We were lucky to catch up with Codi Villalobos recently and have shared our conversation below.
Codi , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
If I could change anything about the educational system, it would definitely be to diversify it as a whole.
With a few exceptions, parents and students have very few choices for educational routes. Much of the main educational focus tends to be on performance, getting into college, and getting a job. With schools having an across the board standard of education and topics that every kid must learn at a certain age in order to be considered “educated,” I feel the idea of individuality and unique paths and discovery can very easily get lost. The idea of what success looks like can also be very narrow.
I am an entrepreneur, who did not go to college, who homeschool’s her three children. I’ve kind of bucked the system all the way around. What I strive for in my own life, with myself and educating my own kids, is letting their own unique interests drive the trajectory of their education. This doesn’t mean we skip the basics. Rather, we do the main subjects while finding ways for what they love to be injected into those subjects. When a kiddo has a new found passion for the ocean and sea life, we dive deep into oceanography. When another kid becomes enthralled in theatre, we have the extra time and schedule to get them super involved in the arts in our community.
These passions and interests, even at an early age, can often become their life focuses. And they are afforded the chance to dig deep and find those life passions when they have a more flexible schedule, and more freedom to choose what they learn. Kids can do deep work and find what they are passionate about NOW, if given the opportunity and time to explore. They aren’t a work in process until they reach adult life. All life stages are important works. Childhood is not just preparation for adulthood.
I’d love to see more diverse offerings and flexibility in the education system that would allow kids -in any learning environment- the opportunity to more freely follow their passions from day one of school, instead of checking off the boxes of an exact blueprint that every child learns at the same age and stage. I think it would greatly prepare all students for a more fulfilling life and career.
Codi , 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?
Sometimes when people ask me what I “do,” my default response is, “Im a mom!” It’s true that my family will always be my number one priority. But I’m also, so much more!
Years ago, when I first started having my babies, I wanted a nice camera to be able to take good pictures of them myself. A young family on a single income, getting our photos done all the time was not an option. It was also very much the days of department store photos being the main form of hiring a professional photographer, but I wanted to document our real life. Not make some stuff studio images of us all smiling and sitting up straight.
So I dove in taking photos of our family and of course sharing them on social media. The compliments turned into requests for me to do pictures for friends. My interests and abilities grew and grew and all of a sudden I was regularly taking photos for my friends, and friends of friends, and even charging them for it. All while doing something I really enjoyed, that challenged me, and allowed me major flexibility with how I scheduled things to focus on my family.
I started out taking photos of anything and everything I could. I just wanted to try it all. From super posed newborn sessions that had me hauling props and blankets to peoples home, to maternity and engagements. When complete strangers who I didn’t know through any friends started booking me, I felt on top of the world. It was kid of surreal that something I had just fallen into because of my own passion for documenting my own family was also now one of my biggest passions and creatively fulfilled me was also blessing our family financially. Much needed as a growing family on one main income.
I remember when a friend asked me what I would charge to shoot her wedding, I felt 985045 emotions. haha Mainly the juxtaposition of excitement and fear. We agreed on $600 or $700 and I couldn’t believe someone was paying me that much for my first ever wedding. I was confident, or id have never done it, and we both understood my abilities and that it was in fact my first wedding. We did a sort of trial run at her bridal shower and she was so happy. Im still so proud of the images from that first wedding.
After a few years of this, never actually prompting myself besides a Facebook page and only doing what came my way and not actively pursuing it as a “real” business, I took the whole “not a real business” thing even further. Hahaha
We moved to a new city and got extremely involved in our church and community there. I became a missionary for our church and was routinely going on mission trips to west Africa. For a solid few years almost every penny I made on photoshoots went directly into supporting my work in Africa, and I advertised it as so. At the same time my husband was doing mission work in Haiti and almost all payments I received were direct donations for the work we were doing. I was feeding one passion with another and it felt like the best set up I could imagine.
As time continued, my passion for my work only grew. I got more creative with what I was creating, and could not stop learning about photography. I always say my education came from the school of google because it’s how I taught myself everything. If I didn’t know what it was or how to do it, I’d find a video on google and figure it out. I learned how to use photoshop and Lightroom this way, how to learn to shoot manually, posing, composition, everything. I’d say yes to jobs SCARED but knowing I’d figure out how to do it well. Failure has never been an option for me so I was determined, every time, to do what I was hired to do well.
Up until 2020, I was honestly still very much just doing what came my way. Hardly putting myself out there. Had no clue how to market or use social media to my advantage yet, but still supplementing our income in a way I was happy with. And just when I decided to take it all to to the next level…the pandemic hit.
It kind of took me out at the knees initially, but after a few months, I honestly hit a stride and narrowed my focus like never before. I think all the free time and lack of other activities and normal life pushed me to have no choice but to focus on what I was actually doing and how this WAS much more than just a hobby or something I was half committed to. I LOVED it. It FED me. The art my work had grown into flourished like never before during 2020/2021 and I was actively putting myself our there and learning and truly after it. I learned so much about myself, my art, who I wanted to serve, WHY I wanted to serve people with photography.
My husband and I got married years before all this, in a super untraditional way. Just us, no bridal party, in front of an outdoor fireplace, the flames lighting us and the entire tiered mantle covered in candles, with zero florals or decorations or chairs while our closest family and friends stood around us. Afterwards we hosted a dinner for them at a fave restaurant.
When the pandemic canceled wedding after wedding for people all over the globe, many were forced to wait it our, or elope. And it all came full circle for me. I never really realized until then that my own values and beliefs in what weddings can be were a thing. It was then that I knew that I really wanted to focus on elopements over large traditional weddings.
I also became much more choosy overall about the types of shoots I wanted to do. NOT because I can’t do it all. But because I found where I do my BEST work, and where my clients can get the best of me and my art. I found out that I was NOT passionate about everything. I loved documenting LIFE. Real life. Real moments. Relationships. Moments that weren’t forced or hard core posed, but truly documented. Initiating a prompt for a couple and shooting how they were together instead of making them look like a certain way together. I’m more focused on couples now, but as family is the most important thing to me, that is important to me to document too. Families. Pregnant bellies. New life.
I became obsessed with documenting real stories, sharing peoples truths and real life while showing it as the art that it is. Life is fleeting and every moment is to be cherished, especially with our loves ones. I realized how important it was for me to make people feel safe with me. That I can be trusted with their hearts and they can be fully free and transparent with me. Exactly who and what they are. I love hearing how much a couple loves their images once they get them. I often hear how they have never seen themselves in the way they do in the images we create together. And I LOVE that so much for them.
I love when a woman’s confidence grows because of seeing herself, her family, her and her lover in a new light. I love creating forever keepsakes for those who know how fleeting life is and want to not only see it but FEEL it over, and over again.
In 2020/2021 I put myself in new situations that I knew would benefit my growth, even if it was scary. I focused on honing my craft and reaching people who appreciate what I have to offer. I focused on building relationships more than anything. With other photographers and my clients. At the end of the day, the relationship is everything. I’m not interested in quick transactions that make me money. Im invested in the humans, and their stories. And it paid off. I was growing, reaching new people, traveling, and doing the best I have ever done in my business.
In the fall of 2022 our family took another huge blow. My husband was let go from his job one day with absolutely zero warning. No fault of his, almost no explanation. And our world was turned upside down, again, after it felt like we were finally carving out a new post-pandemic life, I was busier than EVER and creating art I was extremely proud of. A story for another day, the job loss ultimately led us across the country to a new job in a new state 3000 miles away. And now I feel like I’m at the beginning of a new story waiting to be written.
We finally bought our house on the Space Coast of Florida this October (2023) and are completely rebuilding from ground zero again. We are slowly starting to find ways to get connected in our community, meeting new people, getting plugged into the small business community here. Every day we miss our old life, our family, ur support system, my beautiful clients that kept me constant busy. But I know that what is meant for me will always be for me, and nothing can change that. I’ve built myself from nothing before, I can do it again.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
When I think about a few key moments that I saw the most growth in my clientele, it always seems to come back to a few key things, neither of which are any specific “strategy” I set out to execute…
When I am GIVING back, and when I am being true to myself and trusting myself.
One of the BIGGEST moments I can pinpoint as a source of a cascade of growth I had back in 2020 when I decided to really go for it, was when I was hosting a day of fall mini sessions. I had an open spot in my day and a friend of mine popped into my head. I loved her style and her adorable little family and wanted to bless her with free photos, if she wanted them. She jumped at the chance! She showed up so cute, styled her whole family so well, easily one of my fave families to shoot that day. I had zero expectations from the offer other than being “fully booked” for the day would be awesome. I had MANY, MANY people book with me after seeing her images. All her friends wanting photos like hers. I genuinely just wanted to GIVE to a sweet friend and was given back to ten(+) fold.
Another period of time I saw the most growth was when I was being true to myself and what I wanted to be doing. Not doing what I was “supposed” to be doing or staying safe and shooting anything that came my way. I intentionally put myself in new situations where I would be shooting in new states, with people I didn’t know, creating art that I was creating for not other reason than I LOVED it, and my clientele grew so much because of it. One little trip to Vegas to shoot with some other photographers for fun turned into be traveling the west coast of the United States EXTENSIVELY in 2021-2022. I shot ALL OVER in my home state of Washington but also the entire west coast…California, Utah, Oregon, Nevada even made it to Florida for a shoot. I started styling my own shoots to host for other photographers. I trusted myself to do what I wanted to do and ignored that inside fear or imposter syndrome and attracted others who loved what I was doing while simultaneously discovering what I loved and traveling non-stop.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Simple…the people. Human connection. To be here, on earth, making art and showing the most beautiful parts of life. Saying we were here and we loved.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.codivphotography.com
- Instagram: @codivphotography
Image Credits
All images are my own.