I’m a photographer, a business owner & an ultra runner. The three are intertwined & they are all equally a part of me.
“An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 26.2 miles. Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of 50km to over 100 miles.”
You may, quite rightly, be wondering how running 100 miles & business are linked. Is this just an excuse for me to talk about running?
Bear with me.
In many ways, my business journey has followed my running journey. Many of the skills that I have learnt out on the trails have helped me grow & develop my business. In the hills & mountains, you need to run with confidence, be self-sufficient & have the ability to problem-solve. Much like running a business.
There is a genuine correlation between the two. Each has taught me about the other. About work ethics, challenges, planning & what to do when things don’t go right.
Running is a huge part of my life & it forms part of who I am. A bit about my background. I am not an elite runner, but I am good. I run long-distance events, also known as ultras & I regularly finish in the top ten (female) at distances ranging from 50km to 100 miles.
Some of my running highlights are:
- 2020 North Downs Way 100 miles – 6th
- 2021 South Downs Way 50 miles – 4th
- 2021 South Downs Way 100 miles – 4th
- 2022 Thames Path 100 miles – 5th
- 2022 Wendover Woods Night 50km – 4th
- 2022 XNRG Tring 50km – 3rd
- 2022 Autumn 100 miles – 2nd
- 2023 ARC50 miles – 7th
- 2023 Summer Spine Sprint (46 miles) – 5th overall
And my photography pedigree?
Specialising in branding, headshots & product photography, my photography is all about helping a client bring personality to their brand through creative & powerful imagery.
Have a little look at my website & read some of my testimonials. Again, I’m not an elite-level photographer, but I’d say I’m good.
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“Ally is one of the best photographers I’ve worked with and I’ve worked with many.” Eleven K Design
“The best set of headshots I’ve ever had taken!” Jerry Meldrum
“I cannot recommend Ally highly enough. She offers a top service from start to finish, as well as being a talented & creative photographer with a personable and friendly approach.” Kate Ashton
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
So without further ado, here are the top business lessons I have learned from running 100 miles.
1. A goal without a plan is just a dream
Having a goal is admirable. It shows a desire for improvement & hope for a better future. Goals may be personal or professional but for them to be anything more than a whimsical dream, you have to work towards them.
We often have dreams of things we would love to do or achieve but we don’t always accomplish them because we fail to make a plan.
When I run, I have a goal.
One of my most recent races was the Autumn 100 (miles) in October 2022. I had a HUGE time goal; to break 20 hours for 100 miles for the first time.
A 16-week training plan was strategically designed to help me achieve that goal.
- Four months of consistent & progressive training.
- Nearly 1000 training miles run.
- I recced the whole race route so that I knew exactly where I was going.
- I tested all of my kit from trainers through to my race pack to the food I was going to eat.
So that I knew what worked & what didn’t work,I monitored & measured everything I did. And then on race day, I had a plan for the race. I wasn’t leaving my goal to chance.
It’s the same in business.
A wish is vague; a goal with a strategy is specific. It has a clear plan of action, a time frame to be completed & is measurable. For a business or project to succeed it needs a plan. A strategy of how you are going to turn your vision into reality.
I have a very clear & defined business plan & a vision for where I want to be.
My goal is to build a photography business that supports the lifestyle I want & allows me to take time out for adventures.
I have built my brand around achieving this. My brand personality & values are the building blocks to achieving this goal. I know what I am doing, who I am doing it for, when, where, how & most importantly why.
My Brand Values
- Always act with integrity. People will trust me because I am honest, transparent & ethical in everything I do. I work hard to achieve my goals.
- Be passionate, engaging & excited about what I do. This shines through in the quality of my work, my depth of knowledge & my willingness to share, inform, support & encourage.
- Build positive, friendly, relationships. A concept that’s central to my approach to photography, and something I put a lot of emphasis on. Relationships deliver results, and we make a difference by working together.
In business, I monitor & measure what I am doing, what is working & as importantly, what isn’t working. (See the correlation…?)
I measure which marketing channel brings the biggest ROI. Where do my referrals come from? Which of my products & services are the most popular?
Like my running goals, I am not leaving my business goal to chance because, as poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said;
“a goal without a plan is just a dream.”
2. The importance of working hard
To succeed at anything you need to work for it.
In October 2022 I ran my sixth 100-mile race, the one I mentioned above. I finished 15th overall & 2nd female in a time of 18 hours 27 minutes. (So yes, I hit my goal…!)
But I didn’t get there by luck.
I train damn hard.
I train six days a week.
I’m up at 5 am to squeeze miles in before a day of work.
I run in the evening after a day of shooting.
I spend my weekend’s training. 30 miles on a Saturday, 20 on a Sunday.
I even cut out alcohol whilst training for the race.
I had a big goal for that race & I knew that if I didn’t work hard for it, I wouldn’t achieve it.
It’s the same with business.
Business success does not just fall into your lap, if you want it, you have to work for it, often harder than you would do in employment. Running a business is rarely nine to five, Monday to Friday with a pay cheque at the end of every month.
Like my run training, it is all-consuming.
I think of the hundreds of hours I have put into building my business; the early mornings & late nights, the sacrificed weekends.
The time spent researching, planning & learning new skills. Writing my business plan & exploring my brand vision, purpose & values.
Building a website, creating content & nurturing a social media following. All the time spent networking, connecting, engaging & building relationships.
And that’s before I even picked up my camera.
I have worked HARD to get my business to where it is now.
Like with running, I have big business goals, some of which I am well on the way to achieving. But I know I won’t achieve them if I don’t put the work in.
The hard work I put into my training gained me a place on the podium in that race. Likewise, the work I’ve spent on my business is beginning to pay dividends with 2022 being one of my most successful years EVER! Antoine Griezmann says;
“With hard work and effort, you can achieve anything.”
3. Embracing the uncomfortable. AKA moving outside your comfort zone
My goal for my October race was a stretch goal that was several years in the making. I knew that to hit it, I had to push myself harder & faster than I had ever pushed myself before.
I had to run well outside of my comfort zone.
I have a group of friends that I run with. We chat, we laugh and we have fun. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. But there is no growth in a comfort zone.
So for several months, I ran with a different group.
I ran with guys who on paper are miles faster than me. In a race, they run a sub-18 minute 5km, some four minutes quicker than my best time. For anyone who runs, you will know that this is a massive difference.
Every Wednesday night I spent a lung-busting hour chasing their tails, barely able to breathe let alone chat & laugh. At the end of every single session, I would be exhausted but I’d know that I had given absolutely everything.
I was so far outside of my comfort zone I no longer knew what comfort was. But I hung on. And you know what, at 42 I was fitter, faster & stronger than I was at 22. And by embracing that training discomfort, I not only hit my 100-mile race goal, I SMASHED it.
A bit like in business. Sometimes we need to embrace the discomfort there too.
I could have quite happily stayed working for other people. I had stable, secure employment with a pay cheque at the end of every month & didn’t have to worry about finances or how well the business was doing. I went to work in the morning, came home in the evening & got on with my life.
But I have drive & ambition. I wanted more.
I left the comfort of secure employment to follow my dream of running my own photography business. To do this, I had to learn to market & sell myself & my brand. As an introvert, this was SO far outside of my comfort zone that I could no longer see my comfort zone.
Walking into a room of strangers at networking events gave me severe anxiety. I remember standing outside one of the very first events I attended having a panic attack, bursting into tears & struggling to breathe.
But I persevered. I kept showing up. I kept attending. Kept marketing. Kept selling.
The good thing is, that the more we embrace the discomfort of doing something difficult, the more comfortable it becomes. Those hard runs start to feel a little bit easier. That networking starts to feel not quite so scary.
I moved outside of my comfort zone, I learned how to sell & market my business & networking no longer scared me. I now quite happily walk into a room of strangers & introduce myself, talk about who I am & what I do. I’ve embraced the discomfort & overcome that fear.
Sometimes business is uncomfortable, and sometimes running is uncomfortable but when we move outside of our comfort zones, that’s when we see great results. To quote Brene Brown;
“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.”
4. Don’t be afraid to fail
100 miles is a very long way. It’s not like a 5km, where if it doesn’t quite go right you can usually still make it to the finish line. With 100 miles I am pushing my body to the extreme & with every race, there is a risk of not finishing. A risk of failure.
In the summer of 2021, I started one of the UK’s toughest 100-mile races. Not only was it 100 miles, but there was also 20,000ft of elevation. The equivalent of more than five times up Mount Snowdon.
I DNF’d (Did Not Finish) at mile 75. I had nothing left in me & I could not complete the final 25 miles.
On paper, this looks like a failure. But in reality, I learned more from that one DNF than I did from all my 100-mile finishes because when something doesn’t go to plan, what we learn from it is important.
I reviewed what I did whilst training & during the race. I made mistakes. So I learned, I made changes & I tried again. In my next two 100-mile races I ran personal bests & finished 5th in May 2022 & then 2nd in October 2022.
- Review
- Make changes
- Learn
- Try again
I also failed in business.
My first attempt at freelance photography was when I was straight out of college in my 20s. It didn’t work. I had photography skills but I didn’t have business skills. I’m an introvert. I didn’t know how to sell or market myself or how to connect & engage with clients. Like many, I just thought I needed a website & a business card & work would come.
It didn’t. It lasted about a year before I gave up.
My first business failed. At the time, I felt like a failure. But that perceived failure is what led me to where I am today.
For the next five years, I worked with & for other photographers. They taught me HOW to run a business. And perhaps more importantly how NOT to run a business. I gained the skills I had been lacking from experts within my industry.
My second foray into the business world put those learnings into practice & it is the success you see here.
I honestly believe that wouldn’t be where I am now without that early ‘failure’. It wasn’t a failure, was an opportunity to learn. I knew what skills I needed to succeed, so I learnt them.
- Review
- Make changes
- Learn
- Try again
You never know what you are capable of if you don’t try. And in trying, you risk failing. In both business & in running. And in the words of Elizabeth Day;
“learning how to fail is learning how to succeed’.
And finally…
Good things take time & results aren’t instant.
My 18:27 100-mile race finish was over three years in the making. My business is many years in the making.
Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint.
- A goal without a plan is just a dream.
- The importance of working hard.
- Embrace the uncomfortable.
- Don’t be afraid of failure.
Business lessons learned from running 100 miles, but really lessons in life & business.
Perhaps not such a strange comparison after all!
Want to find out more?
Please feel free to contact me to chat about photography, business or running!