Last week a photographer asked me (via her wall-post-comment-thing on my Facebook page) if I would share the quote that we talk about during our speaking presentation, related to the recession. It’s a good one, from our dear friend Donald Trump… and we think it’s so incredibly inspiring! As we shared during our “Boudoir Is The New Black” presentation, the recession started to hit us here in SD last year. It was around the time when we were ABOUT to raise our prices (with a pretty large increase!), and we were definitely nervous (hey, we’re human!). We’re happy to say, though, that we were able to almost double our gross income for the studio last year – and the demand for the DIVA BRAND is only growing. We’re not saying this to brag, but only to say that you CAN make it through by being resilient through hard times. Don’t let the fear stop you, and don’t settle just because things may seem uncertain. Keep pushing through. So, here you go… the famous Donald quote…
Yes, it’s true. We were at the office on Friday for 15 hours. I think that might be a record for us ‘workaholic divas’… we didn’t leave until midnight, but we’re happy to say that the big project we were working on finally DID launch. (Still working out little quirks but it’s well on its way to looking freaking fabulous!) Amidst the late night working, there were a few times where the deliriousness started to hit… and there were also a few moments where we had to wait for our website to launch, so we grabbed the video camera to pass the time. The resulting nerdiness is below.
(PS… if you aren’t interested in watching our dorky antics, we completely understand… BUT… you have GOT to watch this video until the end. The last 14 seconds will put a smile on your face, guaranteed).
PPS – if you are one of the crazy persons out there who actually enjoys seeing these dorky behind-the-scenes videos about what life is like here at the Boudoir Divas studio… why not subscribe to the Divas’ Youtube channel???
PPPS**PLEASE NOTE THE BOUDOIR INTERNATIONAL REFERRAL SITE IS NOT COMPLETELY FINISHED YET. SO IF YOUR LISTING ISN’T EXACTLY CORRECT OR IMAGES ARE MISSING, DON’T FRET, THEY WILL BE UP SOON ENOUGH! WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE DELAY DURING THIS TRANSITION BUT ASSURE YOU THIS SITE WILL BE WAYYYY BETTER! 🙂
Wow… we have the greatest job in the world. Not only do we have wonderful clients (over 400 boudoir shoots per year w/ women who come to see us from all over the country)… and not only do we work with the most AMAZING women (fabulous staff, Crystal, Deena, Ashley, & newest addition Danielle!)… but on top of all of this, we ALSO have the opportunity to travel and meet some bad-ass photographers from around the WORLD.
Most recently, we’ve had the chance to lead a speaking program with WPPI’s Road Trip 2010, in Irvine last week, and in Dallas TX yesterday! We met SO many new friends, and we just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who came to hear us speak. It is truly an honor to be able to share with all of you about boudoir… something we are so incredibly passionate about. Way back in 2007 when we launched our “Bringing Boudoir Back” campaign, it took a long time for photography organizations to realize that boudoir really WAS about to make a comeback! A handful of forward-thinking photography organizations did agree to let us come and share our vision for what boudoir could become, and in the past 3.5 years, we’ve seen boudoir just EXPLODE as more and more people in the industry are starting to see the potential that is in this niche. We are so excited about where things have come, and we just can’t WAIT to see where this is going to go next!
To all of you who believed in us (and who believed in boudoir) way back in 2006-07… THANK YOU. Seriously, thank you for listening to these couple of crazy gals who believed that boudoir would become the next big thing. Thank you for coming to our workshops, thank you for purchasing our books, thank you for traveling to hear us blab on and on about this topic that we are so passionate about. I know, I know… this is starting to sound like a lame ‘acceptance speech’ at the Emmy’s or something. Whatever. We just want you to know that we wouldn’t be where we are today without all of you who have supported us and helped us and believed in us along the way. And… you never know… maybe someday we’ll also have the chance to lead a platform presentation at WPPI Vegas (fingers crossed!) 😉 Thanks again, WPPI, for inviting us on the Road Trip. We had an amazing time, and we’re honored to be counted among so many industry leaders who have done so much for others.
Here are a few photos from our presentation at the Irvine stop on the Road Trip…
In this first shot, we are showing where the business started out (in Marissa’s TINY one-car garage!) A lot of people don’t know this, but Marissa actually came up with the business plan for the Boudoir Divas WAAAAY back in 2001, right after she graduated from high school!
This next image shows our Mission Statement on the screen. This is something that is INCREDIBLY important to us. We encourage all of you to sit down and write out your own mission statement – something that is personal and unique to you and your business – something that reminds you WHY you do what you do.
Thanks to everyone who came to hear us speak! PS… to those of you at the Irvine show… we realize that we had to cut out the ‘MARKETING’ portion of our presentation (that’s what happens when Becker talks too long and we start 20 minutes late!) 😉 just kidding Becker, you know we love you! Ok, but to those of you who were at that show – we WILL be sending you that marketing section. Actually, maybe we’ll send it to EVERYONE on our mailing list! If you’re not on that list, CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP RIGHT NOW!
One more thing (as if this blog post wasn’t long enough already)… we are THINKING about possibly recording our speaking presentation and having it available for download for FREE on our website. A lot of people have heard us give this presentation this year, but as 2010 is coming to a close, we already have new plans for a NEW speaking program (just in case we get invited to speak in Vegas)… 😉 … So anyway, if you’d be interested in having our 2010 speaking program available to view for free, leave a comment below. If there’s enough demand, we’ll make it happen! Thanks everyone!
xoxo, Kimberlee
People are always telling us that we need to talk more about our personal lives here on the blog, so that we can let our blog readers ‘in’ on our lives a bit more. So, dear blog readers, here’s where we’re at this week: we are feeling just a little stressed. MOST of the time, Marissa and I are ‘on-top-of-the-world-girls’… where we can tackle anything and everything that comes our way. We usually LOVE big ideas and big decisions. We usually THRIVE off of craziness and a million cool projects happening all at once. But this week, friends, we have to admit that we’ve been feeling the stress of having a million cool projects in the works. Don’t get me wrong here – we absolutely love our job, we love teaching photographers, we love traveling and speaking and leading workshops and creating websites and making clients feel beautiful and running a busy, high-volume studio. We love it all. But there are days when it all sort of catches up to you, and all you want to do is get away from it all. This week has been a little stressful for us, and we’re both feeling the weight of some big decisions that we have to make. Marissa sent me a text message this morning that said: “Feeling super-overwhelmed… last night had a dream that you and I were being chased by a bull elephant. Symbolic maybe?” It made me laugh – but it also made me think that we need to find our own little ways of relieving stress. One of my favorite stress reliever is taking a bath… “There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.” ~Sylvia Plath … And then I also love reading and journaling. This morning before work, I spent an hour on the beach, reading my Bible, sitting in silence, and just trying to calm my thoughts and heart before the day started. It was wonderful, and I definitely felt more relaxed and refreshed today. So the question that we want to pose to you all is this… what’s your favorite stress-reliever? We’d love to hear your thoughts! xoxo, Kimberlee (and Marissa)
Boudoir photographer Teresa Nora Trobbe posted this adorable photo on our Boudoir Divas Photographers FB Page. I thought it was so stinkin’ cute I just had to share. Thanks for the shout out as well Teresa! That was really sweet. Here is what she posted….”LOVE The Divas and workshop is sooo worth-it! I have been shooting boudoir for about 6 years and yet I learned so much…the timing could not have been better. Even Everest raises the Bra to the beautiful Divas!!”
Our Oct boudoir workshop is totally full but if you want more info on the next we will launch please visit www.boudoirshop.com for more info.
The speaking engagement in Irvine will take place at the Hyatt Regency (17900 Jamboree Road, Irvine, CA 92614). We will be speaking at 3:30pm.
The speaking engagement in Dallas is taking place at the Crowne Plaza Dallas (14315 Midway Rd, Addison, TX 75001).
Hope to see you all there!
We have been working on this baby every spare minute that we get. Boudoirinternational.com you will be the best boudoir photography website on the planet!!!! Or my name is Marissa C. Boucher! Ha.
We are thrilled about the idea of all of us pooling our resources and bringing boudoir to the masses rather than trying to push our individual studios. Then when millions upon millions of potential clients go to bou int, there will be plenty of love to go around. Yes, I know, I dream big. I can just imagine a boudoir international ad campaign and a boudoir article in the pages of Glamour Magazine already. I mean they are finally embracing celebrating “real beauty” which is the perfect lead-in for boudoir.
In fact we are already making only the first move on many big ad campaigns to come. Check it out… will hit the newstands in Nov… in BRIDES MAGAZINE! Yay! What do you think… still need to justify, center, and all that jazz, but we are digging it.
Email Ashley Sapp at [email protected] to get more info and to see if you have got what it takes to be on the biggest and best elite list of boudoir photographers! Please include your website address as well as the city or cities you would like to be listed in.
Miss Stacy Clark, this out-of-this-world singer/songwriter asked us to not only photograph her earlier this year but also, gasp, lets us use her songs for our slideshows and marketing videos. Well now this beauty is officially a celebrity! Yay, she is itunes featured free download this week ! You deserve every bit of the recognition Stacy. Although we already knew you were a star inside and out. xoxo- Marissa and Kimberlee
That’s right, you guys – it’s FINALLY time for us to start posting some videos from Paris! 🙂 Here’s one that shows our outdoor fashion shoot with our fab model LoArna… we absolutely LOVED shooting on the streets of Paris, and our workshop attendees also got some stellar images for their portfolios! We LOVE Paris! 🙂
