Marie-Claire Ashcroft, aka The Professional Rebel is a Self Image Specialist – a Personal Brand Photographer and Rebel Confidence Coach for unconventional, quirky and rebellious women.

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Copyright 2017-2022 Marie-Claire Ashcroft. All Rights Reserved

Personal Brand Photography: An Ace Study – Rosa Lisa, The Light Within

“I want you to capture how I feel inside.”

If you’re doing this whole human experience properly, you can’t have the joy, the beauty and the all the wonderful highs, without all the pain, sadness and loss – it’s the duality of our existence and it is what makes being a human so goddamn freaking special. The moments of light and love would not shine as brightly without having experienced the utter darkness that can surround us at times.

It’s no secret, but like most of us here, Lisa has her own tale of hardship. It’s not my story to tell here, and like myself, she’s not one to dwell on those parts of our experience, but she is now in a place where she wanted to celebrate where she is at after a period that caused her to crack open, leave the parts that no longer fitted behind and be the person she was destined to become.

She has let her journey inspire her business and life and she wanted new photographs to show her spirit in a way that words aren’t always able to do.
And as words fail me here myself, I’ll let the photos (or Lisa) do the talking.

“Oh to see the world through your eyes for a day! You have such a special gift, the world needs more you you. You really do create magic.”

“I don’t have any reference images. I have pictures in my head which I can try to describe but I find it hard to choose the words. I’m a feeling-being so I feel – the emotions I want you to capture are: fun, hope, inspiring, magical and mystical.”

We had such a giggle on this shoot.
Both Lisa and I are ex-party girls, we’re potty mouthed and always up for breaking a rule or two (as long as it doesn’t harm anybody) – like climbing onto some ancient church ruins just to get the shots we envisioned before running off before we got into trouble.

It’s a common misconception that if you’re spiritual, you’re all love and light and not much else. I think that kind of fluffiness that puts a lot of people who are perhaps curious about spirituality off. I know I was in the closet for a long time but I think it’s important to show people you can be up for a bit of synchronicity and swearing, divine guidance and shouting c*nt when you stub your toe – again, it’s all about duality 😉

As well as being a very gifted light worker, assisting and mentoring people through their own awakening journey, she is the owner of Chester’s finest pole dancing school, Apsara Dance.

I know Pole dancing still has a bit of a stigma depending on who you talk to but it is thanks to this woman, that myself and others in the area are leaving behind the shame society has told us to have about our perfectly flawed bodies. She gives women permission to feel good about their physical form, to feel strong, beautiful and fearless which happens to be her company’s motto #StrongBeautifulFearless and to celebrate who they are as a person. I honestly never thought I’d hang my large bottom off a metal pole in my lifetime.
She also regularly arranges pole showcases to raise money for local charities too. She really is a good egg.

I’m so grateful our paths crossed at a wedding I photographed in Paris a few years ago.
And as you can probably see your yourself, both our work is incredibly aligned and synergetic so watch this space for a cheeky collaboration or two in the near future.

You can find out more about the work Lisa does as a healer here and her pole dance studio here. 
Oh, and here’s what she said about our shoot:
“This lady right here is magical!!! ✨✨✨

If you’ve ever met Professional Rebel in person I’m sure you would agree she is full of love, light, happiness & amazing amounts of energy. She lights up any room she walks in & always has the biggest, most beautiful smile on her face.
And I was fortunate enough to have her photograph me.

After asking only a few questions beforehand Maz understood exactly what I was looking for
When I saw the pictures last night my eyes filled with happy tears ?
Not only did this lady make me feel relaxed in front of the camera, she made me forget it was there, it was like having a nice day out in nature with a friend.
The suggestions she made throughout the day brought me out of my shell & then boom! She captured me in all my glory, the real me.
This lady has a gift, a beautiful way of seeing people & the world & a talent to capture those precious moments.
I am overwhelmed by these pictures, I am so honoured to know this beautiful human & I can’t wait til we work together more in the future.
Maz – I honestly can’t thank you enough! ♥️♥️♥️”
And if you’d like to arrange a chat with me to see how I can combine all the elements of your sparkly spirit into a personal branding photoshoot for your business, please drop me an email here.

How photography saved my life

The way I felt about myself fuelled my anxiety and depression.
And depression and anxiety fuelled how I felt about myself.
I’d brave it and make some big changes in my life, like get a new job or move house, and it helped for a short while – like as a nice distraction and something to focus on for a bit but then this empty feeling would eventually creep back in.
It went on for years.
Little did I know that picking up a camera would be the start of putting this life long cycle to bed.
You see I never planned to become a photographer – it just sort of happened… a happy accident, a fluke.
I picked up a camera to help me remember things.

 
Due to a childhood trauma, my little yet awesome brain developed a little differently and the connections to my memory kinda got jumbled up. This left me unable to remember huge parts of my life – not only the bad bits but also the adventures, the experiences, the stuff worth living for.
As well as being an epic tool to remind myself of all the good things in my life, like a visual gratitude diary, I started using photography to explore emotions, like spotting patterns in my thinking or using it as a way to express how I felt, like when I was going through a painful break up. I wasn’t really a ‘talker’ back then. 
I never expected the camera to take me on a journey to escaping the 9-5 and setting up my first business (FlukePhotography) – it was a success… well, for a few years anyway.
It wasn’t until I realised I’d slipped back into feeling deeply unhappy again that I knew I had to work out what was going on.
How could I be unhappy again? Was there something wrong with me?

 
I worked out that I didn’t trust myself.
I didn’t believe in myself.
And I couldn’t see myself for who I really was.
When it boils down to it, the truth was that I didn’t accept myself.
I thought by stepping out of the into the world of self employment that I’d be taking life and stuff more into my own hands, but that couldn’t have been further away from the truth.
You see when you do a thing, if all of you isn’t aligned to that thing – your words, your actions, your beliefs, you soon find yourself bumping head first into walls and you won’t know why. It will start to drive you insane. 
Taking the plunge and doing a brave to follow my heart only highlighted just how bad I felt about myself. I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t believe in myself enough so I just starting doing what I thought I should. No one teaches you how to run a business, so I looked at what everyone else was doing.
And then it hit me smack in the face.
I had slipped back into exactly the same cycle I thought I’d broken free from.
Doing what I ‘should’ be doing – what was expected of me.

 
This is probably why most people stick to the path mapped out for us. It’s less uncertain. It’s less likely to have us rejected and questioned by our loved ones. The thing is though that this path also fills us with so many thoughts, possibilities and anxiety about all that we have to do to keep up.
We can never do enough, be enough – there’s always something we should be doing to lead these perfect lives expected of us. Everyone else around us seems to have it sorted.
By following this path we loose touch with ourselves. We get crippled by the things we think we should do and stop listening to ourselves and what we, as individuals, want and need in life.
We have stories playing in our heads, some almost as old as we are, clashing with what we dream of and stopping us from getting to where we want to go. We keep looking on the outside for acceptance and approval that we’re doing the right thing. We keep pushing and pushing, losing touch with who we really are and what we need. Doing what we should until we don’t know who we are any more – this is what’s fuelling our depression and anxiety.
I realised that when we hop on the should train, it causes us anxiety. Our heads go into overdrive.
And when we keep doing what we should and not what we want and need, we get depressed.
It’s the body’s way of telling us something is wrong. 
But we don’t listen.
We keep going.
Until we don’t know who we are any more.
We try and fit ourselves into roles and boxes. But what good is it playing so small, squeezing ourselves to fit and live false lives?
We stop feeling. We listen to our heads instead of our bodies. 
 
Picking up a camera initially to help me remember things lead me to on a path to really reflect upon my life and the lives of those around me..
When I realised what was happening to me, I wanted to step out of it. I wanted to stop listening to the voice in my head and start living from my heart so my life would mean something to me.
 
You see, I believe the world we live in today tries to make us feel bad about ourselves.
When we feel bad about ourselves, we keep looking for something to fix it – something outside ourselves to make how we feel go away.
Constant messaging about not being good enough keeps us inside our own heads, beating ourselves up like there’s no tomorrow, comparing ourselves to other people, feeling like we’re never quite where we should be.
The longer we stay in our heads, do as we’re expected and ignore our true feelings, the more pain we cause ourselves leading to things like anxiety, depression – but it can become too much to bear so we do things to numb out, activities, more thoughts, more doing what we think we should.
And repeat.
It’s madness.
Honestly, if anyone actually heard the utter bollocks going on between our ears, we’d all be living in a mental hospital.
And nobody talks about it.
I just want to help.
You see I’ve realised that stopping all these behaviour and thought loops, we give ourselves a sense of freedom. No longer are we too worn out by our thoughts and trying to do everything we think we should. We get the headspace to live more purposefully and do more things that have meaning for us.
So I’m on a mission to do help people feel good – about life, about themselves, about who they are so the can send ripples of awesomeness and joy out into the world and make it a better place.
If I can help people feel better about who they are and do more things that matter to them, then so can you. It’s bloody life changing. And you don’t have to move to the other side of the world to do this… unless you want to ovbs 🙂 xxx

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Following the flow of your natural gifts and talents

I never planned to become a mentor.
Well, except for that one time at Uni when me and my friends signed up to every society meeting that had free food at the meetings.
Yes, I left pockets filled with sausage rolls and biscuits and no shame whatsoever. And a couple of weeks later I had a CB check through. Nothing ever came of it though – they must have realised we only came for the food and not the mentoring.
Anyway, I digress.
Mmmmm, food.
Ahem.
So, this mentoring and coaching stuff – it sort of happened by accident, which in my experience is always the best way. Creative and divine flow at it’s finest. It’s whenever my life works best – I shit you not. And with the gift of hindsight, I’ve been able to see just how much I’ve always done this for people – I even recently came across an old letter from one of my teachers praising me for giving up my time to help younger pupils at school. Nice one Miss Fry.

About a year or so ago, I received a call from one of my biz buddies, Joanne who works at Chester Voluntary Action – about a girl who had just dropped out of 6th form and was looking for some volunteering opportunities. She was interested in photography so Joanne asked if I would take her along on a shoot or two to build her confidence. 
We met for cake and tea and to have a chat. 
I saw a very lovely, yet totally unsure and timid girl. I saw a lot of myself in her – the not feeling quite like you fit with everyone else around you. Except this girl had bigger lady balls than I did at her age – she actually had the courage to drop out of 6th form because it was making her unhappy.
First thing I did was say how awesome she was for actually listening to how she felt and taking action. Some people go through their whole lives knowing something isn’t right but they don’t have the strength to do anything for themselves. They don’t want to rock the boat. They don’t want to stand out and be different. They don’t want to be judged. So they carry on regardless.
It felt like this was music to her ears. After all, there’s a set path after finishing school and some adults haven’t really cottoned on to how the world has changed since they were in that position.
I gave her a couple of dates to come on shoots with me and off we went.
In the car we talked about life, the universe and everything.
I felt really wise! She would often say, ‘oh my goodness, that makes so much sense’ or ‘wow, I’ve never really thought about it like that’. I’d remind her that I had many more years under my belt, had made enough of my own stupid mistakes and have also spent the past few years working on myself, being a personal growth junkie and healing many years of stinky thinky and judgement from others about wanting something more for myself.
Since coming on to do a couple of shoots with me, she went and made a heck of a lot of connections around town, set up her own meet up group for other teens with self confidence issues and is soon to be jetting off to Australia for a few months. We still meet up every now and then for cake and tea. I still help with new perspectives on dealing with parents and boys but mainly it’s nice to know that in a way, the ups and downs of my life and my own issues with self confidence have been able to help someone else so much.
“When I dropped out of my A-Level’s-due to being completely unhappy – I thought I had totally lost my way. I felt as though I had failed at life! Marie-Claire helped me to see that it was only the beginning of the journey to my happiness and it definitely wasn’t the end of the world.
It’s been about 8 months since I met Marie-Claire and I am the happiest I’ve ever been! She has a wonderful positive energy that when I leave her presence I feel as though I could take on the world. She helps you to see the important things in life and to fulfill your potential. She is bouncing with self confidence and has helped me and many others to feel the same way about themselves.
She just has an overall gift for making people happy. I feel honoured and privileged to know her and I don’t think I will ever be able to thank her enough for the huge impact that she’s had on my life. “
Gaynor B. January 2017
I fell into this by just doing what I’m naturally good at and this is just one of the ways it’s helped other people as well as turning into a job I really bloody love. It took a while to see this gift by myself so it does help to have someone around who can see your potential clear as day.
[bctt tweet=”Sometimes all we need is someone to see us for who we really are. To validate us. To encourage us. To know we’re not alone.” username=”ProfeshRebel”]
I’ve opened up a few one to one Awesomeness Coaching & Mentoring slots in my diary to start the new year, drop me an email if you’d like to see if I can help you too.
It’ll be fun and there’ll be cake too!
Show me my awesomeness!
mail me

Please leave me comments x

Personal Brand Photography: An Ace Study – Annette Khepri, Conscious Leadership Coach

Sometimes what we do as an entrepreneur can be really hard to put into just a few words.
Especially when we’re multi-talented, multi-faceted individuals on a super personal mission to change the world.
In my branding shoots, I tend to work with people who have many interests, talents and life experience so colourful, that often times they would span lifetimes of your average person – you know, the sorts of people you meet and you think to yourself ‘how on earth have you fitted all of that into one life time?!’
Annette is most definitely one of these people.

From running a martial arts academy and using all sorts of scary weapons during fights, she now uses that ancient knowledge and discipline to mentor conscious entrepreneurs and creative thinkers who want to change the world. She is also a single mum of two, has travelled the world, performed on stage as a singer and poet and describes herself as being a bit of an adrenaline junkie, having done various things for charity and good causes.

When we chatted about what ‘vibe’ she wanted in her images, there were plenty of elements that she wanted me to capture that day.
“So a bit of mystery is quite nice for the whole Dojo journey aspect. But it’s tricky because I need to use [them] for social media and the website. I’d like some shots to be able to use as and when needed.
It’s also a bit difficult as the Bushido / Spiritual Alchemy side is quite serious – like when I ran The TAO Academy. As a Master Instructor I had to be firm but at the same time my Gemini side does like to have fun too and I try and break things down and be lighter with them.
Vibe wise – gosh it’s hard as I don’t like having my pic taken but I guess I would say a bit of a mixture really, some a bit fun and happy, some fitting to the Dojo and Temple work so the mystery and a little serious in the sense of I take everyone I work with very seriously, I am here to help and I don’t take that lightly, so it’s important to me that people feel safe, can trust me and can totally be themselves which includes the yin and yang of whatever that might be, tears, laughter, deep stuff, funny things – whatever comes up really!”
She also wanted some relaxed photos of herself and her girls to send to friends and family too.

And whist this all sounds very serious and the photos from the day look very peaceful and enigmatic, what actually happened outside of the frame, behind the scenes that day truly was something I wish I had a video of. If not for the shock and entertaining value of what went on that day but also to highlight the old adage of working with animals and children too!

You see Annette travelled up from near Cornwall to come work with Jane and I. She came up with her two girls and 6-month-old wolf puppy for the day – though he doesn’t look like a baby at all, he’s HUGE.
She wanted her dog, Guardian to be in the photos with her as she also mentioned showing a shamanic healer element to her work.
It was quite the house full once they all arrived to get ready at Jane’s house. Jane decided to put her own rather large dog out into the back garden – she wasn’t sure how he’d react with another big dog in the house.
Annette wanted to say hello to Jane’s dog but was bitten, not once but twice on both forearms!
She came in looking rather pale and looking as if she was about to pass out. Now, I know Annette quite well. She is nails and I know it would take something quite serious to knock her from her usual balanced and composed self.
Jane was mortified as you can imagine – her dog, who is normally fine with her and all of her children must have just panicked at the scent of another fairly large doggo.
The dog bites had not only broken the skin but also punctured muscle and you could even see bone! As she’s travelled so far to work with us, she said going to the hospital was out of the question, and just cleaned up her wounds and put plasters on her arms and continued to get ready.
And I thought I was someone who just grinned and beared things!!!
We then continued on to Wepre Park, North Wales to do the shoot with an, at times, weary Annette, and an excitable wolf pup who would run all over the place, knocking the girls over in excitement or jump in the stream unable to sit still for more than a split second.
I am honestly surprised we managed to get him to sit still long enough for this photo!!!

Annette managed really well with her injuries throughout the shoot, until we decided on some martial arts stances. Thanks to a bit of gravity and the force of her arm movements, a load of blood ended up rushing to her forearms and her wounds started to bleed and swell up. And as the ninja she is, she still insisted we continue through it all!

Despite the long travel, the chaos before and during the shoot – we did really well to hide this in the finished images and I’m very proud that I was able to convey all the elements Annette asked for in our pre-shoot meeting. A bit of cheeky photoshop helped to hide the plasters, swelling and blood too!
And after a long drive home, she did eventually get those injuries looked into and has made a full recovery.

Find out more about how working with me can bring out your inner badass, warrior spirit. Just drop me an email or use the contact page on the website. I adore bringing what I see so the rest of the world can experience you in your true epic glory x

If you’d like to find out more about what Annette does, I can highly recommend her.
She works with people who are maverick, different and entrepreneurial who want to make a difference and challenge the status quo.
Have a look at her website here.
I highly recommend the lovely Jane, an award winning hair and make up artist who also has a huge heart and is on a mission to make the world a better place. She is also great fun to work with. She’s very silly like me so we always have heaps of fun when we’re together. Take a look at what she does here.

How low self esteem killed a perfectly good business.

 
Once upon a time I had a photography business.
It was really good. I was really good.
Except I just couldn’t see it.
 [bctt tweet=”This is a story of how low self-esteem killed a perfectly good business.“]
 
It all started by accident in 2008.
I never intended to become a photographer.
Not a professional one anyway.
It started as a tool to remember my life.
I was sick and tired of never remembering the wonderful things I did.
My brain just felt like a magnet for negative thoughts.
Clinging on to the bad things and never the good.
So photography became my way to remember.
Good things, good times, good people.
It also became a way to explore emotions I didn’t really know how to cope with.
I never expected events to lead to where they did.
To me – being self-employed and running a business all by myself.
 
So I called my photography business FlukePhotography.
 
No one really teaches you how to run a business; it’s something you learn on the fly.
You make mistake after mistake and eventually you find your groove.
The only thing that is certain – you are not cut out for the 9-5.
You have to make it work.
But you don’t know what you’re doing.
Nobody teaches you how to run a business.
So you get yourself out there.
You take advice from every person you meet.
Obviously they know what they’re doing.
You haven’t got a clue.
You go to workshops.
You attend seminars.
You chat to people at networking.
And read oh so many fucking blogs.
Marketing, PR, Book keeping, Accounts, SEO, Time Management, Blogging.
There’s so much to do.
You started out on a shoe-string.
You can’t afford to become someone else’s customer just to get your own.
So as your to do list grows, so does your anxiety.
There’s so much you should be doing.
You can’t do enough.
You’re not enough.
You might as well give up.
You’ll never be good enough.
You start to look to people you admire.
See how well they’re doing.
You mimic them.
You get mentored.
You get coached.
They know what they’re doing.
You don’t.
You don’t trust yourself.
You put your trust in someone else.
You can’t see if they’re the right person to help you.
You just want someone to make it all better.
There’s so much you should be doing.
You can’t do enough.
You’re not good enough.
Suddenly you’re doing things that aren’t right for you.
It doesn’t fit.
It all feels so heavy.
This isn’t what you wanted.
You feel like you’re working for someone else again.
All these things, to do, they’re not what you wanted to do.
It feels like hard work.
You don’t feel like you can do it.
No wonder they say self-employment isn’t for everyone.
Where’s the time to do what you wanted to do?
Over time you start working out what works for you.
You start to listen.
To yourself.
You work out what you need.
What you want.
You do it.
Things are going well.
But then you go ahead and fuck it up.
That cunty voice.
In your head.
Eating you alive.
From the inside out.
You’re not good enough.
This isn’t what you should be doing.
Who do you think you are?
You procrastinate.
You avoid doing things.
You don’t finish things.
You don’t follow up and connect with people you met.
You don’t ask for the fucking money.
You let yourself down when you were oh so close.
You try to talk.
But no one gets it.
You take everything personally.
The price bartering – makes you question your worth.
The well-meaning friend or family – clouding you with their fears.
It’s like none of them believe in you.
The head cunt is having a feast.
Lapping up your anxiety, your doubt, your fears.
It’s a cycle.
You get yourself back up.
Everyone else has got it together.
But you haven’t.
You’re a useless failure.
 

 

STOP.

 

FUCKING STOP IT.

 
 
I had no fucking idea that setting up a business would be the biggest.personal.growth.tool you could ever possibly imagine – taking you to the heart of who you are and what is possible.
You have to listen to yourself, at long, long last. You work out what’s bullshit – all the lies you’ve been telling yourself and the invisible force fields you’ve knocked up around your super hero shaped ass, just to keep yourself safe and small – shrinking down because god forbid you shine, unintentionally pissing people off as you go about your day.
You have to work out where it came from and let it go. Master the art of forgiving yourself and those around you. Regroup. Refocus. Take some time out if you need and come back to what you want. Pick yourself back up.
FlukePhotography was never my purpose, my end goal. Photography as an entity, not just a business, has been my tool – taking me on an introspective journey towards valuing myself, shining a light on old wounds and learning to express myself and finally dropping the mask, coming out of my self constructed shell and learning to connect to people.
A journey. Full circle.
Back to me.
 
And I’ve realised I can inspire, help and empower others, just by being my honest, messy self.
So here you have it, this is how low self esteem killed a perfectly good business.
 
And it’s ok.
It was meant to be.
I’m a completely different person today than I was back then.
I am me. This is my business.
And it sure as hell ain’t no fucking fluke.
 
Welcome.

Professional Rebel.

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p.s. if this resonated with you and you want to do something about this at long last, Professional Rebel’s Courage and Confidence Crew is just what you need!
A community for creatives and business owners who want to develop the courage, confidence and chops to live life unedited – find out more here!