Stay in your lane.

Now I know most artist are a JACK OF ALL TRADES. But at some point its a time where you have to master the craft where your heart lye's.  Speaking of MASTER. As I started this blog my dearest father handed me a letter where he was congratulated on his success on passing a MASTER'S test for his official HVAC license..Now my father is the epitome of JACK OF ALL TRADES, he's and electrician, mechanic, plumber, and so much more. But he has mastered the trade of HVAC!

    This past week I did a shoot, I was super nervous going onto the set. The client I was working with is super influential in the industry. So I thought I might have to get commercial with this one. I dont know why my mindset shifted. I do confess I began to look at other photographers work mimicking it. Now by no means is my style of photography COMMERCIAL. Now obviously she hired me  because she was impressed with my work and my style of shooting. I cracked under my own pressure I applied to myself. Stay focused. Sometimes it pays better to stay in your own lane. If you know anything about me, I am all about you developing your own brand, signature style, and standing out. I cannot tell you what made me slide into this state of mind. But if I can offer you any advice in this blog:  When it comes to your work, STAY IN YOUR LANE!

Unless a client comes to you asking for different, stick to your style, your brand, your product! If its something you are a bit unsure of, or dont think you can do, dont be so reluctant on passing the job on to a fellow artist, or telling the client you are  unable to produce this product.  You dont want to produce a SHIT product (pardon my tongue . But this is your business your putting on the line here. Word of mouth is your biggest MARKETING TOOL! So you want to make sure that when someone speaks about your brand to another it is positive. If it  is not as paid job by all means practice and experiment, but if a client is paying you for  a product or service, stick in your sought after style. This is what I mean by STAYING IN YOUR LANE!

^_^ ♥

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! (If I do not update before hand)

You have to CLAIM IT!

You know we all have our days when we begin to doubt ourselves. I had one of those days this week. As alot of you may know I am looking to photograph Celebrities. Which can be very challenging. So before that doubt could set in I sought some wisdom from my very good friend and celebrity STYLIST Zoe Dupree. While speaking with him he gave me the challenge of making a daily faith confession over the desires of my heart. So now every day I state and claim " I AM A CELEBRITY PHOTOGRAPHER" "I AM A WORLD RENOWNED PHOTOGRAPHER  I cannot stop saying this! Its fun. So my whole point of this blog, is "I AM"  is a secret language, that about 10% of the world  uses. Confessing  who you are, who you desire to be, what you desire to have, ITS ALL A BIG PART OF THE DREAM CHASING PROCESS....I challenge you to wake up EVERY MORNING AND BEGIN TO CONFESS  WHO YOU ARE, WHO YOU DESIRE TO BE.  Use the sacred language of "I AM"....


HAPPY CLAIMING! ^_^  <3

A FEW MARKETING IDEAS....

So I know I said I was going to make this a little more  personal... But I wanted to share this awesome list of  MARKETING IDEAS I am currently playing around with!  Credit goes to http://parttimephoto.com:

Classifieds – Craigslist or your local newspaper. Advertise online for free or in small local papers for a few dollars a week. It’s the least expensive newspaper advertising you can buy, and some of the best read. I have gotten many, many lucrative clients (especially for baby photos) through this venue.

Offer to pick up competitors’ excess work – This one might seem a long-shot, but every photographer at some time is unable to meet someone’s needs because of time or price. They are happy to refer work to a fellow photographer who can take on that client – it makes them look good, and it nets you business.

Free press – Talk with your local newspaper and get in a press release about your new business, get their business writer to do a feature on you, hold a grand opening event (like a half-day photo shoot at the park) to be featured in the paper’s event calendar, submit photos of local sports and events in exchange for bylines (including your name and web site). Try advertising in their classified section for a month first – often this will grease the wheels when you ask for some PR. Local radio and TV stations are also worth contacting for possible PR.

Co-op marketing – This is one that the big-boy boutique studios use. Find a business with the same customer base as you and do a contest, drawing, or event together. As an example, if you’re a baby photographer, visit your local children’s resale store and offer them three photo shoots with files on CD to give away to their best customers. You’ll do the shoots using wardrobe provided by the store, then give the store framed 20×30 prints to hang on their walls – alongside your business cards, of course.

Bulletin boards – Be sure your business card is tacked onto every bulletin board in your community. Ever see those “For Sale” sheets of paper with the phone numbers at the bottom, cut individually so people can tear a number right off? Make up your own for your photography services! Many businesses, including your local Visitor’s Bureau, are also happy to display your brochures and business cards.

Volunteer – Non-profits can always use more volunteers, and as a photographer, you have a unique gift to give. Work with local charities to photograph their events, membership, and marketing images. You will help a good cause and build an immediate fan base among members.

Shoot local sports and events – From Little League to Friday Night varsity football, pet parades to Fourth of July fireworks, communities love to see photos of their friends, neighbors, children, and themselves. Work with organizers to be able to display images from these events on your web site, and to promote your web site at the event. Offer to sell prints from the photos as a fundraiser for the event or organization (such as sports photos for the Athletic Booster Club) as a way to grease the wheels and gain access and permission. Your web site traffic will go up by leaps and bounds.

Networking – Being present and involved in the community is one of the best ways to build loyalty and recognition. Attend Chamber of Commerce mixers and business association meetings, high school Project Graduation meetings, Little League board meetings, Kiwanis Club car washes, Education Foundation gatherings, any kind of event where people will get together, share ideas, and work for a common cause. Participate as a member of the community and offer your own ideas. Bring your camera.

Models – Beginning photographers get along just fine with beginning models. Use sites likeOneModelPlace to set up a photography profile and meet models in your area. Do TFCD (Trade For CD) shoots with them to build your portfolio. They may not be paying customers (at first!), but they can help you practice and grow your art while building your portfolio. And as always, the better your portfolio, the more people will take notice.

The Modern Marketing Triumvirate: Your business cards, web site, and e-mail newsletter – These are three of the least expensive weapons in your marketing arsenal, and three of the most effective. Your business cards lead folks to your web site (the best brochure ever), your web site leads people to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter, and your e-mail newsletter gives you a free list of people who are actively interested in your services, along with the permission to market to them.                                   

HAPPY EXPERIMENTING!   

Oh here's a shot of something SLIGHT!!! 

DAYDREAM

             So the past few weeks, ok I wont lie;MONTH, I have been feeling slightly lost on what next move to make. I confess thats why I have not updated my blog, website, or facebook page or even posted pictures of my work as frequently as I should. I sat back watching alot of the people who have influenced my photography career propel forward, in their work, and academics. I didnt think that I could juggle anything more then work and school. "WHY" you ask: I believe it is because I started to become so focused on making money. I have never had a problem making money with my art. I do believe I became "MONEY HUNGRY" I wanted more. Sad right?! I know. I felt the people who I use to inspire and influence were looking at me shaking their heads in disgust at me.Almost like they knew I was failing and lost. I know this may sound slightly dramatic and extra, but its true. I felt sad and pathetic, I was shaking my head at my own self. Because of this feeling I began to allow other things and people to have the attention that should have been given to my craft and business; like they were going to tell me what next move to make or even hand me the money and success I craved. Now I know that we all make mistakes, we are human after all. But it comes a time where when those sad thoughts and feelings of being a failure, and lost have to be buried and put to rest right at the point when it enters your mind. I do believe if we dwell on a thought for a period of time it beings to consume us. So changing your thought process and mind set to one of a SUCCESSFUL, WELL PAID ENTREPRENEUR is a must. You become what you think about the most...
                  I was RE-reading one of my favorite books called "The Secret", one of my favorite quotes from this book is "When you see a wealthy(successful) person, you can tell what their predominate thoughts are." They are not thinking of thoughts of failure, or being lost, well lets reword that. They are not dwelling on those thoughts and feelings, they put those thoughts to rest upon them entering their minds. To gain and reach success we have to make the thoughts of SUCCESS, that HUNGER feeling for what we love to CONSUME US! We have to begin to think about what we want to become, and allow that to become our PREDOMINANT THOUGHT. Some times we just have to put aside the chaos, and  BEGIN TO DAYDREAM!
                I was just typing and had my own REVELATION! =)


HAPPY DAYDREAMING! =) ♥

Practice make's perfect!

So I was sitting up in bed thinking the other night I only tend to give you guys  advice on business! Im so much more then a business STICKLER! I am a PHOTOGRAPHER, an ARTIST! We tend to get so caught up in making money and breaking into our market, we forget about our craft! I do admit with me being a FULL TIME STUDENT, working a part-time job, and running my own business, in the past I gave very little time to actually "Practicing" my craft. I was so busy trying to my clients happy, I almost forgot that I love PHOTOGRAPHY. You have to love what you do in order for others to love it. You remember that old cliche "Practice makes perfect"?  Well my YBE'S its true; practicing your craft helps you perfect it. Now when I say practice I mean get out the equipment, give GOOGLE a run for their money, reading books, searching blogs, websites learning techniques about how to ENHANCE YOUR CRAFT! The more you ENHANCE the better you will get. My mentor is forever telling me the importance of looking back at my old work and comparing it to my newer work. It shows your PROGRESS! To be honest when I take glances at my old work  and compare it to my recent work it drives me to look for more techniques and search for other tips and tricks  to enhance my shooting.  HERE'S A QUICK GLANCE!






Now I know what you photographers are saying, we do spend 20 percent of your time actually shooting, the other 80 percent we are editing, online, and out networking looking for new clients. Getting to the point of this blog: If you dont make time to shoot, or CREATE what you want and what you love, your craft will become WORK! And your motto should always be "THIS IS NOT WORK FOR ME!"......^_^ ♥

HAPPY PRACTICING!

THIS BUSINESS THING!

Hey you guys don’t think I left  you for broke! Things have been busy with me settling into my classes. I have been getting emails and facebook inboxes about more tips and tricks to this  “BUSINES THING”! I got it right here! One thing I want you guys to keep in mind is that MASTERING THE ART OF MARKETING (that’s what I like to call it) is trial and error. 

I was reading an AWESOME article in  FAST COMPANY mag  last week about  “How to follow the wisdom of TWEENS (teens)”  to help you make your Brand and Service  something  that keeps people interested. The steps are as follows:

STEP 1 OBSERVE- What are you exactly  observing? You are observing your COMPETORS! If you are anything like me, in the beginning you will probably think it means checking out and doing a COMPAIRSON of your work to theirs. NO! DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ON COMPARING YOURSELF TO YOUR COMPETORS. At the  most you want to check out their Price list, and set yours accordingly. I will talk about a price list in a later blog. I’m still trying to get that together! 

Step 2 TRACK- You want  to set GOALS! You NEED to set GOALS.  While your reaching these goals you want to track your progress. I found that when I track my progress when setting newer goals it motivates me to work TWICE AS HARD!

Step 3 COMPETE-  After you update your Goals list, and YOUR AMPED UP AND MOTIVATED. YOUR READY TO COMPETE! My mentor all ways tells me that your only as good  as the last piece of work you aired to thee public. And that stays with me when posting new work. Now I know you might be saying “What does this have to do with Competing?”……………..EVERYTHING!  If you are offering a SERVICE , you also are producing a BRAND AND A PRODUCT! If you are posting pardon my French but “SHIT WORK” that doesn’t  even  ASTONISH yourself how are you COMPETETING WITH OTHERS.  Don’t impress your Audience, and your POTENTIAL CLIENTS, ASTONISH THEM! That will give you the leg up over your competition!

Step 4 COMPUTE-  Your doing this right now! Do your RESEARCH! Never stop Google-ing about your craft.  Pick-up Magazines about your craft, and business. NEVER STOP EDUCATING YOURSELF. I do endless research on Business Marketing,  Posing for photography, and for ever google-ing pictures looking at angles and the composure of the photo seeing how I can recreate the image as my own. My biggest downfall when  doing this step is the temptation to surf my Facebook Timeline. That’s fine once and awhile but  use your time on the Internet productively!

 Step 5 Compare (ANALYZE)- In the article this step is COMPARE. I don’t quite agree with this step, so I came up with my own step. We are going to call this step ANALYZE! What I like to do on this step is search through my competitor’s websites looking at how they have their site info is  compiled. Is it easy to access, is it easy to understand? Is it attractive? What component’s does their site have that mine doesn’t? I ask myself these question’s to give my Potential Clients a better PRODUCT AND BRAND then my competitors can offer them.  Every serious Entrepreneur should have a site or online portfolio outside of Facebook. No matter what field you are in. But this is a subject for another BLOG!

Step 6  Celebrate- This  is the final step, and to me the BEST PART! It might come from another party telling you how well you did, or how GREAT your work is! Give yourself CREDIT for a job WELL DONE; Throw a gallery viewing of your work, if you are an artist.  A lot of Entrepreneurs take TOO MUCH PRIDE in this step though. Don’t over do it! Don’t get too comfortable; keep on improving, after every celebration. One of my favorite quotes  is “ The  greater the artist the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”-Robert Huges

I want you guys to take these steps and apply them to your  service and BRAND  the best way you possibly can. Remember no matter what  field you are in and are wanting to DOMINATE, running a business is TRAIL AND ERROR. So take risk, work-hard, keep STUDYING and GRINDING while your competitor is sleeping. Stay positive! I hope this inspires you! 

^_^ <3

-          HAPPY GRINDING 

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR BACK IS UP AGAINST THE WALL!

I told you guys I was going to update as much as I can. Last week was such a busy week for me. Although I had a busy week, I STILL felt as though I was in a creative rut. YES, YES, YES Energy Jones's back was up against the wall! But what I soon came to find out was that the only wall that was there was my mind. So to get out of this creative rut I began to do a mass amount of research of women in my field, and having creative talks over lunch with friends ( Dante Bailey ^_^) to get some creative insight into what they do to keep their spark and motivation for what they do alive. I also realized that I last week like many other weeks that I find myself in creative rut's (there's that term again) I was not working from the heart. When your working from the heart you are humbling your self to LOVE what you are doing. I was senselessly working, not working on what my clients wanted. Not photographing  them  how they wanted to be photographed. So I made a vow to do more pre-consulting with my clients, spending more time getting to know the ladies I am working with. They love that it's such a personal experience for them. They appreciate that. So my advice to you: When in CREATIVE RUT'S, become more focused. When your focused, your working from the HEART and your not senselessly working. Your doing EXACTLY what the client wants, servicing them well. They hired you, so obviously they want your style of creativity so your doing what you love and what they want at the same time. That is working from the heart.

HAPPY CREATING!

^_^ ♥

Marketing SAVVY!

I have had a few questions about marketing my PHOTO BUSINESS! So a business mentor of mine informed me that I have to get away from the computer to market my BUSINESS AND ME! So I had the SAVVY IDEA to create a SNATCH TAG flyer (that's what I like to call them); You know those flyer's with the contact information on a slit of paper where you can rip off. I felt the idea was a little crazy but my mentor always tells me to be "BRAVE AND BOLD" ,So I went for it. I hung them up in local Cafes, and women's boutiques. While posting them I had a few women approach me asking me about my business. (Women are my target market, but that's a blog post for another day)

One of the "Snatch Tag" Flyers:

I noticed my current way, well OLD way of marketing was not really "Marketing". All I was doing was sharing pictures of work I had previously posted to my facebook timeline with the caption "Contact me via my facebook inbox for rates and booking info". No matter how many friends you have on facebook the SAME THING WILL HAPPEN. Numerous people will like your link, maybe 2 or 3 may inbox you in interest about your service, on a rare occasion one might just set up to hire you. RARE OCCASION.  My whole point is IT PAYS WELL to find different marketing techniques other then the social network. You have to be savvy, and creative. Once you have an idea GO FOR IT! Be brave, be BOLD. Usually the craziest idea's are the ones that are the most profitable.

Happy MARKETING! ^_^♥

My first BLOG!

This is my very first BLOG POST!I am very excited to be posting here. It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to talk about on this blog. So I decided I wanted to REGURGITATE (nasty word I know) the information I have been taught, or learned on my own, when it comes to business and photography. I will occassionally post some of my works, upcoming events, and other EJIMAGING UPDATES here. Life gets busy, so I will try to post as much as I can here. I hope I can give you as much VALUABLE INFORMATION I was given at the start of my business. I give thanks for your vist. HAPPY READING!