Photo Success

A Place to Grow

If you haven’t claimed a title, what are you waiting for?

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One of the most powerful photography marketing lessons I learned years ago I learned from the great Dan Kennedy.

Who learned it from Robert Ringer, best selling author of “Winning Through Intimidation” and “Looking Out For Number One” to name a few of big hits in the self-improvement and business world books he’s authored.

The idea is this….and it’s called the LeapFrop Theory, and it plays out:

“Proclaim yourself to be above others in your field, leapfrog over them, and eliminate your competition by simply refusing to acknowledge it.”

I can’t even begin to tell you how profitable this strategy is.

But, I will say this:

When it comes down to two or more people battling it out for positioning, the one who’s often perceived as “best” is the often the one who claims the title.

The only caveat is, it has to be based in truth. You gotta bring the goods to the game. It ain’t braggin’ either, if you can do it.

You have to actually be prepared to be above the pack.

Assume the posture of someone at that new level. This introduces another of Ringer’s ideas, the posture theory. This theory states:

“It’s not what you say or  do that counts, but what your posture is when you say or do it.”

Example from my photography studio marketing life. Decades ago I started mailing newsletters. And, I was also newly minted as the “official photographer for our local professional theatre AND our local symphony.

I didn’t get paid for these gigs, but no one knew that. I’m still working for them.

They bring credibility and positive affiliation. And free seasons tickets, ads in programs and the chance to put on gallery style displays in the lobby of these esteemed venues.

I would always make sure to add content into my newsletters, based on these affiliations. They made me look good. By affiliation.

I claimed these titles because they helped boost my studio brand. The power of affiliation dovetails nicely into the leapfrog theory. There’s almost a hidden, sub-conscious message.

It goes something like this:
“If they hired him to be their official photographer, he MUST be good.”

Know what I mean? But you gotta claim it. It’s a marketing thing.
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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“How Maria Created An Average Sale of $1926.02 on all of her10 $47.00 portrait sessions…

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I don’t care how good you are, how solid your marketing is, how great your photography rocks…if you can’t SELL, if the till ain’t ringing up nice sums at the end of the day…you ain’t got a business. You got a hobby.

Do you want to RAMP UP your selling skills? Selling is NOT something you’re born with. It’s something you learn, get better at and master.

If there’s one skill you NEED in order to succeed in business, it’s selling. And I know few who have their selling game ramped up to the highest level like Maria does.

I use this exact same strategy that Maria has created. Make a low cost offer(not rock bottom, but low-ish) and make it irresistible. Then, sell. It’s that simple.

Keep reading what Maria sez:

“I see posts about not making money OR even worse, people saying that “these photographers are charging nothing how can they survive???” PLEASE understand that “low entry cost” DOES NOT MEAN – low cost at all! I had another photographer message me and say “how dare you offer a session and free 5×7 for $49!!!!!!” and I said, WHY??????
LISTEN: I ran a mermaid and fairy event on the same day. I opened 10 appts. It was an easy fun day. EASY.

Beautiful little girls and fun. I set up sales appts for all 10 and finished the last one just now. I set a goal of a $1200 sales average on all 10, knowing there would be a low and a high and a bunch in between. I have GREAT sales skills. . . so I did my thing.

It’s about HOW YOU ADVERTISE< HOW YOU PHOTOGRAPH< WHAT YOU SHOW< HOW YOU TALK, HOW YOU SELL AND HOW YOU TREAT YOUR CLIENTS. THE END RESULT?

Better than I expected. Sales Average on all 10 appts? $1926.02 – and by the way do you know how many images I retouch before they see them? ZERO. 🙂 AND THERE IS NO MINIMUM ORDER. They can choose to walk away with a 5×7 and NO they do not see a pricelist before hand either.

I decided I am going to offer a class at my studio….. Show up and you will learn EXACTLY how to sell out an event at low cost and get results like this. Everything from SET UP of the set, HOW to shoot it, HOW to show it, HOW to sell it, how to retouch it FAST and HOW TO MAKE MONEY. Interested? PM me your info and email and I will send out information. You will get your money back from this class 10 fold in one event. My set ups are easy and cheap. I do mermaids, fairies and more.
You want to make money??? Contact me :)….”

HERE: studiom@studiom.ms

I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves. I have several replays and presentations in the No Bs Photo Success™ forum. 

Yours in sales success,

Robert Provencher

File this one under “mind blown”….

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Did you know that when you first meet someone they know more about you in 45 seconds than what you say, wear or how you act?

True…all true….and this idea applies directly to your photography marketing. Keep reading…

We project more about ourselves, about our confidence, about our “success” barometer than anything else.

Try as you might, you can’t escape this.

When you meet a new client for the first time, the first questions that pop into their little ‘ol pea brains are questions like:

*How much do they make?
*How old are they?
*Should I trust this person?

And the big ONE!

“Should I respect them.”

You can’t control this any other way, other than by having a deeply ingrained success foundation. This will, in turn, emit success rays, and they pick it up like a radar picks up a lighthouse in thick fog.

No one emits success better than Maggie. She “radiates” success and magnanimous radiance form her every pore.

If anyone’s walking on sunshine, it’s her.

She happens to run a high end studio in one of the wealthiest areas in North America…Oakville, Ontario.

Good match. I’m not saying we all need to be in a high end photography studio situation.

I don’t care if you’re shooting sports, dance schools, fairies, families, weddings or whatever.

It matters not.

What matters is what you believe DEEP, WAY DEEP down inside.

Maggie lets it shine through in her studio, her marketing, her publicity and every piece that she shares with her clients.

And it comes through in pricing. Her basic session fees start at $800.00. And she doesn’t sell small prints. Only large art piece one-of-a-kind canvases. Starting at around $5,000.00.

What does this radiate? Quality. Everything she says, acts, moves, and radiates says quality. Through and through.

Maggie and I created a four part series HERE. She’s very, very open and passionate about
sharing her information with other photographers.

All I can say is: “mind blown”. Success is truly an inside job. It ALL starts inside each and everyone of us.

Check it out HERE and see how Maggie achieves high success and is known as the very best in her area. We can all learn.

Learn from the best, 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.”

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Photography lighting tip: When “idiot” lighting works….

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Photography lighting tips from the trenches

Some of the best photography lighting is also some of the most basic lighting.

Two lights, one on either side, both with the same, or near same output. Wash the subject with light.
Kinda flat, kinda boring….

We used to call this idiot lighting. Maybe we still do, as offensive as that sounds.
The truth is, there’s a time and place for it. And I use it often enough.

The key is to know when and where. For me, I use it when I need properly exposed images and I have very little time, and the lighting and scene available is tricky. A wedding is a great example. Or, in a small location shooting families at a house.

Likewise, when I’m shooting a large family, I don’t want to fuss, just get the job done, done right, I will use this lighting.

To rely on this lighting and only this lighting is very limiting however. I suppose this is where and when “idiot” applies. Being able to create portraits using a main and good use of shadows is key to being diverse and creative.

Here’s an example I will be showing in an upcoming  Lighting Mastermind
(LIGHTING MASTERMIND REPLAYS ARE HERE FOR MEMBERS)….from a  fall in-home session:

Two lights, small softboxes each  a Nikon SB800 set to manual, same output. Also set to optical slave, a flash on camera with a weak output, bounced, to fire these flashes.
The results…..Sony A7Rii 16-35 lens set to 35mm. f4 ISO400 1/60th second on a tripod.
And some fun shots of the kids…same lighting all throughout this session:

I will also use this lighting outdoors, during a wedding, especially for the formal portraits with the family.

These shots are there to document the family, and I often have little time.

Same exact lighting as above. We’re in open shade, but there was not enough area to light everyone evenly so I set up my two softboxes.
Sony A7Rii 85MM Batis lens at f4 ISO 100. Weak fill flash on camera to fire the two softboxes.


You can see the two main lights showing up in the specular catch lights.

Knowing when to use this lighting for your photography and best results is key. When I am on location I always bring enough, more than enough gear, to make sure if I need to set up this lighting I can do it. I need to stress the importance of not relying on this lighting exclusively for your photography. You risk creating images that are stale and predictable.

To be fair, there are some photo industries and photography markets where this lighting will work all the time, say for example, sporting tournament and the like or similar higher volume demands.

Yours in lighting,
Rob

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

Have you ever snored so loud you woke yourself up?

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Have you ever snored so loud you woke yourself up?

Admit it, it happened to you. Happened to me once. Happens to my wife all the time.
I know, because I sleep with her.

Funniest thing, she’s demure, barely 100 pounds soaking wet, five foot nothing and snores like a grizzly bear. Go figure.

She’s like that in business too. Unassuming and classy. Maybe some think she’s a pushover, soft, easy going.

Wrong.

They find out she’s tough, focused and all business. Soft and sweet on the outside. Grizzly bear vicious on the inside, when she needs it.

Making assumptions can cost you big.

For instance, you might have what you think is the greatest product or invention.
It solves some huge problem and you figure it’s so brain dead obvious people cannot wait to line up and buy it.

Except you find out the hard way they don’t really want that problem solved. They’d rather live with the pain that problem brings VS the pain of parting with their cash for a solution.

Never make assumptions about the buying public. It ain’t a bidness until someone steps up and gives you cash.

Here’s Tina in action from a previous Inferno, speaking on all thing studio management.

And there’s my favorite, the Selling and Upselling webinar with Tina….priceless info for anyone wanting to book tons of fairy sessions…and make some moolah…..

Don’t let her soft spoken ways fool you. There’s a dragon under there.
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 frog in the toilet!”

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True story. I know it’s true because my wife and I heard the screams coming from the bedroom upstairs.
“There’s a frog in the toilet!” our daughter Danielle belted out.

We ran upstairs. And all had a big laugh. I never heard of such a thing. And been coming here, to Costa Rica, for over ten years and this is first.

I get frogs in toilets is a thing down here. Who knew.

Life goes on, even though every time we use the can, we approach the lid with some trepidation.

Life goes on back home too…. our studio orders still get done. Our lab receives files, prints them up, and ships to our studio so when we return in two weeks we hit the ground running.

And while having a blast here in Costa Rica I still promote the studio back home with daily posts on all social media.

Last week we had a webinar with Scott Crosby on SEO strategies. It was a huge hit and many SEO myths debunked. Same strategies I use to this day.

I also work on my local SEO for our Costa Rica site…in case, just in case we end up running a photography business down here.

All things are looking good. You can see that site here.

Speaking about debunking, if you haven’t watched the lighting mastermind with James Hodgins, you’re in for some serious debunking.

This 1.5 hour presentation is jammed with hard knowledge on all things lighting, in the trenches, from real legit paid gigs. Your eyes won’t believe your eyes.

Stay frosty my friend….more to come.
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

“Pair of spare underwear and two pairs of socks….”

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I love motorcycling. It’s like a disease. But NOT that the big ‘ol biker riding in a huge condo-on-wheels with monkey bars style of riding.

I’m more in it for the fun and adventure. That’s me in the image above, riding across Canada summer of 2008 heading to Alaska.

I’m more of a “…get on my 650, point the wheels to Alaska, and crank your right hand….let’s go!”

Monday last I bonded over biking with a dude at Toastmasters. He had brought up his love for bikes in a speech.

So, we bonded over bikes, and our preferred rides. We had a lot in common. This became apparent when he said:

“Load the packsack, strap it to the tank, spare pair of underwear and two pairs of socks.”

I got it.

This idea reminds me of what it takes to run a photography business, and where I get my best ideas. And how simple it really is.

Besides living and dying by the marketing sword, I get my very best ideas, strategies, inspirations and focus from other photographers.

So, tonight, grab a spare pair and join Nancy Tillberg and myself as we chat it up during a frontline webinar.

Nancy will be talking about:
*Dance schools for added income.
*Boutique Volume (this is a pretty cool topic and relevant to the type of photos currently being sold in the industry. I focus on dance but it can apply to hockey or gymnastics as well)
*Posing dancers for sales.
*Online vs traditional sales vs in person. (very short but can be worked into the webinar if you want. It’s already a part of boutique volume.)
*Her personal beliefs and experience in diversification
*Marketing & shooting at the market … high traffic marketing (I have a satellite studio at our local Country (farmers) market and get a very large part of my business from this venue. )
*Using cell phone photography to boost the business. I currently give workshops in cell phone photography and how peeps can take better pictures using them. I also touch on what you can’t do well with a phone and why a pro should take the most precious memories. I sell accessories for cell phone cameras at my market location. This is cool because I can build relationships and friendships, sell product, and maybe even book a session.

JOIN US (members get access to the replay)
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

What they will never teach you in photography school…

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If you didn’t know any better…meaning, if you listened to everyone else, including the professors at photography school, you’d think the way to a successful career in photography would involve uber expensive lights, lenses, cameras and complicated software and more.

BUT, and this is a big but, what they won’t teach you in school is how much that’s a crock of bull.

We had an amazing lighting mastermind meeting last week with special guest and co-founder of noBs photosuccess James Hodgins.

And James was very generous in the amount of information he gave us involving his lighting strategies. Very.

See, the thing is, James is in my oh so humble and accurate opinion, one of the best lighting guys I know. I hate him 🙂

Is he a Big Name marquee celeb? Not.

Would I put him head to head, toe to toe in the photographic ring against any of the big names out there today?

In a flash (excuse the pun). And I’d bet my last dollar on him.

James has an ungodly amount of raw, innate talent and skill when it comes to working with light. He’s the real deal. (did I mention I hate him?)

And he’s just a regular small mining town, blue collar schmuck like me who likes to go fishing (a lot!) and rolls many times a week at his local jiu jitsu club.

The cooler thing is he credits me for teaching him. Ok, I’ll take that pat on the back. But the truth is, I may have started him off and kicked him in the rear, but whatever lighting monster I woke up, he created his own journey and worked at his own photography style.

And I’m just going to come right out and say this….James admits he shoots 100% jpeg, uses auto white balance, and uses every light available to him. And he makes it rock.

I can hear the gasps of air and clutching of pearls. The shock. The horror!

His images are stunning. And he’s in demand for his quality commercial and industrial photography.

Do you think they care HOW he created his images? Not in the least bit. He gets in, gets the job done FAST, and gets out, gets under budget and EVERYONE is happy.

Including his wife and his bank.

That’s the stuff they won’t teach you in photography school

But we do…The replay is HERE for members.
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