Intro: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Posers podcast, the place where we skip the fluff. Say the quiet parts out loud and dig into what really matters. This is where photography, psychology, and business collide. I'm Jody, your host, and I'm bringing you my raw takes, hard wins, and a whole lot of unfiltered honesty about what it takes to build a photography business that actually connects and makes money.
So ladies, grab your headphones and get your tits up and your ears open because we are going to build something really incredible together.
Well, Hello, hello, hello, my beautiful posers, and welcome back to another episode of The Posers podcast. You know how there's that little line in the intro that you literally just heard 15 seconds ago that says that you and me are going to build something really incredible together? Well, I'm about to pull back the curtain and talk a little bit about something that's hitting really [00:01:00] hard for me right now, and I'm going to let you in so that you can be a part of me making some really hard decisions so that hopefully it helps you make some really hard decisions.
Now, before we get into it, I need you to know and I've talked about it before, this one mindset shift, and it was on a few episodes ago after I got back from Italy, talking about forcing a new standard instead of shrinking back into a smaller, more comfortable place in your life. That one mindset shift is the difference between literally me being the broke single mom that I used to be and the business that I've built since then.
And right now, today, I'm terrified because leveling up is staring me right in the face yet again. And to be honest, I'm recording this episode a little bit recklessly while I am still scared, while I am in the middle of all of [00:02:00] this, and before I even know how it ends. And that's kind of exactly why I'm doing it out loud instead of waiting until I have some, you know, tidy, like, packaged up, pretty lesson to hand you, is because I want you to get the real version, like fear and all.
So usually whenever I sit down to record, I've already lived through it. I've already lived through the thing that I'm talking about, and I already know how it ends, and I'm just handing you the takeaway that's wrapped up in a nice pretty little bow, right? And so that's why this episode is just a little bit different because I'm recording this in that messy middle of it and I really don't know how it ends yet.
So- A little while back, I had one of those days where everything just felt so insanely good, and everything just felt so aligned. And I am sure you have had days like this in your [00:03:00] business where bookings just come in easily, clients are happy, sales are rolling in, and you just feel like, "Man, I am here.
This is my purpose. I am doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing." Well, it was one of those days where wins were just flooding into the Posers group chat. The Posers group chat was literally... It's on fire a lot, but it was on fire that day, and the women were jumping in and talking about the money they were making, and it was, like, real money.
Like, not just talk-about-it money, but real, like, life-changing money for them and for their families. And I was getting emails from people who were really excited and wanting to jump into next year's mastermind already. There were signups rolling in for the wait list that day. Like, it was just one of those days where you just sit back and you think, "Okay, not only does this feel so fucking good," but [00:04:00] it felt like something bigger than me was actually, like, catching some steam.
And if you heard my episode about whenever I was coming back from Italy, like, about forcing the standard, some of this is gonna sound a little bit familiar. But you already know that that trip, like, cracked something open in me, and it was this idea that you actually need to have, like, a taste of a bigger life before you can build towards it.
But it's our natural reaction to, once we do get that taste, to kinda constrict and to pull back and to grab onto it tighter and be really careful again to make sure that you don't lose it. And I told you back during that episode that that's not the move to make, that you should instead force the standard and to not renegotiate down to what feels safe again.
So that day in the group chat, it felt like... It came pretty [00:05:00] quickly on the heels of that episode, too, and it felt like... It was like, yes, this here is the proof. It was like the universe was rewarding the expansion work that I had been doing instead of, like, the constriction work that I could've been doing, right?
It, it was just one of those days where I felt unstoppable. What I was building felt unstoppable. It felt like it was starting to become bigger than just me. And as if the universe knew right then that I needed to get a little, I don't know, like, a little- kicking my own ass, my operations manager came to me with a conversation that I wasn't really all that ready for.
And she told me that it was time to expand. It was time to build the team a little bit more. It was time to increase what we're spending on the operations side. And it was not a small increase. [00:06:00] It was a, not, it was not a bump, it was a jump, right? It was a really large increase, close to actually more than double what I'm currently spending for my operations team monthly right now.
And the thing was is she wasn't wrong. She never is, really. She is so incredibly good at what she does. She is so great, so usually if she's telling me something, I'm listening. So what she told me was that things had gotten too comfortable and that I had gotten too comfortable, and that I was starting to coast a little bit on a system that was working.
There was nothing wrong with it. It was working, and it had worked for a while, but staying uncomfortable is actually where you keep building. So what did I do with this information? What did I do about this decision that I had to sort of [00:07:00] sit with for a minute? I cried like a big fucking baby, because that's what I always do.
I actually cry a lot, and I'm not gonna, like, dress that up. I'm not gonna try to make that sound, like, prettier than it is. I'm not gonna try to sound more composed than I am, because I sat there like a big, crybaby and, maybe looked at some things in the mirror that I didn't wanna look at because I felt terrified.
And there was that lingering little thought in the back of my head of, like, what if I can't do it? What if I can't hold this much? Doubling that spend on the operations team feels so insanely scary, and it is not some sort of, like, abstract spreadsheet. It's real fucking money that does not go into my pocket, 'cause it has to stay in the business.
And it's not, it's also not just one lump sum that I have to drop. It is that lump sum every single [00:08:00] month to pay for the team and for the work that will, like I've already been preaching before, force a new standard. There's no guarantee whether or not the revenue shows up to match it that month.
And there's no guarantee to how long it's going to take for the revenue to start rolling in from that amount of work. So how do you move forward with a really hard decision in your business that is going to take the comfort away? It is going to take food out of your kids' mouths. Not literally, but you know what I mean.
But it's going to risk next year's vacation, or it's going to risk whether or not I can actually buy my second born the car that he's supposed to get whenever he turns 16 in March. Like, how do you leap? How do you leap whenever you don't know if there's, like, a quantum that's gonna be paired with that, right?
If you're [00:09:00] leaping, you want it to be a quantum leap. You want it to be a leap that's going to take you somewhere, not just a leap into darkness, into an abyss, right? So here's what I keep on coming back to, even while I'm still incredibly scared. This is exactly what forcing the standard feels like. And whenever I talked about this on the Italy episode, it sounded, it sounded so inspiring.
It sounded so whimsical. It sounded so motivational. But I, too, have to remove my own exit. I have to take away the safety net. I have to, like, remove the idea of the escape hatch, and I have to make the leap, and I have to let the discomfort do its job. Because when you are uncomfortable, you work so much fucking harder.
You work so much fucking faster. You get things [00:10:00] done because there is an urgency to the fact that what you are doing has to make money in a new and a bigger way. But there is this part of this that sounds so great as a concept, but it feels completely different whenever you're the one signing off on a number that makes you a little queasy.
It makes your stomach drop. But- What I do know is that I have a really great track record. And every single time that I have bitten off more than I could chew, like whenever I was building the studio, whenever I was quitting weddings, whenever I was newly divorced and dropping thousands of dollars on a marketing course that I didn't have the money to be buying, or even starting this podcast, or hiring the team to begin with, because I, whenever I hired them, I couldn't afford them then either.
But [00:11:00] every single one of those times, I have found a new way to chew it. Not just in my business life either, but also in my personal life too. I had no idea how I was gonna be a single mom. I had no idea how I was gonna raise three boys. But every single time that I have been faced with some kind of leap in this way, some moment where I need to bite off more than I can chew and just trust myself that I'm going to be able to figure it out, I've done it.
But not because I was fearless in that moment. I wasn't. I never was. I was scared shitless the whole entire time, if we're being honest. But I was able to do it because I decided who I was going to be first, and then I built a business that had no choice but to catch up to her Now, if you've ever been on a discovery call [00:12:00] with me, I will always ask what the dream looks like.
I will always ask what version of you you are wanting to be. Because if you don't have that version locked in for yourself, not publicly, not with your partner, not with anybody else, but if you don't have that version of who you are actually driving towards locked in for yourself, you will probably let yourself shrink back into comfort.
Whenever I was newly divorced, I thought about the life that I wanted in painstaking detail. I imagined it down to the thread count of my sheets that I wanted to have in my new house. I designed rooms in my head because I am endlessly obsessed with interior design. But even more so, I imagined what I wanted my boys to say about what type of a mom I was to them 10 [00:13:00] years from now.
And I would play this montage of my future and who I was in the future on a loop in my head over and over and over again, and I wrote it all down as if it had already happened. And I journaled the future version of my feelings. Instead of wallowing in the current ones that I could have been wallowing in and looking at everything that was or had gone wrong in the life that I had in front of me, I journaled the future version of what it would feel like when I got to be the person that I wanted to be, and I haven't ever stopped doing that.
I'm not as incessant about it now. I don't write it down. I'm not journaling as much as I used to back then But the loop in my head, it runs daily about what I want my future to look like, what I [00:14:00] want my time to look like in the future with my boys, what I want my time to look like in the future with my grandkids, where I wanna be going on future vacations, what I want to be doing inside of my house with indoor and outdoor renovations.
I imagine future holidays with my boys coming back home, and everything that I wanna be able to do with them in this new chapter that we're entering where they're older. So right now, I'm sitting in that same fear that I have felt so many times before, but because I've done it so many times, she feels really familiar, right?
That fear inside of me, like, I recognize her. And there's actually kind of this small part of me that's grown to love her because there's a trust that has really grown in myself as if there's, like, a barrier in between me and that fear, as if there's a callus in between me [00:15:00] and that fear that kind of protects me a little bit.
So don't get me wrong, it is terrifying to make another leap. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that the more you stay in a place of discomfort, the easier the growing pains tend to be. And I'm guessing that you're sitting in your own version of this right now, that maybe there is a hire that you need to make inside of your business.
Maybe you want to spend the $10,000 on the mastermind with me, but you are scared as hell to commit to it. There's a level that you know that you need to step into, but you haven't done it yet. So I simply want you to hear this one thing You're never gonna feel ready, and you don't have to. You do not have to feel ready.
You don't have to stop being scared first, because that [00:16:00] is never going to happen. You just have to decide that the new version that you're building towards, you have to decide that you're going to, to stop giving yourself the exit, and you're gonna build towards her, and that you're gonna force that standard.
So I don't have some kind of like tidy ending for you today. I don't know whether this expansion that I'm in the middle of, I don't know whether it's gonna feel like the best decision I've ever made or like the moment that maybe I finally did bite off more than I could chew, and I'm gonna be free-falling down into that black abyss.
Who knows? but what I do know is that the version of me who wants Posers to reach so many more women, the version of me who wants to lead a bigger team, she doesn't get to build it by staying comfortable. She gets to [00:17:00] Well, she gets to build it crying about it in the morning, and then sending the payment to grow the team in the afternoon.
at some point, maybe down the road, we'll come back to this episode and see how everything turned out, but I have a feeling that you'll already know how this one ends up, because you're gonna get front row seats to watching it all grow. Because you already know that failure is not a language that I speak.
So I promise you every single week that we're going to build something incredible together. And I know that I'm not building exactly the same business as you are, but actually it's all the same. The fear is the same. The structure is the same. The discomfort around more visibility, the, the questions about whether or not you're really capable of it, it is actually all the same.
And sometimes the most useful thing that I can say is just like, "Hey, this is what it actually looks like in the [00:18:00] really messy middle." So that's it. That's all I've got for today's episode. I'd love to say that I'll keep you posted on how this turns out, but it's probably better for me to just say, "Keep watching.
Pay attention," because I promise you that I am going to keep building, and I promise you that it's probably gonna be a really fun show along the way. So until next week, bye for now, Posers.
Outro: Okay, so that is a wrap on this episode of the Posers Podcast. If you loved it, please subscribe, rate, and review because honestly, algorithms are needier than all of our ex-boyfriends combined. And ladies, I need all the help I can get. If you've got thoughts, questions, love letters, even hate mail, please send them my way.
I actually read every single one of them. So until next time, stapled, stay messy and don't let the bullshit win. Tits up. Ears open and go build something. Incredible. Bye for now, friends.
