Photo Marketing Mentor

I had the extraordinary opportunity recently to attend a business, marketing and mindset retreat where I was in a room with over 150 entrepreneurs.

These highly motivated individuals (myself in included) were all in various stages of entrepreneurship from start up to many years in business.

Regardless of the length of time the common denominator we all shared is that at some point in our business career we fell prey to slipping into an “employee mentality.” This is especially true during times of financial crises as many of us are experiencing at the moment.

What do I mean by employee mentality? What I’m talking about is making a decision either consciously or unconsciously to take a passive back seat role in your business.

Think about it, when you were a paycheck employee generally your income (unless you’re in commission sales) is not dependent upon things like sales conversion and lead generation. Essentially when you’re employee you’re hired to perform an assigned task and as long as do as expected you’re okay to continue to work for that employer.

But when it’s your own show, the rules of the game are quite different. Not only are you responsible for lead generation and sales conversion, but you also have to perform the task you sold to the client. In addition, you’re responsible for all of the postproduction responsibilities, client follow-up and service delivery. It’s a lot to handle, right?

So when your business is stifled it’s easy to slip into apathy around sales and marketing tasks which is essentially nothing more than your own unique system of sales and lead generation.

The key to combating this of course is always having a steady pipeline of new prospects that can be converted into new sales. Seems fairly simple correct? Well in actually it is, not so much so for creative types like photographers, illustrators and graphics designers for example.

Generally for creative entrepreneurs our focus in not centered on marketing, lead generation and sales conversion. Why? Because these tasks typically do not speak to our creative spirit. So, as a result these tasks tend to fall by the way side.

Let’s face it, you didn’t start a business to focus on these mundane tasks, or so you thought, right?

You have a passion for your craft, skill or trade and made the decision not to do it under the controlled watchful gaze of an employer so you decided to go out on your own and going out on your own meant starting a business.

Perhaps in the honeymoon phase of your new enterprise you picked up paying gigs fairly quickly from referrals sources close to you, usually family members and close friends. But at some point the honeymoon ended and those referrals sources dried up. So what do you do?

Well, you began looking for new lead sources (you may not call them that, but that’s what they are) and so the thing that you loved to do has now become all too real and sometimes not so much fun.

At this point generally this is where apathy towards marketing kicks in and we start viewing our business from an employee mentality. You’ll know if you’re in this mindset because you begin having money struggles. Often you’ll find yourself day dreaming about that elusive magic bullet that is going to handle all of the things (that your previous employer took care of) so your focus can be on being creative, right?

That day dreaming about “someone else” charging in to save the day is what I call having an employee mentality.

You see when you made the decision to start a business centered on your creativity you did everything that was necessary to support that decision.

For example, you invested in purchasing new equipment; training and you’re probably still doing so to this very day. But think about it, when was the time you invested into your mindset and in learning how to set up business and marketing systems that are going to allow you to live your passion full out?

If you never have, can’t remember or you don’t know it’s now time to make a new decision, one that supports you operating a successful enterprise around your creative passion.

The bottom line is simple, you’re no longer a hired hand but an entrepreneur! To me the true definition of an entrepreneur is that of an innovator, a creator, a risk taker, and an employer, not an employee.

I invite you to begin to view your passion from this position. Now is the time to invest in yourself, and that means your mindset as well as your sales and marketing systems.

I’ll close with this, now probably more than any other time in the last three decades our financial future it’s totally up to us.  Meaning jobs that were once plentiful are not so much any more.  On the flip side because of the internet we have access to more resources than ever before in history to not only embrace but navigate the choppy waters of entrepreneurship.

What does this mean for you?  Truly for the first time in modern history we as individuals have more control over our creative and financial destinies than ever before. Think about this for a moment if there is no job at McDonald’s to fall back what are you going to do?

If you’re ready to drop your employee mentality and step into your own inner entrepreneur I invite you contact me to schedule a complimentary get acquainted strategy session.

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I had a conversation recently with a very talented photographer who contacted me to discuss designing a marketing strategy program for her business.

As with all of these conversations I generally start by asking the following questions: “What do you struggle with most?” “What do you want to achieve?” and finally, “What’s currently stopping you?”

I ask these three questions to help paint a clearer picture about what’s going on for the person I’m speaking with, first for me and then for the caller. You know the saying, ‘can’t see the forest for the trees?’ Well never is that statement truer than when you’re trying to run a business. Especially a photography business.

Think about it, it’s very challenging to run a business that not only requires that you do the marketing to find clients, but then you have to execute and the deliver the work that you’re hired for.

Essentially it’s the equivalent of operating 4 businesses at once; first as a marketing consultant, second as a creative director, and finally as a digitization technician and customer service representative. To say running a photography business is challenging is putting it mildly.

So anyway after our conversation it got me thinking, why do so many photographers and creative entrepreneurs in general struggle so much when comes to marketing? The following article is the result of that conversation and the three conclusions I drew from it.

“Struggle is generally about more than the thing we’re fighting for or against”

In terms of marketing the struggle is generally never about the “marketing tactic” it’s almost always about something deeper, much deeper. Listen you don’t need me to tell you that there is tons of information out there about marketing tactics and strategies, I know, I write a great deal of myself.

What I find in working with photographers is that lack of information is not the problem; if all it took to be a successful working photographer was a website and a Facebook fan page we’d all be wealthy and spending summers on the French Riviera right?

Common marketing advice tries to sell you on tactics as the ‘key’ to success, but the truth is no marketing technique is going to perform to your desired expectations if you don’t put ‘you’ into it. Let me explain:

Point Number #1 – Know Your Value:

You are the value your client receives and therefore you’re valuable, in other words what you think and most importantly how you ‘feel’ about yourself is how your client connects with you. Too many photographers mistakenly believe that their book, or their body of work is supposed to do the marketing for them. That’s wrong, your book doesn’t do the marketing, YOU do.

So what does this mean for the photographer struggling with marketing? It means that you have to know your true worth and then stand in that truth with complete conviction backed up with ACTION!

Sorry there are no shortcuts here. Action means picking up the phone and cold calling that gallery, that rep, that art director, that prospect that’s been sitting on the fence. Does it matter if they don’t respond in the way you hoped? Not as much as YOU taking the action in the first place.

So with that said this moves us on to what do you what to achieve?

Point Number #2 – Clarity Is Key:

You can’t get to where you want to go if you don’t know where ‘there’ is. So if your goal is to have a successful turnout for your next gallery exhibition, to be signed with a top advertising agency, to have a full calendar of private clients then that’s your goal.  Whatever it is decide now!

Now, you work backward to achieve this goal. How? By asking yourself “what actions do I need to take now (today), to achieve the result I desire tomorrow?” Tony Robbins was quoted as saying if you want better results you need ask better questions. Often we ask ourselves questions that don’t empower us, questions like, “Why is it such a struggle to find new clients? Why do I constantly attract prospects that challenge me on my fees? Etc. Etc.

These types of questions don’t empower you; instead they reinforce what you don’t want. Questions that empower you would be: Who needs what I have to offer? Who do I need to attract or how can I connect with the type of prospect truly needs what I offer and be willing and able to pay my rates? Do you see the difference?

Once you’re clear on what you want, and what you need to do, the final piece of the puzzle becomes “what’s stopping you?” This question goes all the back to point number one on knowing your value.

Point Number #3 – Know What’s Stopping You:

In my conversation with the young photographer we discussed at great length the internal stuff that was standing in her way. Not just the external marketing stuff. For example once we determined her target goal, we discussed what needed to happen both internally as well as externally to accomplish her goal .

Next we discussed what was going on internally that consistently presented road blocks, the road block in this case was, not standing in her truth, not acknowledging her value. When you know your value and what you bring to the table, the internal stuff doesn’t carry as much weight.

In other words, if marketing turns you off, it’s typically because you’ve been taught, (in my opinion) somewhere in your childhood to “remain silent”, to not speak up or out. In other words, don’t toot your own horn!  Ask yourself; did you shy away from activities where you excelled growing up? Were you encouraged, supported as a child to follow your creative impulses?

If not, this could be the key as to why “marketing” (which is nothing more than communication) feels alien to you.

Let me give a piece of homework, take a note pad and pen, grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, or glass of wine if need necessary and sit down and really look into your past and ask yourself the following questions:

• Were my creative inclinations encouraged as a child?
• Was there anything that I excelled at that really made me feel good about myself?
• What was the mentality in the household around achievement, goals, creativity and encouragement?
• Did I feel validated?
• Do I currently have a support system?

You see these types of questions empower, they force you to think about the environment that you had growing up and with a little work you can begin to reconcile it.

Next, this exercise forces you to take a hard look at what you have in your life currently. Ever notice how we often recreate the same people in our adult life that mirror what we had growing up?

Even if it wasn’t supportive back then, you are in complete control of what’s going on now.

As I mentioned earlier in this article, marketing is nothing more than communication, yes, marketing strategy allows us to communicate with our target audience, but more importantly true marketing is how you communicate to yourself.

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I recently came across a photographer who used a video testimonial on his blog to attract new business and inspired to write today’s post.

It’s been said that the best source of new business is from your last customer. Referral marketing has taken on all whole new personality, now a days new prospects want proof that you’re good at what you do, social proof to be exact and nothing illustrates social proof better than video.

Today collecting on the spot reviews & testimonials of your work, your personality and your work ethic is as simple as whipping out a pocket size camera.  The best part is that you don’t need to hire a film crew, shooting high quality video using off the shelf consumer level pocket cameras like the Mino Flip and the new Kodak Zi8 for example makes it a snap. Even the new generation of digital still cameras have some form of video capture capability.

How to create the video and what makes a good testimonial is the focus of this post for example, all you need to do is ask your current client how they felt about their experience working with you and then record their reply. After you collect a sufficient amount of clips you can lace them together using another off the shelf product like iMovie for example if you’re on a Mac or Video Studio Pro X3 if you’re using a PC.

When you sit down to edit the video just add your contact information on the last frame and you’re done. The following 5 tips will help you create and distribute your new testimonial video for maximum impact.

1.) Ask Relevant Questions Of Your Interviewee’s: For example: What was it like to work with me? What stood out for you from the experience? (Ask them to name specifics) Would you recommend my services to others?

2. Keep Your Clips Short: If your interviewee rambles on just cut down to the gist of the conversation from about 1 minute to 45 seconds if you’re doing a montage of clips from different people. If the person speaking is key and the majority of their testimonial is relevant then consider giving them their own clip, preferably about 3 minutes and under.

3. Keep Your Video Camera With You At All Times: This is especially true when attending events, as you never know whom you might run into. Of course the person you approach must be someone who you have either a current or previous working relationship with; one word of caution (no fake or made up testimonials) this is will ruin your reputation not to mention get into serious hot water with the FCC if you’re ever exposed.

4. Select Audio With Caution: If you insist on adding music on your clips keep the sound level low and the style of music relevant to your audience. Obviously people are watching your clip to listen to the testimonials, not rock out to Pink Floyd (no offense to PF fans). In my opinion music is totally unnecessary but if you insist on it, add it to the opening -or- at the end of your video. Again choose your selection with caution and sensitivity to your audience.

5. Distribute Your Video Virally: First post your video on your blog (if you have one) second on your website. Third spread the video by posting on YouTube, Vimeo and Viddler are three video sharing sites I recommend. Next Tweet about it, tell your Facebook friends or fans if you a fan page (and you should).

Fourth, if you have an in-house email-mailing list (and you should) sends out announcement to your list. Finally ask the participants featured in your video to send out announcements to their network for you. This is a great way to get maximum mileage out of your testimonial.

Lastly I highly recommend using Animoto to distribute your video. Animoto offers a data collection feature called a “call to action button” that appears at the end your video allowing viewers to enter their name and email address. After the viewer enters their info they’re immediately directed to your blog or website.

Animoto charges a fee for this value added service, you can test it for $39 for a month, if works for you, you can upgrade to a year for $249 and release new videos every month. This is an excellent way establish and maintain communication with your growing fan base.

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Twitter second to Facebook [in my opinion] is arguably one of the most popular social media platforms for creative talent on the web.

I recommend that every serious photographer consider adding Twitter to their marketing toolbox.

Besides the opportunity to directly promote your photography services, Twitter offers a wealth of timely tips, resources and up-to-the minute news on what’s current in the industry.

Below are my personal recommendations of professional thought leaders and innovators that I’ve either had the honor to  work with -or- who I recommend you become acquainted.

1. Trey Ratcliff - @TreyRatcliff
Trey is the creator of the popular travel blog Stuck In Customs & best selling book “A World In HDR”

2. Seshu – @PicSeshu
Seshu is a documentary wedding & portrait photographer and creator of the blog: Tiffinbox.org

3. Selina Maitreya – @SelinaMaitreya
Selina is a portfolio consultant, author, speaker and creator of the best selling program The View From Here

4. Jack Hollingsworth – @Photojack
Jack is a travel and lifestyle photographer and social media coach with a huge twitter following

5. Cris Mitchell – @ProPhotoRsrc
Cris is the creator of the popular blog ProPhotoResouce.com a blog dedicated to the art and advancement of pro photographers

6. Rosh Sillars – @newmediaphoto
Rosh Sillars is a pro-photog’er, blogger, podcaster, speaker & author

7. Rick Sammon – @ricksammon
Rick is a Photoshop expert, teacher, author of countless books

8. Tim Olsen – @aphotoassistant
TIm is a photographer, pro photo assistant and publisher of the popular blog APhotoAssistant -

9. Chase Jarvis - @chasejarvis
Chase is a superstar photographer, director and innovator

10. Scott Bourne – @scottbourne
Scott is the publisher of Photofocus.com, photographer, author, teacher, speaker, new media pioneer -

11. John Caponigro – @jpcaponigro
John is a fine art digital printing expert, instructor and visual artist -

12. Lee Steffen – @leesteffen
Lee is a photographer extraordinaire, creative director and founder at Penguin Creative -

13. Gary Fong – @garyfong_REAL
Gary is a pioneer in portable lighting accessories for pro-photographers. He’s the creator of the Lightsphere -

14. Amit Gupta – @superamit
Amit is an internet entrepreneur and founder of Photojojo a consumer level online photo accessories boutique -

15. Jeremy Cowart – @help_portrait
Jeremy is a celebrity photographer, humanitarian and creator behind the global organization Help-Portrait. Jeremy mobilized thousands of photographers around the world to give of the talents for a worthy cause.

List created by Rodney Washington a.k.a [the Photo Marketing Mentor] he is the author of the soon-to-be published book “Eye On Marketing”, 41 Days From Struggle & Confusion to Clarity & Profits, you can find him on Twitter @rodwashington

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There are some people out there who believe that email marketing is dead. I’ll tell you from personal experience that is far from the case.

I do agree email open rates are on the decline. Let’s look at your inbox for an example, how many emails do you receive in a typically day? Now think about how many of those emails you actually opened. Of those emails you opened who were they from? Typically but not always the first emails you open are from the people you already know, right?

So assuming that you’ve done a decent job of communicating with your list the chances of crafting emails that are continually opened and read dramatically increase. Even if you haven’t achieved this up to this point, with the information in this article you are now armed with resources to turn that around.

In this article I want to share with you 3 tips that will practically guarantee that your emails are opened, read, received and responded too.

1. Craft an attention grabbing subject line. Think about it, the first thing your subscriber reads is the subject heading. It has to say more than “You who? It’s me sending you another email!” When you sit down to write your next email think about what action you want your reader to take via a step-by-step sequence.

Let’s say for example that you are emailing your list because you wish to announce a new gallery show and you want to invite subscribers to RSVP their attendance. That’s your desired outcome.
A headline that would arouse attention could be, “I can’t believe it finally happened!” Or “I was surprised by what they selected”. Now think about these two headlines for a moment. If I was on your list and I received an email from you that used either of these headlines, your chances of my opening that email has drastically increased. Why? Because you’ve peeked my curiosity, either one of these headlines would make me click because I want to know the answer. “What finally happened?” “What did they select?” Can you see how this works?

These headlines are a lot more interesting than New Gallery Show Coming, Please RSVP.

2. Know the next step. Okay now that your email has been opened what you say next will determine how much further your reader will go. Knowing the next step you want the reader to take will make writing your copy much easier. In the case of our artist he/she desires for readers to attend their show and secure a list of RSVP’s.

So the first sentence of your email should complete the statement you started in your subject header. For example for our subject header, “I can’t believe it finally happened! The opening sentence could read – XYZ gallery has just selected images from my new series on ____?” Do you see how I did that?

I wrote my first sentence to complete the statement I posed in subject header of my email. I told the reader the what and the who. Easy right? Now in the copy that follows I could speak more about the series, the images that the gallery picked etc. Finally I want to direct my reader to the final step.

3. Provide a call to action. You always want your email to result in an action taken by the reader. So if your goal were to secure RSVPS’ for your gallery show then you would place a clickable and track able link to a page where (in this case) the reader can submit their rsvp. Notice that I said clickable and track able. In order for email marketing to work to your benefit you need to know the affects your messages have on the reader. Most email management services like Constant Contact or 1ShoppingCart for example will provide you with stats on your click through rate.

The best way to do this is to test your emails by evaluating the results and make adjustments based on the results you receive. What do I mean by test? First, construct the email, send it, and evaluate your results i.e. check your stats. What are you looking for?

• How many times was the email opened?
• How many readers clicked on the link embedded in the email?
• Did you receive the results you sought?

Once you get a formula down for creating responsive emails your golden. A winning formula consists of skill, patience, testing, adjusting and re-launching.

© Rodney Washington, 2010-2011

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I was scanning through the news feeds coming through on my Facebook page recently and I noticed several things that got me thinking about what I feel are some very ineffective (and in my opinion) unprofessional ways people are using this powerful platform.

Again I completely understand that every individual has their own reasons why they use social media but for the purpose of this article I’ve chosen to speak about practices that could potentially tarnish your image in regards to business connection and client attraction.

First of all I want to point out, that these are just my opinions, so if you do any of these things please don’t take offense.  But please be aware that these actions could be actually be hurting – more than helping you grow your business.

1.  Frequently posting non-sense. For example, providing up to the minute blow-by-blow accounting of every step you take through out the day.  Nobody really cares what you ate for breakfast, lunch or dinner or that you’re at the bank, post office etc. You may occasionally share a tid-bit  about something of that nature, but don’t overboard. Think of this way, if you wouldn’t dial up and apprise your closet friend of your every move then don’t plaster it all of your facebook page.

2.  Sharing way too much information about your personal life. Remember potential clients (I hope) are reading your news feed.  So keeping that in mind I highly suggest exercising discretion when sharing intimate details about your health status, finances or personal relationships.  Facebook friends, are not necessarily personal “friends”.  Believe or not I constantly hear stories about solo entrepreneurs losing opportunities as a direct result of posting personal intimate information on their news feed.

3.  Venting about other people on Facebook or within your industry. Remember your news feed shows up every where.  If you’re using your profile for business networking then keep in mind that the “world” is reading your posts and unfortunately making judgements about you.  So just like you wouldn’t bad mouth your boss while he or she is in the next room at the office, don’t do it online.  Remember everybodies watching & reading.

4.  Re-posting ‘off color’ videos or jokes. Again what you find humorous doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone will share your humor.  So again, if you’re using this platform for self-promotion exercise good judgement on what you post as well as re-post.

5.  In appropriate photo tagging! I find this to be one of the biggest pet peeves among Facebook users. Essentially the photo tagging feature built into Facebook allows users to select a person in an image and then hot link it to their FB profile.  Nothing wrong with it inherently but why would you tag a person who isn’t even in the photo? This one is a big no-no.

The bottom line: Social media is wonderful tool to get your message out to the widest possible audience.  Social media for marketing purposes can help you reach and connect with your target market very inexpensively, but often I see it done ineffectively. The key is put your best face forward on Facebook and throughout all of your social media platforms.

Finally, as always, exercise good judgement, leverage the possibilities and reap the rewards.

As always please feel free to leave your comments below.

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They’re two camps of professional photographers that I’ve noticed lately, their are those who are lamenting about the way things ‘used’ to be and how tough it is right now, and those who admittedly aren’t sure what to do next, but, who have made the decision to remain open to the possibilities to reinvent themselves. Which camp are you in?

Recently I was having a conversation with a new photographer friend and business colleague over breakfast. He had traveled here from Minneapolis to do some work with a new client and connect with new friends he had connected with via Facebook, myself included. As we ate we discussed the prevalent attitude amongst many in the professional photographic community about how tough it is right now and how they long for the ‘good ole days’ days to return etc, etc.

Soon after we started talking about the new breed of thinking that’s gratefully starting to take hold. One that’s focused on more than just mere self-preservation. We spoke about the new conversations happening now from within the community, conversations that are centered around re-invention, social media and social consciousness and philanthropic contribution.

We spoke about the new generation of entrepreneurial photographer whose decided to take control of their lively hood as well as their personal life and collapsing divide between the two.

So as a result of this conversation I came up with this analogy that I would like to share with you, you may agree or not, but none the less I hope it at least provides you with some food for thought.   In my personal observation I find that today’s professional photographer have found themselves in the position of  the “reluctant performer”. Essentially finding themselves cast as the lead in a film that they knew nothing about and didn’t necessarily sign up for.

And yet the lights are set-up, the stage has been set, your co-actors are in place, the camera crew is in place and finally the director is ready to roll and yells, “Action”! “But wait”… you say, there’s no script! “Where’s the script?” Then the director yells CUT and he walks up to you and says, “Oh, I forgot to tell you, you are the screenwriter as well”.

That’s what many photographers are facing right now, having to perform as well as write their own script.  The new breed of entrepreneurial photographer has elected to write and develop their script even as they continue to show up for rehearsals, that’s one camp.  While the other camp is complaining, dazed and confused and refusing to perform claiming that it’s not their job to write their own script and essentially refusing to show up.

The bottom line, everyday that we are alive we have to show up, prepared or not. Remain hidden at your peril.

Keep this in mind, for those who are bitching about the the good ole days please remember, the good old days weren’t good for everybody. Business as is life is cyclical. There will be up days and down days, but if you’re doing what you love and it’s truly your passion then make the decision to remain in the game regardless of what’s going on “out there”.

I’d like close with a quote that I came across recently that truly resonated with me and I believe really encapsulates what I’m talking about with you. The quote is about faith. “Faith, is not about having your wings in place before you jump of the cliff, true faith is about taking the leap and building your wings on the way down“.

I’d love to hear your comments, please feel free to share your thoughts below.

(c) Rodney Washington

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I was reading the blog recently of a good friend and colleague who posted a suggestion that I really took to heart and I wanted to share it with you today in this post and that is, take a inspiration day.

You would think as photographers and artists that we have much to be inspired about and by and to larger extent this is true but, as with any line of work you are going to hit road blocks.

For example dealing with client issues, collecting payments, handling paperwork, scheduling appointments, hiring and firing assistants the list goes on and on. Running an artist focused business is enough to test the mental resolve of any entrepreneur let alone one whose enterprise is centered around constantly developing creative solutions for our clients, don’t you agree?

Over time our creative well-spring can become severely depleted especially if we don’t have good self care practices in place. So in this post I want to share with you a few tips that will help to re-fill your creative tank and allow you become re-inspired.

Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments field provided below.

5 Tips for constructing a productive inspiration day.

1. Visit a museum or gallery. I recently did this and it really helped to get my creative juices flowing. After spending a couple of hours viewing the work of masters like Rembrandt, Hockney, Warhol, Koons and countless other I returned to my desk not only inspired by the art itself but by the artists and how they handled problems creatively.

2. Shoot something outside of your business focused speciality. For example if you’re a wedding photographer spend an afternoon photographing people on the street. If you’re a landscape photographer shoot portraits. You never know, you may discover a new speciality and/or develop a new body of work that you’ll want to place in a show, submit to a contest or publication.

3. Take a short class. I recently participated in a one-day photo-transfer course at a local art center and it was so much fun. First of all it reacquainted me with my love of art and painting, but more importantly it got me of the office and out among other creatives who wanted to learn how to do something new.

4. Take a road trip. Nothing gets my creative juices flowing like travel especially a day road trip. Hopping in the car and getting out of town for the afternoon or even the train ride for a couple of hours gets the juices flowing.

5. Give yourself a personal project. I mentioned this in a recent blog post where I shared several ideas and resources that photographers can use to implement fresh prospective and creativity into their photography. To learn more and become inspired click here to read that post titled: How Much Fun Are You Having In Your Photography Business?

Okay, I know I said 5 tips but I’ve one more for you, consider it a bonus.

6. Start a journal. Journaling about your thoughts, your feelings, your struggles and joys is a great way to access your inner being. As visual artists we direct so much of our mental energy towards creating our physical work that we need to be reminded of something greater, something inner. Our inner voice.

Our inner voice constantly gives us ideas, clues and direction all the time, because our inner voice speaks to us throughout the day. The key to hearing it is taking the time to listen and journaling is a great way to accomplish this. So the next time you find yourself feeling restless grab a notebook, pen and a coffee and write down what you’re feeling.

Go get inspired….

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The article you’re reading today was inspired by Michael Gerber, New York Times best selling author and creator of the E Myth.

If you aren’t familiar with Gerber’s work on the subject of business development and entrepreneurship I highly suggest you investigate his material.

I recently read an article on the authors blog titled, “Entrepreneurial Artist to Business Owner” if you’d like to give it a read I’ve provided a link here for quick access. I’d suggest you read it as a basis for the tips I’ve provided below.

After reading Gerber’s article it got me thinking and it inspired me to take it a step further by providing you with some additional tips and steps that you can implement immediately into your business. With that said I took Gerber’s 5 myth’s and decided to turn them into 5 tips + 1 additional and here are my 6 tips to ‘Owning’ Your Own Business

In Gerber’s article he discussed 5 myth’s that are stereotypically associated with artists in business and they are:

1. Artists are childish
2. Artists are absentminded and forgetful
3. Artists are disorganized
4. Artists don’t care about business
5. Artists are all a little crazy
6. (Insert your own here)

In his Gerber’s article number six was listed as (Insert your own here) so I did, and this is the idea I’d like you to consider, “Artists are frightened”. We’ll discuss this more in moment but for now read on.

BUT, before I get into the 6 myth’s I want to reiterate that the author did not say that artists are these things, his point was that artists are mistakenly viewed this way. I just want to be clear.

So let’s examine the 5 Myth’s to ‘Owning’ Your Own Artistic Business

1.  Artists are childish – I say bravo, not I’m suggesting that adults should behave poorly with clients and vendors. No, I’m suggesting that artists maintain a child like since of fascination and curiosity about their business or how else can they create? Keep this in mind, a curious mind finds to solutions to business challenges, a closed mind does not. I believe maintaining a child like curiosity can be an asset to an entrepreneur, not a liability.

In other words I’d like to suggest that artist hold on to that same degree of curiosity and fascination in the marketing and running of their business. How? By closing the gap between the distinction of “this is creative i.e. fun” and “this is business i.e. drudgery”. Successful artists embrace business believing that running one can be very creative especially when you remove your mental blocks and see how your work affects the people you connect with.

2.  Artists are absentminded and forgetful - No more so than any over worked or stressed out individual. How can you overcome this? Write things down, refer to your to-do list first thing in morning before you do anything else. Centralize your daily tasks by placing important meetings, calls and correspondence into your iPhone or online calendar. Utilize timers and alarms to remind you of what needs to get done.

If you’re still having trouble getting tasks completed ask yourself, “can this be passed on to someone else?” Typically when we procrastinate it’s often because we’re trying to force ourselves to do something that’s not a strength. There are some experts out there that will tell you to “strengthen your weaknesses.” I say strengthen your strengths and hire out your weaknesses. If making sales calls is not your thing hire someone else to do it.

3.  Artists are disorganized - I’ll give you a simple tip that will help you get organized and get a handle on clutter immediately and it’s quite simple. When ever something crosses your desk don’t let it settle there. Instead do one of three things with it, 1.) deal with it immediately, 2.) pass on it, or 3.) toss it. That’s it.

Having gone through a major clearing out myself I’ll tell you, when you get into the habit of holding on to stuff (especially papers) believing that you’ll get to it later chances are you won’t. Remember out of sight, is out of mind. Generally all you’ll end up with is a pile of papers that you won’t want to deal with until you have to and even then you’ll just end up throwing out 90% of it.

Don’t go there, get into a habit of handling correspondence as you receive it, eventually disorganization problems will gradually take care of themselves.

4.  Artists don’t care about business – I’ll admit there is some truth to this statement and I addressed some of it in tip number one, but I want to take it further. I do agree that some artists aren’t necessarily in love with business, but they are interested in money. So with that said you can’t want money and not be interested in business, even if it’s a 9 to 5 job.

The way to get over this I suggested earlier by replacing apathy with curiosity and fascination. Did you know that are some artist out there like the infamous Jeff Koons for example that embraces business as much as art creation? How? By applying the same childlike since of wonder to marketing and getting his work out there to the public. In other words he’s just as excited about having his work seen and appreciated by large audiences as he is devoted to creation of the work itself.

I’ll give you a simple exercise to stimulate your thinking, grab a notepad and pen and jot down as many ideas as you can come up with to get your work seen by a large audience, let’s say 100 people. Once you have several ideas jotted down on your pad pick at least three that you can move on immediately.

Don’t attach yourself to the ideas just “test” them to see what results you receive. Did you reach 100 people? If so great, now expand the number 500, 1000 and on and on. Our subconscious mind lives to solve problems and to come up with creative solutions. Give it something to do.

5.  Artists are all a little crazy – No crazier than the frustrated postal worker who goes on a shooting rampage. No crazier than half of Hollywood, (have you watched any reality shows lately?) and certainly no crazier than going to a job you hate year after year after year. My suggestion, be crazy. Remember my suggestion from above all it takes is one crazy idea to turn your whole world around. Take that crazy idea and put it out there, the world will let you know how they feel about it. Just promise not to shoot anybody.

Okay so these are my 5 tips based on Michael Gerber’s article Entrepreneurial Artist to Business Owner. Now as promised here is my (fill-in-the-blank) tip number 6 and one that I feel is a fundamental truth.

6.  Artists are frightened – At the end of the day I believe this is the number issue that stops Entrepreneurial Artists from becoming Business Owner’s. Let’s face it, it’s not easy to put yourself or your work out there into the world to be judged. The truth of the matter is that some people just won’t get it, or they’ll ignore you, leave negative comments on your blog, scoff at your ideas, think that you’re any -or- all of the above five myth’s listed above. “So what?”

I’d like to leave you with this thought. Ask yourself, “Is creating art my life purpose?” If you know down to your bones that the answer is yes then not creating art or worse, failing to get your creations out into the world to as many people as possible is no longer an option. It’s an obligation to create and sell your art work. Yes I said sell your art work!

In other words when you approach your purpose in this way then you understand the role you are here to play in the world and if part of that role is to maintain a child like since of curiosity about your marketing, set up systems to organize and run your business, care about your customers and employees then you’ll eagerly own your crazy ideas.

From this place all the previous ‘myth’s’ listed in Gerber’s article will remain just that, myth’s. It’s okay to be afraid just don’t languish in it, now go forth and create.

Additional Resources:
http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/
http://www.artistswhothrive.com/
http://craftside.typepad.com/craftside/

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I know that it’s tough to run a business, especially in this challenging economy.

So if your business has been particularly challenging of late I can understand how you may tempted to throw in the towel. But instead of giving up I’d like to challenge you try something different and no, I’m not going to tell you to set up a Facebook fan page or Tweet about something or write a press release or anything like that. (That comes later:-)

No, I’m going to ask you to consider something totally different. I’m going to ask you to challenge your creativity. You see as creatives we tend to believe that the “thing” that we do is the only opportunity to express our creative impulses. But I want to show you how you can jump start your creativity with a few simple projects that will awaken your senses and open you to some new ideas and perhaps a few new income streams.

For example, I met a photographer at a conference who took on the challenge of photographing each letter of the alphabet while working on a wedding she was hired to shoot in Paris. Once she captured all 26 letters she decided to turn those images into a collage and turn that collage into a poster that she now sells very well.

While looking for ideas I came across a site recently called Photojojo.  Photojojo offers a myriad of products guaranteed jump start your creativity offering everything from the Fuji Instax Mini Camera (considered the Polaroid’s little brother) that will allow you create mini prints instantly. Remember that?

They also offer a lens that will turn your high-end digital SLR into a toy camera that creates dreamy soft focus special effects without the aid of Photoshop or expensive lens attachment.

How about shooting video footage of your most recently field outing, just you and the camera? But you don’t a have a camera man who can shoot the behind scenes video footage. No problem, the company produces a product called “You-Vision Video Glasses”, these are actual eye glasses that you wear that houses a small 1.3 megapixel video camera on the bridge. This allows you to literally be out and about just enjoying the day just you and your camera and while you’re wearing the glasses you can record what you’re seeing as you experience it, neat huh?

In addition the product even offers a small mic that allows you record audio as well. The audio quality is not professional grade mind you so will need to be careful of excessive background noise if you want to make sure you’re heard clearly.

After a day of recording you just plug the glasses into your USB port on your computer and download the days footage, then you can then share your video via your Facebook Fan Page, or twitter about it. You see, I told you you could use your projects to market yourself online.

Photojojo offers a variety of really cool products for photographers at any skill level available through their site, you’ll find just about everything from small pinhole camera kits, to lens attachments that will turn street photography projects into a secret adventure.

In addition there are many really cool and inventive framing ideas like special frames that will display your 4 by 6 digital prints to look like they were taken with a Poloroid. In actuality your photos are mounted into a Polaroid style frame that you can wall mount.

The bottom line for this exercise it to get out of your own way and bring some fun back into your craft. You never know what you may come up with a new body of work for potential exhibition or new way to showcase your images to clients. At the very least you’ll have something to share on your blog and via your various Social Media platforms.  

As for me this weekend I am taking a class on how to transfer my photos onto canvas and add paint and I’m very excited.  I’ll share the results with you soon. Good Luck:-)

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