We recently connected with Alaina Booth and have shared our conversation below.

Alaina, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

As a recent college grad, there’s a lot of pressure to put a name on what you’re doing after school. People want to hear a certain position, a company, a grad program. It’s not as accepted to say “I’m going to continue to freelance” after school. It took me a good bit of time to feel confident in letting people know that I won’t be getting a job. But the differences between my life and employed friends’ lives are pretty stark. And as young people entering the work world for the first time, there’s a lot of opportunity for comparison. I can’t think of one specific moment that I’ve had the thought that it’d be easier to have a real job, but watching my friends have consistency, certainty of income, a LOT of income, and more structure in their lives sometimes makes me envious. Every single penny I earn, I have to WORK for. I have to find it myself. If I don’t, no one picks up my slack. In addition, I have work at all times. Every second of every day, there is work to be done. I don’t close my laptop at 5 pm and get on with my life. I am constantly on the clock, and if I have free time, it is spent working. It might not be the healthiest, but I haven’t quite mastered this work life balance yet. I do LOVE my work and would be doing something of the sort even if I had free time, so that helps me justify the workaholism… lol.

On the other side of the coin, I cannot imagine someone telling me what to do with my time. I can’t imagine having to go to the same place every day or not being able to say yes to the opportunities I’m able to say yes to because of the flexibility my job offers me. I give up consistency and certainty for thrill, enjoyment, flexibility and freedom. Ultimately, the autonomy over how I spend my time is something I don’t see myself giving up ever… or at least for a very long time. Stability is just not my thing. I thrive in the chaos of entrepreneurship.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Alaina Booth and I am a videographer, photographer, and creative entertainment producer. I’m really good at taking big-picture visions and making them into executable plans.

Currently, I work mainly as a videographer shooting weddings and musicians. I got my start as a senior in high school making videos of my life, my cheer team, and my senior class. I just loved documenting people, I am fascinated with capturing life, and I took this love and just started shooting whatever I possibly could. Over four years, I’ve created an insanely diverse portfolio – because I said yes to everything. I got as much experience as I could, which helped me narrow down my strengths as a creative.

I realized that one of my strengths as a creative is that I care more about the state of the people involved in the project way more than I care about the final product. I noticed my natural knack for team organization and motivation, which led me down the producer path. Now, I’m starting to move away from being a videographer, and I’m moving towards putting together talented teams and managing them to create projects that I could never execute as well on my own.

In fact, the back of my business card doesn’t have a specific role. It just says “I’m creative and I get things done.” Yes I can make videos, yes I can take photos, I can edit, but I think the coolest thing about me as a creative professional is that I find cool ways to manage creative people so that we get the work done and make the best product possible. This is the direction I’m headed towards, and so that’s the one I’m going to promote here!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding part of my work has 2 separate parts. When it comes to me as a producer, watching talented people around me improve their work or be recognized for good work is so incredibly rewarding. Empowering someone to succeed and creating an environment for them to succeed and then watching them thrive in it is truly the most rewarding aspect of being a producer. On the creative end of my job, watching other people experience the emotions I created through an edit is the biggest rush. I love video because it’s a time capsule and its the closest thing to real life that we can get digitally. Watching someone react to something I shot, watching them immerse themselves into a video that I made and live through it means I did my job. It’s creating digital and encapsulating presence. If I can touch, inspire, and evoke emotion in that way, nothing is more rewarding.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I am reluctant to answer this question, but I think it’s a good one to take a look back at how I’ve built this business. Videography and photography (at least the kind that I do) is INSANELY people oriented – it is connection between two people – the one in front of the camera and the one behind, and I always wanted to make it a priority that my customers and clients felt like they were dealing with a human being rather than a business. Under this same vein, I have never done any kind of marketing other than talk about my work through my personal instagram and word of mouth. The marketing strategy is just treating everyone like the unique human being they are. Now and throughout the rest of my career, I want to prioritize emotion and relationship behind the camera before ever pressing record.

Another thing I’ve been careful about is that I am hugely present on my personal instagram. I post a LOT about my life. I still make videos about my life to this day and honestly I get pretty vulnerable on there! I get “you’re the same in person as you are on instagram” a lot, and it even though it does serve as marketing, I think I make people feel like they’re my friend on my social media. I let them in on my journey – the ups, the downs, the chaotic stories. I’ve built loyalty through putting myself and the experiences of my life out there for others to relate. It’s insane how many people have found me as a videographer from just feeling like I was already their friend on social media.

Lastly, I can’t ignore the effectiveness that genuine professionalism has had on the trust I have been able to build with my network. It’s been the professionals that go to lengths to make sure clients are happy and satisfied that I truly look up to. Over the years, Ive learned to always over-deliver, never miss a deadline, and just communicate. This has helped me land bigger and bigger jobs that have gotten me into rooms I could have never thought I’d be in. I think never ever underestimate basic professionalism paired with genuine empathy.

Contact Info:

• Website: alainabooth.com
• Instagram: @lainabooth
• Youtube: YouTube.com/alainabooth