Lesle Lane and Studio 13 on The Business Spotlight with Dori DeCarlo

0:00 She is sure, she is true, she is straw is straw, she is true, is true, she is praise, pray, she is. Pes, she is you. Hello, everyone, welcome to today's Word of Mom Radio. Here on the Word of Mom Media Network. I'm your host, Dory d Carlow, and you know we are here week after week, show after show, breaking those myths a mompreneurs and business women, especially those of us building our businesses from home, that were just dabbling between bake sales and getting our nails done. We're not. We are smart, we are savvy, and we are sharing the wisdom of women in business and in life. And I'm looking forward to bringing today's guest into our business spotlight. Leslie Lane is the founder and lead photographer Studio thirteen, a certified woman owned business in Indianapolis. A third generation photographer, Leslie transformed her family's legacy into a modern, agile brand by leading a team of independent creators. She's one of a few women in commercial photography and is known for helping businesses elevate their visual presence. Passionate about mentorship, Leslie empowers the next generation of freelancers by sharing her journey and fostering growth in the creative community, and I can tell you more, but it would be much more interesting to have her here.

1:22 So with all that being said, Leslie, welcome to Word of Mom Radio. Thank you, Doria. It's such a pleasure to be here with you. I'm really looking forward to learning more about you. So I would love for you to share your journey that led to the creation of Studio thirteen. Yeah, thank you. So grandparents were photographers. They did portrait wedding photography, and then my mother and my stepfather they did commercial photography. But life happened many many things between recessions and bad marriages and all that happened, and so I had to recreate my brand into the company that I have now and realizing that people are doing business a lot differently now than they did back when my parents and my grandparents did business. And so I have taken the business from being a big operation where my parents had eleven employees at one time, and then me getting fed up with the industry and saying I'm never going to take any more employees, just me and one person and I'm done to growing into the leadership role and saying hey, I've got more business than I can physically shoot myself instead of just saying no, I'm not available or referring it out to somebody else. What if I start training freelancers to do work with me and show them how to do it in a way that matches my business prowess, and then the business stays in house.

2:50 I don't have to pay a full salaried employee. They all do it on a contract basis, and now I'm able to scale the business without having to worry about the extra investment w two employees. So that's how I got here. Such a great way to do it. Focusing on brand support and client services in this economy, I think is kind of one of the things that's helped you become as successful. How have you managed to. Do that well? Photography went from being a science, you know when we're shooting film and processing film, and then the digital cameras were so big and they were so cost prohibitive to now you carry one around on your phone.

3:31 Got to say, I'm pretty sure my grandparents didn't see that coming, and so it really has given us an opportunity as creatives to be more so, if you want to differentiate yourself from an influencer or you want to differentiate yourself from a hobbyist, you have to be not just a creative photographer, but you have to be an asset to their business. And so what we do is not just provide these services where they know that if they have a last minute shoot, I've probably got somebody that can handle that, because it's not all on my shoulders. But also, let's just say that your administrator's overwhelmed and the idea of scheduling fifty headshots in a day is just more than your administrator can do. Well, I've got an administrator that can do that for you, and she's set up a way of doing a digital online platform for each individual business to send out to their associates so that the administrator doesn't have to handle all the shooting scheduling. So just whatever the company needs, whether it's a full creative shoot or just help with the scheduling, we've got a solution that takes that burden off of them to be more than just a great photography firm.

4:49 That's awesome. How did you manage to do that? I mean, but really to have you know, commercial photography going on on a ten ninety nine basis with freelancers all over. How did you manage to put all of this together to create that backup team that you have now as your business keeps expanding. Yeah, well, necessity's the mother of invention. So I have I had a wonderful full time employee that was my editor, my best friend, and the nana to my children because that's what they called her. And that's kind of what made me decide, Hey, I'm done. I'm just going to float the rest of my career. Me and my thirty year assistant I've had, We'll just ride off into the sunset.

5:37 And then the universe had a different plan, and she contracted breast cancer and died twenty six days after her diagnosis. And there's nothing that will turn your life upside down. Then your business partner, your friend, and the fake grandmother of your children leaving this earth. And so my adult children, you know, they were in their twenties at the time. My daughter came to me and she goes, Okay, this is terrible, but you can't keep doing business like this. You've got to figure out a way to balance work and life because you haven't done it my entire life. And so my daughter actually came on board for two years and she helped me transform my business, setting up SOPs, setting up job descriptions, helping me figure out how can I do this in a manner that will not only help me retire earlier, but will help me have a better life overall. And so she's gone now, but she's still on my board of directors, so she still helps me not only grow the business, but she keeps me accountable to make sure that I don't overwork because that is my tendency. So I had a lot of help.

6:49 My mom is a great asset to me. My daughter is a great asset to me. And without them, I would not be here today. That's a wonderful thing to hear, especially word of mom. Two of my threach children at one point we're working with me in different aspects of business, and there's something special when you have that opportunity to work with your family. And lucky you, I mean, my mom didn't live long enough to see what I was doing in that aspect. But good for you. You are one of really the few women in corporate photography and a certified woman owned business. So how is that kind of fueled what you're doing? Well? Because of the way that corporate photographers work. It is super hard for women to do this because somebody has to be taken care of the children. And so where wedding photography and portrait photography you kind of do that nights and weekends, corporate photography is all eight to five, and so if you don't have a great support system, if you don't have whether it's family helping you or a husband that's a partner that's helping you, it's really difficult to do. And I always had those things, always had a great support system. But I just feel like that because of that, it holds women back in this field.

8:12 And so when I came into it, my dad did it before me, and so it was a natural transition for me to be in the corporate world. I love it. It's all I've ever wanted to do. But I think that I continue to be one of the few women that do it because America still sometimes falls back to the nineteen fifties mentality that women are expected to work and to take care of the home and to take care of the children. Oh my god, what are we having for dinner? And so I'm very, very grateful that I have been able to do this, but I feel like that I continue to be limited commodity as a woman in commercial photography. I can absolutely see what that point is. And it's so funny. Our theme song now was gifted to us from Smith's sisters in the Sunday ri but in the beginning of Word of Mom and I know you'll remember this song, I used to sing, I could bring home the bacon, try it up in a pan, and never let you forget who I am because I'm a woman, wom an. And I remember that commercial growing up as a kid, and there was the woman in the corporate suit with her briefcase in one hand and the frying pan and the other. But it was the idea of letting her not forget you're a man, you know, because she's a woman. And then I was like, no, no, no, no, let you forget who I am because I'm a woman.

9:33 Because again, I grew up in the genera you were one or the other. I just turned sixty five, and so many women that I know that made the choice of going into business because it was a one or the other back then, and now they look and it's like, yeah, I'm so glad I did it. But I never got married. I don't have any kids. I'm now doing grandchildren and loving life with that, and have been a morepreneur since nineteen ninety four and championed women who build their businesses while raising a family. And we don't have to give up. We don't, And it is having a good support system. Your kids will get to school eventually and be in school from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon, and you can do things during the daylight, corporate photography, stuff like that that require those hours, and it doesn't always mean having to have a nanny and stuff like that.

10:29 That's what play dates were for after school and things. I worked with a woman. We had a woman's group and each one of us took the kids one day a week, so nobody had to pay for babysitters, and we kind of swapped things around so we could all do what we had to do because there's great support out there. So for you, how have you managed? It always cracks me up when people say the work life balance, because it's. Not balancely ot, you know. So have you kept all the balls in the air? Leslie? Well, I was very, very fortunate that the business actually paid for me to have childcare on site. So because I own my own business. I definitely took advantage of that, so to speak. And so that's the first way that I did it. The other way that I did it is my assistant Tina that I told you about.

11:16 She had my back and so you know, if there was a job or something that you know, didn't line up with the children's schedule, she would be the one to go pick the kids up from school that day. I also had a studio at the time. I work out of my home now, and I have worked out of my home for quite some time, but my children would come to the studio after work, and so, you know, having the children in the business makes it a lot easier when you're trying to get that balance because they're coming home, they're doing homework on my desk while I'm doing this work, or you know, maybe they're in the studio with me while I'm shooting. And so that was an amazing opportunity that so many people don't get. So it was just I don't know, I look back on it with great fondness. I don't know that my children share the same fondness. Because you have to be an adult, you know, you can't come in the business and run around screaming your head off. You know, you've got to come and you've got to behave, and you've got to you know, do homework, shake a person's hand, you know, know exactly how to behave. But I did the same thing with my parents, and then my parents did the same thing with their parents. So just grateful that my business lined up with, you know, being able to have children in the business.

12:27 On that note, think of what Leslie was talking about. We're going to take a quick break to say thank you to our supporters and we'll be back here in just a moment. On Lord of Mom Radio. She is brave, she is bold, she is you, and we want to tell your story. Are you ready to share your journey with us on Word of Mom Radio. Go to wordommradio dot com and register as a guest. We want to tell your story because when you win, we all win. In twenty seventeen, Unsilenced Voices was formed to help survivors of domestic abuse and gender based violence worldwide. The organization currently serves sier Leone, Rwanda, Ghana, and the USA. In twenty twenty two, Unsilenced Voices gifted over thirty three thousand dollars to survivors. In the USA and in Siri Leone, there are over twenty six young girls who have been rescued from sex trafficking and domestic abuse and now going through vocational training school in order to better their lives.

13:36 We need your help. Donations are critical in order for us to continue our work. We also need volunteers to help with research and development. Please visit Unsilenced Voices dot org for more information. And we're back here on Word of Mom Radio. We are speaking with Leslie Lane about Studio thirteen, her life as a woman owned business and a commercial photography freelancing company, which I just think is so awesome. But I got to flip it because you know, in looking at stuff that you've done, you were a national level ice skater. So I would love to know how that mindset and discipline has kind of translated into the business world for you.

14:24 Yeah, I mean, I cannot put enough emphasis on how that shaped me. So I moved up to Indiana when I was six. My stepdad was a hockey player. He gave me my first pair of skates the first Christmas I was here, and I was hooked. So I'm a driven human being. Anyway. I wouldn't say that I'm type A, only from the standpoint that I don't like to dominate anybody. But you give me a task, if I say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. And so my parents would drop me off at the rink, especially as I got a little bit older, and i'd be there eight hours a day in the summer, and I would be on that ice exactly when I was supposed to be on the ice. And the women that shaped my life coaches that are like, don't be here if you're not going to give it your all. My longest term coach was Barb Lofner, and Barb was everything, mother, sister, friend, everything that I could be when I needed it. And so she would just look at me and she goes, there's no crying on the ice unless you're injured. If you get done with a competition and you don't get what you want out of the competition and you want to cry, get your butt outside, and when you can suck it up, come back in and we can discuss it.

15:46 And I just think that being an entrepreneur takes that mentality. It takes that Okay, I'm going to fall down, and I'm going to tighten my skates and I'm going to stand back up again. Because anybody that says that being an entrepreneur is linear and easy has not had the same road I am, and I'm pretty sure they're not telling the truth because you have to pull yourself back up. You have to be disciplined. You have to look at your desk and go, okay, if I can just get invoicing gun tonight, then I don't have to worry about it tomorrow morning. You have to have that focus and you have to have that discipline, and being an ADHD person. Ice skating gave me that to overcome my ADHD so that I can sit down and follow a plan for my day. Skating shaped everything about my life.

16:32 My children's father was an Olympic rower. He's a single sculler and we used to come to Indianapolis every year for the trials and the speed order races and use the PanAm single scullar and the PanAm Games were in Indianapolis that year. And you know, it's the absolute mindset, that driven focus of this is what you were doing and that's it. And what you were saying before about business being linear nothing's linear. You ever see the good place where they're talking about Jeremy Barramy. That's life, you know, the Curson because it just goes all over the place, and the universe doesn't work at a time. Worry it doesn't.

17:18 You know, we can put all of the blocks in place, but it's going to happen when it naturally happens. But you have to have the focus, You have to have the drive to continue, especially at a point where other people are saying to you, why are you continuing to do this? You know, if you don't come from an entrepreneurial family, you get though, when are you going to quit this and get a real job. Fortunately for you, you came from that background, so you had the support. And so for you with your freelancers, what kind of support do you give them when they come to you? Well, and I just want to I'll tell you that, but I do want to say that having women business owner so my grandmother ran the business, my mother ran the business. It's not just the entrepreneurial mindset, but it's seeing generations of women who did balance it, you know, and how they did it. And so when I look at my freelancers and when I'm trying to mentor my freelancers.

18:17 I recognize that several of my freelancers do not run a business at the same level that I do, and there are reasons why that happens. And in photography, people want to get into it because they want to take pictures. They don't want to go out and sell. They don't want to go out and network. They don't want to do the quoting and the invoicing and the follow up, and they don't want to do all those things, or maybe they're not good at all those things, and so I take all that off their plate, so they don't have to find the work. They don't even have to edit the work. All they have to do is shoot it. And so by taking all their weaknesses off of their plate, I get people that are super interested in working for me because they don't want to run the business. So then I come and I set up an operating procedure.

19:05 Like I said, I have a manual for how I want them to do the photography, and I educate them and then if they have a problem with their business, they'll come to me ask how to handle it. So I kind of just I try to give my freelancers everything my family gave me. That's what I try to do. That's a great philosophy. So I have to ask, are you only dealing with photographers in the Indianapolis area or do you deal nationwide? Where is your scope? It depends on where the job is. So it's if it's a job that the client wants to pay me to go do that it's that important that they're going to pay my travel expenses, Obviously I do it. If I quote a job, I had one come up a couple of years ago that was a job that needed to go to seven or eight locations across the country in a short period of time. I'm very fortunate that I taught photography for seven years and so I actually have students that have gone nationwide all over the country, and I try to pick and choose from my students depending on where they are. And I also am a part of a nationwide networking group that is industry exclusive, and so when I have a job in Baltimore that somebody doesn't want to pay me to do, I can choose a vetted person from that networking group and then they just come under my umbrella for that job.

20:29 That's awesome. I love you know, we have women who host under the word of mom radio umbrella their podcasts, so it's a wonderful way to help people grow and broaden your umbrella scoop. So why is it that you don't tend to go after the latest tech trends and things like that. You seem to stay more focused on those timeless principles customer service, communication, craftsmanship, and that one on one conversation. How have you been managing to do that in today's world? Well, the technology is very much a part of the business. So you know, everybody's talking about AI and you know where is AI going to take us? Well, AI is a part of my business, so it has allowed me to edit my images faster. It's allowed me to do more things with my editing that I couldn't do before.

21:24 I don't do it all myself, but the programming and the software of you know, Photoshop and AI being integrated into Photoshop is definitely a part of what we do. I think that what's what's different for us is that the type of business that we do requires less artificial and more reality. So I put a lot of effort into working in industries that they need to be known liked and trust. So think lawyers, doctors, financial advisors, bankers, people that when you walk into meet with your financial advisor, if you don't look like what your picture looked like on the website, they're probably not going to trust you with a million dollars to invest for them. So that's the first thing I focus on that. The other thing is is that there's some things that technology can't do.

22:19 So we do a lot of corporate events, whether it's a sales training or whether it is a corporate party or team building. We'll go out and we'll photograph that event that then you want to promote, Hey, look at all this we're doing with our associates. AI can't do that for you. Lastly is that we work a lot with product photography, and so many people don't know that there actually is a truth in advertising law for America that if you put a product out there on a package, you're supposed to have a photograph that looks like your product. Some of the retailers are pushing back on that and saying, too, distributors, we will not actually put your product on the shelf if there's not a real picture on it. And so we're embracing the people that need product photography and authenticity in their packaging. So it's not that we're shying away from AI, it's that we're using that as a tool, but we're now tailoring our business towards people where authenticity truly matters. And so we're merging technology with relationships to help us give the client exactly what they need.

23:26 What a great way to start wrapping up this conversation. So as we are closing out, Leslie, what do you want to leave our listeners with and how may they reach out to you? I just want to leave female business owners entrepreneurs. You're going to figure it out. You know, I've been through so many incantations of my business. I have changed and adapted, and right now, at this age where my children are grown and I've got grand babies, and I'm sitting in my home that I run my business from, I am at the best place I've ever been in my entire life. And so for those women that are struggling just to keep going, I'm just going to say, keep going, keep going, find the resources that you need because it does get easier as you move through your time with your children.

24:17 Don't miss out on that, but you don't have to miss out on your career. As well as far as where you can reach me, Studio thirteen online dot Com is my website. You can also reach me at LinkedIn Studio thirteen as well as myself personally, Leslie Lane. We're also on Instagram and Facebook Studio thirteen in both places. All of Leslie's links are going to be live on wordommradio dot com. And for those freelancers out there that are hearing this, are women that have always had a passion for photography and think it might be something you might be good at. Reach out, learn from someone who has done it and has done it generationally. I come from a long line I know really strong women, so I so resonate with that, just the women that paved the way for all of us. And that's what we do here. That's why we love our tagline is sharing the wisdom of women in business and in life, because that's what this show does. And so I love when people like you come on Leslie to share how you've done this and how you're mentoring others to do it themselves. Again, all of Leslie's links are going to be live. I really encourage you reach out so Leslie, thank you so much for taking the time to share your journey with us.

25:37 I really appreciate it. Thank you, it's been such a pleasure right. Back at you, and for all of you tuning in, thank you so much for being here. We're going to close out with our fabulous theme song from Smith's Sisters and the Sunday Drivers. So till next time, This is Dory Di Carlow saying, go out and create a marvelous you. Bye for now. She is sure, she is sure, she is strong, she is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is bold, she is you. She is she is sure, she is she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is braized, she is bold, she she is you. She is sure of herself. Yeah, she takes care of his powerful and strong. Yes, she knows who she is, has integrity, woman, strong and true.

26:35 You know her by name. See this woman is you. She is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is she is she is you, she is she is she is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, she is bold, she she is you. She is you. She is adds value and hope has proved to be brave. See it's never too late, never time to behave Reaching for dreams doesn't matter. The age believes in herself, unleashed from her cage. She is sure, she is sure, she is strong, is strong, she is true, is true, she is brave, is brave, she is bold, she is you.

27:26 She is she is, she is, she is. Sure, she is she is strong, she is strong, she is true, is true. She is brave, is brave, she is she is you.