Sarah Petty: I am super excited for today and I’ve never done a podcast like this, but today is a really exciting time where I’m talking to two of my peak performance coaching students who made a post, and I’m going to read this post. Allie Cline, who’s here with me, and Jenn White have become friends, but Allie made a post and she said, “Never did I imagine I could connect with so many people in my industry that’s often cut-throat and full of gatekeepers, nor did I imagine I could find a best friend in another state. That’s what Peak does and I’m so thankful for so many of you and Sarah and her team for building this community of dreams and wins, and thank you for bringing me a bestie in Jenn White.” I love these two ladies. Two random people who are miles apart, live in different states, never knew each other before this and now are our besties.
Why don’t you guys start by introducing yourselves? Allie, why don’t you start and share a little bit about who you are, where you live, and then Jenn, you can go.
Allie Cline: I’m Allie Cline and I live in Eastern North Carolina. I’m a mom of three boys and I am a full-time photographer, mostly photographing family, small children and high school seniors.
Jenn White: I am Jenn White. I own Jenny Art Studios in Delaware. I am a mama to four girls and I homeschool. I do mostly maternity and newborn photography and just been off and on over the years and just got serious with it when I met Sarah.
Sarah Petty: That is amazing. So for both of you, in the past, before you met each other and came into our program, did you have photographer friends in your market?
Jenn White: I did and I still do. I am friendly and go to events, but I find that largely, no one is actually supportive of your business. A lot of times, we’ll share information and things and then you’ll see you’re blocked from a post and they’re doing what your idea was or things like that. I want to be cautious because I do love people and I genuinely want to show up for them and support them, no matter what, but I found that I wasn’t really getting the same thing.
Allie Cline: As we know, the market is super saturated with photographers and the attempt to differentiate ourselves sometimes leads who might have once been friends to drift away and become competitors. Sometimes that line between friendship and competitor blurs and creates conflict. I have had photographer friends in the past but those relationships never panned out after a year or so, and so it’s a different feeling.
Sarah Petty: Have either of you experienced negativity once you transitioned to boutique?
Jenn White: Definitely, yeah. I’m pretty shut out of the community at this point. Some of the girls that I was pretty close to laughed at me and made fun of me for investing in myself. It’s just a different mentality in what our focus and goals are.
Allie Cline: I had people tell me “This is ridiculous. No one would ever pay for something like that. How can you agree with charging anybody that amount?” And they just look at it very differently, and their money is sensitive and I know you teach us a lot about mindset and how to overcome some of those objections in our own values that we were brought up with, and so trying to explain that to someone who’s not receptive or not ready to hear that can create a barrier between you two, and that’s the situation that happened with me.
Sarah Petty: That caught me by surprise because I didn’t ever have that experience because I was doing it before I even knew other photographers, so I didn’t even question it. Our first course that students do and they come into our world and they want to grow their business is called Boutique Breakthrough. Did you guys do Boutique Breakthrough together?
Allie Cline: Yes.
Sarah Petty: Did you become friends there? Is that where the friendship started?
Allie Cline: Yeah, so we actually started a little Facebook group chat with us and three other girls that were going through the program along with us, and over time, they left the program on their own timeline. But we remained friends out of that and just cheered each other on and built each other’s success.
Sarah Petty: Boutique Breakthrough is like boot camp. You’re in these deep waters and you can be there alone or you can be there together, and I love hearing that, because in every course, I have some leaders who emerge and they rally the troops. Because you do get so many negative voices from the outside world when you do something like this because it is different. What was your story at home?
Jenn White: I think that’s part of what me and Allie may have bonded over a little bit, that our husbands and our family want to support us and they tell us, “Yes, we’re supporting you,” but then actions don’t always follow just because life happens. I am very driven and motivated and I want to hit my goals, so they know when I don’t, I’m going to focus on that and I’m going to be pushing hard. It was nice to find a friendship that was that, as opposed to what was happening at home.
Allie Cline: It was like we were in our own little supportive circle and only we knew and understood really what we were doing. When we were having naysayers or feeling like our spouses or families weren’t being as supportive as we felt they should be, we had each other to really lean on and to depend on, and so that really helped a lot.
Sarah Petty: What we do as boutique portrait photographers is different from what the market’s been trained to do. So you guys went to Peak together, so after Boutique Breakthrough, people have the opportunity to go on to Peak Performance Coaching, which is a 12-month coaching program. When did you guys realize, “We’re going to be besties”?!
Allie Cline: It was the first immersion when we met each other right after Go Boutique Live, right after we signed up for Peak. I got off the airplane and she and one of the other Peaks at the time were right there waiting at my gate, and we had been talking all along but it was just an immediate connection.
Jenn White: We are opposites in the weirdest ways and absolutely identical in others, and it’s so funny how we watch that play out. Just where I was and where Allie was I think when we came into the program and where we are now, we’re totally different people, and I would attribute that a lot to Peak but also to just having that just really undeniable support. We know that if there is a problem or if we’re struggling, we deal with things a lot in the same way so we can see it in each other and stop it before it gets too far, which is really crazy and has been amazing for me in my life as a whole. Even as a mom and as a wife and just in my community and things, it’s really helped.
Sarah Petty: Jenn, how are you navigating a full-time business and homeschooling four girls?
Jenn White: It is a lot and I don’t do it super well all the time. Allie can attest to that, but we juggle things.
Sarah Petty: And you’re making legit money. Your goal is six figures this year, correct?
Jenn White: Yep.
Sarah Petty: Which is so amazing. You’re able to find a balance. When you’re out of balance, you have Allie to go to.
Jenn White: I always say that it’s juggling, but instead of dropping the balls, I know I’m doing okay if I can say I’m going to put this one down for the day, or this one down. I’ve been able to make those choices and feel like I’m not juggling out of control and dropping everything everywhere. It’s very much more intentional now, and I’m okay with that. Having somebody like Allie on board who also knows the plan and can pull me back on course, and she’s not my husband or someone so it doesn’t feel like, “Oh my gosh, be quiet.” Because sometimes it can feel that way when a family member or your husband is pointing you back, but with a friend, it’s nice because we know we’re on the same path and we’re pulling ourselves back together, if that makes sense, and headed in the same direction.
Sarah Petty: Allie, do you feel like because you have each other, you don’t have to take all the insecurities and feelings that we feel as women and in our business to your husband?
Allie Cline: Yeah, absolutely. With Jenn, I can just go to her and be like, “Hey, what do you think about this situation? Help me out because I don’t know what to say or I don’t know what to do.” And vice versa, Jenn does the same with me and we just beat off of each other and build that. And when you’re in the workplace, you talk about having a work wife, and Jenn is my Peak wife.
Sarah Petty: I love that. The goal is that when you have that support system, it should in theory make your marriage stronger, because you can tuck in your issue, you solve it with your person, your team, whomever. And then you can go home happy and not have to even talk about it. How often do you guys talk and what does that look like?
Jenn White: Every day, all day. On 10 different platforms and 10 different conversations. It’s awesome.
Sarah Petty: So you’re doing life together.
Allie Cline: We have three chats going on Messenger somehow, some way, and then we also have FaceTime and our regular text messages and phone calls when we can’t get a good signal. We see each other occasionally outside of Immersion, so that’s been really great.
Sarah Petty: That is so cool. So looking back to before you had this friendship, who did you turn to for all of that?
Allie Cline: I turned to my husband, which wasn’t the best.
Sarah Petty: Has he noticed a difference in you?
Allie Cline: Absolutely. I don’t have to come to him with as many problems, unless it’s something I’m really stressing out about and he can tell I’m stressing. But most of the time and if it’s anything business related, he’s just celebrating wins with me.
Sarah Petty: What are your goals for the year for your business, Allie?
Allie Cline: I wanted to match my salary, and I am about $10,000 away from that this year, so I am really close.
Sarah Petty: That is so fabulous. So working a day job, doubling it doing what you love. Do you want to one day quit that job or do you like the balance or the variety?
Allie Cline: No, that was my goal, to leave, so I needed to prove to myself that I could match that salary. So I’ll be hanging out just a little bit longer, but hopefully by next year, I’ll be there.
Sarah Petty: Wow, what a gift!
Allie Cline: Yeah, absolutely. I know if I can do this 16 to 20 hours a week, then why would I need to work a full-time job if I can already match my salary?
Sarah Petty: Yeah, that’s cool. One of the reasons I wanted to bring you guys on just to share with everybody is because when I look at our community it is truly just amazing. I thought I was just going to create a business course to teach people how to run their business, and it has grown into something so much bigger because of people like you.
This brings me so much happiness. I look at things I’ve done that are important and just sitting here having this conversation, I am so happy. All the failures I’ve had and the things I have gone through to have this was worth it because it brought people like you two together. It’s the program I created that facilitated this amazing friendship. It’s not just you two, it’s so many others, and I’m just so grateful for you coming on and sharing your story. I know somebody out there is listening and feeling alone, feeling different, feeling like they don’t fit in, like nobody gets them. When you feel like that, you feel like you’re the wrong one, but your people are out there. There are people just like you who want to cheer for you and be your biggest fan and not have to be pulling you down and having the resistance.
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