Dawn Taylor welcomes photographer Jessica Hoover to the show to explore what it’s like to quit something and make a major life change. Moving through significant career transitions can incur judgment from yourself and people around you, so Jessica shares her story and advice with Dawn.
Jessica shares how she struggled, at 17, to rise to the pressure of finding her one lifetime career. She discusses how she didn’t have a sense that she was allowed to fail or change her mind. When she did settle into a career as a Registered Nurse, after eight years she started to realize she wasn’t her best self, she was taking her frustrations and anxiety out on her family, and she knew it was time for a change.
Jessica and Dawn explore exactly what those feelings of dissatisfaction and unhappiness look like. Jessica details what her red flags were and what she wanted to change about how she showed up for her family. They dig deep into the amount of work a transition really is but also lay open how it can be done sustainably and without sacrificing security. This episode is a key support for anyone feeling at odds with where they are, or itching to make a change but feeling afraid of making that choice.
About Jessica Hoover:
Jessica Hoover is a Mom of 2 spirited girls, a wife to her supportive husband of 13 years, and a photographer who loves authentic people, starry eyed dreamers and meaningful moments. You can usually find her in her gardens, on a hiking trail in the woods, or in her kitchen cooking and baking from scratch. She was a Registered Nurse by trade for 8 years before shifting careers into fashion and accessories for 7 years, and is now happily settled into her true love of photography.
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Dawn Taylor - The Taylor Way: website | facebook | instagram | linkedin
Jessica Hoover: website | instagram | facebook
Transcript
Dawn Taylor 00:09
Good morning. Welcome to the Taylor Talk Podcast. Today, we have the amazing Jessica Hoover on the show. And we are gonna dive into what happens when you know you need to quit something. What happens when you've gone to school, you've done a degree, you've done all the right things, and society is looking at you, as if everything is perfect, and you know it's not. What do you do and what goes with that? So please stick around. We are so excited to have you here. And after the show, listen for instructions on where to find a super fun giveaway.
Dawn Taylor 00:51
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to Taylor Talks. And as you just heard, I'm hanging out today with Miss Jess. And she's the most amazing, outstanding human. She's one of those people that when you... like, we never see each other, and the second we see each other it's like, we, like besties from a million years ago. No time has passed, even if it's been years. So we're here today to talk about a really cool topic that - seriously, I know I say this every time - but we need to be talking about this. This seems to be something that's going on. So tell me a little bit about your story and what you think we need to be talking about.
Jessica Hoover 01:31
All right, well, thanks for having me on the podcast, Dawn. I'm so excited. So I thought something that I wish I had known pretty much my whole life is that it's okay to pivot. It's okay to shift careers. It's okay to fail at things. And it's okay--
Dawn Taylor 01:54
Wait, we're allowed to fail? Weird.
Jessica Hoover 01:58
And it's okay to move on past what you originally thought you were going to do in life. And how, like, your journey is a journey. It's not like a destination point where you just sit there, you get there, and then you're like, 'This is it. I'm here. Done.' That's not how things work. So I wish I had known that from a very young age. And yeah, it has taken a lot of years to figure out my path.
Dawn Taylor 02:24
Right. So I'm gonna guess, based on, like, our ages and kind of our lives as they've played out over these years, is you were probably raised a lot like me, where, you know, your parents had the same jobs forever. It was very, like, I remember having this thought growing up like, 'Oh, wow, like the career I choose, I'm in that till I die.'
Jessica Hoover 02:48
Huge amount of pressure with, like, deciding when you're 17 years old, 18 years old, like, oh, my gosh, I have to decide now what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Dawn Taylor 03:01
Can you imagine if all of our major decisions are made at 17?
Jessica Hoover 03:05
It would not be great.
Dawn Taylor 03:10
So talk to me about your let's start at your childhood. Like, how are you raised? What was the pressure? Like, what was going on at that point that caused you to make the choices you did.
Jessica Hoover 03:23
Cool. Yeah, so I actually had a really lovely upbringing, I was very, very fortunate. I had two working parents, two very hardworking parents, my mom was a receptionist for the Health Region at the time. And my dad was a full time photographer. So I saw them hustle their butts, like, all the time. All the time. And they kind of stuck with their careers for as long as I was born to the time that they retired. And growing up, you know, we were taught to work hard and do the things, but do the things that you know you can do well. And what I mean when I say that is, it's okay to, like, shoot for a goal, but shoot for that goal knowing that you can attain it. Because if you shoot too high, there's a chance that you might fail. And not that my parents ever said that to me. And they were always very encouraging to me and I probably like put that on myself a lot of the time. But I always put myself, or gave myself a goal, and knowing that I could attain it. Knowing that I would hit it so that I wouldn't fail, so that I wouldn't feel like a failure. And I think when, you know, you go through high school and I was a straight A student and I, you know, really pushed myself, I knew like oh my gosh, okay, so I have really great grades, I have to do something with these grades. I have to go to university. I have to choose this amazing career that I know will, you know, sustain me and my future family. Like I'm thinking, like, way ahead in my life when I was 17 years old.
Dawn Taylor 05:02
So let's look at that for a second. Look at that belief even that like, 'but I got good grades, so I have to'. Like just that belief alone, that some magical letter or number on a piece of paper, is setting a totally different expectation for you. Like society has put a different expectation on you based on that.
Jessica Hoover 05:27
And that's just the culture that has been created in, like, our generation and moving forward, too. I see it with our kids too, right? And so I knew right away, I was like, I gotta do something. So I actually kind of floated through my first year university thinking that I was going to be a psychologist, and went to university that first year, hated it. Totally hated it. Like, okay, so this isn't for me. Great. Thanks, mom, dad, definitely just spent a lot of money on that first year. Then I decided, you know what, I think I need a little bit of time. Because I can't, I couldn't decide at that point. I knew, like, my friends were moving on to their second year, and I was like, 'This is not for me, I need to figure this out'. So I actually worked for a year. That was hard. Figuring out life and working, that also was not great. But it actually made me stronger in a lot of ways. Because you have to figure out things like budgets, and you're kind of just used to it, at minimum wage, which is not a lot. So I knew that I didn't want to do something minimum wage. But I also didn't want to spend all my years in school, is really what it came down to. So I actually took another program that was like, 'Hey, I'm really great at sports. I'm gonna go into PhysEd, the PhysEd program'. I love that, it makes me happy. I'm gonna do that. Sure, I could end up being a PhysEd teacher. So I took a year doing that, and then, yeah, not for me. Still struggling, still trying to, like, figure out life at, you know, 18/19 at this point. And my mom on a whim just said, 'Hey, there's a nursing program'. There's a nursing program out of our small town that we grew up in, if you want to come and take it, you can actually get your diploma or your degree, and you can come back home, it's safe here, calm, you don't have to pay rent anywhere.
Dawn Taylor 07:28
Safe, it is safe!
Jessica Hoover 07:31
So I actually did that. So I was like, okay, I can do, I could totally do this. So I moved back home. I actually went and got my nursing degree. So I did go to the U of A. Like, you do two years in this program, this rural program, and then you go to the U of A, and I did my nursing degree. And I really loved it. It was actually fantastic. It was a great community. It was a solid job. And I got a job right out of school. Right? There was no questions, it was safe. It was totally safe. And I was a nurse for eight years. And it was hard, very, very hard. And mentally and physically, like, challenging. Challenging isn't even a good word for it. It's more than challenging. It is hard. And I did like it. But I had babies. And I knew that, like, in my heart, something needed to change, because I did not want to miss Christmases and birthdays and weekends. And I was working night shift and all kinds of crazy things. So something needed to shift for me. And that was really scary. That was really, really scary. Because remember, I like safe.
Dawn Taylor 08:45
I was gonna say safe hit the goal. Right? And now at this point in, you were married at this point?
Jessica Hoover 08:52
Yep. Yeah, we were married. And we had two baby girls. And I was still working. So I had actually decreased my FTE a little bit. And I was still working and juggling like, mom life, and wife life, and nursing career and all the things, and I was like I am burning out. I cannot do all the things and be all the things to all the people all the time. Still feel that a lot.
Dawn Taylor 09:15
Right? So for somebody listening who's in that position where they're like, huh, maybe I'm in a career that I hate, maybe I'm in this position where I'm, like, I can't and I don't want this. I don't want this. What were some of your red flags? What were some of your... those moments where you were like, 'Oh, wow, this is not where I am meant to be'.
Jessica Hoover 09:38
Yeah, I totally had those red flags. I pushed them down for a long time. I would wake up in the morning knowing that I had a shift scheduled and I would start feeling that nausea. Like I was so nauseous in the morning when I knew I had to go to work in the morning. And honestly I did love, I loved my workplace, I loved what I did. But there was like physical things that started happening to my body that were pretty much begging me not to go to work, is really what it came down to. So I feel like there was a lot of anxiety around that, too. Where that's that nausea, I just was a Grumpy Bear. Oh, Grumpy Bear is probably a nice way to say it.
Dawn Taylor 10:26
That was a very kind way probably to say what's really going on.
Jessica Hoover 10:31
I did find that I was taking out my emotions, my frustrations, out on my family, and I really didn't like that. So I would have, like, little angry outbursts at the kids, and they weren't even really doing anything. They were being kids, or I'd be snapping with my husband or, you know, just little things that, really, that was not me, that is not me. And so those were my huge red flags right away. I was pretty miserable as a person. I was great at work, because I could hold it together, and I could be all the things for everybody at work and for my patients that I was caring for - because you can't really lose it as a nurse, or at least I didn't want to, right? Because they're in a very vulnerable state when they're in the hospital or when they're sick. So I would find, like, this was my safe zone at home. And that's when all of the emotions came out. Right?
Dawn Taylor 11:25
Well because they're your safe people.
Jessica Hoover 11:27
Exactly, exactly.
Dawn Taylor 11:29
Right? You know, you can lash out at them, and they're still gonna love you for the most part at the end of the day.
Jessica Hoover 11:33
Totally. There was a lot of guilt around that though, because my babies were babies. They were little, right? So I knew that something needed to shift career-wise. I was already like a quite low FTE, so I knew that I couldn't go--
Dawn Taylor 11:48
So what is FTE for anyone listening?
Jessica Hoover 11:49
So full time equivalent, meaning, like, how many days and how many hours a week you were.
Dawn Taylor 11:54
Okay.
Jessica Hoover 11:55
So I was already less than part time, so I could go casual. So that was kind of my next step. So when we talk about like, you know, as things start to change, I was full time, then I dropped a little bit to halftime, and then I was a little bit less, I was getting happier, the less that I was in the hospital setting, the less I was a nurse. And so I could see this change in my attitude, in my physical health. And, like, it was like a light bulb went off. I was like, I need to do something else, I need to figure out how I can transition from nursing into something else. And at the time, was I like consciously thinking these things? Probably not. But I am a doer. And I, like, see opportunities, I'm gonna take it. So I actually started a home based business. This was a quite a few years ago when that was kind of all the rage for new moms. And it took off, it took off very quickly. And I did very, very well. And I replaced my nursing income. And so at that point, when I replaced my nursing income, I was like, okay, I can let this nursing thing go. But in the meantime, I was juggling my house, my, you know, being a wife, being a mom to two kids, and nursing, and my other new business in fashion. And it was a lot. So I had all these things, all the balls that I was juggling, and I knew that I had to drop at least one and it wasn't gonna be my family. And it was my nursing career.
Dawn Taylor 13:32
So with that, we talk, we say it like it was this easy thing to do. But you and I both know that the little voice in the back of our head is like 'What, no, there's structure, there's security, there's a pension', right? What were the voices in your head saying? What were the judgments that you were fearing? All of those things that would stop you from moving forward or slow it down or would be stopping somebody else?
Jessica Hoover 14:03
Yeah. That's a great question. Because I had grown up with that safety mentality, right? It took a lot of years before I gave up my nursing career and shifted into the fashion industry side of things that I was doing. It was always the fear that I would not be able to help contribute to the family. Thankfully, my husband is, he does very well at his career, so I did feel like we always had a little bit of a safety net. But for me personally, because I'd always been a go getter and super hard worker, it was really very scary to take that on. And it took, I kid you not, years of like self development, lots of work on me, reading like very inspiring books that, you know, gave me the tools in order to be able to move my business forward so that I had the confidence to say, okay, I can make this work without my nursing career. But prior to that, it was really scary. I do remember, back when I had decided, like, I was going to actually, I was still casual, but I knew that I needed so many - you need so many hours as a nurse over a five year period. And I was kind of getting to that point where I either had to pick up my, like, pick up my socks, and work full time to get my hours as a nurse, or I was just gonna let it go. And I sat my husband down. And I said, here's the thing, this is really scary, and I'm terrified to even say it. But I need you at this point in our relationship - and we have been married for 13 years, so that was, oh we were maybe five years in, something like that, so still fairly young in a marriage - said, like, I need you to support me, not financially, I mean, that's great. But I need you to support me mentally in this decision of mine. And I literally told him what it looks like. So when I'm feeling like, oh my gosh, what did I just do, major panic, he needs to just say, 'It's okay, you've got this'. And to have somebody so like, I feel so so so fortunate to have somebody who does that, for me. He is my support. He is my rock when I am wavering and freaking out, because that happens. But to have that, to have someone say, like, you've got this, even though I knew I had it. But you still waver. To have somebody say that to you is huge. To have that support.
Dawn Taylor 16:42
It's so massive. So I can already hear it in the voices of people in my world being like, yeah, must be nice. So here are the really important parts that I want to pick out of what you just said that someone can take is, number one, tell them what you need. Right? And it doesn't matter if it's a spouse, if it's your parent, if it's a close friend, if it's a mentor, if it's a coach, it doesn't matter. Actually lay it out for them, tell them what you need. In our house we often call those codewords. Where if I am feeling like I'm melting, right, where it's like mentally, emotionally, physically, like, I'm not handling life today, I can walk up to my husband and just look at him and say melting. And he immediately knows what to do.
Jessica Hoover 17:29
Because you laid out that plan, right?
Dawn Taylor 17:32
Totally, we've discussed it in advance, we've laid out the plan. So he knows, okay, in this moment, I'm going to ask these five questions. And based on the answers, will, you know, dictate the direction I'm gonna go in. Do that, like, that's so important. And I don't think people realize how important that is. It is, it's true, no matter how confident we are, no matter how much we know we can do something. I remember telling a friend one time, I was like, I need someone outside of my husband to just, like, if I have a really phenomenal moment or week or win in my life, that I could phone them and have them like congratulate me. And he's like, 'Oh, can I be that person for you?' And we were really tight, and I said, 'Yes'. And I said, 'This is exactly what you need to say'. And he was like, 'What?' And I said, 'You did good, kid'. And he laughed at me, and I was like, 'No, seriously, like, that is what I need to hear. Because I don't have parents. I need to hear that'. And he went, 'Okay'. And it was really cute. For years, I would phone him with my wins. And he always had this pause and he'd go, 'You did good, kid'. And it meant everything.
Jessica Hoover 18:48
And it's something so simple. And it doesn't have to be this big long, really anything. For my husband, I just said, like, you just have to say 'You got this'. Right?
Dawn Taylor 19:00
That's it, right? It's this like couple little words that can completely, mentally, emotionally change the trajectory of where you're going in a day.
Jessica Hoover 19:09
100%. But I think the key, like you said, is realizing what you need. And then asking for it. It doesn't have to be a spouse. It doesn't have to be a parent. They really can be anything. But saying like, this is what I need to hear. It's huge, huge.
Dawn Taylor 19:30
So even as a friend, right? As a friend, if you have someone in your life that is going for a big shift or a big transition or a big change, ask them that question. Like, when you're reacting like this, when you're having this day, when you're feeling like this, what do you need from me? What specifically can I do or say to help you get through it?
Jessica Hoover 19:56
Yeah. Yeah, super powerful, too, as as that person being your support, to say, How can I help? What? What do you need from me?
Dawn Taylor 20:09
Oh, it's so powerful. So, back to those judgments? Did you feel judgments from people around you? Did you, right? The safety net, the people around you that are like, what the hell are you doing you crazy person, you have a dream job and you have the best paycheck. Right? What were the judgments that you got?
Jessica Hoover 20:33
I heard it all, to be honest. And even now, like, I have transitioned from that fashion industry into photography, and even now I hear it from people. And whether I'm internalizing that a little bit different than how they're intending it, that's a totally different thing. But they ask me, like, how come you left nursing? How could you leave that? It's such a good job. It's a steady paycheck, it's all the things that you just said. And believe me, I feel it. I can totally feel it. But the one thing that gets me through those judgments, is knowing that I was an unhappy person. I was not okay, back then. I might have been, like, yeah, I'm pretty good at putting it on. Like, I am very good at outwardly projecting that I'm okay. But inside I'm melting. It's a very good word, that might be my word, too. But having the strength to realize like, who I am now, versus who I was then, their judgments to be honest, don't really faze me. I think it was Brene Brown, actually, at one of the conferences that I was at, she was talking about people's opinions that matter most. And it's not this grand scheme of the Instagram world, or the Facebook world, or necessarily your coworkers or whatever, people on the street, that's you melting, whatever, it doesn't matter. The people's opinions that matter most are usually the people that you can write on a one inch square piece of paper. So maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your best friend, maybe it's your dog, like the limit of, or the number of, people that actually their opinions matter are so so small. And the rest are projecting their own insecurities, their own fears, on to you and your life. And I now realize that those judgments that, to this day I still get... because photography is like this, like it is not steady income by any means. It's a good roller coaster, great roller coaster, it's a lot of fun. But it's a happiness journey. And it's a true to me journey that I can like put those judgments aside and say like, you know, it was great at the time. And I grew a lot from all the pivots and all the changes in my career path. But to who I am today, I'm a lot prouder of this person than this person who used to put on a facade that she was okay.
Dawn Taylor 23:18
I think there's, right? Which makes me so happy, by the way. There's such a judgment on, like, but you're not doing what you should be. Or this was my expectation of you. Right? But also on the financial of, like, but that security but but but... and it's like but what is the cost of your actual happiness? I'm not talking in a fluffy way. I'm talking in a genuine, are you loving what you do? Are you enjoying when you get up in the morning and going to work? Is that something that's actually feeding your, like, feeding you in any way, shape, or form? And you know what, sometimes we have parts of our jobs that we hate, we have bad days, we might even have bad weeks, but overall, if you despise what you do, or if you're going home at the end of the day - and this is something I say often to clients - is like if you have to go home at the end of the day and have a stiff drink to erase your day so you can handle your night with your family?
Jessica Hoover 24:27
That's a red flag.
Dawn Taylor 24:28
What are you doing? Right, that is a huge red flag.
Jessica Hoover 24:34
Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, like, people do think that there's an easy transition. Like, oh, okay, I know I'm really unhappy. I need to do something else. Oh, I'll just quit and pick up a camera and go take some pictures and it'll all just fall into place. And there is a--
Dawn Taylor 24:53
You mean, it doesn't? It's not that magical?
Jessica Hoover 24:58
It's not that magical, no! I do wish that that was that easy. And for some people, it probably is, but for such a tiny little portion of people that it's not a reflection of what kind of struggles and planning goes into place when you do shift careers. So like I said, when I was a nurse, I worked multiple jobs, right? Like I was doing my nursing and my fashion business. And when I transitioned into photography, I was doing my fashion business and photography at the same time, so that I always did have a little bit of a buffer. Because part of me, I'm sure, is that it's a safety thing, too, righ? Like, knowing who I am, I like having that little bit of safety. But there's also a component of, like, actually making a smart choice and following your heart at the same time. Because---
Dawn Taylor 25:55
Thank you! Okay can we just say that again? Making a smart choice, like an actual responsible adult choice, and following your heart.
Jessica Hoover 26:06
Totally. And I think the two of them go hand in hand, sometimes we want our heart to lead more or brain to lead more. And this for me is the safety, and this for me is like the dream or adventurer side of things. But you have to meet in the middle in order for it to work properly. Because it's not great when you don't have income and you can't afford food or you can't afford rent or, you know, there has to be a happy medium between the dream and the reality and being able to marry those two, if that makes sense.
Dawn Taylor 26:41
Oh, absolutely, it does. It's so many people in my life over the years, myself included, I've had times where I've had 2, 3, 4 jobs, right? Figuring out what I want to do, building a business, doing different things. And I've owned multiple companies over the years. But it is, there's the piece where it's like no, no, I actually have to pay my bills. So as much as this might be fun, or this is what everybody else is doing, or this is the direction everything's going in, you don't see the behind the scenes. You don't. So when you're on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter, like it doesn't matter, Snapchat, you don't actually see the hustle. And I know it's the hated word right now, but it's legit. You don't see what's actually going on behind the scenes of the processes, the procedures, the networking, the learning, the growth, the education, all of the parts and pieces that have gone into what you're seeing.
Jessica Hoover 27:41
Right. It's a very like, that's the digital side of things that we're living in right now. Right? Where you, it's a highlight reel. We hear that all the time, right? All the socials are highlight reels. Not very many people post real life. Sometimes we do. But not day to day, you don't see that, you know, I'm up editing... the photography side of things is so beautiful, and the photos look so great and the day looks amazing... And there I am sitting, like, bloodshot staring at my screen, trying--
Dawn Taylor 28:11
-- editing for 85 hours and realizing you've got no good photos of a specific thing. So how do you make this work?
Jessica Hoover 28:18
So you don't see all the behind the scenes hours. And, you know, all like you said, the networking or the, you know, I've done tons of education in order to get to where I am and I'm not done. Like learning is a lifelong thing. You can never get to a one point in a career and say like, oh, I'm done. That's it. Oh, I start school again in a week, right? Yep, never ending so. But when you find something that you do love, it feels a lot less like work and you're excited. And you can feel that passion come back and it rolls through your entire life, not just in whatever you decide as a career. Right? You see it in your household. You see it in your friendships, you see it in all components of your life. And that's the part, the heart part, that you want to bring to the smart part of your life.
Dawn Taylor 29:15
Yes, I love that. So if you were to give somebody one piece of advice around this, around the transition, around these crazy beliefs that you have to be in the same job for 45 years, what would you tell them?
Jessica Hoover 29:32
I really think that it's okay to be a dreamer. Like don't be afraid to dream big dreams. That is not what I'm saying at all. Make a plan more than anything. If you're going to dream big dreams, make a plan and start with small steps. So if you've got something that your heart is calling you to do, put that down on paper. I am so old school. Write out your goals, write out your dreams, and then make a tangible plan. Because in order to shoot really, really big, high dreams and reach them, you have to have a step by step plan. And those steps are going to sometimes go up and down and you're gonna veer to the left, when you should have gotten right. They'll change. But if you have that plan in place, you'll figure out a way to get there, while it still make sense for your life, and to be a sustainable path to get there.
Dawn Taylor 30:36
Well, and as someone who's also done the massive career shift multiple times, I think part of it is like - an average person, I remember hearing one time an average person right now has five careers in their lifetime, like, not jobs, full careers in their lifetime. And hearing that, and that was a massive shift from like, my childhood where an average person had two, and just even hearing that made me be like, Oh, okay, I've got a couple left in me. Right? Like, it's okay. It's not a thing of failure. I've changed, I've shifted, I've grown. I'm not the person I was when I chose that career.
Jessica Hoover 31:15
Exactly.
Dawn Taylor 31:16
And that's okay. That's actually a really beautiful thing.
Jessica Hoover 31:19
100% our generation, I feel like our generation is shifting quite a bit more. And that's also such a beautiful thing. Learning to ebb and flow is hugely important. It's not just incredibly important.
Dawn Taylor 31:36
Okay, so to finish this off, let's do some rapid fire questions. If you could have a giant billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it be?
Jessica Hoover 31:47
Oh, my goodness. I would love one day to have one of my photos on it, doesn't matter what. I don't have a specific one. It doesn't matter where. Even it can be in Stony Plain where I live, it doesn't matter. It's totally fine. Just one of my photos on a giant billboard. I love it. I'd be so happy.
Dawn Taylor 32:10
So what's stopping you?
Jessica Hoover 32:11
It hasn't really been one of my goals at this point. Maybe I'll just write it on my goals.
Dawn Taylor 32:19
It'll be easiest thing ever. You just like phone and book it. Buy yourself a billboard. That's amazing. I love that. When you feel overwhelmed and focused, you've lost your focus temporarily, what is it you do to get yourself back?
Jessica Hoover 32:39
It's usually around education for me. So I'll find something, it can be... doesn't even have to necessarily be photography, for me. It can be something that is a hobby or something that I need - it's usually creativity. Actually, that's what it is.
Dawn Taylor 32:56
Fair enough, me too.
Jessica Hoover 32:57
I'll need to... I won't show you around my crazy office. But there's like a sewing machine over there. See, I've got a bust over here because I like to design things. That'd be a creative side of things. And it helps me just recenter who I am, and get back to what I need to be doing.
Dawn Taylor 33:16
It's about that side of your brain. It's what I find. What is something you spend a silly amount of money on?
Jessica Hoover 33:25
Right now camera gear, probably. It's a silly amount. It's a necessary amount though, but it's probably... actually, no, that's not true. Right now it's currently the garden. Gardening. We're building, we're building garden boxes, and we're literally having dirt delivered this morning. It is expensive to garden. It just is. At least getting started.
Dawn Taylor 33:57
What is your secret guilty pleasure way to decompress?
Jessica Hoover 34:02
Okay, I... this one's hard for me. But I think it's TikTok. I'm a scroller. I don't make a ton of TikToks. But I just, it's, I don't know. I like the funny cute animal ones. I can't stop. Just all the baby animals. Give me a box of kittens. That's all I really want.
Dawn Taylor 34:26
What purchase of $100 or less has made the biggest impact on your life in the last six months or in recent memory?
Jessica Hoover 34:36
Oh my gosh, that is quite the question.
Dawn Taylor 34:40
I mean, it could be something as simple as like a coffee cup that makes you smile every day. Mine was a $50 art class during alcohol ink pouring. And it has turned into like this massive hobby.
Jessica Hoover 34:55
I love plants. So hi would say probably my plants. I, if I have, this is just a tiny bitsy one on my mirror, too. They're all over my house and having that green, even in the middle of winter, when things are not green, having... it just, it's fresh life to me. So it's probably a plant. That's realistic.
Dawn Taylor 35:25
I mean, you can see my office is full of plants. Okay, last one, what is an unusual habit or some absurd thing that you love?
Jessica Hoover 35:36
Oh my gosh, these are hard questions. It's not really a habit. But I really love to do this. I love baking sourdough bread. It's not unusual, but I make bread almost every day. If not every second day. It's started like two years ago, a year, year and a half ago with pandemic bread, COVID bread. But I love it. It is actually something that I feel like from scratch, I am contributing to my family - and I do a lot of cooking from scratch, almost all of our cooking is from scratch - but I love being able to have the smell of fresh bread in the house. Even though I don't eat it. But my family loves it. And to be able to give that to my kids as not just like fresh bread, but as a memory that they'll have.
Dawn Taylor 36:30
That's awesome. That is awesome. I love it. Jess, thank you so much for hanging out with me today and for talking about this. If you are curious, want to know more about Jess, her businesses or photography, anything and everything she does, check out the show notes. Where can people find you? Where are you hanging out?
Jessica Hoover 36:50
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram a lot at Heart Gate Photography. Also on Facebook, and then my website, www.heartgatephotography.ca.
Dawn Taylor 37:02
Beautiful. So go check her out and give her some love. And maybe you'll just see her face on a billboard, or one of her photos on a billboard one day soon. Talk to you guys later.
Jessica Hoover 37:13
Thanks, Dawn.
Dawn Taylor 37:14
Thank you so much for hanging out with Jessica and I today. I hope that you have a few amazing takeaways you can maybe help yourself in making a decision in your life a little bit different, and are still here in two weeks for our next episode. Check out the show notes located at TheTaylorWay.ca for your free fun download. I promise it's worth it. And if you want to get a hold of Jessica, all of her info is in there as well. She's an amazing photographer. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast. And if you love the show, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a rating or review. Talk to you guys soon.
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