Episode 44: The Truth About Starting Over as a Creative Entrepreneur and Making It Work With Emily Kim

  📍 Welcome to the Creative Minds Smart Money Podcast, where we turn financial confusion into creative confidence. I’m Samantha Eck, bookkeeper and fractional CFO for creative entrepreneurs. Each week I’m sharing my financial expertise and actionable strategies to help you build a thriving creative business. Plus, you’ll hear from industry experts who bring fresh perspectives on growing your business beyond the numbers. Because building a successful creative business starts with strong financial foundations. Your next chapter starts now.

You are listening to the Creative Minds Smart Money Podcast, and today I’m special guest, Emily Kim. Emily Kim is an ex Apple software engineer turned creative business educator based in Boston, Massachusetts over the last six years she’s built a multi six figure brand photography and videography business.

Now Emily is combining her business expertise from her MBA corporate experience at Apple and her years of experience in photography to coach other photographers and creative business owners on how to build sustainable, profitable businesses. It’s so good to have you today, Emily.

How are you?

I am so good. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.

Absolutely. Before we really get into like the nitty gritty of everything, tell me a little bit about yourself. What you do, what led you to doing what you do, and what brought you from California to Boston? I.

Of course. So I am a brand photographer, which means I take marketing photos for business owners like you. I typically work with solo entrepreneurs, but I also work with brick and mortar businesses like boutiques, med spas, eye doctors’ offices. It kind of runs the gamut. I don’t, limit myself with the people that I work with

Okay.

what led me to brand photography. It’s so funny, I didn’t. intentionally go into it. I kind of stumbled into it. I started my photography business while I was still in college, taking college graduation photos for seniors because I needed some cash.

Yeah.

when I moved to California, I just kind of kept doing it. There’s a lot of great schools in the area, Stanford, San Jose State, Santa Clara University, and I was doing it for

Okay.

posting to Instagram. And my first brand photography client, she found me on Instagram and she was a jewelry designer, so she designs jewelry for Netflix shows, things like The Bachelor. You’ve probably seen some of her pieces. If you watch TV That was the moment that it clicked for me, where I was like, oh, could do photos for business owners.

That makes a lot of sense for me because

Yes.

always been super entrepreneurial and I got my MBA, so it all kind of clicked when I worked with that client. I.

Yeah. That’s really awesome to hear and I love how you like, kind of just stumbled into it because I feel like that’s such a relatable story. It’s very similar to what I did. I just kind of stumbled into what I’m doing now, so I love hearing that from you. Now, of course, one of the things that you talked about was moving. Your business to a completely new city where you know no one, and it’s a huge challenge, but what was your game plan when you landed in Boston?

Yeah, a couple of different things. So, you asked me earlier what led me to Boston was my husband got a new job

Mm-hmm.

a great offer. We couldn’t turn it down and we’d always wanted to try living on the East coast. So here we are. But. didn’t have a lot of turnaround time. We had maybe three months of notice between when he got the offer to when we needed to be up and packed in Boston. yeah, I didn’t know anybody. It was really scary and

Yeah.

I kind of have two different plans. So at first I was like, okay, I gonna continue offering the same one-on-one service that I offer now?

Yeah.

in a place where I don’t know anyone. So the first part of my plan was, I’m gonna reach out to as many photographers as I can meet and offer my video services instead,

Yeah.

is a more niched skillset, and not every photographer offers that. So I thought that could have been a really good way to get to know people, meet people, and also offer a service that was going to help. Both of us that that was Plan one, plan

Right.

which is what I ended up doing was I. Was already mentoring photographers in a very limited capacity. People would just come to me, dm me, email me, ask if this is something that I offered and I would do it. really love teaching and mentoring. That’s always been a really core part of my personality. So

Yes.

part of me was like, well, I have all this time now. I don’t have clients that I’m working with. Can I use this time to. Build up the education side of my business. So that’s what I’ve been doing and that has been the game plan ever since, is to work on these educational products and build up that side of my business.

Yes. And I love that you said that. I also feel the same way. I feel like that like mentoring and like helping other business owners is just something that I’ve always felt passionate about. So I definitely resonate with that. What were some of the biggest obstacles that you faced while rebuilding your client base from scratch?

Yeah, definitely just meeting people and

Yeah.

moving I. It a lot more out of me than I expected it to

Yes,

what happened was when I moved, I announced it to all of my clients and I said, hi, I’m moving. This is the last time for the foreseeable future that you can work with me. So I had a huge influx of work, which I’m very grateful for.

I’m not complaining about it,

yes,

than I typically would’ve taken on. At once. And then on top of that, you know, I moved across the country. So we’re packing, we’re working, and then I also have to fulfill all of these sessions and edit them afterwards. So I did let all of my clients know, Hey, I am gonna have a little bit of a slower turnaround time because of this.

And they were all very accommodating and understanding. But that was really, really challenging just in the move itself. So then I moved to Boston. I really needed to recover and I did not anticipate how much recovery time I would need for that.

Yeah.

And I thought I would move here and within three days I’d start going out and meeting people.

But it really took me three months to like just get settled and recover from everything that had just happened. so I would say my biggest obstacle was getting up the motivation to go out and people. That that was really, really challenging for me.

Yes, and I love that because you know, in 2020 I moved from Canada to here. I didn’t have a business at that time, but I can’t even imagine if I did have my business now like moving everything across the country. Because like, you know, I think even though we have online clients a lot of the times our clients come from local spaces.

So if you move, sometimes you’re gonna lose those people because they’re like, oh, I want some, I need someone local. I need someone I can talk to physically. So that’s something that is very, very interesting. So, of course, you know, teaming up with those other creatives helps you to book out a full day of sessions in just six months.

How did you approach that collaboration and what made it so successful for you?

Yeah, so I did eventually execute a little bit on plan one, just not to the extent

Yeah.

I would. Basically what happened was the day that I decided to emerge from my post moving cave, I posted an introduction post to this huge Facebook group. There’s like 50,000 people in it and not. All posts get seen, obviously by all

Yes.

But I got a little bit of traction on my post. I just introduced myself. I literally said, hi, I’m Emily. Here’s a little bit about me. And I said, just looking to make friends. It’s a business networking group. But I really was like, I. I’m not trying to sell you on anything. I am just trying to connect with people and make friends.

And as a result, some of the people that I met from that, my friend Brooke, who I’ve worked with many times now and

Yeah.

on in this group, I met Carrie Lynn, our wardrobe stylist, and then through another group I met Jenny, who was the makeup artist for this event. So I wanted to put something together just so I could get to know people a little bit more, and also prove to myself.

As an educator, like, yes, that this is still something that I can do. So I brought them together and I said, Hey, how would you guys feel if we created this event and we’ll call it something like express branding sessions, where people

Yeah.

hair and makeup, photo and video and wardrobe styling beforehand.

So the same process that I walk my one-on-one brand photography and videography clients through, but with this team was on board, and I said, okay. I’ll be in charge of marketing because I like to do that, and let’s just see what happens. what happened as a result of that? We decided to open up five spots for one day. We sold four of them. Two of

Yeah.

that we sold came from people that I had met from my initial post to that networking group. So it all really came full circle, and I think what made it so successful was. The fact that I had been connecting with all of these people, again, not intending to make sales.

Like when I schedule these coffee chats, I’m not trying to say like, book me for photography now.

Yes.

just trying to connect with these people. And then you never know, three, six months a year down the line, they already know you and trust you. They’re gonna book with you. And that’s exactly happened.

And then I also made friends, which is just like a win-win situation.

Yes. I think that’s such an important lesson too, is that, you know, if you go in there with the intention of selling, you’re not gonna get the same response that you would get if you went in with the approach of collaboration and connection, because especially. In today’s day and age, people want to get to know you.

They want to know you before they hit the buy button. So you coming in with good intentions just probably helped elevate it so much more.

A hundred percent. And I’ll share one thing. One of my friends, she’s a networking expert, she’s

Yeah.

at this. Her name is Sarah Gemmel. G-E-M-M-E-L-L. If you wanna find her on Instagram,

Okay.

calls it commission breath, which I thought was so funny. So if you go into a networking event or a coffee chat with commission breath with you trying to sell something, people can smell

Yeah.

They’re gonna know, and it’s not gonna work the way you would like it to.

Yes, yes, I agree with that a hundred percent because especially in the early days of my business, I was all about making sure I got to so many different networking events. I can’t go to as many now, but like when I first started, and you can tell the people that were there to just sell versus the people that actually wanted to build a connection and wanted to actually get to know you and your business.

So it it. Definitely. And I think that she should coin that term ’cause that’s so true. So true. For someone thinking about collaborating with others in their industry, what’s the best way to find the right people?

I think same as the, what we’ve been talking about,

Yeah.

connecting with as many people as possible.

Yeah. Okay.

like you’re casting such a wide net, but I mean. It’s just another form of marketing. All of the

Yes.

if you’re posting on Instagram, not everybody’s gonna see them. Not everyone’s gonna resonate with them.

Same thing with emails. Not everyone’s gonna open every email newsletter you send. Not every person you have a coffee chat with is gonna pan out with, you know, sales, and that’s totally okay. But when you’re doing that, you never know who they know and who they can introduce you to. So I think the

Yes.

to building the connections is. Yeah, to just not go in with commission breath and just really ha, have an open mind. Actually, literally today, before we got on this call, I had a coffee chat with someone that I was introduced to from somebody else that I had met. She was like, oh, you should definitely connect with this person. I said, okay. I never seen her or talked to her before. I’d seen her on Facebook, but I didn’t know her personally. I just asked to connect with her. I got on this call and I did not. to sell her anything. I had no intention. I was like, I just wanna know more about what you do, I’m about to send her a proposal. you never know where

Yes.

a collaboration is going to come from. So I think it’s really in keeping your mind open and in setting your intentions, knowing like, okay, I’m gonna go into this chat. This might not result in a sale, but I’m building the relationship and the foundation and a good reputation in the area.

Yes, I think that’s so true. And , to bounce off that, me and my husband signed up for a giveaway for this really cool, fine portrait. you know those big portraits you see in people’s houses where they’re like sitting on like a, a chair. I signed up for a giveaway for one of those and the lady contacted us.

She’s like, yeah, I’d love for you guys to come in and, and get the free photo and everything. So we signed up for it. And she’s like, okay. So she’s like, what do you do for work? Like, what does your husband do for work? And I told her, I said, well, I, I own a bookkeeping business. And she’s like, I need a bookkeeper.

And I was like, I was like, I didn’t even like come into this with that intention. I just wanted to get a photo.

Yeah, exactly.

it, it helps if you have the right intentions that we’re coming in with those selling intentions. ’cause again, you never know, and I think a lot more people resonate with you just. Talking about kind of what you do, but not like in a selling point of view.

So like, yeah, I’m a brand photographer, and then all of a sudden someone in the room could be like, I need a brand photographer, but you’re not directly selling to them and now you’re connected to them in a different way.

Exactly.

obviously there’s a lot of pressure to master social media trends, social media in general, and like paid ads.

Why do you believe that old school relationship building still works better?

If you think about the reason why all of these things came into existence, social media, for example. When Instagram started, we were just posting pictures of our food and crafts and like what we were doing for the day and putting these ugly filters on them. And it

Yes,

like a fun time. And the intention of it was to connect with people to be. Social. And I

yes,

over time that has been lost and now

yes.

really focus on, is my grid aesthetic enough? Is my real hooky enough? Like, what is the strategy? And da, da, da, da. All of that is important. You know, there’s things to learn about everything, but at the end of the day, the whole point. Is to be social.

So if

Yes.

about that, no matter how many Instagram strategies you implement, how many ad strategies you implement, it’s not gonna pay off if you aren’t building that foundation of relationship building.

Yes. And I think that’s so true. Actually, it’s funny ’cause I was just talking to, I had a podcast interview before this with another lady and we were talking about how social media. Used to be so fun. Like, you know, you used to post your outfit of the day and people used to be like, wow, that’s such a cool outfit.

But now it’s so serious and I’m like, what happened to us just being us and like having fun with it. So, and I think, you know. You’re right. When you go and you like meet people at these networking events, things like that, they can get a sense for you in person and they can see who you are. And it’s more exciting and more fun than just trying to like be pretty on social media.

I,

a hundred percent. They get to know you so much faster in person

yes.

on social media, you have to consume, you know, a lot more of their content to get a feel for their personality, and even then it’s, you’re still like, ah, just is this really how you are or

Yes. Yep. Yep. Because they, you put on a face on social media, whereas when it, it’s in person, it’s a lot harder to put up that wall and that face that you built. But what’s your approach to building connections that actually lead to clients instead of just some sort of casual conversations?

I think being intentional with the

Yeah.

that you connect with, which I feel like might sound contradictory to what I just said, which was

Yeah.

with as many people as possible. But go where, you know, the people that you wanna connect with are. So, for example, that

Yes.

that I introduced myself in. Not everybody is somebody that you know, makes sense for me to connect with, but the vast majority of people that I want to reach are in this space. So when I am going to like networking events or when I am deciding like, okay, should I go to this one versus this one? I try to zoom out and look at what past events have they done in the past?

Is this where I think my people might be? And then. that I talk about and think is important is even though we go in like friendly, we wanna talk about the other person and ask about them. Don’t forget to talk about you and say like, oh, I,

Yes.

this. And usually they’ll ask like, tell me more about your business, or tell me more about you.

And that gives you the opportunity to say, yeah, I’m a brand photographer. I typically work with these people. And then once you’re in that space, you’ve opened the door for them to talk about their business, for you to talk about your business. If they know someone who could be interested in your services, they’ll be like,

Yeah.

me introduce you to so-and-so.

But you’ve already established that rapport, so I, I think it’s important to start. With the casual conversation, but then always bring it back to business. And I always like to end it with like, if we’re doing a 30 minute coffee chat with asking, you know, how can I support you? Is there anyone that I can connect you to, or anyone that you’re wanting to meet? And I think that maintains the tone of relationships, you know, we’re here to have fun, but also to make money.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And there’s a, there’s a right way to approach it and there’s a wrong way to approach it. Right. And just like you mentioned, now, of course we know that. You’ve been talking about Facebook groups. Facebook groups can be really good goldmines for networking, but a lot of people use them wrong.

So what’s your strategy for making them work without being super spammy?

Oh, I love this question. My favorite thing to do if you’re joining a new Facebook group.

I,

Just introduce yourself. That’s what I did. I told people about what I did. I didn’t ask for a sale. What I see happen when people join this Facebook group, the same one that I’m in, I will see, oh, hi. I’m like moving to this area and I’m looking for clients like, oh no, that’s

Yes.

I mean, I feel for you.

I too am looking for clients. But that’s not gonna get you clients. Like you gotta give before you. Ask for something. And I feel like that’s the equivalent of walking into a room of people and you’re just like, I need clients. Like, does anyone have clients for me? Like, you know what, he’s gonna respond to that.

That’s weird. So just introduce yourself first and really effort into integrating into the community,

Yeah.

and that will open the door to. Having these conversations and descending proposals. So when I posted my introduction post, I probably scheduled 20 or 30 coffee chats, maybe 10 of them.

Yeah.

kept in touch with people.

They were all, everyone was very lovely. But you know, it didn’t make sense for our businesses to stay connected, so we just lost touch. of those people I am still in touch with, and then maybe 10 of those people, I either directly sent a proposal or they have referred business to me. So. It pays

Yes.

and to introduce yourself without asking for something first.

Yeah, and I think, I think just going off of that note as well, I think it’s important to note that even with an introduction, it’s really good to actually initiate those coffee chats as well and really get to talking to people. I think a lot of people skip over those chats nowadays, and they’re like, oh, we can just talk on social media or something like that.

But when you have that. It intentional one-on-one time. It’s so much more important than being in the crowded space of social media or being in the crowded space of a networking group because then you’re actually learning more about each other in that personal basis and not just having like a bunch of people join in on the conversation.

Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. I,

So what’s a real, I mean, you’ve given some already, but what’s a real example of a connection or opportunity you’ve landed Just by showing up and engaging in a group.

oh yes. Well, like I just said. The coffee chat I had earlier today, I’m sending out a proposal, from that first chat or the first introduction where I scheduled all of these chats, two of them off the top of my head, ended up booking those express branding sessions that, we scheduled. , one of them is booked, US multiple times. What else has happened? I did end up sending, I think up. Around $15,000 worth of proposals from

Wow.

session. Now, I did not book $15,000 worth of proposals, but they were

Yes.

and I told you I had two plans, right? I wanted to maybe book or focus on the education side of my business. I ended up not following up with those proposals because I was like, I’ll just focus on the education side.

So I say that to

Yep.

I probably could have closed more, but I wanna be transparent. I sent out that much in proposals. Did not close all of it, but I also didn’t follow up, so you know, I could have done more.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that’s so valuable just to hear like how an intentional, going in with that connection mindset, intentionally posting about it, led to something. That just helped you grow in a new space. Now, I know you’re a big fan of kind of in-person networking groups that meet regularly.

Why do you think those are more effective than just going to like a one-off event Every once in a while?

I think it just goes

Yeah.

that connection building. With these one-off events, which I’ve attended, many of them, trend that I have noticed is that the people going to those, especially if it’s owners and entrepreneurs, you get a lot more of the people who are. Just trying to make money or make

Yes.

versus if you’re meeting with the group regularly, everyone that you see more than once is committed to building relationships in that community.

And so the more often you see people, the more they remember what you do, who you like to work with, and you naturally will just get to know them better and build. Stronger relationships. And I just feel like I have run into too many situations at these one-off networking events where like, you know, they’ll take the list of people who signed up and add them to their email list without asking,

Yes,

say that you could do this.

Like, you gotta

yes.

So I find that that doesn’t happen at these groups where you meet regularly because you’re gonna get called out if you do something like that.

Yes. And I love that because I actually used to be a part of BNI. It got a little bit too expensive for me to continue being in BNI, but we had someone come in just once and what he did was he took everyone’s cards out of the card binder and then afterwards he followed up and called everyone and started like pitching his services and we’re all like, what is happening?

Like, why is this person doing this? And we’re like, we, this is not the point of BNI, like the point of BNI is to actually. Come in and like connect and network and everything like that. And I just, I think it’s so important because when you’re in those groups like that, you really do build those relationships.

And then not only that, but you’re connected to now a network of 25 to 30 people,

Mm-hmm.

It’s just, it’s better to have a group where you’re consistently getting to meet with those people because you get to know them even deeper than if you were just to go to those one-off events. Obviously sometimes you are gonna see the same people at those events, but the chances of you actually building a connection are a lot less than the ones that are regularly meeting meaning.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

So for someone moving to a new city, what’s the first step you think that they should take to start building their own network?

Mm, the first step, definitely recover. Don’t do what I did and

Yeah.

to hit the ground running. Like give yourself some grace, first of all. But then I would just start looking at a few different places. The first being local, Facebook groups. So what I did was I went and I searched. Like Boston entrepreneurs, Boston business owners, Boston, whatever.

And that’s how I found this group that I am now a part of. And then once you find one, it doesn’t have to be the end all, be all. You can

Yes.

see if they’re your people, if not, surely someone that you meet will be able to tell you about another group that they’re part of or another place that they go, or event that they go to.

So I really love looking for Facebook groups first. But you can also. Like just Google it. Look for local

Yes.

groups. What’s it called? Like networking communities, even BNI, which I

Yep.

of people have mixed feelings about. It’s hit or miss. I have visited

Yes.

and I enjoyed it. I, I didn’t join because I didn’t feel like it made the most sense for what I’m doing now, but went, I met people. I was on someone’s podcast in the BNI group, and they have introduced me to people as well. So the first place you go, if it’s not, you know, a home run. It’s gonna be okay. Just around and now at least you have your foot in the door.

Yes. Yes. And I think that’s so important and I really appreciate you sharing your story today. I feel like it was really inspiring and such a good lesson to people who could be moving anywhere, but also people who are stagnant in their business, like get out there. Actually go and like network with people, join new groups, things like that.

So where can my audience connect with you to follow your journey or even book a branding session with you?

Yeah, I hang out mostly on instagram@emilykim.co.co. Same thing on threads, which is where we met. I love threads. Now it’s

Yes.

my favorite place. It feels so chill. Like what Instagram used to be like. And then I am, my website is Emily Kim photography.com if you are interested in a booking a session.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the show today, Emily. I really appreciate it, and, I look forward to, you know, connecting and chatting with you more.

yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

📍 If this episode reminded you that real growth doesn’t always come from flashy marketing, but from showing up, making real connections and being a good human first, you’re walking away with the gold. The truth. The people who succeed in new spaces aren’t the ones shouting the loudest. They’re the ones listening, building relationships, and playing the long game.

So take the pressure off, lead with service, and don’t be afraid to start small again. You’re building something beautiful. And if today’s episode lit a fire in you to build deeper connections and grow your business with intention, share it with a friend who’s in the same season. Whether you’re moving to a new city or just ready for a fresh start, the way forward is always through people don’t forget to rate and review the show as it helps other creative entrepreneurs like you find their way here. Farewell fellow travelers.