THE COMEBACK
Hello all you beautiful, amazing people! I am SO excited to be back behind the lens and relaunching the biz after what felt like the longest 18 months EVER!
So what happened?
Why was my business put on the back burner?
Strap in! Here’s a peek into what mine and my kids lives have been like in that time!
So we all know that there’s a full blown rental crisis happening yeah? Well, I got the dreaded notice that we needed to move out of our previous rental because the owners wanted to renovate the whole house…..so that they could then up the rent. *facepalm*
So I was frantically searching, and applying, and searching, and applying with no luck, so we ended up needing to move in with my Mum temporarily.
I was still searching and applying for HUNDREDS of houses, units, duplexes, townhouses, you name it I was applying for it, still with no luck! When we moved in with my Mum she was also getting ready to sell her house…….which let’s face it can be bloody hard to do with 3 wild kids around all the time! So a few months went by and we needed to be out.
SOOOOO…..
I swallowed my pride, rang my Grandad and asked him for a loan. A loan for what? A camper van! Because I refused for my children and I to be another statistic living in our car.
One of the INCREDIBLE humans in my life offered for us to park it up and stay on his property just up the road from where we already were and honestly, the amount of tears of gratitude I still cry to this day over that is a LOT.
So, despite never having towed anything in my life, or not knowing anything about solar or the set ups of a camper, I jumped in head first and when I say it was FRIGGEN AMAZING…that doesn’t even cover the half of it! The kids and I got to learn new skills alongside each other, I learnt more and more how to just ASK FOR HELP when I needed it, we homeschooled/unschooled, we went on camping trips, I towed our home on wheels 6.5hrs away to a retreat, seriously the experiences we got to create as a family are something I will forever be grateful for!
Throughout our time in the camper, I was still applying for houses like crazy to no avail. Until FINALLY I got the call. 3:30pm in the afternoon, a real estate agent rang me and asked if I was still interested in the property. I had lost track of all the properties I had applied for but immediately said YES, having no idea what house she was talking about! She asked if I could come and look through it physically that day at 5pm – so we rushed there, walked through the house, 4 bedrooms, big yard, ensuite….even an air con in the master bedroom! This house was absolute LUXURY after living in a camper. The real estate agent told me that after reading my cover letter explaining our situation and seeing the kids so happy running around the house, that she would much rather this house go to us than others who had applied. (When I say I can write a killer cover letter, let me tell you, I CAN WRITE A KILLER COVER LETTER!)
After looking through the house, she said she would speak to the owners that night (apparently they’re a night owl like myself), and THE VERY NEXT F*CKING MORNING she text me to say I was approved and could move in at the end of the week!! Everything fell into place so quickly and effortlessly that there was no question in my mind that this is where we’re meant to be!
So with no furniture or anything really to fill our new home, I signed the new lease and collected the keys. The excitement was real! And even though we were without furniture or anything, I knew that somehow it would all fall into place just as effortlessly as obtaining this rental did.
AND HOLYYYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIT I am still mindblown at how right I was!
So one of my friend’s sisters runs a charity service called Nightlight (massive shoutout, you guys do phenomenal work!) and he rang her to see if they had any furniture or anything for us. They said that they had just received a donation of a FULL 3 BEDROOM APARTMENT’S WORTH of furniture, but that it was still in storage and they hadn’t had the chance to look at it and make sure it was all good yet. A few days later, they said that if I was willing to risk it, they could have a truck bring it all over directly from storage for me! Worst case, maybe some of it needed to go to the tip, and best case I’d have a house full of furniture so of course I said I was more than willing to take that risk.
GUYSSS……..
EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT!
I’m talking couches, coffee table, dining table and chairs, 4 beds, fridge, washing machine, boxes full of kitchen stuff, LITERALLY EVERYTHING WE NEEDED AND THEN SOME!
Holy heck the shock I was in was second to none! I sat in so much gratitude, God really pulled out all the stops to make sure we were taken care of! There is no other way to describe the way everything unfolded for us, so smoothly and effortlessly, besides divine intervention baby!
So now that we’re all settled into our new home and my younger 2 kids are enrolled into school, it was finally time for me to put my work hat on and get back to doing what I love!
But instead of just picking up where I left off I decided to do it a little differently and do a RELAUNCH! I relearnt a new editing style that I fell in love with, I invested every spare dollar I had into the business – courses, mentoring, new editing tools, and the most LUXURIOUS client closet pieces I’ve ever seen in my life! I decided I wanted to hit the ground running when I officially relaunched. I have put so many countless hours of time and energy into ensuring things run smoothly and I have a website up and running because I am not business minded. Like at all! (Something else I’m learning though – so a year from now I won’t be saying that!)
There has been sooooo much love and energy poured into this business of mine, because it’s not just about the images. It’s about creating connections, creating a FUN experience, and getting to co-create shoots with my clients that set our souls on fire!
I am SO PUMPED for the rest of 2023, what it will bring, and the epic new people I will get to meet!
Until then….
Chan x
