Month in Review: February & March 2018

I woke up one morning and realized it was mid-March and wondered what's next for me and my business, and well..my life?
As always, in order for one to know where we are going, we need to know where we are right now.

I'm closing in on March 2018 already and I cannot even believe time is just zooming right by (even more so that I didn't even see the end of February)! Since I didn't get a chance to do a Month in Review for February alone last month, I thought I'd give write up a TWO months in review and explain what's all the chaos been about: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

​Here we go...

Automated Blog Posts: TWO Months Out!

Continuing off from the beginning of the year, I'm proud to say that I've been doing really well with keeping the consistency with blogging once a week (every Tuesday). Automation in my blogging world, has helped tremendously and I cannot suggest it enough for all you bloggers out there.

For someone like me who doesn't have a lot of "free time", I'm trying my best to batch-work which basically means to work on one thing solely for a few hours or even a whole day. This helps eliminate the idea that you have to "get into the zone" of working on that particular project, assignment or task.
​
​
Photography Tips

If you scroll through the month of February and March, I've created helpful content from How-To's on how to edit your photos using your iPhone apps to a my Top Picks for portraits locations in local SoCal parks, aside from posting only photos from sessions and personal projects.

How-To's are so much fun to put together, so I plan to do some more of these as the year progresses in hopes to create a content library for other creatives as well as for my clients.


Vulnerability Posts

This one is big one! I'm trying this thing where I have one personal post about my life in the month. I want you to feel like you're getting to know me and the people around me a bit better. Get to know who I really aside from a photographer who you Google from time to time, but someone with a beating heart and is filled with enthusiasm about all things important to me all in hopes to catch some of you who will resonate with the same level of enthusiasm. I'm not gonna lie, these type of posts are not my favorite because I always hesitate to post them up in fear that they'll come off a certain way, but sometimes what we hesitate putting out into the world is probably that much more important to be seen and read.


CEO Lifestyle & Unplugging

In the month of February, after watching a Buzzfeed video my girlfriend and I have challenged ourselves to live a more unplugged life and learn to wind down in a way that works for our lifestyle. If you've seen the video, they basically start to wind down (without their phones/devices) at 7 pm every night and in bed no later than 9 pm, which allows us to be up at 4 am every morning with out completely hating life. 

This gives room to hit the gym, have breakfast and coffee, and do some creating before consuming without feeling so rushed. Also gives us some time to spend with each other in the mornings. So, win-win!
It's definitely not for everyone and is definitely a huge commitment, but I think it turns out to be a good one. For sure a work-in-progress, but so far it's helped with staying off our phones late into the night, and making bags under my eyes a bit better. 
​
If you try it, I'd love to know what kinds of things you're able to accomplish that you thought you didn't have time for!


Writing a lot MORE!

To add onto living that CEO life, I've had more time in the mornings to do more writing. Writing is my quick fix to get things off my mind and sometimes there's so much going on that it seems like there's not enough time in the day to let those words stream out of my brain and though my pen, but when it does it's so relieving. 

​
Self-Portraits

In a small corner of my apartment, I set-up my mini-studio and get creative with different outfits and take self-portraits. If you're wondering why take photos of myself, here's why: you're hiring a person not just a photographer. I'm sure you knew that already. The truth is, there aren't that many photos of myself so sometimes I do this when I need to pop into my Instagram feed or say hello on Facebook. This helps cool people like *you* see who's feed their on and what I look like in case you happen to bump into me at Starbucks. So, I'm sure you'll be seeing more of me on your social media feed. 


​Newborn Sessions

Having clients who trust me to handle their newborn babies are honestly the sweetest (okay, you're all the sweetest)! Having done two of these sessions back-to-back in the past month has been so great. With the Spring, I look forward to shooting more portrait sessions in the coming weeks. Can't wait! (If you haven't booked yet head over to my Contact  page and let's get these done for you!)


Lessons on Family History

With a family loss, I've come to terms that I don't know everything. That the people before me had a life. Like, if you think about it--before you, your parents were just two people in love living their own lives with their own dreams and passions. Before they met, they were off living their own separate lives with stars in their eyes for what's the come. I know I'm getting really out there, but it's kind of amazing all the stories arise after a loss of someone close to you. All the stories, the history and all the little things that you thought you never knew you never knew! 

I challenge you to go and ask more questions about your family history, you'll be surprised all the things that come up and all the fun facts you learn about your grandmother or about your great aunt's story or just your parents.

​Everyone has a story, so go find out the details!​

​Conclusion

These past two months have been rough, but seeing what's to come with everything makes it a little bit easier.
Next month, I have quite a bit of resources for clients and even fellow photographers! And I cannot wait to share. :)​