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PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 101: Chapter 5. How to Build Trust

EURO CAMERA MONEY by ANNETTE KIM
EURO CAMERA MONEY by ANNETTE KIM
EURO CAMERA MONEY by ANNETTE KIMx HAPTICPRESS

To be honest, 90% of the hardest part of photography workshops is actually getting people to sign up.

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PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101 by ERIC KIM

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How do you get people to sign up? Do you need more social media followers, better marketing tactics… or a fancier website?

No. You just need more trust.

—

Ok let me break this down.

First principle: for a profitable workshop, it is better to have a few students pay a lot of money, rather than have a lot of students pay a little money.

Why?

  1. Primo, less stress. Managing fewer students is less stress.
  2. Second, it is easier to have a few students sign up for your workshop (at higher prices) than to have LOTS of students sign up.

You can try to be a Walmart and have millions of people to buy your service, product, or workshop. But… how the hell can we reach millions of people? Realistically, you cannot.

My idea:

Seek to get a few people to really really trust you. Then they will be willing to spend a lot of money with you.

—

If I teach a photography workshop or experience and charge $2,000 USD a person, I only need 5 people to signup to have a profitable workshop. That would be an income of $10,000 USD. After expenses, I might make a profit of around $6,000 USD. Which for me, is about two months of living expenses.

Just consider… you just need to find 5 human beings, in this world of 7 BILLION PEOPLE to signup for your workshop, to make a profitable workshop. That’s pretty realistic in my eyes.

—

How to find those few people who really trust you

Ok, let’s think about this like a relationship.

Nobody will have sex with you on the first date. Generally this takes building up a relationship, over a very long time, with love, trust, mutual respect, etc.

The problem that a lot of photographers, marketers, bloggers, try to do is to have sex with you on the first date (by trying to market their product to you).

Things that marketers, bloggers, and photographers do which annoy me:

  1. Have a fucking annoying-ass pop up that blocks my screen, asking me to signup for their newsletter.
  2. Having cluttered websites, with millions of advertisements.
  3. Making it hard for me to access their information… for example having to signup for their newsletter before I can download their free ebook, or whatever.

My solution:

  1. Treat my viewers like myself. The golden rule. I have all my downloads easily accessible via direct download links via Google Drive, Dropbox, or directly from this site. No fucking stupid email newsletters.
  2. Clean website user interface, without annoying advertisements.
  3. Photos, images, without copyright or water marks… full resolution, easy to download or access.

To sum up, the best way to build trust with your user or viewer… TREAT THEM LIKE YOURSELF.

Don’t bullshit people

People can smell bullshit from a mile away.

Don’t bullshit your viewer, or your potential student.

Don’t make claims that YOU personally don’t believe in.

For example, I’m doing a lot of these workshop, business, and entrepreneurship articles. My mom has been scammed by AMWAY in the past, therefore I try to be fucking really raw, and brutally honest.

To reiterate,

You probably cannot make a living from teaching photography workshops. However, it is POSSIBLE. With enough hard work, sweat, hustle, innovation, ingenuity, and luck… you can make a lot of money from teaching photography workshops, or from photography education.

I feel more of life needs warning labels, to be more ethical.

—

Always be NEW

Ok, part of me believes in consistency, and part of me doesn’t.

But I know this for a fact, if I check my own media consumption behavior… I always love the NEW.

I’m addicts to newness, innovation, and novelty. For me, it is a bias. I assume what is new is better than the old… which is actually false. Often, what is old is better than the new.

However still… when I read blogs, I prefer to have NEW and UPDATED information. I want an advantage of information, by having access to NEW information, faster than anybody else.

I love using beta software, even though it is buggy. Why? It is more fun, dangerous, and exciting.

So if you want to always have an audience, keep giving them new stuff.

If you’re a musician, you gotta always put out new music. This is why JAY Z, KANYE, and KENDRICK LAMAR inspire me… they keep innovating, driving their music, art, culture, and ideas forward. They keep producing new music.

With Apple… if they kept releasing the same iPhone, would people buy it? Hello no. We want new shit in our phones. New cameras, new features, new gadgets, new widgets.

So if you want to make a sustainable living for the long-term in photography workshops, some ideas:

  1. Never stop blogging. Keep blogging new ideas, new photos, new videos, and keep pumping out the stream of ideas, knowledge, and information.
  2. Experiment with new photography workshops and courses. For example, I’m doing street photography workshops, curated photography travel experiences, ZEN photography experiences, and plan on doing photography entrepreneurship and business workshops in the future. If there is anything I learned from biology from nature is this: DIVERSIFY OR DIE.
  3. If you’re not growing, developing, evolving as a photographer or an artist… you’re dying.

BE STRONG,
ERIC


PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101 by ERIC KIM

ERIC KIM x HENRI NECK STRAP  by HAPTIC INDUSTRIES // Portrait by Benjamin Thompson

If you want to make a living (or a killing) from photography, download:

PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL by ERIC KIM


PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 101

CAMERA MONEY GBP by ANNETTE KIM

  • Chapter 1. How to Make a Photography Blog
  • Chapter 2. How to Price Yourself
  • Chapter 3. How to Find Your Market
  • Chapter 4. Why Teach Workshops?
  • Chapter 5. How to Build Trust

KEYS TO SUCCESS

  • Impatience is a Virtue
  • Create Your Own Category
  • HOW TO DREAM BIG.
  • Will Not or Cannot?
  • Why Not?
  • How to Think BIG
  • How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
  • How to Invest in Yourself
  • The Two Camera Rule
  • MEANINGFUL DIFFERENTIATION
  • Advice For College Students
  • How to Thrive in Uncertain Times
  • CANNIBALIZE YOURSELF.
  • DO AND GROW RICH
  • Does Fear of Punishment Hold You Back?
  • HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS
  • How to Innovate
  • How to Build Your Own Empire
  • YOU ARE ENTITLED TO HARD WORK.
  • PICK YOURSELF.
  • OWN YOUR PLATFORM
  • 10 KEYS TO SUCCESS

Table of Contents

Learn how to make a living from your passion:

  • Preface. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Chapter 1. How to Create Value
  • Chapter 2. ZEN CAPITALISM
  • Chapter 3. Scarcity
  • Chapter 4. How to Brand Yourself
  • Chapter 5. How to Build a True Following
  • Chapter 6. The Blueprint to Success in Photography
  • Chapter 7. HOW TO BE BOLD
  • Chapter 8. How to Sell Out
  • Chapter 9. GO AGAINST THE GRAIN
  • Chapter 10. EXTREME ABUNDANCE
  • Chapter 11. Photography Experience Economy
  • Chapter 12. Why You Should Make Money for Your Photography
  • Chapter 13. How to Become a Famous Photographer

Photography Business 101

  • Practical Photography Business Advice

How to Make Money with Photography

CAMERA MONEY USD by ANNETTE KIM
CAMERA MONEY USD by ANNETTE KIM
  • How to Charge More Money in Your Photography
  • Why You Should Not Pursue Photography as Career
  • Can Photography Make You Rich?
  • How I Earn $200,000+ a Year From Photography
  • How to earn $10,000 a month as a photographer
  • Why you must be an expensive photographer

Photography Marketing 101

  • Why You Should Do Photography Work For Free
  • How I Became an Internet Famous Photographer
  • Photography Blogging Ideas
  • Why You Should Promote Your Own Name
  • How to Build a Following
  • How to Stand Out as a Photographer.
  • HOW TO GO VIRAL AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.
  • How to Master Marketing
  • How to Sell Yourself

SELLOUT ERIC KIM

How to Hustle.

  • Entrepreneurial Advice to My 18 Year Old Self
  • How to Become Insanely Productive.
  • 5 Lessons From Hesiod on Hustling

Entrepreneurial Principles

  • It is Better to Beg For Forgiveness Than Ask For Permission
  • The Free Way to Become Rich
  • JUST DO IT.
  • 7 Steps: How to Make a Living From Your Passion
  • How to Do What You Love for a Living
  • How to Create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
  • How to Fail Big
  • How to Invest in Yourself
  • How to Be Bold in Photography and Life
  • Mission: Cover Your Rent and Food
  • 1,000 True Fans
  • The “10x Principle”: The Only Difference Between “Success” and “Failure”
  • Make More Value Not Money
  • We Live in a Photo Utopia

How to be a Full-time Photographer

  • How to Make a Living From Photography
  • The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
  • Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers
  • Don’t Go Into Debt For Your Photography
  • How to Brand Yourself as a Photographer
  • Trust: The Most Important Thing You Need to Succeed as a Photographer

Photography Blogging

  • How to become rich from photography blogging
  • How to Make a Living with Blogging
  • 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners
  • How to Start Your Own Photography Blog
  • A Photographer’s Guide to SEO, Blogging, and Social Media

How to Teach Photography

  • How to Become a Photography Teacher
  • How to Teach a Street Photography Class
  • Why I Teach Street Photography Workshops

Social Media

  • Why I Deleted My Instagram
  • The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
  • Why Do You Need More Likes or Followers?
  • Instagram is Going to Be the Next Facebook
  • Don’t Trust “Free” Photography Social Networks

How to Save Money

  • How Cindy Saved Us $150,000+
  • The Free Way to Become Rich

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  • April 10-11th, 2021: BOSTON / Discover Your Unique Voice in Photography Workshop [Register Intent Here]
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  • May 22-22nd, 2021: NEW YORK CITY / STREET PHOTOGRAPHY MASTERCLASS by ERIC KIM [Register Intent Here]

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