All right. Welcome back to the show. Today we have on Mary-Kate from MK Mindful Media. Mary-Kate, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. This is my first podcast, so I'm very excited. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. Why don't we just start by just introducing yourself briefly, what you do, your kind of work, and some of the things you like to shoot. Sure. So my name is Mary-Kate. Obviously I'm from the DMV. I grew up in Maryland and I stayed in the area. I currently live in Washington, DC. I have always been in the media world. I went to school for it. I got a degree in it, but right after college, like anyone else, I just took the first job that came along, which being in the Capitol was politics. I didn't really like it that much, and I got a job working at Voice of America. It's a news organization here on the National Mall, and I was a television producer. That kind of got me into more hands-on video production, and I was the line producer of a show called El Mundo Aldia. It was in Spanish. A line producer is someone who sits in the studio with the director and speaks to the anchor and tells them what to do and kind of organizes the show. It was a live show. So that's what I did for five years, and I burnt out really fast knowing the news world. It never stops. I loved it. I loved the people. We were super close and I still am friends with them, but I come from a family of small businesses and of small business owners, and that was my ultimate dream. So I left Voice of America in August of 2021. I took a break. I officially started my photography small business in March of 2022, so this year. I have a lot of experience, but my business is a baby. I really enjoy weddings, but I shoot everything at the moment from weddings to corporate events to politics to headshots to creative shoots with my friends. So right now that's where I'm at. That's great, yeah. So you started in March of this year, and here we are in December. So how have things been for the past nine, ten months? So a lot of administrative work, a lot of learning how to balance, how to live my life, but also own my own business, and that's very hard because a lot of times I'll overwork the next day, wonder why I feel dead. So it's a lot of personal balance, a lot of personal motivation. You have to put yourself out there and a lot of being comfortable with being uncomfortable. I find it hard for me. I'm not an extroverted person, so for me to talk to people and go out and introduce myself is very difficult. I've practiced over the past years, but that's how I've made a lot of my business, putting myself out there, connecting with people, networking, being rejected, and in the good cases, making a good connection. But that's been the past nine months, especially money-wise has been difficult, learning how to manage my own money, how to put stuff away for taxes, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In terms of making those connections and the types of clients that you work with, do you have a specific kind of person or client that you love working with or that you really enjoy working with the most? Are you talking about one of my clients I have right now or just like a general person? A general type of person. I love working with people who are nice people who are open to being creative, who are receptive to me and my ideas, and I'm receptive to them. We can bounce ideas off each other. I'm also very good with working with people who know what they want and they tell me directly, this is what I want, and that's also very easy for me too. But just anyone who's open, anyone who's nice, that's pretty much my general criteria for me working with people. I find heart, really. That's all I really... Yeah. I think that's great. That's great in everyone, for sure. So if you can find those clients to work with, that's the best. In terms of transitioning a little bit to weddings now, how has it been in terms of weddings compared to everything else that you shoot? Did you just get into weddings this year? Had you done weddings in the past and how has that... Sure. So I have done wedding videography in the past here and there. My boyfriend is also a professional videographer and all of his friends are, so I would accompany them to some weddings. He's Nigerian. All of his friends are Nigerian, so I would go to Nigerian weddings. Very fun, but very different than your American wedding. But I did those here and there. I finally got into doing photography at weddings and I love it. A lot of people told me, weddings are so stressful. Oh my gosh. You got to be on your A-game as a photographer, but coming from my background, which is true, but coming from my background as a news producer, that was so stressful. Weddings is definitely a level down of stress. It's not stressful for me, but yeah, I really started getting into more weddings this year. Me, myself, MK Mindful Media, this is me putting my brand out for weddings and it's been good. I haven't done... I've probably done 10 weddings this year and that's because I just started my business and I really needed to get marketing material to market myself. That's kind of what I'm doing this year. I have great photos. I have to wait to edit them before I post them on social media, but this year was kind of building my brand, getting marketing photos for myself and next year I hope to increase the revenue double. That's it. So how has, in terms of, so you said you started out doing video for weddings, right? I still do that too, yeah. Yeah, and you still do that and then you transitioned to photography. Do you have a preference? Do you prefer one or the other? Do you go to? I think they're two separate and... Very different. Yeah, they're way different. I think videography, in my opinion, tends to be a little more difficult because you have more equipment. There's more technicality with the lights. As you know, as a videographer, there's lights, there's audio equipment. Audio equipment is scary for me. I can do it, but I don't know. I get so nervous. If you miss the audio, then... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so there's audio. Photography, I think technically is a little easier, but you have to take more of a director approach. You kind of have to direct the wedding party of what to do. Yeah. So they're both equally difficult. I just think videography is technically more difficult where in photography is a little more, I don't know the word, you have to direct the crowd more and be more in charge. But in my opinion, I don't know. I never thought about this. I kind of like both. With videography, you can be more creative with your audio, getting sounds, interviews, B-roll. Photography, I probably would choose photography at the moment. Yeah. And I think just to go back to what you said regarding people telling you weddings are stressful, stay away. If you want to... People told me, just as a... Because I also started out doing a lot of photography and I do more video. But people would tell me if you want to make it in photography, you have to do weddings because that's where the money is. But they're really, really stressful. So stay away. Yeah. Actually, if you want to do videography, actually the nonprofit space is really good money too. But weddings, yeah, it's good for money. I don't think weddings are what you want to go into if you just want money, if you just want to make a good income. But I will say for people like you who found weddings to be actually not that stressful at all once you started doing it. And for myself, I was the same. I would go shooting weddings. I was like, man, I love this. Yeah. It's one day. It's a day. You get food. You get to be around a fun atmosphere, fun maybe later in the day. But yeah. And so I think for people like that, I think weddings are... Those are the people who should be shooting weddings. The people who are like, oh, this is great. I love it. Cool. I guess we're almost out of time here. But in terms of just wrapping up briefly, let's say someone is currently planning a wedding, currently thinking about getting a photo, maybe a video also. What would you recommend in terms of what to prioritize, who to hire, and video first, photo first, and yeah, how should I put it? Sure. So this is a good question. My cousin, who I'm very close with, he's like a brother, he just got engaged. So I'm helping them figure out their wedding in terms of the media photo video, what it's going to look like and all of that. And so I would say, if you're looking for engagement photos, do something fun that represents your relationship, your personality, whether that... I've seen amazing photos of two people eating pizza, and that's their engagement photo. And it's beautiful. Just the small moments. It's not where you are. It's the small moments of how you look at each other, how you interact with each other, how you touch each other that really make your photo and video shine. And then your location, I believe, in my personal opinion, is the second step to making the video beautiful. On the wedding day, the advice would be to... The less stress, the better. I'm all about my business as MK Mindful Media. I'm all about stress reduction. I'm all about being mindful and in the moment and self-compassion. That stuff is all very dear to me. That is why I named my company MK Mindful Media. I hope that the couple that day puts themselves first before everyone else. It's their day. Just really focus on yourself and try to not let anything bother you. Wedding day can be the most stressful for a couple, and I really don't... I mean, there will be stress, but I don't think it should be very severe. I also think photography and videography, in my opinion, it depends on budget, are vital for a wedding. They both give you different things. A video can tell a story that you can have for years. Photos can be printouts, which are beautiful. I also would say to... I wrote some notes. Do you have a timeline how to... When's your hair and makeup? When's the ceremony? When's the reception? That way the photographer and videographer can schedule their photos and videos according to your schedule that you created. To also schedule time alone as a couple, because I think that's vital to your special day. Yeah, the scheduled time together. And then I also love when the officiant... As someone who practices mindfulness every day in meditation, I've been to a wedding where the officiant asked the couple to look into the audience to see who's there, their family, their friends, and how much love is in the audience looking at the couple. And that's just a real mindful moment. I think that's important. The day is chaotic to stop, focus, and look around and see who's there. The people you love the most are all in front of you. So those are the bigger things. I mean, there's smaller other little details that you can find on Instagram. First looks, if you want to first look with your grandma, that's a beautiful moment, or your grandparent, or your best friend. Those are beautiful moments too, rather than maybe your partner. But yeah, that's kind of my advice. I know we're out of time and... Yeah. No, for sure. I love that, you know, just taking a moment to look through the audience and kind of... Yeah, because the day goes by so fast. Yeah. For my opinion, when I get married, it's gonna... I don't want it to end. It's like my... I'm so excited. I'm not even engaged and I'm already excited about my wedding day. So imagining all this excitement coming down to one day and then it's over. And just to take a moment to be present and say like, wow, this is my day. This is our day. And look at all the people that are here supporting us and who traveled or... Yeah, I just think it's beautiful. That's why I love weddings. Awesome. Well, Mary Kate, thank you for joining us on the show today. Where can people find you if they want to follow you? Sure. So I have two... I have two Instagrams, which is a lot. I actually have three. One's my personal, but I have my business Instagram. It's MK Mindful Media. That kind of has all of my business. It's corporate. It's headshots. It's creative. It's love. You can also find just my love. I call it my love Instagram, which is engagements, elopements, weddings, and that is MK Mindfully in Love. I also have a website, which is MKMindfulMedia.com. And I'm working on Facebook, but that's not really where my market is at the moment, but I am working on that. I just have a lot going on. So if you find... I also, I post a lot. So if you find me in one place, you'll be able to find, connect to the rest. Perfect. Perfect. MK Mindful Media. Mary Kate, thank you again for joining us. Thanks for having me. It's been great.