Building confidence and clarity at Major Moments Photography
The Client
Emma Major is the owner of Major Moments Photography and Photo Booths, businesses she founded in 2017 at the age of 21. Alongside running her business, Emma and her husband are raising two young children, born in 2022 and 2023, and property investment forms part of their long-term family plans.
With time as a core family value, Emma wanted a way to create greater stability, confidence and balance across both her personal and professional life.
At the beginning of 2024, Emma found herself at a low point. Having struggled with her health, confidence and cash flow, she described hitting rock bottom and even began applying for jobs. A conversation with her long-term mentor, Ash Taylor, prompted her to consider the Effective Personal Leadership programme as a way to rebuild clarity, belief and direction.
Facilitator: Ash Taylor
Programme: Effective Personal Leadership
Participant: Emma Major
The Challenge
Before starting the programme, Emma was struggling across several areas of her life and business.
She experienced low confidence and self-belief, often doubting her ability to run and grow her business effectively. Periods of strong performance were frequently followed by self-sabotage, creating cycles of progress and setback.
Decision-making was difficult and heavily influenced by perceived external expectations, while exhaustion and overwhelm led to reactive working and emotional strain. Goals were held in her head rather than supported by any structured system.
Much of Emma’s motivation was fear-based, pushing hard until reaching a threshold and then retreating. While she hoped the programme might help a little, she did not anticipate the depth of personal insight and behavioural change that followed.
The Solution
Emma worked through the Effective Personal Leadership programme with Ash Taylor, focusing on self-awareness, responsibility and structured personal development.
The programme enabled Emma to identify patterns, challenge unhelpful beliefs and build sustainable habits that aligned with her values and long-term goals.
Key elements of the programme included:
• Understanding untapped potential by reflecting on strengths, achievements and past successes
• Clarifying personal values to support confident, aligned decision-making
• Developing personal responsibility by responding rather than reacting to circumstances
• Goal setting and visualisation focused on who she needed to become, not just outcomes
• Challenging resistance and breaking long-standing self-sabotage patterns
• Building productive habits through weekly goals, reflection, affirmations and improved communication
The Results
The impact of the programme was significant, measurable and wide-ranging.
On a personal level, Emma experienced a marked increase in confidence, self-belief and emotional resilience. She developed stronger decision-making grounded in clear values, alongside a calmer and more consistent response to challenges.
New habits created long-term consistency for the first time in her business journey.
From a business perspective, Emma:
• Achieved monthly revenue targets consistently for an entire quarter
• Successfully completed her first business expo
• Implemented a hiring process to strengthen operational capacity
• Secured 40 new bookings between August and December
• Entered the new year in the strongest position her business has ever been
The results extended beyond business success.
Emma and her family are completing the purchase of a four-bedroom detached home, something she believed was five years away, not six months. She refocused on her health, running two 10Ks and starting work with a personal trainer, and raised over £800 for Coeliac UK.
This year would not have gone the way it has without the Effective Personal Leadership programme. I’ve gained confidence, clarity and belief I didn’t know I was capable of. I finally understand how to set and achieve goals, respond rather than react, and create habits that genuinely support the life and business I want.
Emma Major
Major Moments Photography
Coach’s view
Ash Taylor, who worked closely with Emma throughout the programme, shares:
Emma demonstrated outstanding growth throughout the programme. By committing fully to the process and challenging long-held patterns, she developed the clarity, confidence and consistency needed to move both her business and personal life forward.
Her results are a powerful example of what can happen when self-awareness, responsibility and structured habits come together. It has been a pleasure supporting Emma on this journey.
Ash Taylor
LMI-UK Leadership Coach