I’ll start this thread by saying, HEY THERE! I have purposefully not updated my blog or posted to my business social in over a year and a half. Besides being overly booked constantly, I decided to eliminate the pressure to do so and knew that eliminating social media as a business chore would not hurt my business.
In addition to my opener update, I want to express my gratitude to the many people and businesses who have supported me through this successful struggle!
WARNING: This is probably more of a long journaling of my last few years, where I was, and where I am heading in the new year. Enjoy the read if you’ve got the time.
The Success Struggle.
The years 2021 and 2022 weighed on me in many ways. Yeah, 2020 had COVID and Pandemic frustrations. Still, it also lacked workload; as a non-breadwinner in our house, this wasn’t too stressful and provided me space to focus on navigating virtual homeschooling and all things weird in life that year.
During the Pandemic, I felt that business photography (marketing and headshots) was needed more than ever before. However, businesses were tightening their budgets and dealing with the daily crazy changes in COVID protocols. Photoshoots became more tasking to navigate mask-wearing and temp checks and everyone eyeballing everyone if they were exposed or not. It was hard to productively shoot a simple headshot session wearing glasses and a mask with everything fogging up, and trying to give your client verbal instructions with your face covered made things inefficient.
I still can’t complain much over this, as my issues were minor compared to people in the exterior workforce.
I am a firm believer in still being able to acknowledge our own journey without downgrading our struggles by making situational comparisons.
2021 and 2022 Brought the Tidal Wave.
Businesses had a better scope of the daily changing landscapes of operations during the Pandemic and finally recognized they needed photography. Many businesses were hiring additional positions to handle marketing and promotions. People were locked in and not going out as much, so showcasing how businesses were newly functioning was a key factor at this time. Insert curbside pickups, how services changed with safety protocols, and headshots to showcase your service provider’s face in a masked-up world.
At this time, I had built up my Healthcare Headshots Clientele and was doing quite a few other fields of headshots and lifestyle marketing shoots. Healthcare Headshots started taking off at lightning speed post-pandemic 2021. Adding to that, 2022 brought the avalanche of new Real Estate Teams popping up everywhere, adding to the smorgasbord of fast-paced headshots needed.
The fantastic thing I had already going for me was my ability to do Green Screen Headshots. This is a photo trick where the subject is cut out from the backdrop and placed over another background. In addition, multiple subjects can be photoshopped into a team photo. This eliminated group appointments with all the “safety concerns” happening during some of these timeframes.
I had been working on promoting this in pre-pandemic times, and it had not been easy to communicate the amazing aspects of this type of service. People and businesses didn’t want to pay the added costs and couldn’t see the value of such a headshot service.
Fast forward to 2021/2022. People inadvertently needed a solution, and I had the skillset. This made Frizz Studio Photography Services incredibly sought after. Again, as mentioned, younger, more modern real estate teams were being formed, the market was hot, and income was flowing. These factors lead to a big jump in Realtor Headshots. I had previously left them in the dust as before 2020, Realtors were stuck in their mode of, “I love my 20-year-old headshot and refuse to update because I’m older,” – haha! 🤣
A side action of my workload is sports photography (cycling and running) for two Event Companies (Mudslinger Events / Oregon Trail Runs (same company) and Sourwood Running). With events in full swing again, event directors expected big turnouts with patrons ready to get back into the world – photography was desperately needed to use in marketing for these events. I justify sports as my “paid hobby” because it took just about every weekend of 2022 with full weekdays of regular workload – I was ALWAYS WORKING. So my headshots and marketing photo work, combined with being absolutely crazy to say YES to an entire season of endurance cycle and running sports photography in 2022, left me a little on the road to insanity 80% of the year. If you know me, you know I’m a bit sarcastic. It was a self-sabotaged, challenging year, to say the least.
I luckily had one contract photo editor who saved me on my weekday workload. However, I now realize my problem circulated around file management and file prep, which is time-consuming as all heck.
The Pit of Despair.
Let’s move on to late 2022, blending with the current in 2023. If I thought my entire year to this point was hard, I had no clue what was coming. I had planned to scale back a little in August and September to regain my sanity and get back on top of timely deliveries… this didn’t happen. The fall of 2022 was even worse – by way of excellent client work and new clients, but a challenge to keep up. I felt like an unhealthy robot mom and wife with no friends or personal time. I wasn’t giving value to my home people or my personal self.
Climbing out of a virtual pit is complex. People say, “oh, you just need to say no to jobs then” – it’s not that easy. My workload is hardly ever a one-and-done operation. I have built up my client loyalty incredibly well, and often my weeks are filled to the brim with repeat client requests. This is AMAZING to me and leaves me gushing over my loyal clients with the added guilt about my delivery timelines. In addition, if I turn a large corporation away due to the abundance of work, I may not get that opportunity again. I felt I had no choice but to put my idea of going on PAUSE more into the future.
I basically sounded like Dori in Finding Nemo – everyone knows it, “just keep swimming… just keep swimming.” I knew I needed to change how I was doing things but knew it would also take months to fix all the YES WORK. And at the end of the day, there was absolutely no way to “fix” this without doing one of two things. My running joke of the fall/winter season was:
- I build a team and grow the business
- OR
- I sell everything and leave the country 🤣 *insert sarcasm*
The Pause.
All this story to say, I will officially be taking a 4-week break from active shoots. This is tricky. I have a couple of commitments, but I am actively forcing my calendar to pause. I’ve gotten through January without shaving my head or burning my gear (barely); I can do this and navigate it with some intelligent pants on this time around.
Photographers who have done everything from weddings, families, newborns, etc., will understand “seasons.” We got used to having a busy season and an off-season. In the off-season, you can spend time on your marketing, website updates, pricing, etc. The problem with wanting a break and waiting for your calendar to give you a break when there is no break is that you’ll never catch a break! There is no off-season. I created the beast I wanted and the reason I got into Commercial Photography in the first place — I wanted a promising career I could scale. Being too busy to make sane decisions and just rolling with the punches and swaying wherever the wind takes you puts you out of control of your trajectory. This problem leads to total burnout, hating what you do, and quitting. I’m not a quitter.
💡 The problem with wanting a break and waiting for your calendar to give you a break when there is no break is that you’ll never catch a break!
In 2022, I tried to find editing resources and worked on the idea of Associate Photographers without thinning my brand image. I felt that repeat clients would have difficulty with a new person if they didn’t match my personality characteristics and style… not to mention training takes time, time I did not have. In addition, managing potential client-stealing. Using Upwork, Retouchup, or Fiverr was failing with people who advertised false skillsets, the inability to follow a deadline, and more. It was making me crazy to have to repair an entire set of headshots and spend 30 hours on a weekend day and night to get work delivered. The worst part is simply getting your hopes up that you have a weekend and then not having a weekend. 😤
In addition, I am pretty sure most clients understate my workload. Many people view photographers nowadays as non-professionals who dabble in creative work here and there. If it comes up in conversation, I try to inform my clients I am a FULL-TIME PHOTOGRAPHER… and no, I do not shoot weddings. The number of times people ask me if I am in my busy wedding season 🤣… I don’t blame them; it’s a societal view amplified by the ease of owning a DSLR camera with so many online learning resources. I myself am a self-taught “Mom Photographer” – I get it – not all of us design a full-time commercial photography business for ourselves, and photographing families and weddings can be a great side gig. The view that because you are a photographer you take all types of work, most do, I don’t… I can’t.
The Growth Plan.
In early January, I reached out to our local photographers and asked if anyone was interested in part-season editing as a contract service. I’ve started working with two ladies, which has helped so much already. However, this also came with experiencing some acknowledgment of my level of photoshop knowledge, which has been a big eye-opener and has made things slightly slow with the training needed to complete many jobs. These ladies are in their off-season, and I may only have them until June, but I’ll take it. They’re taking the learning curve with grace! Furthermore, they are now learning new skillsets they can use in their own businesses. I aim to have at least four editors on a contract basis throughout the year. Ideally, I will be looking to hire someone full-time by the end of the year 2023, specifically for editing.
My second goal was to hire an in-house Photographer’s Assistant for file management, assignment prep, and light editing tasks. I’ve hired a kiddo from the local High School who is involved in the yearbook and does some photography for the yearbook. It’s taking a few schedule issues to get this part working, but I have big hopes for this role and this kiddo (no pressure!).
Hiring people in any aspect takes a lot of energy and time when you’ve never done it for your own company. You need an onboarding process, plans, and scope to manage work costs and payment for work, and, lastly, have a solid system in place to manage projects without creating a big mess of things and making your life worse. Basically, figuring out how to manage people legitimately and not end up in a pit of spending with no results.
The biggest problem most photographers face are editing and delivery timelines.
I have a loose 5-year growth plan, and now that I’ve made it to this point in my business, I am excited about the direction. In reviewing my calendar, I see the opening I need and can keep safe from the time-suck of trying to work 60-70 hours a week AND create a successful base for my business to thrive without killing my soul.
I love what I do and adore all of my clients. I want to do better for my clients with solid systems and on-the-dot deadlines. The biggest problem most photographers face are editing and delivery timelines.
Personal Improvements & Health.
In conclusion, to top all of this off, I haven’t taken care of myself; I have health issues. I have multiple auto-immune disorders. I had been able to manage this unmedicated for almost ten years until my chronic inflammation with Rheumatoid Arthritis and its fun autoimmune pals decided to move heavily into my hands, wrists, elbows, arms, shoulders, and neck… you name it; it was there. I started having affected issues with not being able to extend my elbows all the way out. Not being able to turn my head very well and holding and using my camera became very difficult, etc.
I had to go on Prednisone, a lovely but awful steroid. It reduces inflammation and pain by 80%. But it’s a terrible drug and not meant for the long term. I have been on this drug for almost three years. Long-term use leads to odd weight gain, especially in your face, and other side effects (liver damage and many other things).
Time off from active shoots is time I intend to be more intentional, go back to my fitness and food routines, and take care of my body. I finally had a breakthrough by taking Collagen for a month before trying to go off the Prednisone 100%. Moreover, I was able to reduce the additional use of vast amounts of daily Ibuprofen. I can even go a day or two longer without the Ibuprofen. This gives me so much hope!
I am genuinely looking forward to how this year will turn out. I am not out of the weeds yet, but taking significant action steps to get to where I envision my business in a year to the next five years. I am very grateful to those who support me in my dream to build this fantastic career from scratch.
I know it won’t always be smooth sailing, but I know if I survived 2021 and 2022 without cracking, getting divorced, or moving to a remote island, I can do this 100%.
