[00:00:00] Hey, real quick. Do you remember how you first found this podcast? Maybe it was a tweet, maybe a friend sent it to you, or maybe you saw it on an Instagram story. This podcast only grows through word of mouth. I don't run ads. I don't have sponsorships. So I don't make any money off of this podcast. So my ask of you today is this, please pass it on to another creative out there, a podcast review, a post on Instagram or Twitter.
Or a mention to a friend, it would mean a lot to me and it might help another creative entrepreneur out there. Thank you. Welcome to the creative biz launch podcast, where we talk about how to grow your creative business and scale it to six figures, whether you're a photographer, filmmaker, or designer, you'll find something of value here.
AI is here. Clients have low budgets and the photography market is saturated. Is product photography dead? Can you even become a product photographer in 2023? In this episode, I'm walking you through the facts and I'm breaking down all the myths that are floating around right now around product photography and spoiler, you can still make a lot of money as a product photographer, but not in the way you might think listen to the end.[00:01:00]
And I'll break it all down here. If you're a product photographer or you're running your own business, or you're thinking about pursuing a product photography business, I'll be answering all the questions that you're asking. Can I still make a living from product photography in 2023? Should I be worried about AI taking over and stealing my job?
Should I start my own product photography company or go work for someone else? I can tell you right now that there's a right and a wrong way to approach product photography. And if we go down the wrong path, we're going to waste a lot of time. And honestly, we won't survive in this field, in this niche of product photography.
If you want to know the right way to approach product photography, keep listening.
Have you dreamed of being able to live a cushy life? Do you want to know the right way to deal with AI and mid journey and all these applications that are going to replace us? Do you wonder what the right way to start your product photography business is? Well, ever since I started my product photography company, I've actually had all these worries.
Well, maybe the AI one is recent, but I've had so many worries along the way, [00:02:00] especially this one. When I was starting out in 2019, I honestly kept hearing photographers say the same thing over and over again. This market is saturated. There's no more room for another photographer. It's really hard to get clients already.
I kept hearing people say this stuff over and over and over again. So, what did I do? I ignored them. When people say a market is saturated, especially when photographers say this, they really just mean I'm not good enough to keep up with all the new photographers coming into the mix. They're hungrier than I am, so they're going to work harder to get my clients.
When veterans in the industry say Say the market is saturated. Oftentimes this comes out of fear, a fear of competition and a fear that they don't have the skills to compete with all the young blood coming in. And yes, on one hand you might go to Instagram and see all the brands out there and think they already have incredible photos.
You might think that they don't need to hire you. They already have a great photographer that they work with consistently. And they're probably happy with the results. I'm going to tell you right now, [00:03:00] this is true. Those brands probably don't need you, but for every one brand that you see, that's fully polished on social media, there's going to be dozens more that don't pop up in your feed simply because they don't have great work.
They don't rise to the top because no one likes their photos because all their content is bad.
You can go out there and find these brands and pitch them with the right process and then land them as a client. You can help transform their page with amazing photography and help them be able to compete with the big guys up on top. People say profitography is a saturated market. Because they only see the brands that rise to the top.
It's like an iceberg at the very top. Only a small portion of companies have the best photos, but beneath the surface, there are so many companies that need someone to step in and take beautiful photos for them. By the way, I teach you exactly how to find these brands in my program. Creative Biz Launch link to join is down below in the description.
So there are brands out there, but are there brands that have big budgets? This is a trickier question to answer here, [00:04:00] but the short answer is yes. There are loads of brands with big budgets out there, but a lot of the time they don't want to pay you because they don't think that you're the best choice for the job.
And this isn't because your portfolio is bad. This is because the way you present yourself to the client shows that you have a bad offer or that you can't negotiate learning how to package your service in a way that shows them that you're the best fit is really critical for your success in the photography world.
And when you try and negotiate with them and they try and negotiate back with you, you need to use the right negotiating techniques to make sure that you can charge those high prices. This is why I've been able to teach all of my students and that's part of the reason why they're crushing it in the industry and Beating out other prod photographers at landing those high paying deals Okay, so we've established that the product photography market is not actually saturated and there's plenty of high paying clients out there What about AI at this point?
We've seen all the crazy things AI can do mid journey can generate images of [00:05:00] thin air Photoshop generative fill can take a boring photo and completely change it into something incredible. What does all this technology mean for photographers? Now, mind you, this episode is being recorded in July of 2023.
So AI is probably going to advance really quickly here. And some of this stuff may be outdated. The things here I'm going to say will reign true for a while. There are people out there that say that product photographers don't need to worry. The AI won't get good enough to replace us, but I actually disagree.
I think product photographers do need to worry, but only if they're working for someone else rather than running their own business. Listen very closely to what I'm about to say next. Product photographers need to run their own company rather than work for someone else. Otherwise, they will be replaced.
I'm going to say that again. Profitographers need to run their own company rather than work for someone else. Otherwise they will be replaced. This statement is really important. I strongly believe that if you're a profitographer working for someone else, then you will be expendable.
And we've actually seen proof [00:06:00] of this already. We've seen the impacts of chat GPT on so many industries. Companies are laying off. Most of their customer service teams, because Chachapiti can replace them. The same is going to happen to a lot of companies that employ product photographers. And I'm not saying that those companies are right or wrong in their decision, but when they look at their bottom line and they see that they can replace you with a piece of software, even if that software isn't as good, they're going to make that trade.
If it makes financial sense for that company,
it's a dangerous time to be employed as a product photographer. And that's why I'm so passionate about helping other photographers start and scale their own businesses. That's exactly what my education company does. Now, I'm not trying to scare you here. I'm trying to make you informed so you can make the best decisions possible.
For you, your career and your life. Now, let me explain why you need to have your own company as a product photographer. First off job security. Well, it may seem that working for an employer may lead to a steady paycheck. It's going to be riskier in the long run. Your employer can let you go whenever they want.
Since we just finished talking about [00:07:00] AI, it becomes even riskier right now. Now let's address the myth of that steady paycheck. You can actually have a steady paycheck when you run your own business as well. With the right type of sales pipeline, you create predictable revenue inside of your business.
This means that you know the number of clients you'll be working with every single week, month, and quarter. The sales pipeline I built out inside my product photography business allows me to have back to back 50, 000 quarters. That's a lot of money to make in three months as a photographer. And I have my sales pipeline to thank for that.
That's exactly why I teach all my students as well. The goal of your photography business should be to help as many clients as possible. And to do that, you need to be great at sales. Now, I mentioned I was able to make 50 K and a quarter in product photography, and this is more than most employers will pay you in a full year.
So on top of having more security running your own company, you'll also make way more money. It's an extremely lucrative place to be if you're running your own business the right way, but that's really difficult to do. That last part, running your business the right way in order to run your business the right way.
There are so [00:08:00] many moving parts, but if you can nail them, this type of income is possible. You need to do the basics right. These are things like LLC, taxes, accounting, and a website. That stuff is easy. Creating a compelling offer that you can sell for thousands is hard. Creating a client acquisition system to get predictable revenue month after month is hard.
Getting automation softwares in place is hard. You can spend years figuring out all this stuff yourself. I actually teach you literally everything you need to know inside my program, create a biz launch. You can join below and become a fully booked photographer in no time. Now as you're running your business, there are going to be a lot of challenges that you're going to face, but let's talk about one challenge in particular, AI.
How will you handle AI as a business owner? And let me be clear, I'm calling you a business owner, not a product photographer. As a business owner, you're going to need to embrace AI to compete in the landscape. This might mean that your product shoots now take half the time. You're able to use AI in the edits to really create incredible scenes that would have normally taken you hours.
Now maybe AI isn't that good yet, [00:09:00] but it will be. And that's what your job is going to be as a business owner. It's going to be to embrace it. And this is an area where it takes you half the time to the same amount of work. Maybe you'll still be able to charge the same amount of money, and that's going to be great for you.
Or maybe the competition is going to be charging very little. So you're going to have to cut your prices in half, but if you can still work twice as fast, you'll be in the same place that you are at today. But if your employer were to start using this, you'd be out of a job. As the owner of your business, you make the calls on how you want to handle the AI takeover.
Do you want to introduce it to your photography? Do you want to use AI for your sales process? Maybe you can use AI for marketing. However you decide to use it, you'll be in control. You'll be able to problem solve. And that's the beauty of being a business owner rather than an employee. So let's break down those myths.
Product photography is not a saturated market, and there is thousands of dollars to be made here. Becoming a business owner rather than being an employee is critical. With the right tools and business education, you can be a thriving product photographer. Let's get excited for this future of product photography.[00:10:00]
Thanks so much for your time. I'll catch you in the next one.
