Honest. Supportive. Empowering.
In 2015, I will be teaching at WPPI, Photo Field Trip and The DEFINE School.
I will also be hosting a soul-shaking, women’s only workshop in Austin, TX and continuing my 1-on-1 private mentoring program.
Private Mentoring
For certain creative women, life is different. It just is. We can’t squeeze our feet into high heels or play pretend at Tupperware parties. We are here for a reason. We were born with a fire in our bellies and a truth in our throat. Holding hands with bears and ferns and wolves as we stumble and dance and twirl through this magical journey. Connected to the luminous, plugged into the golden, holding on for dear life to our truths. We are different and imperfect and through our cracks flows the most brilliant beams of hope and resilience and unfloundering gratitude.
So when it comes time for us to make a living, when the day arrives that we are ready to stand and claim the territory of our worth, we can’t do it like everyone else. We can’t watch the YouTube videos or join the sterile forums or squeeze ourselves into the back rows of hotelroom workshops.
There are limitless business resources for the one dimensional photographer. Schools and books and groups and conventions. That’s not this. This is so much more.
– Personal Journal Entry, Spring 2012
I have always been very intuitive and gifted with seeing the true power and potential within people. As a mentor, I am your personal Dream Midwife: bringing breath where it is needed, holding hands when needed, cheering on when needed, and always ready with a fully stocked bag of tools and tinctures to offer just in case.
Everything I offer is from my intuitive heart and soul, and always grounded in your authentic and beautiful Truth.
I believe it is each woman’s right and responsibility to live a luminous and fulfilling life, and I believe this is possible with a photography career. I believe this with all of my heart. Sometimes, we just need a connection, a reminder, a light, so that we can continue on.
I would be honored to empower you during this time in your journey.
Being an artist and running a business and everything else in life, can feel like a lot. I completely understand how confusing, overwhelming, exhausting and scary it can sometimes feel. Which is why my mentoring programs are as easy to understand and access as possible.
We meet for one hour at a time, over the phone. Each consulting session is $100/hour.
During our time together I am an open book. You can see anything and everything in my world, from my contracts to my pricing to what I eat before each shoot. But more than that, we really get into what you need to live the life of your dreams. Because that’s what you absolutely deserve.
Your life is already full, so I made scheduling easy. Like super, super easy! Simply click this button below and you’ll be whisked away to the world’s easiest appointment maker!
Testimonials:
Before I met Michelle, I was living a life that was not fully my own. I was doing good work, being a good woman and mother, and being a good everything. But, I knew I was ready for more than good. I could feel from the depths of me that there was another piece of authenticity that I wanted and that the world around me needed. I just didn’t have the tools or courage to get there.
Enter Michelle. As a mentor, she will hold your unique and authentic self close to her heart and will not enable you to operate as anything less than that. She will be a step ahead of your journey and will know when you need a nurturing hand and when you need a tough mama bear.
She is not afraid to challenge you and to hold you to your power even on days when you are afraid or even when it feels easier to exist in your weakness.
She paid attention to the details of my life, from my behaviors, my beliefs, my surrounding environment, and my inner dialogue. And in doing so, she has helped me receive my freedom and has helped me enter in an awakened, productive, and inspired life.
She did all of this with me by holding me to the same standard she holds herself. Michelle is the real deal. Her service to your life is invaluable. –Courtney B.
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About a year and a half ago, I entered into this crazy world of creatives. That crazy world where there are no such thing as 9-5 work days. Your work is inside you. You can’t leave it on your desk and get back to it on Monday. It is something that is always churning, looking for a way to show itself. As I was fresh out of art school, my mind was going crazy over the fact that I was no longer surrounded by creatives like myself. There were so many ideas running through my head, but I didn’t know how to express them.
At this point, I approached Michelle in hopes of some advice. What she gave in return, I will forever be thankful for. Michelle took me under her wing and showed me what it meant to express yourself as an artist. I’ve always had a deep respect for Michelle’s physical work. However, it was the passion she put into her life that showed me, IT’S OK TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE. I had been knocked around by so many people before (and after) meeting Michelle. People saying, “Oh, photography is a great hobby to have on the side!” or “Yea, but what do you really do for work.” Michelle helped me look past all of the doubts and negative remarks. She taught me to never be afraid of being yourself. People will always love you if you are being true to yourself. -Ty Morin
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I have worked or tried working with so many different people in the past, but you are the very first person I have ever worked with who just intuitively got me. And what you didn’t get you were willing to sit with or explore until you did. Not once, have you forced your path or your beliefs on me. Not once, have you tried to live vicariously through me. Not once, have you stolen something I said and used it for your gain. And yes, all of that has happened to me in past mentorships.
I am an open book by nature and I want to share it all with the world. Though, unfortunately due to some really terrible experiences as I grew up, I am slow to trust. And because I have been burned so many times in the past, I tend to hide it all.
With you, I don’t. In part, because the past six years I have spent considerable time and energy trying to bring who I am to the surface and let her shine. To not bury her under expectations and assumptions and false truths. And in larger part because of who you are. And it wasn’t until I started working with you that I really and truly thought any of that was possible.
Many say they will do this, but very few follow through… You don’t let me get away with a surface evaluation of anything; always encouraging me and guiding me to dig deeper and really get into the heart of what it is that is going on with me. It is such a beautiful thing to work with someone who holds such power and yet doesn’t jam it down my throat. I thought I needed to be pushed and shoved into moving forward. But what I really needed, and what you have given me, is a gentle guiding hand.
You are an incredible mentor. But truthfully, you are more than than that. You are a spirit guide. Or a soul guide.
At the time I am writing this, I don’t know what lies ahead for me with any amount of certainty. I am on the precipice of even bigger things than I allowed myself to admit that I dreamed of and I have more clarity than ever before. There is not the typical franticness that accompanies my ideas. But a calm and steady peace that this is what I must do and this is where I must go.
And wherever that leads, I know that I have you to thank for gently setting me off down that path. – Rachel Shirano
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While I sit here and write, I feel this blanket of gratitude wash gently throughout my body as I reflect just how lucky I really am. I am a girl chasing her wildest dreams. I know exactly what I want in this crazy beautiful world.
Right now, in this moment, my dreams would not seem like reality if it were not for Michelle. She took what started as a passion and a hobbyand turned it into a career, a magical one with so much potential.
I was a match. She was the stone. She struck me and gave me guidance for my flame to grow.
She opened my eyes.
She spoke the brutal truth with intuition.
But that is what I needed. She has this crazy way of getting right to your core. She helps you see things clear. She lets you know that the most beautiful thing in life is to be just you. Whenever I am done talking to her I feel like I am on top of the world.
I really do not have the words or gifts or bake goods to show you JUST how thankful I am for you. –Victoria Schaefer