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Behind the Lens: From Love Story to Global Brand with Gary & Kim Evans · Behind the Business

• 0:01
  Ian McLean: Welcome to another episode of Behind the Business presented by Gore Mutual.
• 0:04
  Ian McLean: I'm your host, Ian McLean, president and CEO of the Greater Kitchen Waterdo Chamber of Commerce.
• 0:09
  Ian McLean: This podcast is recorded on the traditional territory of the neutral Anishinaabe and Hodenishone peoples.
• 0:15
  Ian McLean: Each week I sit down for candid conversations where we go beyond the boardroom and behind the business to uncover the real stories of Waterdoo regions and business and community.
• 0:25
  Ian McLean: Today on the Behind the Business Podcast, we're sitting down with Gary and Kim Evans, a husband and wife team who built far more than an award-winning wedding photography brand.
• 0:42
  Ian McLean: They have been ranked among the top photographers in the world and have launched multiple businesses.
• 0:47
  Ian McLean: Gary and Kim are redefining what's possible in the creative economy.
• 0:51
  Ian McLean: Gary made the leap from Wales to Canada, rebuilding his business from the ground up in Watery Region.
• 0:58
  Ian McLean: Meanwhile, Kim brought the systems, strategy, and marketing mindset that helped turn creative passion into a scalable enterprise.
• 1:06
  Ian McLean: In this conversation, we go behind the lens talking about risk, reinvention, leadership as a couple, and how creatives can move beyond hustle into sustainable growth.
• 1:16
  Ian McLean: This is a story about art, business, and building a life you want.
• 1:20
  Ian McLean: Let's go behind the business with Gary and Kim Evans.
• 1:23
  Ian McLean: Well, Gary and Kim, thank you so much for spending some time with us today.
• 1:27
  Ian McLean: Time is the most valuable commodity that entrepreneurs have.
• 1:31
  Ian McLean: So thank you for spending some more with us this week.
• 1:33
  Ian McLean: You're more than welcome.
• 1:35
  Ian McLean: Now listen, um, Kim, the this the story between how the two of you um start it starts at a wedding show.
• 1:43
  Ian McLean: Like that your business starts at a wedding show, which it kind of sounds a little poetic, right?
• 1:49
  Ian McLean: But you you're you're you met at a at a wedding show.
• 1:51
  Ian McLean: Tell us how you met uh and the and then how you built started to build the business together.
• 1:58
  Kim Evans: Of course.
• 1:58
  Kim Evans: So um we happened to meet at a wedding show, which was at Binghaman.
• 2:03
  Kim Evans: So anyone's from this region, they know that there's been a wedding show there for what feels like forever.
• 2:09
  Kim Evans: Um and Gary just happened to be over visiting with um another photographer that he knew, and I knew them, and we just kind of fortuitously, I guess, or fate kind of cross paths.
• 2:23
  Ian McLean: And then when you say e he would just happen to be here, he's from fr coming from the UK.
• 2:27
  Gary Evans: Exactly.
• 2:27
  Gary Evans: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:28
  Gary Evans: It is a story behind that.
• 2:29
  Gary Evans: It was very um serendipitous, fortuitous, w whatever you whatever the uh however you want to describe it, because um the guy that was over here, he had Canadian citizenship, but I knew him from being a photographer in the UK, and we'd shot a number of of weddings together.
• 2:47
  Gary Evans: He moved over here, we stayed in touch, he invited me to come over and help him out at this wedding show, which was in January.
• 2:54
  Gary Evans: And if anyone knows, January in Canada is definitely not vacation weather.
• 2:59
  Gary Evans: So my first reaction was to say no.
• 3:02
  Gary Evans: Um, and then I must have put in my phone, um, like a flight scanner, flight scanner app for flights from London Heathrow to Toronto.
• 3:12
  Gary Evans: And then right in between Christmas and New Year, I got this notification.
• 3:17
  Gary Evans: Um, and the deal was too good to me.
• 3:19
  Gary Evans: So it was something like 40% off a flight if you booked there and then.
• 3:22
  Gary Evans: So I literally just booked it there and then, not knowing that decision would end up changing the path I was on and the path of my life, because I came over and I said at that wedding show I met Kim and Now you're you're at the wedding show because you're in you were doing uh d design and floral arrangements.
• 3:43
  Ian McLean: So tell talk about that and then how it's how it's transitioned.
• 3:46
  Kim Evans: I was a decorator and floral designer, and we I had my own booth at the wedding show, and he was there, and like I said, we crossed paths and then we decided that we wanted to hang out.
• 3:57
  Kim Evans: It was in the era of Blackberry Messenger.
• 4:00
  Kim Evans: Um so we messaged back and forth, and then um he came back and then I went there.
• 4:08
  Kim Evans: I'm pretty sure my parents thought I might be murdered or something like that, of just going across to see a boy that they didn't know.
• 4:16
  Kim Evans: Um, and then I think over the first year together we flew I think 50,000 kilometers back and forth and uh being entrepreneurs was lucky because we had you know we could work around our schedules and and that.
• 4:30
  Kim Evans: And then um he moved in June 2013 over uh with us.
• 4:38
  Kim Evans: I had a a son.
• 4:40
  Kim Evans: Um so that made it the decision pretty easy of where we wanted to move to.
• 4:46
  Kim Evans: Um and and then we kind of started building things up.
• 4:51
  Kim Evans: He had sold his company there, so um him coming over was really uh he was obviously going to continue as a photographer.
• 5:00
  Kim Evans: We had to get, you know, wait for all the PR card and everything like that, which takes a while.
• 5:05
  Kim Evans: Um years it took for like a work permit to come through, which was great.
• 5:12
  Kim Evans: Um and and then we kind of got to work, started building.
• 5:18
  Ian McLean: Um you transitioned, you you're still doing your design and and and then you're getting into Europhotographer, so you're marrying together both all the sides of the Exactly.
• 5:28
  Gary Evans: Initially we ran our w when I was like 2015, when I started working over here, um we ran our businesses kind of like separately.
• 5:37
  Gary Evans: So I would do the photography wedding photography, and then Kim would still do the wedding decorating and florals for four weddings.
• 5:45
  Kim Evans: Um and we did that for a number of years, but then if we would collab on like you know, there was a lot of um jobs that we were booked on together, but the difference was the decorating and floral design just had to be finished before the photography started.
• 6:00
  Kim Evans: So we were working the same job but not really getting to spend time together.
• 6:04
  Kim Evans: And we're just really a lot better when we're together, and we just really enjoy it and feel lucky that we get to.
• 6:10
  Ian McLean: Um so you brought the two together and you say you you're sort of did you wrap up your other business or did you just full-fold it into and cr start something new?
• 6:18
  Kim Evans: Yeah, so we sold it off.
• 6:20
  Kim Evans: So we sold off um that company.
• 6:23
  Kim Evans: Um and then I joined uh the photography company to sort of do like the creative direction and the marketing and we really like took a minute to evaluate where our time was best spent and you know, what how we were getting the most for our time.
• 6:43
  Kim Evans: So the most money and the most out of it and the most time together and and kind of me moving into and being able to push our photography brand just made a lot of sense all around.
• 6:55
  Gary Evans: Yeah, I think if you if you um a lot of photographers, they're they work for themselves.
• 7:01
  Gary Evans: So they're doing the creative side, they're shooting the weddings, the editing and all of all of that stuff.
• 7:06
  Gary Evans: But then also they're supposed to be really good at the marketing and the running of the business side of things.
• 7:13
  Gary Evans: Um we're fortuitous because Kim is a master at the business side of things and the marketing and the, you know, the ad advertising, the creative direction that we want the business to go.
• 7:28
  Gary Evans: Um she's great at managing that part that frees up the f kind of like the front end for me to do the photography and the editing.
• 7:35
  Gary Evans: So between us our two skills really, really marry together, and it's nice to be able to separate that out and both concentrate on what you're good at.
• 7:43
  Gary Evans: Trevor Burrus,
• 7:43
  Kim Evans: Jr.
• 7:43
  Kim Evans: And like an average wedding might take twenty hours of editing time.
• 7:47
  Kim Evans: So that's just literally Gary sat at a computer and a screen.
• 7:51
  Kim Evans: So if you're really deep into that, you know, and that's where a lot of photographers kind of can stumble, is that that's the only thing you're paying attention to at that moment.
• 7:59
  Kim Evans: And the business is still running, but it's kind of pausable.
• 8:04
  Ian McLean: So in someone's, you've got a unique story, but the familiarity that I, you know, what I hear is like most entrepreneurs, is you're not good at everything.
• 8:13
  Ian McLean: So the creative side, and then there's the of the admin, the bid the running of the business part.
• 8:18
  Ian McLean: But this this actually, you when you took that leap and you moved here, that that was, you know, leaving Wales, selling your business, rebuilding a business from the ground up here together, uh over time, I should say, as you point out.
• 8:32
  Ian McLean: But from a practical business perspective or standpoint, what were the hardest adjustments that you faced when you when you moved to a new market, not only a new market, a new country, you got a relatively new relationship, you're starting a new business or bringing you know, creating a new business of sort, but you didn't really have a network, right?
• 8:53
  Ian McLean: Like uh other than the the two of you.
• 8:55
  Ian McLean: How how did you manage or navigate that?
• 8:57
  Gary Evans: Yeah, I think the trickiest part there was what exactly what you just said, there was no network.
• 9:01
  Gary Evans: Um and so over the two years while I was waiting for um my PR PR card to come through.
• 9:08
  Gary Evans: Permanent residence.
• 9:09
  Gary Evans: Permanent residency that legally allow allows me to work.
• 9:14
  Gary Evans: Uh I was lucky enough that Kim, through her wedding and decorating business, knew a lot of the right people at these venues.
• 9:23
  Gary Evans: So I would kind of like tag along as the hanger on.
• 9:27
  Gary Evans: As as the new one.
• 9:28
  Gary Evans: And then I turn up, and because I had a different accent, you kind of stand out to all the other kind of photographers that are turning up.
• 9:36
  Gary Evans: And so what we did is through that two-year period, we took that opportunity to start networking, start building relationships in the venues, we built the website, so we had everything ready to go.
• 9:49
  Gary Evans: So then as soon as the permanent residency came through, we could flick the switch and we could get out there and actually start working and start shooting weddings.
• 9:57
  Gary Evans: So I think the the the difficulty was no network, but through Kim's connections, it allowed me to develop a network very quickly.
• 10:07
  Gary Evans: Um as we say, we did all the groundwork, so then we we could get going.
• 10:11
  Kim Evans: It also, like in retrospect, kind of looking back as frustrating as not being able to work was initially.
• 10:19
  Kim Evans: It really gave you it gave us a lot of freedom of time to really get all the ducks in the row that a lot of entrepreneurs don't get.
• 10:27
  Kim Evans: You know, it was you couldn't get out and really start working, so it kind of forced you to put the back end together as as detailed and kind of efficient as you can.
• 10:37
  Ian McLean: You come up with that idea and you want to get started with your business and you haven't, you know, don't necessarily do do all the legwork at the front end.
• 10:44
  Ian McLean: Um so I I want to stick here for a second.
• 10:47
  Ian McLean: You you you've chosen to come here.
• 10:49
  Ian McLean: So obviously you came for a girl, smart smart guy comes, you know, the better half.
• 10:54
  Ian McLean: Um but you've chosen Waterloo Region to live and have a family, but also grow your business.
• 11:01
  Ian McLean: But you're still you were still and still are to some extent working with clients around the world.
• 11:06
  Ian McLean: What was what was it about this region?
• 11:08
  Ian McLean: But was it was it just the beautiful girl, or was it something about this region that you said, I can build my business and still have um you know the the other parts that you've that you've grown, which obviously the UK and and elsewhere around the world?
• 11:22
  Gary Evans: Uh initially it was the girl.
• 11:23
  Gary Evans: Um I didn't know much about this area.
• 11:26
  Gary Evans: Um I knew of Toronto from living in the UK, but not the the you know the KW area.
• 11:34
  Gary Evans: But then, you know, once you come here, you you realize that it's uh what I found was most impressive initially was how friendly everybody is here.
• 11:43
  Gary Evans: Um it's like its own kind of like little small town community um kind of attitude to everyone.
• 11:53
  Gary Evans: Um but it has a lot of potential.
• 11:55
  Gary Evans: You know, there's some beautiful wedding venues in and around this area.
• 11:59
  Gary Evans: Um there's plenty of people getting married in and around this area, so you're not wanting for for clients essentially.
• 12:07
  Gary Evans: Um and yeah, I think the you know, the schools are great.
• 12:11
  Gary Evans: Where we l where we live, we were lucky enough for our kids to go to some great schools.
• 12:15
  Kim Evans: Um and well, I mean it's not just moving here, but we still live here.
• 12:20
  Gary Evans: So, you know, it it's Yeah, we've we've not had any reason for the thing.
• 12:31
  Kim Evans: You know, the we live kind of out just out in the country in Waterloo Region.
• 12:36
  Kim Evans: And it's we just love it so much.
• 12:38
  Kim Evans: It's just we have everything, but it's it's it's where it's not crowded and it's not hard to get around.
• 12:51
  Ian McLean: And I think it there's a there's that closeness too.
• 12:54
  Ian McLean: So you pick your you know you talk about serial creators who um and the importance of you know analyzing, planning, and then moving def decisively.
• 13:05
  Ian McLean: Uh I think that's the words that you use.
• 13:07
  Ian McLean: How do you evaluate or how in maybe in your case, how did you evaluate, say, okay, we we've got a new idea, let's let's do the planning, and then and then double down on a business versus letting something go and saying it's time to um do something else, um and all while trying to create, you know, you you were come from a creative background, but you also had the business part.
• 13:30
  Ian McLean: You're trying to mat match all those things, the business, the opportunities, what to do, what not to do.
• 13:35
  Ian McLean: Um how do you kind of put all those things together?
• 13:38
  Kim Evans: I think our we always look at that you know, we are enjoying what we do and we love our life, but it gives us the power to do all the things that we love.
• 13:47
  Kim Evans: And we love our f spending time with our family, and that's really like our where our priorities are is still getting to do what we really enjoy about our businesses, but also that we can carve out we're in a position where we can carve out a good amount of family time and be able to give that to them, to our kids.
• 14:07
  Kim Evans: Um how we evaluate a new kind of business strategy is we just I'm a spreadsheet girl and we just have um a spreadsheet and we put it through its paces to make sure that positives, negatives, exactly.
• 14:24
  Kim Evans: It has to be able to make more than something we're already doing that is making whatever it is that's allowing us to have whatever lifestyle we have.
• 14:32
  Kim Evans: And so it's not necessarily it has to meet all of these criteria to be able to move forward with it.
• 14:39
  Kim Evans: And there's plenty of ideas, and if you're a serial entrepreneur, you come up with an unending amount of uh really great ideas that you should drop everything.
• 14:50
  Gary Evans: Exactly.
• 14:50
  Gary Evans: It's very scary when I'm sat there and then Kim turns her head and looks at me and she says, I've been thinking.
• 14:57
  Gary Evans: And I'm like, oh now.
• 14:59
  Gary Evans: But the thing is, is once she's got to that stage, she's already done 80% of the work on looking at the numbers and you know, this idea that I'm thinking.
• 15:11
  Gary Evans: And then normally it's like she'll run it by me and I'll I'll initially be, no, no, I don't think that's a good idea, and then it takes me a few days to mull it over, and then I'll come back and I'll go, let's uh you know that's not actually not a bad idea.
• 15:22
  Gary Evans: Let's can we explore that a bit more, and she's like, I I know we're gonna do it.
• 15:26
  Gary Evans: Like it's just just jump on board straight away.
• 15:28
  Kim Evans: Well, and as an entrepreneur, you're really being able to say no to something is is probably one of the harder things because you you know, you live your life, especially when you've started something from scratch, you're hustling so hard.
• 15:42
  Kim Evans: And you're you work so hard to get the yes.
• 15:45
  Kim Evans: Yeah.
• 15:45
  Kim Evans: You know, and then to be able to then it seems counterintuitive to say no to a job that you work so hard to attract.
• 15:54
  Kim Evans: And I've found that being able to say no or close a door or close a chapter or something like that has been really great for us when we decided that, you know, the decorating of floral design where we were in our lives and and where we wanted to go, it wasn't kind of serving us anymore.
• 16:13
  Kim Evans: It wasn't that it wasn't successful, it was really successful.
• 16:18
  Kim Evans: And you know, we were doing ten weddings a weekend, easy.
• 16:21
  Kim Evans: You know, but it wasn't.
• 16:22
  Ian McLean: It didn't sync up through the photography as a point in time.
• 16:24
  Ian McLean: All of your stuff in terms of wedding design and floral is all the lead up line.
• 16:30
  Kim Evans: And it didn't fit with like our life and and kind of our future goals that we had and spending more time together and being able to travel and you know, being able to work side by side, which was really fun for us.
• 16:43
  Kim Evans: Yeah.
• 16:43
  Gary Evans: And and at the time, if we look back sort of twenty fifteen when this was going on, we just had our little boy and then Kim's was wed w uh weekends were so busy with, you know, doing the wedding and decorating and florals for up to ten, ten or more weddings over a weekend.
• 17:00
  Gary Evans: It's and we had this big commercial unit that she would go to and basically be there on her own, like all day, come home from like the Wednesday right the way through to Thursday, Friday, setting up on Saturdays, taking down on Sundays.
• 17:16
  Gary Evans: It was it was very lonely.
• 17:18
  Gary Evans: Um and so we did that for a few years, like a number of years that that kind of like carried on before it just got to the point of observing you.
• 17:27
  Gary Evans: The synergy's not there yet.
• 17:28
  Gary Evans: We're not spending the time we want together.
• 17:31
  Gary Evans: So how could we do that?
• 17:32
  Kim Evans: And that was hard because you'd worked, you know, I'd had that company for ten years almost.
• 17:39
  Kim Evans: And it was sort of like that you built up from nothing.
• 17:42
  Kim Evans: And you feel like you're kind of abandoning a a child or something like that.
• 17:47
  Kim Evans: But at the same time, it's it's such a good lesson for entrepreneurs is that like you can move.
• 17:53
  Kim Evans: You can move on.
• 17:54
  Kim Evans: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:54
  Kim Evans: You know, and it doesn't mean that you weren't successful with something.
• 17:57
  Gary Evans: It means that you made a choice in your life and your career to to take on a new challenge and it served the purpose for the time that it was there, and then your circumstances change.
• 18:09
  Gary Evans: Yeah.
• 18:09
  Gary Evans: Um and yeah, we decided to, you know, move on from that and then amalgamate our skill set together and then drive forward like as as kind of like a almost like a one person.
• 18:21
  Gary Evans: Um but it allowed us to divide and conquer.
• 18:24
  Ian McLean: So yeah, and and I want you to talk about, you know, you're you've been ranked among the best photographers photographers globally.
• 18:31
  Ian McLean: So I would uh just talk a little bit about that, but I want to uh sort of draw this the the the the theme from that of for any business, how do you value your own especially in service?
• 18:44
  Ian McLean: Like you yes, there's photograp photography, the the picture at the end or the photo at the end, but you also have to value your time.
• 18:51
  Ian McLean: And so, you know, when you're globally recognized, you're you're you're starting this new business, when you how do you factor in those types of things that says, here's what my value is, right?
• 19:02
  Ian McLean: Pricing, the positioning in the market.
• 19:04
  Ian McLean: Like, how do you kind of um um talk about the the the recognition but also how how it translated into the business?
• 19:11
  Gary Evans: Yeah, I think the the the recognition is great within the industry that you're in.
• 19:17
  Gary Evans: And that's it is the wedding photography industry, and that's where the award came from.
• 19:21
  Gary Evans: Exactly, yeah, because other wedding photographers see your work and they're like, oh my god, that's lovely.
• 19:27
  Gary Evans: So you get the recognition from within your industry.
• 19:30
  Gary Evans: But then other businesses that service the photography industry, you know, the camera manufacturers, the the guys that make the flash, or the the strobes and the lighting, um it helps you with your credibility to them as well.
• 19:47
  Gary Evans: And having those awards has allowed us to develop relationships with, you know, uh other businesses that support the photography industry, which is wonderful.
• 19:57
  Gary Evans: We're ambassadors for a number of brands now, um and we get sponsorship from some of those brands as well and camera manufacturers.
• 20:05
  Gary Evans: Um those awards are great within the industry.
• 20:09
  Gary Evans: Um to clients.
• 20:10
  Gary Evans: But to clients, it doesn't matter.
• 20:13
  Gary Evans: Literally all they're looking for is a thing.
• 20:15
  Ian McLean: The award comes from them of whether you they think you did a good job for them.
• 20:18
  Gary Evans: For them, yes, exactly.
• 20:19
  Gary Evans: So, you know, you can have all the recognition within your industry, you can win all of these awards, but at the end of the day, the client just wants to know, can you do a good job for me?
• 20:27
  Gary Evans: And will my photos be beautiful at the end of the day?
• 20:29
  Gary Evans: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 20:30
  Kim Evans: And it's such a personal relationship with with having a photographer.
• 20:34
  Kim Evans: They're really just they're seeing all the all the parts of you.
• 20:37
  Kim Evans: And especially on a wedding day, it's you know, you're potentially spending more time with your photographer than you are your spouse.
• 20:45
  Kim Evans: So your guests.
• 20:47
  Kim Evans: It's really like you really gotta like them.
• 20:49
  Kim Evans: So for our couples, the the personal relationship is biggest.
• 20:53
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 20:53
  Ian McLean: So so and and I I'm I'm interested.
• 20:55
  Ian McLean: I mean, uh I don't think every relationship would survive the working together hand in glove, which is what how you work.
• 21:05
  Ian McLean: Um how do you navigate that balance between the personal life?
• 21:09
  Ian McLean: You got kids, family, home life, all those sorts of things, the creative vision and the operational decision making.
• 21:17
  Ian McLean: Because you like I those things must just weave in and out.
• 21:22
  Ian McLean: Um I wouldn't say seamlessly, but they must be they must intersect at uh a lot.
• 21:28
  Ian McLean: How do you kind of navigate that?
• 21:30
  Kim Evans: So for us, um, you know, as far as how we work, we have very specific tasks and lane, we call it lanes that we operate in.
• 21:38
  Kim Evans: Um we each know kind of what we're responsible for and we generally don't step on each other's toes.
• 21:45
  Kim Evans: Gary does sometimes, but uh you know, he'll he'll get moved back into his lane at the end of the day.
• 21:53
  Gary Evans: And I literally got slammed back into my lane.
• 21:56
  Gary Evans: It's good you know, with uh with a curtain on it.
• 22:00
  Kim Evans: We both come from sort of salesy backgrounds and we both really like to win.
• 22:05
  Kim Evans: So you know, we each have to have projects and parts of a job that we can really champion and and win at individually.
• 22:13
  Kim Evans: And that kind of keeps that really fresh that we're not competing as one and you're still kind of not feeling like really seen.
• 22:21
  Kim Evans: Um and then for our personal life, I mean we do, there's nothing we like more than having like a glass of wine and a margarita or something and chatting about what we're gonna do in business and stuff like that.
• 22:31
  Kim Evans: Um but it's generally like where we're what we're hoping to do like with our lives and how our businesses are are kind of woven within that.
• 22:41
  Kim Evans: Um and we just are really have gotten really good about letting the other person know when you're full for the day.
• 22:47
  Kim Evans: You know, and and when you're off the clock and respecting each other and um Kim and I can work on on different timelines.
• 22:55
  Gary Evans: Like Kim's uh like a morning person, she can get up and hit the ground running.
• 22:59
  Gary Evans: I I am not.
• 23:00
  Gary Evans: I am not either.
• 23:01
  Gary Evans: I can work into the night, into like midnight and beyond.
• 23:07
  Gary Evans: And a lot of times I I spark ideas or I come up with things.
• 23:11
  Gary Evans: It's like nine, ten o'clock at night, and I start talking to Kim about things, and she just says, I'm done.
• 23:16
  Gary Evans: Yeah.
• 23:17
  Gary Evans: Speak to me tomorrow.
• 23:18
  Gary Evans: Speak to me in the morning, write it down, talk to me in the morning.
• 23:20
  Gary Evans: And that's and that's good because we know how each other work.
• 23:24
  Kim Evans: And we you know, we can disagree in kind of any capacity in our lives, like the same way as any couple would.
• 23:32
  Kim Evans: Um but we don't carry it into the opposite thing.
• 23:35
  Kim Evans: We can have a a disagreement about, you know, what an ad should look like or something like that.
• 23:41
  Kim Evans: Um you know, and and or something like with our business.
• 23:45
  Kim Evans: But that doesn't that doesn't carry on to dinner.
• 23:48
  Ian McLean: Then we'll cook dinner, we'll have a glass of wine, and we're fine.
• 23:50
  Kim Evans: We can move past that.
• 23:51
  Ian McLean: I tell you, uh it's it's it but it's interesting.
• 23:54
  Ian McLean: I mean, especially when you're working like that.
• 23:55
  Ian McLean: Like I'm like you, I'm um I am not a morning person.
• 23:58
  Ian McLean: So when someone says, Oh, would you like to go for breakfast and meet?
• 24:00
  Ian McLean: I'm like, no, but how would you like to come over at 10 30 at night?
• 24:03
  Ian McLean: Because that's when I'm starting to get wrapped up.
• 24:05
  Ian McLean: Well no, I'm asleep.
• 24:06
  Ian McLean: It's like exactly it's 6 30 in the morning, that's when I'm asleep.
• 24:10
  Ian McLean: Um but it is, you know, m managing the two pieces when when you've got differences.
• 24:15
  Ian McLean: The Behind the Business Podcast is made possible through the support of our title sponsor, Gore Mutual.
• 24:23
  Ian McLean: Proudly Canadian Gore Mutual has stayed true to one purpose for more than 185 years.
• 24:28
  Ian McLean: Insurance that does good.
• 24:30
  Ian McLean: It's the reason they exist.
• 24:31
  Ian McLean: They believe that when we focus on being good, doing good, and spreading good, we all thrive together.
• 24:37
  Ian McLean: We're grateful for their continued commitment to our local communities and the positive impact they make every day.
• 24:43
  Ian McLean: For more information, visit goremutual.ca Now uh one of the things that that I found interesting, and and this is kind of I don't think it's unique.
• 24:56
  Ian McLean: I think it's kind of unique to this area is businesses kind of giving back and saying, prepared to take that phone call, give someone a half hour.
• 25:05
  Ian McLean: And I think both of you kind of get into the coaching and mentorship, and I think you're doing some some teaching or putting some some of um some uh educational part for those, especially in creative, because for creative people, I think it's probably fair, well, it it it many say they love the creative side, they hate the business side, but you gotta do both.
• 25:25
  Ian McLean: So maybe um talk a little bit about how creatives can can build sustainable businesses and what the some of the gaps that are there and how you you're the two of you are trying to trying to fill fill that um that need that is in in the creative services.
• 25:44
  Gary Evans: Yeah, I I mean the the education side and um passing knowledge on uh has become more important to Kim and I over the last few years.
• 25:55
  Gary Evans: We were we were lucky enough to to speak at a photography conference in the US uh a number of years ago, and just seeing some of the light bulbs come on in people's heads on, you know, from a business side of things, just something that they could take that's like, oh my god, I can I can I can use that straight away in my business.
• 26:13
  Gary Evans: Or from a skill set point of view, if they've been really struggling with a certain aspect of photography, whether it's using a flash or or or lighting, and we demonstrate that and and it just goes, oh my god, it's that it's that easy.
• 26:26
  Gary Evans: We we found that to be hugely rewarding.
• 26:30
  Gary Evans: Um and so from that, we've spoken at other conferences uh as well, but we've also we are building an education platform to help photographers or creatives from um uh looking up what their what their gap is, whether it's from a creative point of view or using a camera point of view.
• 26:52
  Gary Evans: Most of them are really good at that.
• 26:54
  Gary Evans: Um it's more they're not great at the business side of things.
• 26:58
  Gary Evans: And I I always tell photographers when we meet them is you can be an average photographer, but be great at the business side, the business and marketing side, and you will make way more money than an expert photographer who is terrible at the business side of things.
• 27:14
  Gary Evans: And so between Kim and I, I think we have the skill set to help and mentor and point people in the right direction, whichever w w wherever their need is.
• 27:26
  Ian McLean: So do you I mean, you you said you spoke at conferences, but is are you putting this online or how how do how how do you kind of get that out into the ether?
• 27:34
  Kim Evans: Yeah, we have some courses online.
• 27:36
  Kim Evans: Um we also, yeah, we do some speaking uh gigs for, especially working with brands that we work with.
• 27:43
  Kim Evans: Um and then we also host uh international photography retreats, which are like five days of intense shooting and lots of questions and just really time to pick people's brains and that kind of thing.
• 27:56
  Kim Evans: And we bring along other educators that we love who have different points of view to share so that our attendees can really get you know a good sampling of kind of different styles.
• 28:07
  Kim Evans: If if something we do doesn't necessarily resonate, that we have others there that you know they can I'm struggling with this.
• 28:14
  Kim Evans: Have you ever had that experience?
• 28:16
  Kim Evans: And and there's usually someone at the table that um has been through it, which is is when you're um a photographer or solopreneur or everything like that, you always there's this impression that you always have to reinvent the wheel at every stage and it's exhausting and it's lonely and it's you know we're really struggling.
• 28:35
  Ian McLean: We steal the best ideas that someone else has done and try and put it in the room.
• 28:39
  Kim Evans: So that's the thing is somebody has the wheel, and you just have to find them.
• 28:43
  Kim Evans: And generally if you ask them, um, you know, there's really no sense, and this is how we operate is there's no sense to gatekeep because it doesn't hurt me that you're more successful.
• 28:54
  Kim Evans: It you know, I would like everyone to have a great thriving business.
• 28:58
  Kim Evans: That that would be amazing because they would have, you know, these opportunities and they could take their kids to Disney.
• 29:04
  Kim Evans: And you know, it it's they could have the freedom of cho of choice.
• 29:08
  Ian McLean: I think for many businesses that you you fit into maybe two categories.
• 29:12
  Ian McLean: One is the zero sum, which is if if I'm if I'm not or if if you're a successor you're taking away from me, and then there's the others who do the which I think is more of a water-to-region thing, a rising tide floats all the roads.
• 29:23
  Ian McLean: Yeah.
• 29:23
  Ian McLean: If everyone's more successful, you kind of get a reputation for technology or advanced manufacturing or for you know whatever the reality is.
• 29:31
  Gary Evans: Absolutely that.
• 29:32
  Gary Evans: We are n not gatekeepy at all.
• 29:35
  Gary Evans: We want we want to help people have the lifestyle that we have.
• 29:40
  Gary Evans: Our lifestyle has given us a lot of flexibility and a lot of choices.
• 29:43
  Gary Evans: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 29:43
  Kim Evans: Well and we really we really feel grateful, you know, for what we have and and the chances that we get.
• 29:49
  Kim Evans: And if we were operating in that kind of scarcity mindset of, you know, you're you're just scared and you're worried about your competitors all the time, it's just it's really hard to drive it forward.
• 30:02
  Gary Evans: Like, and there are there are educators out there that want photographers to remain in that in that scarcity mindset because then they'll continue to use them as mentors for years and years and years.
• 30:14
  Gary Evans: And our philosophy would be if we if we were working with a photographer, we would want them to outgrow us as soon as we as soon as they could, and then they'd need to go and find another mentor to take care of it.
• 30:27
  Gary Evans: Like for the next stage of the city.
• 30:28
  Gary Evans: Or become a mentor themselves and not the next the next fear for it.
• 30:32
  Gary Evans: So we kind of feel it's our obligation to pass down the knowledge that we have to the new generations coming through.
• 30:39
  Gary Evans: Because we're not going to do this forever.
• 30:41
  Gary Evans: But the photography industry is something that's dear to our hearts or the creative industry, and we want we want it to continue to to grow like the rising tide, we want it to grow and build and build and build, not just work in an in in that scarcity mindset.
• 30:55
  Gary Evans: All right.
• 30:56
  Ian McLean: Time is uh hurdling past.
• 30:58
  Ian McLean: We could talk all afternoon, but let's uh before we get to our come more to the leadership styles uh part of the conversation, um, just as we wrap up on your story, there's there's no it it's obvious, and before we started, and not everything that's captured on tape, lots of ideas and there's momentum and the things you're involved in.
• 31:15
  Ian McLean: But as you look ahead from both your perspectives um and you think about the next chapter or what's coming next for you and your business per personally and professionally, what does that look like?
• 31:25
  Ian McLean: Let's start with you.
• 31:26
  Kim Evans: Um well, we've just uh done a little rebrand uh for our photography.
• 31:31
  Kim Evans: So we're now the Evans Collective, which feels really nice that it's kind of um us as a whole and um kind of we can talk about everything that we provide to our clients, not just Gary, which is we love them, but like you know, we're you know, we're we're so much more than that.
• 31:48
  Kim Evans: Um we've brought some associates on, so if if we're booked or we're maybe out of the range of of a couple to work with, we do have other options and a content creator.
• 31:59
  Kim Evans: So if you know, there's just kind of we wanted to be able to offer more to our clients and just a really better experience.
• 32:07
  Kim Evans: Um we've we've branded our our corporate work separately, which seems to make a lot of sense to corporate uh corporate Canada that we're talking their language, which is not just buried on a wedding website, which makes a lot more sense.
• 32:24
  Kim Evans: So um that's been going really well, the Head Shot Co.
• 32:28
  Gary Evans: Um, and and then we're we want to continue building the education platform.
• 32:33
  Gary Evans: So right now we have the we have like four businesses running simultaneously.
• 32:39
  Gary Evans: We have the Evans Collective, the Headshot Co.
• 32:41
  Gary Evans: Gary and Kim, which is our education platform, and then we also do a lot of pop-up weddings under the brand Love LovelyWeddingsandEvents.ca.
• 32:51
  Gary Evans: So we're literally pushing all of those forward simultaneously.
• 32:56
  Gary Evans: Um I think the idea is we we we sat and had a chat um last year, is our kind of like five-year goal is to be able to work and operate anywhere that we want to from a laptop.
• 33:11
  Gary Evans: So that's why we're pushing pushing all of these brands forward and moving this one forward a little bit and then this one a little bit.
• 33:18
  Gary Evans: It's like it's like little pieces on a on like a game board or something that we're just moving things around slightly to get to where we want it.
• 33:25
  Ian McLean: Well, that has lots of appeal.
• 33:26
  Ian McLean: In January 2026, the most snow we've had in a decade, in the coldest January.
• 33:31
  Ian McLean: Yeah, being able to work from a laptop in Mexico.
• 33:35
  Ian McLean: Mexico sounds like uh like two months would be amazing.
• 33:38
  Ian McLean: Yes.
• 33:38
  Ian McLean: All right.
• 33:39
  Ian McLean: Uh as before we wrap up, I always do these the same set of questions.
• 33:43
  Ian McLean: I always say this is this is about your story, which is fascinating, but it's also about leadership styles and how you kind of perceive things and and what drives you.
• 33:51
  Ian McLean: So I asked this the these the same set of questions.
• 33:55
  Ian McLean: It's like our rapid fire, rapid answer session.
• 33:58
  Ian McLean: So um I and we'll just go back and forth.
• 34:01
  Ian McLean: What uh what what would you tell your younger self if you could if you could tell yourself if you could go back in time and tell yourself?
• 34:08
  Ian McLean: Start with you.
• 34:09
  Gary Evans: Um I would tell myself to get on a plane to Canada a lot earlier and come over and find this cute little redhead, so then we can actually spend even more time together.
• 34:19
  Gary Evans: That's a solid answer.
• 34:22
  Kim Evans: I don't know that I could I can outdo that.
• 34:25
  Gary Evans: Um Can we tell a younger self to not talk to this British?
• 34:28
  Gary Evans: Yeah, I do.
• 34:29
  Gary Evans: Don't don't talk to the lady.
• 34:32
  Kim Evans: Um I think I would tell myself if we're if we were talking about business that to say no more often and and probably uh listen to your gut.
• 34:41
  Ian McLean: No, that's good.
• 34:42
  Ian McLean: That's good advice.
• 34:43
  Ian McLean: Who or what inspires you?
• 34:46
  Kim Evans: Uh I really like looking outside of our industry as far as kind of like what other people are doing to market their business or how they structure their business or how they reach clients and and I'm kind of just so interested in in how people are talking to their clients.
• 35:04
  Kim Evans: Um so that I always look outside of our industry.
• 35:07
  Kim Evans: So I look at um, you know, fashion and uh brands and like big brands and how they're working, and I just find that really interesting.
• 35:16
  Kim Evans: So Yeah.
• 35:17
  Gary Evans: I I'm the opposite.
• 35:18
  Gary Evans: I look at within the industry.
• 35:20
  Gary Evans: So I have on my Instagram like thousands of photographers that I kind of follow.
• 35:26
  Gary Evans: And you'll be you'll be on it and you'll be scrolling through, and then all of a sudden there'll be an image that stops me in my tracks, and then I'll look at it and I'll go, how did that person do that one?
• 35:34
  Gary Evans: And then I'll look at I'll look at all of their work.
• 35:37
  Gary Evans: And then if I want to know um how they did something, um cheeky enough, I'll just reach out and say, hey man, love your photo.
• 35:44
  Gary Evans: Just talk me through how you did it.
• 35:45
  Gary Evans: And nine times out of ten, the photographer will be like, Oh my god, thanks so much for saying, Oh, yeah, it was like this, and they'll be be really giving in in the information that they that they give you back.
• 35:55
  Gary Evans: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 35:56
  Kim Evans: When creative entrepreneurs do like to talk about themselves.
• 35:58
  Kim Evans: Yeah.
• 36:05
  Gary Evans: Oh yeah, thanks so much.
• 36:06
  Ian McLean: And then they'll blur it all out.
• 36:08
  Ian McLean: I can't imagine that anybody's favorite topic isn't themselves.
• 36:12
  Ian McLean: Indeed.
• 36:13
  Ian McLean: Indeed.
• 36:13
  Ian McLean: Um back to you.
• 36:18
  Ian McLean: If you weren't in your current career, so um uh what would you be doing or what w what would be something if you if photography wasn't in the curds for you?
• 36:27
  Gary Evans: Yeah.
• 36:28
  Gary Evans: Um I prior to doing photography full-time, I was working for a bank in the UK.
• 36:35
  Gary Evans: Um I was managing a team of financial advisors across a big geographical area in the UK, and my role was to go out and spend time with them, um, make sure they're doing and saying all the right things.
• 36:47
  Gary Evans: Um so I'd probably be doing be doing that.
• 36:50
  Gary Evans: Um I mean when I was a kid I wanted to be a cowboy, but I'm afraid of horses.
• 36:55
  Gary Evans: So there's so that would be what about you?
• 37:00
  Kim Evans: Um I am generally a little bossy, so I'm sure that I would have worked my way up somewhere, but maybe like uh marketing or advertising, probably something like that.
• 37:13
  Kim Evans: I did move to Waterloo Regional originally to make costumes for Stratford Festival.
• 37:17
  Kim Evans: So that's kind of how I landed here.
• 37:19
  Kim Evans: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 37:19
  Gary Evans: I think you'd be like a TV presenter.
• 37:21
  Gary Evans: You've been on TV a lot.
• 37:22
  Gary Evans: You'd be a TV personality.
• 37:24
  Kim Evans: Maybe a host.
• 37:25
  Kim Evans: Maybe I'm not your dick your dick here.
• 37:29
  Ian McLean: Some of us have a face for radio and others have a face for TV.
• 37:33
  Ian McLean: Yeah, totally.
• 37:35
  Ian McLean: Um Are you reading uh who am I at?
• 37:37
  Ian McLean: Are you reading a book?
• 37:39
  Ian McLean: A pa do you listen to a podcast?
• 37:41
  Ian McLean: What what do you do to either kind of move yourself forward professionally or kind of relax and decompress?
• 37:48
  Kim Evans: Uh decompress, I would say I listen to Dateline podcasts all the time.
• 37:52
  Kim Evans: Oh yes.
• 37:53
  Gary Evans: Uh and so if I disappear, you know, you know, you know what's happening.
• 37:58
  Kim Evans: But you know, I what I really like about it is it's a it's a story and there's a beginning and there's a resolution, and you you have to kind of like put the puzzle pieces together, and and I I like kind of trying to work it out, and then I like that there's a resolution and I can sleep at night.
• 38:14
  Kim Evans: So if it was unsolved mysteries, 100% no.
• 38:17
  Kim Evans: Because I just I feel like let down at the end where I'm like, what?
• 38:21
  Kim Evans: I need to know it despite the name of the of the title.
• 38:25
  Gary Evans: Me, um I love mus uh music and movies.
• 38:28
  Gary Evans: So uh often while I'm working and I'm editing, I'll have on my laptop like a movie play-in.
• 38:34
  Gary Evans: But it's normally a movie that I've seen before, so I don't get distracted from it.
• 38:38
  Gary Evans: It's just, you know, I've literally just gone through all the James Bond movies from Dr.
• 38:43
  Gary Evans: No right up to the last Daniel Craig one.
• 38:46
  Gary Evans: Um or it's just I'll put music on and now it just puts me in a zone to focus and concentrate on the work that I've got to do in front of me.
• 38:53
  Ian McLean: Okay.
• 38:53
  Ian McLean: Favorite uh business, coffee shop, restaurant, retail, what's your what's your go-to in in Waterloo Region?
• 39:00
  Gary Evans: Uh well, we just beat the Starbucks before we came.
• 39:02
  Gary Evans: Um we I mean we love sushi, don't we?
• 39:06
  Kim Evans: Yeah, we love sushi, but I think our probably our favorite, one of our favorite companies has got to be like Pro Light.
• 39:13
  Ian McLean: And you work we work and do a lot of work with them.
• 39:15
  Kim Evans: We do.
• 39:15
  Kim Evans: We're we're there a lot of people.
• 39:16
  Ian McLean: Well why why them?
• 39:18
  Ian McLean: What's special about them?
• 39:19
  Kim Evans: Aaron Ross Powell I think the level of service they provide their clients is this same amount of care that we we provide to our couples.
• 39:28
  Kim Evans: So we feel like it's kind of really just so aligned with how they treat their clients.
• 39:33
  Kim Evans: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 39:33
  Gary Evans: Yeah, they work really hard to give their clients a really good experience.
• 39:37
  Gary Evans: And that's important to us in our business too.
• 39:40
  Gary Evans: So uh yeah, working with their and it's not just their clients they give a great experience to, their vendors they give a great experience to as well.
• 39:47
  Gary Evans: They look after you, they treat you well.
• 39:49
  Gary Evans: Um the food is amazing.
• 39:51
  Gary Evans: Yeah, they do like a vendor night a couple of times of year where all the vendors turn up and we meet each other and out.
• 39:57
  Kim Evans: They appreciate that the vendors who come on site to help with the weddings are just as important as they are to pull off a great day for someone, and it's the focus is on the client.
• 40:08
  Kim Evans: And that's for us, we're obsessed with client experience, so that's a really solid.
• 40:14
  Ian McLean: The pretty um important building block to success in business is.
• 40:18
  Ian McLean: Okay, listen, uh just as we as we wrap up, uh do thank you for for spending some of your valuable time.
• 40:25
  Ian McLean: Where do people go to connect with you?
• 40:28
  Ian McLean: Now you got like 17 businesses, so but how where do people go and find you?
• 40:34
  Kim Evans: Um so I would say Instagram is probably the easiest for us.
• 40:38
  Kim Evans: Um that's where most of our kind of people would reach out to us.
• 40:42
  Kim Evans: Um so if you're looking for uh us ourselves as entrepreneurs and coaches, Gary and Kevin.
• 40:49
  Kim Evans: At Gary and Kevin.ca is our uh Instagram.
• 40:53
  Kim Evans: Um at LovelyWeddings Events is our pop-up wedding business.
• 40:59
  Kim Evans: Um at the Evans Collective.ca is our wedding photography, and then at theheadshotco.ca is our uh headshots and corporate work.
• 41:10
  Ian McLean: Listen.
• 41:10
  Ian McLean: Uh great story.
• 41:12
  Ian McLean: Uh fascinated.
• 41:13
  Ian McLean: Thank you for uh for coming in on this cold uh winter day.
• 41:17
  Ian McLean: Appreciate you telling the story and and uh and taking time of uh what your most valuable commodity is for most businesses, which is time.
• 41:24
  Ian McLean: Appreciate you spending some time with us today.
• 41:26
  Ian McLean: Thanks for having us.
• 41:27
  Ian McLean: Thank you.
• 41:28
  Ian McLean: Thank you for joining us for another episode of Behind the Business, proudly presented by Gore Mutual, insurance that does good.
• 41:35
  Ian McLean: New episodes drop every Thursday, so be sure to tune in next week.
• 41:38
  Ian McLean: You can also visit greater kwchamber.com to catch up on past episodes at any time.
• 41:44
  Ian McLean: We'll see you next time as we continue to go.