Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeremy Cowart.
Jeremy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started out wanting to be a painter. I wasn’t a very good one.
Photography was almost an accident. I picked up a camera, figured out I could make the images that were already in my head actually exist, and never really put it down. Thirty years later I’m still doing it.
The work took me places I never planned on. Taylor Swift. Dolly Parton. President Obama. A Gold Clio for a Star Trek campaign. Three TEDx talks and a book I never set out to write.
But the honest version is I’ve never been able to just do the one thing. I’m a serial idea person, which is a generous way of saying I can’t sit still. So now I work out of The Factory in Franklin, Tennessee, building a few things at once. The Purpose Hotel, and my non-profit, If You’re Breathing. And then I recently founded and built two software companies, Humathy and LLOP, both built around emotional intelligence. Humathy is for anyone to use and LLOP is modern day polling for any small business or company in the world to use.
Same instinct as the painting, honestly. Make the thing you can already see.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not even close.
I’ve been freelance for 25 years, and freelance means you’re never more than a few months out from wondering if the whole thing is over. That feeling never fully goes away. I’ve had years that looked incredible from the outside and were terrifying from the inside.
The other struggle is one I created myself. I have way too many ideas. I’ve started things that went nowhere, poured years into projects that still aren’t built, and learned the hard way that an idea is not a business.
And every few years I’ve had to reinvent. That’s the part nobody warns you about. What got me here can’t get me there. So at 25 years in, I’m always a beginner again, building all kinds of new things.
Which is uncomfortable. It’s also the only way I know how to operate haha.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a portrait photographer. Been doing it about thirty years now.
I’ve gotten to shoot some wild stuff along the way. Taylor Swift, Dolly, President Obama, the Kardashians. A Star Trek campaign that ended up winning a Clio. Still feels a little crazy saying it out loud.
I’m most known for my wild process where I shoot a couple hundred portraits of someone in one minute where the backdrops and lighting are changing in every portrait. It’s insane. Anyone can come do it in my studio, “The Portrait Lab” (please link to it for SEO). People can walk out with tons of completely different looks in no time.
The thing I’m MOST proud of is harder to explain. It’s this intersection I keep chasing between creativity and empathy. We all have these gifts… how do we actually use them for somebody else?
That’s what If You’re Breathing is. That’s what The Purpose Hotel is. That’s most of the natural disaster relief work I’ve done over the years.
I still don’t have it figured out. But giving back is the only thing that makes it all make sense.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
you don’t have to be the best. I’m not the best photographer in town. Never have been. The people who make it usually aren’t the most skilled ones, they’re the ones with something to say. So go figure out what you’re actually trying to say.
Second, be messy. I really mean it. Make the thing badly, put it out there, mess it up in public. Nobody’s handing out permission slips anyway. And especially right now, we’re all drowning in AI-perfect everything and I think people are so tired of it. Perfect doesn’t move anybody. The stuff that actually lands is the stuff that’s obviously made by a human who wasn’t totally sure of themselves. So own the mistakes. Own the insecurities. Be real about the parts that aren’t working. That’s the one thing nobody can replicate.
And the one I really wish somebody had told me… the fear doesn’t go away. I thought there’d be a point where I’d finally feel secure. Thirty years in, big clients, awards, all of it, and I still have weeks where I wonder if it’s over. That’s not a sign you’re doing it wrong. That’s just the deal.
Last one. Whatever’s working for you right now will eventually stop working. It just will. What got you here won’t get you there, and the sooner you make peace with reinventing yourself every few years, the easier all of this gets.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jeremycowart.com | ifyourebreathing.com | humathy.com | getllop.com | portraitlab.co
- Instagram: @jeremycowart
- Facebook: @jeremycowart
- LinkedIn: @jeremycowart
- Twitter: @jeremycowart
- Youtube: @jeremycowart
