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

Kara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

I grew up before the word “grit” was popularized, but persistence and resilience were imbedded in my family culture.

For example, my older brother James and learned how to swim in the manmade lake below my grandmother’s farmhouse. Every summer, as soon as an adult was available to supervise, he and I would run down the long, rolling hill to the splintery wooden dock and jump in.

James is three my years my senior. And one year, when he was about eight and I was about five, he decided he wanted to learn how to do a flip off of the dock.

In the 90’s, Gatorade had a famous jingle that went: “anything you can do, I can do better.” And honestly, that kind of summed it up for me. At five, it was my life’s mission to keep up with my brother.

So, if he was learning how to do a flip, so was I.

The problem was, at eight, he had a lot more strength and depth perception than I did.

So the first time I ran down the wooden ramp, onto the dock and flung myself toward the water, I didn’t go high or far enough to clear the surface. And on the way back down toward the water, I cracked the back of my head on the edge of the dock.

My dad, alarmed, jumped up, ready to come in the water after me. But, after a second or two, I popped above the surface again, albeit quite unhappy, and they were able to pull me up without major injury.

But James could still do a flip. And I couldn’t. And for me, even at five, that was unacceptable. So, after I’d calmed down, I tried again. And I did it.

In my family, persistence, excellence and grit was the expectation. Whatever you decided to do, you were expected to do it as well as you possibly could within the confines of your own ability. Not naturally inclined at math? No big deal, if a “B” is your best, then get the B. But not trying? That, was the cardinal sin. We were expected to put in effort and continue putting in effort until it became clear the attempt wasn’t working or, we finally succeeded.

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.

When I first got out of college, I kind of fell into working in public radio. Several years into the work, I saw a tattoo on the arm of a fellow journalist. It read, “your job is to tell the story.” And honestly, I’ve never found a statement that better resonates with me.

I am a storyteller.

In the beginning, while working in radio, I spent most of my days shadowing other peoples’ lives and listening to their stories.

But the days were long, the hours unpredictable, and the pay, frankly, sucked.

So when my husband and I started thinking about starting a family, I needed a way to continue to tell stories that allowed me to keep my own hours and improve my income.

About five years earlier, I spent a semester in college working for a deli that also catered events. One day, they didn’t have enough catering staff for a wedding and I picked up the gig.

I was enthralled. Here was an event full of life and emotion and beauty and messiness. I wanted to be a part of it. I just didn’t know how.

After college, my parents gifted me a professional camera and lens as a graduation present. And as a young journalist, I used those tools to take the images that went along with the online version of my radio stories. I wanted to do more photography, though. So on the weekends, I started contracting as the second photographer for established wedding photographers. I used that work to build a portfolio and put together a website.

In 2017, I got an inquiry for a sunrise engagement session in Shenandoah National Park. I’ve always been outdoorsy and was trying to make that a part of my brand. But this was my first “adventure session.”

The sunrise that day was incredible. The couple was fun and excited. And I was hooked. There were people out there who would pay me to hike with them and see the sunrise. It was beautiful, it was fun, I was outside, with people who honestly could be friends. This was what I wanted to do.

And so, I started offering “adventure elopements.” At the time, it wasn’t really a thing. But I wanted to do it anyway.

Then in 2020, COVID hit, big weddings were canceled, and my business absolutely exploded. Adventure Elopements were suddenly mainstream. And I had found my niche — non-traditional weddings for the adventurous couple who values quality over quantity.

For me, weddings have never been about how pretty the flowers are or how perfect the setting.

What makes them fascinating is the intersection of humanity.

It’s a pause amidst an otherwise disconnected life. It’s a marker of the passage of time. It’s the blending of people with place and beauty and intention.

As a journalist, I was never good at the investigative part. Not because I don’t like research, but because I’m always drawn to the stories of human invention and grace. Writing about opioid addiction, public policy failings and government corruption felt like my soul was slowly dying.

But telling stories of joy and community? That, felt like life.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of my young daughters struggles with resilience. Every small failure: spilled milk, stubbed toe or not achieving a task the first time she tries, can send her into a tailspin of despair.

So I often try to highlight my own daily failures for her.

Recently, I had two back-to-back calls with potential clients. It’s part of my workflow. Before a client books with me, I do a phone call with them. There are two reasons for this: one, people are emotional buyers. And if I can connect with them on a personal level, they are much more likely to book with me than a competitor. Two, I’m now in a position where I don’t have to book every single person who wants to work with me. So if I get the feeling it’s not a good fit, I can gently encourage them to go in a different direction.

Unusually, after the back-to-back calls, I got almost immediate feedback from both couples. One, wanted to book. The other, did not.

So I told my daughter — “that’s a 50 percent failure rate. Today, I failed to book a couple half the time. But I also succeeded half the time. The more you try, the more you will fail. But also, the more you try, the more you will succeed. Failure is just a part of the journey. And we all fail, often.”

Early in my career, rejection was devastating. Now, it’s just a Tuesday. It’s still a bummer. It’s never, not going to be a bummer to fail to book someone I want to work with. But it’s just a flash of disappointment now rather than a crushing blow. Getting to that point, though, took a lot of rejection. But now, when someone doesn’t want to work with me, I say “what could I have done differently?” “What can I try to improve my success rate next time?” It’s a learning opportunity and ultimately can be just as valuable as the successes.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I was hired by West Virginia Public Broadcasting as their regional health reporter shortly after I turned 23. One of the best things about moving to West Virginia was there, I could afford to buy a house as a baby reporter.

Of course, my 37k salary did not go very far.

And honestly, in retrospect, I’m shocked I got approved for a loan at all.

The house I bought was a beautiful craftsman with three bedrooms. In 2015, Airbnb was still relatively young, but I was familiar with it from the cheap travel I did as a college student. So, to help make ends meet, I started renting out the two extra bedrooms in my new house on Airbnb. I was one of the first Airbnbs like it in Charleston, WV. And I got really lucky in that Charleston is the major city at the intersection of two interstates — 81 and 77. So I got a ton of people just looking for a cheap, safe place to spend the night as they were passing through from one place to another.

That business brought in an extra $18,000 a year for the three years I did it. The additional income paid for a good chunk of my 2016 wedding to my college boyfriend, paid off my student loans and helped me purchase the equipment I needed to get my photography business off the ground.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://karaleighcreative.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karaleighcreative/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karaleighcreative