Transcript

A lot of people don't realize your style is already something that exists within you it's not something that you have to go out and find or copy or try to you

Know invent it already exists within you you just have to find those certain things that you do over and over and over again that feel natural

hey welcome to the Social academy where we're interviewing industry professionals influencers and content creators here in the studio

Today we have dixie dixon nikon ambassador fashion photographer uh dixie

I don't know if you uh wanna I guess we'll just gonna jump right into this conversation awesome how yeah so how did

You get into uh photography what's your origin story there yeah so it's I'll

Give you the cliff notes version sure we don't want to spend forever on that but um I started out with a nikon camera

When I was just 12 years old I was shooting all the sports teams for like ten dollars an hour every weekend you

Know all the cheesy sports teams photos those shoes eating all those and then I

Went to high school and I actually ended up I was in band but I joined the

Yearbook staff to get out of marching band okay right wasn't so great at marching band yeah I did I did the band

Once and I was like I played the bassoon and after one year I was like I'm not doing this again but the bassoon is a

Very particular instrument I just played one song that's it that's awesome uh so yeah with that yeah

So you got into your book that's and you're kind of going where I was wondering too is like yeah what really

Drew you into fashion photography because there's so many different avenues of photography you could have

Gone you know food photography crime scenes so what really fun what brought

You into fashion yeah so um when I was in college I went to tcu I studied

Entrepreneurship and one summer I googled fashion photography study abroad

And there was one through syracuse university

Exactly so I applied for that program I got in so I got to go to london in prague and study with a world-renowned

Fashion photographer oh my gosh so that was for me that was the moment when I decided that was the kind of photography

I wanted to do because you got to work around a team of people yeah yeah create you know images that really come to life

And get the fashion and you know work with the wardrobe styles the hair and makeup the models I I love the team

Aspect yeah because it's like when you have a team around you you can create something bigger than you could have

Created by yourself no totally and so it was that really fed my soul and I thought to myself okay I found it I

Found the niche that I really want to focus on wow that's beautiful no it's it I can see how with that experience it

Which is very rare to get you know these stuff it's like that I'm sure you've gotten more than

Any other kind of uh job just like being on set with the photographers and all that kind of things so oh no that's

Really cool so going from there going from professional wondering how how did

Your journey into social media yeah how that started was that something you always been on or was something you kind

Of slowly adapted as it kind of became more of a thing curious to know what that uh

Journey was yeah it's funny I growing up I was never really that into being on

Computers I always like to be in that present moment so this has sort of forced me you know to to learn that but

It's funny because a friend actually signed me up for facebook um I didn't even want to be on it just like

Dixie you've got to get on facebook everyone's on facebook give me a picture yes but what was cool was she signed me

Up for it and then I was just trying to get into photography and get my name out there a little bit so I started just

Uploading all of my photos and that's so normal now but right when facebook was was starting not a lot of people were

Uploading their work so I you know would shoot portraits of friends and family and I would share it online and that was

Helping me get other clients yeah to shoot for it wasn't you know the niche of photography that I really wanted to

Pursue necessarily starting out because I was just trying to take every job that I could yeah yeah pay the bills and

Whatnot but it was a really great way to get my name out there from the beginning and I still have people that follow me

And remember wow you know see the growth that happened so it's cool when they've

Been like a party or journey the entire time yeah so keep them engaged they want to see updates and what you're up to now

And it's really kind of cool how that because I kind of started my career when social started sure sure yeah no office

That was kind of the same way it's it's uh and as you're kind of doing uploading stuff on is you know you're constantly

Building your portfolio it all came naturally and you know you're talking about you're some of the original followers

Was there a moment what was like the most pivotal moment that I'm sure to kind of shocked yourself and your people

Like oh dang like you're big time now or whatever like what are these what's she doing traveling around what's going on

So curious to know when that moment came you know for yet really kind of there was a huge

Shift I'm sure yeah that's a good question I still feel like I'm building yeah in a sense but

Um you know when I started doing a lot of speaking engagements for nikon that

Really grew the following quite a bit because I would always anytime I'm going to do a speaking engagement I always

Tell people to follow me on instagram and facebook and that helps get you know the name out there and

Um but you know that's a good question I feel like it's always building yeah yeah yeah and uh was there something you know

Sometimes always happens where you kind of wake up and you're like whoa why is there a huge influx of followers you

Know who shared what what happened what post went live was it was there that moment that kind of uh caught that kind

Of surprised you there was some of those moment I mean I've had some of those moments when say nikon posts something

And all of a sudden you know I didn't know they were going to post it and then all of a sudden you get this huge influx right right

Um or a manfrotto uh sandisk um who else I can't think of

Um oprah photo right right yeah so it's kind of you're kind of time and told

Also the tools you use yeah tagging into their kind of audience as well and kind of like hey this is what

I'm doing with this stuff no that's really awesome exactly but if you can get your work shared on some of those

Channels that just kind of helps you really grow organically and people are like who who posted this work and then

They'll go follow you no and you know going back to what you were talking about so you said you mentioned facebook

And instagram those are your primary platforms that you focus on okay yes I haven't gotten to into the dancing on

Tick tock yeah you never know yeah they're trying to get me into it I don't know we'll see I dabbled a little bit

It's it's fun uh so do you do you as you've adapted

It's just me kind of sounds like you're a little bit forced on there yeah but uh you know as you kind of got into do you

Have the same pressures of trying to keep up with it or um or keep on posting your photography I

Know you eat a busy schedule how is how's does that have an effect on you or do you is that something you think about

It does I feel a lot of pressure obviously because my sponsors

Um the manfrotto profoto nikon sandisk they um and within our contracts we have

To post like a certain amount of times uh per month or per year so I obviously have to get though I'll definitely get

Those done um it's tricky though because I'm so busy when I get shooting and I'm you

Know trying to work on a production and whatnot it's always like social media takes the back seat because obviously

The productions are right I'm building the social media for and usually working months in advance something you know a

Campaign or whatever that's yeah I can't even share this 12 months from lately exactly it's tricky because sometimes

You know they'll have a social media blackout on set and so I can't you know if it's a new product that's not

Launched yet things of that nature everyone has to put a phone in the bag during the shoot so that nobody can take

Any kind of photos or anything so nothing's leaked out into the public so that's tricky because then you don't

Have the the behind the scenes and social content from that shoot to share yeah you're just telling your friends

And they're kind of like I don't believe you I don't know what you're talking about you know like just wait when I could shares yeah so I can share the

Final product yeah yeah just like you were talking about this morning it sounds like you have some stuff coming out but you can't quite talk about yet

Exactly that's the hardest feeling because I'm usually a person like I just want to share it just want to show yes just get it out there

Absolutely it's a definitely a dance yeah well okay you're tapping into

Manfrotto and uh sandus and and nikon of course so how how do you build your

Social community like that how do you keep your uh you know were you intentional about it or did it kind of

Naturally grow and how do you also uh think about keeping that group engaged yeah it's it's really been completely

Organic for me I really I haven't been super strategic to be quite honest and

The way that I've grown my audience I just I find that when you put out authentic work and you put out what you

Are essentially your personality and everything that you do you're gonna attract like-minded people it's like the

Law of attraction at work so I just I put out there what I love and what I'm passionate about and I find that people

That are also have those same passions like to follow me and we inspire each other and sure no I'm the same way it's

It's you've like you said find like-minded people you find your community you do for yourself and they

Find you yeah and it sounds like you're kind of in that artist's zone where you're again so probably in another

Reality you know to mention seeing what you see and then you know they always say I mean good content is good content

So you're probably just like true all that matters is I make good stuff and post it yeah quality content quality

Okay the biggest thing because I'm not a volume photographer by any means or

Director it's really not about volume and what I do I mean I'm not one of those people that's going to be posting

Every day I just there's just not a possibility of that I think people that can do that that are in other industries

Because if you think about it you're only as good as your worst photo that you've posted so I have to be a little

Bit strategic and just posting like only my best work on there and those don't happen like every single second of every

Day essentially so I'm sure you have a a almost a recycle binary of photos that

You're like I'm not even yeah I'm sure you're very picky on like okay this is the one which looking

Through your feed is very much apparent it's like you got the most top at the top cream of the crop you know very

Particular exact vision of your art and it's uh yeah everyone is just like well dang and you know sometimes I think that

Can be you know especially with smaller photographers intimidating like oh you're always you know

Putting out the best work and you you never mess up I'm sure we've had many other photos that people

Have never seen the light of day of oh yes menu photos that's so true but it's interesting

Because you got to think about strategically about how you want to build your career for instance I have a lot of friends that do photography and

They're really into the teaching aspect and so they show a lot of their you know

Work that wasn't quite up to par and how they made it better and so people can learn from that yeah and I think that's

Really great if you're wanting to focus on the teaching aspect yeah yeah but for me yeah I tend to I'm really just trying

To share behind the scenes so I get more clients like brand work and ad agency work so I don't do as much of that I do

A little bit of teaching here and there but I try to focus on just sharing behind the scenes you know what I'm up

To the real kind of like hey this is yeah this is what I do yeah yeah exactly

Or on that similar kind of segue into I'm sure you get this question all the time uh what advice do you have for

Those smaller photographers starting out yeah absolutely I think the main thing especially today a is to basically as a

Photographer when you're starting out you're trying to find your style and that's such a tricky dance I mean it

Takes it takes a couple years to really kind of hone in on what your style is but a lot of people don't realize your

Style is already something that exists within you it's not something that you have to go out and find or copy or try

To you know invent it already exists within you you just have to find those certain things that you do over and over

And over again that feel natural from the lighting to the models you choose to the hair make up the wardrobe everything

That really speaks to your soul right you've got to really focus on that as opposed to just looking at what everyone

Else is doing what's trending you just got to find your authentic style and your niche and then if you can focus on

Just posting that type of work you're going to start attracting your dream clients because if you're posting

Everything anything and everything people don't know where to place you right essentially so if you can really find and hone in on that niche and just

Post that work even if you're you know you know shooting everything to pay the bills you know that's fine you've got to

Do that sometimes when you're starting out but just post that that work that really really speaks to your soul you'll

Start attracting those clients I mean one that advice is like amazingly

Perfect it's like what I would tell anyone else too you know hey it's like I've gone through a dream where I bought

Every pin and pencil that other artists you'll use thinking I could draw it down and then you get to a point where you're

Like oh it was there all to begin with it wasn't the tool it's really the vision I think absolutely you're talking

About it's trusting yourself your vision what you're seeing and and being the most authentic you yeah because no one

Else can tap into that so true but like you said it is it is a process it is and

I always tell people like just just go with mess up experiment you know exactly

And I think for me personally I tend to be overly perfectionistic yeah and I get

A lot of anxiety before I post things and for me I have to push through that

Because and just even if it's not enough nothing's gonna ever be like a hundred

Percent per you know perfect so I I tend to just have to just let go a little bit yeah I just need to let go of control a

Little bit and just put it out there and see what happens because you just never know what might blow up yeah exactly it's always that one thing where as much

As you spend time on what you might consider your best photo ever right that one that you're just kind of like oh

Also share that below okay well and that's that I think that's

A good thing you know what you mentioned is is kind of just you just never know and don't be afraid to share that

Exactly and don't be afraid to mess up yeah sure yes everyone's gone no one

Shows the amount of hours took you to get exactly the uh the unseen work

Exactly uh now coming back to kind of maybe your partnerships and uh brand

Ambassadors um we got uh so how how do you have monetized your social media yeah

Especially working with um uh the being in that collaboration with with nikon and the other brands are

Talking about like how has that played into your um yeah strategy monetization you know

Absolutely yeah I mean the bulk of my income comes from productions so the

Social media stuff is like icing on the cake essentially um but I would say that you know the

Brands will pay a yearly fee for a bunch of different things from social media to

Speaking engagements to considering me for campaigns that they're releasing so it's a full package yeah it's a full

Deal um but I do get a lot of inquiries for you know smaller brands and stuff that

Just want posts and bigger brands that just want me to post something on my social as like an ad yeah and I really I

Don't do a ton of that just because I just I don't want my account my account's very personal yeah yeah it's a

Personal and a business page really I don't have separate um on my instagram so I just I'm careful

About doing a lot of that I don't do a ton of the I don't take a lot of the sponsored ad posts sure I just don't

Want my feed to just be one big ad and it just loses its authenticity essentially yeah no no I can I can only

Feel that energy too it's like I I would imagine if you did start posting like okay what's going on here you know did

She sell her soul what's happening exactly I do not want to sell my soul exactly so how have you uh monetized

Your social media platform and and really I guess I want to know how you really uh got into these partnerships

Yeah um and what that kind of entails because I'm sure a lot of people who are starting off

You know maybe trying to get those opportunities like how does that work you know what's what's kind of the behind the scenes on that which is

Really unseen yeah absolutely it's funny because I actually did not get these

Partnerships from social media believe it or not um I had a business teacher in college

Um at tcu david miner a lot of people know of him a little shout out a little shout out there

So I took a business course with him and one of the things that really stuck out to me was that he said whatever industry

You're interested in pursuing go and join the trade organization involved in

That industry so he said get involved and just start networking with all the

Different people in the industry so that you learn the ins and outs of that industry before you go into business yeah and so that's what I did I went

Home that night and I googled um basically photography trade organization and there was about you

Know six different ones I joined the student versions of all of them and so I joined like wpbi advertising

Photographers of america um let's see there's so many of them yeah sure this is like extra major extra

Credit here I would hope you get in class but yeah you signed up for all of them and then I started entering

Contests oh through those organizations right and I ended up winning two of them and so the one I won through wpi I got

To go to the big wpbi trade show and convention in las vegas for free paid

For my trip right out of school so I won that and then when I went to that trade

Show they were introducing me the president of rangefinder magazine who gave me the award he introduced me to

All these different brands at that trade show because if you think about the trade shows all the brands are there right like nikon profoto sandisk

Manfrotto so eventually like I kept going every year yeah and eventually he introduced me to one of the marketing

Directors at nikon and then that's how the he literally liked my work and I kept him updated for about a year every

Couple weeks on my new work this is just aside from social media and eventually they hired me on to be an ambassador for

The brand and then that led to other ambassadorships but it was really that trade show that helped me network

Because and see these people in person so now they're kind of like big families essentially yeah yeah well and you're

Like you said it was mentioning that like I think another important part from that too is is really kind of keeping

That communication even if there's no opportunities yeah I'd be like hey this is what I'm doing and it came up I'm sure and that's that's a really good uh

Insight you know that and then also as many you know it kind of goes back to the like um as much as you connect on

Social media nothing kind of beats that like in-person experience I'm sure with the networking people you never would have

Met before I'm sure exactly like if you can in addition to tagging all the gear you're using as a photographer on social

Media think about those companies that own the gear and getting in touch with the marketing director and also sending

Them an email to show the new work you're shooting with their gear so not just on social because all these big

Brands they have a social media person like the marketing director or creative director may not be constantly on social

But if you send them a direct email they're gonna see what you're shooting with their products and that's just going to entice them more to work with

You yeah it's almost like it feels like the old school way of like you know when you would hand in your resume but yeah this is what I do uh and here's my

Portfolio on dvd you know whatever but now you're kind of doing that digital form no that that's yeah man that is

That I that kind of uh I'm learning something now myself I'm like oh I need to tap into some of these uh well and

Then kind of uh going from there I as you're building these partnerships yeah

Um kind of you you mentioned earlier about niching down and and also when you're

Starting up what's your kind of thoughts about like free shoots and and really

Like um collaborations what do you look for in collaborations because if you're kind of like knowing your style niche like is that

How much does that play into what kind of collaborations you do and then um you know again a lot of photographers

Starting off wondering you know that fine line of free work to okay maybe I

Should start charging yes I always uh for free work my rule is always I will

Do free work if it's my vision but if someone is asking me for work then I

Need to get paid for it right because it's their vision no I'd say I think it's a fair rule yeah yeah especially as

Artists you need some motivation right to like well I kind of want to do this oh dude if you're letting me if you give

Me all the tools and stuff for it exactly and I think you got to consider what is the traction you're gonna get on

Those images you know if they've got half a million followers and you do some work with them it might be worth it to

Get your name out there as well so maybe even considering that too when it comes to free work but as a photographer

Starting out you're going to do a lot of free tests sure like test shoots or when you get together the hair makeup the

Words of the models just because in photography and commercial and fashion you really have to show what you're

Capable of shooting in order for clients to hire you so if you don't have any work to show how are you going to get

Hired so it's essentially like building your resume when you're starting out as a as a photographer and you're trying to

Just build a portfolio build a portfolio that speaks your brand and what kind of

Production level you're able to execute and so you really do have to shoot a ton

Of free work that's your vision starting out and shoot it like you're actually shooting it for a client so for me I

Went out and shot different fashion for boutiques and stuff like that and

Different designers and also showing product like I would do a test shoot about boots or about sunglasses and they

Would look like ads yeah yeah but people don't know necessarily if they were shot as a spec shoot or totally they were

Really for a brand so if you go out and shoot that stuff you'll start attracting like I ended up booking a a

Eyeglass you know brand and commercial from some eyeglass shots that I'd done you know so there's there's ways to do

The free work what really drives the productions and drives you to book more work to get this so to get to some of

These kind of collaborations would you say like going back to those communities and and extra groups you join do those

Um allow for more of those kind of opportunities and network within that networking definitely because once one

Brand works with you like when I started working with nikon some of the other brands were like oh you know they'll look at who the ambassadors are and then

Want to hire you for different things and I get a ton of inquiries for like paid posts for other brands and stuff

Like that but I'm really particular because like I said I don't want it to be my account to be an ad

Um one of the craziest ones that I got was um hellofresh yeah I used to talk to me and wanted me to do some some cooking

Posts I don't cook I like food I like food but it was not

On brand and it wasn't had to do anything with photography so I you know I didn't do that one obviously so I get

A lot of random inquiries like that no I mean that's very strongly to you know

Your self-respect and really keeping true to yourself I mean like man I'm sure a lot of people love this up too but they just I don't want to do you

Know it could lead you down to what you're talking about maybe more about things where I don't like doing that type of work you know absolutely and I

Don't really honestly consider myself an influencer a lot of people will say oh influence I really don't I'm a

Photographer and I love what I do and I love to share my work and on social I don't really necessarily consider myself

An influencer I'm just putting it out there and and seeing what land I'm sure it's a little bit of a tangent but like

Yeah when you're collaborating with these other people kind of like free spec work or whatever I guess is

Something you're also aware of like oh they're also needing something to show their boots or fashion and and then

They're working for their own kind of work so I'm sure yeah you know just like any artists that collaboration is very

Important where you kind of like we're all in the same page and mission yeah I imagine yeah absolutely and everyone's

Building their following and the more people that the more followers you get the more opportunities and eyes that are

Going to see your work and that's what's so beautiful about it is I've gotten jobs off of social media yeah just

They'll see the instagram or whatever and then they'll reach out to me on email for a production and so that's

Really cool when it when it comes full circle and and also that's cool to kind of help some of your friends and

Families like that we're like hey I got this connection would you be open to jump in on that shoot too exactly that's

What that's really what I love about what I do is you know you get a production and I get to hire my awesome

Lighting and crew chief you know eric is amazing nancy my producer and get to work with people that I love you're

Entourage and so that's always so much fun and we get to work together and create and you

Know clients love seeing the behind the scenes and whatnot on instagram I post a lot of behind the scenes and stories and

And so people see what it's like to work with us on set and kind of entice them to work with us on shoots excellent yeah

So you're sounds like you you do got a packed schedule and again appreciate you

Coming in so like with that though as you're busy with shoots um and and scheduling and probably

Meetings with other people you know the social media doesn't stop and so like how do you maintain that uh

Outside your business when you're like oh you know are you focused on the metrics if they're down or do you just

Kind of accept the ebbs and flows of social media you know yeah you know how

How and when do you take time to really kind of like okay I need to kind of maintain this a bit give it a little uh

Trim you know whatever I had one of those moments moments um in december I had back-to-back jobs for like four

Months and just I have all this new content to share now but december just I

Just dropped off because I I just had so much stuff going on but I think you know I posted a new post in the new year and

Kind of told people I've been you know busy shooting and creating all this new work and excited to share it all coming

Up but I think it's uh I don't really get super into the metrics as much

Because the algorithms are you know changing constantly and you know a lot of people on instagram will hide their

Like counts you know because everything's gone down yeah just the way they've done the algorithm and I really

Don't I try not to get you know super intense about that I mean I just I don't hide my like counter follower

It is what it is I'm putting it out there and um and it goes back to like you said

Like hey there might be a lull but I'm gonna post another good photo and the people who are with me yes yeah and then

It'll send a remind reminder that oh so-and-so hasn't posted in a while and but I try to be fairly consistent I mean

Especially for the brands and whatnot and the sponsors we're supposed to post at least like once a week so I try to do

That at the very minimum and this year it's actually a goal of mine to post a

Lot more yeah so I'm going to try to stay on that and a lot of people do a lot of scheduling so they can be super

Consistent I think that's really good it's helpful if that's something that you're good at and you're passionate

About but what I try to tend to not want to happen is create it so that instagram

Is such a or social media is such a job then it becomes a laborious task that I

Don't enjoy doing I try to still take it and keep that fun you know just being

Able to share my work and being excited about it as looking at it as a job right yeah it's like man I'm excited to drop

This picture yeah they haven't seen this one the icon went to you know yeah I think that's a

Good keeping it fresh for yourself right uh because yeah like I said the minute you get lost on stuff then it's just

Like you're over and that that overthinking effects I'm sure your personal work whatever and you don't

Want to like um muddy up that vision right exactly that's so true

Um so with that going into you know that wasn't full of social media do you have

It do you have any insights um or what's your perspective on like

The future of social media for like up and coming photographers yeah I think what is so cool about the day and time

That we're living in now is that everyone is a brand essentially and so

Everyone needs content I mean if you think about it that's really empowering as a photographer content creator of

Cinematographer because everyone every brand needs content and so it really empowers us to you know go out and shoot

And create cool work and get paid for it um but it's interesting because

Essentially we make the influencers influential we help businesses move

Products you know we we basically create the iconicness of these brands so we're

Really powerful I mean I think that it's really incredible that we're able to empower these businesses to to get their

Names out there and I think that it's just going to get bigger and bigger so we need to look at it I think in more more positive light I think social media

Can get a bad rap but it's it's so empowering that we have so many opportunities as photographers out there

Yeah no I uh and like how you word that the whole influencing the influencer yeah that's true that's some that's some

Boss level thinking right there that's for sure no uh so what's the craziest

Opportunity that's come from uh you know having a following on social media has

It led to any kind of like cool vip situations have been or just like I never would have thought I got a

Message from this person or a shoe you know what what has been I guess a little story time yeah a little story time I

Mean I've had a few really cool moments like I posted I have a mini cooper this

Is so random and I just was posting just some behind the scenes in my gear and the mini cooper and mini cooper

Worldwide like found it and they wanted to post it all over social I'm like sure it wasn't even like for anything it was

More just a behind the scenes for me with my photography gear in the in the back of it and so I was excited that

They shared that and then recently michael kors reached out oh I'm a big fan of project runway I've watched like

Every season oh it's amazing and uh yeah he was always one of the good judges telling it like it is uh no that's wild

So yeah what was that yeah so they reached out and they found me on social media which is really exciting and they

Wanted to work with me on a collaboration with dillards and michael kors wow so I got to shoot a bunch of

Fashion models with michael kors they were in dallas and then they did a big event so I got to be a part of the event

And then they sent me home with a bunch of products and I was like I'm not even an influencer I get to go home with the

Cool michael kors bag and all this it was very unexpected yeah I know I'm sure

It's your younger self too going like now I'm touching these brands of things that I used to see at the malls and

Whatnot uh on brand and now you actually are having you're touching it you're giving it

What a trip I bet that full story it was it was sort of it was sort of surreal do

You see um working with it's like those I'm sure as with nikon

Or getting uh in touch with with michael kors and dillards and doing the countries with that is that yeah that

Process I'm sure is also very different than your normal kind of like yeah yeah shooting photography for fun or whatever

I'm sure there's a lot more um uh layers to it is that something that's that

Experiences um unique and different yeah it was a different kind of experience

Production wise because they just wanted some really cool content with all their

Things more um lifestyle and organic as opposed to a set shot list you know most clients have

That set shot list where it's like they need horizontals they need long verticals stuff for billboards

Um which is you know the michael kors dillard's shoot was just creating really

Interesting cool content with all their products wow so you know it sounds like

That's like on the opposite of the spectrum like you've got pretty good creative freedom yeah what about the opposite has it been a

Way where it's like hey you just take this picture this way and this angle you know has there been any kind of clients

That get really specific about that yes clients get really specific yeah yeah it

Really depends on the client I love it when I have creative freedom but a lot of times they need some really specific

Product shots or product with models and you're just you know you shoot you have one main shot for the day and that's

Like the shot you're creating you know so it's kind of varies and I kind of enjoy both you know I have a super

Controlling and perfectionistic about that one shot then I can also be off the cuff and kind of shoot for fun and just

Create you know that's a good way to look at the balance yeah I mean that's always important you know you have those times where you're like okay I'm done

With the super strict client work I want to kind of just do my artsy stuff and then okay I'm kind of drawing blank of

Large stuff let me I need some some rules right now you know yeah exactly um it's a nice balance well uh I guess

We're getting uh to wrap up before we go what's your number one uh a piece of

Advice for getting started oh I would say the main piece of advice that I have

Is whatever you're creating now just get it out there like people there are so many amazing photographers that no one

Knows about because they create this amazing work but then they don't share it yeah and so I think it's important

Just to let go of the perfectionism a little bit and just get your work out there even if you're still finding your

Niche like a lot of new photographers they're shooting everything to try to discover what their niche is I would say

In the beginning go ahead and post all that work you know you'll you'll start seeing what hits well and what people

Resonate with usually they're going to resonate with the images that are really uniquely you like the personal work yeah

And then you can start once you discover what your niche is and your passion is and you can really start posting that

But it takes a little while to get there yeah so I would say post that and be post as much as possible be try to be

Consistent think about when your clients are online I tend to post in the evenings because I feel like creatives

Are night owls and they like just I like to scroll am at night you know so I do

Actually post quite a bit in the evening but um I do find that it's very much authentic to myself because I'm a night

Owl and other clients you know that are similar to me um are the same way but it's really I

Think a good idea to share your behind the scenes post that consistent final work reels is really big right now

Because instagram's trying to be tick-tock but um it's good to you know post some short

Reels I think those are really good to drive traffic if you really want to build your following that's kind of the

Key and really just I guess also yeah just embrace that whole process the good

And the bad it sounds like that I mean even some of the ugly just bear it all out yes and you're gonna learn I think

It's the best way to learn exactly exactly and I you know it's such a it's

A dance you don't look at it as a short term don't be looking at ever what everyone else is doing and try to be

Trendy like oh this photographer is doing that I'm gonna try that I mean you can try different things but I think

People look at social media in more of a short-term way you really got to look at the long term because it takes a while

To build a following yeah it's never ending never ending

Well uh thanks for coming in today dixie this has been awesome I hope you want to plug in uh anything any projects you got

Coming up uh whatever if you want to give a shout out to absolutely well my instagram is under I am dixie dixon

Dixie dixon wasn't available unfortunately um and then on facebook as well I think

It's under dixie dixon photography and I have some new projects coming out but I can't share them yet no no it's cool and

I again encourage everybody to check out our page a fantastic work oh thank you oh really gorgeous stuff and again very

A lot of good variety too I'll just like wow fashion beauty lifestyles like you're tapping to everything and it all

Looks gorgeous so oh thank you anyways thanks for coming in this has been another this has been the first episode

Of the social academy yeah uh so yes I appreciate it breaking it in and uh stay

Tuned as uh we say uh or I was gonna do my my co my tag

Anyways hey class dismissed thank you

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