Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jake McCormick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jake, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To me, being successful is more of a mindset than an actual number or goal or anything. When I went full time with this photography based business, it was tough! There is so much self doubt that comes along with trying to put YOUR work out there that at some point I had to shift my mindset. I had to understand that the negative thoughts or self deprecating feelings are always going to be there. No matter how great you are or how much “success” you’ve had, there is always a little bit of “but are you really doing good?” in there.

When I went full time I shifted my mindset to one of “keep going”. Keep going with what I want to get done and understand that those feelings are there to check you. You can’t feed into those feelings so much that they hurt your motivation, but checking in with yourself to make sure you’re doing good is helpful. To me success is shifting into a mindset like this because I feel like this was what helped me get over the hump of remaining full time in a creative field.

Jake, 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?

My name is Jake McCormick and I am the owner/founder/main photographer for Jake McCormick Photography! I am primarily an elopement and intimate wedding photographer which means I’m there for the wedding days that are less about the grand craziness that larger guest count weddings can have.

I got into photography mainly as a passion for landscape images. I used to get up for early morning sunrise hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains as a form of mental therapy and also a way to slow it all down to learn how to use a camera/compose an image.

Once I started receiving requests to do paid work (friends, family, friends of family, coworkers at my job at Target), I began to get an understanding of why I loved doing this. I love being there for the moments that nobody gets to really see, but EVERYBODY is shown after the fact through photos. I get to be the person that tells a story of a family or a wedding day or a branded package for a local business or any of it! My images get to tell that story and that’s always felt fulfilling to me.

I primarily shoot elopements/intimate weddings, but also take on business from proposals, couples sessions, family sessions, or branding images. I recently started a secondary service where I use 90’s camcorders for wedding day videography! So far I’ve done 12 full wedding days with it and have 15+ on the books through this year 👏🏻

I would say the main thing I want clients who would love to work with me to understand is that we are working WITH each other for this. I see each session as an opportunity to create something different or fresh or refined from other times. Those clients I work with understand that we are all here to create great images and ones that make us feel how we felt in that particular moment.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

To me the most rewarding part of being a creative, besides the overall feeling of capturing a person’s intimate moments of life, is when I get home from a session with the feeling of “wow, yeah these are going to be great”! I feel like it’s super easy to “rinse and repeat” when you do this for a while with clients/deliveries/monotony of business. It’s a great feeling when I myself feel proud of what I am about to deliver before I even get to editing. Usually those feelings are for sessions that pushed my boundaries or I can feel a version of an edit that is going to crush!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I think this is an underrated key to doing the business that I do. REFERRALS 👏🏻 These are clients that are sent to you from either venues you’ve worked with, other creatives who aren’t available that day and send out a list of those who may be, or word of mouth. To me this is a good mark of how good your social network/connection is. Referrals are key to keeping myself in business, but also for understanding that those you’ve made a connection with feel that too. Always try to expand your network and understand when it’s time to put less effort in to certain aspects of it 🤙🏻

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jakemccormickphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakemccormickphoto?igsh=ZnNxZzJoOTJmOXlu&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: Jake McCormick Photography
• Yelp: Jake McCormick Photography
• Other: Pinterest: @jakemccormickphoto