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The Studio

A inspiring + creative space focused on supporting & elevating women.

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We’re co-working again on February 18th and we’d love to see you there!
If you’re tired of working alone, come work with us…
Bring what you’re working on. Work quietly or talk it out. Stay for an hour or stay all day.
📍 @etherealconfections | Woodstock
🕐 10am-2pm
Well save you a seat!

Comment “COFFEE” for the link to register for free!

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“I need more visibility!”
I’ve said it a hundred times. you probably have too.
But what if that’s not actually the problem?
The Wrong Kind of Attention - Part 1 of 5. This is part of a 3-week series on visibility strategy for creative entrepreneurs: stop chasing the wrong kind of attention, understand the visibility trap, and make sure your photos aren’t sabotaging everything you’ve built. #creativeentreprenuer #visibilitystrategy #personalbrandstrategy

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I want my platform to be a place where people don’t have to guess what I stand for. I think a lot of us were trained into palatability.

Speak softly. Keep it positive. Don’t scare people. Don’t lose clients. Don’t “make it political.” Be marketable. Be digestible. Be the kind of woman people feel comfortable around.

And for a long time, that script worked. It kept doors open. It kept the peace. It made business feel safer.

But I don’t want safety that comes from silence.

Because silence is not neutral when people are being harmed in plain sight. Silence isn’t “staying in your lane” when your lane is built on other people’s displacement, fear, and erasure. Silence is not professionalism when it’s really avoidance.

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I spent years trying to become the kind of person who could focus on just one thing. The kind with a clear elevator pitch and a recognizable niche.

Spoiler: compartmentalizing yourself is exhausting.

I tried to organize myself into neat lanes. To choose the right focus. To quiet the parts of me that wanted to make, build, and explore in more than one direction at once. I thought clarity meant narrowing. I thought maturity meant choosing one version of myself and letting the rest go.

None of that has ever actually worked.

The years I spent trying to consolidate, simplify, pick one thing? Those were the years I felt most stuck.

I still don’t have a neat answer for what I do. Quite possibly never will, but I’m learning that accepting how I’m actually built beats trying to force myself into a shape that doesn’t fit.

When I started to allow myself to work in layers instead of lanes… that changed the game.

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Ashley Rufino is a Chicago personal brand photographer, coach + educator for female founders & photographers.

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