Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Lark.
Hi Brooke, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Thirteen years ago, I was a stay-at-home mom to my four amazing kids, and always planned to be just that. But life had a different plan: When my husband unexpectedly asked for a divorce, I was suddenly thrown into a world I wasn’t prepared for. I’d started a small blog a few years before, had purchased a cheap camera from Craigslist, and had started to gain some traction for my online recipes.
I’d won a few recipe contests and was making a little money here and there with my website. But now that I had to support my household, it was time to hustle. I took every extra job I could find and kicked my work into high gear. I’d wake up early to write, cook recipes, and shoot photos on my kitchen table all day, then stay up late preparing for the next day. It was hard, it was exhausting, but I got to stay home with my babies and I loved learning that I could take care of us all.
My little freelance venture grew and grew. I learned how to create and edit online videos. Learned how to develop beautiful stories. Learned what made people click and buy, learned how to create the kind of content that made people stop and say “ah.” Soon, I was so busy, I had to hire help. I started with a marketing assistant, then realized I needed more creatives. Luckily, I was surrounded by talented people who’d grown up learning the industry with me—my now college-aged kids. All those years of assisting me with prep and shoots and web development and video creation had created some truly and profoundly creative humans.
So, I began expanding my business to include them. As our team grew, we outgrew our kitchen table. And in March of 2023, when a “for lease” sign was hung on a dilapidated old building in the center of our neighborhood, I took a big breath and leaped into a whole new chapter—renovating an old, brown adult daycare center into a glittering creativity canvas—a lifestyle production studio, complete with a dozen disco-balls hanging from the ceiling.
We call it “LarkXCo Connection Studio” and the space has been designed to hold all of our food and lifestyle shoots, while also being a gathering space for creative workshops, interactive art, and heart-centered connection. It’s a beautiful space, and I am so excited to see where this next phase of my wildly unexpected career will grow.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been smooth at all! The first and biggest difficulty has been getting over my own limiting beliefs—I still have this idea that I am not “allowed” to be successful. It’s an old story that niggles a lot. And as I’ve taken this huge leap, it comes up a lot. I’ve had to do a lot of breathing and meditation (and crying!) (and journalling!) (and gagging back worrying!) to keep going and not want to burn it all to the ground and run away.
I closed on the lease in March and started renovating. The space was old and needed a serious facelift. Not a single part of the “6-week” renovation went according to plan—and my kitchen build-in was an absolute disaster. Trying to get the commercial building ready for inspection and fire inspection has been costly, time-consuming, and a whole new messy learning process that I wasn’t prepared for.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We help brands look good! My company LarkXCo (we say it “Lark and Co”) specializes in photography, video, and reels for food and lifestyle companies. We take products and create the kind of ads, images, and stories that make a company go video.
I am one of the top 50 most clicked photographers globally—with more than 2 billion clicks from customers around the world. I am proud of the beautiful work we create. After 13+ years of creating digital content, we are incredibly good at knowing how to create the kind of visuals that make customers click.
We’ve helped grow several brands some small to big, and have also had the opportunity to work with incredible brands like Samsung, Betty Crocker, Delicious Living Magazine, and more. Perhaps I am most proud of being a damn excellent creative company that is fun to work with. We love making our client’s dreams & goals come true, and it’s a blast to spend my life making beautiful things.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love that SLC is the center of so many things. From my picket-fenced neighborhood, it’s a 10-minute drive to be in the center of our bustling little city, where great food and thriving nightlife are always popping. Or drive in the opposite direction, and you’re 15 minutes from 4 stunning canyons, winter skiing, or summer paddleboarding.
In less than 3 hours, you can be inside incredible state and national parks, or on your way to hot springs, deserts, or mountains. SLC is such an unexpectedly lovely place to live, and the people are just the purest and most splendid. We are so surrounded by whip-smart, wonderful humans. And I adore the vibrant counter-culture in SLC, too. Of course, the winter inversion is the actual yuckiest. And I wish our lawmakers would find ways to better care for our air and our Great Salt Lake before it’s too late.
Pricing:
- $100 Headshots
- $1000 Product Shoot
- $10000 Monthly content creation + social management
Contact Info:
- Website: LarkXCo.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/brookelark
- Facebook: facebook.com/thebrookelark/
- Twitter: Twitter.com/brookelark
- Youtube: YouTube.com/brookelark
- Other: brookebites.smugmug.com
