Networking

February 27, 2008 | Filed Under abryanphoto, networking, weddings | Leave a Comment 

About a week ago I started reading [b]ecker’s blog via the A Bryan Photo Blog. [b]ecker is a wedding photographer from Orange County, CA. He started posting a daily video blog about 50 days ago. Each day he discusses a different topic dealing with photography (specifically weddings). His topics range from gear to customer service, and his advice is simple yet extremely useful and valuable. If you are a photographer or any other type of wedding vendor, you need to check this out. I subscribe to his podcast to get the videos; I usually watch them on my iPhone when I’m out running errands and I have downtime. You can search iTunes for “the [b] school.”

One of the key ideas I have taken from [b]ecker is the idea of networking with other photographers and vendors in the area. His philosophy is “a rising tide raises all ships” and he encourages building community amongst wedding vendors. He tries to have lunch with one vendor each week and talk through ideas and get to know more about the person and their business. This leads to referrals on both ends and helps to improve both quantity and quality of business for everyone.

This is something that I am going to try to be more intentional about. I am not an extroverted person and networking does not come naturally to me. I’m still not sure exactly how I will go about networking, but I presume I will simply seek out people and businesses in the area and try to set up times to hang out with them. I have no ulterior motives for this, I just want to meet more people in the industry. I love working for myself and I do not mind working alone, however I would love to be able to have a “working relationship” with other people. If you are a photographer or you are in a related business, I would love to get to know you and your business. Give me a call or shoot me an email.

Thanks [b]ecker for all of your advice and teaching myself and other photographers valuable tools to help raise the bar in the wedding industry!