We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aloha Kelly a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Aloha, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Growing up in the pre-digital age, I spent hours upon hours flipping through fashion magazines. I didn’t know then that this ‘idea’ of what a woman should look like was leaving such an impression upon my young, developing psyche. I’ve spent over two decades photographing hundreds of women. I’ve watched them cope with being sexualized, criticized for their looks and held to unrealistic beauty standards their entire lives. My mission is to knock out this societal stigma that you have to be or look a certain way in order to feel worthy, and to help women do it fiercely, boldly, and without hesitation.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Aloha Kelly. I am the owner and lead photographer of Love Exposed Boudoir. I am an award-winning, St. Louis luxury boudoir photographer and I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years. Our studio is located in the heart of the city just minutes away from the Arch! I started on the other side of the camera as a professional model and spent many years in-directly learning from the photographers I worked with. I had an opportunity to photograph other models around me after a colleague gifted me a camera and thus began my journey. I spent many years working as a wedding photographer, realizing that what I loved the most about photographing a wedding was the portraits. Not just any portraits, specifically the bride’s portion…her story. From the getting ready details to her final portraits, I knew that was all I wanted to photograph. After 10 years as a wedding photographer, I moved into women’s intimate portraiture, aka “boudoir”, and never looked back.
We provide our clients with a luxury experience including an on-staff hair and makeup artist, access to our studio wardrobe and complete posing guidance during their session. We offer high-end albums, wall art and prints of their experience with in-house payment plans to help ensure all of our clients can have their dream session. All sessions are custom planned and come with a complimentary style consult. We don’t want our clients to worry about anything! We want them to show up, be pampered, have everything provided for them so they can relax and enjoy every minute with us….and then take home beautiful products to remind them every day after that they are beautiful and worthy!
I am most proud of the amazing clients that I have watched over the years become more confident in every aspect of their life. It is truly an honor to be a part of their self love journey. Even if someone is not ready for a session with us, we have an amazing community online that provides a safe space for them until they’re ready.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I actually just had a chapter published in an International Best Selling Book with the GRIT Series called Resilience! I will share an excerpt here:
“You cannot have light without dark.
As a photographer, I have learned that in order to create an image that has impact, light and dark aspects need to be properly and delicately in balance. Without light there is no darkness. The contrast between the light and the dark has many tones in between, so although there is no light without darkness, there are also layers upon layers of gray area.
It is within this gray area that Resilience is found.
When I am faced with a difficult life situation I can hear my mother’s voice in my head: Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep moving. Even when I was a small child and faced with a hard task she would say those exact words to me. At 17 years old, I moved out of my parent’s house. I was determined to ‘keep moving’ even though adulthood hit me harder than I thought it would. I was barely out of high school, living on my own with my soon-to-be husband and managing things day by day. I had to figure out how to pay for college because my parents weren’t able to. I worked multiple jobs and kept my head down until we got married. At 19, freshly married and the whole world ahead of us – 9/11 happened. War happened. A war that would completely change the course of my life overnight. Not only did my brother join the military, but my husband decided he needed to fight too. I remember the morning he left for bootcamp, I tried to be strong and pretend it wasn’t really happening. Instead, my best friend found me huddled up in my car, in the driveway after 4 hours of crying and panic attacks that dipped me into a depression that would affect me for many years. Of course, there was my mom’s voice in my head….just pick yourself up and keep moving forward. So I did. I managed to make it through bootcamp, AIT and a move to Texas. After the first deployment, we became parents. During the second deployment, we divorced. We had built a life together, half of which my husband wasn’t even present for. I lost my home, my extended family, and my support system….all from war.”
For more of my story, please check out my book!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
I spent many years using money and credit from my personal accounts, but that only lasted until I went full time with photography. Since then, I have used many avenues to keep my business afloat. My most favorite option for capital is through Square, PayPal or a CRM like Honeybook. These are a single fee loan, no credit check and they take only a percentage of sales to payback the loan. The best thing about capital loans is that you can apply for them immediately after paying them off and continue having access to the money. The more sales you bring in, the faster the loans are paid off and the easier it is to access larger amounts through these systems. Another great option is applying for a traditional business loan through the bank. Although these can be more time consuming and a much more thorough application process, they typically have a lower interest rate and a longer loan extension for payback.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alohakellyphotography.com
- Instagram: leboudirstl
- Facebook: leboudoirstl
- Linkedin: alohakellyphoto
- Twitter: alohakellyphoto