Pure Expressions Photography — Aimee in particular — was one of 20 ish guest speakers at the Apex middle school career fair held Thursday, November 16th at the Apex Community Center. The 20 or so busineses and local entities each had their own table or “booth” and spoke to 8-10 kids for 15 minutes, rotating groups every 15 minutes or so.

It was a great event, the kids were awesome and with the exception of one (and only one) group, they were attentive, asked great questions and ultimately, made the presentation what they wanted to get out of it. 95% of them took copious notes and the other 5% assimilated it via osmosis I guess. 😆

I spoke to 18 groups and in all, their questions were nearly all the same.

#1 — How much money do you make. 😆 Ahhh such a loaded question. 😀 My answer was by example. Using the photo “The Last Dance” I made them think through how everyone’s value of something is different. I never did answer the question, not directly, but told them some photographers are millionaires and others can’t buy lunch at McDonalds. All gets back to Sales & Marketing.

#2 — What is your dress code? Another good one answered with example. I asked them why I would wear yellow pants with sponge bob all over them. They all “got it” and from there we talked about attire if I were shooting a Sr. in High School or a wedding.

#3 — What type of education do you need? Excellent excellent. Photography is 10% art and 90% sales and marketing. Isn’t that amazing? So what type of education do you *think* one needs? Business. Without my MBA, I’d be doing much worse than I am today. 😆

There were lots of other questions and many picked up a Triangle Kid’s Directory or an old marketing piece I had on hand. Or, they picked up a business card and looked through the sample wedding albums I had on hand.

It REALLY was a great experience and I encourage other businesses to do the same. These kids are the future and the motivating we can make “work” look like, the more they’ll be enthusiastic when it comes to be their turn. 😀