You are not everyone. Prove it.

Here is the typical photography career:

• Stumble into it because you take great photos (degree not required, but bonus).

• Get lucky by having friends hire you first, then slowly widening to a larger audience.

• Sit by the phone (or email).

• Send out an email template. get hired (or wait).

I’m oversimplifying to a degree, but this is essentially how it works and has worked for a long, long time. 

How do I know? 

That was my wedding career from circa 2003 to 2016. I never had to work to get clients. I did styled shoots that got wild publicity, I did the occasional wedding show and networked loosely with planners, florists, venues, and DJ’s that I liked. 

But most of my success came from “FIRST. BEST.” I entered first and best and held that well over for over a decade. 

That’s it.

This old business model won’t work now for any photographer, including me. 

FIRST doesn’t exist with 150,000+ professional full time photographers. These are people who call themselves Professional Photographer on their tax returns - imagine how many in your own market do not. And everyone is good (best) now.

Take a look around at the sea of photographers all doing the same thing and expecting different results. 

So why do talented, smart photographers still do this and hope for different results?

It’s because they/we are distracted by small tasks that constantly interrupt the REAL & DEEP WORK we should be doing.

This new economy requires, no demands, innovation.

If you don’t innovate your photography business model, you will fail.

Sounds scary. But it’s meant to be an exciting call to action rather than a doomsday cry.

How do you innovate? With DEEP WORK. 

I’m sure a few of you have seen Cal Newport’s TED talk on this subject (check out another article on this...). But don’t watch it (distraction!). His book Deep Work is far more engaging. Get this book.

The first step toward doing deep work is simple. 

1. Set three GIANT goals for your business.

2. Determine what work must be done to reach these goals.

3. Eliminate all or most of everything else.

Let’s break it down.

1. Set 3 Giant Goals

These are not small goals. Small goals will not innovate your business model. These 3 goals should make your heart skip a beat. One possible set of 3 goals for a hypothetical mid-size town photographer could be…

1. Move my family to a larger OR more lucrative market (see what I mean…heart skip a beat!).

2. Re-brand as a luxury brand.

3. Gross $200K next year.

Some other goals could be...

• Stop all advertising and do in person networking only.

• Make the switch to luxury IPS.

• Become a freelance photojournalist with National Geographic.

• Start a magazine for photographers.

• Photograph only what I love and am good at.

• Focus on high end Jewish weddings.

2. Determine what work must be done to reach these goals

Using our hypothetical photographer who decides to move above. Here is some DEEP WORK that could be done...

• Dive deep into Luxury Brands around the world. What do they say, what do they feel like, how do they market? What kinds of products do they create?

• Study high end luxury markets around the country (Scarsdale NY, Rhinebeck, Maclean VA, West Palm Beach FL, Rolling Hills CA, Belle Mead TN, Darien CT, Scottsdale AZ, Cary NC, Newport Beach CA, Wellesley MA etc…). Which two or three could be potential new homes for you?

• Get a loan or save enough to make the move and open up a studio.

• Start photographing work for your portfolio that will start to build this kind of higher end clientele (you don’t need to wait until you move to do this).

• Take a course on IPS for the luxury market.

3. Eliminate everything else.

This part should be easy, hypothetically.

• Stop photographing anything that doesn’t move you toward this goal.

• Stop the endless tweaking of your brand and website. You can’t tweak a broken system. It requires destruction and evolution.

• Stop spending any time on social media or other distractions that doesn’t move you toward this goal.

• Stop…stop…stop…ANYTHING that doesn’t move you toward this.

When you start thinking and acting this way amazing change can happen. It takes work and some internal re-wiring of old bad habits that bore deep tracks in your psyche. But it can be done.

Or you can just keep doing what you have always done and expecting different results. Ahem. How’s that working for ya?

It’s time to get off the distraction hamster wheel. Be bold. Do the DEEP WORK required - if for not other reason than NO ONE ELSE IS DOING IT - WHY NOT BE THE ONE WHO DOES.

It’s the only way to stand out in a sea of look alike photographers all doing the same thing. 

You are not everyone. Prove it.

Worlds to Discover: The Stellar Advantages of Deep Expertise

There is a dark side to the creative professional. 

Creatives thrive when the landscape is constantly changing. This makes them highly attractive to work with. They are adaptable and able to solve any problem thrown their way.

But this quality is both a gift and a curse to creative business owners. 

Because creatives crave new challenges, they get stuck in generalist gear. They'll take almost any job that comes along because they're afraid of either getting bored or losing business if they say no.

If you're a wedding photographer who's taking any old wedding that comes your way because it feels like a challenge or you have some bills to pay--whether it's ballroom, B&B, historic, coastal, Western, barn, big city, small town, rural, weekday, outdoor, tented, 50 guests, 300 guests...you're a generalist.

If you're a portrait photographer taking any old gig that comes your way because it feels like a challenge or you have some bills to pay--headshots, kids, newborns, maternity, weddings, seniors, pets, corporate, bands, product shots…you're a generalist.

Lord help you if you are doing BOTH weddings & portraits. 

Being a generalist is fun and maybe even profitable, for a bit. But it will backfire one day if it hasn’t already.

A backfire is when you're...

• Feeling like you're always competing on price

• Wondering what your year will look like

• Wishing you had a steady pipeline of highly paid, rewarding work instead of a trickle of erratic work

• Sitting by your computer hoping a bride or family will email

• Struggling to blog and market because you don’t know your audience

Is your ulcer acting up yet? Can you hear the backfire coming?

Enter THE SPECIALIST

You might think that specialists are bored because they only do one thing. Or that they're losing business by claiming expertise in one narrow avenue.

Nah-ah.

It's just the opposite, in fact.

Here is what the world of deep expertise for your creative business looks and feels like:

• Rather than excluding potential clients, you are opening up your access to a more profitable, desirable niche market

• With focus comes confidence. No more learning curve. No more competition.

• Specialists don’t get bored. They get better. Your confidence gives you power to take on larger and larger challenges. You think Picasso got bored painting? Heck no. He got deeper into his craft--and commanded ever higher prices for his work.

• You think generalists do TED Talks? Nope.

• With deep expertise comes deep value. You can charge more and more as you sail deeper into those blue-ocean solo waters, where only you can solve your client’s problems.

Here's the kicker: once you have become a deep expert in one thing, you can choose at any time to take on a project or client outside your scope--on your own terms. It's the best of both worlds.

For those select few who choose to do the hard work that it takes to plant their flag on the undiscovered worlds of deep expertise, the sum of their parts creates the most stellar advantages in the business landscape.

P.S. This post is dedicated to some mentors and authors we cherish here at 16 Hoops. Thank you to Blair Enns, Jonathan Stark, Jody Maberry, and Philip Morgan (in no particular order!) for helping 16 Hoops dive deep into our own fascinating worlds of expertise.

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".

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.

The Year of Purposeful Marketing

As we all wave a fond farewell to 2017, we should also be slamming the door on random marketing for good. 

If you forgot how to avoid random marketing in general, read our primer article on When Marketing Goes Very, Very Wrong.

Instead, let’s make 2019 the Year of Purposeful Marketing.

No more stabbing in the dark at random social media platforms hoping and praying someone will notice you. 

Instead an airtight marketing plan that will zero in on your ideal client like a heat seeking missile.

But first, we need to wipe the slate clean. New Year’s are built for this kind of delicious creative destruction. Get out a blank sheet of paper. 

Step One. 

Make sure you have ONE lucrative expertise that talks to ONE client in your market.  Shed that old 2018 “generalist” skin, and become a highly sought after 2019 “specialist.” This is called positioning.

Step Two.

Re-examine how and where you engage with your high paying premium clients (logo, website, copy etc). Are you speaking their language? This is called branding.

Step Three.

Set a goal and a budget, then build a campaign. Refine, repeat. Refine, repeat. I highly recommend enlisting the help of an expert marketing team to start. This is called marketing.

Step Four.

Make sure that once your ideal client finds you, you know exactly how to repeatedly land, engage and quietly delight them. This is called systems.

Step Five.

2019 = Best. Year. Ever.

Let’s take a closer look at some possible questions to be asking yourself for the marketing bit, or Step Three from above.

How do you reach clients? Pretty basic right?

Should you use email? twitter? facebook? instagram? print ads? posters? direct mail? video ads? youtube? networking? smoke signals?

It’s impossible to say "yes, yes, yes and yes” unless you know with unwavering certainty 100% who your high paying premium customer **actually** is.

Everyone is trying to find that millennial sweet spot - but it’s more than likely that your customer is actually NOT a millennial. Especially if you are a high end portrait photographer. 

Millennials spent a wad on their wedding recently, and are probably broke. The last thing they want to spend a ton of money on is an expensive portrait session. 

SO, it begs the question - are you wasting your time on instagram if it’s actually GenXer’s you should be trying to reach? Shouldn’t you rather be spending your entire marketing budget on a robust Facebook ad campaign or a large magazine print ad campaign then? Do you even have a budget? 

These are all questions you (or better yet, your marketing team) should be asking and answering before you even open up one social media account.

Start to ask yourself questions like these so you can tear down whatever was holding you back in 2018 and build something new and exciting for 2019.

So here is your first and best checklist re-cap as we dive into 2019 (your most amazing business year ever!):

1. What is your unique area of expertise? Figure this out, and your marketing will start to magically fall into place. Be tough on your business! Make the very, very, very hard decision to be a sole expert in one lucrative thing. It’s the most game changing business decision you will ever make.

2. How does your unique expertise walk and talk in the world to engage your ideal client?

3. Once you have positioning and branding nailed, write down your sales goals (monthly? yearly? quarterly?) and build a targeted sales campaign. Refine, repeat.

4. Spend the time to build your own signature system (simple is always better) to turn clients into raving fans.

5. Enjoy your work and have a reliable pipeline of high paying clients year round! Like I said, Best Year Ever!

This all sounds like a lot, huh?

Maybe 2019 should start with a gift to your business.

The gift of our 3 week Private Roadmapping session. At the end of it you will have the an actionable foundation for all the steps above. Whether you choose to move forward with our partner design team, or on your own - you will def be on the way to your best year ever.

Tell us your dreams for 2019! I know we can achieve them together.

---

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Why are creative professionals afraid of deep expertise in one thing? Podcast interview with 16 Hoops by Matt Hanna

Matt Hanna of Thought Mixing Bowl is one of those original thinkers in the creative world that is putting his money where his mouth is. He is not just talking about making change, but actually creating change. His latest project is a compact yet engaging podcast called One Question. I, Geneve Hoffman, had the honor of being featured with my one question.

I bet you can sort of guess what my one question might be about, especially if you have been hanging around the positioning area of our articles section. Turns out, I'm kinda single minded (in a good way).

My One Question Podcast interview by Matt Hanna

SO head on over and take a listen.

Check out some of the other questions too - another question that caught my attention was the one with a graphic designer named Kathleen Murray whose question is "How do you shake creative guilt?"

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'm About to Give You a Million Dollars for Your Business

"What would you do if a patron client gave you a million dollars, and said you could do anything you wanted with your business?”

I play this theoretical game with all my clients at 16 Hoops.

There are a couple of caveats: You have to invest your million in your business. You can’t just pay yourself more. And you have to spend it all in one year.

What would you do? 

I've had clients tell me they would write a book, travel, or open up a gallery. Nothing wrong with those answers--they usually come from a gut reaction.

But I think I need to ask, instead: "What game-changing things would you do with that money?"

Your answer might be different.

I know exactly what I would do.  And it has almost nothing to do with buying a swanky new studio downtown, or traveling--because as fun as those things are, they aren't really game-changers.  

Instead, I would research and build a completely new way of doing business in the photography industry. I would hire think tanks and designers and emerge like a butterfly in a year with a revolutionary business model.

David Baker, one of my favorite thinkers, posed this very question on his blog the other day, and our answers were pretty much the same. 

You might not have a million dollars burning a hole in your business account, but what you can do right now (and it costs a lot less) is:

• Take the time to do a very deep dive into your own airtight positioning. Find that lucrative position that no one else can hold, and claim it.
• Build a signature system around that position.

The rest will fall into place.

You can start rolling the ball in the right direction. It’s hard work, but that is 100% why you should be doing it. If it was easy, everyone would have already done it, and we wouldn't be having this million-dollar conversation.

The iPhone Is the BEST Thing That Ever Happened to Pro Photographers

Ahh, the iPhone. 

Like the digital camera before it…like the point-and-shoot before that…like the SLR before that…the iPhone is forcing pro photographers to adapt.

Why is this a very good thing--like, maybe the best? Let's explore.

First, let's zoom out a bit and look at two palpable signs of how the industry as a whole is pushing back on new technology like iPhones (and age-old problems like when togs get to eat at a wedding...).

1. Grumbly blogs about "Things Photographers Hate"

One sure sign of resisting adaptability and growth that I see a lot on photography blogs is the ubiquitous "10 Reasons Photographers Hate XYZ" list. These lists are entertaining for sure, and all of us are, of course, shaking our heads vigorously while reading them. 

I recently read one with a title akin to "Top 10 Things That Photographers Can't Stand". It's a great example.

#3 on the list goes along the lines of: "People using iPhones at weddings or a portrait shoot".

Yeah, I hated that too.

Until one day I didn't. I sat back for a moment, threw off my old hamster-wheel thought processes, and re-analyzed the whole scenario. 

To illustrate the epiphany I had in that moment, I wrote "A Tale of Two Weddings" for Seacoast Weddings Magazine. It shines a light on the harmony that can come from two perspectives of the modern wedding: one shot on an iPhone, the other shot by a pro.

2. Righteous complaints about what the pro photographer "deserves"

Just the other day, another well-written photography blog landed in my inbox. It's essentially another "Top 10" type recap of the (decades-old) perennial complaints that photographers have.

Tip #1 was along the lines of "Caterer, PLEASE feed us when the bride and groom eat!"

I have another viewpoint on this issue (and I mentioned it in the comments section on that blog, too…). About five years ago, I had a complete 180 epiphany moment about this issue. I started simply bringing my own food to weddings.

In literally five minutes, I changed my whole 15+ year struggle with this one timing/scheduling issue. Why oh why are photographers still waiting around for the caterers to feed them (and, more importantly, complaining about it)? It's the definition of Old-School Madness.

But as entertaining--and perhaps even true--as these articles are, they do something unfortunate.

They allow photographers to form a false sense of security and righteousness, despite the reality they are facing. Articles like this allow them to dig their heels into their old habits, hole up in their bear caves, and justify preparing for an un-winnable war.

This habit of entrenchment stifles the "pivot and adapt" capability that successful people cultivate.

This old attitude doesn't allow a business the possibility to cross over that next threshold into the room full of ideal, high-paying clients waiting there.

Are you seeing a pattern here? A pattern of habits and complaints?

iPhones are the new reality.

Taking control of your own schedule, hunger, and comfort at a wedding or event is the new reality.

New ways of navigating a website are the new reality.

In their book The Art of Possibility, Benjamin and Rosalind Zander call this "The Way Things Are".

Instead of struggling against reality (and complaining)--which strengthens your old, bad habits--lean into reality instead.

Don't concentrate on how things "should be". Instead, be open, like a vessel, to a new framework of possibility.

Even better, create an entirely new storyline. One where you grab hold of all these new realities and spin them into a positive. Unless and until you can embrace and thrive within the new realities around you, you will find yourself in a tailspin.

I've only scratched the surface of how iPhones are a new kind of camera and present a new (and exciting!) reality. Don’t be like Kodak and die a slow death while bemoaning the new technology. Don’t be left behind by the iPhone craze. iPhones are here to stay. (In fact, Bon Appetit just did an entire issue with an iPhone.)

And this is very excellent and exciting news to the photographers smart and brave enough to pivot and try something different. 

It doesn't mean you need to grab hold of every new and shiny object du jour…but once something has permeated an entire culture for the better, you want to be there first, not last (or never).

Ready to test out these new and exciting waters? Start with your own airtight positioning.

Or go even further and set up a 30-minute free consultation with us. Could be a game-changer.

P.S. For the record, I have great respect for both the writers of those "Top 10" articles I reference above--in fact, I subscribe to one of them. I just see it from a slightly different angle.

Is Your Business Crushing It? If the Answer Is No...

Ask yourself this question to help you decide if it’s time for your business to invest in an outside strategy and design firm:

Is my combination of DIY workshops, advice, blog-reading, and "How To" PDF downloads helping me and my business crush it every day?

Here's the definition of "crushing it," courtesy of Urban Dictionary:

"Being in severe shape, looking good, being better than others, looking hot, feeling positive, having more than others, having relations with other attractive people, generally serving well"

And now, 16 Hoops' definition of "crushing it":

"You have a well-churned marketing machine and support system that differentiates your business, gives you financial freedom and happiness, allows you to stop competing on price, and lands you all the premium-paying clients you will ever need."

If you said, "Yes! I AM crushing it!" just now (and you probably did a little dance, too)...

...then you definitely DO NOT need an outside strategy and design firm. In fact, we'll probably be calling YOU as a case study. Well done.

Just in case you didn't answer "yes," though, pitch yourself these questions too:

• Do you find yourself competing with lesser brands for the same clients?
   
• Do you sometimes feel like like you're fumbling in the dark with your marketing, and wish you had a confident and lucrative POV?
   
• Are you wondering if you should rebrand entirely or just tweak your existing brand, but you don’t even know where to start?
   
• Do you know that you are a talented photographer, but just need help pulling it all together and breaking through whatever is holding you back?
   
• Do you suspect you could charge more, but have no idea how to start doing that?
   
• Are you tired of having a catch-all business (for example, “weddings-portraits-corporate-pets-boudoir-seniors-babies-families”), and instead only want to photograph things you love?
   
• Do you wonder how other photographers seem to get noticed all the time? (What are they doing that you're not?)
   
• Do you want to have a business you are proud of, financial freedom, and a lifestyle that allows you and your family to shine?
   
• Do you want someone to hold you accountable and cheer you on as you level up?

If you answered yes to any of these...you might be ready to check us out.

Advice is good, but action is better

For the record, just getting advice or consulting is good, too, and definitely better than doing nothing.

But if you want to take a truly transformative leap forward with your business, go the extra step and hire a highly specialized strategy and design firm.

Better yet, hire a firm that specializes in serving your industry. As far as we know, we're the only ones out there specializing in photography--which is exactly why we got started.

So, here are your last and most important questions: 

Are you ready for your busiest year ever? Are you ready to crush it?

Take the leap with us. There is no one who understands your struggles and dreams more than the folks at 16 Hoops. Together, we can crush it.

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.

3 Photography Business Truths You Must Learn

Some of you will be nodding your head furiously while you read this—yay!

Some of you will be wondering what the heck I am talking about. That's OK.

I am pointing my piercing eye of Sauron at all of you.

Truth #1: Owning a wildly successful photography business has almost nothing to do with photography.

There, I said it. Whew. Now that we have that out of the way, we can have a real conversation that isn't bogged down by f-stops and bokeh. Don't get me wrong, my bokeh’s as good as the next guy’s, but I made a conscious decision to leave all that behind when I started 16 Hoops.

Being a good photographer is a given.

Anyone who doesn't already have a good portfolio has no business running a photography business (pun intended). Ergo, photography has (almost) nothing to do with running a successful photography business.

Make sense?

Here, together, we are terraforming a new world for photographers—a world in which paying your rent or mortgage doesn’t depend on someone’s pet project (or pet portrait).

Embracing Truth #1 will help you make the most dramatic transformation of your career.

I believe this. SO much, in fact, that I challenge you right now at this very minute, to stop reading about/talking about/researching photography. At some point, you will realize (as I did) that you are not a photographer. You’re a business owner. Luckily, owning a photography business happens to be one of the best jobs out there.

Together, we will shift you into a new way of thinking that helps you manage all aspects of your business—not just the point-and-shoot parts.

Truth #2: If you don't position yourself, you will fail.

Sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Good. It's meant to be.

The problem I keep seeing over and over again with this industry is the complete lack of actual expertise in the photography market, despite more “experts” than ever before.

Positioning is the practice of setting yourself apart from your competition. You need to show clients not just that your work is good, but that you have something special to offer—otherwise, you might just get lost in the noise.

Bad positioning is why good photographers can't charge what they are worth. It's why there’s someone down the street who is charging less and undercutting your lowest rates (for now). But don't worry: someone else will come along right behind that hog and charge even less. So the race to the bottom continues.

Why does this happen? It's because customers can't tell the difference between all of us. We all look 100% the same. We all have the same pinterest inspired templates, the same logos. We’re all using the same gear; we’re all donning the same hip leather bags (OK, I'm not gonna lie, those are kind of cool). We’re all shooting the same family portraits, posed casually in glowing fields at dusk (chunky jewelry? check), the same babies in cute knit hats all snuggled up on fur…should I go on?

That, my friend, is the opposite of positioning. That is lumping. You've been lumped. It’s no wonder clients can’t differentiate you.

Don't feel bad, though. Realizing you’re part of a non-positioned lump is totally normal. I know, because I've analyzed hundreds of photographers’ websites—including those who are successful—and even if they are positioned, they have no idea how to communicate that position.

And even if they are saying it, they are not using language their target audience will act on.

But without positioning and the hard work it takes, running a photography business can be a boring, confusing, sad state of affairs. And, given long enough, the struggle can be a path to failure and going back to your day job.

OK, you know you need to position yourself. So what does that mean? What does positioning look like?

Positioning means finding what’s unique or different about your business and making sure that difference comes through crystal-clear in everything you create.

It also means knowing exactly who you serve. Who’s your target market? Why do you want to serve these people? What do they expect from you, and how can you surpass those expectations to create loyal repeat clients?

Your positioning might look like this, in statement form:

“[COMPANY NAME] works with restaurants that want to bring more guests through their doors without relying on stock photos. [COMPANY NAME] produces mouthwatering food photography and showcases each establishment’s welcoming, relaxing atmosphere. Clients benefit from a complete visual library to use throughout their marketing efforts."

Super specific, right?

Proper positioning is hard at first, but we have our ways (for full effect, say that last bit with a German accent). Once you nail down who you serve and why you’re different (read: better), you should be able to name your price in the market.

You’ll gain incredible clarity and focus as a business—and then the sky is the limit. It’s pretty exciting territory, and it’s within your reach.

Truth #3: It's impossible to take your business to "that" level without professional help.

A logo from Fiverr and a Squarespace account does not an excellent business make. But hey, I get totally get it. You’re a photographer. You are not a copywriter or brand designer or ad agency—why pay more than $5 for a logo? Right?

Wrong. You saw that coming, didn't ya?

Let's revisit truth #1: you’re a business owner. What do real businesses do? They hire other experts to do all this stuff so they can rock their own expertise. Do you see doctors or lawyers or Coca-Cola or Nike trying to design their own logos or run awe-inducing ad campaigns? Heck no.

If you want to take your business to the next level, take charge as an expert in your own field, and make the hard decisions required. Bring in professional help. Even if you think you have a designer’s eye (which you probably do!), you STILL 100% need to hire another expert to help you get to that next level.

Just as you bring an expert perspective to your work, the folks you hire to help with your design and branding will bring their own fresh spin to your business. They can see your business from a perspective you can’t—simply because they’re not you.

I've learned over the past 18 months that it's really, really hard to do this next-step branding by yourself. Even branding experts hire other branding experts when they want to climb over that next summit.

Why do the Mad Men Ogilvy & Mathers of the world exist? To get this stuff done: the real stuff of building an amazing business so you can lead the life you want. 16 Hoops is the Mad Men for photographers. Let's do this.

PS. The fact that you’re even reading this…

…means you’re one step closer than the guy down the road. If all of this were easy, everyone would be a branding expert with a well-positioned business. But it’s not, and they’re not.

I challenge you to be daring and take that bold step where not many other togs have gone before—into the blue ocean waters of unbeatable positioning. And then cast a line to your raving fans and watch them hop right into your boat.