“RNP the Blog”

These days there are strategies for everything, gurus of every imaginable type. There are seminars and online webinars, there are traditional books and e-books, and of course podcasts and blogs. We have experts that we can call upon in every field.

In the photography field we are told by these consultants and marketing gurus to define our unique vision and target our marketing to art buyers that use that type of work. Use social media, do mailers and e-mailers, on a consistent schedule. Try to get face to face meetings, pool your resources, blog, be creative, be unique, be different. I have done all these things with differing levels of commitment and success and it is always interesting to see in the end what actually gets me hired.

For example I was hired recently by a company in Kansas City that spent a good amount of time looking for a photographer in this market. I was contacted by this company even though the type of work they need isn’t displayed on my website. When I asked why they chose me I was told by the art buyer that she liked my bio and thought I would be fun to work with.

I was also recently contacted for a meeting by an art buyer with a large corporation in town who had stumbled onto my website via my rep Wonderful Machine. We had a great meeting and I asked her why she wanted to meet and she told me she wanted to meet because she watched the video on my website with the behind the scenes footage of my shoot with J. Miller and she could tell that I loved photography. Interesting…

To me there are many things you can draw from these recent experiences. First of all you never know what different people are going to respond to. In a way it goes along with what those marketing professionals say and in a way it completely contradicts what they say. I think ultimately getting work is a mix of talent, timing, relationships, branding, personality, and a healthy dose of luck (and yes I am one of those people that believes luck is when opportunity meets preparation).

I was listening to NPR a couple weeks ago and KCUR’s Steve Kraske was interviewing author Terry Teachout about his book “Pops” about the great Louis Armstrong. Kraske asked Teachout what he thought separated Armstrong from the other jazz artists of his time Teachout’s response (and I am paraphrasing here) was Armstrong’s mix of talent, personality, and work ethic. There were other artists of Armstrong’s talent but none that had the mix of talent, personality, and work ethic.

And I guess that is the final word…ultimately you need to have all three in ample supply to be a successful creative over the long haul of a career.

Here’s to you Satchmo: