Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Medvick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
Long story short – I’m so much happier as a business owner! That being said, there are so many ups and downs that come along with it.
In the past year I’ve donated a kidney, moved across the country, and restarted my business In a completely new area (Colorado instead of Pennsylvania) without having an initial connections! That’s a lot to take on. Near the beginning of the year I became insanely overwhelmed. Moving and restarting a business is no easy feat. How on earth was I going to do this?
While running and relocating a business is stressful, it can also be insanely rewarding. My initial stress has led to excitement, connection, and opportunity I couldn’t have imagined before.
Restarting in a new area has forced me to dig deep into how I want to show up for my couples, how I want to market myself, and who I want to work with. It’s given me amazing opportunities to meet new people in the industry, and the community. I feel like all the stress led (And is continuing to lead) to so many beautiful possibilities. I can’t wait to see where this continues to go!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Howdy! My name is Alex Medvick, and I’m a wedding and elopement photographer!
I’ve always had a camera in my hands and I got into the wedding industry sort of on accident. A dj friend of mine asked me to tag along and shoot photos for him at a wedding. I obliged, thinking it was a decent way to make some extra money. After that experience my curiosity was piqued – I started working for a wedding studio, and instantly fell in love.
Seven years later what started out as a fun job has evolved into so much more. The reasons and ways I show up for my clients have changed a lot over the years! These days I place an insanely high value on understanding and honoring people’s stories, building relationships, and standing with my couples’ to help support them.
I truly believe that peoples’ stories matter. A wedding or elopement is a beautiful way of bringing together the people, places or activities that are important to you. It’s a celebration of the story that’s brought you to this point. We so often forget to celebrate, or spend too little time with the people and places we value. Weddings and elopements are a way to condense all of that and intentionally create a day full of deep life experiences, and rich relationships. I love being able to walk into a wedding day understanding what my couples’ care about, and the story that brought them to this point.
I truly believe that people matter more than photographs – and I place a high value on photographs! By valuing people more than just the photographs, and seeking to understand what they value, I’m able to capture photographs in a more intentional way. I want to create photographs that truly matter – not just artsy pictures (thought there’s totally a place for that).
The wedding industry can be harsh, unrealistic, and sometimes predatory towards couples. There are so many expectations, assumptions, and upsells trying to push couples to have their wedding look some specific way. Even outside of the wedding industry, family members can be very pushy as well. I’m proud to be able to encourage my couples to do what feels right to *them*.
A little encouragement can go a long way. I’ve had couples who were pushed into having a wedding day controlled and planned by their family in a way that felt stressful and fake for them. After a few casual conversations and encouragement they worked up the courage to postpone the wedding, and buy a house they wanted instead. Ultimately I temporarily lost out on a job from that (they’re going to hire me again when they have a wedding – their way this time) – but I’m insanely happy that I helped the couple figure out what they really wanted to do. Making sure people do what’s right for them is most important to me – even if I lose out on immediate business from that.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
I love Instagram for this! I’m not the greatest at using Instagram for marketing but I absolutely love using it to keep up with current clients. Being able to see what they’re up to, connect over random things, and get excited with them when they share wedding stuff is a blast! I also love all the communication platforms within direct messages. One of my favorite things to do is send voice memos or even videos directly to my clients just to say hi, and check in on them!
Something else I love to do is pick out fun gifts. Recently a couple of mine told me how much they love cooking, and the movie Ratatouille. Shortly afterwards I found a cutting board engraved with a scene from Ratatouille! They’ll be getting that soon. (don’t tell them . . . it hasn’t come in yet!)
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Relationships and Referrals! My biggest source of leads is from people specifically recommending me. That could be other people in the wedding industry, other local businesses I’ve made a connection with, or past clients of mine!
I absolutely love referrals – there’s already a degree of connection before we even chat! Intentionality and authenticity run deep in my brand, so already having that extra little bit of trust and connection is a big deal. I really care about the relationships I build with my clients, so being able to see them at their friends’ weddings is pretty awesome!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alexmedvick.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexmedvickphoto/
Image Credits
Alex Medvick