{photo by Nick Rider}

As 2009 turned to 2010 I was left with a lot of things to think about and reflect on.  So I sat down and wrote a letter to my “year ago self”.  You can read it here. In the letter I focused on lessons that I learned, or wished I learned over the last year.  It was really a pretty powerful experience for me.  I even cried a bit…I know, what a baby:)  As great as this exercise was one thing it didn’t do was help me focus on goals for this year.

I’m not a great planner. I’m not really the kind of guy who’s ever been good and sitting down and outlining goals for any given period of time.  I am sure it’s a great exercise for planning and preparing for a new season but I’ve found that life never goes as planned.  Don’t get me wrong, I am constantly thinking about the future and what it looks like (just ask my wife, I can’t switch it off).  I have always let my goals arise kind of organically, meaning: I always have places I want to go in life running through my head so that if it looks like I might be able to get there I go for it.  Sometimes when I do set goals I find a way to force the issue and things get off the ground before they are ready, which always spells disaster.  It might not be the best “business school” way of approaching things, but its who I am.

I like things that defy logic. I’ve always believed that the “norm” is dumb.  I question lots of assumed things (again, drives my wife crazy).  One of the assumptions is that photography, especially wedding photography, is a cut-throat industry where all photographers hate each other.  This is definitely the logical way to view things because that stuff exists.  I am sure that there are plenty of photographers out there that don’t like someone else because they under-bid a wedding or trashed their competition to get a job.  It’s the reality of business.  In spite of this assumption one of my business philosophies is “There is no such thing as a scarcity of resources.”  What this means is we live in a world, especially a country, where there are an abundance of opportunities, weddings, dollars, etc.  No matter how bad the economy  or how saturated the market people are still going to get married, want pictures and spend money.  If I do my job well no one can convince a client that is looking for me to book with someone else.  I am me, you are you and there are tons of people looking for both.

What does scarcity have to do with goals? Well. I’ll tell you.  I have lots of ideas swirling about what I want to do this year: consistent branding, more weddings, price increases, hire a second photographer full time, take a real family vacation, get tight on the business side of things, etc, etc.  Like I said, I am always thinking about all of these things because they are so important to me and my family.  Those things are great but I am going to leave them in my head for now.

I need a community of competitors. The one goal that I am going to officially set is to find or create some kind group of peers that learns, laughs and loves together.  I have been to plenty of “networking” functions where everyone has their name tag on and fakes a laugh because they think it might help their business.  That’s not what I am talking about.  I’m talking about a group of “competitors” that meet, share ideas, stories, drinks and some genuine laughs.  Yeah, you heard that right.  I want to tell my competitor’s what ideas I have for next season, next year, next decade.  I know, it’s crazy.  But remember: if I’m doing my job well, no one could convince a client to use a competitor…they want me.

Photography is a lonely business. It’s especially lonely if you work for yourself, by yourself.  When things get tight or slow you start to think that you are the only one experiencing it.  You need a group of people to say to each other, “I haven’t booked a wedding in 2 months”, “I had a card corrupted and had to reshoot a family session”, “I’ve been so focused on answering emails I haven’t taken proper time for my family”, “I don’t know how to use Photoshop the right way”.  These are all things only we can understand.  We aren’t alone.  But we think that because we’re “competing against each other that we can’t share this stuff.

Let’s do it! So I am proposing that if there are any Cincinasty photographers out there that think they might want to join in on something like this I will take the lead.  I will schedule it, remind everyone about it, find a cool place(s) and people to come talk to us about photography or come up with topic for discussion, etc. Basically, I’ll do the hard part.  You do the easier (but still hard) part by clearing your calendar once a month to show up.  “But wait, I don’t like commitment, that’s why I work for myself”.  No worries, come if you can, don’t if you can’t.  It will be so awesome that you want to miss it after the first one, so I’m really not that worried:)

So email me right now if you are interested and we’ll get this thing started.  And if you are sitting there thinking, “Yeah right, that’ll never work.”  Awesome.  That’s what makes me think it can.

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