Free help, don’t mean inferior help

I am never afraid to reach out to mentors, talk online influencers, email self-help and business heroes, and watch youtube and listen podcasts on topics I am struggling with. It’s all free and sometimes you just have to search. Sometimes you just have to put yourself out there. I can’t count the amount of times I have sent an Instagram Message to Denise Duffield-Thomas thanking her for a post or with a little question. She’s a hero of mine as someone who is successful at what she does, has a great empire, and both her and I align in our struggle with being diagnosed later in life with ADHD.

She kind of wrote the book on navigating starting and running your own business with ADHD, even before she had ADHD. When you resonate with someone like that, you learn a lot. I’ve done a lot of her courses because of that connection, I have her books, and listen to her podcast.

The best part, a lot of her info is free, if you don’t want to take the plunge or are afraid of spending money (she has a course for that too lol), you can literally get free help in your life from one of the best!

I’ve also listened to a ton great podcasters and read blogs that are always helpful and free.

Here is my go-to list of podcasts that range from very clinical and scientific, to very mindest related, to even very woo-woo. What works for me, might work for you, but this is a small list in the sea of 4 million podcasts out there. (Side note, when Bradley and I did the original Yo! Check This Out podcast 11 years ago, it was 1 of 20k podcasts and a top 50 comedy and entertainment podcast, with almost 5000 downloads total in the year we did it. While that project fell by the wayside, we saw where the podcast world was going, and it’s a beautiful place now full of great ideas. The Professional Amateur Podcast by comparison isn’t on a chart at all and I garner upwards of 400 downloads a week. A little over 20k a year, which isn’t bad for something I don’t monetarily promote, and it continues to grow and get people motivated to learn and grow their own passions in life.)

For Inspiration

Sure I listen to others like Joe Rogan (been listening to him for almost 13 years now), Andrew Huberman, Lex Friedman, but those are more for the conversational aspect and learning aspect of a subject. That list of 4 I put up, that’s for motivation, block clearing, and inspiration.

Which leads me into this idea of Free Help. I use Free Help all the time, and I’m in the middle of creating my photography course. But, I still want to help people for free, not just the people who pay for my knowledge. I have my free E-Book available still, which you can get here:

I am also starting to play with the idea of writing full on e-books on photography for beginners, pet photography, and more fun photography realms. I will be putting together more freebies, like a large pack of presets for Lightroom, maybe some actions for Photoshop, maybe even some of my favorite overlays and such. Free, that’s the name of the game. Why? Because if you want to be of service, you don’t have to charge for everything you do, you give people a taste of what you love doing, and they will see your enthusiasm, and want more.

As I finish up the bulk of my guide to pet photography, I am constantly at battle with that voice inside my head that is a pinch of Imposter Syndrome, a dash of self doubt, and a sprinkle of unworthiness. That recipe for disaster that would take everything I was working on and lead to me self sabotaging it and then convincing myself that the idea was stupid or no one would want it.

That is a tough mindset to get through that took a lot of work with coaching, therapy, and more, but that isn’t why I am writing this today. I AM almost done with the creatives for the course (it’s not small, by any means) and will be filming the video portions this upcoming week. I learned to let go of it being perfect and it being done (See my previous post Do it right or Don’t do it at all). I finished the important parts of the creative, the layout, and the verbiage. I have a few photos I want to swap out, but is the layout perfect? NO! Are the Photos ALL my photography? NO (most are though)! Do some photos repeat throughout the entire course? YES! Was that stopping me from finishing up my creation and making the course polished… kind of? But, I remember, DONE is better than NONE. I was done with everything that needed to go into the course!

So, what is stopping me from releasing the course RIGHT THIS SECOND. Well, it would just be a giant batch of PDFs at this point, not even a presentation or walk through or explanation of the points. There are a lot of points to be made in the lessons, because, there is a ton of knowledge to be shared and taught.

So, in the end, what it comes down to, when you’re stuck and feel like giving up. Step back, listen to an inspirational podcast or watch an inspirational youtube video. Take a deep breath, make some notes in your journal, and know that having an unlimited catalogue of free help will get your through whatever block is there.

And TAKE A DANG BREAK IF YOU NEED ONE. Jeez, no one is putting a gun to your head to make this. It’s supposed to be fun and showing your passion for your craft.

Don’t forget, go get your free E-Book