Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hi and welcome to the sustainable photography podcast. This is episode number 146 and I'm Ingvil Colnes. It is mid October and way up north is happening next week. And for the first time, I'm actually gonna go. It's in Lisbon and if you're gonna be there, let me know. Send me a message on Instagram and let's meet up. That would be so much fun. Today, though, we're going to talk about something that's really important for your growth as a photographer. Whether you're aiming to book more clients, elevate your portfolio, or free up more time so you can focus on your creativity or your family.
[00:00:42] You know, there's always that one thing that's holding you back, and that could be time, fear, or maybe just not feeling ready. Does it sound kind of familiar? If so, you're definitely not alone. But waiting for that perfect moment, that's exactly what's keeping you stuck where you are right now. I know that because I've been there too. I used to wait. I used to think that I wasn't ready to raise my prices or improve my branding until I felt more experienced. I used to think that I just couldn't afford to invest in my business.
[00:01:22] The truth though, is that waiting cost me so many opportunities that could have moved my business forward a lot sooner.
[00:01:32] I feel like the core of this podcast is all about the fact that if you're a photographer, that is about so much more than just taking great photos. It's about running a business, booking the right clients and building something that lasts.
[00:01:48] But how often do you find yourself thinking, I'll work on that when things slow down?
[00:01:55] Maybe next year I'm going to focus on improving my brand or sign up for that course or get a new website.
[00:02:03] The truth is you're always going to find some reason for why you should wait.
[00:02:08] Life happens, client work piles up and suddenly you've put off something crucial for another year. But where would you have been right now if you'd taken action a year ago?
[00:02:22] Because maybe last year you thought about improving your branding. You thought about how you could make your client experience even better. You considered maybe even joining my program. And if you had a year ago, then you could have been booking higher paying clients right now. You could have saved a ton of time on your workflow and you would have gotten a lot further than where you are today.
[00:02:48] The photographers who are truly thriving today, they didn't wait.
[00:02:53] They just did. They saw where they wanted to go and they started making those decisions that would get them there sooner. They didn't think about where they are today and limited themselves because of it. They looked ahead. So if you want to book better clients, if you want to strengthen your brand or free up more time to focus on your creativity, you can actually start right now. You don't have to have everything figured out. You just have to be willing to take that first step and just decide that you're ready for something more.
[00:03:30] If you're doing really well in your business now, you might think, this isn't for me. I'm already doing great. I don't need help with anything. I don't need to invest in anything. I'm good.
[00:03:42] And that's where I would strongly disagree.
[00:03:47] Most successful people in any field will always continue to seek guidance, coaching, education, help in any way they can.
[00:03:58] Coaching isn't about fixing problems. It's about accelerating your growth, keeping you accountable and pushing you to new heights.
[00:04:08] So even if you're now hitting all your goals and booking great clients, a coach can help you to scale beyond what you thought was possible. They can help you refine your strategy, perfect your brand, and even prepare you for that next big step in your career.
[00:04:25] It's really about staying ahead and continuing to grow, even when, or maybe especially when you're already succeeding. You see, coaching, it doesn't just hold you accountable, it offers you clarity and a different perspective even when you don't know it. You could be so stuck in your own thinking.
[00:04:50] I bet there's a lot of things you could be doing better that you're just not seeing yourself.
[00:04:55] For me, I would say that I'm doing pretty well. I love my clients, I make enough money.
[00:05:03] I'm doing the thing that I love the most.
[00:05:06] And the biggest struggle in my business is that I always want to work too much and I have a coach and she gives me ideas of how I can slow things down and work smarter. Working with a coach also gives me a lot of ideas I didn't even know that I needed, because my thinking is we're not supposed to figure it all out on our own. And if you think you have everything you need, to me, that's a clear sign that you don't. Maybe you're thinking that you're too new to invest in coaching if maybe you're not planning to have this business long term and that it's not going to be worth it.
[00:05:46] And I don't necessarily think that that's true either. Because even if you see yourself being in business for only a couple of years, coaching can still pay off in a big way.
[00:05:57] Not only will you learn a lot of new things through coaching and mentoring, that is not just going to benefit your photography business, they're going to benefit you as a person. You're going to learn how to run a business market yourself, set goals and handle clients.
[00:06:15] Those things are going to be valuable no matter what you do next.
[00:06:19] But also when you invest in education, it can help you to be more profitable right away.
[00:06:27] You can see a return on that investment already in that first year, meaning it's going to be worth it. I have clients who have worked with me who have doubled their revenue within the first year of working with me. I also have clients who have booked pretty much the exact amount that they paid for the mentoring within the first month. But don't get me wrong, I completely understand the scary feeling of investing because you don't have any guarantees that it's going to work out for you and you have to put in the work yourself.
[00:07:00] I do think for most people it will definitely be worth it if you're working with someone that you respect and who has not only advice to give you, but who sees you for the person that you are so that they can help you and build your business into something better than what it is today. So, as I said, coaching is definitely for you if you have a successful business. Coaching is for you if you're newer in business. But it's important to note that depending on where you are in your photography business, the steps you need to take and the results that you might get will all be different. If you're just starting out, you might need to focus on building your portfolio and growing your confidence and make sure that you book more clients. If you're ready to grow your business, you'll most likely want to streamline your processes and workflows to free up time. And you also probably want to increase your income, both by increasing your prices, booking higher paying jobs, and also making sure that you pay yourself more money. If you're even further along, your focus might shift towards charging premium prices, strengthening your brand, and attracting the best possible clients.
[00:08:18] When you're this far along, maybe you can also improve your systems even further. Maybe you can outsource more and automate stuff, taking the right action at the right stage. That's not only going to help you to grow, but it's going to help you to avoid burnout.
[00:08:35] And if you listen to my previous episode with Muna, you're going to see that you might not even know that you're close to burnout until it's actually happened to you. And that is actually why I got into doing this in the first place. Because I know how easy it is when you are so passionate about what you do that you just do it too much. You don't necessarily see your own limitations until it's too late.
[00:09:02] And remember that the right coach or mentor can help you out, no matter stage you're at. Just to clarify here, I'm not saying that that is me. You have to find the right coach for you. The reason I'm mentioning this is because I don't want you to do it alone. I think it's good for you if you get help instead of insisting to do it all on your own. And that is no matter if you're a part time photographer. And you know that's always going to be the case if you're a full time photographer making six figures and beyond, or if you've been in business for less than a year, doing it alone is not going to help you.
[00:09:39] You're going to get so much further, so much faster if you have someone in your corner. So what is going to happen if you don't do anything about it? And if you find an excuse yet another year? I think that waiting, that's not just gonna make things slow down for you. It can also cost you some real opportunities. How many bookings could you have missed out on because you were waiting for the perfect moment for the right thing to say on Instagram, or the perfect picture to add to your feed? That is not what someone is looking for from you. They just want to see that you are there, that you exist, that you're a real person.
[00:10:17] And I think that's true for almost anything. The longer you wait to make those changes or to just make the decision, the longer you're going to stay where you're at. And I do want to mention, if you are thinking about joining my program, this is the perfect time because the price is about to go up. And again, even if you don't sign up to my program, if you wait to make any changes or investments in your business, that is going to keep you from moving forward. If you had raised your prices last year to the place where you actually wanted them to be, instead of just thinking that you needed to do it incrementally, or if you had taken that time to streamline your workflow, how many more clients could you have fit into your calendar? Or how much more money would you have made? Sometimes the cost of not taking action is a lot bigger than the cost of investing in your business. As I mentioned, I am not the only option. There are so many programs and coaches and resources out there to help you grow. What matters to me is that you choose to invest in yourself and in your business. And that is whether that's joining my program or finding something else that aligns with your needs and your values. I recommend that you invest around 10% of your business revenue in education. I actually invest a about 20% these days because I want to grow fast and I want to reach further. To me, this is how I can move from just getting by and doing what I always do to getting to the next level. Right now I'm in Kristin Sweeting's mastermind and I'm also doing a full time study to be a certified coach. That's just a couple of the things I'm mentioning right now. I'm in a lot of other things, spending a lot of money on that. I'm not saying that you need to sign up for all the things, but definitely do something.
[00:12:14] Have people around you to guide you. There is one more thing that I want to mention. Have you ever taken one of those calculators to show you how much money you'd make if you were to invest your money today? A compound interest calculator. It's like that same concept that's still true of investing in your business. We might think that success is something that happens after making one big decision or even after making one big mistake. But in reality, it's those small, consistent actions that you take that's going to give you the most meaningful and lasting results. Every little improvement that you make in your business, whether that's in your workflow, your marketing, or your mindset, it's going to build on top of the last one. Maybe at the moment you do them, they're going to feel really small and maybe even insignificant. But over time, they'll add up and start to create bigger and bigger results.
[00:13:16] For example, if you decided today to invest a little bit of time into learning a new marketing strategy, maybe it's not going to lead to you being overrun by new clients. But if you keep working at it and keep posting and keep applying what you've learned, that's going to lead to more and more inquiries and bookings.
[00:13:38] If you work on improving your client experience where you streamline communications or set up a smoother process, that's going to make your clients feel more appreciated and valued at first. Maybe it's going to save you a bit of time. Or maybe it's even going to take a bit of time. But as you start using those new systems again and again, you're going to start to realize how much more efficient they are and how much more professional your business becomes, which is going to allow you to handle more clients or just focus on other things in your life and your business so those small, almost invisible little things, they can build up over time and create big changes in your business.
[00:14:25] As a personal example of mine, three years ago I signed up for Kristin Sweeting's mastermind, and I that didn't lead to an immediate thing for me. It's not like I signed up and suddenly everything was fixed in my business. It led to a few changes and shifts in how I was thinking. It led to me starting this podcast, which has probably been the biggest game changer in my business. So when she asked if I wanted to sign up again, of course I wanted to, because I don't expect it to have an instant effect where suddenly everything's better. But I do think it's going to lead to me making some small changes, which, again, is going to lead to big results. You don't have to wait for this huge opportunity or to have everything figured out in order for you to see any progress. Every little investment that you make in yourself, whether that's buying a course or improving a process or saying yes to a fun opportunity, it can put you one step closer to the business that you want to have in the future. So think about where you want to be a year from now.
[00:15:39] Maybe you want to have a bigger client base. Maybe you want to have a stronger online presence, or maybe you want to have more time to just be creative. It can feel a bit overwhelming, and you might not even know what it would take to get there. But what one small thing can you do today to get you closer to that place? Maybe it's going to be as simple as spending an hour to streamline your onboarding process, or maybe you decide to invest in a new tool that's going to save you time. Maybe you decide to reach out to a potential new client. Or maybe you finally raise your prices. And I would say, even if you don't know, actually, if you don't know, that's even better. Because next week I have a workshop. It's called create your best year yet. I've held it two years in a row. This year it's a little bit different because it's a one day workshop, and I've just added a one on one call that you get as a bonus. The way it works is you sign up, it's $97 or 970 norwegian kronor. Then you get access to an online course, five lessons, really short and sweet. You can watch the lessons, and then on October 23, you'll come join me live, and then we'll workshop this stuff together. We'll go through what you actually want in 2025, and we'll talk about what little things you can do right now to see a difference. Actually, the goal of the course is for you to create a plan. Nothing detailed, just a basic plan of 2025 that's going to get you closer to where you want to be.
[00:17:21] If you want to check it out, you should go to engvelkolnas.com minicourse.
[00:17:26] And of course the link is also in the show notes, so you don't really have to look for it. So in the same way that compound interest works in finance, the same applies for investing in your business. The sooner you start investing, the more those investments will grow and multiply. That is, whether it's time, energy, or other resources to improve things, the bigger the payoff will be in the future. So my final challenge for you is to stop waiting. Stop thinking that there's going to be a perfect time or that you need to have everything in place for it to be worth it. So whether you join my program or if you find another path to get you to where you want to go, I urge you to take action. And don't let another year go by where you're in the same place. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of sustainable photography. I hope to see you at way up north next week. I hope to see you at my workshop on October 23. And of course, I also hope to see you inside my program. See you again next week.
[00:18:29] You just listened to an episode of sustainable photography. Please share this episode with the photographer you care about.
