345 – She’ll teach photography to your 3 year old: Tom interviews Erika Hatfield

Episode 345 – Erika Hatfield
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody it's Tom here with episode three hundred and forty five of Screw the Commute podcast. We're here with the repeat guests from last year on Vetrepreneur's month. This is Erika Hatfield and she's an Army veteran. And she's also got a really, really cool photography business that you ain't ever heard of this before. And it's just the cutest thing I ever saw. So we'll get her on in a minute. Hope you didn't miss Episode 344, Dorothy Wilhelm. I'm going to call her, well, let's see how I can say this to our most experienced guest at 87 years young. She has been broadcasting for over 60 years. All right. So she is just a hoot. That was episode 344. Now, how would you like to hear your own voice here on screw the commute? Well, if the show's helped you out in your business or giving you ideas to help you start a business, we want to hear about it. Visit screwthecommute.com and there's a little blue side bar that says send a voicemail, click on it and talk into your phone or computer and tell me how the show's helped you. Hey, put your website on there, too, because you'll get a big shout out on a future episode of Screw the Commute in front of thousands of people. All right. Also, grab a copy of our Automation eBook. This ebook has allowed me to steal customers off of other companies that were too slow to get back to prospects. And I'm lightning fast at it. And this book kind of runs my whole business. So we're giving it away free to people that listen to screw the commute. screwthecommute.com/automatefree and also pick up a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app and you can put us on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road.

[00:02:20] All right. Hope you didn't miss reading about if you've been listening to the podcast over the past few months. You know, I've been harping on this pandemic where everybody's freaking out, but I'm not and my students aren't because we know how to sell from our home or home office. I formalized this training in the form of a mentor program, but even further than that, about 12 years ago, I went through three years of hell, basically getting certified by a distance learning school. It's the only licensed, dedicated distance learning school in the country on Internet and digital marketing. So you can check that out. It I am Tikvah Dawg, and then you and your kids are your grandchildren or your nephews and nieces won't have to freak out. If some other bad thing happens, you'll have a lifestyle business. And hey, guess what? Our guest today has a lifestyle business that allows her to do some cool stuff too. So we'll bring her on here just in a second. Now, later, I'm going to tell you how you can get a scholarship to my school and either use it yourself or gift it to a young person in your family or doesn't have to be in your family, just has to be a young person in your life. But. It would be the best legacy gift you could ever give them, because we've got people making money within a month of starting the school.

[00:03:46] So this is really powerful stuff. And every business on Earth needs the skills that we teach. So they won't be spending a fortune. You know, there's trillions of dollars of debt in the student market and then they're getting out and competing for jobs at Starbucks. Well, that won't happen if they go to this school.

[00:04:06] All right. Let's bring on the main event. Erika Hatfield is here. She is a photographer. She's an Army veteran, and she's the founder of Next Level Photo Education. And guess what? She's homeschooling her three daughters this year while she's working at home. That's what we're talking about, creating a lifestyle business. And she teaches DSLR, that's the fancier cameras, the owners of those cameras, how to use them. Because I have one and I was just telling her before we started, I've had it for years, never could figure the darn thing out. But she makes it very simple for you and has a class on how to do that. And she also helps photographers become profitable with the specialized to monetize mentorship program. She is a five star outschool teacher and she provides photography courses online for kids, teenagers around the world. And she is opening up her photography business again. She's been doing that for a long time, but she's going to open that up in Charleston, South Carolina, next year.

[00:05:18] And this is this kid's stuff. I can't wait for you to hear about it. But, Erika, are you ready to screw?

[00:05:26] Oh, here we go again.

[00:05:27] The commute. How are you doing? Great. How are you?

[00:05:33] Oh, I'm peachy. That's so good to talk to you again. And met you about a year ago at the Military Influencers Conference.

[00:05:42] Yeah, it's a little over a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. Boy, time flies.

[00:05:46] So so tell people about your photography business and how it's changed because of covid and how you're still making it because of your online stuff.

[00:05:58] Right. So in twenty eighteen I started teaching some kids photography classes in the studio. I wasn't really sure if it'd be a one time thing or not, but I enjoyed it so much. I kept teaching classes in the studio and expanded to offer them for teenagers and adults as well. So when covid happened back in March, our families always had to be a little bit more careful since we have a kidney transplant patient, my youngest daughter. So we we've been closed more with our photography business and I've decided to use my classes but teach them in a different way. So I adapted all of the classes that I was teaching in the studio to be able to teach them online on Zoom. So I teach mostly children from three to 18 on out school and then I also teach some adult classes outside of school.

[00:06:49] Yeah, I was going to say because that was my original question, why, you know how how young a child are you talking about? You said, oh well, we go from three to 18, three years old. Are you kidding me?

[00:07:02] She said, no, I'm not kidding you. And we're going to have a picture in the show notes of the cutest, cutest, cutest little girl taking an online photography class.

[00:07:12] It's hysterical.

[00:07:15] So how do they, you know, lump all three to eight years in the same class?

[00:07:23] I can't even imagine three year olds and 18 year olds together. It's all broken up by age. So three to six year olds are together and they do really different things than the older kids are doing. You know, they're going and finding stuffed animals and pets to photograph. And it's real interactive and on their level for their age.

[00:07:41] So they're not doing, like, selfies on Instagram of them hanging hang gliding or so don't discount the toddlers.

[00:07:50] They probably could do that.

[00:07:51] They probably can take a selfie better than some of us at this point. But no, no, it's pretty simple for that age.

[00:07:57] Well, you know what, though? The it just came out that this is like seven or eight year old YouTube made 21 million dollars.

[00:08:07] Not surprising. Yeah, I think so.

[00:08:10] Yeah. I mean, a little kid doing something is is more unique than, you know, the thousand, you know, other, you know, millennials that are doing stuff.

[00:08:20] I just heard the other day one of my seven year old students had entered a contest and won and sold a print and only seven years old. I was so excited for him.

[00:08:29] Oh, so you're you put this on a platform. You called out school.

[00:08:35] Right. What's what's that all about? I've never heard of that one.

[00:08:37] So outside. A huge online marketplace for teachers, so there's classes for all kids ages 13 to eight, three to 18, but it's all different subjects. So one of my daughters is taking Japanese on there. There's any kind of subject or topic, Minecraft, anything that the kids are interested in. It's been pretty awesome resource being stuck at home and giving the kids something to do and be able to interact with other kids. And it is kids from around the world, you know, they'll see kids from Asia. And I've had kids from London and Australia. And it's pretty cool for the kids to see each other and be able to have class with someone on the other side of the world.

[00:09:16] Wow. Now, for a while, you were teaching English as a second language, weren't you?

[00:09:22] I was, yeah. And I'm still active, but I've not been teaching at as much.

[00:09:26] Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on in your life. You know, you're you're getting ready to sell your house and move, right?

[00:09:32] We are, yes.

[00:09:34] I can't believe you're going you're leaving the thriving metropolis of Washington, Pennsylvania.

[00:09:41] Right. When it gets cold. Yeah.

[00:09:45] Yeah. Folks, that's she's about eight miles from where I grew up. And so tell about the interesting experience.

[00:09:53] You know, I ask her to take a picture of my family house for us because the tenants are gone. I want to make sure things are OK. So I gave her the address. So tell them what happened.

[00:10:07] I went on an adventure, so I needed a break because the kids have been home since March and I love my family, don't get me wrong, but we've been together since March. So I needed to take a little drive and a little walk and I thought, I'll go check out Tom's house. And so I went exploring through the woods.

[00:10:24] First of all, folks, this house is right on National Route 40. You could, like, pull off on the berm. We call and take a picture of the house. That's what you could do if you knew the right house.

[00:10:37] I'm good at pictures, not direction. So I went on a really long hike exploring. But it was it was neat. I had a good time. I think I scared Tom a little bit. Yeah.

[00:10:46] Because we have one hundred and fifty acres and some buildings there. Some have been there for hundreds of years. The Indians, they used to fight the Indians out of a log cabin that we built a house around. But there's been people growing marijuana back there.

[00:11:02] And, you know, she, she's she's like calling me from, like, I don't know, half a mile from where she's supposed to be. And she's on foot by herself. Oh, like, oh, my God. I hope so. Nothing happens to you. But it was an adventure.

[00:11:18] Yeah, it was fun. The only problem was that I was wearing sandals and not boots or something, you know, it was fine.

[00:11:25] Yeah, that's see that's those army people. Yeah. So so how how does tell us how this class goes if you have a three, three to six years old is one class. Right. Yes. How I mean it seems like it's it's the old wrangling cats kind of thing. How does how do you handle a group of three to six year olds remotely.

[00:11:52] The same way as you do in person, really, it's about keeping them engaged in what you're doing, so making sure they're having a good time relating it to what they're into. So like the picture that I showed you, the little girl in class, she's in a find the animals class. So, you know, obviously a kid that would have an interest in animals would probably sign up for that. And then the kids are grabbing all kinds of stuffed animals from their house, taking pictures of them. They're taking pictures of their own dog or cat. And so it's all it's kind of you know, it gives them a chance to get up and go get something to photograph, get up and go take a picture. So I don't really get them to the point where they're bored as long as it's class that the little ones class is only a half hour, half hour and the parents are usually standing by or what? And if they're not, they're getting yelled for, Mom, come help me. I can't open my photos. So, you know, the younger kids usually need a hand from the parents, especially if they're using a big iPad. And it's almost like this. Big iPads, too big and heavy for them to hold up and show me their pictures. So they're adorable.

[00:12:54] So do you actually critique them and then, like, crush their little souls with how bad the pictures are all the time?

[00:13:01] No, of course not. Every picture a three year old takes is awesome.

[00:13:07] All right. So what's how does the class change if it's 16 to 18 year old?

[00:13:13] So starting at age six, kids can take some of the more detailed photography classes, the three to six year old classes are more exploratory. Go find something, take a picture. Once we get to age six and seven, I have a four week kids class that a lot of kids have taken because it's the class I started with in the studio. And we go through, you know, setting or choosing a subject, thinking about the setting, the lighting rules of composition at six years old.

[00:13:42] You can start that.

[00:13:43] Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. And it's amazing how they apply the things that I teach them. Kids are so much, they're not scared to take risks.

[00:13:52] Adults are we're scared to make a mistake and do it wrong. Kids are willing to go out and just give it a try and see how it goes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But that attitude, I think, really makes it a lot easier to teach kids at that age because they really have fun and they want to find some different way to do it.

[00:14:07] So what happens with the older kids?

[00:14:12] And with the older kids, some of them are starting to take the manual mode class where they're actually learning how to use their settings on their cameras, that be the next step. I teach fundamentals first and how to position things that you're photographing. And then I teach how to do all the technical things like choosing your settings. And then I have a new course that I'm just starting right now that helps older teenagers start to plan and begin their own photography business.

[00:14:36] Oh, OK. So they can make money with it. But did you say you were going to start an adult class to.

[00:14:46] Yeah, the classes I just mentioned are all things that I have on out school and then I have a pet photography class that's going to be available for adults within the next month.

[00:14:56] Wow, wow, wow. But the DSLR course, that's a separate course, you know, just showing how to use that particular type of camera. Right. Because most people are using their cell phones. Is that fair?

[00:15:08] Yeah. A lot of people use their cell phones and the DSL our course works for it actually would work for DSLR manual or any any camera that has manual mode or less or.

[00:15:20] Yeah, but I mean, even the cell phones now have loads of potential settings on it now, right?

[00:15:25] Oh yeah. I could set an F-stop and portray it on my iPhone now.

[00:15:30] Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. I shot some panoramas the other day that it made it so easy.

[00:15:36] There was like a leveler kind of thing to keep it as you moved it. It kept the kind of the same horizontal plane that you had on you. Just make sure those things stayed level and the first try came out.

[00:15:49] Amazing. What's the deal with these brand new iPhones that have like three or four lenses on the side? What's going on with that?

[00:15:57] Well, I don't have that one. I don't even know which iPhone I have, but I got to try one out that a friend of mine has. And it's works just like you're changing your lens on your other camera. You have a wide angle and I don't know what all three do. I think one actually is better for portrait and maybe two or three days maybe.

[00:16:18] I really don't know. Yeah, I think because the lenses are separated, you can get a little bit of 3D action going out of it.

[00:16:25] But yeah, it's just amazing the kind of things I mean, you're certain TV shows with these things now with cell phones.

[00:16:33] So how do people sign up for these classes?

[00:16:38] On out school for kids classes, you can go right to my out school page and sign up for next level, you can visit my next level website, the manual mode course for DSLR cameras and everything is available to start any time. And I'll be doing some free training on my Facebook page before the pet course is available.

[00:16:56] Ok, but how did they find this? So the website is what next level.

[00:17:02] Nextlevelphotoedu.com.

[00:17:05] Oh OK. Nextlevelphotoedu.com and then outschool.com. They have to go to outschool and insert your name or what.

[00:17:14] Yeah. And there's a there will be a direct link in the show notes to.

[00:17:17] Oh OK, great. So they can just click to go directly to your section about school and you can always go to ErikaHatfield.com and get to any of these things.

[00:17:26] Yeah, that's my main website. I'll link to everything.

[00:17:28] You're looking okay. You anything to do with the Hatfield McCoys kind of thing?

[00:17:37] Not me, but I married into this name, so my husband is definitely we found it on the ancestry.com website of how far related he is to Double Antz and all the history about it. So it kind of cool.

[00:17:51] So do you still get in feuds and stuff?

[00:17:54] No. Well, you never know.

[00:17:57] There was a private McCoy when I was in Fort Irwin, so that was a fun joke and I had just gotten married, so I didn't quite get it yet. I didn't I didn't know about the Hatfields and McCoys and I didn't know what everybody was talking about. I thought there was some show. And I'm like, why is this so funny that there's a private McCoy that I outrank? And why is this funny?

[00:18:14] I didn't get it. Explain that to me. Well, I'm glad you outrank them. You know, thank goodness. Once I understood why it was relevant.

[00:18:24] Oh, is so great. So. So how's the home schooling going?

[00:18:30] I'm tired, but now it really is it's going well, it's been it's been a learning curve because I'm certified for pre-K to sixth grade and my daughters are in seventh, eighth and ninth grades.

[00:18:43] So, you know, they're just beyond what I knew how to teach already. So I've kind of had to relearn some things, some algebra to some some biology and things that I've forgotten.

[00:18:52] But it's been really fun. I didn't think I'd like teaching history because I hated history in school and here I like teaching history to my kids.

[00:18:59] So it'll be an adventure this year, which which version of history is teaching because they seem to be trying to change?

[00:19:09] Oh, no.

[00:19:11] Yeah, I've got I'm glad I don't have any kids I couldn't handle. I forgot everything I learned in school.

[00:19:19] So we've got to take a brief sponsor break here. When we come back, we'll ask Erika what a typical day looks like for her and how she stays motivated. So, folks, about twenty years ago, I kind of turned the Internet marketing world on its head.

[00:19:32] Guys like me were charging 50 or 100 grand up front to teach this kind of stuff to people that small business owners. I said, yeah, that's their report. Half of them are rip offs, and that's too much money and risk for a small business to to do so. I kind of turned the world on its head by giving an entry fee, which was like, you know, ten times lower than what they were charging and then a percentage of profits that was capped. So for me to get my fifty thousand, you had to make two hundred thousand. Oh, wow, people love this. And seventeen hundred students later still going strong. Very unique program. You can see all the details at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. And I do when I say unique, I'm not blowing smoke. It's unique. You actually have as part of the year long program, you have an immersion weekend where you actually live in my state home in Virginia Beach for the weekend. You get access and we shoot with our video people as many videos as you can fit in. In the time we have, we added them, put the graphics on forum, gave you all these marketing videos and one of them I saw one of them go for seven hundred bucks and an event at a discount rate. The regular price was fifteen hundred for one of them. And we the last person here left with twenty five. All right. So, so high value in this program and you get a scholarship to the school. I was telling you about that you can gift to somebody. In fact, we had one guy who had spent eighty thousand dollars on his daughter's education and she was working some crappy job. He gifted this to her within one month. She was making a thousand dollars a month. Within four months, she was up to 6000 dollars a month, quit her crappy job and she hadn't even graduated to school yet. So very, very powerful thing. Check it all out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com, and give me a call. I can discuss your future online.

[00:21:44] All right. Let's get back to the main event. Erika Hadfield's one of my favorite people in the world. She's a Army veteran. And this show absolutely supports our veterans and will do everything we can to support them and thank them for what they've done for us. So, Erika, what's a typical day look like for you nowadays?

[00:22:05] Well, I think I think I gave you a similar answer the last time we talked, although my typical week has changed quite a bit since then, every day's not kind of the same, but every week is. So Mondays, I'm usually teaching my kids and then doing some work for my next level business and planning for the week Tuesdays. I usually end Tuesdays and Thursdays. I usually teach photography classes all day. Wednesday I homeschool my kids and then work on some of my business things in the evening and the same thing on on Friday.

[00:22:37] So I kind of have a weekly schedule so that I can fit everything in.

[00:22:43] So when you homeschool, your kids, I mean, is it like a little classroom where you stand up front with a chalkboard or how does that go?

[00:22:51] We do have a whiteboard in the dining room, but we're not always there. Sometimes we have class in the dining room. If we want to use the whiteboard, we could sit on the couch, we could sit outside. We even did some stuff while we were out camping one day. So it could be really anywhere unless we need a computer.

[00:23:08] But I mean, I'm just trying to get a picture on how people homeschools like there sometimes where you would just give them something to do. And then you, while they're doing it, you could be doing something else.

[00:23:19] Yeah, that happens a lot. So they have a lot of independent work that they're responsible for doing, some writing, reading and different projects that they're working on. They're each learning a language, so they have to practice their language. Different languages. Yeah, all three different languages. I can only help one kid, though.

[00:23:37] They have tutors for that.

[00:23:39] Oh, OK. Oh, so. So homeschooling means you can bring in tutors.

[00:23:43] Yes, yes. I definitely cannot teach Chinese or Japanese. So they have tutors for those things. OK, and my one daughter takes Japanese on out school.

[00:23:52] Now where did you find the Chinese tutor?

[00:23:55] Through VIPkid, actually. They have a different company. That's the opposite. It's Chinese lessons for our kids. So it's the exact opposite platform as VIPkid. And I got a discount whenever I was teaching for them and thought we'd give it a try. And my one daughter loved it.

[00:24:13] So yes, because it just so happens I need a I'm going to need one Web page translated to Chinese and so would some would that be a place to go or they're only doing long term tutoring stuff?

[00:24:29] Yeah, this is a long term tutoring for younger kids, but I could definitely connect you with somebody that can I mean.

[00:24:34] Yeah, I mean, what's what's the difference to them? If they can get paid, if they can teach the language, I'm sure they can translate a page. So yeah. Let me know about that. So then what, what's, what's the evening's hold.

[00:24:48] The evenings are always different. A couple of the kids are taking some Zoom dance lessons because we kind of re-adapt it our whole life.

[00:24:55] So they're taking dance class with a dance studio in town, Dance with Me by Sisters three. But it's all on Zoom and some of the kids are able to be at the studio so they could see some of them and they could see their teachers. So, you know, I feel like we have this crazy Zoom schedule that replaces the schedule that we used to have running around town. So we just don't use as much gas.

[00:25:14] Yeah, so we run from computer to computer. So getting people set up.

[00:25:19] Oh, and you participate.

[00:25:23] Dance classes? No, but I offer to you all the time, I'm like, do you want me to come dance with you? And I you know, I try to dance with them and dance for them and teach them things. And they're like, Mom, stop, don't do that. You can't dance. And I'm like, but I'm self-taught. Look how good I am. I'm like, please stop.

[00:25:42] That's amazing. So. So how's your husband working all this?

[00:25:48] Well, he is helping with everything. So he's been working on the house. He's helping home school. He's the health teacher. I'm not teaching health.

[00:25:56] Oh, OK. And they're doing right now a big a big thing about learning about foods and cooking and prepping foods and things like that. So that's that's his deal. He's teaching them things that I could not teach him because I can't cook anything except cereal. I can make a bowl of cereal and he does a lot of gym and everything else like that with him. So with them. So it's I could not do it any of it without his help.

[00:26:20] So that's that's great.

[00:26:22] Great teamwork there. So with all this stuff going on, how do you stay motivated? How do you take care of yourself?

[00:26:29] Mostly coffee, but long walks through, you know, Clarkesville properties. I really do like to get outside and hike and I don't always do it as often as I'd like to. So it usually ends up going the way I did that that day last week, where I need a break. I go for a drive, I go for a walk, I come home, I'm better. I'm ready to keep going because sometimes it feels like one day is actually two days. You know, you teach the kids and then it's like, OK, it's time for the the second workday. Now we've got to start the business stuff. So maybe some days, but it's not forever.

[00:26:59] Maybe you should throw some boots in your car just in case the next time I will. That's a good idea that you're going to get a chance to go back and see the log cabin before you leave town.

[00:27:11] My husband was asking me yesterday if we were going to go do that.

[00:27:14] Oh, great. I mean, you could take the kids right now.

[00:27:19] Oh, yeah. We'll go back. It was raining or maybe yesterday.

[00:27:21] Yeah. Yeah, you're welcome to. If anybody gives a crap to them, call me.

[00:27:26] So. Well, boy, it's great catching up with you. I just cracked up when I saw that little four year old taking a photography class. Oh, that is.

[00:27:40] And I think you got to be one of the only ones in the country or world doing this. Right.

[00:27:46] Teaching young teaching the three to six year olds photography. Yes, absolutely. I haven't seen any other photography classes for them. So it's cool what they can do that young.

[00:27:56] How cool is that? That I guarantee you some one of those kids is going to come up and be a big fashion photographer or or a landscape photographer. That's going to be probably their profession someday because.

[00:28:11] I hope so. Yeah. I'll cry so much. That would be so cool.

[00:28:17] All right. Well, good, good catching up with you on behalf of every all our listeners and myself.

[00:28:23] Thank you for your service. We we really appreciate you as part of veterinary month this month. Yeah, we might I couldn't get with you earlier because you're such a busy, you know, professional photographer, mom, homeschooler, a dance teacher.

[00:28:38] You know, that this might not play during the actual month, but it's still really, really cool what you're doing. So thanks for coming on, Erika.

[00:28:49] Thanks for having me. All right. We'll get to everybody on the next episode.

[00:28:53] Go find some three year olds and put them in class over there. You'll never you'll never regret it. See you later.

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