How I shift my perspective to take on back-end business that's not exciting. (133)

Good morning, friends. I am over here seriously cracking up because I have my mic out, my beautiful mic on top of my expense sheet, and I've got receipts all over the place. And I honestly, before I hit record, found this dark chocolate espresso bean right on my desk. Like, this is hysterical. I spent all day yesterday working on my taxes and getting everything ready to submit. it. And I didn't submit because I just wanted to look at it again with a fresh mind.

So I left everything out. And honestly, it's hilarious. I just made a reel about it because yeah, you know, what do you do? This is part of owning a business, right? But if you want to check it out on Instagram, do so. I hope you guys had a fabulous weekend. I'm coming to you straight off a busy weekend. And man, I'm just feeling lit up today, you guys. I'm going to be honest with you. I am am feeling so lit up about everything.

I'm feeling like everything's falling into place. And actually today is the eclipse. And I know that's been a lot of talk around that. So if you're listening to this, that means that everything went fine, which I'm pretty sure it will. So anyway, I'm going to run the opening credits. I'm going to eat this espresso bean, and I'll see you on the other side so we can get started today. Hey friend, welcome to Deep Healing for Creative creative entrepreneurs.

My name is Aubrey Barr, and I am a subconscious release technique practitioner and photography business owner. I know you are sick of ending your day feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, and you are seeking a solution to help you feel creatively inspired and actively engaged in your business as well as personal life. In this podcast, we are going to dig into any limiting beliefs or subconscious programs that are keeping you in a space filled with anxiety and stress.

This work is not a temporary solution for your life. No, this is a complete transformation. So grab your coffee or tea and let's start you on the road to healing. And let me just say you can do this. You are worth it and you are meant to thrive in life and business. So let's. Music.

So what I really wanted to share with all of you guys today, I know that I definitely attract people who are business owners and not all of you are photographers. And some of you, you know, maybe this is your side job, but maybe you also, you know, have a spouse that works full time or something like that. So tax season is different for all of us. And this did come up for me today because I am almost done with my taxes. I'm about to hit submit and feeling fine about all of it.

But I wanted to talk about the anxiety and the overwhelm that comes with these ups and downs in business, because it's not all like rainbows, right? It's not all beautiful. It's not all, let's make this gorgeous picture or create this project, right? Everything comes with their ups and downs, and business is like that. There's a reason why so many people call it the emotional roller coaster of being an entrepreneur, right? Because there's ups and downs and there's no way to avoid it.

Even if somebody takes over for part of your business needs, right? Like maybe you're editing, maybe someone does your taxes. Okay, that's fine too. But you still have something leading up to that that you have to do, right? There's still a part of that that you need to do. If someone's doing your editing, you get them back and you're going going to look at them, right? You're going to maybe play with them and maybe suggest further edits, maybe, you know, whatever.

You're going to have some kind of foot or hand in the process, right? So it's just impossible to think that I will always just pass things off, right? I have this thing where I am like, okay, when I am making X amount of money, which I do not recommend thinking this way, but I'm going to be honest with you guys. When I make X amount of money, I am going to have a housekeeper. Once a month. And there's a reason why I haven't done this yet anyway.

It's because we were remodeling and everything was just so disorganized that I cannot even imagine someone coming in to try and clean an organized mess, right? But yeah, outside of that, yeah, I want to have somebody come in and do all that stuff for me. Well, does that mean I'm never going to have to clean a toilet again? No. Does that mean I don't have to do my dishes? Like I probably still will We'll do things, right? So there's still a part of it that you have to have your hands in.

And that's kind of where I wanted to start today's episode, because, oh, man, if we could just learn to shift our mindset around these other tasks that maybe are not as fun, maybe they don't light us up, like it's not the reason we became an entrepreneur. It's not the reason we put ourselves out there. But yet it is there. It is something that needs to be worked on. It is something that we have to look at and we have to say, okay, what do I want to do for this?

So I'm doing my taxes. And actually I came at it totally different this year. I said, you know what? Actually, I have this day where I don't have too much going on. My family's around, but they have their own projects. Maybe it would be a good day to just get these taxes done. So I started the morning off doing doing my miles. And then later on, I watched TV with Aspen. Actually, we were watching a really funny show. And then I was like, okay, I'm going to go in my office.

And I fed my soul now. I've grounded myself. I feel really good about life. I'm just going to go in there and see what happens. I'm not going to attach the anxiety and the overwhelm and the mystery. But of course, it's pessimistic mystery, right? Because it can't be a good mystery, right? Like there's no way it's going to turn out good. I'm not going to bring that with me.

I'm going to just walk through that frame door and I'm going to say, okay, that stuff can't come in with me today because I have work to do and I need to stay focused. And honestly, I took a couple of my, what I like to take for my ADHD, get super focused in there. You know, I had some extra caffeine. I'm like ready to go. And yeah, I got to say everything changed. Everything changed from previous years because because I just looked at it as something that needed to be done.

And I detached myself from the end outcome. So I didn't allow it to be like this really scary thing that I'm going to like, freak out when I see that in number, or something that I'm going to, you know, have to rearrange all my finances in order to accommodate this, right? I've been in business for 17 years now, I've had had a lot of different businesses. I've changed the way I do business. Like nothing really surprises me anymore on the business end. I know how to spend my money.

Because when you make money, guess what? You have to spend it. If you're not going to spend it on anything in your business, it's going to end up being spent on the government. So just understanding the flow of things, I've gotten rid of that overwhelming sense of like, oh, crap, what's going to happen? And I'll be honest with you, every year it's different. I seriously feel like every year it's different and laws change and there's different policies that shift. right?

So we just have to be prepared to do whatever we need to do to keep our businesses running. And I, I gotta say, I have known people who straight up quit their business because of tax season and having that stress and having these extra things go on. But the reality of it is that it doesn't matter. It's always going to come up. There's always going to be something that's like, oh crap, I actually don't like this part of business or this part isn't fun, right? right?

So it's just understanding how to navigate through that. That was the big deal for me for this.

And I want to share something with you guys today that's also a little personal. I'm not going to tell you how much my business made last year, although I do know that now. I had a roundabout guess because I do keep logs, obviously. I've got this really cool and simple little Excel sheet I I got from Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, the book. She has Denise, what's her last name? Denise, she's amazing, whatever. She's a Denise Amazing.

I can't remember her last name, but I'll tag it in the show notes so you guys can have it. Anyway, excellent book, super easy little spreadsheet. And you actually add things in there where you make money. So let's just say your business brought in a certain amount of money. You would put it in one column. And then there's another column for just random stuff. Like you go to the grocery store and your favorite food is buy one, get one.

So you have this column where you could put, oh, you know, I got $6.99 of a free item today because it was buy one, get one, right? Or I got this scratch off ticket and it was $25. And so you put it in that other column. So I have that too, which is super cool and I highly recommend. But besides that, it's like you spend too, right? So you bring in money and you spend money. And it's this whole beautiful flow that happens day in and day out.

Learning to accept that has been something that I really had to work on as far as my mindset around abundance goes. And there's plenty of episodes in the future. I already have guests lined up for this, and I've done them in the past where people come on to talk about stuff like that because it is super valuable information. But outside of that, I didn't have all my full numbers. And while I'm not going to share those full numbers with you, I can definitely say that my business grew by 25%.

So I brought in 25% more income just straight off the top than I did last year, which to me feels really good. It's not, you know, overnight, I made a million dollars, right? It's not this overnight success and everything's booming and, you know, I have no time to do anything else, right? But it's a beautiful gradual climb. And it's more realistic and it's more of something you might experience in your life, right? There are people who have this booming success and then there's people who grow

steadily and stably and within their capacity. And that's a beautiful thing too. So I want to acknowledge everybody on all of that scale so that you know it's not like all of us out there that are talking about these things are insanely rich and have no no issues in the world and don't need to advertise and don't need to do all these things, right? We're just normal people. Just normal. But growth is a beautiful thing to experience.

And I've opened up my life and my business for growth by being honest with people, by being super transparent, but also helping people with their transformation so that they can be more authentic to their lives as well. And that comes full circle. It really, really does. So when I talk about shifting my mindset around doing doing these tasks that maybe are not so fine. It really is about finding the good in them.

You know, if I didn't have this desk full of, I don't know, maybe 300 receipts, and you know, a lot of receipts are now online or digital, right? But I actually physically have that many as well. So if I didn't have that and I wasn't spending money, then I clearly wasn't making money, right? And so to me, I'm like, wow, look at this. Look at this beautiful flow of abundance in and out of my life. Look at how I'm able to support these local businesses.

You know, the hairdresser that I love so much that I've been with for really 18 years. She was my first Florida friend when I first moved here. I've been with her that entire time. I get to spend money on my hair with her, with somebody that I truly value their life and their life of their children and making their family happier and more abundant. And then I look at things like, you know, how much I spent on this remodel.

And having that, those receipts, those physical receipts to look at and say, wow, you know, I got to put all this money into this office that I get to come to. I get to record my podcast here. I get to do my YouTubes and my sessions with my clients and all of that because I brought in that money first and then I got to spend it. And it's just looking at those things and saying, wow, this is amazing.

This is amazing. The gifts that I got to get people, I just went and got Aspen's Hockey Coach a bunch of gluten-free stuff from a local baker. Those are amazing things. Those are ways that I can support my community while everybody is supporting me as well. So changing your perspective on how these tasks have to be done but can be done with with a more positive outlook, with realization that the ups and downs in life and in business are actually quite beautiful.

They're a way for us to give to other people and they're a way for us to receive from other people. When you understand that you're not receiving money and you're not giving money because you're not open to it, it really shifts your mind around around tax season or around spending or around even investing in yourself. You guys, you are worth it. You are worth it. A portion of what you bring in this month should be spent on your overall well-being.

It should be spent on your emotional and mental wealth and health, right? So just looking at it like that, it shifts the way that you look at your business. It shifts the way that you allow that anxiety to take over because you get to choose.

I can promise you that you get to choose today how you will react to all of these situations in your life. So I truly hope that this hits somewhere where you can say, you know what, I'm going to choose differently. I'm going to choose optimism. I'm going to choose to look at this as a really abundant part of my my business and a really lovely way for me to show up in the world.

All right, friends, I hope this finds you well. I hope you enjoyed the eclipse and I hope that you're having an amazing Mercury retrograde as we all should be. And I will talk to you later on this week. Be safe, friends. Check out the show notes for my courses I'm currently running. I would love to have you guys in as a a private client, I have one spot for that person. And that runs $8.88 a month right now.

So it's a perfect opportunity to come in and snag that and just help you be able to filter out all of these extra emotions, regulate your nervous system and come back to a more authentic version of yourself. All right, friends, have a beautiful day. We will talk soon. I hope this podcast spoke to you in some way. If it did, please go ahead and leave me a review and subscribe so that I know you're enjoying what you hear.

And further, if you know somebody else who owns their own creative business and struggles with anything that we spoke about, please pass this on because it is my hope that we will be able to build a community of like-minded individuals who love on each other and appreciate the many facets that make our creative business so unique. And lastly, check out the show notes to find my free Facebook community and other useful links to work with me. All right, friend, see you soon. Music.