It’s not all about “strategy”.

When young @stephenbaugh was working at Fuji Xerox a very successful colleague had this advice for him:

There are three rules if you want to succeed in sales:
1. Get yourself in plenty of debt – it motivates you to go out the door in the morning

2. Don’t let anybody see the fear in your eyes. If you’re so scared of losing this piece of business, people will wonder why … are you unsuccessful?

3. Build a relationship with the prospect. Is there a personality fit? Nothing else matters until you do, and a bad relationship doesn’t work for you or the prospect.

Check out the full story on our album-based marketing webinar.

Cheers, Ian

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“The brides love seeing themselves”: In our final installment Jerry explains how blogging generates bookings and sales, the benefits from clients look forward to seeing themselves online – and the serendipity by which he ended up shooting his first wedding in India.

Click here for the audio (8:21 mins).

Thanks for listening and sorry once again for the audio quality.

Cheers, Ian

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More wisdom from the over-30s…

In this segment Jerry Tomko tells Heather and me why he won’t take a wedding booking without an album, why the lady in his bagel shop doesn’t like digital and what’s wrong with shoot-and-burn.

And Heather talks about the only question many photographers know to ask about albums … and what’s wrong with the question.

Click here to listen (9:52 mins).

More soon.

Cheers, Ian

PS Apologies again for the audio quality.

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There was a time when the saying was, “Never trust anyone over 30!”

But hey, check out my picture – that was then and this is now.

Seriously folks, we were talking to Jerry Tomko at WPPI, and I thought … this man has so much sensible stuff to share. So Heather and I took him up to the suite, sat him down with wine and nibbles and interviewed him around a single mic.

Jerry is now a valued client, but he used to work as a rep for Art Leather. Here he talks about teaching people how to sell, why to sell albums (and frames), pre-designing an album in the days before digital, and more.

Don’t miss the reason Jerry’s parents have a 20×24 sitting behind their dresser 30 years after it was taken.

Click here to listen (8:05 mins). More tomorrow.

Cheers, Ian

PS Apologies in advance for the audio quality.

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Simon Woolf is one of the most energetic and engaging people I know.

When I interviewed him he was in Auckland as official photographer at our previous Prime Minister Helen Clark’s investiture to the Order of New Zealand.

He got a hug from Helen because they know each other that well and he’s that nice a guy.

A couple of nights earlier I’d spotted him on TV in the media scrum at Willie Apiata’s Victoria Cross ceremony. Again he was the official photographer.

And to complete the picture of a guy who’s everywhere, one of his landscape images, of an unusual sunrise, had featured the day before in his local newspaper. Trust Simon to be up with the birds.

He’s a stalwart of the Photographic Society of New Zealand, offers workshops and seminars (including photographic walking tours around town), gives generously to the community and in his spare time heads up Photography By Woolf, one of New Zealand’s longest-standing and most successful photographic studios. And dammit, he blogs.

Simon is an extraordinary networker. I believe that’s a major factor in the studio’s ongoing success, and it’s what I focussed on in our interview.

There is so much you can learn from this man. Please click here to listen (30 mins).

Cheers, Ian

PS Simon and I date back to 1986-7 when I walked into Photography By Woolf for the first time, to be confronted by portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Pope John Paul II. That doesn’t happen often!

Those shots were taken by his Dad, Ronald, who’d run the studio with his wife Inge since 1960. I remember liking Simon for lobbying Ronald to buy Queensberry albums …

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About twelve months ago Jonas Peterson left his high profile, high paying position as a leading advertising copywriter to become a full-time photographer…

In his first year on the block he shot 42 weddings and jumped to number one in Google rankings for ‘Brisbane wedding photographer’ (actually he did that in two months).

He’s booked 15 destination weddings so far this year and describes his business as ‘wedding photography with a touch of awesome’.

He’s built a loyal following on his blog (over 2000 hits a day), has over 1450 followers on Twitter and a similar number of fans on his Facebook page. All reflect his engaging style and are well worth a look.

Johannes van Kan talks to Jonas about how he got up to speed in just 12 months, how he uses social media to get his message out there and his workflow and approach to albums.

Click here to listen to Johannes’ interview with Jonas Peterson (40 mins).

Cheers, Nigel

PS Skype dropped out in the middle of the interview, so you might notice a little awkwardness where I’ve stitched together the two halves of Jonas’s response to one of Johannes’ questions.

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“I’m going to interview Simon Whitten while I’m in the UK,” I said to Heather, “Short story – what springs to mind?”

“Stately homes … panoramic images … simple, classic album designs,” she said.

Simon has established a solid business at the very top of the UK wedding market, and what struck me about our conversation was his confidence and clarity in talking about it.

To succeed in this business requires a lot more than photographic passion and skills. You need a clear understanding of your market position, your clientele and where they come from, your brand and how you project it.

The low end of the market is always there, and always has been, he says, but it’s irrelevant. His challenges come from mid-range competitors.

In our conversation he talks about all this, the history of his studio, how he responded to the recession last year, and why timeless design is so important.

He stresses the importance of his website, so be sure to check that out too.

You might also like to take a look at the albums from Simon that we’ve featured on our consumer blog.

Click here to listen to my interview with Simon. (51 mins)

As they say, success leaves clues…

Cheers, Ian

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Yesterday Nigel showed me this on Jayson Kingsbeer’s website:

“My packages are simple and easy to understand, and as an added bonus I will also offer a free engagement shoot even if you do not decide to book your wedding with us.”

Jayson is New Zealand’s youngest professional photographer, but I reckon he has something to teach us, starting with the terrific air of confidence he projects with that offer!

His packages are … cheap … but how do you tell a 15-year-old he’s underselling himself?

He has a Flickr feed.

He has 479 friends on Facebook (480 if he approves me).

He has 1279 followers on Twitter (including me).

He’s been on television.

Read this interview for much more (it’s OK, they got his parent’s permission).

I looked to see what he thought of Photojunction (“Makes designing wedding albums SOOOOOO much easier!”) and Queensberry (“Argh wish I could afford to use Queensberry!”).

If you’re not a photographer on New Zealand’s East Coast, please do us both a favour and spread the word.

Cheers, Ian

PS About Jayson’s no obligation engagement shoot, by happenstance I came across this from Seth (who else?) about the hidden power of a gift “freely and gladly accepted” to create imbalance, and motion, and to change everything.

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Every wedding photographer has an Uncle Ken story.

I was hanging out at a wedding with photographer Brett Prestidge when I first arrived in the UK and something amazing happened…

We met the ultimate Uncle Ken.

Uncle Ken informed us that he had the okay from the bride and groom to do a big group photograph for them.

It is so often the case that as professionals we arrive at weddings and somebody there has a bigger camera than us … this time it was Uncle Ken. Brett and I were using small, discrete Leica M9s and M8s.

So often Uncle Ken tries to take control. This Uncle Ken (his real name) earned the right.

Cheers
Johannes

Uncle Ken with his 8x10" Gandolfi

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