Author: Leslie

Okay, I’ve been rather bad about posting lately, and I need to make another podcast. I apologize. I’m swamped with law school stuff…exams start next week…and pretty much everything else in my life is on-hold. 

I did manage to take a brief break yesterday to go to the local APA holiday party. It was nice to see old friends and to see some images again (they do a print exchange every year–great idea). Next week the local ASMP is having their party and I hope to poke my head in there as well, but it is the night before an 8am exam (Contracts, no less), so it’s not a for-sure thing.

That’s one of the big sacrifices I’ve had to make to go to law school–I can’t socialize as much as I would like, even when that socialization is work-related (the other big sacrifice is not working with clients–that means practically no income). However, in the long term these sacrifices will be worth it. I will be able to offer my clients legal services as well as the marketing services.

Sometimes you have to make short term sacrifices in order to make a better future life. This is true for your businesses as well. Spending money on marketing, for example, will have a long term payoff. Investing in your business may mean less cash for you personally now, but a stronger business for the long term. 

I noticed last night when I was at the party that the photographers who were struggling the least during this downturn were those who had decided (a while back) that they were businesspeople first, photographers second. This helped keep their heads in long term thinking mode and now, when things are hard, those efforts are paying off. 

It’s never too late to reframe yourself that way–businessperson first.

Sure, it may be a short term sacrifice, but it will have a long term payoff.

My new book is now listed on Amazon! You can order it here and save some money on shipping (as compared to lulu.com). 

For those of you who have already purchased the book, I’d really appreciate it if you’d take a few minutes to review the book on the Amazon site. Just like anything on the ‘net, the more chatter, the better for its ranking. So please tag, etc., as much as you can. 🙂

 

If you are interested in getting the book in a non-paper form, you can still do that on the lulu.com site, where a pdf version is available. It is less expensive than the print version too.  Save a tree and save some $$. 

I hope you like the book and find it helpful. I tried to pack it full of concrete help. There are no photos in this book–it is all instructive text, and that text fills each page as much as possible to keep the price down (fewer pages = lower price). I say this because I’ve had some people complain (before reading the book!) that the price seems high for the size of the book. I’d like to remind all of you that this is the kind of information you would get from working with me directly, and that would cost a LOT more. And since I’m in school now, you can’t get that help from me directly even if you did want to pay for it because I’m not working with clients while in my first academic year. 

So this is the best of my stuff, in an easily portable form. Enjoy, and thanks.

Doug Menuez has written a very strong piece (thanks Sergio for letting me know!) about his personal journey to success as a photographer. He has some very powerful ideas and advice in this article. I applaud his openness in sharing and hope that all of you take a lot of this to heart.

Among all the great info, make sure you recognize this:

• It is scary, you might fail. 
• But if you don’t try, you WILL fail. 

As I so often tell creatives: if you wanted security, you should have chosen dental school or accountancy. You chose to be a creative so you might as well be as fully creative as you can. Be the BEST creative you can be. Free your creativity and forget those who tell you things like “that’s too weird” or “I don’t get it” or (worst of all) “It would be safer to shoot [X]…” Just friggin’ go for it creatively. 🙂

I got a lovely email from a photographer today wishing me a happy Thanksgiving. I’m 99% sure it was a mass emailing, but the writing was sincere, short, and offered a lovely thought so I’m not 100% convinced it was. Either way, it cut through the clutter of my inbox and made me feel good. I hope he sent it to his clients as well, because I think it would have the same results.

Sending it to targets he has never met, however, would probably not be as effective. Heartfelt emails connect better with people you know. Targets aren’t likely to be impressed unless you have something really amazingly creative, or expensive. Unless, however, it helps others. 

So that brings us to the holiday gifting question in general and what to do there. IMHO, the best thing you can do this year is to re-purpose your holiday promo money and give to the needy instead. Let your clients and targets know, via email or a simple card of some sort that you are doing this. One year I got (from an agency in Cleveland) a shiny (empty) soup can with a label on it that said that they had donated to the local food bank. I loved that. Smart and good hearted.

Not to toot my own horn, but I have done this for years myself–every year I buy a whole bunch of games and donate them to Toys for Tots. It feels better than, well, kissing up to potential and past clients with shiny, expensive things. I think the people I work with would rather help others than get for themselves, so the connection is real.

Most of your clients and targets are of a similar mind. We’re all pretty lucky, in comparison to many people out there, and even this year when so many of us are feeling the economic pains, we’re still better off than most. Most people in advertising or any creative field love helping others, so gifting in this way works on so many levels.

Most importantly this year is that the need is greater than ever. 

So, I encourage you to open your heart and give to the truly needy this year. If you are going to use it for marketing purposes, be careful of any religious groups, however, since you could accidentally tick some people off. Stick to reputable and good charities, that are not religiously affiliated if at all possible. Food banks are particularly in need this year.

If you don’t have money to spare, but still want to do something, why not offer your time and/or your art to these groups? Volunteer one day a month for the next year in a homeless shelter, in the name of your clients, for example. Teach kids how to make pictures in an after-school program. Something to help.

Whatever you choose to do, do it with an open heart. That includes if you choose to give gifts to your clients instead. 🙂 Just do it because you want to, not for what you might get out of it.

And for everyone in the US, happy Thanksgiving (tomorrow).

Need a creative boost? Take a nap. (It’ll help your memory too)

There are some bloggers who get a lot of attention in the photo community. Unfortunately, some are more reliable than others and there is one who, well, much of what he writes is at best spurious, but damn it sounds believable. I’m tired of seeing good photographers sucked into trusting someone like this, and so I published this post (below) on one of the forums. I’m sharing it with all of you because I think it is important that you investigate, on your own, the big issues that you are facing.

What I write and what others write are only opinions and should not be held up as The Truth, no matter how plausible it sounds.

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I generally don’t like business cards. Most don’t do much of anything and, since the rolodex as an object on a desk that one would spin is dead, they don’t function the way they used to. However, I love great business cards. The ones that you know people put up in their cubicles or take snaps of to show their friends and colleagues–those are promotional tools in the best sense. Here are some examples of some great ones.

I got an email from Aaron Ansarov the other day, thanking me for the latest Manual and sharing his recent idea for a promo. I was so blown away with it I asked him if I could share it here, and he kindly said that would be fine with him. In fact, he’s posted about it on his own blog, which saves me the effort of retelling his story. Better to get it from him directly.

It’s a brilliant idea…for him and his work. This wouldn’t work for anyone else but him. 

What would work for you?

Call me a curmudgeon, but if you are going to post a link in the comments here, you need to give more than “great post” or “check out my blog” and the link. I know that getting your site/blog linked to by others is a good way to increase its ranking, but it is smarmy to put it out there without fully participating in the conversation wherever you are posting it. 

So, I welcome comments and I am happy to have you put links to your site/blog in your comments, but you really need to comment. Talk about the issue at hand. Participate. Otherwise I will delete it.

Some people claim that everything has already been done. If that’s so, then why didn’t I know about this years ago?

My point? Maybe you think whatever you are thinking of doing isn’t worth doing because it’s obvious, but in reality, it hasn’t been done before. Give it a shot.