Is what you do as easy as it looks?

Bret... That kind of mentality is everywhere! I have been at the end of the 'I can do that' syndrome... little do they know how much time, sweat, tears and money I have invested over the years to be where I am today.

I have also learned to do what I do best and hire out that which I know nothing about (web design, graphics, branding)....

Makes a world of difference and a lot less stress for me!

Bret,

You are right on!

I see ads for "Magic" carpet cleaning chemicals all the time! Just spray it on and leave it right? Stain disappears right? I dont think so!

Rich Fehling

Master Textile Cleaner

Quick Serve Carpet Care & Restoration, Inc.

Yup. I know this happens everywhere, but I think it's especially true of the creative fields. I think that those who lack artistic talent and know-how think that all artists have some "magical" skill by which they easily come up with a solution to the visual/word/audio problem. I mean, they went to art school, right? They can't be serious professionals!

I see the scenario over and over with photographers in particular. At least as a graphic designer, people understand that I operate some software that would take them a lot of effort to learn.

For photographers, people think that anyone can do it. I had a client with a $70,000 website/rebranding budget who flat-out refused to hire a professional photographer, no matter how much I pushed them. End result-- their "photographer" failed and we ended up using stock photography at the last minute. Totally generic! (although stock photography does have its place, it's not in a $70,000 branding project)

So what's the constructive answer? I just tactfully try to educate people on the value of solid branding and design. I show them what it looks like when all aspects of a project are done by seasoned professionals.

Bret,

I certainly understand your frustration and have felt that in the past but not often. The thing I gathered from it is that those who decide to do it themselves are not really my target market anyway. Those who do not understand the value, do not care about the quality, or are not ready to spend the money on my services are not ready to be my clients. However, these people will eventually return as they will educate themselves in the value and quality of craftsmanship after a bit of head banging with amateurs or "Build A Web Business For Dummies" type books.

I guess the punch line is don't sweat those who are not yet ready for a professional. Focus on those who know what they are looking for.

Ahhh...this hits home with me! There are many VA's out there who have had an administrative position sometime in their life and think they can just "go out and be a Virtual Assistant." What they don't realize is that VA's aren't secretaries, we're business owners. And not only that, but we are business owners who are dedicated to our clients and their success. It's not enough to complete a task for someone - it's about being proactive and helping a client utilize my services to the fullest.

It makes me so angry when people jump in without this commitment in mind! GRRRR! My face is probably red right now!

There are a lot of angles on this one. In our field for example, there are endless stories (and personal experiences) about how people are convinced by their prior experience that they and they conditions are so complex and mysterious, just to find after being adjusted that they respond the same way most other people do. And I don't know how many times I've heard, "But you didn't do anything."

Bret. In the organizing biz clients often feel that after meeting with us after a consulting session that they have heard all of the fancy buzz words that they need to do the job themselves. It is frustrating because you know that is why they called you in the first place.

What people do not realize is that you are not only a professional photographer who has years of training, but that you make a living doing a very good job as a photographer. You make it look easy beacuse you are good at what you do. If you were a crappy photographer you would make it look difficult and not get any business. The old double edged sword.

When a client thinks that they can do a job by themselves I always let them go because there is always someone else out there who appreciates my hard days work.

I have a slightly different point of view. I certainly understand your point and of course many people, including myself shop for deals. Some jobs and projects are worth spending the money to hire a professional and sometimes not. Absolutely, you get what you pay for usually. When you hire a professional and pay bigger bucks you expect to get the quality that goes with it.

There are times I choose to do things myself. Yes, it is less professional but "good enough" for now. I think the point is that I know that I am trading quality for keeping money in my pocket book. The folks you talk about don't seem to know that by the sounds of it.

My goal is to be able to hire a professional for everything I need done and let go doing jobs I am not suited for and don't enjoy as much. So here's to all our prosperity so we can hire each other!

Bret, I am going to turn this around on you a bit because I just went and looked at your profile. I am wondering if the problem that you are discussing above is not basically that you have trouble yourself saying why you are good! Look at what you wrote in the "What Bret does best" section!

It is so very hard to write about ourselves in the first place but I think it is even more difficult for us indies who are working in an area of native strength. What comes easily to us, what we excel at, what we make look easy is truly a gift and it is therefore extremely hard to explain what we do, why we love it, and why we are so good.

My recommendation is to start asking clients, your wife, other friends and family who love your work to start helping you describe yourself. Ask them why THEY think you are great. What do they experience in working with you? How did you set them at ease and get those great portraits? Get help with the descriptive words and experiences. Potential clients love hearing stories about other happy clients. Use the stories you collect to sell yourself.

Hope this is helpful!

Viv Ilo

Brett, you're so right.

But the world is changing. After 30 years in the commercial photography business and 20 working as a pioneer in digital, I have seen the shift from big money jobs running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars disappear only to end up as stock photo comps with tens of thousands of dollars in digital retouching to "fix things." Digital has raised and lowered the bar in one fell swoop. For the professional, it's made our craft more sophisticated and articulate. For the amateur, it's dragged the quality of commercial photography down to the level of hack. The economy is the culprit and we can't change that.

But, I'm not here to rant, just to say that I can't help but feel that if this is the way things are going, I might as well teach designers how to do the basics for themselves and avoid the embarrassment of screwing up and losing clients. By doing this, I get a few hacks off the street, make a few friends, who, when they discover they've come against a challenge they can't overcome (oh, let's say silverware, foil, glass, or anything beyond a basic, one diffused light, seamless setup), they call me. They've learned what they can and can't do. It's an improvement. Greatness only comes with practice, dedication and experience. You can't teach that.

David

Hi Bret,

In every type of work I've ever done, from freelance writing (25 years worth), to marketing and PR, to making and selling clothing, to coaching, I've heard the same story.

I'm with David in terms of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I have taught people how to do all sorts of things that I do, including writing for magazines which was my bread and butter for many years. One thing I quickly realized is how many people profess and interest and how few follow through. I taught non-fiction article writing for four years. I had quite a number of students who wrote queries and had one article published, but found the whole thing much more intense and time consuming than they had anticipated. It wasn't that they couldn't do the work. They simply didn't want to.

The competition will always be out there whether it comes in the form of cleaning in a bottle, the internet or someone who will do it more cheaply than me. My job is to do what I do to the best of my ability and forget about the others.

Warmly,

Lynn (http://www.CoachWithLynn.com)

Hi Bret

Like Sarah, I'm in the web business, and I've had people do that as well. Lots of folks think they can get a site as big and bad as eBay for a song and a dance, and will even ask me why something costs this much, and ask me what software I use in my job to create things, etc., why couldn't they just go and buy the software and do it themselves?

The answer is that sure, anyone could go to BigBox Electronics and pick up a digicam and do an OK job of taking photos. Of course they don't realize the tricks to the trade, that you spent lots of time and money working to master them, like why certain types of lighting are better than others, why sometimes you need a soft focus, why black and white can be as impactful as color, working with subjects and backgrounds, etc.

Just like sometimes my website customers think they can go to OfficeMeepot and get "My First Website Creator" (heh) on CD and come up with a site as good as can be created by me. I have to gently remind someone that it took 7+ years of education, practicing and whatnot to get where I am today.

So, no, what I do is not easy. Far from it. I can't even begin to try to explain to someone what FTP is, even though for me it's as second-nature to me as tying my shoes or making toast. Or how to explain CSS to someone who can only use AOL email. I could barely do any of this stuff myself when I started out, but the average website customer surely is a long way behind me in terms of being able to do what I'm doing. Sure there are alternatives to purchasing custom designed websites, such as these johnny come lately template stores, and companies like Yahoo and GoDaddy offering "Website Builders" that tell you how to do everything. But I have to educate my customers that the results are less favorable with the quick and easy method, and if they are serious about their business, they would be well behooved by hiring a pro like me to help them out.

I'm with Viv on this one. Your website is awesome, and your work displayed there is beautiful, even moving and emotional.

But like BizNik asks... "What does Bret do best?" You need to TELL your customers this. At your site, I expect to read something about about WHY I should use you vs. the "Other Photorapher Guy".

I have clients who are photographers and unfortunately, there is a belief in the photography industry that the work displayed in galleries, etc. should speak for itself. It doesn't always work that way.

Convince them that you ARE the best, and chances are very high that customers will believe you.

Other ways you can achieve this...

In your brochures, customer newsletters, and in your dealings/conversations with people, ensure you fill them in on why you are so great. Provide them with expert tips and advice (without giving away the farm--thus letting them get the idea of doing it themselves). This lends to your credibility as an expert in the field. They will start believing you and start buying from you vs. being a DIY-er. The ones who don't listen or believe? They're not worth your time trying to convince otherwise.

That's just my $.02

PS - I see that you have a blog? With great stuff on it. Why don't you link to it on your site? It provides much insight as to who you are and lots of behind the scenes stuff and testimony from customers!

I feel your pain, Bret.

I develop databases in FileMaker Pro, which is the easiest software to create databases in. You can open the box, install the software, and have a simple contact manager created in an hour -- and that's how FileMaker markets itself.

This leads people to believe that they can create a complex relational custom database, with a fabulous intuitive interface in an afternoon. Sometimes I meet up with people like that and I give them their fair credit. I tell them that they know their business much better than I do (which is sometimes true!), so they may be able to create a simple system without me, and save a lot of money.

Then I try to explain how my Business Admin diploma, Accounting training, years of development experience, and years of database and interface reading will help them. I also show them examples of my past work. Sometimes they still think they can do it without me.

Of those people, about half of them call me back within a year. They've run into something that they don't know how to do, or they've painted themselves into a corner and don't know how to get out.

So I consider all of those people who say that they can do it themselves to be future clients. But yeah, it still bugs me!

Well, everything in first impression looks easy, but when you get in that thing, you realize it was not that easy as it looked before.

Bret, I am also a photographer, and this is always the biggest discussion on just about every board or forum I've ever looked related to photography.

Basic photography continues to become easier, and the bar is continually raised in the industry both by all of the new technology that not only makes making images easier, and also because more and more people get into photography every year. Just take a look a flickr and see the thousands of people learning how to make better images from each other in a time frame that takes months instead of the years it used to take.

There is so much good imagery out there, that it appears to be less valuable. There are also plenty of skilled photographers out there who can't seem to make a living, and being desperate continue to offer their services at dirt cheap prices. Often the quality is not the same as that of someone with years of experience, but often times it doesn't even matter. Many times good enough is all that's needed. The internet has really hurt in this respect. The quality of images need, or at least perceived to be needed, has dropped dramatically.

The only answer I see, and this is what I try to do, is to find something to set you apart; to make you seem more valuable. This allows you to set your prices at a premium above what the struggling masses are charging. Also, investigate new technologies and opportunities whenever possible.

Whereas, it used to be possible to work with the same equipment and in the same manner for a decade or more, this has largely become impossible in recent years. Now days if you have a camera for years, you are way behind the times. Also if you aren't current in the latest technologies and work flows you'll also likely be left behind.

Personally, I find that, separating yourself by a style , technique or ability to always get the image the client needs, eventually builds you a name. Once you've built the name, it's much easier to charge more, and you don't usually have to explain why. I certainly don't try to convince anyone I'm worth what I'm charging. They either get it or they don't. I don't need any one particular job, so if it's not right, I don't do it.

I don't know... I am just waiting for the opportunity to try brain surgery on myself. I mean really, how hard can that be?

Laughingly I hear people say "I can do SEO, web marketing, online development..." all day long. It becomes funny to me simply because my team has a few different specialties on it and I'm a jack-of-all-trades geek who admits that the specialists on my team can kick my proverbial butt when it comes down to a niche topic.

I server as a nexus who understands 95% of several difficult online models... but the 5% they keep expertise in is often worthwhile for me to hand it over to them.

The branding and reputation development is often worth more than the expertise it represents, but often the experts who are the best at what they do have no idea what branding or reputation development is good for.

About ten years ago I was teaching a ski lesson and saw a father yelling at his very unhappy eight-year old almost nonstop for two hours. "Pizza, no pizza! French fries! Stop! Turn! He was using all of the words we used as instructors, with none of the understanding behind them.

At the end of my lesson I spoke with his wife and suggested some books on teaching kids to ski, if they didn't want to hire a pro. She was almost in tears, saying that she'd tried to get him to stop and he wouldn't. Several other fathers then came to me, thanking me for saying something, and that they were getting close to giving this guy a good smack.

Learning something new requires exploring new patterns--input and output patterns. Our brains form new pathways, networks and relationships that at first are awkward, then seem to flow naturally. As we gain mastery in an area we really are discovering deeper and deeper levels of complexity, then simplicity, then more complexity, and yet deeper simplicity.

The catch is that mastery means that patterns are deeply rooted and don't require conscious thought. Bret can look into the world and the patterns for choosing his depth of field, shutter speed, focus and framing operate invisibly. For him it really is point-and-shoot. Now we really can all point and shoot, except that he does it at a much deeper level. As a Treasure Hunt Guide I listen to the words coming out of someone's mouth and just know what question to ask next. People I train to become guides struggle with that until the patterns become ingrained.

I've finally learned that rather than writing my own copy, designing my own website and creating my own business plan, I can find people who do those things with mastery. Now, I'm in the process of working with writers, a marketing whiz, and business people and can focus on what I do best. The more effective we are, the more people know I'm out there, the less I have to work to get "that next customer" and I can go into any sales conversation with no attachment to the result. We're a match or not.

So here's a Treasure Hunt for anyone who wants one: get curious about the things you are doing in your business that seem like work and struggle.

By getting curious, I mean ponder them, explore them, what are you really doing? What's it feel like when you do them? What goes through your head? What do you do to avoid doing these things? Don't try to fix anything, nothing's wrong here--just be curious.

When we first moved into our house I was doing drywall (mainly because we were broke and in need of drywall). I would take eight weeks or more to finish a room. I recently paid a professional $750 to hang, mud, and finish the drywall in our kitchen, in three days.

It's generally worth paying someone to do what they do best, and direct our own efforts at doing what we do best. I do remember this from my macro-economics class in college.

I've found though, that some people will never change, and will continue to do everything themselves. I've also found it's best not to worry about them, and just move on to the next potential client. Eventually you find the clients that understand that they can't do professional photography themselves.

My largest and best client originally brought me in a few times to show them how to do photography in house to save money. They didn't get it. They didn't have the time, and eventually realized it would be cheaper and a lot faster to just hire me to do it. It's been a great three year relationship.

BTW, I was a ski instructor as well, and clearly remember the saying that you should never teach a loved one to ski! I remember seeing lot's of crying girlfriends...

Hi Bret,

I agree with Elizabeth. In the professional organizing business. I meet sooooo many people who say, "Everyone tells me I should be a professional organizer, I'm so organized". Then you go to their house and you can't get in the front door without a bulldozer :>)

I've learned to let it go. They don't get the value of what I do and know what it took to get me where I'm at now and where I want to go forward. Anyone who de-values that I say, SEE-YA, Wouldn't Want To Be Ya! NEXT :>)

If organizing was their true passion, they'd have their own business.

NEXT...

Mary :>)

I've been a classic I can do that person for some time and I'm just now breaking myself of the habit.

Actually, the habit was broken for me by working for a company with a "Mati can do that " attitude. I found myself taking pictures (really lousy ones) producing video, designing web pages, editing radio clips, designing fliers and posters, dancing around as the team mascot and much more.

What was I hired to do? Create and sell sponsorship and promotions opportunities. And that portion of what I do really suffered while I was trying to put together all of the other projects that I wasn't efficient at.

It wasn't until I was forced to do those things by someone else and saw the less than ideal results, that I realized I had worked with that mentality through several projects of my own and it was really holding me back from being successful.

Now, whenever possible, I've learned to let go as much as possible and let professionals from those fields handle it. Of course there are budget constraints and some work outside my field that I do out of necessity, but I recognize that those are temporary fixes until I can get the right professional involved to bring the project to the level it deserves to be at.

Bret - I just love this thread!

And I have a happy anecdote to share that happened in my second business in real estate staging.

A client hired me to "tell them what they needed to fix" and didn't want me to actually come back to stage the house.

"We'll stage it ourselves and you can come back to tweak anything that doesn't look right."

(Don't ask me why I took this job.)

I showed up 3 weeks later after they'd completed the list I'd given them. When I arrived, the lady of the house was holding a decorative pillow in one hand and some framed photos in the other.

She looked around aimlessly at the room, laughed, and said, "This is a lot harder than I thought."

I got to do the rest of the job myself.

Ahhh... :)

• Jennifer

Jennifer "gets" it! People are generally on budgets (many of us on tighter ones than we'd like!) and work hard to find the balance between what they need to hire a professional to complete and what aspects they can "make work" for now until money allows for the REAL thing.

Prior to my time in the book publishing world, I was a teacher. I felt pretty confident with the newsletters and flyers I created for my students and their families using my desktop publishing software. They did the job of conveying the messages I needed to send. I thought my "experience" would be helpful in carrying over into the publishing world. I learned quickly (thankfully!) that I was dead wrong.

I was fortunate to meet an amazing graphic desinger who created my company's logo and has since been priceless in my publishing endeavors. He worked with me to create the book's layout before I even hired an illustrator - and then completed the layout with the illustrations for the printer. The final product is AMAZING - so much so that I now won't create even as much as a bookmark without professional graphic design assistance.

I'm a believer in putting money where it belongs to make the best impact, but like most of the general public, I had to see it to believe what a difference you professionals do make! It wasn't that I was ignorant or thought that I had the same skill level as you do, but rather I was coming from a different realm of experience.

I so appreciate clients with attitudes similar to what Brianna posted above. As a designer specializing in identity, part of my "job" is often to create the simplest looking solution, with the greatest potential impact, for a client's business identity crisis. Some of the most simple looking logo designs are the ones that have taken the most time to finalize. One recent logo design and branding process took over a year to complete - from information gathering to market research to completed design process. At times what I do can be quick and easy - but many years of education and 30 years of experience have made that possible.

I think this string is so interesting, because we're talking about client education and process transparency. Most of the time when I hire professionals, I have NO IDEA how they do what they do, and in the past, sometimes things turned out okay and sometimes they didn't -- but I felt like it was my fault because I didn't really "get" every little thing they did.

Now, I have found that it helps me to build confidence in the professional if they can explain the steps we'll be taking to complete the project, and it also helps me appreciate their expertise a bit more. I think everyone who is in busness for themselves is scared to death of spending a lot of money on something and not getting enough value for it. And, we're afraid that whoever we hire is like the Wizard of Oz -- initally looks impressive, when in reality it's just a weird guy behind the curtain :o)