We recently connected with Aram Dominguez and have shared our conversation below.

Aram, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

My wife, Leticia, and I were both working full time jobs, working pay check to pay check, with over 100k in debt. Student loans, credit cards, and 2 car payments.

As a teacher, my wife had the option to work during the summer but opted to not work and instead decided she wanted to pursue a different direction. She had always had the passion to workout and would even have her friends come over to workout with her. She would schedule her workouts and everyone would come over and they would do Insanity with Shaun T or P90X with Tony Horton. This turned from just working out to becoming something she love doing especially being able to help others get to the fitness level they wanted.

She would eventually come across Danielle Natoni’s post on Facebook and began to follow her. Danielle is a Beachbody coach for Beachbody and was showing moves of the day or would show the workouts she was doing. My wife after a year would make one of the best decisions of her life and sign up to become a Beachbody coach. After a year of going all in and really focusing on learning the business, she was making about a quarter of her teachers salary. By year two, she was making enough to almost match her teachers salary.

During our trip to Mexico for her birthday, while we were by the pool, she turned to me and tells me, “Babe, there is something I really want to do, it’s very scary, but I know I can do this. I want to retire as a teacher and become a full time Beachbody Coach and work from home. I know I can this this! ”. From a financial standpoint, we both knew we could do this as she was already making about 85% of her teachers salary. Not only that, but for the past two years I had already seen the motivation, determination, and love she had for helping others. Without hesitation I looked at her and tell her, “ Yes you absolutely retire and follow your passion.”

Within the year after retiring, not only did she surpass her teachers salary, she was able to double it. A year and half after that, we were able to pay off all out debt giving us the financial freedom we were both striving for. In 2018, we both decided to take another leap of faith and retire me from my corporate job. At this point I was already known as the photographer at all our events, and I was slowly growing my photography business within the Dallas and Fort Worth area. Retiring from my job not only gave me the freedom to get up and go when I needed too, but also the ability to grow my photography business.

If my wife would of never taken a leap of faith to pursue her passion, we would not be living the life we are living now.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was raised by a single parent, but was surrounded with a huge loving family. At the age of 22, my father passed away from leukemia. I was only 1 year old when my father passed away but thankfully my mom had the full support of my grandparents who raised me.

We lived in a small town in West Texas called Van Horn. You normally pass it when you are driving towards El Paso. Even though it was a small town, it was a great little town to grow up in.

When I graduated high school, I decided I wanted to attend Devry University in Irving, Tx. My grades were not the best but I did manage to pass the exam required to get into Devry. In July of 2001, only a month after I graduated High School, I was moving to Grand Prairie, Tx with my aunt. Four years later, I was walking that stage, with a huge smiling, graduating with a Bachelors degree in Computer engineering. Not only was I proud of myself for accomplishing this huge goal, but I know I had made my mom proud especially after seeing her smile and cry after the graduation.

In 2006, I married the love of my life, Leticia. We were dating while I attended college and I knew she was the one. One thing I did want to do before asking her to marry me was to ask her parents for her hand in marriage. Not going to lie, this was a little intimidating but I did it anyways and on December 25, 2005 in front of all my family, I would ask Leticia to marry me. We had a small back yard wedding where both our family’s met for the first time. For our honey moon, our family got us a nice hotel to stay at since we really couldn’t take trip anywhere since I was just starting my career and my wife had started college.

For me, photography came into my life whenever I bought my very first point and shoot camera that I earned with points I had accumulated using my Sony Credit Card. The only reason I had that credit card was because I purchased a PlayStation and I was given 12 months interest free. As a college student, that was a perfect way to pay for that card without breaking the bank. The camera had an 4gb SD card and it would go with me everywhere, parties, vacations, to the park. It was with me everywhere and I even have a photos in my backup hard drive that I kept. Everyone was starting to know me as that person who would bring their camera everywhere.

When I turned 30, my wife surprised me with my very first mirrorless Sony NEX camera. It had been a camera I have had my eye on for a few years and would always tell her that one day I was going to buy one. We didn’t have the money to buy one when I was looking at the but I knew one day I would buy one. My wife was so excited to give me my gift she gave it to me a day earlier than my birthday. I did tear up because it was something I been wanting for a long time and she made it happen. I hugged her hard and told her thank you so much.

Not to long after my birthday, I had a friend ask me if I could be their photographer for their daughters quincenera. To be honest, I no idea how I was going to do it but I began to practice with the camera. I even picked up a book about photography by Chelsea and Tony Northrup. This is where I really got to know my camera and photography. A year later, I had an wedding and decided to would use the money from the wedding and purchase a new professional camera with a decent lens. Of course, I had to put this camera on a payment plan because we did not have funds for it. I did however, make myself a promise that I would work my butt off to pay it off in 6 months or earlier. The wedding was a success, then more opportunities came especially after making it known on social media. People were reaching out to me for family sessions, portrait sessions, head shots. These opportunities helped me pay off the camera I bought plus it allowed me to get more gear.

Since my wife was able to retire me early, I have came home to really pursue this passion and become a better photographer. I continue to shoot weddings and quinceañeras but I love shooting portrait sessions. The one and one interaction is amazing and seeing the expression of my clients when I show them the images is priceless. I love to capture who the individual is when I am taking their pictures which is why I always start off my session with letting them know that I want to them show me the person they are, be you! Smile, laugh, be silly, give me a serious face. For many that are uncomfortable in front of a camera, I always talk to them while I am setting up to get them more comfortable with me. I will ask them questions about themselves, what they do, what school are they attending. Anything that will make feel better with me so when it is time to take the photos they are more relaxed. I will even be that photographer who will jump in there and show them how to pose even if its a pose where I have to pop the hip!

I have come a long ways but like many out there, I have failed and I still continue to fail. Nothing about owning your business is easy but if you have a passion for what you are doing, you will continue everyday to be better. I have a lot to learn still and I don’t want to stop anytime soon.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think the most important strategy is to be yourself. I’m the type of person who will go up to you and just start talking. I want to make sure that who ever I am working with is comfortable with me. This can be hard for many people as many are shy or many don’t like to talk much. I always try to find a way to make them feel comfortable even if it’s just having them play their favorite music. This will help me not only communicate properly with my clients but this can also help me get more opportunities by word of mouth.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Even though social media has helped me a lot, word of mouth has always been the way I have received more opportunities. Friends have shared my name with their friends and family. Any time I am the photographer at an event, I have people come up to me to get my information.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aramandresphotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aramandres/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AramandresPhotography

Image Credits
Leticia Dominguez, Tania Baron, Hannah Day, Yesenia Pete, Natalia Gonzalez, Morgan Raine