Meet Kasey Loftin

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kasey Loftin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kasey, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

At the age of 13, while going through puberty, my family moved from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Within the next 6 months, every friend I had back home turned their back on me and the day after Christmas, my grandmother had a heart attack on our living room floor and passed away. I’ll never forget watching my 15 year old brother give her CPR until the paramedics got there. It was a significant period of trauma in my life, mixed with hormones, that triggered a lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety.

For years my depression consumed me, but particularly in college. I self-medicated and painted on a smile until I hit rock bottom at 23 years old and woke up in a hospital, where I stayed for 7 nights. I walked out a different person. I wasn’t sure why God kept me here but I knew He saw something I didn’t.

Waking up was literally and figuratively eye-opening. I face challenges differently now. I’m not as afraid to fall down and it’s not as hard to pick myself up. Don’t get me wrong, I still have struggles, but I don’t let them consume me because I’ve learned practical ways to face challenges head on and move past them. I’ve learned to redefine success for myself. I came to terms with knowing failures would happen along the way and I had to take the lessons they taught me, wake up the next day, and move forward.

I discovered my resilience because of my circumstances. It’s something we all have in us, but seeing what you’re truly capable of requires facing difficulty. You only know what you can handle when you face the hard things and overcome them.

What doesn’t kill you, doesn’t MAKE you stronger. You are already strong. What doesn’t kill you, makes you confident. And finding that strength and confidence makes you resilient.

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?

Fourteen years ago, while working as a Marketing Manager, I started my business with a camera kit from Best Buy working after hours and on weekends. I knew I wanted to be able to work from home and make my own schedule when my husband (fiance at the time) and I decided to have kids. Two years into my business, I gave birth to my son, quit my full-time job, and went all-in on myself.

I’ve photographed more than a hundred weddings and countless portraits over the years. I retired the wedding photography part of my business during the pandemic and never looked back. Over the past few years, I have redefined my business and added graphic design services back into the mix.

Now, my business focuses on portrait/documentary photography for families as well as brands. In addition to photography, I mentor small business owners and help them build, design, and market their brands. With a BFA in Graphic Design from Charlotte (UNCC) plus almost two decades of marketing experience, I’ve helped several brands, non-profits, and entrepreneurs with headshots, brand story photography, brand strategy, logo design, building/launching Squarespace websites, creating and managing social media content and more.

In both cases, whether I’m working with families or brands, I want to help people find confidence and encourage them to be themselves. I am a big fan of real people, honest moments, kindness, and positive intentions.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I believe that resilience, organization, and confidence have been key components in my journey.

I think too many people quit before it gets to the good part. More and more people have this desire for instant gratification. But it doesn’t work like that. You have to consistently show up, refine your processes, and know your worth. You have to be okay with failure, not knowing all the answers and eager to continuously work on yourself and your business. Always be learning.

You don’t know what you don’t know and finding a mentor that can walk you through the million and one questions you have when starting a business is exponentially beneficial. I believe mentors help with all three of those components.

Staying organized it huge. It’s important to have a client management system of some sort, especially if you are a one-person-show. The more intentional you can be from the start, the easier things will be in the long run. You have to come up with a good filing system that is consistent and searchable.

The hardest one is the confidence aspect. Some people have amazing confidence from the jump but at some point almost everyone experiences imposter syndrome and self-doubt. Which is when most people quit. When I’ve found myself spiraling with comparison, I redirect my focus. I unfollow a lot of other people in my field and look outside my medium for new inspiration. I get out in nature, watch a lot of documentaries, listen to music, and make other kinds of art.

The more I let go of everyone else’s expectations and found the things that truly matter to me, the more confident I became in my business as well. This gets easier and easier the older and more experienced you get.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed, I clean my office. That sounds ridiculous. But truthfully, eliminating distractions and fixing things I have control over enable me to reset. Plus it keeps my business running smoothly to always be tidying up physically and digitally. I have learned over the years how much time I need to block each week to be at my desk accomplishing menial tasks and “housekeeping” to proactively combat overwhelm and burnout. These desk days are non-negotiable.

I definitely think at some point, you have to identify your strengths and weaknesses and be able to admit when it’s time to invest in resources for the areas of your business you cannot manage. For instance, for years I struggled with keeping my books (income, expenses, taxes, etc) in order. I always thought I couldn’t afford a CPA and convinced myself this was something I just had to figure out instead of investing in help. A few years ago, I prioritized this in my budget and I found an amazing person who does all of my tax work for me. The amount I pay is made up in the time I save and am able to commit to the parts of my business where I shine. It’s become worth every penny.

You CANNOT do it all. You may have to for awhile as you build your business and try to turn a profit, but eventually you will get burnt out. When you set goals for business and budget, you have to take into consideration the areas you are failing yourself and invest in improving those areas either through software or outsourcing, giving yourself more time to focus on the areas you are great at and ultimately make you more money.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kaseyloftin.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kaseyloftin
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/kaseyloftincreative
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/kaseyloftin

Image Credits

Kasey Loftin Creative (me)