You have a burning passion for photography and are dedicated to capturing your client’s most important moments. However, with business often comes the need to grow your confidence.

Running a photography business comes with the inevitable challenges that constantly push the boundaries of your resilience. You often find your mind full of worries, “Am I pricing my services too high? Am I truly skilled enough? Are my clients satisfied, and why aren’t they leaving reviews?” The cycle of self-doubt seems never-ending. Let us reassure you that you are not alone if this feels like you. We all have moments where our confidence wavers, self-doubt creeps in, and fear looms. That’s why it’s so important to nurture your mindset to become mentally strong.

Enter Charlotte Lodey, our confidence and mindset guru who has graced both our Gather to Grow events and is dedicated to helping empower women to reclaim their confidence. We have taken all of her advice and condensed it into 5 actionable steps for you.

1. Find your own brand of confidence

Discovering your unique brand of confidence is a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance. Embracing your individuality means recognising that your confidence doesn’t have to conform to any specific personality type. You don’t need to be the loudest in the room; sometimes confidence is bright, shiny, and energetic, and sometimes it is a calm, quiet inner confidence that radiates from you. It’s about being comfortable in your own skin and embracing the qualities that make you unique. True confidence stems from being authentically you.

2. What’s holding you back from growing in confidence?

Do you have a legitimate fear that is causing a lack of confidence in your abilities? Perhaps you’re fully comfortable using your camera settings in certain lighting situations or working with toddlers, or you don’t know what to write in your Instagram captions. If something makes you feel less capable, create space to nurture that area so you can grow your confidence and let go of the fear that’s holding you back.

3. Follow your heart – not the opinions of others

People love to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, “Are you sure you want to be a photographer?”, “You charge THAT much!?” when you receive these comments from others (even those closest to you), remind yourself that they are speaking their FEAR, not the TRUTH. They think they are helping, but all they are doing is projecting their own fears onto you. Be confident to listen to your heart and gut and do what feels right for YOU.

Make decisions that move you closer to the life you want, not decisions that move you closer to being liked by someone else.

– Charlotte Lodey

4. Visualise the life you want – and make space for it

Do you know what you want to do? what is your dream life? What do you want to be doing every day? Get really clear and identify what you need more of and what you need to let go of. Are you doing the things that you want to be doing every day? Are you honouring yourself and the life you dream of?

You have to make space for it to be able to call in other stuff. It, or there’s no room for it. So, you know, the universe can’t send you those signals and give you those opportunities and allow you to manifest those things.

– Charlotte Lodey

5. Building a better relationship with money

Have you ever said, “I hate talking about money”? When you run a business, you can’t avoid it, so get comfortable with it and make money, friend. “I’m not good with money” is just a story we tell ourselves, so why don’t we change it? Repeat after us – “I am good with money; money comes to me easily”. Get brave, look at your bank account daily, speak kindly and positively about money, and have the confidence to charge your worth and believe you’re worthy and capable of that.

Finally, allowing that confidence to grow

Remember confidence doesn’t just appear one day, we don’t just become confident. We have to do what scares us first, and then confidence is born. Keep nurturing it, and eventually, you will get there. You just have to believe you can.

• For more magic from Charlotte – delve into our podcast episode- Coming soon!
• Check out Charlotte’s website HERE
• Read more from some of our attendees and the confidence they have gained since attending a Gather To Grow event in our attendee spotlights: HERE