1. Tell us about you

2. What is your program going to be about?

Photography, much like a musical instrument or a sport, is a craft that must be effectively practiced. Simply putting in the years and pushing the shutter button thousands of times is not an effective way to master your craft. This program is designed to teach you proven groundbreaking practicing techniques that will change the way you prepare for a job, and transform you into a fine-tuned photographer.

3. Tell us about the workshop you are doing the following day.

During this workshop, I will show you how to break down any location into characteristics that will enable you to quickly locate the best spot to shoot. From open fields and mansions to busy streets and tight spots. Your new understanding of how to precisely read any location and its quality of light will be your best ally when the pressure is on. Add some key fine-tuning posing tips and you will be producing the best work of your life!
4. How did you get started in photography?

While I was a high school teacher, I received a grant to start a student run business. My students thought digital photography would be a fun business to run so that’s what we did. I fell in love with photography so much and so fast, that at the end of that year, I quit my job as a teacher to become a full-time wedding photographer. Risky, but so worth it!

5. What is the most important thing you do in your business?

The most important thing I do for my business is maintain relationships with coordinators and hotel catering managers.

6. How many different countries have you traveled to, to photography weddings? What were your favorites?

I’ve  traveled all over Europe.  Spain and Ireland are my favorites.

7. Are there a lot of hoops to jump thru to haul your equipment to another country?

Not really, the only piece of equipment that gives me trouble are my video light acid batteries.
8. What other passions do you have besides photography?

I love flying remote control helicopters. Big ones, so big, they could carry a pretty good payload inside.

9. How do you keep balance between work and life?

My wife makes me stop working at 6:00 pm and I can resume only when she goes to sleep at 10:30 pm.

10. Do you have a favorite quote or saying?

“Success comes before work only in the dictionary”.

Thank you Roberto!  We can’t wait for you to visit us!  If you are not a member and would like to come see Roberto’s program,

please join us for only $49.

10. Any words of wisdom you can share with us?

The worst thing you can do is nothing because you think it’s too small. I’ve been very tempted to thing “What difference does it make? Really, what we are doing is just a drop in the bucket.” and then I start to think “What if I was one of the nearly 200,000 we’ve taken water to? What if it was my kids? What if someone could help but didn’t because they didn’t think they could make a difference?” So my only wise words are “If not now. When?” Do something, anything. $5 is life for someone in need and we can save their life! Go to www.thirstrelief.org and make a recurring donation of $15 or more and print your receipt out, bring it to my talk and I’ll have a special gift for you, a 3 hour instructional dvd that rocks! It was shot on location in Tanzania with me and Mike Colon as the main instructors. It’s amazing and it’s yours free if you sign up and bring your receipt (or show me on your phone)

You can also follow our journey at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jim-Davis-Hicks/155222301215813

Register for this event here…only $49

We have a speaker change for our August 29th date.  The Simply Bloom team will not be able to meet with us but we have a wonderful program lined up in their place.  Jim Davis-Hicks will be coming to share with us his passions.  I have not met this man, but have heard the most amazing things about him. And if you were at our meeting last night, you know that Zach and Jody Gray are big fans of his.  He is founder of  Thirst Relief, is a photographer, and the creator of an editing software called ActionRunner.

We have an interview coming but below you will find what he will be talking about and a little bit about Jim.

Thirst for More: Passion.Purpose.Profit.Productivity

Everyone wants to make a difference in the world, few do. Our impact in this world is nothing more than the sum of our daily choices, plus the grace of God added up over time. Thirst for More: Passion.Purpose.Profit.Productivity inspires, challenges and equips photogs with the tools they need to interweave their desire to give back with their passion and businesses in a practical, profitable and highly productive way.

JIM DAVIS-HICKS BIO

Jim Davis-Hicks is the founder of thirst relief international, the creator of actionrunner editing software, a wedding and portrait photographer and speaker/teacher. Jim is married to his lovely bride Lara and has 4 amazing children Ashton, Brayden, Karsyn and one baking in the oven. He is passionate about thirsting for more purpose, freedom, joy and living the life you want with no regrets! Preferring adventure over safety, impact over security and obedience over regret you just never know where you might find him on a day to day. Some days it might be in the Amazon Rainforest or African Plains the next he could be RVing across America with his family meeting with and encouraging others to live their dreams. Jesus is his model and inspiration for living and beyond his titles he really prefers to simply say “I am who I am and that’s enough for me.”

Zach and Jody specialize in weddings, bringing a blend of fashion & photojournalism into their work giving their imagery a unique edge. Zach, an expert in advanced off camera lighting, brings his experience and knowledge on location fashioning an artistic flair, while Jody’s expertise with her natural eye lie in photojournalism. They are nationally recognized for producing their distinct look entirely in-camera with minor post processing.

Zach and Jody have built a successful photography business using innovative marketing techniques built around word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse marketing.

Zach and Jody Gray are based out of Nashville, TN and have been married for five years. They have a passion for marriage, for helping others in business and they absolutely love what they do!

Now let’s get on to the Interview

1. Tell us a little bit about yourselves. Where you are from, what you specialize in…how you two met..etc.
Jody is from MI and Zach is from Northern, MN (he grew up in a town of 1,100 people and spent 22 years there). We met while Zach was interning at a church in Rockford, IL and dated for 2 years long distance while Zach was touring out of Nashville as a professional musician. We ended up both living in Nashville when we got married and have been here ever since and love it!

We specialize in weddings, bringing a blend of fashion & photojournalism into
our work giving our imagery a unique edge. Zach is an expert in advanced off-camera
lighting, and brings his experience and knowledge on location fashioning an artistic flair, while
Jody’s expertise with her natural eye lie in photojournalism. We have had the privilege of being nationally recognized
for producing our distinct look entirely in-camera with minor post processing.
We have built a successful photography business using innovative marketing
techniques built around word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse marketing and do not do any type of direct, paid advertising.

2. What is your program going to be about?
Our talk is going to center around the successes and tools that we have implemented in our own business to make it what it is today. From shooting our first wedding in June 2007 for $500, to making a six-figure income just one year later and growing it every year since. We started our business on a dream and built it using innovative marketing techniques to expand and grow our brand. We love enabling photographers to realize their dreams and have spent the last few years doing that in ever way possible. We want to aid those photographers who feel stuck where they are are need growth, or those that just need some inspiration. Your business can really do what you tell it to do if you have the knowledge and tools necessary to grow it. We are going to give practical tools that will help you book and close more weddings (or whatever type of imagery you shoot).

3. What do you love most about weddings? What do you like least about weddings?

Hmm… Great question! What we love most are the couple’s stories that are unique to them. We love telling those stories! What we love the least? Being on our feet all day!

4. Tell us about your tour with David Jay? What have you learned from that experience?
That tour was awesome and a great experience for all of us involved. We love how David is so devoted to his current clients and has not centered his business on new clients. He knows that taking care of your current clients is the smartest way to grow your business. We worked really hard on that tour to not only aid the launch of PASS, but to add value to that tour by talking about the things that have made our business work better. We also learned how to live in a tiny space (the tour bus) and make it really fun even when you had hardly any personal space for 6 weeks! It was great!

5. What is your gear for weddings?
We have the typical gear bag, Canon 5d2 and plenty of great L glass. We also bring one high-powered strobe on location to shoot our dramatic portraits stuff. It is the Elinchrom Quadra system with a 24×32 Westcott softbox attached. It weighs almost nothing and can stop the sun it it’s tracks! It is awesome!

6. What is something in your business that you want to work on for this year?
We are working hard to continue to streamline our management of the business. One of the toughest areas for all of us photographers is our workflow, so Jody and I are working hard on that system and trying to figure out a way to share that system with other photographers. In our IN-CAMERA workshops, we teach photographers how to get their entire wedding image workflow (downloading, culling, editing, exporting and uploading) to less than 5 hours in order to not let that part of their business take over their lives. We want to share our entire workflow and management system with them to help them manage their entire business and make it as simple and as easy as possible!

7. What do you guys do to get away from work?
Awesome question! Jody and I have a new system for managing our business so that it does not take over our personal life. We now have rules that at 5pm, the office door is shut and we put our iPhones away in our room so that we can focus on each other and our marriage, not Twitter and Facebook alerts. We also don’t talk about business outside of that time and don’t just run to the TV or movies to “get away.” Things like movies and TV or OK in moderation, but doing that every night is not healthy and had a negative impact on our relationship. We love doing things together like cooking (with fresh ingredients and cool new recipes), we love taking bike rides together and we love investing in relationships with other people. We also love the beach, so anytime we can get to one is a plus!

8. List your top 5 songs on your playlist right now…5 for Zach, 5 for Jody
Zach – Tom Petty’s new record MOJO. Jody – anything John Mayor ish!

9. What or who inspires you?
We are both inspired by people that are passionate and caring for those less fortunate than us. Jody is very tenderhearted and that inspires me (Zach) to give and care for those around us. We have a child that we sponsor through Compassion International (an amazing organization) and are blown away at what $40 a month can do to give someone a quality life.

I (Zach) am also inspired by my good friend Jim-Davis Hicks (a photographer) who runs an organization called Thirst Relief. They help people who don’t have access to clean water get water purifiers so that they don’t get sick and die from unclean water (which about 1 billion people world-wide need clean water and don’t have it). We have recently partnered with them in the PLUS ONE Campaign for our workshops. We now have one extra seat open for every workshop we do, and that money for that seat goes directly to Thirst Relief! every $5 raised gives water to one person for 25 years.

10. Describe your personalities
We are both energetic and outgoing. Jody is caring and gracious and Zach is a little on the wilder side (hence the crazy hair!).

If you are not a member of MTPPA but would still love to come see Zach and Jody speak, please register below. It’s only $49! We meet at 7pm at Perspective 2 in Old Town Lansing.

ALSO!!!!

Thursday, August 11th Zach and Jody are offering their InCamera Workshop where you will go in depth learning about off camera flash and how they work their magic

Check out their workshop website here

Joy, owner of Shoot the Moon Photography in the Milwaukee, WI area, has grown in 6 short years from a one-woman show in her basement to now running 2, thriving high end, boutique style studios with a team of 12 employees. She is a self-proclaimed numbers girl with a firm grasp on the business aspect of running a photography studio at all levels. Shoot the Moon has maintained a steady profitability despite the decline in the economy and continues to flourish. It is incredible to hear the organization system that Joy has implemented to ensure that thousands of clients think they are her one and only! Find out how Joy does it, including how she amped up her web presence to bring in clients, and how she prices herself to make sure that she makes money on every sale no matter who shoots it.

web: www.stmphoto.com
blog: http://www.blog.stmphoto.com

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
I started my business out of my basement in 2001 and within a year took the leap to a retail location closer to my client base. In 2009, we opened our second boutique style studio located on the opposite end of the city. We have 4 photographers and a staff of 12. Although we shoot a little bit of everything, our main business comes from family and children and a fair amount of seniors as well. If i could shoot only one thing, it would be tweens! I love that they are a little gawky, funny and have definite personalities. I also think they are not photographed often enough!

2. What is your program going to cover?
The world of photography is becoming more and more competitive and in order to set yourself apart and create a base of loyal clients, it is important to treat your clients like a community. I’m going to talk about little (and big) things you can do to tweak your marketing plan to create a community of lifelong clients that value and appreciate your work.

3. Out of everything that you photograph, what is your favorite type of session?
My favorite type of session is tweens with fun clothes and a willingness to do whatever I want to do! I love watching them look and feel beautiful and their eyes light up when I show them a sneak peek in my camera and they truly see how beautiful they are. You can give any tween a self confidence booster this way!

4. What is your favorite thing about teaching photographers?
Although I’m an artist, I’m a business person first. I know that sometimes business classes are not perceived to be as exciting as shooting classes, and I get so excited when I’m presenting an idea to someone and you see the light bulb go off in their head because they “get” how they can implement this to make more money! I love when people come up to me after I explain how I do pricing or marketing and say they struggled for years and suddenly understand.

5. When you are not working, what do you like to do?
When I’m not working, my activities largely depend on the season! Being from Wisconsin, our outdoor season is short. I enjoy boating with my family and date nights in the convertible “summer car”. In the winter, i love watching movies, reading and my goal for 2011 is to be a better cook.

6. Tell us something that most people don’t know about you?
Most people who know me, know that I have a little obsession with shoes. But what people may not know is that although I have over 200 pairs.. i generally wear the same 3-4 pairs every day until they are so worn that I toss them.

7. What are the top 5 songs on your playlist?
Top 5 songs on my playlist: I’ve been in an 80′s new wave flashback period so I have “The Promise” by When in Rome and “Space Age Love Song” by Flock of Seagulls… but I’m also a huge fan of Snow Patrol, The Verve, and Arcade Fire.

8. What is the biggest challenge in running two studios?
The biggest challenge in operating two studios is work flow. We have a pretty good system down place, but we have to constantly maintain files between the studios and who is managing what tasks. We have the same phone system ring at both locations so we have to be sure to schedule the right time and location too.

9. What inspires you?
I’m inspired the most by Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com I’m addicted. I have hundreds of photos “pinned” on boards and go there daily for ideas

Register for Jen’s Program above!

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your family and your business

I’m a 36 year old, native Central Oregon and LOVE living here. Between being a single mom, a photographer and graphic designer, (between running my photography & design studio and designing for BIG Folio) my plate feels really full. In a good way. I think my friends would describe me as someone who is fiercely loyal, creative, sensitive, random and sarcastic and a melting pot of a million different things.

I have two amazing boys, Cooper (8) and Cohen (6) who keep me on my toes daily and remind me all the time to slow down and look at life through their eyes (unfiltered and fresh). My days with them are filled with holey jeans, dirt, negotiations for candy/robots/non-domesticated pets and lots of noise. They are complete opposites in nearly every way, so I’m constantly seeing things in a new way. I’m immensely blessed. On the other side, my day usually ends with Advil and a glass of Pinot Gris.

2. What are you going to cover in your program?

Branding/Design/Presentation/Pricing and separating yourself from the pack. I’m hugely passionate about creating a pocket that’s all your own, in your business. Defining WHO you are and what YOU bring to the table that no one else does by offering your clients a unique EXPERIENCE, not just a product. We are all faced with the over-saturation of up and coming photographers in our market in this economy; finding ways to propel your business without lowering your pricing is essential to keeping the equity in your brand in tact.

3. What inspires you and keeps you creating?

Oh my gosh, this is endless. I am forever inspired by things NOT in our industry. Other artists doing things in really creative ways inspire me. I find creative caffeine in everything I look at… usually design magazines, blogs, packaging, typography, vintage/retro finds, traveling, photographers really stepping out of the box to try new things, things in nature, unique branding concepts. I spend a LOT of time on Etsy, Graphic Exchange, Pinterest and the collection of design blogs I have archived.

4. Top 5 songs on your playlist.

This is always changing, but right now:

1.) Someone Like You, Adele
2.) Sweet Disposition, The Temper Trap
3.) Kings and Queens, 30 Seconds to Mars
4.) If You Find Her, Future of Forestry
5.) Paper Weight, Joshua Radin & Schuyler Fisk

5. Biggest struggle with your business and biggest reward of running a business

I think my biggest struggle is saying “no”. I pile a lot on my little itty-bitty plate. I ALWAYS think I can handle it. This often results in a really packed week and the spinning feeling I try to avoid. Sometimes I forget I’m a one man show.

The biggest reward? Not being tied. Knowing I can be at any school event, mid-day lunch, baseball or soccer game and have the freedom to drop everything for a friend, if I need to. Knowing, that quite literally, I can make as much or as little as I set my mind to. The friendships and relationships that have come into my world because of those I’ve met in this industry. Some of my best friends, from all over this globe, I’ve met through photography, they’d stand in front of a train for me if I needed them to and are some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. So blessed to call them friends. Working in my pajamas, or from my favorite coffee house is also a decent perk. Still trying to nail (all at once) pajamas+global friends+coffee house= best day ever.

6. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I have so many places on my list… but for so long, I’ve really been wanting to go to Greece. Thailand is also on my bucket list.

7.  3 words that describe you

1.) sentimental
2.) determined
3.) have-more-creative-inklings-and-inspirational-dreaming-than-I’ll-ever-be-able-to-apply-in-this-lifetime. (aaaand, exhale)

8. What do you do for fun?

WHEN I have time for fun… I really enjoy the summer months and being outside. I live in the pacific northwest recreational mecca. There is more to do here than the 3 months of summer even allows for. I love being near any body of water, the ocean, a lake, a river… camping, on a boat. I love weekend roadtrips to Portland for antiquing or to the beach for some R & R. I enjoy a good happy hour with my girlfriends, a Ruby Ale & cigar with my guy pals, music festivals/concerts, BBQ’ing with friends, skiing, flipping through all the magazines I don’t have a subscription for at Barnes & Noble, trying a new restaurant, digging through the racks at a really good sale. I thoroughly enjoy home decor and design and spend a lot of time recreating spaces in my home. We also just got a new Boston Terrier puppy, so potty training tactics are high on the list right now.

9. Who is your favorite photographer?

I don’t think I have a favorite. I think there are so many amazing photographers and creatives in our industry that I could never pick one. I am hugely inspired by SEVERAL, with all different styles, like… Jeff Newsom, Ben Edwards, John Michael Cooper, Ben Becker, Jenn Hudson, Jose Villa, Tara Whitney, Nate Kaiser, Zach Arias, Elizabeth Messina… (just to name a small few).

10. Do you have a studio or run things thru your home?

It’s been kind of an evolution, but what was once JUST my studio, is now my studio AND home. I built a custom studio/loft in 2007 and have recently remodeled the loft portion into living space. It’s been a nice blend. The biggest challenge is keeping myself from folding laundry or mopping the floors in between editing and design projects.

Non-Members Register below. Members, RSVP to Jackie at dukejacq@gmail.com

Are your clients being cautious with their money?  Are your portrait appointments a bit more sporadic?  And do you loath being sold to, because you hate sleazy salespeople and transparent techniques?

As artists, we love creating fantastic portraits, we love making people look great and feel great about themselves, yet we many times we cut our own throats when it comes to our own success.

This is a high-energy program jam-packed with the right information on streamlining your complete portrait workflow for better sales.  Learn how to create better images right in the camera, how to reduce your computer time substantially, and how to take care of your clients so that you get rewarded appropriately.

Learn exactly what to say, what to do, and how to do it, including overcoming common objections including PRICE!

When you put these powerful techniques into practice, you will not only reward yourself, but your clients as well.  Learn to separate yourself as a powerful artist that gets paid top dollar for your work!

A little bit about Bry that you might not know!

1. Where are you from and what do you do?
I’m from Utah and besides being a photographer, I’m

2. Describe yourself in 4 words.
Artist / Lover / Humorist / Musician

3. What do most people not know about you?
I think most people know that I’m a single guy that likes to date and shoot guns, and sometime do both at the same time.

4. What is your program going to be about?
It’s about conquering our two big enemies, time and ourselves. It’s about working faster while being custom, and then knowing just want to do and say to get those big dollar sales.

5. When you’re not photographing or teaching, what do you like to do?
Date, rock climb, water and snow ski, mountain bike…

6. If you weren’t a photographer…what would you be?
If I wasn’t a photographer, I’d still be self-employed and would be some kind of artist. Perhaps a musician.

7. Top 5 favorite songs of all time.
Take 5 – Dave Brubeck
Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
Heart of Gold – Neil Young
Boots of Spanish Leather – Bob Dylan
Leave – Glen Hansard

8. If you could hang out with anyone for one day, who would it be?
I don’t know if I could pick one, but here are some favs.
Richard Avedon, Hugh Nibley, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Dave Ramsey, Michael Medved, President Thomas Monson.