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

Kelsa, appreciate you joining us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

Scaling from a small passion project to a six-figure-producing boudoir studio and sensual wellness hub was first about aligning my values as a business, especially a woman-owned business. My values lean heavily on wanting to support other women in my locality and to scale up, you have to hire out; you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses as a business owner at any stage. Scaling up for me has 100% been about understanding my weaknesses as a person and being humble about them, and understanding my strengths and owning those with confidence. Then, in line with my values, delegating my weaknesses to other female founders who have those weaknesses as their strengths and passions.

Me making more money gives me the opportunity to support women business owners who support me in my business and are aligned with my values—it’s like an ecosystem. Being able to continue hiring other women in all seasons and stages of life, and be the ideal client for them, can inspire them to grow and scale as well.

I was a wedding photographer before doing boudoir. In the wedding business, I hired my first assistant photographer when I didn’t have the energy to take on so many weddings myself anymore. Hiring that second photographer and knowing they were going to capture the right shots relieved a lot of stress for me. I was easily able to scale because, when I realized I didn’t have to do it all myself, it allowed me the freedom to trust my people and build a community upon it. I loved when my photographers would call me at the end of a Saturday night to tell me how it went and we could look back and say, “Oh remember that wedding? Remember this wedding?” and share stories that allowed them to feel a sense of growth and connection with the business, too.

I’ve made mistakes as I scale by letting my pride and ego get in the way, thinking I can do it all, or letting money be my only goal and value system rather than figuring out what growth and goodness I believe in for humanity. Getting back to my “why” recenters me and helps me continue to grow in a sustainable way that feels aligned with my purpose.

Kelsa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an internationally published boudoir and erotica photographer, a sex-positive influencer, and an artist. I love weekends drowning in lingerie and giving confidence injections to dope humans. I knew from a young age that my goal was to help people, especially women, succeed.

I’m the founder of Shatter Studios (formerly Highline Boudoir & Erotica), a luxury, all-inclusive traveling boudoir and erotica experience based in Pittsburgh, PA, and available all over the world. My traveling studio hosts destination boudoir and erotica photoshoots when not at home in Pennsylvania. My life’s work centers around creating safe spaces, experiences, and conversations that inspire others to love themselves deeper and manifest a life lived with purpose and pleasure.

In line with this mission, Shatter Studios is also an educational and body-positive sensual wellness hub that fosters empowerment for everybody and every body. We host self-affirming workshops, expert-led sex talks, and curated virtual and in-person events that open up nourishing conversation and connection. We want to bring elevated sex education and self-exploration to people of all genders, sexual orientations, and backgrounds.

I had to discover what it meant to be a sensual woman within my own story of breaking free from a purity cult and learning sexual freedom through years of research and self-exploration. Along the way, I’ve learned how finding this freedom bleeds into improving all aspects of our lives way beyond just sex—connecting deeply to ourselves and our bodies deepens our friendships, our careers, and our belief in chasing our passions and desires. I’ve also learned that so many of us are hiding within the same challenges, but we aren’t talking about them. My goal is to create safe spaces that give us room to connect in our stories, celebrate our bodies, and change the way pleasure is understood.

Follow your pleasure, find your purpose.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn—was that every single lesson I thought I learned, had to be unlearned.

We’re often taught in adolescence that life looks one specific way. That love looks one specific way. That friendships look one specific way, and so on.

When I was 19, I figured out for the first time that everything I knew was bullsh*t. Age 19 was the first time I had sex. It was also the first time I became homeless after being excluded by my whole community because of what amounts to a normal, intentional, and human decision I made with my partner. Everything that I thought was permanent, changed. So I had to look around and ask, what still stands? What holds true?

What holds true is looking inward and asking yourself, what is the most beautiful story I can tell about my life? And then writing it over and over again, deciding every day to become it.

The number one and most concrete thing I know is that I know nothing.

Even in business, I have pivoted so much because the things I think I know end up being just part of the growth process and need to be shattered. I got on my path to unlearning by realizing that, by just following the rules, none of it works. You have to have the strength to look around and question things. Every condition and every harmful lesson we learn in this world needs to be shattered.

Constructs don’t exist and it’s about time we shatter all of it.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Untamed by Glennon Doyle made me realize I am a cheetah who doesn’t need to be chasing ragged little pink bunnies and thinking that is enough.

We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power by Rachel Rodgers opened up my eyes to why my business values are what they are.

Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski, Ph. D. made me feel normal, not alone, and still like a very sexual being.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.shatter-studios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelsablaine/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kelsablaine

Image Credits
Amanda Brisco Photography