Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling, and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, Ben, you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator. And this is the business Journey podcast.
Hey, friends, welcome back to another episode of the business Journey podcast.
I'm your host, Rebecca rice. And I teach family photographers how to gain A life of financial freedom through a thriving photography business.
Today, we're getting into a really interesting topic, I think. And it's how to get motivated when work feels hard. It's one of those like, really practical episodes that I feel like this topic doesn't get talked about a lot. And we'll get into that in just a second. But before we get too far, I wanted to let you know about a brand new free class that I have just for you guys. We did this free class for the very first time a couple months ago. And it went so so well. And so I wanted to put it here for you guys, if you missed it or you want to check it out. It is a class all about posing families, it's called the keys to effective family posing. And in this class, you know, we walk through what you need to know and what you need to do to avoid like awkward and stiff clients. If you're the kind of person that you like, Forget pose ideas and you freeze up or you stall during your sessions trying to think of what to do next. You know, all of those things, you don't feel confident you're posing, you feel like posing as your weakest link, then this class is for you. And you can join us for free it is at Rebecca rice photo.com/posing-class. So definitely go check that out. It's completely free. And I know that you will take away some awesome stuff that you can use at your very next photo session. So don't miss that for sure. Okay, so let's get into the topic for today how to get motivated when work feels hard. Now, if we're honest, sometimes we just don't feel like working. And when I'm talking about working, I am more talking to the people that do photography full time. Or maybe you're a stay at home mom and photography as a side gig for you, whatever it may look like, I'm not really talking about if you have like a full time corporate job, and you don't feel like working. Some of this stuff, I guess could be related in that area. But I'm more so talking about when you work for yourself, and you're just not feeling motivated. And so you may work for yourself and doing something that you love. You know, I'm here to say like, we love photography, why would we be you know, running a photography business if we don't love it. But at the end of the day, like Work is work. And I know for me, sometimes I wake up and I'm like, I just don't want to do it today. I don't feel like filling out the emails or editing images or calling or whatever, like, it just feels like work today, I don't really want to do it. And I will tell you that that's natural. You're not alone, if you feel that way. Now, if you feel like that all the time, every single day, then that may be a different conversation. But if it's the occasional, like you don't feel motivated, you don't really want to do this stuff that you know has to be done, then we're gonna get into some like practical tips that you can try out and see if it helps. You know, sometimes that feeling of lacking motivation is a cue that we need to rest our minds and our bodies. And so I do want to encourage you to like, listen to that cue, don't ignore it, that you may need to schedule in time to step away and to rest. Because I think there are like memes that go around that are like, Oh yeah, I quit my nine to five jobs so that I can run a business 24/7 And it's so easy, especially because we're passionate about what we do. It's so easy to get sucked into this like doing business stuff all day every day. And it can be exhausting and it wears on you and so, you know sometimes we need to step away and schedule like rest time. I know for me in those seasons that I feel super unmotivated, if it's possible, and I'm able to take times of rest when I step away and come back then I usually come back feeling like the most charged up the most excited the most inspired that I ever am right after taking a break. Now there are some seasons that it's like just a season of hustle and you don't have either the availability to take a break or you don't have the capacity to rest or take a break in those seasons rest could look like you know shutting down your computer at seven or 8pm Um, instead of midnight, and you know, drinking some hot chocolate like I do, or watching a Netflix show or something. So it may not always be like a big vacation or whatever. But rest is necessary. And it just, it's, I think a big like factor in us feeling motivated is I don't want you to burn out. And so some of the things we're going to talk through today is going to help you not burnout and help you do you know, the hard things that need to be done when you don't feel like it. The first tip that I have is to commit to your deadlines, and give yourself some wiggle room with those deadlines. So let's say you know that you want to turn photo sessions around within one week. So that's something that I do I turn photos around in a week, I do give myself some wiggle room on those deadlines. So I tell clients that I will turn photos around in two weeks that they will get their photos back in two weeks. That way, just in case like life happens that I have an extra week to still honor our contract and honor my word of what I told clients. But if all things go as they are planned to go, then I get to over serve my clients and over deliver by giving their images a week early. One thing that I think is really important with deadlines is that you commit to them because it takes a lot of willpower to commit to a deadline. And especially if you're the one setting the deadline, right? It can be so easy to be like, I'll just move it. But I think there's just something so powerful that if we commit to a deadline, before we feel that urge of like, oh, I should just push it, if you commit to it beforehand, you don't have to use like brain energy to commit to it in the moment. You know, I always heard people say, you know, with stuff like drugs, or whatever, that if you, you know, are not sure what you're going to say when somebody offers you drugs, like you're more likely to try drugs. Whereas if you decide beforehand that you are not going to do drugs, then when somebody offers you drugs, you've already made that decision. And it's easy just to say no, I'm not gonna get into whether it's easy or not whatever. The whole thing that I'm trying to say, though, is that if you commit to something before it gets hard, then when you're in the thick of it, it's easier to stick to that commitment, because you made that decision early on. And so commit to your deadlines, but also give yourself some wiggle room in that deadline in case you do need to move it. So kind of in my head, I usually have two deadlines, I have the deadline, ideally want to keep and then the must keep deadline. And so I try as hard as I can to keep to the ideal deadline. But in the event that I do have to move it, I move it one time to the must have deadline. And then I keep it I'm a person to my word. And I commit to it, even if it's hard. And so in times that I don't feel like it. Those deadlines helped me to continue to make progress with things. And so maybe you are going to be launching a set of mini sessions and you've set a deadline of when you want them to go live, you may want to give yourself like a week or two of wiggle room, just so that you know in case something takes a little longer than you expected or whatever. But you have the deadline set. And so you can you know commit and say, Okay, I am launching these on such and such date. So if you get into your office when morning, and you're like I do not feel like doing anything today, you can look at your deadline and say, Okay, I committed that I'm going to launch my minis on such and such date. So today, I need to do this to be able to accomplish that and take it one step at a time. So the next thing that can help you, you know, get motivated when work feels hard is to create workflows. And this is basically just like a checklist of things that you do every single time. For example, with my photo sessions, we have a workflow that we follow. That is a literal checklist. My team uses Trello, which is a free online like business management tool. And we love checklists. And so I have a photo session workflow that has a massive checklist of every single thing that has to be done from start to finish to serve a client well. And so this workflow really helps me for one, it helps me not forget any steps, but secondly, it really helps me when I don't feel like doing work, right? But I can get into my office, open up my computer and look at the checklist and say okay, what absolutely has to be done today, like whether I feel like it or not, this stuff has to be done because it's on the checklist for you know, this day, and I am just a checklist person. I like to see things checked off. I like it whenever it's just like a dopamine hit whenever I'm able to check something off my checklist. And so it helps me feel productive and like I'm making progress If I'm able to check something off, and so having that workflow helps me because I don't have to feel it to serve my clients well, right. You know, that's what the workflow is for is that it helps you serve your clients. Well, even if you don't feel like it, though you don't have to think about what you need to do to serve them, well, the workflow is already created, it's there, and you just need to run it. Now, whether it's a workflow that is made up of things that you need to do, or a workflow of automations, for example, which automations if you don't have automations, in your business, I highly suggest setting it up. I use dubsado, as my CRM, many people use honey book, I have a dubsado workflow that's in my shop, if you want to go check it out Rebecca rice bucha.com/store. But the dubsado workflow, which can also be translated into honey book, or other CRMs, as well, it shows you how to set up certain automations in your CRM, so that you can set it and forget it right. And so your clients are being served well, and you're not having to push the buttons. So that is really, really helpful. Maybe there's stuff that you do actually have to do that cannot be automations. For example, with mini sessions. A lot of my mini session workflow is automated. But there's a portion of things that need to be done before like launching a set of minis that I physically have to do. And so I use what's called a mini sessions playbook, which is also available in my shop, that is like a week by week, like step by step checklist of things that need to be done every week leading up to my minis. And so I think the playbook starts like eight weeks out, and it will tell you, Okay, eight weeks out, these are the things that you need to do to prep for your minis seven weeks out, these are things that you need to do leading all the way up to the day of your minis, and after your minis. So that playbook is really, really helpful for me, because it helps me stay on track that if I don't feel like working, I can open up the playbook and say, Okay, I know I have money's coming up in six weeks, I can go to the playbook look at the six weeks and say what do I have to do today. And that helps me you know, be motivated to get it done so that I can stick with the deadline. Okay, so the next thing that you can do to help you get motivated when work feels hard, is to pick one thing to move the ball forward, there are some days that I'm like, I need the bare minimum, like I cannot give 100% of myself because I don't have 100% to give. And so if I only have 60%, or 50%, or however much you have to give, think of one thing that you can do in your business to move the ball forward and do that one thing. Because at the end of the day, if you did that one thing, you can feel productive, right? So I'm a big believer in progress, not perfection, that we don't have to you know, strive to have this perfect business and you know, have all these perfect steps that were done. Some days, it's just about progress. And so I could have a mile long to do list. And if I just don't feel like working, I will pick one thing on that my long to do list and say, Okay, if I can just do this one thing, maybe it's to answer all of the emails in my inbox that have piled up, right, I can say, Okay, if I can just answer all of my emails, I will have made progress today. And that really helps me to move forward. So maybe you need to do that. It's just pick your one thing and do that one thing to move the ball forward. Another thing that really helps me get motivated when work feels hard is to change your scenery. So if you you know, have a home office, and you usually work from your office, maybe you need to go work from your bed instead.
I know that helps me I don't know why. Sometimes if I just don't feel like it, I'm like, you know, I'm gonna work for my bed today because I can. And that helps me get motivated. Maybe if you don't have an office, and you usually work from your bed or your couch, maybe you work from your kitchen table or you work from, you know, a coffee shop or something like that changing your scenery usually helps, you know, to motivate you even if it's just for an hour to get something done. That usually helps. And then the last thing that I think is honestly the most helpful to get motivated when work feels hard, is to go back to your why. If you sit down at your desk, and you're like I do not want to be here today, go back to your why why do you do this thing? Like why do you show up every day? And you know what made you become a photographer? Why do you own your business? For me? My why is my family right? I want to contribute to my family and help us have a life of financial freedom. I want to leave a legacy for my kids and I help them just see the value in running a business and having hard work and things like that. And so when I reflect on my why it usually helps motivate me to say okay, I know I don't feel like doing things today. Work feels hard today, but I look at the faces of my two cute little kids that are you know, in a picture frame on my desk They say that's why I'm doing this today. And that usually helps me get motivated to do the things that I need to do. So think about your Why. Why did you get into this business in the first place? Why do you want to see success in your business and lean on that when things get hard? So super practical. I hope this episode is helpful for you. And if you are listening, and you have other ideas of ways to get motivated, like that help you whenever stuff gets hard, shoot me a DM on Instagram, and I'd love to share it, you know, with other people on my stories or something like that. Or you know, I just love to hear it for myself and apply it to my own business. But yeah, you can find me on Instagram at Rebecca rice photography, and I love to just chat with you. If you are needing like an extra boost of motivation, shoot me a DM on Instagram and I will pump you up I will you know be your cheerleader and help you stay motivated and do the things that needs to be done. So anyway, that's all I have so great episode, and we will see you back this time next week. Bye guys.
