We were lucky to catch up with Chad Dyar recently and have shared our conversation below.

Chad, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think defining what makes someone successful first takes defining what “success” means to that individual. Personally, I define success as having deep, meaningful relationships with people around me, especially the people I care most about. For my work, I think success comes with the baseline of being able to do something I’m passionate about and pay my bills while doing so. But putting that personal success and business success together is what really makes a person truly successful in my opinion. This is part of what makes my life tick, using passion and creativity and finding purpose in building meaningful relationships with people.

I’m currently scaling my business so that I can dive more into other things I have strong passions for, things that will continue to push the boundaries of my mind and feed the creativity I love so much and rely on in my day-to-day work. I wouldn’t be able to scale if it weren’t for the relationships I’ve build (and continue to build) with people I hire and my clients. I love that my relationships with all of them extends further than just working together. We hang out, we talk with each other and care about how each other’s lives are going, how each other’s families are doing, all that good stuff. And on the subject of family and success, I think that’s where I’ll feel my next level of success outside of business, building a family.

Chad, 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?

Absolutely. Hello everyone, I’m Chad! I’m a photographer who specializes in magazine quality architectural and property photography, mainly as a service, and landscape photography as a product. Basically, I get hired by companies and individuals to photograph specific properties and I sell large and small prints of landscapes. My work has been featured multiple times with HGTV, Travel + Leisure and Conde Nast Traveler. I live in Charleston, SC and a majority of my work is here but I also travel pretty much anywhere for photoshoots when hired to do so.

I grew up creating art and music for about as long as I can remember. The first time I seriously picked up a camera was in 2012. My first job in photography was shooting portraits in a studio. At the time, I was learning how to use a camera, how to pose individuals and groups of people, etc. I had no prior experience and didn’t even own any of the equipment I was using. But I was interested in learning and was teamed up with some really amazing photographers who had big personalities and were glad to share their knowledge.

I bought a camera a couple years later and let it sit in my closet collecting dust until 2016 when I decided to leave Charleston for an indefinite period of time to travel and explore some places I had been dreaming of creating some adventures in. So, I packed some camping equipment, clothes, a couple of guitars and my camera and drove across the US, camping and hiking from coast to coast. This is where I feel like I really cut my teeth in photography. Day after day I would wake up, hike, take photos, hike, take more photos, sleep then rinse and repeat. After that I did a similar thing in Thailand, came back to Charleston, got hired to move to Bali and then wound up back in Charleston by way of a few months in Charlotte, NC.

When I moved back, I was introduced to the owners of Tradesman Brewing, a Charleston community brewery, and I took a job as a bartender there. It fit with my “past life” of being in management at Westbrook Brewery as well as being in corporate sales and marketing jobs. I was back in Charleston but had no clue where I was going next or how. Enter a local architectural photographer…

One morning while I was behind the bar at Tradesman, a local architectural photographer who was hired to photograph our building came in. Before he finished the job, we talked a bit about photography, gear, etc. I didn’t really think much of it at the time but he came back into the brewery one evening a few months later while on a date. When the lady he was out with stepped away for a moment, he told me about an opportunity he thought I might be interested in. Through that conversation, I was introduced to an agency out of Paris that was looking for a photographer in Charleston. Long story not so short, that agency became my introduction into doing property photography and the company Airbnb became my first client via that agency.

Because my contract with the agency wasn’t an exclusive contract, I was able to gain a contract with a second agency out of Paris as well as create my own business on the side doing architectural and property photography. From there, I started looking for clients under my own name and the rest is history.

Going back to the idea of success, I’m very proud of what I believe allows me and my work to stand out – my care. I care enough not only build a relationship with my clients and provide high quality images and customer service but also enough to understand what my clients’ clients needs and desires are. My past experiences allow me to see deeper into what’s going to make my clients successful. For that reason, and for the sake of art, I use psychology everyday and on every photoshoot to create images that not only tell a story but that also draw viewers in. I don’t want you to look at an image and think, “Oh that’s really beautiful. I would love to visit this place.” I want you to think, “Wow, this place is gorgeous. I feel like I’m really there.” I like to think of my camera as teleportation device.

If you’d like to hear me talk more about how I got started and a few fun stories from some of my travels you can hear more here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4k5wul8QAa7VSv8ZLrxOya?si=binq2MsCT4aTrFvJxkpiJA

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I completely bootstrapped the whole thing, using a portion of the profits from my early projects to fund the business. I think there are some important things to consider when investing in a business, even your own.

I try to invest in my business like an outside investor would. I ask myself multiple questions before I make a purchase or add a monthly or yearly business expense:

1) How is this expense going to help the business grow?
2) What’s the return on investment of this expense?
3) Do I truly believe that I will use (insert product or service here) enough to justify its purchase?

In the end, if whatever I’m buying for the business isn’t going to pay itself off, if it’s just going to sit around and collect dust and/or if it’s not going to help the business grow, it’s probably not worth it.

Sometimes a purchase can help growth in a less direct way and I do consider this. For instance, I use a scheduling tool that allows people to see the availability on my calendar and book a shoot directly on the calendar without having call, text or email me first. For me, this scheduling tool is well worth the investment for two reasons. 1) It makes things simpler for people who are hiring me. It saves them time and makes it very simple for them to just book a shoot. This helps my sales because people who are buying from you don’t want a bunch of obstacles getting in the way of them trying to buy your product or service. If it gets too complicated, you may just lose sales. 2) It saves me a lot of time. Instead of texting or emailing back and forth for hours between photoshoots and other responsibilities to book one photoshoot, it can just be booked online. This also frees up time for me to take more photoshoots or do business admin functions without getting overwhelmed.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think most people who are artists down to their core would agree that there’s a sense of necessity when it comes to creating. I can definitely tell a difference in how I feel when I’ve spent a while between projects. If I’m not creating, I’m just existing and I don’t want to just exist, I want to thrive. There’s a sense a living that I feel, a connection to something bigger when I create. That’s pretty rewarding.

Externally, there’s something really validating and something that feels really wonderful when someone sees an image I’ve created and they have a positive reaction to it. I really love when people connect to images, especially emotionally. I’ve always loved inspiring others so it comes as no shock to me that I love when I create something that makes someone feel something. It’s so awesome to sit around and chat with people about the things they love about an image but when they can just feel it, whether they’re able to put it into words or not, that’s something that really gets me going.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chadmdyar.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itschaddyar/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaddyar/
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/chaddyarphoto/