 I quit my corporate job to go full-time freelancer and I cannot believe I'm saying that right now. I have been wanting to say this for forever, do it for forever and I'm just so incredibly thankful that it's actually happening. But before we get into everything I thought I would share some details of how I got here today. For those who are new here my name is Sinali and I am 25 years old currently living in Austin, Texas. I did go to UCF University of Central Florida in Orlando for college and I majored in radio television. I dreamed about being a sorority ever since high school so I got to college and immediately went through recruitment and was very involved in my sorority. I was a capital to there and I was PR for two years so it was public relations on their exact and that is where I got really involved with photography and videography especially because at all their events I was filming and taking photos and I actually got to do a couple of our recruitment videos which was so special to me. So I actually started my youtube channel in 2013 so I was in high school so I had like a DSLR and I was pretty into photography and videography at the time but this kind of gave me more of a purpose and I started really investing my money into like getting the best of the best like the bodies the lenses and all of that like microphones for videography so that was really fun for me too. I think it was my sophomore year one of my sorority sisters asked me if I would do her grad photos and how much I would charge and I think that was like one of the first times I actually got paid for photography so when grad season rolled back around I decided to market myself for doing more grad photos and that's kind of where my business took off. After graduating from UCF in 2019 my boyfriend and I moved to Austin Texas where we're currently living and he got a job in tech sales while I came here without a job. I was looking for a job not actively though because I was like low-key hoping to pursue photography and videography full time and I didn't know how I was gonna do it but I was willing to work my ass off so like right when I came here I networked a bunch I met up with a few photographers and got advice from them I really tried to you know make this a full-time gig but February rolls around and my oldest sorority sister tells me that her company is hiring. It was actually a company I already did some freelance work for in college so I was kind of familiar with the company and kind of just like the culture and I was definitely interested in getting a stable paycheck I mean I was doing pretty good for just moving to Austin with my photography business but I was definitely you know wanting a stable paycheck so it's a student housing business based in Athens, Georgia which was kind of crazy because Ryan went to UGA so I was familiar with like the location and everything but the position wasn't remote at first but they made it remote for me thank god because I I don't know I could not live in Athens, Georgia I would definitely not relocate from Austin to Athens. I was originally hired to travel to property sites to take photos videos for marketing and ads and to do 360 Matterport tours and drone videos and all that fun stuff but since COVID hit literally a month after I got hired I did a lot of video editing for properties that already had footage or they would send us iPhone videos so that I could make it into a montage for the TVs and the leasing offices or just like YouTube ads, Snapchat ads all that kind of stuff and I also did the corporate social media whether that was like coming up with content ideas getting the content making the captions I am not the best writer and the captions were the worst part of my day and I would try to like write all the captions in one day and it would just like never happen but obviously I did have help from my boss because my voice was just not corporate enough. My team was honestly so amazing and whenever I would visit headquarters like everyone was so welcoming and super nice. I think my biggest hesitation for quitting the job was you know what if I failed this was like the best job I could have gotten out of college and I was scared to lose it. Fast forward to summer 2021 I was really considering quitting my job and going full-time freelance. Sorry about the lighting it's getting so bright in here all of a sudden I was really trying to film this at like the perfect time but I guess I missed it because it's it's like literally blinding me but anyways. Another thing I forgot to mention was the schedule of this job was like so good. It was like a little too good. Basically I was part-time actually at this job so I worked from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and it was Monday through Thursday so I did not work any Fridays and I was sure to make that a content day. That's where I would film all my TikToks sit-down videos any kind of like brand deals I would try to get done on Fridays. Even with like this flexible kind of a schedule I still don't really feel like I had any time for myself because even after 3 p.m. I would go straight to a photography shoot and probably shoot until sunset and then I would come home and have dinner and then probably edit photos and it's just like there was never any time for anything. Don't get me wrong I actually love to be busy because I feel like when I stay busy I am more productive because I don't have time to be lazy and I don't have time to procrastinate but at the end of the day it was just like a little bit too much and something I had to give. By the time I decided I wanted to quit I actually had some December travel booked on my calendar so I knew I had to wait till December 2 actually quit. So I gave my notice the Monday of Thanksgiving week and my last day was on December 13th. So that's a little background on me and my story and I asked you guys to ask me questions on Instagram in case you wanted to know anything specific about you know this whole situation so let's get into it. The first question was what was your deciding factor to take the leap? I was just getting overwhelmed with an overflowing to-do list for so long I was like scared to lose that stable paycheck but I've been on Austin for three years and have had steady business and clients and all that and I feel like I've really made a name for myself here with my photography business. So between my Sonali Productions income and all my brand deals affiliate links I was just financially ready to do so. The next question is what did you do to prep and I didn't really prep to be honest I think again it was just more of a financial decision. It was definitely easier to save money because I had multiple streams of income so I think it was just figuring out if it was financially doable. Other than that I did talk to my parents and kind of get their advice on what they think was best and speaking of the next question is were your parents supportive? So I told my mom first and she was definitely supportive from the start. She told me might as well quit my job because I have one more year on her insurance because I'm 25 and it ends at 26 and by the way I was part-time like I said so I didn't get insurance from my company so I was still on my mom's insurance. When I told my dad he called me a dummy but for good reason because he was just explaining financially why I should have kept the job but when I have something in my mind that I want to do I'm pretty stubborn and like I'm going to do it. So even though his reasons were very valid and very good points I was just like I have to quit and obviously he was definitely supportive of it. How has the process been building your platforms while working in corporate? How have you managed it? Honestly I don't even know how I've managed it but I think it was very similar to college because I had an intern while having a job, while being on my sororities exec, while doing freelance photography, while keeping up with my YouTube and Instagram. So nothing really changed that much if anything I actually have less to do now post-grad than I did in college but I will say that me and Ryan were actually long distance in college which sucked but I was grateful in a way because I didn't have to add him in the mix of like everything I had to juggle. I mean I obviously still had to like go see him and he would come see me but on a daily basis I didn't have to like choose whether I was going to you know edit our video or hang out with my boyfriend or hang out with my friends or hang out with my boyfriend and that was kind of nice. But now I definitely have to be more intentional with the time I'm spending with him because I feel like I'm definitely a little bit of a workaholic because it's like work that I like to do and I don't really feel like it's work because it's fun for me to edit photos and vlog and edit vlogs and all that kind of stuff so I don't really realize I'm working but I think that's definitely going to be one of my new year's resolutions is to kind of just like make more of a structure for myself where I can have time for boyfriend time and maybe taking my dog to the park because I feel like I don't take Sophie to the park very often and that needs to change because she's a good girl and she deserves it. Next question is are you going to do wedding photos now? No. I tried it, it was not for me. I started second shooting when I got to Austin because I thought I wanted to go into the wedding industry but I was very wrong because those eight hour days are brutal and also I was just not down with the fact that I had to work on the weekends because obviously majority of weddings are on Saturdays so if I was shooting on a Saturday I couldn't like really go out and drink on Friday because like what if I was hungover and I wouldn't want that to be a thing and then on Sunday your body is like completely in rest mode because you were literally standing for eight hours straight so I was just like not about that wedding photography life I loved shooting weddings just because they're so beautiful and everything's so perfect but it just like wasn't worth it for me so I'm sticking to grads and everything else like I literally shoot pretty much everything like engagements families what else high school seniors literally everything headshots except for weddings so if you're ever in the Austin area or if you live in Austin definitely hit me up on my photography account and you can like DM me for my rates and we can get talking about dates that kind of ride that was kind of cute the next question is how do you find a discipline to be on camera when you're not feeling great so I'm planning to have like a few days a week where I batch content so that I don't have to be on camera all the time because that just does not sound very fun although I am planning on getting ready every single day like actually putting on makeup whether it's like very minimal makeup just maybe like mascara a little bit of like cc cream I don't know I'm not really a cc cream girl so I don't know why I said that but like I don't know just like something to make me look and feel a little bit more alive because I swear whenever I put on makeup even if it's a computer day I am 100% more productive so I definitely need to get ready and not just be in like sweats like I need to like put on like nice clothes and get ready for the day I want to start freelance photography but I don't have any experience any advice I would highly recommend to offer friends and families free photo shoots in return for exposure on social media I actually did a whole video on how to get freelance clients in a new city I highly recommend you check it out I gave all my secrets of how I kind of established my photography business here in Austin so I will link it down below but offering free shoots is great because you're building your portfolio while getting exposure and word of mouth is so important in the photography industry I feel like I've gotten so many of my clients either through word of mouth or Instagram speaking of Instagram you definitely need to have a page for your photography business and you need to be posting consistently on it which I am not the best at but this year I'm gonna get better at it I swear I would also consider making a TikTok and like filming behind the scenes of photo shoots and then putting like your photos at the end just kind of like marketing your work because honestly majority of my clients like I said I get through social media will you be vlogging more now that you have quit I would love to make weekly vlogs a thing like consistently every single week I would put out like a weekly vlog what do you guys think about that should I do weekly vlogs or would you rather me split it up between like a couple days here a couple days here and make them a little bit shorter but like more vlogs or just one long vlog let me know in the comments I really want to focus more on evergreen content so that means like sit down videos or reviews like the juicer video I just posted that was so fun for me to film even though I know it might not get that many views but I know it's going to help someone out that's looking for that juicer so I definitely want to do some more informative videos and sharing my life experiences but of course I'll be keeping up the vlogs because those are my favorite to watch what is the next step for you I first need to tackle that never ending to do list but I also want to kind of just like set a structure for my day I feel like I'm a very structured person I like to be in my own home and have my own routine and now that I'll have more time I won't have any excuses so I really want to make going to the gym and working out my priority and get back on my health grind and I really want to get into healthy eating again I'm not sure really what that looks like so I'm definitely gonna need to do a little bit more research but I'm just like not feeling the best about myself right now and I know that if I put in a little bit of work like I'm going to see results so I'm really excited to just start that off in the new year I'm also wanting to switch up my branding meaning like fonts and the colors of my brand I don't know if you've ever noticed but all my thumbnails are kind of like similar fonts similar colors and I don't know if I want to keep those colors or what but I just feel like I need to hire someone to kind of like lay it all out there for me so that it can be like as efficient in the future for me making thumbnails not really having to think about what font or what color or how it's going to be laid out I feel like I'm creative but not in that artistic way I wish I was but if you guys know of any really good graphic designers that do branding let me know DM me on Instagram I would love to check out their work and possibly work with them speaking of branding I'm also wanting to do a full on branding photo shoot next year I feel like I always take my photos with myself like I'll do like a self-portrait situation or Ryan will take my photos but I want to hire a photographer to take my photos we'll rent out a space and I'll have like a couple outfits and first of all it'll be so fun and second of all I just need new photos of myself like really good headshots for media kits or just my social media profiles I feel like I've had the same profile picture for so long now and it's only like a profile in my face like this so I definitely need to look into that and I'm really excited to start planning that out for photography grad season is quickly approaching I think my first session might be in like January or February so if you guys know anyone in the Austin area definitely go send them my profile at Sonali Productions is my photography account and I'll definitely be focusing a lot of time for marketing for that so that wraps up this video if you guys have any other questions be sure to comment them down below and I'll answer them and I also wanted to give you guys a huge thank you because without you I probably would not have been able to go full-time and I'm just really really excited about all the content that I'm going to create for you guys in the future I'm going to list out all the accounts that you can follow me on through this journey because I have quite a bit so we got Instagram we got TikTok both of those are so underscore gnarly you can subscribe to me here on YouTube for vlogs and then you can also follow my amazon storefront which I update like pretty much daily now I'm obsessed with Amazon as some people would say I'm addicted but there's so much good stuff on my amazon storefront from home decor to jewelry to kitchen stuff glass where all of that fashion pieces it's all there so definitely go check that out and follow me because I sometimes go live on Amazon and you can get notified when I go live there and then lastly you can follow me on my like to know it profile this is kind of like where bloggers and youtubers and scammers anything like that will post their exact links for their outfit so if you guys have ever wondered where anything's from on my instagram page it's most likely linked on my like to know it and a huge thank you to anyone who's ever used any of my affiliate links in the past and in the future it really truly means a lot to me and I'm just so grateful for you guys so I guess that's it of this video and I will end it here but definitely go follow me on all my other social platforms to kind of just stay updated in my everyday life and I will see y'all in my next video bye