3 Takeaways from Mariah Gale and Andrea Schwanbeck’s Episode of Chronic Boss Unfiltered
July 5, 2026
Mariah Gale and Andrea Schwanbeck have spent years photographing the Chronic Boss community from behind the camera. This time, they sat down in front of it. Here’s what stood out.
1. Your diagnosis can rebuild your workflow, not just your mindset
Mariah has ADHD, along with depression and anxiety, and for years she edited her photo shoots in the exact order she shot them. The shoots she loved most got pushed to the back of the line because she’d decided the “right” way was hardest job first.
This year she flipped it.
- She starts editing with whichever shoot excites her most, novel light, a challenging location, something new
- That shoot gives her brain the dopamine to build momentum into everything else
- Same hours in the day, and she gets more done than she ever did forcing herself through a self-imposed order
She calls it giving herself permission instead of punishing herself for a system that was never built for her brain in the first place.
2. A visible chronic condition can be the fastest trust-builder you have
Andrea Schwanbeck has managed Type 1 diabetes for 15 years while running Brass Tacks Photography, a business that’s on its feet constantly. She used to keep her diagnosis private with clients. Not anymore.
- She wears her insulin pump visibly on shoots now
- She’s built what she calls a pump bump, tapping her pod to a client’s Omnipod when she spots one
- Clients now come up to her mid-event to share their own story or a family member’s
When she was first diagnosed, Andrea worried people would assume she’d drop the ball at a big moment if her blood sugar dropped. Fifteen years in, that hasn’t happened once. The thing she used to hide is now the thing clients trust her faster for.
3. The right pivot isn’t the one you planned, it’s the one that fits your actual life
Mariah closed her first photography studio 18 months into a three-year lease. It broke something in her, because she’d tied that 1,600-square-foot space to her identity as a photographer. She signed a second lease, on better terms this time, and when it came time to renew it again, she let it go without it taking her down with her.
Andrea’s pivot looks different. After her son Sam was born, she raised her rates, stopped taking small Saturday gigs, and started building a client base of hotels and restaurants that fit a nine-to-five rhythm instead of chasing every wedding weekend.
Neither pivot was the plan. Both are working.
Mariah’s newest project, Boston Content Club, came straight out of listening to her clients’ actual pain point: no light, no location, no equipment to create content with. Their first pop-up content day is happening on the rooftop at High Street Place in Boston.
