Photo Success

A Place to Grow

If photography were as challenging to master photography like it once was, 99% wouldn’t even pick up a camera…

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Yes, there was a time, pre-digital, when photography was much, much harder to master.

And this created a vacuum.

And a market. An ‘easy’ one for the willing.

If you were willing to learn and master, somewhat, the complexities of photography, and you have half a head for business, you could do alright.

And make some money with images that, in todays standards, may get tossed.
Sounds weird, but true

And we felt special, yessssir. We were magicians, wizards, who knew the secrets to this amazing craft that so few knew.

It was like a secret society.

Truth is. It’s gone. Poof! The genie is out of the bottle long ago….
but you knew that.

I for one am over it. Long ago….

Me thinks in many ways I am a realist. And to me, it was, is and always has been a business moreso than a craft.

Let me repeat that….it’s a business. Photography is, sez Yoda.

As the ease of entry rises, the need for marketing rises too.
(Unless it’s a hobby)

It’s a hard cold reality behind the industry. But, for those who get it, and understand that when you become a marketer of photographic services first and photographer second, you have a much, much better chance at making some dough.

Because of the mindset. Big difference.

The mindset of the photographer who rises above this, rises above their ego and childish ways, and thinks, acts like a strategist, creating innovative moves to build a business…well, think of a sprawling metropolis.

Not a vacant lot.

Big difference…..

What about you? Did you get into photography because it was easy?

If you did, there is a good chance you have the same mindset. One that’s always looking for the easy way to make moneeeee.

Or, are you serious about turning it into a business?

Think about it….and chose a direction.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

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

After 22 years of marriage I finally taught my wife to curse…

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I’ll never forget it.

My mom was hanging a picture or something.
I do remember her holding a hammer.

I think I was all of 14 yrs old, me and my four younger sisters, running around, making life chaotic, loud as only a family of five kids can be loud.

My mom stopped, turned at us and yelled: “If you kids don’t F*CKING keep quiet…”…

Stunned silence.

Crickets.

The sound of a hammer rustling and grip tightening in her hands.
Our jaws hanging in shocked awe, eyes bursting wide with fear.

Never, we never, ever heard our mom swear. Ever.

It sure makes a room go quiet.

On that note, I noticed my wife started ‘cussin in the last year or so.

Finally. But I do feel bad, somewhat. She is not one to descend into vulgarities and bad taste. That’s my department.

See, I like swear words. It’s a habit of mine. I find it refreshing.
Cleansing. Offensive.

Sorry, is what it is. I know, I know, I’m a bad influence on her.

It’s one of the eventual side effects of being married over time.
You become to some degree the other person.

It’s the same with branding your photography business. (Not that being a potty mouth is a smart move around your clients. No no…)

But, good branding will eventually sink in. It takes time. Just like teaching your innocent sweet wife to go biker mouth.

Branding means in large part becoming a part of their hearts, minds and souls.

They think warm, positive, fuzzy feelings about you and your studio. They believe
in you. The feel committed. They love you and your product.

This is achieved over time, through years of sessions, offers, affiliation marketing, promos, events, displays (offline and online), sales room experience, reception rooms, publicity, networking, ads….you get the picture.

It takes time. A lot of time. And keeping your mouth clean of course.
Save the curse words for home when you’re with the kids and you absolutely must have silence.:)

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

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

How to stop procrastinating and take control…

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There are as many ways procrastination rears its ugly head as there are excuses for why we are not moving forward with our hopes, dreams and goals.

Personally, I feel the biggest influence is lack of imagination and fear.

Imagination takes discipline. And it’s a lonely journey.

There are specific things you can do to avoid getting off track….here’s a few that I personally use:

*cards. Small recipe cards. I have my goals and affirmations written out in point form. I read them every night before bed

*smart questions. Never quit on a situation and give in. Instead, ask compelling questions. For instance, you may be trying to come up with some marketing solutions and you maybe hitting a dead end. External forces may be creating some serious roadblocks, Don’t quit. Ask. ….”What can I do to create a solution?”

Sometimes I take on a role model, someone I admire and ask: What would so and so do
in this situation? And wait for answers. THEY WILL COME. All YOU need to do is learn to
ask compelling questions. This is one of the most powerful imagination tools at your avail.

*positive imagery. On cue. Whenever a negative feeling enters you, instantly
and on cue create a positive image
*love list. Ask yourself what things do you love. Get creative. Have fun.
Write fast. Stir the soul.

*deadlines and discipline. I don’t know how many times I found myself in a situation and looked back thinking: “Good thing I committed to this. Because it all worked out.”

There would be a project I am working on and it just sits there. The solution, each and every time, is committing a block of time and forcing myself to sit and work at it.

Each and every time I end up tapping into an immense amount of ideas, innovations, clarity….it all requires commitment. Do not wait for the muse.
Kick him in the b*lls and wake him up! Taking control of your life is a big job.

Being scared or a whiney cry baby is reserved for those who refuse to accept they have a passionate, confident and creative life running right beside them.

All you gotta do is get off the trail you’re on and step over.

Notice I never said the word easy. Lose that word. Kick it out of your life.
Easy is for children who rely on mommy to wipe their nose and butts.

Being able to grab the proverbial bull by the horns and ride it takes a certain mindset and willingness to move on our desires.

Now get to it…..no excuses. It’s YOUR life. Take control….

Yours in photography and success,

Robert Provencher

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

How and why I teach photography 101 in my community

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I was asked a few years ago to teach a photography 101 class at our local library.

At first I was repulsed by the idea. But after some consideration I gave it the green light with a few conditions:

*The class had to be for serious amateurs. I didn’t want a basic 101 for those
with zero experience
*The class size limited to 12 attendees

Fine. They set a date, announced it, filled up the class with about 20 on a waiting list.

Whoa….ok. The interest is there.

After I ran my first series I noticed a few things:
* the students were eager. They ALL showed up consistently and ALL did their assigned
homework
* I really enjoyed teaching it.
* My style of teaching seemed to be a hit.

Go figure. It was working.

And I had NO idea what I was doing insofar as exactly what to teach. I made it up as I went along, following certain parameters:

*I did NOT want to go all techie, you know, let’s look at ALL the camera settings, file types, bla bla bla
*I wanted to PUSH the students to learn to SEE light, learn composition and create a style their own

This of course required some serious distractions. And this was of paramount importance to me.
Teach them to see, and they’ll learn for a lifetime.

I bombarded them in each class with establishing my credibility (showing images I created), going over the basics of exposure (ISO, Aperture, Shutter Speeds) and how tones & light works (source, distance, angle,shadows, mid tones, specular highlights).

Rinse, repeat….over and over. And do the same while going over the images they submitted each week.

This worked. NO endless rambling about camera settings. Just pure learning the art of “seeing”.
My version of tough love.

They never asked about histograms, file types, camera types, lenses or any other academia distractions.
The way I see it, those questions will arise and get answered organically as they master the art of seeing.

I wouldn’t want to teach this any other way. It wouldn’t be fair to them, and it won’t be nearly as fun to teach.

So when Kirk Saint asked me how I taught these classes, I offered to run a webinar style meeting. Which I recorded, and placed in the forum.

That, AND my powerpoint files for members to use as models in case they want to teach something similar in their community.

Members access HERE.

Yours in photography and success,

Robert Provencher

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

It’s what you don’t know that holds the greatest opportunities…

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Food for thought.

I noticed, in me, and in others, a rookie mindset mistake.

EXAMPLE: Think about anytime you started something totally brand new, but something you really wanted to know more about.

It sorta goes like this…..
“I need to learn all I can, so I can look like I know what I’m doing. It’s all about how much I know….” (ego)

The key words….”all about how much I know…”

This is one of the biggest limiting mindsets to getting ahead.

Truth is, it’s all about recognizing how much you don’t know.
That’s the core fundamental mindset of being a good student. No matter your age.
No matter your experience.

As soon as you think you know it, you’re doomed. The gates close.

The is kinda expected at first, since newbs will be newbs.
We’ve all been there.

But the real opportunity presents itself later on, as we get more skilled and masterful.

As we get better, at first, we stumble and fumble…unsure….worried….stressed…. it’s all so new and confusing.

The big mistake= trying really hard to get to the point of “knowing”.

The better place to be is to always be an open, empty vessel…take it all in.
Be modest.

This my friend is harder to do at first because we’re newbs and we want to look good (ego) and it’s equally hard to do when we get better because we think we’ve made it. (ego)

Ask questions. And put your ego aside.

There is no getting to the point of “knowing”.

It’s a fallacy. An illusion.

In photography, both in the actual technical side (lighting, posing, photoshop etc etc….) and in the marketing and business side, we’re always, always in a continuous state of movement and flux.

Stop learning and die.

Stop moving ahead, challenging yourself and your ego on all levels, and the mold and spider webs take over your mind, your heart and soul.

I call this CBS…calcified brain sh*t.

The beginning of the end.

The solution: Ask yourself what you don’t know vs being worried about how smart you are. This requires being a good student and putting your ego aside.

Trying to look smart when you’re starting out is silly. Think about it.

Trying to look smart when you’re got good is much easier…easy to fool many for a while….for a while….

It requires a surrendering, of sorts. An innocent, child like curiosity.

For the most part, I feel very lucky to have been blessed with an insatiable curiosity. I am addicted to workshops, webinars,  documentaries, google and wikipedia…

What success in business and in photography I can directly link to this aspect of my personality.

My daughter has it too. Like her dad. She drives me nuts at times, with 101 questions about something. She HAS to know more, to understand.

I get it. Be patient dad, she’s young. Her curiosity is a good thing.

It will bring her far in life. Let your curiosity work with you.

Let your ego rule, and the doors to curiosity are slammed shut. Air tight.

Nothing gets in. Stay real and authenticity will float to the top of your being.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

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

“Imagine if you would have been stuck in that prison the rest of your life?…”

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Success is easy. Norman Vincent Peale had the right idea in 4 steps:
1-Decide exactly what it is you want.
2-Make it a primary goal. Make it big. Make it important.
3-Establish a series of yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily objectives to achieve that goal.
4-Fight the urge to give up along the way. This is easiest when you have clarity.

My own experience bears this out: you can achieve almost anything you want in life – even if you don’t have much faith in your own abilities.

Lack of self-confidence, Peale said, “is one of the great problems besetting people today.”

He makes reference to a survey of college students indicating that for 75 percent of them, confidence was the thing most lacking in their life.

No one knows this more than I do. No one was more afraid, lost and burdened with the stress of life than I.

Just last night over supper with friends we were recounting our early 20’s (we’re all in our 50’s now, healthier, wealthier and wiser…)

I told our friends about how petrified I was when I was 21. Working full time in a darkroom.

Loving it, good at it. But ready for change and ready to start a new job photographing school photos for a large national company.

That first year shooting was horrible. I was in a constant state of panic. I had anxiety attacks that were unrelenting. I wanted to check myself in to the local san.

When asked how long that went on for, I answered: “A whole year.”

It took me one whole year of photographing hundreds and thousands of students to finally, FINALLY get a handle on it.

In the second year I started to get a sense a confidence. I started a new skill set in those early years. But I had a long way to go.

“Imagine if you would have been stuck in that prison the rest of your life?” was a comment.

“Yes, crazy! I always look back at those years and wonder what would have happened had I let the fears and anxieties rule me. Rule my destiny. What if I would have embraced it and made it my closest friend, my dearest ally? What problems would have and could have arose? What medications would I have chosen to eventually fight that battle?”

Crazy stuff when I think about it.

“The blows of life, the accumulation of difficulties, the multiplication of problems tend to sap energy and leave you spent and discouraged,” Peale says.

In such situations, “it is easy to lose track of your abilities and powers” – but by re-appraising your personal assets, you can convince yourself that “you are less defeated than you think you are.”

Part of me is glad I went through all those times. They made me who I am now.

I persisted. I did not let myself get defeated. Easy? Not for a second.
Worth it? What do you think?
I grew because I persisted. I faced the fears and moved ahead in spite of them.

I created goals. I studied and fed my mind a constant flow of books, seminars and new ideas. I pushed hard.

I fought the demons that tried so hard to rule me.

And you can too. Be true to yourself.

Be fearless my friend.

Yours in photography and success,

Robert Provencher

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

joinus

Jogging and playing air guitar

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I try and stay in shape. Running, walking, biking and such.

Running, oddly enough, has become my favorite exercise.

Who’d a thunk. The only running I used to like doing was running from the authorities and cops. Besides that, running, in my o so humble and inaccurate opinion, was a product of satan himself.

I hated it.

So I thought.

Until I discovered running sandals. Changed my life.
And completely removed the pain I always felt when I’d run with regular running shoes.

AND, removed my need for insoles and expensive orthotics.

I’m organic. Running as nature intended it to be. Feelz great!

What also feels great is listening to music on my LSTN headphones while running.
This totally inspires me and makes running that much better.

Problem is, I sometimes break out in air guitar. Or, worse yet, I start
singing along.

Whatever. Bottom line is I don’t really care. As long as I’m doing my thing
and it feels great!
(BTW they’re called ‘huarache’ sandals, from the running culture based in the copper canyons of Mexico)

You can see a pic of me after a marathon, above, sporting a pair.

Same in running a photography studio. I often do stuff that you could say is similar to winding out some air guitar, or running in bare foot sandals.

Like the fact that I shoot 100% in jpeg.

Or, that I still believe in using mail and direct mail pieces.

Or that I am 100% mirrorless.

Or that I sometimes take jobs below my pay grade.

Or get face to face with my people in my community.

I use what works, what saves time, what inspires me and whatever adds to my overall enjoyment in life and in business.

Should it be any other way?

I also share EVERYTHING I know on running a studio in my forum. Every month I host and run a mastermind meet up…sometimes I bring others, sometimes it’s just me.

Either way, learning what works, like I learned (from others BTW) ho to jog pain free, is a journey.
And you gotta show up.

Join me and we’ll wind out some air guitar.

JUNE 2017 Lighting Mastermind and Marketing Mastermind will be in the books in a few days.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

P.S. Past mastermind replays are in the forum (login first).

Why I don’t do yard maintenance….

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I don’t do yard maintenance, or lawn mowing, weed pulling, painting, snow removal, home repairs,  house cleaning…I also don’t do much photoshop workflow ( I outsource the grunt work photoshop out), bookkeeping, phone answering, order  taking,…plus a whole lot more stuff…..

There are two main reasons why I don’t do yard maintenance, or, for that matter, any of the other items listed above.

Reason one: I HATE yard maintenance. I don’t care how much money I would save by doing it myself, why would I want to put myself through something I detest, in order to save  a few bucks.

The pain and frustration would not make me a better person and is not worth it.

Reason two: I know that mowing the lawn isn’t conducive to growing my photography business.

And the truth is, I ain’t saving a dime.

It’s actually costing me money, since my time is far better spent doing things that bring in more money. Like marketing and shooting.

When you do the things that bring in the dough and build the business, then you are spending your time wisely.

Delegation is the key.

Delegation, in a sense, will allow you freedom for your photography business to grow and prosper. Delegation, in a sense, will help you become the person you were meant to be.

AAAaaaa, but you hate marketing, you say. But you love shooting.

Your choice.

You can do the things you love, and not make a whole lotta dough, and be fine with that. Or, you can learn to love it, because, there is no choice.

Business is business, and in order to grow it, you need to put on, like they say at the horse barn where my daughter used to ride, ‘your big girl panties’, and  do the marketing thing.

When you’re in business, that’s simply the way it’s played. There is no other way.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

In essence, what I am going on about is to do with the highest form of time management.
If you are starting out, you may have to do a lot of the things that later you will get to delegate.

Just don’t get caught in a rut that you never climb out of.

I have no idea why anyone would want to to bookkeeping. Pushing a pencil and doing any form of accounting is the last thing  on my list.

Lower than lawn maintenance. I used to spend a few hours, and a bottle of brandy, once a month and get my own books done on my own, way back in time. And I mowed the lawn back then too, plus shoveled the dam driveway. But no more.
Nay, nay, nay….

Sure, I know how the basics of accounting, as we all should learn. I like and understand money math, balance sheets, income statements and projections,

I just don’t wanna do ’em. Rather poke needles in my eye.

When you’re stuck doing these things because you are in early growth stages of your photography business, that’s fine, but you need to keep the end in mind.

Know where you are going, stay focused on the big picture until you get to delegate.
If you don’t you risk burnout and wasting time doing stuff that will cost you more in the long run.

Delegating isn’t about giving you more leisure time. It’s about allowing you to do the things that you not only prefer doing, but also the things that bring in business.

This is a hard pill for many to swallow. They lack vision and planning.

They think they have to do all those grunt jobs or else the place will fall apart without them.

Sometimes it makes them feel important. If your into it for your ego, then you will not grow. It’s that simple.

Delegation is often a scary new direction for many. But who said that staying in your comfort zone was synonymous with creative output. And I’m talking about profits when I say output.

Use your time wisely and strategically, always with the end in mind.
Your success depends on it.

Robert Provencher

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