In this presentation Tomayia Colvin shares her personal journey from a newborn retinoblastoma survivor whose life was saved by a diagnostic photograph to a seasoned portrait photographer and brand‑cultivating strategist. She explains how she founded Focus Media Group—a community‑turned‑marketing hub for women photographers—by leveraging her experience teaching photographers to use early social platforms like Facebook Pages. Colvin then pivots to practical branding advice, urging creatives to tell their own stories, narrow their narrative, and repurpose it across websites, social media, and email. She offers concrete prompts for uncovering a unique story (e.g., what people say about you when you’re not in the room, unpaid passions from ages 7‑13) and ties this purpose‑finding back to her own early love of photography sparked by a Kodak Polaroid at age five. Throughout, she emphasizes capturing the essence of humanity through portrait work and using storytelling as a sustainable brand engine.
Chapters
and, and teach other, you know, photographers as well. So I've been photographing for 10 years. Um, I love portrait photography the most. So portrait photography, I love people. And here's a little backstory about me. A photograph saved my life. So it's true that photographs freeze moments, they capture memories, but they also save lives, right? So believe it or not, I actually already have the photographer's eye. I can't even see you in this eye. You want to know how that is? Because I am a cancer survivor. Thank you. Thank you. So I was 3 months old. I have a picture in the presentation, but I'll just describe it to you. I was 3 months old. Think about it. If you have— if you're a mom, you love taking photos of your babies. You know, you're a newborn. They're just your new favorite. subject, right? So then my mom took another photo when I was 6 months old, and this photograph then had a— you can go to the next one— this photograph then had a white glow in my right eye. Now my mom's visceral intuition took in like, this doesn't look right, something's not right. Now this back— now mind you, this is before smartphones. So as soon as that photo was printed from the convenience store, she knew something was wrong. And So with this photograph, it saved my life. She took it to more than one doctor, more than one coworker, until we got the official diagnosis of retinoblastoma, which is a rare childhood eye cancer. And if it wasn't for this photograph, I would not be talking to you today. So what do I do? So not only am I a professional photographer, and not only have I been blessed to see and visit 10 countries, so far in my young life. I am also a brand cultivating strategist, and what that means is I help entrepreneurs, photographers, creatives to look good on social media and grow their social media platform. So that then can be combined with branding portraits, portraits of lifestyle. Wow. I'm very big— I've realized that most of the clients that I've had were either never had professional photographs taken or Unfortunately, were the last professional photographs that were taken. So that has been my honor of being a photographer, of encouraging women to step outside of their comfort zone. And with that experience, not only was I teaching myself how to use Facebook Pages when it first came out, then I realized there are other artists who needed to learn how to use Facebook Pages also. So that's how I founded Focus Media Group. It's a play on the word photography. You catch that? PH. So originally I wanted to start it off as a, um, a community of other photographers, give other women photographers the opportunity. But that's when I realized that most people are also— marketing is not their expertise. So then it became a marketing group of photographers, women who are passionate about advertising, marketing, branding, the whole bit. So these are some of my favorite portraits. I love the one-on-one portraits. I love studio, outdoor, natural light, whatever allowed me to capture the essence of this subject. So a lot of it, uh, happens to be music artists when they're first starting out, which is always fun to see them grow and then all of a sudden have a million Spotify streams, or see them transform and completely cut their hair. So I love capturing the essence of humanity. So I wanted to briefly talk about building your brand around storytelling. Tell your story. Be personable and relatable, similar to what I just did right now. Narrow down your story. If you are one of those who are not comfortable with tooting your own horn, think about what would people say about you when you're not in the room? What are people saying about you online right now? What would your friends and family say about you? If you need that, pick me up, right? So those are the easiest ways to start with fun facts about yourself. So I told you a few. I'm a cancer survivor. I've been in 10 countries. My company's based— play on the word photography. And this thing, when you think about this, when you narrow this down, use it to repurpose everywhere— your website, your social media, your email list when you get new prospects, clients from your website. And just let that story— keep telling your story until you no longer have to. How else can you build your story? If you're still stuck on what is your story, what makes you unique, what makes you you, think about what your purpose is. What were you doing between the ages of 7 and 13 before bills, before spouses, before kids, hours on end? What were you doing uninterrupted and if you were not paid to do? That's your purpose right there. It may take a little reflecting, but that's it right there. I've been blessed to be living my purpose throughout my life because my mom introduced me to a Kodak Polaroid camera when I was 5 years old. After that, I studied professional photography. I was blessed to study professional photography while they still had it at a technical high school. And then I continued to study. I am a huge fan of the school of life. So I continue to not only master my craft, but through mastering my craft, I've been more comfortable and confident with building and telling my story.
