048. Nicole Begley: Pet & Equine Photography

Have you ever found yourself so full of ideas you weren’t sure which one to pursue first? 

Many entrepreneurs would describe themselves as “multi-passionate”, meaning they have many different interests, hobbies, and business ideas they want to try. If that’s you, you may struggle with the traditional advice to niche down or find one career and stick with it.

Today’s guest, Nicole Begley has not only found a way to follow her many different passions, but to combine them into one dream business. Her love of animals, travel, and business education has led Nicole to host pet photography retreats around the world.

Nicole is proof that having multiple passions isn’t a weakness – in fact, it may be your greatest strength.

WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/nicole-begley

Transcript

Nicole Begley (00:00):

The first thing I launched was a little ebook like 2015, back in the day when people would sell eBooks, and it was mini sessions and a snap. So it basically showcased all the things that anyone would need to put on these charitable mini sessions that I used to do in my photography business. I think I literally just made it for sale for my list. We had, I think, $20,000 in revenue. My mind was blown. Then the next step was once people started to go through it, and then they started to say how much easier it made their experience in putting this together and how it helped their business and the ripple effects of the good that is doing in other people's lives. It's just like this is so rewarding for me. Forget the money. I just love this ripple effect of goodness that is just going out among the world.

Shanna Skidmore (00:48):

You are listening to Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast, episode 48. Have you ever found yourself so full of ideas you weren't sure which one to pursue first? Many entrepreneurs would describe themselves as multi-passionate, meaning they have many different interests, hobbies, and business ideas they want to try. If that's you, you may struggle with the traditional advice to niche down or find one career and stick with it. Today's guest, Nicole Bagley, has not only found a way to follow her many different passions, but to combine them into one dream business. Her love of animals, travel and business education has led Nicole to host pet photography retreats around the world. Nicole has proof that having multiple passions isn't a weakness. In fact, it may be your greatest strength if you dig professional bios. Here goes. Nicole Bagley is a zoological animal trainer turned pet photographer and educator.
(01:39)
She is the founder of Hair of the Dog Academy and online community in which she empowers pet photographers to improve their craft and grow their business. Nicole has authored the sold out book, pet and EQU Photography for everyone available on Amazon. For Kendall, Nicole shares her home with her husband, two small humans, rescue dog Zoe and Cat Emma. She is the creator of hashtag Selfie Dog series, a travel attic and a chocolate martini connoisseur. Okay, formal introductions over. Let's dive in. Hey, it's Shanna, and this is Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast. For the past 15 plus years, I've had the honor to hear thousands of stories from entrepreneurs around the world. As a former Fortune 100 financial advisor, turn business consultant, I have a unique opportunity to see the real behind the highlight reel. I'm talking profit and loss statements, unpaid taxes, moments of burnout, and those of utter victory, or as my husband says, the content everyone is wondering but not many are talking about. And now I'm bringing these private conversations to you. Hear the untold stories of how industry leaders, founders, and up and coming entrepreneurs got their start, the experiences that shape them and the journey to building the brands they have today. Stories that will inspire and reignite encouraged to redefine success and build a life in business on your own terms. Welcome, wildflower. I'm so glad you're here. Hey, Nicole. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here. Broken collar bone and all,

Nicole Begley (03:01):

Oh my goodness, it's been a week. Thanks for having me.

Shanna Skidmore (03:05):

Okay, so my sweet friend, KT Mary is how we got introduced. So how do you know kt?

Nicole Begley (03:12):

She is actually in a mastermind that I'm in, and we're both photographers, so we had that instant connection and we're both animal lovers as well, so we became fast friends.

Shanna Skidmore (03:22):

That's so fun. She's so sweet and wonderful. Well, I'm glad we've connected. I know nothing about you, and so I looked at your website. Of course, I'm so intrigued with what you do and your backstory. So let's just start it off and tell me what were you doing before the business you have now, and then of course, I'm going to want to hear how you got into what you're doing.

Nicole Begley (03:41):

Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. I've always loved animals. When I was a kid, I didn't want any Barbies. They just sat in a corner. I usually, I think, cut their hair, and then they just sat there with their really short, awful hair, and I would just play with animals and briar horses and all of the things, and I've ridden horses for really my whole life. And then when it was time to figure out what to do for a living, I figured I would go to vet school because growing up you want to work with animals, then you just have to become a vet. Yeah, turns out there's lots of other options and ended up working in the zoological field for 13 years as an animal trainer. So working with relight birds and seals and penguins and big cats and primates and all sorts of things over 13 years.
(04:22)
It was amazing and I loved it. But then after 13 years in, I was kind of middle management per se. I was running a department and I had a great boss, but then the place I was working for restructured, and I then was reporting directly to the executive director who was a bit challenging to work with at the time, and I had just kind of lost my love for what I was doing, even when trainers would come and have me assist on some training stuff, which I loved. I loved animal training so much, it's just like the spark was gone. So I was like, it's time to do something else. And I had always thought that I had this entrepreneurial spirit that I wanted to do something for my own, that I would be doing something on my own at some point. Didn't know what that was.
(05:07)
I thought about becoming a dog trainer because I knew about opera and conditioning animal training very well from spending so many years teaching a seal to let us draw blood from the flipper for health checks and stuff like that. So I had a lot of really good training background, but then I realized my limitation would be the patience that I would have working with owners that maybe wouldn't do their homework. And then I'd come back the next week and they'd be like, why is my dog still doing this? It's like, well, have you done anything right? They'd be like,

Shanna Skidmore (05:36):

No.

Nicole Begley (05:37):

I was like, yeah, all right. I know I can't do that. So I also loved photography and I loved photographing the animals that I worked with, and so I became a photographer. When I left, I started doing families mainly, and then also some pets on the side, because this was in 2010, pet photography wasn't really a mainstream thing yet, so it was like, there's no way I can do that all on its own, but turns out now you can. So now I am a pet and equine photographer.

Shanna Skidmore (06:05):

Okay. I love this story so much. How, I have a question. Yeah. How did you have the insight to know, or did you have friends who were dog training, or do you feel like you just got an epiphany? How did you know without trying it? You know what? Maybe the owners won't do their homework, and this could be back because I feel like that's one of those offers and jobs that sound like, and careers that sound really good. And then you get into and it's like, oh wait. That's how that goes if the owner doesn't do their work. So how did you get that Insight?

Nicole Begley (06:37):

I did actually, I was a part-time dog trainer at PetSmart, because zoo World life is, you're not paid well monetarily. You get a lot of other rewards. So I was a part-time dog trainer at PetSmart for a while when I was living in Philadelphia, so I had a little experience there.

Shanna Skidmore (06:52):

Okay, okay. Got it. Cause I was like, that's one of those, it's so funny. People ask me a lot. They're like, Shanna do when I'm starting a business, I guess I need to get my L L C and set up my bank accounts. I'm like, actually, you just need to try a bunch of things for a year. Right. Because sometimes it takes, you said if you had just gone straight into dog training, you would've set up this whole business and been like, oh, that's,

Nicole Begley (07:13):

Wait a minute.

Shanna Skidmore (07:14):

That's So interesting. Okay, so tell me how the transition with photography happened. Did you take any classes? Did you learn from photographers? Were you self-taught, like how'd come up with your offers and your pricing? Yeah. How did you make it a career?

Nicole Begley (07:28):

For sure. So back in 2010, there weren't a lot of online education platforms. Now, fast forward in my business, the bulk of my business is actually online education for other pet photographers. I do still serve some private clients, but it's really about 10 clients a year to fill my artistic creative itch and still make sure that I have a little toe in the industry. But when I made the transition from Zoo World to photographer, and one of the main reasons that it was also time is I was pregnant with my second child and we were looking at daycare options and I was like, dude, it's going to be my entire salary to have two kids in daycare.

Shanna Skidmore (08:08):

Oh my goodness.

Nicole Begley (08:09):

So true. And for a job that I didn't even love anymore, the passion had been, it kind of beening extinguished. So then I knew it was time to move on and I needed something flexible. So I knew that photography I could do as really as a part-time business and stay-at-home mom and kind of do that on the side, which was also something that I needed no judgment for. Stay-at-home moms out there. That is the hardest job on the planet. I knew that I needed something for myself too, for me to be the best version of me and for me to be the best mom that I could be. So having that allowed me to have a place to channel some of these other things that I wanted to do. And as I was building that business, it really well, I did have the opportunity to stay on.
(08:52)
My old job is a little kind of part-time consultant piece, not really consultant, but a part-time. I would just come in and help them out when they were busy or during school field trip times when there were a lot of programs and things like that. So that helped. And then I also picked up a little independent contractor photography side gig. Photographing some babies in the hospital is just another little way to be like, Hey, let's just earn some money quick and easy. It's just a couple hours in the morning. And so that way, that kind of helped bridge the gap until my business picked up enough steam. It took about a year, and then I was able to just do the business and learning wise was really self-taught. I did go to a couple workshops because there were some in-person workshops and things like that, but it was really before the rise of having everything available on YouTube and all of these amazing educational courses to help people really have whatever transformation they want in life.

Shanna Skidmore (09:48):

Okay. So tell me what you feel like in those early days went really well, and then what were some learning opportunities you had? Oh, yeah. Just in those first few years,

Nicole Begley (10:00):

I think what went really well was I just happened to end up going to an industry conference because I was looking for this. I'm like, there's got to be a conference or something. So I found Imaging usa. It's a big national convention, happens once a year, and another friend of mine's sorority sister was kind of in the same boat as me. She had kids at home. She was starting her photography visit. So I'm like, Hey, do you want to go to Nashville and go to this conference? And she's like, yeah. So we did that, and that I think set me off on the right foot because I was able to avoid a lot of the mistakes that photographers make because I had the same thoughts when I started. That was like, oh, I'll just sell some digital files and be like a hundred dollars a session.
(10:40)
I'm going to make way more than I did in my previous job, a hundred dollars a day, not realizing all the things that you don't know when you're getting into a new industry, how much time actually goes into this, the time of booking the client, planning the session, shooting the session, editing the session, all of those things. So I was able to set my business up on the right foot selling product, creating a more boutique experience, having higher prices so that it was actually sustainable, because I see a lot of people get into photography with that same thought of, oh, look, I have no cost of goods sold. I'm just selling digital files. I'm going to make so much money not realizing the cost to run the business. And when you really work out the hours that you're putting into that client, you're making less than you would be if you were flipping burgers at McDonald's. Yeah,

Shanna Skidmore (11:28):

And that hurts, which I'm

Nicole Begley (11:29):

Sure, yeah, I'm sure most industries are like that. You're looking out on the in outside and you're like, oh, a hundred percent be profitable with this, but you don't know what it actually takes to be in that business.

Shanna Skidmore (11:40):

Yeah. I think that's so insightful, Nicole, because especially with a service based model where it's low cost, it can be really tricky. I know all of my service based entrepreneurs feel like, or my product based entrepreneurs are like, oh, man, if I just had a service, I'd make so much more money. But it's like, right. Then it's the time cost and all of that. So imaging, U s A is the conference you went to?

Nicole Begley (12:03):

Yes, yes. Yeah, there's that one. And there's W P P I, which is Wedding of Portrait Professionals International or something. That one's usually in Vegas.

Shanna Skidmore (12:12):

Yeah. Okay. So tell your first offers Were more family oriented. Yeah. How did you start shifting over to more pet photography?

Nicole Begley (12:23):

Well, I started with getting some models so I could show it, right? You got to show what you want to sell, and then I did a lot of charitable marketing. That's always been a big way that I've marketed in my business. So I partnered with Humane societies and rescues and things like that to offer some special sessions to their supporters that would give back to the charity, but also bring people through my doors and get new clients in front of my lens. That is really been the backbone of my marketing for over a decade, really is that charitable piece, because it's a win-win.

Shanna Skidmore (12:55):

Yeah. That's so cool. I actually don't hear a ton of people talk about that charitable marketing. Yeah.

Nicole Begley (13:01):

Yeah. No, it's great. Especially when you're starting a business and maybe you don't have the list yet. Maybe people, maybe you don't. You're in a market. We moved to Charlotte five years ago. I knew only my brother here when we moved here, and when you don't know a lot of people, and especially for something that's like service-based industry, I'm not out there advertising on the radio or the TV or billboards or magazines like that. That doesn't really work so much for this kind of service-based industry. A lot of it is a little bit more personal connection. So you can leverage the affinity that the supporters for these charities have because they love the charity. And when you're working with their charity now, they love you, and then you're giving them a little special offer and they feel good about doing business with you because that's still supporting something that they love and feel passionate about. And then you're leveraging the charities contacts to be able to market your business, and it feels good all around.

Shanna Skidmore (13:54):

Yeah. So did you know quickly that you wanted to get out of family and go more into the pet time?

Nicole Begley (13:59):

No, it was actually a pretty hard decision. I still enjoyed my family photography. Even now, I enjoy an occasional once in a while. A lot of my pet photographer students are, somebody calls and I want to photograph my granddaughter and their dog. They're like, ah, no, they don't want to photograph kids like dogs only. But I really still enjoyed family photography. The only reason that I stopped doing it is it got to a point that I wanted to do more had and equine stuff, and I wanted to do more teaching on that side because that really was really passionate about that, and just something had to give. Yeah, I just didn't have the time. And my family business by that point was all referral based. I did nothing to market it. I had great sales selling, beautiful wall art to all of these families, and it was half of my revenue. So it was really scary to kind of turn that off and go full force into the more kind of unknown, but whereby passion really was.

Shanna Skidmore (14:58):

Yeah. Okay. So looking back, it sounds like this was definitely a turning point in your business.

Nicole Begley (15:04):

That was about 2015. Okay.

Shanna Skidmore (15:05):

So it was about five years in. You were turning off the family side, and how did that go? Did the pet side grow? Did that cover your income needs? Talk about how that transition

Nicole Begley (15:17):

Happened, and you don't have to do it cold Turkey too. So I told all of my clients that I enjoyed working with, which was 99% of them, I'm like, I will be your family photographer for as long as you want to hire me, because family photography is a little bit different than pets in that families. I had many clients that would hire me every year or every two years. So I didn't immediately just say no to all that income. I just stopped advertising for it. I changed my website and just started marketing solely pets and equine, but I still would serve those clients. And if one of my clients came and said, I have a friend that they really want to, I'm like, ah, sure. Okay. Yeah. So you can do, as you're building the business that you want, tell people this all the time. You can still do other things, just you don't have to advertise that you're doing those other things. So if you need to have two levels of service to bring in the income so that you can continue building the dream business that you want to build, we can certainly do that.

Shanna Skidmore (16:17):

Okay. I love that. That's such good advice. And it's so true, and I love how you said earlier I wrote it down, show what you want to sell. Absolutely. Okay. I know we touched on a few things that went really well as you were growing. What are some things that you're like, oh, man, I learned that the hard way.

Nicole Begley (16:34):

Oh, yeah. I mean, time management. I had two little kids. There was never enough time, but it did teach me the power of planning and being productive, working in, Hey, I've got an hour. Let's turn off distractions to get things done. And it helped me to trial by fire to really learn how to prioritize things. When you're strapped on time and you've got two little ones that you need to feed and change diapers and do all of those things, you got to just do what you have to do. And I always joked to our grocery store. At the time, I think Covid killed this for everywhere, but they used to have childcare. So when you had to be free stop, so an hour, it was an hour and a half, you can go to the grocery store. They had it there, so you can put your kids in there and shop without your kids and pick them up. But they also had a big cafe when Starbucks in the grocery store. So I would put the kids in there, I'd take my computer to the cafe, gave for Starbucks work for an hour and a half, pick the kids up and then grocery shop.

Shanna Skidmore (17:41):

That is amazing.

Nicole Begley (17:43):

It worked really well. And there was also a local church nearby that had $6 an hour drop in childcare, so it worked out really well. There's solutions out there for just about anything people need. They just might need to be open to other possibilities. Yeah, because I hear a lot of people thinking that things are black and white. For instance, maybe you're trying to build a business, you've got kids at home and they're like, I don't want to do full-time childcare and full-time childcare is too expensive. All right. No one says you have to do full-time. Like, what are some other options? Can you hire someone to come for two hours, three mornings a week? There's so many options out there if people can just entertaining other possibilities, really.

Shanna Skidmore (18:25):

Yeah. I remember Nicole the first time, we have the Y M C A local here, it's like $75 a month for our whole family, but you get two hours of childcare every single day. Oh,

Nicole Begley (18:35):

Yes. Yeah. Our gym had that too. I was like, I'm not going to the gym today, but I am going to the gym

Shanna Skidmore (18:40):

Today. I remember the first time I went to the gym, put Madeline in the childcare, and I just worked. And I was like, I feel like I'm breaking a rule here. But I did the same. I'm like, this is two hours of childcare, so Right. Getting creative.
(18:57)
Anyways, long story short, we had Madeline three wait lists last year for childcare, and it ended up being a blessing in disguise, but it's like you got to get scrappy and creative. And then I love how you said so often these time constraints I know feel like a burden, but it's time constraints I feel like bring so much creativity. You're like, okay, I have an hour. Let's get productive, because that's what I have. That's so good. Okay. It sounds like after transitioning into pet and equine photography, you had another turning point in your business. So we just talk through the growth of your business and then moving into the education side. How did that all come about?

Nicole Begley (19:38):

Yeah, so I love teaching mean. Even back in my zoo days, I loved helping other trainers, teaching them about training and helping them shape behaviors with these animals. And so when I started helping other pet photographers, I wanted to help them with the craft, but also the business. I really love business. And a lot of people in the photography world get into it because they don't love business, but they love the art, which I like the art, but I love business. So I was teaching some workshops, gosh, when was my first one? 20 13, 20 14. Two, some pet photographers about just the business, pet photography, and also a little bit about the craft. And as I was, and I had started a blog back then just to get some traffic for this workshop, these workshops that I wanted to teach. And that just started to snowball into more and more things.
(20:31)
And I realized that the workshops, I was talking so much about business, and I realized I could leverage that so much more because the workshops could only have, it was just me, like six students, because I didn't want to, cause we were teaching craft and going out and shooting as well. I couldn't have this big 20 people cause it's just too hard to actually effectively teach them craft stuff when you're doing that. And I realized, oh, I could kind of take this business education piece online and help so many more people. So that's kind of where that started. And it was 2016 into 2017 that December, January that I launched my business pet photography course. Then a couple years later that kind of rolled into a membership. We have Hair of the Dog Academy, which is just a big membership with all sorts of craft content as well as all that business content too, where we help people master their craft and then either start or grow their pep photography business.

Shanna Skidmore (21:26):

And how is that going?

Nicole Begley (21:28):

Oh, it's great. I absolutely love it. It is one of those things where you know, just look back and you're like, this wasn't the plan. That kind of thing just wasn't even on my radar that even existed back in 2010. But it's just, I don't know. I love how if you're, again, open a possibility and just kind of see where your interests and skills and things lie, and you just keep following these little rabbit trails, all of a sudden you look back and you're like, oh, this is an interesting location I found myself in. Yeah. So yeah, again, just being open to the possibility of not being totally cemented into what your business needs to look like because it might evolve beyond your wildest dreams.

Shanna Skidmore (22:13):

Tell me about this shift of learning to be, okay. So we launched our first course, the blueprint model in 2016 as well. And so I'm interested to hear your experience of transitioning from a pet and a crime photographer to a educator. Yeah. How did you learn about the pricing and the sale? I mean, it is a complete, what caught me off guard is a completely different business model, and I was like, oh, whoa, I've got to get in a different mindset. So I would love to hear your experience of what went well. What were, again, some learning opportunities as you transitioned more into the education side. Cause it's a totally different business model. Yeah,

Nicole Begley (22:54):

Sure. No, I've always been a big believer in finding education where it's out there. So I stumbled upon Amy Porterfield, which I think so many online entrepreneurs. She's your first taste of education. And that really helped me, I think, set that side of my business up for success. And I remember launching, the first thing I launched actually was a little ebook like 2015 back in the day when people would sell eBooks, and it was mini sessions and a snap. So it basically showcased all the things that anyone would need to put on these charitable mini sessions that I used to do in my photography business. And I just remember, actually, I don't remember how I sold it, I don't think there was a webinar. I think I literally just made it for sale for my list. We had, I think $20,000 in revenue for that.
(23:45)
And I was just like, my mind was blown. I was just like, whoa, that's a trip to the Galapagos for the family. It, it just opened up all this idea of possibility of just beyond my wildest dreams. Then the next step was once people started to go through it, and then they started to say how much easier it made their experience in putting this together and how it helped their business and the ripple effect effects of the good that is doing in other people's lives. It's just like, oh my God, this is so rewarding for me. Forget the money. I just love this ripple effect of goodness that is just going out among the world. So that never looked back.

Shanna Skidmore (24:26):

Yeah, I love that so much. I know when we first launched the blueprint model, I loved my business before as a financial advisor and consultant for business owners. It was awesome. And I did the same thing. I'm like, how can we serve more people without growing a big agency? And I think we had 250 people or something on our email list, and we sold a hundred and we did $106,000 launch. And I was just like, holy

Nicole Begley (24:50):

Cow. Wait a minute.

Shanna Skidmore (24:52):

And you're so right. It's such a wonderful opportunity when you find the right offer that where you can serve more people through, it's just a win-win for everybody. So I love hearing that. Yeah. Okay, Nicole, let's talk about the numbers a little bit. We have to do it. Sure. Okay. What would you say is your relationship with money now before you started your business? I'd love to hear just your thoughts on money.

Nicole Begley (25:18):

I love money. No, I think it's always been, I don't recall ever having too much money. Baggage. I mean, I've certainly worked on things. I think back to when I was younger and not really making money. I was riding horses and sometimes had some credit card debt after college and things like that just because I was still doing some of the things that maybe I couldn't really afford what I was earning. It was always a place of, oh, it all worked out and it always did. Not that I'm advocating out there of irresponsible credit card shoes. I'm not saying that at all, but it's always been, I think, a fairly low key, relaxed relationship with money. And I don't put a lot of stress on it, which I think works out well because if you focus too much on it, then of course you're focused on it so much that the energy you're sending out is the lack of it, or I need more of it, or it's just this more desperate energy instead of, Hey, it's all it's going to come, it's going to go.
(26:26)
I've always had when I need and then some. And so it's always been over the past, probably really 10 years, but really over the past couple years, I've really been cognizant of trying to notice any limiting beliefs that still come up periodically. And there's definitely some different areas in my life that shaped that relationship with money of I would. And sometimes it still reers up because you know, get rid of one and then you realize you're like, oh, there's three more beliefs underneath that belief. And I watched, my daddy was in the mortgage industry during 2008, so that didn't end well. So I think that ended up having a lot of, see, you can earn money, but it can just be taken away. So there's still always little pieces that we're uncovering. Yeah.

Shanna Skidmore (27:11):

How do you feel like you've worked through some of the limiting beliefs that you have had regarding, let me ask it this way. Yeah. Was there ever a time in your business that you felt like, Hey, this money stuff comes easy to me managing it, or I can see some ways that I need to figure out how to do this better?

Nicole Begley (27:32):

Yeah. Yeah. No, see, I love spreadsheets and I love QuickBooks, and I love managing and looking at my money so that I think is going for me. Yeah. Cause I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that are scared to look at it, don't want to look at it. I have a money, money Monday date on my calendar every Monday where I track the income my business had the past week, and then I go into my personal, I manage all of my things through Y N. So I go and I make sure that's all balanced and good, and then I go into my QuickBooks for my business and make sure that's all balanced and good. And then I just feel really, really good about it all to start the week having all of that buttoned up. How did I uncover other beliefs? I would just start to pay attention.
(28:11)
I think one of the easiest ways to kind of tell when you're holding onto a belief that is not serving you is when you're feeling stressed or you're feeling not great about something, is to ask yourself, all right, what am I thinking about right now? And then usually it is some sort of belief that's not serving you, you to feel stressed or concerned or some sort of anxiety, which then you could start to examine that belief and be like, all right, is that true? Where did this belief come from? Yeah. What else could I choose to think here? And then trying to through a mantra, or sometimes I'll usually have numerous post-it notes on my computer here that I can see every day of new beliefs I'm trying to adopt. Yeah.

Shanna Skidmore (28:53):

I don't know if you feel comfortable Nicole sharing, but is there one limiting belief that you have worked through that you would be comfortable sharing?

Nicole Begley (29:00):

Sure. One of them actually comes from a service of client perspective. And that after doing this so long, I know that what I teach people gets results. But for a long time, some people would have these great results and other people, and it took me a while to realize, I'm like, oh, it's not the content. It's not the action. It is whatever their beliefs are that are preventing them from executing, preventing them from being visible, preventing them from marketing their business, talking to people, doing all these things. And so then I started to get into a place of like, oh, wait, maybe I can't help all these people and starting to doubt my ability to be able to help them get the change that they want. And so my friend Heather, actually helped me work through a new belief of just like, I actually have it right here, a hundred percent of a belief that a hundred percent of my clients get results a hundred percent of the time.
(30:02)
And that just really helps me shift like, no, they do have it with them in them. Every single client that signs up for one of my programs has that desire, which I do wholeheartedly believe if anyone has a desire, they have the ability to manifest that desire, otherwise you wouldn't have that desire. And I've also, I think, improved my ability to help people start to see what beliefs they might be holding onto and our coaching calls within the academy. So that becomes an easier place for me to hold onto now my belief of every single person, even if they maybe take a little bit longer to get the results, but I know that it's a hundred percent possible for them, and I can help them

Shanna Skidmore (30:44):

Make some progress. That's so good. Nicole. I have, honestly, I've dealt with similar limiting beliefs on my own. Almost to me comes back to your days of W, that intuition of when you were wanting to do dog training and the idea that you know, can't always force the results that you want to see. And something I learned as I went into the education side was that I can't determine what results somebody has because they'll get different things for, of course, I teach a lot about money and finance, so I want the result to be somebody who's winning with their money and finance. But sometimes I had so many of my students come back and tell me, oh, this part of your program changed my life, and it was just completely different even than the result. So that's something I've walked into, and I love what you said we create and what we can do and what we can control is creating great education and let the results be what they'll be. Yeah. So I love, thank you for sharing that.

Nicole Begley (31:39):

Of course. And the other piece of that too is I've also just recently started to accept like, oh, this is everyone's individual journey, so maybe they need the struggle they're going through now to create that polarity of what they actually want. So I have to allow them to experience their journey as they need to experience it, and of course, be here to support them and give them what they need to hopefully make some progress at it. Just understanding that everyone needs to go through the journey so that they can get their own clarity because it's their journey. It has also been helpful with that.

Shanna Skidmore (32:15):

Oh, so good. Yeah. I totally feel that because I remember here championing all of my, so my clients and my students, and I want them to see, and it's like maybe that's not what's best for them, and maybe they need a different experience or different. I love how you said that, a different journey that is what's going to be best for them. So yeah, I've

Nicole Begley (32:33):

Done, and they still very much hopefully will get that outcome transformation that everybody wants for or they want from we want, but maybe they just need to take this trip to get

Shanna Skidmore (32:43):

There and their timeline is different, so. So good. Thank you for sharing that. Okay. I always like to ask, what would you say is the best thing you have learned about money?

Nicole Begley (32:51):

Things don't grow that you don't track? I did go through times in my life, especially where money might have been a little bit tighter, where you're just like, you don't want to look because you're like, I know what the result's going to be and I don't want to see it, but knowing what the actual numbers are, what is the actual circumstance here? Instead of letting all these thoughts and beliefs, just tell your brain, here's what the circumstance is. Yeah. You don't have the money. Yeah. This, you're never going to get that. Yeah. See, your business is going to die tomorrow. See, you're going to live on the street and it just goes down. Yeah. This rabbit hole. It's like, no, no, let's actually look at it. Look at it every week, track what's coming in and don't make judgements about it. It just is what is.
(33:35)
Yeah. It's just data. And then you can make decisions. Oh, okay, maybe we need to figure out some other ways to bring some income in. Or like, oh my gosh, I didn't think that week ended up, so well look at that. Or, look what I've actually earned this quarter that didn't feel like I earned that quarter, but oh my gosh, when I look at it all and I added up, you have that. So knowing, tracking what's coming in, but then also tracking what's going out and having those baselines of, do you know how much it costs on average to run your household for a month, to run your business for a month with the actual hard costs. If something happened and you're like, what has to get paid this month versus, oh, what would be nice? I just think the more information that you try to get more data, the better decisions you can make. And then you have some data to fight these limiting beliefs that start to just tell you that, oh, everything's going to go just down the drink. We're going to live in the

Shanna Skidmore (34:29):

Street. Oh,

Nicole Begley (34:29):

Yeah. Yep.

Shanna Skidmore (34:30):

I love that. Things don't grow that you don't track. I wrote that down, Nicole. That was so dead. Yeah. I mean, that's what I do every day. I feel like numbers are so empowering, but like you said, there's so many feelings and emotions, and I think so often our business decisions can be dictated by feelings, but that's why I love looking at the numbers so much because it is just data and it's super empowering. So you said that so perfectly. What an incredible lesson before we go into a quickfire round. Yep.

Nicole Begley (35:01):

I
Shanna Skidmore (35:01):

Love talking with business owners about, in a world that kind of asks us to do everything really well, do life, well, do home life. Well be a great mom, do business, make a ton of money, scale your business. How do you feel like you have found harmony in what, 13 years? It sounds like 13 years of business? What has that harmony looked like for you?

Nicole Begley (35:26):

It's getting really clear on what I need to do and what I don't need to do. So that's for house. Things like hiring someone to come clean the house every other week doing grocery delivery. I still haven't done this one, but it's on my list To hire someone to food prep once a week and have some dinners prepared in the fridge for us to heat up, that Would change my life. 

Shanna Skidmore (35:46):

I'm writing that down

Nicole Begley (35:51):

And looking at it, letting go of the guild, especially for all you moms out there. There is so much societal pressure to like, oh, you're not cleaning your own house. You're a terrible mom. Yeah. Oh, you're not making dinner every night. You're a terrible mom. The world loves to judge how you run your house. And I don't see them judging any men for how they run their house. It's just this innate cultural society, shame and guilt that women tend to feel if they're going to outsource different things at home, which, I'm sorry. When I do that, I can actually then when I'm not working, actually spend time with my kids. Exactly. Yeah. It's better for them. It's better for me. And same thing in your business, I realized, I'm still realizing, but I'm the biggest bottleneck in my big business for sure. I have a team, I'm always telling them, man, I'm sorry.
(36:43)
Thank you guys for managing this with me. But I've been looking at everything a little bit more critically of what can I hand off? What is my time best suited to do, which is usually content creation, coaching calls, and really that's where I should spend my time. And then having my team be able to manage all the details, and they do, and they're great, and I would die without them. But just always re-looking at that, both personal and business of where's my time being spent? And am I happy with that? All right. Some people love to garden, and it's really relaxing. I hate it. It's not relaxing for me. I would rather go to the barn and see my horse. So even when he breaks my collarbone, oh, rough week. So having something that you love to do that for your self-care, which is ironic that my self-care hurts me, but

Shanna Skidmore (37:42):

Mentally,

Nicole Begley (37:43):

Maybe

Shanna Skidmore (37:43):

Mentally helps my mental self physically not so good this week.

Nicole Begley (37:46):

Yeah. Yeah. Usually physically good, but not this week. So anyway, so just getting really, really clear on always looking at your time and asking yourself, how can this be spent better? Because we all have the same 24 hours, and we all have way more demands on our time that we could possibly ever do. So making the decisions that's best for you and not caring what anybody else

Shanna Skidmore (38:06):

Thinks. I'm so good. Have there been any ways, Nicole, that you have felt like you have shed some of the guilt of not? It's so funny. Yeah. Why do I care? Nobody has ever guilted me. I mean, right. You're like, nobody's ever been like, oh my gosh, Hannah. In fact, it's like the opposite. They're like, oh, yeah, good for you. But I still feel it. I still yeah. Feel it. So were there any things that helped you kind of shed, whether it's business on the business side, outsourcing or personal side outsourcing? Is there anything that's helped you kind of shed that guilt?

Nicole Begley (38:37):

I mean, I've always kind of been fiercely independent, so I have not really cared what people thought for a long time. Yeah.

Shanna Skidmore (38:46):

Mindset.

Nicole Begley (38:47):

So yeah, I just do it. And I've also learned that if people do have feelings about what you are doing, that it's really just their feelings reflected their thought. Exactly. It has nothing to do with you.

Shanna Skidmore (39:01):

Yeah. It's something they're dealing with. Yeah. Yeah. I hear that. Oh, this has been so good. Thank you for sharing. It's been so fun to get to know you and yeah,

Nicole Begley (39:09):

Super fun.

Shanna Skidmore (39:10):

I love it. Okay, let's do a quick fire round. Okay. This is so much fun. One thing you would be embarrassed if people knew,

Nicole Begley (39:18):

Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. It's coming out. So there was a time we were in Australia and we were on Kangaroo Island, me and my family, and we kind of hiked out to the sand dunes to go sledding down the sand dunes on this little boogie board type thing. Super fun, except I sometimes have to use a bathroom in a hurry. I was like, oh, guys, I, I got to go. So I'm like ran back to the place and barely made it in there. And then looking around, I'm like, oh, wait, hold on. Then this little kid comes in and washes his hands. I'm like, oh, I'm in the men's room. Oops. So I'm just quietly in there. I'm like, don't look at my shoes. I'll just wait here. But yeah, then it was thankfully not that crowded, so no one knew. But now everyone knows.

Shanna Skidmore (40:09):

Yeah, now everyone knows. Hey, we told that. I wonder how many people have had an experience where they show up and they're like, oh, wait, I'm not in the right restroom.

Nicole Begley (40:21):

Right. Be like, oh, excuse me. Sure.

Shanna Skidmore (40:23):

That's probably happened to a

Nicole Begley (40:24):

Lot of us. Pardon me. Sorry.

Shanna Skidmore (40:26):

See everybody. Okay. Any regrets or wish you could do over moments?

Nicole Begley (40:30):

Oh, this is a good one. So I always say I have one regret in life, and that was just that I never did. I love to travel, and I never did a study abroad in college because I didn't want to miss out a semester on the equestrian team, which I still struggle with this. What's a value conflict, really? I love my horses and I love having my horse, and I love being here with him. But man, I love to travel and traveling with horses doesn't really happen kind of difficult. So I still am always trying to balance this need for travel and exploration versus like, well, I just want to be here with my horse because I love him. Yeah.

Shanna Skidmore (41:10):

Yeah. I like how you said that. Values conflict.

Nicole Begley (41:13):

Yeah. Yeah.

Shanna Skidmore (41:14):

Okay. Big win or pinch me moment,

Nicole Begley (41:17):

I think was the first time that we combined all the things I love, which was pet photography, teaching and travel, and great food by organizing. And out of this world pet photography retreat, I got together with two acquaintances that taught it with me, and we did the first one in Barcelona outside of Barcelona in a little town of hitches in 2016. And we've basically rented a mansion, had a chef, and talked pet photography and photographed dogs in all these amazing locations. All week Since then, we have done New Zealand, Costa Rica, Scotland, France, and we're going to Iceland next year.

Shanna Skidmore (41:54):

So yeah,

Nicole Begley (41:55):

That has been amazing, isn't

Shanna Skidmore (41:56):

It so cool? Entrepreneurship. It's not easy. It comes with a lot of things, but I love Nicole. It sounds like you really truly listen to your passions, what you're curious about and aren't afraid. I just hope we all get permission from listening to this. What lights you up? Because you can put that in your business. What a gift to run a business that's like, Hey, I really like good food, travel, education, pet photography. Let's make all those things go together. Why not? Why not?

Nicole Begley (42:31):

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Can make it look like whatever you want and get paid for it. And it's funny too, the first time we did that, people were like, oh, that's really a good idea just to get a low cost trip. I'm like, no, I made money. I make money when I do these. And it's like brings so much value, and it's just, oh my God, it's so fun.

Shanna Skidmore (42:50):

Yeah. And honestly, okay, this is total side note, but I think it's in the moments when you do just that, where you listen to what do I love and I'm passionate about, and I care about that, you come up with these incredibly creative ideas. I think it's in those moments when you just are like, I want to do what I want to do. I don't know. There's power in that. There's beauty in that. Okay.

Nicole Begley (43:13):

Yeah, for sure.

Shanna Skidmore (43:14):

Tangent. All right. Best advice or just really good advice that you have received?

Nicole Begley (43:18):

Oh, there's a quote, and I can't think of it now, but basically best advice really is just make the most of every day. I mean, sometimes it feels like you're kind of stuck and spinning your wheels, but keep moving forward because all of a sudden you're going to turn around and you'll be like, oh, wait, I'm in Spain for two weeks, photographing dogs with the private chef. How did that happen? So just keep visioning what you want to be creating and keep working towards it, and it will come even though some days it feels like you're not any closer.

Shanna Skidmore (43:49):

Yeah. That's good. Hey, this is a total side note. In two minutes, Nicole. Have there, yeah. Has there ever been a time in your career though, that you did not have clarity of what you wanted? Yeah. And how did you move forward in that?

Nicole Begley (44:03):

I mean, all the time. I mean, I was still actually struggling just this past couple weeks of what offers do I have? I have my low ticket membership, but I need something more high ticket. What does that look like? And I'm still not sure. So I truly just keep asking myself the question and I keep sitting with it and keep brainstorming on it, and eventually it comes. Yeah,

Shanna Skidmore (44:27):

Yeah. Yeah. That's good.

Nicole Begley (44:28):

You just can't rush it.

Shanna Skidmore (44:29):

You can't rush it. And two, I don't know if this has happened for you, for me, sometimes you have to try something and feel

Nicole Begley (44:34):

Like it didn't work. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. You got to test it. Yeah. Yeah. That actually, we did that with one of our programs. We tested it and it was great, but then it went like wasn't working as well, and we just kept on tweaking it until we just had more clarity. The clarity comes from the action, so you need to just throw some things at the wall sometimes and see what sticks.

Shanna Skidmore (44:52):

I'm writing that down. Clarity comes from the action. Yes. Okay. Last quick for our question. What are you working on now or one resource that you would like to share?

Nicole Begley (45:01):

I am working on right now, really, we're finishing up a full revamp of our academy, and I'm building out, because I've always been known as the business of pet photography teacher, I'm building out a whole big additional resource on craft of pet photography to help people really master their craft, which we were going to video a whole bunch of segments in two weeks, but that's going to be pushed off a couple more weeks now.

Shanna Skidmore (45:22):

Oh my goodness. My goodness.

Nicole Begley (45:24):

I can't hold a camera. But anyway, so we're working on that. It's fantastic. Yeah. If anybody out there wants to learn more about pet photography, just to photograph your own dog even. Yeah. Go check out hair of the dog academy.com. We've got, oh, mashed so many great resources, but it's really just so fun. I love it.

Shanna Skidmore (45:40):

Yeah. Okay. Ooh, that's sounds exciting, and hopefully collarbone will heal quickly.

Nicole Begley (45:45):

Yes. Well, it just forced me to plan it all out now and then. Yeah, I'll be ready to go. Yeah,

Shanna Skidmore (45:49):

That's perfect. Okay. Can't control it. Let's send it off. Yeah. What would you tell yourself on day one of starting your photography business? Ooh,

Nicole Begley (45:58):

Do you have no idea where this road's going to take you? And just to enjoy the ride?

Shanna Skidmore (46:03):

So good. Nicole, thank you for coming on the show. It's been a joy to get to know you and do, hopefully we'll meet in real life one of these days. Yes,

Nicole Begley (46:11):

For sure. Thanks so much for having me.

Shanna Skidmore (46:13):

Hey, wildflower, you just finished another episode of Consider the Wildflowers the podcast. Head over to consider the wildflowers podcast.com for show notes, resource links, and to learn how you can connect with Nicole. Our wildflower of the week is Michelle. Michelle writes my new favorite podcast. I can't even tell you how much I look forward to Thursdays when new episodes of this podcast are released. The conversations unfold so beautifully guided by Shannon with insight, curiosity, and grace. Every episode feels like I'm sitting on the couch with girlfriends sipping coffee and spending an hour sinking into juicy and genuine conversation. Thanks for the sunshine, Michelle. It's an honor to show up in your earbuds each week. Thank you for listening. One final thought for today. Original author Unknown, but it's a good one. If the plan doesn't work, change the plan, but never the goal. As always, thank you for listening. I'll see you next time.