Podcast Ep 323 - Sharing wisdom from other photographers

In this episode, Heather Lahtinen shares valuable insights from experienced photographers and entrepreneurs about what to think and believe when starting something new. Whether you're a photographer or venturing into another field, the advice shared here will resonate with anyone embarking on a new journey.

Discover how trusting yourself, managing rejection, and focusing on progress over perfection can help you succeed. Tune in for practical wisdom on navigating the early stages of your business and personal growth.


Show Notes:

• Learn why believing in your vision and surrounding yourself with supportive people is crucial.
• The importance of finding good teachers and investing in your growth.
• Discover how focusing on progress rather than perfection can accelerate your success.
• Tips on embracing rejection as a part of the growth process.
• The importance of being kind to yourself and leading with service during tough times.

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Connect:

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TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast, and today I'm sharing wisdom from some of my friends on what to think or believe when you are starting something new. My name is Heather Lahtinen,

and I'm a photographer, educator, and entrepreneur, and I founded the Flourish Academy as a resource for photographers of all levels. We want to help you pursue your passion on your own terms because we believe there is room for everyone.

In this podcast, we focus on creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are really holding you back in business and life. I often refer to our Elevate program inside of the Flourish Academy.

It's where we help photographers get more clients and make more money. And some of these photographers are very new in their business. We also have veterans that have been in a decade or longer and Of course,

everything in between. So recently, I posed this question, "What one piece of advice would you give someone who is thinking about starting a photography business?

What is the one thing that would have helped you?" Even if you're not a photographer, I know that you can get value from the advice that they shared because most of what they offered really could apply to anything.

So whether you're a photographer or not, I think you are going to really love what they had to say. The first comment was my advice is to trust yourself from the start.

Believe that you already know what you want and how to achieve it. Let go of things that don't feel aligned with your vision sooner rather than later. One thing that would have helped me is to surround myself with people who truly understand me as an entrepreneur even earlier than I did.

Most people won't quote get me and that's okay. But those who do will provide invaluable support and be great sounding boards. I think this idea of trusting yourself is key to everything because you'll make faster decisions.

You'll take more action from a place of belief instead of doubt. This is actually a theme that comes up with me still after 20 years, all of the time I will write down in my notes,

Heather, just trust yourself, make a decision, move forward and also decide what you want. If you can get clarity on what you want to crave, if you can cast this vision,

then you can make it happen. And The environment really matters, and I don't mean your physical environment. I mean the environment of the people that you surround yourself with. If there is anyone that doubts you,

they need to go, or at the very least, you need to keep them at a distance. I always tell my clients whether it's a one -on -one coaching client or inside of Elevate, I said,

"Don't worry. I have enough confidence and belief for both of us. I believe in you absolutely a hundred percent in like in total before you even believe in yourself and it's important to have people like that around you.

Okay, next, what I've heard you say that is so true is that confidence comes from competence. It was truest for me first in terms of mastering my craft to make the kind of photos I wanted to make,

not ultimately, as I'm always still learning, But it's just as true now for mastering the sales and business side of things. Move quicker to find good teachers and mentors, invest money and time in learning how to grow and practice both craft and business things as much as you can.

For me, I had to make better work to feel good taking on more clients, to charge more, to now be confident and selective rather than anxious and desperate. Investing,

learning, practicing, and growing is 100 % a virtuous cycle. I love this line in here where she says, "Move quicker to find good teachers and mentors and invest money." Of course I like that line,

right? I'm the coach, but I have found that to be true for myself as well. If I am in any kind of doubt, which happens more often than I care to admit, I seek out resources.

And early in my career, that was through books because, you know, the internet didn't exist like it does now. YouTube wasn't a thing. So I would read a lot of books. And now I seek out coaches and mentors.

And quite frankly, I pay a lot of freaking money to get those resources, to be around people who believe in me, they believe in the possibilities of what any of us can create.

That's just so important to me and it has, it has really paid off. It has worked out. And the next person said, my advice is to remember progress is greater than perfection.

So don't get caught up with things needing to be perfect before you can make a move. I think that is very well said. Progress over perfection.

One of the things I teach is the importance of accepting and aiming for B minus work. And perfectionists hate that thought because they want everything to be A plus.

But what they fail to recognize is that it does not matter. If you put B minus work out there faster, say you can get something like done or out there in a few weeks rather than a year,

then you can spend all of that time perfecting it, okay? That's not the goal, but making it better rather than trying to wait to make it better and then releasing it. It's just backwards.

The next elevator said, "My advice would be to continue to take pictures and do what they love doing and then to learn about business and mentors as soon as possible to create a successful business." A few years ago,

I found on Craiglist, a photographer who was selling all of his studio equipment as he was getting ready to retire. I bought a lot of studio lighting from him and got to tell him more about myself that I was just getting started in my business.

His advice to me was that if I really love photography that much, I should run away from turning it into a business as it would ruin my passion. My thoughts are watch me.

I don't believe he was a really profitable photographer. I know I can figure it out. I like this. I think this is a good point in be careful in what you believe when someone else gives you advice.

I remember early on in my career talking about creating this big wedding photography business in Pittsburgh and people saying to me, like when I would express how much I wanted to charge, what I wanted that to look like at the time it $5 ,000 they they said to me like there's just no way that's going to work that is not going to happen Here in our market like you're crazy and I was very new and if I had not been

careful I would have believed them. It's just I chose not to and this is also one of my favorite things to say is like, okay watch me The next person shared the most productive thing you can do for the success of your business is to learn to be kind to yourself.

What people say and do says something about them. When you get nervous, lead with service, hire Heather Lawton and I like that.

Surround yourself with encouraging entrepreneurs who dream big. Take note of little successes on the daily. Remember that this is not life or death.

When you're having the worst day, remember that this will make a great story some day, and everyone loves a good story. Lean into the hard feelings and know that they are the result of sentences in your brain.

The only way to know what will happen is to try it. You don't need to be the best photographer. You just need to be the best photographer for your client. With every hill comes a valley.

Rain falls "on the just and the unjust." And then she said, "Oh, did you just say one thing Heather?" But this paragraph is chock full of fantastic advice.

You might actually want to even rewind and listen to that again. And as I look over, I'm trying to pull out like what my favorite was. I like this idea of when you get nervous or you're struggling,

you need to lead with service because you're probably thinking too much about yourself. And when you focus on your clients, it reduces the stress. And I also like how she referenced the model here when she said,

everything is just the result of a sentence in your brain and you can change the sentences in your brain. I've talked about the model in many previous episodes, but essentially what it is is we understand that things happen and then we have thoughts about those things.

Thoughts are just sentences in your brain, but they lead to feelings and feelings dictate your actions and then ultimately your results. So you just have to be aware of the sentences in your brain. And finally,

the next piece is determine what makes you unique and sets you apart from others and surround yourself with supportive peeps like us. Do you notice the theme in many of these,

all of these is to make sure you're surrounding yourself with the right kind of people, either mentors and coaches, teachers, leaders, or even just peers that support you and believe that anything is possible.

I believe that anybody who loves photography, and by the way, you got into it because you love it, not to feel stress, right? You might need to remind yourself of that. I believe anyone can create a business making $100 ,000 or more per year,

if they want, if that's your goal. I also believe it's possible to make two, three, $400 ,000, really as much as you want. I really don't think that there's a limit. I like to dream big,

which is why I'm shooting for a million dollar business, and I don't care how preposterous it sounds. Why not dream big? It's fun and it's exciting, which is one of the reasons I believe people want to be in our elevate group because I just think anything is possible again if you are not a photographer I think that you can apply this to different areas in your life,

and I would ask myself How does this apply to me or what am I facing right now or what what do I want to create? Where I could utilize some of these thoughts or some of this advice I wrote down in my notes the other day to remember that I can create anything I want in any area of my life.

It's just a matter of getting really clear because in my notes, the next thing I wrote is how can I gain more clarity? I can create anything I want. I'm going to gain more clarity.

I'm going to create my life by design and it might seem crazy. It might sound not possible to you, but I believe that it is and I will never on myself with people who don't share that same belief.

I hope that you found this useful. I'll see you in the next episode.