From Corporate Success to Creative Freedom: Building Your Personal Brand | Judith Hill

Episode 47: BNI The Perfect 100 Podcast with Tammy Zurak

🎙 GUEST: Judith Hill, of Judith Hill Photography
🌐 Website: https://www.judithhillphotography.com/

In this episode of The Perfect 100, Tammy Zurak sits down with Judith Hill, founder of Judith Hill Photography, to discuss how entrepreneurs can build a powerful personal brand for business through authenticity, relationships, and strengths-based leadership.

Judith shares her journey from a successful career in economic development to becoming a nationally recognized portrait photographer. She explains how discovering her natural talents, investing in professional development, and embracing CliftonStrengths transformed both her career and the confidence of the people she serves.

📚 Topics Covered

How to leverage CliftonStrengths in business to discover your unique value
Why personal branding for business begins with authenticity
Practical insights for entrepreneurs looking to increase visibility
How relationships create opportunities for long-term business growth
The importance of professional development and lifelong learning
How confidence and purpose shape entrepreneurial success

👉 Whether you're building a business, growing your network, or looking to strengthen your personal brand, Judith offers practical advice for creating lasting impact through authentic leadership and meaningful relationships.

🔗 Websites: https://bnitheperfect100.com, www.tammyzurak.com
📩 Coaching Inquiries: [e-mail]
💡 Free Resources: www.tammyzurak.com
🎯 Book a Zoom to discuss Strengths and Coaching: Book a Strategy Chat
📸 Instagram: @zbusinesscoach
🔗 LinkedIn: Tammy Zurak on LinkedIn
🎙 Podcast Page: Listen Anywhere: https://bniperfect100.transistor.fm/subscribe 
Subscribe by RSS feed: https://bniperfect100.transistor.fm/subscribe👍 Like this episode? Don’t forget to hit the Like button, subscribe, and leave a comment with your biggest takeaway!
🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode of The Perfect 100.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and background of Judith Hill
01:57 Judith's transition from economic development to photography
03:47 Discovering a passion for photography and self-expression
06:11 Building confidence and a business through connection
08:33 Overcoming fears and self-doubt in entrepreneurship
13:11 The role of community and mentorship in success
17:14 Employing systems and customer experience for growth
23:43 Achieving financial and personal milestones
34:30 The importance of continuous investment and support
38:07 Personal transformation and confidence building
45:13 Reflecting on achievements and future goals

Creators and Guests

Host

Tammy Zurak

With 10+ years in BNI, I've experienced both the franchise and company-owned sides as a member, Director Consultant, Chapter Success Coach, and Managing Director. I've proudly maintained a perfect Power of One score of 100 for the past six months in the East Memphis Chapter (something that very few of BNI's 300,000+ members worldwide can claim!). I'm also a Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coach and I'd like to give you an overview of how you might use your personal Strengths to maximize your BNI experience!

Guest

Judith Hill

What is The Perfect 100?

Hosted by longtime BNI leader and CliftonStrengths Coach Tammy Zurak, this podcast is your weekly boost of insight, inspiration, and action. Whether you're brand new to BNI or a seasoned member, these conversations will help you take your chapter engagement — and your business — to the next level.

So I wanted to introduce you to Judith Hill with Judith Hill Photography.

Hi, Judith.

Hi Tammy.

How's it going?

It's It's going well.

I'm so glad you could be here with us today.

I have a bunch of questions for you.

I'm so happy to be here.

Awesome.

So tell me a little bit about your backstory before you got into photography.

Tell me a little bit about was there a point in your journey you were working, you were
doing your thing, and something happened where you said, you know what?

I I want to do something else.

Tell me a little bit about that time.

Sure.

okay, so I have been uh a full-time portrait photographer now for seven years.

I left my corporate job at the beginning of twenty eighteen.

Before that, I had a 14-year career in economic development.

So I was on the team, if anyone here is um familiar with Nashville, Tennessee, I was on
the team that built a skyline from 2004 to 2018.

So we were the marketing arm of the Nashville market and we would recruit corporate
headquarters, manufacturing, um, music, healthcare, small business kind of data centers,

those kinds of things.

We're recruiting to them to Nashville and basically marketing the city as an ideal place
to relocate not only your business but your family.

And I yeah, I did that for

a long time.

And as you know, things can s sometimes go in seven year cycles.

And at some point I think I just wasn't lit up as much as I I was.

It was also my first career out of college.

Um so I just kind of followed followed that.

And yeah, I just wasn't as lit up.

I was also I I think what happened for me is that I

I really didn't pick a camera up until I was thirty.

I'm now about to be forty-three.

I know I don't look a day over twenty-three, but No.

Yeah.

Me either.

Um, but you know, so I picked a camera up when I was like twenty-nine or thirty.

And I because honestly, I had been I went I'm a little bit of an adventurous spirit.

So I went to Italy by myself when I was twenty-five and had this little point and shoot
camera and I took all these pictures and

after developing them, I realized that I wasn't someone that just like stopped and took a
photo, that I had sort of an eye.

And I was very interested because I was a little bored.

I was also, to be quite honest, in an unfulfilling relationship that was kind of toxic.

So I was avoiding all of the things that weren't fulfilling me.

And I avoided them by learning how to use a camera.

Okay.

And then what happened from there is that um

I got really serious about it because I really loved it.

I was lit up.

I was losing track of time.

I um went back to school at night to learn how to use the camera.

Uh eventually found Creative Live and a mentor that has mentored both of us and realized
because I was really I'm really um good at or have a superpower of holding space and

connecting with people.

I'm just a connector.

That's just it it made me good at my other job, my other corporate job.

Um, and so connecting with people through the lens of my camera and at the same time while
I was trying to find my own value and place, I started showing people theirs, which made

me see mine through a portrait shoot experience as I just kept following what lit me up
and following my bliss and learning how to use this camera and then learning like, there's

this whole industry.

Cause I wasn't really I had we had not I had not I grew up in a rural town in West
Tennessee and

It wasn't th like we would like if we set for photos, it was for like the church catalog
kind of thing.

Um, which, you know, I mean, that was just something my parents would do.

Or your senior picture, like you would get the little velvet drape ground gown thing for
your senior photo for the annual or yearbook.

Um, anyway, that's what my exposure was to a professional photographer.

So and a weddings, you know.

So I didn't know that you could have a business the way that we have businesses or I have
a business now.

And um so I just kept following it and then I realized I wanted to photograph people.

Um and I just that's what I did.

I just started phot photographing them on the side, um, out of my house for about for a
long time I did a beta test.

I guess technically it's a beta test.

And um, and so I just I I figured out how to kind of um photograph people in a way that

celebrated who they were, that cultivated their confidence to show them their own value.

And in turn I found mine and I eventually left my job so I could do it full time.

Okay.

So the the journey for you sounds like it was the transformation that you were attracted
to both your own the ability to transform yourself but also to transform others.

Is that a fair statement?

Yes, correct.

That was my transformation era.

Now now I'm in the empowerment era.

But uh

It was very much I love the transformation.

I would say that transformation, self actualization, and connection are probably three
words that I would definitely describe um the the core values of sort of uh running my my

business.

You know, those are kind of what I always go back to is like leading people to this self
actualization.

or

just watching them change or transform through the shoot and had that ripple effect that
happens.

The psychology of like the what happens to someone when you are just feeling cared for and
seen and pampered and holding space for them.

And um I realized that that was the greatest gift I could give someone.

And so I just needed to do that all the time.

Yeah.

And that sounds sounds very similar to my story.

Yeah.

I'm sh yeah, I'm sure.

You know we could

Good friends over time because we have a very similar set of values around those things,
helping people, you know, reach their their maximum value and to themselves and to others,

to be to be able to give to others is is kind of the the main theme, it sounds like there.

Um, did you were there times when you were trying things and they weren't working, um, or
you doubted yourself um whether or not you could actually make this a, you know, a

full-time opportunity to

Keep yourself, you know, housed and clothed and all those kind of fun things.

Yes.

My I all right.

So I built my business on the side for five years because I was so afraid that I was gonna
leave and um and not make any money and have to go bankrupt and lived on the street.

Yes.

In that in that that

fear, if you will, it it's it it seems an a as an affliction that it gets most of us,
right?

As when we can work for anyone else, no problem, and and do a really good job for someone
else because it's their thing and we're just doing it well within the thing that they've

given us.

But when it becomes your own thing, suddenly all this self doubt starts to get in your
head and it kind of puts limitations potentially on you.

So you felt some of that.

Absolut yes, absolutely.

I think I was even afraid.

I was even fearful when I walked into my boss's office to tell her that I was leaving,
even though sh everyone knew that it was like Judas clearly needs to go start this

business.

Um, but I I was even afraid to say it out loud, even though I felt had guilt of like I'm
not serving either one of these things very well because I'm I'm torn um between between

the two things.

But

I yeah, I mean also, you know, one of the things I I learned while I was stuck in my fear,
'cause I feel like I was probably stuck there I let myself linger there a little bit

longer than I I should have, but I guess maybe it all happened in the right timing.

But what I figured out is that this is also like my journey and my dream and and I just
need to trust myself and take action on it and also be very careful with whom I share my

dreams with because it

they're not they don't know or they can't see it to believe it and see it to believe it is
how I got to be Tammy.

Um, but I if they don't know, like say my parents, for example, um, my parents have always
had government jobs their whole life.

I mean, they're now seventy retired.

So my dad is seventy seven and my mom will be seventy four this year.

No, he's gonna be seventy eight.

She's gonna be anyway, they're older.

Yeah.

And they didn't know.

So like if you start sharing with them, they're gonna be like, you're telling you're
leaving insurance, you're doing all these things.

And I just had to stop talking to them about it because it was their those are their fears
and their limitations, but it's my parents and I value and love them and respect them

greatly.

And so it was sort of impacting me a little bit.

And you know, and even like my friends or my siblings, none of my friends are
entrepreneurs except for one, uh, growing up.

So they don't

No one knows or no and they don't understand and that's okay.

And also they may not be my clients, you know, so they may not um understand like how I
price and structure things.

Also, okay.

I just had to learn that I needed a community that was supportive, that understood what
you know, like where I was trying to go, that has also either done it before me or on the

same path.

And that's where I poured into because that's what I needed.

Otherwise these other people's limitations were were clock like fogging up my my
viewfinder, my view.

And um and they didn't fully understand even so I was saying this is my seventh year in
business.

It was last year when my father was kind of like, Remember when I said, What are you
doing?

Well, I was wrong.

Right.

I was like, Finally, I have arrived.

You know, no not really, but

You know, it's just but you feel it makes you feel validated that I feel validated.

Yes.

You knew 'cause again the same, right?

As I knew we have the whoever they are, the there's a we'll we'll call them the villain in
in our own mind, you know, that is behind us saying, But you shouldn't, you can't, and you

know, it it's not for you.

It's um you know, it's you're not gonna be successful.

Nobody you know has been successful.

Um it's not, it's not traditional, it's not normal, it's not, it's not, it's not.

So we tell ourselves all those it's not in the head, and then we can't, and then we sit
still.

So what was the epiphany at like you said you found me through, and I forgot what the
words you use were, but you what was the epiphany you had that said, I need you found the

community, and then what took you down that road?

I think for me, um I

Came across to you, obviously you were on Creative Live at some point, I think.

I was.

Um, yeah.

And Creative Live um is still in existence.

It but back in the day back in the day.

Because we're so old now.

Because we're so than a decade.

It's been more than a decade.

So I want to say twenty ten or twenty eleven.

Um, maybe twelve.

I can't remember.

Anyway, um it's this online, you know, education platform.

Back then when it w first kind of started, it was more geared towards photographers and
then it kind of grew into videographers.

And now there's a whole host of creative uh ventures where they have experts teach um
within their industry a business model or something that has to do with their craft.

Um so anyway, I saw you on Creative Life and I was like, Okay, so Tammy has left corporate
and she's doing she's doing it.

She's doing exactly what I want to do.

We live in the same state.

Um, sh I need to understand business.

Honestly, I was like, all right, I have been photographing these women at that point a
coup two or three years.

I mean, honestly, Tammy was like, Don't be the last one to know.

You sh you know, like like it's time to go do your thing.

Right.

And then she said it and then actually people I worked with were like, Don't be the last
to know.

So anyway, I'm going on a sad truck a sidebar for a second.

But I um I was resonated with

with you because your story was in alignment with mine.

And I knew I had already nailed down posing and lighting and the things that I was doing,
my craft to produce images to sell to people.

I did not, even though I was in corporate America, I was very much a sell sales marketing
person.

Um and I was also selling a city that I love.

So it's very different than selling yourself or or or selling a a product, pricing
yourself, systems, all the things that make a business work, networking, all of those

things.

I was like, How in the heck do I make this?

I mean, I know I can like produce, but how do I make this like how do I create or set the
foundation in order to build upon this thing?

Right.

So I was like, I need to know the business.

I am going to reach out to Tammy and um also

Maybe I can go see her studio in Memphis three hours from Nashville.

Yeah.

So it's interesting.

You said something in there that that kind of triggered something in there.

You said it's easy to sell something you love, the city, but then that transition is it's
not easy to sell my own thing.

So it's it's an interesting thing in your head, right?

Is that do we love ourselves enough?

To sell ourselves.

And that is where we start to get caught up is we the doubt of all the other things start
to weigh down.

Is we, we, we are the brand, you know, we are the person, we are the entity, we are the
business, we are the everything.

So it's easy to sell something else that we love, but now we're selling us and all the
things that we offer, which gets a little more of a mountain to climb and to fall in love

with, right?

Um, and it's a little bit of a journey to get there.

So when you and I started working together, it sounds like you were looking for a
framework to what you had your skill, you had your talent, you knew how to execute the

thing that would be what people wanted.

And that can be any, you know, any profession, any product, any whatever.

You're good at the thing.

What were the things that you employed to help you get down the road towards your dream?

Yeah, so um I remember that when so when we first started working together, I think we we
you were coaching, well we had we were you were doing a coach one on one coaching with me.

and I you know it's interesting because I I when I said we I'm gonna touch back on to what
you were saying about selling the city and then selling yourself.

So um when

Because you made it's like about you and and you're like, Who am I to toot my own horn?

'Cause I don't like raise my hand and be like, Look at how awesome I I am.

You know, I'm you you will barely find I'm gonna do better about social media, but like I
don't you know, it's just not it's not natural to me to just like raise my hand and say

something like that.

So um and I also didn't really at the time I knew what I was doing, um, but I didn't

I think sometimes we lose sight of the actual um the experience.

Yes.

Um so and the reframing of how things are.

So when you think about like in our industry or as a portrait photographer, we also we
always make it about like the image, like this image and and I'm selling this image and

how can I put a price on that?

Um but you're also selling an experience.

There is a whole entirely selling in the experience.

Yeah.

It's the experience.

It is like what is gonna happen in your life after you experience this thing.

And that could be any product.

Like it is that transformation.

I'm gonna tran I'm gonna better your life through this experience and the product that I
have, which now I'm very comfortable in speaking all of that.

But back then I didn't know the words.

Right.

I didn't know who was I supposed to get in front of.

Um, I was in B and I for so some of the things we talked about was like networking.

I I I can distinctly remember I it was the first time one of the avenues that you can do
to promote any business is to do a selling auction or a d a door prize or something.

And I had done my first one with this organization, at least in Nashville.

I don't know if it's a nationwide thing, but it's called Wine, Women and Shoes, and it's
to benefit the W Y C A or

It's in women's shelter.

It's a women's Yeah.

Yeah.

Y W C A.

Yeah.

Yes.

YW Yes.

I combined it with the Y C A.

Yeah.

I knew I was messing it up.

Anyway, okay.

Correct.

So I had donated and I was just like gonna go.

And and you were like, You need to go with like an intention of meeting X, Y, and Z,
getting so many business cards and I was like, Okay, okay, I can do and I I remember I did

it and I booked a couple of shoots from that and then

I was already ingrained into the business community through the Chamber of Commerce.

So then I joined B and I.

And the thing that B and I helped me do, because B and I is an organization that you have
to, if you're a member, you get up every week and you do a pitch, so to speak, like a like

a one minute or thirty seconds to sixty second pitch on your business, who you are and
what you're asking for that week.

So like you're asking for referrals or businesses, and this is what I'm focused on.

that helps me understand like and think about like how can I explain to these people that
do not know the experience that I'm offering, like how can I stand up in front of these

people every week and say something about myself and my business?

Um so really just like those and then the systems of this is how I, you know, like from
start to finish a client session, this is how much I charge.

These are all of the

prep prep packets and guides that that I can do.

And I really, you know, I think about prep guides in photo shoots, to me, it was really
also just understanding the customer experience and customer service piece because that is

the biggest part of why you get repeat business.

Like I had a photo shoot today.

This is the second time I photographed this woman.

She has also sent me a lot of corporate and commercial jobs that she just also mentioned.

Hey in July I want you to do this.

So all of that is because I'm giving this great customer service and experience of like
helping these people prepare for something they've never done.

Just like when you go to the dentist or the doctor and you're about to have a procedure,
they give you like, this is all that you need need to do before I see you.

And this is what's gonna happen after.

Like everybody does that.

They're a consultation, every every industry does that.

So just understanding like I need to apply that to my own business because it's not

It is not selling, it is being of service to people and I'm just talking about it.

Right.

Like understanding that reframe, understanding all the systems you have to have in place
in order to make that happen.

I remember Tam Tammy introduced me to a CRM, which I would had an adverse reaction to
because it's a CRM.

You know, systems, whatever.

Yes.

But I know that those are important.

I just I also didn't like them in my corporate job.

But anyway, you know, you get a system and then you understand like

This is actually being of service to everyone and keeping everyone calm and sane because I
as as solopreneurs and as someone as you know, when you're looking to make a transition

from a corporate job into your own thing, um, you think, I thought, um, man, this is gonna
be great.

I'm gonna take pictures and I can go to yoga class and I can do this thing.

And then I

I did more yoga.

You know, I did more yoga in the corporate job.

Like 'cause then you're like, How do I make this thing work?

Um, but you know, just having that community that supports this foundation, the systems,
understanding how to put that in place, what that looks like.

Um, and the roadmap.

Yeah.

And how to find clients.

And the roadmap to that um was really key because otherwise, you know, you don't have
anything.

It doesn't extend there's no business.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I

You I you laid that framework for me.

Um it still it still took me and no, I I I left my job right after I mean shortly after
working with you.

Um, but I and I needed that encouragement.

Like I I needed you to push me and show me the way, the roadmap, which you did, and you
follow, and then it and then it works.

And then here you are.

And here you are.

Seven years, seven.

Seven years later, most people um, as at least as portrait photographers, there's some
kind of stat that like most people don't make it past two years.

So Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Most people don't make it past one year in uh for a photographer because there everyone
says there's no money in it, right?

So um knowing but that that's a lot of businesses.

Most businesses fail within two years.

So the the difference between the ones that don't and the ones that do.

Aren't that they don't know what their what their craft is or they're not executing or
don't love their product or service.

It's that they don't understand the process or the systems by which they put that stuff
out there and how they the biggest fear I think for most people is how do I even find a

client that wants this?

And you said a couple key things in there is you talked about the what you didn't say this
actual word.

you said the experience, but what it really is is the feeling, right?

Is we're not buying the thing, we're buying how it makes us feel.

So, you know, understanding that the how you set that up and how that all of the systems
and processes lead to that happening.

Um, is what is missing from most people's business.

You know, they they get they they're good at it, they get it, they know how to m do the
thing when they're doing it, but they can't translate it to others in a way that makes

sense for others to want it.

So they suffer because they don't have the opportunity.

to get in front of the right people with the right language, with the right process, with
the right everything.

So where has that led you to today?

You said seven years.

So what does that look like in your business?

You're obviously you're still in business.

So that's half the battle.

You were able to replace your corporate income.

I've been looking at the numbers.

I've been diving in.

And um so I I wanna say that so I started working with you, Tammy.

The last

year that I was in my corporate job.

And the other goal was to not only understand business, but to basically set the thing up
so that I could walk out of my corporate job, walk into a portrait studio, meaning my

pricing, my system, my selling, my words, my elevator pit, all of the things that I would
need to have in place.

Um I really wanted

you to help me get there.

And you did.

And so I can remember l looking back, like as as a side hustle in the final year as my
corporate job, I made sixty thousand dollars.

Okay.

As a side hustle.

and I was just doing it on the weekends.

So then I was like, if I can do it at sixty thousand on the weekends, then I can surely
get to a hundred thousand.

And I did in year one.

And I've made I've grown my business twenty plus percent year over year since going full
time.

I'm now into multiple six figures.

So

Um, that's where I am today.

I'm in my second studio space as a portrait photographer.

So that was the other big, big move that was kind of very um at the so at I mean I leased
the studio and I left my job at the same time, which was kind of like w all right, big

girl pink.

Yeah.

Um yeah.

And I I also had some savings and stuff.

And I it's not necessary always, but I just

You know, like I said, I thought I was gonna go bankrupt and I never got close to ever
going bankrupt.

Um but yeah, so I I just kept you just I just kept putting w put putting one foot in front
of the other.

I just kept elevating um elevating my systems.

I eventually got a VA team.

Um I eventually I I tried to go cheap on the VA, so an offshore VA that did not work out
for me very well because I am a stickler about grammar.

And that's a virtual assistant for those of you that don't know what Yeah, sorry.

Yeah, a virtual assistant.

So like if people are c corresponding with you for the first time through emails and thing
and then anyway, it's just important to have the right fit.

Um virtual assistants, I I they help I was getting overwhelmed with like admin work.

Like in my old job, I would think that being productive was sitting at a computer
answering emails.

Um, that's actually not being very productive if you're running a business.

you actually need to be out doing the thing.

Doing the thing.

You need to be either being providing this service or selling the service.

Or marketing the business.

Yes.

Or marketing the business.

Doing something that is going to have an R a return on your investment, that investment
being your own time.

Yes.

Um and so it it took me it didn't take me long to figure out that I needed extra help.

Um so anyway, I I did that and then that evolved into a a

a stateside run virtual assistant team that now helps me with not only admin but
newsletter and blog and um all that marketing the marketing engine so to speak um so that

I can hopefully be out networking and things like that.

So I just think it's just been an evolution of um you know of just kind of how how to make
it be successful consistently.

So

I I mean, I think probably just last year, I started feeling calm.

I'm pretty calm I'm really calm this year.

Like but I think after about year five, you're like, okay, I've done this for five years.

I got this.

Yeah.

I got this.

Like I know that um I can like run these campaigns, I can run this promo, I can start
doing these things and and it of you know, uh anyway, it just it's sort of it's

interesting because I was a little bit freaked out.

the whole time.

And there's ebbs and flows.

So there's another massively successful entrepreneur here in Nashville named Michael
Bircham.

And he has started and sold many healthcare companies.

Um and he was speaking I'm in women and like entrepreneur groups.

I always highly recommend a community of either business owners, um, entrepreneurs, you
know, it's because it sucks sometimes.

It's very lonely.

It's very lonely sometimes to um to be in business by yourself.

Because you have to make the decisions, you know, and everything kind of relies on you.

At the same time, that can be exhilarating.

and so oftentimes you have to like have that support that brings you back to your purpose
because the core values of yourself and of your business, whenever you are in a rut or

things are slow, or so you've got to always go back to whatever that thing is, like being
of service.

I started this thing for this other reason because what I was gonna say is that Michael
Bircham said the name of the game is just embracing the suck.

Yeah.

Because when it's really good, it's really good and it's high.

But when it's not, it's not.

And you have to be able to to sit in that knowing that it this is just the moment and um
it, you know, and I if I've done it once, I can do it again.

And, you know, you kind of keep on that thing.

So it's just it is sometimes sort of like a wave that you you ride, but if you can

figure out, I think, also just the consistency, whether of like something that brings in
revenue or just get ahead of yourself, like crush it one month so you're ahead of yourself

so that you can you can relax.

Cause I think the name of the game that also I had a hard time I didn't have a hard time
actually.

I'm I want to say that.

I want to say that um it was something I had to get used to was sort of like there's
there's these very busy seasons and then there's lower seasons.

And then when you're really busy

Maybe I wasn't I kind of lost sight of my system that was the marketing funnel bringing
the stuff in.

And so that kinda dried up because I was really busy.

And then when it stopped, I was like, crap, I didn't see this engine.

And it's typical, right?

Of of the first year or two, you know, until you kind of get the rhythm down.

You you you you do the thing that brings in you crank up the machine, it's working, it
brings you all this opportunity.

And then now you gotta work it.

So there's more

So the machine shuts down because if you're a solopreneur, it's you.

And, you know, w regulating that it was the hard I had that same problem my first year is
regulating that machine is I would do all this stuff and have this big, huge mountain of

things and then I was out.

So I it was a s ninety day cycle.

I would be busy, busy, busy and then drop off and then busy, busy, busy.

So you have to learn that process also.

Mm-hmm.

That it absolutely.

And the other thing that I think if you are going to be a solopreneur or an entrepreneur,
um, is that you have to always constantly cons like invest in yourself.

Um, you have to invest in caring for yourself, you have to invest in mentoring, you have
to inv I mean, you don't have I'm just I did I mean, I think that that is the way that you

are going to be able to be successful is

Constantly learning, constantly using the guidance of people that are just ahead of you on
the path, um, having that community, going on those retreats, going up to the workshop,

going to your industry conferences.

It's good to be seen.

It's good to be around people.

Um, really invest not only in yourself, but in the community to which you are working.

Um, I understand now, like, why in corporate America they require you to like.

divide and conquer on teams, like you're gonna go on this trip and you're gonna go to this
conference and you're gonna be, you know, because those things are all really important.

And then whenever you're at it on your own, having having uh a support system, the peer to
peer, the coaching, the mastermind, that is that's I mean, I started doing that, you know,

like maybe you might you might have been my first big investment.

And I don't know if I would have ever left had I not done that.

You know, like that was a big pivotal point for me.

Um so anyway, I think that outside of just like your systems, your messaging, your
customer experience, your client experience, whatever that is, whether that's in person or

online or what or however what people are feeling, the transformation people are gonna
have, because people are gonna buy if you save them time, if you save them money, if you

get provide some sort of transformation.

Yes.

Have like better relationship with themselves, with their spouse, or their health is going
to improve.

Like those are basically what we care about.

Like whatever, like I want to feel good, I want to have have more confidence.

I want to be able to put myself out there.

I want to start, you know, all the things.

So, you know, like, but you've got to you so once you get all that, you understand that
and you kind of business is not that hard really.

You just have to understand the system and you've got to have the support and you've got
to continue to learn and invest in yourself and the support.

Cause

It's just gonna I mean things are constantly changing.

Yes.

yes, things have changed in a rapid pace and continue to go even faster, right?

So, you know, and every success I've had, I can lay at the feet of someone else because
you know, you that saying you gotta stand on the the shoulders of giants to get where

you're going is everything I've ever done.

I am not a let's go at a slow pace kind of person.

I'm a let me figure out who's doing it well and let me have them coach me and then

I can figure out how to make it my own and get there quicker and then give back to the
people behind me so that they can come up with us.

Right.

So we're all our mentor likes to say we're all on the same mountain, we're just at
different altitudes.

You know, we're all circling the mountain.

it's just a matter of, you know, learning from those that have walked the path before us.

And so let's not make the same mistakes because if you try to do it on your own.

you're bound to even when you do, even when you have a mentor, you're still gonna make
mistakes and that's okay because you learn from everyone.

But if you can eliminate the big rocks, you know, get rid of the big things that will sink
you and, you know, your boat with it, um, then that's that's the whole process, right?

Is is learn from someone who's been there, done that and you can get ahead quicker.

So I have one last question for you is how did you transform during the journey?

yourself.

Oh that's a good one.

Um you know before I answer that question while you were talking just then, uh the reason
that I think you wanted to shut someone to show you the way and the reason I wanted

someone to show me the way is because the one piece source that is not renewable is your
time.

And

Honestly, it took me a minute in the beginning to understand that time was currency and
that I'm not ever getting it back.

So if I try to do all these things that are dragging me down, taking my energy, causing me
to be like little tasks that's like a VA could do, or somebody else knows how to create a

template.

Before Canva was a thing.

Like doing things in Photoshop because I didn't know InDesign would drive me insane.

Like I would spend

a week where it would take somebody two hours.

Right.

So like understanding that your time is the only resource you're never getting back.

Um, it is the most valuable resource.

It is the thing that, you know, it's if it's not to if it's taking away your time, it's
taking away your time from your family, your friends, the things you and like you just

need to make it happen faster.

Right.

And you need to save the time and the energy.

So that's therefore the people before you

okay.

So how did that transform?

I mean, the biggest growth I have ever seen in myself, the biggest transformation of I
think confidence, of self-value, of um just

The h I think the whole I think the whole thing happened because of starting my own
business.

I mean it there's nothing like starting a business that's gonna take you to the altar of
self-value.

Right?

And also I gotta overcome myself.

Like, get out the way.

You know ludic ludicrous song?

There's a ludicrous song that's like, woo, bitch, get out the way.

All right.

So I'm always offended by that word.

Sorry, yeah.

I don't mean

Yeah, I'm just repeating a rap song.

Um, who performed at the Super Bowl this year.

But anyway, I I mean, I'm always I've always gotten in my way and stopped myself.

I have made up excuses.

I've tried to rationalize things when I and I've just learned, not just, but like over
this time, everything is coming from me.

I I've got to show up as the whole person.

What is affecting me at home is gonna show up in my business.

What is affecting me in my business is gonna show up in my home.

And I gotta get this all right.

I gotta get myself in like good mental mindset, physical health.

I have to take care of myself and I've gotta take care of the business.

It's all coming from me.

And so um it's very easy just to not address things or just blame other people and do
other things.

Um, but it's really I if if I fail, it's because of me.

If I succeed, it's because of me.

So I've got to get all of this right, that transformation of like being the personal
brand, which now I'm kind of obsessed with personal brands.

I'm yeah.

Um, like I'm super fascinated by Snoop Dogg, for example, who is going Snoop is going to
be like the host of the Olympics.

It is Snoop Dogg.

How is Snoop everywhere?

Like he has transcend all of these things.

Like I'm just fascinated with

him and the Kelsey, Travis Kelsey and Taylor, all of the you know, top culture.

Like all these people that make a brand and it's all coming from them.

But you have to really show, I mean, like it's not that I'm any more confident than anyone
else.

It's just that I did it and I proved myself that I could do it, which made me more
confident, which made me look at something about myself, which then transformed the, you

know, just kind of

my ability and and everything like that.

But it's still also understanding like I but I was we were having a conversation before we
started recording this about something I was stuck on and procrastinating with and

probably a little fearful about.

So it just never goes away.

You just have to know that and then you just move with it.

You're like well you you've basically done almost all the work.

Just go with that thing.

Yeah.

Um so I you know it's I I find that fascinating

I'm very fascinated.

I study the mind a lot when I'm not working.

Um, like neuroplasticity and kind of how w our, you know, our thoughts create what we're
attracting in our reality and our personality and all of those things.

Um, so to me, like I've have navigated that and I'm not master at it at all, but all
because I have to put myself out there all the time.

I have to sell myself my experience.

Now I feel very confident in what I'm offering people.

I've gotten feedback over and over again after ten years.

I've had a bunch of people come back, which is the greatest, you know, like compliment.

So I think it's just it's the transformation has to be the confidence and the self value.

Yeah.

And and understanding and it's all it's so applicable to life too.

Um it's like this is just a moment, just sit with it.

This is a season, it'll come back around.

And

What am I, you know, just kind of looking at yourself.

So I don't know if that answers your question, but I transformed personally, mindset,
self-value, and my income because I make more money now than I made working for someone

else.

And you got married, you found a husband.

I did I got married.

Yeah, all of that came along.

I mean all at the same time, right?

Is that that journey isn't just about the business, which is ironic, right?

Is we set out to do this thing because we have a passion and that passion bleeds out.

That passion becomes you start attracting everyone and everything because you become
that's why I asked the question that transformation.

I needed the same transformation for myself.

I came from a male-dominated business where we didn't talk about feelings ever.

And I was so far the pendulum had swung too far the other direction.

And I needed, I started working with women to kind of write the ship a little bit.

And that changed me.

And then that I started pouring into others, and that changed the business.

And you know, here we

today.

So you know, I just one final thing on that.

Like just talking about um I maybe this little journey will put this out in perspective,
like kind of what you were just hitting on.

All right.

So I'm sitting in my studio right now, um in Nashville in a place called Marathon Village,
which is an old car manufactured like plant.

And it's known for creative suites and other businesses on the first, the second floor and
below is like mixed use and it's a really cool building.

Like my looking out and there's this large industrial um window with exposed brick and
hardwood floors.

It's a loft, it looks very like like a New York studio and it's really cool.

It's like a dream photography studio.

Okay.

So ten years ago

I was working at the chamber uh doing economic development.

I was touring around.

I'm actually wearing Warby Parker glasses right now.

I was touring that company around.

Um, they ended up, thanks to me locating locating a back office here in Nashville.

So anyway, we're touring them around and Marathon is because there was just gonna be like
a little small office, was a place that we came and showed them space.

That was part of the gig was like show building, you know, like places they could put
their office and things.

and then selling them on the city while you're doing all that, pr presenting and stuff
like that.

So we come into Marathon and we're looking around and I'm like, my gosh, this is like I
want this as my studio day.

Like this is a dream.

I want this at this as my studio.

Yes.

Um didn't think anything else about it.

Um and then fast forward, actually, this was 12 years ago, probably.

So fast forward ten years ago, but this was like

Chris, the holiday the end of the year of the first year I was in I came in here, which
happened to be 2020, but let's just whatever.

It was fine.

Um, so it's the end of the year.

I actually I still got the six figures that year.

so at the end of the year that year, I looked up.

No, it was 2021, because I was married.

I got married in November of 2021.

So um I married a wonderful man.

And at the end of like it was after we'd gotten married, it was the end of the year, and I
looked up and I was like, my gosh.

I did it.

I have the studio that I w I dreamed of that I said out loud when I was touring those
people around.

I have this amazing business.

I think I was just coming off my like best year.

I had like a hundred percent growth that year in 2021.

Right.

I doubled my income.

And then I was like, and I just married my best friend and the man of my dreams.

Like and I'm sitting here in my in-laws house and I was like, Holy crap, I did it.

uh Like it.

I mean, yes, I I did it because I just

Because I kept putting one foot in front of the other because when I was stuck, I hired
people to help me and I just and I kept just going.

I didn't you know, it wasn't always perfect.

You learn from your mistakes and you just and you learn to navigate and you just keep
going.

But like if you just set an intention and put it out there and just keep walking towards
it, you don't have to know what the end is gonna look like.

It may not even look like what you think.

Yeah just keep going and it happens.

It just it just does.

And I mean you can do it.

Yeah, you can.

Well, I'm so glad and so proud that you were able to, you know, move past your initial
things and I w to be a little piece of your tiny, you know, tiny piece of your story in in

transforming your whole life into a beautiful thing.

Um, you know, and to have met you and be call friend.

Um

And confidant and all those fun things now.

Um I was so excited for all of that to happen and thank you so much for talking to the
crowd here today.

Um I so appreciate it and I so appreciate you.

Thank you so much, Tammy.

I am so grateful for you as well.

And yeah.

Okay, thank you.