I am Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer, turned pet and family photographer back in 2010. I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses.
I believe that achieving two to $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six figure businesses that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion, or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place with over 350,000 downloads.
With welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. Hi everybody. Welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. I am your host, Nicole Begley. And today I am here with my friend Karen Bartos, who is a boudoir photographer, used to be a high school senior photographer, and has been an avid listener to the hair of the dog podcast, even when we were originally for pet photographers.
But you know, we talk about pricing, sales, marketing, mindset. So we're really for everybody. Karen, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Nicole. I'm so excited to be here. Yay. I'm so excited to have you. So, since I always butcher any non-normal name, like any French name, certainly, can you let everybody know what your business name is?
Sure. It is Lux Delo Boudoir. Okay, perfect. Lux Delore. See, I can say it after you say it, but if I would've said it first, I totally would've butchered it. It's terrible. But yeah. So tell us a little bit about, you're based in Pittsburgh, and before we get started, I would just love like a high level overview of really how did you get into photography?
When did you start your business? What did that look like in the beginning? Let's start there. Sure, absolutely. I actually remember getting my first camera. I was nine years old. It was film, of course, I'm dating myself. It was a little one 10 film camera. I still actually have the first picture I took, but I was just,
I fell in love with Ansel Adams in his landscape, black and white work, just dabbled in landscape photography as a hobby. I had my kids and photography, took a backseat, and while I was raising children, everything went digital. So I got A-D-S-L-R and started to get back into landscape work, took some pictures and actually put 'em to a blog with some inspirational spiritual thoughts.
And Cliff note version is a couple from church knew that I did pictures, and they said, will you please take our son's senior picture? And I said, Hmm, okay. But you know, you have to understand people care what they look like, mountains and streams really don't. But I agreed to give it a try. I fell in love with it.
And that's really how my senior business began. I did love it, dabble a little bit in weddings, newborns, families, but I really, really enjoyed my high school seniors. My kids were that age. So it was just a natural fit. I love it. What attracted you to that particular genre over the others? That's a really good question.
I just felt confident in it and I, I felt I connected with my seniors, and perhaps that was because my kids were that age. I could relate to kids that age. You know, I tried to stay up on what was hip and cool, but I really felt a connection with my seniors. Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. So when was that?
What time, what, what year? That was around 2011. Okay. Yeah, it's about the same time. Then I started And was that in Pittsburgh that you started? Yes, I did. I did. Okay. Yep. I had Four clients, I think, my first year. I love it. I love it. That's awesome. So tell me a little bit,
well, actually, let's go high level through the, the view of that. So then you did high school seniors for a while. I did. And now you are exclusively bourgeois, so, so when did that change happen? Well, I added boudoir about 2019, of course. And then Covid hit, you know, I was still working. My seniors added boudoir as just something different.
And then, like I said, covid hits once the air cleared. With that, I really changed my business model in terms of pricing and went full force with that and have never looked back. Around 2018, I began to feel the burnout of the seniors, but I denied it for quite some time. Hmm, okay. Tell me more about that.
What did that burnout look like? Oh, okay. Well, so case, when you're shooting seniors, you are probably a lot like pet photographers. You are out in the last light of the day. You know, you're catching that golden hour, which means on the days of summer, you're out till maybe sometimes nine o'clock at night. I was missing that time of being home with my family.
You know, my family life was changing. So when you're dealing with seniors, you're not only dealing with dealing with a senior, but you're dealing with a mother. And I found over the course of those years, I don't know if it's social media, the seniors just became a lot more picky. They became more demanding, and it was just not really aligning with some of the things that I valued anymore.
And, you know, I went round and round about this, and every year I said, okay, I am not gonna do this again, and or I'm gonna cut back. And then I wouldn't because I couldn't say no. And my friends and family were like, Karen, I thought you were cutting back. And I didn't. But eventually I hit a wall where it was just,
it was too much. And I actually recorded videos of myself crying at the end of the season where, you know, the editing was piling up and albums to design and all that stuff. And I just said, this is it. I, I have had enough. What, why do something you don't enjoy? Oh my gosh. It takes, I think it takes everyone usually much longer to come to that realization,
because, I mean, there's a, there's a a piece of, you know, concern about what happens if I say no to this, you know? Right. So, I'm sure there was, that was a big piece of it. What was a bigger piece for you? Like, was it the, the reason it was hard to let go?
Was it a concern about saying no to that revenue? Or was it like a people pleasing, these people wanna work with me, I wanna please them? Combination of both. Something else, It was actually a couple different layers. It was, you know, if I had worked with a family and they were repeat customers, of course I wanted to photograph a sibling,
and I had in my mind that their pictures had to match and their albums had to match. So there was that component of, I didn't wanna disappoint, especially previous clients. It, it wasn't so much the revenue, it was, I had to do very little marketing for my senior business. I often had a wait list. It was very organic.
People came to me, and I, I was actually scared to walk away from just that natural flow of business, especially because I had worked so hard to build that brand. It was actually a, you know, a dream here. I built my dream and I'm gonna walk away from it. So that was my, you know, biggest fear was you worked really hard to build this,
even though it wasn't aligning with what I valued at the time. It was, gosh, you know, boudoir is very different by nature. It's very intimate. A lot of my marketing from seniors came from high school, senior parties when displayed your grad photos, well, I can assure you that most of my boudoir clients are not displaying their images at graduation parties,
let alone in their house. So, you know, that was a big component of it is, gee, this was so easy for me with high school seniors. What happens if, if it's not so easy with boudoir? Oh my gosh, this sounds so much like the same situation that I had when I switched from families to pets only. That was 2015 into 2016.
And it had gotten to the point, and here's the kicker. I wasn't burn out with families and I didn't not like them. I still enjoyed them, but I had gotten to the point where I was looking at it and I'm like, I wanna take this pet business further. I was starting to do some online teaching stuff at that point too. I'm like,
I wanna take that further. I, and I only had so much time. My kids were little at the time. They were, gosh, what, three and six? And so I'm looking at it and my family photography. I mean, both my pets and my families had great averages selling wall. Like they were all working really, really well.
My family photography, I did not have to market at all anymore. It's the same thing from your seniors. Like I marketed the heck out of it when I built it. Right. But it had gotten to the point where it was all organic. I loved my families. I was creating beautiful wall galleries for almost every single client it was. And I,
and I liked it. It, there wasn't any part of it that was like, oh, I have to put a photograph, this family, like, I liked it, but I knew I had this vision of where I wanted it to go, where I wanted my business to go, and there wasn't something had to give. And so it was that one,
and it was terrifying because at the time, it was half my revenue that came in on autopilot. Right? Yeah. So you get along. So for you, It was just a matter of, I didn't have, you didn't have enough time to build both. It was a, you had to make a choice. Yep. Yeah. It was terrifying.
I remember just thinking like, you know what? If this doesn't work, which I think is a super common thought that many of us have. You know, you start off building your business or switching your brand or whatever it is, whatever goal you have, you start off with, what if this doesn't work? But then very sneakily, it works.
And then that thought is immediately replaced with, what if this doesn't last? This one's just a fluke. Oh, yes. So, yeah. So tell me, I guess just some of your thoughts, like what, what were you, what were you thinking, kind of, how did you get over those? How did you move forward during that transition period?
Well, I am a coaching client of Heather, and I know a lot of people on the podcast are familiar with her. And, you know, if you want someone to hold you accountable and help you deal with your stuff, Heather is for sure the person. I mean, any, you know, a coach, just a coach in general will really help you hold accountable to that.
But, you know, especially when you're telling someone, I'm done with this. And she's like, well, you've been saying that. So she really was instrumental in helping me work through that. My friends and family were, were instrumental in helping me move through that as well. Just surrounding yourself with people who will support you in that process. Yeah,
I think having somebody help you to really shine a light of what you're thinking is instrumental when you're trying, really anytime, but especially if you're trying to make a change, because our conscious mind is so good at covering up and just making us believe all this drama, what do you like to call it? Mind circus, I call it, I call it the mind circus,
but yeah. Yeah. The number one goal of your mind is to keep you safe. So of course, it's gonna try and put up any roadblock that it can to say, Hmm, I don't think this is a good idea. Yeah, yeah. So Heather helped you kind of get over and move forward. And then when you kind of made that decision and started to make those,
those changes, would you say that all of a sudden, bam, you were in a new mindset. Did this mind circus drama keep coming up? Did it come up in different ways? What was that process like? Ironically, once I made the decision, I think because I had goofed around with it for so long, once I made the decision to,
and I, and like I said, I knew she was gonna be holding me accountable, but once I made the decision, and I think the kicker for me was actually emailing people and saying, I'm no longer taking clients. Hmm. That what, there was kind of no, going back on that. I mean, I guess you could have, but that was really kind of the nail in the coffin.
And then from there, I made adjustments. I took down my website. In fact, I just let my domain go. I let my domain expire just a couple weeks ago, and it's like, wow, that's okay. Yeah. You know, it took down all my social media. So I think it was those little steps of maybe putting it out there to the world,
putting it out there to clients, that this was no longer an aspect of my business, that that was really, really no going back. And I have, I continually say, and I'll say to my husband and other people around me, like, I am so glad I'm not photographing seniors anymore. I, you know, every now and then I'll drive by a pretty field in the golden hour,
and I'll be like, Hmm, that would've been a nice place to, to photograph somebody. But that's about as far as it goes, you know, when I see a pretty setting. But I, like I said, once I made that decision, it was, it was done. Yeah. Well, and there's another piece that I wanna speak about here too,
and that is that you have to let go to let in. Sometimes, like, I think a lot of people hang on to, you know, for instance, if they're switching genres or they wanna let go of one of them, that it's like, all right, well, once I build my bourgeois to whatever revenue goal I have in my head,
then it'll be safe to let go of this other piece. And sometimes when you're burning the candle at both ends, you just can never get there and, and you're just holding on to both of them so hard that you just don't have the ability to grow the one that you actually want to. Right. And I was fortunate enough that I began to build a boudoir for portfolio while I was still photographing seniors.
I joined a pricing mastermind with Jen Bruno Smith in the High Rollers Club. She has a boudoir mastermind that teaches you about pricing. And I really embrace that. And I actually saw what some of the other photographers were doing in, in her group, and I thought, well, gosh, if I can, if they can do it, so can I.
So I think it was the compound effect of having a little bit of momentum going and seeing the potential of what other people were doing that made letting go a little bit easier and saying, yeah, like I said, if they can do it, so can I. Yeah. I think there's two ways that people, when they see somebody else being successful.
So, you know, you're in this group, you see all these people doing what you wanna be doing, you know, or maybe there's someone in your market that's doing what you wanna be doing. Some people will look at that same circumstance. Photographer X has X number of clients and earns X number of dollars per year, like Undisputable in a court of law.
That is the circumstance. One photographer can look at that and say, oh my gosh, she's already doing it, so there's no room for me. So I, I, I can't do this. Where the other person could look at the same situation and just choose a different thought of, if she can do that here, I can do that here too.
That means there's a market here. Absolutely. And I, you know, I think comparison can be used for good and for bad. You know, you can use it to inspire you to see what's possible. Or you can go down the rabbit hole, like you said, I'll never be good enough. Or there's, she's doing it, why should I,
I actually have to be very mindful of my social media, you know, interaction and Facebook. And I, I know for me, like that's a trigger that I can go down some bad places. So I am at the point now where I really limit my Facebook. I limit my Instagram. You know, I might use Instagram for some inspiration on posing,
but I've even had to unfollow some other photographers. I don't even have Facebook on my phone. I'll use it on my phone if I go live in my group, but otherwise it stays off my phone. It kind of removes that temptation. Even on my computer, I have the extension installed newsfeed eradicator, so I only see an inspirational quote and my own notifications.
So I think, you know, if you're a photographer who struggles with comparison, then you need to find out what triggers you. Is it Instagram, is it Facebook? Is it Pinterest? Is it even other Facebook groups you're in? You know, I was a part of this mastermind Facebook, and I would see some of the posts that people would post.
And you know, I, they were relying very heavily on, on Facebook ads, Google ads. And that wasn't how I wanted to build my business. So, you know, once I felt secure with my training from them, I really had to limit my exposure to that group. So, like I said, if you're struggling with comparison, find out where that,
where that's coming from, and eliminate it, get rid of it and shut it down. I think the biggest gift we can give ourselves is learning to recognize our emotional state of, am I feeling good? Am I feeling bad? Like, here's this neutral. Like, you know, maybe there are times that you're just like, I'm just truly neutral.
Like all is good. But there's other times where you're like, I feel freaking amazing. Like let's do this. I'm super motivated. And then other times we're starting to feel like crap. And you know, you're comparing yourself and you're thinking you're not good enough, you're never gonna get there. Here's all these things that are gonna go wrong. And I think a lot of people,
it takes practice to start to notice when you're in that kind of low vibe, like comparison, not feeling great, low energy state to realize, to snap out of it and be like, hold up. What am I doing right now? Like, what am I thinking that's causing this? What am I doing? Like maybe you're not even looking on Instagram anymore.
Like maybe you put the phone down and now you're making dinner, but you're still thinking about whatever you saw on there. So by figuring out what it is that you're thinking, then you can have the power to change that. And I think that's, oh my gosh, like one of the biggest secret hacks to success is just trying to stay out of that,
that space. Well, and I think being self-aware is a huge piece of that too. Like you said, what are you thinking? What are you feeling? And you know, when you can realize what you're thinking and be aware of it, and then try and shorten that refractory period of that thought turning into something that you don't wanna think. So I,
you know, being self-aware has been huge for me because I'm actually fascinated with what goes on in the mind. I mean, the stories we tell ourself and you know, as an entrepreneur, I think, you know, we can learn Photoshop, we can learn Lightroom, we can, we use learn posing, we can learn, you know, pricing.
And those things are always ongoing. But I, I think in, at least in my journey, the biggest piece of wanting to improve is my mind because it is so powerful. It is, you know, it has like this subconscious layer and even like you said, the energy. And I started reading Happy Pocket Full of Money. I know that's one of your favorite books,
what of My fas? Yeah. And it's just fascinating to think that the energy you give off you, you know it's gonna affect your business. And the sooner you can catch it, adjust it, fix it, the better you'll be Be. Yeah. So question for you. Have you always kind of been in tune with the importance of thoughts and energy kind of things?
Or is this something that is a little bit more new, kind of when you started your business? Were you as aware of that? Absolutely not. Yeah. No, I mean, I, I, you know, I was, to the extent that, you know, I heard all the doubts, I heard the, you know, you can't do this,
who do you think you are? But I, I didn't listen to them. You know, I, I had been with Heather actually quite a long time and you know, had her as a support and even people around me who would tell me, oh, you know, your work's so good and, you know, listening to other people. So yes,
I was aware of it back then, but it's even louder now. And maybe be, maybe be, it's because you are more aware of it that it becomes louder. But if I had listened, you know, looking back, if I had listened to that little voice in my head, I would not have continued. None Of would have. Correct.
Yeah. So, and there are people who don't continue. They do listen to that voice, but I didn't listen to that voice, so obviously, but I think the more successful you become, and I don't know if you'll agree with this, the bigger that voice can become. Yes. Yeah. So I, at least what I've found, the bigger that voice can become.
Sometimes like you, well you're, you're more aware of it. So I'm more aware of like, alright, how am I feeling of like almost a subconscious feeling, check-in throughout the day of like, oh, okay, wait, now I'm starting to like dip what's going on. And sometimes it's okay just to feel lousy or I'm tired, or I just need a break,
or I've been been working too hard and I need to slow down and like, go read a book or go watch Emily in Paris. Like, sometimes you just need that. But I think the other thing that changes is I, I feel like a lot of people think that, okay, I'm just gonna like get rid of this one thought that I've found,
like, oh, I'm not good enough. Or people in my market aren't gonna pay this price of whatever price that you decide you wanna have for your business to actually be profitable. And then maybe you work on that and you start to change that thought of, all right, if there's a luxury car dealership, there's people with discretionary income. Is there any other photographer earning this money in my market?
Yes. Great. Are there other photographers in other markets similar to mine earning this or more? Yes. Great. Start to believe that. And then like, all right, so you, you've conquered that one. So I think the myth is people think, all right, once I get that, I'm good to go. But there's always another layer.
And then the thoughts become more like, as your business grows, my mentor James Wedmore always says that your business will grow to the level of the problems that you choose to accept. So for instance, I mean, my business now I have team members, like I have a payroll to meet. So like, you know, if you're looking at your profit loss and it's just you,
you're like, oh, okay, well, I mean, I'm fine. I can like, you know, not take, not get paid this month, whatever, because I have this coming up next month. I'm not going anywhere anyway, you know, whatever. But like when, when you have a payroll, like there's, there's no, it has to come in,
you know? So there's all these new levels of potential problems. And I think when you start with the little ones and then you also get practice troubleshooting things, you start to get this confidence. 'cause repetition builds our confidence that you can handle almost anything. For instance, we just did a training earlier this morning with Jessica Wassick also in Pittsburgh about calendar contests.
And she was having like major tech issues. We did the whole webinar without her being able to hear. So we, she had a a her, she logged in with her iPad too and had earbuds connected to that. So when she was done talking, she would just pick up an earbud and listen and then put it down and talk some more and then listen.
Because otherwise it would be reverberating, like echoing her what she was saying, which no one could think when you do that. But like before, if that was five years ago, I would've been a wreck. But today we're just like, all right, we'll figure this out. Let's go. Yes, Yep. And so say what you, that quote you said about James again,
because I think that so good, Your business will only grow to the level of problems you're willing to accept. Yes. I love that. And I love the different layers of it. So, you know, you mentioned what I call this stuff the mind circus. And I actually came up with that term when I was on Heather's podcast. She calls it Mind drama,
mind circus. And you know, if you picture the circus, there's like so much happening. There's lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. And the trapeze hardest might fall. They might not catch the legs of the other person. And the bear might get out of his cage and the lady might fall off the horse and there's like all these things going on.
But I think you need to learn to become the ringmaster of your mind circus. And that comes, that goes along with being self-aware. So once you're aware of that, okay, this circus is raging outta control, you can step in there and become the ringmaster of the circus and calm those thoughts down, calm all the animals down, maybe even calm the crowd down,
who knows? But the sooner you can do that, I think it's in proportion to how quickly you'll be successful. So, you know, I, I think that in hand, in hand with what James said is just, those are two critical mind, mind circus pieces. How do people start to get better at managing their mind circus? Well, I think,
like you said, it comes with practice. You know, becoming aware of it, be becoming aware of different techniques, you know, what might work for somebody, might not work for somebody else. I'm a big proponent of constantly reading and learning about the mind. Also listening to podcasts. I know, as you mentioned, I listen to yours, Brian Buffini is a huge,
I love his podcast. So I think, you know, it's different for everybody. But podcasts have definitely been instrumental in my journey in learning how to step into that mind circus. Mel Robbins is actually hysterical. She is another, another good one. And I think she's great to look at too, because she is, you know, she kind of reinvented herself at 55.
And I look at her and I, what an inspiration, you know, if she can do that. I mean, she and her husband were almost bankrupt. They were bankrupt, I think, I don't know, huge amounts of money in debt. And she battled through it and look at her now. Plus, I, I also think it makes her more relatable.
Yeah. So, You know, as I'm saying this out loud, you know, you as an entrepreneur, as you battle through your own mind circus, it makes you more relatable. And you don't know what it's equipping you for to deal with clients down the road. But yeah, it's, it's, I find it all fascinating. Yes, absolutely.
'cause everyone's had mind circus moments, everyone's gone, you know, and everyone always roots for the underdog too. So, you know, even if you're having a challenging time and you're, and you see people when you're maybe in your local peripheral vision, maybe that aren't, you know, supporting, you know, there's always someone that is supporting you to find them,
because we're all, again, we're, we're always rooting for the underdog. And we've all been to these places. Like, I, I remember listening to that podcast, or at least one of them where Mel Robbins was talking about that. 'cause they had a restaurant or something, a business, it was a business issue that they ended up Yeah, like bankrupt or in Super Dead.
I don't know if they were actually bankrupt or I forget the details, but she was just talking about that and how she had this goal of creating this podcast. And, and I think she was just talking about a lot of her mind drama on that one too. It's great episodes. Definitely take a listen. She's hysterical. Well, and I Think it's,
it's also important to realize that people, like even people of her success still has the mind circus. Yes. And and that's why, I mean, I know, you know, you shared on one of Heather's podcast where you had kind of a mind circus moment when you thought an ordering appointment had gone in the wrong direction. But I think is, it's important to realize that even successful people still have the mind circus the mind drama.
And that's why the sooner you learn to deal with it, the better off you'll be. Yeah. 'cause it's not going away. It's not going away. And, you know, and I think another thing that's been a key component for me is the power of a made up mind. You know, when you look at, look back at your life,
you know, everyone has made up their mind to do something, whether it's to run a 5K, whether it's to build a business or start a business. Everybody has made up their mind at some point in their life to do something. Maybe some of those darker moments. You just need to recall that, you know, what if I did it before,
I can do it again. Yes. Yeah. The power of intention is what I call that. So as soon as you decide, like as soon as you made the decision, I, I'm giving up seniors, like things started happening, like, and you know, we could get woo or not about this, but essentially when you make that decision,
like it collapses the waves, this is legit quantum physics, if you wanna look it up, look up the double slit experiment, double slit SLIT experiment. And that is basically like under observation, different things happen because of the expectation of the observer, like actual physics guys. So when you make these intentions and you're just like, you claim it and you say,
this is what I want, damn it, I'm going after it. Like, let's do this. Like things start to happen in your world, in your 3D world that start to help you along the way. Are there gonna be obstacles? Yes. Because you know, you have to learn how to do things. Had I opened my business, okay,
so let's go back 2010. I wanna have a a six figure photography business. What would've happened if snapped my fingers that next day I had a six figure photography business, I would've crashed and burned because I didn't have the systems. I didn't even know how to take a good picture. Like I, I would've, I would've quit. So like, sometimes you have to have this little gap.
We talk about the gap in the game a lot. Like sometimes you have to have this gap of like still having this thing that you want and working towards it because you're learning the lessons that are gonna allow you to actually achieve it. But you can only do that if you make a decision that you wanna go there. Yes. I love that. And you know,
and I think the thing about physics that you mentioned, and, you know, he talks about a happy pocket full of money is, you know, some of that stuff is deep. It is super deep. But you don't have to necessarily be a physicist to understand it all. But just trust the process. And like I said, you don't have to understand it,
but just, just trust that it works and it works. Yep. For sure. I would love to share a couple things that people can do to get in that higher vibe type area. So say, you know, like kind of my, my barometer is how am I feeling? So whenever I find myself not feeling good, then it's like, all right,
well why? What am I thinking? What's going on? And then you can start to shift it. One of my favorite ways to do this, which I recommend actually everybody does take a few minutes, write down at least 10 things that make you feel good. Going for a walk, listening to music, reading a book, a no fail, like has to work every single time.
Just start listing things you're grateful for until you feel better. Like, don't stop until you feel pretty damn good. Like if you have to go four pages, go four pages. But I guarantee you, once you start doing that, you can find those things like, oh look, I have a heart that works. Oh look, I can breathe air.
Oh look, I have clean water that comes out of my sink magically, you know, I have a roof over my head. And then you can get into like all the other things too. But if you don't know where to start, start there. No, I think that, I think he talks about gratitude in the book and how important it is.
So I I I love that. Yeah. Oh my gosh, so good. What are some of your things that you do to, to feel good? So I al I, you know, I love the, the book, the Gap and the Gain. And I, I love what he says when he says, always measure backwards. So, you know,
your business may not be where you want it to be today, but let's look back, where was it six months ago? Where was it a year ago? Where was it? Five years ago? So I think when you s when you stop and you be intentional about looking backwards, always measure backwards, as he said, it really can give you a new perspective.
And it, it flips the switch. You're no longer looking at your situation, your business, your life, whatever in that gap moment, you're looking at it in the gain and you're seeing how far you've come. Yes. Oh my gosh. So good. So let's jump back over to your photography business for a bit. So it's been since 2019,
the beginning of COID. Looking back, how grateful are you for all the twists and turns to led you to where you are now? Like, would your business be where you are now had you not experienced the burnout of the seniors or any other challenges that you had? I would say no, they would not. You know, I mean, you,
you talk about your experiences shaping you. You know, as much as you might wanna try and forget something or erase, you know, a part of your life or a part of your business journey, that journey existed for a reason and it gave you the experiences and that you need to run the business you have today. So, you know, if I had not hit that wall with seniors,
I, who knows, I might still be photo trying to squeeze in seniors and always watching the weather report and saying, I can't believe I have to go out this evening again and photograph another senior. So I would definitely not be where I am today without those experiences. And I think, you know, you bring up a great point that you need to embrace them,
whether they're pleasant or unpleasant, they shaped you who you are today. Like you said, if you suddenly wanted this, you know, six figure business and boom you had it, you wouldn't have the systems in place to be able to deal with a six figure business. So all those little experiences along the way are shaping you and molding you into the photographer,
entrepreneur person that you are today. Yes. I love that. There's something else that you mentioned that I wanna bring up too, and that is, you had the wherewithal to figure out and build a business based on how you wanted to run it. So you know, you didn't want to shoot at eight o'clock at night in June 'cause the sun goes down at nine 30,
you know, you don't wanna be dealing with the weather reports. So was that a big piece of that too, of your, of your shifting into bourgeois of like looking at the quality of life of when a bourgeois photographer generally shoots versus, you know, high school seniors? Yeah, that was a component of it. And I think, you know,
if you don't know your your core values, that's a really valuable exercise to go through. You know, family was very important to me at the time. I mean, family's always important to me, but you know, my kids were at home. If you don't know your core values, then that's the first place I would start. But once you know your core values,
you're then able to put up boundaries in place to protect those core values. You know, for example, if your kids are small and they're in games in the evenings or on weekends, then you don't build a business that's based on shooting in the evening or on weekends. So knowing your core values, like I said, and then putting up boundaries to protect them in place,
are things that I think will help burnout, you know, avoiding burnout. But you know, it was also through working with seniors and a lot of times, almost always the mothers were head over heels in love with these pictures of their seniors. And it kind of dawned on me that why don't women have pictures of themselves that they love? And knowing about a boudoir experience,
I thought, why can't I offer this to women? Because we are so hard on ourselves and we judge ourselves by unrealistic beauty standards that we see on social media, we see on tv. And it's, it's really not fair. I mean, you know, I wasn't a product of social media, but I can guarantee you 17 magazine when it came out every month,
you know, you're comparing yourself that the hair, the makeup, the outfits, all that stuff. So, you know, I think it's, it's always been around, but social media has made it worse. But it was, I really felt a tug to change the way women see themselves. And most of my clients come to me, you know,
this might be a gift, whatever, you know, fraction of them come to me, they're celebrating something new. But all of my clients walk outta their session with a newfound sense of confidence. And that really, that really lights my fire. At the end of the day when I show a, a client a picture in the back of my camera,
they'll, they'll say, is that really me? And you know, if I had a penny for every time somebody said that, and I say to them, yes, that's you. It's always been you. I'm just helping you see yourself in a different light. So, you know, I think that evolved outta my senior business that I, you know,
I really wanna change the way women see themselves because I would hear it when women were looking at the pictures of their seniors, like, oh, I don't take pictures of myself, or, you know, I don't like the way I look. And that just, that breaks my heart. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I would get that so much in family photography.
It's just like, oh, well I just want pictures of the kids. I'm like, your kids are gonna want pictures of you. They don't care if you put on five pounds. Like, just get in the freaking picture. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I, this has been such a good conversation and the power of our intention,
the power of, I think also the power of why, of why we do this. And I think that can be such a, a good anchoring for your intention and also a good anchoring when you start to get, maybe you start to get in that low vibe or that comparison or, you know, you start to feel that mind circus if that mind circus starts acting up and that elephant's running loose.
You know, if you start to connect with the why that you wanna be working on what you're doing, then you have so much more power to continue on and persevere and make these decisions. I agree. And I think, you know, save every email from a client. That is a compliment. Save every thank you note. You get, go back and read your Google reviews because when you are feeling low,
those are things that can kind of pick you up and remind you why you're doing what you're doing. I actually have a notebook where I, I save thank you notes that I get. I print out emails and you know, I, I do rely on that from time to time to just say, okay, this is why you're doing what you're doing.
You might be having a bad day, but this is why you do what you do. So pick yourself up and keep going. Yes. Oh my gosh. And with that, you guys go check your mind circus. So good. Karen, thank you so much for sharing all this with us. Can you let people know where they can find you?
If they wanna reach out to you, please reach out to Karen. If you guys connected with this or you feel this, let her know. But Karen, where can people find you online? Sure. So the name of my boudoir website is best pittsburgh boudoir.com. That is also my Instagram handle, but I am launching a podcast called The Mind Circus.
I will have a website for that as well, the mind circus.com. But I will be released on wherever you can find podcasts, Spotify, apple, all that good stuff. So I'm really looking forward to the release of that podcast. 'cause like I said, podcasts have been very instrumental in my journey as an entrepreneur and I just wanna pay it forward.
Yeah, I love it. I can't wait for the podcast. Yeah, keep us posted. So good. Thank you again for being with us. And you guys, thanks for being here with us and we'll talk to you next week.