106: Moira La Plante – The Importance of Running Your Business Authentically & Why You Need High Touch Client Interactions

August 20, 2023

“Don’t feel like you have to do anything that other people tell you to do.”

MOIRA LA PLANTE

Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Moira La Plante!

Moira La Plante is a Colorado-based photographer who has been shooting weddings with her husband, Jesse, since 2008. After graduating from Georgetown University with a business degree, Moira honed her problem-solving skills by working in many different arenas – from academia to atmospheric science research to entrepreneurship – before migrating to the wedding industry.

Last year, Moira was named one of the “25 Best Wedding Photographers in the World” by Fearless Photographers and (along with Jesse) “Photographer of the Year” by This is Reportage. She is an ambassador for MagMod, Geekoto, Cheetah Stand and DreambooksPro.

Check out some of the biggest points from Moira’s interview below:

  • Moira’s journey in the Photography Industry
  • Why it’s important to run your business in an authentic way

  • How you can do this

  • Why an ideal client is important
  • How an ideal client effects your business day-to-day

  • How high-touch interactions affect your business

  • What she would do differently if she could start her career all over again
  • Important tips for working with your spouse

  • What a huge impact looking at inspiration can make

  • The one thing that made a difference to Moira’s business!

How can listeners run their business in an authentic way?

Yeah, you know, so I mean, all this stuff is I talk about all these lessons learned. I mean, we’ve been doing this for 16 years and every single thing that we have changed in our business came from doing things the wrong way at some point. And so running our business authentically was one of those. And when we started out, you know, like we were we were so young, we thought that, you know, you look at what the wedding industry is doing, we would look at the blogs, we would look at all the photos there. And we’re like, okay, this is what we have to do. Like, this is what’s popular and what people want. So this is what we have to do to get paid. And I would say maybe like the first 3 or 4 years, we would try to do it that way. And we were miserable.

We hated every minute of it because it was not who we are. And so I think you have to like step one is listening to that voice. If you’re miserable and you can’t really figure it out, maybe you’re doing something that isn’t truly who you are. And then we had one client who and Jesse has a background not only in photojournalism but some studio photography. So he loves working with off camera flash and doing photos. We love nighttime photos because basically, like The World is your studio. Yeah. And so we had one client who specifically asked for that and we just kind of took a risk and we’re like, We’re going to do some stuff that we like that we don’t see anywhere. And they loved it. They were our biggest cheerleaders for so many years. We photographed so many of their friends weddings. They were so passionate. And that was when we realized that if we run our business and take photos the way that makes. Sense to us. People are going to be hiring us as photographers and not just because they need a photographer.

Well, and I think too, if you just try to copy everyone you know, or the copy of the average wedding photographer, what’s what’s most popular, what’s trendy nowadays and you look like everyone else and you give people the same experience as everyone else. At that point, the only thing you have to compete on is price, you know, and that’s just a race to the bottom. You know, if if couples don’t look at your photos and don’t have a great experience with you. Then they’re just going to be like, okay, you’re just one of every other photographer. What’s the bottom line? How much am I going to be paying for this? Whereas when we run our business the way that we do and take the photos that we love and give people the experience that we like to give, people hire us for that. They value it more and they’re willing to pay more for it.

Why is inspiration so important?

I honestly feel it is more important to look for inspiration outside of the wedding industry than inside the wedding industry, because going back to being authentic and running your business in a unique way, that’s not going to just copy everyone else that will allow you to differentiate yourself. You’re going to find way more of that outside of the wedding industry. And the way that we do it is that. So I know it’s a common refrain amongst wedding photographers where, you know, like you walk into a room and you’re like, okay, I would I would do photo here and I can do this. And here’s a reflective surface and I can use that. And I place the light here. And, you know, some people are like, I can’t turn it off as if it’s a bad thing. And I’ve tried to start looking that at that as if it’s a very good thing because our inspiration is just we take it from our entire life. You know, it’s those mental health Mondays.

If we go to a museum or if we watch a movie, you know, it’s like, what do we like that we’re seeing? And how can we incorporate this into our photography or into our business? You know? And one of the funniest pieces of inspiration I have from outside the wedding industry is my dentist. Um, yes. So Jesse and I go to the same dentist, but we go about a month apart. He would go first and then I would go and my dentist would ask me like, How was your trip to, you know, wherever we were? What was this wedding like? Did anything crazy happen? Like they knew all these things about my life? I was like, I don’t remember telling you this. And also, you’re my dentist. Like, what business is it of yours? Not in a like, you know, don’t be asking me this, but like, this is kind of bizarre. And then I realized that I noticed the hygienist taking notes on my chart, and it just clicked.

I was like, They’re not just taking notes about my teeth. Like they have notes about my teeth, but they’re also taking notes about our personal life. And it made our experience so much better to go in there and and feel like they know us again. Like they see us as humans, not just as teeth. Um, and so I was like, this is super simple. Just take notes. And so I have actually I have my notebook here which says reasons why I like dogs more than like people. But every single conversation I have with my clients, I just jot down notes, you know, about, like I said, what’s going on in their personal life. And that way the next conversation, I mean, I can’t remember all of this stuff. So the next conversation, I’ll just take a quick look. I can follow up. If they said like, you know, hey, we won’t make a decision until. Because we’re going on a cruise. So I know in my follow up, I’m like, Hey, how was your cruise? Tell me all about it.

Also, please let me know if you have questions, you know, so it’s it’s just it’s such a simple, easy thing to do. And it took going to my dentist to be like, Oh, I can do that, too. Yeah. So I just tried to I mean, we are customers in most of our life, like we’re being advertised to all the time. So I try to just be open to that with, with our business and say like, okay, what experience experiences have I had that I’ve loved and how can I incorporate that into my business? And also what experience that I had that I hated and how can I make sure that that never happens to our clients?

How do high-touch client interactions affect our business?

Yeah, so high touch is just, you know, I said that I hate jargon, but high tech, high touch is a jargony way of just saying that we make really, really deep connections with our clients. So I actually learned this in one of my past lives. I managed an internship program for students who are studying atmospheric science. And yeah, you know, trust me, I’ve had kind of a bizarre path to get here. Um, but one of the things I learned from my boss in this job was we’d have these students come in asking me the same questions every single day, and I would get so annoyed. I’m like, I already answered this question. And she sent me down. She was very German and very direct. And she says, for you, you’ve heard this question many times. For them, this is the first time they’re asking this question. And she’s like, We are creating.

It was a diversity program. And so she’s like, we creating a safe space where they feel comfortable to grow in their, you know, in their studies and in their career. And so it does need to be a safe space. And I really took that to heart and I feel like that’s very applicable to weddings as well. It’s like this is often the first time that these couples have done it, and if it’s not the first time, it’s probably been a few years and the wedding industry changes so quickly. So any time they have questions, I want them to feel like they are more than welcome to come to me with those questions. I am that safe space for them. I’m never going to make them feel dumb for asking something that I’ve heard a million times. I want them to ask me stuff that’s not even like photography related. I had one groom text me a photo of a light gray suit and a dark gray suit and like two different blue ties. And he just said, Help.

Thank you!

Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Moira for joining us on the show!

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions about this episode, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post, and if you liked the episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of the post!

That’s it for me this week, I hope you all enjoyed this episode.

See you soon,

Sally

About Moira La Plante

Moira La Plante is a Colorado-based photographer who has been shooting weddings with her husband, Jesse, since 2008. Last year, Moira was named one of the “25 Best Wedding Photographers in the World” by Fearless Photographers and (along with Jesse) “Photographer of the Year” by This is Reportage. A Georgetown University alumna, she is currently an ambassador for MagMod, Geekoto, Cheetah Stand and DreambooksPro.