We recently connected with Keala Jarvis and have shared our conversation below.

Keala, appreciate you joining us today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

The best investment I’ve ever made in my business is to hire a business coach. I was incredibly skeptical of hiring a business coach for many many years, it was a lot of money that I thought I didn’t have early in my career. As my goals for my business grew bigger I knew my own experience was a limiting factor and decided to give a go. Within the first year my coach helped me more than doubled my revenue, helped me navigate a multi-location business, and move my business to a new location. I found that my coach had a bigger overlook on where I was and where I wanted to go with my business. From that vantage point it was easier for them to steer me in the right directions. This saved me so much time & money.

Keala, 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?

My journey into photography came during an attempt to become a graphic design student at the University of Utah. After not being accepted into their program I began taking additional fine art classes the following semester to “find myself”. Thankfully, In doing so I fell in love with my darkroom photography classes and switched gears. Now with a BFA under my belt & 10 years in the field, my photo business and creating path have morphed in many ways. Today I specialize in high school senior portraits that are more than a moment. Using my fine art skills from school and my years of experience in the business to collaborate with my seniors & their parents to create images that they both will cherish and love for a lifetime. Working primarily in the mountains of Park City Utah for the past 9 years and also now expanding to Austin, Texas in 2021.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I believe two factors help me build a reputation and increase my word of mouth marketing. First is underselling and overdelivering. After investing more time in my experience to my clients I was able to create something beyond just a final product. Whether it is finishing images in advance, remembering client birthdays, sending helpful guides to prep, etc. This helped my clients build trust in me. The second factor was consistency with my experience. Each of my clients should be receiving the same experience from me. My clients who had me at the beginning of the school year should be getting the same experience (that is overdelivering as mentioned before) as the last client of that school year. I have lots of seniors that go to the same school and I want to make sure that when they talk to each other about their photo shoot that no one feels that I forgot or gave someone less.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Over the last 5 years I’ve had to start my business up in a new location 3 times. Circumstances out of my control kept changing where I would be living hence my businesses primary location would be. In 2018 my family and I temporarily lived abroad for 18 months where I was able to travel back to Utah twice a year to keep my business afloat with the original plan to move back to Utah after that was completed. However we were relocated to the Bay Area of California very last minute, where I found my niche of senior photography to be a really difficult market with little or no time for research in advance. It was a labor of love for 9 months of networking & marketing to get my very first client. I felt like I was catching my first wave of momentum for my business when COVID hit and everything came to a halt.

After everyone’s life altered I decided to concentrate my business where it was the healthiest, in Utah. For 18 months I hustled to bring my previous home base to be a reliable income again and I had my busiest senior class ever for the Class of 2021. Then an incredible opportunity came for our family in Austin Texas and we moved again. It was difficult to concentrate my efforts of growth again for the 4th time, but my past experience taught me what was the most successful way expand without losing my mind.

Now I have plans to never move again and to have 90% of my business come from Austin Texas by the Class of 2025

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kealajarvis.com
• Instagram: @kealajphoto
• Facebook: @kealajphoto
• Other: Tiktok @kealajphoto Pintrest @kealajphoto

Image Credits
Morgan Kennedy of South West Photography https://southandwestphoto.com/