photographer to a one-man marketing agency | lessons I learned
Here are 10 lessons I wish I could teach my younger self:
Everything you need to succeed in your career is found on the internet. You don’t need to stay at that crappy job to learn valuable skills.
Self-education is the best way to learn anything that is valuable in today’s world. While most people are mindlessly staring at the screen watching Marvel movies, you could be learning, growing, building, and succeeding.
If you haven’t landed that dream job yet, look in the mirror. What are you lacking that is holding you back from achieving this goal?
Milk your current job for everything it’s worth. Start thinking about how your bosses think, start anticipating problems, and have a solution ready before they even happen.
You don’t need to spend a ton of money on gear to become a better content creator. In fact, spending more money on gear early on in your career will set you back years. You might think buying a brand new $3500 camera body will make you a better content creator but it won't.
Gear Acquisition Syndrome is a scam perpetuated by camera companies and paid influencers, to get normal everyday people to drop their hard-earned money on something that they’ll never use to its full potential.
Skill Acquisition Syndrome is eternally more valuable. It never goes obsolete, break, or collect dust. Skills can stack and create unique combinations of talents that are exponentially more valuable to you over your lifetime.
Visual content is valuable in the attention economy, but not inherently valuable by itself. Visuals need to support a larger message or enhance the emotional intensity of a campaign.
When trying to sell a product online; having good high-quality product images is absolutely necessary. Good photography can help build trust and authority with your audience. But it is not going to sell the product by itself.
The main purpose of photography in marketing is to enhance the emotional impact of your messaging. How does your product help your audience solve their problems? Does it make their workday more enjoyable? Or does it make them feel a sense of pride knowing they have your brand’s product in their pocket?