5 Surprising Things I've Learnt This Year

Online truths are spoken

Housekeeping

I don’t know about you but every year I think that X year is gonna be MY YEAR and then it just turns out to be another year full of ups and downs. I think that’s called life?

So I’m done with claiming seasons or years as MINE and having this unrealistic expectation that the year will somehow be smooth sailing all 365 days.

Stay tuned for an upcoming issue on GOALS, something I feel so passionate about and believe is important when manifesting our dreams.

A few things I think you should know

• Her Exposure is launching it’s 3rd issue and I highly recommend grabbing a copy, or submitting to the open call! There is also a launch event in Melbourne in early January for this issue so keep an eye on socials!

• Lisa over in Hamburg, a photographer who I absolutely love has made some fun 2025 calendars. Her style is cool and she has a penchant for red and traffic cones so I’m super into it! Her calendars are available in limited quantities and can be purchased here. I love seeing people do things with their work other than posting on socials.

• Pastiche magazine is another print publication that I was honoured to be featured in and is full of interviews, photo features and beautiful design. How cool is it seeing so many people in the community bringing physical projects to life!?!

Lisa’s 2025 calendar options - It’s a hard choice!

Okay so let’s dive in to the listicle part of this issue and touch on the ten things this year that hit home, made me reassess, made me say YES, and maybe made me feel like giving up entirely (don’t worry I never will though) Let’s go!!

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1. Just because someone is killing it online doesn’t mean they are making money $$$

Three years ago when I started my YouTube channel I thought if someone was getting like 50k views on their videos then that meant they were killing it and had made it to where I wanted to be when it came to being a YouTuber. I also thought they were making heaps of money! Having has a video get more than 50K views I now know this is not the case.

I also thought the same of people on Instagram who were posting reels that performed well, were being featured constantly, interviewed on podcasts or just generally had the vibe that they were everywhere and anywhere they needed to be on the internet. I thought surely, that equaled success and success equals $$$$ right???

Ummmmm no

I mean $$$ is nice and allows you to do more things, have more freedom etc. but the mere presence of someone being online doesn’t draw a straight line to dollar bills. Trust me.

I guess in my mind I thought something would magically happen if the vanity metrics went up on everything (this isn’t an ego thing, I just thought if it did well it meant people liked it and if people liked it it would lead to success and that would solve all my problems, slightly naive I know) but it didn’t really make a huge difference in isolation.

Sure you might earn a bit more money through adsense on YouTube but you really need a more robust plan to make YouTube, or any type of free content creation, work for you if you want to be full time doing just that.

Every time I have made an assumption about a creative person online there has always been more to the story. This constant theme has allowed me to see that the life of a full time creator in any industry is not for the faint hearted and it’s absolutely something that requires strategy, just the same as a bricks and mortar business would.

This was a valuable lesson, even though it was a little hard to swallow, because it can be applied to any aspect of life. Don’t be fooled by the exterior of anything.

Everything is harder and requires more work than you think. Which is good to know but also makes me tired just knowing it. Sigh.

What did this teach me?

I realised that everything is like a puzzle and you need all the pieces to make the pretty picture, not just one.

It’s amazing gaining traction online, but the real work is in what you do with that traction and how you turn it into success, whatever that looks like you for you.

Growing without a plan or goal in mind is a pretty futile exercise, so in 2025 I plan to grow with intention and ask myself why before creating.

2. Having more cameras doesn’t mean you take more pictures

Okay so, I have a F@#kload of cameras but I often say that “I only need one” which I realise is really annoying and feels very Joe Greer saying that the new Leica will keep film photography alive - LOL.

Without defending myself too much I have lot’s of cameras because I feel as a YouTuber it’s fun to review/use and talk about different cameras in episodes. I’m unsure you would all tune in each fortnight if every episode I was shooting with my Canon Rebel G, again and again and again?

So I have them for the videos and it makes it fun to experiment with. I also have them because Lux wants them, so it’s a two person collection, which takes the heat off a little, doesn’t it?

I also shoot for work so I guess I need different lenses for different situations but I don’t really need all the cameras - I mean I’m not shooting client work on the Yashica Samurai or the endless collection of digicams we own. It’s usually the same few cameras circulating for work purposes.

So with all this taken into consideration I would know like to now make my statement:

“I would be so happy shooting only with my Canon Rebel G for all eternity and beyond”

I really would. I have developed quite the relationship with this little plastic camera over the last year or so and I reach for it like my son reaches for his blankies at bedtime.

Rebel G moments

I truly believe that if I just owned the Rebel G I would take more photos and produce work. If there was only one then there would be only one choice to make as oppose to standing in front of, what looks like the wall in a used camera store, deciding on which one to use today.

So if Marie Kondo came to my house and forced my to implement whatever it is she is known for, decluttering or something, then I would hang on to the rebel G and say my goodbyes to everything else.

I actually wrote a fun story a while back about GAS so you can read that here if you so desire.

3. Everyone is a fraud, sometimes.

I often don’t really know what I’m doing when I’m doing the next thing I’m going to do…I honestly don’t and I feel terrified like someone is gonna tap me on the shoulder and be like “excuse me, what do you think you are doing working for brands and creating content for YouTube, you can’t just start doing that!”

The funny thing about that imaginary evil persons question is that, you absolutely can just start doing it. You don’t need permission from YouTube or anything - you just have to have the balls to go for it, and then keep going for it week after week, year after year.

Sometimes I just assume that someone in my niche or field will know the answers to my questions because they are so much further along than I am, and whilst I have had some life changing advice from other creatives I’ve also learned that most people are just trying to figure it out along the way as well. They aren’t just magically handling everything perfectly and kicking every goal.

Realising this is both enlightening and depressing all at the same time because it has brought to my attention that the journey never ends and that scares the shit out of me.

I was working towards together-woman-who-had-it-all-figured-out but it seems at best i’ll just be woman-who-appears-like-she-has-it-all-figured-out.

Whichever woman I’m meant to be, or will be, I am glad that 2024 ends with me knowing there is a lot of work and lessons ahead and it won’t all fall into place thanks to a viral video. Let that be a reality check for you if you are chasing a similar work/life set up to me and maybe putting all your eggs in the social media will fix everything basket. You need more baskets.

Recent work with the Nikon FA

4. Comparison truly is the thief of joy and I figured out how to combat it

So we all know that the internet is ripe grounds for a good old serve of comparison.

It’s late at night, you don’t wanna hit the hay just yet so you do a little bit of before bed scrolling and in two seconds you find yourself feeling extreme dissatisfaction for nearly all your achievements.

Why haven’t I reached that goal yet, why am I not staying in that hotel, why don’t I have that many views… or maybe it’s just something totally unrelated to anything creative and you get stuck watching some Hailey Beieber reel about dolphin skin and wondering why you don’t in fact, have dolphin skin, even though you literally just found out about it and think it looks kind of weird and alien but you still feel bad about yourself and think you need X product now to achieve it!? Speaking only hypothetically here of course.

To be human is to suffer the exercise of comparison so let’s just all accept that right now.

Here is how I curb it when it’s something I find myself negatively effected by. This might not work for everyone so maybe just try deleting social media apps or going for a walk in nature instead.

I get obsessed with the person and find out how they got to where they are - sounds unhealthy at first but it’s really not. Down the rabbit hole you go finding out how the hell this person managed to be so damn fucking successful, put your investigator hat on and really look hard here.

You will likely come to one of the below (or a combo) of things. This will then lead to part 2 of this kicking comparison in the butt exercise.

• They have simply been doing whatever it is for a very long time, and time in the game adds up, is powerful and teaches you a lot/gives you authority and power that you can then lean on later in your loooooooonnnngggg career.

• They have money or someone has money and they gave it to them, and let’s be real here, and just say that money makes everything easier. It doesn’t necessarily mean that that person hasn’t also worked hard though but money is a real game-changer, especially in the beginning.

• They have connections/made connections and leveraged that - this could also be the connection of a place not just a person. If someone is right in amongst it in NYC it’s likely to be a bit quicker for them to network, get out there and meet people etc. as opposed to someone who lives in bum fuck Idaho. Although this absolutely does not need to hold you back but it’s worth noting that it may effect your growth depending on what you are doing.

• They have help. Let’s use myself as an example in case, god forbid (but also maybe flattered) I am your doom scroll comparison person. So let’s tear me apart here just for the sake of showcasing that everyone has some kind of privilege and one up on someone else in some way, at some point, which ironically evens the playing field in a funny way and cancels out this whole section out, but let’s keep going anyway. So I am not simply Lucy Lumen, I am Lucy Lumen + Lux Lumen, who let’s be fair is pulling a lot of the weight and has the majority of the hard skills needed to produce a lot of what we do. I’m here for the vibes and tones baby and I put the cherry on top, but I’m not editing for hours in Davinci and I don’t plan to either. Sorry Lux. So I have help, a leg up, an extra pair of hands on deck and a man who geeks out on tech and has all the qualities that I don’t possess. I guess I just won the relationship lottery, and for that I am grateful.

• This next one is controversial. Are you ready? This person doesn’t have children or a person in their life they are soley responsible for. Yep, there I said it. It’s a lot easier to reach your goals and get shit done when you don’t have a tiny human who needs all your time, love, energy and, to some extent, money. I wouldn’t however, have it any other way, but man do I wish I decided to pull my finger out and get started before we had the baby…you bloody bet I do! So no shade at all because life is hard for everyone but if you are a free agent and you are procrastinating or letting comparison get in the way, just fucking do it now while you have more time and energy to put towards it. Get that ball rolling already.

So part 2 of this is simply looking over the leg up that this person has over you and figuring out how you can follow that path and maybe even expedite it!

If they are where they are now due to time and consistency then maybe you should implement that as a strategy for yourself and really ramp up what you are doing so you can build the same momentum.

Is it money that’s putting them in front? Well this is harder to achieve but I would suggest looking at what other options you have to earn or save and in lieu of that I would simply work out what your most unique or valuable skill/offer is and use that more to make up for the lack of funds. You gotta work to your strengths.

Basically, it’s all about your mindset. Rather than feeling glum and listening to The Smiths for hours after seeing someone online who is doing better than you why not have the thought “if they can do it, why can’t I” or “how great is it that X person got to that point because that shows me it’s possible”

5. Less truly is more

I am an extreme and sometimes quite impulsive person who gets a taste for something and 100 percent wants more. I throw myself in to things and get really obsessed and then burn out entirely on them.

2025 will be the year of less is more for me because I’m doing it all and I just can’t keep doing that.

I’ve learned that spreading myself thin for fear of jumping in with both feet into what I really want has held me back. I love a side quest so I can avoid the real deal. Im worried to fail too hard so I don’t wanna dive in too deep.

2025 I’m diving right in all the way to the bottom and I’m not coming up till I’ve given it all I’ve got.

If I see glass shattered I always take a picture - it reminds me of the cover of Damaged

If any of these lessons resonate with you let me know below. Or if you have one you would like to share I’d love to hear it.

Thanks for reading guys and welcome to all the new people here too!

Love Lucy x