Taking the LEAP OF FAITH wisely.

In this post we want to dive into how Marissa and I decided to take the Leap of Faith wisely.

-

We think when people hear our story that it can lead them to focusing on the right things on at the wrong time. Let us explain.

Before even considering quitting our jobs, Marissa and I began to live out a routine that let us know as much about photography and videography as possible. We would come back from our day jobs at 5pm, eat some food, then from 7pm to12am or 2am in the morning we would stay up at her apartments MAC lab (because we didn't have wifi at my place) to jump onto YouTube university and soak in and apply as much knowledge as we could. And we did this repeatedly Monday through Friday and on the weekends we would go out and shoot for fun or do free shoots for practice.

The thought to quit or jobs only came to us after we received our first ever $5 from a total stranger who just happened to see us in our zone after shooting for a local rapper. That's when the gears in our minds started to switch.

(us after receiving our first ever $5 dollar bill after a shoot)

We didn't know it at the time, but we were doing "Market Research" and seeing if there was actually a demand for our services. Once we connected the dots to this, and consistency landing a few gigs on the side, is when we actually decided to commit fully into taking the steps to quit.

Hold up. This is where we think a few of our listeners get hit with the "Sugar Rush" of listening to our leap of faith story. You see it wasn't until six months later from deciding to quit our jobs that we actually went ahead and did it. It wasn't because we were afraid, but we did set two stipulations for ourselves to actually go ahead and "pull the trigger" (insert Russ's song here. If you don't know what we are talking about, its a dope song and we would recommend it).

You see. We decided that before doing this crazy thing, we would have to set AND reach a crazy goal. So we decided to try to save $10,000 AND wait until the end of the school year (I was a high school teacher at the time and didn't want to leave my students hanging) before fully committing. What was mind-blowing to us was that the hunger of being our own bosses pushed us that much harder to obtain our monetary goal (which we ended up achieving after 2 months). We were mind blown.

What truly was the hardest part was waiting the additional 4 months before saying peace-out-girl-scout.

There were days that we really just wanted to bounce, but we stayed the course and enjoyed the little extra that we did make by going out to eat every once in a while because we both knew we were about to enter a season where getting take out Chinese food would be considered a delicacy (and still is to us! the struggle be real sometimes.)

One constant voice that helped us during this time (and still helps us get back on track) is our main go to guy by the name of Gary Vee. And honestly, it all boils down to patience. If you want to do something you have never done before, like quitting your 9 to 5 and going full time on something you do love, then we recommend that you DO something that YOU have never done before AND be patient. This type of lifestyle is hard af but it is also very rewarding. You are going to have to give up a lot of things that you may or may not want to give up, but if you commit your whole heart to it, then go for it. Learn from the lows, embrace the highs and keep rolling with the punches.

Now go do you fam. We will be rooting for you no matter what you decide to do ^-^