Shutter Success: Beth Relyea Focuses the Photography Lens on Real Estate and Beyond

Join us in this episode of "From Garage to Growth" as we sit down with Beth Relyea, a talented photographer who successfully transitioned from real estate photography to building her own thriving photography business. 

Beth shares insights into her journey, the challenges she faced, and the diverse range of photography services she offers. From capturing homes to creating family portraits, 

Beth's story is a testament to passion, adaptation, and the art of visual storytelling. So tune in and enjoy the insight as we unpack the lens-tastic story of Beth Relyea

Introduction: Beth's Journey Begins

00:01:00 - The Genesis of Beth's Photography Career

Beth shares her start in real estate photography and the family connection that ignited her passion.

00:03:00 - Transition to Full-Time Entrepreneurship

Exploring Beth's decision to start her own photography business and the excitement of learning new aspects of the craft.

00:06:00 - Expanding Clientele in Real Estate

Beth discusses her approach to expanding her business and working with multiple real estate agencies.

00:08:00 - Business Operations and Learning Curves

Brad and Beth delve into the challenges of running a photography business, including bookkeeping, taxes, and the importance of learning.

00:10:00 - Diversifying Photography Services

Beth talks about the significance of offering a variety of photography services, from real estate to lifestyle and aerial photography.

00:12:00 - Investing in Education and Equipment

The impact of taking a photography class on Beth's skills and the value of investing in quality equipment.

00:14:00 - Seasonal Marketing Strategies

Beth shares insights into her marketing strategies, focusing on seasonal trends and targeting specific photography needs.

00:16:00 - Balancing Different Photography Niches

Managing time efficiently and balancing real estate, family portraits, and other photography niches.

00:18:00 - Building Relationships and Community Involvement

Beth emphasizes the importance of community involvement and how volunteering has contributed to the growth of her business.

00:21:00 - Legal Aspects and Business Advice

Beth discusses the legal side of photography, meeting with an attorney, and offers valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

00:23:00 - The Rewards of Business and Community Impact

Closing thoughts on the rewards of entrepreneurship, community engagement, and the impact of Beth's photography on various projects.

Conclusion

#PhotographyJourney #PodcastAlert #FromGarageToGrowth #EntrepreneurshipStories #BethRelyeaPhotography 🌈

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Learn more about Beth Relyea

Website: https://bethrelyeaphoto.smugmug.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethrelyeaphoto
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethrelyeaphoto

Need a little guidance in your own business? We're here for you!
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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuE31mXf6_Nf4yhpuZRHI6Q

Transcript

Brad Ruh: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of From Garage to Growth, Small Business Story. Today we get the pleasure of interviewing Miss Beth Relyea. I said that right? No. Relyea, Relyea. And, And Beth is joining us as a new guest as an introduction from another great female entrepreneur, Jess Wollin, who was on a few podcasts ago.

Beth runs a successful photography business, and this is the first, I would say, newest start up, because Jess's was somewhat of a start up, but she's been doing it for a while. And you officially started your business a year ago and we're excited to hear about that and all the, struggles that you went through in starting that.

Why don't you go ahead and introduce a little bit of background about yourself and about, how you even got into photography to begin with. 

Beth Relyea: Okay Beth Relyea I actually just, it was May of 2022 that I started my business, but [00:01:00] in 2017 my brother was running a real estate agency and he wanted an in house photographer and thought I had an eye for it, so he asked me to join his team.

So that's how it started. 

Brad Ruh: So straight up I'm not doing anything. Yeah, sounds good. 

Beth Relyea: No, I was working for a different company at the time, but his firm was growing. So he was looking at just, ways to improve his company. He's my little brother. So how could I say no? Yeah, I come from a large Italian family.

So there's seven kids in our family. 

Brad Ruh: Wow. Is everyone else local too, or? 

Beth Relyea: Yeah, the one that lives furthest away is like an hour and a half. Yeah, it's pretty nice. 

Brad Ruh: Makes Christmas and Thanksgiving and all that very 

interesting, I imagine. 

Beth Relyea: Yeah, for Christmas we have to rent to Hall usually. Oh my gosh.

Because I have, honestly I lost count. There's 50- some nieces and nephews now, it's fun. Yeah. I have any age of kids. Kids of growing through like senior photos and like that sort of thing that I can [00:02:00] play with so it's fun.

Brad Ruh: So did you move back here then or the story?

I know your husband is a golf pro. 

Beth Relyea: He actually moved here from Arizona. Okay, And you met him here. Okay, so he moved here in 2016 To work when the LPGA was going to be at Thornberry. All right, so he worked there for a few years and that's where I met him. Cool 

Brad Ruh: So you, you started taking photos for your brother.

Learning on the fly, real estate photography, as you probably know, is very different than senior portraits. Yeah. So tell me the genesis of, okay, I, I decided to go out on my own. I've been doing photography for my brother for the better part of five years. Yeah. And then you decided to go, bye, bye brother.

Beth Relyea: Yeah the thing was it, doing that for him made me realize how much I loved it. Oh, cool. And, I always liked taking photos. It was mostly those Kodak that you had to yeah. And then you bring it to get developed. [00:03:00] Disposables. Yeah, disposable, that's the word. And you bring it to get developed and should I get doubles right away? I don't know if they're going to be good or not. 

Going from that to digital photography was, it was a lot different and then with real estate photography as well, it was just from the start to where I got in five years was like, I learned so much and it was like, there's obviously more out there.

And so it just got me really excited and just created a passion for me to learn more about the other side of photography. Because I've talked to other photographers like, Oh, you do real estate photography. I can never do that. And they're wedding photographers. I'm like, I could never do that.

It's completely different. I thought it would be really cool to learn the other side of it as well. I thought the best way to do that would just be to start my own company. So I could do that more. Doing real estate photography for just my brother at the time. I was on his team, so I could only take photos for him.

By expanding I was able to expand and do more for other [00:04:00] agencies in the area as well. 

Brad Ruh: Nice. What would you say your make up of percentage of your photography business is, real estate to, to, portraits and family stuff? 

Beth Relyea: The beginning was just real estate. I started learning the other side of it. So I was doing a little bit here and there, like I said, with my large family. Little kids being born like, oh, can I try taking pictures of your baby? So just learning the other things that go along with the photography. I had a lot of people to work with. So it was cool. 

Brad Ruh: So do you do a lot with other real estate agencies now? Have you been able to market your work too? Other, as I know, like Green Bay has a ton of realty companies between Keller Williams and Coldwell Banker and Dallaire Realty, and there's tons. Have you expanded your reach? 

Beth Relyea: So when I first started my company, I did reach out because I had been in the industry for so long. [00:05:00] I did reach out to other agents that I knew. Coincidental acquaintances over time that you worked in the same space. Yeah, just to let them know, hey, just so you know, I branched off and started my own company. If you need a photographer, reach out to me. Most of them already had established people that they worked with.

I'm not going to take them away right away, sure. It's going to take some time. So it, it was just a little bit. My brother still hires me. So I already knew that I had his team in my booklet or whatever, yeah, your Rolodex. Yes. Yeah. So I already knew that I had them.

So that's why I figured, okay, I can start with this and then just slowly build. And within the first few months it was like adding one other agency here or there. It wasn't a lot. But within this last, within the year, I've more than doubled my business. I mean starting with one agent doesn't yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:00] Yeah, but I probably have six or seven now, so it's the It's definitely has grown some steadier 

Brad Ruh: so to speak in terms of picking up work. 

Beth Relyea: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's great That's 

Brad Ruh: awesome. So so what were some of the challenges would you say? You know starting out And taking that step to go I've never owned a business before. What does that mean? What do I do? 

Beth Relyea: ,It was scary at first. I met with an attorney that I used to work for. And just, asked him what I needed to do and he helped me start my LLC and just went from there. Yeah. He owns a title company so, that's how I knew a lot of other agents as well.

Yeah. So I worked for him at a title company. I have a lot of acquaintances in the real estate world, so I thought, this should be easy. It wasn't. Cause like I said, there's so many established photographers in the area that I'm not going to try to steal people from [00:07:00] someone. It's just more have to prove my value. 

Brad Ruh: Build your marketing and continue to put yourself out there. Yeah. Just be present. Exactly. So you started in LLC. And I know, from running a business myself, there's a lot that goes into running a business from now you're doing all your own marketing, now you're doing your own bookkeeping and taxes and how has that transitioned for you? Like you met with an attorney to establish an LLC, but what else have you explored to help you in that startup process?

Beth Relyea: I got an accountant to help me with taxes. That was someone that I reached out to what do I do, you know with this and that so he was helpful with helping me getting to know what I need to start with and what I need to keep track of. I'm still figuring out the bookkeeping stuff, it's one of those things like, hh shoot, it's already December. I should probably look at that [00:08:00] stuff. But for the most part, it's with marketing, it was pretty easy. Social media is just easy. For some people anyways, but for, with doing photography, it's easy. I have enough content to put out there. It's just creating the content to put out there and actually it's interesting. I started my company in May and by, I think it was the end of July, it was finally like, okay, I really need to like up my social media presence and post more that I do real estate.

And interestingly enough, just a week or so after I was like, I need to do this, I got a message from an agent I've never met before. She saw me on Instagram and reached out to me to do photos for her, and now I've been doing photos for her ever since, wow. Yeah. So marketing 

works. It did. 

Brad Ruh: So yeah, I saw you had a website and Facebook and Instagram.

What would you say in your space is probably the missing [00:09:00] component of other photographers that, that you were trying to be different from? 

Beth Relyea: I think the biggest thing is that I have a variety of things that I do. It's not just lifestyle. It's not just real estate. I do both of them. So for instance, there's an insurance company in a dental office that hired me to come take photos of their building and do headshots. Oh, nice. So I can do both because I have the capacity for both of those types of things. People think that all photographers can do both. They can't. You can see that I have different equipment for real estate than I do for portraits. You have the wider angle lens for buildings. And then you have the portraits that you want to take closer up. So you have different equipment for both. 

Brad Ruh: And I saw you do aerial too. Yes. Not everybody has a drone or can do aerial stuff. 

Beth Relyea: More people have drones than you realize. But people also don't realize that you need a [00:10:00] license to do it commercially. Yeah. And so they're like, oh, my brother has a drone. He can take these pictures for me. If you want to use it for marketing, technically he can't. You have to have a license to do that. 

Brad Ruh: Did you go take your pilot's license and all that? Yeah, I had to go to the airport and do all that. It was, I did take a virtual class.

And it was a lot more details than you really need for flying a drone. It's more of you have to see what the weather patterns are. And like all this stuff and how airport traffic works and stuff. I put a drone up for 15-20 minutes to take a few photos of some property and I'm done. A lot of the things are like more for pilots.

But that's what the instructor like taught us. Like this is going to be on the test, you don't need this for that, so the test is a lot harder. And you have to, and you have to renew it every couple of years as well. Just updating it, just like real estate license, just like a lot of things.

You have to do the continuing education for it to make sure that you're up on the laws [00:11:00] and everything. 

And I noticed in your bio, you as far as learning and adapting, you took a class even in photography to, to try to continue to hone your skills in the lifestyle photography, I imagine.

Yes. So that was a thing that I realized pretty quickly. The real estate market is up and down. Yeah. It's not very consistent. Yeah. So I realized I can't just fully commit myself just to real estate. Again, because of all of the other agencies that already have their own photographers.

Sure. So I figured, what can I do to keep myself busy? I took a class so I could understand how the camera worked. Everything that I had taught myself, or everything that I had learned up to that point was me teaching myself how this stuff works. YouTube is amazing. It is. You learn so much in there.

But I thought doing this class would help [00:12:00] just to put me up to the next level. That was literally like made my work change from night and day. You could see a difference in my portrait photography at that point. Getting the new, I mean I spent a lot of money getting new equipment for it.

But getting that new equipment made my job so much easier. So it's just a one time investment and here you go. It was probably the best decision I ever made, was taking that class. Just to learn how things work. Rather than someone on YouTube telling me. 

Brad Ruh: It's a good testament to not only did you realize you needed marketing and getting yourself out there so your visibility's up. But now you're, digging into the, the multi channel approach to diversifying your income.

And I think that's a big thing that a lot of entrepreneurs and even established businesses don't realize is, what are, identifying all of our channels of income and where can we, basically in the realm of photography, like I [00:13:00] can take pictures of these other things and that's a whole nother channel and source of income for me to diversify my business.

Exactly. So that's really cool. And that's a testament to, learning is important. Because if you're not learning, you're going backwards. 

Beth Relyea: Yeah, it's very true. There's always something new to learn. 

Brad Ruh: Where would you say you are today, a year and a half in, compared to where, you have goals and things for 2024?

Is there anything that you're focusing on or wanting to double down on in 2024 for your business? 

Beth Relyea: With all of the different things that I do, I'm realizing that there's a different market in different times of the year. Ah, seasonal. Seasonal, so real estate has the spring market that's booming and, get really busy.

Spring market actually starts in like February. Yeah. But then you have the slowdown [00:14:00] of summer in real estate and that's when you have your family and senior photos that pop up and so that goes for a few months as well. So it's just finding those seasons and focusing more on that thing that you're needed more for at that time.

Brad Ruh: So really targeting your marketing in those seasons Yeah, because I noticed you had Christmas stuff, you know on your pages. Hey, you know get those holiday photos. Yeah, so Yeah, that's really good, cause, cause I noticed like a lot of other realty, or sorry photography businesses their pages are very much just we do photography, and it's like that all year round.

Where I saw that you've been targeting those seasons, and it's funny that you pointed it out, cause I hadn't thought about that as far as oh yeah, that makes sense. You need to be in the season of the year for capitalizing on that season.

Yeah, exactly. Yep. Have you had good success with that this year now, as you're moving into being more intentional? 

Beth Relyea: Yeah, I think that I've, [00:15:00] now this is my second fall Christmas season. Last year was learning, doing some senior sessions and then oh, I should offer Christmas minis.

And then by this year, when I got to the point where I should be offering Christmas minis, I was still working on senior portraits. I had so many. So it's still working on trying to figure out how to manage my time and then throwing real estate in the middle of all of that as well. 

Real estate agents are, I need photos today. When they get that person, it's, it is like very important, like real estate agents' turnaround time is within 24 hours, where portraits, people are willing to wait three, four weeks. As long as you're communicating that this is going to take me a little bit longer, they just want to get it in while the weather's nice.

So it's definitely just trying to juggle both. This year was, especially this last fall season, has been interesting. [00:16:00] But I think I've learned a lot from it, realizing that I can block off time for certain things and to manage my time better with that. 

Brad Ruh: So do you see yourself growing into a studio or do you have a studio?

Beth Relyea: I have a small in home studio, my guest bedroom. Nice. Just threw some stuff up. It works. It's business right off. So that's been, it's been fun, but if you get too big of a family, it doesn't really work. Yeah. But, my goal is, I'm hoping by next year that I can have a studio.

But it really just depends. Take advantage of the weather while you can. Actually last, was it last Sunday? The Sunday after Thanksgiving when it was snowing. We had a family session booked and it was like so beautiful with the snow falling. Like it was perfect. There's some people who don't like, oh it's snowing, let's not.

But there are people if they're willing to do that. Just go with it, and it ends up turning out really cool. Kind of embrace your environment. Exactly, but to have the option of an in home studio is pretty great. 

Actually this [00:17:00] year, something that I focused on was something different around the school year, was offering school portraits for homeschooling families.

There's a lot of homeschooling families in the area.

Brad Ruh: We're one of them homeschool really? 

Beth Relyea: Since 2020 with the in home from COVID. Yeah people probably realize, Hey, this is actually more nice than I realized it would be. And I was partially, I was homeschooled for like half of my school years as well.

Okay. Not because I'm a troubled kid. It was, we moved a lot. My dad was in construction, so we moved a lot. So it was just easier. But some of my family, homeschool, so I started offering it last year. I did it at my church for a little bit. I offered it like two Sundays between masses and didn't have a sign up, like whoever shows up and it was like that was a lot of work. It was a lot of work to set everything up and then not knowing if people are coming. It was a perfect amount of people for me to learn. This year, I decided to set up the backdrop in my house and just put it out there so people could [00:18:00] come when it worked for them. They're in the house for five minutes and done. Because it's already all set up. So it made my job so much easier. And I was able to get way more people in than I did with these are the set times I'm doing it. If you can make it great, if not, sorry. Actually I just did some last week even. Up to last week. They're homeschooling families.

They can do whatever they want. Yeah. 

Brad Ruh: So you've started to look at some of the things you've done, and how can I make them more efficient for my time. Smooth out the customer 

experience a little bit. 

Beth Relyea: Yeah, exactly. So that actually went really well. I even ended up getting a small private school. Like they have 30 students. But they ended up hiring me to come do photos as well. Yeah. 

Brad Ruh: So you're building your market. Yeah, definitely. Homeschooling. That's another niche. Exactly. 

I love it. So speaking of like future aspirations and. advice for, people who are like, yeah, I have a photography business or I'm working for someone like you were, [00:19:00] or just anything really from any business startup, right?

How do I go into what I'm doing now and make it my own? What would you say has been the keys to unlocking that for you? 

Beth Relyea: I think. It took a lot of time and a lot of self help podcasts but really not to compare yourself. 

Brad Ruh: That wasn't a plug for this one, by the way. 

Beth Relyea: Just not to compare yourself to other established businesses. Just know what your value is, and what you have to offer and just let your work speak for itself. Really. 

Brad Ruh: Isn't there something like 'comparison is the thief of joy' or something like that? I might be mixing two phrases here, but it sounded good.

Beth Relyea: It sounds good. It makes sense though. I've found like just looking at other people's things and it's Oh, I don't do that. And it's just, just realizing I have my own value and my own things to offer. I don't have to do the same things that they do. It's better to make yourself a little bit different and offer different things, just to make [00:20:00] you stand out a little bit more.

Brad Ruh: What other things that you leaned into or embraced that you didn't know you needed to do or, was a, oh, I need to do that. Was there any surprises or things that you were like, oh, yeah, here, make sure if you start a business you want to get these things figured out?

Beth Relyea: Actually, yeah, meeting with the attorney when I started my LLC, he told me that because I'm offering a service, like I have to pay taxes.

Sales tax. Yeah. And I never would have. Yeah, sales tax. Thanks. Yeah. Obviously would pay taxes. Yeah. But I would never would have known that if he didn't tell me that. It was really beneficial going to him knowing like the legal side of things. If a question comes up, I know I can reach out to him for legal things.

There are some things that I'm realizing, with contracts and people putting down payments. I haven't really gotten to that point just because I work mostly with real estate agents who pay me after a job and it's, I know [00:21:00] that the people that I work with, I trust them all. So it's building a relationship with them and that sort of thing.

But just learning the legal side of things is definitely. Beneficial to meet with an attorney, I think.

Brad Ruh: It's been echoed quite a bit of have other people that know this stuff to help you, so you're not sitting and fumbling through things that A) you're not good at and B) you don't even know what you don't know. Right and then like you're doing like focus on the things that you know are going to be beneficial to your business that you can take control of - the marketing and like you're doing with just making things more efficient with setting up studio space and getting people done faster, right? That's more efficient. 

Beth Relyea: And just being consistent with your work. For real estate agents, they know that they're going to get their photos from me by 8 a. m. the next morning. 

Brad Ruh: Deliver on what you're saying you're going to do. Yeah. 

And those are all good, really good tips for any business. 

Beth Relyea: And just being honest. People are reaching out last [00:22:00] minute. Can you do family photos for me? It's I can fit it in this day, but I have this many jobs I still need to work on. You're not going to get photos from me for probably a month, three to four weeks.

They're like, that's totally fine. We just want photos done. So just setting that expectation.

I never had one person reach out to me like, Hey, how are my photos coming along? Because I set that expectation from the beginning, and they knew what it was going to be.

Brad Ruh: Clear communication of expectations.

And then delivering on them. That's important. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have anything final to add or wrap up for today? 

Beth Relyea: I found that by doing this, I can say yes to more things that I love doing, and like I said, with my large family, I take advantage of that. And use them as practice to help build up my portfolio for things.

And so it's just, I'm spending more time with them, and giving them something that they can have as a memory. That's been really great. I do a lot of photos for my church; like church events and things. So I'm very involved there. I'm actually going on my fourth year [00:23:00] of doing photos with 'Shop With A Cop.'

That's going on my fourth year with that, and now I just recently started with, there's a company called Decided Excellence in Green Bay, it's like in the Catholic Diocese. Okay. They have two magazines that they put out every month, that they have a feature church and feature family, and they reached out to me, and now I'm starting to do photos for them.

Cool. So stuff's getting published. Yeah. Actually the person that I worked with for Shop with a Cop, this is how I got my in with this one as well. So doing these volunteer things is actually helping my business grow. Helping you build your network. So as much as you feel like, I don't have time for this, it's definitely worth the time because you don't know what's going to come up from it. 

Brad Ruh: Being in the community and being out there and putting yourself out there, it's all part of that visibility and gaining momentum in your brand and who you are. 

Beth Relyea: So doing stuff, like I just did a family for one of the [00:24:00] magazines and they're pregnant and she's do you do maternity photos?

And it's as a matter of fact, I do. It's just getting my name out there more. And again it's a lot more work at the beginning. You're doing a lot of stuff. 

Brad Ruh: No one said running a business was going to be no work. 

Beth Relyea: It's a lot, but eventually all that work pays off and you start getting paid for jobs. Yeah, it's great. 

Brad Ruh: That's fabulous. This was really fun. I appreciate you coming in and thank you to everybody. If you want to check Beth out online, go ahead. And we thank you for joining us for another Garage Growth Journey.

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This material is for general informational purposes only and was produced by Action Financial Strategies, LLC.  Life insurance is subject to underwriting. No coverage exists unless a policy is issued and the required premium is paid. Neither Action Financial Strategies nor NYLIFE Securities LLC or its affiliates provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. For advice on such matters, consult your own professional counsel.

Brian Ruh is a Member Agent of the Nautilus Group®, a Service of New York Life Insurance Company.  Brian Ruh CA insurance license #OB66341.  Brian and Bradley Ruh are collectively Registered Representatives of and offer securities products and services through NYLIFE Securities LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC, a Licensed Insurance Agency 999 Fourier Drive, Suite 300, Madison, WI 53717. (608)831-4416.  Brian and Bradley Ruh are also collectively registered as Investment Adviser Representatives with Eagle Strategies LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser.  Action Financial Strategies, Fox Cities Embroidery, and NVR Branding are not owned or operated by NYLIFE Securities or its affiliates.