Welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Heather Lain, and I'm back this week sharing another installment of our offline photographer challenge. In case you missed it, I introduced this concept in episode 219, but essentially it's a series of challenges we are hosting inside of our Elevate program to help photographers connect, engage, and thrive within their local community. These tasks are carefully crafted to supercharge your in-person marketing strategies because we know just how crucial in person engagement is for your business growth.
In today's conversation, I'm chatting once again with Laura Wam. Well, as she shares a unique opportunity that she was recently presented with, which begs the question, how do you know when you should pivot in your business? How can you discern a good opportunity versus a distraction from what you should be doing? What are you avoiding? Where are you hesitating?
These are some of the questions we tackle in our conversation. I hope you love it as much as I did. I'm Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer, turned pet and family photographer back in 2010. I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you,
sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving two to $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six figure businesses that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion, or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision,
then you're in exactly the right place with over 350,000 downloads. Welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast. Podcast. Welcome back to the Offline Photographer Show podcast. Laura, thank you for being here. Can you start us off, kick us off by just giving us an update about where you're at, what's going on, et cetera? Absolutely. So I had a bit of a whirlwind holiday season that I was not expecting to have.
Not, Right? Ah, so I had deliberately blocked off like the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's to just rest, recharge, kinda get my head around planning and, and implementing. Because one of the things that I really wanted to move into 2024 with was a schedule that I determine instead of a schedule that determines me, I guess,
as well as sort of refining, you know, my social media presence. And I know we're talking about offline, but, but getting that in order. And then on December 23rd, I got an email. So I teach a photography course at our local college. Love it. Teach. It's lots of fun. Kids are great. And I got an email on the 23rd of December saying,
Hey, we have an entrepreneurship course that doesn't have a professor that starts January 8th. What? Yeah. So I ended up taking the course on partly because I'm still working through saying no to people. Okay. But also because I think it was the universe saying something to me, Some type of opening opportunity. Yeah. Part of what's great about this opportunity is it puts me in a position where I'm now entitled to benefits and a pension through the college,
which is awesome For real. Just, just the, I don't know, the way it works where you, it's not like that here. I I, but I guess even if you're just teaching, you're considered like part-time. So it's a post-grad program. So it's a polytechnic college as opposed to like a, you know, a like night school community college set.
Got it. So they're receiving like a diploma for doing the program. And when I was just teaching the photography course, I was teaching six hours. Now that I'm teaching nine hours, anything between nine and 12 oh Is Consider commercial load. So then you become part of the union. Okay. So part of me thinks it was like, okay, this is giving you a little bit more stability after a rocky 2023 economically.
And part of me thought a lot of what the course is about is a lot of what we talk about in Elevate mindset, having a good outlook as an entrepreneur, getting all your ducks in a row, legally, financially, all of that. And a huge part of it is crafting your online presence as an entrepreneur, which was one of the things I knew I needed to work on.
Oh my Gosh, how ironic. So I'm on this learning journey with my students, and so far it's going really well. So it, it's been interesting navigating how to feel about all of it, because part of me is like, oh, I'm letting myself down as an entrepreneur 'cause now I'm taking this job, you know, with the college, and if it turns into more hours,
how am I going to serve my clients? Because I quit my full-time job and now I'm working more. And, but I think it's forcing me to get real about what I can and can't do. Hmm. I have the time to do and not do and, and to be more selective and, and to be more precious with my schedule. So what's the commitment?
It's just like on a per semester basis, right? Yeah. They just offered me four courses now in the summer. Are you Serious? For real? Yeah. Like in the same class or different types of classes? So three units of the photography class in one unit of the entrepreneurship. Oh, wow. And, and what are you gonna do it?
What are your thoughts? I think I'm probably gonna do it. I'm gonna do it if they will allow me to teach the two courses that are, so all of it is out of town, but there's a new campus which is a little bit further outta town. So if I can teach the two classes on the same day there, I think I'll say yes.
Wow. Okay. How are you feeling about, I know you just said you have mixed feelings. Give me those mixed feelings. So I'm excited because I love teaching. I'm excited because I think teaching something helps you learn it. Absolutely. And the more that I can work through my own feelings about entrepreneurship and share what I've learned, the more I can have a sense of where I'm at.
There's a part of me as, as I mentioned, that is a little bit hesitant to pivot away from, like really marketing my photography. And there's a part of me that thinks the teaching is the safe option. Hmm. And that by saying yes to the teaching, which is pretty easy for me to say yes to, I am maybe admitting that I'm not great at marketing myself as a photographer.
I don't know. Are you, are you doing that? I don't know. I definitely, in my lizard brain, there's a part of me that is saying, you are just pivoting back to a full-time job. Yeah. Because you don't think you can hack it. Yeah. Well, okay. That's your lizard brain offering up its stupid lizard thoughts.
And then what, what's the real Laura think The real Laura thinks that real Laura wants to think that she can do it, is getting to the place where she thinks she can. But I need the, the bandwidth to figure out how. Hmm. Because I had, like, coming into that week off, or those two weeks off, I had a huge list of like,
oh, I'm gonna put together reels and I'm gonna really like, define my calendar and I'm gonna have all of this backlog of content. So I'm gonna be coming into January, like fresh and ready to go. And none of that happened. 'cause I had to build a whole course. Yeah, Right. Like right now. Yeah. Immediately. Yeah.
Yeah. So Now I, you know, it's halfway through January and I feel so behind. Hmm. And I know I can't beat myself up about that, but I also No, because you made the, you it, you made a choice. Like if I choose to do the course work on the course curriculum over, you know, the list that,
that can be. Okay. You're just choosing to shuffle the schedule. I'm gonna do this now because of the immediate need. It's a priority, obviously it starts on January the eighth, so you had to do it. How did it go by the way, your first class? Good. Really good. Better than I expected, actually. Oh, Fun,
fun. I was So nervous because I was like, I don't know if I know what this course is about. I don't know if I'm teaching the right stuff. And it's been going well so far. Okay. That, well, that's super fun. Maybe we, you and I can talk about it offline because I'm just really curious. I, I think that's super fun.
Okay. But how would you know, how could you discern whether this is a distraction to avoid something in your business or an opportunity that makes sense? I think fundamentally that's just a choice that I have to make because it's both. Okay. Brilliant. Well said. You, you are absolutely right. It doesn't have to be, it doesn't, you don't have to classify it as a distraction or an opportunity.
You can classify, you get to decide what this means. Your lizard brain is gonna offer up to you. Oh yeah. You're just avoiding this. You are just, you know, pivoting away because you're a failure. Whatever it offers you, you know, but you don't, you get to decide what this means. This could mean something like, oh my gosh,
I'm so awesome that they recognize my awesomeness and I'm going to help the, the youth of the future to build something better. Like this means I'm amazing. And to your point about the teacher always learns more like, I love teaching for that reason. It forces me to become better in all of these different areas. So what if this is like perfect and good and like,
I mean, you get to decide that. Correct. Yeah. And I, I think if I can keep my mindset positive about it and, you know, treat it like I am going on this journey, I'm teaching the kids how to build their brand, I'm doing it along with them, then it forces me to do all those things that I was planning to do anyway in a structured way.
And it, it helps me relate with what they're going through as they learn. The other sort of hidden benefit, I guess is that in having to be more picky with my schedule, it means that I have to be working with clients who are gonna pay me more so that the time that I'm spending makes sense. It means I have to be more selective about the charities that I'm working with.
Because I actually, I, I know you had a call with Lucy the other day and I had been having her take a look at my website and she was like, you do a ton of charity work and that's all I see on your feed. And I was like, Hmm, maybe I need to address that. Yes. So this month's offline challenge really ties into what I've been trying to do as far as like curating the rescues that I'm gonna work with,
the charities that I'm gonna work with, and then the rest of them like, sure, I'll support your silent auction. I will donate a prep, whatever. But pairing that list down to 10 and then evaluating like, has this been a good partnership for me in the past, maybe having them fill out an application for my time. You know, making it more streamlined for me so that I know when I'm putting my energy into working with a nonprofit,
there's actually going to be some reciprocity there. That's something that's a boundary that I've never set. And this new scheduling challenge is I think, forcing me to set that boundary. Okay. So in a way, this constraint has forced focus. And so, and giving you like, like you can be more selective about what you take on because you have clarity.
I, you know, I often say that sometimes we're better off when we're really busy because it forces us to make better decisions about how we use our time. Absolutely. I think that was so true when I was working full-time and running the photography business, I felt a lot more directed. I felt like I knew exactly what needed to get done at all times.
And then since leaving the day job, I felt a little adrift and I You had too much time. Do you think it was because you had too much time? I think it might have been that be because I had too much time. Like I, I did a lot of work, but I think I took on a lot to fill my time.
Mm. And it wasn't necessarily the right things that I was taking on because I was just like, well, I can't have downtime. Right. Right. That's not A lot. That isn't a thing we do. Yeah. Right. You know, we were talking in our call towards the end of December and elevate where I was talking about like, the superpower of focus going into 2024 was intention,
you know, how and getting clarity on what you wanted to work on. And one of, and I can picture one of the slides, I said, like, the way you can tell is if you ask yourself, is this moving the needle forward if you have goals? And so I'm, I'm gonna ask you this, like with teaching, do you feel that teaching is moving the needle forward both for you professionally and personally?
Like, is it giving you that, that like progress for your own business? Because if it's not, here, here was my, my slide was like, if it's moving the needle forward, then you're probably working on something you need to work on. But if it's not, it's a distraction. And that's how you can tell. So do you feel like doing this is moving the needle forward?
Hmm. That's a great question because I think it could, or if I keep compartmentalizing them where like teaching is its own thing and my business is its own thing, it might not. Right. And this is where, That's a good point. That that whole idea of like, I don't even have it on my LinkedIn that I'm a professor. I should probably add that.
Yeah. Today a hundred percent. I don't, I don't network about photography with my colleagues at school. Oh, these are two separate lores. Are these two totally different people? They're a little bit two different people. And I think if I were able to better synthesize them, then everything would be working Better. Oh my gosh. I agree completely.
So how could you do that? Being more confident about telling people about my business, like my school colleagues Yes. Being like, yay, and here's what I do and here's my work, and I show my students, but they're not my clients. Yeah. Right. And as well, you know, letting my clients know like, Hey, I teach photography so I'm not just some schmo.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes. I would absolutely, I would put that on LinkedIn today. It gives you credibility. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, yeah. No, I teach this stuff you guys, so like, look out. Okay. What, what would you say is the, the fear or the thought behind keeping this separate? I think it circles back to something we talked about in our first call,
which is that I always think that self-promotion and talking about what you're doing feels braggy. And I know that it isn't, and I know that it's necessary and I'm actively teaching students to share what they're doing, think About it. And that people want to get to know you as a human being and they want to see what you're doing because we are intrinsically interested in other people.
Yes. And you know, putting yourself out there makes you more interesting, both as a human and as a business person. And I just don't say, don't do it myself. And that makes me feel like imposter syndrome, all of that. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it, it is making me feel like an imposter in a way that's maybe lighting a fire to be like,
if you were telling people to do this, you need to be doing it yourself. Oh, okay. So in order to be an integrity. Exactly. Exactly. I Wonder if you could bring your photography business into your teaching almost as a case study, And you talk about what you struggle with and, and because you're not alone, I mean, a lot of people think that,
you know, constantly, constantly quote, promoting their business is a problem, or talking about their business in certain circles or situations isn't appropriate. And I, I wonder if just like you sharing your journey with your students as like, Hey, just so you know, this is what I'm working on. This is where I'm at on my journey because of whatever,
you know, and so I wanna share that with you. People love the journey because of what you just said. I think they're intrinsically curious. Yeah. What would that look like? I think that would be helpful for my students. I think it would be helpful for me. I think it would generate content that I could share with potential clients as well.
It makes a good blog post. Yeah, it does. Yeah. It's, you know, it's, it's just the doing it and, and I know I can do it. I don't, I don't know what that hesitation is because I, I see how, how good it would be to just make it fully a journey where I am doing exactly what I'm telling my students to do.
And we're all seeing like, Hey, how does this impact your business? Yeah. So what do you think would happen if you walked into your next class and you said, Hey, as part of our curriculum, we're doing this case study on how to build a hundred thousand business and we're using my business as an example. Yes. What do you,
what do you think? Okay. Obviously that sounds fun and exciting and I can see you're lit up by it, but what does the lizard brain say about that? Two things. One, that, that's impossible even though I know it probably isn't. And two, that, that would be selfish. Oh, interesting. Okay. There it is. This goes back to what you did say that first episode,
which is that I'm making it about me, and if it's about me, it's bad. Yeah. Yeah. Why, why is that selfish? I don't know. Yeah. Like, how is that selfish? And, and logically, when I frame it as a teachable moment, it's not, when I think of it as that might be helpful for them to see like,
oh, this is an actual, actual entrepreneur struggling through the same stuff we are. That would be helpful to them. But my lizard brain is like, no, you're just taking up their time talking about yourself. You shouldn't talk about yourself. Mm. Because talking about yourself is bad. Yeah. Yeah. I actually think it's the opposite. Like,
if you don't talk about it, you're being selfish. And if you do talk about it, you're being vulnerable and open and helping people. Like, I have the complete opposite. Okay. Easy for me to say. I am not the one in the situation. I have been in circumstances where I've been like, oh my gosh, I'm talking too much about me or my business and wanna make it about them.
But the fact that that's on the forefront of your brain tells me that you would never take that too far. That you would never, you know, have you ever been in a training or watched someone speak where they literally do talk about themselves too much and you're like, oh my gosh, please stop. Well, they are not the person that's saying,
I sure hope I don't talk about myself too much. So the fact that you are saying that is almost like a self regulator, could you trust that you wouldn't talk about yourself too much? Or, or in, in a way that's inappropriate? Like, what does that even mean? Because you, of course you wanna make it about them. Of course.
Listen, that's the, that's the age old thing with instructors and mentors and coaches and teachers. It's like, how do I make this about you? But, and also share my experience because that's useful as well. And I think you've, I think you've hit on something important, which is you said it's about being vulnerable and open. And I wonder if,
maybe I'm not pretending, but maybe the part of me that's thinking it's selfish, it's bad, is actually just protecting myself from being vulnerable. I believe this to be a hundred percent true. Because if you don't say anything about your business, then you could keep this sort of mysterious air about it. And maybe they'll just believe that I'm successful because I'm teaching.
So I'm, I don't wanna, you know, like I don't wanna rock that boat, so I'm just gonna keep everything quiet. So it, you are absolutely protecting yourself and protecting yourself to the detriment of someone else. Learning is the very definition of selfish. So the thing you are trying to avoid is exactly what you are being, which is quite interesting.
Not on purpose. You like, I know you get that, you know, I'm not sitting here calling you selfish. So, you know, like it's a selfish behavior to protect yourself obviously, is like, I don't want anybody to see that. I remember when I very first decided to start sharing my revenue numbers, whoa, that's a scary place to put yourself in.
I do it now pretty, like, easily. But it was not always that way. I mean, this has only been in the last year or two I've been doing that because part of me is like, if I don't say anything, they'll just assume I'm doing well. And I want you to think highly of me. You know, there's the ego in play,
but then if I share my numbers with you and my legitimate struggles and my challenges, doesn't that, doesn't that bring us closer? Give us more of a connection? And would you want that with your students? Absolutely. Yes. And I think it carries over into my relationship with my clients too. A lot of why I I'm not putting myself out there,
whether it's online or in person, is that whole idea of my lizard brain saying, don't be braggy, don't be selfish. But also like me being protective and being like, well, what if they don't like me? If I just don't put it out there, then they can't reject you. There it is. Yeah. Then there's no opportunity for anything bad to happen.
Yeah. Which serves no one, Serves no one, it does not help your students for you to compartmentalize these two Lauras the world benefits, like tenfold, like more than you can even imagine when Laura comes together and, and is just like the whole version of herself and is not fighting against herself, but is just like, you know, the version of Laura that shows up as a professor,
professor, oh my gosh, I would love to sit in that class. I'd be like, professor Laura, I have a question. You know that Laura, the business lawyer, the entrepreneur, the friend, like all that's all you and you are permitted to cross pollinate them. And in fact, I think you should because then it ma then doesn't,
don't you think if you do that, then it makes this question of is this a distraction or a pivot away? It, it makes that question sort of non-relevant Because no, it's not a distraction, it's part of my journey. This is actually a, an incredible opportunity for me to work on growing my business to six figures with an audience. Is it humbling?
Yes. But what if you are working with them and they see things that you don't, and they will, and they'll have ideas because you know, they're the youth and they have a lot of ideas. And then, and then it gives you something that you, you wouldn't have predicted or couldn't have come up with on your own that helps you, you know,
10 x your business. Yeah. So how could we choose, like, there's all these feelings, you know, but how could you choose to frame this and feel about this opportunity that serves you? If I frame it as the universe sending me a very clear signal that exactly what I'm telling my students to do is what I need to be doing myself.
Which is very simple to understand too. I think. I think that helps everybody. It's almost like having built-in accountability. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can't hide. 'cause they're gonna ask you, they're, they're gonna say like, what's going on with your business? Or where are we at? And you're gonna have to share, oh, I've made zero offers in the last two weeks.
You know, and here's why. But I mean, I think this is, I mean, as soon as you said it, you were gonna teach. That lights me. I love to teach, obviously I teach at our local college. I actually was asked to speak at an entrepreneurial class in my daughter's high school when she was in high school a couple years ago.
But I was not permitted to do so by said daughter. She, I talked to her teacher, I met him at open house. He's like, yeah, we'd love to have you come talk. And I'm like, man, I'm here for it. And she, she like went blue. She was like, mortified. She's like, mom, you are not stepping foot in the school.
And I, I don't, I said, I don't understand like why like, this is so exciting and fun. She's like, I would never hear the end of it. You are. And I quote too much, I don't know what that means. I said, well maybe you're too little. I don't know. I don't know. But now that she's graduated,
I thought about going back to him, but now my son's in high school and he's like, mom, you are absolutely not permitted To come into The school. So I have to wait for them to, but I think it's really fun to talk to people that are interested in entrepreneurship from someone who is actually in the struggle. Like it's not just, none of this is theoretical.
Oh, I can tell you about how to form your legal entities and what taxes look like and all of those things. Absolutely. But then there's this like real component that you can bring to the table of like, oh, but by the way, it's like so much mind drama over everything you're doing and here's why. Oh my gosh, I wish I lived closer.
I would like, I would ask you if I could come be a guest speaker or something. It just sounds so fun to me. I'll let you know if we ever have a Zoom class. Okay. Okay. I would be on it. I'd be like, what can we talk about? This is so good. Okay. This is interesting also because I think there are multiple layers here.
I love teaching at the college because I also meet people. So from an offline photographer standpoint, this is a great opportunity for you to meet people and talk about what you do both with your students and with the faculty. So what could we do to help you? What could we reframe, I guess, to help you be more bold about speaking to people you know that you're meeting at at the school?
I think it's just a matter of just doing it partly and you know, maybe like figuring out a way to, you know, they're professors, they always need headshots or whatever. Yes. And like, Hey, you want a headshot with your dog? Let's make it, it's a Thing. Yeah. Okay. So you are, I'm gonna give you two challenges for the offline photographer this month.
One is the one that we have posted in Elevate, and that is to reach out to at least 10 nonprofit organizations this month to see if there's partnership opportunities this year. Or you can donate to an annual auction or whatever. Just like get on people's schedule. And I realize that 10 is a high number, but you know, let's just go for it.
But also in addition to that, your like personal offline photographer challenge is to talk to, how many times will you be on campus between now and our next call? I teach twice a week and our calls in about a month. Oh, okay. So several times you'll be on campus. Okay, perfect. What number could I give you that would make you kind of antsy?
Five, 10. Five. Five. Five makes me antsy. Okay. Stop Heather five. Is it? Okay? You have to tell at least five staff, faculty, professors, whatever, adults, not students. You have to tell at least five of them who you are and what you do. I'm not saying you have to make an offer,
just like in conversation like, Hey, did you know I'm actually a pet photographer? It's like the craziest thing, you know, I photograph puppies, it's so fun. You know, like, just talk about it. I, I mean, and, and sort of inoculate yourself to speaking to people about it. The it, you know, so it doesn't feel,
it's gonna feel uncomfortable because you don't love it. And you, you have these stories about this is bragging or whatever, but you know, if you do it enough, you will inoculate yourself to it. And then it won't be a big, I go everywhere I go. I am telling people who I am and what I do, and they probably think I'm crazy and I,
it doesn't ma I had a recent unfortunate visit to the ER and I was talking to the ER doctor at 1:00 AM and I was explaining to him what I do and how my brain was the asset and I wasn't gonna let him alter my brain chemistry because this is how I made money. And I was like telling him I'm building a million dollar business. And he was probably like,
I gotta go. But, and I think people are interested. I, I just have this thought that people are intrinsically curious. They're interested in you and what you have to do. Not the opposite. Because if you think nobody cares, I'm bragging, of course you're gonna hesitate. But if you think, oh my gosh, the fact that I photographed dogs for a living is like the coolest thing ever.
And everybody needs know about it because they don't get it. They don't know it's a thing. I'm just gonna zip around this campus telling everybody, Hey, I'm Laura. I photograph puppies. Yeah. Like, have fun with it. I can do it. Okay. Okay. This has been great. Congratulations on these opportunities. Attracting them, them coming to you,
being open to them. I, I love this for you. I support this. I think it's really fun. Awesome. Thank you. Okay. Have a great day. I'll talk to you soon.