Photo Success

A Place to Grow

The number one essential ingredient in ANY business…

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Whenever I see a really cool image that someone shows off how cool it is, I think, yea, nice… I like that.

Well done….BUT, can you make any money?
Is there a market?

The number one essential ingredient in ANY business is a market that you can dip into and funnel clients from.
Real clients.

Not mere flakebook likes.

Clients who fork over their “hard earned” dough. Because they like what you have.

One market I’ve been fascinated with of late is dance school photography.

So much so I created three recent presentations with three dance school photographers

Those replays are currently in the forum:
Warne Noyce HERE

Don Ling HERE

Nancy Tillberg HERE

Each one successful, churning profits and building real legit photography businesses. Each one sharing their strategies.

Back last winter when I had Nancy on, we kept in touch and she agreed to come back.

And she’s back. Aug 14th 8:00PM EST….

Because I love you so much, the replay will be installed in the forum. For members….

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

Dirty Secret

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When I was a kid I was obsessed with cars, chemistry sets and climbing things.
You name it, I’d climb it.

When I was a teenager I was obsessed with music, beer, weed and girls…and regular run-ins with the law.

Then I entered my twenties and it was personal development, business and marketing.

And I was always shy to boot. A lot of people are surprised when they hear this about me.

I tell them it’s my dirty secret. I also tell them that the experiences I had in life, good and bad, are what made me. For better or worse.

That we need to get over the shame, blame and game playing and move on, build a life today. Not live in the past.

When I look back at my life I can see where creativity was working for me. Even if I were getting in trouble.

Creativity was never stifled or programmed out of me. Good thing.

Creativity, a dash of passion and dose of courage pushed me forward into running my own business.

I was always grateful I never turned too far down the wrong road in life. It could have happened.

I was horribly insecure and shy. But I had enough ambition and balls to stay the course.

Being in business is holistic. I look at the whole picture now. The mind, soul and spirit.

Balance is key. I understand that hard work is very important. But, doing the wrong type of work could throw me off course.

Doing too much, too much of the wrong work would really push me down a rabbit hole.

Truth is, I have an addictive personality. Who doesn’t?

And I need to keep an eye on myself, stay the course and push for balance.

But I do love business and marketing. And photography.

What a deadly combination. It’s one of the key reasons why I love hearing stories from other photographers. Whether they are stories of success , struggle or failure….they all teach us.

But we need to be open. And honest. And brave. Facing the shame, the inner dragon, is the biggest challenge of all. With the highest returns.

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

No goat cheese in my smoothie

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I hate waste. I think it’s why I can’t stand buffets. They seem so uncivilized and over-the-top indulgent.

I also can’t stand goat cheese in my smoothie.
Ugh….gross.

Let me explain.
I picked up one of those ready to assemble spinach salads for my wife Tina. It had goat cheese because I know she loves some goat cheese in her salad.

She ate about half of it and left me the rest…..for my smoothie the next morning.

I don’t like waste. Whatever she doesn’t eat, I eat. We signed a contract when we got married that guaranteed I got to eat whatever she doesn’t.

It’s our deal and we signed off on it.

I checked her leftover salad for goat cheese, and alas, she had planned well.

Anticipating she’d be sharing part of it she avoided the cheese in my portion. Smart.

Waste can come in many forms. Especially in business.

One of the biggest wastes in business is in marketing. Mainly, because we think there’s an easy solution. We can “buy” our way to success.

Throw money at it.

This is waste. Throwing money at new equipment, big ads, new logos, courses….
and such.

Yes, sometimes we need courses, lenses and ads.

But without the goat cheese.

NOTE:

*The July lighting mastermind is locked and loaded HERE

*July presentation on selling (this is good!) with Maria M is also locked and loaded HERE

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

No regrets…

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I turn 60 today.

Now that’s a big number. I’ve had no problem with every major milestone in my life, but this one is huge.

My friend Robin Spencer sez to me:
“Happy birthday Rob. I always think of you as a guy living with no regrets.”

Thanks Robin.

I thought that a positive and interesting insight.

Truth be told, I can easily outnumber the average person when it comes to things I might start regretting. Read more on that in my bio.

But I refuse to. Why?

Regret is like poison. It only leads down negative and destructive mindsets, thoughts and actions.

But deal with them we must. How?

Easy….talk about them. Write about them. Deal with them face on.

This is the core practice of the 12 step meeting, church confessional, mastermind meetings, Freudian psychoanalysis, a great chat with a friend and on and on.

You get the point.

It’s not easy. Most families like to keep their secrets neatly tucked away in the furthest and darkest closet. And act like as if nothing is the matter. Like as if that’s a solution and let’s pretend all is ok.

I suppose there’s nothing much really wrong with this, assuming you aren’t letting the dysfunction and neurosis dominate your everyday actions.

Let’s be honest…..this game doesn’t really work, does it.

My solution was a long time ago to fess up, go rogue, work hard on myself.

No regrets. In spite of many reasons for regret. No matter what the total count is, the main difference is on how we decide to view them.

The choice is ours.
Yours in photography,
Rob

A quick info graphic I created for fun:

Using the Goddox AD600BM and AD200 on location

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I like these lights. They feel well made and rugged. Like me.

And I don’t need to get a mortgage or sell my soul. Hopefully they’ll last too. Like me. (not my hair)

I bought the Goddox AB600BM, which is 100% manual, and softbox, to use on families, weddings and shoots like the one I’m showing you in this post.

It’s an amazing system. All radio signal controlled from the camera. Even though the 600 is not the TTL version, I prefer dialing in my output and figuring out exposure from the camera. It’s a fast, easy and versatile system.

One thing I do wish it had was the ability to switch to optical slave when needed. Why? If the radio thingie quits, I could manually fire these using an old school on camera flash or similar. I acquired a second “back up” transmitter…just in case.

The 200 I purchased back in May. Sorta my foray into this flash system.

 

 

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Back in April during the Lighting Mastermind we talked about the Goddox system, specifically the 200. For members HERE

Last week I dug deeper into using the newly acquired 600BM and showed you many examples from real paying gigs using real paying clients….families, executive…mostly families. That replay is HERE

Here’s a summary of the executive shoot. The set up…

The results:

Before shooting I had my assistant, Brent, aka the grunt, check on the reflection while firing the main.

These were shot outside, sorta in open shade. High speed synch with a very wide aperture around 2.8. Using the 85mm 1.8 Batis lens created a smooth and much desired background. Shutter speed? Who knows. It was plenty fast to let me hand hold and I simply “dialed in” the best speed for ambient light exposure. All possible with the high speed synch feature.

I love this system, plain and simple.

A few more from this shoot and a few other family shoots that I dug into during the July Lighting Mastermind presentation.
More to come…stay tuned.

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

 

The Lupini Effect

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Here’s a cool thing:

Any time one uses irrelevant statistics, stories or testimonials to bolster a cause or pitch is called the “Lupini” effect.

Like right now. I just made that up. It’s complete bull.

There is no Lupini effect.

It’s a product of my imagination and the name derived from one of my recent sessions, the Lupini family. True story.

I just thought it sounded cool. And I think I also may have dreamed about it too.

(Five hundred years ago they’d burn me at the stake for these crazy ideas.)
Okay, work with me. Call it whatever you want, (for now let’s call it the
Lupini effect….why not….), but for the sake of argument, let’s say there
is a legit area in life where one uses irrelevant content to bolster their argument.

In wider circles this may be called the finer art of bullshit. Or, maybe, hyperbole.

Some like to take two complete separate ideas, bring them together, and make a new premise.
This is called “conflating.”…or…”correlation does not imply causation”

My point is this. You’re selling, all the time. You’re selling you, and you’re selling your photography skills.

Whatever you say, and however you say it, make it consistent. For example, you might say a canvas wall sample is a great idea.

And yet, in your studio you have no, or very small wall samples, and/or canvases.

People can catch these inconsistencies.

One cool way to look for areas that need fixin’ is to ask yourself:
“What are all the objections?”

And have a strong, BELIEVABLE and consistent answer for each. And don’t wait
for the questions to be asked before you offer the answers. Mention them in advance.

Makes you look smarter too. And believable.

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

Let there be light… and let there be profits

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Join us and learn, prosper…Lighting Mastermind presentaion

Monday, July 16th at 8:00PM EST… REPLAY HERE

One thing that separates  me from other photography coaches and mentors is the fact that I am in the struggle everyday. Like many of you. I feel your pain, your joy and I like it when we all succeed.

With that success must be profits. Or we’re just playing at a hobby.

When I run a presentation on lighting, I like to show real legitimate money making scenarios from real paying clients. Whenever possible.

Sometimes I find a new or interesting lighting strategie can be evolved into my day to day studio. If not, I ain’t that interested except for rare exceptions like the few times I went out and tried my hand at astro photography for the fun of it. Something cool about being out in the forest at 2:00AM….but it stops there. I have bills to pay.

In that spirit tonight’s lighting mastermind includes a variety of lighting, and posing examples that I will dig into.

Including:

Classic executive headshots on location….

Family portraits on location using the Godox AD 200 and AD600….or, all natural light…

Three brothers…..

Using the Godox high speed sync for executive portraits on location….
and more..

Join us and learn, prosper…

Monday, July 16th at 8:00PM EST… REPLAY HERE

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

 

Make this your year…one simple wealth building strategy.

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Felix qui nihil debet….’Happy is he who owes nothing’…goes the Roman proverb.

If you’re looking for something to do to make this year truly epic, consider this: Getting out of debt, or, if you’re already one of the rare ones who’s on this, consider increasing your wealth.

Here’s how…..

Count it….count all your debt or, all your assets. Measuring is the first step.

And start chipping away at it, or start building even more wealth. No shame.

It can be hard to remove the chains of debt. It takes courage, discipline and grit.

But do it you must if you want to be free. Truly free.

I learned this decades ago, and it has served me well.

Let me say it again…..“You WILL NEVER be free when bound in debt to others.”

Think of it this way. You’re swimming in a deep lake..Treading water. And someone throws you a twenty pound rock to hold. Fun, ain’t it?

That’s what debt is like. Don’t fret, don’t whine, don’t complain. START!

Even counting your debt load, although for some may seem like an exercise in despair, is a great strategy to start with. When you measure, you start improving.

Don’t get into a state of despair. Look at your reality for what it is….and come up with a plan. Get creative.

Be smart.

I’ll share more strategies on strategies on creating wealth. Soon.

Everyone needs that extra `push` to realize their potential, their dreams and become the best photographer, business owner and best person they can be….if you need one on one, I’m here.

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community

July Mastermind…Join Us

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Every month I like to get together to talk lightning strategies. This includes sharing many of the strategies I use in my photography business with real paying clients.

I’ll be updating my new location lighting using the Godox AD 600 and the Godox AD200 on executive portraits outdoors and families on location.

Including….how to make copies clean and deliverable. Boring, but reliable income:

Using the Godox system for on location HSS portraits:

Family sessions with the Godox AD200:

Old school classic executive sessions on location:

Three brothers. Every year mom hires us to photograph her three sons. The oldest is heading off to university, time for another session on location:

One of the BIGGEST screw up I have ever done….and how I dealt with the fading sun and a 3 generation gathering with families from BC to Boston….:

I photographed these guys 20 years ago. Mom and dad are celebrating 60 years married….The Godox AD600 was an amaxin lighting choice for the whole session:

Before I invested in the Godos system I was using the Alien Bee and Vagabond power source:

REPLAY HERE

Yours in success in photography,

Robert Provencher

One of the ‘doers’….

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You hear a lot of whining and complaining about the photography industry these days. Seems photographers are dropping like flies.

Hell, even I get scared and worried on occasion. I keep an eye on big moving trends.
If there’s a tsunami coming at least I’ll see it.

But for now all is good, and I know a handful of photographers who are doing great.

I keep an eye on all of them. I like learning. I like making money doing what I been doing for the last 39 years. (yea, turning 60 this month).

The ones doing ok all have the same thing in common with Hark, our special guest on my next Marketing Mastermind tonight at 8:00PM and you’re welcome to join us live. (the recording will be made available for members.)

See, Hark Nijar, even though he’s relatively new to the game of being in business as a photographer, has the same thing in common with others who have been in the game since forever.

Photographers I like to follow because they’re all doers.

They make things happen. Like Maria Sampaio, Danny Rabalais, Maggie Habieda and Warne Noyce to name but a few.

They get up and at em and aren’t afraid to hit the streets and grind it out in the hot blazing sun.

Who else would you want to learn from?

Join us….Tonight. July 11,2018 at 8:00PM EST REPLAY

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Join us…Content, Coaching & Community