Looks like he was ready for his dinner in that pic.. 😋 lol

Thank you so much for sharing all this, Bulbul! I wasn't able to make it this morning and these are a lot of great key points and reminders. But of course they would be if Vickie's involved. 😉 lol You did an excellent job of putting all this together and I just wanted you to know that I'm super appreciative! 🤩

Somewhere along the line when I worked at IBM, someone told me that we should always apply for jobs that we're only about 20% qualified to do, and that way we get to learn a lot of new things and not get bored. :)

I think I have been believing the “Follow your passion and the money will come” belief for the last almost 2 decades since I quit IBM. Before I quit, I had read Tama Kieves' book called "This Time I Dance!" and at the top of the cover, in smaller letters, it reads: "If you're this successful at doing work you don't love, what could you do with work you *do* love?" That quote really helped inspire me to quit the corporate world and pursue photography full time, which, as you know, has branched out to include graphic design, web design, drone certification, video editing and videography. I now fill my working hours doing things I love for the greatest clients in the world! I feel truly blessed in that area. So I have followed my passion for 17 years now and the money still has not come. It probably hasn't helped that I've been a single mother receiving no child support for the last 15 years. There are times when I struggle paying rent and every once in a while, I'm even as late as 2 weeks paying it. I do struggle with my pricing, and so many people tell me I undercharge, but then I also have clients who will insinuate I charge way too much and often try to negotiate lower pricing, so it's been difficult for me to find that balance - being lucrative while not losing clients for too high of pricing. At this point, I feel like I should be doing bigger things for bigger clients who aren't necessarily local, but I'm not sure how to go about getting those gigs. I do also have ideas about doing a YouTube series - sort of an Out&About video version that includes driving videos (and drone clips) to various Colorado towns to find a pool hall.. show some good shots from the games, interview a few ppl about a specific question each episode - it's all such a beautiful picture in my head, but something is blocking me from actually starting it, even though I have all the equipment and skills I need. Anyway, sorry I'm rambling.. I think my belief in following my passion and the money will come has cost me years of not earning what I'm capable of earning, which has kept me in this vicious cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. It would be so nice to have some extra cash to fall back on, maybe even buy a house again someday. I've been renting since 2010.

@Vickie Helm I am willing! 🙏😊

Thanks for the heads up! I didn't even know this was a thing going on with women being shadowbanned on social media. Awareness is definitely the first step to creating change. 🙏