it comes down to experience at the end of the day. For sure, I also think so, something I started working on this year in my own business is loyalty programs. So to try to get those clients to come back year after year, they spend a lot with me, especially my family clients. They spend a lot with me. We do artwork. We don't just like shoot and burn digital files and, you know, run that way. So when people come to me, they're going to invest. And I don't do mini sessions anymore because of that, because I provide this full service experience. But something I did this year as part of a loyalty idea to my my clients that worked with me all year is I did offer Santa mini sessions this year. So I did do something, and I gave it to a couple of my most loyal clients that you know, so then they got to come in and have this little mini experience. It also brought in a few new clients that have never done a full session with me, and now we're seeing that value. So definitely, I think the language around it as well when we're calling it a discount is different than when we're calling it a loyalty program, or, you know, you know, just using that language differently to get new clients in. I'm so sorry. I just lost my screen. There we go. Sorry about that. So that the language around that also feeds the energy around that too, right? 100%

okay, so anything else you want to add or share to someone about the value of brand photography, about the importance of visual storytelling before we kind of wrap up and I share your links and all of that.

Yeah, I think just understanding the world of esthetics, it's about it's about how you perceive yourself, and it's about how you want to look and how you want to take care of yourself. And I think that having the brand to match that is so important. So if, if esthetics are important when it comes to being an esthetician, and they are equally, if not more, important in the way that you show up on social media to attract the clients that you want. So I really think that those just are, they just coexist harmoniously and need to be together in order to elevate any brand.

Such good advice. Okay, so where can everybody find you? Follow you get in touch with you all of those things. So

we're on all the major social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. We are the most active on Instagram. So you can find us at shy heart studios on Instagram. We're also on Pinterest. We're kind of everywhere, and our website is shy heart studios.com

Wonderful. Thank you so much. This was really insightful. I love your perspective, and I'm really grateful for you sharing your expertise with our community.

Thank you so much for having me. It was wonderful. I appreciate it.

As always, if you want to keep the conversation going, I want you to head on over to the spa. Marketing Made Easy. Facebook group, the number one free resource out there for estheticians focused on business building. We've got weekly marketing tips, a monthly goal setting and planning session, monthly esthetician business book club, plus a community of 1000s of estheticians committed to business building in the spa industry. I'll see you there.