Hey there girl bosses, creative entrepreneurs, and A.B. Photo fans. A month ago when I was wrapping up my semester and about to hop on a plane to shoot in London for a week, I was so excited to come back and dive into going full time with A.B.Photo as my own boss. Trust me, that is nothing I thought I would be able to say as a 22 year old.
As my friends have started ‘real jobs’ working for neat companies with benefits and parking garages and casual Friday’s, I’ve walked the 15 feet across my apartment into my very own office where my only coworker is a two pound bunny who loves to sit under my desk all day long. Now I would be lying if I said there weren’t days that were a little tougher than I expected and definitely made me a little envious of my friends getting to go to their fancy ‘adult jobs’. But in these first couple of weeks of being my own boss, I’ve learned that the opportunity to define success for myself is bringing me far more JOY than I ever expected.
I’m learning that sometimes the mark of a day of work well done is leaving my office at 5pm, curling up for a few minutes with my latest Barnes and Noble find and waiting for Seth to get home so we can go dance in the kitchen and just enjoy each other. I’m learning that sometimes the best thing for my creativity is to walk away (quite literally) from whatever I’m working on and go walk around one of the lakes nearby. You see, I’m learning that the secret to success for A.B. Photo is not all about non-stop editing, blogging, and building amazing vendor relationships. Yes, I LOVE that part of my job. But even more important is taking time to develop habits to hustle smart, not just hard. And let me be honest for a second – this rarely look like the hard, task-driven work I thought I would have to be doing non-stop to grow my business.
Over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing a series about my transition to becoming a full-time professional wedding photographer. And I would love to have you join me. We’ll be talking about how I knew it was time to take the leap to full time, the resources that have helped ME get to this point in business, and how to develop your own habits – uniquely tailored to you and your business and built around bringing JOY to your life. And finally, I’ll be giving you a peak into the big secret that has helped me build a business from ZERO clients to more than 30 weddings booked in just my first 9 months of business.
I am so excited to get to share with you about this little business of mine which is giving me more time to travel with my husband, not stress about money all the time, and work my dream job at just 22 years old. If you’ve been around here even just a little bit, you know I’m serious about pursuing and cultivating JOY that radiates into every aspect of our lives. And sweet friend, I hope you’ll join me as we start the conversation about bringing that very joy into each of our homes and our lives.
