Wednesday Wisdoms

The 3 Steps Clients Look for in Your Portfolio:

1. The seamless message of your style with a purpose. 
2. An emotional story, the audience is pulled into feeling: striking a chord with their brand’s message.
3. The reassurance that their customers feel this emotion if they hire you. 

Biggest myth is thinking you have to be the one doing it all, taking every opportunity to save some cash and do it your way. Photographers, you don’t have to do it all to run your business. Short-sighted vs. long-term eye on the prize goal, you choose which way to spend your time investing in your company. 

Don’t you want to know where your bid total stands with the client?

It can be helpful to have an excuse to check in on your bid after submitting it. 

If the client left out some piece of info about the job, I could put in a low price, knowing they may come back to ask for more. 

That check-in can allow us to feel out the budget and see if there is room to bump up the price. 

Timing matters!

Outreach can be unpredictable, but sometimes you have that distinct positional placement of being right in there freshly on a client’s radar. Timing can be the key to fully opening the door when it’s been slightly cracked open for us. Use it or lose it is the saying that comes to my rep mind. 

One of the untold languages of our business during triple bidding is when the response to your bid is requesting you to increase a particular line item usually means you are not the first choice. Ouch. I know it’s not easy, but it is best to know where you stand and what you are probably dealing with.

Don’t let your comfort zones limit your decisions. You are an artist and, in that job definition, means a requirement of experimentation. We are in a business based on broadening out through trial and error, not controlled by what you already know. 

Artist = Uncomfortable

Personal work should be boosting the process of getting clients to know who you are.

Ask yourself, does this image emphasize how I think or what I offer clients when they hire me?

All in all, this is about sharing what runs your creative engine.

Finding the Right Rep Checklist:

1. Who reps competing photographers you admire?
2. Which reps work with the clients you want to be working with?
3. Referrals work best, so ask those in the biz like a paid membership resource you are on, consultants, and clients for their rep suggestion. 
4. What type of reps branding best fits your style?
5. Start with a “Temp Rep” situation to get to know if you work with the same approach on a project. 
6. What marketing platforms are most important to you, and which reps meet your standards in their marketing?
7. The most important one is the rep’s reputation. Ask around and get some good reports on those you can trust. 

Photographers, don’t let your busy, complicated life in the freelance world get you sidetracked from your pursuit as an A+ level long-term photographer.

Commit yourself to scheduled regular testing to explore and experiment, seeing how far your creative eye can take you.

Testing is that golden nugget to take yourself to the highest level and make it last.

HOW TO GET THE JOB:

Be the director the client will hire you to be, from start to finish.

Have your plan in mind and confidently share it as, “This is the way to go,” to achieve their goals.

There is no need to buffer it with safe comments like, “My opinion is…” when you want to be hired as the creative lead carrying out your creative vision.