I spent a few hours last week with some incredible boss ladies. To be honest, it's been too long since I've spent any amount of time with anyone outside of my little house. We're buried under feet of snow and let's be honest..no one wants to put actual pants on this time of year let alone go outside in public. However, this day was different. I've been craving contact with people who, like me, are running a small business and really love chatting over coffee about things like, what we struggle with and how to write a blog. I've never been a very open, social person, so this feeling was new for me. But I liked it. It's made me feel alive and successful. Being a part of this group is going to change my business...yay! (Insert heart eyes emoji)
Just a few weeks ago if you had asked me how my business was going, I would have said things like: "I don't feel like my work is good enough". I am 100% self-taught so I've struggled a lot with it and constantly feeling inadiquite. My husband (and #1 supporter/fan) had banned me from saying anything negative about my work. I'm not going to lie, it's been hard! We are, after all, our own worst critic. But he's right..if I automatically carry that mindset around with me, what kind of an impact is that having on my work? I really had to start digging deep and remembering why I started this journey to begin with. It was time that I start taking myself seriously, and not just as a photographer, but as an adult business women. Just typing it seems funny to me...adult? Like, what a thought twist! Considering that most of the time I still view myself as a confused teen out wondering the isles of Target trying to find her place in the world. Oh wait, no that was the "adult" me...last week. How can I expect others to take me seriously if I wasn't even taking myself seriously? It was a question that I've been dodging for years, and suddenly it was staring me in the face and there was no where to run. So, as the PJ Masks always say when they are ready to be taken seriously and finish a job, "It's time to be a hero!" And yes, cartoons and puffs consume most of my days so that's just what happens to be at the front of my mind.
Since then, something inside of me has come alive. I know what I need, what I want, and what I have to do to get it. Such an empowering (and new...and terrifying) feeling!
Let's take all the "business" out of it and when it comes down to it..I just love to take pictures of pretty things! So that's what I'll keep doing because at the end of the day, that's what makes me happy. Luckily, I have some amazing people in my life who have lots of pretty things for me to take pictures of!
Vintage Rentals & Styling: @prettylittlevintageco
Floral: @designs_of_elegance
Dress: @blisstulle
Model: @ejtufo