Decide and move on
Here's a challenge:
You have one hour from the time you read this blog post to finalize (for now) your pricing, policies, and "all the other details" you've been hung up on.
There are no right answers, so trust your gut.
You can change everything anytime.
But you need to get past the stagnation of being "baked in the squat" as Ziglar would say - 100% of your time and energy should be going into getting people in front of your camera.
Absolutely everything else will evolve with experience, but that evolution won't come if you're not actively shooting. You will read and research and discuss and debate and ponder and think your way into photographer limbo.
Take action right now to choose anything, commit to stick with it long enough to see how it does and doesn't work out, and then immediately redirect all of your energy toward getting and staying booked solid.
Dare ya. :)
E-mail me and let me know what decisions you made because of this post.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. This applies to everything in your life: your relationships, your friendships, your job, your home, your self, your health, your project, and your photography business. Being stuck anywhere in life leaves you stuck everywhere else in life. Somebody needs to hear this today... What decisions do you need to make right now to get your life back in flow?
Do you want ease, or fulfillment?
"The problem isn't that we're lazy or incapable - it's just that we're not doing the work that's going to enable us to thrive."
Charlie Gilkey, Start Finishing
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
Listen, you know where this is going, and I'm first in line to be convicted of this unconscious seeking of comfort.
You're not working on what matters most.
You're not doing the work that will make a difference. You're doing the work that's easiest.
You are on the path of least resistance.
I totally get it - that downhill path is soooo easy to walk. You don't even break a sweat.
The problem is, you and I are artists, and we're entrepreneurs. We don't get fulfillment from a life of ease - our fulfillment comes from breaking things. Creative breakthroughs. Breaking through walls, through obstacles, through crowds of naysayers and doubters. Breaking through those old voices in our heads telling us the same old crap about how we can't, we shouldn't, and we never will.
Make a choice. Now.
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
I bet you know what to do next.
Want to talk about it? E-mail me and let me know what's on your heart. I read every e-mail, and I'm always in your corner.
James Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Ease vs. fulfillment as a professional photographer
"The problem isn't that we're lazy or incapable - it's just that we're not doing the work that's going to enable us to thrive."
Charlie Gilkey, Start Finishing
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
Listen, you know where this is going, and I'm first in line to be convicted of this unconscious seeking of comfort.
You're not working on what matters most.
You're not doing the work that will make a difference. You're doing the work that's easiest.
You are on the path of least resistance.
I totally get it - that downhill path is soooo easy to walk. You don't even break a sweat.
The problem is, you and I are artists, and we're entrepreneurs. We don't get fulfillment from a life of ease - our fulfillment comes from breaking things. Creative breakthroughs. Breaking through walls, through obstacles, through crowds of naysayers and doubters. Breaking through those old voices in our heads telling us the same old crap about how we can't, we shouldn't, and we never will.
Make a choice. Now.
Do you want ease or fulfillment?
I bet you know what to do next.
Want to talk about it? E-mail me and let me know what's on your heart. I read every e-mail, and I'm always in your corner.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
Testing your faith, or faithfully testing? Three months to a better photography business
The frustrations of being an artist-entrepreneur test your faith, right?
Faith in yourself, faith in these possibilities, faith in whether or not you should even bother trying so hard.
Instead of testing your faith, how about we faithfully test?
Just for a few months...
If you feel stagnant and frustrated, here's my challenge to you:
1. Choose a path forward:
Whatever you feel is holding you back from making better photos and earning more clients, choose a path to solve the problem. Stop trying to be perfect, stop trying to figure out every possible outcome, stop having FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) about all the things you're NOT choosing so you can follow this path forward... And choose how you're going to take bold, clear, tangible action to fix what isn't working - OR to test something fun, fresh, new, different, to see if it DOES work for you. This is your TEST.
2. Commit to this path for the next three months:
Whatever you're testing - photography techniques, bravery challenges, how you ask people to do business with you and how often (protip: more is good) - COMMIT to test this path for the next three months. ALL IN. Burn the boats, there's no going back. Just commit your full energy, attention, available time, and heart to really giving this test everything you can give it to be successful.
3. Evaluate at the end:
Set a calendar reminder on a day you can set aside 30-90 minutes and EVALUATE your results. What were you trying to accomplish? What were you trying to make happen? What was different because you chose this path and committed fully to it? Did you see the results you wanted? Why or why not?
And, vitally...
4. Pivot:
What worked? What didn't? What do you want to TEST differently for the next three months to see if it works better, based on this new knowledge - new data - you have to work with because you really gave it your all over the last three months?
Simple, but not easy.
The Resistance will show up. Distraction will lure you away. Self-defeat will try and reign.
It's okay for this to be hard. This is your opportunity to overcome where others quit. This is where you hurt, but learn, and grow, and get better.
"I want to be better."
Choose. Commit. Try hard. Be patient. Have faith. Test and evaluate and pivot.
Be better.
What's stopping you? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
How do you want to feel in 2019?
"To do what is just with all one's soul, and to tell the truth. What remains for you to do but enjoy life, linking each good thing to the next, without leaving the slightest interval between them?" - Marcus Aurelius
Danielle LaPorte's The Desire Map has been my most recommended book of 2018.
So many of us have some system in place for goals, but often those goals are technical: I want more clients, I want more money, I want to make more and better photos with more confidence.
Good goals, of course.
But a powerful shift I've experienced in 2018 has been redesigning my life goals around how I want to FEEL.
Three powerful questions to help you prepare for 2019:
- What were some experiences this year that made you feel a way you DON'T want to feel?
- What were some experiences this year that made you feel how you DO want to feel?
- What can you do differently in 2019 to feel LESS of what you don't and MORE of what you do want to feel?
This is some 30,000-foot work, as Covey would call it. And unless your body and being and balance and business are exactly how you want them, there's worthwhile work to be done to get at HOW you're going to make 2019 better than 2018.
Write out your thoughts on these questions, and/or e-mail me at james@banderaoutlaw.com and share them with me - I read every e-mail, and I really am here to help however I can.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. ProTip: If you want to engage this exercise but can't right now, open your calendar app and block the time to do so, as soon as possible - tonight if you can. This may be the most powerful thing you do to reprogram how good your new year is going to be.
Are you a professional photographer or an information collector?
This one might hurt... If it does, I'm sorry, but it had to be said to me to get me unstuck, and I'm hoping it will help you do the same.
Let's take off our masks for a minute. Get real with me, raw, honest, vulnerable, no ego.
Are you really a professional photographer?
Or an information collector?
You know what I'm talking about...the fact that you're reading this blog right now might itself be a sign that you are more collector than photographer.
Pop quiz:
- Do you spend more time making photographs or reading about / watching videos about making photographs?
- Do you spend more time talking to potential clients or reading about what to say (sales & marketing) to potential clients?
- Do you spend more time talking to strangers about your business or talking to your friends about your business?
Eeeeeeeeeesh... I am 100% convicted by every one of these questions.
Which is why my dear friend Steve Arensberg recently had the "come to Jesus" talk with me... That talk broke my pattern of mental masturbation (should I do this or that? what's the perfect next step? what's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?) and got me to DO THE WORK and hit PUBLISH on my art, my new book, Freemium Photography.
One of my beta readers, Laci Reynolds, said this was one of the most powerful lines in the whole book:
"Your photography can’t change anything for the better - not your life, not your family, not your friends, not your community, not your market, not the world - if you never do anything with it."
This is why I ask the hard question of you today, my friend:
Are you a professional photographer or an information collector?
If you're the latter today, it's totally okay: the very first step is admitting you have a problem.
The next is to do something about it.
A powerful challenge: stop reading, stop watching videos, stop buying books and workbooks and courses - including mine... And don't consume one more word of 'information' until you are ready to implement and take action.
Read one word, one sentence, one chapter at a time, and then take action on it.
Watch one video at a time, then take action on it.
Read one blog post, or e-mail, then take action on it.
Stop the mental masturbation of consuming information and feeling like you've made progress because of it.
Proof is in the production, right?
What action have you produced, what change have you produced, what client- or market- or even self-facing improvement have you produced as a result of what you've just read or watched?
Sometimes that production is private: "I am making the personal rule right now that I will not consume one more e-mail, blog post, book, or video unless I'm ready to stop and take action on what I learn."
Sometimes that production is public: "I am calling Stacy right now to ask if I can interview her for a testimonial, and then I'm putting that testimonial with her photo on my web site and social media pages."
But there must be fruit for all the time you're spending in the garden.
If there's not yet, or very little to show for your time, that's 100% okay - there is no time like right now to change.
It can be scary. And confusing. And frustrating.
But you can do this.
I've done it. I've drifted and had to come back and make that change from consumption to creation and connection over and over again. To err is human, right?
Grace. Forgiveness. But, then, change.
Don't know how? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com
P.S. Ready to 'start over' and take action? Pick up a copy of my new book Freemium Photography, and work your way through chapter by chapter, taking notes and action every step of the way.
How do I keep people from printing my low-res photography files?
Well...
You can't.
Yes yes, you can bring to bear a few dozen technical measures (watermarking, disabling right-clicks, image tiling, image masking...) and put the most threatening language on your web site, contract, and license...
But you can't stop people from doing pretty much anything they want to do.
And when they do violate your rules, you can seek every venue from public shaming to legal letters to lawsuits to punish them for their transgression.
But...
Dang...
Call me a free-lovin' hippie, but that's a lot of negative vibes, maaaan.
Let's shift the conversation from prevention and punishment to enabling and encouragement.
Here's what's worked for me:
1. Give people what they want.
2. Give it to them at a price they can afford.
3. Give them the knowledge and understanding they need to see the value.
Here are some examples of what this may look like as your photography business grows:
Startup: In the early days as a professional photographer, the shortest path to success is the one with massive acceleration. So shoot for free, give people digital files, encourage them to print big and hang on the wall so they get the maximum social and emotional value out of their art. Do in-person proofing and 'sales' even if you're trading out the files for practice, portfolio pieces, and social capital (testimonials, introductions, etc.). This keeps proofs offline, encourages the purchase or appreciation, and gives you the opportunity to educate the client on how best to enjoy the art you've made together.
Intermediate: If you're digital-centric like me, learn to make a wide variety of great images fast, and sell digital packages full of photos your clients "can't live without." If you want to shift to print, start the process of evolving your art, the language around your work, your target market, and your sales sessions to focus on the experience and value of big prints.
Advanced: Level up your art until the demand is high among the more discerning clientele in your market. Sell digital files at wall art prices. Or sell wall art at wall art prices. Make fewer, better photos.
Keep in mind, clients aren't buying your photographs; they're buying the feelings your photographs enable for them, and the experience that's crafted to elicit and explore those feelings. The more you focus on the feelings of your work rather than the facts of it (size, discounts, paper, ink, session length, megapixels...), the faster you'll connect with your market and see the success you're hungry for.
Not sure how to do this? E-mail me and let me know.
James Michael Taylor
www.parttimephoto.com