Unleashing the Power of Everyday Interactions with Lindsay Vastola

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. I'm going to ask you a question, and you're probably gonna lie. Doubt me? You get this question all the time, and most of us lie every time we're asked it. Are you ready? Are you sure? Here it is. Cue the lie. How are you today? I'm fine. Are you fine? I'm fine is the international band aid that goes over the dumpster fire in the back of our life. We say we're fine, but what that means is, yeah, in my personal life, the house is a mess, I haven't done the laundry, we need to go to the grocery store, the kids were late for school this morning, and the dog needs to go to the vet. And in our professional life, my email box is exploding, I haven't sent those images to the client, I've got 3 leads that I haven't even followed up on, but I'm fine. Oh, and I haven't worked out. Oh, and I've been eating like junk. Oh, and I've been staying up really late watching TikTok. Sound familiar? But I'm fine, no, I'm fine. And we wonder why we're not killing it in our business. Today's conversation is for you if that's how you feel. What do we need to do to win? What are the healthy habits of high performers? Would you like to know? And what if it's pretty darn simple? Our guest today is Lindsay Vastola, one of our keynote speakers at Imaging USA in Dallas in February of 2025, you gotta be there by the way. It's gonna be a big old party, I’m telling you everything's bigger in Texas, including the parties, but you gotta come see Lindsay and you gotta learn about this topic because she might have what you're missing to lead a better life, to build a better studio and to just be happier. If you're fine, I'm talking directly to you, Lindsay Vastola is standing by, we'll hear about her imaging talk and we'll learn a little bit about high-performing photographers after this. Lindsay Vastola, welcome to The Professional Photographer Podcast. How are things?

Lindsay Vastola: 02:20

Hey, Pat. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here, we've had some conversations beforehand, and I'm thrilled to be here and talk to the PPA audience.

Pat Miller: 02:29

We're excited to have you here, and we get the chance to learn from you, your presentation, the tactics of healthy high achievers in business at Imaging USA in Dallas in early February. So, I have a thousand questions around that topic, but let's start by diving into the healthy habits of these high-performing photographers. Do you think that the average photographer watching this right now that's struggling with work-life balance and stress management, do you think the average photographer feels good about how they're managing those areas of their life?

Lindsay Vastola: 03:02

I'll give you the short answer and then I'll expand for, you know, that's what we're here for, right? The short answer is no, I don't think that everybody feels like they're mastering this part of my life and Pat, you know, or their life. Pat, I'm gonna what I like to bring to these sessions is keep them really candid and real. These are things I still struggle with as an entrepreneur and business owner. So by no means are any of us expert, nobody gives us this playbook, and I think that most of us struggle as business owners, as photographers in particular, because I'm really thinking about the challenges that they face that are so unique to the demands of creating a product that they're proud of. They really, you know, photographers really are in many ways the product that they provide. All of the relationship piece of it, managing relationships, managing the business. And then, oh, we have to go home and we have to be great parents, great spouses, great friends, great daughters or sons, and I'm sure many are involved in things in the community and where I find the biggest struggle is like a mismatch. We use this word “work-life balance” and I think over the years it's created this expectation that there's some sort of equilibrium or that it's so many hours and that it has to look a certain way and what that has done actually is created more stress on us to try to chase this elusive ghost that really is never something we're ever going to catch. And that's really the crux of the whole conversation is how do we feel like we can win at work, win at life, and not feel like one is at the cost of the other. And I know that we'll go into, you know, more in detail, but I think in short is, I don't think that the average person with the demands of work life, the realities of navigating all of those demands. I don't know if anybody really feels a 100% in control and I think even those that may feel that are always looking for ways to fine-tune it or to better it given the different seasons of life work in business.

Pat Miller: 05:15

I love the fact that you said win at life because oftentimes, at least for myself, it feels like I'm losing. Like, I'm losing this battle when it comes to balancing, and you talk about this idea that we should have this balance.

Lindsay Vastola: 05:29

Yeah.

Patt Miller: 05:30

But it ends up, you know, at the end of the day or at the end of the week, it sometimes feels like losing and it's depressing.

Lindsay Vastola: 05:35

It does, and I think that the hardest just human to human conversations that we have is we have I almost call it like the Jekyll and Hyde. A lot of us show up in our professional realm, this confident, you know, we have our services, we have a trade that we're really good at, that a craft that we've put so much into and then, but we always feel like it's at the cost. It's at the cost of time with my family, at the cost of my sleep, at my own health and well-being. Like, we're kind of giving it away, and it makes us feel like a failure in some regard, and that's a real trap and a real spiral. We just don't know how and I think that that's what most of us want is, again, this, like, sort of elusive work-life balance, like, it's this some sort of end goal that that we achieve and we stay there. And I really think most of us, we just want more effective, more efficient ways to navigate. Call it chaos, call it challenges, call it real life. We just wanna feel, I always hear this word, like, I just wanna feel more in control, I wanna feel, I don't wanna feel like I'm giving everything my time, my energy away to everybody else, and I'm not doing anything for me, and there's a lot of mindset stuff around there we can talk about. But, yeah, that failure piece, it's like at the cost of something. That's one of the biggest questions that I talk about is at what cost? So I can work late hours, but at what cost? I can take that client that I don't really want, but I need the money, but at what cost? I can, you know, have the tough conversation; I have 2 young kids and so a lot of it is having conversations with them about navigating my work priorities, why it's important to me, but also, again, like, at what cost? For everything we say yes to, we say no to something else. And I think that's a real central question to ask, and there's no right or wrong. It's just kind of standing in at what cost, acknowledging, having the self-awareness around it, and then being able to communicate that and kind of live that out tangibly.

Pat Miller: 07:42

Do you have t-shirts that say at what cost? Because I want one.

Lindsay Vastola: 07:46

I should. “At What Cost?”

Pat Miller: 07:47

That’s gold, “At What Cost” Right here–

Lindsay Vastola: 07:50

Yes.

Pat Miller: 07:51

Or a coffee mug that says “At What Cost?” Because that is such a great point because we are making the choices that make us miserable. We're the ones responsible for the schedule. We're the ones that overclocked our life.

Lindsay Vastola: 08:03

And my dad asked me that question. I used to work in corporate management in New York City, and I was young and I had the energy, and I didn't have kids at the time. But he said, Lindsay, you can continue to do this grind and feel like you're not appreciated in your job, and he also knew as my dad that I probably had bigger aspirations than what I was doing, but he said, “Lindsay, you can continue to do this, but at what cost?” And cost of your health, cost of– I can make more money, but at the cost of what? Right? And maybe them, and there's no right or wrong. That's really the thing. I think that the linchpin of this is saying, I'm willing to do this, but not at that cost, creating some very clear parameters, “guardrails,” I like to say, even more than boundaries. It's, you know, a word that I think is used quite a bit, but, again, nobody gives us a handbook for this kind of stuff. So that's what I hope to at least go into, like, some tangible things of, yeah, at what cost? How do I determine that? And what does that look like in everyday life?

Pat Miller: 09:05

Before we get into the strategies, I wanna make sure that the person watching this identifies that we're talking to them. Like, you're the one we're trying to help, and you hit on something that I really wanna call out and make clear. We're fine, I'm fine. No, you're not fine. Is the concept of “I'm fine” and professional fineness stopping a lot of people from identifying that they are out of balance?

Lindsay Vastola: 09:26

I think that needs to be assured. Like, I'm fine.

Pat Miller: 09:30

I'm fine.

Lindsay Vastola: 09:31

I laugh because I was just having a conversation with a friend the other day who's a colleague, entrepreneur as well, and we do this thing where it's like, how are you doing? I'm fine. And fine is code word for, I've got some of my stuff together over here, but actually on the inside, I'm about to break, I'm completely depleted. I am stretched so thin. I have this push and this pull and I can't figure it out, that fineness, and I think that that goes especially for driven individuals. I think we are a unique breed as business owners and entrepreneurs. The biggest paradox for us is we crave success, we want to serve people, we want to be successful from a professional standpoint that gives us our identity, that gives us a lot of, our purpose. But, again, this paradox of “But I also wanna be the most amazing mom and the most amazing daughter and be a leader in my community.” And where is that tender balance that we tow? And that's why we say I'm fine because we also don't want to, we have a hard time, I think, often admitting that we're having a hard time, which only perpetuates that internal struggle and some of the outcomes that we start seeing, burnout, and things like how it manifests in our everyday life and decreases productivity and just creates that cycle. But the, I'm fine, and maybe for the listeners, it's really become a point of self-awareness for me. Like, I can't use that anymore. I can't say I'm fine because if I'm not, then I have to take some personal leadership and do something about it, or, you know, actually kind of take some acceptance of where I am, ownership, personal ownership and leadership.

Pat Miller: 11:19

Well, and it's almost if someone says, "How are you?" If you're good, you'll say, “I'm great, I've got stuff going on. I'm interviewing Lindsay today, it’s great.” Like, you'll say that. If you're not, it's fine. And then you know that alarm bells are going off. So I'm really glad that you called that out. We're gonna talk about some of the solutions here in a second, but I wanna get out of feelings, and I wanna make this really clear. What are the behaviors that people begin exhibiting when they're fine or not fine? Like, what are they doing that they could objectively look at? Oh, I did do that, and I have been doing that. Those might be other ways to know that they've got some work to do.

Lindsay Vastola: 11:54

Sure. This really happens, I think, well, I'd say 3 levels, but probably I'd add a 4th one, physiologically. I mean, this is fatigue, can't sleep, no appetite, overeating, undereating, lack of just, like, physical vitality, lethargy. Right? We just don't have the physical. And I often, I think it's important, you know, I spent 15 years of my career in fitness, wellness, and health, and usually physical is just the manifestation, the signs of what's going on mentally and emotionally. Mentally, emotionally, we just, we even lose our zest for the thing we were most passionate about at one point. That's the kicker because it's like 10 years ago when I started my business, I was so excited to go have a sales consultation or to go on-site and, you know, and shoot a wedding or whatever it might be, and we lose the excitement for the exact thing that we were doing and I think that that cues other things, but if we're talking about, like, symptoms of sort of that work-life imbalance, or even burnout. Procrastination. So this is where, like, productivity, so emotional, mental, procrastination, zoning out on social media, avoiding the things that we should be doing, short-tempered. We feel like we don't have emotional management. Can't sleep. Again, like, it's this slurry of symptoms. A big one that a lot of people will actually say and maybe not make the connection is self-sabotage. So it's like this roller coaster of, “Hey, today's gonna be a great day, and I sat in on a seminar. I listened to a podcast on PPA. Like, I'm excited and I'm motivated, and then something happens in real life and we're back at the bottom, and we go through this roller coaster, which is absolutely exhausting and it's not, it's not helping productivity. Productivity for high performers is the secret sauce. It's the secret elixir for success. If we don't feel productive, we don't feel like we have purpose or meaning, and so the counter to that is we feel stuck. So, again, back to the symptoms. We feel stuck. We can't even see 1 month ahead or, and we're just putting out fires right now. So those are some of the symptoms. I think kind of to encapsulate this, I had a business mentor of mine at once when I was really at a crux of my business where I was kind of deciding, like, “Do I love this as much as I used to? What's next for me?” And he said, “Lindsay, if possibilities were limitless for you, what would life look like? What would work in life look like? What would that look like every day?” I couldn't answer him. And that was a real aha-moment for me because I always considered myself very forward-looking and goal-driven and vision. You know, I have vision, and the fact that I couldn't think beyond the here and now because I was so overwhelmed and inundated, it told me I had to make a clear decision. There was a decision I needed to make before it even opened up space in my mind to think about what's next. And I think that's where we get caught is, we think about what's next, the future, because we're supposed to, and there's something throttling that, you know, a stressor, a routine, habits, personal or professional, that's kind of throttling that. So I hope that gives a good sense to help somebody listening to this identify, like, “Oh, maybe I do need to evaluate my habits, routines, mindset, work, and life, or at least take some pause and look outward a bit inward and out.”

Pat Miller: 15:34

You know that tag you can put of “I'm in this picture and I don't like it.” So if you've been watching this episode, you're like, “Hey, wait a minute. They're talking about me.” And maybe you didn't realize. So the fact that Lindsay's laid all this out for us, this has been really great. So you're maybe thinking, “Okay, I can't see next year the way that I want. I can't see the goals that I'm chasing. I am physically feeling my overwork and burnout. How can I make this better?” Because it would just be a malpractice to start the conversation and not try and fix it.

Lindsay Vastola: 16:06

Absolutely.

Patt Miller: 16:07

So tell us, where do you start the conversation with someone that feels this way and they wanna dig themselves out?

Lindsay Vastola: 16:13

Well, first of all, I would give credit to that person for not trying or stop trying to figure it out on their own. I think before they're even sitting in front of me or in a workshop or something, it's, they had to at some point acknowledge, “Oof, I can't figure this out on my own anymore.” So, that's kind of the first step, I think. That's it sounds so self-help-y, but it's really true. When we are then, the first question, and I know this is gonna sound a little bit counter to what I just said about not being able to see the future, is I do this, I mean, it works for personal life, it works for business, it works for from a day to day and moment to moment interactions. Start with the end in mind. This helps you take facts and separate them from feelings. It gives you a clear filter for your decisions and what you do because if there's a vision, a goal, something you're working toward, then everything can filter through that. You can reverse engineer it and create kind of a plan. Now what do I mean by end in mind? Some people think, like, this has to be this big, extravagant goal, and I think we need to pair it down to the point I just said about, like, if possibilities were limitless, some of us are so overwhelmed, we can't think of that bigger vision even for our business. Here's a question I like to queue in that starts to kind of tease that, it's like a fill-in-the-blank. I wanna be the kind of person who insert here. I want to be the kind of person who insert here. And I don't, and the thing is, is they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, I'm leaving it open-ended very intentionally. We lose that part of our brain because we, they're thinking I'm expecting something, you know, some stock answer, and this can be everything from I know my personal is I wanna be a person, I wanna be the kind of person who's decisive, who doesn't second guess myself, who prioritizes herself so that I can be better for my kids and for my business. I'm the kind of person that bets on myself. I'm the kind of person who wakes up every morning and goes to the gym because it gives me mental clarity so that I can be better in my business. And I say I keep it, a note, like, I encourage people to keep this in a phone, you know, in your phone notes or something. That way, when you're like, oh, I wish, I admire that person who can do that. Maybe that's a cue of something that you wanna better in your life. So end in mind, if I wanna say I wanna be the kind of person who's decisive, that's kind of an end goal. Okay? So now every day when I'm causing undue stress on myself for not deciding whatever it might be, a vendor to go with or whether or not to take this client, now I can say, but I'm the kind of person who's decisive. What would the decisive Lindsay do? She would make a decision, and she would be, she would stand in her decision and listen, if it's the wrong decision, she would, you know, I'm the kind of person who has the confidence to admit I'm wrong and go back and fix the mistake. So, it creates this really concrete list that then your behaviors, your actions, your habits can start to mirror and again, this parlays you can use it in business as well for business vision, but I think that that from a personal standpoint, that's a great place to start.

Pat Miller: 19:29

That has to blow people's mind because when you're in the photography industry, you may be trying to build a business in life. So, you're like this famous photographer, or I might be trying to build a business that's, I wanna be like Simon Sinek. But instead of trying to model what someone else has done, that question forces them to model the daily behavior and the type of person they wanna be so they can become whatever it is they intend to become.

Lindsay Vastola: 19:53

Yes

Pat Miller: 19:54

When you drop that on someone, their head just must go poof.

Lindsay Vastola: 19:56

And I let it go. This honestly, this will be like a one call, like, this is all this can consume a lot because we can take all the different angles of life. I wanna be the kind of person who charges top dollar for my services, and I'm proud of it. I wanna be the kind of person who can confidently say no to a client that I don't, you know, that's not in my niche, for example. I wanna be the kind of person who, you know, how you show up in all realms of your life and I think the laundry list is an important first start because then you can see patterns and you can extrapolate 1 or 2 that become kind of your focus. It also becomes an anchor. So real life happens. So, you know, when I'm working with my clients or companies, real life happens like you're motivated the day you talk to me, like, yeah, I wanna be this person. And then I talk to you again and again and again and 3 weeks later, you know, you have a sick parent in the hospital or you lost the client or you got some bad feedback from, you know, a recent shoot that you did and you're at that pit, we can go back, but you said you wanted to be the kind of person who is decisive and stood and, you know, stood like, I wanna be the kind of person who can, you know, take feedback critically and be able to make adjustments accordingly without falling into a state of depression and that's really I think those are things that are really applicable to so many. So it creates an anchor and it gets the brain thinking. It's important for us to remember that you've probably heard the phrase because Simon Sinek says it, but, like, “What you focus on expands, what you focus on grows.” So when you start saying, you know, like, you know, I'm the kind of person who, like, I don't like selling myself because I would do this for free. Right? Well, where you, or simple things, even like opening the refrigerator and saying I can't eat x, y, and z, it really goes in every realm of our life. Whenever we say I'm the kind of person who blank, our brain says, oh, it doesn't understand the difference between sarcasm and reality, so it just looks to confirm the things that you're saying. And so if you're looking at those challenges and your gaps, if you will, you have to tell your brain where to go, and at first, you don't believe yourself. Like, if I'm not a decisive person, typically, I have to literally fake it and say it. That's why even mantras and, like, but I am a decisive person. What's the future version of Lindsay? There's a few different ways to do it, but it's like flexing a muscle; you have to do it over and over again. But that's why that list I think is so important.

Pat Miller: 22:19

This is scrambling the perception we have–

Lindsay Vastola: 22:23

Yes.

Pat Miller: 22:24

Of work and control and achievement and what it takes to get there. That conversation internally must be the first step towards moving to where we wanna go.

Lindsay Vastola: 22:34

It's everything. How we talk to our self dictates, you know, emotions and thoughts dictate our habits, our behaviors, and ultimately dictate our outcome. And it's so easy, and this sounds a little bit cliche, everybody's probably heard it at some point, but would you talk to your daughter or son or your best friend, or your client in the same way that you talk to yourself? And it's but it's very hard because, you know, we're here so often. That's why I love the strategy. So I don't wanna jump ahead, but here's another strategy. How do we separate facts from feelings? And I'm like a, you know, I'm enamored with the idea of emotional intelligence; I talk a lot about self-awareness and, you know, the facets there. So I don't mean to say feelings, don't pay attention to them, and they're not real, but getting to where we wanna go when we can say, okay, I received bad feedback from this client. Fact. They weren't happy. Fact. You know, I did my best. Fact. This is not the kind of client that ultimately is aligned. Fact. That's probably why, you know, our you know, my delivery didn't meet their expectations. Fact. I wasn't clear with my expectations. Yet most of us get caught up in, like, oh my gosh. I can't believe they said that. Like, how would they say that? And maybe I'm not a good photographer, and you have imposter syndrome, and all the things that flow here, this is a vortex that leads down that path, then that's stress management, and it's not productive. It's just a, you're bleeding energy. And so when we start laying out facts, we take emotion out of it, and then we create a plan with that end in mind. Even if this, in this micro example, might be, you know, coming to a good conclusion with that client where that everybody feels good about, so.

Pat Miller: 24:22

When we think about our emotions and we think about getting through every day, you've identified a couple of things already that I'm kind of pulling together into. It's not necessarily what is said to us. It's what we say about that and how we communicate back. I'm fine, or I'm the type of person who these are things we're saying. So, when we're having interpersonal communication, are there other ways that we are, you know, talking back with people and using our words with others that help reinforce the type of person we are or reinforce how overwhelmed and out of control we are?

Lindsay Vastola: 24:58

That's such a great question, and I think that this comes to, we use the word or it's again, it's sort of like the work-life balance is stress management. And we throw this around, like, I just need to manage my stress better. What does that even mean? Like, what does stress management actually mean? And I think that it's how we, how much we allow to impact how we think, how we respond, and then, and those interactions. So, before we can even talk about stress management, I think communication management, to kind of to your point, is we are in interactions all day long. I think that this starts, number 1, with self-awareness. I like to imagine we all walk around with a panel of buttons, and each button represents things that trigger excitement, trigger depression, trigger frustration. Our motivators, our demotivators, and the more the better aware we can be of our panel of buttons, so when somebody says to me this is such a, this is so silly, but I don't know why this came to mind. When somebody calls me a guru, it hits a button in me. I'm like, I don't like to be this is such a silly question or example. But when somebody calls me something and it really strikes a chord with me because imposter syndrome, they see it a certain way. So how do I respond? I'll usually deflect. I'll put down, I'll downplay my own, you know, they obviously saw me a certain way. I just didn't like the word, and now I'm projecting back my own insecurities about something. And we can do this sales conversations, and that's why having real practice and I know PPA, you guys do a fantastic job, especially, I know you've had some podcast episodes on this. Communication management, how to respond to an objection in a confident, competent way, and a lot of that just comes with, it's a skill set. I think that's what it comes down to. So putting yourself around other people who can be honest with you, this is why I'm a big fan of coaching, mentorship, groups of like-minded individuals who are not afraid to be honest with you, but you have to be honest with, paying attention to where those triggers are. So, I don't know if I answered that directly, but I think that panel of buttons and then on the flip side is the better you can try to understand the panel of buttons on the person you're interacting with. So I'll take the example of, I don't know, a bride and a groom. Right? And you're sitting, and you're pitching a proposal. What are their buttons? What are things that they're anxious or, you know, that they might be nervous about? How can you shift the way that you have that conversation with them, that enables a more productive conversation, but you know what their buttons are in all ways? And that's why I think again, I don't wanna digress, but from a business standpoint, really understanding who you serve, who you don't serve, you're not trying to be all things to all people helps you hone in your communication skills. When you feel like you can more confidently and competently communicate the value you bring, ask for what you're worth, your stress management goes down, or you know, you're better stress managed. You're more confident, which means you're more likely to wake up, exercise, make better food choices, be a more, you know, caring, nurturing, calm, centered mother, husband, dad, you know. So I don't, I hope everybody's kind of seeing the trickle effect of why I'm so passionate about communication management with yourself and others is so central.

Pat Miller: 28:37

And I love the guru story because if you're someone that's overwhelmed and you're out of control, you think success looks like I don't have buttons. Lindsay doesn't have buttons, Simon Sinek doesn't have buttons. I need to get to that point when, in reality, we've all got buttons, and success doesn't look like having no buttons. Success looks like knowing how to manage them. Right?

Lindsay Vastola: 28:59

Exactly. Exactly, and it's not right. It's not saying they're not even right or wrong or good or bad. It's how do I manage them to most effectively get me to the end in mind, the kind of person that I wanna, I don’t wanna be the kind of person that gets agitated quickly. Another tool that I love using, I call it, Aim For Center. This is something that I think can be done day to day, moment to moment, is if, and I ask, I kind of pose it this way. Imagine a bull's eye, and at the center of the, sorry, a dartboard. And the bull's eye, imagine your bull's eye. And a bull's eye is where you operate at your best. This is when you feel like call it your zone, your lane of union. You're productive, you feel energized. you feel like you can conquer the world. You're productive. So, physically, mentally, emotionally, professionally, this is your sweet spot. Now, we need to think about what are the things that I'm doing when I'm at that spot? Who are the kind of people I'm around? What am I listening to? What am I reading? How much sleep am I getting? When am I taking a walk or exercising? Am I praying? Am I meditating? What are the things professionally that I'm doing that are giving me energy? Then, once we have that awareness, we can start saying, okay, what are the 1, 2, 3 things that I need to anchor every day to ensure that I stay as close to that bull's eye as possible? Because the reality of everyday life is we kinda go like this. Like, stuck in traffic. Oh, that client asked for a refund. My daughter is sick. And before you know it, we're out here, and most of us are existing out here. That's why we feel overwhelmed, and it's not that we're not like, this is gonna happen in everyday life. The key really is how quickly can I course-correct and get back to center? And again, moment to moment, day to day, week to week, and when we feel like we're at this center, and it's very strategic. It's like the 1, 2, 3 things, and this is, you know, I bullet point this with my clients. Oh, they'll even say, like, I'm getting away from center, I know I need to aim for center. It's just a very visual way to say, “Oh, when I'm at my best, these are the things that I'm doing as best as possible. Making those non-negotiable.”

Pat Miller: 31:10

Aim For Center is so good. And fact or fiction is another great strategy–

Lindsay Vastola: 31:14

Ooh, love that.

Pat Miller: 31:15

–piece when contact comes in, and we have to determine what's real–

Lindsay Vastola: 31:20

Love it,

Pat Miller: 31:21

–and what are we inventing in our head? I love both of those things. I think when people think about success, they think, well, I gotta go get an MBA. I need to hire a second shooter. I need to make a $10,000 sale. I need to do all of these things to be considered a high performer. Those are the actions. But what you were just sharing in your experience of coaching high performers, the daily habits, the meditation and prayer, the eating the right stuff, the hitting the treadmill, can it really be that simple?

Lindsay Vastola: 31:50

It's simple, but not always easy. That's the catch. Is that the next T-shirt that we're looking for?

Pat Miller: 31:57

Yes. Absolutely.

Lindsay Vastola: 31:59

It's simple, but it's not always easy, and when I say simple, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but this is where work-life balance, trying to strive for that, I call it that, like, elusive ghost, actually creates more stress for us. And so when you're, if you're asking me sort of like, what's the process I take someone through its end in mind, now we got to see where you operate at your best typically, where in your life, work in life, are you over-complicating things that could actually be simpler and yield you far better productivity purpose on a, again, moment to moment, day to day basis? And I think that's what most people would define as success. When I can put my head on the pillow, I get, like, choked up thinking about this because–

Pat Miller: 32:47

Yeah.

Lindsay Vastola 32: 47

–like, when we can put our head on the pillow and say, I won the day. It wasn't perfect, it was messy at sometimes, but I took care of myself. I set up the day to succeed. I did my, I'm gonna be careful saying this because morning routines have really been botched these days, like, simply, I started my day to set the tone. I showed up for my kids, I showed up for my husband in the way that I want to, I showed up for my clients. I did what excited me. Yeah, I had to do some of that grind-y stuff, too, and the client, email this and that. But those are opportunities for me to stretch and discern. Oh, these are things down the road I don't wanna be doing. They suck my energy. Right? We're just kind of taking ourselves outside of ourselves and saying, what, how can I win the day? Because if I can stack those days, tell me that in 1 year, if you hit even 70 days that you win, tell me that you're not closer to those bigger visions, bigger dreams, bigger goals that you have. But it really comes down to, like, what are we doing on a day to day basis with ourselves, leading ourselves, and not just giving it away to everybody else.

Pat Miller: 33:55

And getting there through simplicity and what's important–

Lindsay Vastola: 33:58

Yes.

Pat Miller: 33:59

–to us because this is the type of person that I am now. It's just awesome, and the clarity and simplicity is great, and we have a whole new t-shirt line.

Lindsay Vastola: 34:06

Yeah, apparently, new business that's gonna filter, take our work-life balance off kilter.

Pat Miller: 34:13

It's gonna be great. Let's turn our attention to Imaging USA in Dallas, where we get to buy your t-shirts, Tactics of a Healthy High Achiever in Business. What can we expect from the presentation?

Lindsay Vastola: 34:24

Oh, I am so excited. This is one of my favorite presentations. I love that, I think I have, like, we have 90 minutes together, which, I really like to take it. I don't, we're not gonna talk theory. It's very conversational, almost, dare I say, workshop-y. I want people to leave saying, this is the thing that I can start tomorrow morning even when I'm in a hotel, like, I want people to think differently about how they navigate work and life. And so, we'll do some, so my favorite, and I'm calling them exercises, meaning, you know, self-awareness. I do this really fun thing where we get up and we identify how we communicate, how others communicate, how that can help our sales conversations. So, we'll talk about that as it relates to work, and then just walking away with some really tangible strategies. I said, you know, just to tie it back to where we were in the beginning, it's not just inspirational and motivational. I want you to leave inspired and motivated, but I want you to leave with things you feel like you can easily and simply integrate into your life without it feeling like it's one more thing on the to do list.

Pat Miller: 35:35

Yeah, and your training and your workshops, this is a large room. This is a big group of people. So, when you get the chance to talk to a group this big, what makes it fun for you? Because if you and I sat down, you changed my life. When you get the chance to change people at scale in an event like this, what does that mean to you as the presenter?

Lindsay Vastola: 35:55

This is, I humbly take this as, like, I am just there to facilitate some great conversation to make you think differently. I do like engaging, and I love that everybody is there, really in kind of the same line of craft and intention. Obviously, they've taken the time away from their work and their families to be there, so I do not take that lightly. What excites me, this sounds probably cliche. It's the energy that you get in an in-person experience that you, I hope you feel inspired by this podcast, but it's so different. I'm coming off of 2 events in the last couple of weeks, and I can see there's a direct correlation, causation, whichever one, between interacting in real life with people, whether you're presenting or there as a member of the audience, and success drive, and direct results in the business. It, there's just no other. So, if I can be a facilitator in that, for those in the audience, both in their work and life, that gives me purpose, and that's why I'm so excited about being an imaging.

Pat Miller: 37:02

Success, drive, and results in the business. Well, I'll be there with my notebook, ready to learn from you. Lindsay Vastola, thank you for joining us in the Professional Photographer Podcast. We'll see you in Dallas.

Lindsay Vastola: 37:12

Thanks, Pat.

Pat Miller: 37:13

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast. It's been so fun lately. Like, the last few guests we've had, man, they're just keeping me excited about this. We're already cooking up some other great stuff. So, make sure you click subscribe before you go. I mean, if you got this far, you must have enjoyed the episode. So click subscribe and bonus tip, like super high five for me if you'll do it. Leave a comment wherever you're watching the show or listening to the show. If you do that, that helps the guests know that they connected with you, and it helps us know that we're talking about things that you want to hear. So subscribe and comment. That's super helpful. Also, if you're not yet a member of the Professional Photographers of America, you're truly missing out. PPA offers incredible resources like equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a sustainable and profitable way. At PPA, you belong here. Discover more about membership at ppa.com. That's ppa.com. I'm Pat Miller, Founder of the Small Business Owners Community, and your proud host of this show. Thanks for joining us and tuning in, and thanks for clicking subscribe. ‘Cause you did click the subscribe button, right? I'm seeing you, you hit? Okay, good. When you do, we'll be back in your feed real soon with tools to help you build your business with The Professional Photographer Podcast. See you next time.