We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashlee Burgess. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashlee below.
Ashlee, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
Being self-employed often means doing whatever it takes to launch your business off the ground, keep it afloat, and make ends meet. This is exhilarating in the beginning: each new milestone passed and bump in the road conquered feels like the greatest win on Earth. An 80+ hour work week, making yourself available 24/7, and navigating new challenges feel like nothing in return for seeing your success come to life.
Seeing your business grow and blossom is the goal and it is truly the greatest blessing. However, those who do succeed have typically worked incredibly hard to get there, and that often comes at the expense of other things in their lives or their own mental health… Here is where I raise my hand high in the air!
I wanted to do it all and saying “no” was not a word I had in my vocabulary, in my photography business or in my personal life. I started out shooting all kinds of sessions to build my portfolio, and after about a year, I began taking on weddings on top of regular sessions. I have been incredibly blessed to have a supportive local community to which I owe the growth of my business, but in the early days I mistook thankfulness for indebtedness. I strongly felt that I had to always be available to everyone, even when this meant shooting seven days a week, staying up all night to deliver work, and responding to messages as soon as they hit my inbox.
This was a “me” problem that I had to overcome. While the pressure is high in a competitive market like photography and the public can sometimes forget that behind every small business there is a small (if not solo) team trying to do it all, I had placed these expectations on myself. It took several years of missing family events, never taking a break, and reaching a point where I was dreading my dream job in order to do some self reflection. I had to realize that while my business was successful because of the hard work I had put in, a lot of the habits and ways of thinking I had used were not sustainable and no longer served me.
I was “burnt out to a crisp” as I often joked with my friends. I had to re-evaluate everything and ultimately I decided that stepping back from shooting weddings after 7 years, though scary to lose my largest source of income, was the only way to move forward. I knew it might mean my business wasn’t so successful in monetary terms, but I also knew I wouldn’t have a business at all if I stayed miserable and exhausted.
It didn’t stop there. While I knew gaining some of my weekend time back and having a more manageable workload would help, it was also crucial that I change my mindset and workflow. I have a best friend, Haley, who pours as much into this business as I do, and she has taken on so many new roles over the past year. Learning that I don’t have to do it all alone, that open space on my calendar doesn’t mean I’m available, and that saying “no” is not only okay but also absolutely necessary saved my business and my sanity.
Now, over a year out from shooting my last wedding and making these changes, my business is more successful than ever. I have the opportunity to connect more genuinely with my clients, I have profited more than in previous years, and best of all, my mental health is better than ever before. I am so grateful for the hard lessons I learned and applied to both my work and personal life by persevering through burnout. Learning those lessons even lead me to launch a new side of my business: mentoring other photographers so they don’t have to learn the same lessons the hard way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Creativity runs deep in my life. As a child I loved writing stories, playing piano, and painting. When I was ten years old, I got my first camera and a whole new world of expression was opened up for me. I loved photographing landscapes, flowers, and animals. I was always fascinated by the idea of a memory existing tangibly forever. My love for the artistic world grew more every year. By my senior year of high school, I was taking four art classes a day and I knew I wanted to pursue a degree in fine arts.
In the summer of 2014 before I began my college courses, my husband gave me the best birthday gift ever: my first DSLR camera. I spent that summer capturing milestones like engagements and maternity photos for my friends just for fun. I shared the photos to social media and I was overwhelmed by the feedback and inquiries I received. I took a leap of faith as I poured my heart and soul into growing as a photographer and learning how to run a business while finishing my degree.
When I graduated in 2017, I took my business full time. From that point through 2022, I shot over 30 wedding per year and filled most weekdays with sessions too. I learned a lot of lessons the hard way and reached a point of burnout where even the best job on Earth was feeling too heavy. I knew I could give up my dream or I could pivot, and that choice to pivot opened up even greater things for my business.
I no longer shoot weddings, but my schedule is now filled to a healthy degree with things I am truly passionate about like boudoir, family, and portrait sessions. I also operate my own studio and rent it out to other photographers in the West Georgia area as well. The tough things I went through and a decade of lessons learned also launched a new side to my business: mentoring other photographers. It brings me so much joy to know because of my struggles, I can now help other creatives launch or maintain their business in a healthy and sustainable way!
My plate is more full than ever in a lot of ways, but it doesn’t feel that way because I have found balance and fulfillment through lots of trial and error over the years!
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?
1. Sustainability. While you absolutely have to hustle as an entrepreneur, you also have to set the tone and standard for your business early on in order to have longevity. It is much easier to be realistic from the beginning about what is healthy for you and what your goals truly are than to have to re-evaluate your world from a place of feeling stuck. Most creatives have the same broad goals: do something we love, serve others, and make money doing it. But what does that actually look like for YOU? Specifically for photographers, you have to take on a variety of work in order to find your niche, but you don’t have to get stuck there. When working in the creative world, there is a space for everyone. The most important thing you can do to sustain your business is to do what you love, so that you can do it well.
2. Flexibility. While setting yourself up to be as sustainable as possible will make your life a lot easier, the creative world is always in flux. Trends change, editing styles come and go, and what clients prioritize will shift too. After 10 years in business, I’ve learned that I just have to be flexible. One year my spring mini sessions might book out fully and the next there may be no interest in that set up. A reel or TikTok trend that performs great for another photographer may be a flop when I try it. The ability to keep trying new things, while also staying true to yourself and your brand is a delicate balance. Not taking things personally and staying flexible are crucial to see your business thrive!
3. Confidence. Imposter syndrome is a beast, and one that periodically rears its head no matter how long you’ve been in the game. Social media breeds comparison and having the confidence to say, “I can do this” no matter what it is will get you farther than any other skill. Learning how to use your camera and your editing software well, marketing yourself well, and evaluating your cost of doing business are the first steps. But I’d venture to say, with any creative job, that confidence comes even before that. If you’re going to do this, you have to believe you can do it!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge I’m currently facing is the pressure to be present on social media. My business initially grew because of my activity on Facebook and Instagram. I posted sneak peeks from every session, I shared as often as possible, and I even had an instagram reel reach 12 million views. It was a goal of mine to grow my brand online as much as possible, and that used to be one of my favorite parts of operating my business.
There is so much pressure as an entrepreneur and creative to stay up to date on trends and post daily. When I reached the point of burnout in my business, I stopped posting for the most part and focused only on completely necessary aspects like getting work delivered. Even though I’m now happier than ever with my business structure and still get all the leads I need through Google, my website, and return clients, I still feel that pressure to post and I tend to avoid it.
I’m working on this by sharing only when it feels genuine to my brand, and cultivating space for myself to love this part of my business instead of treating it like a chore! I also acknowledge that while it’s a great tool, there is no connection between my success and how many followers I have or how often I post!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ashleeburgessphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashleeburgessphotography
- Other: My mentor instagram: www.instagram.com/yourfavphotomentor
My studio instagram: www.instagram.com/goldenlight.studio
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