Becoming a commercial photographer is easier than you thought. | Josh Rossi

Earning $50,000 for ONE image?

Crazy right? Whether you are already shooting commercial photography or looking for a place to start, todays episode is for you. Today I’m excited to have commercial photographer, Josh Rossi on the show.

Obviously this level of success did not happen overnight. In todays show, I go back to where Josh started, he shares some incredible insights on what worked and what didn’t as he was trying to make a living a professional creative. In fact, he started out in the industry shooting wedding videos.  Two years after he started, he shut that unsuccessful business down.  Failing helped him realize that being really good at what you do is only one part of the equation that leads to success.  We talk about how what actually matters more is being able to find the right clients that value what you have to offer.

This is where you start.

“There’s tremendous potential for your business in your back yard and it’s overlooked by many photographers.”

“Yeah my first clients were Adobe, Acura, and Champion USA” – Said no photographer ever. This is not where anyone gets their start.  Think global act local right? In todays changing business landscape, small businesses in your town have just as much – if not more need for professional help in telling their story, and attracting customers.

If you look at the marketing and images that most local businesses are using, you’ll likely find that there is a lot of room for improvement. And you can help.  When you help businesses identify and solve a problem and you will become invaluable to those businesses.  For Josh, this means that if he see’s a particularly terrible billboard, he’ll call the head of the marketing department.  His pitch isn’t straight sales.  Instead he shares his work and offers cool marketing ideas with the ultimate goal being, that they’ll add onto the idea and be excited to see it implemented.

Who Do You Know Who Has Influence?

If you don’t know anybody, find people.  Josh started a group that he calls MERLIN. It’s comprised of people who are about his age and work in different industries in the area.  They own multi-million dollar companies, are the top real estate brokers in the state, best chefs, etc….At the time that he formed the group, Josh and the two other people in the group were not influential (you have to listen to the podcast to hear how he got people to join…there may have been ninjas involved).  However, by surrounding themselves with talented and successful people they were able to get their work in front of other people of influence.  Josh’s friend who is a designer went from making $5k to $20k per month because of the relationships and connections that the group provided.

“You’re not just a photographer, you’re an artist.  More than an artist, you’re a creative.  What do creative people do?  They get people’s attention.”