We were lucky to catch up with Bex Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.
Bex, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
As a boudoir photographer, I get to know women in an incredibly intimate way. I get to know their stories, their interests, their goals, and their insecurities. Over the years, i’ve noticed patterns in my clients and women in general. We accept unrealistic expectations for our bodies. We allow social media, celebrities, influencers, and more to convince us that perfection is not only achievable, but expected. We are expected to stretch and increase to create humans, but our body should not reflect the process once that child is no longer inside of us. We are expected to look like an eighteen year old without cellulite, wrinkles, grays, or stretch marks, although we are decades older. We are sold beauty products, procedures, surgeries, and lies. We are taught we are never enough and there is always more to do to ourselves in order to be desirable. I aim to help women accept their bodies, embrace the changes that come with age, and learn to see themselves as sexy and desirable exactly as they are. When we stop focusing on the way we look, we can start focusing on our goals, dreams, and loved ones. We’ve been distracted for a reason. It’s time to take the blinders off.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My Why: Boudoir is about empowerment. I am here to show women that they are beautiful, sexy, and powerful exactly as they are. I focus on flattering posing and not body modification in post-production. I am not a digital plastic surgeon. I firmly believe that photoshopping in boudoir is not at all empowering, rather, it perpetuates body shame. I’m here to teach ladies to embrace their bodies and the evolutions we go through as women. My Facebook group Badass Boudoir by Bex Williams focuses on empowering women and teaching them to release the need to hold ourselves to society’s unrealistic expectations for our appearances. Sexy isn’t a size, it’s a mindset. I strive to show my clients that I don’t have to change you in order to make you beautiful. You are worthy and perfect exactly as you are. We are humans. We are meant to grow and stretch and wrinkle and fold and every single season of your body is beautiful. Body acceptance and self-love are a journey. We all have good days and bad days, but you are worthy on every single one of them. I just opened a brand new studio in Denver with gorgeous natural lighting and a drool-worthy client closet. I also just added teal 6 foot long angel wings to my client closet that are absolutely stunning.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three qualities I feel were the most impactful for my journey were to always be willing to work hard, always be willing to learn, and always remember the big picture goal. I will always be the hardest worker in the room. That will always be who I am. I will always wake up earlier, grind harder, and stay up later. There is no competition. I am only competing with what I know I am capable of. If you really want something, it is yours to lose. Manifest your goals by believing with your whole being that they are possible, and never stop until they come to fruition. Always remember that the day you stop learning, you start losing. Take each day as an opportunity to improve yourself and actively seek ways to do so. At the end of the day, remember what your big picture goals are. Be willing to change your course of action to help you get to the big goal. Last but not least, burn your boats. You have to be willing to risk everything to achieve the things that others never will. You have to be willing to sacrifice sleep, social engagements, tv, relaxation, and more. Be willing. It’s so worth it.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
It is so easy as a mom to become overwhelmed. You have humans depending on you for food, shelter, comfort, and knowledge, partners who need support, care, and love, a household where the tasks seem to pile up no matter how many you cross off the list, and goals of your own to somehow achieve in the mix of it all. It’s so easy to get lost in the forest. Time blocking has been a hugely successful strategy for me. Each day, I compile a list of my goals for the day. I then divide the goals up into time block chunks, with the needs of the day mixed in. For example: between 6:00 am and 8:00 am, i wake up, drink coffee, read the Bible, edit photo sessions, and return client emails. Between 8:00 am-10:00 am, I wake up my children, get them dressed, make everyone breakfast, do the dishes, and light house keeping. Between 10:00 am-12:00 pm, I play with the kids, run errands, get outside time, and answer a few more emails. Between 12:00 pm-2:00 pm, I make lunch, get the kids down for a nap, and workout. I chunk my day into two hour blocks with achievable milestones for each block. I cross each task off with a black sharpie and keep myself on schedule, focused, and off of my phone. I build my business goals into my day and surround them with mundane tasks like the laundry and meaningful tasks like connecting with my kids. When I find myself getting behind, often the only thing I really need to do is put my phone on do not disturb.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bexwilliamsphotography.com/
- Instagram: @bexwilliamsphotography
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bexwilliamsphotography/
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/991241981630412
