Ditch the Overwhelm, Unleash Your Crazy Ambition
If you're anything like the Honestly, Photography team, you are busy. Some days, you are overwhelmed and others you have no idea where your brain has gone off to. Well, luckily for us there is a solution.
After the birth of her first child in 2011, Lisa Edwards, a full-time photographer found herself overwhelmed, burnt-out and unfulfilled. She would work 9-12 hours a day and still feel behind and when her son was 2 months old she realized something had to change. That's when she came up with Crazy Ambition, a system developed to give mom entrepreneurs more time with their kids.
Lisa took some time to answer a few questions (and she even shared a rocking PDF specifically for photographers):
After the birth of her first child in 2011, Lisa Edwards, a full-time photographer found herself overwhelmed, burnt-out and unfulfilled. She would work 9-12 hours a day and still feel behind and when her son was 2 months old she realized something had to change. That's when she came up with Crazy Ambition, a system developed to give mom entrepreneurs more time with their kids.
Lisa took some time to answer a few questions (and she even shared a rocking PDF specifically for photographers):
1) Tell us a bit about Crazy Ambition:
Crazy Ambition is dedicated to teaching Mom Entrepreneurs how to spend more time with their kids by using systems, outsourcing, and a special emphasis on ditching overwhelm. It is podcast that features interviews from other mom entrepreneurs around the world in all different industries, and is a place for other free time-saving systems and blog posts.
To put it more simply, the goal of Crazy ambition is to give you your time back.
I'm a full-time photographer, and I know what it’s like to be staring at your computer screen editing, only to look up and find out it’s been 9 hours and the kids are asleep and you still feel like you’re behind.
In July of 2011 after first having my son, I was overwhelmed, exhausted, frazzled, and borderline insane. I had a wedding to shoot just two weeks after he was born, and though I “say” I took a month off for maternity leave, it didn’t really happen.
You can read a more in-depth story of why I created Crazy Ambition on the website (http://www.crazyambition.com/about), but the jist of it is that I literally HAD to stop working 9-14 hour days, 7 days/week, or I would turn into one of “those” parents, the ones that never really knows their kids because they spent ever second working or thinking about work.
Something that makes Crazy Ambition completely different from the rest of the podcasts and education out there, is that it focuses on making motivation irrelevant. What I do is I create education that teaches you how to make things run smoothly and so that you don’t have to make a million decisions - you just do.
An example of this is how I use my google calendar. I have a task that has to be done every other Monday. Basically, I have to review a document so my employee can get paid. So every other Monday, there’s a box on my calendar that says “review employee hours.” The kicker is that the link to the online document I need to review is right in my calendar. So instead of saying, “crap, where’s that document again?” and putting it off until the next day, I just click on the link in my calendar, briefly view it to make sure it looks good, then email my accountant “hours look good” in an email.
To put it more simply, the goal of Crazy ambition is to give you your time back.
I'm a full-time photographer, and I know what it’s like to be staring at your computer screen editing, only to look up and find out it’s been 9 hours and the kids are asleep and you still feel like you’re behind.
In July of 2011 after first having my son, I was overwhelmed, exhausted, frazzled, and borderline insane. I had a wedding to shoot just two weeks after he was born, and though I “say” I took a month off for maternity leave, it didn’t really happen.
You can read a more in-depth story of why I created Crazy Ambition on the website (http://www.crazyambition.com/about), but the jist of it is that I literally HAD to stop working 9-14 hour days, 7 days/week, or I would turn into one of “those” parents, the ones that never really knows their kids because they spent ever second working or thinking about work.
Something that makes Crazy Ambition completely different from the rest of the podcasts and education out there, is that it focuses on making motivation irrelevant. What I do is I create education that teaches you how to make things run smoothly and so that you don’t have to make a million decisions - you just do.
An example of this is how I use my google calendar. I have a task that has to be done every other Monday. Basically, I have to review a document so my employee can get paid. So every other Monday, there’s a box on my calendar that says “review employee hours.” The kicker is that the link to the online document I need to review is right in my calendar. So instead of saying, “crap, where’s that document again?” and putting it off until the next day, I just click on the link in my calendar, briefly view it to make sure it looks good, then email my accountant “hours look good” in an email.
2) What are some things followers of CA can look forward to?
Followers can look forward to a ton of free information and education from other successful entrepreneurs.
Something huge that I just finished is a simple system photographers can use to turn facebook posts and blog posts into actual leads. I personally am sick of hearing about how facebook and blog posts are amazing marketing, and then personally never feeling like it’s doing me any good. I mean, facebook likes and comments don’t really equal dollars in my bank account. You can get that free pdf here (http://www.crazyambition.com/photo)
Followers can also look forward to the first 14 podcast that will launch Feb 2nd! A few golden nuggets that will be learned are:
Something huge that I just finished is a simple system photographers can use to turn facebook posts and blog posts into actual leads. I personally am sick of hearing about how facebook and blog posts are amazing marketing, and then personally never feeling like it’s doing me any good. I mean, facebook likes and comments don’t really equal dollars in my bank account. You can get that free pdf here (http://www.crazyambition.com/photo)
Followers can also look forward to the first 14 podcast that will launch Feb 2nd! A few golden nuggets that will be learned are:
- How Catherine Nicole uses Pinterest to generate sales- using blog posts and photos that aren't even of her product. The funny thing is, this translates more to her bottom line than being featured in Good Housekeeping and USA Today has.
- How Nagina Abdullah makes willpower irrelevant by eliminating steps and doing things in a way that eliminates your decisions.
- Maize Hutton's system for getting all of the negativity out of our head so you can spend your day focusing on what matters.
- Susan Barth's process for writing her book in a way that didn't take time away from her family, and actually took less time than it takes most to write a book.
I’m also excited to announce that I have a podcast interview lined up with the creator of Baby Einstein this February, and I’m super excited! I can’t wait to share with everyone how she turned her big ideas into a top selling baby toy brand.
3) Share with us your number one tip for staying focused & relaxed:
Find out what’s actually working, and quit doing the rest. That sounds kind of impossible doesn’t it? It’s not.
There’s a reason I go through weeks (sometimes even months) of not posting to Facebook. For me, if I can’t measure my marketing against my bank account, it’s just not worth my time.
I did recently create a system for actually turning Facebook and blog posts into real leads (not just Facebook likes and comments, but getting an email and phone number). A recent blog post that I put on Facebook actually gave me 9 leads in 24 hours. For me, that is insane, when I’m used to just getting a couple of likes on a post.
The system is specifically for photographers, is super detailed in instructions, advice, screenshots and examples, and you can get it for free by going here: (http://www.crazyambition.com/photo)
There’s a reason I go through weeks (sometimes even months) of not posting to Facebook. For me, if I can’t measure my marketing against my bank account, it’s just not worth my time.
I did recently create a system for actually turning Facebook and blog posts into real leads (not just Facebook likes and comments, but getting an email and phone number). A recent blog post that I put on Facebook actually gave me 9 leads in 24 hours. For me, that is insane, when I’m used to just getting a couple of likes on a post.
The system is specifically for photographers, is super detailed in instructions, advice, screenshots and examples, and you can get it for free by going here: (http://www.crazyambition.com/photo)
Not sure about you, but we are just pumped to dive into the Crazy Ambition system!
Thanks so much to Lisa for taking the time to introduce the Honestly, Photography family to this amazing resource!
Thanks so much to Lisa for taking the time to introduce the Honestly, Photography family to this amazing resource!