Black Bridge Mindset

Navigating Business Through Passion & Curiosity with Ray LaVoie | Black Bridge Mindset Podcast

• Black Bridge Mindset • Season 1 • Episode 9

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Welcome to the latest episode of the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast! Hosts Mike, Ken, and CJ dive into a riveting conversation with Columbus-based photographer Ray LaVoie. Discover how Ray turned his passion for photography into a thriving business, tackled challenges, and the importance of surrounding yourself with a reliable network. 

From discussing imposter syndrome to navigating the complexities of corporate America and maintaining authenticity in a world increasingly influenced by AI, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Don't miss out on Ray's practical advice for budding photographers and entrepreneurs alike.

00:00 Welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast
03:11 Corporate Frustrations and Upcoming Plans
04:49 Excitement for the Beyonce Concert
07:17 Introducing Special Guest: Ray LaVoie
08:37 Ray LaVoie's Journey into Photography
11:37 Transition from Corporate America to Photography
15:25 Networking and First Big Client
20:40 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
24:08 Navigating Business as a Minority
25:43 Choosing the Right Talent for the Job
27:56 Solo Entrepreneur vs. CEO
30:35 The Importance of a Reliable Network
32:49 Advice for Aspiring Photographers
36:49 Challenges in Photography
43:38 Quick Fire Questions
47:50 Final Thoughts and Farewell

Guest's Social Media

Website: https://www.raylavoie.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RayLavoiePhoto

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raylavoie

Thank you for listening!

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Hosts:

CJ:

Hello and welcome to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast where culture, entrepreneurship, and business intersect to fuel inspiration. This podcast celebrates the power of diverse voices shaping the future of business. So whether you're building a business, breaking barriers, or just looking for some serious inspiration, you're in the right place. The Black Bridge Mindset. Podcast is hosted by your three favorite best friends, Mike, Ken, and CJ. So now sit back, relax, and absorb the gems being dropped on you by today's special guest.

Mike:

the real acting starts taking place.'cause I'm tired. I woke up. I had my coffee, but look, look at me glowing. The sun is coming in.

CJ:

got a little

Mike:

Good morning. Good morning, good morning.

Ken:

Good morning. The question is why? Why are you tired?

Mike:

I, I, don't know, I think I'm just getting old.

CJ:

job.

Mike:

I, it, it is part, it is the, the, it is, the promotion has kept me busy over the last two weeks trying to get everything in order. We've been interviewing people, which has been fun. yeah, it's, it's, it's a little draining, but it's a good thing. It's not a bad thing. I'm not gonna complain about it. Outside of the job and just trying to do things on the side as well, you know, you know, I always talk about real estate trying to do that, so that's keeping us busy. This and keeping everything in orders, keeping me busy. I have a episode to edit after this actually. But yeah, that's my life and that's how it's going. I was even trying to think of what to put in my Black Bridge mindset, little Yeti Cup this morning, and I ended up putting in water. I was, everything else just didn't sound great this morning, this early. And for those listening, it is eight o'clock in Chicago

Ken:

Right.

Mike:

eight 20 in Chicago right now. So it is early.

Ken:

Right.

Mike:

this for the people.

CJ:

Hm.

Ken:

So a quick question about the new job. How, like, are you, are you taking on a new team or you're building your team?

Mike:

I am building a team,

Ken:

Wow. Good for you.

Mike:

yeah. Yeah, So slowly building a team. So the COO has a. A bunch of people that he has lined up, that he's interviewed and that he likes, and then he's passed them on to me to do a second round of interviews,

Ken:

Okay.

Mike:

and then I'm just ranking them and then sending my recommendations, back to him. And then we'll see what happens next week.

Ken:

Okay, good for you.

CJ:

out.

Ken:

Are you prepared for this? Because managing people is a completely different

Mike:

listen,

Ken:

world?

Mike:

I manage you two. If I can make it through you two.

Ken:

No, no, no. See, the, the, the difference here is you don't have to you know, document things, right? Like there is, and, and you're right, you do, you do manage us and,

CJ:

already

Ken:

Right.

Mike:

Of course I'm joking, but yeah, I don't know. I'm, you know, that imperfect action thing that I always talk about, so here we go. We're

Ken:

Right,

Mike:

it out as we go.

Ken:

right, right. So good for you. And again, congratulations. That's, that's fantastic.

Mike:

Yeah, Thank you. Thank you. How about you two? How are things going?

Ken:

Things are good. Not too bad. Work's been crazy. They got on my nerves this week.

CJ:

I can tell because generally you texting throughout the day. We are even here from you this past couple weeks.

Ken:

No, there's just, there's a lot that is going on. And then on Wednesday I was. Wednesday morning. So we had a two day directors training, which honestly could have been a day, actually it could have been a half day, but whatever. And before I was going down on was it Tuesday or Wednesday? Anyway, some, somebody came over and said, Hey, like, you are going to be managing the new person. And mind you, this person doesn't even work in my organization. And I was like, excuse me, what? And he was like, yeah, you're gonna be managing the new person and you're gonna get a call from somebody later. And I'm like, first of all, why are you telling me this? And secondly, why am I just finding out about this right now? So then I sent a note to my boss and my boss's boss, and they're like, what are you talking about? And I said, see this? This is the shit that pisses me off. Right, because like, how are you making this? Who's making this decision without involving me specifically right? In this decision. But anyway, it's all good. Like, it's, it's part of being in corporate America. So prepare yourself, Michael, because these are the things that will, crop up and happen to you, but otherwise it's been good. You know, I'm just trying to make it until next Thursday whenever I can be done and prepare yourselves.'cause we're right. We're going all in.

CJ:

and

Mike:

And for people who are like, what's happening next Thursday? They probably like, the people want

Ken:

Oh, we're all headed to Chicago to see Beyonce for the weekend. The concert is Saturday. And I am looking forward to this. I am, I'm looking forward to it. So I have the, I think I, I think I found the right set list. So I have it on repeat, so I'll be fully prepared.

CJ:

about that. Why are you so? Just up in air trying to get this set list together. One, as

Ken:

What

CJ:

managing the music on stage and two, should already know all the songs. Anyway,

Ken:

what kind of question is that?

CJ:

that was a sta Well, it was a question and a statement.

Ken:

So first of all, you are, listen.

CJ:

This is you

Ken:

You should always be prepared, okay? Number one, you should always be prepared. And so as you, as you have seen on Instagram, she has a different set list depending upon where she is on what night it is, right? And so there are certain songs like Boots on the Ground and like other songs that like. You know, you need to be prepared for it. If you want to take advantage, full advantage of the show.

CJ:

so what

Ken:

And you're right, I probably do, I probably do know most of the songs, but that's not the point.

CJ:

What

Ken:

And plus I need to just,

CJ:

you're at home right now actively practicing the boots on the ground steps so that at the concert you can show us.

Ken:

are you not?

CJ:

No, you just wing it.

Ken:

Oh, okay. Alright.

Mike:

I. already know it. I got it.

CJ:

alcohol, I'll get it.

Ken:

Well, I guess I, I guess Saturday morning we'll be holding class.

CJ:

To say the least, more

Ken:

Class will be an effort. Correct. Listen, do not embarrass me out there in front of all them people. That's all I'm saying.

CJ:

Listen

Mike:

funny.

CJ:

much as we've been together. If I haven't embarrassed you yet, then I don't know what else I can do.

Ken:

But I'm excited. I'm looking forward to, I'm looking forward mainly I'm looking forward to the concert, but I'm really ma looking forward to hanging out with all of you fools. I feel like it's been,

CJ:

It's been

Ken:

has it been since my birthday in January? Since we've all been together?

CJ:

Yeah.

Mike:

Yeah, it's been a

Ken:

Yeah,

Mike:

been a minute.

Ken:

it has been. So yeah. I'm looking forward to spending a, a good weekend with my family.

CJ:

Good.

Mike:

right.

CJ:

here.

Ken:

Let's get started.

CJ:

So today on our show, we are hosting Mr. Ray LaVoie. Ray LaVoie is a Columbus, Ohio based photographer who translates the energy within an object or person into high quality imagery for consumers, businesses, and investors. has a laundry list of corporate clients who revel at his work and contact him. As their go-to photographer on a consistent basis. Because of this, Ray holds a unique eye for capturing stellar photos of all subjects, human or object. Ray LaVoie Photography is also a unique business as it is registered as an L-G-B-T-B-E, which I'm assuming stands for LGBT Business Enterprise and we'll have Ray discuss that as well. So, bringing in today, we are very honored to have Mr. Ray LaVoie.

Ken:

Morning and.

Mike:

Good morning.

Ray Lavoie:

Good

Mike:

Thank you for joining us early on a Saturday morning.

Ray Lavoie:

Thank you for having me be one of your guests. I'm very honored and privileged to be here.

Mike:

Awesome. Well, as, as CJ told us twice you are a photographer in Columbus. Yeah, we'd love to get a little bit of background and if you can sort of just tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this business, and then we'll, we'll ask you some questions after that.

Ray Lavoie:

It started very long time ago and it wasn't actually getting into the business. It was taking my passion for photography and making it into a business. I would've been a photographer if I did, had a business or not. And so I started out really young and I went to art school for college fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. And left there in my early twenties be a photo assistant for some major photographers around America. Names, which won't impress anybody that doesn't know photography, but they're great. Good people. I went from there to having a crisis of conscience and took a full-time job at a place that. some VPs remember, AOL

CJ:

Hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

America online back in the day. And they were very good to me for about 10 years. And, but then 10 years I got tired of corporate America, Kenneth alluded to. There's some things that corporate America that are not just, are not all that much fun and, I decided to a shingle in 2007 and become a photography business and I've been photo photographer in Columbus since 2007 coming up on 18 years. I think that's my

CJ:

Yeah,

Ray Lavoie:

alright doing really well. Happy to be here and ask me more questions.

Mike:

No, that's awesome.

CJ:

so you actually. You went to school for photography, it wasn't, I mean, it was already a hobby, so to speak, but you, you went to school and, and, and got further training.

Ray Lavoie:

Oh I started printing photographs in a G club in middle school,

CJ:

Hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

so I'd already started photography in middle school. think I was about eight years old when I went on a trip to the Poconos in Eastern Pennsylvania. had a waterfall and I had a little Hawkeye camera 1 26 cartridge camera, which is inside baseball conversation right there. but I took four or five fixtures of the waterfall and my mother was like, you only need one. I'm like, but I have to get the right angle. So they knew it was a problem back then. always eight years

CJ:

Nice.

Ray Lavoie:

they say that lawyers are people who like to argue that become lawyers. like, I like to take pictures of become a photographer.

Ken:

Yeah. Yeah. So did you never have a desire to go back to New York? Because most times whenever people study in New York, they want to kind of, you know, stay there and build their career. Like, so there was never a desire to wanna go back to New York.

Ray Lavoie:

I find that everything is fine until you're 30 York. I. And if you haven't made it enough to afford the apartment you're living in by 30, you're like, I'm out. Great. Great place to hang out for your twenties, as soon as you hit your thirties and you still don't have enough for a down payment, you're like, I'm going from cheaper gas mileage.

Mike:

Yeah. Nice. you mentioned that, you know, this was always in your bones and it was like a passion for you. and then at one point you decided to leave corporate America and go pursue your passion. Was there trigger that caused you to, in the mindset trigger that said, you know what? I don't care if I make money, if I don't make money. I'm gonna go and pursue my passion because I think a lot of people have a passion, but they have the golden handcuffs as they call it. You know, they're comfortable, they have this great job, they have great income. They may not love the job, but they're terrified to take that leap. So what internally happened for you that said, I don't care. I'm gonna take this leap anyway.

Ray Lavoie:

I had a lot of experience photographing in New York as a freelancer in New York and I, the freedom that entails. Some days you're working, some days you're not. Some days you're in, some days you're out. You don't feel like taking a job. You don't take it and take two jobs on a day that you feel like you can do anything in 12 hours. But really, I, corporate America wor wore me out. They did 10 years of layoffs and every, and I survived 10 layoffs and every year you come around to October or something like that, like for layoffs again. I'm like, I am done being potentially laid off. Put me on the list. I'm out. And I, of course, thought about it many times throughout the years to go back into corporate America, but I really wanted ownership. I wanted to make something that I owned. And if people do things like Etsy and things like that and crafts and things like that, that they make themselves, America, you can spend six or nine months making something for a client and then the client goes now we unfunded it. So it's got, and it's gone. It's an ether and it's you can't get married to your children. It's like you just have to let them go. And I was like, I want to nurture this. I want to, I want grow my business as a photographer I want the respect and freedom that comes with own my own business.

CJ:

So you, you know, go back to decided that, you know you've had enough for corporate America. You're ready to pursue your passion and start your business. What were some of the the first steps that you had to take or first things that you put in place to get your business off the ground? I mean you had to have, you know, experience as a photographer of course, but there's, are there any licensing issues that you had to, to pursue? Was there any certifications you had to, to get, you know, what, what processes did you take?

Ray Lavoie:

AOL was really generous with their package out the door. So there was a lot of financial pushing that I had, also they gave me out outsourced career courses to take and stuff like that. And I took one of the courses that said, are you an entrepreneur? Can you run your own business? And I took these questionnaire and they said, yes, you're fine. Just don't do your own books. And I was like, okay, that's sound advice. So if somebody else thinks I can do this is great. And so I went into the area resources and there's something called SCORE in Columbus I don't know what it stands for, but it's executives that have been retired and they go and do classes on how to run your business. And it was really wonderful because I learned about LLC becoming a limited liability. and ensuring myself and all this, all the business stuff that's, that you have to do as an artist, even though you're an artist. People in business are just business and, but as artists you have to be the artist and creative and also a business person.'cause without the business as a, something to fall back on, you're gonna be a very poor artist for a really long time.

Ken:

Ray, tell us about how you began, like finding work, right? Like how, how did you decide like, this is what I wanna do, like I wanna do photography, I wanna do portraits, or was it just the fact that you kind of like were telling anybody who would listen that this is what you wanted to do and waiting for your first client to come about?

Ray Lavoie:

My first big client came about? in a very traditional but unique way. Yelling from the treetops is fine, but my first client was somebody I worked with at AOl who had moved on to another company and I'm gonna use A bad word. here. Networking. Everybody hates

Mike:

That's a great word. We do it all the time.

Ray Lavoie:

so well there. Once at a time. when networking was like, oh, I don't wanna do that. Do I have to? I'm not I don't wanna talk to see people I don't know and go into a room full of people, I don't know. I did, I liked to do that, so it was great for me. I'm an extrovert. I like to be in crowds of people and just and take in their energy. And so I networked at my old job. And so Jacob, who moved on to a big online realty retailer called me up and said, can you do socks? And I was like, yes, I can do socks. And he is great,

Ken:

Perfect.

Ray Lavoie:

this meeting and we're meeting with Joseph and we're gonna talk about you doing photography for the company. I was like, great. Brought my portfolio very nominal at that point in history. And they were like, great, when can you do it? was like, Monday. And they were like, great, how much are you gonna charge? And I was like, I don't know. I'll get back to you. And, I sent a quick email to Jacob who got me the job and said, how much am I charging him? He was like, charge him this much. great, thanks, bye. So it all happened through Jacob and I'm very blessed that he got me that gig'cause it lasted, gig lasted four years and I was this close to going back to a corporate job'cause this was in May of 2008 and I tongue was shingle in 2007 I had little s smattering of jobs throughout that 16 month time period.

Ken:

So did that. Did that experience, so talk about how that experience helped you to decide and define your rate going forward.

Ray Lavoie:

It really worked out because the,

Ken:

I.

Ray Lavoie:

else was charging about the same amount I. Found out I joined a corporate a a trade association called A SMP, American Society of Media Photographers. And they were somebody I'd known in New York as an assistant, and they had a chapter here in Columbus. So I went to the meetings and got to know them, and then they ran workshops and stuff like that on how to bid for a job, how to, make sure that you were charging the right rate for travel versus set building versus, there's an entire, a plethora of things that you have to go through to get a job in corporate America. Are you building a set? Are you going on location? you need a set dresser? Do you need a hair and makeup person? Do you need talent? Who's paying for the talent? Who's paying this service fee? Who's doing this and who's doing that? There's a whole huge list of things you go through, and I had no idea about any much of any of it. I had done some. Bookkeeping for photographers back in New York, but not to this scale. And so I put together a bid based on what the A SMP had told me. They have a business practices book that you can look, that you can look up. so there was a, it was, there was a path that I was on and I was very happy that I had them in my corner.

CJ:

So you mentioned that I guess from net through networking and from your relationship that you had through AOL that's how you or, you know, originally got your first client. How has your evolved since then? And what, what, what things do you do to market yourself to bring in new clients?

Ray Lavoie:

Right now I do two networking meetings a week if I can. One is with a company in Columbus called Am Spirit and another one. Is the Buckeye Referral Club. every week I'm practicing my 32nd elevator pitch. Um, I'm getting to know people who need people that do what I do. There once was a time where I was very pretentious and was like, oh, I can't I, these people won't help me. I need to get big job. And it's not been the case. I've got great jobs small jobs, big jobs, little jobs all over the place, and that's been really wonderful is to have that variety. I do lots of portraits of lawyers. I do, I. pound engines that run on electric for outboard motors. I do houses that are in the three to$4 million range. I do all kinds of things and some of the clients that I have today have been clients? that I've had since 2008, 2009.

Mike:

Nice. I think one of the things you were sort of hinting at after CJ asked that question is imposter syndrome. But before we get to that you mentioned that you've been practicing your 32nd elevator speech. I, I want to hear what it is walk up to you say, Hey Ray, how you doing? What is it that you do?

Ray Lavoie:

A photographer that specializes in portraiture and still alive. Give me 50 seconds, gimme 30 seconds and I'll give you a portrait for a lifetime. if you see someone with a bad headshot, say something to me.

Mike:

Right,

Ray Lavoie:

em if you're not willing to.

Mike:

right.

Ray Lavoie:

should suffer with a picture of a half their ex and half of them in their headshot.

CJ:

That

Mike:

Done.

CJ:

will get you plenty of people.

Ken:

Right.

Mike:

Right, exactly. Going back to the,

Ray Lavoie:

this picture.

Mike:

so going back to the it sounds like you were hinting at imposter. Syndrome a little bit where you said that, you know, no one, no one's gonna hire me because I'm, whatever. How did you, how did you sort of push through that? Because I know a lot of people will have that, right? They're starting in an industry and they're like, oh, you know, I'm, like I'm faking it. I'm not good enough.

Ray Lavoie:

I don't think I've pushed through it. I think I've just made it quieter.'cause it's always there. every time you go through a job, get nervous the day before. You're checking the equipment, you're going through the set, you're making sure you've got all the equipment you need and people are showing up on time and doing everything that of a photo shoot and in the back, it's just back there. It's not like in 2007 it was screaming now it's just you don't deserve this. You don't deserve.

Mike:

Nice. I'm happy that you're able to like quiet it and, and become as successful as you are. And I was just thinking when I was at Farmer's Insurance, did you do my photos? I think I came in, I did. Man, I'm getting old. I can't, things aren't sticking like they used to, but I just remembered like, coming to your, to your thing. I'm gonna have to go find those. Yeah, you did my pictures when I was, when I owned an insurance agency.

Ray Lavoie:

CJ's had done twice.

Mike:

Nice.

CJ:

And

Mike:

Yeah. I'm gonna have to go find those.

CJ:

my LinkedIn photo.

Ray Lavoie:

See, that may need to be updated at some

CJ:

Yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

Not that you've changed or anything, but.

CJ:

So I'm curious you know, in the intro I mentioned that you are. Registered as an L-G-B-T-B-E business, which is unique and I have never heard of that. I know that, there are, you know, minority businesses that are registered as you know, black owned or veteran owned or what have you. But this one is new to me. Can you explain to me you know, what drove you to be, you know, get registered, your business, registered under them? two, how has it helped you your business?

Ray Lavoie:

It's help. I'll, let's take this question one at first. It's I think you're referring to the National Gay of Commerce. give certification to me as a gay owned business. They literally send you an interview that you have to certify that you are gay. It's crazy.

Mike:

I have questions.

CJ:

believe

Ray Lavoie:

I know,

CJ:

me.

Ray Lavoie:

but they do. They have lots of people that are like wanting to get into the pockets of people who have.

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

to say that they're a minority business and they're not. They're. Just straight people trying to work the system. And I answered the questions and I was honest with them about what my status was and where I was in my evolution. And they I live with my better half. We're not married, but we've been together since for 21 years now. And so how that has helped is that. A lot of businesses, as you might know, like to refer businesses to by gay people. I pick them businesses that I work with based on a lot of times on who I knew in the, who I know in the community. I wanna support gay owned businesses'cause they've supported me. And that has worked out very well over the years. We don't have a good Chamber of commerce LGBT, jam Chamber of Commerce here in Columbus, but there is one in Cleveland that's really good and there's ones around the country that are exceptional and they have conferences every year in wonderful places and other gay owned businesses that I know which you guys know about ingenious and, call center, call management, or I forget what the name of the company is that Malcolm owned or owns, but they both benefited huge from being Nash chamber of Commerce members.

Ken:

So I want to go back to what you had mentioned earlier about being able to understand like how to choose talent for the set. You know, if you are working on a set, if you have to build a set, so do. Over the years, have you honed your craft in being able to choose talent and, and you know, and pick the right talent for the job, or do you leave that to somebody else?

Ray Lavoie:

I will take this from a differentt.

Ken:

I.

Ray Lavoie:

There's a conversation that happens every time. Somebody that I pick up the phone or they get an email and it's a dance because the first question out of my mouth is, what's your budget? And they say what's your cost? And I'm like you haven't told me how big a house you wanna buy. Do you wanna buy a three bedroom house or a one bedroom shack? What do you want? want it in Beverly Hills or do you want it in like Tulsa, Oklahoma? It's gonna cost different things, which kind of house you buy you buy a set with 17 people of talent that are in the background and the foreground and stuff like that, like for Chase Bank or something like that, where you've got a cafe or something like that in, in the shot. Do you hire six people for that shoot or do you hire 20 people for that shoot? And so those are conversations that happen back and forth between media buyers at Corp Corporations and and me. Usually sometimes if I have an agent, they'll be talking to my agent as opposed to me.'cause I should be out taking pictures. But sometimes I'm on the phone talking about. How big is the cafe? How many people are in it? Is there, many sets are we doing? Are we doing two outside scenes? The three outside scenes? Are we in a set, a stage downstage that I can rent? There's a lot of variables on that. Did I answer the question?

Ken:

Yeah. Yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

Good.

Mike:

I always ask this question to entrepreneurs. Do you consider yourself a solo entrepreneur or a CEO, excuse me, a solo CEO, or do you have a team of people who help you run the business?

Ray Lavoie:

I don't consider myself a CEO. the one of the things that I talked about earlier about how they said that you should find somebody to do your books, I have been with the same bookkeeper since 2008. And she has kept me and out of jail ever since.

Mike:

Nice.

Ray Lavoie:

between her, my CPA and the people that I trust, do hair and makeup, set design to do construction, to do the different aspects of the job are other freelancers. So we're all, I am the leader of the PAC because they came to me for the photograph, but assistants, the techs, the whatever on the payroll of that job are all working under me. But I don't consider it C-E-O-I-I

Mike:

Yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

definitely don't.

Mike:

That's

Ray Lavoie:

enabler

Mike:

interesting because I, I would see that, I would be like, Hey, Ray's the CEO, like, he's, he's running things like just, I mean, the people are not necessarily on your, they're not your employees, but they're still your team and you're managing this team of people. You're, you know, you're, you're making sure the, the, the system is running well, right? So if you don't consider yourself a CEO, what would you call yourself?

Ray Lavoie:

Master of ceremonies.

Mike:

of ceremonies. Okay. All right. I'm,

Ray Lavoie:

I make sure everything happens.

Mike:

yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

fed, people get done by a certain period, certain time in the day.

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

You manage the client and say, coming up on 10 hours. Do you want to go into overtime? No.

Mike:

Right.

Ray Lavoie:

Then wrap it up.

Mike:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and, and a lot of these conversations, you know, we always talk to people and the importance of having a team, because you can't do everything yourself, right? It's not like you're sitting there doing someone's makeup, you're not sitting there making sure the set is perfect.

Ray Lavoie:

It is the last thing on the planet you want is me doing your makeup. Not a pretty picture,

Mike:

I love it.

Ray Lavoie:

no pun intended.

Ken:

Talk to us about how important it is to have a network of people that you can rely on. Right. Especially because like you had mentioned that like, you know, you're not a CEO and you don't necessarily have quote unquote a team, but you do have people that you rely on, right? Because, you know, for you to be successful, you have to also have the right set of people around you to make that happen. So talk about how you make a determination on the teams that you choose whenever you're doing a photo shoot.

Ray Lavoie:

It comes down to attitude mostly. If I have an assistant that the call time is 8:00 AM and they show up at eight 15, they're outta my book. They don't get the, they don't get the importance of being on time or early. They don't get the enthusiasm of learning. They don't they're there for the paycheck and that's just not great. When it comes to stylists, I like that come to me and say, you thought about doing it this way? Have you thought about taking it from this angle? This method will take two hours if we do it this way. It's one hour often giving me options. I'm the, decision maker in chief, I'm not the chief, I'm the decision maker. They come to me like a director on a movie set. They say blue drapes or green drapes, and I say green drapes. And then they go on the next thing. It's 85 millimeter lens or 35 millimeter lens, and I say 35 millimeter lens, and we go from there. And it's just a collaborative I, I really feel like it's really important that they know that I care about them their safety, their their salary, the just to take, let them feel like they're taking care of in the environment of the photo shoot. I can't take care of them day to day. That's their business. But when they're on my set, my responsibility.

CJ:

So can you talk about,

Ray Lavoie:

of me.

CJ:

You know, you, you got into photography as a passion. Can you talk about, you know, if, if I'm you know, a young adult and I'm thinking about, you know, stepping out and, and starting a business for myself and I'm interested in photography, with your experiences, what are some of the, the strategies you think that they should focus on to, to getting their business off the ground? Some of the lessons that you've learned.

Ray Lavoie:

So first I want to take a offense to the word passion. It's more about having a curiosity. Because passion can get you in trouble. It can get,

CJ:

Some passions can

Ray Lavoie:

passionate. See, but if you're in a, if you're in a conversation with the accounting department, it may not be good that you're passionate, more logistical.

CJ:

right?

Ray Lavoie:

But I really, I, I've heard many people talk about following their passion. I say, follow your curiosity. I've always wondered how to take pictures and stuff like that. I think I've been passionate, but I also, I've been in it so long that it's not necessarily passion that's fueling me anymore. It's more curiosity and see how things can turn out. Now I do get, I get stage fright, which is hilarious'cause I'm a photographer, but I get stage fright before a client shows up. Did I get everything in order? Is everything in set? Is everything where it needs to be? And so I'm gonna ask you to repeat the question because I lost track of it.

CJ:

no. I was just curious, you know, if, if I'm you know, early twenties, late teens, early thirties, someone that's looking to, to get into the industry of becoming a, a quality photographer, are some some key strategies that you've learned? With your, through your experiences that you could share with you know, a young entrepreneur.

Ray Lavoie:

I looked to the masters. I looked to Irving Penn. I looked to Avedon. I looked to Gordon Parks. I look to. Norman Parkinson j lots of famous photographers throughout the years. And I sit there and I wonder how they did that. And having a curiosity about how the photograph is created is really part of, I got a client the other day, they wanted to do a set of their their, of direct board of governors. they gave, sent me a photograph that they liked, that they wanted to imitate. And I was like what did they do to do that? Did they use a hard light? Did they use a soft light? Did they use high ISO? Did they use a big depth of field? All the different things that make up the secret sauce, that is a photograph. And so I feel like that's. Having a curiosity and passion for finding out how things are done photographically. Did they use ai? Did they use how much was retouched? How much is real? These are all questions that we ask now that are very difficult to answer at times because I'm finding out that a lot of people are needing technology to, replaced traditional photography to the point where I was in a studio for a networking event that was a film production service and they had a booth that was, that they were all doing that. This one associate was doing all the different kinds of bottles of perfume and liquor and he was very proud to say that none of them ever existed. It fabricated all of'em. And I was like, oh, great. Now I have to compete with

CJ:

Right.

Ray Lavoie:

I, that, it's like you, you're kidding, right? There's nothing that's. Nothing existed. They didn't start from a photograph, they didn't start from any kind of place. have to be really creative nowadays to make something of worthy.

Mike:

Well on that subject, does that, how, how does that make you feel? Does that terrify you? Does that worry you? You feel as though, you know, there is still a place for an actual photographer to come in and, and, do the work?

Ray Lavoie:

If they ever get over the hump of it being looking ridiculous, I think we're worried. right now it still looks really ridiculous. It, if you can tell an ai, it's like you're like, this is just not

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

Right. There's no proportion to the body to hips, to legs, to everything's out of whack. And so I don't feel too, I feel cautious. But I don't feel scared yet. I've seen things online where on LinkedIn, they advertise, a picture of you in a nice setting or something like that, and we'll just snap it into a headshot for you. It's just something innate that people can see that it's fake. They don't know why it's fake. They don't, they can't verbalize what's wrong with the picture. But they look at it and go, there's something not right with this. There's, I can't tell what it is, but I know there's something that's not real, and I think that I really I specialize in getting really great expressions and compositions for of people

Mike:

Right.

Ray Lavoie:

in let of, instead of living it up to ai.

Mike:

Yeah. And that, I think that's important and, and I think people will realize that, especially if you wanna do something that's professional, right. People aren't just gonna hop onto AI and have some pictures done. I mean, maybe a novice who's starting their business, they can't afford a photographer. Maybe that's where AI help them. But as they, you know, build a business and you want to be taken more seriously, you probably need to go hire a photographer. Mm-hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

I believe in two, two jobs. If you're going to do photography, a good bookkeeper and. A good retouch if a good retouch will make you look good without making you look fake.

Mike:

Perfect.

CJ:

So that's the, and is that someone that I guess you hire separately or is that stuff that you do yourself?

Ray Lavoie:

I do myself on many of the smaller jobs, but I, on the big important things, I most certainly use a retouch.

Mike:

Perfect. Well, a little, little bit of the, other side of things. So have you had someone come into your studio that I. After the fact, you were like, this was the most bizarre, uncomfortable photo shoot that I've ever had to do. And without using names or exposing anyone, can you, can you describe one of those experiences? Because I, I'm, I'm pretty sure that y'all can't be formal and, and, you know, professional.

Ray Lavoie:

I'll give you two examples.

Mike:

I can't wait.

Ray Lavoie:

A gentleman who was in real estate came into the studio and said, you're taking my fixture today, but I want you to make me look like I've lost 40 pounds. 40 pounds. And I said,

Mike:

aI.

Ray Lavoie:

I can do that. you're not gonna look real.'cause you're not. not, you're not gonna. It's not gonna look real. I couldn't even explain it, he was like, do it. Anyway, he decided to opt out of the retouching of 40 pounds, lost. Another person came into the studio and I took their pictures and I said, how much retouching would you like to have done? One to 10 kind of thing. He's oh, go to 10. Go completely to 10. I'm like, all right. I will make everything. Flawless. He got the fiction back and said, oh no, no way. Go back. You went too far. And I was like, I told you I was. He was like, go all the way. And I was like, all Right. then it's not gonna look real. And he is don't care. Just make me look perfect. And he hated it.

Mike:

Yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

So he went back to a more normal. I find that people don't know what retouching can do,

Mike:

Mm-hmm.

Ray Lavoie:

to go and ask for more retouching than less. I

Mike:

It could probably make you look like a completely different person.

Ray Lavoie:

right. It's actually in the eyes. It's actually not the eyes, but it's the face underneath the eyes that a lot of women wanna have removed. And when I remove it, they look much younger. So much so that they don't look like they have the experience in brevity to who they are. They look all of a sudden 17, and it's like something's not right and it's their, they've removed every detail of I removed the wrinkle

Mike:

They removed their wisdom.

Ray Lavoie:

They remove the wisdom. And I caution against that all the time, but I'm always, women are the hardest and the best because they pick up on all the details. Guys come in to get their picture taken. stand there, they sit, they're like, are you done? Are you done? I'm gonna, I'm outta here. Use whatever one you want. Women are like I didn't get the chin right. I, there's hair in my face. Can we do some more? I'm like, absolutely. I will make this stuff. I go by the philosophy that they come to me for a portrait. They need to leave with something they love, and if they don't, if we haven't taken something they love, we'll take more pictures since until you find something that you love. I asked them, please stay having to re reset up and reshoot is much more expensive than just taking a couple more pictures today.

Mike:

Right. Perfect. Well, we are coming close to time. So I really appreciate you going through all of this, telling us a little bit about your world. But before we go into the next the next thing with which is our lightning round, where we're gonna ask you some questions. What is the name of your photography studio?

Ray Lavoie:

You can find me atRay@rayLaVoie.com Ray LaVoie.com is the website as well,

Mike:

Perfect.

CJ:

How about

Mike:

All right. And I will de Yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

Ray LaVoie, and it's LAV as in Victor, OIE. It's more vowels than you think is necessary.

Mike:

We, we'll, we'll tag everything in, in the, in the post of things.

Ray Lavoie:

you very much.

Mike:

but CJ, if you could, while I pull up a timer here, if you could explain what our next, CJ or can, it doesn't matter what we're doing next.

CJ:

Yeah, this part of the

Ray Lavoie:

I'm

CJ:

of thing. No, it's nothing to be afraid of. What we'd like to do is ask you five quick fire questions. Just, you know, here we end, come back to that, that piece about passion. What, whatever comes to mind, whatever you feel. The I idea is to get through these five questions within the minute, and Lovett has a timer on the screen.

Mike:

All right, Ray. So, CJ said, just five questions I'm gonna ask you. Don't think too much about it. Some may be serious, some may not be serious. And just let us know whatever pops into mind. All right.

Ray Lavoie:

All right.

Mike:

So the first question what's your favorite camera system?

Ray Lavoie:

Canon

Mike:

Nice. What's one piece of advice you'd give to a beginner photographer?

Ray Lavoie:

Don't give up.

Mike:

give up. What's the most challenging type of photography that you've tackled? I.

Ray Lavoie:

Architectural

Mike:

I'll come back to that. Okay. If you could photograph any subject, what would it be and why?

Ray Lavoie:

Stephanie gr, player and just'cause he, he's a great person.

Mike:

Oh, okay. last question. In 2005, I. time would you start getting ready to party at Axis?

Ray Lavoie:

Nine would

Mike:

Sounds accurate. Sounds very accurate. And that's it. All right, well, you got through the five questions. Easy enough.

Ray Lavoie:

Thank God.

CJ:

I do have one thing

Ray Lavoie:

Worried about that.

Mike:

yeah, go ahead.

CJ:

this is for the audience mainly. What is something you wish you knew before starting your, your, you know, journey into photography to your business?

Mike:

Good question.

Ray Lavoie:

I think the really important thing that I didn't know and I didn't realize is that it's like show business. It's a business. You really have to run it like a business. And I'm very much a person that runs on feelings and emotions and my love language is emotions how it makes me feel when I do things. And business is not about emotions. It's about selling high and buying low and doing all kinds of things that are not instinctual, instinctive. And so you have to fight your instincts. To make good business decisions.

CJ:

Can you tell us a little bit about, well, I know that the show is ending, but you brought up in the lightning round architecture being a difficult subject. Why is that?

Ray Lavoie:

Because you're without control. When was the last time you said you could control the weather? You have to pick the right day. You have to pick the right angle, you have to pick the right lighting. It's just really fraught with difficult questions. Is the sun setting the right way on the building? Is it going the right? How much do you wanna change to the building to look correct and such?

Mike:

Yeah.

Ray Lavoie:

lucky recently and I took a, and I'll send it to you guys. I took a picture of the fifth third building downtown and I got lucky on the lighting. I got lucky on the location I was in. I got lucky on the camera that I was holding at the time. I got Lucky to Sunday and it's a great picture and I'll share it with you after

Mike:

Nice. don't think it's all luck. I think some of it's skill too. You know, you've been doing it long enough, you're a professional.

Ray Lavoie:

process.

Mike:

Yeah. I.

Ray Lavoie:

I. say luck, but it's decision making like is this the right time to do this? Is this the right time to do that? And I made all the Right. decisions that day.

Mike:

Perfect. Awesome. Even more reason for people to look you up and have them come take your headshot because you know what you're doing. You're a professional. Ray LaVoie, everybody.

Ray Lavoie:

I.

Mike:

before we get going, there's one little thing that we do at the end of each show. I call it the Wakanda piece. Pause, and it's just gonna be us taking a. I'm taking a moment to do a thing, and then I'm just, at some point I keep saying this, at the end of every episode, I'm gonna take all of these pictures that from all of our guests that we've had, and I'm gonna post them online, but it's just going to be us doing a post like this and smiling into the camera, holding it for a few seconds so that later I could take a screenshot and then Yeah, we'll, we'll use it. And then from there, we'll, we'll end the show. All right. So I now hold now hold it. I'll make it uncomfortable. That's what I do. And then we'll go from there. All right. So on the count of three we'll just do it. So 1, 2, 3, and good. Perfect. Well, that's the end of our show. I really appreciate you coming on, Ray. I haven't seen you in like forever. I mean, I've been out of. Columbus for seven or eight years now, but the next time I'm in town, I'm gonna have to come by and say hello.

Ray Lavoie:

Have to come to Chicago and you have to take us out to sidetrack.

Mike:

Yeah, anytime. Always welcome. You're always welcome. We'll, we'll make sure to get ready by nine, 9:00 PM

Ray Lavoie:

The, slushing machines are dangerous,

Mike:

The, man, the slushies are dangerous, but they're so good. I could have like one or two

CJ:

Yeah,

Mike:

that. I, I can't have anymore. Oh, they're very sweet. They're very sweet, but they're perfect During the summer. the summertime.

Ray Lavoie:

my day to diabetes.

CJ:

Ray, thank you so very much for, for me, you know including us in your day and getting up this early in the morning.

Ray Lavoie:

For the interview, I really found myself much more prepared than I thought I was.

CJ:

I don't know

Mike:

Yeah. Yeah.

CJ:

of. It's just us.

Ken:

Yeah, conversation.

Mike:

laid back, relaxed conversation.

CJ:

Thanks for tuning in to the Black Bridge Mindset Podcast. If today's conversation resonated with you, don't forget to subscribe, share, drop a comment, and leave a review. We're building bridges, one story, one mindset, one move at a time. Show our guest some love by checking out their socials too. Until next time, keep pushing, keep growing and keep walking in your purpose.

People on this episode

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Mike Lovett

Host
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Chris Johnson

Co-host
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Ken Peak

Co-host