Photo Success

Tools for growing a photography business

Why stealing is essential to your success…

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My first decade in the business of photography saw me in awe of others who, in my mind, had made it in photography. Heroes they were.

They were successful. They created amazing images. To be fair I am still in awe, but those formative years were essential since I was getting established and building.

Some made tons of cash, yet their work was ok. Others were really, really good at photography itself, and also made a decent living. All were my heroes. All inspired me to be like them or better even.

I noticed and valued it all.

As a matter of fact, I can honestly say my success can easily be attributed to watching, learning, being inspired by and “swiping” ideas, both in marketing and in photography, from others.

I don’t think there’s an area where those who sky-rocketed to success didn’t at one time start by copying another.

Musicians, authors, artists….all of them, at one time, asked themselves the question: “How can I be like that?”

If it wasn’t for that process, me thinks most grand achievements would have fizzled.

Swiping is real, legit and essential. You see someone who creates something you like. You copy, and you make it your own. It inspires you to grow into your own.

It becomes your brand, so to speak.

The worse thing you can do (and I see this all the time, within the ranks of the most amateurs who are starting out) is to let your ego get in the way, because you think you got it, you’re all that and more.

Big mistake.

Becoming a student of success in marketing and in photography is an essential step. Take it out and it’s like taking out the foundation on a building.

I’m still a student. Luckily for me I always remained somewhat naive and childlike. Ask my wife and mother-in-law. They’ll tell you how immature I really am.

It’s why I have so many videos, presentations, interviews, mastermind meetings…..every single month, year after year.

I’m looking for ideas….so I can steal.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

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

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“Organic is the way to grow my photography business…”

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We had Danny Rabalais on last night in our October Marketing Mastermind meet up.

He’s retired, 57, married, a grandpa and is CRUSHING IT.
Go figure. His photography business is booming, he has a staff of over 25 worker bees and his main struggle now is: “How Big Do We Want To Grow This?”

This presentation was loaded with ideas shared by Danny.

Members login GO HERE for replay and download.

Danny will be at SPAC next January.

A must attend convention for photographers digging deep and profiting from volume photography.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

“If you want to be a profitable and suc

Is being a critic the lowest form of expression?

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There are critics everywhere.

Not a job I would want. Good thing there are more creators than critics.

I’d rather be a creator truth be told.

Maybe there’s a legit reason we have critics. Maybe not.

Maybe they keep us on our toes. Maybe it weeds out the weak and infirm.
‘Thins the herd’ so to speak.

Who knows. I look at my years of print competition and all the critiques I personally gave out and received, maybe it all had a purpose.

Who knows. Maybe we’d all be fine without them. Maybe in fact we’d create even more? Even better?

Who knows.

But critics will always be with us to darken our souls and cast a shadow.

Some are legit and serve a solid purpose.

Or do they?

If something is crap, and it’s fairly obvious, then, we’d know. Because, well, it’s obvious.

We don’t need someone to point it out, do we?

I always felt the ultimate ‘critic’ so to speak is my client. Her vote counts the most.

She votes with her wallet and her heart.

If something is a work of art, whether it’s a photo or a person, and another person, say a critic, has something negative to say, maybe, just maybe that’s there opinion.

Nothing more. We need to ignore them and listen to the only critic that matters.

Is being a critic the lowest form of expression?

Let the critics do what the critics do best. Meanwhile, my job is to create.

One final point. Don’t confuse coaching, positive feedback and old fashioned kick-in-the butt mentoring on the same plane as what a typical critic doles out.

Ain’t the same. Know the difference.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

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

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Grenade in the tool shed- Part One

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Every once in a while you gotta shake things up.

But you need to be careful. Whenever I’ve thrown the proverbial “grenade in the tool shed” I am aware of some key influences, such as:

  • what is the worse thing that can happen?
  • can I work with that situation, or the unknown if that’s the case ( we can’t know the unknown, so we need to be ok with that fact)
  • will things possibly be better in the long run?
  • why? why am I doing this….

And more.

Let me explain a little more what I mean by this weird sounding metaphor. Throwing a grenade in the tools shed means doing something in your life that is drastic, seemingly extreme, bold and very disruptive.

I’m comfortable with this idea. Many are not.

I’ve done this when I’ve felt things were stale, tired, old, rusty and in need of change.

AND, I also felt that it would work out in the end. However, again, this is not for everyone or the faint of heart.

You don’t do this for the sake of doing this. Like throwing all your chips on the table and gambling it all on a roll of the dice.

You need to have some idea of where you’re going AND you need to feel very good about your ability to be adaptive.

This concept came to me five years ago, when I was 55 years old and felt ready for a change. I was standing in my kitchen in our dream home. I looked across my spacious open concept home.

And I asked myself: “Do we really need 3 living rooms? Really?”

And that started it all. Within that year we sold our beautiful home and home studio (at a nice profit I might add. Otherwise I might have waited for the market to change. More on this later)

We moved into an apartment. We rented an office at a local work share place.
Plus I got rid of about 80% of our earthly possessions. Plus our daughter moved out to attend university a million miles away.

Nothing was the same anymore.

I felt better. Lighter. Excited and ready to take on the challenges that my new circumstances we’re forcing us into. I still can’t believe my wife just goes along with my insanity.

(I always said I married the right person when I asked her out on our first date, on my motorcycle. She smiled, her eyes light up, she was on board.)

Photography was always to be a thing. Families, weddings, fairy day promos and more. Oddly enough, we had our best year ever. Go figure.

AND, we spent 6 weeks in Costa Rica that winter. 3 months the next.

I still recall however the anxieties. The last day we owned our home, I made a few more last minute, late night trips to clear out any small items, give it a sweep and lock the door forever.

It was January. Snow and cold everywhere. Very depressing.

We were heading out to Costa Rica in a few days. Like I said, everything changed.

I crawled into bed beside my sleeping wife, in our new two bedroom apt, and started having an existential crisis.

“What the fuck did I just do?” bounced around in my head.

I started panicking. This was not like me. Me, who’s up for anything, and believes in the power of commitment, goals and having a positive colorful vision to urge me forward.

More on this and how we changed things up and coped, all while running a photography studio. Stay tuned…

Pura Vida!
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

“Gotta punch that internal drama queen in the face…”

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Every time I find myself whining about something, I say to myself “Punch that drama queen in the face…”

I know, sounds a little aggressive. But when it comes to whining, blaming and complaining, I tend to over react.

It’s my nature. Somewhere, somehow, someplace a long time ago I got the message.

And that message is this: When you come up against adversity of any kind, it makes no sense to play victim, to whine about it, to complain or to play victim.

These behaviors in fact will take all your power away.

It’s tempting to default to victim mode. We’ve been doing it all our childhood. And if you want to remain like a child, then embrace it.

But if you want to grow, get strong, expand and find creative solutions, one needs to embrace the pain, suck it up and use self discipline.

Next time you come up against pain, suffering, challenges or road blocks, no matter what the situation, remember these wise words from Napolean Hill:

“Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

Take a deep breath, relax, and punch that inner drama queen out of your life.
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

“There’s a lot a of money on the table. All you gotta do is ask for it…”

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I was chatting with a photographer not so long ago. He asked me this question:
“Rob, what’s your secret?”

As if there’s a “secret”, once discovered, all one has to do is wave a wand and magic happens.

Instead of blowing smoke his way, I said this:

“There’s a lot a of money on the table. All you gotta do is ask for it…”

Get focused, get working, don’t cheat, be real, work hard, stay focused, ask for the money and learn to sell.

Selling is the gas that fuels your marketing. People are lazy. They will ALWAYS take the easy road. You know, low cost, easy-to-pose-for shoot and burn photographers that make it real easy for clients.

They seem happy picking up crumbs and catering to the lowest primal urges of humanity.

It’s our responsibility to sell them, making it harder, much harder for them to take the easy road. And make profit delivery a quality product they will truly value over time.

If you want to learn the very best “selling secrets” from real, legit photographers, I created a Selling Series for members HERE

Not a member? I have a bunch of content on the blog HERE

The money is right there in front of you. Just reach out and grab it.

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

“People will trade quality for ease.” ~Evelyn~

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Well, it happened. The idea behind chosen the path of least resistance has become part of our culture.

Saw the movie The Incredibles 2 last week, and a line stopped me dead in my tracks.

Evelyn Deavor, the main antagonist, says: : “People will trade quality for ease” at one point during the movie.

I don’t remember when or why. But she said it. And she was right as day.

I immediately thought of the photography industry.

And how cameras, real cameras, aren’t even a thing much anymore. Cell phone cameras are good enough.

They produce enough instant gratification and dopamine. We’re happy.

And most folks can’t even spin the camera around to shoot horizontal.

So, here’s the thing. Cell phone cameras are easy. Very, very easy. And they do create some great looking images.

And they play a huge role in our everyday lives.

It would appear that photography is being relegated to the absolute lowest common demoninator.

My take on it? No use whining, complaining or having a hissey fit.

My photography business depends on me. I need to grab my business by the proverbial balls and shake things up.

In fact, what needs to happen is I need to create offers, promotions, ideas, strategies and experiences that clients will want to push through this barrier and call us. Give us their money.

Make it so they don’t care about cell phone photos. They want quality over ease.

THAT my friend is MY responsibility. Not something I throw to the winds of destiny.

And this happens in many, many ways. Primarily through marketing. And creating offers that makes their mouths water and they find irresistible.

Also by communicating, branding, social media, ads, websites, blogging, email and a hundred other ways to reach out and send messages to your clients.

I’ll talk about this some more, in greater detail, in 2 days. Wednesday, August 29th at 9:00PM EST I am hosting the monthly Marketing Mastermind meeting.

REPLAY HERE

Send me your challenges, questions to rob@wizardoflight.com

Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer

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

Do you need talent to succeed in photography?

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Do you really need talent to succeed in photography? Talent, and only talent?

Besides, what is talent….really?

Here’s my two cents: Talent isn’t some God-given skill that comes easily and naturally.

At least not for the vast majority of us’em mere mortals.

Sure, some folks are ‘gifted’ rare exceptions, but most of us, and even the very gifted for that matter, still need the essential ingredients.

I’ve listed some here:
*passion: love of the game
*desire and ambition
*good selling skills

Combine these, and create a vision that you truly desire, and work your buns off, and you will bring forth a bounty. Even if you ain’t that great a photographer.

Add a dynamic product to the mix, and you really don’t need the ‘gift’, or a ‘god given talent’, to create some outstanding images.

I love this quote:

‘Talent is the intelligent application of energy towards an understood goal.’

In other words… you set a goal for yourself that you totally understand, and then apply all your energy intelligently towards reaching your goal.”

Quoting Charlie Chaplin: “Having a talent is worthless unless you know what to do with it.”

Here’s another quote from Charlie Chaplin:
“I went into the business for the money, and the art grew out of it. If people are disillusioned by that remark, I can’t help it. It’s thetruth.”

Interesting isn’t it?

So, the conclusion might me that talent isn’t what DRIVES the goals and ambitions. Sometimes it’s the desire for financial success, sometimes it’s the love of the game, or fame, or whatever.

As long as we are moving towards OUR goal, OUR vision, without excuses, then we will get there, and the ART will
GROW……I know. It happened to me.

Yours in success, prosperity and art,

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