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Quinn Teechma was tired of her career as a bartender and was ready to achieve financial liberation we all hope for. She courageously quit her job to pursue this dream and is now a full-time boudoir photographer. Quinn has already raked in $30,000 in revenue within a few months all during a pandemic. Listen to her testimonial on how she left the rat race and accomplished her goals of financial freedom.
https://www.queenstudiosyyc.com/
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Transcript:
How are you doing?
I’m doing well. How are you?
Amazing. You’re up north in Canada. You’ve got a lot of things going on. You’re competing in a pageant next month. Is it next month?
Yeah, September 16th, 16th.
So you’ve got a busy gal and luckily you’ve taken some time and you’ve graciously your present to share your story and just share some insights.
So ridiculous. By the way.
I think I’m going to change it. I’m going to try maybe I don’t know if we can do like. The split screen, I don’t know if that’s better or not, but the split screen, you’re OK. So I know a lot of people had a lot of questions for you. So that’s why we wanted to have you on so you could share the details of it.
I was getting so many messages after I made that post about my story. And a lot of people are reaching out to me. A lot of people wanted my opinion on the course and yes, awesome that I get to jump on here and share it.
Ok, so welcome, Quinn, before we get started. Can you just give us a snapshot and tell us just tell us about your business, like about you and your business right now in like 30 seconds?
Yeah, I joined high rollers in covid and I launched my entire business during covid. I was a bartender before that. And I my first seven boudoir sessions have totaled twenty nine thousand dollars, five hundred and forty. So I’m really excited because seven sessions that’s twenty forty two hundred sales average.
So OK. So before I get into that ridiculous number there, how the heck did you even know you wanted to do photography. Like is this something you’ve always done because you’re saying, like you just kind of started you hadn’t done any paid shoots before this year basically. So how did you even know to get into photography?
Yeah, so I was really sick of bartending. I’m twenty six. I’m right at that age where it’s kind of like, OK, what am I going to do with my life, am I going to go back to school, am I going to start a business. Am I just going to bartend for the rest of my life? And I’m just not one of those people that’s going to be satisfied at that type of job for the rest of my life. So I sat down and I thought, OK, what are my skills and what are things I enjoy doing? And I kind of just roll them out. And I took a couple of days to think like, how can I take the things I enjoy doing my skills and make a job out of it? And I had been modeling for, I don’t know, over ten years at this point. So I did have experience being in front of the camera.
And then I’d say seven years ago I got my first digital camera and I was doing just a little bit of hobby photography. I didn’t really shoot many times, to be honest. I did a few head shots for a few people. It was one of those things where I got like two in a box and I gave them thirty digitals. Like, I just edited everything and I didn’t know what I was doing. So I did like maybe four headshot sessions and the rest of it was just like me having fun with my camera, taking pictures of my cats like nothing I’d never done boudoir. I had done boudoir sessions myself as a model, but I had never shot any boudoir. And I came across the High Rollers Facebook group and I was just like, what is this like? And I don’t know. It must have been popping up in my feed the ads because I was like looking into photography. And I had just recently got a new camera for a Christmas present. And I was like, I could be a photographer, but I just was like, how can I support myself doing two hundred dollar shoots? I just can’t. So I got on the phone, I did a phone consult with you guys, I believe it was Nikki. And I was just like, oh my God, this car is pretty expensive. I don’t know if I can do that. Like that’s my credit card. And I’m definitely one of those people, though, that I was like, OK, I need a day to think about it. And I was like, I got to just do this. So I called back. I waited until Monday and I was very, very lucky that you guys still gave me the discount on the course. And I was so thankful for that because I, I know that this year the course went up in price and I still got in before that. I yeah, I just blew my credit card and I joined it right away. I barely looked into the course, to be honest.
I just did it on a hotel room. I had no idea what I was buying. I don’t know. I’m crazy. And your course was amazing. It launched my entire business in a pandemic when I had no idea what I was doing. I never shopped before. I had never had a business, nothing.
So we’re going to we’re going to jump into that. But and I don’t want to define you just buy the business because you you are a person. So for anyone listening, I know you mentioned you are a bartender. Like, just tell us a little bit about yourself, what you did before and what your life is outside of work. So. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I was bartending for eight years, ever since I was 18, until I was twenty six and I had never, like I said, never done anything for business. I went to school to be a paramedic and didn’t end up doing it. And I just never liked school. And I just never felt like it was going to be something that I was going to pursue for a career. And I guess photography was the outlet there where I could be creative and enjoy it as a business. And then outside of that, I also am a pretty creative person in general. So I do like acting as well as the modeling and I’m doing this pageant coming up. And that’s I just like to be busy. I’m busy. I like to have a lot of things because it keeps my mind from getting bored.
So walk us through, because you talk a lot about results and stuff, but like day to day, what is what is your week look like now? Like now that you’re shooting, you’re you like sounds like you’ve already got a lot of your products and stuff like. Yeah. What does that day to day look like for you now?
Yeah. I mean I actually feel like it’s pretty easy. It’s weird to say that, but I feel like implementing the things I did from this course has given me such flexibility because I can look at stuff in this course and be like, oh, I already know how to do that now because I can just type in my question in the search box in the course, and I can find all of the lives. And it’s like, oh, that tells me how to do that. So it makes it so easy. And for example, like booking sheets for me, I booked I think I think I ended up looking like 30 shoots in a week and a half because I ran one ad and I just copied the ad from you guys, like from the course word for word posted it.
And I got like five hundred leads and now I’ve got five hundred email list, which I was like, how do you get an email list? I have no idea how to get people’s emails and build that and build the clientele.
My Facebook group is doing really well as well, which is also part of the course learning how to create a group and, you know, community with girls.
And I think that that’s really helped me. And day to day mostly I just kind of hang out in my group and choose girls and try to build that community because it’s so much easier to just book out of the group. And it’s so much easier when they get to kind of see who you are in your group and then add you on Facebook. And that’s, again, just making those contact points with the clients and then they book.
And how is that different from before? So I know maybe did you even attend? Because it sounds like maybe you attempted a little bit to try to charge. So what were you doing before?
Yeah. So you laughed so hard. I mean, I, I would like post a Facebook status here and there being like, does anyone need headshots.
It’s only two hundred dollars and I’ll give you a bunch of digitals. And I posted like I could. God, I don’t know if you guys have to do in the states, but yeah. So it’s like I posted an ad on there for free, like I didn’t even pay for it. And I got like a few responses from it being like, oh, can I trade you like makeup for my headshots like this.
That and I’m like this is so hard. How can anyone be a photographer? How does they make money out of it. I don’t understand.
Yeah, I can I can imagine. It’s much different. Like knowing every day that you have people to talk to, you kind of have structure, a strategy to like follow compared to like just throwing things against the wall and like hoping they work and then, you know, not getting momentum and then just kind of jumping from thing to thing.
Yeah.
You know, what’s weird, too, is actually before I joined this course, I knew so little about this course that I didn’t even understand that there was another group like that. Once you join the group during the course, you get put into like the group on Facebook of people that have bought the cars. So it’s like this community where you can talk to each other about the cars and about your issues and post. And it’s like you post a question there, you get answers right away. You have five hundred other photographers that are ready to help you and your clients and write even responses for you, because sometimes it’s just feels too close. It’s like you don’t know what words to use to respond to your client, but then it’s like another photographer will post a very similar question and you can probably write them out and answer.
That’s funny. So, I mean, it’s out of, like, your thought process, just like I don’t know much about this. Let me just jump into it. But like, what was that deciding factor? Because I feel like that was a pretty big decision. I know for me, I’ve spent so much on that. I’ve spent quite a bit on coaching every year. I kind of have like a budget. It’s kind of a big budget now. And every time I join, I’m usually pretty selective, I feel like I sit on it, I decide for like six months and then every time I do, especially if it’s a really good one, I’ve got some pretty good judge. I always join. I’m like, man, I should’ve done it sooner. Like, I could have been doing this last year and done this for the last two years.
But like, what pushed you over the edge of that to just say, oh, I guess in general it was just impatience with my life and wanting something more than bartending. And this course in particular, I was the only thing that I did do to check out this course is when I finally found, like, I actually don’t know how I found it, but I eventually found your Facebook group, the large group. And I just started going through. And I’m seeing all these posts by all of these other people saying like, this course is amazing. These are my sales averages. And I like seeing those numbers blew my mind because I wasn’t even aware that photographers could make that much like I thought, selling 20 digitals for 300 bucks was like average. I made up a headshot priceless right before I bought this when I was deciding to become a photographer. And my lowest package was one hundred and fifty dollars for five digitals. And then my middle package I think was three hundred dollars for ten. And like the top package was seven hundred and fifty bucks and. I just it blew my mind that people were making like eight grand in one. Session, and I was like, if other people in this group can do that, like, why can’t I? And then I watched a couple of Jenn’s Vios four. She interviewed a few of her people that had bought her course. And I was like, this can’t be fake. Like, there’s just so much content in this group. Like this can’t be a scam. And all of these people wouldn’t be lying about their averages. So I was like, I’m just going to do it.
And by the way, at the beginning of this, let’s go back to the beginning of this. You said you’ve you literally just started and your average is like forty two hundred right now. So, like, walk us through that, because a lot of people and even sometimes a joint. So this is good for us. If like if someone’s already joined and they’re like scared, a lot of times they’ll look at that number and just say, well, I haven’t been doing photography for three years, I haven’t sold enough at a lower level. I have to, like, work myself up. So, like, you’re kind of an oddball in the sense that, like, you just literally took it. And Jen says she’s like, just take my list, don’t change it, don’t ask questions. And so you use it and then just go with it. And you did that. So walk us through like where you like. Did you at least have hesitations about your doubts over terrified.
Terrified? I was like, everyone’s going to see through this. Everyone’s going to know that I’ve never shot where they’re going to know. They’re going to come to my studio and they’re going to be like, what is this girl doing? Like, she doesn’t know how to do anything. So I actually took your advice and I first joined I like I had no portfolio. Right. I had I had, like, one session that I’d done with a friend. The lighting was terrible. Her skin looked blue. You pointed out like it was so bad. And that’s like what my website was. So I was like, OK, Erdel says, I need to go and I need to do a model call and I need to shoot ten, shoot and have a good portfolio and then I can start charging. So I was like, I better do that.
And I got I got my friend who does her makeup. I said, OK, we got to do a real session. And I set up a studio space and I said, let’s do it. And she came to the studio space. I did her session and then I did another session for the same girl that had the blue colored skin. I did her session in my studio space. So the flash on my camera, by the way, I’ve never used a flash on my camera ever until these boudoir sessions.
I never you use it like gender’s. Yeah, I will tell you, I went and I filmed Jenn’s because obviously we have a model where Jen shoots and I like help went.
And when we hired videographers and I remember I didn’t believe how Jen shot because, you know, you don’t normally you don’t normally think of people balancing speed lights. It’s just so stupid, simple. And the result, like, if you go if you were to go into like a speed like group and you were to tell somebody, you know, all the pro photographers and you were like, yeah, just put a spotlight and mounted on the wall, they would be like, no, you need like six lockboxes and you need the strip and you need this and you need a temperature gauge and might need a light meter. And it’s like you can’t really argue with the results because the skin tones are great, the lighting is great. People love the word like. So did you follow Gen’s literally like you do it the same way or did you change?
Yeah, I have like watched her behind the scenes videos of her shooting so many times that I was just like, I have to just watch this over and over again because I have no clue what I’m doing.
And these girls are going to come to my house for a session and they’re all going to look at me like think that I’m dumb because I don’t know what I’m doing and pretending I’m a professional.
But you at least practice. So you took that advice, right? Because I remember we spoke and I was like, all right, playing like there just have to be a standard of, like, work. And I think I totally I was like, it’s not that hard. You’re not. Those are my exact words. You’re not years away. You’re not months away. You’re just a couple of weekends. So like, what did you do when you got the call? You basically were like, OK, I’m just going to go do that.
Yeah. So I got off the call with you. Oh. And it was so ridiculous to like I did not even remotely understand that we had live calls every single week and I didn’t get what they were.
I logged in at the wrong time for yours. I ended up it was after the call you were just doing a one on one with somebody. I watched the whole thing and I was so confused. I was like, what is this? Cause I don’t get it. It’s just talking to one person that doesn’t seem like a live call. Anyway, it was ridiculous. So then you chatted with me and I love you for it because you’re like I jump on this girl and she must be a crazy person.
And I said, OK, you know what? You’re right. I do need to go get some more shots done. So I did the one with my friend two sorry, two of my friends. And then I got to do three model calls, three girls in my studio space before a shutdown. So in total it was five. I think it was like five or six and that was it. I had those five or six shoots that I’d done and then shutdown happened. I lost my studio space during Koven because they wanted me to continue paying for it and I had just moved into it. So then I’m freaking out because I’m like, I don’t even have a studio space, what am I going to do? And I actually did, like, lose faith. There was a month during shutdown that I didn’t even look at the course. I focused on my acting stuff. I did a bunch of other stuff. I did a bunch of social media and I kind of forgot about the course. And then it was like, wow, things are starting to open up again. Oh, no, what am I going to do? Am I going to go back to bartending and covid like, no. So I was like, this is kind of like my only choice. And I and a lot of money on this course. I better implement it. So I created my Web site with the photos, the new photos taken from the five or six shoots. And I started just running one ad, the LP, and I just prayed. I was like, I hope this works. And then I booked all of the shoots in like a week and a half, so.
I will say that this is obviously like a once in like I’m going to say century, but like once in a every 15 years kind of time, right. Like these great recessions like this is actually never really been a shut down like this maybe one hundred years ago. So, like, super unique time. But I will say that right now for me, the pulse and the read of the industry is like the people that we’re like marketing and going really hard the entire time and didn’t lose faith. There’s a business and making the most amount of money they ever have right now. But the people that, like, stopped or they shut down. So it’s almost like the board got reshuffled. So a lot of people shut down sad. A lot of people just kind of like slowed down a lot. And then some people like really just kind of kept running the race and now they’re farther ahead, everyone. So that they did kind of like we’re talking about, they created videos. They created, you know, automations, they created ads like they took that downtime and used it properly. Yeah, that’s really cool. I’m really glad that you at least bounced back, OK. So tell me, though, so how much have you actually implemented? Like, is there still a lot for you to go by?
Like if you already done all of it’s embarrassing how little I’ve implemented. I don’t even want to tell you I’m like that thing. I’m being lazy. I honestly am. I haven’t barely gotten through any of the course I like. Got it unlocked right away because I was like, I’m not going to do it in the order because I’m stubborn and I don’t listen to what I’m told to do. I’m like, I need I need to have a group module. I need to start my career. I need the website module. My website sucks, but I just got so stuck on my website for so long and now I’m like, oh, my website doesn’t matter at all. Like and now I’m being lazy.
It does a little bit. It does. It does. It does matter. But there’s yeah. And that’s kind of how it’s structured. We’re structured and like OK, fast action, improve existing systems and then like we build on them. That’s really why we really try to like build on that. But then now we get people that are like, no, let me just jump into that. And they like scramble because they’re like we skipped a bunch of stuff.
But that’s what happened to me, is I was like scrambling and I was getting so stressed out and I was like hyper focusing on stupid little things. And then I talk to you again and you’re like Quinn. What do you do? Why are you doing the course design? And I’m like. OK, go back and I’ll try it and I open up the course and I go back through the beginning videos and I’m like, I don’t barely remember watching these. I’m like, wow, does this make so much more sense? It’s like helping me organize everything.
It’s helping me understand the course better. It’s like I almost think that you need to go back and watch the first module like a few times before you really start implementing the course because it really helps organize you. It tells you that there’s a group of support. Yeah.
So you were like, oh, orientation for important steps that Facebook gets. OK, so there’s still out to everyone, like are you already running Google as did you do the a lot of the SEO tasks. Are you.
Ok, I did a lot of nacio tasks. Yeah, definitely I did go through all of that. I just didn’t start any Google Apps yet because I had those five needs to get done and I like overwhelmed by them. I was like, I guess I don’t need Google Apps yet, but I did do the search engine optimization.
Ok, awesome. Maybe we can do a better job. By the way, I’m getting feedback, so maybe we got to do a better job of, like, hammering at home when we talk to you on the phone, like, don’t skip.
Yeah, I think the phone consults are a little bit confusing, to be honest. And I have gotten that feedback even from people reaching out to me that are like, well, I had a phone consult, but I’m I’m not going to buy the course. But I still like your opinion.
And I was like, what? So, I mean, there’s always room for improvement. Nobody’s perfect. But I like the course is just amazing. Like, you can’t deny that, right?
Yeah. OK, so now obviously things are a little bit different. So like walk me through like how many. So are you at least running like Facebook ads. I continuously now. So like you have leads coming in. Like how do you feel about that? Are you like shutting them off your mouth, like whenever you need them.
Well so I only ran that one Facebook app and yeah, I only read one and then I just put it to like the very minimum, like I think it was a dollar seventy a day or something and I’m just kind of leaving it there so that I’m just getting leads trickling in through that one. And then I literally just boosted like a couple of my posts, that type of thing, just to get a little bit more traction to my page and app. But I honestly haven’t done a lot of that and I’m still getting lots of leads. I have. It’s really cool to start watching, like people start reaching out to you and you’re getting private messages and stuff like that, like.
I get messages now saying, hey, I’m really interested in boudoir photography, like I’d love to do a shoot with you. There’s also the aspect of just growing your presence on Facebook. And now there’s like a local group of fifteen thousand girls. I live in Calgary and it’s called Calgary Girls Ask and it’s just women in Calgary. And people just post whatever question comes to their mind in this group. And it’s really neat because now I get things like I’ll see a post in there that says looking for a photographer. And there’s other people that I’ve actually never met in person that jump on there and say, oh, I suggest Quinn teach math. And then it’s like five or six of them will start jumping in and say, oh, I also suggest one teacher.
I’m like, you can have like a big following. Like you have like thousands of followers anywhere.
Like I’d say that almost since doing this course, my following is growing because I was under a thousand followers on Instagram. So I was at like eight or nine hundred followers. Now I’m almost to three thousand or something. So it’s like talk to I think it’s really helped with that, which is crazy. I booked like ten shoots from tech talk and I’ve barely tried with my tech stocks, only done like three boudoir tactics by the way, I highly suggest maybe like reusing some of those posts.
For reals, have you tried Instagram rales?
So I did post my tech stocks on Instagram just last week. I started doing that and it’s going super well. Like I’ve gotten more people reaching out and I’ve got more followers on my Instagram. I only had two hundred followers on my photography, Instagram and like now they’re all trickling in from tech talk. So I was like, I need to post that. And then I, I boosted that, posted the video on Facebook, and I got even more people messaging me like, oh my God, that was so cool. You look so fun and relaxed. And that’s what I was looking for in a photographer. And I can never find anyone like that. I think being approachable helps.
That’s really one awesome thing. And like, really, somebody wrote this about what we agenda and they basically said, like, it’s just so common sense that you forget that all this marketing stuff is literally how do you just get more people to know about you? You get more people to, like, connect and like you. That’s it. And we, like, complicated it by being like jumping past that, like, how do you get a booking? And then we like we skip all of them knowing, liking and trusting and all the basics of just kind of building your crowd and building community and likeability and everyone just focus on the aspects. And it just turns into kind of like you were saying at the beginning, like, let me just go post my sales ads, let me go post on you, let me go post all my promotions and like, nothing happens from that because, like, you’re not building like a real following. You’re just kind of building you’re just spamming everyone kind of. Right.
Yeah. It doesn’t feel authentic and people can sense that.
Yeah. So by the way, obviously like Black Friday is coming up, like, what are you doing to prepare for that.
Well, we have a whole Black Friday module, so I have no clue what I’m doing, so I’m probably just going to go look at that like a deal and got a word for word.
That sounds like a pretty good idea. And by the way, when you do that, it’s really important that you don’t skip steps, because I will hear people say stuff like, oh, I did it exactly like that. And I’m be like, oh, where’s your video? I didn’t do the video. OK, that’s not the exact steps because you’re asking people, but you have no video. We have a video for a reason. So don’t forget your video. It’s very important.
Yeah, I think too, like that’s maybe was so successful to be up to. Like, I spent a solid day, like making sure and going over and over and over again being like, OK, is it exactly the way it needs to be OK. And I mean, the way that was only a week’s worth of paying for that. Like I put it to the minimum now, but I’m not really counting that a day or whatever it’s now. But in total it was one hundred and fifteen bucks and I got those five hundred leads. Yeah that’s really awesome. And my first session from that was an eight thousand dollar so.
Holy crap, I will tell you, a lot of photographers go years and they’ll never hit that. So, by the way, walk me through that. So obviously, like being you and Mike looking at Jen and seeing her priceless. You know, you said you kind of have these doubts that people think you’re an imposter. Walk me through that. Did you, like, have to have every single sample that you have to have, like any samples?
I did the zoom. I did a zoom with her. What? I was in Antigua actually on a boat. And I went downstairs into the cabin. I was like, I apologize for the way I look right now because I’ve been on a boat for like a week. At this point. I wasn’t looking at my bath. It was hot as heck there. And I am not a heat person. So I’m downstairs in this little cabin of this boat and I’m like sweating. I have no makeup on. My hair is tied back and frilly. And I’m like, oh, my God, look, what am I doing right now? Why am I doing this? I should just wait. And I did a Zoome call with her and the girl was like, I can’t take any photos. So I tell them I have to buy them a thousand dollars. And I’m like.
Ok.
Sure, I’m not even kidding like this is the perfect, like, perfect tell tale story of like you’re better off taking action than, like waiting for the perfect time and perfect plan and perfect scenario. Because, like, imagine if you would have you would have been you would have been waiting. You would have been waiting for all your products and you wouldn’t have had the experience. You would have gotten all of that like the jitters out of your system and now like your past, that you don’t have all those doubts. OK, so since then, you did a Zoome call. Now what are you doing? Are you doing in person? Are you still doing like Zoome sales?
I’ve been doing in person because my clients have been preferring that I actually have every single shoot that I’ve done a sale for. I’m for sale for a written here and how much I got from each one of them. And I’ve only done seven like in person. So that’s it. And it’s like thirty k.
Are you doing same day. Are you doing. Are they coming back. Coming back. They’re coming back. So you’re like yeah I’ve got her wallpaper.
I’ve got the same lens, I’ve got her chandelier, I got everything she’s got.
That’s awesome. And by the way, I know a lot of people, you know we’re artists, but I will say like I feel like even if you emulate like you, you’re probably like figuring out your own style. You’re like drawing from that. You’re like it’s impossible to copy even if you, like, want to. It’s like it’s your own style is going to come from that. You’re gonna be like, OK, but that’s really awesome. I mean, do you feel that like you’re coming into that.
Definitely, and it’s like the every single shoot I shoot, I’m, like, more comfortable with my posing flow and I’m getting to understand, like, OK, I have to do this.
I will say I’m pretty slow shooting and I’d love to get faster at that because right now I shoot for like three hours and I’m like, oh, my God, I need to get better at this.
But yeah, I guess it’s true. You can copy somebody as much as you want. You’re never going to be identical to them. Like, I have different sets than I have the chandelier, I’ve got the flapper walk. But realistically, like my sets, no matter how much I try to make them look like hers, are always going to be a little bit different. My bedroom sets totally different. I have a bathtub set that I do like, that type of thing, that I love the bathtub, so everyone loves it.
Actually, if you were going back and literally the old version of you is like about to say, no, I’m not doing this, what would you like, tell yourself to get yourself over the edge? Super beginner question.
Like, what would you tell yourself?
I would tell myself that you are worth putting the effort in because I think that everyone has doubts themselves so much and people have a habit of just shutting themselves down because they’re scared to jump into something. And I think that it’s it doesn’t really come from a place of fear necessarily, but I think it comes from a place of not believing in themselves, because I think people think it’s easier to just give up before you start, because then in your mind, you can say, well, if I had tried, I would have done really well at that. You know, it’s it’s not you’re taking the responsibility off of yourself if you just don’t try. Right. And you can still tell yourself in your head, well, I would have been good at that, but I didn’t want to do it. Like, you’re just giving yourself an excuse.
Yeah. So what’s next for you?
Well, I actually have this in this week and next week off because I had booked it off for the pageant, so I am preparing for the pageant now. And I’ve also got two weeks off in September now for the pageant. I have to move some sheets around for that. And I am going to then look up my entire rest of winter. To be honest, I don’t really have that many room for many sheets, though, because I’m pretty booked up. So I am going to just maybe run one more at a Black Friday ad and I’ll fill up the rest of my calendar that way.
Well, OK, so like let’s just say we were talking a year from now, right? So it’s August. Twenty twenty one will assume that the world went back a little bit to normal, a little bit more flexibility, travel, whatever. What would have to happen for the next year for you to consider it successful. You can say it on a month to month level, like what needs to happen for you to now knowing what the possibilities are like, what do you have planned as far as like go for yourself?
Yeah, so with the amount of shoots that I have booked now and going by my current sales average, like if I don’t even pick a single extra shoot, then I already have booked, I will work 100k this year, which I’ve never even come close to making that as a bartender. And that would be incredible. And I’m like, OK, wait a second, OK. And that’s how many shots I booked. Now what if I booked like 30 more shoots? Can I break two hundred K in my first year because I’d be really bad off.
So I mean to me success is just being happy and my life, I’m kind of one of those people like I really like money, but I also really like to take my time in my life. So for me, success this year is definitely at least breaking that hundred mark if you’re really that aspect of it. Two hundred K and and next year knows what that’s going to bring, I, I like to set really big goals so and I, I will say it helps just staying around in the group and coming to the lives each week. It really motivated because you’re just chilling at home or you go out. It’s summertime right now. Right. People are going out drinking, coffee is on right now. So it’s kind of like you get distracted. You’re like, I can just go watch hockey, sit on a patio. I don’t need to work today. I can outsource that editing like. Yeah, skiing in the group and just keeping my goals big and watching Jen with her goals and hitting five and her three years in a row and looking at her face when she talks about it and telling everyone how bad ass she is, is like so motivated.
I like Dastan, I want some of that, like give me that motivation. So we keep doing that.
We still get a lot of comments from people that are like, that’s not even realistic. No one makes that much from shoots. You’re lying. And we’re just like, OK, sure.
Live in your little negative world. Like you’re not going to attain any success, brush it off.
But yeah, I mean, that’s really awesome that you say that and you met I mean, you mentioned free time. Like, I’m assuming I know for me, like when I really when I when I got in the military and I was like kind of doing the scramble of career business money, it was like just having security. I remember one day, like walking my daughter to, like, go get coffee. And she was just kind of asked me, why do you work so much? And I said, no, I don’t have to. And the reason I get to pick you up from school and the reason I get to drop you off in the morning and we get to go to like lunch right now is because I actually have more freedom than I’ve ever had. And if I don’t have to work, I don’t have to. Obviously, I do have big goals, but I it really has opened things up and it’s kind of like free. My mind is like a lot of I don’t know, like. Doubts or just things I was occupied with or I was worried sometimes were like ticking time bombs, I was like afraid of, but I like a lot of those things have dissolved. So, like, are you using what you’re doing now? Like, obviously you’re going to reinvest in your business, but has that money come in handy anywhere else?
Yeah, I mean, I think that even just having the freedom to like, OK, give up my studio space and I painted my whole house to create a studio in my house, like I was able to get rid of my couch by a new couch because I was like, I can do this and I can make money doing this. This course has showed me that it’s possible. And you know what’s crazy is I think that the biggest thing about this course that was very, I guess, exciting for me was I feel like I finally found something that. I can put the work in and it’s a very obvious show of like you put this much work in and you get this much reward. It’s the first time in my life where I’ve had a job that it’s like the amount of effort shows in your success, whereas bartending, like where do you go when you’re bartending or serving what you’ve become a manager. That’s as high as you can get. Cool. OK, I guess you could only bar one, but it’s still it’s like if you work harder bartending, OK, maybe you might get a little bit three extra dollars on that one bill on a tip like there’s no show of your effort.
And in this it’s like put the effort in, watch the module’s implement exactly what I’m told to do in this course. Just follow. Just listen to exactly what you’re supposed to do in the course and you get these incredible results like I mean something like that to me.
You’re describing you’re describing like a machine, right? Almost like a pulley or an engine. It’s like, yeah, you’ve got to put the engine together, maybe be tedious to, like, learn how to weld and learn how combustion works. But it’s like once you do and once you put fuel on it and you’ve done the work like it become, you get a very predictable horsepower, you get very predictable output for it. So you brought up hockey. I’m from Florida. I don’t understand. So I’m bringing up cars. A lot of people might be like, OK, so is there anything else you would want someone listening to this? Know and helpful advice. Not not about the courses. Anything that you have learned that someone could go take action on or something, they can change their mindset, anything.
I think you just have to be authentic, not only with your people in your circle and like your Facebook community and online persona, but you also have to be authentic with yourself and believe in yourself. I truly think that mindset and just making a choice is everything in life. I think that you will ever accomplish anything unless you decide that you want it. And I think that you have to decide that you want to have a career in photography and go for it if that’s what you want.
Because if you’re just sitting around going, I don’t know, like maybe I could do this or I’ll just shoot here and there, like, you’re not going to build a successful photography business. And I think that the biggest thing that people need to understand about this course is this course is everything you need. But you’ve got to put the work in and it’s not going to be just handed to you. You have to want it. You have to decide you want it. And then it is actually laid out very easily for you. But you do just have to take the time and you do have to believe in yourself and not give up, you know.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing a very insightful I mean, I’ve learned a few things and I think you got you got some guts to just take that price list. And I imagine when you were telling me how you felt about the posture syndrome, I was like, yeah, I was like feeling that for you while you’re doing that. But that’s so awesome. I have been.
Yeah, it’s nice, too, it’s like I started getting messages from my clients, like all the people have shot so far, I know it’s still a low number, but I get a message from, like, every single one of them after their shoot, they text me and are like, thank you so much for today. Like, this is incredible. It’s just what I needed. You made me feel so good about myself. And it’s just like, wow. And I actually feel like I am really helping women now. That’s incredible.
Yeah. By the way, wherever you’re listening to this on, make sure to drop a comment. You guys ask Quinn questions. I’ll even link her info in here as well so you guys can learn more about her. But thank you so much and thanks for being on. Thank you. Bye.