Photo Success

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Why “entitlement” is marketing poison in your photography business…

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Friends in photography,

Entitlement thinking stinks. It corrupts and ruins.

Ever see those catch tags:
“Since 1972” or similar.

As if it means something. Maybe it did at one time. But not anymore….things move too fast.

Being in business a long time does not earn you the right
to keep on getting business.

You’re in business. Earning the right to be so is a never-ending effort.

You have to prove your worth every day.

And it’s an effort worthy of all your best intentions, talents and skills.

All.

Success is your duty, your responsibility. Take it on. It’s fun!

You might say it’s a marketing thing. I certainly believe it is.

Marketing is everything and never stops.

Entitlement is one of the most poisonous forms of thinking.

Complacency breeds stagnation. Clients clue in faster and easier than
ever before.

The solution?…..

*have goals,deep, meaningful, passionate goals….this resonates throughout your life and business
*activity…be busy with marketing, networking, showing your care….showing up is important
*caring…show you care…
*pushing…c’mon man, get your shoulders behind the wheel and push!
*growing…take on personal growth like your head is on fire….self-improvement, in it’s many forms
will percolate upwards and throughout your life
*networking…get out in your community and get some real face time with everyone.

And finally….be grateful. Gratitude is powerful.

If you want to start the great decline in your photography business, then assume
you deserve to have business.

You’ll wither and die. Entitled thinking is lazy, uninspired and childish.

Sorry to sound like a downer, but sometimes I gotta point these things out.

Now get out there. And remember, photography is like a unicycle…stop peddling, and you fall off.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

The fairy effect?

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Friends in photography,

so, last month we shot about 58 fairies…..it’s becoming a thing.

A big thing. And profitable no less…..

I was explaining to some friends last night how a photography studio
needs to adapt with the changing times….and do events like Fairy Day…

I asked them if they remembered all the BIG studios we had in our area. Not so long ago.

Now, all gone. All of them. I seem to be the last man standing so to speak.

Not bragging. It ain’t no special thing. It’s just marketing.

Let’s call it the Fairy Effect….

We also had another promotion with the local Montessori school. A fundraiser.

The way I figure it, if folks pay to send their kids to school, they fit nicely
in our marketing demographics.

Choose wisely.

So, this one little girl came in for fairy day…and she also goes to Montessori.

I know, because I ask them what school. I also ask what they were for Halloween, what their
favorite movie (Frozen!) is and what sports they’re into. Plus if they have  a boyfriend….:)..

I converse non-stop and connect.

So, this one girl, sweet as pie, as most of them are, came in  week later with her family.

Mom, Dad, brother, for our Montessori family fundraiser we had going on.

This was NOT the same girl. During the family session, total badass.

I was baffled. Told Tina that it must have been the “fairy effect”. Little girls
seem to go into some strange mellowed out fairy mode during the fairy sessions.

I don’t know how else to explain it.

But in the end, who cares?  I know that fairy sessions work. They’re popular.

And marketing, really pushing the marketing, such as working with local private schools,
and never, ever sitting on our laurels is essential for on going, long term success.

I brought up my Montessori and Fairy Day gigs in the recent Marketing Mastermind meetings….

Members can access all replays, and news on upcoming meetings, here.

We have these every month, of course. Because it’s essential.

Very, very essential. Join us….

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

The day I saved the world…

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dracula-intro-nosferatuFriends in photography,

Everyday I drive by the blood services building. They have a sign outside, beckoning to all
for blood donations.

They need blood.

Being the good guy I am, I decided maybe it was time I tried to save
the world by giving away some of my precious life giving blood.

Besides, I really wanted to know what blood type I was, for whatever self serving reason.

I just wanted to know.

My doctor couldn’t tell me. He did say when I donate blood they would tell me.

So I sauntered in, ready.
Convinced my blood was going to be the rarest of the rare.

The first thing they do is settle me into a side room with the vampire nurse.

This vampire nurse knows all about blood and explains the process to me,
since it’s my first time.

She explains hemoglobins. And tells me she’s going to draw some blood
to test my hemoglobin level.

Hemoglobins are good, apparently. I’m convinced my blood is so rich in them
they’d put me in a rare category of blood donors.

She pulls out a skin pricking blood sucking tool and jabs my fingers.

A large pool of blood comes out, she dabs it, puts it in a machine that reads the hemoglobins.

Turns out I’m average.

I so wanted to be special. Above average.

We all want to be special, don’t we? Even if it means we have rare life giving blood type.

Helping others, being special, saving the world….it’s a thing.

More importantly, I want to be above average to my clients. I want my business to be so too.

Do I achieve this? More often than not, I hope.

It seems to be working out. Our business is good. Life is good.

Mama’s happy, everyone’s happy.

In the spirit if giving blood and saving the world, tomorrow night I am
hosting another information rich presentation on shooting real estate photography.

With Ken Frazer. This guy is good. And he has created an amazing system for creating
high quality and fast images.

Members can access the registration here.

Not a member? It’s a meager twenty bucks to access it (Canadian funds, no less), and thousands of other high quality presentations on marketing, success, lighting, posing and more…..

It’s better than blood. Doing my best to save the world.

Join us

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

What do King Arthur and Pixar have in common?

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Friends in photography,

Every month I like to host two live online meetings
….MasterMind meetings….one for marketing, one for lighting.

The term mastermind sounds a tad evil, as if I am seeking world domination.

But it’s not. In fact, the term comes from the very best self improvement
and business book ever…Think & Grow Rich.

Or maybe King Arthur and the round table mythos.

It’s one of the founding principles to success.

You could call it brainstorming I suppose. Whatever you call it, matters not.

It works.

That’s all that matters.

It works.

Just ask anyone over at Pixar. They seem to have this down pat.

When I read the book “Creativity Inc”, by Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar,
it became clear that they use meetings as one of the key strategies when
developing movies.

Their success and track record sez it all dude.

Last night I decided to host our November meeting…..by myself.

The reasons are explained in the replay,
which you can download or watch here.

It’s almost an hour long. I go over many marketing promotions and give you an “over-my-shoulder” peek into the marketing success behind my photography business.

The November lighting mastermind replay, as well as all other
marketing and lighting replays (all 24K gold I might add) are in the forum as well.

Enjoy, grow, prosper in business and in photography.

Be like Pixar, and King Arthur.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

“I’m gonna cry….do people normally cry??…”

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crying

Friends in photography,

I was in the back area of our studio working away, listening to clients come and go.

We have an endless flow of clients coming through this time of the year all scheduled
to see the images from their sessions.

It’s that time of the year. I used to call it insanity season, we’d get so busy.

Or better said: “Make hay when the sun shines.”

This one lady comes in with her husband. They had had a session outdoors the week prior.
It went well. She was pumped.

As soon as Tina started going through the previews she says…
“Oh my, I’m gonna cry. Do people normally cry?…”

She was looking for permission to get emotional. This was her family.

It’s also been said: “They buy when they cry.”

I always thought this a tad crass, but, it’s true.

This is all part of the reality of selling our photography, making them feel
a powerful emotional connection.

And, I’ll admit, I’ll do whatever I can to bring on the tears.

You don’t bring on this kind of connection by offering a best price, low ball offer…
You know, session and CD with files….in and out.

That type of offer and interaction actually kills emotion. At a deep level
they actually do not respect you.  Getting tears from that is near impossible.

Creating a well known brand, giving them the best experience possible during the consultation, the actual session and the viewing…yea baby. Turn the tap on and make ’em cry.

So they buy.

In the end it’s a win win. How could you ask for anything else?

It’s a sales game baby. Accept it, get used to it, implement it and make some shekels.

Zig Ziglar used to say: “Shy sales people have skinny kids.”

I’d say it this way:

It’s why marketing is so, so important.

Want to know more? I pour my heart out for you.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

Why there is no career path in photography…

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successNext week is my annual trek to the local high school to speak on photography to all the young bright eyed students.

Mostly 15 yr old girls with big dreams about becoming a photographer.

The first thing I tell them shatters their dreams.

I don’t mean to be mean, I want to help them. The worst thing would be to feed them a pack of lies.

I can’t do that. And sending them down a road with no future.

“There is no career path in photography” I tell them.

“This is not like becoming a teacher, an accountant, a doctor, engineer…
where you follow a structured step-by-step plan. It does not exist.”

I continue…“If you want to take a college or university level photography program for the sake of learning photography, that’s fine. But, if you want to make a career and
make money, then you should take a business course. Forget about the degree in photography.

It’s a waste of time. Think about your favorite musician. Do they have a formal education? Likely not. Learn to run a business so you can make money. Learning photography is the easy part. Everything is on youtube.”

I show them samples of what I do in my photography business….weddings, babies, families,
executive  and grad portraits and some commercial photography.

“Besides, going to school will not give you passion and ambition for photography. Only you can bring that to the game.”

Doing my part.

What I don’t tell them is the struggles, the pains, the frustrations that come to bear.

They’ll figure that out on their own, if they choose this path.

If they are ambitious, eager, passionate about business, selling, and photography,
they will find  a way.

I did. And the successful photographers I know all know this basic truth:
You don’t need a formal education any more than a coffee shop owner or baker or butcher needs one.

Having a degree and a brain filled with academia will get you no where fast. It’s one of those industries where your laurels quickly become wreaths and covered in cobwebs.

Unless you move, move, move…and don’t stop moving.

It’s why I write these emails. It actually helps keep me in check.

It’s why I do goals.

It’s why I created so many business based resources, mostly to do with marketing, for and by professional photographers.

It keeps me in check. So my laurels don’t become dusty old wreaths.

HERE

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher

Why RAW is a total crock….

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18th century --- Danish School painting --- Image by © The Gallery Collection/Corbis

Friends in photography,

Go ahead. Hate me. I got enough scars on my body from all the arrows
flung at me over the years.

I can take it.

Thing is, I don’t care.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, my clients don’t care, nor give a rats’ pittout
what file format I shoot their work in.

And I’m talking real clients. Not some portfolio of hot girls photographed in
a ‘portfolio’ building workshop either.

Or a bunch of images shot during travels.

I’m talking real sessions, where real people called me,
eager to pay me, and in the end, leave my studio with my creations, smiling.

Their money in my pockets. Everyone happy.

And at the end of the week, when I total up my bank deposits,
the bank teller doesn’t ask me: “did you make this money shooting RAW? Or JPEG?…”

NO one cares….no one.

Well, sorry, some people do.

It seems many photographers care whether other photographers shoot RAW.

It’s like a religion. And you better get on board.

Or, sweeennngggg, off with your head.

Weird, I know. I don’t get it. But it’s there.

My main droog and jpeg shooter James Hodgins and I used to wear T-Shirts at conventions.

Big ones too, like WPPI…. and such.

On the back it said: “Real men shoot JPEG”

🙂

We liked having a few laughs.

We also had some that said: “MAC…whatever.”

Shooting RAW, using a  MAC, creating images on your Canon DSLR
and 1.8 prime lens makes not a photography business.

Ask my accountant. And get over it. I am. And was, a long, long time ago.

Come hate me some more over here.

I’ll show you what really matters when building a successful, long term, and profitable
photography business.

And it’s got nothing to do with file types, computers and cameras.

Yours in photography and success,
Robert Provencher