Coffee Date: Personal

I placed a question box on Instagram asking what we would discuss over a coffee date. Here are a few of the questions + my responses to some of the more personal questions that were asked!

What do you like about photography so much?

From a picture-making perspective, I love being able to freeze a moment. More than that, I love that when someone views the image they can be flooded with the feelings of those memories, too. From a business perspective, I love building and growing my business. I enjoy marketing, adding new revenue streams, forecasting, and executing from an idea to a final product. Without a doubt, my favorite part of this photography journey so far has been clients that have turned into great friends. I am so blessed by the relationships this business has brought me.

How do you stay motivated and avoid burnout?

First, I stay in my lane. I know what I enjoy doing and I stay there. If I try something new and don’t enjoy it then I won’t book that type of work again. For example, you will never see me photograph a wedding. Second, I have to take care of myself. I’ve spoken about my anxiety before but check out this post for a list of things I do to keep my stress levels down. Third, if I hit a proverbial “wall” where I feel overworked, I do my best to put hard stops around me to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This might mean I cap the number of sessions per week (or month), limit the amount I travel, etc. Lastly, I need to schedule personal work. I need to create for myself and not just my clients all of the time. There is freedom within unpaid work and I try to make sure I regularly get to shoot just for the fun of it!

What’s in your future dreams?

More palominos! I want to own the full spectrum of shades of palomino.

Tell me how God has opened and closed curtains in your business

I try to acknowledge that the breath in my lungs right now is from Him, so in the most basic and profound ways I believe in the sovereignty of Christ over my life and my business. Every single client has been from Him, every idea in my head comes from Him, and I know that He has ordered my steps. However, if you’re looking for the “big” moments I would say a first was the idea God gave me for this business while I was a senior in college. Sitting in an upper-level marketing class I really felt Him place a desire in my heart to start photographing girls + horses. Next, He very clearly told me when to leave my career in finance and take photography full time. I pray so much over every trip I go on and for every client that I meet.

How do you balance it all?

It sure doesn’t feel like I balance personal vs business well. I have very blended lines and I don’t separate the two much. Because I work from home, I find myself working a lot during “family” time. My husband does such a significant amount of work helping with my business that I also don’t have clear boundaries of seperation within our relationship. I will say — I have a lot of help! In my personal life, I have a lot of great family members and babysitters to help with Sadie when I am traveling or at photo sessions. I outsource what I can: I have a housekeeper and I use InstaCart for all of my grocery shopping. In my business, I use a lot of programs/software solutions to streamline my workflows. I also have multiple assistants who help run my brands. Jake helps me a tremendous amount with everything!

What would you say has contributed to your success?

This is such a complicated question. First, I think it is incredibly important to define what success looks like to YOU. In this industry, we can get really caught up in a game of comparison and things can spiral quickly. Step off the hamster wheel of “busy”. Success isn’t necessarily booking X amount of sessions. Success isn’t always being featured in XYZ Magazine. Success doesn’t have to be a six-figure year or a six-figure month. Success shouldn’t be about the gear your shoot or the places you travel or the people who book you or how many followers you have.

Now, all of these things CAN mark your success if you set out with the specific, premeditated goal beforehand. I just want to caution everyone that “success” shouldn’t be measured by the people around you. I very carefully craft my goals and consider myself successful only on my own terms.

How I define success is how I can measure whether or not I’m successful. I wrote a post about how I set goals here, but to me, success is a lot more than hitting the goals that I set. I like to take into account the women I get to work with, the impact that I’ve had on their lives, the art that I’ve been blessed to create for them, the lifestyle this business allows me to live, the time I’m with my family, etc.