Microstock for the Elevator
My new thing is the elevator speech.
The elevator speech gives a 30 second rationale to any occupation, passion, employment, or life endeavor. Everybody asks “What do you do for a living?” The pause that follows is very informative. You should be able (in a perfect world) to reply and say the most interesting thing in the world is what you do. if you can say it, and be convincing, your listener can’t help but evince surprise.
I find that since I became a microstock photographer, my mission is so focused that am comfortable “passing myself off” as a professional photographer. Because that’s what I am. But the conventional way I was raised to know what a photographer is  was someone who had a full time staff job somewhere doing nothing but taking assignment pictures.
But as people stop to talk to me about the photos I am taking, telling the microstock mission takes one sentence. People seem to “get it” in one fell swoop. The conversation usually takes a very friendly and positive turn. How often does that happen during the course of your work day? Think about the tradeoffs of being able to brag about what you do, instead of cringe.
The traditional idea of the photographer is gone. Microstock photography is so much more open ended than that. You learn to really open your eyes and be on the lookout for what’s interesting, what’s new, and what speaks visually to people. And the interaction I have with people is much more positive, because what I am doing is creative and fun.
It should be very educational to the professional who is mulling a career change if they take more than 10 seconds to fill the conversational breach. How can you evangelize a stranger to your services if you can’t wrap the words around your own vocabulary? If you have felt the birth pangs of a Microstock career, you can probably sense how ready you are to give the Microstock photography speech over your current job’s elevator speech.
The above image features a theme painted vehicle used to curbside advertise a dog workout service for humans. The car itself was spotted to attract attention, and the motto on the car boldly stated “Thank Dog” instead of “Thank God”. The curbside painted car is a great marekting device, it makes people stop and read a car when they wouldn’t read a billboard, flyer, or email.
My challenge was to get a good shot of the marketing slogan and the pattern design painted on the car. It wasn’t easy, and I noticed a lot of dog walkers stopping to read the car words as well. Talk about niche marketing. but the car itself was a one glance elevator speech.
Pretty soon I’ll have the Microstock speech for the elevator so polished I may get custom work face to face instead of just over the Internet. And then maybe I can leave a”parked car” of my own on the virtual curb.
