We recently connected with Shannon Durazo and have shared our conversation below.

Shannon, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Are you thinking of turning your creative passion into a full-time career?

Creating a full time business out of your creative passion can be an exciting but daunting task. There are going to be highs and lows along the way, and I think mentally preparing for them is one of the best ways to break through the difficult planning to execution phase.

Let’s begin with 3 hard truths-

Putting your work out for the world to see on a larger scale is scary.
If you are like me- and most budding creative entrepreneurs, taking that step from showing your work in safe spaces with people who care about your feelings to putting it out to the masses is a gigantic step. In order to create full time income, *most* of us have to open our reach up to a ton of strangers with the potential for being judged and ridiculed. Growing a thick skin for constructive feedback is hard. And honestly, something that we may not ever fully be able to do without feeling a bit of sting when rejected. But in order to move forward, being able to deal with rejection in a healthy way is one of the very first skills we have to harness to move forward.

Being a solo business owner is lonely.
Gone are the days of chatting with your coworker about what your boss said to so-and-so. No more being able to call a friend to cover your shift so you can go see your nieces recital. That crazy work story? You no longer have a work buddy across the desk or to hang out with at lunch to tell all about it. At the end of the day it’s just you (until you may decide to grow a team).

Tha back end business tasks are more than you think.
I’m talking about all those business tasks that are separate from the creative work you WANT to be doing. Building a website, bookkeeping, social media, contracts, customer communication, bill collecting, tax prep, insurance, SEO… the list goes on. When you are a solo entrepreneur the responsibility of all the admin tasks falls on you. You can absolutely outsource some of these things,but outsourcing means paying someone else to do it. That means making enough to be able to pay someone else to do it. This is why most of us wear *ALL* the hats when we first start out, and then begin outsourcing as the business grows.

So now that we have brought all the doom and gloom- how do we overcome these three obstacles?

The answer to both one and two is actually the same- find your work community.
I don’t mean friends and family. While having the love and support of your friends and family is certainly helpful, you will quickly learn the value in having a network of other creative entrepreneurs who are facing the same struggles as you. So unless you are starting this business with someone, that will most likely mean going outside your immediate circle to find your work community. There are tons of facebook groups, local meet ups, educators with communities, etc… where you can start to build relationships. Look for ones that allow for constructive criticism but without the bully mentality. Observe which ones make you feel safe to contribute, and avoid the ones that seem like more of a “look at me” for the more experienced people. If you see someone asking a newbie question and the answers are productive, that’s a great group to keep in your back pocket for when you have questions or issues come up. Avoid ones where the more experienced people in the group talk down to newer creatives. Even better than online? Find people in the group who live near you and set up a coffee work date to connect. Building a core work friend community is one of the most valuable things I have done for my business, hands down.

So how do you solve the admin work?
Education and time management. There are wonderful courses you can take from industry leaders. But there are also a ton of free resources out there to teach you almost anything you can imagine if you look. My rule is if it is something legal or tax related, I will pay the expert for a template or setup. I would rather have it done correctly than the cost of it done wrong. If it is something that I can learn a skill to do myself, then I will do my best to learn those skills.

Make a business checklist of which items you need to do, and then break those down into manageable chunks to help you accomplish them. Some tasks will be ongoing, while some are done once and checked off the list. I like to use software to help keep me on track and organized for ongoing tasks like accounting (Quickbooks), tasks (Asana), client management (Dubsado), etc.

Remember that no successful business just popped up overnight. Some days you will feel like you are killing the self employed game, and some days you are going to want to quit and go back to working for someone else. There are few things in life more rewarding than building a thriving business. It is 100% worth the struggle.

Shannon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a full time Wedding and Elopement Photographer who photographs 30-40 weddings per year. My background is in project management, which helped me build a strong workflow for my clients while launching my photography business. I chose to narrow my offering by specializing in adventure elopements back in 2019 when I realized there were a lot of outdoor enthusiasts like me who wanted to embrace a more free spirited wedding experience. I help my clients plan and capture unique wedding days out in nature at home in Sedona and across the southwestern United States.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I love to listen to books on tape while driving. A few that have been helpful in business include-

Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller
Find Your Why by Simon Sinek
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Wedding photography is a unique art because it is more about the client’s story than my art. The most rewarding part of my job is when my couples are able to look back on their day and feel like the images are *them*. That I was able to capture who they are as people while telling their story, rather than feeling to posed or choreographed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stratusadventurephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stratusadventurephotography/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stratusadventurephotography

Image Credits

I am the photographer