Shift your tone

Seth Godin’s post today got me to thinking. In it he writes:

More and more, businesses and businesspeople talk about their rights.

It seems, though, that organizations and individuals that focus more on their responsibilities and less on their rights tend to outperform. [emphasis in original]

You’re responsible to your community, to your customers, to your employees and to your art. Serve them and the rights thing tends to take care of itself.

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me about this, but I think that in many ways, he’s right.

Now, I’m not saying you should ignore your rights–not at all. You need to register your images and go after infringers, absolutely.

No, what I am saying is that I’ve noticed that those people who talk about their rights all the time, especially to their clients, are really rather off-putting. No one wants to get a lecture from a vendor. People want to hear good things from their vendors. They want to hear how you are going to solve their problems. They don’t want to hear what your problems are.

This goes hand in hand with being positive, especially when it comes to any interactions with your targets/clients. Don’t put yourself down, don’t talk about how you “lucked out” and got a shot. Don’t talk about how hard things have been or even how your kids have been sick. Basically, don’t talk about you.

Talk about them.

When you focus on your targets and their needs and wants, sure, you are going to talk about you a bit, but in the context of helping them.

The other side of Seth’s post, about responsibilities, is equally important. When I hear photographers having fits over indemnification clauses, my first thought is “why are you afraid to guarantee your work?” A well written indemnification clause in a contract is essentially saying “I am willing to back up my promise that this is my work, that I’m not infringing on anyone else’s rights, with a promise to pay for the legal costs if I screw up.” Giving a promise, a guarantee of your work, shouldn’t be a big issue and it does a lot to comfort your clients.

Rather than fight these clauses I’d suggest getting your lawyer to write a good one for you and then pointing it out to your clients! “In paragraph 4 I’m guaranteeing that my images will not infringe on anyone else’s rights, so you’re covered.”

By the way, if some third party did bring suit claiming you infringed on their work somehow with your images, well, that is why you carry E&O insurance.

My point is, no one like a whiner, and when you put your energy into reminding your clients about your rights you can come off sounding pretty whiny. But if you focus your energy instead on their needs and how you can solve their problems, you become a positive hero to them. That gets you projects and builds your reputation, in a very good way.