Meet Meg Bradyhouse

We recently connected with Meg Bradyhouse and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Meg, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

Honestly, I wish I could say I found my purpose in some big cinematic moment… but I didn’t. It happened in the middle of real life – newborn chaos with our second baby, sleep deprivation, and me realizing I’d been on autopilot for way too long.

After I had my second baby last year, everything slowed down but for a long time, I didn’t even see it. I blamed our slow year on the economy, on tourism, on Covid even (in 2025 ha!). Any excuse I could find, I used instead of just owning the problem so I could own the solution. Our wedding photography business went from making 30-40k months down to 10k, and instead of getting curious about that change, I just rode the wave expecting for it to magically pick up without any effort on my part. I think in a way that’s our brains trying to protect ourselves from failure – if we don’t try too hard and it doesnt work out, then we can’t blame it on ourselves – we can blame it on the lack of effort instead. But it took me a while to see this.

Little did I know, I had unknowingly tanked our SEO from 2,000 website visits a month to 20… yes 20, overnight, when I made a domain change back in 2023… and I didn’t notice for a year and a half. A YEAR AND A HALF. Because I wasn’t looking. Because I wasn’t pushing. Because I kept telling myself it must just be “a slow year”… while I waited for it to turn around. Then my car broke down and I realized we didn’t even have the money to comfortably fix it – so I started to dive in to see what was happening. I checked our SEO stats and when I saw the graph I dropped my water glass straight out of my hand onto the floor. Had I been paying attention I could have easily and quickly fixed the mistake when it happened – but we had been blacklisted by google for over a year, and the whole thing cost us close to 300k in lost income – all because I was “comfortable” and not paying attention. It made me sick.

So in that moment, I made a decision. I was done making excuses.
That wasn’t what I wanted to show my kids.

I don’t want to model comfort.
I don’t want to model excuses.
I don’t want them to grow up thinking “good enough” is the goal.

I want them to see what’s possible when you actually try. When you show up. When you’re consistent even when it’s inconvenient. Even when you dont feel like it. When you do what you say you’re going to do and you follow through until it works.

So I did the un-comfortable thing. We didn’t fix my broken car, but we did pull money out of our retirement savings to hire a coach I couldnt technically afford because I was done coasting. and went all in on effort, discipline, and mindset. No more excuses.

And it worked. I just bought my dream car this month, in cash.
In six months we completely transformed our business, fitness, income and life.
Last week we put in an offer on our dream home. We didn’t get it, but honestly the win wasn’t the house. it was becoming the family who’s even in the arena to put in an offer for something like that.
That’s when it clicked: this is my purpose.

To show my kids, and anyone watching, that anything is possible when you bet on yourself and keep showing up.
To help people see the magic in their own life, whether that’s through a camera, a coaching call, or just the way I choose to live every day.

It turns out my purpose wasn’t something I had to “find”, it was something I needed to live out loud so my kids would never doubt what’s possible, and I’m excited to see where it takes all of us.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I wear a few hats, photographer, business mentor, founder, wife, mom – but the heartbeat that runs through everything I do is this: I help people see the magic in their own lives, and then I teach them how to build more of it.

I run Bradyhouse Studios here on Kaua‘i with my husband, Peter. We’ve photographed over a thousand weddings and elopements, but what still feels special is creating a space where couples can slow down, breathe, and really experience their day without distraction. We require the couples we work with to write their own personal vows whether they exchange them in private or at the ceremony to remind them that a wedding is not a production, it is a commitment and that is the whole reason we are all there. We put a lot of focus on the mindfulness of the wedding day and making it an experience over a photoshoot.

In the last year, I also stepped fully into business coaching, which has become this unexpected love of mine. After rebuilding my own business from the ground up (multiple times over the last 15 years), I realized how many founders are out there sitting on massive potential, they just need clarity, consistency, and someone to hold them accountable to action. I’ve seen first hand the effects being comfortable or even driven but distracted can have on a business and it felt selfish to keep all of that knowledge and energy to myself. I run an online business mastermind where every week my students leave with an actionable framework to execute in marketing, sales, content creation or mindset. It’s been the coolest part of my career to date getting to hear everyones wins each week on the calls. Wildly rewarding.

Right now, the most exciting thing I’m building is ELEVATE HAWAI‘I, a 2-day VIP founders experience happening here on Kaua‘i. It’s part retreat, part mastermind, part full-blown creative immersion. Everyone who attends gets a brand photoshoot by our studio, a feature in aWomen in Business Magazine, content creation workshops, meditation and breathwork, energetics workshops and just 2 days of networking and talking strategy on how to elevate your personal brand and leverage visibility – the whole thing is designed to help people step into a bigger version of themselves. It’s the kind of room I wish I had years ago, and now I get to build it.

Between that, raising two little kids (6 and 1), and continuing to grow Bradyhouse Studios, it feels like a season of expansion in every direction. But it’s also the most aligned I’ve ever felt. Everything I’m creating right now whether it’s a photograph, a piece of content, a coaching call, a book draft or a full-blown event is rooted in the same mission:

To show people what’s possible when they decide to believe bigger, have self trust and default to action. Life is pretty cool:)

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1. Radical Responsibility

For years I blamed the algorithm, the market, the season, my schedule, my kids’ nap times, anything but myself. The moment everything changed was the moment I took full responsibility for my results. Not in a shame-y way, but in a freeing way:
If I created this reality, I can create a better one. Also if I own the problem, the I get to own the solution. And there is huge power in that.

How to develop it:
Start by telling the truth. About your habits, your standards, your effort, your excuses, and your patterns. Radical responsibility isn’t self-criticism, it’s self-awareness. And once you can see what’s actually going on, you can change it faster than you think. Holding yourself to a higher standard of daily action that supports your goals goes way further than throwing out a new years resolution only to find your days look the same moving forward. Design your days with DAILY ACTIONS that would make hitting your goals become inevitable. If I post on social media every day, its inevitable I will extend my organic reach. If I write 10 pages of my book every week, its inevitable I will have a rough draft in 6 months. If I run 4 miles every day, its inevitable I’ll be in better shape next year. The key is, when you create your standards and daily actions – you have to commit to following them ESPECIALLY when you don’t feel like it. Your feelings can’t fly the plane, emotions and motivation is unreliable at best – you have to follow through despite your feelings.

2. Consistency Over Intensity

I used to be the queen of the big push… followed by the big crash. I’d get inspired, sprint, burn out, disappear, then change my focus because I didn’t get huge results.
What rebuilt my business from $10K to $60K months was boring consistency: posting daily, selling daily, tightening systems, and doing the small tasks even when they weren’t glamorous or when I “didn’t get a cookie” as I always like to say. Consistency compounds under the surface. You might not see results immediately but if you stay consistent and make the play, all of a sudden everything changes at once.

How to develop it:
Pick three non-negotiables that move your mission forward and do them every day for 90 days. Don’t make it complicated. Don’t wait for motivation. Just show up. Consistency compounds faster than talent ever will.

3. Willingness to Be Seen Trying

This one has been huge. I used to hide behind “perfection” only posting when everything was polished, only sharing wins after the fact. But stepping into bigger rooms, coaching founders, and growing my brand required me to be seen in the middle… figuring things out, making mistakes, learning in public, TRYING…

It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also powerful. People don’t trust perfect. They trust effort.

How to develop it:
Share the behind-the-scenes. Show your process. Let people watch you grow instead of presenting the finished product. Being seen trying is the fastest way to build confidence, momentum, and community.

Lastly, and maybe the most important – is showing up in the same way the highest performing version of yourself would show up and fully embodying that in every way. In how you make decisions, how you invest, how you take risks, how you scale – the belief has to come first before the results will ever show up. Once you start showing up like that version of you, the universe has a funny way of rearranging itself to meet you there.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did was give me an unwavering belief that anything is possible. Truly anything. There was never a conversation in our house about something being “too big” or “too hard.” It was always, “Okay, then let’s figure it out. Let’s make a plan”

If I wanted something expensive?
Figure out a way to make some money
If I wanted to travel?
Make a pitch.
If I wanted a certain kind of life?
Start building it.

They also drilled one message into us from the time we were little: be your own boss. Not in a rebellious way but in a freedom way. They prioritized lake days, family vacations, and trips to Hawai‘i, and they told us, “If you want a life where no one tells you when you have to be somewhere, you need to create it.” That belief shaped everything for me. I started my photography business at 21 because it never occurred to me that I couldn’t. I also didn’t want someone telling me I had to go to work on a sunny day at the lake.

Even now, my parents are my biggest supporters. They’re the first ones I call with a new idea, and they still say the same thing they’ve said my whole life: “You can do anything you set your mind to.”

That belief runs deep in me, and now it lives in our home, too. My husband and I are always saying to our kids, “We’re so good at finding solutions,” and “Everything is figure-out-able.” Our six-year-old comes to us with elaborate plans on how she can make money for a new toy or “go to Tahiti,” and we fully encourage the hustle. I’ve never been a “we need to save” kind of person and it’s always a “how can we make extra” way of thinking which now my daughter also has adopted ha ha – It’s hilarious, and also exactly how I grew up.

And then there’s the magic. My Dad always fully indulged in the idea of magic when we were little and even when we were bigger he talked (and still talks) about how powerful the mind is and how it can create our reality. My mom has put up little fairy doors in her yard back in the trees where the forest fairies leave little gifts for the kids when we go to visit and our daughter and all of her friends love going to their house to check the fairy doors. It brings me right back to my own childhood, where wonder was normal and magic was everywhere. We’ve carried that into our own home because honestly… it just makes life more fun. More memorable. More alive. And I want my kids to grow up like that too. It romanticizes life and I think we could all use a little more of that.

The belief, the optimism, the creativity, the magic, those were gifts my parents gave me, and they’re the foundation of the life and business I’m building now.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.megbradyhouse.com / www.bradyhousestudios.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megbradyhouse
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MegBradyhouse
• Other: TikTok @bradyhousestudios

Image Credits

All images from Bradyhouse Studios 🙂