What Shooting Film Photography Taught Me About Business Leadership.

I help manage marketing for a public company but my “second job” is as a fine art photographer. I’ve been doing film photography for over 40 years and have been getting paid for my work for over 30.  

In my main other life as a marketing dude, I’ve managed marketing campaigns in the upper 7 figures and have worked for fortune 1000’s and startups, making them lots of money and learning a lot about business leadership on the way. As I’ve worked longer, I’ve started to see the lessons I’ve learned are starting to be global and apply to both my worlds, which gave me pause and the motivation to write this article.

Lots of pictures don’t equal quality and lots of activity doesn’t mean good.

Nowadays, digital cameras allow us to take LOTS of pictures, then rummage through them afterwards for some good ones. This is not always the best strategy as it doesn’t usually solve for what you are going for which is the BEST picture. 

Creating lots of activity in business then seeing which noodle stick to the wall can be time consuming, energy wasting, and budget eating. We see newer managers do this to try and completely avoid risk. However, like with film and business, the time and energy you spend on everything end up making the things that do work expensive.

Whether it’s film or business, shoot for the BEST solution, do some thinking, and don’t just do LOTS.

Film is expensive to work with so you have to keep your on a budget even when you have lots of great stuff you want to do.

I’ve got tons of ideas for my art. However, each one of them involves some cost; props, people, travel, film and developing. I constantly have to balance money versus inspiration and pick the one that will give me the best return (not always money) at the time. 

It’s like that leading a business, you’ve got to pick the BEST option and have some reasons to back up your decision-making. It’s prioritizing the next things, then having the flexibility to move the furniture around should the opportunity arise.

Slowing down and thinking before taking action the key to good film photography – and running a business.     

What could go wrong? How will all the elements in the scene affect the overall image? Experienced photographers typically are more thoughtful when it comes to what they do, as they have done things wrong enough to look for the things that will go wrong or the things that make up a great image versus a picture. 

In business, slowing down and thinking about how the one thing you do will affect everything else in the organization is the sign of a great leader. The doers of the organization may be frustrated with your questions or desire to slow down, but you’ll see the artistic results in the end product!

Not everyone’s going to love your stuff.

I don’t get it. I could have done it better. This is stupid. These phrases can be applied to both my film work and to business leadership. Not everyone will accept that my pictures are brilliant or that your plan for a new sales van is the best idea. That’s ok. 

It’s about how you deal with haters that matters. Being a keyboard warrior isn’t always the best approach and sometimes a phone call can put feelings and understanding in check. 

Sometimes it may even boil down to getting rid of a client or an employee. I don’t ever feel bad about getting rid of a client or employee because it is never going to be a surprise to them or me if I have to. 

Setting expectations with people is where you build a foundation of stone or quicksand.

If I tell you I’m going to create super colorful pictures of your kids in a wild day of photography and you agree to give me $5000, you’d be pretty upset if I gave you somber black and white images because I felt they “fit” better. 

Same goes for business leadership. If I tell you I’m going to hook you up with a sweet bonus for making X dollars in revenue, excuses about why you won’t get one after you reached your goals because the numbers don’t blah blah blah (they have stopped listening already).

Set expectations about what you actual expect. I have to do this with my photo clients all the time. You should be doing it with your employees as well. I need this Wednesday by 5 pm, how are we going to make sure it is done by then? 

Build in flexibility for Murphy’s law.  

Cameras break, film is processed wrong. Your employees get sick and have severe personal problems. Plan for these and don’t be a dick about them happening. Shoot with three cameras, make sure the intern knows where the files are for a project, hell have some type of system in place you don’t have to look for stuff if things go south.

You can’t plan your way out of Murphy’s law happening, but you sure as hell can plan for when it does. 

Sell the end result.

People don’t hire me for photography because I shoot on film or use so and so camera. They hire me for coming up with ways to make the subjects I shoot part of the art and then I deliver ART. People don’t look to you to manage X number of people and keep your shit together in meetings. They hire you to do something, sell this much stuff, get us on the cover of Forbes, steal X % of market share from a competitor. 

You get paid for the end result and you get to be as creative as you want to get there.

Conclusion

• Slow Down
• Think
• Embrace Murphy’s Law
• Know it’s the end result that matters
• Do your best