Photography Business Marketing w/Interns

Last night we held our Photography Business Marketing class for our Interns. All of our current interns and Alumni Interns Jenna & Debra hung out with us at the studio space for a few hours while Leah and I… just talked about everything we’ve done over the past year and a half – and answered any questions the Interns had about marketing, pricing, handling clients, and overcoming mistakes (ha – we definitely know a few things about that).

This is the third time we’ve given this class and it was honestly the best so far. Since we keep saying on here that ‘nothing we do is secret, but no one knows everything we do’ – we decided that we should let other people know just a little bit of what we cover and talk about during this workshop.

Specifically because we know there are many photographers out there who’ve been doing this as long, or longer than we have – but still haven’t gotten to the point where they could feasibly make a living from their photography. OR – other photographers who are consistently working, but still not really able to garner the rates that they feel they’re worth. Because doing portrait sessions for $50 a pop isn’t going to cut it. Of course – instead of Leah or me talking about what we talked about, we decided to have each of our Interns write a blog post about two concepts they took away from the marketing class.

We told them they could write about ANY two concepts – and that nothing was off limits – because it’ll just force us to come up with something new. So check out each Intern blog to see what they have to say about our Photography Business Marketing class – and hopefully some of it will be useful to you. (Click on each of their photos –  and yes, apparently I was playing a game of ‘statue’ and that’s why I look exactly the same in every shot.)

When I first started this internship, people asked me what I thought they could teach me that I couldn’t learn from just reading and shooting on my own.  I responded, “Well, they’ve been shooting for the same amount of time, and they have their sh** so together.  I don’t.  They must be doing something right.” – Intern Raven

This is how they run their business – by always doing, and not being afraid to learn it as they go.   This is a BIG lesson for me.  I’d rather tiptoe in, Leah and Mark do it at 25mph.  Their willingness to “just do” and to tell everyone about what they are doing has contributed to the rapid growth of their business. – Intern Sonya

I suppose, one could argue, they were not really secret secrets because most of what was discussed tonight is laid out for anyone to read on the L+M’s blogsite. Yes, I said blogsite.Which brings me to one of the four main philosophies of L+M: Be Different. -Intern Niki

Ok, so to further backup my claim of LeahAndMark giving it away, not only did they expose  point by point how they have built this thing, we were also shown where they found these ideas. No holds barred –books, videos and they answered every question we could throw at them. – Intern Brett

As a complement to that, we were guided on how to present yourself as a professional photographer as well as a genuine, likable person.  Mark talked a lot about separating ourselves from “Facebook photographers” (so…I’ll be getting rid of that page soon…) and how to make everything from our websites to Craigslist ads look different from the competition. – Intern Brittany

It’s not often Joe Blow gets to sit down with a pair of successful business partners and pick their brains about what makes for effective marketing of a product or service.  To ask invaluable questions like:  “How do I get gigs that actually pay?” and “What the heck is branding and how do I use it?” – Intern Carrie

Leah and Mark naturally have some very well thought out ideas about marketing, and their talk was very informative. I really began to think of it as an un-marketing workshop by the end of the discussion. – Intern Amanda

I wanted to talk about what stood out to me during this presentation of insight…(and these may seem like “no duh!” ideas (and I actually wrote that to myself in my notes), but they are ones that I find invaluable the more you come back to and recite in your head to continue to build any successful, creative business in life) – Intern Laura

Atlanta. Photographers. Internship. Photography. Business. Marketing. Workshop. Class. Ideas.