TahJah Harmony is a southern Louisiana lifestyle photographer and wedding photographer who after several years of hustle to get her photography business going started to feel burnt out and went looking for a way to fill her creative health bucket. This interview and the importance of mental health and creative health is extremely relevant todays world climate.

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In This Episode You'll Learn:

• How TahJah got started in photography

• What was the hardest part about photography for TahJah to learn

• The first sign of burn out TahJah felt and how it started to affect her mental health

• How TahJah defines creative health

• What aspects of Art school TahJah found most beneficial

• TahJah’s favorite activities to fill her creative health bucket

• How TahJah changed her home life to promote better mental health

• TahJahs favorite apps to help her creative health

Premium Members Also Learn:

• How to decide what to do and not do in your business

• How to turn business tasks creative

• Knowing when it’s ok to hustle for work of if your just Hustling to hustle.

• How baking and rock climbing can make us better photographers for our clients.

Resources:

• TahJah Harmony’s website

• The Creative Health Podcast

• TahJah Harmony on Instagram

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out more recent interviews with other great guests!

Full Episode Transcription:

Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically by Temi.com and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript.

Raymond Hatfield: 00:00 Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm excited that you're here today. You are one of these people who I found, it's actually a really crazy story how, how, how I found you. I was looking for tools to help better with a like, like a photography workflows and you left a comment on somebody's blog and it was, it was very upbeat. It was very happy, it was very excited and I thought, wow, this person is like really obviously appreciative of what's going on. So I clicked on the, on a link and it showed your name and then, wow, this sounds really bad. And then I Googled your name. And then there you were, you popped up, there was your website, there was your podcast as well. And just digging in, I could tell that you are a force of somebody who wants to do good things in the world, who is really excited about what it is that you do, that you have a lot of passion. And sometimes I feel like that's lacking from a lot of other photographers just in, in our industry. I suppose. So while that was a really long introduction, I apologize for that. But overall, what I'm trying to say is, Tajha, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today.

TahJah Harmony: 01:09 Thank you so much for having me. That's so crazy. I always love to see like how people end up finding each other cause it's always a crazy story like that. So I love it.

Raymond Hatfield: 01:18 It is. And I feel like that happened more oddly enough when we spent more time just like talking to friends and family and you know, who do you know and, and building those relationships. But now that it's all on the internet, I feel like there's less of that. So whenever you can find that little piece of gold, I suppose, it's always very fun. So, so yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm excited to have you on today. We're talking about creative health. We're talking about feeling better as artists, but before we get into any of that, can you share how you got started in photography in the first place?

TahJah Harmony: 01:51 Yes. So I have always gone to performing arts schools. And so I started learning how to be in the dark room and developing photos when I was actually eight. They just had, it was a class that I could take when I was in, when I was in school and it was just something that I kind of like carried with me. I was always like a socially awkward child and things like that. And so when I would go to like parties or any kind of social events, I just had my camera with me cause it gave me a job and I was like, I'll just walk around and take pictures and I don't have to talk to people. And so I ended up going to college for, for art, but I ended up just really gravitating towards photography. When I graduated, I got a degree in actually like I was an app developer, so I was really into like game design and animation. And so I did that for a little while when I graduated college. I got a job for the state as an app developer. And I just always did photography on the side and it got to the point where it was like I had to choose like don't want to continue doing like the tech stuff or do I want to do more photography? And so was like I'm young, I'm just going to take the leap and do photography full time and that has been what I've been doing for the past eight years.

Raymond Hatfield: 03:06 Wow. Okay. So a lot of questions right there. First of all, I love that story. I can relate so much. I was totally that socially awkward kid who brought that camera with me everywhere. It's easy because it's like suddenly you have a screen that you can like protect yourself or that you can, that you can stand behind. So I totally get that. So first question is this dark room experience that you had at eight years old, this was an option from your school? Yes. So like chemicals and developer and bleach, you were just given to eight year olds and you were able to develop your own photos.

TahJah Harmony: 03:36 Yes. It was very like it was, it was definitely very supervised. Like very like kid friendly and things like that. But yeah, it was just like the, we would take our black and white film with the 35 millimeter and then we would like go into the dark room and they would kind of like let us photograph it with the enlarger and the teacher mostly did like the, like the developing, developing part of it. But yeah, that was like, which is crazy to think this is what happens when you like went to school in the early nineties.

Raymond Hatfield: 04:09 Yeah, I know. I feel that. That's hilarious. That's hilarious. That's awesome. That's a very cool story. I, I wish that I had I had a similar experience like that. We were just I was in yearbook when I was in middle school and I remember our school for some reason got a grant to get like a digital camera. And it's funny, it's actually, let me grab it right here. This isn't the camera, but this is the same style camera, but it's like the sun has a floppiness. Seriously, this camera was, this is what like started it all for me. And I was very excited about digital photography. I thought, Oh cool. Like we're done with film. Even though like, you know, I was in middle school, I had no idea what I was talking about. But sometimes I feel like this this held me back a little bit from learning and growing as a photographer cause I never had that dark room experience. Growing up, I never had like a photography class in school. I had your book, but it was just digital photography. It wasn't until pretty recently actually that I started to get into developing my own film. Sorry, I'm totally going off on a tangent there. Let's, let's, let's get back to you. You were really into photography. You decided to tell me about this, this difference between coding app developing and then also going to an art college. How did, how did that work? How did that work out?

TahJah Harmony: 05:30 So I started, when I started college, I was, this is like, there's so many tangents to the story. I have the most complicated college story. But I started off as a as a music major. And when I was going to school for that, I kind of was just like, Oh, I'm don't want to do this anymore. Like I just wanted to change and I wanted to do, I wanted to do art, never taken an art class in my life besides like doing photography. But it was like, I've just never, I just wanted to change my major to art and the art school would not accept me. They're just like, the Dean of the art college was just like, you don't have a portfolio. You've never taken art high school. Like you cannot be. So I showed up every day for a week until they allowed me into the program.

TahJah Harmony: 06:15 And so once I was done and actually got into, into the school, I was terrible at art. I was so bad I couldn't even draw a cube. Like I was trying to like draw a cube and I didn't know how to, cause I've just never experienced it. But I love how challenging it was. And my teachers were always like, you need to change your major. Like you are not an artist like me. Silly. And that was also how I ended up taking a photography class. Cause I was like, I do know how to do this. Like I was like, I know how to take, how to take photos. And I was more interested in like what the computers could do with art. Like I loved Photoshop when I was, when I was younger and I didn't even know that you could major in Photoshop, which was probably why my, the Dean wouldn't let me in cause I was like I want to major in Photoshop. He's like that is not a thing like you.

TahJah Harmony: 07:06 And so I just, I loved how you could use the computers to express yourself and do things with art. Cause I was actually really terrible at doing it by hand. And when I was going to school I just remembered how much I loved computer. I really enjoyed my computer science classes in high school. And when I was doing more and more of like the computer science part of it, I just was like, Oh you can actually mix these two things together. And that's kinda how I got really interested in like video game design and animation cause I just loved how you can express things and like in the movement that you could do. And so I actually was one of the very first S at LSU to take computer science classes and I was the very first person to double major in art and computer science that they actually ended up creating a minor so that people could do art and computer science. And at LSU at least because other schools were more like how arts and other schools were more accepting of there being this tech side to art. While this college I was in, it was all like studio museum art collecting like that type of art.

Raymond Hatfield: 08:15 Yeah. Yeah, I bet. Wow, that's very cool. That's very cool that you've, that you've found a way to blend those two things together and, and that they allow you essentially to do that and that you found this this, this path for yourself and, but I'm interested, I want to know a little bit more about kind of the photography side of things right now, which is when you, when you, when you were eight, right? When you're shooting with the, you know, you're shooting 35 now. Were you shooting, was it auto, were you already shooting manual? Where I'm trying to get at here is, is what was the hardest part about photography for you to learn when you were just getting started?

TahJah Harmony: 08:50 When I was just getting started, I think the hardest part of a photography for me to learn. I think it was mostly figuring out what I wanted to shoot. I had a really hard time, I think even all the way until, until college. And I think I still struggle with that now. Is that when I first held a camera and I remember like taking a photo, Oh. And holding a print in my hand. I was just kind of like, I can show people how I see the world, like always like, and it was just as very like very impactful and strong thing at the age of eight that I was just like, I can finally show people the way that I see the world because I just felt like the way that I saw things was very different than, than every everyone else.

TahJah Harmony: 09:34 Like how I process things and my, I was super imaginative and, and things like that. And so I just always had a very hard time of just like putting this pressure on photography to be able to like explain how I see the world are like give power to like my voice. Like I was like, I always wanted something to express without having the words to it. Cause I always felt like I didn't have the words, but I could visually represent things. And I think that it's still even at, from that young age into even being an adult, like I'm just like, I just feel like this pressure of being able to like tell these very strong stories through through my photography,

Raymond Hatfield: 10:12 I felt like you'd crawled into my brain and you said exactly my story as well. That's, that's incredible. Yeah. So, so how, how old were you? Do you, would you say, obviously you enjoyed photography for a while, so at what point did you decide, you know what, I love photography. I want to make this a big part of my life.

TahJah Harmony: 10:35 It definitely wasn't until college cause it was just kind of something that I, that I did. I didn't even necessarily think that it was was a talent or a skill, cause it was just something that I've just always just kind of done. It was always kind of like my, my fault, my safety thing was like how I, I just enjoyed doing it. And when I started college, because I had such a hectic schedule, I couldn't work. And so I kind of was like, that's when I learned about wedding photography and working on the weekends. So I started my photography business when I was in college and I just kind of would photograph things on the weekends and like get paid so I could spend all this money on art supplies cause art school was so expensive. And that was kind of like the beginning of the journey with it.

TahJah Harmony: 11:21 And it really wasn't until I like truly graduated and I had the full time job cause it was like, that's like what you're taught. You're taught to have the nine to five to have the full time job and so, and, and all of those things. And so it was like when I, when I had that, I realized like, wait, like photography is actually a job. Like people were actually paying me to do this and it was so fulfilling. Hearing people say like how impactful their, their photos meant to them and how, especially things where it's like you when you're doing things for so long, hearing people say like, my the photo that you took of my mom on our wedding day was actually the photo that we used for her obituary. And it's just like things when you're like, wow, like I wasn't even thinking of, I was just thinking about photographing your wedding. I wasn't thinking about like capturing those people in those things and like just hearing those stories just really like inspired me and to like really becoming passionate and telling stories through photography.

Raymond Hatfield: 12:21 Wow. Yeah. That's a, that's a powerful moment, isn't it? Jeez. Yeah. I know that as, as new photographers, new photographers oftentimes feel that the photography itself is what can fulfill us creatively. Right? It's a new skill. Maybe you know, you're working that nine to five here we have this new thing. It's photography. It's very fun. It's creative from the creative health standpoint. When did you first feel burnout from, from your, from your photography? Sorry. This is a kind of a roundabout question. Tell me about when you first felt that burnout as having photography as a creative outlet and then feeling the burnout from that. Do you remember when that was and can you tell me what that felt like?

TahJah Harmony: 13:10 Oh, that's such a good question. I think it was when you first start your, when you first start your business, and this is also the mindset that you need to have when you first start your business. Everything is hustle, hustle, hustle. It's this constant drive of like being motivated of like, you know, you have the girls with the Beyonce cups, that's like, I have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce. And so like I can be as successful and everything is like is hustle, stay humble, hustle hard. And it's just like this constant, like I just always felt like I had to go, go, go, go, go and just run as fast as I could. It was like as soon as I was done with my nine to five job, I was coming home and I was editing, I was responding to emails, I was working on my website, I was building this business.

TahJah Harmony: 13:54 But then once it was built, I still had that hustle mentality where I would just like chasing after every dollar, getting all the clients constant being on social media. And I just realized after like that five year Mark of doing that that I was like, I am tired. I cannot hustle anymore. And it was like, especially when I would even get a new inquiry or even getting, which is going to sound so terrible, I hate admitting this. And when a client was send me the sweetest email about how much they love their photos and it's just like didn't even spark anything in me. It was just kind of like, okay onto the next thing cause I'm hustling and I'm running and I just have to get, now I have to get the new thing. It was like I'd never took that. I could never have that moment of gratitude.

TahJah Harmony: 14:38 I was just so driven. And I just got to the point where I was exhausted. Like I was like, I can't respond to that. I don't even want to open my emails. I don't want to open my camera. It's like if I had another, had to do another shoots, like all weekend long, it was just too, it was too much. And then that's really when I realized like this is what burnout feels like when the thing that was my creative outlet, the thing that sparked me and gave me so much joy is not fulfilling that it's just draining so much out of me was really when I realized like, okay, this is what burnout is.

Raymond Hatfield: 15:15 Yeah, yeah. Oh, I can relate to that as well. That's, that's a tough feeling. So how do you, how do we, how do you define creative health?

TahJah Harmony: 15:26 I love that. So creative health is definitely something that I was having coffee with one of my friends and she was talking about like her physical, her mental and her spiritual health. And she was like, I feel like all of these things are being fulfilled. I'm like, I'm working out. I'm eating well. I am like enjoying my family. I feel very spiritual and connected with the world. She's like, but I still just always feel so burned out and it's not connecting to my, my work cause she was a joy maker and so she just felt like very uninspired to create things even though everything in her life was going very well. And I felt the same and I was telling her how I felt the same way. And I was like, what if as creatives we had like this creative help bucket that needed to be fulfilled, just like our mental, spiritual and physical health.

TahJah Harmony: 16:12 Because a lot of times we read things about like self-help where it's like, you know, turn your mind off your computer and enjoy the time with your family, take a bubble bath, like all of those things. But the, unfortunately as creatives, like what we do is so conceptual that our minds go everywhere with us. So it's like, even when I'm watching a movie, I'm like analyzing the light and looking at it, thinking about emails. When I'm on vacation, I'm constantly just like, Oh, if I could just check my emails, I would feel so much better. Like it's like I needed like a hard reset cause our minds are so used to always going. And so it was kind of like understanding like maybe like there's this aspect of what we do where we actually need to figure out how to create a fully fulfilled this self-help that we would need. And so that was kind of the, the beginning of the creative health podcast.

Raymond Hatfield: 17:05 So tell me, tell me more about that. Like what did, what did you discover in that in that time? How did you start to grow and start to fulfill your creative health bucket?

TahJah Harmony: 17:16 Great. So I think that this looks different for, for everyone and it's really about like auditing and analyzing everything that you do. So one of the very first things that I usually will tell people to do is take note cards, like individual note cards, and write down everything that you do for me, for your business. So it can be something, anything where it's like we, we respond to emails, we do taxes, we you know, we do wedding photography or you, maybe you edit this and let's just like writing down all the things that you do so that you can actually visually see how exhausted you are. Because you'll have like a stack of note cards individually where you're just like, I one person can not do all of these things. As much as it's like we love to be that person that can do, but you can't do all of those things very well.

TahJah Harmony: 18:03 And so what I do is I kind of go and do this, like Marie Kondo, like, you know, that kind of method where it's like looking at every individual note card and just be like, do I like doing this part of my job? Like, does this spark joy or it could I hand this off to someone else? And so that kind of also begins that journey of you understanding like, I don't like feel like I don't like responding to emails and doing client work or any of that client back and forth. And scheduling is very draining for me. I might need to hire a virtual assistant. So it's like, or if you're just like, I love taking photos but I don't love editing them. I might need to hire an editor or so it's mostly just kinda going from like a very like, logical standpoint of a backbone standpoint of just going through everything that you do and figuring out like ways that you can like pass that on to other people's, you can do like focus on the thing that makes you very passionate, which is probably, you know, like the creativity and the actual work.

TahJah Harmony: 19:01 And it takes that brain space away. Also like finding a new passion, which is very hard, especially in this day and age. Cause usually when we find a passion, we try to make it a business. So it's like if you start like this, just like what we do. So it's like if even if you start like I love doing calligraphy and I love writing and doing these watercolor works. And then you start posting them on Instagram and then you're like, I can sell these. Oh, it makes sense for the business and so we are constantly figuring out how to do things like that. So finding something that actually restores you creatively, that isn't necessarily a side hustle. Like don't try to create another side hustle. I'm mine has been cooking and also like so baking is very important to me and then rock climbing, having those creative outlets to have something like physical taken out of me also like brings back a new fresh set of eyes like to my work when I started like being around different people and with rock climbing like that just kind of really inspired me and as well as doing things like baking, like just little things like that can actually like reinspire and fill you up when you go back to your client work.

Raymond Hatfield: 20:13 Yeah. Tell me more about that. How has cooking in rock climbing in your words you think made you a a better wedding photographer?

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Raymond Hatfield: 20:46 Oh my, that that was a a, that was a pretty clear definition of when something should be a business and when it shouldn't be a business. That's a, that's a very analytical look at things. And I appreciate that because in this artistic world that we live in, a lot of times there's this gray area of what you know of, of when you can make money and when is it okay and when you should keep things artistic. So I appreciate you sharing that and how to essentially, how to, how to, how to be a happier business owner is, that's a, that's, that's what it was. That was great. Let's go back to art college for a moment. I'm thinking about this because art college is this place where I went to a film school. So, I don't know if it's, it's not exactly like an art college. We didn't you know, draw anything. But the idea of creativity was kind of fostered and it was kind of promoted to, to grow within us. And I'm thinking about back at that time, I didn't feel any sort of creative burnout really. Was there anything for you that you saw, maybe there was a spark of, of where burnout could come from?

TahJah Harmony: 21:59 That is such a, such a good question. I, when I was due in art and art college, I took all the classes I would and, and I would also inspire people to take all the classes because I knew that I loved art and I knew that I really liked the technical side of things, but I didn't necessarily know like how that would marry together. And so I just took a ton of classes and which was such a really great experience because I got to use different mediums I would have never been exposed to if I didn't go to college. And I also got to just use different software and technologies that I didn't even know existed which was, which was really, really great. And it wasn't until my last year in college and it was during one of the second to last critiques.

TahJah Harmony: 22:52 And like in college, like if you have gone to art school, you only go to school, you only have to go to class on critique days. Everything else is like studio hours. So it's just like you making and doing and everything. But when it's like critique days, like when you actually bring your project in, like that's like literally the most important day of class. And I remember just my, my computer crashed and I lost a bunch of stuff that I was doing and I just felt super uninspired. I really realized that I just really like stretched myself super, super thin. And I didn't go to critique, which I still cannot believe that I didn't do it, but I just remember my one of my friends, she was the classmate told the teacher was like, Taj was not feeling well and so she's not coming to critique.

TahJah Harmony: 23:41 And the teacher was like, I was waiting for her to unravel and was like, so just the fact that like someone saw that I was like hustling and just doing everything and like, and just was like, this girl's about to crash and I didn't even, I didn't even know. And like just having that, that feeling of being like I cannot even like get out of bed or even have the courage to just show up and be like, Hey, like everything I had on my computer crashed and like I need to extend my date. And just also like, just knowing that like, that it was such, that was kind of like a wake up call for me of being like, I am doing too much. Like I really need to go back and figure out like I don't need to like Carpe diem every single second of my life and I don't need to take every single class because I might never get to take that class.

TahJah Harmony: 24:31 Like I was such a, like, I just wanted to fulfill every second of my life and really not realize like your body needs rest so much that it will force you to rest and the most inconvenient time for you. It's going to be like the most important moment in your life where you're like, I have to a thousand percent be there. And that is when your body's like, you know what, we're not showing up today. Like you need to chill. You need to stop. And so it's so much, it's so important to build that in for yourself. So when you do have such a big event, like you can actually show up to it because at the end of the day, your body is going to stop. Like it totally does.

Raymond Hatfield: 25:08 Oh my gosh. What did, what did you do after that as far as school went? Were you able to get an extension and then did you just take a week off and just sleep the whole time to try to recover? What happened?

TahJah Harmony: 25:18 I was able, I was able to get an extension and my teacher was like, I was just very fortunate of all the teachers that I had. It was this one that was just like, like it was, it worked out fine, but it really was the beginning of things where I was just like, I remember my brother telling me, he made a comment and he was like, when you rest, when you have your downtime, he's like, you're watching YouTube videos on how to do photography or how to do art. And he was just like, that's not resting. And he was like, you're reading books on how to do the things that you're, that you're in school for all the time. He's like, that's not resting. And now it was just like, well then what's breast? And it was like that. I was like, I was like, what's the difference between watching like us, like a reality show on TV or on watching a YouTube or on every like second of like breaking down a camera and explaining every technical detail. Like how has that not rest? And so that was really like the beginning of like me realizing that I didn't know what rest was.

Raymond Hatfield: 26:23 Oh my God. So, so tell me about that line then. Where and how much education do you do versus what do you do to, to actually rest now? Cause I'm interested cause now I'm the same way. We're like when I'm, when I'm done in front of the computer and I'm hanging out with a family, like if they're just watching TV, I'm thinking I don't want to watch, so I'll just watch tutorials on a, on my iPad or something. So I'm really interested to hear what you do.

TahJah Harmony: 26:49 Yeah. So and I feel like this looks different. Like of course this looks different for, for everyone. So it's kinda just figuring out like where, what works really well with, for you. At first mine was the, the easiest thing was like getting into mindless television, which was actually really hard for me. Because it was so hard for me that like, I couldn't sit down and just watch TV. I, if I sit down and watch TV, it's like I have to have food. I'm checking my phone. I'm like, I would start cleaning because I'd like, I'm like, I can't sit still. Like I was just like, Ooh, humanly impossible for me to sit still. I hated going to the movies because I was like, I have to sit in this room for an hour and a half. I was like, two hours.

TahJah Harmony: 27:35 It's not even, it's like more than that now. And I'm just like, I need to talk. I need to do something. I need to like be out in the world. And so like I remember being like, I can watch a third, I should be able to watch a 30 minute episode and not pick up my phone of something. Like I should be able to do that. And it was so hard to do. And once I kinda got to the point of just being like just kind of turning off my mind and being able to like actually watch an episode of something without like trying to do something else. That's kinda like when I realized like I was like, okay, like this is what it's like to have your mind turned off and you can do. And so like that was something that kind of helped me with that.

TahJah Harmony: 28:18 But then I realized like I liked other like plants, like watering my plants and taking care of my plants. I really like making, I got really into like making coffee. I'm like, you know, I'm like one of those like Instagram people who was like, I grind my own beans and I like, you know, having a little tea kettle. It was trying to take away the instant from my life I think was like, I was like, you know, I love coffee and I love when I get a good cup of coffee. Like when they do the poor overs. Like instead of me just like having a machine that does it for me. Like maybe I can actually learn how to make it myself and kinda like slow down and let that be like a way that I don't have like this instant gratification. I actually work a little bit for it.

Raymond Hatfield: 29:00 Oh my gosh, that's so great. Try to take away the instant take away the incident. That is, that's a fantastic way to just kind of summarize this whole episode. Essentially everything that we're talking about here. You're absolutely right. Taking taken away that instant. I'm going to let that marinate for a while. That's good. That's really good. When it comes to coffee, do you have a, do you have a favorite kind of coffee?

TahJah Harmony: 29:23 I love just black coffee especially. I'm really big into the free French pressing my coffee. I try to like get really into the pour over cause it's like, it's beautiful and that's usually what everyone likes. But I love just black French press coffee, my,

Raymond Hatfield: 29:42 That's, do you have a favorite like blend of coffee? I guess like light roast, dark roast. As somebody who's like really into coffee what do you prefer?

TahJah Harmony: 29:50 I usually go towards. I gravitate more towards light roasted coffee, especially since I French press because it's like, it makes it just, just stronger and like also you don't have as much as bad, like it has just like more flavor profile to it. So I gravitate more towards the lightest lighter roast. And there's actually this really cute coffee shop that's like right across the street from me and they make their own beans and it's called French truck. They're in new Orleans and in Baton Rouge and I love their coffee. That's usually the parent that I get.

Raymond Hatfield: 30:25 Oh, that's so cool. That's so cool. I love, you know what I love there was, I forget what the show was, but there was the show that I watched a long time ago that just kind of profiled artisans, I suppose, but it was over everything. And they, they, I didn't know this was a thing, but in Japan there's this there's this chef and he raises his own chickens and because it's not a farm raised chicken because it's not pumped full at antibiotics, he's like, you can serve it like medium rare if you want to. Which I had never heard of before. I didn't even know that this was a thing. I thought that all white meat, pork, chicken had to be served at like 190 degrees or whatever it is. But he has figured out a way, like he has spent his entire life focused on these chickens and he knows everything about chickens.

Raymond Hatfield: 31:11 And when you talk to him, you could just sense that this man is a professional, like for something that most people just totally take for granted. He finds this one very small thing and he just dives deep into it. And I find that really inspiring and I'm totally oblivious to the whole coffee world. So I kind of, I kind of feel that same way. Like, Oh, tell me more about coffee. So I appreciate you you're sharing that with me. I never would have guessed that a lighter roast would have been more flavorful and have more flavor. I was going to say flavor again with the, with the pour over. So that's cool. I've never even tried to pour over, so I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to try that. TahJah Harmony: 31:45 You should. You should.

Raymond Hatfield: 31:47 Now, I've got a whole bunch of things that I have to do after this episode.

TahJah Harmony: 31:50 I'm giving you a whole talk, rest and don't hustle. And I'm like, if it also, here's a whole list of things you should do after this episode.

Raymond Hatfield: 31:59 That is perfect. That is hilarious. You mentioned, I want to get back to it. You mentioned talking about, you know, being able to watch a full episode or something without being on our phones and I'm right there with you. But at the same time, our phones are very powerful tools. We use them for more than just endless, you know, mindlessly browsing. So are there any sort of apps or programs that you use on your phone to that helps you fulfill your creative health bucket?

TahJah Harmony: 32:29 I am not necessarily going to give you an app, but I'm going to tell you when it comes to notifications is to turn them off. That has been, I don't have, I unless I like actually sign into Gmail. Like I don't have like Gmail on my phone, like email and my phone, like do not go hand in hand. Like I have to be at my desk on my computer in order to respond to email cause I have time that's set that for I don't have any kind of notifications on my, on my Instagram or Facebook, like anything like that. I just don't have my notifications turned on because it's, you really should try to get to the point where you're blocking off the time for that. And like right now we're recording this episode during quarantine, so it's like I don't even need the notifications cause I'm on the app. I have no time that I'm doing anything. I am just on them. But if I could tell you anything to do, like with your phone is to get as many of the notifications off as possible. I think the only time I'm really alerted is for text messages, but I don't let my clients text message me. So I know that's usually from like friends and family.

Raymond Hatfield: 33:45 Have you found that there's been any sort of so there's obviously you've heard of like FOMO, fear of missing out. Have you ever experienced any, any real ramifications of turning off notifications on your phone or has it all just been, everything's been fine? Is this something that we just, you know, create in our head?

TahJah Harmony: 34:04 I had I had more of I wasn't experiencing FOMO. I was experiencing a lot of resentment for something that was totally my fault. Like I just, I can, I can remember like spending time with my family and I was in, I was like, you know, just being with them, I have this little brother who's like 20 years younger than me. And so I was just like spitting time with him and having this moment and I just get this, this email, like this, this email from a client who just wanted something and it said in her email it just sounded so urgent and it could have been how I read the text message also at the end of the day, she doesn't know that I'm with, but I was just like, why would you send this to me on a weekend that I'm doing something on the eat?

TahJah Harmony: 34:51 Like it's like, it's so late like, but that's when she had her free time, but she is not, you know what I mean? So I was just kind of like, I, that's when I, the moment that I realized like I was like, this is not healthy. Like this is not something that I, that I need to be doing. And at the end of the day, like I can't get to this now because I am with my family. I'm not in front of computer. I can't respond to this. So when I realized that when I did get to my computer, because when I did get to my computer and I actually like sent her the email, everything was fine. Like I made it a bigger deal than like what it was. But it was because I was able to, to read it and, and to see it and that really just like takes you out of a moment. It really like, it's a, it's like almost like a, like a punch and it's just like, it, it really just like take so much out. And so I kind of realized like I need to set these boundaries to like maintain a healthy relationship because like what if I responded to her and I was just like, how dare you send an email to me at eight o'clock at night? T

ahJah Harmony: 35:55 And I said, it makes me sound like I'm being so like sassy to my clients. I don't know. I'm totally not. I'm like, but it's like, it, it realized to me that like I needed to set those boundaries so that I can show up the best way that I can.

Raymond Hatfield: 36:07 Yeah, absolutely. Set boundaries and take away the instant. This is great. This is great. Oh my gosh. Is there anything, this will be my last question for you. I know that we've we're running out of time. Is there anything that I haven't asked you or that you haven't said that you want to make sure that maybe those who are starting to potentially experience burnout, understand about their, their own creative pursuits?

TahJah Harmony: 36:37 Yes. So I really, cause I know that your, that your podcast is for beginner photographers and I want to really just show that it is so true. This hustle mindset is what you need in the beginning to be successful. Like if you are working in the day, like you stay up all night on your website and responding to clients and handling things and, and putting yourself out there and, and hustling as hard as you can. Like that is a part of the process of doing it. But then you get to the point where you have to kind of create a stride. Hustling is not sustainable. It really is. It at the end of the day, like you, when you get to like where you are, like you can't keep that up for five years. It's like kind of like with kids, kids have so much energy and they can play, play, play, play, play.

TahJah Harmony: 37:28 And the older that they get, the more that they realize like, I am not running all the time. It's like that's that thing. It's like you become older, you become wiser. And just when you start out with that hustle and that grind really kind of start paying attention. Like when, when you're getting more clients like, okay, I'm getting more clients. So it's like I can't be there every second of the day. I might need to start incorporating business hours. I might need to start like just start auditing yourself and start thinking about thinking about things in that, in that way. And one of the things with the people who I interview in, in my podcast, they talk so much about like walking in the middle of the day. So far, everyone that I have interviewed, they all just talk about like if, if they can just like they, they work and they work very hard in this like, you know, from this time to this time.

TahJah Harmony: 38:24 But then in the middle of the day they'll go and like walk their dog or just like jog around or just like go explore outside a little bit and then they come back with like a fresh set of eyes to like, and they realize that they can solve a problem so much quicker. That has also just kind of been like an overarching thing that I've noticed from people who have experienced burned out and they try to prevent it by just like taking a break from their work in the middle of the day. Cause it's so easy once you start to to not stop.

Raymond Hatfield: 38:53 Yeah, absolutely. And once again, I mean just kind of separating yourself from whatever it is that you're working on just for a few minutes really does help really does help. Yeah. Well Tahjah I have to say thank you so much for coming on and sharing everything that you did today. It's been a pleasure chatting with you. For all the listeners who want to find out more about you or follow you online, can you let them know how to get in touch?

TahJah Harmony: 39:19 Yes. So you can find me definitely on Instagram. That's usually where I'm the most up to date and it is at Tahjah harmony and it's Tahjah like the Taj Mahal, so it's T, A,H, J, A, H, a, R, M, O, N, Y, which I'm sure you will have linked somewhere.

Raymond Hatfield: 39:35 Oh, it's all going to be in the show notes. Absolutely, absolutely. Anywhere else do you want to share about the podcast?

TahJah Harmony: 39:40 Yes. And so I also have a podcast called the creative health podcasts. We did our first season like a year ago and I had to creatively from my health take a little break from it. But we are starting it back up again. Which I'm hoping will, we will start this up within the next couple of weeks. I should have a next episode out. And yeah, that's basically where I interview people who have been in their business for at least five years and have experienced burnout. And we just kind of like share our, our journey and our story through that.

Raymond Hatfield: 40:14 Oh, that's wonderful. That is wonderful. I'm excited for season two. It's, it's going to be great. So again, Tahjah, thank you so much for everything that you shared today and I look forward to following you in the future and keeping up.

TahJah Harmony: 40:27 Thank you so much for having me. That was so much fun.