097: Rhea Whitney – Creating a Sustainable Business Model & Creating Expert Marketing Content
May 10, 2023
“You get to do whatever it is you want to do, however it is that you want to do it”
RHEA WHITNEY
Hey everyone! It’s Sally here, from Studio Ninja. Today’s episode is all about Rhea Whitney!
Rhea Whitney is an international wedding photographer and speaker & educator for creative entrepreneurs who want to run a profitable photography business. In the last 10 years, Rhea has consistently driven her business to six figures by putting client service first, establishing a constant brand presence, collaborating with top vendors and sponsors + implementing strategic marketing that works!
Recently, Rhea was named one of the world’s top wedding photographers of 2020 & 2021 by BRIDES magazine; and has also been featured in many other national publications. Though Rhea has become one of the most sought photographers and speakers in her industry, she is most passionate about collaborating with local sponsors and vendors for events, styled shoots, and content creation. To date, Rhea has helped over 100+ creatives build a revenue-generating business through 1:1 coaching + her digital education platform PhotoBomb Academy™.
Rhea grew up with a camera in hand, and in her free time loves to work out, hang with her girlfriends, relax by the water, or do a little shopping at Nordstrom. She is a proud graduate of Howard University, where she majored in Business Finance & Accounting. She attributes her success to her genuine passion for client service, business and finance acumen + innate love for photography and art; which allowed her to deeply understand the numerical world of camera settings and the beauty it creates.
She is most renowned for giving real-life applicable tips that any brand or business can apply right now, in a simplified way they can understand.
Check out some of the biggest points from Rhea’s interview below:
What is a signature offer?
Your signature offer sits in wedding photography, but it’s also in the time in which for the wedding, the package, how you create this value packed package because that’s the offer. The signature offer is not just wedding photography. It’s actually your gold package. For me, mine is called my Dangerously in Love package. That is my signature offer. I know that when I get certain inquiries or I get certain clients coming my way and they’re like, “Oh, I want you as my wedding photographer,” more than likely I know that I can lead them to that. Now in that package, I have very clearly outlined the time in which I will be there for their wedding. Typically, eight hours. My Dangerously in Love is eight hours, two professional photographers.
I also have an engagement session in that package. I include consultations and final prep calls for both the engagement session and the wedding day. There are other benefits of that package that I don’t really put out and I don’t tell the client, but that I provide to the client, again, really being a high value package, a high value offer. And so when I think about a signature offer, it has to do with all of the fine details that are included in the offer, plus the deliverables. I think about it like what do they want versus what do they need? And how can you package an offer up that meets both of those wants and needs and is priced premiumly? I think that’s the other piece that is so important, especially when you’re first starting. We are so scared to charge what we believe we are worth and you are probably developing your skills.
There’s some areas that you’re still like, “Ugh, I got to get better at this. I have to do better at this.” And sometimes, I know this because I have clients, they’re like, “Yeah, but I remember this one time when this happened and I wasn’t ready, or my battery went die,” whatever happened and you talk yourself down. And so the thing about all of what we do, whether it’s corporate America, photography, it does not matter, we’re literally growing and learning as we go. No one starts off wedding photography knowing everything about how to be the best wedding photographer. There’s so much on-the-job training that you just go through, but that doesn’t take away from your skills, your ability to think fast, your ability to control light and control environments and have a execution plan of the day. There’s so many touchpoints and service points that happen throughout a wedding day.
I want to go back. So when we’re thinking about that signature offer, really that price point, you have to really make sure that you’re not undercharging for this service. Taking to account your time, the time for potentially your second shooter, the time for the engagement session, the time for the consultations that you have with them, the cost of the wedding for the galleries and for the gear and for your travel and things like that, and come up with a price that feels good to you but that’s premium. That’s all I can say. And some people’s premium price might be $10,000, $15,000. Some people’s premium price might be somewhere between $5,000, $6,000. Some people’s premium might be $3,000 to $4,000. It’s just whatever feels good to you at that level in which you’re at, again, using data, using metrics in your business, and then thinking about all of the deliverables that you’re going to do and all the time that it takes to do those things. And so that’s what I think is the most important pieces of a signature offer; what’s included in the package, the deliverables, and then the price point in which you are selling that package for.
How can photographers prioritise self-care?
Sally, literally, this is probably one of my most favorite topics to speak about right now, because honestly, in 2020 we went through a lot. In 2020, my mother passed and in one of the most busy seasons of… It was October. And as most creatives know, October is like, “Woo!” We are just in the thick of it. And so she was such a important figure in my life and literally my best friend. She’s a mom, right? She was a great person. And so I had to really take care of myself. I had to put myself first. I had to learn how to have better boundaries with clients. I had to just do some really hard work to really put Rhea first because I want everyone to know and think about this: there is no business if there is no you.
There is no signature offer, there is no you shooting weddings, there is no all of the fun things that we love about being a photographer if you do not take care of yourself. And the truth of the matter for us photographers and service providers in general is that we are constantly giving. We give so much to others. We give our time, we give our energy, we give our weekends, we give far in advance. We give our brain power, we give our magic and so much, and so we have to also take care of that. We have to also learn how to put different practices in place that always will take care of you. And so I’m big on the caring for the creative. I just am so big on that and what that looks like for me, so many things. Number one is owning my mornings, really having a morning routine that feels good to me.
Again, as I’m a woman of faith, I like to start with a little praise and worship music just to get the day going. Maybe some journaling, maybe working out or going on a quick walk to get my body moving, to get my brain connected with my mind, connected with my body, just owning my morning. Also, I make time for CEO days. I put CEO days on my calendar every quarter far in advance. Even this year, at the top of the year I was like, “Okay, what days do I know I want to be off?” I want to just have vacation with my friends, maybe vacation with my family, maybe vacation by myself, maybe it’s a staycation. It does not matter. It doesn’t have to be something that I spend a lot of money on all the time, but I need to make time for myself.
And then other things, I do believe we have to get in a routine of moving our body, stretching, going out in nature. Sometimes when I think about when I’m working out, I’m like, “This is like clearing the cobwebs in my head, clearing all of that overthinking that’s going on.” And that is absolutely a form of self-care. And so there’s just so many things that you can do, free and paid, that really take care of your yourself. And so I just want to charge you to think about how can I do little things each day that take care of me, that fill up my cup. Your environment in which you’re surrounded around, who pours into you, and maybe even having boundaries for people that don’t need to be connected to you so closely because your dreams and your aspirations really bring them fear and they don’t speak life into you.
And so you have to just be conscious of filling up your cup all the time, because we are absolutely going to empty it out to clients. That’s just a known fact. And so doing things, CEO days, taking some time for yourself, maybe a vacation or taking a walk, whatever it is, and then just small practices that you can incorporate each week, each day that help you pour back into yourself, have you more self-aware of how you feel. I also am a big proponent of therapy. I’m a coach. I coach others. I have a coach. I also have a therapist. I just have to do the things because as a business owner, so much comes up. Business is hard in general. It’s very scary. We’re putting ourselves out there.
We have to be so bold and so courageous and sometimes you just get in your head. You can overthink, fear can stall you, all of those things. So thinking about the environment that surrounds you, thinking about those people that pour into you, and just thinking about what would make you feel really good and recharged time and time again that you can go back to, it helps to fill up your cup so that as you continue to pour out, you’re pouring out from a full cup, not an empty cup. And so I just think self-care is so important as CEOs, as business owners. We have to do a better job at it and it’s really up to us. We just have to carve out the time. You’re going to see that it’s going to just help you be more effective, more efficient in your business, more happy, have more joy in what you do, and help you get over the hard days, get over the hard times because they’re going to come. And so just putting those practices in place is something that I’m really, really passionate about for myself and for my community. I do not play about that.
If you could add one final piece of advice, something that’s made a difference in your personal life or your business life, what would that piece of advice be?
You get to do whatever it is you want to do, however it is that you want to do it. I think sometimes, especially in our industry, we just feel like we have to do it this exact way. “Well, I saw this person do it this way and I saw another person do it like this,” and we get stuck in that runt of, “Well, we have to do it just like this,” but that is not true. The more that we lean into this is our business, we get to do it our way and our way is what’s going to bring us joy and happiness and contentment and it is going to help us continue to authentically be ourselves, that’s the best thing. So go the path less traveled. Do the thing that’s been sitting on your heart that just gives you butterflies every time you think about it.
Do it. Take the first step. Try it out. And so as CEOs and entrepreneurs, we have the key. We can write the blueprint, we can make it up. If you can dream, it can come to life. If this is something that you really want to do, whatever it is, do it. There’s no right or wrong way. You might mess up. That’s okay. When you mess up, you learn lessons. I would say that I want everyone to build their business in a way that feels really, really good to them and is them at the core, not anyone else. And when you do that, you’re going to just find yourself to be so much more happy, so much more content in business, and you’re going to see that it’s going to pay off. And so I truly believe in that.
Thank you!
Thanks again to you all for joining us and a huge thanks to Rhea 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 Rhea Whitney
Rhea Whitney is an international wedding photographer and speaker & educator for creative entrepreneurs who want to run a profitable photography business. In the last 10 years, Rhea has consistently driven her business to six figures by putting client service first, establishing a constant brand presence, collaborating with top vendors and sponsors + implementing strategic marketing that works!
