In this episode of Capture The Chaos: Grow Your Newborn & Family Photography Business we’re getting down and dirty talking about how fear and imposter syndrome may be keeping you from growing in your business. I give you 5 attainable tips to help shake the fear and take the next steps in your photography business.
Do you feel like fear is keeping you from growing?
Are you afraid to move forward because you feel like an imposter? We’re gonna talk about overcoming imposter syndrome and how we can let go of fear and grow. Full disclosure this was not the intro I originally recorded. I finished the entire episode and last night I was lying awake in my bed and I realized, I never mentioned how God can help us overcome our fears. He is there to guide us. If only we will lean on him and ask.
Ironically, I left him out of this episode because of fear I was afraid of what people might think. And I didn’t wanna come off as too preachy. And then I was like, hello, Brittnie. This entire episode is about letting go of that fear that keeps us stuck and not doing things. All right. I don’t know who out there needs to hear this today, but I know there is someone because this topic was on my heart to share big time.
What are some signs that fear is keeping you from growing?
Well, first of all, if you’re not charging enough, that is like a tall number one sign that you probably have imposter syndrome. If you’re scared to raise your prices, cuz you don’t think people will pay it. You probably have imposter syndrome.
Are you afraid to call yourself a photographer to other people? This was me. I was so scared to call myself a photographer when I was telling, talking to other people. Another sign is that you’re a lurker on social media. Are you afraid to post in the photography groups? Are you afraid to comment on other people’s work? Um, just if you’re just lurking in the dark out there, that’s probably meaning you’re em, imposter syndrome.
Another sign that you might have imposter syndrome is you like to play it safe. You don’t ever get out there and try something new and try something that scares you a little bit.
And lastly does constructive criticism crush you if you said yes to more than one of these or even just one of them, you probably have imposter syndrome.
So I’m gonna be using the term imposter syndrome and uh, the term fear interchangeably. Because I really think that they’re just kind of the same thing. I think if you have imposter syndrome, you’re just, you’re scared.
You are not alone in your business.
You are not the only person who is afraid. You’re not the only person who is afraid to put themselves out there. You’re not the only person who’s afraid to call themselves a photographer.
I was afraid to call myself a photographer out loud for years and years, people would ask me what I did and I would, saym a stay at home mom. I was afraid of the judgment. I mean, you know, like everyone thinks that they’re a photographer and I didn’t want people to look at me and be like, oh, she’s just another one of those photographers, um, with quotes around it. But the more I started making friends in the community and the more I realized were all scared to some extent, man. Oh shoot. I’m still scared sometimes. But the more I started realizing that I’m not alone. The less scared I became.
Every photographer starts somewhere.
Ansel Adams started somewhere. He wasn’t born a photographer. I wasn’t born a photographer. The best photographer you can think of out there, wasn’t born a photographer. They started somewhere.
So if you’re just starting, you can’t compare yourself to someone who has been doing it for years. That’s not fair to yourself. You can’t compare yourself to someone who has more time to put towards growing their talent and their business. If you’re a mom of three kids and you see a 22 year old girl who has no husband, no boyfriend and no kids. Yeah. She’s probably going to see some growth in ways faster than you because let’s face it. We busy and she has more time and we need to have time to put towards this. It’s totally fine. If it’s a slow growth for you.
Your gear does not indicate your
status as a photographer.
You are not a real photographer because you have some big fancy camera with some big fancy lens and some big fancy flash. It’s all about how you use your equipment. You’re not a real photographer just because you have a studio or you’re not a real photographer. If you don’t have a studio, granted, if you have a studio you’re, you’re probably doing pretty good. I do many sessions in my garage. Literally like I have bikes piled up and Legos and all kinds of junk. Am I a real photographer? Heck yes I am. And you know what? I don’t really think that most people care that they’re in my garage game, these pictures cuz they get the pictures back and they think the proof speaks for itself. So you are a real photographer. Even if you don’t have the best gear out there.
How do we overcome this fear?
how do we overcome the sphere? First and foremost, if you are here listening, you have a calling. I firmly believe these callings are from God. And yes, photography can totally spread the love of God. It may transpire in many different ways. Your journey might not look like mine, but that’s the beauty of being unique humans.
Joshua 1:9 says,
Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged for the Lord. Your God will be with you wherever you go.
Courage requires action. You will never go anywhere. If you don’t start, you will never find success. If you don’t try, if you just stay where you’re at, that’s where you’re always gonna be.
You can start small.
Start that Instagram page, ask your friends. If you can take photos of them, take one, step one, small step bigger than wherever you’re at right now. And those tiny steps are gonna add up to something bigger.
Matthew 6:34 says
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I love this verse. It’s something I have to think about all the time. So worry about your first step and then worry about the next move. When it’s time, when we stop and try to look at the whole picture, it becomes really overwhelming. I’ve been really leaning into God for this podcast journey. As I am totally scared with every single episode I release, but I pray before every episode to light the step that I need to share with you guys each day.
Stop comparing yourself to other photographers.
As creators we only show the best of our work. We are perhaps the only ones who see the very worst as well from ourselves. We see those out of focus images. We see those poor exposures. We see the missed opportunities and the failed captures. You know this yet we find ourselves scrolling through Instagram loading ourselves because we don’t have as pretty of images as Sally down the street.
But Sally did not share that session. That was total crap and actually had to refund money because she missed focus on every single image. You know what I mean? Like of course you’re not gonna put that on Instagram. So don’t compare yourself to what you’re seeing on Instagram. Look at your best images and just know you’re good. Stop comparing yourself to everyone else.
Yeah, there are haters and people who just wanna see the world burn. So we may occasionally have negative comments. but
God says in Hebrews 13:6
We can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me?
Recognize your wins.
Did you book five of your mini session? I’m I tell you I’m having a lot of trouble today. Did you book five of your mini session spots? Heck yeah. That’s awesome. Did you upsell your first gallery? You go girl, celebrate these wins. You’re better than you were and you will be better than you are.
Accept that you’re going to experience failure.
Success comes from getting back up and trying again after you fail, the only way you truly fail is if you don’t try again and going off of that accept criticism and use it to grow, listen to your clients with a grain of salt. Cause sometimes they cry, cry. You know, when they give you unpleasant feedback, listen to them. I had someone, um, a year or two ago, they, they were a long time client and she said, Hey, we look really ghostly. And I was like, I went back and I looked and I was like, girl, you’re right. I did a bad job. I mean, I knew how to edit and I just, I had a bad day. My light was wrong or something. I don’t know what was going on. So I listened and I fixed it. It doesn’t mean I’m a terrible photographer.
Accept constructive criticism .
If you decide to post in, uh, a Facebook group or something and another photographer gives you constructive criticism about your images, listen to them and learn. Maybe you’ll apply that advice they said, and maybe you won’t, but you’re gonna grow for it. One grow from it one way or another.
I remember a couple years ago I posted and I was really excited about these image and I got a lot of feedback and it was like, they are too orange. You need to like, this is crazy. Your images look orange. And I’m like, Uhuh, I love them. I was real sassy about it. I was like, they’re so rude. And um, guys, they’re really orange. they’re so orange. But once I was able to stop step back and look at them objectively, I realized that they were right.
So use your, use your criticism and grow. Don’t just melt into a puddle because someone told you, you weren’t the best thing. Um, since life bread. Don’t let that fear keep you from growing.
Everything you want is on the other side of fear.
Start and don’t stop. Give yourself a whole year of giving it everything you have and don’t look up. If at the end of that one year you haven’t grown. I give you permission to stop. Photography is not easy. It’s not a quick way to make money at first. It’s not. And a lot of us get into it because we think it’s a piece of cake and we quickly learn. It is not that easy. Don’t let that fear keep you from growing.
Those who push past that initial shock in quite honestly the failure, we are the ones who will succeed. You’re gonna succeed. If you can accept that it is hard work and you’re gonna have to work for it. Speaker 1: (11:48)
I still like to try new things and I still have flops. And at this point I know it’s not me a session. Wasn’t unsuccessful because I’m a terrible photographer. I know that. And I don’t take it personally.
Asses your fails.
So I always like to step back and think, okay, why did this not work? Did I not give myself enough time to promote what’s happening? Did I not prepare well enough? Did I not try hard enough? Like, what is the reason that this was not successful? And mostly I’m talking about many sessions, other things, did I not take certain factors into consideration? And I make mental notes of this and then I move on and I don’t do that again. Or I fix whatever it was that I, I didn’t do. Or I did do.
Now on the flip side, I’ve tried new things and I had no idea if they would be successful or not, but I just went for it. And I found crazy, amazing, incredible success that I never expected. And I never would have experienced that success if I didn’t just jump. Don’t let fear keep you from growing.
Don’t let fear keeping you from growing.
All right, girl, this is what I want you to do today. Sit down and ask God to guide you in whatever season of your business you’re in, put him in charge and I promise you, your blessings will be bountiful. So I don’t care what you’re scared about right now. Find that one thing that you’re scared as a photographer to do. And I want you to just do it this week. And then I want you to send me a DM on Instagram, letting me know that you did whatever it was that you’re afraid of. Can you do that for me? Great. I’m gonna leave you with this quote that I found on the Google
Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hand shaking. Start with voice trembling, but start, start, and don’t stop. Start where you are with what you have just start now.
That was so perfect for what we were talking about today. Thanks for listening. I really appreciate it. And remember, don’t let fear keep you from growing.
You don’t have to do business alone, friend.
If you’re a photographer who is tired of spinning your wheels in business and is ready to stop feeling like an imposter, it’s time to formulate an actionable strategies to help you grow with impact and empower you to define your own version of success – one client, one edit, one photo at a time.
Book a 1:1 coaching call: www.brittnierenee.com/photographers
