Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Buckner.
Kelly, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always had a passion to run my own company; I guess that I would consider myself a “serial entrepreneur,” in which I have 16 years of experience.
I have a Bachelor’s degree in “Applied Design and Visual Arts” from the University of Houston Clear Lake.
While in college, I began a portrait and wedding photography business. While also working as a full-time photographer, I grew a side-hustle of photography post-production and wedding album design for several other professional photographers to help facilitate their growing businesses as well as my own.
After six years in the wedding photography industry, my focus shifted to be a full-time mom to my daughter, Avery. The consummate entrepreneur, artist, and fashion-lover inside me lead me to a new venture… a private-shopping clothing boutique in Kingwood, TX. With the vast background in photography and graphic design, I used my skills to create all my marketing materials and maximized social media to grow my boutique’s awareness and sales. The clothing boutique was a great success, and my FB page garnished over 10,000 followers.
After three years, I made the decision to close the boutique to spend more time with my daughter, as she was very young. I came to realize that owning a boutique was all-consuming and the timing for that did not line up with my value system during that period in my life.
During my entrepreneurial transition, I found Pruvit ketones. Ketones transformed my health and life on so many levels, as well as opened an opportunity to once again to use the skills of photography to share my passion with the world.
Through all the shifts and changes in my career journey, I found a common denominator in all that I have done and all that I am passionate about. I am so passionate about working with women to help them find their better. That is why I created BeeBold Collective. It was the perfect opportunity to bring everything that I have done in the past under one “umbrella” company to do what I love. I work with women entrepreneurs on 3 levels: (1) Better on the inside/health (2) Better digital/social media/image-branding presence (3) Better outward personal presence.
The result is a woman who feels amazing in her own skin and who’s visual presence (whether digital or in-person) in the world, not only gives her utmost confidence, but that attracts her perfect audience and clients so that her business can flourish.
I believe that life is a miraculous journey of discovering who we are and what we are truly meant to become. The beautiful part about the journey is that there are smooth parts and bumpy parts, straight ways and twists and turns. It’s not about everything being perfect or choosing only one thing to achieve throughout the process. It’s just that… a process of learning, overcoming, failing, getting back up, losing, winning, and most of all… keeping on the journey.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road of life is never smooth, but that is what is really amazing about it. It has not been smooth by any means, but it has been very educational. I have struggled with burn-out, especially when I was a wedding photographer and in the boutique business. I am a work-a-holic to the core. It’s a good thing, but can be a very bad thing at times. When I commit to something, I go all in. That commitment can take a toll on the ones I love, so I have learned that I need to time-block and be reasonable. I have learned to say “no” more. I am still learning that.
I have learned that owning a business is always going to have ebbs and flows no matter what. Entrepreneurship will not always be easy, perfect, and I will not understand it all the time. It’s a struggle for me to let go of certain parts of my business and delegate. I am learning to be better about that every day… with every new project that pops up. I am learning to ask for help when I need it.
Finding people who want to work as hard as I do has always been a challenge for me. I move at a very strong pace and I want to build a team who will lock arms with me and get the job done. I know they are out there, but I will be choosy. It’s not something I can compromise on that easily. I guess I need to work on that as well. [laugh]
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I own BeeBold Collective. I work with women entrepreneurs “backstage” to ensure that their “onstage” presence attracts their perfect audience and clients. At the moment, I am very focused on helping them use the power of the tool they carry every single day to create images/visual content that will set them apart in their industry and life. That tool is the smartphone camera. I teach Smartphone Photography Workshops to help them develop this must-have skill. I even teach them how to take their own headshots whenever they need one. It saves them a great deal of money and time in the mid to long-term. I want to empower women to take ownership of the visual content that represents themselves… whether on social media, via text, or any other digital outlet. The skill is used in networking environments and many other situations where they are image-branding.
I am most proud that I am able to empower women entrepreneurs with skills and tools that they can use every single day to bring confidence to their lives and in business.
I feel that I “bring to the table” skills that many other image consultants do not, simply because I have an extensive background in certain areas. Being a portrait-wedding photographer for over six years, owned a clothing boutique for over three years, and have been very active in the health and wellness community for over two and a half years, I have the experience to help women entrepreneurs break through a stuck place in their business in a special way.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Houston is the perfect city to start a new business because there is so much diversity in people, business, and culture. We have so many people from all different backgrounds. Also, the “cost of living” is wonderful here compared to other cities. The people are unmatched as well. I have lived in Houston my entire life and have traveled all over the country and world. I can honestly say that there is no other place I desire to live that has all the opportunity that we have here.
Offerings:
- Smartphone Photography Masterclass (2-hour group session)
- Private VIP Smartphone Photography Session (3-hour one-to-one)
- Visual Brand Consultation (one-to-one 2-hour sessions)
- Visual Brand Exclusive (one-to-one six 2-hour sessions)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kellybuckner.
com - Email: contact@kellybuckner.
com - Instagram: https://instagram.
com/kellybuckner78 - Facebook: https://facebook.
com/kelly.buckner78 - Other: BeeBold Collective
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