Making big pivots and shifts in your business can be intimidating. My dear friend Posy Quarterman has spent the last year making major changes—from opening a studio and exploring new services to taking ownership of an entire conference herself. In today’s episode, she’s sharing all about what this has looked like, including he struggles and successes that came out of it.
The Business-First Creatives Podcast is brought to you by CRM and Dubsado expert Colie James. Join Colie each week as she discusses how to build a business that brings you joy and a paycheck! From business advice with fellow entrepreneurs to sharing automation tips and tricks, Colie and her guests are sharing industry trends and resources, along with a little bit of sarcasm.
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Guest Bio:
Born in Staten Island, NY, and raised in Portland, Oregon, Posy is a mover and a shaker, a fiercely devoted friend, and a travel addict, with a lifelong love of documenting people just as they are. She briefly attended art school in NYC, but returned to the Pacific Northwest to study criminal justice and work in the criminal defense world. Despite loving that work, in 2007, after becoming a mother, Posy decided to try make a go of this photography thing. Over the last fifteen years she has worked tirelessly to build a thriving family photography business in her beloved city. In 2016 after searching for a photography conference that catered to the Family Photography industry and coming up short, Posy co-founded The Family Narrative. Posy teaches an online course called Raising a Family Business for Illuminate Classes, and co-hosts a Book Club for Creatives with Summer Murdock.
If you’ve tried setting up your Dubsado account, yet aren’t actually utilizing all of the features it offers, I want to invite you to check out The CRM Blueprint. My course includes templates for all of the forms, emails, and workflows that you need to get paid in one easy step. Ready to maximize your use of Dubsado, enroll in The CRM Blueprint today! Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.
Here are the highlights…
[1:18] Meet Posy
[1:59] Opening a Studio
[3:29] Investing in the Studio
[5:01] Pivoting When Things Don’t Excite You Anymore
[11:43] Generating Enough Revenue to Pay for a Studio Space
[14:23] Referring Existing Clients to Other Services
[19:30] The Impact a Studio Has on Memberships
[22:56] Building Good Boundaries in Your Scheduling
[24:54] Creating Systems for Membership Scheduling
[27:19] Using Your CRM Pipeline to Track Your Memberships
[29:56] The Family Narrative
Mentioned in this Episode:
Dubsado – Get 30% off your first payment
Connect with Posy
Illuminate class: https://www.illuminateclasses.com/raising-a-family-business
Book Club for Creatives: thefamilynarrative.com/book-club-for-creatives
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the business first creatives podcast. I am here today with my good friend, Posy Quarterman. I know you guys are tired of me inviting friends on this podcast, but when they have something good to say, I just can’t help myself. Posy, welcome to my podcast.
Posy: Hi, I’m so excited to be here.
Colie: I know. So I, did you hear her say finally?
That’s okay. That’s, that’s how I felt about them inviting me to TFN to teach. It was like, finally. That’s okay. We’re going to get to that. Posy, for people who do not know you, tell the listening audience who you are, what you do, and where you’re located.
Posy: okay. Hi friends. I’m Posy Quarterman. I live in Portland, Oregon. I have been a family photographer since 2008 and, let’s just say since 2022, I’ve been a branding and headshot photographer more than, just sneaking it in for existing clients.
Colie: So clearly I have invited another person on this podcast who is Let’s not say migrating away, but is adding new services to complement her family photography. So Posy, you’ve been in your studio for a year. I want you to tell me, because this seems to be a running theme recently. Tell me how you found your studio.
Posy: Okay. I found my studio, I almost wanna say, looking at the newspaper. But, you know, Craigslist, I think, I honestly think I found it on Craigslist, but I had been renting studios hourly and decided that I wanted more than that and started looking around at the buildings that I liked, that I rented studios in, couldn’t find anything, looked at a place really close to my house, it wasn’t perfect, and then I found a new building, with brand new spaces and, and it’s small, there’s only, studios.
and it’s
Colie: what’s your square footage?
Posy: Oh, it’s 900. It’s not, it’s not too small.
Colie: what kinds of sessions are you doing inside of the studio now?
Posy: I am doing headshot sessions and family mini sessions in addition to, I already did like, not school photos once a year. I did like a holiday mini session. I did Halloween costume sessions. That was a fundraiser for, the, trans Santa project, but, Yeah, I’ve done a lot of things I never thought I would do before.
Colie: I mean, I must tell you, I think you’re the fourth person that I have had on the show just this year who have opened their own studios. And even though I feel like I’m on my way out the door, like y’all are intriguing me to find some studio space because maybe I could like use it as an office and then use it for like brand photos and stuff.
So let’s talk about, first of all, how much money did you put into your studio before it was ready to go?
Posy: I put in about 5, 000. I did a lot of thrifting.
Colie: what, I was about to say, what did that 5, 000 get you? Like,
Posy: mean, that’s in addition to paying the deposit on the space, right? It got me, couches and chairs and lamps and, tchotchkes and plants, a lot of plants. I had a woman walk in right after I got it all set up and she was like, Oh, your house must look amazing. And I was like, Oh no, this looks amazing.
This is why we’re not shooting at my house.
Colie: You’re like, this is, this doesn’t
Posy: This is my play space. Yeah. Some rugs, you know, but I didn’t, I did a lot of thrifting. And, like, my husband, is capable of doing things, like, he built me a big rolling wall. And he did all the hanging up of the paper backdrops and such.
Colie: So let’s talk about, okay, so you got the studio. Did you get the studio before you were kind of transitioning into doing more branding and headshot sessions?
Posy: I got it right around when I was thinking that was something I wanted to do.
Colie: So how’s that been? Tell me how it’s been because like, I feel like so many of us get into family photography because we love hanging out with families and basically playing with children. And I know that you’re the same. And so you don’t get to play with the adults that, I hope you’re not playing with the adults that come for branding
Posy: Hey, I do pretty fun heads shots.
Colie: but like, tell me about like, what made you decide to kind of transition into doing more branding sessions?
Posy: It’s interesting. I mean, I really, I had a session a couple years ago where I was chasing twins in opposite directions down the beach and I was like, I don’t want to do this anymore. And it’s not entirely true because I love my family sessions and I love that family and I don’t, I’m still off, I’m shooting that same family at the beach in a couple weeks, but it doesn’t excite me the way it used to.
And like, I know you won’t relate because you’ve never been excited by, Low light in a field, you know, but like, I just, this is going to sound so cynical, but I just don’t care anymore about, like, I, I I’ve always, it’s always been about the connection for me with people. But there was a long stretch where like the atmosphere really got me excited.
And now I’m like, I just want to focus on just the connection and just people. And I’ve always loved photographing people. I was photographing my best friends. yearbook photos in high school, and developing it in the dark room, you know, like I have always loved photographing people. So I’m not, it would be like totally out of left field if I became a landscape photographer or an architecture photographer, but people are fun and exciting to me.
So it is still sort of like playing. And I, this thing about wanting studios, like. That really took me by surprise when I was renting studios. I was thinking this was like a one. Oh, I’ll try this. Oh, I’ll do. And then I was like, Oh, I actually love this and I want this. And you have an incredible office in your home.
I have a 1200 square space house with a small dog and a teenager, and a husband who is at home a lot. So I needed my own space. So initially, I thought if I can do enough in the studio monthly to pay the rent, it’ll be worth it because I am getting an office out of it. And I do do that. But I also have now realized that adding the headshots.
Here. I again, I thought like, oh, I’ll just do headshots, but that’s actually leading to more. I had gotten a lot of inquiries. You asked me like, what may, you know, which came 1st. I was getting a lot of inquiries for headshots and a lot of them. I could talk people into doing at their home or their office or tacking it on to their family session.
And now I have a space where, you know, we can move furniture and plants and make a bunch of different scenes happen and and it’s so much fun and, and people are loving it. So. That’s, that’s the next iteration of me, I think.
Colie: Yeah. So, I mean, I don’t really find this shocking because I feel like I’m having more and more people on the podcast recently that are talking about their transition from like what we would consider to be like the genres that people do like weddings and families. I feel like I am hearing more and more that people are transitioning into branding sessions.
And while I’ve been like maybe a teensy weensy bit tempted, I don’t like posing women. Like that is something that I don’t like in my family sessions. And so I don’t think that I could ever in life transition to doing branding sessions, because I feel like we’re so hard on ourselves and I just literally don’t see or understand how to like make.
Those tiny tweaks to make someone feel better. And like, sometimes I really love an image and like, I’m not going to name names, but I’ve taken a few pictures for people and they’re like, no, I don’t like my, I don’t like my chin. I don’t like the way that I’m standing. And I’m like, well, I, I love this picture more than the one that you like.
So this is definitely not where Colie is going to be transitioning her business.
Posy: Okay. And I’m a bit like that as well, Colie. And I think you have the ability that I have as well in like making people feel comfortable in your presence. And if you can draw somebody out of themselves, I get more often than not, like that was so painless. Oh, that was fun. And honestly, like you could probably look at my head shots and be like, she should have turned his shoulder that way.
Or she should have had the woman, you know, shift her weight more, whatever. If she looks like herself, I don’t care. Like I care less about that technical, like perfect posing and more about just bringing people out and they’re, you know, cause we’re all about showing up like ourselves.
Colie: Yes, absolutely. But also Posy, I feel the need to like correct you right now because you live in a 1200 square foot house. You do realize that my new house is under 1600 square feet.
Posy: No, I didn’t.
Colie: And this office, it looks amazing because of how I have the camera pointed. So, you know, listening audience, I recently did an Instagram where I was talking about how my office was so cluttered.
I like refused to step foot in it for a few weeks other than recording podcasts. But I mean, I have my really nice gallery wall behind me. I have a rainbow wall on the other side, but like in general, this office is like, I don’t know, 11 by. Maybe 12 now, I’m now I’m tempted to measure it, but it’s really not a big, nice office.
The difference between my office in this house and where we were in the townhouse is that I am above ground. I have an actual window that has. Sunlight and it has a fucking door. That was the most important thing that I wanted and honestly I’m on the second floor which ended up being a really amazing thing because this is like the adults only level
Posy: yeah, I
Colie: master bedroom our bathroom this office and then james has a tiny closet.
It’s like six feet by seven feet That’s his office. But like all of this is the adult and chloe is downstairs with like the family room But like the most important thing that I got here was a door and the fact that no one is walking above me because in the old house, no one could be on the main level when I was recording a podcast, because no matter how quietly you stepped, I heard you and I could hear you in the recordings and then I was angry and I had to rerecord it.
So no posy. I mean, I get it. So, you know, you’ve got the studio. And you’re using it for your personal office, which is great. You’re also doing these branding and headshots. So are you renting the studio to other photographers or is it just for your
Posy: It’s just me. It’s not allowed. I would have probably attempted to do that, but it’s not permitted in this space.
Colie: Okay. And so are you currently, I want to say selling enough branding sessions. I don’t know that that’s correct, but are you currently booking enough to pay for the space? Cause you’re a year out. So I know there’s bound to be someone in the listening audience that’s like, okay, well, Posy put 5, 000 in and she’s a year later.
Like is the studio paying for itself with your bookings for you?
Posy: Yes, but not just branding. So branding stuff is a little bit bigger. Like when I think of it that way, I think of like, I went to a massage therapist’s office yesterday and shot for three hours, a bunch of different treatments happening. Right. That’s when I sell as a branding session, like that type of thing, your business, whatever it is.
I mean, I also did a bunch of candles, which yes, made this space. I was able to use this space for, but what I, I make sure I have a headshot day every month where I do mini headshot sessions. Super cheap, like 125, five minute session, two downloads, they can, it does upsell, so they can, you know, pay me more for more downloads, and that happens maybe half the time.
Those, one of those pays over, more than, pays me more than my rent for the month. As long as I, you know, book it out a fair, you know, like 10 or more. So yes, I am paying for my studio using my studio. That’s my, that was my goal the first couple months that wasn’t true. I was, you know, setting it up and getting the word out, but now it’s pretty consistent.
I just have to be creative. Like when I first got it, my friend was like, oh my God, you could do, you know, pets and costumes and I was like. I have spent 15 years building this brand. I am not going to do pets in costumes. But you know what? I had a Halloween event, and it was so fun, and it brought all these families in, and there were some pets in costumes.
And you might see me advertising a dog day next month because it’s International Dog Day, and Brooke Bragger does the cutest damn studio dog portraits I’ve ever seen, so now I want to do it. But that’s just fun for me. Like, we talk a lot about, like, creative burnout and this has been such a huge outlet for me to just be like, oh, that was different.
I didn’t like it or, just fun. And, I will say, like. We were, at a thrift store the other day and I was like, Ooh, I should get this from the studio. And my son was like, you have enough in the studio. I was like, okay, that’s fair. Like I use it as an excuse to buy things sometimes, but, yes, it’s paying for itself and. And sometimes making more money, but not, not every month. But that’s okay because I still have my full time business.
Colie: Yeah, let’s get to that. So, one thing that I’m always curious about is whether or not having the studio is a marketing aspect for you. So in other words, what I’m asking you is. Are any of these like mini family sessions or headshot days, are these people increasing their lifetime client value by booking other sessions with you?
Or are they sticking with like the teeny tiny session that they paid for?
Posy: They are 100% leading. Okay, I’m going to say this two ways. I have gotten family clients out of Headshot people that I never would have come across if they hadn’t signed up for a 125 Headshot session. I have gotten… Also full, like people who were referred to the many days and said, I need more than that and have signed up for full headshot sessions with me in the studio.
Who have also at least inquired about families. This has only been a year of doing this, right? So it’s not fully there yet, but, yes. And yes, it has expanded on, you know, like it’s brought me, my work into the view of other brands that need branding photographers. And it has expanded on my family stuff.
However, I do believe, at least with family stuff, people who sign up for mini sessions are frequently different clients than people who sign up for full sessions. And I have known that for a long time. I, early on thought that was something that would bring me clients, and it does. But it brings you min, you have many session clients and you have full session clients, and they, I, to me, with families, they rarely crossover.
Colie: So that’s interesting because like from a marketing perspective, I have always felt like a mini session is kind of like a taste, but I will say this is my opinion. And as you know, I’ve never done many sessions. I just refuse. I don’t want to go and photograph someone for 10 minutes and try to wrestle their children and get everything that I need and then move on.
I do have one particular long term client who I feel like they’ve maybe, I don’t want to say aged out, but their children are now Seven and almost four. And for the last two years, they have asked for what I would call of the equivalent of like a mini session. They’re like, you know, we don’t want to film this year.
We don’t want a full two to three hour session. Can you just come and do something shorter? Like 30, 45 minutes, which again, like 30 to 45 minutes is like what some people consider to be like a big, but for me, it’s like I get in, I hang out with the children, I get the photos and then I leave. But for my long term clients, I don’t mind shooting them in a short amount of time.
I got to tell you, I went to a session a few weeks ago for one of my membership clients and I hadn’t seen them in 18 months. Okay. So 18 months later, their children are. Again, I think the same age, like seven and three or four, I mean, same age. And when I got in there, I was there for about 10, 15 minutes while they were curling the little girl’s hair and the oldest was putting on makeup and all this, but when they sat on the couch, I got their family’s image in like five minutes.
And I was literally like, okay, what the fuck do we do
Posy: right.
Colie: I am not used to being able to like nail this, everyone look at my camera. And like, I got that nice smile one, and then I got some where they were interacting naturally and like individual people were looking at my camera. And I was literally like, okay, you paid for a two hour session.
Like, I don’t, I don’t know what to do next. Let’s go outside and make s’mores. So we went outside, we made s’mores, the kids were jumping on the trampoline. But like, as I get older, and I don’t want to chase toddlers, I do really appreciate those times when I can get in there and like, get the job done quickly without a lot of, you know, fuss.
But that’s what I did for years. And so, this is just like New Territory Posy. Like,
Posy: yeah. Oh,
Colie: don’t know what to do!
Posy: I want to say I’m not doing five minute family sessions with the exception of like, I did a holiday thing that was a five minute and I was very explicit. Like, this is your Christmas card photo. If you don’t show up and look at me and smile, that’s what you get. Like, you get what you get.
I’m not chasing your baby across my studio. I do 30 to 45 minute mini family sessions in the studio and it, It is lucrative and I do it sort of simple salesy. I, they can upsell it and for some families, that’s really all they have in them and less chasing in a contained space.
Colie: And I think it is because you and I are both very relationship based. I mean, I don’t think that I can do that with people when it’s their 1st. I don’t care how good I am. Like, I just don’t think I can do that. But like that particular family that I shot 2 weeks ago, this was their 4th or 5th session.
I mean, I photographed their family many, many times, and I have just found that as the kids get older in each of my families, and as I have photographed them more and more, like, the portion of the session where I am actually actively trying to get, like, the photos that I need for the gallery versus the rest of the time where I am playing with the children, or I myself am eating a piece of pie, and when they do something nice, I pick up my camera and snap it real fast.
Like that balance is really beginning to do like this. And so I feel like that’s also why I have stopped actively marketing for new clients. But I know that you are still actively marketing for family clients. So what is the family side of your business look like? How many families are you photographing per year?
And I know that you have a membership and we’ve mentioned this membership model on the podcast a couple of times. So tell me what that looks like in your business.
Posy: I think maybe the membership is the most brilliant thing Annamie’s ever come up with. But, so I. I launched my membership. I think this is my third year of my membership. I have 22 or 24. I’m really bad remembering numbers, but I have somewhere between 20 and 25, members and having the studio this last year meant that one of my tiers of my membership meant I could include a mini session.
Um, one of my tears always included the school photo or kid portrait type thing. So that’s been great. I only offered it to existing clients the first 2 years. This year, I opened it up a tiny bit to some new people. I love that. I love the consistent income. I live in a part of the country that is very seasonally based for photos.
I don’t shoot families between January and. May, unless it’s a newborn or a birthday, like a birth that they wanna commemorate. So having that consistent income has been incredible. In addition to that, I think I shoot about 40. I mean, I know I, in the last couple years, I went from like 70 to 40 over the last five years.
and that’s my, my target number is 40 families.
Colie: Okay, so we went from 75 to 40 and my audience is going to be mad at me if I don’t ask you has your income changed because I know that you’ve been raising your prices. You make more money. Okay. So that’s my point. Thank you. Posy is that you went from being this person that was shooting. I mean, what is 75 to 80?
It’s like, it’s like 8 sessions a month. So, you have cut your number of sessions per month, basically in half you have added a studio and you are still making more money than you did before. That’s amazing. Thank you.
Posy: Yeah. It’s pretty great.
Colie: So for your membership
Posy: Means I’m not doing any of that, like, money talk selling of the session fees. All that stuff is, like, cut in half because I just… They already know, and they’re just paying.
Colie: So let’s talk about your membership. So you’ve got 20 to 24. What is the breakdown? Like, I’m assuming that your bottom level is just a photo session, right? Just photo session and some print credit. And then your middle, does that include the kid portrait or does that now include the family mini?
Posy: My middle includes the kid portrait.
Colie: Okay. For every kid in the family.
Posy: mhm. And then, and headshots. For the parents. And then.
Colie: Oh,
Posy: Kid portrait, parent portrait. And then the top tier includes that and a 30 minute mini, which can be like a maternity or it can’t, I don’t offer full maternity sessions for the most part anyway, or.
You know, a six month kid portrait, like they can sort of take it however they want it,
Colie: Okay, I’m going to ask you one more question before you move on to a new topic, because I, I think that this is like fascinating. So when are the majority of your membership clients booking their annual session? Because I’ve had quite a few people on the podcast that have talked about their membership.
And I keep forgetting to ask this question because. I think one of the things that people fear about putting a membership into place is that they think everyone is going to want to do their annual session during like September and October and they’re going to be overwhelmed. So is that the case for you or are people booking at different times?
Posy: Well, I’m not overwhelmed because I have good boundaries about my scheduling. So, I open my calendar to them before I open it to anybody else. That’s one of the perks. And I remind them with newsletters starting in March that they need to book their summer. And I remind them. Why summer is just as good, if not better than fall.
And I just kind of like sell this, like I’m, you’re the only one who gets to book it right now. I would say 10 off the, I don’t have the numbers, but off the top of my head, I would guess that 10 of my members are booked for summer right now, which means I only have 10 or 12 this fall and that’s easy.
I am still now. I have opened fall. I, the only thing that isn’t a drag, but like the thing I, I, I have to stay on top of is make sure everybody booked their session because I, nobody wants to get to like November and have them be like, Oh my God. I mean, and I, that hap that happened twice the first year and we just made it happen before the year was up.
Actually, one family had to roll over, like something happened. One family had to roll over to the next year. The other beauty of the membership. I had a family crisis in November of 2021 and I had to push out all of my, I had to cancel like a month’s worth of work and most of them were my members and they love me and know me already and we’re totally like, whatever they were fine, but it did not change my income for that month.
Colie: Yes. Cause everybody was still paying you monthly. Which is amazing. Hey, Posy. So you mentioned that you want to make sure that all of your membership people book their sessions. You know, you can do that with systems. Why don’t you talk a little bit about your systems? Like what, what CRM do you use in your business?
Guys, if you’re listening to the change of my voice, there is a reason
Posy: What’s a system, Colie. Um, that was me up until 2 years ago. No, that’s not true. I had a CRM before. It worked for me just fine. All right. And then I just kept hearing Colie talk about Dubsado and then I saw Dubsado For real. And I was like, Oh, that is the shit.
And so I switched to Dubsado in January 21. Is that correct?
Colie: I opened my course.
Posy: Yes. And I was like. I hate online courses. Yes, I teach one. I hate being a student in an online course. I am not good at it. I want to be in a room with people. I want you to tell me what to do. And then I want to sit down and do it. But that was not an option in January 21.
And so I. I told myself I was going to pay for this course of Colie’s and then I was going to do it and I did it, I think in four days,
Colie: Yeah, it was amazing.
Posy: I spent a lot of time with you that week, and
Colie: hold on. I’m going to interrupt you, Posy. Hey, guys, this is one thing that you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t have a student in your course that actually has your cell phone number. So, instead of Posy filling out the Q and A’s, she would send me text messages. And so, of course, I can’t ignore her.
Now, the rest of you listening to this, you don’t get my cell phone number. Like I said, Posy’s my friend, but I just, I laughed. That there is definitely a difference between my students and my clients that have my cell phone number and those that don’t.
Posy: it’s true. And, you know, I, I, I, I try to respect people’s boundaries, but there were some times where I was like, I am not going to get through this if I don’t text Colie, but in my defense, I do send you a Starbucks credit card, every time.
Colie: do. Every time she asks
Posy: Every time I ask you a question, I’m like, I have to text Koli, I better open my Starbucks app and send her some money.
Colie: It’s amazing. I mean, she just sent me one last week for something and I was like, Oh, and the funny thing is, you know, Posy, I don’t go to Starbucks all that often anymore because I have my fancy. No, no, listen, I have my fancy espresso machine. No, no, but I already spent the entire gift card that you sent me last week between getting Chloe, her little vanilla bean frap.
And then my mom is here this week. So no, I actually spent the whole thing. I was like, wow, I haven’t been to Starbucks in forever, but Posy sent me this gift card. And now I have spent all this money. I mean, Thank
Posy: cookies or something.
Colie: So the whole reason that we started talking about though, Posy, is when you mentioned the fact that you want to make sure that you don’t forget to, you know, to get all of your membership people, there is a way that you can use your pipeline to do that, your project statuses.
So in your membership, when someone books a membership, everyone should be going into one status. Let’s say that it’s membership booked 2023. And then you should only move them out of that status. Once they have booked their session for the year so that at any given time, you can look at that one project status and be like, Oh, it’s November.
And I’ve still got three people in here that haven’t booked for the year. Let me. Send them this canned email that I happen to have in my templates in order to get them to book. So just, that’s my tip for anybody listening to the podcast. And it’s not necessarily just for membership clients. I use that as a tip for anything.
So for example, I don’t know if you’ve been having this problem, but I’ve been seeing it more and more with my students and my clients. They’re getting people that are filling out the proposal. They’re signing the contract, but they’re not paying the invoice. And for a lot of people, it’s just because they forget.
But so if you see someone hanging out in a status that says contract signed for too long and they don’t progress to the income one, that’s just my tip for anyone who’s listening is you can use a project status so that it’s kind of like a red flag.
And I like to put an emoji, like a red stop sign so that, you know, if you see anyone hanging out in that particular status for like a long period of time, that’s someone that you need to, you know, Follow up with.
Posy: I’ll be sending this to my new VA and then I will have her make that change. But you just blew my mind because I never thought of that. And that is like a problem for me using things like this is I will set it up the way I was told to set it up and then let it work for me. But I have to regularly listen to your podcast so that I make
Colie: Well, you shouldn’t be listening to the podcast, Posy. You should be dropping into the Facebook group. I will say it is like clockwork because you do have lifetime access to the course. I feel like on an annual basis. I see people pop into the Facebook group for like two weeks, because they’ve got this thing that they’ve been, you know, kind of managing manually and so they pop into the group and like, hey, Colie, this has really been bothering me.
Like, what should I do with this? And then it usually takes like, you know, 1 Q and a call or 1 post inside the Facebook group and I tell them how to do it. And they’re like, okay. And then they disappear for another year.
Posy: That’s great. All right. I’ll try to remind myself to pop into the Facebook group more then I just text you.
Colie: you should do that. Okay. So we’ve talked about like you starting a studio and your family photography business. And I feel like the big elephant in the room is that we have to chat about the family narrative. Now I have had quite a few guests on this podcast that have talked about our love for TFN.
I think I still have like two episodes that I’ve already recorded that are in the queue where people are also talking about their love of the family narrative. But One of the things that I feel like that I’ve seen in the industry is there’s a lot of education for like wedding photographers. There’s even a lot of education for like family photographers in terms of how to get those really amazing stylized photos or, you know, how to edit, but like a good in person conference for family photographers.
About the business did not exist before the family narrative. So tell me how the family narrative came to be and tell me how the family narrative is different now than it was at the beginning of this year.
Posy: Okay. I love to the family narrative came to be because Kate and Annamie and I were at a conference. We met there and, we got to talking in my cabin about how little there was for family photographers at these other big conferences at the time. This was 2016 and we, just, you know, we’re venting, honestly.
Everything was very. Much like focused on wedding and, big, commercial photography and family photographers were just sort of given this like nod. Yeah. And it was also like, oh, you’re just a family photographer.
Colie: Just a family photographer. You asshole. Yeah.
Posy: photographer. Oh, exactly. There was a lot of swearing in this, conversation we were having and Annamie was sort of blowing my mind with her numbers.
and as she does
Colie: As she does
Posy: And I walked away from this conversation. Oh, and also Kate was like, I’ve always wanted to run a feminist photography retreat in New Orleans, or maybe she didn’t say it exactly like that. But all I heard was feminist photography retreat in New Orleans. And I was like.
Colie: sold,
Posy: Okay, how are we going to do this?
And, I just kept thinking about it and I kept thinking about it. And finally, I was like, we have to do this. Well, and at the time, there there’s a photographer named Ryan mearhead and he was living and I have a guest house in my backyard, basically. And he was living in it and
Colie: had no idea Ryan was living in your backyard. That’s a story that I don’t think you’ve told many places continue.
Posy: And I just want to back up and say, I don’t have my office space in there. My sibling lives there now, and that’s why I have to have my own studio. Anyway, so Ryan was living there and Ryan had said at one point, like, stop complaining about it and just do it or I don’t even think he was talking to me about my thing.
But, you know, I also used to get to listen in on his mentoring calls, which was pretty fun. and. And so I was like, okay, I’m not finding the thing. I just guess I have, we have to do it. And I didn’t want to do it alone. I’ve always been a friend person and a community based person. So I, that was March that we met.
I flew to Virginia in June and we launched in September and we sold out our 1st retreat that we had the following March. And the goal was always. The art and business of family photography. We didn’t want to offer what was being offered. It was all very bland. And, and we did it, we wanted something different and we did it.
And, and everybody cried a lot on the last day. And we were like, holy shit, we actually did this thing and it’s awesome. And people want it again. And. So we kept doing it and it was, incredible. It, we’ve just built this incredible community and then the pandemic happened and we did one online when we finally got Colie involved.
Colie: I finally got involved, invited to teach guys. It was like a freaking miracle. Continue.
Posy: to be fair, she never came to them because it was the weekend of her anniversary. So if we had asked her, she would have said no anyway. So,
Colie: I mean, I might’ve dragged my husband, but I mean, like I said, we did the family reunion this past March and I was trying to express how amazing it was. It was my first time being in person and listening audience. I’m sure someone has video of me. I mean, someone showed me a picture.
I had tears streaming. See, don’t, don’t share that, that video though, Posy. But guys, I was so incoherent while I tried to talk. It was absolutely
Posy: We brought Coley to tears.
Colie: I don’t think I’ve ever been that person. Who was crying so hard. They actually couldn’t say words. Like, I mean, speechless is not, I was trying to speak.
It just, no words were coming out. There was snot involved. It was, it was a thing guys. But so Posy, we all came together for the family reunion after it had been delayed a year from the pandemic. And you guys made an announcement that this was like the last one that the family narrative was not going to exist anymore.
And I was so sad,
Posy: so we made an announcement right before the retreat that so we had decided together Annemie has this whole other business and she has other things going on. Kate has a booming, like, wedding business that makes her travel and she has a branding business
Colie: And she’s got
Posy: Virginia and she happened to have 3 babies over the course of the time that we built the family narrative.
So. We sort of decided together, this was the end. And then almost as soon as that was decided, I was, I would talk about inconsolable. I was inconsolable when we first came to that decision. And then I had plenty of time to stew on it because we had to delay our family reunion because of covid. And just before the retreat, I came to the realization that I didn’t want to let it go.
And then I thought, okay, I’m going to, I’m going to keep this going in some form. And then when we were all together, I was like, oh, this absolutely is not the end. So, I had decided, but I really decided at the retreat and made that announcement on the last day that there would be some version of it going forward.
Initially, I just didn’t want to do it without Kate and Annemie because we work really well together. But once I accepted that that was the reality,
Colie: You put your big girl panties on.
Posy: yeah, you know what? I mean, the fact of the matter is like a lot of stuff happened in the year leading up to the family reunion. And I ended up taking on more of the roles and planning that than I had in the past.
And I was like, Oh, I can do this. By myself with some help. Yeah, I mean it’s a big job So I also had so many people in our community step up and say if you want to keep this going I will do whatever I can to help you which was
Colie: I was one of those people.
Posy: It was incredible. It was incredible and overwhelming and was one of those people and has been paid in Starbucks cards for her advice Or 11 p.
m. frenzied text messages, but So, one of those people I’ve been friends with for a long time, Jenna Elliott stepped up. And so she is, has come on board just in helping me plan. But I have taken on the, the business solo and, we have launched next year’s conference, which will be smaller and different than previous TFNs in that we used to have 8 to 10 teachers and 3 days of just like keynote live shoot breakout discussion, you know, whatever portfolio review, bam, bam, bam. And 1 of the things. That I’ve struggled with the conferences that I know people who have come and struggled with is, walking away with like your brain and heart so full and then just going back home and jumping back into many of us are moms, but just jumping back into whatever running your business and having all these ideas.
In like a folder, like we always made it a point to send people away with tangible materials, but you still have to act on those tangible materials. So for this 1, I knew I wanted to do it at this specific hotel in the Pacific Northwest that I love, and the space really lends itself well to like
Colie: Collaboration. And
Posy: and then also, like, there are a lot of places throughout the space that you could go work on your own or with a couple people.
And so. The idea with this one is we are going to do these like three hour workshops in the morning that you get like downloaded with information, for instance, content marketing and strategy and content building. And then you actually do the stuff together. So, like, you’ll get an assignment and then you will go make your content calendar and then you will go make the content.
And this place is gorgeous, so it’ll be an easy place to make the content.
Colie: I mean, so you’ve, this is, this is, of course, fascinating. And I really think that it is something that a lot of conferences lack. But for those that are thinking of, okay, that’s true, but like, not every conferences like this, what I’ve started doing is actually back during a day. So, if a conference ends on a Tuesday, I don’t actually go home until like Wednesday evening and all day that Wednesday.
I. Implement whatever, like the top 2 to 3 actions were that I got from a conference because let’s be honest. When you get to the level that we’re at Posy, like I’m not going to conferences and walking away with like 30 things to do anymore. Like, that’s not a thing like I sit through lessons and I listen to what people say.
And like, in every talk, I’m really happy. If I get like this 1 aha moment where I’m like, oh, shit. I have never thought about that. Let me go do that. And so that’s what I do the day after a conference is I sit in my quiet hotel room. And I do it. The other thing that I’ve been doing is I, I don’t know if you know this, but the only reason that I’ve been able to travel with James new job is that my mom is here.
So, right now, I don’t schedule any travel unless my mom is here living in my other house and taking care of my child while I’m gone. And so what I’ve started doing is just not picking her up when I get home. I leave her there for an extra day so that I can sit in this beautiful office that you’ve already mentioned and like.
Okay. Get a little bit more work done. And so, you know, that’s just my little tidbit for people. If you are struggling to implement. The things that you learn at conferences, like you have to make the space or you have to attend something like the family narrative where Posy is making that space
Posy: for you. But I still thi I, it’s still one of those things where I always wanna encourage people to add an extra day or come early to explore and then add an extra day because you just jumping right back in afterwards is. It’s, it’s really hard and you need your brain to have some rest to actually absorb that info too.
Colie: it’s hard to jump back in and be like James and Chloe both asking me, okay, mom, what’s for dinner? And I’m like, I don’t know what takeout are we going to order? I’m not ready to deal with you people right now. I’m just going to go sit in my bed. And like, be on my computer and I’ll be ready for you tomorrow.
Not today, tomorrow.
Posy: Agreed.
Colie: I mean, so Posy, it sounds like it has been quite a year of pivoting for you. You just celebrated the one year anniversary of your studio. You are transitioning to do more branding and headshots over family sessions. And now you are running the family narrative all by your lonesome with a little help.
I just have to say, I’m so proud of you. Like, I think we’re going to name this episode the year of Posy’s pivot. I think that’s what we’re going to call this episode. So, if the listening audience is interested in hearing more about you, if they happen to be in the Portland area and want to learn about your headshots, or attending the Family Narrative, where can they find you on the internet?
Posy: Oh, it’s a long one. Posy Quarterman photography on Instagram, but if you type P O S Y Q it’ll find me.
Colie: Okay.
Posy: My website is photoPosy. com. I teach for Illuminate, a class on, building a
Colie: a family business
Posy: a family business. So you can find me on Illuminate’s website, I have, and, oh yes, at The Family Narrative on Instagram, thefamilynarrative.
com, or even on that new threads, that’s what it’s called, although, we’ll see. And, yeah,
Colie: Well, Posy, it’s been lovely to have you on my podcast and do more than answer frantic 10, 11 o’clock PM text messages. We’ll know with this last one. You know, you kept on texting. Right. And James was like, who is that? I said, it’s posy. He’s like, you know, you could just go to your office. And that was when my office was still trashed.
And I was like, no, I can’t go to my office. You just have to listen to all the things.
Posy: Sorry.
Colie: It’s all right.
Posy: Sorry, James. What kind of gift cards do I send him now?
Colie: Oh, you don’t. I, you know, I do things to make him forget. All right, guys, that’s it for this episode. See you next time.
Posy: Thanks, Colie.
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