This Can't Be That Hard

One of the most common things that I hear from my listeners is that they feel bombarded.

Whether they have their own goals or are being told by others that they need to buy this or offer that... there's no shortage of ideas, but they get stuck in analysis paralysis about what their next step should be.

Unfortunately, there's no one size fits all answer to that question, but there is a one size fits all approach that you can use to help you figure out what your personal next steps should be, and that's what we're talking about today on the podcast.

show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/015

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

What assumptions are you making that are hurting you and your photography business?

Assumptions may be a necessary part of the way we navigate the world, but if this past few weeks has taught us anything, it's that assumptions can also be dangerous.

Today I want to talk about some of the more harmful assumptions that you may be making so that we can flip the script and open up some possibilities in your life and your business.

Show notes at www.thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/014

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Over the past few weeks, I have caught myself many times thinking "Ah, I cannot wait for things to get back to normal". And then sometime last week, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Things are not going back to normal. We are not going to go back to pre-COVID 19 life anytime soon. So, I have been doing some thinking about what that means and that is what I want to talk to you about in today's podcast.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Today I have two of my super-besties on the podcast - Kate Thompson and Posy Quarterman, who are my co founders of The Family Narrative and also happen to be two of my very best friends - and I'm really excited to share our conversation today. I have been planning all along to have them on the podcast periodically because I find our conversations about the state of the industry to be really good even under normal circumstances. But as it turns out, the timing of today's conversation made it so that we get to sort of decompress a little bit together and go through what is going on in all of our heads around the impact of Covid-19 on our individual businesses, and on the industry as a whole.

Show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/012

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

I will be completely honest: this last week has been a little less productive than I had initially hoped. I think I had my sights set on taking advantage of some extra space in my schedule to get some really big things done, but I have been in something of a fog. And if you're like me or most of the people who I'm chatting with on social media, you feel that way too.

And here's the thing: we all need to give ourselves some grace for all of that. But I wanted to record today's podcast in response to some of issues that I'm seeing in certain circles of our industry, and then I want to talk about how you can actually use this time to come out stronger on the other side.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

I could not be more excited to share today's interview with you. As you know, it is my very first time interviewing someone for the podcast and who better to interview than the fabulous Elena S. Blair!

I first got to know Elena because she taught for us at the Family Narrative in 2019. Elena is a woman who is a self taught photographer with no background in business, much like a lot of us, who went against a lot of industry norms and never let the naysayers stop her from following her dreams and who now runs an extremely profitable and very sustainable business that she loves.

I want to be sure that you stick around to the end because not only does Elena drop a huge amount of great information, she's also got a great freebie to share with all of you too. And we're going to share that at the end. So, without any further ado, let's dive in.

Show notes: thiscantbethathard.com/podcast/009

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

I am recording this on Monday for release first thing Tuesday morning. And so you're not going to get a whole lot of fancy editing (not that you normally do anyway). I am doing this on the fly because I know that a lot of you are understandably feeling very lost and concerned about what you can do in the coming weeks and months to potentially make up for some of the lost income happening in the form of canceled sessions or weddings.

I wanted to share what I’m doing, because I think that it's the sort of thing that anyone could do… and maybe you will. Of course I can't promise that it will have any effect, but it might mitigate the damage at least a little bit.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Today’s podcast is going to be a little different. I’m going to be sharing a series of messages that I was exchanging over the last few days with one of my Simple Sales Blueprint students. I wanted to share this exchange because it has taken me on a highly emotional journey that started with empathy, which then morphed into white hot anger, and which I am now resolved to channeling into action.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

Today, we’re talking about 3 tools that I believe have the power to benefit every single photographer’s business, full-stop. I realize that is a pretty lofty promise, but I feel pretty strongly about it, and I'm excited to tell you why on today’s episode.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!

One of the biggest perks of being an entrepreneur is that you get to carve your own path. You get to make all the decisions without having to have any meetings or pitch anybody about anything. It can be exhilarating to be free to have an idea and execute it without anyone stopping you. The only downside is that there's nobody there to guarantee that your path is going to lead anywhere, much less where you want it to… You and you alone are in the driver's seat. Today, we’re going to talk about making smart decisions while forging your path.

Resources:

• New to the podcast? Go to thiscantbethathard.com/welcome to get access to 3 of Annemie's best free resources.
• Join our community! We'd love to welcome you into our supportive, business-focused private Facebook group. Go to facebook.com/groups/thiscantbethathard to request access.
• Long-time listener? Leave a review!