Six years ago today I left a job I loved with a production company (I know this because TimeHop told me so), and I jumped with both feet into the world of small business ownership. I was excited, hopeful and completely unaware that with the freedom of entrepreneurship can come the chains of loneliness.
From the outside, the benefits of working from home appear endless; you make your own schedule, you do less laundry (because you can wear pajamas all night and all day), you spend less on your wardrobe and on your dry cleaning, you have the freedom to take long lunches with your friends and you can catch a 2pm showing of Jurassic World if the mood strikes you.
What no one seems to be talking about is that while the benefits are great (and they are), the pitfalls can be just as plentiful. Brainstorming sessions for one aren't as fun or as fruitful. Diminished connections with other people (especially those in your stage of life) can leave you feeling disconnected from the world around you and less like a bird with freedom and more like the inhabitant of an island for one. Eventually, over time that disconnection can bury you under a pile of loneliness that no one else knows you're experiencing because social media makes it all look so glamorous.
If you can relate to the loneliness that plagues photographers, creatives and small business owners, I hope you'll watch us as we welcome Showiteer and Wedding Photographer Danielle Blocker as an in-studio guest on this episode of Showit Live. We'll be talking with Danielle about how she makes a conscious effort to overcome loneliness on a daily basis.