Are you lacking confidence in your photography business? Take a look at these things that can help you boost your confidence and get unstuck and moving forward.

Where Does Confidence In Your Photography Business Come From?

Confidence in your photography business comes from taking action. It doesn’t come from waking up one day and feeling like you finally made it. It’s not something given to some people and not to others. It comes from failures and lessons learned and it’s developed through mistakes and by taking action every single day.

This is the hardest lesson to learn when you’re in business. Especially when you hit those low seasons. Entrepreneurship is not on a straight forward scale, it’s more of a roller coaster. And the thing you’ll realize is that you won’t always have highs and you won’t always have lows. There will be ebbs and flows. And as soon as you think wow I’m at the top of this mountain you’ll roll right into your next season of low. But I want you to know that that’s normal. It doesn’t mean your business is broken or that you’re not operating correctly. It just means that you’re on the journey to whatever destination you are headed to.

So again, confidence in your photography business comes through taking action. There’s no one event that will happen that causes you to suddenly feel confident. It’s just something that happens day after day, month after month, year after year in your business.

How To Keep The Confidence Flowing

Surround yourself with the community that is going to support you. You may be shocked to learn that usually this isn’t your friends and family. Sometimes the people closest to us are the ones we feel the least support from.

But you can find community in a variety of different ways. This can include industry peers local to your area or not. You can meet them in Facebook groups. You can also find a community through courses and programs that you’re in. The students that have joined my Blueprint program are a very close knit family. There’s not a day that goes by in that group where someone doesn’t post in there or support another person. So just know that you can find that supportive community through different things that you join.

Another form of community is having a coach or mentor. Having someone who gets it, who has been there, who is a few steps ahead of you. They can tell you if you’re on the right track or if there’s something you need to change.

So I really want you to surround yourself with a community that supports you. And if you don’t have one yet then make it a priority to find them. They’re out there you just have to look.

Your Mindset Is Everything

I remember a pivotal moment in my life when I went from low level poverty thinking to changing my mindset completely. I started to see the world in a completely different perspective. 2016 was my lowest point but something just kind of switched within me. I am a believer and my Christian faith has been what has carried me throughout my entire life but specifically the last 10 years.

So my confidence comes from me knowing whose I am, who created me, and who my creator is. A lot of my confidence comes from me having that strong foundation of faith, my values, and what I align myself with.

This goes back to your mindset. I had to switch my mindset. Faith played a major role in that for me but I also had to find a community and surround myself with people who were headed in the direction that I was or were already there. By doing that I was able to uplevel my thinking.

I can give you all the strategy in the world and all the business advice. But if your mind isn’t right then you’re not going to see success. You’ll be so caught up in your mind and it’s hard to get out of that.

3 Limiting Beliefs About The Photography Industry

#1. It’s a saturated market and there isn’t room for me. The flip side of this is that everyone is in a saturated market because photography is something everyone wants. Saturation is a sign that your service and skills are needed. There’s no way that 300 photographers in a major city could handle all of the people who live there.

I live in a small town where there are more cows than people and only one stoplight. But there are multiple photographers and we are all successful in our own ways. Stop letting the fact that you feel like there’s a photographer on every corner hold you back. There’s room for you.

#2. Undercharging. The mindset here is that you can’t charge that much because you believe no one will pay that. Or you’re new and you don’t feel that you’re worth charging a certain amount. Here’s the thing. The cheaper you start or the longer you stay cheap, the harder it will be to get to a profitable amount. This is why I tell my students that I don’t want you to just slap a price on things. You need to know what you should be charging.

With that you’ll be able to see a target of what you actually need to be charging to profit in your business. And that will give you a good indication on if you’re too cheap or if you’re close to that number. So we need to stop telling ourselves all of this mindset junk about pricing because it’s not true.

#3. Believing you’re not worth it. This is where community will really benefit you. You also have to know your purpose in life and in business. Because if you don’t know that then it will keep you stuck and you won’t know why you are doing what you are doing in the first place.

The Two Main Things That Will Keep You Stuck & Lacking Confidence In Your Photography Business

These two things are overthinking and overconsuming. Overthinking is where you’re in your head all the time with all of these ideas and everything is just going back and forth. And you keep asking yourself am I good enough am I not? It’s just constant overthinking and you’re putting yourself into a paralysis analysis.

By overconsuming you’re listening to multiple podcasts and gurus, you’re on several educator’s email lists, and you’re consuming so much social media content. When you do that you again develop that paralysis analysis because you’re not truly committed to trying things out. And you don’t even know what’s best for your business. This can get really dangerous.

So what do you do to get unstuck? You do everything that I’ve mentioned. You have to work on your mindset, you have to surround yourself with community, and you have to take that messy action. But the best solution is to find a mentor or a coach who will fast track your success.

Here is what happened in my business. I got myself as far as I could by DIYing and Googling and watching all of the YouTube videos and listening to all of the podcasts. And then I knew that the only way to get past myself and onto the next level was to get out of my own way. I needed clarity and I needed a strategy. I needed an unbiased person to come speak on behalf of my business.

How To Find The Right Mentor For You

So if you’re in a place where you’re done with DIY then find yourself a mentor or a coach to fast track your success. And here’s how you do that. I want you to limit all of those voices that you’re listening to right now. All the podcasts, email lists, social media, and who you’re following. Limit all of that and then ask yourself who has achieved the results that you’re looking for and who has proven those results for other people. Who has the same values that you do. So that when they are mentoring you you know they’re giving you solid advice that won’t go against what you believe.

If I’m the mentor for you then fantastic! You can email me at brooke@brookejefferson.com if you’d like to get more information on that. But I’d also really love to still connect with you even if I’m not going to mentor you. So two ways we can connect are if you tune into my podcast the Book More Photography Clients podcast. And then come say hello on Instagram and let me know what your biggest takeaway was from the podcast episode you listened to. I would love to connect with you and cheer you on every step of the way.

Join us for a free 2-day online event for photographers on October 19th + 20th 2023. Get more details here.

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