IAM935- Photographer Creates Incredible Photography Experiences

Ksenia is a portrait photographer with an extensive background in fashion photography, specializing in magazine-style photoshoots that are designed to celebrate beauty, and motherhood and build strong personal brands. She is passionate about building a human connection and creating an incredible photography experience tailored specifically for each client.

Ksenia is known for being able to direct anyone into a flattering pose and for her signature editing style – clean, polished magazine-quality images. Her work has been published in magazines in the US and internationally.

Outside of photography, Ksenia is a busy mom and loves to spend time outdoors with her family and listen to podcasts about personal development.

• CEO Hack: Getting things done the night before, ClickUp, and having a rest
• CEO Nugget: Don't be afraid to delegate and ask for help
• CEO Defined: Stepping out of the box and prioritizing your business

Website: http://kseniapro.com/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kseniaprophoto/
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/user/kseniaprophotography

Branding Photography Services (for entrepreneurs, business owners, CEOs, creatives) – http://kseniapro.com/portfolio/personal-branding-commercial-photography/

FREE Template to create a Visual Planner for a Personal Branding Photo Shoot – https://kseniapro.ck.page/9bfc3a9d90

Upcoming Photography Education Online Platform – http://kseniapro.com/education/

Full Interview:

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Transcription

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[00:00:11.59] – Intro

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.

[00:00:41.00] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Ksenia Pro of Ksenia Pro Photography. Ksenia, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:51.20] – Ksenia Pro

Thank you so much for having me.

[00:00:53.29] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Ksenia, so we can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Ksenia is a portrait photographer with an extensive background in fashion photography, specializing in magazine-style photo shoots that are designed to celebrate beauty, motherhood, and build strong personal brands.

She is passionate about building a human connection and creating an incredible photography experience tailored specifically for each client. Ksenia is known for being able to direct anyone into a flattering pose and for her signature editing style clean and polished magazine-quality images. Her work has been published in magazines in the US and internationally. Outside of photography, Ksenia is a busy mom and loves to spend time outdoors with her family and listen to podcasts about personal development. Ksenia, great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:42.70] – Ksenia Pro

Yes. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so much for having me.

[00:01:46.50] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on, and I'm looking forward to it as well. And before, we jump more in, I wanted to hear a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? We'll let you get started with all the

[00:01:58.29] – Ksenia Pro

awesome work you're doing. Yeah. Absolutely. So I have to kinda like it's linked to my life story. Yeah. Well, as everything is. So I moved to the US about eight years ago. In the first few years, I couldn't work legally because of my visa status. So I just picked up, up, I mean, I did photography. I'm from Russia originally. I did photography back before we moved here, but it wasn't like a serious thing or anything. I just picked up a few classes and I started taking some clients on the side while I was doing my full-time job in finance. But then we moved here and I couldn't really work legally, So I kinda sat at home and felt sorry for myself for a little bit. But then I was like, well, let me just learn photography even more.

So I started doing some collaborative projects, just unpaid work, but it helped me to build a community around photography and meet some amazing people. And I feel like this is the greatest resource in the creative, field as mine because I'm grateful for meeting those people those people helped me build my business eventually. So long story short, I started photography full because you know, and founded my business five years ago in twenty fifteen. And I build it into a six-figure business in four years and keep growing from there.

[00:03:16.30] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Appreciate that. Congratulations as well too. And it's so, great how sometimes great things happen by us just kinda finding our passions and kinda going with it, not really even sure where it's going to go. And I think so many times, we we hit roadblocks, and we think that that's the end of the road when in reality, we just have to pivot and go someplace else.

[00:03:36.19] – Ksenia Pro

So it kinda sounds like yeah. Exactly. Like, twenty-twenty taught everybody, you know, while you're having, you know, maybe a break. It's a good time to keep the time back to yourself, especially if you're busy with, like, the day-to-day work and day-to-day things. And then you just kinda, like, kinda, like, step back and look at what's happening in your life and maybe pivot, and it's gonna be a better thing for you.

[00:03:56.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I think that's one of the things that I, you know, paid attention to, especially, last year is just, you know, paying attention to yourself. Sometimes we can forget ourselves, and we're taking care of the entire world and so many people that you could sometimes forget to check, in with yourself. So definitely appreciate that. So I wanted to to hear a little bit more about how you serve the clients that you work with. Could you drill a little bit more and tell us a little bit more about how your business is going?

[00:04:19.10] – Ksenia Pro

Yeah. Absolutely. So I'm a portrait and fashion photographer, and I specialize in working with women specifically. My goal, my, like, philosophy is to make my clients feel beautiful and look beautiful. Because a lot of my clients come to me and say, I'm not photogenic. I gained a bunch of weight. Like, I don't feel good about myself, but they still especially a lot of moms come to me, and they, like, kinda losing themselves in the day-to-day dirty diapers and just screaming all day that I want to give them this experience when they reconnect with the woman who they are inside. Because sometimes, like, years pass and you kinda like like you said, you keep busy with serving everybody else and you're forgetting about yourself.

Especially as moms, as women, I feel like it's natural for us to, like, nurture others and put ourselves last. So I wanna kinda like flip it around and give my clients that maybe it's one day that's gonna make them feel great, but they got to remember that experience. I'm going to create beautiful portraits, beautiful photographs of them that reflect who they truly are and how they want the woman that they want to be. So they can keep it and kinda, like, look back at that experience.

But I also work with a lot of entrepreneurs and influencers, to help them create visual content. So this is kinda like the other side of things. It's still like fashion and portrait photography because everything I do is, like, fashion is more like magazine style, so I love the creative side of it. I love styling a lot. I love creating a story. So, for example, for brands, for branding photography, I love to create visuals around the story of the brands. I work with multiple brands, women-owned brands. I love just doing that, and I love how others like, women entrepreneurs, portray their story in visuals and pictures. So that's what I love doing.

[00:06:16.10] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I appreciate that. I love that story piece that you kinda kinda spoke to. And I feel like and correct me if I'm wrong. I feel like that can overlap with both the types of photography you do because the entrepreneurs have a story about, you know, what it is that they do. But I also loved how you talked about, you know, the moms and the women sometimes that are trying to I don't know if you would use this this phrase, reclaim, you know, who they are and have that be a symbolic experience so that they don't lose themselves in the kinda like the day to day hustle and bustle and all the things that they're juggling.

[00:06:43.60] – Ksenia Pro

Yes. Absolutely. You got it exactly right. And, actually, one thing, one piece that I wanna bring to the puzzle, I'm I'm opening my studio. I'm moving to, like, a new commercial studio space next month and we're going to offer like magazine-style experience for women where they come into the studio, we'll do the hair and makeup. We're going to plan the outfits and just go like play, you know, next level dress up and create some beautiful experience, have fun.

But at the same time, when I pose somebody, for example, it's not just about the pose and, like, the fashion of it, but I wanna reconnect with a person as well on a human level and just kinda like to bring that, the character out. Also, one thing that I want to add this year is to write my clients' stories. So I'm gonna make it either into a blog post or like podcast. I haven't figured out that just yet. But I'm kinda, like, thinking to create, like, a kinda, like, a magazine article type of thing with images and, like, just beautiful story about why they came to me and what kind of experience they had.

[00:07:43.80] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. That's exciting. you know, I love stories, and I'm sure a lot of people are listening to these love stories. And I think we all have a story, and getting that opportunity to, of course, see the image and have, know, that magazine style image is is important. But I think too, coupling that with the opportunity to to hear the story and maybe even see that story in the pivot, in the images while we're, you know, reading about the background of a person, that's something that's gonna be a really powerful experience. So that's exciting.

[00:08:09.30] – Ksenia Pro

Yeah. And I want the women to wait for somebody to come and and kinda, like, see them. I want them to come to us if they wanna be seen. You know what I mean? So

[00:08:18.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And so

[00:08:20.30] – Ksenia Pro

Take that power back.

[00:08:21.80] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. So I was gonna ask you, for what I call your secret sauce, which is the thing that you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique. Do you think it's that ability that you have to be able to kinda see that in somebody and also, be able to showcase that and to bring those, two worlds together, I guess you could say?

[00:08:40.00] – Ksenia Pro

Yeah. So my superpower, what I call, if you will Yes. Is to see a person in front of me. Whenever I meet somebody, it doesn't matter who they are, I just kinda like once I hear their story and I see just the way they move, the way they talk to me, and just the way they are as a person, I kinda already visualize them on the cover of a magazine, like what kind of, you know, the, the picture we would do and just kinda, like, bring their story to in a fashion sense. So I love doing that.

And then I also think my secret sauce is just my personality, and I make feel, people very comfortable. I hear it a lot from my clients. So they feel very comfortable. They open up. They get undressed comfortably in front of me if we like if that's some kind of thing that we're doing. So, yeah, I think a combination of those things.

[00:09:27.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. That makes so much sense. And so, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:09:41.60] – Ksenia Pro

So I don't have any app or book. It's just the habit that my parents taught me when I was in, like high school because I was so busy and I am right now. So what helps me to kinda like quiet down my mind at the end of the day and get mentally ready for the next day? So like when everybody's asleep, I'm a mom of a three-year-old too. So it's like, it's a hectic house sometimes. Yeah.

So when every it's when it's quiet, I'm kinda like, do a mental rundown about the next following day, what I need to get ready, what's gonna happen, what's my schedule like, if I need to, like, charge my batteries or get the outfit ready. I do get everything ready the night before, at least I try to most of the time, so that I don't, you know, don't waste time in the morning. And, it gives me more headspace.

And also I'm a big believer in lists, like, checking things off. I still like doing it on paper, but I do use the ClickUp app as well. So I kinda do a mix of both. So that's what helps me get organized and get out of my head. Because I have too many ideas sometimes, and it's just like it gets too crazy.

[00:10:50.00] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. So, I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:11:05.60] – Ksenia Pro

Don't be afraid to delegate and, like, ask for help because that's I'm a one-woman show most of the time, and I'm it's super hard. I'm super controlling too, and I have to get things done a certain way. So it was really hard for me to let go. And finally, last year, I started delegating some of my editing, photo editing, a few years back when I had my daughter because it was just, like, it's not gonna happen for me to cover it all. And I still to this day, I add my personal touch to every picture.

That's how control freak I am, but it's at the same time, I want to tell my clients that this is, that's me, you know, it comes from me. So I want to make sure it's exactly up to my standard. And then last year, finally, I hired a VA who helps me with, like, little tasks, like emails and communication, something that I can take myself out of. And then I automated a lot of my processes, like, the inquiry process. A lot of things are, like, emails and things like that are automated, So that helps a lot as well.

[00:12:05.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I appreciate that. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Ksenia, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:12:20.39] – Ksenia Pro

Being a CEO means, again, like I said, stepping out of that box and looking from afar and being able to make a decision not based on what's best for you or any other person on a personal level, but what's best for your business. And also being a CEO let me peek at my notes. One second. Well, I already kinda mentioned a lot of things. So, again, it's like being prioritized you working on your business versus being busy on an everyday, like, client work. So prioritize your long-term goals and set the time, block the time to work on those versus just, like, keeping busy and keeping everybody happy around you.

[00:13:04.89] – Gresham Harkless

Definitely appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:13:18.50] – Ksenia Pro

Yeah. Absolutely. So my website is ksenia pro dot com. This is kinda like my main resource. And, for years, I've been focusing on just serving my photography clients, but now I'm starting to teach. So building my education platform for photographers around the business of photography. And, my specialty in photography is, again, it's photography for women, for mothers. I do a lot of maternity sessions in, motherhood sessions, and as well as I'm focusing on helping women entrepreneurs to bring their vision to life and help them build their brands. So with those, I love the creative side of things. So when a new client reaches out to me, I love to style and I just love creating the story, like the visual story around them.

So I kinda like when I close my eyes, I see how, if we were to make a movie about this brand, what would that be? And we're just going to bring it into pictures. Sometimes I do short videos too, but that's not my specialty. My specialty is photography. But still, we're gonna break it down into frames and, you know, just build that content for them so they can use it for, for months to come. You can also find me on Instagram at kasteniaprophoto my YouTube channel is kastenia pro photography. It's mostly geared toward other photographers, but it's also just an educational platform for clients as well who wanna learn about what I offer, what kind of services I offer, and how I am behind the scenes. So this is fun to watch.

And there's a lot of posing tutorials, photography, and lighting tutorials as well. So it's kinda like a multi, niche brand right now that I'm building. So a lot of exciting things happening. And, again, I'm opening I'm moving to, like, a new studio space that's gonna be more like a glamour fashion type of, space for women to come and feel comfortable and just connect to their the woman who they wanna be or who they've always wanted to be, but they never had a chance. So that's a lot of fun things coming. So yeah. Do you have any questions for me?

[00:15:24.70] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. No. I appreciate it. We will, you know, have the links and information, you know, in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. But I love all the awesome work that you're doing. I love how everything also kind of overlaps and is integrated into everything that you're doing. So I love the value, and we will have, you know, all the information and everything in the show notes. So definitely appreciate you, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:15:47.10] – Outro

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 I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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