Nancy Borowick | Mentors & Career Pivots

New York City is often considered the center of the universe, especially for photographers and other creative types. Leaving the Big Apple after you've established yourself there can mean "saying goodbye to these chapters of a previous life," according to today's guest.

Derek's chat with Sony Artisan Nancy Borowick on this week's podcast is all about looking beyond the environment that launched her professional life and making pivots to balance a successful career with the responsibilities of a growing family, amid other life changes.

As Derek aptly notes, "Pivot means more adapt than it means change. And you can turn out a different end product and it's coming from a different place. But at the end of the day, you're still building the same connections."

Nancy and Derek also discuss the value of mentorship, the essential role of human connections, challenges to building community as an outsider in a new setting, and Nancy's recent expansion into family & event photography.

Reflecting on the jumble of life and career decisions she's made to this point, Nancy admits, "It calms me to be able to look at all the pivots and all the different chances that I've taken and seen that it's all kind of worked out in the end in some capacity. Like, when you're just starting out, and I was saying yes to everything that came my way because, one, I needed to make money, but also, someone wants to hire me to take photographs?!?"

"I thought it was going to be a hobby," she adds. "I didn't realize I could make it into a career. And, little by little this door opened this thing, and this door opened this other thing, and I left New York, and I said goodbye to a lot, but then new doors opened."

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Guest: Nancy Borowick

Episode Timeline:

0:00: Nancy Borowick: Photography Mentors & Career Pivots.

1:36: Derek stalks Nancy enroute to the recording session.

6:12: Leaving New York for the US Virgin Islands.