Find your WHY

A recurring piece of advice has been flying at me for the past few months from numerous different sources. 

I've heard others mention it before in passing, but it hasn't become really "real" to me until recently. I think I tried to ignore it for a while as well, but the fact that it still keeps making its presence known to me, is making it pretty hard to avoid. 

I heard the message loud and clear at Amy & Jordans workshop. I heard numerous speakers discuss this at WPPI including Katelyn James and Mary Marantz. Its part of my homework for my branding process. If I want to really be honest with myself, its actually common sense and I'm a little embarrassed that this didn't really occur to me sooner. 

WHY am I in business? 

Yes, that simple of a question kind of rocked my world. 

When we moved to Ridgecrest and I found myself out of a 8-5 job and with lots of time on my hands I desperately needed something to occupy my brain. I needed to learn how to do something new. I had always had an interest in photography and felt like I enjoyed finding interesting compositions but never had time to delve into the subject. Now I had time. Oodles and oodles of time.

Once I started, I needed people to practice on. I found myself learning quickly and people were really enjoying their photos. The natural progression led me to start CWP. An entrepreneur! I never imagined that would be me, but I was enjoying the process immensely! 

However, the world of photography is so massive it is easy to quickly loose your way. Business models vary greatly and everyone thinks their way is perfect. Shoot and burn, shoot and sell, the extremely busy low priced option and the higher priced boutique option. There is weddings and families and seniors and newborns and lifestyle and nature and commercial and on and on and on. All of a sudden you become the person who has the nice camera and can take great photos of everything even though all those everythings might not be things you totally enjoy. Its very easy to become completely overwhelmed and loose sight of why you started in the first place. 

I feel like I struggled with it a bit. You want to get more and more experience shooting so you tend to take jobs that may not necessarily make your heart go pitter pat or stroke your creativity. If you take too many of those jobs, then that becomes what you do and then the whole thing is just backwards and upside down. 

I quickly figured out that if you don't take the reigns you will be overrun. There are many, many people who enjoy taking photos and might say they have a business when in reality it is more of a hobby. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Lots of people say there is, but I certainly don't. The market is big enough and will not be overrun by hobbyists who enjoy what they do. However, I could see the future if I continued on my same path and I knew it was bleak if I continued in the same direction. For me this is NOT a hobby. My goal is to run a healthy, growing, sustainable and successful business. For that to happen some things needed to change. 

Finding your WHY

Finding my why is a huge part of that. If you only do this because you enjoy photo sessions or you enjoy editing or you just need to make money for your family all of those things will DRIVE all of the business decisions that you make. If the decisions you make in your business don't match up to your WHY, you will quickly burn out and mostly likely shut down within two years. The two just can't compete. Your drive, creativity and fortitude will diminish quickly and you will begin to resent anything and everything. I've seen it happen and trust me, it's not pretty. 

Take a step back and really evaluate WHY you are on this crazy photography journey. Do you absolutely love newborns and want to make sure every parent has a beautiful image of their sleepy cuddly new baby? Do you get a total kick out of kids and know how important it is to document various stages in a families life? Do you absolutely believe in marriage and how beneficial it is to our society and families? Do you relish in the technical aspect of all things photography? Do you love to teach? Is fashion a huge part of your life and you want to showcase that through photography? All of these things can turn into a why. At the end of the day, yes, running a business is a way to put food on the table and help you live, but it really CAN BE so much more than that. You have an opportunity to pour huge amounts of love and creativity into others lives through the gift of photography. Your WHY will help you identify that. Once you focus on that, everything else becomes much much easier and you can spend your time on the things that matter. There is no resentment in that, only joy. 

So what are you waiting for? Take that first step and solidify WHY. 

If you already know your why or have just figured it out, let me know in the comments!  

Never Stop Learning {IAWP}

I made a decision last year that 2015 was going to be the "year of the conference" for me. I inherently knew that building this business was not something I could do in a vacuum. Google and I can only go so far! Networking and in person learning is hard to put a price tag on. The money invested in these resources is not easy to part with but I knew every penny would be well spent. 

I had already planned on attending WPPI, but when the opportunity came up in November to sign up to attend Amy & Jordans workshop in Arizona I made a rather quick decision to invest in attending. Both of these experiences have helped shape my business purpose and goals. Instead of floundering around online in a sea of "how to take better photos" information, I was now focused on building a strong, sustainable and successful photography business. 

In between A&J's workshop and WPPI I was made aware of an incredible opportunity. A group of photographers whom I have great amounts of respect for launched an online Academy for Wedding Photographers called The International Academy for Wedding Photographers (IAWP). Even though I have only done one wedding thusfar, wedding photography is where I want to live. 

I struggled for a bit on weather this was something I should invest in. I felt like all of this was happening at once and I didn't want to get sucked into trying to educate my self "too much" in such a short period of time. I knew that I had already invested quite a bit in the other two workshops and also my new branding project, so it took some time for me to really weigh if this was something I should do RIGHT NOW.

In the end, I decided to do it! The launch offer was such a great deal and I am coming upon a time where my business will likely slow quite a bit (when we move) and I will have lots of time to invest in educating myself and getting ready to implement all of what I have learned after we move. 

The certificate program at IAWP is a series of courses regarding all things Wedding Photography. They are video based and you can learn at your own pace. There are homework assignments as well and quizzes to make sure you are retaining the information taught. I am a part of the inaugural 2015-2016 class and I could not be more excited to be a part of what this team of instructors is trying to accomplish. Their heart for learning, teaching and pouring into the lives of others is honestly so refreshing in what can sometimes be a lonely and overly  competitive field. 

The other benefit of this online school, is that instead of investing in in-person workshops with all of these instructors, I can learn in-depth subject matter from ALL of them from the comfort of my own home. Yes, the in-person aspect of networking with other attendees is missing, but we have a facebook group and forums where we can all discuss and learn from each other. I am sure there will be opportunities in the future for some of us to meet and get to know each other and discuss our experiences with how we applied the info we learned at the IAWP! 

I've said it before and I am sure I will say it again and again in the future, but one of the best things about Photography is that there is so much to LEARN. You literally never stop learning new things and the day you think there is nothing left to learn is literally the same day your business starts to die. 

For more information about the IAWP click HERE.