#279: Fired, Broke and Starting Over: How This Small Town Mom Made $14K with Her Camera
Worth Every Penny Joycast
Sarah Petty
5.0 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to you? In this raw, inspiring episode, Sarah Gardner—a single mom from a tiny town in Maine—shares how she went from broke and burned out to booking a $14K portrait order… just months after picking up a camera for the first time.
If she can do it, so can you.
• The bold mindset shift that helped her bet on herself
• Why not knowing "how" can actually be your superpower
• How she landed her first high-end client through a simple, real conversation
This story is your reminder that it's never too late to begin again—with heart, grit, and a little guidance.
RESOURCES:
Photography Business Tools to Get Started
INSTAGRAM – DM me "Conversation Starters" for some genuine ways to strike up a conversation about your photography business wherever you are.
www.photographybusinessinstitute.com/boutiquebreakthrough
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you've ever felt stuck like you're spinning your wheels doing all the things and still not making money, you're going to love today. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm chatting with someone who's truly walking proof that it's never too late to chase down a dream. |
| 0:16.0 | Me is Sarah Gardner, a single mom from a tiny town in Maine who just one year ago was bartending burned out and feeling totally lost in her career. |
| 0:26.6 | From trying law school to getting fired from her state job, she had a lot of false starts. |
| 0:33.6 | Then she made a bold move and she picked up a camera and decided to bet on herself. |
| 0:40.2 | What she's done in just a few months will blow your mind. |
| 0:43.8 | So from absolutely knowing nothing about how to run a boutique photography business to making |
| 0:48.9 | over $14,000 in her very first Julie order, Sarah's story is raw. It's real and it's so inspiring. |
| 0:58.3 | We talk about what it's like to build a photography business that follows the boutique model |
| 1:02.7 | really from scratch. What happens when things go wrong and why she refuses to give up? |
| 1:09.5 | My goal for you today is to leave here tapping into the kind |
| 1:13.6 | of grit that will have you shouting, if she can do it, so can I. |
| 1:19.6 | Hey there, my name is Sarah Petty and I went from a stressed out, overworked mama with |
| 1:25.6 | three babies to be named one of America's most |
| 1:29.0 | profitable photographers without working my kids' lives away. Now I'm the founder of the Photography |
| 1:35.2 | Business Institute where we provide guided support from start to finish, whether you're a |
| 1:40.5 | beginner photographer dipping your toes in or a more advanced photographer with |
| 1:44.9 | big income goals. Each week on this podcast, I'll show you how to find and serve photography |
| 1:51.0 | clients in a world where we can keep it free thanks to everyone having a digital camera in |
| 1:57.7 | their pocket. Take the first step to adding more joy and profit to your life by downloading |
| 2:03.3 | your free photography business tools at photography business institute.com. |
| 2:10.1 | Hey, Sarah, I'm so excited to dive in with you. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having me. |
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