How to get past imposter syndrome when you are a photographer?
Hello, and welcome to photography business mastery for moms. This is the podcast that is going to support all moms who own a photography business, big or small. I’m really excited to get this going. Podcasting has been on my to do list for many, many years, and I have tried it for many, many years, and I just don’t feel like I’m, you know, ready for it or I don’t feel like it’s successful enough, but I want to start off with, this TikTok.
And if you’re watching on video, you could see her as well. Her name is Mel Robbins. I’m sure you know who she is. She’s all over TikTok. She’s really big with manifesting and, um, self help and self wellness and everything. And I follow her on TikTok. I think I read one of her books. Don’t get, uh, don’t ask me the topic.
It probably, definitely was about, manifesting. About self help. Um, and the topic I want to talk about today is imposter syndrome. I have suffered from this for many, many, many years and it comes and goes. It really, truly does. But the biggest thing recently is my imposter syndrome to start this podcast and also developing the course that we are starting for.
Photography, business moms, but I, um, she posted this tick tock. So today’s the ninth, six days ago on the third. And I saved it because I really, really love what she says. I’m going to play it for you now. Again, this is Mel Robbins. She is phenomenal in the, um, coaching space, uh, self help space. So let’s.
You stop worrying about them. Stop focusing on what they’re doing. Stop focusing on what they have. That is not the point of your life. The point of your life is to figure out what you want and why you want it. And then, once you do that, it’s to push through your excuses. See, you’re not in competition with other people because you’re in competition.
The life that you’re meant to lead, nobody else can take that from you. That’s why you gotta stop looking around at everybody else. You gotta focus on the work that you need to do. You gotta push through your excuses so you can grow into the person that you’re meant to be. I Love that. I, I needed that too, um, because the season of life that I’m in is chaotic and I keep looking at other people and what they’re doing and I know I should not be doing that.
So imposter syndrome, let’s go over it today. Imposter syndrome, by my definition, I don’t need to use my definition. Is basically thinking to yourself, how, who am I to teach that? Who am I to do that? What are they doing over there? Oh, no, I can’t do that as good as them because you’re looking around at everybody else and not what is inside of you.
So early on in my business, I’ve been in business for 10 years now. I looked around at local photographers. What are they doing? How busy are they? And I compared myself to them. And that is not What we are put on this earth to do we are put on this earth to bring value From us out into the world and into the universe so it was really hard to do that, especially when you’re first starting out with a basic crop lens and Trying to figure out what you like and everything and when I Really hit rock bottom with that was I would ask myself, why are my friends going to such and such photographer?
Why are they going somewhere else? And a motto that I have when I do one on one coaching as well. And I even say this to my clients, if they go somewhere else and they come back to me and they say, Oh, we just went to them because of this, this, and this. I say to them, I don’t care where you go. If it makes you happy, that makes me happy.
If they can do something that I cannot do, that is wonderful. People are going to go to whoever they want to go to for whatever reason it is. Style, pricing, location, types of session. Like there’s so many factors. That us as entrepreneurs and business owners cannot think about constantly. We can’t think about that constantly.
What we can think about is how we can provide a better service and a better business than other photographers to better consumers. our business. So that’s a topic for another day. But I also want to talk about imposter syndrome with pricing. So, uh, I am a big proponent of market research for your competition.
Now I learned this probably So Christian, no, Cole was a baby. So he is six now. So probably five and a half, five years ago. That market research is not looking at. Other photographers pricing market research is figuring out their system and how you can do it better. So yearly, if not every other year, I haven’t done it this year.
I know I did it last year was I would look at my competition and I know that’s going to be a, Oh my God, you’re looking at your competition. It’s imposter syndrome. No, I promise it’s not. I’m looking at their systems and how they are marketing. And I’m going to do it better. It’s just like paid ads. If so, and so let’s say Susie Joe down the street is running a thousand dollars a month on paid ads and they’re working for her, how am I going to make my paid ads better?
I don’t pay for ads though. It’s just, just a, uh, an example here, but how am I going to make my ads better than hers? That’s competition that is just going to happen in any industry at all. So it’s okay to do market research. To better your business. Now that doesn’t mean that you literally do exactly what they’re doing.
Um, you figure out if they’re marketing towards newborn clients And you’re marketing towards newborn clients. What are you going to do different to really bring those clients in? Are you going to offer an extra service? Are you going to offer a pre purchase discount something? That’s gonna Bring their attention to your business and not to their business Style.
Every photographer has their own style and their own way of shooting and editing. So I am definitely more posed with maybe a little bit of lifestyle here and there, especially outside is more lifestyle, but in studio is definitely more of a posed type of session. Um, if someone wants an in home newborn session, we could do it.
I haven’t done a lot of them. So if they go to someone else, I’m happy for them. I’m happy that they get the type of session that they want. I don’t want to change my work and my values for one session. It’s just not how it works. Um, Also editing. I have seen a few, uh, wedding photographers in local South Jersey groups that say that wedding clients come back and say they want this style editing and it is nowhere near where they edit.
Um, say they edit very editorial and black and white and you know, Contrasty and they went light in area edits. Like it just doesn’t make any sense. Like why would a client book that photographer if it’s not what they wanted? So I want my clients to go to who they want to for style. If they are looking for dark and dreary or moody, that is totally not me.
Business style. So everybody runs a business the way they run a business. If it is, you know, they’re only a cash and check business. If they are just credit card business, if they don’t market at all, and I market a lot, everybody runs their business differently. You cannot compare physical business aspects to your business.
You need to figure out what works best for you. So if that is posting on social media once a week, and Joe Schmoe down the street is posting five times a week, That works for them. But if we are going to gain more clients, we need to do that market research to see what our competition is doing and do it better.
It’s not a bad thing. I promise. One big thing for me right now is my son is five and a half months and this season of life is chaotic Literally chaotic. I have two older boys six and eight. They are in school and then I have the five month old home with me Um three days a week and I have a nanny two days a week Sometimes it switches one day three days, you know typical schedule is tuesdays and wednesdays.
I am not Work mode. I am doing sessions today. We were supposed to have a session, but the client texted me yesterday and said that she was sick. I would rather have happy, healthy client and reschedule then a sick client coming in and their daughter being miserable and not having the photos that they want.
So. Rescheduling policies for things like that are more flexible. The season of life for me is different than what it was last year. So last year, my now middle one before the baby was born, he was the youngest. Um, he was in preschool three days a week. So I worked three days a week and I worked less weekends.
Once the baby came, it turned into more weekends, less weekdays. Let’s just say I love my nanny. But it is not a cheap expense. I cannot imagine. Having a child in daycare, the one around the corner from me was three days a week and that was 1, 600 a month. That is almost my mortgage. I was in shock. Three days a week.
Three days a week. So we decided on less weekdays and in home to reduce sicknesses and things like that. Um, but also the one on one care for him. That was the biggest thing. This is the season of life that I am in. Now, it’s not the same for everybody and that’s okay. If you have to put your kids into daycare full time, that’s okay.
It’s not what everybody else is doing. It’s what works for you. So please don’t look at everybody else’s work schedule as something you need to do. That is one thing that I had a problem with was if I saw someone was 10 day, 10 sessions a week and I’m like, Oh my God, why am I not doing that? Because I’m not in that season.
There’s no way that I could do 10 sessions a week unless my kids were in school full time and they’re older. So and, and you know, doing them during the weekday, that’s just crazy. I can’t imagine, but if that works for them, that works for them. It is not going to work for my season right now. So seasons of life are different for everybody.
It’s going to change again next year and in five years when he is in school full time, I am just going to work weekdays and not work weekends. So it’s going to change for you. Don’t compare your season of life. To other people’s seasons and my goals, my goals are different. So you need to set goals for your business every year.
If it is a financial goal, if it is a work schedule goal, if it is. A vacation goal, whatever those goals are, you need to have them written down right now. My goals are getting this podcast going a weekly podcast. I am building the course out, so that should be launching soon. We’re about halfway through recording.
We started recording in October of last year. And so this is now January, 2024. And we started recording in October, 2023. And the season of life changed again. It got into busy season and it got into Santa and holiday season. So that was put on pause, but we are full force into that goal for this year. Um, a big thing as well is.
What is success mean to you? Success to me means that I am just working during the work day and I’m not working late into the evenings and on weekends when it’s family time, there are little things here and there, such as I use HoneyBook as my client management system. If I see an email come in and it’s a quick yes or no answer, I will answer really quick.
That is the form of business that I run is. A very attentive, very quick answering business. And that might be something that is different for you. If you only answer emails on work days, Monday through Friday, that’s wonderful. If you feel like you only want to work at night, then that’s good for you. But for me, my success is that.
I work during the workday. My sessions are during the workday. I don’t have to reschedule family stuff. I don’t have to miss family stuff. Will it unfortunately happen sometimes? Yes. But that is why I suggest doing a Full year calendar from the very beginning of January. If you know, there are birthdays, there are things such as the 4th of July weekend.
I always take off. That is a big like family thing for us. We have a lot of family and time in town. So that is one thing that I make sure that I always have off is 4th of July weekend. Um, scheduling Santa. It is. It’s crazy that it is January 9th and I already have my Santa days booked with my Santas.
They book up so fast as well. So we need to get those on the calendar so that we can then schedule holiday many days. And then it worked out this year for 2024 that we will be off the entire calendar. Thanksgiving weekend. I am so excited. I don’t want to get there yet, but I’m excited to just have during busy season, a full weekend off.
Um, one thing I will talk about in the course is having an employee. Who will do those weekends or days that you don’t want to work. So that is coming up soon, but real quick, I want to go through the Mel Robbins video one more time, because I want to talk about each little part. Briefly.
Hey, it’s your friend Mel and I want to remind you of something. You are not in competition with other people. Stop worrying about them. Stop focusing on what they’re doing. Stop focusing on what they have. That is not the point of your life. That is great. I love that because other people’s successes are not going to be the same successes as me.
They’re not going to be part of my goals. So don’t look at other people and see what they are doing and then think, why am I not doing that? That is not, that’s their life. Leave them alone. Think about yourself. Part of your life is to figure out what you want and why you want it. And then, once you do that, it’s to push through your excuses.
See, you’re not in competition with other people because you’re in competition. With the old you, I love that. So why I love that is because my old imposter syndrome was looking at my competition for their style, pricing, how busy they were and what they were doing that I wasn’t doing. I’m now in competition with myself from.
Even three years ago to make sure that I am providing an even better service than I did last year, even. We are changing a lot of things in our business so that it is for the better for the client Um so that it makes it easier for them So I want to take my business from last year and I want to compare my business to the business I want this year.
I don’t want to compare it to joe schmoe down the street. They don’t do what I do. I Service my clients first. I want to do what’s best for them. It’s not about me. It’s about my clients and yes, it’s on my schedule, but I’m in competition with my business from last year. We are going to raise our profit.
We are going to raise our prices and we are going to raise the amount of clients that we serve. That’s who I’m in competition with. The life that you’re meant to lead, nobody else can take that from you. That’s why you got to stop looking around at everybody else. You got to focus on the work that you need to do.
You got to push through your excuses so you can grow into the person that you’re meant to be. Push through those excuses. This is an excuse for myself that I don’t have time to do a podcast and run a course, but I’m going to do it. It’s going to happen this year. And I want you to set a goal for yourself.
Think about what excuses you have in your business or even in your family life. If it is, I’m too tired to read that book that I’ve been wanting to read, push through that excuse and read one page a day. Get yourself going. I know you can do it. Have a good one guys. Bye.
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