Sarah Petty: Liz Schmidt was feeling lost in her career transition from physical therapy. She decided to try photography and follow the boutique model we teach here at the Photography Business Institute. In her first year, she nearly tripled what she made the previous year when she was trying to do it on her own with mini sessions and digital files. I’m so excited for you to hear Liz’s journey.
Sarah Petty: Liz, I’m so glad you’re here. What did your life look like? Were you working full-time as a physical therapist?
Liz Schmidt: I was working part-time because I put my family first. I basically worked as much as I could to make sure our budget was balanced, but I wasn’t enjoying it. I loved working with my patients, but there were still a lot of late nights at the clinic and nights that I wasn’t home with my family, and I wasn’t happy anymore.
I have two kids, three and five, and they were a couple of years younger at the time, so missing that time at home was starting to take its toll.
Sarah Petty: What was your dream for your photography business? How did it fit into your life back then?
Liz Schmidt: The dream was to do that full-time, but honestly, I didn’t know how to do it. There’s no way that I could pay off student loans from school like I had, and then also be doing something that you love. That just doesn’t exist. So it basically was, I’m going to side hustle this and see if it somehow magically kind of ends up being something real.
Sarah Petty: I love it. So how’d that go?
Liz Schmidt: Not well, because I didn’t have any business knowledge. I was self-taught, so it was me just mimicking what all the other photographers were doing in the area, which are mini sessions and giving away all the digitals. What made it worse is that it really didn’t fit my personality either. I like to spend a lot of time getting to know my clients, so the thought of meeting them and photographing them for 15 minutes and then keep moving to the next one and giving it all away didn’t suit me.
Sarah Petty: So you were doing digitals and mini sessions. How long did you do that for?
Liz Schmidt: That was like five years and I was doing it on the side while working part-time. Being a mom, working part-time and side hustling was a lot.
Sarah Petty: Was there a moment that you said it’s not working?
Liz Schmidt: I ended up resigning my PT job, so I thought I was going to have more time to put into my business but it was still the same outcome. That’s when I realized I need to get some education so I know what I am doing. That’s how I found you- through a challenge.
Sarah Petty: So you did a challenge, and when you heard that there was a different way to run your business, what did you think?
Liz Schmidt: It was just mind opening. I didn’t even realize there was another way, and I’m a logical person, so I think there was this part of me that was seeing the math, and it made sense. If someone can show me how to do it, I know I could do this. I like the way the program is laid out and it seemed to fit my personality.
Sarah Petty: You looked at the opportunity to jump into Boutique Breakthrough and did it. Was it easy for you or scary?
Liz Schmidt: It was scary for me because of where we were in our lives at that point. My husband is so supportive and helped me find a way to make it happen.
Sarah Petty: I love it. So you went into Boutique Breakthrough and what happened?
Liz Schmidt: I was really excited about what I’m learning because I’m a learner, so I will just soak in and do all the learning and then be slow to put it into action sometimes. I knew there was just that belief that kept me going to keep doing the steps. There was no way back at this point. I was invested and I wanted to do the work, and I wanted to see myself succeed. And I’ve seen other people do it, so that just kept me going. The thought of putting myself out there was what was holding me back.
It taught me all the things that a successful business person needs to do. And it helped me realize that I want to do this.
Sarah Petty: I love it. Let’s talk about your Julie, $1k or more client order. There are things we teach our students on how to go get clients, and then there are things that we say don’t ever do. And one of the things we teach to never do are raffles but you didn’t know and had already done that before the program. She didn’t even get a client the very best way, but she plugged this person into a proven system.
Liz Schmidt: Not only was it a raffle, but I got their number and I had to call them. I called and it’s someone’s grandpa that the kids had put in the raffle to win, so I wasn’t expecting much. But I can’t go back now so I called and I got to the dad and met him and had the 7 B’s conversation. He’s a single dad and he’s so interested and you can tell how much he loves his kids. I went to his house for the consultation and he already has pictures of the kids on the walls. They’ve worked with another photographer, but who had only done digital files and they had done their own printing.
We go through the session and once we get to the sales appointment, I still have this preconceived notion in my head that he’s not going to be a big client. But I started showing him the portraits and he loves them.
We got to the total and I was trying to play it cool because this was my first one. I gave him the total and he was just kind of quiet and said, “All right, well, I don’t want to be without these.”. That was the first time I had gone through all the steps and it was my first Julie for $1,400.Sarah Petty: Oh my gosh, Liz, that’s amazing. Thank you for being here and sharing your story. I know so many people are already inspired, just hearing it and knowing that you can be a mom and put your family first.
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