Podcast Ep 341 - Why Your Photography Business Feels Stuck (And How to Fix It)

In this episode of the Flourish Academy podcast, Heather Lahtinen shares a candid and transformative conversation with Michelle Crandall. Together, they explore the elusive tipping point in your photography business—the one thing that might be holding you back from achieving success. 

Heather dives into the importance of self-concept and how trust, or a lack thereof, can be the biggest roadblock to growth. If you're feeling stuck, frustrated, or uncertain about the next step in your journey, this episode is for you

Show Notes:

•  What is the Tipping Point?
•  Discussion of Malcolm Gladwell’s concept of a tipping point and its application to photography businesses.
•  Identifying the one critical factor that often holds photographers back.
•  Self-Concept and Trust:
•  How your view of yourself as a photographer impacts your business success.
•  The role of trust in taking the next step and handling potential challenges.
•  The Stories We Tell Ourselves:
•  Exploring the narratives that prevent growth.
•  Michelle’s fear of being "too successful" and its emotional roots

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 Connect:

Heather Lahtinen: Website, Facebook, Instagram

Michelle Crandall: https://www.petsinfocusphoto.com/

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TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast and today we are talking about the

magic tipping point for your photography business. My name is Heather Lahtinen and I'm

a photographer, educator and entrepreneur and I founded the Flourish Academy as a

resource for photographers of all levels. We want to help you pursue your passion on

your own terms because we believe there is room for everyone. In this podcast, we

focus on creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are

really holding you back in business and life. In today's episode, I'm sharing a

conversation with my good friend, Michelle Crandall, that we had in a recent strategy

call inside of our elevate program. I wanted to bring this conversation to you with

her permission, of course, because I know that most of you will be able to relate

to the challenge that she is describing. If you are frustrated or maybe just

wondering why your photography business isn't growing or isn't where you think it

should be, it is one of these two reasons that Michelle and I discuss.

I know you will love this conversation.

Okay, I do have something might want to talk about, but I want to make sure

everyone is getting the help that they need. Let's go, Michelle.

Let's go. Okay, are you ready? I am. Are you sure? You want to dance?

It's always fun to see your brain in action. Yes, ma 'am. I don't I don't like it

as much as you do.

It's something that's coming up in several lifelines last month. And it,

you know, I'm the people's coach, right? So like, I'm kind of paralleling a lot of

this stuff. And so this is kind of what's been going on. I see a bunch of super

prepared and ready to go photographers, right? Like, they've got everything they need.

They know what they're doing. Their photos are great. And like, something is not

getting tipping them over the edge and everybody's not everybody. A lot of people

are frustrated. I'm frustrated. I get it too. Over the edge to what? What's what to

go where?

Like I read a book once I think it was by Malcolm Gladwell called The Tipping

Point. Yes ma 'am. Yep. And so you know like we're right here and there's like one

step that we need to take and like our businesses are going to be like fulfilling

and we're going to be able to support ourselves. Oh, it's going to like work. Yes.

It's all going to come together. Okay. And so if you could please tell me what

that key is, I shall pass it on to all the elevators and we'll be fine.

Oh, okay. So just let me give you this one thing. That's all I need. Okay. You're

hilarious because you know it's a hundred things. However, I However, however, I do

think if I were, if you like put me in a corner and said, Heather, I'm not

letting you out of this corner until you tell me the one thing if I had to

choose. - Yeah. - I would say the one thing that is missing from sending you over

that edge is a self -concept to push you forward. It's your self -concept.

It's how you think or view self that is holding you back because especially it

always always but especially when and if you have the foundation meaning you know

how to photograph you know how to edit you know how to deliver you've had a few

clients you have your website like yeah you have some sort of client workflow even

if it's just like an email you know I don't even mean like a CRM nothing like

that yeah once you have the very bare minimum basics in place,

you can create a very thriving $100 ,000 business. It is at your disposal.

I know this because I did it. Yeah. And the photos. What is it about us that is

it like something that we're all suffering from? Like it's not mass. Yes.

Yes. But it's not the same thing. Like, yes, because it's all a self concept. But

everybody's self -concept is going to be a little bit different in terms of what

they need to believe.

In order to take the action necessary to like, you know, go past that tipping

point. Yeah. Yeah. It is it is always a self -concept. I really do. I really do

think that that we hit gold with that self -concept training in the last retreat.

Yeah. Where if you Don't view yourself number one as a photographer. How in the

world are you going to make the business work and a lot of people in elevate are

still struggling with that. I can see it. I can hear it that they think of

themselves as whatever they previously were or what they are now, but not a

photographer. Yeah. Because of that, they feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, a

little bit like they're a fraud. And that's, of course, it's going to hold you

back. Yeah. So that's what I would work on is like, where am I at? Okay,

this is not rhetorical. I'd love to know in the chat, where are you at on a scale

of one to 10 with your self -concept as a photographer? One being like,

I don't really see, I take photos, but I don't really see myself as a photographer.

And 10 as like locked and loaded. I'm a professional photographer. I believe that

all the way. Yeah, I think mine would probably be an 8.

If you would have asked me a year ago, I would have said like a 3.

That's great. Yeah, yeah, which means you're making progress. I am making progress. I

think a lot of us are making progress. It's, you know, the nursing profession is

one of the most trusted professions in the world. And so it was really easy for me

to be like, I'm a nurse. And I also take pet - Right. - Because then it was like,

oh, people trust me. And they were like, oh, she can't be bad, she's a nurse. So

yeah, she's gotta be good. I think it's interesting when, okay,

so like there's somebody specifically on this call that I'm thinking about, she

probably knows who she is. And I was saying to her the other day, she lives in

like this beautiful area that's like a pretty high like expensive area to live in.

people go there for vacation all the time. And I was like, what is it about this

person? Like her photos are beautiful. She knows how to set up her business. She's

smart, she's educated. She's got everything. And I'm like, why isn't she doing it?

And then I looked at myself and I'm like, why am I not doing it?

- Is your answer? - My answer was

similar to what we did in one -to -one coaching. It is still, "What if I get too

many clients?" Which even saying it out loud sounds ridiculous. But like, "What if I

can't keep up? What if, you know, I'll get so far, knock on wood, almost every

single client has loved me and raved about the experience?" Okay. Well, if I get 50

clients a year, am I still going to be able to keep up that standard? So you

don't trust yourself. Yeah, you don't. Yeah, two places you don't trust yourself. One

is to take an appropriate amount of clients and an appropriate amount of time,

because those people are not going to put themselves on your calendar. Right. Who's

in control of your calendar? Me. Oh, well, OK. So then you have to trust trust

yourself to put the appropriate number of people on your calendar And trust yourself

to be able to figure it out if you take it too far. You don't trust yourself and

you're so, so you'll just not do it. You'll just block it. Don't give me too many

clients because I can't handle trusting myself or more importantly, how I will feel

if I go too far. And how would you know when you went too far anyway?

People will start complaining or think that I'm a terrible human being. Okay. Why

would they complain though? If I wasn't holding up my end of the bargain. Like you

were late delivering photos? Yeah. Have you ever been late delivering photos?

No. But I also haven't had a full schedule like ever. So let's say,

okay, but you get to incrementally decide where full and too many is, right? Yes.

So that means you could add a few more and see how you do with your workflow and

delivering on time. Right? Yeah. And then you could add a few more and see how you

do with that and deliver it right? Yes. And then what would happen though, when and

if you cross the line to like, oh my gosh, this is too many.

I've gone too far. Then what? I would just work extra hours until it was done.

You would stay up late until it was done. Yeah. And then you would say to

yourself, "Oh, I went to clients too far." - Right. - And you would never do that

again. - Yeah. - Well, that doesn't seem like a problem to me.

- No. - You know, 'cause you always say-- - You know how good I am at making up

problems, Heather? - I know, I know. - Everybody on this call knows how good I am

at making up problems. - If you trusted yourself to figure it do in like that it

will not be a world ending catastrophe. Yeah. And let's say to you a world ending

catastrophe is that you would be late delivering to a client. Okay, what if oh,

what if that did happen? What if you got really sick or something happened in the

family? Right? What would you do? Yeah, actually, that did happen. And I still made

it on time.

So you would do whatever it takes to make it on time. - Yeah, whatever it takes.

And then even if I wasn't able to, I would have just explained the situation and

hoped that they were decent human beings. - Correct. And most people that hire you,

and you already took their photos, so they hired you 'cause why did they hire you?

I forget. - 'Cause they like my work.

and they like you. They wouldn't hire you if they didn't like you. Okay. They hired

you 'cause they like you. - Yeah. - And they like your work. Okay. Then they got to

work with you and the experience is fantastic 'cause you are phenomenal be around.

So that is like easy done. Now they are even more endeared to you because of your

like presence. Yeah. Right? - Yeah. - And then you say how many,

what's the timeframe you tell them? They'll see their images and how many? - Two

weeks. - Okay. - Four weeks after that. - Okay, perfect. So you say two weeks and

then you, I don't know, you end up in the hospital or something like really,

seriously, you just can't do it, you know? And you had to have me or Jessica or

your husband like email this client and say, listen, Michelle is really sick. She

has dengue her and she can't even you know like it's really bad she told me to

let you know and she would get to you as quickly as possible what do you think

they would do

I know what one of them would do because I literally just went through this last

month and she was just like get to me when you can it doesn't matter oh wait the

world didn't end literally that's exactly what she said. It doesn't even matter

whenever it is fine. It doesn't even matter. So even if your worst fear came true.

Yeah. I think, okay, so my worst one of my worst fears is this lack of delivery

thing. The other thing is I have never lived in a small like I grew up in a very

large town. And so growing up in a small town or being now in a small town is

anxiety provoking because everybody knows everybody. - Yes. - And because of you,

I go talk to people and tell them what I do all the time and so. - I am a

terrible coach. - Yeah. - So everybody knows who I am. And so if something was to

happen poorly, I had a bad outcome as my nursing brain likes to call it. Everybody

would know. And then like everybody would say Michelle's a terrible photographer and

you know, they're referring me so much now They would stop referring me or whatever

You know like I think because we talk about the delivery thing and yes the delivery

thing But my clients know me and they know me well enough to know I'm not just

screwing around like if something right happened It's real. It's this like Imaginary

fear that I'm making up is is I think what it is like you know what what if yeah

yeah or she's just as maybe they'd all come come together like small town folks

would and create a giant sign four foot card for you they'd sign it and put on

your front lawn maybe they would maybe they wouldn't all hate you and like tell

everybody not to hire you and you're the worst person in the world maybe they'd

come together and they would say to your husband. What can we do to help? I'm so

sorry. Your wife is sick. I'm so sorry. She got bit by not mosquito. That's like

crazy. You know, like whatever. Yeah. Assume positive intent. Right.

Yeah. Right. Not only are you assuming the negative, but then you multiply it. Yeah.

You could you could just just the same. I mean, it's just a choice to - Okay,

listen, I mean, I don't want to be late either. And by the way, in 20 years of

being a photographer, never once was I late, never once. Weddings were always, never

once, always delivered ahead of time, always. Because that was the bar that I set

for myself. But I'm not stupid enough to not realize that like something could have

happened. And I just believe that my clients love me so much that they would be so

understanding. And like, let me know what I can do.

But the only reason your brain is trying to tell you that if you got too

successful, too many clients, that you would all of a sudden, like what, stop

delivering galleries? Like what?

- I would miss stuff. It's a perfectionism thing. - And what if you did.

I would correct it. And I would move on.

Yeah. And then maybe you would learn to be okay feeling that shame.

Yeah. Which is by the way, not even necessary. The shame comes from right. I was

gonna say I'm making it up. I'm feeling shame for something that hasn't even

happened yet. Correct. Yeah. So this ties into the lack of tipping point like we're

all stuck at the very tippy top of this mountain because

I don't feel I don't trust myself enough to handle handle all of these terrible

things that I'm making up that haven't happened yet and probably correct correct so

if I were to boil that down I would say it's a self -concept issue which this is

actually the same thing. - Yeah. - Like intertwine with a trust issue, but that's

part of your self -contact. - Yeah. - But it's even more interesting than that. You're

saying I wouldn't trust myself to like figure out the actions to take, but really

what your brain is avoiding is how it would make you feel. - Yeah,

it's always do. - You're not willing to feel the things that you think your brain

would make you feel if you miss something, if you screwed up. You're just not

willing to feel it. You are just not willing. - Right. - So there are so many of

you that are on this tipping point with this, like just almost there,

like one thought away.

One, like I can handle feeling disappointed. I am okay if things get screwed up

'cause I'll get better. Like I'm okay making mistakes because I'm a human. I trust

myself to not only figure it out, but I'm gonna be able to feel those feelings.

- Yeah. - I was listening to one of our people recently talk about dysregulation,

being in a dysregulated state, you know? And she was saying like really what it is

is you don't think you can handle the feeling you're feeling. Because once you start

to accept the feeling and you handle it, then you're back in a regulated state.

Right, which is the goal. Yeah. So interesting. If you're ever feeling all like

juiced up about something, and you're like, I'm dysregulated, you know, yeah, you're

like, Okay, what am I, what am I, what is my body trying to make me feel that

I'm not willing to feel? Because I think I can't handle it. And then that's like,

that's the phasing in the grief process. When you move into acceptance

You are dysregulated Because of the grief and understandably so so no like nobody's

trying to rush through this right like the phases are there for a reason Yeah, and

then you like avoid feeling Acceptance because you don't think you can handle it and

then you feel it and then you're regulated and you're like whoa It's like shocking

What that feels like once you get there Because you think you're never gonna feel

like normal again, you know, or whatever like we're not gonna get into that but

yeah so it's this It's this it's a self -concept and it's a story because I'm

wrapping trust into the self -concept issue So for you, it's a self -concept and it's

a story about what would happen when and if anything, you know If I get right if

I don't get clients if this works if it doesn't work it's like

One story, one narrative, that if you cleaned up, all of a sudden you'd be getting

all of these clients, but right now you're blocking them 'cause your brain is

telling you you can't handle it. - Right. - I don't want, don't send me any more

clients, whatever you do, don't send me more, I can't handle it, I don't trust

myself, what if I'm late with delivery, what if everybody in the small town hates

me, oh my gosh, it's terrible. So just avoid, avoid, avoid and block. Yeah, if you

can work through this and sort of lower that block, you'll you'll just fly over

that tipping point. Yeah, it'll be so easy and you'll be like, really?

I spent how much time spinning my wheels? Yes. Yes. Because I was afraid that I

couldn't handle a feeling. Yeah. If you were willing to feel any feeling in your

business, you become unstoppable because everything is just a feeling that you don't

wanna feel. I don't wanna feel stupid. I don't wanna feel ashamed. I don't wanna

feel embarrassed. I don't wanna feel dumb.

I feel dumb and look dumb on a regular basis. I'm just willing to do it.

And yeah, it's embarrassing. It's like, oh my gosh. You know, like, but okay. And

and I didn't die. I didn't die. I didn't die. I might need a nap afterwards.

I think Brene Brown calls it a shame hangover. You know, but then you just need a

nap. Yeah. Does that?

Is that answer? What's coming up for you? At least I'm coming to you.

I, I just, I needed a reminder that what I'm trying to avoid is a feeling and you

and Jess and Donna and Carol and everybody else knows how many feelings I have on

a daily basis. And I've gotten through this many years of them. So nothing's going

to change about my ability to handle all this emotion When you add on work what

I've been working for this whole time And what if thank you what if you blocking

those feelings that you don't want to feel is Also blocking your success and the

joy and the happiness Yeah, oh for sure it is because the same thing that blocks

negative emotions blocks positive emotions If I'm willing to feel stupid then there

are times when I will feel like a genius, but I can't have that feeling of genius

without the feeling of stupid. They go together. Yeah. If I, if I don't want to

feel stupid so much that I shut down or I don't create content or whatever, I will

block the feeling of feeling smart when I create the content. Right. So what you're

the wall you've built up to keep out all the negative feelings is also keeping out

all the enjoy in the success. Yeah. So if you're willing to feel both of those

things or if you want to feel a success, you just have to like be willing to

feel, you know, the opposite of that, what comes with it. Right. You want to enjoy

the sunshine, you got to have a little rain.

Yes, ma 'am. Thank you. Okay. I hope that helps for everyone that it's a self

-concept. It's a self -concept, one story, one narrative away from just breaking

through along with your self -concept. And I just also wanna say that for all of

you that said you were like a nine or 10 on your belief in yourself as a

professional photographer, that is fantastic. Then you wanna move on to like an

entrepreneur, business person, like where you add on that scale, one to 10, one is

like no clue, 10 being, I'm the most brilliant entrepreneur. But also,

are you sure?

Are you being honest with yourself?

Totally? Or is there some self deception? Because I think I deceive myself.

I think I would say to you, oh, I'm, you know, 10 out of Then on the confidence

scale, and then something will happen, I'll be like, is that totally true? I don't

know. I feel stronger entrepreneur than a photographer, so 11, maybe nine

photographer, 10 business. Yeah, that's possible.

You may not have anything to work on here. How would you know? Well,

you would know if things aren't where you want them to be. If you are not where

you want to be in terms of your business, your revenue, your clients, your whatever,

whatever, any aspect, it always comes down to self -concept, how you're viewing

yourself.

I hope that you found our discussion valuable. Michelle has a narrative or a story

about what will happen if she gets too many clients or makes a mistake. Her current

self -concept, which includes a lack of trust, along with this story are preventing

her from reaching that elusive tipping point that she described. Here's the bottom

line on this idea of your self -concept. You have to be able to view yourself as a

professional photographer that can handle anything in your business. Your self -concept

has to be in place to support your growth and ultimately your success. If Michelle

can trust herself to figure out what to do when she gets too many clients, she'll

be set. If she can trust herself to handle and manage any feeling that comes along

as the result of a circumstance, she will rocket herself to the next level.

And just to set appropriate expectations, that doesn't mean that everything will be

perfect, that You'll have a magical six -figure business and you'll be set for life.

There is always more work to be done, more stories to uncover, and more of a self

-concept to build. Ask me how I know this. It's because I am actively,

always, and intentionally working on these areas myself. I hope that you found this

useful. I'll see you in the next episode.