We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexis LeDuc a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alexis, thanks for joining us today. Looking back at the decisions you made early in your career, particularly whether to join a firm or start your own, do you feel you made the right choice for that stage of your career?
Starting a photography business was never on the radar for me as a young woman starting on the path to a career in the medical field. I met my husband in college, and after we got married we decided to buy a house and a year later to start our family. That year was one of the best years of our lives as we started building a life together in Southern CA.
Not long after we had a beautiful little baby boy, a prayer that was answered for both of us. We could not wait to share him with the world but not long after he was born we found out he had a congenital heart defect- a condition that ultimately required open heart surgery when he was just 3 years old.
After I graduated with honors, I really evaluated what I wanted my life to look like and decided to give up my pursuit of a job in the medical field in order to stay home and take care of our son. My husband at the time was working for the Department of Defense and spent more time at work than he was able to spend with us.
When it came time for our Son’s heart surgery we were faced with the possibility that he may not wake up due to the fact that they were placing our baby on a bypass machine as they stopped his heart to operate on. I turned to prayer in hope that everything would be completed successfully.
While waiting for our sons operation to be completed, which was by far the longest and most enduring thing we have ever been through as parents, we were engaged by a womenwho’s daughter was going through a heart surgery of her own. She had told me she just had a hard time with the idea of the possibility that her daughter may not wake up after surgery and decided to have family photos done before her surgery.
As I sat there watching this mother show me her daughters photos I could only think about the fact that I have never had professional photos done of ours family let alone our son. I started to think why was that? And it always came down to the money. We always thought photographers charged way too much for their photos and we could never afford them over using $300-500 towards medical bills or even just groceries.
So I decided I would purchase my own camera and take a shot at starting my own company to take photos of families who were like us. Who couldn’t afford $300-500 to have a nice family photo. Especially families who like us, could be together one last time before the possibility of not seeing each other again.
Going through this experience made us both realize how precious time is and that tomorrow is never promised to anyone. I know run my company with this experience in mind that no one should be able to afford beautiful high quality family photos at affordable. prices. My company has now expanded and grown to new heights, taking on weddings, events, corporate photography, lifestyle photography, portraits, etc. We now shoot for several companies here in the Tristate area, shooting for several professional corporations. One of my favorite roles is working as a lead photographer for the newly established best version media magazine in NKY Neighbors of Walton magazine! This has been a true blessing and working with the Neighbors of Walton team really is a pleasure!
I am proud of the growth of my company but even more so proud of the fact that we have captured so many individuals and families. Being able to tell their stories through my photos is something I will always cherish and nothing more makes me happier than being able to provide that for my clients.
Alexis, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Being a photographer I have had the honor to work with so many talented people in the industry!
Our company alone provides state of the art equipment and lighting that allows our services to capture weddings, special events, corporate headshots, corporate photography for advertising and marketing, branding, family photography, newborn photography, senior portraits, surprise engagements, destination weddings, and so much more!
LeDuc photography associates now provide videography, drone photography and specialty website development.
With providing all these different services one thing is never lost in the work we do and that is the quality of service you receive from our photographers and videographers. Our company goes out of their way to provide you the best service we possibly can, from making sure we are prepared in order to provide you a comfortable experience during your shoot to going out of our way to provide you with excellent service. I personally had to sew a seam of a wedding dress the day of a wedding while one of our photographers ran and got hearing-aid batteries for a Bride’s mother just before the ceremony commenced. Just a couple examples of the crazy life style of photographers haha
Our promise to our customers is that we always will do what it takes to provide excellent customer service and always place the needs of our customers above our own. I approach each client as if they are a friend, because many times I do end up friends with my clients. This is one of my favorite parts of this job!!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I don’t think I would have ever built the reputation that I have if I didn’t go out of my way to provide excellent service to my clients.
From sponsored photoshoots for families in need to going out of my way to make sure my clients have the best possible experience on their photoshoots.
I have built a reputation on hard work, professionalism, quality and trust amongst the community and I take this with great pride. I love sharing my knowledge with the next generation and building up other photographers.
I owe a lot of who I am to my fellow business partners and photographers, but most of all my clients. Without their honesty and placing their faith in my company I wouldn’t be where I am today!
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Being a business owner in todays world is something of a challenge. I feel many people get promoted in their current businesses because they are the best at what they do, you can teach someone to be the best of the best or to let them know how they can be better in certain areas to climb the ladder, but what is lacking I feel is the ability to learn how to be a great leader. Leadership courses I feel are so essential in developing you as a person and allows you to truly understanding the people you’re managing. Leadership as also never ending. An endless ladder you climb of obstacles, challenges, uncertainty and personal growth.
I think the best advice you can give to someone for managing a team, is remember your passion for doing what you do, remember what it was like being in the beginning, and most of all always remember and express to others that you are not perfect and will make mistakes but will fix them.
Even as leaders we are not perfect, and shouldn’t pretend to be. I am very much a perfectionist and have always struggled with this concept but letting others know that mistakes will happen, we learn from them, embrace the knowledge that we have learned from those mistakes and use them make our company stronger. With this we can place high expectations of our employees without the additional stress of being afraid to fail.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.LeDucPhotography.com
- Instagram: AlexisLeDucPhotography
- Facebook: Alexis LeDuc
Image Credits
LeDuc Photography