We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Westcott recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Amanda, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
I swear that I’d never have a sign or poster that says “Live. Laugh. Love” in my home. But honestly, I’m just a girl trying to live out every cheesy cliche quote out there. Because who shouldn’t live in the moment, laugh with your loved ones, and love hard? Why shouldn’t we all Carpe Diem, and live every day like it’s your last. The problem is people read them and then that’s it, they just read them. Nobody applies them. Which isn’t that the root of most people’s problem nowadays? Not applying?
While I’m not saying that I’m perfect, because I’m human and far from that. Through daily (not perfect) meditation and yoga, I try to be grateful and breathe when I feel too anxious about a shoot, or about the future. Will all my lights work during the shoot? What if a light blows? What if my camera stops working? Did I check-in to my flight? Do I read enough to my daughter? Does she “get out” enough? Should I eat that piece of cheese cake? Anything and everything. All can be solved with breathing and taking a moment to be grateful. Grateful that I have this privileged life to have these problems. I get to do what I love and what if a light blows and my camera stops working? We have backups for a reason. I get to travel to do what a love. I have an amazing daughter that is happy, and healthy. Oh, and eat that piece of cheese cake.
The key to optimism is not the absence of intrusive thoughts, but just catching yourself and shifting your perspective. Through practice (and I mean lots of and lots and lots of practice) it becomes a little easier (ish).
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’m a photographer as well as a co-founder of AK Collective, a media production company based in Brooklyn, New York. I own AKC with my husband, Mark – who is a videographer and honestly a jack of all trade. We’re originally from Toronto, Canada and moved to New York in 2013. I honestly cannot believe that it’s been 11 years. It feels like yesterday that we packed up our U-haul with a mattress, and our cat, and drove down to New York with no job. Just a lot of hopes and dreams.
Fast forward to 2024, I have shot over 10 years of world champion level boxing with Showtime and DAZN. Have had billboards in Times Square, Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, the Las Vegas strip, and on the side of buses in Paris. Worked and work with talent such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, John Malkovich, Usher, and Mike Tyson just to name drop a few people. As well as be apart of a production along my husband, for the opening piece for Super Bowl LV, voiced by Jennifer Hudson that won an Emmy. And the fact that this is only a very small sample of the last 11 years is absolutely mad.
In between the big names are smaller names, but equally as important. Where it be lifestyle photography for Proctor & Gamble, or documentary photography for a CBS, Meta, or Rolling Stone. People are my “thing.”
I love working with people. Even though I’m an introvert at heart. Nothing sounds more like a perfect Friday night than an evening in, under a blanket with a tea, watching The Great British Bake Off. I love that no day is the same, and no one has the same story. I think of all of us starring in a Garry Marshall movie (think Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, or Mother’s Day), where we switch from story to story, with new and different people in the leading role. We’re all in the leading role to our own movie, and I want to know what your story is. I learn something new or gain a new perspective from every single person. Where it be Jake Paul, someone that everyone loves to hate, or hates to love. He’s taught me work ethic, and “dontgiveashitness.” To an Indian immigrant that moved to the United States and started a FaceBook group that helps other new Indian immigrants in America by giving them a community. He taught me courage and compassion. And the fact that I can use my photography to represent or illustrate all these people and their stories to show the world, is a gift I don’t take for granted.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three things that I live by: gratefulness (I’m gonna be that broken cliche record), be true to yourself, and no one knows what they’re doing.
Gratefulness I’ve already touched base on it earlier. It truly is the root of success in all things. The key is to remember to come back to it and take a moment. Write out a list if it helps you, especially at the beginning.
Be true to yourself is living unapologetically you. As if you thought “gratefulness” wasn’t cliche enough. I’m doubling down on it. I keep saying, they’re cliches for a reason! When I get into my inevitable anxiousness and my imposter syndrome starts creeping in, I just think, there’s no one else out there like you, and that’s your super power. Even though social media keeps showing to us relatable things and making us feel like none of us has had a unique experience ever (seriously, why did we all draw that “S” symbol in elementary school??), but we do, if you look hard enough.
We all go into each situation with different experiences, a different background, and a different perspective. Even if you seemingly look like you have the same style and same technical skill as another photographer. They may be photographing these group of dancers with a difference lens (metaphorically speaking). Maybe they wanted to be a dancer when they were younger, but “didn’t have the feet” (cue Center Stage, a year 2000 classic rom com). How they direct the subjects and capture the dancers would be a lot different than you. We’re all different, and that’s what’s amazing.
The last thing was something I’ve learned through experience in the last 11 years. Everyone is just winging it. You look at big companies, celebrities, or whatever your dream job is and think, “I could never work for them/be them,” or “they’ve really got everything together.” WRONG. Honestly the biggest companies just have regular people working there. Just regular people with cool jobs. And regular people make regular people mistakes and have regular people problems. When I witnessed this throughout my career it was both disappointing yet relieving at the same time. Disappointing because there really isn’t that golden egg to chase REALLY. That’s not to say don’t go for it. Which brings me to my second point, ALWAYS go for it, because they’re just people too. And if you’re in the right place, at the right time, with the right skill. You could be what they are looking for. Somebody’s gotta do it, and that somebody could be you.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
They say never judge a book by its cover, and thank goodness because I probably wouldn’t have bought this book if that was the rule. I love pink, I really do. Coming from a person that wears all black, all the time. But my nails are usually pink, my phone case is pink. You get the idea. But books? I like it neutral, neutral, neutral. I don’t know if it’s because I live in a New York apartment with next to zero space to put books, so what I do choose to display, needs to “blend.”
ANYWAY, cover aside (can you tell I’m a visual person? or crazy. Same thing). The book that helped me take those breathers when I start spiraling is a book called “The Book of Moods” by Lauren Martin. I also have thoughts on the book title, but that’s for another time. It’s not a frilly book that just talks about being angry, or sad, or if what you’re feeling is due to the Mercury Retrograde blah blah blah. It’s simply talking about moments, just a thing that happens that could all of a sudden shift your mood completely, or puts you “in a mood” if you will. It’s about how most of our moods stem from our own thoughts, which stem from our misconceptions and misinterpretations about what someone said or did. That perception is EVERYTHING. How you perceive a situation a dialogue, a moment, is the difference between getting into a mood and avoiding one.
Every time I start getting anxious about a situation, or anxiously waiting for a particular outcome, I (as well as many others) imagine the worst case scenarios and get stressed a completely hypothetical situation and now because of it, is stressed twice. “An emotion that lasts longer than a minute and a half is no longer an automatic response, but a decision to keep igniting that thought, that emotion, over and over again.” This book taught me to recognize these moments and whack them in the head. Not necessarily stop them, or change them, just noticing them, and by noticing them and seeing them objectively, it loses its power to control you.
Having said that. It’s what I’ve been saying throughout this whole interview. It sounds like I’ve got it all together. But in reality, I need to remember to remember all of these nuggets all the time. It’s so much easier to just react, to dwell, to spiral. But once in a while, when I remember to remember, life gets momentarily a lot easier and I can live another day to #livelaughlove
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amandawestcott.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisamandaw/
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/westcottamanda
