I recently had the opportunity to read Brian Matiash's new book, the Visual Palette.

I loved this book on so many levels. One of the chapters that particularly resonated with me at this particular point in time was the one about the "Gimme Shot." The idea is to take your camera to a place you are no longer motivated to photograph. Somewhere in your neighborhood that you now take for granted. You take the standard shot that everyone else has likely taken a thousand times. You get it out of the way, but now you are shooting and something might catch your interest or attention and you are off to the races.

This is so timely as I recently came back from Venice where I was highly motivated to get out and shoot every day. Everything was new and exciting. My curiosity meter was on overload for the entire trip. This was awesome, but also alarming. What would happen when I was back home and surrounded by the same old, same old? Would I go back to not shooting every day?

Sadly, my camera has a strong tendency to stay in its bag on a shelf when I am in Toronto (unless I am out on a gig.)

So reading Brian's book on the flight home was a godsend. I vowed to put his "Gimme Shot" concept into play upon my return. So yesterday I got up before dawn (helped greatly by still being on Venice time) and took my dog to our all-too-often visited beach.

I have walked this beach a thousand times and no longer felt motivated to shoot there. So I made sure to bring my camera and quickly got the "gimme shot" out of the way. And then I started to play. Brian was so dead on. The gimme shot totally works and I now see a way to spark my curiosity even while stuck in Toronto.

The Gimme Shot

Ms. Mae Van Der Wag

It's frisbee time!

Starting to play!

There is a lot of good stuff in this book! I highly recommend checking it out. And if you pre-order it on Amazon you can save over 30%!

One of the most amazing and challenging weeks of my life was spent working with David duChemin in Venezia, Italy. 

I had come to Venice, per David's instructions, with only two lenses: my Canon 50mm and Zeiss 21mm.

We were given one objective – to create a body of work around the visual elements that captured our curiosity over the first three days.

I created two series over the six days we had. One came easy. This is the one that did not. At the end of the fourth day, I had only two images in this series. I had less than two days and a lot more images to find. I began to stress and melt down. The calling your Mom from Venice, Italy kind of melt down.

I wanted to abort and start again, but David encouraged me to continue. And then on the fifth day, I began to find the series. On the sixth day, I was fully invested and on a mad scramble for the final images as I only had that morning before we had to present our series. 

In the end, this is the series I am most proud of. I'm glad I stuck with it. I owe this series to David.

I was super excited to appear on Fresh Rag again. This time, Dave and I pull no punches as we discuss conversion and goals. I see red when I meet artists who are working so hard at their craft and websites only to find out they are pouring their hard earned efforts and money down the toilet. 

I get that Google Analytics is a bit of a scary beast. And setting up goals and tracking conversions is a bit of a mind boggle to get going. But it is SO SO SO important. If you are selling ANYTHING online, or paying for ANY advertising, I hope you will take a listen to this episode!

http://www.freshrag.com/sean-howard-wants-to-convert-you-to-his-way-of-thinking/

And for anyone looking to understand how to get their heads wrapped around conversions, you can check out Part 1 of my video tutorial on tracking online conversions.

And in Part 2, I walk through how to actually setup a goal in Google Analytics and a trick for tracking newsletter signup conversions in Squarespace.

Finally, I leave you a link to my Medium article on How to Advertise Like a Ninja Online where I walk through the power of conversion and give some additional tips and examples!

I know this can be some heady stuff. I'd love to know what you think! Or any questions you have so I can help to create more content to make this easier for all of us to put into action!

Show Notes:

Ramey Barnett is one of the smartest, funniest and most fiery people I know. But I was still floored when she and her wife quit their jobs and took a year to find themselves. The year is up and they are not going back. We talk about courage, their journey and how they took control of their lives.

Language advisory: There is some swearing in the music in today's show.

Ramey's stunning blog: www.offcourselife.com

Ramey's Instagram

And her kick-ass Get Your Finances In Order spreadsheet

The Music

Ramey was a little worried about the music I would choose for her episode. I hope I did her proud! This is Icicle and their music can be found on Bandcamp, Magantune and iTunes.

My Contribution to Society by Icicle from their Resurgence album.
The Light That Made Me Blind by Icicle from their Resurgence album.
Catch Me by Icicle from their Resurgence album.

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Taking the Leap! podcast by Sean Howard is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Why a ninja?

Ninjas have purpose. They are focused and ready to act in alignment with said purpose.

Ninjas conserve energy. There is no wasted movement. The same goes for money. A ninja would never be happy pouring money down the hungry monster’s throat that is Google, Facebook and every other online advertising platform disguised as a service.

Ninjas strike with precision. They abhor the hack and slash approach and just “seeing what will happen.” They study their opponent and when they strike, it is with ultimate precision.

Learn the three tips to Advertise like a Ninja Online in my Medium article.