This one might hurt… If it does, I’m sorry, but it had to be said to me to get me unstuck, and I’m hoping it will help you do the same.
Let’s take off our masks for a minute. Get real with me, raw, honest, vulnerable, no ego.
Are you really a professional photographer?
Or an information collector?
You know what I’m talking about…the fact that you’re reading this blog right now might itself be a sign that you are more collector than photographer.
Pop quiz:
- Do you spend more time making photographs or reading about / watching videos about making photographs?
- Do you spend more time talking to potential clients or reading about what to say (sales & marketing) to potential clients?
- Do you spend more time talking to strangers about your business or talking to your friends about your business?
Eeeeeeeeeesh… I am 100% convicted by every one of these questions.
Which is why my dear friend Steve Arensberg recently had the “come to Jesus” talk with me… That talk broke my pattern of mental masturbation (should I do this or that? what’s the perfect next step? what’s the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?) and got me to DO THE WORK and hit PUBLISH on my art, my new book, Freemium Photography.
One of my beta readers, Laci Reynolds, said this was one of the most powerful lines in the whole book:
“Your photography can’t change anything for the better – not your life, not your family, not your friends, not your community, not your market, not the world – if you never do anything with it.”
This is why I ask the hard question of you today, my friend:
Are you a professional photographer or an information collector?
If you’re the latter today, it’s totally okay: the very first step is admitting you have a problem.
The next is to do something about it.
A powerful challenge: stop reading, stop watching videos, stop buying books and workbooks and courses – including mine… And don’t consume one more word of ‘information’ until you are ready to implement and take action.
Read one word, one sentence, one chapter at a time, and then take action on it.
Watch one video at a time, then take action on it.
Read one blog post, or e-mail, then take action on it.
Stop the mental masturbation of consuming information and feeling like you’ve made progress because of it.
Proof is in the production, right?
What action have you produced, what change have you produced, what client- or market- or even self-facing improvement have you produced as a result of what you’ve just read or watched?
Sometimes that production is private: “I am making the personal rule right now that I will not consume one more e-mail, blog post, book, or video unless I’m ready to stop and take action on what I learn.”
Sometimes that production is public: “I am calling Stacy right now to ask if I can interview her for a testimonial, and then I’m putting that testimonial with her photo on my web site and social media pages.”
But there must be fruit for all the time you’re spending in the garden.
If there’s not yet, or very little to show for your time, that’s 100% okay – there is no time like right now to change.
It can be scary. And confusing. And frustrating.
But you can do this.
I’ve done it. I’ve drifted and had to come back and make that change from consumption to creation and connection over and over again. To err is human, right?
Grace. Forgiveness. But, then, change.
Don’t know how? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. Ready to ‘start over’ and take action? Pick up a copy of my new book Freemium Photography, and work your way through chapter by chapter, taking notes and action every step of the way.