Tools for growing a photography business
I was chatting with Robert Bray yesterday while running a tech test for tonight’s webinar. He, like many of my guests, is a webinar newb.
We set it up and made sure all systems are go vs trying to solve any tech troubles at the last minute.
I also thanked him for offering to join us and talk about his success and struggles as a photographer.
Can you still make money in photography?
Can you “still” make money in photography these days? Asking for a friend.
As I mentioned last fall in the Part One “Throwing a grenade in the tools shed”:
Some nights haunted for a long time. One night, back when I was 17, was such a night.
I had flashbacks for years.
My friends and I had been partying, drinking and smoking some wicked weed.
I heard this the other day: “You retire from a job, not from a mission…”
Me digz it. And can relate.
Retirement seems to be a thing that rears its ugly head when, well, you hit the magic number. It appears I am at that number now having turned 60 last summer.
Should I pack it in? Should you?
Get a real job? Give up this photography nonsense? The stress, the uncertainty, the abuse.
Better yet, retire completely? I don’t think so. I like the fight. The struggle. The pain and excitement that comes with being self employed……..as a photographer.
Maybe I’m a masochist. Truth be told, I like the adrenaline and the challenge. Like going out on a mission.
We thrive for certainty. Which is an illusion. What would the navy seals feel and look like if 100% of their operations were guaranteed to go 100% each time.
That is a total fantasy of course.
I know many folks who have officially retired from decades of successfully working for larger companies, all tucked away into a secure, steady and padded room. They buy little dogs, go our for walks everyday. Talk about the weather.
Every time I have these thoughts I come back to earth.
Honesty. What am I really after? Am I getting old and tired?
What DOES it take to succeed in photography?
Turn it into a mission. Any business ought to be a mission. Like the SEALS going out on a secret high level op.
Why not? Why would I, you, want it any other way?
And you don’t build on wishful thinking or fluff. You need real honest focus, plans and strategy.
It’s a mission.
My wife Tina and I are heading out to Costa Rica for three months. It’s too cold here. And way too warm and sunny there.
I always thought the idea of leaving my business for three months to be insane. For several reasons…..
My wife knows what happens to me when I get bored, down and struggling into the depths of this crisis.
So when I say I need to do something, she’s with me. When I say I need to bring more gear down, she’s with me. When I invest in an expensive housing for my Sony A7s so I can shoot wave photography, she’s with me.
This year we’re on a new adventure to sell art prints to tourists and local expats. Start a small display and miniature storefront without the huge hassle and expense. She’s with me.
We have a plan, we’re putting ourselves out there and testing the waters so to speak. Starting small, but in time we’ll have an idea of what the market is, who it is and if there actually is a market.
No market, no business. It’s that simple.
That’s why I like starting small, bootstrapping my way up, creating ideas, plans and strategies around the kitchen table.
I plan on getting everyone up to date while down there, running the usual mastermind meetings for lighting and marketing.
Plus bringing in some credible guests for more webinars on how they do what they do.
It’s a new year, a new plan, a new adventure.
And retirement is not even on the radar.
Stay chilly my friends, 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.”
I love Mondays.
I always have. Go figure….
Except when I drank heavily, since Mondays I was still suffering from a hard weekend of shooting (photos), partying, smoking and drinking.
But those days are long gone. Now I love Mondays. I must be doing something right.
I feel exhilarated, refreshed and ready to take on another productive week. Doing my own thing, feeling free and alive. Ain’t nothing like it and worth every effort to get there and get my own photography studio going.
I believe this puts me in the minority. Being self-employed also places me in the minority.
It seems there is a lot of ill feelings about Mondays. Wise cracks, bumper stickers and a general malaise.
Most folks dread going back to work for another week of drudgery. Go figure.
Of course with the gain comes the pain of uncertainty. As if there is in fact any certainty in life.
I know I’d rather be the captain of my own ship. Even if I am occasionally sailing through troubled waters.
I don’t think we evolved to hate Mondays. Days of the week are an abstract idea created to measure time.
Like I said, I feel energized.
I bounce out of bed eager to get back to the studio. If you don’t feel jazzed and eager to create in business, in art, in marketing and in photography, maybe you’re not doing something right.
There’s no day of the week that’s designed to be filled with hate. Makes no sense to me.
The key, the secret is to have a purpose, a vision, something you really believe in. Something that reflects your innermost passion and love.
You will be criticized and shamed. The worst critic of all will be the inner voice that tries to shoot you down. Second to that is your closest “allies”….friends and family.
Many, many will be envious. And they won’t even realize what they’re up to.
But you know what’s going on. The solution, the actions you need to take are simple.
Yet they require some self-discipline. Discipline to create your very own reality, and shut out the naysayers from within and from without.
I’m up for the challenge.
You?
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
Music saved me. When I was a young teen, troubled (you don’t wanna know, it was bad), lost, confused and into booze and drugs, one thing that gave my life meaning was music.
Yes, rock and roll. It was fast, furious, raunchy and powerful. Like my brain at the time. It gave me some semblance of focus and meaning.
It spoke to me. I had crates of albums and anytime I needed to escape the grind I’d peruse my selection and escape into a different universe.
Of all the bands I loved and admired- and that list is a long one IE.Queen (before they became famous), SuperTramp, Nazareth, STYX, Bad Company… on and on—– The one band that really massaged my soul was RUSH.
Why I don’t know. Their third album was considered crap by the critics and all. But I loved it!
All told, that album was true to what RUSH stood for. It was by all accounts authentic.
Maybe that’s why it spoke to me. Who knows.
So it’s without further explanation that my personal greatest concert experience was seeing RUSH in 1976 on their “Caress Of Steel” tour. Live. In person. They had just released that album.
My adrenaline was high and my excitement was wider than the bell bottoms they wore and higher than the platform shoes they strutted across the stage with.
I have often compared musicians to photographers over the years, as marketing lessons.
I’ve tried to explain to many photographers that they need to learn their craft and put as much into it as a musician does.
Many fail at this, fooling themselves into thinking they have talent and skill…..often unearned.
Mostly because they can. Cameras and photoshop allows us to cheat, so to speak.
One analogy I like to make aligns beautifully with marketing.
Let me explain it this way:
There are 3 levels of musicians…
LEVEL1- The kitchen musician. You know, they play at house parties and campfires. Good times, lots of fun and the life of many a party
LEVEL 2- Professionals. This is where you find the hardest working musicians….. Bands like KISS, U2 and many uber successful acts that sell out concerts and are loved by millions.
In this category, putting on a show is essential. Lights, smoke, and crazy antics on stage. Including epic drum solos….
and then there’s…..
LEVEL 3- Masters. This is where bands like RUSH, Neil Peart, Bob Marley, Steely Dan and many jazz musicians fit in.
These guys don’t need a big fancy show. No drum solos required. (Although everyone loves it when Neil puts out a mandatory one at most concerts.)
Truth be told, most fans would show up if they played on concrete risers, nothing more, and performed only for the sake of the music.
Musicians like Neil Young and Bob Marley fit in this category too because they created (especially Bob) a brand so big, so powerful, so deep and timeless, it becomes all about the music.
Not the show.
Let me repeat that: It becomes all about the music, not the show.
Bob Marley invented and created a whole new style of music. Who else can say that?
Neil Young is so prolific in his output, and his music so authentic, he still plays at festivals with mostly millenials.
They get him, as we did.
This, again, is timeless.
Create material that is timeless, and master your craft the way Neil Peart has mastered the drums.
If you took your skills as a photographer and were able to transmute them into a musical instrument, how good would you be?
Be honest.
Is there a way to even measure this?
If you took your skills as a photographer, brought the equal amount to say a concert violin, and stepped onto a stage, what sqawks and screeches would come forth?
I know I’d likely sound like crap. Maybe I’d put out a half decent rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
At least that’s what I think. And I been at this for 39 years so far.
And I’m still rocking.
In many ways photography saved me too. In a much bigger way, since through it I was able to create a life long business and I was able to manifest lots of creative output.
But in reality, not much of this happens unless I undertake the marketing question and get serious about business matters.
Why? There are too many kitchen musicians out there, many willing to play any gig for beer and peanuts.
As a pro the only real measurement that matters is the audience and eventual take home pay.
For me I still need to market, put on a show so to speak. I may never be as good in photography as Neil Peart is on drums.
But I can try, and dream can’t I?
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
Way back when in the day when I wore a younger mans suit, there was this studio in town that was very successful.
They had it all, including a solid reputation. It was a mom and pop operation.
My favorite.
Chatting with the pop of the ‘mom and pop’ duo one day, as he was telling me his upcoming plans to spend some time in Florida, he added:
“I can’t wait to get away from that camera.”
I was stunned by that comment. “Why?” I thought to myself.
Last week this topic came up again as I was having lunch with one of my local peers, he mentioned something similar.
“I’m like my dad, when I go home I turn work off. That part of me doesn’t exist while I’m not in it.”
I find this perplexing. But it could be me. I’m kinda weird like that.
I do know I find it odd that anyone in photography isn’t obsessed with it like a junkie is with getting his next fix.
Maybe, just maybe, this obsession, this drive, defined another way, it might be called passion.
And maybe, just maybe all told this passion is one of the reasons my photography business has worked, non-stop, endlessly bringing me and my family success, prosperity and profits.
Maybe.
I’m gonna go with that.
And I’m going to add one more important element…..marketing.
Yea. In my obsessively compulsive soul, I am about equally addicted to marketing as I am with photography.
You might call this the perfect storm.
I say, it works…. and I’m running with that.
Not turning it off. Not going away on vacation so I can “get away from my camera.”
I am 100% obsessed and addicted to photography. As a matter of fact, when I’m bored, I go to the camera store so I can cause trouble and be around photography.
I’m going away for an extended Costa Rica experience this winter and I am obsessing over which tripod and ND filters I’m hauling down there, with my complete camera system.
Lenses, flashes and camera bags. All of it.
We travel well together.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”