Have you ever said to yourself, I wish I could do x, but I just don't have the time, money, or insert some other life circumstance? Well, if you're human, the answer is probably yes. Heather actually recently discussed this exact challenge with our elevators inside a recent elevate strategy call, and it was so impactful that we wanted to share a snippet of that call here with you now. If you aren't familiar with elevate, it's our program designed to help photographers get more clients and make more money.

It's actually our mission to teach business and marketing in a way that's super simple and achievable for everyone and anyone, no matter what your stage in business. We have three to four strategy calls a month so that you never have to wait to get help. But if that doesn't work for your schedule, we also have one to one private lifelines with Heather and the other coaches to help you move forward.

And if you join by the end of the day, October 7, you're not only going to save the $200 joining fee, but you'll also receive the recordings from our just held live retreat and a bonus call finding your target market with Heather and a demystifying your pricing bonus call with me. So go check it out. Www.freedomfocusformula.com elevate if you want to join us, but regardless on if you're considering joining us or not, this episode could literally be life changing.

So stay tuned. I'm Nicole Bagley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving two to $3000 sales is your fastest route to six figure businesses that any technically proficient photographer photographer can consistently hit four figure sales.

And no matter if you want photography to be your full time passion or a part time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place with over 350,000 downloads welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography podcast. In a recent strategy call Inside of our elevate program, I shared my approach and thoughts around dealing with life circumstances that limit your ability to work on your business.

For example, you might have a full time job or small children, and of course, these things impact your schedule pretty significantly if you aren't familiar with elevate. It's our program designed to help photographers get more clients and make more money. It's actually my mission to teach business and marketing in a way that makes it super simple and achievable for everyone and anyone. We have three to four strategy calls per month so that you'll never have to wait to get help.

But if that doesn't work for your schedule, we also have one on one private lifelines with myself and the other coaches to help you keep moving forward. I'll put the link in the show notes. As I mentioned, today's episode is a snippet from a recent call with our elevators and I know that you are going to find it valuable. I mean, that's why I'm sharing it. I would not publish something that wasn't useful because I value your time.

Take a listen. I would like you to think about the obstacles you have in your life right now that are preventing you from moving forward, taking more action in your business. I am not talking about your thoughts. I am actually referring to real, legitimate circumstances that maybe put restrictions on your schedule. For example, maybe you work a full time job or you have small children or other responsibilities that require your attention.

We often coach around here on our thoughts and that's because we can control them. An example is when a client doesn't book you, you instantly think it's because of your pricing. My prices are too high. They don't want to spend money. Those are thoughts. Nothing is working. That's a thought. I don't know how to do this. Another thought. I can't find clients. Also a thought. But today I'm not talking about thoughts.

I'm asking for the circumstantial reasons that you are maybe limited with what you can do in your business. For me, it was when I had small children during the height of my photography career. I had to learn to work around their needs and schedule. I also have this issue with sleep. I just can't function without a good night's sleep. So when my kids were little and it was a Friday night in the summer, which means I had a wedding the next day, my husband would take care of any and all situations during the night so that I could sleep.

I still have this thought around sleep or being sick. I can't show up and teach or coach at my highest capability when I haven't slept well because I can't think clearly. But I've noticed over the past year or so that I actually can. For example, I love our full day live virtual retreats. I work for months to prepare the material. I'm always super hyped up about it. But at our last retreat, I was actually sick.

I had not slept well. I did not feel good. So I started to get all stressed out and my brain was like, oh my gosh, how am I going to show up? They need this material. I need to deliver this content in a powerful way. And I just continued to spiral. But then I had this thought, what if I were the type of person that could show up or execute even when I haven't slept well and don't feel good?

And I thought back to weddings that I photographed whilst sick and how I was actually surprised that I was able to do it. And a few times I even felt like it was miraculous. So then I thought, what if I'm nothing? The type of person that requires perfect sleep to show up. But I am the type of person that is able to tap into the incredible reserves that I have in my body to make something happen when necessary.

I am sure that you can think back to a time when you were able to show up for something when it felt impossible. What would it be like to number one, know that those reserves are available to you, and number two, trust yourself to tap into them when necessary. I want you to think about what it would be like to be the person who no longer has the obstacle that is preventing you from showing up or moving forward.

What if you could be released from the shackles of your obstacles? Like quote, I don't have the energy. I work best when I get great sleep and I have tons of focused energy. But if I think that and truly believe that there isn't another way, then I am shackled by it. It might be my best experience to have sleep and energy, sure, but it can also be holding me back.

I don't want to need to be the person who has to have perfect sleep to have a good day or to get things done. I don't want to be the person that says I can't think if I don't have sleep because I believe that freedom is on the other side of that obstacle. I want you to pay attention to the obstacles your brain gives you that prevent you from moving forward.

There will be ones that you do not even recognize as obstacles, and you'll think that's just the way it is. It is reality. It is a restriction period years ago and this was probably thanks to my anxious thoughts. I could only schedule one big thing or event per week. So if I had a call like this, then that was it for the week. I mean, I have to think about preparing.

Then I have to prepare. Then I have to overthink my preparation and be absolutely sure that I didn't miss anything. And then I would have to deliver the training, and then I'd have to recover and then think about recovering and then overthink. If I said everything right or wait a minute, did I upset someone? Or if I did, should I reach out and apologize? I knew that this was an obstacle, so I started experimenting with adding other things during the week.

And once I had success with that, I started asking myself this life changing question. How can I increase my capacity for complexity? And the only thing I could do was try. So I repeated my mantra. I'm increasing my capacity for complexity over and over. And I asked myself, what do I think is going to happen if I schedule, heaven forbid, more than one call per day? What if my anxious thoughts don't have to be the restriction?

What if your job, your kids, your schedule, even time? What if they don't have to be a restriction? I am no longer the person who has those types of limitations on her schedule. I am no longer the person who can only have one big thing per week or per day. I can actually handle as many calls as I can schedule in one day and still have energy, which is mind blowing to me.

You might think it's your reality, such as, I can only manage two clients per month. I just can't handle anymore. I can't photograph in the winter due to the weather or it's busy season. I can't add anything to my plate. Although I bet that's not what you say about your Thanksgiving plate. I bet you figure out how to get more food on your plate. Then you have a set of restrictions that you identify as concrete as to why you can't do something or you can't move forward.

Such as, I can't possibly go market my business. I'm an introvert. I don't even like people. I can't do this thing because I have kids in the house. I have these responsibilities. I have add, I can't focus. I don't have the energy. I use the energy one a lot because it's mine. That is my restriction. I believed that. Okay, here's what I said in my brain. I can't be productive after 02:00 p.m.

period. But what if I didn't need energy to be productive? What? I honestly hadn't considered this until very recently. In fact, I was in the kitchen, getting ready to make dinner last week, and I really, really didn't feel like doing it. Zero energy and less than zero motivation. And then I asked myself, how can I be the type of person that does things even when they don't feel like it?

And then I just made dinner. I am certain you've done things like this because you've had to. I'll chat with photographers that really want to make their business work. They really want to join, elevate, or work with me. And they tell me, I just don't have the money. And what that equals is I'm not the type of person that gets resourceful to come up with the money. But if you could recognize that this is a self imposed restriction and not an actual circumstance, which, listen, is really hard because the bank account has a very clear number.

You can see it. But if you recognize it was a self imposed restriction, then you could think, I'm resourceful. I'm the type of person that can come up with money that I didn't think or know I had. Then imagine what you could do. This is how I felt about my recent mastermind investment. I knew I wanted to do it, but it was a lot, a lot of money.

So the question I asked myself was, how can I make this work? What would be possible for you if you were free of the time restriction? I've worked with several clients around time scarcity. Nicole Begley was one of them. And in each case, they were trying to action their way to a different result. They were like, okay, okay, if I schedule things this way, or if I could just approach time differently or find the perfect system, then this would no longer be an issue for me.

So they try and they stumble and nothing works. Or maybe it does. Maybe something does work, but it still requires a ton of effort and willpower. And by the way, this could be a viable strategy. But what I want to offer is that what if you went all the way back to the original problem, which is time, and decide that time simply wasn't a restriction? One thought could be, I'm not the type of person that needs extraordinary amounts of time to get things accomplished.

Time doesn't matter. In other words, what if I didn't have to fix time or eliminate anxiety, or have tons of money in the bank account and lots of energy to accomplish my goals? I have five questions that I would like you to ask yourself. Number one, everything we do is laced with restrictions. Can you name a few that you are labeling as unmovable as circumstances that cannot be changed?

Number two, what would it be like to remove all restrictions? Number three, what are the rules you have around showing up? I had rules about how many calls I could do per day or per week, and I followed those rules, quote, for many, many years until I decided to question them. Number four, what are the restrictions in your personality that are preventing you from becoming who you want to become?

I have a photographer friend who tells me all of the time that she's lazy. Oh, my gosh. She is not lazy. She is the furthest thing from lazy. She says I can't move forward, I can't grow my business because I'm lazy and I have kids. Which leads to number five, what are the excuses your brain gives you? My brain convinced me that my excuse for not getting things done was because I had small children, just like my friend, period.

Absolutely nothing I could do about it, which is where she finds herself. She has this restriction regarding her personality. She's just lazy, which she's not. And then she has small children. So she has just acquiesced to these circumstances and there's nothing she can do about them. When I'm thinking about where I'm currently at, like my current business and my mission to help photographers make more money, I think to myself, someone is waiting on me.

Someone needs this, like what I have, people are waiting on this. They need this information. I simply don't have time to indulge in the belief that I don't have time or energy. I want to show up more than I think is possible on a daily basis. I think the people who get results versus the people who don't are the people that show up even when it's not convenient for them, even when it's busy season, kids have a lot going on.

There's not as much money flowing right now. Even when, you know, dot, dot, dot, whatever, even when, whatever. People who don't get results push it off until a more convenient time. But have you noticed something about life? It is never convenient and it will never be the right time. When considering elevate joining. Elevate. Some photographers will say to me, well, I can't attend the live calls, so it doesn't make sense for me to join.

Well, first of all, that's assuming that all of the value is in the live calls. But what about all of the content in the portals and what about the one on one lifelines? And they'll say, well, I just know myself. If I don't show up live, I won't watch the replays. So it just won't work for me. But now we are blurring the lines between circumstances and thoughts, aren't we?

They're telling me I have a job, so I can't get value. That is a restriction on time, period, and there's nothing I can do about it. Well, I just want to challenge this because I'm in three programs right now and they are not inexpensive, and I run this business. Imagine if I had the restriction that I had to be completely engrossed in just one of these programs. I had to have all of the time in the world to watch the material to attend the calls live.

If that were the case, I would not have signed up for the others, which means I would be missing out on the value in what I'm learning in those programs right now. And I don't want to miss out on that. So I'm not going to put the restriction on myself. It's the difference between someone who says I can't show up live, so I can't do it verse I show up when I need to, I engage when it makes sense, and I trust myself to know this is my exact approach to the programs that I'm in.

And side note, I bet you watch Netflix and that's nothing but replays. I mean, it's not live. Do you trust yourself to show up for Netflix? It's ridiculous. And also very interesting. I have a photographer friend that I've known for many, many years, well over a decade. And last week she said to me, I really need to work with you. I have to sign up for private coaching because I know you could help me and I know it would make all of the difference.

I need help with my business, my personal life, my relationships. And I know you are the person I need, but I have to wait until busy season is over. And I said, okay, you can. You can wait, but do you have to? When I was contemplating signing up for my mastermind, my brain really wanted to tell me to wait. It was like, well, we need to save more money and we need to get all of these other things in order, because actually, you already know most of the things you need to work on, okay?

Which, by the way, is actually not true. And I knew that at that point, my brain was just throwing anything it could at me to slow me down. What if I was the type of person that did not need everything to be perfect before making a big move? Why would I wait to get help? Why would I wait to make money and improve my business? I couldn't come up with a solid reason other than the obstacles my brain was presenting to me to try to keep me safe and small.

So I just went for it. I want to be the type of person that isn't beholden to circumstances. I can show up and do what I need regardless of what is happening. So whatever is in the circumstance line, I can deal with it. I want to pause here because I want to be really careful and add this caveat. Do not use this against yourself. Some of you will take this extremely literally, and you'll make it black or white, like either this or that, and ask me how I know this, because I've done it.

But if you lose someone in your life or you are truly on the brink of a burnout that will require medical intervention, then stop. Stop and process the circumstance. This is not the time to think about working and how you can push yourself to move forward. This comes down to wisdom and discernment. If you are in the hospital, then you can't say to yourself, how can I be the type of person that still shows up for my photo shoots?

No, no, no, no. Obviously, you have to deal with that circumstance. Please, I beg of you. I beg of you. Do not use this to beat yourself up. This is about awareness and curiosity, not about suffering. Yes, I want to be the type of person that shows up no matter the circumstance. And I know when I need to deal with a circumstance rather than examine my thoughts about the restriction.

And before we get into coaching around this, I want you to really watch your brain. If you're listening to this and you're thinking, but, Heather, you don't understand. I just want you to pause there because it's clear that whatever you're about to tell me is something that you believe you cannot work around. And it's just a circumstance in reality, that is, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Your brain is trying to convince you right now of why you just need to accept the circumstance and move on. I just want you to get really curious and question everything. Before my son Evan got his driver's license, I had to pick him up from the bus stop every day because the bus does not venture up a mountain into the forest where we live. I would leave at 02:50 p.m.

and sometimes the bus was on time and sometimes it was late. I would typically arrive back home between 03:05 and 315. Well, obviously, my workday would have to end at 02:30 p.m. because I had to get them, and I couldn't possibly schedule anything when I returned home. Because my flow had been broken and my energy is low that time of day. So I'm just done. Nothing I can do.

Purely circumstantial. But then I thought to myself, how can I be the type of person that doesn't need energy to get things done? What if I don't need flow, but actually need the break to refocus? What if I'm looking at all of this backwards, or another way to say it, I can be the type of person that has a break in their day and can still get things done.

Do I have to have energy to be productive? And then how can I manufacture motivation? Or wait? Maybe I don't need to. How can I do things that I don't feel like doing? Or wait? Or do I need to feel like doing something to get it done? Oh, my gosh. I know that this feels very existential, like what is happening. I just want to encourage you to look at things differently and question the restrictions that you've put on your life or your business.

And as we dive into coaching around this, I want you to understand that there is no judgment here, because I have been through all of this, and some of it very, very recently, because I have a brain. I'm a human, and my brain offers me obstacles and restrictions. And I'm like, okay, because I believe it. And I just want to continue to question if that's really true, because I like to expand.

I like to grow and learn, and as always, I like to increase my capacity for complexity. Okay, let's get into some coaching. I hope that you enjoyed this episode. On the rest of that strategy call, we just dove into questions, and we did a lot of coaching around our thoughts that prevent us from moving forward and the skepticism that we have around conversations like this. And if you would like to join us, then we'd love to invite you into elevate where you can be a part of these coaching conversations.

That link is in the show notes. I hope that you found this useful. I'll see you in the next episode.