Tools for growing a photography business
I swear I’ll never pay full price for a shirt, or suit, again. Why?
Two reasons. One, when I shoot weddings I am hard on my clothes (see image above for proof). So, I buy cheaper suits, shirts and vests that tend to last a year, maybe two.
You know, throwaway. When on a wedding I’ll roll around on the road, grass or climb overpasses to create fun cool images with cool angles.
My clothes suffer.
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Maggie is one of the most prolific and successful photography business success stories. Her passion, her drive and ambition are all testament to the success she so richly deserves.
[Read more…]Erol Tosh Marketing meeting replay
Erol had a lot to say. Yes, we had some temporary tech glitches but we got on track. Some good info and lessons including:
Years ago I interviewed, in two parts, Reg Mess, master photographer, on selling.
I asked: “What is the most common sales objection you hear from clients in the sales room?”
Reg answered, and snickered: “I don’t.”
What he means is this….when it comes to the proofing session the clients are so primed, so educated, so pumped, so ready to buy, there are literally zero objections.
Can you still make money in photography?
Can you “still” make money in photography these days? Asking for a friend.
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.”
I always said my photography studio was like a swiss army knife. A “multi-purpose” studio for lack of a better term.
Instead of specializing in a major niche, I specialize in many niches. Families, fairies, babies, commercial, weddings, boudoir, ice fairies, medieval sessions, headshots, theatre photography, seniors and more….much more.
And now pop-up weddings. (More on that in my marketing mastermind replay mentioned below)
I need to take this approach. It keeps me profitable, relevant and busy.
I could specialize and carve out a profitable niche. You know the saying, it’s true: “There are riches in niches.”
But I would need to move to a larger area where the population base would support a niche.
For now, and likely for a long time, I’ll stick around my blue collar mining community.
I’m happy here. Everyone knows me. And loves me. I know, they tell me, and they pay me.
I talked about this in the yesterday’s recorded Marketing Mastermind presentation, where I showed many of the on going marketing adventures from my own little studio in my own little community.
For members the replay is in the forum HERE
Every month I have a mastermind marketing and a mastermind lighting presentation.
It’s like nutrition for the soul and for success. I need it. I hope you do too.
See you on the inside.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
This ever happen to you? You dream of walking to a bridge, and chucking it all overboard, into the flowing torrent of water below?
You know, a box full of cameras, lenses and dreams.
Poof! Gone….
What a relief it would be. Get rid of the whole fucking mess.
You imagine what a relief it would be to quit the struggle. The whole shit-show.
The constant barrage of flippant stupid questions from ungrateful clients. Questions like:: “Can’t I just get all the files on a DVD??”
For peanuts. You work for peanuts.
You imagine how good it would feel to close the book on your empty calendar with few to no sessions.
Ugh. What a pain running a photography business. After you poured every last dime on gear and education, you think “Maybe it was all a lie.”
As artists, we tend to over-estimate the pleasure to be gained from quitting and UNDER-estimate the pain.
WE ALL DO IT! Be honest.
When you look in the mirror of honesty we don’t want to admit how hollowed out we became.
You think you can quit it all, turn and head the other way. But you can’t. Here’s why:
Your ambitions, your hopes, your dreams, even if somewhat delusional, were still YOURS. If you walk, you bleed.
A long slow deadening bleed.
The struggle is real. So we think. And we delude ourselves into believing it’s the photography industry.
When the truth is even uglier. Running a business is hard grueling work.
SO many don’t understand what I’m saying. Those who do have a chance at success.
DO I have to spell it out?
The biggest lie in making it in photography is simple. It’s not about the work you create. It’s all about the marketing you implement.
Get that and you have a chance. We’ve had it too good for too long.
The easy days, and the big lie that came with them, are over.
I don’t consider myself one of the lucky ones, still in business, still churning out profits and sessions even though many would consider me “over the hill” at 60.
I consider myself, still, to this day, a student of marketing. I avoid as best I can the delusion.
School is never out.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”