Redefining my Success

I KNOW there are a lot of words here but it will be worth it! 

I’m going to reground where my worth is. This semester I have been taking an art and business class which has helped me launch this website and be more proactive with my photography business but the goal of the class is to make money and become successful. Yes, everyone in the class was able to decide their goal and it didn’t have to be about money but ultimately the overarching goal with a business is to make money.

Lately, I have been overwhelmingly discouraged with myself and it is tied to this idea that in order for my business to be successful, is if I make money. Throughout the years that I have been doing photography, I never did it for the money. I did it because it was a passion that God put in me and I pursued that and I longed to take beautiful pictures of His creation. I feel so much peace and confidence when I am on a shoot and I edit those photos for clients. There is nothing overwhelming about taking photos but as soon as I labeled it a “photography business”, I have been having some difficulties inside of myself.

"...this photography business is NOT mine but the Lord's"

Of course, this is something I would love to continue for the rest of my life but I need to remember that being successful or not should never be rooted with money. In the midst of all of this frustration and heaviness, I reached out to one of my photographer friends. She has been doing photography for a while too and does the most beautiful job shooting engagements and weddings! She reminded me that this photography business is NOT mine but the Lord’s. God is the one that gave me the passion to do photography, He is the one that will bring clients to this business. God is the one that gives me the motivation to keep doing it even when it is hard and discouraging.

I want to be open and honest with y’all because there are a lot of times that social media and technology can create an idea of what I think someone may be like and how they may be feeling but in reality, they might be struggling as well. For example, I reached out to one of my favorite photographers on Instagram this past week. She has tens of thousands of followers and she lives in Hawaii and has worked with a lot of companies and shoots beautiful images with beautiful people! I wanted to get some encouragement from her and while, she messaged me back with not exactly encouragements, she pointed me to a beginners course on her website that helps photographers just starting out with their business. The course was encouraging because she talks about her journey and how she had the same frustrations that I have now and she is so talented now! Stuff like that isn’t talked about! Photographers, artists, and creatives all have the same frustrations so why don’t we talk about them more!

There are times that it would just be nice that there are multiple people out there that feel the same way. I want to feel able to express that I am having trouble or don’t know what a type of marketing strategy is instead of feeling dumb for not knowing or feeling like I shouldn’t be a photographer because of not knowing.

Comment what your frustrations are because I wanna spark conversation!

Thank you for reading this and being a part of my journey!

(Just sharing some peaceful shots I got during my most recent portrait session)