Taking Care of Business

(jerry-reynolds.com)

OK, OK, not that kind!  Bet it made ya laugh though!  On to the true subject matter at hand.

“Home again home again, jiggity jog #iusa14” I tweeted rather late Wednesday night as I finally landed back home after volunteering for a week at Imaging USA (stay tuned for more information on this opportunity no student should pass up in the coming weeks).  It wasn’t much later I received a notification it had been “re-tweeted” by someone I had never heard of.  Being the nosey busy body I am I looked it up…..Steel Toe Images (Angela Pointon).  That digging led to more digging and I was intrigued.

Why was I intrigued?

     1. Her tag line on Twitter is, “Helping the world's most talented creative entrepreneurs kick butt. PPMag columnist. Wrote Worth More and one other book. I also shoot babies for a living.”

a.    PPAMag columnist --- I tweeted something she noticed?  Cool

b.    “I also shoot babies for a living.” --- ummmm that can conjure up some pretty disturbing visions and is pretty funny

c.    “kick butt”, “and one other book,” – I like her style, I would love to sit down for coffee with her!

    2. She is strength where I am weak.  She is strong where a LOT of photographers are weak.

Let’s be honest, most of us started taking classes at AiP-OD because we love photography or have been told at one time another we are good at it, or something similar.  Is there any of us that can honestly say we started because we need more business savy?  If that had been the case we probably would have entered a business program instead of photography.

“Someone can be the most amazing photographer and fail at the business. But someone that is even a mediocre photographer can be wildly successful because they are great at business.” (loosely quoted as re-told by Lindsay Adler at Imaging USA 2014)

I don’t know about you, but I did not get into this to fail, so I will do everything I can, follow every avenue that opens, and pursue every opportunity that presents itself in order to have the best knowledge I can to make the best decisions for me.  I feel like this is one of those.

What is “this”?

“This” is a conference that Angela Pointion (Steel Toe Images) came up with because, “I got pissed off. So I organized a conference.”  Basically she was tired of the same old same old, speakers with all the same information, with big egos and with ulterior motives (to get you to pay for their information and pay big).  What she was put together is a different kind of conference; it is all audio, no visuals and no attendance.  You can listen whenever it suits you.  The speakers are inspiring as well as informational and they are not selling anything.

My challenge to you is to think about what you are doing to “take care of business.”  Maybe this Dream Big Conference is for you, maybe not. And that is ok.  But I implore upon you to take the business classes seriously and no matter what direction your photography journey goes, make sure you are “taking care of business.”

For more information on the Dream Big Conference, Steel Toe Images or Angela Pointon, check here:    http://steeltoeimages.com/conference/

It’s another Manic Monday ~

Monday Ambassador

PS – if you want to find me on twitter look for morganlisak