Creative Burnout, Money Mindset and Success with Amy Eaton

On this episode of Small Steps to Self-Love, guest Amy Eaton shares her personal journey and tips for overcoming mindset issues and building a successful six-figure business. Shelby and Amy talk about the importance of understanding one's own productivity patterns and creating a work schedule that works for them, redefining success, limiting beliefs, and much more. Join us for an inspiring conversation that is anti-hustle and pro rest & self-care.

About Amy:
Amy Eaton is a photographer, educator, and mentor for creative business owners. She helps creative entrepreneurs have beautiful images for their business through her online courses and Lightroom presets, and is an advocate and mentor for profitable, sustainable, and fulfilling creative businesses. Amy lives in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada, with her husband, two kids, and two dogs.

Instagram: www.instagram.com/amy.takes.pictures

Website: amytakespictures.com

ABOUT SHELBY:
Shelby is a mental health author, who has grown an audience of more than 500,000 on social media who resonate with her work. She is the author of 3 poetry books, including her latest release, girl made of glass and her bestselling book, changing with the tides. Shelby also runs an online poetry community, and helps authors market themselves and their books for more sales.

JOIN THE POETRY CLUB:
Want to join a supportive community of poets learning to write and publish their poetry book? Hosted by Shelby Leigh, bestselling poet, you'll get all the support and resources you need, with multiple live events featuring award-winning poets every month. Head to https://jointhepoetryclub.com to learn more!

resources from shelby:

·        check out Shelby’s mental health poetry books

·        Free self-love poetry print

·        Join the poetry club

·        Get help with marketing as a writer

connect with shelby:

·        Instagram: @shelbyleighpoetry

·        YouTube: Shelby Leigh Poetry

·        TikTok: @shelbyleighpoetry

Transcript

Shelby Leigh [00:00:00]:

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Small Steps to Self Love. Today I am joined by a special guest, amy Eaton. We connected through a masterminds that we're both in together for business and we just connected. I really enjoy learning more about her work as a photography kind of instructor or educator, would you say? So I'm excited to have her on to talk about business and mindset and mental health, but I'd like to just start by pass it over to you, Amy, to tell us more about you and what you do.

Amy Easton [00:00:29]:

Well, thank you. And thanks for having me on the podcast. This is exciting. I'm so happy to be here.

Shelby Leigh [00:00:36]:

Yeah.

Amy Easton [00:00:36]:

I am a photographer and an educator. I was a working photographer for many years and about six years ago I switched to teaching photography online. Mostly product photography to makers, crafters artists, product sellers, that kind of thing. And it's been great. I love it. It's been fantastic. And I'm just in the process of shifting my business. I would say expanding my business to include because I'm going to continue to teach photography. But I am moving into an area where it's more about creative business mentorship, kind of specifically honing in on the areas of being profitable and sustainable and avoiding burnout, which is something I've struggled with a lot, but I think I've cracked the code. I hope we'll see.

Shelby Leigh [00:01:28]:

That's awesome. I love that. When you were doing just photography, before you started teaching it, were you doing this full time, like as a freelancer, were you still running your own business or were you doing it on the side?

Amy Easton [00:01:39]:

I side hustled a lot. A lot. I mean, really hardcore. Just side hustle. I worked a full time day job, like a nine to five. I would come home and work until midnight on my business. Different things like website and portfolio and social media just to get clients to photograph on the weekends. And then yeah, editing and it was a lot. And I did do a short spell where I was full time, which was exciting. But then life kind of went to hell in a hand basket, which turned out to be a great thing in the end. But then I went back to a day job for a while. So I sorted my life out. Yeah. And then I had the worst day job of my entire life. It was kind of a nightmare and that was it for me. I just walked away and was like, I'm making this business thing work no matter what. This is my life. It is happening.

Shelby Leigh [00:02:37]:

Yeah. Good for you. I was the same. I was working a day job that I didn't hate it at all, actually. I enjoyed it, but I was not fulfilled as much as I knew I would be if I was doing my own thing. So the side hustle was real for a few years there and yeah, it's nice to have weekends back sometimes. I still work a lot on the.

Amy Easton [00:02:56]:

Weekends, but at least we get to make our own. There's a flexibility there now. Yeah, it's amazing. It's the dream. I dreamed about it for so long. From the time I really started having a full time day job, I wanted to not have it anymore. There were certainly times where I did enjoy what I was doing, but I really felt the call to do something creative and to be my own boss. I think we all if if you're the type of person who wants to work for yourself and be your own boss, that niggles at you forever until you finally do it. And that was certainly the case for me.

Shelby Leigh [00:03:35]:

Yeah, definitely. By the time you made that decision, were you scared? Were there any mindset blockers that kind of held you back in the beginning? Or were you like, nope, I'm all in, I'm going for it.

Amy Easton [00:03:44]:

I was definitely all in, but I definitely still had some mindset work to do. I had a lot of mindset issues all along, which I certainly recognize now. Looking back a lot of what we would call kind of scarcity mindset issues, I really struggled with money mindset issues too. I was looking for the way to make the least amount of money I would possibly need to make to leave my day job. So rather than say this is the kind of life I want, I know I need to make X amount of dollars and here's my plan to achieve that. I was just kind of thinking, what's the bare minimum like, what's the bare minimum income I need from this business so that I don't have to work in this job anymore? And that was really holding me back because I was coming at it from the wrong direction. Rather than think about the life that I wanted and build a business to suit it, I was trying to figure out how to just get enough to make that happen. So I had definitely some, we can call them limiting beliefs, definitely mindset blocks in terms of playing it small, I guess, is another kind of buzz phrase we hear a lot. But I was just looking for the smallest amount that I felt like I could possibly get because in my mind it wasn't realistic to dream for anymore. I was trying to be reasonable. I didn't believe it was possible for me to make however much money. Six figures as a photographer. That was outrageous and certainly I would never be capable of that because I had confidence issues. I didn't really feel like I was good enough to make that kind of money deserving enough. Like who was I to think that I should make that kind of money when other people are struggling everywhere? And especially photography is a really hard business and I really didn't think that I was capable as a photographer to earn that kind of money. I didn't think I was good enough.

Shelby Leigh [00:05:40]:

Yeah, absolutely. I can definitely relate to that as a writer. And I think any creative job is kind of like, can you really make money from this? Can you actually make a good living from this? You absolutely can. But, yeah, I definitely had those limiting beliefs as well. Did you find any tools or anything that you did in particular to help you come over that? Is it still something that you are struggling with?

Amy Easton [00:06:06]:

I think I've gotten past it to a point. So now I'm at a point in my business where I make six figures a year, and it's been like that for, like, five years now. Once I finally hit on this idea and overcame some of those mindset issues and figured out the life I wanted and the kind of business that I needed to build to support it, and I built it, that kind of six figure a year income came really quickly. And now I'm at a point in my business where I want more than that. And now I'm kind of facing the same things. It's a cycle. It never goes away. I mean, I think eventually you just get to a point where you're happy with where you are and you just run your business and you're happy. But I have dreams that require more money than I make now, so I plan on doing that. But I do still find that those same types of feelings coming up again. Who am I to deserve more money? Why do I think I'm capable of running that business? So I think that no matter what stage you're at in your business, even if you're like the Amy Porterfields of your industry, who seem to be kind of the titan of industry, everyone deals with it all the time, even her, even those people at the top. So definitely we're in your company, I guess.

Shelby Leigh [00:07:19]:

Yeah, no, that's a good point. I feel like I've accepted that more and more. That, yes, of course I hope to be satisfied with where I'm at, but for right now, I am, like you said, I'm at a good point, but I want to continue growing. And yeah, I guess it's different for everybody, but yeah, it's kind of an interesting thing to think about because I do think about that a lot.

Amy Easton [00:07:40]:

Yeah, I think for me, it's not even necessarily tied to money. Like, when you said growth, that's what it's really about. And growing professionally, personally, I mean, maybe it doesn't necessarily equal more money, or it doesn't necessarily equal a huge jump in income, but maybe it's just showing up in a different way. Maybe I'll feel like I want to start being doing presentations, like, beyond Ted Talk someday or something, or like, you know that I'm in the process of trying to write a book. So for me, that's the next thing. Is that going to be a huge money maker for my business. Probably not. But it's something that just for me personally and professionally, that's a growth step that I really want to take. So maybe that step doesn't necessarily equal money. Money in the bank. Although for me, part of it is that but right now anyway I know what you mean though. There's some element of that chasing the money where it starts to feel after a while like it's just you wonder, do I need to keep doing this? And it starts to just feel a little bit I don't know what the word is. Disheartening? Unfulfilling. When you feel like you're just trying to make more money it gets to a point where that doesn't feel fulfilling anymore.

Shelby Leigh [00:08:52]:

Totally. Yeah. And I think in both of our different areas we're also helping people, which is really rewarding in itself. And so whenever I do feel like that pull, I'm like, no, remember your actual goal. Because how rewarding is it to hear from a photographer or for me, an author who feels more confident in sharing their writing or growing their audience. And all of that is super rewarding. So I think that that helps kind of ground me, at least whenever I'm feeling like I need to hustle a lot. And just reflecting on what I've done so far is really helpful too.

Amy Easton [00:09:27]:

Absolutely. I have a folder of screen grabs and stuff that I save that people have said really kind words about my teaching style or the things that I've offered and I like to reflect on them from time to time because for me it is 100% I guess that's not entirely accurate. It is in large part the helping aspect. There's a balance because I'm also running a business and I do want to make money but there's a lot of ways people can make money. I need to feel like there's some heart and soul behind what I do and I'm making some kind of impact for people that's important. For my feelings of self worth, I think that I'm contributing something meaningful to other people's lives. So I love that. That's a good thing to keep in mind when it feels like you're just especially when we're in it and we're like writing ad copy and tweaking our Facebook ads and writing yet another sales page and eventually it can just feel kind of like what am I doing? But that's what we're doing. We feel removed from that sometimes when we're kind of in the moment. But ultimately, yeah, it's the impact that we make that's important.

Shelby Leigh [00:10:31]:

I completely agree. Well, this conversation leads well into the mental health burnout topic, I feel like because we're talking a lot about Hustling and doing a bunch of things which I'm not here to promote hustling at all, but it's something that I've had to learn of taking breaks and taking a step back. So you mentioned burnout in the beginning and kind of helping yourself overcome that. So what are some ways that you have helped with that and kind of what has that journey looked like for your mental health?

Amy Easton [00:10:58]:

Yeah, I mean mental health wise I have a lot of anxiety, social anxiety and I have sensory processing disorder which hasn't been officially diagnosed but I'm fairly confident that there's no way I don't have that. So I certainly struggle with that a lot and especially the sensory issues make me more susceptible to burnout I think in a lot of ways because it's about stimulus and just being too many things. So when I have too many things going on in my business, too many pieces to the puzzle which in online business there's so many pieces to the puzzle I can very quickly feel just completely tapped out. So what I do personally and something that I really encourage people to do is just figure out how to work seasonally. And I don't mean seasonally as in necessarily like you work more in the fall than you do in the summer or whatever. Although for some people that may be the case, for me it certainly is. But just allowing yourself to have ebbs and flows and know that when you are feeling great and you are on and you're ready to work, work intentionally. Try to be as productive as possible with whatever tools that you have available to you to get as much work front loaded as you can. And have a contingency plan, have a solid plan and methodology for running your business during those times when you need to not fully be in it and you need to step away and take a break. Because for me it happens every year around summer. So I work really intensely from about October certainly like September through to May probably. I do quite a lot of work in that time and I take breaks in between. Of course, like over the holidays we break and I'll take some time off in the spring and stuff because in the summer I am not present in my business. I can't mentally I can't be because summer is hard for me from a mental health perspective. I love summer, I love that my children are home but there's a lot of noise in the summer, there's a lot of people on the streets, there is a lot of bugs in the air and I don't mind that stuff but it's just stuff that I have to manage from a sensory angle. So I know that my capacity is more limited in the summer than it is during the rest of the year. So I just allow that to be and that's just the way it is. So in the summer that's when I take my break and I don't fully break because that causes me more anxiety than if I just say, okay, well I'm just going to work like three mornings a week for the summer and that's all I do. So then that way I feel, okay, I'm still checking in, I'm still doing things, I'm on top of things. I'm checking in with my assistant. I'm making sure that my people are taken care of, but then I can focus on some of the other things that are important to me. This idea of holistic success I think is something we all need to really be cognizant of.

Shelby Leigh [00:14:01]:

Yeah, totally. Totally. And I love that you've reflected on yourself and the times of year that are more of a struggle for you or whatever that looks like. I think that's so important because we all are so different and some people are like, wake up at 05:00 a.m. And they're ready to go and be productive. I am not that way. I'm more of like an afternoon evening type of gal. So everyone is so different in what works for them productivity wise, but also just feeling comfortable with working or whatever it is. So it's like there's so many different you have to wake up and get this done in the morning or else you're never going to get it done. And there's so many different tips and things that aren't necessarily true for everyone. So the fact that you said, this is why this works for me, this is what I've noticed about myself and my productivity thinks that that's so important to just reflect on how your brain works. And I've definitely spent some time for me journaling about that and thinking about, okay, on this day, I was really unproductive what was kind of going on in my brain that day. Are there certain times a day where I'd feel better? We do this as a writing practice in this writing membership that I run as well. Just because people can get really discouraged if they're following these tips and tricks from people that it's just not right for them. You don't have to write at a certain time every single day to be a writer, just like a photographer. It's what works best for you and how your brain works. And everyone's brain is so different.

Amy Easton [00:15:30]:

Yeah. And kind of doing an audit or an assessment of your capabilities, energy levels, productivity levels at different times of day, different times of month, different times of the year. And building. If we're our own bosses, we have the opportunity to really create a work schedule that works the best for us. And there's no point in trying to push yourself when you're in your own business to work when you aren't feeling it because there's no point. You won't be productive, you won't produce good work. It's time to listen to your body and listen to your mind and take the break. And I wrote something on Instagram just yesterday actually, about how self care and taking time off and not just time off to go to an appointment or get your kid's haircut, but take time off for you to go to the beach by yourself and walk your dog or take a notebook and journal or whatever alone. And that should be as non negotiable as taxes in your business because you will not be able to continue if you do not make time for that very crucial part of your business.

Shelby Leigh [00:16:43]:

Yeah, totally. It's taxik here right now and I'm just like, don't even want to hear the word.

Amy Easton [00:16:49]:

It's the worst. So think of it that way. At least it's not taxes. Make time for it, right?

Shelby Leigh [00:16:55]:

Yeah, that's true. That's true. I feel like a lot of the things that we're talking about tie a lot to self love. So I'd love to know if there was a distinct moment in your life or especially in your journey of running this business and kind of the mindset blockers and all of that, where you felt self love or felt love for yourself at a particular moment of running your business. Or if this has been something that kind of ebbs and flows, something that you've struggled with in the past, or what that looks like for you.

Amy Easton [00:17:25]:

I have definitely struggled a lot with self love in the past and feeling really low sense of self worth in so many ways. And the more I journey on in my life and look backwards, the more I realized just how little I thought of myself for so long. But for me, the self love came a lot from my success in business, a little too much because I really feel a lot of pride in my success that I've found with my work. I feel tons of genuine and great self love when I look at how I've impacted others and how I've helped people in their business and that's really good stuff to me. But just purely looking at I feel love for myself because I've achieved this. That is fine. But last year I had a rough year in business. Like, the first half of last year was really brutal. The pandemic was catching up with me. I knew it would come for me eventually in terms of business lulls and whatnot. And I had to make some changes to how I was selling my courses. I had to change kind of the structure of my business to fit the change in the economy and kind of the way society was feeling and all of that. And it didn't go well. I was really struggling. We were struggling financially. I was super burnt out, so burnt out. I mean, we all are burnt out. For one, I actually was doing research for my book and found that 75%, there's a survey done recently, 75% of creatives are feeling burnt out. 75% of creatives in business or in business or as a professional working creatives were feeling burnt out. So we were all, I mean, certainly we all were or still are in that boat. I was feeling it really hard last year and I was really feeling unmotivated disengaged. I was like thinking about quitting altogether and walking away. And I did a lot of looking inward and realizing because I was feeling really depressed and awful, awful about my life and myself and where I was. And I realized how much I had tied my sense of self worth and self love to being successful. And in this moment where I wasn't really being successful, I was questioning everything. Like, why am I even trying? Why did I think I could do this? I just want to go live in a hut in the woods. I still think that sometimes, but that's different. And I just was seriously, like I was going to quit everything and be a farmer. Like, I just want to set up a life. I don't want to do this anymore. But I mean, ultimately that's not what I wanted, but that's what burnout looks like sometimes it looks like you wanting to just burn your whole business to the ground and walking away. So I had to do some work on that moment and really think about what it was that I loved about myself that wasn't tied to my success or what I achieve. I'm a high achiever and I've always put a lot of stock in my feelings about myself compared to what I achieve. If I do well, then I feel good about myself. If not, then I'm garbage is essentially where I was at. So I took some time to do some journaling and I was writing down things that I appreciated about myself that had nothing to do with work or success or achievement or academics or anything like that. And I found it was things like being a good mom or spending time with my husband, spending time with friends, nature, being in the forest, being at the beach, my place in nature and in the earth and how I love that I take care of the earth as much as I can. So it was just things for me, like what did I value about myself that had nothing to do with my success and that really made a big difference.

Shelby Leigh [00:21:16]:

Yeah, I love that. And I feel like also kind of redefining what success means. And maybe it does mean being a good mom and being a present wife and appreciating nature and all of that can be and is success too, just a different outlook on it. But I think that that can be. We get stuck in like success meaning a certain goal, certain income, certain job title, but it can also mean so.

Amy Easton [00:21:44]:

Much more and it should mean so much more. Yeah, I talk about holistic success quite a bit on my podcast. And it's that idea that it's not just about making X amount of dollars or achieving this or having this many students or selling this many books or whatever it is. That can certainly be a component of it because there's nothing wrong with having goals and working for them. But it's also about having a business that you can step away from, having a life that you enjoy, that you've built, that fulfills you, that you love, apart from your work or apart from whatever you achieve, and having all aspects of your life be things that have elements that you feel really good about. So it is more about just work, it's about life. And what does a successful life look like to you?

Shelby Leigh [00:22:33]:

Yeah, definitely. It's a good question. So I'd love to wrap up by sharing a small step for our listeners. So if you could give our listeners one small task tip step that they can take on their self love journey, what would it be?

Amy Easton [00:22:51]:

Okay, well, here's something that made a really big difference for me, because I was burnt out last year in my business, but I also had a really deep creative burnout prior to that a few years ago that had been burnt out for a long time, to the point where I really felt like I wasn't a creative at all anymore. Even though that could not be farther from the truth. So I went on a lot of self learning and kind of a creative self discovery journey and in that time I committed to creating just for myself. I had spent so much time creating things with the idea that somebody was.

Shelby Leigh [00:23:30]:

Going to see it.

Amy Easton [00:23:30]:

Like if I took a photo for a client, would they like it? Is this what the style they were looking for? If I was taking photos just for social media, like, is this going to resonate with anyone? And even just taking something and thinking, I wonder how people will respond to this. I took all of that off the table and said, I'm going to spend all summer again, this was summer. Lots of things happened for me in the summer. All summer I spent taking photos, creating, writing, learning how to draw on procreate on my iPad, just doing a lot of different creative activities, and vowed to never show anybody, at least not until this was well past, until I was well past this moment. Because I really wanted it to just be for me from my soul for no reason. I'm not looking for anything reciprocal. I just wanted to produce something that made me feel good, that I felt was a piece of me. And without worrying about the judgment or thinking about how people would receive it or hoping people would like it or whatever. Even if it was the best photo I ever took, I decided that I was not going to share it for at least some time. And that was huge. So my advice would be to create every day. Anything could even be small, doesn't have to take a lot of time. I mean, even like creating a cool latte instead of having your normal coffee. That's still creativity. So kind of finding ways to weave creativity into your day that's really just for you. Not to post, not to publish, not to sell, just for you. It's so healing. It is so amazing. And for me, the biggest act of self love.

Shelby Leigh [00:25:11]:

I love that this got me fired up. I want to go create right now after this podcast, do it. But I've definitely struggled with that, with knowing that most of my writing ends up being shared. It's in a book or it's on social media. And so, yeah, it can be really hard to separate that and just write for me and know, like, this doesn't have to see the light of day, write your heart out, sort of thing. But it is very freeing in any form of creativity.

Amy Easton [00:25:39]:

It is. And I think it goes so far to recharge our creative batteries. It's kind of like stoking those creative fires to keep them burning so that you can continue to be productive in a professional way, but having things that are just for you, that kind of keep you feeling inspired, keep you feeling that sense of fulfillment and worth beyond just what you're doing professionally, it's really important.

Shelby Leigh [00:26:02]:

Absolutely. Thank you for that tip. I hope everyone takes that away and gives that a try. Today or this week. I'd love to end on just where people can find you. If people are feeling fired up about this conversation and want to hear more from you, where should they go?

Amy Easton [00:26:17]:

Oh, I would love that you can find me on Instagram. That's my main outlet for connecting with anyone. And I'm on Instagram at amy takes pictures. That will be changing soon as my business is expanding and shifting. But that is certainly if you go there, you will find me in some capacity and know where to connect with me. So, yeah, I post on Instagram, post a lot of reels. I'm moving a lot into the conversation of creative self care, burnout, profitability, sustainability, a little bit less about talking about photography these days, which is kind of a nice change, but feel free to give me a DM or whatever. I'd love to connect.

Shelby Leigh [00:26:56]:

Love it. Thank you so much. I'll definitely have that linked in the description as well.

Amy Easton [00:27:00]:

Awesome. Thank you.

Shelby Leigh [00:27:01]:

Yeah. Lovely chatting with you. Thanks for being on the podcast, and I hope everyone has a wonderful week filled with self love and compassion and kindness. Talk to you next week.