Podcast Ep 369 - I made a rookie mistake, please learn from me!

In this episode, Heather Lahtinen shares a vulnerable and insightful story about a rookie mistake she recently made even after years in business. She opens up about her journey with high-level business coaching, the costly realization that knowing what to do isn't enough, and why action thrives in the presence of energy, accountability, and community.

If you've ever said, “I know what to do. I just need to go do it,” this episode will challenge and inspire you to reframe that thinking and take real steps toward progress.

Show Notes:

• The rookie mistake Heather made with her own business coaching
• Why “I know what to do” is often a red flag for stagnation
• The real ROI of coaching: momentum, accountability, and energy
• The invisible cost of isolation and trying to go it alone

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Connect:

Heather Lahtinen: Website, Facebook, Instagram

TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Flourish Academy podcast and today I'm sharing a rookie

mistake that I recently made. My name is Heather Lahtinen and I'm a photographer,

educator and entrepreneur and I founded the Flourish Academy as a resource for

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

terms because we believe there is room for everyone. In this podcast we focus on

creating breakthroughs with your mindset to discover the things that are really

holding you back in business and life. I'm about to share a mistake that I recently

uncovered. It's around how I work with my business coach. And if you're curious

about how coaching can help you move forward faster, then make sure you join me for

my next complimentary coaching workshop. I call it fast track coaching, and I can

help you uncover what's really holding you back and hopefully get you on the path

to progress. Head over to www .getcoachedbyheather .com to save your spot,

and I look forward to seeing you. Today, I want to talk about something we all

say, but what's ironic about this is I caught myself saying it,

but I didn't, I didn't really catch myself. Okay, but if I had a nickel for every

time I heard this, well, I would be wealthy. The phrase is, people will say to me,

Heather, I know what to do. I just need to go do it. And they put a period at

the end of the sentence and there's no further discussion. I can't myself saying

this. Yes, you've probably said it. We've all said it, but the extension of that

phrase, the million dollar question is, okay, if you know what to do, then why

aren't you doing it? And that, that right there, that's where a coach comes in.

So let me share a quick story. I worked with an amazing business coach last year.

It was the biggest investment I've ever made in myself or my business. It was a

six month coaching program and it was $25 ,000.

I know I've mentioned this because I was nervous about it. I talked about it all

the time and it was incredible. I learned so much.

Absolutely worth it. Had my biggest month ever while working with her and being

surrounded by people who are building a million dollar business, and everything

definitely clicked. But then it came time to renew. This was end of December,

early January, and she switched up her offers a little bit, and the price for the

next iteration was, listen to this, sit down, $40 ,000.

$40 ,000. And I thought, okay, well,

maybe if I sell a kidney, but I just could not wrap my brain around that level of

investment. I had a hard enough time, you know, six months prior to that with the

$25 ,000 investment. And while business is doing well, and I'm definitely making

money, If you were to look at this financially, just from a percentage of expenses

standpoint, a $40 ,000 investment just really doesn't make financial sense.

Oh, certainly you could make it work, but I could not. I, I couldn't do it

financially. I couldn't even imagine swinging the monthly payments, but I was okay

with that. Like I wasn't, I wasn't sad or upset. I was like, That's okay. I have

a lot of things that I need to implement and I said to myself, I know what to

do. I just need to go execute. I just need to go do it and I'm good with

execution. I take a lot of action. So there's no problem here. I know what to do.

I just need to go do it. And I thought that was an innocent enough phrase, but

here we are Six months later and I haven't done all of the things.

I have done some things I have definitely made progress, but my business in terms

of sales and revenue is The same as it was before maybe even a little bit less So

I had to ask myself Why you know what to do? Why aren't you doing it?

And the conclusion I came to, which is going to be like no kidding, is because

it's not just the knowledge that matters. It's the energy,

the accountability, the momentum, and the people you spend time with.

Being around my coach, getting coached by her, but even if I wasn't able to do

that, even if the only thing I was able to do was watch the replays of her coach,

other people at this level always and, and like very quickly got me into action

mode. And I was reminded of this again yesterday, I was on a call with a private

client and we were maybe two minutes into this call and she started laughing and

she kind of like threw herself back in her chair and she said, Heather, This is

exactly what I needed. I just needed to be around your energy and your passion and

your excitement because it gets me amped up and ready to go. And then she said,

I'm lucky enough to talk to you directly, but even when I'm not just listening to

you helps me tremendously. And I thought, that's it.

That's exactly why I wasn't doing the work. It was because I wasn't around that

energy or that excitement or talking to people about it. And you don't have to hire

me one on one to get that energy inside of elevate, which is our coaching program

for photographers. That energy exists on every single call,

whether you're there live or watching the replay or listening

this firsthand because of these past six months. Actually, if you look at the past

year, I worked with her for six months and then I didn't for six months. And side

note, I'm an engineer and I love data. And now I have the actual data that shows

me I am more effective, I take more action, I'm more excited, all of the good

things, all of the goodness happens when I am in her program or around her people.

Proximity to action is enough to spark your action.

So if you're out there saying, I know what to do, I just need to go do it, I

want you to just pause, take a deep breath and ask yourself, okay, but why haven't

I? And if you're honest, the answer probably has less to do with strategy and more

to do with isolation or fear or just overthinking and getting in your own head.

But the solution isn't a Google search to tell you what to do or even chat GPT,

which is phenomenal. But that's not it. The solution is people, a coach, a group,

something to ignite, to spark that action. And that's what elevate is for

photographers and that's what my coach's group is for me because that's where the

clarity, the courage, and ultimately the clients and the money. That's where it

happens. Even if you're just in the group watching replays, you don't even need to

necessarily participate. I encourage you to participate because I think you'll move

forward faster, but if you're just exposed to it, that alone is worth the price of

admission. So yeah, it turns out I'm giving all of my money back to my business

coach because I mean, I'm asking myself, what's the alternative?

Staying stuck, playing small, pretending I don't need support when I literally do.

So yeah, that's not for me staying small. I reached out to her team a few days

ago to understand my options. And what it looks like is I'll be coming back into

one of her groups with a $20 ,000 investment, which still makes me want to choke a

little bit on my own saliva. But again, what's the alternative? I don't like the

alternative. It feels very mediocre and like an excuse.

I don't know. What I've learned, here's what I've learned. When I say to myself,

"Oh, I know what to do. I just need to go do it," that there's something blocking

me. There's some hesitation. There's some thought. Something is just off kilter and I

need to examine it. But I cannot examine it alone because You cannot read the label

from inside of the bottle. I implore you to let me help you to just expose

yourself to the energy that we have inside of Elevate. It is really extremely

affordable. And I can almost guarantee that if you expose yourself to that energy

that you will make enough, you will get enough clients, you'll make enough money to

cover the price of elevate very, very easily. I mean,

if you get one more client per month or or even one more like high paying client,

you, you will cover your costs for elevate. You'll pay for it and then it will

just compound from there and it will pay for itself and we have a lot of people

in elevate that have been there for four or five years because of this. We've had

a lot of people leave and then come back for this exact reason.

As always, I'll have the link for elevate in the show notes, but for a limited

time, if you use the promo code podcast, you'll save $200 on the setup fee,

which my goodness. And we also have a money back guarantee. So if you come in for

that first month and you're like, yeah, this isn't for me, I will happily give you

your money back and you can go on your way that rarely to never happens because

everyone who joins says, oh my gosh, this is so much more than I thought or

anticipated. So in addition to all of our training videos on the various aspects of

pricing, business, marketing, et cetera, We have live coaching calls a lot of them,

but some people work a full -time job They're never able to attend live and they

only watch the replays or again listen to those on the private podcast feed and

they're Still growing and taking action and moving forward. It's incredible.

I don't know that I will Always stay in the same world meaning with my business

coach, I don't know that I will always be in her world, though I adore her because

things shift, you know, you, you maybe want to get some new voices or try something

else, but I do know that I will never, ever be without a business coach again.

I will never let that amount of time lapse because I am seeing the results of that

and I did it to myself. Okay, so what? And if you don't believe me about the

energy that I bring to, in the passion that I bring to these calls, jump on one

of these complimentary coaching workshops and you'll see for yourself how passionate I

am about helping you because the question I wake up with every day is how can I

speed up everyone making more money? And then I pounce into and I'm like,

"Let's go, go, go, go !" I hope that you found this useful. I'll see you in the

next episode.