We recently connected with James Patrick and have shared our conversation below.

James, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
A mistake that many make, including myself, is to be reactive in their marketing efforts. Reactive marketing could mean building a website and hoping people find it or establishing a social media channel and banking on being discovered there. It could also include purchasing advertising with the expectation of receiving a return on that investment. Proactive marketing, on the other hand, is direct manual outbound business development where you seek out and connect with prospective clients to offer your services. This can include making a list of top prospective clients and scheduling time to call and/or meet with each of them to propose your creative services. It was this direct manual outbound business development efforts that took my business from a hobby to a multiple six figure creative profession.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is James Patrick and I am an internationally published photographer with more than 500 magazine covers to my credit. I am the best-selling author of Fit Business Guide: The Workout Plan for Your Brand. I am the founder of FITposium, an annual conference helping fitness entrepreneurs establish and grow their businesses as well as the online coaching platform FitBusinessOnline.com. In addition, I am the publisher of ICON/REFINED, a digital network celebrating the modern entrepreneur as well as ICONFIT Magazine. I work with clients both in helping them create the most marketable imagery as well as coaching those clients as entrepreneurs to scale their brands. Work samples can be seen on my website JamesPatrick.com or my Instagram @JPatrickPhoto

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Regardless of what industry you are a part of, you will be asked and required to evolve if you plan to continue to stay relevant to your audience. As a photographer I watched the transition between film and digital, the launch of social media and the recession of 2008. During each of these events, creatives were required to shift how they created their work, shared their work and how they offered their work to not only survive, but to thrive in their business. Over the past 18 months, we have been asked to assess our offers, the positioning of our offers and how we connect with our audiences. A great entrepreneur is one that remains curious about how to best serve their clients not just today, but what their client’s will require tomorrow.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Clients are more savvy than every before and will invest the time and energy into researching not only you, but other professionals in your field. This requires business owners to implement a successful nurture system for their prospective clients. It is not enough that people know you exist. They have to trust you and see you as a source of value for them to want to invest in you. Think of your nurture sequence as a means to educate, inspire or entertain your audience (or a combination thereof). When you can position yourself, and your social media content, podcast, e-mail newsletter or whatever touch points you leverage as a value-driven communications tool – that is a fantastic way to build the resonance and trust with your audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jamespatrick.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jpatrickphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamesPatrickPhotography/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jpphotoaz
• Other: FitBusinessOnline.com FITposium.com

Image Credits
All Photos Courtesy James Patrick