The New Year, New Challenge

Hello again. It's been over a year since my last post. Pretty embarrassing. 

My husband has challenged me to blog twice a month in 2017! Seeing how I didn't even get one out in 2016, I requested a simpler task...like only once a month. But he is holding strong at 24 blog posts this year. 

So I figured a good place to start would be to reflect on my life and business last year. 

2016 got off to a rough start. Going into my 3rd year being self employed, I started to understand why people say life can be lonely as a small business owner. It felt like days would turn into weeks without talking to anyone besides my dog, Hydi. At first I didn't mind, I tend to be a bit of a hermit. But when it turned into a lack of work, panic attacks turned into a regular occurrence.

I had to make the effort to double down and change my day to day experience. 

I realized that one of the first things I had to do was put modeling on the back  burner. I ended up turning down an offer to be represented by an agency because I realized modeling was not a long term goal of mine. I didn't want the distraction any longer. 

The next thing I wanted to do was look at ways of expanding my photography work. Ryan (the husband) was involved in a lot of networking groups. I attended some of the social mixers with him and got to talk a lot about what I do. Opportunities to work outside the realm of family photography were starting to appear. It turns out something as simple as talking about your goals can open up doors! By the end of the year I was able to add a sizable amount of professional portraits/head shots to my portfolio. I hope to share some of the work with you that included some politicians, corporate clients, doctors, dental offices, and campaign brochures in future posts. 

I also had to opportunity to get my face out there once or twice. I was a guest on This Week in Photo 3 times in 2016. You can go here to check out the episodes I was a part of. 

Being featured in Lavish Living Magazine was also important to me and my business this past year. I was introduced to the publication early on in 2016 when I was featured as The Face of Sacramento Fashion Week. The publisher found out about my business and did a follow up story introducing my photography business to the Folsom/El Dorado Hills area. You can view the write up here

My biggest take away from last year was that it is possible to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and that people want to help you. All you have to do is talk about your goals. I also learned that I have a strong network of women in my life.... and I am pretty sure they are taking over the world. And you know what...I want to go with them!

Until next time!

~Christine