The power of taking more photos
In the world of sales, there is a classic truism:
"If you want to make more money, make more sales calls."
Once you've got your prospect list and lead generation down pat, the only thing left to do is Make The Ask.
The more you ask, the better you get at it - the more comfortable, confident, articulate, and effective you get at asking for someone's business.
There are reasonable limits, a point of burnout and diminishing returns, but you can figure the guy or gal who's trying a little harder than everyone else is going to grow faster - in their role and in their wallet.
This is true also for your photography business - if you're just sitting around waiting for the tour bus to show up with a year's clientele onboard, that bus ain't gonna come.
But today let's translate this concept into your art.
"If you want to make more money, make more photos."
I can almost guarantee you aren't taking enough photos.
(If you felt your gut tighten a bit, you know I'm right.)
Deeper, I'd bet a dollar to a donut that you're not shooting enough photos of your ideal clients.
"Well derp James, if I were booked solid with my ideal clients, I'd be too busy counting my money to read your blog!"
I'm not talking here just about paid shoots.
The typical startup photographer is closer to doing one photo shoot or less each month, paid or free.
That's not enough.
Unless that's your vision of success (which I fully support), that's just not enough.
If your goal is to be booked 52 weeks out of the year, you need to be shooting 52 weeks out of the year, whether you're getting paid or not.
Especially early on as a startup, you need momentum. You need a habit of booking and shooting. You need to grow and improve your portfolio. You need referrals, examples, experience.
Pick a regular day of the week, and do whatever it takes to be booked that day, every week, week in and week out.
If your schedule is too wild to lock down a steady day each week, get on your calendar and start marking what days you have available, on every week, and make sure you're booked for those dates.
Paid or not.
You will grow vastly more as an artist and business owner by booking and shooting 52 shoots in 52 weeks than 12 shoots in 52 weeks.
I'm not talking about money.
I'm talking about growth.
The PTP shooting 52 weeks out of the year versus the PTP shooting 12 weeks out of the year, paid or not:
- Is going to be over four times more experienced;
- Will have four times as many testimonials, references and referrals;
- Will have four times as much art to build their portfolio and marketing pieces from;
- Is going to be exposed to four times as many unexpected opportunities;
- Is going to have found and tested four times as many locations;
- Will be seen four times as much out shooting in the community;
- Will have learned, practiced, tested and experimented with four times as many techniques;
- Will be four times more comfortable and confident behind the camera.
The list goes on.
And I would submit that 52-week shooter will be four years ahead of the 12-week shooter sitting at their computer wondering why their business is growing so slowly.
The grognards will hoot and holler, saying every time you do a free shoot you're ruining the value of your art and putting a dent in the portraiture industry.
I disagree.
Especially in the startup phase when you're just getting off the ground, earning those first paying clients and getting your name out there as a professional photographer, you need traction - this is when you need the greatest acceleration in your artistic and business growth.
That artistic growth is going to come from purposeful learning and practice.
That business growth is going to come from getting your art in front of your target market.
Multiply those gains by keeping yourself booked solid.
If you're two to four weeks out from a shooting day and you don't have a paying client booked, it's time to hustle:
- Hold a contest (via a coop partner business, via your e-mail list or social) - give away a photo shoot for your open date. Leverage contest entries as a way to grow your e-mail list, get more fans on social, collect testimonials from existing clients, have clients give you introductions to referrals, have fans share your contest and/or favorite photos on social. You can get a lot of value out of that giveaway photo shoot.
- Be on the lookout for someone you want to photograph. Not just a pretty face, but someone interesting who fits your target market. Have business cards ready; approach that person, introduce yourself, and let them know you have an opening in your schedule and that you'd like to add them to your portfolio. If they decline, ask if they know anyone who might enjoy a free photo shoot on that date. Get the referral, and contact that person - remember: folks in your target market are friends with folks in your target market.
- Approach your church or favorite local charity - there are so many ways to leverage those relationships: offer to freshen the professional headshots of the board members; ask who their best volunteer is, and offer to gift that volunteer with a photo shoot on behalf of the board; do the same for the entity's largest donor; offer to do a fundraiser mini-shoot on your open date, have the church or charity do the selling for you within their networks; ask if they'd like to set up a photo story shoot to tell about who they benefit, and how; animal shelters love having professional pet portraits to help with adoptions; if there's a fundraiser raffle or silent auction coming up, donate your open shoot date. Understand their needs and see how you can keep yourself booked solid while helping others and getting face time with great potential clients.
- Book with someone you know is a good sport, especially a thespian or performer, and make that shoot 100% experimentation - you're not allowed to take a single photo you've taken before or normally would fall back on during a shoot. Fill your binder with ideas and tutorials and guides to make specific shots, and go hog wild on this shoot. You'll get a lot more misses than hits, but these shoots are a boon for your artistic breadth. If you find some experimental shots that really intrigue you to start using with clients, set up a shoot on your next open date to do nothing but experiment with that one shot, a full hour of really drilling down the best places, times, lighting, subjects, posing, settings, wardrobe, backgrounds to make that specific image the best it can be.
- Get with your local newspaper or magazine editor and see who in your community they would like to see a photo story on. Coordinate with that person for your open shooting date, and spend some time with them telling their story through photos. Or just ask your friendly editor if there's anything going on that day that you could shoot for the paper (and there's always something going on).
- Go back to basics. Pull out your Photography 101 book and go lesson by lesson through its pages - but with a live subject. Whether you're tasked with shooting landscape or macro, for color or for pattern, using framing or the rule of thirds, studying texture or orientation, zooming with your lens or your feet, trying new apertures or shutter speeds - do it live, with a live subject. Consider each task a challenge to incorporate your subject into the practice work; give your creative side a challenge, a puzzle to piece together.
- Recreate a favored children's story in photos. Plan wardrobe, location, 'scenes', etc. If you do nothing but work with one little boy or girl and their stuffed animals, you'll get a fantastical photo story piece to add to your portfolio and share on social. Be childlike in your imagination.
- Spend an hour with a child in their room. Set up where you can get great windowlight shots, and let that kid show you their toys, their dreams, their drawings, their personalities.
- Practice your street photography. If you're too nervous to do this in your own town, go to a neighboring town. Find interesting people on the street, photograph them, talk to them, learn their stories - you'll never want for great content to share on social and your blog. Street photography teaches invaluable lessons to the PTP - approachability, escaping your comfort zone, establishing quick rapport, sharing your elevator speech, handling rejection, and most importantly, Making The Ask. (None beat Humans of New York in this niche)
- Pinterest. That's all I have to say. If you can't find an hour or two of fun photo ideas from every visit to Pinterest, your imagination needs a shot in the arse.
- Don't limit yourself to the same people you've shot for free over and over again. Always be looking to expand your network.
The options are endless. So are the benefits.
Maximize those benefits by asking every subject for a referral, a testimonial, a model release, an introduction, a Like on social, a Share on social, a five-star review online, an e-mail address.
Paid or not, get yourself booked solid, and don't be afraid of reaching out to new people and trying new ideas. Have fun. Challenge yourself artistically and socially.
However much you're shooting right now, it's probably not enough - at least not what it could be if you were taking your dream seriously and investing into your art and business what you want to get out of it.
Next Steps
- Do it: lock down one day a week, same date and time each week if possible (I like an hour-and-a-half before sunset for location work), and make 52 shoots happen this year. As you grow as an artist and marketer, the paid shoots will come - the goal of course is to get you booked solid shooting paying clients you love. But until that time, hustle.
- Brainstorm session: get out your pen and paper. Come up with 52 fun, free, challenging photo shoot ideas you can execute. Little Red Riding Hood photo story? Headshots for a fellow local business owner? A shoot where the subject is upside down in every image? Why the hell not? After you've made your master list, flesh out each idea: Where? Who? What do you need? When best during the day or year? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- 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!
How do people know you're a professional photographer?
"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good." Ecclesiastes 11:6, The King James Bible
"Er'ry day I'm hust-a-lin'" - Rick Ross
If you're not getting any business, it may well be because nobody knows you're a photographer.
[Geez, it's the little things that get us sometimes, right?]
Okay, your mom knows, a few Facebook friends have seen your announcement about going pro, but shaking hands with someone at the PTO meeting, or stepping past someone on the sidewalk - how do they know you're a professional photographer?
We all fall into the passive marketing trap: "I'm just going to quietly hang my shingle over here and see who wants to book."
We feel safer this way, as though each booking is a pleasant surprise.
But with the competition the digital age has brought, getting those first (and continuing) paid shoots is a hustler's game.
You're gonna have to work for it.
Let me focus here on just the "How would they know?" question.
When it comes to marketing, you never know what will work at all, much less work best (if you did, you'd be busy counting your money instead of reading this) - you truly never know which seeds will grow.
I'm a fan of planting lots and lots of seeds.
When someone calls or e-mails to book, you want them to say, "I see you everywhere!"
Not you personally (though there's some of that)...
Your art. Your name. Your business. Your brand.
When people see you on the street, how do they know you're a professional photographer?
Does your clothing tell them? Do you have an embroidered shirt or hat? A nice magnetic name tag? A lanyard with your business card, photographer credentials, or press pass (from your freelance work for the local paper)?
Are you carrying your camera? Not your smartphone, not your point and shoot - I mean the big one that says, "I'm serious about my art." (if you're still sporting the P&S or even smartphone camera, no disrespect - you know I believe like Chase Jarvis the best camera is the one you have with you - if you're sans-dSLR, work what'cha got; be seen taking interesting photos, no matter what you use to capture them)
Are you being seen taking photos? Have you considered incorporating a high-traffic location into your free / portfolio-building shoots so you can be seen shooting in public? What about doing a shoot in a high-traffic area just so you can be seen? A weekly shoot at the same public location (a friendly cafe, a scenic downtown sidewalk), same time, every week?
How about a custom-printed camera strap? Or strap cover? With your business name, or your web portfolio address (especially if it's the same as your business name!).
Do you have an elevator pitch? A tagline? A short and intriguing, 30-second introduction to your photography business and how you differentiate from everyone else? When you meet someone, do you share this with them? Do you tell people you're a professional photographer? I tell folks, "By day I'm a journalist, but by 5 o'clock I'm a senior portrait photographer." Then I can expand: "I love the energy, excitement, and bold personalities of seniors. I'm just a big kid, and I love getting to be creative in making photos the seniors and their parents can enjoy forever." It doesn't even have to be a great shpeel - but know your honest talking points ahead of time.
How do you feel about your business cards? If you're not excited to hand them out, go back to the drawing board - or better yet, hire a designer (through Fiverr, through 99designs, trade-out with a designer friend, by whatever means you can) and let them do the design work for you. Put those business cards everywhere. Those It Works! reps we all know and love from Facebook? They're masters of putting their business cards on every bulletin board and counter top in the county.
Where do your people shop? Where do they get their hair done? Where do they take their kids for play dates? Where do they stop for coffee? Are you there? Are you shopping, eating, drinking, and frequenting the places your target market does? Whether you do or don't, do you have a flyer there? A partnership? A display? Portraits hanging on the walls? If you're a children's photographer, does your local pediatrician have your portraits of his patients hanging on the walls of his waiting rooms and exam rooms?
Are you a sponsor of the events your people attend? Are you a volunteer with the charities your people support? If you're a senior photographer, are you the official photographer for the prom fashion show fundraiser? Are you on the after-graduation church lock-in party committee? If you're a pet photographer, are you a volunteer with the local welfare society? Are you showing your alignment with your clients' interests and values?
Do you donate gift certificates to the silent auction fundraisers supporting the organizations that are important to your people? Are you a Friend of those organizations online? Do you sit on their boards or committees? Do you Share their important posts, and help get the word out? Do you offer your unique talents as an artist, designer, or marketer to support their campaigns?
Are your photos appearing in the newspaper from the events important to your clients? Have you contacted the newspaper to offer your services in covering those events in exchange for a byline? Maybe even, eventually, for advertising credit? Explore the same opportunities with your nearest metro or regional magazine. If you're located in a large metro area, is there a nearby county or town with a small newspaper that would be excited to work with you?
The same with your local radio station - have you offered your services (typically personality headshots and event coverage) to them in exchange for a shout-out on air, and on their website and social media channels?
Do you have any local bloggers who serve your market? Can you write a guest post with photo or produce a photo story on their topic? Trade out headshots for a mention? Check around in your local artsy and craftsy circles for great artist bloggers to do cooperative work with.
Your local chamber of commerce, convention and visitors bureau, business association, historical commission, and event planners are always looking for great promotional photos for their marketing materials and web sites. Focus here on producing art for their local materials, such as the tent cards that go up on restaurant tables a month before a big event - and asking openly for referrals (most chambers of commerce are just referral businesses anyway).
This is just a spotlight on a few ways you can F8 and Be There in your community; to be where your people are. I'm sure you have an explosion of your own ideas right now.
Brainstorm, make a big list, and make it happen. Don't by shy; don't hide the fact that you're a working, professional photographer.
Put it on your calendar as part of your quarterly, monthly, even weekly review: proactively and consciously answer the question, "How would they know I'm a professional photographer?"
Next Steps
- Start with the tips above, and make your own list of ways you can F8 and Be There for your clients. Today, how would people you meet or see on the street know you're a professional photographer? What are the times or places they should know, but don't, because you aren't prepared - or don't yet have a way to tell them? As always, start with the low-hanging fruit (shooting in public, a magnetic name tag or lanyard with photo / press card, knowing your tagline and elevator pitch) and work your way through your list.
- Brainstorm session: get out your pen and paper. Are there any businesses or business people in your market whom you see "everywhere"? What can you learn from their example? Who do you believe are the best marketers in your community (as a business or individual)? What are they doing that you're not (yet) to earn that position in your mind? Now let's pretend: if you were that good of a marketer, the best marketer in your community, what would you do? How would you be marketing your business? What creative, fun ideas would you come up with? Often just disconnecting your Self from the equation frees up the creative juices. File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- Those 'best marketers in the community' you just identified? Get on the horn and ask each one to a lunch or coffee. Learn from their success (and they'll surely talk about the failures in their journey), and skip the learning curve.
- 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!
The unsupportive spouse, and why it's your fault
My wife and I got into a fight because of you.
And it was all my fault.
But I'll tell that story in a minute...
There is a harsh reality of change, of resistance arising in response to you chasing your dreams:
The folks who love you won't get it.
In fact, they're going to push back.
They're going to misunderstand.
They're going to discourage you.
But you need to recognize, the same fear you've experienced about going pro is the same fear they're feeling, but for different reasons.
One dear PTP reader wrote me recently that her husband doesn't understand the time she's putting into her 'hobby.'
This is a tale told many times by all kinds of artists, creators and makers as they pursued their passions.
"Why are you putting so much time into that? You have more important things to do."
It's okay; while surely this kind of response from a loved one or dear friend is discouraging and can draw out an emotional response (especially when you're already facing your own fears and tumult), this is your dream: the onus is on you to recognize and handle patiently the fears your spouse or others express, often in unobvious ways.
We all resist change. It's built into us as a survival mechanism - we're built from the lizard brain out to find and live a stable life. Don't rock the boat. Don't fix what ain't broke.
While through our reading about the Resistance we learn to see and practice overcoming the many roadblocks we put in our own way, it is much more subtle and disarming when we face that Resistance in the form of our loved ones' opinions and concerns.
They only want what's best for us, right?
They don't want us to get hurt, or embarassed, or to disappoint ourselves.
If they don't get it, why do we naively think anyone else will? Much less pay us for our foolishness!
Those of us blessed with interested, curious, supportive spouses, friends, and loved ones are in the minority - if you have these kinds of voices in your life, be grateful for them every chance.
Most of us are in circles of people who live in unconscious survivor mode - they're just trying to get by.
Your passion is...out of place.
Your dream disturbs their sense of well being.
Your facing your fears and chasing your vision of success puts them in a subconscious position of facing their own fears, of defining their own success. In the right circles, this is a powerful way you can enable others' best lives; in typical social circles, however, people respond to your passion as a threat.
They don't understand it. They don't have a fire in their hearts, so they don't 'get' yours.
They feel awkward when you get fired up and talk about your art, your business, your dream. They're not actively trying to discourage you, but their ego is trying to protect itself in the presence of your grand aspiration.
This is normal.
And it's okay.
I know; when it comes to something you care about so much, you ask: how can they care so little? How can they be so mean? Why are they holding me back?
And of course, as these are people from whom you typically seek wise counsel, you hear them - you listen - and you begin to question yourself.
Good dreams lose steam when the dreamer loses heart.
You can't let this happen.
Your dreams - and your heart - deserve better than to give up because someone else dumps a bucket of water on your fire.
Just like so many fears, taking control requires recognizing this resistance for what it is, and why it happens.
When your spouse uses certain language that makes your dream feel small - words like hobby, silly, waste of time, unimportant, a distraction - they're not trying to hurt you or discourage you; they're showing you they don't understand what you're trying to do, or why.
And we all fear the unknowns, right? We fear what we don't understand.
As part of that, we fear change.
We especially fear change when it comes to those people we hold closest to our hearts.
Consider: if your spouse or best friend didn't truly care about you (both individually and as an important, integral part of their lives), they'd gladhand you and have no real investment in what you do. "Sure! Go for it! (Why do I care...)"
The passion you have for becoming a part time professional photographer can be interpreted subconsciously as a threat: as your losing interest in that person, or their not being good enough to make you happy, or your drifting away from them, or their losing time with you to this passion, or your growing beyond them.
This is okay, it's normal. But sometimes this subconscious fear in your spouse manifests itself in the form of discouragement and belittling.
You have to recognize, they're already very happy with you - they're in their comfort zone with you. Your newfound passion for the idea of becoming a working artist destabilizes that comfort zone.
It's hard enough for we artists, driven by our passion, to reach beyond our comfort zones. It can be even harder for our loved ones to be brought by us out of theirs.
They don't understand.
Yet.
When my wife and I started dating, I had already been a professional photographer for years - there was no big change to grow through there.
But when I launched PTP and started pouring my heart into my writing, helping startup photographers learn the art of business, we went through growing pains.
Especially with three young children at home, it became harder and harder for her to understand why they were home and I was out writing all evening, or all day on a Saturday.
She broke down and asked me one night, "This thing you're doing doesn't even make any money - why are you spending your time writing instead of with us?"
Ouch.
I deserved that.
Remember earlier where I said the onus lies with us to help our loved ones understand our passion projects?
I'd done a horrible job of it, and I missed the warning signs until she bravely and rightfully challenged me.
Since, I've helped her understand what PTP means to me and could one day mean to our family so far as an income, and she's helped me to better schedule my time so my writing takes as little away from our family as possible.
Now, the encouragement is mutual, and I'm free both emotionally and creatively to give you guys my best work with every post.
Give yourself, and your loved ones, grace in this transitionary period as you move into the roles of working artist and business owner.
Be patient, and share your vision, your passion, with compassion.
Show that your marriage or friendship is stable, safe, important, and wanted, and that in fact your pursuing your passion will only bring more verve and life to your relationship.
NEXT STEPS
- Set up a coffee or quiet date with the loved on you're struggling with. Have a sit down, as we say in Texas. Visit with them about your dream, about your vision for your art and business. And listen with new ears, hear their words with new understanding, and help them recognize that what you're working toward is no threat, but instead a blessing, for your relationship.
- Brainstorm session: get out your pen and paper. What fears do you hold close to your heart about going pro? What fears do you think your loved one may have about you going pro? How do you think they could feel threatened? What would you say to them to reassure them that your passion project will never reduce or replace them? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- 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!
The two biggest fears of artists-turned-owners
Two of the biggest fears we artists-turned-owners have about 'going pro' are:
1. Selling ourselves
2. Selling our art
The positive attention and encouragement we receive as enthusiastic amateurs can give us a false impression that we don't have to 'work' to earn business - that we can just exist, just hang our shingle, publish our work to our portfolio site and Facebook, and paying clients will beat a path to our door.
Typically introverts, folks like you and me are fueled from within instead of without. Shy or not, social situations deplete us more than they energize us, and our alone time is where we regroup and recharge.
We're also humble creatures. We're quiet, unassuming, and while we don't brag, we enjoy positive attention as much as anyone.
So the prospect of marketing and selling - getting our art, name, and message in front of our ideal clients - sends a lump straight to our throats.
The only thing most human beings fear more than death is public speaking, and both marketing and selling feel like close siblings to this boogeyman.
So what's an introvert to do?
There are always going to be "best practices."
But so many of those best practices are hand-built by and for extroverts. A quick flip through most Marketing 101-type books shows as much (and can set an introvert to reckless perspiring).
I'll always encourage you to step outside your comfort zone to test the waters on good ideas and practices - you never know when what's holding you back is a true aversion, or just an unnamed and unfounded fear that can be overcome with doing.
We'd all love to have business fall in our lap.
But we can't just wait for our clients to find us.
The secret sauce for you will be finding the most effective and efficient methods of marketing and selling that get (and keep) you booked solid, maximizing both your enjoyment and profit for the time you invest in your business.
The advantage obviously goes to the extroverts, folks energized by the attention of others.
As I've written, attention is fantastic for business, so long as it leads to paid work.
Three important things:
- Accept that the fastest ways to get booked solid are extroverted practices;
- Accept that the maximum profits per client are going to come with extroverted sales practices;
- And accept that your "best practices" as an introvert aren't going to look like their best practices.
You need to write your own playbook.
And you know what?
That's okay.
Don't buy into the cult of maximum productivity and maximum efficiency.
Don't worship profits at all costs.
The boutique photographers turned business gurus are some of the worst about selling you their $500 playbook without knowing anything about you or what kind of player you are.
Let's be real: you don't have to do this.
You chose photography.
You chose to go pro.
You're doing all of this because you want to.
You never have to incorporate practices into your business that make you hate being a professional photographer.
Stretch yourself, test yourself, challenge yourself, but never forget that you are in ultimate control.
As always, you define your success - nobody else.
What then are your blood, sweat, and tears worth if you build a business that brings you no joy? That, in fact, saps your energy, creativity, and happiness?
You face two great tragedies: succeeding in building a business you hate, and failing to try at all.
There's a huge range of opportunity between these poles: plenty of room to study, practice, learn, test, fail, adjust, experiment, succeed, do better, do worse, and every moment, take another step closer to building a business you enjoy - even love.
I can't imagine the last 15 years of my life without Outlaw Photography; all of the friends I'd have never met, art I'd have never made, money I'd have never been paid with which to bless my family, the stories I'd have never earned for the telling, the blog I'd have never written (howdy y'all!)...
The blessings have been countless.
If I had never pushed myself outside my introvert comfort zone, I'd have never plumbed the depths of my talents as a marketer or salesman; I'd have never tried new things, broken new ground within myself, and discovered where my honest personal limits lie.
If I had forced myself to continue with "best practices" which made me miserable, that despite facing my fears continued to create more stress than success for me, I'd have burned out. There would be no Outlaw Photography to serve my clients or enable life experiences for my family we couldn't otherwise afford.
I found my balance.
Not by luck, but by consistently trying new things, testing myself and adjusting course by what new things I learned - about photography, business, and myself - along the journey.
Give yourself the opportunity to succeed.
To do what you think you can't.
To realize you're capable - and maybe even enjoy - things you didn't think you could do.
And to have tested and consciously chosen not to adopt the "best practices" which leave you burned out and depleted.
I could have made more money.
I could have booked more shoots.
I could have done a lot of things that would make my business more successful on paper.
But I'm thankful I didn't.
I am thankful for the strength to challenge myself and the wisdom to discern which of the countless branching paths to success best balanced risk and reward - choices unique to my personality, my experiences, my strengths and weaknesses.
Let me assure you, it was a messy, disjointed, graceless, downright butt-ugly adventure. Lord of the Rings, it was not. I'd have never found my personal success without many trials and errors.
The indefatigable villain named Resistance fought like hell on every battleground to deter me from my victories.
But I persisted.
And I am so, so glad that I did.
Don't give up, fellow introvert.
Marketing and sales aren't as bad as the boogeyman in your head has made them out to be.
You will find what works best for you, your own best practices, and you'll learn to thrive just like I have, just like countless other artists who were able to reach just far enough outside their comfort zones to grasp success.
Remember the “self” in self-promotion is you, and guess what? You are in charge of you! Introvert or not, you make the calls on what fits and what doesn’t. So do things in the unique way that works for you." - Paul Jarvis, Effective Marketing For Introverts
Next Steps
- Let's make some lists! List 1: Let's say you are absolutely not allowed to do any marketing or sales that you don't know for sure, right this moment, you would enjoy. How would you market yourself? How would you get your art and message in front of your target market? List every venue, physical and digital, every opportunity, every method you can think of to make the connection between what you have to offer and Your People.
- List 2: Now, make a list of every marketing idea and effort you can think of that isn't on List 1; all of the extrovert stuff, the public speaking, the cold calls, the in-person introductions and Asks, the direct approach, the collaborative work, the PR / press opportunities, absolutely anything and everything you can think of that would get your art and message in front of your target market that isn't on List 1.
- List 3: Pick three marketing ideas from List 2 that you believe wouldn't kill you, but would help you get more attention and bookings. Three things you think you can do, but don't think you would enjoy. Let's just say, for funsies, that you were going to do those three things. What are the all the baby steps involved? If you were really going to do them, outline the effort - what would be involved? What would it look like? What are the steps? What does that path look like?
- You knew this was coming: Pick the idea from List 3 that you feel you're most likely to really do, and... Just Do It! Let go of the results. Focus on process. Disconnect from identifying with the success or failure of your efforts. Just...do. This is how you test yourself: look outside your comfort zone for an opportunity you would not naturally gravitate toward, make a map of the journey, and then adventure! No matter what happens, you will have grown - you'll have studied, learned, practiced, and grown as a marketer and business owner. Repeat this process as often as you can to really feel out the risks which lead to the best rewards.
- Brainstorm session: Get out your pen and paper. If you weren't the one responsible for taking action on your marketing ideas - let's say you were given a nice grant to hire a master marketer to enact your dream marketing plan - what ideas would be your favorite? What would your marketing plan look like? What are the ideas that excite you about how they present your art and business to your community? Let your imagination run wild, free of the fear of having responsibility to act on anything you write down here. Later, mine this list of ideas for things you can slip onto List 2...and maybe List 3.
- 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!
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!
What a street beggar can teach us about marketing and sales
How about this:
A peddler can stand at any intersection here in San Antonio and bank more tax-free money in a half hour than I can after taxes in two at my day job.
Why?
F8 and Be There, mates: he is where his clients are with a compelling message that inspires them to take action, to put their money into his pocket.
It's not his art: he has no product per se, other than the feeling of compassion and giving which his clients enjoy when they contribute to his life.
It's not his business: he has a process for acquiring clients, but it's not his policies or procedures or follow-up: his clients are sold on investing in him before the exchange of value is even made.
His marketing is basic, inelegant, but in arguably effective - and here's the powerful secret: he asks.
He asks.
He holds his sign, stands dead center where his clients are, and looks them straight in the eye.
He asks for the business. He asks for the sale.
And he doesn't get it.
Not right away.
Not the first car to pull up, not the second or third. At a busy intersection in San Antonio, how many cars, how many people, how many potential clients look right at him, but don't buy?
But our beggar friend knows his numbers - if not consciously, then on instinct, on experience.
He knows if he stays in front of his target market long enough with a powerful enough message, and asks for the business, he'll get it - he'll get enough to satisfy his every financial need.
Where is your marketing, friends? Are you asking the right people, at the right time, in the right way, for their business?
You could walk the streets of your town, camera and smartphone in hand, and hustle money into your pocket.
All you have to do is ask.
In the bigger picture of running a successful part time photography business, of booking yourself solid with clients you love who pay you more than you ever thought you could earn with your art, you're going to use myriad methods in your marketing mix to earn success. In time, your marketing plan is going to become a well-oiled machine with many parts, all working together fluidly to keep you shooting and depositing checks in the bank.
But you will always have to ask.
One day, your art may become so good that it makes the ask for you.
But you have to ask.
You will always have to stand in the center of your target market's world with a powerful message, a clear value, and ask them for their business.
It's not your pricing.
It's not your name.
It's not your camera gear.
It's your marketing.
Go find your people.
Show them how you can make their lives better with your art.
Then ask them to do business with you.
Next Steps
- You knew I was going to push you out of your comfort zone today. Let's do an exercise in local government: Find your local city hall, walk in their doors, and tell them you want to walk around town on the weekends and offer to take people's photo for money. Ask them what kind of license you need, what kind of 'signage' you can carry, if there's a public place you can 'set up'. Every city ordinance will be different, so learn what yours is, and how you could make it happen if you wanted to try your hand at busking your art in your city.
- Look up all the local Market Days and booth opportunities in your city and surrounding cities. Find out about vendor fees and what it would take to set up a booth at these events (which could just entail two chairs, one for you and your subject, and your camera).
- Go downtown. Go to a coffeeshop. Do some street photography. Ask folks if you can make their portrait. Then ask if you can e-mail them the portrait you made. No money need change hands, this is just an exercise in getting yourself, your camera, and your art in front of people. All you have to do is ask.
- Brainstorm session: Get out your pen and paper. From what you've learned above, make a list of Next Steps, baby steps, to be able to walk around your city or set up in a certain area of your city to make people's portraits for money. What are some locations that combine nice light, a nice background, and enough foot traffic that you could score some $5 bills doing street photography? Pretend that you're building a successful business model for only busking your photography in your city. What would that business look like? What would you charge? How many people per hour would you need to shoot to put enough money in your pocket, after taxes and overhead, to leave a big grin on your face? Is this something you want to try just for fun (and profit!)? File this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- 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!
One simple system for success
There is no greater knowledge-for-the-buck value than books.
And there is no more self-destructive thing we do than failing to act on the things we learn.
You and I are going to break that cycle...
Right now.
STEP 1: Go buy a book on small business marketing. Any good one (whether from a list of recommended titles from a mentor, or Amazon's bestseller list, or one of my favorites: Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Sales, Booked Solid, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook).
STEP 2: When that book lands in your Kindle or in your hands, STOP. STOP EVERYTHING. You are about to commit for the umpteeth time a crime against your business and your own success: you're going to start reading, read here and there until you finish the book, then feel wonderfully inspired as you put the book aside and NEVER TAKE ACTION. I've done it hundreds of times over the last 15 years. STOP. Don't read a page of that book until you can sit comfortably, focus, take your time. Make handy a writing surface, something upon which to write, and a good pen or pencil, as well as a highlighter.
STEP 3: Now crack open that book and read every page, one by one, slowly and comfortably. Set your ego and your cynicism and your skepticism aside, and LEARN. Take notes. Every time an idea for your marketing or your business pops into your head, WRITE IT DOWN. Do not turn the page until you are absolutely sure you have captured every possible idea and potential ACTION YOU CAN TAKE from what you've learned within. Write these ideas and actions out in your language, conversationally, just like if you were sharing with a friend over coffee. Don't be technical or get bogged down in minutiae.
STEP 4: At the end of the first chapter, if there are any action items or questions presented to answer, DO IT. These authors are handing you the keys to success from their invaluable experience. USE THEM.
STEP 5: BEFORE you start the next chapter, go over your notes. Where are your action items? What ideas did you discover? Write each one on its own piece of paper. Then brainstorm all of the steps you'll need to take to take that action, to make that idea a reality. WRITE DOWN THE BABY STEPS, one by one. No step is too small, or too insignificant to write down. If you only had five minutes a day to work on this, what steps would you take with that time? You are creating a roadmap to success. Do not start the next chapter until you have taken this step, and...
STEP 6: SCHEDULE YOUR NEXT ACTION. Block off an appointment on your calendar, starting with this evening or tomorrow, to TAKE BABY STEPS, to take action. "I'm too busy! This is happening too fast!" Horsesh*t. FIND FIVE MINUTES. Find fifteen minutes. Book it onto your calendar and you keep that appointment with the same respect and loyalty as you would dinner with your mom, taking grandma to the doctor, or meeting a client for a photo shoot. IT IS THAT IMPORTANT to your success as a part time photographer.
STEP 7: Turn the page. Go back to STEP 3. Repeat for every chapter, every chance you get to read, at least daily, even if just for five minutes, until you complete the book and have a new understanding of marketing, and every bit as important, a stack of action items and ideas you're ACTIVELY BRINGING TO LIFE through daily baby steps.
STEP 8: TAKE IMPERFECT ACTION. Let go of your obsession with controlling the results, and focus on process; be an expert at the attempt. Do The Work. Don't judge, don't wait, don't think about it, don't go make a sandwich, don't check Facebook, don't doubt what you've read, don't wait until you're ready, don't get scared, don't worry about failure or doing it wrong, JUST DO IT.
STEP 9: Watch your business take off like you could never have dreamed.
This is simple.
But it isn't easy, is it?
The wall of resistance gets taller with each step, where you take the leap from student to practitioner: where you begin to turn ideas into actions, then schedule and commit to those actions.
These baby steps move the needle. These are the 'little victories', the kaizen, which will take you from where you don't want to be today, to where you never dreamed you could get.
The excuses are dwindling, my friends. Either you want this, or you don't; either you're willing to take imperfect action and make your dreams come true, or you're window shopping for a life you're not willing to earn.
Next Steps
- Brainstorm session: Write down 10 reasons why you can't do this; why you can't read one book, one page at a time, taking one note at a time, taking at least five minutes of action each day, taking responsibility for the success of your part time photography business. I'm serious: come up with 10 real reasons why you can't, don't, or won't do this. This list is going to be a powerful tool for you to recognize the self-imposed limiting beliefs you have shackled yourself with in your journey toward success. Look over this list. Look hard at it. Get emotional if you need to. Recognize what's holding you back. Recognize how you're hurting yourself. Measure your dreams, your excitement, your inspiration, your enthusiasm against this list. Recognize above all that there is nothing on that list you can't overcome. If you'd like, e-mail me your list; I'd love to talk with you about what's on there. When you're done, file this away in your Brainstorms folder.
- 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!