Deborah Young Studio

Transcript:

Narrator
Welcome to the Best of LKN, a podcast featuring the best small businesses and the most influential professionals around Lake Norman, North Carolina. Each week, we spotlight those businesses and individuals that are making a positive impact here in the Lake Norman area. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the show.

Jeff
Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Best of LKN podcast. In this episode, we’re really pleased to be featuring a conversation with Deborah Young, owner of the Deborah Young studio in Cornelius. Deborah is a professional photographer that has been in the photography industry for over 40 years. Many of our listeners already know Deborah. She has been creating your family portraits, wedding photos and headshots here in Cornelius for nearly 30 of those years. Deborah joins me to share the story of her entrepreneurial journey from the days of being a photographer’s assistant and office manager to opening her own studio in downtown Cornelius. She shares the story of how she finally and reluctantly made the transition from conventional film to digital photography, something that may have required a bit of divine intervention. She shares the joys of watching her clients and their families grow up, offers up a few of her favorite places in the Lake Norman area for outdoor photoshoots, and even shares some sage advice for anyone who aspires to be a professional photographer. It’s a very photogenic Episode 60 of Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast. Thanks for joining us, my friends. Enjoy the episode.

Jeff
Well, it is great to finally be able to get back to doing in-person interviews, and I am here at the lovely Deborah Young studio in Cornelius. And we’re featuring a conversation with professional photographer Deborah Young. Deborah, welcome to the podcast.

Deborah
Thank you so much. I’m so excited today. Nice to meet you, Jeff.

Jeff
Nice to finally meet you too. I’ve been really looking forward to this. I connected with the owner of a local publication recently, Joanie Baker, and she introduced me to you. You’ve done some cover photos for her magazine.

Deborah
That’s right.

Jeff
And I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation because I know you’ve been in Cornelius for a number of years. And you’ve been an entrepreneur for gosh, what, the mid 90s did you start your business?

Deborah
I started my business here in Charlotte in 1991. But I met a photographer when I was in my early 20s and went to work for him. So, 41 years.

Jeff
Wow. So, you’ve learned a lot over that time?

Deborah
Oh gosh, yeah.

Jeff
So, before we talk about Deborah Young Studio as we know it today, by the way, this studio is beautiful.

Deborah
Thank you.

Jeff
The memories you have hanging on the walls here. This is just such a beautiful space that you have here in Cornelius. We’ll talk some more about that. Give the listeners a little bit of a bio, a little bit of a background on you. You have 10 minutes to give me your life story.

Deborah
10 minutes, ok. I’ll try and make it brief. I am a military brat. My dad was in the Air Force. He was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he went to England, met my mother, and we bounced back and forth between the United States and England. Three years here, three years there, three years here, three years there. So, I feel a little bit International. Eventually he retired in Pennsylvania when I was in high school. And after I graduated from high school, I had high aspirations of becoming a wait for it…flight attendant because I love travel. And it didn’t work out. Apparently, I was too bossy. I never got hired by the airline industry. And I became a legal secretary. And then I’m fortunately met a photographer who was a fabulous photographer in our hometown and started dating him, eventually came to work for him, and stayed in Pittsburgh for 12 years. We had two studios and one in a small town called Zelienople, Pennsylvania. It’s about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, and the other one was in a carriage trade studio in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. After 12 years of a great working relationship, we decided to split, and I moved to North Carolina. I was working, doing fitness training and didn’t really know if I wanted to be a photographer, but I came to find out that I was unemployable and I needed to be self-employed again. So, I started my photography business in 1991. And then in ’94 moved up to the Lake.

Jeff
’91 and then ’94 moved up here to Cornelius, I can relate. I’m unemployable, too. I’ve been self-employed since 2012. And yeah, pretty much unemployable. I think so. It’s sink or swim for me.

Deborah
Yeah, I feel the same.

Jeff
Yeah. Small world, I’m also an Air Force brat. My dad served in the Air Force, and we moved around a lot. I was born in Europe and lived all over the US. But yeah, small world, and my wife, who will probably be a little embarrassed that I share this, is from a little town in northwest PA called Conneautville.

Deborah
Yeah, yeah.

Jeff
Conneaut Valley, Conneautville, and worked in Pittsburgh after college for a few years before being recruited down here to Charlotte. So yeah, small world.

Deborah
Oh, that’s where Conneaut Lake Park is.

Jeff
It is.

Deborah
Okay. Yeah, I’ve been here a lot.

Jeff
Yeah. Conneaut Lake Park. My mom’s side of the family, her parents were Clevelanders and we visited Conneaut Lake Park as a kid too. A few times.

Deborah
Great roller coaster i think, it’s a wooden one and rattly.

Jeff
Yeah, it’s not, it could use some TLC for sure the last time I saw it, yeah. Your beginning, and so you started in Charlotte in ’91, then moved to Cornelius, moved the business to Cornelius, or you moved to Cornelius in ’94. We talked on the phone when we were scheduling when we were first introduced and you shared an interesting story about how your business started in Cornelius, how you “hung the shingle” in Cornelius. Share a little bit of that.

Deborah
Okay, so I was living in uptown Charlotte at the time in the Fourth Ward and I was teaching fitness at all the different YMCAs around there. And eventually, I was doing a lot of photography headshots and families in Charlotte, some weddings, because when you work with, you know, 40 to 50 other fitness instructors, you’re gonna photograph some children, some weddings, and some families, and I was coming sailing every weekend with my sister, Alison, and we’d come up to the lake, we’d sail at Outrigger, and then we’d go home on Sunday. And it just dawned on me that this was going to be a boomtown up here and there was really no photographers to be found up in this area at that time. There was a studio in Statesville, there was a gentleman named Bill Gleason who’s written a book called Our Inland Sea. He was from Denver, but there were no portrait photographers. So, I thought I would look for an empty storefront and put a sign in the window and I created a false front, so that you couldn’t see back behind that storefront and just put all portraits on easels of people at their home. I didn’t have a studio, so I had to work at home. Now remember, this was kind of the days where things were transitioning from that Olan Mills bookcase background to more of a lifestyle photography that we have today where, you know, we want to feature people’s homes and outdoors and capture their lives. So that was great, because as I say, I had no studio. And I would forward my landline, I got an 896 number, which was a Lake Norman number, and I would forward it to my Charlotte number. And people would call that 896 number and I would say, oh, yes, I’m on assignment. Give me about a half an hour, I’ll come up and meet you at your home. And anyway, they were pounding on that door wondering when I was ever open, calling me, you’re never here. So eventually, I realized I actually need to have a space where I can meet with people. And that’s when I made the move up here. So, thank goodness I did.

Jeff
Yeah. When did you acquire this space here and now here in downtown Cornelius?

Deborah
I think it was 1997. I want to say for a couple years I rented a space just across the street in one of the two-story houses there. I will say my rent was $200 a month and I was in little, tiny room. And there were a lot of artists in that room. There was a potter, painter, interior designer, and we all, it was like a little incubator for creativity. And one day I photographed a realtor and she said, I just listed the house across the street, you should go look at it and I looked at it and I fell in love with it. It’s a cottage, there’s a beautiful garden, it’s on a half-acre, it’s a fenced yard. It’s you know, a lot of people tell me it’s like grandma’s house when they walk through the door, so I love that.

Jeff
How old is this place?

Deborah
I’m guessing 1925 somewhere around there and it was a catalog house. So, it’s a beautiful house. It’s got like nice wide doorways and arches and big moldings and yeah, it’s great.

Jeff
It is beautiful. And this is Catawba Avenue in downtown, Old Town I like to call it, Cornelius.

Deborah
We call it historic.

Jeff
Historic, okay, I better get my story straight. All right, historic Cornelius. This is Catawba or Main Street?

Deborah
This is Catawba.

Jeff
Okay. All right. The home is beautiful. The space, how many portraits do you have hanging around? Ever counted?

Deborah
No. I’ve never counted, but I have a lot of big ones, and that’s my mainstay. That’s why people come to me because they want to have a portrait of their family hanging on the wall that they can look at every day and be reminded of you know, their most important treasure.

Jeff
Yeah, absolutely. The portraits are so pretty, and they’re so interesting and really diverse. There’s families, there’s kids, there’s ocean, beach photos, lakefront photos, sailing, and I love the portrait of the boy with the Labrador puppy in his lap.

Deborah
I was actually only hired to do I think his headshot, but then he brought the puppy. And so, you know, I love animals. One thing about this street that it’s so exciting, is our new art center. And I’m so excited. You know, Cornelius is really becoming a dynamic arts area for our community, not just for the Lake Norman area, but for the whole community of Charlotte, and, gosh, to be here and established when that happens. It feels good.

Jeff
Yeah, absolutely. There’s some creative studios or spaces going in and have been going in, in the historic district of Cornelius, as I now know it’s referred to as, but I love that kind of development, that kind of work that’s going into these beautiful spaces and downtown Cornelius, it’s really cool. So, you began your business in the early ’90s, the industry you mentioned, you alluded to it has changed a lot. Olan Mills was how we did it when I was a kid, you know, growing up, and I know the technology has certainly changed. Let’s talk a little bit about that. You obviously began your career, your business with film.

Deborah
Right, I had a Hasselblad, my very first camera was a Mamiya twin lens camera. And it might be behind me, I have a lot of old cameras around here. But then I progressed to a camera called a Hasselblad, which is two and a quarter format. So, it’s a medium format with film and learned how to, you know work in the darkroom. And the thing that I can remember most about that was film was very expensive. And processing, it was very expensive. And so, you really had to take your time with your imagery, you didn’t just shoot, you know, 50-60 shots in a minute or two, because you couldn’t afford to process them. So, you would be painstaking with each shot, whether it be the lighting, whether it would be the posing of the client. You know, you might only create 200-300 images of a wedding. Today, brides are looking at 2000-3000 wedding images, and it’s insane. It’s really, I mean, I think that digital has watered down photography a good bit, you know, and now we have these cameras, which are also phones. So, you know, people talk about their phone being a camera. No, it’s a camera, and it’s a computer, but you can make phone calls.

Jeff
It’s got a phone app.

Deborah
Yeah, exactly. And they’re fabulous, and I love mine dearly. But I did go kicking and screaming into digital photography. I remember the first client that called me and said that they because of the Internet, and they were a corporate client. And they said, well, we don’t need any pictures, Deborah, we just need those electronic files. And I thought, that’s not right. I’m not gonna, that’s not what I’m going to do. And I’m going to stand my ground. And this sounds crazy. I still have film in my refrigerator. If you walk back there right now, there’s boxes of two and a quarter film in there, because I keep hoping that I’m going to get those cameras out and have an elite product that’s going to be filmed that’s going to be for the purist, and I know they’re out there.

Jeff
They are out there. Yeah, there’s purists in every category, for sure.

Deborah
I’ll tell you how I got into digital for my families, though. Getting back to that corporate client. So, I bought a small digital camera at the time, I think it was an Olympus. And that thing, you could take one picture and you had to wait about a minute for it to recycle through you know, for it to be ready. But so, I have this camera and I’m up in Blowing Rock and I’m doing a family portrait. And I’m trying to shoot with my film camera, and I have it on a tripod. And I didn’t seat the little thing that goes in a tripod to make sure it stays still; I didn’t put it in right. And the camera fell off the tripod during the family photoshoot. And it was going into million pieces, if you know Blowing Rock, there’s a hill there and it was just going downhill. And I said, oh, I have a digital camera in the back of my car. I guess I’ll get that out. And that was the day that I say God turned me into a digital photographer. Because I didn’t go willingly. I have upgraded my equipment since then.

Jeff
It took somewhat of a catastrophic event for you to finally make the transition to digital photography.

Deborah
Exactly, exactly.

Jeff
I get it. Yeah, I get that. What would you say are your primary services and products that you provide your clients here at Deborah Young Studio?

Deborah
Well, for years, I’ve always focused on doing family portraits on location, and I’m still, I’m stuck on that. I love that. And luckily for me, families grow, and they change, and I am able to capture 20 years, you know, maybe I photographed them when they got married, and then they had a baby, and now their kids are graduating from high school. And believe it or not, some of my clients that are bringing me their babies, I did their baby pictures. So, it’s very nice to feel like a part of the family in that way. And another strong part of my market is corporate headshots, professional headshots. Which I love to do, because when someone trusts you to make an image that reflects them, and they they say to me, wow, that looks like me. I like the way that looks. That is so, that makes me feel good. Because I hear so many times people say, oh, I take a terrible picture or I’m not photogenic, but that feeling of maybe a 50-year-old vice president of a company who says, for the first time I love my photograph, and that feels good.

Jeff
Oh, yeah, I can imagine how good that feels. Do you do the corporate headshots here at the studio?

Deborah
Some, you know, I have three different types. I have just a traditional I call studio classic with traditional background, then I have the next one up is more of a contemporary looking studio portrait, and we’ll probably also go outside. Because, you know, clothing, everything with COVID is getting much more relaxed, ties are a thing of the past. So, everything’s getting a lot more relaxed, and moving toward that lifestyle. And then I have the third level, which is I go to your location, your office or you know, your corporate location and I did a neat one a couple of weeks ago at Mack Truck down in North Charlotte, had a bunch of Mack trucks in the background with all their staff and VPs, and that was fun. I love that kind of thing.

Jeff
Yeah, I bet that was fun.

Deborah
Big red truck and Bulldog.

Jeff
We have a chocolate Labrador Retriever at home, but we also have an English Bulldog, an old English Bulldog. Yeah, she’s really funny. So yeah, we’re huge Bulldog fans.

Deborah
And I love dogs. I’ll tell you, if I have a family portrait, you look around, you’ll see a dog in almost all of them. Two reasons, people, when they have their pet, they relax, you know, and the emphasis is on like, oh, let’s make sure the dog, you know, it can take it off of the kids a little bit. And then the other reason is when the dog is in the picture, the sale goes up. I know this for a fact. So, when people call me, oh, we don’t have to have the dog in the shot, oh, yes, you do.

Jeff
Yeah. That’s interesting.

Deborah
I have two dogs. They’re my kids, so I get it.

Jeff
Yeah, that’s kind of yeah, that’s how we feel as well. And that’s how most families with dogs can relate for sure. Do you have like really great spots in the area that you know, like a catalog of spots that you can bring clients to, to have their photos taken?

Deborah
I do and it depends on the time of day. Also, the time of the year but for instance, I have spots on Lake Norman where if it’s a morning shoot, I’m looking for shade. I’m always looking for shade, but I’m looking for direction of light. I don’t want a crowd, I used to go to Jetton Park, but it is so crowded there. I mean, you’ll probably have a photographer in your background of your family photos if you go there, so I have some other spots. One of my favorite shots for sunset, and I don’t mind sharing this, is Water Street Station, it’s over by the boat club. But if you just want to go over there and watch the sun go down. It’s open lake and it’s just beautiful. They have a little dock there. That’s a great spot. I have some barns that I like to frequent, if someone’s looking for, you know, a more natural, with horses roaming around and maybe a windy path that kind of compositionally leads you through things. Some of the shots that are shot in a meadow, I’m picking up a card right now of a high school senior that was shot in a meadow. This was actually shot off of the Jetton Road extension in one of the parking lots because they let those parking lots go to seed and then they look grassy and meadowy and people say ah, where was that taken? I say, oh right next to Bojangles, and you know when people say the camera doesn’t lie, yes it does. And you can, you know, if you know where your light is and you know what you’re looking for with an overgrown yard or you know, yeah. I mean, I fell into it when I moved to this area because in western Pennsylvania, it’s brown up until about April. And you know, you can photograph all year here in any spot, and it’s beautiful.

Jeff
Recently I’ve noticed, I don’t know why I’ve only noticed recently, but photographers taking photos of couples in some really awkward places, you know, it’s really funny, but awkward because of what’s surrounding but they’re capturing what’s right behind them right now the meadow right behind, right? It doesn’t matter that they’re right next to a busy road or you know, a parking lot or something like that. It’s really interesting, it must take some thought and creativity to find those spots.

Deborah
Yeah, it’s a weird way to see, I actually kind of see out of focus a little bit like I, I don’t think about where the subject is, I’m looking for lines, I’m looking for lighting, I’m looking for a tree bent over in an arch shape that I can put someone under, or you know, like, I joke when I’d go to these parking lots, and people are like, well, I thought we were going to meadow. I always joke that it’s like crime scene because God knows what you’re gonna find in those parking lots, you might find a shoe or I go no, pay no attention to that. Like, I might drag a prop out there like a couch or something and throw it out in the middle of this meadow. And yeah, cars are going by, and I just tell them to wave.

Jeff
Before we get into one of my favorite topics of these conversations, which is recognizing or giving some shout outs to some local businesses, I want to ask you, I know I’m personally acquainted with several young photographers who are just starting out and growing their portfolio and finding their niche. And I’m acquainted because in my other businesses, those are the photographers that I can afford. I’ll be honest with you, but what advice would you have for a newcomer to the industry, a novice who aspires to be a professional photographer?

Deborah
Well, one of the things that I’ve benefited from when I first started in photography was, I wasn’t the photographer. I was the studio manager, I booked the appointments, I did all the sales, I paid the bills. And so having that business insight, after two years of doing all that and assisting at weddings, yes, I stepped into that photography role. But taking pictures is the easy part of the business. The hard part is attracting clients and making yourself profitable, promotional shoots, and, yeah, sure, you got to do things for free. I mean, even now my work with Lake Norman Living, it’s a relationship where I get new clients and she gets great photos. So, I definitely would recommend that kind of a relationship if you can find it, working with a magazine where they’re going to give you some advertising in exchange for doing some photography. The other thing though is, it’s very important in-person sales. I went to a seminar recently and they said, oh, ISP ISP, it’s the newest thing, in-person sales, and I said, what do you mean it’s the newest thing? It’s THE thing.

Jeff
Yeah.

Deborah
And I think a lot of photographers were relying on just launching the pictures on a website and hoping somebody paid for them or maybe they just put them on a USB stick, and it walked out the door and they never saw anybody again and you know, don’t give away the secret sauce. I mean, you need to sit with the client and say this is the best one and this is why and you can’t do that if you just give them all 3000 images you know, you need to, if you want to own the art end of it, you need to sit with the person and explain and sell and find out why they came to you before you even take the pictures and what size is the wall, and you know what I mean? Do some planning, that would be my thought process is really focus on the selling of your portraiture not the creating. The creating photos, yeah, we can do it all day long, but if nobody’s going to be willing to pay you for any of it and because yeah, sure it’s uncomfortable to sit there and have a sale. You know, no one likes to do that. But the more you do it then people say to you Oh, Deborah, which is your favorite?

Jeff
Yeah.

Deborah
You know, now I get people that call me, and I do their family photo and they say, Design a Christmas card for us, send it to us, and we’ll say a seal of approval on it. Yep, you’re right, those are the best ones and, you know, that comes with time of course but honestly you need to hold the hand of the client all through the process.

Jeff
Absolutely, that personal connection is so important and being available and able to counsel your client on which photos are the best and why they’re the best. And I’m sure they rely heavily on your expertise to help them select. Because like we’ve mentioned in the digital photography world, they may have thousands of photos to sift through from their event or their wedding or you know, at least dozens for perhaps headshots and portraits. And I know I would need help, you know, I would rely greatly on the photographer to counsel me on which one was the best.

Deborah
You know, we have a responsibility to edit out some of this stuff, there’s no reason a client needs to see a blink, or a picture where they look bad, or you’ve done bad lighting, you have a responsibility to show only your best work to those clients. And then once you show your best work, then you can say, oh, this is a compliment to that, or, you know, you look distinguished, you don’t have to smile every time. Look how honest and trustworthy you look with a serious expression. You know, you just talk them through some of these reasons that you like it and then they say, Yeah, you’re right, you know, I my eyes look great, when I don’t smile, or, you know, I’m 61, I don’t mind admitting it. But you know, when you get to a certain age, looking at a picture of yourself, especially a close up, it can be difficult, and despite retouching and all the apps for that, but you have to really find that person’s, like, bring out the best in them, and that’s what’s gonna make you exceed.

Jeff
Yeah, and you brought up another good point, too. It’s the creating, it’s the fun part, right. And in some ways, the easy part if you have the talent, and the acumen for that, but you know, the front-end work is one thing, it’s the back-end work of being self-employed, or having your own business, the office management, the accounting, the bookkeeping, the marketing, the selling, all hard work, and not always fun.

Deborah
No, I honestly think that’s 90% of the work. 10% is taking the photos, I mean, there is when you when you’re in it like I am, of course, you’ve got multiple drives, you got to create a system for keeping track of everything re-numbering them. That in itself is a chore, just from capture, to moving it to the computer and your filing system. I mean, I have a big, long spreadsheet. So, I have all the clients in alphabetical or not alphabetically, but the date that I shot them and where I stand, you know, have I reached out to them? Have they seen me, you know, have I gotten paid? just you know, you can’t just leave it as haphazard.

Jeff
Yeah. And the timeline for that process. I mean, from the introduction to the consultation, and the proposing sales and so forth to then executing the photos and then processing and then selecting, I mean, I’m sure the timeline is a process.

Deborah
The framing, and to me the delivery of that final portrait that I do love to sell a framed portrait, because if you take something home and it’s not framed, it’s not going to get displayed. I mean, what is the point? So, I love to sell a frame and also a frame, almost at cost, just so I know that it gets up on the wall.

Jeff
Yeah.

Deborah
But then the other tail end is the thank you note. The, you know, the gift. The unexpected, oh, we didn’t order that. Well, I know you didn’t. But thank you. And you know, giving that little bit of extra something. And I love note cards, so I’m always writing thank you notes.

Jeff
Yeah, it’s such an important touch. Not to be overlooked, for sure. The follow up and the thank you, right. Yeah. I love that. Thank you for sharing that advice. I hope, I know that I’m sure that there are listeners who will find value in that advice. And I’m sure we could talk on and on for hours about, from your experiences of business ownership and self-employment. But I’m glad we were able to touch on that. Now, again, my favorite topic of these conversations are talking about other businesses locally.

Deborah
Oh sure.

Jeff
And shout outs to local businesses who have either been good partners for you over the years or new partners or just anyone that you’re acquainted with, that you would love to give a shout out to. Now, obviously, I recognize that you’ve been in business here since, what ’94, so you know dozens and dozens, but who is it that you would like to give a shout out to during this conversation.

Deborah
One is Aquesta Bank, and Jim Engel and Laura Engel and Aquesta Bank. They have hosted a display of my photography in their main branch in Cornelius and I of course bank with them. And then they also send me their staff for headshots and so when I have a relationship like that, I can discount that because I know it’s an ongoing business that, you know, I’m going to get a headshot next week from Aquesta, and they’re going to get a good job from me. And then just the fact that I’m honored that they have my art up in their bank, where people are coming and seeing these large family portraits. It’s great. And for newcomers to photography, do that, find a hair salon that you can display at. I’ve got my work at the bridal shop next door too, although I’m not doing as many weddings as I used to, unless it’s a second wedding. Yeah, displays. People don’t always walk through this store. And if I can get my work out somewhere else. Now I have a whole other line of work, which is decor art. It’s local art that I photograph and then I change and paint in the computer. And the Village Store in Davidson is a big supporter of that. And she’s got quite a few of my pieces up and like one of my favorite ones is this shot of downtown Davidson. It’s got kind of a red cast to it, and brick streets. It’s fabulous. And another big seller is of course, the waving man here in Cornelius. I think everyone knows about Mike the waving man, down on the corner of Main Street and Catawba. So fun stuff. And that was all brought about because some tourism, you know, they needed pictures of the lake, and they wanted to have note cards and they wanted to have scenic. And I just thought, you know, I should do this. So, I started doing that, probably about 10 years ago now.

Jeff
Aquesta Bank has, I’ve seen your art and the main branch there in Cornelius, I bank with Wells for my personal and another business, and this small media creative agency that my business partner and I have started that is responsible for producing these podcasts, that small business, I decided to bank with Aquesta. Because we’re promoting local, right? So, we want to make sure that we kind of put our money literally where our mouth is. So, I’ve been really happy to bank with Aquesta, and I’ve seen your artwork in there, it’s very cool.

Deborah
Thank you, yeah.

Jeff
The Village Store has been mentioned in a couple of other episodes as well. And of course, there’s so many things to love about Downtown Davidson too, just like Downtown Cornelius. So, we’ve featured quite a few businesses in Davidson as well on the podcast. So yeah, that’s great. I appreciate you mentioning them. Deborah, how can listeners learn more about Deborah Young Studio and the services that you provide?

Deborah
Well, I have a website, I’ve had it since the invention of the web. Which is kind of funny, because I’ve had it so long when you do Google Deborah Young Studio, it’s one of the first things that comes up, but it’s only due to longevity. And I get a kick out of that, because people will call me and they’ll say, would you like to be number one on the list? I say, well did you Google me before you made the phone call? But I think it’s only because it was carved out on a tablet of stone at the beginning of the web. I also have a Facebook page, which, of course gets changed much more often than my website. I do feel a website is an important part, but with the advent of social media, I think it’s, I’m not saying it’s less important, but it’s a whole lot easier to change your Instagram page or your Facebook page than it is to go on and change your website.

Jeff
Yeah.

Deborah
So those three places Facebook, deborahyoungstudio.com, or Instagram, but I would recommend that people come and visit me. I, you know, pick up the phone, come see me or drop by and just come and visit me, there’s no pressure and I’d love to share my work, I’d love to talk about, you know, photography in general. It doesn’t have to be a specific thing that you’re looking for. But you know, one on one, I’m all about it. So, let’s rock.

Jeff
Absolutely. I love it when a guest reminds me and reminds the listeners, one of the best ways to learn about a business is to stop by and visit that business right?

Deborah
Yeah, I mean, the website has a lot of things on it. One thing you won’t find on it is my prices because I’m really not into advertising how much things cost. I think that could be a turn off. I’m not ashamed to say that my products are expensive, and an investment. I just don’t see it like a washer/dryer listing a price or a part.

Jeff
Yeah, not a price-driven business and process. So yeah, and you’ve certainly earned the ability to you know, customize your services and have that conversation in person for the client. So yeah, I respect that, and I can relate from my primary business. My other business I can certainly relate. So, Deborah, I will have links of course in the show notes. This has been such a pleasure. I love your studio, your space here. I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you and just can’t thank you enough for joining the podcast. I really appreciate it.

Deborah
Well, thank you. I’m so thrilled to be asked. Thank you, Jeff.

Jeff
Many thanks again to Deborah Young for joining the podcast and sharing the story of her entrepreneurial journey. Friends, you can learn more about Deborah and her work at www.deborahyoungstudio.com. I’ll have that link along with the links to the other local businesses Deborah mentioned in the show notes. As always, you can find the complete show notes to all of our episodes at the home for Lake Norman’s number one small business podcast, www.thebestoflkn.com. While you’re there, please consider subscribing to our email newsletter. That’s a great way to stay up to date on everything we’re doing here at The Best of LKN, and it’s also a great way to show some support for the work we’re doing here. Just scroll down to the bottom of our homepage and you’ll see the signup form. I hope you enjoyed getting to know Deborah, I know I certainly did. If you’re ready for an updated family portrait, I highly recommend that you give her a call or stop by Deborah’s studio and have a chat with her. You will be amazed. That’s it for this episode. Thanks again friends for joining us. keep supporting our local Lake Norman small businesses. We’ll be back next week with another episode. Until then, cheers Lake Norman. Bye for now.

Narrator
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of The Best of LKN. For more information about this podcast, show notes, video episodes, and links to our featured businesses, please visit www.thebestoflkn.com. We publish episodes weekly, so be sure to subscribe and stay up to date. Until next time, cheers Lake Norman.