We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Devin Larson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Devin below.

Devin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

When I started Backcountry Bohemians I knew that once I was I had a financially stable business that I would immediately start giving back — then COVID hit. So many of my friends and fellow creatives started to take a hit on their business, and I didn’t have a ton of money where I could continue buying there art to support their businesses. It was a scary time! What I knew I could do to help serve them and their businesses was donate my skills. Though I mainly shoot adventure elopements and portraits, I shot new products + website photos, head shots, helped with SEO and website building. I focused on BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women owned businesses and then I moved into local Non-Profits in Bellingham, WA where I live. This is something I have continued to do so every quarter I try to pick a new organization to donate skills + finances! Vamos Outdoors Project is the most recent Non-Profit and they are truly amazing!

“Vamos Outdoors Project is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) serving Latine, Migrant, Multilingual, and Newcomer youth and families in Whatcom and Skagit counties. Through our outdoor and academic programs, we foster healthy habits, socio-emotional learning, positive childhood experiences and relationships with our mentors. Our goal is to reduce the barriers preventing the Latine community from accessing outdoor recreation, support youth development and connect families with resources.”

I love working with them and I can’t wait to continue serving my local community!!

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.

Hi! I’m Devin, the photographer behind Backcountry Bohemians! I’m extremely extroverted with love for adventure, art, community.

I got into my industry in a long round-about way. Growing up I thought I was going to be a Marine Biologist and after high school turned down attending and playing softball for Hawaii Pacific University for a boy. I ended up at Central Washington University (in the middle of WA where is there is zero water), and quickly switched directions to double majoring in Fashion Merchandising + Public Relations. I had the most amazing opportunity to be Editor-in-Chief of my college’s magazine and that’s where I got my first REAL digital camera kit. I was always the kid with a point and shoot (mastered that Myspace selfie!) and a video camera with me, but this was the first time that I got to practice my photography skills in a more journalistic way. After graduation I worked for a couple retailers where I met my now husband at work. Typical story, except that we got pregnant 4 months into dating. Fast forward to our wedding day 2 kids later.

It was a beautiful small wedding with only our closest friends and family, and at the time our photographer was great! After the wedding she made us feel like the whole thing was just a transactional experience and even threatened to take down the glowing review we gave her because she didn’t feel it was genuine. Honestly, it put a really bad taste in our mouths about our own wedding.

About 6 months later when Instagram contests were popular, a close friend won a two for one wedding photography workshop! When she asked me I knew I had to go. I had toyed with the idea of being a photographer but felt judged by my family and friends every time I would bring it up. Not this time! I bought a used camera (upgrade to my old kit camera) from guy in a bar 2 hours away and I still have that camera to this day.

5 years later as a full time photographer, I love how I get to serve my clients and make them feel so loved and taken care of during their planning process, on the day of their wedding, and after their big day. Most people haven’t been married before so I have created a touch process to make planning exciting and easy! Because of this bond we create I am still friends and stay in touch with my couples — watching them make other big life decisions and grow their own families. Seriously gets me stoked just thinking about it!

Serving my clients and continuing to learn and uplevel my client’s experience is so important to me! Because everyone matters. Backcountry Bohemians proudly celebrates all love, sexual orientation, body size + shape, ages, disabilities, and diversity. BE YOU, and we’ll make magic together!

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele has stemmed from a service first mindset. I am constantly working on giving value to clients even if they haven’t booked with me yet. The more value you give and service you provide for your clients upfront the more trust + authority you have with them. Because I center my whole business around this mindset, I am taking care of problems for clients before they even know they have those concerns.

For example, as a location expert, when a couple reaching out who wants to elope somewhere in the mountains with a view of some sort of water I already know 5 or 6 locations that accommodate these desires. So, before they book when I am sending them a follow up email I create a custom map with those locations and a PDF guide on ideas for each of those locations. Because whether or not they book with me, they deserve to feel taken care of!

So get real with yourselves and define an amazing client first service and you’ll be booked out!

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me has been by far Google! The end of social media growth and finding clients through there is OVER. It’s all about your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) — the tried and true long term game plan.

SEO game-changers for me have been adding my new words all throughout my website, consistently blogging + pinning those blogs to pinterest, getting reviews, fine tuning my google business page, and many more. I took an amazing course by SEO Expert Catalina Jean and you can apply her tactics to any industry. Best money I spent on education last year!

Stepping up my SEO has changed 10% of clients finding me through google to 80% finding me from google and flying me all over the world to document their love stories. SEO works!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.backcountrybohemians.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/backcountrybohemians
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/backcountrybohemians
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/backcountrybohemians
• Other: www.pinterest.com/backcountrybohemians

Image Credits
My own photos: Backcountry Bohemians