This is what Career ReInvention actually looks like.
Not perfect. Not planned. Not safe.
Katrina Cicero didn’t love her corporate job – but like a lot of people, she stayed because it felt like the “right” path. Until she couldn’t anymore.
What happened next is the kind of story more people need to hear.
In this episode, Katrina walks us through how she went from stuck and miserable…to building a thriving photography business from the ground up, without having it all figured out first.
This isn’t a theory. It’s real life. We talk about:
- The moment she knew she couldn’t stay in her 9–5 anymore
- How she actually made the leap (during COVID, no less)
- Why fear doesn’t go away – you just learn to move anyway
- How she turned a creative passion into a real, growing business
There’s no “perfect plan” in this story. Just action, risk, doubt, wins, setbacks—and momentum.
If this conversation resonates with you, visit ReInvention.biz to explore our guided workbook, learn more about us, and start creating what’s next!
**Subscribe to the ReInvention Podcast to stay plugged into fresh ideas, frameworks, and real-world tools for navigating the future of your work and life.
Episode Transcript
Katrina: And it could be I woke up today, I’m healthy and I’m happy and my children are safe and I have a roof over my head. But I think sometimes we forget about those things and to just be thankful for what we have in the moment. Because we’re just constantly like, how do I get further? How do I get there? How do I get there? That we forget about the stuff in the middle.
Todd: Alright, Chris, my brother. What are we doing today on reinvention? What’s on the docket?
Chris: Todd, today we’re talking with an amazing Reinventor with an inspiring story. She’s built her business from the ground up in a way I think our audience will see as realistic and relatable. And it’s a funny story actually, so my childhood home, like where my mom still lives on the main street in her town, there used to be this little soap store.
I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen just a soap store before, and my mom and I would kind of say like, I, I don’t know. Do we need a soap store? And then it turned into this photography studio, which we were like, oh yeah, okay, we get it.
So then a couple of months ago, I’m at this networking event, I’m talking about reinvention, and this woman comes up to me afterwards and says, Hey, I think I might be a reinventor. Like I quit a career I didn’t like, I started a soap store and now I run my own photography studio. And I was like, how many of that story could there be out there? So I felt pretty confident that this was the person who had the business in my hometown, and it was Katrina. And so Katrina Cicero, we’re so glad to have you with us today, welcome.
Katrina: Thanks for having me.
Chris: Katrina, your business Kat and Mouse Photography, it’s thriving. It’s growing every year, and you offer a great product and service. And also we talked about you have this real life like in-person experience for your clients that I think everyone’s craving in like the digital AI era. So we’ll talk about all that, but first, let’s start at the beginning.
When you’re entering the job market, in the beginning of your career, like what did you think your career was going to be and like when did you start to figure out, this really isn’t for me. Like maybe I want to try something a little different.
Katrina: So we can go way, way back. We can go somewhere in the middle.
Todd: So the day I was born.
Katrina: Yeah. I always had a love for photography all through high school. That was the first business card I ever made, and when I went to college, Photoshop had just released to the public, so that was about 2005. And everyone was like, don’t study art. You don’t make money off of art. Everyone was like, don’t do that, don’t do that.
And I was like, oh, but I really like it. As Chris knows, I graduated in business marketing and I just couldn’t find a vibe. I couldn’t find a place that felt like this was home. I worked in corporate forever. Even if I was in a restaurant, I worked my way up to management. I did business marketing and uh, management for California Pizza Kitchen for 10 years. And it was like, you would do all these things and somebody else would take your reward. It was just like, it was the safe bet.
And, when I graduated, I was doing the nine to five and I, Chris and I, we joked. Said to my husband, I said, if there was a window in my cubicle, I would jump out of it. Like I just couldn’t. I hated all of it. And it, to me, that felt like the safe bet. That’s what you did if you wanted to be safe, you wanna work nine to five, you wanna have a guaranteed paycheck, you want to like not think about it, then that’s for you.
And I was like, I don’t wanna do that. I wanna be creative. I wanna be like, how’s this gonna pan out today? Like I feel like if I don’t have that even today, that I’m like, all right, I am starting to get stagnant. Or you know, what’s my next challenge, what do I have to do to keep pushing myself? And I think that a big part of me being successful was getting a business coach and somebody to just bounce ideas off of, that’s not an immediate family member. ’cause my husband would say what I had to do. And then I’d be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And then my business coach would say it, I’d be like, Alex, Bill said I should do this. And he goes, yeah, I told you that two weeks ago.
So you need somebody like that to help you set your goals and to push you. And I think the best part was when I sold a piece of artwork that was 13,000 and everyone said that you wouldn’t make money off of selling art. And I sold a big giant painted portrait and it was 13,000. I was like, ha, in your faces I did it. But every day is a struggle. Like I said, you have to have that risk all the time. Otherwise, you’re not pushing yourself. If I’m not scared about something, if I’m not scared to call somebody, if I’m not scared to say this is my session fee. And we kind of joked about that, my coach kept saying like, no, you gotta raise it. You gotta raise it. I’m like, I can’t raise that, no one’s gonna pay that and the anticipation and the lead up to it. I’m sweating thinking about it. But then once it happened you were like, oh, I got this. And you start to value yourself and you get better clients ’cause you’re in a better head space. It’s not this like mundane plateau, you’re bored with it. It’s an exciting and constant peaks and valleys, but that’s what makes it feel good at the end when you’re like all nervous and you’re leading up to it and then it happens. You’re like, yes, I did it.
Todd: You always had the bug. I mean, so you were always, at heart, entrepreneurial by nature and probably always had the sense that, yeah, like I’m probably best suited to do something myself. But you took the path that you said was secure and like what you’re supposed to do, and you worked corporate for a long time while struggling.
It was, it sounded like it was always a struggle for you, but you did it for a long time. But let’s go back to the moment when you did make the transition, right, because again, when we think about reinvention, there’s a lot of people that are at jobs that one way or the other, whether they have the bug as strongly as you did or whether they’re being forced to look internally about like, what can I do next?
What is next on my horizon? You know? ’cause the same jobs may not be there. I still want to hone in on when you made the transition, right? So this was happening. It was obviously stressing you out, like talk about the leap, the transition from leaving corporate over into doing your first thing. Like walk us through that process.
How did you do it? How did you navigate it? I love the idea of getting a coach and all that, and we’ll get into that, I’m sure, because this is really important for reinvention and what Chris and I talk about. But let’s talk about the transition itself. Walk us through what actually happened.
Katrina: So Chris nailed it on the head. He called my husband the unsung hero, which he totally is. It was COVID and like we said, I’ve always done photography, never, full-time and as a profession. I was on the side just kind of doing real estate ’cause I didn’t know what else to do. And COVID had hit and we were shut down and then everybody was kind of reinventing themselves and I had done my own headshot and everybody was like, your headshot’s amazing.
Who did your headshot? And I was like, oh, I did it. And I just kind of was working out of my garage and doing everyone’s head shots. Then real estate had like this big boom because now everyone wants to leave the city and come out to the island. So now I was setting up and the company that I was working for, I’d set up in their office and I would do everyone’s head shots. And it was going great. I was like, oh my gosh, I love this. I was so happy. And my husband was like, if COVID did teach us anything, do what you love, be happy, don’t have regrets. Like you have to go take this full force. And I was like, well, I can’t do that. I’m not gonna do that. Who, how could I possibly afford a studio? And he’s like, no. He kept pushing me and pushing me and we were putting it out there in the universe and it just so happened we got an amazing place. I’m actually at the tail end of my five year lease. We just bought a building four doors down. So it all like evolved, but in the beginning I was like, there’s no way I could pay for this.
But my husband just, totally believed in me and was like, you have to do this. You have to do this. And I, I didn’t really believe in myself, but then it was like I had to, ’cause now it was like I had a bill over my head that it was like, okay, I need to make this happen. So back up for a second too, I was pregnant when I got the lease and everybody was like, why would you get a lease? Why would you start over? Why are you doing this? Like this is such a scary thing, like you’re pregnant. And it almost kind of fueled me a little bit more just because somebody was like, oh, you’re pregnant, like you should be home. And like if you look on my Instagram and you look at the behind the scenes, I’m full blown pregnant and I’m building shelves and spackling. I’m doing all the things, and she came early and uh, we got out of the hospital and two days later I was back in studio and shooting. ‘Cause I just refused to give up. But I think to answer your question, I just, I didn’t wanna be miserable. I didn’t wanna have any regrets. When my husband said, don’t have any regrets, like, do you wanna be old, and like you lived a boring job and you just did it to like be comfortable or do you wanna like, be old and have no regrets and be like, look what I built for my kids.
Or at least, you know, I gave it my all, I gave it 110%. So I think when he said that, it kind of hit a nerve and I was like, yeah, I don’t wanna have any regrets. I don’t wanna do something boring. I don’t want somebody else to raise my kids. Like, I love this job. If I wanna take off or if I wanna hang out with you guys today, I can do that.
Chris: By the way, I noticed something with you, Katrina, where you have, you do have a little bit of a, like, positive vengeance. Where you’re like, oh, if somebody says I can’t do this, like I’m gonna do it. Challenge accepted. I, yeah. I love that. That’s gonna be, that’s my band’s name now, Positive Vengeance. and I think. One thing that I pick up from your story though, ’cause Todd asked talk about like how it started, you just did something right? You’re in the real estate office and you go, oh, I’m gonna take my own headshot.
I can do this well. Like let me do this well. I don’t know if this was conscious or not, but what you did was you put it out into the world ’cause people are seeing your product in the world. It sounds like you didn’t even tell them it was your product. Right. So when people saw that and they said, oh, that picture looks great, who took your headshot? What was the feeling of that? Like did you immediately start to think oh, this could be a business?
Katrina: Yeah, a hundred percent. I love photography is, like I said, it was the first business card I ever made. I always dreamt that I would like be a photographer for GQ or Vogue. Like I think in high school you do that project for, if you’re in photography and you have to make a magazine cover, I’m like, this is what I wanna do. So, I worked for a big real estate company and some of these people who are like, I’m like, I know who that person is. They’re like, no, I want you to do my headshot. I’m like, what, what that’s so exciting? so there was definitely a lot of validation there. I just didn’t have that, full push until my husband really saw it and was like, okay, everyone loves what you do, you’re happy.
I think that was the biggest thing for him, that he kept pushing ’cause I was so happy. I feel like everyone needs to find what’s something that’s easy for them and they enjoy it. I feel like when we get stuck into something, ’cause it’s an easy paycheck or you know, it’s just you’re surviving. Like, what is the point? We all have these gifts and we have to like, find that gift and like run with it. And you just need somebody, if you don’t have a partner or you don’t have a best friend, like go pay for someone to be your, your cheerleader because it just, it makes all the difference. And I don’t have any regrets like, yeah, there’s days where it sucks. I mean, we were talking about that. There’s days that you’re like, should we close up? What do we do? And then there’s days where you’re like, okay, this is freaking awesome. I just had a $13,000 sale. Let’s keep going. So it’s not easy. It’s not easy, but if you want easy, go be boring and you know, have some regrets. If you don’t have no regrets, then you know, you gotta risk it and be crazy.
Todd: I think a couple things that are like really important and, and just, aligned. Like again, this is our first time meeting, right? ’cause you and Chris know each other and I’m hearing a lot of things about your reinvention were really wired in a positive. Number one, right? Like you had a passion, something that you knew from a long time ago that you love, like your first business card of photography, right?
I think a lot of people that are reinventing right now, just even having their permission to think back to the things that you really like and have them, kind of like be reframed mentally that, oh, this actually could be a possibility. Because Katrina from our standpoint this is what people need to be doing right now, is actually rethinking and redesigning and re-imagining what is possible for their future.
And so getting these, dreams that have been tamped down, you know, for years and bringing it back up is okay. And so you naturally were able to do that, and it was clear that you knew that you had something that you love. You also had another great benefit in reinvention, the process of reinvention, which is you had a really supportive husband, you know, who was like literally pushing you energetically and emotionally. Like what a gift. Like what an absolute gift. And you said something really interesting before you’re like, well, if you don’t have that, like go find someone, pay someone to do it. Like we were laughing when you said it, but we all need to be finding the support systems that can help us, reimagine our lives and our dreams. Right. And not surround ourselves with all the naysayers and all the people that are gonna tell you that you can’t or that you shouldn’t and ’cause there’s gonna be a million reasons why you shouldn’t do any of this. Okay.
Katrina: You’ll talk yourself out of it.
Todd: I mean, it’s so easy not to do it. Right. And even when you get in it, it’s hard, like I have days when I still don’t know if I can make it right. And then you get a big sale. But I wanna talk a little bit about that because you said something before around like supportive husband. But then you hired a business coach, right?
Because you’re like, well, even though my supportive is, is really supportive emotionally, you’re also not listening to him. Or maybe you listen to him in a different way than you do someone who is like seasoned and professional. Which is why Chris and I are like spending a lot of time coaching people and building communities around this whole notion of reinvention because, we know that the support that you get needs to be really tailored and really specific.
So talk to me about your decision to get a business coach. Like how did you know that you needed that, and what are you getting from this person that’s just different from the emotional rah rah support you’re getting from your husband.
Katrina: Again, so not to, you know, keep fluffing up, husband over here. But, when I said that I couldn’t open a studio, he said, well, then you have to go find the best, and you have to go learn from them. And I started googling like top photographers in the world and who offered classes and things like that. and I found somebody, she’s a well-known author, she has courses. She has a whole team of people that will coach, and I reached out to her and then it turned out that one of her coaches that were underneath her his studio is in my hometown. And when they’re interviewing you, they don’t know, like where you’re from, they don’t know anything like that. You don’t give them that information. It was just so wild that we were paired together. And when I was a kid, I used to ride my bike in his parking lot. So then when I went to go meet him, I’m like, okay, this is so weird. And we ended up being best friends and, it just, it. Like, I love Amanda Frances. I read her book 10 times sometimes, and it could be any book, but sometimes you read something and your brain’s not ready to hear what you’re reading. So sometimes on the third read, you hear something and you’re like, I never heard that before. Like a week after I had talked to Chris and we were talking about Amanda Frances and I was like, I have to go back and read her again, ’cause I talked so much about her. I’m like, he can’t ask me questions and I don’t know it. So I went back and I read her and I was having a hard time with this client who, I always do a discovery call because I wanna get to know you, I want you to have my value, I want all the things to sync together. And that doesn’t happen over a text, it So I am always so, persistent with a discovery call. And this woman was like, no, not doing it. And I was like, well, I don’t wanna lose this person ’cause this person is trying to, you know, give me money. So I’m listening to a Amanda Francis and she, I’ve never heard her say this. She goes, stop with the discovery calls. Stop putting up walls for your clients. If your clients wanna give you money, let them give you money. Why are you putting up a wall? And I was like, I never heard that before. So I quickly like jotted up my discovery call. This woman filled it out. I said, Hey, I think you’re in this category, but you could be in this category for a session fee.
I’ll leave it up to you. I know you’re busy. It’s up to you. She booked her full session, no problem. And I don’t know if it’s the universe or whatever, but it’s like I went back, I read that and I heard it and I never heard it before. Like it’s always been my rule that we have a discovery call. I wanna know you. Get to be friends with you and make sure that this shoot is everything that you dreamt. and this person was totally fine with it, and they spent tons of money, but like, I got in my own way because I heard someone else say something and then, it’s one of those things like you can hear stuff, but your brain’s not ready to comprehend it at that moment.
I’m a big person on reading and listening to audio books. I try to listen to like two or three a month, and I think that’s, a whole part of it too is you have to have all the things like having Alex is an amazing part of it, but you do need a coach. And on top of a coach, you needed someone who writes books and they’re successful.
So you could take the little pieces. and I feel like sometimes when you’re reading these self-help business books. It’s not a story. It’s not like you’re reading Harry Potter and you envision the whole thing happening in your head when you’re listening to these books. You get sidetracked and you’re like, okay, how do I apply that to my business?
So you like go off on these tangents, you don’t even know what you’re reading. So I think that’s why like I’ll miss stuff. So I love reading it like 10 times and I’m like, oh, okay, let’s go. I got this.
Chris: Yeah, I mean, we always say like, never reinvent alone. Right? Always have community, always get support. Don’t do it in isolation. And I think what you’re exhibiting there, Katrina, is like, there’s a humility to this, right? Where you’re like always learning and even relearning. Don’t worry, there’s no Amanda Frances quiz questions in this interview, but like you went back and reread that book. It’s funny ’cause I just, I just read a book that’s called The Prosperous Coach and like you said, I’m reading it, I’m like taking notes on it and then I went back and read the notes the next day and I was like, oh wow.
I like didn’t even register that thing. I’m like ready for when’s the third time I read this book so that it actually sticks? Right. So you really exhibit, I think that it’s kind of like wearing the white belt, beginner’s mind, always being open to, to new things. But I will say like your business now, like when we talked, I remember you, you said to me, I think the first year you kind of said, oh, I didn’t make that much revenue in my first year.
I won’t say the number you said, but I was kinda like, that actually sounds pretty good, Katrina. you’re thriving now and you’re learning things, but, is there something new two months ago that you’ve like learned that you’re like, oh, this is like a new dynamic and a new direction I’m going in? Is that still happening in your business now you’re several years in, let’s say.
Katrina: Oh, a hundred percent. I mean, last year was rough for a lot of people. A lot of people closed up. So when we were talking, I was mad that I had only grown 3% year over year increase. And I was like, the first year was 33%. Now it’s only three. Like I was so mad about it, but it wasn’t less that I made the year before.
So you have to be happy about it. And then we were talking about the book, living in the Gap and the Gain. Like if we are entrepreneurs and you constantly are living in that gap and you don’t appreciate the gain that could shut you down any second. Like you have to set goals and sometimes you can’t just like manifest and be like, oh, I’m gonna make 500,000 this year.
And then you’re all bummed out that you didn’t get there. Like you have to celebrate all those tiny wins that are getting you to there. Like you can’t just say this is what I’m gonna do and expect to happen overnight. And sometimes I’m guilty of that. So I have to celebrate and be excited for all the little steps that are getting me to there.
Y eah, when we were talking, I was like, well, I didn’t get to where I wanted to be. But I also have to be thankful, I mean, there’s like three other photographers that were across the street and they’re not there anymore. So I have to be thankful for that 3%.
In the last couple weeks, to go back to your question, and not to keep talking about books, but there was this book about the law of attraction, which was a different style, that it was more about being thankful instead of imagining, you know, that lottery ticket in your hand or imagining, you know, those commas in your bank account. It was more about being thankful and I think that your vibrations and who you are and how you are magnetic to other people is being thankful for what you have every day. So it’s a. Like five minute manifestation that you do every single day. And like a part of it is saying thank you 12 times and then like you write five things that you’re thankful for.
And it could be I woke up today, I’m healthy and I’m happy and my children are safe and I have a roof over my head and food on my table put, you know, you know all things. But I think sometimes we forget about those things and to just be thankful for what we have in the moment. Because we’re just constantly like, how do I get further? How do I get there? How do I get there? That we forget about the stuff in the middle. And I think if we are negative, then that’s what we’re gonna attract. And if we’re like, I didn’t get to that spot, then that’s what the universe or God or whatever you want to call it, is gonna keep giving you that. But if you’re like. Thank you for this. Thank you for that. Thank you.
Amanda Francis, she says that, um, when someone pays her like $13 for a book or something, she’s like, thank you more, please. And I thought that that was such a great thing. I do a lot of preschools and it’s not like my favorite thing to do, but it’s a great like, kind of marketing thing because then their parents will call and they’ll want headshots or they’ll want family. And sometimes those big schools, like you’ll have a ticket that comes in and it’s a hundred bucks and you’re like, ah. At first I would be mad. I’m like, oh, it’s only a hundred bucks they bought, you know, whatever. And then now I’m like, Nope. Thank you. That’s amazing. Thank you more please.
And then it keeps rolling in, so you just have to like change your mindset to thank you more, please.
Chris: I just wanted to say, I dunno if we’ve talked about this before, Todd, but it’s almost like holding two ideas at the same time where it’s like gratitude and being thankful for what you have and also striving for more, but not letting the striving for more, like bulldoze that gratitude.
It’s great to hear you say that Katrina, because I think that for the people who are listening who are starting their reinvention or contemplating reinvention, there’s this desire to change and change takes time, and growth takes time. And I think the trick is it never really ends, right?
So if you’re really challenging yourself and putting yourself into this better life that you wanna live, it never really ends. So if you can’t appreciate what you have, while also striving, you’re just gonna constantly be in that anxiety of not having, right. So I just, sorry Todd, I didn’t mean to jump in on you, but that was so key. Yeah.
Todd: It’s also not the striving part. It’s like the anxiety part of people that are in reinvention. There’s a lot of anxiety and stress around financial insecurities. Like real stuff. Like we don’t wanna poo poo any of this, right? But at the end of the day, a lot of this training, when you talk about reinventing your career or reinventing anything in your life is mindset, like how you’re orienting towards the reality.
So, you know, living in a world where you’re just appreciating everything that’s showing up yes, that does work. Right. You know, like, yes, it’s gotten a little new agey and woo woo. But put that aside and we’re talking about you know, we’re all creating our own worlds here. And you’ve created a world where a photography business is doing really well right now, even though the people across the street from you have closed down. You’re still growing kind of year over year.
And actually I’m wondering, getting into a little bit more of the specifics of what’s happening with your business, right? Because you’re in a business right now that I would imagine is going to be affected, if not already by AI and everything that’s emerging in technology, right? Like just endless tools out there, right? To like take pictures and augment pictures and I would imagine that this is something that is growing right now.
I’m curious your thoughts on how you are navigating that. I’m curious your thoughts, around the value of being a human being that has a physical shop and people coming in there. Because one of the premises that we’re learning in our podcast is that, the businesses that might have a really big future, are those where it’s just people coming together?
You know where? Where there’s actually people supporting people, like human services will never be something that gets diminished by technological onslaught and AI coming over. Right. So I’m just curious about your thoughts on all of this AI technology, how you’re gonna navigate this. Like what are you betting on, to continue to grow. Like, what is your secret sauce that’s allowing you in a time where other people are failing, that you’re still growing 3%? Talk to us about that and how, you know, you feel about all this.
Katrina: So I think if you let it consume you, it will. And yes, it is scary, but I feel for me, before AI got so big, I changed my business model to be more about the experience and to be, if you’re gonna be spending this much money with us, I want you to know it’s gonna be done right the first time. And I want it to be like, okay, we’re going for a big milestone, or we’re going to Kat for our office and we want this amazing headshot and we wanna rebrand our website. And I feel like people who really, truly want that and want that value in their business, they’re not, nickel and dimming the situation. It’s like, no, she was referred, she’s the best. We saw her work. That’s what we want.
The AI thing, for me, the people who are using AI for their headshots, they weren’t gonna come to me in the first place. ’cause I’m not the cheap photographer. I’m not the person that’s like, oh, here’s a hundred bucks. Here’s your headshot, or here’s 20 images that you don’t know what to do with. When people come to work with me, we’re having a full conversation as of why, why are you calling me? Why do you need this? Why is this important and do you need this right now?
And I have many times been like, I don’t think you need me right now. I think you need to just get going, go do this. Don’t put a bandaid on it. Go get yourself up and running. Take your picture and then come back to me when you’re thriving and you’re ready to go and like you want the full experience and you want your team and you want me to hold your hand and you want the wall art and you want all the things, like, I’d rather push them off and like have ’em go full experience. and I’m not saying I do that all the time. We, we do headshot, minis and stuff too, to like, fill you in. But, I don’t wanna stress about it or worry about it or think that that’s gonna take away from me because I think someone could use that as a crutch or they can use it as an excuse. I mean, I can make up excuses all day long, but if I let myself do that, then I’ll beat myself up and what’s the point? So it’s been about four years now is when I really changed. I used to be that shoot and burn photographer that I’d be like, sure, here’s all the pictures. Gimme 200 bucks, 500 bucks, whatever it was. And now the client is stuck with all those images and what are they really doing with it? They don’t know what to do with it. They’re overwhelmed with it. They put it on Facebook. They put it on their phone. They never look at it again. When you work with me, I’m like, okay, let’s dress to match your couch. Let’s dress to match your office. What are your brand colors? Why are we doing this? What do you need? Are we doing three images here? Like there’s a plan for it, and when I talk with you, what’s your budget? What’s gonna solve your why? So I feel like for me, there’s more of that experience.
And I also think people are craving that. I think if someone’s using ai, they just want a pretty picture. That’s fine. We weren’t gonna work together anyway, so it’s fine. but yeah, you could let it scare you. But I, I try not to.
Chris: But I love how it’s rooted very much in the why, why are you doing this? And also the long element of being like, Hey, if someone’s not ready for it, and you can assess that in your professional opinion and say, you know, I don’t think you’re really ready for this. And maybe there’s a mini thing they can do, and they come back probably, or a lot of them come back. Right. Because they appreciate that. And what I’m hearing you say is. your ability to take great photos and all the artistry that goes into it that is a big part of your business, but also the service and the connection to the human individuals, right? Not only in being able to not hold it so tightly that you can say, Hey, you know what, if it’s not right for you, come back later.
But also the done-for-you element, like you’re thinking for them, you’re helping lead them. You’re managing this project for them in a way that’s gonna bring them towards an outcome that, maybe when they walked in the door, they didn’t even fully conceive of. Right. They were just like, get my good side.
Right? And you’re like, no. Like there’s color schemes, there’s themes, like, around branding and stuff like this. So to me, I think. For people who are listening who are not photographers, right? But they want to analogize this out to like what they’re potentially doing or exploring.
It’s all about the connection, the deep connection with the customer or the potential customer. And that’s something that AI can’t do, right. And I don’t think we’ll ever be able to do well.
Todd, it reminds me a little bit of we did an episode that was like around the jobs that can’t be replaced by AI. It’s interesting because I don’t think photographer would’ve been on that list because there’s so many tools around editing and visuals that AI can do. But Katrina, I think is really modeling this thing of like, hmm, maybe it’s not so much about exactly this specific task that’s being done, but it’s about the way you do it and the way you connect with people. Katrina, I don’t know if that, is that a conscious thing for you or, you know, have you always been a people person or was that some sort of conscious idea that you came around to, a few years ago or?
Katrina: I think a little bit of both. I’ve always, been around people. I mean, I worked in a restaurant since I was 14. I did real estate. ’cause somebody was like, you’re so personable. You’d be so good at this. I’m like, okay, let’s go. Then when my husband had said, go find the best in the business. And I found her and she was like, the only way to survive in this business is to have that connection. Otherwise you’re just like the rest of the shoot and burn. So you have to hone in on that and we talked about this, like, I didn’t like raising my prices, but once I did, it changed who my clientele were. There was no more, when I was that shoot and Burn cheap photographer, you had cheap clients and they would fight you with it all the time, or they would just, you know, everybody would, it was like, you know, when you buy something off Amazon, everybody wants to retard it or they just want stuff for free.
Like, that’s what it was. And I had to elevate myself. Even more from what I was already being, that human connection person, it was like, okay, you have to do more. You have to offer more to have those prices and be that person. And then once I was there, it was, it was so much easier and it was so much enjoyable and it was, I could give things away and I could be of better service because I was in a different bracket and it was just. And I don’t mean that like, oh, only my clients are affluent. That’s not true. Like some of our best clients are blue-collar. They work hard and they want this service because they just want it done right the first time. People are like, oh, you probably only have girls. No, I have a lot of guys because they just want it done once and they don’t want, most men don’t like getting their picture taken. They don’t like the concept.
Chris: want it done only once. Yeah. Yeah,
Katrina: Their, their wives talk them into it. So I’m in a lot of networking groups and it’s mostly men, so it’s like I have to like, no, it’ll be, it’ll be fine, we’re no, let’s go do this. So it, it’s not what you think and I just, I want it to be done and I want it them to be happy.
And my biggest thing is the referral. So if I’m not doing that human connection, you know, Chat GPT isn’t gonna bring the clients and you know, everyone’s so into the Google ads and the Facebook ads, and not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I don’t find my best clients from that. I find my best clients from being out there and talking and you know, St. James go into the bakery, go into King Kullen and you’re online, and someone’s like, oh, I’m getting married. I’m like, oh, congratulations. Do you, do you have someone.
Chris: Katrina, I just wanna say thank you. I’m so proud that on my podcast we finally mentioned King Kullen. That’s a goal for me, like we’ll get the YouTube award. But before that, I’m happy that we mentioned King Kullen, the grocery store of Long Island.
Todd: Long Island Inner Inside Baseball here going on, but I gotta say, you know, I, I love that you came onto the show with us because you know, you really are embodying so many of the tenets. We talk about reinvention as a process, right?
And you’re doing a lot of these things naturally, like getting a coach, right? Having support at home. You also mentioned another one that, you know, I wanted to shine a light on a little bit. You went out and like, who does this really well? people aren’t doing that. You just like talked about it like, oh yeah, like I just, I went out and I was like, who does this really well? And I went and I learned from like, that’s what people are not doing, right. They’re having a conversation with Chat GPT about who’s doing well, but they’re actually looking at the person that is doing it well because right now, let’s just be honest, like it can seem like an aberration that you’re in this world, that 2026 that’s emerging with AI and the culture we’re living in, and you’re, photography business is doing really, really well and people, all different types of clients are paying a lot of money for you to take a picture of them, right?
It actually feels like, how can that be possible? But you’re embodying something, you know, that is the spirit of reinvention, of like anything is actually possible. Human connection is always gonna win. AI is gonna replace a lot of stuff, let’s be honest. We know it is, but like the human connection is always going to win.
And you can build businesses based on your passion. You know, even like the Amanda Frances thing, I gotta tell you. So Amanda Frances, we mentioned a couple times, you mentioned it. She wrote a book called Rich as Fuck, right? And she’s really passionate about helping women, you know, like, be financially successful. But I was in a group about a year ago with three guys and we were going through that book, hardcore, three guys going through it, I swear.
So I was just very resonant with it, it’s amazing, you know, like it’s very mindset orientation. It’s not just for women, but like, it’s really, really good. And I just wanna thank you for being here and sharing your story because it’s very inspiring to me that like anything is still possible. I think a lot of people that are in reinvention have a lot of fear and they feel like a lot of walls closing in and a lot of of, oh, I don’t know how I can do that.
Who am I to do that? A lot of imposter syndrome, a lot of, uncertainty and financial worries and all very real. But, you can do it, like, and look what you’ve done. Like, I’m proud of you, I just met you, but I’m proud of you that you’re such a shining light of reinvention. No, you are. You really are. It’s a very beautiful story because it’s like, it shows you that you can do it. A brick and mortar store. You just bought a building, you said a bunch of things to you, like in passing, you just bought a building, you know, doing photography. You know, this is amazing. If you’re listening to this, like get off your butt.
Like you can do anything that you want, like the thing that you really wanna do is possible for you to be really successful at, you just gotta do it. And you gotta get involved and you gotta do what she did right here. Do what she did. That’s the name of this episode.
As we get into closing here, I just wanna thank you personally for being here and sharing your story. ‘Cause I’m deeply inspired. So thank you again.
Katrina: Thank you. I have another fun fact. So Chris said there was a soap shop that’s incorrect.
Chris: Oh, that’s true. Yeah.
Katrina: And the crazy story is my dad said, I’ll help you buy a building. It was on my five year plan vision board. He needed a place to live and he wanted to go travel and go to Florida and golf. And he is like, let’s find a place that has an apartment for me. You find the building, we’ll make it happen. So we find a place. Love it. It ends up not having an apartment. It did, but it didn’t. So we buy this place.
I love it. That’s where I’m going with the studio. A year and a half ago comes back and says, Hey, like, do, do you want this? Like it didn’t work out. So my dad was like, yes, ’cause it had an apartment. So now we have two. So my dad says, I think you should split your businesses and do the studio at the place that you wanted and do your soap shop at the other place. And that there was a woman who was there before. So I am bringing people in so that I’m not, you know, spreading myself too thin. But now it won’t be just a soap shop, Chris. It’ll be like home decor. It’ll have all the things. It’ll be like this very hometown place.
Chris: I love it.
Katrina: But now I’m separating myself. And that’s another thing. And, and that’s part of like that entrepreneur bug. The soap kind of happened because in my twenties, outta nowhere, I think it was all that stress of trying to figure out what I was gonna do with my life. I was breaking out and I never had acne or anything. And my husband again was like, make your own soap. You can do anything. So I learned all about
Chris: That’s why I said he is the superstar here Katrina. I mean, you’re amazing, but like
Todd: Bring this in for an interview. I mean, where’s this guy drinking over there? mean seriously.
Chris: All seriousness, I, I think that one of the things a lot of people struggle with in reinvention is, how am I gonna like break this to my spouse? And you have the opposite problem. Like you have to watch out for him ’cause he’s gonna tell you to start a third business if you’re not careful.
Todd: Yeah. So outside of ending this call, you’re gonna go and you’re gonna renew your vows basically. ’cause we’ve just given so much validation for how great your husband is.
Katrina: We been together for 20 years. It is our 10th year anniversary this year, so we are going to Italy and we’re gonna go do that.
Chris: That’s amazing.
Todd: I love it. So yeah, I intuited that. Perfect. I love it.
Chris: Yeah. Katrina, thank you so much. I mean, it’s been incredible talking to you I just love, first of all you almost casually said some things that are incredible to people, right? But also what I hear from you is you have the guts to try these things and yeah, you’ve got support and that helps.
But you also don’t know how it’s all gonna turn out and, learning every day and you’re taking chances. And what we say in reinvention, all time you’re taking action and you’re not quite sure how it’s gonna go. You feel the butterflies, you face the fear, and you do it anyway. And I think, that’s incredible for me to hear, for Todd to hear too as well. And I, I just love that you’re able to share your story with our folks, so thank you so much.
Katrina: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Todd: Thank you again. Yeah, more soon. I can’t wait to see how it goes for you. And, uh, we’ll see you next time, hopefully.
