**all images in this post copyright: Jackie Rueda. **
 

{To nominate women you'd like to see in this series please list them in the comments-or if you have a question you'd like to see in the interviews--make sure to include your info in the comment fields so that I can get in touch with you- or write to me at: davina at davinafear.com }

As always make sure to leave comments for the women who are featured. They like comments as much as i do I'm sure...let them know if you have questions or just to say thanks! for their insight and wisdom...

NEXT WEEK:  Andrea @ Pink Sugar Photography

You can check out the rest of the series by clicking here. Tell a friend!

Jackie, I first met you because of a kindness you showed me, you sent me a gift, and I'm still so grateful for that.  It seems that this is the way you are with everyone. I immediately went to check out your work and was drawn into your beautiful, emotional perspective on the world.  Since then I've so wanted to learn from you and have been so tempted to learn Spanish as my second language just so I can read your blog and take your online courses.  I think you are the only person I know of that has decided that preteen/early teen girls are your target market.  They way you bring out their innocence and beauty is wonderful.  I'm so excited to have you here on Women and Business.  Thank you!

You have become very popular in the last year or two among the Latin community for your Spanish photography online courses. How did that come about?
When I left Caracas I waved my career goodbye due to the change of language (I am a journalist and a TV writer). So I was new in beautiful Montreal with no idea of what to do with my life. At the same time I was going through a kind of personal storm and I felt like I was drowning. I started writing in Spanish on a blog to have a creative outlet. To my surprise the blog became very popular, partly because of the stories and partly because of the pictures. I was working simultaneously since the summer of 2008 with my Flickr group La Vuelta al Mundo (A Trip Around the World), where I encourage people to go out and re-discover their cities to capture in pictures a new theme for each month (happiness, rainbows, sun flare…). From the group discussions, from my previous experience in photography and from my work with children in creative workshops during my college years, emerged in a natural way the need to design this e-course. I make my class the less intimidating as possible- I call it The game of learning how to see. People learn about photography in a very relaxed way, and they are recued from their problems and routines by their cameras. I had never before seen anything like that on the internet, so I had no references to create it. I spent months puzzling over it until I came up with the perfect formula. Then, when my e-course was ready, the satisfaction was infinite because it was like no other. It’s welcoming, easy, fun and friendly. 75 % of my students are from Spain and 25% are from other Hispanic countries.

I love that you've chosen such a specific target market, pre-teen/early teenage girls.  You've taken this awkward time of life and brought out so much beauty, It's really lovely.  How did you hone in on that particular demographic?
It was an accident. I have two teenage daughters, and when their friends saw their photos they wanted a photo shoot too. Then they showed the pictures to their friends, sisters and cousins so my portfolio kept growing.

What do you do to help your particular age group of clients be so comfortable with you during a photo shoot?
I think the answer is that I am relaxed, I laugh a lot (mostly at myself) and I remember perfectly when I was that age, so I can empathize. I have had stunning girls who don’t want to laugh because they think that their smile is ugly, and others that think that they have one eye bigger than the other.  At that age appearance is a matter of life or death, and I take their worries seriously. I don’t pressure them into something that makes them uncomfortable. I really listen to them. Empathizing is the key when in contact with clients, and I think it’s the reason that my daughters and I are so close. The girls are comfortable with me, they don’t see me so adult-ish, and they relax. I’m not sure if this is something I should be proud of, but it works like magic!

What are the ages of your girls?  How have they been inspired by your work?
Marianne is 16 years old and Valeria is 13. Both have developed a certain artistic sensibility. They take turns to assist me in sessions, they accompany me on my urban photographic expeditions and they help me choose between two pictures for some project. They are my best friends, my most honest critics and they help me understand what people their age like, what is cool and what’s not. They took my Atelier Teens last summer and their pictures were amazing. That’s when I realized that they have definitely caught the photography bug. Valeria wants to be a wildlife photographer and Marianne wants to start doing sessions with her friends.

Are you in a storefront or home studio space?  What made you decide on the space you have?
I work primarily on location with natural light (Montreal is the prettiest backdrop, seasons here are like a fairytale), but I also have a small home studio flooded by gorgeous light. It's my favorite place in the world. It's surrounded by trees and it's accessible from my house, or from outside through turquoise stairs that I often use in my still-life photos. When I saw this house for the first time, I knew at once that this nice solarium had to be “my place”. It is not big, but it is inspiring and enough for now. At some point it won’t be anymore, since my plans for the future include having workshops in my own studio, but before thinking about renting a space, I think I’d rather expand my house...I love working here close to my family and my cats.

What are you most proud of as a business woman?
I am proud of having reinvented myself professionally. With no budget, no advice, not speaking good English or French, no incurring in debts, not marketing strategy, not contacts and not much experience, I could create something that not only generates an income, but makes me go out of bed happy everyday. I get positive feedback frequently from my students and clients and that nurtures me. I love so much what I do, I have so many plans and there are so many aspects of photography I want to explore, that the only thing I ask is to have longer days.

What is the best thing you've done to make your business successful?
I think I have known how to relate with people in an honest and direct way. There is something in my way of talking online that makes people feel close to me and want to take my class or hire me. I know that it's odd that a photographer says this instead of something related to her photos, but in this business, the emotional component is really important and I am a very emotive person and I don't mind being transparent.

What are the top three things you did when you were first getting started in business to bring in clients?
1. Talking about my new business on my blog. At that time I had spent 4 years building week by week a solid community of followers, and 2 years with a warm and participative Flickr group, so my potential clients and students where already there. Those people know me and are familiar with my photos and my way to express my ideas. Both the blog and the Flickr group were born for very different reasons, but at the moment of launching my business all that work paid off. I’ve never had to invest in advertising, my workshops are sold out 4 months in advance and everything works by word of mouth.
2. Networking (in a kind and polite way) is crucial. Facebook, Flickr, Twitter are very important.
3. A nice website to showcase my work, and another one just for my online workshops. It might sound very basic, but a clean, fresh and inviting site can make a big difference. Now I’m working on revamping my blog.

What do you do to keep from feeling overwhelmed?
To be honest, I feel overwhelmed all the time!  For me, the most difficult thing is handling my emails. My inbox is always over flooding and I still haven’t found a way to make this work in an efficient way. I just launched my newsletter to control the demand of information. It seems to be working; I’ve got my finger crossed!

What do you do for fun...that has nothing to do with photography?
I absolutely love road trips: music, honey roasted peanuts, my husband driving and some dreamy landscape. I’m a big fan also of our family movie night on weekends.

I so wish that I could read your blog but alas...I do not speak (or read) Spanish. Is there any chance you'll be offering classes in English?  You are so inspiring I would love to learn about how your creative mind works.
I would love it! Teaching in English would notably expand my horizons, but I'm afraid that my domain of the language isn't enough to teach online. Maybe if you hear me talk, I'll make a mistake, we'll laugh together and it'll maybe work out. But in an online class, I have to write a lot and express myself correctly, and I don't feel capable of doing that. In my class I comment the work of my students picture by picture in a very personalized way. That requires many hours of grammatically correct typing!

To see more of Jackie's work:

Website

Blog (spanish)

Blog (english)

Facebook

**all images in this post copyright: Jackie Rueda. **