Meet Maggie Mcewen

We were lucky to catch up with Maggie Mcewen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maggie , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

I find my confidence through my faith in Christ. When I’m let down by things I can’t control or myself, I know that He is the only one who understands and can bring me out of it. I have worked so hard over the past year to surround myself by people who want me to succeed and do well, but I’ve also kept the people who don’t want me to succeed in the back of my mind to fire the motivation to always do better.

I would describe myself as a confident person, because of the people I have surrounded myself with. Over the past year, rounding out my last year of high school, it has been important to me to figure out who I want to be close with, and who I’m going to let myself become.

Everyone knows the phrase “you are who you hang out with” but often people feel targeted or offended when they’re told this, and it’s critical that you ask yourself “is this who I want to be and who I want to be friends with?” So through this process of understanding who I want to be and have closest to me, ultimately I need to place myself by people who want me to succeed and light the confidence in me to believe that I am capable. Yet, when everyone else around you fails to see the potential, fake it till you make it, you’ll get there if you want it enough 🙂

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?

Growing up I was heavily invested in sports, it’s what I bonded with my friends over. However, within my family, I’ve always been surrounded by creativity and art as well. I would sit with my grandpa and look at the landscapes and the sunsets, the trees and the birds, and honestly just realized the beauty of everything around me. I was quickly interested in photography, art, and drawing.

My sophomore year of high school I honestly shattered my knee, I tore my ACL fractured my femur partially tore my MCL, meniscus, and damaged a few other ligaments. Because of the identity I found in sports, this was one of the most depressing experiences I had to go through with recovery. This surfaced the question: how important actually is this to me and how much of my worth am I finding in athletic validation?

Long story short, I found myself picking up a camera and immediately just becoming fascinated with photography. It always seemed like something that has to be so professional and just pleasing for other people. But for me it’s such a creative and expressive hobby.

I started taking pictures for friends and my family and slowly it’s grown into a small business for me where I’m able to provide for myself and support people around me. As I’m continuing to grow my portfolio and showcase the love I have for photography, I want it to be known that I’m so open to trying ideas that are out of the box and try to make anyone’s expectation come to life. I love what is becoming of what started as a small hobby, and can’t wait to grow my medias and portfolio for the goodness of those around me!

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?

With photography it’s very shared between technical knowledge, creativity, and visualization. I’ve worked alongside a photographer whom I’ve looked up to, and she’s helped me understand, camera, IQ, client knowledge, and just overall wellness of photography.

One of the most important qualities to have is to be able to just take the risk and do something even though it seems like everybody else around you thinks that it might be stupid, or not serious enough, or like they’re trying to be something they’re not. It’s so important to be confident in your ability to grow and succeed even when those around you don’t think you can.

So I would consider myself definitely still learning with so much more along the way, something I would say to people who are just starting anything that they want to pursue as a career is to just keep the end goal in mind. Take the risks necessary to get there, and be willing to learn when you make mistakes. There will be roadblocks along the way, slow periods, you may hit plateaus or a complete rock in your face, but you just have to know that it will pass, and that if you want it enough, why should you let anything stop you?

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

One challenge in particular that’s affecting me, is my location. I want to go bigger than small town eventually, and I’m so open minded to going somewhere huge!! I’m at such a time of my life to travel, meet so many friends, and really drive myself towards success, so when able to travel and meet people along the way, I never skip the opportunity.

Within my community there’s so many profound and amazing photographers I look up to, and I’m ready to make my name bigger or move somewhere I’m also interested in starting fresh and growing my business! Book me for shoots to travel 😉

Contact Info:

• Instagram: maggiemariephoto

Image Credits

maggiemariephoto