Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Tried and True with a Dash of Woo, where we blend rock solid tips with a little bit of magic. I'm Renee Bowen, your host, life and business coach and professional photographer at your service. We are all about getting creative, diving into your business and playing with manifestation over here. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. Hey friends, welcome back to Tried and True with a Dash of Woo. I'm your host, renee Bowen. Thanks for joining me here again.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Today's show is for you if you feel as though fear is keeping you stuck and you're looking for ways to shift into abundance. So if you've ever felt like you were spinning your wheels with marketing especially maybe posting inconsistently, struggling to book enough clients or just constantly worrying that there's too much competition in the market, too much saturation, then you're going to want to tune in to today's episode, because I'm about to flip everything you've been told about marketing on its head. Today we're going to be talking about marketing from abundance versus marketing from lack, which is what a lot of people just automatically do, and I'll explain that. But let me tell you, this shift changes pretty much everything, and when I made this shift in my business, I went from feeling overwhelmed and unsure all the time to booking my dream clients consistently, also raising my prices confidently and actually enjoying the marketing process instead of dreading it, which is, I know, something that a lot of you guys are dealing with. And while we're on the subject of marketing from abundance versus lack, I want to mention that I created an entirely new mini course that is all about this, specifically for senior photographers and specifically for the Seniorology bundle.

Speaker 1: 1:51

A lot of you guys in the senior photography world know about Leslie from Seniorology. She and I have been friends for a very, very long time. We've been in this space a very long time and I was super honored to have been asked to participate in her bundle this year. So if you don't know what that is, really quick, it's an amazing resource, an amazing deal for high school senior photographers. You get access to 22 educators, 22 different courses, well over $2,000 worth of education that you're going to get for $97 total, which is kind of crazy. But the thing is is that it's only available from February 10th through the 19th, so you do have to purchase before then and yes, I've got the link for you in the show notes, so go ahead and grab it. There's so many amazing senior photography educators participating in this, people who I've also had on my podcast and people that you guys probably already follow and love, but I want you to go ahead and check out the link.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Everything is listed for you there, along with what each educator is teaching. You're going to learn how to blog with SEO. You're going to learn creative night shooting. You're going to learn how to do your own B-roll for social media, how to collect client feedback, opposing playbook style guide templates, styled shoot guide templates, senior teams workflow and automation.

Speaker 1: 3:16

And, for me, a little something different, a course that I created just for this bundle called marketing from abundance versus lack. And no, it's not only mindset, but I really do believe that until you get in the right mindset, in the right energetic frequency, you're going to have a really hard time implementing any of this stuff. So I highly suggest listening to mine first or in the very beginning after you purchase this bundle, because if you don't have the right energy, you don't approach your business with the right energy. It's going to be really difficult to implement any marketing strategies. But I also give you marketing strategies inside of this little mini course, and I've done it a little bit different. You don't have to log into my portal. It is a Canva doc, but I have videos embedded in it as well as all of the educational content, so everything is in one place, really easy for you to find and to refer back to. And I even give you a year-round marketing strategy, month by month, so that you can get ahead of the game and know what you're planning on marketing and what you really should be promoting at what time. So, yeah, it's pretty juicy. So that's where my senior photographers you guys definitely go. Grab that ASAP.

Speaker 1: 4:33

And I also have something for creative entrepreneurs in general. I am participating in a really amazing workshop with three of my friends from the online space, and this is called the 2025 boldest playbook revealed. It is going to be a really cool powerhouse workshop to hand you the exact strategies to break through in 2025. This is a live workshop which is going to be held on February 24th. It's only 10 bucks, which is, I mean, the price of a coffee, basically and you're going to learn some really cool things. So for me, I'm teaching again. I have created a whole new little course for this, because I have been wanting to create something that combined AI with the psychological aspects of NLP for a long time. So I went ahead and did that and I am going to be teaching you how to use AI and NLP neuro-linguistic programming to boost your confidence and to close more sales. So mine is definitely about sales, but it's also about how to wire yourself for sales to make it so much easier. You're also going to learn how to turn your DMs into dollars so you stop feeling invisible on social, and you're going to learn how to unlock your deep emotional connection story so people can buy from you. And then you're also going to learn how to delegate like a CEO, because burnout is not a business plan. Again, I am doing this workshop live with three other entrepreneurs and I cannot wait for you guys to meet them. If you're on my email list, you got a little snippet about both of these already with the link, but I am going to put the link for this workshop as well in the show notes, so it'll make it super easy for you to grab it and jump in, because it's literally only 10 bucks.

Speaker 1: 6:19

All right, let's get to the meat of today's show. So first I want to talk to you guys a little bit about the marketing struggle that most photographers and creatives face. Because, let's be real, most of us start our businesses because we love what we do, right? If you're a photographer, you love photography. You were probably told that you have a good eye, all of these things, and you probably didn't start it because you absolutely love marketing, like you love to sell online, right? But at some point you realize that if you don't market yourself, you know nobody's going to just magically show up in your inbox, unfortunately just ready to book.

Speaker 1: 6:58

I talk about this a lot because marketing is kind of like my love language. I really do enjoy marketing, but I didn't know that until I started my own business. But this is where fear starts creeping in, right? Am I charging too much? What if nobody books me ever again? I hear that a lot from you guys. Should I lower my prices? Look at so-and-so. They're killing it. And I'm just over here struggling. That comparison game is just awful, right. So if any of that sounds familiar, let's talk about it.

Speaker 1: 7:33

So all of those thoughts really do come from this place of lack, right? So when you're operating from this mindset, marketing feels heavy, it feels exhausting and, honestly, it just doesn't work, because your clients can feel the energy coming from you. They pick up on hesitation, inconsistency, scarcity, and that energy actually pushes them away. Because again I'm going to get a little woo on you, but basically we are just vibrating energy molecules. So if you are operating from this place of a low vibrational imprint, let's say right, if you are really kind of stuck in lack, mentality, scarcity, thinking that money is just not easily made, you have to work really hard to make it. Basically just operating from your past and what you've been programmed with about money and sales, as opposed to how you want it to look, if you're operating from that energetic place, it doesn't matter how good you fake it till you make it. If you really believe what those thoughts are telling you, then you're going to find proof of that in your reality, because that's just how physics works.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So the faking it till you make it only works if you deep down believe and feel that you are abundant, that you want something bigger, better, more. You can't really believe the lack thoughts and get bigger, better, more. You can't really believe the lack thoughts and get bigger, better, more. You have to at least have a belief deep down. It can be deep down that you can have what you want. Okay, I always talk about this combination of grit and optimism, right, the grit is really important. You got to put in the work, you got to get up and make a move. Right, but you also have to believe deep down that you can do this, and I really do think that most of you guys have this. I'm on a lot of phone calls, right, I do a lot of free alignment calls for people to see if, you know, coaching would be a good fit for them, and I would say most of the people I speak to have this deep belief. They do, because otherwise you probably wouldn't have booked the call. But sometimes I get on a call and I can tell immediately that there isn't belief there and that's going to make it a lot harder, a lot harder for you to make a move, to take a step.

Speaker 1: 10:05

I remember when I first started in photography I, you know this was well before we had all of this free education. It was like 2005, 2006. So, like it was really hard to find anything online, right, but the people that I did find I would sort of stalk their websites and I kept kind of trying to watch what everybody else was doing, right, I was just inferring, like how are they pricing? Cause it was hard to find anybody who would be open about any of their processes. Everything was really closed off, like nobody really wanted to help at all. And I even reached out to a handful of people and offered you know, like I don't know if you are mentoring other photographers that's not listed on your website, but I could really use that and I'd love to pay you to do that. And most people would even like not even get back to me, and the ones who did were not forthcoming at all. Like I wasn't asking for free information, I was willing to pay and they were very cold and shut off. So we've come a long way.

Speaker 1: 11:14

You guys who are just starting out now in this space, or just in the last couple of years, even since COVID, you got it pretty good. You've got an online plethora of information. But that also is part of the problem, because now there's so much information it's hard to decipher what's gonna work for work for you. You can mimic somebody's strategies, you can try and infer what they're doing and see if you can implement some of that, but unless you really see the underside of their business, it's really hard to know exactly what's going on there, but I would get stuck in that. I would get stuck in this comparison and trying to figure out their strategies, trying to figure out their pricing, and I was always in this cycle of what's working for them instead of what feels aligned for me and my business. I didn't even have clarity on that and, spoiler alert, that didn't work. So it wasn't until I really dove into this, this mindset game, right and specifically abundance mindset, truly really believing that my people were out there you know, my clients were just there and waiting for me to show up, that I could really change my worth and that marketing could actually be fun, that I could really change my worth and that marketing could actually be fun. And then my bookings really did explode.

Speaker 1: 12:40

Okay, so what does marketing from abundance actually look like? If marketing from lack is all about fear and comparison and scrambling for clients and all of these low vibe things, then what does the opposite really look like? Some examples would be you showing up with true confidence, knowing that your dream clients are already looking for you and, even if you don't really really like a hundred percent, believe that yet again. If you have a tinge of that, that is good enough to start from. You just need to build it up. It also looks like you creating content that reflects your unique brand, instead of worrying about what everybody else is doing. It looks like you staying in your lane. I very rarely look at anyone else in my spaces feeds I really don't. Now, if I am, I'm doing it to build them up.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Okay, I go into it with the intention of I'm going to hop online, I'm going to see what my friends are up to, I'm going to go and comment on their posts, give them some engagement and hype them up. That's abundant mindset. The opposite scrolling looking at everybody else's work, feeling like yours sucks. Feeling jealousy, feelings of like must be nice. That's not. That's scarcity. So you need to catch yourself. When you do that and you can do that quick reframe, you can say oh nope, I'm falling into that. Let me go ahead and just comment something nice instead. That alone shifts your energy and raises your vibration a lot.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Another way to market from abundance is that you set your prices based on the value that you bring, not based on your fear of rejection. Don't set your prices because you're afraid of what people are not going to buy. Okay, a lot of you guys are undercutting yourself a lot. You're not looking at your actual numbers. I'm working with a couple of photographers right now in my one-on-one coaching. They've both been in this. They're each one-on-one but they're they're doing similar things and each of them are you know, they've been in the space for a little while and they're good photographers like way too good to charge what they're charging and they know it, which is why they hired me. But they're meeting with a lot of resistance because the longer that you do this here's the thing Like if you're just starting out, it's a lot easier to build this foundation from the get-go, I think, than getting stuck in this sort of like lack mentality and fear-based marketing.

Speaker 1: 15:12

If you do that for a long time and you're not priced appropriately and you don't know your actual numbers, it's almost harder to break out of that because you have created this habit. Now your unconscious mind thinks that that is safe and so it's up to you to reframe that. It's up to you to tell your unconscious mind that no, no, no, we don't want that. You know quote, unquote safe thing. We want to grow and you can't grow if you're not sustainable. So if that's you and you've been in business for a long time and you know you're not priced appropriately it's. I invite you to really take a look at this and the seniorology bundle class that you get when you get the bundle my marketing class is going to help you a lot with this. And then the other thing that marketing from abundance looks like is that you trust your marketing is a long-term game, not a quick fix. So you're consistent and strategic.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Okay, a lot of y'all are just flying by the seat of your pants and, trust me, I get it. I know that we have a lot going on. I'm a really big believer in creating some sort of balance or integration with your personal and business lives and as a solopreneur, it feels like you're just wearing all the hats. But marketing is a long game, all right, and it is better to be strategic about it than just flying by the seat of your pants. Now, that's not to say you have to have like this perfectly curated Instagram feed.

Speaker 1: 16:40

If you look at mine, you'll see that that is not that like. I am not that person. That's not my, that's not my personality. I'm never going like. If you go to my Instagram feed and you see nothing but like Canva templates and everything is like perfectly formatted, I have been kidnapped, send help, because that's not me. Or like a message being like girl, who did you hire to do your marketing? Because it's not you. That's just not who I am right. Your, your, your branding needs to really feel like you. Your clients need to know who you are and so if there's a disconnect, like, and if that's you to have a perfectly curated feed, all right, go for it. Lean in that's who you are, but that's not who I am right. So that is really, really important for you to know to start with.

Speaker 1: 17:34

And listen, this is not just another woo-woo mindset shift. Okay, this is really rooted in strategy and psychology and even marketing data. And when you position yourself as an expert with confidence, people are more likely to book with you, just in general. And when you stay consistent instead of just posting sporadically out of panic, the algorithm actually works in your favor. And again, if you buy somebody's script or templates, you have to make sure that you are putting your spin on that, don't just copy paste. When you believe in your pricing, your clients respect it and this is why I teach marketing from abundance. It's not just a mindset, it's a system that you can really implement over and over again, which makes this whole thing a lot easier.

Speaker 1: 18:26

So how do you start marketing from abundance today, like today, right after you listen to this episode? I don't want you to just listen to this episode and think, oh yeah, that sounds nice. I want you to take action. That's really my intention with all of my podcast episodes, no matter solo episodes or episodes with guests. I want you to take something of value away from it and then go out and do something with it. So here are three things that you can do today to start shifting into abundance.

Speaker 1: 18:55

First thing, do a content audit. Look at your last five to 10 social media posts. Were they created from a place of excitement and alignment or from a place of stress and obligation? If they feel heavy, it's time to adjust how you're showing up. And again, look at your feed right, whether it's Instagram or TikTok or whatever. And, by the way, just a little side note, I'm going to be doing a social media pop-up class soon, in March. I will let you guys know when that information comes out.

Speaker 1: 19:26

I originally was going to do just a TikTok class, but then the whole ban happened and I pushed it off because I wanted to see what was going to happen with that. And it is back, although we don't know for how long. We don't know exactly what's going on. And if you guys know me, you know that I love TikTok. It's like kind of always been my preferred platform, but it's shifted. It's definitely changed since the ban and I am still doing a lot of research on the algorithm and what that really means for us as creatives and photographers. So I wanted to wait just a little bit longer to put this together for you guys. So it's going to be in March and I'm also going to include some Instagram information there, possibly even some other platforms. I'm going to see what kind of bubbles up, but stay tuned for that, because it'll this will be specifically for photographers, um, and I really want to make it as value as possible.

Speaker 1: 20:28

So, anyway, all of that to say look at your content TikTok, instagram, whatever and I want you to really like, assess, does this feel like me? Is this really? Is this really me? That's a really big part of this. The next step is to affirm and embody it. Okay, start your day with a simple mantra, something like my dream clients are already on their way to me. Come up with your own. That feels really good, but I want you to put it in the present, as if it is already happening. Say it, write it, but you need to feel it. You have to feel it. That's the key. Your energy will shift immediately when you do this, and the more you do it, the stronger it gets.

Speaker 1: 21:12

And then the third step is to get a system in place. So this is where a lot of photographers and creatives also struggle. You feel like you're just kind of all over the place because you don't have a marketing plan. So this is exactly why I created the marketing from abundance blueprint inside the seniorology bundle. It's to give you a step-by-step system that simplifies the entire process so you can attract clients effortlessly. Now you can get this little class on its own, but why wouldn't you buy it inside of this amazing bundle for only $97? Because the class itself is almost what that is worth. So it's kind of a no brainer. You should just go ahead and get the bundle. So you know I'm always talking about this combination of strategy and mindset. Okay, it's, it's a really important piece.

Speaker 1: 22:03

The problem is that a lot of you guys buy a lot of stuff. Okay, if there's something about photographers that I've noticed over the years. It's like we like a bright, shiny thing. I think this is just like a neuro, diverse, creative brain thing. You like novelty, something new, right. So like somebody new pops up and they have a new resource for you. You're going to jump on it. You'll be like, oh my God, I have to have this right away, that kind of thing. You buy a lot of stuff but then you don't really do a lot with it. Okay, maybe you, maybe you do watch the course or you go through it, but you feel really stuck on how to implement it, because now you're just confused and a lot of us with spicy brains like this have a really hard time like trying to figure out, like what is the clarity on what I actually want, and then reverse engineering it. And that's what I do with you inside of coaching, cause I'm really good with clarity. That's kind of one of my little superpowers is that I am able to help you figure out what you want and to tune out the rest of the noise. So try your best to work on that If you are struggling with you know marketing from this place of lack, because if you're stuck in this loop.

Speaker 1: 23:19

If you're stuck on this script of like I'm not good enough, my work isn't good enough, or, you know, no one's going to pay these prices, all of that stuff, it's really hard to get yourself out of that. If you feel like you were just working in a vacuum, right Like if you're in, it feels like you're like in solitary confinement sometimes because you don't know what you don't know. And if you have purchased a lot of things or even just like downloaded a lot of freebies, you're going to't know. And if you have purchased a lot of things or even just like downloaded a lot of freebies, you're going to be confused. And that just adds to the noise in your head and the overthinking and the second guessing and the imposter syndrome.

Speaker 1: 23:57

All of that stuff is coming from a place of scarcity and I want you coming from a place of abundance. Okay, because I do want you to win. When you win, I win and vice versa. We really do all rise together. That's not just a cheesy slogan. When you really embrace that and you are able to like, really embrace it truly and not just say it, your energy shifts and your clients, your new clients, feel it Honestly when you come from that place of abundance. It really is about coming from your heart center. Okay, like you can even like that's another little trick you can do is to just put your hands over your heart for about two minutes, close your eyes, breathe into it and think about somebody that you love so much, that you are just so grateful for in your life. That's like an instant energy shift, right there, and then start thinking about your business, right, like, so transfer the energy.

Speaker 1: 25:00

If you're having a hard time like coming up with this abundant mindset, just specifically about your business, okay, don't even think about the business. Think about someone you love, think about someone you're grateful for or something you're grateful for, and then just shift. I want you to think about it as like maybe climbing a ladder. Like, let's say, you're climbing this ladder and the ladder is gratefulness and you're trying to feel better, you're raising your vibration, okay, so you go up about five or six steps. You say a little gratefulness thing. You go up another five more steps, you think about somebody you love and you start building and stacking this good feeling. Okay, you don't have to climb back down that ladder to go think about your business now. There's another ladder next to you. You just jump to it. So you just jumped right over to the marketing from abundance, your business ladder, and you're already there. So then start thinking about something that you're grateful for in your business and just transfer the energy. I know how game changing this shift is because I've done it and it's not that I, you know, don't fall off of the wagon, because I do. I fall off my ladder all the time, but I get back up and that's really what matters.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Success is not about being the best photographer, the best digital marketer, whatever. It's about, I believe, being willing to do the work and if you're listening to my podcast, you are, if you're drawn to this kind of content, then then you are already. You already there. But it's not just about the mindset Although that's my favorite part it's really about these practical steps that you can take today to build a marketing system that actually works for you and your business and the way that you envision the business. So if you're done with that struggle, done with the comparison and really ready like really ready to step into your most successful year, go get it. It's already yours.

Speaker 1: 26:59

If you need help, grab the seniorology bundle. If you're a high school senior photographer. Jump inside the $10 workshop I'm doing on the 24th. That's going to be super fun and actually a lot of strategy as well. This is your time, though. Okay, you don't have to struggle through marketing. Let's make this shift together. I'm cheering for you and I'm doing the work right alongside of you. If today's episode spoke to you, let me know. Hit me up on Instagram and come say hello at Renee Bowen. Let me know if this episode resonated with you and if you need help with anything, I am happy to help if I can, and if I can, I want to point you in a direction where I think we'd better serve you, but I'm here for you, so go out and have a great week. I'll talk to you soon and I'll see you next time. Love you, bye.