January 27, 2012

Real Life Real Lessons: Photographers, Don’t Be So Quick To Crow

By skipcohen

It was the late 80’s and I’d just joined Hasselblad as the new president of the US subsidiary. I had started mid-year and took the advice of a good friend who suggested I just spend the first few months listening and watching. By October I felt I had a good handle on what we needed to do to boost sales and get Hasselblad on the map as a marketing entity. Everybody knew the company and the brand, but we had a reputation of being arrogant and hard to talk to.

We had a lot of great plans in the pipeline and one of the magazines wanted to do an an interview with me. I was incredibly excited when they ran everything I said, almost word for word. I read the interview and my ego couldn’t have been more out of control. After all it was my first interview in a national magazine.

About an hour later I was nauseous! While the article was extremely positive and positioned Hasselblad in exactly the right light, in being enthusiastic about our plans I had managed to broadcast our entire marketing plan for the following year. In an effort to gain a little editorial bragging rights, I had literally given our competitors a blueprint of everything we were going to target.

This is an easy lesson to remember. We all need to share new ideas and solutions to deal with the challenges in the market place today, but you don’t need to share all the details of everything you’re excited about. Just play it smart and hold off on the bragging rights until you’ve really got something to brag about!

My Dad always used to say, “The house isn’t really yours until you pass papers and there are so many things that can change before your signature is on the mortgage!”

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This post sponsored by Adorama – More than a camera store

Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Motivation

January 26, 2012

Real Life Real Lessons For Photographers: There Are No Secrets!

By skipcohen

How many times have you had somebody say to you, “Please don’t share this with anybody, but…” The lead in is usually followed by everything from pure gossip to serious heads-up stories about something related to the industry, their personal lives, business etc. Here’s the issue – you can’t stop people from sharing unsubstantiated stories with you, but you can prevent feeding the rumor mill.

So the first rule is, if you don’t want people to know something then don’t tell anybody! Today, so much more so than when I started out in business, every person has the ability to literally reach out to thousands. Most of you Tweet, you’re on Facebook, you have email accounts and you’re probably on Linkedin. Every day we have the ability to talk to thousands of people.

The second rule is, know who you’re talking to. If you are going to share something that’s confidential or maybe you just don’t want anybody to know you’re the source, then be careful who you choose to bring under the cone of silence! (Maxwell Smart was just ahead of his time.)

The photo industry is really very small. New photographers especially don’t realize that so many of us have worked for other companies. I’ve worked for three great companies in photography. I met Dan Steinhardt from Epson when he was at Kodak and I was at Hasselblad. Jerry Grossman at the Industry Reporter and I met when he used to be at Nikon. Today he’s publisher of the best trade publication in our industry. Now take my two examples and scale them up to just about everybody in the industry who’s been around for more than five years!

As I’ve often said, we all go to the same rubber chicken dinners together. We’ve been at same conventions, retirement parties and meetings. You never know when you’re talking about somebody or something with another company who’s really listening.

The third rule is, if it’s really confidential and you want to keep it that way, have those people you want to share information with sign a non-disclosure statement. Just use Google and you’ll find dozens of examples free on line. This is really the extreme case, but if it’s something critical to your business, but you need the input of another party, a non-disclosure statement puts the right perspective on the information and stresses its importance.

And the last rule…just be quiet and don’t share information that isn’t appropriate to pass on. Work to maintain trust with your clients, your associates and your friends. I don’t usually find myself quoting Hilary Clinton, but she’s credited with saying:

“In almost every profession – whether it’s law or journalism, finance or medicine or academia or running a small business – people rely on confidential communications to do their jobs. We count on the space of trust that confidentiality provides. When someone breaches that trust, we are all worse off for it.”

SmugMug GoingPro
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This Post Sponsored by: Smug Mug

1 comment   |  tags: | posted in Business, Motivation

January 25, 2012

Photographers: Start Right Now – Don’t Wait For Perfection

By scottbourne

Every single day of the week, young photographers email me, tweet me, fax me, send me snail mail or call me to ask how to get started as a professional photographer. Their stories are usually quite similar. When pressed, they usually say that they are waiting on a good logo, a new business card, a updated-release of their favorite photo software or the holy grail – a new camera or lens.

Whatever their excuse for not getting started on their journey to becoming a professional photographer, it’s just that – an excuse. It’s much, much, much easier to blame your lack of this or that for not succeeding than it is to simply go out there and try.

I’ve talked about this problem in many ways, but I was inspired to use today’s headline on this post by a young man I have long admired. C.C. Chapman is a consultant, motivational speaker and social media guru as well as a big fan of photography. I became aware of him years ago because of his work as a podcaster. Since I’ve done a fair bit of podcasting myself, it wasn’t unexpected that our paths would cross.

He’s co-written a great book called Content Rules. It’s NOT a photo book. It’s about getting off the couch and doing something TODAY that will help push your brand out to the masses.

The book hasn’t gotten much attention in the photo community because it’s not aimed directly at photographers, but I’ll tell you this – every single GoingPro reader should read “Content Rules.” There are tons of lessons there that emerging photographers can benefit from.

If you can’t afford the $15 I’ll sum up the book (from and for the perspective of a professional photographer) as best I can in one sentence. Make your photo business about helping people and start doing that right this minute – start making stuff and putting it out there right now without thought or concern about it being perfect.

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This post sponsored by Adorama – More than a camera store

7 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Marketing, Motivation, Review

January 24, 2012

Vegas, February, GoingPro Bootcamp, Be There!

By skipcohen

I recently saw an email blast from my buddy George Varanakis at Rangefinder/WPPI. He listed the top ten reasons not to miss WPPI. Personally, I’d drop a few and add a few, one of them being your ability to interact with vendor after vendor to help strengthen your business. I’d also add, one trip to Vegas gets you exposed to hundreds of new products and concepts, one of them being GoingPro Bootcamp.

A trip to Las Vegas in February isn’t just about WPPI anymore. It’s about adding new building blocks to your business and some of them are outside WPPI programming. For two years I’ve started every marketing presentation with the same statement.

Just because the media says it’s going to be a bad year, doesn’t mean it has to be!

That’s a big part of the GoingPro theme and the GoingPro Bootcamp. We started the project because there are so many aspiring photographers interested in going pro and missing the boat on the right way to get started. Frustrated, they jump into the market with lousy quality and low-ball pricing. Instead of building a business on a solid foundation, they try and build it on the word “professional”, having no understanding of the importance of how to sustain a business.

Well, it’s been two years since we started GoingPro, which originally was just a book with Random House. Now it’s a blog with an estimated 50,000 followers and sixty-four podcasts, resulting in 120-150,000 downloads a month. Last but not least, it’s our second Bootcamp, an all day event helping you with everything, but photography.

George missed  the last GoingPro Bootcamp, but we didn’t and neither did about 100 aspiring professional photographers. He’s got another chance and so do you. With the combination of Michelle Celentano, Scott Bourne and me we’ll help you with ideas on marketing, pricing, building your business, insurance, social media, community involvement and local networking, just to name a few. Most important of all, we’ll help you figure out how to promote yourself and your work so you can get your second customer.

Anybody can get their first customer. The trick of building a solid business is getting your second customer and even better, getting the first customer to come back a second time. You know how to focus your camera. Well, we’re going to help you focus on concepts like quality, value, integrity and the ability to exceed customer expectations. Those are the key attributes of any business that brings customers back!

And speaking of exceeding expectations – that’s just what we intend to do on February 18. It’s only $99 for the day. So, whether you’re just getting ready to take the plunge into the pro side of the business or you’ve been out there for a few years and need some help – we intend to exceed your expectations.

See you in Vegas! Signing up for GoingPro Bootcamp is just a click away.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in News

January 23, 2012

Living Well is the Best Revenge

By skipcohen

It’s an old Spanish proverb and ironically it’s engraved on a pewter plate given to me by relatives who no longer speak to me, because in their judgment I guess I was living “too well”. Sadly we all have to deal with people’s assumptions, especially when they make them in vacuums and without taking the time or making the effort to ever consult us in the process.

Why would I write a post and start with one of my own personal frustrations this morning? Well, we’re coming up to the biggest photographic convention on the planet for professional photographers, WPPI. It’s been especially attractive for new photographers and aspiring professionals getting ready to take the plunge into the pro category. I’m getting a lot of questions from photographers who are trying to decide whether or not to go to the convention because they’re being side-tracked by family members or friends who just don’t get it.

Photography is an art form and so often misunderstood by family members and friends. They don’t understand your passion. They assume you’re going to starve in the process. They may never have seen your work and question whether or not you’re good enough. They don’t understand why you can’t just go out and get a “real job”! The bottom line is they just don’t get it. Scott Bourne and I, on GoingPro podcasts, have talked a lot about surrounding yourself with people who have positive attitudes. You need to block out the “Negators”! No, it’s not out of Greek mythology, but it should be. Negators are people who are so unhappy in their own lives their only joy in life is screwing with yours!

The end result is your self-confidence needs constant reinforcement. So, let’s come up with a few things to help you stay focused, pun intended. You know how to hold the focus on your camera, but do you know how to hold the focus on your career?

• Here’s an easy exercise and you’ll have a good time in the process. Go back and look at your very first images. It might have been a party you photographed, a landscape while on vacation or maybe just a few shots of the kids. Now compare them to where you are today. If you don’t see a difference, you’re in trouble, but most of you will see serious changes in the way you compose and expose your images today. As you get more experienced there should be some serious changes in lighting, composition and depth of field, just to name a few.
Roberto Valenzuela suggested a terrific tool for practicing the craft on a GoingPro podcast recently. He suggested you go back to the last wedding you photographed and look at all the bad images. “Look for what you missed and learn to understand why the image wasn’t good!”

• Enter some images in print competition. This is a personal favorite, but whether you enter prints or not, at least go to judging, if it’s open to the public. Listen to what the judges are saying about each print. Use their suggestions as guidance for your own work.

• Join your local chapter or guild of professional photographers. Sooner or later, we all share the same frustrations. A local chapter of other photographers becomes a support group and an important part of your network. There’s a lot of good solid comfort in knowing your peers share some of the same concerns and frustrations. SmugMug has meetups going on all all over the country every month. Find out where there’s one near you and get involved!

• Surround yourself with positive people. Sooner or later they’ll come around, but for now, those people who are throwing up the road blocks need to simply be kept on the sidelines.

• Listen to your heart. Okay, it sounds trite, but you know what you feel inside. You know what your gut instinct is saying about your passion to be a photographer.

• Get involved in some of the various forums. Here’s a great one and one of my personal favorites. After Skip’s Summer School last year, Brent Watkins started a Facebook page called, Skip’s Summer School. Today it’s a hundred people who have been to Summer School, plus a few who weren’t there, who just help each other out. It’s similar to some of the larger forums, but without the trolls!

• Don’t respond to trolls! When you do step out in the public forums and get shot at by a troll, don’t let yourself get caught up in the battle. Don’t respond, because your silence is far more effective at driving them mad!

I found a great quote a few weeks ago and Tweeted it already, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s become a personal favorite from Victor Kiam:

“Even if you fall flat on your face, you’re still moving forward!”

And the big favorite of them all from Zig Ziglar:

“If you wait for all the lights to be green, you’ll never get started on your journey!”

It’s time to start your journey. Time to be happy and in turn you’ll find you’re living well, which brings this full circle in response to those people who feel their choices in life should be yours too. Living well really is the best revenge.

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This Post Sponsored by: Smug Mug

4 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Motivation

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