IAM239- DMV Entrepreneur Specializes in Modern Headshots Photography

Crystale Spearman runs eye imagery where she provides crisp, clean, and modern individual portraits for entrepreneurs and business people.

• CEO Hack: Timer to know what time each task takes
• CEO Nugget: Don't take everything just because you can do it
• CEO Defined: Being a self-starter, turning passion into profits and having control

Website: http://eye-imagery.com/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

All right, Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast we have Crystale Spearman of eye imagery, well I say that one time.

Crystale Spearman 0:36

Eye Imagery

Gresham Harkless 0:37

Eye Imagery, because I can't say it right. So I told you I mess up more than you. So Crystale of Eye Imagery. So Crystale is awesome to have you on the show. I appreciate the time and I wanted to get an idea of a little bit more about what you do and what brought you here today?

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Crystale Spearman 0:50

Well, what brought me here is actually I met Akia at another event that I hold for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial women, and I give them headshots for an evening of networking and things. So she came to that event. And then because of that, she invited me to this event, and I was gladly coming out because I heard her about the topics and everything. So she just had me come out and take a few headshots of her guests if they wanted it. And that's how I ended up here.

Gresham Harkless 1:14

Okay, okay, what was the event that you were holding? Are you hosting it?

Crystale Spearman 1:17

Yeah, so I have a monthly event called Smile and Socialize. And it's an event for female entrepreneurs that are business owners, bloggers, or just a brand that they represent. And I have that monthly event where they can come out and get a free headshot. Oh, that's okay. They can come out and get a free headshot and also network with each other and things like that.

Gresham Harkless 1:38

Okay. Okay. You're based out of the Washington DC, Baltimore area. Okay. Okay. So anybody that's local to that area can come?

Crystale Spearman 1:44

I actually move around, I have a different host site. So I do go between Baltimore DC and anywhere in between. So every month is at a different location.

Gresham Harkless 1:51

Okay. Okay. Now tell me I guess a little bit more about what you're doing with Eye Imagery. So are you doing headshots, I know you're doing headshots here today, so

Crystale Spearman 1:58

Yeah, so headshots are the only thing that I do right now. I mostly work with people that are entrepreneurs, or business owners who need headshots for business cards, websites, social media, or anything like that I kind of do the modern enterprise headshots where they kind of include their personality because that's what people were kind of looking for now. So I give them the opportunity to show off their personality and the things that they're doing.

Gresham Harkless 2:20

Okay, absolutely. So, alright, so you told me a little bit about what you do. Tell me a little bit about what do you feel kind of makes you unique. What do you feel is like your secret sauce and kind of sets you apart?

Crystale Spearman 2:31

I can say what people tell me all the time. So what it is, is, everyone says that I kind of make them comfortable with the posing guidance, I make them feel like, you know, they're doing great and feeling great and looking great.

Gresham Harkless 2:43

Do you say that to everybody? I thought it was just for me!

Crystale Spearman 2:52

You know, I gotta get them going. So people often say, you know, they've worked with other photographers or whatever. And they're just like, Okay, go, and they don't know what to do. I'm like, I want to, I want to negate that, and, you know, give them some good vibes so that they made their pictures look good in the end, like, you know, it definitely shows in the final pictures that they were kind of loose. They were laughing they were having a good time. So, um, that's what that's the feedback that I get often. So that's what I kind of run with.

Gresham Harkless 3:17

Yeah, I can definitely attest to that. I picture myself. And it's funny that you say that because a lot of times, I guess you have to go we talked a little bit offline about bad experiences. Sometimes we go through bad experiences but appreciate good experiences. Taking the pictures, it definitely felt like I was a pro. And I'm probably not because if I was really in front of somebody else, I wouldn't.

Crystale Spearman 3:35

I want them to feel like they know what they're doing. So I couldn't just have you sit here and just be like, I let me snap, do what you gotta do, because they're gonna look crazy later. They're not they're not knowing I was looking in the camera or any of that they're stiff. They're like, I don't know what I'm doing, you know. So I definitely try to try to give them that energy so that they get going, I let them loose at the end so that they can kind of do their own thing. But by then they're good and warmed up.

Gresham Harkless 3:59

Yeah, that makes sense. And is that how you came through that process of everything? Or is it just like by just understanding, who the person is and just going with that?

Crystale Spearman 4:06

Probably for you mean the process of helping people along?

Gresham Harkless 4:09

Yeah, like, you know, do this pose or that pose, you just kind of play off whoever

Crystale Spearman 4:13

Yep, so it's been like years in the making. So over time, there are certain poses, I know, look good on camera, I'm, like, you know, hit this angle, hit this angle. Over time, I've definitely learned that if you leave them to their own devices, there are certain go-to's that everybody's gonna do. And I'm just like, you know, you can't do that for every picture. You're not gonna like it when you see it.

Trust me, you can't lean back. So I'm looking up your nose. Show me the same side of the face every time you know, you need some options. So just over time doing so many headshots and so many shoots just learning after a while, what works and what doesn't, especially for entrepreneurs who need the shots for certain types of things. They might not realize, you know, a professional headshot is kind of different than a selfie or whatever. So, just kind of garnering that expertise over years and years of taking people's faces.

Gresham Harkless 4:59

Good, and it's funny, I just saw something on. I think it was like Instagram. And a lot of people said, you know, even though it takes me 10 minutes to do this, you don't pay me for 10 minutes you pay me for the 30 years that I've been doing it, you know, 50 while the price and things like that, but a lot of people don't take into account

Crystale Spearman 5:15

How it comes out differently, you know if you did just go off the cuff with somebody else. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Gresham Harkless 5:22

So I'm gonna switch gears a little bit.

Crystale Spearman 5:23

Okay

Gresham Harkless 5:24

I want to ask you for something that's called CEO hack. And this is something that you use that makes you more effective and efficient. So it could be something tangible, it might be a habit that you have, but what do you feel kind of gives you that edge that makes you do what you do someone bet so well.

Crystale Spearman 5:39

What do you call it?

Gresham Harkless 5:40

CEO hack?

Crystale Spearman 5:40

CEO hack, oh, let me think.

Gresham Harkless 5:43

It could be anything. Something super small that you don't even think about that you use all the time.

Crystale Spearman 5:48

I know. But I probably don't even think about it.

Gresham Harkless 5:51

I gave myself one I can tell you one, I know that you just told me

Crystale Spearman 5:53

Oh, the timer. I am looking at it. Yes, I did find this little it's called a cube timer. So it's easy to start on, knock it over. But it has definitely been a great hack. Because as I'm shooting, you know, if I'm shooting volume, a whole bunch of people, I need to keep it moving. But sometimes it's hard to do when somebody is sitting in front of you, and you don't know how much time has passed.

And so that is definitely a hack that I have started using where I know exactly how much time is going past because I just knocked my little cube timer over two minutes. I see the lights flashing. I'm like, All right, we got to start wrapping this up for the next person. So it definitely helps me get through the lines a lot faster.

Gresham Harkless 6:29

Yeah, I love that I love as we were talking offline the story behind it because a lot of times you know, you're in the moment, you're doing a thing here and you're in crapping your passion doing your thing, you don't realize this, like 50 other people. So they're like, What am I gonna go?

Crystale Spearman 6:42

And they're like staring at a hole in your brain. Like, when is it my turn, I'm like my bad. So much time has passed. So you definitely want to make the person sitting there feel like they're getting their value out of it. But you know, you don't want to keep people waiting too long, getting tired, all that kind of stuff. So this is a little fine line of balance. So the timer helps a lot, especially when the people are kind of aware of it too.

So they're like, Okay, I do have, you know, kind of a limited amount of time. But the good thing about it is I can make it where it doesn't make a sound. So you know if it is a little wiggle room or something I can kind of keep it going. They don't know what at the time went off. So they don't know exactly where we are in there. But they know that there are some kind of boundaries

Gresham Harkless 7:21

Right. When I initially saw it, I thought it was like some What is it where you can read somebody's fortunately.

Crystale Spearman 7:30

It does look like that. It was pretty cool. I was happy to find this, it's helped a lot. Because not even just with me, like not knowing when to stop. But sometimes people get here, they'll see that there's a long line here, but they'll get like you've been sitting there the whole time waiting, just like the person that's waiting after you like why didn't you do all that while you're in line, they wait till they get here to make sure everything is good. So I'm like lucky I have a certain amount of time. So it helps with all of that. It's definitely a good CEO hack.

Gresham Harkless 8:01

I love that came from experience. That's why I love it so much because it's something you would only know later on. So after doing a bunch of the issues that you realized I need to add that. Now let me ask you for another thing, and it's called a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you happen to a time machine what advice would you tell your business self?

Crystale Spearman 8:20

Tell my younger business self to not, you know, take everything just because you can do it. I went through like a period it was probably just a couple of years ago where like I went through this year of anything that people were asking me to photograph I was pretty much doing it. Whether it was something I found joy in or not like I've always found joy in headshots. It's my favorite thing to do. But I did enjoy certain other types of photoshoots too. But I started off with like events and stuff. I didn't like that. But like if somebody would ask me or even beg me, it was hard for me to say no. So every time I would say yes, I'll go do it. I would hate it.

I'll be like, Why did I say yes? And then I'll do the whole cycle again. So I definitely like burning myself out that year just trying to do everything. So this year I've really really honed into the headshot thing has been like my most freeing, you know, low-stress year so far. And it's also been like my highest revenue year because it's like I really honed in on a specific thing that is what I like to do. It's a specific niche. So if someone's looking for that thing, you know, they're asking me for it as opposed to me saying I do everything.

I do everything and there's a ton of people out there that do everything. So now I gotta pick and choose but if you have this one person like well Crystale does headshots for entrepreneurs, modern headshots or whatever, you know, that's what we're gonna go to. So it's definitely worked out I would have bypassed all of that in the past.

Gresham Harkless 9:42

That makes sense. It's funny because people always say the riches are in the niches. But I myself have done a million things to kind of get started where I'm just trying to see like what I liked and what I don't like Yeah, and it takes is a process at least for me to kind of figure that out. But once you are able to laser focus then it does help out a lot. Because you start to see and you can, you know, break through the noise.

Crystale Spearman 10:03

Yes, exactly, it takes fine and what you like to do, like I said, I went through, I went through all of it. And there were other things I liked. I really liked doing maternity sessions and things like that. I didn't like paying rent for a studio. So that was kind of part of that decision as well.

Gresham Harkless 10:17

Keep them in a hospital or something

Crystale Spearman 10:23

Exactly, but yeah, so I've gone through a gamut. But people always are like, can you do my wedding? Can you do my wedding? I've never done weddings. I don't want to do weddings.

Gresham Harkless 10:34

Or TLC, or whatever it is. Super Scary.

Crystale Spearman 10:36

That's my thing. I'm like, You don't ever see somebody on Judge Judy, suing a headshot photographer. It's always a wedding photographer. Like, I don't want any parts. I am good. Some very good people out there I can refer you to, but it's not going to be me. So yeah.

Gresham Harkless 10:53

Well, no, I appreciate that. And now I want to ask you my last question.

Crystale Spearman 10:56

Okay.

Gresham Harkless 10:58

Even though I pushed it is the third question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're gonna have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show, looking at what it means to be an entrepreneur or what it means to be a business owner, what it means to be a quote, unquote, CEO. So what does that mean to you?

Crystale Spearman 11:12

Oh, man, to me, such a multi-level question, I guess, surface to me, you know, it means you know, being a self-starter having a passion that aligns with something that can be profitable, because there's a balance there as well, learning how to make that passion into a profit. But on a lower level, for me, being a CEO, you know, is having control is having a little bit of freedom, it's being able to, you know, do those things with my kids that I want to do that I wasn't able to do before, I'm not looking to like, I'm actually not looking to be like a billionaire or anything like that.

That's not really my goal, my goal was more than freedom side of it to be able to set my schedule is to be able to, you know, say, you know, I'm not going to do anything today, because I'm gonna go on this field trip with my kid or whatever, so…

Gresham Harkless 11:57

I'm just gonna do headshots.

Crystale Spearman 11:58

Yeah, I'm just gonna do headshots, I'm letting go of the stress. Photography, wedding photography is not gonna stress me out, headshots don't stress me out. So because I did, I went through that where I was, like, super stressed sometimes, and all that kind of stuff. And it's not a good feeling.

So, you know, finding this avenue. In deciding that I was going to own what I want to do be able to say notice when people finally which is hard to but really, the CEO status is just you know, about having time in life to find that the happy stuff that you really like to do. So I did work, I worked for 10 years at one company, actually in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering.

And, you know, it was cool until I got married and had kids and I was like, Oh, what did we hear all the time? I want to do some other stuff. So once I got to that point, that's when I was like, you know, I gotta make some changes and CEO was looking kind of good.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

Good for you. You made that leap. Tell me one more time how best people can find you. And if there's anything additional, you want to let us know.

Crystale Spearman 13:03

Okay, so again, it's Crystale of Eye Imagery, and you can find me on my website. It's www.eye-imagery.com. And you can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, even though I'm not super active on there, but that's eyeimagery, no dashes or spaces, just eyeimagery. You'll see like my little logo that's pink, yellow and orange or something like that. Those are the best ways to get in touch with me. I'm probably most active on Instagram, you can DM me or whatever.

Gresham Harkless 13:38

Okay.

Crystale Spearman 13:38

Yep.

Gresham Harkless 13:38

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you.

Crystale Spearman 13:43

Okay.

Gresham Harkless 13:43

I appreciate you. Have a great rest of the day.

Crystale Spearman 13:45

No problem. Thanks for having me. You too!

Outro 13:50

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

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