Millie Dee Photography on The Importance of a Pause

If you follow my blog, my last post was about a month ago, and I talked about pivoting my business. It’s September 10th, the timing of all of this is not lost on me. I took the summer off from working my photography business. I didn’t edit, I didn’t market, I didn’t touch my website other than that blog post, and it felt so good. I was able to focus on my family, I have 2 kids, one just graduated high school the other just got their permit to drive so I don’t have many years left before they are grown ups and I’m trying to soak it all in. By the end of the summer though, I missed working and was totally ready for school to start and for the kids to get back to school. Within that 2 months, we did alot of day trips, staycations and saw alot of family. I also started two other businesses that I’ve been wanting to create for years now. It felt great to mark some things off of my bucket list. I was overdue for this. With wife life, Mom life, small business owner life, really life in general, my challenge has always been BALANCE. I’m usually “all in” on atleast 3 activities at once, usually photography, kid stuff and a home project, whether it be something with the car, a pet, the computer, piano lessons, etc. So, to take two months off this summer and PAUSE all or most of this, was a blessing and a gift that I didn’t realize was just that until now.

The Pause revived me. It brought some of the awareness that only a pause could bring. I wasn’t even concentrating on it, but the pause helped bring colors back into my daily life. The woven daily fabric is now enriched. You think at 55 years old, I would have learned this lesson by now. Better late than never for this late bloomer. I do feel energized… I feel that I’ve had a RESET. It wasn’t without struggle, having no income for a few months was not easy; I have the type of job that if i do not work, I do not get paid, and the bills didn’t pause, so there was that downside. The Pause I took didn’t start out as an intentional pause. To be honest, my photography business has struggled since January 2024. I had a surgery and when I came back from surgery, the market had changed and although my mentor insisted it wasn’t hitting our market, IT DID. I saw many seasoned photographers shutting down their businesses, I saw other photographers just starting out in my area and if it’s one thing about budding photographers, and I hate to say this, but they don’t understand their worth. I also didn’t understand what all went into it when I started, so I almost burned myself out…anyway, I digress. AI came into play, people were now able to delete watermarks off their photos, so the temptation to steal images was real, and yes, it happened. Digital backgrounds, digital editing (and over editing), Google not only changed their algorithm, but they were quadrupling the cost of my advertising fees. Yes, They increased by 400%, so I had to stop that. I lost sight of what my customers wanted…actually, I lost the customers, they couldn’t find me on google anymore. My workers had to find other jobs because we weren’t getting the client numbers in that we did before. I was trying everything, seeing what would work and it all came to a head….like a big ugly pimple that had to POP. (eew, gross I know)…

This is when I stopped. I thought I was just done, it was over. I got off social media for a while, I unfollowed all but one of my mentors, I unfollowed so many photography groups, it was all noise….I realized no one knew what the hell was working and especially here in NJ…We are fast, no bs, let’s get to it, I know a guy, or I know a guy who knows a guy who can do it cheaper, I know what I want - wonderful kind of people. I couldn’t find my way, so I cut out all the noise…and I stopped….or so I thought….it turned into a Pause.

Over this time, my pause, I didn’t realize, but I was creating my next chapter. I am now setting the rules to my own playbook. I don’t need to follow what other photographers are doing, I don’t need to listen to my mentors, you need to price this way or offer this and that….I’m doing what works for me, my staff and of course, my valued clients. I took it as a sign that I had four previous clients reach out to me that they were expecting again and wanted me as their photographer. So..people do see value in me and what I do still. I know I have value…. and because of the Pause, I am bringing out more energy, creativity and happiness to start…It is a relief to not be looking to others to answer my questions in this chapter; the pause helped me to realize what I’m made of, that I do have the answers that I’ve been searching for…It was all always in my power.