and life you love, and this is the MarieTV Call-In Show.

Bam!

I am here with Gregory Patterson.

Salutations.

Yes.

And we are gonna take your questions, and do our very best to give you, hopefully, some

good answers.

Let's do this.

I like that intro.

Hello, this is Jackie, can I help you?

Hi!

Hello!

Hi!

Oh we don't know what was goin' on there.

It was the minute of like hello, hello, hello, hello.

Hi Jackie, you're on MarieTV, how ya doin'?

Oh my gosh, I'm about to pee my pants right now!

Oh don't do that, don't do that!

That's how I'm doing!

Well actually, if you really wanna do that, go ahead and do that, you can do whatever

you want.

I'm at an age where that can happen any time, so, let's just do this.

Jackie you are here with myself, with Gregory, the rest of the MarieTV crew.

Hey.

And we are here to offer any insight and guidance.

So tell us your question, and then we'll dive in.

Okay, here's my Q. It actually is a little bit of a story, and it kinda starts a little

Debbie Downer.

So, seven years ago my mom passed away very unexpectedly.

Mm, so sorry.

So I... thank you.

I took that as a huge, huge wake-up call that I needed to live a more purposeful life, and

really go after my dream, which was to be a portrait photographer, and really just to

put all of my creativity out in the world that I could.

So I, within a week, quit my job, and decided to start my portrait photography business.

At the same time, a colleague of mine was starting her consulting business, a communication

consulting business, and she said, "Hey, you're probably gonna have some free time, and you

might need some cash to get your business going.

Why don't you consult with me, and, you know I'll throw you some work and you can make

some money along the way, and you can grow your photography business."

And I said, "Great, let's do this!"

So, seven years later, fast forward, her business is going gangbusters, and I'm doing like 90%

consulting, maybe 10% working on my photography business.

And I feel like...

I love a good recess metaphor.

I feel like I'm on the jungle gym, on the playground, and I'm holdin' onto one bar,

I got one hand on the consulting job, and one hand on the photography job, and I can't

let go of either, but my little arms are just gettin' so tired.

And,I feel like I either need someone to smack a hand and say, "Let go of the consulting

work and you need to go do your thing."

'Cause I feel like I'm runnin' out of time to do my thing.

Yeah.

Or, just, "You know what, "maybe the dream isn't for you, maybe you just need to stick

with your consulting work."

Well, so you're lookin' for a little bit of guidance, in which hand to let go of, am I

hearin' ya right?

Yeah, which hand to let go of, and, you know I listen to your podcasts, and I've read so

many books that you guys have recommended.

Yes.

I feel like I'm just not getting, like the kick in the pants I need...

Yes.

...to make something happen.

Absolutely, well I have a couple questions I wanna ask you, but before we go there, I

do want you to write this down.

If you Google my name, and then Google “Decision Making: 4 Simple Tests to Help You Make the

Right Decision Every Time,” we have a great episode that you may or may not have seen,

but I think if you have seen it, it's worth it to re-watch and re-listen, 'cause I run

through four tests that help you really make great decisions, and they're very wholistic

tests, so they tap into different aspects of you, both your body wisdom, intellectual,

psychological, all these different things, and I wanna make sure that you have those

tools, even in addition to this conversation, so...

Awesome.

Question for you, now, you said the dream about starting your own photography business,

and I can see that you have a website, and I click through to your website, and you've

definitely taken some portraits and some photographs and they're absolutely beautiful.

Do you feel like your dream is to take photographs of women?

Or is your dream to run a photography business that's profitable and have that be full time?

Um, my dream is to run a profitable photography business.

Okay.

And my ultimate, give every bit of my creativity, and make that make money.

Cool, okay so then it sounds like you're clear on what you want, but the challenge is around

giving up, not only the financial security, but going towards the business not knowing

if that's gonna work, and all of the things that come with it, is that right?

That's right, exactly.

Okay, cool, well, you know it's a big move.

I don't know what your finances are, but of course, I would recommend this to anyone,

that you've gotta really take a strong look at your finances.

You may be able to, and I don't know what your friend's arrangement is, or what your

relationship is like, but if at all possible, I would investigate, rather than doing 90%

consulting, and 10% photography, is it possible for you to change those dials a little bit?

So you actually move down from 90% consulting, to let's not say zero, right, but maybe about

50%.

If you have to still build up a little bit of a nest egg, and from a financial perspective,

you're a little scared, that could be an option to consider.

Now again Jackie, I don't know if you're the type of person who's like, "Look, the only

way I'm gonna make somethin' work is if I burn the bridges behind me, like I need that

pressure, I need all of that momentum to move forward."

And some people are like that.

That's not me, but that might be you, is that you?

No, no I'm definitely not.

I don't think I would've take her opportunity if I was a burn the bridges kinda gal.

Yes.

But I'm a people-pleaser kinda gal, and so, if there's a, "Hey I need your help, we've

got this opportunity coming up, I need some people to jump on this project."

I don't say no, I'd say, "Okay."

And then I'm in up over my neck again with more consulting work.

Mmhmm, so this isn't necessarily a business problem, this is a boundaries problem.

Possibly.

Yeah, well here's the thing, it's completely possible, I know in my heart and soul, for

you to run a profitable photography business, right?

Any business, we don't have a crystal ball whether or not it's gonna work.

I would tell you, I don't think you're a B-Schooler, are you, Jackie?

Not yet.

No, you definitely should be.

Again, whether you learn it from me, or you learn it from someone else, anyone who runs

a small business, you have got to learn the ins and outs, the depth of marketing, so that

you can apply it in a way that makes whatever your gift is, your product or your service,

as profitable as it can be, and as impactful as it can be.

So, again, I would say if you are gonna let go of that handlebar of the consulting gig,

make sure you get your butt in B-School.

The next time we run it is February of 2019, so, make sure you get in there.

But apart from that, here's the deal.

Boundaries are gonna be huge for you, because even if you solve this issue with your friend

and the consulting gig, boundaries are gonna come up with your photography clients.

So this is about personal growth.

You can have everything you want my friend, and you can have it in a way that's really

joyful, you can retain that relationship, and I really think that you could probably

start dialing down that percentage, from 90% to 70 to 50 to 60 to 40, you've just gotta

set some clear boundaries for yourself, and communicate them effectively.

Got it.

Got it, got it, yep.

The communicator is always the worst at communicating her own things to her people.

Yeah, I mean again, all of us, we all need support with this, so you can talk with, do

you have friends that you can talk with that are other business owners?

Oh yeah, yep.

Oh, great, so you can practice this conversation, and again, I think this is completely possible

for you, but I think it would be a mistake, quite frankly, to let go of the consulting

gig 100%, because given who you say you are, and how you feel around finances, having that

bit of security coming in, is really gonna support you as you ratchet up your marketing,

and the rest of your business.

Yep, and that's what I've been doing for seven years, I've got processes in place, I've got,

you know, great gear.

I mean I am very grateful for the consulting business because it allowed me to put all

the pieces in place to get my portrait photography business going.

Now it just needs to like, start amplifying.

Yeah, but it's gonna take time and focus, and you have to be the one to create that

time.

Like you're not gonna find the time my friend, you have to make the time.

Oh, I know.

Yeah.

It's not gonna magically just fall in your lap, like, "Woo, Jackie here you go, three

days a week to just work on your business."

Not gonna happen!

What's your friend's name who runs the consulting business, what's her first name?

Her first name is Jamie, and she's awesome.

Yeah, and you can tell her, "Oh my God girl, I love you, I want to create this plan together,

so that it doesn't disrupt this explosive growth that's happening for you right now."

My heart tells me she's amazing, and if you guys sat down, that you could crack a plan

that would work for both of you, and you can even ask her for the support, and say, "Hey

look, girl, I know there might come some big job down the pike, and you're gonna be goin',

'Oh my gosh, like Jackie can you jump in on this one?'

I'm gonna ask you, first of all, not to ask me for that unless things are really on fire,

and literally the whole business is gonna go out of business unless I jump in, and two,

hold me accountable to not coming in on these days where I said I'm not gonna come in."

So you can actually enroll her in supporting you in moving into your own business.

And based on what you've said about her, and the feelings I get, she's gonna wanna do it.

Yeah, she asks me every once in while, "When are you gonna do your thing, I know, I love

you here, I don't want you to go, but I don't want you to not do what you wanna do too."

See that?

So she supports me.

Yeah, you've got everything you need.

I think you just have to muster up that courage inside, and start taking those steps.

And look, like I said it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

So don't have that analogy in your head that you have to let go of the consulting bar completely.

You just have to let go of like, two fingers.

Okay.

Cool?

Cool.

Start small, you'll get there, keep us posted, and get your butt in B-School, seriously.

Yes ma'am!

All right love, thank you so much for callin' in, and keep us posted on how it all goes.

Thank you so much.

Bye!

Bye guys!

Hello?

Hello, tell us your name and where you're calling from.

Hi Marie, I am Marines, and I'm calling from Norway.

Yay, Marines, we're so excited to have you on the show.

You're here with myself and all of team Forleo.

Tell us your question, and we will do our very best to help you out.

Thank you so much.

So my question is, I moved to Norway last year, because my husband is Norwegian.

Before coming here, my life was pretty nice.

I was working in something that I really liked and I was engaged in projects that were very

interesting, and I never anticipated that it was gonna be so difficult to move to Norway.

I have really struggled to find relevant work, and I have been doing my homework, I've been

studying Norwegian, and I'm really trying to, yeah, to look for work, but it's been

very difficult.

So my question is, how do I deal with frustration, because I'm becoming very negative and very

sad during this process and I've never been like this, so I would love your advice.

Absolutely, and by the way, thank you so much for calling in today, because I know that

there are many of us out there that find ourselves in challenging situations, and while the details

of the story may not be exactly the same, I think many of us can identify with that

place of feeling stuck, of feeling like we're not showing up like we normally do, and it