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I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved seeing other people’s year-end recaps and what they accomplished because I truly am cheering on every single person, whether I know them or not. It’s fun to see how they have increased their income, booked more clients, or even traveled all over the world.
However, I know from mentoring hundreds of photographers, many of them get stuck in comparing themselves to everyone else and wish they had those amazing things to share in their year-end recaps.
So, if you’re feeling behind and you wish you were a few steps further along, then this episode will hopefully be some encouragement to you.
I first want to tell you, friend, that everyone’s journey looks different. Your journey is unique and you are on your own path. While that can sound a bit woo, I truly believe that there’s not a roadmap you have to follow and a specific time frame when you’re a business owner.
The next thing I want you to think about is the fact that you are planting seeds every single day in your business, whether you know it or not. You have to trust in those seeds, no matter how small.
And again, your timeframe is different than everyone else’s. It’s not a race, and this is something we need to normalize more and create more awareness around. Your business is actually probably going to be more sustainable if it doesn’t just pop up overnight. For example, my business blew up within 3 months and I was so overwhelmed. There were things I had a solid grasp on, but it wasn’t sustainable because I was just kind of going with the motions.
If you have the ability to be intentional with your time and with how long things are taking, it’s probably going to mean you’ll end up building a more solid foundation. Just knowing that what you’re creating is actually yours and not just a copy of what someone else has, that right there is going to serve you so much better down the road.
All of this to say, trust in the seeds you’re planting because growth is growth no matter how small. You have no idea when growth is going to happen. Implementation in anything is where you’re going to see the results.
Just know that I’m rooting for you. I know it’s hard to look around and see other people’s wins, but just know that you’re on your own journey.
I have found that for many of my students, they can feel overwhelmed before getting into the program, or even during because it can feel overwhelming. What I say to them is to just take it one step at a time. You can’t do it all in one day. Building a business takes time and anyone who tells you differently doesn’t want you to build in a sustainable, strategic way.
This is one of those things that tends to steal the joy because maybe they’re implementing or they are trying to do different things when it comes to strategy, but they may not be seeing results as quickly as they would like to, or they are just feeling stressed about their daunting to-do list.
My response to this is to just always enjoy the process and to not let this process of growth steal joy, because, again, the seeds you’re planting are going to grow. Just like nurturing a seed, you have to nurture your business as well. And remember, you probably left your 9-5 job because it was stealing your joy, so if your business is going to bring you more joy in the long run, then freaking enjoy it! Have fun learning all the things because this truly gets to be fun.
This is where even just having a coach who can break things down for you into easy, tangible tips can be so powerful. It’s something I’ve personally found invaluable in my own business. But remember, this gets to be fun and exciting, so enjoy the growth process.
When this topic comes up, I can feel very overwhelmed, even in my own to-do list or things I want to do that maybe I don’t have enough time for. I have found that I would feel like I’d get to the end of the day and feel like nothing got accomplished because I had unrealistic expectations for what I was going to be able to do without running myself to the ground. This is where episode 6 where I talk about better your productivity comes into play, so definitely go take a listen to that if you feel like you’re struggling with your productivity.
But not only did I need to better my productivity, but I also needed to understand everything I actually did accomplish that day. As creative entrepreneurs, we can be very hard on ourselves for what we did not get done in a day. Instead of looking at what you didn’t get done, I want you to reframe it, and you can use my accomplishments tracker to write down what you did accomplish.
It’s so important to reframe your mindset around what you have accomplished, even just tracking over the years to see how far you’ve come. That is one of the biggest and best things that you can do, as well as looking at your goals and checking in with yourself every single quarter to see how things are going.
In this accomplishments tracker, literally write down everything from your first booking to the first month you made a certain amount of money to launching your website to having however many visitors to your websites to even just being able to take a few days off that made you feel rejuvenated. Whatever your accomplishments are, my friend, I want you to write them down so you can remind yourself of those whenever you’re feeling behind.
I truly hope that this episode gave you encouragement. If it did, I would love for you to share it to your story. Screenshot the episode, share it to your story, tag me, and I would love to hear if it did encourage you, and hopefully, it will encourage some of the other photographer friends you have.
Before I let you go, I want to reference a couple other podcast episodes that I feel are very fitting for this time of year. One was episode 6, which I mentioned earlier.
Another one I would love for you to listen to is episode 13 about making the most of your slow season. If you’re in any kind of slow season right now and you want to plan for the new year, then definitely take a listen to that because I tell you exactly how to make the most of this time that you do have.
The last episode is episode 15, which is about goal setting and planning for the new year. If you want to know specifically how I plan out my year, set goals, and reflect on those during each quarter, I teach you exactly how to do that in this episode.
And if it feels aligned with you, I have a shop on my website that has my Notion Template. If you’d like to have a strategic and streamlined way to plan out your goals, then than that Notion template is there for you in my shop and you can use the code PODSQUAD for 10% off.
Again, I hope that this was helpful and I hope you have the best holiday season ever!
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