"Just Wear the Damn Slippers."
"Just Wear the Damn Slippers."
This is what was engraved in my head from my client, Kathy Cruz’s shoot back in fall of 2023. Days before her shoot, one of her closest entrepreneur friends suddenly passed away.
In fall of 2022, I traveled to Michigan for Kathy’s in-person business retreat that she held for store front owners all over the country. The retreat was held on a farm that Kathy’s friend April and her family owned. I learned of their story, how they became friends, the transformation of the farm. I documented Kathy at work, along with the incredible connections of event attendees happening before me.
The following year, as I was sending my motivational text reminders leading up to Kathy’s shoot, I learned of the devastating news of April’s death. I immediately reached out with my condolences and asked if she wanted some time to grieve and reschedule her shoot. Kathy immediately replied “I have to push through. It will be nice to hang out and smile.”
And we did just that. We laughed, we created, we took our time and enjoyed being together to develop some incredible images for her marketing. We honored her friend April, who Kathy also bought “the” slippers from. The morning of her passing, Kathy took them out of her closet to put them on for the first time to put them on… before even knowing. We photographed the slippers as Kathy said, “Sometimes we just have to wear the damn slippers.”
She is so right.
Kathy admitted (as well as graciously allowed me to tell her story) that leading up to the time of this shoot she was the most uncomfortable she has ever been, in addition to the sudden loss of her friend. She knew she had to show up anyhow, despite her discomfort, and she had consolation in knowing that I would help to set her anxiousness aside.
As Kathy said about the slippers, it related so much to her photoshoot as well. Just do the damn thing. Book the shoot. Show up and allow yourself be vulnerable. It will be so good for your soul, and your business. We just never know what is going to happen in life. If we use our discomforts as an excuse to hide, we could be missing chances. The chance to grow our business, the chance to do something new, the chance to heal a part of us we didn’t know needed healing. The possibilities, the chances, they are endless.
More from Kathy’s incredible shoot…
With that, my friends, I really only have one thing left to leave you with here. And that is to “wear the damn slippers”. - Kathy Cruz