The Female Creatives Association

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STOP WASTING TIME ONLINE + CREATE THE PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS YOU DREAM OF

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How often do you ask others for advice on social media?

 

So often I see many of us on facebook asking others for advice. But then you see the same people asking the same questions in other groups, and it’s hard to sometimes not think- the reason you are in these groups constantly asking for business advice is because you are wasting half your time on facebook, rather than actually TAKING ACTION!

 

But it’s not just that. It’s the way that we feel that we NEED to ask for the opinions of others, when really the true answer to probably 90% of the questions we ask will always be – you have to do what works for you. What’s the point of asking for the opinions of hundreds of others on the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way to do things? And worse, constantly asking similar questions about the right and the wrong way to go about XYZ?

 

Look, I get it. I really do. Especially when starting out, we want to make sure we aren’t ‘doing it wrong’ and that we should learn from others.

 

But this is just one more example of how we go backwards in business instead of forward!

 

create a photography business you love

 

And this isn’t just limited to those new in business. I only learned what I am about to tell you after 10 years+ of being a photographer.

My business transformed when I realised that I didn’t have to ask anybody’s opinion on the ‘right’ way of doing things.  Not just ask. But I didn’t have to care about anybodys opinion either. About what worked for them, and what didn’t.

Once you have the knowledge of the basics *(which can be gained far more quickly from doing a course, reading brilliant books, and possibly a workshop, than can be gained from countless hours on facebook) it’s YOU who makes the rules, and if you GET that YOU can make these rules, based on your HAPPINESS, guess what? Your business only increases!!

 

For example. When I first started out, I ran a Google Adwords ad. I hated running that ad. It offered my already cheap services at 50% off, and I felt like a cheap, worthless ‘budget’ photographer running seedy ads practically begging for business.  Did it bring in clients? Absolutely. Were they the kind of clients I wanted to work with? Not in a thousand years.  They were clients who just wanted a ‘camera for hire’ and didn’t care two hoots about the person behind it.  Which is about as far removed from my ‘dream client’ as you could get.

 

But I did work with them because I convinced myself that I ‘needed’ them. I needed their money, needed their images for my site, I ‘needed’ real – life images on show.

 

What a load of junk. It would have been a hell of a lot better for my business if I had never created those ads for my business in the first place.

 

Not only did it completely keep me at ‘cheap photographer’ level mentally, in my own head, it also wasn’t the quickest or best way to gain clients or images for my site.

 

It would have been so much better if I had spent that time organising my own shoot or even a mini shoot I could have planned, designed, + created in 48hours flat. I could have sent this to a blog thus gaining a valuable credit, a feature, and a great business contact, not to mention exposure that might lead to a booking at a much better package rate.

 

I could have then run a decently thought out Facebook ad campaign and attended a wedding fair, and doing those three things would have probably earned me far more in my business that running a load of soul- destroying Adwords. But I did Adwords because at the time that’s what everyone else told me ‘works’.

 

And the craziest thing is, this weren’t even successful photographers here, or particularly well established, or photographers who had lovely clients they adored or who were fully booked and crazily happy. They were local, struggling, budget photographers. If you are going to head somewhere for advice about where to go to grow your business – trust me – it is in your best advantage to go to someone who you see has actually ACHIEVED the things that you would like to! That’s not rocket science.

 

The most hilarious or not so hilarious (at all, really) part is that after years and years of working in and educating myself about marketing— I knew exactly where Adwords work and where they don’t, and what services and products they are good for… And I ignored every single thing that I knew, and did what everyone else did because it ‘seemed’ to work for everyone else so that’s what I should be doing!! That’s just so ridiculous.

 

I see this time and time again now too with some of you asking for advice on or telling me that you’ve spent loads of money on blog ads or running giveaways or competitions to advertise and I then I ask you why and you kind of say … Well, I thought it would be a good way to reach people…. And what you REALLY mean is… Because all of these other photographers advertise here so it must be a good idea!! Because it has readers!! Who are brides!! (Or mothers or whatever). Or the worst one – because I had a booking from it! So it must be working, right?

 

The point is I’m not knocking blog advertising – in fact I highly support it- I think blog advertising works really well if you nail exactly which blog it is you should be working with.

 

But if you ever get that slightly icky feeling when designing a blog ad, or you’re uncomfortable your ad won’t stand out, or you’re wondering if it will really work, or you’re not sure if it works FOR YOU, or you’ve been on a blog for six months and you’ve heard crickets – guess what – honey, this isn’t your way.

 

So you’re either on the wrong blog for you, and you need to find the one that IS right for you and your clients, or, you need to find another way. 

 

I never again ran google ads. It felt awful to me despite gaining 12 bookings in 4 weeks. My phone ringing off the hook. It never felt true to me. It always felt icky and salesy.

 

This isn’t just about sales.

 

I used to do location visits prior to the day. Please – if you do these and you don’t enjoy spending 3 hours travelling to spend an hour at a venue where the light is dramatically likely to change on the day of the big event anyway- have an idea. Stop doing them. Why did I ever think it was a good idea to do location recces? Because Jose Villa talked about how he does his.

 

Jose Villa does them! That means I must do them! 

 

How crazy. Aside from the facts that Jose Villa works in a country where the light is pretty much constant, or generally stays in accommodation close to the venue in terms of destination weddings, AND doesn’t have kids he would rather be at home with / has to be at home to breastfeed, I am NOT Jose Villa! I am ME! And I am spang-dankly-ok with that. Because I don’t live in a country with constant sunshine and I’ve chosen not to shoot destination weddings anymore right now and I do have two kids who I would much rather be snuggled up with watching Frozen reruns, than traipsing around the grounds of a castle in midwinter.

 

How about I turn up 45 mins early on your day for the recce? How about I meet with you on Skype instead of travelling an hour or three for a coffee? How about I stay at home in the warm with my beautiful babes and enjoy our meet and our chat because deep down I know there are much better ways for me to spend my time than spending hours staring at my steering wheel?

 

And here are some other changes I made that might surprise you.

 

I quit having business cards. I know! No business cards! But I just didn’t enjoy spending hours and hours designing them, and they always felt like a massive waste of time, and I never seemed to have one to hand anyway and I’d spend that uncomfortable awkward moment when someone asks for your card scrabbling about in my bag pockets and wallet in the hope of finding one (that wasn’t crumpled and baby-stained) so I always used to take people’s numbers instead which worked MILES better for me than handing out cards that got buried in someone elses handbag trash. So I finally just went ok- no more business cards, and that was that. And I feel relieved now that every time the moo discount sale lands in my inbox that I don’t have to rapidly sit down and spend my whole day fiddling about with my cards or orders.

 

Maybe I’ll order some more one day. But right now I feel light and relieved of something that wasn’t working for me or right for me.

 

How about this. My photography website. For ages I procrastinated around my website. I wanted to take it offline as I didn’t want to handle enquiries this year while I focus on the FPA. I didn’t want to maintain a site and keep it looking gorgeous and well blogged because that would be pointless when I’m not working to attract clients, not to mention a giant time suck. But what held me back was you. I kept thinking- if I don’t have a website, how will anyone believe I’m an actual photographer??! Why would you trust me and want to work with me??

 

And then I got out of my own way and took it down and then I realised if anyone wanted to see my work that bad they could just google me. Hello, modern technology.

 

I also don’t do client welcome packs, I’m (mainly) a fine art film photographer whose branding ISN’T neutral, pastel, or watercolor, (in fact my logo is a big chunky black SQUARE– the very opposite), I am friends with many of my clients on Facebook, and I do a whole host of other things that I’m not ‘supposed’ to do.

 

Just one more thing I did that made ME happy and my businesses work for ME, not on anybody else’s terms or based on what everyone else was doing.  And my business was a massive success for me and hit all of my goals both financial and personal because of, not in spite of, my lack of business cards, my black square logo, my not-so-pastel film photography, my client boundaries. Etc. Because they set me apart. Because my business comes from my heart. Because my business fulfills me and my clients can SEE that and relate to it and yes they BOOK me because of that. (Amongst other things).

 

And what this really is about is cleansing your business. Getting rid of all the junk within it that holds you back both in terms of time and money and happiness and energy and profits and about a million other things that magically seem to transform from ‘bad’ to ‘good’ once you get over your stumbling blocks that you place in your own way.

 

It’s also about believing in yourself and uncovering and knowing what it is that makes you happy.  And the reason your business grows when you gain the confidence to be able to remove all of that JUNK that seems to work for other people but really and truly makes you honest to god MISERABLE and FED UP and even sometimes wondering if you should QUIT, is because all of a sudden your business becomes EASY. Because you are fulfilling your PURPOSE!! When you are confident in who you are, your place here, your mission and your grand purpose in life + business (because let’s not pretend you can separate those two things) you don’t HESITATE in getting rid of those things which don’t serve you because you SEE how much they are holding you + your beautiful POTENTIAL back! And the end result is this only BENEFITS your business + clients!

 

Nobody wants to work with a photographer who is truly miserable they have had to traipse around a castle for three hours in the freezing cold who would rather be back at home in the warm! You think your clients won’t pick up on that, like you can fake it without anyone knowing???

 

You know. Even if they don’t.

 

And you can’t fool yourself that some of these things make you unhappy. They don’t keep you working at your optimum level. You aren’t fully productive when you have an endless to-do list full of things you haven’t actually gotten around to doing because, really, you don’t actually WANT to do them.

 

You can go your own way.

 

And it’s actually essential to go your own way if you want to succeed. Look at every other ‘big name’ photographer out there, and they didn’t get there because they copied somebody else’s model of what running a business ‘should’ be like. Back to Villa- he shot film at a time when everyone was raving about how digital was making film redundant. Guess he didn’t too badly out of following what it was that made him truly happy. How ironic now that everywhere you look, people are rummaging in the depths of ebay and on social media and in garage sales to hunt for film cameras.

 

BECAUSE WHEN YOU STAND OUT, and you are SO GOOD at what you do BECAUSE you love it, every single part of it, you actually become, live and breathe and EMBODY this quote

 

be so good they cant ignore you

 

What in your business right now makes you feel awkward, uncomfortable, is time consuming, or you just generally don’t enjoy doing? 

 

Make a note of the tasks that you carry out each day. Which tasks are really not your favourite?

 

Is there anything you can get rid of, change, or outsource?

 

Allowing yourself to say no to these things makes space in your life for all of the aspects of your business that you love, and that earn you more money.  Low- value tasks that don’t spiral into big time suck vacuums because you actually really dislike doing them.

 

I used to feel SO blessed to be a photographer that I felt like I should enjoy every single task associated with my business. Like paperwork was a gift, accounting was something I should enjoy. Except, I never really did, and then I used to beat myself with the guilt stick every time I avoided doing them, because surely every other photographer filed their tax return on time and was ON IT with their accounting and paperwork and didn’t tend to just float around in an office strewn with receipts some of which were over three years old.

 

I felt guilty if I didn’t do the things I disliked. Or, I ignored the bad feeling and told myself I should just get on and do it.

 

Why do we tell ourselves those things?? Why did I feel like I had to go and do location recces, have business cards, and do all of those other things I would rather not be doing??

 

Because we let ourselves listen to myths. In the same way that people who hire a Nanny but don’t have a full time job or business are often assumed to be lazy parents, or if you hire a cleaner you’re lazy. Even if you’re a full time mummy and business owner, if you’re house isn’t continually spotless at all times, you’re probably a bit lazy.

 

What a lie! What myths are these that we get caught up in! (and thank GOD I got over the last one).

 

Just because I don’t like accounting doesn’t mean I’m a bad business owner or bad at maths! Just because I’d rather use my phone than a business card doesn’t mean I’m not a professional! 

 

We have to stop standing in our own way!

 

Do the things that make you happy. Get rid of the things that don’t, or transform them, or outsource them.  What three things can you get rid of, change, or outsource from your business TODAY that doesn’t make you happy?

 

Make your business something that nourishes and fulfills you from every angle. 

 

Because it’s also a great big myth that running a business has to be HARD WORK. That there always has to be a ton of sacrifice involved. 

 

{That is also someone else’s belief about how you ‘should’ run a business}. 

 

Your business is exactly this- YOUR business.

 

Let it make you happy in every way.  Or spend all of your time on social media asking anyone who will listen how you should run your business, and let them decide for you what it is that makes you happy. You decide.

 

 

Is it going to surprise you if I tell you that the #FPAshininglights program DOESN’T tell you what to do in your business? We are concentrating on building businesses that are filled with ABUNDANCE – and that means in EVERY way. We concentrate on building fabulous wealth using our gifts + talents, but never at the expense of our JOY. And this can be seen clearly over in our rapidly-growing facebook group- where we discuss inspiration, our goals, our achievements; it’s a truly inspiring place to be.

Want to join us? Don’t miss out, because the price is increasing THIS WEEKEND.  Click here. 

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{images by Ashlee Taylor of Taylor Barnes Photography}

Why I Want You To Stop Reading The FPA

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Hey, guess what- did I ever tell you how great my life is? Come on, I am sure I have done.  You know, it goes a little like this – photographer gets fully booked, makes great money, writes a book, husband joins wife in business, they all move to a dream island in the sun, found a membership site, maybe pop out a few more books, and then photographer works their butt off at trying to help other photographers to achieve their fabulous life too?

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Oh wait – let me think about that. Yeah, I think I did tell you!

In fact, I think you are probably sick of hearing about how great my life is.

In fact, I think you quite possible think the fact I am mentoring other photographers is a bit of a joke. Hey, I’m certainly no Elizabeth Messina.  What’s so great about ME? What makes ME think I can mentor other photographers? And even more than that, what makes me think I can teach OTHER photographers to mentor other photographers, or to write books? Or hey, even maybe just make a SUCCESS of their business?

OMG WAIT. Your brain cells just exploded-

IS THIS SHINING LIGHTS PROGRAM SOME CRAZY KIND OF SCHEME WHERE YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND ALL OF YOUR MONEY ONLY TO BE TOLD JUST LIKE I TELL EVERY OTHER PHOTOGRAPHER IN THE PROGRAM THAT HEY- YOU TOO CAN WRITE A BOOK + LIVE A DREAM LIFE IN THE SUN? OR perhaps you might be told YOU TOO SHOULD MENTOR OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS? Lord knows, like there aren’t enough photography ‘mentors’ in the world, right. It’s like a new one pops up every minute, blabbering about how great they are on facebook or in my inbox. Eugh, mentors. They’re like the new cockroach, always crawling around popping up where you least expect them, bragging about how nuclear-proof they are. Smug little roaches. Who do they think they are.

I have no idea about cockroaches. But let me tell you who I am, and why I want you to stop reading the FPA.

If you are concerned with ANY of the above being even slightly true- you know the bit about where I talk about – hey! you can write a book too! and be just like me! –

If you are worried that in your inbox, or on these pages, and VERY DEFINITELY within the Shining Lights Programme you might receive the frankly absurd suggestion about HEY- GET WRITING THAT BOOK OR COURSE OR MENTORING SESSIONS? (I mean, what a ludicrous idea. Sharing your gifts with the world).

GUESS WHAT.

You’re absolutely right it’s like that over in the Shining Lights program. Absolutely, one hundred per cent.

So you might as well stop reading right now. Or you can carry on reading the rest of this post, either way- you probably aren’t going to enjoy what comes next as your mind is already made up, so take my advice and STOP READING. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Am I going to encourage a thousand other photographers to also write a book? Am I encouraging a thousand other photographers to hold mentoring sessions?

What do you think. If I believe that a photographer has a gift and a talent to share, and that their life could benefit tremendously from sharing that information, what on earth do you think I am going to tell them??

‘Oh no darling. Don’t you dare go try anything of the kind. In fact, you sit right there where you belong. In that box labelled ‘photographer’ and don’t dare think about trying to climb out’. Accompanied by head pat.

Like I said, you are reading the wrong blog.

Because it is my absolutely belief that we are put on this earth for far MORE than for our giftS and talentS (plural, in case you didn’t get the S) to be pigeonholed and labelled and be told that’s the best that we should hope for.  That right now, what we are doing is enough.

I also have an ABUNDANCE MENTALITY.

So what if one thousand other photographers go and write a book??? If it provides them with a chance of creating a passive income stream that enables them to a) not be reliant on bookings for theirs or their families survival b) enables them to fulfill a life-long dream c) informs, inspired, or educates other photographers into growing and empowering their businesses too,

then do you really think I am going to sit there and tell them no? Because what, heaven forbid – another photographer might also be creating a book? or offering mentoring sessions?

Please tell me you are kidding. Please tell me that you really don’t believe the world is too small to support the weight of one thousand more books. Or one thousand more mentors and coaches. Please tell me that you think that people don’t need more encouragement, inspiration, or support, from somebody who truly believes in them + their potential?

You see, this is where you are going wrong. Not in just your assumptions, but probably in your business too.

You can’t see the unique beauty in everyone like I can. Because if you did, you wouldn’t for a second be worried about what everyone else is busy creating.

I’m going to bring it down to base level for you. Babies. Purely because I love them and like to talk about them whenever I can. (You might not like that either).

The other day, my baby girls were playing with crayons. Summer held up a crayon and I said to her – Sumi, what colour is that? She replied ‘pink!’ I showed the crayon to Istria. Istria, what colour is this? I asked her. And she told me ‘red’. The colour was actually a kind of dark salmon pink, but in Istria’s mind it is red and in Summer’s mind it is pink.

ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE COULD WRITE A BOOK ON THE EXACT SAME SUBJECT AND STILL NO TWO BOOKS WOULD BE THE SAME.

So if you are wondering whether the Shining Lights Programme is like a big factory, churning out photographers with the same aims and the same dreams and basically to create a whole raft of mini-mes following the same formula > bookings > book > workshops > mentoring >dream life which will probably collapse like a house of cards when everyone realises that HEY! they aren’t me after all, and are frankly useless at anything other than taking pictures, and so that is ultimately what they go back to doing…

Then I will tell you this.

The FPA isn’t here to tell people what to do. It’s a guide. The title kind of gives it away ‘Shining Lights’… you know… lights kind of show people the way, if you didn’t get that part either.

And what the program does is ENABLE people to recognise and create their OWN pathway to success – whatever that pathway looks like for them, whatever that ultimate destination of ‘success’ looks like.

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And here is another thing.

I don’t believe there is one pathway that we all could follow. Just like the thousand people creating the same book, and creating something different, I believe we all have a unique purpose and place on this earth.

Photography is one reflection of who we are, and who we are meant to serve.  But that’s not ALL that we are and ALL that we are meant to do, always, forever, the end.

Our journeys change and evolve. We MAY teach others, we MAY create books, we MIGHT go and create graphics or mentoring programs or courses or workshops and each and every one of those things will look different when they bloom because they come from INSIDE OF US.

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They stem from WHO WE ARE. They spring from our true purpose, the reason we are placed here, right here upon this earth. They spring from our energies, our passions, our desires, our heart + minds.

So it wouldn’t matter even if I did create such a winning formula such as give X photographer A and they create B (for book) and end up at Z (millionaire).

No route taken by each person that I work with will ever look the same.

And that’s what I am proud to create, and proud to be a part of.  That’s what we recognise and support over in Shining Lights.

Do you know what my soul purpose is? And it took me years of work to uncover this and when I found out I cried for hours and then I was still and calm in a way I have never been before. I felt as luminous as the sea seen from my balcony after a storm. (Yep, that’s another one of those dream-life references that you just don’t seem sure about. I mean, it’s just too good to be true, right).

I realised that I wanted to empower women to have control over their lives and their destiny. I wanted to show them that they could truly create their own lives and that it doesn’t need to be on anybody else’s terms but their own.

MY big dream is that I want to one day lift up intelligent, smart, gifted daughters of poverty and show them – teach them – guide them – and provide the financial means for them to be able to REALISE that they have the POWER to CHOOSE their own pathway in life – free from ties of the past or fear or beliefs that are really LIES.

Because that is how I grew up. In near-poverty, with lots of mistruths around money and potential and possibility.

And I know now that is a choice that you make. To be powered over, or to claim your power. To rise up to your potential and embrace it, or to ignore it and instead be limited by lies and beliefs.

So if people want to create a book, like I did?

I will hold their hand and say YES and I will GUIDE them as to what they BELIEVE their book should be about. If they want to create mentoring sessions, just like I did? My modules will help them to BELIEVE they can do it and give them pathways and roadways into creating and owning these possibilities for themselves.

Because I would be a pretty poor mentor if I didn’t give people the chance to do that. If I didn’t honour their own choices.

If I didn’t fully and wholly believe, with every faction of my being, that the world can support MORE books for photographers and MORE mentoring and MORE courses and more of whatever it is that my Shining Lights feel compelled to create that isn’t ‘just’ shooting for a commision or booking; and that women using their powerful energies and beliefs and unique ways of working can transform this industry and support the beautiful + unique place that it is. .

And above all I believe and I teach that photographers can use the plentiful knowledge that is available to them in this world and use it to create and shape their own futures.

For me, that’s a beautiful life with my family, here.

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A few more things before I finish this post.

If you still don’t believe this world needs another photography mentor or another book on photography or another course or another logo designer; I need to ask you – would you truly discourage a new photographer to the industry from trying to enter?

Because surely, that’s what unites us all here – our love of photography.  Nobody is standing up and saying ‘oh, there are too many photographers now.’  Not unless you have a complete lack mentality, in which case you are one hundred per cent right.

This program isn’t for you. This whole website is not for you. 

You no longer need to feel offended by my posts. Or by my emails in your inbox.

You no longer need to discuss the FPA to the nearest colleague who will listen, and try to pick holes in it.

You now know exactly what the FPA is, what Shining Lights is about, and why it isn’t for you.

So just unlike my page.

So just stop reading.

So just click unsubscribe.

 

For anyone else who feels that Shining Lights MIGHT be what they need to grow their business, you might want to know we don’t just discuss books and mentoring – that’s a very tiny part of what we do. If needed, and when necessary.

What we are most passionate about is creating a photography business that fulfills us – both financially and from a soul-filled perspective. We work on attracting our dream clients, creating a brand that truly reflects us, increasing our financial abundance (whatever that might look like), creating a streamline + simple workflow, increasing our energies, + a million and more useful things including all of that mentioned above – all upheld by a Mastermind group that celebrates one another’s successes and lifts one another up when we need it + shares useful info and truly invests in one another’s success.

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In fact, I believe in Shining Lights and its value so much, that in a few short weeks the price is DOUBLING. You can find out more about the program here.  WARNING; may come with guidance on how to follow your heart + achieve your dreams.

The FPA Supports Snap Photography Festival (+ PRIZES inside)

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When I was relatively new to the wedding photography industry, I couldn’t help but notice somebody in particular.  Laura Babb was the photographer behind Babb Photo, and she was vocal, opinionated, confident, and successful. And honestly? terrifying.

To me she was like that super-cool girl at school who seems to know something that you don’t, and in comparison there was me hiding away in a corner fiddling about with old film cameras.

Where do you even start with somebody who seems so far ahead of you in business and in the cool-ness stakes that you don’t even dare say hi to them?

Uh, you go say hi. And then you go your own way and become successful and confident in your own right and your own style and with your own clients. And then you look at that cool girl not with fear any more, but with a massive dose of respect and admiration, because you KNOW, you truly KNOW that the thing that she knows that you didn’t? Is about being confident in who you are and then taking that directly into your business.

And so then you go to them, and you say hi again, and you sit + watch + learn from them. Not because you want what they have. We are all unique with our own strengths + purpose.

But because you know that gaining that strength and confidence and knowledge and passion in an industry which can sometimes be tough- well, you can never have enough of it. Always aim to want more of it – you need more of it.

And whatever level you are at within your business, there is always more to learn, and to be inspired by, and inspiration is like water to us creatives – we always need more of it.

One thing Laura and I have in common – we are incredibly passionate about, and devoted to, photography.  So when I saw that Laura was creating an entire photography FESTIVAL, I knew that she had created a work of genius.

I knew it came straight from her heart and I knew that this festival would give you everything that Laura knows + believes in + loves + is passionate about + inspired by.

But more.

I knew that this festival would give anybody that attended it that massive confidence boost that comes with knowing who you are within the industry; confidence in your visual style + your body of work; of knowing who your target client is, + a billion and one other incredible things. 

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Oh- wait! I think forgot to mention something. Did I mention there will be beaches, campfires, glamping, music, digital escape-ism, marshmallows, mindfulness, and yoga at this festival? AND you would be staying here, in this dreamland?

fforest glamping

I’m not done. You also get  the opportunity to learn from an entire array of incredibly accomplished photographers as they share + present their fabulous skills + talents + giftings to you?? DID I MENTION THAT?

{See that image up there of the girl in the white skirt? And this gorgeous one below? From one of the speakers we are most excited about, the ridiculously gifted Andria Lindquist}

// © Andria Lindquist 2014

Yes. I know. Snap Photography Festival sounds exactly like my idea of heaven too.

And that is why the FPA is incredibly proud to be partnering with and supporting Snap Photography Festival this year.

SNAP VECTOR

It is going to be one incredible event. Based in the UK, Snap is now selling tickets to attendees worldwide, and I’m so excited to watch this go global.

In celebration of the launch, Snap are hosting a marathon giveaway right now in collaboration with their partners – you absolutely MUST pop over to their blog to check it out and win some of their prizes, including mentoring sessions, software, portfolio reviews, lighting courses AND – one year’s membership to the FPA. So if you have been hovering on the edge of booking your Shining Lights membership for a while but haven’t quite gotten around to doing it yet? You need to head on over here to enter.

Because that strength and passion and inspiration and uniqueness that I was talking about earlier? About how to gain it from others who already have those inherent qualities about themselves + within their business?

Snap Photography Festival is one place where you are going to get that, I would pretty much stake my life on it. Go; be inspired, learn, challenge yourself, dare, do, be, grow. Just go.

Because in my opinion, there is nobody cooler than someone who understands the magic + beauty of sharing knowledge and information with others.

Thank you to Laura + Snap for enabling the FPA to be a part of that.

Find out more about Snap here and book your tickets while you can.

 

QUIT YOUR DAY JOB + BECOME A FULL TIME PHOTOGRAPHER

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Just recently I’ve been speaking to some photographers who are desperate to go full time with their photography business. They want to leave their day jobs, the routine 9-5, the commute the water-cooler the same old routines and BREAK FREE as a creative entrepreneur, creator of your own future, and a real, living, breathing, full-time PHOTOGRAPHER.

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I want to say something that I know will probably upset a few of you reading this. Because you are hoping for this not to be the case. You want this so badly not to be the truth. And the truth is sometimes tough to hear, so you would rather not hear it.

But this is the reality you need to confront if you are really going to make that leap into life as a full time photographer.

You will have heard a zillion times that ‘there is no right time’ but this is what you REALLY need to hear.

If you are waiting for that day to arrive when your part-time photography salary becomes at least equivalent to your full time 9-5 wage, before you take the leap; the truth is you are probably going to be waiting forever -and this day might never arrive. 

Let me show you what I mean.

If you were to go for a job interview for your dream job, and then at interview for this 9-5 position you told your interviewer that ‘I absolutely love this job. I’m desperate for it, I’m hungry for it; ill do anything to make it work and be a success in this role’ –

(you know, that same old rubbish we all spout out at interviews. I got told once to picture my interviewer naked as a way to get over interview nerves – not sure if it helped the nerves but interviews always seemed slightly less dull from that point onwards. Try that with clients who tell you about their wildly creative cupcake tower or chocolate fountain)

So you’re sat in front of this interviewer, who is really testing you out to see how badly want the job.

You really, really do- you know you’re probably not qualified or experienced enough but you just KNOW you can make it work- you’re smart, determined, ambitious and dedicated – and you know, that given the chance, you’d be slicker at this job than Harvey Specter in the shower. (That’s for you, fellow Suits fans- and if you’re not on board the Suits train yet – you sooo should be).

So, Interviewer seems interested in what you’re offering. She leans over and asks – what can you realistically commit to this job?

And if your reply to the question the job of your dreams hinges on is anything like 

‘well, I can do it maybe 3-4 evenings a week, and every Saturday; maybe even a bit of Sunday?

What do you think is going to happen?

You’ll be given a thanks but no thanks and shown the door.

Your photography business is your dream job, and if you can only ever commit part time to it- you’re only ever going to get part time results.

Why do we think that it’s Enough to show our business some kind of half baked amount of ‘dedication’ and expect a full time result? You wouldn’t show up at your day job, work for half the day, and then go home at lunchtime every single day and expect to be paid your monthly salary in full.

So why do we think that if we give this minimal amount to our photography business it’s suddenly going to sprout like some magical succulent, and provide us with all that we need to live on?

There are a few exceptions to this- on occasion, the rare person can make the amount that they need to match their full time salary. Generally this involves a specific timeframe of not having a life outside of work.

I set up my first business while working in teaching full time, managing a bar 4 evenings a week (and weekends) and said a sad internal Sayonara to my friends. I’m surprised that I have any left now, if I’m honest.  I was the person who was never able to attend birthdays, dinners, family lunches, even just nights out. I was THAT person. Did I like being that person? What do you think! Nobody wants to be that person! It was the choice I made.

But it doesn’t have to be this hard! You don’t have to be that person! In fact, most of us just can’t be that person. Generally, most of us just aren’t wired to work 24-7. We like to be social, or at least have some semblance of something resembling a life. We like to be able to attend birthdays and dinners, and you know, actually be a part of the people’s lives that we care about.

Another photographer friend of mine literally hustled his ass off every single day after he clocked off at 5pm, in order to make his business work. I thought at one point he was going to have a breakdown. He was continually exhausted, continuously busy, at one point told me he hadn’t seen his girlfriend for nearly three weeks – and in the end he took the risk and made the leap into full time and told me he wished he had the balls to do it much earlier.

So in case you missed it-

There is no magic wand you can wave that will give you the full time photography business income that you want while you’re only prepared to commit to it part time.

At some point you need to be prepared to take the leap. To risk a small cut or drop in earnings, while you invest full time hours into YOU and your business to be able to reap the long-term rewards.

If you’ve gotten over that fact, there are signs to look out for that might make you feel confident about knowing when the time is right to make the choice to go full time.

Signs That You’re Ready To Become A Full Time Photographer

  • You’ve had some bookings,
  • You’ve received positive feedback,
  • You’ve been published in a well-regarded industry publication (whether blog or magazine). Preferably more than once.

Signs you might not be ready – you’ve never had a client, nobody bar your family comments on your work, you’ve never completed a full shoot let alone had it published.

If you want to jump into life as a full time photographer, make it easy on yourself. Do the following things first.  Even if those failure signs are flashing like giant alarms buzzing in your brain, do these things and you will be on your way to being able to jump. Your dreams of full time photography are definitely not lost.

Do this. Print off this mini list and stick to the formula like glue.

Get paid clients– and if you haven’t had any yet you’d better pay to learn good marketing skills, fast. The quicker you do this the quicker you’ll get clients. Don’t waste time reading and ‘researching’ online. Pick 2 useful blogs and stick to those, and get on Creative Live which can teach you almost anything you need to know about anything to do with photography.

Don’t mess about wasting time on how to find your ‘unique style’ before you jump.  All this does is hold you back in confidence while you continually try to create something that is new, different, and unique. If you want to run a BUSINESS, think commercially. Look at contemporary styles that sell, and aim to emulate them. I know this is controversial advice but your own style, if it is truly essential to you, can create it later. All you need to master in order to make money from photography are the technical basics (how to use your camera in a variety of lighting situations) and have some kind of COHESIVE style, not necessarily DISTINCTIVE.

All I’m saying is photographers get WAY too caught up in ‘having their own distinctive style’, and if you’re too caught up in this, it’s going to hold you back in business. DON’T wait until you are ‘ready’, like some perfectly formed photographer ready to burst out into the world! Just make the leap and learn as you go, just like most entrepreneurs and creative business owners.

Ask your previous clients for feedback! Send them a DIY feedback form, or ask them to fill out a quick survey – Use Surveymonkey, which is free and easy to set up and for your client to respond. Throw in an incentive for them to respond – a prize draw for a free session, for example. Gifts of alcohol also seem to work well for some reason.

No clients? Give a free shoot to someone and treat them the exact same way you would a paying client. Ask for feedback – it’s the least they can do in return.

{bonus – as well as gaining positive feedback for yourself, you also get the benefit of being able to use these on your site as Testimonials. Bonus points! if you get them to review you on Facebook too}.

Get published. Give yourself the ego-boost you might need to actually finally persuade yourself that your work IS good enough, that you CAN make a living from this. Set up a styled shoot (this post should help) shoot your life away, ask for feedback on your results, edit and refine more if you need to, submit. And do it over and over again until you get that jackpot! ‘Congratulations your submission has been accepted’ email. DO NOT give up – if you get rejected, send a polite supersweet email asking for feedback.

Finally – find yourself a support team. Use that full time salary while you still can to invest in the business that you really want to have – find a fabulous support network like we have over at #shininglights of other photographers who can truly help advise, support, and encourage you in the process.

{Paid support vs free support – eg free facebook groups-  are another subject I’ll blog about soon- just trust me- those truly invested in your business are those who have put their money where their mouth is and have paid to have similar support. They’re invested in and are interested in your success.}

And then – be prepared. If you can, squirrel away a small amount of savings or see if you can have any outstanding holiday days as full pay with your final pay cheque. Knowing you have a little safety cushion can make the transition easier.

Or do what I did. I work better when I have nothing beneath me to catch me when I fall. It drives me on. I left my job/s knowing that I was possibly good enough and that I could probably do it. With no money, no safety net, just the naive belief that I could do it and everything was going to be ok.

And then I did it. And it was ok. And then it was a struggle but still ok, and then it was better ok, and then finally it was great.

Just do it.

I managed it. Loads of my mentorees have done it, or are doing it. Those full time photographers you see out there? They’ve done it too.

Don’t let that trash of

‘there’s not enough work to go around’

‘what will you do for money’

‘it will take ages to become a success’

‘you can’t afford it’

fill your head.

It’s complete and utter garbage.  It’s negativity, rooted in fear. Fear for you, fearful of ambition and the unknown and what it could actually mean to leave the ‘regular’ world of 9-5, because people generally fear the unknown and like the easy route of the familiar.

But you aren’t wired that way. Or you wouldn’t have read this far.

You’re a creative. And a businesswoman. And you want to experience that success of running a beautiful, creative, successful photography business for yourself.

Got paid clients? Got good feedback from someone other than your grandma / parents / 3 year old? Been published?

You’re ready. Do what you love. Do what makes you truly happy. Protect yourself from negativity and the fears of others.

And take the risk. Take the leap! Know that there is NEVER a perfect time, you will probably only ever get PART TIME results until you make a FULL TIME commitment, and that the choice is YOURS.

What’s the worst that can happen? There is always another job out there for you, should you ever really want to have a ‘fall back option. 

The only good time to make the leap into full time photographer is now.

And by the way, I’m not talking about other forms of work here that often consume your time, as something that holds you back. I’m strictly talking the daily 9-5 grind here, girls.

I’m not talking about, for example, Motherhood. It’s not like we can quit being Mama! but there are things you can do when being at home that you can do to grow your business that you couldn’t do in a full time job. Work during nap time being one example. Or listen to business podcasts when making baby brunch.

Or hiring in help. Can you imagine telling your boss at your 9-5- ‘oh, I just called in my mom to watch my desk for two hours while I go write a blog post’ ? You see my point. This blog is about leaving the 9-5 – and about making the choice to invest in your business.

So, are you? Are you going to do it? What do you really have to lose?

Take the risk. Calculate it, grab it, leap with both hands.

Your time is now.

Stop Treating Your Photography Business Like A JOB + EARN MORE

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About 2 years ago, I met up with one of my photographer friends.

We were at a glittering, beautiful event and obviously, obviously, talking shop. How many weddings have you had this year? I asked.

And I asked not because I gave a flying monkeys as to whether his answer was a ‘good amount’ or not – which always seems to be the case, right? We judge whether we are doing ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in comparison to how many bookings we have. I’ll get on to why I asked him in just a second.

Anyway so he replied – 45.

FORTY FIVE weddings. How do YOU feel about that number?

Do you feel like that’s amazing and you’d love that amount of bookings? Like he must be doing incredibly ‘well?’ Or do you think – yes! That’s about right, that’s my goal for the year.

Get this. The reason I asked him was because he looked completely and utterly exhausted. I mean, I’ve never seen anyone look so tired.

Both of us have children and when he said to me ’45’ and I then asked him ‘what?? Why on earth do you do so many!’ His reply was

‘I have a mortgage to pay’.

And I felt like saying and you have children to PLAY with.  Because he also told me that he was working all of the hours under the sun. Not just editing, shooting; but working harder to grow his business further.

Listen – it’s not for me to tell you what your goal for your business should or shouldn’t be.

But just know that if your grand plan is to cram in as many bookings as you can in order to earn the most amount of money possible in order to be able to pay your mortgage/ car payments / bills / flight to Jupiter –

What you’re doing is not running that dream of a creatively-rich, passionate + inspired, healthy and WEALTHY business that you dreamed of when you first took the decision to become a photographer.

This is what you have instead.

A JOB.

A job where you trade your time for money.

A job, just like any other job.

The bonus being you get to work from home in your pjs. right? You are your own boss? You work when you want to work and you can go for a gym session whenever you like. You might be there to cuddle your kids when they need you?

Except you’re possibly so tired from crazy editing marathons that in all honesty, handling a crying baby right now when you know that argh- I just have to finish editing this wedding! feels like it could possibly tip you over the edge. Or perhaps your kids are your favourite way of hiding from and procrastinating against all that work that has to be done, which means that your business is heading for disaster anyway.

Trust me – I’ve been there. I have two, remember. And I would much rather work less and earn more than work my fingers to the bone and never see these smiling shining faces- it just doesn’t make sense OR sit with my grand purpose for my life + what I want from it.

So let’s say you don’t have kids, or you might not even have a mortgage to pay. Let’s say you work 45 weddings a year and work roughly from 10am – 6pm on your business, most days.

Do you see what that is? That’s still a CORPORATE MENTALITY, just applied to your business. You’re still stuck in that ‘I have to work 9-5 to pay my mortgage’ trap! And by the way, it’s a LIE. Sure, if you LOVE working 8 hours a day so that you can pay your mortgage, that is awesome. I’m truly happy for you.

But it isn’t the only way!! Why do so many of us believe we have to work ‘regular hours’ or worse, ‘all of the hours God sends’ in order to have a brilliant business?? Why do so many of us believe we have to settle for less-than-dreamy clients, (I’m not talking just wedding style here, either. I’m talking about those clients that ask for a discount and then want the moon on a stick thrown in with it), that the only way to pay our bills (at the least) is to work as much as we can and work with clients that make us less than happy to be able to do so?? It’s such a LIE that we have to do those things!

Like I said, if you LOVE working 10-6, and you LOVE shooting 50 weddings a year and EVERY SINGLE ONE of those clients are your dream clients, that is awesome- you’ve got it all figured out.

But it doesn’t work for all of us.

And if you’re reading this and knowing that actually, you’re not living your real dream- yep, the one where you actually have a LIFE, not just a 9-5 JOB, and that you’d love MORE of your dream clients, to work LESS, and to earn MORE, you have to know that it is ENTIRELY POSSIBLE.

I work at most 4 hours a day on my business, and to be honest I am lucky if I get that. (That’s having two toddlers for you).

 

But if I didn’t have two babies I’d be on the beach, at yoga, reading in coffee shops, visiting my widowed neighbour, exploring this beautiful island, writing more books, going to galleries and exhibitions, shooting WAY more personal work (and I don’t mean snaps of my kids. I mean, big, beautiful sprawling projects linked to messy sketchbooks and tons of ideas and test shots and play and experimentation and actual FUN from photography, not just work – this guy confessed he hadn’t shot a personal project in over 2 years) and generally I’d just be living + loving my life as NOT determined by standard ‘office hours’.  And generally, as a family, that is what we do. We walk our dogs for hours some days. We visit our little juice bar that we discovered nestled inside a fruit market and go there daily to get our juices.  The girls absolutely love being at the beach so we are there at least twice a week at the moment, sometimes every day.

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Working a business just for having the privilege of ‘being my own boss’ or ‘being able to go to the gym whenever I like’ is not enough for me.  It’s not anywhere near enough. I don’t run my photography business because I feel ‘lucky’ to be doing something creative + fulfilling. I run it because it is that AND because it is a way for me to live the life I desire.

It took me ages to realise that. I sat through all-night editing marathons for ridiculous deadlines that I gave myself. (Why do we do that)? I crammed in work into baby naptimes and baby bedtimes and baby feeding times, feeling so exhausted I was sure my eyeballs were about to fall out.  I travelled to London and went to an intense workshop with some incredible women when I was two weeks away from giving birth. People had to help me off the train. Seriously. I’ve been away from my babies from before they wake up and got home after they have long fallen asleep. I’ve spent Sundays in such a wedding-coma and with such bad migraines that I’ve had to spend the day in bed. I got to that point where I got over the fact that I felt ‘lucky’ to be running this business, woke up, and realised that it was time to make my business work for me.

On my terms. Not on somebody else’s definition of what my business should look like. No more every single weekend vanishing from my family. No more ‘all-day’ packages. No more trading time for money. No more working whenever I could to try to grow the business.

There is nothing ‘WRONG’ with working 10-6 on your business. With shooting 45+ weddings a year. But you don’t need to believe that is what you HAVE to do in order meet your mortgage payments, in order to have a ‘successful business’.

So when my mentorees come to me and tell me that they work all day on their business, or they’re fully booked all summer, and I say to them – does this make you incredibly happy? Is this what makes your heart + life completely full? A full time photography ‘job’?

– they at first look at me like I am insane – of course this is what I want? Hello, I have a full diary!!  I just want to know how to make more money from it?’

And then I see it click in and it is like fireworks exploding in their heads and reflecting in their face.

Because if you chose photography as a JOB, where you HAVE to do it 24-7 in order to pay the bills- whether you’ve had an overdose of clients or whether you THINK that is what you would like, I guarantee you will fall out of love with it. You lose that creativity, that passion, with that I-think-I-want-to-be-a-photographer nervous yet excited SPARK.

Which is a crying shame. Because when we start out we have so many big, beautiful, hopes and dreams for our business. So much magic caught up both in front of and behind the lens.

Don’t lose that. Don’t let it get sucked into being ‘just another job’ or ‘just another client’ or ‘just another wedding’.

This isn’t a ‘job’. You don’t have to shoot 45 weddings a year and work 10-6 if that isn’t WHAT LIGHTS YOU UP.

And if isn’t what lights you up? Makes you happy every time you sit down and do it??

Seriously; what’s the point?!

Are you living your wildest, wealthiest, biggest dream for your business that it could truly be?

And what about your clients?? Do you love every single one of those clients, are they your dream clients who you adore working with and get excited talking to them about their wedding? Because they are people who you would chose to hang out with outside of work, because you have lives and dreams and interests that you share, that bring you together?

I couldn’t wait for my clients weddings this year. I got excited every time I saw or spoke to them. Beautiful venues, incredible food, dresses I dreamed of. So much love and laughter. Don’t you owe it to your clients to be passionate about each and every single one of them? A client is never, ever just another job. The second you get that ‘another day another dollar mentality’, you are letting down your clients. They deserve more than that, surely. Don’t they deserve a photographer who sees them as more than just ‘another wedding’ or a mortgage repayment?

This isn’t me being idealistic here – I can say all this because I HAVE DONE IT. I earned enough for my husband to leave work and join me in business. To support all of us. Do you think that would be possible if I had continued to trade time for money, to cram my diary with as many bookings as I could?

IS ANY of this sounding close to home? Like you’ve been shooting a ton and working a ton and actually, you WOULD quite like to shoot less, while maintaining (or increasing) your earnings?

Or perhaps you’ve even just been working those standard ‘work days’ and what you’d actually like is a lot more time to spend with your cats, dogs, babycakes, beach or bookcase?

Or perhaps you’ve been dying to fill up your diary with bookings and for some reason it hasn’t quite happened but now you’re wondering if that would actually make you over- the- moon- in love with your life?

This is what you do.

-Set yourself a concrete, solid, financial target for the year. Break it down into how much you need to earn each month to hit that target.

-Figure this out  BEFOREHAND – before you get sucked into saying yes to every booking, every client, every discount that comes your way.

-Keep your prices high. Higher than you feel comfortable with. Know how many bookings you need at this price in order to hit your goal. If you find you are shooting more weddings that you would like to in order to be able to work less, then increase your price.

-Figure out your comfort zone for accepting discounts – how much room do you have to play with by providing a discount, while still meeting your financial goals?

-Diversify your income stream, so you aren’t reliant on just bookings for your income.  This made the biggest difference for me. When I learned how to sell prints to every single client (despite the fact I provided hi-res images), when I learned how to package my albums and sell them at prices that enabled me to hit my financial goals, when I created my books – I noticed a huge difference in both my income and the time I was able to spend working. I still spent the same amount of time working, but there was no longer any pressure to have to hustle, or constantly promote my business.

Running it just became so much simpler, so much easier.

Diversifying your income looks different for everyone. It could include

-albums

-prints

-products

-galleries

-events

-digital products

-courses / workshops

-books

-a blog

-templates / actions / websites

-even an entire movement – like Beloved collective, for example.

Choose the target market that makes your heart happy – whether you shoot weddings, babies, families, boudoir is irrelevant.

Work with clients who are kind + generous + love you. As in, they completely and utterly love and appreciate you and your work. I realised a while ago I loved working within a family environment. You know, those kind of people who invite you into their homes for dinner even if you’re just dropping something off, and always have time for you. Basically, clients who don’t just treat you as a ‘photographer’ but as say, a human being, rather than a camera attached to a pair of legs and eyes.

–Who do you love working with, truly? You need to completely nail down your target client and make sure you are marketing to them, and them only.

-Make sure you have a grand Master Plan for your business so you’re being proactive, not reactive. (And don’t be afraid to change it).

Do what makes you happy- and then figure out how to make money from it.

I did it like this. I love photography and I’m a huge film lover (I love digital too, but for different reasons). I didn’t want to have 45 bookings a year, so I set high prices, found my target clients, stopped giving discounts, began mentoring, and then wrote two books.

Now I have more time with my family, more time to shoot, lovely clients and I’m not editing 24-7. And I fit in lots of beach trips and reading too.

It’s not difficult to decide what your business should look like and how you want it to serve you. And remember that’s what your business is first and foremost.

It’s designed to serve you.

So don’t be a slave to it.

 

You have a choice. Start by designing your grand master plan. Set your financial goal. Figure out what figure you WANT, what you NEED, and then break it down into how much you need + want to bring home each month. Brainstorm how you could gain that figure without having to resort to tiredness, loss of precious time, without having to do less of the things that make you entirely happy. Decide what your dream business looks like, and then design it. 

 

Start now. It’s the perfect time.

My First 15k Month In My Photography Business

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Throughout the past few months, I’ve been a busy bee setting up the Female Photographer Association- especially the Shining Lights Program.  There is a slightly insane amount of work involved with creating and maintaining a course that will take the business + profits of photographers to the next level – it gets intricately technical, in ways you can’t possibly image if you’re a bit of a technophobe- which naturally, I am.

 

But, amongst setting up subscriptions and learning to create videos and audio clips and amazon links and setting up lists and auto responders and all of that tech- trickery, I had this little voice in my head.

You see, on my course, in video one, I’m encouraging my Shining Lights members to share their stories. Where they come from, where they are headed. And most importantly, because before we can move forward sometimes we have to look back- I ask what is preventing them from reaching their business goals.

 

Their stories are amazing, incredible, touching, profound. We are being open minded + hearted + ridiculously supportive of one another.  It’s a great community to be a part of.

 

Yet I realised that amongst all of the sharing, I hadn’t actually shared my own story.

 

So I want to tell you this, because once you see + get where I come from and where I am now, you’ll understand that you too can use photography to transform your entire life.

 

First – I grew up financially poor. Pretty much dirt-poor. My mum was a single parent, my Dad left when I was 3 and we practically never saw him again, unless twice counts.  My mum worked herself to the bone to support us. I learned money was a source of stress, worry.  That it was ultra-important to get a ‘good job’ and stick to it and basically, become a slave to the 9-5 because that is what kept you safe.

 

What did your childhood teach you about money? 

 

I also learned almost nothing about how to handle money. So in my twenties I blew whatever money I had, because I was afraid of it.  I didn’t understand that money could be an amazing pleasure, even though I was always desperate to have more of it.

 

I had huge plans for wealth that included a jewellery shop, fashion photographer (obviously), a top flying lawyer, a film company director, a cinematographer, and a best selling author.

 

But those things, for some reason, didn’t fall straight into my lap.  And I couldn’t understand why. It’s not like I wasn’t passionate. It wasn’t like I wasn’t prepared to work hard. It’s not like I didn’t have subject knowledge or marketing knowledge. I had lots of both.

 

Perhaps if your photography business isn’t where it should be right now – it’s not reaching the financial goals that you have for it, or it’s causing you to work almost all of the time to be ‘successful’, or it’s not pulling in the dream clients that you would like- then perhaps you are at this stage. Perhaps you just don’t understand what you are doing wrong. After all, you know how to use your camera. You know how to market your business. You have some bookings. Perhaps you’ve even been published. But for some reason, your business isn’t providing you with that wonderful, overflowing sense of abundance that you would like. And I’m not just talking money here. I’m talking money AND lifestyle. Is this you? Read on to discover what I did to fix this.

 

In my 30th year I had my lightbulb moment. You know when all of a sudden you just get something. For the first time, I just got it. 

 

I all of a sudden had these huge realisations about money and success and how I could truly use my business to make all of my dreams become a reality.

 

And I used them. I used them and now we are living a laptop lifestyle in beautiful Cyprus. A warm land full of sea and sky + safety for our kids. We have a beautiful home, a pool, and spend much of our time at the moment rescuing stray dogs. Life is wonderful. Life is plentiful. 

 

I literally went from being somebody who had grown up with absolutely nothing, to having the family life + home + living in a place that before, I had only seen in my dreams.

 

And when I used all of my realisations about money + success + business to work for me, I hit my first 15k month in business. That’s in pounds, by the way. So if you’re reading from America and want to see that in dollars – that’s $22, 641.

 

From then on, the only way was up.

 

And this is how I did it.

 

I realised two things- and if you want to be truly successful in your photography business then this is the part when you need to pay attention. 

 

I realised that everything I had learned about money from my childhood + society was a complete lie. Not a deliberate lie,  but lies none the less. I realised that money was just a tool that I could use in whichever way I wanted it to be. I didn’t have to feel guilty around having money.  I didn’t have to work my ass off in a 9-5 job (or a 8am-9pm job, had I followed the lawyer route) in order to be successful. It wasn’t just about having my own business – it was about realising that the ingrained beliefs I had about money were truly sabotaging my own chances of success.

 

If you’re holding deep beliefs about money, you need to let go of those now.  We go into this in a lot more depth in the #FPAshininglights program but I have to keep it brief here or this blog post will run until this Christmas.  But if you want to learn anything from this post, learn this-  you have to let go of fear if you want to be successful. The lies I had learned around money and the fear that it had created within me – that I was basically, terrified of not having any more – was in itself repelling money away from me at the speed of light.

 

It was preventing me from raising my prices. It meant I accepted clients who asked for (large) discounts. It meant that when these clients asked for the moon + back, I couldn’t say no- because I was too afraid to lose their custom.  It meant that I worried about the competition, whether what I was offering was enough / different/ perfect.  It meant I worried about money and spent far too long creating pointless budget lists only to watch it all fly out of the window again when pay day came in.  It meant that I was afraid to invest my money in where I truly needed to invest it because I was scared of ‘wasting’ that money. It meant that I worked on dates that made me really, really miserable to be working + away from my family, particularly my two toddlers. Christmas Eve, for example.  It meant that even me – with a ton of marketing experience + knowledge – ran around like a headless chicken who is worried that the sky is falling, scattering my marketing here there and everywhere in desperation that the money was just not going to come in.

 

And guess what.  With that approach, no wonder it never really did.  No wonder I never had any money!  No wonder I had huge debts and hidden letters from collection agencies and was always the friend who couldn’t afford to buy other friends gifts for their birthdays or Christmas.  I was literally, repelling money with my fears + beliefs about it.

 

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

 

What did you learn about money from your childhood? How are your beliefs about money holding you back? 

 

Second.

I finally understood how to monetise my business. Using a combination of marketing and products + passion to attract my target client and sell to them directly. Using smart language to sell prints every time I had an event. Diversifying my income streams. It all clicked together.

The biggest change I went through was realising that if I wanted to make my photography business work, I needed to diversify my income stream. (This article might help with that).

On top of what I learned really did work, I learned what didn’t work and where I was wasting time.

So many of us run around trying to squeeze more hours into the day, wishing for more time. There is no magic way to suddenly learn to manage your workload that will suddenly give you a zillion hours in the day. It’s about making the most of the time that you do have, and not wasting it.

I was spending forever editing my work. As a perfectionist, I want my photos to look truly amazing for my clients. So I would spend up to an hour on a single image sometimes. And not just that.

As photographers we are always taught it is good to have a ‘signature style’. And it is.

But not when it comes at such a high cost that the cost is your business.

I spent forever considering + planning my own, key, ‘signature style’.  One that I would be recognised for and would create me my fortune.

ARGH biggest mistake. What a naive concept.

This is one of the things holding back so many photographers from earning what they deserve. They’re striving to be the next Leibowitz. They are striving to ‘make their name’/ But why? Are you chasing fame? Prestige? If so, then keep chasing.

But if it’s money and dream lifestyle choices you desire, you might want to forget about chasing the fame-dream and get set on focussing on your big-money dream instead. The editing process + the search for our signature style, that quest for perfection, consumes so much of our time that we barely have time for anything else.

When I understood all of the above- my negative money beliefs, my new money-making strategy, and what was holding me back in business, it was like seeing my world through fresh eyes.

Applied to my business, and it meant that I ended up with my first 15k month. I’m on target to double that this year.

Get rid of your negative money beliefs! Figure out how to create income streams that mean you aren’t just relying on your next client to pay your heating bill. And streamline your workflow by doing more of the stuff that makes money, and less of the stuff that wastes time!

NONE of this stuff is rocket science but it’s amazing how few of us female photographers seem to GET IT!!! We aren’t ‘lucky’ to be doing this job. We EARNED the ability to be able to do it.  Now we need to be bold and brave and go out there and feel the fear and just say – this time, things are going to be different! And mean it! And take action!

One of the things that I took action against was my boggy workflow. Working through my editing sapped the life out of me. So I  streamlined it; and the way I streamlined my editing process entirely was by learning to shoot film.

We all have our opinions on film vs digital. That’s not my argument, it’s yours. Neither is ‘better’, they’re just choices. Choices which are usually made from an artistic perspective- but not for me.

The main reasons I chose to shoot film? Plain and simple. It made me more money.  I could charge more for it AND it completely simplified my editing process +  took away the hours I spent editing at a desktop. How else do you think I wrote 2 books this year, had a fully booked season, raised 2 toddlers, completed an overseas move and set up the FPA?

It’s not the only way to do it. Digital shooter? Outsourcing your editing or even finding a brilliant one-click editing workflow could work for you (I recommend Mastin Labs).

But this is the way I chose to free up more of my actual work time and enabled myself to focus more on my higher-earning tasks.

Because I am a true film lover and believe it could make a lot of difference to your life, for one week only I’m giving away copies of my book Supercharge Your Profits; Learn To Shoot Film. It’s usually valued at £24 / $30 and has been featured on 35to220.com and Wedding Sparrow. You can read more about it here, but make sure you come back to this page right here to purchase to be able to gain it for free. But this is purely for this week only.

I’m giving it away purely because I think it might make one of those small differences to how you shoot + work. If you enjoy it and want to pay it forward, you could always drop me a mini-review over at charlie@femalecreativesassociation.com – or it would be great if you could share this post by using the buttons below.

But there isn’t an obligation. This book is now yours to do as you please with. If you print it out it might make a great coffee cup stand, but I would suggest reading it. If you’re an intermediate/advanced film shooter it might not be the book for you (try this instead) but otherwise it should start to open up to you the possibility of earning much more money from your business – film or not.

You can get your free book here. Click Add to cart and then View cart.

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I wanted to share this post with you because I wanted to show you how literally anybody can go from making zero in their business + life, to completely transforming their photography business, if only they would take the time to follow the steps that I did and use them to enable incredible things to happen.

It’s nothing to do with social media or your latest instagram or your brand new lens (hate to break it to you). But it is everything to do with these things. Do this and your business will change.

Get right with your attitude towards money.

Create a diverse income stream.

Make the most of your available time – find out what is working + what isn’t.

Streamline or outsource your most time-consuming tasks.

That’s how you get yourself on the way to your first 15k month.

The time is NOW.

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