Fear of the Unknown to Studio Owner: Reintroducing Yourself After Service

In this episode of Exit Buddy: Veteran Stories to Guide You, Kathleen and Rachel sit down with Laura Hatcher, a veteran who served as a Navy Diver and intelligence officer before pivoting to professional photography. She opens up about the fear of not having a 5-10-15 year plan, and courageously turning her side-hustle photography passion into a full-time business—complete with walking into a stranger’s studio to ask for mentorship. Laura’s story is a reminder that transition often means reintroducing yourself to yourself, getting out of your own way, and drawing on your military arsenal of discipline and adaptability to build something new.

Chapters

• 01:50 – Navy Family Roots & Becoming a Diver
• 05:32  – Transition Fears & Redefining Yourself
• 10:56 – Getting Out of Your Own Way & Early Retirement Insights
• 13:28 – Pursuing Photography: From Boredom to Full-Time Business
• 15:25 – Finding a Mentor
• 17:20 – Military Skills as Entrepreneurship Foundation
• 19:01 – Laura’s Five Transition Takeaways

Key Takeaways

• Self-Reflection Isn’t Issued in Your Sea Bag: Transition starts with reintroducing yourself to yourself. Figure out what you’re truly passionate about—it may take a year or two after leaving service to clarify.
• Get Out of Your Own Way: Laura realized fear of the unknown and self-doubt were bigger barriers than any external obstacle. Especially for women, stop waiting until you meet 100% of the job or role description. Apply, experiment, and allow yourself to grow into opportunities rather than counting yourself out.
• Seek Mentors & Accountability Buddies: Laura walked into a stranger’s studio to ask for a mentor and eventually took over that studio space. Surround yourself with people who will challenge and support you, not just echo you.
• Leverage Your Military Arsenal: Discipline, strategic thinking, leadership under pressure, and sink-or-swim adaptability are transferable superpowers. When challenges arise in business or life, reflect on similar situations you’ve already mastered.
• Never Stop Learning & Stay Uncomfortable: Comfort is the enemy of growth. Keep taking classes, seeking feedback, and pushing into new skills—even when math or the unknown feels overwhelming. The military taught you not to quit.

Follow us for more real veteran stories to guide your transition, and share this episode with a service member staring at the unknown—remind them they already have the tools to build what’s next.

Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Exit Buddy: Veteran Voices, to stay updated and connect with other listeners and guests.

Until next time, keep reintroducing yourself—your Exit Buddy is right here with you.

#VeteranStories #MilitaryTransition #ExitBuddy

Visit us at https://exitbuddy.buzzsprout.com to learn more about the show.

Have feedback or questions for us? Email us at ashleyjones.creative@gmail.com.

Transcript

Laura Hatcher 00:00
We've been conditioned our entire career, especially if you stay in as long as I did, that you have to have everything in place, and you have to know exactly what's going to happen, and you have to be able to see yourself in five, 10, and 15 years. And once you retire, the fact that you cannot pinpoint in five years where you're going to be is a scary thing.

Kathleen Smith 00:20
Welcome to Exit Buddy: Veteran Stories to Guide You. This podcast shines a light on the real struggles and triumphs of veterans navigating life after the military.

Rachel Bozeman 00:30
In each episode, we dive into heartfelt stories of resilience, setbacks, a little humor, and growth as veterans transition and find new purpose in civilian life. And here for the journey, we're your hosts. I'm Rachel...

Kathleen Smith 00:44
...and I'm Kathleen. If you're looking for inspiration, practical advice, or just a reminder that you're not alone in your transition, Exit Buddy is here to help you thrive beyond the uniform. Enjoy today's story from our next honorary Exit Buddy.

Rachel Bozeman 00:59
Kathleen, you do such a great job of introducing people. Tell us who's here.

Kathleen Smith 01:03
Her name is Laura Hatcher, and she's with us today to share her story from being a Navy Diver and intelligence officer to becoming a professional photographer. Welcome to the studio, Laura.

Laura Hatcher 01:17
Thank you. I appreciate you guys inviting me. This is amazing.

Rachel Bozeman 01:21
We are so excited you're here, and really to just kind of ground our audience in all of your amazingness. Do you mind just telling us a little bit about your military days? Kind of some of those defining moments in that 31-year amazing career?

Kathleen Smith 01:41
And she doesn't look a day over 18. I don't know how this happened.

Rachel Bozeman 01:44
Well, I think it's because they maybe recruited her when she was two, and so that's probably what happened.

Laura Hatcher 01:50
Yes, actually, the joke in our family—Navy family—is I've been in the military all my blooming life. I did come from a Navy family, so I've actually been conditioned with white glove inspections from an early age from my sailor dad—my stepfather raised me. He was a disciplinarian, a Navy chief. He rose all the way to the rank of Master Chief, E-9, and then he went on to serve another 20 years in the federal government. I always felt that growing up with him was harder than going to the Naval Academy. I felt like the Naval Academy actually was a reprieve from the discipline that I grew up with in my military family. From the Naval Academy, they recruit and retain people who find academics and athleticism—being in shape and having core values—all those things that shape naval officers and Marine Corps officers. I fit in comfortably, probably because of those white glove inspections. Another 26 years commissioned, and I started off as a Navy Diver, because when I graduated from high school in the late '80s, my parents told me I can do whatever I want to do. And I took that to heart. When you're a young girl growing up in the late '80s, that means I can do whatever I want to do better than the boys who say I can't do whatever I want to do. So Navy diving for me was the only choice, because in those days and still today, the standards for men and women are identical, and I wanted to make sure that the men that I was standing shoulder to shoulder with knew that I was there because I could do as many pull-ups and push-ups and swim just as well as they could, and that the standards weren't different. That's the mind of a 22-year-old that has a large ego. Fast forward, as you start to get older, you realize there's more to life than showing up men. After my first tour, I switched over to Navy intelligence, and in my generation of Naval Intelligence, you become a jack of all trades. It was a great career. Been a dust over 26 years, but basically sea duty, shore duty, and I learned a lot. Lived in some amazing places, raised a family in that community, and those relationships last. That's actually what fuels me now—the relationships that you build as a veteran while you're in service.

Kathleen Smith 04:44
So after this phenomenal career, and obviously getting to go to some of the garden spots and not-so-garden spots of the world, you transitioned. As we know, we have sort of these defining moments throughout our careers that sort of say internally and externally who we are, and we then have to redefine ourselves. I'm actually learning you end up several chances in your career to redefine yourself. You have to actually get really good at the skills of what redefinition is. So what was it for you—redefining yourself and knowing what you did and you did not want to do in your post-military career?

Laura Hatcher 05:32
When I left, I knew all the things that I didn't want to do. I didn't necessarily know what I wanted to do. I think most veterans—I probably can speak that this is a very challenging time for us. We have to completely rebrand ourselves. Our service was our personal and business brand. We're representing a larger organization. Our uniform is our resume. I tell people—and I advise a lot of veterans today in my small business as a professional photographer—I'm doing transitioning headshots, headshots for military members that are leaving, and my couch becomes a therapy session. We end up talking way more than photography. We talk about the fact that I've gone through what they've gone through, which is the appeal. You are faced with trying to figure out what it is you want to do for yourself, and you don't realize it right away, but you can do anything. The only thing that's holding you back is the fear of the unknown or the risk. We've been conditioned our entire career, especially if you stay in as long as I did, that you have to have everything in place, and you have to know exactly what's going to happen, and you have to be able to see yourself in five and 10 and 15 years. Once you retire, the fact that you cannot pinpoint in five years where you're going to be is a scary thing. It's very unnerving. Overachievers like me—we find our jobs before we even retire. I actually already had a job before my terminal leave was over, because I was head of household and I still had three sons that were in school, and that was just pure fear driving that. I learned quickly that if you find a job that perhaps doesn't pay as well, but you can get passionate about it, and you match it to what you're already bringing in by waking up—the Navy's paying you to wake up—put those two together, you might actually be back within your means. That's what I did. I went and found a nonprofit job that I thought would be amazing because it was drawing on the skill sets that I brought to the table. But just the whole journey of finding that job was incredibly hard, because you have to redefine how you talk, how you present yourself. The things that you think are important don't actually translate to skills. Leadership is not a certification, but that's not the way we're raised. The Navy, the Army, all the services raise you to sink or swim. We never go to a job actually ready for it. You might get a little bit of training, but your entire career has been training you to take any job they give you. You just once you get there, you figure it out—which does not translate on the civilian side, as you both know.

Kathleen Smith 08:35
I want to dip back over to your nonprofit career, because before I was in recruitment marketing, I had a long career in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. It's interesting—people always think that working for a nonprofit is just all about passion and there's no drama and there's no difficult and there's no territories and there's no fighting, and we're all Kumbaya. Is that the way it really is?

Laura Hatcher 09:03
It's not all Kumbaya. You can get behind the mission—obviously, in my case, I don't want to speak ill of the organization—but the environment, the work environment, wasn't to my liking. I woke up six months in and realized that I was not enjoying myself. I dreaded going to work. One day, I called my best friend on the phone in tears, saying, "I can't do this. I don't like this. I'm not enjoying it. What should I do?" She's like, "Do what you do on the side, but do it full time." I had a side hustle with the photography, and I think I put all these things in front of me to prevent me from looking at doing what I really want to do based off of fear—that I wasn't going to make enough money to sustain because I've been conditioned I have to have a paycheck that comes in at the certain time every time. Well, I do. I now have a pension. You're just going to have to figure out how to implement that, but at the time, you don't realize it.

Kathleen Smith 10:02
So it is hard, because we have all of these lessons that are taught to us, either growing up or throughout the military or through our various different careers, that they're all external referral. They're all you need to have this title, this position, this house. I'm not going to talk about those of us outside the military, because we have our own issues with that, but I think that looking at not using those—and I'm really loving your words on this—not using those as those guidelines, those guideposts when you're crafting your new identity and crafting your new career—don't use those as guideposts, because that's only going to make you suffer more. I applaud you for following your passion.

Laura Hatcher 10:56
Kathleen, I just want to stress what you just said—now emphasize it from women. As women, we tend to look at a statement of work and say that we can't do it unless we can do 100% of it. This is one of the advice I like to give out to my transition veterans, especially women: You need to get out of your own way. You touched on the fact that when we have labels—for me personally, I retired as a very junior O-6 because I was operating on the premise from our generation that if I didn't go out and sell myself before the big five-oh, the big 50, that I wasn't going to be marketable. Now it's the only reason—one of the only reasons; there's a few others—but one of the main reasons why I retired early is because I felt like I was wasting time, that I wasn't going to get any better in the military. I need to rush out and get that big job before they remember that I'm 50 or over 50 at that point. That's all baloney. That's all our generation of parents telling us, just like you said. I just want to emphasize that, because we do. I think women are tougher on themselves than men are. Men can look at a job posting and say, "Oh yeah, I can do all of that," when in fact maybe 20% of it they actually do.

Rachel Bozeman 12:28
You are being generous with the 20%. We do see it all the time. Women do want 100%—they'll look at the requirements and say, "Oh no, I've only had 6.4 years, not seven years of experience." It definitely you see it all the time. I think it is a great reminder, as people are transitioning, get out of your way. I think that's fantastic advice, and you can do it. I love how you kind of started the conversation. You can be anything you want to be, and you can be—as long as you don't get in your own way. Laurie got me all motivated about so many things, but one in particular—I'm just so glad that you've been able to kind of weave it into the conversation here, talking about your passion and what continues going every day, and that's photography. I want to stop here and talk a little bit about just your experience with photography. How did you start? Where did this passion develop, and how did you turn it into the career that you've been kind of hinting at throughout this conversation?

Laura Hatcher 13:28
I don't have this amazing story that I've been doing it since I was little, because I just woke up one day, literally in 2015 as toward the end of my career, and said, "I'm bored"—which is my life story. That's why I have three sons, a Harley, a drone, a dog. I joined the state of the Navy's line. I get bored very easily. I just said, "I'm going to go learn something for myself." Here in Alexandria, Virginia, there's an amazing organization called The Art League, and it's a school—an art school within the Torpedo Factory, which is an art center on the waterfront in Old Town, Alexandria. I kind of also freaked out that first week because there was a lot of math. I don't do math. I don't do math in public or private. It just is overwhelming. I also went to an engineering school that was overwhelming. I said, "I don't think I'm gonna like this," but I stayed. I stuck through with it, mainly because the military teaches you not to quit. Quitting is frowned upon. At the end of it, I wanted more. I just loved having just moved to DC. I loved how this class introduced me to places that I wouldn't have normally gone to or knew how to access—like the National Cathedral, for example. You just can't walk into the National Cathedral and take pictures of their beautiful stained glass, but this teacher had access to that. Here I am, eight years later in my business, and I truly enjoy it because I'm back to doing what I love most, and that's serving others.

Rachel Bozeman 15:08
Love it. Just one other thing—you kind of mentioned that you went into a class. Did you ever have a mentor or somebody that just kind of continued to spark the fire and keep you going outside of your go-get-it attitude? Anyone else that may have served as a mentor or coach throughout this passion?

Laura Hatcher 15:25
I basically walked into a photography studio and asked the woman that was sitting there—I mean, walked in off the street—and I said, "Hi, I aspire to be where you are. Will you be my mentor?" She's looking at me like, "What? You just walked in off the street. Who are you, lady?" I explained to her, in the military, we don't make it to where we are without having accountability buddies, sponsors, mentors. They're all different—they all serve different purposes. I asked her, "I'm just starting out. I would love to be where you are in the future. Would you—I'm not going to stalk you—I just I'd like to come to you from time to time and ask questions." Ironically, three years later, that was the studio that I took over when she decided to retire. Her name is Katie Garlock, and she's amazing. She basically introduced me to just a higher level of thinking—about value, obviously, about my time and expertise. It's great, because if you surround yourself with people that are like you, you're never going to improve. You're just going to perpetuate the mistakes that you're making. If you embrace that other people can offer you lessons that you can learn from—not take advantage of them, obviously—if they need to be compensated for the time, be willing to do that, because they took years to get to the level that they're at. I wanted to respect that, but she was amazing.

Kathleen Smith 17:05
We talked earlier about managing money and the things that the military taught you. What has your military officer experience sort of helped you set up your business world and become a business owner?

Laura Hatcher 17:20
Looking back now, I absolutely can see how any service—whether you're enlisted or an officer—is a foundation from entrepreneurship: having discipline, strategic thinking, the fact that I had been in so many leadership positions as an executive officer, a commanding officer, an officer in charge. All of those required pretty much the same skill sets I'm using now. When I get into situations where things are either going well or not going well, I can tell that I'm drawing on things that I did when I was in the service—all of those things I learned how to do from when I joined at age 17 and was just honed all the way through my entire career. They become second nature, so that when you plug into whatever it is you decide to do—and I think that's true for anyone, whether you're going into business or going into somebody else's organization—you're going to start drawing on things that provide comfort, because you understand, okay, I may not have seen this particular problem, but I've seen something similar to it, and you're going to reflect on, "What did I do before?" It's just wonderful once you see it, once you acknowledge that you have an arsenal—you have the foundation—you just got to remember how to draw from it.

Rachel Bozeman 18:44
That makes complete sense. I love the way that you described it, with kind of the arsenal of what's available to you. But do you mind sharing anything else, or do you have anything else that you want others to hear that's just so important as they're transitioning—kind of helping them prepare? Any more advice that you want to give out there?

Laura Hatcher 19:01
My friend, absolutely. I have five transition takeaways that I kind of keep and share. The first one being that self-reflection in the Navy was not issued in my sea bag. You are taught how to reflect and how to understand yourself. The first thing you're going to have to do when you leave the military is reintroduce yourself to yourself—figure out what you're passionate about. It's not going to happen overnight. In my case, it probably happened maybe a year or two removed from actually leaving. The second thing we've already talked about is getting out of your own way—getting out of your own head—and that starts with how you talk to yourself. It's important not to limit the way you think based off of the way you talk about yourself. When you introduce yourself, it wasn't Laura Hatcher, "I'm a struggling artist" or "I'm an amateur photographer." It's "I'm a photography owner" or "studio owner," "I'm a professional photographer"—but it took me a while to actually follow my own advice. Then leverage your resources, because as veterans, we have so many—it's overwhelming how many resources we have. Most of them are good. Some of them are predatory—not so good—but there are plenty out there. Never stop learning is my fourth one. Just because you think you're comfortable, you need to learn how to be uncomfortable, because there's so much more to learn. The last one, I would say—which we already touched on—is to seek mentors and accountability buddies. By accountability buddies, I mean people that understand your journey and support you. They're not tearing you down, and they're asking you, "Have you done X? Have you done Y? You said you wanted to do this. How's that going?" Because when you are only answering to yourself—and I love my boss, she's amazing—but sometimes she doesn't hold me accountable. So I need some outside influence.

Kathleen Smith 21:14
That's why you need an Exit Buddy. Exactly—always need an Exit Buddy. Well, Laura, thank you so much for sharing your journey and your story. I love your five takeaways. That's really great. Thanks for joining us in the studio today. It was really great talking to Laura—entrepreneur, business owner—providing us a lot of advice on self-reflection. That's my big thing. I'm so thrilled that we've had a guest—we've had a few—but she really honed it in on self-reflection. When you make this major transition, you got to get to know yourself again. You've changed from when you went into the military to when you're coming out of the military. Rachel, how about you?

Rachel Bozeman 22:00
There was so much that I really appreciated about the conversation. I liked kind of just her layout of how she got in there, how she got into the career. It was just learning, leaning into what she knew from her family, but then taking it up a notch and not being predisposed to say "I can't," but really leaning into "I can do whatever I want to do." I think that served her well throughout not only her career but in her current job—being willing to walk into a studio to a complete stranger and saying, "Hey, I like what you do. I want to be you when I grow up. Will you be my mentor?" I thought was just such great advice to say mentors come in all shapes, sizes, fashion, anywhere. You just have to be willing and get out of your own way—to borrow Laura's words—to make sure that you can be successful. Awesome, awesome conversation. Thanks Laura for joining us today, and thank you all for listening and tuning in. Make sure you follow us so you can catch every episode and be one of our Exit Buddy friends. Also get out there and subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter—you're going to find all the links in our show notes. Till next time, bye.