Building Core Leadership Competencies

By Marianne Drenthe

My name is Marianne Drenthe and I own and operate Marmalade Photography, a Chicago photographer providing service to families in and around Chicagoland since 2005.

After I started my business I did have many years of great success and professional achievement. I grabbed the brass ring on many items on my professional achievement checklist but in 2012 and then in 2013 I experienced profound losses - my parents dying within 10 months of each other. Suddenly I was thrust into the position of being executor of their estate AND I was tasked with prepping their home for sale after years of neglect due to illness (dementia and Parkinson’s). It sent me into a tailspin.

While I never stepped away from my business fully I did in fact pause on growth. I essentially spent many years treading water. Every time I tried to get back on solid ground, something else demanded my attention.

Rinse and repeat.

But coming back like a rising Phoenix has its advantages - as I am learning. Currently I am redefining my own business as what it’s been the entire time: a luxury photography service provider vs. competing with those catering to the more price conscious. I’ve actually taken ownership of what I’ve been doing this whole time.

Re-defining my business in my branding is allowing me to view my business from a more strategic position than before. Instead of casting a wide net with my marketing efforts, I am viewing who I serve from a bird's eye view and catering to that clientele in a specific way. 

Strategizing to whom I actually SERVE - clientele wanting a deeper and more meaningful experience than a typical shoot and burn kind of photography - has saved me energetic output that I should be directing toward my target market and not trying to appeal en masse. Somewhere in my 20+ years I forgot that as I was rebuilding my online presence I realized I was muddying the waters by applying generalized strategies to a specialized service.

In 2023 when I rebranded I took a great deal of time and examined the roots of my entire business. I realized the high number of repeat clientele I have and I deep dove into what made my business MINE in the first place. I created a new logo and iconography depicting my brand with a very real story that is unique to me and my decades-long history as a professional photographer.

On that note I decided to fully commit myself to expressing my own voice on my website and in my website copy in addition to traditional SEO methodology and emerging AI search tech - providing a blend of all three to form a cohesive brand.

All this from working on my history and my base story line.

I continue to focus on my long term clients and I also acknowledge the ongoing commitment to them and new clients in my Photography For Life branding. It’s not just branding when it’s a relationship that is worth having, it’s not just a cutesy tagline and logo when it is rooted in deep, meaningful history.

True leadership isn't about managing when everything goes right. It's about finding your authentic voice when everything goes wrong - and building something stronger from that foundation. The ability to understand when to pivot is key as is the ability to understand when things go right - not to change things. It seems like an easy kind of aha! but many leaders get it wrong.

Connect With Marianne

www.marmaladephotography.com