We recently connected with Teri Hofford and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Teri thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was growing up, my school books said I wanted to be: an actress, a princess, a queen, and a writer right up until I was in grade 6. Eventually I dropped the first 3, but the writer one stuck for awhile. I also picked up photography when I was around grade 6 and was photographing kids on the playground with my Kodak point & shoot 35mm. However, growing up in a small town, I was told many times over that creativity is a great hobby and I should focus on what I wanted to do as a career – unfortunately, I listened and pursued my post-secondary schooling to become a teacher. Thankfully, I moved to Busan, South Korea to teach English and while there I re-picked up photography and wrote my first book (A Good Day for Seeding – a children’s book). I knew then that even if it was part time, creativity had to be part of my career.

Teri, 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?

In 2014, I did a project to showcase that all bodies are worthy of being photographed despite few of them being shown in the photography industry. It was after that that I let go of everything else I was spending my time on and focused on building a boudoir business rooted in empowerment, feminism, and the female gaze. During that time I learned so much about body image from my clients and the various projects I would create – using photography as my medium. I then began to research more about body image seeing as I had folks of all sizes disliking their bodies – this meant it couldn’t be about the body! This took me to the world of positive psychology where I gained my certificate in Applied Positive Psychology – the same year that I launched Body Image Bootcamp: A series of retreats I lead to help folks understand their body image and how to move forward to healing it.

As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I suddenly found myself consulting and educating other photographers on how to build inclusive businesses, teaching humans about how to make peace and accept their bodies and selves, and writing posts, books, and talks that encourage people to be curious and shift their minds to exploring what is possible beneath everything we’ve been taught.

I am incredibly proud of the work that I have done with my photography and even though I do less of it now due to pursuing my writing and speaking career, I still know the impact that a powerful photo experience can have on healing a lifetime of negative body image and self worth and I take a few clients a year. My goal has always been to have maximum impact and I believe the best way for me to do that, is to start with myself by role modeling and educating, and let the ripple effect take hold. Overall, my goal, I’ve realized, is not just to help people shed their body image insecurity – it’s to help remove all the distractions that get in the way of us living the authentic lives we deserve.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn this idea that I had to be one thing. That I needed one career.

Wrong.

I tried so hard to hang onto my moniker of photographer because it had brought me loads of adoration, likes, followers, compliments, and….money. However, there came a point where I grew beyond that medium and wanted to stretch out into my writing, my speaking, and education but I held so tightly to being a photographer, that my transition year out of it was full of grieving and wishy washy feelings instead of being secure in my decision.

I think very few people will do one career for their whole lives…personally it is in my nature to be doing many things at once and change my life. The only constant for me IS change! And in this world now, we are capable of wearing many hats and doing many things that fill our cups – it keeps life interesting and can help keep a business even more sustainable because your revenue isn’t just coming from ONE place.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Personally, I do really well in a crisis – that seems to be when I am the most creative and create the education/products that do the best. During the start of the pandemic, I knew I would have to do something to get myself and my fellow photographers focused on what we COULD do when what we normally do was taken away from us. I thought about WHY we do what we do: Empowerment – and I thought “If our aim is empowerment, we can do this regardless of the medium we have with us and we always say the best camera is the one you have with you.” So I thought about doing boudoir photoshoots via ZOOM – where I would ZOOM with a client and have them place their phone/tablet/laptop around their room and I would take screenshots as I directed them through my usual posing. Within one week I had done 22 webcam sessions and I knew it was viable, so I created a course within 24 hours and sent it out to my peers. Within that first month I made over $10,000 from a $10 course because we needed something to keep our creativity and purpose going!

Shortly after that, we would end up hosting live ZOOMs with models for photographers to hone/sharpen their webcam/facetime screenshot skills! It was so fun!

It was also that experience that made me realize I love to learn something so I can teach it – because after I released the course I still had 75 webcam sessions booked on my calendar, but they were less exciting than when I was in my learning phase – we still had a lot of fun, and I am thankful for the folks that participated in the fun – both the clients and the photographers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://terihofford.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/terihofford
• Facebook: facebook.com/terihoffordsheher
• Twitter: twitter.com/terihofford
• Youtube: youtube.com/terihofford
• Other: tiktok.com/@terihofford