Speaker 1 (00:11):
Sure. So I'm Jenna Nord, and my business is Jenna Nord Photography. I am currently in a studio space on First Street, right next door to Free Cycles. So it's really fun and I do a lot of different sub niches under photography, but I primarily specialize in birth, motherhood and then women's ceremonial boudoir. What inspired me back in 2011 to start my business was that I had been already playing around with photography, taking some community courses, really just fell in love with photography. But then upon having my last daughter, I have four children, and my last labor and delivery was photographed by my sister, who was the charge nurse and on my delivery. And I happened to have a cesarean for that complications arose, and so that's how she needed to come into the world. And having those images were so profound and powerful for my healing journey of my birth stories and moving into motherhood to have those images as anchors to just the amazing and miraculous journey that I had gone through and my body had gone through to bring her earth side.
(01:44):
I knew then that I wanted to use my photography for that good. And I really wanted to be able to offer other women in Missoula, Montana, and surrounding areas the opportunity to have that type of witnessing so they could have those memories and then do what felt was necessary with them, whether that be a grieving process or all the way through to celebration. So there's just a lot in birth stories that being able to see visuals of ourselves and empowered and surrendered moments can really help just support us as women. The qualities and experiences I think that are important to be a business owner and then also a photographer. Well, the ones that have really stood out for me is that I did go to the University of Montana and I have a degree in psychology, and I did work in that field for a number of years before I picked up the camera and started to be a photographer.
(02:58):
And having those skills, that skillset, having an understanding of child development and psychology and how people relate in that internal world is really an asset for sure. And then I think if you go into that field or social work for instance, you have definitely an air of empathy, which really is an amazing thing to have in photography as well, because you're constantly trying your best to relate to people so that they can feel comfortable in front of your camera no matter what genre of photography you do. And then honestly, I wish I would've taken some business courses that would've been a plus because I've been adding those to my tool belt over the last decade of being an entrepreneur. So taking online courses and really specific things related to my niche too. So looking to mentors and people at the top of the industry that offer mentoring and coaching and courses that are specifically related to photography and then specifically related to birth photography or working with women in photography is really something that I think we should, we as entrepreneurs should be on looking to always be furthering our education in those areas.
(04:35):
So I think those things are important. And then just to always be, I think of it just, it's kind of saying the same thing, but being always willing to continue to learn. We're never done learning, whether that's the skillset of photography or business or just how to relate as humans just constantly looking for more avenues to do the internal work and have personal growth. I think the most concise way I want to answer this is that, how does community play a part in me running my business is that I've really tried to surround myself much more in these last couple of years too, with women and business owners that may be in my immediate community, but community at large that can inspire me, support me, who are cheering for me, and also who have already gotten to a place that I'm striving to go next.
(05:52):
And so I have had years of experience of hiring coaches and mentors and putting myself out there in the community. And I think it's really smart to be careful of what type of community you consume and let influence your business. Because if those community members or those coaches and mentors haven't done what you are trying to do, you may just want to take their advice and their influence with a grain of salt, not necessarily that it's bad, but to always be looking for the people who are where you want to go and who are also illustrating a type of lifestyle, maybe even similar values and life dynamics that you want your life to look like someday. So challenges and roadblocks that I have had to face that are either resolved or unresolved, and I like to go with the unresolved. If you can imagine, birth photography is very specialized and it is still, 2024, not wildly accepted.
(07:08):
And so I wake up every morning making a conscious choice to follow my heart and my passion, which is the birth photography. And of course I do the other things too, but wanting to speak on this note that I'm choosing a niche that I'm constantly being censored in. And so whether that's censorship online, on social media to an even more intimate community such as Missoula, not being allowed in certain art shows or galleries, other publications in Missoula and the state at large Montana, not willing to run features or articles using my imagery because of perceived nudity or nudity. And so this is definitely still just an unresolved challenge that I'm willing to wake up every day and still just charge forward with resilience and heart because I feel that women's stories are important. And if I can be just one small push of advocacy and I am seen by a drop in the ocean of people that it makes a difference though, I just know that that's my mission.
(08:33):
So being able to acquire a studio space and from the financial perspective, what does that look like for me? And then maybe other entrepreneurs in photography, entrepreneurs, it's rough. I'm just going to be completely honest. Commercial space and renting space, and we all know the cost of living here in Missoula just continues to go up, not just for residential. And so commercial space is very tricky, and I think that, and I know from experience that it takes this consistent effort of looking. And to be completely honest, my husband does a lot of the looking for me and sending me links, and I look at a lot of places and vet them and see if that's something that I am going to be able to work myself into. And a lot of it's compromise too. And how creative can you be? Are you able to get into a space and make it work?
(09:38):
Could you bring in a false wall? Do you need to bring in artificial lighting? Do you need a desk? You're trying to vet all these different scenarios just to have a space. And a lot of photographers here in Missoula, and I would probably guess the state at large don't have studios. There's more of us that don't have studios than do. And so I feel very, very fortunate that I've been able to have a studio space for, I think I'm going on eight years. I used to be in a previous space on Higgins. And what we did there, it was a business collective basically. So that's how I was able to finance that, is that it wasn't just my space, but there were multiple businesses and each of us had our own room, but then we had a community room that we would use a calendar and kind of rent out on a schedule for the bigger happenings.
(10:33):
And so if you can find yourself in a sharing situation, it's really the best bet. And then my current space, I will be looking to attract some people, possibly a collective of photographers and or artists that are able to use the space and help me afford the lease for sure. I'm really grateful to have space. And of course, we live in Montana, which is beautiful. It's really giving us the backdrop. But those of us that work our businesses from that full service spectrum and we're able to have studios, it's amazing to be able to have a space that's warm. You have a bathroom, I've got water, tea, changing room and all of that so that then when the weather isn't amazing, when all the fall colors are down and it's gray and dreary, people can choose the studio space. So it really is an amazing thing to be able to offer that full spectrum studio experience, whether it's in home, because I do that on location in the mountains or in the studio.
(11:57):
So self-care practices and or what do I do for myself to sort of balance out the stress and the responsibility of holding space for women in these vulnerable types of sessions? I am a pretty basic minimalist woman when it comes to this, but for me, getting out into nature in between clients is really important. It's where I've always found most of my comfort, even growing up as a child. So getting out into the woods, regulating my nervous system in that way. Then I am a busy mom of four, and so there's not a ton of space and time, but carving out, I really do like water. So whether that's in the summer, getting to the rivers and lakes, which again, that's nature or taking just me time to get in the bath to really process what's been going on for me, what was going on for that woman and what's not mine to carry anymore and to release.
(13:11):
And then I'm not opposed to clinical counseling either. I've always loved having counseling sessions and have had multiple counselors over the years and then really good friends. And I would say, again, I'm a minimalist when it comes to that. I've never been somebody who has had friends like 10, 20 friends at a time, but just a few good girlfriends that really see me and understand me and where I can just go and be completely myself and I can just feel a lot of joy and feel seen and heard and respected. That's really replenishing to my spirit in between clients that are bringing a ton of emotional and vulnerable work to my camera. So a client or clients that have been particularly impactful really are all of them, because I happen to pick niches that are emotionally loaded, and what I am willing to create in space holding is then an invitation to a woman to really be her most raw, vulnerable, and truthful self. And so that is really impactful to be a witness to that and to share an experience and then create visual anchors to that woman's experience. And so birth, for instance, it's a given.
(14:56):
I am obviously positioning myself that I'm getting hired in the first place, so there's a lot of trust on board. And so those women that are willing and want me in their space to create beautiful artistic imagery for them, that's really humbling and that's really impactful just to my journey as a woman, feeling that trust, creating that sisterhood that unites us. And I also really believe that all the work I create really is a co-creation. And so to my primal medicine, boudoir and or my reveal participants, which I didn't speak about, but it's a retreat for women and women are just bringing their vulnerable stories to the forefront to be witnessed.
(15:57):
It's really humbling to have a woman just start to cry in front of the camera or to express rage and grief, things that we often as women are not wildly accepted to express in society. And so to be able to see these expressions and capture it, I'm giving them permission, but then they're equally giving me the permission back. And so it's a co-creation. It's a self-portrait, so it's not altruistic. I'm really honest about that. What I give to you, I'm also getting back what I see in you. I also then get to see in myself.
