Moving Forward in the Face of Fear with Meg Marie McMillan
This week’s guest, Meg Marie McMillan
Brand Photographer, Photography Coach & Mom to Two Boys
Episode Description
Fear can have such a strong hold on us, preventing us from taking risks and forcing us to dwell on all the things that could go wrong.
And yet, as today’s guest Meg Marie McMillan points out, fear will always be there. We CAN be aware of fear and still move forward. What if instead we imagine everything going RIGHT? What if we shift our mindsets and trust the future COULD hold some AMAZING things for us?
Meg is a brand photographer based out of San Diego who has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs, ensuring they feel confident on and off camera. She’s also a photography coach and mom of two adorable boys.
In this episode, Meg and I discuss all things momming and business, including moving forward in the face of fear; simplifying and outsourcing our work inside and outside the home; and keeping our eyes on the big picture.
Fear will always be there
Meg has been an entrepreneur the last five years, photographing everything from weddings and families through her business, Meg Marie Photo.
In some kind of divine timing, she decided to niche her photography company and focus on serving women in business, launching her first photography course online in March 2020.
The change was prompted by intuition. She didn’t know the pandemic would be happening and yet, it worked out perfectly. Here she was, pivoting her business and focusing on the education side of it when photoshoots weren’t possible.
At the same time, she learned she was pregnant with her first child!
That year, she says there were a lot of fears. Her Dad got sick and passed away in 2020. She worried about the pandemic, the business and its changes, and about bringing her son into the world without her Dad there. And yet, she was able to hold onto the excitement and joy of meeting her baby boy. He became her WHY.
One of the things I love that Meg says is the need to keep going, even in the presence of fear, because fear doesn’t go away; it’s always going to be there. But it’s also so important to imagine: what if this bump in the road is just a stepping stone to get us where we’re meant to be?
Simplifying and outsourcing
As soon as she became pregnant, Meg began purging and simplifying her business.
Pre-motherhood, Meg did sales calls to get new clients. Post-baby? She created a new system and began hiring help. One of the repercussions of this purging? She had more time and energy to do her BEST work in her own zone!
This, she says, is how we make our businesses grow.
When we get someone on our team who’s supporting us in some way, it makes us systemize and optimize the work to figure out the most efficient way to do it. The people we hire might not do things exactly as we’d do it; but it might also be pretty good.
The systems we create to more efficiently run our businesses (or households!) don’t have to be overwhelming. We can start with one thing at a time.
For example: Meg only checks her email in the afternoons, spending her “good energy” in the morning creating content or spending time with her kids. She also advises time-blocking and grouping like-things together. It’s something we naturally do as moms, and it works just as well in business.
As somebody who’s in the process of hiring a nanny, I know it can be hard to do this (due to fears around money). But I think there’s something to be said about just TRUSTING what freeing up that mental capacity will bring us.
Intuition & the big picture
Lately I’ve been feeling pulled to do more. At times, I almost feel resentment that my husband gets to go off and do his work and I only have a little time to work on Friday. Meg says it’s my intuition, telling me to follow this passion.
There’s definitely something energetically that comes to the forefront when we’re walking on the path we’re meant to be on. It just feels right.
Following our interests doesn’t mean it has to be a “forever business.” It could just be about finding space and clarity on what the next step will be. Once we decide to take those steps, it’s important to remember that’s what they are: steps.
It’s so easy to want to have all the things RIGHT NOW. But as Meg constantly reminds herself of the big picture. One of the reasons she wanted to start her own business was to have freedom and flexibility with her family. Constantly, she asks herself:
Is she being present with her kids?
Is she disconnecting at the right time to actually ENJOY this phase the boys are in right now?
Entrepreneurship taught Meg it’s okay if not everyone likes you. As a “recovering people pleaser,” it’s in her nature to want to make everyone she works with happy. At the end of the day, sometimes she has to have hard conversations with her clients or employees, and it can feel like she’s letting them down.
But when we do this, we’re ultimately putting ourselves and our families first, and, sometimes, that’s what we have to do when we follow our truths and go for what we want.
Notable Quote from Meg
“We just have to keep moving forward. The biggest thing is just taking baby steps forward and taking action, even in the presence of fear. Because I don't believe fear will ever go away. Like, it's going to be there. It just looks differently as you evolve, as you grow, and as your business evolves.”
“What I've realized that really entrepreneurship has taught me the most is that it's okay, if not everybody likes you. It's okay if at the end of the day, you have to have these hard conversations and, you know, maybe you're letting someone down but ultimately, you're putting yourself first, you're putting your family first, and that's what we have to do. When we are really following our truth and standing in our truth and, you know, going for what we want, we might not be liked by everybody.”
Resources & Links
Follow Meg Marie McMillan on Instagram and her website.
Learn more about Project: Mom and follow us on Instagram at @projectmompodcast.
Do you want to share your motherhood journey on the podcast? Email me at projectmompod@gmail.com.