What is holding you back from making more money and working less? This episode is the third in a mini-series all about money: spending it, saving it, and changing your mindset around it. Today, I’m sharing the real issues that are holding you back from making more in less time, and how to overcome them.
The Shoot It Straight Podcast is brought to you by Sabrina Gebhardt, photographer and educator. Join us each week as we discuss what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur while balancing entrepreneurship and motherhood. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in, yet willing to talk about the hard stuff too, Shoot It Straight Podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
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This episode is brought to you by Root to Rise, a mastermind and retreat for female photographers where personal development meets business growth. During the four-month experience, students have weekly calls focused on goals, boundaries, money, and marketing. The program also includes incredible guest teachers, a private Facebook community, and weekly Voxer hours with individualized guidance and mentorship. Sign up today to join the waitlist.
Review the Show Notes:
The ultimate dream (1:35)
The real issues (2:40)
What next year could look like (7:21)
You can learn to be strong (8:51)
Episode Links:
Review the Transcript:
Welcome to the shoot it straight podcast. I’m your host, Sabrina Gephardt. Here I will share an honest take on what it’s like to be a female creative entrepreneur. while balancing business, motherhood and life. myself along with my guests will get vulnerable through honest conversations and relatable stories because we’re willing to go there. If you’re trying to find balance in this exciting place you’re in yet willing to talk about the hard stuff to to shoot it straight podcast is here to share practical and tangible takeaways to help you shoot it straight.
Welcome back to the shoot straight podcast, my friend, I’m so glad you’re here. In case you’re new here. We are currently on episode three of money month. And I definitely want you to stick around and listen to today’s episode. But I think you should go back and listen to the first two episodes as well. In the first episode of money month that we talked all about the truth about spending money. And in last week’s episode, I interviewed my friend Loriann all about knowing your numbers, they were both really great episodes. So after you listen to this one, go back and give those a listen as well. So today we’re talking about something that’s actually pretty juicy. I originally had the idea for this episode while I was driving. And to be totally honest, at first I thought of this idea. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that would be a great real on Instagram. And you totally might still see it show up there. Okay. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this would be a great discussion for the podcast. So here we are. I’m sure that regardless of what industry you are in, you have heard coaches and educators talk on this dream of working less and making more, the thought that the ultimate dream is to be making way more money, but working way less hours. I mean, sure, I want that for all of you in some form or fashion. I want you to outsource and invest in things that will help buy your time back with efficiency and systems and support.
Yeah, I want you to raise your prices with experience so that you can charge increased profitable rates, those things will take you on the road to making more money and working less. But the thing about this statement, this goal that I don’t think it brings to light is the real issue. When you think about making more money, while working less, your mind immediately goes to the numbers, you immediately think about what numbers have to shift in order to make that a reality. Your mind immediately goes to things like price increases numbers of clients and investments needed to make that shift. Here’s what I want to share with you today. Yes, making more money. And working less is about numbers. But I actually think that more than numbers, it’s actually an issue of boundaries and mindset. So let’s think about the photographers out there for a second. They can raise their rates and put systems in place all they want. But if they don’t hold firm to their boundaries, or if they don’t have control of their mindset, then all of the work is completely wasted. Let me give you an example. Say you’re a family photographer who wants to make more and work less, first of all, good for you. Absolutely. So you run the numbers, and you determine that in order to photograph 15% Less families this year than last year, you need to raise your rates by $100, just to break even. And then in order to take that a step farther in order to make more money over last year, you decide to increase that number to a 300 ollar price increase.
Okay, great. A 300 ollar price increase is going to set you up to photograph a 15% less families while making more money than last year. Sounds like a dream, right? You change all of your pricing guides all of your emails, you memorize your new session rates in case somebody catches you off guard in person, you block off your availability on your calendar, you are excited, you are going to make more money and have less sessions this year, you are pumped about your new financial goal. And when you look at your calendar, you are also really excited about all the free time that you’re going to have. But then clients start to inquire and you get pushback on your new hire rates. And you start to panic and think that your work isn’t worth the new hire rate. You start to fear that no one will ever pay you the higher rate. And so you start to negotiate. You give them discounts, or you increase print credits, or you give them more time but for the same price, all of those things eat into your profit per session. In this situation, you are struggling with mindset issues you are eventually losing because of fear.
Today’s episode is brought to you by route to rise a four month master Mind and retreat for female photographers. That is where personal development meets business growth. During the four month experience, students have weekly calls focusing on a variety of topics that both better their lives and their businesses. Think topics like goals, boundaries, money and marketing, and many, many others. The program also includes incredible guest teachers, a private Facebook community and weekly Voxer hours, where you get individualized guidance and mentoring from me on topics that matter to you and your business. One of the best parts of the experience is definitely the three day in person retreat. Consider this the most fun girls weekend ever. We eat well do yoga, photograph three sessions, work through portfolio reviews, take headshots and build deep friendships, I can tell you that the women who have gone through this program have had some absolutely incredible transformations reached massive goals and changed the trajectory of their businesses. If you want to get on the waitlist to be notified when enrollment opens again soon, you can head over to the link in the show notes and get on that list. And now back to the episode. Another thing that can happen, clients start to push back on your availability. And so you squeeze clients into spots where you originally had planned to have time off, and then you squeeze in additional sessions each month because people have begged you for availability when you were already at capacity. In this situation, your boundaries were set, but you didn’t withhold them. You chose making other people happy over your own happiness, you let other people push past the boundaries that you set. Do you see how in these two situations, which I often see photographers struggling with at the same time, the mindset and the boundary struggles actually rob someone of making more while working less. In these situations, they’re making the same amount of money. And or maybe they’re making more, but they’re working more.
And in some cases, there are people who end up actually making less and working more talk about a worst case scenario situation. I wanted to bring this up today in case you started to think about what next year could look like, I understand that we are right in the middle of busy season. And with that often comes frustration, you are working a ton and you feel like you’re not making nearly enough for how much you’re working. This is when photographers start to think about what next year could look like. This is when photographers start to dream about actually having weekends off, or not having to edit all day every day, or having way less sessions that making more money. So in case that’s you and you’ve started to think about what next year could look like to make more money, and to work less. This is a worthwhile goal. So I’m not trying to discourage you, I’m not trying to tell you that this is impossible, it’s not going to work, just give it up altogether. It’s definitely something that I want you to pursue. I just don’t want you to ignore what the real issue at hand is. You can run your numbers and calculate rates and set calendar availability limits all you want, you can do your homework and know what’s going to happen.
But if your mindset around money is not strong, and if you cannot be firm with your boundaries, then every single piece of that effort is going to be wasted. You cannot make more money by working less without a strong money mindset and the ability to hold boundaries, period, end of story. And if you hear me say this and you’re thinking to yourself, well, I struggle with both of those things. So I guess I shouldn’t even try here me. That is not what I’m saying. These are learned skills, you can learn to have a strong money mindset. You can learn to be good with boundaries. These are things that you’re not born with, but are learned. In fact, these are things that I teach in my four month mastermind route to rise. And if my program isn’t right for you, great. There are a lot of other programs out there and coaches out there who can help you through these things. If you know that you struggle with these things, that’s okay. Just commit to getting help commit to ending the struggle. commit to working through these issues so that you can finally move past them and into a place of ease in your business.
I want you to make more and work less 100% I want that ease and abundance in your life and in your business but you cannot do it without addressing the mindset and the boundary issues first. That’s it for today, my friend. I hope that this episode was inspiring and encouraging. If and if you are feeling inspired or encouraged or excited or like I was speaking directly to you, will you do me a favor? Will you share a screenshot of this podcast of this episode on Instagram and tag me at Sabrina Gebhardt photography. I would love to see what this episode meant for you. And I would love to connect with you over on the ground. Join me next week for the third episode and money month was the event. Thanks so much for listening to the shoot it straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode at Sabrina gebhardt.com backslash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gebhart photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review. Until next time, my friends shoot it straight
