Create Creative Creatives
Create Creative Creatives
Manifesting Creativity & Mental Health with Vienna Marie. EP: 005
Photographer & creative mentor Vienna Marie discusses how to manifest the career of your dreams whilst keeping everything in check. We've all lived through hustle culture and now we're in a new space where mental health is taking centre stage.
On top of this we also dive into the differences between being a creator and being an artist along with some tips on how to present yourself before you're ready.
Link to Sware
https://bio.site/vnrxo
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:07 Workplace Culture
6:11 Putting yourself out there
19:00 Landing clients
29:46 Vision boards + Manifesting
33:00 Navigating industry teirs
38:40 Old Millennials online
44:36 Mental health for creatives
You are shifting your mindset. If you want to get all googly manifestation energy wise into this, we can do it very briefly. But you love me. Bodak yellow. Loves. Me for the love of it for love, a vision board that's changed my life. Hey, I'm Hayden Buchanan and this is Create Creative Creatives on the show today we have my talented friend, photographer and all around Ray of Sunshine Vienna Marie Vienna and I met way back at Instagram meet ups and have since worked together. Let's get films creating work for clients big and small. Vienna now runs workshops and mentors through her own business called Capture View, where she empowers photographers and creatives to be the best artist they can be. On the episode, we talk about all kinds of things from Vienna and I, both being all millennials. You just can't keep up with these Gen Z kids and how we missed the boat on Tik Tok. There's a little bit of jealousy in there for sure. Next, we discuss things related to how the creative industry tiers and how to navigate where you sit in the industry. Speaking of sitting in the industry, we also dove into manifesting and vision boards and figuring out who you want to be as an artist and then presenting that to the world. We met way back at a talk you only got signing. I believe that's the night that I met you guys. Yes, that was years ago. But I'm pretty sure I met you on Instagram or even on Facebook prior. Like Internet mutuals. Kind of mutuals and the whole Instagram meet ups. Yep. Yep. That was definitely an ear off. Yeah. Yes. Which means you're walking up anywhere with a camera. Yeah. But yeah. So from that, you've been working as a photographer for how long now? Eight, nine years now. I hit the decade, yes. Oh, and when you start, you know that you do a lot of like you do dancing as well and you've done some singing and. Oh, my God. Yes, there there's a lot of creativity that you do. But I would say and correct me if I'm wrong, but photography is the favorite child of the mall. Yes, it's probably out of all my children photography is my favorite. Yeah. When we met, you were working at Red Scott. Mm. And I was, I was there for a few years as well and it's sort of a big part of our lives because if you don't know, Roscoe is a production company based here in Sydney and know and I spent a lot of time working at a guy. Yeah. So. Oh, wow. It's so funny. It's like. As if we died or something. We're just reminiscing in heaven, like, Oh, how is that just the memoir section? You know. It was about to happen. But say, as you said, as Hayden said, it was like it's a boutique production agency happening in Sydney and it's been running for around nine years now, ever since the beginning. I was there when I was interning and wanting experience in university. I randomly met Ben and Adam, who are the founders of the business at a random dance video session, and they were. Kind of the Beach. Boys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's so funny. But, like, they were wanting to dance on their portfolio at the time. They were just starting out as well. I was one of the dancers and I was like, Oh, cool. Like, Can you take me under your wing? I'd love to learn. And so they did. They taught me a lot in video and photography. I was shooting for them. I was also working two other jobs at the same time, so I wasn't necessarily full time yet, and it was just a progressive sort of journey that I was able to learn the vastness of how business is run, especially for a small agency like that, and to just get shit done honestly. Like we had our big break with Hype DC traveling to Uluru and that was like quick turnarounds and it was just very humbling moments to have because quick turnarounds like this don't exist. I would say in other industries where it's literally 10 minutes after, you know, a show or 30 minutes before we go live like we need X, Y, Z, everything needs to be prepared because whatever gets out into the public needs to be perfect and you are judged deeply on that. I remember during one of my first internships, I was shooting an event and then I was literally taking over like a small section of the kitchen and the wash up person was just there. And I'm there editing my photos and I have like journalists coming in, being like, Can I get these seven photos things, edit them now and then, just airdropping them to a fire. And then they just write half writing the story. So they also hustling. So journalism is one of the only industries that's close to like the creative industries where it's just relentless. Get it done now. Get it done. Perfect first time and it's exhilarating. It's terrifying but exhilarating at the same time. I agree. And I'm going to add on top of that, Department of Journalism also PR as well, public relations because. Oh, God. Yeah, because I would say that all three of those tiers equate to one another because they all rely on each other as well to make sure it's picture perfect. But in the brink of COVID, we had a team at the time, as you know, Hayden, that was like probably nine people on the border of ten people. And that's a lot of people to manage, especially in a small office that we had, which is probably catered for literally, like we're right next to each other. But I love those memories because it was like, Oh wow. Like, this is definitely what the hustle looks like when you're running a business like this with a structure like this and a system like this. So for me, I would say my strengths when it comes to leadership, when it comes to communication, is management and making sure that there is that personable rapport that you have with your employees and your friends. I've always believed that friends you make friends with people not necessarily just, you know, one, one time, one night stand still. When that's been friendships. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I want to be friends with these people. And it's so funny when I, when I describe the work culture that we have it read scope and you would know this, it's like we honestly felt like we were all family. Yeah, we would say everything together when there were like late nights, as you know, we were just, like, hanging out, talking. Yeah. Really taking in one another's feelings and just having a laugh all the time. But I still hold that sense of personable rapport with people no matter what. If they're in the business or their client or people that have passed. So yeah. You've also been somebody that I know has been able to put themselves out there. And I think you've I've definitely been able to witness just being such close friends with you, like those moments of like graduating to the next level of putting yourself out there and you run workshops and you have a business called Capture You where you mentor photographers up and coming or just people who want to again have that element to play with a bit more structure. What I guess led you to wanting to put together a mentorship program, what was the, I guess, the starting point for you putting yourself out there in that kind of capacity? Great question. So for myself, definitely COVID, when we were all down yet big reset mentally, physically, really evaluating what actually made me happy and I'm pretty sure that was with everyone like that was a fact. Oh yeah. So for me, I was under my own mentorship with another business called Impact Empire, which is run by the lovely Lianne, and she's one of my mentors, and they were basically empowering women to figure out what their purpose, what they're calling is, could be spiritually, professionally or mentally. What can you do to help people that will help fulfill you? And so I looked at the container that we had. I'm like, Oh, I'm the only creative or the only photographer here. What can I do to help others? And looking back at my own journey, as cliche as it sounds, I wish I had someone that was empowering me at the time or giving me hacks and tips and pieces of advice or networking me with opportunities. So I wanted to be the someone that someone sorry for someone else that was just starting out or was stagnant in their business. And so hence the name capture use. So that honestly on fact came through from Google Google name generator. And then I was like, okay, capture, I want something to do with empowering and someone to be there and feel empowered and so thank you. Google came into play so capture you it was honestly just that name that came to mind. And so the mentorship is a 12 week program, but it can obviously extend more than that depending on what the person wants. It could be branding, it could be actually having a launch period. Okay. Yeah. So just depending and that's what the one and one calls a fall when we actually go into consultation with someone you and it's pretty much just figuring out, hey, tell me what your actual dream lifestyle is, what would actually make you happy. We get into the nitty gritty of that, try to go through the blockages and actually show you what that other side looks like if you actually go for it. And so it's all about empowering confidence. I think when it comes to the creative industry or starting a business, if you don't have confidence, you're sabotaging yourself. Yes. So you need to fake it to make it and you'll be. A big element of that for sure. You have to believe it. And so once you do believe it, in those first few weeks, you're like, Oh, damn, why did I wait that long? Yeah. So you get something started that I could have helped others or inspire others and have opportunities, make money, have income of that dream that I've always wanted to have. So these workshops started last year when obviously here in Australia or New South Wales, restrictions lifted and I decided to go for it and hold my own little workshops because I didn't want to wait anymore and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I felt so fulfilled, very blessed and thankful and so did everyone else that attended like you, Hayden, so it was very nice to network with everyone, was. Really lovely to do the behind the scenes and sort of like be the fly on the wall and just see everybody coming about it and like it was just people just being there and you could set up some paper walls and we had our. Aisha Yes. From Hills Hills, unless she was there with some backstory. So there was and product photography elements and just to be able to, I guess, step back, I feel it makes me feel so old, but it's like, you know, how we were mentioning like the Instagram days when you'd go out with like a group of 40 strangers and just shoot random models that would come to get like their portfolio built up. And then you'd all go out to dinner afterwards with like just a group of strangers. It was like that kind of element again, that kind of died away. And to see that again in the workshop where you have all these people jumping and taking their photos with the model and then going off to the side and being like, Oh, you know, I could shoot that. And then the comparing notes almost with that, like looking up. And it's just nice to see that just collaboration and how long it took. I was like three or four. Hours, three or 4 hours. And it felt like 20 minutes for everyone. It was like so, so quick. And I love the way that you set up multiple stations on the day as well. So people could do a couples on this wedding star thing and it was product and then there was just general modeling and it was just lovely to see people who probably have never directed a model or talent before jumping in to be like, Oh, can you just it's just turn left and then you put the. Yeah, so it was like seeing that kind of like that just baby steps into that realm with all of these people just going for it was really nice to see this is a fly on the wall shooting that behind the scenes and so the fact that you were able to foster that for people is really, really cool. Yeah, I think at my endgame for this all is honestly just creating a very supportive community. Even if students have finished the program and everything, I still keep in contact with them with these opportunities because I don't want them to ever feel it's like once you've paid me or once we've done this, like you're you're done by like good luck. It doesn't mean anything. No, I've always wanted to give back. And I think that's the thing, like I have constantly, even this year, have palmed off gigs because I want to give opportunities to other people that what has been taught for them and actually give them confidence to try real life situations. And if they do not try, they'll never know what they've learned and how to actually implement what their identity is, what skill level they're at. It's at the end of the day, it's all about support. Yeah, yeah. On that slight tangent when getting gigs, for example, this is a big thing that I have spent years changing how I do it now. But what was your approach to getting gigs now and sort of have you changed over the years with that in terms of finding clients, charging, invoicing? Well, like I won't get into like tax or anything crazy like that. But like I'm like, how. Do you get yourself in front of clients that have worked with you? Okay. So I'll, I'll do what I did back then first and then what I do now. Back then I was very shameless and I'm so proud of myself that I was because I honestly, I made a intro video to myself that I pitched to people and it was like, Hi, I'm better. Marie I'm bubbly, vivacious, vibrant, and I do photography. And there was this whole montage that went for long. Like it was probably 4 minutes, just my work. I'm looking back, I'm like, Why did I send such a long video that people prompted to that? And so I didn't even know what a media kit probably was. And I just said it was a media kit and it had my services on it, a bit of my portfolio link to a website and I was just really proactive. So I would put myself and find these brands on Instagram, on Google agencies, modeling agencies, and just be like, Hi, I'm BNR, I'm looking for experience. If you can shoot my way or direct me where the best contact is for this, then I'm happy to see where to go. That was my big thing as well is when I was doing essentially what the cold call or the cold beam email. It's the big thing I found shifted was I think I started not necessarily by going like, Hey, I'm here and you should work with me. It was never like that, but I would always just assume that the person that I was giving the information to was the right person and was just like hoping that that was the case, but being able to present something with them, even if you kind of go above them, they can kind of redirect that information down to the next person just by forwarding the email on. And I think the big thing for me, like you just said, was saying, hey, can you let me know if this is the most appropriate email or if you're just condemning somebody being able to say, Hey, I really love this X brand here, I would love to send over my portfolio to you. Is there an appropriate email address that I could send this to you? Thank you for your time and just like leaving it there, if they don't get back to you, it was going to work anyway. Yeah. And kind of almost amplifying that. Yeah. And just being able to go cool, here's my 60 that I'm going to do them today and you just email and you just find the emails or whatever it is and you'll probably get 15. This is something I actually teach my students. It's better to cast a net of 100 DMS or 100 emails and get something back instead of not even trying. So on that as well, when I moved to Sydney I was applying for barista jobs and I spent I have 30 resumes in my hand and I was like, I'm getting a job today. And I just went out to so many cafes and just went in, talked. I think I had like ten coffees by the end of day. I was like running through my speech at the end of it for sure. But by the end of like that week, I think I had about five job opportunities. And so I got to pick and choose where I wanted to work at that point. Yeah, and I think that's the same with casting that broad net. It's, it's, it's great because you get more chances of landing a job, but you can also look at like the best paying job. So yes, there's 100 here, but then out of the five that you get, three didn't really want to pay you all that much or they'll do the whole exposure thing and then you'll get two that are actually worth the time and the energy. But it's the initial energy of putting out all those hundred that are there 100%. I agree with that. And I think on top of that, putting myself out there in terms of Instagram on socials, I honestly I don't know how I did it. I didn't really think at the time, no backfiring or backlash or people judging me. I honestly was just putting myself out there to photos of friends and networked through that. I found brands or like, what was that like community parties or something like that. Events that I could just go to. I had no shame just networking going there and I'm like, Oh, do you need to update on your logo? Hi, I'm Vienna. Like, you know, Hi, I'm a Vienna photographer and I'm like, Oh, I'm looking for a photographer for X, Y, Z, or it's through a referral. I feel very this isn't a bragging thing, but I think I feel very humbled and blessed to know that whatever I did back then, whatever good karma came through, I'm really, really thankful that I grew up in a personality where my identity back then was just very bubbly and just very straightforward with what she wanted. As well, I think. And this kind of comes with like, you know, early twenties naivete as well. But being able to approach a new social situation of small talk and when people say inevitable or what do you do introducing yourself as doing what you want to do, not what you currently do? So I kind of said, Oh, Hayden, I'm a barista. And they're like, Great, I don't need coffee right now. But yeah, I could just I'm a photographer. Oh, awesome. You do that full time like, yeah, it's on the side work versus the shifts and just like, Oh, awesome. Can I see you? You've already created that jumping off point. It doesn't matter. Like what? I'm an illustrator, I'm a designer, I'm a whatever. Introducing yourself as who you actually are, not the occupation or the job that you have to pay the rent. Yes, I think that's really important because how it's a bit of projection, but it's also a projection of you to where you want to be as well. Yeah, I agree with that. It's some form of, as I said, like confidence. Talk to yourself. So a form of manifestation that you are shifting your mindset. If you want to get all googly manifestation energy wise into this, we can do it very briefly, but. You love me Bodak. Yellow loves. Me for. The love of me for love, a vision of God that's changed my life. But I never used to be like that. But I think when you go, well, I'm in my late 2020s now, I'm going to throw I think there's just been a very big shift in mindset. I think projecting, as you said, is such a strong form of knowing about yourself, especially if you're insecure, if you're not sure, if you're not where you want to be yet. And as someone that has gone through a lot of stuff, it could be professionally, personally, whatever, how you want to take it, projecting forward really does something to your mind and your soul because you're putting yourself out there, even though a whole bunch of yourself is is not there yet. It's just that little glimmer of 5% that could eventually turn into 1530. And up and up it goes. 100%. Yes, exactly that. So stepping into freelance world quickly, when you're putting yourself out there in terms of creating a portfolio and sort of compiling all your work for certain clients, I know you do a lot of fashion stuff recently at Fashion Week as well, capturing a lot of stuff that yeah, I know that you were able to get yourself onto some brands for Fashion Week, so you might just sort of, you know, out the front capturing an influencer. You were actually there on behalf of a brand, capturing the day behind the scenes. Walk me through the process of how you would go from wanting to do something like that to asking and then being there on the day. How do you sort of run through those sorts of things? That's great. So I guess in or dove deep with the example of Fashion Week first. So Fashion Week was actually referred to me through a beautiful friend, Shannon, and she's also a photographer, but she was unable to do it. So I decided to step in and I if you know me, I love fashion. I love Fashion Week, I love Runway. There's just something about the adrenaline of capturing something like that that you will not ever get in any other gig or event. I liken it to the only other place you'd find that if you were doing like something at a racetrack or Formula One because it's just gone. Yeah, yeah. It's so quick. Like the turnaround was ridiculous for this. So to help pave the way as to how ridiculous it was, was I was backstage, back up house doing the coverage for wella hair and nails, which I which I love and the PR people with. I was briefed prior to that week that they would need the photos 30 minutes off to the runway. This was not the case at all. On the days that I was there. It was literally shoot back of house for three or 4 hours before like probably like halfway of that, send at least 30 photos to the PR people on site. I was just using my phone just transferring it over that via Bluetooth. Quick edit on my phone, send it to them. So as soon as the runway hits, the press releases go out, then after that, get home or wherever I could be, start editing the photos so they can get that within 30 minutes or one hour. So that for me is like clockwork. I'm so used to that pressure, but for anyone else that steps into that, you definitely have to expose yourself. It's also having a good system for yourself as well. So at this time I'm doing this and I'm only doing this now. Thank you. Kind of enter into this like tunnel vision element of it. Like when you're shooting your you're shooting 100%. Yeah. And then when you stop, like the world stops. I'm sure you don't even notice that there's hundreds of people walking past you the whole time, right? Yes, that's exactly it. And I think because I'm so far, again, not bragging, but I know how I edit, I know what to select. It takes a lot of experience and in you would know this and it takes a lot of experience to actually do select so quickly and shoot to edit to just know already. I still have my times where I'm like trigger happy and I shoot like 20,000 images and I'm like, what I do that I only have to submit five, but I'm like, My portfolio may need it later. Like, I'd rather overdeliver than under to set a good example to that client. And so they want me back next year. So it's just more about building that rapport. However, getting in front of a client like that for me in this situation was definitely due to the network that I had. But if I was to go through to another, let's say, for example, another fashion week, yeah, I had never worked with before, I would honestly go through the sponsors, figure out how could I align my values and the way that I shoot. Same thing, send a media kit, send how I could help them out, even propose that I'll do it for free just to get that building relationship. And to be honest, I did that back in 2015, 2016, 2017, up to 2019 shooting runway. I found a magazine or digital company code catering and that again was network to me. However, I came back every year not being paid and I would shoot street style for them and go to any runway that I needed to do and hand it over to them within 30 minutes off to the runway, just so I could get that experience. But it was all about building rapport for myself. I think that's the thing. It's like there's not when you're working for free, you're not necessarily working for free. Yeah, you're working for the portfolio that qualifies you for the paid gigs later. Mm hmm. And I think that's a big thing when people you can kind of end up being put in this place, something like not don't work for free. You hear it all the time. And if you need to put into it kind of have a contract, it has to say that, yes, I can use these images afterwards if you're shooting for free and then you don't get to use the images. And that's that's definitely working for free. Yeah. But if you can use them in your portfolio or anything like that, that's when. Okay, awesome. I've got this giant body of work now that I can go to someone else and say, Hey, shot this for this brand. Sometimes different brands won't let you put it out on social media, but they'll let you include it in your portfolio. So which is which is great to have written down and signed because if ever the guy oh we saw this in a portfolio that well you sign this but a paper saying that I could say it's always there. You got to cover your ass. Yes. So you got to cover your ass. And contracts happen way too down the line. Yes. For a lot of photographers and a lot of creative people, just having that initial agreement, just saying like, hey, as a result of this, I'm not being paid and I understand that I'm not being paid. But as a result of that, I will get to use every single one of the images that I capture, and then you have the ownership of those images. Otherwise you should be selling the images for a licensing fee on top. So if you're not getting paid for the shoot, you get paid for the images that they buy off of you as a photographer. And a there's all these different avenues for it. And you go, Well, this is how much the images are. I would say it's 100 bucks an image because it could be like, Oh, well, we want 12 images. Great, that'll be 1200 dollars. Yeah, it's things like that that you can put in place to be like, I understand you don't want to pay me for the whole day, but this is how much it's going to be for that. And like, oh, okay, how about we just do the grand for the whole thing? Great. Yeah. So paid. So you can kind of push and pull things in different ways to be. It's actually more expensive if you don't. Yes. And there's 1001 ways you can kind of push and pull those things. And again, the other thing I'd say to that as well is when you kind of go into the negotiation phase of things, one thing that I learned way too late was asking for a budget upfront, not giving over your rate. Yes. And just saying how much do you have to spend on this? Because it might just be a $100 job, but then you'll give them $100 worth of the work. Or I've got a client at the moment who really wants to work with me, but they just don't have the money at the moment. And so they said, How much is it going to cost me? And I said, What do you want to have done? And then we kind of sit down and work through what the business problem was that the content would actually solve. So then I came back and I just said, Look, if you want to do this at this scale, it's about three and a half grand. And I said, And the money goes to this much for renting to get as much time for the labor of editing and being on set, getting people there, the lighting, all that. So I did a cost breakdown as well. Obviously three and a half grand is worth the time to put that initial upfront in is cool. I can say this much over this amount of time and we'll get back to you February next year. So there's a plan in place because they need the marketing. But I didn't just say I'll do it for everyone. I really want to work. It was like, when can we do it? And so I'm going to like working for free. You can push and pull those things. You can set it back to later. If you're showing that your creativity is going to end up solving a business problem that generally always revolves around marketing, but actually having your there is a business solution and coming in from that perspective I find is really important. And so if you need to do a free shoot on a runway to get yourself that initial content as a proof of concept, to then go forward to another business and say, Hey, this Fashion Week coming up, you're going to be there. I can shoot that for you. Here's my previous work and they might say, Hey, we've spent all of our money on putting our name at the top of this doorway as a billboard. We don't have much to pay, but great. That's fine. I have a licensing fee on top. Or you could go down the route of like, great, I'll get to use all the images from that because they generally open up much larger doors. And so it's picking and choosing when to work for portfolio, not for free, but when to work for portfolio. Yeah, I agree. I definitely agree with all of that because when you do start off, you obviously have to pick and choose runway for me at the time was so new, I honestly was freaking out. The first time I did it, I was like, I don't even know. All these people in the media paid this like 50 other photographers from Getty, The Australian. And you'd like literally surrounded by lenses just. Yeah. Do you go deaf afterwards for like 5 minutes? I'm no, I'm actually. Okay. Okay. I'm just like this shot is just going off everywhere around you. Yeah, yeah. But everyone's in the same boat. Everyone's probably. We're all hearing the same thing. Everyone shudder going so fast. But it's just so interesting because it's like vultures in there. You're all fighting for that prime spot. It means so much. And I'm going to say this on camera. The media pit is feisty, but the best way to get through it is to make friends with everyone, which is what I do in order to get the prime spot. But I think because of this, it's not a bad thing to do things for free, but make sure you put some premium on yourself and figure out the reasons as to why you're doing it. If it's going to help you get your foot in the door early in your career, sure, go for it, but put a cap on it. Don't do it like every every year or in the first two years. Give us some leeway. If someone's worked with you once for free, they're going to actually put that boundary up thinking that I can get so many images from them for free each time I come back, put that premium that it's just like, actually, that was one off of my portfolio. However we can now do it for X-Y-Z if that's within your budget, asking if it's within their budget or what is their budget is one of the crucial questions that I always tell people, because you need to know what they're actually what their expectations are. And as you coming as a professional, you need to educate them as to what this realm is like without saturating anyone else's professionalism. Exactly. And if there's a client that comes to you with a budget and it's below, I think what you're wanting, you can just say, look, as this is our first time working together, I think let's go with that. Right. Just so that you're aware, my usual right. Is X amount, which can be higher to say. So first I'm looking at each other, happy to do it for this amount, and then you can drop the deliverables down to match that and to be like, look, normally I give 100 images for $1,000. I'd say just in numbers, but as this is a $500 shoot, I can do 50 images. Yeah. And they go, cool, that's fair. That makes sense. Like half the rate for half the photos or something to that effect. Yes. And that doesn't have to be done on the fly. That can be something to just be like, look, let me sit with it for a bit and I'll get back to you with an estimate of what I can deliver for that budget and putting that control back in your seat because they're coming to you, you're not really coming to them, even though you are coming to them for the work and the money to pay the rent and all that other stuff that goes into it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I feel that. These are going quickly back into your vision boards and your moodboard because I know you love them. When did you start doing that and how the hell do you go about doing it? Oh my goodness. Wow, I've never been asked this question before, so this is good. I started doing it last year. In January, I was put to it from my own mental and she was like, You are going to create a vision board of your highest self where you actually want to go your dream lifestyle. She made me put a number on it as to what income I wanted to get out of it. And this was all projecting for the mentorship that I was launching, which was Capture You. And that wasn't even to play. Yeah, it was just like I had this number in mind. What? Like certain buzz words, images. I went to the news agency with Vinny, who has been on this podcast as well. So we were like. He's going to be episode number one minute. Oh, okay. Well, yeah. Vinny here, episode one full circle. So we were roommates and he had heard that I was going to do this. So we both went to the news agency down the road. I told him, Get as many magazines as you want and cardboard, and we're just going to put some low fi music. You know me. Hayden Lo fi like below fi girl in real life. And yeah, just start cutting out and putting it all in and someone that's very creative, it is so therapeutic to do anything that's like art therapy. Just like the physical. Yeah, I spent like $120 on, like, hectic says from Taiwan. Oh, my gosh. But they are so sharp. And like, I like stationery is my money pit for sure. Like, I love having a good station. It was the tactile element. I know what you mean. It's like having that physical connection to it. Yeah, in a way it makes it more real or it makes it in your head more or something like that. Yeah. It's just like even putting sticky tape, even like figuring out where to collage it. I'm like, Does this palette look good? The designer. Comes out. Yeah, my. My graphic design is like, this typeface does not work is the layout. So the vision board was one. It just became an exercise of art therapy. But also it was something that really became a pivotal moment for myself to see. Okay, what actually do I want to be? And so seeing it there, I don't even know if I still have it. I probably don't. But it's like I took photos of it. I feel took like an insta Instagram story of a time lapsed. It must, because it was such a big moment for me to physically do something. And to taking control. Yeah, hundred percent. Taking it into action, projecting that manifestation. And then so since then, my vision board for this year was different. It was not pictures, it was honestly just writing out my top five pillars and figuring out branching off what exactly I wanted to achieve for that this year. And the word, oh, my goodness, what was the word deserving? Deserving was the way that that came into mind. And why was I deserving of money? Why was I deserving of having a good relationship and reporting. The things that I. Deserved? Yeah, exactly. And I feel like so far in the year it's May now, so it's like figuring out what manifestation has come through with that word or that theme. And I feel like it's definitely come into play if you want to go again into the woo woo. But I felt and I still feel that I am deserving of those things and we'll see at the end of the year if it actually all comes into fruition. Being in Sydney is a gigantic small town, especially in the creative field. Yeah. And you sort of cross paths with the same people once every couple of months, every few years. You're like, you look familiar. Oh yeah, we did that thing together way back and there's a lot of that going on, going into the industry and looking at how it's sort of changed since you began. Where do you think the industry is heading as far as photography is concerned and what are the new opportunities that you're finding that you're just discovering now? This is a very interesting question. There's a few avenues I can take this. So first off, I'll start with the current gen of creatives. Everyone is two sides, two sides of this one. Everyone thinks they can be a photographer professionally because of the access of opportunities that they have on social media. But you it's not just about posing. It's not just about posting pretty pictures. It's all about knowing the technical and the purpose. And you just don't want the industry to become saturated. I personally do not want that for for anyone and I can see it in the older gen or creatives around as well. However, it's also on that flip side that it's exciting to see the future generation come into play because there is so much talent, there's so much access to so many different things. It doesn't require you to own a studio and a expensive camera and an entire kit like that. Again, like you said, like you can build your portfolio with a smartphone if you want to. Yeah, 100%. From the gets and work with your phone and then jump up a level thing on that. But I think I've found sort of maybe started when I first moved to Sydney, but I think it's very much the case now that there's almost like these very baked in tiers to like quality. And I, it happens to every city, but there's definite cliques that fall within certain niches. So you'll have your fashion kids and get the music video people. Then you'll go like know straight urban X kind of people and then it sort of like esthetic cliques, that sort of form. And in many ways I feel like I've been lucky enough that I've just moved so quickly that I've never been able to get stuck in one or never really been interested enough to just be dedicated to one style. And I find that the industry, you can definitely fall into these small pigeonhole elements and you can absolutely own those small pigeonhole elements, but then getting out of them and doing anything else, it's hard. It's hard. And I know that you do a lot of fashion stuff, but you're still a lot of ecommerce stuff as well. So you're able to do product and food and some. But like having that diversity makes you a better photographer because it doesn't matter what's put in front of you. You go, right, I know how to do this. Yeah. And I feel like for myself, I'm the type of person that I love putting my hands in all the cookie jars. Oh, yeah. Like, you know me. I need to put. I need those cookies, I need all the flavors. So for me, I never wanted to be stuck in a certain nations. As you said, it is hard to come out of it. It doesn't mean it can't be done, but I can get bored easily. That's just my personality and what I've just accepted and owned up to my son's. Routine, right? Yeah. If it comes routine, I want to shoot something different. That's why I love shooting Runway. Every once in a while, it's chaos. It gets me, but at the same time, it's exhausting. So obviously I want to chill out, shoot an event that doesn't take that much corporate head shots like you're there to to break it up. And I guess it depends on what kind of personality you have. Nothing wrong with being stuck into a certain niche, but if you are passionate about that, I know so many people that are wedding photographers and they're just they love it. They're passionate and it takes a certain personality and drive to keep seeing people say, I do. I think, yeah, that again, like there are definitely people out there. And wedding photography is a great example of that here. I think that there's obsessive types like in a way, it's kind of like I have to get this a certain way or there's like different looks and feels that they can achieve for different weddings, different couples, and is bringing their personality out in their wedding photos. And I think there's an element of just focusing on there as well, which is good. Yeah, yeah. Backtracking on my own before, but yeah. Finding out whether you're one of those people who really wants to specialize or whether you're going to be a general broad photographer is it's a hard thing to learn and I think it happens through just osmosis of just doing stuff constantly. That's a good word. Osmosis, yeah. I haven't heard that. You know, I was. In science class our school year probably. I'm so bad at science, but I guess quickly to circle back to the the next gen of what where everything's going, there's that. And then there's also the aspect that it's just very exciting to see what would be next, what technology, what social media, what the next batch of creatives look like. Yeah, there's certain trends that everyone's doing at the moment. The whole grunge nineties, vintage, Super eight. I get it. It's it's beautiful, it's wonderful. But it's very interesting. Once it hooks, hooks and everyone around the world will do it. Yeah, but when it comes to setting something that simple and that's original, it just makes waves and everyone just wants to copy and have that bit of a slice. So I feel like wherever social media, wherever these people, these artists are heading, it will be a very insightful and interesting journey to witness from the outside. I'm not sure if you feel this way, but I definitely feel like I did the old man thing with Tik Tok and missed the boat on this. Maybe. I don't know what it's like being a millennial and now not being the newest generation anymore. Yeah. And some of my partner was with one of their friends and one of the uni friends is like Gen Z. And she's like, Yeah, all millennials wear skinny jeans and have side parts. It's really weird. It was like, Oh, it's so true though. Okay. So I felt like attached to my gut and like, I was just like, Oh my God. Like, there's so many things now that has a whole new wave churning underneath. Yeah. And it's kind of like you're looking. You can get so stuck in what you did when it was new for you. And Instagram was our tik tok in a way, was the big platform that we all really got hooked on that sort of ascended us in creativity. We have Instagram made ups, like we were saying before, and now like we went to that Tik Tok office and I never felt so old in my life, like people just doing like random dances and it was just I was so just I've never felt more senior in my life walking frame to get out of there, I swear. But it's exciting to see that it's continuing on in its own new way. Yeah. And you know, whilst YouTube was probably the big thing, like 2005 or six whenever it started, and then that was there and then Instagram and Tik Tok any kind of go? Well, these platforms end up competing for the people that are on them, and that's types of creativity that goes in. And the fact that like I mean, my first find in high school was a little Sony Ericsson brick, just a T9 text under the desk because you couldn't see. But again, that was like, you know not a fancy phone it always now everyone has a really good camera phone and the access to just do I wish we had that back when all this person thing I've said but it's one of those things you look back and it's like it's really cool that, you know, the younger generation is just like hyper accelerated through. Yeah, all these things and you know, you look through the trends, not everyone's going to do it. Every trend, it's like you find the ones that suit you and there's just this big town hall of people meeting and then breaking off into the little groups. Yeah. Do you know if you were into dance videos then, holy crap. There's a lot for you to do there if you're into photography. There's a big thing there and you look at the comments and the comments in TikTok videos. Yes, this interesting and the mix of it all, but it's like this big community that's being built there and so people can blow up on Tik Tok and then transfer that to what they do elsewhere. That is true. Having reels and being able to sort of like show off your process, people will find the real and then they'll go back and have a look at everything. So you're like, again, it's casting that broad net. Mm hmm. Which is exciting. Yeah. One of my friends, Lisa from Hunting do photography. She use Tik Tok. So she's so into fitness, so she's just amazing. Her physique is just incredible. Her mindset to make. It as an apparel brand too, doesn't she? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's like more within fitness, so it's like more her apparel, but I wouldn't be surprised if she goes down that realm. But she was using Tik Tok to accelerate that. She has a photography business, but because she's now got in over, I think it's 100 k views on Tik Tok, she's been able to use that platform and put it over in Instagram and get leads from there and now has ten over ten K following on Instagram. Whereas before she didn't even have that following was probably like to 2000 or even less. But it's just interesting, the power of that and I have to say out loud, I agree. I miss that boat as well with Tik Tok. I cannot in my head, you know what, I can dismiss it. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like I can dance around the mirror and I'm like, yeah, I can dance and class. But if I was to put a phone on me and I'm like, Oh, I'm going to just see all this stuff and point to things, I cringe. I'm that type of personality that I, I can't do that, but it's just weird. Yeah. Put me with a time lapse and make me do something much more authentic or talk to the camera I'm cool with, but I'm not as funny as other people that were doing Harry Potter pole dancing on TikTok or or all these other things that. I think there's no shame in that. I just got to it but who knows maybe maybe I will out for that. Yeah I think that's so nice about it is that I feel like the difference between TikTok and Instagram, I feel like Instagram. This is just personal opinions. Instagram, we go through different stages of like everybody's doing this type of photography now it was always like architecture, especially back when that was the just the square images was not applied so as architecture and like a coffee at the front or he's my feet on like a cool thing was like very almost Tumblr esque. Yes. I got Tumblr very much Tumblr esque in terms of the style of photography that was there. Everyone was washing out their photos like crazy back in the day, applying all the filters that were native in there. And because that was the play element back then and then photography sort of changed how. Lane But people kind of went after, okay, this is sort of stuff's doing well now, so I'll do that. So really it hasn't changed. It's just the platform's got a different name like yeah. And it's interesting to see just how it gets curated on TikTok. And I feel like people are probably more inclined to discover new things on TikTok rather than Chase after their perfect Instagram esthetics. Yes, they are for watching a bit of comedy and then getting like cleaning tips and then going to like, here's the breakdown of how to do the moonwalk or whatever. Like it's all those sorts of things that you can kind of discover on their versus just chasing after esthetics like you could before. Yeah. And I will admit, it's so hard when you have an esthetic theme for your Instagram. I'm guilty it like I've rebranded, so everything I feel like has to be green. So when I was shooting Fashion Week, I was just like, oh, my goodness. There's some green. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm I'm supposed to curate this now. I can't boast, but I think it's at the end of the day, it's depending on what you want to do with that you want to be and you have that freedom to do so. So you mentioned that mental health is a big thing for you and especially being on top of things for yourself, um, going to mood boards, all that kind of stuff, but being somebody who's very aware of your mental health, how has that impacted your creativity? How has it helped your creativity? For me, it's all about setting boundaries and this is something that I definitely had to learn through my eight, nine years, almost a decade. And for someone that always said yes, yes, yes, in the beginning of my career, obviously back then, hustling was like the prime example of fulfilling happiness. Yeah. And that was definitely Billboard and everywhere. And social media like I am busy here, I'm busy them doing this and doing that. But now you see a shift in social media being like, relax, take your time. Yeah, check in with yourself. There's a lot of that filtering coming through, especially because of COVID. So for me, and I'm pretty sure a lot of people, everyone's mental health was just thrown out of work during those two years. And coming out of it, I realize I'm like, why does it have to be just centered towards that phase of time? Why can't it be amplified and carried on into the next stages? Whatever that is so creative wise, I made sure to set those boundaries because I also need to live a life as much as I love to hustle. It's not going to. It's so cliche to say, like you, you don't want to live just by working. Yeah. You also want to take whatever you've learned from work or the experiences you have and throw it out into the other half of your life that could be with the relationship that you have or the people you have around with you or take them on these experiences too that you may have traveled for work. Yeah. So for me it's trying to balance that bridge. And I think a key word in that is balance. Balance is such a big thing that a lot of creatives struggle with because you're trying to balance finances or balance life, balance your priorities without lacking anything else. It could be fitness. For me, it was trying to eat healthy and everything, and then that went out the drain. Like when we have a five day back to back shoot and you're like just scrambling for anything. From some mechanism to. Give me a coffee, give me up and go mirroring when I get back at home, like it just goes out of whack. But I think that's one of the beautiful things about this career, because you are definitely thrown into the deep end that you it opens your eyes that you don't want to reach again that stress. But then it also makes you really thankful for the times and you get to just be stagnant. And still. One of the things I found for myself was I always loved reaching a burnout point because, you know, but I loved it because I would be like, Oh my God, I cannot get up out of bed. I'm so tired. And like, when you freelance, you have the luxury of like,
I don't have to be out of bed till 10:00 and I stay up till two, which also promotes a bad cycle life. But by able to by making sure that you have those checking points when you do burnout and be like, all right, what happened here? What went wrong? Why am I so exhausted? Why am I now sick and going? Oh, okay. I went to bed at like 330 every night. Maybe I set myself a bedtime and you just. You try and massage it back. Like the ambition can be so great that you sort of you're killing yourself to achieve this goal that you never really define. But it's this big thing to achieve. I'm going to do this, I'm doing this thing. And then so being able to go, okay, I hit the wall, how do I fix this? And then slowly like working out okay, yeah, maybe I don't enjoy breakfast. Maybe I'll make sure that I just have an apple. It's just like finding, like, a little something to, like, enjoy yourself towards being a healthy human whilst also chasing after your ambition. And then you hit the wall again. You go, okay, well, I'm doing those things. And so it took even longer or even more me hit the wall again. And so you sort of you sort of work out where your limits are and then I think as long as you're having those checking points with yourself, you can actually learn what your limit is, which then allows you to go, okay, I can only do this much. Well, in a day if I hit these things. Yeah, big thing for me has been sleep. Oh yeah. Amazing sleep. Person. And I can tell that if I have something like today coming up I want to go to bed early so that I'm not tired and I know it's delaying brain fog that three, 3 hours. How long does that last is half an hour or is it like 3 hours? And so like being able to make sure that you're able to kill it when you're actually doing it, that's for me. That's the big thing with looking after yourself is like if you want to do big, ambitious things, especially what the creative industry is always big, an ambitious, setting yourself up to accomplish that when the moment comes up, because often if you fuck up your opportunity, that was your opportunity. And now you're spend another six months to two years getting back to a point where you can try it again. Yeah, hundred percent. I definitely want to just keep something out there. It was like ambition equals to health. You should have the same drive for both. I'll be real. I'm. I haven't figured that out yet. That codes or whatever that is. But I definitely feel there's a saying sorry where the drive that you have one pillar in your life. Let's say it's your health if you want to be successful, that drive should be you know, replicated through all the other pillars. Yeah. Because once you do something, if you're lazy with one action, that will definitely be lazy with any other things. So I remember, I honestly do not study. I tried even when I was like in high school studying. For me it was like, Oh, I've got two days towards I hate to see I'll ram everything in and then I'm like, Wish for the best. And then here I am like, you're creative. But like. But I, my essence of studying is honestly all nighters now or it's like habit training. Yeah. And that's how my mind probably is good with high pressure situations or all nighters and everything, because that's the only thing that my mind has ever done. So breaking that down towards my ambition and drive for another fitness aspect and balancing out life like that is something I do need to work on, and that will hopefully equate to whatever I want to fulfill. Wow. Hey, and thanks for listening to this episode of Create Creative Creatives. Thanks to Vienna for jumping in for a conversation. And if you want to check out her mentorship program, perhaps you or just follow her on any of her socials. There's a link below in the description for you to do just that. I don't know about you, but I'm definitely to get started with a vision board for myself. But until next time I'm heading BUCHANAN This has been create creative creatives and I will see you next Tuesday.