40. We All Start at Zero

We All Start at Zero

A few weeks ago I was looking through my DMs and realized that I’ve been getting too many messages from photographers saying “yeah, what you’re doing works for you but not for me, because you’re well-known and I’m not….yeah, I hear you saying there’s plenty work out there for photographers, but that’s just for successful people like you and what about nobody’s like me.”

What I’ve been hearing in my DMs are all negative beliefs, and it breaks my heart to hear photographers play the comparison game and pull themselves down!

It’s a dangerous road we go down when we give into our negative beliefs.

We smother our own growth, success and confidence when we start telling ourselves things like:

“I can’t make it because nobody knows who I am”

or

“I’m just not as good as that person.”

These are all lies that we just keep telling ourselves.

A lot of people look at my account or my business and think that it must be so easy to be where I am. But they don’t see the 10 years that it took to get where I am. Remember that we all start at zero!

I was at zero ten years ago when I started photography. I had zero followers, zero industry friends and zero family here in Logan to give me support. I started at zero, just like everyone else. Yet others focus on where I am now and compare their new business to my business of 10 years.

If you’re finding yourself thinking any of these negative beliefs, stop looking around at everyone else and thinking that it must be so easy for them. Success does not mean that things come easy for people.

I’m still doing the hard work every day even though things may look effortless on instagram.

Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean I’m not working hard or doing the marketing, bookkeeping, budgeting, posting and editing things that people hate to do. I’m working on my business every single day!

Here’s the thing, everyone attracts different opportunities and the opportunities YOU are attracting are the ones that you are needing in your life right now. Instead of fixating on how we can be successful like others, we need to focus on our own journeys, our own advantages and our own strengths.

When we’re constantly looking at other people, we are missing out on opportunities to really be our own business.

How to Keep Growing Your Business

1. Be consistent – if you’re showing up daily, you will be successful

2. Stay in your lane and only compare yourself to yourself

3. Invest in education

4. Start treating your business like a business

Investing in education is directly related to building confidence. When we are developing and realizing our own skills, we stop comparing ourselves to others. If you’re improving your skills, your business is automatically going to grow.

If you treat your business like a hobby, it’s going to stay a hobby.