Josh Russell, Photographer and Coach

[00:00:00] Sanjay Parekh: Welcome to the Side Hustle to Small Business podcast, powered by Hiscox. I'm your host, Sanjay Parekh. Throughout my career, I've had side hustles, some of which have turned into real businesses. But first and foremost, I'm a serial technology entrepreneur. In the Creator Space, we hear plenty of advice on how to hustle harder and why you can sleep when you're dead.

On this show, we ask new questions in hopes of getting new answers. Questions like, how can small businesses work smarter? How do you achieve balance between work and family? How can we redefine success in our businesses so that we don't burn out after year three? Every week, I sit down with business founders at various stages of their side hustle to small business journey.

These entrepreneurs are pushing the envelope while keeping their values. Keep listening for conversation, context, and camaraderie.

Today's guest is Josh Russell. Josh is an award winning photographer and the founder of Photognation, a photographer coaching service. Josh, welcome to the show.

[00:01:05] Josh Russell: How's it going, man? Thank you for having me. Sanjay, I'm really excited to be here and talk to you.

[00:01:10] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, I'm glad to have you on, as well. We've had, some photographers over time, but I think the things that you're doing are a little bit different, than some of the other folks that we've had. So I'm looking forward to diving deep into some of these, ideas and actions that you're taking. But before we get into that, give us a little bit about your background and what got you to where you are today.

[00:01:30] Josh Russell: Okay. I'll try to give you the cliff note version because it is a story for the ages.

I have, first off, I have friends that whenever they come around me, they're like, tell me something that I haven't learned about you yet, because there's that much in me. I'm, my name is Josh Russell. I run Josh Russell Studios, it's a photography and videography studio here in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

We also do stuff in Orlando, Florida, but more importantly, I have taken over the role of a instructor slash personal coach for photographers. So I teach photographers how to, do content creation, networking, how to build a business and do it successfully and as quick as possible. A little bit of rundown on how that happened.

Actually my, like I said, my quick story at 15 years old, I was actually homeless. My mom was in an abusive relationship. I got hung up into some bad stuff, and actually got into some trouble at 17 years old. 18 years old, I decided that's not the life that I wanted. So I actually started writing hip-hop music.

Turns out I was actually pretty good at it. I got signed to a independent record label in Atlanta, Georgia. I toured for 10 years doing shows everywhere. But what they don't tell you about independent record labels is they don't pay for anything. So if you need that, you only get paid when your album sales come in.

So if you need music video shot, if you need a promo material shot, you have to hire someone yourself. And I didn't have any money. So I was like, I'm going to teach myself how to do this. So I taught myself videography. I taught myself photography. I didn't realize that I wanted it to be a business. I was just trying to make my music career successful.

Other musicians started seeing my work and they were like, hey, we don't have money either. How much can you do it for? Can we get it done cheap? So it started there and it just spiraled into now I've been full time for eight years and I've been successfully over six figures for six of those eight years.

So from 15 to home and homeless to just turned 42 this past Saturday and running a successful photography business.

[00:03:35] Sanjay Parekh: I love that 42, the answer to everything. I don't know if you're a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. There you go. So fascinating. I want you to break into a song now, but we're not going to do that.

That's a different kind of podcast.

[00:03:54] Josh Russell: So I have one song on Spotify that has over 3 million plays on it. So still get, royalty checks once a month from that song. So I call that my, my plateau. And after that, it was all downhill from there. Yeah.

[00:04:06] Sanjay Parekh: I love it. See how close you were to being Lin Manuel Miranda, and you could have done Hamilton and then that royalty check is huge.

[00:04:16] Josh Russell: Yeah.

[00:04:17] Sanjay Parekh: Just takes the right thing. Yeah. Okay. So is this the first time it sounds like this might be the first time that you've done anything entrepreneurial? Although now it's been, a while since you've been doing this. Was there anything else that you'd done when you were younger that was entrepreneurial?

[00:04:33] Josh Russell: I've always had that hustler mentality my entire life. Even when I was doing bad stuff as a teenager, I was still the hustler, just not doing the good things. my music career, even though I was signed to a record label, I was in charge of everything myself. I did my own screen printing. I did my own embroidery for merchandise, set up all my own shows, did all my own booking. Basically the record label, all they did was facilitate like the recording space and, getting that type of stuff together. My music career was all pretty much entrepreneurial. I was doing it all myself, learning as much as I could.

And I've had always had that mentality that no matter what I do, and I actually drive my wife crazy when, because of this, because no matter what I do, I want to learn as much as I can about it. And I want to get as deep into everything. So anytime I'm like, hey, I saw this and she's oh, here we go again.

Like how much is it going to cost us? How much are you going to need to learn? What are we going to be doing? It's just been one of those things where I've always wanted to learn as much as I can. And that's the same with business. And, the only thing that I'm not really good at is the numbers.

Honest with that. Like I'll tell you, go talk to high schools and stuff about my story and I let them know right away. I'm like, don't ask me any numbers questions because I don't know any of that. But if you need to know how to, get more views on TikTok, I can probably help you with that.

Or if you need to learn how to make YouTube videos, I definitely can help you with that. So, it's one of those things like marketing and branding has always been passion of mine in my, small business is that's really where I've always focused. I guess I've always had the entrepreneurial spirit.

I just, I've never wanted to work for anybody. I've always wanted to be my own boss and make my own future and my own luck and, do it that way.

[00:06:14] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Do you regret, not still being in music now? Because this is a big switch from music to photography and videography. It's still a creative art, to some degree, but it's different.

[00:06:28] Josh Russell: It's one of those things where every now and then I'm like, man, I should just write another song just for fun. And then I start thinking about it deeper. I'm like, no, I'm like, once again, 42 years old. I don't really see myself up on stage doing what I used to do and stuff like that. So no, I'm good.

The cool thing about it is the, so the genre that I did was actually country rap. So I was a, rapper with like Banjo instruments and like acoustic guitars and stuff like that. So it was a mix of hip hop and country music and it's become really popular now. But when I was doing it a decade ago, there was only a handful of us. But from that I now work with one of the most well known record labels in Nashville with their artists to shoot photos and videos and stuff like that with them. So I have the connections from the music still that worked out and I use that to my success like, from that music connection, these people know who I am.

So I've built that, I guess you could call it brand recognition just through my name and with these record labels. And now they trust me to, to work for them.

[00:07:31] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, you need to land Beyonce and then you're, done. You only need one client at that point.

[00:07:36] Josh Russell: Oh, I would die to shoot Taylor Swift's photos.

It would be absolutely amazing. My, my son and daughter would love it, hate me and demand to come. But that's, that would be like a bucket list shot for me.

[00:07:48] Sanjay Parekh: You have built in people to carry your gear and everything.

[00:07:53] Josh Russell: They would be there just for the experience, for sure.

[00:07:56] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. When you were making this jump, and starting this, was there anything that made you nervous about basically shedding a business that you already knew and you were deep into for this thing that you hadn't gone to school for, had never done professionally, and, were just hustling and figuring out what made you nervous about it?

[00:08:19] Josh Russell: So it's funny because, so at the end of my music career, I wrote a song for a group, for a business for they built lifted trucks, so they put the big tires and wheels on these trucks. So I wrote a theme song for him. And from that, I actually got a job as their, graphic designer, their photographer. So I was doing music at the time and I was doing their graphic design.

I came up for my, 1 year review with. And he's well, we're going to offer you a promotion, but you're basically going to have to give up your, music. You're going to have to give up your, your small photography gigs and stuff you're doing because we're going to need you all the time.

And I don't know what it was, but, and he basically said, he's going to give me pretty much more money than I have ever, as my life would imagine that I'd make. But it didn't seem right. Not that I didn't like that job. I love that job. But without even thinking about it, I'm like, I can't do that. So I guess this is my two week notice.

And he wasn't shocked because he was the type of guy that he did the same thing to a business that he worked for that he made seven figures for and he, without even thinking, he's that's the answer that I wanted to give you. I'll give you any sort of support that you need to start your business.

So it wasn't any like monetary support or anything like that. But anytime I had a question, I would just reach out to him. He was running at that time. It went from under a hundred thousand dollars to a two point million dollar business, which ended up becoming like a 23 million business. So he had that same growth, but in a different aspect, a different niche.

So I leaned on him. I also leaned on the support of my wife. I left when I left that business, I had 5,000 in the bank account and I didn't know really how to run a business whatsoever. I just knew that I needed to make sure that I made enough to cover my bills that month to make it to the next month, and that's how I started doing it until I realized that's the absolute wrong way to do it.

But it was one of those things where I went from shooting photography in my basement to a 300 square foot studio to now a 1200 square foot studio, with a YouTube space and everything in it. So it was one of those things where I just tried to figure out how I could make. Enough each month to, to cover everything and then start making some profit as well.

And, go that way. So yeah, it was, an interesting ride. But now that's what I teach when I go to these workshops and conferences is how to do it the right way quicker instead of taking the long route that I did.

[00:10:57] Sanjay Parekh: So speaking of that, what are some common mistakes that you see photographers making?

Either being it on the business side or the execution side.

[00:11:07] Josh Russell: So one of the main things is worrying about imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is super big in the photography niche. Everybody thinks they're not good enough. Everybody thinks they're not strong enough to be a business. They don't have enough to teach other people.

And so I teach a lot of conferences. I go to a lot of conferences, throughout our conference season is usually January, February, March, April. So during those months, I'm, pretty much on the road all the time and I always teach classes and I, try to tell everyone content creation is key when it comes to photography.

You're more than welcome to be comfortable behind a camera, but you need to be in front of it. You need to, be making, even if they're faceless videos or anything like that. And they're like, well. I don't really have the knowledge to do that. And I'm like, something that somebody else does.

And even if you're just teaching one person, that person is going to talk about you to five other people. And that's how you grow as a photographer, especially in an industry where there are millions. Even me, there are six photography studios within a three block radius of my studio. And I live in a town of about 10, 000 people.

So you have to set yourself apart. You have to figure out what you can do to make sure that you're recognizable in a sea of photographers. And that's, one of the things that I really talk about is, getting over that imposter syndrome, being afraid to actually get out there and network and, talk to people and really just building your business, no matter if you think you're successful or not, if you're doing gigs, if you're getting

paid projects, you're successful. It's just how big do you want to be?

[00:12:48] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Imposter syndrome is something I think we see prevalent throughout. Everybody feels like that. I think at some point, just because is anybody going to find what I'm doing valuable? Are they going to pay for it all?

And a lot of times that manifests itself into what people ask for in terms of what they are providing, the, price, of what they're charging. And a lot of times the imposter syndrome causes you to reduce what it is because you're like, oh, nobody will pay that much. How do you think about that?

And how do you talk about that with other photographers? About making sure that they're charging the right amount to cover, the value of what they're actually providing and creating for folks.

[00:13:34] Josh Russell: One of those things that I always say is if you're not terrified, you're not charging enough. If you're not, if you're not afraid that you're never going to get another booking, you're not charging enough because honestly, when I, and, there's a circle around this because when I started charging more, the trouble clients went away.

So, there was less headaches. It was more just doing what I needed to do to get the job done and create it, focusing on my art side of things, instead of just, answering every little tiny question and stuff like that, I noticed when I started charging more that. The hassle of the jobs went down.

So I tell them, I'm like, you love your photography gig gigs, but you don't, maybe you don't like the clients or maybe you don't like the work that you're doing. Charge a little more and see if it changes the amount of people that are coming in. I typically, would say I turn down every three out of five projects that come line my way because I want to make sure that it aligns with what I do and I align with what they're looking for. And if I feel like it's not a perfect fit and now I've went from at one point I was doing between 35 and 40 weddings a year. I only do maybe three or four, currently because I'm doing more commercial work and as well as the educational and the coaching stuff.

But I do a lot of more, a lot more commercial work, headshots, work with high schools. So like athlete, athletic photography portraits. So the market, the, I'm more of a night micro niche photographer now, and I've really specified what I want to shoot. But when I did change that price range that I was in, I felt like the jobs were more lining up with what I was looking for.

They already, they were coming into meetings understanding what I did. And I, so then I already knew that they would accept my art. I just had to, configure it around what they were really looking for. Yeah. So yeah, if you're not charging, if you're not charging enough, you're not scared.

And if you're not scared, you're not charging enough.

[00:15:40] Adam Walker: I think that's a good way of thinking about it. Support for this podcast comes from Hiscox, committed to helping small businesses protect their dreams since 1990. Quotes and information on customized insurance for specific risks are available at Hiscox.com. Hiscox, the business insurance experts.

[00:16:05] Sanjay Parekh: So let's switch gears a little bit, talk about, how you manage and juggle all these things, especially around the stress of it all, right? So you've got the full time business of actually being a photographer. And then you've got this side thing of teaching other people how to do the same thing.

You've obviously got life and family and all of those kinds of things. I'm assuming the royalty check for the one song doesn't cover a lot of that. So you still got to keep hustling. So how do you manage the stress of making sure, everything is staying on track and you're getting everything done that you need to get done?

[00:16:42] Josh Russell: Recently, actually probably about a month or so ago, I changed the way that I do my daily work. And I went to more of, I guess you would call it more of like block scheduling for myself. So I schedule out 2 hours at a time throughout every day to focus on something. And when I do that, oh, let's get into that could be personal or business. So every morning I dropped my daughter off at 7:30. From 7:30 to 10:30 I go to the gym. I've been working out. So when I'm at the gym, I only focus on working out. I try not to look at emails. I try not to do any sort of business stuff at 10:30, from 12:30, I, record YouTube content. So I'll go to the coffee shop, I'll record some content, or I'll come back to the studio. I'll record some content.

From 12:30 to 2:30, I work on some sort of photography, some sort of editing, whether it's a wedding video or head shots or whatever it is. And then from 2:30 to 6:30, so that's a longer set is family time every day, pick my daughter from school, go have dinner, watch a little bit of tv. We're doing, and then from 6:30 to usually around 11:30 or so, I'll go back and I'll, start editing and do more stuff.

So I've been trying to create this block scheduling around it, where when I'm doing whatever the block is, I don't try to focus on anything else. And, so far it's been going really well, to keep me on track because that is definitely one of the biggest downfalls. Is I feel like entrepreneurialism and ADHD go hand in hand with each other because you're always trying to figure out, what's next, what can I do next?

What can I do to either make more or make it more successful or do something to grow the business or start a new business or start a side hustle? Because, at one time I was doing my photography, I launched a small clothing line based around my photography. It's called Motivated by Doubt Clothing, so I launched that clothing line.

It runs itself by itself on the side, but I'm also creating templates to say, sell, I'm creating contract templates and forms and different Canva projects to sell and doing podcasts like my own podcast and shooting videos and doing everything so that If you can't streamline stuff, and I also am big on delegating work too.

So I will outsource a lot of my stuff now too. All my photo editing is still in house, because I want to make sure that I touch all of that. But yeah, I definitely am big in outsourcing as well.

[00:19:16] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. That's interesting. Kind of some of what you're thinking about and how you think about all of this stuff.

Those boundaries for you to, they seem like pretty clear, right? So 2 30 to 6 30. Hey, that's it. That's family time. The problem I think for a lot of entrepreneurs is, and you touch on this is, that ADHD that we have, right? Opportunities all the time. So how do you track those for yourself?

Because it's really easy for us as entrepreneurs. We see something then oh, let me just do a little bit of research. And then you next thing, it's three hours later and, it's oh my God, I have so many other things to do. So do you do anything to track those ideas that you have? Be like, okay, one day I'm going to think about this or when I have time, I'm going to.

[00:20:08] Josh Russell: Yeah. So I, well, first of all, my notepad and my phone is just filled with random ideas. Like it's note after note, where that even becomes its own task of keeping track of all of that. But it's, yeah, I'll, Sundays are family day. I don't do anything on Sunday. Saturdays are like a free day.

I also do Thursdays as a free day where I can work on whatever comes up and stuff like that. Yeah, I, definitely try to keep that in there, but then what I'll also do is every evening. At some point, usually about an hour, I'll spend on social media, commenting on stuff, liking pictures, sharing my own content, doing anything like that to keep my name relevant in social media, whether it's TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels.

And those are my three main right now. But then at that time would also be where I'd be on my laptop kind of strolling and trying to find information and stuff like that It's one of those things where I never realized giving up a nine to five would create a midnight to midnight. Where I'm working non stop instead of just the eight hours a day like you go from I want to quit my job to have more freedom and then you just lose that all until you get to a spot where everything's comfortable again.

[00:21:20] Sanjay Parekh: So right. Yeah, but I think the difference is that we really do enjoy what we do, right? It's not really work, at some point, but I, think what you're talking about is, the hidden side of entrepreneurship that a lot of people don't see, right? They see the, oh, the fancy side of it.

Oh, you make all this money and you don't have to do any work. And it's well, but there's a lot that goes into getting to that point. And nobody writes articles about that because that's just, that's awful, a lot of times.

[00:21:52] Josh Russell: That's the exact opposite that I do write about. Like my newest YouTube video I just put out was how uncomfortable I am talking in public to a camera.

And I gave steps on how to be comfortable being uncomfortable talking to a camera. So that's one of the things that I try to focus on one of the classes that I used to teach at conferences was how to pose and work with, what you. Consider awkward looking couples. So like a really tall, groom and a short bride or something like that.

It's one of those things where not a lot of people talk about. So that's really what I like to do. And I, try not to get, not to gatekeep any information. So I will just lay everything out on the table if somebody asked me. So yeah, the awkward stuff and the hard to talk about stuff, that's where I thrive.

I like to, because I, like I said, I literally came from nothing and have everything because I wanted it. And I pushed for it and I pushed through people saying that I wouldn't do it. And people saying that I couldn't do it both with music and photography. It was one of those things where, and that's why my clothing line is called motivated by doubt because everybody doubted me, everybody didn't think that I could do it because I didn't finish high school.

I didn't go to college. I didn't, have any financial backing behind me. I had literally nothing and I made it work and I figured out a way to be a legal hustler and make it work and be successful.

[00:23:13] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah, I've never thought about the challenges of photography and a tall, person in a short person being like, and having to do it.

And like that, makes sense. And probably you're right. Nobody really talks about that because you just have to deal with it on the fly. But if you can actually plan for it, that's a great thing, which is just like entrepreneurship, right? If you think about these hard situations and know how you're going to deal with them, it makes it just that much easier.

And that's part of the reason why we do this podcast. Is it, helps people think about those things? But let's switch gears before I get to my final questions for you, since you're a photographer and been doing this, what's like the cool technology products, something like that out there that you're like, oh, people should get one of these.

Even if they're not a photographer or something that's about to come out that we should keep our eyes on. Is there something that is top of your mind of oh, people should, people don't know about this, but should.

[00:24:11] Josh Russell: Well for the photographers that are listening, your lighting is the most important thing.

Invest in your lighting. You can see it in my video. You'll see it in my photos. I teach lighting, as far as just small business in general, learn how to adapt with AI. And use it as your friend instead of being afraid of it. I use AI 90 percent of my day throughout some way or another.

I've even created my own, extensions for AI for, things like chat GPT, where you can, I created an extension that you can add onto your own chat GPT, that is basically me answering questions. I went and I designed it to answer questions like Josh Russell would about photography. If you ask it anything other than photography related stuff or content creation, it'll actually get you back to a photographer.

It'll be like, well, I don't really know about that. So let's talk about this instead. So I designed this whole, GPT to work around photographers where they can go in and they can ask questions that they want answers. The same with my online course that they, a lot of photographers have online courses where it's just a library of videos, but mine is actually direct coaching with me, every other week we do a live stream. They have access to me at all times pretty much to ask questions, but yeah, learn how to use a, AI. To your, advantage, instead of being afraid of it, whether it's automation with emails, automation with contract scripting, whether it's, figuring out lighting by using, AI image creation, I've done that where I've I said, okay, I'm going to be photographing a motorcycle rider.

In a back alley with graffiti, show me the lighting for how I would set this up. And I create an image through, through an AI program. And then I'm like, okay, well, I see how the lighting is there. So when I get to the actual spot, I'll know how to light it. So I use AI a lot. I think that it's very, important to, to use it to our advantage and not let it scare us right now.

[00:26:12] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Yeah. Any, camera or lens or something like that, that, regular, consumer or pro-consumer should be looking at to add to their arsenal?

[00:26:23] Josh Russell: Honestly, the best camera you can have is the one that you already have, whether it's your phone, whether it's a camera you own, whether it's a beginner camera, it doesn't matter at, especially if you're just a beginner.

It's more about the passion. My number one thing that I teach is composition though. So instead of just seeing the person that's in the photo, look at the entire photo, what's in the background, what's in the foreground, are your, horizons level, are there distractions out of the way, if you can move left or right to hide a distraction or get it out of your shot, focus on that.

I'm more about what's in the photo than what's then how you're taking the photo with experience that comes, your photos will look better. Your editing will get better, the things that you can fix right away are the ones that your eye sees. So like I said, composition, distractions, things like that.

[00:27:14] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Okay. One last question for you. You've had a lot that's happened over the last 30 plus years. If you could go back in time and do something differently, what is that and why?

[00:27:29] Josh Russell: It's a double answer because the first one would be, I'd go back to my teenage years and stop telling me to stop being an idiot and focus on business sooner. The other thing is I would have focused on content creation when I first learned about it. So I started a YouTube channel in 2010. I didn't start building it until 2019. And I didn't do anything with it. I put one video out every six months now, currently I'm doing great numbers like it's growing fast because I'm focused on it.

I'm releasing a video two videos every week. I'm doing photography and my YouTube videos are based around my photography projects. So I'll shoot a foot a client work and then I'll go recreate it in a video or I'll shoot behind the scenes at the video at the actual project and then go overdub talking about it.

Or I'll show editing skills. And this is the stuff that I wish that I would have been doing the entire time that I was learning myself, because like I tell everybody, you might not know everything, more than one other person. And at that time I did, but I didn't think that. So I did, I was like, well, I'll just make videos when I can and of what I know, and I should have just, if I learned something, I should make a video because somebody else's might, might be looking as well.

So content creation, I should have started a long time ago. But honestly, I'm okay with where I'm at now because now, like I said, I'm, 42. There are a lot of entrepreneurial entrepreneurs right now that are in their twenties. Photographer wise, they're in their twenties, personally feel like I have a little bit of leverage over them.

Because I've lived the life I've been there, so I'm not, hating on the younger entrepreneurs at all. But if you're trying to learn the entire span of photography. I'm 42 years old. I've been doing it for 20 years now. I have the experience, I have the know how. So yes, you can learn from those people, but also if you can lean on the, older aged people too, that, that have lived it then and come my way for sure.

[00:29:36] Sanjay Parekh: Yeah. Yeah, I love it. Josh, this has been fantastic. Where can our listeners find and connect with you online?

[00:29:43] Josh Russell: So my socials is, iamjoshrussell, RUSSELL two L's, everywhere. So TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or X Facebook, the only one that isn't is YouTube and that is Josh Russell.

I was lucky enough because when I started in 2010, nobody had the actual, my name and I've thought multiple times to change it, to match everything else. And I'm like, I am lucky enough to have my name as a YouTube channel. I am never changing that. So it's, I am Josh Russell. Iamjoshrussell.com everywhere, email.

Hello@IamJoshRussell. Go ahead and send me something if you want to say hi. And then also my online course and my coaching is the PHOTOGNATION, which is P H O T O G N A T I O N dot com.

[00:30:31] Sanjay Parekh: Awesome. Thanks so much for being on today.

[00:30:33] Josh Russell: Thank you so much, Sanjay, for having me. This has been fun. Love chatting and meeting more people.

Like I said, any of the listeners that are listening, hit me up. Let's talk. I'd love to just, chat.

[00:30:46] Sanjay Parekh: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Side Hustle to Small Business podcast, powered by Hiscox. To learn more about how Hiscox can help protect your small business through intelligent insurance solutions, visit Hiscox.com. And to hear more Side Hustle to Small Business stories, or share your own story, please visit Hiscox.com/side-hustle-to-small-business. I'm your host, Sanjay Parekh. You can find out more about me at my website, SanjayParekh.com.