Podcast Ep 337 - "Why Are You Hiding Your Work? Uncovering the Fear of Sharing Your Photography"

In this episode, Heather Lahtinen and Nicole Begley dive deep into the hidden fears that hold photographers back from sharing their work. They explore how societal expectations, self-doubt, and fear of judgment can influence photographers' decisions to keep their art to themselves.

Heather shares her journey and insights from coaching in the Elevate program, including the incredible mindset shifts that have helped photographers achieve their business goals, land major sales, and show up confidently. Tune in for a heartfelt, insightful discussion on how to break free from limiting beliefs, find courage, and share your unique perspective with the world.

 

Show Notes:

• The role of “sneaky thoughts” and how they can dictate behavior without us realizing it.
• Insights from the Elevate program and recent success stories from participants.
• Real stories of photographers landing bigger sales and meeting ambitious income targets by adjusting their mindset.
• Heather and Nicole discuss the impact of family, friends, and peers’ judgments on a photographer's confidence.
• How to unpack the root of hesitation and determine if your fears are true or just a “thought habit”.
• The Teddy Roosevelt/Brené Brown quote about judgment and why it’s freeing to know people will judge no matter what.

How to Support the Podcast:

• Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please like, share, and leave a review.
• If you like the content, please share with your friends by posting on social media so that we can reach and impact more people.

Connect:

• Heather Lahtinen: Website, Facebook, Instagram
  

• Nicole Begley: https://hairofthedogacademy.com/
  

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TRANSCRIPT

Hi everyone, this is Heather Lahtinen from the Flourish Academy and today I'm sharing

a conversation that I recently had with my best business friend, Nicole Begley, about

why photographers hesitate to share their photographs. One of the reasons is that we

have these sneaky little thoughts that our brains offer us and we don't even realize

that they are dictating our behavior. This is one of the areas we really focus on

inside of our Elevate program, which is how we create our results based on our

thinking and it is extraordinarily powerful. It gives you like a super ninja magic

move to change things in your business. We recently had several new photographers

join Elevate and here's what happened. One of them And I just landed my first $4

,000 sale a few days after our one -on -one phone call, which is a pretty big deal

for my 13 -month old business. Someone else said,

"Honestly, Heather, I'm glad I took the plunge into elevate. I've barely scratched

the surface, but I can see that it's going to be life -changing." And then another

person said, "I set myself a $20 ,000 a month target when I joined Elevate,

which is usually more like 12 to 14 ,000. I just ran some numbers and then the

last 30 days, I'm at $19 ,000. But the insanely good numbers that happened in the

last two and a half weeks since I joined Elevate, it's already at 12 ,700.

So it's on track to be even higher for the next 30 days. I haven't even changed

anything about my business process yet. I just committed to showing up like a person

who already earns $20 ,000 a month. There's some serious voodoo going on in here and

she's right. There is sometimes just making that leap and joining the program shifts

everything so much faster than you think. And of course I'll put a link in the

show notes to elevate so that you can learn more, but if you're not quite ready

for that leap, then definitely check out the lifetime access bundles that will be

available only during the week of Black Friday. I've pulled some of the most

impactful trainings out of elevate, and I've made them available for a very limited

time at a significant discount. These deals will only be available November 25th

through 29th. So check out that link in the show notes as well. I hope that you

enjoy this conversation that I had with Nicole and it prompts you to find the

courage to share your work to more people more often. Enjoy.

And back on the podcast train, Choo Choo Heather Lawton from Elevate.

Man, this is getting really hard coming up with new intros for you. No, I know.

You know what you need to do is ask chat GPT if it could help you come up with

an intro, but I do want to say this really quickly. Sorry to derail the train

immediately. That's fine. Have you played around with perplexity AI at all? I have

not even heard of this. Yeah, it's fantastic. So I found it, I don't know, a

couple of weeks ago, someone mentioned it. And so what I've been doing is I have

both chat GPT and perplexity on my screen and I'll feed it the same prompts and

I'll see which I like better. But one thing I have noticed is perplexity feels a

little more robust to me. Number one. And number two, it can actually do math.

Chat GPT screws up basic math all the time and perplexity does not.

In fact, I asked it something this morning and it actually showed me its work. No,

I was like, beautiful. Thank you. Interesting. Well, I have been like digging into

chat by making my own custom chat robots. Which is amazing. Which is amazing.

It's awesome. We need to save an AI. We actually probably need to do an entire

episode on how we are using AI in our businesses, both from like the editing

standpoint, like imagine AI, et cetera, and then tools like this. Yes. us.

Imagine you guys, if you haven't tested out, imagine, go check it out. 1 ,500 free

edits. HairTheDogCademy .com. Imagine. I am EGEN.

No, I am AGEEN. I can spell.

Anyway, short commercial break. All right. Moving on. We're not talking about AI

today. We just derailed the train real fast. Heather is no longer a conductor on

the train. She has been fired. Yeah, that was my fault for sure. Anyway, it is

middle October, it's busy season, people are shooting. One of the ways,

I mean, we always talk about and elevate like the main ethos of elevate is that

it's easy to find clients like marketing your business is easy. You what give us

the three steps again, Heather? Yeah, it's very simple. You just have to meet

people, tell them you're a photographer and make them an offer. What's that? I love

it. I love it. And as part of those, I think is like with the meeting people and

the attracting people to see your work is actually showing your work, right? Imagine

that. Yes. OK, OK. So this is a common,

common thing that I hear a lot of photographers struggle with. And sometimes that is

showing their work. So there can be, oh my gosh, so many different reasons why

someone might not wanna show their work. So we thought we would dig into this

episode today about just really digging into that. And hopefully it can help a lot

of you guys out there feel more confident in showing your work, which is really

that first step of getting more clients into your business. So gosh,

some of the reasons why I think a lot of it might come from an insecurity

standpoint, maybe feeling like my work's not good enough. People are going to laugh

at me or, you know, I'm not qualified kind of thing. Do you agree?

Yeah. What will people think? What will they say? You know, not just even about the

work, but like if you, whether you're new or you've been in it for a few years,

you worry about maybe what your friends or family or previous co -workers or current

co -workers are going to think, what is she doing? Who does she think she is?

So they worry about any or multiple levels of judgment. So that judgment could be

the actual quality of the image, or it could just be like you as a person,

and what are you doing and who do you think you are? But all of that plays into

this fear, which causes hesitation. You know, you hesitate because you are worried

about something. And if you have this feeling, if you just actually, you might not

even notice the feeling if you are hesitating to share your work, I would get

really curious at what you're feeling and then the thought that is driving that

feeling because then you can start to maybe unpack, well, is this true or could

this happen? And by the way, just so you know, people are going to judge you. So

okay. But then you could get really curious about why that matters or why it might

not matter. But you can't get to that point until you start to uncover that that's

possibly what's what's creating the hesitation. Yeah, I love that. And there's, I'm

going to mess up the saying, but the essence of it essentially is like, yeah,

people are always going to judge you. And the only people that are going to judge

you negatively are the people that have not been where you want to go. Yes. Yeah.

And they don't get a say. Uh huh. Yeah. It's a Brené Brown kind of quote. You

know, you're gonna, unless you're in the arena with me, like, I don't care about

what you have to say about it. Yeah, that comes from Teddy Roosevelt. And I've

spoken on a few stages, big stages in the past. And it's nerve wracking, you know,

I love it, but it causes some nerves. And I actually last time I got on stage, it

was 400 people. And I thought to myself, I actually like consciously thought that

like, probably 395 of you are not willing to do what I'm about to do. So I don't

want to hear what you have to say if it's negative. If you have something nice to

say, please tell me. I don't want to hear it. Yeah, yeah, no 100%.

I think that fear of judgment and that fear of what people will think, especially

if you're putting work out there, like you're newer in your business. And so now

you're starting to say, "Hey, look at what I photographed. "I can photograph your

dog, your family, whatever." And so it's not even necessarily about that work.

It's also tied into this whole new direction that you're going in your business and

your life and what are people gonna think and you're supposed to work hard and

you're supposed to hate your job and you're supposed to go like do a nine to five

because that's what I do and that's what society expects you to do and I'm jealous

of you for doing something that you love or having the the Cajones to get out

there and actually do something else with your life that is not scripted by society

so yeah there's that's that's a deep one. Yeah there's a lot of reasons and you

bring up something really good maybe maybe take a note of this because I think we

could do a whole podcast on it. But there is people prior to our generation,

maybe like our parents taught many of them taught us my family was blue collar. It

was like you go to a job that you maybe don't love or maybe even every day to

provide for your family, which makes you a hero. So there is some nobility and

doing a job every day that you hate like wow look at me I am doing this for

Self included, by the way, it's very difficult for us to see a different philosophy.

So that would be the default philosophy. Many of us have is that there's like some

nobility and sacrifice or the, do you have to work hard? Yes. Yeah. So there has

to be some sacrifice and you have to just work your fingers to the bone. Right.

Yeah. Okay. I'm not, oh my gosh, that is a whole another. Yeah. It's a really good

concept. I uncovered this with a one -on -one coaching client maybe last year. And

man, we were like, whoa, this is really what's happening is that I think I need to

sacrifice in order, in order, I don't know, to be worthy of breath. I don't know.

I mean, I don't even know. It doesn't make sense, but that's our default, what

we've been taught. So we've never even questioned it. Like, could you really, I

remember my dad saying when we were young, you know, going to college, he said, you

know, it's a mistake that people think they can go to college for something they

love when really they need to go something practical that can make money. It's all

about being practical and practical met going to college to get a degree that like

made sense to him by the way, in terms of getting a job. So that's why I started

as a chemical engineer and moved into mechanical engineering, but if you told my

dad, if, if, oh heaven forbid, if one of us would have said, I want to get a

degree and oh, I don't want to offend anybody, but this is my dad, not me. Like

psychology or, or like political psychology is like a science, it could be a

psychologist, psychiatrist, like something like, but like, what if you said like,

I want to go get a degree in film? Yeah, Right. That's a good one. Yeah. But

like, no, I don't care how much you love it. That's just not our graphic design or

photography, you know, or photography. There's a reason they call them starving

artists. This is not my dad's voice. I don't even know why I'm talking this way.

But just to show you that there's something in your brain that you haven't even

recognized as as a philosophy. So you hesitate because you are worried that other

people are going to think something. I don't know what that is about you. And I

want to say too that like, be practical, get a degree that serves you and makes

you money. Even if your parents were super supportive, that's still coming from

society. Yeah. Like, that is all around you. All sorts of beliefs that are not

helpful. In lack. Society and lack. Like, there's not abundance in other things,

not even an option. It just wasn't even an option. People often ask me why I went

into engineering and I was like, because I did okay, not great. I did okay in math

and science and high school and that's what was served to me. - Yeah, uh -huh. - Was

like, oh, you should be an engineer. And I was like, oh, okay. I mean, I was 17

when I graduated. So I was like, what in the world would I have known anyway? So

the counselor's telling me, go get a degree. Parents are telling me engineering. By

the way, I go to the counselor at Penn State and I say, no, chemical engineering.

And he says, you do not have the aptitude for that. Straight to my face. - Like,

okay, now watch me. - Watch me. Now at first, because I was young, I like had a

minute, you know, where I was like, oh dear, should I go into film? I don't know.

But then a little bit later, I don't, it doesn't matter. It took me a little

while. I was like, hmm, I think you should watch me do this. And then I just did

it. Yeah. I love it. I love it. All right. So back to our beginning trains.

Train is going in a circle, but it was a good one. It was a good, it was a good

side stop side station. Yeah, there it is. Yeah. But to get back on the tracks,

the One reason that people might not want to share their work is fear of judgment

and whatever that judgment might mean for their art, for their lifestyle choice, for

their goal, ability to business. What are some other reasons you can think of?

Judgment, I think judgment's the biggest one. I've also heard this,

wait, okay, I have to own this. It's me. Okay. This was years ago,

like two decades. I had this thought like I was getting better,

you know, at my craft and I would find these locations and I would do these

certain poses that I thought were unique. I was in weddings, it wasn't like the

standard poses and I thought everyone's going to copy me. Everyone's going to like

take what I'm doing and you know, this is ironic is my first workshop I ever

attended was Jerry Gojinas. He's a very famous wedding photographer. I love him. I

met him in person a few times and I took his workshop and learned some of his

techniques and started to use them. And I thought, people are going to copy these.

The funny thing is, was he taught them to me. So like, wasn't I just like

emulating what he was teaching me? Yeah. And then I was worried that other people,

and then there was this one photographer who was starting out who would take my

poses and go to the same locations and literally post the exact same shot. And I

was grieved by this. I was greatly offended. Yeah.

Yeah. This, this is a whole entire Pandora's box.

So the train has officially like jumped the Yeah, tracks for this rest of this

episode because we're going to dig into this because this is a lot here and it is

I mean, I think we all because me too, me too, I would also have that issue and

there's, there's just a lot because all right, let's let's back this up and kind of

start at the beginning here for a minute and then we'll get to to kind of this

little Um, I want to like go back to when we're first starting out, right? Like

put on your like early 2000 Heather young photographer cap and you're learning your

crafts. You're like, all right, I figured out my shutter speed, my aperture. I know

how to use my camera. I'm starting to see new things. And then how is it that we

start to learn new things? How do you start to learn new things? Yeah, you have

to, you have to Follow read like, you know, get a mentor a coach or you look at

other photographers or or you you try something and you practice like There's a

there's a variety of influences that come into your work and I think that they're

all important but I would say for me I At the time,

you know, there's no social media. So it wasn't like in some photographers Yeah,

didn't didn't even have websites. So like, you know, but for the ones who did, I

would go look at their work. And I would think, how could I like,

use this as inspiration to emulate and put my own style on it.

So something I always, this is so funny because he uses this line now, but

something I always said, I would go into these really dark hotel rooms where brides

were getting ready and they're so ugly. And I would think to myself, what would

Jerry do here? And now he uses this as his tagline in his videos.

It's like this, I don't know, this crowd that's talking and it's like, Jerry, what

would Jerry do? It's so funny because I had those thoughts and I would, I would

watch his video, I had access. Oh man, did he even have a learning platform back

in the day? He was so ahead of everybody else. Yeah. I would watch him show this

hotel room so he would zoom out and then he would show the picture he would

produce and how he used light and I would take that and try to execute some

version of that as I learned what my own style was because he had some ways of

shooting that just like didn't fit my style. So I never, well let me think about

this, I want to be super transparent here. I don't, I don't think I felt like I

was copying him maybe a little bit, but I felt more like I was emulating and

learning. He always talked about learning how to see light. Yup. Yup.

And I remember the first workshop, he's teaching us that, see the light, here's the

light. And he would, you know, I sat next to him at dinner that evening and I put

my head in my hands and I showed, I said, Jerry, I just can't see the light. I

literally don't know what you're talking about. I can't see this. And we had a good

chuckle over that. And then you just, but you, I had to learn the concept.

And then I had to practice it. And then I had to like put my own spin in terms

of what I like to produce on it. And then over time, those things kind of

culminated into like my style. Yes. Okay. Yeah. No, 100%. I totally agree with you.

So yeah, when you're starting out and gosh, and it's especially tempting now, I

think to like just straight copy people because we are inundated with social media

and images. And so like you're starting out and you're like, Oh, I, I like that.

Oh, I like that. And here's where I think people go off the rails, which they see

somebody that's successful and they say, Oh, I must need to do, they create a

thought when they see someone successful. I must need to do that. That style equals

success. So then they think they need to copy that style to reach success.

But in reality, that person is successful because they were true to their voice and

they created that and everyone can copy it and you're not going to reach that same

success because it's not your voice. - Oh my gosh, that's good. - Yeah,

yeah, thanks.

- I've gotten off the train at the soapbox station. - Yeah,

we need to go back on the train for a minute because I know you have a lot more

to say about that. - I do, I do, I've a lot. - But if you, what about this

thought like you hesitate to share your work but you're concerned that other people

will copy you. - Okay, yes.

Yeah, I mean, that's a legit thing. I mean, I get it. I absolutely get it. So,

especially when, so I think it's easy to share like the traditional thing.

So like in wedding photography, oh, it's the kiss, it's the rings, it's the cake.

Like everyone takes those shots. In pet photography, it's like, okay. And like a

puppy dog eyes, the dog running towards the camera, you know, the, the dog by the

feet. Like we have a very similar playbook of posing for a lot of things. But I

think when somebody goes to create something really unique and special and they spend

the time and the energy to like really just create something that came from within

that Then, if somebody copies that, ooh,

that's hurtful. - Ooh, okay, have you experienced this where you've had this thought

like? - I have not experienced the copying, but I have,

I actually have had this thought. And I think it's one of those things too, how

you realize that it's, or you said that you don't even necessarily realize that you

don't, or that you have So, um, you guys know,

or at least you know, Heather, that I created my selfie dog series. Oh my gosh. It

was a couple of years ago and I've kind of like, not purposely,

I need to pick it back up again because it was really fun and unique and

incredible. And then I would think about it and I still shared it, but I didn't

share it as much as I probably should have. Oh, so you hesitated, hesitated to

share. Uh Hesitated and I didn't realize I was I didn't realize I was But it's

definitely would be from a place of like oh Man if all of a sudden everybody

started to doing this

Okay Sorry kids cover your money May I do I have permission to coach you on this?

Yes. Why do I always get coached on my own podcast? I know. That's pretty, that's

pretty funny. Yes. Let's do it. I think it would be helpful. Well, thank you for

being so open and coachable. It's like one thing I love about you, but okay. So

you would be really upset, which means you, and you knew that. So you hesitated to

share. But all of that was unconscious, the knowing and the hesitation. Like it

wasn't like I was like, oh, should I share? No, I think this or that. It was just

like, yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. Listen, I like 98 % of what's driving us is

unconscious. Like, we don't get it until until you and I actually started to talk

about it. So, and then you recognized, oh, I hesitated because I would be mad. But

I am so curious, like, on the edge of my seat. What are you thinking that's

causing you to be pre preemptively angry.

Preemptively angry sounds really mean, not mean guys. But I definitely was a little,

still am a little like mantely. So that is a bird nerd term.

Shout out to my bird nerds, Amy. Like when a bird of prey catches their rat,

their mouse, they like get mantle over it. So their Wings go out and they like

hide it so the other birds can't see it. I've never heard this in my entire life.

This is all new to me. We're now having a nature documentary education piece of the

podcast. But anyway, so I would get mentally over that because I worked hard to

catch that mouse. It was something that I had the idea.

I worked to do the technique. I figured out how to do the technique with different

types of dogs different locations all sorts of different things like there was there

was a lot that went in to figure out how to make that happen. So you worked hard,

but working hard and coming up with a concept that you feel is unique to you like

whoa I came up with ownership over it. Yes, protective. Yes. Ownership.

This is mine. It took time and brain power and I came up with it.

But that I want you to delete continue the thought because thinking that doesn't

make you mad. Okay. That makes you proud. Okay. Well, and I'm not mad because it

hasn't happened. Nobody has really ripped it off yet probably because I really

haven't shared it. And by the way, by the way, time out, can we time out for a

minute? even if Heather helps me come up with good thoughts, so I will not be

angry. This is not an open invitation for people to go out and be like, "Oh Nicole

said it's cool. I'm just gonna do her selfie dogs." No, I am not saying that.

- Yeah, don't copy me. - Right, okay. - We're going back. Come back and do it. - So

usually when we have a thought, there's like an extension to the thought, like and,

dot, dot, dot, that we're not, okay. So if the thought was subconscious, then the

extension of the thought is like so deep. I mean, it is like next level

unconscious. So you were thinking all of these things about what you created and

your protective and, you know, and you love it. You put the word in. Okay.

And if someone's not fair, right? For people to shortcut that and just copy it.

It's not fair. It's not right. Mm -hmm. There's like an injustice here.

Yes Yeah, so when we think by the way back up for a second in Life in general

when we think something is unjust we get angry and in any way shape or form So

this is like a clue to life which by the way inside of elevate people tell me all

the time, how much it has improved their lives. Yeah, not just their photography.

Yeah, because things like this extend. So like, think about if you're in a

discussion,

Craig and I call it a communication, which means conflict, okay? We just call it,

last night we were quote, communicating. If you are in communication with someone and

they do or say something that you feel is not fair, you will get angry. Like,

because you think this is not right. They should not be doing this. So I get mad.

And then I hesitate because I don't I want to avoid that. I don't want that to

happen. So then you hesitate to share. Did you did you like, does this land for

you is this making sense? 100%. So what do you and I didn't even know it was

happening. Yeah, that's the craziest thing. That's the craziest thing. So What do we

look at here? You know, it's like, do we focus on being proud of what you've

created and the ownership and like excitement of what you've done,

what you've come up with and your brilliant brain? Or do we focus on the potential?

I want you to hear this clearly. The potential possibility of maybe someone copying

something and then you're going to be mad because it's unjust or do you focus on

what you've created? Yeah. No, you focus on that. But I think it goes to another

level, another step, because the thing that I have hesitated on is going to continue

to develop this and go to get more models and create more selfie dogs.

And I'm like, this could be calendars. This could be, This could be a big deal.

I mean, 'cause who doesn't love a freaking selfie dog? - It's hilarious. It's so

cute. - You have no heart if you don't like it, if it doesn't make you smile.

- Right, that's true. I love it.

- So, there is a thought that is holding me back and I think that thought is, it's

so, hmm, oh. - Oh. - It's not worth the time to do this because I'm gonna put all

this time and energy into it and then everyone's going to copy it. Oh my gosh,

100%. That's my thought. That's why I haven't done anything with it. Yes. Because if

I went to all of this effort to use my brainpower and to think this through and

plan this out all my time and somebody copies it, then it's not worth it. So

that's like the statement that's driving the behavior of like, I'm not going to do

it. But I want to take this another level. Well, we're going really deep. We keep

talking about these levels. I don't even know how many there are, but the next

level is okay. All right, fair enough. What would happen if they did?

What is the fear? Like, let's say you do all of this work and somebody does copy

you, then what?

I think it would depend on what the circumstances were when that would happen. So

if I had done it and it was like, okay, I had the calendar,

the book, the whatever, like, I had a success from it, that whatever my definition

of that success would be, then it's like, okay, whatever,

like, you're like, you were number two, it's my idea,

like, I own it. It's fine. Like, I don't think that would upset me as much. I

think the thing that is frightening, which has caused me to not do anything with

it. And if you've read, if you've read Big Magic. Oh,

of course. I know exactly where you're going. Yeah. So if for some reason, like

right now, I closed down this podcast episode and I open up something and to see

like somebody got a selfie dog book deal. I'm really mad and I'm really mad at

myself because I don't know what's wrong with it. - So be really careful. - And

again, by the way, it doesn't mean you guys go out and make a selfie dog book.

Hear me clearly. - Please don't. - It's not what this means, but yes, yeah. - But

the key here is it has nothing to do with the person. You would be mad at

yourself. But hold on, you that because you're you're sort of tuned into this this

idea of like your thoughts and you know what you create in your reality but for

most people for most normal people they would be mad at the person they would be

so mad at this other person for copying them and then they got this deal and if

i'm coaching someone around something like this i'm like who you mad at bro who are

you mad at it's not the person you have a thought that that was my idea.

They stole it and now they're getting successful with it. And that is not right.

But you're not mad at them. You're mad at yourself for not taking action. You're

mad at yourself for hesitating, which is really interesting because then what could

you think to like eliminate the hesitation or maybe to spawn more action? I mean,

the one which I it's probably not the best thought, because it's like a negative

piece of it is like

looking at the the two paths. And okay,

I do this, and then it gets copied. I'm less upset than if I don't do this and

somebody else does it. Think about it. Think about it. Then it becomes like, Oh,

well, I'd much rather go down this path. So why am I not correct? Correct. It's

like, what would you regret more? And I just have this thought, I teach this in

LMA, you will never regret taking action even if it doesn't work out.

But you will always regret hesitating or procrastinating, always. - So this reminds me

just a little bit too about like the people starting their business too, where

they're like waiting for the perfect time. Or waiting for the perfect time to start

selling. Or waiting for the perfect time to charge or raise the price or create the

web, like it just doesn't exist. There is no perfect time, which is the false

story, the false narrative that I've told myself all these years of, well, I don't

have time right now. - Yeah. - My time, I have to focus over here. Like my business

is this education piece. Like I don't have time for this silly project. - Yeah, it's

not important. - Mm -hmm. I think they were actually making money to put food on the

table and put my like, my daughter's going to college in the year. And we have two

horses. Yeah, brace yourself, brace yourself at college. I had saved the money and

still every time I paid the tuition, I was like, what is happening? So much money.

Okay. So like, there's, there's so many sides dynamic is This is the whole thought

of starting with, I don't want to share something because somebody might copy. I

would first start with, okay, what if they do? Because they might. So I'm not going

to deny that. I'm not going to say, well, chances of people copying or slim, I

don't know. Maybe they are. Maybe they are. But what if someone did, and that's

what I would explore. And somebody might say, well, that would really upset me

because that's not fair. And I would say, And, and then sometimes I say,

so, okay, I want you to keep on the train. I want you to stay on that train of

association and really ask yourself multiple times. And so why and what else?

What's the problem here? And so I would just ask myself, like, am I going to end

up dead in a ditch homeless without food. If somebody like in your case, if

somebody copied your selfie dog photos, like, like for real, so what?

You could get mad and you probably have every right to be upset. Like, sure, get

irritated and then freaking get on with it. Give yourself 2 .3 seconds to,

you know, stay on your high horse. If I created that, nobody else should ever do

it. Okay. And keep moving forward. So good. Yeah, really good.

You got the thought behind the thought. And why? So what? Yep, can we go back to

my soapbox station for a minute? Yeah, sure. Okay, excellent. You know,

it's one of the things and you were mentioning earlier too, like you're learning

from Jerry and the light and the hotel room. And here's the thing too, like when

the thing too. When I am teaching in the Hair of the Dog Academy, I am teaching

so you learn those things and you apply them and you take them and you use them.

I want you to use those things. You are coming to learn these techniques and those

techniques will help make you a better photographer. I think that the line starts to

get blurry and where people start to get frustrated is when a couple of different

things. When I see photographers, well, that one thought that we talked about where

it's like, they make the incorrect association that that style is what led to that

person's success. So I need to shoot like that. Or they get so fixated on I really

love this person, this photographer, this style, I want my style to be just like

that. And they're fixated on that one thing. The key to learning and creating your

own unique style is to say, "All right, that's interesting. I like that.

Let me learn that technique. That's interesting. I like that. Let me learn that

technique. Let me learn as many techniques as possible, and then I can start mixing

and matching them into something unique that's me." Because when you're learning, when

you're new, you don't know. You don't know what's available. You don't know, like

it's all new. So yes, you are going to pull inspiration from different things, but

you need to be pulling inspiration from a lot of different things and not just

fixated on one particular style person or like one image.

And I think the other important thing to note there is that it is not okay to be

like, oh yeah, let's just completely recreate that. Like if you want to recreate it

to learn the technique, you do that for you. You recreate it, you're not sharing

it, you're not putting it on your website of like, look what I did. Look, look at,

look at this, look at this. No, no, you can go learn that technique, recreate it.

That's for you. You don't share it and then make something of your own to share.

So that's my soapbox. Yeah, and you know what, as you were explaining that, I was

thinking one of the biggest things I think might be driving that behavior is they

don't trust themselves. - Whoa, 100%. - So the only way to be successful is to copy

this other photographer because they're successful. So clearly this is what, so this

will work. So they think that doing it that way is like guaranteed success.

- Shortcut. - Because they don't trust themselves to come up with their own style and

their own spin on it because there's no proof of concept for proof of concept for

them. And I have got to tell you, every single day in one or many of my coaching

calls, this comes up, this lack of trusting yourself. Nicole, if I've said it once,

I've said it 10 trillion times, what could you do to cultivate more trust for

yourself? That like if you put your spin on it, people are going to love it. And

then you, you learn, you are inspired by these other people. You learn that tech.

I remember this is so funny. When I was starting out, there was this photographer

in Southern California who had the most beautiful wedding images and I didn't, I

didn't know why. Like I couldn't even describe it to you because I was that new to

the exposure triangle. What it was, and I did not know at the time was She had

very shallowed up the field and she was using a 1 .2 lens, a 51 .2 Canon. And all

I knew was I loved her photos and they just looked dreamy. I couldn't even tell

you at the time, like, oh, the background is blurry. She's shooting wide open with

the aperture. Like none of that was in my understanding. I just, I was like, I

want to get those photos. So I took my point, shoot, I don't even have a real

camera. I didn't have a DSLR. And I was like, why, why do my photos not look like

that? And what was happening was that camera threw everything into focus. So, you

know, that's why it's called a point. Yeah. Okay. I got my Canon 10D and oh my

gosh, if you got, if anybody remembers this camera, please let me know. This is

circa 2003, maybe 2004. And, and I first got a variable aperture lens and I was

like, I'm still not getting it. Then I started to sort of understand aperture. And

then I got the 51 .2, a splurge on that 51 .2 lens. Oh my gosh, and it was a

dream. The first time I put it in aperture priority and I shot something at f12, I

nearly lost my mind. I was like, that's it. That's what it is. And then,

but I already had my own way of shooting. I mean, I was learning to shoot and

then I figured out, oh, I like followed up the field. It was like known for it in

my wedding images. I would always shoot very shut like, like almost dangerously. So

I don't think you should do for a group of dogs. I want 2 .8 and it's a 7200.

One deal or not with 2 .8. Never. Careful. Yeah. I didn't know that if if you're

shooting 1 .2 close up that depth of field is razor. Yeah. Yeah. So you figure that

out and you're like, okay, probably, you know, two O is a better choice for that

lens. But I figured that out and it was based on inspiration from her, but I was

not, first of all, I'm not in Southern California. So I hate to break it to

everybody, but Pittsburgh weather is a lot different. You know, it's not the sun.

There's no sun. I'm in these venues that are like, oh my gosh, so challenging. But

I remember thinking, oh, I've unlocked like one key. Like this is,

that doesn't make sense. I have one key that unlocked one door that I started to

learn, oh, that's what I like. And I'm shooting this way. And then, and then it

just went from there. But it wasn't like, it was like an exact replica of

everything she was doing. Like one component. And then I put my own spin.

Yeah, no, 100%. That is the Um, which can I just do a blatant commercial right

now? Heather, do you mind? I mean, it's my podcast. I think you have permission to

do that considering it's your podcast. All right. Excellent. Um, yeah. Today,

actually, when this episode drops is the day that we're dropping the entire portal

for the hair of the dog summit edit Palooza, which we have gathered over 40

incredible professional pet photographers sharing their full it from like straight out

of camera to their final edit using mainly Lightroom, Photoshop. Some people do Adobe

Camera Raw and Photoshop, but Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw are the same exact

processor, just a little different interface, but same buttons do the same thing. So

they're interchangeable really.

But anyway, so we have all of that. So if you are, you know, gosh,

early in your career and you're wanting to learn and experiment and see all these

different ways to do things, 100 % place to be. If you are an established path

photographer that just wants to like pick up on a couple of new tips and tricks

that you might be able to work into a couple of new things in your business or

your art, also the place to be, it's going to be just incredible. I've started to

see some of the videos coming in and they are awesome. So amazing. Amazing.

Absolutely amazing. Jump on over to Hair of the Dog Academy .com.

techniques, learn many techniques, start to mix and match the pieces that you really

love into something that's uniquely you. That, listen, having the exercise files is

brilliant. That was a really good move on your part because I've enjoyed that in

past classes I've taken being able to work on the same photos so I could like

really understand it. And I've got to tell you, even as a seasoned veteran, I still

enjoy watching things like that, because listen, I'm an Adobe certified expert in

Photoshop. I clearly know Photoshop, but sometimes I'll watch someone do something and

I'll be like, how did I not know that? Yeah, there are so many ways to do so

many different things that you're like, oh, oh, that's so much easier. And with all

these new tools, you know, all these videos have been recorded in the past 30 days.

So that is, they are Um, so yeah, and it's really, really good. Yeah.

Maybe I'll watch it because it sounds like fun to me. I love editing. I love the

edit. I love to take a photo out of the camera that is obviously good, but really

sometimes they're even just mediocre. I mean, they're obviously sharp and exposed

well, but and then take it to exceptional. And I actually think everybody listening

should purchase it. And I've got no skin in this game. But I think they should do

it because it will make you feel better about your work straight out of camera.

You'll see you'll see what they're producing out of camera and you'll be like, whoa,

I could do that. And then they add it and you're like, no, I can do that.

Amazing. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And we have a variety. It's so funny. You get to

people's thoughts real fast when you reach out to them to contribute to this. And

they're like, like me, no, oh, no, I can't, I can like, do you edit your own

photos? Yes, okay, then you can contribute. - Yeah, yeah. - And there are a variety

of people, 'cause I had so many people, a handful, there was like, but I'm not

like a big editor. I don't spend like an hour on an image. I'm like, I don't want

that. I wanna make sure people see, hey, look, here's a five minute edit. Oh, and

here's like a 45 minute, like super involved, super artistic craziness, but let's

face Um, unless you're just selling, just doing that 45 minute edit on a really big

wall piece, like you better be charging $10 ,000 for an album. If you're doing 45

minute edits in the album. So we need those quick edits too. So it's a variety of

everything. Um, yeah, it's just really fantastic. Yeah. I'm a big believer in the

quick edits, but no, but that doesn't mean sacrificing quality at all. I just got

really adapted being efficient and creating shortcuts and actions and different things

in order. Oh yeah. You know how like I tricked out my Wacom tablet with Photoshop

specifically. Like every inch of that tablet was programmed for something that I used

all of the time just to like speed things up. Yeah. I love it. I love it.

Awesome. All right. This has been so good. So just to recap my gosh, how do we

even recap this? Oh shoot. How "Oh, shoot, what is the recap?" - The recap is,

all right, are you hesitating sharing your images? Ask yourself why. Likely it is

one of two things. It is either you are concerned about the judgment of sharing

that image and what people are gonna think of you or your art, or you're concerned

about somebody copying that image. And then start to ask yourself why, start to get

down to it. And at least for me, looking at those two roads of just like,

all right, I could continue to hide. And then if somebody does copy it,

I'm going to be really, really upset and mostly mad at myself for giving up on it.

And then also, all right, or do I move forward with it and go down that path? And

then if somebody copies, I might be still frustrated, still will be frustrated. But

I am not going to be as mad at myself because I am taking action. And then that

is the key because I'm responsible for what I do. Listen, you have got to consider

future Nicole. And when you think of what would future Nicole or how can I hook

her up? Like what would what would set her up for success or how would she be

more proud of me? And you just said it. She future Nicole would be so happy that

you took action still mad if somebody copies it, but so happy that you took action.

Like thank goodness I did that. But if you don't do anything, future Nicole is

going to be very, very angry. She will be very put off by your behavior. So it's

so funny. Sometimes in the present, I'll say, Oh my gosh, past Heather hooked me

up. Like that is amazing. So this is the way I think we've talked about these

different versions. And sometimes I'm like, man, past Heather is sticking it to Hey,

why did she not think of this? It's so funny. Like when you don't get gas and you

know you have to leave, you're going to have to get the gas. You're like, oh man.

Passed Nicole. That was. Yeah. I got to tell you, that's a great example. I always

hook future Heather up when it comes to gas. I always get gas before it's less

than a quarter tank. Always always always. I always get it whenever I need it

because I'm always thinking of future Heather and I have to laugh sometimes when

like I'll do that and then the next day it's freezing or pouring rain and I'm like

see past Heather hooked me up. I Love it. Yeah, awesome. All right guys.

I hope you guys enjoyed this conversation Reach out to us on the instas. Let us

know and we will talk to you soon. Bye everybody. See you next week