Meet Karen Moreland

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

Karen, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

In a world of digital photography where everyone is reaching for the fastest and cheapest images, for a photography business owner, that business model is a race to the bottom. Competing in an oversaturated market of digital-only photographers soon leads to burn out, and under the guise of “helping people”. But at the end of the day, the only person really truly needing help, was me.

After 11 years in a digital-only business model, I realized my business needed something more. I needed something more. For me, and for my clients. I’ve always loved showering clients with extra attention and unexpected gifts, little surprises they weren’t expecting. I always loved helping with all the details to make their sessions just right. This led me to a much more sustainable approach to my business–the full service, elevated photography experience.

Offering my clients a hand-held experience became the focus of transforming my long-time photography business. From coming to their homes, helping them plan out and style the exact vision of their sessions, showing them their portraits in person, in the comfort of their own home, designing heirloom albums and wall art specific to their home’s style and decor, customizing every inch of what I offer them, and then hand-delivering and installing their wall art–all of that was what I dreamed I could do for my clients. This fit my personality to a “t”.

With those changes came a lot of mixed emotions for me. I realized so many of my lifelong clients might not be on board with this new service. I realized there would be fears around offering something so much bigger, so much more. I wasn’t quite ready in my heart, because of fear. But the more I realized it was just a fear, the more it actually drove me in my desire to go in that direction.

Self-doubt crept in, comments from well-meaning people would bring me down. I’d let those comments and other people’s fears affect me. Negative ideas would flood my mind, “Who do you think you are offering this? Nobody’s going to pay for that type of service, people just want cheap digitals.” Those doubts held me back in my journey. But in the quiet moments where I’d reflect on my true goals and desires, I realized I had to shake it off.

I realized that while people said they were supportive, and truly felt they were, I couldn’t rely on them to see my same vision. And they didn’t need to. This was my vision. I knew my own potential. I knew my work would sell itself, having done this for over a decade. I knew there were plenty of new clients out there waiting for an experience like I had to offer. I knew that every person trades up for the things they value and what I had to offer was truly exceptional.

Pulling myself away from my own negative feelings and into a place where I focused on what I wanted to offer my clients, helped me stay the course. They say envisioning your goals and writing them down daily is everything. Imagining you’re already there and walking in that path is the way to achieve it. So I began doing that as much as possible, each time moving one step closer. Pushing through those imposter feelings was non-negotiable if I wanted to move ahead with my dreams.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a full-service portrait photographer serving the Greater Nashville area. I travel to meet my clients in their homes for a customized, personal experience. I listen to my client’s deepest concerns, then offer solutions to those very problems and connect with them on a deeper level. I help address questions like what to wear, what if my kids don’t behave, where is the best location to take our portraits, and can you make me look amazing? I will always look for the best solutions, and I love catering to my clients in that way.

My clients mean the world to me, their happiness is my ultimate goal. Being able to offer a service like this is uncommon in this day and age, as we’ve adapted to a highly digital style of communication. Just the act of picking up the phone and having a real conversation is becoming more uncommon today. And being able to offer in-person style and concept consultations is even more uncommon in the photography space. But the more I do it, the more I fall in love with the process, a process of complete service to my clients.

My process begins with that first phone call, listening, listening, and more listening. I love to explore people’s visions about what their dream session looks like in their minds. Beautiful sessions start here! Often people leave so much of the decision-making to their photographer, and while I’m always fresh with ideas and locations to suggest, I love to incorporate every person’s unique family style into my workflow.

The next stages include the in-person planning meeting, then scheduling their dream session. Once that has taken place, I once again return to my clients and they get to see all their beautiful portraits for the first time together. This is the best experience for both my clients and me because we get to share in the joy of how amazing and beautiful their family truly is! Clients get to order the portraits they love most and I hand-deliver whatever they’ve chosen. My process even includes complementary wall art installation, and all wall art comes with a lifetime guarantee.

No one should ever feel like having a beautiful portrait experience is unattainable.

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

After being in business more than a decade, I’ve come to realize that listening with my whole heart and truly addressing concerns is a huge benefit to my clients. When a client books a session, it’s not about what the photographer has in mind, it’s about what the client has in mind. Without this, outcomes aren’t as successful. Clients don’t feel valued and heard, and photographers just hurry on to the next client. The heart of service is looking into the concerns of the ones who are hiring you and satisfying those needs and desires to the best of your ability.

Another unique quality is tapping into my own artsy creativity. I love to see what I can create through the unique personalities of all my clients. Every person I’ve photographed is unique, they have talents and skills that can be showcased in an artful, beautiful way. This doesn’t mean that clients have to do crazy, weird things at their photoshoots, it just means I look for opportunities to let their personalities shine and capture the true essence of who they are. Being able to spot what those things are is a skill I’ve honed over time through experience. The goal of every session is always “How can I make this person, this family, the most beautiful version of themselves?”

I also realized the importance of improving my skills over time. This has been huge for me. There was a point when I was starting out where I thought the goal was just to take pretty pictures, and that it would be enough. But I’ve seen a huge improvement in my work over the years. In fact, just the other day I pulled up a photo of the first ever newborn photo I took and compared it to what I’d taken recently. I was blown away. I thought those first images were great back in the day, but now I wanted to cringe at my early skills. And that’s when I knew this is a lifelong journey. No photographer takes a perfect photo from the start, not consistently. As my husband likes to say “this is the worst you’ll ever do/be at this, it’s only going to get better the more you do it”, and he’s right! So being gracious with myself through that process is super important.

This also goes for business skills, people skills, and longevity skills. Keep improving your craft, your business, the way you handle all the conflicts and issues that arise. Keep putting yourself out there in new and interesting ways. Work on your mindset as often as you can. There is always a solution, even if you haven’t figured it out just yet. ‘No’ isn’t an option if you want to succeed long-term. There is always a way.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client is someone who deeply wants to love their own family story in a tangible way. My client feels overwhelmed most days, often with little ones to care for, overly full schedules, and trying to give the best to everyone around her. She may worry she will not look beautiful in portraits and wants a photographer who knows how to bring out her very best.

My ideal client deeply appreciates personalized service and connecting with an experienced photographer who can anticipate and address her needs. Her needs may include help with wardrobe selection, location, capturing the personalities of her children, and suggestions on how to best display and enjoy their final portraits. She not only cares about quality photos but also desires a quality experience from start to finish, and hopes to find the photographer she can befriend and work with for a lifetime.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Photos by Karen Moreland Photography

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