Announcer 0:02
Welcome to Getting AheadShot. a show for anybody wanting to get ahead in life join conversations between international award winning photographer Lane Hickenbottom. And his clients who while Getting AheadShot offer relatable tips and strategies on a variety of topics, and now here’s Lane.
Lane Hickenbottom 0:25
Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining me again on Getting AheadShot. Today, we’re gonna talk about side hustles. If you don’t have one yourself, I’m sure you know lots of people who do, we’re talking about that extra income that they get from a little hobby perhaps, or maybe it’s a lot bigger than a hobby. But we’re talking about the work that people do after their day job is complete. Today’s guest is a promotional consultant out of Cedar Rapids as a job he enjoys. But his real passion is in photography. I could relate to him on that Justin Tedford works on the educational side of things and is currently building his commercial side. He goes to work every day. And when he’s finished, he works on his side hustle. It’s not an easy, easy to balance a full time job being a father, a spouse. In today’s conversation, we’re going to learn a little bit more about what goes into it, maybe get some tips and tricks on how to negotiate a side hustle. And just to learn a little bit more about chasing your passion in the form of a side hustle. So Justin, thank you so very much for for coming. And joining me thank you for being on for coming in Getting AheadShot
Justin Tedford 1:51
Yeah, no, thank you. Thanks for having me.
Lane Hickenbottom 1:54
You bet. So one of the things that we wanted to talk about today is kind of that notion of having a side hustle, while also being a full time employee, being a parent being a spouse. It’s not easy, is it? No, it’s not. Yeah. So talk to me about maybe just kind of what your routine looks like. So we can kind of set that on the table.
Justin Tedford 2:21
Yeah, so I mean, my daily routine, I mean, it’s not super crazy, but you know, I get up at seven or so and, you know, have to get breakfast and know, now that I have a kid, it’s at home schooling, you know, and I work from home. So you know, I get up, you know, seven, I got to eat, she meanders out does her thing, you know, and then I start right at eight, you know, every morning, so I’m working from home. And then throughout the day, I’m juggling that all the work meetings on top of, you know, it’s Don’t forget, because I have forgot my kids school twice now 20 minutes later, and we’re not logged in, you know. So that’s the big part. You know, it’s just getting know that that morning routine in. And then that’s the only thing it’s totally scheduled. You know that seven to eight, the rest of it is like the Wild West. It’s my work schedule can be meeting at 830 Oh, it’s put off till nine oh, now it’s 10. And, you know, or 11. And then it ends up being a two hour work meeting. And before you know it, it’s 1245 or 115. And I realized the middle of meeting crap. The kid was supposed to be in school 20 minutes ago, and she’s still on her iPad. So, you know, so it’s just that work in and then juggling all the sales calls during the day. And then, you know, 4:30am off, and then it’s probably, you know, lately three to four days a week, meeting clients after So, you know, in juggling sets, it’s like so it’s kind of like the Wild West, you know, anything between eight and 430 is a crapshoot. Who knows when it’s gonna be.
Lane Hickenbottom 3:58
Right. And so, so you live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You have a seven year old?
Justin Tedford 4:05
Yep.
Lane Hickenbottom 4:07
Are they are they going? So just from your first little statement? They must be learning remotely?
Justin Tedford 4:13
Yeah, that was our choice. Yeah, she can go back. But, you know, there, it’s kind of weird. It’s like a hybrid. You know, she’s, she’s fully 100% five days a week at the house learning. You know, that was the first semester we she could go back but we weren’t gonna change that schedule. We were already finally gotten to a groove of me working from home, which I’ve never done in my life. And her being at school. And then we finally figured out now it’s time to change again. Now we’re just gonna try to keep it if we could.
Lane Hickenbottom 4:42
Yeah, so I know. You know, my, my wife had a very heavy role and we also have a seven year old. But when when we started learning remotely the last March seven year olds learning remotely, that’s that’s very hands on proposition for a parent.
Justin Tedford 5:03
Yes, it is. Yeah. Especially the beginning. You know, never. I mean, you know, all our kids have technology these days. So they’re used to the iPad, but it’s like here, here’s a Chromebook. And here’s the screen you get to click into, and I think our school made it fairly easy. But yeah, there’s still that, that challenge.
Lane Hickenbottom 5:23
Yeah. So. So I remember back. You know, I want to talk about your pursuits as a photographer. Yeah. You and I both have real similar backgrounds in photojournalism, which is not a common background is not as photographers these days. Nope. It’s a it’s a real small group of people. Certainly, really thankful I had that background. And talk to talk to me about you really do a lot on the education side of photography, right?
Justin Tedford 5:57
I do now. Yeah, yep. And kind of what I want to say, originally, it wasn’t by choice. So a little bit about me was, you know, I went to school, did some photography stuff was into the photojournalism thing. And we all know, that doesn’t work out. Well, sometimes the newspapers and the digital age and all that good stuff, but it’s been brutal. It is Yeah. And you know, and I did some freelance stuff. Some startup companies in Cedar Rapids did some sports stuff, where they covered high school sports only. And I did that for a couple years. And while juggling that thing, I was a full time sales manager at our local camera store. So for me, I was just there to sell cameras do my thing. And we had a guy leave. And he’s like, on a work trip, he had worked a full time job worked for us part time. And they’re like, somebody’s got to teach Mike Well, it’s not going to be me, that is not my gig and never like standing in front of people and teaching. But when I could combine the two, well, I should say the one passion of photography, and then allowing and teaching my skill sets to somebody who just wanted to take better pictures. That’s what it all changed. I loved it. I’d be like, I really want to be a sales manager. Can I be a full time instructor? You know, and then I had left to pursue a better family life, you know, because our daughter was getting ready to go to school. That was three years ago. Yeah. And I was like, everybody called me they’re like, what’s, who’s gonna teach me? Who’s the honor? No, you just gonna have to figure that out yourself? And then it kind of dawned on me. Hmm. These people want to pay me money to teach on my own schedule. And they always call and say, Oh, it’s whenever you’re available. I’m free. So I kind of stumbled into that, as a teaching. So 90% of my business now is private photo essence. You know, by the hour.
Lane Hickenbottom 7:44
Very good. And so you know, one thing that you you mentioned that love and passion a couple of times, that’s a real important ingredient. If If a person is gonna have a side hustle, something that adds work hours to the end of a work day and torque week? Yes, yeah. So. So how many hours are you putting in a day from, I guess…
Justin Tedford 8:09
I am putting in 40 hours a week as a promotional consultant, and their promotional products world? So I do that Monday through Friday at 430. And then, you know, it’s like, with all photo businesses varies, you know, you have your busy times a year, and things like that. But Geez, I can probably put in an extra 20 hours, between lessons. And that’s just teaching that’s not doing all the other stuff that I should be doing, like, making sure I’m tracking invoices correctly, and not, you know, throwing things into my, you know, my accounting system and make sure every penny is tracked in and out. So
Lane Hickenbottom 8:42
I don’t know very many photographers who enjoy that process.
Justin Tedford 8:44
No, no.
Lane Hickenbottom 8:47
Yeah, so. So, talk to me, I wanna I want to know, some, some strategies that you’ve employed to be able to endure? Because really, we’re not talking about a sprint, we’re talking about a marathon. Mm hmm. And how do you keep from getting burnt out?
Justin Tedford 9:05
Yeah. And that’s, that’s a good one. Because, for me, I get easily burned out. I mean, yes, man. So you can call me up? Pretty much as horrible and say, Can you do this? And I’ll say, yes, even if I have two or three things on the schedule, I will find a way to make it happen, especially as photography. But I think for me, not getting burned out is. I mean, I can get burned out from, you know, as much as I love and have passion to teach somebody, you know, when you meet two to three extra hours a night, you know, with a client and teaching them. It’s just, it’s kind of weird, because people say to me, how do you, how do you it’s like, when I was a photo Pro, how do you teach? How do you go home and do photography, and then you do that for a year, 80 hours a week, you know, and for me, it’s just doing my own personal work. You know, I don’t, you know, I’m teaching people but then I get to come back and I do projects. So I started a project two years ago called harvesting the heartland stories of the farmer. And that’s more work. And with my personal podcast, I, it’s still doing photography, or what your passion is, but doing it in a different way. So for me, I can pick up the gear and go out and go shoot some portraits of farmers if they’re available. And then work on that project. Now even I have another project of lots of things, lots of hats, but I’m doing another project called pop 500. Where That one’s super easy that one I’m not tied to anybody. It’s just me. I pick a map, or a city out of map of in Iowa of population 500 or less from the last census and I go photographic. It’s not always a success.
Lane Hickenbottom 10:45
Yeah, and how much time do you spend
Justin Tedford 10:49
last summer Well, I bet you I think last summer, it was probably 3000 miles. I, I always joke people say time I go by miles because I everything I do, I drive as a landscape photographer for a variety of things. Nobody to three or 3000 miles last year, just backroad driving. And I think that’s what sometimes if I’m not clicking the shutter, it’s just getting out. And not having a care in the world. And just looking for a next photograph. It’s like it clears my mind. So I think if you’re getting out, even if it’s, you know, not you have to have a passion outside of your other passion. I shouldn’t say, you know, if you know, you’re like a photographer, and you’re super passionate about it, and you need to find something else to do sometimes. Just to clear your mind. You know, whether you get in the car and drive 50 miles from me, I get to combine both. But I think that’s one big thing is just finding that. Yeah, that is tied up into it.
Lane Hickenbottom 11:50
That clearing your mind. So many people, at the end have a hard day, you know, they they tune into the bachelor, stuff like that, really for the same purpose. Yeah, you know, like, I gotta turn it off. It’s been a long day. I don’t, I don’t want to think about this anymore.
Justin Tedford 12:10
Yeah, even switching gears, you know, it may be similar. I’m still, I still when I go out. I mean, I’m selling all day long. That’s what I do for eight hours a day on the phone as I sell. I still have to sell to my clients. But I do it a different way. You know, at work, we have a certain way of doing things. With my own business. I can do it however I want. If it didn’t work today, I just don’t try it tomorrow. You know, even if it’s a slight switch of gears for me. That’s clear in my mind.
Lane Hickenbottom 12:37
Yeah, absolutely. So do you feel a tug of war with your family? How does? How’s that play out?
Justin Tedford 12:47
Sometimes. Not. It used to be with my old job. That was the tug of war. That’s why I left. But the new the new job was better. You know, but when you’re getting in with, like we said, the side hustle, it is hard, because there’s sometimes you know, you’ll look at your, your business checkbook, and you’re like, well, that’s not where I want it to be. So you need to be bringing in that income, you know, and you’ve already got something scheduled, you know, with family or extended family, or you’re going to go on a trip. And then you have that client that calls you up. And it’s like, hey, and they’re your, you know, a plus client, and you want to make them happy all the time. It is it’s a struggle to say, Well, I have to go to this family gig. I can’t do a lesson today, or I can’t help you with this. Well, it’s the only time I have scheduled and you just want to like break free and say, Okay, I don’t want to make my client upset. But yeah, it can be a struggle, you know, especially when you’re trying to get the kids stuff from the wife. You know, and then because a lot of my clients are like, almost like family, because we’re together so much. You know, it’s like we’d even check in on Facebook, like, how are you doing today? They’re like, Oh, not the greatest Why? You know, so I have, I have a pretty good relationship beyond the client. So it’s like everybody’s my family. So I feel like I’m pissing off my entire family with a standard and not so.
Lane Hickenbottom 14:09
Alright. Equal Opportunity.
Justin Tedford 14:11
Yeah, yeah.
Lane Hickenbottom 14:12
disappointment.
Justin Tedford 14:13
Yep.
Lane Hickenbottom 14:13
Yeah. So I feel like there’s so many different people out there who, who have a joyless job, something that is just not rewarding them during that work hours. And instead of, instead of just flat out quitting that job, they try to dip their toe into some sort of entrepreneurial endeavor. Mm hmm. Yep. And so that’s really where a lot of side hustles come from. Do you feel like it’s it’s important to have the passion for whatever that is first for you. It’s photography and then try to turn that into a into an income, earning activity or Could it be the other way around? Can you? Can you start with, I don’t know what I’m going to do, and try to figure out something that maybe seems like it makes a good business plan, something that fits within your schedule, and then try to find the passion for it after the fact.
Justin Tedford 15:19
Totally, that’s an easy one. Because if you if you have to be passionate, I mean, I think you’re trying to fit it into a schedule, that’s gonna work and you’re not passionate about it, you’re not gonna get you’re not gonna make that time. You know, when you’re passionate about, you know, not not that I’m not passionate about my 14 hour week job. But, you know, that one was kind of a weird step. For me, that was a real leaving a, I actually left a sales job to work in a non sales job. And then I ended up becoming sales again, within my current job, but I think you have, if you don’t have that passion, it’s just I think it’s gonna be a failure. You know, I mean, maybe you can find the passion later. But I think if you’re sitting here, and I don’t know, you’re gonna look through it, we all know, I think we all know, a friend these days, it’s either selling some type of a weight loss, miracle stuff on Facebook, or a candle or something. And I feel like the ones who have success and are winning, have passion. You know, if you’re doing it for the money, then that’s not passion to me, you know, we got to have money to pay bills and stuff, you know, but I think a lot of side hustles come from, I think, good side hustles come from passion. bad side hustles come from money. If you want money. Sure, we all want extra money. But if you’re not passionate, why are you going to put in the time to find clients to sell a product or something to? Or a service for that matter? It’d be like, Hey, I can make $1,000 you know, backing out cars every day, am I gonna be passionate about it? No, guess what, I’m never probably gonna make a first $1,000. Because I’m not gonna put in the time to figure out how to do it, or reach out and find that, you know, I think when you’re passionate, it’s one of those things that’s kind of hard to leave your mind. And I know, as a photographer, I can be driving down the road, and I’m like, Oh, my God, look at there’s a photo, you know, or look at the light. I don’t know, if you have that issue I do. You know, I’m always seeing I can’t shut that off. So I think passion is always going to win out. You have to just, money’s great. But passion is going to create a lot more money.
Lane Hickenbottom 17:27
Yes, just like short answer. How long have you been doing photography?
Justin Tedford 17:31
Whoa, boy. Since well, like full time, or Well, not full time, but like as a business? Or more
Lane Hickenbottom 17:41
as a something that you’re deeply into? A hobby?
Justin Tedford 17:47
Oh, that’s easy. Yeah. 2004
Lane Hickenbottom 17:49
2004?
Justin Tedford 17:50
Right. Yeah, I would have been in high school still
Lane Hickenbottom 17:56
time…um…chasing a business, pursuing a business, within your passion. Definitely, you run some risks of adulterating your passion. You do and? And really, it could just start becoming a chore?
Justin Tedford 18:17
Yes.
Lane Hickenbottom 18:19
How have you fought that?
Justin Tedford 18:22
I’ve been there. I mean, there was a year. That’s I think, the scary part, because let’s say if I did it full time, you know, there’s about a year there, maybe year and a half, or I didn’t really pick up a camera, because all I was doing was some form of at my old job, I was doing it so much, even more than 40 hours a week there that it makes you like you said, just your passion leaves. And I think sometimes you do need to step aside for a little bit. Let it just kind of BS it will come back. If you’re truly passionate about it. You know, it’s gonna come back and bite you again and say, here I am. What are you going to, you know, for me, it was when you got to pick up the camera again, when you’re going to do this or even other photographers kind of pushed me, you know, I would see their work. And I’m like, why am I not doing that? So I went back and re picked up the camera and then became passionate again. Me, I think if you if you don’t watch it, you’ll burn yourself out. And I think that’s just spreading yourself too thin too many projects. Because I mean, if I probably gave you every idea right now, I had in my head that I want to do based off of you know, let’s say workshops, I want to get into workshops, how do I navigate that with COVID? You know, how do I teach in person classes again, you know, how to you know, there’s three things that could take a whole year my time a podcast? Yeah, a podcast. Yeah, my podcast to, you know,
Lane Hickenbottom 19:42
go plug that sucker right now.
Justin Tedford 19:44
Yeah, I know, right. Shutter Talk so if you’re into photography, you know Shutter Talk and over I think I’m on anchor, you know, iTunes, so, you know, but yeah, that’s the thing, but it all comes back is I think I have to have a plan to like I was gonna relaunch my podcast after doing one whopping episode and I put a two year kibosh on it and started a backup. But I was trying to always try to come back with like, how I’m how I can attract more clients. And why not? If I can throw out some free information or something and get somebody passionate, show your passion. That’s what people say they’re so passionate about what you do. That’s why I come to you, and have you teach me and you teach it in an easy, understandable way. So I mean, I’ve got so many ideas, and it’s always connected to trying to bring in more clients, but you have to watch yourself, because if you spread yourself too thin, you’re gonna burn yourself out. And that’s what I did.
Lane Hickenbottom 20:35
Yes. It’s something you just said right there like, like, pursuing different avenues for bringing more clients in? And do you feel like there’s within a passion, I feel like there’s opportunities to pursue the passion with a, like a real pure direction of, if this makes me happy, I’m doing it. And now you’re starting to talk about doing things to earn more clients? Yeah, again, like kind of that risk of adulterating your passion, perhaps, but,
Justin Tedford 21:12
yes.
Lane Hickenbottom 21:13
Is that part of the balancing act?
Justin Tedford 21:17
Oh, it is. Yep. I mean, you still have to be a dad and a husband and, you know, whatever, to somebody. And then there’s times when your passion overtakes all that, you know, that where you just like, I can throw this to the side for a while, and then just focus solely on, you know, my business, but then my family goes to the wayside, well, then, then you feel like Well, okay, can I get to switch back over to the family side, and now your businesses lacking and I’m, you know, overbooking myself with, say, a family event or, you know, business event and one of those are going to give, so it’s trying to figure out that balancing act of how much can I handle, you know, I should know better than to book myself, five, seven days a week, but what I’ve done is I’ve decided that, okay, you have to be really super special for me to come in and do something on a Saturday or Sunday, you know, that’s my time to do whatever we’re gonna do. You know, whether it’s sit at home, or we’re gonna go out and do something, and I just got to keep those flexible business hours of Monday through Friday, you know, and I’m not gonna say, you know, I spend a lot of my time though, at when I’m on my lunch break for half hour, an hour and 15 minutes break working on my business, you know, answering Facebook messages for a half hour, like, Hey, can we meet this day, okay, you know, or texting and a phone call. So it’s, it’s finding little snippets of times, like, I’ve got 20 minutes between, or say, a half hour between 430 and five, I can do this real quick, I can do XYZ year, you know, ABC, and then switch over and go back to being family for a little bit. And then once they’re all watching TV, doing whatever, I can go down to the office and do whatever I need to do.
Lane Hickenbottom 23:11
So I know, for myself, photography has been the key ingredient to my my earning really, since 1997. And so 24 years ish now, which is incredible. I mean, in 1997, we’re talking maybe, like, $2,000, I was in college. And so that’s all I made. But during that time, while I became a full time newspaper photographer, and decided to pursue my business during that time, and really, so I had photography as a full time job, but then photography as a, as a side hustle as well. And that was kind of an interesting time, we’re looking at like 2006. And at the time, my photojournalism approach to wedding photography was pretty new and exciting to a lot of people in my business book, pretty rapidly is I mean, it was exciting. And working for newspapers, it’s not a real high hurdle to replace your your salary. As you know, from from debt, so I got out
Justin Tedford 24:28
of it. Yeah, I was in college, I was like, that would have been 2006. Seven, I was getting out and looking at doing you know, whatever. And that’s when newspaper guys were getting laid off. And I’m thinking, why is somebody who’s been doing this for 25 years? Why are they going to look at me and say, Oh my God, this guy looks way better than the guy who’s already done this for like 25 years. So that’s why I kind of backed off.
Lane Hickenbottom 24:48
Yeah, exactly. And it’s, it was an easy business to, to get out of from from a business standpoint. There was definitely a passion there for me too. To serve my community, for us kind of getting out with my own my own story arc a little bit is. So over the course of 24 years, there’s been times for me where photography has really waned as a passion. And particularly, probably five years or so ago, I started pursuing other side hustles of my own web design was was one that, you know, dabbled with in college, and then kind of picked back up. But one thing I started to learn, that I really enjoy doing, was working with other businesses and small business owners. And kind of a funny thing happened my own story arc is, is realizing that the thing that I am very good at is photography, which is no surprise since I’ve been doing it for so long. But just reapplying it to a new passion, being helping other business owners really kind of rekindled that fire for me. And so all of a sudden, I started learning, new lighting, lighting, schematics, and ways of posing people to hopefully make them look good. That’s what I launched Omaha Headshot Company. I’m kind of curious about about your, your story. How is your passion for photography changed in the last 15 plus years?
Justin Tedford 26:34
A lot. I mean, because it’s funny, because when I first started out, I wanted to be like, a wildlife photographer. You know, I don’t know. Like you’d said, you’d listen, my podcast, I kind of talked about, you know, my story a little bit. And, you know, I blame National Geographic, they make it all sexy, like, you know, big lenses and all this big fancy gear to get travel the world and take all these cool pictures, which is great. But I found out early on, at that level of being 18 I don’t have the income, probably to get some of that glass that needed to be so then I I kind of fell into the photojournalism thing by fault. It was weird. You know, it was something low. I grew up in a small town 1000 people in the local papers like, Hey, you know, do you want to take basketball photos for us? Sure. I’m in a photo class. What does that you know, there was a little bit of passion starting there. And, but it’s evolved because it went from being that wildlife guy to getting into the photojournalism and all that I love, because I have to have variety in my day. That’s why I’m in sales. I can’t sit and do the same repetitive task all day. So for me, it was great, I could go out and you know, I might do a feature story in the morning, a couple shots for that then turn out and then I’m doing sports media at the big variety for me. And that’s how my, my photography is. I dabble in a lot of things. And it’s changed because I went from bat and it went into landscape. That was my thing, because it’s kind of on my own term, my own schedule, I could do it here and there. And then, now that I hit that education standpoint, or nine, I’m teaching people what I know, to a certain point of landscape and whatever they want to do, you know, flash photography, but even now, say the last three years, I’m going to more that commercial side, I am doing more food shoots for restaurants. I am doing catalog shoots with product photography. So I think it’s it’s evolved, but you know, I got into, you know, I’ve done some headshots here and there, nothing like you do. But you know, it is I think it’s an evolving thing. And I kind of seem to evolve in a circle. I go to one point and then I’ll fall back to something I’ve always done forever. I always fall back to the landscape thing. Me, you know, it is it’s kind of a photography’s a weird journey. It can be for some summer, just you know, I’m only passionate about wildlife and doing it. Some of my clients will only they do wildlife photography, but they only photograph eagles. That’s their thing. Once it’s done, they’re done. summer comes out. There’s one hanging out, they’ll do it. So you know, but I think as you get in to your passion of you know, for me, the photography thing, and my journey has been you know, I’m always looking to do so I get bored easily. It’s like a car. I can only have a car for so many years before I’m tired of it. I want a new one. So it’s good for the car, guys, I guess. But you know, so for me, I get into shooting. Like I said, the photojournalism stuff, the wildlife stuff, but even got into for the long time where I was doing high speed photography, where I bought I bought all this extra gear laser triggers and light stands the whole all this fancy stuff and I haven’t picked that stuff up in three years. So it just sits in a box. So it’s kind of weird. I have a weird, love hate relationship with certain things I do for a while and they’ll eventually come back. So
Lane Hickenbottom 29:58
so let’s bring it home with some Advice for our audience. You know, I really liked this, this theme of chasing your passions. Mm hmm. So somebody who’s maybe spends eight to five, and in something that’s a soul sucking endeavor, what are some suggestions you might have for them.
Justin Tedford 30:22
I mean, if you’re, if you’re first starting out, I mean, I think if you’re passionate about it, pick something you’re going to be passionate about and stick with it. Because that’s the only way you’re going to it’s going to be a long term, like you said, a marathon, not a sprint. Find something you’re passionate about, and stick with it. But I think if you have the passion, your passion is always going to be there. Because I’ve heard of people, you know, I’ve been I know, photographers that were part time for their entire year, years of working, they never, they did a side hustle. And then all of a sudden, they’ve retired now, they blew up to be this big, you know, making more money than they ever did their old job. But the other tip I’ve got too, is, like I said, if you have that passion, that’s always going to be there. But treat it if you’re going to treat it like a business, treat it like a business, you know, go out and do your business stuff, learn. Don’t guess at taxes, and don’t guess it? You know, what is, you know, I’m just gonna pile receipts in a box, because that’s going to be your worst enemy. And I think that’s where I see with a lot of friends that have different side hustles. You know, I’ll sit down and talk to him. We’re just talking business. And I’m like, or even coaching another photographer, I’m like, Well, how much does it cost you to? You know, your session is this much? How much goes into that? If you’re giving out you know, prints included all this? What is it? Well, I don’t know what that cost me. You don’t, you should, because you need to know. So I think that’s, that’s a big tip too, is just knowing business. And you know, we don’t all like to learn that. Especially photographers we all get, we’re creative, we got to be creative, and not entrepreneurs. But you have to be an entrepreneur with your passion, if you’re going to take it to, especially going out into the world of you know, your passion. If it’s going to be I don’t know, selling candles, let’s say you into making candles and you do it. Well, yeah, you can make it that’s your passion. But learn the business side. Because then you’re not scared when it comes tax time. Or get a CPA, get somebody who knows, you know, somebody can help you don’t do things don’t rely on you to be everything.
Lane Hickenbottom 32:34
I can tell you that the one thing that I did wrong is as a creative is I waited way too long to start outsourcing. Right? Oh, yes, my taxes, you know, those those things that
Justin Tedford 32:46
if you can do it, because you’re not gonna you know, you’re not going to be passionate about the books? If that’s not then find somebody who is passionate, or somebody who’s passionate about running numbers, let them do it.
Lane Hickenbottom 32:56
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, what else? your most recent podcast, he gave 10 tips to Oh, yeah, going into getting photography specific. But I feel like a lot of that will apply towards chasing any side hustle.
Justin Tedford 33:18
Yeah, yeah, no, I talked a little bit about business, you know, on, you know, find somebody else to do all that good stuff. And, I mean, coming up with, I think, well, wanted, I this I’m big in the photography world is worrying about yourself, I think as as a side hustle, or your business is your starting focus on yourself, you know, in your business, you know, I know I have clients that I have preached to and preach to that. It doesn’t matter that your competitor or, or who you see, as your competitor, has 85, you know, likes on a on a photo or their, their product, and you have to, I used to get hung up on that too. And then I started to, I would say, not be friends, but you know, get to, you know, network with other businesses. And they come, I’ve come to find out that sometimes those those businesses that you thought that are just rolling in the cash, and you think are the most successful people are like, the ones that are struggling the most, but I feel like you have to be focused to on your passion, and that, that hustle. And doing that is worrying about yourself, because when you start worrying about what competitor ABC and d is doing what you need to know, kind of what they’re doing, you know, you don’t need to know all the secrets to the behind the scenes, but you got to keep an eye you know, and see what’s going on in your industry that you’re doing. But if you’re worrying about them, you just forget about your own business. You forgot about what you need to be doing. And then before you know it, you’re worrying about everything else, and you kind of have everything’s in a tailspin. You have no clue what’s going on. You know, and I used to see that in the industry that I worked in for the camera world. You know, in the camera shops, everybody is worried about what the other camera store down the street was doing. I don’t care. I wanted to keep my doors open. That was my gig. so worried about what I’m doing.
Lane Hickenbottom 35:12
I think I think that was a really fantastic advice. And something I’ve really tried to do in my own world is it’s, it’s a worthy endeavor to be aware of what’s happening around you, other people who are in your same space as a market. But there’s a lot of times where people are are like lemmings. They’re all trying to do the exact same thing. And a lot of times if you could be where other people aren’t.
Justin Tedford 35:39
Yep,
Lane Hickenbottom 35:40
That’s a good space to be.
Justin Tedford 35:42
That’s why I’m getting that’s why I’m looking at doing more commercial work in the sense of food photography, and some of that, because we don’t have a lot of people where I’m from getting into that. I mean, you I wouldn’t want to be a wedding photographer in Cedar Rapids. I feel like there’s so many of those that I don’t enjoy that anyway, that’s not my passion. And it shows that’s the other thing too is if you’re not passionate about it, you can’t hide passion, right? passion is going to show in your work. And if you’re not a passionate speaker, but you think it can make $10 million a year is a TED talk kind of speaker people are gonna see right through that when you get up on stage. Well, they’re not passionate You know, I’ve seen that with many of the trade shows I’ve been to leading industry guy gets up there and he’s a stick in the mud man, you can tell he does not enjoy what he does, but he’s there because they pay him oodles of money to stand up on stage and tell you the five secrets that you probably already know if he thought about it. So
Lane Hickenbottom 36:40
well, Justin, I’ve really enjoyed talking to you about about juggling family life and career and chasing your passion as a side project a side hustle to anybody who’s interested in finding some of your fine art prints and or, or learning your education side of things. Tell us tell us where the best places to find you are?
Justin Tedford 37:08
Yes, I would say go to my website. I’ve got my mentoring stuff out there. I have a store where a lot of my fine art stuff so it’s pretty simple. It’s www.tedfordphoto.com. And then I’m on Facebook, Instagram. Most of my stuff’s on the web.
Lane Hickenbottom 37:23
Very good. As always, we’ll throw that information on to our show notes. Thank you very much for tuning in to this episode of Getting AheadShot Justin, it’s been great talking with you. Thank you for coming in Getting AheadShot with me.
Justin Tedford 37:37
No thank you. You are the first person I thought of
Announcer 37:45
thanks for listening to the Getting AheadShot podcast recorded inside the Omaha headshot company studio to support the podcast, share it with others post about it on social media or leave a five star review to learn more go to Getting aheadshot.com We look forward to seeing you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
