002: The Power of Saying No

EPISODE SUMMARY

For today’s episode of Savory Shot, we’re going to talk about how the most important thing you can do for your business is to say no. What does saying no do? It makes room for the yeses that really matter.

You’re able to put your energy into the clients and projects that will really help you grow when you say no. You can focus on the people who like and support what you do, who are ready to buy what you’ve got. And when someone comes along who’s not one of those things, or when they ask something of you that isn’t going to lead to any kind of real mutual benefit, it’s time to say no.

While it might seem like saying no means turning down potential money or opportunity or clients, it’s actually the opposite. Because if you weren’t going to be happy working with that person? If they weren’t going to be a good fit for your brand? Or if they were just asking for a freebie? Saying no is doing yourself and them a favor. If every opportunity could be an amazing one, then we wouldn’t need to say no at all… and then we would never learn how powerful our yeses can be.

African American woman wearing black dress and black hat leaning against grey wall.

About Mica

Since childhood, I’ve been interested in dramatic storytelling. I’m a huge fan of opera. Shakespeare is my hero. My love for food photography developed in 2015, after visiting Philadelphia for the first time and falling in love with the Reading Terminal Market. I often say my work is as dramatic as a telenovela. I love to create saturated and vivid images. You can find my work on Texas Monthly, Austin Monthly, Saveur, and The Infatuation. I’ve worked with H-E-B, CAVA, and Saveur Selects.

Episode Breakdown

After the pandemic, I was forced to reevaluate my priorities and decided a low paying job wasn’t worth risking my life for.
I had no idea what it cost me to run my business each year, and that kept me from knowing if a client was worth it.
The only way I could salvage my photography business was by adopting this new policy: NO.
If we say yes to things that don’t inspire us, our creative output suffers.