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 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 the 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 a 100+ aspiring and working professional photographers. He’s got another chance and so do you! With the combination of Michele 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!

There are so many photographers, both new and old, who just don’t realize all the support possibilities right around them. Levi and I were talking about the strength in networking and it’s so apparent with the Skip’s Summer School crew. They’re just a 103 strong and every time somebody asks a question, everyone jumps in to help answer the challenge and it all started thanks to Brent Watkins, who after Summer School wanted to keep the momentum going and started a Facebook page.

Just over the last few weeks, “Jennifer” had a question about a photo shoot she went to, that wasn’t what she thought it would be. “Jim” had a question about insurance, looking for feedback on what’s out there for photographers, “Yusuf” had a great reminder for everybody on a limited time offer from AnimotoPro and “Gretchen” had a question about making a 16×20 canvas (There were 69 responses to her question!).

So, the bottom line is to remember there’s help out here all the time! Build your network with people who share your interests, integrity and goals. Feed your network by participating and being generous with your time. Stay in touch with new friends and old ones and above all, don’t be afraid to ask questions.

With DIMA, PMA, IUSA and WPPI coming up, along with some great state and regional shows like Photo Pro Expo coming up in early February, you’re going to have some great opportunities to expand your network. It’s not about collecting business cards, but building friendships!

My Dad gave me a book a short time ago called Wisdom from the Ancients. I found two great quotes for this Friday morning:

Two are better than one; a three-plied rope will not easily break.  Bible: Ecclesiastes

Wood burns brighter when joined with other wood. Saadi, a 13th century Persian poet

There are so many different opportunities out there for you to get help. And like both quotes, there’s no question you’ve got the potential to be so much stronger working together on the challenges than struggling by yourself.

We get home and realize we’ve underestimated jet-lag if we’ve traveled far. We’ve underestimated how tired we are from the trip, the convention and just hanging out with new and old friends. It’s justified procrastination, as we step back, all with good intentions, just to take a break for a day or two. 

Monday morning rolls around and we’re ready to jump on some of those new ideas to help grow our business. NOT – email and phone messages come first. After all, we’ve been away a few days and we need to follow up on messages and issues that came into play while we were gone.  Then, what starts out as just an hour or two to check email, becomes half the day and we still haven’t starting working on the new directions we wanted to take our business!

“Tomorrow…I’ll get started tomorrow, if I can just use today to catch up on blogs, all my messages and email!”

Well gang, you’re only human and welcome to real time life! Life just gets in the way and like so many of us you’re never going to get to those new ideas. That excitement and momentum you came home with has been trumped by life, your family, your business and the routine you were in before you left!

If you’re in the same boat with me, then we’re going to explore a series of ideas to help you through the challenges of fighting off the outside world. Harry Chapin once talked about his definition of a good day. I’m paraphrasing, but a really good day was pretty much when he got to work on the things he loved to do most, as opposed to the things he had to do and putting out other people’s fires.

Let’s start building your arsenal of things you can do to stay focused and motivated:

• Isolation!  Okay, it’s normally a pretty negative word, but in this case you need to pick an hour every day when it’s absolutely YOUR time. Shut off the phone, your computer and just close the door to any room you can just be alone in. One hour of isolation with just your thoughts! Trust me on this one – it works!
• One step at a time! You can’t do it all at once, but you can make progress with everything you’ve learned. Start by taking one idea from each speaker you’d like to implement in your business.
• Low hanging fruit?  What are the new things you want to implement that are the easiest to do?
• Keeping Inspired! Blogs, podcasts, YouTube and webinars – there’s so much out there and it’s free. The only price you pay is your time.  Look for people writing about things you find inspiring.
• Join relevant forums to help you keep in touch with the new members of your network. For example, following Skip’s Summer School my good buddy, Brent Watkins,started a facebook page for the event.  In just a couple of days 60 people, all dealing with the same challenge of getting back into the routine, joined the new community.

Part II, tomorrow will focus on some specific Internet destinations to help you through the process. This is about changing more than just your business, it’s about you working to develop a new routine to stay creative!

A long time ago I wrote a post about the care and feeding of your network. The challenge most people have is simply staying in touch. They collect business cards or contact information as they attend various functions and think that’s it, “another addition to my team.” Just collecting contacts is no more effective than throwing seeds on the dirt and walking away thinking a garden is going to miraculously sprout without cultivation or water.

Your network requires the same care and feeding as a garden and here are some great ways I’ve picked up over the years to keep it alive and well.

• Your network should have two different levels. First, are those dozen or so people closest to you. This is the core of your network, the people you know you can always rely on for help and in turn, who rely on you. The second level is everybody else and you should also think of them in different subgroups, being other photographers, manufacturers, service providers, etc.
 

• You’ve got to keep in touch if you expect to utilize your network now and then.That means communicate once in awhile. An email, a note or better yet, pick up a phone and call. If they’re local, grab lunch every so often. Pete Cardello, president of Album Epoca, has been a good buddy for many years. While we don’t talk that often, at least once a month we grab lunch, just to catch up on what’s going on in the industry.

 
• Stay active in social media!Brian Palmer, a local photographer here in Akron and I met on Facebook. I was moving back to Ohio and he was living in the area. We emailed a couple of times and then met for lunch when I was living here. Since then we’ve helped each other in all kinds of projects and he’s become a very good friend, but it all started on Facebook.

 
•Pre-convention set-ups:Over the next few months between PhotoPlus Expo in NYC in the fall, CES/PMA, Imaging USA in January and WPPI in March, just about everyone you know in the photo industry is going to be at one of these four major conventions. Set up some meet ups in advance. You’ve got three meals a day and at least two coffee times – take advantage of the trip just to catch up to people in your network. You don’t need to have an agenda just to grab coffee with an associate you haven’t talked to in a long time, but make the contact before you get there! There’s nothing more pathetic than returning home and finding out somebody you really would have liked to meet with was at the same show you were, but you never knew it.

From Peter Drucker: “More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject”.

• When you do work to maintain contact, bring a long some pictures you’ve been working on. You might have a mailer you did that you want to share. Maybe you’ve got some images demonstrating a new piece of gear or technique you’re using. Maybe it’s just an update of family images. Again, it depends on who you’re talking to and what you want to share.

  
• Include members of your network on your “cc” list. When you’re sending out an email blast or just an email to several people about something important to you, remember the people in your network. Keep them up to date on things you’re working on.

A great network takes time and patience to build, but it’ll be invaluable as your experience and business grow. Just remember you have to give back to your network just as much as you take!

Today this blog is really for newer photographers and veterans who’ve forgotten the importance of recharging your battery!  The most important reason you should go to every convention isn’t about photography, it’s about your network.  Your network and your psyche need nurturing, just like that plant you almost kill every few weeks when you forget to water it.  You need to have contact with friends and associates and they need to have contact with you. 

That plant needs nutrients and so do you.  Only your nutrients come in the form of what’s new in technology, talking with other photographers, sharing in the excitement of the industry and simply being social!  There’s nothing wrong in goofing off for a few minutes and catching up to an old friend, a favorite vendor or a speaker you’ve admired.

I can only think of one “rule” when it comes to networking and it comes from the Guru of networking himself, Bob Burg:

The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own.

There’s nothing I could add that would top that!  Happy Thursday everybody – and to my buddy Pete congrats on the knee surgery…now do what the docs tell you!

Yesterday there were some really nice comments to the blog and it made my day.  So the smile on my face this morning is in response to the gratitude I’m feeling for hearing these posts, both mine and all my guests over the last year, are helping to make a difference.  Feedback, good or bad, is incredibly important to all of us – it’s a huge reason why I believe you need to keep developing your network.  It’s all about your friends and associates being able to help you grow.

That growth will help you keep a positive attitude and even more important, growth makes life fun!  Remember “fun”? It’s one of those words too often lost in business today.  You’re allowed to play hard as well as work hard, which is exactly what we were doing in JP Elario’s photo booth at his wedding when this picture was taken.  That’s me and Sheila with good buddy and great photographer, Joe Elario and his wife Sheila.  (The blog that goes with it is at GoingPro and was posted yesterday.)

In my quest to find what to write about (and feeling incredible pressure because our good friend Melissa now reads my blog)  I found a great quote that says it all…surprsingly it’s from Charles Swindoll, who is often very criticized, but sometimes his thoughts are pretty remarkable:

The longer I live the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.  It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.  It will make or break a company, a church, a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.  I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how how I react to it.  And so it is with you…we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

So, to all my friends, readers, associates and critics who help us all maintain our attitudes – I am grateful and sure do appreciate the feedback.  The genuine sharing of ideas, both old and new, continually help to make the photo industry an incredible career field!

Happy Friday everybody – make it a great weekend.  Shoot the very best work you’ve ever created and hug somebody you love in the process!

Cover shots, at least for the professional photo magazines are rarely, if ever, planned in advance.  Typically the images come from editorial pieces within the magazine.  So the first step to getting a cover shot – make the effort to get yourself published.  

Let’s talk about what it takes to get your work published:

1) Patience - It starts with submitting your work to the editorial staff of the various magazines.  You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket! 

2) Networking – It obviously helps if you work to get your work and yourself known by the editors and manufacturers of the products you use.  Just sending in some images and a story idea cold to a magazine isn’t going to accomplish very much.

3) Be involved – You’ve got to get your work out there.  Enter contests. Look for calls to action where a manufacturer might be looking for images.  A subliminal call to action is any mfg introducing a new product.  Images taken with that product or application are going to be in short supply initially.  Do your own testing of the product and submit images to the manufacturer and magazines.

Here’s a prime example.  Scott Bourne and I go back about 15 years.  He sent me images taken with the new Hasselblad X-pan.  The images were stunning, but we didn’t have any use for them at the time.  Studio Photography and Design was doing a story on the X-pan and looking for fresh images.  I sent them Scott’s work and they wound up doing a profile story on Scott and the X-pan, but the story gets better.  One of their readers loved Scott’s work and hired him for a five year project overseas!

4) Build relationships – It’s not just about the editorial staff, but the manufacturers whose products you use.  I know we’d all like to believe editorial is objective, but it’s not all the time and having the support of a manufacturer, who is an advertiser, behind you will sometimes be the link to finally getting your work published.

5) Never compromise – Every image you submit has to be spectacular.  Never compromise on the quality of the images you submit.

6) Follow the editorial calendars – Every magazine has a published editorial calendar for the year.  Make it a point to follow the themes of the calendar.  You’ll never get published if you’re submitting work that’s all landscape when the theme for the month is children’s portraiture!  Your work needs to have relevance.

7) Format – most photographers forget to look at the format of the cover.  Images used for cover shots can’t just be beautiful, they have to fit the cover with the magazine title, tag lines and even where the address label is positioned.  They also have to be verticals.  I’m always surprised at photographers who think an image would make a beautiful cover, but for example, forget the magazine title is going to run right through their image.   If you want to practice with a few images yourself, mock up a cover of your favorite magazine and then drop in your image.

Here’s a fun exercise to do.  Look through the last issue of magazines like Professional Photographer or Rangefinder.  Look at all the images in the magazine.  I don’t know about PPA, but I know at Rangefinder we used to take just about all the images in the magazine and mock them up as covers before making our final choice.  If you want to see just how hard it is to pick a cover shot, go through the magazine and envision your favorites as covers.  It’s a daunting task.
Patience – no it’s not a typo.  It’s first and last on the list for getting your work published.  Getting yourself featured in editorial boils down to a combination of everything above combined with a little luck and timing.  You’ll never get published if you don’t participate in the process, but just like cooking a great steak, rush the process and you’ll burn it; over season it and you’ll ruin it and take it off the grill too early and it’ll still be raw. 

Take your time.  Be goal oriented and don’t lose sight of your ultimate prize, being published.  Keep building your business and your brand.  Things will come together, but it takes time.

Hard to believe that Benjamin Franklin had the idea a few hundred years ago:

“He that can have patience can have what he will.”

But I love this quote from Buddhist thinker, author and educator, Daisaku Ikeda  even more:

“With love and patience nothing is impossible!” 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help!  There are so many different ways you can get help when you’re just stuck with a challenge.

1) When it’s short term and immediate, use your network, your personal data base.

2) Facebook and Twitterboth keep you in contact with other photographers, but be careful.  You don’t want to go public on a particular issue if you’ve built up your Facebook or Twitter account with future clients.  Be selective in this case, when putting out questions.

3) The Digital Wedding Forum, DWF, is a great resource and, with the years of data already in their archives, you just might find the answer to your question already there.

4) It might seem a little new, but Scott Bourne and I have developed quite a following on www.GoingPro2010.com.  Scott and I don’t always have the answers, but with all our years in the industry you can bet we know somebody who does.  Scott’s blog,PhotoFocus, also has tons of answers to different photographic challenges.

5) Long term questions, in other words you’re not sitting with an immediate need, have the potential to get answered any place you’re going to put a bunch of photographers in a room at the same time.  Get involved in your local guild or regional professional group.  Here in Akron there’s a group who meets on Taco Tuesday, the first Tuesday of the month. A few months ago I spoke at the Dallas PPA.  There were 100+ photographers at the dinner that night and there wasn’t one person who wouldn’t have helped another if asked.  Evey state has groups of photographers who typically get together once a month, but you have to make the effort to find out when and where and then be there!

6) Tradeshows and conventions have been built on a foundation of providing help to their attendees and again they happen all over the country.  From the big national shows, like PPE, Imaging USA and WPPI,to the state level and regionals, there are some great opportunities for you to get the answers you need.

7) Don’t forget the vendors you work with.  For some unexplained reason everybody always seems to forget the expertise at every manufacturer, especially your lab and album supplier.  Even when the problem isn’t theirs to fix, the staff at both of these service groups are well-travelled.  They know so many different photographers and can be an incredible resource.

 8) If you’re not already a member, you should be involved with your state association or the nationals, like PPA or WPPI.  Again, here’s a resource for you to get help when you need it and some times the answer just might be on one of their websites.

9) Look for local programs!  Yeah, here’s where it finally happens – I turn to the shameless promotion of one of my own projects, the Akron Photo Series.  This past weekend it was picked up on Ohio.com and the Tennessean!  Once a month we’re planning on bringing another photo icon to Ohio and proving that people in the Midwest don’t have to travel far for great photographic programs.  By the end of this week registration should be open for all three programs scheduled for this year…Clay Blackmore on October 10 is open for registration right now and Doug Gordon and Tony Corbell in November and December respectively, will be open for registration shortly.

The bottom line is simple:  When you’re stuck with a challenge and the frustration level is climbing, ASK FOR HELP!  You’re part of an incredible industry with a history of photographers helping each other!

Okay, so I can’t believe I’m quoting gossip columnist Rona Barrett this morning:

“The strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it. Whether he has an abscess on his knee or in his soul.”

So, have some fun thinking about all these links…

Tony Corbell is the educational manager over at Nik, but he and I worked at Hasselblad together.  But we met when he was working with Dean Collins, which led to working at Brooks Institute and co-ordinating with just about everyone in the industry.

Kayce Baker over at Fujifilm and I link back to her days in retail at Samy’s in LA, but most recently  Scott Bourne and I just used one of her amazing images in our new book GoingPro. 

Image by Kayce Baker – All Rights Reserved

Scott Bourne and I go back at least 15 years when he sent me images at Hasselblad taken with the then new Hasselblad X-pan.  I sent them over to Studio Photography (no longer in business) and they ran a profile story on Scott and his images, which led to a monster project in the middle east.

My good buddy Bob Rose and I go back to his Ilford days, but the fun really started when I needed a dive buddy for a trip to Bonaire.  Then came working together on all sorts of projects, including Bob writing for Rangefinder Magazine.  He’s a writer, (Google him and you’ll find things he’s written all over the industry!) a photographer and the ultimate tech-weenie!  The computer I’m working on right now wouldn’t be working if it wasn’t for Bob’s help!   During all these years life has just been one amazing adventure.

Kenny Kim came to a program we were doing on the road in Cleveland five years ago.  Also speaking were Mike Colon and Jeff Jochum, which was a Pictage sponsored series.  Then Kenny seemed to show up at every program.  He recently published a new book and took some great images at the last Skip’s Summer School.  Then, two days ago I was talking to Tracy Moore, a photographer from Montana.  She’s assisting Kenny at an upcoming wedding in Chicago in the next week or so.

Vern McClish, now at Hallmark, was at Polaroid for many years, although we really didn’t work together until I left and joined Hasselblad.  Polaroid at the time made a back for Hasselblads.   We’ve worked together on and off for years on various projects related to Hallmark Institute, but the most fun is that we actually went to high school together!  For years he’s been suggesting I get to know lighting expert, Bobbi Lane, who recently just co-anchored the Lighting Lab at Skip’s Summer School.  Now throw in good buddy, Rich Parker from The MAC Group, who brought in all the Profoto lighting gear.  Rich and I go back to before his MAC Group days when I tried to talk him into leaving the west coast and moving to NJ to work for Hasselblad.

The other day I did a blog and talked about Ansel Adams…well, John Sexton, Chris Ranier and Rod Dresser were all assistants of Ansel at one time or another.  They all went on to become incredible photographers in their own right.

Okay, the list could go on and on, but here’s the point – no heavy thoughts – just pay attention to the incredible roots of everybody you meet in photography.  The longer you’re in the industry the more you’ll realize we’re all addicted to it! Nobody ever really leaves.

Yesterday I had fun writing a blog about an aspect of Matthew Jordan Smith’s program.  Matthew is definitely in my network  and I’m in his.   We’ve been friends a long time, but the friendship came years after we met.  We share a ton of mutual “networkees” (hey it’s my blog, I can make up words if I want to).

So here’s my point – I talked MJS in coming to Akron and he met some great people and got a lot of really good feedback.  He shared some ideas with all us and I blogged about one of them yesterday.  He liked what I wrote and put something on his blog directing more people to the information on my blog.  I can’t wait for him and Nozomi to come back to Ohio.

It’s all about give and take and those people in your network who are the strongest and mean the most to you need contact.  It takes work to make it happen – we’re all so busy with so many different aspects of our lives.  In fact, in all the years we’ve known each other, Matthew and I both realized this was the first time we’ve ever had really great quality time to talk and just hang out, beyond a dinner together when we’re all on the road.   

If you make the commitment to put in the time and stay in contact your network will just keep getting stronger.  All of you will benefit from each other’s ideas, energy and passion for photography.

Make it a great weekend everybody!