063. Michelle Boyd: Leaving One Business Behind to Start Another

What do you do when you’ve built a successful business, working with clients you love and making a great income...but something still feels like it’s missing?

Michelle Boyd found herself in that position a few years ago. She spent years building her wedding photography business, only to find that when she finally “made it”, she had a new dream inside of her.

If you’re in the middle of a transition or thinking of pivoting your business, you won’t want to miss this episode!

WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/michelle-boyd

📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:

The Blueprint Model

Emily Jeffords Retreat

Michelle Boyd Tapestry Collection

Transcript

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Michelle (00:00:00):

Hadn't told anybody yet that I was stepping back from weddings. And so I was attending as a wedding photographer while secretly being like, no, but I want to be an artist. How do we do that? So I remember just being inspired by these women and they were all so encouraging and it just felt like this breaking point of like, you just need to start. You don't have to have a plan. You just need to go home and you just need to paint.

Shanna (00:00:25):

You are listening to Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast episode 63. What do you do when you've built a successful business working with clients you love and making a great income, but something still feels like it's missing? Michelle Boyd found herself in that position a few years ago. She spent years building her wedding photography business only to find that when she finally made it, she had a new dream inside of her. I've had the pleasure of working with Michelle since her photography days and watching her chase a new dream with her art business. If you're in the middle of a transition or thinking of pivoting your business, you won't want to miss this episode. If you dig professional bios, here goes. Michelle is a wife, mother and impressionist artist based in Austin, Texas. She has invariably been an artist at heart growing up as the artsy fartsy one in her family.

(00:01:09):

She first fell in love with dance as a creative outlet and then medium format film during her wedding photography years. But she's finally where she knew she'd eventually end up with lots of glorious paint and a brush in her hands. She has been drawn to the beauty of God's creation and is most moved by the unending intricacies and possibilities of florals. Her current body of work, tapestries is an exploration of paint on raw canvas, showcasing the shapes, colors, movement, and feeling from flowers in a garden, some of which she's been able to grow herself in her humble Texas backyard. She loves gathering women together in community cooking, reading, and getting her wiggles and giggles out of her two kits. Okay, formal introductions over. Let's dive in. Hey, it's Shanna and this is Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast. For the past 15 plus years, I've had the honor to hear thousands of stories from entrepreneurs around the world.

(00:01:56):

As a former Fortune 100 financial advisor turned business consultant, I have a unique opportunity to see the real behind the highlight reel. I'm talking profit and loss statements, unpaid taxes, moments of burnout, and those of utter victory. Or as my husband says, the content everyone is wondering but not many are talking about. And now I'm bringing these private conversations to you. Hear the untold stories of how industry leaders, founders, and up and coming entrepreneurs got their start, the experiences that shaped them and the journey to building the brands they have today. Stories that will inspire and reignite encourage to redefine success and build a life and business on your own terms. Welcome, wildflower. I'm so glad you're here. Hey, Michelle, welcome to this show. I'm so excited to have you. Thank you for your time. Thanks for sharing your story. I'm just selfishly so pumped to catch up with you. So welcome.

Michelle (00:02:45):

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so honored and so blessed to be here.

Shanna (00:02:50):

This is going to be fun. Okay, the last time I saw you was in Beaufort or Beaufort. I never know how it's actually said South Carolina, and that was twenty-sixteen, I think it was 15. Mercy. So much has happened since then. Okay. So at that time you were transitioning, you started your career photography and then art. I think you were just transitioning into art or you were maybe thinking about, and then since then you've had some kiddos and all the things, so it's going to be fun.

Michelle (00:03:23):

Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, things are different in a good way. It's so sweet.

Shanna (00:03:30):

Okay. Tell me how many little ones you have now.

Michelle (00:03:35):

We have two, and their birthdays are actually within this next week. My daughter turns five in two days, and then my son turns one next Tuesday. Oh my goodness. So it has been really fun.

Shanna (00:03:50):

Those are some big birthdays. So your daughter, she'll be starting kindergarten I guess, in the next fall?

Michelle (00:03:58):

Yeah, she's in a full-time, four-year-old pre-k situation. It's basically kindergarten, but she loves every second of it. She's such a learner and loves being around people, so it's really sweet to see her with her friends. Her name is Lucy and my son's name is Walter and he is into everything and cruising and I'm chasing him all the time everywhere. So different boys are so different from girls, but that's another story for another.

Shanna (00:04:32):

I'm sure he trying to keep up with his big sister.

Michelle (00:04:37):

Oh, 100%.

Shanna (00:04:38):

Yes.

Michelle (00:04:39):

Yes. They're so fun and sweet together. We have our moments hard, but yeah, it's really sweet. Exactly. And you have one,

Shanna (00:04:51):

Two, I have Madeline and one on the way. Yes.

Michelle (00:04:55):

So congratulations.

Shanna (00:04:57):

Exciting. There'll be about three years apart, which I think is so perfect for our family pass potty training, and we just feel really blessed and grateful. God is so good, but he

Michelle (00:05:08):

Is,

Shanna (00:05:09):

Yeah, Madeline's so funny. She was not in a hurry to walk. She probably could have walked it one, but she was like, nah, whatever. So she took her sweet time. But I'm interested with the second. So many people say the second one was to keep up with her big siblings. So we'll see. With this one, we're not finding out gender, so we didn't with Madeline either. We love a good surprise. So yeah, it'll be fun to see. Oh my gosh, what happened? So many predictions already. Boy, girl. I don't know.

Michelle (00:05:39):

Oh my gosh, it's fun.

Shanna (00:05:40):

Okay, let's dive in and then, because we have so much to catch up on clearly since 2015, but I want to bring everyone along. So tell me just kind of way back before even starting your first business life before business, how you got into entrepreneurship, why you chose your first career, and then we'll talk about growth from there.

Michelle (00:06:05):

Yes. So casual, easy. There's so much.

Shanna (00:06:10):

All the things, just pack it all up,

Michelle (00:06:12):

All the things. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I feel like I've just always been that I have a very obsessive nature with whatever creative endeavor I'm pursuing at the time. And my whole life, up until about mid-college, I was very obsessed with dance. Dance was life. I did studio dance, drill team study, dance at college, taught at a studio, was in companies, all of the things. And then right about, I think it was my freshman year actually of college, one of the companies I was in, we needed pictures and I was like, oh, I've got a camera, why not? And so I started photography because I started photographing what I was already naturally surrounded by was my dancer friends. And so learned a lot about photography and styles and everything. And then I second shot a few weddings through college. I think all of that's really blurry. And I worked at a summer camp as a photographer before I graduated and it just kind of shift. There wasn't a moment, but I was studying to be a teacher. I was studying to be a dance teacher and an English teacher, and at some point I just didn't sign up for the student teaching situation.

Shanna (00:07:30):

Oops.

Michelle (00:07:31):

And I think part of me just knew that I wasn't going to be a teacher, but I didn't have a plan. I didn't know what was next. And so photography kind of just took over. And I got married right out of college to my husband Brian, and he just really encouraged me. I think he could see how much I loved photography. And I, for the past almost 13 years, I've just called him, he's like my yes man, if I have a dream or something that I need to figure out or can we make this happen? He sits down and works on the logistics and usually says yes unless it's extra crazy. And so he helped me chase that dream early on. He was super supportive, sent me to a couple workshops and so I could learn. And so I started, I think I officially started my wedding photography business in 2011, and then shot weddings for a few years until my last wedding was in 2017.

(00:08:36):

And I attended your blueprint retreat in 2015 with a couple of dear friends. And that was such a good weekend. And I think the beauty of that was I learned so much from you, and I felt like my business was in a good place. There were ways that I wanted to grow it. And truly, I don't think I would call what I was experiencing at the time burnout per se, but I think I could sense that my devotion to wedding photography was shifting a lot because the industry shifted a lot and it got really intense in a few ways. And it was still, I loved my clients and that's what I loved about it. I loved celebrating their wedding days. But yeah, I think it's funny because I had these dreams of shooting these big gloriously beautifully styled weddings and international weddings, and then those dreams would come true and I would shoot them and then I would step back and say, oh, I'm still the same person.

(00:09:45):

That didn't actually change me. It was a beautiful experience. It was also more stressful because the stakes were higher. And so I think I just realized that I was getting a little tired and in the very back of my mind, the place where I think no one except Brian knew I just really wanted to do something creative all my life. And if I pictured the future home, like my forever home where I would live until head time, there's these windows and in the corner of this picturesque sunroom, there's this little easel. And I didn't tell that to anybody except Brian. And I think in twenty-sixteen, I started taking some painting classes in Austin. That's where I live. And I just really got into it and I thought, I do not know how to do this. This is not something that I don't know how to run a painting business, but I know there are certain things that I can take from my successful photography business and move that over.

(00:10:57):

But this is very much the unknown, but it just felt right. And there were a lot of things about giving up my wedding photography business that I prayed about for a really long time. And honestly, shannon the Lord just made it clear that I was supposed to let it go. And it was hard. It felt right and it was hard. It was both. And I loved my clients, I loved the people, the connections. I loved working with so many incredible vendors, but it was just time. And it's so sweet now looking back almost, what, six years, seven years at that decision and being like, oh my gosh, that felt super hard back then. And today I wouldn't give it up for anything. I'm so grateful for that transition. And so I did not know how to paint at all. I was learning. And I had taken classes when I was young, and I loved art class in high school.

(00:11:59):

My granny is an artist. She has been her whole life. And so she would just foster that creativity in me. But I didn't go to art school. I didn't have a formal training or anything. And so in 2017, yep, 2017 I think that May, I went on, it was called the Willow Retreat that Emily Jeffords held in France. And it was so magical, glorious, my gosh. It was insane. And it was, I think there were 10 or 11 attendees, and I remember being there and just, you're surrounding, you're in the French countryside. I mean, I don't think there's any more romantic, a place to go on a retreat and be inspired. And I was so inspired, and I didn't know what to do with that inspiration. I was like, this is beautiful. And it's almost like too much. I can't process it. But I also, I had to work through being surrounded by all these women who already knew what they were doing in the painting or creativity world.

(00:13:08):

And at that time, I don't think, no, I hadn't told anybody yet that I was stepping back from weddings. And so I was attending as a wedding photographer while secretly being like, no, but I want to be an artist. How do we do that? And so that's right. I shot my last wedding in 2018, I think, not 2017. Anyway, so I remember just being inspired by these women and they were all so encouraging and it just felt like this breaking point of, you just need to start. You don't have to have a plan. You just need to go home and you just need to paint. I don't know what I'm going to paint, but I just need to go home and put paint on canvas. And so I did. I went home and I started a new Instagram account. I felt weird about, I don't know, starting to use my following for photography, be for art and painting.

(00:14:05):

So I just wanted my paint people to be my paint people. And so started a new account for that and just started painting as much as possible. And I think within a year I had closed my wedding business and was not when we had in 2018, we had our first kid. And so it was kind of the perfect transition of I can paint when I can and then I can be with a baby when I can and when I need to be and all that stuff. So yeah, it feels like a full-time job, but I'm a full-time mom as well. So I think technically, if you're looking at it hourly, it's a part-time job, but I paint all the time as much as I can, and that's what I get to do all day every day. And it's the best thing in the entire world. And I have no plans, hopefully ever, if the Lord is cool with that to change my job ever again. So yeah, that's where I'm at now. I think.

Shanna (00:15:10):

Oh my goodness, okay. I have so many, so much good stuff I want to talk about. I am sure someone listening has felt that kind of deep gut need for change. How do you pivot? How do you just start over? So I definitely want to dig into that. But yeah, I love that you said looking back now. Okay. The other thing I also love that you talked about was you felt this need for change, but it was hard. We actually just talked about this on church on Sunday and just how sometimes when you're following, you're going in the right direction, but that doesn't always mean it's easy. And I think, I know in the past I have felt like, well, if I'm moving the right way, it should be easy. And so just the confidence to keep moving forward, even if it's hard, trust it.

(00:16:06):

Okay, so much. I'm making notes to myself. I want to dig into all that. But Michelle, will you take us back though, in the photography kind of early days of the photography, you just start, so did you have financial goals you had to meet? Was it like, okay, I need to provide this much for our family? And then I also loved how you touched on the dream. So much of the dream can be bigger events, bigger weddings, bigger budgets, but for some people that's not the right fit. It just doesn't sit. So we just talk through on the photography side getting started, was there a financial goal? Was there pressure in that way or was it more of the creative taking on work you like and talk about how you figured out pricing and just the business side of the photography, and then we'll talk about the transition.

Michelle (00:17:09):

Yeah, so let's see. When I first started photography, and this has kind of been the case since we've been married, but we live off of my husband's salary. He is a software engineer. And so we've always tried to live a little bit under our means just so that we have a lot for generosity or savings or whatever it is. And so we live off of his salary. And then for photography specifically, I didn't necessarily have sales goals, but I knew the number of weddings that I could logistically handle in a year.

(00:17:54):

I do not remember the numbers for years, but at one point it was not like twenty-something or thirty-something weddings a year. It was dumb if you have the capacity to do that, more power to you. But oh my gosh, I was going crazy. And those were in those beginning years when I wasn't charging a ton. I was just starting. I am still friends with the girl who first trusted me with my very first solo wedding. And the Lord has just blessed her in so many ways. But I'm like, every time I see her, I just say, thank you for trusting me. But everything that I made would either go back into the business or a lot of, I'm super passionate about learning.

(00:18:47):

And so a lot of the finances for my business would go, we called it a growth bucket. And so the growth bucket could be anything from a small course to a trip for a workshop like Blueprint or even just something smaller, taking someone out to coffee to pick their brain or anything like that. And the things that we used, my photography, finances for my family though, it was just the two of us. What did we do with all of our time? But we would go on, you had so much work. And yet I feel like, oh my gosh, time is just so different with kids. But we would go on trips. I think we went to France a handful of times throughout those years, and a lot of that was funded by my photography. And so trips like that, trips to visit family, I think a lot of our first home

Michelle (00:19:46):

Portion of that down payment was from my photography, which that felt really good. And so a lot of it, I guess you can consider it extra, but it always funded the other things instead of what we lived on. And I hired, let's see, I had an intern for a summer who's still a dear friend, and so I got to hire her. And anytime you do a style shoot or anything, you're paying for all that. So it's a lot going back into the business really is my answer. That's a super long answer.

Shanna (00:20:23):

Yeah, no, I think that's really helpful, I think to understand just what was motivating you, what your needs were. It's different for every single business owner. I am interested, Michelle. So to move into more of the pivot and the transition, when you started feeling this need for change, what were some of the exercises, if you remember back, I know this is 2017, I think sometimes when we feel this, it's like we just need to change something in our business. So for you, if you were doing 30 events, no wonder you were feeling tired and wanting to raise your prices so you could take on less. So I'm just so curious of what process you went through that made you realize, no, I need a different business versus just shifting something in my current business.

Michelle (00:21:12):

Yeah, no, that's really good. I think a lot of it was I had the secret hope that art could be a thing. I had something to run to a little bit. I think it was the secret goal. I didn't quite tell other people, I'm going to quit this and do that Instead. It was like, I dunno what's coming next with the secret hope that art would work out. So at the time, towards the final years of my business, I wasn't doing the 30 a year or anything anymore. It was like eight or 10, much more manageable, but they were such larger events. And I think, again, loved all the people that I worked with. I think the logistics of weddings got so big and grand, and as a photographer, you're the one who's managing a lot more than you probably should, including emotional stress on the day for your clients.

(00:22:13):

And I think I just realized I'm a people person and I love being here for these people, but I thrive in situations where it's calmer and more peaceful and I feel like the rest of my life, the rest of my day-to-day life feels, I feel like I have more to give when I'm working out of that place of peace instead of when I'm in the middle of crazy wedding season. I felt like I was probably a monster to be around. That might be just in my head, but I think I knew it wasn't just a shift within the business business. It needed to be a full

Shanna (00:23:00):

Different business.

Michelle (00:23:01):

It needed to be a different business.

Shanna (00:23:04):

And I love how you said this vision of something I love doing and I actually think is really valuable. I do it in every single one of my courses with all of my students now is vision boarding and just this, I love how you talked about this picture of this home. You wanted to live in this studio, you wanted to have the pace of life. Do you feel like that really played into transitioning into art? You saw this, the life that you envision for yourself? Oh

Michelle (00:23:35):

Yes, 100%. I think some people might think of the life of an artist and be like, oh, that sounds terrible. It's is a very isolating job. You're usually by yourself when you're creating. And for a lot of people that would be torture. But for me, that's heavenly. That's just how I'm wired. And so I think when you have the ability to change or shift something because you're going towards something that you sounds so much better. I feel like if in your mind and in your gut you're like, oh, that just feels better. I can't really exploit it, then I don't know whether that's intuition or the Holy Spirit or something telling you this is a good move. I feel like then it's okay to make the big changes and it's hard, but it's good.

Shanna (00:24:33):

Yeah. Did you feel like you needed to transition slowly or did you just jump right in? Was it I'm quitting photography, I'm starting art? Or was it, Hey, I'm still doing photography, and you gave art a year to see if it worked? First

Michelle (00:24:48):

There was some overlap. I think I started my art business in the middle of 2017, and my last wedding was already on the books for April of 2018. And so I felt like, and knew I had some time to figure it out, can I actually do this? And I tried not to have a huge overlap as far as I didn't really talk about the art with my wedding people or I don't know. I cross posted maybe a couple of times. So I dunno. I just kind of had to walk out in faith and be like, I hope this works. If it doesn't, oh well, we'll figure something else out.

Shanna (00:25:32):

Right.

Michelle (00:25:33):

Yeah,

Shanna (00:25:33):

I love that. Yeah. Will you talk about the growth of the art? So you started a new Instagram, you figured out how to price all your stuff, you started with original art, and then just talk through how you figured out the early days of your art business and then how it's grown since then. Yeah.

Michelle (00:25:51):

The early days, I feel like it's a fairly common story, but I was charging not a lot of money for racial art. And I knew what I should be charging should have been charging. I followed a lot of beautiful artists. I saw what they were charging for a certain piece or per square inch, but I also knew that my abilities were new. And so to me, that made perfect sense. You have to start small, and I also just don't have that kind of gumption to charge thousands of dollars when I first start something. And so I just painted a lot. I painted as much as I could and was selling a lot of paintings for under a hundred dollars, under $50 and was doing a lot of small ones, a lot of minis on wood panels. They were abstract color stories, color explorations. They were super fun.

(00:26:48):

And I did that for a few years, kind of dipped my toes into floral painting a little bit. It's funny, I can remember the day where I painted my first role floral piece, and that's such a sweet memory since then, florals have become my bread and butter. And so actually at the beginning of 2020, a few months before the world shut down, I had this vision for I really love antique things. My home is an old 1940s little cottage bungalow situation. And so antique frames work really well, and it's just kind of my style. And I wanted to marry my love of all things like French and antique with more minimal impressionist, floral arts. Kind of hard to explain without visuals, but I came up with a way to create these paintings that I hand-gilded the frames for. It was technically like a wooden panel, but I came up with a way to make them semi-custom paintings.

(00:27:56):

So I called them the French collection, and you could palette, it was minimal color palette, so like blues white and this warm gray versus pink and ochre and then a green one, and then you would choose the flowers that you wanted in it. And so it was kind of super accessible, smaller scale semi-commissions, right? Yeah. And they launched that February for the first time. And I don't remember exactly how many, but I think there were 30 orders within 20 minutes for paintings that were actually a little bit closer to what I should have been charging. So it was a shocker for me. I was like, wait, I have to close my shop. This is new. And throughout twenty-twenty, and I've heard this from multiple artists, that twenty-twenty was actually a great year for sales, for art because everyone's stuck in their home and everyone's looking at their walls and wondering, how can this be prettier?

(00:29:07):

And so it was a crazy year. We were all stuck at home, of course. And so we had, Lucy was two or she turned two later that year. But throughout the whole year of twenty-twenty, I did the map on this. I thought you'd appreciate the math. I ended up doing over 150 paintings, original paintings, and that was for some people would order multiple pieces, and that's almost a painting a day, which was bonkers. It was absolutely crazy. I don't recommend that to anybody. They were essentially, people do the painting a day challenge, and that's great. You can pause that at any time you want to. But these people would pre-order now, I'd say, okay, it's going to be done by this date. And I had an excel spreadsheet with the first orders that came in would be done in four weeks, and then so and so and so on.

(00:30:11):

So it was like, I felt like a machine that year. And it was great because it grew my business. People were sharing about it. I got new collectors, and it was really formative, I think, for my big collector base that year. And then by the end of the year, I said, I'm really tired and I still love painting, but I need to figure out how to have some passive income as well. And so at the end of 2020, I bought a giant printer instead of getting prints made through a third party company. And I hired an assistant who was, funny enough, the same intern that I had when I was shooting weddings, she's still a dear friend. I love her so much. But she and Brian, my husband, encouraged me to buy this massive printer. And they were like, it's going to pay for itself within the first year.

(00:31:10):

And I felt I hadn't made a huge purchase like that for my art business. And so I was terrified, but it paid for itself in six months. So it was amazing. So now we have passive income through the print shop, which has been huge. I've been able to keep an assistant for the past few years. I've had a few different assistants as people's lives change and they move on to beautiful things, which is incredible. But I always have someone helping to do all of the print shop, the printing and the packing, and then they pack all of my originals as well, come with me to shows. And so my business has shifted a lot from, I'm just going to paint whatever I want, and I kind of still just paint whatever I want. But it's a scalable business, which has been such a blessing and so fun to see, oh, the little goals and dreams that I had even a few years ago that felt so unattainable are starting to become reality. I've wanted to make scarves for years, and that's such a, I don't know, why didn't you just do it years ago? But I didn't feel like I had the pieces that would make good scarves. And this year we made scarves and it was like, oh my gosh, we finally did it. We're making the things and things. I don't know. It's been really sweet to see little dreams like that become reality

Shanna (00:32:34):

And tapestries. And you did the silos, I think last year, maybe.

Michelle (00:32:39):

I haven't done the silos, but from your mouth to God's ears, that would be amazing. I did round top last week though.

Shanna (00:32:48):

Okay. Yes,

Michelle (00:32:49):

Yes. Round top is still going this week. But I was there for two days at a pop-up and oh my gosh, Shanna. It was the coolest experience ever because if I were to have a show, like a solo show tomorrow, I know I'd have maybe a handful of people who would come, but they would already be my people. They would come because either maybe they liked me, I don't know, but they liked my work and didn't want to support me. But these were people who were shopping round top. They are shopping for original art. And it's the first time in a really long time that I've brought original art with me hoping that it would actually sell to an event. I do a couple events a year, but it's more of a ministry event. And so my smaller pieces like prints and calendars and scripture cards, those fly off the shelves, which is beautiful.

(00:33:40):

But as far as selling big original thousands of dollars pieces, I have not sold in person like that, I don't think ever. And so it was such a, I can't even explain to you. It was so sweet to have strangers walk into our tent, and there's so many different vendors, and there's everything from beautiful handmade aprons to quilt jackets and sunglasses, but then also linens and beautiful pottery, and then my art's on the wall. And it was like, well, I hope you see it. And then people would see it and they would come up to me and say, we really want that one. And I would look at them and say, really? Which probably the worst saleswoman for my own work. But it was so sweet. It was such a gift to kind of have that affirmation of, oh, what you're doing is good. And so yeah, it was probably the highlight of my career thus far, which is so sweet.

Shanna (00:34:44):

Michelle, I love listening to you talk about your art business because you just seem to enjoy it so much. And I'm a huge fan of your work and just you in general. But I do, of course, Shanna's going to go here because this is how my brain works. But I think there's something, me, I'm a planner. I love to set a goal. I love a sales goal. And it sounds like you've approached your business very differently. You guys didn't have to have the financial side of it to support your family. But I just want to say your business, I just want everybody listening to know it's a significant income. It's not nothing. It's probably a big part of your family's revenue, household income. So my question is in that for you personally, if we talk about relationship with money, or do you think the fact that you haven't had the financial pressure has given you the permission or has given you the freedom to be like, oh my goodness, you want to pop my away? Just the innocence almost of it or continuing the joy of it, whereas if you had to have a sales goal or if you had to have that pressure, maybe it would've taken some of that. I don't know. I'm just so curious because I want people to know you're making great income, you're making a salary probably more than you could go out and make somewhere else, but there seems to be such a low pressure in it. Would you say that's the case? Has that helped, has that for you mentally and personally and just been good?

Michelle (00:36:29):

Yes. No, there is a huge difference in pressure, and I actually think, well, I know the Lord is very kind, but there's so many ways that I'm grateful that I did photography first and art second, and one of them is actually my relationship with money. I felt like when I was making money as a wedding photographer, it's almost like the amount you charge for a wedding, there's a direct correlation with that, with the kind of wedding you're shooting, the level of style and vendors that you're going to work with. And so your value is a lot more. And so there's a lot of pressure in that. But it's also, Brian came up with this phrase last night, I did not. We were trying to describe how it's different, and he, gosh, what did he say? The price in wedding photography was a promise of the service you would deliver. And they said yes before you even gave them anything. And so there was this huge pressure to deliver.

(00:37:37):

And then now it's flip flopped. I create out of a place of freedom and then get to put a price on it based on something I've already, I've created it. And so there's more like an extra layer of separation between my value and money, at least in my mind. But also there have been times. So it does allow me to create out of a place of freedom 100% that my family is not dependent on my income, however, my assistant is. And so there have been months, she might be finding this out during the podcast, which is fine. There have been months where if it's, I had my second child last fall, and so there was a season where I was too pregnant and not feeling great, so I just could not prepare for the slow season that we were going to have when I was pregnant. And then postpartum, I was not capable of planning that. And so we tried to do everything we could as far as passive income, the print shop, and I say passive income, my assistant is still obviously doing the work for that, but

Shanna (00:38:55):

More scalable income.

Michelle (00:38:57):

It's way more scalable. But I wasn't creating something new. And my assistant is very much dependent on the work that I'm producing in a lot of ways. And so there have been months where we kind of just see the bank account get lower, and it's like, okay, the lord's going to provide, and I trust that somehow I'm going to be able to pay my assistant, because at this point, I'm trying to make money so that I can pay my assistant and I have an assistant so that we can keep the business running. But really, I love that I get to support someone else in my space. That's a huge blessing to me, but I know for every assistant that I've had that it's been the same for them. And so there have definitely been months like that where I'm like, okay, how else can we get creative?

(00:39:47):

What else can we do to make this happen? And then there are months where we've funded. We try to, my business priority when it comes, when we have income is we fund my assistant first, and then everything else on top of that gets put in other places after because I need my assistant. She's amazing and she's kind of first priority. And so I hope that makes sense. I definitely do create it out of a place of freedom, and I don't feel necessarily the pressure of having to provide food on the literal table. But yeah, it is different.

Shanna (00:40:27):

And I think that's so good to recognize for anyone listening, just what the pressure, how that motivates or demotivates you. So some people need that sales goal, they want that challenge. They like to be pushed. I tell Kyle all the time, this when I drive too, I'm like, if you get too close to me, I'm going to slow down. Don't push me. Do not pressure me to go faster. And it's like that with my business too. It's like if I feel freedom and low pressure, that's when I thrive. That's when the business thrives. That's when we really generate more money. But if I feel that's why we personally knowing that keep our overhead as low as possible because then we make more money. But it's because I know mentally when I feel the pressure of and that stress, it demotivates me. I get really scared.

(00:41:27):

I don't like that feeling. Whereas I've told this story before, but when I worked in finance, I had a mentor tell me that you should hire staff, get an office, because that pressure would make you work harder. And for some people, like my husband, I think that's probably true. That's probably the case. I can think of so many people that I know, so many entrepreneurs. That's probably true for me, that causes me so much stress. So thank you for sharing and answering that question. I just love, I think there's good, there's pros and cons of needing your business to make money. I think I see a lot of people who don't necessarily have to make money, maybe make decisions that aren't great for the longterm of their business, they price too low. But also I think knowing that personality, like with you, Michelle, it just sounds like you are able to create most of the time from a place of freedom, which for you, it sounds like mentally is just really good. I always love to ask in these interviews, what would you say is the best thing that you have learned about money?

Michelle (00:42:34):

I would say money, I think for me has been a means to grow. There's a lot I've done and creatively been able to do, and in my business that I wouldn't have been able to do if I didn't have some kind of cash. Like the

Shanna (00:42:52):

Machine, the printing machine?

Michelle (00:42:53):

Yes, we call him Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World.

Shanna (00:42:57):

That's fantastic. I

Michelle (00:42:59):

Love it.

Shanna (00:42:59):

You got to buy Mr. Feeny. I

Michelle (00:43:01):

Did got to buy Mr. Feeny. He's old and crotchety, but he truly does love us. Deep down. Printers hate me. I feel like they have a personal vendetta against me, so oh my gosh. Yeah, we've been able to buy the printer and all the materials and the ink that goes with that. But then also canvases. There was a whole series, a whole body of work that I was working on earlier this year. It's all sitting half finished in my studio. And for a while I felt guilty about it, but it just wasn't working. And maybe one day I will just gesso all over all of it and be able to use that stuff for a future project. There's a lot of things like that that if I didn't make money from one collection, I wouldn't be able to fund the next. And I think, yeah, money is a means to grow and being able to have some wiggle room to where you can, as an artist, I feel like that's super important to have space, to try new things and to fail, because that's part of the process.

(00:44:04):

If you're constantly, and I felt this way as a kid. And what's funny about all of this is I think when my mom listens to this podcast, she's going to be like, you never told me. But I had one sketchbook, and for some reason I didn't know that I could get another one. It was my one sketchbook. And so you can't fill it up because what happens when you fill it, you're out, you're done. And I don't know where that scarcity mindset came from. My parents are amazing people. I'm sure they never told me, this is your only sketchbooks. But I didn't use it up because I thought I had nothing else to use. And so having the ability to buy the next canvas is huge. And know that if it doesn't work out, you're going to be okay. You can either reuse it or trash it. And sometimes that happens more than I would like to admit, but, and just that money is a blessing to employees and family and being able to be generous and all of that is I feel that blessing more than I ever have, I think before in my life. And just being able to be an employer is really cool.

Shanna (00:45:17):

Yeah. Yeah. I love that so much. Before we go into a quick fire round, I always love to ask in a world that kind of asks us to do everything really well, be a great mom, be a great wife, be a great business owner, be a great employer or boss. How have you found harmony in the work that you do and the life that, how do you find that balance or that harmony between your work and your home life?

Michelle (00:45:50):

I think for me, I have learned, and I do not do this every day. I'm not saying that I do this every day, but I have to hold things really loosely with my business and with my creativity. There are some days when I pick up the most perfect flowers from the farmer's market or the flower market, and have a vision of what this painting's going to be like based on these flowers that are alive today. And then my kid will get his homestick from school, and it's like, okay, well, those flowers are going to look really great on my dining room table.

(00:46:29):

And I think just being okay with that and knowing I believe that the Lord has a purpose for everything. Some days it's harder for me to see that and will never know sometimes what that purpose is for that quote changed plan. But yeah, I think just holding things loosely and also having help, having my assistant, I have been able to hand over things to her that are not life-giving for me. And the things that are super stressful, like everyday social media posts or blocking in newsletters, packaging up every order, those are things that don't just disrupt the creative process and flow. They kill it. If I'm in the middle of something beautiful and have to stop to deal with a brown paper package, it's just a little bit torture. And so I'm really, really grateful to have help. I think asking for help used to be really hard for me, and I feel like maybe now I ask for help too often.

(00:47:30):

But yeah, I think that harmony or balance for me comes from just holding things loosely and also inviting for me, my studio. So we built onto the back of our house at the end of 2020, or actually it was in the middle of Covid. It was already in the works when Covid hit. So my studio is connected to my house, and I love it. I love that I can walk from my kitchen to my studio to do something really quickly while the kids nap, but also every now and then, my daughter wants to paint, and so I'll let her come in. We'll set her up. And that kind of balance for me of having my family involved in my work and in my art and their own art is beautiful, and it's super life-giving for me. Yeah,

Shanna (00:48:18):

I love that. Oh, man, it's been so fun to catch up with you. And I love the encouragement of, as entrepreneurs, so many of us we're dreamers. We have a vision of a life that we want and we go after it. And I think that's rare and special. And so often the business side, and I do this every day, I love the business side of business. I love creating profit and scaling and all those things, but never at the expense of the joy and the life. And just, Michelle, you've just encouraged me and I hope others listening to keep your hands open and enjoy the work. And sometimes the pressure of making it work and making the money and doing the things and getting the sales can overshadow just the joy of it. So it's been such a sweet reminder. It's just been so fun to talk to you. Let's go into a quick fire round. Sure.

Michelle (00:49:24):

Cool.

Shanna (00:49:25):

Okay. What is one thing you would be embarrassed if people knew

Michelle (00:49:30):

I really can't photograph my own work Very well.

Shanna (00:49:34):

Surprising. Very surprising.

Michelle (00:49:37):

It's sad. I should know how to do this. And just every time I go to photograph a new collection, I have to photograph it at least two more times. It's really bad, actually. It's frustrating. I'm like, you did this as your job. What is wrong with you? So, yep, there you go. It's out there now.

Shanna (00:50:00):

That's so interesting. Okay. I want to impact that more, but we're going to keep moving. Okay. Any regrets or wish you could do over moments?

Michelle (00:50:08):

This one's a little bit silly, but when I was maybe a couple of years in my studio was a small bedroom in our house, and it was on the other side of a closet where our stacked washer and dryer was. And I had this, it was kind of like a peg wall situation that I would hang my drying oil paintings on. And I was like, this is a great idea. There's nothing wrong with this situation until

Shanna (00:50:38):

I see where this is going.

Michelle (00:50:39):

My dryer would shake really badly. And there was a fairly large painting that fell off the wall while my dryer was running. The best part though was I liked it. I liked the painting, but it was very minimal. And I was like, no one's ever going to buy this. I'm just not even going to fix it. And then someone months later bought it and I was like, oh, no, now I have to fix it. So I really regret not fixing it then and there while it was still wet, because it was much harder to fix later I was able to do it, but it was very stressful. But they'll never know. They'll never know that it

Shanna (00:51:25):

Was like, unless they list, well, they'll never know which one it's, they'll

Michelle (00:51:28):

Never know which one it's, I'll never say

Shanna (00:51:30):

What a special story for that painting makes it even more special. That is hilarious. And the stacked washers and dryers, they Oh, they're no, they really get at it. Yes, they

Michelle (00:51:39):

Really do. They really do. It was a mess. Oh

Shanna (00:51:44):

My goodness. Okay. Lesson learned. Okay. Big win or pinch me moment.

Michelle (00:51:50):

Honestly, last week were on top. I think that was my pinch me moment, just to have strangers see my work for the first time and then decide to buy it. It was so cool. Yeah, I think it was just one of my first times to have original art on display. I sell online, I sell original art all the time, but it's people who have followed me for a while usually buying the bigger pieces.

Shanna (00:52:16):

Yeah, your work is so beautiful. Thank you. And I can imagine how sweet it is to make something. I hope that never gets old, to make something and then someone buy it. I mean, I feel that way with my courses. Of course. Of course. But yeah, that's something That's so cool. Okay. Best advice or just really good advice that you have received?

Michelle (00:52:43):

Well, I was thinking about this. It was something that a dear friend said to me when I was praying about moving from photography, moving away from it. And I was having a really hard time in that season, and I remember exactly where I was and where we were and how she said it. But she said, sometimes for something to grow, something has to die first in order to make way for the new growth. And that just made me weep. I was like, you're right. And in the case of my business, that was very true. I really had to close one thing in order to open another. But I'm a very amateur gardener and thinking about that, it's like even if you start a brand new garden bed, you're going to put compost in there that's like decaying stuff that will feed the growth of something new and beautiful to come. And so I've seen that to be true in so many ways in if I go from one style of painting or something to the next, it's like, okay, that is done. I'm going to move on to this new thing and just pray and hope it works. And if it does, great, if not, we've learned and we'll move on. It's just a constant growth and tiny death cycle that is healthy, I think.

Shanna (00:53:59):

Yeah, that's so good to remember. Nature gives us so many cute cues. And I love gardening too, and I love just, I mean, I'm not great at it, and I forget to water stuff half the time, but actually I'm just too lazy too. I don't forget. I'm just like me. That's fine. But just the resiliency of so many plants and then just seeing the natural cycle, it is a good reminder of we need to rest too. Yes. Okay, last quick fire and then we'll send it off. What are you working on now or one resource that you would like to share?

Michelle (00:54:32):

Yeah. I'm working on, I call them tapestries, we'll probably just at one point be called my work, but they came out of a day of play with a friend, and I think that's my favorite part of this work is it just came, I don't know, out of a little place of desperation. I was struggling with a lot of physical pain in my hands and wrists from when my son was a little bit little smaller. And then I was also painting these huge oil paintings that took a lot of physical strength. And I got really a little bit depressed and was like, I don't know how to paint. I don't know how to create anything without my hands. This is literally how I do my job.

(00:55:19):

And it was just this day of play with the dear friend. She was like, Hey, can we just play and use some random paint that you have lying around in your studio? And I said, yes. And I had this random raw canvas, and we just went to town. And then at the end of the day, I looked at what she created, and she is not an artist, but what she created was beautiful. And then she inspired me to try something new. And then I was looking at it and I said, this is good. Oh, I think this is where we're heading. And so that's what I've been doing for a few months there. It's more like color stories of flowers on raw canvas, and I call them tapestries. They're more like a wall hanging. I began them, but you can stretch them on stretcher bars, and they do look amazing, stretched and framed, but I love them as just a loose wall covering.

(00:56:13):

There's a lot of just symbolism in that I really love as well. But yeah, there's something about the rock canvas and the way that it absorbs the pigment. I just really love the process. I love the end result too. But the process of creating these is so fun and there's a lot of freedom in that, and it feels very loose, which I've had problems with getting way too tight in my paintings in previous seasons. So it's very sweet and I am super pumped about it, and I'll stop there. Otherwise, I'd talk your ear off about 'em.

Shanna (00:56:51):

Well, we'll put in the show notes where everybody can follow along. And I know I'm on your email collector's list so that I get all the early birds details of new things. So I already had heard about your tapestries, but we'll put in the show notes so everybody can, if they're interested in work, which they should be, they're so

Michelle (00:57:10):

Cool.

Shanna (00:57:12):

So Michelle, let's send it off with what would you tell yourself on day one, and I'm interested of day one of photography or art, let's go with art. What would you tell yourself on day one, closing that photography season and launching into art?

Michelle (00:57:36):

I think I would have loved to hear that even the little steps that you're going to take every day will make a really big difference in the long run creatively to paint every day, even if it's a mess, even if you're using expensive or cheap materials, it's all an investment in your future work, and it's really hard to see that when you're first starting. You feel like a mess, you feel like a hot mess. But yeah, I would say every moment of frustration and moment of joy, all of those get wrapped up into your eventual future work. And I don't think I'm anywhere close to, I wouldn't say done or I don't feel like I've made it, but I love this journey. I love the process, and I can't wait to see where my work and where I am as an artist, where we're all at in hopefully 30, 40 years.

(00:58:37):

I don't know. This feels like the very baby beginnings of it, but I also can see it's been six, seven years, six or seven years something. And so much can happen in that amount of time, and that's with two kids being born. And so I can look ahead and it feels like, whoa, kids will be at school in a few years and then that's your time to create gets exponentially more. I could go on and on about this, but I just feel like every small thing that you do matters and to just do it. And don't be afraid of that blank space, the clean, pristine, white canvas. Just go for it. Yeah.

Shanna (00:59:24):

Yeah. Well, I love that from your perspective. I can just visualize a blank canvas. There's so much probably pressure and that first stroke, I was thinking about it in the sense of also, we don't always feel like showing up. I don't feel like doing the work. And so often for me, I've found that if I just get started, the flow comes. And so there's so much beauty in what you said, just the little things add up time when you look back at time and you see how much was accomplished, but it felt slow in the process. Yes. So good. Well, thank you so much. It's just been a joy to spend time with you, and yet we haven't chatted since. I mean, I've been following your journey of course, but we haven't gotten to chat since you've really, really gone full time with art and had your babies and so much so this has been such a sweet time of catching up. Thanks for coming on the show, and thank you for your time. Thank

Michelle (01:00:20):

You so much, Shanna. This was awesome.

Shanna (01:00:22):

Hey, wildflower, you just finished another episode of Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast. Head over to Considerthewildflowerspodcast.com for show notes, resource links, and to learn how you can connect with Michelle. A little sunshine from our Wildflower of the Week, Erin. Finally, someone I align with. I love everything about this podcast from the interviews to Shanna's values. She's the first person I've come across that also believes you can build a business your own way without social media or following the strict advice of any one guru. Every episode is a breath of fresh air and proof that you can create the business of your dreams. She is inspiring me to push my boundaries towards my wildest dreams, to see what can be created and who I can help. I anxiously await each episode to see what nuggets will be dropped. Cannot recommend this podcast enough while erin. This totally made my day. Thank you for your kind words. All right, one final thought for today from Harriet Tubman. Every great dream begins with A dreamer. Always remember you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars, to change the world. As always, thank you for listening. I'll see you next time.