What’s Your Emotional IQ?

By Jeff Kent
May 2020 issue Business

In many people’s view, emotions and business should be completely divorced, as if a cold, analytical viewpoint is necessarily more productive. But that ignores the fundamental way human beings interact. Emotions are part of life and part of doing business, and they provide valuable clues for how to better serve clients.Corina Walsh of Shift People Development is an author, speaker, coach, and certified emotional intelligence assessor. She’s spent more than 500 hours working alongside... Continue Reading >

5 Ways to Stay Productive and Inspired During Lockdown

By Jeff Kent
4.14.2020 Business

Photographer Shane Anderson shares tips for maintaining focus and creativity© Shane Anderson Shane Anderson is a fashion and editorial photographer in New York.We’re all looking for ways to be productive during the coronavirus lockdown. Photographers in particular face a challenge working from home with little to no face-to-face contact with clients. How do you stay inspired? How do you stay on task?New York-based fashion and editorial photographer Shane Anderson has been taking on... Continue Reading >

Remote Portraits for the Pandemic Age

By Stephanie Boozer
4.7.2020 Business

Social distancing hasn’t stopped Stephanie Saujon© Stephanie Saujon Stephanie Saujon has found an innovative way to connect with clients and earn a bit of income during the pandemic lockdown.How, in this challenging time of sheltering in place, can you continue photographing portraits? You get creative. That’s what Denver-based Stephanie Saujon did when she found herself unable to travel and sequestered indoors, like most of her La Photographie Boudoir clients.Originally from... Continue Reading >

10 Things Photographers Can Do Right Now

By Faye Dawdy, Cr.Photog.
4.2.2020 Business

There's no reason to be boredThe coronavirus has sent photographers scrambling. The immediate impact is unavoidable, but there are ways we can embrace what's happening and prepare for the better days ahead by doing everything we can to ensure that our businesses survive this pandemic.Here are 10 things wedding photographers can do right now:© Faye Dowdy1. List everything you have to do in order of importance. Include all the things you'd doing normally be doing, like managing your... Continue Reading >

(De)stressing Out: Elevate and Sustain Your Work Performance

By Jeff Kent
April 2020 issue Business

What do Navy SEALs, NFL players, and professional photographers have in common? More than you might think. Internationally renowned performance coach Fergus Connolly, Ph.D., has worked with top performers such as pro athletes and elite military teams and has found multiple parallels between their stress triggers and the ones experienced by entrepreneurs—particularly creative pros like photographers.Fortunately, there are techniques for recognizing and working through these triggers while... Continue Reading >

3 Things Successful Entrepreneurs Never Skip

April 2020 issue Business

Running a small business is filled with essential to-dos, some of which are simply mechanical, administrative functions we'd rather just let slide now and then. But there are three things successful entrepreneurs never skip, according to author and business expert Dave Ramsey. Contracts: A contract won’t protect you from a lawsuit. It won’t save you the grief of having the occasional problem client. A contract is a communication between you and your client that documents a common... Continue Reading >

How to be habitually motivated

By Jane Gaboury
March 2020 issue Business

If only the intensity of our desire and motivations could create the reality we yearn for. Sadly, we can’t go the gym, work out for 8 hours, and get into shape. We can’t study diligently for a week to become accomplished photographers.Author Simon Sinek has a wonderful 3-minute video that explains why we can’t reach most goals through intensity alone. What it takes to attain the things that are really important to us, he notes, is consistency. Bit by bit and over and over we just have... Continue Reading >

Stay motivated for the long run

By Jeff Kent
March 2020 issue Business

“I like to think of goals as dreams you have with deadlines attached.”It’s a pleasant image from Jonathan Robinson, a psychotherapist, author, and professional speaker who specializes in teaching people how to improve their focus, memory, and communication skills. Robinson, who appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” numerous times and has been published in USA Today, Newsweek, and the The Los Angeles Times, believes that to be successful in business, you need to find what’s draining... Continue Reading >