Today we’d like to introduce you to Cate Black.
Hi Cate, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
We are an architectural photography and videography brand that serves interior designers in the Austin area and throughout Texas. One of the things I love to tell new clients about me and our brand is: I’ve been in the startup phase twice. First, when I established my business after photography school and again when I relocated to Austin in 2013. That matters because we collaborate with both well established design firms and up and coming interior designers. Through both brand launches, I’ve learned what matters most when growing a creative business and I incorporate those conversations into how I collab with my clients. (Because I geek out over the marketing part of content creation as much as I do the photography part.) But it was the unintentional rebrand in 2021 that changed everything for Cate Black LLC. It all started with a client asking me one question, “Do you have a videographer you can recommend?” Instagram was starting to favor video and I had two choices—I could fight the social media algorithm or I could lean in to it. I chose to lean in. And that was the start of me going from a solopreneur to a business owner with a team. CB is now a full service creative team of four, that offers architectural photography and videography, branding photography and social media content. And I’ve never had more fun with my business than I do now.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The design industry has had many ups and downs the past 6 years: Covid, supply chain issues, mortgage rates soaring, inflation, tariffs and so on. Austin is a growing city but it’s been a rollercoaster and has made it challenging for many of our clients to know where to scale their business and where to hold tight. Sales can oftentimes be predictable over periods of time, but nothing has felt predictable as of late. But as things changed, so did we. We have done a lot of pivoting over the years to meet our clients right where they are. If they were experiencing a slow down of whole-house designs, we temporarily created mini packages so designers could afford to capture their smaller projects. As lead times slowed down, we added social packages to capture progress-content while our clients were heavy in the design phase. As things picked back up, we adjusted again. It’s been a constant game of reevaluating and pivoting, but it’s allowed our creative services to meet designers right where they are in their business.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
We are storytellers. We collaborate almost exclusively with interior designers to tell the story of their design. The cool thing about what we do is that we’re creatives and our clients are creatives too. So shoot days are FUN. There is so much creative energy flowing and magic happens. Picture this: we roll into a jaw-dropping custom home, we get the perfect playlist going, and walk the spaces—ipad in hand, dreaming up the perfect shot list as the designer tells us the story of each rooms design. We teether the camera to a big beautiful screen and watch our clients’ faces light up as the room comes to life on the computer. It’s truly graduation day for them on shoot day and we’re so blessed that each one of our clients chose us to share the story of their design. But a full story would not be complete without a bonus collection of detail vignettes. These single-exposure detail shots are a special ‘thank you’ we offer to our membership community which literally quadruples the amount of content they walk away with after a shoot. And don’t forget all the behind-the-scene clips from the shoot! We send our designers home with tons of content after their shoot so they can maximize their marketing reach and ultimately grow their brand.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Never say never. I said I’d never hire another photographer—worried that I might not be able to count on someone else to show up the way I would. Now here I am with a rockstar team of four who have grown the brand past what I could have ever done on my own. And our clients get a wide variety of visual content to grow their following under one streamlined brand. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cateblackphotography.com
- Instagram: cateblackofficial
