If you’ve ever put “my why” on your website and then wondered why it stopped feeling true, this episode is for you. TMA mentor Suzy Brown joined Kim Box during Coaching Week to talk about something photographers don’t discuss nearly enough: discovering your why as a practice, not a destination. The kind of photography purpose that deepens over time, guides your marketing, and keeps you grounded when business gets hard.
This isn’t a conversation about writing a mission statement. It’s about learning to know yourself.
Your Why Is a Living Thing, Not a One-Time Exercise
Suzy has been photographing families for 18 years under her business name Simply by Suzy, and in that time she’s come to understand that knowing your why is something you return to again and again. “This is not a destination,” she says in the episode. “There are so many layers to this.”
Most photographers are familiar with the surface-level version: why do you take pictures for families? But Suzy pushes deeper. She asks what in your DNA, your history, your experiences drew you to this specific work. And she believes that the more clearly you understand that, the more it acts as a compass for everything in your business. Your website copy, your marketing, your content, the kinds of clients you attract, the sessions that feel most alive to you.
She also pushes back on the idea that there’s one right answer, or that your why has to be grand and original. Suzy describes a conversation with a photographer who realized she was most lit up when serving people in moments of transition, and the ripple effect that insight had on her entire creative vision. The point isn’t to be unique for the sake of it. It’s to know yourself well enough that your work comes from something real.
And like any relationship, that knowing requires tending. Suzy calls it devotion rather than discipline. A devoted relationship with your work and your why is one you check in with, nurture, and allow to evolve.
The Practices That Actually Help You Get There
Suzy is refreshingly practical about all of this. She’s been in rooms with deeply successful people, she says, and what strikes her every time is how much they trust simple things. She offers a handful of practices she genuinely uses herself.
Journaling is the first one, not as a daily obligation but as a brain dump a few times a week. The act of putting thoughts on the page does something that staying inside your head can’t. It creates a kind of safety, a way to hold the swirl of running a business while parenting, and to surface things you didn’t know you were carrying.
A gratitude practice comes next. She credits this one to a close friend who learned it through grief, and she’s direct: the times she’s thriving are the times she’s actually doing it. The key is detail. Not “I’m grateful for my home,” but the specific quality of light through the window and the neighbors who show up and the feeling of safety you carry there.
She also talks about regular debriefs with yourself, after sessions, after something goes well or badly, at the end of a quarter. Not a formal process, just the habit of checking in. What worked? What didn’t? How do I lean into what felt true?
What ties all of these together is a mindset shift she names clearly: curiosity over judgment. This is especially important for photographers who’ve been in the industry long enough to feel stuck or bored. The discovery of your why isn’t something that happens to you in a workshop. It happens in the living of your actual life.
Why Community Makes This Work Easier to Do
One of the things Suzy touches on near the end of the episode is something a lot of photographers feel but don’t always say out loud: running a business will always confront you with yourself. It’s like self-growth, only faster. And doing that in isolation is genuinely hard.
She’s clear that being present in your own life, with your children, your friendships, your own sense of joy, isn’t a distraction from your business. It feeds it. The ideas that feel most true don’t usually come from forcing productivity. They come from actually living. The trick is trusting that, especially in the seasons when there’s very little margin.
That’s part of why TMA was built the way it was. When you’re in a community of photographers who are doing this same work of figuring out who they are and why it matters, it gives you language for things you couldn’t name alone. Suzy’s coaching, along with the live sessions and the mentorship inside TMA, is designed to meet photographers where they are, whether that’s just starting out, somewhere in the messy middle, or rebuilding after a stretch of burnout.
The work of discovering your why is personal, but it doesn’t have to be lonely.
Listen and Learn More
Suzy’s full coaching session goes even deeper than what’s captured here, and it’s the kind of episode worth returning to when you’re feeling lost in the business side of things or just need a reminder of why you started. You can hear the full conversation in Episode 162 of The Motherhood Anthology podcast, available wherever you listen.
Find Suzy at simplybysuzy.com or on Instagram at @simplybysuzy.
Ready to build a business that reflects your own creative voice? The Motherhood Anthology membership gives you access to expert mentors, live coaching, monthly marketing suites, and a private community of photographers who are invested in your success. Learn more and join at themotherhoodanthology.com.
Episode Sponsor: Willow Canvas
This episode of The Motherhood Anthology Podcast is brought to you by Willow Canvas. Speaking of creating work that is distinctly yours, every Willow Canvas is a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted backdrop created by artist Sara Bywaters-Baldwin. No two are alike, and they bring something truly unique to every studio session. If you want your work to stand out in a way that no mass-produced backdrop ever could, check out Willow Canvas.
The Motherhood Anthology is a community and educational resource for photographers who want a profitable and sustainable business they love. With 15+ expert mentors and 7+ years of proven content, TMA helps portrait photographers build confident, thriving businesses through monthly education, mentorship, and a supportive community of 700+ members.
