Yesterday, we held our first webinar and it was full of impactful lessons, experience-driven insights and giveaways*. If you missed out on it you missed out big time. Below, we have distilled five lessons from the webinar, as shared by our guest speaker, Kola Oshalushi. You are welcome!
1. Find your niche
As a growing photographer, you need to carve a niche with which people can identify you. Start by taking a holistic look at the photography industry so as to identify what gaps exist and then subsequently proceed to create solutions or services that will mend that gap. Once you do this, it becomes easy for people to identify you as a forerunner in that space. So, find a not so popular space, build on it, own it and build your brand around it. You do not need to be popular to do this, fame will catch up with time.
2. Build a trust-circle
People are your ultimate consumers and they need to know you. Your potential clients want to know that you care and are not just out to milk them of their wealth. Thus, you need to manage people who interact with your art and build relationships with them. This is called building a trust circle. Creating a trust circle has a ripple effect because trust grows in geometric progressions. Once you create trust with one person, it becomes easier for multiple other people who come in contact with you and those who already trust your work to trust you. Whether or not you have clients at any given moment, you could create bodies of work to express yourself such that when you meet your clients you already have something they can see to make them trust you.
3. Be consistent
To gain trust, you need consistency and visibility. People have to see you enough. So be consistent with your work. Create a style that works for you and stick with it until it becomes easily recognizable by your clients. It is irrelevant if people turn you down at the initial stage of your career. If anything, it is simply a sign that they do not yet know you and what you can bring to the table, so you need to do your thing regardless of rejections or snobbery and over time, you will most likely gain access and your name will be remembered.
4. Create vision partners
Collaborate with people in your industry and identify platforms likely to help you grow. Write out your visions too. This simple act may come in handy when the chips are down. It does not matter if your vision partners aren’t “high profile” people in the industry. Your focus should be on partnering with individuals and platforms that align with your goals.
5. Evolve
Your ability to evolve at every point in time when needed is essential to your staying relevant in the industry. Always think a step ahead. Ask such questions as; What is the next thing to do? What is the next thing idea to incorporate into your business? Consider the dynamic nature of technology and keep your career dynamic as well.
It is also important that you build with a mentality for continuity. Outsource tasks to relevant to professionals e.g. business developers, lawyers, accountants etc. It helps to keep things orderly and ensure business continuity.
*The giveaway was a 10% discount off when booking a studio from www.pickastudio.com and it was available to everyone who attended the webinar. You can register on the site as registration is currently free for everyone.
Kola Oshalushi is the lead photographer at Insignia Media, a leading photography company in Nigeria. He is also the convener of the Business of Photography Conference which is West Africa’s biggest photography event. You can reach him on all his social media handles at @KolaOshalushi.
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