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Wealth Attractions Strategies for photographers. I gave a presentation last month on wealth creation to my goal setting group. An associate of mine, and I have been running these monthly goal setting meetings for near four years now. It's loads of fun, keeps me sharp and keeps me in goal setting.

As a part of every meeting we take turns presenting a themed speech on various success topics such as time management, marketing, goal setting, delegation strategies to name but a few, and last month's theme, wealth creation. I've been exposed to wealth creation topics for many years now, having been to countless workshops and having read many books.

Some of the authors and presenters that have impressed me the most, and for the most part seem to have the same fundamental message, are notably Dan Kennedy, Mark Victor Hanson, Robert Kyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Joseph Campbell, Stuart Wilde, Raymond Aaron, and many more lesser known names that escape me at this time.

It's interesting to note that the fundamentals are so universal. I've taken a shapshot overview for your benefit. You can read it in this newsletter further below.

One thing that did happen, and I'm not surprised, and started the presentation with a caveat, is the amount of squirming in their seats and angered/annoyed emails we received after the event. This topic, unless presented in a feel good, sugar coated spoon-fed way (ineffective), is hard for many of us to swallow. It seems to touch many a nerve and affects us deeply.

One reason why I gave this speech was to warm up for the three hour version of it that I will be presenting in Las Vegas, April 11 at the bonus night seminar that is being presented to the group of No Bs photo Success Inner Circle members who will be there attending the all day customer appreciation workshop.

My guess is this group will not be as squirmy and annoyed, considering they are ambitious, eager, not-easily-offended by touchy sensitive topics such as these, and will likely do more for them than any topic on photography out there today. Read about the April 11/06, same time as WPPI, photography workshop here.

If you are an Inner Circle member and still want to attend, there is very little room left. You must let me know now. When we fill up the room, we're locking the doors! You won't get much standing out in the hallway.
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Naked author hopes to drive his new book into the bestseller list. Some people will stoop to anything to get a little attention.My wife hates this picture. She's way too conservative to get it, let alone daring enough to pose naked on the cover of a book. They say a book's cover has to grab your attention within the first five seconds or you're doomed. I think I did a fairly good job. It may offend some..sorry 'bout that. Can't please everyone. But the message, in spite of the "revealing" humour tells a powerful message. And it's the rock solid truth. I reveal EVERYTHING that I feel, know, have observed, including my deepest darkest sentiments as well as the positive ones. You get it all, warts and all.
Here it is, two years in the making, should be out by July/06. Maybe I will have one of those book signing deals at a mall- (fully clothed of course;).....

The opening line reads...."Photography is business."
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The Mastermind Forum UPDATE. It is loaded and ready to go. A few took advantage of my generous offer last month. You can get in at the regular deal. Read about it here.

That's me in the front row, middle, behind my daughter Danielle, at a local 4H club. I never heard of 4H until now. Goes to show you how many groups and opportunities are out there to help you help out in your community, and even get some publicity. I taught them all about composition and the basic fundamentals of photography. Can you guess which compostion "shape" I used, and demonstrated to set up this group shot with? I asked my daughter to tag along. It's great to give kids exposure to different experiences and poeple, and give her the opportunity to see a side of me she never gets to see- the teacher side. She was proud of me, as she told me on the way home, and didn't know I was that "good." Hey, her words.

What do a recorder and a point and shoot camera have in common? I bring my point and shoot camera with me everywhere. I love that little camera. It gives me the opportunity to stay "in the game" of photography, always. What does it have to do with those annoying little pseudo-clarinets that kids play with in school? The recorder, apparently, has many of the same finger positions as a tenor sax. This is good, especially if you want to practise the sax and are limited because you live in an apartment, or you simply don't own a sax,...yet. My friend Kerry out of Phoenix AZ, learned to play the sax years ago, but he started on the recorder. I was amazed at his progress and he states with earnestness and conviction that he learned more from the recorder than any other influence. Who'd a thunk? We can all become better photographers with those pseudo-cameras, the humble point and shoot. Whilst on that topic, here's a couple point and shoot images of late:

"Rob,......
I have an opportunity to do an event where the theme is something like "Come as you were on your prom night", which means there will be people dressed in all kinds of different eras. It's a big party for a big songwriter in Nashville. It's actually a Grammy party. There will be many industry types there. They want to do a prom photo type setup with the party favor being a print giveaway. I'm thinking that I could print onsite and have something ready for them in a display area where they could look at their print and look and laugh at all the other prints. At a similar party, they had a guy with a polaroid camera taking shots and pretty much instantly giving the people a print in a litte paper "frame". Do you think that the workflow would be too much to handle to print out a 4x6 or 5x7 on site? I was thinking that I would hire an assistant to do the workflow and printing at the computer for this.

Also, they want candid shots from the event, which I have done before. This would entail having at least three people there don't 'cha think? One doing candids, one doing group shots at the "prom" setup and one doing workflow and printing......hmmmm....do you think that it could work with only two people?

Another wrinkle, the polaroid guy last time, did his part for get this.....$500, so the bar is set very low for the customer. Do you have any ideas on how you would handle an event like this? I think that it's a huge opportunity to get name out to a lot of big folks in the industry, artists, musicians, producers, etc..so it would be a good thing to do. The problem would be manning the "prom" shot area would mean missing some candid opportunities. I suppose that I could have a specific time when the prom photos would be taken, and then shut it down to do work flow, cropping, printing etc, or have one person doing that and the other person doing the candid shots. Anyway, just wondering how you might handle this and with how many people.

"Mikster, three people yes, for all that production. You need to sell them on the idea. Once you do that, and deliver the goods, they'll never look at another polaroid again. Sell em on why what you are doing is ssssoooo much better and way more memorable. This makes it so they will benefit more. See? Never compare prices. You can't anyhoo, because your pitch is so different and better.
If price does become the ultimate issue, either you didn't sell hard enough, or they truly do not have the money, of which you can answer this pre-emptively in your sales pitch. IE Get some sponsorship to help pay the costs, or whatever solutions you can dream up....if you come up with ways, that will impress the hell out of them.
Of course, after all is said and done, it seems like a worthwhile event to do even at a reduced cost (don't tell them that!! only as a last resort..). The connections, the people and the exposure, if used properly, could be well worth it..
hope this helps...
Rob"

On that note, here';s free video from my similar event where I photographed many couples at the local annual Medical Society Xmas party:

OUCH!! I broke my toe in karate three weeks ago. I could have quit, gone home, sat out the rest of the night, but I stayed that class. It wasn't that painful. I could have stopped going altogether to help it heal (broken toes take a long time to heal, so everyone tells me), but I didn't. As a matter of fact I kept up my weekly regiment of karate and aerobic kick boxing working through the pain. My point is this. I want to maintain a level of fitness. That's my big picture scenario.

I don't really like dragging my butt out to every class everyday, but I do it anyhow, because I know when I "show up", I get it done. I work so much better when all I have to do is show up, and let the instructors tell me what to do. Otherwise I'm too lazy and unreliable on my own. But the big point here is this. It's too easy to hang "quitting behavior on the first good and logical excuse that comes along. How convenient, a broken toe. Everyone will appreciate that, and I bet I could get enough sympathy from the instructors too, if I wanted that.

On a less painful note, that photo above of the 4 month old baby was a recent shoot. I routinely ask the new client moms when they come how they heard about me. That's called market research. And it's painless, useful and very instructive. She says she was booked with another studio who seemed very apathetic towards her. My studio came up THREE times from different people meantime, so she switched. That's what I like to hear. Poeple talking about us and driving new clients. She bought our Platinum Babies First Year deal, and the boss, Tina, my wife, tells me quite a few are on the Platinum version. Good to know. If I recognize the name of someone who refers a client, I will send em a thank you card.

Wealth Creation summary. Would you like a quick and dirty summary of the wealth creation seminar I just presented? Here's a quick thumbnail overview:

The "MYSTERY OF CAPITAL"Hernando De SOTO. There is a universal truth about money. We are all entrepreneurial by nature.

Is money everything? It is the "scoring card" used in business. It is one dimenion of "prosperity." Here's the five levels of prosperity, in order of importance:

MONEY IS OFFENSIVE TO SO MANY AND THIS ATTITUDE IS PERVASIVE IN SOCIETY.. The FIRST STEP TO GETTING ANY MONEY IS GETTING OVER THIS POOR ATTITUDE about money.

....and all the other programming and cr*p. Such as:
WIN/LOSE
GUILT
EVIL
HARD-EARNED MONEY IS THE ONLY MONEY
EXCESSIVE WEALTH IS WRONG
FINITE, ONLY SO MUCH
RELIGION DOGMA AND GUILT ABOUT MONEY
GREED
OPPORTUNISTIC
SCARCE
POOR PEOPLE
CLEAN LIVING- VIRTUE= MONEY In other words, live clean, and you'll get money.
SACRIFICE
TOO EASY=WRONG

IF YOU ARE PARALYZED BY FEAR OR GUILT, MONEY WILL NOT MOVE TOWARDS YOU, BUT AWAY.

IF YOU PURSUE OUT OF DESPERATION, OR JUST FOR THE MONEY, YOU WON’T BE SUCCESSFUL

LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF MONEY, CREATE A POSITIVE VIEW. FREEDOM FROM GUILT

WHAT DID YOU HEAR GROWING UP? WAS IT:
*ABUNDANCE?
*CONFIDENCE BUILDING?
*GRATITUDE….OR ENVY?
*IN CONTROL? OR VICTIM?
*GUILT? OR APPROVAL?

Are you a compulsive under earner?
*Do not debt
*Do not take work that pays you less
*Do not say no to money
*Aladdin principle- Three wishes. Anything you want, with three exceptions.

Jerrold Mundis, in Earn What You Deserve says this about UNDEREARNERS:

*ARE USUALLY IN DEBT
*HAVE LITTLE SAVINGS, FEW ASSETS
*OFTEN IN FINANCIAL CRISIS
*FEEL STRESS, PAIN AND FEAR OVER MONEY
*DO UNPAID WORK: VOLUNTEER, CHARITY or SHOWCASE WORK
*HAVE A VAGUE IDEA OF WHAT THEIR EXPENSES ARE
*BELIEVE MONEY WILL SOLVE ALL THEIR PROBLEMS

There is so much to this topic, this is just a small taste. The next group I present this too will be a group of photographers. I will be recording this three hour presentation anding it available as a downloadable product by May 2006. I'll will keep you posted.

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"Hello Rob, I received the replacement DVDs yesterday thanks very much. By the way your materials are great I am on my second pass through them. I have invested in other materials which I paid more money for and they are no comparison to yours. The work-flow tutorials and the Photoshop actions alone are worth the price of admission. I'm glad I discovered your stuff.

By the way I am re-entering the wedding photography field. Did weddings in the 80s but got out of it to pursue a more lucrative sales job. Now I wish
I never left it because photography is my passion. My problem right now is that I don't have any wedding photo samples to show a prospective client. I
do have some portrait work that I can show but I feel like I might have ahard time selling my wedding services in that I haven't shot a weeding in
years. --Any ideas on how I can get started??

My reply:
" Thanks for the comments Jim. Good that you have some experience shooting weddings. All you need now is to shoot some more with a new style and approach. This may pose a problem/challenge since we need to "de-program" you ;).
I have pushed others into breaking away from the "80's" style of shooting with great success. What you need to do is get some weddings under your belt, and soon. There is no magic formula to this. GO looking for em, and offer to shoot some at a nice discount. Tell em exactly what you want to do. Be up front. Get some samples, collect 'em up and show them what your intentions are. Of course it's sort of experimental so there's no hard guarantees. Many couples would go for this though, especially those who appreciate a "deal". But you need to sell yourself to.
Practice before hand. Like crazy. Go over the materials.

Follow the basics. Hand held, know your cameras/lenses. Work with people, be confident, focused and directive where needed and pleasant/fun otherwise. Above all be enthusiastic and work at a steady tempo. You have a digital camera?? Back up body?? Couple decent lenses?? Batteries? Memory? Shoot JPEG, never raw on weddings (actually, I never shoot raw on anything, ever)...
Sound good??? Practise is the key....
let me know if this helps
Rob"

"Thanks Rob, The No B's website has been my lifeline to get where I want to be. I view and RE-view continually those tutorials. The No B's website has taken the place of going to the Visual Arts Center here in Va. where I took my photography classes. I get more out of your tutorials. So of course I am always watching for new additions.
Louise"

From Angie, an Image Explorations August 2005 Aumni student writes to me....I've offered her some marketing ideas for her photogaphy business and she also writes about some of the new and exciting ideas she's created:

"Hey Rob! I'm so glad you like my stuff. Things are going great here and just could not be better! I'm having a ball and actually making money doing it! I got a laptop for Christmas then went and bought myself a 32" computer monitor. Whew hooooo! What a great job that does for the slideshows. Blows people away!

I've got 16 weddings booked for the year already and signs of that much more coming from the casino on short notice. Now that I cranked my
price of the casino weddings on your advice, it's well worth doing them. The casino wedding business actually went up after I changed the price so you were absolutely right.

You had mentioned before that I should scatter more images everywhere on my web site and I fully intend to do that, I just haven't gotten to it yet. I'm also going to put a testimonials section on there as well. Since I've been doing things the No BS way, I've been getting tonnes of great e-mails from clients so I'm going to put them to good use.

My Glamour Girls parties are a tonne of fun but I haven't been promoting them. I've had my hands pretty full as it is but now that I've got things more organized and am getting faster at doing everything, I'm going to start promotion on them.

The whole idea is that a little girl has a birthday party or a woman has a bunch of friends over. My friend and I go and do their hair and make up. We supply the make up, have the all of the brushes and things and I take my portable studio stuff. Once they're all made up, they have a photo shoot. When it's a little girl's party, I have a bunch of nail polish and things for them to keep occupied with while we do everyone's hair and make up. The girls get a 5x7 and 4 wallets and we supply the goodie bags as well. I got a whole bunch of lip gloss and kids make up from Bonne Bell dirt cheap which I fill the goodie bags with. Bonne Bell is a make up company. With the women, they get 2 5x7's in a nice folio and we do more of a boudoir photo. I've got the price set at $40 per person for a girl's birthday party and $60 per person at the boudoir parties. Each of them need to have at least 5 guests.

I don't know what I'm going to take this year at Brock. I'd like to stick with you guys just because you're way too much fun but I'd probably be best to do someone else's class too. I was thinking about Andre Amyot's class. It just won't be the same without you and James.

I am signing up to the forum TODAY!!! I have absolutely no excuses for not having signed up yet. It's terrible isn't it?

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GURU CORNER:
"How to Increase Desire Instantly"
By Matt Furey
(NOTE: I've bought many of Matt's Combat Conditioning materials. He's a fitness guru to me, and an avid marketer. Check out his site.
Here's one of the may emails he send out on a regular basis. I like his stuff because he has a great approach to success.
You may even want to check ou his Cybernetics course.)

"Dear Robert, Getting what you want out of life is a bit like starting a fire in your back yard. Let me explain:

Suppose you have a magnifying glass and a backyard filled with dry grass. The sun is blazing when you walk outdoors. Your pitch
a blanket and take out your magnifying glass. As you hold the magnifying glass in your hand, you move it from one spot to the next.

Yes, you're trying to start a fire but due to lack of patience and focus, you can't stop changing yourself from changingthe position the glass is in. After a few seconds in one spot, you move on to the next.

Finally, an expert in the art of 'making fire' comes to observe what you're doing. He tells you that you'll never make a fire the way you're trying to do it.

You then ask, 'Well, how should I do it, then.'

The expert tells you to focus the magnifying glass in one spot and hold it there until the fire begins. You follow his advice and within a short time the back yard is blazing.

Naturally, the point of this story is NOT to encourage anyone to start a fire. The point is to show you that MOST peoplewho set goals don't know how to start a fire.

They look at their list and try to make everything happen at once. They never stop to focus on the ONE goal that can generate so much heat that the other goals get accomplished, even with far less focus than the ONE Suppose your goals are represented by all the different places the magnifying glass was positioned. Yet, no fire from any of those place until the guy shined the glass in ONE place long enough to start the fire.

Then what happened. After the fire began it quickly consumed the entire backyard (all the other goals got accomplished).

This doesn't mean that you never focus on goal number 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on. What it does mean is that you MUST focus on ONE goal long enough to start the fire in your solar plexus. And once that fire gets going, you'll be amazed at the extra energy you'll have for the other goals.

To become an expert on starting the fire within, be sure to get hold of Dr. Maxwell Maltz' Zero Resistance Living.

Best,

Matt Furey

P.S. Your most important goal should be written on a card and looked when you get up each day and before going to bed at night - as well as whenever you can throughout the day. To stay on target with your goals, you must overhaul your self-image.

If you want to succeed at photography marketing, I mean really take it serious,
invest in the right information and direction for your future.

And, if you want to take your wedding photography marketing up a notch or two, do the same.

That's it for now folks! hope you enjoyed my monthly rant.
Thank You
Robert Provencher
Hold on to your hats and take names! I will tell all! Muchos gracias!

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising everytime we fall."
Confucious