Are you an artist or an attention whore?
Ouch.
Okay, normally I'm not so hard on you guys.
But I've got to give you some tough love for a minute - it's for your own good.
Some of you don't want to be professional photographers.
You're reading PTP, you're taking some photos, you're dreaming of the camera gear you want to have and the professional image and recognition that comes with owning your own creative business.
But...why?
If you're stagnant - if you're procrastinating on launching, or finalizing your pricing, or perfecting every pixel of your web site instead of hustling paid photo shoots...you have to ask yourself an important question:
"Am I an artist or an attention whore?"
Do you want to hustle? Do you want to market yourself in your community? Do you want to learn to sell so well that you're able to perfectly match a client to a product offering, and maximize your profits in the process? Do you have a heart of service for your clients? Do you want to fail forward and fail faster? Do you want work as much on your business and marketing as on your art?
Or do you just want attention?
Hey, it's human nature - we all want to be liked, to be popular, and especially as artists, to be recognized for the work we do. We all love the Likes, the kind words, the glowing testimonials.
But, if you feel stuck in first gear with your business, is it because you don't really want to own and run a business? Do you just want the attention of a professional photographer?
Let me be first to raise my hand: I went through a years-long phase of shooting for attention and the social high, benefiting neither my business nor my bank account. I can't tell you how many hours I poured into shooting local sports, into six-hour 'fashion' photo shoots, getting attention for attention's sake.
My MySpace friends list was full, but my bank account was empty.
There's nothing wrong with creating art for fun, creative expression, or even out-and-out attention.
Attention is fantastic for business...
...when it's leveraged into paid work.
If you're ready to be a paid professional, to grow your business into a blessing for your community and your finances, you have to transmute attention into business.
This is marketing alchemy.
This is what separates paid professionals from looky-loos.
If you're just in this for attention - you're in no rush to get paid, you 'just want to make enough to pay for the hobby,' you spend more time on Facebook than creating art, you've been 'building your portfolio' with free shoots for years, you've read 13 blogs and books and magazines this week on photography and camera gear and not one on small business or marketing, you're talking about becoming a professional photographer but taking no steps and making no tangible progress...
It's okay.
No judgment here.
You don't have to change anything you're doing. I'm truly not trying to make you feel bad, or call you out in a bad way.
Your photography, your business, and everything you do within it, and every reason you do it, is yours to manage and enjoy; never forget, you do this because you want to, and you're always in charge.
But I don't think you're here because you just want attention.
If you're elbows deep in PTP, if you're reading these words, you're more than ready for more than just transient attention.
You're ready to take bold steps.
You're ready to finalize that price list, settle on a name for your business, and land your first paid clients.
You're ready to step up, take risks, fail forward, focus, to take action and not just read and dream.
You're ready to check off that to-do list.
You're ready to take action, to put yourself out there, even if you do it wrong - to take imperfect action.
You're ready to disappoint a client, kick yourself in the ass, learn, then get over it and move on.
You're ready to make mistakes - and learn from them.
You're ready to schedule the time every day, every week, to make your dream of being a professional photographer a reality - baby steps.
You're ready to put a stake in the ground, finalize the 'details' of your business, and start doing business instead of just (over)preparing for it.
You're ready to leverage every ounce of attention you get with your art into testimonials, referrals, marketing mojo, repeat clientele: money in the bank.
You're ready.
You're here. Right now. You're ready.
You are not an attention whore. You may have been acting like one for too long, but we're on the march now; we're professionals, and we're done with the procrastination horsesh*t that has turned our blazing passion and limitless potential into a slog through deep mud.
I had to learn to do this with my photojournalism for the local paper.
Instead of just soaking up the attention of a great front page photo from under the Friday Night Lights, I learned to make the ask: when complimented on my work, I'd steer the conversation to my professional services, and seek out the needs of my potential client then and there.
I'd make the ask; I'd ask for their business in that very moment.
And I got it almost every single time.
Leverage.
I learned to do this with my fashion work. Few styles get as much attention from the hip, artistic, and young (read: lucrative high school seniors), as fashion photography. Every Facebook Like and comment becomes an opportunity to make the ask and land a new client.
Attention is a good thing.
Even more so, in my book (and I believe in yours too), when that attention is alchemically transformed into hundred dollar bills.
When I pose the question, "Do you really want to be a professional photographer?", it's okay if you don't truly know - if you're not blazingly sure you're up for all this.
But I implore you:
Try.
If you've come this far, if you have the spark of a professional artist within you, I can't encourage you enough to try. Make a go of it. Give it all you've got.
If down the road you're unhappy, if you're burning out because you can't find a way to enjoyably balance your art with business, then stop.
I'll say again: your business is by you and for you. Verily, you're a blessing to your community and clients in the art you create for them, but you're the boss - you never have to do anything you don't want to.
You can always go back to creating art for the pure enjoyment of it.
You can always go back to just shooting, processing, and posting for attention; for funsies.
But I believe you've got a lot more in you, and that's why you're here.
Dive head-first outside of your comfort zone. Learn who you are, and what you're capable of. Challenge yourself. Strive. Persevere. Dream, and Do.
Start where you are
I love being a professional photographer.
I love the creativity, the wonderful clients who become lifelong friends, I love volunteering and serving my community, and I love that the money I earn with my art blesses my family with comforts and life experiences we couldn't otherwise afford.
An inherent interest in the business, marketing, and sales of professional photography is in no way a prerequisite to success.
Start where you are.
There is no right way, no perfect course of action; hell, even the 'best practices' aren't surefire keys to success.
Success is a process - it's trying new things, guided by the knowledge you gain from books and blogs and fellow photographers, and failure is a big part of that process. You have to fail forward, make mistakes, even embarrass yourself a few times.
But that's what professional success looks like. It looks like perseverance, tenacity, hunger, focus, failure, practice, learning, attention, leverage, humility, and courage.
Where you are today is not where you will be tomorrow. The world is turning, whether you choose to make your move or not. If you're not taking action, even just baby steps, the world - and your dream - is passing you by.
You're here, you're breathing, and you have a camera in your hand.
That's called opportunity.
Now: Try.
Next Steps
- Get unstuck. Right now. I know there's at least one, two, a few things burning in your mind right now, ways you know you're procrastinating because you've been satisfied with attention and dreaming instead of taking bold steps to be the professional you dream of. What decisions do you need to make? What stake can you drive in the ground right now in making your business real? What brave thing will you do today?
- Brainstorm session: get out your pen and paper. There's a road between where you are this moment and where you need to be to call yourself a professional, to be ready to ask for and land paid work. What does that road look like? What are the baby steps between here and there? Don't worry about what you don't know, no map identifies every pebble or crack in the road. Take the time to lay out every single baby step, every action big or small you can think of that will get you to the point where you'll choose to ask for and earn paid photography work (I word it this way for a reason: you will never be 'ready,' there will never be a 'right' time). Schedule the time, as little as five minutes a day, on your calendar for the coming week to work on these steps. Add them to your to-do list. Then do it, step by step by step, no matter how confused or lost or imperfect you feel about it; keep moving forward. File this away in your Brainstorms folder (and schedule the time on your calendar a month from now to pull this out and check off everything you've accomplished - which if you do the work, I guarantee, you'll be amazed at how far you've come in just 30 days).
- My writing at PartTimePhoto.com exists to serve your needs as an amateur photographer making the transition to paid professional. I appreciate and welcome your readership, and invite you to subscribe to my e-mail newsletter at the top of any page of this site.
- What's the biggest struggle holding you back right now? E-mail me your answer (yes, right now!), and let's make a breakthrough today.
- If anything in this post has spoken to and inspired you, please comment below, drop me an e-mail, or call or text me at 830-688-1564 and let me know. I'd love to hear how you use these ideas to better your part time photography business!
