Zero In On the Opportunities

Intro by Skip Cohen

It seems like years ago that Corona was just a great beer and words like “pandemic” and “hunkered down” were rarely in our daily vocabulary, Suzette Allen wrote this short post in 2013, but I found it so relevant to the state of our industry and most businesses today.

While the pandemic has created chaos for most professional photographers, it’s brought with it some unique opportunities – opportunities for leadership in creativity, support for the community, and especially in education.

Business will come back, and whether you’re rebuilding your business or it just needs a good jumpstart, what are you doing right now to strategize? How are you going to make yourself stand out from your competitors? What products/services are you going to offer that are different.

My good buddy Terry Clark once said, “Look at what everyone else is doing, and then something different!” It seems so simple, yet it requires your complete focus on the right building blocks for your business, starting with your education.

We’re about to enter the traditional slow season, even without a pandemic. Now is the time to raise the bar on your skillset. It’s time to diversify from your core specialty and expand to have greater appeal to your target audience.

Suzette’s post might be short, but she’s zeroed in on precisely one of the most important key ingredients to your success in 2021. And one other point – you know how to hold focus with your camera – not it’s time to hold focus on your business and career.

Remember, your website is about what you sell; your blog is about what’s in your heart. Work to develop a stronger skill set, diversity, and pay attention to what your community needs most. The power of photography and capturing memories hasn’t gone away – it’s just buried under the stress and challenges of the last few months.

Note: Suzette refers to Stephen Covey’s 2^nd quadrant in 7 Habits. Here’s the description from Google: The “second quadrant” promotes planning and outlining of personal goals through effective personal management. It also empowers an individual to decide on what’s important rather than urgent. This makes an individual focus on their long-term vision as well as their ability to execute short to medium-term goals.

By Suzette Allen

Cesar, my photo buddy… always reminds me of the core of what is important. In every discussion, he ends with what is in his heart and on his mind at the heart of the matter.

I asked him to send me this image because it shows us being eclipsed by our focus. So many things in life need to be eclipsed by bigger things, more important things, vital things, like the quadrant 2 things in Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits.

I think education is one of those things and we all need to focus on it to become our best, to fulfill our potential! We are all destined for greatness– we just need to not lose sight of that, and keep pressing toward the goal. I do that daily, and it is required of me to stay ahead of the curve and be an educator! It is required of you to stay ahead of the curve and maintain success in everything you do, but especially photography!