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Spotlight on Sarah Deragon of Portraits To The People

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Name
: Sarah Deragon
Company Name: Portraits to the People
Website: www.portraitstothepeople.com
Blog: Blog
Twitter handle: @sarahderagon
Facebook: www.facebook.com/PortraitsToThePeople
Instagram:@sarahderagon
Pinterest:www.pinterest.com/sarahderagon

Note from Jenn: At the start of the year, I had the pleasure of doing a photoshoot with the super talented Sarah Deragon of Portraits to the People. I first met Sarah a few years ago at a creative gathering and was delighted to hear from her how reading the Right-Brain Business Plan helped her take the leap into full-time entrepreneurship. And wow, has her photography business totally taken off! Check out some of her fabulous and colorful “not so corporate” headshots (including one of mine!) below and learn about how creativity and intuition have helped Sarah grow her business. Plus Sarah shares a bit about her new personal photography project that is all sorts of awesome!

Business Plan Spotlight

What is your business and what makes your business unique?

I run a portrait photography business in San Francisco with my wife. We have a lot of cool things that make us unique: we’re a woman owned and operated small business, we created the “not so corporate” headshot, we built our own website and have worked to find a bunch of interesting locations around San Francisco to take our clients for photoshoots. I also do studio work now too, yeah!

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How has the Right-Brain Business Plan® helped you? What is different for you and your business after approaching planning in a creative, visual way?

The RBBP was the most wonderful road map for success that I could’ve ever imagined. As a photographer, I’m an extremely visual person and creating a visual representation for the goals I wanted to achieve was very inspiring. I read the RBBP when I was working at a full time day job and I can honestly say that it was the catalyst for me starting my own business. After reading the book, this overwhelming “starting my own business thing” was suddenly quite manageable and I was elated! I was also inspired to start a Success Squad after reading this book and this monthly meeting of creative ladies was instrumental to me quitting my job and becoming the successful business that we are today!

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How do you use your creative intuition in your work?

I’m lucky that I get to tap into my creative intuition every day being a photographer. I’ve always considered myself a creative and intuitive person and now with running my own business, I see how much tapping into those two things have contributed to the success of our business. My intuition has taken me to crazy exciting places and using it on a daily basis has helped me get rid of fear in my business dealings. If I have an idea or come up with a new package – I push it out there because seriously, what’s the worst thing that can happen? You can learn a lot by something being a complete failure, ha!

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What’s your big vision for your business?

My big vision for my business is that I continue to have the opportunity to work with other creative professionals like Jennifer Lee. I love photographing entrepreneurs, life coaches, makers, authors and other creative small business owners! They truly understand the importance of having a stellar photo that reflects who they are. Photoshoots with these folks are truly my favorite!

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What advice do you have for other creative entrepreneurs?

Advice for other creative entrepreneurs:

1. Start your own Success Squad! I found this monthly meeting with other entrepreneurs one of the keys to my success the first year I ran my business. We cheered each other on, had conversations about pricing, figured out our own social media recipes and were there to push one another in a loving and supportive way.

2. Stop looking at what other people in your field are doing. I know it is hard, but to create your own brand/biz, you really have to focus.

3. Silence the inner critic. Yeah, this one is hard!

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Is there anything else you’d like to share?

In January, I launched my first ever personal photography project called The Identity Project. It is a photo project for the LGBTQ community that seeks to explore the labels that we choose to identity with when defining our gender and sexuality. I’m currently accepting participants and folks can become part of the project by sending in a form through my website!

First photo – Photo Credit: Jessica Zollman
Rest of the images are: Photo by Portraits To The people

Want to create your own Right-Brain Business Plan®? The Right-Brain Business Plan® Kit includes supplies to make your own accordion book style visual business plan.

You can see more of the portraits from our Hayes Valley photo shoot here.



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