It hit me recently, when I refreshed my Instagram post so see how many likes it had gotten overnight… for the fifth time that morning. What on earth was I doing checking this so frequently? And more importantly, why did it even matter?!
Yes, it is perfectly okay to do well for yourself in and through your business, to make good money and be profitable, and to keep an eye on your analytics and insights to be sure you are connecting with people. In fact, you SHOULD be doing these things if you are succeeding as a business and if you are a responsible business owner. However, it hit me (during that Instagram-obsessed morning) that my focus as a business owner should never be on numbers just for the sake of the numbers. The Instagram likes, retweets, repins, or fluctuating number of followers I have matter NOTHING if we’re not loving our people- our clients, our families and friends, and each other- well.
This thought has been bouncing around in my head ever since: Let what I do as a wedding photographer never be just for the likes. Never just for the Facebook reshares. Never for the sake of thousands of people seeing me. That was never the point.
Let what we do be for the joy it brings to people. Let it be for the celebration of authentic love, for the honor of documenting the start of a forever, and for the creation of a legacy through photos that will be passed down for generations. Let it be for the people we serve, for the couples who, someday, will need something tangible to look to and cling to when life becomes challenging, for the times when our couples need a reminder of who they are, who the were, and a reminder of the person they fell in love with in the first place.
Let what I do be done in love NOT for the sake of being seen, but for making people FEEL the real love of Jesus that has changed my life forever.
This is why our business never was, is not, and never will be simply about the numbers. It never was about me, about us, or about the photos. It’s about making people feel intentionally and tangibly loved in one of the happiest, sweetest and most important seasons of their life. It is our hope and prayer that as the years go on, as the number of followers grow and our average likes increase, that we never are the ones refreshing our phones for the quick approval of a few Instagram likes. Instead, we hope our focus will remain, and be increasingly shifted, on the people we are serving and the huge responsibility we have to do this thing called “wedding photography” well.
Xoxo,
Caitlin and Luke
