Mindset & Money Mastery for Photographers with Karinda K.

Why Aren't You Doing What You Know You Need to Do?

• Karinda K. • Episode 76

Share episode

Send us a text

Join our free Masterclass for photographers February 17th-19th, 2025. Save your seat now using the link! https://masteryourmindmoney.com/unicorn-masterclass

Ever felt like you're spinning your wheels in your photography business? You're not alone. I once faced the daunting challenge of transitioning from a successful career in wedding and newborn photography to a new world of equine photography. Through that journey, I learned that embracing uncertainty and fear can lead to unexpected growth. By committing to ambitious projects, like capturing 365 horses in a year, I discovered how sticking to my strengths and defying conventional advice propelled my business forward, and I'm here to share how you can do the same.

Shifting your mindset is the cornerstone of breaking free from comfort zones. Oftentimes, photographers struggle with underestimating their worth, fearful of charging what they're truly worth. It's time to challenge those mental barriers and rewrite those limiting beliefs with positive affirmations. By recognizing your own achievements, you'll find that growth often requires stepping into discomfort. I'll guide you through strategies to reprogram your mindset and push past the fear of making changes, transforming those daunting narratives into success stories.

Moving forward doesn't mean waiting for perfection—it's about taking imperfect action and adjusting along the way. We'll discuss how letting go of the fear of failure and embracing the potential for success can unlock unimaginable opportunities. Join our community on social media to share your personal goals and challenges, and don't miss out on the upcoming Unicorn Photographer Masterclass. It's designed to help you create a business that is uniquely yours and truly fulfilling. Remember, your business can be as unique and magical as a unicorn—let's make that vision a reality together.


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:

Hello everyone. Today I wanted to hop on and record an episode about a topic that I heard from so many of you over and over again at Imaging USA, and that topic is why you're stuck, or this idea of being stuck. I talked to so many of you that were like I know I need to do something. I talked to so many of you that were like I know I need to do something, but I'm afraid to do it or I don't know how to do it, or I don't know if it's the right choice. And I wanted to record this episode to really dive into that topic and share some insights that will hopefully help you get over this being stuck and help you finally take the leap to do the thing you need to do.

Speaker 2:

I will say that in my own business, some of the best decisions that I made were in those moments that I was at a really big crossroads and I had this big, crazy idea that a lot of times people were saying Grinda, that's insane, don't do that, that's going to set you up for failure, because that is too big and that is too crazy. And I did it anyway. I did it scared, I did it imperfect and I did it without really knowing what could happen or without taking the time to think what could happen wrong. I am a worrier and I can worry things till they are literally into non-existence anymore. I can talk myself out of anything, but what I've learned is that if I take action quickly and I do things in the moment when that inspiration strikes, I can go do really big, scary things without getting and, honestly, I can't ever think of a time that I've done something big and crazy on a whim in my business that hasn't paid off or hasn't taught me a lesson or hasn't caused me to grow. So I will say that nothing that you ever do if it feels scary right now, whatever that thing is, if it feels scary nothing you are ever going to do is going to destroy your business. You might not succeed in your own terms or what you thought it would look like, but you can learn from it and you can grow from it. So remember this there is no failure, there is no train wreck. That can happen in all reality. What matters is, whatever the result is, you take that result and how you grow through it or learn through it. Okay. So that's the first thing I wanted to share with you and let me, I'll share with you. I'll go ahead and share with you one really big thing I did in my business that everyone told me I was crazy for doing.

Speaker 2:

When I decided, after doing weddings and newborns for five, six years, that I was going to be a horse photographer, I literally, one night, sitting in a hotel room in Kentucky, was like you know what? I'm going to be a horse photographer and I'm going to do this full time horses. I'm going to give up my wedding and my newborn brand. I had built a newborn studio on my property. I was really well known for what I was doing in the equine or sorry, in the wedding and the newborn space, and then I was just like I'm going to throw it all away, to do something different, to do what my heart tells me that I need to be doing in this moment. I stayed up late. I built an entirely new website. I created all my new social media accounts, I made a logo. I did everything in one night and the next day I hit publish on that website and said, hey guys, I'm an equine photographer now.

Speaker 2:

And then I also did something that was even wilder. On top of it, I told the whole world the very next day that I was going to photograph 365 horses over the next year. I didn't think it through. I knew what I was going to do. I had a plan in mind or an idea in mind of how this was going to help me grow my business, but I literally drummed up one night and put it out into the world the next day and I told people the next day. I didn't just keep it in my brain, I went out and I shouted it from the rooftops and I said this is what I'm going to do, and over the next year I would do just that. I would shut down my wedding and my newborn photography businesses and I would dive into equine photography full-time, photograph 365 horses and I would build a brand that is very well known in the horse community and that people go oh, you're that girl that photographed 365 horses. And as a matter of fact, it's funny I was at imaging and I was chatting with somebody and they were like what's your horse page? And I told them 365 days of horses, which is my Instagram, if you want to check it out. And they looked up and they're like you're that girl. I'm like yes, that is me. So some of y'all might've heard this story before, like on another podcast or something, but that is me.

Speaker 2:

I did the big crazy thing and when I told my business coach at the time, she actually told me that's insane, that is not going to go well. And she also said something like you need to be selling in online galleries, even though I was doing IPS and she was a sales coach, and she was like there's no way that's going to work. I listened to her for the first like 10 horses, and then, after the first 10 horses, I realized that was a dire mistake because I had actually never sold out of online galleries. I was doing sales pretty much from the very beginning of my business and I went back and did in-person sales with all those clients and that's actually the year I also started doing in-person sales over Zoom, which not a lot of people were doing back then. Now it's a lot more common, but I was doing it over Zoom because I didn't have the capacity, time or ability to meet with all my clients really in person because they lived all over the country. I also traveled all over the country, photographed clients in different states and really just did this big crazy thing and people always ask me like how were you able to do this, what was it? And I really think it was acting when the inspiration struck and just going out and saying I don't care what the end result is in this, I'm just going to go do it. I'm either going to make it happen or not, and if I don't, so what? Who cares?

Speaker 2:

Okay, all too often when we are thinking about doing something big in our business, we get in our own way, we get stuck. So let's talk about this. We're afraid of failure. We might even be afraid of success. We might have imposter syndrome. There's all of these things that come into play. Maybe we're afraid of spending money, and whatever we're trying to do requires spending money or asking our clients to spend us money. Maybe we're afraid of money, right, there's all these things that can get in our way. And actually in our book, the Unicorn, we have an entire chapter where we break down all of these fears Fear of failure, fear of success, imposter syndrome, fear of making money. All of these things that sometimes sound a little crazy, but when we look at them, a lot of us are guilty at letting these fears stop us and get in our way.

Speaker 2:

So we have to acknowledge when these things are happening, right. We have to acknowledge like oh, why am I afraid here? Am I afraid that if I put this out into the world, that I'm going to fail at it? So what happens if you fail? If you fail, this is like one of the biggest things I hear people say what if I fail? What if it doesn't work? So what, who is going to be there going? Woohoo, she failed. Look at her. Let's all point our finger at her and laugh at her. No, nobody's going to be doing that, and if they are doing that, they're not people you need in your life anyway. But it's what happens and what you take with any bumps you find in the road.

Speaker 2:

And I'm going to say not even failure, failure is not an option. You're not going to fail at anything, right? You're going to say not even failure is not an option. You're not going to fail at anything, right. You're going to pivot, you're going to change, you're going to grow, you're going to change things as you go. So that way that doesn't happen. You're going to try harder and try more and continue to evolve until it works. Right.

Speaker 2:

Don't be afraid of that failure, don't be afraid of the what-ifs, don't be afraid of success, like sometimes it's as simple as if I'm successful and I do this and this really works, I'm going to be like so successful that what are people going to think of me? I'm going to make so much money that my family is going to be like look at her. Or maybe I'm going to make more money than all my photographer friends and they're not going to want to be friends with me anymore, whatever, it might be right See how silly those things sound when I say them out loud but those are real things that are stopping us in our head. Maybe we have imposter syndrome. Maybe we think we're not good enough. Maybe we think our work isn't good enough to go out there and sell wall art. Maybe we think our work isn't good enough to go out there and charge thousands of dollars. Maybe we think our work isn't even good enough to go out there and put ourselves out there and market ourselves and tell people that they should work with us. We are our own worst critic. And you know what? I'll tell you this you don't have to be the best photographer, you don't have to have won awards to make money, to build a business to get clients. Your clients, honestly, don't really know the difference in a technically correct, award-winning image and one that isn't so.

Speaker 2:

Stop beating yourselves up, stop being so hard on yourselves. Take your hand, put it on your back, give yourself a pat on the back and say you're doing a good job, you're a great photographer, you're amazing, people want to work with you, whatever it may be. Pat yourself on the back a little bit more and remember, be kind to yourself. Pat yourself on the back a little bit more and remember, be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself through the process of making a big change.

Speaker 2:

The next thing I want to talk to you about is how sometimes we don't make changes because we're operating in our comfort zone.

Speaker 2:

We're doing the same thing we've been doing forever and the thought of making a change is scary.

Speaker 2:

Or we're operating in a small comfort zone and making this change means that we're going to have to grow, we're going to have to evolve, we're going to have to stretch ourselves into a place that feels uncomfortable, and the thing is that we should lean into discomfort. We should not fear it, because oftentimes, if we're making a decision or a pivot or a change in our business and it feels easy, it's not a big enough pivot, it's not a big enough change. We're not stretching ourselves far enough. We have to learn to recognize that discomfort of doing something new is okay and it is good. If you're making a pivot, if you're making a change, if you're setting new prices, whatever it might be, and it feels easy, you're probably not stretching yourself far enough. You probably need to bump those prices up or add another zero on the end of your goals, or whatever it might be. Don't be afraid to stretch yourself and go outside of your comfort zone into something that feels really uncomfortable.

Speaker 2:

When I ask photographers like how much revenue do you want to make in your business each year? This is one of those questions that I find photographers staying in their comfort zone. They're like I would love to bring in $100,000 a year. I'm like is that really what you want to do? Like, really deep down in your heart, is that what you want to do? Or does that feel safe? And after a little bit of prompting I normally find that they say you know what? Yeah, that is just playing it safe. I do want to stretch myself further. I would actually really like to build a half million dollar per year photography brands. It's what I would really love to do, but it sounds so insane and it feels so scary and so outside of anything. I know that I don't really want to admit it to people. Don't be afraid to play it big. Don't be afraid to not play small.

Speaker 2:

The other thing that can come into play here is the stories we're telling ourselves right. A lot of times, when we're sitting here thinking about, for example, raising our prices or switching to IPS and selling products, we're saying you know what? No one's going to pay, that those people don't live. Where I live, my clients would never spend thousands of dollars on their portraits. Do you know those things? Like, honestly, whatever this thing is in your head that you're thinking about right now, like, just take a second, think about it. What is it? Hold it in your head. Why haven't you done it? What are you afraid of? All those stories that are popping into your mind right now? Write them down If you're driving down the road. Come back to this later. Write them down and look at those stories and ask yourself is this actually true? Do I actually know that my clients won't spend this money? Do I actually know that there aren't people in my community that are willing to invest thousands of dollars on portraits? No, you don't know any of those things because you haven't asked them, you haven't presented them with the opportunity to do so in the right way. You can't know that these stories are true until you've actually tested them out yourself. And, honestly, your brain is going to try really hard to convince you that those stories are true. And I'm going to tell you that, if you have one of those stories, bring it to me, post it in my Facebook group, send me a DM, whatever it might be, because I want to help you debunk this story. I want to help you convince yourself that this is not an actual truth.

Speaker 2:

This is a story you've made up in your head to protect yourself from doing the big, scary thing you need to do in your business. Stop telling yourself the stories, stop entertaining the stories, and learn how to change those stories and go out and attack the big, scary thing. We've talked a bit about how we get our own way. Now we need to talk about how we can change this mindset that we have that is stopping us. Those stories that are coming up in your head are the thoughts that are holding you back. We have to rewire those. We have to catch those thoughts. We have to catch them and write them down first. That's my first piece of advice I want to give you those thoughts, those stories, those lies you're telling yourself that are not true. Catch them, write them down, look at them and say is this actually true? And rewrite this. It's going to feel like you're making up a load of crap in the beginning.

Speaker 2:

Rewrite the story. People in my community are excited to spend thousands of dollars on their portraits. People in my community are excited to buy wall art that costs five or six thousand dollars and they're going to pull out their credit card and hand it to me and be so excited about this gorgeous portrait that I'm creating for them. Write the new story and every time you feel that hint of doubt popping into your head, I want you to go back to that. Keep a note in your phone. Write it down. Whatever you have to do, say it out loud. Say it in front of the mirror. Put a sticky note on your mirror. Whatever you need to do, start to rewrite those stories. Start to reiterate the new, positive story.

Speaker 2:

I know this sounds woo-woo, but there's science behind it. It works. It is a real thing. You can literally go online and Google scientific research about changing your thoughts and the results that happen and the way it affects your brain and all this cool stuff. It works. I promise it's not just so much woo. So start to rewire those thoughts. Start to your thoughts. Do not let those bad things take over your mind and stop you from doing what you need to do. The other thing that I'll encourage you to do is to start taking small steps every day towards whatever it might be. Small steps, do something every day in the direction you want to go to. Also, while I'm on that topic, stop letting yourself down. Stop treating your business any different than you would a job.

Speaker 2:

Let me explain what I mean there. If you were at your job and your boss said to you hey, I need you to do this today. I need you to go out and I need to update this price sheet and I need you to tell clients this is our new pricing, you would do it right. Your boss told you to do it. But you're sitting here saying I need to update my price sheet and raise those prices, but I'm afraid to. So I'll do it next year, I'll do it next month, I'll look at it for the next six months and hem and haw over it and agonize over it, and then maybe one day, I'll do it. What if your boss just told you to do it? What if I am your boss right here and I'm saying go, do this thing? You're going to go do it right.

Speaker 2:

So why is it that we are so easily readily letting ourselves down by not doing the things we know we need to do, when we wouldn't let somebody else down if they asked us to do it for them? Let that sink in for a second. That one always gets somebody when I say it, and I hate to say it because sometimes it sounds a little like cynical, but it's the truth. Right, start treating your business more like your job and your business and go, do the things you need to do. The next thing when we talk about this mindset stuff is stop going to what if this fails. Replace that. What if it fails with what? If this works, what? How will it change my life If this works? What will it do for me? If this works, how will it impact my clients?

Speaker 2:

And the other thing that can be extremely helpful here is surround yourself with action takers and people who are doing the things you want to be doing. If you know you need to raise your prices, but your photographer besties are all charging pennies and you're like the only one over there yeah, I should raise my prices and they're like no one's ever going to pay those prices, don't do it. Find yourself a new community of photographers to surround yourself. Community of photographers to surround yourself. If it's your family that's doing it to you and saying, no, that's insane, no one's ever going to pay those prices. Find yourself a good group of photographers that are going to support you and raise you up and lift you up and don't talk to your family, don't talk to your friends about this decision anymore. Ok, I'm giving you permission. Avoid the topic of pricing with your family and friends. I know we're talking about pricing, but that tends to be the one thing that comes up.

Speaker 2:

It could be changing to a new genre, too, or a million other things that you know you need to do in your business. If you are looking for community, we have a lovely Facebook group. It's called Photography Business with Corinna Kay. You can join us there. Also, we're doing a free event in February, on the 17th, 18th and 19th all about how to build a unicorn business. That would be a great event to jump on, be surrounded by other photographers who are ready to take action and ready to do the thing, whatever it might be. It's different for everybody, but if you want to be surrounded by a great community of action takers, that would be a great room to be in and hopefully you can make some friends on there and build a community of people there. If you are struggling and you don't have that group of people to surround yourself with, I'll post the link and the details for that in the show notes so you can join us as well, or DM me if you want the details as well on social media.

Speaker 2:

The other thing I want to tell you is make a clear plan to do the scary thing. Create a step-by-step plan. But don't use creating a step-by-step plan as an excuse not to do the thing, because I know some of you are going to be like oh, I'm going to make the plan to raise my prices and I'm going to sit here and make the plan for the next year and then for the next year, I'll make a plan on how to implement that change. Don't let making the plan be the thing that stops you. Make a plan, immediate action, things you're going to do quickly and just dive into it. Okay, practice doing uncomfortable things in your day-to-day life, because that's going to make doing the big, scary thing in your business a little bit easier.

Speaker 2:

I will say I am not a cold plunger, but I have heard a lot of amazing podcasts. I've read a lot of amazing books about cold plunging. I have heard a lot of amazing podcasts. I've read a lot of amazing books about cold plunging and part of the reason why cold plunging is so good for people. Yes, there's physical and real things that happen in your body. But it's the mental thing, it's the mental toughness that comes out of cold plunging that truly transforms people. It's the mental toughness that you acquire by taking the action to go get in a freezing cold tub and shiver for three minutes, and that ability to deal with the difficult thing, that all of a sudden, when you are in your day-to-day life and you are confronted with a difficult thing, you are able to say this is no big deal, I can do this, I can get in a cold plunge for three minutes. This is no big deal, right? You have to learn how to increase your tolerance to uncomfortable things as a business owner, because there's going to be a lot of uncomfortable moments. So work on ways to do the difficult things, take uncomfortable action and build that momentum.

Speaker 2:

And don't take it so personally either as you're doing it. When you're doing the big scary thing I mentioned this briefly don't let your outside influences negatively impact the big scary thing and the action you need to take. This could be clients, family, friends, self-doubt, right? There's all of these influences, both internally and externally, that are going to come out of the woodwork when you're doing the big scary thing. I always say that when you're doing the thing you're supposed to be doing, that's when you will find that everything happens in life.

Speaker 2:

Last year was that year for me when I was like launching the book and doing all these amazing things, and it just felt every time I tried to do something good and big, that everything that could happen in my life would happen all at once. And big, that everything that could happen in my life would happen all at once. And I had two choices right. My choice was to take that and just let it stop me completely, or to take that and say this is my sign that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I chose to take those things and say this is my sign that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm going to fight back even harder. Let me say it's like when you're doing what you're supposed to be doing in the world, the devil's going to rear his ugly little head and talk trash in your ear and then also try to make everything in your life go crazy. Do any of y'all feel like that? I know this happens. I talk to photographers all the time that are like I'm trying to build my business. I'm trying to do this. I want to go it. Just hold on and push harder into it when you feel the world or life or whatever it is attacking you at that moment.

Speaker 2:

And the last thing I want to share with you about this is take imperfect action. Don't wait for the right time. Don't wait for the first of the year. Don't wait till the end of the quarter. Just do it now. Do it now, change now. You can always tweak it, you can always adjust it, you can always make it better as you go. But the only way to get there and really learn how to do it is just to take imperfect action and grow and change and adjust as you go right, step in the right direction and you're going to get there eventually.

Speaker 2:

But if you stay stuck where you're at, you're never going to get there. You're never going to get close to where you want to go. Never going to get there. You're never going to get close to where you want to go. Okay, I hope this has been helpful and I hope that y'all are taking this and going. Oh man, there's this thing that's just been burning in the back of my head that I know I need to do and this is what I needed to hear. Get off my butt and go do the thing. So let's recap here Get out of your own way. Understand what's going on. Understand these stories you're telling yourself. Start to rewrite these stories. Start to understand that these stories are getting you stuck and they're not true, and you can pivot and you can take these stories and turn them into something better and valuable for you. Stop thinking like what if I fail? Instead, think what if this works? So what if you fail? It doesn't matter right, and do the scary thing. Take action. Don't let your perfectionism I'll throw this out there don't let your perfectionism of perfecting the plan before you implement it stop you from doing it. Learn how to deal with those uncomfortable moments and be okay with adapting and changing and optimizing as you go, because that is the only way to get there.

Speaker 2:

I love each and every one of you and I know that, whatever it is that's in your head or in your heart burning to do it, you can do it. Trust me, if I can do what I've done, you can do it too. I wholeheartedly believe that my life is not perfect. I am not the most organized, have my stuff together person in the world. But I can do this because I have realized that I just have to take the action and do the thing. Okay, that's how I've gotten where I'm at. That's how this podcast is here. I just have to do the thing, and sometimes that means doing the thing uncomfortably.

Speaker 2:

Go do the thing, send me a DM on social media, let me know what the thing is for you that you know you need to do. It might be like there's a hundred things you know you need to do, but I'm guessing there's probably one or two really big things that are burning in your mind right now. And send me a DM, let me know what it is. Post in our Facebook group, photography Business. Tune Up and hopefully I will get to see you at our free event that is happening next week, february.

Speaker 2:

I keep forgetting the dates 17th, 18th and 19th.

Speaker 2:

I'll post the details in the show notes and hopefully, when we get on there, you can share your big, scary thing, and that event will help you find more magic in your business and really truly build the unicorn business of your dreams.

Speaker 2:

The event is called the Unicorn Photographer Masterclass and on the masterclass we'll be really diving into what it's going to take to build the business that you truly love. And if your business feels like this mythical creature that you just don't even know exists, or you're just like searching for this mythical creature in your business, I'm going to help you figure out what that looks like for you and hopefully get a few steps closer over those few days to really truly falling in love with your business and having a business that you love and feels good for you and hopefully is not a cookie cutter of what someone told you you should do, because I want each and every one of you to love your business and make it the unicorn, just like yourself. I will see you at the event and make sure you share this podcast, leave us a rating and review and we will see you on the next episode.

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 Corinda Kay. Thanks again and I'll see you next time.