How to Leave Your 9-5 Job and Become a Photographer
What is it like to go from a corporate 9-5 job to pursue your dream and go full time as a photographer? That's a topic I talked about with my client-turned-friend Sam from Samantha Joy Photography. And she is the perfect person to talk about this with. Since I first met her one and a half years ago, I've watched her bloom into the photographer and business owner that she is now.
In June 2017, Sam decided to pursue photography. In 2018 she booked me for her 2019 wedding. And while she was building her own photography business, she also ended up attending one of my workshops. And at the beginning of November, she finally went full time with her photography business.
I'm so damn proud of how far she's come. In my conversation with Sam, we talked about:
The season you are in your life is exactly where you are meant to be right now.
What inspired her to pursue her dream career.
What trick she used to go from thinking about starting a photography business to being able to go full-time with her business in only two and a half years.
Her perspective on what it is like to be on the other side of the camera as a bride.
Valuable perspectives she learned through her wedding to improve the experience she can offer the couples she is working with as a photographer.
Taking The Leap
Sam wasn't born with the idea that she wanted to become a full-time photographer. For her, it was a journey and a lot of things played a part in her finally deciding to take a leap and leave her 9-5 corporate job days behind. In her own words, “It was the perfect storm of several factors happening at the same time in my life. I think if they would have happened separately, it might have not been enough of a real catalyst for change.”
Sam did her undergrad in Communication and Public Relations. “I had worked in several companies, but I was never really satisfied. I thought that if I could make it into a really big, innovative, fast-paced company where I could work my way up that corporate ladder, that I would be happy and that was my dream.”
Eventually, she got there, landing an amazing job at a big Canadian retail company. And while she was on top of the world, thinking that the world was her oyster and she was where she needed to be, only now, looking back, she realizes that she was indeed where she needed to be, but for a completely different set of reasons than she thought back then.
And I love the fact that she put it that way. Many of us have experienced that. Thinking that this one thing is our dream and then, when getting there, actually realizing that it's not what we expected it to be.
It wasn't long before she knew something was off. She loved the people she was working with, she valued her team and liked the work she was doing. Moreover, she was good at it. So what the hell was wrong? “Now looking back, I know that it was this creativity I had inside me that was sort of eating me up from the inside, but I just couldn't identify it then so I was super frustrated.”
Another thing that led her to take the leap was something happening in her personal life. Sam has a dog named Trooper. He was adopted from a family that had neglected him. Trooper needed to learn how to be a dog again. She and her now-husband Taylor had a choice - putting him in the right hands and getting him to a trainer or, because they'd already fallen in love with Trooper so much, working super hard to get him to where he needed to be.
“So of course, we were going to try and do that. And it took a toll on our relationship. I was trying to juggle a demanding career with a demanding dog and I couldn't help thinking - this is a dog, but what if it was a child? What if it was an aging parent? Would I be able to keep my sanity and keep my career going at the same time? It felt like I had all the alarm bells going off in my mind. I wanted more freedom so that if something unexpected were to happen, that I still had space to be able to take care of that in my life and also take care of me and if I had any other option in terms of a career path, I needed to change and I needed to make that move now.”
At that point, Sam was already in a position, for the first time in her life, of having complete financial stability and security. “I felt like I had this new air to breathe. I could relax and I could dream in a way that I had never let myself before. And I had chosen my career based on financial security and I had never let myself think beyond that, which so many of us do. And I think that's heartbreaking. And I just couldn't get the question out of my head. Like, if I could do anything that I wanted, what would it be?”
In terms of how she found photography, Sam says that I played a part in that and I couldn't feel more grateful. Her company flew her to LA for a social media conference. She felt conflicted. On the one hand, she knew it was the coolest thing ever. On the other, she felt burnt out and exhausted, and guilty for not being fully emotionally invested. During one of the sessions, she was bored and found herself scrolling through Instagram.
“Taylor and I weren't even engaged at that point, but I knew then that I already wanted you to be our wedding photographer. I was fascinated by your work and your lifestyle. And at one point, while everyone else was listening to the speaker at the front, I leaned over to my coworker and said, look at these photos, they're so amazing and so beautiful, look at these moments. And he looked and was like, yeah, well, but you don't even know this photographer and people in the photos. I realized other people don't care about this as much as I do. Maybe it is a passion of mine. And it was this moment, it honestly was like a lightning bolt moment. And I don't know if I've ever had it any other time in my life, but I was like, I want to be a photographer.”
Sam had a feeling that it was something she would love. She'd always been obsessed with taking photos and she already had a business background to go hand in hand with it. She knew it would give her the freedom she was after. It was a feeling she couldn't shake.
After the session, she and her coworker were waiting in line at a food truck to get pizza and she asked - if you could do anything in your life, what would it be? And her coworker said that this was it. This job was where he was meant to be. And Sam knew it wasn't like that for her.
Overcoming Fear To Reach Goals
Sam and I both are huge believers in synchronicities and signs. She accidentally found a book by Mel Robbins “The Five-Second Rule”.
“She explains that our brains are designed to stop us from doing things that scare us. But we don't need to be scared of everything that we needed to be when we were cavemen. So, if we let that part of our brain take over, we lose out on life in so many ways. Count backwards from five and take action on something. It could be anything. It could be a call that you're putting off and procrastinating on. If you take action to do that thing within those five seconds, you don't give your brain time to think and kind of take over and stop you from doing that. And then in the first few chapters, she's literally like - so if you want to be a photographer then 54321, you need to go for it. You need to do it, start now. That started from there. I finished the book on the flight home from LA. And then I just attacked it. I signed up for a weekend course at the photography school.”
I couldn't agree more with Sam. In another book, “Everything is Figureoutable” by Marie Forleo, she explains that fear isn't a negative thing. It's our body telling us what our next step should be. And there are two kinds of fear. The first is our survival instinct when the adrenaline kicks in so you avoid getting hit by a car and stuff like that. The other is being scared of doing something but that's just a sign that you want to do it.
And I love that Sam was able to embrace her fear and keep going towards what she wanted. She says, “If I hadn't been so unhappy with where I was, I would have never had the strength to just kind of go ahead and take that leap. So sometimes you just have to get through that. That season of life where you're trying a whole bunch of different things so that you can get to the other side. If you're in that place right now, where nothing's clicking for you, that's not necessarily a bad thing. That means you're just figuring out all the things you don't want. And that's just as important as knowing what you do want.”
Getting The Ball Rolling For Her Business
I wanted to know what were some of the things that helped Sam propel her business forward and one of the key things she mentioned was always having the next steps in mind.
“So even if I was doing something cool like attending a workshop, I already in my head had my next three steps planned out. And honestly, they didn't need to be extravagant, just tiny bites to sort of keep that momentum going.”
At the beginning of your new business, Sam also suggests putting all the earnings back into it. This will fast track your business unlike anything else.
And that's something I can relate to because when I was working as a server, I was excited to go to work because I knew that everything I made there, would get me closer to my dream and my business.
Thinking in bite-sized steps is key. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed with everything. Thinking about the ultimate goal without having smaller steps in mind can be paralyzing and lead you to feel uninspired. So every time you want to reach a goal, think about the little things you need to do today to get to where you want to be.
Hurdles And Obstacles Along The Way
Every business owner knows that there are always hurdles along the way to getting where you want to be. Sam mentioned that one of the biggest things she had to overcome was other people's opinions of her.
“Let's face it, people aren't thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves, but it was getting over what I had amplified their opinions of me to be in my head, not what they actually were.”
So for everyone out there, take this advice from Sam, “So you have to put blinders on and just keep being focused on the life that you want to create for yourself. Let other people's opinions slide off your back because people are going to tell you, you're crazy.”
And that's something that resonates with me so much. It makes me so sad to hear people try and steal other people's dreams. After all, we are the people we surround ourselves with.
Sam also mentioned moments when she felt like she had to justify herself. “When I first bought my camera, I was scared to tell anyone because it was really expensive. I finally got the guts to tell this photographer that I bought the camera, and he looked at me and he's like - you bought a camera? And all my fears crystallized at that moment? I know he didn't mean anything by it. I honestly think he was just surprised. But it hit me like a dagger so hard. And you can either let that stick in your mind as a negative thought, or you can let that fuel you and luckily, I'm super stubborn. And I was like, how do I prove you wrong?”
The Other Perspective. Being A Bride.
Sam has had a unique opportunity to experience being on both sides of the lens. And I was curious to know what was her perspective of being on the other side, as a bride? Was there anything she learned that she could then put towards her own business as a photographer, and also what her favourite moments from the wedding day were?
“My favourite parts of the day ended up being the ones where I was present. It almost was like the quiet spaces in between that are normally overlooked. Those were my favourite. But because we had you as a photographer, they weren't overlooked and I'm so so thankful for that.”
I loved that she said that because you guys already know that I'm all about those in-between moments at weddings.
As one of her favourite in-between moments on her wedding day, Sam mentions a moment before the cocktail hour where she and her mom were sitting on a bench and Sam was rehearsing her wedding speech with her. She said she would always remember that because it was also a moment I was able to document for her. “It's just so important to me. And normally that's when a photographer is going to put their camera down. It's so funny how you think of your wedding day and you think of those huge moments of walking down the aisle, you think of your first kiss. And then all of the things that I remember are the spaces around that.”
One of the things Sam mentioned that she has now implemented in her own business, is keeping her camera up longer to avoid missing something that's happening in front of her.
The other was something she learned from me. “Something else you did on our wedding day that I carried on to my practice now was at the end of the night when it was time for you to leave and you wanted to make sure if there was anything else that you haven't photographed that I wanted you to capture. And I wanted a picture with my sister. So you ended up getting a picture of us dancing. It's one of my favourites of the day. That means a lot and I think it's such an easy way for you to add value to your clients and show them that even though you're leaving, you care about their experience, first and foremost, and you're still going above and beyond for them. So now I do that at the end of all my weddings.”
Key Takeaways
If you want to do something, do it. Take action before you let your brain take over and stop you from doing something.
If you're in a place in your life where nothing's clicking, it's not necessarily a bad thing because it means you're just figuring out all the things you don't want and that's just as important as knowing what you do want.
The quality of our lives is determined by the quality of the questions we ask.
Break up your goals into bite-sized steps. If you have a goal in mind, what are the three things you need to do today to get to where you want to be?
Also, if you are looking for resources to learn the fundamentals of photography, check out CreativeLive. They have a ton of amazing resources there.
Make sure you check out Sam on Instagram, her handle is @samanthajoy.co!
I hope my conversation with Sam helped inspire you to take the steps you want to achieve your goals. If you know of someone who would also benefit from reading this, please share it with them!
Love you guys and thank you so much for reading!
with love + gratitude,
Sara Monika
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