It felt like I waited forever, but then all at once—everything changed.

I didn’t realize it for many years, but entrepreneurship has been in my blood my entire life. Once upon a time I was a little girl taking on the world via souped-up lemonade stands by adding chocolate chip cookies + full loaves of homemade bread (with a savory description of the ingredients and a few eyelash bats thrown in for good measure, those suckers went for $20 each!) and selling little handmade doilies at the local farmers market that my grandma had taught me how to make.

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My parents taught me well from the beginning, making me buy my own yarn and calculate the amount I spent from using my mom’s ingredients on baked goods so I could pay her back for the “business expenses” I incurred (I didn’t appreciate that quite as much as a 9 year old).

I think my amazing dad recognized this burning in my spirit before anyone else… the one that still drives my intense craving for an independent life, sustained by my willingness to put in the work to provide something that people are actually willing to pay me for (I still can’t believe it some days!). 

Some of the best advice my dad ever gave me:

“Find something you LOVE to do and figure out how to make money doing it.”

Because it doesn’t work the other direction – we won’t find happiness chasing money and then trying to figure out how to love how we’re making it.

When photography found me in 2011, I knew within a few short months that this was it. The unshakable feeling down to the very last cell in my body that I had to share my passion for capturing people’s lives with the world. Even though I had this dream sparked so clearly in that season, I had no idea how long it would take to make it a reality or just how much it would change my life…

Unfortunately, I had a LOT to learn before I’d be able to reach my number one goal: being a full-time photographer and being able to focus solely on providing clients with unique images they could cherish forever.

Too many people stay in jobs where they are unhappy for their entire lives… but I believe we are made for more than getting stuck in a ‘live to work’ mentality where we just show up so we can pay the bills repeatedly until we die. And photography felt like it was so obviously my avenue out of that!

Thankfully, after many years of scheming , planning, and working my booty off… starting tomorrow, I finally get to live this full-time dream that I have been nurturing for so long!! Let me tell you, there isn’t much about it that will be easy, but boy it will be worth it.

So what about you? What’s your dream for your life and what steps are you taking now to nurture that kindling and grow it into a bonfire?

If you think you might be interested in trying your hand at photography or you’re anywhere along the journey of photography or other creative entrepreneurship being a side hustle with the dream of making it your career – I’d love to help!

Photographers and other creative entrepreneurs, we’re growing and learning together over in my private Facebook educational group and would love to have you join us! It’s a safe place to ask questions, share wins, stay in touch with the latest trends, and support each other – hope to see you there!

If you’ve fallen in love with taking pictures, it can be overwhelming to know where to start when it comes to the business side of things. Who knew you’d have to be not only photographer, but also administrator, marketer, copywriter, designer, etc… wearing all the hats at once?!

CLICK HERE to grab my Top 5 Photography Business Tools – the exact ones that helped me turn my side-hustle into my dream career!