Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I bet there are some things that you do, or some things that you tell yourself again and again that hold you back, that keep you playing small, and you might not even notice it, but you might tell yourself that you're not good enough, that you charge too much, that it's better to do things on your own than getting help. We've talked about mindset before here on sustainable photography, but is something that we have to talk about again and again.
[00:00:28] Some things you do are automatic. You just act on impulse. You just think without thinking about what you're thinking about. And some of your thoughts are not helping you. They're keeping you safe, in a way, by limiting you. And we all do this. If I become visible and take up space, people might think and say mean things about me. If I raise my prices, no one will book me. If I quit my job, then I'll lose my safety net, and that's too scary.
[00:01:03] Here in Norway, wedding prices are. It's like they have a cap.
[00:01:09] You should charge between 30 and 40,000 Norwegian, which is about $3,000. Hardly anyone charges more. And if you charge less, then everyone knows, every photographer that is knows that you're rather new and inexperienced. A few years ago, I worked with Kristen Sweden as my mentor. She's been on the podcast a couple of times, and I've been on hers. And you probably know her podcast, dangerous creatives. So she was saying that she charged $20,000 for a wedding, and some of her students were charging quite a lot as well. And I was like, I see what you're doing, but that's never going to happen. Here in Norway, they can charge 10,000 for a wedding. It's just not going to happen.
[00:02:00] But while I was working with Kristen, while I had her as a role model, it happened to me.
[00:02:09] I had wedding clients paying me about $10,000 to work with them. I just thought it was so interesting that after hearing about someone doing it, I was able to do it as well.
[00:02:23] It's like that cap. That limit of $4,000 was wiped away, and I was able to charge more.
[00:02:32] And this is true of pretty much everything. If you keep saying limiting things to yourself, nothing is stopping you from believing in them and acting as if they were true. Because if you think that you won't book any more clients, then you won't do what it takes for you to book.
[00:02:50] You're probably not going to do much marketing. You'll hold yourself back, because what's the point? If you believe that, you'll be able to get as many bookings as you want. You'll do whatever possible to make it work. You'll be creative and look for possibilities.
[00:03:08] But a new way of thinking and acting means breaking patterns. Like if you see that you're not making enough money and not getting enough bookings, your default way of thinking might be that you need to lower your rates to get more people in the door. But remember, what your goal is is to make more money, not to get a certain number of clients. And it's very likely that raising your rates and aiming for fewer clients is easier rather than the opposite. And don't get me wrong, it's probably not the only change you need to make if you're not making enough money. But the point here is your mindset, the way that you think about what's possible and whether there's more than one way to solve a problem.
[00:03:53] But how can you snap out of your automatic thoughts of what it takes to make it of pricing and sales and being visible and of making money?
[00:04:04] The first step is to be aware of your thoughts and your beliefs and then focus on what you want to believe.
[00:04:12] Is it easy? No. It requires you to put in an effort, and this might be an ongoing struggle in your life and your business. So to help you out, I've made a mindset training workbook that you can download. Just go to englisholness.com mindset to get yours.
[00:04:33] Think about it. Who do you spend your time around?
[00:04:36] What input are you getting during the day, week, year? If you're hanging out with people who think making money should be hard work and only bad people charge money, and the more you charge, the more greedy you are, or that it's impossible, or at least very hard to make money being a photographer, then that will influence you.
[00:05:01] On the flip side, if you spend time with people who expand your mind, who believe that it doesn't have to be hard, that you're allowed to charge money, invest money, and even be wealthy, then you start believing that too.
[00:05:15] So read books, listen to podcasts and watch youtubes that speak to what you want and even what you need to believe. Find new friends and create a network of like minded so you can build each other up instead of down.
[00:05:32] I speak with a lot of photographers and hear a lot of people's thoughts. One thing that I hear a lot is why will it work for me when it doesn't work for this or that photographer around me? Usually naming some names and my clear recommendation is to find someone to look up to. That is, making it work, that is, doing what it takes.
[00:05:56] Because honestly, most photographers I see have too low prices to make a decent living. Photographers in general aren't really business people. Neither was I a few years back. So by all means, there's no judgment here. And it's not like you have to be a business person, you just have to be aware of a few things.
[00:06:18] So my wish for you is to take an honest look at yourself and your business to see what might help.
[00:06:25] There are many things and thoughts that might be holding you back, and we go through many of them in the workbook. But I want to talk about it as well.
[00:06:36] And let's start with money.
[00:06:39] And just by saying that we're going to talk about money, it might trigger you. But please stick with me. You have some thoughts and some beliefs around money, whether you're aware of it or not. You might feel like you never have enough. You might feel guilty for what you do have. You might feel like you need to save and hardly ever permit yourself to spend, especially not on yourself. Or you might spend it all when you have it. So getting awareness around your thoughts, that's the first step.
[00:07:13] Same goes for investing in your business and in yourself. If you've ever made a bad investment, you might think that investing is scary or even unnecessary.
[00:07:24] Your job is to find out if that's true or if it's something that's holding you back.
[00:07:30] As my coach, Michelle Turpstra says, your relationship with money shows up in the way you buy and in the way people buy from you.
[00:07:39] That means that if you're scared of spending money yourself, it's likely that people find it hard to spend money with you as well.
[00:07:48] After you've worked to uncover your money and sales and investment blocks, you can move forward to imagine yourself successful where your business is working for you. You're making the kind of money you want, working with the kinds of clients you'd love to have. And of course, you have free time.
[00:08:08] Who are you then?
[00:08:10] What do you say yes to? And what do you say no to? What do you charge? And what are your boundaries?
[00:08:18] Knowing this will give you great guidance as to what you should do now. Because if the you in, say, three years, who's doing great, isn't giving away free shoots or discounting prints or is hanging out with successful photographers, why should it be any different now?
[00:08:38] And you might tell me, but I'm not getting enough business. I have to work for free. Then I want you to go back to the exercise in the workbook and figure out why you believe that I can't hang out with any successful photographers now because I don't know any.
[00:08:55] Go back into the workbook and figure out why you think that. Why can't you do something about that? Because once again, if you believe you're going to be successful and that your work is worth paying for, then you'll find a way to make it work.
