Episode #037 · Rachel Larsen Weaver
Building a Life That Has Room For You
What happens when the thing you’re “supposed” to build stops fitting the life you actually want?
Rachel began her career as a high school English teacher before picking up a camera while raising young children and writing a blog. What started as a creative outlet slowly evolved into a photography business. But even after finding success, she realized she had built parts of her business around what she thought people wanted—rather than what felt most true to her.
That realization led to a radical shift: abandoning the industry’s fast, photography model and instead creating “long-form sessions”—24-hour storytelling experiences where Rachel travels to families’ homes, stays overnight, and documents life as it unfolds.
The result? A business that feels more aligned, more human, and ultimately more successful.
Along the way, Kim and Rachel explore what it means to trust your instincts, build a life around your values, and redefine success in ways that prioritize time, relationships, and creativity.
What to Do When Your Business No Longer Fits You
A successful business can still stop feeling like the right business.
Rachel had reached a point where she wanted to earn more, and with a daughter approaching college, the financial motivation was real. She looked at what other photographers were successfully selling and landed on an obvious opportunity: mini sessions. They were shorter, less expensive and seemingly easier for customers to say yes to.
She spent months preparing the offer. Almost nobody booked.
That failed launch gave Rachel reason to question the assumption behind it. She had been starting with what she thought customers wanted. What would happen if she gave more weight to the kind of work she wanted to make?
That question eventually led to her long-form photography sessions, where she spends anywhere from six hours to a full day with a family. The extended format gave her room for the parts of photography she loved most: time, intimacy, conversation and the ordinary moments that emerge after people stop thinking so much about being photographed.
There’s useful information in what the market wants. There is also useful information in what you want to keep making.
A sustainable business has to account for both.
How to Test a New Business Idea Before Going All In
Finding an idea that felt right didn't immediately make Rachel's long-form sessions a profitable business model.
During the first season, she charged enough to cover the cost of doing the work. Those early sessions allowed her to test the concept, build a portfolio and give potential clients a chance to see what this new kind of photography looked like. Then she raised the price.
Over the following seasons, she kept refining the model. She learned to book multiple families in the same geographic area rather than traveling for a single session. The economics improved as the offer matured and demand grew.
Meanwhile, her existing photography business continued generating revenue.
That period of overlap is often missing from stories about business pivots. A new direction may need time before it can support you. You have to learn how to price it, explain it, deliver it and find the people who want it. Your audience may also need to see you doing something repeatedly before they begin to associate you with it.
Change doesn't always require a dramatic leap. Sometimes you can give the next thing room to prove itself while the old thing keeps paying the bills.
Your Next Business Idea Doesn't Have to Be Completely Original
Rachel didn't invent day-in-the-life family photography. Other photographers were already spending extended periods documenting families. She made the experience distinctly hers.
Rachel wanted the sessions to have space for coffee, conversation and stretches of time when nobody was actively taking pictures. She liked the intimacy that develops when people spend real time together. Even her love of adult sleepovers eventually found its way into the experience.
During our conversation, Rachel compared the pressure to invent something completely original to restaurant food that has become increasingly elaborate. Someone can create an intricate new dish served on plexiglass with a tiny scraper. She'd rather have someone make her a really good crab cake.
It's a useful analogy for anyone building a business in a crowded industry.
Differentiation can come from the way you see something, the experience you create, the language you use and the pieces of yourself you're willing to bring to the work.
There is plenty of room to take something that already exists and make it unmistakably yours.
How to Build a Business Around the Life You Want
Rachel's business decisions make more sense in the context of how she thinks about time.
She and her husband have repeatedly made choices about earning potential alongside the life those choices would require. More money could also mean less flexibility, less time with their five children and fewer opportunities for Rachel to travel for her own work.
Money still matters. Rachel talks candidly about wanting to earn more and wondering whether she'll ever reach a point where she thinks about it less. It simply isn't the only consideration.
Time gets a vote. Family gets a vote. Creativity gets a vote. Energy gets a vote. The kind of day you want to have gets a vote. Those preferences eventually become visible in the structure of a business.
Rachel spends more time with fewer clients. She travels for work she genuinely wants to make. She writes about subjects beyond photography because her interests extend beyond the product she sells.
Her story raises a useful question for anyone whose business has started to feel slightly off: If you built your business around the life you want now, what would you change?
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Rachel Larsen Weaver
Rachel Larsen Weaver is a photographer, writer and mother living on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. She makes photos that document truths both deeply joyful and wildly complicated. She believes that it's okay to be a little full of yourself and she's always trying to have a damn good time.
