Well it certainly has been a whirlwind kinda-of-a-time since Sunday! And I mostly mean in my head. You see on Sunday I was featured on page 5 of The Sunday Times! This was to promote my new venture, Model Shoot Project. My project ambassador, Rayne Embley (wifey of recently retired Eagles player, Andrew, mama of 3, restauranteur & blogger!!!) who rarely has time out to pamper herself, was also featured in the article and interviewed. Rayne will be doing a write up on her blog, Rayne Embley, about her experience of being on a Model Shoot Project photo shoot which I’m excited to see! Rayne is so super lovely and is the perfect ambassador of my project 🙂

 

You can read the article online by clicking here. Whilst I’m a very grateful for the opportunity of being featured in the paper, the angle the editor decided to go with was not at all the message I wanted to convey. The paper went with the social media and “selfies” aspect, and how important it is these days to project a more professional image. Still very relevant but not the reason why I founded MSP! I founded it because I wanted to help women feel more confident about themselves and having their photo taken. This is a unique opportunity for Perth women (hopefully bringing it to the Eastern States next year!) to be photographed by leading fashion professionals, including a makeup & hair artist, personal stylist, photographer and model coach. This is about giving women an experience with the photos to prove it. It’s also about taking time out for yourself and doing something fun and rewarding.

Getting Over Myself…

So, at approximately 2.30pm on Sunday afternoon, I thought I should check my emails to see if anyone had contacted me. And this was the first email I saw….

 

“Hi Elizabeth,

My name is Julia and I am a producer with the TODAY show on Channel nine.
We saw the article about your business in Perth and we’d love for you to come on the show to chat about it TOMORROW MORNING.

I’ll try and contact you through social media too. Please feel free to contact me.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Julia Pursche

TODAY
Segment Producer”

 

I had just been for a swim at the beach with my friend, and was in my car about to drive home when I read this email. You know what my first reaction was? “I can’t do this”. I fricken freaked out! I started to panic and almost started to cry out of FEAR. My next thought was “what the hell am I going to wear?!” Hahaha!

I composed myself and gave Julia a call. She interviewed me first, which was a great opportunity to express why I started MSP, and then she said she’d call the head producer and buzz me back in 5mins.

At this point I got on the phone to my mum, absolutely sweating bullets and telling her that I didn’t think I could do this. Mama bear told me that was rubbish and referred to something Marie Forleo had said once which was, “when you feel like there’s something you can’t do…that’s when you need to do it the most!”

Julia buzzed me back and told me that the head producer thought it would be better to have the crew come to one of my shoots to interview me and film what goes on behind-the-scenes instead of interviewing me down the barrel of the camera at 4am Perth time! Oh man, I was sooo relieved! And thought it would be much better exposure this way. So I rang my publicist to take over from this point on, and found a client pretty god damn fast!

The next day, Monday morning, a received a phone call from a good friend of mine, telling me that Model Shoot Project was discussed on the Panel of the TODAY show! Whaaat? Again, it was from a completely wrong angle and they spoke quite negatively about it (it was a man driving the conversation!) saying they thought it was a lot of money to pay for a “professional selfie”! OMG…a selfie is when you take of photo of YOURSELF. Anyhoo, I was still pretty chuffed that my business was getting spoken about on national television! I just hope they still want to go ahead with interviewing me as I’d love the opportunity of getting my message across. Still waiting to hear…will keep you all posted.

Life Rewards Action…

It could have been very easy for me to say “No” to this opportunity. In fact I wanted to initially so I wouldn’t have to have that icky feeling of nervousness and fear. FEAR truly does rob you of living your full potential.

After making this decision to just go for it, I have had other media interest. Yesterday I received an email from mix94.5 radio! They want to interview me this Friday! And guess what they want to chat to me about? Selfies and how to take a good one! Tee hee hee! I guess this angle is much more ‘news worthy’ than building self-confidence, which is a shame but that’s the media for you. Lump it or like it. Oh man, I guess I’m just gonna have to run with this theme! But you know what? I think taking a nice selfie when you’ve had a new hair cut or bought a new dress, is enforcing a positive dose of self-love. It doesn’t have to be narcissistic or ego-driven. It’s the same thing as getting professional photos taken!

My Tips For Getting Over Yourself

•  I reiterate what Marie Forleo said…when you feel like there’s something you can’t do; that’s when you need to do it the most!
• Stop giving a crap about what other people think of you! It’s impossible to be liked by absolutely everyone. Once you get over this, the world will be your oyster!
• Don’t feel like you have to be someone you’re not in order to be successful. authenticity is the most competitive advantage you can have.
• Psychiatrist, Fritz Perls, says “fear is excitement without breath”. The very same mechanisms that produce excitement also produce fear, and any fear can be transformed into excitement by breathing fully with it 🙂

Love Liz xx