The other day I did something so scary! I felt vulnerable and exposed and it took every ounce of energy I had to actually do it. I almost didn’t even follow through. There were literally minutes to spare.
Let me tell you what happened…
I get tons of e-mails about business classes, photography workshops, online strategies, etc. I LOVE to learn and improve my business but I felt like I was getting information thrown at me from all directions. It was so overwhelming. Then I somehow came across a website MarieForleo.com. I never even heard of this woman who I later find out is pretty famous. 🙂 Something just resonated. I read through her site and watched a bunch of her videos and something just clicked! Maybe because she lives in NYC (love that!, or that she has great info but is still fun and quirky, Her motto is “Make Money, Change The World” and she believes in building an online business through online marketing strategies, while making a big difference in people’s lives. I love this way of thinking!!
I then find out that once a year she runs an 8 week online business course called B School I read the course description and it seems amazing! The registration is coming up but there’s one problem. For me at least. The cost. I know it is important to invest in your business but this is a lot for me. I then find out that she was having a contest to select scholarship winners for the course. I was so excited! of course I would enter.
Then I find out you have to do a 90 second video, post it to Youtube and make it PUBLIC! This is where the nerves and excuses started kicking in. I’m a photographer. I like being BEHIND the camera!! How could I put myself out there to the world? But I knew I just had to do it. I had an idea in mind and wrote a ton of notes as to what I wanted to say. I even made a “Pick Me” sign using letters from my recent photo letters project.
I had only one day to do it.
My husband said he would film it. I tried to get my girls involved. That was a battle, a ton of stress, took much longer than it had to but they did finally do it.
Then came the editing process – probably the hardest part. I have no idea how to edit video so my husband was going to do it, with me by his side telling him what I wanted. Another recipe for disaster! I give so much credit to film and video editors. I don’t know how they do it. It was brutal! We stayed up late Sunday evening until it was finally done. I went to bed exhausted but happy with it.
Then I woke the next morning in complete horror! There was no message! My “Why” wasn’t even in there! How kids change and grow up so quickly and that I want to capture their lives in photographs for their families to keep forever. To document their histories and to most importantly have them PRINT their photographs! On the teaching end, I want to empower kids with photography – teaching them how to “see” the world differently, to be creative and to feel proud of themselves and let them know anything is possible! The feeling you get with a camera in you hand is so powerful and I want especially kids to have that feeling.
But none of it was there. I felt like ti was useless and decided not to post it. I felt disappointed in myself and Ike a total quitter! I went walking with my friend that morning and told her all about it. She had so many creative ideas but I had no time to implement them. My girls were home (no school this week) and my husband was working.
The deadline was 3pm for submitting. I kept thinking about it all day and it was just bugging me. With 3 minutes to spare, I decided to post it. I am completely embarrassed and I know it’s not what I wanted to put out there but doing something is better than not doing anything at all. Just like writing this post. I’m not used to spilling my guts like this but maybe it will inspire someone else to do something they feel is scary.
I know based on this video the chances of me being a B School scholarship winner are slim to none but I still believe in B School and Marie Forleo. I already feel motivated and inspired!
Now the next scary question is, do I go ahead and invest?
HAHAHAHA – that was awesome. I’m laughing at how it went from day to night. I had a clock in my head while I watched it. Good luck.
I know! I had to get the kids stuff done first which took longer than I wanted because everyone had an opinion 🙂 then they went to my mom’s and by the time I got back to finish, the light changed!.