Nicole Begley (00:00)
Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. In today's episode, Heather and I are kind of all over the place, but we're really digging into what it looks like, your revenue as you're coming through the year, when you're coming close to quarter four, what we think about when we look back at our revenue over the year or like how we set goals, what that means, the thoughts we have around those things. And if you stay to the end, you're going to learn how I pulled my groin putting on a sock.
And how that's affected me. Anyway, there's a lot of things in this episode. Stay tuned.
Nicole Begley (00:36)
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 (01:33)
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. I am your host, Nicole Bagley, and back today with me, the one, the only, your favorite. It's been a minute. I guess probably because you were on vacation and I was on vacation and I was on vacation and I was on vacation.
Heather (01:49)
Yeah, let's be let's be really
clear about this. I took one vac vacation for a week and you are constantly gone.
Nicole Begley (01:57)
No.
I would like to say I had one vacation this summer, which was when I went riding horses in Ireland with my daughter for her senior trip. And then we had a weekend trip to visit friends to Boston. And I went to the beach with Brett's family. That that vacations require an airport lounge, a chef or restaurants, and trips are short.
Or require me to spend any time in a kitchen.
Heather (02:28)
okay, so these are different categories you're saying.
Nicole Begley (02:30)
Yes, yes. So
I have not been on all these vacations.
Heather (02:35)
Okay, let me rephrase
you're never home.
Nicole Begley (02:37)
Okay, fair enough. But we also just need to get better at like you choosing your family vacations for the same time that I'm away
Heather (02:45)
Yes.
Nicole Begley (02:46)
instead of us overlapping on different weeks. But anyway, I digress. We are here. it is the end of summer. Heather, I just dropped my daughter off at college. I
Heather (02:55)
How do feel?
Nicole Begley (02:56)
would like do I get a medal? I think I should get a medal. I did not shed one tear at the drop off.
Heather (03:04)
Really?
Nicole Begley (03:05)
I think I think I worked through it all over the summer. And it
Heather (03:07)
What are your thoughts?
Nicole Begley (03:09)
I I she's super excited. And it's such a great freaking place for her. And I think the emotion that I had more was jealous rage that I didn't choose to go to a college like that with a stand-up paddleboard club and a scuba club. I'm like, this is amazing. Wilmington, UNCW. So
Heather (03:27)
Where is she going for anyone who's interested?
Nicole Begley (03:29)
University of North Carolina and Wilmington, which is a the the North
Heather (03:31)
Well my ten. So it's on the beach.
Nicole Begley (03:33)
Carolina system is like all completely separate schools, not like Penn State where they kind of feed into the big school.
Heather (03:39)
Got it.
Nicole Begley (03:39)
they're all totally separate. And they have a great marine science and environmental studies or s environmental science program. So that's what she's doing. Yeah.
Heather (03:49)
Amazing. So your
thoughts are that she basically, I'm summarizing, she's okay. She's happy, she's good, she's safe, and then the mom feels fine. Yeah, makes sense. Good.
Nicole Begley (04:01)
Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So anyway,
so I I'm waiting for my medal. I feel like I should get a no cry medal. but I had a lot of it
Heather (04:10)
I feel like that's true.
Nicole Begley (04:11)
this summer. So I think honestly I was like I was processing it all over the summer and then when it actually happened, I'm like, for good.
Heather (04:19)
And also it just feels right. You know, it's like the next step for her. Like it makes sense. Evan
Nicole Begley (04:22)
Yeah. Yeah. huh. Yep.
Heather (04:26)
starts college next week, but he's commuting. So he's going to the college that Craig works at. So he'll still be at home. But today he's at welcome week and they're doing all kinds of fun stuff. So
Nicole Begley (04:37)
No,
no. I I th he's in like icebreaker hell is where he is.
Heather (04:41)
He is and and I'm gonna be honest with you, he hates it.
Nicole Begley (04:43)
That
he does not strike me as an icebreaker type of kid. He's a really sweet kid. He's a good kid. But yeah,
Heather (04:47)
No. But no.
Nicole Begley (04:50)
the the icebreaker games. Mm-mm.
Heather (04:53)
No. And they have this whole
day planned. It was like from seven AM till like it's like till midnight tonight.
Nicole Begley (04:58)
But she's
Heather (05:00)
And I I said, Good luck, brother. I'll see you tomorrow. I cannot even imagine what you have to endure. But he's I actually am surprised. The fact that he's even going is
Nicole Begley (05:12)
Uh-huh.
Heather (05:12)
like, okay, so he's kind of a good sport about it. He'll complain, but
Nicole Begley (05:16)
Yeah.
Heather (05:17)
he's doing it. So, you know, okay, fair enough.
Nicole Begley (05:19)
Yeah.
my gosh. I love it. I love it. All right. Well, let's dig into it because the moral of all of that was it's the end of summer in which is shocking. This year keeps going faster and faster. So we have one more month of quarter three. Wow, one more month after this of quarter three, six more weeks really, and then it's quarter four. And spoiler alert, photographers make their money in quarter three and quarter four.
specifically that September, October, November trifecta of like family photo, fall photos, whether you're a pet photographer, family photographer, like even I think high school senior photographers, the the high school seniors that are on it like to get fall photos. so it's it's time to make some money.
Heather (06:05)
Like, let's go. It's so fun to make a ton of money right now. And there's one thing that's really important to remember as a photographer. I promise you no one remembers this because I did not either. Is that when you're like halfway through the year or a little bit more than that, and you look at your year-to-date revenue,
Nicole Begley (06:23)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (06:24)
you always feel like it's either down or it's lower than it should be. And we fail to recognize.
That we make a large portion of our money later in the year. So, you know, third
Nicole Begley (06:36)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (06:37)
end of third and mostly the fourth quarter. And I know everybody listening is like, Yeah, no kidding, Heather. Like we know this, but I'm telling you, you forget and you start to feel a little defeated when the truth
Nicole Begley (06:47)
It
Heather (06:48)
is there's a ton of money coming.
Nicole Begley (06:50)
Yeah, and you know when you get reminded of this and you really do feel defeated and kind of rageful is when you have to pay your quarterly estimated taxes
Heather (06:59)
No
Nicole Begley (07:00)
on money you haven't earned yet. I'm
Heather (07:02)
That's the worst. Nicole and I will never get over this.
Nicole Begley (07:06)
like, I I just don't understand. It's such an easy fix. Like, okay, I submit my profit loss. Here's my income and my expenses, and here's my profit, and let me pay my taxes based on my profit for the quarter. That's cool.
I get that they want their money quarterly. That's fine. But you're taxing me on money that I haven't made yet. And then if I have a really good fourth quarter, then all of a sudden, like if I had paid just a little bit based on when I earned it, then they'd be like, you didn't pay it in time. I'm like, I didn't make it then. Anyway.
Heather (07:36)
Right. Could we please
get someone on the phone here and talk to them?
Nicole Begley (07:39)
We've had quite a f quite
a few angry tax podcasts.
Heather (07:44)
Yeah, no, I was actually talking to one of our elevate members about this recently who I think this might have been her first year paying quarterly estimates. And
Nicole Begley (07:52)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (07:53)
she was like, Heather, wait a minute. She like caught on pretty quickly. She's like, this she's like, this doesn't actually make sense because I make all of my money later. So I'm paying the first and second quarters based on, yeah.
Nicole Begley (08:04)
Even an even amount
of what you will owe for the whole year, even though your money is seasonal.
Heather (08:10)
Yeah. She said, wait a minute, that's not right. And I'm like, girl, I know. I know. And yet it is what we are doing. Yeah, didn't
Nicole Begley (08:17)
Ha ha.
Heather (08:17)
you and I at one point, I think it was more you, did some research that you could actually pay based on your profit loss instead of your estimates, or no? No. Yeah, yeah.
Nicole Begley (08:28)
No, no, I think you went and asked Matt, our accountant. And
there was like a lot of hoops to jump through. And I think it was only if there's some weird rules and like let's say a revenue's down the first half of the year and so you end up paying less, but then you do have a good end of year, so it gets you back to where you should have been, then they charge you with penalties. I'm like, but I didn't have a crystal ball. I was all out of my crystal revenue ball. I like it was out of batteries.
Heather (08:53)
My goodness. Do
they not understand how business works? Especially small business like I mean maybe even big business. I
Nicole Begley (09:00)
Yeah. Yeah.
Heather (09:02)
don't know. You're right. I remember now I went to our accountant and he was like, No, you cannot do that. And I'm like, Why? What
Nicole Begley (09:10)
But why?
Heather (09:11)
why I could I said, Matt, I could run a profit loss right now and tell you exactly what I'm going to owe. Or like really close.
Nicole Begley (09:16)
Uh-huh,
huh.
Heather (09:17)
So
why don't I just pay that no because and he I don't remember the exact reasoning, but it made sense and I sort of just had to be like, Okay, I guess I can't do that. Right.
Nicole Begley (09:29)
I guess this is how it is.
Anyway, anyway. my gosh, we're going off on tangents today. but yeah, fourth quarter where we're making money. and yes, and we start to look at our our revenue throughout the year, especially just because as photographers, generally, I mean there are some exceptions, but generally first quarter is often our lowest quarter in terms of revenue. It's after the holidays.
A lot of the world it's winter and kind of colder. I mean, some parts maybe your that is your busy season, but it's still kind of after the holidays, everybody, even in nicer weather, although maybe our Australian friends, let us know if it's similar down there, because it's like summer, but maybe it's just too hot. I don't know. Do people kind of go hibernation in January and not spend much? in the northern hemisphere, I mean they just spent money on Christmas. They just spent all of December like, you know, with office parties.
Christmas parties, like so
Heather (10:24)
Just like boom boom boom boom. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (10:26)
busy. So then the new year hits and they're just like, I sit at home in the dark in the cold with a blanket and a fire and some
Heather (10:32)
Okay.
Nicole Begley (10:33)
coffee. Like they're not spending money. So, anyway, so because of that, those spending habits that January, February tend to be lower spend months. So that first quarter always feels like we're behind, which I think this is a good spot for.
It feels like we're behind. It does not mean we're mean we're behind. So what are the thoughts we're thinking about being behind?
Heather (10:55)
Right. Well, exactly. That's exactly the problem because we're labeling it as quote behind, which
Nicole Begley (11:02)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (11:02)
sounds really negative. So then we make it mean something. Like, you're like, well, if I'm behind, that means I don't know what I'm doing. If I'm behind,
Nicole Begley (11:09)
Mm-hmm. Or this isn't working anymore.
Heather (11:11)
it's not working. How am I going to catch up? You know, this is terrible. You tend to catastrophize. And then we're like, no, remember, it's the first quarter. You always have to like sort of get back in motion. And it's okay, because we make all of this money later.
Yeah, I I mean I remember, maybe you do as well, that like the first couple years of your photography business, it really took some time to adjust to the cyclical nature. You're just like,
Nicole Begley (11:33)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Heather (11:34)
how about, and everybody says this, how about I just make consistent $10,000 months? Every month is just a consistent $10,000. I mean, yeah, or $20. Or how about $50? Yeah,
Nicole Begley (11:42)
Or twenty.
Heather (11:46)
but it just doesn't work that way. So,
Nicole Begley (11:49)
Yeah.
Heather (11:50)
I mean, it could. I'm not, you know, you know how
Nicole Begley (11:52)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (11:52)
I feel about that.
Nicole Begley (11:53)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Generally, generally for most
Heather (11:53)
Of course you could make anything work. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (11:56)
people, yeah.
Heather (11:57)
Right. So then it just becomes a mind management game. Okay, we can do that.
Nicole Begley (12:03)
To that mind management game, I remember speaking to a photographer friend of mine, gosh, this was years ago and I forget who it was. But they were saying how they were going to do like a big vacation in January. But their spouse was like, but we can't take a vacation in January because we won't have any money coming in. And my photographer friend was like, that's exactly why we take the vacation in January, because
like we don't have any work. Like, this is a great time. If you take a vacation in October, you're like,
you know, saying no to more jobs that you could have had if you're running a full schedule. So anyway, just so many different little, little tweaks in our mindset, which you guys know that we talk that about that a lot here. so yeah, so I think that's the first one is what are you saying to yourself right now, a a little exercise, quick tip. look at your profit loss. What thought comes to mind? Is it a, my gosh, this year's going great.
Is it okay, it's about what I expected. I'm good, I'm good, I have a plan. Is it my gosh, panic, I had no idea, I thought I made more or is
Heather (13:05)
Right.
Nicole Begley (13:05)
it going to the catastrophe like this is this is hopeless, I might as well give up this year.
Heather (13:10)
Yeah, or or or quit. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. This is all
Nicole Begley (13:12)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Heather (13:13)
over. It's so interesting because we have so many choices when we look at that number. And I know for me, I actually looked at mine a few days ago. I look at it weekly and I look at two things. I look at year to date, and then I look at that week, what's coming,
Nicole Begley (13:26)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (13:26)
what's happening that week. And I looked at the year to date, and it's down from last year, or maybe down from the year before. It doesn't matter. Something is down.
Nicole Begley (13:34)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (13:35)
And I'm like, man.
But then I look at the number and I'm like, I generated that cash talking to my photographer friends every day, helping them, and I love it so, so, so much. The fact that I can generate enough cash to earn a living talking to my friends all day, every day is miraculous. And like, what even
Nicole Begley (13:55)
It is pretty incredible.
Heather (13:57)
is this life? So I was talking to one of our pet photographer friends, and I'm like, you play with puppies and kittens all the time.
Nicole Begley (14:05)
Mm.
Heather (14:06)
And
you generated that much money, like I I don't care what it is, that's a miracle that you can do that. And it's exciting and it's hopeful because then we can do more. Like there's
Nicole Begley (14:17)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (14:17)
just different ways. It's like all these things can be true, but where you place your attention is up to you.
Nicole Begley (14:24)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yes. 100%. 100%.
Heather (14:27)
Yeah.
Nicole Begley (14:29)
So with that, looking forward, getting ready for the end of the year, preparing for the gosh, it's like the Super Bowl of the Olympics of photography. Like start stretching, because you're gonna be doing a lot of those squats. And if you haven't been shooting for a bit, like your thighs are gonna be sore. But but seriously, like
What should we be doing as photographers to start to get ready for the season to make sure that we could take full advantage of of, you know, this upcoming photography harvest?
Heather (14:58)
Okay,
I have actually been thinking about this since I want to say last November or December. So, like, I don't know, nine or ten months ago, I had this thought about what we would talk about right now, which is I was like, what if I hosted a revenue sprint or a revenue challenge in order to just have fun and see what we're capable of? So I want to take like, I want to help people, photographers, set goals. Like,
Okay, how much I actually let me beep, beep, beep back up.
Nicole Begley (15:31)
Backing up.
Heather (15:32)
My original idea was like 10K in a month. 10K, let's see if we could generate 10K in a month. And if someone was already beyond that, you know, obviously they can set a different goal. But then I started looking in the nuances of like Facebook advertising, and you can't say things like that.
Nicole Begley (15:46)
No. Mm-hmm.
Heather (15:48)
And also I thought, well, people are different levels. 10,000
Nicole Begley (15:50)
Yeah.
Heather (15:51)
might be too much of a stretch. And for others, it might not be enough.
So I decided for the revenue sprint that one of the first calls would be we set this goal. And what I
Nicole Begley (16:00)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (16:01)
want everyone to do is really push it. I want them, so if somebody has had $10,000 months, I I don't want them setting this at even if they only had one. I don't
Nicole Begley (16:10)
Mm.
Heather (16:11)
want them setting it at 10. I want them to aim for like 20, 25, 30,
Nicole Begley (16:14)
Yeah.
Heather (16:15)
really high. Set a really high goal. And then we're just going to go after it together, live calls once a week.
Four weeks, all of September, Facebook group support, you're gonna be reviewing pricing, and we're just like
Nicole Begley (16:30)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (16:30)
everybody's gonna come together and just like all hands on deck. Let's go see how much money, how much revenue we can generate. By the way, I would I can't wait. Actually, what I wanna do is get some real data from this sprint. And at the end of it, I want to have like a total number, like how much
Nicole Begley (16:49)
Mm.
Heather (16:50)
how many photographers joined.
And how much revenue in total did we generate? I mean, I don't I ha I haven't even thought till this moment about what that number could be. But you know, if you had a hundred photographers join and they each said, I don't know, twenty thousand. I mean, we could be
Nicole Begley (17:07)
Yeah. huh.
Heather (17:09)
looking at some really big numbers here, which to me is very, very exciting. Like, let's go all in and just like make it happen.
Now we had also, you and I had talked about this, where we were like, and if if you're feeling behind and you kind of want to like make up for it and just make some things happen, and we were thinking about that approach, and it felt kind of like scarce and a little bit negative. So we decided to shift it to like, this is so fun. Our photographer friends, alongside of us and our coaches, are going to have so much fun. It's about to get really
Interesting and crazy, and who knows? We're gonna conduct experiments and we're gonna work together. And by the way, I want you to think of this. You're going to conduct your own experiments based on things we talk about, and others will do the same thing. But guess what? You get the benefit of hearing all of these other experiments,
Nicole Begley (18:02)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Heather (18:04)
which means you're like, I'd never thought of that. I
Nicole Begley (18:06)
Yeah.
Heather (18:07)
could try that one, or I could adapt that one to something that works
Nicole Begley (18:10)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (18:11)
for me.
Nicole Begley (18:12)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (18:12)
my gosh.
I am obviously super, super excited about this. So everybody needs to jump in on the revenue sprint A S A P.
Nicole Begley (18:20)
Awesome. Do you have a link?
Heather (18:21)
I do. It's okay. I'm gonna tell it to you. It'll be in the show notes, but also if you follow us on Instagram, you'll be seeing us post it. And if you just go to flourish.academy, you can find a link on that page. The link
Nicole Begley (18:33)
Okay.
Heather (18:34)
itself is kind of long. It's like this dash revenue sprint situation. You know, yeah.
Nicole Begley (18:37)
all right, gotcha. All right. Well put it
down below. Put it down below or go to flourish.academy and you'll be able to to click over to it. And
Heather (18:41)
Yes. Yeah. And it will and it will be there.
But we already have over a hundred people signed up for it. So you don't want to miss out on this. And we decided to take a unique approach to this in terms of how we structured participation.
Nicole Begley (18:58)
Yes, tell us.
Heather (19:00)
So to date, I have always run these challenges for free. It
Nicole Begley (19:05)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (19:06)
is like get as many people in and it's so exciting and it's so fun. But I had to think really and by the way, you know, you know I have money stories, right?
Nicole Begley (19:15)
I know, 'cause I'm the one that's like, This needs to be paid.
Heather (19:18)
Right.
And so I'm like, it needs to be free for everybody. But we we've talked about this for years, actually. I mean, this is not the first time this has come up. And I thought about it from my own perspective. When I join things that are free, I just don't take them as seriously.
Nicole Begley (19:32)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Heather (19:34)
So we're making this a paid challenge. Now it's only forty seven dollars. So it's not like who cares? What do you have to lose? Go go make forty-seven dollars and it will pay for itself and it's gonna be super fun. So I don't
Nicole Begley (19:46)
Yeah, I mean it's definitely worth a couple hundred easy, but yeah. At least at least yeah. So
Heather (19:46)
I don't see that as a barrier. for for sure. For sure. So
$47, you jump in, and the people, so I my thoughts are potentially it could be fewer number of people than have joined our challenges in the past because it's not free. But
Nicole Begley (20:06)
Mm-hmm,
Heather (20:07)
I think the quality of the people that jump in, they're going to be more committed and serious because they're gonna want to make their $47 by.
Nicole Begley (20:16)
Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, I'm sure you guys have all had experiences where you have something for free and you're like, you and you have the best intentions and you wanna do it, but there just wasn't the value there because it was free. But if you end up spending even a little bit, forty-seven dollars, it's like, well, I committed to this. It's just a new level of commitment that allows
Heather (20:34)
Yes.
Nicole Begley (20:35)
us to be like, no, I'm doing this.
Heather (20:38)
Yeah, you got some skin in the game, right? You're like,
Nicole Begley (20:39)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Heather (20:41)
I'm I'm going to watch this or participate to whatever degree that you can, you know?
Nicole Begley (20:46)
Yep.
Heather (20:46)
And you're gonna wanna go make money because who wants to be forty seven dollars in the hole?
Nicole Begley (20:49)
Yeah.
I'm excited for the the price interviews because you know that is my jam and
Heather (20:55)
I d I know that.
Nicole Begley (20:56)
my super secret, like super secret, what's the word? I don't know. Special power, my ninja power.
Heather (21:02)
Ninja power. Yeah. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (21:05)
I can look at a a price list in fifteen minutes and do like one little shift and make you twice as much money. So let's go. Let's do it. Very excited.
Heather (21:12)
Like, let's do it. I think that
I feel like that was a brilliant move on our part because I really do believe that we're brilliant. That, you know, we started to put this together and we were like, we need to leverage your expertise, which is the pricing. So I had originally scheduled four calls one a week and they were gonna be, you know, coaching and ideas and experiments and support, all of those things. And then you were like, what about pricing? And I was like, When are you available? So you added two more calls so that you can look at pricing.
Nicole Begley (21:40)
I know, sorry guys,
it's during week three. Cause Heather's like, when are you available? I'm like, well, I'm gonna be in France for most of September teaching the Camargue Escape with Shelley Paulson at our Equine and Canine workshop that is going to be amazing. I was actually just finishing up a couple of the scheduled final little pieces today. and so I'm like, I'll be home on the 20th. She's like, dude, I'm like, I'll do two that week. I'll do two that week.
Heather (22:07)
Do
you remember? Actually, I know exactly what I said to you when you were telling me all this. I we were talking in Voxer and I typed out this is all I said. I said, Nicole.
Nicole Begley (22:17)
Ha ha ha ha.
Heather (22:19)
Which you knew what I meant.
Nicole Begley (22:21)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
I'm like, I'm sorry, I cannot commit to doing a call because you know these old French castles, the Wi-Fi is usually not very good.
Heather (22:30)
You did say that you still were
talking about and I was like, that is actually if anybody heard this conversation, that is so so funny, and it's so you.
Nicole Begley (22:40)
Anyway, but I'm super excited, so you guys just want to wait for week three for me. But I I got you. I got you. Have no fear.
Heather (22:46)
It's gonna
be so great. I'm so excited. I always, if you've been in any of my challenges in the past, I put a lot of effort into these things and spend a lot of time focusing on where you're feeling challenged or stuck to help you get unstuck faster because we have
Nicole Begley (23:04)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (23:05)
a month. Let's generate as much revenue as we can and let's set some really crazy high goals. Like, why not?
Nicole Begley (23:12)
Yeah. I do
want to speak real quick about those goals. And that
Heather (23:15)
Okay.
Nicole Begley (23:16)
is a lot of people are scared to set a high goal because what if they don't hit it? Because
Heather (23:21)
Right.
Nicole Begley (23:21)
then they decide that because they didn't hit that goal, that means something about them.
Heather (23:25)
Right.
Nicole Begley (23:26)
So for any of you guys that are like sitting there, I don't I don't want to set the high goal because that means that like I might not hit it. And I I I hear this a lot and I'm sure you do too, where just people are really resistant to set that goal because they
attach so much meaning to the result, but instead I encourage us to like let's set the big crazy goal and like let's just decide now it does not matter if we hit it or not. Like it's just like this is let's what would it take to get this? What game do I want to play? I always love this. James has said this numerous times. I'm like, I
Heather (24:01)
Yes, I love that.
Nicole Begley (24:03)
I love it because it just is like, it's just a game. It's not,
Heather (24:07)
Just again.
Nicole Begley (24:07)
it's not that important.
Like it is important. We do need to have goals. We need to take action and we need to do things. We want revenue in our business. But it doesn't mean anything about us, whether we hit it or not. And I I love to also look at like, let's get this big hairy, scary, crazy goal. And then I like to to define the success of the goal on if I followed through with the actions that I felt would help get me to that goal. Like I can't
Heather (24:36)
Yeah.
Nicole Begley (24:36)
control the result.
But I can control what I commit to doing and how I commit to showing up. And so that's I think that's just an important piece I wanted to share.
Heather (24:47)
no, I love that. And it's so important to say it because people will hold themselves back. But here's what I want to point out: when you do that, it's because you are worried or you don't trust that you can handle the disappointment if it doesn't happen.
Nicole Begley (25:02)
Uh-huh.
Heather (25:03)
But you can. You have been disappointed before, and you can manage the disappointment. And the potential of maybe feeling disappointed is worth.
The possibility that you could hit it. And also, to your point, you just decide if I don't, so what? It doesn't have to mean anything about who I am. I'm crazy. I'm just going for crazy things, you know? Who knows?
Nicole Begley (25:24)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Heather (25:25)
Could you let it just be really exciting and fun rather than like a lot of pressure?
Or my gosh, I have to do this, or I'm going to hate myself and I'm going to quit
Nicole Begley (25:36)
Yeah, yeah.
Heather (25:37)
and all of this terribleness. It's like, no, you're worried you're gonna feel disappointed. And you're worried that if you feel disappointed, you can't handle it. It's nonsense. It's just not true. Right. Right.
Nicole Begley (25:46)
Can't handle the truth.
all right, perfect. So any of you guys out there that want to just like give it all you got for quarter four and like let's go play a bigger game.
Heather (25:59)
Let's go.
Nicole Begley (26:00)
And or if you've also been out there and you're like, I'm really kind of interested in elevate, but you haven't been ready to like take the leap, like this is the best way to get a taste of what happens inside
Heather (26:11)
Yeah.
Nicole Begley (26:12)
of that group for only $47.
Heather (26:14)
No, that's actually I f thank you. I forgot that. That's actually very true because you'll get to spend four weeks with us and you'll see the coaching. You'll see how things happen. It's a
Nicole Begley (26:24)
Mm-hmm.
Heather (26:25)
it's a great like test of Elevate to see if it's a good fit for you. And I'm also going
Nicole Begley (26:29)
Yeah, yeah.
Heather (26:31)
to be offering something very special during the revenue sprint for Elevate. So stay tuned. Spoiler alert.
Nicole Begley (26:37)
Spoiler alert.
I love it. I love it. All right. The link down below is below in the show notes or go to flourish.academy. That's the whole website. You will see it right there. and you all can link to it and join us. And I just realized so we have a little daily, daily like five minute, two to five minute podcast that we it's called the Elevate Daily for Elevate members. And I shared the story of my
pulled sock groin and I realized I still have behind me ha ha ha my my little random crunch that I was using randomly. I would like to give everyone an update that's been on their edge of their seat. I feel totally fine now and I'm like, okay, I'll heal them. For those of you that have not heard the story, welcome to 49. Last fall, I guess I was still forty-eight when I did this, I was putting on a sock by standing on one leg and I like somehow pulled like my groin like soft tissue something in there like
Like literally felt like someone just stabbed me in the thigh and and I thought it was healed and then all of a sudden like two weeks ago it was not and I had to call my friend. I'm like, can I please borrow your crutches? Cause I literally cannot walk.
Heather (27:45)
Know what kind of athlete you think you are putting on a sock on one foot. Okay, that was your mistake.
Nicole Begley (27:51)
I mean,
that's that's 22-year-old behavior right there.
Heather (27:54)
Right.
Nicole Begley (27:57)
But I did I did realize so my horse has had soft tissue injury this year, and in you know, he had this like intermittent lameness. We're like, what's going on? He ended up going to NC State for a bone scan, saw we had some arthritis in his neck, but like still intermittent lameness, and then it started to get it got better after some time off, and then started to get a little bit worse.
But then we discovered that he has soft tissue, like a suspensory, a high suspensory in his front leg. So he's been just off for probably about six months now. and when I did this to my sock, I'm like, or to my my sock growing, I call it my sock growing. But when I did this, I'm like, this this is why he like all of a sudden be trotting along fine and then like like couldn't like
like skipped a step and was like really lame and then okay again 'cause it was completely intermittent and you never knew when it would just like hurt unbelievably badly.
Heather (28:49)
Somebody needs to explain the science of that to me, like the physiology of soft tissue injuries and how that happens where you're fine and then all of a sudden you're not, like what goes on there. Isn't that so curious to you? Yeah.
Nicole Begley (29:02)
I think you just move slightly differently.
Like I found like I couldn't, I told Brett, I'm like, I cannot play running back this week because I cannot start and stop quickly. Like, like, like I'm a football player. I'm like, no. I
Heather (29:14)
Right, right.
Nicole Begley (29:15)
don't know how they would recover from this. He's like, Yeah, you you can't fill in for Colin's soccer team. I'm like, yeah, like that was ever gonna happen. Anyway, I
Heather (29:22)
Right, right.
Nicole Begley (29:24)
am not athletic in that way. but yeah, no, I think it's just like
There it doesn't really have I don't know if I know in horses there's no blood vessels in their ligaments, soft tissue. I don't
Heather (29:34)
No.
Nicole Begley (29:34)
know if that's true for humans or not. So any doctors, PAs, nurses in the audience, let us know.
Heather (29:37)
Don't ask me. No,
don't ask me, but you know what I do in light of this? I sit down and put my socks on instead of trying to do something Yeah. Yep. You did that to yourself.
Nicole Begley (29:46)
Well I do now. Anyway, we have
gone we have gone off the rails. So I hope you guys have enjoyed this very randomly insightful conversation. And
Heather (29:57)
Interesting. Yeah.
Nicole Begley (29:59)
we will see you in the Revenue Challenge. Bye everyone.
