What a treat to interview Skip Cohen and discuss his passion for the photography industry and how important it is to build relationships if we want a strong and sustained business. He is President/Founder of Marketing Essentials International, a marketing consulting firm specializing in projects dedicated to education, primarily in photography. He’s been actively involved in the photographic industry his entire career and previously served as President of Rangefinder/WPPI and earlier, President of Hasselblad USA. Prior to Hasselblad, he was with Polaroid for 17 ½ years.

He founded SkipCohenUniversity.com in January 2013. The site is a resource center for aspiring and working professional photographers.

He’s a writer, educator, and consultant and co-hosts “Mind Your Own Business” with Chamira Young. He’s a regular speaker and workshop instructor at several key conventions every year and has business and marketing modules with both Creative Live and Lynda.com.

He has co-authored six books on photography, The Art of Wedding Photography, The Art of the Digital Wedding, The Art of People Photography, Don Blair’s Guide to Posing and Lighting Body Parts, Wedding Photography from the Heart and GoingPro, released in 2011.

In this episode, Luci and Skip discuss:

• How business is going to be what you make it; it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• To be profitable, you need to learn the business, learn to sell, market, and network.
• The two perspectives of getting noticed are within the industry and building your network, and the other is your community.
• There’s incredible depth within the industry, so go to every possible conference, convention, or workshop as possible.
• A great blog is about great content, and great content develops a community.
• Relationship building is about getting your name, images, and branding known.
• Build a strong reputation with clients, deliver on time, and keep your promises

"The photography industry has helped the world capture one memory after another and take an intangible moment and turn them into tangible photographs that they can hold and look at for a lifetime." - Skip Cohen

Connect with Skip Cohen:

Twitter: twitter.com/SkipCohen

Facebook: facebook.com/SkipCohenUniversity

Website: www.SkipCohenUniversity.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/skip-cohen-25b261

Connect with Luci Dumas:

Twitter: @lucidumas

Facebook: facebook.com/LuciDumasInsightTrainingForPhotographers

Website: www.lucidumascoaching.com

Email: [email protected]

Show: The Profitable Photographer

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/luci-dumas