Lessons
I LOVE Photography and I Want to Make Money
11:34 2From Photographer to Business Owner
21:15 3Building Your Business To Fit The Life You Want
07:01 4Business Is Business
08:03 5Creating a Simple Business Plan - What To Know And What To Skip
14:29 6Branding And Identity
11:24 7Significance Of Constantly Marketing
11:37 8Social Media Marketing
08:05Internet Marketing
14:04 10Q&A
49:40 11Building Your Own Portrait Space
09:03 12Starting From Scratch - What Matters And What Doesn't
26:26 13Creating a Dedicated Shooting Space
18:00 14Studio Spaces Q&A
15:51 15Money Is A Good Thing
08:27 16Spending Your Money Strategically And Tactically
23:31 17Cash Flow
10:00 18Track Your Margins
07:50 19Understanding Loans
04:41 20Legal, Insurance, Tax
13:02 21Raising Your Prices
12:17 22Investing In This Business
05:22 23Money Q&A With Audience
34:02 24Intro To Websites
01:48 25Building And Launching A Website
11:20 26How To Use Your Website For Marketing
20:19 27Converting Viewers Into Customers
09:56 28How To Showcase Your Portfolio
10:21 29Website And Portfolio Critiques
35:01 30Getting Control Over Feeling Overwhelmed
09:35 31Developing A Workflow For Laser Sharp Focus
23:55 32Maximizing Productivity With Software And Applications
34:47 33The Benefits Of Mono Tasking
05:15 34Setting Expectations For The Shoot
08:09 35Live Shoot: Interacting with the Client During the Shoot
33:44 36A Sales Walkthrough
20:38 37Obstacles To Selling
16:15 38Common Challenges Q&A And Hot Seat
33:32 39The Most Common Challenges In Running A Portrait Business
09:41 40Handling Criticism
17:16 41Persistence and Grit in Running a Portrait Business
07:11Lesson Info
Money Is A Good Thing
Let's kick in and talk about money, money, money. This is, we were just saying this on Facebook Live, we just finished four seconds ago, um, that money is such a weird topic for people. It's so uncomfortable and awkward that it doesn't seem to matter whether you're talking about having a lot of money or little money or talking to somebody else about having a lot of money or hearing them talking about having little money. It's just this weird thing all the way across. And I think part of it is we have somehow, as a society, gone ahead and aligned the idea of value to money in such a way that it's become weird. I once did a talk on money. It was an hour and a half talk as a keynote speaker at a conference in Ohio. It was a great conference and everyone was super nice. But I got up and I talked very candidly about money on purpose. That was the point, was to say, "What is all this weirdness about it?" Let me just say dollar figures and talk about amounts and everything, and let's become r...
eally comfortable having this language because I think if you can get past this block you have, this mindset shift that you need to have about money, you can open up anything you want from here, really. And so I started out by saying, "I love money." Just to see how it went over, right? And there's this definite, like, this a little bit of kind of uncomfort, isn't it? And literally a woman who was right in front of me went like this. Did you see that? Get a closeup of my face, here we go. "I love money." (audience laughter) Like just, like incredible visceral reaction to, like, "You suck." You know? And it's odd because it's just a statement. It's just words. And it depends on how you think of money. To me, I think of money in a way that's actually extraordinarily meaningful to me, and it represents what I love the most, and we'll talk about exactly why. But so when I say it from that perspective, it's very different than, "I want money so I can just throw it around a club," or something. That's not what I'm talking about. So if you're saying it warmly and with pure goodness and with an eye towards what you know you're gonna spend it on that actually you think is good stuff, changes everything. Money, love and mindset. Uh, what do you guys care about? Top three things that matter the most to you in life? Just throw words out. <v Woman #1>Freedom. Freedom? Wow, that's an interesting start. Huh, I like that too. <v Woman #2>Travel, family. Wait, freedom? <v Woman #2>Travel, family. Travel, family. What's that? <v Man #1>Community building. Community building? Using it. Yeah. Using money to build community. <v Man #2>Travel. Travel. <v Woman #3>Photography, art. Photography, art, yep. And you talked a little bit about the nonprofit work, with the animal shelter, right? Yep, these are the things that mean something to you. For me, it's obviously my family. I built my whole business up to suit my needs from a lifestyle perspective, and that included an emphasis on family. I wanted to be there to pick them up after school and to go to the soccer games and watch the graduations and all the recitals, and... Not that I've hit every single one of them, 'cause there's some leeway, but that kind of life is very hard to pull off without money, without investing in the ability to do that. How many people do you know who are not comfortable talking about money, who aren't getting past that leap of what they could do, and are still struggling with some of those basics things, those basic things they want to do? And when you talk about it that way, sometimes people feel like, "Oh what, so I don't have money, you don't think "I could make money?" Or there's this weird kind of discomfort. There's a wonderful book out here that I'd highly recommend called The Soul of Money. If you haven't read it, there's a number of books like this. I think there's three or four. You just told me about one a minute ago. There's a lot of books out there that talk about how you can tie money to energy, and how you can use money as a way to express what means the most to you, and how if you shift your mind around this, it can make all the difference. For me, when I left, earlier I talked about the history of moving into photography and my background in business, but I walked away from a business that was, uh, I had no problem with money. It was a ridiculously profitable business if you were doing it right. And it got to the point now, at that point I wanna say I was doing it seven years in, and the kind of money that was rolling in seemed like Monopoly money just by doing that job. Again, I walked away from that consciously and on purpose because I felt so soulless, creatively, you know? I had to make a shift. But it really kind of messed my head up a little bit about money because I had struggled for money before. I paid for my college myself. I had all those student loans to pay off when I got out of college. I suddenly, I find my way into this job where money is just kind of coming at you, and I made a really solid decision to say, "I'm walking away from money to do what I love." And that was, in my head, I was celebrating myself as a person with integrity because I was walking away from money to do what I love. And do you see how far I put those? In my head and in my practice, and I spent several years being really far away from money, you know? Like, very far away from money. And you almost have to actually stop and say, "Wait, what am I unconsciously doing, and how do I marry "those things back together? "I want to do what I love and I want to make money. "Those two should not be separate." That's what this whole program is about. Somewhere around six or seven years ago, I started getting very, very focused on practical ways to make energy something, the energy of money, something that was very apparent in my life, and I'm not the only person who's had the experience of saying, "Oh my goodness, does that make a difference." The amount of opportunities that open up to you, the ways money can move into your life, and it's not just a kind of swishy thing. What do people say, foo-foo? It's not that. It's actually you're setting up situations where you now can access money in a whole different way because you weren't looking for it before. It's not that this energy stork just dropped off cash at your front door. It means you were looking at things in a different way 'cause you've changed your mind about money, and you're allowing more opportunities for it to come your way and for you to earn it. So, um, other things about money. When people say, "I love money," and feel so uncomfortable, well I started a nonprofit, my nonprofit Beautiful Together, that I've talked to you about before, BeautifulTogether.org. It's a 100% volunteer, zero profit business that we've been doing for years and to be able to travel to Ethiopia, pay for all the expenses ourself. We've gone back seven times now in the last few years. And cover all the operation costs of the business requires money. For me to say to you, "I love money," is another way of me saying to you, "I love what I can do with money." I love that I can effect good change. I love that I can help people 'cause I have the funds set up, because of all these things we're talking about, setting up a business structure that matters to be able to do that. So when you randomly hear me say out loud, "I love money," what are your beliefs about what I just said? 'Cause what I just said is I love being able to utilize it to care for things that mean the most to me and to be able to do the best good in the world that I think I can do from my position. But what do you hear when you hear someone say that? Yes? <v Woman #4>When I hear you or someone say "I love money," it's like "I will do anything for money. "I worship money. "I idolize money." Yep. Did you have a comment? <v Woman #1>Oh, I did. Yeah. Um, I think, kind of what I said when I said "freedom" is like the ability, it gives you the ability to do what you want, to spend time with who you want. Um, like he said, travel. I think it encompasses all that sort of thing, like doing what you love or giving to what you love. But when you hear people say "I love money?" I think it depends on their, on who they are. Ah, okay, that's a great point. <v Woman #1>So if it's some... So you have a different perception based on who said it. Yeah, like if it's someone I don't respect or whatever, I'll probably think differently than if it's someone like you saying it, where I'd automatically think it's something positive. First of all, thank you. Secondly, that's an interesting point, though, because we assign a meaning to it based on what we think is being said and who is saying it, right? But a lot of that is just, all of this is just in our head. The money is the money. It's the meaning we assign to it that makes things get very weird.
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Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
This course was fantastic. I learned more on what I need to improve and change in my business. I especially liked learning how she balances all the things in her life. She is a fantastic teacher who keeps you engaged throughout the course. Thank you creativelive and Tamara for producing such a great course!
user-5731db
I thoroughly enjoyed this class, Tamara Lackey is an amazing individual and trainer! I loved what she said about not letting ourselves be diminished by someone else's narrow view... This class touches on many business related topics, I had many "aha" moments and feel excited and committed to tackle various aspects of my business in small steps!! Thanks for sharing so much of you!!!
Heidi Mikulecky
Tamara Lackey is engaging, energetic, knowledgeable and humorous. This two day class is perfect for artists who have creative skills but need development with business skills. I expected this class to be all business, but I was pleasantly surprised that she delved into the physical (studio space), mental and emotional barriers (confidence) that hinder photographers from reaching their goals. Some of my biggest takeaways from this course are not only the business tips but also life lessons. Such a great class!!