Carinna Boatwright with smaX Photography and Marie with Premier Spa and Wellness Center

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Kid Biz Radio. Kid Biz Radio creates conversations about the power of entrepreneurship and the positive impact that journey can have on kids. For more information, go to Kid Biz Expo.com. Now here’s your host.

Layla Dierdorff: [00:00:28] Hello. Welcome to KCBs radio. I’m Lila and I’m Austin, and today we have some awesome guests with us in the studio. We have Maria with Premier Spa and Wellness Center and Karina with smacks photography.

Layla Dierdorff: [00:00:40] Hi, ladies.

Austyn Guest: [00:00:41] Hi. Thank you for being with us today. Can you tell us about yourselves and your business? Either of you can go first.

Marie: [00:00:49] Well, my name is Marie and I am with Premier Spa and Wellness Center. I’ve had my business now 30 years. I’m located in East Cobb. I also subcontract out of a chiropractic office in Woodstock. I am a naturopathic doctor as well as a medical massage therapist and a doula.

Austyn Guest: [00:01:09] Okay. Very cool.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:01:10] Okay. And so I’m Carinna with smaX Photography. How did I get started in my business? You know, when I, when I talk about I’m not necessarily the most interesting person by myself, but my business is very interesting. And it also includes my husband, Jay Boatwright. So he he’s like slightly we laugh because he’s like slightly Cherokee County famous because we’ve taken so many pictures of, I mean, probably close to a million pictures here in Cherokee County alone. So of of athletes. But we ended up getting started in our business together. He has a he has a marketing degree. I actually have a culinary degree, which is kind of crazy, but it ends up working out within this within. So I do volume sports and it’s very much like a restaurant kind of feel. It has a very fast paced, it’s very fast paced. So when we when we take our pictures, there’s such a quick turnaround with that that, that my, my catering background really applies to it. Okay.

Austyn Guest: [00:02:14] That’s good. Yeah. Yeah. How do you get started?

Marie: [00:02:18] Well, I got started probably 35 years ago. Somebody was having a pain in their shoulder and they asked, you know, can you just like, rub here? And I did and didn’t think anything of it. And they were like, you should go to school to be a massage therapist. I’m like, yeah, no, I’m not going to do that because I had really long nails and I didn’t want to cut them off. And then a few years later I thought, you know, maybe I should. Yeah. And so I did. And that’s how that began.

Austyn Guest: [00:02:48] Okay. That’s good. Have you guys had any businesses prior to this or is this like your first go around?

Carinna Boatwright : [00:02:55] So me and my husband, we actually did have an insurance business before this. And so it really wasn’t our thing. We’re more creative than that. So for us when we got into the sports industry, it just happened by accident really. We we started taking action shots. And by taking action shots, it eventually evolved into taking team in sports and individuals. So so yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:03:23] Okay. So was that your first time?

Marie: [00:03:26] This is my first business. Yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:03:28] That’s good. What have you done in the past to help you become successful at this? Because you have some fails and but now you’re here and you’re successful. So what did you do? Mm.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:03:38] Gosh, we had a lot of failure at first because getting into the action photography business, it’s everything is really done on spec. You take all the pictures and then you just pray basically that the parents see the pictures and then they purchase, as opposed to what it is that we do is that we take so in we take care of pretty much most of Cobb, Cherokee and Forsyth. A lot in Gwinnett County is that we come in and we take those pictures and fulfilling those. And what was the original question?

Austyn Guest: [00:04:07] What are some things that you’ve done that we failed? Okay.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:04:10] Well also, but the failure part so is that within the action sports though is that is that we could work very, very long weekends in like 105 degree weather, shooting like All-Star baseball, just constantly going. And it was just killing us. So really being able to hone in and decide where it is, realizing where we needed to put all of our efforts, which eventually ended up being the sports, the volume sports, where we knew parents are going to go ahead there. They want those memories, as opposed to praying that they actually see the action shots that we took.

Austyn Guest: [00:04:46] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Marie: [00:04:48] Well, for me, unfortunately in the economy that we’re in right now, sometimes business is up and down. I try to connect with people through blogging. I do social media work just a little bit of a lot of stuff. I do outreaches or I’ll do some things for. Complimentary just so that I can. Empower people to have self care time. Because if you don’t have self care time. Unfortunately it leads to illness. Decrease energy and it’s just mean.

Austyn Guest: [00:05:26] Just care yourself.

Marie: [00:05:27] Just taking your taking a half an hour or an hour to yourself. Whether it’s a walk in the park, walking your dog, taking a bubble bath, a massage, all those things are important.

Austyn Guest: [00:05:38] Just something to help yourself. Yeah. So personally, everyone has a different definition for every word. What would you say you would define success as personally? This can be how you are successful in your business, how you define it generally, how it’s successful in your own personal life, etcetera.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:05:58] Well, I know for me personally, success would be how it is that I’m able to impact others with the gifts that I’ve been given. Fortunately for me and Jay is that we we kind of when we got into the business, we kind of turned the industry on its head. We we redefined exactly what, what our industry was supposed to look like. And so for us, success wise, is that we are also educators in the industry. So success wise we go in. We have a lot of photographers around the country. We have what’s called a Boatright boot camp, and we have a lot of photographers who come through. We’ve we’ve educated hundreds of photographers on what we do and how to make money at it. So that would be my definition of success when I go in and I can and I can jump on Facebook and I can see all the different threads of people saying, you know, you all have changed our lives. You all have made this possible for us. So that would be my definition is, is just that, that joy that comes from that.

Austyn Guest: [00:06:59] It’s definitely a very good definition. Yes. So it seems like you don’t just do the pictures like you help other people.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:07:05] Yes, yes we do. So it’s, it’s and it is simply because we took something that was like before it was a paper order form. Parents would come in, fill in a paper order form and then hopefully just get a decent individual and a team shot. Me and Jay, what we did is that we have an online platform for parents to see the pictures. So we had to create beautiful images that were going to the parents are going to want to purchase. So creating all of those processes and realizing within the platform that hosts our pictures, they were letting us know really like we were hitting it out of the park. And they really wanted us to become educators. And so working with them, we were able to open up and and show other people what it is that we do and how to make money at what we do.

Austyn Guest: [00:07:50] That’s good. That is really great.

Marie: [00:07:52] Well, I kind of think that success is a relative term. You know, as long as you’re happy with what you do, then that makes all the difference in the world. Of course. I mean, if you’re not happy with the profession that you’re in, then get out to something else. Find something that’s going to make you happy.

Austyn Guest: [00:08:11] That you love doing. Yeah. Yeah, it’s a good answer. In your journey to becoming successful entrepreneurs that you are. Do you possibly have any regrets or setbacks that you wish you would have done, something you would have done differently, or something you could have avoided? Maybe in the process?

Carinna Boatwright : [00:08:31] I wish. I could have watched my children grow up more. I spent it, really? That is a regret. Me and my husband. We. Were we were both young parents. And so we’ve been married 25 years this year. And but we were both young parents and we had these three kids, and we took the kids everywhere to all of our photo shoots. And that would be one of my regrets, is just not being able to at the time. You know, you’re just you’re kind of in it. So we weren’t able to afford the help that we needed necessarily to for me to step back and be able to really enjoy them growing up. Now they’re all older, they’re all in their 20s. So that would be one regret, is that. I by nature, I’m a workaholic, so I did miss out on that part. Okay.

Austyn Guest: [00:09:28] Yeah, that’s a that’s a good one.

Marie: [00:09:32] Well, I think that one of the. I have a few regrets. Actually, one of the regrets I actually have was I was in my last I had like a year and a couple of months left of chiropractic school. I got really sick, I think. I think it was the stress of it because it was really hard. I wish I would have finished chiropractic school. I moved to Georgia with my kids in tow. They were, I think seven and nine and I wanted a different life for them. And so that was one of the regrets. And I didn’t get a chance to spend a lot of time with them, just like she said, you know, when they were younger. And I think the other regret probably is not having. Not having a an associate or a partner. Because when you’re in business for yourself, you know, and you’re by yourself. I wear many hats. Yeah, yeah. I’m the website designer. I’m the I do everything. Yeah. I don’t I don’t have that second person. So sometimes I wish I had a partner.

Austyn Guest: [00:10:43] Yeah. Just to kind of help you around. It does help when you have someone with you.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:10:46] Right, right. Yeah. I mean, I would say also like like you said, you wear so many hats, you end up being, you know, the cleaner, the dishwasher, the accountant, the. Right. Everything. You’re taking everything on your own. And so that would be what I do know. One of my regrets is that early on in our business, we just weren’t able to afford it at the time. But to really have good bookkeeping and an accountant like those are so important.

Austyn Guest: [00:11:10] They are very.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:11:10] Important. Those are the things that you think, okay, I can just take care of this. I’ll come back to it. But sometimes those things can get a little bit out of hand and I can just say through experience, that’s one of the things that when you do get set up. Luckily we have another business that when we opened it, we did all of those things and it’s really been it has not come back and and to get us that’s.

Austyn Guest: [00:11:32] Very so that was one of the next questions was do you have any more like structural very business, less emotional advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? Kind of like how you said get a bookkeeper and stuff. So maybe prevent anything else or.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:11:48] Right, right. The things that aren’t necessarily fun. Um.

Marie: [00:11:55] Basically to have a, you know, a second person, a partner that you can bounce off of each other, you know, ideas, whether it’s for branding, whether it’s social media.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:12:07] Right. Having having more people, I think when, you know, for us, we had to it was just me and Jay for a while. And about three years in, we ended up hiring another main photographer. And now we have four main photographers who we hire, and we have about 20 like part timers that work for us, taking care of of everything and trying to decide that part where you have to sit down and you have to look at the numbers and decide if the, the those resources are going to be. You have to look and you have to say, step back and look at your numbers and say, okay, is this worth it for me to take a pay cut to be able to grow on this end? And, you know, ultimately it always is worth it. The thing is, we’ve never we’ve had a lot of people who’ve come to us and work full time, and it’s never really it’s never been an issue. It’s never been anything where we felt like we overpaid them and they weren’t, you know, they weren’t producing for us. We’ve always been super lucky. I think just being. Being choosy about who who it is that you hire is.

Austyn Guest: [00:13:14] The right person, right?

Carinna Boatwright : [00:13:15] Right. Not just going in. For us, it’s always been somebody who we’ve we’ve personally known. So we do know kind of their background and what type of constitution they have to this business because it is hard the sports photography business, it is very, very physical. Yeah. Yeah.

Marie: [00:13:33] But I also think that, you know, knowing what their background is, it’s hard because, you know, in my other big location, I had several massage therapists that worked for me, and I had one that subcontracted for me. And I know it’s not just massage therapy, I think it’s across the board. Some of them are very flaky. They don’t show up to work on time or don’t show up at all, or they get caught. I caught one of them smoking marijuana in the parking lot, and that’s like a big no no for me. You know, you can’t when you’re in close contact with somebody if you want to do that on your time, that’s wonderful. But not on my time. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:14:17] Not while you’re working.

Marie: [00:14:18] But but yeah, I think that. Hiring, the hiring and the firing part is. Not always having the right people to work for you.

Austyn Guest: [00:14:30] Yeah. Good good, good. So we’ve talked about the past and the present. Let’s talk about the future. Do you have any future goals or aspirations for your business? It could be next month. It could be in 15 years. Anything you like?

Carinna Boatwright : [00:14:43] Yeah. Future goals. I know for us. So we we do photograph all the way far, far north is Nashville. And all the way down to Tampa. Oh, wow. Okay. Our goal is really is to get out of the Florida. In fact, we just we just came back yesterday from a big conference where we’re just trying to kind of take over Georgia. So we we saw a lot of Parks and Rec. Um, I guess board members over this past weekend. So we were able to spend a lot of time with them, just concentrated here on Georgia. So I think we really want to kind of just bring everything kind of back home. So we’re not traveling as much too, because travel really it it beats us up. It beats up our equipment, our vehicles, everything. So yeah, that’s really our future goals is to bring everything kind of back home. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: [00:15:35] Constantly traveling can definitely be a hassle at times.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:15:37] Yeah, it sounds glamorous, but it’s not.

Austyn Guest: [00:15:40] Yeah, it also just takes up so much time where you’re not getting to work. You’re stuck traveling, driving an airport, are you?

Marie: [00:15:48] Well, I graduated last year, so I’m a naturopath now, and I’m hoping that in the future I’m, you know, I’ve got another partner now who? He’s going to be doing some stuff with me. Remote. I’ll be doing a lot more hands on so we don’t diagnose. We don’t do anything like that. What we do is we do testing different types of testing to find out kind of like what’s wrong with someone. And then we do the recommendations, whether it’s a supplement, whether it’s ozone therapy, different therapies for them to help them. You know, get better. That’s my goal.

Austyn Guest: [00:16:30] All right. Yeah. Okay, so we are going to ask a couple of kind of deeper thought questions. So just a heads up. If you had the attention of the world for the whole world for five minutes, everyone was paying attention to you and listening to what you were saying. What would you say?

Carinna Boatwright : [00:16:48] Okay, I thought about this because I got a I got this question ahead of time. So. Okay, okay, so I am in an interesting industry because we deal with so many young people. I, we shoot kids from three years all the way up to 14 years old. That’s kind of like our niche market. And so if I had so what’s the question if I had five minutes, if you had.

Austyn Guest: [00:17:13] The attention of the whole world for five.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:17:15] Minutes, this would be directed at the parents.

Austyn Guest: [00:17:18] Okay. Okay.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:17:20] So I do I get a really interesting perspective on this. Parents let your kids be kids, like stop hovering over them. Let them make mistakes. Raise them like, okay, I was a child of the 80s and I. I think parents need to do that more often. Let your kids get on a bike and disappear for five hours and they’re not going to really disappear. They’re going to come back. They’re going to have so much fun. They’re going to have so many crazy stories to tell you. And the thing is, is I think there’s a lot of kids who don’t have those crazy stories anymore because their parents are just not letting if you never let your kids do anything, they’re not. And that’s my thing. And so I see these kids and they show up for these photo shoots, and their mom or their dad is like standing over them, telling them exactly how to how to act, how to how to smile, how to everything. The kid is choosing the pose. The mom’s yelling at him, no, do this, do this. And I’m just like, just let it go.

Austyn Guest: [00:18:26] Yeah, just let them have the moment.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:18:28] There’s so many things, like just to give your kid that type of responsibility and make them feel like like their their choice is important. Also. I think that could be really empowering. So that’s what I would say. I would say parents, I’ve seen too much anxiety out there on these kids. I mean, you’re basically everybody doesn’t there’s so much anxiety and these. These kids don’t want it, but I feel like the parents are just, like pounding it into their kids. And it’s just. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty bad. And it’s getting worse. It got worse, actually, after Covid.

Austyn Guest: [00:19:07] I could see that.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:19:08] Yeah, yeah. Just to see the behavior, the behavior of the kids. It’s been it’s been really interesting. So I think that’s what I would that’s what I would do.

Austyn Guest: [00:19:17] If kids are stuck in quarantine for however many years, then they’re finally allowed to go back out into the world. And they’re not exactly going to be following every single rule parents have.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:19:26] Right, right. And I think a lot of the problem was that there was a lot of babysitting that happened in front of, you know, their, their devices. So and you can see it, you can see it in these kids.

Marie: [00:19:36] I think if I, if I had five minutes to, to have my little time with the world, I think self care would be it because. People really don’t realize. Not taking self care. We live in a busy, a very busy life. You know, parents are getting little Susie and little Tommy to baseball, to soccer, to gymnastics. And they and I understand being a parent, even though my kids are older, out of the house. Now, if you don’t take that self care time for you, no one’s going to take it for you. So you have to take that. Whether it’s our to come get a massage or whether it’s your half hour or hour to walk in the park with your dog or you’re by yourself. No one’s going to do it for you. You know, you have to have that quiet time, even if it’s a bubble bath.

Austyn Guest: [00:20:34] Just something for yourself.

Marie: [00:20:35] And you close the door. So it’s just you, or maybe your time with God. Maybe that’s that time where you need to get, you know, in the word, whether it’s the Torah or the Bible, whatever it is. But you have to have self care time. Yeah, I think that’s important.

Austyn Guest: [00:20:51] It is very important to make sure your self is taken care of above all. Okay. So we’ve had some very deep questions. We’re going to lighten up a little bit and play this or that. Okay. Sounds great. Quick speed round. Answer as fast as you can. All right. So cats or dogs? Dog. Dog. Spider-man or Batman. Spider-man. Batman. Books or movies. Books. Waffle or curly fries. Curly. Curly. Mountains or the beach. Beach. Mountains. Sweet or salty. Sweet. Sweet. Chocolate or fruity candy. Chocolate cake or pie. Cake. Low or high rise jeans.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:21:34] High.

Austyn Guest: [00:21:35] High. Yeah. Good. Comedy or horror?

Marie: [00:21:38] Comedy.

Carinna Boatwright : [00:21:39] Comedy.

Austyn Guest: [00:21:39] Yeah. All right. Yes.

Marie: [00:21:41] I need some laughter. Yes.

Austyn Guest: [00:21:43] Right. Good, good, good. All right. Well, thank you both for hanging out with us today. We really appreciate it. Can you tell everyone how they can get in touch with you and check out what you’re doing?

Carinna Boatwright : [00:21:58] Okay, so most anybody who needs to contact me so we don’t do any we don’t do like photography. That’s on an individual basis. It’s going to be with with the leagues. And if it messes up, that’s when people contact me. So and what happens is that they get their package and my phone number is in every single package. So they’ve gotten in contact me and they know how to do it if they need to. Right. But if you want to check it out, we are smack.com. All right.

Marie: [00:22:29] In order to get in touch with me, you can go to my website which is W-w-w dot Premier Wellness dot net and our phone number is 770369 3606.

Austyn Guest: [00:22:40] All right. Fantastic. Well we enjoyed our time with you guys today. And we know our audience will get so much out of hearing your story. Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the next one.