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I’m so excited to finish up my Case Study of 2021 with you today! Last week, I talked about my accidental discovery – building an associate team. For this episode, we’re going to talk about how going full-time in my business went in 2021. This year, Daniel and I both went full-time in the business while raising two toddlers and moving to a new city. To say it was a lot is definitely an understatement. But we had a great year and I’m excited to share more with you!

But, before I get int all that… I want to share my new FREE guide with you: My $3K Mini Sessions Blueprint. It’s a step-by-step guide of what to do to make $3,000 on your next mini sessions. Whether you’ve hit that goal before or just want to see if there’s other ideas to try, grab this free guide. It’s jam packed with tons of great information for you! 

Going Full-Time

Now, onto the good stuff! When we moved to Nashville, Daniel (my husband) and I both went full-time in the business. I always thought I would stay part-time and keep my church job, but when our move happened… us going full-time kind of did too. And it turned out to be such a blessing: one we didn’t even know we wanted. It has been an incredible season to live in, with the freedom and flexibility to travel and do what we want. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t an adjustment period, though. 

Finding a Routine

Before this, we’d had our kids in daycare since we were both working. Now, they were suddenly at home with us. And at the start of our move to Nashville, we were living in a townhouse. It was definitely cramped! Daniel and I would take turns being with the kids while the other worked, but it just… wasn’t working for our family. So, pretty early on, I decided to set specific work hours. I know that I’m a morning person and am pretty much useless by the afternoon, so I determined Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 8-12 would be my work time. Whatever I couldn’t get done in that time, I outsourced. 

However, our kids were going to a drop-in daycare during this time. And it was wasting our time – we’d spend almost an hour round trip driving to get our day started. So that was pretty tough. But I knew right away, the set hours were HUGE for me. I was being responsible with my time and it helped me plan ahead. Once we moved to the new house, we kept up the daycare for a bit longer before we decided to look at hiring a nanny. It turned out to be the BEST decision. My kids were happy. I could work and step out and be with them when I had time. We finally found our rhythm! 

More Travel!

The other big change that came with both Daniel and I going full-time was our travel schedule. We kind of went a little crazy, I think. We were so excited because we just couldn’t travel before with our jobs. Now, all of a sudden, we were traveling a lot. We managed to photograph a lot of sessions and document them for Behind the Lens, my membership for photographers. But, it was a LOT of traveling in a little time. We quickly realized that we needed to be more intentional and give ourselves breaks when it came to traveling. That’s a change we’re making for 2022!! 

Learning to Work Together

We’ve also had to learn how to work together. Not only work together but run the business together. WE’ve had to learn to set boundaries for family time and work time, as well as how we communicate about it all. I learned pretty quickly that I can’t turn off the business stuff. I’d be making dinner and talking about it all and he’d have to remind me I could stop. I’ve really learned how to leave it in my office and get better at outsourcing because of that! He’s also helped me come to terms with the fact that I need hard deadlines to complete work. If I don’t have those, I wind up holding up the whole team and no one wants that! Together, we’ve learned so much and I wouldn’t trade it for the world now. 

It’s been an awesome year. Overall, I’ve been just really pleased with how things have gone and we’ve learned so much and we’re really, really excited for what next year has in store. I hope your year is ending well and you’re excited for 2022, too!! 

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