How Mecca Clarke Turned Her Dream Into A Mission With ‘Blk Girls Shoot’
When Mecca Clarke was laid off from her job as a server in 2020, she turned uncertainty into opportunity. What began as a pivot into brand photography soon evolved into something bigger: Blk Girls Shoot, a creative platform and summit series dedicated to uplifting and amplifying Black women photographers through community, resources, and visibility. Born from a dream, Mecca’s vision is now a movement — one that’s helping Black women step behind the lens and into their power.
Mecca uses her business to create a space that teaches photographers not just how to shoot, but how to build viable, thriving businesses. Today, Blk Girls Shoot is known for its empowering summits, marketing bootcamps, and panel discussions packed with practical tools for photographers to grow.
Her Agenda spoke with Mecca to learn how she turned a dream into a movement, the intentionality behind her summit programming, and what it means to bet on yourself in an industry that wasn’t always designed for you.
Her Agenda: You’ve said before that the idea for Blk Girls Shoot came to you in a dream. Can you talk about what you felt was missing from the photography industry when you started, and the gaps that you hoped Blk Girls Shoot would fill?
Mecca Clarke: There was an educational gap. I was the event girly. I was at everyone’s event [and] every workshop. I showed up to a lot of things. I [wondered as I immersed] myself in that space who was really talking about how to truly elevate other than just giving motivation? I knew that there was something I wanted to tackle when it came to giving girls actionable tips about how to actually grow an effective business and be effective in the space. Not just, ‘Oh, I’m just a creator,’ [or], ‘well, I’m just, I’m just a photographer.’ Because when we think of that only, that limits us if we don’t have the business mindset [and] skillset. The second part was diversity in the space with it being already a male driven space. A lot of times, it was either me or one other girl in the room. No women are leading forums [or] leading conversations about what’s going on, what’s trending, what’s not trending [and] what’s working. If you’re not being invited to the table, you go create it. Don’t complain, don’t get upset. There’s an opportunity for you to just go create it.
Her Agenda: Walk us through a Blk Girl Shoot Summit. What are some key things that you implement in these events to make sure that the attendees and the women there walk away feeling empowered?
Mecca Clarke: I’m really intentional about the type of women I have on the panel and who’s speaking. I think motivation is still important because you need something that’s going to drive you and fuel you. The second part is someone who can provide education. One of my good friends, an amazing brand and marketing strategist, Jaylin Bolden, attended last year and she gave the girls a ton of value on how to actually build a brand not just on social media, but also build a viable brand that lasts. We [also] talk about actionable business steps when I’m curating the questions [for] the conversation, or picking the people to be a part of the conversation. We’re super intentional about networking. I’m huge on relationships because I wouldn’t be where I was if it wasn’t for the relationships that God put in my life. Not just networking up, but networking across and networking around you. Having peers [who] you can share ideas with [and] ask questions of. Our hostess, Tyerra Drake and I work together diligently to plan out activities that break the ice to make girls comfortable, to have us spark those conversations with one another and build those relationships. Another core piece of it is head shots. I’m big on branding, marketing yourself, putting yourself out there, [and] creating visibility. You’re gonna walk away with quality headshots, that [are] going to project a quality digital first, and then after that it’s just vibes. We’re always gonna have a good time. We’re gonna have fun. We’re gonna eat, we’re gonna spend time with one another. We’re gonna laugh.
Her Agenda: How do you go about curating the list of panelists that you want to feature?
Mecca Clarke: I look at women that inspire me, [who] I’ve genuinely gotten information from, I’ve learned from, [and] who’s poured into me. Usually, the most perfect people are women who not just inspire me based off of what they post on social media. Social media can be a bit of a highlight reel. So I don’t look at just who inspires me, but also what kind of fruits have you produced for yourself [and] for other people? If you do any kind of coaching or anything else like that. A lot of [the] speakers have produced great fruit in their own lives, in their own business, and that alone has so much value when it comes to making a selection.
Her Agenda: In the summit’s first year, like, were there any challenges that came up for you and if there were, like, how were you able to overcome them?
Mecca Clarke: So many. Let’s talk about how we did this with no budget. We had a budget of less than $2,000. But that’s why I say very intentionally that it could not [have] been nothing but God. I could never take the glory for any of this because there is no way in heck. I have a budget this year and this doesn’t even feel like enough. How was I doing this in the first year without anything at all? God will always work things out when he has you on assignment. He just tells you to go and you have to be obedient. You just show up and start putting the work in. Location was provided. We were very diligent [and] smart [about] how we went about food. We catered it, but we were just very smart and diligent on how we were allocating it. My sister showed up and helped when it came to doing bar stuff. My best friends and family showed up and showed out when it came to [setting] up and putting up chairs and, and putting things out. It was really insane. Thank God the location we had provided a lot of the supplies we needed and the core of it. That’s when I knew I had something on my hands because people were more focused on the value and we brought a lot of value that year. No one cared if we didn’t have balloons that we didn’t have a ton of signs everywhere and. The fanciest piece of decor was some uplights. It wasn’t anything special, but people were there because they just knew they were gonna get something out of it. They still showed up and traveled miles just to be in the room.
Her Agenda: How do you go about raising money and crowdsourcing to build the budget?
Mecca Clarke: The key part of it is ticket sales. It’s just marketing and pushing ticket sales as much as possible. The second part of it is brand sponsorships. We have one key sponsor. [I] absolutely love them. I’m a part of the Imagen AI team. It’s an AI software editing system for photographers. You can batch create a lot of your edits into one. It’s pretty simple.
Her Agenda: Can you tell us a little bit about what attendees can expect to learn from the panelists?
Mecca Clarke: Two main things. I put a huge emphasis on branding yourself and marketing because photography is an artistry field. When you do art, [it’s] all about practicing. It’s all about learning lighting, technique, and all those different things. No one has to teach you how to be a great artist. You show up, you practice, and you incorporate your gift that’s already been given to you. What you do need to learn is how to be a great business owner. I put a huge emphasis on that and learning actual marketing techniques to create visibility. The core piece of it is letting people know that you’re the most talented person in your city. If you don’t believe that already, I hope you believe that now. You need to stand on business about saying, “Hey, I’m the most talented photographer in my city,” [because] the world also needs to know that. So how do we get that out there? Well, we teach a lot about branding [and] marketing systems. I’m huge on talking about systems when it comes to structuring the backend parts of your business because if that’s not in order, all we gonna do is just be running around, stressed out. Your clients are gonna be frustrated as well because you have no organized system for having things really properly managed. Another major thing that I’m super excited about is our panel for photographers. One of our panelists [is] a commercial photographer. If you know anything about the commercial world, the commercial world of photography is very nuanced, a little bit more than the freelance space. [They’re] two different worlds, two different categories. With that, being in the commercial world, you need to know about contracts. It’s a non-negotiable to know how to negotiate. It’s a non-negotiable to know how to talk about budgets [and to] talk the language of what it is to be a commercial photographer. I brought [an] amazing commercial photographer, Leslie Andrews. I brought an amazing educator, wedding photographer, Michelle Harris. She’s so talented and amazing and she’s coming to speak more about breaking into the wedding space, how to build your client, book a business through that, in that space.
Her Agenda: Can you talk a little bit about betting on yourself as an entrepreneur and choosing to go the entrepreneur route after college and not going into working for somebody else right away?
Mecca Clarke: When it [came] to betting on [myself], it wasn’t [a choice] for me. It was more like a force. God said, “Oh yeah, you’re not doing that. That’s not happening.” Honestly, I wasn’t upset with being a server. It was quick money. I loved my coworkers. We had a good time. But, 2020, I got fired. I was laid off from my job and I had to force myself to bet on [myself] because I really didn’t have much of a choice at the time. That forceful transition birthed something extremely beautiful. Betting on myself looked like me saying yes to the thing, even when I was a little unsure. Even when the easy thing to do was to probably collect unemployment checks and wait until the job market open[ed] back up. That’s me launching the business and saying, I’m gonna post this content, even if not a single person watches it.
Show up for yourself even when the anxiety [tends] to stop you. A lot of things I experienced back then in that time was like real anxiety and fear. I would doubt myself so much. [But], people would book or people would say they love my photos or people would just shock me every single time. I think betting on yourself is just showing up despite how you’re feeling because your goals don’t care about your mood. They don’t care about how you feel. They don’t care about what’s going on in your present day life. It is your decision on how you’re gonna show up or if you’re gonna show up or not.
Her Agenda: Is there anything else that you wanna share about Blk Girls Shoot?
Mecca Clarke: We will have some upcoming photo walks. One of the key things I will be doing is my bootcamp. So if you are in [Atlanta] and you want to be a part of [the] bootcamp, I put a huge emphasis on the business side of photography, not just the technical, and you’re like, “Hey, I’m a, I’m a person who wants to actually grow. I’m taught. I don’t wanna undercharge, undervalue myself any longer, and I want to build a sustainable business, for my passion,” then it’s for you. Point blank period. Make sure you sign up, enrollment is now open.
