If you’ve ever felt like you were meant for more in life, friend, this episode is for you.
Event planner to big names like Tony Robbins, Bari Baumgardner spent most of her life trying to avoid sales.
When she finally overcame her head trash around selling, she was able to build the company of her dreams.
I asked Bari to come on stage at my 3-Day event for boutique photographers, Go Boutique Live, and hundreds of photographers told me this was their FAVORITE presentation of the entire 3 days.
Here’s part of her presentation from Go Boutique Live 2021.
Bari Baumgardner:
I spent most of my life trying to avoid sales because the thought of having to do it makes me anxious in the pit of my stomach.
I remember a time where my mom wanted me to call Pizza Hut and order a pizza and anything like that scared me to death.
As nervous as I was, even since I was a little kid, I have always felt like I was meant for more.
All of us as humans are meant for more.
It’s part of why I wanted to be here today, because ironically, that little girl that was afraid to get on the phone now speaks on stage.
I’m behind more stages than I’m on them, but one of the things I love to speak about is what I consider, not sales, but enrollment.
I’ve actually come to think of it as the art of enrollment.
Decide to do at least one thing differently.
Commit.
Commit to a timeline.
Celebrate.
Celebrate that this is the day that you realized what was possible.
It’s so important.
The heart of all of this is the key to overcoming objections and learning the art of enrollment.
Enrolling people, drawing them to you, attracting them to who you are, and what you do, and the power of your work.
In order to do that, you have to go from uncertainty to certainty.
Having your own photography business and understanding how to overcome objections, others and your own, and enroll others and yourself, is the key to freedom, to choice.
SALES IS A SERVICE
It’s not something that you do to someone, it’s something that you do for someone.
When you think of someone who all of a sudden has the wall of their house transformed.
And not for nothing.
If you look at the expense of artwork, what you do is considerably more affordable in many cases than what people would buy, and much more meaningful.
And it’s a gift of a lifetime.
What do objections look like?
The five objections are: time, money, spouse, fear, shame, and self doubt.
They’re universal, and they’re all on a continuum.
OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS WILL KEEP YOU FROM BEING STUCK IN YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS AND LIFE
I want you to think about what objection is most likely to keep you stuck.
What is the one that bubbles up for you?
Chances are, it’s not just here, it’s showing up throughout your life.
It’s something you have to master and overcome, not just to have a successful photography business, to have a successful life.
And if you don’t, I know what happens.
Because it happened to me.
I lost a decade of my life to this.
A day becomes a week, a week becomes a month, a month becomes a quarter, a quarter becomes a decade.
Then it gets into the hierarchy of enrollment and it starts with you.
I know for many of you, you try to go straight to your customer and enroll them, but you’re not enrolled in you.
What this looks like is you’re unconfidently trying to sell them on your services.
You’re not certain that the pictures are worth it, and so of course they’re not.
That rarely works in a sales or an enrollment conversation.
You have to believe it.
So the hierarchy of enrollment starts with you.
Your reason not to is your reason to.
The thing that you’re most afraid of is the thing that you most need to embrace.
The obstacle that’s always holding you back is the one you have to literally just grab, and put your arms around it, and give it a big kiss.
Give it a big hug and be like, “We have been hating on each other for a while and we’re going to get to know each other, we’re going to make friends, and we’re going to fall in love.
I am tired of letting you control me.
I’m tired of living in that space.
Today’s the day we do things differently.”
OVERCOMING FEAR TO GRAB AHOLD OF EVERYTHING YOU WANT
Everything you want is on the other side of that biggest fear that you need to embrace and make friends with.
Otherwise, you’re going to stay stuck forever.
It is one of those moments to choose, basement or Broadway.
Are you going to stay in the basement, cowering and fear, or are you going to strike out for Broadway and the lights at the big city, whatever that means for you.
I know you can do it. Sarah knows you can do it.
Sarah Petty:
That was powerful.
Now you can see why Bari’s program was one of the top rated at last year’s Go Boutique Live!
If you missed out and feel like you are meant for more, I hope you’ll join us for the only three-day event in the world that focuses on your photography business and being a boutique photographer.
Grab your ticket at goboutiquelive.com.
I can’t wait to see you there.
