Taking the Full-Time Leap: Becoming Your Own Boss and Calling the Shots in Your Life with Kate Guertin.
Episode 10: Show Notes.
Today, I’m going to be talking to Kate Guertin, a mentor at Cole’s Classroom and the owner of Sweetest Things Photography. She decided to quit her corporate job and jump full-time into professional photography. She knew very little about it, but she was determined to learn and, through her hard work and dedication, her business ended up making more than $100,000 in its first year! Kate’s story is truly inspiring, and in this episode, she shares with us how she put her fear aside and threw herself into photography, starting by joining Cole’s Classroom on the $1 Trial. We discuss the importance of commitment in ensuring Kate’s success, her one-client-a-day rule starting out, and why she doesn’t necessarily recommend following her intense, high-volume sales model. Kate shares her process, from hard hustle to incorporating more automation into her business, as well as her favorite marketing campaigns and why she believes you need to put yourself first when offering promotions. Finally, Kate explains how she overcame her inner heckler and became her own biggest fan, as well as her experience with Cole’s Classroom (which she highly recommends). Tune in to find out more about how Kate took the full-time leap, became her own boss, and called the shots in her life!
Key Points From This Episode:
• Kate tells us about her transition from corporate job to full-time photographer.
• When Kate joined Cole’s Classroom and her experience of it.
• Commitment played a crucial role in Kate’s success in the first 90 days of her business.
• The goal Kate set herself of one new client every day and how she tried to achieve that.
• How Kate made $100,000 in gross revenue in her first year of her business.
• The high volume sales model Kate used and why she cautions against it.
• Kate’s plan to hustle the first year and automate in the second year to have more freedom.
• Kate’s favorite or most successful marketing campaigns are malleable, like paid model calls.
• Making sure that your promotions serve your best interests and you have creative control.
• Find a happy medium between shady deals and over-discounting when selling your product.
• Kate’s advice is to be brave when taking that leap to become a full-time photographer.
• Don’t become your own heckler, be your biggest fan!
• Kate talks about Cole’s Classroom and the experience that the members and mentors have.
Notable Moments:
“If I don’t even have enough faith in myself to hire myself… then why should anybody else hire me to work for them either?” — Kate Guertin [0:06:35]
“My ultimate goal as a mother, as a human, as a business owner, is to break the 9 to 5, and to have my work fit around my life instead of living around my work” — Kate Guertin [0:21:23]
“You are here to sell things and not give them away. As much as you want to help people out, and you can sometimes do that and give back, it is also important… to not discount things to the point where your business is going to go under” — Kate Guertin [0:27:40]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Sweetest Things Photography on Facebook
