We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Weight. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.
John, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?
I don’t know if this is the case in all trade, craft, technical and creative industry schools but it certainly was my experience and the experience for many of my peers whom I’ve spoken with: No business component in the curriculum whatsoever!
I had some wonderful teachers and instructors during my time at school both technically and creatively. People I was inspired, challenged and well taught by, most of them seasoned professionals in the industry but barely a word was spoken about marketing, sales or how to find clients at all.
I think this stemmed from the way the courses were put together, i.e. one teacher would have a class on lighting, another on fashion photography and another on history etc. Somewhat disparate parts of a whole with the photography program overseer’s not really taking in to account that what they were really graduating were a bunch of freelance small business owners with no idea what to do in the marketplace. It didn’t even occur to us that we were going into the marketplace. We just assumed we would make pretty pictures and people would come running. Nothing could be further from the truth and the reality is that no matter how busy you are the general rule of thumb is that you only spend twenty percent of your time shooting or creating and the other eighty percent working on and in your business.
We were just released into the wild and left to figure it out for ourselves. Not a great setup for success!
I did have one instructor who must have seen the situation to be lacking and on his own put together a very rudimentary business class, and I’m grateful, but it was basically how to open a bank account and not to keep your receipts in a shoebox. No real strategies about how to market yourself and your work or how to understand the needs and wants of clients in the industry.
At the time I probably wouldn’t have jumped at the chance to take an elective business of photography course so I think part of the solution would be A: to have one and B: to make it a required course. My history of photography course was mandatory. I enjoyed it and it was valuable but in hindsight, if I had to choose between having a good understanding of the past or knowing how to survive and be successful in the future the answer would be a no-brainer!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is John Weight and I’m a commercial photographer serving imaginative entrepreneurs, creative agencies and inspired brands here in Toronto and beyond.
It seems I’ve always been drawn to the creative side of things and especially photography. My father, as a young man, was a reporter and a photographer for a newspaper in a smaller town in Ontario – I think they liked him because they only had to send one guy out to cover a story – and my mother gave me my first 35mm film camera (which I still have) when I was about ten or twelve years old so photography has always been a part of me. Even before I was me!
As I got older I put the camera down for a while and played guitar and wrote songs in a rock’n’roll outfit that performed in and around Southern Ontario. We definitely didn’t make any money but we certainly had a lot of fun and it allowed me to continue to explore that creative side. After my musical interlude had run it’s course I went back to school to study photography in earnest.
I’m a good photographer and I really like the technical side of my job. Precision in lighting, being proficient in Photoshop and post-production, fine tuning the myriad of technical details that go into a photoshoot and recording them for repeatability down the road when the client comes back for more; all of these things are important to me but I’m not just a technician.
What I really love is collaboration! Connecting with my clients and finding out all I can about them, their business and their project, talking about all of the possibilities, getting them excited about what we could create together and then making the magic happen – that is my jam!
Surrounding myself with an amazing team of assistants and stylists and doing the prep work beforehand so that the shoot is stress free and efficient is an essential part of what I do. Ensuring that my clients and their projects not only look good in front of the lens but also in front of their clients is paramount.
Having the creative brief well in hand can also provide an opportunity to push the envelope a bit. Capturing images that go above and beyond the clients expectations – that is the magic!
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
One of the challenges of being a freelance creative is that for the most part we work in isolation, especially when it comes to the business side of things. Most of us don’t go to an office or workplace and work alongside the same group of people on a daily basis. People we might bounce ideas off of, commiserate with, celebrate successes with and learn from.
There also seems to be a built in perception of fierce competitiveness in the industry. That one should always play their cards close to the vest and be cagey when discussing your fees, pricing and business strategies with others in your field.
This is a daunting and lonely road that I have travelled extensively and not one you want to be on!
The antidote to this is community.
A fantastic resource for this and one that I wish I’d found much earlier on is Aura McKay’s Business of Creativity. https://
Aura offers a bunch of different business coaching courses and workshops for creatives and they are all excellent but the weekly live over Zoom meetings are incredible. This is a true community of creative professionals that come together to support one another, share their insights and challenges, provide a safe space for everyone to be vulnerable and check their egos at the door. The benefits of this real life camaraderie cannot be overstated. After my first meeting I realized I had finally found my tribe!
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
While the jury may be out on whether or not right brain/left brain theory is real, I think I can safely say as someone who ascribes to being right-brained that most creatives are not driven by a desire to be successful business people. I know that’s the case for me. I didn’t get into photography because I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
Generally, entrepreneurs see a gap or need in the market and build something to fill it or meet that need in order make money and aren’t necessarily invested otherwise in what that thing is. Creatives do or make their thing because they are driven to do it for reasons entirely uncommercial and then have to find a way to sell it to make a living.
The paradox is that most creatives are freelance or do contract work and to be successful have to be excellent business people, something that can require entirely different skillsets than the ones they have and use for the majority of their work.
All small business owners have to wear many different hats to succeed in their businesses but we creatives have to wear different brains under those hats too!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.johnweight.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejohnweight
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejohnweight
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/johnweightphotography
Image Credits
John Weight