Why Strategy Works for Some Photographers… and Not Others

I’ve been thinking about something I don’t hear photographers talk about openly enough and it’s not marketing, systems, pricing, or gear.

It’s the quiet way we see ourselves while we’re doing the work.

Self-image.

I’ve been revisiting Psycho-Cybernetics, a book built around one core idea:
we don’t rise to the level of our goals—we fall to the level of our self-image.

Here’s how this shows up in real life.

You can have the skills.
The experience.
The portfolio.
Even a solid strategy.

But if you don’t internally see yourself as the kind of photographer who is successful—confident, trusted, well-paid—your behavior will subtly contradict everything you’re trying to build.

You’ll hesitate when you should lead.
You’ll second-guess pricing you already know is fair.
You’ll over-explain instead of owning your value.
You’ll shrink in rooms you already belong in.

Not because you don’t know what to do—
but because your identity hasn’t caught up with your capability yet.

This is why success in any market, whether it's big, small, saturated, or rural, always comes back to self-concept.

Identity is the operating system. Strategy is the software that runs on top of it. 

You can install better software, but if the operating system isn’t updated, it won’t run properly.

Three Practical Ways to Shift Your Self-Image (Starting Now)

1. Start your day by rehearsing success—on purpose.
Spend 15 minutes in the morning visualizing the business you want: the sales coming in, the clients you love working with, the level of ease and confidence you’re building toward. Add as much sensory detail as possible—notice how it feels in your body.

Then ask yourself: Who is the version of me that lives this life?
How do they speak? Decide? Price? Show up?

For the rest of the day, consciously play that role as you move through your work. This isn’t pretending—it’s rehearsal. And rehearsal wires behavior.

2. Borrow confidence through proximity and modeling.
Think of a photographer you admire—someone whose success feels grounded, not flashy.

When you feel unsure, ask: What would they do here? How would they respond? How would they hold this boundary or price this job?

This is why community matters so much. When you’re surrounded by people for whom your dreams are normal, you learn how to move, speak, and decide at that level. At first, you mimic the behavior. Over time, it becomes yours.

3. Update your external image to support your internal one.
This part matters more than most people realize.

At one point in my own career, I was already a working professional—but internally, I still felt a step behind the photographers I admired. That changed the day I booked my own professional headshots with another photographer (who was also my mentor at the time).

Seeing myself reflected as confident, polished, and professional shifted how I showed up everywhere else. My decisions, my posture, my voice with clients—all of it aligned.

Whether you create a true self-portrait branding session or book a photographer to capture you the way you want to be seen, this step helps your internal identity catch up with reality.

No system can replace this work.

You can change your website ten times but if your self-image stays the same, your results will too.

When identity shifts, behavior follows. And when behavior changes consistently, success becomes inevitable.

P.S. If this brought clarity—or friction—you’re probably close to something important. I’m opening a few 15-minute 1:1 hot seat coaching calls to help photographers pinpoint where self-image and behavior may be out of alignment with the results they want. Short, focused, and practical BOOK HERE