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Episode 159 - Your Niche needs YOU - Jen Sulak
64 Plays1 month ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays.
I met Jen Sulak (with the pink hair) through WIPA and I instantly wanted her to be on my podcast because she is unique and unapologetically herself. She is going to welcome your Weirdness today (because we are all a little weird). She relates to her clients on a cellular level with pets or nerdy things.
I love her story about how the pandemic gave her the strength to rebrand to weirdo weddings. It was scary but her people were waiting for her.
Jen is a passionate photographer for over 17 years. She creates safe spaces where you can have the freedom to BE YOURSELF and let your personality shine through! I use Photography as a tool to not only express my inner-artist but to capture unique wedding days in Dallas (DFW) and Destinations around the USA.
Connect with Jen Sulak
Freebie "Truly You" worksheet that you can get - https://weirdoweddings.myflodesk.com/pinkhairjenpodcastfreebie
Connect with Carissa Woo
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Goals
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Woo Wednesdays. Welcome to Episode 159. So crazy. So I'm trying to get 100 reviews by the end of the year. If you would kindly go to Apple Podcast and leave me a review, I would be so, so happy. And it's going to keep me motivated to keep pushing out good content and having good people to interview.
Meet Jen Sulak: Embracing Uniqueness
00:00:23
Speaker
So, yeah, I always say that it's more important than ever to be different.
00:00:28
Speaker
You need to stand out and completely be you. When I heard about Jen Sulak with the pink hair through WIPA, I knew I had to have her on my podcast. Why? Because she's awesome and she is so different. Jen is going to embrace your weird today because we are all a little bit weird. Am I right? After COVID and being in the and industry for so long, she rebranded her company to Weirdo Weddings It had to be done and her people were waiting for her. Today's hot topic is your niche needs you and download her truly weird worksheet in the show notes. Enjoy.
00:01:11
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade.
Experiencing Creativity and Adaptability
00:01:19
Speaker
I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise, some healthy hustle, mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story,
00:01:40
Speaker
time-packed because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:02:03
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to Get A Heck Yes. I have an amazing guest today. Her name is Jen Shulak. She is a passionate photographer and artist that welcomes the weird, celebrates imagination, and creates opportunity for belonging. She has been in the business for 17 years and started a new wedding business called Weirdo Wedding Photographies. In 2020, Jen specializes in creating memories for your wedding day and helping others be themselves.
00:02:32
Speaker
in the process. Welcome, Jen! Woo hoo! I feel like if I'm on the Woo podcast here, I need to say lots of Woos, right? Yes, and I'll say Shulak. Shulak. Shulak. I was joking about that with you before we got on. I was like, you're going to Shulak Sundays.
00:02:50
Speaker
That's so funny. Are you Russian? Is that a Russian one? It's, it's Czech. Oh, Czech. Okay. It's, it's in that vicinity of Czech and Polish mixture. And we just verified that with one of those genetic, you know, things that you send in like a 23 and me kind of thing. So we just verified that my husband is most definitely Solovec. Oh my God.
Family and Personal Growth
00:03:12
Speaker
Well, I'm excited to learn about you. I found out about you through WIPA I was posting about you I do the social for them and you have like an upcoming webinar and I just saw your branding and your look and what you're all about and I was like I have to have you on this podcast because I love meeting like I don't know unique people and not just like your cookie cutter, you know, so I'm excited to learn from you today, but tell everyone like who you are in a nutshell Well in a nutshell, which is a pretty you know, Austin Powers nutshell. I am in a nutshell. Um
00:03:46
Speaker
I have I'm just a creative at heart, ah just a uber creative soul from the beginning. And what has led me into photography has led me into wedding photography, that's led me into speaking, it's led me into making art. And
Partnership Dynamics
00:04:03
Speaker
I just that's the only way I can describe myself now is like I'm a super creative that just loves that process of expression. I like any format that I can get my hands on and just have some fun with it is kind of what I'm here for. And that's, you know, the nutshell is that and it seems to come out of my life in several different ways, including the fact that I do have a seven year old, I've got three cats and I've got a husband who's very much opposite of me. So it's like,
00:04:32
Speaker
I don't know. yeah Everybody out there listening, when you find partners or mentors or people in your life that are opposite you, they actually help you be a better person and a business person and a creative. And and I like to think that there's so many different people out there that they're trying to catch us as we float away into our fantasy land and then some of us that that need a little bit of grounding from every time every time to time. What does your husband do?
00:04:57
Speaker
So he's more of an engineering. Okay, so yeah, if it's not electrical. He's working in it and yeah very, very smart guy. Yeah, me and my hubby are totally opposites. He's a police. So my my therapist is all like, you're the dreamer, you know, like, you're, you're always like thinking of being creative. And he just all like black and white
Journey Through Education and Career
00:05:19
Speaker
rigid, you know, so and then don't mean you have a lot in common. And I have a seven year old. Yeah, I was gonna say he likes to say he's a Vulcan. And I don't I don't believe him because you know, he does have emotions. But yeah, it's very logical. And so a lot of things that make sense to us just do not make sense to them.
00:05:35
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, I'll say like online verbiage or like, what are you talking about? Okay, let's take it way back, Jen. Let's take it back to your childhood. Where are you from? What were you like? ah Parents? Anything you want to share with the audience? Any stories that shaped your life today?
00:05:53
Speaker
So a really big piece of my story that's been coming up recently is how I grew up as a kid. So there's a variety of different reasons that I am the way I am. And some of it is due to the fact that I moved schools every year.
00:06:08
Speaker
So almost every year of my childhood, I was moving to a different school. And that meant barely making a friend before I had to leave again. And then when I got to high school and spent three years in a row at at one school, I told my parents, I said, I do not want to leave this school. I'm so tired of changing schools. I just wanted some sense of stability and community that I hadn't had. It's not like I didn't have my parents or a sister or, you know, I had ah one sister. um But there's something about being stable in one place for a while, right? So this is something that has shaped who I am, but I also believe that in some of the best ways.
00:06:52
Speaker
So I'm very adaptable in certain scenarios, but I've also realized I am not adaptable in certain scenarios because I got comfortable. And then there's some other things about me that traveling is I have to travel. It's just a part of who I am now because I feel like traveling is a teacher.
00:07:10
Speaker
And that it teaches us about the world is so much bigger than we think it is. And we all have so much more in common than we think we do. And so traveling is always going to be something that has affected me my entire life. And then, of course, I got to do some fun things growing up that not a lot of people would get to do. And I spent a good chunk of my life, at least in the later years of school in Oklahoma,
00:07:34
Speaker
And I can honestly say I got to spend a little over at least one full year semester learning the Chickasaw language. Now I wish I could speak speak it now, but that's just something that you don't hear about. You don't hear about people going into school and actually getting the opportunity to learn an indigenous language, right? So this is so interesting. What is Chickasaw? Chickasaw is ah it's a it's a nation in the Oklahoma area. Okay, interesting. So what's your dad a like military meant?
00:08:03
Speaker
Now he was kind of more, they were more like so ministry and social work. So there was a little bit of everything. And my mother was always like a um a receptionist or she was into music and and stuff like that. And then me and my sister were just kind of like, let's just, you know, I was telling my daughter this the other day, I said, I didn't really get the chance to be a part of any of these clubs, right? Like I was moving too much. By the time I figured out I could be a part of a club, it was actually an art club.
00:08:30
Speaker
So I was like taking, you know, I was taking these little classes in between school years, right? And just like learning art, but then I would also go off on the ah scientific side and I did the aviation careers, you know, camps and stuff like that. And I was, you know, doing things in aviation that is, you know, interesting. um One time I even took an auto mechanics class, cause I was like, well, if I get, if I get credit for it, why not? Like yeah auto mechanics is totally out of my wheelhouse.
00:08:57
Speaker
ah You're probably the jack of all trades. and but What was the location that you stayed at for three years? Um, it was, it was an Oklahoma. So, okay. Okay. Cool. Okay. Tell me, um, talk about like high school years. What were you like? What were you all about? And then yeah completely shy as much as I like to say I was, you know, like, it was so cool because by the time I got to high school, I'd been made fun of so much that it didn't really matter anymore. And this school was like the opposite of what I experienced. They were so welcoming.
00:09:31
Speaker
They were, I had a class of 23 people in the beginning, and then I graduated with, you know, 18 other people. So 19 of us total graduated. If that gives you an idea of the kind of small town community that I had at the time. And I figured that I had just enough, like,
00:09:53
Speaker
accessible things to learn while I was at this school. Even though I realized it was different than a bigger city school, I just knew that I had enough to get me through my high school stuff. But yeah, I was totally shy, very quiet. And then the the one thing that I did that I talked to my daughter about too, is that I threw myself into something that I knew I wasn't good at. I didn't grow up playing basketball or sports or any of that.
00:10:19
Speaker
But you know what I did? I actually joined the team because I knew, first of all, it would be a great workout. And then second of all, I got to meet all of the different classes. So had i had social I had a social life without wanting a social life, which is so interesting because if you have seen a team or you've been on a team of some sort, then you know that commodrie camaraderie that comes with being on a team. It doesn't even matter what that team was. What team was it?
00:10:46
Speaker
um which just It's just a basketball team. oh basketball yeah yeah I that and it was a little basketball team. It was a good workout. I got to meet all the different classmen and um I did things differently by the time I made it to high school. I was taking classes with the seniors or the the freshmen because of the way the school, the previous school I had come from, they the way they did things were different. So I was in line with you know what I thought was next in line and this school was one way and this school is another. so
00:11:17
Speaker
all that to say that I was doing something something completely different by the time I got to high school and I didn't I just didn't really care I was like let me just get in there and let's do the work let's graduate let's see where I want to go with my life and of course none of it had to do with photography at the time like all of it was more geared towards you know, graduate high school, go to college, and maybe then figure it out. And I never did figure that out. So I just dropped out. I just dropped out of of college. And I said, Well, I'm just gonna go straight into the working world. So it just seemed to make sense for who I was at the time. And I was like, I don't know, some people y'all are book learners.
00:11:55
Speaker
And you can be a lifelong student. I'm the person that wants to get out there and get my hands on it. Like let me get my hands on it. Let me get some experience, some life experience. Let me go make some mistakes. Let me have some success. Um, so I was just doing data entry for probably the total of 12 plus years after it was all different kinds of different data entry too. So now I love me some 10 keys still. Like I love um And I love typing on a keyboard, believe it or not. It's one of those weird things that and I'm just like, if you want me to ask me to type something, I will.
Transition to Photography
00:12:28
Speaker
I don't want technology to do it for me. I want to type it. oh my god that's so interesting Okay, so your life is definitely different now. But let's talk about the transition from being into like data entry into wanting like
00:12:43
Speaker
a more creative life and like that transition. So believe it or not, it all kind of like coincided with me getting married. um Being a photographer had nothing to do with me like, you know, my wedding and stuff. But like a lot of people get married, they start a business after their wedding. And they're like, Oh, well, I can do this as a business. or i Yeah, yeah.
00:13:02
Speaker
I didn't know you could do photography as a business in 2005. In 2005, I was like, how do how does one get their wedding photographed? I don't even know yeah what that looks like. And that was only 19 years ago, y'all. Like that was only 19 years ago. wow And I'm sitting here thinking to myself about all these people that I've met over the course of my lifetime that were photographers, but we never really discussed you know, a business that was always seen as like an art form. Like, okay. So, you know, I considered that in line with drawing and painting and all these other things I've done my whole childhood and end into my teen hood. I mean, I was winning awards in high school for, for drawing art, like stuff like that. So when I got to photography as an option, I was like, I don't, wow, that's an option. Like a real option. Before you get into that, let's talk about your wedding. Um, how did you, yeah and then tell me a little bit about,
00:13:57
Speaker
your wedding and like why, I don't know, like you just got this like spark of I want to be maybe maybe photography. Yeah. so but So my wedding was Blue Man Group themed in a way. I saw it. and i met my I met my husband and it was a Saturday night church service and we just ended up talking like all night long. And I was like, this is so weird.
00:14:20
Speaker
that I'm talking with somebody who doesn't want to necessarily date me. Like this is so great. Like a lot of people out in that singles world, they're like, you either can't be friends or you're friends and you're never going to date. is i It was such a headspace. I hated it. I really hated that. And the first thing I told him when he took me off the market was thank you for taking me off the market. Like literally like thank you. I'm so glad I met you. And now we're off the market and we're going to get married.
00:14:44
Speaker
that one I was like so excited to not have to deal with all these single people anymore. Oh, I was like, and um okay so my way why did you pick the blue man group? Like a little better. I've been a fan of blue man group since 1996.
00:15:02
Speaker
I've always been of the belief that creativity is is fun. And although I have this somewhat traditional element in my wedding, I also had this super creative element which I thought was an homage to one of my most favorite groups and theater shows.
00:15:17
Speaker
Pardon this short interruption, but guess what?
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00:15:20
Speaker
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00:15:58
Speaker
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00:16:20
Speaker
tell us how you're feeling. Like, I want to just know a little bit more about your thoughts. Yeah, it's beautiful. And you're, you're awesome. It's beautiful. I'm speechless. I just like the fact that it feels like myself. like I can I feel myself when I see this. Oh, man. Well, you got me pumped and excited for this. Carissa, thank you.
00:16:41
Speaker
So I took everything I felt was nerdy enough that I could pull off. and um wedding like um I actually had two of my friends dressed up as blue men for my reception. and and um they also I also used a lot of their music at the time. They had a whole full album out since 1999 and I used some music from there.
00:16:59
Speaker
I also used the music from their show. They had this other song that that was kind of like a song that you're waiting for the show to start. And I was like, that would be a great waiting song for my wedding. And then also fun fact for those of y'all who have never seen Blue Man Group, they also have special songs for their bathrooms. So, and there's, as it's called Bathroom Song, believe it or not. And um so I had bathroom songs running in both bathrooms. So I can take my nerd card and insert it right.
00:17:28
Speaker
What venue was it? What city? What venue? um What do you mean? Like when where I got married? Yeah. Oh, it was it was here in the DFW Metroplex. It was in Dallas. So I basically called up my mom.
Developing a Photography Style
00:17:41
Speaker
It was my mom's built, the building that she was working at at the time. And she was the secretary for for that the little church there. And I said, can we just do the wedding here and just do, we're going to do one room ceremony and reception in one room, do a flip, whatever.
00:17:56
Speaker
And I kept it very simple for that time. And I also realized back then I was kind of like this offbeat kind of quirky person getting married. And I was like, my husband refused to invite most of his ones out of the family. So we had, you know, and I had divorced parents and remarried parents and he had his parents been married forever. And so we had this interesting family dynamic. And then my sister, you know, and my cousins were my wedding party. I mean, that's just it.
00:18:22
Speaker
It's just not what was considered traditional in its own right. And I thought every time I think about it, I kind of smile. And the only thing I don't have is a lot of photos. Like I have photos, but they they don't tell me everything about my day. So a couple, like one or two years later, I realized that as I'm taking photos with my little five mex of megapixel camera, my friends are like, you know, you should really look in the photography. And I was like, well, I've never I don't even know what to do with a camera. i Like I do and I don't. Right.
00:18:49
Speaker
because half of my battle was learning the camera. The rest of it is just your your instinctual creative necessity to explore. Exactly. You know, the visuals. So, you know, I just I started well, I started with like a business class that took here. And then I also um took every continuing education photography class I could find it just so I could learn all different genres yeah and see see what I actually liked. And I think it took me a while to figure out what I actually really enjoy now, which obviously is now weddings. What was your style like in the beginning and how did it kind of evolve? I don't even know what style was. What are you talking about? The style was get the photo. get the phone
00:19:39
Speaker
I did the selective color just like all y'all out there. Everybody who's done this for more than 15 years knows you did that selective color and don't try to hide from it, just embrace it. oh And um the monochromatics with the, you know, all that stuff. And then before we got all these phone apps and computer apps, you know, yeah I didn't even want to use Photoshop in the beginning. I was like, well, I just need to figure out how to take a really good photo.
00:20:03
Speaker
ah we god And then I realized my world opened up a little bit more the more I let Photoshop into my life a little bit or or just programs in general that kind of let you like explore a little bit. And then you know my style just kind of turned into just whatever I wanted to to put out into the world. Now I can say if I could fast forward to 2024 here we are doing this interview.
00:20:25
Speaker
I would say that I just like capturing the moments. I don't have a specific color tone. I kind of just, and I don't really do a lot of monochromatics at all. Like it's, some of them I think I can turn into, but my wedding clients, I don't give them like a thousand different artistic types of images with one color tone. I just kind of like go through there and see, here's your day. Here's your memory. Here's where, here's you dancing with somebody. Here's you walking with somebody. Here's you smiling and hugging somebody. and and here's your beautiful details and I want those details to be actually what they looked like because you know it's like you start color changing everything like well my flowers weren't that color yeah so my style is just you know it's just more I would say authentically to who everybody is it's just you know if if they want some silly photos I'll get them their city silly photos um yeah so these days it's just like
00:21:18
Speaker
I'm really, really geared towards capturing all the moments and the details for
Founding Weirdo Weddings
00:21:22
Speaker
my couples. Oh, I love that. Everything I didn't get, right? Like I got a few, but I didn't get a lot. All right, let's go into like how you started at weird weddings. yes that's dr Yeah, this is a juicy part. So this is why i like I had to get you on like soon as I saw your picture. So let's let's tell the story. Well, here's here's the great part about this is that we know that no good thing comes without a lot of pain and suffering, right? So as we all know, we've all experienced the the shutdown of the entire world in 2020. Okay, so when that year began,
00:22:00
Speaker
I had a lot of things happening in my life anyways i'm not gonna go into all of the details but however as a business owner many of us had to really rethink our lives in twenty twenty i'm never going to forget that i think it's important to always remember that was the biggest shift of some of our lives.
00:22:18
Speaker
So I was potty training my kid, and I was also trying to figure out what in the world am I going to do with my life now? Like in high school, you kind of have direction. And after college, maybe you have some direction. When you're on the threshold of the whole world shutting down, you're like, uh, okay. So You know, and so as I as I sat with for the first time in my life, Carissa, the first time in my life, I sat down to open myself up to the wedding industry. And I said, Listen, I've been a photographer for this many years, but I don't like being around most of you. Sorry. um know This is me. This is me for real in 2020. I was like, I am so bashful to get out there in the industry that I feel like doesn't even know who I am or accept me or whatever. Right.
00:23:05
Speaker
And so I met some amazing people here in Dallas who I've lived here for 24 years now. And I just started talking with people and really being open and raw and honest about what I was dealing with. I was dealing with lots of fears. We all were at that time. But me specifically dealing with fears of just being not good enough for an industry I've been told I'm not good enough for.
00:23:27
Speaker
So the photography industry we know is a different industry than the wedding industry. The wedding industry is different, than you know, the the arts industry. Okay, I'm at all three of them, okay? Yeah, they're all differently. I'll have different ways of saying you're good. And I just needed somebody to sit with me and say, you know what, what is your real passion? What are you really passionate about? And I was like, well, I want to do weddings.
00:23:48
Speaker
And as the as I so reached out to people and I sat with people and I talked about my heart and my passion is what led me to summer of 2020 when I and was like, well, I've already been serving people for 13 plus years in this genre of people we call weirdos and weird you know people who are quirky. And the only thing I did was put a name to it.
00:24:12
Speaker
And so it's like people I'm already around and all of my wonderful fine art weirdos, they know exactly what I'm talking about. We have called ourselves that since the moment I met them, since the moment of 2012 when I went to my first photography conference ever and let myself be open to being in the photography world. Right. So it's like now we're kind of like everything is starting to make sense.
00:24:36
Speaker
the summer of 2020, I may, you know, I grabbed this name, i'm I'm super stoked about it. And then I realized, I know I'm stoked about it. But what about the rest of the world? Yeah, I took about three seconds to say listen, okay, when I say this out loud, weirdo weddings, 50% are gonna be like, where have you been all of my life? but The other 50% are be like, you know,
00:25:00
Speaker
they're going to go the other way. yeah yeah And I think that's kind of what I had to come into this knowing is that this name alone is going to be like, side-eye? What are you talking about? so Once I named it and you could say named it and claimed it, I just felt this intense joy and happiness to be exactly where I was with who I would be serving. Because I know that this would draw a lot of people that I've been wanting to probably meet for years, but I had hidden myself for so long. You know, when you hide behind your name or you hide behind um other things um and you don't let the world see you, that's kind of what I did for most of my life.
00:25:45
Speaker
So now I'm the most me I've ever been because I've stopped hiding. And I think that's, that's the powerful part of being a business owner is that you get to show up as you and the business is just kind of the thing that you run on the side because this is how our culture works. If you're running a business, you've got the things you got to do, but your business most times is you and it starts with you. Oh, I love that. Do you remember like the exact time where like where you're sitting or where you are when you're like,
00:26:13
Speaker
weird wedding photography. Have to have it. Let's do it. Like painting the picture a little bit.
00:26:20
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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00:27:57
Speaker
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00:28:15
Speaker
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00:28:43
Speaker
And yeah, they are going to get your finances in order so you can continue to scale and succeed. Back to the show! I was in a small group and it was, uh, I'm talking like three or four people and all of us total were three to five people. And we were, we were just hashing out and brainstorming things. And I was telling them my heart and we were just kind of hashing out things. And then all of a sudden, you know, weirdo weddings came out. And then I, I, I was in this office. I told you you might my husband moved into this office.
00:29:19
Speaker
And, and I just had this moment of oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, this is a real thing. This is could be this could be the biggest thing I ever do is is in business. and And I turned around and 30 minutes later, I bought the domain. I mean, that's, that's literally how excited I was and how sure I was and how how I've been waiting on this, this kind of thing for my my personal career, and my personal mission, you could say, right? okay since so okay Okay, one more question before Hot Topic, which everything is kind of, you know, everything's going around our Hot Topic, topic but um what was it like maybe
00:29:59
Speaker
rebranding the the next couple months? Like, did you start to see um people f flooding your way? Like, um more of your target market, more weird, weird brides? Like, what was it like? Or like, was, um was it scary? Was it there with crickets? Like,
00:30:18
Speaker
um what with my god like I feel like there was okay. First of all, when you make an announcement that you are doing this big thing that it's like the biggest thing you've ever done.
00:30:29
Speaker
The first thing I remember doing was doing a live video on Facebook and then it going live. And at this point I've got weirdo weddings, Facebook, I've got weirdo weddings, Instagram. and I'm like all these things that i so I put in place to be here for this new brand. Right. And then I just did this live video announcement and I had so many people just like,
00:30:50
Speaker
And I um messaged a few people that I felt like needed to know. And the first two things they said were, we've been waiting for you to do this. Like, you know, this is like, you know, it's about time or, and not a negative way. Like some people are like, it's about time. No, it was like, it's about time.
00:31:09
Speaker
So it's like that that rush of excitement to know that you've completely exposed your whole self to everyone around you, including no matter who is watching. I've had some of these Facebook friends for what, you know, a gazillion years it feels like.
00:31:24
Speaker
And I'm sitting here announcing something knowing that about 50% are gonna be like, oh God. you know And the other 50% are gonna be like, oh yes, this is so great. yeah So that was the first major thing that I did when I did the rebrand. And I'm not one of those people that has been as outspoken as I am now. So that was a big step for me to take that little, my my mentor used to say, ah take that little flag and you stick it out here and you're just like.
00:31:52
Speaker
um love that I had so many different mentors over over those two to three years, right? Like just people that I would just sit with. I didn't even have to, we didn't have to like have like big giant business meetings. It was just people that you sit with that care. yeah And I think that's what made a difference with me launching all of this is that I had i knew I had some people in my corner.
00:32:14
Speaker
That understood my real intention behind all of this and what where it's all been coming from and why it's leading here. So that was like, yeah, again, that's one of the biggest things I've ever done was just be open about, here we are, here I am. So what happened at first, of course, I was excited, the whole world's excited. and But it's like, it's for me, it's always going to be a slow trickle of visibility in my opinion.
00:32:40
Speaker
I feel like that if things came too fast, I wouldn't be able to handle it. And if it came too slow, I would just talk myself out of it. So I'm kind of in this middle ground, especially in the beginning of like trying to figure out how do I get visible quicker because it's not really, this is not like a traditional route of I'm going to go pay for all these ads and all of a sudden, because if I do that, then I get maybe too much, right? And I can't fulfill the things that I want to do. I still have a small kid at home. I don't need to work 40 to 50 weddings a year. actually I actually don't want to. Let me check that back. I don't want to.
00:33:18
Speaker
Do you know why though? Because I know I have so much more in me than just one realm of creativity, right? We've talked about this from the beginning. I like photography. I like wedding photography. But you know what else I like? Conceptual work. This is the hard, gritty stuff in the art world where you dig into yourself and you're making an art that matters.
00:33:37
Speaker
And then you have the third part of me, which is now speaking and doing all these things like this and the podcasting and the teaching and the inspirational things that I feel like I can help unlock with some other people that are stuck.
Aligning Passion with Business
00:33:49
Speaker
You just never know. So I have all these pieces to myself. So I don't want to work 50 weddings a year. yeah I just want enough. I want enough of a sphere in my life that I get the things that need to get paid for. But I'm also out there doing the things I'm very passionate about all of the above.
00:34:07
Speaker
This is such a good life. um I love that about you. So Jen Shulak, what is your hot topic and why is it so near and dear to your heart? Obviously, we all know, but you can summarize it again. For the obvious. I believe we talked, we talked about how, especially that first one, your niche needs you. And I have had a lot of people kind of like question what that really means. And I don't know if you i don't know if you get where I'm going with that.
00:34:34
Speaker
But my point about this was my niche needed me to step up. wow And it it came in a way, not everybody can do this or should do this, because if it's not your path, please don't try to make it your path. But if it is your path and you've been sitting on something for a really, really, really long time, and you've just been so afraid to be the real you, just understand that your frustration in your business is probably because you need to step up for your niche. wow Whatever it is.
00:35:04
Speaker
this could mean anything to anybody. For me, it just happened to be weirdo weddings photography. So I know that I want to do photography. I know what I want to work with couples getting married. I want to work with people that are in love. I want to do portraits for them and with them and all different kinds of formats. But what if your business idea is something else and you've just been kind of sitting on it? What if you already have, you know, this genre of business you've built up over these years, but you really kind of want to go off and do this little thing.
00:35:30
Speaker
this little niche over here that's just calling you every other day. Like, hey, come work with me. That's what you need to think about. Think about if it's time for you to step up and into that because that's what I've been doing my whole life is wishing and wishing and wishing and you wish and you wish and you wish, but you know, it doesn't happen without the action.
00:35:52
Speaker
yeah And for me, the catalyst happened to be a global pandemic. I don't know about y'all, but if you didn't make changes in the global pandemic, when are you going to make them? Exactly. We were on a treadmill and it just stopped. so Yeah. we just And that's a big thing too. you brought You brought up a good point is that how many, none of us are stopping long enough to breathe.
00:36:14
Speaker
new dreams into our lives. yeah So we just keep running on the treadmill thinking we're getting somewhere, which is really, you know, if you've seen a treadmill, if you run on a treadmill, you're not going anywhere. The belt is going somewhere, but you are not going anywhere. But if you're running outside on the pavement, it's different.
00:36:29
Speaker
different. You're going somewhere. I know. I just watched the Denzel Washington like commencement speech and he said that like, like you could, you could be running, but you could be maybe running in place. You know, it doesn't, you have to make big changes, but that doesn't mean like keep doing the same things. Yeah. And at the same pace. And I think it's very important to talk about pace here for a second too, because for for those of us who've been on, we'll call it, it feels like the snail's pace, right? Okay. So yeah, I'm,
00:36:55
Speaker
you know, 17 years into business. Some of these people can figure out in two, okay, that's their pace, not mine. yeah If I'm here for a season and a reason in this moment, then that means that I'm at my own pace. And I'm at a pace that I'm comfortable with right now. It doesn't mean I'm complacent. It doesn't mean I'm not moving forward. But have you ever, and I love challenging people with this, do you understand how much energy it takes to stand still?
00:37:23
Speaker
oh to literally stand still knowing the rest of the world is telling you, you got to move or you're, you know, if you're not going forward, you're going backwards. No. I challenge that quite a bit because if you've, if you've seen anybody who's ha who has mobility issues and sometimes just to stand takes a lot of energy, well just the muscles to get them in a standing position to stay.
00:37:50
Speaker
is energy. And so if anybody has been on the fence about this kind of stuff and that you know that your niche is like waiting on you, but you don't know what to do yet, you know what? Stand there for a second. Stop running on the treadmill. Stop running in the forest. Stand there for a second.
00:38:09
Speaker
Let yourself breathe because if you just keep running and keep running and keep running, then what if you're running towards the wrong thing from the beginning? Like if you're running and walking this path and you're like, you don't even want to be there. That's where you get that redirect. You're going to eventually have to you know recalculate your GPS at that point yeah and you have to recreat.
00:38:30
Speaker
recorrect your line of thinking, your line of going. But if you stop right now and if you're in this place where you can stop and just kind of like really soul search about what you're trying to do and where you're going and what you want to do and how you want to do it, I bet you your answer is right there. Right there. That's right there.
00:38:52
Speaker
there promise I promise I don't speak that south. I'm glad that you're giving people permission to do this because like you said, people are just like, go, go, go, go, go. But I think um when you're like your speaker, you have a podcast, so you're telling people to look inwards and stand still and really know what your mission and your purpose is going to be. Um, and yeah, the answers will
Expanding Brand and Network
00:39:19
Speaker
come to you. How did you, how do you like find your people? Like after you find your niche, um, what was your method? You went live. Um, were you just like, I dunno, like brainstorming about where the weirdos are. but we but Here's the best thing about this, right? Is,
00:39:38
Speaker
Now that you, I call it expanding your brand into your niche right now that you expand it into it. Well, now you got to start talking about it. And that means you're going to, talk you're going to talk to the people that you've already been working with for, I don't know how many years, right?
00:39:52
Speaker
if you're Especially if you're a business who's been in a long time and you're just you're having this moment of, yeah oh, idea, I need to go do this thing and it feels really good and it makes sense. Then you start with the clientele you've already had. You talk to them about it. Say, listen, guess what? I have this thing that I am doing and I am so excited to tell you about it.
00:40:14
Speaker
and you start with your inward circle and you just work your way out. And the rest of the time, let your industries know you're here because that's what I'm kind of doing right now is that I've been around for a really, really long time, but I've never let anybody know glad that I'm here, that I'm available. I like having conversation like even if we weren't doing this podcast, I'm fairly sure I would sit down with somebody or you or anybody and just have a conversation.
00:40:40
Speaker
And I think that's what and honestly, this is where I'm going to bring my clubhouse family in. So does anybody remember? I know. So, you know, three and a half years ago, me and the Wedding Pros Club, we were all sitting together and we really, really got to know each other on a ground level of people and people and being in business, too. And so I have this group of people that I love and adore that are in the, you know, the industries that I used to avoid.
00:41:08
Speaker
that make it so much better for me to show up at events now, knowing them already. So I can just be like, yay, I already have a nice friend here that genuinely supports me and loves me and sees what I'm doing. And so Clubhouse was monumental for to to start using my voice. And that's really what I started doing with Weirdo Weddings is just using my voice in all different ways.
00:41:31
Speaker
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00:41:56
Speaker
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00:42:41
Speaker
Oh, how did you i like a speaker and you're speaking for a WIPO event and podcasts? How did I like, yeah, so he loaded there's a variety of different ways we can get out there now. Obviously social media is a good start because you can just easy access, right? Yeah. So I just started talking about it and I already had tons of photography. I mean, we're even been working with these people. And then one of the biggest things I did when I shifted into the new niche was I've got to have more content because I don't have enough.
00:43:11
Speaker
And because I was telling you earlier, I don't want to do 50, 50 weddings a year. The first thing I did was set up style shoots. nice And a lot of people are for them or against them. I was like, but you know what? If you're a new brand that needs content immediately, you have to. yeah And as a photographer, I knew what I needed to go forward. yeah If you're a different kind of service provider or a product, you know what you need to move forward. I knew I needed more quirky couples. And so I also do, I do this talk on
00:43:45
Speaker
19 styled shoots in one year and it was pretty crazy. It was pretty crazy. I did the math that year and not only do I have about 20 real weddings, I had 19 styled weddings. And each of them were intricate in what I was going for as far as details. Like I had a method behind the mall and some of it was just really capturing real couples and really in love and just having fun. And the other parts of it were if this were my couple,
00:44:14
Speaker
Where would the inspiration fall with them? What would inspire them to be themselves? What would inspire them to have this idea for their wedding? Or their elopement? There is nothing wrong with eloping. There is nothing wrong with going to a courthouse.
00:44:32
Speaker
you just need to take a photographer with you. um I mean, I love those kinds of things that are super duper special and intimate, but I also don't mind the the more semi-traditional styles of celebrations. I don't, you know, i'm some days I'm at these Wren festivals, right? Like I'm at these festivals where it's totally out of the box. Everybody's walking around in the mud or the dirt. These are things that I do already.
00:45:01
Speaker
So why would I not, you know, this is the stuff that you won't see in a fancy magazine or a blog because that's just not what we talk about. I think those weddings are just as amazing as a wedding at a courthouse or a fancy venue. What was your favorite like or most standout style shoot that you? Oh, the style shoot?
Impact of Styled Shoots
00:45:23
Speaker
Let's see. What was my most favorite? I think my most favorite is going to be the one I started with.
00:45:28
Speaker
Mostly because it gave me all of the things I needed. It gave me all the mistakes and it gave me all those successes. It gave me the the the trust and the knowledge that I've had for all of these years as a photographer to pull something off that I didn't know if I could pull it off. and the way I used to do style shoots and people would put them together, I felt so lost. But this way, this was like pivotal for me to put together a style shoot the way that I knew I could handle it. yeah And I'm a storyteller by chronological order. And the kind of style shoots, there's a variety of style shoots. But when I set up the Bride of Frankenstein, I said, we're gonna we're gonna fake walk the aisle, we're gonna fake vow, we're gonna fake ring exchange.
00:46:16
Speaker
and we're not gonna do any, you know, PDA or anything, because it wasn't a real couple at the time. I said, we're gonna do something that the bride of Frankenstein and the monster would do. So cool. And I had fun with that. And that's how we got on the front of a magazine, which was our intention from the beginning as I was helping the venue, the venue was helping me. And we're both on this outskirts of the quirky world where nobody, they see us, but they don't think we're real.
00:46:43
Speaker
Yeah, you know, they don't take us seriously. You know, I'm sure. Don't act like y'all aren't judging. Just don't even act like it. We judge everybody every day all the time. But when you're when you're a new venue and you're learning on the fly and if you're a photographer who's making a decision to go in this realm of weirdness and you know people are judging you right away just because of that. Yeah. So but it felt so good to step into a style shoot that I knew was fulfilling. It was creative.
00:47:13
Speaker
It was everything I wanted. And the only thing I probably would have wanted more of is more time for the photography. We like ran out of time. yeah I was too busy having set design fun. I was like, let's design a science lab. I was genuinely having fun pulling props and helping, you know we're just make how do we make the venue look good? how I was literally hands-on with that. So cool. And so that I'm gonna say that's my top favorite right now, just because everything that I learned with that style shoot is what started it all.
00:47:45
Speaker
That's amazing. That could be another podcast. This has been such a great conversation, but um and I love your energy. But yeah one last question, sadly, before I wrap up our questions. Speak to the hearts of wedding pros trying to find their niche. And they're kind of just that that shy girl or guy just afraid and don't know what to do. What is something that that they could do today to just maybe I don't know, tap into their inner person, their inner being, and I don't know, show it to the world. Okay, so the first thing I'm going to say is, is if you haven't it been sitting on this for a while and it's in your head, you've got to get it somewhere out. Get it on a piece of paper.
00:48:30
Speaker
get in on a voice note if you need to like dictate it to something like that, like you know, talk, talk to something, um sit with a friend or a mentor and and kind of do what I did when I was sharing my heart with somebody and then that somebody helps me refine what I was trying to do. So if you have somebody that you already trust,
00:48:47
Speaker
to sit with, that's a great starter. If you have the ability to sit down and write something, do that because I cannot tell you how many times I've done this over my career. And over my lifetime, how many times have we done vision boards? How many times have we sat down and they tell you to dream so big? yeah You can dream all you want, but you can't go to the dream until you do the action part. So I would say start getting something on paper because this whole conversation is about you standing up for you.
00:49:16
Speaker
you stepping into the things that are already waiting on you. And you're sitting here lamenting, probably very frustrated. You think the GPS has led you to a dead end, but honestly, the niche is waiting on you. You just have to unlock it.
00:49:30
Speaker
And sometimes you have to, and I have to get a little bit real, sometimes you have to dig it out because you've hidden yourself so deep and dark and you think nobody cares, but they care. And I'm going to leave you with this. You do matter. So whatever's inside of you needs to come out and you need to go out and do it. Oh, that's so deep. So genuine. I love that. Okay. Rapid fire questions. there more Quick answer questions. Weirdo mean to you.
00:50:03
Speaker
inclusive. Love that. You were a shy girl. um What is a tip for someone also shy and trying to show up to the world through social media or whatever platform? Tip for somebody who's shy. You know what, it's those shy ones you got to watch out for to be honest. They are so deep. So I'm gonna say go deep, go raw and just put yourself out there anyway.
Concluding Thoughts and Contact Information
00:50:32
Speaker
Wow, good one. um What is one creative project that you're working on now? Well, I'm doing the WIPA talk. Yeah, I guess I'll share about your WIPA talk and then where everyone could find you. That'll be like a good conclusion.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah. So the WIPA talk is all about defining success. And so this is something that is big to me. Like I told y'all I've been in all these industries for a really long time. And I think it's a great time to breathe and a great time to stop and get off the treadmill. That's kind of where I'm going with this talk. I've already kind of laid it out. Um, another project I was working on recently was actually using my find on conceptual art in a talk as well.
00:51:20
Speaker
because over the last 17 years of my career, I've never really showed and talked about my art. I've just showed it, thrown it up online. Didn't even really tell you the depths of it, but now I'm opening up the depths of what I have been doing for all this time. I love it. Wow. Okay. Um, and where can everyone find you? I'll work with you.
00:51:46
Speaker
Yeah, so if you want to work with me, if you're a weirder out there and you need some portraits and you're getting married and stuff, weirdoweddings.com or yeah everything on social media is weirdoweddings or weirdoweddingsphotography. I think I have that tagged on TikTok, right? I got to re-login to it, but yeah.
00:52:02
Speaker
So I'm very, very easy to find. And if you're if you're interested me in me and speaking at some of your events, I'm under pink hair, Jen. So, and this is, that came from the amazing Bobby Brinkman on Clubhouse. She helped me kind of refine, cause we had too many gens. Let's just be honest. There's a lot of gens and Jennifer's and we had like two of them. So I became pink hair, Jen. And so that is why I started my speaking brand under pink hair, Jen.
00:52:24
Speaker
Oh, I love it. Cool. You are um breath a fresh air back and um I'm excited to post this. Thank you so I'm so excited to meet you. Thank you for having me.
00:52:41
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros.