We recently connected with Thomas Gillman and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
This is something that’s been ingrained in me for a very long time. When I was young I went through some pretty traumatic things. There was a 10 year period of my life as a child where my family was homeless numerous times. I saw what not working, alcoholism, and depression can do to people. When I was very young I made a conscious decision that I was never going to be like that and my wife and children would never experience that. It was literal hell. So I work hard. I try to make sure every client has a great experience with us. I try to go above and beyond. Do I fall short sometimes? Absolutely but I will never stop trying my hardest. Every client gets 125%
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am the Owner and Lead Photographer of Abundant Grace Photography. We specialize in weddings and families. We’ve been serving the Tampa Bay area and worldwide since 2006. We pride ourselves on capturing special moments and romantic visual representations of your day. We are award winning and published. We also believe that every couple deserves to have great photos. We try to keep our pricing attainable for our clients. You shouldn’t have to mortgage your house to have great images.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Patience, drive, and the want to give your clients the best experience they can possibly have.
1. Be patient. There are 1000 photographers for every client. In todays world, and in an industry with no real entry process, someone can go to the store, buy a camera and claim to be a photographer. There’s so much more to it than just pushing a button like they think. It also takes time and a period of ” paying your dues” that goes with this. I started my weddings journey in 2006 and it took 5 years before I was able to leave my 9-5 job to pursue this full time. There was a lot of sweat, some tears, and some time on my knees praying involved. Times I wanted to give up this dream of having a successful business. Eventually through hard work and persistence the snowball got rolling. It took some time. It didn’t come over night.
2. Drive. You have to want it. You have to be able to look past the fact that there are other photographers out there trying to undermine you and take your clients. Yes.. It happens. Its cut throat in the wedding industry. I’ve had contracts taken right out from under me because someone else, knowing a couple had already signed with me, offered them a better deal and the couple took it. I’ve had people steal images and claim them as their own. There can be a lot of frustrations in what I do. There is also a lot of reward when you have a happy couple or a happy mom who wanted great photos of their family. If you cant weather the ups and downs this isn’t a profession for you.
3. Your clients deserve the best from you. every..single..time… There isn’t a re-do on a wedding day. There’s no “cut” and ” take 2″. You get one shot so you have to be on your game. You have to be able to push things to the back like … I hope Johnny made it to his baseball game today, or man that was a nasty fight I just had with my spouse… your clients may be sympathetic but in reality they still expect you to perform. Give them everything. You have too be bale to turn off your personal things and turn on to them. After the event is over go above and beyond. Take the time to edit things like people off the beach. Is it frustrating.. yep.. but the difference in how they react when they see their images with no-one on the beach but them, and if you leave Joe Speedo in there is worth it. Word of mouth is a huge thing and we want them to say things like “omg you’ll never believe what they did”. It sparks excitement which sparks a desire in others to work with you.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Right now in all honesty its a tough economy and a saturated market. People are reigning in the wallets and people that have lost jobs grab a camera and think that its easy to do what I do. It creates a situation where it becomes a race to the bottom as far as pricing is concerned. Almost a desperation type thing for some people where they’ll give away the farm just to get a gig. It hurts us as a whole on top of people not wanting to spend. We have a great financial advisor and a couple of years ago he told us ” things are going to inflate and your colleagues are going to raise their prices to match the inflation. I want you to hold tight”. So we did. What he said came to fruition. I have colleagues that raised pricing and are now struggling and we are catching the fall off so to speak. People that cant afford them are coming to us. Listening to wise advice and not panicking is our strategy at the moment. When things turn around, and they will, we’ll look to make changes but for now we are staying the course. Eventually jobs will come back and the fly by night photographers will put the cameras down and go back into the work force. We’ve seen it happen all to many times. Its a cycle.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.abundantgracephoto.com
- Instagram: @ThomasGIllman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbundantGracePhoto
Image Credits
Abundant Grace Photography / Thomas Gillman
