Are you buying into the lie? | Charlottesville Virginia & Destination Wedding Photographer Sarah Houston Photography

Flowers by: Love Blooms DC

What if I told you in order to be successful you have to: Blog five days a week. Pay for Google ad words, photograph a styled shoot every week, get that styled shoot published every.single.time, post to Instagram between 10 & 2 but only two photos, make sure those photos are co-hesive though!, oh while your doing all the above....balance your normal life in there too.  

Ummm....are you for real?! I sound like an ADHD person who just drank a soda and a cup of coffee. Sadly though....we ALL buy into those lies that will supposedly make our dreams come true and make us successful superstars. I'm here to tell you that no matter how much of that you do, it may not even help you-it's just going to make you go crazy. 

The only thing those things did for me was drive me into a crazy frenzied love affair with my computer, my cell phone and literally destroyed my marriage. Yes...trying to keep up and buy into the lie that I'd be successful if I did x,y & z drove me off the road into lonely-ville. 

I paid an insane amount of money, in my head I literally thought they'd have this magic answer, this formula to drive me to the top like they are...but they didn't. It was the same things I had been doing....I literally am doing everything they are except teaching. So why am I not on the front page of Google?? Think about it...the photographers we look up to are supported, marketed and promoted by US. We pay for their workshops, we buy their guides, we pay to hear THEIR success then we think it will define ours, don't you see? THEIR SUCCESS will never define YOUR SUCCESS because it's different scenarios.

Im not trying to be Debbie the Downer here, I'm just trying to be honest-clear and simple. Being a financial advisor full time AND nearly going bankrupt has reeeeeeally defined how I perceive running a small business. Yes being your own boss is grand and the fact that the industry has so heavily placed the "Full Time Photographer" as the only successful way...we are all buying into the dream and instead digging ourselves into a hole.  

I work a full time job on top of running my business in order to be financially sound. I don't want the worry of "How will I pay my mortgage if I don't book these 25 weddings" I want to be able to book 15 and take my daughter to the beach because my full time job paid my mortgage and my couples help me live my life. 

I'm not saying those things don't work, I'm not saying these photographers we look up to are wrong...I'm just saying their success isn't my success. Their techniques haven't worked for me...& perhaps if your not seeing the fruits of your hard labor, you should try something different, something you didn't read on a guide or heard at a conference... 

whatever you do, just don't give up. If you work a full time job too-or even a part time it's OK, it doesn't make you less of a photographer I promise you that. I think it's financially a smart decision on your part!

xoxo

Sarah