Have you ever heard of the saying, talent is overrated?
Of the large number of you who have, what do you think that actually means?
In today’s blog we are going to take this same notion and expand on it a bit further so we can better understand what it truly means to online coaches like ourselves and others alike.
Often times when it comes to the world of business and entrepreneurship, we find that there is an endless amount of skills, talents, niches, industry types and business models at play. However if we were to look at any of them at a micro level, we’ll be sure to find that they all operate from a place of talent combined with a strong and stable degree of worth ethic. A work ethic that not only helps any one person turn their dreams into a stable reality, but also be able to catapult their business to a degree they’ve never seen nor experienced before.
The client that I will be sharing with you today isn’t just one that most would call “out of the ordinary” or a rare breed, if you will. Instead she is much more similar than you’d think. Now as always I will be preserving her name and identity for privacy reasons, but do have her permission to share her story to help shed light on this topic and hopefully help you reading this gain the momentum you need to begin marking off some of those tasks from that business focused to do list of yours that you might’ve been staring at for some time now.
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Sammy was an avid photographer. She gotten into this field of work right out of college and within a short period of time, was able to leave her unpaid internship roles and start earning cash for her talent. She really enjoyed her worked, to the the point where she would even sell some of it at local museums and festivals.
When she first started out, Sammy would take photos of anything you can possibly imagine. From graduations, to birthday parties and butterflies, you name it. But as time progressed, she started to find herself enjoying nature based photography more so than other fields. With that awareness, she started to take her passion to another level. She branched into not only the animal space, but also the plant based one as well. Sammy started to work with local parks and recreations to get projects going for her college photography department, that way she was able to contribute to the art and be able to pave a way for other fellow photographers for years to come.
From one project to another, Sammy was on a role. Within a number of years, she was able to double her earnings and begin creating multiple streams of income to a degree she had never seen of before. She partnered up with an agency and started to film and sell online courses where she would teach other young and aspiring photographers the art itself and how to make a living out of it, as a beginner and so on.
But with time, some things began to change within Sammy. Yes she made great money and she had a great following of folks within her community that knew of her work, supported her and had their friends/family become inspired from. However there was something about her that just wouldn’t let her pursue other goals of hers that she at one point had.
It was almost as if, Sammy had lost her momentum. She still showed up for her scheduled photography sessions in which she was booked for. Yet, she just felt as if she lost her desire to do much more in her field.
So she decided to take some time off.
One week turned into two weeks and before you know it, one month turned into one year. Now unlike Sammy, Im sure some of us here wouldn’t be able to take that much time off without having to run out of money to tend to some of our basic needs in the meantime. So in that regard, she was fortunate to take that time off. But if you were to wonder, gee what did she end up doing with all that time off? Well to simply put it, she didn’t do much.
Instead of maybe working on another project within a different genre of art or even industry, Sammy decided to prioritize her time with other things. Of these were hours and days long marathons of binge watching tv shows and movies, as well as hanging out with her friends and family. She’d take care of her home and her basic daily tasks within her personal life. But aside from just that, Sammy was much too focused on getting the rest she needed to find out what she truly wanted to do, in this case photography still felt right to her and if she still had the passion for it after having taken so much time off.
Before you know it, that year turned into two and at this point, Sammy needed to take some action. She realized that she didn’t want to work in any other industry or do anything else for a living. She felt like she got all the rest she needed to pursue and visit her passion for photography again. However despite overcoming that mental hurdle, Sammy still felt she wasn't fully ready to go back into her line of work at full speed. Instead, she just started selling some of her work to individuals she knew of but she didn’t care to attend any event she was invited to or relaunch her courses again. In other words, Sammy found herself being complacent.
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She reached out to me after having gone through much of this on her own and we began working together. Almost immediately I was able to notice that there wasn’t anything per se that was holding her back besides just herself. She agreed that she still had a passion for photography but just didn’t want to work on it as much as she used to, however she couldn’t see herself doing anything else besides that.
By our second conversation, we were able to dissect what was really holding her back, it was her work ethic. You see, Sammy had what we all know as a limiting belief. She thought that if she did the bare minimum, she’d get the results she needed in her business just to get by. However as time progressed, she realized that just wasn’t the case. She knew she had to make a mental switch inside her mind, however she didn’t know how nor where to even begin.
As we worked together, we started to implement a strategy and schedule in place that would allow her the flexibility to get what she needed done but also give her enough time away from her work, that it gave her the free time that she wanted. Soon enough, she was able to see that when she worked her free time became almost like a reward, that was it gave her an incentive to get more quality work completed throughout her working hours but still be able to enjoy her time off in any way in which she desired.
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In case you’re wondering, the strategy we implemented was for her to find a way to define what her work ethic really meant to her. Once we gained that clarity, then we came up with the necessary steps to detach the value and her perception on what she thought society would expect from her to help shed some light onto her situation at hand. Like most of us, societal expectations have a way of adding unnecessary amounts of pressure on us all. However its best to not allow it to hold any of us back. So once we helped Sammy come up with the clarity she needed she take the next steps in her business, is when things started to turn in her favor.
Sammy noticed the schedule we put in place for her not only became manageable for her but it gave her a roadmap of what to expect from herself moving forward. She also realized that our checkins (which went from weekly to biweekly) gave her that extra accountability factor and support she needed to stay on top of her schedule.
Soon enough, Sammy was right back at it. She showed up to every call with excitement and enthusiasm to get what she needed done in her business and be able to better prepare herself for the next few tasks she had waiting for her. The more we worked on her limiting beliefs and deep hidden fears, the more she noticed her work ethic and the way she viewed her productivity improve.
What happened next?
She started to notice her outlook on life and quality of start to improve as well. She no longer felt guilty for her time off from her business, knowing that when she was working on her business she was fully engaged in it.
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If there was one key takeaway from us working with one another, it would be that Sammy realized how important ones work ethic really is. Talent just simply isn't enough and after seeing that herself, we were able to help empower her by shifting her beliefs and putting her in a position to productively work at a speed that made her feel her best both inside and outside of her business.
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Until next time my friends, keep your head up and know that whatever “obstacle” that comes your way throughout your business journey, its really just a blessing in disguise.
XO
-Bauer
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