Today's Guest: Rob Provencher of NO BS Photo Success. in Wellington, Florida
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Rob Provencher Expert PageANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio's Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide. Welcome to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight with your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: Today on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight we have Rob Provencher. He is the president of No BS Photo Success. Welcome to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight this morning Rob.
ROB: Hi. Welcome.
JOHN: Now tell us...give us a little overview of what is No BS Photo Success all about?
ROB: Well basically it's an online forum that started a couple years back and originally had it's roots in live workshops that my associate, James Hodgins, and I started about 2002 - 2003. We started ramping up these full day, 2 day and 3 day workshops on digital photography back in the day when photography and digital was going through that huge transformation. And in my studio I went digital 2001, and I had a lot of background in dark room technical stuff and in retouching, and I converted that knowledge into the digital realm, and when we were converting my studio, James used to work for us at the time, I was doing 700 or 800 sessions a year in weddings, portraits, families, etc., etc., very busy studio, and I had to convert and find a way that worked. Now here's the thing when I found...I did a lot of testing, you know, to see what worked and what didn't work, and you hear a lot of stuff in the marketplaces what direction you're supposed to go into. So I would try all that, and I would try my own stuff, and I'd think well wait a minute that doesn't make any sense. What they're saying over there is just a load; just a bunch of BS, and hence we started teaching what we learned, and we called it no BS so the two kind of came from that kind of history and what was neat was that when we started teaching it, we're kind of zany when we're in...we're fun. We like to have a lot of fun plus we bring that message so the two combined really resinated with people and so it grew from there. One year after another and then went to a forum and then went to a paid membership forum which it is now. It's just grown and it's just amazing how much it's grown, and we're just totally excited and enthused about the growth.
JOHN: Ok, Rob. Well what exactly is the customer going to get from you?
ROB: One of our members?
JOHN: Yeah. Yeah. One of your members, what exactly are they going to get from you?
ROB: Ok, when I talked about the photography workshops that we were doing and the stuff we were teaching in photography which we now bring to the photography forum. When they go there, they get our basic message and media that we use to deliver that to them is we have a lot of videos that we've created. So basically it took the photography workshops that we were doing and converted them to videos and put them on online viewables and so they get those and they are literally hundreds of photography videos on wedding photography, child and baby photography, lot of commercial and industrial photography which James does a whole lot...he works for some key advertising agencies that they send him all over North America sometimes or locally, but he does a lot of very high end commercial photography and so we record all these photography sessions, right, and what we've done is made them available, and again, you know, I mentioned we like to have a lot of fun so when we're teaching our photography stuff, we like to be real personal about it. It's not terribly academic. So it's photography lighting and photography techniques that actually work and some people watch and they go, wow, I like this. This really makes a lot of sense so we're taking it from the trenches, so to speak. So that's one key element. I also do a monthly interview. I record one of our members or somebody in the photographic community, a famous photographer or a very successful photographer who is not so famous, but has a very successful photography business. I record that person and kind of talk about marketing strategies for their photography studio or whatever, you know, it's just one on one conversation, and I've got 2 1/2 years of photographic interviews that are available as an audio and also I transcribe them into .pdf, and there's hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of pages on photography marketing, publicity, web design strategies and stuff that I've written over the years so it's loaded and our clients, our members, they just really appreciate it. So we're onto something in the photographic community that works.
JOHN: Let's talk a little bit about when did you guys start this whole No BS Photo Success?
ROB: Well the whole No BS officially started as a legitimate business around 2005, but like I mentioned earlier, when we were doing the photographic workshop around 2002 - 2003 based on what we had learned from worked when I converted my photography studio from a film based photography studio to a digital based photography studio, I converted, made that conversion, and again, like I mentioned I was doing like 700 - 800 sessions a year, right, so I had to find the solution. James was along my side helping me out. It was exciting. It was very exciting when that whole transformation happened, and we started teaching other photographers and they were all like in awe because it was new. Right now it's common place what's going on in digital photography now is common place, right?
JOHN: Yes.
ROB: You go out there and everybody's very much educated on photography so...on digital photography. But back then it was very, very new. You know I do a seminar, and I fill the room because people are very eager to learn all these photographic techniques on digital and I'd have all these samples there. Now this doesn't apply now a days, but it certainly was something back around 2002, where I'd have thirty- 40" portraits, right? Babies, children, weddings, and people would come in and they would be in total disbelief that that was all shot digitally with a 3.2 mega pixel camera. They just couldn't believe it.
JOHN: Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Rob we gotta take a break here, but before we do that why don't you give your website address and contact information real quick.
ROB: Ok, the website address is www.nobsphotosuccess.com and if anybody goes there there's like some free tutorials and articles. It's just loaded with free stuff as well. You don't have to sign up as a member, but you can check out all the free photographic tips and videos. It's just loaded with stuff.
JOHN: Excellent. We are in the studio with the president of No BS Photo Success, Rob Provencher, and you are listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. We're going to step aside for a minute, and be right back with more great information.
ANNOUNCER: This VTalk Radio Spotlight is sponsored by morephotos.com, the online photo sales solution to professional photographers worldwide.
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ANNOUNCER: We now return you to the VTalk Radio's Photographer Spotlight withy your host, John Bentley.
JOHN: We are back in the studio with Rop Provencher, he is el-presidente of No BS Photo Success. Welcome back to the VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight, Rob.
ROB: Thank you.
JOHN: Now we've been talking about this wonderful online service that you have for photographers. Let's talk briefly a little bit about your background as a photographer, your education.
ROB: Oh, ok. That's always a good question, I always like to hear from other photographers what their background is, how they got to where they are is always interesting. I started, I'll just be brief about it, because I could go on, but I started when I was 19. I went to college to take a bird course which had photography as part of it, and the darkroom was where I just immediately fell in love with photography. By the age of 24 I started my own studio, and I had a couple jobs prior to that working as a dark room technician and working as a school photographer which is like one of the hardest jobs in the world, but then I started my own studio in 1984, and that's like oh geez 25 - 28 years ago, and I haven't looked back since. I got immediately into doing all kinds of photography to pay the bills; sports and whatever kind of photography came along. Now I specialize mostly in weddings and families and babies. My education as far as formal education is concerned, I went to college for about 1 semester. I'm a college drop out and people ask me often how do you get into photography? Do you need a course? Do you need an association? My answer is always the same thing. You don't need any of that stuff. You need a serious passion for photography and a serious ambition for it. So if you love photography, and you are passionate about growing a business, you'll get there.
JOHN: Great, well speaking of growing a business, let's talk a little bit about marketing. Tell us what kind of tips you have for the photographer out there.
ROB: That's a good question, John, you know, marketing I could go on for days about that one, and it is an area that a lot of photographers are very weak in. I kind of poke fun at photographers because there's a lot of ego in this industry, just like there is in any similar type industries like music or acting, you know. There's just this prima dona thing, and in photography the barrier to entry is so easy so anybody can get in. You know if you're a musician, if you can't play, the marketplace will find out. If you're a photographer, not so much the case. It's very easy to get into so the failure rate is very, very high and the solution is marketing your photographic studio. When I, and I teach a lot of this in my seminars and workshops, and I stress the importance of every photographer, taking the marketing question very serious and becoming a marketing or photographic services versus becoming a technician. You know, when you're stuck doing digital work flow all day long in your studio, and you're burning out, you're not going to really risk growing your studio. You're not going to achieve the kind of success that is really there for you. Now a days everybody is a photographer and the solution to that, you know, so you don't get lost in the sea of, you know, everybody being the same, and if you're pictures are the same as Aunt May's and cousin, Elmer's, and they can't tell you from them, then you're going to fail. It's that simple. So your product has to be good. That's the first marketing question right there. Your product has to be outstanding, it has to be really separated from the rest of the crowd. So that's the first thing you've got to do. If your products not there, forget it. Learn and create good images that are well composed, well lit, and they'll have a lot of impact that clients will want. Second to that, you have to have a 5 year marketing plan and a 1 year marketing plan. You have to know where your studio wants to be in 5 years. This is like one of the hardest things for people to wrap their heads around. And then just to really be really quick about it, because, again, this is a big topic. Once you have that goal, that vision in mind for where your photography studio is going to go, in my opinion, the best way to actually grow it is to use a three step marketing technique that I teach all the time which is Message, Market, Media and the thing is is that most photographers as well as most people in a business will skip to the third step. They'll dump right to media and spend a bunch of money on newspaper ads or radio or tv ads without really having a concrete plan set into place. So what's key is to step back and go back to message. The message is your product and how you formulate some really cool offers. The second step is the target, you know your market. You have to target that market, you have to know where they are, and get that message to them. Now I always like to bring the example in another business and that is Starbucks. Starbucks is only selling coffee. That's all they're selling. It's just coffee and what they've done is taking coffee and they've reinvented it to a new level and charged the premium price for it, and we can do that in our photography studio, and we need to do that. So we have to be responsible and not just go and say I have a session fee and here's my price list. You have to be able to craft real exciting messages. Real exciting offers, time limited, and again you have to deliver that to the right target. Get it to the wrong target, it's going to die. And this brings us to the third step which is the media. The media is the delivery mechanism for getting that message to that target market group. And,again, I have to reiterate everybody skips no. 1 and 2 and they jump right to 3 which is a really dumb mistake. So when you figure out your target, you've got your message, and you after the media, the media is the delivery mechanism, you need to go after media that is responsible, that is very effective, and that is very cheap. So that kind of leaves out big, big media, you know, billboards, radio, tv. I'm not poo-pooing that all the way, but especially if you're struggling when starting out, you want to use the media that is cheap and responsible. In other words, what I mean by that is, and this is what I use in my studio for a long time, I use a lot of direct mail, and I use a lot of displays in affiliated businesses and/or associations in our city. So I go after those people that shop at those stores or that go to the theater which I'm affiliated with or to the symphony which I'm also affiliated with. So you work these affiliations and you work responsible, real dynamic sales letters delivered to their mailbox for the right target group, and the phone rings. It's amazing.
JOHN: Well I tell you what, it sounds like some great advice from a man who's been doing it and knows what he's doing. I certainly appreciate you joining us today, Rob, on VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight.
ROB: I'm grateful that I've been here. It's been exciting to talk to you, John, and I hope your listeners got something out of it.
JOHN: I'm sure they have, and before we let you go, though, let's give your website address and contact information one more time.
ROB: Ok, it's www.nobsphotosuccess.com. By the way all the marketing stuff I just talked about, I wrote two manuals and they're all in there. Anybody who's a member gets all that stuff for free, and hours of marketing audios.
JOHN: Excellent.
ROB: If they're not interested, they can go get all the free stuff that's on the main page at nobsphotosuccess.com.
JOHN: Excellent. We have been in the studio via telephone with the president of No BS Photo Success, Rob Provencher, and you've been listening to VTalk Radio's Photography Spotlight. Thanks for tuning in everyone, see you again next time.
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