June, June June June.
Where has the time gone, my people?! June was a blur of heat and of California reopening but I still remember a few of the hazy details and I wish to regale you with them:
Shadow getting stung by a bee
Shadow is our 8-mo old kitty who decided to swat a bee out of the air for funsies. He’s literally not afraid of anything. Even after being stung he continued to limp around and play cause he couldn’t lose face haha.
But within minutes his paw swelled to twice its size so we took him to the after-hours vet and they took out the stinger and gave him a fun little steroid shot for the swelling! His club paw was so enormous it was hard not to find it funny, tbh.
By the next morning the swelling was almost completely down and he’s right on back to biting our ankles and leaping off of furniture so no harm done! He just doesn’t get to play outside anymore for the time being...
PHOTOSHOOTS!!!
Mid-June most businesses reopened in California with Phase 3 and I finally got to do my first branding shoot since the MPP rebrand in February!
I spent the day with Samantha, the owner of New Breed Meats and if you’d like to see more of the photos from the shoot just head on over here! They are a minority-owned benevolent plant-based protein company based out of Northern California!
It was super fun to get back into the groove (socially-distanced of course with my OTTERLY ADORABLE face mask), however the next day I quickly realized just how much grip strength I’d lost over the last three months- I could barely move my fingers to click my computer mouse!
Thankfully I quickly got my next chance to build up my arm muscles photographing the charming and hilarious Francesca for Francesca G Photography (you can check out her session recap here!)
Man oh man you guys, it has been SO nice photographing (and editing) someone other than myself again! If you’re looking to give a shout out to the world that you are alive and kicking I’d love to chat about a personalized branding session for your creative business as well!
Right now I am only doing socially-distanced (6 feet apart at all times, I wear a cool mask) sessions outdoors but things may change as more opens up!
Re-integrating into society...sort of.
Along with photoshoots I have been slowly kind of been making my way back into society. I still firmly believe that people should not be going out for fun or anything other than essentials with how many new cases we’ve gotten since the phase 3 reopening, but I made an exception to do a socially-distanced brunch with my friend who would be leaving for Texas the following week!
Now back to my home hidey-hole until the next photoshoot!
Profit First
This month I also cracked down and finished this amazing book. In case you’ve never read Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, this is my official recommendation- no scratch that, demand, that you read it NOW!! I wish I’d read this book when I first started my business three years ago! It helps you set up your financials for profit (something very elusive to most entrepreneurs, myself included!)
Well worth the $20 on Amazon, and well worth the agonizing over numbers, trust me! (and I hate math and percentages and financials)...
My first ever non-Barbie haircut!
It didn’t turn out fabulous but it also wasn’t awful. I’m an artist so I know how to blend things in 2-D...but 3-D was a little harder haha. Still! I think it was pretty good for my first time cutting hair on a live person and Damon only looks a little like Friar Tuck, yeah?
Shadow's love affair with watermelon
Yeah okay maybe I’m scraping for eventful things in June, but this was the first time we’d gotten watermelon since getting Shadow and turns out he loves it. Just licking it. For like twenty minutes until his tongue is probably very painful and raw but even then he still won't stop until you take it away from him...
In Summary
BOOK OF THE MONTH: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
TV SHOW OF THE MONTH: Let’s be honest at this point I’m watching like ten shows any given month LOL Queer Eye Season 5 and 13 Reasons Why were especially good. The Letter for the King, Carnival Row, The Rising of the Shield Hero, Fruits Basket and Merlin were also great!
FAVORITE PART OF JUNE: Photographing again!!
BIGGEST BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT: Shooting two branding shoots in a week!
MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH: Imma try and get back into working out in the early mornings (before it gets to be 100 degrees out) and work out my instagram marketing strategy! (Yeah, I’m in a weird way looking forward to these things haha).
See ya in July, my friends! My goal is to really work on providing a bunch of fabulous branding and small business resources for you all so be sure to subscribe to the MPP Newsletter to be the first to know about them!
