Podcast 20 – An Interview with Damien Lovegrove

March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 Michael Rammell business, interview, Podcast BBC, Business, career, Damien, Fuji, interview, lovegrove, Michael, Photography, Rammell, Ready Steady Pro, teaching, training

We’re back once again with another superb, open and insightful interview with another leading photographer. Today our guest is UK based photographer, trainer, teacher and writer; Damien Lovegrove

I was keen to find a guest who had ‘been there, done that’ – someone with plenty of experience who could speak with conviction about the photography industry today. Recently, we’ve had discussions in the Ready Steady Pro Facebook community about how the industry seems to have changed in recent years, so I thought what better way to find out for sure than to have someone of Damien’s calibre and experience on the show.

Damien started his life with cameras (in a professional sense) by going to work for the BBC as a trainee camera operator, before working his way up. As you’ll hear in this interview Damien went on to leave the BBC, start an incredibly successful wedding photography business, which ran for 10 years before Damien conciously, and intentionally decided to change direction in order to get weekends and time back in his life. Damien bought a business consultant on board to aid in the change of career from photographer, to writer, to trainer.

Michael Says:

“I first came across Damien many years ago, when i first got into photography myself. In the UK, unlike the US & Australia, we don’t really have many ‘big names’ when it comes to well-known photographers. We have a few, but not many. Well, of the few we do have Damien almost certainly is one of them. I found Damien’s teaching style to be very accessible and easy to take on board, but Damien also shows with his work that he has conviction in what he teaches. Damien is a photographer who has ‘been there and done that’ and as a result was someone I knew would be an excellent guest for the show. I’m really pleased that Damien has agreed to join me to discuss his career share with us some of the things he knows…”

Damien speaks openly about having multiple, passive revenue streams and so much more. This interview is a real-must listen!

As well as all of the wisdom and knowledge shared, Damien was also very generous and shared a discount code offering all RSP listeners 50% off all videos on his website (see the link below).

You really do need to have your notepad to hand, because the gems are dropped thick and fast in this episode!

Links to most of what is mentioned in this episode can be found below in the ‘Show Notes’ section

Sit back and enjoy this episode of Ready, Steady Pro! Click the link below to listen / download the podcast.

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This weeks Topic

Changing Careers
Passive Revenue Streams
Relationship with FujiFilm
Wedding Photography is a retail business

Today’s Little Gems

50% off all videos in Damien’s shop. Just enter ‘readysteady’ at the checkout.
Note: This is a one-time-use voucher and can be redeemed against one checkout transaction. If you would like to purchase multiple videos please purchase them at the same time using this voucher code to receive your 50% discount

Show Notes / Links

This weeks Hosts

Michael Rammell
Damien Lovegrove

Podcast 19 – An Interview with Rahim Mastafa of SugarboxStudios

January 7, 2015January 8, 2015 Michael Rammell business, interview, Podcast awards, Body Building, Business, camera, Cardiff, Fitness, Learning, Magazines, Mastafa, olympus, photographer, Photography, press, Professional, Rahim, Sports, SugarBoxStudios

Following on from the successful return of the podcast with episode 18 – This episode finds us picking the brains of Cardiff based Sports Portrait Photographer Rahim Mastafa of SugarBoxStudios.

Today’s interview is something a little different from Ready Steady Pro. The Ready Steady Pro Community and a large body of the listeners are, as you may expect, Wedding and Portrait Photographers. But, Rahim, who describes himself as a Sports Portrait Photographer, photographs – as you’d expect – sportsmen and women, Personal Trainers, Bodybuilders and even Olympic Athletes!

Even if you’re not into Portraiture or if your immediate reaction is that this episode won’t be relevant to you – think again. The fact that we’re talking about a slightly different niche to usual makes this episode no-less relevant to you as Rahim gives us a wonderful insight into his working strategy that includes almost exclusively using social media (Instagram and Facebook in particular) and practically forgoing a website and a blog. This unorthodox approach probably wouldn’t be the advice of many experienced business coaches, but Rahim is going against the grain and this approach is gaining him clients…fast! Despite only having gotten into this niche some 18 months ago and only picking up a camera around 2 years ago Rahim is making his own success and gaining traction and notoriety that many would take a decade to achieve.

Michael says:

“I first came across Rahim when he joined the RSP community on Facebook and saw that he was shooting something slightly different to most – sports, fitness and body building. It was interesting and refreshing to see something new in my news feed. But more than that though Rahim’s personality comes across very well on Social Media and that is something that isn’t always easy to achieve, even if you are being yourself and being genuine. When I saw Rahim post a selfie outside a David Lloyd Gym telling us he had just finished a meeting with them I was intrigued – Rahim seemed like a go-getter who hunted down business and ‘Hustled’. I had to know more and so I invited him on the show. I expected Rahim to be a great guest…but he exceeded my expectations!”

Be sure to stick around to the end to find out how you can appear on the show and get involved and also to hear some shout outs to those who have left iTunes reviews!

You really do need to have your notepad to hand, because the gems are dropped thick and fast in this episode!

Links to most of what is mentioned in this episode can be found below in the ‘Show Notes’ section

Here’s some more of Rahim’s work and be sure to check him out on Social Media where you can find more of his work.

Sit back and enjoy this episode of Ready, Steady Pro! Click the link below to listen / download the podcast.