Faith Watson

I would attribute my success to building customer relationships that last. I'm such a people person. Obviously I want to do work well and have good income and everything, but also, to me, it's so important that you're building good relationships with people and impacting people's lives. For example, I just did a giveaway on my Instagram for a photoshoot, and that was so fun for me because I'm personally impacting someone, I can see how much joy it brings. I think that, to me, is success. It's like, yes, I'm making good money finally, and I'm finally getting more clients and all of these things, but at the same time, I'm also personally impacting people, and people love their photos, they love the work I'm doing, and to me, that's success in a way. It's not necessarily a set number I wanted to hit, it was just more getting consistent leads and having consistent clients, people that wanted something long-term, not more short. People that wanted to work with me in the future. I think more success is also from a customer service level in terms of building customer relationships that last.

The best piece of advice for a career I would say is honestly, just do it hard, and just go for your dreams, because genuinely, you have to be willing to fail in order to succeed, you know? For me personally, there were so many opportunities that I wanted that I didn't get, but I kept trying and kept reaching for my goals and my dreams, and I kept never giving up. I kept trying. And so I think finally, realizing, hey, every 30 emails, as long as I land one of them, it's worth it, you know? And so once I started realizing that hard work doesn't just come, the goals won't just come, you have to work for it, I think once I realized that, then I started realizing, okay, I can do things. Yes, not everything will work out, but it's the little moments where you keep on trying, where you'll finally start seeing results. So I think that's, for me, kind of the best view of advice. I just didn't give up, and I just kept trying new things and not being afraid to just fail, because after all, with a fail, I was finally able to succeed and reach my goal, which is my photography and my social media and all that.

I would say just, I know it's cliche, but just go for your dreams, and the thing that you've been wanting to start doing, that business idea you had, just go for it, you know, just take small steps, create that social media account, start looking into maybe a website. There's just Wix and easy ways you can just start doing it, and then just slowly, be willing to do things for free. For me, personally, I just had to do a lot of free shoots at the beginning, just to build my client portfolio. It doesn't just come, you have to work for it, but once you're willing to put in the work and dedicate time to it, and you're willing to never give up on yourself and your dreams, I think it really will come to fruition.

I think the biggest challenges are because digital marketing and social media is growing so quickly, the biggest challenge is it's hard for a lot of content to stand out nowadays. And because a lot of content is paid, in terms of there's a lot of companies willing to pay for it to go viral and stuff, it's hard for organic growth. It's always possible for things to go viral, of course, but it just makes it more trickier, so you have to be more creative with content and stuff, but that's just a part of the challenge, it's just fun, you know? And it's just fun coming up with ideas and content and just following the trends and the patterns.

First of all, my faith is very important to me. I definitely have dealt with my life has not been the easiest, with mental health and stuff. But I am very thankful because I've always never given up, and I've always surrounded myself with people who encourage me in my faith, who encourage me in my personal walks of life, and just in general. Those are the main things, just my faith and family and people that are surrounding me and encouraging me. Also mentors, too. I have my aunt, who is kind of in a similar role. She's a little bit older than me, but it's my mom's younger half-sister. She has been a great encouragement, and I've been able to kind of work under her some. Having people in a role that can help, or just even reaching out to anyone, just being willing to send an email and say, hey, would you give me some advice? I think that's also beneficial, and I've been able to do that for a few people, and it definitely helps, and just gives you perspective, and even motivation to just do more and get out there.