Author: Leslie Burns

PDN has a list of several photo competitions with upcoming deadlines. Check ’em out. Also check out the American Photographer/American Illustrator ones too. And the Communication Arts competitions aren’t that far off either; Photo in March, Interactive in January, Illustration in March.

People often ask whether it’s worth submitting to these competitions and I have to say my answer is yes…and no. After having been a judge, I can tell you that getting in (winning) is essentially a crap-shoot–it’s all depends on what those particular judges like/dislike at that time. But, if you do get in, it can be the thing that really gets your business moving. In other words, it’s a gamble and everyone has her/his own tolerance for that kind of risk/reward equation.

I think if you can afford to “lose” the entrance fees, you should be entering.

Best of luck!

Seth Godin has another great post–this one is about being remarkable. In any creative business these days, this kind of thinking is incredibly important. The low-end is gone (thanks to incredibly cheap services from places like China and India) and the middle ground is falling. If you want to be successful today, you need to be remarkable.

You need to go after what you really want and to do that you have to commit to the doing. Get off your butt, stop whining about the lowballer across town and make the leap. Yes, you may fail and fail spectacularly but doing what you’ve been doing isn’t going to work anymore and will assuredly lead to eventual failure.

Which would you rather do:

1. Play it “safe” in the short term, continue doing what you have been doing, not scaring off potential clients and not being honest to the full creative you that is inside; keeping in the middle and having lots of people like you. Don’t call out lowballers in public and don’t say anything that might make you look “difficult.” Make some money today, less tomorrow, and hope that something happens to make things better eventually.
or

2. Let your passion out–create the work you’ve always wanted to create. If it offends or scares off some people, fine, they’re not the right people to work with. Find the people who share your passion and get your stuff in front of them. Ask for legitimately high fees and protect your rights to the hilt. Tell companies that send you lousy contracts that you will not sign them and send your own. Don’t budge. Don’t bend. Toot your own horn and love every minute of the process. Challenge the status quo. Do great work, knowing full well that you might not be successful, but at least you’re doing everything you can to be successful–not just waiting for “something to happen.”

Give me #2. Abso-friggin’-lutely.

At the beginning of the year quite often a businessperson’s thoughts turn to planning. And that’s a good thing. It’s a smart idea to think about what your goals are for the year and start plotting ways to achieve them. For example, if you want to make $X (a specific amount), how will you make that happen? What are the steps? Breaking goals down into small, schedule-able events will turn those goals into reality. Works for things you don’t like, too, or things you just have to get done (like paying your quarterly taxes–why not put those dates and reminders into your calendar today?).

Planning also helps you to see what direction your business is moving in. It gives you the opportunity to stop reacting and start being pro-active (though I loathe that buzzword, it is accurate here).

It’ll also help you to feel less overwhelmed and more in control. When you’re a small businessperson it’s easy to feel like there is just too damn much to do to do what you want to do. When you plan it out, you can see how to make both the stuff you “hafta” do and the stuff you “wanna” do fit. It also helps you to see the stuff you can dump because you don’t really “hafta” do it after all.

If you need help in this area, don’t forget about the Monthly Maintenance packages. A little coaching to get you on-track might be just the jump-start you need.

Here there’s no exception to the planning–a busy year awaits and I’m trying to make sure it all happens as best befits my business, my clients, and me.

In 2007 I’ll be doing a fair amount of traveling, most importantly for a series of speaking events in April and May. The details aren’t finalized yet (stay tuned) but if you’re in one of the cities I’ll be visiting, you’ll have the opportunity not only to meet me, but to ask me your burning marketing and business questions! I’ll also be offering one-on-one consultations. Don’t miss you chance to pick my brain in person!

Additionally, I’ll be keeping up with the podcasts and the manuals (have you signed up for Free Manuals in Your Email yet?) and working on my new book on marketing (no title as yet) as well as the audio version of my first book (which is taking much longer than originally projected–see, even we pros have things go amiss!).

And, of course, I’ll be working with my clients, without whom I wouldn’t be able to do any of this (THANKS!). If you’re interested in working with me one-on-one, why not contact me today?

2007 is not even a week old and already there is harsh news in the photo/creative world. Saddam Hussein was executed and the images of the execution were captured by cell phone and released by a non-photographer. PDN has the story and in it they lightly discuss how so-called “citizen (photo-) journalists” are changing how the media acquires its images.

Ironic that PDN should be discussing a treat to photographers when its parent company, VNU, has recently issued a rights-grabbing contract, at least according to a thread on the Editorial Photographers forum (membership required).

[By the way, if you shoot editorial, you need to be a member of EP. Join now.]

Photographer Sion Tourig (blog) has a very interesting article on the “citizen (photo) journalist” threat and reality. It’s on The Register (UK).  He’s pretty savvy on these issues and is willing to say some things that many American photographers have been nervous or unwilling to admit. Pleasant? No. But the points he brings up are vital to the creative industries and should be seriously examined.

I’m particularly in agreement with what he has to say about Creative Commons & Copyleft at the end of the piece. Bravo.

And then there’s a thread on the HOW design forum that ticked me off. A designer posted looking for free fonts and I posted that as a creative professionals we should not seek the free or cheap from other creatives. It lowers the bar for everyone. I, unfortunately, then got my ass handed to me.  The rationale of “everyone does it” was used, and that, frankly, just proves my point.

Sigh.

In all this bad news, we can choose to moan and wallow, or we can get up and make things better. This is our business, our financial life, we’re talking about here.  Can we change how the media giants are getting free images from people with cellphones? No. But photographers can work to make outstanding images that amateurs with cell phones can’t make and these photographers MUST license those images and for a fair price. We should also all eschew the Creative Commons and Copyleft good-intentioned paths to ruin. We should all try to buy/license the best creative products we can and pay fairly for them.

We have to walk the path.

Those of you who regularly read this blog know that I am a big believer in facing reality but keeping a positive attitude. This year looks already like it is going to try us, but together we can not only stop things from getting worse, we can make some things better. All? No, not all. I think journalism in all its forms is so significantly infiltrated by money, greed, and power that photo-journalism may indeed be a dying profession. But it’s definitely not to late in other realms. We can’t sit on our hands any longer, though. Get up and make a difference today.

Just before the holidays I bought myself a fancy, girlie, cosmetic-related thingy at Nordstrom. About a week after the purchase I got a call to see if I liked the product. Then, last Saturday, I got this in the mail:

Handwritten, polite, and including the salesperson’s business card–this thank you note is a great example of personalization in marketing. When you are going after a small(er) group of targets, this is the sort of thing that will leave a great impression.

What have you thought about doing to reach out to those special, A-List clients? The ones you really want to get and to keep? Make it personal and you’re much more likely to make that special connection that will lead to the sale.

One last post for 2006…yes, a bit early but that’s because our offices are closed for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

It’s been a great year for me. I got to meet and work with all sorts of amazing creatives, to lecture to even more, and my business has grown. I’ve got this blog and I’m doing podcasts. My first book came out, and people found it helpful. I’m lucky. And deeply grateful to all of you for making this possible. Thank you.
At the end of the year it’s easy to look back, and that’s a good thing to do. Take some time to think about where you were in January, 2006, and go back to 2005, ’04, etc.  Look at where you are now through the lens of who you were then. You’re probably more successful than you realize.

Take a moment to pat yourself on the back. You’re making your living as a creative professional–that’s a rare and wonderful thing. Remember your gift, honor your talent, and have a successful and joyous 2007.

…according to some guy in England (Hugh MacLeod) at least. And while I don’t agree with him 100% on every item, I mostly do, and when I don’t he still has a lot of very interesting thoughts. Some of my favorites have to do with not hiding behind tools and doing it for yourself. # 11 is pretty darn perfect, too. And #21. And #22. And…well, you get the idea.

Lots of it sounds familiar to my clients, too.

Just in time for the holidays, this bit of news: a European website may have sold YOUR images, for too little money and without paying you, the creator, anything. The fabulous Dabitch of Adland tells the story.

Fair? Of course not. It’s not even legal, but it’s not stopping them from doing it. If you’re a pro (especially) and find your images being sold by these thieves, get your lawyers on it, please.

Not quite what you expect…seems that some publications are actually making their models look, while not fatter, at least not as skinny as they really are. Here’s the story from WWD (second piece on that page).

At first glance that sounds like a positive step, but in reality I think it’s only going to make girls want to be skinnier because they’re not going to see how super-skinny really looks. Instead of the jutting bones and other “ugly” attributes of being too thin, the models will look fabulous and even more skinny than the healthy ones do now.

Creatives in the communication arts all have an odd relationship with Truth (yes, with cap-T) and reality. With that comes a responsibility that some would rather ignore. What you do affects others–be that in their buying habits or, in this case, body image. Remember that when you get that creepy feeling on the back of your neck, it just might be because you’ve gone too far.

Last week I spoke at Brooks Institute of Photography in lovely Santa Barbara, California. There I stood, before a classroom of Seniors who are about to go into the “real” world and try to make a living. What did I tell them? To follow their passion if they wanted to become successful, even if that means NOT becoming photographers.
We all seem to forget to follow our professional passions from time to time, but it really holds true no matter what your profession/career choice. On the train home, I was sitting next to a man who was involved in commercial real estate finance. We talked about following one’s passion and he said he most definitely had and it has brought him not only financial wealth but happiness. He had originally been involved in media sales (advertising) where he made good money, but he wasn’t emotionally fulfilled with the work. He was always fascinated by numbers and, specifically, finance so when this opportunity presented itself, he went after it…and hasn’t regretted it ever since. I could see the fire in his eyes. When he spoke about what he did, he made it sound terribly interesting and I could tell he had found his niche. He followed his passion.
We talked about how some people never retire, a point I also discussed with Bill Robbins of Brooks. They don’t keep working for the money, but rather they can’t imagine their lives without their work. Creatives who keep creating, businesspeople who keep running companies, they all share the passion for their work. They found their vocations, in the classical sense of the word–callings. And it’s what I recommended to those students, and what I want to recommend to you.

We all have pasts–maybe yours includes studying photography or design or writing so when you graduated you felt you had to become a photographer, designer, or writer. But it never quite fit. You can do the work, maybe even very well, but you’re not excited about it…at least not often or extremely. This isn’t because the work is bad, it’s because you aren’t doing your best work–and that may mean taking the leap to follow your passion. If you studied photography, maybe what you really would love to do is be a photo editor or even a rep. Writers make great strategic thinkers, like planners in ad agencies. Designers might do better running a creative department for a corporation rather than producing their own designs. Who knows!?!

I’m not saying that if you have a bad day at work you should chuck it all and change careers. What I am saying is that you should be open to what your heart is telling you. Maybe that means shifting from shooting people to objects, or doing interactive rather than print design or writing that novel you’ve always meant to write, or maybe it means going back to school to become a lawyer or doctor or working for a homeless shelter or opening a bookstore. Only you can know what is in your heart, your passion.

But whatever it is, when you find it you’ll also find that your work is no longer work and the thought of retiring one day seems much less a goal. You’ll be happier and better off financially (even if you make less money–because you’ll be happy).

Don’t be afraid of passion, it’s the key to your success.