We were lucky to catch up with Katie Dwyer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I have been a personal brand photographer for about 5 years and am completely self-taught. While maintaining a 9-5 job as an Admin Assistant at Target, I taught myself from the ground up – from how to use my camera to how to book my first client and market myself on social media. I sought out courses from other brand photographers and on SkillShare, watched countless YouTube videos and even hired a business coach to learn the business side of things.

My degree is a Master’s of Education. With it, I taught for about a year and half. Pretty soon into it, I knew I loved education, but not in the classroom. Once I figured this out, after quite a few waitressing jobs, I sought out a life coach who said something that really stuck with me. About 10 years ago, she referred to my career as a ‘patchwork’ career. While the path wasn’t clear and predictable post-college, each job and experience has woven together to make me who I am and what I offer to the world today – and even more so now than 10 years ago. My background in Customer Experience. I have been a people manager while working for companies like adidas, Fleet Feet Sports (specialty running store), and Bose. Each job taught me something new It has certainly been challenging to run a business while having a full-time job but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now, with a 2-year-old, life has been even more busy. This new challenge is motivating because I want to show my daughter what it’s like to utilize your creative skills to make your passion come to life.

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 am a Personal Brand and Headshot Photographer who helps small business and corporate folks shine through custom personal branding experiences. A lot of others in my industry have their ideal client as women in business. Being in the LGBTQ community myself, I wanted to be sure to be inclusive in my approach so I aim to create an affirming, safe space for females, males and non-binary business owners to stand in their truth and be celebrated. My ideal clients are creative entrepreneurs who believe they’re made for more. They are 9-5 corporate professionals who want their headshots to pop as well as are experts & leaders in their industry who appreciate the value of personal brand photography for their business. Many of them love their personal brand and want to shout it to the world in a cohesive and vibrant way.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Understand the value of what we offer. When we put a price on our work, a lot goes into it. For most creatives, they are playing all the roles in their business – Sales, Marketing, HR, Accountant, Brand Specialist, Customer Experience, Copyrighter…to name a few. When you hire us, you’re not only getting the end product, but the blood-sweat, and tears that goes into it as well.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As an entrepreneur, striving for perfect is not feasible. You only have so many hours in the day. My background is in Customer Experience. Starting about 20 years ago as a server at a high-end restaurant, into tourism selling my city and then into HR at a Fortune500 company – I was always thinking about the most perfect and ideal customer experience I could create for a customer. I always strived for perfect. Now, in my current stage of life as a mother of a toddler with a 9-5 job AND a creative side-hustle – I strive for something I can be proud of. I would never imagine delivering a less than product, but I do value a work-life balance that will fill all of my buckets.

Contact Info:

• Website: katiedwyerphotography.com
• Instagram: @katiedwyer_photo
• Linkedin: @katiendwyer

Image Credits
@katiedwyerphotography