Are you sabotaging your own business?

It can be extremely difficult trying to grow your photography business, especially in the midst of raising a family.

I’m excited to share with you five mindsets that are sabotaging your business, and how to shift those mindsets. Once you’ve been introduced, you’ll be able to steer yourself in the right direction. I can speak from experience how each of these have held me back at different points in my business. Once I was able to shift my perspective, I was able to move forward and continue growing the business that I have today. So if you’re ready, let’s get right into it.

Mindset #1: Imposter Mindset

This is where you start to feed yourself with negative stories such as..

• I’m not enough
• I am not as good of a photographer as she is
• My business is not as successful

This is a mindset that I think a lot of us get stuck in. This imposter mindset really makes you second guess your worth and this holds you back in your business. Because if you do not feel like you are worth it, then you’re not going to charge what you’re worth. You might be stuck in this mindset of charging less because, maybe, you don’t feel like your work is good enough to charge more. If that’s where you are right now, here’s the fix:

Stay in your own lane.

Put your blinders on, and focus on moving forward. Compare yourself only to who you were yesterday, don’t compare yourself to anyone else because you don’t know their journey. This quote has stuck with me for so long and it goes like this..

Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle, we never know the entire story.

Even if the person that you’re comparing yourself with is someone that you know. Maybe you started at the same time and they’re still further along than you; there’s still always unknown parts.

Now, I’m not saying that you can’t look to people for inspiration. I think that there should always be people who inspire you to be better and to do better, but don’t let that hold you back and sabotage your business. But if you are finding yourself stuck in that comparison trap, journal through your thoughts. When you are feeling these feelings, express them. Get them out and figure out why you feeling this way.

Mindset #2: The Fixed Mindset

If you’re experiencing this mindset, you might be using words like, “Well, it’s just who I am.” Maybe some of you do not have a fixed mindset when it comes to growth in your business. However, there might be different parts of your life where you may be experiencing the fixed mindset. You might be thinking to yourself..

• It’s impossible to make photography profitable
• I’ll never charge that much money because I would never pay that
• I’m just not an organized enough person

That type of fixed mindset will continue to hold you back. Reflect and think on whether there is any mindset that you have, where you feel it’s the final answer.

It is what it is, these are the cards I’ve been dealt, nothing will ever change.

Here’s the fix. You need to adopt a growth mindset, then you need to adopt an action mindset. If there is something in your life that you want to change and want it to be different, it can be. But if you’re continuing to feed yourself, these negative, fixed mindset lies, then you’re going to continue to believe them and sabotage your business.

Growth mindset is having the mentality that you want to do better and become someone different.

But the action mindset is actually taking the step, and doing the things.

That is why I love sharing with you through this blog something for you to do. We ingest a lot of information, but we’re not doing anything with that information. So if you are not willing to take the next step and to take action on the things that you’re learning, you’re going to stay stuck.. I stayed stuck for far too long in my business, because I just was under the assumption that it was just who I was.. I would never get past this.

But with that kind of attitude, of course, I wasn’t going to get past it, because your attitude and your mindset is everything.

Mindset # 3: The Hustle Mindset

I feel like people are starting to notice and talk about this mindset more. But I still see in the online world, people talking about hustle as being a badge of honor. People are talking about hustle as a thing that you have to do, sort of like a due that you have to pay.

I don’t like the hustle mentality because it sort of brainwashes us. It’s this idea of..

• I have so much to do!
• I’m so stressed!
• I never have enough time!

It’s again feeding ourselves those negative stories that, of course, are going to become reality.

The fix for this hustle mentality is to create margin in your life. Make that, and simplifying every part of your life, your new goal.

How can you create more margin in your life?

What can you do make things more simple?

How can you actually do less and gain more?

That is the goal! That should be your goal if you want to battle this hustle mindset. Anytime that you are faced with a busy week, or a busy day, ask yourself, “How can I make this more simple?”

Leave space in your calendar, in your schedule, to do nothing. Leave space for things to go wrong. Don’t schedule things so tightly and close together. Really ask yourself, “How would my future self feel if I did this?” These are the kinds of things that are going to get you out of that hustle mindset and stop sabotaging your business.

Being busy does not equal success, it leads to burnout.

Mindset #4: The Scarcity Mindset

This is the “I don’t have enough, [fill in the blank]” mindset. Here are the most common scarcity mindsets that I hear..

• I don’t have enough money
• I don’t have enough knowledge
• I don’t have enough discipline

These are the things that will definitely hold you back in your business. If we live our life from a place of scarcity, there will never be enough. The way that we talk about money is so important, and it impacts us. So instead of saying “It’s so expensive”, instead, reframe and say, “It’s just not within my budget”, or, “That’s not how I want to spend my money.” By doing this, it has shown me the abundance of the finances that I do have.

We all think that we will be content if we had a little bit more. It doesn’t really matter how much stuff we have, that contentment is not going to be there unless we start to focus on gratitude for what we have. If we start to focus on the abundance that we have, we start to really adapt this mentality that having less actually does equal more.

Mindset # 5: The Pride Mindset

Finally, mindset number five: the pride mindset. I can do everything myself. This is a mindset that has held me back for sure, in business, in my personal life. As a photographer for over 10 years, I never wanted to invest in a mentor as I thought they were too expensive. I thought I could do it on my own and there were enough free resources out there for me to get by with. But instead, I was spending a lot more time on trial and error. It was also really hard for me to believe in myself enough to invest that kind of money in a mentor. But the best decision that I ever made, was investing in myself and getting a mentor.

Because that exponentially grew my reach and my impact. Not only did it help me financially, to be able to charge more because I was able to produce better quality photos, but it’s also given me the confidence and courage to become a coach for mamas just like you.

It doesn’t matter what level of photography that you are in, there’s always somebody who can learn from you.

There’s always somebody that you can impact.

Now this has also held me back in the areas of outsourcing both at home and also in my business. There was a time in my business where I was extremely hesitant to outsource my editing and I was prideful. I had this pride mindset that I was the only one who could edit my photos. As I started to get busier, this task became more time consuming and it actually started to become the thing I dreaded the most.

Outsourcing has freed up my time so that I can actually do what I love, which is cultivating a relationship with my clients, and photographing their incredible memories. So if that’s you right now, check out Photographers Edit. It’s extremely affordable and it’s so incredible to have that taken off my plate. You could also look for private editors, who do this as their full time job.

Don’t fall into this trap of having this pride mindset where you can’t let things go. Your business is not going to be able to grow. The fix for this mentality is to adopt this mantra:

Just because I can do everything doesn’t mean that I should.

I want you to get really good at doing the things in your business that only you can do, and hire out the rest. In order for your business to be sustainable and profitable you need to hire help so that you can focus on the things that truly matter the most to growing your business.

You can check out Episode 32, The One Woman Show Part 1: What to Outsource at Home. Because that’s really important as well, if you’re not willing to ask for help in the areas of babysitting or house cleaning. Then Episode 33 is all about what to outsource in your business, where I go into even more detail about how you can start to release that control and step away from that pride mindset, that you can do everything yourself, and start to let other people come on board to help you out.

Let’s recap