After moving into my new house, I discovered that my neighbors are inconsiderate a-holes. Yup.
They throw outdoor parties in their backyard with professional-grade subwoofers that hit 80 dB inside my house. For the record, the city’s legal limit is 45 dB after 9:00 PM.
The first night they threw a party after I had moved in, I was up until 1:00 AM even though I called the cops three times.
And because I have a chronic illness where I need to be protective of my sleep and because I couldn’t sleep, I got sick.
And I got sick badly. Afterward, I had a cough that lasted three months which actually affected my income.
And each night there was a party, the police would make me call them 3 times citing some bullcrap policy of “3 visits” before they would shut down the party with a threat to fine them.
As you can imagine, that left the onus on me, as the suffering neighbor, to stay up all night and work at shutting down the party.
So I decided to go to battle.
I spent a year acting as my own advocate, talking to neighbors, following the chain of command at the police station (which did NOTHING but get me lip service), and finally reaching out to the City Council with the Municipal Codes to prove that the cops aren’t doing their job.
Oh and with the threat of going to the media if they don’t do their job by putting pressure on the police.
I noticed the last few parties didn’t have subwoofers.
And I found out from the neighbors that I finally forced a citation!🕺
And you know what else they told me? That they’ve been living with the noise for 30 years. 30 years, while begging and pleading with their neighbors to stop!
Here’s the thing. Those neighbors tried calling the cops like I did but because nothing ever changed, they just gave up.🤷♀️
They accepted the noise as a permanent part of their lives.
I liken this to how some photographers accept being broke and constantly hustling as a permanent part of their lives.
They try over and over again and because nothing changes, they resign themselves to blaming a “saturated market” for lack of bookings.
But there is a difference between activity and feeling like you’re doing something vs. doing something with authority. I’m specifically talking about positioning.
See, in my neighborhood I positioned myself as a noise maker. You know the saying, ‘The squeaky wheel gets the grease’? I got loud and things changed.
That’s what positioning yourself as an authority in your market does for your business. It makes you loud. It changes the dynamic from looking for work to attracting work.
To be very, very clear, positioning is the process of establishing a distinct philosophy for your business and calling out a specific group of people who believe that your philosophy—your specific stand and your methodology in relation to your competitors—helps solve their problem.
That stand you take, the philosophy you preach, and the methodology you use to produce pictures, positions you as the expert.
As an expert, you have authority. That authority creates so much trust that it has people flocking to book you (paying premium prices to boot!).
For example, for my own studio, I don’t just post photos on my website and on social media. I take a very specific authoritative stand with my philosophy that sorta goes against the grain:⏬
- My Philosophy: I claim that pretty, generic headshots are a 100% waste of an actor’s time and money.
- My Methodology: I refuse to let clients “pose” – instead, I direct them for personality-driven shots that actually get them work.
THAT is positioning in action. It’s not random “activity”; it’s a stand.
If you’re lacking positioning, you’re constantly fighting for attention.
Here’s a screenshot from my favorite brand photographer basically preaching the same thing. Being “good” isn’t enough.👇
If you want to step out of the part-time struggle and into the full-time stability of being an in-demand photographer, you MUST take a stand and position yourself as an authority.
Because if you don’t define your position, the market will define it for you—and usually, that position is “invisible.”
Let me know in the comments below if this helped you understand positioning a little better!
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