Out of respect for all parties involved, I can’t be too specific with details here but the gist of the situation is this – I hired a photographer to have some nice photos of me taken & seconds before we started shooting she told me she will not take my photos. Words were exchanged, she stated I’ll never be successful as a photographer, more words were exchanged, and then I left. It was a “creative disagreement” if you will.
It was horrible and humiliating, but ultimately it made me better.

It’s almost a year later. My entire workflow is different, my personal relationships are different, and I have more meaningful connections with my couples. And I strive to never let a client feel the way that I felt that day.

I started treating my couples with loads of compassion and empathy. Not that I wasn’t doing this before, but I was much more mindful to do so moving forward. I started making sure that I was telling my couples how good they looked, and “oh that was so cute, do it again! I started serving them in every way possible, “Can I carry that for you?” “Do you need a break?”

I intentionally took risks and wasn’t afraid of rejection anymore – because really, I’d already faced the worst rejection of my professional career, what did I have to lose anyways? I put myself out there and reached out to photographers that I admire within my community, hoping they’d give me a chance and guess what they did! Because of this, I get to work with an additional 10+ couples this year, not to mention shadow someone who I 100% admire both professionally & on a personal level.

I began to invest in myself and my business, attending various professional workshops + chats. These events helped me network and it’s so encouraging to be with a group of young professionals in the same stages of their business.

But most importantly, I started to believe in myself. It’s impossible to please everyone, and looking back, that photographer & I were incompatible from the start. But she had no right to strip away my confidence.

SO, my sweet sweet friends, if you’re reading this and you’re having some self doubt, you’ve had a similar rejection, you feel burnt out, anything, keep going!!! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and all of those bad-ass photographers with 5000+ followers and 40 weddings a year did not become successful overnight.