Worst Case Scenario

My best friend contacted me a few weeks ago and said, “I think I have a really good idea for your Edmonton Boudoir Marathon. Call me when you have time.”

After some interest in me doing boudoir in Edmonton I decided to take a shot in the dark and see if I could make a go of a weekend shoot in Edmonton. I attended my cousins wedding in Edmonton shortly after Christmas, and while visiting my grandma in her hotel room downtown, I couldn’t help but notice the lighting, the view of the river valley and how perfect the room would be for shooting boudoir. I knew I needed to travel to Edmonton and shoot in that venue. I could not stop thinking about the possibilities, the poses, and the unbelievable images I could produce for women in that room. So, while driving to Banff the day after the wedding, I started pricing out shoots and decided to make my thoughts a reality. 

My three girlfriends live in Edmonton, so I told the girls I was planning to do this boudoir weekend, and I would need them to share my information on there social media feed to help attract potential clients. My friends are amazing, and they were on board to share my posts. After being declined by Facebook with 3 different ads, for my images being too sexy, I started to get very nervous about how I would attract women interested in a boudoir shoots, with me in Edmonton. Thoughts of driving to Edmonton and visiting with boutiques and lingerie shops creeped into my head. Leaving business cards in their boutiques and offering a shoot for allowing me to leave my stuff in their store, started to seem like a great call. Not to mention, it is good for me to go out and chase after my dreams, and really prove to myself that I can actually do this. Yes, You! Angie Jones can and will crush this dream. The end!

So, then the phone call with my best friend came in, “So, there is this boutique in Edmonton, and I think you would really hit it off with the owner Nicole. She is literally the sweetest person ever! You should check out her self love event coming up in a few weeks. Maybe you should give away a shoot there? Put some of your work in her store for the event and create a buzz around you coming to Edmonton. Angie, you will seriously love the team there.”

“Sign me up! Send the details. I will contact her today.” I replied skipping around my kitchen.

Following that conversation came follow up texts to my friend filled with nerves. 

Angie: Should I phone, her? Email her? How should I contact her?

Best friend: I would email her and follow up with a phone call. 

Angie: Perfect! I was thinking the same thing.

TRUTH: I had thought of every single possible way to get a hold of the owner at the boutique. I thought of every possible scenario of me asking to collaborate with her event and how it could go. I just wanted the opinion of someone to support what was happening in my head. I mean… was this really happening? Am I really doing this!!! Holy shit! Here I go.

I sat down and began to write the email to the owner of Sweet Jolie Boutique. I read that email about 15 times before I hit the send button. Upon careful examination of her Facebook, Instagram, and website, I knew this was a match made in heaven. I mean another human that feels as deeply about self-love as I do…. I just knew it was meant to be. Her website was filled with women of all different depths of beauty. I wanted to be a part of this self-love event BADLY.

Once I was happy with the email, I hit send. Prayed. Released it. And chose to move on about my day. Sitting and starring at my emails wasn’t going to do anything other than make me anxious.  I closed my eyes and stated, “What is meant to be will be.”

Later that day I had taken Mila to cheer practise. I was sitting in my vehicle working when I saw my Instagram alert shine across the top of my iPhone. Sweet {Jolie} started following you on Instagram. I immediately tried calling my friend. She didn’t respond so I texted – 

Angie: Sweet {Jolie} started following me on Instagram… this has to be a good sign!

Not even two hours later I was working on new custom album for the February 7th Self-Love event in Edmonton. I received the most positive and uplifting email response from the owner, and she was thrilled to collaborate with me. I was on cloud 9.

I designed two separate albums for the event. I printed new business cards, created a custom Boudoir package for the event, created marketing material and spent the next week dreaming about the possibilities of this event. Then suddenly late last week my evil thoughts appeared and started saying things like,

“What if you have done all of this work, for NOTHING?” 

“What is no one in Edmonton wants to shoot with you?” 

“Holy Shit! Wouldn’t that be just like you to work really hard at something and fail!” 

My mind kept swirling these thoughts around and around. 

Then I stopped myself. “Stop it! Stop allowing these thoughts to control you like that. You can and will succeed Angie. Remember! What you think about will become your reality – Now stop it.”

My brain has basically been an inner back and forth dialogue between my ego and my actual reality. 

Then I took my own advice. I wrote out a worst and best-case scenario. When I started to write it out the worst case didn’t actually look all that bad. Worst case scenario - I don’t book anyone that attends the event, however I get to see my best friends, spend the day in a super cool boutique of my dreams, with this amazing power house business woman, and support Self LOVE! The thing I am so passionate about! Worst case scenario! Not so bad. 

Best case scenario – I go to Edmonton, see my best friends, spend the day with an amazing business woman that I look up to, spend the day celebrating self-love and end up selling out my shoot in Edmonton!

What could go wrong? What was I so worried about? If I was to walk away without one booking from this event, would that mean anything to anybody? No! No one would even care. I still have 2 more months to come up with another strategy to market to potential clients. If I don’t go or even try, then how would I know good or bad? All I can do is try. Put in my best effort and enjoy the ride. 

Focusing on the what ifs can shift your focus to a negative state and it can be really hard to get your thought process back to the positive. If you take a pen out and start writing your worst-case scenario and it doesn’t say that you could die…. Then go for it! Try it! The things that are scary, that keep you up at night, are quite often the things that end up being the most impactful experiences of your life. 

Is this scary for me… You bet it is! I want to prove to myself that I can do this more than anything. But I will never know, unless I try. So here I go. All in. One foot in front of the other. Learning and growing as an entrepreneur. Trusting, that no matter what Edmonton throws at me, I know full well that I am going to be okay, no matter what.

The very fact that this situation feels so scary, is the exact reason why I need to face my fears and find out the possibilities. Write me! Tell me… What are you doing to challenge and scare yourself right now? Let’s do the scary things together and support each other. Here is to another fabulous week. 

XO, 

Angie

P.S. You guys must go check out Sweet {Jolie} boutiques Instagram! Honestly, she has no idea I am even writing this blog right now, I just want you to see for yourself how unreal this boutique is. All of the clothes get pictured on all different body shapes and sizes, so you can see the fit. So cool. The clothing, shoes and accessories are beautiful. I highly recommend checking it out!