What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? 2021 Edition
I've been asking you the same question for 12 years now:
What's the biggest challenge holding you back today?
It's been a minute since I asked, so I thought I'd touch base - let's talk, shall we?
Whether you feel stuck in your art or business or both, I'm here for you guys. I don't write as much as I used to, but I'm always praying peace and progress for you, standing by at the ready to ask annoyingly direct questions that get at the heart of why you're not where you want to be as a professional photographer.
Again, for probably the 1,000th time (plus):
What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Testing your faith as a professional photographer
The frustrations of being an artist-entrepreneur test your faith, right?
Faith in yourself, faith in these possibilities, faith in whether or not you should even bother trying so hard.
Instead of testing your faith, how about we faithfully test?
Just for a few months...
If you feel stagnant and frustrated, here's my challenge to you:
1. Choose a path forward:
Whatever you feel is holding you back from making better photos and earning more clients, choose a path to solve the problem. Stop trying to be perfect, stop trying to figure out every possible outcome, stop having FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) about all the things you're NOT choosing so you can follow this path forward... And choose how you're going to take bold, clear, tangible action to fix what isn't working - OR to test something fun, fresh, new, different, to see if it DOES work for you. This is your TEST.
2. Commit to this path for the next three months:
Whatever you're testing - photography techniques, bravery challenges, how you ask people to do business with you and how often (protip: more is good) - COMMIT to test this path for the next three months. ALL IN. Burn the boats, there's no going back. Just commit your full energy, attention, available time, and heart to really giving this test everything you can give it to be successful.
3. Evaluate at the end:
Set a calendar reminder on a day you can set aside 30-90 minutes and EVALUATE your results. What were you trying to accomplish? What were you trying to make happen? What was different because you chose this path and committed fully to it? Did you see the results you wanted? Why or why not?
And, vitally...
4. Pivot:
What worked? What didn't? What do you want to TEST differently for the next three months to see if it works better, based on this new knowledge - new data - you have to work with because you really gave it your all over the last three months?
Simple, but not easy.
The Resistance will show up. Distraction will lure you away. Self-defeat will try and reign.
It's okay for this to be hard. This is your opportunity to overcome where others quit. This is where you hurt, but learn, and grow, and get better.
"I want to be better."
Choose. Commit. Try hard. Be patient. Have faith. Test and evaluate and pivot.
Be better.
What's stopping you? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Nobody believes you
Nobody believes you.
It's not your fault - spammy marketers have burned out consumers on "value." Everybody's product or service is the best ever.
But...
Ever bought anything on Amazon?
Figuring around the same price, do you buy the 3.5-star widget, or the 4.5-star widget?
This is social proof. Social proof is how you really prove your value to someone who has never worked with you. Social proof is massively powerful. Social proof proves results - social proof proves promises.
Social proof is testimonials.
Real people, real clients, sharing real experiences with you and your photography.
No joke: if you don't know what you're doing with marketing, if you don't know how to market yourself, if you're out of ideas or sick of gimmicks, just start by sharing client testimonials. Anything nice anyone has ever said about you and your work.
"What if I don't have any testimonials?"
Get them. Ask your past clients, free or paid, anyone who has worked with you. Ask them if you can interview them about their experience with you, so you can help them write a testimonial to share with other folks who might be in the market for professional photography.
"What if I don't have any clients?"
Then, like I talk about in Freemium Photography, get busy. Get booked solid with any mix of free and paid clients. You need momentum so you can practice your photography and your business skills, and so you can plant seeds of experiences that can grow into great testimonials.
"What if I'm scared to ask for testimonials? Why can't I just wait for them to come in organically?"
For the same reason it's so hard to passively get the phone to ring with new business. Proactive success almost always precedes passive success. Why shoot with 10 clients and get one testimonial when you can shoot with 10 clients and get nine testimonials? The only difference is being brave enough to ask.
Three questions:
1. Are you currently flooding your marketing with testimonials from happy clients?
2. Why not?
3. What can you do to change that?
If you're stuck, e-mail me and let me know - I read every e-mail.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Decide and move on
Here's a challenge:
You have one hour from the time you read this blog post to finalize (for now) your pricing, policies, and "all the other details" you've been hung up on.
There are no right answers, so trust your gut.
You can change everything anytime.
But you need to get past the stagnation of being "baked in the squat" as Ziglar would say - 100% of your time and energy should be going into getting people in front of your camera.
Absolutely everything else will evolve with experience, but that evolution won't come if you're not actively shooting. You will read and research and discuss and debate and ponder and think your way into photographer limbo.
Take action right now to choose anything, commit to stick with it long enough to see how it does and doesn't work out, and then immediately redirect all of your energy toward getting and staying booked solid.
Dare ya. :)
E-mail me and let me know what decisions you made because of this post.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. This applies to everything in your life: your relationships, your friendships, your job, your home, your self, your health, your project, and your photography business. Being stuck anywhere in life leaves you stuck everywhere else in life. Somebody needs to hear this today... What decisions do you need to make right now to get your life back in flow?
Do you want ease, or fulfillment?
"The problem isn't that we're lazy or incapable - it's just that we're not doing the work that's going to enable us to thrive."
Charlie Gilkey, Start Finishing
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
Listen, you know where this is going, and I'm first in line to be convicted of this unconscious seeking of comfort.
You're not working on what matters most.
You're not doing the work that will make a difference. You're doing the work that's easiest.
You are on the path of least resistance.
I totally get it - that downhill path is soooo easy to walk. You don't even break a sweat.
The problem is, you and I are artists, and we're entrepreneurs. We don't get fulfillment from a life of ease - our fulfillment comes from breaking things. Creative breakthroughs. Breaking through walls, through obstacles, through crowds of naysayers and doubters. Breaking through those old voices in our heads telling us the same old crap about how we can't, we shouldn't, and we never will.
Make a choice. Now.
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
I bet you know what to do next.
Want to talk about it? E-mail me and let me know what's on your heart. I read every e-mail, and I'm always in your corner.
James Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Ease vs. fulfillment as a professional photographer
"The problem isn't that we're lazy or incapable - it's just that we're not doing the work that's going to enable us to thrive."
Charlie Gilkey, Start Finishing
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
Listen, you know where this is going, and I'm first in line to be convicted of this unconscious seeking of comfort.
You're not working on what matters most.
You're not doing the work that will make a difference. You're doing the work that's easiest.
You are on the path of least resistance.
I totally get it - that downhill path is soooo easy to walk. You don't even break a sweat.
The problem is, you and I are artists, and we're entrepreneurs. We don't get fulfillment from a life of ease - our fulfillment comes from breaking things. Creative breakthroughs. Breaking through walls, through obstacles, through crowds of naysayers and doubters. Breaking through those old voices in our heads telling us the same old crap about how we can't, we shouldn't, and we never will.
Make a choice. Now.
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
I bet you know what to do next.
Want to talk about it? E-mail me and let me know what's on your heart. I read every e-mail, and I'm always in your corner.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Testing your faith, or faithfully testing? Three months to a better photography business
The frustrations of being an artist-entrepreneur test your faith, right?
Faith in yourself, faith in these possibilities, faith in whether or not you should even bother trying so hard.
Instead of testing your faith, how about we faithfully test?
Just for a few months...
If you feel stagnant and frustrated, here's my challenge to you:
1. Choose a path forward:
Whatever you feel is holding you back from making better photos and earning more clients, choose a path to solve the problem. Stop trying to be perfect, stop trying to figure out every possible outcome, stop having FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) about all the things you're NOT choosing so you can follow this path forward... And choose how you're going to take bold, clear, tangible action to fix what isn't working - OR to test something fun, fresh, new, different, to see if it DOES work for you. This is your TEST.
2. Commit to this path for the next three months:
Whatever you're testing - photography techniques, bravery challenges, how you ask people to do business with you and how often (protip: more is good) - COMMIT to test this path for the next three months. ALL IN. Burn the boats, there's no going back. Just commit your full energy, attention, available time, and heart to really giving this test everything you can give it to be successful.
3. Evaluate at the end:
Set a calendar reminder on a day you can set aside 30-90 minutes and EVALUATE your results. What were you trying to accomplish? What were you trying to make happen? What was different because you chose this path and committed fully to it? Did you see the results you wanted? Why or why not?
And, vitally...
4. Pivot:
What worked? What didn't? What do you want to TEST differently for the next three months to see if it works better, based on this new knowledge - new data - you have to work with because you really gave it your all over the last three months?
Simple, but not easy.
The Resistance will show up. Distraction will lure you away. Self-defeat will try and reign.
It's okay for this to be hard. This is your opportunity to overcome where others quit. This is where you hurt, but learn, and grow, and get better.
"I want to be better."
Choose. Commit. Try hard. Be patient. Have faith. Test and evaluate and pivot.
Be better.
What's stopping you? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com