Turning Your Passion Project into Money

Turning Your Passion Project into Money

This interview with photographer Jade Beall originally appeared in our free downloadable guide, The Ultimate Guide to Starting Your Photography Business.

Jade

Jade Beall

Jade Beall was a massage therapist for 15 years before turning her focus to photography. Now she’s known for a different type of therapy. The Tuscan- based artist photographs mothers in the nude as a way for them to build self-esteem and confidence in their changed bodies. In 2013, Beall launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a book about her project, A Beautiful Body Project, and attracted international attention, which helped her build a niche business that she loves.

Beall is mainly a self-taught photographer, but what she lacks in formal training she makes up for in passion for using photography as a tool to celebrate and help mothers embrace their bodies and feel good about themselves. Before she started her current project, she’d been photographing yogis, dancers and families in her area—and she continues to do that— but her main focus is continuing to expand on the niche she’s established. Here’s how Beall turned a passion project into a niche business that draws clients from around the world.

How did you start photographing mothers?

I got pregnant, and did self-portraits of myself after I gave birth trying to make sense of my very changed body. I basically was saying, I’m beautiful too. I am not a bounce-back mother. I’m a very changed mother and this too is precious and beautiful. I posted them online and people loved them. Women really related to it, and I found myself photographing hundreds of women who wanted to redefine beautiful and to show their stretch marks and wrinkles and all these things that we’ve been taught to erase away with Photoshop.

That’s how I found my niche. It was completely unexpected, but I’ve always loved photographing women just as they are, mostly nude. I found my community partly because I wanted to make something out of my own experience as a new mother with a very changed body. And also I was willing to put myself out there. I call it therapeutic photography because it’s not easy to see. We’re not trained to want to see those things. It brings up a plethora of feelings.

Photo by Jade Beall

Photo by Jade Beall

How is your business structured?

Beautiful Body Project is my company, and my main income is individual portraits. Women come from all over the U.S. and Europe who want to do these photos, which just blew my mind at first. If they’re feeling comfortable, I like to share their work on my website with their story. I also get pretty good revenues from the book I self-published through crowdfunding.

Why did you decide to publish a book?

Once tons of women became interested and I started photographing them, I thought sharing their stories would be such a rad book. But it takes a lot of money to make a book. I couldn’t devote all my time to something that I was doing for free—all the initial photos of these mothers, were completely free shoots.

For me, the book is the ultimate source of promotion. Now, I have women who are paying clients who want to do this type of photo shoot because they want the pho- tos for themselves and they hope to inspire others. They also want to share their story in hopes that I’ll share it on my website. It’s exciting for them.

What was the key to your success on Kickstarter?

My community was really excited. I had pretty good cli- entele of yogis and dancers and studios in town, and I had a decent following on Facebook. They all shared it, and it started growing from their shares. By the time the Huffing- ton Post found my video on Kickstarter, I’d already reached my goal of $20,000. They wrote about it, and it went from $20,000 to almost $60,000. Then The Today Show called me, and they came and featured me. It brought lots of interviews and awesome opportunities.

What’s your social media strategy?

Instagram is very new to me, but I’m enjoying it. Face- book I’ve been on 8 or 9 years, and I just continue to share something motivational or inspiring every day. I try to post something that moves me and will hopefully move some- one else. Whether it’s a photo I took of a client or a photo that I revisited from a year ago, always with a story of the paths these women take to feel beautiful in their skin.

Sometimes I’ll post a link to my book. I don’t like to over-talk about my book, even though that helps get me paid. I’ll write about how every book I sell will help me do more photo shoots and help more women. I’ll some- times offer a discount. I try to be conscious of how I would want people to share their work and what they’re also trying to profit on.

Photo by Jade Beall

Photo by Jade Beall

What advice do you have for someone who has a passion project or niche they want to turn into a business?

Any kind of series that you’re passionate about is awe- some, but you have to build a body of work. Take the time to really think about what moves your core and give it a shot. It took me six months to get a semi- body of work to put out there for the Kickstarter cam- paign. If you’re truly passionate about it, you’ll find the strength to you need to put everything you have into it. I could barely even understand how someone would want to give me money for a Kickstarter campaign, but it didn’t matter because I was passionate about it so I wanted to do it anyway.

Also, don’t be afraid to pimp yourself out too much on Facebook. That’s what it’s for. It’s an amazing tool to say, Here’s what I’ve been working on and I’m really pas- sionate about it. Would you like to join me? People love being included. I think that’s one of the reasons I was so successful. It’s about connecting.

Why did you decide to do a crowdfunding campaign?

Other people that I trusted, other people who had done successful projects, they suggested that I should do it. I liked that it didn’t get funded unless you met your goal. I was so scared to just fill out all the information. I didn’t even know how to make a video in iMovie. I sat here for three days trying to figure it out. But I did it anyway because I thought if it doesn’t go, it doesn’t go, but at least I tried. If I hadn’t have done it, my life would be very different right now. I’d still be doing photogra- phy, but to do photography the way I’m doing it now has brought me tremendous amounts of joy.

Are there any mistakes you made that you’ve learned from?

I wish I would’ve had a little more self-confidence that I had something to offer. When The Today Show called, I didn’t want to call them back, and I didn’t right away. I missed the opportunity to be flown to New York City and be on the show there. They did come here and I got a beautiful segment on the show, but wish I would’ve called them back right away. Also, after receiving a lot of online hate emails about how terrible people think my work is I’ve learned to not take it personally.

I also wish I’d asked for more help to help me orga- nize for the book. A little more assistance would’ve been really helpful for my well-being as a mother and as a partner.

Has this project led to any speaking engagements or workshops?

Yes, public speaking was not something that I wanted to actively do, I have been invited to several different speaking engagements. I got invited to a local TED talk and then a few bigger TED talks. I’m flying to Australia to be interviewed for a documentary about body posi- tivity. I never would’ve dreamed people would want to hear me talk about these things. Things keep unfolding in ways that I didn’t even imagine.

What are you plans for continuing the project?

What I’ve learned through this process is that women all over the world have battles of feeling unworthy of feeling beautiful. It’s a shared story no matter our race or where we live geographically. So right now I want to focus on my media platform, which is a collective of these stories. I have 17 photographers from all over the world, and they are contributing some photos. I want to build up to hundreds of photographers and the stories of the women they are photographing. Pretty much all of the photographers I featured on the site have gotten work from being listed there.

Right now one of the ways I keep the website up is by people donating. I’m eventually going to revamp my entire website and have sponsors and advertisements. I really want to build this website as something women all over the world can access for free.

Any other advice for new photographers?

Ask questions. I’m a self-taught photographer, and I had to ask a lot of questions. I didn’t understand gear, I didn’t understand what camera I needed. I found a mentor right here in town—a photographer I loved and became friends with. I tried to offer them some business in return for helping me understand equipment and how to light better. Look for people who inspire you and ask them questions. Be constantly inspired by other people’s work.

This interview was originally published in PhotoShelter’s The Ultimate Guide to Starting Your Photography Business which you can download for free, here!

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