Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. I'm Nicole Begley. And today we are talking with my friend, Heather Lawton about whether you are committed or just interested in pet photography and what that difference is stay tuned.

Welcome to the hair of the dog podcast. If you're a pet photographer, ready to make more money and start living a life by your design, you've come to the right place. And now your host pet photographers, travel addicts, chocolate martini, connoisseur sewer, Nicole Begley.

Hey everybody, Nicole here. Welcome back to the podcast. Before we get started with our interview with Heather, I just wanted to pop in here and remind you that elevate our high level coaching program in hair of the dog is open for enrollment right now for just two more days, just wanted to play a quick clip about some of the incredible results our students have been having. If you're interested in learning more, just head over to www.hair of the dog Academy slash elevate.

Before elevate, I was in the startup phase of my business for a lot longer than I'm proud to admit with a lot of encouragement and accountability from the elevate group. I really started putting myself out there. I started taking myself seriously and I refined my business strategies, figured out ways to better serve my clients. Uh, amped up my marketing in y'all. I've gotten more inquiries during the past, uh, COVID lockdown than I had ever prior to it have so much clarity, not only about my business, but about life and myself.

I have been with another group before and it was very disappointing. I didn't get what I was hoping to get out of that. I felt like I wasted my money and my time. So I scheduled a call with Nicole just to make sure elevate was right for me. And it was, it has been, it's been amazing. And I see this group as a dragon boat. I feel like me and the other members were all like teammates on the same boat. We're all rowing as hard and as quickly as we can towards the common goal of, you know, being successful in our pet photography business. And we have this amazing line of coaches standing right behind us, drumming along and creating this amazing rhythm that propels everyone forward and they don't leave anyone behind. So if you don't know if you want to join, not, I highly recommended it's. Um, if you can put in the time and the effort, you will get so much out of it,

I realized that investing in education for my business is vital to my growth as an entrepreneur. And over the last several years, I had learned a lot from three to five day workshops conferences and being a part of various online communities, but elevates different, being an elevate it's opened my eyes and expanded my tunnel vision to how I've been operating as a photographer and a business owner, being a part of elevate, having the homework assignments and the coaching calls and the community. And I've even made new friends. It's been absolutely inspiring. I've been able to make meaningful progress behind the scenes of my business, even with all the craziness going on. I feel like I have learned how to provide an even higher quality, more meaningful experience to my clients, both current clients that I've had to put on hold over the last couple of months and future clients. I'm very grateful to my coaches and my peers and my new friends for everything. And I look forward to what comes next because I have a new and improved mindset, a wonderful of service and gratitude and abundance. And I'm very grateful. I joined elevate because I was ready to bring my business to the next level. My intention when I joined elevate was to work on all of the little systems and things in my business that I honestly really do not enjoy focusing on. It was my belief that finishing these things would help me step up into the next level of my business in 2020. And I knew that having a group that had such amazing coaches and wonderful community would help keep me accountable in reaching my goals. And I was right about that because I actually completed a lot of those little systems and things in just the first couple of months of elevate. So when Nicole rolled out the elevate group, I jumped on it because I wanted to be a better person, a better photographer and a better business owner. So through the six months that I've been in elevate, we have monthly phone calls with each coach. There's a Facebook group with all the participants and it's very active community. So now I have a website that looks like me is automated. I'm capturing leads. My phone is ringing. I'm putting people on my schedule and that would not have happened without elevate. I'm so thankful for all the elevate tours, all the fantastic coaches. Um, you made me a better person and I'm going to be a better business owner as well because of this group.

Hey, everybody, Nicole here from hair of the dog and I am here once again with your most favorite hair of the dog podcast, guest, Heather Lenin from the flourish Academy, also a coach in our elevate program, also an instructor in the hair of the dog Academy. I mean, you can't get away from Heather because Heather and I might possibly be joined at the hip. If it wasn't a pandemic. So welcome back to the podcast, Heather, thank you so much for having me, Nicole. I love to be a part of your world, hair of the dog podcast, all of the animal lovers. It's fantastic. Yes, absolutely. And you know, there's chicken lovers out there too. So if you know how there at all, you know that she loves her chickens, right? Let's go at this time. We're not against cancer.

Gosh, we have lessons inside of the hair of the dog where I utilize my chickens in. They're actually quite funny

And they're adorable. I'm an equal opportunity animal, uh, enthusiastic. So anyway, that's not what we're going to talk about today. Today. We wanted to talk about the difference between being interested in something and being committed to something. Because quite frankly, this is the key to success to making something happen. Because if you're interested, you'll find an excuse. And if you're committed, you'll find a way. Is that right? Heather?

That's absolutely right. In fact, I first learned about this concept from John Ashraft, he's the author of the book innercise and I heard him talk about this and I found it so fascinating. He says, if you're interested, you're going to do what's convenient, but if you're committed, you're going to do whatever it takes. And there's a big difference because if you're just interested in something, you will believe all of the stories and excuses you have. You'll continue to be a victim of your current reality and circumstances. And you'll come up with all of the reasons why you cannot achieve your goals. And that's what you'll focus on. And you'll just be kind of stuck in that pattern. But if you're committed, you'll start today. You'll do whatever it takes to let go of those stories. The excuses, the reasons why you can't do things. If you're committed, you will upgrade your knowledge. If you're committed, you will upgrade your skills. You'll show up every single day and you will figure out a way to achieve those goals. It's a difference between why you must do something and why you can't or won't do something.

Yes. I love that. I think one of the other differences is when you are interested, as soon as something starts to get hard, then you're out where if you're committed, you work through the hard, because let's face it. Anything worthwhile doing is going to be hard and anything in which we are going to change our behaviors, change our patterns, learn something new. It's always going to be hard. So your success is going to come down to your commitment, to getting over

Things and being willing to be uncomfortable. So as a society, we are addicted to comfort. And if it's easy and comfortable, then, okay, we'll do it. That's fine. But you're right. The minute it becomes challenging or difficult, we're like, we're out. We'll just do something else. And by the way, if, if that's the case and it's really not something that's in alignment with your life's purpose, that's fine. Maybe you're learning what you don't want to do, but if it's causing you distress and you're thinking, but I actually really want to do this. Well, then you're going to have to push through the difficult circumstances or the things you don't understand. And you're going to have to just keep pressing forward until you how to do it because the truth is you do not lack resources and I'm not talking just about money. Although that is one of them I'm talking about. You have access to YouTube, you have access to all of the wisdom in the books on this planet. They can help you move forward. Is it going to take learning something new and some effort? Well, yeah, of course it is. But I guess you just have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Do I want it badly enough? Yeah,

Absolutely. That's a great point because yeah, the resources are not the reason that anyone doesn't reach their goals because you can literally Google how to do anything. You could probably Google how to do brain surgery. I'm quite sure you can. I don't know that you're going to find someone that's going to take you up on your offer to practice that. But I mean, you can learn just about anything on the internet. So that is certainly not it. I love what you said about comfort because that does come down to our caveman brain and it wanting to conserve energy and us to just stay when what we know and what is comfortable and what is safe, because what is uncomfortable might have a saber tooth tiger hiding behind the door. And also one of the other things too, with the uncomfortableness, I think you need to learn to embrace when you're uncomfortable, because growth usually happens after you push forward through that. Uncomfort. Uncomfort, is that a word discomfort? So when you're practicing new shooting techniques or you're trying to learn new editing techniques or you're testing a new marketing strategy, it's always going to feel uncomfortable at first. But if you're committed to the outcome, whether it's improving your craft or growing your business, you can continue to push forward through that. And whether you succeed or not, you're still getting this amazing lesson, which you're like, okay, all right, I need to tweak this and this. If you didn't get the outcome you wanted at the first try, then you try again. And it's those people that are committed to continuing to try these different things, committed to taking action that are going to reach their goals. And the people that aren't are the ones that are going to be sitting at home saying it's because my market's too crowded. That's because no one values photography here. You know? So it's really it's. Yeah. Are you committed? Are you going to make excuses?

It's a series of excuses that people will just continue to fight for their limitations. And if you fight for those limitations, you get to keep them meaning I can't nothing I say could change your mind. If you keep telling me, yo, Heather, you don't understand my market really. Um, show me that degree that you have in micro or macro economics. I mean, you've done a study of your market. You know, as you know, you don't understand people don't value it. People won't pay for it, or I'm not good enough. And you know, at some point then I'm just going to let you keep talking with your teases and I'm not going to try to help coach you through that because you don't, you don't want to, it's, it's easier for you. And when you do that, by the way, when you making excuses, you are casting blame on something outside of yourself, which means you are not accepting responsibility and you're playing a victim because in the victim mentality, there's nothing you can do, right? It's my market. My hands are tied. It's it's beyond my control. Well, well then of course, it's never going to work for you, but if you believe that it is within your control and then you can change something and do something. Well, then the sky's the limit. There actually are no limits. And this discomfort thing really I've been really studying this lately. Nicole, I don't know. I get weirdly obsessed with strange things, but Dean Karnazes in the magazine outside said this, I have it in front of me. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we'd be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we're so comfortable. We're miserable. There's no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. That observation applies to all of life, especially our goals. When it comes to meaningful achievement, comfort equals boredom and low engagement. Okay? The point there is comfort actually makes you miserable. You, you think that's what you want. You seek it because you think that if you're comfortable, you'll be happy. But the truth is the happiest people. I know the most successful are the ones who struggle and they struggle a lot. And they push themselves continuously into discomfort zones, like on purpose. Like they actively look for ways to be uncomfortable because they know that that struggle produces the growth. And then after they've accomplished it, guess what they feel great. They feel this sense of, of purpose and like they're making progress. So comfort does not equal happiness progress equals happiness and progress comes from the struggle and the growth.

Oh my gosh. I love that. And what you just said, there reminds me of something else that I listened to. I forget it was some podcasts somewhere. It was talking about like teachings of the Buddha and how it relates to our goals and our, our, this like innate drive that we have to continue to reach more things and to get to that next level. And you know, of course there's, uh, an area where you need to appreciate where you are. You need to take stock and say, I am so grateful for where I am, but we always have this open. I can't wait to get here. And that is actually hardwired into our brain back from when we were like caveman walking around, because we need to like, keep going to get food. We need to keep going to, to, you know, light fire to, to eat meat, all these things we needed to learn and do. So it's hardwired in there to be wanting to work towards those goals, which you know that along with appreciating the path that you're on and where you are in that journey is really the key to, to happiness. So there you go, everybody.

Right. And that is the key to happiness. No, you're exactly right. Um, are you talking about hedonic adaptation where you yeah. Yeah. So you, you get comfortable in a certain spot and you, everybody thinks, ah, I can't wait till I make it to like easy street, right? Like my bills are paid. My business is running well and everything is comfortable. I can't wait till I get there. You would be sadly disappointed. You would because have you ever talked to someone that's reached like a mega goal and they feel oddly not happy. Like, uh,

I thought it was going to, yeah, they underwhelmed a gray word. They thought it was going to all of a sudden, Oh, all of a sudden my business hit a hundred thousand dollars. All of a sudden my business hit$200,000. Why do I not feel any differently? Because they expect that that external thing is going to change their internal state. And it has nothing to do with your internal.

I think it's going to make them happy when they reach it. But the truth is, and actually it's funny you say that because that did happen to me. When I built the first part of my business, I hit six figures. I was very underwhelmed and actually kind of depressed in a way because I thought is this all? No, of course it's not all. It is not all you need to, you need to say to yourself, okay, this is great. You need to celebrate that win and then say, okay, that's awesome. What's next? What do I need to learn or cultivate, how do I need to grow? And what does the next level you look like? I don't know. But you know, it's the same with your, like how much money you make and the life that you live, you know, people might look at your home and say, wow, you have a great home. And uh, are you happy with your home? Are you content? Yes, of course. I love my home, but I'm always looking to grow and improve. Could I like we have property

It's on the Lake. Yeah. I don't like to lose my house onto the Lake. Yeah.

I have a cabin on my property. Could I buy a beach house? Could I, you know, and it's not, it does not repeat. It does not come from a place of discontent. It comes from a place of wanting to learn and grow and expand to our fullest potential, which we will actually never reach. If, if you're really focused, you will be on a journey your entire life. And you'll never reach your fullest. I hope not. I hope not. You should never be done. Right. It's like, am I, am I ever done? No, there's always something more. There's always some part of me that wants to become more is what I should say.

Yeah. And I want to throw out there too, this isn't just about material things and you know, Oh, I want to earn more money so I can have my house on the Lake. It's about, you know, of having that goal, but also loving the path to that goal, which is serving your clients and coming from a place of true service from deep within your heart of asking yourself, how am I here to serve? Who am I here to serve? And I struggled this for a while, Heather, cause you know, you hear this and you're like, you know, serve your purpose. And then there's like people with amazing humanitarian purposes out there, you know, like mother Teresa and people like doing missionary work and all of this incredible stuff, you know, abroad and at home. And I'm my purpose is just to help pet photographers get more freedom in their life. And it actually took me a little while to understand that's one hell of a good purpose too, you know, because it's not like, you know, feeding the homeless in India, but it's, it's helping people reach their true potential, which then helps others reach their potential. And it just has this ridiculous ripple effect. So any of you guys out there saying, well, my purpose certainly can't be to take good pictures of dogs. Sure can. Because you are putting good out in the world to that owner of the dog who now has this amazing memory of, you know, another soul that they loved and spent time with that, you know, that's good. That's good Juju out there. It's really good. And the truth is

More money equals more impact. You're impacting people. And the more you make, the more people you can impact. I distinctly remember coming home from college, our local college, where I teach one day after teaching Lightroom and I was feeling really frustrated and the course was great. Everything was great. But I said to my husband, do you think this is where God really wants me? Like, do you think I'm making a difference? There are people who are building schools in Africa and I'm freaking teaching Lightroom at the community college. Like I would, I felt like my purpose wasn't big enough or impactful enough because I'm quote, just teaching Lightroom. And he thought to me, well, did it ever occur to you that maybe that's where just that's your vehicle. That's where God is using you. He's using you with photographers because here's the thing. You, you teach Pat photographers, they grow their business. They get more freedom that impacts their family. And there's a ripple impact to generations of that family. Like for instance, if there's someone working a corporate job and they take your Academy courses and they're able to leave their corporate job and spend more time with their family and photograph puppies, which they love, they are happier. They are more relaxed. They're more present. Their family life improves. Maybe their marriage improves, their kids improve their behaviors better, which impacts the future of these children. Maybe where they go to school, who they married again, what you said, ripple impact. So I look at it as like, this is funny. I know this is funny when you say it, like there's like I'm teaching light room to impact generations. Okay. But the truth is I'm teaching Lightroom. That's just, you know, photography is our vehicle. It's just how we reach people. And we impact them in different ways that changes their lives and the rest, you know, that's out in the universe out of our control and it is all good Juju. It is just, you know, expanding well beyond what we can even imagine. Even people listening to this podcast, right. We might say one thing that changes the course of their lives. I take that really seriously. Okay. No, I am not building a school in Uganda and I have so much admiration and respect for the people who are philanthropic, but one day maybe more money means more impact. Maybe one day we can have an organization that does something like that. I don't know. The point is you're exactly where you're supposed to be doing exactly what you need to do impacting the right people at the right place at the right time.

Yes, absolutely. And you know, I think a lot of people have the, this hangup on earning more money because they feel they're not worthy to earn that more money. So if you start to look at that in the same lens, as more money equals more impact that, you know, if you have more money, not only does, you know, your children and your family, just get a little bit of breathing, room, flexibility and freedom and just security. But if you continue to grow that above that security level, then you can use that in whatever way you want. You can donate to that school and Africa, you know, you can just, for me, for hair of the dog, like this podcast would not exist without continuing to grow hair of the dog because I have a team of four. Now guys, four people working in this company besides me plus additional freelancers to get all this stuff to you. So like it, it costs money to produce this podcast, right? You earn more money. So then you can reach more people in these manners to help more people to, to just to just roll it all up and

Right. We need more good people to make more money so that they can produce impact in the world. So if you're worried about whether you deserve it or whether you've earned it, um, I would implore you to look beyond yourself. Maybe this isn't about you. Maybe it's about something bigger than you. And the fact that you make more money means you can impact more people. And it's all for good. So don't look at it as like, I think some people equate money with being greedy, like, and then greed is bad, but it's most likely not all for you. I know both Nicole and I donate to things or charities that are important to us. So the more we make, the more we're able to do that. And then that impacts them for good. And it's all that ripple impact. Just good. Good, good.

Yes, for sure. Oh, well that went off on an amazing little tangent of all sorts of good stuff. I mean, I could talk about money mindset all day long, but let's go back, let's circle back to this commitment versus interested. And are there any more kind of examples for that? Or what else can people look at to start to figure out if they're interested in something or committed in something? Because I imagine you probably have to start down the path to see if you still, like, if you feel that passion for it or if you're just exploring and you're like, ah, no, nevermind. That's just an interest. That's not my commitment. Well,

For me, it came down to how much am I willing to invest? I'm not just talking about money. I'm talking time. Like, what am I actually willing to do? How committed am I to making this happen? Because until you have to take action, it all sounds really great. Right? It sounds awesome to say, Oh no, I'm committed Nicole. I'm going to do it. I'm going to make it happen. Okay. Well, are you ready to really dive in and take the action required to make that happen? Let me give you an example. Yes.

I would say it's like, hell yeah. From those of you guys to listen to our morning routines, I apparently am not committed to not looking at my phone in the more

You're still doing that. Oh gosh. All right. Yeah. Improving some skills, but not necessarily committee. And you know what you want to know? Why, because you haven't attached a great enough why to it, there's not a compelling reason for you not to do it. I mean, there might be some, you know, anecdotal proof that, you know, you're less productive, but that's not enough for you. So you have to get really connected with why you're doing it, which is a good point. I mean, you, you raised a good point. So if you decide that you were committed to something, you better get really connected with why you're committed to it, because it's about to get really hard and what it does, if you don't know why you are doing it, you will more easily fall into the excuse trap of why you can't do it. So for me, it was investing in my education. So Nicole and I are both part of a high level coaching program. And Nicole joined it first. This is a couple of, this is like three years ago. So it's been awhile. But do you want to tell everyone how that, that conversation played out between us when you told them?

Sure. I said, Hey, Heather, I just got off a call and I think I'm going to join this coaching program and told her about it. She's like, Oh, wow, okay. Yeah. How much is it like a$12,000 a year? And I think it fell out of your chair.

I for sure did a hundred percent. And I said, I laughed out loud. And I said, you crazy, that is the most sense. I said, Nicole, that's like a thousand dollars a month for the, for the year. Like that's, I mean, I know these programs exist, but at that point I was just not at a place where I could wrap my mind around it. Like that seemed like so much money to me. And you were obviously vibing a little bit higher than I was at that point. You were a little more abundant and I believe you looked at it as like, well, it's just, it's an investment because it's what I need to do to go to the next level. You put money on the table to say, I am committed to this. Am I right?

Yes. I'm committed to growing my business. Yeah. And I was going to do whatever it takes and I still have been doing whatever it takes. And I also look at it on a return on investment. That's how I kind of judge all of the things I'm like, okay.$12,000 at the time we didn't have the membership. It was when I was selling business pet photography as a standalone course for a thousand dollars. And I said, will this program a year long program helped me sell more than 12 additional courses. And when I looked at it that way, it was stupid.

Right. Right. Yeah. You, again, you were a little, a little further ahead than I, so I mean, I can, I can really relate with people who are like, I can't invest. I, I can't okay. This is the language I used. This is the language people use. You told me you were doing this. And I was like, I can't do that because I was working for my current circumstances. Not unlimited possibility. Well, because I am extremely slow to learn. Don't be like me. Okay. I watched Nicole go through this program for an entire year and were, we were still working very closely together. And your enrollment came up for year two and we happened to be at the live event for this product. And I talked to one of the coaches and we, I set up a one-on-one call and she started pitching me on the program. The one that you were already in. And I, all of a sudden, I started to think maybe possibly I can do this, but I still wasn't convinced, you know, why? Because I didn't have a thousand dollars. And actually the program had gone up, it was now 13,000 a year. So it was like 1100 a month ish. Right. And I, I just said, I don't have that. I said that to you. I said that to the coach. I'm like, I don't have an Alexa extra. I mean, who does right. If you ask, do you have an extra a thousand dollars this month? Of course you don't. So I dug really deep and I, by the way I did this, I went through this process really quickly at this point. Cause it'd taken me a year because I'm slow, but then I'm, but in some ways I'm really quick to make decisions. So I was like, could I find a way in my business to make an extra thousand a month? And I determined really quickly that I could. Okay. But listen carefully. Here's the difference. Some people will say, well, if I figure out how to make an extra thousand dollars a month, why don't I just keep that? Or why, you know, why don't I put that into my sales? I looked at it like, if I could make that through my business, then I could invest my in my education, which would return it exponentially. So I was going to put in, not listen. If I said to you, Hey, I'm going to give you a nickel and you give me a quarterback. Right. I would do that all day long. I would give you Nichols for quarters back. I'll ensure you would do the same thing. So this is how I was looking at. I was looking at it as return on investment. Could I figure out a way to at least make the thousand dollars? Because here's what I was thinking. If I could at least cover the cost I knew I would grow. I knew I would learn. And then, you know, obviously the hope there is that I would grow my business so that I would make money. Well, I'm proud to say I'm, uh, my second year of that program. And I can't imagine not having a business coach like that will never happen in my business ever again ever. And I love this program and I love the resources. I love that you and I do it together. So we're on the same page. We can work together. And it was by far the scariest, most expensive, best thing I ever did for my business.

I love that. I love that. I have a similar story of where I went from, interested to committed. And that was with rewind about six years when I started my business in 2010, I did family photography and pet photography. And my family photography quickly became like the main source of income and my business. And I liked it. I didn't dislike it, but it got to the point where I was so busy with my family stuff, but I really had this passion, my why, my commitment to pet photography. And I had this passion, this drive to want to help other pet photographers and grow my pet photography side and just be all in, on pet photography. So I basically shut the doors on family photography business. That was well over half of my income of my six-figure business, that I did wait for it, nothing to market zero. I had a website and it was referrals and people that found me on Google, I literally did no marketing on my family side. And I w I shut it down. And that was the scariest moment in my business. You know, of course I knew, Oh, okay. I could open it back up, but I, you know, and I could have like, just tried to market more pet stuff, but still had that there. But without taking that step, I didn't have the space and I didn't have like the full I'm doing anything to make this work commitment to my pet photography side, because it's far too easy to get comfortable when you have all of that income rolling in without any sort of effort to then say, Oh, well, let me get really uncomfortable and talk to marketing partners that scare me. Let's do this. Cause you're not going to do that. If you're comfortable and you don't need to, because your brain will just make an excuse. Oh, okay. Next year I'll grow that part. Okay. Now do that next month. You're safe here. Sit down and have a cookie.

I like that. And that had to be really difficult to walk away from something that was so comfortable and so easy.

And again, I liked it. I didn't like it. Wasn't my, you know, it wasn't my passion obviously, but I enjoyed it. I loved my families. The kids cracked me up. Like I liked it. I loved creating the beautiful wall art, but uh, yeah. Shut it down.

And you were jumping into really untested waters at that point, because if I'm remembering correctly, Pat photography was not as big then as it is now. No proof to say like, you didn't have a proof of concept or you didn't have somebody saying, Hey, this can work. You were like, I'm going to actually test these waters. And I don't know if it's going to work.

And I don't know if I can build pet only side to be big enough to be my only John rhe. Right. I had no idea. I knew people had done it. So I knew there was like, I knew there was the person that ran the four-minute mile. So I knew there were some people doing it at that point, but yeah, but it wasn't in our market. Like there wasn't anyone in Pittsburgh doing that at that point. So yeah, it was.

Did you know, or how did you learn? Did you know that you had to let go to let in, in other words, you had to let go to open up the space so that you could grow that side and be committed. Like, did you, did you know that's what you were doing? Not, no. I

Knew that I had no time to focus on the pet side. So something had to give, so that was the family side and, you know, truth be told. I did tell my family clients that I really liked and I'm like, Hey, I'm going to all pets, but I will always still photograph you for as long as you want me to. So, you know, I still had a couple of repeat clients that went through. Um, but I took it off my website. I took it off everything like it was gone.

Yeah. That's a pretty bold move. I'm proud of you. That was a courageous step. But I think innately, you knew that in order to grow, you had to put yourself in an uncomfortable position. Yeah,

For sure. And along with that, switching gears a little bit, but the same sense of that is the key I think, to making, to getting those transformations is definitely making the decision and being committed. But then also having, knowing your why, I guess there's three pieces making the decision to be in committed, knowing the why of why you want to do this and then like having some skin in the game. Yeah. You have to invest. Yeah. Like if somebody gave me next level for free use our high level coaching program more, and if somebody gave me that program for free, I'd be like, Oh, this is great. But I don't know that I would have gotten as much out of it if I didn't pay for it.

No, you absolutely would not. You wouldn't work as hard. You wouldn't be as invested. You wouldn't care. I actually know this. I have proof of this because I have a time management goal setting course for creatives that I really, really am proud of. And a lot of people have seen some amazing transformations. And when I first released it, I gifted it to a few people. I gifted it to a couple of my photographer, friends that I knew couldn't really invest in it and really needed some help. And guess what? It did absolutely nothing for them. It didn't work because they didn't care. They didn't value it. There was zero skin in the game. I would have been better off putting them on a payment plan or, or maybe giving them a small discount, but at least having some type of skin in the game because they just, they didn't, it didn't matter to them. They didn't watch the videos. They didn't do the worksheets, they didn't care. And, and so nothing changed for them. So at that point I learned, uh, I had done them a disservice and I would never again give away one of my courses and not because I wanted to make money from them, but because I knew that it wouldn't matter to them. They wouldn't, they wouldn't take action. And yeah, it's the same with our group. And because we have, in my opinion, so much skin in the game, you better believe that I am working as much in as often as I can to make sure I'm growing my business and I'm profitable because I know that$1,100 is going to hit my credit card every month.

Right. Right. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. So we've been talking about some of our experiences, um, Heather, do you know, maybe have some, any other, you know, other people's experiences that might help somebody out there just relate to it? Oh yeah. Actually

That's funny you say that I have a really good example and what's ironic is Nicole, this literally happened yesterday. Yesterday. I was talking with a photographer in my area and she's very, very successful. And I reached out to her. I don't, I didn't know her until yesterday. I reached out to her and I said, Hey, can we get on a zoom call and chat because I love what you're doing. And so we did. And so I was asking her about her business and I, you know, like how long have you been in business? What do you do? Okay. She's a, what I would consider a high-end portrait, photographer, studio, portrait photographer, like families and kids. He does see families and kids, but she does a lot of women. She does a lot of like very Coture. High-end beautiful. Some might label as outrageous, love it, beautiful, beautiful work. And she said, she's been in business for five years in her first year, her sales were about$18,000. And this year her sales are around$300,000 making. Yes, it was$300,000 during a pandemic in the Pittsburgh market, which portrait photography. Correct.

So in a market that many people think maybe one, it support full-time photographers because people don't value it.

Right. Pittsburgh is not exactly a Mecca. I mean, when you think, you know, fancy high-end cities, I don't imagine you think Pittsburgh. So she's making that happen here during a pandemic her best year ever. She did it in five years. Well, obviously I was incredibly impressed by this. I congratulated her, like you should celebrate. That's amazing. And then I wanted to know, how did you do it? Right. Tell me all of your secrets, you know, where were your struggles? What did you do? And she had to think for a second, cause I was obviously springing like a thousand questions on her lines. I said, if you, you know, what would you attribute that type of growth to? And she said, well, I can tell you what, I wouldn't attribute it to, not my photos. So a lot of people will say, Oh yeah, of course you're making that. Cause your photos are beautiful. She's like, yeah, but they weren't always, you know, they weren't always at the level that they're at now. She said, I, 100% attribute this to my investment in my education. So she went on to tell me that there were two photographers that she invested very, very heavily at. Like, uh, I want to say somewhere between 10 and$15,000 over the course of a couple of years. So she, this is a lot of money invested in her education. And she said that made all of the difference because I didn't know what I didn't know. And, you know, I knew I loved photography and I, I knew a little bit about business and, but I also knew I wanted to grow and I, and I couldn't do it on my own. I wasn't just gonna, you know, this idea, isn't magically going to pop into my head on how I should execute these IPS session. She's a hundred percent IPS. And so she said, I sought out coaching and I went to the highest possible level. So she was not looking for the cheapest discounted course on how to implement IPS. She's literally sought out one of the most expensive she could find. Now isn't that interesting because most people do the opposite. But think about this, that's what she did. And now she's at 300,000 a year. Oh, does that tell you something? So maybe seeking out, you know, a$13 course that you found from somebody who teaches on YouTube, which by the way, no judgment, it's totally fine, but you're not as invested. She put all of this money and all this effort into investing and it has paid off. I mean, obviously by a multiplier for her to get five years, she did that within five years. She's young and she's just making it, I think there's a little bit of a fearless component to her. She's like, I just, she didn't even think twice. She was like, yeah, I'm going to invest that I'm going to invest the most I can possibly find because I know that it's going to pay off. And I just thought that was such a wise abundant way to look at things. I was, I was really impressed by that. Aren't you?

That's amazing. I love it. I love it so much. And you know, guys, the whole point of this podcast today is to ask yourself, you know, what are you committed to? Or, you know, with pet photography, you're just interested. Are you committed? And you know, maybe you are just interested in your doing this for a hobby or helping some shelter, animals get adopted. You're doing this as a little side hustle just for fun. That's totally cool. Keep at it. If you're happy with that. That is fantastic. We love that. And we are glad you're here. If you are committed though. And you're like, I am committed to leaving that full-time job. I am committed to making this my second career. I am committed to having the freedom of flexibility of running my own business, photographing dogs or horses or chickens. Um, you know, that if you're committed to that, find out why ask yourself? Why, why am I committed to that? And then get really clear with that and then ask yourself, okay, what's my next step? That's it? Yeah. Yeah. And just be open to how, but I'm going to give you a little shortcut here and this is non-negotiable you definitely need coaching and education in some capacity. It doesn't have to be from here. If the dog, it can be from wherever you want. There is a ton of great people out there, you know, go to where you feel that you will resonate and you feel called to, and you're like, yes, I'm like, I I'm digging what they're throwing down. And that usually leads you in the right direction. So, you know, I just implore you to keep more education than just YouTube. YouTube has this place. But if you are really committed, you are going to want a little bit more of a structured program and not just like education that you consume. And then you have to figure out how to implement yourself. Because here's the thing. When you don't have a coach to help show your blind spots, you don't see your blind spots because they are, um, blind spots. You have no idea, like what's actually holding you back where someone else can look at your situation and say, Oh, have you considered this? Have you looked at it this way? What if you looked

At it this way? And you know, uh, you know, it just, that could be the biggest change, right? Heather just listen. I had so many blind spots in my business and working with you and our coaches, they will call me on that crap. So fast and a brutal sometimes a little bit beaten, you know what the truth is? I love it. It's like, yeah, I love it because I didn't see it, Nicole. I didn't, without you telling me that I would have never seen it, which means I would have never gone to the next level. I would have never overcome it. Um, whatever struggle I was facing because I, I did not have the skillset or the know-how. I just didn't possess it, which is why I am paying someone to help me figure out how to move forward. And it helps you move forward faster and with more confidence, because here's the thing. If you don't have a coach and you're like searching YouTube or you're getting disparate information, you're always going to wonder if it's, if it's proper, it's correct. Is it even legal? I don't know if that makes sense, right? But if you have somebody that you are paying as part of a program, obviously you're paying them because you trust them and they've, they've done something that you want to do. So I agree with you, Nicole, you need to find a coach or a group that you resonate with, that you connect with maybe even on a value level and then you work with them so that they can help you see, you know, I look at it like I like the athletic analogy. So if you're the coach and I'm the player you say to me, Hey, Heather, you need to run back out on a field and try this, you know? So go back out into your market and work with your pricing or your in-person sales. I go out into the field, I, you know, run around. I work, I report back to my coach and I say, here's, what's happening? Here's what's working. Okay, go back out in the field, try this again. And it's that relationship that has you going back and forth working, but it's happening in real time and it's happening quickly. So you're not, again, there's no stalling or there's no, you know, I have someone that I've been working with recently and he said to me, what you taught me in two weeks just literally saved me five years. He said, I've been working on this for five years. And what I learned from you was, was everything. Well, okay. That's why he was trying to do it, you know, free. He was trying to do it on his own without the help of a coach. And just by looking up information and reading articles, which, you know, that's, that's what, that's how we all start, right. When we decide. But at some point you decide, well, I'm committed and this is taking too long. Like I'm, I'm just spinning my wheels. I want to get unstuck. So for me, you know, joining our group and going to the next level was about getting unstuck and getting the help I needed. I needed a coach that could both, you know, hold my hand and say like, this is going to be okay. Like nothing to worry about. And also then get in my face and say, like, stop with the excuses. Right? Like, just make this happen. Why do you continue to go back and forth? And it, one particular, one of the coaches was like, I'm talking. She was like super close to my face. And she was telling me I needed to be doing something that I wasn't doing. And I was like really, really uncomfortable. And I knew that in that moment, like I almost started crying, which was not the appropriate reaction by the way. But it was like so real. And so like at the surface and, but I knew it was good for me. And I left that interaction. I mean, maybe a little embarrassed maybe, but I took action and I did it and I would, I mean, I would take, I would take situations like that all day long. I would never avoid something like that because it's, what's pushing me forward and it's pushing me forward fast. I mean, unless you're super patient and you're, you're okay. Taking five years or 10 years. Right, right. But I'm not. So I'm willing to invest in a coach that will help me get there faster. That's the whole point.

I love it. I love it. Yeah. And I know exactly what you're talking about because yeah. Sometimes I'm a coach is all about asking you a question and you're like, Oh, well, yep. You nailed it.

Yep.

Excuse. Okay. But anyway, so yeah, if you guys are looking for coaching, I highly recommend that if you're committed to your pet photography business, that you find a coach, if you connect with Heather and myself and some of the other instructors and the hair of the dog, we of course have hair of the dog elevate high level coaching program, which the doors are open for two more days. They are applications for this next round close on December 17th and gosh, to sell up elevate. Uh, I don't even know that I can, it has seven coaches of the world's leading pet photographers, Heather copywriters, like all of the things to help you move forward in your business. We all, all the coaches host a call a month. So there is at least a call a week, sometimes two. And we have contests in there. We have a super active community. We have the students that are getting together on their own to lead their own brainstorming sessions as well. Gosh, we have templates. We have one-to-one lifeline. So if you're stuck and you're like, Oh man, I'm in Australia and I can't make Heather's calls live, but I really need to talk to Heather. Oh, you just schedule a lifeline and you get a 15 or 20 minute one-to-one call with her. So there's just, there's so many things. And the results our students are getting are fantastic from filling up their holiday mini sessions with just a couple of emails to one student got more inquiries during COVID lockdown that she had an all of her prior business. Um, yeah. We have multiple students that have hit their year end fiscal goals, um, before the end of this, or, you know, before it's December that we're recording this now, but before, you know, a couple of weeks ago, I, I just, it's been fantastic. And it's been an absolute honor to lead, you know, this group. And if you want more information about it, just go to hair of the dog academy.com/elevate. And it's a six month program that the applications close in two days. So two days. So you have days that on it,

If you're committed, you'll be on it. And so some people will say, well, two days is, you know, it's too fast for me to make a decision. The truth is you already know what you want. You're just trying to convince yourself one way or the other. You, if you are really committed to this, you know, you want to do it. What your brain is trying to do is figure out how so you want to buy yourself more time. And the truth is when I decided to jump into my next level group, it was the decision happened. I want to say less than one day, I was for sure. Less than what, okay. It took me a while to get there. But once I did, I was like, I knew I wanted it. It was just my brain. My logical brain was not even my logical brain false. My ego was telling me, well, be careful, are you sure you want to invest? But I knew I was all in and I was committed. And listen, you mentioned all the business breakthroughs and elevate, but I con of life breakthrough. So I'm also a certified light breakthrough life coach. And, uh, I absolutely talk about business and craft and Lightroom and Photoshop and all of the things. But I have found that the people who request me as their coach for the lifelines, which by the way, I love I live for these lifelines. I actually have several coming up. I'm really excited about because the breakthroughs that happen in 20 minutes would literally blow your mind. And it's just a matter of me challenging some of their limiting beliefs or what they think is possible for them. And Nicole, when we're on these zoom calls and I see it, I can see it on the face. I can see their face shift, you know, that like they hadn't thought of it that way, because we all work from our current circumstances, not from unlimited possibility, not from where we want to be. We're working from where we are, but that's not going to get us where we want to be. Our mentor always says, what got you here? Won't get you there. You have to do something differently. Also if you're a risk averse person and you're like risk versus reward, should I do this? Should I not? You know, I ask myself, what's the, okay, this is a two-part question. Stay with me for a second because it depends on your personality. You can say to yourself, what's the worst that could happen. Oh, okay. I can spend money and not get more clients, but I would still have like a tremendous amount of knowledge and material to move forward. Okay. Maybe, but what's the best that could happen. Oh, the best that could happen is you can make your investment back times 10 or more. Right. And so I asked myself just like you did, you said this earlier, like how many clients would I need to book to pay for this? And could I, could I book more clients? And if I can figure out, okay, listen, the truth is if I could book one more client, I could pay for this. Well, of course I can book one more client. Right. So, and then everything after that is just profit in gravy. So I see, you know,

And it's exponential because you are, you have the knowledge, the changes to your business and it keeps rolling. And I want to throw one more, um, strike three in that a whole, I don't know. I don't know if I should do it or not. There's a 30 day guarantee that if you get in there and you're like, this is not what I thought I would ever give you your money back and you can go on your way.

And why would you not want one too? Because get on one lifeline with me and you'll see, why would you, you you'll love it. And there's no risk. So why not? If you're thinking about it and I Oh, and listen, listen, Nicole, listen to me. When we signed up for our next level group, there was, there was not a money back guarantee. In fact, you signed a like iron clad contract that said, not only am I committed, but I'm in this for a year and at 1100 a month. And that was, that was frightening to me. I mean, I did it, you know, I mean, but for a second, I paused. So when I look at this, if I look at this from the perspective of a student, I think to myself, well, I can join for a month and then see. And then if I, if it really isn't for me, then, you know, no questions asked Nicole we'll work with you, but why would you not? There's no risks. Like why would you not at least try it? It's Oh, you know what it reminds me of aren't currently booking travel for the future. When you don't know if you're going to be able to travel to what are you doing it

Because I could cancel. And, um, I want to, so I'm just, I'm just, I told my husband, I'm booking a trip to Europe every quarter until I get to go.

No, because there's no, the airlines and hotels, even the Airbnbs have made it they've lowered the risk and they had to right. They made it, we made it very risk-free. So, um, my thoughts on this are like, why not book the trip? Why not book the trip to Europe? Because you, if, if you know, we're still dealing with the pandemic, you can, you can cancel it. You can, you have the tickets, you can forward them. So there's, you've lowered. The risk with elevate is my point to all of that. There's just no reason if you're committed, if you're committed. And it does, by the way, I want to go back to something you said a moment ago about, okay, maybe several minutes ago about hobbyists. You know, you might want to stay a hobbyist and you, because you want to help out shelters. I caught this and I thought, you know what? If you really want to help out shelters, you'll find a way to make more money so you can give them more money, more impact, more money, equals more impact. So even if you didn't think you wanted to go into this professionally for yourself, because listen, I've met some people who are like retirement age and they're, and they're looking for something fun to do in their retirement age. And they've picked up photography and they want to help, but maybe they don't want to treat it as a business, or they don't want to make money. I mean, maybe they do. I don't care. But if they want to help shelters, if they treated it like a business and they made more money, they could impact more shelters. They could, you could literally save puppies. Okay. Oh my gosh. That's so funny. I just think people need to think beyond themselves. And I know the two biggest things I hear are I don't have the money. Okay. Maybe, listen, I didn't have the money. I did not have the money. Then I switched it to, how can I get the money? Or how can I, how can I, what can I do to make this happen so that I can pay the$1,100 every month to stay in the program? How can don't ask? Don't say I don't have it. I want to, but I don't have it. That's an excuse. How can I, how can I get the money? And then another one I'll hear is time, which is like the worst excuse. Because all that means is you don't have priorities. You're not prioritizing it. And again, the committed, not committed, no judgment, but don't, don't ever try and ask the people who do lifelines with me. Don't ever try to say, I don't have, Oh, Heather, I would do that. But I don't have time because I'm going to call you on it. You, you make time for what you want to make time for period. Now

We all have the same amount of time, right? Hey,

I have, um, elevate, not elevate, whatever. I have a couple action steps for people. Can I share mine? I think we should definitely share that. So the first action steps towards commitment is to develop a plan for how you're actually going to achieve the goals you wish to achieve. Number one, you might ask yourself, what do I need to learn? What do I need to learn? You don't always know what you need to learn. But that, that goes along with number two, which is what do I need to believe? What do I need to believe is possible for me or for my market? So going back to my photographer friend, you know, there are a lot of people in Pittsburgh that wouldn't believe you could make$300,000 on portraits in our market. Well, somebody is doing it, which means it's possible. So maybe you need to shift your beliefs. And then the last question, so number three is what do I need to do to ensure that I meet my goals? What, in other words, what is the next step? What action do I need to take? Where do I need to get help? Where do I need to learn? How do I need to learn? Which will lead you. I believe all of this will lead you to some type of program or a coach or book or podcast. I don't know. It will lead you somewhere to get the information that you currently do. Not possess.

I love that three steps, easy peasy. Get it done.

Yeah. What do I need to learn? What do I need to believe? And what do I need to do?

Awesome. Thank you, Heather. I think that wraps us up just in a perfect little bow. And if you guys want to check out elevate, we would love to have you apply really the only, the main prerequisite, if you will, is that you are able to create consistent sellable images. And that just really means like, you know, proper exposure, proper, you know, like if you're still trying to figure out like, Oh my gosh, wait, what, what do I do with this aperture? Like keep working on your craft and catch elevate next time around because elevate is very business focused. And I want to make sure that you have the space to focus on your business there. And you're not dividing your time between still your craft and the business so that you can take full advantage of elevate with focusing on your business. So, yeah. So check it out. Uh, if, if you have any questions about, uh, because here's the thing, here's the thing. A lot of us are way more critical about our work than we should be. So I see so many photographers saying my work is not ready for sale. I can't sell my work yet. Meanwhile, the work is flipping gorgeous. So, you know, if you have questions about, I don't know if my work's good enough, um, grab a call on the elevate page for me, you can set up a call with me, shoot me an email. I will gladly and be very honest with you and say, Oh, not quite yet, work on this, this and this, or, uh, yeah, no, they look great. So, um, 100% just get some extra feedback hair of the dog academy.com/elevate, check it out. Our applications close on Thursday, the 17th at the end of the day. And Heather, thanks again for being with us yet again for another awesome interview. Of course I love hanging out with you. I love helping people. And by the way, I think you and I are both available for discovery calls. Like I would be happy to jump on a zoom with someone for 15 minutes, if they're thinking about elevate and they're not sure, and they have questions I'd love to chat. Yeah, absolutely. So let us know. And if you have any questions, just email [email protected] and we will get you the help you need. And in the meantime, have a great week. Talk to you guys next week. Bye everybody.

Thanks for listening to this episode of hair of the dog podcast. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to leave a review. And while you're there, don't forget to subscribe. So you don't miss our upcoming episodes online. If you are ready to dive into more resources, head over to our [email protected]. Thanks for being a part of this pet photography community.