"I Can Whine Or I Can Change."

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter

Thanks to what I call "the widget economy" people can create products, businesses and relationships on the fly as needed. We can "plug and play" software, good people (regardless of location), and tools to build virtual companies almost overnight.  Tons of opportunity if you embrace change.

However, the "old guard" - old media (newspapers, magazines) and traditional marketers (interruption advertising, corporate marketing speak, dreary direct mail) - are kickin', screamin' and whining.   

This really came home to me in working with the photographer who did the shots for my new web site.  As Emily and I talked about the changes in old media, she noted that her traditional clients, high-profile magazines, are in a world of hurt.  So, they've drastically reduced what they pay to photographers  - which means her business was going down the tubes along with old media.  

And here's why I love working with her - she said, "I decided I can whine...or I can change." And so she has - and is doing very well with corporate portraits, marketed through a combination of her web site and good ol' fashioned word-of-mouth.   

(You can check her portfolio out at www.emilynashphotography.com.)

Comments

[Jo Black]

Hi
I think you're absolutely right - it's very tempting at time to put on that victim t-shirt and decide that the world is against you, you're going to go and stand in the corner and eat worms! Hey, we've all had days when we've felt like that. But the thing that separates the 'survivors; and ;thriver's' with the 'yesterday's news' and 'used to be greats' is that ability to think "I can whine or I can change."