I’m guessing probably not since we never update it. He he. But today we had the urge to do just that, give whoever it is out there who may still take a peek at this boudoir blog a little update on us and our business. (Side note, I did just check our analytics and plenty of you folks do take a lookie at this blog. So hey now, we’re even more motivated to write this post).
Because of our silence on this blog, it may have seemed as though we dipped out of the photographer spotlight that we were so grateful to for so long. But it’s with good reason. After 8 years of that ‘put your head down, work your booty off’ season of your life, Kimberlee and I decided it was time to reap a little bit from what we sowed. K really reaped her harvest, pumping out two gorgeous children in two years (see evidence of that incredible feat below). Arie and Maelee are such a blessing to us, I can’t wait to get them into trouble and have lots of adventures with them & K when they are older.
And as for me (Marissa)… I meandered the globe taking in all kinds of amazing sights and sounds, one of those things that’s necessary after even the most amicable of divorces. I roamed South East Asia with a kindred spirit for a month, hit up my second home in Paris twice with Kimberlee and friends (not literally MY second house, I wish)! I lived in the bellows of a cruise ship for a few weeks with a friend hitting up every port in the Caribbean (that was actually my favorite), hiking the trails off Cinque Terre in Italy, and even doing big Yosemite Half Dome hike. And I even did a little good, creating this video and fundraising campaign for a hero of mine. I’ll pop the video in my ‘show and tell’ collage below. And, last but not least, and so necessary in all break ups, the cutting and dying of my hair 😉 All the while we were taking care of our studio (Kimberlee mostly remotely) and just kinda rolling with it. Still doing some pretty dang cool things photography wise if we do say so, again, evidence below.
So all that to say, you didn’t see us around, cuz, well, we were too busy kinda living the simple(ish) life for awhile. Taking time to raise a family and be present, and travel the world, all the while so grateful to the staff at the studio who was okay with me just popping into the studio an average of about 30 hours a week at that time. Erin taking care of all the typical biz owner’s responsibilities, so much love for her.
But then something happened around January. The wind shifted, and all of a sudden here we are again. In drive mode. And once again we were all about that very hands on biz life. Myself especially, really putting every bit on my focus on the studio.
And when you focus, it pays off. Last month our boudoir studio had one of it’s most successful months ever (if we don’t count the times we do our big annual sale – and we don’t actually count that sale in our monthly gross). In just one month, June 2016, we grossed over $31,000.
And all in that time frame of ‘aha’, we also saw some of our past boudoir workshop attendees killing it! That got us even more excited! This is one of the most rewarding parts of being educators in this industry: seeing our teachings being implemented, and turned into success stories! There are a ton of you, but a few of the most notable ones that we see out there are Jen Rosenbaum and Denise Birdsong, just doing amazing things. Then we got a few workshop testimonials that just hit us…. for instance Jenny Taylor wrote us this on Facebook: “Hi. Just wanted to stop by and say thank u for all the informational advise you have put out in the world. 7 years ago when I started you were so inspirational and still are today! I owe some of my credit to you.” I love how all of us boudoir photographers cheer each other on. It’s infectious.
And messages of gratitude from other photographers keep coming in, on a regular basis. And then we thought, man, we have all these resources that are still SO valuable, especially our new online workshop. We need to start telling the newer boudoir people about this stuff.
I mean after the success of last month, my goodness we REALLY want you all to know how we did it. So all that to say, please stop by our shop and see all the updated resources and then do check our newly launched, more affordable than ever Online Boudoir Workshop which we’ve broken down into pieces. Use PROMO CODE: AUGBLOG to get an additional $35 off your online workshop purchase. Expires Aug 31, 2016.
So now I welcome you to the show and tell portion of this blog post. Here our studio decided we wanted to add some flair to the back of our studio (see all our shinanigans at @theboudoirdivas …..
A recent outdoor boudoir shoot, styled with Peggy of @feathersandfox
My gorgeous biz partner and bestie, Kimberlee, and her sweet new adventure in mamahood….
Some of my faves from my wanderings,
Meet my hero Josie, it was an immense honor to tell her story in the Philippines….
Paris photo shoots for our clients this past May 2016, email us if you wanna know when the next trip is!
We also gave away a trip to Paris and a photo shoot packages to a lucky client! Kirsitie Ennis won the drawing. See www.parisgiveway.com to see how we did it!
Meet the awesome Jenny Chambers! She flew all the way to Paris for a mentor session. We talked shop then went out and photographed a model together! This is the stuff dreams are made of.
