Setting goals can be a difficult task. Well, setting goals isn’t difficult but setting goals that stick is a difficult task. We know this because 83% of new years resolutions are broken by February. Therefore the problem to solve is how to set BETTER goals. Today I share my 9 steps process for setting photography goals that stick.

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Step 1: Realize you need to make a change

You can only make change when you WANT to change.

Step 2: Figure out WHERE you need to make a change

Ask yourself “What feels broken” “What do I need help with” because where you feel the most pain you can make the most growth.

Step 3: Set More Epic Goals

Don’t set goals too crazy or too simple. “Book 60 weddings” when you have never shot a wedding is crazy. “Learn Photography” it too simple. Create a goal thats in between.

Step 4: Write down your goals and make it seen

When you physically write out your goals on paper you’re 43% more likely to achieve them. When you post them somewhere you see them every day you increase that chance exponentially. My goals are posted above my computer.

Step 5: Make Baby steps

Make baby steps that it will take to achieve your goals to keep the momentum going.

Step 6: Make a challenge out of it

When you turn your goals into a game you’re more likely to keep up with the baby steps. Write them down on a calendar and mark them off every day.

Step 7: Check in with your goals

Set a date on your calendar quarterly to check in with your goals, re assess, and plan for the next quarter for new goals.

Step 8: Hang out with people who are also moving forward

“You are the sum of the 5 people closest to you” When you spend more time with photographers doing great things, you will elevate your skills and desire to do great things. Nowhere is that more important than when you go from hobby photographer to making money with your camera. Surrounding yourself a group of others dedicated to growing their business and making money is the key to quick growth.

Become a premium member and get access to the premium members facebook group to surround yourself with like-minded hungry photographers!

Step 9: Simulate what your life would look like after you hit your goals

Achieving your goals both planning and motivation. Picturing your life after you achieve your goals will give you the motivation you need to keep going!

Did you enjoy this episode? Check out more recent interviews with other great guests!

Full Episode Transcription:

Disclaimer: The transcript was transcribed electronically by Temi.com and may contain errors that do not reflect accurately what the speaker said. Because of this, please do not quote this automated transcript.

Raymond: 00:00 This is the beginner photography podcast. And today we are setting photography goals for 2020. So let's get into it.

Intro: 00:08 Welcome to the beginner photography podcast with Raymond Hatfield, the podcast dedicated to helping you grow your photography skills. Raymond interviews the world's top photographers in their field to ask questions that will get you taking better photos today. Now with you as always, husband, father, home brewer, LA Dodger fan and Indianapolis wedding photographer Raymond Hatfield.

Raymond: 00:37 Welcome back to the beginning photography podcast. I am Raymond Hatfield and if you are new, I am so thankful that you are here and giving the beginner of photography podcast a chance to hopefully learn and grow your photography here in the future. I know that podcasts are kind of a weird place to, to learn something visual like photography, but people seem to be enjoying it and I hope that you do. Do so. The holidays are obviously here. New years is, is quickly approaching. And you may remember last week I talked about it was the state of the podcast addressed where I talked about the podcast itself, how it grew in, in 2019. Some of the changes that were made as well as some of the changes that are going to be made going forward. And I made a lot of those changes going forward based on goals that I have, personal goals and business goals as well.

Raymond: 01:37 And I've had some questions kind of about goals, right? Because goals seemed to be this maybe not elusive thing, but it's not, it's not taken as seriously as, as they should be. And I'll admit sometimes I don't take goals as seriously as, as I should be taking them as well. But I do reach my goals from time to time. So I kind of wanted to talk about the the process in which I go about setting goals. But it's interesting to think that when we, when we think forward, it's, it's fun and you can be optimistic and you can set those goals or those resolutions. Now that it's the new year or coming up on the new year and we come up with these goals and resolutions. But according to a survey that I read, 83% of new year's resolutions are broken by February. So we start these things in December, right?

Raymond: 02:33 Like December 31st birthday, January, let's do this. And 83% of new year's resolutions are broken by February. That's just one month. That is one 12th of the year. It took 83% of the people to get rid of or break or, or lose track of their goals. You know, and a goal is something that like you inside is something that you really, really want to work towards. So why are we breaking these goals within, you know, just 30 days a small fraction of what you had committed to, to doing said goal. But what that tells me is that by creating goals, people want change. People don't just create goals to just to do it, but people want change, but they simply don't know how to achieve it. If you didn't know how to achieve it, you would just follow the steps and then you would achieve your goal rather quickly, right?

Raymond: 03:35 Or you know, whatever. If it's a big goal, maybe not quickly, but you would continue to follow the steps until you reach that goal. So I did a lot of thinking about this and I believe that because as somebody who has, you know, lost many new year's resolutions, I think that for me the breakdown is often in the goal itself. It's not that we lose motivation, it's not that we want to give up. It's not that we're like, you know what, that was a bad goal. I'm just going to move forward with my life. It's the goal itself. So having a better goal can be the difference between having a successful year and having one like 83% of the population. And remember that just 83% of the population by February. You know, I don't even know the stats on a full year, but I would assume that it's closer to 98% of people.

Raymond: 04:35 So what do I mean by, by it's the goal that needs changed? What do I mean by that? Well, it's, it's said that people overestimate what they can do in a month, but they underestimate what they could do in a year. And that is true for me. That is absolutely true for me. You know, many times I will get so excited about an idea that I will just go all in right there. I'll kind of push my other work aside and I will go all in right there, immediately start getting work done, but I'm not going to be able to finish that goal in one day. Right? Whatever that task is. Maybe it's, I'm working on a new 10 day photography challenge. Hint, hint, maybe it's something like that, right? So I'll go all in in one day, but because it takes time you know, say next week I've lost some of that motivation and I don't, you know, complete it.

Raymond: 05:33 Or you know, maybe something that might be more relatable. Oftentimes I will, you know, say like next year, next year things will be different. And, you know, there's simply, there's simply not because I like, I want, I want results fast. I want what I want and I want it now. I mean, who doesn't, not to sound like a, you know, like a cry baby or, or you know, anything like that. But my point is, who doesn't want what they want right now? Like I understand that things need to be worked for, but in the perfect world, whatever, you know, you want, you could wave a magic wand or whatever and get it right at that moment. But we know that that's not, that's not how it works. So we jump in to these goals that we have and sometimes we lose that steam. So today we're going to talk about that and how to get better goals.

Raymond: 06:25 But before we jump into that, this episode is brought to you by the premium members of the podcast. So the premium members, if you're unaware, they are, they are just hungry to grow the business side of their camera and start making real money with their talents. And to do that, there really needs to be a plan in place. And a plan starts, I think, from a goal. Otherwise, like if you don't know where you're going, how do you know how to get there? Right? So a plan starts with a goal. So this episode is brought to you by me premium members of the podcast because simply because they're taking action to make the change that they want to see in their lives. So guys, this one's for y'all. Okay. So let's talk about the goals themselves and how to set goals.

Raymond: 07:16 Excuse me. So we need to realize, number one, this is a nine step process. Number one. Step number one is that you need to realize that you need to make a change. So to make a change, we have to want a change. You know? Otherwise, if we just change things just Willy nilly there, there's no, there's no reason to just change things Willy nilly to make a change. You have to want that change. We have to accept that the change is a needed to be the person or the photographer that we want to be. And this, I mean, this whole thing is going to apply more than just business. This applies to photography as well. Right? So that quote is what is it doing, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. And I don't know about you, but you know, on many occasions, and this is hard because nobody likes talking about where they're falling short.

Raymond: 08:20 But you know, on many occasions I've said, like I said earlier, you know, next year will be the year. But it's simply a hope saying next year will be the year. That's just hope. You know, next year I will be at my goal weight, but then I just do the same thing. You know, new year's day we go out to, to, I hop for breakfast and it's just like, Oh, well, you know, whatever, next year, but next year will be the year. Things will be different. So realizing that you need to make a change, you have to want that change. So think about those areas in your life where you're just not happy. Things feel broken, you know, where are those areas? Is it personal? Think about your photography, right? Do you want to figure out how to pose better? Do you want to figure out how to shoot? And men, you know, what are the things that you feel like you're lacking in photography?

Raymond: 09:07 And then you can work towards those things. So that brings us to, you know, number two is to figure out where you need to make that change. So again, what are those things that you are unhappy with? Is it your posing? Is it your ability to shoot manual? Is it a, you know, even on the business side, is it the amount of clients coming in or not coming in? You know, is it the amount of clients not coming in? Because that can be something that can cause you a unhappiness that can tell you that a change needs to happen. Maybe it's something like a, you know, just simply how and when you're going to reach out to people when they you know, send you an email about your services. Maybe it's that a, you have a lot of camera shake when you're taking landscape photos.

Raymond: 09:51 If these are the areas that you're unhappy with, then these are going to be the areas where the most amount of growth can happen. Now, one thing is that you need to make sure that these things are relevant, right? As a wedding photographer, I'm not technically happy with my landscape photography, but if the goal doesn't align with where it is that you want to go, then maybe don't worry about it right now. You know? But if photography is a hobby for you and you want to get better, even reverse that, right you, you love landscape photography. But maybe you know a coworker, neighbor, family member asks you to do a shoot for them and you did it and you weren't happy with the photos at all, right? Posing was, you know, it fell flat, you know, whatever it was and you were unhappy with that, but you don't want to move forward with portraits.

Raymond: 10:40 Then don't worry about your posing right now. Worry about the thing that makes you happy, that you want to continue to do. And once you become really good and proficient at that, then you can explore the other ideas. But right now, just focus on that one thing and figure out where it is that you're unhappy and create that relevant goal towards what it is that you want to move forward. So in doing some research about goals, I found it interesting. The military, the United States military developed a series of questions to assess and grow after you know, their missions or in our case shoots. So we can apply this exact, exact same thing, exact same questioning. So after shoot, ask yourself these three questions. After every wedding, after every you know, photography trip asks yourself, you know, I'm maybe even on the way home and this is something that I'm going to start doing because I really loved this idea.

Raymond: 11:34 So on the way home from a wedding, I'm going to ask myself, well, what happened, right? What happened that I'm not happy with? Because we can always talk about the things that went well. But what happened that I wasn't happy with? You know, if it's, Oh, well the mom of the bride, you know, did this or whatever, I can't control that. But maybe if my clients look stiff. Okay, let's go with that. Okay. So what happened? My clients look stiff. Question number two. Well, why did it happen? Why did it happen? Why did they look stiff? Maybe it's because I didn't spend enough time getting to know them. So they felt a little awkward in front of the camera or maybe it's, you know, that they were not, maybe, maybe it was because I wasn't prepared that the couple had such a height difference, you know?

Raymond: 12:13 Whoa, I didn't know that. You know, the bride was you know, five one and the groom was six, two, you know, I was not ready for that. So all of my posing looks a little little off. Okay, great. So now how can you improve that? Oh, well I could I could watch, you know, tutorials online. I could buy a book specifically on posing for you know, wedding photos because surely there's going to have to be something inside of there that talks about dealing with high difference. Okay. So now I, I figured out what happened. I figured out why it happened and I figured out how I can improve. This is fantastic. Now you can even move that into the business side of things. So what happened? Nobody is asking me to photograph them. I'm just not getting any, any leads. I'm not getting anything like that.

Raymond: 13:03 Okay. Well why did that happen? Well, maybe it's because I'm new. I'm not advertising myself. Okay. So, so nobody knows who I am if I'm not advertising myself, if I'm not putting myself out there, nobody knows who I am. And if nobody knows who I am there, they're not going to contact me. So how can I improve that? Well, to get people to know who I am, I could learn how to get started with Facebook ads. Perfect. So after every shoot, after every wedding, after every photography trip, asked yourself what happened that you weren't happy with? Why did that happen? And then how do you improve? Because again, when you figure out what it is that you are unhappy with, then you know what you know you can do to change it. But by asking these questions, you can figure out how to change it.

Raymond: 13:53 And that is the key right there. It's not figuring out what it is that you're unhappy with. The key to a goal is figuring out how to change it. Okay? So step number three is we need to make more Epic goals. So oftentimes when it comes to goals, we go one of two ways. We go crazy with it. I want to shoot 60 weddings this year, even though I've never shot a wedding before. That's crazy. Or we go to safe or or vague, you know, this year I want to learn photography. Oh well you know what? There is a good chance that neither of those things are going to happen. If those are your goals, there's a great chance that neither of those things are going to happen. Because if you have never shot a wedding, shooting 60 weddings in one year is going to be incredibly hard to obtain.

Raymond: 14:44 I mean, unless you know, it's just going to be incredibly hard to obtain for whoever it is and it could totally discourage you, you know, for when, when you only have four weddings booked by July because then you think there's no way that I'm going to book 55 56 more weddings in the next, you know, half of the year and then you just mentally check out and then that goal is no longer realized. So that is going to crazy with it. And then it backfiring, you know, they say, you know, shoot for the stars. If you miss, you know, at least you'll hit the moon. You know, that's great, but nobody reaches for this. You know what I mean? Like in real life, nobody, we've never planned to go to another star. It is just so far away. Like the closest star is like a hundred thousand light years away.

Raymond: 15:32 There's no way that we're ever going to get to another star, you know, in our lifetime. It's just too far. It's too unfeasible to happen. You know, if you were to say, if you'd never shot a wedding before and you wanted to shoot 20 weddings in a year, I think that that is pretty crazy. You know that, I mean, that's a lot of weddings. So to shoot 60 is just crazy. But even if we go the other way, if your goal was to simply quote unquote learn photography, then you can get overwhelmed by the amount of tutorials, the amount of videos, podcasts, books, blog posts, you know, there's just so much. And when you don't make any progress because you're, you're, you're spreading all of your attention everywhere, not in one spot. Then once again, you simply, you check out. So what we need to be doing is setting goals somewhere in between, in the Epic zone, right?

Raymond: 16:30 Not too, not crazy, not vague, just Epic. Like this would be amazing if I could get this goal right. And then we need to get smart with our goals. And I'm sure that you've heard of smart goals before. It's a very common term when it comes to goal setting. And that a smart goal is something that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. Right? So learn photography is not specific. Learn photography is not measurable. Learn photography is attainable. It is relevant, but it's also not time-bound. If you were to say, I want to book seven weddings by March 30th that is a smart goal. That is specific. You want, you want to book weddings, it's measurable. You want to book seven weddings, it's attainable. Yeah. I think if you've never shot a wedding before, you could probably book seven weddings in a year. It's relevant because you want to get into weddings or photography and it's time-bound because you want to do it by March 30th if you've never shot a wedding again, you know, I bet that you know enough people who could refer you to maybe even three friends that are getting married that year.

Raymond: 17:45 You know? And then at that point you just need to book for five more. And January slash February is just the height of engagement. So I think that that is entirely possible. Entirely possible. But if you wanted to book seven weddings by March 30th, you could do it. And that is a smart goal. Okay, so now tip number four, write down your goals and make them seen. So when we write down our goals, you are instantly 42% more likely to achieve them. And I think the reason is, I don't know why, but I remember in in in high school I was told, you know, if you actually physically write down your goals, it's just easier to remember. It's easier to pull back up that information because when you're typing you can kind of, if you know, like where your fingers are, you can kind of be paying attention to something else and type at the same time.

Raymond: 18:40 Like, I'm not, I am not a multitasker, you know, by any stretch of the imagination. For me to be doing something, I have to be immersed in that thing to be able to do it well. But when it comes to typing, I can, you know, I can be typing and then my wife will say something and I'll turn around and I'll still be able to, you know, so that I can pay attention to her and I'll still be able to finish up my sentence on the keyboard. But when it comes to writing, if she starts talking, I have to stop. I have to completely stop writing, otherwise I'm going to start writing what she is saying. So when you write down your goals, it, it becomes more achievable because it's like baked into your brain. I don't know the science behind that, but that's a a scientist Raymond says that when you write things down, they're baked into your brain.

Raymond: 19:26 That sounds horrible. Anyway. So after you do that, you know, you're instantly 42% more likely to achieve those goals. Now, to make that even the likelihood of you achieving your goals, even more likely, you need to put those goals someplace where you're going to look at them every single day. Now me personally, I have a, I have a a word document that I, well first I take a legal pad and I write out all my goals for the year and I kind of workshop those ideas and then when I'm done with them, good, I got the ideas, I know what my goals are for the year. Then I put them into a word document with a keyboard. But then I print that out and then I hang it right above my computer. I'm looking at it right now because every day I'm at my computer, or at least several times throughout the week I'm at my computer.

Raymond: 20:13 I can look at those goals. You know, I got a minute, I just look up. Okay, those are the goals and then I just take a mental note. Where am I at on those goals. Okay. Yeah, I need to put in more work there. I'm kind of falling behind there, but you know, next month is going to change a little bit. So that should be okay. Okay, so I should actually focus on this right now and let's go and then I get to work, you know, so put it above your computer monitor, make a a background for your phone. You know, I also made the lock screen of my phone, a, a, a goal of mine last year and it really helped push me forward to get to where I am this year. You could also, you know, if you only have one or two goals, you can even repeat them every time.

Raymond: 20:58 You know, there's a little a brain hack. Once again, Dr. Raymond here, a repeat those goals. Every time you do something specific, like every time you brush your teeth, every time you get into the car, you know, you gotta do whatever you can to not let the excitement of your goals lose steam. So every time you get into the car, you know I want to expose my skies better. You know, brushing your teeth, you know, I want to expose my skies better. I want to you know, get better at posing, even though those weren't smart goals there. But those just came off the top of my head. Whenever you get into those things because you do them at least once a day, I hope you brush your teeth once a day. If not though, you know, whenever. Then once again, it's going to increase the likelihood of you achieving your goals and make sure that you don't lose steam when moving forward, when you know, as, as time goes on and things start to get tough.

Raymond: 21:52 So that's step number five is to make baby steps, make a low heel stair step to get to where your goals are. So it asks yourself, how am I going to do that? How am I going to, you know, achieve my goal? What needs to be done to get there? Is it that you need a specific piece of equipment? You know, like landscape photography, you, you should, you should really have a tripod. You know, if you really want to make something interesting. Sometimes there's multiple exposures and you just can't simply do that handheld. So maybe, maybe you do need a tripod. Okay, I get it. Or maybe you need to learn something specific. Oh, I, I need to learn how to you know, price my photography. I have, I have no idea how to do that. I was just going to pick a number out of thin air.

Raymond: 22:36 I was going to research what other people in my area were charging, you know, but w you need to learn something then, then that's that goal, right? So if you want to, you know, shoot those seven weddings a year, you need to figure out that pricing. So breaking down your goal into baby steps and then you can plan it out that way. So, you know what, let's, let's work through that. So if you want to book seven weddings by March 31st from scratch you know, maybe your baby steps would be established pricing by January 5th. Okay. So now you need, you got from the first to the fifth to learn the, the you know, ins and outs of pricing, photography, and then you need to establish what your pricing is going to be by January 5th. Okay. Now you need to create a priceless PDF to be able to send to, to potential clients.

Raymond: 23:30 You need to make that by January 6th. Okay? Again, baby steps, just do one thing a day. Okay. I need to make a, a, I should probably have a contact form on my website so that people can reach out to me. Okay. I'll do that by January. When I say eighth, eighth I need to put together a folder of my best images so that I can post on social media by January 10th to let people know who I am. I'm, I'm gonna create a promotion for couples, a an album upgrade. You know, if they upgrade, if they, if they booked me for their wedding by March 31st or 30th, whatever, then they're going to get an album upgrade. So I'm going to create that promotion by January 11th. Okay. Now I need to, I should probably create a list of promotional messages to go along with those images so that when the time comes, I'm not just sitting there blankly looking at, you know, Facebook as to what I should write and then I just get lost.

Raymond: 24:23 So I should do all that by January 13th. All right, now I've got all my images. I then I need to schedule out the, the, the photos, schedule out the social media campaign by January 14th, and then on January 15th, I will reach out to some friends and family to ask if they know anybody getting married this year and obviously offer that promotion and then you just move forward, right? So those, that would be a great, you know, list of baby steps to get you going where you need to go to to achieve your goals. And I never would have come up with a set of baby steps that specific, if my goal was to learn photography, you know, and if it was to book 60 weddings, then geez, I mean this, this, these would not be baby steps. It would not be done in a year.

Raymond: 25:11 So, so therefore they wouldn't be baby steps in da. I mean that, I don't even want to think about that. That's rough. It takes years. So again, tip number five, make baby steps. So number six, make a challenge out of it. A few years ago when you know not flappy bird wants the angry birds when angry birds was like the big game, you know, on a, on the iPhone or I think it came to Android, probably did. I remember I first downloaded it and the first level was just like Slingshot, a burden to a thing. And I was like, this is like, it's so easy. Like what, why, why do people like this game? I don't get it. Like there's, there's no challenge here. And then, you know, level two was things shot a bird into a two story house. And it was like, ah, okay.

Raymond: 25:59 So I got to, okay, so I'm going to hit the bottom of this house. So the whole thing collapses under it. Got it. And then level three was like, well wait, now there's, there's, there's two houses. Okay, so how do I go? And then you figure that out. So progressively gets harder and harder. So by the time you get to level 10, just saying like, Oh, I'm like, I cannot quit. I like, how do I, this is like a whole condo, a bird condo. I got to get that thing and Oh, but now I have extra birds and they have special powers. This one's a bomb. So I could hit it and then make it explode. The whole thing. This is going to be great, but when it gets progressively harder, you know, but it starts off super easy. Like so easy that you can't not go to the next level, then that is going to you know, that challenge is going to force you to, to move forward, take that next action.

Raymond: 26:45 But if it started out on level 10, there's different types of birds. I don't know what they all do and it just like a giant house. I'm not going to keep going because it's not, it's not intuitive. It's not fun. It's, it's, but because I feel like I've earned that spot, I'm going to keep going, right? So one thing that you could do is print out a calendar, right? Just search January 20, 20 calendar, you know, PDF or whatever on Google, you're going to find a free calendar right there. You just print it out. And then you just write down those baby steps, right? Establish your pricing January 5th. So each day that goes by and you complete your goal, you cross it off, make an X, you make a streak so that you can keep going with it. When you, when you keep going, it's going to create that momentum going forward.

Raymond: 27:37 And if you've already made, you know, your, your, your list of promotional messages, PR, promotional messages to go along with those photos, you're going to schedule out those photos on social media. You're not going to stop there and be like, wow, look at all these cool photos that I got. I'm kind of busy tomorrow. I'm going to take the day off. You're not going to do that. You're going to keep going because that next step is a no brainer. It makes sense. So that's why you're going to do that. But when you make a challenge out of it, it becomes more fun and you can see that visual progress. So do that. And then that brings me to step number seven. Step number seven, you have to check in with your goals. So chances are, you know, every year you probably have three to five goals.

Raymond: 28:25 It's not just one, right? Because if it's one, it's something super vague. Learn photography. If you have 10, it's stuff that's super specific and usually pretty crazy. So a good range is three to five goals. And you know, most will probably last longer than three months, like our book, seven weddings by, by March 30th goal here. So make a date on your calendar to check in with yourself quarterly so that you can reassess those goals. Remember this, this, this should be a lifestyle setting goals. This is not like a one and done thing, right? It's not like, Oh, it's that one time of year where I set a goal. You know, I'm going to do this thing. Oh sweet, I did it and now I'm done. Now I can just sit back. It's never like that because when you book those seven weddings, okay, sweet you, you made your goal, but now where now what are you doing?

Raymond: 29:24 You don't just book seven weddings and now you're out of the photography business. You have to keep going. So you need to make this a lifestyle, these setting goals, this isn't a temporary thing and if you want to be effective in setting your goals, then you need to continue to do so. So it a quarterly review. Make that a process. Every date on your calendar. I have an entire 2020 calendar printed out right here in front of me that is a quarterly calendar and I have the dates in my calendar where I'm going to check in quarterly with myself to look to the next quarter, figure out what the next goals are going to be and then how make those baby steps where I can achieve them. I follow this exact exact process. So obviously December, you know now is the perfect time to be doing so.

Raymond: 30:15 It gives you a little bit of extra time to figure out what those goals are and how you can implement them. But the next date that I'm going to look forward and have my quarterly assessment is March 23rd and then it is June 22nd September 21st and then December 21st as well. So going forward, those are my dates that I will take the entire day to do a quarterly assessment of, you know, where, where did I come from, how did I do with my goals that I set, and then what's next, right. Or what needs to be tweaked. Often, you know, sometimes you can make a goal that is a little crazier than it is Epic. So you can reassess those goals, you can tweak them and then you can move forward. Maybe you've smashed your goal. Maybe you booked seven weddings by February 3rd right? Which is a Monday. I don't know why I said it's Monday, which is a Monday.

Raymond: 31:13 Great. So now come March. Oh, what's, what's next? You know, that was actually easier than I thought. How can I, you know, go forward with that information? Maybe I can make a slightly bigger goal next time. But when you make a quarterly process out of it, that keeps up that momentum that prevents them from losing steam and that gets you moving forward. So step number eight is to hang out with people who are also moving forward. One of the most impactful things that was ever said to me is that you are the sum of the five people you surround yourself with. And I remember I fought back my entire life who are always those, like, who are those five people that I spent growing up? Then I surrounded myself with and I looked at myself and I see a lot of myself in them. I do.

Raymond: 32:03 And then even when I would take jobs, right? And I would have coworkers, I would think of the five people who I would sit around, the five people who I would spend the most time with at work. And suddenly I would think to myself, I kind of am like them. I talk a little bit like them, I, you know, interact with them the same way that they interact with me. I am becoming the sum of the five people who I surround myself with. So you can use that to your advantage. If you spend more time with photographers, you are going to become a better photographer. If you spend time with an interesting who's taking interesting photos that's going to push you forward, that's going to make you interested in getting interesting photos. The conversations that you have will be about photography. You will look at photos, you will photograph together.

Raymond: 32:55 You will have a group to, you know, to look at those photos. Have a core group of people who will share your struggles. You can share your struggles with them and they can help you break past those things. A, you know, I, I don't know, I just don't, I have a real hard time getting, you know, that, that nice, smooth, you know, glassy, you know Creek river. Look that, you know, that you guys get, how do you, how do you do that in your photos? Oh man. Well that's, you know, that's, that's easy to do actually. You get the camera nice and low, you gotta use a long shutter speed, that's a thing. But obviously when you have a long shutter speed, then that introduces a lot of light. So I use a neutral density filter that that cuts out the amount of light so that I can continue to have that longer shutter speed.

Raymond: 33:46 And when you have a longer shutter speed, you get that motion blur. And that's how you get the look of running water or motion in your photos. Oh my gosh, this is great. I never, I wouldn't even know what to ask if I was online. How to make water look flowy. Like that doesn't make any sense, you know, but when you, when you can talk with people, when you have that group of people who you can share your struggles with and they can help you, that is where your growth as a photographer will explode. And nowhere is that more important than when you move past photography. You know, when you move past photography as a hobby and start using photography to make money with your camera, because this is, this is an area where we get into and we can kind of figure out the artistic side and there's really no deadline to it.

Raymond: 34:38 So we can just take our time moving forward. But once we've made that commitment to make money with our camera, instantly there's a time on it because you only have so much money until you need to make more money. So there's this artificial deadline and that makes it really difficult because if you have those struggles, you can't just kind of wait it out and see what happens. You need to figure out what that answer is and you need to figure it out now. And that is exactly why I formed the premium member membership, Facebook group. So this Facebook group is just for obviously premium members because I know that when I first started, I would have found having a safe place to share those questions that I have to ask for help with the ideas that I'm struggling with would have been invaluable. And I wanted to create that for new photographers because I wasted a lot of time in the beginning doing things that didn't move my business forward at all.

Raymond: 35:37 You know, I'm the kind of person that when I have a problem, I just kind of, you know, become reclusive and just hope that it just goes away. And very rarely do I attack it head on. But I've realized in these past few years that if you attack it head on, then you can take care of that problem. And not only is it going to take care of that problem, but you're going to solve problems in the future as well because those same problems will come up again. But if you can mitigate that by knowing what the problem is and how to solve it, you've just saved yourself. Not only time, but the headache of worrying all the time. So in fact, on, on December 19th, I'm actually going to be hosting a live goal-setting workshop within the premium members group where we will come in. We're going to come up with those goals.

Raymond: 36:32 So this podcast right here is all about like how to set up the goals, but in the workshop we're going to actually come up with those goals and I'm going to be there to help you figure out whether they're crazy, whether they're too vague, how to make them more smart and then even how to come up with the steps to achieve them in 2020 and then guess what? Because you're already surrounded by the people who are moving forward, you are going to have a place in 2020 you're going to have a group of people who will help you move forward in your goals. And me personally, the whole tribe of fellow premium members are going to make it our mission to make sure that you move forward in your goals. I'm going to make sure that you move forward in your goals. Other members are going to make sure that you move forward in their goals or or in your goals and then you in turn are going to want to make sure that they move forward in their goals.

Raymond: 37:20 And then when you figure out what all these other photographers goals are, it's going to give you ideas. It's going to make you more specific. You're going to get more excited. Now that you're having conversations about photography, it's going to change the way that you think. Because oftentimes, I'll be honest, it's hard for me to have conversations with my wife about the business side of things or about photography because from the outside it seems so easy. Oh, we'll just just get more clients. Oh, gotcha. From the outside, it just like there's always a very easy answer, but it's typically too vague or it's frustrating. So having that safe place of fellow photographers who are interested in a very specific topic, like making money with their camera and growing a photography business and being able to share those thoughts and ideas with them so that they can help is going to be the one thing that moves you forward in 2020 no need to even leave your house.

Raymond: 38:18 That's fantastic. So again, tip number eight, hang out with other people who are moving forward because it will move you forward. Okay. Lastly, number nine, what in your life, or I'm sorry, simulate what your life would look like after you hit your goals. So goals are great. You know, we want to think about, Oh, if I could just figure this, everything would be great and everything would be perfect. That's something that I want to do. But oftentimes we think of the goal as the end, but it's not, we still have to live our life. So simulate what your life is going to look like after you hit that goal. You know, how will you feel? What will your family say? See that in your mind, and then plan a celebration. Plan rewards along the way. If you book seven weddings by March, what are you going to do to celebrate?

Raymond: 39:10 Because let me tell you something. That is something to celebrate. You know, maybe you're not going to take your whole family on a trip to Disney. You know you're not going to go on that Disney cruise that you've been looking at, but you can certainly take the family out to a nice dinner or get yourself a relaxing massage. Just make sure that they focus on the shoulders because shooting weddings can just be murder on the shoulders, but it can really help right now to plan out what those you know, rewards, what that celebration is going to be when you hit certain milestones and don't just make it, you know have a celebration only after you, after you booked those seven weddings because you're really gonna feel like a failure if you don't hit those seven weddings and you don't get, you know, that reward that you are really looking forward to.

Raymond: 39:57 So, you know, have something along the way, you know, maybe a halfway through your goals. So what did I have earlier? It was a, you know, after you make the goal of you know creating the list of promotional messages to send along, you know, took, go along with those images, then maybe you are you're gonna take a day off and you're going to go to the park with the kids because you've been working really hard and you need that family time and you just love playing with them. So you're going to spend that time with them. And that is your reward because now you're, you're, you're moving forward, you got some focus and you're making steps towards your future. So reward yourself because that's a big thing. Like I said last week, if you're not in control, if you don't have a plan for your life, you're simply going to become part of somebody else's plan for theirs.

Raymond: 40:49 So have that plan for your life. Goal setting is one of the most important things that you can do. All right, so let, that's it. Let's recap all of our steps today. So step number one was realize that you need to make a change. That's a mindset thing. That's not an actionable thing. That is realizing, Oh, you know, I'm just not happy with something and I need to make a change. Step number two is to figure out where you need to make that change. I just can't, you know, I just cannot get everything, you know, it's just not, my landscape. Photos aren't beautiful. They look more like snapshots. So I need to figure out, okay, it's the sky I need to focus on. The sky. I need to all the tones in a photo and then set Epic goals. You know, it's not going to be something crazy like I want to win landscape photographer of the year and it's not something vague like shoot more landscape photos.

Raymond: 41:48 It gets something achievable and then make it seen. Put it somewhere where you're going to see it every single day. You know, in the case of a landscape photo, maybe it's putting the landscape out of it you like as the background of your phone so that every day you see it everyday you see it and that's going to push you to make the goals that you want to want to achieve, which is step number five. Take those baby steps, figure out the exact path that you need to take that will get you to learning and achieving your goal. Step number six, make a challenge out of it. Put those baby steps on a calendar. Cross it off every day that you complete your a baby step. Step number seven, check in with your goals. Don't let them lose steam and then when you achieve them, reassess, move forward.

Raymond: 42:37 What's the next goal? Listen, there will always be a next goal. Don't feel like, Oh yeah, but if I do that for like, you know, five or six years, I'm not going to have any goals left. Eventually I'm going to get to the point to where I just know about photography and I don't need to make goals. That is not true. That's not true at all. I still make goals. I'm talking to you about the goals that I made this year, right? So continue to check in with your goals. Number eight, hang out with those and others who are moving forward themselves so that you can feel that momentum so that you will feel excited about moving forward and so that you will take action. And then step number nine, simulate what your life will look like after you hit your goals. That is it. Those are my nine steps.

Raymond: 43:24 Oops, there we go. And just knocked over my heater. Those are my nine steps to hitting your goals or creating goals, rather creating in hitting goals for again, I mean, when you do that, when you, when you, when you see that you're making progress, everything just feels better. When you feel like you have control of your life and where it is going, everything feels better. And that's what I want because in 2020 my goal, I guess my mission statement rather is listener success and that you, it is your success. My goal for the year is your success. And again, I know that, that that sounds really vague. And maybe I should make it smarter. You know, maybe I should list a number of how many people I'm going to make sure that they succeed. But this is more of a mission statement for me and how I frame what it is that I put out for you, whether it be an episode like this where I talk and give you like an education or whether it's through the questions that I ask in the interviews going forward in 2020 knowing that my goal for the year is listener success.

Raymond: 44:36 Your success is going to reframe how I look at the world and how I go forward with this. So again, that is it for this week. So thank you so much for joining me. Until next week, I, you know what, if you didn't go out and shoot, I'd be okay with that because I would rather you actually sit down and come up with these goals and think about the future. Just do a little bit of future planning, take a few days off of photography. God, that sounds so weird to say. Take a few days off of photography and really think about these goals so that you have something to move forward with in 2020. Because I want you to make, do I want you to make more, I want you to do more and I want you to make, do with what you got. So until next week, yeah, join me next week where we talk about how to use your new camera that you got for the holidays. So that is that until next week, I will see you then. Talk to you later.

Outro: 45:37 If you enjoy today's podcast, please leave us a review in iTunes or your favorite podcast player and continue the conversation with Raymond and other listeners of the podcast by joining the beginner photography podcast Facebook group today. Thank you. We'll see you again next week.