Oh hey there! My name is Emme! I am a family and couples photographer in Donnybrook, WA. Do you want to know what has been my biggest struggle in business?

This is my little corner of the internet and I so desperately want to use it for good. Writing my thoughts down can be really scary to be honest. I always worry about what my friends and family will think of me when they inevitably stumble across this space. BUT when I go through hard seasons, the number one thing I catch myself doing is scouring the internet for someone who feels like me. I’ll read blogs, listen to podcasts, scroll social media, read books. Literally finding ANYTHING by ANYONE that can tell me I’m not alone.

So I guess this is my tiny way of giving back. Because there have been an immeasurable amount of times that I have found the exact words I needed to carry me through something that felt world ending at the time. When I needed light in my darkness, I often found it by reading blogs written by other people who felt what I felt. So while it can be scary for me to write my thoughts down for the whole world to see, I’m trusting and hoping that there will be a purpose in it and that maybe you can find a little light here. Just like I did.

This is me. Nervously laughing on my wedding day a little over 18 months ago now. Since then I’ve had a baby, recovered from a c-section, started this business and gone back to work in hospitality. Back on this day I saw some of that coming, but definitely not all of it. It’s funny how plans never quite go to plan, don’t ya think?

Flash forward to this moment. It’s 8:30pm, I’m sitting on the couch in PJ’s, with wet hair that I should have washed but didn’t, and a toddler in bed who has already woken up twice since she went down for the night at 6:30pm. Trying to batch write blog posts that I should have written back in February.

I have barely posted on social media in months, I haven’t booked a ton of new clients and I have been making more coffee than art lately. I have been telling myself that all of that is because I have a toddler to keep up with so it’s hard to find time to run a business. But I think the honest truth is that I’ve felt overwhelmed.

Once you start showing up online and playing the algorithms game, there is this nagging pressure to keep it up, to keep creating content, to keep being present everyday for everyone otherwise the algorithm will never forgive you and you’ll lose everything you built and you will never find success.

Okay that might be just a tad on the dramatic side. And logically I know that it won’t actually be THAT world ending. But if you add that to constantly needing to learn new business skills, chasing after a toddler who doesn’t like sleeping and whose latest hobby is licking the floor, keeping a clean home, starting work again because grocery prices seem to have tripled AND trying to spend intentional time with your spouse – it can start to feel a bit daunting.

So now that you start to feel the spiral, you suddenly notice everyone else. The mums, the creators, the photographers, the wives, the homemakers, the people who are doing the things that you are doing except they are doing them better.

And instead of feeling inspired by these people, you start to feel like you’ll never measure up.

The comparison on social media. The overwhelm of your daily to do lists. The exhaustion from sleepless nights. And the disappointment in yourself because you have to make money from coffee that you couldn’t make from photos.

That has been the hardest part of business for me. The feeling of never being able to keep up.

All written out like this it sounds so gloomy and sad. But in reality I am rarely sad, especially these days.

I actually look like this most days. Because I’m married to my bestie for the resty, I’m watching my ridiculously cute daughter grow up (way too quickly), I get to create my favourite kind of art whenever I want, I have a non-stressful job that’s close to home, and I’m surrounded by amazing, supportive, inspiring human beings.

My life is actually everything I grew up wanting it to be and wayyyyy more. And I wouldn’t trade it for the whole dang world.

It’s just that all those little negative thoughts I wrote about seem to live in the back of my mind and softly whisper at me while I’m living my dream life. Trying to quietly steal my joy. Trying to distract me from small moments of wonderfulness. Trying to convince me that because I didn’t reach my picture of success today, I never will. And making me jealous of people who I should be looking up to.

So here’s what I’ve decided. Done is better than perfect.

I can show up online and not bow down to the algorithm. I can take photos and create and they can be not as good as someone else’s. Especially if that someone else has been in the field for wayyyy longer than me. I can write content that wouldn’t be worth an A+. I can keep going and keep trying and keep being here even if I don’t see the benefits right now.

So here I am. Showing up in my business whenever I can and choosing to see the joy in that more than the overwhelm.

If you have read this far, Thankyou from the very bottom of my heart for being here! I am so grateful for you! If this resonated with you in any way I would love to hear from you! Flick me a DM on insta @emmejaephotography and let’s have a conversation!

If you are feeling overwhelm in your current season of life or if you feel guilty for struggling through a season that you literally always dreamed of, you are not alone. I love motherhood, I love business, I love marriage, I love being 25! And yet I have had to learn to accept that each of those things come with their own difficulties and that does not mean I am not oh so grateful!

Whether you are in a difficult season that you never wanted to be in or whether you are in your dream season and still struggling. I’m here for you, let’s do this together!

Emme x