#004 How your Thoughts Affect your Business

The Power of Mindset in Transforming Your Photography Business

In this episode, Keith and Melissa, experienced photography business owners, discuss the crucial role of mindset in achieving business success. 

They explain how focusing on negative thoughts can hinder progress and emphasize the importance of self-awareness in changing thought patterns. Using an example, they illustrate how negative thinking can lead to inaction and stagnation, while positive thinking can inspire hopeful and proactive steps towards business goals. 

Keith and Melissa provide two actionable exercises: a thought download to understand current business thoughts and a priority list to track actions towards achieving business goals. 

By becoming aware of thought patterns and shifting focus to positive and constructive thinking, listeners can improve their business outcomes.

00:00 Introduction to Mindset and Business Success

00:14 Welcome and Our Mission

00:29 Understanding Your Business Thoughts

01:24 Identifying Negative Thought Patterns

03:04 Changing Your Thoughts to Change Your Results

06:53 Personal Experiences and Overcoming Doubts

17:01 Exercises to Improve Your Business Mindset

18:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

18:53 Like or Comment

Thought Download Worksheet
5 Priorities Worksheet

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Transcript

Episode 4

[00:00:00] Remember you get what you focus on and if you focus on what is going wrong instead of what is going right? You just get more of the same becoming self aware and noticing these thought patterns is an integral part of getting the results in your business that you want!

 Welcome. We're Keith and Melissa, photography business owners for more than 25 years. And our mission is to help you find the success you want. And we know firsthand the role that mindset plays in figuring it all out. Now, today's episode. 

 Welcome today. We want to talk about our thoughts as they relate to our photography business What are the circumstances of your business right now? What are some of the thoughts that run through your mind about your business?

Some are conscious and most are unconscious. Or the meaning that we give these thoughts about our circumstances may not even be recognized. For example, your circumstance might be that you want to raise your prices. You're afraid or you want to start a photography business, but you haven't yet. Or maybe you haven't made as [00:01:00] much money in your photography business as you would like to.

For demonstration, I'm going to pick the circumstance or the fact that you haven't made the amount of money you wanted to in your business. Let's pick a factual number. Say you've made only 25, 000 this year. And you wanted to make 50k. So you've made 25, 000 less than you wanted to.

So the circumstance isn't a vague statement about your number, it is an actual number. And the thoughts that run through your head when you think that you've made 50 percent less than you wanted to at this point in the year are, maybe, are, Every other photographer has it figured out or I'm so busy. I can't do it all.

I hate doing social media. I'm overwhelmed I've tried everything and nothing works There are too many photographers in my area and I can't and I can't stand out. I can't raise my prices No one is booking me These thoughts circulate in your mind consciously and unconsciously. But at this very moment, since we now know it is a fact that you have made 25, 000 less than you wanted to at this point, [00:02:00] we can't change that.

But we can change your thoughts about the circumstance. When you think every other photographer has it figured out, or I've tried everything and nothing works, these thoughts don't serve you. They are negative. What do you do when you have these thoughts about your business? Not being half as busy as you hoped.

I'm guessing that you start feeling disappointed, nervous, maybe you need this money to pay your bills, you're scared, you're angry, or you're just plain frustrated and you're tired of putting in all this effort. and not getting the results you want. Your thoughts combined with your feelings, then create the actions you take right at this moment.

If I asked you what actions you take when you have the thought about making 25, 000 less, and I'm going to pick frustrated. What happens when you're feeling frustrated? Maybe you stop posting on socials. Maybe you stop doing anything that could help your business move forward. Maybe you buffer by not working or doing work that does nothing To help you make more money.

You avoid taking action that could actually help your business. You may even do [00:03:00] absolutely nothing. Do you see how your current thinking can create more of the same results? Since your circumstance is a fact, we can't dispute that you made 25, 000 less, but how we think about it is subjective. If you ask someone else and said that you made 25, 000 in your photography business this year, there might be a lot of others impressed that you were able to do that.

 They might look up to you and want to know how you're able to make so much money. is subjective, if you pulled a bunch of people, some would think you're killing it and others would think not so much. Often we have a circumstance keeping with this example, I made 25, 000 less than expected and you think your feeling of disappointment or frustration comes from that fact, but it actually comes from your thought that quote, I've tried everything and nothing works.

Clearly something is working if you did make 25, 000. So it's your thoughts around not making the other half of the 50 you wanted that are causing these negative thought patterns. Since these [00:04:00] feelings might cause you to stop taking action for your business, or not taking the right action for your business, you can see where I'm going here.

If you choose a different feeling, say you were hopeful which in turn would cause you to choose different actions, maybe showing up in a positive way, working on your business, choosing different actions that will lead to different results. So what is this long winded monologue about?

I'm sure Keith's asking that question right now. That we need to start recognizing the role that our thoughts play in the overall success of our business. I know when you think about making 25, 000 less than you wanted to, it is easy to think this outcome is out of your control.

It's other photographer's fault. It's the economy's fault. It's AI. It's your fault. To change the results in your business. We must work from a cognitive space We have to get to the root of your thinking around your business and start evolving it so that you can create the results you want What I'm suggesting here is that you start recognizing thoughts that don't support you and your business.

[00:05:00] You are attached to your negative thoughts because they prove the outcome, almost like an excuse. A reason why your business isn't doing that extra 25, 000. What if we had more empowered thoughts? Change the negative to the positive. Can you see what I'm trying to point out? That if you choose better thoughts, you will get different results.

These stories you tell yourself, this is what is preventing you from making the other 25, Remember you get what you focus on and if you focus on what is Going wrong instead of what is going right? You just get more of the same Becoming self aware and noticing these thought patterns is an integral part of getting the results in your business that you want

me, myself, is that I created my reality because of my thoughts. This was so powerful for me when I understood this. I believe my own stories about what was possible or really my thoughts were mainly focused on what wasn't possible. Think of it like a little box that you're in or that I was in. I could only see the reality of the four walls I had around me.

I couldn't see past this. I couldn't see [00:06:00] that. If I stopped telling myself stories, stop blaming others and other things. If I had only stopped to look at the facts and not what feelings that I had attached to my thoughts about the facts, that it was how I interpreted the facts that would impact the success of my business.

Look at this little shift. A more positive thought would be, I haven't made the other 25, 000 yet. It is one little word, yet. So now, so now we start thinking of what we need to do to make the other 25, 000. We start to take action by shifting these thoughts. We start seeing possibilities, possibilities that we may never have thought of.

So if we want to focus on getting the result, we have to change the way we think and feel. Ladies and gentlemen, you get to choose what you focus on. So let's change our focus. 

I think my rant went on long enough. Now let's talk about our business. Can you well, let's go back to when you first started Can you think of an example or even not first started?

But just a solid [00:07:00] example where maybe the way you were thinking about our business or yeah Again, even before is our business when it was my business. I could just always think that it was just hard I you get in again, there are some people that just get in and just kill it from the beginning A lot of us go in with the thinking, uh, okay, we have a good intention on doing this thing, but then there's just so much doubt and fear.

Okay, well, let's say I started off in New York. Well, it's a saturated market. There's a lot of really, really world class photographers there. That was your thought, right? That was my thought. How am I going to break in? Of course, Years later, we moved out to, , to Arizona and thinking, well, we're, I'm going to, at first I'm like, Oh, I'm coming from New York.

I'm going to own this place. Then I recognize it's cause there's a lot of people there and they're talented too, and, and again, their businesses are already established. Then there's a bunch of them. So, but that's interesting because you had a thought in New York where there's so many people, you know, how will I break through then almost like the opposite thought you're.

Yeah. Super [00:08:00] confident. Super confident and only to hit that wall of doubt again because now you're in a smaller market so you don't need as many people to saturate it. True. So again, it's all relative. It's all proportionate. So the, what I think, over time, one of the things that got me out of it repeatedly, because you can easily sink back into negative thoughts.

One of the things I was thinking about is that, uh, every one of those super successful people in those saturated markets got in at a time when it was a saturated market with tons of talented people like these, they didn't just pop in. I, they weren't always there either. So every time you get in, there's, it's already full.

Like you're not getting into an empty pool. You're getting into a full pool. And so. So you just have to make your own room and everybody that's there before you, everybody that you look up to did the exact same thing. They all had to make space for themselves. They all got in thing , whatever their mindset [00:09:00] was, they got in in a spot where I, okay, how am I going to differentiate myself?

Because there's so many throughout the history of this medium, let's go to any medium there have been, let's go accept maybe the exact beginning of these things. A bunch of people that know what you're doing are very, very good at it. And don't want you to be their competition, so. So what's the secret sauce?

So then, when you change, the feeling that you had when you arrived in Arizona is I can, you know, you were confident. Yeah, I was overconfident is what I was. And that was good. Didn't initially serve me. Well, I did. Sometimes it did because I got to meet people and meeting people and then getting out there and I get now the action steps were to go out there and not just sit behind and think, wow, because I've sent out a few emails.

Announcing that the, the guy from New York is coming into the market, then just beat down, beat down my door. It does work that way. So I had to get out and, uh, again, kind of the old fashioned way and [00:10:00] meet people face to face and just get my name out there. And It was a whole new market with a ton of talented people that were already filling the pool.

I needed to make my space, so I did, and it worked. And again, every time I started to, uh, to doubt myself, and that comes frequently, you just have to think that you have a right to be in that pool. And then that every, all the people that have come before you and done it well had to face the same challenges.

So it's like the North Star we spoke of, I think in last week's podcast, if you didn't have your eye on the prize, like you have to keep pushing. And that comes with, I think, the feeling that you could do it and that you were going to, you were determined maybe at that point, maybe that would be. Well, determination is definitely a key component, but yeah, and you have to, it's imperative that you know where you want to go again, or at least a certain point, you might not even imagine [00:11:00] that just keeps rolling as you, and it should keep moving because you never want to stop.

to get to the exact end. You don't want to cross that goal line because that means you have nothing left to achieve. And at that moment is when everything starts to rush past you. And that's when suddenly you start to stagnate and your business just doesn't evolve anymore. So you never actually want to achieve, you want to keep setting goals farther and farther out.

Not so far out that you just go, Oh my God, I'll never get there, but far enough out that it makes you have to work for it. I've seen way too many people that have, uh, have hit their goal and that's it. They're just so happy that they hit their goal that they then wonder, why is it that everybody is now, let's go out doing something else, but I'm still here doing what I did for the last 20 years and doing it exact same way at the exact same level.

Again, just keep moving. The idea is it's kind of like, uh, like people that diet and they, uh, they're like, oh my [00:12:00] God I just binged and I'm like, oh, I just threw my entire diet off Forget it. I'm just, I'm never gonna, it's never gonna work for me I'm just gonna sit with a tub of ice cream and call it a day.

Same thing with, same thing with business It's, it's very, very analogous If you don't hit the marks that you set for yourself, keep working. There's things that will get in the way, things you didn't notice, things you didn't see. There's various forces that might slow down your progress, but slowing down your progress doesn't mean stopping your progress, because that's not progress, obviously.

So the point, I think, to your point is Uh, at least to my point, is that you just have to keep going. What's good if you have, uh, Yeah, but I think some, some people, including myself, I mean, I struggled with like negative thought patterns, or I can keep going, but if I'm going to keep going in a negative direction, like where I can't recognize that it's my, I'm keeping myself limited.

I kept myself limited for years, even within our business. I [00:13:00] was the one Fighting against price increases and things like that because I didn't believe in it myself. So I was limiting our business So and that's those thought patterns were things that I had to Break away from I mean that that was not serving our business You you'd always have the confidence in your pricing.

You always have the confidence and you're for taught you may have had imposter syndrome in other areas, but when it came to pricing our products and Getting out there. Like you always have that unwavering confidence where I Definitely had limiting beliefs around Will people pay this like who's gonna hire us like why would they want to pay this girl from Worcester?

You know that much money to shoot her wedding and like these these beliefs that came with me from from childhood And you had limiting beliefs in other areas or maybe like you said some imposter syndrome like Coming in cocky from New York to Phoenix and then realize like oh shit there's a lot of other good photographers here and then it's almost like a limiting belief sneaks in, but I think that it's the negative thoughts that, [00:14:00] um, create these, these stories that we tell ourselves about our business and our, and our lives, you know, that we're stuck in this, this, this little tiny, tiny little area where we have to charge 50 for a shoot and burn mini session, or we can't raise our prices from five to 10, 000 for weddings or wherever you've just been conditioned to think that this is the ceiling.

And I can't, I I'm, I'm here and I, I'm in my lane and I'm not going to. Yeah, and I think that that's, uh, there's a lot of people, but it's just a matter that you have to recognize, you've got to recognize that you have to have a soul searching moment. You have to go, okay, , like the, the boring part of business, you have to look and see what's working, what's not working, and then start figuring out, okay, well, why isn't it working?

Frequently, not all the time, but frequently. The fault lies in us. We are the ones in the mirror. We are the ones, we are in our own way more often than not. All these different things can be crippling. Again, just using imposter syndrome is something that everybody seems to be talking about that, [00:15:00] uh, it's, it can really, really debilitate you if you don't get past the fact that it's called, it's, there's, uh, there's an ask for every seat again, there's just because somebody else, uh, And you also don't have to compare yourself directly to it.

It's a, it's a horrible thing to compare yourself directly. Compare to for inspiration is one thing, but this sit there and go, I, I, I frequently, like, well, why is this person's business? I, why are they making this? Why? Oh my God, that person's work is beautiful. And then I started thinking to myself, wow, maybe I'm, I've seen, I hit my ceiling and I didn't even belong here to begin with.

But with some reflection and, and going back over my work in particular, I would think, wow, I actually do like what I do. I'm like, I do have value. My work does not look like the people whose work inspires me, but it's not supposed to. I can appreciate that and never, ever want to shoot it. I'm like, it's [00:16:00] not.

It's not who I am. I have to be me. And once I recognized that was what I actually do like, I'm not just doing this like for, uh, again, painting by numbers here. Anyway, I digress, but in general, you have to really appreciate your own work.

If you just, if you don't appreciate it, nobody else will. It's belief in yourself. It's belief in yourself. And you say your belief in your ability to earn. So if you can get this off your artistic and get this back onto the business part, it's your belief in your ability to earn.

But the core I think of what we're going to start laying out is that it starts with believing in you. You are the one in the mirror that you are in charge of your own decisions. You are the one who decides how you're going to think about your business, how you're going to show up every day, how you go after the results that you want for your business. 

But I guess the main takeaway that I want from this dialogue that we just had is that you are at the center of your business. You make your decisions.

You get to decide how you show up every day. You get to decide where you put your efforts. You get to decide where you take action or where you [00:17:00] don't take action. So we have two exercises for you to help you discover a little bit about where you and your business are right now. The first exercise is a thought download.

Basically, you grab a piece of paper or the worksheet we'll have in the show notes or your journal and you free write. You free write about everything going on in your business. It's basically a brain dump. You write until the paper is full. You write about the good, the bad, the ugly, all the thoughts you're having about your business.

No one's going to be looking. You aren't turning this in. So be as honest as possible. The second exercise is to make a list of your top five priorities you have for your business. Write them down in order of importance. For example, I want my business to rank first on Google , in my hometown for branding photography.

So think about what you did yesterday to move that priority forward. Did you do anything to work on these priorities? Start paying attention to the actions you take as it relates to how you think about your business. These two exercises are a great start to, [00:18:00] are a great start to becoming self aware about the present state of your business.

What you think about your business and what actions you're currently taking on a daily basis to realize the results you want for your business. Cool. I think that sums it up. That's cool. Make sure you do them. Again, it's, uh, remember that nobody's watching you do this, so you don't have to turn this in to anybody.

 Just let it flow. It's a stream of consciousness. You'd be surprised at some of the things that might come out on paper if you're just, uh, you know, just let your hand go and, uh, and just do this exercise. It's, it's, it's, it's cathartic. It is. It is. And you do become more self aware.

And again, that's the point. The only way to move, move your business forward, move, change your life is to start becoming self aware and see what's really, see what's going on. 

 So, all right. So that's it. That's it for today. And, uh, thank you so much. See you next time. Take care. Bye bye. It would mean the world to us if you would start following, share this episode with someone else, or be so kind as to leave a review. [00:19:00] Thank you!