Month: July 2007

What a great opportunity! VII is an amazing photo agency with a roster that includes photographers like Lauren Greenfield, James Nachtwey, and Antonin Kratochvil. And now they are going to review others for potential membership (for those of you who don’t know, it’s a sort of co-op–not your typical photo agency–so being a member means being a partner).

Go to the VII site and click on “VII Membership” (top of the page) for details.

Then, gird ’em up, put together a great set of images and bio/statement, and send! What’s the worst that’ll happen? You won’t get chosen–which means you’ll be in the same place you are now. But if you are selected…wow!

David Parrish is a creative business consultant located in the UK (but he works internationally). I stumbled upon his site (link in my Blog Injectors section, too) and was immediately impressed. This guy knows his stuff and he shares it with the world.

One of the best things he shares is his book, in electronic form. TShirts and Suits should be required reading for any creative professional, particularly any who is even vaguely toying with the idea of launching her/his own company. It’s chock full of solid information and, though it is written for a UK audience, the info holds up on this side of the pond too (just don’t get confused with all the alternate spellings :-)) It’s also written in language we all can understand, uses humor, and the design and illustrations are well done to boot.

Go. Download. Read. Even if you’ve been in business for a while. I bet you’ll learn something helpful no matter where you are in your creative career.

…you’re Nicole Miller in this situation: MSNBC puts one of your wedding dresses, priced at over $1000, up against a dress from Target, priced at less than $150, and the people can’t tell the difference?

What can we learn from this? You can price your product at whatever you want, but if it isn’t different and special, eventually people will realize it’s not worth the price. It becomes a commodity. But if you make something special, unique, then no one will ever confuse it with the cheap commodities in the same product category.

Annie Leibovitz oversteps on her shoot with Queen Elizabeth II. Ooops.

Yesterday afternoon I had my hair done. I went to a relatively new salon and this was the first time the stylist had ever worked on my hair. I met with her last week for a consultation ahead of time, mostly because I’ve had a really bad history of not-great (some terrible) stylists since moving here to San Diego, and she impressed me during that meeting. She listened and gave what sounded like her honest opinion on what we could and should do and, without sounding like a jerk, came across as competent and confident that she could make me look good. Hesitant as I was to spend a significant sum on my hair (again), after so many past disappointments, I booked the appointment.

Yesterday, during the (long) process, she continued to impress. She was totally prepared when I arrived and remembered exactly what we had spoken about the week before. She was friendly, positive, and listened at least as much as she spoke (which is a good way of treating clients in any service industry).

At one point, I asked her the most crucial question (and I should have asked this on the first meeting): Why do you do hair? She replied that she had to do hair–she had always done the hair of her friends and family, for as long as she could remember, and she just loved it–the creativity, challenge, etc. It was what she always wanted to do. She went on to say that there is always something new to learn and she takes classes whenever she can even though she’s been doing hair professionally for years now.

Ding! We have a winner! She exuded passion for what she does. I knew at that moment that I was at least safe in her hands. Later, the results proved that she was, in fact, a talented pro and I’m very happy I found her. After years of hair frustration and disappointment, I finally have found a great stylist: Sarah Salt at Disconnected.

But what else she said is important for us in our creative businesses: she has a second job working in insurance. Why? Because she has worked at the insurance company for years, including when she went through beauty school, and the salon won’t be offering benefits for a little while yet. She put herself through beauty school by working in insurance and working that job now permits her to follow her passion. She has no love for insurance, but she is respected by the company, does her job very well, and could, in fact, have made that her career (a nice, stable career)–but her passion is hair and she is doing whatever it takes to follow that passion. It’s been a long haul for her, but she is very close to achieving her goal. For now that means working 12+ hour days, but she isn’t selling out her industry or herself in the process.

I’ve had photographers (and a few other creatives) complain when I have said that rather than give away rights to get a project, or lowball, it would be better for them to wait tables or get a temp job to pay their bills and to work on their business (targeting the right clients) at the same time. Sarah’s story proves that not only can it be done, doing the right thing pays off in the long run. Is it a lot of work? You bet your dupa. But it is the best way to achieve your goals without compromising your vision.

Carol Dweck, a Stanford professor, has a new book out that I intend to read very soon. It’s called Mind Set: The New Psychology of Success and I’m simply fascinated by the theme. Dr. Dweck posits that there are essentially two different mindsets in the population: the fixed and the growth.

Someone with a fixed mindset assumes that his/her intelligence, abilities, etc., are, essentially, pre-determined. That is, either you have the potential, smarts, whatever to do something or you don’t. If you say to yourself “I can’t do math” you may have a fixed mindset.

A fixed person also hates to make a mistake and sees any level/type of failure as a serious negative. So, if, for example, the fixed person thinks she can’t do math, she won’t even try to learn math because she might not be able to do it well right off and that would, in her mind, prove her point–“I can’t do math–I tried and I failed–period.”

This mindset causes fixed people to be risk-averse and, in the long run, limits their potential for success.

The growth mindset person, however, accepts that failures aren’t fun, but what they do is give a person an opportunity to learn and to grow. Growth people take risks, make mistakes, and keep trying. Because of this attitude, growth people are more often successful.

A growth person might say “I’m not very good at math” but, knowing that math will help her career goals, she would take classes to get better. If she struggles, she’ll seek out other sources for help (tutors, etc.).

Dr. Dweck, according to the reviews and interviews with her I have read/heard, offers help to change. If you’re a fixed person, you can become a growth one. Even before reading her book, I can believe that because that is what I have done in my own life.

So, which are you? If you’re a fixed person, are you willing to take the first risk and try to change?

…in 3 easy steps!

Step 1: Take 19 days to reply to a customer service-type question.

Here’s a real-life example. My husband and I have what we call a “sucky thing”–one of those vacuum sealer things to preserve food. And boy-howdy, does it suck. It has, in fact, broken after hardly any use but months after its purchase. I contacted the maker asking what could be done about it. Here below is the reply.

From: RivalService <RivalService@speedymail.com>
Date: July 9, 2007 12:39:15 PM PDT
To: XXXXXX@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Rival Comments/Questions – From Leslie Dell’Acqua [#1751106]
Reply-To: RivalService@speedymail.com

Leslie,

It can be replaced under warranty and you would need to send the seal a meal back to us and pay for all of the shipping and handling charges. Feel free to contact the Holmes customer service line at 1-800-777-5452 to have it replaced under warranty. Ruben

–Original Message–
From: XXXXXX@gmail.com
Date: 6/20/2007 1:30:18 PM
To: RivalService@speedymail.com
Subject: Rival Comments/Questions – From Leslie Dell’Acqua

Sure, they offer to repair/replace it if I pay for shipping both ways (about the cost of a new one, btw, maybe more with the mysterious “handling” charge), but note the date on my original request (6/20) and the response (7/9).

Step 2: Call your email “speedymail” (note the return email address) but take almost 3 weeks to reply.

Step 3: Get your customer’s name wrong (left out the “Burns-” part).

We won’t even mention that the correct spelling of the product’s name is “Seal-A-Meal”– a registered trademark with hyphens.

Sure, your clients might take forever to get back to you, and often they won’t even bother to let you know when you don’t get a project, but you don’t get that same luxury. Reply within 1 business day to any contact–even if it is just to say “I’m swamped and will get back to you shortly.” Also, get her/his name right. And yours, too.

Think I’m going to buy another Rival product any time soon? Your clients have even shorter fuses. It’s a simple thing to stay in contact today, and its payoffs are big.

Ah…after a few days off I am back at my Mac and hoo doggie, it looks like I missed some dust-ups on some of the forums. Lines were drawn and insults not-so-subtly thrown in my direction, and all without me being able to defend myself.

Oh well. No biggie.

Why am I not so concerned with the fact that someone said, essentially, and very publicly, that my advice was not only bad, it was actually harmful? And why would I be crazy enough to share this with you readers who may have missed it on its original forum?

Because I know that it is simply not true.

I know that I spend way too much time doing research, asking questions, reading, learning everything I can in my field (and a few related others) to think for a second that my advice is harmful. And hearing from past clients that I have helped them and their businesses confirms this knowledge. In fact, my advice is good and helpful for many. So whatever anyone may choose to say about me, good or bad, I know that it is just someone’s opinion and not the truth.

I don’t need to defend myself because I respect and honor my own experience. I also don’t need to attack others because I respect and honor theirs. In this case, this other person has taken data/information and come to an opinion on action that is different from mine. I don’t even think she is “wrong” and I am “right” but rather that we weigh different aspects of that data differently and therefore come to different opinions of the best actions to take. Of course, I think my advice is more likely to give positive results–or I would not hold the opinion that I do. But, I understand her opinion as well and it is not baseless–it is simply not the same as mine.

So, for those of you who may have been wondering, no, I’m not going to bring up what was said a week ago and hash it out on that forum. It’s in the past and those who know and respect me and my work will continue to do so, no matter what someone else (not a client, mind you–if a client had bad things to say, that would matter very much!) says. And I will continue to respect myself and do what I can, the best I can, just as I always have.