Nicole Begley (00:00)
In today's episode, Heather is back on the podcast and her and I are digging in again to a little bit more burnout and the two types of burnout that pretty much every photographer is going to get at some point. One of the two, if not both. So it's pretty important that you stay tuned.
Nicole Begley (00:18)
I'm Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving $2,000 $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six-figure businesses.
that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place. With over 350,000 downloads, welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast.
Nicole Begley (01:17)
Hi everybody, welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Begley, and back with me today is my dear friend, Heather Lahtinen Hi, my friend. I feel like I haven't talked
Heather (01:27)
Yeah, I'm so happy to be here.
Nicole Begley (01:28)
to you or seen you, I feel like we have been separated by a chasm.
Heather (01:33)
Yeah, it's called it's called countries. L like
Nicole Begley (01:36)
No,
no, no. You've also been running the revenue sprint, so we have not been able to do our
Heather (01:40)
That's true.
Nicole Begley (01:41)
normal podcast Wednesdays. 'Cause I've been home for almost a month now.
Heather (01:43)
That's true. Hey,
listen, yeah, it's crazy. I just want to catch you up to date on that. I'm trying to gather some numbers. I don't have this yet of how much money was generated during the revenue sprint, but it was significant. A lot, lot of money.
Nicole Begley (01:57)
that's fun.
Heather (01:58)
And I can't make a prediction, but it's a lot. Anyway, in addition to that, I made the revenue sprint evergreen with its own app inside of Elevate. So if you miss
the revenue sprint,
And you want to try it out, just join us in Elevate and you'll get it. And actually, a couple of people in Elevate said to me, they were so glad I was doing that because they're going to do their own sort of revenue sprint every month. They're going to set goals and
Nicole Begley (02:23)
No. Yeah.
Heather (02:24)
you know, which gives you focus. And I created an app for it. So it's perpetual, evergreen. So you can put
Nicole Begley (02:31)
Yeah.
Heather (02:31)
in a a date and then you can say 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, or I believe even custom. And then it tracks everything in this beautiful app.
I love it.
Nicole Begley (02:41)
I love it.
Heather (02:42)
Yeah.
Nicole Begley (02:43)
Amazing. Just over here creating stuff with this with the apps.
Heather (02:47)
I am loving the apps. Okay. I feel like I'm some sort of software developer over here. It's amazing.
Nicole Begley (02:53)
I know, I
know, I've been playing around. my gosh. Yeah, there's so many things. One of the other things that I created just a couple weeks ago from a conversation that was happening in Elevate where somebody was asking about sales software. And you know, there used to be I think it was called shoot and sell. It was like an iPad app. It was super, super basic, but for most of us that's really all we needed. Like I just need to put my photos on the client's wall and size it. Like that's
all.
I don't need 8,000 other functions.
Heather (03:23)
Right.
Nicole Begley (03:24)
Like all of these other programs are great, but we use 2%. And and you have to pay for all of it and you don't use hardly any of it. And it gets expensive. And especially for people that are maybe part-time or just getting their business off the ground. Like, dude, any all of us, I mean, talk about software expenses. Any sort of software expense that we can like nix.
is super super helpful. so anyway, I sat down one morning. It was not on my plan for the day, but I sat down in the morning and I was like, huh, I saw the post. I went to my buddy Claude and I said, hey, if if I wanted to make something like this, just just tell me kind of what what are my options? What what could this look like? Give me different different ways to to kind of play that out. And I would just kind of explain what it is.
And we talked it through and it was like, yeah, I could definitely build it. And I can build it as an HTML artifact. So it doesn't need to be online. No AI is used to actually run the program. It was just used to build it. and in one day, I sat down and created a an HTML artifact that I can upload a picture of a wall, size something on the wall, upload my images, and create a single image. Then I was like, you know what? What if somebody wants galleries?
And so then I created an option to do gallery walls too, to customize it and however people wanted, add some frames. and then I just set it loose with our elevate people and they're loving it.
Heather (04:51)
they're loving it. A few of them actually reached out to me and said they couldn't believe how simple and perfect it was. That's amazing.
Nicole Begley (04:59)
yeah, yeah. So again, not what I was gonna do on a Tuesday, but but this is where my ADHD comes in like clutch is I hi hi hyper focused, got it
Heather (05:06)
Helpful. Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (05:09)
done, and I was so proud of myself that I also delivered it that day. Like I closed all the loops and there was just one open loop, which I handed off to my team, which was to send the email out to to my coaching people to let them know that it was available. Done.
Heather (05:23)
I know. Amazing. And I said to you jokingly, I said, You should start a software company. You're now you
Nicole Begley (05:28)
Yeah, I said no, thank you.
Heather (05:31)
Yeah, you listen, you make an important point. I just want to mmm, you know, focus on this, is that the apps that I've created, there is one does not apply, but most of what I've created does not actually use AI.
Nicole Begley (05:45)
Right.
Heather (05:45)
They're just like some sort of tracking dashboard helpful calculator situation. And
Nicole Begley (05:53)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (05:54)
I use AI to develop it, but it's not like an ongoing AI thing that you use. That's I just wanted to make note of that.
Nicole Begley (05:58)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah. It's just it's yeah, then you don't have to worry about any sort of security stuff. You don't have to worry about people having access to whatever program it was built in. it just it works really well.
Heather (06:10)
Yes.
Nicole Begley (06:11)
So so fun. Yeah, I I've been over here just having a good old time. but yeah, anyway, that was a tangent.
Heather (06:18)
Ha
Nicole Begley (06:19)
what what are we talking about today? we're gonna talk more about burnout, which I thought was really, really fitting.
Because when you guys listen to this, we'll be three episodes back into Nicole's podcast burnout break. That's what I'm gonna call September. NB
Heather (06:37)
Okay.
How many weeks did you choose not to have a podcast? Six.
Nicole Begley (06:43)
Six. Uh-huh.
Heather (06:45)
Okay. How before we get into this, I'm so curious how your brain feels about that.
Nicole Begley (06:52)
it feels totally fine with it right now because I made the decision. It was yeah, yeah. It
Heather (06:55)
It was a choice. It wasn't like I'm yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (06:58)
was I could either like well, yes. It was it started off. I was going for my mastermind meeting in Austin, leaving here on a Monday.
Going there till Thursday, leaving Austin Thursday night, flying to France, and then was gonna spend two and a half weeks in France teaching the Cabaret Sape. And and I was just like, you know what? I I do not have the time to do this right now. And could I have chosen to make myself have the time? Yeah, I could have. But what would that have cost me? And
Heather (07:35)
Mm.
Nicole Begley (07:35)
I mean, quite frankly, the we I the
This happens every workshop and I at least know it now. And I go with like, if I get that done, great. But even my team knows, I it's it is like if there is a a house fire, that is the only thing I'm available for. things need to be burning down. Otherwise, you've got it. basically it's like I am not incommunicado during workshops because we're going, especially this one too. We were shooting in the morning and evening and
Some were at sunrise. So we literally left the house one morning at 5 45 AM and we actually built a nap into the schedule for the day because
Heather (08:10)
Smart.
Nicole Begley (08:12)
we're like, my gosh, we're gonna be exhausted. Plus, time change and everything else. so yeah, it's the best kind of exhausted, but I I at least have done enough of these that I know when I am there, I A, want to be fully present and B, I just do not have the energy to do anything other than what I'm doing right there.
Heather (08:28)
Okay, I'm I'm curious about this because there's a version of me. Okay, there's there's many versions of me. Let's be clear. Okay. There's a version of me that would make that decision, choose it, and be totally okay with it, as you just explained. But there's also a version of me that would just be all turned upside down in spiral about how I'm letting people down or I'm letting myself down or I'm not being consistent. Or, you know, I would like, yeah.
Nicole Begley (08:53)
that voice too, especially
the voice was you haven't missed a week in like six and a half years.
Heather (09:00)
See, I see, you had a streak. I cannot break streaks.
Nicole Begley (09:01)
Mm-hmm. I
know, I remember. Where was it? Was it Elevate Live when you were coming down
Heather (09:06)
Yes.
Nicole Begley (09:07)
here and you're like, I've gotta get my walk in? I'm like, Well well you can, but we're starting
at nine.
Heather (09:12)
Okay, and I just
want to say something about that because I checked it yesterday. I checked my garment app yesterday for my streak and I look at it seven days, month and then year and I can see it all. And do you know where the only dip this year was?
Nicole Begley (09:28)
Hey, also you got sick. huh. Yeah.
Heather (09:30)
It was in March. There, there was one day where I couldn't move, so
for sure. But I look at that and I'm like, my longest streak was at that point was 75 days.
Nicole Begley (09:39)
huh.
Heather (09:40)
And I was I really had to manage my mind around that.
Nicole Begley (09:44)
Yeah, I had to coach you around the streak.
Heather (09:47)
I can't, I can't break this streak.
Nicole Begley (09:49)
I get it though. I am also
super proud of myself because I have tried to get Doolingo to stick for a gazillion million times. And I finally did, and I was like, you know what? I'm just like I'm committing to doing this for 10 days. And then it was then now month. So I am on day 63, by the way.
And I've realized what I need for these things. And the only thing that works is
The Duolingo comes up as a notification. I I enable notifications. So I usually do it right before I go to bed because I look at my phone to set my alarm and then I have this mean red face of with a countdown. And I'm like, I can't break my streak. I gotta do it. So like what for whatever that is motivating to me. I'm like, I can't,
Heather (10:33)
Right.
Nicole Begley (10:33)
I can't, I gotta do it. I gotta I can't. The it's mad. Mean facing a countdown.
Heather (10:37)
A mean face. That's what does it. my goodness.
Okay.
Nicole Begley (10:42)
And well,
I think what happens is that it's in front of me. So I see it and I remember.
Heather (10:46)
Mm.
Nicole Begley (10:47)
because before, if I would miss a day, and this is this is also what happened with the podcast. I decided not to do it while I was in France. And then I came back and I was playing catch up and I had some projects and I had just so much stuff going on that I was just like, next week, next week, next week. And so once I skip a streak, once I stop that habit, for me to start it again is
exponentially challenging. So,
Heather (11:12)
Yeah. It makes sense.
Nicole Begley (11:14)
so that's also what was going on there.
Heather (11:16)
Okay, which is interesting because that's the exact reason I don't want to break a streak. 'Cause I know that about myself. It's so hard to get that momentum going again when you're
Nicole Begley (11:26)
Yeah.
Heather (11:26)
like, how long's your streak? One day. One.
Nicole Begley (11:30)
Although to be fair, who's asking how long our streaks are? Just ourselves.
Heather (11:33)
Yeah, I know, it's all made up. Michelle Crandall and I were talking about this yesterday, and she's like, Heather, you made that up. It's all made. I don't even know what we were talking about. I had set a date for something. I wanted to get done. And she's like, Yeah, but you made that up. And I'm like, I yes, I know, but it has to get has to get done by that date. Like according to who? just me. Right.
Nicole Begley (11:53)
Mm. Mm. Mm-hmm. Although this is good. That that
that whole self integrity thing. If I don't have people
Heather (11:59)
Yeah.
Nicole Begley (11:59)
waiting on me for things, then yeah, it's sometimes hard to do.
Heather (12:03)
Yeah. Okay, I want to talk about burnout again because you and I had covered this in a previous episode that you were feeling.
Nicole Begley (12:09)
Mm-hmm. Yep. September second, episode three five, three.
Heather (12:13)
wow, way to go. That's impressive. Okay, okay, great. So
Nicole Begley (12:14)
It's up on my Monday board.
Heather (12:18)
definitely listen to that because this is sort of a a different look at a different perspective. Because at the time I was putting together the burnout reset course for photographers. And I
I was coming at it from two types of burnout that photographers experience. So one of those is a like it's fall. So maybe you have a very full schedule. That means sessions to edit, weather to negotiate with, which is extraordinarily frustrating. And then you have galleries to edit and emails to answer. Well, actually the weather thing, I was thinking about it the other day and I was like, Heather, why are you fighting the weather? Like you're not going to win. I had
I had a shoot last weekend and I have a shoot coming up and I'm obsessed with the weather forecast. And that stresses me out alone, which causes burnout
because I
Nicole Begley (13:08)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (13:09)
don't want to fight with the weather up. Okay. But then you have all of your normal responsibilities, like being a person, right? 9,000 things on your to-do list. So then your brain starts with this: I can't keep up. It's just too much to do. I'm so behind. I'm always behind. I can never stop. I might actually die.
This is the type of burnout that comes from just having a lot of client work in delivery.
Nicole Begley (13:32)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (13:32)
And it makes sense that you would feel overwhelmed and exhausted because you're spinning on these thoughts. I have to work constantly. I'm never going to keep up, keep be able to keep up. Right.
Nicole Begley (13:40)
Yeah. I'm behind, I'm behind, I'm behind. Mm-hmm.
Heather (13:43)
So it's not the overwhelm and the burnout, that's a feeling that comes from how we're thinking about it because someone else might have a very busy schedule and might be thrilled about it. So I think most of us.
Can relate to that burnout. Yes.
Nicole Begley (13:58)
Yes.
Heather (13:59)
I was like having to okay. But there's another type of burnout that's like a little sneakier. And it's what I call, and I see this all the time, and it's not just in the fall, it's this burnout from trying.
Nicole Begley (14:12)
Mm.
Heather (14:13)
Like you might not actually be that busy, but you've been putting in a tremendous amount of effort, you know.
Meeting people, sending emails, trying new offers, watching trainings, working on your pricing, trying to get inquiries, trying to get people to book, reaching out, posting on social media is like a lot of efforting. know, it's just a lot of effort.
Nicole Begley (14:33)
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Heather (14:35)
But despite all that effort, it just doesn't seem like much is happening. So that's when your brain starts to say things like, Well, I've tried everything. People have actually said that to me. Heather, I've tried
everything.
And I respectfully decline that because obviously not everything. Yeah. Everything.
Nicole Begley (14:49)
I mean everything.
Heather (14:52)
And then it all your brain will also say, I've tried everything, nothing is working. Why is this so hard? I'm putting in so much effort. It doesn't seem to matter. Maybe I'm not good at this. Maybe I should quit. I don't even know what else to try. Just all of these terrible thoughts
that
Nicole Begley (15:10)
Mm.
Heather (15:11)
can be just as exhausting as the thoughts.
from being too busy like I'm so behind or I'll never catch up.
Nicole Begley (15:16)
Mm-hmm. I think
almost even more exhausting because with the I have so much going on, the the first one is you can delegate some things. You can like rest will sometimes help that. Like it's literally just like there is just too there are too many plates split spinning. I need a little bit of help with my plates, or I need to decide which plates can fall. And
Heather (15:40)
Yeah.
Nicole Begley (15:41)
so
I think once you make that decision, the podcast, that was where I was. And I made the decision, hey, the podcast plate is falling. I am okay with that. We're moving on. Boom. I immediately felt lighter and better and easier. But from this other one you're describing, you've been putting in the effort to get an outcome. You're not getting the outcome. And you feel like you can't stop putting in the effort until you get the outcome.
Heather (16:03)
Right. Right.
Nicole Begley (16:04)
Because if you stop efforting, then you're never gonna get the outcome. And yes.
Heather (16:07)
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
Nicole Begley (16:09)
And so you're just just feel almost becomes hopeless. Yeah.
Heather (16:13)
It's hopeless. That is
that is exactly what I was thinking. So the point here is you can absolutely burn yourself out from repeatedly trying to make your business work while believing that none of the effort is paying off. That's actually a very terrible feeling. You're just
Nicole Begley (16:28)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Heather (16:30)
over and over all of the effort and you get hopeful. You know, think, maybe this experiment will work, and then it doesn't. And then you're defeated. Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (16:37)
You know what this reminds me of? Facebook ads.
Heather (16:42)
Hmm. Same. You get so excited. This is gonna be the one. These are good reels. I tell you, Nicole,
Nicole Begley (16:47)
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Heather (16:49)
these are the best reels I've ever created. And then nothing. fickle indeed.
Nicole Begley (16:53)
Facebook ads are a fickle fickle little friend.
Heather (16:58)
Much like the weather, if you think about it. It's like you can't, you can't control it. So there are photographers who are absolutely burned out from too much work.
And I think
Nicole Begley (17:07)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (17:07)
that's kind of where you've been a few times recently, is just like too much work.
Nicole Begley (17:10)
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Heather (17:12)
But oftentimes they're burned out because they don't have enough work, but they're exhausting themselves from trying to create it. So
Nicole Begley (17:17)
Mm.
Heather (17:18)
the interesting thing is even though the circumstances are completely different, actually polar opposite, the emotional experience can look very similar. And it's you feel tired, discouraged, hopeless, overwhelmed, resentful. And you what
Nicole Begley (17:34)
I forgot.
Heather (17:35)
both of those, so both of these circumstances.
Can lead to you just don't want to do anything. You don't want to look at your business anymore. You don't even want to sit down and edit those photos, or you don't want to sit down and write the email.
Nicole Begley (17:45)
And it causes
you to think, are you really cut out for this? Mm-hmm.
Heather (17:48)
That's it. Yeah.
You start so it it it generates this doubt. And
Nicole Begley (17:53)
Mm.
Heather (17:53)
then you're like questioning. So well, should I be doing this? And am I really good at this? And and it just sort of spirals from all of those negative
Nicole Begley (18:00)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Heather (18:03)
thoughts and and emotions. And the workload, the circumstances, they matter, you know, whether you have too much work or not enough. Like those matter.
But that is not what's creating your emotional experience. So people will tell me I have too much work. I'm burned out, overwhelmed. I don't have enough work, but I'm efforting like crazy. I'm burned out, I'm overwhelmed. And I I am very compassionate to that. I have felt both of those things. I I've felt it in my wedding photography business just.
ble being completely overwhelmed in client work, wedding after wedding after wedding after wedding. 30 weddings in a row with no breaks, trying
Nicole Begley (18:42)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (18:43)
to make sure you're keeping up with all of that. But that's not what's creating the emotional experience. Because people can have different thoughts and feel different things. So for instance, somebody who's really busy might just be like, yeah, I'm busy, but I I handle it every year. It's not a problem. I trust myself to get through this because I always
Nicole Begley (19:00)
Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.
Heather (19:03)
do.
And I trust myself to prioritize. what am I working on today? next session in the queue is the Miller engagement. So I'm going to work on that and just continue to plow through. It's the thinking about the circumstance that is causing your misery. So on the on the flip side to that, the person who's efforting can have the terrible thoughts. I don't know if I'm cut out for this, nothing is working, et cetera. You feel terrible.
But another photographer under my tutelage, by the way, might ask themselves, okay, that didn't work, but what did I learn? What's my next experiment? Or this is really exciting. I got more data. I'm willing
Nicole Begley (19:41)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (19:42)
to keep testing. I trust myself to solve this. So same circumstance, very, very, very different emotional experience because your workload, whether it's from clients or efforting, does not create your emotional experience within itself.
Nicole Begley (20:00)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (20:00)
It is your
thoughts about your workload that create pressure, urgency, fear, exhaustion, essentially burnout.
Nicole Begley (20:09)
Yep. What if it's because those thoughts are being generated? Again, I know we can change our thoughts from circumstance, but I see a lot of people get into that situation real fast when they have to get a client. When it is like I
Heather (20:25)
Yeah, desperate.
Nicole Begley (20:27)
need money in my bank account and I need it yesterday.
Heather (20:29)
Yes. Yes.
Nicole Begley (20:31)
So like what are some of the ways to manage your thoughts, your emotions?
The inevitable burnout from a place like that where it's like, I get it, there's these circumstances, and I know that I can change my thought, but I still have these circumstances. they can't get past the circumstance.
Heather (20:56)
They can't get past no, I know that because I I've I work with people all the time who say, I need to pay my bills.
Like I
Nicole Begley (21:02)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (21:03)
have to pay my bills. I have to get a client this week. And I believe them and I know that, but we've got to rephrase the thought. So because that just feels awful. I have to.
Nicole Begley (21:16)
And it feels
like you're trying to convince everyone, which I again,
Heather (21:19)
Correct.
Nicole Begley (21:19)
the only way that people, not the only way, but generally when people are going to say yes to us, it is out of us letting them know how we can serve them and them choosing instead of us feeling like which is also why I think marketing feels heavy and yucky to people, is because they're approaching it as a I need to
Convince this person. Yeah.
Heather (21:45)
Yes, correct. We
need to get rid of words like have to, need to, and convince. Because those create pressure and a negative urgency. And from that place, you behave differently than
Nicole Begley (21:59)
Mm.
Heather (22:00)
if you were, say, abundant and no problems, right? You would have just a different lightness to you or heaviness, depending on how you're thinking
Nicole Begley (22:07)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (22:07)
about it. But people will swear to me that it's because of the circumstance.
Nicole Begley (22:12)
Mm.
Heather (22:13)
It's the circumstance that's causing that.
And I know this, trust me, I went through this process. I know this is sort of a difficult pill to swallow, but it's true. Could we at the very least rephrase the thought? So instead
Nicole Begley (22:25)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (22:26)
of, you know, Heather, I I have to, I have to get a client this week. I have to pay my rent. I have to pay my rent. I have to get a client this week. And and I know that that's true. They know that that's true. And they're trying to convince me of how desperate they are, which,
Nicole Begley (22:40)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (22:42)
but it's not useful.
It's not helpful. So
Nicole Begley (22:45)
Yeah. It's
it's almost like they're trying to convince you because then you'll be like, okay, you need it bad enough here. Here's what you actually do. I haven't told you until you got real
Heather (22:53)
That's yes.
Nicole Begley (22:55)
desperate.
Heather (22:56)
That is literally what's happening. A hundred
Nicole Begley (22:58)
Ha ha.
Heather (22:59)
percent yes. There, they I'm like, I see that you're trying to convince me of this,
but
Nicole Begley (23:03)
Ha ha ha.
Heather (23:04)
you don't have to. I believe you. I believe
Nicole Begley (23:06)
huh.
Heather (23:07)
that you are in this situation. But what could you say differently? How could you phrase this differently instead of I need to get a client?
Nicole Begley (23:15)
Yeah.
Even if it's what can I do to attract a client this week? That's a very different
Heather (23:20)
How can I create an
Nicole Begley (23:22)
question.
Heather (23:22)
Well, yeah, I had that in the revenue sprint, actually I said, how can I create an opportunity for someone to buy today? How can I
Nicole Begley (23:28)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Heather (23:30)
create an opportunity for someone to book me this week?
Nicole Begley (23:33)
How can I create an opportunity for a past client to give me more money this week? Mm-hmm.
Heather (23:36)
Cor absolutely. Like here
are all of these ways that I can generate revenue. I mean, one of the questions you could ask yourself is how can I get creative about generating revenue this week?
Nicole Begley (23:47)
Uh-huh.
Heather (23:48)
How can I give someone the opportunity to book? How can I, you know, whatever that is, is much more useful than I need, I need, I have to.
Nicole Begley (23:57)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (23:57)
And you could even change that language to say, you know, I want to book a client this week because I don't
Nicole Begley (24:02)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (24:03)
want to lose my house. I mean, that's fair, you know.
Nicole Begley (24:05)
Okay.
Heather (24:05)
I want to I could book a client this week.
Nicole Begley (24:08)
Well, and the other half of that, 'cause we do like I have to pay this or I'm like if you didn't get a client this week, would you really lose your house? I guess
Heather (24:18)
No.
Nicole Begley (24:18)
sometime there's a cash flow crunch, but is that is there still some money somewhere? Can something else be like, we often say and it feels like because we've all like we're human, we run businesses, we've had tight cash flow situations as well.
Where it's like, no, really, I need to bring in some revenue to the business, like stat. that happens. And but I find it helpful sometimes to be like to go forward and to be like, all right, what it what if I didn't bring in revenue this week? Like, am I going to lose the business? Am I gonna lose my house? No. Yeah. Does the bank account look terrifying right now? Yes. Do I know that I'll figure it out and we'll get in and and it will come in?
you know, maybe not this week, but in the next couple weeks, also yes.
Heather (25:06)
So that's exactly the question I pose. And let me just preface this by saying in 23 years of working with photographers who have insisted that they need to book a client this week, no one has lost their home. No one has gone without food, water, shelter, or clothing. No one. So I've said, typically when I'm talking to someone in this situation, again, I'm very compassionate, but I I say, have you ever lost your house before? Or or had your water shut up? Whatever it is. And they always say no. I said,
But you've had certainly you've had challenging times, right? Yes. Okay. So you've always figured it out? They say yes. I say, so you have a hundred percent evidence that you
Nicole Begley (25:44)
Sha
Heather (25:44)
always figure it out. So instead of saying, I need to, I have to book a client this week, could you simply say, I trust myself to figure this out? Because you always have. And I try to get them talking and thinking
in that mode, even if it's just for 60 or 90 seconds, I get them
Nicole Begley (26:01)
Mm.
Heather (26:01)
saying things like,
I yes, I have proof. I have always figured this out. It will be okay. And it just shifts their, I mean, their whole like presence attitude, you know,
Nicole Begley (26:12)
Yeah.
Heather (26:13)
from this like to okay, you're right. You know, even if they have to like, okay, Heather, you're right. I have always figured it out. Okay, so trust yourself that you can figure it out and let's start asking some better questions. And I we can usually shift this.
gosh, within a few minutes. I always say, give me 10 minutes and we can solve any problem. It's
Nicole Begley (26:32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Heather (26:35)
just the thinking. It's the thinking about it. I know it feels awful and scary and terrible, the monster under the bed. It's really like unknown and big, but when you start talking about it, you're like, I can figure this out. I will figure this out. Because I you could sell a kidney. I mean, you could.
You no, you could give plasma. No, of course. I'm being funny. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (26:57)
I mean, hopefully it doesn't get to that. Although someone would probably be very helpful, very thankful
for said kidney, but
Heather (27:04)
You find a way, you can find a way to generate money to pay a bill because you I everyone listening has probably been in some sort of pinch and they've always figured out a way to get the cash to pay the bill at some point. So let's stop with the dramatics and the arm waving and because you're making it worse. The way you're talking about it is making it worse. So you can make it harder for yourself or you can make it easier.
And I understand what the brain does by default, but let me let me help you with how you're thinking about that.
Nicole Begley (27:38)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's really helpful, I think.
Heather (27:43)
Okay, so two types of burnout is too much work or not enough work. You probably maybe just need a nap. How about get something to eat? Take a nap, take a deep breath. And one of the things everyone can say to themselves is, I trust myself to figure this out. I am capable of feeling this discomfort, whether that means a long line of clients to edit or no clients to edit, I trust myself to figure this out. So I know I was telling
I I mentioned this on the last podcast, but I finished the burnout reset course. And we'll have the link in the show notes. But if you go to flourish.academy, it's there. And this is the funny thing. I mean smart. By funny, I mean smart. Three videos, very, very short, because the last thing a burned out photographer needs is a four-hour course. I kept them so succinct. You could watch it. I've I timed it. It's very fast. Three videos, it's $12. Okay. It's $12.
And I promise you, wherever you're at in this journey, too many clients are not enough. I guarantee if you watch these, you will feel better. And when you feel
Nicole Begley (28:47)
I love it.
Heather (28:48)
better, you do things differently and you get better results.
Nicole Begley (28:52)
Where do people find it again?
Heather (28:54)
Flourish.academy, it's right there on the homepage. It says burnout reset
Nicole Begley (28:57)
Amazing.
Heather (28:58)
for photographers. It's $12. You can watch it on your phone really quickly while you're doing things around the house.
or editing videos or efforting, sending emails, whatever. I everyone in Elevate went through it with me. They loved it. So check it out.
Nicole Begley (29:15)
Awesome.
Amazing. Let's do it. It's the perfect time of year.
Heather (29:20)
It is. That's why I created
it right now, exactly.
Nicole Begley (29:24)
So good, so good. All right. Hope you guys found this helpful. I mean, because if you haven't been in that burnout situation, you will find yourself there at some point.
Heather (29:36)
You will.
Nicole Begley (29:37)
pretty much guaranteed. So here's a resource for you when you do find yourself there. All right, everybody, Heather, it was great to see you on the podcast again. And
Heather (29:46)
Same.
Nicole Begley (29:48)
we'll see you guys next week. Bye, everybody.
