Common Myths & Unknown Truths
Lesson 2 from: FAST CLASS: How to Start a Photography BusinessPye Jirsa
Common Myths & Unknown Truths
Lesson 2 from: FAST CLASS: How to Start a Photography BusinessPye Jirsa
Lessons
Class Introduction
04:35 2Common Myths & Unknown Truths
08:08 3The Road Ahead
05:22 4Find Your Passion
03:18 5Part-time, Full-time, Employed, Partners?
03:41 6Stop Wasting Time & Money
04:02 7Your 12 Week Roadmap
04:23 8Mind Mapping
02:25Select a Focus
02:51 10S.W.O.T. Analysis
04:14 11Strategy & Long Term Goals
03:42 12Values, Vision & Mission
05:40 13Quick Break for Econ 101
08:14 14Your Target Market & Brand Message
07:12 15Your Client 'Why'
02:26 16Document the Client Experience
04:47 17Business Administration Basics
08:56 18Book Keeping Management
05:23 19Create the Logo & Branding
03:21 20Three Pricing Methods
10:18 21Package Pricing Psychology & Design
02:03 22The Listing & Classified Hustle
04:51 23Make Instagram Simple
05:57 24Your Automated Pinterest Plan
03:16 25Content Marketing & SEO
06:03 26Your Content Road Map
06:41 27How to Craft Your Content
05:37 28Internal Linking Basics
03:21 29What is Sales? Show Me!
05:02 30The Sales Process
03:23 31Always Positive, Always Affirming
02:03 32The Second Money & Dual Process
05:51Lesson Info
Common Myths & Unknown Truths
I wanna talk about common myths and some unknown truths. This is all about setting the expectations of what you're about to get into, okay. I think that's so critical to have the right expectations. Have you ever heard that basically disappointments, what do disappointments come from? It's literally just unmet expectations, okay. So the problem is that when you're setting out on a journey like this one, a career path, having the wrong expectations can derail you very quickly. So let's talk about it. How many of you have heard this, "You must have a studio?" Nobody's heard that? You just promised to interact with me. (audience laughing) "You have to have a studio to have a photography business." Oh my goodness, so false, you do not. We ran the first three years like Kenneth said, over there, over here. Like Kenneth said, the first three years of our business was out of my apartment. I had an employee in my apartment. Here's the funny thing, I actually had a video I was gonna show you gu...
ys. But me, Justin, and our first employee Joe, we lived in the exact same apartment complex and so our commute was, you'd open Justin's door, walk three feet and you're at work and then you walk in on the other side. And we did that for years, completely fine. At home, an apartment, doesn't matter where you are, totally fine. "Nobody makes money in photography." That's completely wrong. How many people heard this? Please come on, tell me your parents said this. Like, everybody's parents said this. My dad just told me he'd disown me. I'm kidding, but seriously. "Your portfolio has to be perfect." I'm gonna prove this one wrong. Do you guys wanna see some art, early on photos? Oh yeah, you do. Everybody loves a good bashing session. (audience laughing) "You need the best camera and lenses", wrong. Have you have you heard this, yeah? This is almost embarrassing to admit. No, we started out our studio on Rebels. The Costco kit. Hey, let's start a business, let's go to Costco and buy some Rebels. That's literally what we did. And the very first shoot that we did was in a helicopter with a Rebel. It didn't come out great. You're looking at me like, "What?" No, it didn't come out great. Okay you're going to see it, you're going to see it. Don't even worry about it. "You need a perfect brand and look", No. It's great to have a good brand and a good identity, we're going to help you to create that. But these things evolve over time. "If you take great pictures, you will be successful." Oh man, that is so false. You can take the best pictures in the world and tank. It has nothing to do with that, unfortunately, In the perfect world, in the perfect business environment, business decisions and purchase decisions we've made strictly on the quality of a product. That's just not the world that we live in, right? Business decisions and purchases are made based on how you feel, on what's presented to you, on the information that you actually have. So probably a lot of the world's best photographers are people that nobody knows about. "My market or clients won't pay that price." That's wrong. Your market might be smaller. Maybe it doesn't have a ton of high-end, super wealthy clients. But every time I heard this statement I thought man, there's a lot of ways around that. Either find that audience in your existing market, or market outside of your existing market. Solved. "Oh full raw only", please. Gosh, I know studios that run JPEG. Their clients pay eight to $10,000 per wedding, and they shoot all JPEG. That's not what we do. From a shooting standpoint, we shoot medium JPEG, or medium raw for all journalistic moments, basically moments that are not gonna be blown up to a 20 by 30 okay. We shoot full raw for anything that could be family portraits, portraits of clients, that kind of stuff will go full raw. But this is up to you guys to choose that. "You need the best camera and lenses", no. "Canon greater than Nikon, Sony?" I mean that's true, let's be honest. (audience laughs) Just kidding. Pick your weapon, it totally doesn't matter. They're all great. Use your iPhone. I'm just kidding, don't use that. If you're online I take it back, Don't use your iPhone to take wedding pictures. That's not what we want. You probably could, actually. "Working for free is a waste of time "and a bane to the industry." This is one of the biggest, incorrect statements that has been put around the internet that working for free is a bad thing. Working for free without purpose is a bad thing. But working for free has opened up some of the best opportunities I've ever had in my career. We'll talk about it. "You matter more than your camera or product "in the success of your business." This is a truth that nobody ever talks about. Do you know what I mean by that? You will because I'm going to show you how we were producing some not so great images, but we still sold three $4,000 weddings at the very beginning of our studio. It had nothing to do with operating out of an apartment, had nothing to do with anything. Something had to do with the people that we're interacting with. "Education is greater than gear", can we start spreading this truth around? We are so brainwashed by all the fantastic marketing efforts on the parts of these camera companies, that we actually believe that the lens and the exact specific aperture diameter matters. This is something we're gonna talk about quite a bit. "The client experience trumps all." This is right. This is one of my favorite things to talk about. If I asked you guys here to think about an image if you're online, think about an image in your head, one of your favorite photographs of you or your family or your loved ones. Do you have something in your head? Are you thinking about a particular image right now? Give me my nods. Pick a picture. Now tell me if the lighting or the exposure or any of those things mattered about that photograph. Did the picture that you select, was it a perfect exposure? Was it a beautiful image with amazing dynamic range? Or was it something emotional? Was it something that had a meaning and a purpose to you? This trumps all because it doesn't matter how good of a photograph you take, if I made you feel like crap when I took the photo, if I said oh my gosh this is your wedding day, just relax. There's no reason to do that. It doesn't matter how great that picture looked. If I made you feel bad about something, that's what you're gonna remember. When you see that photograph, you're gonna remember how you felt when it was taken right? Which means that if I made you feel good when I took your picture, it probably doesn't matter so much what the picture looks like if you look flattering, if it looks good, and you remember that good feeling that's all that matters. Is that a weird thing to hear? Good, I hope not. "The business of photography is more about service "and experience over the product itself." Yes, now you can call this an unfortunate truth, I don't know. To me it's wonderful.
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