Diversifying your income and creating passive income is something we hear a lot about in the creative world. The best place to start is by creating alternative streams of income for your business and personal life. In today’s episode, Lissa Chandler joins us to share how she is balancing service-based work with product sales, tackling SEO, and dealing with the impacts on her business post-pandemic. The conversation covers the realities behind passive income and the importance of aligning business efforts with different seasons of life.
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Guest Bio:
Lissa Chandler is a creative photographer based in Fayetteville, Arkansas who really loves color and creative light. A professional photographer since 2011, Lissa cut her photography teeth photographing weddings and has been teaching photography since 2014.
Early on in her photography career, Lissa chose to niche down on a feeling rather than one photography subject. That feeling? That insanely happy, wonderful feeling that an elementary school aged kid feels when they open up a box of 120 crayons: a lot of excitement, a lot of hope, and a whole lot of color.
A mom of three, dog mom to two, and wife to one, Lissa also owns Opal and June. Opal and June began as a photography dress rental shop in 2018 and, in 2023, expanded into the cutest shop full of photographer gifts, photography education, and ridiculously cute bookish + history merch for creatives.Sam believes the most important asset in your business is your audience’s trust, and she’s working to build a new marketing paradigm rooted in honesty, kindness, and slowing the fuck down—while making (and paying) sustainable wages.
Today’s episode is brought to you by DIY Template Shop! Grab the exact email, form, and workflow templates that I include inside the CRM Blueprint Course. Steal my templates and customize them to match your brand and process. Use the code PODCAST for 10% off.
Find it Quickly:
(0:24) Meet Lisa Chandler
(1:21) Lisa’s Journey into Photography
(3:07) The Birth of Opal in June
(5:10) Expanding the Business: Dress Rentals and More
(8:00) Balancing Services and Products
(12:04) Navigating Business Challenges
(13:56) Exploring New Ventures
(15:54) Selling on Etsy
(19:20) Marketing Strategies for Photography Business
(20:28) Referral Marketing and Its Alternatives
(24:06) Challenges in the Evolving Photography Industry
(25:19) The Reality of Passive Income
(28:43) Balancing Business and Personal Life
(31:36) Starting a Podcast
Mentioned in this Episode
Connect with Lissa
Website: lissachandler.com
Podcast: yourphotographermom.com
Merch Shop: etsy.com/shop/OpalandJuneShop
Dress Rentals: opalandjuneshop.com
Instagram: @lissaclair
Review the Transcript:
Colie: You are listening to the business first creatives podcast. I’m your host, Koli James. In each episode, you will hear real life stories behind the scene takes and practical insights for how to streamline and grow a creative business that brings you joy and a paycheck. Let’s get started.
Hello, hello, and welcome back to the business first creatives podcast. Today I am talking with Lisa Chandler and the weird thing is guys, I was looking at like the bio that she sent over to me and I think that she’s one of the only people that like self identifies as a wedding photographer that I’ve had on this podcast.
I have no idea how this is possible. I’ve had people on the photograph weddings, but I think everybody that I’ve had on weddings are like. Can I say side hustle for wedding photography? I don’t think so, but it’s like something that they do in addition to something else. And while you do so many things that we were going to talk about today, I was like, I just, I feel like you’re the first person that like, I’m a wedding photographer.
Lissa: Snap. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don’t shoot weddings as much as I used to. I am taking them more this next year. Again, they’re going to be more of a primary thing, but I scaled back during the pandemic. But before then, I mean, weddings all of the time from like 2011 on.
Colie: Yeah, I mean, speaking of which, you just said that you started in 2011, so tell me how you got your start in photography, because I feel like we have to like get that out of the way before we talk about all of the other things that you do.
Lissa: Yeah. So I always loved photography. I like to say that I grew up with a camera in my back pocket. It’s really fun. This is before cell phones. So I guess everyone has a camera in their back pocket now, but you know, it’s fun. Mine were little disposable cameras that you had to get developed, but I just always loved photography.
And then when I had my first kid, I thought I’d be a stay at home mom and realized that wasn’t the best fit for me pretty fast and started shooting. So, okay, what
Colie: did you do before you were a stay at home mom and before you were a photographer? Like what were you before?
Lissa: So I was a college student, so I had my first kid when I was still in college.
And then when I graduated, I opened my photography business like two weeks later. I was already shooting, but like, that was like, I graduated and like we moved towns and I established my business for real.
Colie: Okay. What did you major in, in college?
Lissa: History.
Colie: Okay. Now listen, I know that you were going to be like, Oh, she’s going to judge me.
Girl, history and government in particular were my favorite subjects in high school. And the funny thing is my, I have many college degrees, so many college degrees, but they are all STEM related. They’re math and statistics. And I have some education in there. And I’m also a PhD dropout. My husband got his, and so I’m like, we can just share.
I don’t need my own. It’s all good. But I loved history and now your t shirts make so much more sense. Okay. That’s a good segue. Yeah, it is. It is. It’s really fun. You opened Opal in June, your shop, in 2013. So, you were doing photography right out of college, right after you had your first kiddo, you were shooting a lot of weddings, and then, why did you open a shop?
Lissa: So it was actually in 2018, and I started, you know how there’s like the dress rentals that are so popular now with photographers? So we were the first ones. I had the idea with my friend, we were really excited about it. There were no kind of rental businesses for photographers out there. And I was always like, I have so much inventory.
I wish I could rent it. And then two, what do I do with these wedding dresses after I shoot them for like styled shoots? Cause I like, when you shoot a lot of weddings, you kind of want to shoot some funky stuff when you’re doing styled shoots. And so I wanted to like create something where other people could, um, Also, make some fun stuff, and so I was very into, like, star dresses and glitter, and I really liked the dress rentals, but I didn’t have the kind of time to put into it that it needed, and then a bunch more opened, which is wonderful.
Wonderful. And I was just like, you know what? This might not be the best fit. I still do the dress rentals, but I only do like five to 10 a month because you have to ship them. And when I started Opal in June, I was doing it with my best friend. And then she went to law school and became a lawyer, which is amazing.
Right. So amazing. And so she went back to law school, like 38, like she went back to school, which is so freaking cool. And, but then I was like doing Opal in June by myself and having to like Do everything. And I was like, I can’t shoot and do Opal in June and kind of pulled back. But then I had the idea of like adding other We talked about this already before we start recording, but the more passive quote unquote items to my business that I wouldn’t have to ship or shoot after someone paid for them.
Colie: Yeah. Okay. Let’s take a back step. So you’re doing your wedding photography and you’re like, you know, I have all of this inventory. So really it wasn’t that you were like dreaming. Of expanding into another business. You were just like, I have all this stuff that I am no longer using. And what can I do with it?
I can rent. Okay. So when you first opened Opal in June, and we’re specifically talking about the dress rental part of that business, did you think that it would be profitable? Or if you hoped that it would be profitable, how long did it actually take for you to turn a profit? Cause I’m just like, isn’t that a lot of time and energy and shipping costs and like all of these, it’s, it’s definitely not passive income.
Definitely.
Lissa: No. So I thought it would turn a profit pretty fast and it did. As I mentioned, there were not any other dress rental shops that when we did it. So when it took off, it took off really hard and fast and we immediately had a ton of dress rentals. But then I got pregnant and I am not a good pregnant person.
And so it would basically took off really fast and then it kind of like slammed on the brakes. So it was just so Not the right time. Great idea. Not the perfect time to make something big, but it turned a profit. Not a great profit, not like enough to live on, but enough for like, it was self sustaining almost immediately.
Okay. Well, I mean, if that makes sense. Yeah, it
Colie: does make sense. And I feel like that’s really all. That some of us can hope for. And I mean, you know, you had, you were paying for all these dresses. I’m assuming that by renting them, you were actually paying yourself back for the cost of buying them in the first place.
And so, yeah. So
Lissa: I could buy like dresses and props that I wanted to shoot with for styled shoots and then they were paid for through the rentals. Yeah.
Colie: Okay. And so. I mean, I feel like, I feel like the audience is going to feel like we’re jumping around a lot, but you have a lot to talk about. So dress rental started in 2018.
And when did you start adding the additional products to your store? Because I took a peek before we got on together. You have like some mugs, everybody loves, uh, Koli loves a good mug and you have some t shirts and some sweatshirts and like things like that in there. When did you add that type of inventory into your store?
Lissa: So I came across it in early 2022, and what actually happened was I made stuff for my kids for Valentine’s Day that year, and I was like, that was really fun.
And then I was like, oh, I had self published some, like, photoshoot. Planners on Amazon that were really fun to make and I’d made them at Canva and like, cause I was kind of learning Canva that way. And then I was like, you know what? I could make some photographer shirts after I made the kids Valentine’s presents.
I was like, I could make some photographer shirts too. And that’s what happened.
Colie: Okay, but it feels like to me, okay, so you’ve got photography and that’s mostly, you know, I shouldn’t say mostly, that’s really a service business. If you’re selling prints on the side, I mean, it’s still deriving from your service business.
So all of that is services. And then I misspoke earlier and said, you opened the store in 2014, but we kind of glossed over that in 2014 was when you started. Educating other photographers. That was what the 2014. Yes. So, but again, that is still like services. And then I feel like you’re jumping into renting these dresses, mostly trying to pay for what you were in the initial investment, if you will, in them, but then they were still turning a profit for you.
And then I feel like with the addition of the store, it’s like you seem to be split between your service based. And then actual products because those are like two completely different things, two completely different sides of your brain, two completely different back ends of your business. And so the fact that you’ve been doing both of them is just mind boggling to me.
Lissa: Okay. Yes, but also when you get down to creating it, no. Does that make sense? Like, yes, they’re totally different things and I would never have put them together. And like, I have the hardest time now when people ask me what I do for work. Um, because it’s, and then like, I try to explain it and they just look at me like I’m bananas and I’m like, yes, basically that’s.
That’s the truth.
Colie: I mean, for you, I would just say I’m a business owner. I don’t even know that I would get into the specifics, but I think a lot of us, I think a lot of us listening, because the thing about me becoming a photographer is it took me a really long time to like, let go of what I used to do before I was a photographer, which I was a professor.
Now I have not been a professor in, I think, almost 15 years now. 15 years, but it really took me three or four years of owning my photography business until when someone asked me, Hey, Coley, what do you do for a living? I was like, I’m a photographer, full stop with no caveat added because I would constantly be like, Oh, but you know, I was a professor for 10 years and you know, I have a master’s in this.
And I mean, I would just basically like word vomit, everything related to those degrees. that I have that I felt were like more establishing to me than me just, you know, sticking my chest out and saying I’m a photographer.
Lissa: And, you know, that’s kind of like the space I feel like I’m in right now. We’re like, yes, I am a photographer, but the shirt shops, the merch shops have exploded the past few months, especially.
And so it’s like, okay, which do I say? It becomes that word vomit you talked about. You’re like, wait, what am I?
Colie: I mean, so let’s talk about your split now, because, you know, we’re recording this in 2024. You’ve now had the shop for, I’m doing the math in my head very quickly, six years. And then you’ve had these additional products in your store for two years.
So what has been the trajectory of Opal in June? Like, what’s the current percentage of maybe your income or the time that you spend? on both sides of your business. Give us an idea of where you spend your time and effort so that we can figure out if you’re still really a photographer or if you’ve really moved over into a product based business owner.
Lissa: This is where we talk about the other element of it. So I have two Etsy shops. So I have the merch shop and I also have like a stock photography. shop as well. That’s like for designers. It’s a mock up photograph. So I shoot a ton all the time. Still, it’s not exactly the same work as I was doing before. So I took 2023 to kind of really build up that shop.
And I was shooting like every week, these mock up photos and to build a really large mock up shop. And so I have that, but that’s a way to do photography and get, not have to do any work after someone pays you. We don’t believe in passive income, we don’t believe in passive income, but we’ve already done the work already.
Right. And so that’s what I’ve done. A ton of is more stock photography the past couple of years, but I have opened my books back up because the whole plan, once I got serious with Opal in June was to set up some sideline things that could sustain my business really struggled in COVID. So I didn’t do well in COVID.
I know a lot of photographers did great. Mine was not a good experience. And so I thought about retiring cause I’ve shot forever. And I was like, maybe this is time I have three kids. They’re getting big. Maybe I should just like retire and hang up my hats. But that was a bad idea for me. You know, I think it lasted for a week when I decided to do it.
And
I was like, and then I was like, I can’t go back after the experience of the pandemic. I was like, I cannot go back into just shooting weddings. Like I did before, because that is a lot. A lot happened during the pandemic and I was like, I can’t go back straight into that. So I knew that when I was going to go back into it full force that I wanted to have other income streams lined up that were not reliant on social media.
So I had always taught, but I was not in the headspace to like market any teaching. Does that make sense? It does. I wanted something else. That I didn’t have to like have people enroll or have people book and then do it after I wanted to have Things that if anything ever happened like the pandemic again, not that I think anything like that would happen again That was a once in a
Colie: lifetime thing
Lissa: You keep that to yourself, I know more like if I broke my foot, you know Like if something like that happened that I could Make money in other ways without it being as devastating as the pandemic was for my business.
Yes.
Colie: I mean, and I feel like I need a recap and we’re only 15 minutes in guys. I just want to remind you of all the things that listen does. She does wedding photography. She also does seniors and families and just photography in general. Let’s just scoop all that up together. And then she does stock photography to specifically sell on Etsy.
And I’ve got a question about that in just a minute. She also has her, Opal in June, which does dress rentals as well as merch. I feel like the only thing that’s missing from like your set of business things that you do is a local studio that you could rent to other photographers. Have you thought about that?
So
Lissa: fun. Um, that was actually in my original business plan when I did Opal in June. So Opal in June, as I mentioned, I got pregnant almost immediately after not having, not being able to have a baby for several years. And so, um, yeah, That was my plan was to do styled shoots. We were going to do styled shoots like across the U S with the dresses and open a local studio eventually.
But I think I’ve moved on from that dream. Okay. And it’s okay. You can just let it
Colie: go. In fact, I was, I was discussing something very similar with my business bestie, Sabrina Gebhardt on an episode that’s going to come out soon. She finally let something go in her business. And I’m like, I’m proud of you.
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So I’ve got a question for you. You’ve got your Lissa Chandler brand and then you’ve got the Opal and June brand. See I’m almost getting tongue tied saying all these. Why are you choosing to sell your stock photography on Etsy instead of. on its own branded website or making it a part of your two other brands.
I just, when you first submitted your stuff to me, I was like, that’s a weird choice. I want to know why Etsy.
Lissa: Okay. So there’s people on Etsy who like, so I have my shirt shop. That’s like a huge thing. And when I was making, not like for me, but like in general, there’s a huge industry of people who make shirts.
Right? And not just like individual designers, but companies, things like that. They sell merch. But most of the time when places are selling merch, they are not actually using photos of the products. They’re using a mock up photograph. So they’re taking a photograph Of someone wearing a shirt or like a shirt on a hanger, and then they put their design on it and put it up.
And a lot of the people who are doing that are selling on Etsy. So they are already on Etsy, and so they’re going to look for their mock up photos on Etsy. So that’s why it’s, and I’m not going to put stock photos in the same Etsy shop that I have like my shirts. So that’s why it is separate.
Colie: It makes absolute total sense.
And in a bigger discussion of like brand identity and SEO and all of these kinds of things, you probably didn’t want to have to establish your own brand. It’s like, these people are already on Etsy. It already has a face. Fabulous search engine. If their products are there and they’re going to be searching there, I can just load it, load my items there so that it makes it easier for them to reach.
Because of course, when it comes to selling your things on other people’s websites, and when I say other people, guys, I mean, Etsy is not a single person. It is a huge conglomerate business. I mean, but when you do that, of course, they always take a cut that is bigger of your business. Because I think all of us who are creative entrepreneurs now, um, It doesn’t matter if you’re selling and your cart system is PayPal or Stripe or Square.
Across the board, you’re going to spend about three to 3. 5 percent to process. But when you sell on something like Etsy or Creative Market, they are taking a bigger chunk. That’s why I wanted to make sure that I asked you the question of why are you deciding to give up a bigger chunk by putting it on Etsy versus, you know, creating a branded website for yourself?
Because clearly you’re capable of doing it. You already have two.
Lissa: Yes. Well, I just flat out didn’t want to. I mean, I could say like there was another reason, but I just flat out didn’t want to. The traffic is on Etsy. I didn’t want to create. I’m one person. Two websites is enough for me. I didn’t want to.
And yes, they do take a cut, but they also do things like sales tax for you, which is amazing. I don’t have to worry about that. Part of my sales tax. And I just really wanted to make it as easy as possible. As I mentioned, I didn’t want to like, have to do social media for these things. They were, I was very quiet about them when I started them.
Um, I took a social media break and basically worked on. These shops instead, instead of having, but if I was putting them on my own website, I would have to market them and I don’t have to market them on Etsy. I can sometimes. But I don’t have to.
Colie: Yeah. You said the magic word, Lissa. Let’s talk about marketing.
Let’s go back to your photography business. How did you market your photography business when you first opened? And what do you do now? Now that that part of your like entire business Plan, if you will, is a much smaller piece of the pie.
Lissa: So I just shot, that’s what I can tell. Basically anyone is just shoot as much as you can.
So yes, like shoot, like back then model calls. I actually did a group on, cause this is way back. Cause I’m old, you know, I did a group on
Colie: and you live to tell about it. Okay. Let’s continue.
Lissa: Yes, it was, it was a thing. Maybe it wasn’t group on, but it was like. Something similar, one similar. Yeah. I did that when I first moved to Arkansas because I didn’t know anyone and I needed to get stuff and I just built my SEO.
I’ve always been big on Google. I love Google over social media. I think it’s way longer lasting. And so I built my SEO up and that’s how I got all of it. And then the more you shoot, the more people you meet. And then the past, I don’t know, like six or seven years, a lot of my stuff is just 100 percent referrals.
Colie: Nice. So referral, do you actually do referral marketing or you just get referrals from previous clients? No, I mean, I wish everybody could see her face right now, guys. She made the most horrible face when I mentioned referral marketing. I mean, but it is definitely a thing. And while I think referral marketing is, Is easiest to understand in the senior photography realm, because, you know, everybody understands getting senior models and then they’re basically showing off the photos that you’re taking to all of their senior friends.
They’re getting, you know, the people at their school to hire you and they may or may not get like a cut when someone books. I mean, that is referral marketing in like. Peak position for photography, but there are more and more people now that are kind of doing like more brand ambassador things for family photography.
Have you heard of anybody who’s doing that?
Lissa: I have and I totally think that it’s the right business choice for other people. I don’t have that kind of time on my plate. I’d rather if I’m going to shoot someone and they’re going to be some kind of ambassador. Ambassador, I would rather set up a shoot and style everything and have it exactly how I want it and shoot it for free.
And then use that in my marketing, even if they never post it ever, then do actual ambassador or roar over like. And I’ve done programs like I’ve done senior model programs, all those. So it’s just not a good fit for me at this point.
Colie: I mean, but girl, you’re also 13 years in, like I recently did a two year anniversary episode on this podcast and I had two of my business besties.
And between the three of us, we all have more than 10 years of experience. photographers and then the other parts of our business. But the one thing that we all talked about was we have some kind of marketing in our business. That’s longterm that we’re not really having to like put our hand on whether it’s like SEO from blog posts that I wrote seven years ago that are still bringing in steady traffic.
Or in other case, like referrals from your long term clients, people still talking about you, they talk to someone, that person hires you, they love you, they talk to someone else. And it’s just basically like, you know, just how many people can I bring into my world that all can be attributed to like these five people, these random five people that you shot.
Lissa: And you don’t always know who that’s going to be. And also like, when you’ve been shooting a long time, like I have like probably 10 Families. I photograph every year and have for like 5 to 10 years for all of them, you know, they just come back and you have that when you’re long term. And so I would never I know I pulled a face about the referral marketing because it’s not a good fit for me.
But if you’re a new photographer, I think you should try literally anything that sounds good to you until you find the right fit for your marketing because everyone’s going to be different.
Colie: All right. So I like going off on marketing tandems whenever we can, because, you know, marketing and then just in general, like, communicating.
I feel like none of us start a photography business and realize how much effort that part takes. I mean, I feel like we just throw our doors open and we publish our website and we’re like, okay, we’re here. Where are the people? And that is not how it works. I mean, I have had one or two mentoring students.
It’s funny. I always have to give this caveat. I had one or two mentoring students who, when they mentored with me, they legitimately were like the only photographer inside of their circle. And so when they opened, like they didn’t have to market like their friends and all their friends just automatically started hiring them.
And so they were booked out for like a whole, you know, a whole season within like a month. But that is not normal. That is not what happens for
Lissa: most people. Well, I think that’s something we really need to acknowledge, too, is the photography industry is not the same as it was 10 years ago. It’s very different, and the photographers that are coming up now are facing different challenges than the photographers that came up 10 years ago.
It’s not that it was inherently easier, but it’s different.
Colie: Yeah. I mean, even, we, we’ve mentioned SEO a few times, like, um, Imagine how much easier it was for you to rank with a blog post five years ago than it is today. And I mean, I used to tell the joke. I have moved since I’ve told this joke. I’ve now lived in this current house a little over three years, but before we lived here, we lived 12 miles south of me.
And literally if I stood on my porch and I like, I don’t know, threw up a firework. The number, the number of photographers that could see that was probably 15 for my house. Like there were three photographers that lived in my townhouse neighborhood. Oh my
Lissa: gosh. I mean
Colie: photographers everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
And so, I mean, but even as saturated as we are, we all have to kind of find our place in the market where we fit in. Yes,
Lissa: yes, absolutely.
Colie: So listen, the one thing that we both agreed that we were going to hammer a little bit harder. And so I’m going to give you the opportunity to do that now. Passive income is never passive.
So your photography is not passive. Although I would say now that you’re getting a lot of referrals, it’s probably more passive now. than it was before, even though you still have to, you know, you still have to photograph, you still have to deliver the photos. But what is the one thing that you would tell people about, like, if they are intrigued by the idea of passive income, what is one thing that you would caution them against before they get started?
Lissa: There’s a couple ways I could go on that route and I think I’m going to do this one. So when you are hired for a job, say you are hired for photography and you’re charging 500 for a family session, you know that you’re going to get paid 500 for that family session. You do the work, you’re going to get 500 if you’re doing something else.
And the job would be. You want to make 500 from it, but it’s passive. There is a chance that you will make 0 from it with the same amount of work as that 500 family session. You’re putting out the same kind of work, same everything. You could make 0 or you could make 500 or you could make 1, 000. You don’t know.
And you don’t know when you’re doing that kind of work, what is going to take off even when you have experience.
Colie: It’s a gamble. It is a gamble. And I want to say earlier in 2024, I did a series all about expanding beyond your main offer, which you would have been a great guest for by the way, but Brittany McBean.
Really put a lot of emphasis and I’m going to have her episode linked in the show notes, but she was really careful when we had our conversation. She wanted everybody to know that when she started trying to make more passive income, not that it was passive, but more passive than like her current coaching program, her current copywriting services, that basically the services that she currently had paid for her to expand that part of her business.
And so I do feel like that is worth mentioning here because I think that you would agree with me. Your photography has to be in a place. Where it can pay for you to take the time to invest in the more passive efforts that you want to do so that you can get to a place where maybe it is not so, you know, in flux between when you’ll make 0 or 500 or 1, 000.
Like you have to have enough set up to where you can sustain your effort. While you’re trying to figure that part, that new part of your business out.
Lissa: And I would argue that it’s even, that is such a great way to kind of like approach it immediately. And then when you get into it, it’s that you almost have to take a step back.
It’s like restarting the business. So at first, yes, the photography is funding it. And then you might have to go a little bit slim and maybe take a little bit less photography work is what happened in my experience. so that I can beef up the other parts of my business so that I could eventually get my business where I want it to be, which on this side where I’m going back into shooting, it’s so wonderful.
I love it so much. You know, I have, you know, lots of great weddings booked this next year, families this fall, things like that. I’m getting back to shooting how I like to, cause I love to shoot. It’s, feel so worth it now, but during the process, there is a lot of like, what am I
Colie: doing? And I will also say one of the things that we chatted about before we hit record is this whole idea of, well, what season of life are you in right now?
And I think all of us have to give ourselves the space in our business, no matter what your service is, whether it’s photography or you are selling merchandising. And that is the only part of your business that you’ve ever had. I feel like all of us have to. Give ourselves the time and the space to adjust for the current season in our life so that, you know, when your three littles are home with you, you have maybe less time to spend on your business because you want to spend more time with them.
But then when all three of them are out of the house, thank you, Jesus. And they’re all in school and you have more time, you can begin to ramp your business back up because I get asked a lot. I mean, Koli, I don’t understand how you built your photography business. I’m like, I don’t know what part of. My story you think started with me going full speed when my kid was sitting in the chair next to me like and my business has definitely been cyclical because she was with me until she was three and then she was in preschool part time and we increased the amount of time that she went every year until she finally went to kindergarten and then I thought to myself now I have an entire school day and then I joined the P.
T. A. Yep.
Lissa: You just,
Colie: you don’t know.
Lissa: You don’t know. Yes, and that’s, and that’s, my youngest is about to start kindergarten. And so I’m back in a spot where I’m like, okay, I’ll have more time, but. Will I have more time? Time will always tell. And I think that one thing that’s beautiful about creating different income streams is that there is not so much pressure for one of them to be the main thing all the time.
So I really can sometimes if I want to shoot three times a week, I can go shoot three times a week and not post any merch stuff, not post anything on my Etsy shop. Just leave it be. If I want to be home more, I can. Not take any of those shoots and just work at home.
Colie: Yeah, and work on more merchandise or Photography.
Lissa: Yeah, absolutely as a mom. It is beautiful because with the stock photography my favorite thing is to shoot I love making my shirt designs Don’t get me wrong, but I love to shoot and so it’s so wonderful to be able to be like Oh, well, I’m going to take some card mock ups today. It’s not as fulfilling as photographing a family like frolicking in the sunlight, but I still get to get my camera out and still get to like do a little set up like a little style sheet with flowers and take the card mock up, put it up and then potentially sell it.
Yeah,
Colie: you said frolicking in the sun. So, first of all, I live in Colorado and I’m probably the only person here, photographer here, that refuses to photograph people outside in that sunlight. But I get what you’re saying. I mean, my thing is, can you invite me over and if you’re making pancakes, I would like some when I’m done photographing you.
Love that. Yes. Please and thank you. Yes, love that. Yes, so much. Okay, listen, so we’ve talked all about the different parts of your business. I feel like we have to tell everybody that you added something new this year on top of all that. You’ve got a
Lissa: podcast. I do. So it’s really fun. I realized that because I had these different like income streams going on that I had the chance to like, kind of, as I was building the income streams that I could finally sit down and just talk more about photography.
So it’s been really fun.
Colie: Yeah, and tell everybody the name of the podcast. It’s your photographer mom. No, I read that and I was like, oh my god She’s gonna have to tell me why she named a podcast that. Are you the photographer mom? Yeah, cuz I’m just a total mom.
Lissa: So I like used to have associate wedding photographers and that’s what they would call me was their photographer mom.
Colie: And so you named your podcast after that. And so we just
Lissa: named it that. Yeah, right. But it’s, it’s kind of silly. It’s kind of tongue in cheek too.
Colie: I mean, I just, I, again, the only thing that I can possibly think of, well, okay. I guess there’s two things. Number one, you’re not doing a studio with studio rentals.
And number two, I was going to say you don’t have an associate team, but I guess you used to have an associate team. Yes. And now you don’t anymore. So really listen, you have tried everything possible to make money as a photographer and expand your business in all the ways that you could.
Lissa: Yeah, it’s just, I think that’s one of the luxuries of having your own business is being able to try and do different things.
And sometimes things are going to work great, even for just a couple of years. And then you drop them and then move on. You know, you just pick something else up new when it strikes your fancy. Or you just go back to doing the main thing, you know, you just, you know, You can do whatever when you own your own business.
And I think that’s part of the freedom that attracts so many of us to our own business. But then we get so stuck in what we should do that. We don’t do that.
Colie: All right, y’all. You know I like to end these things when my guests say something very wise. That’s going to end up on an Instagram reel. I will just let you know that now.
Lissa, tell the listening audience where they can hear more about you and your adventures and listen to your podcast.
Lissa: So, um, my handle on Instagram is lissaclaire and the podcast is called Your Photographer Mom.
Colie: And guys, everything, of course, will be linked in the show notes. Lissa, thank you so much for joining me for this conversation.
It was amazing. It was so fun. Thank you. All right, everyone. That’s it for this episode. See you next time. Thanks for listening to the Business First Creatives podcast. For more information on this podcast, including show notes and links to the video podcast, please visit koleejames. com slash podcast. Are you loving the podcast?
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