Photo Success

A Place to Grow

Why you’re not going to succeed in the “new thing” before you stop doing the old thing…

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How many photographers are going through a huge transition in their photography business, or in their personal lives, right now?

I bet just about every hand went up. Or, your nodding your head ‘yup’….

There’s no real reason to ask this question.

I’m just askin’…

Truth is, we’re always in flux. Changing.

And in this industry there has been more change in the last five years than any other industry I know of.

Except maybe the DVD rental industry. Yea, that one went through HUGE transitions.

But we’re not selling an outdated service like DVD’s, are we?
Or, are we?

I’m going to put this out there: YOU might be going through your own major transitions… or you know that you, or your business NEEDS to go through one very soon.

So, how do you jump the chasm over to the other side without falling into the deep, dark abyss?

Here’s how you’re NOT going to do it…

1) You’re not going to do it by picking the wrong battles.
Let me explain.

I know a photographer who insists on selling files only, mainly using online marketing. They are stuck in that mindset. Will-Not-Budge.

So I won’t beat my head against the brick wall trying to help her. She’s trying to play whack-a-mole in a dead end market.

Photographers like her decide to fight what they should have stopped fighting long ago.

Now they’re working ten times harder to get and keep the same number of clients.

With less pay. Ugh!

2) You’re not going to do it by making “main-stream” marketing decisions. IE Getting more equipment, attending another workshop with some big name celeb marquee photographer….Trying some new SEO hack. Getting a new logo design. Attending another trade show or bridal show. bla bla bla….you know what I mean.

You must completely change the way you see your customers and how you serve them.
You must reframe your entire mindset.

You won’t get the strategies you need from reading the most popular
business books or another workshop either.

You need to go deep far deeper. Inside.

3) You’re not going to do it by adding. Or pushing harder when you’re selling DVDs and everyone is running home to watch Netflix.

You must subtract. “Oh hey, I’ve got a new routine. I found a new expert to follow….”

Moving the deck chairs on the Titanic.

You’re just marching harder and faster.

In the wrong direction.

This one may be hard to swallow. And it should be obvious. It’s a scary one.

But you’re not going to succeed in the “new thing” before you stop doing the old thing.

You’ll have to shed baby!

You’ll have to fire.

Mostly, you need to be very, very honest with yourself

You’ll have to swim to the bottom of the lake to kill Grendel’s mother before you can arise as a conqueror.

How, you ask?

I’ve said it a million times. Few listen.

It all starts with you.

I’ve seen it too often. I know it to be rock solid truth. There’s something inside that holds us back.

The solution is hard. For a rare few, it’s easy. But for most, our egos, our pride, and mainly, our fears keep us enslaved in our own creation, our own prisons,  or own web…a prison.

I speak from experience. From my own life.

I like listening to people who been there, done that, and know from hard fought battles. I don’t like sugar coating, talking BS or other academic vomit.

Yesterday we had another mastermind with Danny Rabalais. I’ve known this guy for many years. Seen him go from a small time, part time studio owner to someone who during their busy season employ up to 25 employees.

Stories like his open up doors, ideas and inspire.

The replay is in the forum, where members have online access to a thousand+ high quality presentations.

If you want access to me, and other kick-butt teachers and leaders, join us (it’s peanuts).

If you want  the Gold version of me, I do have some one-on-one coaching spots available.
Be warned…..Check it out.

To your success in life and in photography,
Rob Provencher

“What makes you tick?”

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Years ago, way back when I was a young laddie buck of only 27 yrs old, I attended my first ever photography seminar.

It blew me away.

Completely floored me.

I had no idea such a thing existed. Where someone, an accomplished photographer, would get up and only talk about photography.

And what makes them successful.

How they do what they do?

And what makes them tick? I wanted to know so bad.

Curiosity is a powerful ally.

Since that life altering day I have not lost the drive, the passion and the searching out of other successful photographers…

And I ask the proverbial question: “What makes you tick?”

It’s like I’m 27 all over again. But I’m 58. Nothing much changes.

Good thing.

Being curious and searching, non stop, for answers, is one of the MAIN reasons I still have my mojo working for me.

Join us, as Chad Pennington, a wedding photographer from New York chats with us about what makes him tick.

REPLAY HERE

Get inspired….

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

“Such a video would be worth gold bullion…”

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“Such a video would be worth gold bullion…”

So sez my droog and member of noBs photosuccess Ron Hare.

Me thinks he exaggerates, a tad, using medieval sounding words like “bullion”.

Of what does he speak? I posted an image of my daughter that I called the Ice Queen….

And Ron was itching to know how I did what I did.

When commenting on being a member, Ron added:…“a video about how you created this of your daughter would be worth many membership years alone.”

Doth my kind sir exaggerate? Maybe not. Depends.

The content is there. A virtual vault from top notch experts in their respective fields of photography…..

All you gotta do is go get it. It’s there.

In that spirit I created a three part series just for Ron, and all other members of noBs Photosuccess.

Member? Login, go here and watch….(Each section is short, to the point…none of that non-stop filler and babble you often hear in photoshop tutorials.)

Not  a member?

C’mon…it’s like cheaper than dirt, but worth more than gold….SEE FOR YOURSELF

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

The turbo charged pixel myth…

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Well, I never thought this would happen.

I met a photographer who started out in digital before the dawn of all things digital like I did.

I met Kirk Saint a few months ago at a 2 day convention. I couldn’t believe he started out with one of these cameras like I did.

We’re talking way back. As in the year 2000 back. When Canon introduced what I consider to be their most groundbreaking camera ever.

The Canon D30.

And few, very few have heard about it. Maybe because it was primitive, at a mere 3.4 Megapixels.

But most thought it simply couldn’t do the job. Many, in fact, thought digital was crap and a passing fad. Even the dude who owned our local camera store thought this.

The best thing about this camera was the price. A very reachable $3,500.00 for the body. Not bad considering the next best thing was about twenty grand or so.

By today’s standards I consider this camera, if I were to compare today, on par with a Model T Ford. With a hand crank no less.

But whatever. Back in the day, it was revolutionary. And I bought one, with a Canon 50MM lens.

I was Hasselblad and Nikon. I sold everything I owned. All of it.

Except for my Nikon 105MM lens.

Hey, I needed a portrait lens. So I found a dude in New York who sold Nikon to Canon lens adapters. I was in, in a manual focus way, for $85.00 plus shipping.

Kirk’s story was similar to mine in that he got great results from this camera, in spite of the small file size.

I was pulling off wall portraits the first year I switched.
(see link below for examples)

I had to be able to otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the plunge.

Consistently I was getting great results. While everyone told me I couldn’t. My reply to the nay-sayers, was “bullsh*t, look what I had printed from my dinky little 3.4 MB file.”

Proof’s in the pudding, as they say. It ain’t bragging if you can do it.

My next camera was the Nikon D1x or something like that. A whopping 5.5 MB. Again, I pulled off hundreds, nay, thousands of wall portraits over and over.

If it does the job, it does the job. I prefer to obsess over marketing, than file size.

See samples below….

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

P.S. Last month I interviewed Kirk. He runs a successful studio in a small town shooting amazing Santa images, cool sports photos and more….Members, login, go here.

Not  a member? no problem.

Below…a few samples from my Canon D30, images that were enlarged, with ease, to over 30 inches….:

Insane moves create insane success

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Maggie moved to Canada from Poland when she was only 16.

She attended OCAD, one of our finest art universities and in spite of her lack of English and being in a foreign country, she acquired a degree in art.

When I met her, about 7 years ago, she had been in her own photography business for about 5 years, and most recently took some seriously insane steps.

Even she admits what she had done made no sense, was at the worst time one could imagine, under less than ideal circumstances.

She had two young children at home. A husband. Mortgage, the whole nine yards. What did she do that made everyone around think she completely lost it?

It was 2009, one year after the big economic meltdown, when more people were leaving photography than joining.

Here’s the story of a true renegade.

She mortgaged her home, and paid half  a million dollars into the purchase of a new mall storefront condo.

AND, she drops about an additional 100K in renos.

See, she had a vision. And the passion needed to rise about the nay-sayers and doubters.

One thing she has is passion. More than anyone I ever met. And balls. Great big audacious balls.

When she was guest speaker at my 3 day inferno, two years in a row, everyone in attendance would tell me the same comments:
“I love this lady! By far my favorite speaker.”

Her story is amazing. Her studio is rocking. She’s top of the mountain. And she helps other photographers like as if they are her own children.

This lady is my hero.

And tonight, along with her studio manager Ian Cuthbert, who also has an amazing legacy in the photography industry, they will be judging the noBs Bull Pen Print Show.

Your welcome to join in, watch and learn.

If you want to submit an image or two, it’s PHREE! And you might win #hard-cold-cash

I don’t know if there’s room to submit your images at the late time, but worth  a go.
Don’t delay, it’s only hours away.

DETAILS on registration and submissions.

Hope to see you there.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

P.S. Here’s even more about Maggie’s story.

Why I don’t golf…and why I would if I did….

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The last time I went golfing I almost killed a dude.

That’s how bad I am.

Besides, I don’t really like the game. I find it odd, like yoga.
(I started yoga last month…what a weird activity that is…more on that later)

Strange, strange stuff…..but it could be me. Who knows.

One thing about golf that is super cool, is the tight feedback loop.

You know instantly if you’re doing ok. Music is the same way.

You hit the ball, it responds with scientific accuracy.

You play a note, it’s either in tune, or not.

You take a photograph….well, maybe it’s ok, maybe it’s not.
Who knows?

So you post it on flakebook. A hundred peeps tell you it’s amazing. You feel good.

Wow….I am a photographer. Look at what I created. Look at the love and admiration.

I’ve said this a million times.

Love it or hate it, it’s about as scientific as you can get in this field: the only feedback
loop that matters in the business of photography is the money.

Show me the money.

Unless, of course, you’re in it for the hobby and therapy, which if perfectly OK.

But if you’re in the biz side of things, the ONLY feedback loop that matters is sales.

Profits. Cash. Sheckles. Don’t fight me on this one. You will lose.

There is no alternative. We live on an economic planet. It’s always been that way.

Don’t like it? Find another planet. Or, take up photography for other reasons.

For me, it’s my passion, and my “job”.

My feedback loop is the profit loss statement. Everyone wins when I win. My wife, my family,
and especially my clients.

They must. They keep coming back.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

P.S.Want more information on shooting photographs that sell and marketing your photography business?

HERE

How to make $450. an hour in your photography business….

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I ain’t braggin’…..seriously.

(It ain’t braggin’ if you done it! And I done it…)

Trying to make a point and trying to help you out. Keep reading.

We make about $450.00 bucks an hour when we shoot a typical fairy day promo
(more or less, likely more….)…
….I pay the government their due and give my wife the rest.

This, BTW, excludes the spin-off-name-recognition-boost-future-gigs-as-a-result effect.

A halo effect, so to speak. Please, understand what I just wrote in that last sentence.

What’s cool is, this is a fairly reliable model.

I’ve used it for other promos such as family day, and other fund raising gigs.

The big, BIG days of high sales, higher volumes are, IMO, over.

Very much like the days of a rock band pushing out a new album pay day ain’t the same either.

Party’s over folks. Many, many industries have changed. And we gotta change too.

Musicians need to hit the road and play live gigs. Connect with their audience.
Build slow, and build strong.

Same with us’em photography studio owners. It’s working out for me and our studio.
I think I figured this out.

But I need to maintain a steady focus, steadfast marketing and adjust my expectations.

The old saying: “Photography is like a unicycle, stop peddling and you fall off” is truer today
than ever before.

My version, if you want to succeed and make money in photography, is:
“Marketing in your photography business is like a unicycle, stop peddling, and you kill your business- you go bankrupt”

Having the right mindset is key. Both as a photographic craftsman and business person.

These days, you can’t have one without the other. Unless photography is a hobby and you’re happy with that.

Otherwise, marketing more than ever, matters.

What’s your plan? I know I have mine….and I share it with other like minded photographers.

It’s what I do….besides running a successful photo studio.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher