If you’re a parent and a business owner and you’ve ever found yourself struggling to find balance, this episode is for you. Dan Moyer joins us in today’s conversation to discuss what it looks like when parenting meets business and how you can growth in both without sacrificing one or the other.
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Guest Bio
Daniel is a photographer, podcaster, photography educator, and blind optimist in the best sense of the word. He is on an journey to help photographers break the mold and discover how to build a business that is meaningful, joyfilled, and profitable.
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Here are the highlights…
[1:18] Get to Know Dan
[2:06] Why Parenting & Business is Important to Talk About
[12:21] Partners in Corporate World
[17:14] Parkingson’s Law
[17:51] Misogi
[20:45] Fair Play
[26:00] Love Languages
[29:58] Therapy
[31:30] Personal and Business Growth
[36:50] Goals vs. Reality
[41:58] Ebbs & Flows
[43:50] Shifts in Business While Kids Change Seasons
[49:20] Working in Limited Time
[51:53] White Space
[53:02] The Power of Therapy
[56:47] Balance
Mentioned in this Episode
Simple Sales Blueprint by Annemie
Connect with Dan
Website: danielmoyercoaching.com
Instagram: instagram.com/danielmoyercoaching
Podcast: danielmoyercoaching.com/podcast
Review the Transcript:
Colie: Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the Business First Creatives Podcast. You may not have noticed, but I have been pretty absent from the podcast in Q1 of this year. And part of where I’ve been gone is a conversation that I’m going to have with Dan, but I do want to say my friend, Dan is back on the podcast for his third episode.
Dan Moyer: time. I feel honored.
Colie: know, I know. And you know, guys, we had a conversation before we hit record and we’re going to rehash most of it because it was all related to what we wanted to talk about today. But Dan, welcome back.
Dan Moyer: Hey, it’s good to see you. I’m very thankful that you’re here. And I’m very thankful that I’m here and we’re going to just get in our, get in our energy fields and start talking without a plan. Cause that’s what we do
Colie: That’s what we do best. So, listening audience, Dan has been on a kick recently about where parenting meets business. And I know that you guys are well aware of my situation over the last, I mean, you know, two ish years as I have been virtual, Schooling my child and then I legitimately homeschooled her and now for the school year of 2023 2024 chloe goes to one school in the morning and one school in the afternoon and I am basically her uber driver So I think I am like the definition of where parenting meets Business at this point in time.
But Dan, why don’t we start with why you think that this is such an important topic, not just to talk about on single podcast episodes, but to like talk about it constantly with everyone that we possibly can.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. Okay. So, I’ve been in business since January 1st, 2010, right. And I’ve had progressively better years pretty much ever since then when I’m a wedding photographer, primarily do weddings. In 2019, I had. I made the most money I’d ever made in any of the years of business, right? Like hand over fist, crushing it and all that stuff.
And by our industry standards, the fact that I made multiple six figures, that should mean I’m, I’m feeling the success. I’m riding high. I’ve made it. Right. But the reality was, is I was gone all the time. I was gone most evenings, most weekends. I was working like crazy. I was tired. I was burnt out. That was my, so I had twins that were born in the middle of 2019.
Part of it was like panic, book everything you possibly can. But in those first early years of my child’s life, they were born in July. I had, um, nine weddings over the course of six weeks in, in October of that year. So it was like a, a single in September and then four doubles in a row. And then another single, and it was just not like, it was dumb.
And so many of them were like, Oh, I’m traveling two hours to one wedding, coming home and then two hours to the next wedding the next day and coming home. It’s just ridiculous. So I get my, make all this money. And I’m not feeling like I’ve made it to the top. You know, then 2020 happened and COVID and all that stuff.
And that took me to my low. And it really took me to this place of like, I need to figure out where I’m going in my life. And the more people I talk to, it seems that burnout and frustration and being tired all the time and lack of focus of where you’re going is something that everybody’s struggling with.
And, It wasn’t until I started looking at what are the things outside of my business that make me happy that I’m neglecting talking about what are the things that are really important to me like if I want my children to be at my deathbed, sorry to get grim here, but like, if I want them to be on my, you know, with me and, and like talking about our memories and all that stuff, that’s not a, I’m going to start when I’m 60, that’s a, I want to be, more than the protector provider.
I want to be the nurturer now. And so it wasn’t, I’ve made not as much money over the last couple of years, but yet I feel more successful because I have folded in my personal goals. I have folded in, and prioritized my family, my kids, time with my wife, my physical and mental health and put actual plans in place that I can do things for myself and have personal goals as well as get the building blocks of.
My family time and personal time and all that stuff in now and do those things alongside my business goals. Rather than just having my business and work be my entire life for a decade.
Colie: And Dan, I just feel like you’re so different from me and how you built your business because you had a business and then you had children, but I actually built my business as, you know, after I became a mother. And so like my path to success was very, very different. I started out really small. I mean, and I was what you would consider part time for the majority of my
Dan Moyer: you a professor or something
Colie: I was, but actually, so I was still teaching. We had moved here to Colorado, and so I was no longer teaching anywhere in person because we were here and my husband had just started as postdoc. But let’s see, we moved here in November of 2008. And then in November of 2009, we got pregnant and I was actually, that first year, I was still working on my PhD from Michigan flying every month to work on it.
I mean, just in case you’re new to the podcast, guys, I do not have a PhD. I am not Dr. Johnson. My husband is Dr. Johnson. I often kid around that we share his PhD. I mean, I’m fine sharing it with him. It’s, it’s cool. But. You know, then after we had, we were working on fertility, we were trying to get pregnant.
I was only teaching online and then we had some pretty severe pregnancy issues. Um, let’s see at 22 weeks and I ended up in the hospital and just quit every single job that I had like instantaneous. They were like, you’re not leaving this hospital without a baby. We might not be able to give you a baby.
, next morning I sent out a blanket email quitting. All the places that I was teaching. But then after I had Chloe and like about two or three years in, people started asking, well, what are you doing next with your life? And I was like, well, I mean, I, I, I don’t know. I mean, I thought about becoming a real estate agent and then I was like, you know, I like taking pictures.
I bet you I could make a business out of that. But the entire time that I built my business, it was how many free hours do I have while my kid is in school. So that first year, I only had two and a half hours twice a week in order to edit, you know, market, actually, you know, do the things. Now granted, on the weekends is when I was doing my sessions, so I wasn’t solely working when she was in school, but beyond actually taking.
Clients like photographing them. All of the business work was always done when she was at school. And so every year that she went to school more was when I was able to put more time and effort into my business, which is, you know, it’s just, it’s a, it’s a weird thing. I didn’t necessarily pray. I didn’t say out loud that I was prioritizing my time with Chloe, but we knew that almost from the moment that she was born, that she was it.
Like we weren’t, we were very skeptical if we were going to be able to get pregnant again, because, you know, getting pregnant with her so hard, actually making it to the finish line was so hard with her. They said we had to wait 18 months. And then, you know, after 18 months, I was like, do I really want to go back to fertility with my husband?
I mean, you know, I’ll just be frank. That’s time sex guys is what no one dreams of when it comes to making a baby. And so, I was just like, I’m only going to get this one chance at motherhood. I should, you know, make it count if you will. And so as you know, and things happen, which we’re going to talk about, I’ve had quite a few health crisis and every single time I have a health crisis, I like my business is nowhere near in the forefront of my mind.
So I just, I find it. comforting that I kind of prioritized building my business that way. I do think that it has made me a lot better able to handle when, you know, things blow up and things don’t go as expected now because that’s just what I did then. Oh,
Dan Moyer: then, then you started your business, right? I was the opposite. And I feel like most of the. Education we hear is it’s all about like hustle grind, like sleep in the office, sleep in the gym, right? All the content creators. And, and don’t get me wrong.
If you’re billing, building the next Apple or the next Google or Amazon or this next big thing, sure. Like. You gotta be there if you’re a founder and you gotta hustle. But that lifestyle, I think, is just not applicable to individuals who, um, once you have a family, the way you work has to be different, right?
Like the way I worked in my 20s was so, is so massively different than how I work now. Like I distinctly remember trying to, We had our first daughter in 2016 and I remember putting her in daycare three days a week full days. Like I’m dropping her off, I’m picking her up and I’m like, I have three full days.
I only have three days. I can’t get anything done. And, and then we’re like, okay, we’ll put her in for another day. So it was like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, off Thursday, and then Friday. It’s like, I still can’t get anything done. And then like, we’re like, we’ve got to put her in five days a week. Cause my wife is in the corporate world.
No flexibility. She’s leaving in the morning, doing her thing and then coming home. And. And I’m like, I can’t get anything done. I’ve got five days a week. I used to have all this time to do stuff. It turns out I was just really not great at working, uh, and really not good at managing my own time. So then when the pandemic happens and all of a sudden three kids are home.
All the time. It’s amazing how fast you can get things done and how efficient you can be when you need to. But I just think it’s like, things change so drastically and all that business education out there are so much of it is so focused on. Like just building your business at whatever cost you can. And a lot of that cost is often time.
I feel like the first thing that goes, is your, relationships, right? There’s a sacrifice. The business becomes everything. I’m, I’m doing hard. I’m doing everything as hard as I can. I’m really motivated to like do this thing. And so our relationships, Uh, start to falter because you’re not seeing your friends, you’re not seeing your spouse or your girlfriend or boyfriend or whoever it is.
And then after that, it’s your physical health because you’re not, you’re just focused on this one thing. And then after that, which is the con, which is what everybody’s talking about. And it seems like this conversation is more and more is your mental health, your burnout and all that kind of stuff. And I think it’s just a lack of having the structure and having the ability to say no.
And I think it’s just a lack of having the structure and having the ability to say no. When you’ve worked this one way for so long and you’re able to just work and do the burn the midnight oil and all that stuff. And all of a sudden you have to make this huge shift to working within boundaries of your children.
If there are any, like when we had the twins. Yeah. It was nuts. Like they’re, they were preemie. And so they were, um, underweight. And so we’re having to feed them like every three hours and there’s two of them. And like, I’m not the type of dad who’s just going to be like, Oh, well, you got this babe, like I’m going to sleep.
One of us has to sleep through the night and get a good night’s sleep, right? Like I, I said this before, like I want to transcend that, that typical, uh, protective provider, and I want to be part nurturer. So I’m like right there, I’m doing this. I’m, I’m feeding kids. I’m, you know, I got my son, I’m doing this stuff.
And. I just felt like that was such a tricky time. And when you go from, I can work whenever I can do whatever I can work from the coffee shop, I can do all this stuff to now I have priorities that are so much bigger than myself. It’s a culture shock. And again, I feel like that’s where, this kick or this focus that I’m having right now of, you know, you can build your business without sacrificing your, uh, mental health, your physical health, your relationships, and your You know, your family.
Colie: Yeah. And you and I also share that our partners are both in the corporate world because, and it’s funny, this is actually, I don’t think you know this, but James just got a brand new job.
Dan Moyer: Oh, sweet.
Colie: he’s literally been at his new job for a few weeks. And this is actually the job where he is going to have the least amount of flexibility that he has ever had in the 20, you know, 25 years that we’ve been together.
And it has been quite a change because before he took this job, I had a very frank conversation with him because ever since I’ve become Chloe’s Uber driver, , I get two and a half hours in the morning, which I’m usually recording podcasts like this, and then I have two and a half hours in the afternoon.
This is in between her drop off. Now, when this happened, my mom stays here sometimes from Texas. She lives in our other house. She helps a tremendous amount. Like, I would not be even the least bit sane at this point if my mother did not come stay here for a few weeks at a time and help me out. But in addition to that, James had Fridays off.
So on Friday, he was doing everything for Chloe, and I was just working because it was the one day a week where I was not required to stop thinking to do anything related to my child. So I mean, first thing in the morning when I woke up, I was doing that, you know, hustle that you described, but it was the only day that I was doing it.
And then on Tuesday afternoons, that was the one day that my husband told me that without fail, he would always pick her up from school. So that, After I dropped her off at the second school, I could come home and basically work as long as I needed. If he needed to figure dinner out, that was fine. So that’s a day and a half that I’ve had in the past year.
But with this new job, it’s a Monday through Friday. And the hours that he is now working, he cannot drop her off or pick her up. So, and my mom just left for a few weeks. So, in this few weeks. I am actually not doing any work. I am doing like some behind the scenes cleanup of my emails. Again, I’m just now hopping back into podcasting after like a three month hiatus, but like this is the season of life that I’m in.
Like this is what my role as mother and wife and you know, member of this family is dictating at this point. And I know my husband feels bad. He comes home every day. Okay, what can I do so that you can do whatever you need to do right now? And I’m like, no, I give up until the school year is done. Like it is what it is.
It’s fine. Next school year, I will not be in this situation again. So I will have all five days back. And so then I will be reevaluating my business. But I think it’s important to not only think about the time and space that you have to grow or maintain your business, based on your role as a mother, but also, you know, how much your partner is contributing to the household and whether or not you think it’s fair and equitable, um, which is a conversation again, that James and I had to have before he took this new job.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. Yeah. My wife just went back to school. She, so she was let go from her job last year and we thought she had job security. We thought, cause she was higher up. And, um, they just, Basically came to her one day and was like, Hey, sorry, you got to go. But they kept her on for like three months cause she knew some stuff.
She got a, uh, severance and retention bonus or whatever. Then we actually, it ended up being sort of nice. We were able to, have a couple of months off. We did a vacation and all that stuff. But the health insurance part was kind of tricky. I think it was later, late last year in November is when she started again and it’s just a job right now and she doesn’t like it, but we’re at this point now where she started, a new, she’s going back to school for a master’s in actuarial science and trying to get her.
Yeah, she’s smarty pants. So
Colie: Uh, also I didn’t know. I mean, you know, once upon a time, I wanted to take the actuarial
Dan Moyer: Oh, snap.
Colie: my, I’m a statistician. That’s what I did
Dan Moyer: Right. That makes
Colie: but I did not know that. No, no,
Dan Moyer: thinking where I’m the deep feeler. But yeah, she’s going back for her, you know, master’s in actuarial science. She’s studying for her first FM test and she’s loving it. Right. And so we’re in this period where.
We’re the same way. We both had to have this sort of like come to Jesus moment a little while ago where it’s like, okay, this is where you’re headed, right? And her, her focus is going on these things. And it wasn’t, it’s not, oh, I’m going to pick up the slack. It’s this is your focus. And so. Let me take over the household stuff.
Let me take on more of that because we’re we try to be as equitable as possible I try to take over her mental load and and really get some of that stuff and do more of the family stuff and everything and I think With where we’re going, so much of it comes down to, okay, so if I’m doing the kid stuff and I’m doing bus stops and I’m doing lunches and dinners and all that, where does that leave time for my business and for myself?
And I think, a big part of it for me, have you ever heard of Parkinson’s law? Do you know this? Parkinson’s law says that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion, right? So if you don’t schedule actual family time, and if you don’t schedule actual work time, it just becomes this soup.
And I think one of the biggest things that is helpful for me is like scheduling out my year in advance. I was talking about this like giant, uh, calendar I have next to me. And that’s like, that’s not like, okay, here are my weddings and stuff. That’s no, here’s the things that are actually for me. Like, I need some, some space to be able to do some things personally for me.
Have you ever heard of Misogi? Have you ever heard of this idea? Misogi is a
Colie: bring all these new things, Dan.
Dan Moyer: Fun. Uh, Misogi is this Japanese term that, came from a too long of a story about a guy, a godlike character or a legend, like saving his wife from the land of the dead and he bursts forth and has to cleanse himself from the land of the dead.
And he goes underneath this waterfall. And, so the term Misogi has become appropriated to mean like, a a cleansing act or something that you, this one big thing you do for the year that has an effect on the rest of the year. It’s so big. It’s so crazy that you’re not sure you can finish it, but it becomes the year defining thing for you.
And it’s usually a personal event. And so I’ve said like, okay, no matter what happens this year, I’ve got this one big thing that I can do for me, right? And then that’s like, that’s how I’ve broken down my one big year thing. But then there’s these little mini adventures. Like it’s really easy to get swept up in just the day to day, right?
Like the routine of each day, the, I’m going to get the kids up. I’m going to make them Uh, their breakfast. I’m going to get Alice on the bus. I’m going to come back. If it’s a Monday, I’m going to take Henry and Regina to their preschool. I’m going to come back. I’m going to do a little bit of work. I’m going to go pick them up at 11 25.
I’m going to get them lunch. Then I’m going to get them up for their naps and blah, blah, blah. And it’s like, that’s every day. If you’ve ever been canoeing, you know, that. Like when you’re just on the water, you’re just like going along and you don’t realize how fast you’re going until you’re out on the shore and you watch another canoe like zip by down the river.
I think the more that we can get out of that flow or get out of that, like pull, just being pulled along, the easier it is to say like, okay, let me slow down. So I think on this like yearly basis where I’ve defined, like, here’s my year defining thing. I also try to do like some little mini adventures, whether it’s one a month or like one every other month or something just to break the flow.
And then on a daily basis, I think it’s about being. Really intentional with, okay, this is the flow of like everything that normally happens where what are some things I can do on a daily basis to make sure that like, I can, I can break up that flow because I think the biggest thing that was a really big struggle for me was feeling like I’m living for the vacation.
I’m living for, you know, in July when we get to go away for three weeks. I don’t think that a great life is just margaritas on the beach. I think it’s how when I come home from a wedding, my wife waits up to greet me and she’s like, Hey, how was your day? And we chat in with each other or dinners at the table with my kids.
That’s the stuff that I think is meaningful to me. And the more intentionally I can be on like a big scale and this like really granular scale, the more I feel like I’m happy. I’m successful. I’ve got all these bases covered and that’s how, I don’t know, um, things have started to come together for me in this like sort of harmonious way.
Fair
Colie: Dan, I’m going to throw one at you. Have you ever heard, heard of Fairplay?
Dan Moyer: play. No.
Colie: Okay, so, and I’m going to butcher this, but in episode 104, I talked to my good friend, Lindsey Dreyer, who is a Fairplay certified consultant. I think that’s her title, but basically Fairplay is this way of dividing up your household
Dan Moyer: Oh.
Colie: And so that you are co CEOs of your household with your partner. And so when you just mentioned, you know, when your wife went back to school and now she’s studying for her exams and you decided to take a bigger load, I just felt like I wanted to throw that episode and this concept at you because one of the things that Lindsay, and I’m assuming she gets it specifically from Fair Play, is that it’s a set of cards where you have all of like the household things that need to be done in any given day, month, whatever it is.
And basically, you and your partner. Divide them up equitably, and the word there is equitable and not equal, because of course, depending on what else is going on, one of you might be able to carry more of the load at any given time, but something else that the system strongly encourages you to do is kind of have like a weekly check in.
to see if anything’s changed, to see how your share of the household duties feels to you. Do you still feel that it’s equitable? Does there need to be a re division of these things? And so I just, I feel like behind the scenes, I’ve been doing that for a while, but I was really excited to chat with Lindsay and it seems like you are too.
But like, if you don’t know about this, I think that this is like a way to frame what it is that you’re talking about in terms of You can’t have a happy business if you don’t have a happy
Dan Moyer: Ooh, say that
Colie: need those, you can’t have a happy business if you don’t have a happy home life. And one of those feeds into the other.
So you have to make sure that you are able to balance both. And I mean, you and I, we said we were specifically going to talk about parenting. and business, but really it’s all of your relationships. Yeah. It’s everything, not just your role as a parent to your children, but your role as a partner to your spouse.
And like all of this is to make sure that your mental load is good in all aspects of your life, whether that is running, growing, maintaining your business, or just maintaining the sanity of your household.
Dan Moyer: Yeah, there’s that what you said about like, if you don’t have in order to have like a happy business or successful business, you have to have a happy home life or what did you exactly you say?
Colie: Yeah, that’s what I said. If you want a happy business, you need a happy home life.
Dan Moyer: It’s really interesting. The clients that I have are the photographers I have that I coach one on one. It’s so interesting how many of them will be like, Oh, I, had an argument with my spouse and I’m just like lost today.
I can’t get anything done. Right. Like I’m so, and it just, they’re so intertwined, like, um, this family life and this home life thing. I think, I think it’s easy to get lost in the business details, but we really, and we really have to be so much more intentional about that, the stuff outside of it. Like, if, if something’s going on in my family life.
It, it way spills into my business and vice versa. And I think, this, fair, fair play thing is really interesting. Rachel and I do a pretty regular check in most nights or most weeks, then we have a date night for us on alternating, alternating Wednesdays, and then every other Wednesday outside of that, it’s just like a house cleanup night.
So we’ve got those things on the calendar, but yeah, the, the, the The, the mental load thing is something that I am really trying to help. And I, like, one of the things that is, hit me is that, you know, my wife handles a lot of the, like, she’ll do the bills, like she’s just got like the system in place for it.
And, and I try to not even come to her to be like, Hey, you know, what do you need me to do? Because I don’t want her to have to tell me what to do. I just like the other day, she needs more time to study, right? She, she told me, she’s like people who study for this first test, they’re doing like several months of trying to study two or three hours a day for this first test.
I was like, okay, that’s what we need to do. And she like started to do the dishes. I was like, what are you doing? Go study. I got these, I got the laundry, I got the kids lunch. I got them naps, whatever. And like, and she came to me later that day and she said, I felt so supported today. And it was good to have that feedback, but like.
You know, my wife’s love language is, you know, those things are acts of service and, and the more that I just like look around and just freaking pay attention, the closer I feel like we get. And then when we’re closer, then I feel like I have more energy for my business. And like, I don’t know, it’s just funny, like we all just expect that the business and making the money is going to be the thing that gives us the success and the excitement and all that stuff. I don’t know. I want to hear, I would love to hear from some more people who like the business is their only thing when they have a family. I just, I don’t know that that is the ultimate place to find success and meaning, long lasting meaning or long lasting feeling success.
Colie: I’m just curious because I am very into love languages and my husband is also an acts of service. What’s yours? What do you like to receive? Well, mine’s physical touch. So see, I saw a really funny reel where it said that, physical touch people and acts of service, people always get together. And so, I have recently been putting forth a lot of effort to like work on what that means for my husband’s love language.
He likes to do acts of service. And I was like, , But is that what you like to receive? Because of course there’s what you like to give and there’s what you like to receive. And so I asked my husband, I said, I honestly think with you, it’s a toss up between like positive affirmations. and acts of service.
And so, you know, he’s just like, I think it, it depends on the day. It depends on what’s going on. And I’m like, yeah, but his is definitely not physical touch versus me. I’m like, no. So like, I’ve been doing more work towards acts of service and he’s been doing more work towards physical touch and it’s great.
But I do think that that’s another piece of the puzzle. Like when you’re working out all of these things in your household and you’re making sure that everything is equitably divided and that you feel good, your partner feels good. I mean, Your love language is super important too.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. Yeah. I am 100 percent sense of touch, right? Like there’s nothing that is better than us walking it somewhere or whatever. My wife reaching to hold my hand or like, you know, if I’m like working on something, her just like coming over, putting her hand on my back, but there’s a, there’s mostly sense of touch.
Um, but there’s also like, yeah, a little bit of quality time, but, and a little bit of words of affirmation, right? Like, like if she stacks those sometimes where she’s
Colie: You’re just like, ah,
Dan Moyer: my cheek or forehead or whatever on my shiny forehead.
Um, and she’s like, you know, you’ve been working hard really lately, or, you know, I felt really supported today. Boom. Like, Like that, that’s the biggest, reinforcement that I could possibly have. Like, okay, cause I like reinforcement. I like data and like collecting the things and then saying, okay, I can make a decision off of this.
Right. When she said, you know, I felt supported today. Yes. Okay. Dan, do more of that.
Colie: Yes. Double down. That’s what my husband says. Okay. I’m going to double down on that.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. It just, I dunno, it just feels right. And I guess in the larger context of, you know, parenting and all that stuff, we were talking about just all, when you take care of, let me put it this way.
When I haven’t like done a lot of work in my business, I feel okay with it. Right. Because I’ve got systems set up and all that kind of stuff. But when I haven’t done the work in my family life, eats at me way more than the, yeah, I feel that. And so it’s like, okay. There’s a reason there. Let me just get really curious about that and see like, I’ve had the pendulum swing really far in one direction of, I’m all about my business for 10 years.
It was, I’m going to do every workshop, every sales technique, every whatever. I’m going to learn my numbers. I’m going to do all this stuff about my business because that’s what, that’s how you feel successful is to have this big, awesome business. So I’ve had the pendulum swing that far and I didn’t feel happy, successful, whatever.
So what happens if I, if I let it swing really far in the other direction? What does the other side feel like? What does irrational displays of affection and love for my children and my wife feel like? How does that make them feel? How do I feel? And then where’s that, you know, medium in the middle? I don’t know.
Colie: I mean, you, you bring up a great point though, because I do feel like everyone should experience both sides of the pendulum. And I mean, I’ve already alluded to this, you and I started talking about it before we hit record. I’ve had some pretty serious health issues in Q1 of this year, and it took away my ability completely to work with clients.
Like there was no time. I was focused on my health. I mean, some weeks I had four or five doctor’s appointments plus the therapy. Can we talk about the therapy,
Dan Moyer: Yeah, let’s talk about therapy.
Colie: I went from no therapy to three therapists. We now have a couple of therapists and I have two individual therapists and I mean we kind of talk about the same things in all three of them.
But I do feel so much better now that I have therapists to talk about all of this stuff with, but I feel like when you get to that side of the pendulum where you can’t do work and you are only in on your family and you get to a point to where the business just doesn’t matter, which I fully admit I’ve been there for months.
I mean, I’m starting to move back in. I think if I had to define it, I’m like, right to the left of middle now. Like I’m trying to get to the middle. I’m trying to get to the good balance again, but still not having like thrown myself in like starting to record podcast episodes is my first baby step into like interacting with like actual humans instead of just being in my house.
But I think that if people spend too long on the side where it’s all about work and you feel like it’s hustle and you legitimately feel like you cannot take a break, like you are not entitled to take a break, eventually life is going to push you to the other side, whether you want to be there or not.
And so I feel like every single coach, every single educator, every single podcast host that talks about these kinds of things is really trying to help you get to the point to where you take the break. on your own. You don’t get forced there by circumstances that are largely out of your control.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. Big feels on that one. I also think you said like, if you get to this one side where work is too much, I do think the opposite is also true. If everything is just about family. And there’s no room for you to grow. There’s no room for personal growth. Like my wife, I’m so grateful that she, my, my Misogi this year is I want to do a marathon.
So that’s the big thing for me. That’s what I really want to do. I’ve got a couple of other small races and stuff because I’m also in this place of like, okay. What am I capable of? and I just happened to be moving towards this like physical feats, strength side of things. And it’s like, what, what am I capable of?
And we were both kind of coming to each other with, you know, I’m building my coaching business. I’m doing more of the, I want to do more of this. And she said, I want to do my, this master’s program. It was okay. Like we’re going to do this together and we both have to give each other the space to do it.
So she knows that training for a marathon means a lot of. Long runs where I’m out of the house. She was totally about me getting a treadmill. Shout out to Facebook marketplace. Just put a little thing out there. I got a free treadmill. But we both support each other and because I like over the last couple of years, I’ve definitely, my pendulum starting to swing back from the family side of things where I let, it was everything about family.
It’s like, okay. That feels really good because I’m giving them, I’ve learned some things, I’ve learned more about them and it’s all going to change anyway. Cause they’re, you know, twin fours and a seven year old next in two years is going to be totally different. But it’s like, okay, I need to do some things for me.
And the business part, when I, when I have a thriving business, there’s part of it that’s like, okay, like you’re helping people. Part of, you know, I think part of the pillars of happiness is work that is meaningful or work that helps, other people. And I think you get back what you receive. So the family part of it is good.
The relationships is good, but having this meaningful work piece and having this personal growth part of it, I think can’t be ignored either.
Colie: Yes, I absolutely agree because when I help someone solve a problem or when I get them to the other side, where I give them systems that make them feel good about their business and how they’re balancing their home life with their business. I mean, nothing gives me greater joy and I do think 100 percent I am not meant to be.
I don’t want to say just a housewife. I, that is definitely not what I’m saying. But. I have always been so driven by like my own success that I think that if I’m put in a position where I’m not working towards something, like I do begin to lose a little bit of myself. And so that’s why within my little pockets of time, I mean, I’m not doing big, huge client projects, but I am, you know, I am dipping my toes back in trying to figure out how I can still put myself out.
to the business world, to my audience as someone who can help you do something. But that something looks very different now than it did six months ago, a year ago, definitely.
Dan Moyer: yeah, there’s, so I’ve got all different kinds of clients, all different ages, all different pockets of photography. and I, I feel like it’s easy for me to coach photographers on the business side of things, right? Like once you do it, once you’ve like got it, you can, there’s no imposter syndrome. Cause it’s like, okay, well, I’ve like, I’ve done this before and I can help individuals with that.
It’s this other stuff that I was like, I need to some, some backing. And one of the biggest things that was really helpful for me as I went and I did this like 32 hour, 33 hour life coach certification to like figure out how to balance both of these things. But out, out, out of that, you just realize that like not everybody needs to be a 10 in business, a 10 in family, a 10 in personal life.
And those things shift, right? Like, you know, right now my, my 10 is maybe a six in business. Right. Like, and my 10 and
Colie: satisfied.
Dan Moyer: right. And have you ever heard of the, the, the life wheel? Okay. So it’s like, you know, there’s all you like go around this wheel. And at the top of the wheel, it’s like all different areas of your life.
And you rate them on, uh, like how far you are zero to zero to 10. And. I think this is flawed because in, in the directions for most of the life wheels, it’s like, how smooth does your wheel roll? They should all be at a 10. I’m like, no, they should not all be at a 10 because
Colie: have the capacity for tens in all of
Dan Moyer: you can, you cannot, it’s ridiculous to, to expect that anybody can operate at a hundred percent, a hundred percent of the time.
Colie: I think about it as a pie chart.
Dan Moyer: Oh yeah,
Colie: Everybody has a pie chart. Like what percentage in your pie chart represents your partnership. If you, if you have a partner, your role as a parent, your role as a business, and for a lot of people, like your role as a community member and as a member of like your bigger family at, you know, at large, but it is not that everything can be a 10 because if you start lining all these things up.
Everything that’s a 10 takes a certain part of you. It takes a certain amount of time. It takes a certain amount of effort. And we don’t all have endless amounts of time and endless amounts of effort. That’s just not how it works. So I think of pie charts.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. The pie chart, the, the wheel, whatever you want to call it. So many of them will say like, you know, it’s effort, like how much effort do you, can you give to like these things? And it’s like, yes, of course it’s not going to roll. But I think if we change that to satisfaction, like maybe we can be hundred percent satisfied in the areas of our life, or maybe we can work towards that.
But I don’t know, I’m going to get really into the weeds here for a second, but even focusing on like, The outcome I feel like is flawed because so many of us have this outcome focused mindset where we’re so focused on like, I want to get the six figures. I want to get the, the 10 K club. I want to have this perfect, this, or this person has that.
So I’m going to have what they have. And we try and we like set a goal and we try to like do the thing. The results don’t come or we don’t hit that outcome quick enough or whatever. And so we give up versus. If we’re focused on the only thing we can control, which are the inputs, the habits, the things that you enjoy doing that are so easy to do, like loving my children and playing with them.
Freaking easy. Like, so like being silly and like enjoying time with my wife or making her laugh. Freaking easy. If I just like make that the habit or like, get really interested in, in those things as habits, then I think the outcome will happen. Or like, I. I’m trying to find the things that I really enjoy about business again, right?
Because I had a really great tenure with my wedding photography business. And it’s like, okay, like I’m at a point now where like, maybe I want to do something a little bit different. I want to fold some new things in. And so as I’m coaching photographers, it’s like the sitting with clients and meeting with them is so easy.
And like watching, uh, individuals who like have these, like, uh, an issue or they’re, they’re like really struggling with something and they have this like mini little breakthrough and they’re able to be consistent with something for the first time, that’s like really filling me up. So it’s like, I don’t know if we just pay attention to the things that we really enjoy.
Colie: I think we are too focused on the goal and not what it takes to get there. And I think that after you’ve met a goal, The question that you should be asking yourself is how did it feel to get to the place to where you met the goal? Because, let’s bring up six figures.
All photographers are capable of making six figures. With unlimited time, unlimited efforts in your marketing, all of this. I mean, if you are selling your services at a certain price, I bet you there’s a way for any of us to get to six figures. But do you really want to do what it takes to get to six figures in your current model?
That’s what you should do when you get to six figures. Okay, I made six figures But is this gonna maintain my happiness going forward or do I need to make some changes, right? And sometimes the answer is not That you need to make adjustments in order to keep your six figures. Maybe it’s you realize that six figures isn’t your goal.
Your goal is to make less money and spend more time. I mean, I, I was joking for quite some time because a lot of people, I was PTA mom, then I was PTA president. And, that wasn’t fun after a while. I mean, I was volunteering in my kid’s school twice a week. I mean, I was doing all of that. And so if I had given that up.
Could I have made more money? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, like I wanted Chloe to remember that for almost her entire elementary school career, I was in the building twice a week. I mean, I knew all of the teachers in the building. So it’s, it’s about making sure that you are making time for the things that are important.
And in some cases, you have to think about making money versus other things. And at particular parts in your life, maybe the making money is more important. I mean, you briefly mentioned health insurance. And so that’s been my husband’s job like forever. And I, with my health issues can’t have crappy insurance. So, I mean, that was one of the reasons that he took this new job. We are saving over a thousand dollars a month just on the healthcare premium for pretty, pretty equitable, health insurance. And I mean, you know, that’s just huge, but I am not someone who can sacrifice that. I am not someone who can have crappy health insurance.
So, I mean, you know. He loves his new job. I mean, he wanted his new job, but if he didn’t, but the health insurance was more important, would he have maybe taken a different job? That gave us even better health insurance, because that’s what we need in this current, you know, season of life. Not everything is forever.
And I feel like if you and I can tell people anything during this podcast episode, it’s that everything ebbs and flows. And so if you make a decision now, it doesn’t mean that you have to maintain that decision. six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, we should all be constantly evaluating that balance or what parenting and business brings to our life.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. You said ebbs and flows. I think it’s funny. Like my business has had so many different ebbs and flows, right? Like I think being able to adjust your business for wherever you’re at in life is like the definition of the joy of being an entrepreneur, right? Like for a long time, those first five years, it’s figuring out wherever I want to go, um, or how I want to run this business or what this whole business thing is.
And then. After that, it was, well, I had a photo booth business. I had an associate business that I didn’t like those things. So I shut those down and then it was, I’m going to do IPS. Everything’s going to be about IPS. And that was great. I made lots of money, but I was out of the house too much. So then I did some of Annemie, shout out to Annemie Tonkin, simple sales, blueprint, awesome.
Whoop, whoop. I did some of that. That’s really good. That’s sort of great with the family things. And then it’s like, okay. Now I’m all about sort of just doing this like one price for all of the things, especially for weddings and like time, talent, like that’s it. And just keeping things very simple because I want to continue to have the cashflow coming into my business so I can sustain and all that stuff.
But cutting out all the other things allows me to just have more time with my kids and my wife and for personal things, even though I could be making more if I was doing IPS and all that kind of stuff. The trade off is that that money is not enough for me being home with these kids and I’m home at night to put them to bed and all that kind of stuff straight off.
I’m willing to accept, but in the next couple of years, who knows where I might be? I might be like, yeah, let’s go back to that. I feel like I was serving my clients really well when I was doing IPS and like all that stuff, but I don’t know, just. It takes a lot of self awareness to say like, okay, I’m okay with having this business this way.
And being in between all the camps out there for the ways you should run your business.
Colie: Well, and you’re about to be in an entirely different new world when all of the kids are in school. I mean, I will say that I constantly get asked by family photographers. Okay, but Colie, like, how did you grow your business? And I’m like, okay, but you realize I grew it the most when my kid was in school full time.
Like, I feel like all of us should give, those of us that are parents, should give ourselves grace in not thinking that people were more successful because they weren’t. early on when the kids were still at home with them. Now, some people have their kids in daycare or preschool or whatever it is, full time from the beginning.
And so that is very different than you having any part of your kids home, any part of the day during the week. I mean, we just all have to give ourselves a little grace, but I mean, Dan, you are going to have the space and opportunity. If you decide that you want to go back to IPS, because making more money with IPS is going to allow you to take even less weddings, which is going to give you more time at home on the weekends with your wife and your lovely children.
So everything is a trade off, but I feel like not enough of us go in with the idea that it is a trade off. And in every situation where you are making a decision, you kind of have to decide what is best for you. and what is best by extension for your family, including your partner and your children in that particular moment.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. I think that’s hard for a lot of people because we have, I think we have too many inputs. just like too many, voices, whether it’s the educators of our industry or whatever it is. So like, do this, don’t do that. It’s, it’s hard even for myself sometimes to be like, no, no, no, it’s okay to just do this thing for my family.
Right. Like when I stopped doing IPS, It’s not guilt, it’s not shame, it’s like, well, you’re, you teach other people how to do this, so,
Colie: You should still be doing
should still be doing it, or like, you know, the fact that I’m considering, uh, pausing weddings for a while, because Henry and Regina, my four year olds, are going to kindergarten at the end of this year, so, they go to bed at like seven, like, so they get home from, from school at four, they’re in bed by like seven, and if I’m gone on the weekends, I don’t know, like,
kids three hours a day. I
Dan Moyer: yeah, right.
So it’s like, okay, like I will get all this time back during the day. So what does the next phase of my business look like? Where yes, the kids are going to be gone. Yes, I could grow it exponentially. Cause I’m gonna have all this time back that like, like Henry and Regina, they, they were never in daycare.
They were in daycare for two weeks. Then COVID happened. We pulled them all out and they, this is their first. Preschool school year, the last year. So they were home all the time that the rest of the, the three years or ever until we just put them in a Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 9 AM school.
Colie: I remember that. It was so rough. I felt like, I don’t know how you feel Dan, but like right now I feel like I’m back in that phase in that I take Chloe to school. I come home, I have this little chunk of time and I got to pick her up. My brain was not made to do deep work in those small segments of time.
And so most days I’m like, no, I can’t do it. And my husband wasn’t doing it to intentionally like, Raise flags and be like, Oh, you didn’t do shit today. But some days he would come home and be like, Oh, Hey, you know, how was your day? What did you do today? And it’s not that I felt shame. It’s just my response was always the same.
Well, I couldn’t do anything because like by the time I was going to get started, I just knew that if I really got going, I was going to have to cut myself off in an hour. And so I’m like, you know, I didn’t really do anything today. And so he stopped asking in that way, which was really good for us. I didn’t have to tell him, you know, stop asking me
Dan Moyer: A little bit of judgment in there. What did you do today?
Colie: He, now he usually comes home. And if it’s one of those days, he’s like, Hey. Is there anything that was on your list that you didn’t get a chance to do today that you would like to do right now while I do XYZ? Like, you know, while I figure out dinner. Now guys, my husband does not cook. What he means is that he’s going to get in his car and drive somewhere and pick some dinner up.
Let’s just get this straight. But I mean, he is making, you know, and before he was working at this new job and the old job, sometimes he would call me at like 1 30 and he would be like, Hey. Everything’s done today. If you are good, I’m going to stay and do paperwork. But if you need me to go pick Chloe up so that you can start working now and just keep on, just let me know.
And I can get her today. And like, I was like training myself to look forward to those one 30 calls. Like at one 30, I would be like, is he going to call me? Is he not going to call me? and when he did on those days, like I would work and I felt like that was the most productive. And the thing is, I was usually getting a bunch of stuff done in less than two hours, but that was because there was no hard stop.
Like when I have two hours, I can’t do it because I already see that, you know, in case you guys didn’t hear my phone just went off to tell me that I got to go get my kid in 30 minutes. I mean, when that goes off, it’s like, I know that it’s coming. And so I can’t actually be as productive as I want to be.
But if I don’t have a hard stop. I can still get it done in the two hours, but I don’t have the anxiety of like having to cut myself off in the middle, or God forbid, I forget to get my child, which is why I have an insane amount of alarms that go off in this house to make sure that I am not that parent who forgets to get their kid.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. Oh man. Just, just the finding ways to work within little timeframes is, has been such a Radical shift, because again, this goes back to pre kids working a different, a totally different way. That was the biggest adjustment that I had to make is never having time. You know, their home and, um, having the kids come in here and like, just this morning before we got on, um, I was trying to get a whole bunch of stuff out.
I was trying to get just like my mental load cleared out so I could be present with you here today. And my little guy, Henry kept coming in here. He’s like, dad, can you come play with me? Dad, can you come play with me? And really hard to say no. So I try not to say no, because like, I know there’s going to be a point.
Where he comes, where he stops coming to me and asks if I can play, But, when, you know, when they’re in school now, And they’ve got, like, I’m getting this first taste of, It’s Monday. It’s Wednesday. It’s Thursday from nine o’clock until 1130. When I have to leave there, the amount of stuff that I have to pack into that time has made me more efficient.
It used to be, and I still, I very much, feel you on the, phase of being in this place where it’s like, okay, I know I only have 30 minutes. I have all these big projects. I can’t do any of them because then they’re going to take way longer. So it’s just like, all right, what am I going to do? Answer emails.
Uh, or something. It, that
Colie: Or take 30 minutes to yourself. Like that is legitimately what I had to learn was sometimes I would come home from dropping her off at her second school and being like, Oh, I know I said I was going to do this today, but I legitimately just want to sit on the couch, make myself a salad and watch a TV show in the silence and just not worry about it.
Dan Moyer: That’s being self aware.
Colie: yeah, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for the last 90 days. It’s been great.
Dan Moyer: that is, that is something, this goes back to the whole too many inputs thing, right? If we have too much stuff coming at us from whatever it is, there’s no, Ability for us to listen to our inner voice or say, wow, I actually really need to just like sit and binge or go for a walk or exercise or whatever it is or eat a pint of ice cream.
Like, you know, there are there are those nights, but I think giving ourselves that space of, you know, being able to have a, the ability to listen to what we need and be self aware enough to say, okay, I just actually just need to sit for a couple minutes. I don’t need to do any work. I just want to sit here and eat my salad and watch my show.
Colie: And I feel like I’m going to bring Sabrina into this conversation because I know you’re going to have her on your podcast soon. But Sabrina Gebhardt, podcast host of Shoot It Straight Podcast, she is constantly talking about this concept called white space. And so it’s not even about being aware like in the future, it’s if you have this blank chunk of time on your calendar where you have marked it off, Just for yourself, just for white space.
The beauty of it is that when that time comes to you, you get to decide what to do with it. So maybe I want to go to the movies. Maybe I want to get a pedicure. Maybe I really do want to have a client conversation. Or, I feel motivated to do this one thing, but the point is that you are leaving yourself the space to make the decision at that moment in time so that you are not feeling the pressure that you feel at every other point of your calendar where, okay, no, I’ve got this time and I said I was going to do these things.
Let’s see how many of them I can basically check off of my list. Instead, you give yourself the time and grace. to make a decision in that moment of what would serve you best.
Dan Moyer: Yeah. This, that white space idea or the too many inputs idea actually was a therapy revelation for me where it wasn’t
Colie: a therapy revelation for her too.
Dan Moyer: Oh, really? Oh,
Colie: She got it from therapy.
Dan Moyer: yeah. Literally a couple of weeks ago. You know, I was talking before about, you know, letting the pendulum swing too far in one direction and, and, you know, being all about my family and all about the kids and stuff.
And I was talking with my therapist and I was like, I feel like I’m not doing enough. I feel like I’m lazy. I should be at a different place in my life. And, you know, He’s like, man, I love it when you come in here, right? Like you’re always willing to do the work. You’re always curious and all that kind of stuff, but you’re always coming in here.
Like, well, this podcast says this and this person says that, and like, you’re reading a new book and you’re doing that. And this person’s at this level. He’s like, dude, you have too many inputs in your brain. Like where, where is your self awareness? Where’s the space for your own brain to have thoughts about you?
He said, nobody is better at being you than you. Nobody is like, you are one of one. And he said, you have to get rid of these inputs and just have these like, how, where’s your, are you meditating? Like we always talk about that. Are you having this space for just yourself? And that was, yeah, every once in a while, I’m like, you know, I’m good.
Like, I think I could probably, I could take a break from therapy now or whatever, and then he just like drops these bombs on me, like same therapist for the last three years and it’s just maintenance now. Um, but, but yeah, there’s oftentimes these like little things that pop up and he, he’ll just drop these like knowledge bombs on me.
Then I’m like, yeah, I still, I really need to be here still.
Colie: Yeah, and I mean, in the sessions when I am not really as self aware of what I’ve gotten from the conversation, I will come home and James will be like, Oh, you had therapy today. I can tell and I’m like, well, how can you tell? He’s like, I don’t know. It’s a smile on your face. It’s the way that you’re talking.
He’s like, you know, I, I’m very glad that, you know, and, and just not to put it out there. I mean, yeah. we have therapy together. And so, you know, we have these same kinds of conversations after, but he’s like, I can just tell when you have a really good therapy session because you feel more at ease. You feel more self assured when you’re making your decisions.
Not that I’m not ever like good at making decisions. He’s like, but you just do it in a different way. And I’m like, okay, if you’re noticing, then I mean, it must be true. Cause you’re not in my therapy session to hear what I talked about. So it’s all good.
Dan Moyer: It’s just a load off, right? Like, especially when it’s somebody dedicated to just like listening. And it’s like, like I talk, you know, I went out running with a, a really long time friend of mine, we, you know, Did a run together. We were just talking about like the dad life and all that stuff. Well, like, I don’t want to get, I don’t want to unload all of my stuff onto him because he’s got his own stuff that he’s working through.
He’s a dad. He’s trying to like show up for them and all that stuff. So I can’t like. We can vent to each other and be on the same level, but it’s just different when you have a person whose dedicated job it is, is to be like, to call you on your bullshit. Um, but also to just like be there and be supportive and actually listen without trying to fix or any of that stuff.
That’s good. I love therapy.
Colie: I mean, I love therapy too. I mean, I feel like you and I, the, the theme of this is everybody should get a therapist, but Dan beyond that, if we were going to wrap up this conversation and kind of put, let’s say two nuggets out there. for everyone to consider. And I’m going to say everyone, but guys, I mean the name of this episode when I name it is going to be something like parenthood and business or parenthood with business, something like that.
So if we were going to put two nuggets out there for the parents who are struggling to either grow or maintain their business, what two nuggets do you want to put out there that you feel will help someone get to a better place of balance?
Dan Moyer: Okay, two nuggets. The first one is going to be a weird one because I feel like everybody might expect me to be like, Oh, like balance your calendar, which is going to be the second one. The first one would be to know your financial numbers. And the reason why is because, I often will talk to photographers and I’m like, okay, what’s your goal for finances?
Cause you got to talk about it. What’s your goal for finances? And they’re like, well, I want to make, um, Or I wanna, I wanna do 20 weddings. I’m gonna do 10 elopements. It’s like, okay, where’d you get that from? They’re like, I don’t know. It sounds good. Or like, you know, another photographer I talked with was, I just want, I want to make 200, 000 in five years and, I want to be able to take, the amount of time that my wife works.
I want to take that same time off. Okay. How’d you get that? Well, I just, I don’t know. It sounds good. Like if you can really drill down into, okay, how much do you spend a month? What’s, what’s splurging, right? Like what do you actually need to spend a month? And then what are you splurging on? If you just take that number of like, what you have that, what you need to make per month and just multiply it by 12.
you have like the bare necessities that you need to make. Then you can look at your wedding packages or whatever and say, okay, well, if my wedding packages are 5, 000 and I got to take off X amount for taxes and X amount for cost of goods sold and X amount for cost of shooting a wedding. It’s really easy when you come up with this number of, okay, I divide.
the profit I make per wedding times, divided by the amount that I need to make, per year. And I come up with 15 weddings. It’s like, okay, now you have this goal where, and here’s the key point in all this. If you get to this point where you say, I know I get to 15 weddings, I’m covered for the year and you have the mental clarity to be able to say, okay, I can confidently turn away business because I’ve got my basis covered for the year that gives you this freedom.
And, and you can say the opposite is true is like, you know what, this year I want to hustle really hard. I want to take 30 weddings. So I can really buy myself, um, a year next year. I only have to take five weddings, but just knowing this, like, this is how much I need to make for the year. Like having that one single number, I think is so freeing and the opposite of what a lot of tarfers do because I don’t think many of us are number crunchers or I’m not, I’m not logistical.
I’m not analytical. So that was a number that once I saw, okay, I need to get this many weddings per year, this many shoots or need to hit this amount of money. That was incredibly freeing for me. That’s number one. Number two is I want to go back to that Parkinson’s law thing of you need to schedule the whole entire year, not per week, not per month, you need to put a big thing into place for the year where you cover personal things for yourself.
Um, and you cover some family things. And I think that could be that Masogia talked about. It could be some mini adventures. But putting. white space in there, for your year. And, you know, we can do what Sabrina said. And what you said is like on this weekly basis, wherever do that. But I think so many of us, we need to really zoom out and say, this year, I want to get this big thing done for me this year, I want to get this big done for my family or my business and really zooming it out.
And then when those things come up on your calendar, sticking with it. I think when you have. When you have these like family things built into your calendar, um, and they’re already taken care of. It just relieves that, uh, that stress from, well, I’m not, I don’t have any time for my kids. I don’t have any time for my family because you’ve already got it built in.
And then I think you end up being able to have a little bit more space to, be creative in your business to be, take better pictures, to show up in a lot of different ways. Cause you’ve already got the really important stuff blocked out for yourself and for your family. Yep,
Colie: and it was as fabulous as I thought it was going to be. Guys, Dan and I, we, we made a commitment. He’s going to be on here every six months and we’ve pretty much, with the exception of rescheduling this one three times. Cause again, I mean, my
Dan Moyer: It was only once. It was only like
Colie: only once?
Dan Moyer: I think
Colie: like we rescheduled it more than once, but maybe I’m just imagining that. But if people would like to come find you and your podcast and hear more, because guys, I mean, this is just like a little snippet of what he does on his own podcast. Tell the audience where they can find you.
Dan Moyer: Um, so if they listen to the last episodes, they’re going to know it’s a big change now. My podcast is the Focused Photographers Podcast. , you can follow me on Instagram. This is the change. It’s Daniel Moyer Coaching, M O Y E R Coaching. Website is Daniel Moyer Coaching also. It used to be.
Focused photographers was my education platform, but, that was sort
Colie: about you.
Dan Moyer: yeah, this is nameless, faceless. I, you know, it’s a personal brand. People work with me. So that’s where they can find me at Daniel Moyer coaching pretty much everywhere. And the podcast is the focused photographers podcast.
Colie: All right. Again, it’s always a pleasure to have you on here. I am really excited that we got to have this conversation and guys, we both really hope that you walk away from this conversation. If nothing else, that you’re just a little curious about your current situation with your personal life, your business, and just seeing how you can maybe get a little more satisfaction out of both.
Dan Moyer: Love it.
Colie: All right, that’s it for this episode. See you next time.
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