We were lucky to catch up with Rocheal Matthews recently and have shared our conversation below.
Rocheal, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?
Neither… Although I spent most of my life interested in photography, I never imagined a career in it. People tend to ‘want’ things differently or ‘regret’ what they’ve done, but there’s so much value in the journey.
At the end of 2016 I had my second son and decided to turn my hobby into a hustle. Around 2020 it started blossoming into a business, and although transformations are rocky, they’re also beautiful. Photography is so neat… I especially love how I can find a unique perspective through the lens of my camera — and each lens provides an entirely different experience. My macro lens transports me into a world where I’m 500 times smaller, and I can experience the vastness of a single blade of grass, or watch a tiny insect grip tightly to a stem as it bends sideways in a gentle breeze. Experiencing the ultimate contrast of worlds is so neat. On the opposite end of that spectrum, my wide angle lens would never be able to see a bug… It has to be up close and personal to whatever large action is happening, and it freezes time like no other lens.
In the beginning, I was interested in photography. Over time I have become interested in humanity and our physical world, and if I would have started any sooner I wouldn’t have had the life experiences to truly appreciate what my business is teaching me.
After dropping out of high school, I graduated from college in 2014, became a public school teacher, and started leading a team of teachers- as a brand new teacher myself! I found success, but I also found failure a lot, and it was the failure that prepared a valuable path for “Rocheal” as an entrepreneur.
Now we’re entering into 2024 and as my business grows, I’m continuously reorienting my priorities. It’s becoming clear that I can’t run Rocheal Photography or Better Booth by myself. Hiring people is tough… It’s hard to give up control. It’s hard to face the accountability that a team will give you… It’s hard to manage relationships.
But this is all God’s timing, and it’s soooo neat. Right as I started hiring people, I was invited into a leadership cohort at 12Stone (my church), and that alone has taught me so much about being blessed with and managing a team.
There’s purpose in the journey. Always. And valleys teach us so much more than mountaintops. Instead of wishing I’d started sooner or later, I’m finding that as long as I am in constant prayer, it works out. Every single day God gives me is purposeful and has lessons that He’ll use as he leads me to different places.
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.
Gosh I’m sure no one has heard about me! I think I’ve always had an entrepreneurial heart… Fun fact: I used to breed chinchillas. Our herd had some of the nation’s top bloodline in it! Sounds crazy, but it was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I like marching to the beat of my own drum, and have always been super sweet on the outside and a little oppositional on the inside. I think my challenging authority comes from childhood. Both of my parents were drug addicts and I remember as a child watching them and thinking they were both stupid and lost. I feel disrespectful saying that now, but it’s how I felt. I was a pretty little girl living with a single, and very pretty drug-addicted mom, who relied on men to feed her addiction. Horrible things happened.
I felt like I always knew better than my mother… My last memory with her was when I was 15. I was fed up with watching her kill herself with drugs, and so I orchestrated free drug treatment in another state — all she had to do was go. She refused, and died a couples months later. My father was also heavily addicted to drugs, and so when I moved into his house I found myself in another hot mess. Authority, in my book, was useless. (Unless I was the authority, of course.) As I became an adult, I had a lot of success on the outside and people were shocked I made it out of my childhood unscathed, but the truth is that I was angry, self-righteous, determined, and lost.
When I was planning my wedding in 2014, I was at Barb’s house (the woman doing alterations on my dress- my sister-in-law’s mother-in-law).
Anyhow – she kept incessantly asking me if I knew Jesus and if she could pray for me. Proud atheist/agnostic that I was, I sweetly refused and quietly considered her insane. She insisted, and literally held me down and *told* me to repeat after her because she felt a “prompt from God”. I was super annoyed.
To appease her, I annoyingly repeated the prayer she prayed and everything changed. The sound in my ears swelled and went silent. My feet felt full and warm, and this fullness of warmth — golden, if you can imagine it — wooshed up and through my entire body, all the way to the top of my head. I noticed sound again and there were birds. So many birds. It was almost as if I noticed we were in a sunroom for the first time, and when I looked outside, the colors were more vibrant than I’d ever seen them before. I started crying. I immediately thought Barb drugged me. I was scared, and I left.
Long story short, I didn’t understand what happened until a wild bird flew into my house one day and let me pick it up. When its feet touched my skin, I felt that feeling of fulness again and it clicked.
Ironically, spiritual maturity is all about submission. (Ahem, can we talk about authority figures??)
As the owner of a business, it’s like I get amplified feedback on what it looks like when I’m obedient to God and what it looks like when I fight against Him. It’s like the Bible has become my how-to guide for life and business; everything is absolutely applicable. It’s wild!
What I offer my couples is so much more than photography. I offer them perspective, life coaching, counsel… Sometimes they open up to me about family history and I walk with them in it. I get to talk them off ledges on their wedding day, and remind them to take in what’s happening. I capture fleeting moments they never knew happened, and I spend time with them after their wedding to create the perfect album that will nourish their marriage for ever. As a Jesus-loving business owner, I’m learning that I can’t lead myself. Despite how much I desire to make the world a better place, there’s still a tug for selfish wants when I’m in charge, and I tend to go in circles. I find myself focusing on problems, hardships, struggles, and inadequacies. Then I try to be ‘as good as’ So-And-So at whatever thing… But that’s human nature… Instead, focusing on where God has put me, *why* he’s put me there, and praying for what He wants to do with me while I’m there is key. When I submit to God, it gets me out of my way and I can finally take a clear step in the One True Direction.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Yes! I took a picture of an airplane (in focus) with my dad’s old film camera when I was about 6, and from that moment I was hooked. Growing up we were always poor, and so I didn’t get my first real fancy camera until 2009 when my now husband surprised me with an uber fancy Canon Rebel XSi. (hahaha it was a glorified point-and-shoot, and I LOVED it!) I took so many photos with that thing.
A few years later he upgraded my gear and encouraged me to stretch my skills. I started a little side hustle, and in 2018 I fell head-over-heels in love with some photographers at a friend’s wedding. (Shout out to Pixel This!!) After just a tiny bit of begging, they agreed to let me tag along with them at weddings. They taught me so much, encouraged me to put my camera on manual, and made themselves available for my many questions. We became really good friends, and I am so grateful for and to them.
At the time I was in a big dilemma. I’d just gradated from college and secured my first big girl job, where I was taking on leadership roles and absolutely rocking it. But I was miserable. And I couldn’t fathom leaving my new baby with someone else while I went to work a job I didn’t enjoy.
I wanted to quit my job. And I’m the type of person who – once I decide something – it’s happening. And I want it to happen immediately.
With absolutely no business plan, but a ton of mommy-conviction, I quit my job and decided that if I could just photograph 12 weddings a year, I would make enough money to ‘get us by’.
In 2018 I shot 6. So as 2019 rolled around, I figured I could double that and make my goal 12!
I booked 18 that year.
My business took off immediately. I had a new baby and no time to find my bearings as a business owner. But I was constantly shooting, constantly working with clients, and forever improving my skill. But my home life suffered hard for the next few years because I fell absolutely head over heels in love with my business.
Looking back, it was my humbleness that catapulted my business.
I shot stuff for free all the time, and asked for people’s feedback. People I respected, people I didn’t respect so much. I wanted everyone’s opinion. People started asking me to photograph them, and when I started becoming busy my husband strongly encouraged me to charge money. I felt so guilty!
I slowly found vendors I loved and begged to be on their preferred list. I constantly blogged for SEO proposes. And I shot everything! I never turned anything down, and I always strived to over serve people.
Becoming profitable has been a journey.
My first wedding was $0, and I am so grateful. My second was $800, and third was $1,200. I stayed there for a few, and then bumped it to $1,600, and so on. I increased the price every few bookings, until I got to $2,500 where I stayed stagnant for a while; I thought ‘I’d made it’ as a somewhat competent photographer, since that’s where our baseline market is… But my first bump out of that price point set in motion another round of consistent increasing.
In 2021 I started increasing my prices pretty regularly again, and in 2023 I was burnt out. Overworked, completely neglecting my family, and had no time to even *think*. It was truly awful. I was homeschooling to kids, volunteering as a photographer at church, leading a small group, participating in a leadership co-hort, trying to start Better Booth, trying to launch my associate brand, and running “Rocheal Photography”.
I couldn’t do it anymore.
I hired a coach who encouraged me to bump my standard 8-hr package to $6K. It was scary! But I did it.
Bookings have slowed down. At first it was nerve-wracking, but it’s obvious where I’m going with this… I’m shooting less and making the same amount of money, and the clients who are hiring me at this price point are a *dream* to work with. I *get them*, can serve them very well, and they appreciate me. I’m finally where I need to be right now, as a business owner, and I am excited to learn how to slow down and focus more on family.
If someone is looking to turn their side-hustle into a business, I’d suggest they drop their pride, become servant-minded, and no be afraid to take leaps.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
This is such a great question because it’s human nature to watch and learn from each other and all of us seek out people we admire and respect so that we can look to them to learn *more* about who we want to become. Right? And I’m all for this! I think it’s great.
A problem quietly takes root when you start to lose sight of your own life and circumstances, and then your critical thinking goes out the window. I know for me, I’m a mom, right? And I homeschool and run this business and another business and I volunteer at church, and have a husband and house and kids and pets, and it’s chaos!
I’m around other moms who *don’t* do all those things, but I forget that when I see them meal planning on their cute little chalkboard under their gorgeous light fixture in their perfectly painted kitchen. (My friend! Someone NOT on Instagram. I know her personally, and she’s ROCKING motherhood.) I have to stop myself from wanting that.
I have another close friend who is absolutely slaying it as a wife. She and her husband have date nights, a physically intimate relationship anyone would admire, and they literally laugh and giggle around each other like children. I have to stop myself from comparison.
I have friends who have *figured out* the business world and their finances. They’re picky and choosy about who hires them, they take time off during the year for sabbaticals, they leave room in their calendar for loving on people around them, and they never seem exhausted or too busy. It’s tough not to compare myself to that!
What I’m having to unlearn, time and time again, is God didn’t make me to be Ashley or Courtney or Michelle or Annette or Heather or Kristi… He made me, intentionally, and a beautiful plan for me. He made me as the mother I am, the wife I am, the friend I am… And He surrounds me with an incredible community of people I get to look up to for inspiration. Not for comparison.
This only truly sinks in for me when I regularly read my Bible and pray, though. I tend to forget who I am when I am not continually reminding myself in His Word.
Unlearn comparison; find inspiration, and get in awe of God.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rochealphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rochealphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RochealPhotography/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rocheal-matthews-a088261ab
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rocheal-photography-lilburn
- Other: www.betterboothatl.com
Image Credits
Rocheal Photography