Well, hello friends! Thanks for stopping by! I am so incredibly excited about this new blog series that I’m kicking off TODAY! A lot of people ask me why I chose to start a business in college. The truth is, I don’t know why, I just did!! I want to use this blog series as an avenue to share my heart behind this business, my struggles and victories, some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way and hope that it serves as an encouraging reminder that you are never too young to chase your dreams. Most importantly as this season of college comes to an end, I hope to capture it in all of its beauty: the good, the bad and the ugly and share it with those who’ve supported me along this incredible journey.

To start, I’ll share a little bit about my story so that you can kind of see how all of the pieces fit together. I’ve always grown up with an interest in photography… I would always ask my parents to borrow the camera and take pictures of every flower I could find. Yes, I was that girl! I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but all I knew was that I loved it. I admired photographers who got to do what they loved for a living, but thought that it wasn’t going to be possible for me. I’d never taken a photography class, and I knew that I wanted to pursue a business degree, not necessarily a degree in photography. So there it was, a dream far off in the distance that didn’t look like it had any possibility of becoming reality.

For some giggles, here’s a little #FlashbackFriday to some of my **stellar** nature shots from a few years ago.. Yikes!

A couple years later, I became obsessed with all things weddings. That obsession was no doubt fueled by Pinterest! I had an innate attention for detail and LOVED to plan events. So why not combine that with my love for marriage and become a wedding planner!! Great idea, right?! As I entered into college as a Marketing major, when I was asked the question of what my dream job would be, I always answered “I want to be a wedding planner!!” And yet again, I didn’t pursue that because I didn’t think it was possible.

Fast forward a couple years to my junior year of college. This was the year that my passion for photography sparked into a full on fire. I had seen some of my peers walking around campus with their fancy cameras, and I thought, “Man, if I just had a nice camera I bet I could take some pretty good pictures too!” (and just for anyone wondering, that is definitely not true! There’s so much more than a fancy camera that goes into taking a professional portrait.)  Little did I know that my decision to buy a fancy to camera to fuel my hobby of photography would completely change my life. It’s crazy the way things happen, ya know? Photography has become the thing that I spend my free time day dreaming about. Oftentimes I’ll find myself spending hours upon hours reading blog after blog after blog, and I’ll just get carried away. I never get tired reading and learning about new techniques and new styles and tips and tricks from my favorite photogs. Its therapeutic, and my favorite form of stress relief.

This decision to buy a camera would provide me with so much joy I can hardly contain it. It’s a decision that would also provide me with struggles of comparison and defeat. However, its a choice that I would make over and over again because its given me an avenue to love people that I would have otherwise never met, its given me an opportunity to share my faith in bold ways that I’ve never done before, and its provided me with such a passion for my business. My degree from Miami University has provided me with the skills that I need to run a successful business, but my passion, drive and love for my clients fuels the rest.

I’m so incredibly excited to share the ups and downs with you and be vulnerable about the heart behind my business. If you are on the fence about starting a business or have no idea where to even begin, stay tuned for next week! I’ll see you then 🙂