It’s been a while, but we’re back on the rails, railing about any and all things photography..including smart lifestyle choices, fitness, making money, boosting confidence and raw vs JPEG (not that again!)
The superman images James ranted on about:
You don’t really need a studio….but….7 reasons why it’s really cool to have one
It’s true, you don’t really need a studio to be successful in your own photography business.
But it sure is nice to have one. Here’s 7 reasons why it’s really cool to have one:
- You have control…lighting, drops, looks you want to create. To me, it’s like a chef in his own kitchen. I feel at home, and I feel creative
- I can offer way, way more photography promotions and offers….fairies, cross promotions (like the one I’m doing with Montessori School this and every fall..)
- It pushes my brand…I stand out
- It impresses clients and potential clients. Having them in my studio, for whatever reason, is an opportunity to make an impression. Of course, you don’t want to be a slob and have the place smell like pastrami
- Sales….yes, sales. You will make more sales in your own studio. It’s your battlefield and you get to create the sales room for maximum impact
- Bricks and mortar….location of course. If you have a legit commercial location you get the added benefit of having people see your place, and your work. This adds a level of credibility.
- Compliance. Yes, you are committed and feel way more compelled to make it work. There are no guarantees but if you’re going to ramp up your photographic game and run a bricks and mortar business you’ll get way more serious about marketing and all things business related.
No, you don’t absolutely need a studio to make money in photography. Some markets in photography are strictly on location. And with good marketing, branding and networking you can be successful.
But I’m a studio guy. I like having my place, where I can create, connect, impress and call it “home”.
Because having a studio to me always felt like home. A base. World headquarters. Mi casa. My cave.
Ascension marketing, selling, busting out into many more different markets within my market and more, so much more, are possible with a studio.
Next Wednesday I am running the August 2018 Marketing Mastermind where I’ll go over some of the essentials and basics including actual promotions I’m running in my studio.
Join us! Your questions in advance are welcome…rob@wizardoflight.com
REPLAYS FOR ALL MASTERMIND HERE
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
No goat cheese in my smoothie
I hate waste. I think it’s why I can’t stand buffets. They seem so uncivilized and over-the-top indulgent.
I also can’t stand goat cheese in my smoothie.
Ugh….gross.
Let me explain.
I picked up one of those ready to assemble spinach salads for my wife Tina. It had goat cheese because I know she loves some goat cheese in her salad.
She ate about half of it and left me the rest…..for my smoothie the next morning.
I don’t like waste. Whatever she doesn’t eat, I eat. We signed a contract when we got married that guaranteed I got to eat whatever she doesn’t.
It’s our deal and we signed off on it.
I checked her leftover salad for goat cheese, and alas, she had planned well.
Anticipating she’d be sharing part of it she avoided the cheese in my portion. Smart.
Waste can come in many forms. Especially in business.
One of the biggest wastes in business is in marketing. Mainly, because we think there’s an easy solution. We can “buy” our way to success.
Throw money at it.
This is waste. Throwing money at new equipment, big ads, new logos, courses….
and such.
Yes, sometimes we need courses, lenses and ads.
But without the goat cheese.
NOTE:
*The July lighting mastermind is locked and loaded HERE
*July presentation on selling (this is good!) with Maria M is also locked and loaded HERE
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
“Listening to you was calming and realistic. I can do this. I will do this….”
Julie writes….:
“It worked!!!! 😉 I was ready to hang up everything the morning of your webinar. I felt like maybe this was not something I should be doing?? But… Ruth Densley, a good friend of mine told me about your webinar. I thought, what the heck. I have nothing to lose. You lit a fire under my ass. Listening to you was calming and realistic. I can do this. I will do this.
Could you do me a favor? Could you go to my website, look at my stuff. Give your honest CC. Let me hear everything!!!!! I truly value your opinion. Julie”
Thanks Julie. As emailed to you, I created a video where I analyzed your website.
And after asking for permission, I posted the same video in the downloads/replay section from the Secrets to building, creating, selling and promoting Enchanted Fairy, Ice Fairy & Medieval Themed Sessions presentation I ran a few days ago.
In all honesty, I had no idea how it was going to go over. I simply gave it my all. And the response has been very positive.
Your reply from my video (summarized):
“I have never been more excited about my fairies until now. I can’t thank you enough. Julie…”
I’ve always said these are some of the best sessions to create and offer in your photography studio.
REPLAY HERE FOR THOSE WHO SIGNED UP (bottom of the page)
I also added the same video critique for members of nobs photosuccess HERE
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
Han Solo and the feisty transgender interracial feminist robot…
Saw Han Solo the other night. It was decent, “refreshing” as I explained to my wife whilst walking to the car leaving the cinemas.
I told her how I can’t stand movies that insert social justice causes into the story and political correctness. It drives me nuts. They must think they’re hiding it. Not!
It’s so obvious it actually ruins the story line. Give me a break.
And they’re only doing themselves more harm. See, we ALL love a good story.
Not one that preaches to us. The last few Star Wars did just that.
Han Solo, although it won’t win any awards, was fun, light, entertaining….like a good old fashioned western. Me likey….
When Lando entered the scene, and his robot side kick, L3-37, I thought, oh oh….here we go. She’s a feisty transgender interracial feminist robot with a chip on her “shoulder”.
But they only skirted the edges of social justice mania and avoided the entire rabbit hole.
She was a funny, feisty robot. You actually started to relate to her, like as if she’s human. Weird.
Another thing I can’t stand about Hollywood, and this is one small criticism I had about this movie (my wife hears to complain about this ALL the time), is that the main role of Han was played by an actor, who, in my oh so humble yet accurate opinion, was “way too handsome.”
Hollywood does this all the time. They pick actors and actresses because they are super hot, dam near perfect.
Not good. I like flaws. A good actor we can all relate to, not some Instagram picture perfect face and squared jaw.
Actors like Seymour Philipp Hoffman, Al Pacino, Cate Blanchett, Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix or Frances McDormand ( Fargo)….
You know, somewhat flawed, and quirky. Like me.
Like my marketing. Keep the marketing story simple.
Don’t muddy the waters with your crazy social justice agenda. It ain’t working.
It’s how we market, promote and sell our fairy sessions. Old school, simple, straight up marketing.
Create a product, make an offer, find your target market, and pitch them.
Rope em in.
Once you get them in the loop, then upsell them. Softly. No need to go hard here.
Soft sell is ALL you need when selling these amazing sessions.
It’s called ascension marketing. And I reveal much more in my webinar:
Secrets to building, creating, selling and promoting Enchanted Fairy, Ice Fairy & Medieval Themed Sessions
No bull. Just profit making strategies.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“The weasel clause…”
No one likes a misleading pitch. I don’t. And try my best to avoid being using weasal clauses or acting like one….the KEY: good, clear communication.
And Bob pointed this out.
An email I received from Bob:
“Hi Rob, It’s annoying when you provide a link to a video and I go to it and get an OOPs message. It would not be annoying if you mentioned it’s a members only replay.
IMO you’d have a much better chance of getting new members if you made more media samples available so that prospects can evaluate the benefits with some degree of confidence.
Best regards, Bob Flanagan”
My reply:
“Bob yea, I know….and I struggle with this.
Me, the first guy to nag others when they get “weasly”….which I come close to being when I do this….:):)
I am sending out an email on Monday, and going to quote you (if you’re ok with me doing so that is)…and, the link, with replay, added….
Rob”
There you go…..AGAIN, click here
***************************************************
NOTE: This is happening in TWO days:
Special Presentation- Secrets to building, creating, selling and promoting Enchanted Fairy, Ice Fairy & Medieval Themed Sessions
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 my computer the way a wood carver loves his favorite chisels…
I know, I know….it’s weird. But I love my computer.
Admit it, you love yours too.
I miss it. See, I was in Costa Rica last February, and the day before leaving I realized I was soon to be re-united. And that put a smile on my face.
My old familiar friend and I….with all the brushes, actions, workspace, etc etc
Like an old tool, one that you get comfortable with. The way a wood carver knows his favorite chisel.
Or a painter knows his favorite brushes.
Me thinks, for those old timers and endlessly sentimental old school types, this is part of the same area in our brain that yearns for the darkroom days.
Personally I could never understand why anyone would want to return to the old smelly, wet days of the darkroom.
I have many heartfelt memories myself, having worked in the dark for many years. But when technology moved ahead, I dropped it faster than a lump of burning hot coal.
You could say the computer is the new darkroom, and you’d be right. And you could say, in a sense, that I still am working in a similar environment, and you’d also be right.
So in a sense, nothing has changed. I still love working in the darkroom.
Minus the safe lights, that familiar quasi-darkness and the never ending smell of acetic acid and stop bath.
One cool thing about the “darkroom” is the fact that this is where many of us hone our basic skills…we get good at seeing the composition, the lighting, the colors, tones and most especially, we get good at reading tonal range and exposure.
Sadly, this experience is either lost, or replaced by the endless flow of new photographers who default to photoshop plugins, actions or the easy road that Lightroom and all it’s magical allure presents to us.
My advice? Keep shooting, keep workflowing, and as hard as it is to embrace, learn photoshop over lightroom.
Nothing wrong with lightroom, but like one speaker said in a recent conference: “Lightroom is for those who don’t know photoshop.”
There is an element of truth to that statement. And I agree.
(For those who know photoshop, but smartly use lightroom for high volume workflow strategies, don’t take offense. I get it.)
You miss out on honing your core skills of understanding the way a “negative” works, the way we used to understand it way back in the day, from years of loading them into the enlarger.
This process gets lost. And you risk missing out on the added element that is, in my oh so humble yet accurate opinion, learning photography at a much deeper level.
If you want to gain the experiences gained by working in the darkroom, the way Ansel Adams and others mastered there images, you need to return to the strategies used by people like him.
Brought to you by fumbling though years in the dark.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
Join us…Content, Coaching & Community
Photography Success Tip #47: Become a slave to the technique
“Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
Photography Success Tip #47: Become a slave to the technique.
I was paralyzed with fear when it came to public speaking.
Throughout most of my 20’s I was incapacitated by this fear.
And I didn’t really break out of it until I stopped any negative
and/or destructive behaviors that only fed that fear….( I quit drinking and running from myself.)
I really took action to try and develop new skills.
I learned how to speak in front of groups. I took every single opportunity I could in my life to speak in front of groups. Go figure.
And for a couple of years, it was hard, it was very, very hard. But I persisted.
I am very glad I did, because now I have the skill that I would have never been able to develop, unless I faced my fears dead-on and wrestled them to the ground and almost removed them.
Now when I speak in front of a group, it’s a real sense of mastery for me.
That took a total of 13 years to develop.
The first 2 years were very difficult. But I got there.
Was it worth it? The better question to ask is:
What price are you really paying when you don’t tap into the talents and skills locked inside you by your fears?
When you manage to get a handle on your fears, look for the opportunity to become a better person, you will be become a better photographer.
That is a total given. You cannot avoid it. The two are linked.
Jeff Foxworthy talks about when he was struggling and growing.
Seinfeld gave some advice to Foxworthy’s big question back then:
“How can I create a “style?”
Seinfeld told him to keep giving his show, keep making people laugh, keep doing it, day after day, month after month, and your style will develop.
And it did. Jeff is now a household name.
This applies equally to photography techniques and creativity.
Or, any skill we are trying to master. Become a slave to the technique first, before you can forgot the technical and let the creative shine through.
Confidence is a skill. Selling, and marketing are too. Shooting is.
No matter what the creative endeavor, they are all subject to the same steps.
Join me, Thursday, May 10th, 8:00PM EST for a marketing mastermind meeting.
Where we’ll talk about, dig into and get honest about limits.
EXTRA challenge: Email me your biggest struggle, challenge or problem.
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.”
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 24
- Next Page »