Today I am hanging out with Shay Cochrane, owner of The SC Stockshop. We’re talking through her career changes, what her days look like now and how she pushed past the fear of taking a leap of faith that led her to her dream job, a job of creating beautiful stock images for entrepreneurs in any industry.
Shay is generously giving Goal Digger listeners a discount in her shop with the code:GOALDIGGER15 for 15% off in the SC Stockshop from February 1st until the end of the year!
SHOW NOTES
Shay’s first eight years were spent, as she describes, as a mediocre wedding and portrait wedding photographer. It’s when she started to have kids that she realized that her love for wedding photography was starting to fade and it didn’t fit with her life anymore.
Around that same time she moved to Florida and was surrounded by a ton of talented photographers, which she admits made her realize that her heart was not in it anymore. It was then that she decided to take a leap into commercial work and product styling.
“I really didn’t have any experience with it but thought I could do it, I thought it looked cool and I just wanted to give it a try” (1:57)
As Shay reached out to her first client and started, she discovered that she loved it and she decided to go completely in that direction and figure it out as she went.
She never felt organic creative inspiration as a wedding photographer, like she does now. Shay adds that the reason why she didn’t want to walk away was because she felt she would be walking away from money.
“I knew that it was time to move away from it and then once I tried it and got my hands dirty with product styling, I knew” (4:51)
The hardest part of the transition for her was the pride aspect. She says she had to learn to let go of the pride that she had from having an established business for 8 years, and move in another direction that felt more natural to her. That is when her stock photo business started to take off.
“There is just something that photographs bring in that add a sort of human touch to a brand that I think I’ve always thought was really just interesting” (13:20)
The evolution of the images in the stock shop is an evolution of growing it herself, having more resources over time and be able to make better propping decisions for more polished, professional, high-end look.
“As the business has grown, it’s been really exciting to be able to invest more into what I’m styling in so that the content of the images is better” (18:11)
Shay feels that as a business owner you have to listen to your audience and their needs and then respond, and she has worked on becoming a better listener and to listen to her gut when fulfilling the needs of her audience.
“I think we would all do so well to really train ourselves to stop and listen to our gut about the way something looks” (25:02)
She arranges her schedule on a 14-hour week, spread over two days and has an employee that also works the same schedule. The decision to work only two days a week comes from what was the best fit for her family and also for her creatively.
According to her, her time is best spent on shooting new material and that is what she has been focusing on. Projects take her a long time to finish because of the schedule she imposes on herself but she has learned to live with that as well.
When an opportunity comes along, Shay makes sure to only say yes when she feels it will be a fulfilling experience for her.
“If you feel like you can never say no or you feel like you have to meet whatever needs are presented to you, then you don’t really own your business” (38:48)
LINKS:
Shay’s Website
Shay’s Instagram
SC Stock Shop Website
SC Stock Shop Instagram
SC Stock Shop Facebook
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