How this Single Mom went Full Time After Losing her Job

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Summary

In this conversation, Charity White shares her inspiring journey from being a part-time photographer to a full-time portrait photographer in Chicago. After losing her job, she decided to pursue her passion for photography, despite the challenges of being a single mom. Charity discusses overcoming her limiting beliefs as an introvert, the importance of empathy in her work, and how she balances motherhood with her career. She also highlights the transition to a full-service photography model, which significantly increased her income while allowing her to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Throughout the conversation, Charity emphasizes the importance of mindset, support, and the joy of serving clients through meaningful photography experiences.

Takeaways

• Charity transitioned to full-time photography after losing her job.
• She struggled with limiting beliefs about her introverted nature.
• Empathy plays a crucial role in her photography business.
• Balancing motherhood and work requires daily adjustments.
• Transitioning to full-service photography increased her income significantly.
• Mindset shifts are essential for overcoming challenges.
• Charity involves her daughter in her photography business.
• Building meaningful client relationships is key to success.
• Coaching helped Charity gain confidence in her business.
• Charity emphasizes the importance of faith in her journey.

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Transcript

Christa (00:00.906)
Welcome everyone. I'm so excited to be back today with another past student who is just so amazing and has such an incredible journey that we're excited to share. So Charity Whitephoto is here. She is a portrait photographer based in Chicago, Illinois. Welcome Charity.

Charity White (00:18.668)
Hi Krista, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you again.

Christa (00:22.67)
my gosh, I'm so pumped that you're here. You just have always had such a special place in my heart. I've loved following you a long since uncapped and just seeing an inner circle, seeing everything that you're doing and growing. And there's so many cool things about your story that I know will resonate so well just from losing your job, making the shift to going full time, scaling from there, even feeling introverted and having success with this. So.

Charity, tell us about your story a bit and just when you decide that you're really chump, head in to photography full time.

Charity White (00:56.078)
Yeah, so I've been a photographer since I was maybe a teenager. So a long time of just doing it on the side as a passion for a long time. But I did not jump in full time until about two years ago, I think almost now. And that just came about because yeah, it was a difficult situation. I wound up losing my job. I'm sort of surprisingly in 2022, I had, you know, long story, but I had just recently moved back to Chicago area where I grew up after being gone for a while. So I was

kind of newer to the area. I had just finally gotten myself a new apartment. I was a single mom to then three year old. And so everything seemed like it was just, it was great. I had great benefits and a job and then really suddenly lost it. And so I found myself just in this place of like, what am I going to do now? I need either a new job or if we got a way to make photography work. And so after a long time of trying to find a new career path that basically was realizing like,

I wasn't going to be able to find something that was going to take care of us the way I needed unless I worked like two full-time jobs. And I just wasn't willing to sacrifice that much time away from my daughter in these formative years of her childhood. I wanted to be a mom. I wanted to be home more. so I honestly, I just started mulling around the idea of like, OK, well, I have this photography skill. I've been doing it for a long time. I've always dreamed of being a full-time photographer. Is it possible that I could just

take the dive kind of, and this is the opportunity maybe I've been needing or the push that I've needed to step into it. I spent some time even just praying about it. Like if this is where God wants me to go, then I want to be obedient, but it was obviously very scary to think about. And so again, this decision was sort of out of desperation. Like I really needed it, but I also had a passion for it. So I was driven, I was motivated, and I was...

I kind of just didn't scared, know, okay, well, my unemployment benefits are about to expire. I don't have a new job lined up. This is all I've got. And so I've got the skill photography. Let me see how I can make this work. The only issue was I knew at that time I was, you know, what we call a shooting bird photographer where I was just charging a few hundred bucks for sessions and I

Christa (03:06.974)
Yeah.

Charity White (03:10.402)
doing the math, I'm like, this is actually not sustainable, especially with me being new in this area. have no clients. Nobody knows me. I don't have the volume to pull from. So there's no way I can sustain this off of these small sessions. I have to find a way to charge my worth, you know, make some more off of this and serve my clients in a better way. So that's sort of what led me to figuring out, know, okay, I need to get some education on this. What do I do? Where do even start?

And then enter Krista, your ad popped up in my feed and it was like, well, hello. This is what I came to say. So that's how that came about. And then I did your free webinar. I ultimately decided to invest in coaching with you. And that was the first time in my life that I've ever actually invested in any formal coaching. Yeah, I had done free, you know, freebies and YouTube education for the longest time. But this is the first time I was like, think

Christa (03:41.95)
Hahaha!

Christa (03:47.177)
That's amazing.

Christa (03:57.833)
Really?

Charity White (04:06.414)
I need my hand held here. need some help because I don't even know where to start with this. And so it wanted to be an amazing decision.

Christa (04:15.657)
I can't imagine charity like how high the stakes felt and like that pressure. You know, I know some are like, I'll scale my business and maybe there's no pressure or income wise, they're still set in other ways. But like, could you dig into that a little bit? Like speak to like just that feeling. So I know there's some listening to this that really could be in that exact same spot.

Charity White (04:36.578)
Yeah, was, it's not a fun place to be in for sure, you know, when you're kind of in that desperation, but it does, it does fuel something in you, you know, and I've, I've heard that from other, other photographers or business owners as well, where sometimes you just may need to be in that place of, desperation where it just helps you to just kind of, all right, I need to do this and I'm going to dive in and I'm just going to believe that I can, even if I have no idea what I'm doing.

It was sort of a last resort. I've heard coaching before of like, if you're gonna go full time, well, make sure you have this lined up and this and this and make sure you've got this plan in place. Well, for me, I did not have the luxury of a plan. It was kind of thrown in my lap. And yet I did have some savings and I did have some people sort of supporting it and saying, hey, maybe this is what you've needed all along. So like, why not, guess.

So just having that encouragement and I think it was just yeah, mindset shift too of like I can do this. I've got to, I have to.

Christa (05:38.889)
Yeah, you have to. And that's amazing that sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom for us to see what's ahead. And I can't imagine how all the emotions that you were feeling, but you just mentioned mindset there. And I know we chatted before this, and you were like, I am more on the introverted side. So how did you utilize that, even stepping out from that, and even share about the experience that you began offering to clients to grow in tandem with that?

Charity White (05:57.25)
Yes.

Charity White (06:09.388)
Yeah, it's really interesting. realized most of my life I've had this really limiting belief about myself in terms of my personality and who I am and what I'm capable of. And I don't know if that comes from childhood, lots of different mixed factors that come into that too. But also just being in the photography world and entrepreneur space for so many years and seeing so many successful people, I think I just naturally started.

comparing myself to those who were successful and matching myself up against them. You they're type A, they're super extroverted, they have their hands in a million things, they have this like super brain that can just handle this stuff. They're very assertive and talkative and dynamic and I'm not that, so therefore, fill in the blank, I must not be the right person to do something like that. And so before even trying, know, putting myself in this box of I'm just not gonna be able to do this.

Type B, I'm more go with the flow, I'm an empath, I'm the more compassionate peacemaker and feeler and all of that. And I just, don't think I have what it takes to be a business owner, right? And I just had to, you know, I did some coaching outside of you with someone else also who helped me to like really face this, you know, just limiting belief I've had about myself and figure out where's that coming from? Why do I believe that? And how do I tackle this and squash these lies? And honestly,

Christa (07:24.69)
Mm.

Charity White (07:31.726)
One thing too was also like taking my faith into consideration and as a believer, right? I have to align my thoughts and my beliefs with God's word. Like where on earth are we ever put into a box or a category based off of our type of person that we are, our job descriptions or our career paths, right? In fact, I saw God do the opposite, taking people who seem wildly unqualified and putting them in these big roles, right? So sort of just leaning into that, like,

Christa (07:56.7)
Yeah.

Charity White (08:00.694)
And also then changing the mindset of, well, these traits of mine are not disqualifications or disadvantages. They're assets. They are capabilities that I have and can use for my business, my brand, and my personal clients. So, you know, the compassionate empath side of me has allowed me to actually have these really meaningful connections with clients as they are, you going through the design consult process with me. We're planning their session.

Christa (08:09.125)
Yeah.

Charity White (08:28.748)
getting to know their story, we're building relationships to then, you know, my easygoing manner helps me to be really comfortable with people when I'm shooting them and put people at ease, you know, to then having people come into my home and have an ordering session with them. And my daughter's running around and it's just a comfortable, like, I want it to be a warm and hospitable, fun environment for people. And I've gotten feedback as such, right? And so, yeah, I've just sort of like,

Christa (08:41.402)
I love that.

Charity White (08:58.93)
used, you know, tried to use these parts of me as a skill, as an asset, as the gift that they are for who I am to serve my clients and give them a really personal experience.

Christa (09:12.977)
That's amazing. So you definitely believe that introverts can still be good service providers full service.

Charity White (09:18.882)
He do, absolutely, yes.

Christa (09:20.356)
Yeah, I love that charity. That is so beautiful and I love how you mapped it out. And I also loved how you said it's just like a relaxing environment for clients. think sometimes we're so hard on ourselves thinking it needs to be like absolutely polished and we have to be perfect. And it's it does it like off. So you're shooting a lot in the family space, right? So they get it. It's like I'm right there with you.

Charity White (09:39.48)
Yes.

Charity White (09:43.586)
Right. Yeah. And something that you had, you you and I had also talked about was just me also not feeling like I knew how to do sales or like I would ever be really good at it. And that being a huge block for me, even in just switching to in-person sales of like, my goodness, I'm not going to be able to, I don't want to sell to people. I don't want to feel slimy. I don't want to push people and pressure them. I'm just not that kind of person. That's why I will never be successful at this. But, you know, the way we talked about it being a journey we're taking clients on.

Christa (09:52.103)
Hmm.

Christa (10:07.761)
Yeah.

Charity White (10:12.75)
a service we're providing them, meaningful memories, a legacy we're helping them preserve, those sorts of things. So instead of looking at it as like a salesy thing, looking at it as a service, right? And as something we are really helping with clients. And I've seen that played out in incredible ways. I can think of one really quick example. I just did a session two weeks ago for a husband who called me and said that his wife was just diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Christa (10:35.11)
Yeah

Charity White (10:41.234)
and they wanted a photo session in their home, which would be probably their last photo session together. so just stepping into their home, was such a heavy but beautiful and emotional time. And I was able to, it just didn't even feel like a client, right? It was just like, I'm part of the family here. Like I'm just coming into their space, telling their story, and then was able to help them, you know, put together an album.

and some frames and prints and these products that are going to live on after she passes and just be such a meaningful piece in their home for them. The parents got to be involved and get something for their home too. And it was like, this is something I wouldn't have been able to do if I just was still shoot and burn, right? And then that responsibility falls on this grieving family who then has to figure out how to go online and order something and it's not great quality. And so to be able to just take the reins and say, I've got this, I'm gonna help you.

Christa (11:26.63)
Hmm.

Charity White (11:38.536)
just, felt incredible, felt amazing. And it was just a reminder of like, okay, this is why I do this.

Christa (11:45.102)
Exactly, and I think Charity, like in really heavy situations like that, it's like also such a good reminder of why we have photos, right? Of like, they weren't just meant for the cloud or a post, like they weren't meant to hold and enjoy. And I think we see that even more in really intense situations like that. And that's incredible that you could serve them that way. And also I was thinking as you were talking,

Charity White (12:07.022)
Absolutely.

Christa (12:13.67)
can imagine how the Lord used that where your empathetic side was just the perfect fit for that family in that situation. They don't want someone to come in all peppy who's like, yay, let's go. It's a heavy situation. And coming to the client in that place and serving them, did you feel any of that at all, that your personality, even being more introverted, was even a better service to them than someone else could be?

Charity White (12:24.76)
Yeah.

Charity White (12:37.368)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think they even mentioned that themselves personally, like this couldn't have been anybody else. I got the chance to pray with them at the end of the session and it was just really beautiful. was, yeah, I was able to just be a listener, know, kind of just move around the room slowly, quietly. were a couple of times there were tears and so to be able to step back and allow that moment to happen, you definitely need to, yeah, you have that empath side to just let the moment happen and.

and allow them to feel safe in that moment too.

Christa (13:09.958)
What a gift charity and how you're able to use that with like maybe at one point you thought could be a disadvantage and now you're able just to serve and show love so well. So girl, I know you're doing a lot. You're one of those people that we had even chatted about everything on your plate. You had mentioned you're a single mom. So you're the primary caretaker for your daughter and balancing the photo side of things and running around doing all of that.

And I know that we have several moms listening, some single, some not, but that are just balancing and juggling a lot of hats. And I was wondering if you could just take a second to maybe speak to that mom out there that is hearing your story thinking, my gosh, I would love to do what Charity is doing. How on earth is she able to do all of the things?

Charity White (13:56.556)
Yeah, well, it is hard and I just, again, I empathize with that struggle. I don't think, know, looking back, if I would have known exactly how to like lay out this, how to do it all, right? I think we just have to step into one day at a time. And when people ask me how I do it all, that's all I can really say is it's one day at a time. There are many times where I feel like I'm not able to do all the things, but I have to just sort of put

Christa (14:02.297)
Yeah.

Charity White (14:26.296)
things in buckets, right? And just, okay, this is work time. This is my mom time when I turn off my devices and I'm just present, you know? And if I have to work in the evenings, I work in the evenings late sometimes. And so it's, it's been, you know, sometimes it just varies day to day, right? Like what I feel like personally, what my energy level is, what I can do the way the day goes with, you know, like Monday, my daughter was sick. So I was home with her and I had to just pivot and just work from home and do what I could, which was very little. So

Christa (14:45.326)
Absolutely.

Charity White (14:55.456)
It's just one of those things, it's like it seems impossible or it seems too big of a mountain to handle, but once you're in it, you just, especially if you have the motivation and the necessity and the drive and the passion for it, you're just gonna, you'll figure out a way. So I've, I utilize calendar sometimes, I write down my tasks, check them off as I go. Otherwise, I will forget because there's no way I could remember all the things I have to do.

Christa (15:18.392)
Yes. Yeah. Wow.

Charity White (15:21.582)
So, and then just being specifically a single mom, you know, I do have some limitations with childcare and with what I can do. You know, I have a couple hours of her at kindergarten, but after that, it's just me and her. if I can't, this is just personal to me, but I've actually pulled my daughter into my business quite often. And she's done like a part of it with me, which has been really fun. So.

Christa (15:29.156)
Hmm.

Christa (15:45.412)
I love that.

Christa (15:49.441)
Wow.

Charity White (15:49.624)
you mother, like feeling like I need a sitter forever situation, I kind of just decided, you know what, let me just, bring her along with my session and clients are okay with that. And sure enough, she has come along on so many sessions with me or sat in on meetings, you know, and she, she loves it. She gets involved. She takes behind the scenes video footage for me, literally. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Christa (15:57.312)
Yes!

Christa (16:10.852)
Charity! You got your built-in assistant!

Charity White (16:16.024)
Sometimes she'll just, she's an extrovert. She'll run into the photos with my families and just, you know, get in the family shot with them. And so I've found, you know, again, taking what I believe could have been a limitation and using it as something positive and good. And it's been fun for my clients too, to just like be involved in that. And I've gotten good feedback from it. haven't, you know, I think we have this, maybe this like corporate expectation of like kids are meant to be at home and out of the picture, right? And I'm like, well,

Christa (16:42.69)
Yes.

Charity White (16:46.174)
I'm this is who I am a mom. I've got a I'm a mom. I have a busy life. I have a kid, you know, I sometimes I have to bring her with me if that's okay with you guys. And I always get the feedback of like, yeah, that's totally fine. That's awesome. We love her like bring her along. That's great, you know. So that's been a huge, huge, you know, really great thing. I've enjoyed a lot just and also just the example I get to set for my daughter to like, is what it means to work hard like to serve people and she gets to see my drive and we talk candidly about

Christa (17:01.123)
Yes.

Christa (17:09.558)
Exactly.

Charity White (17:16.226)
you know, money sometimes and working hard. And then, yeah, so she gets to see that part of me too, which is fun.

Christa (17:23.428)
how cool that she gets to see her mom building her dreams. I was listening to a success mentor who one time said that of, know, moms, if there's something that you are driven and want to build, don't not do it because you have kids. Instead, show them when you tell your daughter, which we'll link your Instagram and the show notes, but y'all, Charity's daughter is the freaking cutest. And also, I just want to reiterate, like, if you follow Charity or know Charity,

you know, her daughter has a special place in her heart and life. It's not at all like her daughter is taking a back seat. Like she is your priority and it is so evident just talking with you your first conversation and seeing you from the outside. So we'll link that, but like how cool when you tell your daughter like, chase your dreams, she's gonna be able to see you as the example of that. And then I kind of wanted to end with this charity, almost like a members focus. Again, for the mom who's maybe like, can't afford to shift to shoot and burn.

Sorry, shift off of shoot and burn to full service. Maybe like my time is really limited. Like, could you end with sharing your average before being full service and then after and what that's allowed you to do?

Charity White (18:30.094)
Yeah, absolutely. So I started in middle of 2023, probably, where I switched everything over to a new model. And at that time, I took in maybe eight families, I think. Again, my volume is lower just because of still trying to build up all my clients around this area. But my average at that time was, I think, just under $700 that I was making per session. Fast forward to 2024, I did around the same number of shoots.

Christa (18:36.866)
Okay.

Charity White (18:59.896)
but my average for family sales actually jumped up to 3,200.

Christa (19:05.858)
Wow. So big income increase without having to shoot more and more.

Charity White (19:07.362)
Yeah, pretty.

Yeah, that's the amazing thing about it. Because I mean, like, if you look at the numbers or the volume, I'm like, oh, man, I need to bring in more clients. need more. You know, I've to get the word out there. And marketing is, of course, you know, probably the hardest part to actually bring people in. But to be able to shoot the same amount of people, but to make, you know, three, four times more is just been incredible. If you would ask me two years ago, if I would have been able to do something like that, I would have just laughed like there's no way.

Christa (19:37.442)
And then here you are and like you've proven to yourself and you've showed up and did the work I'm not gonna let that slide if it wasn't an overnight thing like you consistently did the work

Charity White (19:48.846)
Yeah, still learning still have a lot to work on and grow in for sure. But it's very encouraging. like it feels, I think it feels like once you get over the hump of like, the mindset stuff, which honestly is something you're constantly having to work on. For me, it's literally daily, ongoing. But once you work through that and get some of the structures or the format or the pricing all in a line and start getting on a roll a little bit, it does start to feel like the sky's the limit, you know.

Christa (19:52.802)
Yeah.

Christa (19:58.892)
Hmm always ongoing. Yeah

Charity White (20:16.27)
Okay, well, can continue growing this. Okay, now I have the confidence. I know I can do this. How can I fine tune it a little bit? What can I do better? How can I continue finding these clients and serving them well? How do I keep this going? Right? So that's what the motivation now that keeps me going is it's not really actually about money. It's about, I do need to take care of my daughter, but I'm not out to be a serial entrepreneur. I don't have to be. And that was the cool thing about this whole, you know, facing these limiting beliefs on me is I don't have to have this.

Christa (20:30.249)
amazing.

Charity White (20:45.804)
serial entrepreneur mindset. I just wanted to care of my family and my girl. I'm going to find the best way to do that. And it is possible. I could do this. So, and with God's help, of course, I'm going to say like, I have done none of this without the Lord's help.

Christa (20:54.955)
I love that.

Christa (20:59.434)
Absolutely, absolutely, Charity. For someone who resonated with this, who wants to reach out and thank you, follow along, see your work, where's the best place they could connect with you?

Charity White (21:09.038)
and most active on Instagram. So can find me at Charity White on Instagram. Yeah.

Christa (21:14.699)
Perfect, we'll link that in the show notes. Charity, thank you so much for coming today and being a part of this. I'm just so grateful for your time.

Charity White (21:20.568)
Thank you, Krista. I'm so grateful for you as well.