Business
Now that everything has changed in the world and in many of our industries, how do we know what we should be working on right now when maybe our stores are closed or were unable to go do photo shoots or whatever it is that you are doing in whatever business you're in. with all of the changes that have happened in the world. [00:00:17] How do we know how to keep our businesses alive and move forward? How can we decide what's most important for us to be working on during this liminal time of transition? That's what we're going to talk about today. [00:00:30] [00:00:30] This pandemic hit at a really interesting time in my business. It was already a transition point because I had been working really hard to get an evergreen funnel finished. And after that, it was time for me to start transitioning into driving traffic into my evergreen funnel, like the work was done and now I just needed to get people to get into it and do it. [00:01:09]But then when all of this hit, there was this deep desire in me, not immediately, but pretty soon thereafter, to really be a leader through this all and bring positivity to the masses. Because I found in my darkest moments. Things that helped me get through where when I would talk to friends and family who were encouraging, who were positive, who brought confidence back to me and reminded me who I was and that even if everything changed, even if the photography industry completely, you know, like self-destructed and disappeared overnight and my business was gone, I could find something new to do that I was resourceful, that I was smart, that I was. [00:01:56] Going to get through this, and I was resilient and I needed that so much. I soaked it in. Not only that, but seeing the good that's coming out of this, seeing people connecting with each other in ways they haven't in maybe all of my lifetime. You know, like seeing people really get. ho, like think about others and begin to help them and seeing people sing from the balconies in Italy together and just seeing the beautiful bright spots amongst all the darkness and all of the panic and all of the fear, the bright spots, the positivity. [00:02:34] Brought me through this, that reminder of who I am, despite my circumstances brought me through this and I knew in my belly that I needed to help you remember who you are, that we are going to get through this and yeah, our businesses may look completely different after this. Our personal brands may look completely after this, or our personal brands may look completely different after this. [00:03:02] But we will get through this and we will come up on the other side. Having learned lessons that we never would have been able to learn if we hadn't gone through this. And I just felt so compelled to share this message. I mean, I just, even now, like I cannot help but to want you to see this as an opportunity to question. [00:03:24] Everything that you've done and say, is this really what you want to be doing? Or maybe there's something you've always wanted to try or do that's different. Or maybe there's something about you that you want to develop. Like, this is a small example, but I want to, I want to, I've always wanted to be a good guitar player and I just never took the time to do it. [00:03:43] I was. You know, I've said several times over that if I could go back to when I was a kid and I was super musical as a kid, really talented on clarinet, and I always said, if I could go back, I would have learned guitar instead because playing clarinet alone is not very fun. You really need to be in an ensemble to make it sound good and to really get the most of it. [00:04:01] And I love that. Like I, I, I'm in a community band right now. I have a B flat clarinet and a little E for clarinet that I just love to play in an ensemble, but alone. A clarinet is not a solo instrument, it's just not. But guitar really is. And I just, I wish I could play guitar as well as I play clarinet because I would be amazing. [00:04:22]And I was just said, ah, I really regret that. And it hit me like, Oh, I can still do that now. Like if I just spend consistent time practicing, if I make it part of my routine, it wouldn't take that many years for me to really be a great guitar player. Anyways. I know that's a weird example. Has nothing to do with business, but it has everything to do with what we're talking about today, which is finding focus. [00:04:45] And you know, for me, knowing that I wanted to inspire you to figure out what is it you really want and to take this as an opportunity to explore maybe some of the things that you've been putting off. Because it was just easy to keep doing what you were doing. Cause it brought in the money. you know, you were getting business and it took a lot of time. [00:05:05] And so there wasn't a lot of extra time to explore some of these other hobbies or these other things that maybe you wanted to pursue. And so, you know, for me, I felt that compelling. Like I just feel this deep, compelling. Pull. It's a fire. It's, it's, I can't not do it to help you and to anyone else out there who happens to hear this or come across me on Facebook or Instagram or wherever, I can't help but to want to help inspire you to really dig deep and figure out who you are and to bring hope even. [00:05:40] Even in the darkest situations, like I know that things might be really hard for you. I know they're hard for us right now, and I know you might be dealing with losses. You may know people who've passed away. I've started hearing my first stories, not of people I know yet, but. Of people I know, having people they know pass away from this pandemic, and it's terrifying, right? [00:06:02] And so we're gonna hear more of those stories, and I know we're all going to know somebody who's passed away from this by the time it's over, if it's really as bad as they say it's going to be. And so. Number one for me, I, this whole thing caught me off guard and just makes me want to podcast all the time and share hope and share inspiration and love on my people. [00:06:25]but I also recognize that I need to figure out how to make money through this. My business fully supports our family. We have no other income coming in and it has for years and it's been great, but now we need to figure out how to keep making money if my industry completely falls apart. Plus, I've got a bunch of admin crap that I've got to deal with. [00:06:45] You know, I've been not wanting to deal with doing taxes, but it's on the list of things that have to get done. But thankfully, now we've got that three month extension if we want it. But, you know, there's just all this stuff. And, And I sat down, you know, after we did the one K weekend and I got that funnel running and, and I had to just sit down one day and I was just like, what am I supposed to focus on? [00:07:07] Like I want a podcast, I want to get into my Facebook groups and I want to just love on my people and help them succeed and inspire them and give them ideas for how to do this and all this stuff. And, I was just, I felt like I was going in circles like, what do I focus on first? What do I do next? Like it was already a pivot point in my business and now with all of this thrown in, it's like, how can I do this? [00:07:31] Like how can I do all of it and possibly do it with less. People. I've had an awesome team. I happened to have just lost a few team members before right before this for totally unrelated reasons. And so, you know, we're, we were right in the process of hiring more and now it's like, well, do we really even hire those people or do we cut back and just run lean? [00:07:53] And if so, like, how much can I take on myself that, you know, maybe before I had team members doing like this podcast right now. I'm producing my podcast. So, you know, it's just, it's okay because I feel so drawn to do this that I can't, not, even though I don't really have help with it right now. So, and I can't really, honestly, I'm afraid to spend money doing this because this doesn't make me money, you know? [00:08:14] Right. This is my passion project. So, So I, I just, I kept going in circles like, do I podcast? Do I not? Do I, do I do something else? Do I make a new product? Do I offer a coaching thing? How do I get through this situation? Making the money I need to support my family, but also listening to that call to inspire people and how do I do that best? [00:08:34] And like, Oh my gosh, you, you're already hearing me talk a lot. But my mind was like, woo. Crazy, crazy. And that's okay. So I took some time. To get focused. And I know maybe you are sitting there saying, gosh, I just cannot focus. It's just all these things swimming through my mind. And so here's how I got focused in my business and really figured out not just business, but personal life too, and really figured out what I should be moving forward with. [00:09:04] Okay. So the first thing I had to do, and I didn't want to do this, and I'd. I'm hoping that you've already done this, but in the case that you haven't, I took some time and I faced all the what ifs that were going through my mind. Okay, so what if my business sales dropped significantly or completely stopped and we no longer had money coming in? [00:09:25] Like, what if I had to cut back on team or not hire somebody new? what did I need to do? Like who were the absolute essentials that I would keep no matter what? And who would maybe. Have to be let go, or you know, like if I can't pay them or laid off temporarily, right? If I had to do it mostly myself, what are the big rocks in my business that had to keep moving forward? [00:09:48]and that depended on what my main goals were. And so I had to figure out what my goals were. And the final thing was what does self care look like when you're stuck at home? Especially if you're stuck at home with six kids because it can be crazy. And I know for me, getting out as big part of my self care, and so I had a lot of things I wanted to really face and go through and here's, here's kind of where I came. [00:10:13] And it wasn't like a doomsday thing, like, yeah, it's. Feels that way sometimes, but when you finally face it, you can acknowledge your fears and just say, okay, well, worst case scenario, which may happen, well you don't know, but it might not, you know, it doesn't hurt to at least prepare for that. Where are we really at? [00:10:30] And just see and say, what would things look like if, how could we do what we want to do? Despite. All of these difficulties. Okay. So I started with my personal stuff, like what is it that I personally really wanted to focus on during this time? For me and for me, a personal thing was, I feel this, like I said, this fire to inspire people, and I really felt this compulsion to create content that would genuinely help my photographers get through this. [00:11:01] Or even you, whatever you do, whether you're a photographer or not, because this is more. I'm speaking in my mind, I'm speaking to all online entrepreneurs here, not just photographers. It's not a photography podcast. it's anybody who wants to have a personal brand, right? And so no matter what industry you're in, you know, I want to help you and inspire you, and I want to do podcasts and I want to do Facebook lives and all this stuff. [00:11:25]so. That was a big thing for me is, okay, I want to do it. This is a personal thing that I want to do. This isn't a moneymaker right now. Maybe one day it'll be, but right now as I'm recording it, it's not. Number two. I wanted to practice physical distancing, but not social distancing. I'm extremely extroverted and I knew that I was going to need to connect with people more than ever. [00:11:48] Because of all this isolation. And so I hate the term social distancing. I'm all about physical distancing and I think it's absolutely important. But don't stop meeting with people. I knew I needed to stay connected with them, but not only that, I knew that I wanted to help people connect with each other and connect with my brand and my personal brand. [00:12:07] So if I could help people, and you know, if you feel like you're closer to me because you're listening to this or that, I've helped in any way. Like. That makes me happy. That's what I want to do. And I've added a lot of personalization stuff to my business because I really want to connect with my people and I want to help them connect with each other because isolation is just going to feed any fear and shame. [00:12:28] We need each other to get through this in a healthy way. So. I wanted to help other people keep from getting isolated. I wanted to learn the guitar. I'm like, it's time. If I'm ever going to do it, why not now? Already talked about that. Plus, I know that I want to hike or snowshoe three to five times per week. [00:12:46] Now, I prefer to hike than snowshoe, but we still have too much snow on the ground, not to snowshoe. if all of this blows over, I'm signed up to do a 50 K trail race in the middle of may on this period. Your hiking trail, which is. Insane. It's 31 miles. I am not ready, even though I just did my Burkey a month ago, which is a 34 mile, ski cross country ski up and down, all sorts of Hills. [00:13:09] So that's insane too. I actually got a little bit of an injury to my hip flexor during that, so I took three solid weeks off and this past week, which was my fourth week since the Berkey, can't believe it's been that long. It feels like. Ages, but, I only did a couple small hikes just to kind of test it out. [00:13:25] Thankfully it seems to be healed, but, I want to get out three to five times a week. And thankfully I live very remote, so there's no people, like there's hardly anyone here. So the nice thing is I can get out without having to worry about, you know, running into lots of people in spreading the bug or contracting the bug, thankfully. [00:13:42] So that was kinda what I wanted to focus on on a personal side. [00:13:49] Then I talked. Then I took some time to really focus on what my big rocks were for my business. Like if I could only have a couple of outcomes in my business, what would I want to see happen? So number one was I wanted to see people actually take action and do the one K weekend challenge. both so that they can get results and keep moving forward. [00:14:12] But also. Practically so that they would have the money that they needed in case they wanted to keep really diving deep into personal brand photography, using my story sessions system, which has been proven to get people, clients, you know, month after month by over a thousand photographers. We've got in there. [00:14:31] It's amazing. And, so I really wanted to get people doing the one K weekend challenge and taking. Action. Okay. second, I want my photographers to survive this. And both the people who have bought from me in the past and are in my alumni and people who've never bought a thing from me, like I genuinely want to help as many photographers survive this pandemic as possible. [00:14:58] And I've already seen a few people say they're, they're quitting, they're, they're done. And that just breaks my heart. They haven't even tried yet, but it was our, it was kind of like. The straw that broke the camel's back. You know, they've been struggling a long time, and this is just, they're done. They're just tired. [00:15:14] They're done. And that's okay too. Like if that's really where they're at, then maybe it's a great time for them to pivot and find something that's going to bring them great joy. But for the people who really love photography, excuse me. Those are the people I want to help because I believe that when we come out on the other side of this, it's going to be awesome for personal brand photographers because there's going to be more people starting online businesses than ever. [00:15:41] Right now is a great time when everyone's at home for them to be working on their online business. You know that with all of these teachers being forced to teach online that they're going to see, it's not as hard as they thought, and some of them are going to want to start selling online courses or doing more stuff online and making a side income that way. [00:15:59] And I just, I feel like we're going to come out the other side of this and. It's going to like explode the need for personal brand photography. So if we can get through this dip, you know, especially if people are leaving and giving up their businesses, there's going to be fewer photographers as well, so there's going to be higher demand. [00:16:17] And less competition. And so the more people I can help hold on and really help them get set up for success right now during this hard time, the more profitable and successful they're going to be when they're able to finally start working with clients again. And I'm really excited for that. Plus, I believe that there's going to be some opportunities to add additional revenue streams to their businesses that are going to come to them and to me, and to like all of us through this time, like when we create this space and we just have time to think because we can't do all the things we normally do. [00:16:53] That's when their best ideas happen. And I've talked about that and the last season a few times, but this is like forced space creation. Like. That sounds really funny, but you know what I'm saying? Like people are forced to stop and think and get creative and say what if and what else and how can I stick with this despite what we're facing? [00:17:15] And I'm really excited for the innovation and the creativity that's going to come through that. So I want to help my photography. So one, I want to get them to do the one K weekend challenge because I believe if half of them are getting results, I'm going to have a lot of photographers. The more I do it, the more results they're going to get. [00:17:32] I want to help photographers survive this and really implement what they're learning in my system. So I'm. Then I want to really focus on building the culture and the personal brand photography movement. I want to create a safe space for my photographers to come and be honest about what they're struggling with, how they're doing. [00:17:53] Just give them a place to feel connected. Like I don't want just an audience. I want to create a movement, and I don't want to just be the only one nurturing that. I want this to be full of people who want to help each other who aren't. Action takers who genuinely believe we can get through this together and aren't afraid to help other photographers get through it too. [00:18:15] So, the final focus here is to become a leader in the entrepreneur space and a voice of hope and inspiration in this crazy time because I really want to encourage you. To lead to start and lead your own movement. Like, yeah, having an online business is awesome. Making money is awesome, but how much cooler is it to make an impact and lead a movement of people who you can help? [00:18:42] And I just, I feel, honestly, if I'm, if I'm completely honest, honestly honest, honest, can I say honest a few more times. Oh, you guys are getting all my weird quirks, but, I do believe that this is my platform and that these are my giftings. I'm kid with vision and strategy and connection, and I want to teach other people to do this too. [00:19:06] Because we can do so much more than just make money. We can change the world. We can change lives with the influence that we're given. And I want that to be a huge part of my personal brand and my message and who I am. Like I want to be on stages talking about this. So that's my business focus. Get people to do the one K weekend helps photographers survive, build this culture and movement. [00:19:28] And make it a safe space for my photographers and then become a leader and become known for helping people build and create movements. So, okay, so we talked about first and foremost, facing the what ifs, right? So this is how we get focused face the what ifs. What do you need personally? What are your business focuses? [00:19:47] If you can only have some big rocks. Finally, this is a final piece. You need to look at. How can you make this happen as simply as possible? Like, what do we do? We can't do everything. I definitely can't do everything. So for me, I definitely want to use Facebook groups to nurture my movement. I want to go through. [00:20:08] My story session system again with my alumni and any new people who've joined and do another six weeks of Q and a and actually do it together as a group one because they have the time to do it now. So it's a great time to go through it again too, because it's going to build that culture, that belonging, that community. [00:20:27] And I can help them navigate through this new landscape that we are all in because of the pandemic. And I want to do that for them. I just genuinely want to help. They're not paying for anything extra for me. I'm just giving extra because I know that it's going to help. So I'm excited about that. I want to do a lot of Facebook lives to really help encourage people to do this one weekend. [00:20:48] I'm running some ads as well, but I know the lives themselves. when people come alive and engage with them, that's the most powerful. And I want a podcast like crazy to really inspire you and become the thought leader that I believe that I am inside, even though I'm not super well known yet. So, I'll also use email to get out, you know, get the word out to my current list. [00:21:10] But the new one that I'm going to add that I've been kind of playing with for the last few months, kind of here and there, just to kind of test it out, is telegram. Now, telegram is an app that's going to help me stand apart from all the noise. So it's, it's similar to something like Voxer or Marco polo, if you've used either of those, or messenger or WhatsApp. [00:21:30] But it. There's a number of reasons that I'm not going to go into now as to why I'm choosing telegram. But I would love if you want to check it out, because this is something I'll probably talk a lot more about in the future as I use it more. go download the telegram app and it's free. If you go to personal brand journey.com, it'll take you to. [00:21:51] My podcasting channel, and you'll have to one, download the app, but then to click the join once it takes you to that channel, and you will get updates and see exactly how I'm going to be using telegram to let you know when podcasts are live and sometimes to give you a little extra behind the scenes. [00:22:11] Information and insight are goodies. But the reason I want to do that is because email, I have not done email since 2013. I hate email. And I know a lot of you don't read your emails or, the inboxes are using algorithm, so you don't even see them. Like maybe you'd love to see them and read them, but you don't even get them because of whatever crazy filtering the algorithms are doing behind the scenes. [00:22:32] Because yes, emails are subject to algorithms as well. And so, you know, it's. No one likes, you know, emails any, you don't email your friends, you know, so I don't, you know, I don't want to do that. I feel like Facebook messenger is kind of personal. I've used that a lot in the past, and I know there's still definitely some benefits to using it, but I like telegram better. [00:22:54] And so. telegram. It is. So check it out. plus it's less noisy than social media because you get, you can set it up to get notifications every time there's something new, so you never miss it. So definitely check that out. Some other people out there who are playing with this are Stu McLaren. He just started using telegram, I think this week. [00:23:12]James Wedmore has been using telegram a little bit over the last few months. So I know there's other people as well, but I really think that this is going to be a great platform going forward. So check it out because it's something you might end up wanting to use in your business as well. So those are the platforms that I'm going to be using to reach my business goals is Facebook groups. [00:23:32]and that'll be both for nurturing the movement and redoing my story session system with my alumni. When you're doing Facebook lives on my page and in my group, I'm podcasting emails and telegram. So it seems like a lot, but it's pretty, it feels light and easy for me based on who I am. So you have to figure out, as you're looking at your goals, what would make it light and easy for you to do that? [00:23:54] You know, part of the podcast, I think it was heavy, was I had this whole production, this whole. You know, SOP, which is a standard operating procedure for how to publish it and do it all the right way. And I just realized, you know what? I don't have to do all the keywording and all the whatever. I can just put the podcast out and let you hear the message. [00:24:13] And so I might not have fancy show notes. I might not have all the bells and whistles. I might not be marketing every single episode. But between publishing it and using telegram to tell you it's there. That means that I can get it out faster and easier and getting it out, even if it's not perfect, is better than not doing it at all. [00:24:32] We want to be taking action during this time. So here's my questions for you to find your focus. Number one. Face your what ifs, what are the things that you need to get real about? Look at how things really are right now and what if things don't go the way you want? What could, what would you have to do? [00:24:50] Like what would it look like if you need to cut back? If you're struggling, if you're not great, but you can still go through the what ifs if you want to. look at what you need personally during this time. Look at what your business focuses are, what would make the biggest impact in your business, and then figure out what your big rocks are and how you can do it as simply as possible. [00:25:09] So for me, my next steps are, I'm actually gonna put a calendar. I'm going to put a calendar together for myself to say, okay, Monday is the day I do my question of the week. And I do my new bright side show. Which is a Facebook live that I'm going to be doing in my group that I'm super excited about to nurture the group and to really help them focus on the bright side of things. [00:25:28] And then I'm going to say Tuesdays, this focus Wednesdays, this focus Thursdays, this focus, and it's not going to map out every single hour, but at least having each day have a focus will help me know what I should be working on and where my capacity is. And if I go in and I say, man, I don't think I can do all the things I really want to do. [00:25:46] Then at least I can re prioritize and come back and cut some of those things out, or maybe, which would be amazing. This quarantine won't last as long as we think it will, and I'm going to need to cut it back because all the activities are going to start up again. I'm banking on that, not happening yet. I feel like we still are getting into the worst of it, but, in the case that. [00:26:09] You know, we do have a 12 week quarantine. It's not, that's the wrong word, 12 weeks isolation, social distancing, whatever it is. Maybe shelter in place, depending on where you're at. you know, I can, that means I have a lot of extra work time and I can set those times up and I can figure it out so that I can come to my day. [00:26:26] I can know what I should be working on, at least from a focus perspective and not worry about when I'm going to fit everything in. It'll just help me keep from dropping all the balls. So, yeah. So I would love to know what your main business goals are, how you can best serve, you know, like, how are you planning to best serve your people through this? [00:26:44] And, if you want to share that, it'd be great. Go ahead. Do a story on Instagram and tag at Jamie M Swanson. I would love to hear. I'll be sharing some of them on a, I'll share some of them on my stories. If you tag me in them and talk about how this episode, this finding focus episode, and with that go definitely check out telegram, personal brand journey.com and if you haven't yet subscribed to this podcast, so yeah. [00:27:09] Hope this was a helpful episode. I know it was super long, but this is a process that I went through that was so helpful. That has given me so much peace because now I know how to move forward. Now I know what my big goals are despite the world having flipped upside down. And I know how to allocate my time to make sure that they're going to happen. [00:27:28] So, all right, in the next episode, this is really good. I was talking with my buddy Levi, and we were talking about branding and personal branding versus all the movement and culture stuff and whatever else. And he's going through a massive rebrand for everything. so we were discussing it and he had some questions. [00:27:48] And during that conversation I realized that if you really want to build. A successful business with a massive impact, you need more than just a personal brand in order to do that. Well, in fact, you need three elements. One of them being your personal brand to really be successful, and our conversation helped me. [00:28:10]Really find that framework and that is what I'm going to share with you in the next episode. So be ready for that because it's a really good one. . Don't forget to subscribe and sign up via telegram@personalbrandjourney.com and I'll see you there. Bye friend.