Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Tried and True with the 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 every year. So are you ready to get inspired and have some fun? Let's dive in. Hey, hey, welcome back to Tried and True with a dash of woo. I am Renee Bowen, your host. Thanks for joining me here again.

Speaker 1: 0:30

I have a fantastic guest for you guys today, but before we get into that, I have a couple of housekeeping things and some reminders for you guys. First of all, I just want to kind of check in with you guys, check in with my community. It has been a really stressful, rough week and I'm not going to get into specifics of what's going on in the world. That's not what my podcast is about. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a little bit about the mindset, because I do believe that there is a mindset piece of this and I just kind of want to be a reminder for you. There are very few things that we can control in this life Very few, pretty much the only thing that we can control are our actions and our reactions, and pretty much the way that we act or react is based upon unconscious programming, which means things that we learned from our past, our past lived experiences, from the time we were born until now, and everyone has their own map of the world, their own perspective, and everybody, everybody, thinks that they are right. So I just want to remind you of that, because getting someone to change their perspective is not easy that's not to say it can't be done, but it's not easy. And I want to remind you of that, because getting someone to change their perspective is not easy, that's not to say it can't be done, but it's not easy. And I want to remind you to protect your peace, and I want to remind you that every single social media platform that we have access to first of all, we don't own any of that. The second of all, every single algorithm is based on you using the platform, and we know for a fact the best way to get users to use a platform is to keep them in a loop of stress super high, highs, super low, lows so they are going to prioritize content that gets you to react and stay on the platform. I'm going to invite you to not participate in that because it is a choice. You have a choice in how you want to use your energy. You can use it to rage bait. You can use it to be reactionary and continue the loop of fight or flight content that is being put out. Or you can choose to be proactive in your actions and you can choose to give your energy to other things and other people. And you can choose to give your energy to other things and other people. I know most of us run online businesses or we need to be a face of our business online. You can do that without participating in the rhetoric If you find that this is causing you stress and keeping you in that cycle of fight or flight, because when you are in that cycle of fight or flight, what happens in your brain is that all the blood rushes from your brain down to your arms and legs to make you fast so you can get away from the danger, because that's what your body thinks is happening.

Speaker 1: 3:15

When you have a stress response, you immediately go into fight or flight, freeze or fawn. You go into some sort of action that is going to keep you safe and keep you alive and usually it's to run away, get away. So the blood is not in the conscious part of your brain. It's not the best time to be making decisions.

Speaker 1: 3:34

If you feel any of those signs that your body is heading into fight or flight or freeze or fawn any of those stress responses, and anytime you feel like your nervous system is not regulated, get offline literally touch grass, get in nature, breathe. Regulate yourself first. Okay, I want you to prioritize that really hardcore over the next couple of months. And I'm not telling you to not be an activist. If that is part of who you are and you feel passionate about that, that's fine. I'm not telling you to stop being active and to not create change. Follow your purpose, but regulate yourself, please, because you're not going to be good for anybody if you are literally just in a constant state of reacting to your environment, which is pretty volatile at the moment and, as always, be very, very careful in what you believe online, because we can be easily controlled when we are in a state of fear and fight or flight.

Speaker 1: 4:33

And when you're regulated and you're calm and you're centered, you're much harder to control. Don't buy into the divisiveness. It's not our baseline. You can make change. You can speak your truth without contributing to the rhetoric of divisiveness. I truly believe that at the heart of it, we're all connected. I just want you to take care of yourself and your nervous system, because I've seen what happens to people when they don't. Okay, that's my little mindset spiel for you.

Speaker 1: 4:59

Also, really quickly, I have a lot of AI things and trainings that are coming soon that I want to tell you about. I'm going to put them in the show notes as well. If you're a photographer, I am participating in the Sync AI Summit for Photographers. You can find the link below to join us. It is free to watch live and if you want to get the replays and things like that, then you can upgrade. This is going to be really awesome and specifically geared toward photographers. So if you're a photographer and listening to this, you absolutely should be watching this training. My presentation is all about your brain on AI, and I am going to give you a lot of really good tips and some prompts as well, so some out of the box ideas on how you could be using Chet Shpt in your business. And then also coming in October is the Her AI Summit, which I love because it is all about women in AI and we're very underrepresented in this field, so I'm very passionate about that, and my presentation for that is called Mindset in the Meta Age, so definitely sign up for the waitlist for that. That link is there below for you as well. That's going to be really, really amazing to one of the women who is spearheading it. She is just an AI powerhouse, so you're going to learn a lot. There's going to be a lot of really great contributions in that summit. And then there is one going on right now as well, called the ease and alignment AI bundle, and I contributed a PDF for that that you guys are going to love. So all the information on those are below for you guys.

Speaker 1: 6:28

And then, really quick, I do have a lot of you guys asking me if I'm going to be offering any one-on-one training specifically designed to help you build AI systems and implement AI or anything like that, basically like a VIP day AI related, and I am trying to put something together for that right now. If you're interested in that, please get in touch and just let me know that this is something that you would be interested in. This would be like you and I spending the whole day together over Zoom or in person, if you're not far from me, and me coming up with systems for your business, basically kind of poking holes in what you have and then seeing how we can make AI get your life to be a lot easier and to have things run smoothly, whether that means building out custom GPTs with you, teaching you how to use custom projects and things like that for your business. I love doing that kind of work. I've been doing it already inside of my one-on-one coaching containers, where you sign up for either three or six months coaching with me, and so if that is something that is important to you, we can definitely work with it inside of a coaching container as well, and I find it to be way more beneficial just in general, because we can work on all the pieces of your business and, again, it's at least a three-month container. So if you are interested in one-on-one with me just in general.

Speaker 1: 7:48

I do have a couple of spots open, so hit that link below. Book a free call with me. We're going to chat and see if we would be a good fit to work together and then, if you're interested in just like a VIP day, hit me up on Instagram at Renee Bowen and let me know that that's something that you would find interesting, because I'd love to pick your brain a little bit about some of the things that you think you'd like and that will help me tailor that experience. So let me know. And then I just wanted to thank you guys again for being a part of the podcast. It's actually my birthday today, so if you're listening to this, on Wednesday the 17th, I'm most likely getting a really long massage and headed to dinner with my husband, so I am not going to be working, but I just wanted to say thank you guys for being a part of my world, whether it's here, or on my Instagram or online.

Speaker 1: 8:37

I know that I haven't met a lot of you in person, but I do appreciate you being a part of my community and helping me and my little businesses thrive. So let's talk about Deb. She's pretty amazing. I've known Deb for a long time. She was a photographer for a while and she has now segued that business into helping creatives get organized and get their shit together. Basically, she's one of those people who's just like really fantastic about pointing out things that need to be fixed and coming up with like really amazing ideas quickly for the fix. She's great with systems and this was a conversation that I've been wanting to have with her for a long time. So we finally made it happen and got her on the show and I know you guys are going to enjoy it. Some of you guys might know Deb already, especially if you are a 17 hats user, because she is a 17 hats like pro expert you name it. She can help you with it. So, if just a little side note, if you need some help with that, it's specifically. You got to get in touch with Deb and she's got free resources and things like that. So, again, check the show notes for all of the links that you need and I hope you enjoy my chat with Deb. Hey, hey, welcome back to Tried and True with a Dash of Woo.

Speaker 1: 9:55

I am your host, renee Bowen, and today I have one of my really good friends and just productivity extraordinaire, deb Mitzel, on the show today, and Deb and I have known each other a long time. She was a photographer for a very, very long time and that's how we met, and she has moved into a different phase of her business over the last few years. She's a system strategist, creative ops queen. Basically, she helps creative business owners and photographers make their businesses less chaotic before they hit automate. She helps small business owners, creative business owners, photographers, just anyone who needs help with that productivity and systems piece of their business and organization. She's fantastic at helping you get a handle on all of that. I am consistently impressed by her brain. She just knows how to make sense of all of this stuff.

Speaker 1: 10:52

And today we're actually speaking about a very specific topic and one that I haven't really talked about yet on the show, and that is about process mapping. So basically, how to get your business less chaotic before you even try and automate things. So we know that automations are really, really important, and I talk about that a lot. We want to make sure that we have systems set up for us and our businesses to make things. We want to make sure we have these systems set up to make our businesses run more smoothly. But there are some things that you need to be doing before you even get to that piece, and that's what today's show is about, so let's just dive in. Hey, deb, you're one of my good friends, so I feel like I just see you and talk to you all the time, but thanks for being on the show today.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Absolutely. I'm so excited to be here. You know I love talking about all this stuff, so, yes, I'm glad this finally worked out for us to get together, I know.

Speaker 1: 11:43

We've been planning this and trying to plan it basically for a long time. So tell everybody how you got into this. You were a photographer for many years but you've always been really good at this sort of systems and productivity and organization, and so what made you want to sort of go into this part of your business, like the consulting and helping photographers and creatives manage their businesses?

Speaker 2: 12:09

Well, you know, it's one of the things that I saw when I was doing photography. I mean, I was in business for 30 years in a completely unrelated business, but it was business nonetheless. And as a side gig when I was doing that, I started doing photography. So one of the things that I saw when I was doing photography was all these really amazing photographers that had such creative talent but didn't necessarily have the business acumen to back it up on the business side. And so I kind of made that decision, probably 10 years ago, that once I had the time ie I retired from the day job that I would actually spend some time working with other photographers and creatives to help them level up that business side, so that they could really get what you know from the financial aspect as well, what they were worth creatively actually hitting their bank account. So that's kind of where this all started for me.

Speaker 1: 12:58

Yeah, and I love that. Well, first of all, you're just like a natural at so much of this and I know firsthand too, guys, because like she's also helped me with pieces. So I don't just know her like from what she does, I also refer people to her, and she's worked inside of my business a little bit. So some people are just really naturally drawn to that sort of thing and I always say, like the fastest way to learn something is to like study with somebody who's already done what you want to do, but also, like sometimes you just need to hand that stuff over. And so Deb is also just really good at that. She can teach you how to do it, but she's going to also just sort of like take the reins a little bit too. So it was a good segue, basically, I think, for you. I think that this is like what you're meant to be doing.

Speaker 2: 13:44

Well, and I feel that way too. One of the gifts that I think I've always had is the ability to see kind of the high level of what's going on inside of a business or just in general. I always see kind of that big picture, but I can also then drill it down into how did you get from point A to point B and what does that mean? And so I think that's what's been really helpful for me being able to come inside of other people's businesses and actually figure out what they're doing as it relates to what they want to do, because sometimes you know you get so stuck. What is that saying? You can't see the forest for the trees, right? You're so stuck in the trees that you can't see the bigger picture, and that sometimes derails you a little bit.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Yeah for sure. So we're going to talk a lot about these automations and systems and processes and things like that to make sure that your business is running more smoothly and you're making more money and you're having more time to actually live your life. But really, kind of what we're going to get to is this process mapping, and a lot of people may not have even heard that term before, because it's kind of what you have to do before you got to do what you got to do. And so if anyone is out there not knowing what that is, what actually is process mapping?

Speaker 2: 14:57

Well, I think very simply stated is it is what do you do like from A to Z in your business, whether you're looking at the client journey and accounting process. It's the processes. We've heard of SOPs or standard operating procedures, but, very simply, it's just what do you do? When do you do it? What's involved and oftentimes in our businesses it's talking about the client journey, from the time they come in our businesses as a lead to the time we ask for a review, maybe on the backside or following up year to year, whatever that looks like. But very simply, it's just what do you do and how do you do it.

Speaker 1: 15:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 15:33

So a lot of people have probably used this.

Speaker 1: 15:36

I mean, there's a lot of words that we can use for this right, like workflow or, you know, like you said, client journey, which is a really big piece of it, because what I have seen inside of my coaching as well is that many, many photographers and just creative business owners in general you sort of just fall into it.

Speaker 1: 15:57

Even if you do make an actual decision, like, yeah, this is what I want to do, these little pieces are very easy to skip over or just not even notice, like not be intentional about, like what am I actually doing, like you said.

Speaker 1: 16:11

So that's kind of what I want you guys to who are listening to, like think about it's this foundational piece that a lot of people tend to skip over, and it's also why your systems, when you do start implementing systems, they don't actually really stick because you didn't do the foundational work that we're going to kind of be talking about here. So kind of walk us through like that first piece of it in your opinion for a photographer, let's say because you know most of my listeners are photographers, but let's say we're talking about a portrait photographer here and mainly either families or seniors or something like that, or they maybe could do wedding photography as well. But what are some of the first things that we need to be thinking about in terms of like, okay, what is my process in the first place? Like, how am I doing what I'm doing? Because a lot of us just kind of run by the seat of our pants.

Speaker 2: 17:04

Yeah, that's, that's so true, and I think for most people starting out, that's almost the way it has to be. You know, one of the things that I talk a lot about is the messy. You know, I have people who I talk to about working in their business and things they want to accomplish and they're like, oh, I really want to get it cleaned up before I let you in. It's like, no, the messy is part of what got you to where you are. But the messy is what helps you learn about what it is you're doing, what you should be doing, and how to kind of dial that in and make it into a consistent process. So you know that is part of it. You know you just have to get out there, start doing the work and figure out what's working, but then pretty quickly you realize that you need to put some consistency into the process, and one of the main reasons I talk about that and that I think it's so important is because we're all looking for referrals. I mean, at the end of the day, if you're in business to make money and to keep growing, you need referrals, not only just throwing advertising out there, but you need referrals. And so the example I always give is what if you've got you know one person that you did a fantastic job for as a client? They loved you, everything about the way you handled the process was fabulous, and then they referred them to one of their friends. Then that friend comes in and they end up with a different process, like they have a different experience because what you did for client A didn't necessarily also happen for client B. Well, in my opinion, that's the fastest way to shoot yourself in the butt. So that's one of my arguments for why processes are so important. If you want to get that consistent client experience, you want to get those repeats and referrals and know that every client is getting everything every time. Let's say you give a welcome gift, say you're a senior photographer, you give a welcome gift, that's really cool and the client loves it and talks about it, but then you forget to do it on the next one. What does that do for your reputation as a business owner? So at the end of the day, it all comes down to that and having that consistency.

Speaker 2: 19:04

So I think what it really boils down to when you ask about you know where do you start, what do you do? Step back and look at what it is you're doing. I think the most important thing to start off is to look at that client inquiry process, the front end of the process. You know, if we don't handle that correctly on the front end, it doesn't really matter what happens after that. So I would start there get some consistency in not only responding to people but responding in a timely manner, responding with good and valid information that the client wants to know. That's why I'm such a huge fan of automation.

Speaker 2: 19:38

I think even if you just started by automating the inquiry process, you know, because we've all been on those websites where you know there's a contact me form or whatever it says, but you press the button, you give them your name, you give them your email address, maybe your phone number, and then you get that standard reply that says thanks for your inquiry, we'll get back to you in 24 to 48 hours. Back to you in 24 to 48 hours. Well, I was excited, like I was on your website. I was excited right now. I wanted a little more than the 24 to 48 hours response. So a simple thing that we can do is just send an email right then and there, instead of that 24 to 48 hours.

Speaker 2: 20:12

Just give a little more details. You know, if they said they're interested in a senior session, tell them what that looks like. You know, this is what a senior session looks like with me. Here's a couple links to my website that maybe you haven't checked out. If this sounds like what you're interested in, let's take the next step and then you lay out what that next step is. But I think that's the real place to start and then continued on the path of what does the booking process look like? What is actually, you know? Is there a pre-session consultation, for example, if you're a photographer? That's pretty standard. What does that look like? What? What is actually you know? Is there a pre-session consultation, for example, if you're a photographer? That's pretty standard. What does that look like? What's the session look like? What is after the session? Look If it's an IPS session, just all those things. Just start dialing it in one by one and you know, and pretty soon you'll have the whole process dialed in.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Yeah, that's really good advice because I think I just saw something just recently too. I just wanted to touch on that whole getting back to people right away. I mean, I'm a really big believer in this. I have been for a long time but I think that more and more we're so used to this instant gratification. Just in general, we're used to getting answers pretty much right away. So if you don't have something set up to where they are getting something, like you said, they're excited, they've reached out to you and they're not getting anything back from you, they're going to probably move on to somebody else.

Speaker 1: 21:31

But the other day I saw it was a TikTok and it was about a woman who was trying to find a family photographer in San Francisco and she swears. I find this so hard to believe, but she said that she contacted multiple photographers. I mean we're talking like probably. She said like eight to 10, I think Not only could she not get information like she never heard from a lot of them, like no follow-ups. Look, sometimes our emails are going to hit spam, especially if you do have automations and maybe links and stuff built into it, but no follow-ups, no text follow-up, no email follow-up, nothing. And she was like do people just not want to get booked? And I was like my mouth was just my jaw was just dropped, because I hear from photographers on the daily about how they just want clients and they want to get booked and they want to be in business. And I'm like okay, first step is that you guys actually have to respond to the people reaching out to you. So I know that you are a huge advocate for 17 Hats. You are one of their partners and you've been using it for a really long time.

Speaker 1: 22:39

So we are going to talk a little bit about CRMs today here and we'll definitely touch on 17 Hats because it is your wheelhouse, but there's a lot of CRMs out there, so, and there's a lot of platforms you can use. So I don't want to make this specifically about 17 Hats, but I know that this is a big piece of you know as photographers and what we do. We got to have something set up so that it's happening for you and you're not having to do it, because if you're listening to this and you're like, well, I can't possibly get back to people right away, well, that's what a CRM is for. So what do you think? And we're not going to get into the nitty gritty. I don't think of exactly what should be in that per se, because this is going to depend a lot on how you want to run your business, what kind of business you're running.

Speaker 1: 23:28

All of those pieces really matter. Do you want to get people on a phone right away? Do you want to follow up with a phone call? These are all things that you have to take into consideration, just as the business owner. But, like as a whole, that 30,000 foot view, how easy is it to set that, that automation up, though? You know what I mean. Like, that's kind of what I want to start with.

Speaker 2: 23:48

Yeah, and it's super easy. I mean very simply stated you could do this, as you mentioned, with any number of tools. I happen to love 17 hats. I've used it since 2015.

Speaker 2: 23:58

I mentioned at the top of the call that you know I had a former life. I was in the car business for 30 years and I was doing photography on the side with that. I had a high-level position in that organization, so it was kind of a 24-7 job. I mean, I was at the top and it required a lot of my time and I knew going in granted, I had seen in that world CRMs and platforms that worked, so I already knew they existed before I ever started doing photography. Once I started doing photography, I was also, you know, probably because of my business experience, but I had the foresight or whatever to actually think about the fact that I need to make sure I can handle these people properly, because I'm big on customer service and I knew that there's no way, given my day job, that I would be able to handle everything without having some sort of system. So you know, 17 hats there's a ton of them out there but you can do this with something as simple as you know, google, I think you know you could tie your Gmail to Zapier and there's so many tools out there. If you get crafty and you just want to band-aid a bunch of stuff together and make it work, you can find a way to do it. But even if nothing else, you get a more specific email going out that just doesn't say thanks for inquiring. I'll get back to you in 24 to 48. If you just get something a little more specific to what the client is actually interested right out of the gate whether you send it manually or you use automation to send it for you within a quick period of time that is going to make a huge difference. I mean massive difference, and the big part of that is, you know whether it's again 17 hats or something else. Just actually putting that into place will be huge just to get people moving forward and getting them a response in a timely manner. The real key point there is that you can put a system together with any of the tools you already have If you want to level up and you want to infuse some automation and a little more time savings. That is where the key is.

Speaker 2: 25:59

I guess the thing I was really going to point out is that what happens in so many people's lives, and I know this from a photography standpoint specifically. You know, I'm in the Midwest. So when I was doing photography, I had a shooting season and I did high school seniors primarily, so we were shooting outside. Our season was June to October, so you've got a six month window if I did my math right. I'm not sure about that, but you've got a very short window to shoot.

Speaker 2: 26:25

And so what happens is, you know, from March through May you're worried about booking clients. You've got all the time in the world, so to speak, to give those clients attention on the front end when they are inquiring. Then what happens when you start to get into June and July, when you're really busy? Well, people haven't thought ahead that if they want to book an October session, you know it would have been great to do that in May, for example, when you had time. Well, now what happens when you're in the heart of the busy season and you're out shooting every evening and you're calling and editing during the day and you forget or miss an email or whatever happens, and you don't respond to that client who wants to book October when you still have some availability? Without a system in place again. You're kind of shooting yourself in the foot.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Yeah, big time. No, that's a really good point. And I call that the feast or famine cycle all the time, like that's so common. I mean not even just for seasonal, like I can shoot year round, but it happens here in those climates as well. Like, even if you are able to shoot, like you just kind of get into these rhythms and systems of like seasons of busyness and if you don't have anything set up before that, it really is a hard thing to get a handle on when you are in the thick of your business. But I wanted to ask you really quickly because this is something that comes up a lot in my coaching. People will ask me when is the right time to get a CRM? So if someone is starting out or maybe they don't have clients yet, maybe they're building the foundations of their business when do you know the time is right to actually invest in a system?

Speaker 2: 27:59

One of the things that I found is super common is that when people are at that point when they say I am too busy to take on more clients that's a really key phrase I hear a lot or just that they're so disorganized they feel like they can't keep up with the ones they have. So I mean ideally, in a perfect world, I would say you decide you're going to start a business, think about what you're going to do and set it up. But that's not realistic for most people. I mean most people, like I said earlier, need to get into the fray of things and kind of get a feel for what they're doing, how they're doing it, before it really makes sense anyway, because on the front end you don't know enough about what your business might look like because it's still fresh. So I think any time is a good time, but I will say you have to be willing and understand that you're going to have to invest some time.

Speaker 2: 28:44

You know I help a lot of people set up their systems. If you're my client, I can't do it without you, because I'm a big believer in setting up a system that actually works the way you do business, because I might come in and go. Okay, I was a photographer, this is how I handled it, but if that's not the way you run your business, you're not going to use it. It's not going to have the payoff and the return that you're looking for. So ideally, I would say any time is a good time, but make sure it's a time that you set the time aside to work with the person who's helping you to do it.

Speaker 1: 29:16

Yeah, that makes really good sense because if you're hiring somebody like me or you, you know what I mean. Like if you're hiring someone to help you with your business, like you're serious about it, you know what I mean, like you are taking it serious and I'm a big believer in putting it out there as well, right, like so making that statement to the universe and to yourself, like I'm doing it, and holding yourself accountable to it. So there's a lot to say for that. I realize it's an investment of money, but if you are serious about sort of building it in a very strong way and building a good, strong foundation, then that is, I believe, a very important piece of it for a lot of different reasons.

Speaker 1: 29:55

I remember when I first started out, I used a couple of different systems before I'm I'm with Tave, but I used a couple of different ones before that and I never really took the time to really figure out what those systems did from the beginning, you know, and so it ended up being super messy and that's kind of what I like to try and save people from, if I can.

Speaker 1: 30:18

Like, yeah, you kind of got to get in there and do stuff, like you said, but kind of got to get in there and do stuff, like you said. But like, if you're in there and you don't understand the things and you're like I don't know, like I don't have 72 hours to sit in front of this computer and like get it set up, that's when you do seek somebody out, like Deb, who can help you make sense of it. But because it's so important to have like this process mapping in place first, that's kind of what I want to like make sure we're touching on Like how do you even it could be as simple as a Google Doc, right Like just have people write down, like what do you do? Like all the steps, what are some of those major steps that they need to be paying attention to and actually recording, either on a Google Doc or a video or whatever?

Speaker 2: 31:02

You know and I have a little freebie that we'll talk about later for your audience but one of the biggest things is just to actually sit back and go OK, when a client inquires, I mean so, start there, because that's, I mean, the first step. Right, but you do this for every step of your business. But what happens? Like, ok, somebody inquires First of all, how are they doing it? Is it on your website? Is it on Instagram? Is it, you know, via text message? Thinking about all the ways that people inquire with you, then what do you do? Like, what is your next step? Are you emailing them something? Are you calling them on the phone? Whatever, you know, what does your process look like? So I would say, basically, start with it could be a yellow legal pad. I mean, you can take it completely back to basics and just like step one through 10. What do I do? But keep in mind, as you're doing that, what is my process. So how do I respond to the client? You know, is it via an email? Okay, what does that email look like? Even if you do nothing else, from an automation or system standpoint, but you determine what that initial email looks like. Create a template, just create a template in your Gmail and set that up so that you can go find that when somebody inquires, to save yourself that time of reinventing the wheel every single time, you're responding. Because, again, that's where some of that consistency in the client's eyes comes from too. It's like if you respond to everybody in the same way, generally speaking, that's going to serve you well in the long run.

Speaker 2: 32:19

So, thinking about that, okay, if somebody inquires, what do I want to do? How am I responding? What does that communication look like? If it's email text, whatever, or phone call, then what? What's the timing? You know, if they inquired and I responded and I didn't hear back from them, so let's say that initial response usually will have some sort of a call to action. What do I want them to do? You know it's a matter of kind of what does this all look like?

Speaker 2: 32:43

They inquired, I responded. What did I ask them to do? Did they do it? Just thinking about it in that kind of sequencing, you might want to then say, ok, I sent a follow up, but I haven't heard back from them. Ok, how long is it that I want to wait before I reach out again and say, hey, I sent you the information. I want to make sure you got it. You know, whatever, is that three days? Is that two days? Is that one day? Is it a week? What does that look like for you and your business? But just taking that approach, through the entire sequence of your client's journey through your business, yeah, okay, that's a good point.

Speaker 1: 33:17

So I really really hope that you take the action of doing that after listening to this episode, because it can be simple, like she said, like whether you are just writing it on paper, making a Google doc I mean, heck, if you're a verbal processor and writing is, like you know, pulling eyelashes out just open Zoom and record it like talk into Zoom and then run that through AI or a transcription service, because we have tools now that we can use to make that process easier.

Speaker 1: 33:54

But the whole point is that you are not just mapping out the way that you actually do things now, but the way you want to do things as well, because in that process you might kind of like look at it and say, hmm, I think I could tighten that up a little bit, like I would rather, instead of having two emails go out, maybe three, maybe my follow-up needs to be a different type of follow-up.

Speaker 1: 34:18

A lot of this is going to be experimental as well, because you kind of have to test it out, see what's working, get the feedback, and there's no failure, it's just feedback. So if you put something into practice and it's not working, you can change that, and I know that you've worked with people like that one-on-one as well, so I'd like to know first of all, just kind of like a little bit of a case study maybe, if you have one, of where someone came in and and how, how they were able to shift things into being more efficient in a very simple way, and also maybe testing it, and how the revision was not as hard as they maybe thought it was gonna be, but it was necessary, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:01

That's a good point, and there are so many people that are, you know, afraid to take that step, because change is hard and I totally get it. And the case study I'm gonna talk about is somebody that you and I both know, somebody who is a photographer and had her entire business manually, you know, between spreadsheets and Google Docs and those sorts of things, and, you know, knew she needed to change that. She needed to in order to grow her business. She needed to make a change because the admin was sucking her time too much. So, you know, basically we started out and I sat down with her, and when people work with me, I have a process that I go through where I ask them to kind of brain dump for me what their process looks like. You know, and I have enough background in not only business but photography in this case that I can look at it and go, okay, have you thought about doing things this way or what about us doing that? But the bottom line is, you know, we kind of went through and said, okay, what's your process? Dialed it in, set it up and from the inquiries to the bookings, because the online scheduling she's somebody that I set up with 17 hats. But again, there's lots of options for you to do this stuff.

Speaker 2: 36:12

We got to the point where her clients were going online, choosing the date for their session, making the payment right then and there, and then, if there was a consultation that needed to be, we then sent an email that said, hey, now you need to choose a date for your consultation. Let's choose the date for your in-person sales session. All of that stuff is handled by the system with very minimal interaction from her, and the invoicing, the quotes, all the things that you need as a photographer to make sure you've dialed in in your business, are happening without you having to touch all these things. So we got it all set up. And then you know, on the back end, we've also got it set so that you know she's sending thank yous and reminders for appointments and all the things and actually asking for that Google review, which we always forget to do if we don't have it as part of our process. So you know we set that whole process up and it was a give and take. You know we had conversations, we had a couple hops on Zoom calls together to talk through it.

Speaker 2: 37:03

I have some Google Docs that I have my clients fill out. But at the end of the day I mean, she's raved so many times she's like I can't believe how much time you've saved me. You know and that's it's not me, it's the system I was able to take what she was doing manually, put it into a system that will do so much of that for her, and then she only needs to touch the really important stuff. You know, so many people are afraid of automation that it's impersonal. You know how many times have we heard that? Right, it's like, oh, I can't do that because it's not going to sound like me or whatever. Well, I get that to a degree, but you take this entire string of your client journey and look at which pieces of that are crucial for your touch, if you will, and your personalization. Spend your time there and let a system or an automation handle the stuff that you don't need to touch. Give yourself a break. Live life, Use the tool.

Speaker 1: 37:58

Yeah, because it's the running joke, I guess, right, and especially in the photography world. It's like oh, I signed up to be a photographer, not an admin person, a social media person, a blogger, blah, blah, blah. But basically you're signing up for that because you're running a business and you need to know how to run your business, but what happens is too many photographers, they stay stuck in manual mode, basically, like you said, sort of like doing everything with spreadsheets and things, and they kind of get stuck there because they do get busy and they realize like, okay, I just have to kind of keep going, I have to keep going and before they know it, they've just got all of these like spreadsheets and various places and it's there but it's not organized, and so they're working in their business way too much and they're not getting more clients on repeat automatically without them actually having to do it, and they're not getting more clients on repeat automatically without them actually having to do it and they're not living their life, which is really kind of the whole point of what we do. Right, like we, we want to be an entrepreneur or a photographer, run our own creative business because of the freedom that it entices us with, but at the end of the day, you're not free if you're tied to these processes in a way that feels super clunky and takes up all your time, because time is money. I'm sorry, but the cost of the CRM, no matter which one we're talking about any CRM is far more economical and a better financial decision, I think, in the as opposed to, like, let's say, hiring an actual assistant to do this work for you.

Speaker 1: 39:34

So before you even think about hiring somebody to, you know, be a VA, let's say and do some of these things for you. This is a thing you need first, I think. And if you don't have time, like if you're already busy, you're already shooting, you've already got clients and you don't have, like I said in the beginning, time to like sit down and figure this out by yourself, that's when you do hire somebody like Deb, who can walk you through this process and either take the reins a little bit or show you how to do it, or both. And I think it really does depend on the person as well.

Speaker 1: 40:05

It depends on how good you are right, because I'm sure you worked with some people who are like okay, just here's all the things, and they give you all the information and they tell you what they want it to look like, but then you end up having to sort of like, put some stuff in place for them. And then there's also people who are like, okay, I need to know, I need to see what you're doing. So I think that it's just super valuable for people to understand first, have the self-awareness to know what you want and how you work, and then get all of that stuff mapped out, whether it's on paper, a doc, a video. Get it all and Deb has. If you're going to work with somebody like Deb, like she said, she's going to make you do that anyway.

Speaker 2: 40:49

Well, it's critical. If you want a good end product, you have to do that work. You know, and you were talking about the ways to do it and you mentioned AI just a little bit. But another thing is, even you know, just talking to AI, just you know, using the voice feature on AI in ChatGPT and just tell it what you do and have it summarize it. You know, even that direct thing, just talking to it is amazing. Even that direct thing, just talking to it is amazing.

Speaker 2: 41:09

One other thing I was going to mention from what you said is you mentioned the possibility of hiring a VA and those things, which I agree. I think starting with a CRM or something like that is the best place to start and then you might go to a VA of sorts. But whether you start with a CRM, start with a VA or whatever the situation is, you still need to know your processes. The situation is you still need to know your processes Because if you go to try to hire a VA and you haven't taken the time to step back and know what it is you need, how you need it done, what the timing is, all the things we just talked about, hiring a VA will just waste you money because that person doesn't know what to do, because you haven't gotten enough clarity in your own process to be able to help them. So again, it kind of doesn't matter which of those paths you start down. You still have to back up and do the work.

Speaker 1: 41:57

Yep, that's a really big, important piece. I have so many people who talk about that and they're like, oh my God, they're just so stressed because they have work and they have stuff coming in, but they haven't done this process mapping, they haven't been intentional about the steps of their business or actually how they want it to look. Because a lot of times when you do this process you realize it's not really how I want it to look in the next year to three years. So it's important to allow yourself to kind of dream up a little bit of like okay, in a perfect world, this is kind of like how I actually want it to run, but like they haven't done that. And so then they have that roadblock of like well, I'm not going to pay for somebody that I'm not going to be able to use, and so start a little bit before you're ready. Like honestly, like don't, don't let it get. If you can, if you can, don't let it get to that point where you are constantly overwhelmed and stressed.

Speaker 1: 42:54

Pay attention to oh, okay, I think my business is moving into a different place now.

Speaker 1: 43:01

Like I'm ready to scale or I'm ready to change things up, or you want more clients, like you said before, if you're like, oh my God, I literally can't take any more clients on, then that's a sign that we need to to look at some inner workings, because chances are there's room, but you have to make the room. And so I do want to touch on really quickly, because you are such an expert with 17 hats, it's one of those systems that is very intuitive, and so one of the questions I have is, let's say we've got a workflow, that we're setting up this first inquiry right, just kind of starting at the basics, is it possible, within 17 hats and probably most CRMs, but that's the one you know the most to have it do different things triggered by different events? That's one of the main things I hear from people is like, well, yeah, I can set up automations, but like what if somebody does get back to me? Or like this person ends up, you know, asking a question? I don't want to then send another email that looks like I didn't get it Right.

Speaker 1: 44:01

So like, for people who haven't worked inside of systems like this, is that possible and what does that kind of look like? Basically, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 44:09

And again, it's one of those things that you kind of have to first of all think of what does my business look like and what are those trigger points, like what's important and when do things happen? What's what's happening before? That leads to the next thing. But using that inquiry example. So, for example, you know most people are going to, let's say, they go to your website, they're going to fill out the form saying they're interested in. Well, first of all, you can have options. So if you're a portrait photographer who is working with high school seniors, families and headshots, you can ask them which of those three they're inquiring about and give them a different response for each of those, which I think is the first point of that argument against the oh. Automation is impersonal, because right then, from the start, you're giving them the opportunity to tell you what they specifically are interested in that you offer, and then you can customize your response based on whatever those things were. So let's say they said they were interested in senior photography versus the other things you offer. You can customize that initial email to be specifically about their inquiry about senior photography. You can, you know, give them information, as I mentioned earlier, and then you can have that call to action. Whatever that is for your business. What is the next thing you want to have them do? In most cases, I think it is asking them to book a phone call. Some cases it may be. Let's say, you're a wedding photographer, maybe you need them to fill out a questionnaire, maybe there's a little more information you want to know about their event, the date, whatever that looks like. So you could send them a questionnaire or you could ask them to book a call and a number of other things, but those are the two most common ones in that scenario. And so in the case of that call, so we're going to give them a link to book the call. If they go book the call, then you can tell the system once they book the call, start a workflow. So that will then be so. I went and booked my call. Maybe a day later or three days later or whatever. I want to send them a particular email of some sort leading up to the call. You know in advance of the call. This is what we're going to talk about.

Speaker 2: 46:04

Whatever that looks like, you can trigger that based on scheduling. Similarly, you can do that with you know the calls themselves. So, like you could set up a workflow to say, after the call date, you know, send a thank you, send a follow up. If it's if you're doing consulting or coaching and you need to send like a recap of a phone call, you can have that automatically pop up to tell you to do it.

Speaker 2: 46:25

But you can also do other things based on, for example, somebody paying an invoice. If you need something to happen after they pay the invoice, you can tell the system this invoice is considered complete when it's paid or the first payment is made or whatever that looks like, and then that can let the next piece of the workflow start. So you can key a lot of stuff off of contracts, questionnaires, invoices, those things happening. You know you can tell an automation to happen immediately once that happens. So you do have some flexibility. Is it 100% like everything you want it to be? Probably not. But the gap between where you are now if you're not using something and where you can get with a CRM system is like huge.

Speaker 1: 47:13

Yeah, for sure, and I like the fact that you can get so like specific and kind of yeah, it might like your brain hurt a little bit trying to think about like okay, if this happens, then this happens, and you know. But once you kind of get in there and you start working with it, it gets a lot easier. It's just like anything else. You know it's going to feel overwhelming and too much for a creative brain who has a hard time focusing on stuff like that, because most creatives aren't necessarily super excited about this piece of their business, which is another reason why you know why you might want to look into chatting with Deb about that. But just in general, it's not a preferred task. Let's just be honest, right.

Speaker 2: 47:58

Well, you're a photographer because you like taking photos. That's what it comes down to.

Speaker 1: 48:03

Yeah, exactly. So the point that I guess I'm trying to make here is that you got to get it done. Honestly, at the end of the day, it really isn't like a nice to have. I really believe it's a must have in your business, and I know you believe that too. Otherwise you wouldn't be doing what you do and so find a way to make that happen, whether it's figuring it out, whether it's, you know, setting it up on the back end but at least start. You have not done this. At least start with. What exactly am I doing here? What are the pieces of my system? What is each step? And I know that you've got something. You mentioned it a little bit earlier. You have a freebie for people. Will that help them in this process as well?

Speaker 2: 48:46

Yeah, and it's called the CRM Star kit. But it's really if any of this is resonating with you, even if you're not right now some organizational tools for your business in general, talking about things like naming conventions. So, no matter what you do, even if you're dealing with Google Drive and Explorer and file names, email sorting and whatever if you just have some consistent ways that you organize those things inside of your business and I often recommend that you do that based on revenue streams. So when I say revenue stream, if you're a photographer, again, and you're doing seniors, branding and families, each one of those three is what I would call a revenue stream. So organize your things based on revenue stream. So, if it's an email that relates to that revenue stream, it's a template that you've got just sitting in your, you know, gmail folders. Organize that folder name so that it matches with all where all the files are, stay consistent across the board.

Speaker 2: 49:53

So it's going to talk about that a little bit. It's also going to give you a start to that workflow process or to that process mapping, where it says okay, here's a little sheet that's going to give you a couple prompts to walk through and start to think about. What does my process look like so, and along with that, I give a little surrounding information about why you would do that. Okay, and again, it's going to be valuable whether you're in the process of starting a CRM, have a CRM or haven't even thought about a CRM, it's a. I would download it, check it out, because it'll give you some information that maybe you haven't thought of before.

Speaker 1: 50:25

Okay, so that's a good place for people to start to dig in, like you said, but then I think you also have something else that's actually a little bit meatier for people to actually kind of like dig into specifics of their business. Tell me a little bit about that. It's like a mapping service, basically correct.

Speaker 2: 50:44

Yeah, it is, and that's something that I do, like I said, so often in a smaller form with my clients as I'm working and building other workflows, workflows and seeing the CRM. But it's called a small business process mapping session and the gist of it is that we'll spend a couple hours on the phone together talking through whatever segment of your business it is that you're concerned about. Maybe it's your general overflow, the client journey in general, so maybe we stay a little higher level and get the details ironed out. Or maybe we're honing in on the in-person sales session, for example, and we want to really dig deep on that. So, whatever that looks like, whatever you need the help with, we'll spend a couple hours on a Zoom call talking through all the pieces of that process.

Speaker 2: 51:27

What do you do? When do you do it? Are there documents involved? Are there appointments involved? How are you scheduling them? What does that look like?

Speaker 2: 51:35

And kind of nailing that whole process down and at the end of it, what I do is I will summarize and give you either a visual and or written summation, if you will, of what we talked about, along with guidance on what your next steps might be, maybe how you implement the things we've talked about. So it's an information gathering session first of all. Then I step back a little bit and kind of review the process. I might have a couple questions for people throughout the process, you know, as I'm reviewing, but the idea is that you walk away with a document and or a visual. A lot of people like to see, like a mirror board, some sort of a visual flow of what their process looks like, and so you'll walk away with that. So whether, then, that leads to you setting up a CRM system, because that's kind of a good first step, or you're looking to hire that VA, like we talked about, you're going to have something that you can then take and start to run with.

Speaker 2: 52:31

So, whether that's the first part of working with somebody like me to get it dialed in, or something you do on your own, or a combination, it's a really good way to start to really dial in what your business looks like and start to see things that maybe you don't see. You know you touched on it a little bit just the way you might want your business to run. The other side of it is when you start looking at what you are doing, you're like, wow, that's kind of a roadblock for my customers. You know, maybe I'm shooting myself here. This isn't the best way to do it. It's a barrier to entry for my clients. The best way to do it. It's a barrier to entry for my clients.

Speaker 2: 53:12

One thing about working with somebody like me, just as you're talking through, that is, an outside perspective is always really helpful and I've worked with enough people now that you know I will often say tell me why you do it that way. Have you considered this? You know, and just having that outside perspective sometimes leads us to a better end result than we would have on our own.

Speaker 1: 53:30

Yeah, that's a great point, Okay. So I'm going to link that as well, yeah, and I think that you're giving people some money off as well with the code, so I'm going to put all of that information there too. So if you're like ready for another step, if you're further along in your business and you're ready for that, then that'll be in the show notes for you as well. And then, before we wrap up, I just kind of want to. I just want to touch on real quick. We we talked about it for a second.

Speaker 1: 53:55

But you know, creatives, like I said, typically think of themselves. I'm not calling them out right now. I'm one of them. We we sort of like label ourselves. As you know, I'm just not really organized or I'm not good at that. Like, my thing was oh, I'm just not really good at math. Well, because that was because in sixth grade I had a nun who used to like beat the crap out of me because I didn't understand what she was talking about, and so for the rest of my educational existence I believed that I wasn't good in math, but it really was just because I wasn't taught properly. So most of us have some sort of programming, let's just say, or belief, and it becomes a belief that we're not good at this. You know like, oh, I'm not good at that. So what do you want to tell people about that kind of mindset, and you know just what your perspective is on that.

Speaker 2: 54:46

Basically, yeah, one of the first things that comes to mind is it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy If you tell yourself you're not good at something, you're going to get what you've said. And so my first thought would be change that mindset. Tell yourself you are capable of learning, because we know you are. You know you're not doing the things you are doing because you're incapable of learning. So just always remember that, first of all, and do some things that challenge that, whether that's journaling or whether that's meditate or whatever. Just open your mind up to the possibilities of what you can do, because if you shut the door on yourself before you ever give yourself the opportunity to learn, you're only shortchanging yourself. I mean, you are capable.

Speaker 2: 55:31

If you're a photographer, a creative, if you're, I don't care what it is you're doing for the work that tells me you're capable of learning and growing.

Speaker 2: 55:42

So if you just open yourself up to that and I understand that it's not everyone's strongest suit, granted, you know, but it's not that you don't have it at all, yeah, have it somewhere. And so, if it's not your strongest, spend a little time. Maybe book a you know, like a one hour call with somebody, whether that's somebody like me or whatever, to kind of bring that out of you and get the basics started to say, okay, what does your process look like? If we're talking about process again, because that's, you know, that's the focus here, but getting that jump started, so then you can take it and run with it. Somebody can guide you along the way if you feel like you don't have all the structure to place around it. But that doesn't mean you're incapable of doing it, and it certainly doesn't mean you're incapable of doing it, and it certainly doesn't mean that you are stuck where you are. So that would be my best advice, I guess Just open yourself up to it.

Speaker 1: 56:33

Yeah, I love that. So, before we finish, because I love the melding of strategy and woo and you are very much as well, you're very strategic but I also want to ask you I always like to ask my guests, like, what's something woo that you do, like whatever you consider that like, what are some of your, let's say, mindset or focus techniques? What are some things that keep you on track and keep you going?

Speaker 2: 57:03

I think, from what most would maybe consider a bit of a woo standpoint. I do meditation regularly. I actually go to the gym and I do meditation in the sauna, like I heal two birds with one stone, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 57:16

Very strategic and efficient of you. Yes exactly.

Speaker 2: 57:18

I know I'm always trying to like make things more efficient. It's a curse, but I journal and you know, and honestly, renee, I have you to thank for a lot of this because you're my woo friend right, you're the person who has brought a lot of the woo to the table, which I love, and so I have tried things that maybe, you know, 12 years ago I wouldn't have tried because you exposed me to that, and that's kind of what this is about too. For those of you who are thinking about processes, you know, just being exposed to the possibilities is huge. So, yeah, I meditate, I do journaling daily, just lots of self-care stuff.

Speaker 1: 57:52

I mean, it's not a woo.

Speaker 2: 57:54

but I think you know like I love human design and it's one of those things that I kind of go in and out of. But I mean I think there's so many things out there that you can use to open yourself up to possibilities. So just learning more about yourself, and if meditation helps you, do it great. If journaling helps, you, do it great. Just find that thing for you, because we all need something. I mean, a walk in nature is like awesome for me, like when I need to clear my head, I'm out the door.

Speaker 1: 58:19

Yeah, and you like to work outside a lot in the summer because you're up in Minnesota and I love seeing your stories. Like she will bring up I'm not just talking about her laptop, y'all she will bring out her entire ass set up outside, like this is not playing around. She's like, no, this is my office today and she's legitimately like in her backyard, which is gorgeous. I would too. Um, so yeah, like I love that point too. It doesn't have to be like I have to go and do a yoga class for an hour and then, like, leave the house Like you could.

Speaker 1: 58:48

You can find some pieces in your day, like I always talk about in our elevate group cause Debsa, and still in my elevate group, even though she's not doing photography anymore. I love having her in there because she's such a great resource for the other photographers too, and she's always talking about you know, just just, you know, starting starting with what you got. You know that's kind of what I'm always talking about, these 15 minutes, what's your non-negotiables every day? You got 15 minutes. You just got to like decide that you do and, real quick, you brought up the human design piece of it and that's definitely something you know.

Speaker 1: 59:18

I'm into that and I don't know if you had a chance to look at it yet, but I've done in Elevate. I've gone through and I've created a master document of everyone's human designs, not just because I want everyone in Elevate to, and my one-on-one coaching students I do this with two. But like inside of Elevate, I wanted everyone to see like everyone else's designs too and like pull out similarities. But like when I was doing yours, it's literally in your incarnation cross and your design to be the way that you are, like it says it in there, like I know it was a processes person, like this person is really good at this and I was like, oh my God, that is so cool.

Speaker 2: 59:57

I read it and I'm like, are you sitting behind me? Like what is going on? But that's the thing. I mean there's, like I said, there's those tools and you know, sometimes you just need a little reinforcement too, because I mean, we all I'm not a I hate the word imposter syndrome, but I think we all second guess ourselves and sometimes the tools, the people around us. You know, like the Elevate group I love being part of that because I think everybody needs people to lift them up, have that connection with, and you know it just somebody who understands what you're going through but also sees you, like you don't always see yourself, and can kind of reflect that back at you and go. You know you are good at that. Why are you questioning that? You know, let's, let's have a conversation. So I think that stuff is so important and I loved it. I read it and I was like man, this girl's reading my mail.

Speaker 1: 1:00:46

It's in the design. It was just literally it pulled out of the design. I was like, oh my gosh, that is so freaking cool, like I mean I know that about you, but it literally is part of of that design. And so, yeah, and also for those of you guys who are in, I have a very large high school senior photography Facebook group. It's free. I'll link it below I think it's already linked like just in the automations that I have set up my own automations for my podcast to join the free Facebook group If you are a senior photographer.

Speaker 1: 1:01:15

Deb is in there and one of the things that we are going to start doing here soon is Deb's going to have some office hours in the group. She's going to go in there and just kind of be available. Deb's going to have some office hours in the group. She's going to go in there and just kind of be available. We're going to kind of work out all of those details soon. So watch for that. I'm going to have dates scheduled like for myself, because I want to do some lives. I want to have you know just kind of like walk you guys through some of the processes as a senior photographer, specific sort of thing. And then Deb is going to come in and do her own sort of like office hours to help you guys with some of these questions. So if you're not a part of the group, definitely join. It's free. If you're in there already, that's coming. And then Deb. Also, where do you want people to connect with you outside of that?

Speaker 2: 1:01:56

Probably the best place is either Instagram or my website. My Instagram is at debmitzelcreative and my website is debmitzelcreativecom. So Mitzel Creative and my website is debmitzelcreativecom. So those are the two best places. You can always find a way to get to me from there.

Speaker 1: 1:02:09

Perfect, I will list those two and as well as the freebie and also your process mapping service. So thank you so much for being here. This was super, super fun.

Speaker 2: 1:02:19

Absolutely, thank you. It was fun and you know me, I love talking business, so any opportunity to chat about all the things is totally my thing, so thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:02:28

Always such a great conversation with Deb, even if we're just chatting over Voxer. She's a great person to bounce things off just in general. She could really talk about business pretty much all day. That's not a lie. Some people I just really love it. I love doing that too, but some of it just kind of makes my brain just want to go offline sometimes. And she's just really good about just making it simple and breaking it down into bite-sized chunks that creatives don't feel so charged up about doing.

Speaker 1: 1:03:02

So I hope you all enjoyed that conversation with Deb, that you take advantage of the things that she has listed below for you. She's a great resource, just in general. Follow her, get in her universe. She's always giving out really great tips. So if you haven't done your process mapping, if you haven't done that audit of what is my process, what do I actually do inside my business, this is your invitation to do that and just cross that off your list, because when you do things like this, you are telling the universe, you're telling your higher self, that I'm ready. I'm ready for something bigger and better and more, and I'm putting these things into practice. Right, because we're always talking about at least I am about how you don't get what you want. You get what you are. And if you want something more, if you want something like you, have this dream, you have this vision of a business and a life that you want.

Speaker 1: 1:03:52

Well, what does that version of yourself do on the daily to hold that energy, to hold the resonance of that coming in? Is she scattered? Is she running around like a chicken without her head cut off? Is she just throwing stuff up against the wall and hoping that it sticks? Because that is not the version that's going to get what you want right, like that version of you who already has what you want. First of all, that already exists, because it's just physics. So that version of you is already doing that in a different timeline, and that version of you has discipline and has systems and has things set up already to support this level of business that she's running.

Speaker 1: 1:04:38

Okay, she has different habits, probably, than you have right now. So the fastest way for you to get to that place, to get what you want to become that version of yourself, is to do have right now. So the fastest way for you to get to that place, to get what you want to become that version of yourself is to do those things now. That's literally it. That's literally manifestation. Law of attraction in a nutshell is that you just need to be that now.

Speaker 1: 1:04:59

If you want to be more organized, if you want to have more efficiency in your business and if you want more clients and you want to make more money, then what does that version of yourself do to have that? Does that mean she gets up an extra hour early? Does it mean that she does those 15 minutes of non-negotiables every day? Does it mean that she stays calm and regulated so that things are able to drop in and there's no constriction? Because that's a big, big piece of it is that you have to have space.

Speaker 1: 1:05:26

If you're constantly trying to control things and if you're constantly trying to, like, make things perfect, just as a side note, you're not leaving any room for the universe to drop anything good in. Because, like, think about that closed off energy, you're constricted. It's like you're at like a, you know, in a cave, but you want to be open. You want to be open, you want to be, you want your energy to be open so that you can receive everything that you're asking for. Because you might be asking and if you're wondering, why am I not getting it? That could be why. So release, let go a little bit of that.

Speaker 1: 1:05:57

Okay, realize that the only things that you can control are you know your actions and your reactions. That's pretty much it. And so what can you control today in these actions? Well, you can. You can look at your processes and you can decide do I want it to look like this, is this efficient, like, does this feel good for me, does it feel good to my target client, or do I want something different? Do I want to change something about this? So those are little things, small little things that you can do just to get you to that place right. So allow yourself to dream bigger, but also give yourself space to have it come into your awareness. You know, I got to throw in a little mindset dip in there, but it's a big one. It's a really big piece of this. So maybe somebody out there needed that reminder. If that's you, you're welcome. So go out there, be good to yourself today and have a great rest of your week. Love you Bye.