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Money: What's Blocking You?

Lesson 50 from: 28 Days of Portrait Photography

Sue Bryce

Money: What's Blocking You?

Lesson 50 from: 28 Days of Portrait Photography

Sue Bryce

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Lesson Info

50. Money: What's Blocking You?

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

First 2 Years: The Truth

1:23:37
2

Teaching 2 Photographers in 28 Days

1:10:45
3

Rate Your Business

1:05:08
4

Year One in Business

1:00:34

Day 2

5

28 Challenges

1:21:39
6

Fear

1:04:07
7

Price & Value

1:10:17
8

Checklist, Challenges, and Next Steps

26:35

Day 3

9

Day 1: The Natural Light Studio

38:09

Day 4

10

Day 2: Mapping Your Set and Outfits

1:54:32

Day 5

11

Day 3: One Composition - Five Poses

35:49

Day 6

12

Day 4: Flow Posing

49:31

Day 7

13

Day 5: Posing Couples

55:55

Day 8

14

Day 6: Capturing Beautiful Connection & Expression

40:47

Day 9

15

Day 7: The Rules - Chin, Shoulders, Hands

56:24

Day 10

16

First Weekly Q&A Session

1:00:15
17

Day 8: Rules - Hourglass, Body Language, Asymmetry, Connection

28:39

Day 11

18

Day 9: Styling & Wardrobe

40:50

Day 12

19

Day 10: Shooting Curves

48:40

Day 13

20

Day 11: Posing & Shooting - Groups of 2, 3, and 4

28:46

Day 14

21

Day 12: Posing & Shooting Families

28:36

Day 15

22

Day 13: Products & Price List

56:53

Day 16

23

Day 14: Marketing & Shooting the Before & After

41:20

Day 17

24

Day 15: Phone Coaching & Scripting

52:56

Day 18

25

Second Weekly Q&A Session

1:02:21
26

Day 16: Posing Young Teens

43:02

Day 19

27

Day 17: Marketing & Shooting - Family First Demographic

33:14

Day 20

28

Day 18: The Corporate Headshot

1:05:43

Day 21

29

Day 19: Glamour Shoot on Location & Shooting with Flare

53:56
30

Photoshop Video: Glamour Shoot on Location & Shooting with Flare

11:06

Day 22

31

Day 20: Photoshop - Warping & the Two Minute Rule

1:22:22

Day 23

32

Day 21: Posing Mothers & Daughters

42:22

Day 24

33

Third Weekly Q&A Session

1:31:41
34

Day 22: Marketing & Shooting - 50 & Fabulous Demographic

1:04:00

Day 25

35

Day 23: Shooting into the Backlight

58:22
36

Bonus: Shooting into the Backlight

06:52

Day 26

37

Day 24: Marketing & Shooting - Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

39:17
38

Photoshop Video: Girl Power Demographic (18-30s)

1:07:21

Day 27

39

Day 25: The Beauty Shot

46:32
40

Bonus: Vintage Backdrop

04:54

Day 28

41

Day 26: Marketing & Shooting - Independent Women Demographic

49:40

Day 29

42

Day 27: Sales & Production

54:30

Day 30

43

Day 28: Posing Men

52:19

Day 31

44

Bonus: Pricing

42:32
45

Introduction

11:36
46

Photography, Style, Brand, and Price Part 1

1:06:49
47

Photography, Style, Brand, and Price Part 2

47:24
48

Marketing Part 1

38:01
49

Marketing Part 2

1:12:04
50

Money: What's Blocking You?

49:15
51

Bonus: The Folio Shoot

52:29

Day 32

52

Photo Critiques Images 1 through 10

23:11
53

Photo Critiques Images 11 through 27

25:01
54

Photo Critiques Images 28 through 45

30:19
55

Photo Critiques Images 47 through 67

36:47
56

Photo Critiques Images 68 through 84

23:22
57

Photo Critiques Images 85 through 105

36:01
58

Photo Critiques Images 106 through 130

34:49
59

Photo Critiques Images 131 through 141

13:45
60

Photo Critiques Images 142 through 167

25:27
61

Photo Critiques Images 168 through 197

29:13
62

Photo Critiques Images 198 through 216

25:51

Day 33

63

Identify Your Challenges

35:06
64

Identify Your Strengths

22:16
65

Getting Started Q&A

22:54
66

Rate Your Business

31:29
67

Marketing Vs Pricing

33:26
68

Facing Fear

23:45
69

The 28 Day Study Group

15:02
70

Selling Points

40:35
71

Interview with Susan Stripling

18:03
72

Emotional Honesty

29:09

Day 34

73

Sue's Evolution

18:36
74

28 Days Review

15:14
75

Student Pitches

11:28
76

28 Days Testimonial: Mapuana Reed

09:02
77

How to Pitch: Starting a Conversation

37:28
78

Your Block: Seeing is What You're Being

35:30
79

Your Block: Valuing and Receiving

37:09
80

Building Confidence: Your Own Stories

20:45
81

Building Confidence: Your Self Worth

36:05
82

Pitching An Experience

34:16
83

Pitching An Experience: Your Intentions

18:15
84

Pitching An Experience: Social Media

30:14
85

Final Thoughts

24:35

Lesson Info

Money: What's Blocking You?

Money, let's talk about money. Isn't it funny money is such a desired and sought after evil? Isn't it funny that we call it an evil? Okay, I grew up with no money and I had no money throughout most of my life. So it wasn't until I was in my mid 30s did I ever start to accumulate money and I first learned to earn it. So I always earned my wage, but my wage was between four and maximum 800 dollars, that's where my wage was. And that's throughout my lifetime as a photographer. So even when I did a seven thousand dollar shoot in my 20s my boss got to keep that money and I resented him for it, because I didn't understand that he was just playing an average. I just saw seven thousand dollars for my photography, which essentially I got $50 for. So I had no concept of money in terms of commerce. Money in terms of business. I had no concept of money and I was also an over giver of money. So very over generous with my money and never received money, never received it very well, and always strugg...

led with that. So it would flow out very, very fast and not come back very, very easily. I also grew up in a family of blue-collared workers who were very hard workers and we're all very hard workers, my entire family. My little brother struggles with money, my big sister struggles with money, but my big brother never did, never did. Even as a kid we would be given two dollars, five dollars, I would go and spend mine with in the hour. My dad used to say to me, "It's burning a hole in your pocket, isn't it? It's burning a hole in your pocket." And I would have to go and spend it and my brother saved it. Always, he was the same with his Easter eggs. He was the same with anything he was given as a kid he kept and I spent. As we grew up he accumulated because he's a hard worker, but he's a blue-collared worker saver. And I was a blue-collared worker spender. Then he went from being a butcher to a builder and as his income increased he built wealth through buying homes. Now, my brother has bought homes three homes and I had bought none. And I had flown to stay with him twice a year for seven years, which equates right around $37,000, which was a deposit on a home. I had always spent my money on things that were valued to me, travel, living a lifestyle, owning stuff. And I spent my money quite heavily on what I valued and what he valued was accumulating, so he accumulated, and if that meant he couldn't come visit me, he wouldn't. He would see me eventually anyway. So I started to get resentful about that. I fly to your house twice a year, I spend all this money to come and visit you and your family you don't spend the money in return, instead you buy houses. And then I realized that that wasn't so much, it was what he valued. I valued spending time there with his children, he valued talking to me on the phone, but he valued buying houses more. And I realized that it had nothing to do with how we were brought up because my mom and dad were not accumulators, they never had the value for themselves. And my brother somehow got this gene. And I realized in that moment some people have the money gene naturally, and some people don't. So you can just sort of strike that off and say, "I'm always gonna struggle with money I'm a spender, I'm an over-spender." But the truth is there's a vast difference between how I think about money and how my brother thinks about money. You see, when you go to my brother's home, whether he owns the homes or not, the three homes, he does not have the things that I have. He would never spend ten thousand dollars on a couch, instead he spent two thousand dollars on a couch. My couch is ten times better, but he put his money elsewhere. So it's reflected in what's around me, what I own, what I spend my money on, what my values are. I realized very early on that I like nice things. So in order to have nice things that I've paid for not on credit and to have nice things at all I needed to earn more money than my brother. Because he saves more than me, but he goes without more than me. So in order to earn more I had to open up to earn more. Now, everybody wants more money. Everybody sitting in this room right now wants more income, correct? No matter what your income is, even if you're comfortable, you would like more. And yet the truth is, is what are you prepared to do for more income? So when everybody says, "I've set money goals to earn more money." You want to get paid more, for what? What are you gonna do to get paid? Are you gonna give more? You gonna create more? Are you going to make more? So I think there's two ways to make money. You can either be a service provider or a product maker. A service provider means that when you're giving a service you're getting paid. When you don't give that service you don't get paid. So as a photographer when you're giving a service you do not get paid if you're not shooting. So when you go on holiday your studio does not make money. Unless you have more than one shooter, correct? Then you can go on holiday and the service you provide is still running. That's business. Now, most people aren't at that stage yet, so you don't have a business you have a job. All right, and your job that means only when you work you get paid. Now, until you create a subsidiary income that supplements that wage, you will only get paid when you give the service you are giving. So if you're giving away that service for $ then it stands to reason you're not only getting paid when you do the service, you're not getting paid very well to do that service. So when you stop working and you don't get paid you're going to suffer. Because in order to not work you have to accumulate enough money in the bank to cover the times when there's no income. That's commerce, that's business. So I realized very early on that I needed to employ more photographers and my studio grew. What happened is I stopped shooting and I let other people shoot. And I started to die inside because I realized that what I loved doing the most was being taken away from me. And watching other people do it not as well as me hurt me greatly. Even though they made me the most amount of income, I made third year of business $880,000 in turnover. Three photographers, well two actually. My business partner stopped as well. But I was dead inside, so earning that sort of income did not make me wealthy. Do you know why? Because we were turning over income in order to pay a big lease, to pay eight wages. And at the end of the day I never made more money. Okay, I was still personally getting paid $50,000 a year, which is a thousand dollars a week. I was clearing a thousand dollars a week with all of my bills paid. So I was sitting pretty, I could pretty much just bank that and live on it. So I did what I always do, I lived on it. And then my studio's made close to two million dollars in it's first three years of business, and I'm debt free with maybe $50,000 in the bank. But I've made nearly two million dollars, but I'm not accumulating any wealth. I'm not buying, investing, or investing my money in things that will get me more money. I have not gone on a wealth trek, I simply have learned to create a better paid job. And I can now take a holiday because my studio's still making money when I'm not there. And I think I'm on the high-life. I'm like, "I've got money, money, money, money, I'm doing it, I'm rocking this lifetime. I've got money in the bank for the first time in my life. I've got money in the bank." One, I hated my life. I had started to ... I was a full time manager of ten people, nine including myself. I couldn't manager myself very well, so ten and one really difficult one. And I had money in the bank but once I stopped working that money just drained out and was gone. And just like that in my fourth year of business I found myself back to square one again. Cause I left my studio in New Zealand and moved to Australia. Two reasons, one was for love and the other one was to start a new studio in a brand new country. Big, big, big population. I went from four million people, rocking a studio in the country of New Zealand, to open a studio in Australia. I was there a week and I broke up with my boyfriend. So I was in a country that did not know me. I had $50,000 in the bank, and I failed so badly it wasn't funny. I instantly came back to a feeling of competition, defense, ego, and scarcity. How would I get known in this market, it's too big? Where do I go, what do I do? Even though I had done it, built it, I had not addressed any of my personal issues around money and I found myself back to square one in a country that did not know me, draining money out of my account. And this is what happened to me. Oh my goodness, I had a hundred and 80 dollars in my purse and a client owed me 300 bucks. I had spent over $50,000 out of my savings account and I had been in Australia for one year. Every single shoot I did I got blocked, money drained out of me, people would cancel their orders. I could not understand why I was attracting from this place of scarcity. And every single day I would wake up and say, "I hate my job, I hate doing what I'm doing." but I would do it. So here's the cool thing about the universe, you can't ask the universe to send you work and then tell the universe that you hate it and repel it, because that's what happens. I had to fly to the Gold Coast for a job. I had $180 in my purse and a client owed me 300 bucks. I phoned her, sorry, that's a lie. I emailed her cause I would never phone somebody and ask them for money. I emailed her and said, "Could you put that money through tonight, it's very important?" She emailed me back and said, "Certainly, I'm doing it right now." I paid I think $68 for a cab to the airport, could have taken a $20 shuttle, didn't think about that. Got to the airport, paid excess baggage on my computer equipment, on my camera equipment, on everything to go in to this shoot and I'm at rock bottom, okay? I get out of the airport at the Gold Coast, I've got five dollars in my purse and I go to the ATM and that woman never paid me that 300 bucks, I've got five dollars. This makes me cry, it was Valentine's Day, one year. I remember the date, I's like, oh. There I was built this million dollar studio with five bucks, alone in a country where I didn't know anybody I couldn't call them to pick me up. So I sat down on my bag and I started to cry. And I had five bucks in my hand and I said, "Universe, you have to help me cause I don't know how I got here and this is it. I can't go home and I don't know what to do. So help me cause I don't know what to do." And I had my head down and I heard this, pssssh. And I open my eyes and there's this big bus, double doors, and this guy, the driver he goes, "You all right there love?" And I said, "Do you go past 19th Ave?" And he goes, "Right past the front door." And I said, "How much?" And he said, "Three dollars fifty." And I realized in that moment I didn't have 20 bucks to catch a cab to my destination and it was seven miles away. It was about 92 degrees and I had about 90 pounds of luggage with me and a camera bag and I was prepared to take my running shoes out and drag my bags seven miles in that heat because I had no option. It never occurred to me that I could catch a bus. Cause I think in cabs. So here's this angel of a man looking at me with this beautiful smile on his face and I hand him my five dollars and he gives me a dollar fifty change. And I get on the bus and clearly I've been crying, I'm distressed looking, it's Valentine's Day. And he drops me off and right before he drops me off at the stop this woman says, "Yours is the next stop love." And I said, "Thank you." And I got off and I walked in, and I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do, I'm at rock bottom. I'm here to do a shoot and I'll probably get paid for it but I don't know when and I don't know how I'm gonna eat cause I've got a dollar fifty. But I believe that when you're at rock bottom there's always enough, or there's always something that gets you by. There's always something. I believe that. So I go to the apartment that I'm staying in that the woman who I've flown up there to shoot for. And it's a 1.6 million dollar apartment on the waterfront, on the Gold Coast of Australia. A property most people could never afford to stay in. I laugh at the irony. I open the door and there's a note and it says, "I realize that you've flown in late in the afternoon you probably wouldn't have time to get any supplies, so I've bought you a weeks worth of food." And so I did what most women do when they're in a state of distress, I ate just about everything I could in the pantry, and then drank the wine. Then I laid down in bed for two days and I cried. I cried for myself, for being a loser, for going backwards, for finding myself in the same situation, for wondering how I'm gonna get the next five dollars. And I lay there and as I lay there this thought overwhelmed me, and the thought was, I did this. I did this. I chose to come to a country that nobody knew me, and instead of going and marketing myself with confidence, I chose to sit at home in a state of hate, ego, competition, apathy, victim mentality, fear, and self hate. And instead of showing people my beautiful work, I instead viewed it with self hate, and said it was horrible and I can't do it and why would I do it. And I was prepared to give it up and go and get a job. And then I remembered what I had built. And I remembered why I had built it, and the reason I had built it was because I had hidden behind other people and I had not faced any of those issues with myself. So I sat there in that room and I said, "I declare out loud to the universe to whoever is listening to me right now. I make a decision that from today on I'm going to be so brave and it's going to frighten the hell out of me, but I have nothing to lose. I'm gonna to walk my true path. I'm gonna do what I want to do. I'm gonna believe in it because I don't have an option to starve or ring my mum and dad, at what, 38 years old and tell them I need a ticket home. No, it's not gonna happen and I can do it." And I believed in it. Right in that moment I said it out loud. And then the next day I woke up and there was an offer for a shoot on email and I responded immediately. And then rang the woman cause she'd given me a phone number, why wouldn't I ring it? Cause I was too scared to talk to people. Well, this time I rang it and she said, "Listen I know you're here for Janet and I would like for you to come and photograph me and my kids." I went to her house, I photographer her and her kids. And then her friend came over while I was doing her hair and makeup, myself with my own makeup, cause I didn't have a make up kit. And then I photographed her outside her own house, leaning against her outside wall, and inside and on the couch and you know... She paid me $3,800. And she wrote me a check the next day. Then her friend that came over said, "I liked her so much, can I book her?" And I did her shoot as well. And then by the end of the week I had done a third, Janet, who had actually flown me up there and given me that apartment. And by Friday I had $10,000 in the bank. And I don't know how that happens. All I know was that I made a frickin' decision right in that moment, it was do or die, and I had to confidently put myself out there and make money. And I did not have an option, it was die in that moment or survive. And I chose to survive. And then I decided that there's survival and then there's thrival. Okay, and I had to go past a survival instinct. I had to thrive at what I believed in. I had to put a value on who I was, what I do, and I had to actively pursue it. And you have to harden that up, cause when people say no to you, you gotta move on. And when people say, "I can't afford that right now." Say, "Sweet." Ask the next person, it's called shameless self promotion. You are worth that and instead what you want to do, you want to hold every person that says no to you, because it means that you're not good enough. And that's not business that is bullshit. And you are in the way of that, and you have to hold yourself there. And it's not the truth, it's not. By any stretch of the imagination. I made a decision that day, it was Valentine's Day. Do you have any concept, two years later within that week that I was standing at Creative Live telling people how to do this. And that two years, the two years from my last to this three years just gone, my last three years, I have made money hand over fist shooting. And nothing changed, but me. And you know it just came down to getting out of my way and putting a value on what I did. I realized in that moment I was not only egoic, a victim, apathetic, unable to take action for myself, lacking in confidence, filled with self hate, that had nothing to do with the market. By the way, 2008, worst year in history for all of us. And I turned it around, I turned it around because I just started actively and confidently deciding that what my value was. I set my package at $3,000 that week and I did three $3,000 sales plus $3,800, $3,200, I made $10,000 that week, then I had $10,000 in my bank. And I was like, "I had five bucks last Tuesday, it was Valentine's Day, I had a dollar fifty because I paid for my bus fare. I had a dollar fifty." And a week later I have ten grand. And I have the skill to make money, you have the skill to make money. You're the only person that's not doing it. So you want money, but what are you prepared to do to get it? Cause most of you would rather sleep in or cry about than actually do the work. I did. And you know, in that moment I was like, "Right, can you learn to be wealthy, can you learn that?" So for one year my bank account, and isn't it weird how you get a number and you then you stick in that number. I was like ten thousand dollars. My bank account would to go to ten thousand and then drain away. And then go to ten thousand and then drain away. And ten thousand... I had never had that money, myself, in my bank. Then I went to twenty thousand and it drained away. Then twenty thousand, drained away. Twenty thousand, and I knew that every time I hit a ceiling I would push through it. I would push through it and I would try and make it to the next block. And then it was sixty thousand, sixty thousand, sixty thousand. Breaking a hundred thousand was easy cause I went straight to one twenty. And then I was like, "No, now I'm making money. Now I'm making money and I'm keeping money." And I learned to ask for it and I learned to receive it. Left for leaving, right for receiving, thank you very much. I also learnt my value, I set my price and in stone, in my own self I set that in stone. And once I decided that that was my decision and that was what I was worth I just started to do it. And these are the questions I asked. Money, how do you feel about it? What do you think of wealthy people? How's this, two of my aunties married rich men. My mum and dad, nothing. They used to look down at us, well I felt they did as a kid. They used to have homes where you couldn't sit on the couch because you weren't allowed to touch the couch. Where which we had a couch we could make a hut out of. Who had more fun growing up? I thought what they had was better than us until I grew up and realized they had nothing. They had beautiful homes and nothing else. And when their husbands left them for women half their age, and my dad still adores my mother, I knew that my parent's valued something far greater than a couch you couldn't sit on. But I realized my problem with money was I thought assholes had money. Cause people with money treat people like shit. That was my belief. I want you to check that, what do you think of wealthy people? Capitalist pigs, just have enough, it's disgusting how much money they have, the money they spend. You need to check your energy around money immediately, let's do it. What are some of your blocks around money? What is your fear around money, what are your core beliefs around money? All right? How can you possibly be rich when half the world is starving to death? Half the world is starving to death and the other half is eating itself to death. And that is the incredible polarity, and isn't it congruous that that is happening, however I now understand that the more wealth I build as a human being, the more I educate other people to build wealth, the world is not in poverty, its becoming wealthy, Wallace D. Wattles. I'm not going to be guilty for earning money. I'm going to show you how instead of explaining why I have it. I gave a challenge out which I'm gonna give to you, and I gave to this Kenna, and you'll be shocked by Kenna's response, I'm sure she'll want to share it because it was such a beautiful one. What you focus on grows. That applies to your bank account and your ass. It does, sorry for saying ass. But the truth is, is at the end of the day if all you think about is how big your bum is, your bum gets bigger. If all you think about is growing wealth, your wealth gets bigger. If all you think about is your dick, your dick gets bigger. What you worry and obsess about grows. I was constantly fixated on what I did not have. I was constantly fixated on what I did not have and I did not know how to turn that around. In order to forget about what you don't have you need to focus on what you do have, and that's where gratitude helps. So if you think gratitude is airy-fairy, you are wrong. It is the most powerful energy in the universe. And you only need to meet people with an attitude of gratitude to know that they're wealthy. Because regardless whether they have ten dollars in the bank or ten million dollars in the bank, they're frickin' happy. Right? Because in the pursuit in happiness, even if you don't get what you want in the end you still had happy moments all the way through, is that not winning? Okay, so the fact is what you focus on grows. So instead of trying to focus on making money Jessica, try and focus on booking two shoots a week for the next six months. Then you're trying to make goals for work not money. Okay, then it's not about money, money, money, chasing money. You know what happens when you chase money, it keeps running away from you cause you're chasing it. Can you hear yourself? I'm chasing money constantly. Stop chasing it it'll come to you when you stop running, and it stops running away from you. All right, so from here all my fear around money left when I focused on my product value, this became service driven. I stopped focusing on myself. I stopped making it about me, okay. I've stopped making it my ego, my drama, my competition, my lack, I started focusing instead on what I was gonna give you to get paid for. Because I realized something, if I try and shoot you and I make it, "Please just give me $600, please just give me $600, I just need $600." There's a really good chance I'm gonna repel that. But if I focused on you and said, "I'm gonna give you the experience of your life, I'm gonna give you the experience of your life, I'm gonna give you the experience of your life. I'm gonna take the best photographs you have ever seen of yourself." And I didn't focus on money, I focused on that energy and you felt that, you paid for that. And whatever you paid for that I accepted gratefully as a perfect exchange, I accepted that gratefully. And then I started to shift that in myself, and I was like, "Wow, all of a sudden I've become a giver instead of a whinger, taker, complainer, not haver, scarcity, and that's where I was and if you don't believe that think for one minute about how you feel about money when you shoot and sell. Because I used to do shoots thinking, "God, I hope they just spend two grand, please let them spend two grand, please let them spend two grand, please let them spend two grand." Now I don't even care what they spend, I just try to take the best photograph that I have ever taken, this week. And it works straight away it started to flip around. How do you feel about money? What do you think of wealthy people? Those are the two questions that will really freak you out when you write it down. And I don't want you to just write one answer, I need you to write the answer. Okay, I want you to write down every bad feeling you have ever felt about accumulating wealth right now. Because remember what I said to you, you're quite happy to go into a job and get paid seven hundred bucks a week. You're quite happy to do Facebook at that job and know that you're ripping your boss off and help yourself to stamps and envelopes, which is stealing by the way. And if you don't think it's stealing try owning the company, it's stealing. And then all of a sudden you're quite happy to do all of that rip him off for seven hundred dollars a week, but when you go out in to business you can't make seven hundred dollars a week, because you're not worth that. And yet, thieving off somebody else and being on Facebook you're worth that, cause somebody else is paying. But when it comes to you paying yourself, suddenly your value's drained. So you need to look at what you think you're worth and if you can't turn that around within yourself you need to turn it around for your children, for your future, or just at a basic business sense. My business needs to sell this many units, at an average sale of, in order to make this amount so I can pay myself this, this is basic business. Remove all the emotion and value out of it, value the product instead of you. In fact, you're the one in the way, does everybody understand that? So all of a sudden there's money guilt. The world is poor, the world is poor and yet some people have 32 million dollar yachts. And that's gross, right? Gross wealth, or is it? I mean how they choose to spend their money is entirely up to them. It's not distributed wealth. If they gave all of their money to us, we would all be the same, that's not how it works. In every species in all evolution, there is an alpha male, alpha female, the strong survive, the strong thrive. If you want to look at people who are accumulating wealth, look at what they're doing. And they are not sitting at home crying about how good they are not. So getting out of your own way is one of the hardest things, acknowledging your existence and energy around money is a huge, huge... In fact when I finished the conversation with Jessica and I stopped recording, her and I started to have a conversation about money. Me about how I grew up with money and her about how she grew up with money. And that conversation is more powerful than me telling her off about her PDF. Because that is her core belief around what she's worth and that's what she told me the answer to. So all of a sudden that core belief around money incredibly enlightened. Because everybody just creates enough or enough struggle that you don't have to do anything. You have the right to thrive, you have the right for your children to have an abundant richful life. And you are not to let any excuse get in that way. So what I deserve, what I want, and enough to get by, is not enough. You deserve to have excess money in the bank. You deserve a home, a safe home for your children. You deserve to have clothes that keep you warm that you like, that you feel comfortable in. You deserve, if you value that, you deserve to have a fancy car. If you don't value it don't get one. If you want to have holidays in the Bahamas and drive a $2,000 Toyota then that's fine, that's your value. But you do not deserve to struggle, you do not. There is no struggle, that's your choice. Okay, so from here how are you going to get paid? You consider a dollar amount, but you're better to set an average amount. And an average amount is what you're going to get from your client. So as a photographer you're better to say, "I'm gonna work this year until my average is $1800, and then I'm going to work on 100 shoots this year." Which is two a week, at a turn over of $180, this is my profit margin, this is my profitability, this is what I'm going to pay myself, and this is how I'm going to survive and thrive this year. You're better to look at it like that and then turn it into business and service then you are to sit down and try and manifest money. Because if I told you right now that you needed to go and find me ten thousand dollars in the next three days from the streets of Seattle, you'd come back with maybe seven bucks and a cigarette. Okay, but if I told you to go out into the streets of Seattle and find six photo shoots, I guarantee you'd come back with six, right? And then your average sale would be reflected on what those six people would buy. So my average sale is $3,000, so it stands to reason that I would come home with $18,000, and you would come home with how much? Whatever your average is. So if I told you to go and manifest money, you won't find money. But if I told you to go and manifest work, then I guarantee you would look for people. Because if I look for money then I'm not looking at Valerie, I'm looking at her purse. I'm like, "I hope she pays me, I hope she pays me." But if I'm looking for Valerie, I'm like, "You're 66 years old, you are beautiful, I would love to photograph you. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do. I'm a photographer my name's Sue. I'll give you a business card and if you're ever interested in doing a photo shoot please call me, because you're amazing and I would love, love, love to shoot you. Give you my business card." I've got more chance of booking her than looking for her money. It's just amazing the attitude of gratitude with out doubt single handedly changes that because you're shifting away from what you don't want to focus on anymore. What you are getting is what you're focusing on. So that stands to reason that that's what you're focused on is what you're getting, do you understand? What you're getting is what you're focused on, what you're focused on is what you're getting. What you're getting is what you're focused on, what you're focused on is what you're getting. Over and over again, that's the hardest thing to shift. So the only way to distract yourself from all the negative shit that you are attracting constantly in your life when you say, "I'm broke, I can't afford it, I haven't got this." You have to stop and say, "Hang on, I am down to my last dollar, but I am not broke. My family is healthy and I have love and abundance and I have joy in my life." Now, this is one of the best things about being poor. My family didn't have much growing up, but I have a family that can sing and dance and play the guitar, ahh. When I'm near them I just want to sing with them and dance with them and play the guitar. No amount of money would bring me more joy. No Ferrari, no mansion on the hill would ever take my family from me. Because my family they are the core of what is good in all people, but my problem is is that my family is so poor. and I want to make them rich. And then I realized I didn't need to make them rich, they are rich. Some people just want more things. There's a difference between struggle and being rich. And my parent's don't struggle and yet they don't have much, but they are so rich. Do you know what my dad used to say when we were little? We would sit and watch the sunset and my dad would say, "Ah, I wonder what all the poor people are doing?" And I used to think, "Aren't we poor?" And then when I grew up one day I was with all my friends and we were drinking Veuve Clicquot and I was like, watching the sunset and I said, "I wonder what all the poor people are doing?" And one of my girlfriends said, "You can't say that." And I realized I couldn't, because I wasn't one of them. And I was like, "Oh, I just meant that I appreciate the sunset." And she was like, "Yeah, not cool." So the thing is is my values are different from my parents and when I started to make money I felt guilty about that. Because what do you do if you're becoming wealthy and people in your family have got no money and you feel guilty? Everyone's got one of those right? Somebody that makes them feel guilty about having stuff. Okay, I realized then that that was my guilt, it wasn't theirs. And I can have stuff, my family are okay with it. My brother thinks I should be putting it into housing. My sister doesn't care what I've got. My sister would never look at me and go, "Those are amazing boots where did you get them from?" She just doesn't care, she's more interested in what I've been drawing lately. Or have you been singing? What groups have you joined? You know when my business made $880,000 that year I was so stressed out I'd put on like 40 pounds. I was strung out. I had 50 grand in the bank. I went to my dad and I was like, "You know I've got 50 grand in the bank." I'm all like, nearly having a heart attack and dad looks at me and goes, "Cool, you happy?" And I thought, you prick. I worked my guts out for that money and he's right. You happy? No I wasn't, I wasn't happy at all. About to lose it all, about to realize that I wasn't making money from joy, I was making money from resistance cause I was trying to hold on. Wealth dynamics, I've talked about it before. In order to find the path that makes you wealth you need to do what you want to do in order to make money. Okay, that means you do not make money hating what you're doing. You make money by working through your hightest values on the right path. And your wealth dynamics profile is the profile that tells you what you are and how you make that money. I am a creator, I am at my prime when I am creating marketing. When I am creating income, that's when I am at my most powerful. If I am not creating images, if I'm not creating marketing campaigns, if I'm not creating PDFs. And you can see how passionate I am about them because in the year that most of you haven't done one I've done fifty and told you all that I can't believe how unexcited you've been by making PDFs. This is where I'm at my most powerful, this is when I make money. I always talk about this too. I talk about clear vision and goal setting because you can not create anything unless you have a clear strong vision for the goal you want to set. So if you want to get out of debt, in fact as John Demartini says, "The most incredible way to get out of debt..." is let's say you have debts that's $40, and he said, "break the debt into service." So he said, and let's say you get paid $700 a shoot and you have to divide $40,000 by $ and then look at that number and that's how much work you need to look for and then you can get out of debt. Because instead of having the debt loom over you, you just transfer it back into giving back in service and then that work comes to you. Because you're working from service instead of scarcity. And that's a really interesting way to look at it because it actually works. The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles is a free PDF. If you email me with in the subject line, if you email me in the next two week and say Free PDF I can email it to you, but if you don't write Free PDF in the subject line I'm not gonna answer you, because I'm gonna get hundreds if not thousands of emails. It's a free PDF which challenges you about money and I love it. It's free to give away as long as you do not copy the content or break it up in any way, shape, or form. So I've got that PDF and I'm happy to pass it on. All right, now for me I've showed this before, but what I want to show you is something different. Gratitude, dream big, clear vision. Okay, what if it was already there? So I drew this picture three years before I stepped on set of Creative Live. I'd never seen or heard of Creative Live. I drew this on my vision board cause I wanted to create a vision board for what I wanted for my future. I wrote under here, an educational warehouse for photographers. I didn't write, I will own it. Okay, I did write, an educational warehouse for photographers. What did I go into there, Creative Live? Look at that picture, look at the floor, look at the window, look at the brick. Look at the warehouse, look at the lights, look at the ceiling. How could I have envisioned that? Whether you call it the secret or whatever, clear vision, I knew where I wanted to go. I knew what I wanted to create. How did I do that? I don't know, that's just bloody magic. How did I do that window, why the window there? And why the floor, why did I define the floor? And why did I write a warehouse educational facility for photographers? Why? I don't know but that's what I wanted so I put it on my vision board, and my vision came to fruition. It turns out not only it exists, I was brought there. And I got booked, signed and advertised and in the studio before I saw the picture. And then I went like this, "Ahh, I've seen this before. Like a deja vu." So I go back to my vision board and there it was, even the window. And I'm like, "I don't even understand that." So I realized that in my manifestation, in my last three years turning around all my energy in to what I want instead of what I haven't got I started to do this. I called it the million dollar gift. And I said it to a friend of mine while we're having coffee. I said, "I've got a million dollars in my handbag. One million dollars." On the grand scheme of things that's not a lot of money. Cause you know it's gonna buy you a home and it's not gonna pay for much after you buy that home. So I said to her, "I've got a million dollars in my bag and I'm gonna give you this check for this million dollars right now, I'm gonna give it to you, but you can only take it if you start a business with it." And she was like, "Okay." And I was like, "Right." And then I've got a pen and paper and I was like, "What are you gonna build, you have to build a business out of it." You will be shocked at what you write. I want you to do that. I've got a million dollars for you and it's the million dollar gift. And I'm gonna give it to you to start a business, but you have to start a business that will make an income from it. I gave that challenge to Kenna at breakfast last week. And I said to Kenna, "Here's your money, tell me what you're gonna do with it." And Kenna started to list the things she would do. They involve travel, they involve setting up a foundation. They involve looking after her family and lots of other wonderful things, and all of them everything she lists involved giving money away. So we looked at her list and at the end of it I was like, "That's a great thing to do with the money, what else?" And says saying, "Well, look I have to pay my student loan, look after my mum." And I said, "Okay, everything you've written was handing money over to someone else." Didn't we not do that? And then we started to look at our own lists. Do you know what my list said? My list said I would do just about everything I wasn't doing in my normal life, this was three years ago. I want you to write the million dollar gift list and I need you to do it tonight. I want you to imagine that I'm going to deposit a million dollars in your bank account tomorrow morning and all you have to do is give me a list of the business you were going to make out of it. Do you know the irony is you don't need a million dollars? Because I built that business in my garage in New Zealand with $3,000 that I borrowed off my mum and dad. And I did not need a million dollars because I hear people all the time say, "I've got this idea for this business model if only somebody would give me this money I could do it." But when you really want to do it, you just start doing it. You don't know how, you don't know how it's gonna work. You don't know what the outcome is gonna be, you just start and somehow it happens and it arrives. And it just collectively doors open because you're filled with so much passion and enthusiasm for what you're doing it is like magic. So you do not need a million dollars to start a business. But what the million dollar challenge does is it alleviates for one minute everything that you don't like about what you currently have in the situation you currently have. Because a million dollars frees just about everybody. It frees you from a job you hate. It frees you from a relationship that is dead gone stale. It frees you from a mortgage. It pretty much frees everybody. A million dollars covers freedom for just about everybody. But what I need to know if why you're not doing that without the million dollars? Because the truth is is when you see that list you will be shocked at what you can achieve once you see it. So here's the cool thing, when Kenna did her list I did mine. Now, I haven't done this for three years. And three years ago I had a dollar fifty in the bank and I imagined that week that that $10, that I got was a million. And I started to think to myself, I'm gonna pretend I own this 1.6 million dollar home and that the $10,000 in my bank, those zeroes I can see six of them, and that I have a million dollars in the bank what would I do tomorrow if I had no fear of where my next dollar was coming from? What would I do tomorrow if I had no debt, no fear, no apathy, only opportunity? And then I wrote that list. And that list came to fruition. So I realized then that the only thing standing in the way for me creating anything was my belief system. And I had to uproot that belief system in order to challenge my blocks around money. And when I did start to do that I don't count money anymore. You know when I said, "And then that was $120,000..." Now it's just, I don't even know what's in my bank. I have a fair idea, I'm not stupid I do my taxes every two months, so, I know what I earn. But I no longer, I don't count every cent and every dollar and every... Now it's just auxiliary. It's an auxiliary income to a full passionate life that I'm now not afraid to have. And if I can do it anybody can do it. And when you do the million dollar challenge here's the thing, I just sat down and did mine, and everything I wrote on the list I'm already doing. So a million dollars right now, if you handed me a million dollars Valerie I'd say, "Thanks." I'd put it in my bank and I would keep working tomorrow. Cause I am already on my path and I know it's the right one, cause I wouldn't change a singe thing. Actually not true, there are three things I would change. I would pamper myself more. I would take more days off. And I would go to the gym more. I can do all of those things without a million dollars. Okay, that's just giving Sue a bit more time being a bit more gentle with her, cause she deserves that. I want you to do the million dollar gift challenge. I want you to write down what you would create. I gave this challenge to my friends who's a photographer struggling in business. She's come back with an entirely different business model, turns out she didn't want to be a photographer at all. She said, "Why was I so attracted to photography?" I said, "I don't know." She said, "Maybe it was just to find you so you could free me." And I said, "I didn't free you, you freed yourself." Her new business launches this month, I'm not gonna tell you what it is because when she builds it and opens it, then I'm gonna tell you that story. She learnt that with me, that she would always be in love with photography and it would be part of what she does, but it would not be her income. And I'm so proud of her because now she's started a business that has nothing to do with photography. Nothing. And it's something she's so passionate about. How could she possibly think for one minute that she couldn't? You're gonna do the million dollar challenge. After you do the million dollar challenge you're then going to have a look at what you do do and then you're going to compare it to what you would to if you had the money. And you are going to start focusing on that list of what you would do if you had a million dollars, and you're going to move towards it every single day. Because that is what makes you happy and fills you with passion. And you're going to slowly forget the debt. And then it will slowly go away because you will no longer be looking at it.

Class Materials

bonus material

Business Checklist
Keynote Part 1
Keynote Part 2
Posing Guide: Set Map and Outfit
Posing Guide: Flow Posing
Posing Guide: Couples Posing
Posing Guide: Curves
Posing Guide: Teen Posing
Posing Guide: Family Posing
Posing Guide: Over 50 Demographic
Posing Guide: Beauty Shot
Posing Guide: Posing Men
Workbook
How It Works
Styling and Wardrobe

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I have purchased four of Sue's courses and love them all. I have learned so much. I found the lesson on connecting with people thru their eyes has made a huge difference in my photos already. Her before and after's made me cry. I want to be able to take these kinds of photos for my family and friends. I just love what she does. She is such a great teacher. I learn much better seeing things done, so this was the perfect choice for me to learn. I love Sue's humor, her honesty, her detailed teaching and sweet and wonderful personality. Her sessions will or should not disappoint anyone. It is the best money I have ever spent on self-help teaching. Thanks a million creative live. You GOTTA LOVE SUE!

katie
 

Pure gold. Sue Bryce is likable, talented, funny, and an amazing teacher. She calls you on your BS (your excuses for why you aren't succeeding), gives you business, posing, marketing, pricing and LIFE advice. The class is 58 hours long - and you spend the majority of it looking right over her shoulder, through her lens and watch her walk through many, many photoshoots. She verbally and clearly repeats several critical formulas for success so it's imprinted in your mind. Her advice is crystal clear and your photography will dramatically improve after this class. Before Creative Live, you'd NEVER have had the opportunity to shadow a photographer of her quality... hands down the best photography class I've ever taken.

JRomkee
 

I have just began this course and I am excited to see how following her model will help me to improve and get my business started. I have been through the first two days and there is lots of information to absorb and things to get in order before I begin the actual challenges. I am thankful that there are photographers out there who are will to reveal there secrets ad are truly invested in others improving themselves in all aspects of their life and not just their photography skills. Thanks Sue Bryce for your passion for empowering woman and your knowledge of creating and sustaining a business by being true to who you and commitment to the improvement of others! I am excited to grow myself and my business, I am confident this will be worth every penny! Were the templates for the email PDF included in this course

Student Work

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