Betting on Yourself- How Meg Bradyhouse Built an $80K a Month Photography Business While Raising A Family

0:05

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now, Sebastian Rusk Hey, thanks for being here. Thanks for waking up early way out there in paradise in Hawaii and, uh, making it happen. Time we're recording this right now. It's 7 0 AM. Okay. We see Meg's a go-getter getting up, uh, bright and early for a podcast interview. Then again, if you're not a bright and early in Hawaii, you're just missing out on the rest of That's right. And I have two kids under six. So Well, we got Dan's call shortly after this too. So I blame Dan for, for giving a little bit of bandwidth the time here as well. So great to finally connect. I know that we've been in Dan, the great Dan Martell's elite, uh, business coaching group, uh, for some time now I joined back in November of 2024. I liked, I feel like you've Very cool, very cool. Well, I know you've got one heck of a story and I'm excited to talk about that. That's why I wanted to get you on the show. Dan constantly talks about it and raves about it because it is the true testament of being an entrepreneur at your core. So don't know a ton about it. I just know that you took a gigantic risk and it paid off. So let's jump right into it. For context purposes for our listeners, I like going back to the beginning of the story. to help our listeners better understand how this all started. Now, the beginnings, that's a different marker for everybody else, for everyone else. So you decide where the beginning is for you, but take us back for a minute on where this all started and really bring us to present day on what you're focused on, what your business is all about, the big risk you took, All right, let's go. So I think probably the best beginning is around right after COVID. I've been a photographer, I've been a photographer for 16 years, I moved to Hawaii from Canada. And after COVID, we got slammed with like the craziest wedding season that has ever happened in the wedding industry. And anyone in the wedding industry remembers this because we've had two full years of weddings all slammed into the year that everything opened back up. And so We grew our team, we scaled super fast, and we were doing really, really well in business. And then everything started to get quiet the year after that. Everything after that felt like it was just declining. And instead of taking responsibility for that decline in business, I was like, oh, well, that was enough. a weird year. And of course, like, the economy is just slowing down, things are just slowing down. And so then we had our second child. And I was pretty distracted with this postpartum and all that stuff. And kind of recognizing like, hey, our business is quite a bit slower than it used to be, but I'm sure it'll come back. I just kept always saying like, it's fine. And then I started noticing my language shift. And I started saying things like, yeah, we're just having a really slow year. Um, it's going to get worse. They're calling it the wedding COVID gap. So they were saying, cause no one met in 2020 and 2021 that in 2023, no one was getting married because no one was at that point in their relationship yet. And so I was just constantly saying that, yeah, it's going to get worse. It's going to get worse, constantly bracing for impact. Whereas before for the 10 years in my business, I was always like optimistic and things are getting better and it's not going to ever get worse. It's just getting better every year. So I could tell that there was a shift in my language. Um, and then last year in February, we got, um, hired by Dan Martell to go fly over to Oahu to do his branding photos, which is not something that we do. We're wedding photographers. And so I was like, first, a little bit, like almost annoyed that we were going to do it, but also very like hungry for business because things were slow. So I agreed to take the job. I didn't have no idea who Dan Martell was or anything about him. And so we flew over there. We spent the afternoon with them. And I started talking a little bit of business with him, and the first thing I asked him was, so what do you do? No idea who he was. That's amazing. Yeah, I think he looked at me, he's like, I'm a sophomore guy. And I was like, oh, cool. Just kind of chatting with him. And then, so we talked a little bit about my photography business. I was like, man, like I had some pretty good insight. And so I looked him up on Instagram and I started following him. I started like consuming his content and a couple months went by and my car had broken down and this was a new, new to us car. We had spent $12,000 a year before it was like a 2012 Range Rover. And so I took it in the shop thinking it'd be easy fix and they came back and it was going to be $14,000. And I was like, well, we're definitely not able to do that. And it was the first time in my life where I was like, okay, normally we make really good money and we can just do whatever we want to do. This is the first time in my life where like something's broke and I actually don't even have the money to fix it. And then all of a sudden, all these things kind of started crashing down at once. And we got hit with a bunch of other builds. And I was like, I went to check my Google insights on like how many times people visit our Hold on a second. You cut out there for a minute. You said you Oh, sorry. So we got hit with a, we got hit with a bunch of bills. And then, um, I started to be like, okay, what is actually happening? I need to look into why a business is. So my sister recommended that I go and check out like my Google optimization, like what's happening on your website. Are people still visiting it? And so a year and a half earlier turned out I had changed our name from Brady house photographers to Brady house studios. And what I didn't realize is that I blacklisted myself on Google because I broke about 300 links when I did that. And because I was blaming everything, but myself, I was blaming the economy as blaming the industry. I never actually went to be curious on why business was so slow. I just let it happen. And it took a year and a half for me to look into it. And I realized like, I just bursted out bawling because I realized like this, I brought this whole thing on and it was because of my comfort because businesses always just easily come for me that I'd never like thought that maybe this was something that I had control over. And it's so much easier to outsource or control when things aren't going well. So I decided, and then Dan posted one of his Sunday coaching call-outs. So it was perfect timing. And we had no money. At this point, we were actually in a situation where we were like, this has never happened before. We've never been here. I reached out to Dan, he cell by chatted me like the perfect blueprint of a cell by chat, sent me a voice note. So I knew it was him. And then he said it was going to be 9,000 for the year. And I was like, well, there's I don't have that. Like there's no possible way that I can do it. And so then my husband was like, why don't we pull money from our retirement savings? And I was thinking like to fix the car so we could have a car. And, um, he's like, no, let's put it in the coaching and then we'll buy a new car. So it was kind of him that pushed me and he's like, I know you can do it. You just need a little bit of help. Like just, just do it. So he pulled money out of the retirement savings the next day. We didn't fix the car at all. We just shared a vehicle for the last eight months. We gave it all to Dan. Within two to three months, I was going from rock bottom and I was hitting my goal of $60,000 a month really quickly. And so yeah, we're on track to hit a million dollars this year. It's been, it's been a wild ride, but yeah, we just bought our brand new Lexus, um, GX five 50, my dream car after, um, that was in February. So it was about eight months after we were able to like, just take cash that we'd made from everything that we've been doing and buy a new car. So yeah, we never actually had to Oh, that's badass. So. $60,000, a million dollars a year taking pictures. How So we, we are probably one of the higher end elopement photographers on in the state. And so we get a crazy amount of inquiries. We have a really solid team. My husband shoots full time. I have been shooting, and then we have a couple of other photographers that work with us as well. I'm stepping into more of a coaching role. So I started a mastermind program about in July last year. So right about around the same time that I was starting to implement all these things and see results, Dan encouraged me to start a group program and show people what I was doing. And so I started that program in July with five people. And we're up to almost 40 people in that group now. And so it's been growing really fast. And I'm putting a lot more of my time into creating content, and just helping people build their businesses. Since I am only, you know, 10, 15 steps ahead, it makes it really relevant because the way things are changing so fast with AI right now. Dan's the most incredible coach and I owe so much gratitude to him, but it's been a long time since he's been on the field doing stuff as a small business owner. I think that there's a really cool landing spot for me right now with these business owners who are stuck at that $10,000, $15,000 a month mark and they just need some accountability and a little bit of um help with sales systems and how to use social media these days and different things that are actually relevant right now and to break through that ceiling and hit those like 30 40 50 thousand dollar months so that's the people that i'm working with and yeah it's scaling really good so i'm i'm actually taking my foot out of the photography world um pete is still gonna take care of that and we have you know an amazing client experience director and we have awesome photographers that work for us So my goal by the end of the year is that I won't be shooting those at all, and I'm just going to focus on the I love that. So if a photographer is listening to this right now that owns a photography business and maybe doing something comparable to what you're doing, what are some of the things that you teach in your coaching program that may interest somebody to go? Hey, I had no idea something like this was available because I'm already running through my head with the photographers and the content people that I actually work with. I'm like, who can I Yeah, no, basically, we're talking a lot about how to get people's attention. So I believe if you can earn someone's attention, you have the right to educate them on everything you want, anything you want. But the reality is people don't go on social media to be educated. And so you have to be able to do it in an entertaining way. And so we talk a lot about how to hold people's attention, how to create videos with and how to read your insights. So you can get high retention on those, the algorithm will push it out. Um, basically just how to extend your reach and visibility in a way that connects with the right people. And then not only having that visibility, but then bringing in a sell by chat system where you can go through and actually turn those views into paying clients. Because I think a lot of creators really focus on, you know, their follower count and their. I'm getting x amount of two million reach a month or whatever it is but if you don't have a conversion system that's just like fun fancy metrics. And so my biggest thing is hey we're gonna get all this attention and we're gonna put a lot of time and eighty percent of your time it's going to be on kind of bringing in people to your world but once they're in your world this is how you talk to them and this is how you help them whether they convert with you or not like you just need to go into it with a. You need to be able to have like. clarity with people when you're talking to them and give them an idea of where they need to go, whether you can be the person that helps them get there or not. I think it's been really cool because lots of people, like everyone in my program is killing it and they're doing their financial wins every week and it's working. One girl this last week said that a framework, an email framework that I gave her, she tried it out. It took her like 10 minutes to do and it made her 5,000 bucks in the next like two hours. And so like these are, these are huge results for small businesses and I love it. I'm so encouraged by this conversation and your story. And I'm sure that those listening are as well. I would ask you, so what's next, but you've really laid that out as far as what's next. You got to know where you're going and how you're getting there. So you've got the road. Not only do you have the roadmap, but you're executing on the roadmap, roadmap aggressively. And that that's, that's a Testament to not just Dan, but it's coaching. I don't care who you are. If your business and your life isn't where it needs to be, you need to get somebody who Yeah, it's wild like how much it compresses the timeline like I knew and it's not stuff I didn't go into dance program and learn like groundbreaking things that I hadn't known already. It's just a weekly reminder of energy and your focus and your goals and someone telling you like, stop getting in your own way. Just go do it. Like stop giving me your bullshit excuses. I don't care about your your explanation of why or why you didn't do it. It's just if you did or you didn't. Right. And so I think that we implemented that in our group every single week. At the end of each call, everyone has to pick one action item they wouldn't have normally done before that will move their business forward. And at the beginning of the call, we open the call with a thumbs up, thumbs down, and I don't have any conversations around if it happened or not. It's just up to you to know, yes, I did do And you have no idea how powerful thumbs up and thumbs down is because our ego, nobody, I don't care who you are, wants to show up and go. It's just it's like it's something in our psyche where you're like, I just I just don't want to do it. I cannot do a thumbs down. And it moves us and drives us into action. Very, very effective strategy. Meg Bradyhouse, you're a total rock star. I'm glad that we had the opportunity to connect here on a conversation. And I love your story. I'm sure our listeners are encouraged by it as well, too. I wanted to encourage you. to keep up the great work. You're doing work that matters now that you're coaching and empowering other people to do what you've learned. And that's what it's all about. Lift as you climb, right? Absolutely. Is the thought process when you're in business as an entrepreneur and just life And I think the biggest thing is just pay attention to the language that you use and try to make sure throughout your day, throughout your normal default responses to conversations, even in the grocery store, is like, if you're expecting to win, then use language that is expecting to win. And if you catch yourself in a season where you keep explaining why things are hard, and you're explaining the struggle, and you're defending the struggle, then take a moment and sit with that for a second, and really see how if you can if you can be the problem, you can also be the solution. And so just take control of the results in your life. They're a result of the actions, thoughts, beliefs that you have had over the last few months, and you can change it literally right this moment. And so Amazing. Those are great final thoughts. I think it was, I don't know if it was Dan that may have talked about this, but if we went around saying, out loud, how we talk to ourselves in our head, people would want to fight us on the street. And when you think about that and you check yourself and it's little distinctions, it's small things on being able to, I can't afford this. I've never done this. We'll never get here with this. You are literally creating in real time with our language. So amazing thoughts. Thanks so much, Meg. It's a pleasure. It's a privilege to be connected with you and call you My pleasure. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, Launchlab.com Studios.