This episode is gonna be a little different and probably a little longer than what you’re used to from me. Today I want to open up the topic of setting up good habits - both in our personal lives and in our businesses. Then we’re going to really get into how our brains work & how we can use this knowledge to our advantage for improving our client experience to increase sales. Stick with me here.

I’ve always been fascinated by habits, productivity and systems. So when I ran across this book I knew it was going right in my shopping cart. By the way, it’s way too easy to shop these days! This really is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time though. It’s called Automic Habits by James Clear. Maybe you’ve read it. I got so much out of this book that I wanted to share some of the things I learned with you guys and encourage you to go grab a copy too. You won’t regret it.

So habits . . . there are good ones & there are bad ones, right? Some are easy to get going & some are crazy hard to break. James talks about all of that in the book & it’s so interesting to see how some of this has played out in my own life.

In his words he explains that “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.”

Applying that to my own business, I can see how being diligent in getting Google reviews over the last 10+ years has really started to pay off for me. There’s a lot of social proof out there that we go above & beyond. On the flip side in my personal life, the mini Reese’s peanut butter cups have gradually added 10 lbs over the past 10 years. Compound interest you guys.

We all want to set and meet goals, right? Now that I’ve shared my bad habit with you, you probably know that one of my goals is to lose 10 lbs. I could actually probably do that pretty quickly, but I would just as easily gain it right back. Why? Because to lose that weight I would do some really big things but then fall right back into my bad habits. If I don’t set up new habits, that goal is pretty meaningless.

I love this quote in the book: “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.”

I have to read what he says after that because it is so eloquently written and I could never get the same point across in my own words: “Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. When you solve problems at the results level, you only solve them temporarily. In order to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves.”

Can we just take a second to appreciate this? I don’t know why, but it hit me like a ton of bricks.

He goes on to say & I now have this written on a post-it note stuck to my computer, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

I love everything about this. When I read it I think I actually yelled “YES” out loud in my living room. It was all of a sudden this validation for what I had known & been trying to for years. I preach systems inside Studio Secrets, and I finally have this epiphany of exactly why I believe so passionately in them. I didn’t understand the connection before. I just thought I loved systems & being organized.

Goals are great. They are something we should always have and work towards, but we need the systems in place to bring us the results we want. Gosh, I love that!

You know, it’s not the big things we do that change us in life or in business. We don’t accomplish this one big thing and ride out that wave of success. Sure, the big things can give us big results, but it’s the little day in and day out habits that bring us the biggest results.

Massive success does not require massive action. It just takes consistency.

But how do we get to a place where we can be consistent, where we can do those daily things that have to be done in our businesses, that we need to do for our health? Well, it starts with, not the things we do, but the things we believe.

I’ve said this before here on the podcast, but our thoughts are so powerful. They lead to all the emotions and what do those emotions do? They drive us to some sort of action or inaction.

So our habits actually start with our thoughts. Well, that’s no fun, right? You just want to do the things. Tell me what to do Jena & I’ll make a list. I’ll check them off every day & then I’ll be successful in my business. Guess how long that will last? A few weeks, maybe a few months. And then you’ll be on to the next educator because it didn’t work. Guess what? That was me. I did the same thing. So it doesn’t hurt my feelings because I understand why now.

James explains it a little differently in the book, but it is essentially the same thing. He says there are “outcome-based habits” and there are “identity-based habits”, essentially you focus on the result with one and you focus on who you want to be with the other. This is our thoughts driving our actions here.

So let’s talk about that as it relates to our photography businesses. If you want to run a six-figure or multiple six-figure business, then you need to start believing and acting like that sort of business owner long before you ever get there. Someone told me a long time ago to make decisions like the business owner I wanted to be 5 years from now.

I didn't know why that was important back then, but that’s what I started doing. I outsourced my editing before I was ready. I hired an assistant before I was ready. I created workflows long before I had enough clients to worry about it. I paid for a client management system & set it up when I could have easily done everything manually. I dressed the part in the sales room even though I would be going home to have toddlers crawling all over me.

Here’s the point. I became the successful business woman that I am now in my head years and years ago. I fully believe that’s one of the main reasons my business has been so successful. So I’m telling you right now, that it works. Don’t focus on your current results. Focus on the direction you are headed.

If you don’t change your identity, who you believe you are, those habits you are trying so hard to set up, won’t stick. Telling ourselves those same stories over and over again about ourselves is almost like this form of self sabotage. Here are the ones I hear most often from photographers:

“I’m so unorganized.”

“I can’t get my act together.”

“I am no good at fill in the blank . . . numbers, technology, social media.”

“I’m a complete mess.”

“I’ll never get all this done.”

None of those sound like anything remotely close to what a successful business owner might say. And when these thoughts are on repeat in your head, that becomes your identity.

So, it’s time for you to start telling yourselves a different story. You can rewrite it today. Are you up for that? If you are, send me a DM & let me know what you’re thinking at the end of this episode.

But right now, let’s switch gears. Let’s get into actually forming some new habits & systems.

This will make more sense if you read the book because this is a very condensed version of what he teaches, but James came up with this thing called “The Habit Loop” which consists of 4 phases - cue, craving, response & reward. They form this endless circle or loop that’s constantly running. He says “the cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.” See the loop?

Let’s put this into an example that almost any of us can appreciate. There’s a package of oreos on the kitchen countertop. I don’t know how they got there. But there they are, in all their glory. I walk by, see that shiny blue packaging & instantly crave sugar. I try to resist. I really do. But something makes me walk right over there and grab one. Ok, two. I grab two. I break them in half and sometimes even four pieces because I like to savor my reward, but it is indeed a reward. What is it about Oreos y’all? See how that reward satisfied my craving. And now it’s associated with the cue - Oreos on the counter.

Alright, that was a pretty simple one.

Let’s apply it to business & again, something we can all relate to. We want so much to be productive. I think we can all agree to that, but we have this little electronic device that begs for our attention all day long. It buzzes. It dings. It lights up. We wonder what it could be. We try to turn it over, put it away, not look at it. But we fail. We have to know! So we give in & pick it up to read that notification. Aww. Somebody liked my post. Isn’t that sweet? I wonder what else is going on. I’ll just scroll for a minute. Well, we know how that story ends . . . you have no idea what you were doing before you picked up your phone, so you go grab a snack, open another browser & try to put out another fire.

Those “feel good” notifications are some of the worst things for your business. This is why social media and our phones are so addicting. They give us that immediate reward & satisfaction so we are constantly picking them up. You know what I’m going to say next . . . . turn off your notifications! You gotta get rid of the cue so you don’t have the craving.

Ok, now that we know about the habit loop, but how do we make it work for us?

Well, luckily Mr. James Clear has our back here. He developed the Four Laws of Behavior Change & it goes like this:

Cue: Make it obvious.
Craving: Make it attractive.
Response: Make it easy.
Reward: Make it satisfying.

I’m going to go through these briefly with you so that you’ll have some sort of an idea for how to set up some new awesome habits in your life and business.

And then I’m going to turn it around & give you a few ideas for how we can use these same laws of behavior change in our businesses to get the results we want from our clients.

1. Cue: Make It Obvious

Ok, with forming any new habit we know that we have to make it super obvious to complete a task, like right in your face kind of obvious. This is why we put our vitamins on the counter instead of in the cabinet, why we lay out our work out clothes & shoes, why we fill up our water bottle & have it at our desk.

James says that the easiest way to implement a new habit is through common cues like time and location. It’s obvious because we know that at either “this certain time” or at “this certain location” we do “this certain thing”. There’s no thinking needed, no decision making. We just do it.

Each of our habits need a time and a space to live. The goal is to make it so obvious that when we hit that time or go to that place, we feel this urge to do what we said we would do. You don’t really know why, you just do it because that habit has become so ingrained in you.

So for me, this has become when I sit at my desk in the morning I do a series of things. It’s my morning routine. I talked about it a lot in episode 5. I may have tweaked it a little bit since then. I honestly don’t remember. But I just have this little list of things that I do when I walk into my office each morning - go over my calendar, journal, read, breakfast, vitamins. All of those things are important to me. So I lump them all together. That’s called habit stacking & it’s mentioned throughout the book. This is when you include a new habit you want to start along with ones you already have in place. For me that was getting consistent about journaling, reading & taking my vitamins. I hate taking vitamins. There I said it. But I put all of those things together so they get done at a certain time & place. My ipad & vitamins are right there at my desk so when I walk in, I just do it. I had to make it obvious to form those habits.

2. Craving: Make It Attractive

You know how excited you get when planning a vacation? Sometimes the planning and the anticipation is better than the actual vacation, right? Why is that? Because that’s the way our brains work. We get those dopamine hits when we experience pleasure - eating junk food, playing video games, scrolling social media, maybe some adult activities. Here’s what’s interesting though. We get those same dopamine hits when we anticipate those same experiences. Think about it for a second. Really. I’m talking about the cookies y’all. Think about the cookies. You got excited, didn’t you?! I can just imagine the DMs now. I’m sorry I crashed your diet.

Here’s how James puts it . . . “The fact that the brain allocates so much precious space to the regions responsible for craving and desire provides further evidence of the crucial role these processes play. Desire is the engine that drives behavior. Every action is taken because of the anticipation that precedes it. It is the craving that leads to the response.”

So how do we make new habits we want to form more attractive? He suggests something called Temptation Bundling, which is essentially combining an action that you want to do with an action that you need to do.

We’re more likely to find a behavior attractive if we get to do one of our favorite things at the same time. So maybe you get to listen to your favorite music or a book while editing. Maybe you get to watch your favorite show while running on the treadmill. Maybe you get to listen to a book or podcast while driving or you get to hop on a zoom call with a photographer friend to plan your social media together.

There are lots of ways to combine things we need to do with things we want to do. So get creative there & see what you can put together for new habits you want to form.

3. Response: Make It Easy

It can probably go without saying that most of us would, when given the opportunity, lay on the couch & watch a movie over writing a blog post or creating a new marketing campaign. It’s the way we are wired. Our brains want to conserve as much energy as possible. That means that when we’re put against something tough to do, we will gravitate towards the easier thing that takes less energy.

I see this in my daily life. It’s way easier to grab a snack to get me through a few hours than to take time out in the middle of the day to chop up ingredients for a fresh salad. I don’t want to go through all that for one meal in the middle of my workday! So I’ve opted for some more convenient options - pre-chopped veggies & salad mix. Yes, I pay more for it, but it’s done, easy & I’m more likely to eat healthier that way. I wish I could find a way to make avocados easy though.

But how about in business? It’s so easy to scroll through Instagram calling it “research” when all we are really doing is avoiding something more difficult we need to be doing. Right? Don’t even try to pretend this isn’t you too.

So how can we avoid going to the lazy side. We have to make it easy so that on these long, tough days we can do the things that need to be done. James says “the greater the friction, the less likely the habit.” That salad is definitely a case in point there. But let’s take it back to business. Here’s one thing I’ve tried to do as it comes to social media. And I’m not perfect at it, but I do try to handle it this way. On Sunday afternoons I plan my week & during that time I go ahead & sketch out how I want my Instagram to flow that week. Who and what am I highlighting? What needs to be celebrated? All the things. If I go ahead & make these decisions all at one time, each day it’s pretty easy to just follow the plan.

4. Reward: Make It Satisfying

This is the thing that makes the habits stick. Who wants to do something hard and new that has no reward associated with it? Probably a whole lot of nobody. It makes sense. When something feels good you wanna do it again. Right? That’s with anything in life.

Here’s where we get tripped up. In order for a habit to stick, the reward needs to be immediate, and that’s not always possible. We don’t lose 10 lbs when we make a salad or go for a run. Not even after like 10 workouts and 10 salads. We don’t see a huge increase in clients when we post to social media consistently for a week.

The rewards come slowly for the good habits. And they are immediate for the bad ones - eating the cookie, checking your notifications, posting your pretty pictures in a facebook group. Those all feel good to us because we get all the sugar and the dopamine hits from the likes and the comments. But does any of that, as good as it feels in the moment, do any good for your business or waistline? We all know the answer here.

James says it like this in the book . . . “The road less traveled is the road of delayed gratification. If you’re willing to wait for the rewards, you’ll face less competition and often get a bigger payoff. As the saying goes, the last mile is always the least crowded.”

There’s so much truth in that, you guys. Consistently showing up day after day for your business is so tough when we don’t see those immediate results. We talk about this all the time in Studio Secrets. It’s a pretty common and natural conversation that we have in there because we are all human and get discouraged. It goes like this “I did this, this and this. Nothing is working.” And here’s my response “Keep doing it. Keep showing up consistently. You are planting seeds. Water them & you will see the big harvest.”

It’s tough in the moment. But you have to be willing to wait it out & trust that it will come to you. And that goes for all of us. I have to tell myself this all the time. I promise if you have ever had those thoughts, you aren’t the only one.

Alright, we’ve talked about how to use this habit loop - cue, craving, response & reward along with those 4 laws of behavioral change - make it obvious, make it easy, make it attractive & make it satisfying. Now how in the world can we use this knowledge to work for our benefit in our businesses.

I’m going to take you back through each of those laws & give you some ideas for how to use them to create the behaviors you want from your clients & potential clients.

Make It Obvious

How can we make it obvious that you are the only choice for your target market? You have to get their attention in some way. You have to stand out. Do something different. I’m not saying be crazy, go get a clown suit & spin a sign. You need to be on brand, just think outside the box. If you are invisible, if you don’t show up, you will be quickly forgotten.

How about with sales? What can we do to make the products we want to sell more obvious? Well, I would be displaying a whole lot of albums & big wall portraits if I were you. They need to be everywhere - on your walls, coffee tables, social media, blog posts, your website. Get their attention. Make it obvious.

Make It Attractive

How have you made your business attractive to prospective clients? It takes more than a pretty website. When I’m looking to do business with a new company, I head over to read their Google reviews first. Are you taking the time to get those?

How about making it personal? What about a video response to your inquiries instead of that standard “hey we received your request” email when they fill out a contact form?

Remember this is where that desire & anticipation comes into play. How can we create that desire to do business with us? We can create that through storytelling on our social media platforms. Stories are great for this. Once someone is interested in doing business with you, they will check you out on google and on social media. Make good use of your Instagram highlights. This is an incredible asset for showcasing your client experience & creating that anticipation for booking a session with you.

Make It Easy

Now this will all depend on how you run your business, but it shouldn’t be difficult to get in touch with you. Whatever your method is, lay it out on your website so that a potential client knows exactly what their next step should be.

And then all along the way of your client journey, how can you make it easier for your client to have a fantastic experience with your studio? We should always be looking for ways to improve the experience.

Get rid of the friction. Constant calls and emails back & forth just to schedule an appointment. Clicking here and there just so they can get a little bit of information about what to wear. Having to search for a location address or even worse, call you for it. All of that is avoidable. If you want clients who book fast, repeat clients & clients who spread the word about your business, you need to make it easy on them.

Make It Satisfying

I think this is probably the easiest for us as photographers. We can find lots of ways to make a client’s experience with us satisfying. Remember though, that the rewards need to be immediate. How can we do that?

We can send thank you notes or packages when they book a new session. We can get that sneak peek out right after their session. We can highlight the beautiful products they ordered. We can send a little dessert gift card to use on their way home after the session or just a sweet text telling them how great they did today. We can post a quick video to our stories or grab that “that’s a wrap” shot to post. It’s all about surprise & delight here. Plus it’s pretty fun to spoil our clients!

At the end of the day, we absolutely want to have fun in our businesses, but we are in business for a reason - to be profitable. I don’t spend all of this time building a business & spending it away from my family with my sweet amazing clients for nothing. People with “real jobs” get a paycheck & retirement. We should too.

Getting better about creating some of your own good habits in your business plus using those same laws of behavioral change in our businesses can provide such a big impact for increasing productivity, client experience and ultimately our sales.

I hope you found this one helpful today. It was a lot to take in. You might want to listen to it again & take some notes or go grab this amazing book, Atomic Habits by James Clear. You won’t be disappointed.

And if you found this episode or any of the others helpful, would you take 2 minutes to leave a rating & review? It helps so much with getting the word out about what we are trying to do here - create a better situation for all of us, pushing you to build a better, more profitable & productive business so that you can spend more time doing what you love with the ones you love.

As always, let’s continue the conversation over in the Senior Studio Success Facebook Group. I’m always up for a good business chat. Have a great week y’all!

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“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” - James Clear

“Massive success does not require massive action. It just takes consistency.” - Jena Golden

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