A Short Reflection on the Year: 2018 edition

It ‘s taken me a little more time than I care to admit to fully put my thoughts together about this year. In all honesty, I needed a little bit of time to absorb everything, what I learned and what I hope to accomplish in the coming year. Honestly, when you’ve kept your foot on the pedal all year, you don’t think about all the good that’s been happening since you’re so focused on what lies ahead. That not to say, that looking forward is bad but it’s important to look back every now and again to appreciate how good things are.

Before I began writing this post, I went through my 2017 recap. After reading through the post, it made me smile knowing that I accomplish majority of the things on my list, and I was able to relive some of the highlights from the year. So, it only seems fitting to do the same this year.

If I was to sum up the entire year in one word I would probably choose “growth” — I grew in my job, my relationship, and my photography skills. I would be lying if I didn’t say it was tough to find balance between everything, and there were some very low points, but in the grand scheme of things I’m so incredibly blessed. I won’t bore you with the details, but I’m just blown away by the people I’ve met and the memories made.

In honor of last year’s tradition before looking back, I want to layout some of my goals for 2019:

1. Improve my physical well-being

   This is probably the most stereotypical resolution of them all but it’s the area that I struggled to keep up with the most. I’ve looked into joining the gym near my apartment, Wicker Park Fitness, and scoped out Groupon for any deals, I actually found a really good deal for Brooklyn Boulder if you’re a local Chicagoan looking for a new experience. Not to mention, I’ve heard really good things about ClassPass.

2. Advance my knowledge on botany

   This one is more just for fun, but I want to learn more about indoor plants. It’s a fun hobby that I’ve began last year and I would. We already have a decent collection in our apartment but I think it would be fun to add some larger plants to the collection. My favorite place to buy plants is The Sill — they also have a large amount of blog post on how to take care of your plants, like this one: Top 10 Plant Care Tips

3. Plan a creative shoot at a photo studio

   This is a personal goal I’ve had for a while. I’ve been wanting to shoot in an actual studio for a while but it’s been extremely hard to narrow down the creative direction I want to take. I want to work with more professional models and test the waters in more creative shoots.

4. Travel to three new cities

   It’s always fun to plan trips in the new year, we already have a trip to Washington, D.C. planned for the spring and a girl’s trip to Arizona later in the next few months. Not to mention, a family vacation over the summer.

5. Create new habits for use of technology

   I’ve gotten into some pretty bad habits with my phone. We’ve had a love/hate relationship over the past year. But I’m working to get better at the amount of time I spend on my phone, like deleting apps that are time-wasters and be more mindful of when I’m looking at my phone.

6. Read two new books each quarter

   If anyone has any recommendations, feel free to send them my way. I’ve currently working through The Devil in the White City and After — they are two very different genres but I think it’s good to read something a little more light-hearted because some days can get pretty heavy.

7. Spend 30 mins each Sunday to plan out groceries for the week

   I start laughing to myself when I think about the fact that I put this on the list. But almost every time I go to the store, I feel overwhelmed because I don’t want to continue to buy the same thing yet I kick myself for not making a list so I’m more well-prepared.

8. Rebrand and design my person website

   I’m really excited about this particular project. I’ve already started to lay the groundwork but it will be fun to slowly evolve this site into something a little more functional.

Now here’s a look back on some of my photo memories of 2018:

January

February

Explored the Garfield Park Conservatory with Rob. Highly recommend a visit if you’re in Chicago, it’s such a cool space.

March:

Ran the Shamrock Shuffle - March 25th

April:

Work trip to Los Angeles, California

My coworker and I flew out to Los Angeles for a few days to overlook a video shoot with a local production studio. It was my first time in California and I was excited to experience the west coast.

Group vacation to Denver, Colorado

May

Kicked my photography business in high-gear. I started to take more risks, reach out to new people and explore new avenues of photography that have led me to where I am now in my career.

August

Took a two-week trip of a lifetime. We started in London then made our way to the Amalfi Coast, spent some time in Poland and then finished the trip with a short visit to Iceland.

September

When I realized I love doing stylized shoots. Honestly, it was my first experience in it and I had no idea what I was doing but the jolt of creative energy I got taking these photos…I knew I had to do it again, and again, and again.

Summary

I won’t lie to you all, at some point I started add content to this post. While there were plenty more activities that took place, I can honestly say it was such a good year. And now that we’re few months into 2019, I’d say the new year is off to a great start.

Cheers!

Why It's A-OK to Let the Creative Spark Dim

I’m dusting off the old keyboard mostly for the sake of sanity. Today I wanted to talk about something that I’ve been dealing with lately, and still don’t have a full grasp on. So why am I talking about it now? I was reading an article recently about social media (surprise, surprise) in relation to Instagram and choices. Essentially, it talked about how we now have too many choices and feel exhausted when we try to make any sort of decision. I could relate to this article a lot, in the sense that I feel like I’m in this constant state of being overwhelmed.

In the recent month, I’ve been trying to figure out why I’ve been feeling so burnt out. Not just in the sense of work, but more so creatively. Whether that’s photography, graphic design, or even simple arts and crafts — I couldn’t compel myself to get excited over anything. All while I was the busiest I had ever been with my photography business, my weekends were booked with shoots and I was bringing in some good side money. But man, I was burnt out.

At first I thought it was because of the holidays and I kicked myself for not being more in the holiday spirit. But then again, the more I thought about it I had been in holiday mode since the beginning of October — fun thing about being in marketing; you’re always planning three months ahead. 

Then one day my boyfriend made a comment to me, “Why are you doing all of this? You know it doesn’t put you in a good mental state.” The truth was I didn’t have an answer for him. I was torn because I knew I couldn’t do both. My job is demanding and it leaves me exhausted but I didn’t want it to get in the way of the passion I had for photography. As much as I hated to admit it, something had to give…at least for the sake of my mental health.

In the last two weeks I haven’t picked up my camera once…what worried me the most was the fact that I didn’t have any desire to pick it up again. Of course, this lead to my racing, “Had I lost all inspiration/motivation to keep doing photography?”

At that moment, I felt a little unnerved. It has been such an important part of my life the last two years. I was worried I had burnt myself out. It’s hard to explain but I’m going to try anyways, I simply had lost the urge to create. Which seems like such a foreign concept to me. But as I was reading that article, it suddenly clicked. I’d reached my mental capacity. All mental space had been used up. There wasn’t any more room for creative inspiration. Yes, I know this is a sad realization and something that makes me sad when I think about it but I can’t help the way I was feeling.

Fast forward a week, I finally had some time to catch up with myself and reflect. But even more important, I made it my mission to unplug. I deleted time-wasting apps, like Snapchat and Facebook. This helped me tremendously, I had time to read a book I’d been wanting to read for a while now. I allowed myself to sleep in until noon, which I can’t remember the last time I did that. What I’d come to realize, was that with the desire to constantly create and feel like I’m accomplishing something, I forgot to take care of myself. I had put everyone else’s needs in front of my own. Now that I’ve had some time to reflect, I feel more in tune with myself.

So, when I say it’s okay to let the creative spark dim, I mean it. It may not feel great but everyone reaches that point sometime, whether it takes you a few weeks or months to get out of it, you can’t beat yourself up. You can only take a step back, reflect on how you got to this point, take some time for yourself and regroup.

Have you ever felt creatively drained? It’s something I know a lot creatives face, but it felt weird to describe myself as a “drained creative.”

-Ashlee

Influencer Marketing Guide: How to Work with Brands

*This series of photos were from a recent shoot I did with Tess Wicks from Wander Wealthy*

Today I decided to throw a little tidbit of knowledge your way. Since we’re in the midst of the holiday season, influencer campaigns are now in full swing. Which means there’s no better time to talk about my personal experience with influencer marketing. I’ve been involved in influencer marketing for the past three years and have seen the landscape slowly change. It’s become a vital part of any brands marketing strategy and with the overflow of influencers all wanting their own slice of the pie, brands have had to become more conscious of the influencers they work with.

Slowly but surely, companies have come to realize influencer marketing is a vital part of a strong, well-rounded marketing plan. Between working with bloggers/influencers on the content creation side, in addition to the brand side, I’d like to believe I have a solid grasp on what makes up influencer marketing. However, since this world is so new and ever-changing, that might change tomorrow. But for now, I want to share my knowledge, mostly from the perspective of someone who works for a small/medium sized brand (you may have heard of a little company called Ello).

So, what do brands look for when wanting to partner with influencers on a campaign? How does one get noticed by a brand? I’m hear to answer all of these burning questions.

Elements brands looks for when partnering with an influencer: 

Authentic Follower Numbers:

Today’s influencer marketing landscape is overwhelming. Brands spend countless hours going through accounts checking for a handful of different elements. For example, you will pull up someone’s account and see they have a large number of followers, this might seem enticing at first but once you start to dig deeper there’s a few things they quickly notice:

1. Likes on a photos: Say someone has 24,000 followers and only an average of 150 likes on each photos — what does this say? Either that their audience is not engaged with their content or they have purchased followers. Buying followers has become a major issue on all social platforms, but more specifically Instagram. Granted Instagram has started to crack down on the sites that allow people to buy followers and likes, it’s still a major issue. 

2. Engagement on a post: It’s one thing to see a bunch of comments on a post but dig a little deeper. Looking at who on those who are commenting on the post, it’s easy to spot if those accounts look fishy…it’s highly likely are they’re bot accounts and inauthentic as well. It’s important to note, brands do their research, especially smaller companies who want to make sure their marketing dollars being spend in the most efficient way. 

3. Content: Does every post include some kind of brand partnerships? How authentic do you think this feels to the audience? If you’re continuously posting brand partnerships, your followers aren’t idiots they realize you’re getting paid by the brands. This makes the partnership feel less authentic, and in return might turn your followers away from your account or the products you’re promoting. 

Consistency Throughout All Platforms

It’s confusing to brands when they see beautiful images on an influencer’s Instagram account and then head to their blog, only to see short post with bad grammar and subpar content. If the photos are dark/bad lighting, this doesn’t paint a good picture in the brand’s mind. Not to mention, lessen the chances of them working with said influencers. 

Easy Flow of Communication

Okay so you’ve been sent an email from a brand asking for rate, now what? Send them an email as soon as you read it, especially if you’re interested in the project and feel it aligns with your personal brand. Chances are they have a long list of influencers they’re interested in working with. It’s just a matter of who responds and what there rates are.

In addition, when working on a partnership, the amount of emails is insane. In order to make everyone’s life easier, brands greatly appreciate someone who is able to communicate in a timely manner. Yes, we all get busy but it shouldn’t take someone two weeks to respond to a brands email (unless stated in automatic reply email) confirming your go live date. Can you tell I’m speaking from experience? It creates unnecessary stress for the brand, or partnership coordinator who has presented the list of influencers to their marketing team, with contracts signed and the influencers is unable to deliver. It’s simply unprofessional. 

Someone Who is Transparent

Make sure you’re upfront with the brand. If you’ve had a different brand reach out regarding a collaboration and they’re in a similar category, check with the brand. If you don’t, post the content. The brands keep an eye out for these things. It leaves a distaste in their mouth. They know that you’re trying to make money off your brand but also they see it as not be transparent. On the other hand, letting the brand know and still post the partnership even though they advised you against it. Yeah, that’s a major “no, no”. 

I hope this post sheds a little light on what brands look for when scoping out potential bloggers to partner with. If you have any questions, feel free to send them my way.

Hope you have a great holiday!

-Ashlee

Summertime in Chicago

I seriously cannot believe it has been so long since I've written a blog post. I continuously ask myself why I haven't been writing. And to sum it up shortly, it's something I've pushed to the wayside and have let other things take priority. And that's okay, even though I'm always beating myself up for not taking the time to write. If we're being honest, I sit in front of a computer all day so I'm not always in the mood to sit in front of one at night as well. 

But I thought I would take some time to share what I've been up to this summer. I can't believe we're almost half way through July, I wish summer would slow down...just a little. Weekends have been filled with lots of time outside, shoots, and time with friends.

Let's see if I can summarize it a few short paragraphs. In the beginning of May, my brother graduated from high school and will be heading to my alma mater, Bellarmine University, at the end of the month. My birthday was two weekends ago and a few of my girlfriends made their way into town. We had a blast sipping drinks at The Robey Chicago and then grabbing brunch the next morning at Milk & Honey Cafe which is a short walk from my apartment. 

This coming weekend I'll be making my way up to Madison, Wisconsin to visit my sister and see her new apartment. Then next month I'll be heading to Europe with Rob and her sister for a trip to the Amalfi Coast in Italy then off to Poland for an authentic polish wedding -- I'm so excited. Now I just need to get organized for the trip and find some authentic places to go.