Beware the Circle of FUBAR, This Quick Way to a Miserable End Seems Like a Surprise, But It Shouldn't Be
It starts small, but ends up being a growling monster with bad breath with a collection agency girlfriend.
What is the Circle of FUBAR?
I see it everywhere I go these days. It is the slowly crumbling respect for customers, for aesthetics, and for service that seems to have infected nearly every industry.
From big companies who cheat their way to unearned Emmys to local restauranteurs who hire empty-headed Instagram models to take orders, respect for the customer has dwindled to pre-Cambrian period levels.
But as little as I care about TV sports or burger shacks with few customers, I hate to see it with photographers the most.
A couple of examples:
Go on nearly any internet platform where photographers gather and become witness to the incessant whining about “moms with cameras”, or how low the rates for photography have become.
“Nobody wants to pay for good photography” is the rallying cry for those for whom the notion of getting it done is not understood.
I once had a photographer tell me that he was going to quit because no one wanted to hire him.
I immediately asked him how many people he had shown his work to.
“Over 20”, he replied, “and nobody hired me.”
In his town of nearly 100,000 people, I am damn sure there are more than 20 possible clients.
I told him the best time to quit was after he had shown his work to over 400 people, 10 times each. Then, and only then, could he tell me it wasn’t possible.
(Pro Tip: If you show your work to 400 people at least 10 times a piece, you will already be working, and working a lot. Even if you are only a little above average.)
Expecting your clients to find you is disrespectful and childish.
Respect them by seeking them out.
They know how hard it is to do that, so they will respect you for making a good effort.
Do the work.
Prepare for the presentation by having everything you need.
Don’t tell them you forgot your business card, or hand them a crumpled leave behind.
Have that kit ready to go, clean, undamaged, branded with your lovely logo, and smartly designed.
Smartly designed… we’ll get back to that in a moment.
Shoddy presentations mean shoddy work.
“The way you do one thing is the way you do everything.”
- Martha Beck.
Smart woman.
If it is a Zoom presentation, make sure the kids, dogs, street vendors, budding opera stars, and the kid practicing his drums for his Metallica cover band are not an issue.
And good luck, kid.
Make sure your mic works, you have audio that doesn’t feedback, and be able to grab images as fast as you need to if the client asks for something specific.
“Do you have any photographs of avocado toast? Our client sells Avocado Toast Tongs.”
“Yep, right here.”
Respect the client’s time and be ready for anything.
Or as close to anything as you possibly can be.
Design.
Are you a designer?
No?
Then why are you trying to save a few dollars by doing it yourself? Or perhaps a cousin who learned how to build websites from a guy on the intertubes.
(“Too many people just use their phones or have an uncle do their photography.”)
Sound familiar?
Respect your client by having the best, most modern website you can.
If you want to help the designer, then fine. Do a trade-out with a good designer.
Use a good template site (Format, SquareSpace).
The tools don’t matter as much as the aesthetic, the design, and the look and feel of your website; the most important part of your business other than the photography itself!
This is how the Circle of FUBAR gets started.
A photographer puts together a pretty good set of images while spending every nickel they have on gear… tangible tools that make them feel like they are a pro.
Intangibles fall by the way. A website costs how much? What? I could buy a cool lens for that amount of money.
a. Cool lenses do not bring in clients or create an interest in using you.
b. Websites bring in clients and create interest in what you do.
Which has more value to your business?The poor website doesn’t attract attention, so the photographer decides that they need to spend more time on social media and tik those toks.
This brings in a few interested clients who are…
… totally turned off by the lame or mediocre website.
The photographer feels more discouraged, so they slap a photo of something on a postcard and send it out to people who may or may not be interested in photography. Research is boring and not any fun at all, so…
… the postcards do not bring anyone to the website (because they are uninteresting and were sent to a list that was not researched), and if they did, see number five above.
Now the photographer stops updating the website due to the frustration of nothing working, and Google stops indexing it in a few months since, in Google’s eyes, it is a dead site.)
The photographer takes a job at Piggly Wiggly and sells their gear to another photographer who has spent every last nickel on acquiring said gear.
All that is left is to get on Facebook and let everyone know that no one is hiring photographers and no one wants to pay for photography.
The Circle of FUBAR.
How to escape it.
Make sure you look at a minimum of 100 websites of photographers, designers, and other creatives. Make notes on what you like, what they do that is different, and what your website would do similarly or not at all. Make a spreadsheet; it isn’t that hard to do.
Find Website review sites and see what is happening in the world of creative website design. What is going on in the graphic and advertising realm should be happening in your realm as well.
I mean, look, we are the creative professionals who base our entire careers on making things look interesting.
Why would we stop with our branding, our collateral material, and - for the love of God - our website?
We are in the world of visual excellence. We should make visual excellence the priority feature of our brand.
You know, like Job One Ford stuff.
This year is going to be lit, with creative stuff coming down the pike (internet lines?) at speeds never before seen in this industry.
LOOK LIKE YOU BELONG, because if you don’t, you won’t.
Everything you do should be with the utmost attention to detail, service, elegance, and the indistinguishable mark of professionalism.
OK, I know I sounded a little bit preachy above.
I don’t mean to be a scold, but so much of this stuff is being lost by over-attention to platforms, in the end, that rob you of all creativity.
Your Facebook page looks like my Facebook page, and like that guy’s over there and the woman with the crazy hat… Good Lord, they all look the same!
And that blue!!!! Arghh… so damn tired of that blue!
But how about;
Instagram? Yep.
Pinterest? Yep.
LinkedIn? Yep.
Behance? Yep.
All of the platforms are reduced to the same look for everyone on the platform.
We’ve seen this before.
This is not a small problem.
Clients are going to be looking for the most creative options they can find. By March or April, they will be sick of the AI crap that is also beginning to look the same because the tool creates the same look, whether it is a consummate pro leading it to a final image or an out-of-work sports newscaster trying for another unearned Emmy.
And that is when your human creativity, your human aesthetic, and the approach you bring to art are going to be more vital than ever.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I will be hiking in the San Tans as you receive this. This week, I am changing it all up.
I am designing a book for our “Collection” series at Project 52, and this time I am going to make something totally unexpected for the photographers.
All three books are free to download as PDFs, and feel free to share them with anyone you think would like to see them. Enjoy.
When you are ready, here is how I can help you succeed.
Group Mentorship: a small group of photographers who meet to show images, work on their portfolio, and build their businesses with help from a wonderful group. Lifetime membership for one fee.
One-on-one Mentorship: You and me - working together in an intense 6-month push to get you on the way to over $30K in additional revenue. The work we lay down will help you increase and scale your business for years ahead.
The Creative Class: Expand your toolset and become a one-person visual agency capable of pulling in steady and repeated income. If you have questions, let me know, and I will answer them as fast as possible.
Discount codes for In the Framers:
Cohort Discount $197: $1000 | A23CD7E72E
Creator Discount: $100: $197 | 2BA98E4053
That guy who showed his work to twenty people, he doesn't want to do the sales work, he just wants to shoot. If that's the case, I can sympathize, and also say that if he didn't want to do that par, he should have quit sooner. It's part of the job.
"We are the creative professionals who base our entire careers on making things look interesting. Why would we stop with our branding, our collateral material, and - for the love of God - our website?"
Absolute gold here.