#7: Pivoting to Success with Jamie Swanson, Personal Branding Expert
When the market for photography businesses became too saturated and her income started to drop fast, Jamie Swanson was terrified and stressed. That’s when she decided to pivot.
The best decision she made was to join a community and surround herself with successful entrepreneurs, allowing her to keep track of what’s happening in her industry and others that are doing well. This, in turn, helped her stay innovative, which became a huge turning point for her business.
Jamie likens that moment when she finally realized what she needs to do to keep her business growing to that moment when Hagrid hands Harry Potter his Hogwarts letter and tells him that he’s a wizard (in the first Harry Potter book and movie’s redemptive, enlightening, magical.
Be sure to follow Jamie on Instagram @jamiemswanson or listen to her podcast here.
What is the secret to scaling with joy? It’s simple- making more profit with less stress. To find out how to make more profit and work less, visit https://tenprofitdrivers.com. Yes, it’s possible to grow your company without adding on complicated programs, products or divisions. These are the same simplified growth methods that I have used over and over with my own private consulting clients and national brands, in info products, retail e-commerce, and service.
Listen to the Show:
Laura (00:00):
Before we get started, I wanted to let you know about a very special, limited time only, live master class that I'm currently teaching on exactly what you should be looking at to not only survive but rise up in your business over the next weeks and months. In this rare training, I'm going to be showing you exactly what I do to help many of the national brands that hire me capitalize on the incredible growth that a downturn can bring. To sign up, go to www.joybrandcreative.com/shift. I can't wait to help you create the biggest success in your business yet.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Scale with Joy show, episode seven: Pivoting to Success. Welcome to the Scale with Joy show, a podcast about scaling your company while living your most purposeful life. Because here's the thing: there are no rules to say you can't grow a massively profitable empire and have joy in the everyday. My name is Laura Meyer and let's get started.
(00:33):
This podcast episode is likely to be pivotal for many of you. It was recorded before we knew what was going to be happening in the current economic climate and it should serve as amazing inspiration for you of what might be next in the midst of probably the challenges that you're faced with right now. Jamie Swanson pivoted from one type of business to another relatively quickly, taking enough time to pause, but acting fast enough that got her into action and moving onto the next thing just in time. It is a great example of what many of you may be experiencing right now. I went through something similar right around the time that Jamie did for very similar reasons and you're going to hear two very different outcomes.
(01:23):
I ended up completely shifting my offering. I ended up closing up one business and starting another and Jamie actually stayed within her same industry but just figured out a different way to serve her customers and become more relevant to her target market. For many of you, this is exactly what you needed in this moment. And I don't doubt for a second that hearing Jamie's interview is going to be divine intervention. She is inspirational, funny, she homeschools a whole heck of a lot of children and on purpose, not by accident like many of us right now and we all have something to learn from Jamie Swanson.
(02:05):
I am here with my longtime friend Jamie Swanson and she has had an incredible experience growing her company in the photography industry and really navigating all the shifts and changes that have taken place. So Jamie, so great to have you. And if you wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit about your background and your story.
Jamie (02:27):
All right. So, I was working corporate when I started my business. I was an actuary and I just started doing photography on the side kind of as a hobby and a little ways into that, just really felt called during a specific Bible study I was part of to pursue this full time. And it scared the crap out of me. I always said I didn't want to do that because I didn't want to lose the joy of photography, but really, I was just scared, but it was just so clear that God was calling me into this. And, oh my, this could go on a lot of different ways, but we'll just keep going. We grew really, really fast. We were able to, because my husband was still in school at the time, he was finishing it up. We had a couple of kids and I don't remember three or four at the moment.
Laura (03:12):
Why don't we just tell everybody how many you have now.
Jamie (03:15):
I have six kids and I don't remember exactly where in the timeline, but we had at least three, might have had my fourth by that point. And I think we didn't, I think we were just at three. And it was really scary to think about leaving an actuarial job, which is like really great pay, benefits, super secure, cause there's more jobs than actuaries, but it's just like sucked the life out of my soul. And the thought of being there for the rest of my career just like totally was the most depressing thing I've ever thought of and missing like all these firsts of my little kids. And, photography, it's not exactly the most like lucrative job out for like date, you know? And, and we had this big dream of having a place for people in ministry to come and find rest for free.
(04:04):
And so we're like, well, actuarial work, will fund that, photography business- ehh. But we just felt so called to this that we pursued it. And 19 months later I was able to leave my full-time job, got serious, put on my big girl pants and priced appropriately, you know, processes in my business and actually took it seriously. And I learned that as much as I enjoyed just photography, I actually enjoyed the business side even more. We attracted a ton of attention in our marketplace because I looked at the market and I said, well very few people are serving the high end and serving them well. And so like more money, less weddings to shoot, less competition, a no brainer. Like my work is great, I can do this, I can stay consistent. So we just put ourselves right up on top and I didn't go see the preamble, like we went from the bottom to like the top, just straight out the gate.
(04:58):
Cause we already had income coming in from my corporate job. I hadn't left it yet and it attracted a lot of attention in our market. And so all of a sudden, I had all these people saying, what have you done? Like not in a bad way but like how did you get here? And so I love to help people. And so I started sharing. I'm like, well I haven't been here that long, but you know, we are full time now. We replaced our entire salary and benefits and everything. And my husband was able to start shooting with me. And, it was great. And so I started a blog and I started with a pricing sheet because everyone's like, well, how do you know what to price? As an actuary that's like super easy compared to these crazy, like six months long pricing models for worker's comp I'd worked on.
(05:40):
And so I threw something together and started selling that and basically started an online education business for professional photographers who wanted to learn how to get clients, do pricing, just the whole work and really focused on those beginners. And I just shared what was working for us and that was great, you know, I love photography. I found out like the business side even more, I just totally came alive teaching other people what I was learning and helping them to be able to get out of dead-end jobs they hated or do something that they loved and still make an income. And that was great. We grew really fast. I mean we, I think, gosh, I think we had around $700,000 within like the first three years or something like that, doing that. And then all of a sudden things started to tank.
(06:26):
Like the market became really saturated. It was super niche when I started and it was not niche and I just, I had two babies in that time and our income just started to drop fast and it was really terrifying, and it was really stressful. And since then we've pivoted, we found something new to niche down into and it's been growing fast again. We are on track to have our best year yet. We might be at our best year yet already. I'm not sure, but close. So it's going to be, it's really incredible. It's just amazing how quickly everything has turned around and that is what brings me here right now.
Laura (07:02):
Awesome. So I have a question about that pivot. So you were recognizing, cause some people might be there right now, they might be in a place where the industry, like maybe they were well positioned to begin with, but the external environment changed. You and I were both part of that in the photo industry and we have created a new path. What were some of the steps that you feel like you took to know whether or not this is something you just keep trying harder at or if you felt called to a new path?
(07:31):
Oh, you know, I wasn't sure what was going on. Like I knew things were changing but I wasn't sure what to do next. And so it was actually a pretty dark time for me, if I'm honest. And for anyone who's done the Enneagram stuff, I'm a three, which means like I was so ashamed of my failure, I felt like that's like a failure. I felt like, oh, because my business is struggling, I'm a failure and it was really, really hard. And like the biggest thing was just taking steps forward. So I really sat back, and I was at a conference and one of the activities, which I've heard people do before, but it hit me cause of the moment was what are your superpowers? What do you really love doing and who do you really love working with? Mine is visioneering, strategy, and community building.
(08:23):
And I realized that I wasn't really using those gifts super well and I realized like I love photographers, but I really love other entrepreneurs and influencers. I was at this conference with entrepreneurs and I just was in my element and I'm like, I want to work with them, I want to do something with them. And I know everyone starts a business and then they want to teach what they've learned. That's what I did with photography. Kind of wanted to do it here, but I wasn't sure how could I stand out in that super saturated market?
(08:53):
What would that really look like? I actually tried to sell my photography, The Modern Tog, business off. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with that. And so basically it was, there's a couple of things. I did. One, I joined a business mastermind, which was a huge turning point and a massive risk because our income was way down and they are very expensive to be in mastermind.
Laura (09:23):
Stu McLaren for anybody who's familiar. No, it's good. It's so good because I think many people are probably like, what are these women doing? Like these women who are growing seven and eight figure businesses, like who are they talking to? Who are they hanging out with? Like, you know, what's the secret handshake behind the scenes? Like, I think it's good. You know, people like to know. So you went to Stu McLaren's mastermind, which is a fabulous mastermind.
(09:47):
Yeah, it's wonderful. I'm still in it now. I'm about to renew for my third year and I joined that one for community because I realized that nobody really understood. I didn't have anyone other than my husband that I could really talk to who got it. And you know, when you, when you talk about a hundred-thousand-dollar launch being a massive disappointment and that going to cause your business hardship, like people don't get it. Like I made less than that as an actuary that entire year, you know. Just the different scale and also surrounding myself by other successful people like just kind of raised that bar and they're all super highly ethical. There are quite a few Christians in it, which is great. It's not a Christian mastermind specifically, but there's, he attracts people who want to make an impact. So it wasn't just making a fortune but like truly change people's lives.
(10:38):
It helped me see what was going on in the online space and other industries so that I could, so it helps me stay innovative because everything changes so fast. So anyways, I joined that, that was super helpful in getting me going and helping me regain my confidence and I wasn't really sure exactly where I was going to take things. I thought maybe I would run a mastermind because I really love doing that and I could see my giftings being suited for it. But basically what happened was, the big thing I saw was that the companies in my industry and in other industries that were really succeeding were companies that had a personal brand at the front.
(11:21):
So I love, I like to use this example, I love Apple. I've got iPhone, iPads, you know all the gear, it's all Apple. They play some nice together and I like them. But I will never connect with Apple as a company in the same way that I would connect with you, Laura, as a person and that people could now get a hundred marketing courses. So why buy from me? What is it that sets me apart? And it's that know, like, and trust factor. And I always voided the personal brand stuff because I've got a family with six kids and I really wanted to protect that. And I didn't want to like, I love being the face, but I felt bad about being the face. And I'm like, do I really want to be the face, all of that weird internal stuff and a lot of questioning, is this the right thing to do or not? And I just decided, you know what, I am going to do this because I can see that this is a better way to connect with photographers and I'm going to keep running with this and then think about growing that entrepreneurial audience in the background while I'm doing what I've been doing. And see where it takes me cause you just, you got to stay in motion. If you stop, you can't, you can't move a parked car.
Laura (12:31):
I think that's really interesting that you said that. And I think a lot of people are probably like, oh my gosh, they go through dark places too? like I go through dark places. I thought I was the only way, because people don't talk about that. Right? So would you say that coming out, you saw this new vision for yourself?
Jamie (12:49):
Well I was still kind of in it, honestly. This is still in the dark place. where I kind of thought this would work. But I'm like, I don't know. Like this is kind of like the last-ditch effort before like going into major management control. And saying, what am I going to do? Like I had also gone through some other stuff that drained me of cash that were huge mistakes that I was still paying for and like trying to build a team the wrong way, all this stuff, it was dark, it was a hard place. And so I decided to do this personal brand stuff and I was starting to get to know the people in the mastermind, which is really helping my, just having community, people who get it, cause I wasn't the only one who had gone through failure and finding other people who are like, it's going to be okay, keep moving forward. It was awesome. But when I went, I said, okay well what platform am I going to do? And I'm like, well maybe I'll do Instagram.
(13:38):
And so I'm like, well I need to hire a photographer because there's no way I'm going to selfie all these things, like it just takes way too long. I'll just hire them to come in, shoot for a day and we'll get everything I need for like three months. And then I'll just batch schedule them and then not have to worry about it. And I went looking for a photographer who could do this for me. And it was kind of like that moment in Harry Potter. You Harry Potter fan?
Laura (14:01):
I'm not, I'm not, I know, I know. I'm probably one of the only people listening. I know, I know. It's terrible. My kids are still watching like Daniel Tiger. It's terrible. I know, I know. I'll get into it.
Jamie (14:17):
I will tell you this. I'm a little jealous because the first time reading those books is such a delight. It's a super redemptive, beautiful story. You will love it. But there's a moment. So I'm, I'm kind of, it's not a huge spoiler alert, but there's a moment where Harry as a young boy, Harry Potter, his parents have died and he's living with his aunt and uncle who are just like the worst. And they just, they treat him really poorly and like he lives under the cupboard, under the stairs and he starts getting all these letters. They're like flying in the house and it's like magically like surrounding this house. And on his 11th, I think it's his 11th birthday, like his, his aunt and uncle flee, like they take them, they end up on this dark Island and it's raining and they're in this like trying to avoid all this cause they know magic exists and he doesn't, he just thinks that, you know, whatever and they want to hide him from it cause his parents were magic, they are not, it's this whole weird thing. Anyways, so at this moment, Hagrid, this big burly guy walks in and basically kicks the door down and he's like, here's your letter. And he delivers the letter and it tells Harry that he's a wizard and that needs to go to this magical school. And then like all these things start to make sense in his life. And it's this moment where like he looks back and it's like you can connect the dots looking back and say, that's why I'm made for.
(15:40):
And that was the moment for me. I went looking for this photographer. Nobody got what I needed, nobody understood what I needed as an online entrepreneur and all of a sudden, I'm like, I need this and all my friends in the mastermind need this. Like this is huge. And I connected the dots between the difficulties that my photographers are facing in the industry, booking clients, because everyone has camera phones, they don't need professional photography in the same way they used to. And then the growing need for photography and the entrepreneur new influencer space. And I just, I just, I mean it was just like that moment everything fell into place and I literally pivoted absolutely everything, it was about 19 or 20 months ago and things have just like taken off. It's like, I found what I was meant to do, and it's been really fun. So that's how, that's when the light started to shine.
Laura (16:38):
What is the secret to scaling with joy? It's simple: making more profit with less stress. And to find out how to make more profit and work less visit tenprofitdrivers.com or head to the link in the show notes where I share my top 10 favorite ways to create more financial margin and time freedom using the resources you already have. Yes, it's possible to grow your company without adding on complicated programs, products or divisions. These are the same simplified growth methods that I've used over and over with my own private consulting clients and national brands, in info products, retail, eCommerce and service. That's tenprofitdrivers.com Also available in the show notes. Now back to the show.
Laura (17:27):
What's really cool is you weren't afraid to reinvest in yourself. Just so cool. It's like touching a hot stove twice, right, and you've got to, you've got to get out of that primal brain and get into the logical side of your brain that's like, this makes a ton of sense for me to do again.
Jamie (17:46):
And honestly, there was a moment where I realized I was making a lot of decisions based out of fear. What if this doesn't work? I wouldn't want to invest in ads or I wouldn't want to invest in stuff I knew I should because I was afraid it wouldn't work because things had been going down for so long that I had to literally say, okay, yeah, I need to start making decisions as if this is going to be successful again and really come at it from an abundance standpoint and trust that what God is calling me to is actually what he wants me to walk through. Whether it works or not, and so I remember it was October and this was like a six month period between really at the lowest point and joining the mastermind and finding the personal brand photography niche and it was probably like two months before that or a month and a half before that that I realized that I had to make all my decisions out of fear and I needed to make that mental switch. It was hard. It's really hard.
Laura (18:41):
It's very hard. I've coached many people through it and I'm sure you have too where they're like, I can't let this person go because all my customers will leave if my employee leaves and you're like, it's not going to happen. But I understand, you know like we make up these stories about what's going to happen when it's pretty unlikely that it will. So let's talk about your last launch. So you as an online entrepreneur between The Modern Tog, right, was your first business and then personal brand photography. You've launched a lot; you've launched a lot. And for anybody who doesn't have an online business and is brick and mortar retail, this is very similar to your big event, your fourth quarter, your black Friday, right? It's like you've done this and you're like, we all go into it, bracing ourselves for impact. We're like, this is the time I make the most money and I hate my life.
Jamie (19:41):
It's so much pressure because like if it doesn't go well, like you're, unless you have other lots of other recurring income streams. Like this for us was our main income thing because we had just pivoted and simplified. And so it was the main, it still is the main income thing right now.
Laura (20:01):
Yeah. So your last launch, talk a little bit about how that was different than your previous launches. Cause that was one thing that we were talking about privately and I said would you share this with the group? And you were like, absolutely. And I think it's so valuable. Everybody has that pressure point in their business.
Jamie (20:17):
Yeah. So, two and three launch’s ago. You know, like where do I even start? Last August. So about a year ago was my highest ever launch. It was amazing. Everything has just been in alignment growing really fast. It was well beyond anything. And then in January we launched again, and we matched that. And I was so excited coming into this launch into June because I'm like, oh minimally we're going to match that if not more because now like in January we've had kind of a launch meltdown from a contractor rehired. It was a mess. And so I'm like, okay, if it was a mess and it was still like what? Right on par with our best ever. Like we're going to crush it, it's going to be amazing. Cause I know the stuff works, whatever. And we get into it and like it's the best, like I do a lot of live video, all my messaging is there, and people are excited and everything's happening the way I want it to happen. And it all comes down, what we've done to launch is I literally tell people take this script and post it on Facebook or Instagram or wherever to help you get your first two clients and those will help you pay for the course that you are doing. That's kind of it in a nutshell, but much more polished and refined. Yeah, it's a challenge really. Well normally, the first day people go, and they put this up and we get like anywhere from like I'd say at least a hundred people book clients within minutes and hours like that first day is, it's so much fun. It's like Christmas because my people start making money because this is such a growing need and it helps them actually see and believe it.
(22:04):
So I'm all excited. I give them the script and they post it and like, and I'm like what is going on? Cause normally that's when the group like explodes and then there's the, has anyone gotten anything? And like the no, nothing's working and I'm like panicking. I’m like what is going on? Cause I know the demand hasn't changed. Like the externals are all the same. So I went to my friend Rachel Miller is like the leading expert on organic Facebook stuff. She just knows it inside out. And I'm like, hey, like I've been doing this same script, same process, whatever. Nobody's seeing it. Cause we had one person who has like 15,000 Instagram followers and like normally she gets at least 1,000-2,000 views on any posts you got like 50. And then I had a couple people say, I can't even post it. Facebook won't let me post it. And what's happened is in the last few months since I did this last, Facebook has kind of copied Google in that they don't like duplicate content. And so if people are posting the exact same thing overall, if it lets you post it, it just doesn't show it to anybody. Like it just will not put it out there for anyone to see. So it wasn't that like it didn't work. It was that Facebook just wasn't putting it in front. Nobody knew it was happening.
(23:25):
It really bit me in the butt bad. So I go into like panic mode because I'm like, okay, this is not proving that it works. This is proving that it doesn't work and that's a huge problem for my launch. And so I basically rewrote something, and I just told everybody, Hey, we're going to talk about this smart, like a couple people got bookings, but like nothing like we should have had. And friends from my mastermind stepped in, like Rachel's in my mastermind. She helped, a few other people stepped in and were like, listen, you've got this. Let's formulate a plan. Don't panic. And, um, it was so amazing to have people there supporting during this time. And I was like, okay, well let's, let's do this. Rewrote it, told them how to customize it even more so we wouldn't run into the same issue and people started booking clients.
(24:12):
But like I had lost so much momentum in that time and its summer, so like people check out. It was really rough. So we ended up only making about half of what we did the last time we launched. And that was a, it was, I’m in a so much better place now Laura. And I think this is maybe why you asked me about this, but it was so good because I learned, because I was about to evergreen everything and so like create this funnel based on this challenge. And I would have had no idea that the premise wasn't going to work anymore if I hadn't had this massive like failure. And I mean, it was fine. It's not like we had to let people go from our team, but it was still like, I mean it was like a third of what I was expecting because everything was going great, everything was working. So I don't know which product that you want me to unpack, but that's the overview of the last launch
Laura (25:04):
The part I want to unpack is how did you keep it from feeling negative about yourself?
Jamie (25:13):
So coming into this launch, I'm part of a small group of people who are dedicated to prayer. And the word that had kind of been in my heart coming into the season was confidence. Yeah. And then somebody prayed over me like somebody who's not has no idea what I do. Like just totally to intercessory prayer really felt like they just said, I just feel like the word for this launch is confidence for you and have confidence through this. And after the kind of debacle we had in January, I think I'm finally after what, eight years? Starting to mature a little bit and I do stuff and I've started to separate my work from my results and really just lean into my worth and God honestly. And so I mean I was on top of my quiet times. I was doing self-care and I was praying like mad, like all the way through this and I just felt that word confidence come back to me over and over and over again.
(26:16):
And I mean I was, it was really the healthiest I've ever been in a launch. So like all this stuff is going down and it's happening. And there was a few moments where I'm like, oh my goodness, this is not good. But it was like, okay, confidence, like God's got this, I don't know what's going on. And instead of seeing failure as a reflection of who I am, he started to show me right there in that moment. Like, I'm saving you from much heart heartache in the future. And in fact, I was even going to evergreen before this launch on the same premise and I didn't, I made the decision to do one more launch that I was going to knock out of the park so I could have space this fall to do other things. Right now I'm so thankful it was the best thing that ever happened because now I'm totally redoing how I'm going to market it and I wouldn't have; I mean I would've, it would've been, it would've been a much bigger disaster and mess.
Laura (27:11):
That's amazing. I love that. So you are a huge advocate for people creating connection through their personal brand and even if you're the CEO of a big company, a seven figure company, bigger company, nine figure company or you are just getting started and growing and scaling, you are a big proponent of them allowing themselves to be the face of the company and connecting with the people who want to do business with that work, with you and your organization. Right. So you have an amazing podcast that speaks to this topic directly. Is there anything that you would like to leave the viewers within terms of encouragement for anybody who's hesitant to step into that role?
Jamie (27:54):
Yeah, so I went through a lot of questioning, but what I've seen is I've reinvented my business since the pivot is that by being the face of my company and embracing my quirks and not feeling like I had to have this perfect face on and like I share the failures. Like my podcast is all about my journey of growing a personal brand. Like what's working, what's not. Cause I don't really care to sell that. I just want to give it away. I just want to; I want to help. That's how I'm like serving entrepreneurs and helping get the word out about photography. But I have found that by doing this even in a year and a half that I now have a deeper pool of like super fans. I don't know how to explain that, but the way people step up for me and help me and encourage me and like sell for me, like I have a group of over 70 people who are like, I just want to do anything I can to help you for no gain to myself.
(28:56):
Like if you ever need anything, let me know. And so I'm like in this group, because when I need help, I never remember, but I had so many people just say, hey, I genuinely just want to get the word out because what you've taught me has changed my life and I'm so thankful and I will share stories or I will encourage people, whatever. And so I had 70 people who like opted in on their own. They just said, yes, I want in, I'll do this just to help. Like I never had that before. Like, however. And I feel like I'm genuinely leading a movement of people and I mean you can look at my social media numbers, they're kind of lame because I haven't really focused on them. They are, I mean truly. But the results in my business are better than ever.
(29:39):
Like I used to focus on having a ton of likes and like, you know, all the vanity metrics and it doesn't matter now because the people that I have are so core that we have a seven-figure business with. I had people approaching me saying, oh, I can help you get, like I had somebody pitch me on Instagram. Like I can help you set up your businesses and processes and whatever. And I'm like, well what can you do for me as a seven-figure business? I know it doesn't look that way, but like I've got a lot of stuff and they just let go.
Laura (30:08):
I'm going to probably suggest that you have even more super fans after this video. So I'm going to say follow Jamie, listen to what she has to say. She is a pro at connecting with your audience. She's great at making, encouraging you to become the face of your business, overcoming a lot of that trepidation that we probably all feel naturally and giving you permission to really put yourself out there. And your story out there and just like Jamie just did by saying like, listen, this launched it don't go well. This is why, and this is what I learned about myself. That's all what people connect with. It's all what they want to hear from you. And she can teach you how to do that even more than you might already be doing. So follow her podcast, go visit her podcast. Say hello to her on social media. Go ahead and like something on Instagram. Maybe she'll say it's less lame that way. I'm not sure. thank you for joining me, Jamie. You are always a complete joy.
(31:08):
Make sure to visit our website, www.joybrandcreative.com/podcast where you can subscribe to the show in iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS so that you'll never miss an episode. While you're at it, if you find a value in this show, we'd appreciate a rating on iTunes or if you just simply tell a friend about it, that would help us out a lot too. Thanks so much for listening.
The Scale with Joy podcast dives into the mindset and strategies of scaling your company to the million dollar mark and beyond. Each week, we follow the journeys of innovators, disruptors, experts and leaders - sharing behind the scenes stories of their most challenging moments and greatest lessons learned-all while building their multi-million dollar empires.