I know social media makes my job look like all I do all day is dance to Whitney Houston and eat cake, but sadly, that's not true. In fact, the most time is spent editing and not eating cake. One day, that ratio of time to cake will change.
Editing photos is tedious because it's repetitive, time consuming, and if I'm being honest, the most boring part of my job. I'd much rather be out shooting and interacting with real live humans.
I tend to nit pick, re-edit, and be indecisive about the best way to put the finishing touches on something. Because of this, I spend hours editing photos and video. It's a curse.
So on editing days (aka most of my days) after my morning pep talk and a cup of coffee (or 4), when I sit down at my computer the first thing I do is turn on my podcasts.
Podcasts are the one thing that have helped really get work done. They are the best kind of go-between from music (which helps zone out) and an audiobook (which I need to give my full attention to). There are podcasts for whatever mood I'm in, whether I just want to know a good story, if I need to laugh, or if I'm needing inspiration.
I currently have about 20 different podcasts that I listen to on any given day, but I have my favorites go-to listens.
These are my top 5 favorite podcasts that get me through my work day
1. My Favorite Murder
I think Karen and Georgia would be proud to see that I'm putting this on here first, just get it out in the open: I'm a hardcore murderino. But you may have already known that.
It's probably because my parents exposed me to too much Unsolved Mysteries as a child. I love a good true crime story. And I also think they give some great self defense advice.
I don't have a favorite episode, but I do suggest you give this podcast a few episode listens before you cast it aside. These two are so endearing to me, between their mispronunciation of basically every town/city they talk about, Elvis the cat's true love of cookies, or Georgia continually saying the word attic as "addict" (I think she's trolling us at this point). Anyway, they tend to veer off topic a lot but it always makes me laugh.
2. The Secret Life of Weddings
This show was sent to me from the gods of wedding photography. It really puts things into perspective for me and I also love drama so this is right up my alley. If you want to hear about some of the weirdest, most outrageous, and or just plain disgusting stories from weddings, this podcast has it all.
I really liked this episode which involves a hilarious TRUE story featuring the great Chris Farley.
Real footage of me listening to this podcast.
3. How did this get made?
My husband got me into this show, and I'm so glad he did. It's the perfect mix of comedy and zone-out content that keeps me entertained. It's literally just a verbal live-tweet of really really terrible movies. The best part is you don't need to actually see the movies they are talking about in order to appreciate how bad they are.
You might as well start with their commentary of Hollywood cult classic and "the best worst film ever made," The Room. Or, any live episode.
4. The Goal Digger Podcast
I found Jenna Kutcher through my involvement with The Rising Tide Society, a community of creative entrepreneurs dedicated to raising each other up and supporting each other instead of tearing each other down. The main goal is community over competition, a safe place for small business owners to gather and ask for advice and share successes.
In the same spirit of friendship and building each other up, Jenna's personality oozes through her podcast with so much enthusiasm, I consider it my business motivation station. I doubly relate to Jenna because she's also a photographer, so a lot of what she talks about speaks to me.
If you're a small business owner (or if you WANT to be a small business owner), this podcast is invaluable. Start with one of the first episodes and just binge your way through the entire thing.
5. Thinking Sideways
This goes along with my Unsolved Mysteries fascination, but this is a little less murdery than My Favorite Murder. Not every episode is about murder, but every episode is about an unsolved mystery. The hosts do a really great job on researching the topics and each give their theories about what happened.
Just listen to the Tupac and Biggie episode and you'll understand.
Honorary mention: Being Boss
I'm still fairly new to this podcast, but I definitely think it deserves a mention. This goes along with the Goaldigger podcast, but equally as inspiring is Being Boss. This branches across all types of self-employed businesses and doesn't necessarily stop at creative entrepreneurs. It looks at all facets of business, contains valuable information through interviews, and has just the right amount of mysticism to make me fall in love with their approach to running a business.