Our journey in understanding this principle started in our previous studio 15 years ago after I read the book, “The E-Myth-Revisited” by Michael Gerber. The sentiment that caught my eye was that whatever you perceive yourself to be, others will perceive as well. Perception is more important than reality for it will become your reality. We’ve all heard the saying, “To be successful, we must look successful.” It is absolutely true!

Even in the biblical account of the 12 spies (Numbers 13:32-33) that went into the promised land (which was then occupied by the giants), we see this principle at work. “So they (the spies) gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Wow, every time I read that I am amazed that we do have the power to change perception by changing how we perceive ourselves! By the way, they lost the promised land because their perception of themselves as grasshoppers in other’s eyes! They just gave up!

After I read “The E-Myth-Revisited”, a major change took place. We started to see ourselves as successful to attract others that were successful. Our clientele changed from those looking for a deal to those looking for art, which was another perception that we were working to change. We became artists, not just another photography studio that took “pictures.” In fact, we changed our vocabulary as well, watching every word we said to make sure it sounded successful. Pictures became portraits or images and we still use those terms today.

We started working on our studio to make it look like an art gallery instead of a photography studio by removing clutter, small images, proof portfolios and signage. We even made the hard decision to hang just a few larger images in magnificent frames rather than a bunch of smaller wall images. Choosing which few would get the honors…that was hard! We replaced carpet and then bought a pricey oriental carpet for the front room (on payments) because we didn’t have the money to be doing all of this at that time. After talking to a carpenter, we decided to add crown moulding to the main floor which was unheard of with commercial dropped ceilings, but it looked beautiful! Specialty lighting was added, wall colors were changed to a deep, rich eggplant color, custom drapes were made for the front bay window area and we were almost there, but there was still the furniture.

The funniest thing happened when Tim came in and said he wanted all of the front room furniture gone…out…now! What we had at that time were wing back chairs in mauve (this was the late 80s) and claw feet end tables in dark woods. We replaced that furniture with sparse benches and columns to hold sculptures. Very sparse…very artsy! Our gallery was finally taking shape and we felt we were looking successful! In fact, a doctor came in for a business portrait not long after we made these changes, and as he stepped through the front door, he stopped and said, “Wow, I am going to be spending some money in this place!” We knew then we were on the right road!

As a final move, we decided to separate the galleries by style, so the entire main floor was dedicated to our newly introduced Relationship black and white portraiture, all in the same white mats and simple black frames. We moved the Color Studies to the lower level and our Sales Room became the Color Study gallery. We didn’t have Studio B or Beau Visage at this time.

When we moved into our current facility, we remained true to the lessons we had learned in our previous studio. We knew we wanted to look successful, to be a place where art was purchased, and we wanted our clients to have a grand experience. When we were talking with our contractor, she asked why we were wasting so much space on the front gallery when we could use more space in the office area. We told her that just the opposite was true…a large gallery that had the WOW factor was never wasted space! We put in dark cherry floors, separated our galleries physically within the facility (just like before), put in specialty lighting and installed Tim’s dream, a waterfall.  We don’t exhibit any small prints and we keep clutter away (all lessons learned before).

Today, Walden’s Photography has a grand presence in the community and our clients are wowed as they walk through the door. So, back up, take a look at your facility and see what you can do to improve. As you perceive yourself to be, so are you!

Have a great week, everyone. Remember to check out our Coaching Community and join! We are already having so much fun on the forum with topics that are so interesting to discuss (and there is so much more to see, learn and do).  Bev

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