Connect with us

Business

Building A Successful Photography Business That Lasts With Mary Jane Cole

Published

on

Photo: Shutterstock

It takes a lot of effort to keep a business running, as Mary Jane Cole knows all too well. 

The 25-year-old runs her own photography business called Mary Jane Cole Photography (MJCP), and more impressively, she does it all alone. I sat down with Cole to get the details on how MJCP was born, the challenges she faced, and her plans for the future.

Planting the Seed.

Cole always knew she wanted to be an artist. Right from the moment, she could hold a pencil, all she wanted to do was draw. Sleep be dammed.

Her love for Photography started a bit later. She found an old Nikon Coolpix while rummaging through a closet and started taking pictures of whatever caught her fancy. 

One thing led to the other, and before she knew it, people from all over her town were offering to pay her to take photos of their families. 

She wouldn’t realize it until much later, but this was a very significant moment in her life. It was the first time someone acknowledged her skill, saw value in it, and was willing to pay for it. 

This small moment was a seed that eventually bloomed into MJCP.

The Birth of MJCP

After graduating high school, Cole moved to Ventura, California, to pursue her art. Moving to California was a big decision with many risks, and for the first few months, Cole worked odd jobs. She saved up what little she could and was eventually able to buy a decent DSLR.

Cole knew that if she wanted to be successful as an artist, she had to improve her reach, so she posted her pictures on Instagram. She stumbled her way through a Facebook business account and had business cards printed out. 

They said Mary Jane Cole Photography.

Early days

In the early days, MJCP wasn’t the thriving, successful business that it is today. 

In the first place, Cole still worked a day job, so she could not devote as much time and energy as she’d have liked to MJCP. Her client base was sparse, and apart from the occasional $100 shoot here and there, she’d sometimes go weeks without a single client. 

But Cole was nothing if not persistent. “I think Passion and Persistence are both really important to make a living in Photography or any art. she said to me. “You are the only person holding yourself accountable for getting the work done and sometimes working long hours doing things that aren’t ‘fun.’ You face a lot of rejection, and you have to really want it. If the passion isn’t there, it won’t be worth it.” 

Cole’s passion drove her persistence, and she refused to give up. If anything, she only became more tenacious. “I gave my card to waitresses and retail workers anytime I was out and saw someone that I thought could fit a vision I had.” She says. “Every year, I put a little more work into building a portfolio and finding an editing style and buying camera equipment and trying to create an online presence.”

Taking the leap

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Cole was affected just like everybody else. However, she decided to turn this challenge into an opportunity. “the COVID-19 19 pandemic hit, and my hours were significantly reduced at my job. I had so much free time all of the sudden to work on my website and write advertisements and invest in marketing education.”

She worked on improving every aspect of her business throughout the lockdown period, and when the lockdown ended, she took a leap and quit her old job. 

The bookings have not stopped coming since.

Challenges: Efficiency vs. Authenticity

Running a business alone Is a lot of work, something Cole soon realized. She was in charge of every facet of the company, from customer relations to the actual shooting. 

She has always had a fierce independent streak, so she struggled to outsource any of her work. She wants to maintain the integrity of her work, and that would be compromised if she gave parts of her work to others. 

“I feel a lot of pride and responsibility for the work I do,” she says, “so I struggle a little bit with time management, sometimes not being able to delegate tasks or outsource. I want to always be honest about my work being solely my own. From a business standpoint, that limits my income ability and productivity a lot to do every part of the process, from the communication to editing alone. But I know my clients appreciate that I do what I do with integrity and a lot of passion.”

Resolving this conflict was one of the most significant challenges she has faced so far in her career. She said, “I’m learning my limits time-wise and energy-wise and becoming more organized to help streamline the parts of the process I can. I’ve had to learn to say no to projects I’m not passionate about to leave space for things that fit my vision and clients that value my work.”

The Future

Cole has a lot of plans. Big plans. One is her first solo gallery scheduled for completion next year. She’s also thinking about starting a culture collective, custom clothing, and even ar magazine.

Her words perfectly capture her dreams for the future.

“I basically want the future to be more of the present, but hopefully on a bigger scale.”

This article contains branded content provided by a third party. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the content creator or sponsor and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or editorial stance of Popular Hustle.

Business

Miixed Realities Proves Medical Billing Doesn’t Have to Be a Black Hole

Published

on

Miixed Realities

For most clinics, the revenue cycle feels like throwing money into a void. Claims go out, denials pile up, and thousands of dollars sit in accounts receivable while practices wonder what’s actually happening. It’s a problem Gianni Gonzalez heard about repeatedly before founding Miixed Realities.

The company started from a conversation with a doctor in Hawaii who described the same billing headaches Gonzalez kept hearing from practices nationwide. Different states, different specialties, same struggle. “Patient care was never the problem. Billing was,” Gonzalez says. What clinics needed wasn’t more software. They needed experienced people who actually knew how to work claims from start to finish.

That’s where the company comes in. Miixed Realities, a leading medical billing office in El Paso, Texas, places HIPAA-certified, US-based billers directly inside a clinic’s existing electronic health records system and manages the full revenue cycle. Every claim runs through an in-house AI verification system before submission, and denied or unpaid claims get actively worked until they’re resolved. The pricing is straightforward: $5 per processed bill plus 6% of successfully recovered claims. No setup fees, no monthly retainers, no long-term contracts.

The company reports strong results. According to Miixed Realities, one pediatric clinic recovered $60,000 in just two weeks, and practices typically see 30% higher collections within weeks of onboarding. More than five practices have replaced their offshore teams with the company’s US-based billers. Miixed Realities integrates with over 50 practice management systems, including AthenaHealth, Kareo, Epic, and Cerner, and says it can have a practice up and running within 48 to 72 hours.

What sets them apart from offshore providers, according to the founder, is attention to detail and direct communication during US business hours. The company maintains 95-98% clean-claim rates and processes claims within 24 hours. Clients get full visibility through a real-time dashboard that tracks pending submissions, approved claims, denial statuses, and recovered revenue.

Miixed Realities is expanding its internal verification technology and onboarding specialty-specific billing teams. Practices nationwide can request a full audit to see exactly where revenue is being missed. It all goes back to that initial realization: clinics shouldn’t lose revenue because of preventable billing issues. With the right people and systems, they don’t have to.

Learn more at Miixed Realities or connect on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Continue Reading

Business

Inside the Amazon Reinstatement Process: The aSellingSecrets Approach

Published

on

When an Amazon seller account is suspended, confusion often sets in immediately. Automated messages, vague policy references, and limited communication channels make it difficult for sellers to understand what went wrong, let alone how to fix it. aSellingSecrets was created to bring clarity and structure to this process through a methodical approach to Amazon account reinstatement.

The reinstatement process at aSellingSecrets begins with a comprehensive account audit. Instead of responding directly to Amazon’s first notification, the team reviews seller performance metrics, historical warnings, prior appeals, listing activity, and operational workflows. This deeper analysis helps identify not only the stated reason for suspension, but also contributing factors that Amazon may not explicitly mention.

Once the root causes are identified, the team develops a tailored reinstatement strategy. This strategy is not limited to a single appeal submission. It includes corrective actions, operational adjustments, and communication sequencing designed to align with Amazon’s internal review process. The goal is to demonstrate accountability, compliance awareness, and long-term risk reduction, factors Amazon consistently prioritizes during reinstatement reviews.

A key component of the aSellingSecrets process is professional appeal creation. Each appeal is written with precision, focusing on facts rather than emotion. Clear explanations, structured corrective measures, and forward-looking prevention steps are combined to present a strong, credible case. This approach avoids common mistakes such as over-explaining, assigning blame, or submitting incomplete responses.

For complex or prolonged cases, aSellingSecrets leverages its professional attorney network in both the U.S. and EU. Legal insight is especially valuable in cases involving intellectual property claims, repeated suspensions, or compliance escalations. This added layer of expertise strengthens appeals and ensures alignment with regional regulations, and with 97% Success Rate on across all-time appeals.

Throughout the process, sellers are kept informed with realistic expectations. Reinstatement is rarely instant, and timelines can range from weeks to several months depending on the severity of the issue. aSellingSecrets emphasizes consistency and persistence, continuing to refine and submit responses when necessary until Amazon reaches a final decision.By combining structured analysis, strategic communication, and professional expertise, aSellingSecrets has built a reinstatement process designed for long-term success. Rather than offering quick fixes, the agency focuses on restoring seller accounts in a way that reduces future risk and helps businesses move forward with confidence.

(888) 503-1388
customercare@asellingsecrets.com
business@asellingsecrets.com
www.asellingsecrets.com

Continue Reading

Business

Young Romanian Entrepreneur Explores Lisbon’s Thriving Startup Scene

Published

on

André Marquet & Darius Borda

There’s a certain kind of clarity that comes from stepping outside your comfort zone. For Darius Borda, a young Romanian entrepreneur, that moment arrived in Lisbon, where he spent months collaborating with André Marquet, founder and CEO of Productized. What started as an exploration of Portugal’s tech ecosystem turned into something more concrete: the groundwork for his next business venture.

Borda didn’t just observe. He participated. He got involved in startup accelerators, the Productized Conference, the EUDIS Defence Hackathon, and the Lisbon GenAI Meetups, an exclusive community of AI specialists. It’s the kind of immersive experience that can’t be replicated from a distance.

André Marquet

“I came to Lisbon curious about entrepreneurship,” Borda said. “I left with new connections and the confidence to take the leap on my new business venture. Collaborating with André Marquet and being surrounded by people creating and launching their ideas was the best kind of learning.”

The collaboration worked both ways. Marquet found value in Borda’s IT management background and business instincts. “Collaborating with Darius Borda has been highly valuable,” Marquet noted. “His IT management expertise was essential to the organization of the Productized Conference, and his strong business acumen enabled meaningful deep-dives into entrepreneurial opportunities of mutual interest.”

Darius Borda

Beyond the formal events, the real work happened in conversations about defence tech, entrepreneurship, and early-stage startup ideas. Those discussions haven’t ended. There’s talk of future collaborations, though nothing’s set in stone yet.

The experience gave Darius Borda something he didn’t have before: a clearer sense of what’s next and the foundation to build on it. Sometimes that’s what you need. Not answers, just enough clarity to start.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Follow Us - Popular Hustle on Spotify
Follow Us - Popular Hustle on Spotify
Follow Us - Popular Hustle on Spotify

Trending