Why You Need To Fail

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” - Robert Francis Kennedy

Think about some of the things you've learned how to do in your life: how to ride a bike, how to cook, how to tie your shoelaces. Most likely, you had to fail a few times before you really felt like you could do these things well. I'm still learning how to cook and making plenty mistakes along the way. We were really good at making mistakes and accepting them as children, but somewhere along the trajectory into adulthood, we started to become afraid of making mistakes. For some of us, that fear is so paralyzing that we might not even start to try because we are overwhelmed by the idea of failing.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.” - Confucius

When money enters the equation, we're even more afraid of failing, because money represents our personal freedom and security. We become bound by our own set of "gold handcuffs." We imagine a certain lifestyle full of material comforts, and then become bound by that idea. We decide we can't afford to fail, which also means, we decide that we can't afford to take risks.

“The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.” - Napoleon Hill

A really good batter with a .300 average, fails 7 out of 10 times at bat. That 30% success rate might not look good on the high school report card, but for an inventor, even a 1% success rate could equal a nobel prize. Successful people become comfortable with the possibility of failure because they don't believe they're failing, they're just learning how to be more successful. If something doesn't work, they investigate how and why it didn't work, and then build on that new knowledge to get closer to successs.

“A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure till he gives up.” - Unknown

There's no replacement for making your own mistakes. You can read for years about what you should avoid and what you should plan for, but there's always so much more to be learned from actually attempting something on your own. Different people yield different results. Rather than trying to go in with all of the answers, allow yourself to uncover the answers as you go. Go in curious and willing to be flexible when things don't work out the way you had hoped. The important part is starting. The hard part is not giving up.

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.” - Unknown

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle & wedding photographer from Boston, MA. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography as an independent small business. She loves helping others find creative and low-cost solutions to business problems. Follow her on Twitter to see her daily adventures and thoughts.

Review: Selling to the Millennial Bride Workshop

I took the Selling to the Millennial Bride workshop in Houston, Texas. It is part of the Startup Strategy series. I paid for the workshop; an early-bird discount was in effect when I registered.

Website: Startup Strategy - registration through Fisheye Connect

Presenters: Jeff Jochum, Me Ra Koh

Date: September 10th, 2010 (Another one will take place in New York on October 14th, 2010)

Location: Hotel Zaza, Houston TX

Price: $199 (Early Bird Special was $149)

Included: 4 hours with Jeff Jochum, after dinner questions with Me Ra Koh.

Bonuses: Free year subscription to Smug Mug, access to Startup Strategy Forums.

What I Expected: Tips on selling to brides between the ages of 21-30 years old.

Expectation Met? Yes, and blown away.

Who This Workshop is For: Anyone in business, at any level. Information is geared to reach all.

Summary: I have met Jeff Jochum in the past, and heard about other's experiences working with him. I went into the workshop knowing that he is a straight-shooter, tell it like it is sort of guy. Seriously, if he thinks it he will say it. I've been watching his Startup Strategy account on Twitter since it first launched, so when I discovered he was doing a workshop in Houston 5 days before it took place, I checked it out. When I saw that it cost $150 with the early bird discount, I signed up immediately and told everyone I could think of.

Jeff definitely rattled some people during the workshop. He said up front though that that was his goal. He shared a TON of information, starting with a high-level overview of tips on getting clear with your business. (He did mention that this was a topic of one of his other workshops, but it was only mentioned in passing and not a sales pitch to go to anything else.) He shared stories of his experiences with both Pictage & SmugMug. He talked about Goals and true goal planning, and how the words you use can impact your sales & your brand.

He spent a lot of time encouraging each of us to discover what was unique about ourselves. It was a very insightful discussion. He shared experiences about people that he has mentored in the past, and how their businesses grew.

After a break, we got in to the meat of the sales portion and talking about the Millennial Bride. He started with statistics - Jeff teaches theory, but it is based on facts. He shared tips on trends, groups, communities, things that are most important to the Millennial generation. He then went from the statistics to the exact things that you can do to increase your sales to them. (I would share more here, but I don't want to give it all away!)

I took over 20 pages of notes, and Jeff provided us with a copy of the slides that he used as well. His slides were well put together, and while the Houston workshop was the very first one, it went pretty smooth. I was surprised because I've learned from past workshop experiences that the first one is usually full of hiccups, but Jeff is such an experienced trainer in marketing and sales it was never a concern.

Jeff did not offer up any type of exact outline for how you should do things in a sales meeting. You do not leave with a list of "spend 20 minutes doing this, then show your albums, then a slideshow, now hand them a contract." How you do things like that is unique to everyone.

The only problem we had was at the end of the workshop for our dinner break, we probably should have stayed in the room and ordered food to be delivered. The website that Jeff used to reserve the room stated that the hotel was in the Galleria area, which is full of restaurants. It wasn't; it is in the museum district and the only option was the hotel bar & restaurant. It was expensive and slow, which cut in to our time with Me Ra Koh.

Me Ra was in town for an event with Sony the next day, so she joined us for dinner and questions afterwards. When there were 12 people at the table at the restaurant it was hard for us to hear her so the conversations split into two. By the time we left there and returned to the suite where the workshop was hosted, we were all really tired so we didn't get to talk as much. I think everyone still got all of their questions answered, but I'm sure if it had been earlier we might have had more questions come up.

Both Jeff & Me Ra were more than willing to answer questions, and I think it is an added bonus to have access to the forums afterwards. That way, if you have something you didn't get to ask in the workshop itself, you can ask it there and discuss it with others.

I expect that as future workshops work themselves out, and Jeff is possibly able to coordinate with city hosts, the problems with dinner will be avoided in the future.

Recommend? Absolutely! Jeff was an excellent instructor who is extremely passionate about the topic of helping our businesses grow, and Me Ra Koh was an open book and a wealth of information as well.

Please note: These are my personal opinions of the workshop. I was not compensated in any form for this review.

UPDATE 9/22/2010: For another perspective on this same workshop, check out Jen Armstrong's review on the SOAR Blog.

Christine Tremoulet is a Houston, Texas Hot Mama Boudoir photographer and wants you to have a Business of Awesome. She also runs Wholly Matrimony, a destination wedding blog. She is a creative geek, having blogged since 2000 at BigPinkCookie. When she isn't taking photos or knitting, she is busy devouring all the info related to Marketing & Social Media and its powers that she can find online. Follow her on Twitter.

Not Getting Inquiries?

Have you noticed that your inbox isn't as full as it used to be? Are you slim on weddings for next season? Maybe you're just starting out and not getting the inquiries you are desiring. Whatever the reason, here are 5 quick things you can do (FOR FREE) to help ensure that traffic is flowing your way!

1. Contact Form: Make sure it is working!!! SO often I read online that such and such photographer didn't realize that their form wasn't working for xx amount of days (usually a large number) until someone called about the issue. If you aren't getting inquiries that's the first place to start!

2. Traffic: Pay attention to your traffic! Are people GETTING to your site? How long are they staying? Where did they come from? Are they in your market area? Knowing and understanding your traffic is a vital part to figuring out where you need to work to get more visibility to clients. Sign up for free site analytics (Google, Stat Counter etc.) and keep an eye on how people are coming to your site. See what is working and what isn't.

3. Pricing: To each their own when it comes to how much or what you list, but I can tell you from a past bride's point of view that if you don't list some sort of number there, the client is highly likely to keep on looking rather than taking the time to call. Many clients are looking for photographers online - and often during working hours - and often want to make sure they are spending their time on vendors that are going to be in their budget. You don't have to list the entire offerings on your site but trust me when I tell you that a starting number will help the inquiries rise up!

4. Portfolio: We are all guilty of this but how up-to-date is your portfolio online? I'm not talking about blogs - your gallery on your website. Often the galleries only get revamped when changing websites or at most once a year during your slow time. How often do you look at your gallery and gasp at how much you've grown since you used those images? Get those suckers out of there and keep it fresh! Try to make sure to add and delete things as you grow at least once every couple months.

5. Engaging: Are clients going to get emotionally attached to your photos? The first images a client sees of your work should be a a positive image, something that's going to make future clients want that feeling that's being emoted in the scene. Laughing, smiling, adoration. Save the stoic and serious images for after you capture the clients heart.

Corey Ann is a wedding & lifestyle photographer from North Canton, OH. She is a mix of everything - fashionista (runs Clothes for Pros, clothing suggestions for photographers), travel guru, deal hound and geek rolled into one. She's had a website online since 1997 and a blog since 1999. When not plotting world domination or her next trip, she can be found reading one of the 100+ books she reads a year. Follow her on Twitter.

Tips to Make Flying a Breeze

It's summer which means that some of us are traveling for vacations or destination weddings. Most of the time, the easiest route to go is via plane but sometimes even thinking of all of the ins and outs of flying is enough to make your head spin. Here's some tips to help you navigate the (not so) friendly skies with a bit more ease!

Before You Fly

• Make sure that the bag you are using can carry enough gear for what you are planning to shoot. Sure the over-the-shoulder bag is great, but can it carry all of your gear PLUS your backup equipment (if traveling for a paid gig).

• Think twice before you choose a backpack, walk around your house with your gear on your back before committing to a full trip with it, it gets quite heavy!

• Purchase/use a bag that is well within the carry on size limits (size AND weight) for the airline that you are traveling. If you aren't sure of the limits, check the airline website.

• If you aren't sure if certain items can be carried on, check the TSA and airline websites. Typically tripods and monopods aren't permitted on most flights as well as some batteries.

• When booking your flight, be mindful of the size of the plane. Many commuter jets will not allow ANY bags with wheels on the plane. If you cannot avoid flying a commuter jet (I often have no choice as my local airport is small) try and either book an exit seat or use a bag that will fit beneath the seat.

• If flying out of the country, be sure to know of all of the laws for working in that country and have all visas if applicable. Be prepared and carry documentation of everything. Ever read the horror story of what happened to one Canadian photographer in Mexico? Don't let that be you and know all the laws ahead of time, even if no visas are required.

• Have a list of your equipment with serial numbers and dates purchased to carry with you when flying. If your gear gets stolen or duties are questioned, it will be invaluable to have this information on hand.

• Subscribe to and read Flying with Fish. Bar none, the best flying advice for photographers on the net.

While Flying

• Carry a bag that is inconspicuous. While you may be a proud owner of your Canon, having the logo all over your gear is just making you a target for theft.

• Don't take your eyes off your bag for a minute. Don't trust that the nice person next to you will be honest and watch it while you run to the restroom.

• With all of the crazy fees for checked baggage, people are carrying on more than ever before. Even if your plane can fit your rolling bag in an overhead bin doesn't mean that there will be room by the time you board if you have a later zone or row. When you get to the gate, go to the counter if you aren't in the first group to be called and explain that you are a photographer with valuable gear and ask if you can board early to ensure that your gear is near you. It never hurts to ask and almost ALWAYS the answer is yes.

• Never ever EVER check your bag unless you don't want to have equipment when you get to your destination. Sometimes you'll have to check some of your gear that isn't permitted on carry-ons (tripods etc.) but never check your camera, lenses or memory cards.

• Never ever EVER plane side check your bag either. I don't care that it locks. I don't care that they promise they put it right on the plane and take it right off. Stuff can and will get stolen. Don't believe me? Read Rachel's story. Don't let Rachel be you.

• If forced to plane side check your bag, make sure you have a backup bag that you can place all of your gear into to carry it on. I carry this bag with me just in case on flights - it rolls up to be about the size of a chapstick and can easily carry what I need it to in a pinch.

• Don't tell authorities in other countries that you are taking pictures for a "friend's" wedding or are there for pleasure unless you really are. Have the proper visas or documentation ready when going through country and be prepared to be grilled or denied entry if they don't believe your "friend's wedding" story.

Do you have any tips to add? Any flying tales of woe you'd like to share?

Corey Ann is a wedding & lifestyle photographer from North Canton, OH. She is a mix of everything - fashionista (runs Clothes for Pros, clothing suggestions for photographers), travel guru, deal hound and geek rolled into one. She's had a website online since 1997 and a blog since 1999. When not plotting world domination or her next trip, she can be found reading one of the 100+ books she reads a year. Follow her on Twitter.

Review: Making Things Happen Workshop

I took the Making Things Happen workshop in Las Vegas under a partial scholarship.

Website: http://www.laracasey.com/mth2010/

Presenters: Lara Casey, Jeff Holt

Date: March 7th, 2010

Location: The Signature at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV

Price: $700 (I had a partial scholarship and did not pay this price)

Included: 6 hours with Lara and Jeff, snacks and water, MTH branded moleskin.

Bonuses: Special area at the Lasers and Airhorns party later that evening (more on this in a bit).

What I Expected: Learn how to bring my business to the next level, one-on-one review with Lara and/or Jeff to see what I should be doing to accomplish this.

Expectation Met? No.

Summary: The first thing that happened was they changed the times from 12PM - 6PM to 10AM - 4PM about a month or so before without any emails or notices going out. I was trying to come in on an early flight Sunday that would have had me landing at 10AM, great for a 12PM class... not so great when they changed the time. Luckily I happened to come across the change on the website and booked accordingly.

On the flight to Vegas Saturday afternoon, my husband asked if I had yet to get any information for the class the following day. I used the in-flight wifi (woo!) to check all of my emails and I still had nothing. I eventually checked my paypal and WPPI spam only email (HIGHLY recommend this for WPPI peeps by the way) and there was an email from earlier in the week stating that info would be sent out on Friday for where to report on Sunday but no follow up email. Keep in mind I used my main email for all correspondence and contacts with MTH - so the fact they used my rarely checked email I never use save for paypal was troubling.

We get to our room (The Signature is awesome!) and wander about Vegas for a bit, with me checking my email off and on - still nothing on ANY accounts. Finally at about midnight I get really frustrated and check to see if anyone’s heard anything on Twitter. They sent the room information via Twitter instead of emailing it.

The next day I got up bright and early (for me, hey I’m a photographer and a night owl, 10AM is my normal wake up time!) and headed up to the room for the workshop. When I got there (right on time) it was a bit chaotic. Lara wasn’t anywhere to be seen and random people were running all over. There were some people sitting in the living room area of the suite looking kind of intimidated so I assumed that’s where I was to go. If I had to guess I would say it took about a half hour for everyone to get their act together, for the random people milling about to leave and for things to start. It may have been longer. There were 4 people (I think?) that didn’t show up and some time was spent trying to find them/figure out what was going on.

At the beginning we had to go around the room and tell who we were, what we did and how we got to this point. Straightaway, there was crying. LOTS of crying. Lara mentioned that there is a lot of crying at MTH. I told my story. That part of the workshop ended with Lara’s story on how she got to where she is, inspiring others and also running Southern Weddings.

Everyone was handed a notebook with “Making Things Happen” stamped on the outside cover. Lara then began having us write random things like our biggest fears, highest dreams, ideal day, etc. and then we’d go around the room and share what we thought. It was basically an inspirational type thing workshop for this portion of the day. Lots of writing, visualizations and "downloading" onto paper what is going on in your head. This is what made up the majority of the workshop time.

I quickly found out that a lot of the people in my class were very religious when we would share things that we had written and religion became a major focus of the workshop. I wondered how an Athiest, Jewish or Muslim person would feel about this part.

While most of the day was spent on the inspirational aspect of things, there was a small portion of the day that was spent on business advice. General tips on being aware of social media and how to use it effectively, some basic time management tips and how to enhance your brand. I wished that this would have been covered in more detail.

One part of this that I did take a bit away from was learning how to break down your to-do list into manageable bits. While there are some things with my job that I’m great at, there are always the things that take more time and I put off because they are such a big task. I realized with this workshop that breaking it down into chunks is better than not doing it at all.

At the end of the day we were rushed out of the room as they all had to get ready for their party that evening, which was a topic that sent many exercises off on a tangent through the entire workshop. I was the only one there who had not purchased tickets for Airhorns & Lasers. They kept referring to it all day but wouldn’t give any specifics - including the location. You know how you feel when people have inside jokes and you’re with the 3 people that get it and you are the only one that doesn’t? It felt like that, especially since I was the only one without tickets for the evening. At the end though, Lara offered to give me a ticket for myself and my husband and got my email and said that she’d email me all of the information I needed to go.

She never did.

To lay it out honestly, I feel I have to include this mortifying tidbit because it influenced my thoughts about the entire experience - and Lara. While I’m sure that she didn’t do it on purpose it still hurt.

When I got back and had discussions with other MTH attendees, they all raved about how wonderful Lara was to them. They mentioned how they had a one-on-one session with both Lara and Jeff about their images/work etc, heard direct advice how to improve, how she keeps in contact and makes check-up calls to them to make sure they’re keeping on track. Unfortunately, none of this happened for me. I haven't received any follow up emails or follow up calls. The only thing I’ve received or heard from MTH since the workshop was a shipment with a Paloma’s Nest square with Making Things Happen on it and a Southern Weddings magazine from Lara.

Recommend? I believe they are doing another tour, although I am not certain. I would not recommend it, based on the experience that I had.

Note: I want to reiterate that this is my views on MY experience and I realize some other attendees had positive experiences with Making Things Happen.

Corey Ann is a wedding & lifestyle photographer from North Canton, OH. She is a mix of everything - fashionista (runs Clothes for Pros, clothing suggestions for photographers), travel guru, deal hound and geek rolled into one. She's had a website online since 1997 and a blog since 1999. When not plotting world domination or her next trip, she can be found reading one of the 100+ books she reads a year. Follow her on Twitter.