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Archive 2013 · What if I told you....

  
 
mjgphotoz
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p.4 #1 · p.4 #1 · What if I told you....


All, I am a little confused here. I am not referring to anyone. I referenced a thread in which several posts expressed photographer's views that they, the photographer, would do things a lot different with their own weddings as opposed to those of their clients. Wedding photographers certainly would not be paid $3-5000 to shoot photography of the minimal weddings described, no? This thread took up the question of the value of "being ourselves." My question then becomes, does this effect our sales, marketing strategy, bottom line? Can we truly "be ourselves" in all aspects without a disconnect to our client? Don't we have to go beyond our personal preferences and personalities and realize "What you can do for other people will always be relevant. Make it about them instead of about you." Peace, and out.

Kind regards,

mjgphotoz



Oct 10, 2013 at 01:14 PM
TRReichman
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p.4 #2 · p.4 #2 · What if I told you....


I sort of feel bad for Rich, I think we can see where he was going but the execution fell flat.

mjgphotoz wrote:
All, I am a little confused here. I am not referring to anyone. I referenced a thread in which several posts expressed photographer's views that they, the photographer, would do things a lot different with their own weddings as opposed to those of their clients. Wedding photographers certainly would not be paid $3-5000 to shoot photography of the minimal weddings described, no? This thread took up the question of the value of "being ourselves." My question then becomes, does this effect our sales, marketing strategy, bottom line? Can we truly "be ourselves" in all aspects without a disconnect to our
...Show more

You can be yourself, but if yourself wouldn't pay what you want to make you might want to represent something else as your primary selling point. You can decide to only work with people who are exactly like you, but that's potentially very limiting. You also don't have to like what you do as much as you might like something else. Michael Jordan wanted to play baseball after all, but he just wasn't as valuable doing that.

I think our industry has become enormously self-absorbed. People advocate that it is all about you and what you want to do. There is nothing without the client. They are the beginning and end of the process. There is no reason that you have to have a personal relationship with a client, but you absolutely have to have a professional relationship. I'd like to think we could all benefit by worrying more about our professional profile than our personal.

- trr



Oct 10, 2013 at 01:39 PM
eephoto
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p.4 #3 · p.4 #3 · What if I told you....


RichardLavigne wrote:
I did not say this... I didn't say you'd be successful. I said you'd work less, make more and find clients more in line with what you want to do.....

This assumes you already know what you want to do. If you don't, I think Todd is most qualified to help you find that direction.


If I raise prices I will find more clients in line with what I want to do? Wow...I should have done that sooner. Sorry I'm just not buying into what you are saying.



Oct 10, 2013 at 01:43 PM
RichardLavigne
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p.4 #4 · p.4 #4 · What if I told you....


TRReichman wrote:
I sort of feel bad for Rich, I think we can see where he was going but the execution fell flat.

You can be yourself, but if yourself wouldn't pay what you want to make you might want to represent something else as your primary selling point. You can decide to only work with people who are exactly like you, but that's potentially very limiting. You also don't have to like what you do as much as you might like something else. Michael Jordan wanted to play baseball after all, but he just wasn't as valuable doing that.

I think our
...Show more


Agree 100%.... When I reference be yourself, what I mean is find your own distinct reason for doing what you do.. which is something I think you advocate for in Sexy Business.... my understanding of what you do is, is to get to the root of each person's reason and begin to build their brand around that... It may result in looking for clients just like them, or it may result in something completely different, but in the end it starts building something that is unique to that studio. For some people it is about that personal relationship, for some it is not... but if you haven't done the hard work to figure out where you fit, then none of what you do matters.

eephoto wrote:
If I raise prices I will find more clients in line with what I want to do? Wow...I should have done that sooner. Sorry I'm just not buying into what you are saying.


I'm sorry you're not buying into it.... and I understand that. I didn't buy into it when people told it to me 5 years ago, either. This is a learning process... we all go through it our own way. 5 Years ago, our average wedding booked was $3000 or so.... and our clients were all over the place, some understood our vision, but most did not. The fact that most did not was not their fault, it was just as much our fault.... we were not clearly presenting what that vision was, hell, we didn't even know what it is... Could we have simply raised our prices and made it better? No, because we didn't have that vision figured out... the 2 must go hand in hand... Let's look at it the other way... What if we had found our vision and begun to clearly present it, but kept our rates right there? well, surely we would have gotten some people that understood it, but still.. there were people that were just hiring us because the price was right... not because they got it or were hiring us for it. again... the two must go hand in hand... it is not a vacuum.

Over the course of the last few years, we've steadily refined exactly what we do, why we do it and how we present it... we've also continued to raise our rates and all I can say is that I've found that increasingly we meet with the right couple more often than not. We don't have meetings with couples that show us another photographer's work and ask us to copy it, we don't get stuck looking at a shot list from Pinterest... and I think that's because we've defined what we do and why we do it and presented that to the couple, clearly... Additionally, we've gotten our rates to the point that couples who don't get it, won't spend the money.. if they don't love what we do, its a waste of money and time.. for both them and us.



Oct 10, 2013 at 02:20 PM
joelconner
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p.4 #5 · p.4 #5 · What if I told you....


um...why did my comment get deleted


Oct 10, 2013 at 03:08 PM
Gantoris
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p.4 #6 · p.4 #6 · What if I told you....


TLDR...


Oct 10, 2013 at 03:40 PM
SloPhoto
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p.4 #7 · p.4 #7 · What if I told you....


joelconner wrote:
um...why did my comment get deleted



Same to mine. It was no more inflammatory than the rest of this mess.



Oct 10, 2013 at 03:43 PM
heikoM
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p.4 #8 · p.4 #8 · What if I told you....


I donīt like posts getting deleted


Oct 10, 2013 at 04:14 PM
heikoM
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p.4 #9 · p.4 #9 · What if I told you....


Please note that my post in the beginning had a question mark.
And I find the comment of me watching to much J* rude.


Still, I believe in "being yourself", not just for business, but for life. I believe life is too short to do anything else...
Thatīs why a became a photographer.

heiko




Oct 10, 2013 at 04:17 PM
joelconner
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p.4 #10 · p.4 #10 · What if I told you....


My post was not inflammatory at all....heck, it had about 5 likes on it shortly after I posted it :-/


Oct 10, 2013 at 04:22 PM
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