embracing the public learning curve

One of my favourite books that I read last year was Big Magic by Liz Gilbert. I took aways so many things from it, but one of the ideas that stuck with me was that when inspiration arrives, you have to run with it. If you ignore it, it will eventually go. At the start of December 2017 I had the idea and inspiration to start a photography business. Over the Christmas holidays, I ran with inspiration and launched a website for that business. Although I wasn't physically running while making the website, it felt a little like my brain was, and I had to keep going with the momentum, otherwise I would have given up. It is now March, and in the three months since I launched the business, I have realised how much I don't know. It is one thing to be inspired and run with an idea, it is another thing entirely to keep on running. I love analogies, and running is a great one for me, given that I love running. The last three months have felt a bit like a race of hurdles, rather than a slow, steady run, which is what I am used to. I have no clue about hurdles, other than you have to use a bit more effort to get over them than you do with running a marathon.

One thing that I do know about myself is that I am an extrovert and an external processor. So, when I encounter hurdles, my need and inclination is to talk in order to figure things out. Given that I am a stay at home Mum, and that my photography business is a solo venture, this is a big challenge for me. Lots of the advice that I have come across in how to have a successful business is to have a blog, because that improves SEO (search engine optimisation). It makes sense to me to write, because I love words, and I love connecting with people. However, I have found myself floundering a bit in terms of what to share here, because of my inclination to share the challenges with starting a business, and that doesn't seem like a particularly professional thing to do. What I am coming to realise is that I care more about being personable than professional. I do not what to pretend that I have this all figured out, because that is of no help to someone just starting out as a photographer, who might read this blog post years down the line when I have more experience. I love stories and I love the way that life is a journey made up of many, many stories. So that is what I hope to do here in this space. I will start the by sharing the stories that have led me to this point of being paid to take photos of people I do not know; stories of what I love about light and beauty and stories of how happy I feel when I take photos.

In the process of trying to learn a bit more about how on earth to start a photography business, I have started istening to Sara Tasker's Hashtag Authentic podcast. In her episode with Beth Gilby, they talked about embracng the public learning curve. This is what makes sense to me, and it was that podcast episode that gave me the push to stop procrastinating and just get on with writing. So this is me, embracing my learning curve being public.