Hey there, I'm Nicole Begley, host of The Hair of the Dog podcast and welcome back to round three of our coaching journals. What are the coaching journals? The coaching journals are a special program we have inside of Elli Elevate, in which these two lovely ladies, Monica Dinesen and also Kristy Baker. And by the way, I think Monica, I said your name right?

Finally after month three, I'm getting the hang of it. Anyway, these two ladies have agreed to have their journeys shared with everyone in exchange for getting some additional bonus coaching from Heather. And so these are the extra bonus coaching calls that we are sharing here. They've also been updating inside the Elevate program, letting people know what they've been trying each month,

what's working, what's not working, how they're doing towards their goals. And these guys are doing great, by the way, towards their goals. And in fact, Monica, last month, if you listed to coaching journal number two, had quite surpassed her May revenue goal, which was awesome and well on her way for June. So anyway, congratulations to both of you ladies.

You guys have been doing a great job. I'm really proud of you. And without further ado, go ahead and roll those coaching journal tapes. 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 photographer,

travel addicts, chocolate martini connoisseur, Nicole Begley. Okay, Monica, first of all, congratulations. You are just killing it. You are winning. What are your thoughts? Tell me, Oh my gosh, I feel so good. Like yeah, I've definitely been on a high from like hitting my goal. I'm still like, I, I don't wanna say I'm in shock,

I'm just like really happy and like believing in like the actions we're taking are pushing our business forward. So I'm just like leaning into that. What is your primary thought around that? Let's capture it because we can lean on it even more, but it's possibly when things maybe get challenging. Yeah, so my favorite thought right now has been like the actions I am taking are pushing me forward and getting me to reach my goals.

Mm. I'm te and I tell myself that like I'm taking every day, I'm taking action to reach my goals, whether that be like posting on social media, it can be like little things, right? It doesn't have to be like huge actions, but like every day I'm doing something. So That's good. Yeah. The actions I'm taking are working every day.

I'm doing something. Yeah. I like this idea of just, and I've shared this with you where I just think everything's working. Everything is working. Yes. Everything I'm, everything I'm doing, everything I'm thinking is working. And then it just helps you to feel more confident about the actions that you're taking. So you continue to take more action. Yes.

Yeah. Yes. Okay, great. Okay, so what are we working on now? Okay, so right now I'm working on interviewing people for the art gallery project. So it, I, okay. I was, I tried to manage my expectations a little bit, so I was a little disappointed. I only had 14 people apply to be in the art gallery and there's 12 spots,

so it's a matter of like, you know, getting those people to get on the call and like chat with me and that whole thing. So I think there's gonna be less people in the gallery than what I had earlier, earlier anticipated. So just because like you have fallout, right? Like some people back out, whatever. So What were you thinking in terms of applications that you were gonna get?

I was thinking like at least 30, like because it's free to apply, like it was very easy to apply and I had the applications open for a month and we even, so we went to local businesses and like put up our, our flyers and it was so nice cuz so many businesses actually put our flyers in the window of their business. Amazing.

So we got a couple people from that, which was great, but not as many as I was expecting. Yeah. Where, where did you primarily get, was there any one place in particular that you got the most from? Mostly from the rescue that it's benefiting. Yeah. So, yeah. Which is, which is nice cuz like of course it's a art gallery benefiting them.

It's nice to see their alumni in that gallery. But it wasn't like the goal but, and did You send out to your list as well? Yeah, I sent it out to my list only twice. I posted it on social media many, many times. Probably I'd say like six or seven times at least. And then like people were re resharing it,

the organization shared it, the ice cream shop shared it that the art gallery's gonna be at. So that was good. But yeah, not a ton of applicants. Okay. Where, where do you think we could improve that? Gosh, I think I could have given myself more time to maybe like ramp up and like get people pumped about it before because it,

this is the way my brain works. I get an idea and I'm like, let's do it right now. Yeah, let's just do it. And I don't give myself much time to like ramp up. So I probably should have done that. Yeah. I'm trying to think of other ways I could have like, I wonder if you could have structured it like Yeah,

I love this idea of ramping up, I think of a runway. Yeah. It's like if the airplane is gonna take off, it needs a runway. Yeah. So can't, you can't just like magically lift an airplane into the air and it flies just Jump. Right? Right. Like go and it's up. Okay. V1 and then, okay,

you need a runway in order for that airplane to get the lift and the speed it needs to get up now. And also that runway, I'm thinking applications are not open during the runway. Right. There is a runway and a buildup with a date and a very, very brief timeline. Like applications are only open for three days. Oh okay. But the sound,

but you can't, you can't create a post and say applications are only open for three days starting right now. Everybody please share as quickly as possible. Yeah. Right. You have to create the runway prior to and get people excited for the date of the release of the spots are opening, then they open and they closed very quickly. So I'm assuming that you just started sharing and putting it out there and they were open then for the 30 days and it was just way,

way too long. Wait, way too long. I even had some people apply the day after and I was like, ugh. Yeah, like obviously you're still in, but like, but really cause I need, I need you. Right. But, and yeah, so yeah, I like that. Okay, next year I'm writing this All down,

building up the runway and essentially you're hyping it up prior to Yes. It's a limited time and there are very limited spots and it, there's, so there's urgency and you wanna be part of, I mean in everything that you're already doing, you just, I think this was just a positioning thing. I think we could have positioned it in a way to make it more effective and in the,

at the end of the day, it still worked Cause you Did get 14 applications and you wanted 12. I, I understand there could be fallout, but, so it worked. It's just, I think we could make it more effective. Exactly. Yeah. It wasn't like my calendar contest that was just like overflowing with What do you think The difference was though then there?

Oh Goodness. I think there, so there was more collaboration. Like, so we included a business each week that like sponsored that week and so then that business would share it and that they would get more people to join as well, which was really cool. So just like more collaboration and that's something to think about like how can I next year get more,

yeah, more business collaboration. More collaboration from individual businesses to help. Yeah. Just spread the word. And is there a way, I'm thinking as I speak to get people interested in this on your email list so that you could remind them and speak to them more directly? Because here's the thing, we're, we're sort of at not as empowered when the other businesses were waiting for them to tell their people or for them to send out an email or put it in their window or whatever it is they're doing.

Yeah. I'm just wondering, is there a way to collaborate that also gives me a little more control? Like Yeah. I wonder if you went to a business and said, Hey, I'm gonna write five emails for you. Yeah. Because nobody has time to write and I don't, I don't wanna, you know, I'm gonna write five emails for you to send out over the course of the next week leading up to this and make it super simple.

Like how could I add more value and make this easy for you? So a couple of weeks ago I got an email from a client of mine asking for a letter of recommendation and I, my first thought was, oh my gosh, of course I love you. I want you to succeed whatever you need from me. Absolutely. But Monica, I hate to write and I have no time for it.

So I replied back to her and said, I would love to do this for you. How about you just like write or gimme an example or write it and then I'll, I will sign my name to it happily. Yeah. Like How can I make this easier for the person I'm asking to help? How can I provide more value they want? I would have to believe that these businesses want to email their clients on a more regular basis.

And if you wrote something for them, maybe we'll send it. That's a really good idea. Yes. Thank you. I like so many little spider like ideas. Yes. Little Web of ideas for next year. Yeah. Whenever I'm asking somebody for something, my first thought is always, how can I add value first? Yes. As I ask this request,

I mean you're obviously adding value in multiple ways with the, with things that you do. But like, how can I make this a no-brainer for them as easy Yeah. And seamless as possible. Yes. Because they're busy, you know, like everyone else. Yeah, exactly. I want an easy yes. I, yes, Easy. Yes. Like no-brainer.

They'd be like, of course Monica, whatever you, whatever you need, Right? Yes. They're gonna be thanking me. Yes, Of course. We love you. Whatever you want, Monica. Great. How about you write our, our emails all the time. Meanwhile I'm jumping over to chat G P t asking for help. Yes. I asked chat G B T to generate 52 blog posts ideas for me recently,

I just was like, here, I need, I need some help. I love it. It's the best thing ever. It is. I'm in chat G p t every single day asking it something and it's so fun and sometimes it's like totally off the rails and it just makes me laugh. But I'm actually surprised at how often I'm like, whoa,

that's actually really helpful. Yeah, It's great Actually. Good. It's Actually good. Well You, did you happen to catch that chat G P T training and elevate where we Yeah, that was good. That's where I got hooked. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Okay, great. Okay. I was on like an old older version of a different AI system and you were like,

no, this is, this is better. This Is, this is pretty interesting what's happening here. Yeah. I actually have it open on my screen right now. I was asking it for help with podcast. I asked if I asked if it could help me and then I said to it, what do you need from me to get the best results?

And then it told me what it needed. I gave it what it needed and that it was just, Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's great. I know. I love it. Okay. Fun. Okay. I don't wanna get derailed. What else? So I, it's kind of awkward. So like I selected my dog Guardian day winners in May.

Right. And it's mid-June I've had, so I selected four winners, one booked immediately. The two others I've had a chat with, like a consult with and let them know like, hey, here's the booking link. They haven't booked, it's been like a couple weeks and I've sent them their reminders like, you need the schedule. And I'm just kinda at this point where I'm like,

do I set like a hard deadline for them? Cause I think unfortunately in the rules and terms, which I don't think they even have access to it cause I didn't email them the rules and terms, but like the little thing that they applied with, it said they had six months to book the session. Which is my bad, my bad. I should have made it shorter.

But I'm like, sh should I like get them a shorter deadline? Like how do I get them the book? Cause My, what do you think you know the answer to that. I know I need to get them a hard deadline. Like right now. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. Email today or this week that says you have until the end of the week to schedule your session and the session must be scheduled prior to the end of next month or whatever,

you know? Yeah. But I want it on the schedule and I want it done by a certain date and like hard stop. Yes. Yeah. And then if they don't, they don't, I mean Exactly. Yeah. That's totally fine. Yeah. Yeah. So we actually, you and I have been through this a couple times on different things about setting hard deadlines with less time.

Yes. You like to give people a lot of Time. I'm so bad at it. I do. It's so frustrating. Oh my gosh. Okay. But Why, what's the, what's the driving thought do you think behind, you know, a 30 day window to apply for instance, right. I'm, I think I give myself that time because I'm worried people aren't gonna see it or they'll see it and then forget.

And so like having the runway like next year, like that's not gonna, that's not gonna give me that same kind of feeling because like they've had time to look at it and so like yeah. Having six months to cook your session is ridiculous. Yes. But like there's a Yeah, I just, yeah. I struggle with. I struggle with, yeah.

But I wanna get, I wanna get to the, the thought that's causing you to give people so much time. Yeah. What is it? So I think the thought is in my mind, okay, I've given someone this, this product for free, right? Like they get the session for free, but then they are on the hook for paying for the photos and all that.

And in my mind I've just sprung this expense on them that they weren't maybe expecting to pay because like they've been announced a winner. They didn't come to me and be like, we're ready for photos. But then now that I think about it, why did they apply if they weren't ready for photos? So why am I giving them so long? Like they're,

yeah, Well I, I won't, yeah, listen, if the thought is, I wrote this down, if the thought is I put them on the hook and I sprung this expense on them, then you feel what? When you think that I feel a little guilty, like Yeah, Guilty. And then you know what's in your action line, you give them six months.

Yeah. You set, you set this crazy like no deadline. Deadline. Yeah. It's, You have till the next century chill. We schedule your session, but it's coming that action line. If you think in terms of the model, that action line is coming from the feeling of guilt because you're thinking I sprung an expense on them. Yes. Yeah.

If I'm thinking I sprung an expense on someone, of course I'm gonna feel badly about it and then I'm going to say, well like, okay, I'll, I'll give you as much time as you need. Or you okay? Right. Yeah. What is a different thought that could also be true? Oh, they are excited to be selected and they needed this push to have family photos that they'll remember forever.

And also like, I like to tell myself this as well. There's a reason they reached out to me. I think that's what this before, like there's a reason they reach out to me like they need these photos and it's true. Right? And so they applied fully expecting maybe they were expecting a response. I would, I'd be like, I'm a winner.

Like I'm gonna win this. So like why wouldn't you expect to get those photos done right away? Yeah. I love that They're excited. So there's a couple of thoughts that you could choose to think here that might serve you better. One is they're excited. Yeah. Another is one of my favorites. They are ready, willing, and able to pay.

Yes. Because they, they would not have entered without being ready. Yeah. Like so true. To your point, what you just said was they entered for a reason. Yeah. So They're excited and they're ready, willing and able to pay if you truly believed that. Like they want this. And what I offer is like getting them to book in a timely fashion is actually doing them a favor.

That's a service. Yeah. Because if you give me too long to do something, I actually hate that. Like the person asking for the letter of recommendation. If she said you have six months, I would be like, well first of all I'd wait six months and I would hate that. But if she, I said, when do you need this?

By? Like, tell me today. Literally tell me you need it today because then I'll get it done and I'll get it off my list. That's service, that's actually Yes. Helping someone. Yes. So if you are thinking I offer service, they're excited, they're ready, willing and able to pay. How do you feel? Ugh. I feel more confident about that and I,

it makes me feel a little bit more settled in this project. Confident sounds like secure. Yes. Yeah. I don't feel so uncertain about, yes. When Are they gonna book, when are they gonna reach out? Like there's no question. It's just this is, this is it. This is a deadline Because you are, you are the professional offering the service.

You get to decide that. Yes. So if you're feeling confident and secure, could we go to your action line and then say, okay, you have X number of days to book this. Like that's an action step. Yes. Yeah. That deadline and, and communicate it clearly that you need to have your session booked. You know, use this link to get your session booked in the next week.

But the session has to be completed within the next four weeks. Yes. Love It. And then guess what happens when you're thinking they're excited, I'm excited. They're ready, willing, able to pay. You're feeling confident and secure. You set deadlines. The result is they are excited. You are excited and the session gets done in a timely fashion and everybody wins.

Yes. Yeah. This is much better intentional model versus a minute ago, the unintentional model of feeling guilty. Yeah. That's not what I wanted out of that. Right. That was not my intention. No, of course not. No, no, no. You were, Yeah you were, You were just driven by an unconscious thought you didn't realize was having an impact on your result.

Which is like the beauty of the model. That's exactly what we're always talking about. The thought was, I sprung this expense on them. You were, you know, that thought pops in your brain and you don't, you don't immediately think like, what's wrong with That's not a harmful thought in of itself. Like I actually just feel bad. Like look at me,

I'm so virtuous. I feel bad that I did this. It's all like, it doesn't sound like it could be bad, but it's very insidious because it leads to inaction or loose deadlines or not getting things done. So we just have to like pull out the unintentional model so we could see like how could we make this better? Yes. I love it.

I need to like sit with my thoughts and like, you know what I mean? Like actually like cuz those thoughts come up and I didn't even think to like pause and recognize that and be like, okay You don't even question it. Let's think. Right? Yeah. It's just like that's my brain, my brain served me that and I was like,

sure that, that makes sense. I didn't stop to think about it. Monica, The biggest problem we have is believing what our brain tells us. Don't believe everything your brain tells you. In fact get super like diligent about questioning the thought. We're actually gonna talk about this in our elevate call this week about celebrating our wins and not celebrating our wins and some of the unintentional models we create from apathy.

And it's just so interesting. We have these very basic thoughts like, well I'm not where I wanna be yet. And it sounds like an innocent sentence in your brain, but it creates apathy which produces inaction and then the results that you don't want. So yeah, we're gonna talk about it, but questioning. But you just like believed the thought, didn't ever question it and then everything flowed from there from that one.

Yes. So True. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, last minute thoughts. What are we, what are we working on next? Where are we, where are we headed? Boy next. So actually my husband and I, we like brainstormed this morning. So we have a bunch of fun ideas that we're gonna start working on. So like just broadening our reach for like dropping off more rescue adoption cards cuz we give discounts that people have just adopted a dog.

Just like little things like that. He had an idea where we should go to mortgage brokerage companies and real estate agents and see if we can like, yeah. Because like love that, especially for like you bought a new home, you should have some gorgeous photos in that home and like dropping off one of our, give them like a little discount for,

you know, a session with us. They can put in their little welcome home package. So I love that Thinking of ideas, right? Yeah. The real, real estate brokerage firms, I would be all over that a hundred percent. You could meet a bunch of those people and just, you know, create this network and be friends with them and offer something and they would look good.

And you know, again, my thought is how can I add value to them? How can I make them look good? Oh, I know this photographer and she offers this and don't you want a new photo in front of your home with your pet? Yes. Like it's so beautiful to remember this time. Yeah, I love that. I think it's brilliant.

Yeah. Yeah. We have like here, I'll just show you a very long list of ideas. I did the whole like we're good ideas, bad ideas, we're throwing 'em all out there. So I am excited to start working on those. Good for You. No idea is off the table. I love that like methodology with brainstorming. Like I don't care how wacky it sounds.

Don't try to figure out how, don't try to understand logistics just like any and every idea is on the table. And then we can go through them and pick out our favorites. I love that. Yes. Yeah. Okay, great. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks. Okay, thanks. Bye. Bye-Bye.

I'd love to hear how things are going for you. What you're working on, where you're stuck. Tell me everything. Okay. Things are going well. A lot of change happening in my life. Okay. Tell me. I am actually three months pregnant. Well, congratulations. Thank you. I would say that's a pretty big change. Yes. Very big change.

Both expected and unexpected. Okay. Fun. Yeah. So it's been awesome. I'm really excited. Like it's been wild. But yeah, that's a big change, right? Personally and then that also your business. So the fatigue for like the last month was freaking awful. Yeah. Unbearable. Yes. Yeah, I was like with my camera photographing sessions,

I was like, just try to come up with something. I don't think people understand that level of fatigue until it happens. It's like otherworldly. Yeah. I never knew like how bad it would be. I'd always like heard about nausea, morning sickness, all that stuff. That wasn't as bad for me. It was just like I wanted to sleep all day.

Yes. Yeah. Well you're busy growing a human, you know, organs and such take a lot of work. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Much more than I had ever realized or anticipated. So definitely tried to give myself some breathing room. But I've had I think six or seven sessions this month and I have one, no, I moved that person back to July.

So I got a couple moved back, which was nice. Haven't had any of the sales sessions yet. Those take place tomorrow and then next week. So that, that should be really good. But I was really happy with the sessions. I think most of them went well despite the like fog and You did it, you figured it out, right?

Yeah. Figured it out. Yeah. I think right now I'm still like kind of in with that news very much like how do I protect my boundaries in a much more efficient way? Especially knowing what's coming in the next several months to a year. So, and then obviously life after that, right? So that's kind of top of mind for me.

And I know last time we talked I was like, people aren't showing up for their ordering appointments. And I think I was mostly so tired, I just wanted to take a nap and I was like, No. Right. Have to stay up to, Right. But now it's a lot of like, well this needs to be like, it needs to be a really good reason for me to reschedule something,

you Know? Yes. Somebody might be really impacting my life or my kid's life or my husband's life. So that's like becoming top of mind. So I've definitely asked like lots of questions during Jess's coaching call have kinda Like Some ideas of like how people structure things and stuff like that. So I feel like I have good key takeaways and those are kind of the next steps for me to work on.

Once I get these client sales sessions done, I'm like, okay, these are like the three things I wanna work on. So, okay, so tell me. So okay, we get these client sessions taken care of, of what are the three things you wanna work on? So I just put together a product guide. I finally finished it. So I'm really excited to get that into my workflow,

sharing that with clients in inquiries. So implementing that, I want to increase my prices. I see. Just like from a volume perspective, I'm like, I could try to take on 70 clients a year or I could try to scale it back and increase price and figure out what wor what works so it doesn't work. Test something out and then go from there.

So I would like to have that implemented probably by end of July For sure. Inquiries. Yep. And then really starting to create more structure around, these are the days I shoot, these are the days I offer sales sessions. These are the days I take inquiries and actually segmenting it out. Not just like, well my calendar is kind of open.

Oh my gosh, I love that. Christy. I have this concept called the ideal schedule that I use. Okay. And I started years ago. The way I approached this was I created a Google calendar called Ideal Schedule. Nice. And then I structured it like if everything were perfect, okay, and I could set this up exactly how I wanted,

when would I do sales sessions, when would I do calls, when would I do shoots? On what days during what timeframes? And I want, I actually want you to physically do this exercise. Do you use Google Calendar or something else? I use Google Calendar. Okay, Perfect. So you, you create it and you name it ideal schedule.

Okay. And you just lay that out in a perfect world. And the beautiful thing is that you can click that schedule on and off so it overlays your current schedule and here's what will happen. You'll, the first time you do it, it won't match up at all. And you'll be like, well there's some things we need to work on. But it will magically start to just like work.

You'll start to see, oh, okay, so like let's, let's do a real example. What days would you like to shoot Right now? Thursday, Friday or Saturday mornings. Okay. And then only two a week. And then once one gets booked, I just pull one another day off. Okay, perfect. So on that ideal schedule, you block off those timeframes and you just write,

shoot, shooting time. And then you do the same for like ordering appointments or if you, if you're doing zoom calls versus in-person, whatever that looks like, you put it on your ideal schedule and then you just start to follow it. You start to, as you schedule things, you, you're looking at your ideal schedule and they will just magically start to line up and then at some point just delete the ideal schedule.

You don't need it anymore, but it's amazing then what you can accomplish because it's very structured and you know it actually, so some people think this like confines them, you know, or is too rigid. Yeah. But I actually believe it gives you more freedom and flexibility because if you know that you're shooting Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and you know for the next month you have two of those booked and it's like full and then you see that there's a week open,

you know, and somebody asks you for Wednesday and you're like, you look at your schedule overall and you're like, yeah, I can do that. Or no I can't. It actually becomes exceedingly clear what's possible, what you, when you can bend and flex and when you cannot. Yeah. Which to me, I think is the definition of freedom For sure.

Yeah. No, and I really like, I like having structure. I like having freedom so that like if I create structure that my brain is like, okay, I'm really good with this. All right, this is how I do things. And then when it's, you know, there's those times where an end of life session comes up and it's like Right.

The rules. Yeah. I feel comfortable in doing that to correct. So if you trust your structure, you will feel comfortable bending rules when necessary. Yeah. Yeah. So, and I think that'll just make it so much easier with clients from just like an experience perspective, making sure it's seamless with them. Instead of being like, do I have this day free?

Do I not have this day free? Cuz that's also like been hilarious. I'm like, I have to schedule doctor's appointments, when do I wanna do them? Like Yeah. And so you could actually put a day or two on your personal calendar that are for errands and appointments and those types of things that are blocked off from any type of client work.

So let me share with you a couple of examples. I had one photographer friend who was a family portrait photographer, really good, super overwhelmed, just taking clients all the time. She had three little kids and she was like, Heather, I'm burning out, I can't do this. And I said, what would you do? And an ideal world.

And she said, I would only photograph Tuesday evenings. And I said, done. That's the only time people can book you. Here's the next Tuesday I'm available. So what started happening was her calendar was booked out 3, 6, 9 months in advance because she really honored it. She stuck to her calendar. This was probably, oh my gosh, 16 or 17 years ago.

Years ago. And I think to this day she still only shoots on Tuesdays. It just became like her thing. Then there was another photographer I worked with who at the time was photographing everything. She was trying to figure out what her niche was and she said to me, I don't wanna photograph evenings and weekends ever again. And she was shooting families and weddings.

And I was like, okay, what can we do with this new information? And she said, I wanna do studio newborns and I only wanna shoot Tuesday and Thursday mornings, period. And I said, what's preventing you from doing that? Put it in your schedule. So the, what she does, she shoots Tuesday, Thursday morning, she edits,

delivers the same day. She never has a backlog of work ever. That's Awesome. Ever. She has three small children, she had to figure out how to make it work for her. And I think last year, I wanna say she hit just under six figures. She's not, but that was not her goal. Her her goal, excuse me,

is not six figures. Her goal is like a balanced life in harmony and doing what she loves with photography, but also honoring her commitment. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I love it. And also like, what a dream. What a dream. And you, I mean, it's your business. Isn't that the whole point? Yeah, yeah,

yeah. No, and like that's ideally, like that's where I get like within 24 hours I've cold and like done basic color correction edits on every image by that point. Have to get a new laptop to do that. So that's my next goal is also to do that. My Lightroom is so slow. So that's, that's a next step. But yeah,

no, that's super cool. I love it. Yeah. And I set up a day, currently the way my schedule looks is like I have a day, an administrative day where I don't book calls. So, you know, I spend a lot of time on Zoom teaching and podcasts, screencasts, all of it. So Fridays are blocked off for me.

No calls. I, I mean every once in a while I will, you know, and elevate, every once in a while I do a Friday call. But for the most part there are no calls on Fridays. And I used to protect Mondays, but now I'm getting, I'm shifting a little bit with that. I'm allowing a little more flexibility for scheduling calls Wednesdays.

So Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays were like blocked off for administrative and content creation. Tuesdays and Thursdays were calls. That's how it started. It sort of evolved. But I'm still really cautious about Fridays, especially Friday afternoon because if you wanna just like take half a day or do something fun, like again, isn't that the point? You know, there is only one person that I will schedule their one-on-one coaching call with Friday morning is Nicole Begley.

I figured that was gonna be the case. That's cause it's the time that worked best for us on, on a consistent basis. So I don't even, I don't even like include that because those calls are so much fun. But anyway, the point is I have guaranteed administrative time in my schedule, so I'm never anxious about getting things done ever. Cause I,

it's protected. It's there. Yeah. I like it. So good. Okay. Okay. You did ask a question though. I think it, it was, I don't know, rhetorical you said like how do I protect my boundaries going into this new season? Yeah, yeah. And that's a little rhetorical, a little like always open to feedback advice cuz I think,

you know, many of people have been there and I haven't. Well what do you think, like if you were to answer the question, how would you do that? I think it is truly like an ideal schedule. Figuring out what works for me. Knowing that what works today may not work. Oh that's important, Right? So I'm gonna like set something,

set up a structure that I think will work, take my best guess, make a decision, do it we'll get into next year probably take almost, I don't know, somewhere in the neighborhood of three months off. And then as I get back into everything, be like, okay is this working? Is it not working? And what do we need to change?

Constant reevaluation. Yeah. And I think just like figuring out what works. Like we haven't talked about daycare like pair or anything like that yet. So we're like still very new but figuring out kind of, we'll figure out those things as they come, but we'll also do some preparations. So kind of making those decisions as we progress into that. So Yeah,

A little a new adventure. When is your due date? January 4th. Okay, perfect. Yeah. Okay, perfect. That's a great time to have a baby because it's like off season anyway. Yeah, yeah. No it is. That is great. It was just funny cuz I was like, of course I would have a kid like right when I love going home for Christmas to my parents' house in Colorado and I was like,

of course I would not be able to go home. Oh right, Right. That's okay. I was like, I eventually we were gonna have to start doing Christmases in Atlanta So. Right. Okay. So tell me how you feel just about your next six months in terms of your business goals in light of your new situation. Yeah, I think I do wanna pull back on the volume a little bit just with the fatigue that I've experienced.

I was like, oh God, this is a lot and can I, am I gonna actually get back to a hundred percent energy? I don't know. And that's where I kind of felt like, okay, well if I increase prices and then maybe pull back one to two clients a month or shift them farther out, that that works for me. And so I think that's what I'm really trying to aim at right now.

I've ha I've getting a couple inquiries a week generally, so that's been good. I've definitely gotten some of the like do you offer digitals? Do you offer digitals? I'm like, oh, we may not be a group fit. Right, Right. But so still kind of working on that. We have a big marketing event this weekend at this like dog,

dog park that also functions as a bar. So that'll be super fun. Like I definitely think that'll be a really great way to like meet the community and be out there and I'm just excited about what we have to offer. So hopefully that will help us fill out the fall schedule and get where we wanna be. So I do feel good about where're the trajectory.

I not, I'm not close to 10, 10 K yet, but that's still my north star. So that's what I would love to see on a monthly basis. So. And how many clients was our, I know it was 10 k a month in terms of sales, but how many clients, when we first started talking were we aiming for per month?

I think it was at least five. And so you're thinking maybe just bringing that back a little bit? Yeah, yeah. Somewhere, somewhere in the four to five range I would still be comfortable with taking on. I think I, yeah, I told you, I said like seven clients this month. I think that was a lot. That's a lot.

Yeah. Yeah. And especially in light of being, feeling really tired and depleted. But have you, are you like officially in your second trimester yet? I guess like heading this week I'm like, okay, starting into week 13 if you will. Okay. It more often than not the fatigue subsides and you actually get a lot of energy. Like I think you're probably about to feel really freaking awesome and then what's gonna happen is you're gonna be like,

no, I can do this. I'm gonna take on all things. I have all this energy, let's go. You'll be all perked up. And then in the, the third trimester when you start to get a little bit bigger, you're like, oh, I'm tired again. Yeah. I'm like, those October sessions, hopefully the weather cooperates with me and is very nice and not too hot.

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I'm like, I'm gonna be like, the camera's gonna be on the ground and I'm gonna be like, shit, if I see this, I think you can do it. I shot through the end of October and Evan was born on December 13th. Okay, awesome. So, and I was fine. I was, I mean weddings are obviously,

you know, longer in terms of duration, like 10 hour days. But I mean I was tired but it was okay. Like I probably could have still done family sessions or regular sessions up like into November. Yeah. Just a little bit different, but, okay. So that sounds like a good plan. Let me ask you about this pricing increase.

Yes. That is happening when forthcoming. That's gonna be my July goal. Okay. And have you thought about what that looked, is this just like, oh it's, you know, I'm gonna raise things by 20%, 30% double. Like what were your thoughts? So my printers increased their prices a couple months ago and I didn't adjust with that. So when I go back,

look at what they've got and then increase based on that, probably increase my creation cost. Again, to me it feels worthwhile. And so I'm not exactly sure where I want to land, but I've also wanted to restructure it mostly cuz like right now my collections, it's like a 20 by 30, the biggest album I have. Like, and I want it to be more open-ended because I want people to buy like wall groupings.

And that's what my pro, my product guide now kind of anchors to. Okay. So I wanna shift, shift gears a little bit more in terms of let's do a fine art, like an art credit album structure they packages a little bit differently and hopefully even maybe increase those a little Bit. Oh, for sure. Yeah. But yeah, that's really where I kind of wanna get to.

And I've also put a lot of investment into kind of like packaging and stuff like that, but I didn't really have factored in previously, so I def I definitely need to adjust for that on a cogs basis, so Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we were actually talking about this this week on our six figure call about cost of goods sold and cost of doing business.

And I love the spreadsheets and the calculations, and you put in the formula and your lab went up 10%, so you go up 10% or you have it to four to five times the cost and you have everything lined up. I love that. Like I'm obviously a big, I'm an engineer, I love numbers, I love math and I also love making stuff up.

So if I, I would look at the lab and see, okay, let's say they raise their prices by 15%. I don't know, I'm just making that up. Yeah, I mean you could just do a quick translation of like, yeah, okay, I'm gonna increase everything 15%, but I also think there's something at play here that I'm going to call the Christie tax.

And the Christie tax in this new season is highly variable. Yes. So like, in order to get fewer clients at a higher rate, I'm thinking, okay, I I'm gonna do the math and then I'm gonna look at it or, or at least some of the math. I don't think I'm gonna go through every single item and look at every single.

Okay. Some people wanna do, that's fine. I don't have any problem with that. But if I start to sense a trend of like, okay, in general this is going up between 10 and 15% and I wanna just raise my creation of these products, then, you know, I, I might just across the board increase everything by 30 to 40%.

Yeah. But there's no, you know, there's no formula that tells me to do that. So there's a formula that gives you the base. Yeah. And then there's like, I also have to use my brain to come up with something that makes sense. Like Jessica and I were talking about like value based pricing, like the value of this product,

not just the cost of it, value of what I'm creating in terms of the art that goes on the product. And if you wanted to, again, look at those numbers, get like a high level feel and then say boom, 30%, 40% across the board, everything's going up. What I'm suggesting is that you spend maybe half a day on this.

Okay. Challenge accepted. Okay, thank you. Some people try to resist. You're like, okay, it's done. Yeah, I'll do it. I mean, I don't, I just, there's like thinking and logic and math involved and then there's like, how does this feel for me in this season based on the number of clients I wanna shoot.

Yeah. I have a column for Christie's Happy price. I love it. Christie's happy price. Love it, love it. I was talking to a friend last night at Camera Club. She photographed seniors and she's already filled for the year, that's all. It's June. And I'm like, okay, so you've left money on the table, which is okay,

you know, you right, this is what she's done. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cause demand, because a high end client can't even book her and get on her schedule because she's filled. Yeah. So she said, well, I'm getting all these inquiries and I have to refer them out. And I'm like, Ooh, okay, next year I want you to just double everything.

And she's like, double it. And I'm like, you're filled two months or a month before the season even starts. You can't take on any clients. You're going to refer out more than you actually booked. Like yeah, double the price and see what happens. I think she wanted more of like a reason or a formula for that. And this is what I said,

it is a very simple economic principle called supply and demand. There is more demand than she is willing to supply. So she works a full-time job, so she only wanted to take 12 clients. So she booked these 12 clients and then there's all these other people that wanna book with her and she just does not have the supply to meet the demand. This is when prices go up.

This is just like how it works, you know, whether people like it or wanna accept it or not. It's actually a very black and white thing to me. Like there's only so much Christie to go around. Yeah. So do the, do the calculations and then add your happy price. That's it. Okay. Any last minute thoughts or questions?

I don't think so. I feel like I have like some really good takeaways for this. Okay, great. Congratulations again. Thank You, Heather. All right, I'll talk to you soon. Bye-bye. If you're listening to these coaching journals and think you that you can benefit from having this type of support in your business, well you might wanna join us in inside of the Elevate program.

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