Welcome to the mind body and boudoir podcast. I'm your host, Catherine Cooper, wife, mother to six lover of sweet tea and dancing. I'm also the owner of a thriving boudoir photography studio located in Dallas, Texas. After photographing over 500 ladies that are looking for permission to feel beautiful and sexy about themselves, I'm now on a mission to help women find competence around their mind and body while tossing the guilt of taking some time for themselves in the trash. Let's check. Hey, what's up? You guys? I'm back. So this is Catherine, just in case the intro, you missed that part. And so in today's podcast, yes, I'm jumping straight into it. What I wanted to talk about was how to stop doubting yourself. And this came about when on so a few days ago. So if you guys don't know, what I do is, so whenever a client comes in to have their photos done, they don't see the images the same day, they come back and they see their images A few days later, because I take them and I make them all polish them up and things like that. I don't change who they are, but I polish them up and make them ready to for them to see. So I will and so what I've been doing since the Coronavirus start is I don't have clients come back into the studio to see their images, we do a zoom call. And so right before, so I'm all set up and ready to do this zoom call to show this wonderful, awesome client her images. And I want to say probably about maybe about 15 minutes before, I had a moment where I literally got in my own head. And what I mean by that is I started to doubt, doubt things. And I feel like like I don't know how many of you do this, but I feel like it's a human thing. I feel like everybody does it, everybody, every now and then you're gonna doubt some things, some decisions that you make, and things like that. And a lot of us we let that doubt get to us. And we, you know, literally will change things up or won't make a move and things like that. But that's not me. But this that was serious. Like, you know, this feeling was really serious. So what I mean by doubt, I got in my own head and I started thinking things like, well, what if it's not good enough? Now, let me tell you something I've been doing this for over five years now. And I it does not matter. I photograph so many women, it does not matter how many women I photograph, I steal, every single time I'm about to show a client their images, I always go through this, I hope she loves them. I hope she loves them. I hope she loves them. That does not go away. And I don't think it'll ever go away. And that's okay. Because that's the one thing that keeps me paying attention to where I treat every customer. To where I treat every customer is images with care. And it's not just oh, I just want to you know, see how many people I can get in and get out? No. Keeping that, you know, I hope she loves them makes me perform 100% every single time, so that's okay. But it pops up i do i get to I get in this space where I'm like, oh, man, I hope you know everything. I hope she loves them and things like that. So, but on this particular day, not only was I thinking that, but I was also like, Okay, well maybe I should have did this. And maybe I should have did this and maybe I should have did that maybe I should edit it, you know a little differently. And what if I didn't give her? What if I didn't pay attention to what she asked me? You know, and what I mean is, what if I didn't pay attention to what she wanted? You know, what if I'm just solely going off for what I think I know, I'm the expert. But what if I'm just 100% going off of what I think I love and I'm not listening to what she loves about her body and things like that, what if I missed the mark somewhere. And I was just so in my own head, it was ridiculous. I mean, to the point where I ran out of the room, my you know, my room where I you know, where I was about to hop on the zone call. And I just went in there to my husband and you know, and I'm just blab throwing all this stuff out to him and he's just like, calm down, calm down. You know, calm down. You do this all the time. You know, it'll be fine. Okay, so you know those wonderful of him to say that but you know, I'm still the type of person where I'm just like, yeah, okay, yeah, but that my feeling is still in my head. So after I did calmed down just a little bit for a second. I get on this call with her. And even though you know, we started to call up I'm not 100%, okay and comfortable and things like that I get on this call with her. And first three minutes into the call with her seeing her images, she is literally almost in tears over how much she loved her images. I mean, she is in tears, she could not stop talking about how gorgeous she looked. She couldn't talk about, she couldn't stop talking about how beautiful the images were and how I did such an amazing job. And if it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have those images and things like that. And I I was just like, I mean, you all I don't I don't get customers not trying to brag, but I don't get clients, you know, on a call, or I don't have clients to see their images and they hate them. I've never had anyone hate their images, you know. So that's not, you know, what I was afraid of, I was just afraid that maybe I could have done something more I could have, you know, did this and you know, did all these things to make it even better. And for her to get on that call with me. And her reaction was, there was her reaction to me felt like there was literally nothing else you could have done better. These are perfect. And so I said, I'm saying I'm telling you all this because this is what if what if that doubt stopped me? You know what I mean? Like, what if that doubt, stopped me from showing her? You know, the images? What if that doubt, stopped me from even? You know, that that doubt, I mean, let's just keep it real for a second doubt can stop you from making a move, it can literally stop you in your tracks. And you can change course and never come back again. I mean, what if think about how many people start, they have this brilliant, beautiful, wonderful idea of or something that they want to do. And all that doubt and fear pops in and they literally stop. Don't do one single thing with it. I mean, what if that? What if that was made? Let's just say I hadn't photographed all these women before? You know, let's just say because it is started with just one woman. At first for me, you know, and like I say I always have this. I hope she loves them. I hope she you know, hope they're beautiful to her. I hope she feels the way I feel about them. But what if it stopped me with that very first person? that very first client? What if I told myself Oh, my gosh, I don't think I do good enough. I don't think I did this. I could have did this better? I could have did that better? Was that stopped me in the beginning. That means that I would have basically been like, this is not for me, because I'll never be good enough. You know what I mean? And so that's what pushed me to go ahead and make this recording today. Because I was just thinking as I was walking this morning, I was just thinking to myself, wow, you know, look how I sit there and beat myself up, right before you know, getting on this zoom call with her. And then we get on the call and she freakin loved her images. And then after the call was over, I'm sitting there looking at the images. And I'm like, hey, oh, yeah, that looks good. You know, that looks like super good. That's beautiful. And it's just, it's just crazy how we, it's not crazy. We're human. But that just got this confirmation from me every single time that I may not have someone. I mean, I did run in there to my husband. And you know, and I'm whining about, you know, what if I didn't do this, what if I didn't do that? You know, and he did tell me? You know, go ahead, you're fine. You know, you'll be okay. You know, he did tell me that. But he hasn't always told me that I always have people in my corner that are like, Yeah, go ahead. I'm rooting for you go for it. No, it's not. It's 100% not always that way I am 100% have to be my own cheerleader. And if I wasn't, I wouldn't even be doing the things that I'm doing right now. And I feel like it's a disservice to any, to any, you know, to the women that I serve every day. I feel like I will be doing them a disservice if I didn't push past that doubt and get out there. And you know, create some beautiful images for them. I will be doing them a disservice because then who are they going to go to? I'm just saying. And so basically, without, again, you all know I've got to say it, I don't want to ramble. And I've 100% repeated myself probably 1000 times already. So for the sake of not going on and on. I just wanted to hop on here and to tell you all that You know, no matter what it is, if you are trying to lose weight, if you are, you know, trying to, I don't know grow your hair, if you're trying to live a better life, if you're trying to, you know, if you want to do some things for yourself and you, you just doubt it, because it's not something that you used to, or it's challenging you a little bit. You know, I'm here to tell you that you have to push past that doubt, and you have to go for it. You have to go for it scared, you just have to. And the more you do it, the more you'll get past it. I am not. I am not the same person that doubted myself. years ago, when I first started. The doubt that I have, like I say, that's the stuff that keeps me going. But I'm still human. Yeah, I've been doing this for a while and things like that. But I'm still human, I get to a point to where I'm just feeling like I'm not good enough. But I do not let that stop me. If I let that stop me. I think I would disappoint myself more than anything. So anyway, that's all I wanted to hop on here and say is that no matter what, take that doubt, don't wait on anybody's confirmation. Take the doubt that you may be experiencing, that's probably taking over about 90% of your thoughts. And only that 10% is holding on and saying no, go for it, you know, we'll be just fine. And then 90% is about to take over, hold on to that 10% and keep going. Because that 10% is going to grow and it's going to end up taking over that 90%. So if that makes any sense. You guys I am out of here. I just had to hop on here and tell you guys about that. And let you know that we are on episode three of the mind body and broodwar podcast and I am extremely happy about it. So I figure if I keep doing these, maybe I'll get better over time. And maybe you all will love to listen to me. If you have some feedback about you know some questions you want me to answer or some things some topics that you want me to cover. I will 100% love the feedback I invite the feedback. So if you have anything, feel free to send me an email, go to my website, and bytes. I will talk to you later. If you enjoyed today's episode and you're curious to learn more about me, feel free to look me up at Catherine Cooper photography calm Bye Love