FIVE MISTAKES WE MADE
Competition mindset - Going into the photography business we came into it with the mindset that every photographer was our competition. That was so far from the truth and was super unproductive. It harbored bitterness in my heart and caused me to look way more at what others were doing and took the focus off of what was truly us. I fell hard into comparison and soon what everyone thought of me I lived and died by. When another photographer told me how terrible our work was, I was ready to quit. Then came along Autumn. She was my breath of fresh air. My community over competition. My friend. She was willing to do whatever it took to get me comfortable. She taught me flash, drank coffee with me and encouraged me. She never saw us as a threat. I adopted her principles with other photographers and slowly started pouring into others around me instead of seeing them as a threat. As soon as I did that I realized suddenly our business was actually doing better. I was learning more and we were getting referrals from other photographers. I was happier and less driven by what others thought. Comparison really is the thief of joy. Go out and love on your “competition”. One of our favorite quotes is “A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle”
Pride - I already mentioned this but I truly thought I knew everything I needed to. If a photographer told me I used the wrong lens or my settings needed changed I would say “I meant to do that!” I was terrible at being honest when I needed help instead I would just be defensive when corrected. I see this so much in new photographers, designers, and creatives. Defense mode immediately goes up. What I have learned is when I feel inadequate or like I missed the mark to not rev up and instead try to own how I am feeling so I CAN get better. No one is perfect and we are ALL learning. Take the constructive criticism and apply it where you can. More than anything, just be honest with yourself.
Investment vs. Cost— Wooo this one is hard to grasp. I wish I could go back and explain to my new business self that investing in your business isn’t the same value as what you are actually paying for. That the word investment actually means you will get more than you paid into it back. I was so cheap and took all the FREE and round about ways and waited way tooo long to invest in my business. It was two years in before I paid for any type of education and as soon I did our business reached it’s climax.
Delegating weaknesses - playing on strengths- This is also a hard one. When resources are slim us entrepreneurs know how to take on every task that a business owner needs done. We wear all the hats. Now that I have learned the significance of investment I have learned that delegating and paying someone to do jobs I am not good at actually frees me up to do what I AM good at. This ultimately means I make more money because I am able to focus on my strengths, my craft, and I am able to grow the business. Ways to do this could be hiring a virtual assistant, photo/video editor, a cleaner for your house, you name it.
Too much content - So what I am talking about here is coaching vs. self education. When I was starting out I was a YouTube junkie! I read blogs, books, magazines, anything I could get my hands and eyes on. I learned so much so fast. The problem with this though is that I didn’t retain it all AND I didn’t have anyone to personally walk me through right where I was at. It was all out of order and placed so much pressure on me. I never grew as a business owner until I SLOWED down and walked through each problem in my business instead of feeling like I had 100 things to fix and do. This process started when we started doing coaching calls with mentors. They were able to identify problems we would have never seen on our own or read about on Youtube!
