#009 Unlocking Success in Your Photography Business

Transform Your Narrative: Unlocking Success in Your Photography Business

In this episode, we discuss the transformative power of changing your narrative toward achieving success in your photography business. We emphasize the impact of mindset on business outcomes, using personal anecdotes to illustrate the shift from negative to positive thinking.

The episode also touches on our journey of embracing new skills like video editing and the importance of journaling and self-reflection in evolving your business narrative. We highlight the stark contrast between defeatist and optimistic perspectives, and how having clear goals and plans can lead to a thriving business. Listeners are encouraged to redefine their stories and be deliberate about their business goals for success.

Exercise: Journal entry or Grab a piece of paper
Write down what you believe your current narrative is for your business
Then write down what you would like your narrative to be

Books Mentioned:
Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill
You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth, Jen Sincero

00:00 Introduction: Changing Your Business Narrative

00:37 Meet Keith and Melissa: Photography Business Owners

01:00 Embracing New Creative Outlets

03:15 Defining Your Business Narrative

04:08 Learning from Past Experiences

07:24 Crafting a Positive Business Story

12:29 Personal Transformation and Growth

17:43 Conclusion: The Power of a Positive Narrative

Watch this Podcast Episode on our YouTube Channel
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Want to learn more about Street Photography?

Transcript

Episode 9: Narrative

[00:00:00] As soon as you change your narrative about what's possible for your business, your business will change. And your world will change right along with it. I think it's fact, and maybe some people think that's, you know, woo woo and blah, blah, blah, but it works.

Yeah, they can think that, unless they're going to not wonder why, ironically, that they're stuck in the same place. Exactly. So when it comes to you telling your narrative, writing in your journal, Honestly, write it down, but then take a really hard look at it and think what could you change about that narrative?

Like in a, in a more positive way to, to really embrace your business and what it's capable of and what you're capable of.

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. I'm glad to have you back. I see him.

 I love the movie that you're making for your street photography YouTube channel. Very nice. [00:01:00] Thank you. Thank you. I think it's funny that the, it's, it's an episode on getting out of a creative route, which actually this is ironically has something to do with, and they were done differently, but what the other, uh, Fun part is actually learning more about DaVinci Resolve.

I'm actually having so much fun just working with this whole video program that was good. It's uh, just a whole other new creative outlet So which is kind of on on topic since we're talking about narratives that we talk about that We tell about ourselves and that now it's a new narrative for you that you are now Hey, I'm the video person doing that, which is funny considering was that I've spent 30, close to 30 years not wanting to do video back when there was started off in this whole idea that cameras could do both video and stills.

And I really started thinking that everyone's asking, photographers to also do video and I'm like, absolutely not go hire yourself a qualified video guy. I do one thing, I do it well, and uh, and that's that. I really, really did not see [00:02:00] this coming. No, it's fun because not only are we incorporating video, you are now the DaVinci Resolve king, or at least you know, you're having a good time.

I'm having a great time. Yeah, I'm still on the, uh, the low portion of the, the learning curve, but it's fun. It's the part of, uh, the learning process that I find the most fun. Just once you're at the top, then it's just trying to stay there. Then it's not fun, it's maintenance.

It's, I think, looking for a new challenge that's fun. Yeah, like photography for me was, was absolutely super fun when I was just wor now I still love it and I keep myself going and, and I find new creative outlets, but just the idea that, uh, when it was new, everything was exciting. I wasn't as good, but everything was exciting.

Now I'm better and things aren't quite as exciting anymore. But it's fun because again, we're talking about narratives today. And here we are living our quote new life for the past two and a half years here in France. And we have completely changed the narrative. So [00:03:00] you're using video and you being somebody who's creating, creating videos and has a very nice YouTube channel about street photography.

These are narratives that weren't part of our lives. Never saw it coming. So let's start. 

Okay. So I'm going to ask this, this is being asked to you, to the listener. And those of you that are listening and not watching, I'm using my hands. What is your current narrative versus what do you want it to be? 

That's the perfect segue to talk about what is the narrative that you tell yourself about your business. This is really important because I think having a really good look, a real understanding of what you tell yourself about your business will help you see What is and isn't working. 

So what is the story running in your head that creates who you think you are as the photography business owner,

we think our narratives are the truth. So what is your current narrative versus what you want it to be? And where did your story come from? We kind of just spoke about that, like that you being a videographer, which is hard for me to even [00:04:00] say. It's part of your new narrative, but tell me now, your new narrative versus maybe your narrative from 30 years ago, for example.

30 years ago, I didn't see me being here actually 30 years ago, prior to graduating, uh, photo school, I was working as a, um, an assistant in a small wedding portrait studio in the Bronx. And my boss at the time seemed to constantly be blowing a sack. That's what he was just, he just never seemed to be happy. And if, if he was happy for a moment, it, it was short.

He just wanted business. He just, all he saw was he needed money to come in. He didn't, qualify any other way that they could pay. I got to see how miserable he was all the time.

So when I, when I went out on my own, I recognized that the interview process is a two way street. You're not just, they're not just interviewing you because they have to see it to work with you. You're actually, you should be interviewing them at the same time and making sure you want to work with them.

Just because they can afford you doesn't mean that you guys are going to get along. And [00:05:00] it's better, I think, and I, and it's worked for our business for forever. Knowing that was called, we're going to get along with clients. And so it, it makes, if you get along, if they like you, they like, they like your work, it's just one of those things.

 Uh, it's more important than they like you than your work, your work gets extra points if they like you, and it doesn't matter how great your work is. If they don't like you. So you, if you, uh, your wife is made much easier.

If you just pay attention and listen, do I vibe with this person? Cause if you don't, then it doesn't matter how much they pay you. Not only it's going to, it just, it's, it has a huge potential to end poorly. And then you're going, your wife is not going to be your own. You're going to be. putting out fires and , it's easier to let a little bit of money walk out your door at that moment and more will come in and it will, you'll get a reputation amongst those people.

 His narrative was, I just need to make a buck. And he wasn't really thinking how he's going to get out of where he is. He, he had seen, he, I [00:06:00] don't believe that he had given this too much thought. And he just thought that he enjoyed photography. He was good at it.

If he had a store in, in the storefront in the Bronx and became the guy. Everything would be here. Everything would be good, but he didn't grow. And then I watched his business start to fail over the years. Cause I kept in touch and it was sad. He didn't grow along with time. So all he did was look backwards and, uh, and anybody that came along, he just assumed, well, You don't, you didn't pay your dues and you don't know what it's like and you shouldn't be here.

No, that life doesn't care. Life doesn't work that way. , he painted himself into a corner and he believed that he was, uh, the king and unfortunately nobody else believed that. And so while his kingdom kept getting smaller and smaller and He kept getting angrier and angrier and angrier.

And eventually just fizzled out. It's sad. And really, , I wish he's not unique though. And I think you haven't, you're talking 30 years ago and obviously it was more recently that his business fizzled out, [00:07:00] but I think we've seen a lot of people over the course of our lifetimes in the photography world that that has happened to.

So had their narratives adapted, they told themselves a different story. Like maybe now it's time to. Learn video or learn, no, just learn a new skill. Keep yourself fresh in the game. Yeah. Keep yourself relevant because time doesn't stand still and, and, and tastes change, your taste should change with that.

 So when you look at your life and your business, what is the story you tell? I think this is a great journal exercise. So grab your journal and write it down. I'll put that in the show notes, grab a piece of paper, whatever it is, understanding the story that you're telling yourself about your business is very poignant because it's almost like you're looking Back at yourself.

You don't see it. You can't see your business in the mirror So doing this journal exercise, I think will help you flush out exactly what your opinion or your thoughts are about your business and how that actually lines up with truth. So the example I want to give is photographer number one says something to the effect of I don't know [00:08:00] anything about running a photography business, and I know I'll never make any real money. I'll always have to keep my quote real job.

So I have a steady paycheck. Sounds pretty defeatist. Well, yeah, I know people like that. Yeah, sad. And then we also know people like this that are Photographer number two defines themselves. Their narrative is, I am one of Harper's Bazaar's top 25 destination wedding photographers in the world. I charge 25, 000 per wedding, and I have the next two years of weddings already on the books.

I will have a million dollars in the bank by the time I'm 30, because I've had a plan for my business from the beginning, and that included learning as much as I can about both photography and business. I enjoy making money, but I enjoy keeping it more.

I love investing in me and my future, and it's all thanks to my incredible brain and my photography business. Completely different narratives. Completely. Yeah, much longer narrative. And, uh, but again, because we have, because there's some actual thought of it and that, so, [00:09:00] because it's easy, it's amazing how.

Short and concise, negativity is like, it doesn't really, it doesn't need specificity and it just needs you to not be specific. Whereas, yeah, you don't get things that you don't really think about.

And it requires, it requires the specifics. Just like goal setting. It's almost like when you, when you, Think of your narrative, even though it is subconscious, really, it's based on who you are as a person and how you grew up and all these things that formed you into who you are. So if you're a negative person because of all these negative things that have happened in your life, or you just have never taken that glass half full approach to life similar to goal setting.

If you are not more specific, well then you're getting exactly what you put out there either way. So if you're short and negative or the second photographer, example, they've put a lot more. They've crafted a story around what they want their life to look like. And they're very deliberate. They want to understand the photography business because it's short sighted [00:10:00] to think that there's a lot of great photographers, but that does not make you a successful photography business owner.

So some people are great at sales, but aren't great at taking photos. By defining exactly what you want your business to look like, exactly how much money you want to save and, and these career goals, they're that person is working towards that versus just throwing a blanket negative statement out.

Well, I'm going to have to keep this day job forever because you know, photography business sucks and I'm never going to be able to do it. So you can see how the narrative is. I just think of, a sports metaphor, the, uh, goal has to be specific. I'm a referee judging whether, uh, the, the running back, scored a touchdown or not, you know, well, he was, well, yeah, unless you were Vinny Testaverde way back when, but if you get close to the goal line, you didn't score, , there's a specific spot you have to get to, and to get to that spot, You have to make plans again, and wife is trying to plan against you.

So you have to be specific in how you're going to get to [00:11:00] that one spot. And that's in your business in any, . Thing where you want to have control over what you do. If you're just willing to just hop on and go for the ride and see where life brings you. Well, good luck with that. It shows up everywhere.

You don't diet and exercise. I just like to lose weight. Well, what does that mean? What number do you want to see? I'd like to make more money. And what does that mean? 10 cents, 10, 10 million. And then, okay, I want to do that now. Oh, fine. Now, how are you going to do that? These things are all. Things are part of the plan.

You need your goal and you need your, your plan to get there. And once you have that again, it becomes far easier to actually do it because you now have something to focus on and things start to take care of themselves. Again, to use the football analogy , you're the plan goes awry, but Some new little lane opens up and now you've just gone streaking down and you [00:12:00] get, you get this unexpected touchdown or you get, you get put on your butt, you get up the next, next play, draw the right one and you exploit it and bam, you, uh, you scored like without knowing where you're going, you can't get there.

Very true. Very, very true. Second photographer, she may have a different outcome in her business.

One is defeatist and one is optimistic, both of these narratives are optional. Your narratives determine the outcome of your life. So how do Keith and I know the story of the narrative first hand? Years ago, and I know I have alluded to this on another podcast episode.

 I definitely had a negative narrative around our business.

Other photographers had it all figured out. We didn't, I didn't believe in our pricing or niching down. I was jealous and a bit desperate at times. And I know that energy was present when I spoke to potential clients or interacted with anyone that I had to sell us to. You had unwavering confidence.

Unwavering. I'm not sure, but yeah, I had some confidence. But something changed when we decided to start taking a month [00:13:00] sabbatical each summer. And again, I know I mentioned that a few weeks ago on the podcast, but after that first summer in Paris, which we took dead broke, by the way, and I know we mentioned that as well, we were changed when we came back, our dream board was born, our mindset around money started to shift we began paying off our debt. We also joined a gym that we went to religiously three times per week and that became a non negotiable item on our calendar. My mindset also shifted from poor us to look at the world filled with a variety of photographers that may be more suited for a potential client than we are.

Instead of desperately trying to book every client that reached out to us, I let go of clients that I knew weren't the right fit for us. It's like that, yeah, it's like that story. Yeah, it's a different story from before, yeah.

It took me longer to come around. I enjoyed supporting other photographers and being happy for their success rather than coveting it. This mindset shift It shifted everything for us.

It wasn't awakening. I was getting into self development at the time. I was listening to Dave Ramsey to help, [00:14:00] help with the debt and found self improvement type podcasts to listen to and read books. I believe for me, it all started with reading Jen Sincero's, You're a Badass Around Money.

Although I think you said it was a different name. You're a badass at making money. And then it was more books, more podcasts, journaling, morning pages, all the things. And I think simultaneously, yeah, again, some things too. Yeah. I was watching you, uh, read all this stuff. And I suppose it just listening to you talk to me about it and getting nothing at secondhand and, and, and not developing myself.

I specifically remember reading, what's it, Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich. There's, yeah. So anyway, kind of a pretentious title, but, and, misogynistic and racist and a whole bunch of stuff because it was written like in the early 1900s, 1930 I think it was.

 Jen, Jen, Jen Sincero's version of this is brilliant and funny and motivating and outstanding and really, if you had to read one or the other, [00:15:00] hers is a much easier read and with, uh, yeah, you'll laugh versus Wint's.

But the basic message is the same and it's transformative. Like it's really, really strange. I never thought again, growing up in the Bronx, let's go to that. , that this idea of, of projection is I got projection always seems like a negative term to me. But, if you don't, again, project what you want and you don't, lay out your plan, which Jen's book and Napoleon Hill's book, funny that we live in France now and Paris of all places and I, and one of my transformative things is a book by a man named Napoleon.

So anyway, it opened me up again. We were both doing, uh, I remember Christine Johnson, an outstanding photographer, friend of ours had given me a book called, The Artist's Way, which she, she recommended. It's a classic. I recommend any of you out there check that out too, but we were doing, uh, the exercises and that.

We were, uh, Yeah, those morning pages we were [00:16:00] doing, , constantly, uh, reading and, and just working on ourselves. And it, uh, it, it paid off. Absolutely.

 Something happens, it cracks you open, and you need to go deeper and deeper, seeking more transformational content. At least, that's the way that I felt. As these emotions were shifting in my brain, literally, like, I could almost feel it changing from desperation and uncertainty to optimism and being hopeful.

It was magnetic. The way we began attracting more of what we truly wanted. As our emotional energy changed our business gain traction, and then everything started positively snowballing. It was almost like night and day.

And I'm over exaggerating, but I think when you start applying your mind, again, the narrative that you tell yourself starts shifting when you start filling your mind with new books and, you know, different things. Thoughts on podcasts and seeing what other people are doing and how they're progressing and things like that.

I think it's impossible not to Have your mind start [00:17:00] growing with it and the narrative that you tell yourself And again with the uh, the access to information both good and bad I think that the uh, the web provides you're You have, there's no real reason not to, uh, to look for stuff. And if you don't even like to read, you can listen, you have Spotify or one of the other streaming services.

You can hear the, I get a lot of these books are on, uh, on audio. Yeah. And you don't need to go it alone. It's the point. I mean, there's a lot of support out there in the form of books and podcasts and everything under the sun to help. And, and now we're still transforming and allowing more and more optimistic energy into our life and our business.

I think it's a process that we've kind of opened up that we're never gonna put back, put back in, like, keep going. As soon as you change your narrative about what's possible for your business, your business will change. And your world will change right along with it. I think it's fact, and maybe some people think that's, you know, woo woo and blah, blah, blah, but it works.

Yeah, they can think that, unless they're [00:18:00] going to not wonder why, ironically, that they're stuck in the same place. Exactly. So when it comes to you telling your narrative, writing in your journal, Honestly, write it down, but then take a really hard look at it and think what could you change about that narrative?

Like in a, in a more positive way to, to really embrace your business and what it's capable of and what you're capable of. Yeah. You're capable. What more do you think you are? Exactly. You have everything you need to succeed. So you just got to pull it out of you. One podcast at a time. So cool. Thank you.

Thank you. See you next time. 

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