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Why We Need to Keep Business Relationships Personal

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Life is about relationships and so is success. And since business is part of life, then success in business must also involve relationships, right?

Perhaps there’s flawed logic in that claim, but I believe it’s true. And as each year passes and brings with it “better” technology, it leaves us with very little face time to develop our business relationships that last. It become increasingly difficult to carve our niches as photographers, but the technology is here and we need to use it well.

The danger of being lost in the crowd would still be there even if we were competing only with each other (meaning other professionals) and didn’t include the hordes of People With Cameras who chip away at our perceived value and create a huge distraction – one that leads our clients away from us. So how do we steer the attention back to us?

I was never disciplined enough to create traditional mailing campaigns. Of course, that’s not the only way to get noticed (though it can be highly successful if done well). Mailings, whether electronic or in print, are part of a tool kit we all need. The important part is that we recognize the right tool, one that uses our strengths.

Coming from the business of photographing for newspapers, I learned to connect with people quickly and genuinely. It’s something we all had to do to get the best photograph. Connecting with people has helped me create successful images and it also has helped me build relationships.

So instead of plugging away diligently through mailing lists and follow-ups, I toss myself out there at multi-disciplinary workshops where I enjoy attending and speak about new projects, or I engage clients, old or new, and talk about the projects that fuel me creatively. Enthusiasm isn’t dangerous, it’s not the flu, but if genuine, it’s highly contagious and it’s something that’s totally ok to pass along.

Sometimes connections form quickly, and I build relationships that generate success. And sometimes there’s nothing gained directly, though going through the repeated repetitions help me polish social skills.

Regardless of the tool you choose, it’s about putting yourself out there, showing your best work and your best self. Crafting your approach to clients in intelligent and creative ways is what makes us stand out as professionals. It’s what steers attention back to us and proves our value. And it’s what will keep this ship we are all on afloat.

 

Previously published on ASMP’s Strictly Business Blog.

John Welsh is a photographer & storyteller from Philadelphia as well as a director on the National Board of ASMP.

Storytelling & video projects when working as a one-man crew

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(Above, a short video created to show flavor of the NEPA coal mining region & community for the  film, Beyond the Breaker, and where we found the title from John Kish, former town barber in Ashley, Pennsylvania).

Hunting, Fishing & Drilling. Those are three things a traveler expects to find in the northern parts of Pennsylvania these days. But I also relate them to the capture and editing of video and they help me frame how to improve being a professional storyteller.

Most of my storytelling experience comes from working as a photojournalist. Of course, I’ve worked with writers while photographing stories, but my best work is shot while alone. During my evolution when I first integrated video to my still photography, and while Hunting for stories, I purposefully worked alone. And during interviews, when I Fish, I’m often on my own, tossing tightly focused questions to my subjects hoping to reel in a gem contained within a soundbite.

Working alone has tradeoffs. Specifically, the amount of equipment to setup plus your ability to divide attention between camera, audio and interviewing. But I think for anyone starting off, it’s perfectly fine to toss yourself into the fire, in a low risk situation (like a personal project), and see what you can create.

When it comes to The Edit, I think of the Drilling. It’s how you go into the deeper parts of the story and find your cinematic gold.

Often, I’m aware of the perfect sentence that sums up the entire story as soon as it’s spoken; and when it’s memorable, you don’t even need to keep notes. That clip is probably the first one you’ll watch upon initial review, and it will probably guide you towards your first cut.

But what about the hidden elements of a story? Ones that are really important and ones that are buried within longer questions. An example comes to mind regarding a documentary about community identity and the history of the coal industry.

We’ve interviewed former miners, historians, state politicians and even the former Ashley, Pennsylvania town barber. And while we were using a wide net to gather these stories, we didn’t have a title even after a year of filming. That’s until we reviewed (and drilled into) an interview with the town barber. There, within an interview we weren’t sure we would ever use, we found our film’s title. It was incredibly obvious in hindsight, but without a thorough review process, and hours of drilling, we may have been searching a lot longer.

So is it best to work alone? Maybe. You’ll make mistakes for sure, but as long as you view them as part of learning, it’s important to experience the entire process on your own.

Should you edit alone? Also a “Maybe.”‘ If you are an accomplished shooter and can communicate your vision to an editor, then it’s very efficient and the right editor can transform your work in amazing ways.

But at some point, whether it’s a solo attempt at a short film, a spec commercial or creating an About Page video , it’s worth the time you’ll invest even if you feel like you are fumbling. What you’ll learn is far greater than the energy spent to learn new software and the mechanics of workflow.

 

Previously published on ASMP’s Strictly Business Blog.

John Welsh is a photographer & storyteller from Philadelphia as well as a director on the National Board of ASMP. He’s a refugee from the land of photojournalism and still manages to carve out some truth for his clients.

Growing, Dying, Challenge, Failure and The Business Cycle

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Grow or Die. Scary words, right? They speak of challenge and failure. Those words have been floating around this disruptive digital economy for several years. But they really have always been part of the business cycle. And those words also motive us to create, and the concept of a constantly evolving cycle should become a permanent part of our thinking rather than something to fear.

So is this concept of growth or death actually true? In a feature story by Dottie DeHart & Mary Best, on the BedTimes website (yes, there actually is a business journal for the sleep products industry), they cite business professor Edward Hess‘ book Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses as follows:

“Growth can be good and growth can be bad. Bigger can be good and bigger can be bad. ‘Grow or die’ is a belief that has no basis in scientific research or in business reality. When not approached carefully, growth can destroy value as it outstrips a company’s managerial capacity, processes, quality controls and financial controls, or substantially dilutes customer value propositions.”

From Hess’ academic point of view, he’s spot on since he’s approaching it objectively. There is no basis in a strictly business reality. But I feel regarding creative growth, which is essential to our businesses, the concept is absolutely true.

If we don’t surpass our boundaries, stagnation occurs and that causes all kinds of messy things to happen plus it leads to the demise of new ideas and paths to explore. The evidence for this truth is the need to create the “Personal Work” category found in all of our portfolios. It’s also found in the way we perceive ourselves, we are now Storytellers not just Photographers, right? Or maybe we are Producers or Directors.

So use whatever terms you prefer to define the cycle of improvement, but Grow or Die is surely not a concept to be feared, it’s one to be embraced.

 

Previously published on ASMP’s Strictly Business Blog.

John Welsh is a photographer & storyteller from Philadelphia as well as a director on the National Board of ASMP. His latest challenge, other than writing about himself in the third person, is one of extreme growth and involves figuring what it really means to strategize content creation…or die trying.