6 - Building a Business Around Family & Freedom: Annie Hock Photography

Nestled in the heart of St. Augustine, Annie Hock Photography captures more than beautiful images—she preserves stories, milestones, and memories that last for generations. Annie shares her journey from a graphic design background and homeschooling mother to building a thriving photography business spanning California, South Carolina, and Florida. What began as a creative outlet photographing her own children organically evolved into a successful career rooted in connection, authenticity, and artistic expression.

This conversation explores entrepreneurship, motherhood, faith, creativity, work-life balance, and the courage to pursue a passion that doesn't always follow a traditional path. Annie opens up about building a business while raising a family, navigating burnout, finding mentors, trusting God's direction, and creating a life that feels aligned with her values. A heartfelt episode for entrepreneurs, creatives, photographers, and anyone seeking the confidence to follow their calling and build a life beyond their dreams.

Connect with Annie Hock on Instagram: @AnnieHockPhotography

Chapters
00:00 The Journey Begins: From Hobby to Profession
05:59 Transitioning to South Carolina: A New Market
12:06 Finding Balance: Creativity vs. Business
17:20 The Power of Collaboration
20:54 Navigating the Photography Business
25:10 The Journey of Entrepreneurship
29:37 The Art of Letting Go
30:58 Capturing Moments: The Art of Photography
32:02 Transitioning Businesses: From California to South Carolina
33:27 Adapting to New Markets: The Photography Business
34:53 The Importance of Personal Branding in Photography
36:03 Building Human Connections Through Social Media
38:00 Finding Your Passion: The Journey of Self-Discovery
40:08 The Role of Education in Career Choices
41:53 Breaking Free from Traditional Career Paths
43:59 Encouragement for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
47:20 The Importance of Encouragement
48:16 Finding Your Passion and Avoiding Burnout
49:14 Understanding Yourself Through Personality Tests
50:23 The Unexpected Transformations of Business
51:23 Creating Family Connections Through Meals
52:17 Inspiration from Balanced Women
53:22 Faith and Trust in Life's Journey
54:19 Handling Challenges with Grace
55:25 Defining Accomplishments in Life and Business
56:14 Advice for New Entrepreneurs
57:21 The Value of Mentorship
58:17 Living Your Dream Life
59:21 Advice for Those Struggling in Business

Connect with Host Leandra Sweet: @TheSoulLedSessions

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:22

It's about those people. The stories behind the business and fall in love with not just what they've created, but it's really tough to get there. The fists, the fits, the moments that change everything. And what it actually looks like to build a life that feels a lot of these conversations are here to connect you to the heart of entrepreneurship and maybe even to what's possible for your own life. We're here with Annie Hawk from Annie Hawk Photography. So nice to be in your beautiful space. Thank you. With your beautiful photos. Thank you. I'd love to hear a little bit about you and your business to get started.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Yeah, well, um I've been in business for 15 years. I started in California kind of happenstance 2011. I had just had my second kid. And my husband, well, I'll just preface it. We lived on 10 acres in the middle of nowhere. Oh wow. Probably like a half an hour from the coast. And we had some friends here and there. But actually, what had happened was it was 2008. The crash had happened. Oh, yeah. And so we were forced to move from our cutesy like downtown San Luis Obispo apartment out to the woods, basically. And in the middle of nowhere, where we had a shop and a house on the same property because my husband's a woodworker. So we had to consolidate.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

And it two kids at the time. Two babies.

SPEAKER_03 1:50

And I was super lonely. And um, my husband brought home a camera for me one day. He knew that I was into it in high school.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

And I've always talked about photography and wanting to do more of it. I majored in photography and graphic design. And I picked graphic design over photography because I figured I would have more job opportunities. Which was which was probably smart, but I didn't do anything with it, so I should have done photography. Um, so fast forward, yeah, we didn't have a lot of money. It was the the crash had happened. And so we brought home a brand new my first ever digital film, a digital camera, not film. Oh cool. And that was in 2011. And from then on, I just started taking pictures of my kids, posting them on Facebook. And people are like, oh my gosh, can you do my family photos? Could you do my senior my kids' senior photos? And I was like charging 50 bucks, sometimes nothing. But you gotta start somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

I feel like every photographer probably has that same story experience and you gotta build a portfolio, so it was worth it.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

Yeah, and then I shot my first wedding soon after that. Wow. It was like a four-hour um probably I think they paid me 600, 300 or 600. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

You booked the same way, like they saw you on social media.

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Yeah, it was a friend of a friend who was like, Hey, my sister's getting married, and um she's a photographer.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

It was just kind of happened. Nice, it just happened. So you just fell into it.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

Yeah, so that was 15 years ago. Fell into it. Um, and really never planned to be, I mean, never planned on being a wedding wedding photographer. Really? In my head, wedding photographers were stuffy, they wore, you know, suits and they made everyone pose really corny. And I'm like, why would I ever want to do that? Hence why I went into graphic design versus photography, because I was like, Well, how can you make a living doing photography? Right. You can't like a handful of people get to work for National Geographic or you know, Rolling Stone. Like, I would have loved to be like an Annie Liebowitz, but like she's one in a million way, right? And so I decided to go the safe route and do the graphic design. Worked in graphic design two years, hated it two years, and that was it. Hated sitting behind a desk. I'm so like suited to this profession because I get to be out and about working with people and I can edit anywhere. I can go to a coffee shop. If I'm bored of being home, I can go to a coffee shop and work.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

And so you love that atmosphere, just switching it up every now and then. Oh, yeah, yeah. Being out and about. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 4:09

I'm an Ennegram 7. I have to have like a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Yeah. I used to say I'm Jack of all trades, uh, master of none, but now I am a master of something. Oh really funny. Because um, yeah, I wouldn't have I wouldn't have thought that about my future.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Right. Just knowing me, I'm like ADD. And you've had your 10,000 hours. My husband always says you're an expert.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 4:31

For 10,000 hours of something. So you're editing and you're on the end and you're shooting and 11 years. What'd you say? 11 years? No.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

15 years. Yeah. Start in 2011.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Easy.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Yeah, I wonder. That's a really good question to know. Like, how many hours have I actually put in the field?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

That'd be impossible to tell.

SPEAKER_03 4:50

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

As self-employed.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

I mean, I do average, I think I've averaged 300 weddings. Wow. Yeah. Really? So that's not all my own, but um, I probably shot 150 of my own and then apprenticed for years.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Oh, so you did that after you. So tell us about like how you just get out there and start your own business and work for yourself.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

Yeah. Um, yeah, it started slow. I started doing 2011, started doing like seniors and family shoots for friends, mainly just friends stuff because it was like just my little Facebook world.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

Um, and then I was, you know, just like, I could probably do this. Like, I could probably like make the LLC and do the whole go the whole legit business route. Legit, yeah. And my husband was like, That's a big step. It's a huge step because like once you're just doing it under the table for friends, it doesn't feel real. Right. But like making it real is it's scary. It's scary to make that jump from just like, yeah, it's my side hustle to like I'm establishing an LLC where I have to pay taxes every year.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

Which means I have to make money doing this.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Yes, yeah. We can't just all be write-off. Well, we could, but in our situation, like I actually needed to make money. So it was like a big big jump for me. And you could be home with the kids, and that's pretty much like why it worked so perfectly because I I wanted to be home with my kids, like homeschool mom to homeschool mom. Like, I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Were you homeschooling at the time? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

I had I had always homeschooled in California. Oh yeah, that's great. Yeah, my kids went to a two-day-a week school, but um, but I primarily co-op type.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, which is and then so those were probably good editing days where you could balance out the days of yeah, or show you.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

So I could always take as much work or as little as I wanted. And honestly, the area where I lived in California was really saturated with wonderful photographers. And I just I wasn't that busy. I shot like 10 to 15 weddings a year. Wow. Actually, no, like probably um, probably like eight to ten. Really? Like, I don't really think I ever shot over 10 weddings when I was in California.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

For how many years? The whole time you were there?

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Yeah, so that was like 10 years. I think I had my business for 10 years there because we moved in 2022.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

And you didn't really need to do more than that.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

You were no, because then I I supplemented with all the families and seniors, and so that was probably 20 more suits a year. So um, my business really grew when I moved to South Carolina in 2022. I kind of brought that California style with me to the East Coast, and it wasn't as popular. And people must love it though. And they did, they really did. Yes, like they did. I mean, those are beautiful. Yeah, now that's California, and it's funny, you can always tell the difference between California and East Coast. It's like that golden light in California, and like it's like a pastel y beach light here. Oh different, it's different feel, even different times of the day. Yeah, totally still always, and sunsets are way different because the sunsets on the coast in California, so it's very golden.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

Right. It is uh back lip pastel look. Yeah, that's true. Plus, even on the Gulf side, right? Of Florida. Oh, yeah. It's very I mean, it's more golden, but not as golden as California because you're so much better than that. That's right. I never thought of that.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Yeah, different lighting.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yeah, yeah. So you prefer working in natural light. I mean, looking in.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

I do love natural light.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Yeah, yeah, that's definitely my and you don't have have you ever had a studio space where you had people come to you? No, I've always going to them.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Yeah, I've never had a studio space. Um, I worked my first like real job in in the photography field was working at a studio with um a gal that became a good friend of mine. And I was she was someone I apprenticed under, and she really helped me understand the business side of it.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Because I I think I already kind of had a good idea of how to work with the people, but she really taught me the ins and outs of what was on behind.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

That's so valuable, so important to learn.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

And for my brain, like it just kind of stops when numbers come into the picture.

unknown 8:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

And so she was able to really help me figure out what software I would be buying and using for the all my contracts and all my invoicing.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

And then, you know, keeping organized with all of your shoots is a total different software.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Right. What a great advertising.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Yeah, so so she was amazing, and I got to really learn the wedding industry through her. So started working with her 2012.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Nice, yeah. And so soon after you started, yes, like it was a year.

SPEAKER_03 9:11

Not a lot of photographers have studio space because A, that's a lot of overhead, and B, you don't really need it because you can be, you know, you can work from home and write that off. So financially, I think it makes more sense to have your studio at your house or have your office at your house. But what she wanted to do, and the reason she had a studio is because she wanted she loved studio lighting. So that's something else she taught me was studio lighting, so artificial lighting. Um, a whole nother um expertise than natural light, very different.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

And so yeah, it was a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

It's a whole different photography.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

I mean, it's a whole different thing. Like more editorial. So she was able to teach me that as well. That side of things.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah. So now you can incorporate that into your outdoor style too. And yeah, yeah, California style.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Yeah, and it also made me realize, like, oh hi cat, um, that I would love to have a studio one day. And I think that's actually gonna be like my next step is um bringing it back kind of full circle and having my own studio and would be cool. Get more into the artificial lighting and um maybe more headshots, branding. And I I love families in studios.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Like I love that close-knit camaraderie kind of in a studio.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah, yes, yes. And I love that feel. It's uh more of like an industrial building, kind of like I would love to to go that route.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

So that's cool. So those are kind of goals. I love to talk about goals and whether or not you had goals in the beginning. Like, yeah, you have goals starting out right away, like I want this, or seeing people that you admired that yeah, no, I really didn't.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

I like photography, literally fell in my lap. Like I said, I I started in high school and then I fell in love with the dark room in high school and was in your book, but I really never thought that I would make it a living because I really just didn't have it in my head of how I would. Right. Like, how would I feasibly do that? Yeah, like I said, I I figured it was like there's so small of a margin of people to actually make it in the photography world to to support themselves.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

And they were like, like I was saying, like national geographic photographers or editorial documentary, like I don't, you know, we should shoot for Rolling Stone and you write photojournalists.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Photojournalists, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

And so because I knew I wasn't gonna be any of those things, I didn't really think that it would accumulate to anything. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I realized that you can make a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

What about as you went along? Did you see like, oh, this is actually bringing me more than I thought? So then did you start to kind of formulate goals or oh yeah, the goals, that's what we were talking about. It's okay. I'm tangents all the time.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Yeah, goals was it was never part of um how I thought about it. So yeah, when things started falling in my lap and I was like getting more clients and it was actually developing into a small business, then is when I were was thinking like, okay, maybe in five years I could, you know, help support the family, or we could I I kind of thought about it in monetary terms, like because I wanted to, you know, we had then an so we had three kids and I wanted to go on more trips and travel more and come back and see family. So I was really looking at it like, if I make this amount of money, we can go on two trips a year, or we can get the extras, or right, you know, that's how I was thinking about it. So that was more my goal was monetary. But then as that kind of fell into place and I was making good money and help really helping our family financially, I think I started to think more creatively and like project-wise collaborations. That's when I did this collaboration with another artist in our town. Oh, yeah, you have to tell me about this. Yeah, she's an English professor at at the college where I went and a good friend, and she's a poet. And so wow, yeah, and a yogi, she's amazing, but this was a fun collaboration. So I got to do more artistic endeavors, like after I kind of got my footing financially. I felt like so. So it was super cool. Right. You had that freedom to kind of play around.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Freedom to play.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yeah, it's the dream of every entrepreneur. I think there's so much hard work that goes into it, but then you can really get out there, get into a place where you have the freedom to create.

SPEAKER_03 13:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Yeah, and hopefully it's a creative process the whole way. Yeah. It sounds like it was for you.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Yeah, it was the way it started out, just like taking pictures of my kids. It was a total creative outlet that turned into a business. And then when it started turning into a business, I was like, oh, okay, good. This can really help our family. Right. Um, but then I kind of went back to needing to do more creative things. That's where I kind of feel like where I'm at now and why I've been thinking about like, gosh, I kind of want to get a studio space because it's been so many years of like just grinding since we moved out to to the east coast. Um, and I've been so busy that I'm kind of feeling I wouldn't say burnout, but definitely at that brink where like if I keep this up, this is kind of unsustainable.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Um need to pivot, like you're recognizing like we gotta change things up a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Bring more fun back into it.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

So like reognize my love for the craft itself. Right. Right. Which I feel like is such a a blessing if you recognize it as an entrepreneur, that blessing to create, but to make your life to really like feel the joy from the creative creative process, and then not letting it become work. Yeah. Like that, it's a real balance, isn't it? That's tough. Of not like letting it zap the joy. Yeah. The parts that you don't are there parts that you don't joy.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

And that's where like delegation comes into play. Like you can get to a certain point in your business where you can delegate the stuff you don't like, and then you can keep that joy that's right. The parts that you love. Like I love shooting, I love hanging out with people and capturing like their essence. Yeah. What I don't like is coming home, loading on the photos, organizing it on my hard drives, and then having to pull it and then edit it. And so that's another goal. Like, no, I have I have tried to hire editors and I have had people do that, and it's always just been this super clunky like I'm paying more money than I'm making at some point, and like this isn't worth it. I just need to do it all myself. But there definitely is a way to have editors and make it work without farming it out to like India too. I don't want to do that. I want to have someone in-house.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

You want to support someone local too.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

I want to support someone local, and I want to keep a little bit of that control, like and you know, have a process.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

And teach someone too.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

Like, this is a great job. Like, if you know, I shoot more, then you get to edit more. So it's like you relieve me of the things I don't want to do, and then we both benefit.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Plus, that's part of your art, is the editing, too. So you have to teach someone that and it is, they don't always have as easily as you know, want, or it's not exactly how you want it. And an artist, I was that way. Like it's hard, it's hard to let go of the control. People to help me paint, and it was like, yeah, you're not doing it. This isn't enough a way that I want it done. Very difficult things to do. They're creative and artistic in their own way, and that's probably great at things for themselves that you probably couldn't do, but absolutely it's your business, it's your baby. Yes, yes. You want it just like you want your baby to be taken care of. Yes. Well, yes, we want that part to be taken care of.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

I know so it so it is that is a difficult balance to achieve. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

So nobody really learned, like, there's nowhere to learn that. You have to just do it, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 16:32

And just pray the right person all honestly comes along and like can read your brain. And I've been really lucky. I have like the best assistance right now. Oh, that's great. Like, um, she does kind of read my thoughts. It's we've been working together for three years, and she kind of knows what I need before I know what I need. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

Oh, that's awesome. So she's she goes with you to shoot.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Yes, like every well, every wedding for sure. I do families on my own, unless it's like over 20 people. But yeah, she's she's my right hand lady.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

That's hard to find. It is. But I always feel, and I think you probably agree that um what you are seeking is also seeking you. So if you're looking for somebody that can do all of these things specifically, they're saying, I have all these skills. I'm looking for someone to work for or work with. Yes, then bam, you meet, and yes, that law of attraction brings you together, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:21

And I've even found that since I moved here. So this is our second big move in four years. Um, and we've only been here in St. Augustine for a year, but I've but I've already seen it here since we've been here. It's like people have been come, I've I've found them, they have found me somehow in this world, this photography world where we can benefit one another. And so I'm excited to see how that plays out because I do feel like there's so many great female photographers here, and we're all like shooting a little bit here, a little bit there, but I think if we combine our powers, we can do like great things. Collaboration over competition. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yes, that's powerful because it's a hard thing to do too. It's to realize like maybe if we work together instead of trying to do it all on teeth with each other and you know have our own businesses separate, yes, that will bring something bigger can take place. That's really neat that you have someone, but now you're collaborating. So let's talk a little bit about the collaboration. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

If you want to share what's going to come of that or what you have planned, or if you want to keep it under wraps.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

Yeah, you know, I don't have anything solid. I'm kind of one of those people like believe if you build it, they will come. I've seen it happen enough in my life, and it's scary, but what do I have to lose at this point? Except some money, and I understand money comes and goes, right? Yes, absolutely. So if you have yeah, if you have a vision, go for it.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Totally. Yeah. And I've had the vision for a while to have like a female established photography business, and I know they're out there. I think there's already one in this area, and I think they kill it and do great. Wow. So there's always room for more. I have to remind myself.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

Um, and we're in a great place for for wedding, not only weddings, we're in a great place for family photographer, um, seniors. I mean, there's just there's no limit to the amount that people need, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

There's so many creative people here, I feel like need creative people here that need and want that creativity in their lives too. Yeah. Yes. Headshots.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

And and that's another thing in this area. There are in Jacksonville, there are so many female run businesses. Like it blows me away. There's so many great groups like St. John's BFFs, and there's there's more than that. I'm I'm only part of that one. St. John's mom, St.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

John's women. There's like a couple of big St. John's and then Jacksonville. And Jacksonville's huge thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

Um, so so many networking hatch. Hatches amazing.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

And so I would love to probably maybe just do more work for these, all these wonderful female-run businesses. Yeah, that's branding. And yeah. That's great. So if I had a space that people could come to.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Or even shooting downtown though. I mean, what a cool city.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

What a cool city to have the backgrounds alone are amazing. Yes. And then you have the beach, and then you have all these eclectic like shops and businesses that you can shoot. There's just so much cool. There's so much girls all over. I know. It should be really fun.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

There is there's so much. It's almost a little overwhelming. I need to stay committed to my group.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

See, it's a little daunting to like.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

I'm like, oh, it's so much. It's so exciting.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Gotta stay focused a little. I get that.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

That's good that you have that. Yeah. I would be all over the place.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

I know.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

It's probably good that I'm not a photographer because I mean, like, let's show you here.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

No, wait, let's wait here. Oh my gosh. It's it's a lot. But good thing I've been doing it for so long now that I can I can kind of like I can realize that I don't have that enthusiasm. That I'm seeing like the younger generation that's starting it, they have so much to give. And I'm like, oh my resources are not as deep as that anymore. Like I know what I'm doing more than these than a lot of people, but I don't have the energy like these younger people do. They're just starting out and they can go everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Oh my goodness, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

So which is another reason kind of energy seasoned energy. Yeah, exactly. That's different. And another reason why I want to collaborate more with with these girls that I'm meeting, because some of them are so young and have the energy and they love to like go out there and network and meet everybody. I'm like, bring everybody in.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah. You go do all that, and I'll do all the energy expanding work.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Yes. Yeah, exactly. So those are some of my thoughts about what might be happening, might be brewing in the future.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

That's fun. Yeah, that's really fun.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

As far as delegating, if we can go back to that for a little bit, you have an assistant, so she helps you with shoots and does she help you with the editing part of things too.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

No, she has edited a few things, but no, she pretty much just is on location with me. Yeah, for these long wedding days. Yeah, they're long.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah. Wedding, I I can't imagine what you what you go through on the other end of a wedding. I mean, I've only witnessed being at weddings, but I've never been on with somebody. Yeah, the other side of it.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Yeah, it's typically like a six to eight hour day. Um and Then I get home and I have almost that same amount of time on the back end.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Wow. So it matches that time.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

What do you um like when you first started shooting weddings? Because it's different.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Being quick thinking, I would think. And having to be right there.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah, and every moment present every moment. Present every moment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

So did it take was there a learning curve there? Like, did it take you a while to figure that out?

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To really be good at your craft and get those photos that bride and grooms want. They want the they want the behind-the-scenes candid, like true stories telling photos. And to do that, you have to just be on for eight hours. Like, yeah, you get to sit down and maybe eat for 20 minutes. Otherwise, you're on and you're watching and you're people watching and observing for that whole time.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Seeing who is going to be the most photogenic people out there, what we're going to be the fun ones that you have to grab. You can kind of call in as soon as they start sitting down for the ceremony.

SPEAKER_03 22:51

I'm like, I'm going to follow you around all night and you and you're already drinking, so you're going to be fun.

unknown 22:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

That's great. Yeah. Yeah. So and so you're shooting. I know in California you shot out there, but then when you moved to South Carolina, you established your business there. Yes. And then three years later you moved here to St. Augustine? Uh, two. Two years after that. Yeah. So you've only been here a year. So you're still kind of going back and forth to South Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

Not to California to shoot or do you Yeah, I go to California about once once or twice a year to shoot. Yeah. Yeah, but mainly it's Charleston and Hilton Head Savannah area. Low country, South Carolina that they call it. Yep. And so weddings. Yeah. Yeah. Um, 30 weddings last year there, and I was living here. Wow. So I was every other weekend or something. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

A lot of back-to-backs, like a lot of Friday, Saturday, or Saturday, Sundays. So I you would stack them a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Oh, that's exhausting though, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Girl, you have no idea how exhausting 2025 was for me.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

I'm still recovering.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

And then I'd get home and I have three teens. So the home front was equally chaotic. Three teens. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Working 30 weddings.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Yeah. Out of state. And I so I wasn't home a lot. I was on the road a lot. Oh my gosh. Yes. Yeah. Did you bring them with you ever? Like does they assist? No.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Not interested at all. No. No. No.

SPEAKER_03 24:11

Not at this point.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

No.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

My 17-year-old just got a drone for Christmas and he does want to come with me to weddings and shoot drones.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Oh, that'd be great. So I'm going to teach. That's just like a huge plus.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

With photographers and two. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

They want drones.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

People want that.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

So I was hiring a guy out for all my drone work. Um, so he would meet me there at the wedding just for like three or four hours. So no, my my son's gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

That will be super cool. So you are collaborating with him.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

That's yeah, I am. We'll see how it goes. Um, I have high hopes, but he's also about to graduate, so he's probably gonna travel and he's gonna be out of here. Might might be here, might not pop in for a drone.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Who knows? Shoot every night, who knows?

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Just make some money, come home and do some drone shooting and then designate.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Yeah, I know. They really do.

SPEAKER_03 24:53

They know how to like have their fingers in a little bit everything and then make enough money to get by. Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

And just figure it out. They know how to figure it out. I feel maybe watching us, they've seen. Yeah, maybe we've paid the way. I mean, they have two entrepreneur parents.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

It's huge, not something you see often.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Yes, my kids really like understand live by faith because like as two like starving artists, like we have definitely had our fair share of not knowing how we're gonna pay our bills. Right. Yeah, because we've never we've never had steady paychecks.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Wow, yeah, whole time together. Never, yeah. You've been married how long?

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Since 2002. Yeah, yeah, long time. 23 years, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Almost 24.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Yeah, wow, yeah. Yeah, so we moved out to California.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

You've been working for yourselves that whole time.

SPEAKER_03 25:43

Yeah, I mean, I went to college for the first four years that we were married, and then I did work that graphic design marketing job for almost two years, and then got pregnant with my first, and I was like, I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_01 25:53

You're like easy, easy decision, I'm done. Yeah, my time. No brainer, my time to retire.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Wow. So that those two years, uh fresh out of college, I did work for somebody else. Um, like I said, I was so miserable.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

Yeah, yeah. You love working for yourself.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

I love it. Freedom of what's your favorite? I guess what's your favorite thing about work?

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Keeping my robe on till 11. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Drinking coffee till noon in my robe. That's it, that's it.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Working from home.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

And my homeschool mom, too.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Yes, exactly. We're spoiled.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

So spoiled. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

I love it. Slow mornings are my jam.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

And so this episode of the Solweg second is proudly sponsored by NS Data Design Group, a luxury interior design studio currently. Creating time with elevated spaces, steel and beautiful S A R and Fair, Anastasia Design Group Seth Light, and I and Red Temple and Commercial Design sophistication, functionality, and lifestyle seamlessly together. If you believe your environment should reflect the life you're creating, visit Anastasia Design Group.com to learn more. So talk about your morning routine a little bit. Stay in your robe till 11 every day, Monday through Friday.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

Not every day, just the days that I can. So, homeschooling, you know, you're your day looks different every every day. And you sometimes just think about it that morning. You're like, what are we doing today? They're like, Oh my god, we have a field trip at 11 and we've got to, you know, pick so and so up at two. And I'm like, oh, I'd better get out of my robe. Yeah. But um, I mean, ideally, you know, wake up early, go get my exercise done, go to the beach, have the good light in my eyes in the morning, get my dog walked, and then get back and do the breakfast thing. Know that my good hours are like 10 to 1.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:47

Not too early, but like I can't really work past like two because three o'clock starts the pickup for all my kids. Yeah. So I feel like I've been living in this like ADD world for so long as a homeschool mom because it just makes you you have 50 tabs open all the time and you're just always doing. So my lifestyle has had to accommodate that.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

And so work now that you're older, your older two are in school, yeah, full time. Yeah. So you that changes things a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Yeah, but I still have to like pick her up sometimes at three, sometimes at four, sometimes at five, depending on the sport she's in. Right. My oldest does drive, so that's been like a moment. Go get her from school. Yeah. So I go get her. So you never really know what the day's gonna look like, but I do know that my my best working hours are like 10 to 2. And that's when I schedule like my meetings, that's when I get all my editing done. But it is awesome to be self-employed and know, like I know how I work, I know what I need to do before I sit down and get to work and know what I need to have accomplished already to feel great, like I can focus. Yeah. And yeah, being able to structure my life around just the hours that work for me and work for us. Super, it's been amazing. Which is it's more productive that way.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Yeah. And just being so scattered and all over the place. Totally. And that morning routine, if you don't, are there days where you miss it or you whoops, and then you're just totally.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

Some days I don't sleep good, and then I'm like trying to sleep in till nine, and that never works. You just worse those days.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Just screw everything up. They do. They really do.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Yeah, and we've had them. We we had a soccer tournament this week in a savannah. So like I just knew beds for two nights. I didn't sleep well. And then there was stuff going on at the home front that I was like woken up at 1 a.m. for back there, and then and then the night we got back, my son didn't get home on a date until 1:30.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

Like, who are you? Oh wow. You're 17.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah, you're you have a curfew late. I know. Yeah, and those are the times where you're like, Oh, is this okay to let this go?

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Like, is he okay that late?

SPEAKER_01 29:39

I know. So and these parenting teens is so tough.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

It's so tough, and it's always so different, too. Like, you know, every year is so different with them. It changed so much. Oh my gosh, year to year.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

So much. Yeah. Like month to month. Month to month. Right. You're right. Or are you now? I know. How does my parenting have to change? Yes, and then how much do I have to let go today? Yeah. Every day is a little more. Yeah. A little more letting go. And you're like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:06

That's that is it.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Just a little long.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

The art of letting go. This was my first collab. That was that was a really fun photography collaboration I did with my professor friend. Oh, how beautiful. Yeah. So she was letting go of a marriage that she had been divorced for years. And so she wanted to in picture, she wanted to show like the actual, like the heartbreak that she had gone through and the hardness it was to actually let it go. And so that was signified in like letting the wedding dress go into the ocean. And so she wrote all that poetry. And then we had a day where we just like photographed her. We didn't realize how it was gonna unfold and end, but it did eventually end where she was in the water with the waves hitting her, even just taking her dress off. And there it went. No. That happened naturally. That happened. So we got to document it.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

And um wow, these are stunning.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Yeah, and I used a photo technique called free lensing where your lens isn't attached to your camera. You're just holding it close and you're moving it, so you get just very small slivers of focus. So everything is like out of focus except for like that. Um, and there's nothing in focus here, but it's maybe a little bit there. Free lensing. Free lensing, yeah. That was something I used to do a lot 10 years ago. Did she write this after the photo? She did this after. So I delivered the photos and then she went through and wrote.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

So this was at was this at Sun Sunset.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

Yeah, on the coast of California. And we had a gallery showing of this that was a month, and we had I think like 15 photos represented, and then we made these books.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Wow, these are incredible. I'm getting every page because yeah, maybe we can little coffee stain on there. Yeah, I love it. That makes it real.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

I know it's been like online.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah. So the colors, I mean just so subtle and beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Yeah.

unknown 31:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah. And that it just took it. The ocean just took her dress. Yeah. Wow. These are amazing.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

I think there's one more photo of just like the dress.

unknown 32:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

There, there it went. Come on. That's amazing. Did you enter this in any sort of no, I didn't.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

What? What did we do? I didn't. We had talked about it. Yeah. Um, but we just had that month-long showing at a gallery, and that was kind of it for the I feel like that's so apropos of like as a as a teen as a mother of a teen, mother of teens.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

Yeah. Three teens and letting go of everything. I mean, you have to let go when you moved from California, you had to let go of that huge business that you built there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

Yeah. And then you moved to South Carolina and you had to kind of let go of that a little bit. And that was even a bigger business. Like it just took off in South Carolina. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Well, Charleston is the wedding capital of the US. Is it really? There's like more weddings that take place there than anywhere else in the US per capita. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

And you were needed there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

Did you know that moving there? No. I mean, I knew that they were it would it was a popular place to get married, but I didn't know that I would, you know, be so busy. I had no idea.

unknown 33:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:11

I loved your work and they just took off. Yeah. Cool. And now you'll be the same in St. Augustine. Woo! I'll take it, girl. I'll take it. I mean, I think there's a lot of weddings here. There are different vibe than Charleston. I mean, it's a different market, I guess. It is.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

It is different demographic of people. Floridians are different, you know? And I've had to adjust. They're for sure different. Yeah. I've had to adjust it. I mean we are different.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

That's why we're here. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

No, I fit in perfectly. I'm a weirdo. It's perfect for me. But I've had to adjust my prices. I've had to adjust my marketing. I've had to figure out how I'm going to represent myself differently to appeal to different types of people here. Right. You know? Which is great. Less formal.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

It's so flexible to be able to bend like that. Yeah, you have to be flexible. Pivoting is like the key. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Like to see the business. And with everything changing so fast, especially with how much is required. So I'm a business owner. I do photography for others, but I don't take a lot of selfies. I don't, I'm not used to being the one in front of the camera. I like to be behind the camera. And that doesn't fly with businesses today. They people want to see. They don't care. You are the brand. You're the brand. Yeah, you're I'm behind the camera, but they really want to connect with me. Totally. And so, you know, it's it's changed a lot over the last couple years in that respect.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

I was gonna say people aren't hiring companies, they're hiring people. Yeah, people are hiring people.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

Yeah, they're like falling in love with you on Instagram and then they hire you. Yeah, they and my work might not be as good as the other persons that they were looking at, but if they see more of me and they connect more with like my vibe, they'll hire me.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 34:47

Yeah, that's how everybody has to get through that terror barrier of being online because if you're not, you're just missing out on so much.

SPEAKER_03 34:54

I know. And for someone like me, I like literally don't even think about it. And then like a month will go by, I'm like, oh gosh, I gotta do this.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

I gotta do this. Or just even like the behind the scenes of the photographer.

SPEAKER_03 35:07

Yeah, because I have so much content of my weddings and all my other stuff. That's a problem. I can just totally share that once a week, but it's like me, like, oh, I have to get in front of the camera. Like I'm gonna do it. I wanna see, I want to see you get a coffee shop sitting in your editing.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

I know set up that tripod girl and make it uh make it happen. Yes, just bring your tripod. Goals 2026, right? Goals 2026. And then the thing is, you have to get into the habit of it. It's social media is just a habit. If you get into the habit of it, yeah, I mean I'm out of the habit right now because I just needed some time away. So I just took some time away. But yeah, you when you're in the habit of it, it becomes like second nature. You know, when you go to the coffee shop, you set up that tripod. Or when you're when you're editing on the on your beautiful balcony, you set up the tripod then. That's so true. You're at the beach and you're shooting, yeah. Set up your tripod to watch you shoot the, you know. Okay, yeah, we need to talk more about that. It's all good. There's so many things you can do, and then just yeah, coming in and talking face to camera, yeah, that's really valuable. It is totally in the stories. Yeah, they do. And some people just sit there and scroll stories all day long. They just gosh, which is so not me. I never study and whatever they're doing for the day, and they let the stories roll. I feel like a lot of people do that, and they they just view those stories. I have people that view my stories every single day. I haven't spoken to them ever in real life. Like, I don't even know who they are, and they're just yeah, my story or that it is friends or family or acquaintances, you know. And I'm like, and I just always, if I check my stats, which I don't do often, but you'll not rarely, I see those same people, but I'm like, oh my god, that's supporters, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

You know, and I just don't even throw it out.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Right. Like, I hope you're getting a kick out of me. I don't know, you know, it's they must be coming back for more, right? But I'm I think those are just the doomsday, like the not doomsday scrollers, but the the you know, never-ending scroll.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

They maybe they just set it up. Sometimes I do if I'm getting ready in the morning and I'm not listening. I like to listen to podcasts usually. But if I feel, you know, if I feel like watching something, yeah, I'll let it roll. And sometimes I do find things like that.

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Oh, it's really good to know. I should definitely and the algorithms like it.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Like Instagram is like watch more before and after you post. Okay. Pro tip.

SPEAKER_03 37:22

No way.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Um, 20 minutes before 20 minutes after, but who has that kind of time? I know who has 40 minutes to post here.

SPEAKER_03 37:28

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

But it is good if you if you scroll through people's stuff before you post. Yeah, even 10 minutes, five minutes.

SPEAKER_03 37:36

I had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Give everybody some love, comment, like, you know, naturally, like real, like genuine. And then right after you post, stay on. Oh. Wait a little while. This is gold.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

It really does work. And I I say it, but I don't do it every time.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Because I don't have the time sometimes because I'm rushing off to the next thing.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

We all need to hear that.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

But I think it's it's I think it's important to show up in front of the camera, even being a business owner behind the camera, because it's you're connected, it's human connection. I feel like right now, human connection is everything. Yeah, it's like the most valuable thing we have right now. And it's we're missing it big time. Like there's a lot of misfiring for human connection. So the more you can do it, if you have that gift, the better.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

Advice.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Yeah. I mean, especially for business, it it will end up being in your favor, I think, business-wise, but just for our like humanity as a whole, I feel like it's really important right now.

SPEAKER_03 38:38

Yeah, I think it is. I often wonder like, is it it it's not real connection in my mind?

SPEAKER_01 38:43

Like this is a true connection, virtual connection. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

But I guess it doesn't, it's something, you know, and people aren't looking for it to be perfect, they're just looking for something.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

And you can't talk. I mean, if you could talk to one person a day in real life, right? You're touching seven people a week or whatever. Yeah, but if you can talk to five thousand people a day around the world, yeah, that likely many of them that you'll never meet. I mean global reach of social media. I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan of social media, global reach because gosh, and if you have a gift to share, yeah, yeah, share it.

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Yeah, share it. Yeah, for sure. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

Speaking of touching people, I guess, and and reaching people, um, what's one small act of courage someone watching could take today to move towards their calling? Like if I guess maybe the first question would be is this do you f feel this is your passion? You're living out your passion.

SPEAKER_04 39:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

And so how do you um what would you suggest for people to find theirs? You you just found yours through happenstance, sort of.

SPEAKER_03 39:48

Even though you knew you loved it, you didn't know how much I knew it was connected to it back in high school days. Yeah. And I I didn't I think I thought about it things so monetarily for a few years when I was in college. Like I really just I didn't want to be poor, like I was raised, and so I was like, well, I want to do something where I'm gonna, you know, make a lot of money, make good money. Oh yeah. Um, so that's where photography left the chat. But it's funny how that came back around and it's proven to be financially better than anything else I probably would have done because I have the passion for it, backing it up.

SPEAKER_01 40:24

Ah, there it is. Right.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

And it's the key. Yeah, it's like the the it just makes me motivated.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 40:30

Yeah, and it lights it lights me up when I'm working, I'm my best self, you know, because I'm doing what I'm aligned to do. But God He didn't create me just to be a photographer, but part of it.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

That's part of it.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

It's part of it, finding your gifting. Yes. And so it's funny how that went all the way to the right.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Leaning into faith, which is so important in alignment.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

I mean you're right. And it's like really you know how I raise my kids, and I, you know, 17-year-old about to graduate, and he doesn't know what he's gonna do, and I'm not pushing him to college. I'm just like, if you if you want to go take college classes, yeah, college classes. If you have if your goal requires that, a lot of things that you will want to do in life don't require college. But if if you're looking at you know the overarching goals that you have and they do require it, then you'll have to go.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

But um, you don't you don't need to go.

SPEAKER_01 41:20

And if not, don't go, right?

SPEAKER_03 41:21

Yeah, it's not necessary, it can be a huge waste of time and resources.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

It's different than it was even 20 years ago. Yeah, definitely different than it was 30, 40 years ago. Absolutely 60 years ago, you know, and looking back to when we were kids a blank amount of years ago. Um having it just kind of was the natural progression. Oh, you graduated, you go to college. Yeah, I mean, some families know, but yeah, some families it was that way. You were just expected to go. And yeah, now I as a homeschooler, I think maybe we have taught our kids a little less traditional, yeah, broader, broader scope of looking at the world. Yeah, when my oldest came to me and said, you know, I don't want to go to college, I was like, what? Like at first it was a little panic, and then I was like, Whoo, actually, like this is probably gonna work out better for you. Good for you because this is great. She wants to be an entrepreneur, she wants to start a business. How are you gonna start a business with yeah, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 in debt? I mean, some of these schools are insane, and then you're going on to your master's or whatever. Yeah, no way. Like nobody's gonna give you any money, and nor are you gonna be able to make it because you're paying off all this money. Yeah, and you're a slave. And if you have the money, you know, if we were to give her the money for that, it's a difference. Like it's yeah, it's leaving college with that. That's such a horrible idea. Like, who told us that that was a good idea?

SPEAKER_02 42:43

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Terrible idea. Unless you're gonna be a doctor, you know, a lawyer, uh an accountant, something that requires a degree. Yeah, why not? How about no?

SPEAKER_03 42:53

I know. How about often out of that slave job?

SPEAKER_01 42:56

Right? Really, and being miserable. I mean, yeah, you know, like you said, you went to get a graphic design job because that's what your degree was in. And what did you even like about it? Like, oh I was halfway through actually, like almost all the way through college with a music therapy degree, like really learning about the paperwork involved. Uh 90% of the job. Oh no, not hardly any of it was actually therapy.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

But I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not doing this. I'm not gonna do I'm not doing this. Yeah, like how how what a disappointment after all that work, you know, and effort.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

So you didn't finish. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

I was like, I'm done. Well, I ended up having health issues and whatever, but yeah, that was just like a like a kick in the gut, you know, like what a horrible and it wasn't what I thought it was at all. And I feel like there should be some sort of disclosure. I know something like what really goes into a job, you know, in this career path, like the behind the scenes. I want to I want to interview these these workers and talk to them, these these people. Say, what is it? Do you love this? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:03

Do you really consist of?

SPEAKER_01 44:04

And I look back and thinking of a lot of the people that I knew growing up, and they didn't love their jobs.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

No, I think about all my parents' and friends.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Oh gosh, missing.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

They drank a lot on the weekends. It's not how I want my kids to think like life is like go to the street. Like they have to unwind.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

They have to unwind from their job. I always feel badly for people who who have to have some sort of advice to get them through because their job is so stressful. Yeah. Yeah. Or because their work is life is so dull or miserable or you know, like you don't have to do this. Right. Yeah. I think you can change points of me doing this podcast. Is like you don't have to do this. Yeah. If you don't love what you're doing, yeah. Nobody says you have to. I don't care how many years you put into it. Right, right. Like it's a prison system if you are miserable. Absolutely. So get out of it while you can and figure something else. In 2026, we can figure it out. You can figure it out.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

You're gonna have a few side hustles and make more money than you're making behind the desk and way happier.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

I mean, you could come up with an idea tomorrow, today, tonight, regarding photography, something unique, something different, and just go viral with it and you're set for life. Yeah, it's it's it's just a matter of doing it, yeah, deciding to do it.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Yeah, taking that open totally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Do you ever answer that question? Or did we just ramble? One small act of courage to somebody who's thinking about becoming an entrepreneur. Like, what can they do? Maybe a a budding photographer, somebody who wants to get into the photography business now in 2026. Yeah, what would you say? Like, what's the best route to start or the best piece of advice that you have for someone?

SPEAKER_03 45:47

Yeah, probably twofold. Like there's a lot of people that want to get into like an art, say photography or whatever, because they see it glamorized or portrayed as something on like social media. But I also want to, I you know, I would say dabble in it first, find a mentor and see if you're any good at it.

SPEAKER_01 46:08

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Yeah, you can pick up a camera and you can take decent shots, but like you have the gift. Like, if you have the gift, it will keep giving throughout your whole entire life. Wow. So it's like kind of like keep people in your life that tell you the truth, yeah, and are honest with you, and find a mentor. Find a mentor and apprentice for a while to see if it's something you like. So you're not wasting your time.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

But if you need to before you even think about starting. That's what I would appreciate.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

I mean, that's I'm I'm grateful that I was able to do that with multiple different photographers. Um, and I kind of tried it out before I went full blast. Before you got that LLC and took those steps. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

That's great advice.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

And it and it helped build my confidence because I wasn't sure if I was cut out for it or good. I mean, I had been told throughout my life, like, hey, I think you might have something here. Yeah. Thank God for people speaking in your life. Because sometimes I I would not have the confidence probably to have pursued it unless I had people that I respected come up to me and say, like, you should do this, you should consider it at least. Like you have something.

SPEAKER_01 47:08

You wouldn't have had the courage to do it without that.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Also, God bless those people. I know, really. For real. Yeah. I mean, I try to tell people.

SPEAKER_03 47:16

I know. They're and that's you know, talented at something. If you see someone, speak out, right? Yeah, and that's how I raise my kids. It's always just like, I know what you're good at. Like, how did God bless you? How did what talents has he given you? What gifts? Because if you follow those, even though that might not look like the most money that you'll make, you could choose a different career in like security tech. Right. If you follow like the giftings that God's given you, you actually probably won't burn out. Right. Like, because it's something that you as long as you will learn to love.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Yeah, yeah. Your passion and check. Sometimes I can be a little too passionate about it, intense, and I just throw myself at it and then I burn out. Yeah. I have a tendency to do that. Yeah, but then I just move on to the next thing. So that's why I'm here. Are you also an Ennegram seven? Um, I don't know. I've never I did that a long time ago, but tell me more about this Enneagram. Oh, and it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

It's like that nine personalities um types. Um, kind of like Myers Briggs, but it's like one through nine. And I think it just I think all those personality tests are really helpful. Yeah. I think all teens should be taking them just to help you know yourself better.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 48:23

When you know yourself, you can really like go out into the world with more confidence and more of a you know, a plan, a goal. Yes. Not that you have to have the plan, but it's helpful.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

And recognizing your strengths and weaknesses. And like maybe I should delegate my weaknesses out to someone else who is who has them as strengths, you know. Absolutely. Totally. Yes. It is good to know. And it, yeah, taking a test like that, that should be required.

SPEAKER_03 48:46

I mean, it can help you with your life partner, choosing like the kind of personality that you jive best with. True. You know, can help avoid some like um divorce traps. Yeah. That's true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

That's a good good piece of advice. Yes. Um oh, what's the what's the what does that say? Unexpected. Oh, what's the most unexpected way your business has transformed you or changed you?

SPEAKER_03 49:14

Well, speaking of scatterbrained ADD and Europe 7s, um, I am I think I mentioned it earlier, like Jack of all trades, but master of none. I think I wouldn't have never pegged myself or sticking with a career this long. So it's given me like more confidence and more of like a whoa, okay. I I do have the longevity, I do have the staying power. Like I can actually do something for a longevity. Wow, and I've almost quit this so many times and like became a yoga teacher or something. Thank God I keep people in my life that tell me the truth. And they're like, I think you should just stick with your craft. You're really good at it, you're burnt out, take a step back. Right. Maybe maybe do something different within the field. And but stay, stay with it. Like you, this is a thing. This is your thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_03 50:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

So it's good to surround yourself with people that tell you the truth and that know you, you know.

SPEAKER_03 50:05

And can recognize it when you don't, especially. You just need to take a step back and take a breath. And you're like, oh yeah, I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:11

We just walk to the beach, five minutes.

SPEAKER_03 50:13

Yes, yes, yes. I've had to incorporate, you know, like I was saying, I can't start work right away. I've got to like go to the beach and do what fills me up. Yeah. And then come back to it.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

Oh, I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:23

Yeah. Um what about at night?

SPEAKER_01 50:25

Do you have a nightly routine? I forgot to ask you that.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

Nightly routine. I love to make dinner, so I'm a big cook. So that's an every night thing. I do treat myself and take take everybody out like at least once a week.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Which is so easy to do around here.

SPEAKER_03 50:37

I know. Oh my gosh. I know. So many great places, even on the island here. I'm discovering new eateries all the time. Oh, yeah. But then I try to have some sort of a semblance of like eating around the table. It doesn't happen much, but we have this bar, so everyone's kind of like eating in shifts, and I'm just kind of getting a little tidbit from each kid here and there as they come in and go out.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Check them in, make sure they're doing good.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

Yeah, the whole sitting around the dining room table for dinner that kind of died a few years ago. Oh, really? Really? And it was just kind of like they're so busy. We're just kind of eating here in the living room or eating around the bar.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

And I don't know. Some people are but you're still eating together. Yeah, kind of.

SPEAKER_03 51:14

Some semblance of like in and out.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

But right.

SPEAKER_03 51:16

Yeah, we love to cook and eat at home and catch up with each other's days. And usually I make like a big pot of tea and just hang out.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Watch an episode of the office.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

Yeah, good. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 51:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

I love it. Yeah. Those are fun. Yeah. With kids too. Yeah. Who or what are you most inspired by?

SPEAKER_03 51:41

I I am inspired by women that can keep a good like balance in their life with work and family. I've always anybody like that. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00 51:50

I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 51:51

I yeah, I have known people like that. And I I see it. Yeah, they're out there. I feel like I see it on Instagram. Maybe it's not the real you never get the whole truth. But I am encouraged by some like homemaker moms on there that also have like a business or side hustle and they make money out of, but their their priority has always been their family and their kids. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. So that's definitely how I've always wanted to structure my life. Even when my kids were little, it was I was like dying to get out every night because I was home with them all the time, you know. And it's like very draining and taxing. And now these years are so fun. Like I love these, like the middle years. When they were all like 10, 12, 14, or like 14, 16, that's where I'm at right now. It's like 14, 16, 17. I mean, these are I don't want to lose these. I don't want to be gone.

SPEAKER_01 52:41

They're almost gone.

SPEAKER_03 52:42

And and so I've always tried to in the last couple of years, really tried to work less and be with them more.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

Where like when they were young, I like to work a lot because it got me out of the house in the evenings because I was home with them all day and it was exhausting. But now it's like, I don't want to work, I just want to be home with you. So achieving that balance is things I um look for and people that I admire. And people, you know, that leave leave their family with faith and leave their businesses with faith. You know, I would say that that's been a big like hallmark in our both my husband and I, our life our lives and our jobs is just like really relying on God to present the next thing. You know, and praying a lot and moving forward in prayer. Beautiful. And just trusting, like I don't know how this is gonna work out. I don't know where my next client's gonna come from.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

You do have faith, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

Yeah, I feel like I'm aligned and in your calling that you've blessed me with, and so wow, I like it. I gotta stay in prayer.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Yes, yeah, yeah, all the time. Yeah, and and faith, I think people misjudge faith or misinterpret faith, maybe that when you truly have faith, like when you have that deep-rooted faith that God is doing all of this for you, everything is being put in front of you for you and not being done to you. There's no malice, there's no, you know, hardship meaning. Yeah, even though you may be going to be able to do it. Even though the hard stuff is still for you, it's still hard, it's still for you. Yeah, that's faith to realize that yeah, okay, we're co-creating this life together. This is pretty cool. Yeah, you know, and trusting, trusting that everything will work out exactly as it should. You lose a client, right? Or somebody ends up saying negative stuff about you online, or you know, I'm sure you've got both of this. I'm sure every like every business owner has. Yeah, you just have to realize, well, this is a learning experience to me, right? And it doesn't define it. I wouldn't have put this person in my path if it wasn't meant to be for a reason, right? That's right. And it absolutely doesn't define you.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Yeah, yeah, totally. Absolutely. I love that. It's how you handle it more than like what is happening to you. Yeah. That's the the proofs in the pudding. Like, how are you handling it? That's your character.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

That proves to you. Totally, totally. Yeah. People are gonna slander you reactions out there, but choosing to respond instead of react is a life-changing.

SPEAKER_03 55:00

It absolutely is.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

What do you feel is your greatest um greatest accomplishment as a human?

SPEAKER_03 55:05

As a human, oh, definitely without a doubt, my family. Awesome. Keeping my marriage together. Oh, yeah. As long as I I can't think that is an effort. Yeah, like staying together. It's not me.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

It's right.

SPEAKER_03 55:17

We've stayed together, um, with the help of God and having kids for sure.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Yeah, yeah. Awesome. And what about as a business?

SPEAKER_03 55:25

Um, I'm just so grateful that I've got to put my work out in the world, you know, wherever it goes, whoever it touches, whoever it gets to bless, like I'm just so grateful that I get to give to people. Yeah, you know, I love it. And hopefully it lasts these these memories. I'm great, hopefully they last their entire lives and they get to pass them on to their grandkids.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

Right.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

And like that's the beauty of what I do. It's like providing that for people.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

And like to think like generations forward be like, wow, that's a beautiful photo. Yeah, you know, and somewhere somewhere in my spirit land, wherever I am in heaven, I'll be like, Eee, I shot that.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

Yay! You know, it's just the gift that keeps on giving it.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

I never thought of that. That's amazing. Yeah, super cool. Um, oh, what what piece of advice do you have for someone just getting started?

SPEAKER_03 56:09

I guess we kind of touched on that, but oh yeah, I was saying like keep people in your life that tell you the truth and find mentors. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, reach out to people and just you know, whatever industry it is, reach out to people and see if you can shadow them and see if you like the work before you go headlong into it.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 56:28

So that's a big commitment.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

And even mentors have mentors, yeah, absolutely don't realize that, but absolutely top dogs in this in this world have mentors.

SPEAKER_03 56:37

Yeah, that's cool, and they will teach you more than a YouTube video will, you know, yeah, going into a lot of value on YouTube, but absolutely in person.

SPEAKER_01 56:44

But learning from someone from a professional, totally, yeah. So you think just calling up a photographer and saying, hi, I'm a yeah, absolutely entrepreneur. I'm I'm really into photography. Would it be okay if I I think that that's awesome?

SPEAKER_03 57:00

A lot of photographers offer mentorship programs, you have to pay, but usually it's not that much. Right. And you get this like one-on-one intensive with them. I know.

SPEAKER_01 57:07

Yeah, amazing education.

SPEAKER_03 57:09

Yes. Wow, yeah, that's great. Um, and I've had people just look me up and say, Hey, I like your work. Could I come? Could if you need an assistant, holler back. And I and I do. Yeah, and I let people come and shoot for me, and they give me their cards and I look at their work and I'm like, oh wow. And I've always loved everyone's different perspective. Yeah, everybody's got their own gift. It's fun to see different assistants come on board and and have different perspectives on the same day.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

You get that experience too. Like I would think of it as really special for them.

SPEAKER_03 57:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:41

It's also special for you.

SPEAKER_03 57:42

It is, it is. It's I think it's fun to the more perspectives I can get from a day, they're different than mine. I I'm happy.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

Absolutely. I agree with that 100%. Do you feel as though you're living your dream life? That's my favorite question.

SPEAKER_03 57:56

I am living beyond my dream life.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

Really?

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Yeah, 100%. Wow. I I never would have dreamed this life, first of all. I like did not have imagination for the life I'm living. You know, I probably dreamed very small when I was younger about what life would look like. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I even had like a vision for my life.

SPEAKER_01 58:17

Really? Yeah. Not at all.

SPEAKER_03 58:19

Like you weren't like, I want to be this when I when I grow up or I always thought about doing photography, but then I feel like life jaded me, and I'm like, oh, I don't want to be, you know. Yeah. I don't know. I just really feel like my life is so beyond what I could have dreamt. That's incredible. I know. Especially living here in St. Augustine. I'm like, I have found the best place on earth. Honestly. And I have lived in some really beautiful places, and this is like the best place.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

There's just something really magical.

SPEAKER_03 58:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:48

Really magical about it here.

SPEAKER_03 58:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Working here. I mean, I know.

SPEAKER_03 58:52

Doing it, you know, yeah, being on vacation every day.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

I mean, that's what it feels like.

SPEAKER_03 58:58

You can walk a half miles.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 58:59

I mean, I was just there this morning and I was thinking about this interview, and I'm like, gosh, I just feel like I get to live in like the most beautiful place. Yeah. Even when life is hard, I just still can't help but be so grateful.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

Right. For all that. Yes. I agree. 1000%. And you created this. I mean, with with the help of God. Yeah. You created this.

SPEAKER_02 59:20

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 59:21

Yeah. Everything that is here, it came to fruition because of your efforts and your thoughts and your dreams. I know. So you thought you weren't dreaming, but I think you were. Yeah. I must have been. You were for sure dreaming. I must have been.

SPEAKER_03 59:33

I just didn't know such something so good could exist.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

Right. Oh, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 59:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:39

Um, any words of advice for someone like in the thick of it now? Maybe they're struggling with their business or you know, they're they're wanting to give up.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Yeah. I've been there.

SPEAKER_01 59:51

Yeah. Call a friend. Call a friend. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 59:54

Call a friend who knows you well.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

Good friend.

SPEAKER_03 59:56

Call a good friend and just hear what they have to say about you. Because I think that's just the best way to gladden a heart is just to get some honest feedback from a friend who loves you and knows you well.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Um, and then get a take a nice hot bath and get a good sleep and start over the next day.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:16

I love it. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

Nothing that that can't all heal. Yes. And a good meal.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:21

Right? A good meal. Make a good meal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:23

Yeah. From scratch.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:24

There's so much in that process that's enjoyable.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

Especially making one for your family and loved ones or whoever. Have people over and I know make a good meal. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:34

So there's so much healing there.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:36

Yeah. I love it. Well, thank you very much. You are welcome. This is so fun. Sharing your beautiful space with me.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:43

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:44

And sharing your awesome tidbits and your awesome knowledge and wisdom with everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:49

Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

I trust that whatever was meant for you in this conversation will remind you there's a way to build a life of love. Follow where it leads. And I'll see you in the next episode. Be sure to like and subscribe and never miss an episode.