Welcome to the Dair of the dog podcast. I'm Nicole Begley. And today we're talking to Carol Moorhead, the Dog Tog from Clearwater, Florida. Carol used mind maps to find her passion and make her third career. The charm she's recently moved to Florida, opened up a studio is finding success and is here to talk all about it. Stay tuned.

Welcome to the Hair of the Dog podcast. If you're a pet photographer, ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your host pet photographer, travel addict, chocolate martini connoisseur, Nicole Begley.

Hey everybody, Nicole here from Hair of the Dog, and I'm so excited to be joined by Carol Morehead from previously, Carol Moorhead Photography now known as the Dog Tog based in Clearwater, Florida. One of my most favorite States, beautiful sunny, Florida, Carol. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. Of course. I'm so thrilled to have you here. So I always love to open up with having people just know, you know, having you introduce yourself a little bit and telling us just a little bit about your story. I know you somewhat recently relocated from a much colder climate to a much sunnier one. So yeah. Tell us about that. So my husband and I are come from basically the St. Louis area- St. Louis, Missouri, and we moved to Wisconsin in 2017 and not too long after we moved there, my husband's best friend's health started ailing. I, so he was flying back and forth to take care of them. He ended up passing, sorry. And he left the remaining estate to Tracy, my husband. Um, so we ended up with two houses. So we had to make a decision. Yeah. And we weighed all the pros and cons and decided to make our trek South to Florida. Wow. I know that's a, yeah, that's definitely one way to make a, make a big move change. It was set on what attracted you guys to Florida, just more sunshine and warmer weather. Well, I think because obviously Wisconsin, it's kind of the polar opposite of where. We're at now because you know, six, six months of winter versus, you know, seven months of intense heat. Right. Um, I, I thought, you know, Oh, I could shoot in Florida all year long. You know, sometimes you can't, you know, so then we moved to Florida and I discovered that there are issues, um, with this weather as well. It's hot and humid, I'm hot. I'm so hot. Yeah. I lived in Orlando for three years, so, um, I get it and it was hot. Although I must say I met my husband, we lived in Orlando and that he spent the summer in Hilton Head one summer, and I used to drive from Orlando to Hilton Head to visit him. I leave Orlando and I'd get to Hilton that it'd be like, good God, how are you living here? This is awful. Like, there was a noticeable difference that it was more humid in Hilton Head than it was in Orlando. Oh, there's that? Thankfully I think in Charlotte, we're a little bit close enough to the mountains that it's not obscenely humid here. Just the top, but not like I have issues with lens fog all the time. Yes, yes, absolutely. I'm sure. Even in the morning. Absolutely. Awesome. All right. Well, yeah. So tell us then I guess a little bit how you got started in pet photography. So this is my third career, really. Um, yeah, when we moved to Wisconsin, I, I I've always been a hobbyist. And when we moved from St. Louis to Wisconsin, it was time. It was a good breaking point to really kind of discover what I wanted to do with my camera. And so Tracy had stayed behind for a couple months. And so my dog Dexter was the only living thing that I was, you know, that was real accessible for me to take pictures. And so, um, I started taking pictures of him and then I, I got a different lens cause I just had a kit lens and I got a 50, a nifty 50. And I started taking pictures of him with that. And it was like, the heavens just opened up. I was just hooked. And then a friend of mine that I met up there, um, uh, had a horse and she invited me to take pictures of her horse and stuff. So it just kind of grew from that. Nice. Nice. Did, what did you, you said you were a hobbyist before. What did you mainly photograph before you found your love for pets? I did a lot of landscape and I did a little bit of real estate photography as well. Yeah. Yeah. And it's completely different thing. So I just felt real connected spiritually. It's hard to, hard to describe, but it opened up my heart and I, I just found a lot of joy in it. It was so much fun. And Dexter has been, that has become my best inside model outside. Not so much. They get in trouble. Does he run away Zoe? So we just must be on leash all the time outside too, but he, he just sits different. He just looks, I don't want to be here. Can we go inside? It's like, it's too hot. Exactly. That's funny. So when did you start your business? Did you start that in Wisconsin? I did. Okay. And then when you moved to Florida, which I kind of, you know, somewhat enjoy this whole like, Oh, let's move across the country thing because you know, you have your business and even moving from Pittsburgh to North Carolina, like my business was happening in Pittsburgh. I didn't have to do a ton of marketing and I had a lot of community awareness, I suppose. Right. But when you move, you have this whole new blank slate of what do I want to change in my business? How do I want to kind of revamp this or change a little bit of what I'm offering or just really dial in to make your business really what you want it to be. So did that happen for you with your move or were you still in the building phase or just tell us about what that process was like? Well, we, when we moved here, we had kind of transferred the equity that we had in the house in Wisconsin and used it to renovate our house in Florida. And when we got here, I was hoping that the house was going to be further along than what it was. Yeah. It wasn't. So we spent two months living with our neighbor next door. She's such a wonderful lady and put up with us. But during that time, you know, it gave me time to kind of really scope out and pick through, you know, where do I want to be? Where do I want to shoot? What do I want to do? How do I want to do it? I'd already had my website built in Wisconsin and I had administrative kind of backend stuff done, but it gave me time to really kind of sit back and like travel the neighborhoods and figure out where I wanted to be. And because I didn't know anybody other than my next door neighbor. So they gave me a little bit of time to do that kind of stuff. Nice. Nice. And then what did you find out from it because you just went through a whole little brand identity swap. I did, the virus made me do it. I decided, you know, it's kinda funny because, you know, I discovered the thing of lens fog, you know, hotness and humidity and all that stuff. And, and my husband and I decided that, you know, I really needed a studio to do more climatized photography, you know, in case, you know, my clientele wasn't into the heat and the humidity and stuff like that in the summertime, it kind of gave me a home base, you know, and it gave me a community that I could work in. And we just signed the lease in January of this year. And I had about two, three months of shooting and it was really kind of picking up and then the virus hits. So then I was like, knocked down. Yeah. Right. It was. And then, so then lent me time to really kind of take a deeper dive into the business and the backend stuff to make sure that my photography was being reflected by my brand and vice versa. And so I would get a lot of calls on, Hey, do you do weddings? Hey, do you do seniors? Hey, I'm going to do passport pictures. I was like, do you see any of that on my website? I discovered there was an issue. So I wanted to make sure that people understand what I did. And that's when I decided to, um, uh, grab the DBA of dog tog. Nice. Excellent. I love it. I love it. And I love when people can see their business and it takes time. So like when you're starting out, you know, it takes like it takes time to develop your style. I think it also takes time to ask you to develop your style then to start to develop really a brand identity that meshes with that style. Right. So, you know, often when we start off our businesses, we kind of have our starter brand and a couple of years, and we congratulate to our more refined brand that reflects us a little bit more. We start to determine who we are as an artist and what our work looks like and who our clientele is and all of that great stuff. So what I was shooting was, was looking completely different from what I was shooting in Wisconsin. There was a lot of snow and colors in the fall and, you know, Hills and places, you can get down low and shoot up and it's pretty flat here. Right, right. Although you did have those beautiful gulf sunsets. Exactly. So I had to change that too. So it's been, it's been an experience for sure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things I do love about this whole story Carol, is how you were able to take downtime caused by the global pandemic and still do something that's going to move your business forward. You know? Cause I think that's just so important to be able to kind of get out of our own way and you know, have a day or two or a week or two even of, Oh my gosh, this sucks. I just opened up a studio. I was having people come in, I was starting to make a name for myself. Now this happens to all right, how am I going to use this downtime to come out of it on the other end, even stronger than before, and you know, be even more positioned to make a splash in your community. Right. So I love that. I love that so much. Yeah. So when you were moving, Carol, from Wisconsin down to Florida, I can imagine there were definitely some fears. And actually even back up before that, when you were leaving, you know, a previous career, did you say pet photography is number three, but I don't think even if it's the second time you switched careers, I don't think it gets any easier. So how did you kind of work through work through those challenges or that fear? I'm sure there was fear there. So I'm not an extremely fearful person, but I understand how the fear can prevent people from moving forward or trying something. Right. Because whether you're miserable in a, in an occupation, it really doesn't matter because if you're too afraid of what you haven't experienced, fear will keep you in a place of seclusion or limit limitations. Yes. Um, because at least the, the, the sexiness of whatever you're doing, right. At least you're comfortable with it and you know, what it looks like and you know, what it feels like, but you don't know what something different feels like. Absolutely. And I think there's a lot of people that they are, would much rather stay in their known discomfort versus take a chance on the unknown, even though it could be so much better, but they fear, well, it could definitely be worse. So I'll stay here where I don't really like it, but it's okay. It's not awful. So they just stay in this like area of"meh" because they're scared to experience possibly something different. Exactly. I mean, I was in construction for my first career for a long, long time. And it was just, wasn't something that made me happy. I was good at it. And I was making someone else a lot of money and there was a lot of security in it while my kids were growing, obviously the benefits, vacation health, right. Or blah, blah, blah. But, you know, once they kind of flew the coop, it was my time to kind of explore what I really wanted. And there were lots of opportunities, but I really wanted to kind of hone in on what it was that spoke to my soul, my very being, and I, I got this book, I've got a book recommendation. Um, it's called designing your life. Um, how to build a well lived, joyful life. And it excellent. Who wrote, who, uh, who's the author, uh, bill Burnett and Dave Evans. Okay, excellent. I haven't heard of that one. It takes you through mind mapping and if you've never heard of mind mapping before you kind of start with a center idea of something that you want to explore, and then you just start like putting out little lines around it and associating other words or activities with it until you start seeing some sort of pattern like in this particular book, excuse me, the center was, they liked being outdoors, hiking and camping and surfing and blah, blah, blah. And so they start looking through all these different things. Then all of a sudden exotic locations comes up and tropical beaches and exploring. And so it kind of sends you out away from that center so that you can kind of come up with a constant theme I'm in for all of those things. Yes. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it, but I might have to check that out. Cause I've gotta be honest. I've seen mind maps before, but I feel like my brain doesn't work in a mind map way as much, but maybe I've just been doing it incorrectly because I never really learned how to do it. I'm much more of a, like make a linear list. Yes. Where, cause I'm very linear too, for me right. Where it feels just like so chaotic, I've done tons of mind mapping. Um, in the past to try to determine what it really was that was speaking to me without the busy-ness of my mind. Um, and it, the camera was the center and animals were in there and outdoors. Cause I just love landscape photography and just like art and, and creating scenes where it's not just a picture of a dog, but it's artwork, you know, I love this. So that, that's where it kind of took me. And you gotta get the book, Nicole it's I know I will. I absolutely will. We'll link in the show notes too. Yeah. Yeah. They could mind mapping work for, cause I know a lot of people struggle with trying to figure out what it is they really want. Like you're like, what do you want? What are your goals? And maybe they have one or two, but I mean, really we should be able to list like 20 to 30, like specific things we want in our life and yeah. Yeah. We get so bogged down and just our every day we do this, we do that. I got to watch Netflix. I go to bed. Yeah. That I don't think people really give that, that thought. And it seems at least to my brain that this would be a good, a good way to explore that. Do you think mind mapping would work for that? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because photography is, he's been a part of my passion, but I had to put it down because of the busy-ness of raising a family and all that stuff and responsibilities. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Having to, you know, live and put food on the table and you know, back when I was going to college, not that I'm ancient, but um, when I went back to college, you know, or when I was first going to college, there, there wasn't internet, you know, I didn't have a whole lot of people who could make recommendations for me. And there weren't a lot of self-help or expiration books out there, you know? So people would say, what do you want to do? I'm like, I don't know. There's so much cool stuff. How do you pick? Right. Well, and then it's so hard to find out. Like I went to, I graduated high school in 94, so like mid nineties. Um, and I remember talking to my, uh, freshman roommate and she was like, do you think we'll have email? And I said, what's email. So that's the age I was when I went to college, the what's email age and um, you know, back then, I feel like it was like, I thought I was going to be a veterinarian because I knew I wanted to work with animals. And even then I had no idea that the whole zoo world will, could be an option. Like I didn't find that out until my summer, between my junior and senior year of college. And uh, you know, there's just so many different things out there in the world that are so much more accessible now because we have online, we have, you know, for social media, having challenges in our lives, it's also such a great way to connect with other people and to keep connections with people from your past. And, um, I would have definitely lost touch with so many other people had, you know, that social media thing up around so that we just have so much more information at our fingertips to start to explore what we really love and what we want to spend our time doing. I know, I mean, when I was young and I was a college student, my dad wanted me to be an accountant. I'd rather get a sharp stick to the eye than be an accountant. I can't stand it. You know, I kind of think I would like be that account great at it. I didn't think that part of my brain, you know, so I was more creative in language and that kind of stuff. And I just think that now the world is your oyster. You can be whatever you want to be. If you have the passion to do it. I think it's just fear that kind of pushes us down. And I read this, there's a sentence that I wanted to mention in the book Who Moved Your Cheese and it says, the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse. You have to extract those thoughts. However, those thoughts got into your brain that keeps you in a box. You have to figure out how to extract it from your body so that you can move forward and do things that fill your soul. Oh my God. So good. You know, it's a hundred percent accurate because even when we get rid of one box, there's a new box and get rid of that box. And there's a new box. I don't think we ever get rid of all the boxes. And I love it. I've told my kids, you know, if you ever see me not wanting to learn something new, the end is near.

Yeah.

Huh. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And you know, and I also am a firm believer in, we would not be given something as strong a calling as, you know, like what we would call like this is what my soul wants to do or something that you have deep interest in. We wouldn't have that. If we didn't have what we needed inside of us to reach those goals, we already have it. It's already there. Yeah. Because otherwise we wouldn't have those desires. I have zero desire to be a dancer. I probably could not do that if I really wanted to. I'm sure I must be able to then exactly. I can scratch it off the list. Yeah. I can too. Actually I look like an idiot. I know my limits. I could be Elaine on Seinfeld, thumbs out. Oh man. Um, yeah. Yeah. So looking to figure out what we want to do, it can be a pretty scary thing, but it can be so rewarding. I'm pretty sure you probably don't wake up like too many mornings to say, Oh man, I probably should have never left that construction job. Oh, never, never, never, ever. That will never come out of my mouth. I really want to wear a hardhat again. I probably want to talk to some contractors if you can get'em on the phonethink that's funny. That's funny. I love it. So yeah, I think there's actually a lot of people in your shoes, Carol, that have been doing something else for most of their life because well, let's face it. Pet photography has really not become a thing until maybe 10. I think the like very first pet photographers are going up on maybe 20 years. Yeah. So it's, it's a new career, a new world. So there's a lot of people out there that have been doing, you know, the quote, responsible thing for so much of their life. And you know, even if they don't hate it, they just it's okay. You know, they don't love it. They don't hate it. They just do it. Yeah. What advice do you have for them as they start to explore? Maybe now the kids have gone to college. They have some more freedom in their life. Maybe they just want to do something a little bit part time or they don't need that full time. You know, secure salary. It's time for a little change. What advice do you have to give them? Reading is and research and, and mind mapping. I can't tell you what that mind mapping experience did. Um, and honestly you start out not even knowing the questions that you need to have in order to find your way. So getting out there and reading and really doing some quiet time journaling, I know that sounds lame. I was, you know, when somebody mentioned journaling to me before, I'm just like, I know how you feel that way. I still kind of am sometimes, but it's so helpful. My journaling isn't really journaling, it's doodling. So yeah, my, my dad was a big doodler and I was always fascinated by the stuff he'd have on a piece of paper. You know, it meant something to him. It didn't mean anything to me, but in the same for me, you know, I've got like words and like numbers and like a little sketch, you know? And to me, that's, that's me telling my body to reveal what I need. And then when that happens, I, yeah, it's yeah. Something so magical. I think that happens when you have pen and paper and there's a connection between maybe both sides of our brain that just, you get access to information that you don't usually pick up when you're just going through your day. And it just shows up. Yeah. One, one day at when I decided that, you know, the pet photography it's taken pictures of Dexter was just crazy. Happy. I found you found me. I found you on Facebook, you opened the door for all my questions I found I was your gateway drug you opened the door and he went, look at all these questions. Oh my gosh, this is so, so your, your education program, the Academy. Yeah, the Elevate group. I can't tell you how much further it has me. I, you know, and I'm not the best pet photographer out there and I'm, I'm learning what I shouldn't do and I'm learning what I should do. So, so that, just, that really opened up the door. Thank you for saying that. I also, um, yeah, I just want to pop in there too and say so many people think that being the most incredible pet photographer on the planet is the key to having successful business and it's yeah, it's nice. But you know, there's, there's amazing pet photographers out there that aren't making money and then there's, you know, competent photographers that are doing great. So yeah, I'm a firm believer in you. I mean, we should always be wanting to grow. Right. And I think if we have this passion, then we always are trying to grow and we're always learning new things. So this isn't to say, you can just stay complacent now, but if you are selling or if you are creating technically sellable work, which in my opinion is proper exposure, proper white balance, get some expression, decent composition, just like some, some basic images then that sellable, you know, you don't need to be making the most amazing images in the Tristate area to be able to have a successful business. Right. So, yeah. Yeah. You know what, when, when I'm always my worst critic, anyway, I think most of the, we all are, you know, but when, you know, after a photo shoot and I go back, I look at images and I can see what I did wrong. What I can do better next time. But the further I get into it, the more images are passable. Yes. Yes. And I was going to say, I don't think you will ever, at least I haven't gotten there yet to the point where I don't leave a session and I don't say, Oh, I wanted to do that. Or I should have done that too. Yeah. Like I think that just will continue. Oh, absolutely. That shows that, that you who care about the product that you're putting out there because you're delivering images that hopefully will last a long, long time. And I, I have, I'm so connected with those great shots, you know, pictures that you walked away and you're like, that was a money maker. You know, it wasn't just the money maker. It was a soul filler. Yes. Yeah. I was going to say, there's definitely shots that, you know, occasionally taken, you just, you can't stop looking at them cause you just love them so much. You just study it and, and see the beauty at it. And, and it becomes like your museum piece, you know, and then when you start printing them, then there's a whole nother way that you love them even more. And then you just want to fill, you know, print everything, really print more things, more things. Yeah. That's fantastic. This has been really, really good. Let's jump back though, to your studio and opening your studio over this past winter. Yes. What would you say? Cause I think a lot of people think again, I just need a Facebook page and I need a website and people will call me and book. Maybe my work is good. Um, but it doesn't really work that way. No. So what, what do you attribute, um, the bookings that you had for your first few months and getting your, your new studio in a new city where you didn't know anyone off the ground? A lot of hard work. Yup. Obviously I, the virus kind of did a number on everybody, but right. I think to know exactly where your community is, is very, very important. It may not be where you live and it certainly, isn't where I live. It's about, you know, because I'm about 30 minutes away from the studio. But once you get to that community, I highly recommend joining your chamber and finding networking groups that speak to you. And I was also starting a network group of my own at the studio. So that was kind of put on hold, I plan on picking it back up, but I'm also finding, and this has been very helpful for me also finding a local influential neighborhood magazine to talk to that is very important. Especially if they have like a, an article every month on a certain pet of the community. Yes. Fantastic. That has helped me meet more people and I highly recommend that. It was awesome. Yeah. You guys will hear it again and again and again here. And that is that the key that most of these people that are finding success in this business tends to be relationships and actually making contact with real life humans outside of behind our computers and, and, and getting to know people in our community. And that's where the marketing magic still takes place. And it has to be multilayered because you don't just rely on Facebook. Cause honestly, I don't get a lot of business from Facebook. Yeah. Agreed. We need there. But now that I'm kind of tied to a couple chambers and the magazine, I'm getting more attention and connection. That's creating a web, I guess you could say, you know, love it. So when you're kind of circuited together, it just gets tighter and tighter and tighter until everybody knows who you are. And that I'm kind of waiting for that, but it's coming, it's coming. I've only been doing it for a little bit. Yeah. And then there was a little curve ball thrown in with the COVID, but uh, yeah, no, I love that marketing web. And that should be really the goal of all of our marketing, I think, is to get to the point where somebody says, you know, anything about pets or pet photography. And someone's like, Oh, you heard of Carol, she's the Dog Tog. And she's right over in Clearwater. And um, because that's, that's where you start to actually get some quote organic marketing. And I think organic marketing is a myth because all good marketing actually has work underneath of it. And then when you've been doing this for 10 years, like you still have to be moving that marketing wheel. Right. It just as a little bit easier to grease. Right? Yeah. So being able to make these connections and more people become aware of your business and what you do and who you are and that they like you and you know, it just, it all builds upon itself because I think, yeah, I think so many people are looking for what's what marketing strategy do I do? Like they're looking for one marketing thing and there's never going to be one marketing thing. It's always going to be multilayered many different types of marketing that all build upon each other that create our marketing web. And some of it is free. Yes. A lot of it's very inexpensive. It just requires some elbow grease and talking to humans that you connect with, you know, like book club or a wine tasting club, or, you know, I don't know, coffee connoisseur, martini, martini club, you know, and then just kind of just start talking. I mean, you don't even have to be salesy I'll do is meet people and start developing relationships and then will ask you what you do. And then people are always interested if you said I'm a bank teller. They're like, okay, that's pretty boring. But when you say I'm a pet photographer, they say, wait, what? I mean, they love it. They think it's so cool. And then, you know, and then when, when you get to finally photograph their dog and you get them a dog that never sits to sit right for them, they're like, wow, your magic or their dog that they say, Oh, be careful. Like he turns away. As soon as you bring out the camera, don't worry or old Grover. He doesn't like anybody. Wow. That's amazing. I'd like people to feed me too. Oh yes. Awesome. Carol, this has been so good. We've covered so many good spots and really appreciate it. Yeah. What's I guess what's one, one last thing you want to leave for everybody? Or one little piece of advice for anyone out there on their journey. I would say if you tend to shy away from challenges, try the mind mapping and see how you can make one step towards something that you really love and further. And every step that you take towards something that you really love, the more distance you're putting between you and fear. I love that. So it's fantastic. So have have it. And that will also provide you with more courage with each step. You get closer to that, the further you get away. And I just want people to really know that it doesn't matter how old you are or what you look like. We have such a short time on this earth. I just want to encourage people, especially in this day and age to really search their soul and find something that they love. And when you find it, jump in, I love that. I love that. And you know, the beauty, if it happens to be pet photography, that's filling your soul, which if you're listening to this podcast, chances are, that might be one of the things. If no one says you ever have to do anything, you know, full time that this, the beauty of this business is you can make it fit in whatever aspect of your life you want it, whether as a hobbyist or as a part-time business, and a part time business can be very profitable or full-time business, you know, retail space or just on location. You can put it in whatever box you want. Yep. So, yeah, do that mind map and start exploring. I'm definitely going to do my episodes really good. And I'm going to pick up that book. Cool. It is a great book. I highly recommend it. Cool. Well, Carol, let us know where people can find you so that they can, um, keep an eye on you on the interwebs. Cool. I [email protected] and on Facebook and Instagram, I met dog dot tog dot F L as in Florida. And yeah, I, I, I can't wait to hear from people and if anybody ever needs any encouragement call me, you know, I'll step you through it. Nice. That's so nice of you. And yeah. And if you guys listen to this and you really connect with Carol's story, go ahead and just reach out to her and say hi and tell her that you appreciate it because it's always nice to hear when we're able to help you. So thanks again, Carol, for being with us. This was fantastic. And thank you to all of our Hair of the Dog podcast listeners. We'll talk to you next week.

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