We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Floice Kemp a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Floice, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
Burnout in my life is very real. I naturally take on way more than I can handle but refuse to quit or burden others with taking on tasks I know I can complete. How do I overcome / avoid burnout? I just ousted myself, but it starts with understanding that you are in this position. I returned to photography because of burn out. Lost in the fog a question came to mind; What sets your heart on fire? Reminiscing how I felt behind the camera, I decided to jump back into the photography mele. Reinvigorated, I took the first steps and started this adventure. Here’s my list of things to remember when recovering from burnout:
1) Your physical and mental health is important. Get up, stretch, take your dog on a walk, and get 8 hours of sleep. Trust me, photoshop will be there in the morning, but your sanity will be gone.
2) Your partner and family will always be there for you, and you need to make sure you are there for them. Make it to football games, birthdays, and outings. Brag about working with models. The naysayers will be jealous.
3) Remember why you are doing this. If going through the grind is no longer fun, take a break (refer to #1) and reassess what you value
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I really like this question because I recently celebrated beginning my second year in business. Point Kilo Photography is a veteran owned business that applies project management principles to accomplish complicated and artistic photography projects. I specialize in event, portrait, sports and fashion photography but I began this journey by stepping out of my comfort zone. If you need a photographer, it becomes our mission to capture the moment. From initial capture, editing and final delivery in handed inhouse to meet our customers need, even providing reach back support if your photos need support for future projects. I’ve had the privilege of working with beginning models, brand influencers, and even larger companies during my first year.
One project I want to get off of the ground this year is servicing transitioning Soldiers professional headshots that are transitioning from active service. Anyone that uses LinkedIn see’s it all the time. Low quality images on profiles that make you cringe the moment you see them. Number of Soldiers leaving Active Duty use terrible outdated photos to contact potential employers which can lead to an automatic skip. I want to provide this service to help my brothers and sisters in arms transition back into the civilian world.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Here’s three things I’ve learned my first year / coached during my journey: – Learn to sell you brand: Freaking sell, sell, sell baby. Get comfortable talking about your business. Show up places and have your friends time you on how long it takes for you to talk about your craft to a stranger. It’s fine if people get annoyed. If you provide a service they need in the future, I guarantee you will get a message from them. Bridging between this point and my next one. get comfortable with how much you charge for service. Learn to say it with a straight face, and do not cave on how much you charge. You provide a service now; you need to be compensated for your time.
– Know when to walk away: This is two-fold. When a deal is too good to be true or when you’ve compromised beyond reasonable limits just because you want to make a deal; just walk away. If it’s too good but now final payment is dicey, and they start to flake. Walk away. If you’ve already waved additional fees, agreed to meet during times that don’t really work with your personal schedule, and your netting $0s? Nah, walk away. Business will come, regret for compromising to much is very real.
– Don’t be afraid to look stupid: There are times to be serious, but there are times to cut loose. In a field where having people open up and convey emotion without words, being able to have fun (and maybe be weird) goes a long way.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I really wanted to stick with the book question (if you struggle with burn out and managing workload, read “Peak Performance” by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness), but by my nature on wanting to work with people let’s talk collaboration.
Hey! I’m a photographer who likes working with people! It is an industry that revolves around capturing people. This next year, I’m working on branching into the world of high fashion. Do you have a fashion brand that needs content? Are you a new model that is looking for “Time for Talent” (TFT) to build your portfolio? I work long hours and weekends. Let’s collaborate and capture the point. For all news and content release, check out my IG or FB accounts @pointkilophotography or email me at [email protected].
If you’ve read my previous section about helping out the veteran community, please email me. I would love to get this thing off the ground and would love to grow my team.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pointkilophotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090101756685
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/98812448/admin/feed/posts/
Image Credits
All photos were captured by me: Floice ‘Kilo’ Kemp at Point Kilo Photography, LLC.
