Running the Show.

Surprise, surprise – I fell off the blogging bandwagon… AGAIN. I wanted to start writing this first blog of 2016 telling you all how I’m going to be so much better about blogging this year… and then I realized, no one will believe me because I say that all the time. So instead, I’m starting it out like this:

I suck at blogging.

I love to do it… Sometimes I think my posts are interesting, sometimes I think they’re boring… I can write. That’s not the problem. TIME is the problem. I am running a big show over here – a bigger show than I ever thought I’d ever run. So keeping the hair on my head intact on a daily basis is a big enough feat, let alone trying to post blogs regularly.

Luckily, even more than I love blogging – I love running my business. So although I often feel that my brain is in 25 different places at once, and my “To Do” list will take me an entire year to get through (only to have 75 more things instantly added to it)… I wouldn’t trade any of it. I LOVE running my business.

Considering that just two years ago I was helping run someone else’s business, chasing someone else’s pipe dreams, and I was MISERABLE doing it… I feel like I won the business lottery. I don’t know how on earth we survived 2015 booking 92 weddings and keeping all 92 couples very happy… but I feel awesome that we have already hit 100 bookings for 2016 and it’s only March. Last year in March, I was screaming on the rooftops about how we had hit 50 weddings.

Last year as our booking numbers climbed I felt anxious. I went from a 1 man team to a 12 man team (and by “man” I mean “lady”)… not because I wanted to, because I had to. Thanks to Wedgewood we were quickly at capacity and needed a bigger team. So between choosing who to have do our booking, who to hire on as photographers, training those photographers, training editors… and still personally having to shoot about 60 of those 92 weddings… I feel like I can pat myself on the back.

This year – our team is set. We have an awesome booking system and team in place. We have AMAZING photographers who are all thoroughly trained in our style and our customer service. With our rapid growth, we may need to bring in more recruits this year, but it’ll be just adding to the already wonderful machine that is Shy Heart Studios – and – Brianna Caster & Co. Photographers… rather than building it from the ground up.

Sure, I will still make mistakes. I will still annoy my team with weekly emails about “new policies”… I will still be changing the flow constantly… and I will still be learning at every turn. And again – I will try to be more consistent with my blogs, and I’ll probably do well for a while… and then suck again… and then do better… and then… well you get the idea.

For a while there I stopped blogging about Shy Heart Studios on my “Blogging with Brianna” blog. I felt it was too confusing to shift back and forth. I thought we needed two separate blogs. But I’ve scrapped that idea too. This blog isn’t about a photography brand. This blog is about everything… mostly photography and the crazy girl trying to keep it all together.

You will see photography by me, and you will see photography by my team… but the words will all be straight from yours truly. And who knows – I may shift the blog focus again in a few months…. Because it’s my show, and I can. I’m the first to admit that I don’t know what the best course to take is… all I know is which one I want to take. And for this blog for now… this is my course. I hope you enjoy it.

……. Also, I promise to make future blogs shorter. No one has time for this, I realize that… short and sweet is better, but today I felt like going long.

Now for some lovely images: check out this beautiful Redlands wedding at the Mitten Building!

The-Mitten-Building-Wedding-Brianna-Caster-and-co-photographers