Get Whatever You Want Without Arguing: The Magic Words

It’s when a client does something that feels scuzzy. Something that isn’t technically against your contract, but you’re still pushpins-in-your-pants uncomfortable with it. Or when you go buy something at a store, then get home and realize that the coupon (which was the whole reason you bought the item) is still folded neatly at the…

Read More

Your Daily Guide To A Productive Winter

I couldn’t even tell you what grade I was in.  Just that I was happily skipping along through the list of classroom tasks when I grabbed our daily coloring sheet and saw a map of the United States. “Oh, cool!”  I thought.  “I know exactly what I’ll do with this!”  And I set about coloring…

Read More

What You Do When All Your Blog Posts Sound The Same

At a conference a few months back, I heard a photographer say “Blogs are dead.”  I didn’t get a chance to discuss this with them, but I’d amend that statement: Blogging is not for everyone, everywhere, all the time, always.  Blogging – just like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and a business website –…

Read More

Inspiration is Fool’s Gold, UNLESS –

I used to be an inspirational quote squirrel – writing quotes down on scraps of paper and backs of envelopes, ripping out magazine pages, filling journals or virtual sticky notes, or sending myself emails full of inspiring words.  I’d collect whole caches of inspiration “for later use,” sometimes forgetting entirely where I put them, sometimes…

Read More

Non-Photography Websites That Help Photographers

A photographer recently sent me a note after reading my free e-book, How Clients Make Decisions About Money.  He said: “I just wrapped up a portrait sales session, and I used ‘Shortcut #2’ from this free e-book to nab a $3000 sale!” Thing is, “Shortcut #2” wasn’t taught to me by another photographer. The principle…

Read More