Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, then you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator. And this is the business Journey podcast.
Hello, friends, welcome back to another episode of the business Journey podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca rice. And this one is an extra special one. Because we are now on episode 100. I cannot believe it. I'm just so excited to be able to say that we hit this milestone and we've got a really fun episode prepared for you. So in this episode, we're going to kind of take a look back at where this whole thing began, how it's evolved along the way, what it's going to look like going forward all the things so buckle up, because we are going on a trip down memory lane. Now before we jump into all the fun things that this episode has to offer, I wanted to let you know about something that I have for you guys. That is all about mini sessions. So my students call me the queen of mini sessions. And if you've been around a while, you've probably heard about some of the things that teach and things like that. But I'm a huge believer that mini sessions can and should be extremely profitable when they're done right. So if you have never made more than $3,000 on a single set of mini sessions, whether you've never done minis before, or you have done minis, but you've never made that much. And when I say a single set, I'm talking like a two to three hour time block not shooting all day. And so if you've never made more than $3,000 on that single set of minis, then I have something for you that's free as a gift just for being here. And it is my 3k mini sessions blueprint where basically I outline the things that you need to do to hit your first $3,000 on a single set of mini sessions. And so if you're here and you're wanting to like really dive into minis specifically like for the Fall that's coming up way sooner than you think. And you really should start planning soon, then this resource is for you. And like I said, it's completely free. It's a gift that I want to share with you. And so we will link that in the show notes. Or you can go to Rebecca rice photo.com/ 3k Dash minis, that's the number three the letter K dash minis. And you can download that blueprint right now and start diving in so that your fall minis are ready to go, that you're able to get them fully booked and really make the profit that you deserve. And that I know you can make. So grab that resource, I know that it's going to be helpful for you. So let's get into our 100th episode and where this thing all started. So let's go back. It was February 2021 When our first episode aired on at that time, my family and I had just moved to Nashville, Tennessee from Dallas, my husband and I were born and raised in the Dallas area. We up and moved our family to Nashville at the very end of 2020. So 2021 We were still pretty like fresh to the area. And at that time, we were living in a townhome while waiting for our house to be finished being built. And so when I recorded those early episodes, we didn't have a fancy studio like we do now. My husband is an audio engineer, like recording guy. And so we have a whole studio in our basement, which I'm so spoiled to have. It's amazing. But at the time when we first started this podcast, we were in our townhouse. It was a two bedroom townhouse. So we had our bedroom. And then our two kids were sharing the bedroom right across the hall. It was a really small like footprint of a townhouse and so we had no extra space. And I recorded this I'm pretty sure I was in our closet like trying to dampen the sound. And my husband had like set up all the things he wanted it to sound great. It's what he does. And so he's like no for putting out a podcast. It's gonna be it's gonna sound excellent. I'm like, okay, so I was recording in our closet and he had Add up the mic and you know, the computer and all the things and it was not a glamorous start to the show by any means. And I feel like that could be kind of an encouragement to somebody out there that if you are waiting to start anything, maybe it's not a podcast, but you know, whatever it is in your life that you are waiting to start, if you know you are waiting for it to be like this perfect moment when everything is, you know, picture perfect, and I don't know, looks the way that you think it should look, that's not always the case, it's so much better just start and it can get prettier along the way. And so that's definitely how this podcast you know, started was it was just not glamorous, it was in the closet of our townhouse, because we had nowhere else to record. And we just made it happen. Because I had this dream of being able to serve you guys and connect with you guys in a way that was a lot more personal and wasn't just in an email. Because up until this point, the only type of like, weekly content I was putting out was emails and like blog posts, but I wanted some way to be able to connect with you guys. And at the time, YouTube was not it. Like I wasn't, didn't have my YouTube channel, kind of for obvious reasons. Like I didn't really have a space to film and all the things. So a podcast was a really good fit for us. And it was just a great way for me to be able to, like connect with you guys in a way that wasn't social media. But you know, on a more personal level where you could hear my voice, and I could teach all kinds of stuff. You know, it has really grown into this beautiful community over the last couple of years. And it's just been so fun to hear from you guys. How you guys are, you know, just loving the episodes and all the things I feel like when it comes to you know, recording a podcast, I always wonder like, Are people even listening to this? Like, is it just my mom, which if it was just my mom, it'd be worth it. But I'm like Is anybody out there doesn't even care about this stuff that I'm talking about. Because it's hard like recording a podcast and not you know, seeing the people in front of you that are actually listening and just hoping that it gets to the right years. But it's been so cool to hear from you guys how much you have loved this content. And I get DMS on a weekly basis of people that are like, Oh, my gosh, I love your podcast, I was binging it, which is like music to my ears. Because one thing that I was really intentional, and I think especially as the show went on was to keep episodes kind of short and sweet, where you know, there's plenty of podcasts out there and a lot of the podcasts that I listened to tend to be longer episodes where they're like 30 minutes to an hour. And it's a lot of content. But what I found is I have a really hard time consuming an episode that's that long in one sitting. Because usually when I'm listening to podcasts, it's like, on the way to take my kids to hybrid home school like CO opting they go to or we're driving to dance class, or, you know, we're driving somewhere we're always driving. And so my podcast time is like on the way somewhere or like on the way home from church when I'm serving or whatever. And so I don't necessarily have these like big chunks of time. And so for other podcasts that I listen to, it usually takes me like at least two or three sittings to really get through an episode because they're just so long. And so I knew when I created a podcast, I'm like, You know what, I'm going to create something that is short and sweet, because people can listen to multiple episodes at one time if you want and if you have the time. But if you don't have the time, and you know, the only time you have is sitting in the car pickup line at your kids preschool or whatever, then at least you know you're able to get through an episode and feel like you learned something and took something away. And so my goal from the beginning has been okay, can we keep them mostly short and sweet? I'd say the exception is like whenever I have a guest on the podcast, those ones tend to just be longer because of the nature of the conversation and all that but you know, when it's just me, I really tried from the beginning to keep them on the shorter end to have them really packed with great valuable content that you could walk away feeling like you gained something. And a lot of the times you guys know it's you know, business related. This is the business Journey podcast, but sometimes it's personal too. And, you know, just like peeking into my life
and a lot of listeners have let me know that they really enjoy those two, just to kind of get like an inside scoop as to what life looks like in the rice household for certain things and so it's been Uh, you know, really great to hear the feedback that you guys do like the shorter episodes, I don't think I've ever gotten anybody with negative feedback thinking that they were like too short, I've only gotten positive where people are like, I love that I can binge them. And you know, if they're on a road trip, they can get through a bunch of different episodes, or you're in the car, you can get through one in one sitting, which was always my goal. And so I think that it's gone really, really well. And now 100 episodes in, and we're still going strong, I'm really proud of, you know, myself and my team, we have kept up this podcast very regularly. I think one time in those two years, we took like an extended break from the podcast, I think I could be wrong, but extended, like we took a month off or something. Pretty sure just because I was really overwhelmed. And I told my team, like I need a break. But you know, for the most part, we kept up with weekly episodes for a long time, and then we switched to episodes every other week. But this thing has stayed consistent. And I'm really proud to say that we didn't give up. Because if any of you have tried to, you know, commit to putting out consistent content, it can be a daunting task, especially when those days come that it's like you have so much to do and not enough time or you just don't feel like it right. Which thankfully, for the most part, podcasts have been really easy for me to put out because I do genuinely enjoy it. But 100 episodes in, that's quite the milestone, and we are going strong. And so this podcast has been I feel like a really great place for me to be able to talk through things like current industry trends that I see or to give quick marketing tips. And even like I mentioned briefly, you know, to be able to peel back the curtain to my life and my business so that you guys could get an inside look. And that has been really cool. Because it's sparked a lot of conversations in my DMs, you know, I end every episode telling you to DM me your questions or your comments or whatever. Because I genuinely want to hear that. And I want to have those conversations. And I've been able to have so many really great conversations in my DMs because of you know, the topics that we cover on the podcast, not only the business topics, but also just the personal ones of like, how I read so much and how I you know, balance my life and set boundaries and things like that, and be able to homeschool my kids and do this business thing and what it's like working, you know, in the season that I was working with my husband super closely what that was like, and so you know, the transition from part time to full time, like so many things that we've been able to cover, and it's just sparked so many great conversations, and I absolutely have loved every second of it. And so I'm really excited for what is to come with this podcast, you can expect still regular episodes, like we're getting now a mix of those business and personal ones kind of depending on the season and what we feel like people need to hear. But I would love to know and like hear from you guys, those of you that are like Avid listeners to this podcast, maybe even you're new and you know, you're just discovering this podcast either way. I want to hear from you like what do you want to hear about on this podcast in the next 100 episodes? What kind of things would you like for me to cover? And this could be business stuff, you know, specific questions that you have that you'd like answered, It could be personal things like what kind of stuff would you like me to make episodes about from our personal life, I just I would love to know, because I want this to be tailored to you guys and what you want to hear so that I'm serving you the best that I can. And so do me a favor, shoot me a DM at Rebecca rice photography, just with any ideas that you have of like stuff that you'd want to hear me cover. And I really do take those to my team and we get them scheduled. And maybe you've given a suggestion before and you've seen it on the podcast, like we do our best to fit in the topics that you guys want. Because at the end of the day, this is for you. And you know, I value you and I want to be able to serve you the best that I can And so really, like take me up on it. If you think of a topic, they're like, oh, this would be interesting to heal here. You know Rebecca's perspective, let me know shoot me a DM and I'd love to just hear those ideas. Also, if you have any, like guests that you would like to see on the podcast, we kind of sprinkle guests in sporadically. We don't have like a, you know, one guest a month or whatever. We don't have like a set schedule. But if there are any specific guests, educators, anybody like that, that you would like to hear on the podcast, let me know and I can, you know, reach out and start having this conversations to see if we get that scheduled to. So I just want to kind of end this episode, just saying thank you, like, thank you so much for all of you who tune in and listen to these podcasts and give feedback or take what you learn and run with it in your own business. That is like my greatest joy to see you just thriving in your business based on something that, you know, I may be taught here. And so I just thank you for listening and for supporting my business and my family and this podcast and I'm so so excited for you know what's to come. And so, you know, here's to 100 episodes, and here's to 100 more, and I can't wait to see what's in store. I just rhymed. I didn't mean to do that. But anyways, take me up on the damn thing. Please, I seriously would love to hear from you. And that will go ahead and close out for today. I know this wasn't like a super informative episode, but it's one of those like, it's worth celebrating the milestone of 100 episodes was for sure worth, you know, celebrating and spending time just reflecting and, you know, hopefully you enjoyed the little trip down memory lane too. So I'll go ahead and end for today and I'll see you back next time with another episode. Bye guys.
