Strictly Business Blog

I just got back from a 3 day policy conference for a lobbying group where I received training on how to conduct citizen activism including educational outreach, fundraising and lobbying.  The parallels between selling politicians on a position and selling potential clients on your services were striking. Among other things, the conference stressed: You have to know what you’re talking about – there’s no substitute for expertise. You have be clear in your messaging –…

Most of us are terrified of screwing up in our businesses–of failing. On one level, this seems rational–we have bills to pay, responsibilities to uphold (families, employees, etc.) so failing sounds like a really, really bad thing. But on the other hand, it isn’t. Failure is rationally rather a very good thing. Why? Because it teaches us. We don’t learn from success. If you get something right, what growth does that show or nurture? None….

This video is based on Judy Herrmann’s workshop presented at Strictly Business 2 and now touring ASMP chapters as an evening seminar. Does controlling your career sound like an oxymoron? Listen and consider this alternative. (32min, 24sec)

I still have a foot in both the video and still worlds. But it’s tough to be able to shoot both formats on the same job – or that is to go back and forth trying to get both covered.  Ultimately you always feel like something is being compromised. But the most important point to state here is that I “flip a switch” in my head to think and see differently when I shoot with…

An extraordinary thing happened to me last Friday. A potential client called for a quote. My business, like many of yours, has been very slow for months and the call caught me off guard. It took me a few minutes to regroup and switch into business mode. My head was racing making sure I asked for all the details I needed to properly prepare the quote while simultaneously selling the value I could bring to…

Things are changing so fast these days…or are they?  A couple of days ago, I realized that it’s now been 15 years since I started working with digital photography. In that time, the cameras have become smaller, more responsive and more affordable but other than that, they really haven’t changed much.  There are far more tools available to process RAW files but the steps (and corrections) required have stayed pretty stable.  Image editing apps have…