IAM2409 – DMV Entrepreneur Specializes in Modern Headshots Photography

Crystale Spearman

00:00 - 00:18

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

Intro

00:20 - 00:47

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Grist values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. All

Gresham Harkless

00:47 - 01:06

right. Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast. We have Crystal Spearman of Eye Imagery, because I can't say it right. So I told you I mess up more than you. So Crystal of Eye Imagery. So Crystal, it's awesome to have you on the show. Thank you. I appreciate the time. And I wanted to get an idea a little bit more about what you do and what brought you here today.

Crystale Spearman

01:06 - 01:17

Well, what brought me here is actually I met Akia at another event that I hold for entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial women, and I give them headshots for an evening of networking and things. So she came to that event

Intro

01:17 - 01:18

and then

Crystale Spearman

01:18 - 01:24

because of that, she invited me to this event. And I was gladly coming out because I heard of the topics and everything. So

Gresham Harkless

01:24 - 01:24

she

Crystale Spearman

01:24 - 01:29

just had me come out, take a few headshots of her guests if they wanted it. And that's how I ended up here.

Gresham Harkless

01:29 - 01:32

Okay. Okay. What was the event that you, uh, that you were holding? Are you hosting it?

Crystale Spearman

01:32 - 01:53

Yeah. So I have a monthly event called, um, Smize and Socialize, and it's an event for female entrepreneurs that are business owners, bloggers, or just a brand that they represent. And, um, 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

01:53 - 01:59

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

01:59 - 02:07

out and 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

02:07 - 02:13

Okay. Okay. Now tell me, I guess a little bit more of what you're doing with eye imagery. So are you doing headshots? I know you're doing headshots here today. So Yeah,

Crystale Spearman

02:14 - 02:35

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

Gresham Harkless

02:35 - 02:46

Okay, absolutely. So, all right, 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

02:46 - 02:59

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. They're feeling great. They're looking great.

Gresham Harkless

02:59 - 03:06

Okay, that wasn't just for everybody? That wasn't just for me? I did feel special, so I can, I can assess to that. I want those good

Crystale Spearman

03:06 - 03:18

pictures, so, you know, I got to get them going. So people often say, you know, they work with other photographers or whatever, and they're just like, OK, go. They don't know what to do. So I'm like, I want to, I want to negate that

Intro

03:18 - 03:18

and, you

Crystale Spearman

03:18 - 03:27

know, give them some good vibes so that they, 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

Intro

03:27 - 03:27

a

Crystale Spearman

03:27 - 03:32

good time. So that's what, that's the feedback that I get often. So that's what I kind of run with.

Gresham Harkless

03:32 - 03:49

Yeah, I can definitely attest to that. I haven't just done my pictures 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 you go through bad experiences, you appreciate good experiences. But taking the pictures was definitely, I felt like I was a pro. And I'm probably not, because if I was really in front of somebody else, I wouldn't have went. Yeah,

Crystale Spearman

03:49 - 04:02

that's what I want. 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, all right, let me snap. Just do what you're going to do, because they're going to look crazy later. They're not knowing how I was looking in the camera or any of that.

Intro

04:02 - 04:02

They're

Crystale Spearman

04:02 - 04:14

stiff. They're like, I don't know what I'm doing. So I definitely 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

04:14 - 04:21

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

Crystale Spearman

04:21 - 04:24

Probably for, you mean, the process of helping people along?

Gresham Harkless

04:24 - 04:28

Yeah, like how you would say, you know, do this pose or that pose that you just kind of play off of.

Crystale Spearman

04:28 - 04:50

Yep. So it's been, like, years in the making. So over time, there's certain poses that 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's certain go to's that everybody's going to do. And I'm just like, you know, you can't do that for every picture. You're not going to like it when you see it. Trust me. You can't lean back. So I'm looking up your nose. You can't show me the same side of the face every time.

Crystale Spearman

04:50 - 05:14

You know, you need some options. So just over the time, doing so many head shots and so many shoots, just learning after a while what works and what doesn't, especially for entrepreneurs who need these shots for certain type 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. Cool.

Gresham Harkless

05:15 - 05:30

That's 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. A lot of people, you know, stiff people about price and things like that. But a lot of people don't take into account the repetition of how that builds out.

Crystale Spearman

05:30 - 05:35

And how it comes out differently than, you know, if you did just go off the cuff with somebody else. Yeah,

Gresham Harkless

05:36 - 05:53

exactly. Exactly. So I'm going to switch gears a little bit. OK. And I want to ask you for something that's called a 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, you know, do what you do so well?

Crystale Spearman

05:53 - 05:55

Hmm. What do you call it?

Gresham Harkless

05:55 - 05:56

CEO hack.

Crystale Spearman

05:56 - 05:56

CEO hack? Uh

Gresham Harkless

05:57 - 05:57

huh.

Crystale Spearman

05:57 - 05:59

Oh, let me think.

Gresham Harkless

05:59 - 06:09

It could be anything. It might even be something super small that you don't even think about, that you use all the time. I know, but I probably don't even think about it. I know you gave me one. I could tell you one. I know that you just told me.

Crystale Spearman

06:09 - 06:09

Oh, the timer?

Gresham Harkless

06:09 - 06:12

The timer was one. I'm looking at it too.

Crystale Spearman

06:13 - 06:37

Yes, I did find this little, it's called a cube timer. So it's easy to start. I 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. Sometimes it's hard to do when somebody's sitting in front of you and you don't know how much time is passing. So that is definitely a hack that I have started using where I know exactly how much time is going past because I just knock my little cube timer over two minutes.

Crystale Spearman

06:37 - 06:44

I see the lights flash and 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. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless

06:44 - 06:58

Yeah. And I love that. I love this. We were talking offline the story behind it because a lot of times, you know, you're you're in the moment, you're doing your thing here and you're in crapping your passion, doing your thing. You don't realize it's like 50 other people. So they're like, when am I going to go over? And they're like staring a hole in

Crystale Spearman

06:58 - 06:59

your brain. Like, when

Gresham Harkless

06:59 - 06:59

is

Crystale Spearman

06:59 - 07:01

it my turn? I'm like, my bad.

Gresham Harkless

07:01 - 07:01

I'm sorry.

Crystale Spearman

07:03 - 07:29

So you definitely want to make the person sitting there feeling 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 a 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.

Crystale Spearman

07:29 - 07:31

They don't know that the time went off,

Gresham Harkless

07:31 - 07:31

so

Crystale Spearman

07:31 - 07:33

they don't know exactly where we are in there,

Gresham Harkless

07:33 - 07:34

but they know

Crystale Spearman

07:34 - 07:36

that there's some kind of boundaries.

Gresham Harkless

07:36 - 07:44

Right, right. When I initially saw it, I thought it was like some, what is it, where you can read somebody's fortune or something like that? Oh yeah, where you're shaking it with what it says.

Crystale Spearman

07:44 - 07:45

That's

Gresham Harkless

07:45 - 07:48

what I thought it was. It does look like that. Yeah, so I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah, I was

Crystale Spearman

07:48 - 07:58

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 here and be like, I

Speaker 4

07:58 - 07:59

have to clean my lip

Crystale Spearman

07:59 - 08:10

gloss, maybe fix my hair. 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? They wait till they get here to make sure everything is good. So

Gresham Harkless

08:10 - 08:11

I'm like,

Crystale Spearman

08:11 - 08:12

look, we have a certain amount of time

Gresham Harkless

08:13 - 08:13

here.

Crystale Spearman

08:13 - 08:16

So it helps with all of that. It's definitely a good CEO hack.

Gresham Harkless

08:16 - 08:35

I love that CEO hack. It 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 these shoots that you realize I need to add that in. I love 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 hopped into a time machine, like what advice would you tell you in your business?

Crystale Spearman

08:36 - 09:02

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 like my favorite thing to do. But I did enjoy like certain other types of photo shoots, too. But I started off with like events and stuff. I didn't like that.

Crystale Spearman

09:03 - 09:32

But 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 would go do it. I would hate it. I'd be like, why did I say yes? And then I would do the whole cycle again. So I definitely burned myself out that year just trying to do everything. This year where I've really, really honed into the headshot thing has been like my most like 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 to a specific thing.

Crystale Spearman

09:33 - 09:57

It's 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 got to pick and choose. But if you have this one person like, well, Crystal does headshots for entrepreneurs, modern headshots or whatever, you know, that's who we're going to go to. So it's definitely worked out. I would have bypassed all of that in the past.

Gresham Harkless

09:58 - 10:18

That makes sense. It is funny because people always say the riches is in the niches. So you have to focus down. But I myself have done a million things to kind of get started where I'm just trying to see like what I like, what I don't like. And it takes is a process, at least for me to kind of figure that out. It doesn't just happen. 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 and all

Crystale Spearman

10:18 - 10:35

those things. Exactly. It takes finding what you like to do. Like I said, I went through I went through all of it and there was other things that I liked. I really like doing maternity sessions and things like that. I didn't like paying rent for a studio, so that was kind of part in that decision as well. You have to jump in the hospital or something. Yeah. That might

Speaker 4

10:36 - 10:36

be too

Crystale Spearman

10:36 - 10:46

soon. Exactly. But yeah, so I've gone through the gamut, but people always are like, can you do my wedding? Can you do my wedding? I've never done weddings.

Gresham Harkless

10:46 - 10:52

I don't want to do weddings. I've seen the stuff on like AMC or TLC or whatever it is and it sounds super

Crystale Spearman

10:52 - 11:00

scary. That's my thing. I'm like, you don't ever see somebody on Judge Judith suing a headshot photographer. It's always a wedding photographer or something. I'm like, I don't want no parts.

Speaker 4

11:01 - 11:02

I'm good.

Crystale Spearman

11:02 - 11:07

There's some very good people out there I can refer you to, but it's not going to be me. So yeah.

Gresham Harkless

11:08 - 11:27

Okay. Well, no, I appreciate that. And now I want to ask you my last question, which is, even though I pushed it, this third question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're going to have different quote unquote CEOs on this show looking at what it means to be an entrepreneur, 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

11:27 - 12:01

Oh, man. To me, such a multi-level question. I guess, surfacely 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 is 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, is 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.

Crystale Spearman

12:01 - 12:12

That's not really my goal. My goal was more the freedom side of it, to be able to set my schedules, to be able to, you know, say, you know, I'm not going to do anything today because I'm going to go on this field trip with my kid or whatever.

Gresham Harkless

12:13 - 12:15

going to do headshots. Yeah, I'm just going to do headshots.

Crystale Spearman

12:16 - 12:43

I'm letting go of the stress. Wedding photography is not going to 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 and deciding that I was going to own what I want to do, be able to say no to some people finally, which is hard too. But Um, really the CEO status is just, you know, about having time in life to, to find the, the happy stuff that you really like to do.

Crystale Spearman

12:43 - 12:55

So I did work, I worked for 10 years at one company, um, actually in electrical engineering and computer engineering. And, you know, it was cool until I got married and had kids

Intro

12:55 - 12:55

and I was

Crystale Spearman

12:56 - 13:06

like, I don't want to be here all the time. I want to do some other stuff. So once I got to that point, that's when it was like, you know, I got to make some changes

Speaker 4

13:06 - 13:06

and

Crystale Spearman

13:06 - 13:08

CEO was looking kind

Gresham Harkless

13:08 - 13:19

of good. 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

13:19 - 13:54

Okay. So again, it's Crystal of Eye Imagery and you can find me on my website. It's www.eye-imagery.com. And imagery is I-M-A-G-E-R-Y. And you can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, even though I'm not super active on there, but that's Eye Imagery. No dash or spaces, just Eye Imagery. You'll see like my little logo is like 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. Okay. Yep.

Gresham Harkless

13:54 - 13:58

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

13:58 - 13:59

Okay.

Gresham Harkless

13:59 - 14:00

I appreciate you.

Speaker 4

14:00 - 14:01

No

Gresham Harkless

14:01 - 14:02

problem.

Intro

14:02 - 14:34

Thanks for having me. You too. Thank you for listening to the IMCEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. IMCEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.