"Communication, the heart of leadership"

What’s the most important quality a photographer brings to the table?

It’s not talent. It’s communication.

If you were to look at my early portraits, you wouldn’t recognize them as work created from my camera. 

Well…perhaps there were hints at the style present today, but it wasn’t intentional, and it certainly wasn’t consistent. 

I was all over the place creatively. 

In hindsight, I realize that all endeavors worth their weight start out messy before they become crystallized, and then, they’re consistently refined over time. 

Regardless, the work itself was a monumental work in progress. 

I couldn’t quite figure out how to standardize the process of creating a valuable experience for my clients that produced the types of visual assets they needed. 

Over time, those consistent stumbles led to a realization:

I wasn’t setting them up for success before we showed up to the location to shoot. 

For years, a typical pre-session strategy call would be a short and sweet exchange where we talked about a random location to meet, how many outfits they needed to bring, and if they needed a makeup artist or not. 

The rest was figured out on the fly and in the moment…

Which is the worst time to figure shit out, of course. 

I knew this approach to lifestyle portrait sessions needed to change in order to create more certainty and value in the results to make it a worthwhile investment. 

That meant I needed to grab them by the hand, take on a more defined leadership role and communicate more effectively with clients before the session. 

Sure, they know what they want walking into the conversation, but I needed to know what they truly needed and be able to explain that need in a way that resonated and motivated them into action. 

At first, there was a bit of an imposter syndrome situation going on as I felt a bit out of my skin taking such a larger role in the preparation stages of the session. 

But I realized that if I wanted to be seen as an expert who serves experts at premium prices, then I needed to provide an experience that merits this reputation and investment for the work.

So, I completely revamped the pre-session strategy process by creating a lengthy call sheet of questions that were meant to truly understand who the client is, who they served, and how they solved their client’s problems. 

This informed me of their unique wrinkles and nuances related to their personality and ways they transform those they serve. 

These purposeful conversations also helped identify the right locations to shoot, what they needed to wear, and the types of activities we needed to capture them engaging in. 

Once this newfound strategy call was used with clients, the results of the sessions were night and day. 

There was more visual variety, emotion, and consistency from client-to-client.

As a result, clients started to talk about the work we created together differently to their audiences, as well. I was no longer seen simply as a photographer, but a trusted collaborator in their success. 

This was a game-changer. 

By taking on a more defined leadership role from the moment they picked up the phone to call me, and effectively communicating what they needed from our time spent together, the business grew and evolved into a more sustainable and fulfilling venture. 

When I look at the book boudoir photo of, “Communication, he heart of leadership.” captured from Ron Karr’s book, The Velocity Mindset, it reinforces my need to evolve my leadership behind the camera through valuable, purposeful conversations that lead to better results for those I serve.  

And that’s why this photo lives on a wall in my apartment.