Nicole Begley (00:00)
Welcome back to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Begley. In today's episode, we are actually pulling this training straight from our four clients and four weeks experience. And this was our first week call that was held back on August 19th. Some of you joined us live. Even if you did, you might want to listen again. There was some absolute gold in here. And what we're uncovering in this call is why clients maybe aren't booking us. And it's not what you think. So.

If you haven't listened to this, I highly recommend that you go ahead and listen to this episode. And if it's resonating with you, I highly recommend you also jump in to the last few weeks of our four clients and four weeks free experience. ⁓ when you register at www.hairofthedogacademy.com slash four C four W you'll get immediate access to the replays. This was call one.

There's also a call two, call three is happening the day this is released and then next week for call four. So there's still time to join us live, still time to catch up on those replays and I think you're really gonna enjoy it. So stay

Nicole Begley (01:11)
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 (02:11)
Welcome. I'm Heather Lahtinen. I have been a photography educator for over 20 years, and I want to create a possibility for you. I actually have something I teach called the possibility formula, but that's actually not what matters right now. You picked up a camera because you liked taking photos.

And at some point you took a photo that you really loved. Like you looked at it and you were like, Hey, Hey, that's a good photo. Do you remember that experience? Do you remember that feeling? Do you remember what camera for me? It was a Canon powershot G three. And I took a photo and I was like, Oh my gosh, that's actually a really good photo. I was really proud of it. I made everybody look at it. Everybody's like, look, look, look at this photo. I took, you got really excited. Yes.

Yes, of course that happened to you. At some point you took a photo that you were proud of and that you loved. And then at another point you decided, wait a minute, maybe I could make money doing this. Maybe I could actually turn this into a business. Like there was some thought in your mind, but then somewhere along the line it became stressful. And I don't think you picked up a camera to feel stressed out or

worried. I think you picked it up to have fun because it was fun and exciting. So I just want to offer you this possibility. What if you could think about business in a way that felt the same as that photo you love, that excitement, that feeling like fun, like a life giving experience. You know, when you had your camera and you're like, look, look at this photo. I'm so amazing. I'm going to be a photographer. And then you turn around and you're like,

And I love pricing. I love it. I love marketing. It's the most amazing thing. I'm so good at it. And I know that that might sound crazy and even a little bit radical, but what if that were possible? Because the first time you deliver a gallery that you are proud of and you get your first thousand dollar, $2,000, $8,253 sale, whatever it is, I...

promise you it will be fun and exciting. So what if the process to get there was also fun and exciting? And it didn't have to be super stressful. It reminds me of how you were once invincible, completely confident and worthy when you were born. You thought you could do anything. You even thought that you could walk down an entire flight of stairs when you just learned to stand up. You had no fear.

No fear, completely worthy, confident. Everything is great. You're going to do it. You didn't care. You fell. You got hurt. You got back up. So what? was there was nothing tied to that. But some one. Taught you self-doubt. Then it was schooled out of you and somewhere along the line, you believed it. And I just think you forgot. You just forgot how awesome you are. And I want to remind you that you can do anything.

I have enough confidence and belief for both of us, so you can absolutely borrow some of mine. And I will fight for you to believe this, that it can be fun and exciting, because I promise I see you bigger than you are and bigger than you see yourself. Now, this is a challenge for clients four weeks. You want it to be easy or so you think.

But the truth is you need it to be challenging so that you learn and grow. You know that, right? You don't, you don't grow from easy. And four clients in four weeks could mean one client every week for the next four weeks or four clients by the end of four weeks or obviously anything in between. But, know, I was just thinking about this a few days ago and there are really two goals in this challenge. One is to get clients. Okay. Obvious. Feel more empowered and going out and getting clients. Fantastic.

But the other is how you manage yourself, your thoughts, your feelings, when you don't get clients and you feel rejected or disappointed, frustrated, and then you stop trying. So really, we're either going to get clients, which is great, or we're not. It's like that simple. You're going to get a client or you're not. If we don't get the client, we're going to feel maybe terrible. And then we hesitate, we slow down.

we don't take as much action because of the rejection and the doubt or so, think of it this way. You get the client, okay, great. You don't, you feel terrible and you just like stop or you feel terrible and you know how to deal with feeling terrible so that you can keep moving forward. And if you know how to do both of these things, you go out and get clients and you know what to do when you don't get the clients.

both in terms of strategy, action, and managing the disappointment, you are unstoppable. The secret is you have to keep actively pursuing clients today. So ask yourself, what feelings would I need to have in order to take the action to show up? Who do I need to be meeting? Who do I need to be talking with to get a client today?

today, what beliefs do I need to have to think that it's even possible to talk to someone and get a client right now, like by the end of business today? That set of actions, if you're taking them every day that you can for the next four weeks, that set of actions is very different than thinking, I hope to get four clients by the end of these four weeks, because you're either one of two people.

the one who might try and fail 30 times in the next four weeks, like every day. But if you're engaged and you're extracting value or something, my coach calls failure gold, you're getting failure gold from every single failure, then you are learning. Versus the person who wants to get clients by the end of four weeks, but you know, they're hoping and the way they take action is

very different and they might only fail a few times and therefore learn a few times versus 30 times. Do you see the distinction here? There's a different level of energy and engagement. There's a value you will gain from experiencing success when you immediately get a return. And there is value gold from the failure.

We learn from validation when something works and we learn from contrast when it doesn't. We learn from winning, we learn from losing. And I actually think that there's much more value in learning from losing than winning.

I want to teach you to become an expert at what to do when nothing is working. An expert in disappointment and failure and all of the hard stuff. Because if you can do that and just keep moving forward, you will win and it probably won't feel as heavy. One of my favorite thoughts to tell myself, no matter what is happening, winning, losing, et cetera, no matter what is happening, I make money every day.

In some days I collect.

I make money every day because I'm always doing something, taking some action. And then some days I collect. In this challenge, there are going to be some concepts that I share that you agree with. You're to be like, that sounds great. And you're going to immediately implement and something will work fantastic. And there will be some of you that don't, that maybe don't agree with a concept. And when you don't agree that contrast,

gives you clarity and it's just as valuable as when you do agree. And this is a really important statement. Like I really thought about how to how to help you to get this through. If there's something I say that you don't agree with. That's fine. I don't want a judgment you have of me to miss a breakthrough for you.

You can judge my content. I don't have any problem with that. May or may not work for you. Also fine. But don't miss a breakthrough in the things that you don't agree with and just grab on to all of the things that sound good and easy and fun. The format for the next four weeks, a call every week. The link to the replays will be posted in the private Facebook group and sent to your email. Every call will have a topic, a challenge and space for you to ask questions, get coaching,

so that I can help you directly. But please feel free to ask questions and help one another in the Facebook group. All of these calls will be between 60 and 90 minutes. Today's call will have the most teaching and then every subsequent call will have a little less teaching and a little more time for working together. And I just added a bonus call. Please put this in your calendar. Very important, very important. Bonus call, September 10th.

the same time, 2 p.m. Eastern. September 10th is a Wednesday. It is my birthday Eve, my birthday is September 11th. You can't forget it. 2 p.m. Eastern. So typically on these types of calls, like where I would offer a bonus call, I would talk about how we can work together moving forward and share my offer, blah, blah, blah. Okay. I actually totally switched it up, like within the last few days. I decided I want to teach you a process that I use

to get massive returns in my business based on what I invest in. Like how I spend money on education in my business. So rather than sell you my course on that call, I'm teaching you about how I invest, how you can think about investing so that you make the best decisions for your business. And it is really freaking good. It is so good. And I'm so excited to share it with you. So make sure you add that, of course.

All of that information will be posted and go out, but that's Wednesday, September 10th at 2 p.m. It's about the return on investment for your business. The goal for our time together is for you to see that you're more in control of getting clients than you might think. So instead of thinking or ruminating on, know, clients just aren't coming, I'm gonna go out and get clients. In my photography business, I wanna feel empowered to create my own schedule

and make the money that I want to make. And I was never waiting around for inquiries. Okay, but don't mishear me. Those are great. We can work on SEO and getting inquiries. Of course, of course. But I'm not waiting for that because then what do you do in the slow season? You just wait around and feel terrible? Nope, that is like not for me. I should say I started my wedding and portrait business in 2003 and grew it to six figures pretty quickly.

And I promise you it wasn't because my photos were any good. They were terrible. And I certainly did not know what I was doing. I just had one belief. One belief. I encourage you to write it down and adopt it. And that belief was I could figure it out and I'll get better. I'll figure it out and I'll get better. That is the one thought that gave me confidence. We think confidence comes from like experience doing it over and over.

But that's not the entire story. I knew my work would improve just by sheer repetition. You're going to get better. Your work and your business will get better. So I just went for it because I was confident in my ability to figure it out. Today, right now, this is the worst your photos will ever be. This is the least amount of money you're ever going to make in your business because it's only always going to get better. Just if you just keep doing it.

My philosophy is that there is not a right or wrong way to do anything in your business. I don't think there's right or wrong pricing. I think there's just professional pricing that works for you. And all I mean by professional is that it's profitable. I think there are two important things that I need to share regarding my approach to business. That's one of them. And the other is that I just believe that I know what to do when something doesn't work. And my approach to everything

is very simple. I'm not even trying to be funny, maybe a little. It's like Heather equals simple. The only way to get business and grow a business, the only way, this is it, is to meet people, tell them you are a photographer and make them an offer.

And when I say make them an offer, that could be like, you know, maybe we could work together, maybe you could get a client, or maybe it's just an offer to connect and then nurture a relationship. Meet people, tell them you're photographer and make an offer. It's that straightforward. I believe also that people are ready, willing and able to pay for photography.

People are ready, willing and able to pay. I never tell myself any garbage about economy, market, nothing ever, ever. People are ready, willing and able to pay. I also know that if your business is not working the way you want, not where you want it to be, it's either one of two reasons, always and forever. It's so simple. It's either a math problem, more clients, different pricing. It's a math problem, which we can easily solve.

because we know how to use calculators, or it is a thought problem. And all problems are thought problems. I was interviewed on a podcast with Andrew Helmich, Photo BizX earlier this year. And it was really funny because I shared this concept and he believed me, but he wanted to test it. So he gave me a bunch of scenarios and I kept demonstrating to him how it...

always came down to a thought problem. You should check that out. It was really good. But if I wanted to boil it down even further, the main thought holding you back is your self-concept. It's your identity, essentially your thoughts about you. Because if you had the thought, there's a solution to every problem, and I could figure it out, these are my thoughts, I can figure it out, then nothing would stop you.

This is the foundation, foundation, the basis for this challenge. And I also, it's also what I teach inside of our program called Elevate. I will be referencing Elevate very often because of course I want to invite you to join us. But my only job, the only thing I ask myself every single day, it is my only job is how can I speed up everyone making more money? Whatever it takes to do that. And as we work together over the next

four weeks, if you decide you would like to work with me more, then you definitely want to check out Elevate because I created it to help you make money faster, more money faster. It's a six month program where we manage the overwhelm and focus on four simple things, getting clients, that's what we're doing, pricing that does not make you panic, running your business without losing your mind and building the confidence to show up.

like a boss and maybe even have fun in the process. Let it be fun and exciting. And we have step-by-step tools. Of course, there's always strategy, but the magic is in the coaching and the support. And we can help you figure out why things aren't working and how to fix them. And there's like never any judgment. Like, don't care what your pricing model is. Like if it works for you and it's profitable, then okay, then let's do the math or work on the thoughts to get it where it needs to be.

Inside of Elevate, you get access to a full library of focused training videos on everything from marketing to pricing, workflows, confidence. We also do monthly strategy calls, actually three of them. There's almost a call a week. Business challenges like this to help keep you moving and you get one-on-one private Zoom calls with our coaches. So I just don't ever want you to feel stuck wondering what to do next. We have an incredible

community, very supportive and encouraging. And then, so at that point, I always say your only job is to not quit. If you keep going, you will figure it out. And I'll make sure that you have the link to elevate. Of course, I'm gonna make sure that you have it so you can read all about it. And if you join us during this challenge, there's a code to save $200. Again, Facebook group, that will be in your email.

But replays will be available until a week after our last call, unless you're in Elevate, in which case you get everything always it's included, or if you signed up for VIP. I'll also be talking about an empowered course that I taught called Four Weeks to Creating Wealth in Photography. And that's included as a bonus when you join Elevate during our time together. But I also came up with something else. Again, this was, I wouldn't say last minute, but within the last few days,

is if you, there are many of you that I've been working with for a while and you've been kind of on the fence about Elevate and I just want to get you off of the fence and like encourage you to bet on yourself. So if you join before the last call on the challenge, you'll get a business strategy planning call with me one-on-one, me and you going over your business, diving deep, figuring out what's working, what isn't and how to move you forward. But for

obvious reasons, I need to limit that to the first five people that join Elevate during the challenge. Everyone will get the empowered course bonus I mentioned. I'll talk about that more, not today, but at some point. So if you're that person that was on the fence and you want me to really look into your business, like this is your opportunity. So the link and the code, I want to make sure that that's in the chat for you.

because that will fill. There will be five people who jump in because they've been waiting for a reason and this is the time for them. So definitely check that out. ⁓ last thing I want to mention about that is we have people in Elevate making their first thousand dollars and we have others making 10 to $20,000 a month. We have people that join our live strategy calls and others that never attend live ever.

I love my replay friends. And that could be due to work, job, maybe a time zone. But people will watch replays and we have a private podcast feed. But we have a photographer in Australia right now who just had his first $17,000, $17,000 month, and he can never attend a live call in Elevate ever. People will also ask how much time is required in Elevate, but it's really a grow at your own pace.

program, it's totally up to you. But even if you could only spend one hour per week watching something or listening to a call, I promise you would have a different business and a different mindset in six months. So we have a lot of elevators here on the call. You can chat with them, see what you think. That link is there. I would love for you to join us.

I want to switch gears. thanks. Walter says better than Netflix. hope so. Okay. Well, Netflix doesn't help you make more money. Priceless. Elevate is priceless. I love that. Thank you, Monica. Okay. Switching gears. You will never be able to sell what you don't believe in. And you are always selling whether you realize it or not.

So want you to do me a favor, please, if you could, in the chat. Could you let me know your, thoughts that you have, the negative ones, the thoughts that you have around pricing or your business, the ones that trip you up.

What are you thinking that you know is not probably helpful, but it's just tripping you up?

And as you add those to the chat, I've grabbed a few that I hear often. Yeah, I'm too expensive. No one will pay my prices. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't compete with others. I'm not good enough to charge that much. I love photography. I do it for free.

I don't want it to be about the money, you know, because I'm a saint. I don't have time for in-person sales. I feel bad about my pricing. I can't find my target clients. I'm not being found or wanted by the people who can afford me. I'm not good enough. The reason people aren't hiring me is because of my pricing. I'm too expensive. Money is going out, flowing out too quickly, not enough in.

I don't value my time. You might not be saying that, but it's just a thought. I'm not a real or pro photographer. People won't see the difference between normal images in my art. Essentially, I'm not able to communicate the value to make it worth the price. There's already great photographers around me. The market is saturated. The economy is terrible. So all of this, right? All of these

like negative just thoughts that are playing in the backgrounds of our mind. They're just sentences that your brain offers you. But our brains are the worst identifiers of truth. They lie to you. They're just trying to keep you safe and they are lying. The problem is we believe them and we just, you know, don't believe everything you think.

Your brain is offering you to them and we're not even thinking to question it. We just believe it. Whatever those sentences are that make you feel like you're not getting clients, nothing is working or something isn't working. All of those sentences are your unintentional sales pitch. What I'm teaching you about today is your unintentional sales pitch.

So what I'm going to do is use your sentences, your words, and I want you to imagine that I'm trying to sell you Elevate, my flagship program. Number one thing I'm focused on. I'm trying to sell you Elevate, but I'm going to use your sentences to do it. OK, you ready? This is it. It's like.

I you should join Elevate. I mean, I'm not really sure how to market my business or communicate the value or importance of Elevate. mean, I don't even know what to do with this email list. I'm struggling to grow it. I don't, you know what? I don't think you probably want to spend the money. I mean, my prices are too high anyway. And Elevate is nice, but you know, it isn't like necessary or a must have. And I'm not really making enough money to, you know, be inspiring. So I don't even know how to sell.

don't know what I'm doing. It's not compelling enough. And you know what? Besides, if too many of you join, I'm gonna be overwhelmed. So I might disappoint you. So you know what? You better not join. I better like block all of that. And besides, I'm not even sure if I'm doing the right things because I have no clue what I'm doing and how, I don't know how to present or deliver, elevate or what to do or say to help you. And I mean, you might not be ready anyway. And you know, it's okay. I mean, don't worry about it.

You're probably just too busy and I might be too expensive. Do you, would you come into my world if that's how I delivered my pitch to you about my program? Would you do that? It's hilarious. I hope you don't take me too seriously. I take making money very seriously, but I don't take this very seriously. You.

are running an unintentional sales pitch that sounds like that. Okay. And in a minute, I want to ask someone who's brave enough to share theirs. If you, if you are comfortable sharing your unintentional sales pitch and being really funny about it, could you let me know in the chat and I will, call on you in a minute because it's sometimes so funny and so startling to hear this.

But that was a mix of me using your thoughts to deliver my offer. Of course, you are not saying those words. Who would say that? But your energy, your body language, your presence, and the sub-context for the words you are saying, those are all in your unintentional sales pitch.

These are the things people are picking up on because they can pick up on the things you aren't saying. It's like, think dogs or especially horses, like they can sense your fear. It's less about the things you are actually saying than the ones you are not. And then your brain is like, what if I don't get good photos though? Like, okay, what if I could clean up some of these thoughts?

Okay, but what if I don't get good photos and, ooh, what if I disappoint someone? They don't like it, I'm not familiar with that location, I've not been in that situation, what if I screw something up? All of this, all of this part of your unintentional sales pitch. Because when your brain says to you or asks you, what if I don't get good photos? What it's really saying is you will not get good photos and you will disappoint someone.

Your brain is kind of disguising it as a question, but it's not. It's actually telling you that. It's saying, you're probably not going to get enough good photos. What if you don't? You're going to disappoint them. For sure, you're going to disappoint them. And if these collectively, pieces of them, if these are your thoughts,

Are you really surprised that you hesitate or you struggle to get clients?

So Megan says, this is good. I'm going on a photo shoot today and I keep wondering what if I can't find the right spots in the location? What if my photos turn out bad? So Megan, what your brain is actually saying to you is you won't find the right spots and your photos are going to turn out bad. So I would just challenge you and I can help you with this, but let me know in the chat, what could you say back to your brain when it says you won't find the right spots?

I was a wedding and portrait photographer. you know, 99 % of the time I had no say in the spots, none whatsoever. So I had to develop the skill of trusting myself, self-concept identity. I talked about this. I had to develop the self-concept of a photographer who could figure anything out in any spot ever.

That was my only option. But with that thought, then I wouldn't say I wasn't ever nervous. Of course I was nervous. But I was just like, well, I'm going to figure it out because I have to. So I would never say, what if I don't get good light? What if I don't find the right background? What if we don't have enough time? Because all of those things could very easily happen. It's not what I wanted to load my brain with. So I would always tell myself, I'm going to find the perfect location.

the best light, I can do anything in five minutes or less, I can make anything happen. Just like continuously reinforcing what I wanted to think and believe about myself. That's called your self-concept. It's like the only thing holding you back in your business, all around the self-concept. So she replied, I'm going to nail this photo shoot. I have so many options to choose from. I always find a great option. Of course.

course I'm nervous. That's because I'm excited and that's not a bad thing, but I'm going to figure it out. What you can't do is let the brain offer you a question like, what if I can't find the right spots? What if it turns out bad? What if I disappoint? You can't let those questions kind of hang out in your brain. Just like unfiltered, unchecked. You have to grab them and then respond back. Like, are you kidding? I can always get a few good shots. You're not trying to get 15, 20, 30 award winning images. You're trying to get

decent images and a few really good shots. I would deliver between four and 600 on a wedding day. And I was looking for maybe five killer shots, maybe. And then a bunch of like solid work and then a reception. said the reception was just like documenting people dancing and having fun. And it had just only got worse throughout the night. So we also put a little too much.

pressure on ourselves. Okay, so who is available? Let me know in the chat.

Ready to share your un- I want to hear maybe a couple because we have some time. Doing good on time. Couple unintentional

sales pitches. Monica, sorry. I didn't see that. Yes. Can you unmute and share yours? Have fun with it. And I'm stopped at a stoplight now. So that's good, right? Yeah. Okay. You know, I don't love driving and zooming. I know. Maybe I ought to let somebody else go first. Okay. Let's do that. Okay. We need someone else. So Monica lives. All right. Is anyone available to listen?

This is fun. So you heard what I shared. There's no like judgment about it. It's just fun. What are you possibly saying to your clients that you don't mean? OK, Natalie, I'd love that. And then Ashley, I'd love to hear yours too.

So as always, I have my kids with me, so you might hear them. But I don't know, I feel like I get so wrapped up on, because we're currently building a studio. So I'm always like, I guess, so you wanna hear the negative thoughts. Yeah, right, So I'm kind of ready. I've only been at this three years. I don't have a studio yet, so I rent space. But I mean, we're building one, so I'm trying.

I sell packages, but maybe you don't want a package. Maybe you just want Alicart. ⁓ I mean, a lot of people, they tell me they just want digital, but I want you to have tangible stuff, but I don't know. That's great. Kind of expensive. I'm more than a lot of people in the area. I mean, there's people more than me, but they also have more experience. So kind of makes sense. Isn't it hilarious to listen to what your brain does and how it just rambles on all of those thoughts? People are identifying with you, by the way. So.

my gosh, thank you. know you, I know you're busy. So I'm going to move to, that was good. Ashley, let's hear yours. And then Susie. ⁓ Mine is that ⁓ there's not a lot of people who want to spend money on their pets. So I have to market to more people. ⁓ And so whenever I'm in person, I'll say like, ⁓ I do pets, families and headshots instead of just focusing on the pets. And if they want something else, they'll ask about it.

Yeah, because you're right. And the reason is you think there's not enough. So you have to like cover everyone rather than the belief that there are enough. then, like you said, letting them ask. Right. Yes. It's good to know. It's good to know. Thank you. Suzy, what do you got? ⁓ I've got they don't actually you don't actually want to spend any money with me. You don't actually want anything more than the free stuff. Right. They only want to work with me if it's free because then

then you know what? Then they might really like me. We might be able to be friends and they might like me if they don't have to spend money because free means they'll love what I'm doing. That's hilarious, which is obviously we can see not helpful. Amanda, Stam, what do you got?

I'm new to photography. I don't know how to run a business. I mean, I was printed in a magazine, but no one really wants to pay for anything. Everyone just wants digital. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm lucky to get a good shot. Yeah. How did that feel for you? Like, what are your thoughts? It's hilarious, right? Feels depleting. Yeah. Well,

And imagine that that's what's going on in your brain without you knowing. You didn't know that, did you? I struggle with those thoughts. But you don't realize that that's coming out and you're unintentional. You don't realize that that's how you're trying to sell yourself. No, no. We think that like, OK, we have these thoughts and we're trying to talk to people, but, you know, they won't.

They won't know what's under the hood. They don't know what's going on, but it comes out just exactly how you said. And when we say it out loud, it's so helpful because you're, it's startling. You're like, what? Okay. So let me ask you. of your favorite words. that sale was just a fluke. It's just a fluke. You know how I feel about that. Clearly. It's just a fluke. And then they ghost to me. Okay. But I like what you, you were onto something like you read my mind about like,

you know what? I have a worksheet for this. I a worksheet for this. want you to, I'm going to, I'm creating, I have a workbook for this entire challenge, but I just want to like release it to you one week at a time. So I just put the link in the chat and then there will be a download with the replay, but ⁓ it's a PDF. And on the first page, I want you to just take a look at that. can take notes, print, or just write notes, however, however you capture things.

but I want you to write down.

your unintentional sales pitch. I want you to think about it, specifically, because there's a lot of thoughts rolling around, like I shared a ton of them. I don't know, there's probably 15 there. I want you to think about your top three. Can you identify the top three that are on repeat unintentionally and very negative and like you know aren't good for you?

If you just take one of them, like people can't afford me or they don't want to pay or I don't know what I'm doing. my gosh. That's one. I don't know what I'm doing. How do you feel when you think that? Like truly, I want you to like get in touch with your body, how you feel when you think, I don't know what I'm doing. What if I don't find the right light? What if I screw this up? Panic, imposter, anxious.

this is my favorite. And an apt loser. That's great, Don. Scared, terrified. I'm such a fraud, pressured, confused, unprepared, avoidant, powerless, ashamed, insufficient, and hopeless.

I mean...

What do you do or what is your behavior when you are feeling those things?

I guess more importantly, let me reframe that. What do you not do? If you're feeling anxious, insecure, terrified, unsure, what do you not do? Do you have a little bit of energy or a lot of energy when you think those things? You certainly don't show up or think clearly. You don't take action. I can't imagine that you feel excited or eager.

Well, then what's the result you create? What I mean, what do you think the result is that you are creating?

when you're thinking these things and feeling absolutely awful. It's certainly not like what I talked about when we very first started about, you took a photo that you loved and you were really excited. And I said, could you be excited about your business? I dropped that possibility. And now we're looking at your unintentional sales pitch and you're like, heck no, I'm not excited about my business. Well, of course it's like, it's like kind of not your fault because it's not possible to be excited.

or encouraged or take inspiring action from this place. I love that. I feel like I have built a fence around myself or I shrink maybe even visibly. That's true Carly, because when I did the unintentional sales pitch, the first thing I did, I sat up and then I went like this verse. I love this. This is so exciting. I know exactly what I'm doing. It's like shrinking or growing, expanding.

And I just think with all of these feelings that I just listed, I think there's probably a lot of shrinking and not much expansion, making it difficult to get clients. Then you don't get clients. Then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that just continues to compound and spiral. We got to stop it, man. We got to stop the train because the result, it's just not working. We're not getting the results that we want.

And I'm just wondering like how often, how much time do you spend there thinking that you don't understand what you're doing or you don't believe in your pricing or I don't even know how to spell marketing or whatever it is. Nothing is working. I don't know what I'm doing. Whatever yours are, whatever yours are. How in the world can you find and attract clients from this place? I could give you 15,000 strategies to go get clients today.

None of them will work for you from this place.

How could they?

pausing here because I just really want you to see how impactful this is.

because it's good news. Because if you're aware of your unintentional sales pitch, then we can flip it. And we can create an intentional sales pitch.

But you have to stay with this like, ⁓ okay, this makes sense. can see now, okay, never ever about judgment or shame. It's just awareness of like, I can see now why I'm sort of stuck in what I've been creating. It's just because I've been thinking, I've been believing my brain and it's terrible thoughts. Before we flip this into the intentional sales pitch, I just want to mention

that before I started my wedding and portrait business, I was a mechanical engineer and I worked in a chemical manufacturing plant, then in an engineering firm. And I was an expert in bridges. I love bridges. They're very important. Bridges are very important. A bridge just gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And typically that's across some obstacle like water or topography.

But what's interesting if you think about it is because now I help photographers just bridge a gap that's not over a river, but the hemispheres of their brain. I help make connections in your brain because it's not important what I did for a living, who cares, bridges. But what I did learn was optimization because in engineering, optimization is all about removing inefficiencies to create the best possible outcome.

like a bridge that does not collapse. And here's why that matters to you, because running a business is no different. If you don't fix the inefficiencies in your workflow, for instance, you know you're going to be slow and ultimately make less money. But more importantly, if you don't fix the inefficiencies in your brain and your thinking, no amount of marketing or pricing strategies will ever work ever. And that's because

Terrible thoughts produce terrible results.

If you're thinking that no one will pay the prices you've set or it won't work in your market, then nothing's going to work because why would you even bother trying? If you don't believe that you are a real photographer, so you have imposter syndrome, why would you ever offer your photography services to someone? I just want you to think about this. If I say it's so easy, simple, maybe not easy, meet people, tell them you're a photographer and make an offer, but you don't believe you're a photographer.

That self-concept is exactly where imposter syndrome comes from. It comes from one place, self-concept. If you believe you are a professional photographer, then it would be easy to say, I'm a photographer. But if you can't even say that, you're an imposter syndrome because of your self-concept. know, see part one, which was your identity and your thoughts about you.

My goal has always been to help photographers not just learn more, but actually break through these mental barriers that are keeping you stuck. Because once you fix this, everything else becomes easier. And then all of a sudden, strategies and action steps, they start to work. So what we're doing here is uncovering the real reasons you aren't getting clients, and then we are solving for that problem.

When I started, I charged $50 for a session, delivered hundreds of digital files, and then was apologetic about my prices. I did not need a new logo, website, or a business bank account to solve that problem.

The logo was not going to fix that problem. I needed a new thought.

I would say most of the time, like a very high percentage of the time, we are not solving for the right problem. For example, you don't believe in your pricing, so you change it multiple times over and over and over. But it's not because of the pricing, it's because you believe that people are not ready, willing and able to pay. Because if you believed people were ready, willing and able to pay, you wouldn't need to change your prices.

Melanie, I love that. Let's be graphic. We need a brain enema. I'm the surgeon. I am here for you. So everyone always points to pricing as being the issue.

I just want to offer you that maybe it's not. What if it isn't? What if it's not the issue at all? I want to help you solve for the right problems to help you move forward faster. And the truth is, it's simpler than you think. It's just hard.

But it's usually because we aren't solving for the right issue. We've identified what we think is the problem, the pricing, the market, et cetera. We try to solve for that by getting more strategies. It doesn't work. And then we're sidelined and we're like, what the heck? That doesn't make sense. We're just not solving for the right. Of course, in engineering, it was always like the equation. You have to get the equation right. It took, you know, if you had an hour to solve a problem, it took, you know, 55 minutes to find the equation.

And then once you had the equation, the problem was solved. This is the same thing.

You have a camera. Wait, does everybody have a camera? OK, you probably have a camera, most likely. You can edit or you're learning how to edit.

You literally have everything you need. There's nothing left that you Just a few different thoughts. And I can help you. I will help you. That's what we're doing together. We're cleaning that up. But I can't go straight into the strategies and the steps, like in good conscience, knowing it's not gonna work unless you clean it up. So this is where we go to the intentional sales pitch.

We know what we have currently. That's what's running beneath the surface. You're selling all the time, all the time, whether you realize it or not, all the time.

I'm going to ask you these three questions and then we'll go into each one.

What do you want to think about yourself or your skills, like your photos or your business? What do you want to think? I'm not saying you think it yet. I'm not saying you think it's believable. I'm saying what if I gave you a platter of thoughts, smorgasbord, a buffet, disgusting. If I gave you all of that, what would you want to think about your skills, photos or business? What do you want to think about potential clients?

What do you want to think about your pricing?

So let me give you a few examples of that because I actually want you to work on this. I love that. I am capable. I am worthy of paying clients. That's a good one. There's many clients as I want or need. I am irreplaceable because no one else is me and therefore cannot deliver the same experience. I am worth this. I am proud of my accomplishments. my gosh, you guys are, I have notes and you're doing it. Thank you.

This is what I have in my notes. What do you want to think about yourself? I take great photos. How about that? Straight up. I know how to take photos. I'm phenomenal. I know how to edit. I know exactly what I need to know about my business right now. Really, you know what? There's only one thing you need to, I'm for real. Number one rule, make it easy for people to give you money. The only thing you need to know about business right now is how someone can pay you.

Okay, I know how to give money. I am learning, I'm growing with my knowledge. These are things I want to think about myself. I know what I'm doing. I can handle disappointment. It's not a problem. I can handle getting a lot of clients because I'm the one that controls my calendar. I can adapt to build this the way I want. Some people, I have some friends that I work with in Elevate that say like, what if this works and I actually get a ton of clients and they freeze up? And I'm like, my gosh, what if you get too many clients? Well, who puts them on your calendar?

Do they schedule themselves? Okay, no, you set up your calendar.

Everyone loves my work. I'm a high-end, in-demand photographer.

Okay, what do you want to think about potential clients?

thought I would love for to write down is people are ready, willing and able to pay.

They love me. They love my work. They want what I have to offer.

And come to think about it, I mean, we're talking in this challenge about going out and getting clients, generating them ourselves. But if you look at inquiries, if you have inquiries that come in, you understand that if somebody inquires with you, they want to hire you. You get that, right? And your only job is to not block them, but just to allow.

I believe that everyone listening to my voice on some level wants to work with me or you would not be here.

I just, and I believe that you're ready, willing and able to pay. And you want what I have to offer and you're going to love it. And if you don't, like it's like not a problem. I just don't make it a problem. I want my clients to be inspired by my energy and believe I can add value to their life with my skills. Me too. So I just decided to believe that. My ideal clients are already looking and ready to work with me. My ideal clients are right here. You're right here with me. I believe that.

The last one was what do you want to think about your pricing?

My pricing is great. It's perfect. I'm always improving. I love math. I understand pricing. I know how to use a calculator. I'm excited. There's not a wrong or right way to do this. I could never do it wrong. And I can pivot at any time because we don't laminate pricing around here.

And as long as it's profitable, right. No, we can't say we hate math. Never. We love math. We love it. That's everybody has like some math trauma from, don't know, elementary school. I think that's where mine's from. Now it's from college to math trauma. But we're going to, you know, when you're with me, we love math because we have calculators so we can figure it out. We love math. That's what I want to think. You may not believe it yet, but the question was,

What do you want to think about your pricing? What do you want to think about your business? I love math. I know how to do math. I know how to add, subtract, multiply, divide. Somebody can help me. My pricing is where it needs to be. It's profitable. would even, my pricing is reasonable. Amanda, that's a good like ladder thought. The next one is like, my pricing is perfect. It's exactly where it needs to be. Cause what determines reasonable?

Amanda, then you would love my empowered money course. Money, money, we talk about money in that course. It's really good. My pricing is not the cheapest, but I truly believe it offers the best value for my clients. So yes, the thought just like worked out a little bit. I believe my pricing offers the best value for my clients, period. My pricing is where I need it to be to make a good living. Folks will pay.

How about an amazing living? How about over the top? They will pay what I want. They will be excited to pay. You know, I said earlier, like imagine you have your first thousand, 2000, I don't know, $10,000 sale and somebody is actually excited to give you that money. They are so happy to pay you.

My biggest client ever was $20,000 and she could not wait to give me that money.

And I said, thank you. It was like, Excited to give me that money was her decision to pay me that money. And I just said, thank you and accepted it.

I want you to think about what you're really selling. You have a current, this is in the worksheet, you have a current unintentional sales pitch that is probably not helping you.

But if you believed in the value of what you had to offer, what would you say? You can just pretend like, I know you might not be there yet. That's perfectly fine. It's just like, if I could think about this, or how does a multiple six-figure photographer think about this? How would they think about pricing? somebody that maybe ⁓ you perceive as successful is doing really well in your industry, like your niche. Think about that person and just like ask yourself, I wonder what they're thinking about their pricing.

I have a client who, by the way, has been inside of Elevate from the very beginning, which is five and a half years now. He's about to hit $200,000 in sales in a very, very small, poor town. How do you think she thinks about her prices?

I'm guessing she has some pretty good thoughts about him. I'm guessing because she's been working with me for so long, she has really worked on her intentional sales pitch and her self concept. Those two things. Looky, looky, listen to me. Intentional sales pitch and her self concept are getting her to $200,000.

sounds fun to me. Listen, I should also add, I believe this is possible for you.

And I don't think it's a matter of like capability. You know, it was like, am I capable or not capable? I know you can do it. I know you can't. So let's let me tell you that you're capable and I have enough belief and confidence for both of us. Like, I know you can do it because I've seen it happen. I've helped people shift their thinking, get really solid on their self-concept, get results. And by the way, that's

That compounds over time, but that doesn't mean there aren't curve balls. Things go sideways. We work on it again and again, and we just get better and better and better.

math with a heart around it. I'm expensive. I'm worth it.

The more they spend, the happier they are to give it to you. That's true. My pricing allows me to live the life that I want. I'm selling an experience. That's the best part. Me too. I'm selling an experience. Thank you for saying that, Dick. And then Walter, thank you.

So I want to answer Laura's question before I move on because I think it can be really helpful to others. Has anyone experienced a drop in sales due to the current economy and how to work through it? I just want to offer that in 22 years of business, I have never thought about the economy.

I don't read the news. I don't look at the economy. don't care. will say that one of the best years I ever had was 2008 into 2009 during the housing market crash. I didn't know it was happening until after people were, I mean, I heard some things and I was like not paying attention and everybody's like, how's the business? I'm like, oh my gosh, it's great. have more clients than I would even need.

And everybody's like, the economy is impacting you. And I'm like, what about what happened? And they're like, well, the housing market. And I'm like, ⁓ no, I actually didn't know about that. Okay, that doesn't mean that things don't happen. And I'm very compassionate to people who are or were impacted. But of course, I'm not an idiot. Of course, that impacted people. I just didn't believe that it impacted everyone.

so that there are still people out there ready, willing and able to pay for photography. So it's not a matter of working through the economy, it's a matter of working through how I'm thinking about external circumstances. And we clean that up. And that also doesn't say there aren't gonna be dips. mean, business is gonna go up and down and that's just like the natural evolution of a business. It's not about like getting steady straight up sales, it's just about managing the ups and downs of that.

so that when things dip and it feels like it could be related to an external circumstance that you can't control, we work on that. We work on how we think about that and we shift to like, what can we control and where can we focus our efforts? I'm not saying it's not real, it's very, very real, but how could we think about it?

Oh, okay. Abby is asking me about the lipstick effect. Yeah, the lipstick effect was, I don't remember the year, it was many years ago, it was before the pandemic. But the economy had tanked, it might've even been the housing market crash. I don't remember, again, somebody, if you look up the lipstick effect, but what happened was everybody was like, oh, the economy is so terrible, then why are people still paying $25 for luxury lipstick?

Like it doesn't even make sense. And there was a whole study done on it. And it was just so fascinating. I always think of the lipstick effect. In other words, there are people out there that still have money and they're ready, willing and able to pay. And there are people that are impacted by the economy. And that is no joke. But if we could focus on how terrible and sad that is, or who can we serve? So it's just like, who can I serve?

That was a good one. Okay. So that's in your work book on that, on the week one page. You're so welcome. So I challenge you to just like go through that and then your task for this week, besides working on your unintentional into your intentionals, obviously that's your homework, but that challenge is for you to reach out to one person today.

to make some type of connection or offer, to work with you directly and exchange money.

The goal here, ⁓ unless it's bedtime in your time zone, that's a good point. Okay, then it would be tomorrow. Yeah, of course, of course. For some people it's like 2 a.m. so it would be definitely tomorrow for them. The goal here is not to fill your calendar overnight. It's to build belief through evidence because one yes can change things for you. Okay, you don't need evidence to create belief. You don't.

But it's nice and it helps. And then it can shift things for you. So it's like reframing the expectation from I need to get four clients right now to I'm shifting momentum and I'm changing my thoughts. I promise you my business did not take off because I knew what I was doing. And then my photos were great because none of that was true. My business took off really quickly because I was excited and passionate. People were drawn to that.

and I had a deep sense that I would figure it out. I was not delusional, maybe a little. I knew I wasn't good. So it wasn't like I was like trying to be fake or better than I was. It was, I had this deep belief, I'm going to figure this out. I want to figure this out. And I want to feel as excited as I did when I took that first photo that I love.

And I knew I could do it. I knew I could figure it out. just had to try something, practice, figure it out and do it over and over and screw it up and learn and extract the gold and keep moving and just manage my attitude around things not working. Just keep going, just keep going. And I would figure it out. Because I was so excited and so passionate, maybe that was a little delusional come to think about it. But because I felt that way,

People just believed in me. But it wasn't because I was like a good photographer. I want you to connect with a person and make some sort of offer. I would prefer that there's an exchange of money.

If you want to pick someone up off the street and take a photo for free and hand it to them, sure. But I, this challenge does not say get four free clients in four weeks. I should change it. Maybe it should say four paying clients.

for paying clients.

in four weeks.

however you do it, whatever it looks like.

Jamie says, I submitted a Facebook ad today. Sure. Yeah, that works. I will say I have another philosophy. We won't be talking about it in this challenge, but I do talk about this a lot in Elevate is I like to teach and encourage people because I believe that you can get to your first 100,000 or 200,000 with organic marketing, meaning you don't pay for it. Not that paying for it is, I don't, I mean, I don't have a problem with that, but.

Yeah, getting paid would be a boost. I just put the link for Elevate. If you decide you want to hang on to these replays permanently or you want to join us and get next level support.

We have about 25 minutes left and what I'd like to do is help you. You can ask a question in the chat.

or raise your little zoom hand. At the bottom of zoom, there's a little heart that says react. If you click it, you can raise your hand and then I can bring you on and we can work through something.

Marjorie says, getting the free models is always easy in my brain, but getting paid clients and reaching out creates a block. Do you want to talk about it? Morgan says, I don't know how to randomly reach out to someone and offer my services without being salesy. my gosh, I've got you. Who wants to talk? Let's go. Who wants to talk about these things?

It requires a conversation.

Can I jump in? Yes. Okay. I'd love it. Yeah. How are you? Good. I just have these thoughts about ⁓ I command in the previous calls that I am working with a with a dog hotel, right? About they are providing the space and I am giving them a little commission ⁓ or in the other way around, they charge a commission. So

They are not very active, even though I work there a couple of times. So I just, you know, I'm trying to think which would be the best way to promote myself in that space because I used to work in ⁓ outdoors, right? But I am trying to master my craft in studio sessions, right? Because...

Well, we are in the rainy season here in Costa Rica. A lot of people ⁓ accommodate sessions during the weekends, which is easier. also I, but they just like, you know, they are very passive. Passive. Yeah, passive. I'm sorry. My husband is here. ⁓

because they are not promoting. they just, know, the other day I have my session, I have my backdrop, my lights. I took very good pictures and I was tempted to go outside and started to, you know, like give, ⁓ you know, coupons or something like that to bring people to the session because I already, you know, have all the work and have the lights and the backdrop.

ready to put dogs in front of my lens. So I don't know if this is a good way to meet people and tell them that I'm a photographer, but ⁓ I don't know if it feels desperate. well, hold on, hold on. There's the question. Here's the question. I don't know if this is a good way to meet people and it feels desperate. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So when your brain says, I don't know this is a good way to meet people,

What it is telling you is this is not a good way to meet people. This is desperate. I want you to come back and tell your brain a different story. What would you want to believe about your approach? What would you want? Not what you currently believe. What would you want to believe?

Well, I want to believe if I go outside and meet people and tell them that I'm a photographer, I will put that people in front of my lens. So I was talking also with a trainer, which is friend of mine. And I tell her that we can schedule a graduation session for their dogs.

for her dogs, the dogs that she is training. we can, you know, kind of, because for me, you know, it's kind of like an hour to set up all the lights and the studio thing. So it's worth it to have more than one client per day, right? Because it's a lot of work. So ⁓ that's Let me ask you this. What if you believed

that no matter what you did or how you did it, you will meet people, make connections and get clients, whether that client is right this minute or in the future.

Yeah, I tried to believe that. Yeah. And if you did, okay, if you did, if you got really grounded in that thought, would any of this like, how am going to do it? What do I set up? What do I say? What would any of that like really matter if you believed if you believed I'm going to get client, I'm going to, there's no question you're going to meet people, right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. And you know, I always say you will never go wrong meeting people. Never.

And if that's my predominant thought, I will never go wrong meeting people that I'm just like, let's go, let's go meet people. Let's go experiment and figure out, should I do it this way? Should I give them this? Should I offer that the rest? Everything that follows from that is just a fun experiment. And the more you meet people, the more you get to experiment, the more you figure out what works. What your brain is trying to tell you is, I don't know if this is going to work. This feels desperate. What if it doesn't work?

What if there's a right way? What if I'm doing it wrong? See, it's giving you all this doubt and you're like, no, no, I'm meeting people. I can never go wrong meeting people. The way I do that, the how is just a fun experiment. And every time I experiment, I learn.

Yeah, but I don't want to, you know, like, I don't, I don't want to feel desperate, but that is the way you that you feel desperate because of a thought. What's the thought that's driving that feeling? I don't know. Like, I don't think that that will be desperate, but I don't want to people perceive that way. You know, how does that matter?

Sorry, Why does it matter? Yeah. Why does it matter how people perceive you? Well, two part question, two part hang. Yeah, you got me. You get this. Can I ever control how people perceive me ever? And why does it matter if I cannot control it? I don't know. I don't know. Is this just a human being? Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Yes, and guess what? That's okay. And now you see, ⁓ my brain is just being a human being and that's okay because my logical business brain is going to rise above it. Yeah, I don't think it's desperate, but ⁓ I am trying to find which would be the best way to give flyers or information to people around my area. ⁓

It's a lot of, you know, it's a lot of dogs, owners. There's kind of like four buildings with a lot of dogs. More people in Costa Rica have dogs than it's right now, right? It's a thing. It's a thing. But I don't want to, you don't know, like I don't want to, I don't want to, I mean, I was hearing someone in the internet saying that selling people or

working as a selling agent is nowadays a very good skill, right? So I just want to, you know, kind of have a couple of tips to not sound too, you know, too pushy or to give me your money. want to. that's it. Okay. I have a couple of things that I want to give you. One is your brain is focused on the best way, assuming that there's a wrong way. Okay.

So it's like, well, then I want the best way, but what if there's 55 ways that work? So just keep that in mind because I want to find the best way because I don't want to feel this way, be perceived this way. I don't want this. So it's focused on what you don't want. It wants to do it right. So you don't get the things you don't want rather than how can I serve? How can I best serve?

in what ways could I serve these people? Yes, a pamphlet, a flyer, a this or that. You remember ⁓ I've talked about service energy, being service energy. How can I serve versus I'm not trying to get a client. When we want to get a client,

We feel salesy. We feel like we are bothering people and we're pushy and we're slimy because we are trying to get something from someone. We're trying to get their money, get a client, take, take, take, get, get, get rather than I'm here to serve and offer value. And I want to do that in a way that communicates it as best I can. Yes. And there's probably a thousand different ways to do that. How can I serve? If I come into this training,

with, wanna get people in elevate, I wanna get money, you would feel it. I come into these trainings like, how can I serve? How can I help people? And yes, here is my offer if you wanna work with me more, but I'm here for completely free working for weeks on content and the next month with you serving, completely free to serve to help photographers get more money faster. This is my only goal.

I will get clients from that. They will join me. And that's fantastic. I will make that offer and it's their decision. But in my brain, it's very clean. So I would ask you like, in general, how do I want to feel in this interaction? How do I want to feel? It's probably like I'm adding value and in service and I have something good to offer. Okay, yeah. And then what do I need to think to generate

the feelings that are opposite of desperation. And that will, I'm telling you Elke, that will give you so much more clarity on how you do it. We can't answer the how when we're trying to avoid.

Yep. You got it? Yeah, I got it. Okay. I'm going to move on. Hopefully that helps. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Morgan, I want to talk to you about, I was kind of like leading into Morgan's question, but that with the sales stuff about feeling salesy and usually that's because we're trying to get something rather than serve. And this comes down to a self concept also, but

in your unintentional sales pitch for that matter. If I feel like I'm being, you know, salesy, then it's just going to come across. It's going to, it's like, you know, I don't know if I want to offer this Morgan. Can you unmute? you around? And, um, I can't see you yet. Can you hear me? Yes. Good. Are you, can you join us on video? If not, that's okay. Let me see.

Perfect. Okay. Tell me what your thoughts are. Well, I started this business back in June and it's like a side business and been doing it for a few months. I do photography, design, marketing, and so on. But I did really good starting off really good in the marketing, social media, all that. But now as I'm going into fall, I'm kind of feeling that little lull. And I know that I should reach out to people, but I don't want to be like that person going, ⁓

Give me a chance. ⁓ you already have somebody. I don't want to, I don't want to feel that pain point of being rejected, I guess. Because what if they say no, right? Yep. Yeah. What if they do say no, by the way?

then I gotta try to figure out how to go through those feelings of getting through them. And what if that's okay? What if it's like, yeah, that is disappointing and kind of hurts. Like I'm not saying rejection is good. It's just like, ouch, and what did I learn? But also I think there's two things here for you. That's one is like someone saying no is not a problem because we'll, just like talk to someone else. But this idea that I'm like,

It's like this. Do you remember you're in the back and you're like, pick me. No, no, don't pick me. Don't pick me. Wait, pick me. No, no, no. Nevermind. It's like, you have this energy of like, give me a chance. Yeah. Yeah. Versus, how could you offer what you have in service? From just like, this is what I have and leaving it completely up to them if they would like to hire you. Like, what would you need to maybe think or believe?

could feel like you were serving.

And that's the thing is my business is based on the presence of silver lining. And that's what I have in my name is just to be able to give people something that they're missing or just giving them a little more than they need. And that's what my hope was. It's just- have a passion for that? I do. Okay, there it is. How could we cultivate that passion for the silver lining and just tell people from a place of like, ⁓ I call it clean energy, just like pure thinking, like,

I'm so excited about this silver lining concept. I'm so excited to share it with you. my gosh, you guys have to hear about this. This is the same as you get that good photo and you're like, look, look, everybody look. This is the same thing. I love this silver lining concept. This is you and me. I love it as well. And you're like, my gosh, you guys have to hear about this. Like you guys as anyone, everyone right out there.

I'm so excited about this. have this idea and it's truly from a place of your passion for the value that you offer. And they just have to know that you exist and you have this passion. Otherwise, how could they be compelled towards it? Okay. That makes sense. How does that feel? It feels like something I can do. It's just trying to find the way to do it and be able to use my words and use my feelings to.

get it out there. Yeah, it's so funny. I think that to myself sometimes I'm like, Heather, use the words. Where are the words? Yeah. Okay. So how would you do that? How did you get better at taking photos? Well, I've done it for so long. It's just something that came on to me when I was on vacation with my family a few months ago. Well, back in April, I guess it was now. And it was more of like, I can help more. I can help people more. can give more to people than just taking a picture. I wanted to do that.

everything afterwards. There it is. That's it. You just tap into that and believing like when you're okay, I've got to find the words is like, I know I will find the words because I'm so excited and passionate about it. And I might just like blubber it out at first because of my excitement, but the more I practice, the better I get. Therefore the more I say it, the better I get. So just practice saying it and talking about it, letting yourself stumble. Okay. And then getting really excited about it because even if you stumbled,

If you had like cultivated the passion and the energy, like people would expect you to stumble because you're just like, you know, you're just like so excited. And then you're learning how to say it maybe more succinctly or directly like from practice. But in order to get to that point, you have to start. So then it's like, what do I need to think and believe to generate so much excitement that I am inspired into action? Okay. That makes sense.

do I need to think or believe to feel excited, to just feel passionate with my silver lining concept. This is so unique. People need to know about this. I'm just going to share it with them. And it's this complete service energy. So I'm not like, hey, give me a chance. You know, that's just, I mean, you get that. Yeah. Like maybe, maybe you'd want to give me a shot. You know, no, it's like you guys have no clue how amazing this concept is. And I'm going to,

talk about it constantly because I believe in it so much. Like I believe in elevate so much, I will never stop talking about it. And I'll talk about it any way I need to talk about it. I'm so passionate because I know I can help people make money. Morgan, if I knew that I could help people make money, like really believed that then I would just be shouting it from the rooftops and talking about all the time, which is what I'm doing. If you believe that you could change lives by what you have to offer through this concept you've created.

He would just never shut up about it. And people would love that about you. It would never feel salesy or pushy. It would feel exciting in like a magnetic field, like drawing you in, drawing people into you just from that passion and excitement. But the minute your brain tries to tell you you're trying to get a client, take it from another photographer, pick me salesy, it's going to shut down. And it makes sense.

Got it.

Just then we're just going to go do it and just be aware. You're like excited in this moment. You can feel it. You've just got to like tap into that all the time because we're to get off of here. You're to go to talk to someone and it's going to like it's going to screech you back to a halt. And you just have to like capture and be like, no, this is really I'm really, really passionate about it. Like this is legitimate. People actually really need this. And I have to like

get over my brain or not believe it in order to make this happen. I think that the world will languish in direct result to you holding yourself back. And that will only flourish when you put it out there because people are looking for a need exactly this concept that you have. Do ever hear this saying that like the minute someone thinks I need a boat, someone else in the world is thinking I'm going to build a boat. Like that happens. It's the same thing.

Yep. I agree. And that's the thing is I'm doing this because I felt like this is something that the world does need and people do need this. And there's so much negativity that I just want to try to bring something different. Oh, my gosh. So well said. That's for everyone. There's so much negativity in the world and photos make people happy. So let's go make the world happy and like really make a difference in the world. If you believe that, I mean, if you dropped into that belief that I make a difference in the world.

What could stop you? Oh, No. All right. I'll talk to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Marty, how can I help you?

Yeah. So I'm just starting out. pricing is my big hurdle. What's it doing to you is pricing. It is like I have done another seminar and they say, you know, charge for your sitting fee and then have your clients come in and then buy the prints. Sure. And don't give them digital. Sure. The way they purchase the prints. Yep. And then

On Facebook, you see people advertising services or asking for a photographer. And if they're asking for a photographer, there's like 150 million people offering. And then they're saying, well, we can do it for $30 and we'll give you all these digitals. And it's like, how do you compete with that? Yeah. Okay. I've got you. Hang on before you continue. You don't. Right. You don't. I'm not even going to read that or look at it.

I'm not even going to let that enter my brain because if you see that and you see the 5 million people responding and sort of the back and forth between clients and photographers, it will get in your head. Right. And that's I think that's my big hurdle right there. It's like, OK, well, they have all these people that are offering that. no, no. Here's what I want. Here's what I want to offer you for today. We're just going to drop that thought. That's just not that is one segment of the market.

It's not yours. That's okay. But what your brain is doing is like, oh my gosh, look, see, this is going to be hard. This is a problem. It has to be this way. And they're arguing over $30. I can't even live on 30. It doesn't even fill my gas tank, know, this economy, you know, whatever, all of those things. And I'm just like, oh, that's so interesting. I'm not going to participate. I'm just not available for that. I'm going to do it this way, or I'm going to try it different ways. And here's the key thought you need. People are ready, willing and able to pay for me.

Right. But I don't know where. OK, I agree with you there. And then I'm to say the but it just wiped out the front of that comment. So.

Where do I start pricing? Kind of like that's my stumbling block. Yeah, no, that's that's understandable when you come into the market and you see 55 ways to do it and they're all different, very different and they're working for some and you'll get some people who are like you have to do it this way and you have to do it that way. And I just think that you can do it any way you want and that you should and can experiment and you'll find what works for you. So, for example, when I started

it was before all of the IPS, you know, selling in person. So it was like, they paid and they got the digital. Like that's just how it was. And then people started selling products and I did some of that and it just didn't fit for me. And then I was like, but I want to make more money, you know, and I didn't, how, how much could I charge? And then it became sort of a hybrid model, you know, like, cause you can sell prints, you can sell art and still sell digitals.

I want to drop this possibility that there are an unlimited number of ways to do your pricing and you can do it however you want and I will support you and walk you through it. It's going to be an experiment at first. You're going to try something. It might work. It might not. You'll try something else. It might work for a year. It might not. It's always going to be shifting and changing and that's okay. Where we get stuck is thinking there's a right or wrong way.

Because if there's a right or wrong way, then of course I need the right way. I'm not gonna waste my time with all these wrong ways. Tell me the right way. And what I'm saying is there's going to be the perfect pricing that you love that works for you, but it's gonna take a few experiments. It's like somebody says, I don't know, buy these jeans or these glasses and they're perfect and everybody loves them then you get them. You're like, hate these. It's totally not for me. And that's happened with me with my pricing. So I wanna encourage you

to literally make it up. Okay. I did not have the interwebs or any classes. When I started my business, I was reading. I learned Photoshop from a literal book, a book where like step-by-step tutorials on how to do things in Photoshop because they didn't change it as often, right? I learned business from a book. I read a book. And then I was like, but I don't know. I mean, okay. But I don't know if that's for me.

I don't know that I want to structure it that way. So I had no choice but to make it up. So I made it up and I screwed some things up and then I fixed it and then I made something else up. And you just say like, why, why am I stuck here? because I think there's a right or wrong way, but there isn't. So I can experiment and I can change it. you, you, honestly, you cannot screw it up.

You'll just pick some things that don't work as well as others, but it's not a problem because you can change it at any time. I want to release you from the shackles. ⁓ I want to liberate you from all of the things that you see out there related to pricing or even marketing. It's like, what if I didn't have those voices? I'd have to just make it up and try something, which is what I did. And I'm actually thankful that I built that business

before I had all these voices because I absolutely have so much compassion for you and for anyone who's hearing all of these voices and you're just like, oh my gosh, what do I do? I won't even respond because it's like, okay, they have 150 people that are offering their services. Why are you going to respond to that? think you just don't want to. You're on those threads. Yeah.

You might not want to. mean, it doesn't matter if you do or not, honestly, like maybe throw your name in there, but who cares sort of detach from that. It's just like, I'm over here in my lane figuring this out. And those may or may not be the people that are right for me, but I have to make it right for myself first in order to love it and believe it, to offer it to the right person. You see what I'm saying? Right. Yes. It's like, even if I told you to do it a certain way, but you hated it.

you would have an unintentional sales pitch beneath that pricing. It would be impossible for you to sell it. I have to get you to a point where you love what you're doing with your pricing so that you can sell it and then we can refine it. I have a photographer I was working with. This is maybe last year where I was like, hey, what do you need to do to just paying client in front of your lens? I was like, 250, $300, five digitals. What is it? And she's like, Heather, I don't.

I don't know if I could do $75 or $100. And I said, I support you. Go get somebody in front of your lens for $75 and give them some digitals. I support that and love it and love it. And then let's see what we can do next and where we need to. It's like, I want you to love it and be comfortable. And I want to push you a little, but I never want to push you to say like, well, you need to be selling $5,000 wall art in person tomorrow. Like that's not going to work.

No, and see, so I have to find my niche too, because I'm like an abstract artist. So like, I do like a lot of photography and then manipulated into art. So I had like, I belonged to a photo club and one of the gentlemen is a retired portrait photographer. And he was moving and he gave my daughter and I most of his lighting and backgrounds and stuff.

I do have my studio already and my daughter who is nine now, she's already sold a photo for $110 of a good humor truck. So, and she has disabilities and I have a son with disabilities. So that's why getting into this so I can schedule my work around doctor's visits. Amazing. already, and ⁓ so I want to.

grow this business so she can step in and have it for her later because you know and here's the kicker with her she's had a stroke and she has no direct vision out of her right eye and so yeah and she's like she's already got two people's choice awards and she sold a photo in this

photography group of seasoned photographers. So everybody goes, we're not even going to bother doing so when so she has an eye already. And I just want to be able to give this to her later. So I need to figure it out. And you will, because that's a beautiful vision.

And maybe you should take a pricing class from her because clearly she knows how to do it. Well, we did the Pittsburgh all night Pittsburgh, and that's where she sold it. Wait, are you in Pittsburgh? Yes. So am I. Well, I'm in Mount Pleasant. OK, now the Pittsburgh. Well, the next time she does something like that in an event, please invite me. And if I can be there, I will be. OK. Yeah, no, that's really beautiful.

And my guess is that for her and her pricing is she probably didn't overthink it. We tend to overthink things. And it's just like, how can I tap into that, that like childlike belief that I can do this and I can sell it? I would get re I love your, I love what drives you, you know, like your values with your children. And if you tap into that, like this is where I'm headed. I can figure anything out. No right or wrong. I'm just experimenting.

I'm going to do this. I'm going to grow this and I'm going to make a different life for them. Like getting really focused on that desire. Anything else is just like a fun experiment. Okay, we're just, that's where we're headed. So we're going to do all of these different things to get there. And I don't care what the pricing looks like today. It's like, this is where we're headed. So it's like, when you focus on that vision, like all of the how,

So yeah, I'm just going to figure it out. And it just, get out of your head. Like when I was talking with Elky, it's like, what are you trying to do here? Trying to serve. So the how becomes more clear when you are in touch with that, that outcome or the result, the desire, wherever you're headed. And it's really beautiful. And I would work on those thoughts and focusing my energy. And then when your brain tries to do this to you, but how.

You're like, no, no, no, this is just what we're doing. We're getting paying clients in front of our lenses, period.

I wish you nothing but the best. mean, I hope you make a bazillion dollars and you're able to turn the business over to them. And amazing, amazing. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Okay. I want to wrap up with, know, do you feel like you need a website, a business plan before getting paying customers? And I don't know if you were around when I first opened, I said, you know, I was charging $50.

And I didn't need a new logo to make money and fix that. I needed a new thought. I think here's what I think you need to get paying clients a camera because it's literally all I had. Lightroom was not invented when I started my business. Lightroom was invented. I actually downloaded the.

version of Lightroom. was free in 2006 before it went into beta in 2007. Before that I used Capture One and barely. Okay, I figured it out. I did get good at it. Okay, let's be real. But I had a camera, a point and shoot. what is it? What does it say? Elky, put it in the chat. I can't see it. I can't see it. What I can see. I can't see it. Somebody put that in the chat for me. I'm sorry. How can I serve you today? Perfect. One of my mantra.

for the day. How can I serve you today? I can put my in my in front of my computer. Yes, like paste it on your heart. Perfect. So yeah, perfect. I see it. Thank you. So I just want you to think like I have everything I need. I have a camera and I have a way to get photos off of my camera onto my computer or to a person. And then you just accept money and that's it. That is all you need. That is all.

I only accepted cash and check when I first, I just didn't know you guys, I didn't know. And then you can add all of the other things. You start getting paying clients, you learn what you need to add. You start cleaning up your thoughts, you learn how to sell your services. And then it just goes from there. The key is just in getting action quickly, which is why we're doing this in four weeks, is I want you in action today or as you are listening to this, you're cleaning up your thoughts and then you're going out and you're making offers to connect.

offers to connect and add value. You're serving, I'm offering to serve you. And then, and then you just practice that over and over. And if you try that every day that you can for the next four weeks, and it doesn't work many, many times, you just extracted gold because that gives you just as many lessons or clarity or more than if it works. I actually worry more about photographers who have a ton of success right out of the gate.

than those that struggle. If you are struggling, I actually worry less about you than someone having all of the success. I know you can do it. I know you're capable. I believe that you can do this. So just like, let's go make it happen and I'll see you soon. Thanks.

Nicole Begley (1:40:15)
Hey everybody, Nicole again, if this training resonated with you, don't wait, go grab your free seat in our four clients and four weeks challenge right now at www.hairofthedogacademy.com/4c4w call three is happening today at 2 p.m. Eastern. And you'll also get instant access to the replays plus our final live call next week. So

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