It’s time to take action. Remember, you can do this and you ARE doing this! Things might not seem like an epic story just yet, but there is a way to craft how you talk about yourself to evoke excitement from your listeners and squash the deflating effect of our emotional-mind. You have the potential for great things and the only one standing in your path is you. The only one seeing the glass ceiling is you. YOU have the power to pursue and create anything that you want. (That can be totally exciting and totally overwhelming at the same time. Remember, big picture, small picture – keep dancing). Let’s make a pact to start right here, right now, to get out of our own way, shatter that glass ceiling and own the creative power we have to affect the world in a beautiful way. Are you ready!?

I’ve created three handy dandy worksheets that will guide you through the jungle of business admin, planning and strategy right HERE. In this guide you will get very clear on your current financial status, what a realistic sales goal will be for the coming year and how to make it all happen. The more time you put into it, the clearer your plan will become and the more you will get out of it. I can’t stress the importance of putting the time in. All the potential and opportunities are yours for the taking!

Step out, make the leap, don’t fear the unknown because it only lasts a moment until you take the next right step. You can do this. You are worth it. And you deserve every opportunity for success. Now take it.

Grab my (virtual) hand, open THIS WORKSHEET, and let’s reset the way we are viewing our business and our achievements so far, and set ourselves up for success. Once you have completed that, use the next section’s action sheet to get real about your financial planning and strategies to make this your best year yet! See you on the other side.

THE AMP’D BUSINESS PLANNING & STRATEGY RECAP 

[Download your full strategy mini-guide, HERE]

PART I: Balancing The Small-Big Picture

• The Small-Big Picture Paradigm: The integral relationship between long and short term goal setting, stating that long-term goals must be broken down into smaller, manageable short-term goals in order to be achieved successfully.
• Knowing when to switch between the two (shifting your perspective) for maximum effectiveness is key.

PART II: Creative License & Your Why

• Like the story we portray through our photos, we have the power to influence people’s perception (and ourselves) of our stories through how we speak about our businesses and accomplishments.
• Creative License: A way in which we speak about our personal and professional lives that highlight the goals we have actually accomplished in an ultra-positive way, while leaving out the nitty-gritty details that could otherwise devalue or distract from our achievements.
• Vision Statement: A comprehensive statement that justifies your business venture and its impact on the future.

PART III: Owning Your Potential

• Get clear with your numbers to set a realistic sales goal for the coming year.
• Use the Small-Big Picture Paradigm to breakdown your sales goal and establish the strategy to accomplish it.
• Commit to managing and accomplishing the tasks set for each week

Your journey will be built upon the keys laid out in the last two posts (The Small-Big Picture and Ultra-Positivity & Your Why) as well as the principle of discipline! Do not underestimate yourself! You are capable to accomplish so much, but only if you set yourself up for the successful achievement of your goals. Otherwise, it is just as easy to get swept up in the day to day and never really achieve any of your big picture.

Resolve to grow and join us on this journey! You have already begun taking the steps of “The Doer” (as we first described on the Reviewer – Planner- Doer spectrum) Doesn’t it feel good?? I’m rooting for you and I am here for you! If there are any questions I can answer or advice I can provide you with along the way shoot me an email here! You got this! Now let’s get to it.

This is a two-part lesson aimed to highlight the difference between talking about your business and selling your business, then we will dive into harnessing your vision for your business’s future. The secret to a “successful business” these days might not be achieved exactly how you thought. I, for one, am the type of person that loves to have all of the back-end research, organization and planning established before I dive into any endeavor. This isn’t particularly what I would recommend, but before you just grab your Rebel and say you are going to professionally shoot weddings, hear me out. I believe it is a default mechanism of perfectionists to get things set up just right before they begin something because that preparation gives them confidence and motivation to succeed. The problem is this type of preparation doesn’t guarantee success and you might be better off seeking out a particular experience in another creative way. What 99% of the time will guarantee success is putting in the work, getting experience and deciding what skills and techniques you want to specialize in before ransacking Adorama and B&H. 

If you’re the type of person that gets bogged down thinking, “But I’m just starting out, I don’t have enough of a portfolio to entice clients (or whatever the story).” To you I say, “There are always opportunities for those who seek them out.” Perhaps you start by working for friends and family who trust you, or you style your own shoot (or team up with other creatives, or pay for a day session on someone else’s shoot) and create amazing images to use for your portfolio – that one session can bring you tons of work if executed strategically. Maybe you second shoot for another photographer and they allow you to use the photos for your portfolio. There are ways to work around the “lack of content” dilemma. Seek it out. Make it happen.

Did you know creatives are entitled to free license along with their a driver’s license? It’s a creative license! (Ok, ok, yea, that was a pretty bad roll-your-eyes joke, even to my standards). Anyway, people are free to use “creative license” to describe and interpret something’s meaning. This is probably another idea that you are already familiar with, or use (maybe unintentionally) in your business. Have you ever felt after reading or hearing a story you wished it was your life? (I can’t be the only one, people.) Maybe you’ve watched a rom-com or epic hero movie and walked out thinking, “I wish my story was that _(insert slightly jealous adjective)_.” Well, I’m here to help you write your script. We all have the ability to influence others in a similar way. We all have the ability to speak about our story and successes in a way that evokes excitement, awe and (hopefully) motivation in others. Use creative license to your advantage!

Essentially, using creative license as a figure of speech highlights the goals we have actually accomplished in an ultra-positive way, while leaving out the nitty-gritty details that could otherwise devalue our achievements. Just like a movie – we only see the parts of the story that the director wants us to know. Do you really think that The Notebook would be as romantic if we saw each and every day of Allie’s Using this perspective to describe your accomplishments will make you sound like a rockstar, and sometimes that’s the little push we need to believe in ourselves and know we are worth it, and this dream is worth all of our blood, sweat and tears.

If so, do you think you would have been thinking this if I just told you the “background info” story? Probably not. Everything about what I said was true, it’s simply how I said it that makes the difference. Just a little tweaking and some positive energy and you have literally “re-branded” yourself. Everyone wants to be around and work with happy, energetic people. They are attractive, edifying and exciting. Use ultra-positivity and creative license to your advantage! It’s all part of your brand and marketing strategy and you will book more sessions.

Similarly to talking about yourself in an ultra-positive way, establishing a motivating, authentic “why statement” will help attract more of your ideal clients and contribute to the ease of making cohesive business decisions. This is probably the simplest, most straightforward step in your business process that doesn’t need much explanation, so I will keep this short and sweet. I know you have your reasons for doing what you are doing, but try to dig deeper. Remember, this is a comprehensive statement that justifies your business venture. It should inspire you and keep your mission clear.

The importance of your “why,” or vision statement, cannot be highlighted enough. It is the bedrock of your business. It is the lens by which clients view your work. It is the sounding board that you bounce all questions and ideas off of to direct your business, and it is the reason you do what you do every day. Your why is your vision for your business’s impact on the future, and it’s what will keep you going even when the going get’s tough.

One final note on vision statements. As your business grows, and you grow, and time passes, it is inevitable that your goals, needs and perspective will evolve and your vision statement will evolve with it – let it. This is imperative for greater success and lasting impact.

THE AMP’D RECAP 

[Download your strategy worksheet, HERE]

PART I: Creative License

• Like the story we portray through our photos, we have the power to influence people’s perception (and ourselves) of our stories through how we speak about our businesses and accomplishments.
• Each of us have successes to highlight!
• Creative License: A way in which we speak about our personal and professional lives that highlight the goals we have actually accomplished in an ultra-positive way, while leaving out the nitty-gritty details that could otherwise devalue or distract from our achievements.

PART II: Your Why

• Vision Statement: A comprehensive statement that justifies your business venture and its impact on the future.
• As your business grows, and you grow, and time passes, it is inevitable that your goals, needs and perspective will evolve and your vision statement will evolve with it – let it.

TAKE FIVE

[If you haven’t grabbed your worksheet yet, get it HERE!]

Part1: Let’s practice with Creative License

I created a worksheet that will guide you through thinking about your story and rewriting it with an ultra-positive lens. Grab that free download and get started!

Part 2: This is the most important one. Use the next section of your guide to get real with yourself and answer some big-picture questions. Using these answers we will piece together an empowering vision statement filling in the blanks of the sentence:

“I desire to _________, so that ___________ .”

Grab your guide and let’s get going! (or, grab the full guide, that compiles all three parts of this mini-series!)

Ok, by now you have been AMP’d up with the first post in this series, “Strategies for Successful Resolutions.” You’ve figured out where you fall on the Reviewer – Planner – Doer spectrum, and you have started a list of your successes and misses of 2016. Let’s run through a quick review.

The Reviewer – Those who identify goals based on mistakes or failures from the last year. These goals lack a definitive action plan, and tend to be “put on the shelf” where they are revered, but eventually forgotten.

The Planner – Those who identify concrete goals with a “how.” The Planner’s goals have actionable steps and a positively motivated “why.” They have won 90% of the battle when it comes to goal-setting strategy, but there still may be unanswered grey areas when it comes to implementation and getting things done in the “big picture.”

The Doer – Those who embody The Reviewer by assessing successes and failures during the start of fourth quarter the previous year; The Planner by outlining concrete goals with a specific “why” and an actionable “how;” and, additionally, The Doer in their habit of analyzing all areas of their business (finances, marketing, pricing, professional development, portfolio, personal projects, etc.). These people identify expectations for the following year in multiple areas of their business and establish a detailed plan to actualize it.

THE AMP’D RECAP 

[Download your strategy worksheet, HERE]

• The first step to success is to “Get Down.” To make a difference, we have to know the difference.
• The Small-Big Picture Paradigm: The integral relationship between long and short term goal setting, stating that long-term goals must be broken down into smaller, manageable short-term goals in order to be achieved successfully.
• Remember, there will come a time when you find yourself at a point where looking at your big picture is just too overwhelming. This is why the smaller short-term goals are imperative.
• Know when to make the shift from the big and small goals.
  • Big Goals: Best for monthly and yearly planning, encourage motivation and perspective.
  • Small Goals: Best for daily and weekly planning, battling discouragement and overwhelm.

TAKE FIVE

Let’s Try a Two-Step
[If you haven’t grabbed your worksheet yet, get it HERE!]

Step 1: Write down your five biggest accomplishments in the last 6-12 months. Writing them down makes them tangible and concrete. Reference this when you have to battle your “emotional self.”

Step 2: Think about your goal setting strategy last year. What was one of your greatest goals that you accomplished last year? How did you accomplish that end goal? Write it down.