It’s no secret that Bryt + I are clearly LGBTQ+ business owners. From the rainbow flag in our IG bio, to all of the photos from our wedding that are all over our website. But what is a secret is how we had to get over the fear of coming out to our community. So today on the blog, we are sharing how we overcame the fear of being LGBTQ+ business owners.

Before we dive in to deep, it’s important to note that we weren’t always out. In fact, we both hid our relationship to much of the world until we were actually married. Yep, you heard that right! We didn’t even share our relationship with close friends because we were afraid. It was a super sucky situation to be in! Most of the feeling of being afraid came from within. It was our own inner battles that we had to conquer.

Some questions we wondered were

1. Would people still support our business?
2. Or would they talk bad about us?
3. Will we lose clients?
4. Would anyone even hire us?
5. Would we get ghosted from clients?

These fears were holding us back from our true potential. We had to get over our inner fears first before sharing with our clients. Honestly, we had to get over a lot of things before even coming out to our friends and colleagues.

So, right after our wedding we shared a photo of the two of us with our bridal party holding rainbow smoke bombs. This EPIC photo captured by our amazing photog, Lindsay Vann, truly helped us share our relationship with the world. Were we scared to share it? Hell yes. But did anyone say anything bad? NOPE.

Because many of our clients become friends, many of them found out through our personal Facebook. They texted and called to share their congrats and we started feeling a sense of hope and security with our decision to share our relationship with the world.

Moving On

Flash forward a few years and many shoots later, and we have grown with our confidence in the world and our relationship. Have people unfollowed us? Yep. Do we care anymore? Nope. We have now found our place in the world and feel confident that sharing our story and our love gives hope to other couples who may be currently battling those questions that we did previously.

Enter our amazing photography community. Being entreprenuers can kind of be a “lonely” job. So you have to step outside of our comfort zone and make friends with other photogs + business owners (local or far). The best thing we ever did was make friends with other entreprenuers. Imagine being surrounded by fellow biz owners that literally are your personal hype peeps. The exictement that they have for you to suceed is beyond amazing! One of our favorite groups is the NO BS Society that Stephen + Bree have created. Stephen and Bree have truly influenced us to be 100% authentically ourselves and it keeps paying off time and time again.

So this past year, we really started sharing more of ourselves on our IG, Facebook, and website. We rebranded ourselves to really feature the fact that love is love, no matter any difference. And ya know what? It feels so damn good to have the support of our community with each and every post.

So the questions that you may still have is… do people ever say anything to you about it? The answer is yes. We still receive hurtful comments. But the beauty is in how you actually respond. First, you may want to be upset or angry with the rude comment. I totally get that. But, if you respond back with the same anger, the conversation won’t go anywhere. So we feel that it is our duty to respond with a little education. Educate them on your relationship. Educate them on your love. Show them the beauty in being kind. Will this work for everyone? Probably not, but you have to have hope! Because ONE person can make a difference and that one person, could be YOU.

Let’s Recap// LGBTQ Business Owners

So a little recap. Were we afraid of what would happen to our business after announcing our relationship? Yes. Did anything bad actually happen? No. In fact, just the opposite. This year we have booked sooo many LGBTQ+ couples who are excited to have photogs who understand their relationship and the struggles they may be going through while planning their elopements.

So, consider this a post of encouragement. If you are struggling or afraid to be your true, authentic self in your business, you can do it! If you are afraid to come out as LGBTQ+ business owners, you’ve got this! Take small steps before running head first. Build your courage up, and then take a leap of faith! Because, who knows, someone may be looking up to you for inspiration!

Did this resonate with you? Have you overcome something in your business? We’d love to hear about it below! Leave us a comment so we can support each other and our adventures! Or, if you’d like to see more personal content, head on over to our other personal blogs or see our latest LGBTQ+ photo session!

XOXO,
Sam + Bryt