Welcome to the Hair of the Dog podcast. This is Nicole Begley. And today we are talking with Kristen Murray from Kristen Murray Photography about leaving the nine to five. If you're out there and you've ever thought about leaving the nine to five to start your pet photography business, or take your pet photography business full time, you definitely don't want to miss this episode. Stay tuned.

Welcome to the Hair of the Dog podcast. If you're a pet photographer, ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your host, pet photographer, travel addict, chocolate martini connoisseur, Nicole Begley.

Hey everybody. Nicole here from Hair of the Dog and I am here with Kristen Murray from Kristen Murray Photography up in Richmond, Virginia, and welcome to the podcast, Kristen. Hi Nicole, how are you? I'm good. I'm good.

Thank you so much for having me.

Of course. I'm so excited that you're here. We were just chatting and you've had a very big day today.

Yes, I have had a fairly big day. Um, I turned in my notice at my full time job and will officially be focusing all of my time and energy on building my pet photography business as of July 31st.

Woohooo! That's awesome! I'm so proud of you! How, how does it feel? Cause, well, actually let's back up for a second. So Kristen has been a Hair of the Dog Academy member and a member of Elevate. So tell us, Kristen, just a little bit about your journey and how your whole kind of business started and where you are on, you know, how that, how that all started for you.

So I've been in the startup phase of my business for a lot longer than I'm proud to admit it was pretty common. Don't feel bad. Uh, so when, when Elevate, you know, I heard about that, I was like, I have to join. Like this is going to be what gets my butt in gear. And, um, you know, I've gotten a legal ducks in a row, I guess it was about this time last year, but I'd always just done photography on the side. Like I would tell people, Oh yeah, this is what I want to do. This, isn't what I am doing, you know, in, through Elevate in the past five months, I kind of like not in the whole goal of joining Elevate was to get to a point where I could turn this into a full-time job. And I just really learned to like, let go of the fear and get out of my own way and, and, and I can do it. Yeah. So that's where I've been. It's been a long road it's been in, but I wouldn't, I don't think I would've gotten here as quickly as I did, if it wasn't for you, the coaches and the other members of Elevate.

Oh, thanks. But you did all the work. You did all the hard work. Um,

yeah.

I feel like what you're saying, and I feel like this resonates will resonate with a lot of people. And tell me if I'm kind of hearing you correctly, that it's almost by, like when we have another full time job and we're growing this photography business on the side. There's a part of us that's scared to say I'm a pet photographer. And instead it's a safe, easy thing to say, you know, Oh, I do this and I have a pet photography business, like it's almost like a PS. Yeah. And I also kind of do this over here. Um,

100% everyone looks at you and you're like, Oh, well, what are you doing? Oh, this is what I do for a career. And no one thinks that pet photography can be a career. I've had so many friends and even some of my own family, it was like, Oh, that's so cute.

Well, I still get that. I still get that. They're like, Oh, what'd you do? I'm a pet photographer. Does that a job? Like

people really love their pets. Don't they? And I'm like, yeah. Yeah they do!

Which is really, really, really funny because I used to do families too. And you know, my families had great averages, but my pets were even higher and, and people are shocked. And you know, the people that are saying that are obviously not our target market, but it's, I think really challenging sometimes for us not to take that to heart, especially when we're just getting started. And you know,

it comes from people who you value, too. I mean, I think that's part, if some random stranger said that to me, I'd be like, yeah. Okay, cool. And not let it get to me. When your friends and your family say it, it's hard not to take it to heart and have that get in your head.

Yes, absolutely. And a lot of times too, cause I feel like sometimes if people are ashamed, you know, so-and-so family member isn't being supportive of this or they're saying, Oh, you know, you know, trying to talk you out of doing certain things or trying to tell you that's too expensive. No one's going to pay that. You can't charge that, when they know nothing about the industry. I think that they're often doing it from a place of love because they don't want you to get hurt. Because they have NO idea what's possible. And they really do think there's no way anyone's going to do that. So they're trying, trying to protect

absolutely are like everyone who was trying to give me that like helpful feedback, did it out of love and did it. And I, in a helpful way, not knowing that like, okay, well, no, this is kind of damaging me because you're putting me through a hole where I feel like, Oh yeah, well maybe you're right. Instead of like, no, I can do this and I'm going to do this and watch me!

Right, right, right. Yeah. There are people doing this and I can do that too. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's another thing too. I think, uh, you can look at a situation and people can form a belief from that situation that goes drastically in two different ways. So the, the situation, the circumstance is photographer X has a really great photography business in your town and is killing it with pet photography. So you can look at that and say, Oh my gosh, that person's here. They have the whole market. There's no way I can compete. I should not even try.

We've got a ton of killer pet photography. They are, they're amazing. But like, there are still many pets out there, right. The market isn't saturated. Like everyone thinks it is.

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, what, if you, instead turn that belief to look at these other people in my market, they're doing well, there's demand in this market.

Yeah. And what, what can you do differently from the people in your area?

Absolutely. Yep. Yeah. You know, and even if we're, you know, even if we're doing, we're going to talk about what you're doing differently here in a second, but even if we're all doing like outdoor pet photography, there's still so many ways to make that experience and make the final art that we're creating and making our process and making just the whole experience different from each other so that people can start looking for their pet photographer and they start seeing a couple of different websites and then they kind of gravitate towards who they connect with. Of course, there's still going to be some people that, um, you know, like are just price shopping and they maybe are going to pick the person that's doing all inclusive digitals of a lower cost. And not that the high-value thing, but

they were never going to be your client anyway. So yeah, we could both do studio photography, but I have just a slightly different way of doing it. So it's not really what you're doing. It's how you're doing it. Yes. 100%. Zoe's barking. All my dogs are. Cause our neighbors have ducks and they go freaking crazy and they always come out at this time. So it's like, I'm just gonna go ahead and bring them in.

yeah. I think somebody walked by, so is a typical terrier and a little dog-reactive. So she's losing her mind right now, but that's okay. We're on a pet photography podcast so we can have a barking dog and no one will judge. Yeah.

Anyway, tell us a little bit about where you are carving out your niche or niche. Um, yeah, so I, uh, my focus is all outdoor pet photography, but I've been kind of diving deep, no pun intended, into underwater photography. It sounds so weird. And everyone's like, wait, what? Like you think you get that as a dog photographer. You're doing underwater photo shoots with a dog. But people seem to l ove i t. I have so much fun with it. There, there are some of my favorite sessions. Nice. That's awesome. How did you get started with that? I got started i n, in underwater photography in general, about seven years ago. I'm a certified scuba diver. And u m, I would d ive every day if I was able to. Man, underneath the water. It's a feeling like you never get a t a ll any way, a re you?

Yep. I'm a diver too. And I remember still, when you were doing like you're doing your checkout dives or actually your lessons and your underwater and you take your very first breath and you're like, this is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. Oh, wait...this works. It's amazing.

I can't describe how diving makes me feel. So I got a GoPro and then we went to Bon air, which is off the coast of Venezuela. And I came back from that trip and realized my GoPro was not going to cut it. I mean, there were turtles, sea horses, incredible like beautiful reefs and an abundance of marine life. And I knew that I needed something different. Um, so I got a Canon G7x with a Fantasea housing and I thought I was just going to use it for diving, but you know, we didn't have any trips coming up and I wanted to play around with it. So I took the dogs down to the river and just started practicing with them. Like the dogs were having a blast and I was having so much fun. And I just realized like, it's the best of both worlds! How can I make this really happen? Um, but you know, the river of water is brown. It is not the pristine blue tropical waters of the Caribbean. Um, so I got in touch with a nearby canine pool. Um, it helped one of my dogs learn how to swim, um, before. So I kind of already had a relationship with them when I approached them with like, Hey, this is what I'm thinking about doing. Would your clients be interested in it, is it something that you'd be interested in to kind of stand out from everyone else. And, um, yeah, she was, she was all on board with it. So the first session we did, I had, I was using the same G7x with the fish islands on the housing and like quickly realized that while it was great for diving, it just wasn't cutting it with how I needed to use it. Um, so after a lot of research and trial and error, I've now landed on a housing that it'll work for my 1DX. Um, well it's not perfect and I'll probably upgrade to like an iCloud or not a cam dye housing. Uh, it gets the job done, but you know, you don't care about housing.

It's all good. There's people out there that do. It's all good. It's all good. Yeah, no, that's fantastic. And um, what a great way to start using partner marketing to start to explore different things and start to, to, you know, get some clients on the new genre. That's one of my favorite types of marketing

for sure. Yeah. It's it has been a very, um, it's worked out very well for both of us. Um, I think, I think the owner of the pool was happy and, and I'm happy and I think clients are happy and it's, it's, uh, I try to do everything. That's a win, win, win for everyone involved. And I think, I think it's working out.

That's nice. That's fantastic. When did you do your first underwater? Like that first session? When did you try that?

So I had a practice, like a practice session with my own dogs.

Yeah. Well, no, just like, I guess when you first started marketing it,

um, I think it was either in July or September of last year. Okay. So almost a year, almost a year ago. Um, and then they also have an indoor pool location. So I was able to do a couple over the winter, the best images come from the outdoor pool though. Great beautiful blue background. And then you have the natural light and like I'm able to take shots of them just swimming as well as underwater. Yeah. So I prefer that one in the summertime. Um, I've thought about getting my own pool, but I think that's going to be a ways off.

No, but when you do it can be a nice tax write-off. Right, right. You're like just, you wait, just you wait. That's fantastic. And then also all those nice underwater housings that you can take when you go diving, when you go back to Aruba. Gotta love our businesses. Um, no, that's fantastic. So let's back up just a little bit fast forward from what we're talking about, but back up a little from today and before you started Elevate, you're here in the first round of Elevate, which is our group coaching program in Hair of the Dog. Um, kind of where, what were you feeling like kind of, what was your, your beliefs, your feelings towards your business, kind of, where was your head at?

Uh, fear? Absolutely. Um, I had a fear of, um, pro probably everything. Okay. When I say I've been in the startup phase of my business, like I've had a camera forever, and I would always like take pictures of my own animals and take pictures of, you know, friends' animals and, but never put myself out there because I was so scared that I would get judged, that my website wouldn't be good enough, that like no one would hire me, that people would laugh at me. Like, I don't know where any of this fear came from, but I had that in my head that I could not do this. Go ahead.

No, I was going to say we all, I think we all have that fear. And I think the hardest part is, is that we don't know it's fear. Like, did you know it was fear? Did you just feel the procrastination about it? Well, I'm a procrastinator by nature. I need a dealine

and I need pressure and then I will get it done, but no, I didn't, I didn't know. It was fear at all. And honestly it wasn't until our, our two kittens. Well, they were two years old at that time, but they, uh, they got poisoned. Well, I think it was unintentional, like secondary poisoning is a real thing and, uh, it kills wildlife and cats, but it, it got, it got them. And I was looking back at all the photos and I was like, I only have two photos, like one each that I would even consider putting on my walls. And, you know, I was talking to my husband about it and I'm like, I really like, it tore me up. I was like, I really have to do this. Like I want to do this. And he was like, alright. So we upgraded my camera with some Christmas money and he was very supportive. And honestly, if I didn't have the push from him, I probably would have still been in that, in that same stage. So, but, but that whole year, you know, I was like, okay, well, I'm kind of doing this and I'm kind of doing that. And I didn't realize that I was, uh, at that I so much fear about my own business and creating the life of my dreams until like Heather got through one day and she's like, no one wins when you play small and what's the worst that could happen and get out of your own head and, you know, just brought up all of these like thoughts that I had never really thought to consider probably. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you know, it was,

well, I think it's so important sometimes though, we have like a motivation that's greater than ourself. You know, that, that tends to be the thing often that'll spur us a little bit off our button into action and pass that, that fear, which like I I've done our very first episode was, you know what, the, the real reason you procrastinate, which is often fear. So procrastination is, is just how fear often manifests or the perfectionism is also fear. Like I can't put this inquiry guide out because it is not perfect. There's one typo on page 37.

I never thought I was a perfectionist until I started doing this, but then you're right. And I still don't think I am a perfectionist because you know, I, I do realize that done is better than perfect. And like, you have to get something out there, but I think I was using perfection as a way to procrastinate. So then I could feel good and, you know, sit there and binge Netflix all day there and be safe. Because if you don't put yourself out there, you don't get judged. But guess what also happens when you don't put yourself out there, you don't make money! No one knows what you do. And you're sitting there like, Oh, why isn't this working for me? What I've also realized is this business, you have to work for yourself. You have to put in the work. Nothing is just going to fall from the sky and be handed to you. And that's that's life in general. If you're not happy in your current situation, then stop blaming circumstances, stop blaming anything outside of what you can control. I mean, obviously if a tornado comes through and like destroys your house, you can't control that. But you know, aside from that, like you are in charge of your own life.

You can control how you react to it though. You know, Heather and I just did. Um, it'll be last week's episode when this gets released, talking about this exact thing about how to control our thoughts when basically everything around us is completely out of our control because it's such a critical skill. It's easy, or it's simple, it's simple, but it's not easy. Uh, and it really comes down to just changing our internal dialogue and shifting what we're saying to ourselves and, and just being aware of how we're feeling. So here's my next question for you. If you were to compare like your feeling now, like you just gave your notice at your job, like, how do you feel, does that feel heavy or light?

Oh, I am so light! I am light as a feather. I told Daniel, my husband, the other day, I was like, I have not felt this great in so long. Now don't get me wrong, I am I'm nervous because now it is up to me. But it's the good kind of nervous. Like I'm excited for what the future holds. I am excited to see where I can go and how, like how I can get these different aspects of like everything. I I'm so overwhelmed that like, I have a hard time putting my thoughts into words because of how excited I am.

That's fantastic. That's awesome. That's definitely how, you know you're on the right track. And I love how you said too, that you are like, it feels so aligned and light, but you're still a little nervous. Like, I don't want anyone to think just because you have nerves means that this is the wrong direction. Like it's important to have nerves when you have some nerves in a situation like this, it means you're on the right track. And it means that that, you know, that maybe your goals are a little bit of a stretch, but it doesn't mean that you can't do it. It means that you are like ready to go on and do what needs to happen. And if you didn't have those nerves, I think it would be much too easy to fall into like complacency and just be like, Oh, you know, I'll get there. I'll do that later. Um,

that's also why it's taken me so long to get here- the complacency. So like, that's one thing you learn in diving. Complacency will kill you. And that's one thing that I think everyone, or at least myself, I forget in everyday life, like you take driving a car for granted, you take going out to your mailbox for granted. And like, it's not, it's not a given that you will wake up tomorrow and why be complacent in life, or stuck in a situation where you are not, uh, fully, truly happy? Right. Um, but I do think being, having the full-time job where, I mean, it was easy money. Great. I, I enjoyed the job, but I didn't love it.

Well, let's just say it's so easy and that situation, and so many people are in that situation and they will stay for years because it's, you know, it's not a job you're like absolutely miserable and you're crying every day at work. And like just can't handle going in. Of course, you're going to make changes. The hardest time to make a change is when you are, you know, maybe you're not doing, you're not doing what you're totally aligned to do, but you know, you kind of enjoy it. It's okay. It's not bad. It is what it is. You know, it's easy, it's secure, you have benefits, you have a regular paycheck. Those things are hard to give up, but you know, you, you listen to this voice inside of you that like just couldn't, couldn't be quiet anymore. And then, yeah. And then you can tell like I remember, when we were coaching you through you posted like really vulnerable post in the Elevate group, just about like guys, you know, basically I really think I want to quit my job and do this full time, but how do I know is this the right decision, blah, blah, blah. You know, like all that stuff in our head and

for a long time, but my heart kept leading me to this decision. And I knew that I would always regret it and I don't want to go through life being complacent in a job or in life.

Right. Right. And I know we asked you to- like, how does this feel? Like how, how are you feeling about doing this? What's the worst thing that can happen? Like if you left and, you know, could you go back, could you find another job? Is there, are there other ways you can make money? You know? And once you start to play out some of those, Oh, you know, not letting your brain just take you to the worst case scenario. Oh, you quit. You're gonna like, never make another dime and you're going to starve and end up homeless, you know, like there's a whole big middle of other things that can happen too. And so, yeah. So sometimes it helps to do that. But yeah, I love for me personally, like really looking at how a certain situation makes you feel like, does it feel really heavy? Does it feel really, you know, just like dreadful is a big word, but just heavy. You know what I mean? With just like something that's just,

and like, you, you just, you feel like you can't make a move and you're just paralyzed in, in the fear of not knowing what to do and the fear of the unknown.

Right. And the fear of making the wrong decision and the fear. And yeah, so many people too, like it's, it's human nature to stay with the known, even if it is, um, not exactly versus going for the unknown, which could be way better, but it could also be worse. So we don't want to chance it. So it's really

very hard position to be in. When I started, when I started Elevate in January, my, I wrote down, you asked us to write down goals and number one on the goal, my goal list was quit my job, that WAS my number one. But then, then COVID hit. And I sat there thinking, I was like, I'm not going to be able to do this. I'm not getting any bookings right now. Like, you know, my head kind of went into a real dark spot, a real dark spot at the, at the beginning of it. And I binge-watched The Last Kingdom on Netflix I don't know how many times, but then I was like, you know what? I can either take this downtime that I have now and focus on putting processes in place and bettering my client experience and planning and strategizing like how I can serve my clients better. Yup. Or a, you know, because otherwise, if I was shooting right now, I wouldn't have the time to do it. So, you know, it's kind of a blessing in disguise. Not that coronavirus was at all, but just this time that I had to do it

well, it's just, it's purely how you look at the situation. Same thing as when you look at, Oh, here's a successful photographer either means that there's room in the market or the, she has the whole market, or he has the whole market cornered. So you can look at something as crazy as a global pandemic and say, that's it that I closed up my business. It's never going to work. Might as well just get used to this job. Or you can say what a gift. I have time now, like I would be shooting right now. This is forcing me to sit down and get some things done in my business and really focus on what am I going to do today that's gonna move the needle forward in the future and give me the biggest return so that you're ready when these things, you know, we start to get back to normal now that you can come out of this and hit the ground running

because every, everything has an, has an end. Eventually, you know, life is going to go back to how it was. Yes. There may be certain things that are different, but it's going to go back to normal eventually. Um, so yeah, I just, I, I decided I'm going to use this time to, to get my business straight and, and I did, and I'm really, really excited for what the future holds.

Yeah. I'm so excited for you!

Thank you. And you're right. Like what, what is the worst that could happen? I have to get another job. Like I've had jobs in the past. There are things that I can do.

It's brilliant. Yeah. I think even I was like, well, I think even like our Target near us now pays$19 an hour. I'm like, well, shoot. That's pretty much what I made as a manager in the zoo world back in the day,

if something really happened in the end, I can't make a go with this. Well, at least I can say that. I tried and yeah. I mean, I can, I can get another job.

You won't have to. I'm pretty sure because you are, you're, you're taking the action and even, you know, in the face of, I'm not sure if this is the right action or maybe this particular action, this happens a lot too where people start to think, Oh, well, I don't really like doing this part of my business. So either maybe I won't, or maybe that means I shouldn't be doing this business, but you know, no matter what do, even, if you love it, there's still gonna be pieces of it that feel like a job.

Exactly. And if they're really that, that, like, if you really hate editing that much and outsource it, absolutely. There are awesome editors out there you go out and shoot everything and then just call, do basic adjustments and outsource your editing. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but I kind of feel like I'm going to soon.

No, I, I ended up always well in the past couple of years after a session, if there's one image that I love, I fully edit that one because I want to take that one all the way through. But then the rest I'm like, Pete, go ahead and take off the leashes, do this and this, like, I will just send them off and they come back pretty much perfect. I'm like, great. I didn't have to do that.

And then you can, you can use that time that you would have spent, shooting, uh, something else or, you know, focusing on a different aspect of your business.

Yeah. Marketing to bring in more clients and all that good stuff. That's awesome. Oh, I am so proud of, of um, yeah, just the action that you've taken and the hard questions that you've asked yourself, because I like to say in Elevate to like the, program's not about content. I mean, we have some content, but was not there to be like, okay, do this, do this, do that. And actually, quite frankly, none of the coaches, none of us are saying to anyone, you need to do this. You need to do this. And here's your list of 10 things that you need to do for your business.

Like you ask us what our, what our actions are and what our goals are. And you help us along the way. And you ask the hard questions where it's like, um, Oh, I didn't really think about that. That's a good point. But yeah, y'all, aren't sitting there telling us, like, do this, do this, check these boxes. You ask us, What are your boxes that you want to check? And have you checked them and how can we help you check them?

Yup, exactly. And you can say, Oh, I'm stuck here. And then we'll help you work through it. Because I believe firmly if like I were to sit here and say, here is a 10-point plan. This is all you need to do. Which first of all, wouldn't work because everybody's business is going to be different, right? So you have a different looking business and the other students, and some people do studio, some people outdoors, some people more high volume, some people lower volume, like it's all very different. So everybody's journey is going to be a little bit different and I never want to rob any of our students have the opportunity for you guys to have the lessons and you guys to figure out that, Oh, I actually do know what I need to do. Um, and start to trust yourself more because it's kind of like, you know, you can either give a man a fish or teach him to fish. I want to teach you guys to fish so that, you know, you can navigate your way through and start to, to realize that, Oh, wait, I am thinking this, this doesn't feel right. This doesn't feel good. What are the other options? How can I ask myself these different questions to figure out the best way forward?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that you and the other coaches have done a very spectacular job of doing that because I have started trusting myself more and more over the past five months than I had, you know, ever since I started, I would always go and be like, this is kinda what I'm thinking about. Like, what do you think? Like, I was asking permission! You know, my husband and mom are like super supportive, but like they don't know anything about dog photography. I'm so glad I found like a group of like- minded people who, you know, like we, we have, we have the coaches, but then the other members of Elevate too, like I love the group coaching aspect because there are some questions that I'm like, Oh, that brings up a really good point that I've never thought about. And you know, we all look at things differently and I feel like we've just, we've just gained so much from each other and from y'all. And you know, I I've walked away with so much clarity after, after everything.

Nice. I love it. Yeah. I mean, this is what fuels me. This is why I'm here. I can like for you feeling as light as you feel for quitting your job, this is how light I feel creating the space for you guys. It's just like, this is what I do! I love seeing the results that you guys make. Um, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If anyone out there is interested in learning more about Elevate, you can go to hairofthedogacademy.com/elevate and learn more about that. We actually have enrollment for our July through December class open now. Um, and Kristen,tell us a little bit about where we can find you and, you know, stalk you, but not in a creepy way on the internets,

right? You can, uh, you can find me at kristenjmurray.com. That is Kristen with a K R I S T E N. And then on Facebook and Instagram on just at Kristen Murray Photography.

Perfect. Well, thanks again for sharing your story with us. I know that a lot of people out there are going to connect with that and see themselves in your story. And so I really appreciate you being so open.

Thank you so much for having me and yeah. I hope that other people can get to this point a lot quicker than I did.

There's no, there's no behind, it is just your journey is your journey and you wouldn't be where you are if you didn't have that full journey. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. So have a good one. Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Hair of the Dog podcast. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to leave a review. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe. So you don't miss our upcoming episodes. One last thing, if you are ready to dive into more resources, head over to our website at www.hairofthedogacademy.com. Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.