SkipCohenUniversity
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us

the SCU Blog

Fast Food Friday - For Professional Photographers

7/26/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
© olly
Picture

​This is indeed "fast food" today, but that doesn't make it any less relevant.

I started the series to give you quick ideas on how to fine-tune your business. Some topics have been more complicated than others, but each one has been relevant to some aspect of building your reputation, brand awareness and efficiency.

Today's "blue-plate" special ties to your business, your clients, and for some of you your personal life and other relationships. So many of you have lost the art of communicating. I'm not talking about the talking side of the equation as much as learning to listen. And when I use the word "listen," I'm also talking about paying attention to what you read as well, especially in the volley of comments back and forth in Facebook forums.

Here's the point today - you've got two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk. 

Five Tips to Help You Be a Better Communicator

PictureClick to link to Amazon for more info and add it to your own library.
I added this book to my library recently, and while it was published in 2012, there's nothing dated in author Jim Smith's approach. 

One section that caught my eye was about developing your listening skills, and I want to share a few of my favorites, which so many of you ignore:
​
  • During conversations, listen for the content, meaning, and feeling in what the other person is saying. Stop interrupting!
  • Listen to understand, help, see, and support, not to comment, disagree, and find fault.
  • Allow moments of silence when the person finishes a thought to allow for further comment from the other person. Don't jump in!
  • Listen for what the other person is not saying.
  • Ask for clarification only when necessary.

They're five simple tips that all fall under the umbrella of learning to shut up. And from my own style and personality, at times I'm guilty of all of them. However, I'm work in progress and honestly trying to raise the bar on my listening skills.

What I find I do too often, along with so many of you, is immediately jump in and start talking. And, while it's not rude, the process absolutely is. Instead of listening to whoever was talking to me, I've tuned them out to formulate my answer the minute they're done.

So, the next time you're having a conversation with somebody, think of those five points above. You might find what I have, in our rush to respond; we've lost a big part of the true art of communicating.

1 Comment
Norma Grieve link
7/28/2019 03:06:01 pm

Wow! Guilty!
Worst fault is assuming a clear grasp of what the other person is meaning.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

      Sign Up for Our Newsletter!

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    ClickCon 2020 Circle the Dates!!

    It's rare that a first year conference has the power that ClickCon brought to the industry this past August.
    The dates have been announced for 2020 at the Palmer House in Chicago. August 11-14!
    ​What a kick!
    Picture

    Our Partners

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    "Why?"

    Check out "Why?" one of the most popular features on the SCU Blog. It's a very simple concept - one image, one artist and one short sound bite. Each artist shares what makes the image one of their most favorite. We're over 100 artists featured since the project started. Click on the link above and you can scroll through all of the episodes to date.

    Categories

    All
    Beyond Technique
    Business
    Customer Service
    EDU10
    Excire
    Faculty
    Fast Food Friday
    Guest Post
    Humor And Sarcasm
    In The News
    Lighting
    Luminar
    Lumix
    Marketing
    Mind Your Own Business
    Miscellaneous
    Motivational
    One Step At A Time
    Photodex
    PhotoShelter
    PhotoTexting
    Platypod
    Podcasts
    Profoto
    Sales
    Search
    Skylum
    Social Media
    Sunday Morning Reflections
    Tamron
    Tamron Recipes
    Technique
    Throwback Thursday
    Wedding Photography
    Westcott
    Why?

Categories​

Business
Marketing
Technique
Sales
Fast Food Fridays
​

Podcasts

Tamron Recipes 
Beyond Technique
Why?
Mind Your Own Business
Pro Photographer Journey

 Partners

Tamron
PhotoTexting

​Lumix

Marathon Press
​Platypod
©  2019 Skip Cohen University
  • Home
  • SCU Blog
  • Our Podcasts
  • About Us