How Kelsey Doubled her Income in a Small Town in 1 Year

Want to connect with Kelsey?

Follow Kelsey on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirtroadphotography/

Visit her website: https://dirtroadphotography.com/

Check out her style guides for photographers: 

shop.dirtroadphotography.com

https://www.instagram.com/photostyleguides/

Summary

In this conversation, Kelsey Homolka shares her inspiring journey as a photographer in a small town, detailing her transition from a corporate job to running Dirt Road Photography. She discusses her passion for senior photography, the importance of connecting with her clients, and the challenges and triumphs of building a full-service photography business. Kelsey emphasizes the significance of mindset shifts, investing in growth, and balancing family life with her entrepreneurial endeavors. She also introduces her innovative styling guide for clients, aimed at enhancing their photography experience.

Takeaways

• Kelsey started her photography business to stay home with her kids.
• She found a strong connection with teenagers through senior photography.
• Mindset is crucial; you are not your own customer.
• Investing in your business is essential for growth.
• Letting go of editing allows for more family time.
• Building a supportive team can lead to greater success.
• Teaching entrepreneurship to her children is a priority.
• Kelsey offers styling guides to help clients prepare for sessions.
• Her average session fee increased significantly over the years.
• Balancing family and business is possible with the right strategies.

Thinking about joining Uncapped or Intensive coaching? 

DM me the word COACH to www.instagram.com/christa_rene for a no pressure convo on if this could help your business grow to the next level.

Thanks for listening! We’d LOVE if you left us a review!
Connect with Christa on Instagram HERE!
Enjoy a free 20-min training on adding $50k in income from products HERE!
Apply for Uncapped HERE!

Transcript

Christa (00:00.683)
Welcome everybody. I'm so excited that you're here. We have a special guest. Her name is Kelsey with Dirt Road Photography in Wilbur, Nebraska, and she is primarily in the senior space. And I invited her here because there's a few pieces of her story that I just find so intriguing. I've had the joy of coaching her now for now over a year, which has been crazy. So let's talk about that a little bit. But I wanted her to share with y'all how she got going in her journey, but also like what things look like now for her.

Kelsey Homolka (00:12.002)
Yes.

Kelsey Homolka (00:21.006)
We're excited. Yeah.

Christa (00:29.761)
Kelsey, tell us a little bit about the start of your business and a little bit about you.

Kelsey Homolka (00:33.358)
Ah, hello, okay, so I started my business, Dirt Road Photography, back in 2013, 2014. I actually have two college degrees using neither. I think that's the success story of every single entrepreneur. Yeah, I have a ag business degree with diversified crops, a farming degree, essentially.

Christa (00:49.143)
I don't think I knew that. What are your degrees in?

Kelsey Homolka (00:58.9)
And I also have an insurance and marketing degree and I worked in an investment firm before I was a photographer.

Christa (01:05.463)
I didn't know that, that's amazing. Okay, so how did you, how did the journey then shift into you having your photo business?

Kelsey Homolka (01:07.318)
Yeah, I did that and

Kelsey Homolka (01:13.054)
I always said I want to find a way to stay home with kids and so that was always in the back of my head like even I had even as I was getting my ag degree I was like, okay, like I want to set myself up to be like stay at home mom farmwife type thing So I just always had that journey in the back of my head and then I started doing photography with that thought in mind and what I how I started it was I actually Worked at my full-time job

And then I did like all the, like I did an MLM, did all those fun things. And I started out by putting away, I put away a year's salary. And I said, hey, like I want to do this. I am determined to do this. I'm putting away a year's worth of salary. And if I make it, I make it. And if I don't, I don't, I'm launching this. Let's go. So I got a Christmas, I got a camera for Christmas the way everyone else does. And I just kind of started from there. I did the usual like,

model calls, learning your camera, all those things. And then I just launched out and I said, let's try it. Let's do a year's worth of income and see if I can make it work.

Christa (02:19.541)
Amazing. I love that. Okay. And also Kelsey, one thing that like is really interesting about you, and I forgot to say, I want to touch on this, is you're in a small town. Can you tell us a little bit? Because we have listeners from literally all over the US just about like you mentioned just now, it just kind of sparked when you said, know, a farm life, right? Like I'm sure people are like, whoa, well, like I have a Pinterest board being a farm wife, but tell me more.

Kelsey Homolka (02:21.058)
Yeah, nervous. was very nerve wracking.

Kelsey Homolka (02:34.83)
Cool.

Kelsey Homolka (02:44.954)
Yeah, home setting is the new trend right now and I'm here for it, like making our own bread, growing gardens, all that. So yeah, I live in a town of, I drove to town to get coffee today, because we're a little bit out of town. I live in a town of 1798, 1,798 people. Super tiny, we have one local grocery store, we have,

Christa (03:07.243)
Wow.

Kelsey Homolka (03:10.958)
two gas stations and we have a Dollar General.

Christa (03:15.627)
Wow, so very small town and that's where you built up your business, correct? In that town.

Kelsey Homolka (03:16.621)
Yeah.

Yep, I actually for a short while moved to an even smaller town. I was in a town of 600. So I literally have been small town girl the whole time. The closest Starbucks is like 45 minutes.

Christa (03:28.961)
That's wild.

Christa (03:32.776)
Okay, well that's amazing.

And I love though, when you said like homestead is the new thing, you were doing it before it was cool. Like you're like the OG.

Kelsey Homolka (03:37.218)
Yeah.

Right? I was blogging when blogging was cool. I was getting like brand deals with companies when like blogging was like the cool thing. yeah.

Christa (03:49.26)
Yeah.

That's amazing, Kelsey. Okay, so you started your business, you're in this small town. What, I don't think I've actually ever talked to you about this. What caught your interest most that pushed you into the senior space?

Kelsey Homolka (03:58.018)
Mm-hmm.

Kelsey Homolka (04:06.422)
So that first year of doing it, had, I mean, all the friends, all the family, all the things that I was doing pictures of. And I just found that I was, oh gosh, 2014, I would have been, I don't know, 24, 25. I just felt the most connected with teenagers at that time, not in a weird way. But I just felt connected with hearing their stories and seeing what excitement they had and where their plans were.

And I was just like, you know, I was that person who was like, I know that I want to go to college. I know I want to do something, but I also want to be able to make my own schedule. And so that's where like hearing senior stories just really resonated with me because I was like, these kids have such big dreams and I'm so excited to follow them and hear what they want to do. So I found it easy to connect with seniors and I found it the most fun to just make these cool, elaborate ideas.

come to life, like shooting a wheat field full of beautiful at sunset with a senior girl or getting to like have these cool pickups with these senior boys and just like making what their like dream images are come to life.

Christa (05:06.742)
I love that.

Christa (05:19.873)
That's amazing. And I feel like with photographers, Kelsey, it's one of those things where either like you love seniors or you're like, I am terrified of them. So I love that you really took that love to encourage them. Cause those are hard years, especially now. Yeah. I can't imagine Kelsey, especially with, I was talking to Brandy, which you know Brandy well, but like even just having social media and stuff now, like how cool it is that you get to be part of this journey and give them this experience to feel so beautiful and great about themselves.

Kelsey Homolka (05:21.058)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (05:27.224)
Yep. Yeah.

so hard and overwhelming. Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (05:47.532)
I know, and they're just incredible. We have so many incredible youth and everyone, like dogs on them. And I'm like, they have such good dreams. And there are so many kids that are really driven to achieve that like, I think we're gonna see a generation shift. Like quote me on it. I think we're gonna see a generation shift of kids that wanna work.

Christa (05:56.364)
Yes.

Christa (06:01.921)
Yeah. Yeah.

Christa (06:08.257)
Yeah. And so many uses and talents that they have that they can help the next, know, older generations with of their knowledge of social media and these different platforms coming out that are kind of taking over. So Kelsey, yes. Yeah. But more than ever. Well, and think about you brought up, like you were blogging before it was cool, right? That was how we built our businesses. That was the way to do it. We didn't have Instagram and TikTok.

Kelsey Homolka (06:18.926)
And we are opening a world of allowing them to be entrepreneurs. Like we are showing them how to be entrepreneurs. Yeah. I love that.

Kelsey Homolka (06:34.882)
That was, yeah. That was essentially being an influencer before influencers existed. Cause mine was primarily a farming and a runner blog. Cause I was big into the running world. So I was getting like brand deals with like running products. And then I was also using it as a platform to educate people. Cause a lot of people don't know like the daily practice of farming and like what everything was. So I use that as more like my influencer world.

Christa (06:41.366)
Yeah!

Kelsey Homolka (07:02.305)
And it really opened the door of like, this is cool and like we can run our own businesses. So that really, think sparked my want and desire to do something and photography kind of just was aligned with that.

Christa (07:14.839)
Well, let's talk about that because one thing really intriguing about you that I'm going to be honest, I think you are one of the only people I've talked to that have this as you started out the gate basically being full service. You never did shoot and burn. So like, what was that decision around? Because I find that so intriguing.

Kelsey Homolka (07:31.118)
So 2013, 2014, 2013 is kind of when I started. 2014 is really when I put my feet down deep and went full time. Back then, I was charging a session fee, which I think was like $50. And then I was charging for a CD. And I think a lot of that, that was when CDs were also cool. I think a lot of that was...

Christa (07:35.915)
Mm-hmm.

Kelsey Homolka (07:57.174)
just because I had read enough blogs, I was doing enough with my camera that I felt like there's gotta be more to this. And at the time I wanted to, like, I don't know what it was, and it's always been on my heart to sell prints. So I think what it was, I just wanted to really push prints. So I sold prints and products, and then I also offered a CD. So the CD was $30 for all their digitals. I mean,

Christa (08:17.142)
Yeah.

Christa (08:25.75)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (08:26.446)
you look at that, you're like, you, you, doesn't even cover your website costs for like, oh, you look at that. wonder if I find out I'm going to pull out. I keep, I keep all my old guides. This like the stuff that 2017, um, but I was going to pull out. I was going to pull out my old pricing. I mean, this one was my, like my CDs and stuff were literally $300.

Christa (08:31.659)
Right.

Christa (08:43.425)
I love that.

Kelsey Homolka (08:55.854)
But I just felt like the IPS felt like aligned with what I wanted to do. And I knew there was always a room for growth. And so I think that's kind of how I started out. My system was I was charging $50 and then $30 for a CD and really warming my audience up to understand that pricing structure so that when I felt qualified to start growing, I could easily like scale that system.

And from the start, I've always been that way. And I just feel that there was a quality in pricing myself that way, because then you had the opportunity to scale your business in a way that made sense.

Christa (09:40.343)
And I'm really jealous of that just because everything that I was doing at the beginning and there were amazing educators that I soaked in content. I just didn't know the first several years, Kelsey, of really that being a solid system except for if you were like an old man with this old moldy studio. You know, I didn't know that was possible. And one of my, actually my biggest regret in my photo business is not shifting to full service sooner because...

Kelsey Homolka (09:56.376)
Right? Yeah.

Christa (10:05.737)
I saw how many years I left so much on the table, so much service on the table, so much money on the table. I think it even might have shaped why I even dipped my toes into weddings.

Kelsey Homolka (10:14.786)
Yeah, and I think a lot of people did that because that was the thing you did. Like it was common knowledge and as social media started taking over, that's what you saw on social media from other photographers. So that felt like the normal thing to do. You get your camera and then you just say $200 and I'll give you all the pictures you want. And at the time it probably was profitable, but as you grew your business and you realized just how much you had invested in your business.

Christa (10:26.443)
Yeah, yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (10:42.476)
I think it was a breakthrough to either stay safe and small and just making a profit, not running it as a business, or to scale and grow and really get to break out of those numbers.

Christa (10:56.991)
And for you having such a strong mindset where Kelsey, hear all the time, but I'm in a small town. aren't, Krista, people aren't dropping money on this. So could you, Kelsey, share maybe, to maybe the photographer listening, Kelsey, that's thinking that of like, yeah, I'd love to go full service. mean, Kelsey, now you're pushing almost a two grand average and you're still in a small town. What would you tell that photographer right now who's like, I would love to do something like this, but I'm afraid no one in my town will buy?

Kelsey Homolka (11:23.342)
A, get out of your own head. B, shift that mindset. I was very stuck in that mindset. And you have to remind yourself you're not your own customer. There are people that value your work. And over time, I think you can establish yourself and just focus on like, you don't have to be in your small town. Example, this last year, I shot about 40 seniors. And I think two.

Christa (11:31.351)
Hmm.

Kelsey Homolka (11:53.142)
were from my small town. The rest were, so that would be 38. I had people driving two and a half hours. And if your service is quality, people will travel. And there are times, I mean, also as a small town photographer, you also have to be willing to make the sacrifice and wanting to travel too. I enjoy traveling, so for me, it's not an issue. I do a decent amount of traveling, but I do...

Christa (12:01.557)
Wow.

Christa (12:07.628)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (12:22.028)
set sessions up that are a 45 minute drive for me. I don't mind it. Again, I like traveling. I like that quiet time on a drive. I mean, it's just like a fun, podcast on and just have your own little quiet time without everyone needing something from you. But you do have to be willing to kind of choose your boundaries, I guess.

Christa (12:42.199)
Right. And for you, you know, if you were charging 300, that 45 minutes wouldn't be worth it. But you know, we were talking right before this, what were you averaging back when you started in 2014 per shoot?

Kelsey Homolka (12:47.778)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (12:56.174)
I had to do some digging. So I was averaging for seniors $275 in 2014. So almost 10 years ago, 11 years ago, $275 was my senior average.

Christa (13:05.984)
Okay.

Christa (13:10.999)
Wow. So then very full circle, 275 to what are you averaging now?

Kelsey Homolka (13:17.774)
I'm averaging 1900. That is on the skinny side, closer to probably 2000, if we're being really honest.

Christa (13:26.891)
Yeah. Right. So you've like, basically, what is that like Kelsey? Ninexed almost your average in that time. And I shared that not to say, you know, it took her 10 years. So if you're 275 now, add 10 years on, but even in the last year, Kelsey, that we've coached together, like how has that changed your income and average?

Kelsey Homolka (13:33.422)
Absolutely.

Kelsey Homolka (13:43.605)
Yeah, big success. So before coaching, I was at like 1390, something close to that. So like, we're gonna say 1400. Now I'm at 1900. So that's a $500 average, which is about one or two more products, depending on what we're doing. So I always say Krista has given me the confidence as I'm gonna call her like my little buddy on my shoulder. She has...

She's like sitting here and then if she hears me, like in my mind, I'm like, she's gonna hear me say, I'll give you a discount on that. And she's like, no, no, you can't give her that. So Krista has just built that confidence inside of me to say like, hey, you're worth that. Like do not give discounts for that. You are worth what you're doing and you deserve that because ultimately that's gonna take part of your family time away. So charge that because you need that.

Christa (14:40.727)
Wow, thank you for saying that, Kelsey. And I think it's good to see, you you grew your average basically $500 in the year. So for the photographer wondering like, like Kelsey, I feel like there's so many random rules out there of like every 10 sessions go up 1%, like all this, these are random kind of dumb things versus like just get strategic, shift to full service. And like, you can make leaps and bounds year to year. So you even just mentioned now family, like I would love for you to share for those listening that like, hey,

Kelsey Homolka (14:42.954)
You're my little buddy.

Kelsey Homolka (15:02.083)
Mm-hmm.

Christa (15:06.999)
What does life look like for Kelsey now? You know, at that like $1,900 average, do you have kids at home? Like what are things looking like for you?

Kelsey Homolka (15:15.022)
So we have two big kids, I call them big kids. We have a freshman in high school and we have a junior and it's so hard because it just hit me like a couple weeks ago that I have a senior in my house and I get to do all the senior things. I'm so excited but I'm so nervous because as a photographer you're like just like one part removed so you get to do all the cool senior things but you're just like a step back and this year I'm in the forefront so.

Christa (15:26.549)
Wow.

Christa (15:30.145)
That's fun.

Christa (15:40.129)
Yeah, you're in it.

Kelsey Homolka (15:44.04)
looking forward to this year, my time is going to be very, very limited. And with coaching, we've walked through like where I'm at with that. And we've walked through what I want to achieve and setting boundaries for those things so that I can be active with all of the senior things. And it's been very overwhelming because part of just running a business is you're on social, you're active. And my socials have really blown up and I'm getting one or two inquiries a day during off season.

Typically, this time of year, I'm getting maybe one or two inquiries a week. Right now, I'm getting two or three a day. And so it's been overwhelming because I want to serve all these people. I love my job. I love serving my senior clients. But it's also setting the boundary and the expectation that I have to be there to show up for my family. And I love getting that opportunity to set my business up to serve my family in the way I want to.

Christa (16:13.633)
Wow.

Christa (16:25.345)
Great, great.

Christa (16:38.059)
And if anyone talks to Kelsey, like you do not have to chat with you very long before like your kids just organically come up. Like, and I think that's Kelsey. One of the reasons I want to harp on that, especially with you is like, it's so clear how important that is to you. And I think sometimes photographers think, you know, to get to this level that you're at, you went from 50 K in 2023 to double that and did a hundred K in sales in 2024 that you can have that six figure business.

Kelsey Homolka (16:45.208)
They're pretty fun.

Kelsey Homolka (17:02.51)
and I still showed up, yeah.

Christa (17:04.895)
And you were still a great mom. And granted, Kelsey, I get it. There were long days for you. I know there were long weeks for you, especially being in the space you're in, it being very seasonal. But you were incredibly intentional. You brought in a team member to help you with that. Like, where do you want, I know I'm putting you on the spot here, like where do you want things to head? Like you hit six figures. Like what's next for you?

Kelsey Homolka (17:27.79)
Ooh, ooh, love this. Okay, I'm such a dreamer and a goal setter and I like, let's chat it. Okay, so this year, we're all about, again, scaling that team out. So a couple years ago, I like just hit this like, I gotta do something kind of thing. So that's when I hired you and I said, hey, here's where I'm at. I can stay in this like, I'm maxed out. I'm at the 1390, 1400 range.

Christa (17:31.669)
I know you are, so just word vomit on us, Kelsey, we wanna hear.

Christa (17:40.908)
Hmm.

Kelsey Homolka (17:57.07)
I can continue that path and I can continue it and grow or I can make that shift and say like, here's my big goal. Let's get there. So I hired on an editor. Sure. I think a year before you, I hired you on, I hired a VA, I hired an accountant and I just kind of said like, we're going to, again, just like, just like restarting myself in 2014, I said, let's, let's re.

Christa (18:13.495)
Hmm.

Kelsey Homolka (18:24.042)
Reinvent the wheel. We know we've got the cash saved up if we have to do this We're gonna do it and we're gonna say stagnant, but let's scale and grow. So I started that and What's what's new with me? We're gonna do

Christa (18:36.897)
Sure, yeah, like the offers that you have coming up too. I know we've been like chatting about, but Kelsey, real quick, before you get into that, can I touch on something that I think is really cool about you? As you were talking, I think one of the things that stops photographers, like you could not have gotten to that hundred K without that team member helping you, right? Without like a coach helping, without the accountant. And I think some photographers see those things and are just adding up all that overhead in their head. So they stay where they're at. So like, what would you say?

Kelsey Homolka (18:41.432)
Yes.

Kelsey Homolka (19:04.973)
Yep.

Christa (19:06.369)
to that photographer maybe having like those mindset blocks of really taking themselves seriously and investing in themselves.

Kelsey Homolka (19:10.732)
Yeah. I would say you have to spend money to make money. And this is, I think Ashley Brock or the sales girls, we were at a retreat for that recently. They're the ones who really push it. And it makes sense in the ad world, but it makes sense in a business world too. Like you have to invest in order to see a bigger return. So for me, like obviously it was scary. And I found the people that I said, Hey, there's room to grow. Would you guys be willing to take that risk on?

And they all openly said, yeah, let's do this together. And that just kind of is how it started out. And then as you go, you have to learn to let go, which is so hard for someone that's type A like me. But you have to learn to let go and allow the micromanaging to stop and just trust people to be part of your business and grow with your business. Yeah, very hard, very hard.

Christa (19:50.519)
Yeah!

Christa (19:57.345)
Yeah, and it's hard.

Christa (20:02.527)
And as photographers, Kelce, we wear so many hats where we're running our own social media and make it's often making our own website and doing our own accounting and all these little things. And it comes down to like, okay, Kelsey, you got clear on how can I shoot more and grow my average? Like basically you shot better, you got strategic and sold higher and could get more of those things off of your plate. you doubled your income. That's unheard of in the photo industry.

Kelsey Homolka (20:23.414)
And you can be better at what you love. I can be better at shooting and connecting with my clients. And I can let go of the things, like having to edit. I hated editing. This last year, I finally let go of even culling my galleries. That was something that I was like non-negotiable, will not let go of. I told my editor, charge me the upcharge and cull for me if I really want. I will go through if there's one picture I'm missing. So like.

Just as a family mom, mean, you have to be willing to say like, I love my family more and I wanna be at that baseball game more than I wanna be sitting inside and sorting those pictures. Or I wanna go to my daughter's Christmas concert. wanna go to her, I wanna be the parent that gets to host the sleepovers. And I can't do that if I'm too busy focusing on my editing or sitting in front of QuickBooks.

It was really hard, but you just have to trust that it is opening the door for bigger things and it's opening the door for you to be able to take on that, maybe that one extra client to help pay for those things.

Christa (21:29.985)
Yeah. And I feel like we could have a whole separate conversation on this, but as you become more present in those family things, you also saw your business grow. It doesn't really, Kelce, like separate, especially for you. I know you have so much more wisdom there being a much more seasoned mom than me, but it's not just like, I'm at the baseball game and outsourced it and now my business is suffering. Like you were able to also scale your business in a huge way. I wanted to end.

Kelsey Homolka (21:52.87)
Yeah. And I think just being at that baseball game, it also put my face in front of my community and it showed, it showed my community that I can juggle both. That also showed them like, I'm active in this, I'm participating in this, but also I'm a business owner. So again, like a lot of my clients aren't from my town when it comes to seniors, but also they're seeing me active in the community. So.

Christa (21:59.926)
Yeah!

Christa (22:21.387)
I love that. I think that's so incredible. something so many photographers can learn from, it's not sacrificing your family to grow your business. It's both. you even being more present for your family just shows your clients why you have those boundaries and what you value.

Kelsey Homolka (22:22.38)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (22:34.316)
Yeah. And to put a little plug in there, so me and Matt both own businesses. He also farms. But our kids, we've been really encouraging them to do entrepreneurship. So our son, actually, we encouraged him, instead of getting a summer job like all high school boys, we encouraged him to do a lawn mowing business. So he owns a lawn mowing business, and he got a loan from us to pay for half of the mower. And he uses some of our stuff too, but.

Christa (22:47.073)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (23:03.272)
he has then paid back his mower and earned all of his own cash. Our little girl, she made a bracelet business and it's just fun to have them be little entrepreneurs and like hold their hands along the way, but also introduce them to like, you are capable of running your own business and it's just such an incredible thing to watch them just learn and grow with us too. So like just instilling like you can do if you want the extra income, it's sitting there for you. You just have to be willing to work.

Christa (23:11.883)
I love that. Yeah.

Christa (23:30.977)
Right. And I think it's so cool, Kelsey, that they're doing that from watching you and Matt. And also, Kelsey, they're seeing, I can have my business and y'all are at their games and their things. It's not like, I don't.

Kelsey Homolka (23:35.416)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (23:42.85)
hang out with my friends too, or I can, yeah, I can have my business and still go to the pool with my friends. That's a lot of kind of what we are really showing them. And I actually love bringing my little daughter. She comes to sessions and it's so fun because I do pay her or we joke around, I'll pay you in Starbucks, but it's fun to see her interact. I think there's something to say about people that bring their kids into their businesses and it's fun to see her interact and see me interact with clients.

Christa (23:48.543)
Yes.

Christa (23:58.133)
I love that.

Kelsey Homolka (24:08.973)
And I love her because she now has her little, like we call it our customer service voices, but she's got her own little customer service voice and it's just so incredible to watch the kids grow. She is 14 and driving. Nebraska's terrified. Yeah.

Christa (24:16.383)
I love that. And how old is she?

Christa (24:25.143)
How special to like as a 14 year old have that instilled in you from your mom. Like that's amazing. So Kelsey, I wanted to for our listeners and I asked Kelsey to share this. Cause you have developed like just this really cool resource that's so cost effective and truly like a no brainer sell for photographers. Share a little bit about that with us and we will also link this in the show notes.

Kelsey Homolka (24:29.71)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (24:38.21)
Mm-hmm.

Kelsey Homolka (24:42.562)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (24:46.156)
Yeah, okay, so I was struggling on the, and this is kind of, think as a photographer we all feel this way, I was struggling with how to get my clients to show up looking pretty. So several years ago I said, okay, here's the deal, I'm making this guide and I'm giving it to my clients. And so I started doing that and then it kind of took off to where like a couple of my local friends were like, my gosh, these are cool. It has like 10 to 15 pages of like,

Christa (25:11.916)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (25:14.574)
styles for families or I have a senior one too. So I send them out in my client once they book. It's just an auto file that goes out in HoneyBook. But I send these out and my clients are showing up looking really pretty and really put together and they're not doing the matchy matchy thing and we don't have like the orange tennis shoe sneakers looks to them. So I started offering them to other photographers and now I do a new one every year. I release new ones every year.

Christa (25:23.606)
Wow.

Kelsey Homolka (25:42.328)
We're growing, I just built out an heirloom minis one. I have something, yeah, I have something built for every photographer and each page has clickable links to shop all of the styles inside of them.

Christa (25:47.477)
amazing.

Christa (25:59.137)
That's amazing. like, so if you're a photographer out there and you are like, I would love for my clients to show up at that next level. And I get it, Kelsey, like I am not great at styling where it's like, but I don't know what to say. You have literally outsourced that for them.

Kelsey Homolka (26:12.682)
Yeah, I have both spring, summer and fall for families, for senior boys, senior girl. And I have a holiday one actually for families too, but they just help, even if it's just serving your clients on a bigger level, that's one more touch point of setting yourself apart from the person that is charging the flat session fee and not doing IPS. That's just more of a luxury experience of like, they book their session and then they don't know what to wear or they stretch, like that I've.

Christa (26:18.453)
amazing.

Christa (26:28.076)
Yes.

Kelsey Homolka (26:41.132)
I've heard from a lot of clients that is a big setback of why they're scared to book a session because they're just like, I don't know what to wear. Well, let me tell you, I've got that covered. Like we throw this guide together. It has all the clickable links. You can shop. There are a lot of local things that you can shop for too and just use it as inspo and you can purchase right from the guide. If you want, you can click on the link and it goes straight to Gap or Target or I think there's a lot of Amazon in there. We tried to make it accessible for everyone across the US so that

Christa (27:09.813)
love that in different price points. Perfect. We'll link that in the show notes, Kelsey, but share your handle and again, we'll share on Instagram too, but for that person that's like, my gosh, I'm ready to go. I want to see Kelsey's page and DM, can they DM you too if they need the link? Where can they find you?

Kelsey Homolka (27:11.414)
Yeah. Yep. That's what we did. Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (27:24.398)
Absolutely, I love answering questions. My Instagram is at dirtroadphotography. My Facebook is dirtroadphotography. think it's Nebraska, I don't know, you know Facebook. And then my website is just dirtroadphotography.com. Yeah.

Christa (27:38.228)
Yeah.

Christa (27:42.135)
Perfect, I love that. Well, Kelsey, thank you so much for taking the time to come and share your story. I know it was so inspiring for those who maybe are in small towns or feeling stuck or balancing motherhood with this. And we're so excited. We'll link everything that we chatted through in the show notes. And y'all definitely go over and connect with Kelsey on Instagram.

Kelsey Homolka (27:54.733)
Yeah.

Kelsey Homolka (28:02.606)
So excited.