We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Britt Hall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Britt below.

Alright, Britt thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

With both of my businesses, as a coach and escapist photographer, it’s my mission to show people that “everything is made up and the points don’t matter.”
Through coaching, I create sessions that help my clients press pause on the loud outside noise of “shoulds” and “have tos” to center in on the driving purpose of their own lives. With photography, and how I make mine available, I’m working to demonstrate that quality art isn’t for the limited few with large bank accounts or massive houses with gallery walls. There are affordable art options that aren’t just found in copied, counterfeited products at big box stores.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I chose to start both of my businesses Pattern + Purpose and Britt Skye Photography at the same time. I was tired of chasing conventional employment or contract work where I outsourced my skills and ideas to missions or companies that didn’t align with what I wanted in life.

With Pattern + Purpose, I currently work with clients through 1:1 coaching sessions ranging from 3 to six months, to help them get to the heart of who they are and live in alignment. I primarily meet with clients who need support around goal follow-through, breaking people-pleasing tendencies, and mastering time-management challenges to overcome burnout.

With Britt Skye Photography, I have an e-commerce store where I sell my work as digital downloads for smartphones and drop-shipped high quality prints and mounts. Photography is both an escapist practice and an invitation to escapism every time you observe my work.

What sets me apart is how in neither of my businesses will you find me telling a client what they need or what’s right, or how they should feel. Life is up to interpretation by each of us. We have enough external sources trying to mandate how we’re supposed to be in this one life we get, and I don’t aim to be one of them.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This new chapter I’m living is a demonstration of me pivoting – finally. I’m an active-duty military spouse, and for 16 years I aimed to find employment and not make waves, because this life can be unpredictable enough. I didn’t need to complicate things, but I always felt the pull to work for myself.

Approaching the end of our time with military, I realized now is a good a time as any to start working towards my calling of entrepreneurship. What’s been the most surprising for me, is that while I was always thinking from a goal of income consistency or growth as an employee, what’s motivating me in these early building stages is thinking about the subtle and earnest impact I can have on clients – if I stay true to my central missions.

Force is not a tool in my marketing kit, and I feel that I’d rather take my time creating income and financial growth, so that I can take the hustle out of work. I didn’t leave the conventional employment world to have the same problems and same stressors in my day-to-day life.

As a coach and creative, its so important that I have integrity in what I put forth for clients by living with authenticity and awareness of who I am, staying focused on why I’m building what I’m building.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The most recent lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that entrepreneurship is risky. Naturally, there are risks and liabilities that come with operating your own business. I had to unlearn the notion that it’s a riskier pursuit than being employed by someone else. As a millennial, I am no stranger to the job market, and the struggles of finding employment and keeping it. Just because you’re a great worker and already on the payroll doesn’t mean you’ll stay there. I’ve had my fair share of furloughs and layoffs due to budget cuts and restructures. It’s not necessarily less risky or more stable to be one someone else’s payroll.

In the same way that I have to make decisions that support the goals and objectives of my businesses pertaining to revenue and resources – so do potential employers. I’m now directly involved in, and aware of how my businesses are doing. More importantly for me, I get to drive the pivots and decisions myself and I get to experience the outcomes directly.

When I was able to re-frame my understanding of risk on the whole, and realize that decisions just entail understanding an accepting the specific risks your accepting, I was able to go all in on being a small-business owner. I set realistic expectations of myself, and move forward without having risk mitigation being the central part of how I operate, but the creative and generative aspects instead.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.patternpurpose.com www.brittskyephotography.com
• Instagram: @pattern_and_purpose @brittskye_photography

Image Credits

All photographs provided were take and edited by me – Britt Hall – Britt Skye Photography LLC