I've been doing business travel for at least forty years and while I don't travel as much as I used to, being nickel-dimed by United Airlines this week set a new standard. After all the surcharges and the work it took to actually speak with an American representative, I'm left with the thought that their new slogan should be "We're not happy until you're unhappy!" The good news is I was able to use up most of a credit I had with them, so I don't need to ever fly United again! However, I've got a great idea that together we could implement! They charge for just about everything. Maybe it's time we did the same!
The biggest insult of all is pitching me to get a United Airlines credit card, which will waive the baggage fee and get me priority boarding. The error is assuming I want to put up with all the rest of their nonsense and ever fly them again. I don't need another credit card or to hear about the benefits at twice on every flight. Hmmm, there just might be another surcharge here. And yes, I did write to them on March 1 through their top notch customer service communication system, but to date, my complaints obviously aren't valid enough for a quick response! Years ago I heard a story about business author, Tom Peters, speaking to a group of airline executives. He showed up a few minutes late and everybody was irritated. He stepped up to the microphone and supposedly said, "By all of your standards this is an on time arrival!" All of us have helped make the airlines the power houses they are - maybe it's time we took back a little control.
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Outsourcing comes up as a constant discussion point in Congress in terms of jobs for Americans. However, fortunately for you, outsourcing in photography isn't a national economic issue. In fact, it might well be one of your best secret weapons to growing your business. Here's the point - you can't do it all and the most valuable investment of your personal time is in marketing! For example, nobody will ever convince me that photographers who spend hours working on their images are really doing the right thing to grow their business! The most valuable component in your business is YOU! You're the only one who can market your passion for the craft. That means you need to be out in the community and outsource major drains of your time that keep you from being more in the public eye. Learn to delegate those aspects of the business that just aren't your expertise. “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” Andrew Carnegie Illustration Credit: © z_amir - Fotolia.com
I’m headed back today after some incredible days at WPPI and I’m hoping I can help many of you organize your thoughts through the same process I’ve learned to follow. Following any great business trip, especially a convention, I’ve developed my own system and I’m hoping it’ll help some of you.
My system is based on one irrefutable fact: Time is our most valuable commodity and we never have enough of it. So, I don’t want to miss a single thing I’ve accomplished since leaving home last Saturday. For many of you, you've not only grown your network, being at the convention, but you've got dozens of new ideas from the various workshops you attended. Nothing could be more true than the line, "You snooze you lose!" 1. Right off the bat, I always try and get an exit row seat and while I love the legroom, the issue is having enough space to work and use my laptop. For example, on our way out I was able to write my April article for Shutter Magazine. Then, while at the WPPI show, I was able to get some quick help in shooting the video that always goes with each article. 2. I review my notes, before I forget what I wrote down during various meetings. I’m a lousy note taker, often just writing down a word or two to remind me of something discussed in a meeting during the convention. My problem has often been waiting too long to review my notes and then not remembering what I was supposed to follow-up with. I can’t decide if the problem is overload, my aging brain or losing too many brain cells at concerts when I was younger! 3. Next up, I pull all the business cards collected during the week. There were several times when I met somebody who I knew would have an interest in something I’ve got scheduled later this year and I want to follow-up immediately. 4. I prioritize the emails I want to get done in order of urgency and make a short hand-written list. It pretty much looks like a “honey-do” list, but it’s the only way I seem to be able to keep track of everything that was discussed during the trip. Checking them off, one at a time, works with helping me maintain the discipline to get everything done. 5. I simply start doing everything on the list. When each one is done, the contact information for this person get’s loaded into my address book and I use my white board in my office to manually write out when I want to do follow-ups. For many of you, there’s one more step in getting the very most out of this week and it relates to things you learned in the various workshops you attended. As you go over your notes look for the “low-hanging fruit”, meaning ideas you learned about building your skill set and business that are the easiest to implement. These are the ones you want to jump on the minute you’re back. Most important of all, don’t procrastinate. Start taking action as soon as you can. It helps increase the speed of your ROI for the trip to the convention in the first place. I know I make it sound easy, but after so many conventions and workshops in my career you have to remember one thing summarized in the expression,“It’s not my first rodeo!” Illustration Credit: © adrian_ilie825 - Fotolia.com It's WPPI week and what a trip it's been so far. I've written about this so many times in the past. The number one reason to be at any good convention is networking, but I want to define it further - it's not just about meeting new people, but physically connecting with people you talk to all the time, but have never actually met.
We're all so focused on social media - we post, we tweet, we count our "likes" and encourage more "followers", but what about shaking somebody's hand who's been helping you in your cyber world? You might know more about them than your next door neighbor, but you've never actually made eye contact and spoken. That ability to make personal contact is the mortar that holds the bricks of your network together. It adds so much to the dimension of support. Some times it just takes standing in a hallway and catching up to people as they walk by. Another reason to hit every show is just to see what's new...in the case of the picture above, I was drawn to the Tenba booth at first by all the commotion with a Sumo wrestler, but it was all for an introduction to Tenba's new line of Messenger DNA bags. This is about durability and diversity, because it's rare that anybody carries just a camera anymore. We're traveling with a camera body or two, lenses, a laptop, often even a small projector. Then comes a phone, the chargers for everything and who knows what else you're taking with you. Added to the promotional mix for Tenba was getting your picture taken above and then being able to immediately hit the iPad, email it to yourself and have it to use in a "I-can't-believe-he-posted-that" image. If you missed WPPI this year, don't worry about it - but put it on your calendar for next year, along with regional shows you have coming up in your area and PPE in New York if you can make it. Building your business isn't just about your skill set, it's about getting to know the people who are helping you build it. And, while your at it, check out these bags! I found the perfect quote for a Sunday morning from business author, Jim Collins: "Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline." So here's what prompted that thought this morning. The WPPI convention pretty much starts today and thousands of you are going to be in and out of platform programs and workshops with some of the finest photographers in our industry. You're going to see image after image that simply makes you say, "Wow!" You'll see magazine cover shots, prints in the various booths and images in dozens of presentations.
Without question some of you will mumble to yourself or say out loud, "That photographer is so lucky!" Then you're going to kick back and wonder when your ship is finally going to come in. Well, here's the wake up call for today: Luck had little or nothing to do with a single image or situation you might find yourself coveting. Maybe here and there somebody hit it lucky, but odds are it was at the slot machines, NOT in their careers. This is about hard work, discipline, passion and a goal to simply be the best. So, my message this morning is to appreciate every image you see or event you hear about with a "Wow, they've worked hard!" To Jim Collins' point in his quote, nothing trumps good conscious decisions and discipline! Oh yeah, and when you do make mistakes, get over it. It's not the end of the world. There's no such thing as failure as long as you move on and learn from the experience! See you in Vegas! Every year about this time I write pretty much the same post - it's about the reasons you need to attend as many conventions as possible.
We're headed to Las Vegas and WPPI today. I haven't missed a show since my first one in 1988 and every year the show gets a little better and new friends come into my life. I have back to back meetings almost the entire time, but it's not about business so much, as it is networking, that gets me excited. In '88 when I hit that first WPPI convention, the definition of networking was collecting business cards. In fact, it wasn't much different than all the baseball cards so many of us collected as kids. There were even a few cards we'd swap when somebody got fired from a position. At one point Tony Corbell had the biggest collection, all in alphabetical order and each page showing every position people had held - new job, new card and a new slot in the cardholder book Tony had. Networking is now a part of everybody's life or at least their vocabulary and it's the number one reason to attend every convention you can. And for those diehards tech-weenies and educational nuts - relax, I'm not saying seeing new products or attending workshops to raise the bar on your skill set aren't important. A good network is going to support you all year long. It's going to help you through tough times and understand how to maximize the benefits in good times. The key is who's in your network. Here's a real easy way to think through building a solid organic network...
Now, here's the coolest thing about today's ability to have a great network. This is where social networking comes in. Everybody in your network needs to be linked to you in Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Your social network is your main stream to keep in contact all year long so, when you're headed to a show like WPPI, you're in touch with everybody you want to see, long before you get there. There's little that beats the excitement of a great convention! See you in Vegas! |
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