My Journey from Corporate America to Creative Entrepreneur

How I went from climbing the corporate ladder to editing family photo sessions on my couch as a full-time creative entrepreneur!

My Childhood Dream

Over the last 10+ years of my life, my career aspirations and lifestyle goals have done a complete 360! Somewhere in a childhood dream journal, I made a page about how I wanted to be a celebrity makeup artist…well that one didn’t last long…but the next page was all about my dream of being a PHOTOGRAPHER!

But when Instagram came out, I was in 6th grade and thought it was SO COOL! I already had a love for taking photos, and now I have somewhere to put them! Below is my FIRST INSTAGRAM POST EVER (circa 2010 and since deleted for obvious reasons)…

Throughout high school, I became more interested in marketing and advertising and even took a photography class where I used a film camera and worked in the dark room. 

Here are some of my middle and high school photoshoots (yes, some of these were taken on Macbook PHOTO BOOTH)!!! Shoutout to my friends and family for letting me practice with them.

Time to Get Serious about a Career

When it was time to choose a major, I was very interested in the journalism college that included the advertising degree, but my love of math and business actually won over and led to me pursuing a Finance degree through Terry College of Business at the Univ. of GA, go dawgs!

In college, I was very corporate minded, joined and became the VP of Finance of a business fraternity, and was completely bought into the glorification of hustle culture. I was obsessed with the idea of working on Wall Street in Investment Banking, really embracing the “Finance Bro” lifestyle.

But when senior year came around and I was looking for jobs, my key focus was finding a job that would help me get to Austin, TX. I had only visited once (when I toured UT in high school) and I fell in love. I knew that I was meant to be in Austin!

And Now to get a JOB!

When Oracle came to recruit from our business fraternity, I was semi-intrigued by the entry level “consulting” position…sounded fancy… but when they mentioned that they offer this role (with a signing bonus) in AUSTIN, I decided this was the job I was going to get to move me to Texas.

It’s the only job I applied for and when I got the offer, it was a no brainer, I was ready to pack my bags. I found an apartment near the office, signed the lease, and was getting ready to move to my new home.

The Nightmare of the Year 2020

Then March 2020 rolled around…many of my friends were receiving notice of their job offers being rescinded.

Luckily, this didn’t happen to me, so I still moved to Texas as planned, but COVID meant starting a job virtually in my one bedroom apartment in a city where I know nobody and can’t go anywhere to meet people. I’m sure you lived your own version of this and can understand the loneliness (and boredom) that comes with this kind of isolation. 

Photography Re-enters the Chat

It wasn’t but a year later that I had a friend ask me to take pictures of him and his girlfriend at the park in Austin. He brought his camera, I learned a few things about shooting in manual mode, and hid behind a tree to surprise his girlfriend! 

I had so much fun and left the shoot feeling more energized than I had in years. I realized I LOVE capturing couples’ stories and watching them interact and simply enjoy each other’s company. 

Take a look at my first ever couples session!

Introducing a Much-Needed Creative Outlet

In the midst of COVID-boredom, and craving a creative outlet, I picked the camera back up for the first time since high school and started shooting. I never thought of it as much more than a hobby, but it was a great hobby!

When I realized people were willing (and expecting) to pay for photoshoots, I let my hobby turn into a side hustle while I continued to sell cloud applications for Oracle. 

Here are some of the very first photos I took for friends, family, coworkers, and a sweet family that trusted me with a camera when I sure didn’t deserve it!

Maybe this could be more?!

After two years of charging for photos, it started to seem more and more possible that I could actually make a living off of this little side gig. Now I’ve always been entrepreneurial (shoutout to all of those who supported my lemonade stands, and my mom for teaching me about COGS), but making a career out of a hobby just didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Maybe somebody else could do it, but not me, right?

Despite my doubts, I continued to work on my photography skills, invested in new gear, built a website, and even signed up for a photography workshop in California.

But there came a point where I felt stuck. It felt like I had reached a dead end, like my photos weren’t getting any better, I didn’t really love my own style, and I didn’t know how to move past this place of imposter syndrome. 

My photos THEN…

Finally Leaving the Corporate Life?

On a Wednesday night driving to my Faith Driven Entrepreneurship class at the church (where I felt like a complete fraud being surrounded by actual successful business owners), I prayed, “God, if photography is what you want me to pursue, I’m really gonna need some help here…I just can’t do this alone.”

Thursday morning, while on a coffee date with a new friend, I got THE call from my boss that my role at Oracle had been terminated due to a reduction in force (RIP). Like OKAY GOD, I SEE YOU!!! My friend asked me, “well… what do you want to do?”

Only one thing came to mind, and you’ll never guess what it was… just kidding, you already know! All I want to do is capture stories through the lens of my camera. I want to serve you by offering a way to store up memories that you can relive by pulling out the photo album or digital scrapbook!

This is from my camera roll on June 1st, when I got laid off!

My Mission to Serve You in my Creative Career

I want you to look back at these photos and remember exactly the way that your heart fluttered when he got down on one knee with the ring he worked overtime to afford because you’re worth it or when your healthy baby boy smiled at you for the first time after years of infertility and prayers for just that moment… It’s as if you can freeze time, bottle up the joy in these moments, and pull it out anytime you need a reminder of how you got to where you are now. A sweet reminder of just how special each season is!

The day that I got laid off, in conversations with my friends and family, many of them responded to the news by saying, “well, this would be a perfect time for you to do photography full time!” 

My parents, also entrepreneurs, fully encouraged me to take on the risk of being self-employed. My mom told me, “you’re not allowed to give up before six months. You can do this.” It started to feel like everyone else believed in me more than I believed in my own ability to make this work. But God makes impossible things possible! 

Continuing Education and Improving My Skillset

Remember that photography workshop I mentioned? It took place a few weeks after I got laid off. I wasn’t sure how I was going to come up with the PTO I needed, so this whole ~getting laid off~ thing happened just in time for me to take the trip to Palm Springs, CA without having to juggle two jobs.

For the month of June, I HUSTLED, I spent long hours building a new website (with a lot of help from a creative friend), creating my investment guides, and really just committing to the professionalism of this passion project becoming my full time career. 

When it came time to leave for California, I decided to make the most out of my trip by driving out west so that I could stop along the way to see friends and shoot in new places! The drive to Palm Springs from Austin is about 18 hours (no biggy!) and I have lots of credit card points stored up (and friends) for overnight stays!

Stop #1: Alamogordo, NM

My first stop was in White Sands National Park with friends that are stationed in Alamogordo, NM as pilots in the United States Air Force. I had the absolute pleasure of capturing the sweet love of Brendan and Natalie at White Sands while the sun set over the gypsum dune field. After sunset, we shared PB&J’s and a bottle of rose by the pool before hitting the hay.

Stop #2: Scottsdale, AZ

The next day, I got up and drove to Scottsdale, AZ where I met Jess and Michael for their engagement photos! I met Jess at church in Austin just before she and Michael moved. We met at Usery Mountain Regional Park in Scottsdale and *carefully* played in a field of CACTI! It took a little while for them to warm up to the camera being in their faces, but we ended up having such a fun time and you’d never know how shy Michael started out looking at the photos!

When I got to the hotel for the night, I was so excited (but admittedly a little nervous) to look through all the photos I had taken the last couple of nights. I was still feeling like a complete imposter, faking my way into this career, hoping that one day I would actually love my own artwork. As the photos loaded onto my computer, my jaw fell to the floor. I absolutely could not believe it. This was my BEST work. And not by a little bit, but BY FAR! So much so that when I posted them on Instagram, people were asking me “are these your photos?” LOL 

It’s as if God was working through my hands and my creative eye in the making of these images. All of my creativity has always come from Him, but something new came from me on this trip that I had never experienced with my work, I LOVED it. 

The Heart Workshop

Finally, time to make my way over the CA state line to meet the 30 amazing women attending the workshop with me in Palm Springs. Some of us met downtown for lunch and fresh watermelon margaritas before heading to the Monkey Tree hotel for check-in. Evie and Lindsey welcomed us with open arms into our home for the week and we kicked off the workshop with a pizza and pool party!

The workshop was filled with business education, photography sessions, community building, belly laughs, late night tears, and so much encouragement from everyone! This is just what I needed to feel empowered to take big steps in my photography business. 

Joshua Tree National Park + Newport Beach

After the workshop, my friend Megan and I explored Joshua Tree National Park together, where we took lots of photos to document our adventures (you can read about that in my JTNP blog here)! Then we drove to her hometown, Newport Beach, to spend the fourth of July with her family. I loved getting to see where she grew up and meeting her parents!

Before I knew it, it was time to make the 20-hour trek back home to Austin. Over the course of three days in the car, I reflected on the past month, thinking about how long I would have until my severance would run out, and wondering what the next month would hold. 

Here we are! Two and a half months of self-employment and honestly loving every second of it! I am SO grateful that God has blessed this business by giving me the gifts of creativity and entrepreneurship. I’m looking forward to what’s to come and hope that you’ll join me on this journey!

Most importantly, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for the support and encouragement you’ve already given to me in this adventure, I couldn’t do it without you!

Now what?!

Check out the rest of my website or follow along on Instagram to see what I’ve been up to! If you’re reading this, you’re already here! I’m going to keep serving and loving on my clients in the best way I know how. Thanks for making it this far with me!

xoxo,

Kate