A Look Back on 2022
Woah - 2022
For me, 2022 was a mix of super fast and weirdly slow. As we are drawing near the end of a really special and unique year for my personal life and business life - I wanted to put some reflection down in writing to give this year its proper shoutout. From wrapping the first season of a podcast dream to learning how to be a working mom, to saying goodbye to the first JFP studio, it has been some kind of year!
In Oct of ‘21, I started my first podcast after months and months of pushing this dream to the side. I recorded 10 episodes between October and March of 2022. We had eight fantastic guests and friends come in and share their wisdom and lessons learned in business.
We got to kick things off with Meg Seitz where we talked all about the importance of using your voice in all forms of communication online. I spoke with Hannah Krueger all about website dos and don’ts and making sure your website speaks to how you can help your client. I loved talking to Gregory Garrett about his philosophies about being a leader and growing a team. There were so many good nuggets in my conversation with Rachel Martin about owning a niche business and saying yes or no to projects that may or may not match up with our niche and our passions. I was so excited to speak with one of my best friends, Jenna Daykin, all about self care as a business owner and giving yourself space to self audit on a weekly basis. Anne Marie Gaines Shiflett came in and shared so many helpful tips about visual identity and visual branding. And our last episode was such a special conversation with Quin Gwinn about leaning into change and success in both entrepreneurship and being a mother. I’m so grateful for these conversations and that they exist forever in podcast land.
And then Erika took the lead!
She has been an incredible asset to JFP and has made so many of our clients feel special and like rockstars in front of the camera. This was so evident this year when she took over and ran the JFP show while I was on maternity leave / slowly returning back to work. I’m so appreciative of Erika and all the work she has done for us this year and will continue to do.
And Julia became “mom”.
I did it, guys! In April of this year, we welcomed a beautiful baby boy to our family. I was so fortunate to be able to press pause and really have some time away from work to get to know this new little person in my life. During maternity leave, I had to learn how to step out of my business for the first time in eight years. In full transparency, it was tough! I LOVED the baby snuggles, rest, and mommy bootcamp that the first couple of months was - ha - but I did have to learn how to really pause and really let go for the first time in a long time.
I think balancing motherhood and returning to work as an entrepreneur will be a continual learning experience, but it’s a journey I’m happy to be a part of. I’m almost 9 months into it now and still have hard days where I miss my baby boy when I’m at work OR I feel like I can’t focus well on my work because I’m trying to hang with my son while getting some work done - #impossible! Regardless, I love being a mom and feel grateful I get to be Murray’s mom.
Closing the doors to the first studio. .
I started renting a space at Hygge Coworking in December of 2019 for all of our in-studio shoots and to have a beautiful space to work in. A lot of beautiful moments happened inside those doors. Since we are doing a lot more on-location photography and accepting more traveling photo jobs, we decided to move out and live that nomad camera life for a little while. We have made so many incredible photo memories at our studio and it will be missed, but we’re leaning into this change and looking forward to what’s to come.
We have a few studios around the city we will be using when it’s needed for clients.
I want to give a big lovey dovey shoutout to Garrett Tichy and the Hygge Coworking team for treating me like family the last several years. Seriously - you guys are the best
Taking it up a notch with video.
Erika and I both started using video more at our client sessions this year. We believe in creating fun, thinking bigger, and sharing what’s beautiful and authentic about you and your story. We love showcasing these things with photography, but video is also another dynamic and engaging way to show off your personality and energy. We’re happy to be able to offer our clients more interactive ways to show up online - because video should be a crucial part of your marketing these days.
Coming Up - What’s next?
We’ve had an amazing year, but what’s next, you ask?
We’re kicking off the year with a small rebrand in Q1. We’ll be working on freshening up our website to highlight more of the client work and style we are doing now.
Season two of Skip the Small Talk will be released by spring of ‘23! I’m looking forward to having more off the cuff conversations with guests open to sharing what they know and are still learning in their businesses.
Did you know that we offer 1:1 mentoring for photographers? We are ramping up mentoring opportunities this year and maybe… even an in person class!
We’ve really enjoyed incorporating video into our sessions this year and plan to offer more video services paired with photo sessions this year.
Thank you for all of the support you have given us this year. We truly value your trust and confidence in us as your brand photographers and look forward to serving you even better in 2023.
Team JFP.