We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Waynick a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

Heck yeah I take vacations. I don’t always plan ahead financially but it always works out. My very favorite thing about having my own business is the flexibility, for my family, my friends, and vacations any time.
Don’t get me wrong though….I also don’t have work hours so I am editing ALLLL the time, epecially into the night.

Right now as I’m writing this I am at an a beautiful Airbnb in Granby Colorado. I have a 2 night stay for photographing the property and the town.
It’s my guys birthday, so we can celebrate and have this little get away, even while I’m technically ‘working’. I can’t express enough how incredibly thankful I am to have this career.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hello, I’m Erin. I am a photographer based out of northern colorado. I specialize in Real Estate and Business to business photography. I also do family portraits on the side.

I have had a camera in my hand since I was 12, documenting my life. My first darkroom class in 9th grade started a real interest and I continued to take every photography class available until I graduated.
I did a little college in my 20’s but the college I went to didn’t have a photography program. Fast forward 5 years I moved to Virginia with my husband and brand new baby. I was waiting tables and working retail not having any clue what I wanted to do. I wanted to stay home with my baby but I also knew there was more in me. My father in law who was also an incredible photographer before he started his career in the school system recommended I go to school for photography. I thought that time had passed but he encouraged me to look into it.
Turns out the community college had a photography program which included a wet lab ( the only one in Virginia) Film,…yes please.
I ended up doing the best in school I had ever done, by far. Top of my class, Summa cum laude, honor role. Crazy! and I barely graduated high school .
Since then I’ve been an actual professional photographer. The career I dreamed of having but never thought I could be good enough or even come close to making a living with.
After my divorce, being a single mom and taking care of my own mom. I was still able to make ends meet as a photographer. And i the last 4 years I have thrived more and more every year.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

When I went to college (late in my 30’s) for photography I never expected to become a full time photographer. I’m shy, I’m definitely not an entrepreneur and it scared the crap out of me.
After graduating I immediately got a job at a Studio as an editor/assistant/second shooter/ do everything girl. I loved it and realized I’m a great “side kick” I’m great at supporting other people and keeping things going.
I was doing portrait shoots for friends and started to put myself out there a bit. It was a good side hustle.

Then we moved back to Colorado, pretty suddenly. I found another amazing photographer to work for part time while also working in the bakery at wholefoods. I started my own thing little by little and was building my own side hustle still not considering it a real business. Then I had a good friend who is a realtor. She asked if I was interested in Real Estate photography. Absolutely….working with homes instead of humans seemed like the perfect gig. I shot a house for her, then a friend and ended up being offered the job of photographing all the properties for an up and coming Property manager here in town. I took it and it was great.
All while working at whole foods in the bakery. There I met a great friend who was starting her own gluten free cake company. She brought her cakes in for our team to sample and our team lead convinced her to go to corporate. Wholefoods corporate ended up wanting to bring her cakes in to the rocky mountain region stores. With that said, she quit and took me with her. I helped her start her company and joyfully worked baking and frosting up to 200 cakes a day.
all this while still working with my photographer and doing my real estate photography on the side.
I had 3 jobs and I loved it.
Then in 2021, a tendon in my elbow tore. It seemed to happen over night. I got to work at the bakery and within an hour I couldn’t even peel butter. I went home and the pain just got worse. I went to my PT and there was nothing he could do.
I couldn’t go back to work, my whole right arm didn’t work anymore. The bakery was my full time money maker and over night it was gone.
My friend was able to lay me off and since it was covid I was able to get unemployment.
I realized I was still able to use my camera on a tripod (carefully) and work on my computer. So the real estate photography became my only source of income. And during covid it never slowed down.
By May of 2021 I officially started my own business, not having any clue how to do it. It was my chance to do something I love for a living and do it by just being me.
I truly feel like I was drop kicked into this because I would have NEVER done it on my own.
I’m in my 4th year of full time photography and tripled my income this year. I still edit for other photographers but no longer second shoot or assist.
I’ve built an incredible community of other business owners and I am in love with my career. I can’t believe I’m actually doing what I love for a living and for the first time in my life not living paycheck to paycheck.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Referrals. Almost every client I have is from a referral. I’m not great at marketing and social media but I am great with people. Through this journey I have realized my gifts and my gifts are creating real genuine relationships and through that I have built a very loyal clientele base that fosters growth in my business.
I’ve learned I don’t have to be a typical entrepreneur to thrive. I can just be myself and do what I love and the buisiness just keeps coming.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Erinwaynickphoto.com
• Instagram: erinwaynickphotography
• Facebook: erinwaynickphotography
• Linkedin: erinwaynickphotography

Image Credits

Kelly Eileen