What would happen if you took some time to be offline? In today’s episode, I’m sharing the clarity that I gained during one week away from my business while on a trip with my boyfriend’s family. I’m also opening up about the shifts in both my business and my identity over the last few years, and how you might apply my experience back to your own entrepreneurship. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Review the Show Notes: 

Single In The Wedding Industry (2:25)

A Week Long Vacation With His Family (5:55)

Disconnecting Completely (7:18)

You Can Do It All (10:22)

Mentioned In This Episode:

The Green House

Review the Transcript:

Hey, hey, it is official. I am back after a week long trip where I was completely offline. I have a couple of things I want to chat about today, as I have been thinking about the podcast and where we’re at where we’re going, I haven’t been spending a lot of time chatting all about behind the scenes and content creation, with a ton of ton of focus on wedding photography. And although that is my passion, and I am obsessed with weddings, and helping other photographers shine online, literally, that’s what I have been doing and where my business is going, I thought it’d be fun to kind of share a quick story about a recent event where I went completely off line. And believe it or not, I feel more connected than ever.

So for today’s episode, we’re gonna dive into a little bit of that feeling of like finding your identity, and where we are putting honestly too much pressure and too much just kind of like energy and focus into things that may not be the most important to us. And then also going back to those identities are experiencing some identity shifts.

I can’t wait to share a quick story about this recent adventure and this traveling opportunity that I had, and how it has completely changed my perspective on my business, and my life. And like I always say, I love sharing the stories on these podcasts. I love all these incredible guests and interviews that I have on the podcast. But please, please, please listen, but then put yourself in my own boots, right? Like how can you apply this to your business?

Ready? Let’s go. Welcome to Quianna Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins, big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode at Kiana murray.com/podcast. Join me as I share with you motivation, chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party ready loves though.

For over a decade now, well, okay, not quite a decade, I’ve been single for like, six or seven years now before I recently met my new boyfriend. And I just want to be totally transparent with you and share her that that has been my identity being single in the wedding industry. I have talked about being single for so long. And I have been to so many weddings where I experienced a couple and they’re just so loving and so happy. And I think, ah like, I mean, I’m always thinking, why not me, right? Like, what is it about these two people?

Why have they found love and you know, I really hope and pray for them that it’s going to last. But more importantly, like that was my thing. Like I identified as being single I identified as being an entrepreneur. And even though it left me a little bit heartbroken during some times of my life, like literally going through drive through through Taco Bell or in and out after late night weddings, and just crying in the front seat thinking, why not me like what is going on. But I quickly realized that I am so much more than that identity like I am so much more than just a photographer, just a single entrepreneur in this crazy life, right? Like I have my mom to count on, thankfully.

And I have family and friends that support me endlessly. But like, ultimately, it was just me. And I used to see so many other photographers totally killing it in the husband and wife team feel being and I used to think, gosh, they’re so lucky. Like, could you imagine having double the horsepower to work on that business or to be able to travel the world and experience destination weddings with your best friend and with your person. Like, it was just so beautiful. And then as I continued in this dating field, literally I went on like, oh my gosh, over a 101st dates and they were all dumpster fires.

I finally swiped and I met my boyfriend Mike, who at the time honestly, I didn’t think it was gonna last like I was I was attracted to him. I was very interested in him. But I had so many of my own like internal demons and really, really, really thick and high high walls that I wasn’t sure that this was going to last right like in fact that kind of was a flight risk.

About a couple months into our relationship. I broke up with him and he actually met up with me and said, No, you’re not like Could we talk through this like what’s happening? And of course I confess that I really really liked him. I was careful not to say love at that time and in a relationship, I was really protecting my energy but I just really wanted him to know, like, Hey, I’m overwhelmed.

Don’t know if you guys feel this. I know a lot of us are photographers, and especially small business owners and entrepreneurs like we have seasons, right. So like, during that October season, as we know, it is so busy for us photographers. So it this was, I think it was like the last week of September, beginning of October when I was just like, I’m out like, I’m sorry.

He fought for me any part of our relationship? And it didn’t take long for me to decide, like, okay, like, I’m continuing to date him. And so we did.

Yeah, I guess my point is, so this little like, identity shift is that it took me some time to literally stop calling myself a single photographer, because even though we’re not married, even though we’re not engaged, like I still am in a very committed relationship. For me, like that was an entire identity shift. And then let’s get back into the fact that I went on a week long vacation with his family. T

hey go on this annual trip and in fact, literally the after our first date, Mike went out on to like a week long vacation with his family. And that’s when I really started falling for him because he was still in contact with me, he was texting me, we’re talking on the phone and stuff while he was with his family.

But I loved that he was spending so much time camping, and spending time with his nieces and nephew and doing really fun things. And so it just made me realize, like, okay, like this guy is like worth pursuing. And so it was my turn to go on this adventure with his family, they welcomed me with open arms, everyone was so friendly. We had a great trip. And I was completely in airplane mode the entire time. Like, yes, I checked in with my family.

There are a couple texts that I would send just to make sure that they knew I was alive. I know my cousins and my mom. And one of my aunts actually checks my location, like we just like always know where each other are mostly for safety measures, of course. And it’s great. Like I actually, I’m one of those weirdos that actually likes people knowing where I am. So in case anything were to happen, it’s just like a little safety feature for me. I was only using my phone, even though it was an airplane mode, I was using it to take photos and video and all my fun stuff.

And I was completely disconnected from Wi Fi and from service. And it was such a beautiful thing. It was just so incredible. And a couple of things that I learned while I was going completely Wi Fi free is I was able to listen, I was able to really stay present and when I say listen, I mean like actually pause and find clarity in what I’m doing what I was called down to this earth to do, what my mission is and what I’m offering. And so I really want to encourage you to try that.

Maybe it’s only a day, maybe it’s only a weekend, or maybe you can do an entire week or an entire month, I highly encourage you to take some time off and stop scrolling, we can look on the internet and on our reels and our tiktoks for so much inspiration. And yes, it they’re full of ideas and trends and fun things that you can do to kind of implement into your own business, whether you’re actually learning business tactics, or you’re just picking up trends and stuff to make for your for your own

social media. But I challenge you to disconnect to truly connect to yourself. When I was exploring Antelope Canyon, which has been on my bucket list for so long. I was at the bottom of that their slot canyons and they’re so beautiful because the water actually carves out these beautiful twists and turns and they’re like, bright orange. They’re just so beautiful in that red dirt. And I felt so connected to the earth. It brought me back to my why it brought me back to what am I doing in this this world, right? And and then just of course, exploring Horseshoe Bend, and we even got to check out the coral sand dunes. I mean, those are beautiful. And Zion was just breathtaking.

Like driving out of that tunnel into Zion was just magical. Like I literally thought like, oh my gosh, you have to play that like Star Wars song right now because he like come out. I feel like we were in Disneyland or Universal Studios. Like, it was just so incredibly breathtaking. And I don’t know if you ever feel this way when you are up against a mountain and you just feel so tiny. And so like insignificant.

I feel like that is such a beautiful, beautiful reminder that we can sometimes feel like, gosh, we have so many goals. We have so many to do lists and checkpoints and timeline checks and stuff. And at the end of the day, like we are just really small like I feel like you know it’s like it’s it’s preached to us like we can make a difference and we can make an impact and we You can and we are doing this with our daily lives. But it’s always a tiny things that, you know, compound or compound to make things actually matter. Right? So, today’s episode is kind of just like a think tank, kind of like, let’s throw it all on the table.

I really wanted to do a connection point with you, I feel like I like I said, I’ve been doing a whole bunch of education. And so I really wanted to share an experience where I just totally checked off, like I just checked out. And I came back with so much clarity. So what does this clarity mean? And I wanted to share like where I’m going with my business. So if you’ve been following me for a while, I’m so so grateful that you’re here. And you’re a part of this adventure and a part of this like wild ride.

But over the last 15 years, I’ve literally done it all. I’ve done weddings, I’ve done family shoots, every year I sell and in many sessions, which I’m so grateful for. I’ve done content shoots and boudoir shoots, and I have done it all. And I want this message to really resonate with you. If you’re feeling like maybe you need to niche down or maybe you don’t want to niche down or like whatever you’re feeling, I just want to remind you that like you actually can do it all. You can do it all at once.

This was an incredible quote by learn from Natalie, Frank, like we can’t do it all at once. But we absolutely can do it all. So whatever you’re identifying with right now, maybe you are a brand photographer, and you get a whole bunch of inquiries for family photo shoots. Or maybe you are a realtor. And you also do yoga on the side, right, like whatever it is that you do currently. And then what you’re asked to do lean into it, like I challenge you to open up your heart for more possibilities, and more opportunities.

Because sometimes when we’re so laser focused on what we’re doing exactly, and where we’re going, Yes, it does put us in the driver’s seat. But as we all know, when you are driving, you often miss the beautiful scenery around you, which is actually sometimes kind of fun to be in the backseat. Like, for example, when Mike was driving us through Zion, we were in his big white suburban, and, you know, it just, I was so grateful for him to be driving.

I can just sit out the front window and just stare and look up and look behind us and look around. And you know, it was me, he was like, let’s turn here or let’s let’s check out what the what this is over here. Like there were so many opportunities, because I wasn’t in the driver’s seat.

Okay, so as always, like take control of your life, put yourself first, but don’t forget to leave room for magic. Now, coming up with the greenhouse I’m so excited about is my online store and like my digital shop.

So I’m really excited to start releasing and dropping products, workshops, and little mini courses that align with each of those. I’m calling them gardens, right like each of those topics, or kind of like content boxes, right? So you have like wedding content, and you have boudoir content and family sessions slash mini session content and branding content, like all the fun stuff, and even going to have a future garden or like little shop for wedding venues. Right.

There’s so many opportunities, and I’m mostly shamelessly sharing this with you Yes, to spread the word, but ultimately to hold myself accountable. I have been working behind the camera fearlessly, and like tirelessly for over a decade. And I’m really, really excited to start implementing more of this into my business. So if you are still here, and you’re still listening, thank you, I am so grateful that you are here. And I just want this reminder to come from the heart and to remind you that you are capable, that you are honestly overqualified and it’s just a matter of doing the work take some time. If you have to create a block schedule if you have to tell your friend no for coffee or that next co working opportunity because honestly we know you’re probably not gonna get a lot of work done.

And that’s okay. But selfishly, selfishly, put yourself first for the next three months, put your head down work on that project, launch that new offer. Take a break, okay, like this new with this new spring season. It’s a time for growth. It’s a time for planting seeds. And I’m just here for like I’m cheering for you.

If you are interested, I would absolutely be so grateful for you to leave a review. If you love this podcast if you are watching any of the crazy tiktoks or the fun reels that I’ve been releasing. I just want you to know that I’m right there with you. Like I am constantly trying to figure this out. I am a fighter and I know you are too and together we can make our wildest dreams come true. So Keep on dancing baby. And I hope you have a beautiful week. I will see you next week. Okay, love you. Bye.

That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at quiannamarie.com/podcast. I’d be honored if you show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on dancing!