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We are officially in the year 2023!!!
New Year, New Me…or should I say, new year, new upgraded business! You can smell the change in the air.
Let’s talk about that for a sec—change in business and how to handle that change. Our businesses change all of the time. Recently, I had a conversation with my dad and we were discussing how your business can take us to places you would have never imagined and how you don’t know what your business is going to be like in 5 years or 10 years.
And he’s right! A lot can change in a matter of time and it can be so scary to think about but it also should be exciting. As we speak, my business is undergoing a lot of changes right now and while it is scary, it’s exciting because it’s changes that will make my business better.
When I first started my business, I said “I just want to do creative photography and shoot creative things, and I have no idea what that’s going to look like but I’m ready to dive in.” In the beginning, I would shoot a lot of just regular people looking to celebrate themselves—there were also a lot of self-love shoots and birthday shoots as well. I used to do family shoots, grad shoots, and even worked for a wedding company for a brief period of time. But as my career progressed more, I realized that what I truly loved was working with models and creatives.
And naturally, I began pivoting towards working with brands. I put a lot of intention in the way I marketed my business so I spoke to that desire of wanting to work with brands. That led to many brands beginning to reach out to me.
I just had a photo shoot that I did, for example, with a client where she was launching a mat for her business. It's a yoga meditation mat for her brand and the shoot totaled $10k. I hired a nine-person team for the shoot, four models, a videographer, videographer, makeup artist, hair stylist, and assistant.
Let me tell you, it was crazy, but it was amazing because that was a whole new world to me, working as a creative director with that much money. It allowed me to pull together more resources to create even better results. I was able to facilitate both the quality as well as ensure the vision was captured from start to finish.
And while everything was going according to plan, the morning of the project, I was curled in a ball completely paralyzed with fear and anxiety—allowing negative mindset and fear of messing up to take over. But once I show up to the set, the nerves were gone and I’m in my element. While it was scary, I knew this is what I love doing and after having a successful shoot, it was a reminder that while change and new territory can be scary, it’s so worth when your business changes in the right direction.
You can get so burned out doing the same repetitive things that no longer light a fire inside you. So it’s important to follow and really listen to you and your body so you are able to identify what is wearing you out and is no longer serving you.
Looking back at that conversation with my dad, you will most certainly be taken down the unknown paths but it’s important to remember that these paths can lead to opportunities and realization of things you love to do that you aren’t doing already as well as what you don’t like and should discontinue.
Here are a few of my crazy paths I would have never thought I would follow!
I got hired twice to host my self portrait and self love workshop for one photographer I worked with—she was my mentor for a long time. She hosts workshops and retreats, and she's hired me multiple times to attend one of her retreats as a speaker and to host a self-portrait and self-love workshop where for the day I got to educate other photographers on how to take self portraits & how to celebrate themselves. Then I got to set up multiple sets and have them shoot their self-portrait-only sets and help teach them how to pose and how to feel confident in front of the camera. Best experience ever and that’s where I found my love for being able to educate others.
I’ve had a designer fly me out to New York! Talk about exciting! And I realized I love shooting with designers. I love shooting slow fashion/high fashion things that are just not mass produced things that are one of a kind designs. It feels like I'm shooting art. And when I get to work with other creators and see their art in the room, and then I get to bring it to life… instant happy butterflies.
JBL reached out to me and wanted me to shoot some remote work for them where they shipped me a product and I got to shoot it for them, then send them the photos while I was able to keep the product. And remote photoshoots for products was something I’ve never even considered doing for brands and it really opened my eyes to that. And it just opened my eyes to how I can pitch to brands that are not in my area, who don't live where I live, and they can just ship me products and I can make it so simple for them to get high quality images for their brand.’ Plus they encouraged me to include self portraits in the final product, so not only did I get to shoot for JBL, I got to model for them too! That’s something I never ever could have dreamed of.
Unraveled Academy, who's a photography academy, reached out and asked me to do some education for them. So I got paid by them to sit in my garage and go live on Facebook and create a setup. I was live on FB for an hour doing self-portraits and I got paid for that. And I've done a few other opportunities for them, but self-portraits have always been something very near and dear to me— Something that always has been like, “that'd be amazing if I got paid for that, but I don't think I ever will” so getting paid for self-portraiture was amazing and I kind of realized there are a lot more opportunities with this that I just might not even realize exist.
I had a client ask me to create Tikoks and reels for them, and they paid me for that. And I started realizing that's something I can offer to my other clients. And it's something I have started doing for clients and something that I love doing. And I just realized that that's not something I would've thought of in the past. But I've been able to include it now.
As you can see, there has been so much change in my business and while I tell people I’m a photographer, you can see I do so much more because I have allowed myself to take those opportunities and it’s allowed me to add creative director, educator, self portrait artist, and more to the hats I wear in my business.
At the end of the day, embrace change. It keeps running a business fun so you don’t burn out on redundant things and keeps you excited for what’s in store for your business.
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Here is a view of some of my recent work that has felt more and more aligned for me. As I've seen my business change and grow, I have been able to create more work that speaks to me. Looking upon the gallery below, I feel proud knowing I am listening to myself and following the path that makes me the happiest.