Shawn Lee House is a Professional Photographer and the entrepreneur behind Shawn Lee Photography & Art. Her approach to corporate branding and imagery is designed to get you on the same page quickly, presenting your brand in the best light. For today’s small business marketing tip, we talk about why you want to rank higher in search engine results.
https://www.instagram.com/justshawnlee/
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles
podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business
podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising
and Marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing,
and we’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs.
We have marketing news and advice that business
owners can use to keep moving forward. Today,
we’re talking to Shawn Lee House, the professional
photographer and entrepreneur behind Shawn Lee
Photography and Art. But first, we’ve got another
small business marketing tip to talk about. What
is the value of SEO? You know, search engine
optimization. In today’s tip, I wanted to back
up the bus a little bit on search engine optimization.
We’ve given several tips on some very specific
things, but what about the why? Why do we want
to be better at search engine performance? It’s
a good question, and I’m glad you asked. When
you search on a search engine like Google, you
get shown a search engine results page that has
a few different elements depending on what you’ve
searched for. Let’s talk about some of the common
things you’ll see. Are you ready? AI search results.
That’s where the search engine’s AI attempts
to tell you the answer to your search question
with a link icon that will take you to the answer
source if you click on those to investigate that
answer. A lot more about this in other tips.
Next, you may see some map pack results. That’s
the map graphic with a few local locations listed
that answer your search. You may also see some
shopping results where you can click to buy a
product immediately. You’ll see some sponsored
search results. Those are paid search ads. They
say sponsored at the top of them. You may also
hear them called PPC or pay -per -click advertising
results. And finally, and the reason we’re talking
here today. organic search results. Those are
the unpaid search results that list each of the
thousands of websites that fit the search that
you’ve just done in order of how relevant the
search engine thinks the website is to answer
the search that you’ve just performed. Your homepage
or a specific page of your website may be listed
here. Where you rank on that list matters because
the number one organic spot, that’s the unpaid
spot, these organic SEO search listings, that
number one organic spot gets about % of the
clicks. The number two spot gets about % of
the clicks. And the number three spot gets %.
The rest of the top shares the remaining piece
of the pie. And that’s why where you rank for
any keyword or phrase that your customers might
find you matters. The higher you rank, the more
relevant traffic you get to your website. It
pays off in actual traffic to your website from
customers looking for that thing you do. The
value of SEO, it drives customers who have asked
for exactly what you do right to your website,
ultimately leading to increased sales and brand
awareness. And that is our marketing tip for
today. We are here in our featured interview
section and I’m joined by Shawn Lee Howe. She
is a professional photographer at Shawn Lee Photography
and Art. Shawn Lee, thank you for being here.
Thank you for having me. We’re excited to talk
to you because first, congratulations on being
a superstar. You’ve been a superstar in
That’s, I mean, some people call that a three
-peat. I don’t know what you would call that,
but it’s a good… I would call that a three
-peat too. That’s a three -peat. That’s rare
in Kansas City. So we haven’t done that yet.
That’s a big move. Too soon. I know. Sorry. Sorry.
Sorry to the mourning public out there for the
Chiefs. Tell everybody what they should know
about the business and just kind of describe
who you are and what you do. Okay, well, I’m
a professional branding photographer, and my
business is all about empowering, networking,
create. I started my business because I wanted
to empower young women to be confident. So when
I originally started out, I started out taking
pictures of women, just women, because I noticed
that a lot of, in the age that I’m in, a lot
of the women were feeling a little self -confident,
and they didn’t want to take pictures. I said,
okay, well, I can make anybody feel comfortable.
So that was the whole goal behind that. And then
as I got started, I started networking with other
entrepreneurs, freelancers, other nonprofits.
And so I would work with them in networking.
And then we ended up creating. collaborations
partnerships and things of that nature so empower
network and create excellent and and like is
there a mix of kind of the work that you do is
it you know primarily branding or like where
where what how do you break that down there is
a mix so when i started out it was mainly portraits
so i shipped it because i didn’t have a niche
i was just like whatever’s coming my way, I’m
going to shoot it. Okay. And I did that. And
so it wasn’t until recently, the last two years,
I decided that I wanted to be headshots in branding
because I like working with small businesses,
freelancers, entrepreneurs, those people. And
so now I. Like I just last night, I just did
a headshot happy hour. Yes, I did a headshot
happy hour. So now I’m doing more of the headshots
and sitting down one on one with small business
owners and freelancers and bringing their brand
story to life. So it’s more like a creative brand
session. And, you know, make. Make no mistake
that getting your brand to live and be what it
can be in print or in film or digitally is a
big deal. How do you approach a new project?
Because you talk about your process on the website.
It seems very approachable. The words literally
on the website were, lay back, act natural, let’s
take some pictures. And it’s really about capturing
the subject. And just talk about how you would
approach it. approach a brand new project. You’re
working with a new small business. What do you
do? Where do you go? Okay. So working with the
new small business, we always do a clarity call.
That is important. Okay. The clarity call is
to decide if we’re a good match. Okay. Okay.
If your vision and my abilities. You know, step
one. Step one is do we have a good fit here?
Yes. Do we have a good fit here? Once we decide
that we have a good fit, then we work on the
shoot plan. And the shoot plan basically is say
I’m interviewing you to see what is it you like?
What do you want to do? How you see yourself?
Tell me about your brand. And then I create a
Pinterest board for you. So this helps me help
you because most of the time we say, oh, I want
this, this, this, and this, and this. But then
it’s like, if you can’t see it visually, then
it’s like, it could be a hush posh of a hot mess.
But I send them the Pinterest board. They look
at it and they’re going to either say, yeah,
this is what I was thinking, or this is not at
all what I was thinking. And so we go from there.
If it is what they wanted, then we start outlining
where we’re going to shoot, how we’re going to
shoot it, and what’s the most important. Because
during the shoot process, I like to get stock
images for them of their brand and their business
so they don’t have to use stock images of other
people. They might as well use their own. If
you can use your own images. Please do. It’s
always going to be better. Yes, because it makes
you look human, like a real person. What I’ve
learned that in these clarity calls and shoot
plan sessions is that a lot of people don’t want
to be on their website. Like I don’t want to
see myself on my website. I want to see other
stuff. Not me, please. And I’m like, no. I was
like, you don’t have to be all up and through
there. If you see me, I’m all looking through
there. But anyways, we’re not talking about me.
But I said, you have to showcase your personality
and who you are because people will buy from
you if they trust you. Right. Like if they trust
what they’re seeing, like, oh, she makes candles.
Oh, look at her. She’s making the candles. She’s
in her home or whatever. They’re like, oh, OK,
I trust her. Yeah. I’ll buy from her. And branding
comes down to that, right? You have trust in
a brand and I trust that we will deal squarely
and we can help each other grow, right? That’s
%. I love the call first and the Pinterest
board because that clarity call, we did an exercise
one time here at just one of our staff meetings
where we’ll do educational topics, we’ll do self
-improvement processes. And I tell this story
because. Here’s what happened. So we as a creative
exercise with with the whole staff, we said,
OK, I’m going to tell you about a house I want
you to build and I want you to draw me this house.
And it’s going to have you know, it’s going to
be a two story house. It’s got a front door.
It’s got some this many windows. And then, you
know, you’re slowly adding additional things
on. You’re describing that vision of here’s here’s
what’s in my head as a client. And then you look
around the room at what everyone has drawn. Right.
And it’s everyone from an account person. who
may not have any kind of creative background,
but then you also have the graphic designers
who do this kind of thing for a living and sketch
and do all kinds of fun stuff. Nobody had even
close to the same house that the facilitator
has in mind here and is showing everybody. And
it’s because communicating that visual and here’s
what I have in my head is really tough. And that
Pinterest board seems like… What a brilliant
way to go. That is that’s going to save you so
much hassle down the road. So I’ve learned trial
and error. You’ve you’ve done it. Great job.
Let’s let’s talk about your brand, too, because
you’re growing beyond the lens and you’ve developed
a youth program to educate teens about photography.
Tell us about that one. Yes. So this is it’s
it’s in progress. But this I’m so excited. So
this pilot program is basically showing teens
how they can use their cell phones for good.
We could use that, sure. Because we know that
they record everything. So I wanted to show them,
because when you go to career day, you typically
don’t see a photographer. You don’t see a photographer,
but a photographer. It’s a career. So I want
to show them that they can take their cell phone.
They can create amazing imagery just with their
cell phone and they can sell it and they can
be entrepreneurs and that they can have things
in art galleries and just show them what is possible.
So it’s basically showing them the basics, how
to crop, how to edit, things like that, but all
on your cell phone. I like where that’s going.
That is a great program. I’m so excited about
it. I was just so excited about this. And this
is fairly new? So it has not launched. So this
is still like my baby. You heard it here first.
It’s a radio voice. So it’s a work in progress.
But once I have… the school that I would pilot
to, or I’m trying to figure out, do I want to
do the school or do I just want to enlist some
students? Because I feel like the school could
be a little bit of red tape and I kind of want
to launch. in the summer so we can be outdoors
and take some amazing photos. So I do have parents
that trust me with their children. That’s good.
That’s also good. So I’m thinking about that,
but I have the outline, everything ready to go,
what I want to teach them, how I want to do it.
So at the end of the program, they will have
an art show. So we will get canvases and prints.
They get to invite their family and their friends.
And then their family and friends, they can purchase
right off of, you know. Oh, outstanding. Oh,
that’s exciting. That’s exciting. Good luck on
the pilot. That seems like a fun thing. Thank
you. You’re a professional photographer, so there’s
definitely passion and skill there. But you’re
also an entrepreneur and you have to wear both
hats. And that’s not always easy because we,
you know, have a thing that we do and we love
that. And then we become a business owner. And
now. Now you focus on those things instead of
the passion and love that you had for the thing
you’re doing. What’s the most rewarding aspect
of being a photographer and then also being a
business owner? Being a photographer, I would
say my repeat clients. Majority of my clients,
they come back. So the life cycle of a client
for me has been two years plus. So I’m working
with them on multiple things. So it’s business
and personal. But this is just me. When I see
my images on a website, in a newsletter, on social
media, I’m happy. Excellent. Okay. Because I
know I took those. I’m going to follow up on
that later in the lightning round. So we’ll put
a pin in that one. Okay. And with entrepreneurship,
it’s just seeing how… far i can go like dreaming
bigger because you do wear a lot of hats like
you’re the social media person you’re the marketing
person you’re the the billing the accounting
you’re all of these things and that can be super
drowning yes times but i’ve learned to find um
different softwares that automate some things
so i don’t always have to be sitting at a desk
but for the most part i enjoy like being hands
-on with the different people that I network
with and I work with. So I’m okay with doing
the things, but I dread taxes every year and
just keeping things organized. I always tell
my daughter that I wish she would just want to
help her mama. She’s and she’s like, whatever.
But so that some of the tedious things that I
don’t. I could be doing something else like going
to another networking event or having another
client. But I have to do the back end stuff so
I can stay organized and stay legit. And if it’s
only you, you’re balancing all those. And it’s
just me. And that was really my – you were way
ahead of me on my follow -up question of the
most challenging things about being a photographer
and an entrepreneur. Are the taxes and finding
that balance the most difficult part or the most
challenging part of the entrepreneur side? Or
is there something else that we haven’t talked
about yet? I would say no. That’s just one of
those things that you have to do. You just have
to do them. But challenging would be constantly
believing in yourself. Oh, okay. Because, you
know, you take a couple of blows and hits in
your confidence when you might not land the client.
Yeah, yeah. A client might not be happy. And
so just constantly knowing that. You’re doing
good work. You’re on the right task. Because
sometimes you’d be like, am I supposed to be
doing this? Especially when you see that you’re
working really, really hard, but maybe the money
isn’t coming in like you thought it would be.
So just trying to stay. and not give in to the,
oh, maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. I feel like
there’s also that conscientiousness, right? That
if you’re a conscientious person, if you care
about your work, if you put pride into that work,
and a lot of creative professions do. We do.
We do as well. And if somebody isn’t happy with
something. we tend to look inward first and go,
this has got to be me. What else could I have
done? And I, you know, that, that I think it’s
pretty universal across the board when you feel
that way. Cause I think there are other people
out there who for whatever reason, turn that
part of their brain off. And it’s like, Hey,
you don’t like what I do about, you know, that’s,
I don’t want to work with that. Let me ask then
about the, the most challenging part about the
photography side is, is there one, or is that
the easiest part of this whole thing? I love
being a photographer. The challenging part would
be sitting still and editing. Oh, yeah, yeah,
yeah. I want to outsource that so bad. Huh? Because
I just, listen, I already sit at a computer all
day in my night of life. Like, when it’s time.
I want to do the fun stuff. I want to create
the story. I want to shoot the story. I want
to be in the middle of the street capturing an
image. I don’t want to be at a desk. Yeah, focused
on individual pixels. I don’t want to. Oh, man.
Yeah, I get it. So that’s the most challenging
for me because. Sitting still with my mind so
busy and so creative, it’s an ongoing challenge.
And so I’m looking to outsource editing because
I would like to take on more clients. I see you.
Just know that. What’s next for Shawn Lee Photography
and Art? Where do you go from here? I mean, we’ve
talked about the youth program, but what’s the
future hold? I would not be surprised if you
see me, some of my work posted up in an art gallery
or two. I plan on doing a couple of things. I’ve
had a couple of art shows before of my work,
my photography. So I would say that, I don’t
know. I don’t know. The way that I work, for
whatever reason that is, I feel like there’s
going to be a shift in the way that I work, whether
that’s going to be some travel photography. I
know, right? There’s worse things could happen.
Yeah. Travel photography or. Travel and fashion
seems to be the two things that keeps popping
up in my head. So we’ll see how that goes. That’s
very exciting. Well, let’s take that and go right
into the lightning round. If you’re ready for
the lightning round. I’m ready. No way to know
what kind of things I might ask. Let me start
with what part of the business do you wish you
knew more about? We’ve talked about taxes being
kind of a necessary evil and a hassle, but is
there a part of the business that you’re like,
man, I really don’t have as much information
there and I’m ready to get more? I would say
systems and processes. I wish that I would have
learned how to do that sooner and why that was
so important. Because I felt like I still kind
of spin my wheels. I’ll give you an example.
Right now, I’m going through all the gazillion
subscriptions that I have to keep my business
looking professional. And then some do the same
things as the other one. And so it’s like now
it’s time to consolidate. Hello, if I had just
known about certain things, then I probably wouldn’t
have, I won’t say wasted money because it, you
know, but. There’s a learning process there and
there’s a lot of overlap in those tools. Yeah,
for sure. It’s tons. And I didn’t realize Adobe
that alone, you know, does a lot. Yeah. Well,
that’s good stuff. Next lightning round question.
You have a daughter and you’ve cataloged her
life so far through images. When you sit back
and dive into those great photos, what’s the
reaction from your daughter? And I’m saying this
as a parent of a person where, you know, that
preschool video I took of the dance recital is
one that is super cringy for her. But, you know.
I’ll watch it anytime because it’s hilarious.
And you just kind of put a seatbelt on and go,
man, this is exciting. But it’s the kind of thing
that, all right, well, this is probably going
to show up at your wedding. You know, those kind
of things. What’s her reaction to these? Well,
my daughter is just as extra as I am. Listen,
she loves it because she’s the only child. So
she loves to be the center of attention. It’s
all about me, me, me, me, me. So she loves it.
So every now and again, we have this large tub
of photos, her baby things, anything that you
can think of that mommy has kept is in there.
And she was like, can we go through my things?
And she loves it. She loves all the pictures.
She loves it. So she enjoys it because it’s all
about her. So she’s not like, oh, mama. Yeah.
I’m just waiting to see, you know, where do the
eye rolls start showing up? Where does that,
when does that happen? I think the eye rolls
for her shows up when I want her to do something
with me. Oh, okay. Like, let’s go do this. Or
can you be my test subjects? I want to try this.
So those are like, no. Cause she’s like, mama,
I don’t want to work with you. That’s right.
It’s not about me anymore. It’s about you and
what you’re trying to get. Yeah. So she’s like,
absolutely not. No. So that’s where the eye rolls
come for her. You had a winning set of photos
from the Landon Center on Aging for their images
of aging photo contest. So first, congratulations
on that. Thank you. Spectacular stuff. My lightning
round question is about having your work on display.
So here’s where we’ll take that pin back out
of it. Because you’ve also been on display at
Starbucks, KC Wineworks, in corporate offices,
local headquarters buildings. As you evaluate
your own creative work, it captures this very
specific moment in time. What are the feelings
there? Do you see flaws or go, hey, that’s still
not done. I wish I would have done this. Or I
wonder what would have happened if I waited a
half more second before I clicked that shutter.
Is it done and you can admire it? Or are you
always working on something? Well, for the most
part, for those things that are on display, those
are done. They’re done. They’re done. So you
can you can. So I’m happy about those because
they’re done. I think for me, I’ll look and see.
I always look and see how I could do something
better. Like, could I have stood this way to
capture this, capture that? But it’s just it’s
most rewarding, especially like the landing center
of aging contest. The lovebirds. That was my
image. That one was my best friend’s grandparents.
Oh, OK. OK. And so I’ve been around them for
a very, very long time. And how he always looks
at her, even at that age, is just a beautiful
thing. So, yeah, it was nice to capture that
moment at her wedding. So it’s like it was just,
you know, so every time I see that and I threw
it in black and white because it just looks so
classic. Perfect. Yeah. And this is my last lightning
round question. The best business advice you’ve
ever received? Because you’ve done some incredible
entrepreneur training. You’ve been doing this
for some time now. You’ve gotten a lot of advice
over the years. What do you think is the best
business advice you’ve received? Schedule your
rest. Oh, yeah, yeah. That is the most important
thing that here recently that I received. Going
through the Porterhouse KC program, schedule
your rest. You have to rest being an entrepreneur
with you doing everything. So, for example, if
I get sick. Yeah. Yeah. You know, someone has
to take someone’s picture. So then you have to
enlist someone. But it’s not the same as if you’re
doing it and the client is your client. So schedule
the rest because your body will tell you when
you’re doing too much. And I feel like I’ll be
doing too much. Yeah. But. Schedule your rest.
And then the other one would be ask for help.
Oh, that is the hardest thing to do. Yeah, to
ask for help is the hardest thing to do. But
to just know that you’re not alone and that there
are other people out there that don’t mind helping
you because they’re also entrepreneurs. We tend
to take it on ourselves and we drown faster than
we need to. That is maybe some of the most practical
and helpful business advice you could get. That
is very good. I’ll take you out of the lightning
round. Congratulations. You survived the lightning
round. Thank you. Tell everybody where they can
find you if they want their own Pinterest board
of… ideas and they’re ready to have that branding
work done. Where do they go? Where do they look?
Well, they can go to my website, which is just
Shawn Lee, which is J U S T S H A W N L E E .com.
Or they can follow me on Instagram at just Shawn
Lee. So those are the two places they can find
me. Now I do have a ticker talk, but my tick
don’t talk. And I couldn’t tell you what it is,
so my daughter knows. We won’t even bother. We’ll
just go to the website, go to Instagram. Go where
you can find people who do visual things. Instagram.
All right. Shawn Lee House, professional photographer
at Shawn Lee Photography and Art. Thanks for being
with us today. Thank you for having me, Chad.
I appreciate this so much. Good times. Thanks
so much. And that is our show. Thanks to our
friend Shawn Lee. And thank you for listening
to the Small Business Miracles podcast. Remember
to subscribe, leave us a five -star rating and
review. Drop us a line on the website at eagadv
.com if you have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll
be out here helping entrepreneurs with another
small business miracle. Talk about capabilities,
building all your hopes and dreams Talk about
possibilities, it ain’t rocket surgery But maybe
it is Come on down, we’re gonna sit around it
Get into your business