We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christena Berry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christena, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

If I could go back in time, I would have started my business sooner. I was so excited to start a career doing something that I was passionate about. I found studio space at the end of 2019 and started renovating it to my liking. The previous occupants had the walls painted gray trimmed in red and outdoor black carpet and I wanted the space to feel warm, welcoming, and royal. While I worked on the design of the space, I felt as though I was finally transforming my life and career into what I needed it to be…what I dreamed it to be. Once I finished the transformation, I had my “grand opening” in February 2020 unbeknownst that a pandemic was on its way. The next month everything was shut down due to Covid and I was left to pay for a space that I wasn’t able to work out of. I couldn’t get the grants the Gov’t was offering because I hadn’t been in business long enough to show what I could be making. I have lost a lot of money that I put into the business as I am a photographer and multi-medium artist and every piece of equipment, furnishing, supplies, etc that I had to purchase doesn’t come cheap…and that is only one part of the expense it takes to get a business up and going. The struggles I have keeping my business afloat pandemic and post pandemic has had me wishing that I started my business a lot sooner. In addition to the pandemic, I am also starting my business later in life than I wanted to. I am 48 yrs old so there is a learning curve in regards to marketing and branding in this new but not so new age of social media marketing. I have had personal loses, financial loses and medical obstacles to overcome that I didn’t have earlier in life. With all that being said, I continue to push forward and try to learn as much as I can to work around obstacles and continue to build my business and brand. I cannot get stuck in the mindset of what should have been if this and that didn’t happen. Things may have been easier starting a business in my 20’s or 30’s but that time wasn’t right for whatever reason and my time is now! I have to give it my all today the best way I know how…by turning my aspirations into my reality one goal at a time.

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?

I have enjoyed capturing meaningful moments through photography since high school. Even before high school, I remember having a polaroid camera and being excited about capturing fun candid shots of my friends and loved ones. It’s just something magical about being able to freeze time in a single image and being able to hold on to it over time. I lost my mother in 2017 and being able to look back at pics of her in my life has been more healing than remembering her as she was in later years as her health started to decline. Our brains will sometimes delude us, but an image is what it is…a RAW image cannot lie…the time at which it was created cannot be made up. Even when an image is transformed into art from an original, it stills tells a story and reveals something about the artist that created it. I have always been drawn to art, the people that create it and the universe that reveals it all around us. The main part of my business is photography but I also do multi-medium art and I then take some of my original art and turn it into digital art to place on apparel(dresses, leggings, graphic tees, hats, tote bags, etc), and home goods (bed and bath accessories, mugs, clocks, tablet and phone cases, decorative items, etc). I also sell my original multi-medium artworks, paintings and resin art. As an artist, I love doing creative photoshoots and graphic design projects. I also photograph headshots, family photography, weddings, engagements, small events, product photography, model portfolios, couple sessions, and boudoir. I love empowering people through my photography and art; whether that be on a personal level or business level. There are a lot of women in my portfolio because I am most passionate about women empowerment. What is most important to me is how a person feels walking out of my sessions and that each person has a great experience. I like taking the time to get to know a little something about each client I photograph before each session and taking what I have learned to bring out the best in them during the photo session. I know the world today is about building brands, but I pride myself on building positive relationships and if that helps my brand then it’s a plus.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The best source of new clients for me is my website that I created on WIX, clients and models that I have had referring others to me, and the good old fashion way of getting out to networking events in person. I continue to post on social media for exposure but that has honestly not been extremely helpful in gaining new clients thus far. I am learning more about the algorithms of social media to utilize it for my business as another tool, but when I ask clients how they found me, most of the time they say my website (via google search and reviews), and that someone they know told them about my work and their experience with me and that made them want to contact me. I plan to utilize more tools to market my business as I discover and learn about them. My business is 3 parts (Photography, Art apparel, and Multi-medium art); so I find that marketing the 3 is sometimes complicated though they are under the same umbrella. It’s easier to market my photography business than it is my art. Different people find different things a necessity to invest in at any given time, and it’s a task to find your market and then compete within that market. In my opinion not 1 way is the best way; it’s whatever works for your business.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I am a boss but not a “boss b_itch”: Meaning I don’t feel you have to manage a team with aggression or a superior attitude. I have excelled to management positions in most of the jobs that I have had and now a business owner. I find that managing with an “open door” policy works best for me and those I have managed. I welcome ideas from staff. I feel that being a boss doesn’t mean that you know everything there is to know about everything. I like to learn from staff and that staff can learn from me. I look for each person’s skills and not just the skills they provide on a resume and then delegate responsibilities accordingly while providing challenges along the way so they can grow and be proud of that growth. I let employees know when they have done a great job, and when they don’t, I let them know but also help them to improve on their weaknesses. Everyone loves an incentive, even if working a job they love, and I find it goes a long way with keeping up momentum. Printing out rewards unexpectedly, having friendly incentive based competitions, and occasionally having events outside of the office to maintain team morale all have worked and the respect between boss and employee still remained.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/christena_b_imagery
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/christena.b.imagery
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christenabimagery-7a202217a/
• Other: https://www.redbubble.com/people/ChrisBImagery/explore

Image Credits
Christena B. Imagery, LLC (for all image credits)