We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Casey Rose. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Casey below.

Casey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think defining “success” can be tricky. Just like everything in this life, humans have a way of needing to compartmentalize and structure everything so we feel less anxious. We love to compare. However, I think sometimes by doing so we limit our growth and understanding of who we are as individuals outside of the collective whole.

I feel like success is just an extension of our egos and -really- nothing good comes from there. It’s usually a one-size-fits-all measurement too that ultimately limits creative freedom because when we get so bogged down in outside definitions, we can’t hear our own thoughts. We can’t experiment. It’s harder to find joy in our own moments.

That being said, I think it’s important to set goals. To understand your own business financial needs and how you feel would be the best way to get achieve those goals. Once you reach them, be sure to celebrate and then set new goals. I try to set goals for both the business and client experience, as well as my own artistic goals.

Since I grew up reading Martha Stewart Weddings, I remember when I first started the business I half-jokingly said that success would be to get in that magazine. I don’t think I really believed I could achieve it. Years later, an editor chose an image I had taken from a styled shoot of a floral centerpiece to be featured in a slideshow on the Martha Stewart blog. From one perspective, this isn’t success. I wasn’t featured in the magazine. I am most definitely not the best photographer and comparing to others in the magazine would result in me being sad and frustrated. But you bet I checked that off my list and popped some champagne because it brought me joy. When you are proud of what you do for yourself and your clients, it is success. You get to decide.

Casey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In 2007 I found myself in a place where I craved beauty and connection. I had been diagnosed with cancer in 2004 at the age of thirty and my son, who was three at the time, was diagnosed on the autism spectrum that same year so life felt heavy and fragile.

I had been teaching high school English and, while I loved the job for many reasons, it wasn’t a fit for me. In college in the early 90’s, I can remember I desperately wanted to explore design and art but didn’t see myself as an “artist” because I couldn’t really draw or paint. Even though I spent all my spare time designing interior spaces and looking at fashion magazines for color palettes, I assumed I wasn’t an artist. I think I also believed I had to do something more “practical.” I think without realizing it, I had allowed a lot of self-limiting beliefs to keep me on a path that wasn’t truly who I was intended to become.

I knew some basic principles of film photography, but I began to teach myself more advanced photography that same year. I would spend two evenings a week reading and watching videos and then I spent two days a week photographing my children for practice. One night a week I would critique my work for improvement. After a year of studying, I eventually felt confident enough to put it on some sites for professionals to critique. I opened the business in 2009. I initially focused on portrait work but began offering wedding services in 2012.

I wanted a brand with color soaked in light that spoke to connection and love. I wanted a mix of reality with dreams. I wanted clients to walk away feeling like art. Obviously we tend to focus on our appearances, but I really hope that the process of taking the still image evolves from something that happens inside of us. A connection for a brief moment in time.

Photography -as an art- allows you to stop time. As someone who was struggling with anxiety due to cancer, it became a means in which to live in the moment. What is beautiful now? Where is the light at this moment? It was a process by which I could ground myself in the today.

It became work that had a strong foundation in purpose for me. If I had learned anything during cancer treatments and social group therapy with my son, the only thing that matters is connection. We are all connected. To each other. To this earth. To the divine.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Stillness. I think we are all creatives but for those in non-creative fields -and honestly for some in creative fields too- it is hard to understand that sometimes the creative process involves a lot of stillness.

There can be long periods of time when there is a lot less productivity than one would hope for… when the process sometimes involves being in your own head and just connecting with yourself and the universe for a while.. This might have something to do with being an introvert too but I find I used to feel guilty when I wanted to disconnect from the everyday to spend time in a dream realm. To visualize and create and wait. It has its own kind of productivity but it doesn’t always seem that way to an outside observer.

Being a business owner sometimes feels in direct violation of the creative process. Owning a business means constant connection to clients. Constant productivity based on outside standards. I wouldn’t give myself permission to be still and -essentially – that resulted in a long period of creative burnout. I had to learn that being creative means taking the time to listen to the universe. Blocking out others. Learning to listen to oneself. I used to think I’d ruin the business if I didn’t keep producing. Now I realize I almost ruined the business (and more importantly my own soul) because I wasn’t still often enough.

Going back to that question of success, I recognize now that I need to be still at times. Sometimes that stillness lasts longer than I think others outside of a creative field might find reasonable. But I no longer care how others view it. I guess I’d emphasize balance to any new creative business owner. I’d emphasize defining for yourself what success looks and feels like for you and your clients. Move forward and then be still. You’ll know when it’s time to move again.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Oh goodness, I think there isn’t a business owner alive who isn’t resilient. You have to be able to be flexible and recover quickly from unexpected changes. I used to fear change but being a business owner has changed this perspective for me. I realize now there isn’t any growth without change.

I guess for me going back to the question about stillness connects to this question too because it was during a time of real upheaval and change in my business and personal life that I realized I needed to honor the call for stillness. I wasn’t handling the pressure very well. In 2017, i had a big growth in my wedding business. I had made some amazing connections via networking with some incredible creative teams in the wedding industry so I was really excited about working with them. But I said yes too often. I didn’t realize how much my people-pleasing was interfering with my client experience. And I thought because I was excited about doing the work that it wouldn’t burn me out. I was wrong.

I had one long weekend where I shot a couple weddings and did two full day magazine shoots and I pulled my back out. I completed everything I had committed to doing but it was at a cost. It took almost a year for the back pain to subside. There was also some emotional personal events happening for me too during this time so between the physical pain and the emotional upheaval, I literally was burned out. I had no desire at all to do the work. Photography had definitely lost its magic.

When you aren’t connected to yourself, you can’t connect to others.

I was also feeling like there wasn’t room for me to rest. I think when you are a woman of a certain age that society begins to define as irrelevant, it becomes harder to prove your worth. I definitely began to feel the change in perceptions at around forty-seven. This is probably a whole other topic, especially in the world of weddings where the turnover is high and youth is valued, but I think it was a combination of this universal reality and personal limitations I put on myself that made me feel like rest wasn’t possible. I felt like I would be left behind if I didn’t keep working at the same pace.

In the end though I had to honor rest. Resilience is adapting to change and learning to rest is a form of resilience. I wasn’t serving my clients in the way that honored connection. It was too rushed. Now I only serve a limited number of clients who feel like a connection. I do not worry about what the standards are in the wedding industry. I have gone back to my roots.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.caseyrosephotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caseyrosephotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caseyrosephoto

Image Credits
Headshot image from Jenny Cruger Photography Remaining images / collages from Casey Rose Photography