Meazly Muzzle
I was watching Dragon’s Den the other night, a series where entrepreneurs stand in front of multi-millionaire business people and pitch their product or business for investment. Featured were a couple of women who are doing something very special with music to help children get involved with music and deejaying rather than getting into trouble on the streets. As they were being questioned about their product and how it could be copied, one of them said quite forcefully, it doesn’t matter if people try and copy the format; they can’t do it in the way that we do it and with the passion that we do with it because it’s our passion, our idea.
And it’s the same with Healing with Photography. It’s something I guess that could be replicated, but it’s not something that can be replicated with the passion I feel for it or the energy or love that runs through me when I think about it. It comes from my own experiences, something that I went through and it’s now evolved into helping others.
And this week I’ve been very much putting Healing with Photography out there into the business community to find potential sponsors for the courses. I want to run the courses through MIND, the mental health charity centres, yet funding is an issue for the centres at the moment, so I have decided to go down the route of private sponsorship. Essentially the private sponsorship fees will pay for the website costs, course costs, and my wages. It will also launch the teleseminar series which I hope to be running by the end of this year or the beginning of next at the latest.
So what companies have I gone for? Well, there’s a natural link up with one camera manufacturer as their marketing ties in with one part of my course. I’ve also approached other camera companies as well, as a photographer doing healing courses with photography, to me, it seems a natural match.
I have approached a luxury car manufacturer, as not only are they in my local town, a part of the course looks at attracting in what you want. So having a luxury car maker on board would demonstrate to participants, what’s possible and help them to widen their horizons. Personally, I found it really inspiring when I was ill to listen to people, business coaches and transformational entrepreneurs, tell their story of, I had no money and now I’m a millionaire. It wasn’t so much that they are a millionaire it’s that it’s possible and it’s the possible part of it makes it quite inspiring.
I’ve decided to make the sponsorship proposal either sole or joint sponsorship for one year, which of course means for a joint sponsorship I would need a few sponsors to come in to make up the money. I’m currently working on a teleseminar series too, which although free to listen to, will have products that can be sold as a revenue source, and I will also sell Healing with Photography courses in video format online so I can reach people around the world to help them rather than just in my locality. I will talk about making the video courses at a later date as I’m just in the process of putting on my TV producer’s hat and working out the basics of how to create them, to make them entertaining and value for money.
And that has been my week pretty much, now it’s twiddling my thumbs and waiting for the answers and I’m not very good at twiddling my thumbs. So I’m busy looking for new photo locations, I found some great ones this last weekend, where I got a lovely jersey cow close up that you can see at the top of this article. I’ve been after this kind of shot for a long time and so I am very happy with it. I really love working with cows they have so much character.
In next week’s article I’ll be looking at the hoops I’m having to jump through to get the photography holidays up and running and explaining why it’s taking me so long to getting around to selling it!
*The Current Photographer website contains links to our affiliate partners. Purchasing products and services through these links helps support our efforts to bring you the quality information you love and there’s no additional cost to you.
Living in the beautiful rural county of Yorkshire it was perhaps natural for Ruth to have an affinity with the countryside and its wildlife. Creativity is Ruth’s driving force finding an outlet in television & radio she worked for many years as producer for BBC & ITV.
However a love of photography and for being surrounded by nature called her to go back to her photography training and bring pleasure and joy to people through her connection with our planet.
Staying in the moment when taking her images allows her to experience the natural magnificence unfolding before her eyes. It is this moment of mediation, of gratitude, that she evocatively conveys through her images.