Marketing and Business for Photographers has officially rebranded to ShineSparkL

Last week I hit publish and revealed the new branding and the new direction for this website. Over time I will share more of the branding process as well as the trials and tribulations that I experienced along the way. In the meantime, I wanted to welcome you to the new site. Come and take a look around!

I explain the rationale behind the brand name, in the About section. Choosing a brand name isn’t easy, and I initially didn’t plan to change Marketing and Business for Photographers or MBP. Until I had what I refer to as my night epiphanies, which I will talk about more in future posts. In the relaxed and open state where I’m on the verge of drifting off at night, visions, voices or symbols tend to appear for me as my mind churns over the events of my day and I’m dreamily contemplating my future. ShineSparkL just popped into my head one night, and as I need to do, I immediately grabbed my phone to write it all down. The next morning I wrote about it in my journal, and while it sounded a little fluffy to me (didn’t help that my husband repeated it in a child-like, kids show voice), I felt it was exactly right. So it’s here!

ShineSparkL is the energy that breathes life into a new business system that also manifested for me, although this time on a neighbourhood walk while listening to an audiobook that introduced me to the 5 koshas in Yoga. The full system is described here, but the short version was that I realized why many photographers continue to struggle in the realms of marketing and business, and where I have even struggled myself.

Just as a complaint that our health system is broken because it focusses on individual symptoms and not the root issues, and it doesn’t take the whole body into account, our business education system may have gone down that same path. When was the last time a business education outlet suggested self-care as a strategy? Some will say that things like intuition, mindset, or physical self-care (3 of the 5 ShineSparkL pillars) aren’t features of a business education, but in a sole proprietorship where the owner is the business owner, the marketer and the service provider, giving every ounce of themselves and trying to advance a dream, it feels like teaching one piece instead of the bigger picture is perhaps an outdated model. Business has evolved well beyond traditional bricks and mortar and traditional one-way (business to consumer) marketing. So why not evolve how we look at the business part of who we are, in the context of who we are? How does the quote go - “build a life you don’t need a vacation from.” To do that, our work needs to be integrated seamlessly into all the other parts of us. In social media platforms, we see the idealized version of this all the time - people working from exotic places, walking on deserted beaches, and basically doing things that don’t look anything like what we’re doing. The problem is, often it’s enhanced or outright fake and gives us a skewed sense of work/ life balance and success. But what if, in our own way, our careers aligned with our hearts at the deepest level? What could that look like for us?

In yoga, the 5 koshas, or layers of being, are all nested within each other. In keeping with the harmony of what the koshas represent, I have come to believe that similar 5 pillars, or layers of our business are also nested within each other, and there needs to be a balance for optimal success. If you’re exhausted, you can’t focus on business things. If you don’t listen to your intuition, you may miss an opportunity to stand out in your market. If you don’t think your work is worth it, then you won’t charge the appropriate price to get yourself profitable — it doesn’t matter how many times you calculate your CODB. In the course of mentoring others and responding to posts in social media groups, I often addressed each of those issues and considered them kind of separate. It wasn’t until I listened to the audiobook that the AHA! happened, and I realized that all of those elements are but parts of a larger whole. It was a perspective shift, and now I’m excited to embark on a whole new journey of my own marketing education, so that I can bring the ShineSparkL system to you for your benefit.

The 5-pillar system is the cornerstone of the brand. But I also decided to give some dedicated space to learning about Loyalty and Luxury Marketing. I felt that these were topics deserving of attention, since I hear a lot about them.

Loyalty: There are hundreds of posts by photographers looking to acquire new clients. Fair enough, but what happened to the current/ past clients? I hear just about nothing asking how to keep past clients. There is a truth in business that it costs less to keep an employee than to hire a new one. By that same token, it costs less and it is more profitable to have past clients return than it is to acquire a new client. How are we taking care of them so that they do come back, again and again? Joe Polish of Piranha Marketing refers to it as sitting on an untapped goldmine. Seeing that the bulk of my marketing career was spent in the loyalty marketing sector, this is an area I can share a wealth of knowledge on.

Luxury: As I delve into the concept of luxury more, I’m finding out that it is not what we think it is. When I see the term luxury being used in the photography sector, it’s usually in the context of high-paying clientele. While yes, luxury in the consumer retail space has a significant price-tag, it’s often, if not always, not the item that people are actually buying. It’s the concept, or the idea behind the item. Why is this important? Because you can sell ideas, lifestyles and aspirations without needing to get into the actual luxury space. Calling oneself a luxury photographer and charging 20k for a wedding doesn’t actually make them luxury, or even worth the investment. The devil is truly in the details, and luxury has a lot less to do with the price tag or the label than we think.

Thank you so much for being here and sharing in this journey. ShineSparkL is for you, to find help, to gain ground, to learn, to thrive. Visit ShineSparkL today!