Mindset & Money Mastery for Photographers with Karinda K.

You Survived Imaging USA- Now What?!

• Karinda K. • Episode 75

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Feeling overwhelmed by the influx of ideas from photography conferences like Imaging USA? You're not alone. Join us as we unpack the exhilarating yet daunting task of sifting through new strategies and insights without losing sight of what truly resonates with your personal style and business goals. Whether you're an introvert or extrovert, we'll guide you in deciding which innovative approaches to adopt, ensuring they align with your unique personality and needs. As a confessed "workshopaholic," I share my experiences and missteps to help you navigate the post-conference whirlwind with confidence and clarity.

In our talk, we delve into the art of making business decisions that reflect your core values, maximize financial benefits, and enhance client satisfaction. From the practicalities of offering digital files to the philosophy behind client gifts, every choice requires weighing its potential impact. We'll also explore the power of embracing change without waiting for perfection. Hear how a spontaneous pivot from weddings to equine photography led to unexpected success, and learn why trusting your instincts might just be the game-changing move you've been waiting for.

Connect with Karinda!

Thanks for listening!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Mindset and Money Mastery for Photographers the podcast. We help overwhelmed photographers make more money while simplifying their business by mastering their you guessed it mindset and money. Tune in each week for practical and actionable tips to take your photography business up a notch. Let's dive right in.

Speaker 2:

Hey guys, hopefully, if you're listening to this, you have survived Imaging USA. You have made it through. You are probably a little peopled out if you're an introvert. I know every year after a conference I need a few days to just sit by myself in a quiet room because I have peopled so much and, although I love peopling, sometimes I do need a break after a lot of peopling. I think that's the introvert extrovert in me Like I'm an introvert but I also love talking to people, so it's kind of a problem, but I hope you've survived. I hope you had a great time and hopefully you're listening to this on your journey home or you just got home and you're catching up on your favorite podcast. I wanted to share some important things to help you go on your journey after Imaging USA and your recovery from Imaging USA and hope that I can give you some tools that are going to help you take what you've learned and make the most out of the conference. Hopefully you got to come by and see us at the trade show and grab some goodies from us or pick up our book. If you did, make sure you send us a message on social media at Master your Mind and Money on Instagram and reach out and let us know if you've been reading the book or post a picture of you reading your book and tag us on social media and hopefully your brain is not overwhelmed too overwhelmed quite yet with everything you've learned and if you got the book reading that. So let's talk about some things that you can do post-conference to make the most of what you learned and also not get too far sidetracked or too far like one way or the other with everything you've learned. So I know for me I'll just kind of share a bit of my story and my journey, of what it was like when I used to go to conferences or workshops and what I would find myself doing and kind of the lesson I learned out of that. That will hopefully help all of you.

Speaker 2:

So I was what I would call a workshopaholic for a number of years, probably like the first five to six years of my business. I went to, like all these workshops. I'd go to the conferences. I did all the things. We used to go to Texas school a lot, which I do still love Texas school and I wish I could go, but it's always in a weird time of year for me, but I used to do all these workshops, conferences. I'd go to Texas school, I'd do all these things, and what would happen is I would come home on this post-conference, post-workshop high. I'd be so excited about the things I learned, thinking like this is amazing, I have to do everything I learned and I would essentially tear down my business. I would take my business and I would just tear it to the ground and I would try to implement everything I learned, which sometimes left me six months a year down the road scratching my head saying, oh my gosh, what have I done? How did I get here? Because this is not working. I don't even know what I'm doing anymore.

Speaker 2:

Because I was taking things that I had learned that were kind of a highlight reel of other people's businesses and a very short part of other people's business, and I was saying that sounds amazing. It works for her so well or him so well. I'm going to go home and do the same exact thing and I would do it and I would dive headfirst into it. Y'all. I'm the person that would come home like do everything overnight. There was no hesitation of if I was going to do it. It was just like sit down, rebuild my whole business overnight. The next day I'm like look at my new business. I went to a conference and now I have a new business.

Speaker 2:

And then I'd spend the next you know few months year, however long, until I realized what I had done, stumbling and trying to figure out like, why isn't this working? And I think part of it comes from a lot of times when I was making those decisions and just like throwing whatever I learned into my business. It's because I truly didn't understand the full richness and the backstory of why this person was telling me to do this or why this thing worked for this person. Also, a lot of times we are not the same person as the educators or the person we're learning from, and because of that we want to make sure that the decisions we're making in our businesses are actually going to be things that we fully understand, that are going to work for us and also that resonate with who we are as a person us and also that resonate with who we are as a person. If you're an introvert, then something that this really extroverted person does for marketing might not work for you if you're an introvert.

Speaker 2:

One of the things that kind of always resonates with me that I hear people saying like oh, I know I'm supposed to go to networking groups and I know I'm supposed to join, like these chambers or whatever, and be involved, but I hate the idea of going to those meetings and I'm like you don't have to do that. There's other ways to meet people. There's other ways to market yourself. I don't do those things. I hated when I used to go to those meetings. When I photographed weddings, I used to go to those things all the time, like the wedding networking groups and things like that, and I, every time I drive up to one, it was like always at a hotel in a little like room.

Speaker 2:

I would drive up to one, I would sit in my truck and I would literally just sit there like convincing myself to get out of the truck and not to turn around and go home, because the thought of going into these meetings literally made me cringe so bad and I really hated it, really made me cringe so bad and I really hated it. But what I did find is that I really loved going to events with a lot of people where I could have a booth as a vendor and I could talk to a lot of people. So, although I don't go to networking in the same sense of sit in a room full of strangers and have to introduce yourself. I go to events where I have a booth as a vendor and I talk to people. That way, I can talk to people all day long. If somebody walks up to me and they ask what I do, I can talk about it all day long.

Speaker 2:

But going into a room full of everybody that's trying to convince you what they do and that you need to be their next business best friend and refer all your clients to them, that was so uncomfortable for me.

Speaker 2:

So if something doesn't feel right or something doesn't feel like it fits you or your personality or who you are as a person, don't feel like you have to do it, guys.

Speaker 2:

Don't try to fit. What do they say? A square peg in a round hole? Right, it doesn't work and it's going to lead you to feeling like man, I'm really failing, like this person is saying they do this and it's amazing, it makes them all this money and gets them all these clients, or you know they do this thing and it's great, but why isn't it working for me? And I'm going to just give you permission for a second to know that not everything that works for someone else is going to work for you and work for your business and really take time to reflect and decide if this is going to be a good fit for you in your business. So the other thing I want to say here too, and let me think about how to say this if something feels scary, that's okay, because sometimes we will learn things that we know we need to do, but the thought of doing it terrifies us, and we have to be able to discriminate between.

Speaker 2:

This is scary and uncomfortable because I'm going to have to stretch myself and grow a bit to do this and on the other side of this, it's this isn't a good fit for me because it's not what I believe. It goes against my why, it goes against really the heart of the business. And's not what I believe. It goes against my why. It goes against really the heart of the business and the person that I am. Those are two different things and sometimes people will mistake something being scary with an uncomfortable because it's new with this, isn't good for me or this doesn't fit me, and so really take some time to identify, like is this just scary because I'm gonna have to grow to do this thing and it's unfamiliar to me, or is it really not a good fit for me? Don't use it's not a good fit for me as an excuse not to stretch yourself and do the scary thing. And I will honestly say a lot of the things that you should be doing in your business are the scary things. The scary things that require you stretching yourself to do are going to be the things that allow you to get the most growth out of your business. But in order to grow, you're going to have to work on yourself and grow first and be able to work through those moments that feel terrifying inside. So let's talk a little bit about you know how to go through all this information that you've learned and all the notes you've taken and stuff like that, and how to take that and put it into action in your business. So what I recommend doing is giving your brain time to recover. Your brain is going to feel like jello right, probably is. Your mouth might feel like Jell-O too, from talking too much. But give your brain some time to recover. Take out your notebook or wherever you took notes for the conference and read through the things that you learned, okay. Then take some time to highlight all of the things that really are still standing out to you. After a few days. You're off your post-conference high. See what is standing out to you and really what is just jumping off the pages. Like this is what I need to do Highlight those things, go through all of your notes and then pull those things out into a list and as you go through those different ideas and those different topics, I want you to ask yourself some really important questions. I want you to ask yourself some really important questions. I want you to ask yourself why did this instructor tell me that I should be doing this? Right? Maybe it's a piece of business advice, maybe it's you need to go buy this new light because it's amazing, right? Why did they tell me this? What is the reason behind this? Why are they saying this is the best thing to do, or the best option, or the best way? Do I fully understand this? And I always say, like do you understand the psychology, the logic, the reasoning behind the things you're doing in your business? Because if someone tells you like let me think of an example If someone tells you, hey, whenever you're doing your sales, you need to have this option on your price list, and you're like, oh crap, I don't have that option on my price list. I need to add that. Ok, that's great. But why are they telling you that? Why are they saying you need to have this option to maybe buy all of your digital files as an example? Why are they telling me I need to have all of my digital files as an example? Why are they telling me I need to have all of my digital files as an option, or spend this much and get all your digital files, okay. Why are they telling me this? Then the next question is does this fit what I believe, my why, what I value, what's important to me? Well, I don't really think that somebody having all their digital files aligns with something I believe, or you know what it does. I love the idea of my clients having all of their images. I love the idea of having to retouch every single photo. That's great with me. Is this going to work for me? Is it something I believe in? Where do I lay on my opinion about this thing? Right, then the next thing I want you to ask yourself is doing this going to make me more money? Is doing this going to make me more money, save me more time or make my client's life significantly better? So, is it going to make me more money, save me time or make my client's life better? If you're thinking about doing something or buying something or changing something in your business that isn't going to make you more money, then you have to wonder, like is this really worth it? Okay, well, maybe it's not a financial thing, so maybe it isn't going to make me more money, but maybe it'll save me some time. That'll save me time and it'll be worth implementing because it will save me five hours a week or five hours a month, whatever it might be. And then the third question is will this make my client's life better? Because sometimes we hear a piece of advice and things that we're supposed to be doing that we feel like, oh, we need to do this because it's so much better for my clients. I think one of them is like installing wall art for our clients. Okay, cool, that might be really nice to be able to install wall art for our clients. But like, do we really need to do it? Are my clients going to know a difference? If I don't do it, is it going to make me more money? Is it going to make my life easier? No, it's going to give me more stuff to deal with, more logistics. It's not going to make me more money. It's going to lose me a little bit of money because I'm going to have to spend the time doing it myself or hiring somebody to do it for me. And is it going to make my client's life easier? Well, probably not, unless you're doing these huge, giant, intricate gallery walls that have to be spaced perfectly. Most clients can handle hanging up two, three, four pieces of art in their home. They can put a nail on the wall, they have a hammer. It's not rocket science, so like it doesn't really fit any of those things. So why would I do it? Right? And if you're doing it, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but I'm just saying, like, consider that it might not be necessary or it might not be something you have to do in your business, but it might just be something somebody told you once upon a time to do. Another thing that is like client gifts. I feel the same way about client gifts. I'm like client gifts would be amazing, okay, cool. Will they make me more money? No, maybe I would get some clients out of if my clients are super active on social media and they're sharing about their client gifts, but my clients aren't braggy people like posting about stuff that they get. So it's probably not. It's taking me more time and energy and money. Do my clients know a difference if they don't get a gift? No, my clients love what I provide for them their wall art, their products. They get in the mail. Those are a gift alone, right? I'll throw one more thing out there that I have experienced with my coaching clients before is like repackaging and hand delivering wall art or albums and things like that. I had one coaching client who's like I have to get my products in, I have to repackage them, I have to put them in the pretty packaging and deliver it to them. And I asked her I was like is, is this really like? Do you really love this? Is this something that really, just every time a package comes in, you're like do you want to do this? And you're like she's like no, I don't really love doing this, it's kind of a dread. And I'm like OK, I'm like how much time do you spend doing that a week? And she's like at least like two to three hours a week. You know, sometimes more. If I'm having to meet a client, and I was like OK, I'm like do you think your clients would miss the packaging and you delivering them, or do you think they would rather just magically they show up on their doorstep and they're there. And she was like oh, I never thought about it that way, like I just never thought about it. But she's like I just feel like I can't let this go. She's like I feel like this is the one thing. I'm what if something's damaged? What if something's, you know, messed up and I said, well, stuff gets damaged in the mail all the time. What do people do when it gets damaged? Well, they call and they get it. I'm like, yeah, is that any difference in what you can do for them? She's like, well, I guess not. And she was like like held onto this thing that she thought she had to be doing in her business for so long, even though it wasn't serving her, she didn't love it, it just didn't feel like a good fit and it was taking so much time. But she felt like she had to do it because everyone had told her she had to do it and it took me, giving her permission, to say, like we don't. Like you don't have to do that. As a photographer, it's not a necessity. I tell my clients everything comes right to your doorstep, it's going to get there super fast, faster than if it comes to me and I have to get it to you. I want you to get as fast as possible, so I'm just going to send it straight to you and if will get it fixed for you, no big deal. And they're like, oh, okay, cool, thanks, we appreciate it. Right, it makes my life easy. It makes my client's life easy. It makes things faster and simpler, right. So I always look through the lens of those types of things, but also when you're making business decisions, like changing your pricing, changing the way you're doing things, changing your structure, whatever it may be. Guys, there are a million things to do business. There are a million ways to do this business. There are a million ways to price yourself. There's a million ways to do things, and if it works for a lot of people, doesn't mean it's for you. And I just want to give you permission to like not do what you think you have to do because everyone else does it, but make sure that what you're doing is actually working. And so I always say I've tried things a million different ways. I've tried pricing one way, this way, that way. I've tried packages. I've tried create a collection. I've tried choose one from each package. I've tried no packages at all. Right, I've tried all the things that people told me to try whenever I went to conferences and workshops and, at the end of the day, where I ended up was somewhere in between what a lot of people told me to do and a place that nobody actually told me to do. Really, everyone was like you have to do it this way and this way, and I thought that those were the only ways to do it until I took the best parts of all of the things and I made it my own. So don't be afraid to take the best parts of what you learned from other people and make them your own as well, you know. I really just want you to remember that if you're here at the conference, if you've been at a conference any conference, as a matter of fact, what you're doing is already good. Don't feel like you have to destroy it Like pat, pat yourself on the back and say like I'm doing a good job, I'm not failing right now, even if you feel like you just like your brain was blown and there were all these things and you just feel like you need to change so much. Right, pat yourself on the back and say it's okay, I'm doing a good job, and then really take your business and look at ways to make little, subtle tweaks. Yes, there might be times when you just have to like wipe something clean and replace a part of it, but I don't ever want you to destroy your whole business because you learned something that you think like wow, I'm really failing at this, I need to just burn the whole thing down and start over. I don't think that is true for most of you. I think most people are doing things incredibly right in different ways. I think the thing that you have to remember is that it's far easier to take what you're doing and just tune up and tweak and adjust little things here and there and make the engine of your business run better, as opposed to just replacing the entire engine. So if you ever feel yourself with that urge of like I need to burn it down, I need to start completely over. What I want you to remember and hear in the back of your head is I don't need to put a new engine in my business. I just need to fix the engine I have, because that is going to give you so much peace of mind, so much clarity, so much like just take the pressure off of you to start from scratch. The other thing I'll also encourage you to do and I know I hear people saying this a lot it's like I know I need to do this thing, but I'm going to wait till the end of the year. I'm going to wait until the end of the season. I'm going to wait till the summer, whatever it might be. If there's something you know you need to do in your business, just change it now. Just make the pivot now and change it now. Don't play the like I need to wait until the year's over. I need to wait till next year or this year I'm going to learn all about this thing and then next year I'm going to do it right. Just start making the change. It's far easier to make the change now and to stumble and fall and give yourself permission to change and adjust and grow as you stumble through it, than it is to try to learn everything under the sun about something and make it perfect and then make the change. I was talking to somebody one day at the conference and they were saying, like I struggle so much with like perfectionism and it has to be perfect, so I'd rather just not do it, I'd rather not post on social media, I'd rather not put myself out there because it needs to be perfect if I do. And I told them I was like I have a sticker for you, because I do have stickers. They say done is better than perfect. Some of you might have grabbed them at the trade show and you know, I just really believe that the only way a perfectionism is and perfect is kind of like a thing that doesn't really exist, like is anything ever truly perfect? Nothing is ever truly perfect. There is no perfectionism that exists in this world. The world is a broken world. All of us are broken in some way. All of us are not perfect. Right? People do not expect us as people, us as business owners, to be perfect. People have sympathy. People can forgive you if you mess up. People can say, like, that's okay, it's fine, we can fix things if we screw them up, right, for the most part, unless you lose, like a bride's wedding photos and that's a whole nother thing. But for the most part, right, people can forgive us if we mess up. Our clients and our business is not going to be like, ruined. Our clients are not going to hate us if we make a mistake. If we post a social media post, that isn't perfect. If we blog, but the blogging isn't SEO optimized, perfectly, right, the world is not going to end. What we do as photographers is not life or death. For the most part, right, like, for the most part. There might be a few of you that have some life or death photography careers. But I bet most of you do not Like this is not the end of the world. So put yourself out there, do the thing, make the change, Even if you don't feel like it's perfect, even if you feel like you might not have all the knowledge quite yet. Just go to it. I think the best example of this that I can share from my own business is I decided I was going to give up weddings and newborns Literally overnight, decided I'm not phot, give up weddings and newborns Literally overnight, decided I'm not photographing weddings and newborns anymore. I am going to be a horse photographer. And I was on a trip to Kentucky. I was in a hotel room by myself that night and I said I'm building an equine photography brand and I built a website and I put a new logo together and I put it out to the world and said I'm an equine photographer. And the next day I told somebody like I'm going to photograph 365 horses this year because I'm going to get really good at being a horse photographer this first year. And I remember that person kind of just looking at me like oh, that sounds cool. And then I went home the next night to my hotel room and I built this entire web page called 365 Days of Horses. I started an Instagram account called 365 Days of Horses and I essentially told the world and everybody I knew that I was going to photograph 365 horses that year. Was I prepared? No. Did I know exactly how it was going to happen? No, I had an idea and a vision. Did I know if it would work? No, but I thought it would. My business coach, when she found out that I did this a few weeks later, she was like what are you talking about, karinda? That is crazy. You're not doing that. You're not doing image reveals for 365 sessions this year. That is insane. You just need to sell in an online gallery. She was an IPS coach and she told me to sell in an online gallery when I was going to photograph 365 horses and I was like whatever? And I did it and it was amazing and it built what I have today and it's the foundation of my business and I'm very well known for what I did that year. But I didn't overthink it. I didn't over perfect it. I just went out and put myself out there and did it not knowing, not being perfect, not having a clue what it was going to result in. But I did it, and I did it without thinking. And I will say too that sometimes you just have to have an idea, pop into your head and go for it before you have the chance to talk yourself out of it, to talk yourself into, like, all the ways it could go wrong or to convince yourself that this is a stupid idea or that it's not something you should do. Sometimes you just have to, like, go for it and see what happens. So I said, think about things before you do them and ask yourself why and do all that, but sometimes also know that it's okay to just take the dive and do something when it feels right. I had a plan, I had a strategy, I had all those things and I was like I'm going to go do it. It also came from my own brain. It wasn't something someone else told me to do. I was like just had this harebrained idea to become an equine photographer and to do this project. So you know, sometimes it's okay to do big, crazy, wild things and jump off the ledge and just do them without really, you know, sitting there and worrying about them, do them imperfect, do them not thought through all the way. Sometimes Do them without giving yourself the chance to back out. The other thing is tell the world when you're doing big things, because it's really hard to back out of something when you've already told the world you're doing it, and that will also sometimes help you be a little bit more accountable to what you're doing in your business. So we talked a bit about how to take the information you've learned go through. Ask yourself why did they tell me to do this? Is it going to save me? Is it going to make me money or save me time, and is it going to make my client's life better? We also talked about not waiting to go do the thing and implement the thing, like just jump off the ledge and do the thing whenever you feel like you need to go do it. Don't drag your feet on doing it or say I'm going to wait till next year to do it. Just go do it. And the other thing I want to share with you about post-conference recovery and things is make sure you go back and connect with those people that you met at the conference. Make sure that you reach out to the people that you might have bumped into in class. Make sure you reach out to people that you met at the trade show maybe educators that you listened to, that you really loved, or somebody you met that made a difference or that said something to you that really helped you get through the conference or just made your day. Reach out to those people. Tell the speakers how much you enjoyed them. Reach out to your vendors. Tell the vendors that were at the trade show like how much you enjoyed getting to see their stuff and how good it was to meet them. Reach out to the photographers you randomly bumped into and check in on them and ask them like, hey, how are things going? Did you do that thing that lady told us to do in class, or are you not going to do it? Like, hey, I'm trying to do this and I'm curious. Do you remember what she said about this? Like, reach out, talk to those people. I know that those are the same people next year at imaging that you're going to get to meet again and see again and hopefully spend time with and build these amazing communities with. I know over the last several years I've built such an amazing community of people that I am excited to see in real life at imaging and hang out with and there's just always so many great people and so many great conversations to be had. And honestly, I like to say now like some of the best things I learned and some of the best things that come out of imaging oftentimes happen not in class, they happen between the classes, they happen at the trade show, they happen at dinner, at night, at breakfast, whatever it might be. Those are the things that can really help you in your business, make you not feel alone. And also, if you came to imaging this year and you're listening to this and you're, like I felt so loaded imaging, I did not talk to people, I didn't know anybody, I just felt like a wondering. I don't know what did they say, like a wondering puppy dog lost in the wild or something. I don't think that's the saying. I'm trying to think of what it is, but I can't think of it right now. And that was you when you felt like you were kind of alone at the conference this year. Next year, when you come to the conference, like, make sure you join. There's a couple of Facebook groups. I have a Facebook group I started. It's called like Imaging Connection Group. Look for meetups that are happening. Search Facebook for events for, like Imaging USA meetups and reach out honestly, like reach out before imaging next year. If I can connect with you, we can go have breakfast or dinner or grab a coffee or whatever it might be Like. I am always happy to do that. I always try to have a get together or a meetup where I can introduce people and help people get to know each other so they don't feel alone. My first year at imaging was really scary and I actually left early because I was so overwhelmed by all the people and not knowing anybody and I just don't want anyone else to feel like that. So make sure that you reach out, connect, I will meet, introduce you to somebody, I will meet you. Whatever I can do to help make your next conference that much better and hopefully we will see you next year and hopefully you can listen to our podcast more. We have so many great episodes on different topics and if you go back and start from the beginning, there is just so much great advice on money, on mindset, on business, on all the things. Today was a little bit of a taste of it. Today's episode was just a kind of more like freestyle. I just got on and said what I thought needed to be said. But there's other topics too that are more strategic and helping you in your business. People always say they get like real, actual advice in my podcast instead of just antidotal fluff stuff. So I appreciate that and I always try to bring real good advice to y'all. I hope you'll have an amazing week. I hope y'all are recovering from the conference and I hope to see you next year. Reach out to us on social media. Leave us a rating and review. If you love this podcast, tag us in your post if you're reading our books from the trade show. If you didn't grab our book at the trade show, you can go to the link in our podcast description and grab our book, the Unicorn, a business book for photographers, where we share all the things we wish that somebody would have just put into a book and told us as we were building we, I as I was building my business, it's really truly amazing. It covers mindset, it covers pricing, it covers client experience, it covers sales. Without feeling like a sleazy salesperson, it really covers all the important foundational topics and I've had people from very beginners who are just starting their business read to really advanced business owners that have said they've taken something out of the book and they've really enjoyed it, so make sure you check that out if you didn't grab a copy of the Trade Show. I love each and every one of y'all. Thanks for listening to the podcast and I will see you next year or hopefully before next year at something. Bye, guys.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to support the podcast, please make sure you share it on social media or leave a rating and review. As always, you can check out the links and resources in the show notes over at masteryourmindmoneycom. To catch all the latest from me, you can follow me on Instagram at masteryourmindmoney and don't forget to join our free Facebook group Photography Business Tune-Up with Karinda Kay. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.