Freedom Focus Photography

227 - In this pivotal episode, Nicole Begley announces a significant change: the podcast is now the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast!  This rebranding comes with exciting new directions and offerings, particularly the Freedom Focus Formula course, designed to radically transform the businesses of photographers through pricing, sales, and messaging strategies. Nicole delves into the nuances of bui...

226 - In this insightful episode of the Hair of the Dog podcast, Heather Lahtinen is taking over the mic for our 2nd episode of ‘The Offline Photographer’.   This series is all about getting you out from behind your computer and actually INTO your market so that you can meet an connect with marketing partners and/or potential clients.  This is the tried and true way to market and grow your busines...

225 -   In this episode, Nicole Begley shares her insights on what she would do if she were starting her photography business from scratch in 2024. We start with the importance of finding your niche, specifically identifying what you love about that niche and your products.  Then, the second (often overlooked) step is dialing in your messaging and creating a compelling website, which are crucial s...

224 - Today’s conversation is focusing on marketing our photography businesses, because if there’s one area that frustrates most photographers, it’s the challenges they face in finding new clients.   In this episode, I’m joined by my friends Heather Lahtinen, Dorie Howell, and Tavia Redburn to have a candid conversation to help photographers unlock the complexities of growing their business.   Thi...

223 - In this episode of the Hair of the Dog podcast, Nicole and Heather discuss the power of thoughts and how they can shape our lives and businesses. They share their most influential thoughts from 2023 and the thoughts they plan to carry into 2024.  By changing our thoughts, we can change our outcomes. Nicole and Heather introduce a model that shows how thoughts lead to feelings, actions, and r...

222 - As the year wraps up, it's the perfect time to get your photography business prepped and polished for the new year! Join me, Nicole Begley, as I dive into the essential year-end action items to help you put a bow on 2023 and prepare for success in 2024! What to listen for: Get practical tips on handling finances, from tracking expenses to prepping for tax season. Conduct an expense anal...

221 - Get ready to dive deep into a world where confidence reigns supreme! Join Nicole Begley and Heather Lahtinen as they uncover the secret sauce to building unshakeable confidence in your photography biz. This isn’t just any chat – it’s a journey through the ups and downs of self-trust, topped off with a surprising twist about... chocolate muffins? What To Listen For: Discover why self-trust is...

220 - Rejection is part of being a business owner. No … no, wait … rejection is part of being human!  Even marketing guru Seth Godin has heard the word "no" but he's at least come to understand that the rejection is more about the rejectee than it is about him. Rejectee … I just made that up.  That doesn't mean the word "no" isn't difficult to hear. It hurts some...

219 - You spoke up and we listened.  You all loved The Coaching Journals with Heather Lahtinen, Christi Baker and Monica Adalsteinsson that we're bringing them back.  Ish.  Christi and Monica are off soaring like eagles after six months of intensive coaching with Heather and the Elevate program. Today, we're introducing a spinoff series, called The Offline Photographer, and it's ins...

218 - I completely get it if you see the word "soup" and here "NO SOUP FOR YOU" in your head. It means you might be old enough to remember Seinfeld on NBC every Thursday night. Or maybe you've seen that episode on Prime video. Heather and I are talking about soup on this week's episode of the Hair of the Dog podcast. No, not chicken soup for the soul. Split pea soup....

217 - I’m going to take a stab in the dark at something. I’m guessing you’re pretty stoked when you hit a big revenue goal in your pet photography business.  Who wouldn’t be, right? Cha’ching!  BUT ...   What are you making that number mean? ESPECIALLY if you miss a revenue target — or if you were to have your revenue dip?!? 😱  If you’re human, you might feel like you failed or that your business...

216 - Let me be quite clear: There are no cats at a Fast CAT event. Not a single feline to be found, I swear!  Nope, Fast CAT — fast coercing ability test — is all about dogs. Dogs of every size, dogs of every color, dogs of every breed and dogs of every origin. In fact, FastCAT, which is essentially the 100-metre dash for dogs, might be the most inclusive events on the planet. So how much fun wou...

215 - So many of us are heading into the "offseason" right now, which means it's time to spiff up our websites and plan for 2024. OK, OK … take a little break after you fulfill all your client orders but then it's time to get down to brass tacks. One of the things you might want to put on your to-do list is working on your SEO. Search. Engine. Optimization. It isn't as har...

214 - I screwed up.  You guys, I'm human and I'm not (too) embarrassed to admit that I made a mistake. And I'm baring it all in this week's episode of The Hair of the Dog podcast. Here's the gist: I made some pretty serious assumptions about a client I booked last Christmas. I sold him a gift certificate as a gift for his  girlfriend.  I assumed -- because he is an acquain...

213 - Do you know what some of my favorite moments are? When my clients cry. I realize that makes me sound cold-hearted — but they’re crying because they’re so happy! Inevitably, they point at photos that roll across my slideshow, happy tears well up in their eyes and they gasp, "OHMIGOSH, THAT IS SO BENNY." That is always the moment I know when I've done my job. Because, my friend,...

212 - To fear is human. Heather Lahtinen fears snakes (and I am never going to stop reminding her). For me, it's tech. I fear learning new tech and it has kept me from moving forward with this new thingie I bought, the Atomos Ninja. It's an external screen that lets me see what I'm shooting as I'm shooting. It sounds awesome, doesn't it? But there it sits in a box unopened...

211 - I can't believe we are at the end of this journey.   Has it been six months of The Coaching Journals already? Good grief, where has the year gone?   For the last six months, Heather Lahtinen, our head guru at Elevate and Flourish Academy, has been sharing her coaching sessions with two Elevate students on the Hair of the Dog podcast. This week's episode is the final episode and Par...

 This week's episde was recorded specifically to tell you... don't listen to this week's podcast! Today is the first day of our live Hair of the Dog Summit V online, so we're currently over there, soaking up all the trainings from our fantastic summit speakers. Won't you come join us ?  What To Listen For:   The Art of Storytelling to Sell Your Photography with Anne Thomas...

210 - I’m Nicole and I'm an ENTJ on the Myers-Briggs and that means I struggle with the stuff that doesn't excite me – and despise things that aren’t efficient.   Like life stuff. Hanging out at a soccer tournament all day long when my son is playing in one game. One game! Aren't there other things I could be doing? What could I be knocking off my Hair of the Dog Academy to-do list...

209 - Annemie Tonken had to take a break once and get back to business. Guys, we're talking about a "major surgery and three months on crutches" kind of break.   That's when she came up with her idea to get her family photography clients into a membership service. Newly divorced, she needed to stabilize her income and make her business more resilient.   One day, UPS dropped off...

208 - What is stopping you from reaching your goals? What are your thoughts behind "I can't"?   You know, those thoughts that can paralyze you into inaction -- not only in your pet photography business but also in your life .   Both Monica Adalsteinsson of Pup + Me Photo and Christi Baker of Christi Baker Photography get challenged by their thoughts, and each has different fears and...

207 - The idea of work-life balance is a myth. We don't ever really balance the many facets of our lives: our businesses, our families, our health, our free time, etc. We give enough attention to each one just to keep going every day. That, my friend, is not balance . That is just surviving. Instead of looking for balance, my friend Lucy Baum says, we should be looking for consistency and ste...

206 - Commitment is a four-letter word to some people I know.   And when we talk about social media and the commitment it takes to keep your feeds updated and interesting, they unleash a string of four-letter words.  It can get stressful when you feel like you're dancing like a puppet to the algorithms pulling our strings.  But we are here to break it down and simplify it for you. Deb LaFlamm...

205 - Let's talk inquiries this week.    How are you getting them? Where are they coming from? How many become paying clients?    It is so incredibly important that you are clear on the answers to these questions because this data will help you streamline your process and focus your energies on what works for your pet photography business.    Heather Lahtinen of Flourish Academy and our head...

204 - Have you ever sent an email and felt immediately deflated when a couple of people hit that ol' unsubscribe button? Have you ever had a little panic attack and thought, "I'm bothering these people and I suck at this." Let's take a deep breath right now and remember that when people say "no" to you, it's about them and their story, not about you and your...