from the desk of Hope Ann

Overcoming Rejection

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Destination wedding & portrait photographer fascinated by stories & people. This blog is the home for some of my favorite things — from weddings, engagement sessions, branding & more personal things. 

Grab your favorite cup of hot tea(or coffee), and stay a while. 

Hi! I'm Hope!

Good morning! I pray that you all are having a productive Monday morning. I want to share with you some wisdom I have gained over the past few years, and that is:  How To Overcome Rejection

This is hard a thing to overcome at times. It may come from an industry peer that you admire, and look up to. It may come from friends, or family members. It may come from a major publication, or blog that you’ve submitted your best work too. Where-ever it may come from, it’s hard, and makes you feel alienated doesn’t it?

Most of the time it can be hard to overcome rejection, because you are placing all your eggs in one basket. Or you have too much stock in one thing, one person, one place, and when you work in a creative industry, rejection is common. But that doesn’t mean you should give up! If you have a dream that is so deep-seeded in your heart, and you have a desire to see it come to pass you will find a way to make it work.

A few examples:

If you hand out 20 business cards, chances are not all of those people will call you, but possibly 5 will. Those 5 could be all you need to jump start that dream of yours.

If you are the new kid in town, and you contact all the local creatives in your area, chances are not all will e-mail you back. Even if you only have 1 or 2 e-mail you back, that’s all you need to start creating community, and fellowship.

So, how do I truly overcome rejection?

*First of all, take a deep breath. You’ve just been rejected by a company, publication, blog, or someone you truly admired. Get out of the house for a while, and go do something fun to clear your head.


*You’ve done something you loved doing, and had so much fun. Now get focused again, start searching for other places to get your work known. If you are submitting to blogs, and publications find at least 5-10 that line up with your branding, and values. The internet is a vast place, there are so many wonderful blogs, and publications out there besides the ones that are most popular among creatives to get your work seen.


*Everyday do at least 1 thing to make your dream come true. This is something I learned from the wonderful miss Lara Casey. How To Overcome Rejection - A Year From Now Quote  If you don’t start today, you may never start. And you’ll never know what wonderful things you could’ve created. For photographers this may be, going out everyday, and practicing lighting, working with flash, working on posing clients, etc. For a blogger, this may be creating a blog content schedule, e-mailing another blogger, e-mailing a publication, etc.


*Find a group of creatives that share the same values as you. Even if they aren’t located in the same area you are, at least you’ll have someone to talk to who knows the struggles you are going through, and can share in your victories. It’s always nice to surround yourself positive people, as well as people who can be real, and honest with you.


*Hand out those business cards! You bought those babies for a reason, and they probably were not cheap. One tip that I’ve learned about handing out business cards, is to go to a place where your ideal client would hang out. If you have specific branding, and a specific clientele you can’t just go any old place,and start handing out cards.  Have a plan. List what qualities your ideal client has, where they hang out, where they love to shop, etc. You may not win everyone over, but you may get a few clients in the door, and sometimes that’s all you need. 🙂


If there’s one thing you take away from this blog post today, I hope that it is, that you should never give up. 

I’m not going to sugar coat it, and say all your dreams will come true within a year. They may come true within that time frame, or you may have to wait longer. It truly depends on how hard you work at making this dream of yours a reality.

How have you overcome rejection in the past? Do you have any wisdom to share with us? Please leave a comment down below. 

Love,

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