#Create: Build Your Dream Creative Career

By Danielle H. Lefebvre

Ask any small business owner if they wish they had the wisdom and knowledge they have today when they were first starting out and the answer will absolutely be "Yes!"  

In a world

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lefebvre Publishing
• Release date: Jul 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087902975

Danielle H. Lefebvre

Danielle Haley LeFebvre is a photographer, independent business owner, mentor and author of the new book #Create: Build Your Dream Creative Career. Founder of Danielle LeFebvre Photography in 2008, Danielle lays the framework to start a creative business for sustainable growth while striking the ever-important work life balance. Danielle has a Bachelor's in Architecture from the Boston Architectural College and is a recipient of the Glassman Practice Award. Originally pursuing a career in the field of design, she established her business while in school as an outlet for her true creative passion, photography. Featured in publications including Newport Wedding Magazine, House Beautiful and Southern New England Weddings Magazine, LeFebvre Photography has garnered much attention through its expansion. Danielle's work is featured in the memoir Politics and Pasta by Buddy Cianci and David Fisher. Her portfolio of more than 300 clients includes notable actor Amy Bruni as well as Visual Comfort designers Chapman & Myers. Danielle was born and raised in Rhode Island but currently resides in Florida with her partner in life and best friend, Jeff, and their daughter, Evie. In her free time, Danielle enjoys time at the beach, traveling, trying new restaurants and yoga.

Book preview

introduction

Hello my fellow creatives! I’m thrilled you’ve decided to pick up this book! Chances are, you have something wonderful to offer the world and if you’re ready to turn your passion into a profitable, sustainable and fulfilling business, this book was meant for you. Whether you already have your own business or have yet to start one, this book offers inspiration and guidance on how to grow, both personally and professionally.

A little bit about my story before we get started. I have worked in the creative industries for over nineteen years first as an architectural designer and for the last fifteen as a professional photographer. I am the grateful and proud owner of a successful portrait photography business in the beautiful gulf coast of Florida.

Over the years, my business has granted me financial freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment. I get to wake up every day and do work I feel truly passionate about.

This is what success looks like for me.

I hope to inspire and empower you to create the business and life of your dreams. Whatever your goals or measurement of success, I hope this book helps you on your way.

Throughout this guide I mention many publications, companies and products that I personally love and recommend. Additionally, some of the links on my website are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of sales upon clicks and purchases. There is no cost to you to use my links and in some circumstances you may even receive a benefit or savings.

As a thank you for purchasing this book, I’ve included a #Create Planner which correlates with the assignments throughout the book.

You can download it here: https://lefebvrephoto.com/s/Goals-Planning-Suite.pdf

Find my photography work at www.LefebvrePhoto.com

Find me on Instagram, Tiktok & Facebook: @Lefebvrephoto

1

CREATIVITY IS AN IMPERFECT PROCESS

Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.

-Jhumpa Lahiri

Researcher Brené Brown describes perfectionism as a self-destructive belief system that drives us to reach for the impossible in both our personal and professional lives. And the quest for perfectionism starts in childhood, particularly in school and sports as we push our children to, score, run faster, practice more, get better grades! Feelings of inadequacy in childhood translates into feelings of inadequacy in adulthood.

When we feel inadequate, nothing we do is good enough.

After my daughter’s swim class one day, she looked up at me and said, Mom, how come I can’t swim as fast as Anna? I’m just not as good at swimming. Well, you’ll get better with practice, just stick with it, practice makes perfect, I said.

Evie, only six years old at the time, was quick to correct me, That’s not how it goes, Mom. My teacher says, ‘Practice makes better,’ not ‘Practice makes perfect.’

Puzzled for a moment, I eventually realized my mistake.

When we set the bar at perfection, we set ourselves up for failure and disappointment and the feeling that we’re not enough.

Perfectionism has a way of sneaking into the cracks of our relationships with our children, our jobs, our families, our friends. It’s exhausting and impossible. Being perfect doesn’t actually exist, and striving for perfection is not only unhealthy and unrealistic, but it also prevents us from ever reaching our fullest potential. So often, we feel all the conditions have to be just right for us to move forward. So often we feel the timing is not right, or we’re not prepared to make that first step. Perfectionism prevents us from gaining any momentum. Imagine my daughter gave up her intense love of swimming all because in her mind she wasn’t the best swimmer? Imagine all the things we may never try or participate in because we don't believe we’re good enough?

Being a creative entrepreneur requires accepting imperfection and messiness, though as a creative myself, I know it’s, Easier said than done. How many times have you scrapped a project you worked on for hours or days because it wasn't what you imagined it would be? Imperfection for the sake of progress is more than okay, in fact, it’s essential to the creative process. When we make mistakes, change course, refine, and revisit, we may end up creating something spectacular. Even an unfinished project can transform into something completely new and unexpected. Creativity is exploration, problem solving, and making connections. Creativity takes what we already know and builds on it. Creativity happens when we step outside of our comfort zone and what we already know. We must be willing to be wrong. We have to be comfortable with the possibility of failure.

Allowing yourself to make messy, imperfect, ugly things is the key to creative growth and it’s essential to building a business that is sustainable and profitable.

Salvador Dali said it best, Have no fear of perfection. You’ll never reach it.

As a creative business mentor, I work with many creatives who are feeling stuck in their business. Fear and lack of confidence and direction are common challenges most of these creatives face. I’m here to help. Whatever your barriers, whatever limitations you face, you are capable of overcoming them all.

2

FEAR OF FAILURE

Fear creeps in when we anticipate failure. It helps to remember that everyone experiences fear – it is neither abnormal nor a sign of weakness. Fear is our body’s built-in survival mechanism whenever we face danger or something uncomfortable. Our brains are hardwired for fear. ¹

When we experience fear, we look for a way out; Maybe I’ll tell them I’m sick. Maybe I can say a family member is coming into town, and I won’t be able to attend. We can make all sorts of excuses, but at the end of the day, we face a choice: to stand up to our fear head-on or to run.

I’ve struggled with an almost paralyzing fear of speaking in front of groups for as long as I can remember. My mind would go blank, I’d sweat, my face would turn red-hot. When I attended architecture school then went to work in a firm, I had to make frequent presentations of my work and with practice I became more comfortable over time. Later, in my photography career, I had to conquer consultations and sales meetings. How comfortable I felt presenting my work boiled down to how confident I felt - confidence in my abilities and knowledge, confidence in my work (accuracy and clarity) and confidence in my presentation (how much I had prepared).

Since I know what triggers my fear when it comes to public speaking, I know the things I need to do to prepare. When it comes to your individual fear, you can learn how to root out the source of the fear so that you can address it head-on.

First, determine whether your fear is rational. What are the chances that the outcomes you worry about will take place? What are the worst-case scenarios? Do the benefits outweigh the risks? What would happen if everything went right? What would happen if everything went wrong (would you recover)? What happens if you do nothing at all?

In most situations, you’ll find that the benefits outweigh the risks. You will understand the greater risk lies in not acting at all. Have you ever had an opportunity you turned down because you were too afraid to take it? Was it an intimidating job interview? The chance to work for a high-profile client or to take on a project you felt might be too big? The opportunity to speak in front of a large audience? Fear!

Now consider the great things you might have encountered if you’d seized those opportunities. In the words of George Addair, Everything you’ve ever wanted is sitting on the other side of fear. Opportunities await if you are willing – and bold.

Decide to face your fear and act. If public speaking seems terrifying, take a public speaking course. Write out your speech and practice it over and over until you have it memorized and can deliver it with eloquence. Preparation is often half the battle.

If lack of confidence in your abilities or knowledge is hindering your ability to move forward, then take the steps to get better at what you do. Take a class or workshop, or simply practice your craft daily. As your knowledge and skills grow, so will your confidence. Confidence is built by practice and doing.

It’s been a big dream of mine to teach what I love about building successful small businesses, and this book is a very big part of my dream. It’s also one of the scariest things I’ve ever done and part of the reason it took four years to get started. I invented all sorts of the excuses and scenarios for why I wouldn’t succeed.

In the past, the idea of writing a book was daunting because I was approaching it from the wrong angle. I tried to perfect one chapter at a time before moving on to the next. Problem being I never made any progress. So instead I decided to try a different approach. Every morning at 5:30 am I would write. I would write quickly and often badly just to get all of my thoughts down on paper. Within 30 days I had the first draft written for this book. Instead of trying to create a perfect draft from the start, I opted for