Last week we hosted our annual photo marketing roundtable here at The Hive Studios in Phoenix, Arizona.

At this event, a handful of creative professionals (photographers and videographers) sat around together to discuss ideas, strategies, complications and breakthroughs in their business as business owners.

Through the course of this discussion - there were 5 main areas that were brought up as important means to generate additional and predictable revenue as a creative professional.

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Peerspace is a brokerage site used for short-term rentals for photo shoots, video productions, events, podcasts, meetings and the like.

Historically, Peerspace made their revenue by taking a percentage off of every single booking done through their website. However, recently Peerspace has instituted a bidding system which allows location managers to pay to have their spaces ranked higher in the site's search algorithm.

What will this do for renters? What will this do for location managers?

Short answer; things are likely to get more expensive for everyone.

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There is one mistake that I've seen photographers, videographers and creatives make over the course of my 20+ year career. This mistake is often what separate photographers who build sustainable and thriving businesses versus those who continue to have peaks and valleys and often find themselves struggling to bring in new business.

For those in Arizona - we are hosting a photo marketing roundtable on May 22nd at The Hive Studios in Phoeninx, Arizona. RSVP at https://www.hivestudiosaz.com/workshops/p/photo-roundtable-2025

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Let's face it - if you expand the timeline long enough - you're going to find there is quite a fair amount of toxicity within the photography community.

From jealousy to envy to downright aggressive competition - no one is immune from it.

So let's break down the actual sources behind the toxic traits of so many creatives and how we can navigate it better as a community.

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I want to be clear, right off the top, that I have personally made every single one of these mistakes myself in my 20+ year career.

The goal is not to shame photograpehrs for making the mistakes that all of us have made - but to shed light (that is a well-placed pun) on these misconcepts, misunderstandings and mistakes so that we can continue to learn and improve on our craft as creative professionals.

https://jamespatrick.com/

You were asked by a client to bid on a project and either intentionally or unintentionally they did not give you all of the information you need to accurate prepare an estimate that fully reflects your services and value.

Bluntly - you underbid.

So what do you do?

In this episode of the Beyond the Image podcast, host James Patrick deconstructs how to prevent this scenario from happening to begin with as well as suggestions on how to navigate it with clients should the situation arise.

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Photographers - there are two types of clients we need to STOP chasing.

1. Clients who don't have money.
2. Clients who don't want to spend money.

Instead - let's focus on how we find clients who do have the purchasing power and purchasing assets to support our creative endeavors.

https://jamespatrick.com/

Social media was never particularly easy - but it sure was a lot simpler. The way to achieve engagement has completely shifted (and we've lost count how many times that has happened).

In this episode of the Beyond the Image podcast - we dive into what needs to happen on your social channels now based upon how audiences are consuming content.

https://jamespatrick.com/

If all you are sending a prospective client is an estimate sheet - then you are drastically under-selling yourself as a creative.

In this episode of the Beyond the Image podcast - I dive into my strategy for crafting and desgining well curated proposals that I send to clients when bidding.

https://jamespatrick.com/

In today's episode we answer the question "should photographers niche?" YUP!

Yup they absolutely should! In this episode of Beyond the Image, host James Patrick dives into why photographers should carve out their specialty and unique selling proposition as well as unpacking the biggest fear they have when it comes to niching down.

If I niche down, then I won't get hired for other work again!

The reality is - that simply is not true!

https://jamespatrick.com/