There's safety in doing nothing
They say all human behavior is purposive.
Even what you say to yourself is a bad habit meets a need. It may be a non-conscious one, but some result is sought, even if it's destructive but comfortingly familiar.
Are you shooting as much as you want to be?
Are you reaching out to your market to get more paying customers?
If you're trying to become a more successful professional photographer, but you're not doing the things that lead to that result, the question is an obvious...why not?
There's a sense of safety in doing nothing...can't take a bad photo if you take no photos. Can't get a bad client if you have no clients. Can't have to give someone a refund if nobody pays you.
The brain is really good at survival, but it hasn't evolved as fast as the world has.
We fear failure and rejection like we fear being eaten by a tiger. Same fight or flight response. Same adrenaline rush and sweaty palms. Same overthinking worst-case scenarios until we're paralyzed, or just slip away into distraction so we don't have to confront our (purposive!) limiting thoughts and actions.
My encouragement today is to bring your non-conscious motivations to light, and make them answer to you for how they are stopping you from achieving your professional photography dreams.
"Why don't I do the things I know I need to do to get what I truly want?"
If you'd like to turn this exercise into a conversation, just e-mail me and tell me what's going on - what you feel is holding you back. Or if you don't even know what's holding you back, or why you're not doing the things you want to do. It's okay...it's normal. :) And a good conversation can help get you unstuck.
James Michael
www.parttimephoto.com
It shouldn't have to be so hard, right?
Is photography grinding you down?
"Why does this have to be so hard?"
"Ugh I'm SO not excited to work on this..."
"I'm so tired of nothing getting better."
A pastor I'm studying with talks about a concept called convergence:
Where your talents and skills align with your passion. Where what you're good at aligns with what you're interested in; professionally, a convergence that leads to something people will pay you for. (I can't convince anyone to pay me to be mediocre at playing videogames...hmm...)
If your back were out of alignment, you'd feel pain, and do what it takes to get it right.
I want to set you free tonight.
I don't know who this is for, but it may be you.
You don't have to do it this way.
Let that sink in... It doesn't have to be this way. Chasing your dream shouldn't hurt all the time. It shouldn't be a grind.
I want you to let it go.
Let what go?
Let go of whatever you're stuck on. You've wrapped your thoughts, imagination, fears and anger around something... Something you think is absolutely essential.
You've convinced yourself.
I want to free you from the lie that's holding you back.
"BUT JAMES MICHAEL, my photography sucks! I can't get clients! They won't pay! My web site is a mess! I'm a has-been and an imposter! There's nothing I can do!"
I know. You've been telling me for 12 years.
I promise you... It's okay. I just need you to let it go.
Your art is good enough. Your skills are good enough. Your people are out there...you just need to connect with them, and help them. Help them get what they want...what you have to give. You can start simple, start small, start today (or at least this weekend). You can take steps toward where you dream of being.
It's that easy. (And that complicated.)
My encouragement: get clear on how you want this professional photography business to make YOU feel. What needs to happen to make YOU feel that way? What needs to change? What steps can help?
Does that make your path a little clearer?
Whether it does or doesn't, please, e-mail me and let me know where you're at in your journey, and what you're feeling about where you're at today.
I'm here to help.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
How to slay anxiety as a photographer going into the New Year
The responses to my recent "What's holding you back?" e-mail have been awesome. I'm so glad to hear from you!
(if you're not subscribed to my e-mail newsletter, you can get on the list using the sign-up box on the right side of any page of PTP, or just drop me an e-mail and I'll add you :)
Maurizio is capturing in photos this historic pandemic experience from the epicenter of its outbreak in Italy. He's working on a book in both Italian and English, which I'll share with you guys as it's available, if you'd like to see how one fellow PTP reader is turning what could be a downturn into a new opportunity.
Penny responded and said she's anxious about getting back into photography in 2021, doubting her ability to perform behind the camera.
I'm sure hundreds (thousands?) of us feel the same.
I know you've read it many times before, but I'll share again Roosevelt's wonderful analogy of the arena:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
My take:
The quickest and surest way to overcome photography anxiety is inside the arena.
The longer you are outside the arena staring in, wondering, imagining, not knowing, the greater the resistance you'll build until you finally choose never to step in the arena at all.
"Not worth it," you'll convince yourself. It's easy. We've all done it. Many times. Many regrets there.
My encouragement to you today, is if you're anxious about getting back into the arena of professional photography here in 2021, stop trying to overcome that anxiety from the outside in.
Step into the arena, and realize your fears were shadows, trying to keep your blessings locked away from those who would be most blessed by them - your subjects, your clients, your family through financial boon and your joy of creative expression.
Once more into the breach, to quote another famous line.
What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. Start small. Photograph a friend. Have fun. Less stress and perfectionism, more curiosity and wonder. Invite your favorite clients in for a shoot. Practice social distancing, wear a mask, be safe, but again, have fun. You're a photographer because you choose to be - never forget that.
How do you want to feel in 2019?
"To do what is just with all one's soul, and to tell the truth. What remains for you to do but enjoy life, linking each good thing to the next, without leaving the slightest interval between them?" - Marcus Aurelius
Danielle LaPorte's The Desire Map has been my most recommended book of 2018.
So many of us have some system in place for goals, but often those goals are technical: I want more clients, I want more money, I want to make more and better photos with more confidence.
Good goals, of course.
But a powerful shift I've experienced in 2018 has been redesigning my life goals around how I want to FEEL.
Three powerful questions to help you prepare for 2019:
- What were some experiences this year that made you feel a way you DON'T want to feel?
- What were some experiences this year that made you feel how you DO want to feel?
- What can you do differently in 2019 to feel LESS of what you don't and MORE of what you do want to feel?
This is some 30,000-foot work, as Covey would call it. And unless your body and being and balance and business are exactly how you want them, there's worthwhile work to be done to get at HOW you're going to make 2019 better than 2018.
Write out your thoughts on these questions, and/or e-mail me at james@banderaoutlaw.com and share them with me - I read every e-mail, and I really am here to help however I can.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. ProTip: If you want to engage this exercise but can't right now, open your calendar app and block the time to do so, as soon as possible - tonight if you can. This may be the most powerful thing you do to reprogram how good your new year is going to be.
Are you a professional photographer or an information collector?
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.
Who are you doing this for?
It's okay to do this for yourself - to pursue a career in professional photography for the sake of your own creative expression, social expansion, and financial betterment.
But who else are you doing this for?
I make art for myself... I think I'd go crazy if I didn't spend most of my waking hours creating.
But I also make art for my kids... So they see the example of embracing your inner truth, fighting the resistance, and putting your heart and soul out there against all outside (and inside) pressure.
And I make art for my clients... I've been blessed with the talent and interest to make photos people are grateful to have, and to write words people are encouraged to read.
And I make art for my community... The financial boons of staying the course through the free season and into paid work gives me more to give back to the good causes in my city and world.
And I make art for my God... Grant Cardone, longtime sales trainer, talks about how it is one's ethical duty to take what you have to offer the world and get it into the hands of as many people as possible who would be blessed by it. To shy away from this calling because of internal fear or external adversity is an insult to the creator who endowed you with the seeds of talent, opportunity, and inspiration. For the less spiritually inclined, Gary Vaynerchuk preaches that being alive at all is winning the ultimate lottery, and if you waste it, "You suck."
This to say, your dream of success as a professional photographer is anything but selfish.
Yeah, the vision in your head might be of big checks from clients and recognition from your peers, of expensive camera gear and the best studio equipment and a personal assistant...but the impact of your success is a waterfall of blessings that pour out on you, your family, your clients, your community, and our shared world.
Take a minute to feel good about this. What you're doing is pretty awesome. :)
Having a hard time feeling awesome in your journey? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com.
"I am my own worst enemy..."
So many of us photographers say it:
"I am my own worst enemy."
Let's flip the script:
"I am my own greatest hero."
What would that look like for you? To be your own greatest hero in this photography journey.
E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. Book 2 in my Freemium Photography series, The Photographer's Journey, will address this powerful internal shift. If you haven't picked up your copy, you can grab Freemium Photography for only $5.