Less content, more art.

I am not a marketing expert. But I am curious.

I like people and studying how they think and feel. I like language and powerful images. I like paying attention to what catches my eye.

It seems like there is a lot of content about content in the world right now. People are trying to make it and make sense of it. I keep hearing podcast and seeing articles about ways to make content and marketing easier - this system, that tutorial, this swipe file, that template.

Basically, from what I've gathered, if you simply get in the routine of blocking off an hour for saving ideas, an hour for scripting, an hour for filming, an hour for drafting, and schedule your posts for the optimal times, then also get on the platforms and engage with them enough to tell the algorithm you're active, then you should be set for a couple weeks of posting nonsense several times a week and you can just check out from there, travel the world with abandon (but don't forget to capture more content, though) and start making millions.

The reality of this small business owner, however, is that I've been waking up at 445am all of August to work from 5-630ish when my boys come barreling downstairs and pile on my lap for our regular routine of cuddles.

That's often it for the “work day.”

I am a morning person, sure, but we are solidly in upkeep mode this month.

Sometimes when the kids are having some afternoon screen-time, I'll warm up a cup of coffee and buckle in for a stint - hop in a discovery call, write a few emails, respond to a lead, finalize a gallery. But lately, several afternoons have called for me to allocate that time to polishing my glass house and loading things like dirty clothes baskets and dog bowls and roller blades into the trunk of my van for an afternoon showing.

Or otherwise, loading all of us up to go to the pool or library or literally anywhere to proactively keep everyone from descending into a full wrestling ring.

I am not interested in the “content” machine ATM thank you very much.

I have been trying to figure out, though - what stays?

When something / everything feels lie *gestures widely* A LOT… I ask myself that simple question – with photographs, with words, with my home, with my time.

The other side of my reality is – marketing is inevitably something I need to do as a business owner because I like my job, we need my job, and I want to keep doing it.

There are lots of ways to go about marketing, but at the end of the day, I need a variety of ways that people can learn about me and my work, then trust me enough to make pictures with them - an innately vulnerable thing.

These dueling banjos of life and work require me to figure out how “marketing” fits in to the way I want to live in the real, physical world, while still taking advantage of the free and modern tools available to me as an independent creator.

I had a revelation this week that all of those “strategies" and trends and content batching tools have never really work for me because "creating content" is not my goal.

Call it an early response to grief or a coping skill for heaviness many times over in my life, but words and pictures are my love letters to the world.

They are little prayers that keep my feet planted and eyes lifted.

I want to stop treating them like content and start making more art.

I want to use my eyes and ears and hands to take in all the gifts of beauty I can, then hold them, reflect them, and spread them generously. This is what I try to do for my clients, so it only makes sense that marketing for that work would focus on the same sense of abundant gratitude and love for life and people.

That is something I have time for.

And because I believe that the feelings of gratitude we experience when we see ourselves in images with and of our beloved is the same feeling we get when we watch the sun rise over the ocean or share a beautiful meal with someone, beauty is the universal message.

The honest, real world, little wonderful things that keep us from falling apart with all the hard things kind of beauty.

So if you see me sharing videos of an orange sky and deep hugs and moments of treasured delight between people on social media - these things are not disconnected from the work I do with you and your family photos. I'm not trying to romanticize or fluff up a highlight reel.

I am trying to see beauty wherever it lies and not keep it to myself.

You can call it marketing if you want, but I am simply writing more love letters to the world and hoping they bring you closer to writing some, too.

Whether that's through photographs we make together or words of hope you scribble on a sticky note to stick to your mirror or hugging your mom, I will consider that marketing a success.

// new + noteworthy //

THINGS I'VE SAVED //

Very on theme. Also very newly obsessed with this dear woman.

Get out of bed.

This is one “kinda chic” thread I am very on board with. Also, featuring my roommate from college who works for this new-to-me-and-now-on-my-shortlist brand.

RECENT //

I immediately wanted to blog this brand session with local children's shoe brand Common Tread because the whole thing felt like the perfect swirl of collaboration, art, small business, and women supporting women. Many of the pieces styled in this shoot come from local women-owned small businesses in Charlottesville who are making and sharing beautiful things. Also featuring two of my children because as aforementioned… no childcare meant they came to work with me. It was a small gamble that ended up being a really special moment to share with them and I'm really proud of the results.

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CREATIVITY | FAMILY | SIMPLE JOYS

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