Julie Goetzinger – Julie Goetzinger

Episode 37 – Photography Sales with Jennifer Hennigan

In this episode, Julie interviews Jennifer Hennigan, an entrepreneur, boudoir photographer, philanthropist, and sales coach. She shares her tips for how she incentivizes her clients to put more money down upfront, how to educate your clients on what’s included in a photo session and how to create a steady workflow for sales.

Watch the full episode here.

About Jennifer:

Jennifer is an entrepreneur, boudoir photographer, philanthropist, and sales coach. She is also an author, and an improv performer based in Austin, Texas. She graduated from Texas State University with a degree in communications and advertising. After two years of working in sales, she started the Eye Candy Boudoir, Austin’s world-famous boudoir studio. As a top boudoir photographer in Austin, Jennifer has had multiple six-figure years, with 2022 being her highest year, thanks to her one-hour workflow sales process, which you can learn more about within her course, the Build Better Client’s Bootcamp. She’s also releasing her first book, Why Your Photographer Hates You.

Connect with Jennifer:

About Julie Goetzinger:

Schedule your complimentary breakthrough call with Julie today.

Julie Goetzinger is a psychic medium, best-selling author and coach who teaches how to make more money and impact without sacrificing your well-being. In her book, “Free to Fly: Manifest the Life of Your Dreams,” she shares her story of how she created abundance by stepping into her true self as an artist and spiritual medium. She is the creator of Free to Fly and has seven years of experience in business as an entrepreneur.

Connect with Julie Goetzinger:

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Email: julie@juliegoetzinger.com

Episode Transcription

I think a lot of people don’t realize how social I am. I was raised Catholic, I was the big kid who never did anything wrong. Even now, people think boudoir, they think sexy, they think Veronica, and then people meet me and it’s like I’m just a really wholesome person. I think a lot of photographers, a lot of boudoir photographers out there, there’s a lot of really good ones with straight morals and stuff, and a lot of people don’t expect that. They don’t expect photographers to be like normal women who have families, some of them go to church on Sundays. It’s funny because I’m single and so I date a lot and I date men that I meet online. When I tell them what I do for a living, I think they have this vision in their heads about me. Then they meet me and they realize, on the first date we’re going to end with a kiss, that’s good, and we’re not going to go further. I think it kind of throws them for a loop, but also our dating culture today is just terrible.

I relate to you because people used to called me the PG boudoir photographer, because they’re like, “Oh, you just don’t share your risk gay stuff.” I’m like, “No, I just don’t do that because I live by my own morals and I also believe in God and living a life of modesty and I’m the same way. There are a lot of judgments when we tell people what we do. I’m curious how did your community, your friends and family respond when you came out as a boudoir photographer

My mother had the most supportive response when I told her. I was like, “You know, I think I might want to sell boudoir photography.” The first thing she said, I’ll never forget it was that season. But actually my mom is one of my biggest supporters and I always know that she’s just a big supporter because all the gifts I buy her with all the money I make. My mom, she’s very Catholic. We grew up very differently. She was the oldest in a family of five siblings, oldest daughter and she kind of took on, like my youngest uncle would call her mom and they grew up in the country. It wasn’t like the seventies we thinking of, like we think of the fun party seventies. They lived in the rustic country, middle of nowhere seventies, with religion and conservative values. So for her it was just, that’s Jennifer thing. I’m the one who doesn’t mind doing things that are different and fun, and pushing the envelope a little bit. Even though for my own self, like I do have morals and stuff, but my family is very supportive.

My cousin Kim, who I’ve always looked up to, is almost like a sister. I remember her telling me, “I’m so proud of you and how hard you’ve worked and how successful you’ve become with your business.” That meant a lot to me, because like I said, I always looked up to her. My brother and sister-in-law supports me, but they didn’t really want their kids to know what I did. Once my parents came to Austin one weekend with the kids. They asked me to come back to their house and I was like, “Well, I have to go back to their house and get some stuff.” They were like, “We’ll follow you. We’ll go in there.” I was like, Okay, let me take a nephew down first when I was supposed to know what I need for a living and they’re going to see all the photos of my work and my house. We got in the car, I had my niece, nephew with me. They wanted to ride with me, I’m like, “So, Jenny needs to explain something to you before we get from her house.” I told them what I did. I think they forgot, because I later told my brother and I was like, “I’m so sorry, Mom and Dad brought them. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t my decision.” He responded, “Well, you better make sure that their mother doesn’t find out.” I was like, “Okay, I won’t tell her if you won’t.”

The way I explain it to my children is, it’s like fine art and that you go to a museum and you see statues of nudes, the body is very beautiful. I had a picture of myself in one suit, it was like a one suit – a bathing suit basically, and my kids looked at it and my son just said, “That’s weird.” He was little when he saw it, but to me, it’s really important that my children do not shame themselves for their body and they see it as beautiful as art and it can be very classy the way you present it. My photographer did an amazing job and I did it right after I got divorced, and it was such a celebratory session of seeing myself as this goddess. It felt empowering and just like, wow, this is how we make people feel, like really important work. I think it’s important that children see too, it’s worth celebrating; our bodies and not shaming ourselves, we all have one, right?

Absolutely, and there’s a way to do it. Obviously if I had children, they would not be coming in during the assessment, watching mom on these assessments, but they’re going to see things on your computer that you’re editing and you just explained to them. There’s a difference between an adult woman doing something like this for herself. Most of my clients wear more than most women wear to the beach, so they’re covered up. You’re not seeing anything inappropriate, it’s just the way you present that I recently started dating someone, and I mentioned how he thinks that it’s good for children to see bodies and stuff. I’m like, “well, of course my children probably see pictures of my work.” He was like, “Man, I don’t know about that,” yet he was like on the other hand,”If you went to another country and there was like new, and everybody was like, their nude, I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable for my kids to be there.” I much rather see them, see my photos where they’re covered up, but you can still see their body. People have different ideas, I think. I do try to respect my brother and sister-in-law’s feelings about that. I explain to my niece and nephew, “You know these women, when you’re an adult, a lot of women struggle to really feel good about how they look.” What I do to help them see their bodies as the beautiful vessel that God has put them in to live on this earth so that they can feel good about themselves. My niece is eight, I think she got it, and then my nephew was just excited that aunt didn’t take photos of butt.

Sales Figure in Photography

I am excited to hear some of your sales tips, how you become a multi six figure boudoir photographer? How did that happen? Did you start out as a high end or did you start charging less and then raise their prices as your talent increased, things like that. Tell me a little bit more about that journey with pricing and sales.

Starting out, I think I was like, nobody’s going to spend more than $200 on photography, and throughout college and stuff, I would be doing sessions. I stopped the occasional wedding, realizing I never wanted to shoot a wedding again. My photography started at like $120 or $60 for, I think, 16 photos and I went up to 20 for like eight photos, and then I went up to like 160, 300. I thought that’s really good. And then I got my first boudoir business and they got the smallest package and it wasn’t less than $699, and I was like, apparently I didn’t raise my prices high enough. My mom, ever supportive parent, said, “Nobody’s going to spend a thousand dollars on boudoir photos.” I was like, I paid this woman a lot of money to tell me what to charge, and she told me to charge a thousand, and something I’ve learned is if it’s free advice, it’s probably not really worth very much.

Free advice is exactly worth what you’re expecting. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned in business. My mom has never run a six figure B Art studio, so do not take her business advice. That’s the best decision I ever made. I love my mom by the way. So I started out at $699, $1,299, and actually for my Black Friday sale, I’ve been considering doing something like a big back to the beginning sale where we charge 18 for a limited number of people. That’s something I’m working on right now. I feel like it would be a great way to get in a bunch of people real quick, especially because I am converting my studio at the end of the year, which I can talk about more later because I want to travel more and I want to make my house to be my house again. I’m making some big changes for 2023. I’m actually going to convert my house studio into just a house. Then book sessions in different states and travel so I can like, write it off, do that, write off thing.

I eventually started raising my price, and decided to try something. I got my smallest package for $2,200 and then just tried to reward people with a $1,000 first card when they do something I want them to do. I tried that and all of a sudden, it’s like that meme of that girl. In one picture she’s making the “gh” face and then in the other picture, she’s making the “ah” , that’s a good idea. So it’s like, people, when they spend a thousand dollars on boudoir photos, they’re like “ugh” or people when they spend 2,200, but they’re getting a thousand dollars off, they’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s a good deal.” I started doing that and I saw more people happy with what they were spending because they felt like they were getting a lot of savings. The thousand gift cards would convince them to gum bump up to the next package, or that thousand dollars goes to stores like a la carte, not just a la carte by itself, right? That way they can’t try to manipulate that to get free products and not any money. But normally the incentive is to spend at least this much money to get this kind of gift card. My prices currently start at 3,500 and go up to 11,000.

I tell most of my clients, they come in, we do a consultation in person. I really get them into my domain so I can sell them and pick them in a way that I know is going to work, and they’re really invested because they’re already there, they drove here, they’ve taken the time. I also charge 99 bucks for a normal client for a consultation. It’s like you paid 99 bucks to be here, listen to the whole pitch and really pay attention to everything you’re getting, not just the money. I do a phone call, don’t tell about money or anything. I always say the phone calls like the first date. We’re just talking. We’re getting to know each other. I’m telling you all the good stuff about me. I’m telling you all the things that make me a great person, and yes, I’m going to have my baggage, I’m going to have the feelings that I’m going to need for somebody else. I’m going to need a little bit of a commitment. But I’m not going to reveal all that on the first phone call. I’m like, here’s what we have to offer, all I want is a small commitment from you for a second date. Give me 99 bucks for a consultation and let’s meet up and let’s talk, and we’ll go over all the pricing and product and the whole shebang. If they say no, well then, you know it’s like a date, right? If I’m not worth a second date from coffee to dinner, then okay. Is it in person, the consultation or do it online? It can be in person or it can be over zoom, whatever works best.

We offer them a thousand dollar gift card, to put more money down, pay off the product, pay off a package, and then we offer finances stuff. We look at what they can afford ahead of time, so we know, okay, this person seems like they’re ready to go. “Oh, I’ll pay out of pocket,” I already know. Then we get a feel what they can afford. I feel they can do this. So let me incentivize them by saying, “Hey, put this much down or do a payment plan before you do this and I’ll give you a thousand dollar gift card and you can pay off this or whatever.” Normally that happens and that way I get more money. I know when I’m working and getting paid. I think a lot of us, myself included, were taught to do all this work up front and then collect the money. I don’t know one photographer who hasn’t gotten screwed over, doing all this work and then someone is like, “Oh, you know what, I don’t have the money to spend, or, that was fun. But I just want two pictures.” Those hard things that we experience teach us, there has to be a better way and we deserve to be paid before we pour our time, energy, and expertise into the project.

I love that you do that. Then do you do prepayment plans as well, like before they do a shoot if someone wants to, space out their payments?

I use something kind of different. I don’t do prepayment versus a post payment. I mean, it is, but it’s not labeled that way. If people are doing in-house payments, which very rarely I do that, I offer financing through a firm in Carna. There’s all sorts of different Paypal credit. If they do sign up for a payment plan, it depends on what package they want to pay off. If they want to pay off, let’s say my package too, that comes with I believe so essentially, you can do your session at any point in time in the next 12 months. If you want to book your session all the way out for like a year from now, or 11 months from now, I require you to start on a payment plan for that packet because that’s the smallest package that falls under that timeframe of payment.

Normally if a client wants to do their session within three months of their consultation, there’s no requirement for a payment plan. But if they push out for four months, five months, six months, I’m lik, okay, now you’re falling into a payment plan timeframe, I need to get paid up front. If you want to book it out that far in advance, then you’re going to start payments today. I do that because I’ve had people who prepaid in just a thousand bucks, waited eight months to do their testing, and then they were like, “Oh well, I have other things coming up. I need to reschedule.” I’m like, “Okay, there’s a hundred cancellation fee.” They’re like, “I can’t afford that,” in return I say, “Well, then you’re going to leave your thousand dollars”, and they respond, “That’s fine.” I’m like, No, I need you to be making payments consistently or prepay this package if you’re going to schedule that fine advance. When that date comes, you’re not, “OH, well I sent that money eight months ago. It’s gone. It’s fine.”

The Entrepreneur Mindset and Artist Mindset

You states in part of your bio that you sent me, you said, “It’s important to have an entrepreneur mindset rather than an artist mindset.” What do you mean by that?

Being in the boudoir photography industry, I’ve seen a lot of boudoir photographers going to know this through, there is a lot of drama, with people feeling so passionate about their ideas. I get it as artists, when we come up with an idea that’s our baby, we feel really like that’s something I created. Sometimes it does get to a point where it’s a little ridiculous. I saw one person post in a group a few years ago. They said, “I’m doing sessions with a crown and a blue robe. How do I tell them to stay in their lane?” I was like, “You don’t, because you don’t have a patent on seating with a blue robe and a crown.” You’re a business owner, why is this worth your time? This isn’t worth your time. You don’t see Chick-fil-A getting on Twitter, going after Popeyes because they came up with a chicken salad, and the sandwich is their thing.

I think a lot of photographers, we get so wrapped up in artistic; I came up with this, it was my idea to start cheating with this setup. I had a photographer come ask me one time, because I did a similar theme at the same location. She also did and there was no ownership of anything. I was just something she did. I was like, that’s kind of cool. I want to try something kind of similar. I had a lot of photos that didn’t look similar. I think I had one photo where they screenshotted all my stuff. They tried to hurt my reputation and my thought process is as entrepreneurs, why were we worried about these things? This is not something we own. I could’ve called a lawyer because there was slanders. There was screenshotting my stuff, bad -mounting my company. I have people harassing me and I could’ve gotten a lawyer involved. He could not because I had done nothing wrong.

I think a lot of artists get so passionate about feeling like they were wrong, when really they weren’t wrong in any way. This is such an ugly word, but entitlement to something that they came up with that is not something you could patent. It’s not something that you inherently own. It’s not something you can trademark. But they feel like nobody else can do this, because I did. That’s actually hurting your business and taking away from your business and taking time away from your pro charity. If you have something that you can sue over, if you have something that has really been done wrong to you, go act like an adult and go hire a lawyer. But if not they need to just stop focusing on this. Put your mindset back into your business. Put your mindset back into what’s going to make you money, and focus on that because you’re holding yourself back from your own abundance when you focus on things that are not going to affect you and are not hurting you, but you’re taking offense to them because of an ego trip or whatever. Entrepreneurs, they’re focused on collaboration. They’re focused on sharing. They’re not afraid to share ideas, spread, and build welsh. Artists are very territorial. They’re like, “This is mine, this is my thing.,” and we have to let go of that if we want to be successful.

I totally agree with that. The word that kept coming up to me was scarcity, you know, the scarcity mindset. Like, I’m the only one who can do this. And now, it comes from that fear of not being good enough. I have to do something so different I claim is mine. That energy is taking away their prosperity, their joy, their abundance. I have to admit that I’ve noticed, because I left photography for two years and I went into coaching. When I went back to photography, I did feel a competitive edge from some other photographers, and it was very off putting. And having left the industry and then come back, I was like, Oh, wow, what is this? We’re here for a shootout. This was a free event that we all came to photograph. There was a little bit of bossiness, a little bit of competition, and I was like, are any of us getting paid for this? Isn’t this supposed to be fun? I think again because I had left and then came back to the industry and being a coach, there’s millions of us online and I don’t feel that competition. But being in that photography, I felt it again and it was disappointing. I think it is that there are so many photographers, and especially locally, I think that there can be a lot more collaboration that happens to support each other, and we all have something different to offer our energy, our present, the way we speak, the way we engage people, our style. I mean, there are so many differences that we all inherently have, that there is no scarcity. There’s more than enough for all of us. And what? If you’re not available and there’s another boudoir photographer down the street, you’re not going to refer them to her? There’s more than enough for all of us. I hope that the industry can see that there’s plenty for everyone. There’s no need to put another down or say that’s mine, or you can’t do it because I did that. All art is based on inspiration. You see something, you hear something and it inspires you. It’s the same thing with music, you rearrange the notes and create another son. It’s not about claiming that’s mine, I did it first, but recognizing and appreciating that all art is different.

Challenges in the Field of Photography

I’d like to know what you think is more challenging for photographers? The sales or the marketing piece?

I feel like sales is harder. I know there’s a million photographers out there who keep marketing. We have model call, and there’s multiple people selling different versions of Model Call, different coaches. They’re selling basically the same thing. It’s just changed up a little bit. It’s basically, they’re teaching a marketing strategy and here’s how you do it and here’s how you target and run it on Facebook, run it on Tiktok, and that stufff is teachable it just depends if you’re going to sit there and listen to it and pay attention to it. I could go one on one with someone and just help them build their Facebook ad and then they kind of get it. I think marketing and learning how to market on itself is hard, because I paid for a Facebook ads course back in 017, because I knew nothing about Facebook ads. After paying for that course, that’s how I actually started advertising my first model call, by using my Facebook ads knowledge. I think marketing is hard to learn, but I think there’s so many practices out there that people have that, that’s cheesy.

Sales is more intuitive, sales is more out of talk to people. And then there’s a lot of people who are still afraid of sounding like a salesperson, that they’re almost like, “I don’t wanna want to do sales, I don’t like sales.” There’s already a feeling in a lot of people. I don’t want to get close to that. I don’t want to be that salesperson. Marketing people don’t mind marketing sales. You already have a little bit of resistance from the people who are trying to learn it anyway. I think sales can be very difficult because you need to know how to build an offer and then how to present that offer. It’s a skill that it’s teachable, but there’s also something internal about. You have to know what way the adjustment should be made. Also legality, what can you legally do? Just offering a thousand dollars gift card, you know, offering a thousand dollars discount? There’s all this legal stuff you have to put it in. If you offer a gift card, there’s already a logged in place for gift cards. It’s a gift card, it’s nonrefundable. I don’t have to refund you with cash. If you’re prepaying me money for the gift card, I don’t have to refund you. Whereas if you put down a deposit or retainer and that person wants to push it far enough to take you to core, you might actually have to refund them. Knowing how you can build your offer and what you can put in place, the legalities of things. It’s very, I like sales because there is a bit of creativity to it.

I remember my first sales job outside of college. Basically I was a glorified salesperson. We were like person to person marketing. We’d go to a dance club, we’d set up a booth for two weeks and we’d sell things like body massages, straighteners. And I had gone up to a leader and I had two people who were underneath me, we were all in a different area. We were in Waco and we were, you know, on a business trip, we were staying in hotels and we were working at the SAM Club in Waco, and they were selling something different than I was. We had two booths and I was right next to them, and I could see what they were doing. They were really struggling. They were really having a hard time getting people to stop and talk to them. What I did was I created a bingo board for them, and the bingo board was basically things they had to do while they were, and it was crazy things like they had to sing their pitch. They had to go up to a person and they had to tell a joke. They had to get them to come sit by, dealing a crazy dance, just all sorts of different things. Then as a bingo card, whoever got past it, the winner. They both started doing it and they got really into it, because now it was a game that was fun. Now, it was something different. It was making them more interesting. So customers were coming to talk to them and they were getting more people to sit down. Then when the game ended and they got out of it, they kind of got out of the sales again. They started losing their momentum. It’s definitely something you have to get creative with. You have to have fun with it. But if you’re already afraid of sales, if you’re already nervous about it, it’s gonna hurt you. You have to understand that you’re having a conversation with someone, you’re selling yourself, you’re selling fun,you’re selling joy. You have to be joyful. You can’t be scared.

Sales is fun, sales is creativity, sales is play, sales is game playing. It’s tuning into that energy because people respond to the energy and it’s like not the words you say, it’s how you feel about it. It’s an internal thing, so if you’re fearful and you’re literally pushing away sales, you could read a script, you could say exactly what your coach told you to say, and it’s not going to work because you’re not tuned into it and you’re fearful of it. It’s like you’re fearful and you do it anyway. Even if you are fearful, you practice, practice, practice, practice, practice. You keep doing it until it just becomes automatic. I have a friend who’s also a sales coach, and she says the price, and then she takes a sip of her drink and that way she’s not still talking. It’s like, shut up, you give the cost and then you shut up. I’ve done this before, I’ll jump right in, and we also have payment plans and then, or I’m like, just stop talking. The cost of the project is to take a sip of your drink and be quiet. And I’ve heard that too, that the person who talks the least makes the most. You gotta tune in to the person. What do they want? Tune into them and then offer what they want and show them what the experience can be like.

Bonus Advice to Other People

What is the free gift that you have for other people? Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

A free gift is really exciting. It is my contract breakdown template. A lot of photographers, and I did this, I struggled with this forever. They have the hardest time getting their clients to read their contract and actually like, know what they’re signing up for. Then throughout the entire process until photo delivery, they’re bombarded with texts and emails. They’re like, “Oh, I think I need to remind Julia. Oh, that.” And it’s like, that’s against their policy. Then you have a client complaining, you’re like, well, it was a new contract. Well, I must have skipped that part, you know? And that’s, I see, needs all the time. We’ll just add that to the concept. Okay. But what can I do to get them to actually read the concept?

My concept breakdown template is essentially a PowerPoint presentation, where you break down your contract into a PowerPoint presentation. I’’ve never heard of anything like this, but it’s so smart because the customer doesn’t want to read your damn contract. But obviously I didn’t read it because I don’t know it. And if they don’t know it, then it’s on you and then it’s awkward.

What I used to do with my model call is as soon as they signed up for it, I plugged the information there, but I wanted them to sign a contract immediately because I wanted them in and locked in. And so what I did was I just made like a little video of me on Zoom presenting my PowerPoint presentation. It was like 12 minutes long and it’s literally just me breaking down my contract and then I’m like, click the button below, that’s where your actual contract is. It’ll have all the information on it. You can read it again if you want to get more in depth about all our policies, but like all the important stuff was in the content breakdown, no refund policy. All our money goes towards gift cards so that you, you know, it’s not a refund. If you cancel within two weeks, if it’s a $200 fee, you can’t come back later and say, “You didn’t know this.” You saw the video.

It reminded me of a little cartoon, like a figure, like pointing things out and like, I don’t know. I’m getting this whole image of like, being in school and like one of the science cartoon team videos or something. That’s what reminds me. That’s brilliant and that serves the client and you, you know, and it’s all about being up upfront, forthcoming. We’re not trying to hide anything from them. We’re not trying to get more money. Like we’re, we’re being honest and forthcoming and educating them first, which is really good customer service.

Ready to Commit to Your Health and Wellbeing? Join our Manifestation Challenge!

This time of year when there are temptations everywhere in terms of food/treats rather than being tempted to eat them, I’m actually drawn in the opposite direction to NOT engage with them because I know how they make me feel afterward.

As soon as I up my water intake, avoid sugar and limit alcohol I feel 1,000 times better and always wonder why I don’t do it consistently and remember how good it feels to be healthy.

I think a big part of it is accountability.

If you surround yourself with others who are also on a healthy track it’s easier to stay there yourself. The opposite is true as well.

As someone who gets intuitive instincts often, I have been hearing the message that my work in 2023 is to help people to improve their well-being: physically, emotionally, spiritually…

I know that to guide others on this path, I need to walk the walk myself first which is what I am committing to.

The manifestation challenge included in my book, “Free to Fly: Manifest the Life of Your Dreams,” starts with radical self-care by decluttering our bodies and being very mindful about the thoughts we’re thinking too. To participate in the challenge, join our Manifest with Ease mini-course here. It is a self-paced program that starts with a 1:1 call with Julie. Good luck and if you’d like more support on this journey, feel free to email me at julie@juliegoetzinger.com so we can set up a time to talk!

XOXO,

Julie

P.S. The photo is of me before and after I decided to commit to my well-being. It’s a daily practice to choose a healthy lifestyle and I’m not perfect but with your help I want to recommit to be the best, most healthy version of me too!

Episode 36 – Success Begets Success

Listen to the full episode here.

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

How can you shift your energy if you notice the momentum going the wrong way in your business?
How can you feel successful before the tangible evidence (money/new clients) arrive?
Why do the rich seem to get richer and the poor get poorer?

To learn more about how Julie can support you on the road to success, set up a call with her here.

About Julie Goetzinger:

Connect with Julie Goetzinger:

Work with Julie

Get free training to learn how to make more money and impact without sacrificing your well-being

Email: julie@juliegoetzinger.com

Keeping the Momentum

There goes this saying, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Why is that? I have done some digging into that myself. I’ve played in both being rich, feeling rich, and feeling poor, being poor. I played with both as we do as entrepreneurs, right? And what I found was that advice was so freaking annoying when you’re in the depths of it and when the money is not rolling in and you know intuitively, but you don’t want to hear it, that everything is in response to you.

This happened to me because I did have a dry period, and my coaches were like, “We’re not worried, like we know you and we know how resourceful and how creative you are. You’ve already had huge success. You can easily do it again.” And they were almost confused like why I was going through this dry spell and none of them seemed to be able to give me any advice other than, “We know you’re going to get out of it and we’re not going to worry about this.” It felt and I got chills on that. It was, like, annoying, but it was also the perfect gift because there was no pity. There was no like, “Oh, poor you.” It was like, why not? What are you doing? We know your capacity and what it was when the money wasn’t rolling in and when I felt like things weren’t working.

It felt like it wasn’t what they weren’t, they actually were. What I was feeling was unworthy. I felt no one wanted to work with me. Nobody sees the value in what I do. I’m a mess. I’m not focused enough. I tore myself up during that period and what I realized was the more I felt that way, the more I felt like it’s just not working. I need to throw the talent and I should just cancel the whole thing. The more that people were repelled and they would come, but they wouldn’t pay me for whatever reason. They would say yes and then something would happen and they would never pay me. Things like that happened and it became like a pattern because the momentum can go in any direction.

Momentum exists when things are going well and keep going well, and people keep booking, the money keeps coming, coming, and coming. And then the momentum and also go in the opposite direction and it is in response to you. But what I learned through that experience was it was a gift for me, that’s number one. So I would take the time to be more mindful of where I was putting my resources in my business and in my personal life.

You know, did you really need to buy bottles of water that are pretty costly or can use a Brita? With simple things like that I had the opportunity to look into when resources and the terms of money weren’t flowing as much. So that was a gift, and also it was a deep dive within to really rediscover my worth for my existence here on earth. That feeling of, why am I here? It gave me the opportunity to really look at that. Why am I here? And had things continued to move in business during that time, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to really look within myself and to discover that I am not what I do. I am not what I look like I am.

I am not what I physically say, or I am not those things, those are expressions of me, but my essence, my existence here on earth is what deems me worthy. And when you’re doing that inner work, sometimes the universe gives you the gift of cutting off other distractions, which be in the form of clients, our partners or friends, or it literally can put up a barrier between you all when you’re doing the inner healing work, which is what I found.

And then, you know the expression that when the dam breaks and the floodgates open, they open. What I’ve done in my own business is set up multiple streams of revenue and I teach others how to do the same thing. But what I realized was that I was spending a lot of time building and my creative energy was really being utilized to develop these different programs, to enhance my retreat.

To come up with my new creation, which is my VIP coaching day, was actually my favorite offering right now, where I map out someone’s entire coaching program and retreat in just half days’ time. I love it. It’s so fun. And that was born during this time and I was also not in partnership romantically with anyone at the time either. So all my creative energy and my power went towards building these different streams of revenue because it is very important to me that I create a legacy for my family, and that my children are not left wanting something that’s a basic need. Do I want them to learn the lessons I’ve learned? Ofcourse.

I do not believe in just handing things to anyone, they will work, they will learn. And if they choose to have their own business, you know, I will help them create something, but it’s going to be on them to do it. No matter how much money I bring in, I always believe in the value of work and work where it feels like play. And I would never want to take away from them the feeling of accomplishment that comes when you build an empire and also when you overcome when things aren’t so good. It’s powerful, super powerful.

As far as success, we get success. We often think that success is a lot of money coming in. Success is my body looking the way at once. Success is being in a healthy, loving, committed relationship. Those things can be success if you define those things as success, but you get to choose what success is and more important, what success feels like. Because if you can get into that feeling of success before the tangible evidence arrives, that is the key.

Let me tell you, I know it is freaking hard when you do not feel successful to conjure up those feelings, and we don’t want to be inauthentic about it. You don’t want to pretend that there’s money in your bank account if there’s no money in your bank account. You do not want to be delusional, but what you do want to do is to shift your energy. That becomes the most important thing you focus on. How can I shift my energy to feel successful, to feel alive, to feel worthy? How can you shift your energy to feel that way? And it’s different for everyone. You know, often if we think back to what we did in childhood that really lit us up, that we decide as a little kid, I’m gonna do this for a career.

There were no limitations at that time. Nobody, well, maybe you did have someone telling you couldn’t do it, but got back earlier than that. When you were a kid and you didn’t believe what adults asaid, you’re like, man grumpy adults, right? But as a kid, what did you want to do? I wanted to be a Broadway star. I wanted to be singing, I wanted to be dancing and be beautiful on stage. And what I started doing was the moth storytelling events. We have one in my area in Washington, DC and you volunteer to speak and to share a story based on that night’s theme. I’ve done it twice now, and both times afterwards, well actually that one time, it was another breakthrough because I did not do well. That is for another podcast episode that I recorded, I think it’s called Worthy Check. But the next time I did it, the feeling of triumph, the feeling of success, the feeling of “Wow, I did that and it feels so good.” That felt so good and there was no money involved with that.

That was a personal success because I chose to put myself out there. I chose to share a personal story. I chose to be brave. I chose to inspire others with my story and my messaging and my courage, and that to me is success. I started doing more things like that, and then I started doing outdoor photoshoots again because it makes me feel alive and it makes me feel in my creative flow. It makes me feel just like, yes, like I’m in love with life.

That is a shift right there because I felt that and I just felt it. Again, thinking about it, talking about it, brings it right back. Those feelings, like I could do this forever. Have no idea what time it is. I have no idea how much money I’m gonna make from this, if any. And it doesn’t matter because this feels so good at this moment.

I just want to soak up this moment. I just wanna talk about this for as long as possible. Tell as many people as possible how good this feels and celebrate this. I’m going to write it down in my journal. I’m going to talk about it. I’m going to record it on my phone. I’m going to make a podcast episode about it. I’m going to write about it in my blog, like really getting into that energy. Is like that magnet, that’s like, whew!

Valuing Commitment

People feel that and they want to get it on that. I want some of what she’s having, right? It’s like that feeling. So how can you allow yourself to feel that before any evidence arrives to feel that wake form? Something I’ve practiced doing is, in the past, I have phone calls with people who are considering working with me through coaching or photography, and in the past I would get really high and excited after I got that.

Sometimes it was before they paid or signed a contract, which I learned not to do. You know, like when they don’t pay you or change their minds. But I’ve learned to be easier about and to just think, of course they want to do this, why wouldn’t they want to do this with me?

I’m fun to be with, I create beautiful photos, I create beautiful experiences. I’m good at business. I know these things about myself, and I’m willing to feel that and to know that. And to separate myself from the result of how another, what another decides to do. Not making it about me. Do they value me? Do they value my work? Are they going to pay me? But the more I know the value of this, the right person is going to be so excited.

I just had a photographer sign up for a VIP coaching day with me and paid in full. She had no doubt at all, no doubt in her mind, and she was like, absolutely, this is perfect. This is exactly what I want to do. I’m hosting a retreat in January and I really want to work with you and learn how to make that a really great experience. So I also sent her a welcome package, her workbook, and told her a little bit about what to expect. And she writes me back and says, “I feel so much better.”

She just knew that this was what she needed to make for herself. She felt that trust with me. She was able to relax and to know that this was her next step and what a gift. And that feels good to both of us because now I know that she’s already ready and just because she paid in full. That does show commitment. The fact she said, I feel so much better already, and that’s before we even done any of the work. That’s how I know it’s going to work for her because she already believes that it will. She already trusts, she’s already open, and she’s already coachable. She’s already ready, let’s go!

That is so rewarding to me as well as the coach of having someone that’s like sure and committed. And if I have someone that’s not sure, it’s not going to be a really great experience for either of us. If they’re not ready, if they’re not ready to be coached, or if they’re not ready to spend the money, or if they’re not ready to get started on this, it’s really not going to be enjoyable for either of us or worthwhile.

So we want to allow those people to fall away easily if they’re not ready yet. If it’s a photoshoot and they want to lose weight, or for some instance, I just had someone say he wanted to grow out his hair. Cool. Who am I to say, no you’re perfect the way you are. Do I believe that perfection is in the eye of the beholder? If they don’t feel good and comfortable and they want to do something about that, who am I to tell them not to? Same with money, if they’re not comfortable spending the money, who am I to convince them that they should be comfortable that this is worth it? No, I want them to arrive at that on their own.

It’s just like if someone has an addiction and you sign them up for AA or something, it’s not going to work. They need to feel the inspiration. They need to, and if you look at it the other way, they need to convince you that they’re willing to be modeled and tested. Because something like a bir photoshoot is deeply intimate. It’s personal exposure. So you want them to show you that they’re ready for this, they’re ready for this level of exposure, they’re ready for this level of trust. Same things in coaching, same things in any area of your expertise.

You want people who are ready for what you have to offer, and then your job is to show up at your fullest to take really good care of yourself, so that you can serve them to your highest capacity as well. If you are interested in learning how to work with me on a deeper level, if you’re interested in setting up multiple streams of revenue for your business, hosting retreats, adding coaches services, online programs, I am happy to help you.

How to Know What to Price Your Offerings

Pricing… it’s something that many entrepreneurs flip-flop on… Am I charging too little? Am I charging too much? If no one is signing up, maybe if I drop my prices, I’ll get some new clients….” We’ve all fallen into this trap.

Yesterday I met with one of my friends who is a professional speaker to help me with my psychic entertainment and speaking fees and he asked me, “Why do you think some organizations pay someone $500/hour to speak while they pay others $17,000 for a 90-minute presentation?” “It’s because that’s what they ask for.” Many of us categorize ourselves as “beginners” but we’re really not. We’ve been doing these same skills and talents our whole lives, it’s just that we now charge for them.

If you are looking for support in pricing and marketing, I currently offer VIP coaching days where you can plan out a whole coaching program for your business all in one day and receive accountability and mindset support from me as you implement your program too. If this is something you’ve been wanting to do, you can set up a complimentary call with me here to learn more about it.

XOXO,

Julie

Episode 35 – Adding Variety in Business

Listen to the full episode here.

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

How creating multiple streams of revenue can boost your business
How to stay organized once you have multiple streams of revenue set up
How to track your goals each month
Which marketing activities can work best to reach your goals

Email Julie at julie@juliegoetzinger.com to request a photo of her checklists that help her to stay organized with her multiple businesses

Schedule a breakthrough call with Julie today.

About Julie Goetzinger:

Connect with Julie Goetzinger:

Work with Julie

Get free training to learn how to make more money and impact without sacrificing your well-being

Email: julie@juliegoetzinger.com

Craving for Variety

One of the most common things that I hear from flow creative clients is that they are bored, and that it feels like they just do the same thing. Photoshoot after photoshoot, and they’re like, money’s coming in. Getting clients is not a problem, but I feel uninspired, and I totally relate to that feeling, like you’re going through the emotions, you’re doing it and you feel like you should be grateful; like you should be happy with what you have. You’ve worked so hard to build this beautiful business. You have clients coming in, and it’s like, Why am I not happy? Why does feeling grateful feel like hard work? Why is it hard to sit down and just appreciate everything that’s come my way? And the reason is because you’re feeling uninspired.

You’re feeling that lack of motivation because as creatives, we crave a variety. We crave for new projects. No, we just wanna do things differently. Like to try things to spice it up, add in a different set for your bir shoots, or can you go to a new location for your photoshoots outside? Of course you can. What I found is that for me, that is not enough. I like to have my hand in multiple projects, and it’s something that I’ve jokingly said as a Gemini, that I can’t just do one thing. I’m the sign of the twins, and Geminis are very creative, free spirits people. We like to do a lot of different things.

Often in the business world, we’re told to pick a lane and the rich are in the niche. Is that true? Absolutely. Are you having fun? Because it’s not just about the money coming in, because if you are making the money, the business is moving smoothly and you’re not fulfilled, what good is that?

Like we’re here to have fun. We’re here to enjoy our lives. So something that I’ve given myself permission to do is to have more than one project, and it feels like different businesses, but it’s all under the same business, Julie Goetzinger, LLC. But I definitely have different lanes and I wanna share with you my process that has helped me to revamp my motivation and my business with hopes that maybe some of these ideas would help you as well.

I actually teach a workshop to photographers called Multiple Streams of Revenue for Photographers. If that interests you, you’ll find a link within my website to join in. Basically, it’s all about multiple streams, like different ways that the money can come in and also different ways to feel more inspired. What I did was I created a chart for myself since I’m a former elementary school teacher so I love making things like whiteboards. It’s fun to check them. So what I did was I made a little whiteboard, and basically it has this month’s goal, for example now is October, 2022 and this will most likely be published in November or December, just change the specific month that you’re in. I’ve broken down my business into three categories: I have speaking, I have photography, and I have coaching. So my goal is to book two photoshoots every month, and I have my photo shoots at the top. For me, it doesn’t matter if I actually do the photoshoot in that month, but my goal is to book at least two photoshoots for a month.

And then my next goal is to book at least two VIP coaching days. This is when I sit down with my photographers and I teach them how to build their own programs for monthly reoccurring income, how to host retreats, and how to add online passive income to their business. So my goal is to book two of those per month.

Then I also have my retreats, I do retreats per year, two abundance breakthrough retreats. I clearly Like number two, Gemini twins, Just an interesting thing that I notice. So my goal is to book at least two spots every month for my retreats and then I have one entertainment event. Since I am a psychic medium as well, I like to do in-person events. I like to do corporate events. I like to do weddings and speaking engagements. My goal is to book at least one of those per month. So I just created little circles with different categories and I get to check them off as I complete them.

The Best Marketing Activities

I also have a section in my chartfor my marketing activities, because how am I going to reach these goals? Well, through marketing. I talk a lot more about marketing at my Abundance Breakthrough retreat to trailor the marketing towards you and what feels fun and good for you to do.

I just had someone ask me yesterday at a PPA event that is a photographer’s association group. She sad, “I’m not new to photography,” she actually worked for someone else and was in journalism. She’s a very skilled practice photographer, and she said, “I need to learn all the marketing pieces to attract portrait clients as for my business that I just started.” She is under the impression that she needs to learn all things and learn them all right now, of course. She is like, “I don’t understand keywords. I don’t know how to make reels. I don’t know how to do Youtube.” And my guidance to her was one step at a time and to really tune in to what feels best to you. What’s your favorite way to show up? For me personally, it is video. I love speaking.

It feels good. It feels natural. It feels authentic and comfortable for me. So what I do is I shoot my videos, I shoot for my podcast and my Youtube channel, and then I repurpose that content and put it all over social media. My VA does it and then transcribes it and puts it onto the blog and adds it to my email marketing campaigns. And to me that is so efficient because I get to show up the way I really want to show up that feels best for me, which is speaking and through video. That is my primary marketing activity. And then all the other things they did, it did get done. It gets spread out into the world through social media, through email, and it’s not me splitting my energy and physically doing all those things.

We repurpose content. That’s something we go into deeper at my Abundance Breakthrough Retreat, how to really tune in to what is your special sauce, what is going to help people to really understand what it is that you do and how you can help them as well. So for me my marketing materials or my marketing activities are to send a weekly email. I send email newsletters. I like to make it fun by doing a weekly message from Spirit, and then I’ll add something about a workshop or a retreat that’s coming up. But I always want to entertain, I want to inspire, and I want to educate. So it’s not just me promoting things all the time. There are plenty of people out there that they only reach out to you when they want something from you.

One of my coaches calls it a booty call. Through email, if you don’t hear from someone for months on end and then suddenly they have an event coming up and you hear them nonstop like that week, that’s a booty call, because they want you to sign up for their event. Whereas if you make it more consistent and you add value to their lives in some way, you make it fun for them, you inspire them, you educate them, then they’re gonna be much more likely to want to come to your event because they know who the hell you are.

Next thing is Youtube. I like to do a weekly Youtube and it might sound like a lot for you, but I have a lot of energy. I’m a very high energy person. I’m again a Gemini, I’m a communicator. I like to make videos, I like to write, and I like to speak. So, if this sounds like a lot to you, you just pick and choose what feels good to you. I do a weekly Youtube video, although it is recommended to do a video every single day if you’re using Youtube as your strategy. Well, that is not my primary strategy, it’s just one of my strategies, so I do it once a week, sometimes twice a week, because that feels good. I also have a podcast, and I publish two podcasts every month and I have a virtual workshop, my multiple stream of revenue for photographers. Then I also am starting to do spiritual workshops in person at yoga studios in where I live. I track how many networking events I attend. Networking is a really powerful way to grow your business and also to make new friends, to make new connections. People work with tho they like and trust, and if they don’t know you and they’ve never met you in person or they’ve never seen your face, they’re not gonna be very likely to recommend you.

I’ve been asking the universe for more word of mouth referrals. I love working with someone, like from one night, in-person sales meeting with one of my high school seniors and her family, I said, “I wanna clone you all and I’d like to work with more people just like you.” Like they’re very easy going, fun, appreciative, and happy. The girl was gorgeous, it’s not that it’s a priority, but it did make it easier in editing. I didn’t have to retouch any skin I was like, “you are what I would like more of. Please, send me people who are just like you.” And she did, they sent their best friends, and then they sent me a boy next.

You know that word of mouth referral is really powerful. So really the best marketing you can do is do a really good job for your clients. Show up fully for your clients. Be completely present with them, not having your mind elsewhere. What do I need to do next? Where else do I need to go?

But full presence is your greatest gift. And last night, I sold one of my photography collections. We sat and talked and I have no agenda. I am blessed that my ex-husband has my children half of the time, and so I feel zero guilt about working as late as I want to, and I can be fully present with people and I don’t book anything afterwards so that I can be fully present with them. And they feel that, and desire that too. People desire connections, and not having an agenda for somewhere you need to run off to after. Such a gift to people, especially for moms. Like this one time with a mom, she was just like talking and talking and was so happy. I was like, this is fun. I can’t believe I get paid for this. She’s like, “Oh you need to, you know, head out,” and I’m like, I’m good, I’m happy. I’m enjoying our conversation. It just feels good to connect with people and not have somewhere else to rush off to afterwards. A full presence is your greatest gift you can give to anyone.

Something else I do to keep track of making sure I don’t drop any balls throughout, and since I do have three businesses: the coaching, the speaking and the photography, they all of course branch into different areas as well. I like to have checklists. A whiteboard, specific for my photography clients, a workflow to make sure I don’t drop the balls. I go down from the very first phone call, all the way to delivering their final products, and I make sure I don’t miss those steps. I have templates for everything, and it just helps to keep me track, keep me organized. And I feel better than ever. When I was a coach, I was fully committed to my, especially my free of life program because it’s a yearlong mastermind program. I poured all of my energy into that program and what I found was that I did not put enough energy into the front end of that. So that would be attracting people to come into that program next. I had 15 clients in that program for a year. I served them so fully that I was not paying attention to the front end the way I know I need to now, which was another reason why I set up multiple streams of income because I also have a book.

I did that because I learned that you can’t just put, for me anyway, put all your energy into one thing because what if one thing happens that shifts that thing that you can no longer do? We all saw that during the Covid lockdown. Our photographers, we could not do the photography. People started doing those front stoop pictures for free just to give back to the community, but many of them had to or go to apply for unemployment and PPA loans and all those beautiful things. You never know when things are going to shift and change in our world, that there could be a stream that gets cut off completely.

I know a photographer who went blind. She had a stroke and went blind in one eye. She could no longer do photography. So you never know what’s going to happen. It’s always good to have multiple streams of income, which is what I’m all about, whatI’ve done for my own business, and what I’m now teaching other photographers to do as well.

You can book a complimentary call with me just to talk about this. To see if this is something that you’d like to do for you business, and if you’d like help implementing that, I can certainly help to do that with you.

Episode 34 – Growth Through Failure

In this episode, Julie shares how being willing to fail can lead to your greatest triumphs in life. When we spend so much of our lives trying to avoid failure we are limiting our highest growth potential because in the depths of failure is when the greatest lessons are learned and our true strengthening happens. Getting curious about our desire to “win” and learning to let that go will allow us to experience the true joy and bliss that can happen when we try new things and don’t let the fear of failure stand in our way.

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

How failing can be the greatest thing that happens for your growth
How to let go of the fear of failure
Having courage to put yourself out there in a new way is what will lead to your greatest triumphs in life

FREE downloadable training course

Schedule your Abundance Breakthrough Call Today:

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About Julie Goetzinger:

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Work with Julie

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Email: julie@juliegoetzinger.com

Performing at the Moth

Recently, I went and performed a story at The Moth. The Moth is for storytellers, many of which are professional speakers, actors, actresses coming to perfect their craft. And I decided, being trained as a professional speaker, this would be something that’s great for me, to get in front of an audience and to practice a story. I signed up to put my name in to be pooled. And what happens is you’re to prepare a five minute talk on a specific theme.

The theme that night was crossroads. So we were asked to prepare a five minute talk, and you don’t know if you’re gonna get chosen when you get there. You put your name in the bag and that just means that you’re open to being chosen. I came in cocky as hell and I left deeply humbled.

Here’s what happened: I walked in and I’m like, “I got this. I’m a speaker. I’ve got a speaking coach. I’ve got a rating coach. I can do this. I’m not afraid.” I introduced myself to the staff. I sat near the VIPs. I saw their seats marked VIP, and I decided I would make friends with the VIPs because I, too, am a VIP, and I deserve to be here in this section. Again, feeling cocky, feeling confident. And cocky to me just means overconfident.

It was just how I was at the beginning of that night, and I made friends with this woman who actually had won the event the previous time. So we exchanged phone numbers because I figured it’d be good to know her. And she also just thought it was fun to connect with me. So we exchanged phone numbers. She is the first person to get picked to share, and she does an incredible job, and I’m so proud of my new friend. She gets good scores and that was something else. I didn’t realize that we were even being scored. I thought that we were just going up there, kind of like karaoke, and just share our story from our hearts. You know, kind of like improv.

Well, no, there’s a specific criteria that you’re to follow. It’s supposed to be timed and you are judged and you get scores. I was like, “Oh, okay, well, if I’m meant to get picked, I get picked. If I’m not, I won’t. No big deal, right?” My name is called next. I’m like, “Oh shit. Too late to turn back.” Now, I walk out on stage loosely having a story that I wanted to share about divorce and had no idea how long the story was gonna be.

I was proud of my story because my message was about divorce as completion. It was about not to fear it, not to think you’re bad or wrong, or to shame yourself for going through divorce or for considering divorce, but to see it as completion and to continue to send that person love and appreciation after the separation.

So I finished my story. I just stopped. There was no real ending. I just stopped talking. I had no idea how long I’d been talking. The audience applauds me. I go and sit down and my scores pop up. They’re low. They’re pretty low, and I’m thinking, “Well, I didn’t know what I was doing. It’s fine. At least I got up there and shared my story. It’s okay.” The next person gets up there, her scores are much higher than mine. The next person gets up there, their scores are also higher than mine, to the point where my name just kept dropping lower and lower in that scoreboard. I’m sitting there feeling like I’m gonna explode with tears, fighting them back. Just feeling all the feelings that I have no right to be here. Who am I to be a speaker? I need to pick something else. I can never do this professionally. Who would pay me for this when I just got that score? I don’t deserve to be here. The lights finally came on during intermission and I did not say goodbye to any of my new friends. I beline it the hell out of there. I fast walk to the metro, get to the metro. Two people ask me for money, and I’m thinking, “Well now I’m gonna get robbed after just being kicked down, being told I wasn’t good enough, basically by a huge audience of people that I’ve never even met.” Finally I get home and I cry myself to sleep.

Realizations after the Failure

I wake up the next morning wanting to blame someone for these feelings. These feelings of inferiority, these feelings of failure. And I’m thinking, they shouldn’t have judged you. They shouldn’t have given scores. That was humiliating. I will never step foot in the Miracle Theater again. And then I got curious and I started thinking, what part of me has such a strong desire to win? Why?

I thought back in my life to other times when I had won and lost and what happened, and what I recalled was if I would score the winning goal in soccer or if I would get chosen for a part in the play in my school auditions, then, I would receive a lot of love from my father. And my dad was a performer as well, and I was thinking, this is his arena. I can’t let dad down. My dad has now departed. I was thinking, “Wow, I really let dad down.” And I think subconsciously that was actually what I was responding to. Not my scores, but what it meant and how it made me feel. I realized that winning was actually me putting myself out there saying yes to allowing myself to be someone who shared a story in hopes of inspiring and uplifting others.

Maybe someone in the audience was going through a divorce right then, or was about to, and was fearful and needed to hear my message not to be afraid. That was why I shared that, not to get good scores. And then I started thinking, how is this any different than getting crappy scores in mini golf? Why does this matter so much?

And I realized that it was the being stuck in this idea of what success looks like. Success looks like lots of money. Success looks like high scores. Success looks like praise from others. So, as long as we need that feeling and that validation from others, we will never feel success within. The success here is in putting ourselves out there of being bold and being brave. Having the desire to inspire and to help and to teach others, that is success.

And that is my story of how I was humbled, yet was also able to pick myself back up and grow through this perceived failure and to not see it as a failure at all. I also realized that the name of the theater was The Miracle Theater, and I laughed about that because of the breakthrough that I experienced in the Miracle Theater.

This is the exact story that I plan to share at the next month’s event. I’m not shying away. I’m not hiding. I’m not staying home feeling sorry for myself. I’m gonna put myself out there again only one month after having that happen. That is success. That is winning.

Episode 33- Worthy

In this episode, Julie shares how our worth is not determined by how much money is in our bank account, how many people want to work with us/date us/ what our body looks like, etc. Our worth comes from our existence as the divine beings that we are. It’s not what we do, it’s WHO we are. So long as we define worth and success as something outside of ourselves that we can achieve, we will endlessly be searching for it.

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

How to redefine worth and success
How to feel successful before the money comes/before the partner arrives
How to cultivate a greater sense of self-worth

FREE downloadable training course

Schedule your Abundance Breakthrough Call Today:

https://juliegoetzinger.as.me/schedule.php?appointmentType=31237929

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Feeling Unworthy

This year has been a huge lesson to me in identity and defining myself by success, defining myself by how much money was in my account, and how many people wanted to work with me. And as people completed their contracts and moved forward, it felt like a not good job for me for helping them get where they needed to be. I took it as they don’t want to be with me anymore. I have no value to them anymore. That was the story I told myself, and it felt like heartbreak. It felt painful. And as the client started to move on and had some unforeseen things happen financially this year, my worthiness went down dramatically.

I started to think they don’t wanna be with me. I have nothing to offer. I’m done. I scheduled some connection calls with past clients who told me what’s happened since working with me, things I didn’t even know. One of them fell in love with her partner and now has two children with her.

And I was like, “How long has it been since we talked? You were single the last time we worked together.” And then another client was telling me about this huge surge in income that she’s had in her business and the money blocks that I help her to overcome. And then others, it was just so good to hear their voice and reconnect with them, and they reminded me of what I’ve already done.

The lessons taught are invaluable to them, but for me, it just felt like loss. It felt like I was not good enough, and I started moving money around. I started getting resourceful and really reorganizing everything, scrutinizing every little payment that I was making. To be very mindful is something that serves my business. Is this working? And if it wasn’t, I let it go. So it gave me the opportunity to go through everything with a fine comb and to let go of things that weren’t joyful or that weren’t bringing a return to my business. So that was a great gift, but a shift happened for me.

The other night at three o’clock in the morning, which is my hour when the spirit wakes me up. I heard very clearly, “You’ve been inauthentic, Julie. You’ve been inauthentic.” And I was like, “How? Like how am I being inauthentic?” And what I received was, “You need to claim who you are as a psychic medium and not shy away from it for fear of judgment. How others gonna receive you? How can you package yourself so that you’re accepted by more people, so that you can make more money, so that you can feel more loved, more accepted?”

And I was told very specifically, “You need to change this title. You need to own this. This is who you are. This is not a profession. This is your calling. This is your mission. You need to do this.” And I had started to shift to serve who I thought needed to be served in order to make money, in order to sustain myself and my family.

I was like, “Well, I need to teach business strategy. I need to do this. This is what people want.” And what happened was there was a disconnect and they were saying, “I don’t have time for another program. I don’t have time. I don’t have money for another education program right now.” And in my mind I was like, this isn’t an educational program. I miss psychic medium. I can connect to your loved ones. I can connect to your guides and your angels and help you step into your highest growth potential. This is not education, this is the mission and not just my mission, but their mission too. And I think that’s why. It was painful to hear people say, “I’m just not ready yet.”

Embracing the Authentic Self

I’m just not ready yet. But I’ve been saying that to myself. I’m not ready yet. I’m not ready to step into the full version of who I am. And at 3:00 AM, I changed my title to Psychic Medium, and I put it all over social media. I put it on my website and I’m like, “I’m just gonna accept that this is it. This is it.”

And I looked back in my life at the times that I did accept that and wrote about it in my book, claimed that as my own, and just shared it with the world, my abundance was there. And right after I reclaimed this title—this has been who I am in multiple lifetimes—I got the yes I’d been waiting for. Not just this yes on my house. It feels like a complete new lease on life, and I had started to feel the urgency around moving and it’s time to move. I keep hearing that it’s time to declutter, it’s time to shift. And I was like, “I don’t have that much stuff. I’m in an apartment. I’ll do that when I move.” I started to look around for some places to move and I was thinking, “I’m done with being in an apartment. I’m done having lots of neighbors.”

I’m an empath. I feel every little thing. And being in an apartment has been very challenging for me for multiple reasons, but this is just not the way I want to live. This is not conducive to my lifestyle. And I started looking for other options. I saw this house, it was like a little cottage, and it’s by a lake. And I drove up with my daughter and she said, “Mommy, can we afford this? This is its own house.” And I said, “Well, actually, it’s less expensive than where we are now because I’m in a high-cost living area.” And she was like, “Wow, mom. It’s so beautiful.” And we hadn’t had a tour schedule yet, but I had my daughter’s approval, which is really important to me because she’s very in tune as well.

And we drove away and I was like, “I gotta move on this.” So, I set up a tour the next day with the owner. I walked in, and there’s a sage in the middle of his table and there’s crystals everywhere. And I was like, “What is this?” This is like a stage for me. Like I don’t meet many people who have all of this where I live and the east coast near Washington, DC. There’s not a lot of us that I’ve met personally that live here. And this man has this over his house and I’m talking to him, seeing all the things that we have in common, and I’m just like, “This is my house.” I started taking pictures of every room, like planning out where I’m gonna put everything. Meanwhile, I didn’t even fill out an application yet, but I knew it was my house.

And I drove away and all the fears, “What if he doesn’t pick me? What if my finances aren’t strong enough? What if he wants someone with two people’s income?” All the fears, all the doubt, the self-doubt, the worthiness that I’ve been struggling with all year, not feeling good enough, it came out to the forefront. The night that I decided to reclaim who I am and not to be fearful of the judgment that I may receive for saying or claiming or sharing that I am a psychic medium. The next morning I got the yes for the house. The excitement that I felt, knowing that this is where I’m going to step into that next highest version of myself as an entertainer, as a performer, and as someone who is ready to be seen and received by the masses.

And feeling so called to performance, feeling called to big audiences, big crowds, I know that it’s going to happen when I’m in that house. And all of this happened after I said yes, and after I did some looking into the worthiness piece. When things are stripped away from us, we associate that with our worth, our money, our appearance, and who we’re in partner with. The other day I was thinking I’m not where I wanna be financially. I don’t have a partner right now. I don’t know where I’m gonna live. I don’t know what’s happening with my business. There were so many unknowns that I was just like in the depths of hell, in the depths of it, dark night of the soul. Like, I’m done. Done with all of this, and I don’t deserve this because I’ve worked so hard to get where I am.

And meanwhile, the outside world is telling me, “You’re amazing. You’re so inspiring. You’ve changed my life. We’re so appreciative of you.” I can hear that all day long, but until I know it and I feel it within, it means nothing.

Not needing the external world to validate us, but seeing it from within, trusting our intuition, going where it says to go, and visualizing the future. Already realized I saw myself in that house. I see myself in that house. I see myself on stage. I’ve had dream over, dream over, dream over dream of huge stadiums audiences filled, coming to hear me speak. And the lesson for me has been this: we’re not worthy by what we do, how we look, who’s with us, who thinks we’re good enough. We’re worthy because we exist because we’re here. We’re all worthy exactly as we are. Not after we’ve gotten more education, after we have more money after our body looked a certain way after someone tells us they love, but for exactly who we are in this moment. You are worthy.

So it’s time to start celebrating that future that’s not even realized yet. Start celebrating it now. Feel it now. See yourself there. Now doing it, being with who you wanna be with, where you wanna be. Feel it. You are worthy of all of it. And it can happen like that. And some of us choose to have our manifestation spread out. Some of us choose to get them in this like windfall. That’s what I like. Just give it all just a huge windfall, thank you. But however you are open to receiving it, knowing that it is coming, you put your order and you’ve requested it is coming. You are worthy of it.

What’s mine will never pass me by. What’s mine will never pass me by. My requests have been heard. My request have been honored. And in the perfect time and in the perfect way, they will be realized.

Episode 32 – Photography as a Ritual with Angela Michelle

In this episode, I interview boudoir portrait photographer turned intimacy educator, Angela Michelle who lost her eyesight after suffering from a stroke. She shares, “For a photographer to lose vision is heartbreaking and I managed to take that experience and find even greater purpose in my mission.

In This Episode, You Will Learn About:

How photography can be expressed as a ritual
How to hold sacred space for your clients to fully express themselves during a boudoir shoot and to feel all of their feelings
How to overcome challenges and evolve while still fulfilling your mission

Connect with Angela:

FREE downloadable training course

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Moving on and Adapting from a Heartbreaking Trial in Life

Angela is a stroke survivor who is completely blind in one eye and has learned to adapt as a photographer and educator. I would love to start with how you have adapted? I can imagine that that was really heartbreaking and scary as anything and yeah. How did you, move forward from that?

So I think losing vision for anyone is devastating, but I think for a photographer, it’s probably one of our biggest fears. We kind of talked about how I had an intuition before. I always had this fear of going blind, of losing vision, and I’ve had it very strongly ever since I was a child, and everyone always told me like, “Oh, yeah, you’re a photographer. Use your eyes.” But when it happened, I think because I intuitively knew it was going to happen—I can’t even explain that—I think I handled it pretty well. I think some people might have been more devastated, but because I had this feeling when it happened, I was just like, “Okay, this is how it happens.”

And how do I move forward? I promised myself, as long as I could still see, I would still be a photographer and I would still find ways to photograph because it is something that I am just so passionate about. And it’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. So yeah, I do still photograph, although not as often. And that’s because of the stroke; it wasn’t just the vision loss. It also caused a whole other list of health issues that have kept me in and out of the hospital for the past, six years now. No doubt you’ve faced that question. Why did this happen? Why me? Have you gotten any answers about that?

It turns out I have a rare clotting disorder called Antiphospholipid syndrome. I was not aware I had it until the stroke happened and I was pregnant with my first child. Would’ve been my first child. And they think, in my case, the pregnancy hormones, kind of pushed this disease into overdrive. And I ended up with what is known as catastrophic anti-phospholipid. And that just means your body is throwing clots everywhere. That’s what caused the stroke. That’s also what caused all the pulmonary embolisms, which would lead to lung disease. For those who can see, you can kind of see the scar on my chest. That’s an open heart surgery that they did actually on my lungs in 2018.

Yes, we got answers. It’s always nice when you know the reason why, and if I’m being honest, I have been struggling for about a decade, leading up to that incident, with my health and I was struggling to get doctors to listen and look deeper if there was an issue. So when it happened, it was devastating, but it was also kind of, “Okay, there’s a reason why this is happening.” And now that I know, I can do things to make my life better.

So that’s the scientific reason, but what about the spiritual? The bigger “why.” Have you been able to uncover that? It’s so interesting that you ask that because we hear people all the time say things happen for a reason. And I don’t wanna go down the toxic positivity road by any means, but I do feel like this was my path a way. And I do feel like what happened to me had to happen for me to become the person that I am now. And I’ll be honest. I really like the person I am now. In that way, I tell people I’m actually grateful for the experience because it did ignite a transformation in me that I think was so needed in my life. And I think it put me even more on the path of doing what I’m here to do.

The Bigger Meaning in Life

And what are you here to do now? I’m here to do what I’ve always done. I just feel more purpose in it and that’s to help transform people. It’s to help people live their best life and not wait, not hold back, because life is happening right now in this present moment. And I really want people to embrace that.

Your story is such an in inspiration and I thank you for your honesty and being so forthcoming. Your vulnerability is really beautiful and inspiring. And like you said, it’s given you bigger meaning in your life—what you’ve gone through.

Photography as a Ritual

So I thank you for sharing that part of your story. I’d like to hear a little bit more about your photography. You see your photography as more of a ritual, and I’d love for you to explain what do you mean by that photography as a ritual? My degree is in cultural anthropology and I studied sex and rituals in depth.

I already had this idea of like what a ritual is. And at the time I had started my photography business in 2008. I was still in school, and I began to see these transformations that people would have in a photography session. And I was like, “Something’s happening here.” And when I started thinking of the purpose of a ritual, it is to transform. It is a liminal state of possibility.

So when you’re in the ritual, you’re not what you were, and you’re not what you’re going to be just yet. It’s just this infinite possibility of what you can be. And so when I started to see photography like that, the first thing I did is I thought of all the times we tend to hire professional photographer: newborn, maternity, weddings, engagement sessions. I’m Hispanic. So, all these kind of milestone moments. And I was like, “Wow. I think part of our purpose as photographers is to help people transform how they see themselves.” I think photography is such a powerful medium for that because it is embodied work. It’s a work that we do with our body, and we’re in this moment, but we’ve come out of it. And we see ourselves the way that we want to be seen, maybe the way that we always want to be seen, maybe the way that we feel in our heart. That just transforms us and helps us step into that role even more, whether that role is being sexy, beautiful, empowered woman who’s owning her body, or whether it’s helping to someone—you know a senior portrait session, it’s a huge transformation. Like you’re taking a young woman and helping to see herself as this independent adult. And so there’s that transformation there. So I just think there’s so much possibilities for it to be a ritual.

Photography as a Safe Space

And when you think of it that way, you can think of all the steps of how to make the ritual even more intense. I guess just more fulfilling for that particular client. And how do you hold that space for the clients to have that transformation? Because I would bet that not every photographer notices and is like, “Oh, look, you look so beautiful. You look different.” And that’s just a small percentage of the transformation. How do you hold this space for a woman to transform emotionally and to see herself differently? I think holding space is an art in itself. It really is. And I’ve recently shifted the way that I talk about it. For so long, I used to say safe space, and I think that is a goal as someone who’s trained as a sexologist. You know, there is no such thing as safe sex, only safer sex. And so I kind of take that same idea. I can’t promise you safe space, cuz I don’t know what each person’s triggers are or where they may run into trouble. So I can’t promise you that safe space. I can promise you a supportive space and in that supportive space, I hold that space for you to feel whatever you need to feel. And so I tell people if you have a visceral reaction, whether it’s crying or screaming or whatever, you were allowed to have that. I’m not gonna hold you back from that. I’m not here to control the way you feel. I’m here to give you that space and support you to feel what you need to feel. Whether that person is struggling with their body image, or maybe struggling with something deeper.

You know, in boudoir work, we work a lot with people who are working through their sexuality. And so sometimes it’s them stepping into those emotions that they feel around that maybe are from a past experience, or maybe just kind of wanting to show up as their authentic self.

And this is really why I believe boudoir photographers are healers because this isn’t just any old photo shoot. Like this is really allow, like you said, the sexual wounds that we might be carrying—the body image, the internal thoughts, like there’s so much that goes into it and holding that. The word that pops into my head is sacred space—holding sacred space and that space for you to feel what you’re gonna feel. And like you said, I can’t guarantee safe space and everyone defines safety differently. I believe that we’re all inherently safe and it’s all just a perception that we’re not. But we are going to be triggered and that’s part of growth is part of transformation and holding the space for someone to be safe, even in the triggering.

Helping People Realize They’re Worthy of Love and Pleasure

So that sounds like it’s exactly what you’re doing. I love it. I love the work that you’re doing. You shared with me that your mission is to help people realize that they’re worthy of love and pleasure, and they deserve to live the life that they want. Can you tell me a little bit more about this and how you help them to do this?

I think, through photography, we do this through that transformation and I’m not talking about the physical transformation. I’m talking about the internal transformation that a client experiences and that we all see. That’s a big mission to see that they’re worthy of love and pleasure. I think, for me, the power of the session itself is that a client was scared to do something and they did it anyway. And there’s so much emotion and like power and resilience and bravery that can come out of that experience because they were vulnerable and they put themselves in a vulnerable situation. But they moved through it because I think we grow through discomfort. And so I think that that alone allows them to maybe realize, like, “What else can I do in my life that I had been putting off because I didn’t feel worthy? Because I was worthy to do this photo shoot and look at these photos and look at how I feel.”

So my hope is that it’s part of that journey of them to kind of feel like they are worth it. So now that I don’t do as much photography, I say I still do what I always did. I just don’t always have my camera as the tool. Cause to me, the camera was just a tool to do the work. So now I do it a lot through embodied work through yoga, through breath work, through journaling, through different exercises that I give clients. They work through intimacy obstacles. And to be clear when I talk about intimacy, you know, a lot of times, we think of intimacy, like with a partner, like maybe with our sexual partner. But there’s intimacy in all our relationships. And most importantly, there’s intimacy within ourself—our self intimacy. And I tell people you can’t connect to other people until you’ve learned to connect to yourself and your own body.

And so a lot of the work I do is those exercises to help them and to kind of just shift their mindset: Why do you think you’re not worthy? Where did that come from? Let’s use compassionate curiosity to break it down, and then we can get back to that place of worthy needs.

So much when you were sharing came up for me. You know, being single now, and everybody said before, you need to be alone for a while. You need to, and I didn’t understand that. I was like, “No, I like being in a partnership. I like being with a man.” And then I realized that the real healing happened alone. And I was also the most fulfilled sitting under a mountain in Colorado, all by myself. And I was like, “Oh, this is what I’ve been avoiding. And this is the most powerful feeling of bliss I’ve ever felt in my life.” And I’m sitting here in nature, and it was like, “Wow.” And I also loved what you said about being intimate with yourself and really going within and looking at everything. That’s there blessing, loving every little bit of it. None of it’s bad or wrong and just honoring all of that. And when we do that work first and then you attract friends, clients lovers from that space—that’s powerful.

The Path to Becoming an Intimacy Educator

I would love to hear if other photographers are interested in becoming an intimacy educator. How do they do that? How do you start on that path to become an intimacy? I think it really depends the path that you want to take. Intimacy educators were a pretty broad group, so some people are actual therapists. I am not a licensed therapist. That’s not what I tell people I do. But a lot of them are. So if you wanted to go that route, there is that route that somehow is more into public education. Some are doing behind the scenes work. Some are working in like public education or even private education. Some are working in the entertainment industry and trying to make things safer for actors and actresses. So it just kind of depends on the direction you want to. But I say maybe really sit and think about like what values you have, what other skills you have, and what direction you’d wanna go.

And then you’d wanna find a program that will help you get the education you need. And there’s a ton of programs out there. I went through the Sexology Institute here in San Antonio and I am now one of their instructors in the program. So I am partial to our program, but it may not be the right program for every person. And so I just tell people to look at the different programs that are out there. Look at their content. Also look at their instructors. I’m always looking for a diverse group of instructors. I don’t wanna see only one viewpoint. So just find what the right fit is for you to get the education. And then realize, just like with photography, you’re running a business. So yes, I do this, but it is a business. And so you’ve gotta have all the business aspect in there as well.

The Power in Sharing Your Story

I was telling you that when I had my stroke, unfortunately, two hospitals missed it. They did not recognize it as a stroke. And that led to several hours of delaying in care. And that led to the permanent vision loss. Because that happened, I became very vocal about talking about my journey with my illness and I was sharing on social media, talking about my experience.

The following year, I ended up in the hospital and my oxygen levels were unsafe. I ended up having to leave that hospital with oxygen 24/7, but my doctors did not understand why. And I was sharing this on social media and because of it, an old high school friend who had become a heart surgeon, saw my post and he wrote me and he said, I think you have this really rare lung disease. And with his help, I got diagnosed. At the time I was diagnosed, I was given less than two years to live without medical intervention. Luckily I was able to have surgery in 2018 on my lungs, and that is the surgery that literally saved my life. And I continue to share my story because I want people to know that we know our body better than anyone. I think back to when I had the stroke. I knew something was wrong. I just didn’t know what, and I kept begging the doctors, like something’s really wrong. I don’t know what, but something’s really wrong with my body. And they dismissed it as anxiety.

And I feel like part of that was my gender being a woman. I don’t know. And I don’t think they would’ve said that to a man, “You just have anxiety.” So one of the things I really teach with my clients is that we know. We have to tune in to ourselves. And that means shutting out the noise, even sometimes shutting out the noise of experts.

What I tell people is, “You know, the doctors, they go to school, they study, and they are amazing at what they do, but they have no idea what it’s like to live in this body.” I do. And if that is an intuition that we have, we have to learn to trust ourselves in order for us to truly be empowered and to have agency over ourselves.

Something that I felt from Angela was this: I will not be ignored. And sharing some of her feelings about feeling that way in the past. And now it’s like, “Enough of this. I will speak. I will share my story. I will heal others by being open and honest about this and helping others to also advocate for themselves in all areas of life.” You know, this doesn’t just apply to health and your body. This applies to relationships. This applies to your business, your families. I will not be ignored. None of us came here to be ignored and to blend in. We all have a story. We all have a mission. And the more of us that come out and share, “This is my story. This is my truth,” the more lives are going to be saved. Like literally lives are saved because we speak.

That’s what I tell people: use your voice. You know, we have our voice; trust your intuition and use your voice because we are worthy. We have value and I’m not gonna be ignored. I don’t want anyone else to be ignored. And I hope that my story inspires others to step into their own in that way and to own what they feel and to not be ignored. And we’re worthy because we’re here.

Episode 30 – Success On Your Own Terms

What Does Success Really Look Like?

What I’ve been hearing intuitively is that it’s time to simplify. It’s time to let go. It’s time to cut back. It’s time to really tune in and release things from our schedule that no longer bring us joy or bring us some kind of financial return or that serve in a higher way. And I had to start making some decisions. I had to start looking at my schedule and freeing myself. As I feel a desire to travel more and to be that speaker on stages in person, now that things are open again, you know, I feel that desire to go and travel and explore and be in front of big audiences.

And one of the things that I came to was my podcast and it has been fun, and full disclosure when I said yes to doing it, I was also in the middle of writing my book Free to Fly: Manifest the Life of Your Dreams. I was hosting a retreat. I was planning an international retreat, doing one-on-one coaching, and taking on a lot, and I can now see where I have taken on too much and done things that I thought I was supposed to do to be successful and also to maintain that identity that I created for myself, amongst my peers and colleagues and my clients. And it was about moving quickly, doing a lot of things, having lots of accomplishments, and money clients, and then something funny happened, not funny at the time, but looking back, I know why the business actually slowed the more projects I had going, the more fires I had gone, the less money came in and I started to think, what will others think? I just released a book about manifestation. What will others think? If I am not swimming in the cash right now, I need to keep this quiet. I need to keep this on the downplay until it got to the point of, Wow. I need to look at this. I need to shift some things up and not just what I was doing, but how I was living my life. I realized that I’d been so busy chasing the next project or the next client, the money that I wasn’t giving myself any time to have fun, to be off to rest. And then I started thinking, what will they think? What will they think if I stop doing my podcast or if I stop hosting retreats, or if I stop doing these things that others have loved to do with me and have thanked me and you’ve helped me create all these changes and transformations in my life. But why am I here? Where am I meant to go next? How do I wanna live? What do I want my schedule to look like? I started asking myself these questions when I was in California and realized that it was time to redefine success.

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About Julie Goetzinger:

Julie Goetzinger is the creator of Abundance Academy, Abundance Activation Workshops, Abundance Breakthrough Retreats, Free to Fly, and Money Intensive. She helps soul-aligned entrepreneurs to create more freedom in their lives in the form of time freedom, financial freedom and the freedom to be fully expressed. She is an Abundant Life Coach, Podcaster, Author, Motivational Speaker and Entrepreneur with seven years of experience in the business.

Connect with Julie Goetzinger:

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Email: julie@juliegoetzinger.com

When You’re Lost, Remember Why You’re Here

I started asking, what are you afraid of Julie? What are you afraid of? What else are you afraid of? What else are you afraid of? What else? What else? What else? I found myself in that animal instinct, like really in it. This is what we’re afraid of. This is what we’re afraid of this. What else, Julie, what else? I kept going and going deeper and deeper and deeper. Just like I do for my clients. I did that for myself. I gave myself that gift. I sat with myself in that pain. I felt the full range of emotions. I let it run through my body, Breathed it out, just like I’m doing right now. Took those breaths. I gave the sound to the breath. Until I came to that place of stillness, that place of peace. What am I meant to know here? Spirit that’s when I was able to ask, not from the place of desperation, tell me what to do, why isn’t this working, but then, from the place of, what am I ready to know now? Spirit. I started pulling Oracle cards for myself and the cards I pulled were don’t give up. You’re so close. Don’t you dare give up. I think one of the cards said actually two of the cards had the exact same message. Don’t you dare give up, like, what does that mean, spirit? What does that mean? Does that mean I need to keep doing all of these things? Does that mean I have to keep all of these balls in the air? Does that mean I have to do this and not have any time for myself? No. That’s not what that means. That means your devotion is being recognized. It means to remember why you’re here. You are that door opener. I had a visual of myself standing at the gates of heaven. Sounds ridiculous. But it’s true. I had a vision and I was standing there and what I heard was Julie, you’re not the show. You’re the door to the show, open the door, and let others see divinity. That’s your job. You simply open the door for who’s ready to see that’s your job here.

Success On Your Own Terms

Success on your own terms is about letting go of needing anyone to do anything in response to what you just delivered. We’re used to success, looking like money, people signing up people coming right in business. That is what success looks like. People say. Did it work? What they want. What they’re asking is, did you make money from it? I decided to have a more empowering definition of success, and I actually downloaded this checklist, the middle of the night about how to reclaim our power around success. And it was all about, it has nothing to do with the other person. It’s about how devoted are you? Did you show up in full presence? Did you show up after having rested, fully taking good care of your body? Did you show up in full service with a desire to help improve someone’s life for the better? Was it fun? Did you enjoy doing it? Did it feel effortless? Did it feel like the time just went and you didn’t even notice the time because you were just in your flow? Yes. It’s a success. I came up with the affirmation. I am already and have always been successful. I am already and have always been successful. No more looking for validation outside of ourselves for success. I claim success.

Episode 27 – Time Saving Systems with Leah Remillet

Scale Your Business Without Having to Sacrifice Time With Your Family

I am a hundred percent all in with everything I do. And so I became obsessed with trying to start finding systems, trying them, I learned not all systems are created equal, and not all work. The more complicated a system looks probably the more it’s not effective, they really should be simpler. And so I kept testing and trying, and I was able to cut my hours. I mean, I cut them dramatically. I went from whatever that schedule was. It’s not like I tracked it cause I didn’t wanna know, but you know, some insane amount of 90 to 120 hours a week down to part-time I was working like three, three and a half days a week during normal hours, I was getting eight hours off. I was sort of talking about it, but I was so embarrassed. I didn’t really, and then it was in that, that rooftop and these women started crying and they started admitting like that they were drowning. And I finally got it. I finally realized this is not a me problem. This is a we problem. This is women’s problem.

When you’re trying to balance being a homemaker and a wife, and maybe it’s not a wife, maybe it’s a sister or it’s a daughter or another job that you’re running or we’re trying to manage and balance so many things and we’re secretly overwhelmed, exhausted, and beating ourselves up. And there’s a better way. And so I really just started becoming like, that became my mission. Ultimately it comes down to me, I want to help women have happy and be financially independent and feel financially confident because of their own doing like that’s I want us to have both.

Schedule your Abundance Breakthrough Call Today: https://juliegoetzinger.as.me/schedule.php?appointmentType=31237929

Let’s Connect!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JulieGoetzinger

FB Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/556740678079498

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliegoetzingercoaching/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliegoetzinger/

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/absolutely-abundant-a-podcast-for-soul-aligned-creatives/id1602144470

Also, if you haven’t done so already, follow the podcast. I’m adding a bunch of special release episodes and, if you’re not following, there’s a chance you may miss out. Follow now!

About Julie Goetzinger:

Connect with Julie Goetzinger:

Free Abundance Breakthrough Call

Email: julie@juliegoetzinger.com

Success Is About Having Balance

We can get confused about what should be set and what success should look like, right? Like, is it just money or is it more than that? But when I think about thriving, every area in my life feels good. It doesn’t mean they’re all perfect. And it doesn’t mean they’re all equal, but each area feels good. That’s when I’m truly thriving. And I really do believe that this life is for thriving for every single one of us. We were put here and placed here to experience joy and happiness and fulfillment and purpose and passion and all of these.

The Time-Saving Systems

I want you to think about there is the law of the harvest. So a farmer understands that there are seasons for different things, right? He knows, or she knows that there is going to be the period of time when it is planting and they’re gonna be all in during that time. But then there’s gonna be the time where they’re just waiting for the growth and they might need to do a little watering or fertilizing or whatever the heck farmers do, but it’s not gonna. It’s not gonna be that, that constant need. And then there’s gonna be the time of harvest. And they know during the time of harvest, like truly from sun up to sun down, they’re gonna be working, but it has brackets around it. Like there is a calendar that says it’s only for the short period of time.

One of the big shifts for me was this whole hustle mantra. Like this idea of like just hustle, hustle, hustle, no one ever said to us, But for a certain period of time, not definitely. I jumped on the hustle train and I was like, hustle till you die. I mean, that is not sustainable. So I kinda have this like bad, bad taste in my mouth towards the idea of hustle me too, because I think so many people get it wrong. It’s like, I am willing to hustle for a very short and defined period of time. Like, oh, it’s maybe it’s launch time for someone. Great. So for two weeks you’re gonna hustle and I hope you’re gonna like, get a lot of it. Pre-done for yourself just to make life easier, but like, yeah. Okay. You might be hustling for two weeks, but then you’re gonna schedule. Like a whole week of almost nothing afterwards mm-hmm or you’re gonna just rest, you’re gonna regenerate, you know, I think about a cell phone and people will always be, be saying. Like you need to charge up, but think about your cell phone every single night. You’ve gotta plug it back in. And when you’ve got too many things, trying to go in it, when you’re draining it too fast, it’s, it’s not gonna work the way you want it to. And we’re the same way we’ve gotta be plugging back in. So one of the big things is gonna be just a reframing of the mindset around what working hard looks. And recognizing that we really are gonna probably get our most creative ideas and get what we need for the next stage of our growth and our success in the downtime.

Number one, we are making no decisions while you are feeling super emotional. This is a lot of time for a decision. Number two, the very next thing we’re gonna do is we’re gonna look at this giant list and we’re gonna figure out which things we can pin. Hey, those are all pinned. It might only be for a week. It might only be for two weeks. Like, doesn’t mean they don’t have to get done, but they maybe don’t have to get done right now. So we’re gonna look at what we can pin and we’re gonna get down to like, okay, now here’s the two or three things that are actually press. And then start tackling those things. So there’s always the shift first that has to go in our mindset. It has to go with how we’re looking at, at what we believe. Even though from a statement, a bank statement, or on a resume, it looked incredibly successful, it didn’t feel it. So that mindset shift of just getting really clear on like, not just what do you wanna do, but what do you wanna be?

One of the things about your systems is you’re gonna create a system. And then you might need to change it later, right? Like you’re gonna evolve. Things are gonna change. And that’s okay.

We Deserve Downtime

We deserve downtime. I didn’t believe that my value was in my productivity. And therefore downtime was a waste. And that is just not true. We need to retrain ourselves to be present, to be able to be intentional. We’re in a distracted world where we are constantly having things, buying for our attention and trying to distract us. They are pouring millions of dollars into how can I distract her and keep her here instead of doing other. We know that now. So in knowing all of that, we got into some bad habits, but we can get out of them and we can retrain ourselves to be more intentional, more purpose driven more just when you’re there, you’re there. And that’s ultimately what we want. We want our kids to feel that, we want our spouse or our partner to feel that, we want our family to feel that, we want our clients to feel that.