We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paul Golangco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paul below.
Paul, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I went headfirst into photography after the 2008 global financial crises. I had a good job with a software company when I wanted to pursue some overseas work. Due to the crises and a number of other factors, I was left without many employment options. Photography was the skill that I had been growing so I decided to jump right into wedding and portraiture photography. In Dallas, you can make a good living doing that type of work, but I almost went broke several times over the next few years. Part of that was that I was still learning how to run a business along with learning photography. But I really wasn’t passionate about what I was shooting.
It wasn’t until I had an opportunity to go overseas as a photographer that I found something I was truly passionate about. I loved getting to capture the amazing work that humanitarian organizations were doing not because it made for good pictures (which it did), but because I was passionate about the actual work. When you care about the subject, you can tell the story more effectively. At the same time, I was finding more photographers and creatives to learn from and collaborate with. By getting to work with other creatives, we could share ideas, passions, tips, and other skills with each other. And we could encourage and give valuable feedback to each other for the work that we were creating. Those two things (passion and community) really helped me gain a footing in my business and gave me the confidence to continue to grow.
Beyond passion and community, however, the thing that has allowed me to make a full time living has been good business practices and flexibility. At the end of the day, I needed to be making a profit, regardless of creative fulfillment. So I needed to be able to make a budget for my business (and myself personally), and manage it well. Once I had that budget in place, I could then effectively structure contracts based around facts and numbers, rather than around guestimates and what other people were charging or what prospective clients were asking for. Knowing what it costs to run my business helps me to know at a minimum what I need to be making on each shoot to make sure I’m not just giving away money. I also have to have a good contract. It’s a safety net for me and my client so that we both understand what it is that we are agreeing to. I know what I’m offering and what I’m not offering, and the client knows the same. If there’s a disagreement we have a way to settle that. Very seldom have I needed to reference the contract, but it is always good to make sure I am a man of my word and will do what I said I’ll do. That said, I’m also flexible. Every client is different and I need to be able to roll with the punches. Sometimes that means I’m adjusting my budget, sometimes I’m changing my schedule. But I’m always trying to overdeliver, regardless. And I can do that because I’ve got a budget set and I’ve got a contract in place.
Paul, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I was shooting events in college at greek life events. But it wasn’t until the global financial crisis of 2008 that I started my own photography business. While I started off, as many people do, shooting family portraits and weddings, I didn’t get off the ground until I started doing humanitarian photography overseas. Since then, I’ve sought to tell stories through photos and videos in any aspect of my business. Most recently that means working with SMBs and agencies to craft the story that best highlights their or their clients’ offering.
What I bring to the table, more than my creative and technical abilities, is my partnership in trying to tell the story well. Whether we’re in the bush of east Africa, in luxury retirement communities, or at a wild bowl game, I want to think and dream with my clients to make sure that the end deliverable is truly more valuable than the budget that is set. So at the end of the day, we have a good relationship, and often a good friendship afterwards.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I can’t fully speak to my reputation in the market, but I can say that my clients think of 2 things outside of producing good work: care and relationship. When I working more predominantly in the humanitarian world, I was passionate about helping humanity and shedding light on the people doing the good work of caring for the poor and needy. I wanted to highlight not the plight, but the joy and hope in a way that was not demeaning but that was honest and fair. And I cared about the missions that my clients were on. They could tell that I cared about the cause, the people, and story.
That relates to the second piece which is relationship. I don’t like just being a vendor or a hired hand. I want to be a partner in telling my clients’ stories, no matter what sector they are in. So I want to be known as someone who cares about you and your life along with your project and your budget. Even for projects that I lose, I want that to be communicated because you never know what the future might hold. I’ve often had projects come from people that I met years prior, but they remembered me.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Relationships. It’s not just about what you know and who you know. It’s about building trust, and you do that by delivering good work, and caring about people. Once we’ve built trust, then I know the relationship will continue on. Most of my growth has been from people moving on to other companies, moving up in their company, and from them referring me to others. I do have an occasional non-connected project come up, but those almost never result in repeat work or referral work unless I build a trusting relationship with them as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paulgoimages.com
- Instagram: @paulgoimages
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulGoImages
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pgolangco/