Podcast Ep 340 - This mistake is preventing you from growing your photography business.
In this episode of the Flourish Academy Podcast, Heather Lahtinen and Nicole Begley dive into their entrepreneurial journeys, sharing the highs, lows, and pivotal moments that shaped their careers. With over 36 years of combined experience in photography and business, Heather and Nicole discuss how embracing change, leaning into challenges, and following passion have transformed their businesses—and their lives.
Whether you’re just starting out or considering your next big move, this candid conversation offers insights, inspiration, and actionable advice.
Show Notes:
- The beginnings of Heather’s and Nicole’s photography careers.
- Major pivots in business: Knowing when to shift and why.
- Facing challenges: Revenue dips, growing pains, and lessons learned.
- Building successful educational platforms: The story behind Flourish Academy and Hair of the Dog.
- The importance of aligning your business with your passion.
- The difference between quitting and pivoting with purpose.
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- Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please like, share, and leave a review.
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Connect:
Heather Lahtinen: Website, Facebook, Instagram
Nicole Begley: https://hairofthedogacademy.com/
TRANSCRIPT
You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast. My name is Heather Lawhtinen and in
today's episode I'm sharing a recent conversation with my friend Nicole Bagley where
we chatted about the evolution of our businesses and all of the ups and downs and
twists and turns and how we ended up here. Nicole has been in business for 15
years and we met pretty early on when she took one of my in and Lightroom courses.
I've been in business for 21 years and have shifted gears a few times, which is
fine. I mean, it's like, I'm fine. Everybody's fine, except for those years where
there were pretty dramatic dips in revenue. But then again,
I have to believe that those years needed to happen in order to get me to this
point. I hope you enjoy our conversation. - Hey everybody, welcome back to the
Freedom Focus Photography podcast. I'm your host, Nicole Bagley, and I am joined with
my partner in crime, Heather Lottnen. And by the way, our crime is fixing your
thoughts. - What is our crime? Yeah, I mean, we just wanna, listen, here's my crime.
I help photographers make more money. That's what I do. And I'm very clear on that.
And If anybody has a problem with it, I don't care because I want to help people
make more money. Like what could possibly be wrong with that? I love it. We're
coming in hot on this episode and this, this intro here. So funny. I honestly don't
even give myself like a second to think about what I'm going to say until I start
the introduction. And then I'm like, Oh, how am I going to introduce Heather? I
don't know. Let's make something up. You guys are seeing my mind in real time,
which can be kind of terrifying. So welcome, welcome, come on in. You're actually
really good at that. And listen, this is, I know this is a side note, but it's
important because you have to recognize your strengths. So you're very good at
riffing. You could just like, we could start a conversation and you could do it.
And I am fairly decent. Not as good at riffing too. I mean, some of mine are
scripted. Yeah, if they're with me. I mean, we get to know what we're talking about
today. We're like, all right, people need help with this. Let's go. These are always
rift, you know, because we just are able to bounce ideas off of each other. When
I'm doing an episode alone, there's sometimes like points that I really don't
understand. I need an outline if I'm doing, which is funny. When I started this
podcast four years ago, it was March 2020. We're working on five years of this
podcast. What? What is happening? Yeah. When I started, I thought it was going to
be solo episodes, and then I realized I actually despise the solo episodes.
They're really hard for me. I really enjoy just talking with someone, and hopefully
you guys do too because you're still listening. Yeah. That's definitely something in
my business that started one way that I thought was going to go one way and then
up not, which is actually what we're going to talk about today because so many
times I see so many photographers that think their business needs to be this way or
it needs to be that way, but they can make it however they want or they get stuck
in a certain path and then they want to pivot, but are they allowed to pivot?
Spoiler alert. Yes, you're allowed. We can do whatever you want. Yeah. So anyway,
it's sometimes you just don't even know kind of where the path is going to take
you, which I think Really a beautiful thing about about life in general. Yeah. And
you know what this is is just like I'm on this journey this path of
entrepreneurship really and I'm I'm willing to follow that path even when it changes
like the fastest way to get from one point to the other is not always the
interstate. You have to be willing to take the back roads and and enjoy it like be
up for the travel of the journey. I said in elevate recently, your only job is to
not quit. Just don't quit and commit to the journey. How could you commit to the
journey and the process and just understand that that's going to look different in
any given season like you might be doing really well. I was working with a
photographer yesterday who's been in business for 16 plus years. It does exceptionally
well and is having a moment, like a season of challenge. And she was really upset
about it. And I said this, you just have to commit to this journey. And this is
part of the journey.
Yeah, absolutely. So let's get into today's episode. Heather and I wanted to put
this episode together for you guys to kind of review our business journey as an
entrepreneur because it is full of twists and turns and windy roads for two reasons.
Number one, so that you kind of know what's going on with us and where things are
because there has been a lot of confusion in my world over the past year as we've
changed a lot of things. But also, I want you to listen to this episode from the
place of like, how can this apply to my business? Are there places in my business
where maybe I need to pivot or I need to line, or maybe I'm doing something that
doesn't feel quite as aligned anymore, but I really am pulled over here, but I'm a
little bit scared to make that leap. So as we go through this, that's just kind of
what I want you guys to keep in mind. Yeah, this is not just like some
conversation about our journeys or our businesses or where we're at. Whenever I'm
listening to someone talk about something like this, I'm always asking myself, how
does this apply to me? Or how can I late this or draw a parallel and you will
get so many good ideas. So I'm wondering if you could start by sharing like,
just take us like to the beginning and you don't have to go like really into a
lot of detail about everything, but like how you got started in sort of those major
transitions over the years. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So back 2010,
I was year 13 or so in my zoological career training animals managing departments of
animal care teams and animal training teams and I had was pregnant with my son and
I realized that my salary which was meager because I worked in the zoo world was
like barely covering child care so it's like what am I doing and at that point I
was kind of like middle management the That we had just had a restructuring my
previous boss that I loved working with. I was no longer working for him I was
reporting directly to someone that was not the best And it just was challenging.
I was like, this is this is no longer kind of fun for me right now So I was
looking for a change and I always knew I had this entrepreneur You know bug that I
wanted to do something and I thought about becoming a dog trainer Because I'm like,
I knew animal training so well, but I, I knew my limits, Heather. And I knew that
I would have be so frustrated coming back to somebody's house, like the next week
and then being frustrated, their dog's still doing the same thing. And then me
saying, did you do the homework? And they would say no. And I would say, well, how
can you expect your dog to change if you're not going to do this every day? And I
just knew that wasn't for me.
God bless all you dog trainers out there, dealing with the people because the people
are definitely the hardest piece of that. That's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be like,
I just do like a board and train. Just send me your dogs. I'll train your dogs
and then hopefully you can manage it when I send them back. But anyway, so I'd
always love taking photos of the animals I worked with. Um, on P for professional,
obviously. Of course. And same. Yeah. And, um, and I was like,
huh, I guess I could be a photographer, but it was 2010. There was like two pet
photographers in Seattle. In the whole world, yeah. Yeah, pretty much. And they were
both in Seattle. And so it's like, I could do family photographers. I have kids,
like that's fun. That's great. I like taking photos. And so I built my family
photography business, but I was always encouraging people to bring their dogs. And I
would try to like do some like high school seniors with their horses and and as
many dogs as I could. And then after a few years, I realized, I'm like, oh, pet
photography can be a thing. It was just starting to become a thing. And so I was
like, let's maybe transition. So the first big pivot in my business came in 2015,
when I gave up the family side of things. Like I was running basically two
businesses at the time, which you'll see is a theme of my life, where I had the
family side and I had the pet side. And they had, it was like the old school
website that you go to the landing page and it was like pets or families. And then
it was two separate websites, even though they were subdomains, but it was still
managing like three websites on WordPress, which I mean, good Lord, that was a full
-time job. And I knew I wanted to grow the pet side of things, but I also knew
that something had to give. I didn't have the time to put into marketing and
growing the pet side without giving up something, which ended up being the family
side, which was a terrifying experience because my family side of the business
brought in a lot of money and like a $3 ,000 sales average, it was easy. I did
zero marketing, it was all word of mouth and I liked it. I didn't dislike it.
I just knew that the next stage of my business required more for me and I needed
to give something up and I was more excited for that next stage than I was to
continue there. That was the first big crossroads. - Okay, so we went from families
and making good money to maybe taking a risk, you know? - Yeah, huge risk.
- Yeah, taking that chance. And then how long would you say it went like,
well, did you experience a dip in income revenue?
I don't think so. You just capped it. You did like a. It stayed pretty level.
Yeah. But it didn't, it didn't really dip. And it was, I purposely set it up this
way too of like an easy exit from my families where I stopped marketing and by
marketing, I took down my website because I wasn't doing any marketing for it. But
I told the families that I loved working with, I'm like, listen, on the front side
of my business, you're going to see I'm going to be marketing only to pet some
high school seniors with horses, but I will 100 percent take your family photos for
as long as you want me to. So I still had some, because family photos, like
they're yearly repeat for some years, at least every couple of years, like the
business cycle of repeating clients for a family photographer is much faster than the
turn around for a pet photographer. So I still had some of those repeat clients
over the next several years, really, really until I moved. And then, so yeah,
so that that kind of helped ease that transition. And I always like to ask myself
too, when you're facing that big choice, and I know you are a fan of this too of
like, all right, so say I have to add families again.
I just, I just load that website. Yeah, exactly. So easy.
Right. Yeah. So, okay, let me ask you this. When you, when you started doing these
pets, when did you first realize, oh, wait a minute, this could be very lucrative.
Like when did you have that maybe that first big sale or you got clued into that?
Oh, it was my very first sale in 2011 with my, the the an auction client in
Florida, it was just a married couple and their dogs. And it was my first $5 ,000
sale. Now it took me like seven years to get to $5 ,000 sale again after that,
maybe eight. But um, but I was like, Oh, people that don't have kids have some
disposable income. And they love their dogs. And they love their dogs. Yes. Yeah,
I know that that lesson was taught to me very early. Oh my gosh, it's funny
because gosh even still not as much today Although I'm going to imaging and so
we'll see if it still happens But certainly in like the mid teens late teens you'd
have all these you know Old -school photographers that have been in the industry for
decades and they would laugh at me that I take pictures of dogs be like,
what's your average sale? Okay, mine's three times that. So step off.
Oh, my God, I mean, that's, that was what dark Heather would say.
Yeah, totally dark Nicole would say in her head. Yeah, they just did understand, you
know, like just kind of laughed myself like you have no idea. You have no idea.
I'm laughing all the way to the bank. Thank you. Okay, what did we meet in this
time frame timeline? What's that? When did we meet? Oh, I remember exactly when we
met. It was somewhere early teens, and I was really struggling with greens,
editing greens, and I came to your house in the quote city and did and did a
little like one half day, a little mentoring on editing stuff with you. Hilarious
that to be 20, um, 11, 12, or 13, because we, we moved to our homestead in 2013.
I think it's like 2012. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Huh? Yeah. I remember you
coming to the house and teaching you those things and it was fantastic. Yeah. Yeah.
And actually, do you remember this? I remember when we were done, you're like,
I was, you're like, anything else among, no, that was awesome. Thanks. Who said, do
you remember this?" He said, "I'm never going to see you again, am I?" Did I say
that? I didn't. I don't remember that.
I think that's was, if I did say that, it's probably because I had complete faith
in your ability to create a successful business. I just knew. Yeah, you knew that
it was like, "Oh, this was like a one -stop shop because I had like a particular
problem." And then - It's funny. And then you were doing your little business boot
camp. And I forget how I knew. Like we were just still on like online friends or
something, of course. And then I came to that.
You, you are so good. You are set. You know what you're doing? I did say it
because you had said to me something like, oh, I just always like to learn. I like
to invest in education. Yeah, yeah. And that was the point at which you and I
really hit it off. And it was like, we're going to do great things together. And
then it was like shortly after that, I was like, I wanted to make a Pittsburgh
little mastermind. with me, you and two other ladies. Yeah. Yeah.
And then our businesses became very similar. Okay, that's the story. Perfect. Perfect.
What happens next? Okay, so here at the dog actually started,
I don't even know what year 2014 maybe. It's been 10 years, I think it has.
And it started as a blog, like a straight up blog or blog. No, it started on
press, but it was straight up just a blog. And it was just me having an outlet to
share and hopefully help somebody that was, you know, a couple steps behind me.
Because I always, I always just, I always loved that, I always enjoyed that.
And so, yeah, so created that and had no idea what the hair of the dog side of
the business would become. Like that was never the plan. Hmm. Plan was always to
just run my photography business and then like I on accident started this blog and
then I started teaching a couple workshops because I just really enjoyed helping
people. And then it was 2016 that we created the original version of the post
-processing course and the business pet photography was created shortly thereafter.
It was like, it was either December 2017 or December 2016. I think it was December
2016. That was the very first time I launched that. And yeah, and that's all she
wrote. And then so those were courses. And then we kind of changed it to the
membership. And, you know, it's, it's pivoted and mixed and matched a few times
because like it really started out as, hey, I have two courses. And then it's like,
Oh, but people need help with this and people need help with that. And so then it
was like adding all this, all this support because I wanted to help people.
And then you get to the point where it's like, oh my gosh, there's too many things
here to like keep trying to help at this level for all these pieces.
So I can certainly still help someone with your website and this and that, but it
was like, it got to the point where it's like, all right, I need to niche into
what I absolutely really freaking love. And that is pricing sales.
And you know, along with that comes some marketing, some workflow, like the basics
of those. But like really digging into, I want to help people with pricing and
sales. And I still love my pet photographers and I want to help people with the
craft of pet photography from 2017 when it started. So it's two years of just
courses of the business pet photography, Photoshop photographers. And then 2019 is
when started Hair of the Dog Academy. He said, let's just put this all together
into one kind of membership. And then it was over the past really it's been two
years and I remember the moment when I realized I'm like oh the world needs me to
focus more on this pricing and sales piece and go deeper in this it was at our
very first progress lab hmm when our friend the People's Coach from Elevate Michelle
Crandall I was going over her pricing and I was helping her come into this like
basically like a $1 ,000 $2 ,000 $3 ,000 collection, but then the $3 ,000 collection
would really include almost everything. And I remember her saying like, "But isn't
that going to cap my sale at $3 ,000?" And I said, "Yes, but would you be excited
for that?" She'd be like, "Oh my God, yes." Yes. Because her average sale at the
time, which Michelle, forgive me, was I think about $1 ,000 or so. So like getting
to a $2 ,000 or $3 ,000 consistent sale would like mean the world to her business.
And I realized I'm like, there are different levels for pricing for every level of
your business. And there are so many people out there educating the $10 ,000 sale.
It has to be here. It has to be here. It has to be here. But if you start your
business today, you can't start there. - Right. - It's a stepping stone. You can get
there quickly. But there are certain like, when you're still your website,
you're not going to get a $10 ,000 client. Like here's how you make some money now.
All right. Now we're going to start to learn how to work with our products. All
right. Let's now we're seeking some more money. All right. Now we're going to get
to that bread and butter, that $2 to $3 ,000 average sale where we're providing
great service. And yeah, maybe we have a three or $4 ,000 package that caps our
sale, but like we're pretty excited about it. And then when you are no longer
excited about that, That's when you can elevate to that next level up there and
have really those uncapped sales, but it's a process.
That's what made the button go off that I need to make this pricing course because
no one is talking about this. They're all talking about this is how you price it,
period done, and not realizing that there's a path and you can stop at level three
or level four. love that. So that's when freedom focus formula was born. Yes.
Yes. Yeah. It was in my head. I was like, I need to do this. So then it took,
because I had so many other things going on, it took about six months to get the
first version of the course. And so that was over this past year. And I knew.
So we started that just earlier this year. And I know you guys, you guys that have
been with me for a long I get that you're probably like, what the heck is going
on over there? What is she doing? And sometimes I wasn't even clear. I was just
following the, like what I thought, like my was being called to move into and, um,
and so yeah, I know it's been messy, but you know, over the next couple of months,
it's gotten cleaned up. And like the, the basis of it, what I realized that, like,
what my business needs to look like right now is to have Hair of the Dog Academy,
pet photography craft, freedom focused formula, business, right. You know,
and then there's the commercial course too, which is for pet photographers. So it's
still kind of in the Hair of the Dog Academy kind of world because it's very pet
niche. But anyway, so yeah, so that's kind of how this is all been happening.
Let me tell you guys, when you decide to create a new brand, create a new website,
move four and a half years of a podcast over to a new website, start to move all
your content, courses onto another portal, like, it's a little overwhelming,
it's not without pain.
There's a lot of like questioning my sanity and my decisions. But I know in the
end, like I can see the end of vision and I can see how it can be so helpful to
people because I have seen how it's helped people so much. And that's really the
driving force that keeps me, keeps me going on all this. Okay, do, do me a favor
and recap. Give me like you said it really quickly. I want you to slow down. Yeah.
Hair of the dog. Give me the like hair of the dog you had me and like, yeah,
yeah, Yeah. Okay. So super high level, super high level.
I own three businesses. There you go. Okay.
Why? Why? I don't know why. But yeah, so Nicole Bagley photography is the main
business. And inside of that, we have the photography business. We have Hair of the
Dog Academy, which is all craft. So right now, as you listen this.
Those of you guys who have been Academy members forever, like all your business
portal stuff is still in there. But we are over the next few months going to be
moving all business content into the Freedom Focus Portal. Still have access to it
as an existing grandfather and member, have no fear, nothing changes for you.
But the end goal is that Hair of the Dog Academy, that website and that portal is
all pet photography craft and then freedom focus formula portal.
It's all business. Got it. Period done with a big focus on pricing and sales and
Messaging marketing. Yeah, that so the hair of the dog Craft Obviously because it's
called hair of the dog. Yes. It's for pet photographers, but freedom focus formula
Could be anyone Portrait photographers. I mean, theoretically it could be applied to
like weddings and other things, but really it's it's portrait and it's the it's the
processes that I used as a portrait photographer, it's family photographer, pet
photographer. It works exactly the same, like my pricing was always the same, whether
it was families or pets I was photographing, what I was offering was pretty much
the same. My families would sometimes by second albums, more than my pet clients do,
because they wanted to give them to grandparents. Um, but yeah, I mean, freedom
folks formula is for portrait photographers. Of course, there is a large percentage,
mainly pet photographers in there currently. Yeah. Cause that's who follows you, but
that's really like your love, right? Your zone of genius is that pricing. Yes.
Yes. Oh my gosh, give me a price this tether for 15 minutes, I can double how
much money you make. Oh no, you are a master at it. I've watched you do it and
then send them to me when their thoughts derail them because of the money. I'll say
here's they have to change it and then they'll like, oh my God. Okay. Now you need
elevate. Yes. You go straight to Heather and then the two, this one, two punch will
like handle everything. So okay. I'm just, I'm just doing this for my own brain
because remember, I'm simple. So you have Nicole Bagley photography, like, like
photography photography, like photography clients, like you had a photo session last
night. I did. Yeah. Okay. And I have another one on Monday. Okay. It's October, you
guys. I have like four this month, which I'm questioning, but they're all, they're
all, yeah. People I know and have connections with because that's how we build our
business. With meeting people. Yes. Yeah. Okay. So you have Nicole Begley photography.
You have hair of the dog craft and you have freedom -focused pricing business. - Mm
-hmm. - Boom. - Yeah. - Okay. - Yeah, and then there's, well, and then there's the
commercial course. So, commercial cups are the Academy, which is kind of under here
at the dog, but it's selling to commercial clients and pricing and all those
different things. - Okay, what over, as you like 30 ,000 foot view this, what has
been the most challenging of these transitions? - The most challenging transition,
it depends on what, how you want to define challenging. The scariest was giving up
families and going all in on pets. The most challenging logistically is right now
because there's so many more moving parts and I have so many clients that are
already in process in my business that in like long -term clients, so it's messier.
- It's more complex. - Yes, it's much more complex. But it's worth it. But yeah,
so it depends how you want to define challenging. And what is your favorite part?
What has been your favorite transition? Or you've loved the most or you've been the
most proud of? That's a good question. Most proud of gosh, I mean, really all of
it, like, it wouldn't be where it is now without where we went through, you know,
and had I not started with family photography too. Like it,
I wouldn't feel that I was in a place that I could help other portrait
photographers. But I know that this works in no matter what genre because I've been
there.
So really, yeah, it's just like all of this. I mean, and the one thing we didn't
talk about is I have the nonprofit, right? So I have hair of the documentation.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty big deal. Okay. What what's what am Okay. What do I
have a propensity for? No, I have a complexity.
You, I have noticed about you that you are a problem solver. So you like things to
be complex so you can solve. It's like, you know, a Rubik's cube. You want it to
be as messed up as possible so you can fix it.
Maybe not as messed up as possible. Maybe that's pushing it a little bit far, but
I do thrive on complexity. But yeah, but the conservation fund was never even on my
radar. I went to my very first mastermind meeting, which is a group of online
optionors that run education -based, online education -based businesses. And the first
one I went to, I just remember going into that meeting and my intention was, I am
here for whatever needs to come through me this week. I have no expectations, I am
just open. And I was eating dinner the one night with one of the other members,
also the wedding photographer is KT Marion or husband Chad. And I was eating with
Chad who was sitting next to me and we were chatting and talking about how they go
to Africa and they give top line revenue to some of these conservation projects. And
I was just like, well, obviously I need to come with you to Africa one day 'cause
that sounds amazing. And if you I need contacts in the conservation world for my 13
years in the zoo world. I have a lot of contacts in the conservation field because
the zoo world, despite what some shows and PETA would like you to believe, is
heavily involved in conservation work. They pretty much are the backbone of all the
conservation work going on everywhere. Any large project is being funded by numerous
zoos. But anyway, so I have all these contacts from my time in that world. And
then I was like, I woke up at four in the morning and I was like, oh my gosh, I
have all these contacts in this world. And it was always like, if you didn't have
to make money and you just did something, what would it be? I'd be like, we'll
travel the world and see animals in their native habitat. Yes.
And then I realized I have this whole entire world of animal -loving photographers
and I'm like, what What if I made a nonprofit that could support these different
things? And me and my board members are very, gosh, a lot of times people that
love animals because they are so heart centered. Like they sometimes have this
unrealistic view of like, oh, it needs to be this. And there can be nothing like,
I don't know, just like kind of a, a polyana kind of view of like they want it
to be perfect. But the real world is never perfect. So like, being able to look at
these different projects and be like, all right, what is going to make the actual
most impact here that, you know, that will actually move the ball forward for the
species, for that community, for the people that that require that ecosystem. And
like, how can we make sure that they can have, you know, enough money to put food
on their table without poaching the animals and selling them. And, you know, like,
just all these things need to work together. So it's not always like, oh,
everything's perfect.
But anyway, so having that has just been, it's just been really, really great and
fun. And right now it is still kind of a side project just because of time. But
yeah, I mean, it's grown. We've raised over $200 ,000 so far for it. What?
Actually, after the summit, it's probably going to be over 250, over a quarter
million dollars. Quarter of a million dollars. You should be extraordinarily proud of
that. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty incredible. Yep. So yeah, there it is.
So that's that's my whole life in a nutshell, but the one thing we didn't talk
about which actually ties it to you is the elevate program. Yes. And it's like,
Nicole, you mentioned all these things. Where the heck does that fit? Yeah, we talk
about elevate a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So going back to 2019, you and, well,
let's, let's finish, save, elevate for the very end. I want to ask you, high level,
when did you start getting into the education piece? I mean, you were always, I was
your, your student, because you were focused more on local education for a long time
before I even met you. Well, because the internet didn't exist. I know,
I know, I know Heather, college in my roommate,
my freshman roommate, I never, I'll never forget this. We're chatting like, you know,
we didn't know each other. And then we're chatting before we go. And she's like, do
you think we'll have email? And I said, what's the mail? I don't even know what it
was. That was 1994. Okay, great. Just dating myself. Oh my gosh, that's incredible.
Yeah, what happened was I of my business in 2003, Ella was born in 2002. And I
got into photography, left my engineering job and I had a lot of success really
quickly. And because of that, people asked me to teach mentor, coach them.
I was, I was asked by the community college to teach there. I didn't, I didn't
seek any of this out. I didn't consider myself an entrepreneur or an educator. It's
just like you said, it was like natural. I just want to help people. I just want
to help. I had success and I was like, "Oh my gosh, you guys should check this
out. Let me help you with this." So I was teaching for the entirety of my business
in those seasons. I was portrait and then I focused on weddings. But it wasn't
until probably 2015, so I was always teaching for like a decade and a half.
It wasn't until then that I thought, "I maybe want to retire from weddings because
I'm just tired of working Saturdays and focus on the education, it might have been
2014. But whenever that happened, it was like, man, I'm going to take a huge hit
in my revenue. Because I was averaging between 120 and 150 in my wedding business
back in the day. That was great. But my heart wasn't in it like it had been.
So I wanted to teach more and I was like, here's my thought, never going to make
any money doing that. You're going to be so poor. Like there's no way you can make
money just like teaching. This was just when things were starting, you were starting
to be able to sell courses. So when you approached me when we, I started, I
created a Lightroom and Photoshop program around that time. And then when you
approached me and said, Hey, do you want to record some Lightroom or Photoshop
videos for me? I was like, yes, of course, It's like what I'm doing now. I mean,
all of the systems were new, you know, even like the microphones and the editing
software and what you had to do was all new, but I always loved tech and being
like an early adopter and innovator in those areas. So that's when I started to
focus more online rather than just the in -person because you can't you can't reach
as many people in person as you could obviously on the internet. So - Yeah, that's
when I started the Flourish Academy. And so I had weddings by Heather and then the
Flourish Academy. And then in 2019, you and I, at this point, from 2017 to 2019,
you and I had started working really closely together in creating what I call
parallel businesses where we're doing the same thing, but you were focused on pets
and I was focused on people. So we created our membership that same year, 2019.
Well, we were in a mastermind together. And so we were working on all of this,
like, on a very daily basis. That's when our daily boxer conversations started.
Yes, it did. And thank goodness for that technology. So much has evolved and given
us the opportunity to do that. I'm incredibly grateful. And then we came up with
the idea of Elevate in late 2019 and launched it in December of that year. So 2020
was our first Elevate and Elevate was all about business. We wanted to focus on
pricing, marketing, business, coaching, meeting more people, getting more clients,
making more money, and we wanted it to be a group coaching program. So that was
the key. It was a six -month commitment, group coaching to help you like really
invigorate your business. And at the beginning, we had Hair of the Dog Elevate and
I had Flourish Academy Elevate. But I taught in both of those. I coached in both
of them. - Yeah, you were a coach in my elevate. - And at some point, I noticed I
was replicating effort. And I was like, this is not making sense.
I'm literally teaching the same thing here and here. And we came together and
thought, how can we combine these and just let me run it? It's my zone of genius.
I love it. But obviously you're a component of that as well. But I wanted to lead
it. I was ready to step into that role of taking both of them. So in 2022?
- Yeah, it's been two years, right? - Yeah, early, 'cause we had started toying with
this idea in late '21. We decided to combine them and it's just been a massive
success. It has gone really, really well. People are getting results because I am
able to, as an engineer, qualify, find the efficiencies, eliminate overwhelm,
make it super simple, give you the equation. And then we're off and running all the
while coaching around our thoughts, which has sort of become the foundation of
elevate is that you can accomplish anything if you shift your thoughts and it has
just grown since then. And I can see where people might be confused about that, but
hair the dog elevate was you flourish Academy elevate was me, but we combined them.
I run them both under the Flourish Academy umbrella. Elevate is my flagship program.
It is what I am most focused on in my business. I do have a membership. You know,
there's still Photoshop and Lightroom and some craft, but that's there and that's
great, but I am focused on helping photographers make more money. So Elevate is like
my thing. It's where I spend all day every day working. And so since that shift, I
have grown it significantly, both in terms of elevators we call them and in terms
of the content and the courses I've created. This year, our friend Amanda Engel said
to me, "Your content this year has been prolific." And I like that word. I just
really took what I was hearing on a regular basis and put it into really simple
a one day, sometimes just a one day training. And I said this year, we have
elevated elevate. It is gone to like that. And even you had said the coaching has
become like really next level, just a very, very powerful container.
And every single person that joins it says to me, my gosh, this is so much more
than I thought there because there's content, you could watch content, there's like
processes and steps. And then there's the coaching and the Facebook group and the
support and the lifelines. We have multiple coaches. It's just a really, really
robust program. And I'm so, so proud of what we created.
And you know, it's a six month commitment, but I have found that so many people
stay in over and over and over. They renew for years on and you have to ask
yourself, why? Why would someone continue to renew? Because they're making money and
they're making more money and they're making more shifts and it's working and they
don't see a reason to leave. Now I'm not saying everyone does that. Certainly there
are people that get what they need, they move on or they shift in their businesses
but there are so many long -term elevators. I'm incredibly proud of that and I'm
also proud of the way they welcome in new people. And those new people could be
new to business. Like they just started their business. We have a few of those now.
And new people that have actually been in business for a couple years or longer
that just want to go to the next level. And we've created this container that I
feel does a remarkable job at supporting both of those because you know, sometimes
you get in a program and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to listen to the
newbies for I am the newbie and I don't know what's going on. Like for instance,
we have people making multiple six figures and elevate. Their challenges might be a
little bit different from someone just starting. So within our container, we have a
group called Six Figure Superstars and we meet periodically to deal with the
challenges at their level. But we are also accommodating of people just starting. By
the way, those six figure elevators take great pride in helping the people who are
just starting. So everybody's really in it together. And I often get comments about
it being one of the most positive supportive communities that they have ever been a
part of. - And active. I mean, you still have the group or the Facebook group.
So that's a little bit different than our hair of the dogs in the circle community.
Yes. So, you know, and it's, it's, whenever I go into your group, it's amazing just
the supportiveness. And it's not because of the platform, it's because of the people.
They, like, I just, I blow it away every time because everyone is so active in
there and it's incredible. And I do want to say, can we share my nickname, please?
Yes, you are action girl. Da, da, da, Yeah. Yes. I am lovingly referred to as
action girl inside Elevate, you know, because you guys know I love the checklist,
I love the checklist, I love the processes, Heather loves the processes too. And
Heather always jokes like whenever she's working on my thoughts, I'm always jumping
to the action line. Like every time. Every single time. So I am action girl and
one of the great things about Elevate when we decided to merge them. So it was
just like, we were both kind of like doing the same thing, but it was like, why,
why are we both spending so much time running these separate things? Let's look,
bring them together. And it's been such a great way too, because everybody that
comes through, you know, to, into elevate through, through the hair of the dog world
has access to all of the business stuff, which Right now it's on Hair of the Dog
Academy, but where's it going everybody? Free to focus formula. And will you continue
to have access? Yes, nothing will change for you if you're a current member. Okay,
anyway, your elevate, when you're in elevate, you get access to all that too. So
it's like... As a bonus, like... Yeah, it's a bonus. Totally free. That's valuable.
Very, very valuable because we treat people and elevate extraordinarily well.
Whenever I create and I create a ton of new of these new mini courses. Like I
created the empowered money course. Everybody in elevate instantly got access to that
where that was a paid program. It was separate. And so I treat them very, very
well because I value them and I am so invested in their success.
I tell them all the time, when you win, I win and I don't lose. So when you come
into my world, this is the energy we're winning this morning, 6 a .m. One of our
elevators posted about a challenging client. She was real. She really needed some
help and when you're in that position You know, you won't help quickly because your
mind is spinning and 6 a .m. You and I both have I don't know what was going on
this morning But we both happen to be there and so we're answering along with
Jessica She was helping and we just supported her and by the way, this client was
threatening to call a lawyer so This was like really upsetting to this photographer
and we want to be able to support you as quickly and as like completely as
Possible so that you don't have to navigate this alone, which means you reach
success or whatever your goals are so much faster Because you're not spiraling or
spinning in in a challenging client situation Like my thing is I want you to get
help really quickly. In other words, I never want you to stay stuck,
which is something I hear. I feel stuck. I don't know what to do next. Oh, not
around me, sister. We are moving very quickly, action line. We're taking action. I'm
looking at the thoughts behind that. You know what I thought the other day, Nicole,
was like, I was an engineer and I optimized processes. So am I a photographer,
- Behavioral engineer, is that what it is? - Yes, yes. I think, yes, you should put
that on your business card. - I like it, yeah. - I love it, I love it. Oh my
gosh. So Heather, what has been the most, well, I think I pretty much know what's
been the most rewarding for you. We just talked about it. - It's 100%, elevate is
my life's work. Like it finally came together. I was always invested in helping
photographers, you know, like you said in person locally and helping them succeed
Because I love them all and I believe that every single one of them can do it
like that's another thing people have said to me They were inspired by my unwavering
belief in them when they didn't even have it And I just believe that anybody can
do it and in it's easier than they think like it's not it doesn't have to be some
big complex thing. Like it starts with belief in that you can do it. Because I
believe that you can do it. I always say you can borrow some of my confidence
because I have enough for both of us because I'm so certain you can do it. And I
just honestly don't like to see them struggle or suffer unnecessarily. Like sometimes
when you and I are doing maybe a free training and I see people with these
challenges, I am, I don't even know the word. It's like my my heart hurts, I'm
like, please let me help you. I know that I can help you. If you would just give
me 20 minutes, I know that we could turn this around. You know, I've infused,
that's Elevate. I am so proud of that program and what we've created. It just warms
the cockles of my heart, Nicole. - I love it. I love it. Fantastic. So anyway, we
wanted to make this little episode. Hopefully you found you in it, not only knowing
what the heck's going on in our worlds and where you find things and what these
different programs mean, but also just some places where maybe you can apply some of
these pivots and focuses on like what you love into your business and know that
there's no right or wrong. You can make your business look like whatever the heck
you want it to look like. And I think that is just like so magical that if you
just continue to follow your passion and what you feel called to do,
it won't steer you wrong. And the key to that pivoting I like that you said that
is like, I really want to encourage you to pivot or shift as much as necessary
until you land where Nicole and I are, which is with like so much love and
gratitude for what we do That we wake up every day so excited. Oh my gosh, Nicole
Vox for me. It's a work day. It's a work day We're getting to do this work. We
love it so much. And by the way, I think both of us loved every step of our
career Yeah, it's just that season shifted and things shifted for us and we learned
and we grew and and now we're in this place Where I'm like, I cannot believe I
get paid to do this This is just the most amazing thing like I have so it's awe
and wonder over what we've created and so much pride over it. And I think you just
have to be open to like what that looks like for you. Pivoting until you find
something that, that just literally lights your soul on fire. Okay, not literally
because then you would be on fire. We don't, we don't want to actually be on fire.
Stop, drop and roll. We learned that. I don't think they teach that in school
anymore. Oh, they do. Listen, side note. I had a friend last year. Yeah.
Listen. You know, there's little tabletop.
what he did. And it could have been so much worse. So there you go.
The podcast just took a dark turn public service announcement. Like he has recovered,
by the way, he is like still has trouble walking because his legs were burned so
badly and then the skin blah, blah, blah, whatever. But stop, drop and roll. Okay,
I'm going to start calling you my mom. We call my mom mother doom. It's no matter
what we say. It's like, oh, here's some horrible story. I'm like,
that's okay. That's okay. It's all good. Sorry. Anyway, I had a thought before that,
but now it's gone. I know what it was. I know what it was. Came back. I just
want to just clarify real quick the difference between going towards something and
quitting because you're Ooh. So I mean, this could be a whole nother podcast.
We're going to wrap it up in 30 seconds here because I see so many photographers
that it's not working. They're trying and they're like, maybe this just isn't right
for me. Maybe I'm supposed to go somewhere else. And to that, like if you want the
end goal of a profitable photography business, stick with it and you will find
success if you stick with it. You have to just continue to go through those bumpy
roads. Like there's a lesson there you need to learn. There's a new thought you
need to embrace. there's something there, but if you want that end goal, you can do
it. You wouldn't have that desire if you didn't want to. But likewise, if you, I
think the easiest way for me when it's like, okay, am I giving up my family
photography to go to pets? Like maybe you say, let's say my family photography
wasn't working. And if it was like, I'm giving that up and I'm just gonna go over
here 'cause this isn't working. Like that doesn't feel like a good reason to pivot.
The good reason to pivot is like, I am so pulled to this over here that this just
has to go, even though, you know, it just, I just have to go here because the
pool is so strong. So I just want to make sure you guys are pulling towards the
thing that's pulling you and not just making an excuse of, oh, it's not working.
It must be a pivot that I need to do. Okay. I do have something really important
to say about this. What I tell people when they say, "I just feel like quitting,"
I said, "You may quit. You may do that, but I only want you to do it when things
are working.
Do not quit when it is not working. When things are working and you're making money
and you're getting clients and you feel compelled and pulled and drawn to something
new, of course you may do that." I left weddings when I was making over $100 ,000
a year. Yeah. But family photography when I was doing very well. Yes.
So it wasn't that it wasn't working. It was working. So you can quit.
That is always on the table, but I only want you to do when things are working
and you're making money. I love it. I love it. So good. All right. This has been
fantastic. Hope you guys enjoyed this and hope you guys found some value in it as
well. As usual, Hair of the Dog Academy .com for craft stuff, freedom, focus formula
.com for business and pricing. The website is still kind of finishing things up
because remember, I said, it's really messy. Yeah. And then flourish .academy for
Heather stuff too. And you can find elevate stuff at here of the, or no, no lies.
You can find our elevate program at freedomfocusformula .com /elevate.
Yes. All right. Heather, so good. Thanks for being here with us. You guys, Heather
and I are like, this is going to be a quick 15 minute episode. Oops. One minutes
later. I had that backwards.
All right. Bye guys. See you next week.
Hey!
