10 Things I Did Right In 2014

If you know me well, you know I am a planner. An {excel spreadsheet} list writer. A think a-header.

But sometimes in the pursuit of success and happiness and goal achieving we forget the vital act of stopping, taking a breath and appreciating what we HAVE achieved and received and learned. (Me)

So that’s what I am doing today. This is a mix of personal, of business, of big big things and tiny things that have made a big difference to me, that I am bloody glad I did or learned in 2014.

In no particular order….

1. I created a vision board. I had it printed in 20×40 inch size and framed.

And I referred to it if not daily, then weekly. And low and behold when I am looking at it now, I achieved many of the things on that board… and the things I didn’t achieve? some of them I realise now I didn’t REALLY want (the car? running a marathon?), and others I have realised that maybe I need to do a bit more work (internally and externally) before I am ready for them. And that’s ok. What’s that saying? “tell the Universe what you want and he will meet you halfway..”?

2. I created my first online photography course!

I finally (and due only to some of the other points below) created my first online course – my Kids Through a Lens 21 Day Beginner Bootcamp (see it here) (ps it is open right now for enrolment at early bird price till tomorrow). It has been such a big job bringing that baby into the world and I have come up against so many fears of not being good enough and being ‘seen’.

But all of that has been worth it to see the progress my students have made and feelings of pride and achievement and self-worth that they have discovered as a side benefit to learning how to use their camera to capture beautiful shots of their kids. It makes me feel like a proud mumma-bear :)

I’ve sold over 80 spots to the course since I started selling it only a month ago and that in itself has blown me away and lifted my confidence that I know I am doing the right thing in my business.

3. I bought a NutriBullet.

And it rocked my world! hello healthy green juices. Hello mango and banana smoothies. Hello mulching nuts to powder to add a bit of protein to every drink. I should be an affiliate for NutriBullet, I rave on to EVERYONE about it. (only downside is that my little hands struggle to open the shaker every single time!!)

4. I froze my eggs

So this one is quite personal, although I am quite open about sharing it because I think it’s important for people to realise that while someone might look, feel and act like she is a carefree 25 year old… she is actually a 36 year single woman with low fertility, dealing with reality of trying to balance her fear of possibly never having children with her trust in the the Powers That Be that all will work out for her.

After my heartbreak at the beginning of the year, in between moving house and dealing with everything else, I also made the [expensive and emotional] decision to freeze my eggs. Despite being a ‘fainter’, I gave myself those daily jabs (albeit lying down in case I fainted and hit my head or something) and it was a time of realising how resilient and resourceful I am and after hearing the nightmares of IVF, a source of pride that I got through that quite difficult time all by myself.

They say the average number of eggs frozen is 8-10. Being the type A over-achiever I am, I remember sitting in the IVF clinic telling my doctor I was sure I would be get at around 20 eggs. After it was all done, I only froze three mature eggs.

Which sort of confirmed that my fertility issues are real, and put me into panic mode about how new a technology it was and how I could lose all three eggs in the freezing and thawing and fertilising and transferring processes…

But my positive mind is fighting back to tell me that at least I have done something… and maybe I will never need those eggs, or maybe they are three little babies waiting to meet me (and who needs three anyway! let’s not be greedy! two will do!) :)

I need to leave that one to rest now for the time being and trust it will work out somehow.

5. I had professional head shots taken. in Paris.

I’m never one to do things by halves and I knew I needed to get some professional photos taken to bring out some of my personality and to take my business up to the next level. But being a photographer myself I am fussy. I wanted the ‘right’ photographer and I know how important it is to build rapport with your subject so I wanted someone who ‘got’ me.

I originally found Caroline White because she photographed Marie Foleo and my first thought [ego] said to me ‘if Marie thought she was good, then she must be good‘. The problem was, all the shots of Marie were in studio with bright colourful backgrounds and nothing like I would want for myself!!

But then I started following Caroline on Facebook and seeing her BEAUTIFUL afternoon sun-flarey shots and the way she brought out the natural emotions in her subjects and her wittiness and relaxed nature in her posts and I knew Caroline was my girl. Problem was she lived in LA, I’m in Sydney.

But as fate has it, I was travelling to Paris for my mum’s 60th in July, and on the day that mum rang me to say she could no longer go on the trip, Caroline coincidentally messaged me to tell me she had booked a space in Paris for a week at the end of July! So my supposed half day photoshoot turned into a week-long photography, food, wine and fun extravaganza!! People were even getting us mixed up in the photos like we morphed into one person by the end of the week haha. Go and check out some of our shenanigans in my Paris album on Facebook here.

I truly believe that Paris trip was a turning point for me in my business. It made me become more visible, opened me up to new opportunities, and basically has made me step up my game in many fronts. And I’m liking it.

6. I had a revelation that I don’t treat myself as nicely as I treat other people.

This has slowly made its awareness clear to me as the year has gone on and from living by myself again. When I was living with someone else, I would make an effort to cook healthy food, to make coffees for us that had layers and looked beautiful, to drink sparkling water instead of tap water, to just do fun things for us to enjoy together.

I’ve realised recently that I “save” the sparkling water for when people are coming over instead of drinking it myself! And I have pretty much completely stopped cooking anything…

Food and sparkling water are just tiny examples… so some self love and care and treating myself (even if it is just for me on my own) like I would the people I love is definitely top of the list for 2015. Starting with a delicious garlic and chilli prawn salad with pumpkin cous cous I made myself last night for dinner, yum.

7. I joined a Mastermind.

I had complete resistance about this, but it had been popping into my mind as something I needed (both for my business but also to be around like-minded girls running their own businesses and make new friends who are on similar paths to me) for about 12 months but I wasn’t ready. Isn’t it funny how when you decide you are ready, the right thing comes into your view?

I didn’t know Victoria Gibson, I knew nothing about her or her business or what she did, but I had heard her name bandied around and a Facebook advert popped into my feed so I contacted her to chat. Our first conversation went for 2 hours about nothing and everything and I knew this was the right place for me.

I don’t know how Victoria has done it but she has brought together a group of completely different girls with different backgrounds and ages and businesses, and I honestly admire and adore each of them. When we get together we talk serious business and strategy, but there is also a whole lot of fun, laughter, inappropriate joke telling and wine drinking as well as getting real and showing the tears, the fears and the doubts.

Victoria tells me how it is (yesterday she outright told me that my copy was shit and needed to change) but that’s why I love her straight talking, no BS ways of getting us to to be best version of ourselves and not hide behind excuses. Plus she’s pretty good on the copy-writing as well, so while she was telling me it was shit, she was also telling me what to write instead. Love love love.

8. I hired help

I think it was in May, I decided that spending 6 hours editing per photo shoot was not really where my zone of genius was and hired my fabulous assistant Rachael. At first I felt like I couldn’t afford it but booking my Paris trip gave me the impetus to realise that not only could I not NOT afford it, it was imperative. So Rach held the forte while I was away but more importantly has taken on the role of preparing all of my client files for presentation, and the amount of pressure it has taken off me has been enormous, and has allowed me to focus on other parts of my business.

I also decided if I was ever going to get my online photography course written, I needed help. Who better than my witty, intelligent, Illustrator-ninja, website-designing cousin Anna (see her gorgeous website here – she created it in two hours and all the ‘stock-looking’ photos she styled and photographed!), who sat by my side for weeks pulling the words out of my brain and getting it down into pretty workbooks and Keynote presentations. Anna ‘gets’ me, so I know whenever I need help to actually get my thoughts together, she is my girl.

I also hired a cleaner. Yes, my apartment is the size of a postage stamp but having Subash come every fortnight to clean the bathroom, dust all the skirting boards, wash the windows and the wall to floor mirrors and force me to tidy up my ‘bedrobe’ before he gets here, has meant that my usual self sabotage of procrastinating from doing the important {money-earning} tasks by cleaning my house, has been removed… and what a surprise… I have been earning more money since I hired him!!!

I feel very abundant when he comes and I rave to anyone who will listen now about how you can justify a nanny, a cleaner, anything you need if it means it helps you to work more in your zone of genius and be happier and feel luckier and be more present with your loved ones.

9. I started video blogging

Have you ever video’d yourself? for work? I thought it would be pretty easy after I video blogged daily from my phone in Kenya last year.

Yeah, um video blogging when you have the added pressure of being a photographer is HARD! Not to mention all of my umms and so’s and wide eyes – we are all our own worst critics. But I started this year and I intend to keep going because I got so much positive feedback from it and I think people get to know you better through video than they can through the written word.

click on the photo to see some ‘outtake’ video footage to show what video blogging is REALLY like!!!

The biggest benefit of starting the video blogging is that I managed to create my own FREE little mini e-course to teach some basics of photographing kids for you which you can get here!

10. I got on top of my health stuff

I don’t know about you, but I put off everything when it comes to my health. This year, in addition to the egg freezing, I got my eyes tested, went to the dentist, got a pap smear, updated my travel shots, claimed all my medicare benefits, claimed all my health insurance benefits – and came back with a full bill of health – no glasses, no fillings, no issues at all, just the relief that comes with having gotten ‘checked over’.

I highly recommend it, if not to give yourself another year to not be worrying about these things!

What are the good things you have done for yourself in 2014?

Before you get into the frenzy of making 2015 New Year’s Resolutions and feeling crap about the things you didn’t make happen in 2014, make sure you stop and thank yourself for the good things you have achieved and how far you have come.

have a very Happy New Year’s Eve,

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