Welcome to my world of RTP! Man oh man is it glam! 😉 NOT.
I was living with my parents for a couple months while our new house was getting fixed. It was a Wednesday at Noon. I was in my sweatpants, no makeup on, cuddled up on the couch with my dog, eyes glued to my laptop and my phone was blowing up… my Dad interrupted… “soooooo…. what are you doing?” I said, “working”. I didn’t even think to elaborate, because what does he care? My Dad proceeded to ask, “soooo, like what are you working on?…what kind of work?” I took a second to think about it and I literally couldn’t even put it all into words. I said, “ummmm… just a bunch of stuff”. He probably still wonders how I make a living… But come on, I couldn’t go into detail because he just wouldn’t understand and he would probably fall asleep mid-conversation. Let’s imagine it like this:
“yeah, good question Dad, I’m preparing a client portal and contract for a client I just booked, while culling, editing and uploading images from my last session, and then I have to prepare a blog post for tomorrow…do you even know what that means?…but all that comes right after I create a new website page for my new Senior Rep Team that’s about to launch next week, but I’m really tied up with planning for this big Spring project coming up, I have to get the word out like ASAP, actually nevermind, I think I’ll run to Target soon to buy a cute little gift for the wedding clients I booked over the phone this morning, and that way I’ll kill two birds with one stone by grabbing some items for some flatlay images, omg I just remembered I have a session downtown in a few hours, BYE!”
……….Yeahhhhh. That conversation wouldn’t exactly be too exciting for Dad. So, you know, ‘just a bunch of stuff’ works for me.
It’s possible that there are people who think I’m jobless and just travel around the East Coast wearing pink with glitter smeared all over my face while snapping a few good photos here and there. Truth is, my weeks are usually so crazy my head could explode. I have meetings, sessions, phone calls, contracts to send, a lot of planning and coordinating, marketing, social media posts, editing, delivering, styled shoots, weddings, mentoring, (pizza breaks), creative thinking, blogging, newsletters, website updates, emails, traveling and way too much driving, throwing confetti and popping champagne (duh), giving my time to clients, friends, family, and time for myself. I have a tight relationship with low buns, sweatpants, Target, my couch, my pink blanket, and doggy snuggles. And I’m not even a coffee person…
The RTP world is allll over the place, but I LOVE IT. To you all, it might look like I have it all together, it’s easy peasy, I can do whatever I want whenever, but it’s so not true. I do all these things while struggling to find the confidence in my business some days. I get shit done even when I feel weak or discouraged. I have to be my own cheerleader when there are days where I just want to give up. I have days when I feel on top of the world and can accomplish anything. I have days when I feel strong and confident. It’s an emotional business rollercoaster. But it’s the rollercoaster ride I created and I get to do this every day. How awesome is that?!