I’m calling BS today. I hope you’re ready for it. Hey guys! Welcome back to the podcast. If you’re brand new here, come on in. I’m so glad you’re here. I love Jesus, but I’m a little rough around the edges. I have a big ol’ heart, but I also call it like it is and don’t hold back.

I’m a soon-to-be wifey to the most amazing man in the world, Brian. I’ll drop his name in here from time to time because we are starting to do more business together. I’m a proud mama to my own 3 boys & now 2 bonus boys. Seniors are my jam. I started specializing in them in 2009 & never looked back. I’m all about systems, strategy & mindset. I fully believe you have to have all 3 working together to run a successful business. And I love coaching my photography students. So, that’s a little bit about me, but let me give you a little life update.

This weekend we have not one, but TWO seniors graduating in our family. I couldn’t be prouder of these guys. There were some moments I didn’t know if they were gonna make it across the stage, but they buckled down & did it!

If you’ve been following along on the 1950’s house that Brian & I have been flipping, we are so close to the finish line. The exterior paint is done. Ceilings & walls are painted too. Trim & doors are going in today if you are listening in real time, which means flooring very soon. Then lights, mirrors & finally - countertops & kitchen backsplash.

One cool thing that we did, on Mother’s Day actually, was writing intentions & scriptures on the walls before they were painted. We went into this project for a few reasons.

Because we’ve both just always wanted to do a complete renovation.
The financial part, of course. We are expecting a nice profit from this work.
To impact a family.

We want to make a difference, to impact lives. That may be through my camera, through coaching, through flipping a house. Whatever it is, it will be full of purpose. And that was kind of the idea behind writing these intentions on the walls before we painted them.

If you’re interested and want to see what we wrote or just the whole process, you can follow our adventure over on instagram.

Real quick before I forget. I have some very exciting news coming your way. I’m not ready to let the cat out of the bag just yet, but you’re not going to want to miss what’s coming. So if you aren’t on my email list (meaning you don’t get the Friday weekly wrap up emails), get on it here:

Ok, before I go talking about busy season overwhelm, let’s celebrate some good stuff. It’s been quite a while since I shared some wins from my students inside Studio Secrets, so I want to do that with you today. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that is my signature business coaching program, that has helped hundreds of photographers completely transform their businesses. If you want to know more about it, send me a DM over on Instagram.

These were from a few weeks ago, so I know they’ve done even more and bigger things since I grabbed these screenshots.

To say I am proud of these ladies is an understatement. They are making HUGE changes, taking control of their businesses and have set themselves up to not have to deal with what we are about to talk about.

Burnout … it happens to all of us, myself included, and more than once. I’m a little stubborn & have to learn my lesson multiple times.

We like to blame it on "too much to do and so little time". It sounds right. It’s just the way it is. It even sounds justifiable.

We've accepted this concept to be true in our industry - never enough time to get it all done.

We call it "busy season" and push right through it year after year after year.

It just is what it is.

Hang on. Let me get up on my soapbox.

I call BS on it - all of it.

It’s not a lack of time.

It’s not too many clients all at once that cause the burnout.

Burnout happens when we lose focus on what’s important.

It happens when we neglect our core values for too long.

We let things slide.

We put the most important things and the most important people in our lives to the side and convince ourselves that the sacrifice is necessary.

We’re doing it for our families. That makes it sound better, doesn’t it? It sure did make me feel better when I was editing at 2am.

A week becomes a month. One month becomes two. And pretty soon it’s just the norm in your house.

You’re running on fumes. Fueled by caffeine. They no longer get the best of you. They get the leftovers, if anything at all.

There’s 10 lbs that mysteriously found you overnight.

The kids are endlessly scrolling their phones on God knows what in their rooms alone and your weekly date night is a thing of the past. You can’t even remember the last time you just sat down on the couch together to watch a little tv.

The overwhelm and burnout isn't caused by too much work. It's caused by too little protection of our values.

And that doesn’t happen because you’re a bad person. It doesn’t come from selfishness and greed. It doesn’t come

It comes from fear.

We sacrifice our health and our families in the name of “busy season”. You’re doing it for the greater good. No you’re not. You’re doing it because you don’t believe the sales will come in otherwise, because those clients might go somewhere else if you tell them you aren’t available, because you are holding on to every dime instead of trusting it will come back to you tenfold if you’d only outsource your editing.

That’s all based in fear.

Here’s the thing. What we think, we create.

We do this to ourselves & we don’t even realize it’s happening. Those deep beliefs that “you’re not good enough” or “they won’t pay that much” or “they won’t wait on me” feel like absolute truths to you. It’s not like we say these out loud all the time. They’re just ingrained so deeply, that it creates these experiences for us year after year after year.

Wanna know something really cool? Something beautiful?

We get to DECIDE how we experience business. The process of doing business can be completely miserable or it can be full of joy. It can be full of fear or it can be run on faith. We’ve been working hard on this inside Studio Secrets. And let me tell you, this isn’t a one and done fix. This is a continual process.

We’ve been working on deciding the way things will go in advance, on being crazy intentional with our thoughts. We are practicing our thoughts on purpose.

And it’s making a huge difference not only in their businesses, but at home too.

The secret to changing your business and yourself is to decide to run it from the place you are going, not from where you currently are. Deciding on purpose to believe what that future version of yourself would believe. You have to become someone who thinks differently.

What we think, we create.

So I want to challenge you today. And I’m going to simplify this down to 2 words - love (which is full of abundance and faith) and fear (which is full of lack and scarcity).

Are you doing business from a place of love or are you doing business from a place of fear?

You can apply this to anything in your business.

Are you marketing from a place of love or are you marketing from a place of fear?

Are you processing orders from a place of love or are you processing orders from a place of fear?

Are you returning calls & emails from a place of love or are you returning calls & emails from a place of fear?

Are you doing consults from a place of love or are you doing consults from a place of fear?

We get to decide y’all!

We don’t have to keep living in this endless busy season cycle year after year.

What do you want to protect at all costs this year?

And what do you need to change in your business and in your mind in order to do that?

If you’re ready to call BS on it this year and get back to what's truly important to you,

I am your girl. I am here for it - all of it.

Let this be the year that it’s different. Let this be the year that you do what you said you were going to do last year in the thick of it - fix it.

Let this be the year for more free time with your family, more date nights, more fun days with their kids, more lazy Saturday morning breakfasts around the kitchen island, more throwing the ball in the backyard, more weekend adventures, more impact on the people you want to help in life because you have more money and capacity for it.

Let’s work together NOW to fix it so that this year can be vastly different for you 💗

If you are ready, send me a DM that says “help me please”. I will know exactly what you are talking about, and we will fix it.

Let me know that you were listening today. If you had any aha moments, I want to know what they were. My DM’s are always open. If you have questions about how to work with me, I am an open book. And I do love it when you share! Your sharing is why I am able to continue this podcast every week. You leaving a review - HUGE! You getting the word out about what I do here on the podcast and in the business coaching space is how I am able to keep bringing you content week after week. My goal is to help you & photographers just like you build more profitable, productive & purposeful businesses so that you can spend more time doing what you love with the ones you love.

Ok. Let's continue the conversation over on the Senior Studio Success Facebook Page. I’m always up for a good business chat there. Or you can send me over on Instagram. Have a great week y’all!