Hello friends welcome back to the dream biz podcast, the business podcast that helps you automate, streamline and grow your business so you can work less, make more money and flourish beyond what you thought possible. I'm your host Christy Johnson. I'm an Online Business Manager, and a systems architect dedicated to helping you make your dream biz a reality. Every week on the podcast, I share actionable tips to help you reduce your tech and task overwhelm. Get more done, and again, make your dream biz reality.
I'm super excited about this episode. This is a repurposed episode. Today I'm chatting with Danielle Kaminski from the reinvented warehouse of Spartanburg. I was on her podcast, the makers chat podcast a while back, and I just wanted to share our conversation with you all. So that is the episode that you're going to hear today. And I hope you enjoy it.
Everybody, welcome back to another episode of makers chat. I'm here today with Christie Johnson of Kristi Johnson creative. So hey, Christy, how's it going?
Hey, it's going great. It's a great morning. I'm glad to be here.
I'm so excited to have you here today. So tell our audience just a little bit about you know who you are, what your businesses and what you do. And maybe kind of what, what brought you to that? Sure,
I would love to. So I am a wedding photographer and a portrait photographer, I started doing photography, like a lot of people who get into photography started in high school, taking photos of my friends, you know, Senior Prom pictures and stuff like that. And then eventually it grew into a love for weddings. And then I realized I really had a knack for business through all the backend sides of business. And figured out that not a lot of people are really into that. As creatives, it's very easy to just go full steam ahead into the art and the creativity. And then realize, wait a minute, I have all these tasks that I have to run for my business to keep it working. And I have to think about marketing and finances and operations and sales and holy moly, and you get a little bit overwhelmed. But I learned early on that I was really interested in that, that type of thing. And so I took some time on wedding photography. About three years ago, my husband and I moved for his job. We moved to California. And so at that time, I started to build up an education side of my business. I'd done a little bit of photography, mentoring, here and there when I was still living in South Carolina, spoiler alert, we're back in South Carolina, but I'll get there. So I put it on the backburner a little bit because we moved and you know, it takes a long time to build an event space business. So I was like, Yeah, I'm not going to do that here in California, I'm going to get into the education space. So I started creating courses and resources for creative entrepreneurs, not just photographers. One thing that I got involved in was the Tuesday's together chapter in California, which if you're not familiar with Tuesday's together, it's part of the rising tide society, which is a group of creative small business owners, gathering in the spirit of community over competition. There's chapters all around the country, and even around the world. So I started to realize that, you know, there's a need for education, not just in photography, but also in other aspects of business. So I started to cater my resources towards other business owners as well. So I have a podcast, which I talk about all things business over there. Something that I realized early on is that if you don't have people in the game with you, it can be very easy to get discouraged. And you'll throw in the towel, you know, from from, like, just right at the get go. So I think community is very important. So it's my hope to be able to create a community for people to achieve their goals, make real steps towards doing what they love finding freedom in their life in their business. So long story short, I've been talking way too much. No, you're good. Because of COVID-19, my husband started working remotely, and we were spending tons of money on rent in California, when he wasn't going into the office, we came back to South Carolina. This is where family is its home. And now I'm going back into photography. And it feels so great to be doing that. But I can't, I can't give up the education side. You know, lots of people say you need to niche down and you need to just focus on one thing. I can't and we've talked about this before. Yes, I have too many things that I like. So you can find me doing wedding photography and portraits with my sister in law, which is great. Our business is called Stephanie and Christy photography. She's amazing. I'm so excited. Again, it goes back to that community aspect. Since I have a team member of a business partner. It's so much more fun than the first time around. So yeah, I'm loving it. And I'm excited about the new phase of my business going back into photography and see where it where it takes takes me and
you're going to marry the two when you come speak at the conference because you're going to be helping us learn about photography, but you're going to be teaching other creative So we're really excited about
that. Yes, I am very excited to, and I love what you're doing with the conference. I just love everything that you're doing. Because I love that you are helping handmade business owners and makers because that is something that is so needed. When I was first started out in photography, there was not a lot of education out there, it was kind of like you had to piecemeal things together, and read blogs and hunt for what you were looking for. It was very difficult. Now there's tons of education for photographers, if you want to become a photographer, there's a million courses that you can take. But there's not really that many for makers or handmade business owners. So I love what you're doing in our community. Thank you.
Thank you. Yeah, my hope is that it will be an encouragement and people who maybe initially would have given up because it was too hard to get the information can sort of power through that initial resistance and learn what's going to work for them. Because that you're right, that's the hard part. I'm like you I enjoy the business side of things. Like I love to do the creative work, obviously, the handmade stuff, but like, my brain also really enjoys like marketing. And that I mean, I guess because that that's creative, too. It's just a different kind of creativity, and I enjoy it. But I know a lot of people don't and it can be really overwhelming. So my goal is to make it easier for people to get into that to learn. Yeah, absolutely need to learn to keep going.
I'm a big believer in doing what has like, the least barrier to entry. And so if you can remove some of those roadblocks starting a business is so overwhelming, if you can just give them a little piece of information, you know, one thing leads to the next and leads to the next. So it's I feel like it's all about kind of stepping stones just just finding that small tidbit of information and running with that and then finding the next if you can make it break it down to where it's actionable, easy to understand. I think that's the best kind of education. Yeah,
definitely. So and I know that the move spurred you getting into education, too. But what else about that process appealed to you? What do you enjoy most about your work with other business owners? Sure,
that's a great question. The move was a huge catalyst to saying, You know what, I'm gonna do this right now. But I think it's just, it's just that community aspect. I talked about that so much, because it's so true. So I love working with people. And I love you know, seeing the light bulb go off in their heads, and they're like, oh, yeah, I can do this. Because I remember being a new photographer, and being so overwhelmed, I would look at people's photos on Instagram. Well, Instagram wasn't really that big of a thing. It was Flickr at the time. I would look at their photos and be like, Oh, I don't know how they did that. What lens did they use? How did they get the light to look so great. And you know, you instantly start to compare yourself. I know that that happens with every business owner impostor syndrome is so real, you know, and you see someone killing it in business and thriving. And you think, Well, I don't know if I'm, if I'm able to do that. So I just I remember how crucial it was and how life changing it was when I found people who were willing to help me? And who were willing to answer my questions, and who weren't kind of like hoarding their knowledge as like, some secret that they need to keep for all eternity. And if it gets out, then their business is going to come crumbling to the ground. Like, that's not my philosophy, because I know how much it helped me when someone said, Yeah, this is what wins I'm using and you know, what, this is how, you know, I did that pose or whatever. So what I love about education is, is I love to make it easier for other people so that they don't have to have that, oh, my goodness, I have no idea what I'm doing. I want to kind of like, give up, how did they do that kind of kind of thing and show them that there are people out there who can help you and who are willing to help you. There may be a lot of people that you interact with, and you're like, you know what, they don't seem like they want to help me. That's okay. There's, there's someone else. So I think the main thing is just is just connecting with people and interacting with people and taking away some of that overwhelm. I love to take things that are huge and overwhelming and break it down into those actionable steps. If you want to grow your YouTube channel to 10,000 followers, that's a huge goal. But instead, let's let's say you know what, let's come up with five topics for your first five YouTube videos. And let's just start with the first one, you know, and it just starts from there. So that's what I love.
Absolutely. I'm with you there and it's really rewarding, I think to see somebody when you can see the light bulb click and see them get excited about something and it's like, okay, yeah, we've hit gold here. It's now they're ready. And they can just like run with it and find their, their groove because at the end of the day, there's a million ways to run a business and it's really all about helping people figure out the way that works for them.
Right. That's so true. I was recently talking with someone on my podcast and we were talking about how it can be Very overwhelming to market yourself because there's 1000 ways to do things. And I think we often think that, oh my goodness, there's 1000 ways to market and I need to do all 1000 of them. No, the truth is, there's 1000 ways to market and you can just do the one that resonates with you. And that's okay. Yes,
I heard that episode. That was a good episode. So, then you move back to South Carolina. And I know you and I talked a lot because now that you are back in the Greenville area, you have brought your connections from Tuesday's together, and now you're helping with the local chapter here. So is it just I now I'm I'm also trying to keep up a little bit because we were talking before we came on here. We're really excited that we're about to start to be able to meet in person again, because we want to have in person meetings for so long. Is are you the the primary leader of this chapter now? Yes.
So the chapter is Tuesdays together Greenville. The website is Greenville dot the rising tide society.com. I don't know how it happened. I'm leading the chapter. I would love to bring on some some chair persons to help with things. But for now, when we've been doing virtual for the last two years. So for the last year, I've been leading the chapter and would love to bring in some new faces. Yeah,
it's great. And it's a great group. So when I first found out about it, I had been listening to some different podcasts. And I had heard Natalie, you know, being interviewed with different people talking about Natalie Frank is one of the founders, I had heard her talking about, you know, all of the, the different things. And so I looked into it, and I found a local group. And it was mostly when I went to the first handful of meetings I went to that's been years ago. Now, I want to say that was probably 2017 Maybe. And it was mostly photographers, videographers, bloggers, content creators, content creator types, too. So when I went in, at first I was like, I don't necessarily fit, but I do. And at the end of the day, it was like, we all have to learn the same stuff to run our businesses, like what our business is, is different from each other. But what we have to learn and what we have to do is the same. What do you think that create, I'm just throwing this out there because not even just locally here in South Carolina. But like you already mentioned, there are chapters of the rising tide society all over. And the idea of community over competition is one that everyone struggles with. We've talked about it here on the podcast before, a lot of creatives will let that comparison stop them from even getting started. They're like, Oh, well, someone else already does this. And so I don't I don't want to do that because someone else already does it. And who am I right? Like you're saying imposter syndrome is a very real thing. And it really will, it will stop people from even getting started. So what do you think, is something that handmade businesses or more more hands on? I guess, type creative businesses would benefit from being being in a local chapter?
Yeah, that's a great question. Because you're right. I joined the Greenville Tuesdays together chapter 2016. And it was mostly photographers. And since I was a photographer, I was like, Oh, yay, these are my people didn't want to move to California. I got involved in the San Jose chapter. And I was one of the only photographers. It was very interesting how the demographics were different. And I'm not quite sure why that is. But the reality is, we were talking about the same topics because the rising tide society it's it's an international organization, and they put out resources every single month, there's a monthly guide with articles on the monthly topics. So the topic will be social media marketing, video marketing. This year, we're going to talk about tick tock because that's the thing, you know, email marketing, business operations, book, bookkeeping, financials, all the things that you need to know as a business owner. So when I moved into the chapter in San Jose, California, it was kind of like a lightbulb moment of Wait a minute, this is applicable to everyone who owns a business and something that the rising tide society also realized through the pandemic was that not just creative, small business owners need help small businesses in general were struggling. And so now, if you're a small business owner, and you're not quote unquote, creative, I would argue that we're all creative. And, and any small business like if you have a small business, that's creative, because you're putting something brand new out into the world, but I think that now in our chapter, we have small business owners who are cabinet, you know, refinishers, or we have one guy who hauls junk, and that his business will take your junk out of your yard and move away, you know, so they saw this need that you know, what small businesses need help not just creatives, not just photographers. So I think that what a handmade handmade business owner can can benefit from joining a group like that is number one, you're going to get education, that is quality content, it's peer reviewed, and it's also All modern, you know, there's a lot of education, I don't like to, I don't like to be negative, I like to be positive. But some business age education is kind of dated and kind of old school and the tactics that worked. Even when I was starting in business in 2009, they're not going to work anymore. Because it's a new market. So the education is top notch, if you really do invest in that we, we put out webinars every single month from an expert. And then like I said, the monthly died. So that's a great way to grow your business and to learn some of the the modern business practices that are out there and available to you. But also, the main thing for me is community. And you can have community with a photographer, or a videographer, and a handmade business owner and someone who is a junk hauler, because you're all going through the same things, you're all having to manage your books, you're having to find new clients, you're doing your marketing, selling their sales, and you have to keep these things going. And so really coming in and just asking people questions, asking, you know, hey, what's going on in your business? Where are you struggling? And how, how, what has helped you overcome that? That's such a huge tool for any business owner, to be able to learn from each other. So I think that would be, you know, education, but then ultimately, community and realizing that, yeah, all our struggles are the same and, and having someone to connect with and kind of go on the journey with you. It's invaluable. Yeah,
absolutely. I totally agree. And I will say this, I love I mean, you know, I have the micro chat community here, which is mostly handmade business owners, I have my membership group, which is handmade business owners. But there is something to be said for being a part of a community, where you are with a lot of people who are coming at things from a different perspective, because I feel like some of the most valuable things that I have learned and my business journey have come from thinking outside of the handmade box, like okay, so things that used to work for handmade business owners, like you said, times have changed. And some of those things still work. But we have to come at them from a different angle now. And like you said, it hasn't been something that has been widely, there's more and more creative business coaches popping up who are teaching, and that's wonderful. So more options is good, because it means you can find the person that has the personality that works for you. Because I have taken courses and been in groups with teachers that I really liked. But that I didn't not even that I didn't click with like I really liked them, it was just something about the way they taught didn't really work for me. So it's really important to find the person who's methods and the way that they teach works for you. So again, the more the merrier in that regard. But that is something that I feel like is relatively new, I'd say in the past five to six years, we've really seen more of that happening, which means there's this huge community of people who have been doing handmade forever, you know, that are night needing to learn new things, but also new people coming into that that could really use the guidance. And like I said, I've just I've learned that some of the coaches I've had that maybe teach a slightly different demographic, I've been able to take what they teach and apply it to what I do. And it's been like lightbulb moments, because it's not anything I've ever heard taught that way before, because I've always heard it from a different perspective. So anyway, being surrounded by people who do something different than what you do, I think is really valuable, too. So that's another thing that I like about it is that it's not just people who do, what I do is people who are coming at it from a different perspective. And they're more Yeah, they have the business knowledge, but they're also coming at it from more of a customer perspective than another business owner, which is really helpful too. Because they're like, Well, what if you did this, and it's like, oh, I hadn't thought about it that way. Because all of my teachers are teaching me how to sell handmade products. This person is like, well, if I'm buying your product, this is what I want. And that's really helpful. So,
right. And to your point, some of the best lessons that I've ever learned in my life have come from someone totally different than me. Because if you think about it, as people, we kind of like to stay in our little bubbles. And if you only talk to people who think just like you, then you're not really going to see growth. Because I believe that growth happens when you are pushed outside of your comfort zone and outside of your bubble. I do believe that there's a huge benefit to find a community of handmade business owners because, you know, those are the people who you know, it's like, oh, you get it, you know, and you and you realize, oh, you're my people and you know exactly what I'm going through. And it's so great to have those relationships where people relate to you in that way. I love having a community of other photographers or being now getting into the education space. I surrounded myself with people who are trying to do the same thing that I'm doing has been so helpful. But at the same time, when you can listen to someone else, you can learn so much more I, you know, some of the best lessons I've learned have come from people in like the sales world, or people who are not creative at all. If I say, hey, take a look at my website, tell me what you think it like you can start to realize, Oh, they're not thinking about it the same way that I am. Because their perspectives perspective is different than mine, which is, which is great. Because I think that you want to have your business be accessible to as many people as possible. And if you're only listening to yourself, or only listening to people who are just like you, you may be leaving out some people who could enjoy your business, but you're not speaking their language. Yeah,
absolutely. All right. So I'm going to ask you a couple of rapid fire get to know you questions. Oh, followed by a couple of not quite so rapid fire. But first of all, beach or mountains.
Oh, my word. You know what? Pre marriage. It was beach. 100%. But I married a mountain man. So I'm gonna have to go the mountains.
Awesome. I love it. I'm a mountain person and everyone else says beach so I'm always excited to to hear another mountains of
coffee or tea. Oh, coffee. 100%. Okay, movies or books.
I wish I could say books because that would make me sound smarter. But definitely movies,
and other all of that. Do you like to go to movies? Or do you like to watch them at home?
Definitely at home. I'm a homebody. Okay, so then introvert or extrovert? I'm an extrovert married to an introvert. So I would rather be at home watching the movies with my husband and our family. But I'm a big extrovert. So I like to go out and in viewer the people are two.
Yep. Hello. All right. And so then the one that's not quite so rapid fire. But I think it's a fun question. If you could go back in time, to any period in history, what period would you go to anywhere in the world? Would you want to visit? Wow,
I did not prep for this. I kind of enjoy right now. But I think I would like to go back to the 70s. I would just really like to go to a disco or something. And like, just dress crazy. Although I guess, the style, the 90 styles coming back. So maybe if I just wait a few more years, the 70 style will come back. And then I can relive my dreams. But where would I go? You know what? I love California, I would go to San Francisco. It's so the best San
Francisco in the seven days. I mean, that would be very entertaining. If nothing else.
Yeah, I'm thinking of starting to second guess my My decision is going to seven years. Yeah, but let's go with that.
I'm a free spirit at heart.
There you go. There you go.
We'd love I have my boundaries,
strong boundaries. And then
finally, if there was one person famous, not famous, whatever, living or gone that you could spend an hour with? Who would you want to spend an hour with talking to?
I think the first person that came to my mind is Rosa Parks. Because, you know, I don't know if she knew that. Her act of not giving up her seat was going to become something that we talked about in our history books. But I would like to just just have a conversation with her. And I feel sad that there are so many people in our country who are not given the same privileges that some of us are. So I would just love to talk to her and chat with her. Because I'm I'm bet that she probably had a positive outlook on life seems like people who are who experienced hardships and struggles are usually the the most wise and the most joyful and the most at peace. So I would like to ask her where, where that joy and that peace comes from and bring some of that to my life.
Yeah, get to know the person behind the icon. That would be really cool. Yeah, that's a great answer. I love it. All right. Well, Christy, thank you for being here with me today. I really appreciate it everybody. Thank you again so much for being here. Christy.
