Latest / the Visual Historian - "A Photographer's Journey" / Great Communication Creates Better Photography for Your Business

Transcript

Great Communication Creates Better Photography for Your Business · the Visual Historian - "A Photographer's Journey"

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being here by the Visual Historian podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I have some important news from local businesses, any businesses in general, but mostly local businesses.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing this for a very long time, and there are some things that I take for granted apparently.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's just been part of my training all of these years.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing you definitely do when you're in business is that you make changes on how you do things along the way.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you kind of start learning what doesn't work anymore.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: You um pride yourself on making those adjustments and not repeating those flawed ways of doing things.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I can be honest and tell you, I love where I am right now.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love being able to direct anybody and give them great advice for how to get the kind of results that they're calling me for.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm referring to local businesses here, and uh, I'm just gonna hypothetically give you a scenario.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about any in particular business that I worked with recently, but the importance I'm doing a blog post today on my website.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you can go to uh gkphotography.com, go ahead and click on the GK blog, and uh this will be the most recent blog on there.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I talk about uh great branding photography for your business.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And how do we get from A to Z?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do we get there?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with a phone call.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just safely assume they found me on Google, they were not referred, they don't know me, they haven't heard any of any stories from their friends that use me.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say it's it's a cold inquiry, basically.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the first thing I would do, to be honest, is call them.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I like getting people on the phone.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And if they can give me the time of day to get on the phone, then I could way better help them on accomplishing their photography goals for their branding needs, like their website, their marketing, their ad campaign, um, print worthy things.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they're doing things in a local magazine that has a million readers, and um, you know, they want to get it right.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, to get it right, uh, you as the photographer, meaning me, I have learned over my years.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'll be right back.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So go figure that was a spam call.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I have an automatic message that I send that says, uh, hey, I'm at a session right now, but how can I help you?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's spam, they do not respond.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: If it's a client, they usually respond and say, Oh, no worries.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Call me back when you can.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that is my little secret sauce for handling spam calls or phone numbers in general that do not have names attached to the caller IDs.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we just get too much spam these days, y'all.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so back up.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you called me as you you email me as a business.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: You you need photography.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You think you know what you want in your head, even though you're pretty detailed on the things that you want, you still need to work with somebody that knows how to help you get there.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be the first one to tell you that good photography sometimes gets lost in the transmission of the communication skills between photographer and client.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I actually pride myself on as a business because when you call me these days and talk about your job, whatever it is, doesn't matter if it's an event, your children's family photos you're doing.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't matter.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think a really good photography business person understands how important it is to direct the client correctly according to how to achieve the ending goals, no matter what they are.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's go back to the business.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say it's a local restaurant, okay?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the first thing I would do is call them and say, hey, let's discuss your finale.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: What are your end results that you're considering doing and uh getting done?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if they say, Well, you know, we I think we want the entire menu photographed, it's like, okay.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, let's let's go from there.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, what were what was in your thought process of getting this done?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have some ideas.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: How are you using these images?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's just for redoing their menu or redoing some images that are online or some takeout door dash kind of thing that they they're just trying to update their images.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we figured let's just shoot the whole menu while we're here.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now I am very aware of costs, I'm very aware of food costs, I'm very aware of people's time.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like it all takes money.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, you can say it's COD, cost of doing business, C O D B.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I try to help my businesses accomplish their goals in a smarter way, and let's not destroy ourselves, let's not kill ourselves trying to do more than we have to do.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that is one angle.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: The second question that I would have for a restaurant is Am I coming to you and photographing in your business setting, or do you want studio quality imagery, which I can also do on site?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'll bring my studio to you.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, is it something you can bring to the studio?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where are we going with this?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that once the conversation starts, as far as, well, this is, I mean, if I had a wish list, I would actually love to get XYZ done.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: An XYZ plan includes staff images, great in action candidates of their chefs working.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: They need a professional profile image of their chefs, the owners, the managers, um, the establishment itself.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I always suggest daytime and nighttime imagery um of the exterior because most buildings look sexier at night.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just put it that way.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's not always the case, but I have my ways of doing both styles of that imagery, okay?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning time of day that I'm gonna go out there and do what I do.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so as we're having this conversation, it starts becoming more of a conversation.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It just becomes two people, two business owners, chit-chatting.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just talk.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It costs you nothing to talk, let's just get it out.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And as he or she is explaining to me their wish list, I am making notes.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm putting it into their project folder, I'm making wish list notes, and my ending to the conversation usually ends with hey, on my time, on my dime, can I schedule a walkthrough of your business so we could see where these ideas may happen or may not?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, look, some mom and pop restaurants are very small, they're highly active, they're hard to you know, keep it in a photography ready profile of the eating area, the working area.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like some businesses are just busy, you know.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we talk about these things.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like, hey, do you want images of your chef's um profile imagery of the place in the dining room?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where are we doing this?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, my point to all this, and I'm sure you I'm sure you're creating this image list in your head as you're hearing me speak.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're probably going through the list and you you yourself are having ideas on where to put that chef.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how do those action candidates look with them preparing the food or doing the food, or the servers putting down a plate?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Do you show the people's faces?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you not?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are we only showing hands?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do we show hands at all?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are we only showing the plate of food?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is the plate of food photographed from top down like some boring picture of ingredients?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Or do we want it to look delicious and I need to order that immediately?
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Those are actually decisions that the photographer needs to present to these owners, to these chefs.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: And look, you know, 99.9% of the chefs that I have worked with, they're not photographers.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: They don't follow food photography blogs and that kind of thing.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't understand what goes into how to make their food look better than when they just put it on a plate and they serve it to their people.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're some of these super high-end, you know, really expensive kind of restaurants, then your plating skills are the bomb.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, honestly, that makes my job a lot easier because it's great.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, it's so great when I can talk to the chef and say, hey, do me a favor.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: The next the first three plates that you're gonna bring out to me, what are they?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we usually have this shot list.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And for me to be able to explain to him, hey, when you do your hamburger, okay, I I have some ideas.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And you talk about, you know, a restaurant that has 12 plates they want to photograph, and I explain to them some photography tricks, like when you do the burger, grill them earlier.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Get your good markings on it, okay?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Grill uh five of them, four or five, just so we have a few to work with if needed.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um throw them in the blast chiller.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want them cold.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, What?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: You see, you you normally serve hot to your guests, but I'm gonna photograph your food, and I don't need the hot protein making the bread super soggy super fast.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, that's genius.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I know.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the deal when I come on site, I have a toolkit for working food.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Everything from tweezers to torches to props to leveling up things to toothpicks, you know, you name it, it's in my little bag of tricks.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Suddenly I earn the respect from the chef because he understands it's my job to help make his food more sellable.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's got nothing to do with how it tastes.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's his actual job.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: My job is to sell it, is to make it look like I need that immediately.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best thing I can tell you.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine applying applying these tactics to any business that calls you.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump on the other scale.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about a financial institution I recently uh photographed.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually their second time I went over there.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the first time was super awesome because we started off with they needed headshots.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I did my headshot kit on site.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a financial deal, it's the same thing as like lawyers looking for waist up, really classic-looking portraits.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, something that um he actually needed images.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: The owner needed images because it's gonna be the cover of a magazine or he was being um published somewhere.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we did those portraits first.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the building that we're in overlooks the cityscape in a in a really I forget how many floors were up, but you can see the city nice.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a photographer that has worked around windows at a certain day, you understand perfectly fine that sometimes the time of day is the wrong time of day to work with an outside setting and people, you know, um photographing interiors where you can bracket because it's for a real estate thing or whatever.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's very different than putting the owner by the window overseeing the city, and it's two million times overexposed outside, you know.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm the go-to guy over here, man.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I always have my lights, I'm always ready to rock, I'm always to match the lighting on my people to the background that's happening.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we did that, and that was me walking around having an idea.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, keep in mind, we did not do a walkthrough um days or weeks beforehand.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: I just went earlier than needed.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: I even told him that.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Look, I will be set up and ready for headshots at this time.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: However, may I come an hour earlier just so I can get a layout of land, you can show me where you need me to set up, and I can go from there.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: They never tell me no.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you say no to somebody trying to do the job correctly?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been told no.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, me walking around, I get ideas.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when I get ideas, it's an add-on to what we're already doing.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So the job becomes more of a mission to me.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it also gives me another direction that I can showcase of this business.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they hire me for headshots that I went on location with a simple background, nice, dark, vignette, just beautiful, beautiful, beautiful classic portrait on site.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: That takes time, by the way, to figure that out and get your process going.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can duplicate every single time somebody calls you.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, there is work involved.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, I had the idea of hello, sir.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a little bit extra time after your headshot that I can borrow you and bring you to this spot down the hall that I saw with with the um the hallway, the glass window, the overlooking city.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I have my lights here.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do you mind if I do a couple more images of you?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, I would love that.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, you know, I'm I'm actually being asked to present images for this publication, which is why we have you here for headshots, but these would would really be great because it'll I can show more of him.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: He looks more relaxed, you know, he's not in that perfect pose for the business headshot that everybody's used to.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and those wind up being some of my favorite images of him.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was very cool.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the other part is he was so thankful that I went the extra mile.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the extra mile really wasn't extra.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I am I'm always early on the job, mainly so I can set up and breathe.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just have a few minutes to myself to breathe and calm down.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: I just set up everything, you know, it's just it's a lot of work.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: But going the extra mile for me has always just been part of my process.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, pushing for more is a creative thing for me.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's therapeutic.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's me.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I like outdoing myself, I like outdoing my own imagery, I love looking at other people's work and you know, getting inspired and realizing that, hey, that person was either smart at finding these shots, you know, when they scheduled the session, or did they go the extra mile?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I started realizing the more I ask in direct, the more they say yes.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the more variables I can create, the more variety, the more differences of what we're doing.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: If we can't do a walkthrough and project these things earlier, create the shot list, and we all just do it.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes the extra mile is it should just be your workflow.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I always dress the part when I'm going these places.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I I have a dressed attire that I just it's my go-to attire.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: I always look good, I always fit in, I always look like I'm part of the complex that I'm in, or you know, I just present myself well.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: All of that goes into your personal branding as a working photographer.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm seeing on TikTok and some stories on, you know, certain photographers that are wedding photographers, and they think it's just the funniest thing ever to wear a um a baseball cap, a black t-shirt, and whatever black shorts with flip-flops on, shooting a wedding where everybody is dressed at a nine but them.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they actually market themselves that way.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, if it works for you, great, it works for you.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not me, you know, and it's not just the fact of being taught this years ago from people above me.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've experienced it many, many times.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Many times, many, many, many, many, many times.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I experienced it where the video person on a wedding was not under me.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was somebody they hired, and they were dressed way less than, and everybody involved in an upper level of that wedding came to me and said, Is he with you?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Is he with you?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is this guy with you?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't think so.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Why in the hell would you dress like you're going to an outdoor picnic to a$200,000 wedding at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't know.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not affiliated with my company.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you if you don't think it matters, it matters.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I understand that we are the workers, we're the ones sweating, we're the ones doing this and that.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: But damn it, dude.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: When people think of your name, that last visual they have on you also attaches to your name.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: So my clients, when they get referred to me, they get the whole story, and they're gonna get the whole story when I work for them.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna get the full package.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've always seen that as respect to the people I'm working with, you know.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, doesn't mean I'm in a suit or anything.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm either in black pants, like slacks, and a black shirt, so I could still work and move and do my things, but I look presentable.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Geez, you know, and if you don't know me, I wear fedoras all the time.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my skibble head looks better with a fedora on it, and that's been like my jam ever since I shaved my head.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: My daughter Ellie is in her early 20s when she was 10 months old, is when I shaved my head.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: So she has never known me to have hair on top.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I made the fedoras a thing a very, very, very long time ago.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: So locally, it's kind of my brand, actually.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the fedora dude, the fedora photographer.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I like it, it helps me do my job in many ways.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: I could use it to block the sun, kind of help me out when I need it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: It absorbs, shall we say, the sweat from going in my eyes.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I burn through hats every couple of months, you know.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's that's just me.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's my branding.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I stick to.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: The point of today is to help both people.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, the businesses who are looking for a photographer, and this is my business card to you.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just explained to you what you're gonna get from me, what to expect from me.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love it if you expected that from any other photographer that you call.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you should get more, you should be directed in the way that's gonna be the best results for you, for your business, for the outcomes.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I am fully aware there's a bazillion people out there with good cameras.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, if they expose it correctly, it could look nice.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, does it mean it'll look like mine?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Will it look like John Schmoe over here?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Does it does it mean their style of working will match?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean their business, their contract, their um liability insurance carriers?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean, does it mean, does it mean?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: No, it means nothing.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: It means you as a business need to do your own homework on shopping photographers and asking them the correct questions.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you find the guys and the girls that are like me who care, and they bring top notch to the table from the beginning email all the way to the closing delivery of your.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Images.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um the best response that I get is when they call me again a year or two or whatever later for that repeat business.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And look, a lot of times it was hey, we said, I haven't seen you guys in five years.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, well, we we did have somebody come in last year, and uh, this this person did a horrible, horrible job.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And their website looked great, but what they did for us just wasn't on the mark.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And my my question is to always be humble and oh, well, I'm so glad you you called me back, you know, and they're like, Yeah, well, we know what we're gonna get with you.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: So in the back of my head, I'm going, so why didn't you call me a year ago?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody knew somebody who knew somebody who was cheaper.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but as a business owner, if it's gonna cost me money, then that was a loss.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: If I couldn't use the product from paying for it, you should have just did it right the first time.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's like if you only drive Lexuses and your cousin is like, oh, but I love my little Volkswagen bug.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: The high edition is amazing.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, it's not my Lexus.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yeah, but you just you need to give it a try.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's you would love it.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get this darn thing and you return it six months later because you're like, I can't do this.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's I would rather pay for quality and enjoy this experience and have every single day I get in that vehicle, I know what I'm paying for, I know what I'm getting from it, I love my car.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing goes with your photography for your business.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to love the whole process, not just the imagery.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I want you to have fun.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let's work together.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, if you are an aspiring photographer out there, or maybe you've been doing this for a very long time and you don't copy these traits that I do.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you need to.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care whether you do or not, to be honest.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, especially if you're my local competitors, I really don't care if you copy what I'm doing, but I'm telling you, the gold-leafed um access to a high-end business is delivering high-end experiences.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that is so important to me.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: That is the one thing that I want to not change with all of this AI technology world we're living in moving forward.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: If really good photographers worked on this level of experiences for their clients, that, my friend, is something AI cannot reproduce.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And when everybody with a camera becomes more people with a camera, more thousands of people with better cameras, the experience is what you're selling.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: The experience needs to be that of what you're charging or want to charge.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I know I'm going off the rail here, but for those people in business, and it's any business, and not it's not even just photographers, man, but any business people that are getting started and you think you're getting jobs because you're cheaper, you know.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: I really hope you took a business class somewhere.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you can go take a business class, whether it's WPPI, PPA, um, a local seminar, um, you need me to come to your area.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: You got 10 more people that can pay a fee.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'll come teach a business class to you.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: How about that?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: But if you don't understand CODB, you're gonna be out of business very quick.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Cost of doing business.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And everything that goes into CODB, meaning for every dollar, your actual take-home income is between 30 and 40 percent because the government gets everything else, paying your taxes correctly, paying your FICA, paying your IRA, paying, paying, paying, whatever, whatever your costs of doing business is, and what is your actual profit?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are that cheaper person, you're barely making enough money to stay in business.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just because you're in business doesn't mean you're profiting.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I know there's a lot of people right now that can relate to that statement.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, even us people with 30 plus years into it, we have months where we're surviving.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're not profiting, you know, and that's the most horrible position to be in as a self-employed person.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: So listen, I hope this helped somebody.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it motivated a photographer somewhere, maybe just a regular business person.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, these kind of conversations honestly apply to anybody in business, is not just for photographers, um, especially since I deal with so many different types of industries.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um the business communication skills thing is so important these days.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: When I do these seminars and conventions, um, it's a shame.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: But what used to be common knowledge with me growing up into this industry or any industry really, um they're teaching it now from the stage to a thousand plus people on how to communicate with people.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't understand when I got lost, why people have a hard time speaking to other people, like guiding the conversation, like having a conversation.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe it's because a generation and a half has been behind their phone the entire time and they have not been in front of people.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this is strictly my observation.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is just my uh viewpoint here.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I've always said this, man.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody should should work a job that they'll hate so they appreciate and love the advanced job that they're at.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you went to college, never worked a job in your life, not through high school, you didn't help your parents do anything around the house, you didn't cut the grass, you don't know what it's like to be held accountable, but most importantly, you didn't deal with people in general.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you just go to college and you bang all that out and you go right into a career.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, I think that's a disadvantage.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I know it's very hard these days, you know.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, yeah, I know it's hard.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I just I just hope that this is not a um a dying skill by any means.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um on a business competitor's level, I really honestly don't care because it just helps me be me and stay where I am on the level of where I am.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: If there were um five other high-level photographers like me um offering the kind of service like I do, honestly, it would be a much more competitive uh field in my area because you're you're getting consistent experience, and now the competition gets hard.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think we're in a position to where there's a lot of people, there's a lot of options out there, and people exploring your options, like uh, you know, just buy it off Amazon, you don't like it, return it.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: That mindset shouldn't be your mindset if you're a business.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that may be part of the problem, you know.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, however, I hope I can help you with your business.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a local business here in New Orleans, um, I'm ready, ready to work for you guys and girls, ladies and gents, 504-957-8412.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is my business phone number.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you can text me.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you do want to see this blog post, you can go to www.gkphotography.com and uh go to the blog, gk blog, and you'll see today's posts about what I'm talking about.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to browse around.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you have any questions whatsoever, please.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can find me anywhere, absolutely anywhere.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I am going to get out of here, everybody, and I hope you have a great, fantastical day.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a rocker, I'm a drummer.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is the beat that I live my life to, you guys.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not going hard, where the hell are you going?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: See you in the next one.