Business Breakthroughs for Photographers: Part VIII

by Skip Cohen

I started this series with one goal: to give you more ideas to help build a stronger business and break through all the noise to reach your target audience better. Each week, I've presented another idea to help you become a better business owner. Today's post is a little different because it starts with your own family. It plays on your abilities as an artist more than developing your business/operational skills.

Let's start with a big mistake I made in the past. (I'd rather you learn from my mistakes and then take the time to make your own new ones!) 

Here's the backstory: My Dad passed away ten years ago, and my Mom two years before that. My grandparents died many years earlier. At this point in my life, there's nobody left who knows any of our family history. I have many stories over the years, but I don't have a video collection of my folks talking about their lives, both as a couple and individually. I wish I had those stories from my grandparents, too.

Ancestry.com can trace my roots, but that's not what I want. I want video coverage of me sitting with my folks and talking about our family and their lives. I want all the stories!

We're coming into Spring seasonality with Easter, Passover, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and graduations. That means most of you are going to be with older family members. Even without any formal video training, everyone has the gear and the skills to start documenting their family history. You've got the ability to create family videos with whatever level of sophistication you want. 

​It's also a prime component of a Legacy Program you could eventually offer your clients if you don't already. This has so much potential to fine-tune your skills at capturing memories, starting with your own family. Don't wait until everybody is gone to say, "I should have taken the time!" 

A year or two before my Dad passed away, Bambi Cantrell spent some time doing a short video of Dad taking a look back. It's a great service/product idea to pitch your clients as something new for this season. Take advantage of all the family time coming up. 
 
This is especially important If you've got grandparents or great-grandparents alive. Make it a point to get time with them and capture those stories. Ask them questions about their childhood and growing up. Have fun with questions about the kind of kids they were, things they did in school, specific friends, pets, and places they visited. The list of information it would be fun to have and share is virtually unlimited. And don't forget those old photographs in that shoebox in the closet.

​Don't make the same mistake I did - Take the time to become your family's historian. You never want to be looking back and wishing you'd captured/created a video about your roots!