Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Austin Lincoln . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Austin , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later?

I do wish I would have started my business earlier. Ever since I can remember, my mind has been flooded with images of things I find beautiful. I also tend to hear music even when I am not playing music. Because of this, I decided to really teach myself how to bring these musical notes and images to life. When you have a vision, it is the most therapeutic thing to be able to be able to share that vision with other people. At the young age of ten, I remember dressing in a suit and writing on my whiteboard my business plan, so that way when my parents came home they would be proud of me. The innocence in me didn’t realize how difficult it would be to be able to actually make these dreams of mine come true. After growing up and graduating high school an entire year early, I decided to embark on a mission. I wanted to not only work on myself, but I wanted to finally create a business using some of the methods I researched as a little kid; I wanted to make myself proud. At the time, I was working at Starbucks barely making it by, but every single photoshoot I did made my passion grow even stronger. Not only did I continue booking shoots, hoping to one day blow up as a photographer, but I taught myself how to play some of the most difficult songs on the piano. Years went by, and I started to lose hope in being able to do this for a living. I decided to move away closer to Cincinnati, Ohio from home to enroll myself in college in pursuit of becoming a nurse. Although I am extremely excited to graduate and have job security, I don’t have my own camera where I am. Whenever I want to book a photoshoot, I drive all the way to Columbus and borrow my mom’s camera; she has really been the most supportive in allowing me to share equipment with her. This situation I am in right now does make me wish I would have started trying to get clients while I was still in High School. I wish I had given myself a little bit more of a headstart in the world of photography, and although I continue to book photoshoots and explore my passions in that field, I haven’t reached the point of doing it as a full-time job just yet.

Austin , 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 was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio on October 26th, 2001. I have three sisters who really have made a huge impact on who I am today.; my oldest and stubborn sister, Ashlee Frazier, my second oldest sister who has worked so hard to become a nurse, Hunter Snyder, and my little sister Kiersten Lincoln; Kiersten use to be a little brat in my mind but I love her to death now. My two parents, Brian and Tiffany Lincoln, both raised me with the mindset that I have to work hard to succeed. My dad owns his own contracting company and my mom attempted to create her own photography business. Her business lasted for a few years but she decided to pursue a master’s degree in education instead. Both parents taught me valuable skills when it comes to both entrepreneurship and creativity. I am currently enrolled in nursing school in the Dayton/Cincinnati region of Ohio and am based in Columbus, Ohio for photography as my mom and I share equipment I plan on purchasing my own camera within the next year and building client relationships in the Cincinnati area.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I always told myself that I didn’t need school to succeed. I would gain inspiration by seeing other creative individuals become the most successful version of themselves without attending. I now see that although this is partially true, knowledge is power and it can really give you a boost in the right direction. Because of this way of thinking, I am now doing something in college I never saw myself doing before, and although I am far from unhappy and I am excited to be doing something with such high demand, I wish I had done something to educate myself more on how to build a clientele. I am working on that now but I definitely procrastinated by not having the right information given to me.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is something that I will very selfishly admit is one of my strengths. I am more passionate about building audiences than I think anything. Despite wishing I had built my clientele earlier, I did a pretty great job at building a social media following. I didn’t always have the following I have today; it took a lot of work. I would say to anyone wanting to do the same to keep engaging in other people’s content. That is one mistake that I had made when creating my social media. There are so many things that a person must do to grow their audience, but engaging in people’s posts and making them feel seen really opens people up to view your accounts. Another piece of advice that I would give is to make sure to post high-quality content or content that raises questions and curiosity. You can also post things with a sex appeal or content that represents a brand. Find your niche and stick with it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaustinlincoln/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austin.lincoln.54/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@austinlincoln6077/videos