Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Olivia Erenberger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Olivia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My hero is my father and mother. I have learned too many lessons to count from them throughout my life. One important one is to never quit even if the thing you are doing is not your thing. When I would go out for a sport in school and figure out it was not my thing my dad would say “you can’t quit now that you started it just finish the season out hard then you won’t have to go out for that sport again.” Same for marching band, musical arts not my thing but visual arts definitely my thing. This has helped me grow in my mindset of never giving up even when the going gets hard in my own buiz. Photography, capturing memories and emotion is my passion. Moments and loved ones may have never been frozen in time if I gave up when figuring out my books got hard. They taught me to work hard by watching them work the farm and helping them as I grew up. One of the best things they could have done and I feel that the best thing every kid can do is 4-H. They helped me discover my passion and develop my hard work skills by working for something greater. I had to finish the projects on my own, but always with the guidance and help of my parents. The best accomplishments were seeing the hard work pay off by the timeline we had set (which would be county fair/state fair) and finally having the stubborn calf follow me around the ring like my puppy and being overjoyed to see that purple ribbon hanging on my photo in the display. My parents are always running into someone they know and talking for hours! I saw this as I grew up and I think it sparked me to know as many people as possible on a personal level. This has helped me in my photo buiz by connecting with all my customers and/or potential customers.

Olivia, 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?

Hey all I am Olivia, Iowa farm born and raised. Yes, I was born in a barn, jk! I grew up in Iowa on a small family farm where a goat named Freckles and a dog named Jacker were my best friends for the beginning of my life. Naturally, as I got to middle school age I joined 4-H and showed cows, horses, and my dog. Later in 4-H I started doing other non-animal projects like sewing and photography. And that is how my love for photography was born. I knew nothing about photography at that time except I like to take pictures of my kittens and pretty trees on the windup camera. I decided to enter some photos I took of a budding tree in my yard. When I was talking to the judge she said “wow these tree photos look like a renowned photographer that takes photos of trees.” That judge sparked my deeper interest in the art. From there on out I took some classes in school and went to school conference art shows and won some awards. When I came time for college I decided to go after a degree in agriculture since the photography profession is so competitive which discouraged me some. Through college I was self taught and took photos of all the college rodeos I competed in just for “exposure” and to better my skill. I dealt with the naysayers over this time which was hard but you know the saying “sticks and stones…..” After I graduated with my Agriculture degree, I decided to do another year of college but in the Professional Photography program where my skills took off and my confidence in my work and myself grew tremendously, thanks to my amazing teachers Rochelle Green and Jacci Hindt. They supported me as I poured my heart and soul into creating my budding buiz as a young entrepreneur. Even Though photography is a saturated market and everyone considers himself a photographer now with the iPhone, I had the confidence in my work and myself to provide quality work to all my beloved clients around the globe. For my clients I want to provide an event to go do with the fam to make memories, freeze emotion in time for my wedding couples, capturing the detail in the legendary or not so legendary hunt of the season for my hunters and all of my other clients. For my wedding couples, I want to provide a personal experience and be your hype girl/dance floor starter/and train carrier and answer all your wedding day questions you may have to make it the most relaxing day for you to get pampered and gaze into your lover’s eyes all day with nothing to worry about!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

A few years back I was utilizing my agriculture degree as a conservationist for a county government office. I am very much a hands-on worker. This position I was not able to get out in the field as much as I would have liked. On the other side I was still working on growing my buiz while working a full time job. My photo buiz was starting to gain ground and I was not able to provide full attention to my amazing clients while I was at my Ag job. I started having major stress and some depression on the fact that I was torn between the two and well I didn’t want to feel like I was quitting but I knew I had to make decisions for the sake of my mental health. I decided to put my full effort into my photography and God let me know I made the right choice. Ever since then the buiz of freezing memories has been my focus.

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

Let me tell you books are hard if you don’t know what you are getting yourself into necessarily. When I started my photo “buiz” it was considered a hobby as I didn’t make enough to claim taxes for it. After I had the support to become legally legit I knew I had to be more legit in my books. All the initial capital came from my pocket as I started as a “hobbyist” then was classified as an actual business owner! Like what! Still crazy to say that. I bought my first camera from Walmart, with my money I have saved from working on a neighboring dairy farm, on a blackfriday on the way back from a family Thanksgiving in southern Iowa. I used the heck out of that little camera until it paid for new equipment and I exceeded the skills of it. Now I am much more organized with my finances and the taxes (blah) as I have learned as I go.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oliviaerenbergerphotography.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/oliviaerenbergerphotography?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oliviaerenbergerphotography/

Image Credits
My portrait is taken by Oh Snap Photography and edited by myself