Episode 318: Juliette Murray of Colour Captured
In this episode, Fiona chats with Juliette Murray of Colour Captured where they discuss Juliette’s journey as a wedding photographer and the importance of intentional work. Juliette shares insights on learning through experience, building connections in the photography community, and finding personal fulfilment in both her photography business and her career in law. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Managing photography business and part-time work as a lawyer
Marketing and personal branding in a photography business
The transition from law to photography
Starting a photography business during the pandemic
Taking photos of friends and families to build a portfolio
Learning through working for other photographers
Developing style and editing skills through experience
Importance of figuring things out and trying different things
Recognizing personal strengths and weaknesses
The impact of online presence and unexpected opportunities
Targeting a specific audience and attracting like-minded clients
Preparation, organization, and experience in handling weddings
The value of networking and seeking guidance from mentors
Building connections within the photography community
Finding personal fulfilment and aligning work with one's values
Intentional work and selectively accepting opportunities
Learning through experience and gaining insights from others in the industry
Taking time to learn and gain experience before starting a business
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
“My advice to people that were wanting to do multiple things is maybe to think about the longevity of, my issue at the start, the Instagram thing. I was like, “I want to post everything. This is going to be quite chaotic but I don't want to start two things if I can't consistently post on both. Otherwise, what's the point of even making an Instagram account or building a website or something like that?” If you want to try different things, of course, go ahead and try it and figure out what you do and don't like, but then remember what you're showing up as online is what people will know you do.”
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Welcome to episode 318 of the My Daily Business Podcast. This is an interview with a small business owner. This episode is a little different because this small business owner is also still working part-time and also loving working part-time for somebody else. That's a story that we don't often hear in small business so it's an interesting one for me to be sharing with you but I also think it's interesting for people who maybe don't want to be in their business full-time and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
I love that our guest talks about embracing both an employed role and running a business and that there's not a right or wrong way to do this but that you can create a life that suits you. Before we get stuck into that, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the beautiful land where I meet people and record this podcast and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging.
The other thing I wanted to mention is that this episode does mention family law and family and domestic violence. It’s not in any detail at all but if that is something that you need help with, I would urge you to check out Safe Steps, which is a Victorian program, Our Watch, which is national here in Australia, and Your Toolkit, which is also national and in other countries. There are other places of course. If you are in Australia, remember that there's a 24/7 hotline, 1800RESPECT. Let's get into our interview episode.
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It is my pleasure to bring you an interview that I did with the wonderful Juliette Murray, the Founder of Colour Captured, a photography business, and also, Love by Colour Captured, which is the wedding photography part of that. Colour Captured is going through a little bit of a transition and bringing to the surface more of Juliette’s love of travel and all things, seeing the world, and seeing what's out there.
It was such a pleasure to talk to Juliette. I did meet her at an event some time ago now and she is, in life, relaxed, calm, and excited about life and people, curious about that, and also wonderful about bringing joy into people's lives through photography and image. She started this as a teenager, which is something we get into. How do you do that? How do you do photography for people's weddings when you are a teenager? How does that all start?
We also talk about what it's been like to run a business as well as work in a massively different industry and how you can have both of those things going on and the idea that you don't have to always choose to either work as an employed role or have a business. Often, when it comes to business literature and things that we see on social media, it's always seen as you have to give up your other work, you have to stop working for the men, and work for yourself full-time. If you don't do that, somehow, you are not giving your all to the business, you're not succeeding, or whatever else.
There are so many incorrect narratives out there and these myths that prevent people from having a balance where they are thinking, “I love my career and I want to keep a foot in that space. I also love this other thing that I'm building.” Perhaps that other thing that I'm building doesn't have to overtake each other but you can have space for both.
It's an important conversation and I don't think it's something that we talk about enough where people are working a job for somebody else but enjoying that. In particular, in Juliette's case, that is an incredibly meaningful job that is giving back to the community in a huge way. For her to give that up to go full-time into a photography business, it's not something that she wants to do. Hats off to you and hats off to you for discussing this.
We seem to always hear the narrative of you have to give up a job to be a full-time business owner. Even the terminology that we give to side-project or side-hustle as if it's just on the side and it equally is not as important as the other job. In Juliette’s case, these two things are important, they both fulfil her in different ways. She gets to see both sides of humanity by doing both of these things and one helps the other and vice versa.
It was such a lovely conversation. Juliette is a real breath of fresh air. She is positive but in a genuine way. She's this ray of sunshine. You can see how upbeat she'd be at the most important moments of your life like getting married or having a milestone birthday. Likewise, as she talks about her other job, which is far away from the business that she's built, having somebody like that in your corner would be unbelievably helpful and particularly so meaningful in such an important part of your life.
It was my absolute pleasure to talk to Juliette about both of the types of work that she does. It’s such an incredible opportunity to hear from somebody who is like, “I like both of them and I'm going to do them both.” She does them both well. Here is my interview with the wonderful Juliette Murray of Colour Captured.
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Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you very much.
I'm excited to have this conversation. I always like to start with how are you feeling about life right now?
I am feeling good. I've wrapped up my wedding season, which is the term that I didn't know before I started taking photos. Weddings go in seasons down here. I’m wrapping up for winter and feeling a little bit ready for a break. That's nice.
“A little bit ready for a break,” is that a code for, “I'm exhausted.”
“I'm tired.” I’m excited to focus on some other things in the business.
We are talking about your business, which is called Colour Captured. What is that all about? When did you start it? Why do you do it?
I have a photography business and I have Colour Captured, which is my one business. I have Love by Colour Captured, which is specifically my wedding photography. I do a whole bunch of things. It's predominantly weddings and then some family stuff, a little bit of commercial, and some travel stuff, which is the passion side of it.
Can I ask you something? I know I'm putting you on the spot here. Because we have rebranded, I always find it interesting. When you said, “We have Colour Captured and we have Love by Colour Captured,” is Love by Colour Captured a separate business? People always ask me, “I'm an artist and I also sell textiles. Should I have two separate companies? Should I have two separate Instagram?” How does that all happen? Is it all captured in the same way?
It's all under one company structure but I wanted to have two different Instagrams. When you're getting married, you want to see all the wedding inspo and you get excited and all that stuff. I felt like maybe my other clients who've flown me from my travel work or for my family stuff don't want weddings at all times. It's worked well because I know that that's a question that comes up a lot with photographers who do a few different things. I'm glad that I've done it this way. Now I can just spam all the wedding content that I like and then do the other stuff separately.
That's good for people to learn. Another part of your incredible array of what you do is that you are also a lawyer and you work part-time in that field. How do you manage both? How do you juggle it all? Also, I know that you're keen to keep being a lawyer. We were talking before that, a lot of the time, we have this myth put out there saying that if you're going to go into a small business or you're going to have a side hustle, you have to grow it to a point that you don't have to work again anywhere else. You have chosen intentionally to have both your own business and work part-time as a lawyer. How have you done that?
It's funny, I've always had the balance of wanting to do photography and law. Even when I started my law degree, I did a year, dropped out, and I was like, “I want to be a photographer.” It became more of a pressure to do it for work. I had shot my first wedding when I was 16, which is crazy. Who would hire a 16-year-old? In hindsight, I'd never even been to a wedding. A good experience. I was like, “I'll go back.” I wanted to finish my law degree.
I started working in commercial law and it was the typical thing of someone being like, “I've worked in commercial but it wasn't me.” At that point, COVID happened. We went down to four days a week. I was like, “Maybe I'll get back into photography.” I started doing families and things like that. The whole time, I've been into the travel stuff but that was more of a hobby. When I started to get more and more work, I ended up leaving my law job.
About a year afterwards, my partner got a job down in Melbourne so I moved from the Gold Coast and then I was like, “Where am I going to have clients? I don't know anyone down here.” I got a job in a completely different field of law at a family violence organization. It's a different focus, helping people, and things like that. I love it so much so it's a good balance. I then got busy with photography again. I've had a few moments and everyone always asks, “When are you going to leave law?” I love my work and I love the people I work with.
I've now got to the point where it forces me to be intentional about the photography jobs that I take. It's good because if I'm doing your wedding, it's because I want to be there. It's not like, “I need this to pay my rent,” or whatever. It forces mindfulness in that. I love the balance. It's a privileged position to be in that my work will allow me to work part-time. I don't have children so there is a privilege that I don't have little people relying on me while I figured it out and I got that balance right. Now that I'm here, it's good.
What an interesting story. Also, your law firm, are they like, “We need some new brand photos.”
I tend not to mix the work because of the field that I work in. I like to keep it separate. It's nice also because if you have a small business, it's hard for me to switch off from it, but I go to work and I'm standing in front of a judge. There's no room to be thinking about photography. You're there with your clients and it's 100% percent. It goes the same way, it's quite an intense work in the family violence field. I get to put that aside on a weekend and I get to experience the best of the best with families and weddings and things like that.
You must see the opposites of life. I'm not a lawyer at all but I've done some work with some family domestic violence groups and it's heart-wrenching the stuff that you hear and you would hear the worst of the worst. It's sad for any family to be breaking up for whatever the circumstances are, particularly that space. On the flip side, you're like, “The life of a wedding or a brand new baby or travel where everyone's in a good mood because they're on holiday.” Does that blow your mind how you can be here one minute and then there the next day?
This never happens but it has happened once before and I was like, “How was I in court this morning and then this afternoon, I'm here shooting a wedding?” It's weird but it also helps to put it in perspective, I suppose. It makes me appreciate my photography work. I know that burnout is a big thing for photographers. It's hard as well because you're on the go but then it makes you appreciate it and you're like, “This is great that I get to do this for work.”
Look at you helping people on the whole spectrum. One of the things that I like when I had a look through your website and other stuff that you do and your social media is your marketing. People might think, “Of course, you're a photographer.” There's a lot of you and not just the photos. I always look at people's About pages because I find them fascinating. It is gradually changing but even years ago when I was starting, I was helping people with their websites in Australia and doing copywriting and the About pages were so boring. Now they're getting a bit more lively and a bit more human.
Yours is quite human. It talks a lot about travel, surfing, and all the parts that make you who you are. Is that something that you've always been pretty comfortable sharing? Is that something that you've had to go to, “I have a business.” People, particularly with photography, are choosing you and your talent and your vibe and everything. Were you like, “This is how I'm going to portray myself.” Was that natural to you?
I feel like I'm getting better at it. I've always loved to chat. I love hanging out with people. I suppose that I'm not shy. I have realized as time has gone on that there is a particular wedding client that I get along with. It’s not just styling or what you like to do or whatever. It's laid-back people that want to have a good time and care about their friends and family. I'm not particularly high-end. If you have a high-end wedding, great.
Mostly, I want you to enjoy your day. I feel like if I put across myself, we're going to be hanging out all day. if I'm taking your family photos, you are inviting me into your house with your newborn and your young children or whatever, you need to know that I'm not a weirdo, or at least a weirdo that you're going to get along with. Although I've always tried to do it a little bit, it makes sense to me to let people into my lives because they're letting me into theirs.
That makes so much sense. That's such a beautiful way to think about it. You want people to bring you into their life whether it's you physically going into their house. For anyone reading, if you're creating a product and you want people to bring that into their home and love that ceramic dish or whatever it is, you also need to be willing to do vice versa. That's a nice way of thinking about it. I've never thought of it like that and that is such a beautiful human way to think about it.
How have you gone from being a lawyer to being interested in photography? You mentioned that you got a job at 16. The people at the wedding are like, “Who is this teenager taking the photos? Is she a cousin or something?” How did you get that job and how did you get interested in photography? Have you grown up in a creative family?
It's not any more creative than any other family. My dad has always loved taking photos and I've always loved looking through those. I was a uni student studying law.
At 16?
I finished school quite early.
You're like a brainiac over here.
No. This sounds so bad.
It doesn't. I'm learning more and more.
I was doing some fashion photography stuff and there was this brand. As a 16-year-old, you're like, “Free clothes. This is the best payment of all time.” I remember one of the ladies from there was like, “My brother is getting married. Would you want to do some photos?” I was like, “Yeah.” I remember I was down in Byron and I didn't even have my license so mom had to drive me and come back and pick me up. I got into it a bit then. I've always loved travel and stuff like that but it was a journey of figuring out like, “What do I value?”
For a while, I was like, “I need to make money and I'll go be a commercial lawyer and whatever.” There's a realization, “That's not what drives me.” I like spending time with my friends and family. My favourite thing ever is when you get the film back, you print it out, you put it on the wall, you show everyone, and everyone is excited. I was like, “If that's the thing that excites me, why not try and do more of it?” I suppose that's a long realization it's taken me but that's how I got into it.
That's fabulous. When you decided or you talked about going four days a week because of the start of the pandemic with the law stuff, it's easy for people to think, “I'd like to do more of this. I'm going to go and do it,” and then they don't do it. There's nothing wrong with that. I hear all the time from friends, especially back in the day when I used to write a lot, I'd have a lot of friends who were like, “I'd love to write.” I'm like, “Have a go.” There's a part of privilege having maybe not trauma or enough confidence to think about yourself plus other things that are societal privileges.
How did you go from, “I want to do a bit more of this. I enjoy doing a bit more,” to, “I'm going to fully start a business, have a website, get all my ducks in order, and put myself out there.” How did you do that? Was it a step-by-step thing? Did you find a business coach? Did you have somebody in your family like your partner that was like, “This is what you should do and I can help you?” How did you take the steps to get a business up and running? Does that make sense?
Yeah. When we went for four days during the pandemic, I was lucky that we were living on the Gold Coast at that time and the lockdown wasn't as crazy as down in Melbourne. In between the mini lockdowns or whatever, I took photos of every single person I knew with kids because I was like, “Family photos, this is what I want to do.” Everyone I worked with, “You have a kid. Let me take a photo of your family.”
It's like an unpaid thing with someone that you know. I'd be nervous like everyone is so I did that and then I made an Instagram. I was lucky that one of the families that I was friends with that had photos, he was like, “I'm a web designer. Thank you so much. I'd love to make your website,” which is lucky. That kicked that off. The more that I started doing things, people started to see it, and then people would reach out that I didn't know and I was like, “This is cool but I wanted to get into weddings.”
I put weddings again because I hadn't done them in so long. I started doing a lot of work for other photographers. It was such a good learning experience because everyone was so different. I worked for big companies and small companies. Everyone goes into it thinking of high-end weddings, like, “The Vogue weddings. That's me. That's so glamorous and cool,” which is glamorous and cool. As a person, I'm a bit more chilled. That can be a crazy environment.
I love the weddings where you get to make friends with their friends and family and I'm crying during the speeches as well. That working for people period helped me to figure out, “This is what I like to do.” You develop a style, obviously, by going out and taking photos. Even editing and things like that, you only learn through doing it. It’s like forcing yourself to go out and being like, “I’m doing this.” Who knows what'll come of it but then it's a good experience. That's how I've done it. I then made a more conscious decision to split the brands and finally start posting weddings on Instagram.
I love that idea as well, figuring out, and doing enough of the test and experience with other people to go, “This is what I don't want to do,” or, “This is what I want to do more of,” or, “This is who I am.” Everyone who goes through running a business, particularly in service space, and that comes up a lot is that you are looking at like the competitor landscape and then you're trying to figure out, “Where do I fit?”
When I started business coaching or even corporate consulting, I thought I had to dress a certain way and I had to get rid of my big earrings. I always wore big earrings but not crazy big. I had to look very corporate, always in black or navy. I was like, “This isn't me.” I was looking at other people around me and thinking, “That's where the big bucks are.” The same as you, I realized I'm not motivated by money. I don't want to sit in long and beautiful boardrooms on Collins Street. It doesn't light me up. I'd rather meet somebody at their home garage and be like, “Hey.” Everyone is in jeans, T-shirts, or tracksuit pants.
On that, you decided to focus on weddings as well. You've talked about the two separate businesses. I saw on your website, you're in the middle of changing this up. People may be able to see a brand-new site. People might get the idea then that you only do weddings but you also shoot maternity and families and branding and corporate. How do you juggle that? Also, any advice for people who've bought into a myth that they have to do one line of photography or one line of cake making or one line of whatever it is, one type of coaching? What would you say to those people?
You can say, “I want to do this or I wanna do this,” and whatever, that's been a big element of the project that I'm working on. I have a background in that period. When I left my legal job, I was doing some copywriting and I've always loved writing. I've always wanted to create a travel website so I'm moving Colour Captured into it. Yes, I'll do that stuff but many people have been like, “Where was that place you went to in Mexico? That looked so cool.” I have always wanted to sit down and write about it and have that resource for people. It's one of the things that's like, “I haven't set aside that time to do it.” Yes, I've been doing other stuff.
Like saving the lives of people.
Life happens in between. I would say to people, there's nothing wrong with figuring it out and trying that stuff. I've done a bunch of different things. I've tried product photography and I've done that for some lovely brands but I've realized that unless it's got people in it, it's probably not my forte. There's an element of recognizing it, “I should say no to that.” I'm better at work that involves people and feelings and things like that.
That sounds weird but with product, there's a specific kind of skillset that you need for that. There's value in being like, “Someone else is going to be better at this than me, for some things.” My advice to people that were wanting to do multiple things is maybe to think about the longevity of, my issue at the start, the Instagram thing. I was like, “I want to post everything. This is going to be quite chaotic but I don't want to start two things if I can't consistently post on both. Otherwise, what's the point of even making an Instagram account or building a website or something like that?”
If you want to try different things, of course, go ahead and try it and figure out what you do and don't like but then remember what you're showing up as online is what people will know that you do. You never know where it will lead. My family stuff, I did a job for Bonds and it was shooting film as well. If you told me a couple of years ago, “You'd be shooting film for Bonds on their kid’s shoot.” I would've been so surprised. You never know what you post online or show up as and show anyone that might look your name up where it's going to lead.
I love that. I often say that to people, when they say, “I don't know who my audience is,” or, “I'm making up my audience because that's who I want to work with but that's not who I'm working with right now.” When I started, I was working with corporate consultants, I would be in boardrooms all the time with a bunch of men in their suits in their 50s who didn't care less that I was there and thought it was a lot of naval gazing but I marketed as if I was with creative small business owners. I was like, “That's who I want to go after.” That is inevitably who it attracted. It's so true.
Another question I wanted to ask you is you're calm and you talked about, “I want to come to a wedding and be part of it and experience it and be chill and all of that.” I always wonder if that's nature or nurture. Have you always been calm or do you have tactics to help yourself get calm if that makes sense?
I would say that I'm pretty laid. I knew weddings back to front before I started shooting my own. Also, I put in a lot of prep work before the day so that I know that I can turn up. I know if there's a family rift or whatever. It’s not that that will often happen. It's like, “Cool, I'm not going to put your parents next to each other that hate each other in the family photo.” I'll be, “Is there anything I need to know?” I am probably more hands-on than some other photographers because I have multiple questionnaires that my couples do. We'll do the comprehensive timeline before. Some photographers do that.
Knowing that I have all of the organization, the background, I'm like, “It's fine. Things will run late. Weddings aren't perfect days and whatever. Things will go wrong but it'll work out. You're going to have fun.” The less time that you spend stressing about things that could go wrong or things that have gone wrong, it's like, “That's fine, we'll move along, and we'll make a plan. It's not the end of the world.” I feel like that comes with the experience of working with other people and seeing, “This is what can happen and this is how we fix it.”
I feel like that's what you want on your wedding day, you want that safety of security of like, “That person is there for me and they're part of the team. They're taking you off my plate.” Also, in your other job, I'm guessing you have to be quite calm because you'd be dealing with a lot of other people's stress and anger and frustration.
That's true. You have to roll with it, but that's okay. You have to figure out how to not let it affect you and be like, “This is an issue. What can we do to help?” It’s important to have someone that brings a more calm approach. Like anyone, on the day, if the mom comes in and she's freaking out about the stuff, your vibe affects the day. It's a conscious decision to be like, “It's fine.”
You're choosing your emotions. I often say that to my son, which makes me sound like a harsh mom but I'm like, “You are choosing your emotions right now. You can control them.” Who has helped you? You seem to help a lot of people on both sides of what you're doing. Who's helped you with this business? You mentioned before your dad was interested in photography. Have you had a business mentor? Have you read certain books? I'm sure the other photographers that you worked with have helped. Who's helped you or what has helped you build this business?
A big help that I hadn't expected at the start has been other photographers. I've been lucky. This wasn't intentional at all but you make friends through the industry. When I moved down to Melbourne, I went to this photography camp and I was nervous because I was like a little fish in a big pond. You go there and you make friends and then things, if they pop up, you can be like, “What do you think about this?” I had a text from an unwell friend and they're like, “Can you shoot this wedding this weekend?”
That link of people has been invaluable because things pop up all the time and it's good to have a sounding board. I'll ask my partner and he wants to help but he has also never used a constant light in a dark ceremony. I've done one mentoring session with another photographer, which was helpful. I've only started getting into reading business books. I love your book and that's been a launchpad into being like, “This is approachable for me. Let's think about the business strategically and more mindfully.”
The photography community has been helpful to me. I suppose that's translatable to anyone. You're not an island. No matter what service you're providing, there's someone out there that's probably had the same issue. I wasn't shy when I moved to Melbourne to be emailing random people and being like, “I love your work. Do you ever want to go get a coffee?” Some of those people are my best friends now.
Good on you for putting yourself out there and also good on you for going to the photography camp. That sounds fun. Was that an actual camp?
It was so much fun. I had just moved down here and I had one pair of jeans and a jumper, woefully underprepared for Melbourne Winter. I don't know if I'll do another one but it was called Hoedown at the time. I went with no expectations but it was fun.
I love that. That's the thing, putting yourself out there even though it's vulnerable can reap. You've got best friends out of it now.
I’m lucky.
What are you most proud of from your journey in business so far?
Figuring out what drives me personally. Even from the start, as a law student, you're like, “Talk to your firm. I want to go and have a big commercial job.” I understand the appeal for so many people and even myself but figuring out, like, “This isn't the life that I want to lead. I want to see my family. I want to go on holiday.” I love to travel so I want to have the freedom to do that. Finding that is the best thing. A lot of privilege in that and being able to figure it out over a long time. It's been good now that I'm finally here.
Congratulations on going on that journey. Also, it's good for you to have gone on that journey. Lots of people never go on that journey. Even in their 50s and 60s, they never take the time to think about what is important to them and the life they want to lead. They get on this conveyor belt of expectations from society and family and everything else. What is next for you and Colour Captured? You mentioned the travel blog. Also, where is the best way for people to connect with you, whether they want you to shoot their wedding or have a chat?
What's next is the travel blog, I'm excited about that, and I'm working on that at the moment. I've launched a specific separate wedding website. Both of those things, I'm excited about so I can show a bit more of my work. I am going to develop a travel blog. It'll be the blog and also my other work. I've got a beautiful frame maker that I've been working with and a collection of prints. I've been looking for these frames, they're all in my house. Every time someone comes over, they're like, “Where is this from?” I'm excited about that. Everyone can connect with me on Instagram, it's either @ColourCaptured or @LoveByColourCaptured. You can see a bunch of stuff on there.
I love taking things that you're seeing. Let's say somebody follows you on Instagram and it's like, “I love that picture. Where did you go?” They go to that part of the world and then they want that picture because that was the starting point. It's so cool. I love it. Congratulations on everything you're doing. Thank you so much for, in such a busy schedule, making time for this podcast.
No worries. Thank you so much for having me.
You're welcome. Bye.
Bye.
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How lovely is Juliette? A breath of fresh air and nice to chat to. I'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Juliette Murray of Colour Captured. I'm going to highlight two things, as I always do. Of course, there are so many other things. I'd love to know what stood out to you. What are you going to change or implement or maybe ponder as a result of reading this episode? You can always catch us on Instagram, @MyDailyBusiness_. You can find us on TikTok, @MyDailyBusiness, or email us at Hello@MyDailyBusiness.com.
The two things that stood out to me, I have to say I was narrowing about three things. I was like, “How do I get it to just two because I want to say all three?” The first one that I loved was when Juliette talked about the idea of being intentional with who she takes on and this idea that she loves the law and she wants to keep that job and keep not necessarily that particular job but keep her foot in the door with law. As you would, the law takes a long time to get that degree. I have quite a few friends and family members who are lawyers.
I love that she's like, “I love what I do in the law. I want to have that.” Also, she's got less time to take on the photography work. Every single photography job is one that she wants to do. Also, it's intentional. It's not that, “I have to take this job so that I can pay the rent.” “I'm taking it because I love doing this and I want to be there on your special day.” I love that idea of intentional work and intentionally saying yes to things.
Even if you're running a business full-time, sometimes it's important to sit back and think, “Am I taking this opportunity because of the money only or am I taking it because I want to do this?” Sometimes you hear that idea of if you won the lotto tomorrow, would you still keep doing the job that you do? I have to say, in my own experience, yes, I probably would. I might cut down another day but I would still do this. I love doing this.
My husband often jokes, saying, “Even if we won the lotto, you would keep working because you like doing it,” and I do. It's obvious from Juliette that she loves what she does both in the law and also in photography and everything that she's doing with Colour Captured. I love that she said, “If I'm at your wedding, it's because I want to be at your wedding.” I love that. It's powerful.
The second thing, which I'm combining two of these things is that you learn through doing. Also, she worked with other people to gain experience in all the different things, not just how they show up on the actual day and their photography skills but the organization, the backend stuff that happens before things like a wedding day happen, all of the things that she could take and learn from other people.
Sometimes we are sold this dream that anyone can start a business. Even in the book that I wrote, Passion Purpose Profit, I said, “Anyone can start a business but not everyone can stick and keep a business.” It takes an understanding of how this business is going to work. What are the systems and processes I need to set up? What are the investments that I need to make? It’s not just in things like a camera but in the tools and subscriptions and software that I need to have to make my business work. Sometimes we can be sold an idea that we have a business idea and you can make it happen tomorrow rather than working through to be like, “I've caught this idea.”
Juliette proved that she'd already had experience. She'd already been doing wedding photography as a teenager so she could have gone and started her business but she chose to spend time gaining experience with other people in the industry so she can understand, “How do they run their business? What are the things that I like about how they run their business? What are the things I wouldn't do if I was running my own business?” Taking all that knowledge and experience to make her own business, Colour Captured, as good as it can be.
I worked for fifteen years in marketing and brand before I went and started my own business. A lot of the stuff that I regularly work with people on has been taken from that career before I got into this business. I remember talking to somebody who was straight out of uni and they said, “Should I start a consulting business?” I was like, “You can start one.”
I also think it's worthwhile going in and doing that job, getting paid by somebody else, letting them take care of all the expenses and all the stress while you learn, and then taking that knowledge into your own business. I love that Juliette has done that and is successfully running Colour Captured and also working in the law. I found it a great conversation and I'm sure you will too. As I said at the start, it's nice to have these conversations with people where it's not an either-or, it's a both. That's fantastic.
I would love to know what you took away from that. You can contact us, @MyDailyBusiness_, on Instagram, or send an email, to Hello@MyDailyBusiness.com. Of course, if you'd like to reach out to Juliette, I'm sure she would love that, you can find Colour Captured and see all the things that she does over at ColourCaptured.com. You can also find her over on Instagram, @ColourCaptured, and also @LoveByColourCaptured. Thank you so much for reading and I'll see you next episode.
