Kia Bondurant – Episode 001 – A Photographer Podcast Interview

TRANSCRIPTION:

Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.

Intro: [00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Everybody. Welcome to episode one,

Matt: [00:17] Kia Bondurant. Today Kia Bondurant has been a full time photographer for 20 years. She has experience in owning a very large studio and recently starting a new brand new portrait studio from scratch and I know from speaking with her in the past that she’s always trying to bring hope to the photography industry and I know she will today. One of the first things we talked about is what are seniors looking for today and I think you’ll be surprised what she’s seen and she has some really great tips if you’re new to the photography business and you want to figure out how to value your work and your time, and she also has some great tips for people that have been around for awhile in terms of hiring new people and why it’s important to have a staff. So let’s jump right in it.

Kia: [00:56] Yeah, I thank you Matt for asking me to do this. I have wanted to share more often and in a more structured way, like a podcast for quite a long time and I just was too nervous to make it happen myself. So when you asked and gave me the opportunity, I was super excited. There’s so much that we can give back to the industry and to help make the industry better in the future and so I can’t wait. Can’t wait.

Matt: [01:22] Sure, I agree. I mean you’ve been in the industry for 20 years and I’ve been in the industry for 11 years and I just think there’s so many photographers out there that, you know, feel alone and really could use some expertise from people that have kind of been through what they’re going through now and just kind of maybe give them the shortcut or just given us some really solid advice on what they should be doing in their business. So let’s jump right in real quick. So if I were to introduce you to somebody, how would you, what would you say you would be? You’re known for in the industry or you know, what are people, when they think of your brand, what do they think of

Kia: [01:54] in the photography industry? I would say that I’m kind of known in two ways. The first definitely is senior portraits and fashion inspired senior portraits and then also family and children. Portraits that are more like fun and playful. More stylized.

Matt: [02:12] That definitely resonates with me because I don’t, I think I’ve told you the story, but I should definitely tell guests the story is that, you know, when we first got into the business, my wife and I, Allison, she, uh, she was a huge fan of your work and she was one of your, one of the first people she followed on instagram and all these different things and she loved your working. Anytime we were kind of searching for ideas or we’re rethinking our business or whatever, we always pulled up your website and always lots of inspiration there for sure. So

Kia: [02:42] that’s exciting.

Matt: [02:43] Well, because you can definitely see the fashion inspired senior portraits in your business and that was just all it was resonant resonated with us for sure. So real quick for the audience, tell, tell us what’s working right now in your business. You know, you’ve had 20 years of experience and you know, as you know, every, every year and every week is a new adventure. What would you say is working right now if you had to give our audience like kind of a little nugget?

Kia: [03:08] Well, I think that what’s working right now, our actual microtrends I feel like if we’re going to get like kind of go deep right away and for a little while, senior portraits walking on the street outdoor only was the thing and the only thing that people wanted. Whereas now the seniors are wanting studio, they’re wanting lighting, they’re wanting things that sets. And so uh, if they’re moving away from all of the lifestyle look and wanting things that are a little bit more commercial and portrait and I think that might just be what we’re creating ourselves and that that’s just the, the look that are actual seniors are wanting rather than being a trend overall. But that’s something that’s working specifically right now for us is creating more of a, a styled look within the studio rather than doing something more lifestyle.

Matt: [04:04] So how, how do you think about that? Because I think so many times we get stuck in ruts as photographers where we’re like, okay, we’re just going to go stand on a street or an alley again and take, take the stereotypical senior picture. The only thing that changes is whatever the senior kind of brings to the session, whether it’s their own look or their own props and stuff like that. So you know, how are, how are you thinking about it in your studio so that you’re kind of consciously making sure you don’t go back to the the old way if you will, and just given them what you’ve given everybody else for years.

Kia: [04:32] Well I think that’s probably one of the keys that make me different than other people. And it just kind of goes back to how I approach each year and the business. So one of the things that growing up I was, I would get in trouble if I ever said I was bored. And, and with my own children, I do the same thing. If they come to me and they’re like, mom, I’m so bored. I’m like, okay, you can do this, this, this, this or this. And I give them options that are work and options that are not work. But being board was kind of the, it was the ultimate. No, no. And so I don’t really allow myself, um, in the, uh, in the work that I do. And so each year I come up with ideas of things that I want to do and I have lists in my head.

Kia: [05:14] I find them by, um, obviously instagram is so great because you can kind of curate your experience by who you follow. But I look through physical magazines a lot. Sometimes I’ll get through, go through a patch where I watch a bunch of like music videos, uh, even just watching movies and how they found those. And I get, I just have a list of ideas of things I want to try and new things that I think are going to be interesting. And so I feel like lifestyle was such a huge thing and it still definitely is. I think people have seen that so much that they’re ready for something new. And so that’s really what we’ve done this year is my staff and I have sat down and thought, what can we do that people aren’t seeing? What, what do we do differently, what, what is our brand? And so our three words for our photography brand and you know, kind of are me personally, are vibrant, authentic and inspirational and so keen off the vibrant word. We’ve done a lot of really bright, fun colored backgrounds and playful experiences. And so that’s, I feel is drawing our clients right now.

Matt: [06:20] You know, I hear those words and I think you know, obviously those words mean a ton to you and it’s helping you steer. But some of those words of what I was, what I’ve always seen in your work. And so in a sense, you’re staying true to your brand. You know that you’ve always had, so you’re not like taking a 180 degree turn, but at the same time you know you’re interjecting new and fresh ideas so. So you’re not getting bored because I would say you’re a brand has always been authentic and vibrant. You know, that’s what I’ve always noticed. One thing that’s different about ours is you’ve always had a lot of color in your and your brand and your pictures and we don’t do a lot of that. We do a lot more like monochrome or really muted tones and it just kinda depends on what you like. It doesn’t matter whether it’s right or wrong, there’s no right or wrong, it’s just whatever your how to stay true to your style is what I’m trying to say.

Kia: [07:09] Well, and I definitely think there is right and wrong and this and I think what’s wrong is when you straight up copy someone else and try to put that into your business, and I don’t mean that in an accusatory way at all, but in more of a, it’s not going to work for you if it’s not who you are. It’s not going to look authentic, it’s not going to feel real and your clients aren’t going to be drawn to that if that’s not really who you are. And I’ve, I’ve seen a lot of that over the years where, you know, photographers will take what someone else does and just do it exactly that way and then the next you know, trend will come up and they’ll do it exactly that way and then the next trend and so when you look through their work, it’s just a trend after trend after trend or for certain person’s style and it doesn’t reflect who they are. And I think for you to have a really truly enjoyable and rewarding photography career, then you need to develop who you are and find those clients that want what you create.

Matt: [08:11] Yeah, I agree. Because otherwise it just feels like you’re reinventing yourself every single year and that can just be exhausting. And then also you don’t necessarily know why you’re down 20 percent or whatever and it could because that trend is kind of the ship is sailing and you gotta reinvent yourself and you know, I think there’s some time at the beginning of your career where you can explore those different looks and try to figure out who you are but eventually kinda stick to exactly. You know, like you said, who you are authentically and that way you just naturally do it and it build, it comes across like this is naturally what my art looks like. I mean allison could never pull off the look that you do everyday in your studio because it’s beautiful and I love it, but it’s just not who we are, what we naturally do every day.

Kia: [08:52] Yeah. Because Allison is more of a natural outdoor, the type of person I feel like, and I, I, I think she could do it, but would it be rewarding to her and would it connect to your clients? That’s the key. That’s really the issue I think.

Matt: [09:06] Yeah. I think it’d be fun for a couple of weeks or maybe she might be able to pull it off for a year, but then eventually I think it would just become exhausting trying to be somebody that she’s not, you know, it will require work and maybe maybe for a short term that would be fun because it would just be all this creativity flowing into the business, but it wouldn’t. I don’t think it’s sustainable and I think that’s what happens with a lot of photographers and that that’s one way we can tell whether a competition every year it’s going to stay or leave is like how trendy is their stuff and if it’s super trendy where like well they may not make it through the next trend change where other people that kind of. When you, when you look at their work and it feels really authentic, you’re like, oh, they might. They might have some staying power for sure. Yeah, definitely true. Okay, so let me, let me go move on to the next question I want to ask you. When you think about our industry today, like what? What has you excited about it or you know, when you tell people about our industry, what do you, what do you tell people about or what are you watching? Just tell me what, what your mindset is about the industry.

Kia: [10:03] Well, I think a couple things. One is if you’ve been in the industry a while, then you’ve seen so many changes and the way you know, because I started out shooting film and then we started shooting digitally and then we started doing things on social media, started selling, you know, digital versus a actual prints. All those things have changed and then, you know, the actual economy has changed so much. And so I feel like people can get into the, the, uh, mindset that what we do isn’t a viable business anymore. That people aren’t actually willing to pay for it. And I feel that’s not true at all. People want beautiful pictures and they are willing to pay for them.

Matt: [10:49] What do you think’s going on when people think that somebody doesn’t necessarily want to, that nobody. That nobody wants to purchase a photographs that anymore. Like what? What do, what do you think’s going on there like it? Is it a confidence thing or is it just like, I don’t know. I mean I just don’t know the. I don’t know the mental game. What’s what’s happening for people that are struggling?

Kia: [11:08] Well I think then on the other hand, there are the new photographers to the industry and they don’t understand the value of it because they haven’t tried to do it as a business and so when you’re coming in and doing it as a hobby or something as a sideline, then you don’t need to make a certain number of dollars per hour and it more becomes the etsy game where you’re selling something for $10 that takes you 10 hours to create. And so I think that both sides are rubbing against one another. The people who’ve worked in the business for so long and have this idea of how the process should work and then the people who are new in the business and don’t understand what the value should be for what they’re doing and it kind of, you know, they rub and forth and kind of create a negative ideas on both sides. And so I think coming at it from an artist standpoint that what you’re creating is beautiful and has value and if you’re coming at it saying this has value, I think it has value. Here’s how much you need. You would need to pay for it. People are willing to pay you for something that they think is beautiful.

Matt: [12:14] No, I agree. And I love how you’re saying value because a lot of times when you go to conferences or you speak to other photographers, all they want to do is talk about your prices and how to in that you have to raise your prices, but it’s not necessarily totally about price. Obviously you need to make a decent wage and you know, but I don’t think there’s a wrong or right answer in terms of business models in terms of price either. And so I like, I like the idea how you said you have to think about it from an artist standpoint where you’re bringing, you know, where you’re bringing your artists value to it and creating something that’s, that’s worth money now what it’s worth, you know, that may change over your career and may change depending on your client, but I think it definitely has some value and has, has a lot of worth, that’s for sure.

Kia: [12:55] Well, and when you think back to the old masters and the painters back in the day they were commissioned to create a piece of art and I do think that that’s something that’s changed is we’re no longer creating a commodity where we’re creating a piece of art. I think that how we work, how our business models that photographers really are going to have to change somewhat because we are more like the old masters essentially because not everyone needs a senior portrait. Not everyone is going to get one.

Matt: [13:29] No, I totally agree with that because the other thing is is that there’s clients for every price range in every level of value. You know, there are customers out there that want to treat photography like a commodity and they would purchase it like they purchase apples at Walmart, but there’s other people that will purchase it like it’s art and so you just have to figure out who your customer is and what will you do in our businesses. We just break it down. We don’t spend a lot, you know, we say how many, how many sessions do we need to do this year? And we just kinda break it down. When you start thinking about how many you have to do in a year and then how many is that a month and how many is that a week? It’s really not that many. You don’t have to find that many people unless you’re doing a lot of volume and then the model is different, but that’s definitely not the business that you and I have chose.

Kia: [14:11] Yeah, absolutely. I think if you want to do it like a commodity, then you need to create the processes and the price points and everything like it as a commodity and that’s totally doable as well from photography. I think there’s, there’s a great business model for that, but that’s not what we’re talking about today.

Matt: [14:28] All right, so let’s switch gears real quick....