The Business Game Plan

DOUG GORDON

The driving force in my almost 20-year career in photography has always been a passion and love for using a camera to create life and tell a story in a romantic visual manner. Since I believe that my photography is an expression of my deepest creativity, the same has to be said of the art of business. At this year’s Convention I promise to be the most adventurous ever. Anything you thought you could never do at a wedding, I’m going to do it. Today’s wedding imagery has no boundaries. We are limited by only our imaginations “Change the way you think and you can change your world forever.” I live by that motto. I try to be very open-minded. This year, besides my posing and lighting demonstrations, I get to talk about my passion: business

I learned at very young age about passion. Being involved in this business from such a young age I learned so many valuable lessons. The first of which is that no great deed could be accomplished without passion. I loved witnessing my family strive for things through hard work and dedication to achieve an end result they were proud of. It showed me how to have a love for what I was doing and more importantly pride in everything I do. Many people love the idea of being a photographer, but they don’t always love what they do. Love=Passion=Happiness=Profit. This will be a strong message at this year’s Convention for me. With our minds we can rationalise just about anything. I will challenge you at the Convention to be honest about yourself and where you are and how to make a change for the better. I will try to inspire you to do something beyond yourself. Show you in every way, photographically and business-wise, to make the invisible become a visible entity. It is time to make your dreams come true. No more excuses. My camera isn’t good enough, the client didn’t want to spend the money, the bride would never do that, the economy, etc. Enough! If you don’t think you can do it, guess what, you never will. You may not have all these things. However, that is not the defining factor. The defining factor is not resources, it is resourcefulness. We need to change the mindset that we are the past. The past is not the future. It is time to take educated chances and make right decisions. No matter what you don’t have, you will find a way if you want it bad enough. It is about passion. Here is one of my favourite quotes from a movie – Rocky. Believe it or not but it inspires me. It was in the last movie when Rocky Balboa was having a conversation with his son. “I’d hold you up to say to your mother, ‘this kid’s gonna be the best kid in the world. This kid’s gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever knew’. And you grew up good and wonderful. It was great just watching you; every day was like a privilege. Then the time came for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you’re no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that! I’m always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You’re my son and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life.” Wow I hope you liked Rocky; that was long but so very true about business

There’s a great deal more to operating a photography business than just taking pictures. Whether you’re selling candy, video games or photography, the elements of a business plan are essentially the same. The plan needs to be simple: simple statements—specific rather than general—based on wellresearched concepts and figures will suffice. I feel there are many things that facilitate the success of my business. One of these is how we deal with people. “Ninety-nine per cent of being a wedding photographer is psychology— getting people to do things, convincing them that it’s going to work, and not having them fight you on it. There’s not too much I can’t get a bride to do. When I took over the studio, I envisioned really changing the way wedding photography was done. I wanted a more up-to-date look. And definitely, I wanted to capture the connections that between people. I took on the challenge of wedding photography because I really enjoy working with people. In today’s wedding, clients want to see and feel the emotion. They want to remember the sensual, romantic, sexy side of the day.”

I see a real transition in weddings today. A lot of brides now would like to see images of themselves as though they are on America’s Next Top Model. Any time I anticipate a change in the industry, I say to myself, ‘if I don’t try, I will never know’. You can’t ask for permission to do something, because there is always a chance someone will say no.

As many of you know I pride myself on being systematic in my shooting with my flow posing systems. It does not just stop there though. At the business school I will go over extensively my concepts and plans for my business. I will explain how in an economic recession our business has increased again for a 24th straight year. Everything from sales, to marketing, to management, to the phone-call.

At this year’s Convention we will also be releasing some brand new products including The Business Game Plan guide, the Closer Sales DVD and our brand new Flow Posing DVDs and Core Decks. Besides being at the business school on Wednesday, don’t forget Thursday – I will also be giving a full-day programme that must be registered for separately. We will be shooting in and around the hotel, experimenting with every lighting condition imaginable. I will also be showing techniques to blow the mind with our brand new creation Torchlight. Be sure to stop by my programmes because as always we have lots of great gifts and fun to go around. I look forward to it.

Cheers for now,
Doug

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