In this conversation, Christa interviews Julia, her former business coach and current relationship transformation coach. They discuss the fears that arise when making changes in business, the importance of having a clear vision, and how to love and serve clients by offering more. Julia also shares her journey from being a photography coach to becoming a relationship coach, emphasizing the significance of the relationship we have with ourselves in all aspects of life. They provide valuable insights and practical tips for listeners to overcome mindset blocks and create meaningful connections in their businesses and relationships.
Takeaways
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Connect with Christa on Instagram HERE!
Enjoy a free 20-min training on adding $50k in income from products HERE!
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In this conversation, Christa interviews Julia, her former business coach and current relationship transformation coach. They discuss the fears that arise when making changes in business, the importance of having a clear vision, and how to love and serve clients by offering more. Julia also shares her journey from being a photography coach to becoming a relationship coach, emphasizing the significance of the relationship we have with ourselves in all aspects of life. They provide valuable insights and practical tips for listeners to overcome mindset blocks and create meaningful connections in their businesses and relationships.
Takeaways
Thanks for listening! We’d LOVE if you left us a review!
Connect with Christa on Instagram HERE!
Enjoy a free 20-min training on adding $50k in income from products HERE!
Apply for Uncapped HERE!
christa (00:00.652)
Welcome back everyone. I'm really excited because today this is, I have never been, I don't know if I've ever been more honored to have a podcast guest like the one today. Julia is here. She's a relationship coach, a relationship transformation coach. She works with people in their relationships, but she was actually my very, very first business coach. And Julia working with you incredibly changed my business.
but also my life and I'm just so honored that you came on today to speak with our listeners.
Julia (00:32.469)
Thanks so much, Krista, for having me. I'm excited to be here.
christa (00:35.596)
Yes, I can't wait. So Julia, I just wanted to touch just for our listeners, just about like my journey with you, just to give them some background. So you had coached a few photographers I knew of, and they said like, Julia is the girl to go to if you're really looking to really explode your portrait business in the wedding side of your business by, you know, beginning offering products. And we took that rein with it. You were my coach for several years. But Julia, like,
I wanted to touch on just all the fears that came up when I had first started working with you.
Julia (01:11.829)
Yeah, I'd love to hear. I would imagine your fears are pretty common and the same fears I had when I decided to make changes in my business.
christa (01:14.156)
Yeah.
christa (01:20.236)
Yeah, yeah, it is scary. And since then, I know Julia, we're gonna also for our listeners chat about what you offer now. I know you don't offer business intensive coaching, but I do want you to share what you do since it does tie into business completely. But Julia, I think like the one of the really scary fears is just like you said about changing things, especially when you are established and have been doing something the same way so long. And so that fear of like,
I don't know if I can do this. I'm out of my comfort zone when I think about sales. The reason I hired you was because I wasn't making enough money, which is also scary. The whole like, I'm not in a great financial place and now I'm dropping several thousand dollars on my first coach. So Julia, like, do you want to start there?
Julia (02:04.949)
Yeah, I would love to because I think fear is, it's a beautiful, beautiful gift. And we often look at it as a curse. And so, you know, what you're describing makes a lot of sense because as a business owner, as much as we know we're not to have our identity in what we do, attached to what we do.
christa (02:14.412)
Hmm.
christa (02:24.908)
Mm -hmm.
Julia (02:26.517)
It is attached because it is our work that we're putting out there. It's our reflection of us and how we see the world and how we see light. And so there is this fear that comes up of, you know, am I good enough to have this business? Am I good enough to be doing what I want to do? And is this change going to make me bring about my worst fears that this just doesn't work for me and I'm not good enough to do this?
And at the same time, we face the fears of, you know, we have an idea, we have a desire, we want to increase the revenue that we're making, we want to increase the service for our clients, but will our clients want it? Will they actually go along with it? Will they get excited about it? And so as I mentioned, fear is a gift. It's very important, any time you start to do something new, if you don't have fear,
christa (03:06.86)
Mmm.
Julia (03:21.013)
That's a bigger thing to be afraid of. So enjoy the fact that fear is coming to you. Now, what you do with the fear is what's critical, right? Because we either allow the fear to move to an impaired state or we allow the fear to call us to the gift of what fear is designed for. Fear is designed to call us to wisdom. That's what fear is for. Without fear, we don't recognize, whoa, I might need a little help here.
christa (03:23.5)
Interesting.
Julia (03:50.165)
I might need some help in discovering what I don't know I don't know. Like, what do my clients really like? What do they want? Are they really calling for something new? Or, you know, what is it that my family needs? And what is it that I want? And do I need help getting there? Do I need a coach? Do I need someone to guide me into what I don't know I don't know and how to discover it?
christa (04:05.612)
Yum.
christa (04:15.692)
Yeah. Wow.
Julia (04:17.909)
So that's the real beauty of fear and what it's designed for. The impaired state of fear is when we don't wanna be with the fear or we're like, you know, I'm just gonna ignore that it's there or I'm gonna try and act like it doesn't matter or I'm just gonna let it take the front seat. That's when we go to the impaired state which moves us into anxiety and then we move from anxiety into control.
And then from control, we move into rage. And so I've worked with a lot of entrepreneurs and I myself am an entrepreneur and I've watched the pattern of anxiety to control to rage and rage can be simple things like shutting down and forget this. It's just not gonna work. I'm gonna go back to shooting and burning because that's just easier and that's what people liked. Those are forms of what rage can look like. And then obviously it can look like, you know.
christa (05:08.3)
Mm.
Julia (05:13.781)
blowing up on our spouse or our children because underneath we're letting this fear run us that the change I want to make in my business isn't working or it's not going to work. So yeah, there's a lot of beauty to fear if we're willing to let it call us up into wisdom. But when we're afraid or think we're supposed to have it all figured out, or if I was a great photographer, I would know how to do this already, then we go into the impaired states of it.
christa (05:15.564)
Yeah.
christa (05:23.66)
Wow.
christa (05:30.348)
Yeah.
christa (05:35.628)
Yep.
christa (05:42.124)
And one thing that I know you and I had worked closely together with and that you just brought up is a lot of photographers get stuck thinking, in this day and age, people don't want products. They just want the quick Instagram post. And while there are people who do want that, you don't have to be the photographer for that. And part of your reason can be what you need for your family. And I think that was something you and I had worked a lot on of like, Julia, is this OK? Am I good here? And you were like, Krista, you can't afford.
Julia (06:04.245)
Yes.
christa (06:12.14)
you know, really not to do this having XYZ goals. Could you speak to that a little bit about the fear and also like what we need for our own families?
Julia (06:20.341)
Yes, yes. And in addition to that, I would like to come to the part of what our clients need, because I think that's really valuable because we'll talk about that in a minute. But ultimately, you know, when you and I connected, your love for your husband was evident and your love for family was evident. And you talked about your bigger visions of where you wanted to go. And we looked at...
christa (06:25.708)
Yes.
christa (06:30.604)
Yeah.
christa (06:35.916)
Mm -hmm.
Julia (06:48.565)
You know, if you shoot and burn, what is the max that you can make from a session? And if you choose to sell products and you have the capacity to keep raising your sales average, what does that life look like? And I really gave you the opportunity to try on those lives and look at the future coming towards you and which future best aligns to what it is that you long for and desire within working for yourself.
christa (07:02.476)
Hmm.
Julia (07:17.013)
And you felt it was very clear that being able to keep increasing your average, work less for more was the outcome that better fit your desired future.
christa (07:30.028)
Yeah, I love that. And I think as photographers, we have to go back to that. Like that's not something we figure out once and keep rolling. I think that's something Julia that I know I had to keep going back to over and over and over when those fears and doubts crept in and you and I even made a five year plan together of like what is possible. And then we skyrocketed past that I think after like two or three years. I actually looked at it recently and I was like, wow, like did we blow past that because you're right. Like.
When the sky is the limit for you and you're clear on why you're doing what you're doing, you do have uncapped revenue and uncapped income.
Julia (08:06.037)
Yes, yes, because our aim is what really matters. Like, you know, if I am aiming to get out the door, then everything in between me and the door, everything that's not impacting me and me between the door goes away. Like, I may, there may be something falling apart over there, but I don't see it because I am aimed on getting out the door. And the only thing that matters is what's between me and the door. And I quickly figure out how do I navigate past those to get out the door.
christa (08:21.74)
Mm.
christa (08:26.572)
Yeah. Yeah.
Julia (08:36.053)
And what you're describing is a vision is what helps us work through the fears. When we have a very clear vision of what we want, which it needs to be bigger than money. In my experience, I've worked with a lot of people and often money is the driving force, but that's not, that's usually not going to end in the outcome that's meaningful and makes a difference for you and others. I found that love is really the beauty of an aim.
that calls us up to the courage it's going to take to work through our fears. And so when I can get clear with people on what it is that they really long for and what's the real meaning behind it, it calls them up to the courage it takes to do the uncomfortable things. And so that vision is vitally important. And I work with people either with a five -year or a three -year vision for...
christa (09:11.582)
Yeah. Yeah.
christa (09:21.58)
Mm -hmm.
christa (09:27.628)
I love that.
Julia (09:35.477)
whatever they're wanting to accomplish now. And usually they will accomplish it in half the amount of time. But we need to set it for that longer distance, because it takes that much for our beliefs and our thoughts to begin to buy in to what feels impossible at the moment. But when you can see it out that far, it helps to bring into clarity the smaller steps needed to begin to move in that direction. And then it starts to gain momentum.
and usually you'll reach it in about half the time.
christa (10:06.988)
Yeah, that's wild. So you mentioned love being a driving force. Can we shift that now, Julia, to like talking about our clients, how we can love and serve them more by being able to offer more.
Julia (10:17.525)
Yes, because, you know, when you look at the current clients, I think about when I went from shooting and burning to to in person sales, I was so scared. I loved my clients and I was so scared that my clients, there was no way they would pay more. And they were talking about how stretched they were to pay for what I was currently offering, which at that time was $250 for their I was a
christa (10:29.42)
Hmm.
Julia (10:47.133)
I shot film at that time and so for $250 they could get the session and their eight favorite photographs. And so I was so scared. I was looking to go to packages that were gonna start at $550 and they were gonna need to pay for their session as well. And so, you know, when I mention the help you might need is thinking about your clients.
christa (10:49.292)
Yeah.
Julia (11:11.989)
What I found is each time I've graduated to the next level and the next level and called myself to the next desire that I felt my heart was giving me, 85 % of my clients weren't interested. But, you know, it's kind of like letting one bad apple spoil the whole bunch. I needed to look at the clients that I loved working with, the clients that loved working with me, like,
christa (11:33.388)
Exactly. Yeah.
Julia (11:41.781)
We were each other's people and we knew it. And when I listened to them, they weren't saying, yes, please raise your prices. That's not what I needed to hear. What I needed to hear is what wasn't working for them. And what wasn't working for them was that they too much for who I am and who I wanted to be for them, too much of the service was on them. Right? I would talk to them about when I was photographing weddings and...
christa (11:49.644)
Great. Great.
Julia (12:09.877)
I was looking at designing their albums for them. You know, I started listening to the top 15 % of my clients and I would ask them a year after their wedding, so did, how's your album coming along? And they're like, we don't have it yet. It's too stressful to think about what images we want, right? Or, you know, when clients would talk about what wall portrait they had, they were like, you know, we love it, but it just, we haven't put it up because the wall still feels empty. And it's like,
christa (12:22.22)
Right.
christa (12:35.948)
Right.
Julia (12:38.165)
the way I photograph, the way I love capturing families, they need multiple images. And it took a lot for me to get through my fear of will they buy more than one wall portrait? Yes, the way I photograph, it takes seven images on the wall to really capture the essence of what I captured in a session. So it's listening beyond what we want to hear and listening for what connects and resonates to what our desires are calling us to.
christa (12:49.854)
Yeah.
christa (13:01.228)
Hmm.
christa (13:07.948)
Yeah.
Julia (13:08.277)
And when we do that, then we begin to recognize that the desires we have, they've been calling us for a while. If we're willing to listen, listen beyond what we're comfortable listening for.
christa (13:22.253)
Yeah, and kind of like you said, Julia, I think we often think, can this work? I don't think clients will want this. So one client says no, and we say, yep, that's it. I knew they didn't want this. Instead of thinking bigger and higher of like what you are capable of with the right client and the right level of service.
Julia (13:32.181)
Yes.
Julia (13:35.829)
Yes.
Julia (13:39.285)
Yes. And one of the things that was very confirming, one of the things of help that I needed along the way was sharing what I was thinking with a few of my top clients and saying, here's what I'm imagining. Like, would that be valuable to you? And it was a yes, yes, yes. I want that. Please offer that. And even though it was going to be twice as much as they'd been used to paying, and that's not something I told them right up front, but they were saying that people like them. Yes, we would love that. We want that.
christa (13:55.18)
Yep.
christa (14:01.964)
Right, right.
christa (14:07.212)
Yes.
Julia (14:09.109)
And when I began to offer what my heart was calling me to and what aligned so much with the art I wanted to offer my clients, more, the 85 % that didn't want it, many of them actually wound up realizing they did. And it opened the door, it held a space for the kind of client I was really, really longing for. More and more of my top clientele kept exposing themselves in the world that they were there. And they came.
christa (14:22.796)
Yeah.
christa (14:36.012)
Yeah. Yeah. And one thing you said is they realized they did want this. I think initially, sure, they're going to tell their photographer, I think I just want all digitals because that's what their other photographers did. That's what the only thing they understand is. But like you said, they can come to that point of realization once they see what you are offering and your passion and why you're doing this and putting these on the walls of their home. And I think that's so important.
Julia (15:03.925)
Yes, yeah, and when you're aligned with it, you know, I mean, it does come back to what we talked about. It comes back to that relationship with yourself. And in my experience, that relationship with your family, like, what are you wanting? What is your heart calling you to? If you were to be fully alive in your role as a photographer, capturing what you're passionate about capturing, what would that look like? And when you really are passionate about that relationship with yourself and...
christa (15:26.476)
Right.
Julia (15:31.637)
you know, the why behind you do it, why you do it. Most people start their own photography businesses because they think it's going to give them more time with their family and more time with what they're excited about. And that doesn't naturally happen. It takes intention to get there because you can quickly get overwhelmed by all the to -dos in being an entrepreneur. But when you can let those things be the why behind what you're doing and then really care about the people you're doing it for.
christa (15:45.868)
Right. Right.
Julia (16:00.853)
really care about loving your clients well? And what is it that if you were going to give them the expression of who you are and how you see the world through the photographs, what would it look like in their home? What would it look like in the finished product so that they and their generations to come can enjoy this beyond you? And that begins to really, it's making me emotional thinking about it because I still love photography. I still photograph for some of my top clients.
christa (16:01.196)
Hmm.
christa (16:24.364)
Yeah.
Julia (16:28.885)
I sold my photography business 10 years ago, but I still continue to photograph for a few of my top clients. And the beauty of what we can do when we really capture the essence of, for me, my passion is capturing the love that a client feels with the people they love in a way that calls them up to remember even on the hard days. This is the beauty of who we are as a family and what...
christa (16:29.012)
I love that.
Julia (16:55.573)
why I do what I do. And so even though it's a hard day, let me remember that that's my passion, that's my purpose in life.
christa (17:02.796)
I love that. And when you're so focused on that, it's not how can I come, you know, combat every sales objection. It's you're clear on it, you're clear on who it's for. And like that's going to speak for itself, that's going to sell itself to that right client that wants to work with you.
Julia (17:18.933)
Yes, yeah, it all comes back to aim. What am I aiming at? And, you know, photographers, it is a beautiful, beautiful career if you want it to be. And it can create so much meaning for you, for your family, for the people that you serve. If you really let your aim and your vision call you to be the greatest version of yourself. And that's what our fears are. Our fears are, am I really that great? Or,
christa (17:30.38)
It is. It is.
christa (17:48.364)
Mm -hmm.
Julia (17:48.821)
Am I willing to risk and call up my greatness? Because we're not as great as we need to be to call up the next level of our business. We're going to need to increase our greatness. And that's what our fears do. They keep calling us into the wisdom and the community that we need to keep becoming the next best version of ourselves.
christa (18:09.356)
Yeah, that's beautiful. I've really missed, I missed you. So you and I, we coached together. You coached me for five years. And so there's obviously a lot to unpack. And when you have that kind of growth in your business that you helped me with as I transitioned to being product focused, there's a lot that comes up even at every level. And the one thing that organically comes up is the relationship with those around you, obviously with yourself, but also,
Julia (18:16.757)
Yeah.
christa (18:39.02)
I, we hired you actually right after we got married because that's when I was at the point where I was like, this is for real. I want to make this work. I can never go back and work for someone else. I love photography and like, I want to make this work. And so we hired you the year we got married. We coached with you for five years. So organically relationships come up, right? As, as it's your business can be kind of like your baby. Like I basically two babies now, my business and my actual baby.
So could you speak to how that pushed you to step into that relationship coaching stage?
Julia (19:13.333)
Yes, yeah, when you came to work with me, I was about 50 % business clients and 50 % marriage clients. And so I had started out in when I owned my photography business, I had been educating and had started consulting photographers and that grew into a full time coaching company, coaching photographers and other business owners in growing the business they wanted. And as I was coaching them,
christa (19:21.42)
Mm.
Julia (19:42.581)
many of them began to realize, wait a minute, the challenges that I'm facing in my business, they're really about my relationship with myself. And many of the clients, photography clients I was attracting were married and working together in their business. And so many of them were like, wow, underneath the challenges we're facing in our business is really our relationship with each other. And so clients began to ask me, will you coach me in my relationship with myself or will you coach me in my relationship?
christa (20:05.1)
Mm.
Julia (20:12.597)
with my spouse and that began to just culminate and I began to realize my passion was really working at the heart of what I think everything we do in life starts with, which is the relationship with ourself and whether that's in our business or whether that's in our marriage, it still comes about our relationship with ourself and so that's really at the heart of what I do. It mostly shows up in the context of marriage.
I work with a lot of individual spouses who their spouse isn't ready to work on the marriage or an individual who wants to be married and they're struggling to figure out how they're getting in the way of being married. Many of the couples that I work with are work together and many of them own photography businesses. But yeah, it's really, the relationship we have with ourselves sets the tone for every other relationship that we have. And by relationship, I mean, what do we really believe about ourselves?
The first thousand days of our life from conception to two years old set up 90 % of the beliefs that I have about myself, who I am in the world, how the world receives me, how I believe about my talents and my gifts and how the world needs them or doesn't need them. And that's at the heart of your business. It's at the heart of your marriage. It's at the heart of being a parent. And so I get to walk people into freedom in...
moving their limiting beliefs into unlimiting beliefs so they can have and create what it is they long for in whatever arena they're wanting to create something new.
christa (21:47.308)
Wow, that's amazing. And like what an incredible purpose that you have now literally changing lives and relationships and marriages for the better.
Julia (21:55.061)
It's beautiful and I see the provision. I see how my photography business was the start of all that. And I learned to start helping people create, helping my clients create a vision for the love they had for their family and wanted in their family and how that began to produce in me where my journey has taken me now.
christa (22:01.068)
Right.
christa (22:14.188)
Yeah. And again, like us coaching together, there's so many things that came up of like, Hey, should Edward help with the business? What does that look like? Like, how does that look like in our relationship and him feeling, you know, validated and me feel, you know, me with my control aspect. And that's really cool how that, you know, brought you to that place. So for students who are curious about that and interested in learning more about that relationship coaching, where can they find and connect with you?
Julia (22:41.813)
Yeah, the best place to connect with me is on Instagram at Hey Julia Woods. You also can go to my YouTube channel. You're going to find lots of free content there. And then you can always email me at hello at beautiful outcome .com, which is the name of my business, beautiful outcome.
christa (22:58.54)
Wonderful. Julie, we'll put all of that in the show notes, but I just wanted to thank you so much for just taking this time to connect with our listeners and help them hopefully start working past those mindset blocks of truly like what is so possible for each of them.
Julia (23:13.205)
Yes, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that. And if you're open, I have a free gift for your guests that yeah, yeah, often, you know, when you're building a business, you can forsake the connection in your marriage. And so I have 100 ideas, prompts and ideas for creating 30 minute sections each week for chats and play times with your spouse just to begin to hold that space to keep
christa (23:20.492)
we'd love that. We love free gifts.
christa (23:29.42)
Mmm.
Julia (23:42.133)
being intentional in your marriage. And so I can share the link with you that you can get that free and get started in growing your marriage alongside of the business that you are growing.
christa (23:46.796)
Yes.
christa (23:54.348)
Yes, okay, we'll definitely link that. And I'm excited to go through that. I haven't done that freebie from you yet. So I'm pumped to try that. But you guys, Julia, like she's not just talk, she walks the walk. She is just so incredible. And I definitely hope that you'll take her up on those free resources to really grow that relationship with yourself and with your marriage. Julia, thank you again for coming on today. We are just so grateful for you to take the time to do this. And we'll link everything you mentioned in the show notes.
Julia (23:59.541)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Julia (24:24.053)
Thank you so much, Krista.