What's the deal with those 16 Hoops?

What’s the deal with those hoops, and why are there 16 of them?

This is by far our most frequently asked question. It's kinda a long story. But that’s the point. It’s all about orbits—or rather, choosing the orbit that makes sense for you on a cosmic level.

The answer dives into Deep Space territory (psst: “Deep Space” is one of our blog categories—check it out when you want to exercise your brain).

Let's begin by starting up the way-back time machine (thank you Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know).

First Destination: New Mexico

Status: Childhood’s End

I’ve always been fascinated with space, philosophy, and history. The cosmic hum in the Land of Enchantment is for reals. It got into my soul, deeply. This white girl left New Mexico, but New Mexico and its painted high desert culture never left this girl.

Second Destination: Breckenridge, Colorado

Status: The Art of the Chameleon

I’d just graduated film school at Ithaca College and was working for a wedding and portrait master, assisting on very high-end celebrity weddings. This is where I learned the art of the chameleon. I didn't want to be noticed—I wanted to be quietly snapping away behind the magic safety of my camera. It was a defense mechanism for my introverted creative soul.

Third Destination: York, Maine

Status: Success Has Its Downside

I knew I wanted to create things for people (while, ahem, getting paid) from my unique vision of the world, but I always assumed no one would care for or want my Western-desert, geeky, deep-space brand of "being". So I quietly started my wedding photography business with little or no thought to who and why. Just stumbled into it. I called it Geneve Hoffman Photography (GHP).

Side note: Using my name is one of the biggest regrets of my career. But we learn. Read on, intrepid time traveler.

My wedding and portrait business soared to new levels.  But ironically, it was when my business and career was at its apex that I hit my lowest point personally. I was deeply unsatisfied.

One big bright spot in this era that is worth mentioning: I hired the very talented Erin Flett to do my new sun- and orbit-inspired logo for GHP. I showed her some artwork of orbiting sun circles from my childhood home in New Mexico, and told her the theory of my photography: I see the light from the ancient Big Bang traveling through the universe, down through orbits and our own sun. That same neverending light reflects on my clients here on Earth and allows them to shine. Then, that same light (or my interpretation of it) travels through my lens and back out into the universe. And it begins again.

I’ve always known the power of great design—whether it is airport architecture, an iPhone, a Picasso, or a logo. Great design feels like love. You can't put it into words. It's just a warm, enveloping feeling. I knew after that logo design, and how Erin was able to translate my thoughts so perfectly into the artwork I was looking for, that something had begun to change in my path.

Fourth Destination: Cocooned...

Status: Chameleon Turns Butterfly

Winter 2013 to spring 2015 was my 2-year long hibernation period. I was sick for about 18 months, and I turned away from everything I knew in order to heal.

My illness became a metaphor for another kind of sickness that I personally knew was infecting my business. I was also seeing and hearing it from all my other photographer friends and in the industry as a whole.

Right around that time, my colleague Anne Schmidt introduced Todd and Jamie Reichman to our 200-member photographers’ group here in Maine. Listening to Todd's podcast series that winter of 2013 changed my career and led me on a path to reevaluate the entire photography industry as I knew it. I could see we were both searching.

I hired some consultants outside the photo industry. I did the excruciatingly hard work of starting a new business "the right way”. And then, I emerged from my deep space hibernation in the fall of 2015 knowing exactly what to do.

Final Destination: Right here, right now

Status: The Business I Always Wanted

After thinking hard about what I wanted to bring to my space, what kind of knowledge I wanted to share and how I wanted to share it, I formed 16 Hoops: a strategic design and branding firm for photographers.

So what does all this have to do with the name 16 Hoops? EVERYTHING.

I knew I wanted to rework Erin Flett’s original logo for me, and hone it for this new business—and I needed a name to end all names, because I know after my deep space sabbatical that this is the last business I ever want to run.

So I went to the place that gave me so much inspiration in my creative life (even in film school). I opened up my American Indian Myths & Legends book. I turned to the story of the creation myth in the ancient pueblo people, hoping something would pop off the page.

Literally the first page I opened up was the story of how the Great Sun used 16 hoops (or orbits) to create the "Earth". The hoop is a very sacred symbol for native cultures.

The Earth origin story was the perfect metaphor for what we are trying to do here at 16 Hoops. I believe in terraforming for our clients, creating an ecosystem of positioning around their brands that not only sustains them and their own customers, but allows them to soar.

The secret of memorable branding

I took my childhood in New Mexico, my lifelong love of design, my geeky passion for history and cosmology, and mashed it all up in the name 16 Hoops.

Amazing branding is about taking all your experiences, combining them, and spitting it all back into the universe in a way that appeals directly to the people you want to reach. It's either real and meaningful or it's not.

And your branding doesn’t have to be some Level 5 Geek story about universe origins. It can be romantic and pretty, or simple and clean, or anything in between.

But above all, you can't fake it.

Everything you do in your life is what makes you "you". When done well, branding and messaging can only be about you.

Think your branding isn’t working? Do the logo swap test. If your logo could be used for any other business, go back to the drawing board.

My hope is that the 16 Hoops origin story will mean something to you as a creative business owner. I think you deserve branding that makes you pump your fist in the air when you see it or say it. That’s part of why I started 16 Hoops. Don't accept anything less.

And know this: It's a weird and wonderful journey to get there.

Links and Resources

Can Your Brand Pass the Logo Test?

American Indian Myths and Legends

Todd Reichman’s website, A Man To Fish

Erin Flett

My weddings website

Josh & Chuck: Stuff You Should Know Podcast

Think Different: The Case for NOT Using the Word "Investment" in Your Navigation Bar

Okay, look.

I've got nothing against the word "investment". We use it here in context all the time at 16 Hoops.

I don’t even have anything against the togs who use it in their site menus and nav bars.

However, I do have a bone to pick with the fact that EVERY SINGLE photographer website template out there blindly uses the word "investment" in exactly the same way because of some Patient Zero site design from 2004.

Do you think Apple looked at how Microsoft did its nav bar before they launched? No, they went back to the drawing board and said “Think different."

The word “investment” in the navigation bar is the poster child for mediocrity. It’s the most common “symptom" I see of a larger problem in the photography industry. And here at 16 Hoops, we're railing against that problem.

We're railing against blindly following the lemmings off the cliff.

I’m all for using language (copy) in a compelling way. The word “investment” sounds better than “pricing,” right? It must!

But in reality, it allows every photographer out there who is intimidated by or finds unpleasant the fact they have to actually sell their products and run a business to procrastinate even further.

Does Apple use the word “investment” as some secret way of saying “This is a good idea”?

NO. They very simply state what a product costs after showing off all its abilities.

Apple doesn't have to legitimize a product's price by sneakily calling it “an investment," and neither do you.

That is the systemic crisis our industry is facing right now. Too many photographers look (and present themselves as) exactly the same.

Ergo, too many photographers compete for all the same clients. Ergo, too many photographers (epidemic levels) compete on price and commoditize our amazing industry and talents. (iPhones aren't helping…but I have ideas on how the iPhone is THE BEST thing that ever happened to our industry.)

And using the same words, the same logos, the same structures, the same website templates ain’t helping us at all.

Think Different. Really examine what your website is doing for your business. And start by re-thinking the word “investment".

"What About The Logo?" Is the Wrong Question.

We were working on a fun client branding project recently when something happened to turn on a lightbulb for our clients.

I love when these "lightbulb moments" happen, and I'd like to share this one as a great example of our unique approach "at work" with 16 Hoops.

To give you a bit of background, we do branding differently from a lot of other agencies out there.

We are highly specialized since we only work for photographers, and we believe that the destination determines the map.

From point A to point Z, whether it's a 1-month or year-long project, all design decisions are laser-focused on the desired outcome established early on. That's the "strategic" part of our design firm.

This desired outcome is usually buried very deeply. Working closely with our brave clients, we have to stir up quite a ruckus to find it. 

And we wouldn't have it any other way.

As one of my favorite design mentors, Eric Karjaluoto at Smash Lab, likes to say: If you aren't willing to do the hard work to make meaningful change in your business, then... "There are tens of thousands of other design agencies who'd be happy to take your money anyway."

So, back to our story.

We had gone through the very hard work of the positioning module of our program, and armed with that knowledge, we were now knee-deep in our "design thinking" phase.

But before we could even get through our first branding exercise, our client asked,

"Well, what about the logo?"

("Well, who cares?" was what we WANTED to say.)

But--thinking better of it, drinking our own Kool Aid--we advised them:

"Don't ask 'Well, what about the logo?' Ask instead, 'How, when, why, and where is my logo being used to inspire my ideal client to pick up the phone and hire me?'"

And then ask: 

"How then, again, are the identifying marks, icons, colors, textures, logos, feel, fonts, words, packaging, etc., being woven together in complete harmony throughout the entire client experience of my business to elicit warm fuzzies and command a premium price?"

And finally ask:

"How is the complete yet delicate ecosystem of my business experience being revealed, shared, and demanded in the larger world/market?"

Ding, ding, ding. Lightbulb went on. That's what branding is all about. Suddenly the client was able to see how their brand is like an ecosystem, rather than just a logo and a set of colors. All the parts work together in harmony--each unable to shine without the others--to showcase style, purpose, personality, and value to their target client. 

Or at least, that's how 16 Hoops approaches branding for our clients. Seth Godin also has a wonderful definition of branding as an ecosystem.

Our hope is that 16 Hoops clients will never look at their logo the same way again.

Real Experts Have Skin in the Game

This post is for anyone who is considering hiring an outside design firm or consultant.

One of our most important guiding principles here at 16 Hoops for our clients is our complete avoidance of (and general distaste for) hourly pricing and "billable hours".

(Yuck! Ptooey!)

We brazenly vanquished hourly pricing to the hinterlands from Day One. 

You might ask, "Why, 16 Hoops?! What did hourly pricing ever do to you?!"

It’s not only what it does to us--it’s what it does to you, our customer. 

We believe in the concept of expertise. Expertise is the DNA of any business (including your own photography business).

Experts deeply understand the complex problems and solutions of their ideal customer. If they didn’t understand these things, they would, um, not be called experts. They would be called something else.

As design & strategy experts, they should have the knowledge to:

    •    look at your problem (diagnose)

    •    offer up a solution (prescribe)

    •    execute and solve the problem (apply)

    •    re-execute (re-apply) often and as needed as new problems arise

They are, in effect, staking their reputation on this expertly applied knowledge.  

It doesn’t matter if it takes an expert 5 minutes or 500 hours to solve your problem. It’s their EXPERTISE you are paying for--not their time.

That’s what we call "skin in the game," and it manifests in Purposeful Pricing (AKA, "fixed bid" pricing)--they either solve your issue for an agreed-upon cost, or, if they are worth their salt, they work for free until they solve what they promised. 

Hourly pricing, on the other end of the spectrum, is used by people who probably never even asked you detailed questions about your problem, and who can’t tell you how much it will cost to fix. They usually just start doing work, tally up those hours, and hand over the bill. 

Did they even solve your problem? Did they even ask what the problem was in the first place?

(Side note here: "My website is old" is not a problem, by the way. That may be a symptom of a larger problem, like "I don't have clients anymore--help me," or "My revenue has dropped 35%," or "I want to own a new market niche," etc. 

But a poorly designed, out-of-style website is NEVER the problem in and of itself. Ergo, simply building a new pretty website won't solve that underlying problem. Experts will charge you to solve the underlying problem, and one tool of many toward that goal will most likely be a new website. See the difference?)

In some cases, hourly billing allows for work to start before you have even agreed on the outcome or goal. It's equivalent to hiring a pair of hands, not an expert's brain.    

Where’s the skin in that game? It’s on you. Hourly billers are asking you to take a ton of risk (is your problem solved??), while they take none (they can keep happily charging away whether your problem is solved or not).

In addition, it’s in their best interest to take longer to do the work. What is their incentive to do it faster when they are billing by the hour? It creates a conflict of interest at every turn between the designer and the customer.

It’s almost never going to be in the interest of the customer to pay by the hour. 

Imagine if a real estate agent said, “Let’s just get you into the house, and then in 3-6 months, we’ll tally up the hours used and see how much this baby costs.” Crazy, right? (PS...that is kinda what happened before the 2008 recession. Let's avoid that for your business at all costs! Step one: Stop tweaking your website with no goal in mind!).

Hourly pricing should be exiled to the hinterlands, right??

Instead of asking "What is your rate?", ask this question

The question should never be, “What is your rate?” It should always be, “I have a problem, or I need to improve my business. How much will it cost to solve my problem, and what is my return on investment?" 

See the difference?

There should be a major discovery session before any work begins or any costs are offered up (always costs, NEVER estimates). Experts know what questions to ask.

Experts usually charge what initially looks like more. But in the end, they actually solve your problem. The hourly guy could still be charging away, sometimes years later, and while you may have some pretty design elements complete, and some buttons on your website, you'll be no closer to solving your initial problem at the “end” of the engagement than you were at the start.

An amazing thing happens when you pay someone an "investment" sum for something that is important to you: Suddenly, both sides care more. Both sides are invested and will move mountains to achieve it.

Both sides have skin in the game, and magic happens.

PS. Check out Kirk Bowman’s Art of Value Podcast featuring Jonathan Stark if you want to get even more down and dirty with the pitfalls of hourly pricing.

How to Name Your Business Right the First Time (and Other Hard Decisions)

Some bells are hard to unring.

If we could only go back in time...there are so many things we'd say to our younger entrepreneurial selves. Right?

Decisions you make today will have far-reaching consequences, most of which you just can't see right now. And decisions you made back then, when you started your business, are still affecting it now.

Let's quickly explore one of those consequences now.

Think very, very carefully about the name you choose for your business

Yours truly's biggest mistake, by far, was naming my first business after myself.

Even way back in 1999, I instinctively knew not to call my photography business "Geneve Hoffman Photography." I was 99% sure I wanted to call it Blue Door Photography because of all the blue doors I photographed obsessively in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Blue Door was totally "me," and it sounded cool. It was evocative--all my gut instincts were saying yes.

But I was a newbie, and I had to pull the trigger, and I got very generic (almost bad) advice from someone from whom I had no business seeking business advice (ahem, my hairdresser). I think this person even said, “Everyone calls their business by their first name in your field.” That alone should have been my cue to run the other way.

Why your business name should not be the name on your birth certificate

The problem with naming your business after yourself is that the business--its reputation, its successes, its failures, its personality--are forever tied to you, the founder.

Even if you want to back away or take a different role. Even if you decide you want to sell the business. Especially if you get hit by a bus.

15+ years after taking my hairdresser's advice, I now am in the unfortunate situation of having a business from which it will be very hard to remove myself--much less sell. Can't unring that bell.

I only see it now as a mistake with my 20/20 hindsight. How I wish I'd invested a decent sum on a branding and strategic firm back then.

No joke--I would have saved myself hundreds of thousands of dollars by now, because in 2016, I would be lightyears closer to the business of my dreams. Specifically, the dream of being able to step away from or even sell the business I worked so hard to build. 

What I wouldn't give to have that conversation with my younger entrepreneurial self. Lesson learned, though--and I am doing it right with 16 Hoops. I really don't do things small and unassuming. I do them big.

So by all means, take 10-15 years to figure it out on your own, or do what I wish I had done:

Invest in trustworthy branding advice as early as you can.

If you do it right, the payoff is HUGE, both short- and long-term.

Couldn't I just do my own website??

I got this question from a client recently and we both agreed it would make an interesting quickie article. So here goes verbatim.

After viewing a recent website build we did, that looked deceptively simple and elegant, she asked:

“Couldn’t I just go and do this website by myself?"

Here is the answer I gave:

"It’s the same as someone who says to you, talented photographer:

“Couldn’t I just take my own photos of my kids? I mean, I have an iPhone?”

Could you well meaning photographer technically get a squarespace template and spend 100’s of hours DIYing yourself to something 1/2 way decent? 

Maybe.

And could you well meaning mom shoot hundreds of photos of your kids and get one that is frame worthy (that you won’t be in, by the way)? 

Maybe.

But, if you hire a branding expert they will know:

• how and where to place headlines and calls to actions
• where to place compelling imagery for maximum impact
• how to weave your story in a way that delightfully leads the client to contacting you
• how to do all this while you get to enjoy the work you love

Then you are 100% guaranteed a great website and brand that is landing you business 24/7.

And by the same token, if you hire an expert family photographer they will know:

• how to pose everyone for most flattering and memorable outcome
• how to find or create the best light
• how to tell your story with you in it
• how to capture those unseen moments
• how to turn it all into a once in a lifetime album that you will have forever

Then you are 100% guaranteed to have a treasured heirloom."

So next time you hear yourself answering this question for your own customers, think about how this advice scales to your own business as well. 

When doing a re-brand, don't listen to your friends.

One of the first things we advise our clients to do at the beginning of a re-brand is to hibernate from your friends, family and colleagues until you emerge essentially fully transformed. Why?

Because people are funny.

People that love you and know you want you to succeed, but they don’t want you to change. They will give you well meaning, but ultimately bad advice that won’t help you one bit on your journey to level up your game and career.

A photography business re-brand requires a change. People don’t like change.

Re-branding requires a stripping down and re-building up. It’s really hard to do that with people that already know and love you. You will hold back. You will fall back on old well worn habits and patterns that got you here in the first place. You will not have a breakthrough that you need and deserve.

A re-brand requires a pivot. In some cases a small pivot measured in inches and nudges…but in other cases a huge, monumental lurch forward into a completely different direction.

Friends and family won’t give you the kick in the pants you will need to break through.

My niece is a competitive swimmer and she is showing some real natural ability in the sport. Her coaches know she has to break from her comfortable division where all her friends are in order to push through the next to the level. But of course her friends don’t want her to move up. They like her where she is. They love her of course, but don’t really want her to change. So they should not be consulted. Only her expert coaches have the objectivity to give her the best advice. Whether she takes it or not is up to her.

It’s the same for your photography business. 

Your clients opinions, and the advice from objective experts are the ONLY opinions that matter.

Two examples of past clients seeking advice in the wrong places:

1. I had a client that kept asking her husband and mother to choose the best photos to go on her website. They were not experts in her field, so they gave her bad advice. There is some trust involved when you a hire an expert - and ultimately, you are paying us to be in the room with you, so take our advice. 
2. I had another client who kept asking her photography owner friends to critique her website. This might not be the best idea because she was just entering the echo chamber where the same old advice and industry mistakes we’ve seen 1000 times goes round and round and nothing changes. 

This is a mistake I see over and over again. But the answer is easy. 

Set the bar ever higher. 

Leave your friends, family, and colleagues out of the mix.

Seek out the best advice from experts who will not just tell you what you want to hear.

It’s hard work to do a transformative re-brand. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. You are not everyone.

Finally - talk to your customers. They will “listen.” You will know the sound of them talking back to you too - it’s either Cha-Ching or crickets. 

So, are you ready for a re-brand?

Join for free here by signing up to be a member. You will receive the 8 day intro course “Am I ready to do a re-brand?” right off the bat. Plus have access to our member’s only resources pages full of free advice, action items, and web tutorials and finally one helpful email a week in our member newsletter. Let me in!

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Is your photography business ready for a rebrand?

"If you cannot clearly state what makes you unique, you have more work to do before you can effectively rebrand."

~ Hand Crafted HoneyBee

I 100% agree with this statement, but a minor adjustment:

If you don't know what makes you different, that is exactly why you should work with an expert branding firm on a rebrand.

I just finished reading the amazing journey story of the husband and wife visionaries behind HandCrafted HoneyBee. 

They slogged through some incoherent years thinking they were in one market, when all along they were really positioned in another without knowing it. Here are a couple more nuggets of honey wisdom from the duo:

"If I’m being totally honest, our attempt at design was all over the place. We werefailing to curate a single coherent identity. People didn’t know what we stood for or what they could expect from us. We were confusing people more often than we were connecting with them."

I actually wrote the word "WOW" (yes, in all caps) next to this next bombshell.

Especially after reading they had spent an entire year's salary with a design & marketing firm on their new brand:

"Purchase your freedom by hiring someone else to do it for you. We could focus on the parts of our business that absolutely required us, and leave the rest in the hands of experts. We gained back precious time to focus on making our business the best it could be, rather than wasting time over­working for “good enough.”  

Not much else to say here. If you take a look at their current branding, website & messaging (not to mention awesome products), you will see a vibrant, healthy, elegant brand eco-system doing the hard work of business engagement for them 24/7. The sky is the limit with this kind of dedication and vision.

This could be you and your photography business. 

One of my mantra's here at hoops is that how I WISH oh wish I had a 16 Hoops at my disposable 12 years ago when I started my wedding photography business. I would have very gladly, blissfully paid them a large sum to start my business. It would have saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of headaches and missed opportunities.

Hand Crafted HoneyBees will likely say in 5, 10, 20 years from now that hiring a design firm to warp speed their business to where it is today was one of the best business decisions they ever made. 

So whether you know what makes you different, or if you are just curious to start on this journey...do yourself a favor and take their advice by spending your own precious time making your business the best it can be, and bring on an expert to help with the rest.

5 Reasons Your Template Website Is Hurting Your Business

Here is the truth about photography template websites: whether you're a startup, or a seasoned pro who wants to level up your online presence, you might want to consider avoiding them altogether.

Why are photography templates potentially hurting your biz? Well, five reasons, for starters.

1. Templates make you look like a beginner. 

Every photographer out there remembers the very exciting moment when they launched their first website. It was probably a very adequate template site, in hindsight. You probably spent hundreds of hours DIYing the heck out of it, but it worked reasonably well back when you were:

• On a budget
• Underpricing and undervaluing your work
• Competing with all the other similar photographers in your area
• Still trying to figure out what your business stood for

But then, one day, you realized:

• You care about your business and want your website and brand to reflect that care
• You want your website and brand to stand out
• You can't transform your business while sticking to your old ways
• Your needs have grown--you are no longer a beginner

2. Templates are basically Pinterest boards.

We all dread that moment when a well-meaning client shows us a Pinterest board of "inspiration" for their photo shoot or wedding. We all know that, if it's on a board, it's been done ad nauseum already. Do you want your website to evoke something that's been "done" already?

I once saw a lovely little template that was used for 1,085 photographers' sites. One Thousand Eighty-Five. That company is out of business now for better or for worse.

Just like it's not possible to create authentic, original images based on a Pinterest board, it's not possible for that pretty little template to convert your niche, ideal, high-paying client. 

3. Templates are "one size fits all".

Whereas a custom site is designed and built with YOU and your business in mind, templates come with built-in issues and limitations.

This is especially true with home pages and blog pages. 

Templates are literally "one size fits all". They are like those insanely popular jeans that somehow never seem to fit you just right. As pretty and tempting as they might be, templates are never going to take your business where you want it to go (especially you reading this - I know you want something more).

4. Templates are unintelligent.

Templates don't know your customer.

They know "a customer". Who is this mystery customer? Who knows?!

That's why, even if it gives your business a boost at first--eventually, a template website won't work.

Our ENTIRE point here at 16 Hoops is to get you, talented photographer, thinking about your very unique area of expertise. A template undoes all this work entirely.

These days, clients quite literally cannot tell photographers apart--and part of the problem is that everyone is using the same templates. So the race to the bottom continues.

5. Templates emphasize bells and whistles over important functions.

Bells and whistles like 13 pages of "info," slideshows, client logins, and endless contact form fields are, by design, meant to distract.

They distract your client from the single job of hiring you. You do not need to pour the entire contents of your business into your website. Your ideal high-paying client doesn't care at this point (or ever, frankly) about all this stuff. Your website is meant to convert that visitor into a client. PERIOD.

Bells and whistles can also create a catch-22 of sorts--because not only do you not need the stuff on those site templates, but those very bells and whistles are taking up space where actual useful, delightful things, such as compelling, action-oriented copy, could live.

OK, now you know why you shouldn't use a template website.

But what does a custom site or brand really *REALLY* do for you and your bottom line?

It helps your visitors transform from a casual, "stumbling upon you" audience to your dedicated fans, to premium-paying clients willing to throw wads of cash at your business. A custom site and brand is not an expense--it's an investment. (DOH! There's that verboten word, "investment". In a business-to-business context (B2B), the word is perfectly justified. In a business-to-customer (B2C) context--like portrait and wedding photography--it's misused and has lost all meaning.)

Whether you are a super-duper savvy beginner (yay for you!!!!) or a seasoned pro ready to transform your existing business (exciting!), now is the time to stand out.

Actually, 12 months ago was the time. Don't wait. We have a 16-week business transformation program, designed specifically for togs in your position, starting in January of every year. 

Take the first step toward transforming your business. Stop tinkering and reserve your spot now.

"I Need a New Website." Really? Why?

Story time!

I was recently talking to a struggling (and VERY talented) photographer, and I suggested that she consider our program.

One step of many in that program: She would work with us at 16 Hoops to redesign her website, along with constructing a system to handle clients, and planning a robust fall marketing campaign.

She said, “Oh, I don’t have time for that right now. I’ll just have my boyfriend [a web designer, apparently] fix my website this fall."

Right.

I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. 

Not everyone knows what a website's “true” function really is. Even some website designers don't really know the function of every website they put together.

Yikes--did I just say that out loud?

Oh yes, I did.

I’m not trying to knock designers. Stay with me here.

When you say, "I need a new website," what you are really saying is, “I have a problem that needs solving.” And sure, a new website might be part of solving that problem.

But when you just go and hire a designer (a friend, a neighbor, a referral, a Craigslister, or even a generalist firm) because you have declared that you need a new website (or a new logo), you are not even one step closer to solving the underlying problem.

And on top of it, just because you know someone who calls themselves a “website designer” does not in the least guarantee that that person will solve your problem.

Your website is more than a business card

How do we know that some brand-new websites don’t work?

It's not because they're ugly or weird. They are probably pleasant looking.

They include navigation, and header photos, and important-sounding statements like “We take you where you want to go.”

They may even have cool little videos and little “Subscribe!” buttons. 

They LOOK a whole lot like functional, helpful websites.

But despite the pretty packaging, clients are no better equipped to hire you than before they landed on your site. Your business is in no better shape, even after you've spent thousands of dollars on a new website. 

What a missed opportunity!

How do I know it's a missed opportunity?

Because your designer probably never asked you the right question in the first place.

The right question is: "What (expensive) problem are you trying to solve in your business?"

Your website (or whatever else in your brand ecosystem) should be built around that problem (or goal). Usually, if you're a pro photographer, your goal is to get more quality clients to contact and hire you.

It all boils down to what we keep talking about here at 16 Hoops: Expertise.

Your website needs to showcase your expertise, then tell your potential clients exactly what to do next.

I’ve seen many talented designers build websites that are just pretty online business cards. They look nice, but they don't bring you anywhere closer to improving your business or acquiring new clients.

In fact, having that cute business-card site may actually HARM your business. You'll think you've “solved” the problem because you took some action (and probably spent a lot of time and money).

But the problem is still there, bubbling under the surface, just waiting to explode...and now you're ignoring it.

Don't hire a carpenter when you need an architect

In the world of 16 Hoops, where expertise is the DNA of any strong business (ours included), hiring a web designer to redo your website without a clear goal in mind is akin to hiring a carpenter when what you really need is an architect.

Experts (architects) solve problems. Order-takers (carpenters) perform requested tasks.

So before you declare that your website is old and that "you need a new website," dig a little deeper.

Examine what makes you think you need a new site. Ask: "What problem would be solved by having a new website?"

Knowing the answer to this question will bring you closer to identifying the real issue and fixes. 

And once you have that established, you can hire that web designer...and give them a crystal-clear blueprint.

Problem solved.

3 Case Studies: The Wrong and RIGHT Ways to Design Your Branding and Website

I have had three huge lightbulb moments when it comes to the task of designing branding and websites for our clients here at 16 Hoops...

...which is why I can offer you these three case studies. Each starts with a wrong assumption about the photography business, and ends with a revelation.

Case Study #1

The first lightbulb moment happened about three years ago, when I started the journey toward founding 16 Hoops. Let’s call it Design Epiphany #1.

WRONG: A website is basically just a portfolio. You're a photographer, right? People are either going to like your work or not, and hire you--or not. What else is there to say?

RIGHT: Your success has almost nothing to do with your photos. A website uses copy, design, imagery, calls to action, and other subtle, well-placed cues meant to chat up your ideal client about your expertise. In design jargon, the way this process feels and looks to the client is called the User Experience, or UX.

Then, your site leads them into a funnel, taking them on a (short or long) pleasant journey of discovery. The funnel/journey ends in that client hiring you. 

Case Study #2

The second lightbulb went off while I was working with another designer on my own re-brand about six years ago. Design Epiphany #2.

WRONG: Your brand is just a logo. And your logo and website don’t have a ton to do with each other. A logo should just be basic and pretty, in a color that you like. And these elements only play a role somewhere on a header on your website, as a watermark, and maybe on a business card.

RIGHT: Your brand is so much more than a collection of design elements. I told my designer about my past, and what I loved, and why I became a photographer, and my field, and my location...and the list went on. She ended up creating the most perfect design that made sense for me, my clients, and my brand.

Turns out that your brand is a highly delicate and interconnected ecosystem. Every single piece of your brand works in tandem with the others. And good design feels like love. There is no way around it. Your brand and design are either eliciting warm fuzzies from your ideal client, or they're just sitting pretty.

Case Study #3

The third lightbulb went off during a project we took on our first year here at 16 Hoops. Design Epiphany #3.

WRONG: Good graphic designers make good website designers. Here at 16 Hoops, we learned that this was untrue the hard way: while working on an early project.

My role (creative director) is akin to the role of the architect in building a house. I am helping draft and oversee the design and construction of the dream house based on the client's true needs, their aesthetic, and their desires.

But instead of hiring separate experts for the carpentry (graphic design), electric (website developer), and plumbing (user experience) like I was supposed to--I just had one “carpenter” doing it all. Much like good carpenters do not always make good electricians (and vice versa), good graphic designers do not always make good website developers and user experience designers.

Learning this the hard way created a lot of frustration for all involved.

And what’s ironic about this, of course, is that this concept of “hire an expert” is one of our mantras here at 16 Hoops. It just took a misguided website design and a brave and honest client to make us see it and take our own darn advice.

RIGHT: User experience, website design, and graphic design are three separate and equally important jobs--all guided by the creative director, and all requiring different expertise to implement. The skills that make a great graphic designer are not the same skills as those that make a brilliant user experience designer.

Now all of our designers (and clients!) are much happier, too. 😃

Let’s recap the RIGHT ways to approach design

1. A website is not just a portfolio + nav bar. When done well, a website should be working 24/7 with your ideal client, creating a pleasant journey of discovery that leads them toward hiring you. 
2. Your brand is not just a logo. It’s a delicate, interconnected ecosystem that subtly elicits warm fuzzies from your ideal client when they rub up against it.
3. Don’t hire a carpenter when you need an electrician. If you want to stand out and achieve success, hire a firm with deep expertise in your field. One that considers every part of your brand and business, and can catapult you forward to bigger and better things.

Ask Not What Your Website Can Do for You...Wait, Actually, DO Ask It

Is every single part of your website talking directly with your ideal (AKA premium-paying) client?

A well-built website works like a magic funnel...

...a magic funnel at the end of which your ideal client is throwing money at you.

 And this funnel is working 24/7--even while you're sleeping. 

Your website is a living, breathing organism, and it's the best salesperson on your team. Every single comma, word, and visual should be chatting up your ideal client and asking for their business the second they land on your page.

But instead of tapping into this potential, most photographers throw up a gallery (Oh, good, you ARE a photographer. CHECK!), call their pricing page the ubiquitous "Investment," post a tab called "Information" in the nav, and call it a day. Some Patient Zero photographer made these decisions in a template back in 2004 and everyone has blindly copied it ever since.

I think a unicorn loses its wings (or is that a Pegasus?) every time a photographer uses "Investment" in their nav bar. Let's move on.

Some togs' websites don't even mention where their business is located. Imagine that.

Time for a gut check.

Go to your desktop or laptop and open up your current website in a separate window.

Seriously. Right now. 

I'll wait.

Ok. Now start at the very beginning, like the song says.

Look at the top couple inches of your website and zoom in on every minute detail like an archaeologist.

Ask your website:

• What experience is my client having as they look at this?
• What is this image, word, widget, icon etc., doing to move the conversation with the reader forward?
• Is there a clear direction for the user to take? What's their next step?

If the answer to those question is nothing, or "not sure," keep asking and changing your site until you get to the right answer.

Avoid template temptation

For goodness' sake, please take our advice and nonchalantly (whistling, if you like) stroll right past those photographer template websites.

Templates may have worked circa 2005 when there were only 1,500 photographers on the whole dang Internet, but now there are over 1,500,000 of us worldwide! Imagine how cookie-cutter your website looks next to thousands of photography sites just like it.

The only people getting rich off template sites are the people making the templates.

With all these identical websites with no clear purpose, it's no wonder clients can't tell togs apart. It's no wonder they end up hiring your cheaper competitor down the block.

So strap your website into the hot seat.

Offer it a cup of fresh coffee, and make it spill all the beans.

Ask questions about every single page and part--and don't stop until your perfect client is banging down your door and throwing wads of cash at you!

This American Tog, Act Three: How Your Customer ACTS on Your Expertise

Our theme this series is "Business and The Survival of the Fittest". Find Ep. 1 here and Ep. 2 here.

We've arrived at Act Three of our show: "You ARE good. You LOOK good. Now ACT good." 

• In Act One, we talked about how Expertise is the DNA or backbone of your photography business.
• In Act Two, we explained that branding is the expression of this expertise.
• Now, in Act 3, we make the claim that it's not enough to claim and express expertise. You have to walk the walk. 

All this expertise and branding needs to lead to a profitable business, otherwise it's just another pretty face.

That is where marketing comes into play. 

We've read a million and one high-falutin' and even confusing definitions of marketing. But we here at 16 Hoops only have one way to explain marketing. It cuts to the chase nicely.

Marketing = Messaging that creates a steady pipeline of high-paying, ideal clients.

Powerful marketing works like a funnel. A magic funnel, at the end of which your ideal client is throwing money at you.

Your messaging tools

You can get your message out there any number of ways.

Most of the time, businesses message potential customers using tools and channels like social media, SEO, email, blogs, etc. They create their own content, and also pay for advertising. They rely on both words and visuals.  

Websites (and by association copy and visuals) are BY FAR the most underused and abused tools in photographers' ditty bags. 

A website, when built well, will be working that magic funnel 24/7--even while you are sleeping. It's a living, breathing organism and it's the best salesperson on your team. Every single word and visual should be chatting up your ideal client and asking for their business the second they land on your page.

But instead of tapping into this potential, most photographers throw up a gallery (oh, good, you ARE a photographer. CHECK!), call their pricing page the ubiquitous "Investment," post a tab called "Information" in the nav, and call it a day.

I won't get into a teardown of photographers' sites here. We'll save that for another week.

But I will say: it's time for a revolution in websites. If that intrigues you, head over to our Survey, and let's chat.

A recap of This American Tog

Act One: Expertise is the foundational DNA of your business. When defined effectively, It's uniquely you. It can't be duplicated. It's difficult to mine--not just anyone can do it. But once you do the hard work (which, by the way, NO ONE except you is doing) it's transformative for your business.

Act Two: Branding is the expression of your expertise. When done effectively, it will speak directly to your ideal customer and bypass everyone else. Those perfect customers will be attracted to you like bears to honey.

Act Three: Marketing is what brings it all together in a message that resonates with your ideal customer. It takes your expertise, your branding, and takes it out onto the open road, full throttle, like a funnel to your ideal client.

Put them all together, and you, my friend, have a lethal, unstoppable business. It's the survival of the fittest. You have just become the top of the food chain.

We're 16 Hoops. Back next week with more stories from This American Tog. 

This American Tog, Act Two: How the Customer "Sees" Your Expertise

Welcome back. Our theme for this series is "Business and The Survival of the Fittest". If you missed Ep. 1, be sure to check it out here.

We've arrived at Act Two of our show. Act two: "Blue Eyes vs. Brown, or: How Customers "See" Your Expertise". 

In Act One, we talked about how it's the culmination of thousands of unique, individual experiences that make up who you are. These experiences are the DNA of your expertise--meaning that who you are makes you the expert.

Expertise = the DNA, or the terra firma on which your entire business is built.

In Act Two, we are going to expand the biology metaphor, if you will.

Big B, little b

Ring any bells from high school science class?

BB (big B) or bb (little b) refers to your genotype, DNA, or genetic makeup. It's the stuff you inherited from your parents, but can't see.

Brown eyes (BB) or blue eyes (bb) is how scientists refer to your phenotype, or how your genotype is physically expressed. And no, you won't be tested on this later. It's just the unique way we view expertise at 16 Hoops (link to checklist).

Let's put this all in plain language. If you have two parents with blue eyes, it's genetically impossible for you to have children with brown eyes.  But, as my cousin Jenny proves, you can be born with blue eyes to two parents with brown eyes. Your blue eyes or brown eyes are how your DNA expresses itself.

(See--I told you that Mrs. Bresnick's words are burned into my memory!)

What on earth does all this have to do with your business? Still with us? 

Expertise = DNA, or genotype.

Branding = Eye color, or phenotype.

Branding is how your expertise is expressed to your customers. It's how your expertise "looks."

Logos, marks, colors, feeling, design, style. Brown eyes, blue eyes, BB, bb.

The best businesses do the hard work to first uncover their own expertise, and then build a brand that expresses that expertise perfectly to their ideal customer.

Effective branding is like a pheromone to your perfect customer. They are drawn to it instinctively, like bears to honey.

Random branding is forgettable

Bad or random branding creates an echo chamber around your business. You might as well be talking to yourself.  

Your potential customers are just going to pass you by or not see you at all.

Or worse, your potential customers won't be able to distinguish you and your pretty template logo from every other pretty template-logo photography business out there.

And so they hire the cheapest pretty template-logo photography business they can find--because, after all, what's the difference? They all look the same. If you're one ant in a seething pile, how can anyone be expected to notice you?

This is how the race to the bottom continues in our industry.

If you are tired of competing on price, do the very, very hard work to position yourself as an expert and express it TO YOUR PERFECT CLIENT through impactful branding.

The path to the profitable, easy-to-manage business of your dreams is to ignore everyone else and target your ideal client. You do this by first establishing expertise, then expressing it through compelling branding. 

Coming up next week is Act Three: "You ARE good. You LOOK good. Now ACT good."

This American Tog, Act One: Expertise

Quick note--this series an homage to This American Life, and it's way more fun if you picture Ira Glass reading this to you. ;)

Hey everybody, 16 Hoops here. It's This American Tog. Each week, we have a theme and different stories on that theme. Today on our program, we look at "Business and Survival of the Fittest". 

Act One: DNA (the stuff upon which everything else in your business is built)

(cue quirky music)

We are all individually the sum of our 100% unique life experiences. 

We are all also literally the sum of our human DNA handed down over millennia.

We are, each of us, wonderfully complicated. 

And it just so happens that this is a helpful way to think about your business, too. The "special snowflake" combination of all the best parts of your work, expressed in the perfect way and working together out in the universe, make up the key to ultimate success and fulfillment--both for you and your customers.

How? We'll show you in three acts.

From WTOG, York, Maine, it's This American Tog and we're 16 Hoops. Stay with us. 

Your DNA: What makes you you

Do you have a favorite teacher or class or moment that you will never forget? Something you were taught so expertly that all these years (or decades) later, you find it's still teaching you something?

For yours truly, the classes I'll never forget were high school biology and biology II with Mrs. Bresnick. Those are the only high school notes (and thoughts, frankly) that I have kept to this day. Her classes stirred something deep in my then almost-fully-formed 16-year-old brain.

I was and still am fascinated by mitochondria, Mendel's gene experiments with fruit flies, Darwin and the Galapagos.

It was a like a magic carpet ride into the distant past of our human collective. It helped me understand what makes each individual human different and distinct.

That class, and my fascination with its topics, along with every other experience I had before and have had since, are what make up the person I am today.

Now, I bring all of my continuing, ever-growing knowledge, fascination, and experience to 16 Hoops and my customers in subtle ways that--statistically speaking--can't be duplicated.

To put this into business terms, your special-snowflake collection of experiences forms what we're going to call "expertise". Expertise is the DNA of your business. It's the sum of your unique parts.

By nature, DNA can't be all-purpose

Your personal genetic makeup is unique (well, unless you're an identical twin). No one can imitate it. No one can duplicate it and pretend to be you.

Your experience and stories are what make up your expertise--and no one can imitate those, either.

So, the natural question for togs is, of course...

Does Being a Professional Photographer = Expertise?

Not so much, as it turns out.

Saying you are a photographer is like saying you are a human. Anyone with a homo sapiens brain and a pulse is a human. Ergo, anyone with a camera and a business card is a photographer.

You need to say what kind of photographer you are. What kind of human you are (one who likes rock music and hates strawberry yogurt and cares deeply about animal welfare, for example). Otherwise, you're just a faceless, unidentifiable chromosome in the shallow end of the gene pool.

Swim over to the deep end

To take it a little bit further, let's compare someone who claims to be a doctor to someone who claims to be a photographer.

If Joe Next Door has a busted kneecap, should he just go to Craigslist and hire anyone who claims to be a "doctor"? No. Absolutely not.

He wants (needs!) a doctor with experience, who knows how to solve his unique problem, and even more, who plays a part in the healing process.

If your potential customer has a newborn and wants baby pictures, should she just go to Craigslist and pick any old "photographer?" No.

She wants (needs!) a photographer with experience, who knows how to work with babies uniquely, and even better, who can perfectly capture their tiny world.

If your customer is looking for a tog on Craigslist, she's basically throwing a dart at the "senior portrait-family-weddings-newborn-maternity-pets-reunions-events-boudoir-corporate" photographer. 

She's stepping into the murky gene pool of one-size-fits-all togs--where getting something truly unique and special for her newborn is practically impossible, because too many togs try to do it all. They try to duplicate the DNA of everyone around them, to build expertise in too many different fields, and the end result is that they have shallow experience in a bunch of fields and deep experience in none.

Makes no sense, right? But, by not digging into their DNA, by not exploring their own personal expertise--photographers are forcing customers to gamble on them. 

It's one of those lose-lose scenarios.

Now, picture instead that--because of your unique combination of talents and interests--you have photographed almost nothing but newborns for five years. You have true expertise in this niche. On top of that, you have brought all your years of exploring the world in your own unique way to each and every session. 

You understand intimately how to pose them, interact with them, and portray their tiny, pure worlds in a way that no one could ever be able to duplicate--especially, ahem, by just looking at your photos on a Pinterest baby-picture board. And your ecstatic customer will pay a premium for this gift.

That is the promised land of true expertise. That is your 1-in-a-100-billion DNA, which no one else can duplicate. It only happens when you start differentiating yourself--swimming out of the shallow, crowded waters and into the deep end.

Cure yourself of clone thinking

Why, then, do photographers act like clones of each other? When instead they could have been dominating a market by simply tapping into their own unique DNA? It's because they never asked for help from another expert who is hard-wired to help them do this.

Oh, and the Internet (especially Pinterest) doesn't help. It's even MORE reason to do the work it takes to diverge from the pack.

The bold (not to mention profitable) decision to plant your flag deep into your own expert terra firma will completely transform your business forever.

Coming up next week

Act Two: Blue Eyes vs. Brown, or: How Customers Will "See" Your Expertise".

For WTOG, this is 16 Hoops. We'll see you next week.

Think Outside the Universe: 3 Strategies for Finding Your Ideal Market Niche

One of our bibles here at 16 Hoops is Benjamin and Rosamund Zander's book The Art of Possibility. The framework for the book is the concept of “It’s All Invented”.

These are words to live by if you want to break new ground with your creative business.

An illustration of It’s All Invented

The Zanders use the following story to illustrate their theory:

A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business.

One sends back a telegram saying:

SITUATION HOPELESS. NO ONE WEARS SHOES.

The other scout sends back this telegram:

GLORIOUS BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY. THEY HAVE NO SHOES.

This story is not just about the old, simple "half-full or half-empty” view of the world. It goes deeper than that.

It’s about inventing something new (and lucrative, natch) by zooming out and enlarging--breaking free of the old limiting framework that might be holding you back. 

The best way to do this is to look at your market and see what opportunities might be hiding in plain sight. There are three ways to do this.

1. REDEFINE: Plant that flag and dominate

Take an existing niche and claim a leadership position by nailing down your specific, targeted positioning. This is the least risky strategy for finding a niche--and if you're creative, the possibilities are endless.

For example:

Existing niche: Weddings.

Redefined niche: Hey! No one is doing "Same Sex Weddings in Small Coastal Inns".

Who is this strategy for? Someone who wants a chill lifestyle in a smaller market or saturated field. If done well, this can be the road to a very financially satisfying business, with a laid-back lifestyle to boot.

2. INVENT: Pays the bills (and how!)

Search your market for new opportunities. This is the strategy taken by our shoe scouts above. There's potentially less “cool” factor here, but this path is the most lucrative by far.

For example:

"Hey! No one is doing executive dating service portraits. I’ll do that.”

OR

“Hey! Children’s book authors (or chefs, or realtors--pick your passion) don’t have great headshots. I want to travel around the world doing this one thing."

Who is this strategy for? Someone in a larger market or someone with the willingness to move/travel who is ready to take the bull by the horns and build a highly profitable, lucrative business. The payoff for this kind of bold (if less emotionally exciting) approach can be ginormous.

3. CULTIVATE: Do what you love

Take a passion and turn it into a business. This is a bit riskier, but warm fuzzies are their own payoff.

For example:

“Hey! I want to only photograph rescued horses and their new owners.”

OR

 Preemies. Or vintage teacups. Or whatever makes your heart go pitter-patter.

Who is this for? Someone who values soul satisfaction over profit as a business model. Market and payoff may not be as huge as in #1 and #2, but you can turn your passion into a business.

These are all examples of essentially inventing or reinventing your business. 

What happens if you don't pick a niche?

You become the dime-a-dozen, dreaded, sales-driven photographer (ACK!), rather than the unique-snowflake, delightfully rich, market-driven photographer (YAY!).

Anyone can just answer the phone and let whoever is on the other end define the work. This is what's known as being "sales-driven". 

Define and own your market. Defining what you do takes bravery and lots of discipline. Photographers are far too often sales-driven rather than market-driven.

Here at 16 Hoops, we love it when we see a business owner get to this lightbulb moment. It's very exciting to help our clients uncover those hidden market opportunities and then build a formidable business around their expertise with powerful branding, messaging, and marketing.

Don’t just politely remove yourself and "think outside the box”. SMASH that old, boring box to smithereens and think instead outside the GIANT, BOUNDLESS, INFINITE UNIVERSE.

How to ApPEAL to Prospects with Cowbell Positioning

“I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.”

Gene plays cowbell. Cowbell is the only cure for producer "The" Bruce Dickinson. 

Gene’s got it made in the shade with that airtight positioning.

Gene's owning his niche and singing it, or rather ringing it, loud and proud. And his target audience can’t get enough.

If that’s airtight positioning, what does leaky positioning look like?

Consider the slogan, “We build a world around your brand."

Sounds catchy. But does anyone know what this means? Does anyone actually need a world built around their brand? And do customers need that “brand world,” once it’s built?

Full confession: This is what the 16 Hoops website used to say. It’s what one of our consultants, Jonathan Stark, calls “soggy positioning”. You’ve probably guessed it already—“soggy" ain’t a compliment.

Jonathan told us that out of the hundreds of professional Facebook friends he has, there wasn’t one person he could think of off the top of his head who needed “a brand with a world built around it".

Positioning yourself means that you know the questions your target customer is asking, and your brand is publicly declaring the answers.

How can you recognize leaky positioning?

For starters, it’s...

• Undifferentiated: It does nothing to set your brand apart
• Interchangeable: It could apply to any of your competitor
• Aimless: It could potentially create a long, difficult road for your business

Here’s another example of leaky positioning: “Natural light photographer” as a description of your photography business.

I can think of no one in particular who needs a natural light photographer. Yet everyone wants a natural light photographer. 

You would think that because no one AND everyone needs this type of photography, that the positioning is OK. Maybe even good. Right?  

But instead of getting you more business, this type of positioning will just end up lumping you into the massive pile of other businesses that use this same position.

And that, my naturally well-lit friend, means disaster.

Now customers will consider you a commodity. They’ll be searching not for you or your brand, but for the lowest-priced “natural light photographer”.

So what’s the cure for leaky positioning and all its ills? More cowbell. AND airtight positioning.

Airtight positioning is the promised land that will transform your business.

You’ll know you’ve positioned yourself with no leaks if, after you tell someone what you do for a living, they immediately think of 3-20 people who could use your services.

Let’s go back to our "natural light photographer" example. Does anyone in particular pop into mind? Nah.

Now, instead, if you really want to explore a space with great positioning…you might say, “I do high-end portraits of families with their yachts on the coast of Florida.”

Cowbell.

How? Why?

Because the person to whom you just said this immediately thought of 3-20 people. Maybe they’re thinking of their Florida relatives, or that guy they met in the airport bar. Maybe they’re thinking of their old orthopedist.

And if you’ve done your homework and you live the right place, they are probably asking for your card (or several cards). I live in a coastal town in Maine, and I can think of at least 12 legit potential customers for this awesome new service.

People might not have even been thinking that "portraits of people on their yachts" was a thing. Now, not only do they know about it, but they suddenly want it, too.

Just like when Bruce Dickinson heard that cowbell. He suddenly wanted more. He didn’t even know cowbell could do that.

What comes after cowbell

What if you went one giant leap further into the promised land and followed up your positioning with spot-on branding, messaging, and marketing?

You’d have clients banging down your door to work with you. You’d need an extra few hands to grab all the money they were throwing.

But first things first.

Put your pants on like Bruce Dickinson—one leg at a time-—and make some money with great, airtight positioning.