S13 - Episode #10 - Kelsey Kurtis
Kelsey Kurtis, @kelseymkurtis
Kelsey Kurtis: Antarctica, Adventure Photography, Branding Yourself as YOU & the Legend of the Crotch Pot 🎒📸🐧
We're closing out Season 13 with an episode you will not want to miss. Kelsey Kurtis — photographer, author, adventurer, and certified force of nature — joins us for a conversation that covers everything from the Sierra Nevadas to the South Pole, and somehow ends with crotch-baked brownies.
Kelsey grew up hiking in Mammoth Lakes, California, and now calls Bellingham, Washington home — two mountain meccas that shaped her deep love for wild places. Over the past 15 years, she's built a career as a professional branding photographer working primarily with women-owned businesses, authored The Connection Method, and grown a community that celebrates showing up unapologetically as yourself. She opens up about navigating ADHD and dyslexia, how her Grandpa Paul's jewelry-selling philosophy became the foundation for everything she teaches about human connection, and why branding yourself as you — not what you sell — is the key to building something that lasts.
We dig into her iPhone photography tips (yes, stop pinching to zoom), what makes a branding shoot actually feel like a person, and how her Too Much Club is creating a permission slip for people who've always been told they're too loud, too weird, or too much.
Then Kelsey takes us to Antarctica — her #1 bucket list destination since age 15 — where she served as expedition photographer, ugly-cried on a Zodiac surrounded by icebergs, survived the Drake Passage with the help of a mystery pill, and oh… sang I Want It That Way with Howie from the Backstreet Boys. We also talk Jordan, Petra, Wadi Rum, the upcoming trip to Pakistan's Fairy Meadows, and her best insider tip for visiting Antarctica at a deeply discounted rate.
We also talk Camp KK — her group travel series designed for women in midlife who want adventure, community, and professional photos of themselves looking epic in the mountains. Olympic National Park and the North Cascades are up first, with Iceland and Kenya on the horizon.
And yes — we get into the Crotch Pot. If you don't know, you're about to find out.
🎬 This conversation is also an official video episode, now available on our YouTube channel alongside the audio release — and there's a special after-credits story exclusively on the Video Episode that you won't hear anywhere else.
Episode Links:
Kelsey on Instagram
Kelsey Photography Account on Instagram
Kelsey's Website
Use code HIKE20 for Kelsey's "Elevate your Phone Photography" Class ($20 off - makes it $49!)
This episode was Produced by Jordyn Smith, follow her on Instagram @jordyn.journeys
Follow us on Instagram, @Hikesandmics
This episode's music was created by Ketsa, follow him on Instagram @Ketsamusic
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