Photo Success

A Place to Grow

When education doesn’t work…

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I have what I consider to be about the equivalent of a Phd in photography and marketing.

Or so I think. It feels that way sometimes. My brain is full.

I ain’t bragging. Just making a point that reflects my passion for learning. And the countless weeks, and years of teaching at live workshops, manuals created, blog posts written, and webinars hosted or presented in.

Getting a Phd, legit or not, doesn’t matter to me. It’s a by-product in a sense.

If it were a real Phd with real letters by my name, it still wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans mostly because I don’t give a rats ass about letters beside my name.

Having a great education is meaningless unless I can put what I know to work.

Let me spell this out: Will it help my business grow? Will it make money? This is not a hobby my friend. It’s a business.

I do love learning however.

And the more I teach, the more I learn…so to speak.

Tonight I share it all in the Marketing Mastermind meeting. All of it real, legit, marketing strategies that actually sell.

For members.

Not a member?

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

You can’t dabble your way to success.

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You can’t dabble your way to success. You can dabble with a lot of things, but not success.

Realizing your goals and dreams, and making it all a reality is more about showing up early and staying later than anyone else.

Dabblers are average. Dabblers are uncommitted. Dabbling is for people with weak goals.

Winners don’t dabble. They commit 110%.

They make a conscious decision to MOVE FORWARD.

Many fail because they are dabblers…

Because I want you to quit your dabbling and start winning.

No dabbling.

HERE

Your pain in the butt butt-kicking coach who calls it the way he sees it.
No bull. No nonsense. No mothering or spoon feeding.

Robert Provencher

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

“Mediocrity is not a standard”

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If your work sucks, face it. Better yet, do something about it.
If your business and marketing sucks…same advice.

More importantly, stop everything you’re doing and get serious about success. Pull the plug on all distractions and get seriously focused on that one issue.

There`s a fight going on right now.

A fight to maintain quality and stop the slow slide into mediocrity that the photographic industry is sinking into.

Do not allow mediocrity to be your standard.

How do you know if things aren’t working out for you?

Simple. Sales.

Does anyone want what you got?

If you have something to sell, then your marketing is a cake walk. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to do anything, but at least you’re heading in the right direction when you have something of quality to sell.

It all starts with the product.

But be realistic. If it ain’t there, it ain’t there.

Stop everything and send in every single weapon you have at your disposal to raise the level of quality and create a product that you can sell.

Be warned….an alibi is more comfortable and easier than the hard slow slog to success.

Everyday you point to that when you have success. You have to work at it everyday and risk. It’s easy to slip into alibi land and get cozy with mediocrity.

Business is a blood sport. Take your eye off the ball and whamo! You’re down for the count.

Don’t believe me? Listen in on any mastermind meeting of successful business owners and you will hear a consistent story over and over of bankruptcy and “failure”.

But now, success.

Because they did not settle for mediocrity and their lessons were forged in a valley of fire.

Keep up the fight for professionalism.

We need to take responsibility for promoting and pushing quality and reminding our clients AND out leads that there is a difference… it’s not that hard to do.

As long as we are willing to do it….my ideas?

  • newsletters
  • great offers
  • great communication
  • affiliation marketing
  • quality photography
  • effective communication
  • boldness (genius)
  • creativity

And more. Much more….

No matter what stage of the game you’re at, we all need help keeping our eye on the ball and feet in the game.

P.S. The second in the Secrets of Sales Success for photographers with Maggie Habieda is in the forum.
Check out the excellence HERE

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

Is your success barometer creating limits and sabotaging your efforts?

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Let’s take a deep, dark look into the topic of success….

It’s simple really, all you have to do is succeed. Really.

Once you succeed you attract more success. It’s like magic and very powerful.

But you have to be comfortable with success at first. This is essential, or you won’t move forward. Many will sabotage at the first signs and experiences of success.

The key words: comfortable with success.

Which leads to my next question….how do you succeed in the first place?

How can you get success if you ain’t got none?

Okay, that’s a fair question and it certainly sounds like a catch-22 doesn’t it?

In order to create success out of thin air you must start with a vision, an idea, a goal, a clear mental picture of what it is you see yourself succeeding at.

This is what pushes you. What starts the engine. What drives the passion. The desires.

It all starts with your ability to use your IMAGINATION.

Einstein believed that IMAGINATION was the most powerful force in the universe.

He was right.

But, you have to use your own imagination first. Combined with desire.

You must convince yourself of this on an hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Without this you are wandering aimlessly. Or, you are vulnerable to you dark side, that part where we don’t feel we deserve success, and where the armies of sabotage struggle to ruin everything for you.

See it. Be it. Act on it.

One of my favorite presentation is called “Follow Your Dreams”. This, along with the pdf forms that you print out and fill out, will help kick YOUR vision into the stratosphere HERE.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

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

Replays from the trenches…

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Friends…check it out,

A few days ago Judy Cormier, James Hodgins and yours truly got together for another podcast.
Ramblings, rants and ruminations on all things photography. HERE

For members we had our SECOND event in the Secrets to Sales for Photographers series…..This time with Maggie Habieda. HERE

Maggie revealed the source of her business. In many ways she takes a complete different approach than Maria (who was the first in this series- HERE)

Both are legit and the real deal. Worthy of study. Don’t miss out.

One more thing….I had another lighting mastermind for August. In case you missed it, the replay is in the forum HERE

School is never out for the pro.

Part three in the Secrets to Sales for Photographers will be announced this month. Stay tuned. More to come….
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 one’s breaking their neck on my watch…”

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It would have been awful. A wedding day gone horribly wrong. The ultimate in wedding day disasters.

Here’s what happened. We were shooting the formals after the ceremony. The 88 year old grandma took one step backwards, then lost her balance.

She started an uncontrollable slow jog backwards. Towards the edge of the lawn in the front of the lodge where we were shooting the family portraits.

She would have gone over a ten foot drop. Seriously bad.

After she took three steps however, her 52 year old son, father of the groom, smoothly stepped in and caught her.

Close. Very, very close. Think about it. What could have happened.
Had he been a few feet too far?

Can you see it? The tears, the pain, the catastrophic wait for the ambulance to show, way out in the middle of nowhere.

Some people wonder why I stress over details when shooting weddings. I do. This scenario from a few days ago haunts me, and will for months.

I’ll rack it up to experience. Learn from it: “If I am photographing grandmas in dress shoes, on a slight sloping lawn and a dangerous drop nearby, I will pre-empt the situation.

No one’s breaking their neck on my watch.

I like weddings. I don’t like disasters at them however. Especially not this kind.

I teach, preach, nag and cajole on what it takes to be a true professional when shooting weddings.

A few years ago I gave a full day presentation on how I shoot weddings. It was very detailed. And I recorded the entire gig.

I also ran a four part series with Vanessa Joy on “The Business of Wedding Photography.”

Let’s not forget notables like Sam Sciarinno, Jaco Fourie, Genevive Trudel and one of the most popular presentations by yours truly, The Five Essential Poses.

All this and more in the forum.

I know, I know. Some things happen, and you’re wondering what this has to do with being a professional.

It has EVERYTHING to do with being a professional. It not only is about lighting, posing, capturing moments and all that.
It’s your attention to details, situations and the ability to avert disaster.

Be a pro.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

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

How FakeBook is ruining my small city…

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One of the coolest things about living in a small city is that we’re big enough to have an almost big city cosmo vibe, sorta, and things like StarBucks, a multi-screen movie mega-plex, big box stores and a few festivals.

With fireworks.

But we’re small enough to remain, well, small town intimate. Not too hickish. just enough. I like that. I like people.

But FlakeBook is ruining it for me. For instance, last week I bumped into a friend’s wife.
Someone I sorta kinda know, having met her briefly a few times, through her husband.

In the first minute of meeting her, here are the thoughts that invaded my brain:

“Her husband cheated on her ten years ago (who knew!??), she’s still pissed. She struggles with depression. Is mad at the doctors for not getting the pharmaceuticals right. Hates lasagna, vegans, doesn’t know how to ride a bike and thinks Trump is a piece of shit.”

What is it they say? Too much information? TMI

How? Well, FakeBook of course.

It baffles me why so many say so much on social media. Baffles me.
What baffles me even more is why I read the dam stuff.

Even more ‘baffling-my-marketing-brain’ conundrum is why so many business owners don’t use social media as a marketing tool for their businesses.

It’s like everyone, or most everyone, uses flakebook as their shrink.

Why not use it for better purposes? Like spreading goodwill, good messages,
and growing your business.

Shameless marketing. Why not?
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

Founder, noBs photosuccess.com

This method almost guarantees top google ranking for your studio…

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Last week during our first installment in the Sales Success Secrets for photographers, Maria mentioned that the majority of her new clients came from online searches.

You know, master goog. The Yoda of search engines.

As it turns out, we get top ranking in our area as well. And I’m not talking about paid searches. Organic, google friendly, top shelf position.

Gotta love it.

But getting there takes specific steps. And one of the best is google reviews. It’s what works for our studio.

Turns out, SEO alone ain’t enough.

Maria has discovered a technique to create a steady, ongoing flow of positive google reviews. Yes, reviews. The magic ingredient, so to speak.

Turns out google loves reviews. (good ones me thinks)

Anywho, she shared her strategy in the replay and sent me the actual email used.
It’s all in the forum. This, my friend, is pure gold.

GO watch, listen to the replay.

One more thing. The second presentation is happening today. This afternoon.
At 2:00PM EST. With one of the biggest, baddest, most dynamic photographers around. Maggie Habieda.

JOIN US….(or, as usual, watch the replay later)
Shine on…

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

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

Selling secrets from real, genuine studio owners…with Maggie Habieda

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The “Secret Sauce”. The magic pill. The cure all, end all solution to all.

Selling is something we do everyday, for good, for bad, done well or done with mediocrity.

Either way, we’re selling. Always. You can’t run, you can’t hide.

We sell ourselves on our hopes and dreams (one excuse can wipe out an entire inner sales pitch and render our hopes powerless).

We sell our community on our marketing messages.

You cannot run or hide from the power of selling. So we may as well harness
it and use it to our advantage.

Selling is never something we find outside ourselves.

It’s not a talent we’re born with. It’s a skill, no different than learning to ride a bike or tying your shoes. Some pick it up faster and easier than others, others are late bloomers and late comers, but we all get there, for better or worse.

Selling is not a mysterious force. (The one that, when mastered, delivers us from all evil and resistant clients.)

Selling is a specific process. Not a specific tool.

It’s a series of steps, done right, create a desired result.

…so on that note….

Part TWO of the Secrets to Sales Success for Photographers is in the books.

Last week Maria Sampaio launched this series with a stunning presentation jam packed with her strategies used for maximum profits.

This week we have another one of my favorites Maggie Habieda.

OVER..replay here

May as well learn from the best in the industry. REAL, WORKING photographers.

Not academic fluff. This is the real deal folks.
Not a member? See the P.S. below….

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

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