Tanja Melone - Why I Do What I Do: Going Deeper

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“I think it’s really important for any photographer to know why they are shooting.”

Tanja Melone has a why and it’s beautiful. Do you know yours?

“I wanted to bring the “why” of it into my marketing.”

1:01 Introduction
1:45 Current State of Affairs
2:19 The Topic
5:41 Providing Affirmation in Marketing
7:24 Flipside to Seniors
8:37 The Gift
11:11 The Mission
14:58 Before and After
17:10 Experiencing Yourself in Others
19:30 Courage is a Choice
22:27 A Matter of Perspective

“We’re such an image driven society.”

Tanja leapt headfirst into a dream and into the photography industry 16 years ago when she left her very corporate job as an environmental scientist by the wayside. She then proceeded to make every mistake known to new business owners (twice in most cases) before finding her groove. Rather than giving up, which would have been the easy choice, she busted her hiney learning, growing, regrouping, rebranding and redefining her idea of a successful business along the way. Today she owns a studio in downtown Denver, CO where she photographs bold, brave high school seniors, newborns of imperfect courageous moms who sometimes forget to breath, and commercial and editorial assignments that challenge her. Tanja is also a business coach with a flair for digging deep into the ‘why’ behind running a business and navigating entrepreneurship with purpose. Tanja believes that happiness is a choice, that success is defined by much more than a bank account, that life shouldn’t be sugar coated and that you should dare to be unapologetically you…always.

“It took me a long time to realize that I had my own voice.”