We live in an amazing time. There is so
much information at our ngertips, all the
time. Photographers have access to a seem-
ingly endless library of resources to build
their businesses, perfect their processes, and
hone their craft.
But it can get overwhelming—quickly. There
is so much out there, so many new tools and
solutions and options, that even the savviest
student of the digital economy can suffer from
information overload. And even if you can
process all this data, how do you apply it?
Just a few years ago, Mary Fisk-Taylor,
M.Photog.Cr., CPP, ABI, API, EA-ASP, co-
owner of Hayes and Fisk Photography in
Richmond, Virginia, struggled with this ques-
tion as much as anyone. The onslaught of
information was weighing her down to the
point where she didn’t know what to do next.
“I remember waking up one morning feeling
like I was wearing lead shoes,” she says. “I
was just overwhelmed by all this informa-
tion. I felt like I was drowning. I had been ex-
periencing some good years in business, but
I was working too much. I needed to adjust.”
So Fisk-Taylor undertook the ambitious
process of shifting her mindset and pivot-
ing her approach to business. The process
would take discipline and time, but the end
result was a more ef cient business and a
less-stressed entrepreneur who could enjoy
the fruits of her labor with a less cluttered
mind. Everything came down to a few key
changes, all designed to lter out the noise of
the modern marketplace and focus on what
really matters.ADOPT A GROWTH MINDSET
A growth mindset is knowing that you can
improve and learn from your mistakes. It’s
the belief that you can get better and smart-
er and that investing extra time and effort
will lead to higher achievement. People with
a growth mindset don’t look at mistakes or
missed goals as failures; they look at them
and think, “What can I learn?”
“This is so important for business own-
ers,” says Fisk-Taylor. “Often, we get stuck in
a bubble, surrounded by all this information,
and all we see is social media showing every-one else experiencing success, living their
best lives. It’s easy to get down on yourself
in that context and to think that you’re stuck
in a rut. But you have to believe in your po-
tential and believe that failures are oppor-
tunities to learn. You have to value yourself
and reward your progress. Instead of being
disappointed that you didn’t hit a particular
goal, look at the positive impact, and how
you can improve for next time.”
For example, let’s say you ran a marketing
campaign trying to book 10 new sessions,
but you booked only ve. Instead of looking
at that campaign as a failure, think of it this
way: I wanted 10 sessions from this market-
ing campaign, but I got ve. But that’s ve
sessions I didn’t have before. Now how can I
improve this campaign to get six?
Moving to a growth mindset takes time.
It’s a total change in thought process, after all.
However, as growth-oriented thinking starts
to take hold, you’re less likely to feel over-
whelmed by all the noise because you’re
better able to identify opportunities and let
other items go.WHAT WOULD YOU DO
IF YOU LOST
ALL YOUR PHOTOS?
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