On today’s show, we have Marco Ibanez — an award-winning boudoir photographer and photography educator from the metro Washington DC area.
I’m really excited for you all to listen to our talk.
Marco has an inspirational story to share about a tragedy that changed his life and shaped the way he runs his business.
I promise that you will be inspired when you hear him share how he built a thriving boudoir photography business based on passion and simplicity.
Here are the highlights, but you can listen to the full conversation below or on the Momentum podcast.
A few years ago, one of Marco’s close friends died suddenly of a heart attack. The loss made Marco evaluate his life and think about the things he’d done to that point and the things he still wanted to do.
Faced with the idea of his own mortality, Marco felt a lack of purpose and decided that it was time to do more of the things that he loved, and less of what he didn’t.
This meant pursuing his longtime love for photography and going pro.
The Minimalist Approach
With a background in finance, Marco quickly realized that his business wasn’t as efficient and it could be, so he began to analyze every part of it and simplify.
At the time, he had three cameras, seven lenses, lights, stands, softboxes, etc… But 90% of the time, he used the same lens.
So he decided to get rid of everything but one body and one lens (a 50 1.4 if you are wondering).
He uses this same minimalist approach in every aspect of his business.
To Marco, time is the most priceless commodity. He measures success not by the amount of money someone has, but by their ability to manage their time as they please.
Marco encourages everyone to take a look at how they spend their time. He’s confident that 75-80% of the things that most people do are not being done efficiently or don’t really matter. Make efficiency a priority and then really focus on the things that add value to your life.
Invest in Education
One of the best ways to make efficiency a priority and add value to your life is to invest in education.
Many photographers are self-taught. There’s nothing wrong with that but a lot of time can be saved when you spend money to learn with an expert rather than trying to figure everything out on your own.
Marco summed it up perfectly when he said, “People spend a lot of time trying to save money when they should be doing the opposite. They should be spending a lot of money trying to save time. You can always get more money but you can’t get time back.”.
If you’d like to learn more from Marco, head over to his website and enroll in his free email course, that will help you avoid 7 common mistakes that photographers make. Marco will also be teaching at Camp Do More in 2019.
