We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hailey Dixon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Hailey, thank you for joining us today and sharing your experiences and acquired wisdom with us. Burnout is a huge topic these days and so we’d love to kick things off by discussing your thoughts on overcoming or avoiding burnout
Up until the end of 2022 I was a chronic workaholic not knowing it was actually detrimental to me and my business in the long run. Often photographers glamorize “all nighters” “editing for 14 hours straight” etc, etc. I was at one point one of those people thinking that’s how I could best serve my clients. I thought it showed dedication. After repeatedly experiencing burn out I finally took a step back and realized how my lack of boundaries with personal life and my business and my willingness to work and answer messages at all hours of the day and night for extreme periods of time was actually slowing me down and making both my work and personal lives a mess. I realized prioritizing work hours and utilizing apps that limit screen time made me not only more organized and on top of things but it also brought peace and calm to my personal life. I now keep pretty standard work hours and prioritizing taking days off during the week when I’m set to work weekends. In turn my business has flourished because I can fully show up for my clients and serve them well and deliver an over all better product because I’m not staring at a screen for endless amounts of time and overly stressed. Time with family is much better being fully awake and not distracted by emails as well! Finding a balance of work, family, and personal life can be hard at first but it is so important in the long run. My biggest piece of advice to anyone needs to overcome burnout and find a work life balance is that the world won’t end if you wait to answer that email at 9am on Monday! Take a breath, take a walk, enjoy your vacation, enjoy your weekend. Business owner you with thank yourself for it later as will your business.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My name is Hailey Dixon and I’m the owner of Hailey Nelson Photography based in Minnesota. I’m a wedding and portrait photographer that focuses mainly on weddings, couples, seniors, and families. I’ve been passionate about documenting my own life for as long as I can remember and knew from a young age this is what I wanted to do. Some of my fondest childhood memories is looking through my grandparents photo albums and imagining what life was like for them at that age, or that moment in time. I always especially liked looking at the few wedding photos they had and always wished there were more. Often when I’m shooting weddings I’m thinking about how my couples future generations may be looking at their photos one day and that is something that brings me great joy. I believe history is important, documenting is important, and I believe everyone deserves to be documented in a beautiful artistic way! After getting engaged in 2021 and married in 2022 my approach and view of weddings changed drastically in the best way possible. I’m blessed have a built in second shooter with my husband Jake who is also a creative! We have both worked so hard to try and think of everything we can to make our clients wedding days go as smoothly as possible and document it in a way that allows them to look back and relive their day through beautiful images over and over. We are excited to continue to expand on the wedding side of business as we’re looking as our busiest wedding year yet! With that expansion comes the offering of elopements all over the country as well as we will soon be offering video for elopements as well which we are pumped about! We both feel so lucky to meet and get to know so many people at such an exciting stage in their lives and stay connected as they change and expand their families allowing us to continue to document their lives beyond exchanging vows.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I learned quickly having interpersonal and just people skills in general is huge when you are the face of a business! Luckily I’ve always been a talker and I think that helps put clients at ease when we can just chat during a session. I also believe you should never stop trying to learn and grow- staying curious and always trying to improve helps keep you from getting into a rut. Also having the ability to and the desire to give people grace- there will always be new and challenging hurtles when it comes to industries where you meet and work with a lot of new people and having the ability to give people grace and be a little flexible in tough situations will usually make for a better outcome for everyone involved.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Absolutely! Any team players in the wedding industry! I love connecting and learning about other photographers, videographers, and any other vendor for weddings. It’s always good to hear other perspectives and sides of the day and learn what I can do to make days better for those professions! Also working in the wedding industry is a very specific lifestyle and it’s always good to have friends that understand that.
Contact Info:
- Website: haileynelsonphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haileynelsonphotography/
- Facebook: @haileynelsonphoto
Image Credits
Hailey Nelson Photography
