Why so serious?
Are you okay?
This is what my coworker asked me last week as I glared intensely at my computer screen, tight in the shoulder and hunched in the back.
I bet as you're reading this e-mail, if you check in with yourself real quick, you'll realize where the tension is settling in your body. Shoulders, back, gut, arms, hands...deeper, head and heart, right?
My pastor on Sunday likened that tension, worry, anxiety, to sitting in a rocking chair.
Back and forth... "Oh Lord, here we go, I bet this is going to turn out badly..."
Back and forth... "This client is going to hate my photos, I know it..."
Back and forth... "I shouldn't ask that person to shoot with me, they'll think I'm crazy or a weirdo..."
Back and forth... "Gosh I can't believe how imperfect my art / pricing / web site / business cards / personality / sense of humor / awkwardness is..."
Stop.
Take a breath.
Shake out that tension.
Get up out of the rocking chair.
And...have some fun.
Did you forget that you own your business?
Did you forget that you are in charge?
Did you forget that you can do more of what you enjoy and less of what sucks?
Did you forget that you're on this journey because you WANT to be?
I forget - trust, I forget all the dang time. That's when I find myself in the rocking chair, back and forth, tensed up like a dog who just ate a pair of momma's nicest shoes. That's when my coworkers or friends ask me, "Dude, are you okay?"
Are you having fun with this journey?
How can you have more fun as a professional photographer?
Not sure? E-mail me and let me know what you're dealing with. I'm always here to help.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. My Freemium Photography book is now available for only $5. In it, I get out of the way, and give you the best business model (from how to make better art, to how to get booked solid, to how to launch) I've seen and tested and refined after 18 years of professional photography. It's simple, practical, and works. Hallelujah, right? :)
Read this if you're socially anxious
I’m not going to tell you to get over it. To just brave up and get outside your comfort zone. Nor to accept defeat.
If you suffer from severe social anxiety, it’s a non-starter to suggest you start cold calling potential co-op partners or approaching strangers at Starbucks. I encourage this kind of direct engagement because it gets you booked solid faster.
But it’s not the only path to success.
I have a lot of heart for my fellow artist-entrepreneurs who suffer from social anxiety. How to grow your art and business when so many ‘normal’ social interactions are anywhere from hard to impossible?
It’s okay. Your path just looks different.
Your path is more passive. Your path is more digital. Your path is slower, but equally persistent, with just as much hustle, and potential.
I know you’re not using social anxiety as an excuse to be lazy, or to not ‘brave up.’ I know that just answering the phone or being the first to reach out by text or e-mail is a BIG deal, with powerful physical and emotional reactions.
Some of us are in wheelchairs. Some of us have weird senses of humor. Some of us are almost blind. Some of us are socially anxious.
- Step 1: Give yourself grace, and let go of the sense that you even need allowance or forgiveness for your social anxiety. It’s just a reality, one ingredient in the recipe that makes you the unique artist and person you are.
- Step 2: Let go of all the BS stories that make you feel bad for how you are, that make you feel unworthy or incapable of success. If you wouldn’t tell someone in a wheelchair or with no hair or with a lisp that they can’t be a professional photographer because of how they are, then stop telling yourself the same.
- Step 3: Let’s brainstorm. If you accept your social anxiety and stop feeling bad about it, if you let it be okay, what are the new rules of your game as an entrepreneur? How are you going to rewrite your story and game plan and road map as a professional photographer to work with your social anxiety instead of through or around it?
Take this idea as far as you can for now. Then start executing on it.
Stuck here? Not sure how to untie this knot? E-mail me and let me know, and we’ll work on it together.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. I have a book in the hopper on how to deploy my Freemium Photography business model specifically for those with social anxiety. Would you like to see me move that book up in my writing queue? Drop me a line and let me know!
How practice overcomes perfectionism
Perfectionism is a killer as a artist-entrepreneur.
We pour so much of ourselves into our work, then tie our identity closely to that work. We get scared to "sell" ourselves because we identify so closely with our art and business - a rejection of our work is a rejection of ourselves.
That hurts.
I'm a people-pleaser, so it's doubly painful for me - not only do I fear rejection, but I don't want to do be a bother, to annoy, to harass. (all fears we hold around asking people to do business with us)
A concept I learned in the audiobook The Practicing Mind is the self-soothing saying of "I'm just practicing."
If we're Mr. or Ms. Big Shot Professional Photographer, there's no room for imperfection.
But if we're "just practicing," imperfection is expected. Even embraced, because we're 'failing forward' - we're trying and testing and learning and growing.
Whenever I get too caught up in my own head and ego, I catch myself, stop, and say, "I'm just practicing."
We'll never be perfect.
We're going to fail - and thus learn - a lot along the way.
And every time I run into a wall, despite the emotions around that, I know I'm facing both a challenge and an opportunity to carry on where others would quit.
Every time I persist, and every time I make progress.
Hey.
It's okay.
Whatever is scaring you, or holding you back, especially if it's your own thoughts and feelings...
It's okay.
Give yourself grace, and tell yourself, "I'm just practicing."
See if that doesn't help get you unstuck and having fun again with your photography.
What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. Laci read my new book Freemium Photography and said "This was an awesome read that pushed me to really think about what I am looking for in my journey as a photographer. It kept me scrolling and wanting to read more and it was perfect timing for where I am at currently." Freemium Photography is now available for immediate download right here.
Focus on your strengths first
You need some wins.
We impatient, self-flagellating human beings tend to want to change completely all at once. We go cold turkey. We don't wean off carbs, we swear them off. We don't start at the gym for 10 minutes, we go for two hours (then can't move for a week). We don't commit to feeling a little better, we set the goal of a summer swimsuit body in 30 days.
Wins build on wins. Mojo, baby.
But the human brain is built of deep-cut neural pathways. Your sugar addiction is a superhighway. Your dream habit of meal prep and lifting heavy at the gym is a bike trail. And your new goal of eating and acting healthy is like trying to divert rush hour traffic down that dirt path.
Likely to end in a wreck.
But...(and this is a good but, for once)
Superhighways start out as wagon trails.
Rough country evolves into wagon trails, trails into paved roads, paved roads into two-lanes into eight-lane cross-country interstates.
Takes time. Takes purposeful effort. Takes some vision, and a commitment to the vision.
How do you evolve your artistic and professional skills into the top 5% of your peers?
Focus on your strengths first.
When I coach a struggling photographer, some of the first assessments and exercises we do are to identify superpowers both known and hidden.
(Do you love reading books and blogs about business and/or photography? Did you know that's a superpower? Most companies with thousands of employees can barely get their people to do mandatory continuing education, much less study independently and passionately to grow their skills.)
This has two purposes:
1. To break the self-destructive obsession with weaknesses.
2. To rediscover the personal foundation of strength upon which that photographer can uniquely build their art and business.
Weaknesses can be shored up later.
Some of those weaknesses will turn out to be powerful differentiators, and surprising strengths when reframed.
But focusing on your strengths first lets you grab low-hanging fruit. It makes your wins come easier and faster. Aren't you tired of feeling stuck and frustrated and discouraged?
Hit the reset button and start over working from the foundation of your unique strengths.
What frustrating, slow, energy-draining work are you doing right now that's leaving you feeling inept and frustrated? E-mail me at james@banderaoutlaw.com and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Here's how to get your Next Step done (finally!)
That thing you know you need to get done…
The thing you need to put a Check Mark next to so you can move on to the Next Step in your progress…
When are you going to do it?
Go ahead, get your calendar out, and schedule the time. Schedule multiple time blocks (15-90 minute chunks) if you’ll need them. Figure half-as-much-again time as you think you’ll need.
Give yourself space, and eustress (positive pressure, ala a deadline), to do the work.
This photography dream is worth it, right?
Prove it.
Committing? Good. E-mail me at james@banderaoutlaw.com and let me know your Next Step, and when you’ll have it finished.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Your feelings probably aren’t helping you win as a photographer
When you look in the mirror, how do you feel?
What do you think?
Who do you see?
If you’re like most people, you’re self-critical: you see imperfections, flaws, mistakes, regrets, things that need to be changed, things you feel powerless to change.
Now, flip the script:
When your best friend looks at you, who do they see?
What do they think?
How do you make them feel?
The mirror is two-dimensional, and often, so is our negative impression of ourselves.
But the people who love us see us fully, in three dimensions - both literally and figuratively. They see our wonderful depth: our wit, our caring, our kindness, our compassion, our intelligence, our humor, our passion, our curiosity, our creativity, our beauty much deeper and richer and more robust than the superficial.
How we as artists see our photography is often the same:
We are eternally unsatisfied, even sometimes disgusted, by the art we make. We see only two dimensions: our art compared to the best art we’ve ever seen.
Again, flip the script:
When your best clients look at your art, what do they see? How do they feel? How does it make them feel?
You will always be your own worst critic.
The Superpower here is (as usual) self-awareness: Know that you are ambitious and thus self-critical, but also that your lens isn’t true.
How you feel about your photography is not how your best clients and potential clients feel. You do no one any favors, you share no blessings with the world, when you hide your work (and your self) from those who would be most blessed by it.
Balance these - ambition and awareness - and give yourself permission to stop feeling so damn bad about yourself as an artist and professional.
Do you struggle with self-defeating negativity? E-mail me at james@banderaoutlaw.com and let me know your story.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Of Dungeons and Dragons and Professional Photography
Don’t worry.
Whatever you’re doing right now to make better art and be a better professional, even if it feels like you're spinning your wheels, is forward momentum.
Steve Arensberg and I were talking recently about that hard, frustrating, slow “grind work” when you’re slogging through a motivational dip, and compared it to “killing rats for experience points in Dungeons and Dragons.”
Keep that in mind when you’re clumsily playing with Manual settings, practicing depth of field work, and photographing your kid/friend/cat for the 316th time.
You’re killing rats for experience points.
It all adds up.
What's the biggest challenge holding you back today? E-mail me and let me know.
- James Michael