Growth & Grace

Announcer 0:00
This is a KU n b Studio's original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jaz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education

Music 0:18
even better than I was the last time, baby. We back and

Music 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back and we back. And I was the last do we better than

Leaha Crawford 0:42
I was the last time? Hey, hey, hey, good morning, Las Vegas. This is your host, Leah Crawford of growth and grace, and I don't know if y'all are happy football season has started. I am sitting here ecstatic. I'm watching the games my my Sunday football. Loving it. Love football. Love football. And y'all know my team, E, A, G, L, E, S, go, eagles, all right, so today, y'all, I have some special people in the studio with me, and I met them at a Juneteenth Festival, and they were gracious enough to come on here, because I don't know if you guys have noticed this photo booth thing right, where all these people are sitting around and they're just laughing and joking and holding signs up and grinning, and this thing, the camera spins around you and takes pictures. So I have the pleasure of having Miss Barbara and Miss Ashley in the studio with me this morning to talk to me about the business of being a photo booth owner. So good

Ashley Nelson 1:44
morning, ladies. Good morning. Thank you for having us.

Leaha Crawford 1:47
Hey. Thank you for coming. I truly appreciate and you are so very welcome. First of all, Barbara, I know you've been in business the longest doing this your story, because I was amazed at your story. Who are you? Well, who is Barbara Buford. Who is Barbara

Barbara Buford 2:03
Well, Barbara Buford, I was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, okay, outside Chicago, outside of Chicago.

Leaha Crawford 2:14
That's where the feistiness come from. I

Barbara Buford 2:16
think so. Yes, I'm actually I'm also a mother of three children and a grandmother of 15

Leaha Crawford 2:27
children. Somebody got a lot of

Barbara Buford 2:29
kids. All three of them have a lot of kids.

Leaha Crawford 2:33
Wow, that sounds like fun. It is. That sounds like a lot of fun. It could be

Barbara Buford 2:37
very fun. And that's pretty much me, and then I made my way here from Indiana to Vegas. Okay, yeah. How long have you been in Vegas? I've been in Vegas since 2013

Leaha Crawford 2:53
2013 Yes, about 20, about 12 years in the valley. All right,

Barbara Buford 2:58
it's been a good ride. It's been a good ride. Yes, okay,

Leaha Crawford 3:01
all right, and you miss Ashley. A little bit

Ashley Nelson 3:03
about you I am. Let's see new to Nevada. I moved here in 2017 so kind of new. And I've been in a different a couple different industries since I've moved here and I got into photo booth in here recently, and me and Barb have been hitting it off like two peas in a pod ever since we met.

Leaha Crawford 3:31
So, okay, Yo, you. Well, you jumped into my next question. Oh, why did you start the photo booth business? Why? Why do why the photo booth business?

Ashley Nelson 3:40
For me, I've always been interested in photography, as far as I can remember, like my nieces and nephews, if you look at pictures, you'll see that I've staged them somehow, some way, with something weird on their face or on their body.

Leaha Crawford 3:56
Stick your chest out, put your little shoulders back, turn to the side, left to the side. That's me with 123, turn around,

Barbara Buford 4:04
smile, exactly. You know, all of that. Okay,

Ashley Nelson 4:07
so you know, if I have just always wanted photography to be a part of something that I did in my life, and a photographer isn't easy to step into. You got to have, like, a good background, build a good good following, I think, in order to get in that. And so photo booth in, the person comes and they create their own pose. They create their own laughter and excitement, and the picture turns out perfect because they created it

Leaha Crawford 4:43
all right. Barbara, what

Barbara Buford 4:44
about you? I got into photo booth in first I love, I love, I love photo booth and like my jobs that I held were mostly financial and. Uh, one day I'm looking through things, and I saw photo booths. I wanted to know everything about it, because it looks exciting. I like to do exciting things and to make people smile after I learned more about it, if the industry was just something that I wanted to do, because I'm that kind of person. I threw many a parties for my children. Yeah, obviously, because that's, that's three people, he's the 15, he's 18. So you got 18 birthdays every year. Yes, your husband, and yes, that's 19 and that. And God forbid you celebrate yours. And I've been doing all these parties for many years. So that's, that's almost two a month, yeah. And now when you put a photo booth with that, oh, boy, it becomes even more fun. Wow. So that's how I got into photo booth. And then it's just, I like to see people. I like to engage with people, and people having a good time.

Leaha Crawford 6:01
So what have you guys seen with the when the photo booth is at a party? Small let's say, let's take it. Photo Booth is at the party. Does the energy change with the photo booth?

Barbara Buford 6:11
It does change every time. It's before they know about that photo booth. The room is a certain way. The minute the first person come and get in, people see somebody's having a good time. Everybody want to know what is going on over there. And we're all laughing, having fun, and talking, holding signs up, putting on crazy things. And that just brings the fun energy, everything to the party.

Leaha Crawford 6:46
It's so funny you say that because I remember, like, going to certain people's wedding, like, back in the day, going to people's weddings, and, well, my sister was one of the one. And with the photo booth, you could take like, four or five different pictures, and it had her date underneath, and the pictures came out immediately outside of the photographer she had there, and this was, maybe I want to say, almost 15 years ago, and we had a ball around the photo booth

Barbara Buford 7:07
that and that's what happens. And everybody knows the photographer is there. I always tell people the photographer, he's doing the professional part, but over here, we're doing the fun part photo booth, and every think they have to be perfect. No, you dancing. That's what I try to tell them for photo make it perfect. You know, we having fun over here, and that's what I that, and that's what I tell them, that's what I need. I need that fun energy so we can make it happen and take some good memories home with

Leaha Crawford 7:41
you. All right. Well, is there? All right, so size of event doesn't matter the size. Well, you said you do your children's birthday I mean your grandchildren's birthday parties. So does the size of the because some people might think, well, you know, I'm just having a small party. It might be overkill.

Barbara Buford 7:55
No, some of the small parties, if it makes sense. Are the biggest parties? They're the most

Ashley Nelson 8:03
interactive. Yes, they want to have the most pictures printed. They want to try different poses for 20 minutes. So the smaller ones are

Barbara Buford 8:14
like I say, are the bigger feeling the big ones really now, some of the larger ones I've been at where, you know, people really, some people know what the photo booth, and it's kind of that interaction when that first person come, then that's when people start to turn around and get interested. And then by the time they're getting interested, you know, it still takes time for people to actually get up the courage to come in and do it and see what's going on or ask questions about

Leaha Crawford 8:45
it. Okay? So what I can say is, for our listeners, if you see a photo booth, just jump on. Just just get into the fun. Bring that smile, bring that smile, bring that smile. But that is amazing. I love it. So how would someone engage you for the photo booths? So say, I want a photo I mean, I don't know what to do. Do I Google it? Do? I mean, what do I

Barbara Buford 9:13
do for me? I think most people probably go online and Google, okay, and Google Photo Booths, because there's still a lot of people that don't even know what photo booths are. Okay? So they'll Google Photo Booths, see what it is, and then they'll start making calls.

Leaha Crawford 9:31
Have you guys ever YouTube one of the like, what you're doing? Like YouTube did?

Barbara Buford 9:35
Well, I have not YouTube did it

Leaha Crawford 9:38
because, let me say this, everything I want to learn about life. Now I go, Okay, you want I ask Google, then I go to YouTube.

Ashley Nelson 9:44
I love YouTube, university

Leaha Crawford 9:46
YouTube. That's what it is. YouTube University. YouTube university, because whatever you want to learn just Google it, it's on YouTube. It is. And the reason why you know, why do a photo booth, why you know, well, how does it engage? Just, just an idea to. Take that with you. You got it okay? All right. So if you for photo booths, contact information, 775-227-0633, again, 775-227-0633, the website is, I'm going to say it, y'all and then I'm going to pronounce it. So I want to make sure you get it right. Yeah, so it's E as in ERIC M, as in Mary F, as in Frank O, as in Oscar T, as in Tom O, as in Oscar B, as in boy O, as in Oscar O, as in Oscar T, as in Tom H, as in Harry S, as in sam.com that's E, M, photo booths.com photo is F O T, O just so, you know, F O T, L, M, photo booths.com. How many photo booths? Barbara, do

Barbara Buford 10:48
you have right now? I have five. Oh, wow, different photo

Leaha Crawford 10:53
booths. So, okay, so what's the difference? Okay, talk to me. What's the Yeah, talk, because you are educating us. Okay, I thought you just got, you just had one spin around.

Barbara Buford 11:03
Good. Okay, I have that one too. Okay, but I have two full body mirror boots. One is about six feet tall. One is about five feet tall. These are the full of boots. You don't have to do the bending, you know, to get in the picture. So what is this? Again, it's a, what? It's a it's a mirror photo booth. It's a large mirror photo booth, real. Yes, you can just like going in front of the mirror at home. You're going from the photo booth the same way.

Leaha Crawford 11:30
So Mirror, mirror on the wall, and my the

Barbara Buford 11:34
fairest, and they're very interactive. So it kind of you click on it. You touch everything you touch, and you know, it walks you through a whole scenario, to the end of the photo shoot, to your picture being printed right there. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. And that's the two. That's two. That's the two mirror boots. Now we also have that one everybody know, which is the 360 photo booth, okay, video photo booth, and we actually have DSLR now. What is that? That's the photo booth that has the camera.

Ashley Nelson 12:13
It has a professional DSLR camera inside. So do the mirror booths, and it's popular for weddings. Yes, it's a popular that's

Leaha Crawford 12:22
probably the one, because we got inside the booth and we and they took four pictures in the booth, and they printed with the name of the wedding and everything underneath. Yeah, okay,

Barbara Buford 12:29
got it, okay. But this one, you still have to stand in front of it. You don't have to get in it, in this well, yeah, the ones still free standing. And we also have our digital, all digital drop off photo booths, where, if you have an event that's gone all day, like a birthday party, and you want a photo booth for about five or six hours, we can make that happen with our drop off photo booth. This is a digital iPad photo booth, but that's an option as well.

Leaha Crawford 12:56
A digital iPad photo booth. What does that mean? Explain, because I, because I'm not, I'm not because I see the photo booth. I see the 360 I see the mirror.

Barbara Buford 13:06
Okay, now the digital iPad booth is okay. You come up. It's gonna look kind of like the DSLR photo booth with the camera. But this is just gonna, you're gonna see just an iPad, and that iPad is gonna walk you again through you can touch the start the session and at the end, and you can it gives you options like that's great for people with iPhones. You have an option there. You can text, you can email, you can SMS it. You can send it right to yourself, right from that, right from the photo booth. Oh, instead of the other one that has the prints, the DSLR have the prints, this one is just all digital, and it goes right to your phone.

Leaha Crawford 13:53
So I can say so if you're looking away to live, I mean, just to make your party a little bit more lively, you want just to engage and have create some good memories. Yes, a different way. It's about, about creating some good memories. Because you remember the time when we were on the photo booth and we turned around and we posed, and I

Barbara Buford 14:08
love it, yes. And they have so some so much fun doing it. All right,

Leaha Crawford 14:13
um, are you going to any events locally where people, where you could possibly be seen?

Barbara Buford 14:18
Okay, I do have one. This is a large event. It's the gaming the Global Gaming Expo this coming, October, 7 through the ninth, we will be there. We will have that they love the Digital Photo Booth. So that's what they want, is digital, and that's what they order each year. Is the Digital Photo Booth,

Leaha Crawford 14:43
all right, so you kind of have repeat clients with this business. Yes, let me ask you this, did you think that this was a valuable business when you first started it?

Barbara Buford 14:52
I did not know it was as popular as it is, okay, but I knew I liked. Liked it. I saw it. I liked it. I wanted it. But as time went on, I saw how many people really, you know, use these for their businesses, and they call you they everybody needs a photo booth now. So it's just, I mean, it's been great since 2019 when I started, you know, and to get people to see how many people have come online to want that photo booth. And that's why I wanted a lot of different photo booths. So we can, we can offer variety off, a variety for variety of different events and

Leaha Crawford 15:41
people, wow, wow. Now, did you jump out on faith, or was this plan? It was not

Barbara Buford 15:50
planned. Okay, well, I it was kind of planned because you were thinking about it. Yes, I had did some research. But you know, when you have a nine to five, you can't just afford to leave it, you know, on the whim, right? So when that nine to five left, you know, I said, I said to my husband, I said, I can go get another job, which I could do, or I can start this business, this photo booth business that I've been interested in researching. So it's like, Now or never, yeah, and he, that's what I told him. I said, it's either now never, and he told me, he said, then it's now, go and order your booth and start your business.

Leaha Crawford 16:27
How important was it for you to have a supportive partner in this business?

Barbara Buford 16:32
It was very, very important. And I was so glad that I had that had him to kind of, you know, helped me see my dream, which is what I'm living here today, being this, you know, working for myself, building something, you know, maybe a legacy I can leave for my big family.

Leaha Crawford 16:56
I was getting ready to say, that's a lot of me,

Barbara Buford 17:00
you know, and so that it was very important to me to have that I

Leaha Crawford 17:07
love it. I love it. Because sometimes just we talk about, well, being sometimes on the show and being your network is your net worth, but sometimes just at home, if the person is supportive, because they see things that other people don't, yes, and they interact with you a different way. And when you have a supportive partner, spouse, children, it makes it a lot easier. Makes a little things a little bit easier. Yes, it does, especially as an entrepreneur,

Barbara Buford 17:37
as an entrepreneur, and I've been one for a long time, although I've held my jobs, but I've been entrepreneuring for a year. I had several different beats, okay, but this is the one this is, this is the one that's, I'm doing what I want to do. I'm happy. And you want to go to work. This one, yes, you want to go. I mean, it's not work, yes, play. And this is taking me the furthest.

Leaha Crawford 18:02
I love it. Ashley, what about you? What caused you to start this business?

Ashley Nelson 18:08
It was transitioning positions in work that kind of got me into the into the field. And then, like I said, I met Barbara, and she's not let go of my hand ever since we've met each other. So yeah, and it's about like you said, the memories, and you cannot, you cannot get those moments back, but you do have a printed version of that, that memory from that night. So yeah, I'm here. I'm here to stay. I'm here to create memories.

Leaha Crawford 18:45
Have you had other businesses in the past? No, I am first time stepping out as

Ashley Nelson 18:50
an entrepreneur. Yes, it's my first

Leaha Crawford 18:52
thank you. Know that, because that's

Barbara Buford 18:55
a huge jump, it is.

Leaha Crawford 18:56
It's a huge jump, and I know a lot of people are hesitant to take the job to be an entrepreneur, and my favorite saying is it's baptism by fire, because you learn a lot.

Barbara Buford 19:09
Oh my god, absolutely you learn. He's learning that. But you got

Leaha Crawford 19:12
to give yourself Grace while you are learning, and be kind to yourself, because you don't know what you don't know absolutely, and you find out, because people will teach you, oh yeah. People will teach you. Yeah. Barbara is trying

Ashley Nelson 19:23
to make sure I don't learn the hard way. I will say that.

Barbara Buford 19:26
That's, that's what I would say. I made a lot of mistakes when I from 2019, to to date, when I heard she's coming on, I just, like, I told her, I don't want you to make a lot of mistakes that I made because you don't have a mentor? Yes, absolutely, like a mentor. And another lady that just that's here in town from DeKalb in Illinois, when I heard that she was starting her photo booth business, she didn't have a photo, she didn't have anything, I told my husband, I said, this lady called me from DeKalb. I said, I gotta go to DeKalb. Haven't helped this lady with her photo booth. What's your husband saying? He I jumped on the plane A few days later. I told her everything to order, and just when I get there, we'll put it together. We put it together. I did her first event. Now she's take she's she took off like a rocket after that first event I did with her, she's here in town now too, and I wanted her to meet Ashley, because I went, I just took off on a whim to go and help her.

Leaha Crawford 20:30
And you know what? I appreciate that, because sometimes we look at people in the same industry or the same profession as competition and not complimentary.

Barbara Buford 20:41
I want all of us to make it okay. That's, that's, there's

Leaha Crawford 20:44
enough parties for everybody. It's a party every night. Yeah, multiple parties are actually in Vegas,

Ashley Nelson 20:50
yes, and we want to be there

Leaha Crawford 20:52
especially, especially in Vegas. Well, I, I truly appreciate that's amazing. So you listen to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, and today we are talking about photo booths. I don't know if you knew. I know. I didn't know that this was, I mean, such a big I mean such big business. I see the photo booths around. I guess you never really think about the person that brought the photo to the party or to the place, and just all the everything that goes with it and in it. So what is the most challenging thing for you in this business?

Barbara Buford 21:28
The most challenging that all the behind the scenes work that go on is the challenging part, because once the photo booth get there, and people come first try to get the photo booth there, right? Okay, you have to get it there's everything behind the scenes that they don't unders, they don't see, okay, getting it there, setting it up. Because you have to maintain those photo booths, yes, okay. You have to maintain, you definitely have to maintain them. And all the props, and the props everything. It's a lot that goes in the behind the scenes portion that people don't see. They just see it when they get there and it's just like, oh, it's nice, but they have no idea what it took to make it nice. You gotta

Ashley Nelson 22:13
build templates in the background. You gotta build screen streamers and make sure it is customized to each event.

Leaha Crawford 22:22
So make sure the words are spelled Correct.

Barbara Buford 22:26
Yeah, correct. And make sure it all works in the end, before you get to so you're

Leaha Crawford 22:31
testing all the time, just to make sure. So your children taking a lot of pictures, and yes, children taking a lot of pictures, and the grandbabies probably love it. We going to Grandma

Barbara Buford 22:42
the dogs, and we all take

Leaha Crawford 22:47
I can see, there you come in the house, the dog is posing. Oh,

Barbara Buford 22:50
and I have one of those. Yeah, one of those.

Ashley Nelson 22:52
How about you? Ashley, no pets. No pets. Children. I have a one son. He's 19, Yep, he's in Nevada, state right now.

Leaha Crawford 23:03
Oh, nice. Love it. Love it. All right, so with the photo booths, that's your biggest challenge. What makes you the happiest about starting this business? What brings you joy about this business?

Barbara Buford 23:18
What brings me joy is once you know seeing the smiles and the looks on the people faces, once they see it, once they see everybody enjoying it, that's what brings me happiness, that I did it again.

Leaha Crawford 23:36
I'm gonna ask y'all a hard question, how y'all deal with difficult clients, because I'm sure you have them, yes, even though it's a happy space when they get there, but it's just good sometimes it's getting there, yeah, how do you deal with the difficult clients? Well, Dave, some knowledge. How do you deal with

Barbara Buford 23:52
difficult people? With the difficulties like

Ashley Nelson 23:55
pushing them along, helping them make decisions? Difficult clients are usually the ones that don't really understand, really what even a photo booth is. Somebody goes into it, what we have to do, or what space it will take up. Some people just don't understand it at all, but they just know they want it at their event.

Leaha Crawford 24:15
Well, how much space does it

Ashley Nelson 24:16
take up? We would like at least, at least seven feet. And that's not the book itself. Is like having space between the backdrop and the

Barbara Buford 24:27
booth, yeah. And so that's why 360 the 360 is we definitely need at least a 10 by 10 space, because when that arm is swinging around, you know you want that. You want a safe space around to make sure. Yeah, so those spaces people

Leaha Crawford 24:45
might want to do the mirror, because the mirror might be not as much. Now, how much space do you need for

Barbara Buford 24:50
the mirror? And least the eight by eight by eight, because it's just a tall mirror and it's a printer that sits next to it, and eight by eight by. Backdrop, you know, to kind of pull it all together.

Leaha Crawford 25:03
Oh, wow. Okay, so you want to, so you want to make sure. Okay, so again, you're talking about the backdrop. So now, is it a custom

Barbara Buford 25:10
backdrop, or is it, well, we can do, if clients want request a seven report, we can, we can do, we can do that. We can make that happen. But normally it's a basic eight by eight backdrop, you know, like a pillow backdrop, kind of like these here.

Leaha Crawford 25:30
Okay, all right, so you guys can't see it in the studio. So basically it's like a step and repeat, just so you can see it's like a step, basically the size of a step and repeat.

Barbara Buford 25:37
I've done step and repeat, like for military, because they're one of my clients as well. They all, they like to step and repeat,

Leaha Crawford 25:46
okay, so, right, but then you do have something that's playing. So you can have pink,

Barbara Buford 25:50
green, all kinds. Just bring me, give me a theme. I love the themes. Give me a theme. I have made things work where the client didn't see it until the venue, until you saw it, and then when they saw it, they like, how did you match it so perfectly? It's because you gave me the information that I asked for, and then I thought about how I was going to put it together so that I can I saw your colors. I see everything. And it's, it's like I did a Jack Skellington Christmas one, okay, for a corporate event of mine, a jack skeleton. And what that's, that's, if you heard of the it's a cartoon, okay? And Jack, Jack the Pumpkin King, I think, is what it's called, and that was their theme. So I remember when I bought that video for my kids, so I knew about it. So I just did everything. I did the templates up there, you know, Christmas and with Jack on there and, you know, and the colors, everything, by the time I got it to the venue, they were like, oh my god, I love it, you know, it's just what we wanted. I say, Well, you gave me the thing, you gave me the information, yeah, you gave me the information I needed. So, and I was able to visualize it. And you

Leaha Crawford 27:18
are creative then, yeah, so you have to have to have a little bit of creativity. Got it? Because that's good. Gotta have some creativity. All right, y'all, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Barbara, thank you. Thank you for coming on the show and expose. I don't think, I don't think we've ever talked about photo booths before, but let me give you a phone number again. It is 77522706337752270633, 75, 227, 0633, and it's E, M, photo booths.com. That's E as in ERIC M, as in Mary photo F, o, t, O, boots, B, O, O, t, h, S, F, s.com, yes, I can tell you, I truly I've learned something today, and I love learning. And thank you for accepting our invitation to come on and expose our listeners to the photo booth business. All right, so you've been listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, and as you heard today, being an entrepreneur, you know, it's about the love of something and then being able to make money in it. And I can tell you that when you are going through it, you know. Don't give up setbacks. You get back, you know, and always while you're growing, give yourself grace. Yes, until next week, we'll talk to you soon. Peace and blessings. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai