Kevin Kneeland is a 22-year-old senior, studying entrepreneurship at UIC. He and his partner Nikki started their own business called K&N Media, keep reading to see how they got to where they are now!
HC (HerCampus): How did your business start? What piqued your interest in media?
KK (Kevin Kneeland): K&N Media started a year and a half ago (actually as K&N Photography), simply doing just photography. I had an interest in photography that began at a pretty early age. My dad and his brothers all had cameras, so growing up I was always around them. After we got familiar with photography, we figured why limit ourselves to just photography, which led us to renaming the company to K&N Media. At this point we started doing not only photography, but also graphic design and videography. My interest in media probably began when I came into college. I realized that using social media sites, as well as other forms of media (photography/videography etc.) allowed for anyone to reach anybody anywhere.
HC: Explain what your business provides.
KK: K&N Media currently provides photography, videography, graphic design, and web design services. In the future we plan to add several other services such as marketing, event planning, hosting, and a lot more.
HC: Where did the name K&N Media come from?
KK: The name K&N Media came from my name and my partner/girlfriend’s name Nikki. The “K” representing Kevin and the “N” representing Nikki. As mentioned earlier, we stopped using photography and changed it to media which allowed us to pretty much do anything and not limit ourselves to just photography.
HC: How did you market or advertise K&N Media?
KK: Right now we don’t really market/advertise. All we are currently doing is posting work that we have done and encouraging people to let us handle their next shoot or design. All of our marketing/advertising is more so done by those that we have done work for. Word of mouth handles every aspect of this for us right now, which is extremely effective.
HC: Are you involved in any other organizations or activities on campus?
KK: Currently I am not involved in any other organizations or activities. For the past three years I was a model in the UIC Fashion Show, but that didn’t happen this year. I won an award for best male model, lol.
HC: Is there anyone who you look up to as a mentor or aspire to be like? If so, who?
KK: There is no one specifically that I look up to, but I will say that I am motivated and influenced by a lot of different people and things like movies and my family. In general I aspire to be anyone who is successful and worked hard to reach that point.
HC: Summarize a day in the life of you.
KK: A day in the life of me is really busy. I usually wake up around 7am (going to bed around 1 or 2am the night before lol). Next, I get right to work editing pictures, posting work on Facebook, replying to emails, scheduling shoots, and eating breakfast, then I go to class. I have 18 credit hours so every day is extremely long for me. After class I usually have a meeting with one of my groups, then head back to my place and get right back to editing. After that I usually start on some homework, then go workout if I have time. Once I’m done working out and showering, I usually reply to more emails, handle graphic design work, edit more pictures, eat, then finally go to bed.
HC: Do you have any goals before you graduate?
KK: I don’t have any specific goals before graduation, but I do have a long list of goals for the year. Some of those goals include reaching 5,000 likes on Facebook and shooting at a large music festival like Spring Awakening.
HC: What is your dream job/career?
KK: My dream job is doing exactly what I am doing now, all while opening up and running other businesses.
HC: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
KK: 10 years from now I see myself as a millionaire, running the largest media company in the world.
HC: If you could have a celebrity best friend, who would it be and why?
KK: If I could have a celebrity best friend it would definitely be Kevin Hart! I’d say Kevin Hart because he’d obviously keep me laughing, he has a great business mind and we have the same name lol.
HC: Ending Thoughts?
KK: Do what you love and never limit yourself!
Everyone be sure to check out K&N Media and also visit their social media pages!!
And add Kevin on facebook > Kevin Kneeland