Show notes
Now that everything has changed in the world and in many of our industries, how do we know what we should be working on right now when maybe our stores are closed or were unable to go do photo shoots or whatever it is that you are doing in whatever business you're in. with all of the changes that have happened in the world. [00:00:17] How do we know how to keep our businesses alive and move forward? How can we decide what's most important for us to be working on during this liminal time of transition? That's what we're going to talk about today. [00:00:30] [00:00:30] This pandemic hit at a really interesting time in my business. It was already a transition point because I had been working really hard to get an evergreen funnel finished. And after that, it was time for me to start transitioning into driving traffic into my evergreen funnel, like the work was done and now I just needed to get people to get into it and do it. [00:01:09]But then when all of this hit, there was this deep desire in me, not immediately, but pretty soon thereafter, to really be a leader through this all and bring positivity to the masses. Because I found in my darkest moments. Things that helped me get through where when I would talk to friends and family who were encouraging, who were positive, who brought confidence back to me and reminded me who I was and that even if everything changed, even if the photography industry completely, you know, like self-destructed and disappeared overnight and my business was gone, I could find something new to do that I was resourceful, that I was smart, that I was. [00:01:56] Going to get through this, and I was resilient and I needed that so much. I soaked it in. Not only that, but seeing the good that's coming out of this, seeing people connecting with each other in ways they haven't in maybe all of my lifetime. You know, like seeing people really get. ho, like think about others and begin to help them and seeing people sing from the balconies in Italy together and just seeing the beautiful bright spots amongst all the darkness and all of the panic and all of the fear, the bright spots, the positivity. [00:02:34] Brought me through this, that reminder of who I am, despite my circumstances brought me through this and I knew in my belly that I needed to help you remember who you are, that we are going to get through this and yeah, our businesses may look completely different after this. Our personal brands may look completely after this, or our personal brands may look completely different after this. [00:03:02] But we will get through this and we will come up on the other side. Having learned lessons that we never would have been able to learn if we hadn't gone through this. And I just felt so compelled to share this message. I mean, I just, even now, like I cannot help but to want you to see this as an opportunity to question. [00:03:24] Everything that you've done and say, is this really what you want to be doing? Or maybe there's something you've always wanted to try or do that's different. Or maybe there's something about you that you want to develop. Like, this is a small example, but I want to, I want to, I've always wanted to be a good guitar player and I just never took the time to do it. [00:03:43] I was. You know, I've said several times over that if I could go back to when I was a kid and I was super musical as a kid, really talented on clarinet, and I always said, if I could go back, I would have learned guitar instead because playing clarinet alone is not very fun. You really need to be in an ensemble to make it sound good and to really get the most of it. [00:04:01] And I love that. Like I, I, I'm in a community band right now. I have a B flat clarinet and a little E for clarinet that I just love to play in an ensemble, but alone. A clarinet is not a solo instrument, it's just not. But guitar really is. And I just, I wish I could play guitar as well as I play clarinet because I would be amazing. [00:04:22]And I was just said, ah, I really regret that. And it hit me like, Oh, I can still do that now. Like if I just spend consistent time practicing, if I make it part of my routine, it wouldn't take that many years for me to really be a great guitar player. Anyways. I know that's a weird example. Has nothing to do with business, but it has everything to do with what we're talking about today, which is finding focus. [00:04:45] And you know, for me, knowing that I wanted to inspire you to figure out what is it you really want and to take this as an opportunity to explore maybe some of the things that you've been putting off. Because it was just easy to keep doing what you were doing. Cause it brought in the money. you know, you were getting business and it took a lot of time. [00:05:05] And so there wasn't a lot of extra time to explore some of these other hobbies or these other things that maybe you wanted to pursue. And so, you know, for me, I felt that compelling. Like I just feel this deep, compelling. Pull. It's a fire. It's, it's, I can't not do it to help you and to anyone else out there who happens to hear this or come across me on Facebook or Instagram or wherever, I can't help but to want to help inspire you to really dig deep and figure out who you are and to bring hope even. [00:05:40] Even in the darkest situations, like I know that things might be really hard for you. I know they're hard for us right now, and I know you might be dealing with losses. You may know people who've passed away. I've started hearing my first stories, not of people I know yet, but. Of people I know, having people they know pass away from this pandemic, and it's terrifying, right? [00:06:02] And so we're gonna hear more of those stories, and I know we're all going to know somebody who's passed away from this by the time it's over, if it's really as bad as they say it's going to be. And so. Number one for me, I, this whole thing caught me off guard and just makes me want to podcast all the time and share hope and share inspiration and love on my people. [00:06:25]but I also recognize that I need to figure out how to make money through this. My business fully supports our family. We have no other income coming in and it has for years and it's been great, but now we need to figure out how to keep making money if my industry completely falls apart. Plus, I've got a bunch of admin crap that I've got to deal with. [00:06:45] You know, I've been not wanting to deal with doing taxes, but it's on the list of things that have to get done. But thankfully, now we've got that three month extension if we want it. But, you know, there's just all this stuff. And, And I sat down, you know, after we did the one K weekend and I got that funnel running and, and I had to just sit down one day and I was just like, what am I supposed to focus on? [00:07:07] Like I want a podcast, I want to get into my Facebook groups and I want to just love on my people and help them succeed and inspire them and give them ideas for how to do this and all this stuff. And, I was just, I felt like I was going in circles like, what do I focus on first? What do I do next? Like it was already a pivot point in my business and now with all of this thrown in, it's like, how can I do this? [00:07:31] Like how can I do all of it and possibly do it with less. People. I've had an awesome team. I happened to have just lost a few team members before right before this for totally unrelated reasons. And so, you know, we're, we were right in the process of hiring more and now it's like, well, do we really even hire those people or do we cut back and just run lean? [00:07:53] And if so, like, how much can I take on myself that, you know, maybe before I had team members doing like this podcast right now. I'm producing my podcast. So, you know, it's just, it's okay because I feel so drawn to do this that I can't, not, even though I don't really have help with it right now. So, and I can't really, honestly, I'm afraid to spend money doing this because this doesn't make me money, you know? [00:08:14] Right. This is my passion project. So, So I, I just, I kept going in circles like, do I podcast? Do I not? Do I, do I do something else? Do I make a new product? Do I offer a coaching thing? How do I get through this situation? Making the money I need to support my family, but also listening to that call to inspire people and how do I do that best? [00:08:34] And like, Oh my gosh, you, you're already hearing me talk a lot. But my mind was like, woo. Crazy, crazy. And that's okay. So I took some time. To get focused. And I know maybe you are sitting there saying, gosh, I just cannot focus. It's just all these things swimming through my mind. And so here's how I got focused in my business and really figured out not just business, but personal life too, and really figured out what I should be moving forward with. [00:09:04] Okay. So the first thing I had to do, and I didn't want to do this, and I'd. I'm hoping that you've already done this, but in the case that you haven't, I took some time and I faced all the what ifs that were going through my mind. Okay, so what if my business sales dropped significantly or completely stopped and we no longer had money coming in? [00:09:25] Like, what if I had to cut back on team or not hire somebody new? what did I need to do? Like who were the absolute essentials that I would keep no matter what? And who would maybe. Have to be let go, or you know, like if I can't pay them or laid off temporarily, right? If I had to do it mostly myself, what are the big rocks in my business that had to keep moving forward? [00:09:48]and that depended on what my main goals were. And so I had to figure out what my goals were. And the final thing was what does self care look like when you're stuck at home? Especially if you're stuck at home with six kids because it can be crazy. And I know for me, getting out as big part of my self care, and so I had a lot of things I wanted to really face and go through and here's, here's kind of where I came. [00:10:13] And it wasn't like a doomsday thing, like, yeah, it's. Feels that way sometimes, but when you finally face it, you can acknowledge your fears and just say, okay, well, worst case scenario, which may happen, well you don't know, but it might not, you know, it doesn't hurt to at least prepare for that. Where are we really at? [00:10:30] And just see and say, what would things look like if, how could we do what we want to do? Despite. All of these difficulties. Okay. So I started with my personal stuff, like what is it that I personally really wanted to focus on during this time? For me and for me, a personal thing was, I feel this, like I said, this fire to inspire people, and I really felt this compulsion to create content that would genuinely help my photographers get through this. [00:11:01] Or even you, whatever you do, whether you're a photographer or not, because this is more. I'm speaking in my mind, I'm speaking to all online entrepreneurs here, not just photographers. It's not a photography podcast. it's anybody who wants to have a personal brand, right? And so no matter what industry you're in, you know, I want to help you and inspire you, and I want to do podcasts and I want to do Facebook lives and all this stuff. [00:11:25]so. That was a big thing for me is, okay, I want to do it. This is a personal thing that I want to do. This isn't a moneymaker right now. Maybe one day it'll be, but right now as I'm recording it, it's not. Number two. I wanted to practice physical distancing, but not social distancing. I'm extremely extroverted and I knew that I was going to need to connect with people more than ever. [00:11:48] Because of all this isolation. And so I hate the term social distancing. I'm all about physical distancing and I think it's absolutely important. But don't stop meeting with people. I knew I needed to stay connected with them, but not only that, I knew that I wanted to help people connect with each other and connect with my brand and my personal brand. [00:12:07] So if I could help people, and you know, if you feel like you're closer to me because you're listening to this or that, I've helped in any way. Like. That makes me happy. That's what I want to do. And I've added a lot of personalization stuff to my business because I really want to connect with my people and I want to help them connect with each other because isolation is just going to feed any fear and shame. [00:12:28] We need each other to get through this in a healthy way. So. I wanted to help other people keep from getting isolated. I wanted to learn the guitar. I'm like, it's time. If I'm ever going to do it, why not now? Already talked about that. Plus, I know that I want to hike or snowshoe three to five times per week. [00:12:46] Now, I prefer to hike than snowshoe, but we still have too much snow on the ground, not to snowshoe. if all of this blows over, I'm signed up to do a 50 K trail race in the middle of may on this period. Your hiking trail, which is. Insane. It's 31 miles. I am not ready, even though I just did my Burkey a month ago, which is a 34 mile, ski cross country ski up and down, all sorts of Hills. [00:13:09] So that's insane too. I actually got a little bit of an injury to my hip flexor during that, so I took three solid weeks off and this past week, which was my fourth week since the Berkey, can't believe it's been that long. It feels like. Ages, but, I only did a couple small hikes just to kind of test it out. [00:13:25] Thankfully it seems to be healed, but, I want to get out three to five times a week. And thankfully I live very remote, so there's no people, like there's hardly anyone here. So the nice thing is I can get out without having to worry about, you know, running into lots of people in spreading the bug or contracting the bug, thankfully. [00:13:42] So that was kinda what I wanted to focus on on a personal side. [00:13:49] Then I talked. Then I took some time to really focus on what my big rocks were for my business. Like if I could only have a couple of outcomes in my business, what would I want to see happen? So number one was I wanted to see people actually take action and do the one K weekend challenge. both so that they can get results and keep moving forward. [00:14:12] But also. Practically so that they would have the money that they needed in case they wanted to keep really diving deep into personal brand photography, using my story sessions system, which has been proven to get people, clients, you know, month after month by over a thousand photographers. We've got in there. [00:14:31] It's amazing. And, so I really wanted to get people doing the one K weekend challenge and taking. Action. Okay. second, I want my photographers to survive this. And both the people who have bought from me in the past and are in my alumni and people who've never bought a thing from me, like I genuinely want to help as many photographers survive this pandemic as possible. [00:14:58] And I've already seen a few people say they're, they're quitting, they're, they're done. And that just breaks my heart. They haven't even tried yet, but it was our, it was kind of like. The straw that broke the camel's back. You know, they've been struggling a long time, and this is just, they're done. They're just tired. [00:15:1…
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