Breaking Free: A Photographer's Leap of Faith | Elizabeth Snyder

PROFITABLE TALKS...

In this episode, Christian Brim interviews Elizabeth Snyder, a passionate photographer who shares her entrepreneurial journey from a young age. Elizabeth discusses her early fascination with photography, the challenges she faced as a single mother, and her eventual leap from a banking career to running her own photography business. She emphasizes the importance of valuing one's work, the need for a balanced schedule, and her aspirations to give back to the community through a nonprofit initiative. Elizabeth's story is one of resilience, creativity, and the pursuit of passion. In this conversation, Elizabeth Snyder shares her journey from a challenging childhood to becoming a successful photographer. She discusses the impact of her upbringing on her business mindset, the importance of shifting beliefs about money and success, and her aspirations for the future. Elizabeth emphasizes the significance of mental health in entrepreneurship and the need for balance between work and personal life.

PROFITABLE TAKEAWAYS...

• Elizabeth knew she wanted to be a photographer since age eight.
• The turning point for Elizabeth was winning a photography contest.
• Overcoming adversity is a key theme in Elizabeth's journey.
• Valuing your work is crucial for attracting the right clients.
• Pricing your services appropriately can change your business dynamics.
• Scheduling is essential to avoid burnout and maintain creativity.
• Elizabeth aims to empower women through creative classes in her community.
• Photography is only a small part of running a photography business.
• Self-care and personal creativity are often neglected in busy lives.
• Money management lessons from childhood shape our adult perspectives. Growing up in a financially unstable environment shaped my beliefs about money.
• I initially thought everyone was in the same financial boat as me.
• Trusting that clients will pay for my services was a major mindset shift.
• Affirmations and meditation helped me change my scarcity mindset.
• People can sense desperation in sales; it's important to come from a place of service.
• I want to pursue aerial photography and travel more.
• Your purpose can evolve and doesn't have to be financially driven.
• Workaholism can be a coping mechanism for entrepreneurs.
• It's essential to delegate and let go of perfectionism.
• Enjoying the process is key to long-term happiness in business.

Ready to turn your PASSION into PROFIT?!? Let's get CREATIVE ➡️
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Transcript

Christian Brim (00:01.486)
Welcome to another episode of the profitable creative the only place on the internet where you will learn how to turn your passion into profit a shout out to our listener in Pawtucket, Rhode Island Yes, one listener in Pawtucket never been to there. I've been to Rhode Island, but I've never been to Pawtucket Anyway, I'm your host Christian Brim and joining me today is Elizabeth Elizabeth Snyder if I could use my words. Welcome Elizabeth

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (00:31.41)
Thank you so much for having me, Christian. This is an honor. Thank you so much.

Christian Brim (00:36.319)
Well, I haven't got that today. So tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (00:44.102)
Yeah. So I am one of those lucky people that knew exactly what she wanted to do from the age of eight years old. So yeah, it goes way back. My aunt was close to my age. And when she was 16, and I was eight, her grandfather retired from his photojournalistic job.

Christian Brim (00:55.116)
Okay.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (01:11.942)
gave her everything that she needed to start a modest dark room and studio in her attic. And I helped her from go. And when she was running her own headshot business, I was there to help her work in the dark room and help assist and all of the things. when I saw, when I saw an image appear from nothing after developing.

That was what hooked me because it was like actual magic. It was very cool. So I exhausted every photography class I could take. I read every single issue of American Photographic magazine back in the day. And then life happened. And I did not start right away on my

chosen path. It took me until I was 31 to actually start a business. I was working for a bank at the time and I didn't see a way to actually make money because yeah, no, what I meant from photography, I was kind of stuck in that I have to have a nine to five, right? Like I was a single mom and all the rest, but I, a friend of mine at the bank asked me,

Christian Brim (02:24.184)
Not in a bank, no.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (02:39.452)
What would you do if time, money, age, circumstance didn't matter? What is it that you would be doing? And my knee jerk reaction was photography, 100%. And I actually entered a contest that he had sent me. One, I won a camera, I won a laptop, I won a Photoshop for a year because back then it was a little different.

Christian Brim (02:51.203)
Right?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (03:04.628)
And within a year, I was able to quit the bank and go full time in my business and my studio. And I have never looked back and I am unemployable at this point. yes, exactly. Yeah.

Christian Brim (03:15.214)
Yes, as any good entrepreneur is. So what was the tipping point during that year where you said, okay, can do this full-time, I can quit? What was that trigger?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (03:30.636)
So that was, I got passed over for promotion that I was after and promised at that bank and I had had it. was kind of like, I was there for a little over five years and that was like, I couldn't do it anymore. And I talked to my husband and we...

Christian Brim (03:36.003)
Hmm?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (03:55.1)
decided to do the scary plunge and just see what happened. And yeah, like I said, within a year, I was making more money doing photography than I was at the bank because, well, minimum wage and whatnot. So yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Christian Brim (04:08.59)
Banks don't pay. Yeah, that's secret I don't share with a lot of people was that I used to be a banker and I don't share that with a lot of people. So we share a disdain. What would you say, a lot of creative entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs in creative industries struggle with this

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (04:14.216)
Mm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (04:20.036)
Yeah.

Yeah

Christian Brim (04:38.312)
idea of getting to do what you want versus what makes you money. Has that come up for you?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (04:43.976)
Mmm.

It absolutely has. That is something very near and dear to me. So on the journey of being a single mom, there was a time where I applied for food stamps and my case was dropped. So the woman that was heading it went on medical leave and never gave it to somebody else. So I spent about six weeks with

Christian Brim (05:07.713)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (05:13.89)
That's not good.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (05:16.264)
I mean, I had no income. had my ex had emptied our bank account and I had no car because he told the car and he was working full time. needed the car. So I found myself one February trying to like we live in Buffalo. So we got a ton of snow here. yeah. yeah.

Christian Brim (05:23.235)
Right.

Christian Brim (05:28.791)
Right?

Christian Brim (05:38.087)
the story gets better.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (05:41.368)
It's so bad. So the area that we lived in, like nobody shoveled the sidewalks. It was just a mess. So I couldn't take the kids in the stroller. Like I had to pull a sled behind me about a mile to the food bank. And that was the last straw. I'm like, things have to change. I can't keep doing this. This is awful. And eventually my case got picked back up. We were OK. And then I ended up

Christian Brim (05:53.197)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (06:12.691)
in, you know, that dreary, like I was working three jobs kind of deal.

Christian Brim (06:18.158)
Well, okay, so let me ask a question. Was this after the bank?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (06:22.352)
This was during the bank. So yeah, so I was working there. I was doing hair out of my house and I was doing a little photography on the side. So yeah, it was a lot and I had no time for my personal creativity, which I was suffering from. Like I was so depressed. It was awful. Like I was exhausted.

Christian Brim (06:25.624)
During the bank. Okay.

Christian Brim (06:35.181)
Okay.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (06:50.04)
weekends that my ex had the kids, would just sleep the entire weekend. It was horrible. So after doing some research, I found that when women especially are offered a opportunity to get into a class of something of their interest. So like if it's free, which you know, yeah. And and you're you're getting to learn a skill. So

painting, writing, food, like any kind of like art form. It just drives us and we want to share it with everybody because we're so like excited about the new thing that we're doing. So it is not in the works yet, but I am in the planning stages of starting a nonprofit in an inner city to offer that to the people in the community that I came from. And I am

Christian Brim (07:24.024)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (07:47.95)
I love it.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (07:49.24)
Yeah, so I want to set up like experts coming in to teach the classes for free for the women in the neighborhood. And other people can come in to pay and I want a gallery where they can sell their stuff if they want to laundry service daycare while they're doing their classes and and a food bank. So I am trying to get that going. Yeah.

Christian Brim (08:15.618)
Well, think that story illustrates a couple of different things, but the thing that stuck out to me is that you're an entrepreneur first that has photography skills. Because setting up a nonprofit, what you're describing has nothing to do with photography. Although you might teach photography there to them, but that's really kind of secondary.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (08:31.644)
Yes.

Christian Brim (08:46.39)
And I think that's important because when we approach business opportunities with just the skills we have, we limit ourselves, right? As opposed to, yes, I have certain skills, but that's not who I am. I'm an entrepreneur first.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (09:08.101)
Yeah, Now, shooting is probably 10 % of my job. Because everything else is here, it's editing, it's marketing, it's... There's so much that, well, you know, there's so much that goes into it. And it is, it was a shock when I discovered that I was like, I'm not actually doing the thing most of the time. Yeah.

Christian Brim (09:13.102)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (09:35.93)
Right. So what have you learned that if you were going to go back to yourself and say, Hey, do this, don't do that. What comes to mind?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (09:51.544)
So many things. So I started as a shoot and burn photographer. So I was just like desperate for experience. I really wanted to get out there. I wanted to put my name out there. And to do that, I felt like I needed to offer everybody everything for super cheap. So at the time, I think it was like, I think it was doing mini sessions for like 50 bucks and they get 10 images and I was doing, I would

Christian Brim (10:10.758)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (10:20.869)
not do that ever again. yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Christian Brim (10:24.098)
Well, okay, pause because I want to hear the rest of the list, but let's dive into this one. Why? Why would you not do that?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (10:31.128)
Okay. So when I switched over my pricing to something that was sustainable, instead of, you know, just the shoot and burn hobby that I had, it was, it was like night and day. So the clients that I was attracting trusted me to do my job. They were not backseat driving, they were not giving me a million

Christian Brim (10:53.549)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (10:58.556)
Pinterest pictures, sometimes I still get that, but you know what I mean. And I wasn't getting people that were like, I want this picture exactly. So I was always explaining to people that I don't want to copy other people's We can work around it, we can give you that vibe. But it's not something that I feel comfortable doing, copying somebody else's work. And the fact that I was

Christian Brim (11:12.526)
Mmm.

Christian Brim (11:22.731)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (11:29.296)
being trusted by brides and grooms, by newborn parents, by all of the different things that I was juggling, all the different genres of photography that I was juggling, and I got no kickback. They paid the invoice, they trusted me, they loved their photos, and there was like, there was no, there was no like bite to it.

and defense of it. So it worked out beautifully after like about three months when I had to shift and that was when the marketing finally like kicked in.

Christian Brim (12:00.459)
Right.

Christian Brim (12:09.418)
I to clarify that you said shift, correct? Okay, thank you.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (12:13.02)
Yes. Yeah. Yes. Sorry. Yes.

Christian Brim (12:18.21)
I'm sorry. That's my 14 year old boy. Yeah, haven't matured past that. Well, I find that an enlightening story because I think most people when they start out have that mindset of I need to do anything and everything and I'm going to be cheap because I need the experience and I want to push back.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (12:21.736)
Yeah, you're good. Yeah.

Christian Brim (12:47.404)
that that is actually a untrue statement. Because you don't need experience. Like if you know how to do what you're doing, you don't need any more experience. And it's like my wife, okay? I feel like Rodney Dangerfield here. Probably, probably don't even know who Rodney Dangerfield is. Anyway.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (13:05.296)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (13:12.936)
no no no no no no no respect I get no respect yes yeah yes

Christian Brim (13:17.92)
Yes, okay. I mean, he always made jokes about his wife. Anyway, my wife is looking at having a surgery. And she was looking at this physician, she's like, well, he just completed his residency two years ago. And I was looking at his resume, and I'm like, well, he's got a fellowship. And she's like, well, I don't want him him practicing on me. And I'm like, no, that's what the fellowship is. They, they watch him do the procedures. And then they sign off and say, yeah, he knows what he's doing, right?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (13:46.661)
Exactly. Yeah.

Christian Brim (13:47.496)
And to even further point, don't think, I don't know, I may have as a professional, 5%, probably less than that of the time, get the question of, well, do you have any experience with this kind of thing? Because people don't ask that question. Like, you know, they just assume that if you say you can do it, you can do it, right? Yeah, so you don't need experience and

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (14:07.047)
Yeah

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (14:11.3)
Exactly. Yep.

Christian Brim (14:16.938)
You don't need to be cheap because being cheap does two very bad things. One, it makes you very busy and not necessarily making money. But two, it makes you seem cheap. You know, talking about the experience is like when you when you go in at the low cost, you're already telling them, hey, I don't have any experience. That's why I'm not charging anything.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (14:24.828)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (14:35.036)
Yes.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (14:44.445)
Hmm?

Christian Brim (14:45.808)
and you devalue what you do.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (14:48.392)
100%. Yep. Yep. And I, there was even a time where I went in and did a, like a groupon way back when. And that was a, that was another, because they, you know, if you set up a mini session for like, let's say 75 bucks, you're only making like 35 or something after they take their hit. And then everybody just wants a deal. Everybody wants, you know, the free thing.

Christian Brim (14:57.166)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (15:12.547)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (15:18.32)
And it was not a great fit for me and what I wanted to do. Like I wanted to make women feel like they were worthy of having their portrait taken. And there's so many of us at my age, there's so many of us that, you know, hide from the camera. We hide behind our kids. We hide in the back of the group picture.

We don't, we're so self-conscious. We don't want everybody to see all of the things that are going on in our, you know, face and body. And, you know, I get all the time, I'm so unphotogenic and that's absolutely not true. You just haven't found the right photographer, you know? So yeah. And yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was just going to say like that, that once I shifted into,

Christian Brim (16:00.706)
Fair enough. All right, so I'm sorry, go ahead.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (16:11.494)
working with working with women almost exclusively and getting them to be coming in almost angry sometimes because their bosses are telling them that they need to have a headshot and they absolutely do not want one and I can get them from that to they cannot wait to do it again and just by opening up a conversation about creativity.

Christian Brim (16:40.215)
Hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (16:40.349)
And I'm constantly just, I love hearing people's stories about how they got to where they are. Like what made you want to be a person who forecloses on mortgages, right? Nobody wants that job. How did you get here? You know, and by going through that and by saying, know, like, what is it that you wanted to do? Like, what was your pipe dream? And

Christian Brim (16:57.325)
No.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (17:08.986)
A lot of times it's like, I thought I was going to be an astronaut or a rock star or whatever. So if that's the answer, you're probably still looking up at the stars. You're probably still belting songs out in the car where nobody else could hear you. And there are ways to incorporate that creativity into your life.

It does not have to be your purpose. It does not have to be something that makes you money. It's just something that you enjoy doing. And we get away from that so much in the hustle and bustle of just family life and working full time and keeping up with your friends. And we have so much on our plates that we forget to do things for us.

Christian Brim (17:55.48)
Yes, women especially, mothers particularly. I can say that having been married 31 years and have three adult children, two of them girls, so I can say that. So number one was your pricing and the doing everything for everyone. What would be your second bit of advice back to yourself?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (18:00.306)
Yes.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (18:06.646)
Congratulations, that's amazing.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (18:23.964)
don't don't overfill your schedule. That is something that I learned the hard way because I am just like one of those people that are like, they need it on this day. They they absolutely have to have it on this day. I want them to say yes to the sale. So I'm going to do it on this day, even though I have four other things going on. set up a schedule of when you're shooting well for me.

Christian Brim (18:29.997)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (18:48.077)
Right?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (18:52.806)
when you're shooting, when you're editing, when you're, you know, doing paperwork and other marketing things. And people just, they're okay with it. Go figure, you know, you shoot on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and they are like, okay, great. Let's pick this Wednesday. And I was so afraid that people were just going to be like, no, it absolutely has to be right the second. And that is absolutely not the case at all. Yeah.

Christian Brim (19:20.674)
Yes, I have used the phrase in our company many times. There are no accounting emergencies. If the only one I can define is if the IRS agent is at your door and they have a gun and if they do, that's out of our purview, that's criminal investigation. So you need to call a lawyer. So there are no accounting emergencies.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (19:36.402)
Yeah.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (19:47.048)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (19:49.492)
What did you learn about money growing up?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (19:53.748)
yeah, that's a good one. We didn't have any. Yeah, I got the money doesn't grow on trees. Let's go to like, I think we got new clothes maybe once every couple of years. We were usually thrifting. My dad was a factory. my God, my daughter, like that's all she wants to do is go to Goodwill. Yeah.

Christian Brim (20:09.032)
Mm-hmm. Now that's a thing. Now everybody wants to thrift, right? Yeah.

Right.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (20:18.844)
Which is great. I'm all for it. Absolutely. But at the time, know, you're a kid in the 90s who doesn't have the, you know, cross color shirts or the boss sweatshirts or whatever it was that we were wearing, which was, you know, it's, it is, it was what it was. So we did not, my father was a factory worker who got laid off a lot because of strikes and everything else. We had

Christian Brim (20:29.847)
Right.

Christian Brim (20:37.229)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (20:47.366)
Garment cheese and dehydrated milk and it was not a it was not great My mom did what she could she was mostly working part-time because of us so, know, we were pretty limited and Growing up in you know the mindset of we're not gonna be okay unless we win the lottery is kind of

Christian Brim (20:54.03)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (21:15.744)
I was the oldest of three and I remember a lot more than my brothers do. And I can remember times where, you know, we were worried we'd have to sell the house, we'd have to move, we'd have to, and we just couldn't afford anything. And, you know, we were in a situation too where, of course, my grandparents would have helped, but it's help with a, you know, thing.

Christian Brim (21:43.544)
hook. Yes.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (21:44.304)
Yeah, with a clause. Yeah. So I don't blame my parents for not like doing that. get it. You know, but at the time it was hard. It was like you didn't know what to do. And for a long time I was like, I guess I got to work in a factory because that's, that's the way you make money. Right. yeah.

Christian Brim (21:52.183)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (22:05.999)
How did that show up for you when you started business? Or even the decision to start a business?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (22:15.088)
Well, that, yeah. Well, that was, I thought everybody was in the same boat that I was, because you just kind of surround yourself with the same people. And I figured, well, you know, I could probably pay 50 bucks for pictures. That sounds great. That's what I'm doing. And that was not a great idea.

Christian Brim (22:37.55)
Mm hmm. Yeah, I would say it showed up in your pricing for sure. Any other places it's shown up?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (22:46.065)
it.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (22:49.704)
Yeah. So I had a survival instinct. Like I thought like, okay, I made this $3,000 sale and I'm never going to see that again. You know what I mean? Like it was, I made this sale. I'm never going to see that money again. I need to absolutely save it. Hang onto it, pay some things, you know, like prepare for the next client, but

Christian Brim (23:13.774)
Mmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (23:18.834)
they're not going to pay that much. know, and that isn't true. That isn't true. People love their pictures. They invest in them. And I, know, sometimes the sales are a little less. Sometimes they're a little more and it's always constantly coming in. I just, I trust it now that it is going to come in. And having that trust rather than the worry that it isn't had.

Like I hate to get into the whole law of attraction thing, but it's a mindset, you know, like it's you don't expect to only make $10,000 that year. So more and more is going to happen because you're you're putting more attention on it. And that was a big shift for me knowing that.

Christian Brim (23:58.999)
Right?

Christian Brim (24:10.018)
I think you highlighted something that we've discussed on a previous episode that that beliefs drive action. and you know, you, you will not act on something you do not believe. Right. And so when you have a belief that I'm only going to pay $50 for a, photo shoot, that's what drives that action. Right.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (24:37.82)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (24:38.114)
But you figured out that that was a incorrect belief. So what was that like? Having that belief, realizing it wasn't right, and then replacing it with a different belief.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (24:56.368)
years of meditation and saying it out loud several times to myself in the mirror. It sounds stupid, but it absolutely works. It's silly if somebody walks in on you, you feel like a dummy, but it is the best way to get that confidence. And no, like it's a

Christian Brim (24:58.765)
Hmm.

Christian Brim (25:03.928)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (25:25.256)
It's hard to explain, it's a knowing, it's an intuition thing. And you are able to kind of get out of that scarcity and survival mode and go into more of an abundance mode. And hey, you know what? If I get three clients this week, that's fantastic. You know, I'm so excited and just being grateful for everything that comes in because I truly am.

Christian Brim (25:55.15)
Sure.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (25:55.536)
and it makes a big difference in how you're selling as well, because when you come from a place of desperation, people know they absolutely know. yeah. Yeah. It's, and it's smelly. It is, it is not a place that you want to be or anybody else wants to be. And when you come from a place of, of love and of service, they hear that and yeah.

Christian Brim (26:05.612)
They can smell it. Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (26:11.34)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (26:23.798)
Yeah. And you even get to the point if you've been doing it long enough, like I would never hire someone that was desperate. Like that, that's not the kind of person I want doing work for me. That's awful.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (26:33.416)
Yep. It's frantic energy. It's chaos. know, like you're just, my God, I hope this turns out right. I hope they pay whatever. I hope that they love their photos and you go from a place of I hope to, know. I know. Yeah.

Christian Brim (26:37.592)
Right.

Christian Brim (26:51.79)
Yeah.

So are you familiar or have you read Profit First by Mike McCallowitz? Okay, all right, well then I won't ask you any questions about that, but I strongly recommend it just because he has some great stories. His story as an entrepreneur is very powerful. As a matter of fact, I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago for the show and he retold it and

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (27:00.698)
I have not. Yeah. Okay, but I'm going to look that up.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (27:12.306)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (27:25.836)
He was almost moved to tears again and I mean like this is 10 well, it's probably 15 years since Since then and 10 years since he's written the book, but you know, I know it's a story He's repeated a lot of times, but it was that impactful So read that book and then I will send you a copy of profit first for creatives for being on the show because it deals with some things that

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (27:44.081)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (27:53.816)
we're talking about.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (27:54.748)
Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you so much.

Christian Brim (27:57.972)
You're welcome very much. Where are you going to be in the next three years? What's Elizabeth Snyder photography look like?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (28:09.19)
That is shifting hugely. So my youngest is a senior this year. She is graduating. She is going away. The our older two are already doing their own thing and they're great. And I'm going to have a whole lot of free time and I still got about 20 years left to work. And when

Christian Brim (28:11.853)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (28:15.234)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (28:26.232)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (28:34.74)
So my favorite genre of photography ever since I was a kid was combat photography. I wanted so badly to join the Air Force and be a kind of a photojournalist for them and just documenting what's going on in the world. It was so something that I really wanted to do. My mom talked me out of it. I graduated in 99. My mom talked me out of it, which was a godsend because two years later,

Christian Brim (28:41.422)
okay.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (29:04.008)
We started a 20 year war. Yeah, so I, you know, I kind of lucked out, but I am going to be going after my pilot's Yep, I want to do some more aerial stuff. I want to be able to travel to more broader, to broader places. And I have a book that should be finished by the beginning of December.

Christian Brim (29:04.172)
Yeah. Yeah.

Christian Brim (29:15.82)
Christian Brim (29:25.165)
Yeah.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (29:31.648)
So that will be coming out and that is all about. So it's about finding your purpose, but really it's about your purpose can be anything that you want it to be and it can shift and it can change. And as long as you are making moves into your own happiness. You're winning and it doesn't have to make you money. Take the pressure off of that. You know, like it can be a hobby.

Christian Brim (29:37.997)
Yes?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (30:00.072)
and if people want to pay you for it, great. But otherwise, like just enjoy it. Just go out for a half an hour walk in the woods, you know? It's, yeah.

Christian Brim (30:08.312)
Yeah. Well, I hope you enjoy flying more than I do. I finished my pilot's license a couple of years ago and, yeah, yeah, but I don't like flying. So I don't mind writing. I don't like being in charge. It's very anxiety producing in me. So yeah, I can do it. but you know,

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (30:15.228)
Mmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (30:18.898)
Did you? that's fantastic.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (30:30.066)
Elizabeth Snyder Photography (30:35.058)
Sure, people's lives are at stake. No, I get it. Yeah, yeah, right.

Christian Brim (30:37.482)
Yes, starting with my own, right? And it's funny, my wife said she'd never fly with me. And I said, sure you will. You know, you'll come around. And since she, you know, going back to purpose, since she has no interest in flying with me, I'm not going to go somewhere by myself. So I you know, that that kind of just died. I mean, it's one of those skills that

I can do I can do well. But there's not a reason to so you know, I mean, some people, they it's like a high for them. And and they they just want to go do it. And I'm like, that's that's not me. But it's not that it's that's not golf. That's not fishing. Like, I don't I don't have a high outside of this what I'm doing. So yeah.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (31:12.37)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (31:36.476)
Something I'm learning, so I recently got my ADHD diagnosis. I'm finding that most entrepreneurs may have a little bit of ADHD spectrum. yep. And our dopamine, we have too many dopamine receptors. So not enough things give us that, like that.

Christian Brim (31:45.774)
stamp, got a sticker.

Christian Brim (31:53.232)
We've got a lot, yes, we've got a lot wrong with us.

Christian Brim (32:01.282)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (32:05.926)
that jolt of happiness, like crossing a check mark off your task list or whatever. So it's harder for us to feel satisfied or feel even like that, my God, I'm gonna jump off a cliff with a bungee. And I think we chase it a lot harder because we don't have enough of it. So yeah, I completely understand that.

Christian Brim (32:07.555)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (32:11.448)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (32:31.704)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (32:35.582)
I have, excuse me, I just launched a second podcast because one wasn't enough, where we actually talk about those issues. It's called the Chris project. And we talk about mental health mindset, mental issues, mostly the darker stuff in entrepreneurship that people don't want to talk about. But the reality is that.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (32:41.681)
Of course.

Christian Brim (33:04.038)
there's a higher propensity of addiction in entrepreneurs. you know, one of the things I discovered through this journey is that some entrepreneurs actually use their business as a coping mechanism, which is very strange to me. But then I saw it and I'm like, yeah, I can totally see where that

is a way to cope with your mental problems.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (33:37.5)
Yeah, yeah, I am a workaholic. It's a problem. So I started my business in 2012. And I've been working 60 to 80 hour weeks ever since. Yeah, I enjoy it. I love it. But my family hasn't seen me in a few years. There is a slow season and I come back and forth and whatever. But no, that is something I do struggle with because I

Christian Brim (33:50.288)
No, don't do that.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (34:06.308)
I just feel like if I'm not hustling, I'm not, you know, bringing in the stuff that I need. So I know that isn't true and I know that I can delegate and I know that so perfectionism is something that I need to let go of too. And just trust that other people know what they're doing, right? I have to pass that on.

Christian Brim (34:15.981)
Yeah.

Christian Brim (34:22.179)
Yes.

Christian Brim (34:28.406)
Yeah, I think, you know, for me, that whole idea that you've got to be doing something for 40 plus hours a week, you have to be productive, was a belief that I had picked up that I found to not be true. You know, like if you don't do this, you're not worthwhile or you're not, you know, whatever. What I did find though, that scratching that creative

itch that entrepreneurial itch, doesn't go away. That's something that you really can never satisfy. and unfortunately, what, what I see some entrepreneurs doing is they stay in the business. They stay in the hustle mode because they, they're, afraid of losing that scratch.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (35:05.672)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (35:26.568)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (35:26.752)
Right? Rather than like to your, your situation where, okay, well, this thing's working fine. I'm going to go do something else as well. I'm going to go start a nonprofit. And, and, and when you shift that mindset from saying that it has to be something you've, you believe that's not necessarily true. I, you know, I I've got it to where I work 25 hours a week in my business and.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (35:37.064)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Christian Brim (35:56.494)
probably don't need to work that much. Now that's not to be braggadocious, but that's the reality. And you can get to the point where your business is separate from yourself and you can then use that creative energy to go do something else. It might be, it might have an economic intent. It might not, it doesn't matter, but you can scratch that entrepreneurial itch because that's never going to

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (36:21.074)
Mm-hmm.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (36:25.094)
Right. No, no, it isn't. I love it. I have a million ideas of things that I want to start and do. Yeah, it's but it's hard. It's so it's hard for me to start a new project. I like the book. It's it's taken me months, but it's it's going to be worth it in the long run. But it's not the immediate gratification of, OK, this person paid me for their sitting fee.

and I'm excited and I have a little money and now I'm going to, you know, do this. So doing something that like may not work out financially or maybe, you know, just kind of a time suck, but I'm still going to enjoy doing it. So yeah, I need to kind of that that's something I'm working on too, you know, not perfect.

Christian Brim (37:08.043)
Right.

Christian Brim (37:13.058)
Well, and you, you, you probably will be like me when you get everything done and about two weeks before it, it's published, you realize, shit, this is just the beginning. Now I gotta go sell it. Now I gotta go market it, tell people about it. Right. And, and that just speaks to the whole, if you're not enjoying the process, you're, you're

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (37:20.564)
yeah.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (37:31.666)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Brim (37:41.522)
not going to be happy because there is no end to it. I mean, you never reach a point where everything's running as smoothly as possible. And, you know, you go out and do whatever it is you fly like golf, whatever. That's not reality.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (37:44.68)
Right. Yeah.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (37:56.914)
Sure, yeah. Nope, I agree. It isn't.

Christian Brim (38:03.608)
Elizabeth, do we find out about what you do?

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (38:09.952)
I am Elizabeth Snyder Photography LLC. So I am available at ElizabethSnyderPhotography.com. I know it's very long. I didn't think about it before I made it. Instagram is ESPLLC and Facebook and TikTok and everything else is the same. So you should be able to find me under either Liz Snyder or Elizabeth Snyder Photography.

Christian Brim (38:38.624)
and we will include all those links in the show notes. You're very welcome. Listeners, if you like what you heard, please subscribe or follow the podcast. Share it with somebody else. Leave us a rating. If you have suggestions, text us and shoot us a message and let us know what you'd like to hear on the show until until then. And Pawtucket, Rhode Island and elsewhere. Ta-ta for now.

Elizabeth Snyder Photography (38:41.606)
Fabulous, thank you.