Natalie Franke is no stranger to entrepreneurship. As an undergrad, she built a successful photography business on the side, turning her passions into her career at an early age. Now, as cofounder of Rising Tide Society, she works every day to empower creatives and foster a sense of community among entrepreneurs, rather than competition. Here's Natalie with her thoughts on work-life balance and her lifelong love of entrepreneurship—starting with her first passion-turned-business: photography. 

In college, I was a Visual Studies major. It was interdisciplinary in that it was focused on the psychology of seeing and visual neuroscience, in combination with art history and actually making art. It’s how we see the world and how we perceive the role of art in our daily lives or even just the media we consume. I knew that I wanted to get a degree in something that kept my options open, that allowed me to bring something unique to the table.  I didn't know what I specifically wanted to do. I knew that I loved understanding the brain and how it works—and how photographs play into that.

While in school, I was actually running a small business. I was photographing on the weekends, and after graduating, I went full-time into being a photographer. I never expected [that]. I thought it was just a passion that I did to make extra money on the side, but it became a part of me in a way I didn’t expect. I was making nearly six figures in revenue as a photographer, my senior year of college.  I think I realized there was an opportunity for me to go full-time and build this business, and not take a traditional career path. It was kind of a catalyst moment where the business grew, and I just had to take a leap of faith.

On Finding Work in Unexpected Places

Rising Tide Society was born as a passion project that was never supposed to create revenue. It was a community. It was never designed to be as large as it became.

I had been running my photography business full time for a few years, out of school, and I found entrepreneurship—especially solo entrepreneurship—to be very lonely. You're wearing a lot of hats, you’re carrying the weight of the entire world on your shoulders, and oftentimes, the only other people who understand what you’re going through are other people in your field. The hard part in my world was that as a photographer, the other people in my field were considered my competitors. So the ability to really have a deep relationship with someone who could help me and guide me through, almost in a mentorship capacity (which is so crucial to development, professional and personal) didn’t really exist in that landscape in the way that I needed it to.

So, Rising Tide was built to get creative entrepreneurs together in the spirit of community over competition, to support one another, and it started with coffee meetups. We had 12 cities in the summer of 2015 that were meeting every month. Through social media, it caught on like wildfire, and within three months, we had over 100 chapters or cities meeting every month with different creatives from all industry types. That lead us to almost a breaking point. We had been volunteering and running it day to day, and all of a sudden, it was taking on a life of its own and becoming a massive organization. 

On Embracing an Acquisition as a Way Forward

And that’s where HoneyBook came in. We had been working with different partners and sponsors, and we discovered this software company and had this amazing synergy. From the very first moment we met, it was electric and our vision for the creative industry, our mission, was the same, just our ways of achieving it were different. We wanted to achieve unity in the creative industry and allow people to pursue their passion through community, and HoneyBook was doing it through software. We were able to see this really clear connection and basically merged. And we are now the content and community arm of this amazing software company. 

I think the advice that I would give is that when you see your hard work making a tremendous impact in the world, and the only thing you can think about is your passion—if there’s a way, if you can find an avenue to monetize or to turn it into something that can support your livelihood, then go for it.

On Entrepreneurship, and Why It's Not for Everyone

Anyone can be an entrepreneur. Should everyone be an entrepreneur? No. Absolutely not.

There’s a reason why, and I talk very openly about this, 1 in every 3 entrepreneurs struggles with depression and anxiety. 1 in every 3. I know a lot of people who feel pushed to do entrepreneurial things or be in an entrepreneurial setting. That risk can be detrimental to their mental health or their physical wellbeing. Or, maybe they are in a season of their life in this moment where it is not the right fit. 

I think that there are people that are naturally inclined to want to build, and they don’t mind taking massive risks. That, to them, is fulfilling and exciting and gives them a rush. I’m one of those people. But entrepreneurship is hard. It’s glamorized on social media now, it’s become this phenomenon where it’s “cool” to be an entrepreneur. It's not that simple.

On Work + Life Balance

People like to subscribe to this perfect concept of balance. The more that I age as an entrepreneur, and the more that I build things and create different projects, the more I realize that the balance isn’t always about quantity. It’s not always about having a lot of time to rest, or a lot of vacation, or a lot of anything. It’s about the quality and the intentionality.

For me, it might be that I only get 30 minutes a day that are truly mine. But those 30 minutes are spent doing exactly what my body needs to do to relax and rest, whether it’s meditation or even a warm bath at the end of the day.

[That balance] will look different for everyone. The key is to determine what it needs to look like for you in this season of your life. Whether you’re a parent, a student, a full-timer with a part-time side hustle, it’s about finding that balance in this season. And it will change and look different as you grow older. Just feel confident in the fact that that balance is yours and no one else’s. 

Photos by Abby Grace, provided by Natalie Franke.