The Impact of Authenticity and Connection in Photography with Tanya Boggs

Tanya Boggs shares her journey as a photographer, discussing her evolution from family portraits to personal branding. She emphasizes the importance of authenticity in photography, especially in showcasing who you are as the face OF your brand and how understanding clients' stories can build trust. Tanya also highlights her new project "As You Are" focuses on women's resilience, aiming to empower and connect through shared experiences. The discussion delves into the significance of community and the power of storytelling in fostering connection and healing.

Find Tanya here:

• Website: tanyaboggs.com
• Instagram: @tanyaboggsphoto

Transcript

Cat Ford-Coates (00:01.464)
Hey, Tanya, I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to the podcast. Why don't you kind of catch everybody up? Like, where are you from? What do you do? What do you love about being in business? Like, you know, the fun stuff.

Tanya Boggs (00:15.948)
The fun stuff. Okay, well I'm glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Where I'm from is always a complicated question. I was born in a rural town in North Carolina, but I grew up in LA. I've lived all over the country actually. We moved every two years most of my life until I bought my house 12 years ago and that's the only time I've been in the same place for a long time.

Cat Ford-Coates (00:35.886)
Wow.

Tanya Boggs (00:42.834)
My photography journey started so long ago. It's been a wild winding road. Started when I was in my 20s, so it's been a long time. I won't tell you exactly my age, but I'm no longer 20, that's for sure. Just 29. Yeah, and I've done different aspects of photography. I...

Cat Ford-Coates (01:03.35)
It's fine.

Tanya Boggs (01:12.004)
I just start, I took a photography class, I fell in love and so then I went on that whole journey of what was that gonna look like. I went to college to study photography. I went on to get my MFA so I could teach college. I taught college for a while, but before I even taught college, I started my business. And so I've been in the art world of photography. I've been in the family portrait space in photography. Now I'm in.

the lifestyle branding, personal branding space. So yeah, I've sort of weaved my way through, photography's always the consistent, but I've kind of reinvented myself multiple times inside that world. Yeah.

Cat Ford-Coates (01:56.036)
Okay, so the shifts and moving from genre to genre, like what are the catalyst pieces of that for you?

Tanya Boggs (02:07.43)
well, my daughter was really, when she was born, I had, I was in the middle of my bachelor's degree and she became my muse really. And so, I photographed a lot of her growing up and people used to compare me to Sally man, which at first I thought was a compliment. And then after a while it became very annoying.

And so then I went to grad school and I went to a conceptual art school. So they turned, they sort of beat me up for being more Sally man, black and white photography and pushed me in a new direction. And so my work became more same thread of through the work, but I was photographing my thesis show was portraits of dead things, dead birds, dead fish, dead.

bees, but they're quite large, larger than life. And then after grad school, I sort of was trying to undo all the things that sort of got jammed down my throat in grad school. And then I was like, I just want to take pictures and make money. And as soon as I said it, I was like, I can do that. And I started my business the next day. I was like, I can do that. You know, I know how to do that.

Cat Ford-Coates (03:26.18)
I'm

Tanya Boggs (03:36.178)
So I just sort of fumbled my way through the business side of it and got it all set up and I was kind of off to the races there. But I had always been shooting even in grad school, know, portraits of people. I was being hired for stuff like that. you know, had been making money on the side for a while, but then it became this commitment to let's just do this.

Cat Ford-Coates (04:01.604)
Okay. Right. Okay. So the first scale, right? Is like, I know how to do this. can, you know, I'm taking side gig money, right? But like moving from, you know, families to branding or from fine art to families, is it just because like the side hustle was showing you like proof of concept or least path of least resistance? Like, you know,

Tanya Boggs (04:27.292)
Well, the side jobs I was doing was already families. I was doing pregnant women and family shoots and stuff like that. So that was a natural sort of place for me to start from. And then the branding portion just kind of kept showing up. People kept asking me for headshots. And so that sort of opened that door.

Cat Ford-Coates (04:49.027)
Mmm.

Tanya Boggs (04:55.866)
And then the more I got into that, the more I enjoyed it more than families. And so I just really started leaning into that and slowly but surely sort of shed the families. And yeah, so it was just sort of this natural flow that happened. I still shoot families occasionally from, if I have current clients who want stuff that I'm capable of doing, cause I shoot a lot of lifestyle.

Cat Ford-Coates (05:01.027)
Okay.

Tanya Boggs (05:23.588)
It's not that far of a stretch to do that for families. And especially if they have older children. I'm not in love with the younger children. It's like a wrestling match between the parents and the photographer and the kids. And I'm like, yeah, this is not my jam anymore. But older families and clients that I enjoy working with, I'm always happy to accommodate in places where I feel like I'm good at it. If I'm not good at something, I will say.

Cat Ford-Coates (05:26.616)
Gotcha, gotcha.

Cat Ford-Coates (05:33.816)
Boop-do-do-do!

Tanya Boggs (05:51.794)
I'll pass them on to someone else. So, yeah.

Cat Ford-Coates (05:54.424)
Okay. Now, one of the things I have noticed about your work and you know, like working with you in, in, you know, different aspects of your career, right? Like you definitely have a thread that's pulled through everything and you know, you're very much a creative and like with your brand work, it's not just, you know, stand here, shoot that. Like you really incorporate

Tanya Boggs (06:05.938)
I

Tanya Boggs (06:11.282)
Mm-hmm.

Cat Ford-Coates (06:20.866)
not just personality, but like authenticity into how people show up when they're photographed by you. Like, do you have a specific method for that or do you just kind of lean into behavior? Like, what does that look like in your world?

Tanya Boggs (06:35.474)
So I've always prioritized getting to know my clients and who they are. and I think that I instantly realized that nobody else was doing that. That when they would, cause I would sometimes, photographers can be stingy with their information. They're like, I'm not going to tell you anything about what I do.

Cat Ford-Coates (06:40.184)
Mm-hmm.

Cat Ford-Coates (06:56.128)
Gatekeep Unite. Yeah.

Tanya Boggs (06:59.704)
Right, but I have other friends, I have a ton of friends who are photographers and we will talk shop all day long. We'll compare pricing, we'll help each other. think it's not something you really need to protect if you open yourself up to being open about it. Because then you're not gouging the market by undercutting everybody. You're not the most expensive. You can kind of find where you fit. so I would sometimes...

In order to, when I moved to Charleston specifically, I had to restart my business in this market and I didn't know what the market could bear here. And I couldn't get any of the photographers to talk to me. So I just set up a Google account, Google Gmail under a different name. And I started just asking around, hey, I need pricing for this and this and this. And I was shocked at how many people were like, it's this price. What day do you want to come in?

They didn't wanna know anything about me. They didn't ask me any questions. They just gave me a date and a time and a price. And I was like, okay, this makes me different. Cause I wanna know all the things. And so I was already naturally sending people out a questionnaire initially, like here are some six or eight basic questions I wanna know about you. What industry are you in? What makes you unique from your competitors?

What are three words you want to say about yourself and your images? Like just some basic stuff. And then from there, that would follow up with a phone call where we start really digging into the specifics of that. What I found out, what questions I needed to ask, what I realized they didn't need to know or they didn't know, know to ask. Sometimes they don't know what to ask. And that developed into a bigger com for...

conversation and then it's like bouncing ideas around about who they are, how they want to be photographed, where they might want to be photographed.

Cat Ford-Coates (09:05.272)
Why do you think it's important for a photographer to understand those things?

Tanya Boggs (09:10.544)
Because for me, it has always been authenticity. it's such a shame that authentic became this buzzword. I was using it so long ago that I finally ditched it after it became a buzzword. was like, everybody says that. But they don't really know what it means. But that's fundamentally what I want to get to is because I don't think that we have competitors.

when we really look at ourselves and what we bring to the table. We're all unique. We all have a different skillset. And so I don't really compare myself to other photographers. And I think I try to coach my clients. Like, you're not really competing with these people, especially if you stand out and you really personalize what you're showing about yourself, because they wanna know more about you. know, just the high and tight head shot just tells you what they look,

tells them what you look like. It doesn't tell them anything about you. So that's kind of been my approach is just diving in so that I can really serve them and help them. And then when we're together, help them be confident about who they are and help them get relaxed in, know, what do I do with my hands? Well, I don't know. What do you normally do with your hands? Are you a pocket person? Are you a?

Cat Ford-Coates (10:34.468)
you

Tanya Boggs (10:39.25)
And so it's just sort of watching, observing, talking, helping them relax. And over the course of that session, they begin to calm down. They begin to start to just move in their normal way. Suddenly they know what to do with their hands. So it's just a way of serving them and helping them. Because I think generations...

Our generation especially, not ours, I don't think we're in the same generation. I know if you're in with me. But I think the older generations were more uncomfortable in front of the camera. Some of these younger kids who have been photographed, over photographed, photographed selfies all day long of themselves. They're not as uncomfortable as some people. Yeah.

Cat Ford-Coates (11:23.748)
Well, I don't know that that's true. You know, and just to be clear, I'm Gen X.

Tanya Boggs (11:31.73)
Okay, then we're the same. I'm just on the older side.

Cat Ford-Coates (11:38.276)
Yeah, I'm like the tail end of Gen X. But I don't think that makes them more comfortable in front of the camera. In fact, I think it makes them more hypercritical. Because selfies, I'll always ask people, do you have a preferred side? And the people who are selfie people are like, yeah, right? They're immediately up and over.

Tanya Boggs (11:39.909)
Yeah.

Tanya Boggs (12:04.722)
Yeah.

Cat Ford-Coates (12:06.244)
But then we talk through the why of that. Right? Typically if somebody prefers one side, because you know, it's about symmetry. And whatever's closest to the camera appears the largest. So if like my preferred side is typically my left side. And it's because this eye is smaller than this one. Right? So my left eye is smaller than my right eye. So if I turn my head and that eye is closer to camera, now they look more symmetrical.

And so I'll actually talk through that with people and they go, wow, okay, I get it. That education, even just in quiet conversation. But the people who have been selfied six ways to Sunday, they, at least in my experience, tend to be more hypercritical because they're so used to being photographed a certain way, even if it's just by themselves.

that seeing from a professional standpoint can feel really like, whoa. Like I photographed this girl, I don't know, maybe about six weeks ago now for her senior photos. And my stuff is typically when they come in for full on glam wardrobe, all the things, especially teenagers, right?

my favorite stuff is usually more storytelling conceptual stuff. Well, of course her absolute favorite was this big giant smile spinning, you know, la la la, which is normally a parent's favorite, right? But she felt like it was most authentic to her. Like that's my personality, that's what I love. And so when we start bringing that into...

Well, portrait work in general, whether we're talking about personal brands or even just a senior photo shooter, boudoir or anything else, allowing people to recognize themselves. Because if we just run them through the same couple of poses over and over again, and I don't want to say unnatural, but like.

Cat Ford-Coates (14:16.196)
that make them feel really off center and not grounded, that will come through in their expression. So I love that you lean into just like, okay, who are you? You said something once that I just thought was hilarious. We were on a call and I think you were working on updating an article or something about.

headshots and you looked at it and you know like building trust through authenticity and not showing up 10 years older than your photo or whatever but you said it was catfishing and I just I laugh about that constantly but you know like why is that important for people to understand like they're avoiding being photographed because maybe they've had poor experiences in the past or

Tanya Boggs (14:59.698)
you

Cat Ford-Coates (15:10.786)
Maybe it feels like a time suck or insert, I don't want to reason here, hello avoidance. Why is it important for people to understand that regular update, not just for the LinkedIn whatever, feeding the monster, but for the audience that they're talking to, why is that important?

Tanya Boggs (15:37.074)
Are you asking me to answer that question? Yes, okay. Just so you know that it wasn't rhetorical. So yeah, I think it's really important and I think a lot of people have told me straight up it's because I've aged and they don't want to be older in their photos. And I'm like, unfortunately, you're gonna lose money because of that. Because I've had people tell me

Cat Ford-Coates (15:38.285)
Yeah.

Tanya Boggs (16:04.602)
I went to this conference, I was so excited, I paid all this money, I wanted to see this person speak, and he showed up and he was 25 years older than he was in his photo, and I was pissed. I did not appreciate spending that money to go see this person, who basically tricked me into thinking that he was so much younger. And I realized that even if you're not conscious of it, there's a disconnect that happens when someone looks.

Cat Ford-Coates (16:15.108)
Yeah.

Tanya Boggs (16:33.362)
10 or 15 years younger and then you show up and you're like, wait a minute, that's not the person that I saw. And then I'm like, I'm not giving you my money. I don't trust you now. And I think that people don't necessarily recognize that even if it's a subconscious disconnect, they become a little bit distrustful of you. So.

Cat Ford-Coates (16:58.286)
Well, know, know, like and trust are one thing. And those are valid components to consider with your brand, but it's also authority. And it's really tough to maintain any authority if the trust isn't there. Right? You don't have to like me to buy from me. Right? But you do have to trust that I am an authority in what it is that I talk about and what I teach and what I share and what it is that I'm selling. you know, and that doesn't matter if it's

dresses, it doesn't matter if it's education, it doesn't matter if it's photography, like in order for me to, unless, let me back up, unless I'm in like a high volume Walmart lane, right, versus a JCPenney lane or a Gucci lane, high volume is one thing, but I have to have authority in whichever lane I'm in.

because that authority is what's going to allow it to be sustainable. And I can, you know, I've told the story about going to Walmart with my mom and my grandma in 2004 and having, this was long before, you know, professional photographer even entered the ring in my world. And, you know, it was 300 and some odd dollars by the time we were done for one image printed three times with sepia tone, right? They had no authority.

but they were the only like, let's just go to a real place and get photos done. I think Walmart does it, let's go there. Right, that wasn't about authority, it was about convenience. And then it was $300 later and we were like, what? Right, but if you don't have the authority in your industry, like how could you possibly command sustainability in your rates?

And so I think that's one of the things about the way you approach your branding work is to create that authority through who they are as people and the mission for their business and connecting all of those pieces so that you know, it's not about just a headshot for LinkedIn. You might think it is guys. It's not. It's about the audience that you're speaking to, seeing you as an authority and having to

Cat Ford-Coates (19:15.608)
being able to recognize themselves and how you're showing up. And you can't do that.

Like this. All right, hands on hips and staring awkwardly because you don't know your photographer and they don't know you. So, yeah, I think the authenticity is key. Now you thread like that authenticity throughout, like whether we're talking about families or, you know, telling people stories. And I know you've got a personal project coming up that you're really kind of getting under the weight. Tell us about that.

Tanya Boggs (19:49.298)
So I've always, I'm all about the women. I've always kind of been all about the women. And I think for some reason, 75 % of my clients tell all this women. I don't know why that is. I can't really explain it, but I love it. And I don't mind, what's that? Yeah. I photograph men, I love to photograph men. I do.

Cat Ford-Coates (20:07.98)
It's called resonance. It's called resonance.

Tanya Boggs (20:17.874)
Whenever they call me, I love it, but it just has sort of fallen. It's like how I got into branding. It just sort of folds out that way and I'm okay with it. as I've grown older and I've transitioned a lot of times, I mean, come, my whole life has been sort of trauma for lack of a better word. I've been through a lot of really tough.

transitions in my life. the most recent one was I got divorced a few years ago and how we recover and how we are resilient. think women are incredibly resilient because we are tasked a lot of times with most of the heavy lifting. And so when our lives come, you know, if our parents die or we lose a child or...

We have breast cancer, name the big life thing that sort of smacks you upside the head and knocks you down. It's how we recover, but we don't always talk about that. And so my new project is more about telling women's heroes journeys and the methods in which they were able to come out of it resilient. Like how did they recover? What did they do? And I think there's so many different sides.

and paths you can take to recover. And so I want to tell those stories.

Cat Ford-Coates (21:54.04)
Well, an understanding that resilience isn't something that just appears, right? Like, resilience takes tenacity and connection and, you know, that's not an easy path. And it happens for everyone, men and women. But it's, you know, I think it was, I forget who I was talking to. She's like, I'm so tired of being called resilient. And I was like, sure.

Tanya Boggs (22:10.246)
Yeah. for sure.

Cat Ford-Coates (22:23.906)
Like I get it, right? Like we spend so much time like honoring strength and working our way through and getting, know, phoenixing is, I call it phoenixing a lot. To the point where we put ourselves in those positions that require that strength and resilience of us. And that's not to say, you know, it's not a victim blame situation. Like I've done it for years. And it's...

Tanya Boggs (22:47.826)
Okay.

Cat Ford-Coates (22:51.83)
It's a matter of like, we know we can cope there because it requires us to tap into that strength and that resilience. But, and I think this is the important piece, appreciating that that resilience is a part of you. It's innate in human nature to be resilient. And to create like a photo series around that like sounds incredible.

readably powerful. It kind of leans into, kind of come as you are for me a little bit, but it's also really could get very serious. You you see the artists that like they're photographing somebody and the story they want to tell is about their resilience, right? And so they write all of the things all over the body and then photograph with all the words and maybe tape over the mouth or over the eyes or, you know, any of that to really like drive it home.

Like, man, I'm just seeing all kinds of opportunity for you there. Is that something that you'll be focusing on in Charleston, or what are your plans with it?

Tanya Boggs (24:02.578)
So my plans, you know, when I first started really digging in this past year, like, what do I want? What do I want now? Who am I now? And I started dreaming of this project. You know, it's like, it could be so many things, and I think it might be all the things. I'm like, it could be a podcast, it could be an exhibition, it could be a book, it could be...

You know, it could be so many things. so, and I think it is a Come As You Are project basically. And so I envision probably starting it in Charleston, but I'd really love to travel to do it. I think that there's.

different cultures, are they resilient? What methodologies do they use to get themselves through it? So I would like to sort of go a little more global with it, for lack of a better word. But I think the podcast, which I'm starting hopefully beginning of this upcoming year, that's the plan, that's the big thing I'm pushing for right now, will help me tell more women's stories.

Cat Ford-Coates (25:15.748)
Mm-hmm.

Tanya Boggs (25:15.846)
And I can do that from, you know, they can live anywhere. It doesn't matter. And I, but the photographing of the stories, I think I won't be able to tell as many stories. So I think the podcast is a great way to sort of get me out in the world, get people talking about it, hopefully. And then as I'm taking them and sharing them and hopefully having those same people on the podcast, that it'll start to go from there. But I do envision it being an exhibition.

you know, starting with the local people here. but again, it's still kind of, it's still in process of being formed. I'm sort of feeling my way through it, I guess is the best way to describe it.

Cat Ford-Coates (25:47.94)
Mm-hmm.

Cat Ford-Coates (26:00.898)
Well, and I think if you're a project like that, you have to feel your way through it, right? You know, Come As You Are, for me anyway, is really about just having people reconnect with themselves in a moment, in a current present space, right? Because when we're living in the past, we're living in the past. When we're living in the future, we're living in the future. But so often we avoid the present. Everything is, well, I'm saving for this, or I wish I could get back to, right? This really sounds like...

healing the past, which, like there are some similar threads there, but that reconnection and presence will come from that experience, but also the healing capacity there is huge. Have you started to kind of, and maybe you haven't, I don't know, but like journaling about the times in your life where

you felt like resilience was a requirement or you couldn't tap into it to share those stories like with your podcast, in self-portraits, what does that look like?

Tanya Boggs (27:08.882)
I used to do a lot of self-portraits actually, especially in grad school. But I was doing it before grad school as well. So I used to do quite a bit of that. I keep thinking I want to do it now because I'm very different than I was when I was doing it back then. So that I do want to start there. I just haven't taken the time to do it yet. And I think the other thing that I feel like with the project is it's not just about

people's personal healing, but it's about talking about it so that other people, when they're in that space, if they're in that space while they're listening, they're like, I could try that. I could try that. So it's like bringing people forward as we're learning, you know? And people are telling their stories. Cause women, that's one thing we're good at. We're good at telling stories, but we're not always good at sharing them with each other.

I have a lot of conversations with people who are there like, I wish we would talk about this more. I wish we would talk about this more. I'm like, wouldn't it be nice? So I'm like, let's talk about it more. Let's do it. So I'm going to do it. so, yeah. But there's been many times in my life that has required resiliency from me and it started at a pretty young age. And photography has been the thing that has

Cat Ford-Coates (28:18.05)
Let's have the conversation then.

Tanya Boggs (28:36.986)
And part of that was fueled by photography. That has helped me focus on something and love something and be passionate about something. So that has been deeply tied to this journey for me, for sure.

Cat Ford-Coates (28:55.374)
Yeah, staying like heart connected to what it is that you do. You know, as entrepreneurs, like once you start a business, right, like it can't only be about the passion, right? Like I can love to do something and not be paid for it. But the second I have to be paid for it in order to do it, then you've got some decisions to make. And you know, I've fallen out of love with photography.

Tanya Boggs (29:09.81)
Thank

Cat Ford-Coates (29:24.196)
Probably more times than I care to admit. Well, you know, like, whether it's about the stunting of my growth or having to focus on another aspect of the business versus the creative exploration and in sharing the stories, right, and making a pointed effort to, even if I'm the only one who's ever gonna see it, right, or read it or listen to it.

Tanya Boggs (29:27.13)
I did it.

Cat Ford-Coates (29:53.109)
Right, like I think that's hugely valuable for anybody in a creative endeavor. Because we fall in love with the craft first. I think I've only ever spoken to one photographer out of the thousands of conversations that I've had who didn't fall in love with it first. Right, they were like, you know, my husband needs help with the business. And you know, I think they were shooting weddings or something and.

She ended up becoming kind of a creative director and posing on the day and la la la. Every other person, right, is, god, I fell in love with it. Or in the darkroom in college. Or insert that time here. And then they decided to make a business out of it. But because we're creatives, creatives are typically pretty scattered, right? We can be primarily ADD, whether we want to admit it or not.

then we start focusing on all the business things to make it viable and we start hating the photo side of it. Or, like you said earlier, like, I just wanna shoot and get paid. Right, just, I wanna get shoot and get paid, but it has to be worthwhile. So being able to stay connected to why that work is powerful for you, I think is paramount. And you know, that means that once a month, once a quarter, twice a year, whatever it is, that you schedule in something that's just for you.

that's not necessarily tied to client work. Or you start creating campaigns to market, to create work that's meaningful for you that's also meaningful for them. And I love that you've done that here. there's thread of authenticity is still there, right? It's about sharing these real stories. What way do you...

envision the connection that you have with the people you do photograph outside of, you know, there's the branding space and helping people create brands that they're proud of, that help them stand out above like the noisy sea of other people, right? What do you think you're going to bring into this more portrait endeavor?

Tanya Boggs (32:11.378)
I think it's going to be, I think I'm gonna add some video and some movement to it. I envision making little sort of short story videos of them. How, you know, I have a visual in my mind, but I'm not sure I can describe it. And so it'll be, you know, portraits, it'll be a little bit of video, it'll be a little bit of movement, it'll be...

Cat Ford-Coates (32:18.221)
Mm-hmm.

Tanya Boggs (32:40.838)
them telling their stories, either the day we photograph or at some other point, or again, having the conversation and having those things sort of figuring out how they weave together and how to put them together. And I often feel like with my clients now, because I approach it in such a personal way that a lot of times they are just portraits.

Cat Ford-Coates (33:08.516)
Mm-hmm.

Tanya Boggs (33:10.226)
And they come away feeling confident and beautiful and seen and ready to climb the mountain. And I work with women at all levels who broke the glass ceiling. I mean, it's amazing. But they still are like, I cannot believe how beautiful and confident I felt that day. I'm like, I would expect like.

who you are should make you just confident every day, but it's just not how that works. And so, and the funny thing is I become friends with half my clients. We start seeing each other socially. It's hilarious. So yeah, it's just because there is that hot foot connection and we do have, you know, things in common often. So.

Cat Ford-Coates (34:02.148)
So I'm curious with the people that you are working with, like, I can't believe how confident I felt that day. What are the byproducts of that for them?

Tanya Boggs (34:10.766)
I think they show up differently. They feel better about themselves. They understand.

that they're at this level that they don't really appreciate. get it, but they don't get it. Or they don't get it. Like it's a concept. Like sometimes I'm like, understand that conceptually, but I don't really understand it. And I think that's how some people can be. They hit a level in their life and they understand it conceptually that they're doing really well, but they don't really get how powerful they are.

personally powerful and expert, you know, really expert in their field. think sometimes we play ourselves down. We're almost taught to do that. And we're almost taught to do, I think we are taught, I shouldn't say almost, we're taught to do that in a lot of ways. And so it's sort of.

Cat Ford-Coates (34:58.461)
I think a lot, especially as women. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, it's about being humble, right? Like, you should be humble and not like, you know, and confidence and humility don't always play well together at the surface, right?

I remember my mentor, she was texting me about something one day and I was just kind of in that like playing everything down piece. And I was like, I just feel like I work all the time and yeah, okay, the studio is doing really great, but like just kind of bitching and moaning, right? And she was like, Kat, shut up. And I was like, what? She was like, you have made it. You have built a studio in like the top 0.01 % in the world.

Shut up. And I had to like, Because inevitably, regardless of how far you get or where you go, like you always end up wanting more. Because, you know, if you're not growing, you're dying is how most people sort of approach situations. And so complacency is a dangerous place to be. And so to be perfectly, that's why goals always change, right? I'm shooting for 10K, okay, great. You get to six and you're like, I want 20.

Tanya Boggs (36:22.128)
I'm gonna go.

Cat Ford-Coates (36:23.714)
Right? And it's like, okay, cool. Like, cause your blinders are on and then you kind of open up the blinders and realize, getting to six was kind of, all right, screw you 10. Let's, let's go higher. but that go, you know, it's not just money. It's, know, okay. I photograph people and help them build authentic brands that reflect who they are as people and allow them to feel seen and heard. And they feel confident. I want to take this and.

actually tell people stories, not just the billboard story, but the actual story of things that are important to me is the resilience. I wanna create that. That goes from here to here, like way out. And it's a really exciting time, Tanya. Like putting that groundwork together so that you can be prepared to launch that.

and have it be accepted. And that doesn't mean that there won't be like, you know, stump like nobody's interested. Everybody hates me, you know, going all Eeyore on it. But like you were talking earlier about sharing people's stories so that people don't feel alone, right? They can recognize that story and my God, it's not just me. And we should talk about this more. You know, the Marianne Williamson quote,

Tanya Boggs (37:25.874)
Yeah.

Cat Ford-Coates (37:46.436)
What is it when you shine, give other people permission to do the same. And it's true for the great stuff. And it's also true for the heartbreaking and personal life piece, positive or negative, because nobody's life is a straight line. And we are all resilient in some way or another, whether it's...

having a complete and total mental breakdown at the grocery store because the price of chicken went from $1.68 to $6.82. Like, that's been me. I'm just totally losing my shit. And then having to like get myself together and walk back outside and just being like, okay, what are you really mad about? It's not the fucking chicken.

Tanya Boggs (38:33.618)
Ha!

Cat Ford-Coates (38:36.514)
Right? But having the self-awareness enough to have the courage to share that story so that you know you aren't alone and you become a guiding light for somebody else. Because when you remember feeling that, you want it to be something you don't pay attention to. You want to get through it and not even think about that part of your life anymore. When really it's...

Connecting with that and appreciating how far you've come because of that is a big deal. I know there wasn't a question in there. I tend to rant sometimes, but.

Tanya Boggs (39:18.286)
I do too. But it is, it's important and it's important for people to recognize how far they've come, the work they've done to get where they are and to really stand and own that. And it starts by just sort of just unwrapping it. And sometimes the photo shoot is what starts unwrapping that. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I am more than just a mom.

I am more than just this person that does this particular thing, right? Like I'm a financial advisor and then they just wanna be all stiff and I'm like, no, if you wanna stand out, you gotta be you, not, you're like, I'm gonna help you grow your money and that's all I do. Meanwhile, there's all this chaos going on in the background. My mother's dying or whatever, you know? So our lives are complex and...

Cat Ford-Coates (40:13.262)
Well, and who we are is not only who we are for other people. And that is something that a lot of us skip over when we're sharing stories, right? There's all the, a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter, but it's also like, I am a human being and I love being a woman. And I love being a woman for me, not just for what it does for other people.

But the byproduct of that self appreciation is support and healing and connection for others. There was this Ted talk and he was speaking on addiction and he was, you know, like the, the addiction of like the mice with the cocaine water or whatever. And he was talking about how they were doing two studies. One was a mouse or a rat in a single aquarium.

with cocaine water and fresh water, and then an aquarium with several rodents, right, with the same. And the mouse or rat or whatever that was in isolation with the cocaine water always went to the drugged water. But the community of rodent would check out the drugged water, but inevitably return to the fresh water every time.

And when we're talking about things like addiction, right? And that's not to say that this project is only about addiction, but you wanna talk about resilience, addiction is gonna be a thread there. Yeah.

Tanya Boggs (41:51.056)
for sure, and that's a core value that I think is important for sure. I have a couple of family members that, yeah, that's an issue.

Cat Ford-Coates (41:58.37)
Yeah. But that addiction is from isolation. And so when we're thinking about that time that we got through and that we're really resilient in that phoenixing moment, it's because of our self-isolation. Whether we had been carrying shame around the thing or were in a toxic situation and couldn't get away or get out of the isolation, that

resilience comes from being connected to others. And so when you showcase people and share their stories, it gives other people permission to realize that they aren't isolated, which gives them more of an opportunity to get out of it. So that's gonna be such a powerful project.

Tanya Boggs (42:46.534)
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited. Because there's always a moment, right? There's always a moment where you, something clicks, something snaps, is said to you, but it makes everything just turn. And it's different for everybody. But there's always a moment. And I think people, once you ask them the question, they'll probably be able to point to it, or they probably already know what it is.

Cat Ford-Coates (43:00.932)
Mm-hmm.

Tanya Boggs (43:12.274)
Especially addicts, they know when they hit bottom. They know that moment. But I think some of us skip over that, knowing what that moment is. But I often am quite aware, like, woo, everything just changed for me. This moment right here, boom. I can tell you right now it's changed. And I know it 1,000 % in my body when it happens.

Cat Ford-Coates (43:15.365)
yeah. Absolutely.

Cat Ford-Coates (43:34.786)
Yeah. Well, paying attention, you know, it's easy to go through life and kind of run in through the forest, right? And not pay attention to the body response or those details, but stay connected to you. And you're actually quite a lot more connected to even the world around you. yeah. Well, Tanya, thanks for being here.

Tanya Boggs (43:58.716)
Thank you for having me.

Cat Ford-Coates (44:00.553)
For sure. Where can people find you?

Tanya Boggs (44:03.218)
So my website is tonyaboggs.com. It's my name. My name is spelled T-A-N-Y-A. Everybody likes to misspell my first name. B-O-G-G-S. But I'm there. I'm on Instagram. I'm on the Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn.

Cat Ford-Coates (44:23.466)
And she's in Charleston,

Tanya Boggs (44:24.914)
And I'm in Charleston and I travel. Yeah, I do quite a bit of traveling for work when I can.

Cat Ford-Coates (44:32.12)
Well guys, if you are interested in getting in to share your story and crown that achievement, I hope you reach out to Tanya. We'll be linking all of her contact information below in the description as well. But Tanya, thank you so very much.

Tanya Boggs (44:47.46)
Thank you. I appreciate it.