What if closing your studio isn't failure but the smartest business decision you could make?

Nine days into 2026 and I'm seeing patterns emerge that tell me this year is going to force a lot of photographers to make hard choices. Not because the industry is dying, but because the old models aren't working the way they used to.

I walk through my predictions for where professional photography is heading this year. Studio closures and why they bring relief. Virtual summits that need to stop being cash grabs. Podcast networks built on community instead of sponsor money. The rise of YouTube and live streaming as real revenue streams. And the anti-AI revolt that's already starting as photographers realize it's not the time-saver we were promised.

What You'll Learn

Why studio photographers are closing their doors and feeling relieved instead of defeated about it

How to look at your studio business like an accountant and make decisions without emotion clouding judgment

What makes virtual summits feel like money grabs and how to produce them with actual value

Why podcast networks built around community will outlast the ones chasing sponsorship dollars first

How YouTube and live streaming create diversified income streams beyond traditional photography

What vlogging and creator shows mean for photographers who want to connect with audiences differently

Why online live selling will become a bigger part of how photographers market their services

How AI is actually slowing us down instead of making us more efficient

What the anti-AI revolt looks like as photographers wake up to the limitations of generated content

Why 2026 is a pivot year for deciding what you actually want your photography business to look like

Listen & Subscribe

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Connect with Generator

Website: generatorpodcast.com | stonetreecreative.com Instagram: @generatorpodcast | @stonetreecreative TikTok: @generatorpodcast YouTube: @generatorpodcast

Interested in being a guest on Generator Live? Email matt@stonetreecreative.com

Generator releases new episodes every Wednesday at 7pm Eastern, with live working sessions on Friday mornings at 9am Eastern.

Host: Matt Stagliano, Stonetree Creative, Maine

About Generator

Generator is a podcast for working creatives who are tired of the highlight reel. Hosted by Maine portrait photographer Matt Stagliano, each episode digs into the real struggles of building a creative business, managing mental health, and doing work that matters. No corporate speak. No empty motivation. Just honest conversations about what it takes to keep creating when the world keeps telling you to do something different.

Keywords: photography industry predictions 2026, studio photography business, podcast networks for photographers, YouTube for photographers, live streaming photography content, anti-AI movement, virtual summit production, photography business diversification, vlogging for photographers, creative business strategy, Maine photographer, professional photography trends

Here's what I use to make Generator a reality:

SOFTWARE

ECamm - What I use to live stream, record my video, and conduct interviews (Only for Mac)

https://www.ecamm.com/mac/ecammlive/?fp_ref=generator

Captivate.fm - The software I use to publish every audio episode and distribute it everywhere

https://www.captivate.fm/signup?ref=yjuymdqo

17Hats - Get 50% off your first year of the best CRM for entrepreneurs

https://referrals.17hats.com/card/stonetree

BorisFX Crumplepop- Clean up audio faster than ever before

https://borisfx.com/?a_aid=68bb347aa27d1

Cloudways - Solid, affordable Hosting for my wordpress websites

https://vrlps.co/f83e6os/cp

Pixieset - Get $20 off my favorite way to show clients their galleries

https://pixieset.com/ref/djDARTY4pa

WisprFlow - My typing gets slow, so being able to dictate anything in any app makes Life a lot easier.

https://wisprflow.ai/r?MATT1716

HARDWARE

My Entire Studio Setup - This is an ongoing list of all the equipment I use in my home studio

https://www.amazon.com/shop/stonetreecreative/list/UI27EORM80W1?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_91ERYXJ9ZAQ1E4C0Q1VT

Small print: Some of these are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I get a small commission at no cost to you. I only recommend stuff I actually use.

You know, I do this every single week.

I go live and I mute my microphone.

So we're going to start this all over again.

Ready, intro.

If you're watching this and you're laughing at me, I hope it's making you laugh.

I hope it's making you laugh anyway, because so far, let's just count, it's been exactly 90 seconds.

What we have so far is a failure to move on to the next scene.

Going into the wrong scene, being on mute, starting over, hitting the wrong button again.

And it's not even 9:03 in the morning.

How do we do this?

I was saying before all of that entertainment that it's Friday, it's above freezing, I'm here, got my coffee in hand, I've got my yerba mate because coffee's a little bit weird for me these days.

And I've already got Kelly with me.

Oh, my God, Kelly's here.

Let's do this.

Add it to the broadcast.

So Kelly's hanging out with me.

Thank God it's only you, Kelly, and.

And my friend Paul is here.

Hey, Paul.

Happy Friday, my friend.

Listen, this is going to be one of those shows where it's all about just being live and taking you along on this journey, right?

So I've gotten a lot of, I've gotten a lot of interesting calls this week texts, you know, I've had a lot of good zooms and people are like, oh, my God, you're so good at this.

I'm like, just don't watch the Friday show because I'm guarantee it's going to screw up.

And here we are.

The great part about doing all this stuff is that you get to see it live.

You get to see the good, the bad and the ugly.

I don't have a production team.

This isn't some really high level, professional standard show.

What I'm doing is showing you the warts.

So.

All right, all that being said, let's get into it.

Good morning, my friends again, I'm Matt Stagliano and I just want to welcome you to the show today.

What we're going to be doing, I got a lot of things to talk about.

It's been a.

It's been a really strange week.

A lot of people have been doing their prediction videos here it is nine days into the new year, so maybe I'm, you know, being a little bit cautious.

But it's just been busy for nine days, so I haven't had a chance to really get out there and write down my thoughts.

But what I have been doing in the meantime, I'll just give you a little bit of insight behind all of this.

And you've heard me talk about it in the past couple of podcasts where I'm really starting to shift from photo into live streaming and video and whatnot.

But that doesn't change the fact that I still have a photo business to run.

So the other night I sat down.

See all these pads?

Each one of these is a different major project that I go, I have going on.

And I do it this way because I tried to build a notion database and I tried to build all these pages and keep everything electronically.

And I realized that my brain works so fast, I don't have time to put everything in notion and then check it off.

I don't work with a team.

No one gives a shit what I'm doing.

It's just me.

So why not do it the most efficient way that I know how?

The most efficient way that I know how is to write stuff down and then cross it off when I'm done.

So for each major part of my business, I've got my Stone Tree pad and my website pad, because I'm.

I'm renovating my entire website myself.

We've got the generator, live stream, and the overall show.

Got all the videos that I want to make thus far.

I've got all the stuff that I'm doing with 17 hats, and I'm revamping my entire CRM.

And then I've got just the stuff that needs to happen at home, like fixing my chimney and all that stuff.

So while this may seem unwieldy to some, it's not unwieldy to me.

What it allows me to do is separate each part of my brain and then prioritize based on whatever project that I'm in.

For example, with Stone Tree, I know that my studio is basically set up, but I need to do a few things here and there.

But what I really need to do is network more, connect with more people, contact old clients, send out more marketing, run more ads, all the things that point people in the direction of the portrait services that I provide.

So in order for me to focus solely on Stone Tree, I have to use something like a legal pad.

Now, it's antiquated to some, but I have this real physical need to cross things off.

And now I have planners as well.

I've got the Phoenix Journal.

I've got this planner from Nomadic.

And planners like this are amazing.

And if you are into planners, I will tell you right now.

Go follow Marianne Cresp C R E S P Marianne with one N. Go follow her.

She is, she is the queen of planners and she will give you just incredible insight of what to use and when to use it and how to use it and how to make it look pretty and all the tools and stuff that you can use.

This isn't my world.

I try really hard, but it's just not the planner thing, trying to get into it.

We'll see how it goes.

Good old pads of paper allow me to kind of visually see by just laying it all out what I have on the list and then I could tear off and rewrite the list, tear it off and rewrite the list.

And for me that works.

Now, Kelly's, you know, out here saying the notepads are a great idea.

I need to physically see things as well.

Yeah, I think we all do.

But those of us of a certain age really do need to see some things written down like this.

I just, I've tried Notes, Excel, spreadsheets, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Text Edit, Notion, Asana, Trello.

I've tried just about every organizational software out there.

Mind maps, mind node, just keeping things in on my computer, on stickies, on my, my desktop.

None of it works for me.

None of it works for me.

The same way that writing it down, quick, easy, straight from the mind, write it down.

It's there.

Now, one thing that I have been doing lately, and you've heard me talk about this too, is using my Plaud Note device.

Now, it's around here somewhere.

It's probably my book bag.

But the Plod Note, you've probably seen this on Instagram, it attaches to the back of your phone.

It's a little recording device and you can just spe and it records it all and then it transcribes it all and puts it into AI summaries and spits out a whole bunch of stuff that you can search on your laptop or your desktop.

Really efficient, really cool device.

And it works like a charm.

And while I love it and it's great for when I'm on the road and Road tripping.

And I can just kind of speak into the air and just spit out my stupid ideas.

And it just records and records and records, and that way I don't have to write anything down when I get these.

These brainstorms.

But even with that, I get it.

It summarizes it, it throws it into notion or throws it into Apple Notes or whatever, and then I never look at it again.

And then I go to try to find it and it's not what I want.

I'm going to stick with my yellow pads for now.

I've really tried to adopt the electronic lifestyle for this particular thing.

You know me, I'm a nerd.

I'll do everything.

If it plugs in, I'm in love with it.

But for something like this, where I'm just needing to take notes and organize my own mind, legal pads are the way to go.

I'm going in and I'm trying to just dump all of this out.

The past, I don't know, two, three, four weeks, I've really been overwhelmed with all these ideas swimming in my head about all the things that I can do and all the videos that I can create and all the inspiration that I get from my friends and watching folks that I really admire online, seeing what they're doing and watching how they work and studying how they work.

And then does that apply to me or does it not?

Let me try it.

Nope, doesn't work for me.

Let me move on and do something else.

And that happens with everything.

Whether it's setting up a live stream like this, whether it's organizing my thoughts, whether it's, you know, going and finding inspiration for the art that I do, it's planning a video, what I.

Whatever it is in my life that I'm trying to do in the moment, I'm the type that often studies it, figures out, can I apply it to my life.

If I'm undecided, I'll try the thing, decide then and there, and then either proceed to work at it until it gets better, or just say, this is not for me.

And, you know, like Kelly was saying, I don't always remember the apps and programs that I have because I've got hundreds of them and I've tried hundreds of them.

And it's really funny.

Every now and again a program will come up and I'm like, wow, that seems like a really good idea.

Let me download that and try the free trial.

And when I go to sign it, it's like your account has already been created.

I'm like, oh, yeah, that's because I tried this three years ago and thought it was a piece of shit and it vowed never to go back to it.

And here I am going back to it again.

It's just the circle and the nature of what it is as we often try to find the best things that work for us.

That all being said, it's not why I'm here.

I'm not here to explain myself to you.

I don't have to explain myself to.

You're not the boss of me.

Now let me see if I don't go mute or shut the stream off.

I'm going to press a button and I'm going to see what happens here.

We're going to do this correctly.

And it's really funny because I wanted to go through and make this like a super slick show and have graphics and all the sorts of things for all my predictions, and it's just not that way.

I'm still learning ecamm.

I'm really good at it, but I'm still learning.

Not at the start of this show, but I'm really good at setting up basic graphics and basic scenes, which is really all you need.

And I always try to get a little fancy and I always get a little bit crazy with it.

Never really works out.

But I think I figured it out.

So.

And I'll kind of show you what I'm doing.

So if you look here, I've got my little stream deck down here.

Now I've got my whole show that we're looking at right now.

Got my whole show programmed right here.

And all I need to do.

Hey, I'm going to talk to this camera over here.

And now I'm going to come back here.

But really what I wanted to show you is that I'm going to press certain buttons.

You'll see me looking down, and we're going to see if we can get this whole thing working the way that it's supposed to.

Now I've got, I don't know, three or four buckets and then a couple of subsections in each one of them.

I'm going to throw them all up on the screen and we'll just talk through them one by one.

All right, let's try this out.

So one of the.

Now let me qualify a lot of this.

Right?

This is my specific insight to the photography industry.

Based on what I'm seeing, what I've seen over the past 15 years, the people that I've talked to, keeping my ear to the ground, kind of feeling out what's happening.

I'm fortunate that I have a lot of friends in a lot of different areas, in a lot of different genres of photography and a lot of different areas of the country, and I talk to them all the time.

So this is completely unscientific research, but based on the trends that I'm seeing and the experience that I have and just what I think is happening, these are the pivots that I see.

It's incontrovertible that photographers are having a harder time over the past year or two than in probably the decade prior to that.

People could say it's AI.

People can say it is or is not the rise of artificial intelligence.

I don't care either way.

I don't think AI has an impact on what I'm doing at the moment.

But what I am seeing is with all of this churn, with all of this change, expenses are getting really expensive.

And we've always been able to raise prices or change our business model to account for certain increases.

But in the past, in the past month anyway, I've been contacted by no less than five close friends with successful businesses that are closing their studios.

Why?

Because they go from making several hundred thousand dollars a year when things are good to tens of thousands of dollars.

And that's not sustainable for a business when you have so much overhead.

Now, I'm not talking retail photographers that don't have a studio who are also affected by the way, but folks that are day in, day out, they've got a building, they that they've got to pay rent and utilities and upkeep and cleaning, and they've got to get all of the snacks and accoutrements and the equipment and all the things that go along with being a studio owner on top of then trying to market and bring new clients in and pay for all of it.

So with fewer and fewer people coming in for what is essentially a luxury service, right, we provide a luxury service.

And in times of financial trouble, the luxury service is often the first thing that you cut out of your budget, right?

You stop having your fancy coffees, you stop going to lunch as much and you stop spending on the things that you know you want but are a luxury item.

Maybe you're getting your nails done or getting your hair done.

Maybe you're not going out to dinner as much.

You're certainly not about to drop 3 to 5 to $7,000 on a set of portraits unless it's what you value.

And quite frankly, a lot of people today, and I'm not speaking for everybody, but a lot of people today don't value high end portraiture.

And why is that?

I think it's because the, you know, we can have this conversation all day and all night, the ubiquity of cell phones, the ability for anyone to press a button and get a good enough photo which they can then throw into AI and spruce up.

I mean, we just saw it with all of the, the Christmas candy cane photos that a lot of photographers were putting out.

And they're all AI generated and they're fun and it's fine.

I have no problem with it.

I'm not going to sit here and say it's taking away from my artwork.

But if you step into the psychology of it, what people want is fun.

They want images that predominantly look like them and they want them quickly.

And if they can produce something in 10 minutes, that would cut out the need for them to hire a photographer, book a photographer, pay a photographer, wait for the prints and edits to be done, and then get them to then post it.

I don't want to wait all that long, and I honestly don't blame people for that.

I'm in business to give portraits to people that want to see themselves as they are.

They want something extraordinary.

They want to gift themselves the ability to see themselves as they are now, as something wonderful or maybe something broken or maybe something victorious.

They want to see themselves in the way that they feel.

And there is no right or wrong in any of that.

And there is no saying that you're going to one day value it if you don't now, or if you value it now, you won't value it in the future.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is that we're not seeing enough people with the foresight to say, you know what, I'm not going to be around that long.

And I really do want to make my mark.

I want to leave an impression on those around me and I want to get some beautiful portraits done.

Now, my style of portraiture is different than many others.

I take more contemporary, more stylized, darker, high end portraits, more in the fine art realm.

At the end of the day, personal branding, headshots, those are still happening, and those are probably the prominent style of photography in portraiture these days, is headshots and personal branding.

Because they're fast, they're easy, and a lot of people are professionals and they need them.

That's the.

That's the long and short of it.

But unless you're in an area where there's a lot of people that need that service, I am not in one of those areas.

It becomes more and more difficult to find those clients.

So I'm seeing more studio closures.

And what I'm finding is in talking to the people that have closed their studios, they're okay with it because it starts to relieve this burden of I need to be and identify myself as a studio photographer.

You're either a student of the craft or you're not.

You either can take a photo in a studio or in broad daylight or in the dark.

You can take a photo anywhere if you study the craft of photography.

So I know that my identity was.

Was sucked up in being a studio photographer because I wanted that to be.

This air of superiority over shooting burns.

Right?

I know that about myself, but it's not that way.

I'm just very comfortable in a studio.

I'm comfortable with multiple lights.

I'm comfortable with sets and layouts and everything that goes along with shooting in a studio.

I'm still a little bit uncomfortable doing the same quality of work outside.

Can it be done?

Yeah, absolutely.

But when you throw in a bunch of variables, it gets harder.

I like to control my.

My area.

I like to control my scenarios.

So I love shooting in a studio.

And especially up here in Maine, where you have variable whether it's going to be cold, it's going to be hot, there are going to be black flies the size of Buicks heading around.

I want to be able to shoot in a studio.

So as I see my friends closing their studios, the one thing that I see that is a common thread throughout all of them is a little bit of disappointment, but a lot more relief.

A lot more relief that they don't have to fight against it anymore.

And I'd be lying if I said I'm not starting to think that way.

Is studio photography and making my entire identity and my entire living on studio photography the thing for me, I don't know.

I know right now that's what pays the bills, but is that going to be something that continues down the line?

I don't know.

I'm shifting into this world quite a bit.

And it feels pretty good.

We're going to talk about that in a bit.

So I think we're going to see more studio closures.

And if you're one of these people that is in a position where your studio is not providing for you or it's becoming a boat anchor financially, close the studio, right?

Look at it on paper.

Divorce yourself from it, from your passion and your emotion.

And look at it the way an accountant would look at it and say, all right, are you bringing in enough to pay for the studio or are you going into the red to try to keep it?

And if you can, look at it, and like I said, forget about the emotion and the identity that you've wrapped up into it, but if you can look at it and say, this is still a solid, viable business operation, cool, keep it.

You'll weather the storm and you'll get through it.

But if you're saying, if I could just hold on for one more month, just hold on for one more month, which are the things that I say, you have to give yourself a go, no go point where there is a day where you say, listen, if I'm still not at this goal by this date, I've got to make the hard decision to shut things down.

And no one's going to come for you with torches and pitchforks.

They might be disappointed, but there, believe me, as someone that's folded and opened and folded and opened, there's no one that's going to be more disappointed in it than yourself.

But think about all the relief that you can have if you're drowning right now and you can just shed yourself of that boat anchor.

It doesn't mean that you're not a photographer.

It doesn't mean that you are a failure.

What it means is that you are a good business owner.

You recognize the things that are going to keep your business going.

So for me, like, if I.

If I happen to shut my studio down, what's the worst thing that can happen?

I sell some equipment, I make some money back, and then I'm still a photographer.

You know why?

Because I still have my cameras and I still know the craft of photography.

So I can go and do this anywhere.

I just want to tell those of you photographers that do own studios that are watching this, that are in this predicament, stop thinking about what other people are going to say and think about the best thing for you and your family.

That's it.

That's doesn't make you any less of a photographer.

If you don't have a building, it doesn't make you any less of a photographer if you have to get a second job or a primary job.

It doesn't make you any less of a photographer if you're not producing the work that you want to produce as rapidly as you want to, provided that there's still a spark in you somewhere that wants to create this content, then you're still the photographer that you believe you are.

So just get over yourself.

You're a lot better than you think and you need to make some better financial decisions, me included.

So, anyway, one prediction, I think we're going to see more of those studio closures, but I think we're also going to see people that are very relieved with that and that will cause a little bit of a shift in how the industry presents photographers.

Now, I'm not talking weddings or events, right, where you're on site somewhere else.

I'm speaking specifically to the studio owners that do the type of work that I do.

Personal branding, headshots, fine art, boudoir.

Right?

All of those types of photographers that have studios.

I think we're going to see more closures and I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing.

I just see it as the industry of all things.

All right, second pivot.

The second pivot.

Let me take a drink because my lips don't seem to be working now with that studio closure thing.

If you have any thoughts whatsoever on studio closures, hit me in the comments.

Love talking about that sort of stuff.

Meeting the clients aren't approaching professional photographers in the same way that they have in years past.

What we're seeing are photographers that don't have diversity in their business.

They don't have either the local network or the local clients or the ability to pivot into video or audio or some other facet of potentially coaching.

Whatever, whatever financial stream is out there, whatever revenue you want to generate.

If you're not diverse, it's kind of like putting all the money that you own into one stock, not spreading it out across a fund or several funds or really spreading out the risk.

You're putting everything into one particular bucket.

So if you're feeling that way, it may seem like you want to collaborate with others.

Let's, you know, get better by grouping together and doing things like virtual summits.

Now, virtual summits I have a love hate relationship with only because I think the way that virtual summits are being done now is dog.

And I think there are better ways to do it.

And here's why.

I tell you that that's a strong statement to make.

But I've been on these virtual summits now for, I don't know, probably the past five or six years anyway.

Whether it's things like Dave Cross's Photoshop Week, which are amazing, right, they're really well done.

Dave does an incredible job.

He makes a ton of money doing these virtual summits, but he's got top tier educators that are specifically focused on providing content for that specific week.

And it's really, really good content.

Now, I have no affiliation with Dave Cross or anything that he does during Photoshop Week.

I've just been a consumer of the content over the years and I've purchased it a couple of times.

But what I found is that in this, you know, imitation is a sincerest form of flattery.

I've seen a bunch of virtual summits really popping up and not getting it right.

What I've seen are groups of photographers coming together saying, all right, how do we do this?

How do we come together and make money as a group?

That.

Because I need to supplement, how do I make a quick 500 bucks?

Thousand bucks, $5,000.

And there's this thought that if you come together, then you're using the power of that group to sell what it is that you have and get exposure.

Okay, that's fine.

But when it comes to the production, think of it from the consumer angle.

You're getting 10 top photographers together and they're going to talk through whatever.

It's the, you know, the Gridded Light Summit, that's what we're going to call it.

And there's going to be all these different photographers on it and they're going to talk about business and they're going to talk about social media and they're going to talk about video and they're going to talk about weddings and clients and all the stuff.

And you're going to get a topic from each one of the presenters.

Here is the hurdle in the virtual summit world, the production that they're presenting to those of us that are clients, consumers of it, potential customers.

What they're putting forward is awful.

And I don't mean the content isn't good.

I'm talking about the way they produce it and the way they present it is very poor.

And if you can prove me wrong, prove me wrong.

But the reason that Dave Cross does really well is that all of his instructors are Providing content that is well produced, that is clear to follow, that is thought through, that has been vetted over years because they're experienced educators.

And it's presented in a way that, that Dave is hosting this live for the entire week.

And then they'll play a pre recorded video and there'll be some Q and A, and then they'll come back and they'll talk about it.

And it feels like you're watching a live event for five days because you kind of are.

It's like we're, it's like half live, half recorded.

Right.

But what I'm seeing from all these other virtual summits are money grabs.

They're bringing on people that have not produced content before.

So what are they doing?

What's the easiest way to do it?

You record something in zoom and then you have your big slide with all your words on it.

And then there's a little, maybe if you're lucky, there is a little picture and picture down in the bottom with the instructor talking.

A lot of times it's poorly lit, the audio is bad, and the slides that are up on the screen are nothing but words.

I don't need to be read to by an adult.

Give me visuals, give me instructions, show me what you're doing.

Don't talk me through slide after slide after slide after slide.

Send those slides out for free.

But the virtual summit model, right now I'm seeing so many pop up and there's rarely a value proposition.

It's all the same AI vomited words about how this is going to be transformational for your journey.

And if you're just starting out, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and they're not good.

Now, in these virtual summits, that's not me saying that all the educators are bad or that their content is good.

But if I'm paying money to attend this conference, virtually right, I'm paying 99 for the VIP pass or whatnot, because invariably it's impossible to watch all the videos in one day that come up.

Right?

Right.

Because these virtual summits have eight or 15 different presenters and it's over the course of a couple of days.

And I don't really know anybody that can sit there for eight hours and watch video after video after video.

So you Pay for your VIP pass, which is $99 or $100, and then you get access to all the videos.

And that's where they're making their money.

The problem is you don't get to, you know, see all the things until you pay that 99 bucks.

Unless you're sitting there watching all the videos for two days and at the end of it, a lot of times you're left like, oh, that was.

That was lackluster.

And I'm not saying that $99 is a bad price or 199 or 299 is a bad price.

You're getting a lot of information there, but it's really nothing more than what you can find on YouTube.

I'm not finding a lot of educators these days with a lot of deep insights.

I find there's a lot of regurgitation.

I find that there's a lot of things that have been passed on from other educators that just be repackaged under the same material and spit back out.

And I don't feel like as a whole we're providing much value in the virtual summits.

The ones that I've downloaded, the ones that I've watched and I've paid for and I've downloaded and I've watched again, a lot of times they just wind up in a folder somewhere and I never watch it because the information's often outdated very quickly.

So what does that mean for the future?

Well, I think those people that are putting on virtual summits just need to reimagine them a little bit more.

More, put in a little bit more work, rather than just saying we're doing a virtual summit.

I've got a web page with all these presenters and we're going to release all the videos at Tuesday morning at 9:00', clock, and then Wednesday morning at 9:00 clock, you get another eight videos.

But if you can't watch them all, pay 99 bucks and get lifetime access.

I don't know, that just feels kind of like.

Like a cash grab to me.

I don't.

I don't like that feeling as a consumer.

So what will people do?

Well, they're still going to come together.

I think there's still power in numbers.

I'm going to talk about that in a second with the podcast networks.

But with virtual summits, all I ask is that people start.

If you're putting together a virtual summit or you're participating in one as an educator or a new speaker or someone that has something to say, look at and say, how can I do this in a better way?

How can I present this better?

How do I pre record things better?

How do I do things so that I have multiple cameras or that it looks nice and that I'm going back and forth between this camera and this.

And you know, where we just make it more enticing, right?

We talk all the time about video, about needing a hook and having to get the first three seconds of someone's attention to keep them watching.

Well, in virtual summits, what's keeping people there?

A lot of times just the name of the person that's, that's showing up.

Very rarely is the content so intriguing and well produced that it's worth watching.

So I think we can just do better.

But I implore you, those of you that are in virtual summits and they're being part of them, I implore you find ways to up your production value.

Because really that's what people are paying for.

They are now used to great looking shows on YouTube, great looking produced videos, and most of those are free.

So if you're just doing the super lazy recorded zoom and then posts, we deserve better.

The photography community deserves better than that, especially if you're then asking for money for it.

Okay, now the other side, where I think people are really going to come together and I'm very passionate about this, are podcast networks, video networks, groups of people that are trying to build community instead of just getting paid.

Getting paid is important.

I love me some money, don't get me wrong.

But I think what you're going to see are, and I know I'm trying to do this, is bring people together in a way that develops community first before the sale, right?

I don't look at a virtual summit and say, oh wow, all 15 of these people I know, I really like their stuff, I'm going to give them my money.

A lot of times I watch and I go, I'll watch it for free because I have no idea who this person is.

So I'll listen a little bit and then decide if I want to pay.

Well, think about what a podcast is, right?

We listen to it and if we listen to a couple of episodes and we like it, we'll subscribe, we'll download it, and then after a few more episodes, if there's more value, there's more community there.

I'm feeling good about what I'm hearing.

Maybe I'll join their Patreon or their substack or their subscription or whatever it is.

But consumers are much more discerning these days, so the value has to be there.

Now, what I'm trying to do with podcasts is something a little bit different for the photography industry.

I do not want to base my success solely on sponsors or numbers.

What I'd want to do is bring together like minded podcasters.

I'm not saying we all talk about the same topic, but it's generally creator photography based.

There is a focus on the creator and their voice.

There is a focus on authenticity and honesty and truth.

There is a focus on bringing joy back to being part of a community and making sure that everything that we're putting forward is coming from a place of reality, not coming from a place of if I throw lipstick on this pig, you'll give me your money.

I swear, there's like a million dollars that just keeps changing all the hands within the photo industry.

I give it to you, then you give it to them, then they give it to me.

And it just kind of circles around.

Right.

That's how the market works.

But what I'm seeing in the realm of podcasts, especially in the photography world, right, is that photography and the podcasts surrounding photography, you have an old school crowd, you have a new school crowd.

What you don't have are people that are adapting the podcasts and the production value to really meet the audience where they are.

What I'm seeing is a lot of folks dive into the podcasting world and the video podcasting world at that, and they set up a microphone, they set up a camera, and they say, I've got a podcast.

And they go out and they do it and they do two or three episodes and then for some reason they just disappear.

Why?

Because it's hard.

It's hard to be consistent.

It's hard to do this day in and day out.

It's hard to get up and plan a show.

It's hard to get up and find the guests.

And I'm not saying that it's hard insofar as, like, you know, I'm climbing a mountain.

It takes time and mental energy.

That's it.

Nothing I do here is difficult, but it is time consuming and it takes some planning.

So what I'd love to see are people that are trying to start podcasts become parts of these smaller networks.

If they fit, if they feel aligned with that network, great.

I don't see networks that are centered around commercialism succeed very well.

The ones that I see succeed are ones that have a community and then the sales of merch or ticket sales or virtual summit sales, those are the ones that succeed because people are willing to support that rather than feel like they're being sold to at every step of the way.

Again, I'm a staunch capitalist.

Make your bag absolutely go after it, but do it in a way that doesn't feel so gross.

Right?

So my vision for the podcast network that I'm putting together smaller shows, not focused on views or counts or what sponsors they have coming in.

What I see it as is people that are all pointing towards the North Star of trying to build a better community and raise everybody up.

That's what I'm here for.

Right.

And I often feel like I'm kind of outside the industry looking in because that's not the norm.

I feel like what I've learned in the past has been many sponsors, which is what people think is the only way to make money in podcasting is sponsorship.

It's not, believe me, people believe that sponsorship is the only way to go.

I do not believe that.

I believe the sponsors will see the value.

Once there are numbers and once they hear people talking about something that they're not making money off of, that's when the sponsors arrive, because they're like, oh, we can tap into this audience, and that's fine.

But what I want to do is just relieve all that pressure from podcasters, and if you are truly committed to having something to say and you want to be part of a community like that, let's talk.

Because I believe that that is the future of podcast networks in the photography world.

You've got your old school guys, your photo biz X and whatnot, great podcasts, huge audiences, doing their own thing.

That's fine.

You have, you know, big podcast, the portrait system, whatnot, doing great, doing fine, no problem with any of that.

But I think as we start to have a lot more photographers again, looking for ways to diversify income, diving into the video space, diving into podcasting, I think we're going to need to come together in a different way and have a different set of expectations for what it means to be part of this network.

I know the model that I've created is going to work where there are podcasts that are all thematically cohesive, that we all want the same things out of our shows, but that the more important thing is building a good community and having everybody rise up together, rather than it being a cash grab.

I just don't see that working.

And sponsors will say, you know, podcasts don't make any money.

I think that's incorrect.

I know plenty of people that are running podcasts that are doing very, very well for themselves.

But in the mind of a lot of people is a podcast is just an audio thing.

No, there's a thing called YouTube.

I don't know if you've heard of it.

Oh, you have because you're here now.

This is where everything is going, like it or not.

YouTube is the perfect vehicle for long form conversation, short form conversations, keeping things live or pre recorded.

It's a place to build community.

It's a place to have networks.

It's a place to really build what we want to build as a community.

I just don't see enough people pushing into it.

Sure, there's a lot of, there's a lot of channels out there.

Absolutely.

So what I'm saying, and I'm not saying that I am the ultimate version of this either, I'm struggling and fighting and scrapping and failing and succeeding and just doing the work.

Because I'd rather put that work in now and hone my craft now than try to get into it another year down the line.

And yeah, Paul is saying consistency is the hardest part of getting started free.

It's the hardest part for everybody, man.

It's the hardest part for everybody.

But consistency doesn't mean the same thing for everyone.

Consistency can be once a week, can be once a month, can be once every two months.

Just tell your audience what to expect and show up.

That's why I try to say, every Wednesday night at 7, every Friday morning at 9, I am going to be here talking to you.

So if you can make it Wednesday night, great.

If you can make it Friday morning, great.

If you can't, it'll be on repeat.

And Kelly says something like, I would much prefer to see the conversation unfolding.

I love the emotional facial expressions you can project.

Absolutely.

And this is what I'm talking about is when we do things purely recorded, purely asynchronously, you don't get any of that interaction.

And I love what we're doing here just to have Kelly and Paul in the room with me while we're talking about all of this, because Paul is not a photographer, Kelly is, but she's also a creative of several different ways.

And we're all in this space together.

We all have things to say and we're all trying to do it in a way that our audiences will respond to us.

I think instead of everybody trying to prop up individual podcasts and fight for the scraps and, you know, constantly be saying, no, no, no, don't go over there, come over here.

I'd rather build a network where we say, all right, have you Listened to Matt's network because all the shows are really, really cool.

They got some great people over there.

No one's going to say, who are they sponsored by?

They're going to say, well, who's there?

What are they talking about?

And if there's variety and the people are true and authentic, then what does it matter if there are sponsors or not?

We're trying to put information out.

Isn't the goal to build a better community?

Isn't the goal to make each other succeed?

I don't know, then maybe I'm too idealistic in this, but I believe that podcast networks are going to see them pop up and there's going to be a variety of ways that they are implemented.

There's going to be a million different ways that they're implemented.

All of them are going to be valid and there's space for absolutely every single model.

But what I want to produce is what I want to produce.

So you either come along for the journey or you don't.

But you're going to see a lot more of that in the months to come.

So I had a conversation with Kelly the other day.

When I mentioned network the other day, I thought it was brilliant.

The goal is 100% community.

We all seem to have forgotten that.

And this is the big thing, right?

So during COVID you've heard me talk about this, when we were doing the artist Forge, and it was myself and Becca Bjorky and Nicole York and Cat Ford Coates and Bassam Zabal, we were all, you know, meeting every single day with a large group and we were just having the most incredible conversations.

Now things changed and I was really the only one to kind of continue along with the video podcast route.

But if each one of us had done that, Kat did some of that, Nicole does her thing with TikTok, and Becca's doing her thing, and Bassam does his stuff in Canada.

And, like, we're all doing it slightly differently, but we're engaging with our audiences.

Now, if we were to say there was going to be, and I'm not saying this is going to happen, but there, there was an artist Forge network, right?

Now you've got all these amazing creators that are all talking their own way, having their own thing, and we're just doing it because we love the community, I think that is far more powerful and far more indicative of what a lot of different creators want to than what the companies think we should be served, right?

So I'm really, I'm really bullish on podcast networks and I'm developing mine.

So if you want to be part of it, just let me know.

I think it'd be a really good time.

And I don't know where it's going to go, but I'm really passionate about it and I believe in the idea.

So I think that's where we're going.

And you're gonna, you're gonna see them out there, and some people will do it in a douchey way and some people do in a really good way.

I'm hoping to be somewhere in between.

More good than douchey.

I don't know.

We'll see how it goes.

All right, so that's the business pivots that I see.

I think we're going to see a lot of photographers trying to get out of solely photo and doing more things like podcasts, either as a, as a guest or as a host.

I think you're going to see them doing virtual summits, more workshops, more coaching.

Right.

Things that are softer, less tangible than just click a button, produce an image, deliver that image to the client.

I think we'll see a lot of photographers thinking that they should be selling back to other photographers, but it's that same pool of money that we just keep handing to each other.

What I would rather see are photographers think about the clients differently.

Think about people that are not professional photographers, that are hobbyists, that just enjoy the craft of photography, that just enjoy art.

Talk to them.

Talk to them differently.

Stop chasing and identifying as solely a professional photographer and chasing other photographers.

You got a lot more to contribute than that.

Okay, so that leads me into the next thing.

What's the next prediction?

Rise of YouTube and live streaming.

And I've seen several photographers, right?

And you've heard me talk about this before, and I'll say it again.

I've been doing this for.

We're going on 25 years in one iteration or another.

From doing in my basement back in the late 90s to doing it on television, to now I'm back here and there are big gaps in between.

I don't want to say that I've been a television host for 25 years straight.

That's not what I'm saying.

But being involved in this for decades now gives me a unique perspective to how things are being created now.

But the universal truths still hold.

People are interested in how other people are doing the thing, in how you're living your life and how you have your opinions formed.

So I'm watching photographers struggle with short form content, in developing short form content in a way that feels real and good and true and easy and consistent.

And I'm going to pause here just for a second.

I'm going to promote something I am not affiliated, but you've seen him on the show a bunch of times.

Ben Markham has a great course out right now called Short Form Video for Photographers by Ben Markham.

Look up Ben Markham photo.

Look up Ben Markham.

You're going to find his stuff.

Hell, I even made a QR code for you.

Ben doesn't even know I'm doing this.

I, I made a QR code for you to go find his course and download and I'll tell you all about it.

So this is not a course.

If you want to get into the weeds of how do I do this particular thing with video, how do I edit everything in Cap Cut?

How do I do anything in Final Cut or Adobe Premiere?

This is not a technical wizardry course.

What this is is to say, hey, photographer, you already know a lot of stuff.

You know how to produce a beautiful image.

Let's think about the things you need to think about before you start making short form content, because it can be easier than you think it is.

And as someone that has produced video in some fashion for 25 years, I watched this course and I said, God, he nailed it.

These are not 1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hour segments where you get dragged through every setting and every button.

What Ben is doing is giving you short consumable modules that give you the ability to critically think about what it is that you want out of your content.

Then he's also removing the barriers, the psychological barriers to you producing it.

He's giving you ideas, he's giving you case studies, he's telling you exactly what he does unfettered, right?

He is the same man when you meet him in person as he is in his videos and he's had good success.

Now, I don't recommend a lot of things because I either have to watch it all, have used it, or truly find it useful for my audience.

I like this course a lot.

It is, I believe, I believe it's on sale for $99, but it's going up soon.

I would love to see what you think of it.

So if you have the ability, scan this QR code, watch Ben's video course.

Because a lot of times we get so consumed with the gear and all the things in saying, oh my God, how do I have all the angles and how do I do all of this stuff?

You don't need all the gear, you don't need all the expensive stuff.

What you need is a plan, you need a content strategy and you need direction.

This course by Ben Markham, friend of mine, I do make zero money by promoting this.

He doesn't even know I'm doing this, but I'm doing it because I believe in what he's saying.

Again, this is more a psychological course, telling you everything that you need to know and how to go about doing it, how to get over yourself, how to get over your ego, how to get in front of the camera and do it in a natural way and how to take all the stress out of producing content.

Go check out Ben's video.

I'd really appreciate that.

Ben, great job, my friend, Great job.

So with that, let's head back here.

So I think short form video, right, Whether it's for TikTok or Instagram, YouTube, whatever, is a great way for people to start.

Me personally, I do long form video because it's easier for me.

I'm never short on words and it's something that I really like to produce short form content.

I'm still wrapping my head around it.

One of the things that I see more people doing right in this theme of authentic content, in reality based content is vlogging.

Right?

With the pocket Osmo 3 coming out, there was an explosion of vlogging because people stopped having to carry a brick of a mirrorless camera in front of them to make it look good.

Now they get the little pocket Osmo 3 and they can do anything they want and produce beautiful results.

Now the pocket OSMO 4 is going to be coming out soon.

That will fly off the shelves.

I'm going to get one of those myself.

But you've also got knockoff clones like the Extra Muse, which is Basically a pocket Osmo 3 clone, or there are rumors that it's even be produced by dji, but I'm not going to get into that speculation.

But there are cameras out there that allow you to to do a lot of great vlogging, create beautiful video and it's something you can throw in your pocket, in your camera bag and it looks professional, right?

You want 4K 6K video.

These are the tools that are going to help you do that.

The easier that it is for you to produce the content just to record the stuff, the better.

Now can you do it on your phone?

Yeah, absolutely.

If all you have is your phone, use your phone.

If you have one of those Pocket Osmos, I think we're just going to see more and more people getting into vlogging and putting together less produced less topic Driven pieces and producing the short form content based on their everyday life.

Now you're going to say, Matt, thanks for joining the party.

We've been doing this for the past 10 years.

Yeah, I know.

But what I'm seeing in the photography world, specifically, as photographers get used to doing more and more short form content, they're doing their behind the scenes work, they're doing things with clients, they're showing their reveals, they're showing their process.

I think you'll start to see more day in the life.

Right.

I'm watching friends that are doing their morning fit check.

These are the parts of our lives that as professional photographers we rarely let out.

Right?

Because we want to talk all about the business and we want to get all the clients.

But I think what we're starved for is that human connection.

We're starved for understanding how these people live their lives.

And I for one have been one of those people that's been incredibly guarded, very private.

I never let really any of my details of my life out there.

You might see some video or images of my dog every now and again, but other than that, I stay really, really private because I've always done that.

That's just part of my personality.

But even I'm starting to push outside of that and show a little bit more insight as to how I operate.

I love that because that's the content that always gets me more followers, more engagement, more comments, and I'm digging it.

I mean, I did this video earlier this week on, you know, all the cameras that I have set up in here and I put it out there just because people had been asking me.

I do all these zooms, consulting with people that want to get started in podcasts or live streaming.

And I do consultation calls with them and I'm always asking them, why?

Why do you want to do this?

And I get a variety of answers, but invariably they come to me because they want to know what gear and lighting I'm using.

But I can tell like that whether or not they know what it is that they even want to talk about and the why.

Right.

Paul and Kelly that are here with me now, Kelly's got a great idea for her stuff and it's not about the equipment.

The idea that she has, incredible.

Paul is doing stuff to help the older community and staying in shape and staying safe.

And it's wonderful, wonderful content.

So they know their why.

You can always figure out the gear afterwards, right?

Because the gear only helps you.

But if you know your why, that's huge.

If you are just Vlogging, because you don't really know your why yet, but you want to connect with people.

Start videotaping different parts of your life, sitting, making coffee.

How do you start your day?

How do you take mental breaks?

How often do you get up out of your chair?

I went, you know what, that's all right.

Here's a free video for you.

Start to record yourself and see how many times you get up from your desk, how many times a day, what do you do, what triggers it, Right?

People are interested in that because people say, you know, I sit in this chair probably more than I should.

How often does she go, God, I feel connected to that.

If you play an instrument, guitar, bass, keyboards, claves, whatever it is that you play, do that more.

Show people different sides of your personality.

And oh, look at this, Josh is here.

Speaking of short form content.

Love the short form stuff.

Thanks for going live this morning.

Packing for imaging.

This gives me something great to listen to.

I'm glad you're here, man.

And again, Josh Beaton, phenomenal photographer.

And I'm going to speak to you directly, Josh, since we're here, right here, and you're listening and you're packing and put those underwear back.

Those are the dirty ones.

Put those back.

The thing I love about Josh is that last year at WPPI he was telling me how he was moving more into fashion in editorial and building that side of his portfolio.

And watching someone do what they say they're going to do gives me so many good feelings.

And I woke up this morning and I'm scrolling and I see Josh's stuff about some fitness related content that he's produced.

And it's gorgeous.

It's just gorgeous.

There's colored gels and there's silhouettes and it's just gorgeous.

And I have to say, Josh, like watching you stick to your word, grow in the way this, that you've wanted to grow, it's been really cool to watch, man.

And hopefully I get a chance to see you out of W. Keep the eye.

But this is what I'm talking about.

Find the things that you want to do, the goals that you have.

Find the way to produce that content and put it out there.

Because there's a lot more people watching than you think.

A lot of times you, whether it's Josh or Kelly or Paul or anybody else that's in here, a lot of people are watching and you have no idea who you're inspiring.

And I know I watch, I lurk a lot.

I watch a lot of people and being Able to see what they're producing, knowing that we've had conversations and they said they were going to do that.

And then I see them doing the thing.

Is there anything better than seeing your friend succeed?

I. I just.

Man, it feels better than anything is watching someone, you know, go after their goals and then hit it, man.

It's.

It's unbelievable.

So, Josh, all the best to you, my friend.

Have a great time at imaging.

I hope I see you at WP the Eye.

All right.

Now the other side past vlogging is creator shows like this, right?

Doing the live shows that are happening on a regular basis, on a weekly or bi weekly or every six months, whatever it is, I think you're going to see more and more shows rise up.

And I say that because that's where we start to really connect with our creators.

So since since shifting my video work off of Stonetree and over to Generator and focusing on Generator solely as its own channel, I've immediately surpassed my audience that I had on Stone Tree.

I'm connecting with different types of creators and it feels better.

But as it starts to grow, I realize this is becoming a show.

So how do I deliver a better product to my listeners and my viewers?

Well, that's going to take some work.

That's going to take a little bit more thought.

Production time, pre production time, post production time.

How do I balance all of that?

What I do, take a yellow legal pad like I was talking about at the early part of this, write down my topics, I create a loose show outline, talk about the topics I want to talk about, how do I arrange them?

How does it make sense?

Do I need to create new scenes and graphics here in ecamm?

Do I need bumpers or transitions, all the bells and whistles that make things look like a show?

Do I need to throw up a logo at the bottom of the screen?

All of these things contribute to what makes your show your show.

But I think what I'll see are people that try to start podcasts and realize that it's a lot more work then they'll start to go into, rather than a podcast with guests doing an individual show like this, and then the guests will come around later on.

But I think we're going to start to see more well produced shows around photography.

Now, you've already got the creator channels, right?

You've got Peter McKinnon, you've got Froknowsphoto, and you've got all of these, you know, creator channels around photography.

There's no shortage of them on YouTube.

But in the circles that I'm in, where there are professional working studio photographers that don't have a ton of time, I think as they get more time with fewer clients, they'll start to move into video, they're going to start to move into live production and there's again space for everybody.

But it'll be interesting to see what people have to say and where they fall on that spectrum.

So I just think we're going to see a lot more of that.

And then lastly, as I'm talking about all of the YouTube and the live streaming, whether it's on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or here on YouTube, there's going to be a push into online live selling.

And this is kind of where the virtual summits, the podcast networks, the vlogging all kind of comes together.

So I could sit here for example, for an hour and do a webinar on how to produce a live show and I'll probably be doing that soon.

But I could also sit there for an hour and just sell you my different products and services and things that are happening in my life.

And then, you know, you want to sign up for this and you know what?

I'm going to be selling my journal.

So, you know, first person to comment journal on this gets this sent out to them for free.

I think you're going to start to see more online live selling of services, of products, of, you know, you're going to miss out on this content, the FOMO type of content.

I'm doing this special live and the first six people that sign up are going to get a reduced rate for my portrait studio, for my headshots, for my personal branding packages, for my corporate headshot branding packages, for commercial work, whatever it is.

I think we'll start to see more and more of that live selling where it's not just a story or a reel or a post that's set up and does a one time sale.

I'm talking about people showing up and doing it live sell.

We're seeing it on TikTok, we're seeing it on Instagram, right?

And they're selling all these TEMU products that do or don't work, right?

A lot of them are garbage, a lot of them are scams, but the audience is there and they're willing to buy.

So if you have a digital product, you have a book, you have a course, I think we'll start to see more photographers selling live, doing that.

And there will be not only the photographers that are selling the product, there's Going to be a whole cottage industry underneath that of the producers, the content producers and the live streaming experts and the folks that they need to hire to put this content out.

Again, I am not breaking any news here that this stuff goes on.

I'm speaking specifically to the photography industry and I don't see enough of this happening.

So we're going to see more of that online sales.

Lastly, I think there's going to be a slew of products, webinars, coaching, right?

All of these different ways that photographers diversify their revenue streams.

There will be people that dip their toe into it and only do, you know, one webinar or they might sell some one on one coaching.

Then you're going to see people that are into it and they have a suite of products and a suite of services and that's all well and good as well, but we're going to be seeing more and more sales moving to the online platforms in a live format than we have in the past.

So as photographers come from behind the camera to more in front of it, they get more comfortable with speaking to a camera directly.

They get more comfortable speaking about their products or services and selling in a way that's real and natural and not gross.

I think we're going to see more and more of that this year and the ones that don't do it are going to be behind the curve yet again.

If this is not the year that you make a foray into video, whether it's by watching Ben's course, whether it's by contacting someone like me to help you get that set up, I do this stuff all the time.

I talk to people all the time and talk them through their why and how they want to get things set up.

I think you're going to see a lot more of that coming down the line.

So these are predictions.

Lastly, we are going to see a solid, solid anti AI revolt.

Even beyond the the esoteric arguments of whether or not AI is good or bad for photography, not talking about that.

You can have all of these debates about the climate and what it does with water.

You can have the debate about whether or not someone types a prompt in and creates an image.

Is that the same thing as an image produced by a professional photographer?

Those aren't the debates that I'm talking about.

I think what we're going to see is just the realization that AI ain't everything it's cracked up to be.

And quite honestly, it's causing a little bit more stress and harm to our psyche than it is saving us Time and energy to produce the thing.

I know for me, I use AI a lot in my ideation, in my brainstorming, I've talked about this several times and I use Claude.

But in an example that was happening this week, I decided I was going to make an automation, true automation, where once a week this automation kicks off and it goes to Claude, and based on a certain set of criteria, it produces a certain set of topics for YouTube videos.

Then all of that gets shot into a Google sheet so I can see what topics are coming out in this Google sheet.

Then if I type yes or no into one of the lines, or there's a second automation that is a time loop and it checks this spreadsheet constantly and it says if I type in there yes, and it hasn't been done before, then create a description for that video or write a script which I can then produce into a Google Doc and then go through and edit and see if it's something that I want.

And I do this as basically like ideation.

Let's kick around ideas.

Since I don't have a team, if I can automate that, then let's say every Monday I can go through and say, that's a good topic, write a script, that's a good topic, write some notes, do an outline here, and then I can go back and review it and see if that's something that I want to produce that was the intention.

And using something like make.com or, you know, n8n any of these automation softwares that are out there, it takes some learning, takes some getting used to.

And I sat there and for the better part of six to eight hours, tried to make this automation happen.

And I was using AI to help me work through some of the intricacies of setting up the automation.

And I know enough to be dangerous about coding and scripting and can pretty intuitively work my way through any system.

But man, I was just stumped in a bunch of areas.

So I'd ask Claude and I would say, hey, Claude, code, help me work through this script.

And it would spit out a bunch of information and I'd try that and it would get it wrong.

And I'd go back and I'd say, nope, this was wrong.

And I can see why, because you gave me this code.

Oh yeah, you're right, that was wrong.

Let me try it again, sorry.

And I went through that iterative process with Claude on every single line, right?

AI was getting it wrong every single time.

So what do I do?

I go to YouTube and I find a Couple of people that do make automations and I watch their stuff and I thought about it and I said, oh, that's exactly what I need to do, I need to tweak this here, tweak that there, and I got it done in a matter of minutes.

So what I'm saying is that we've become so dependent on the idea that AI is going to help us eliminate time and be more efficient, make things faster, that it's actually slowing us down trying to get it to work.

Why?

Because it's not really thinking anything, it's just giving us the answers it thinks statistically it wants us to hear.

So I think we're going to start to really see an anti AI revolt where hopefully, and God, I really hope this happens, people stop using the same prompts, they stop using AI to create the same website copy because when someone else comes along and says, I need to produce some website copy for my photography business, it's going to go out and it's going to find all these other shitty websites from photographers, grab that information, saying, well, they're all producing it this way, so you probably want it produced this way as well.

And it's going to give you the same shitty copy for your website.

As more and more people wake up to the fact that this is not going the way that we thought it was going to go, there'll be a revolt, right?

We're already seeing that people moving off of these platforms, we're seeing the infrastructure start to crumble, we're seeing, you know, just philosophical differences between the masses and what the AI companies are doing and how they're doing it.

As we get more and more under the covers of what's really happening, I'm realizing this isn't doing anything positive for us.

Maybe at the worldwide manufacturing level, medical, you know, discoveries, that sort of thing.

Cool.

But in the photography world there will be a lot of tools that help us move faster in retouching.

In website production and music production and all live streaming production and all that, AI is fine.

But unless you're going into it with some critical thinking behind it, all you're going to produce is stuff that is just unwatchable and instantly recognizable as slop.

So if you don't want to do that, then you'll have to reclaim some time back to do it yourself.

It'll be harder, it'll take longer, but it'll be more worth it, I guarantee you.

Do you want to go into a craft store and buy a carved figurine that you know is just kind of like CNC machined in a factory, a million at a time?

Or do you want the local guy named Buck who has a little knife and he carved that little figurine over and over and he does one a month because they take a time.

There's more value there.

And I think that's what we're going to start to see in the photography world is a move away from the AI tools.

Sorry, imagine.

Sorry, Evoto.

I think we're going to see people move away from those and back towards reality, flaws, imperfections, because that's what feels real and right to us.

So it'll just be interesting to see how the world revolts on AI and where this all goes.

But again, predictions, right.

I'm Cresskin here.

I have no idea if this is going to happen, but these are the things that I've been looking at now when it comes to overall view of the photography landscape, I'm still really positive on it.

What I'm not sure about is if the models that we've been taught for the past decade are still going to work.

And I'm not someone that believes that there's a quick fix for any of this.

I think we have to put time, energy and thought into what we want our own businesses to look like, how we want to be fulfilled by them, what the products are that we want to produce for our clients, whether that's retail or commercial.

And we need to understand that what we're doing matters.

What we're doing matters to every single one of our clients, or else they wouldn't be coming to us.

There is no one business that's exactly the same as another.

I may have a business that's similar to Kelly's or similar to Paul's, or similar to Josh's, but we're not the same people.

We don't produce the same artwork, and I'm sure we don't have the same prices.

We're all over the place.

So I love the uniqueness that we bring to the market.

What I don't want to do is look at Josh and say, josh, what are your prices?

How are you doing it?

What are your genres?

What does your website look like?

I'm going to copy all of that.

How do you do your podcast?

How do you make your videos?

I'm going to copy that.

I'm going to hear what you have to say.

I like your messaging.

I'm going to copy that.

There's no problem with influence anywhere and drawing from those influences and that inspiration don't copy anybody because it's not going to be your stuff, it's not going to be your show, it's not going to be your images.

You have to put in the time and the effort to look at it critically and say, is this a good representation of me or not?

And you know, Paul puts out here journal 100%.

And I'm a big fan of just journaling, writing it all down.

How did I feel?

What failed, what succeeded, what are my goals?

How long do I think this will take me?

What am I willing to sacrifice?

What am I willing to put into it to make this all work?

I really do believe that.

I almost made it without saying a word.

That didn't exist.

For those of us that are getting a little bit older, I know that I'm looking at my 10 year plan and saying, what can I do over the next 10 years to set myself up for some level of retirement?

I don't know if I'll ever retire from being an artist, but you get what I'm saying.

And right now I am all in on having as a supplement to my photography business, all of the live streaming, all of the podcasting, all of the video production, all of the coaching and mentoring that I can do in this space, all the building of the community, the building of a podcast network, all of these things are setting me up to, to spend the next 10 years doing something that I love.

And at the end of it, having helped lots and lots of photographers do the same thing, what I'm not going to do is copy someone else to get there.

What I'm not going to do is focus on how much money do I make by getting this sponsor or how much gear can I get from this sponsor.

I just want to do things that help people.

So if you're along for that, you're here and you're hanging out with me, awesome.

If you don't want to be around, that's fine.

If you think I'm full of shit, join the club.

But right now, I think we really have the chance to move in some really exciting new directions.

And if you're thinking about it and you've got ideas, throw them in the comments down below.

I'm willing to talk about anything and I know that it would make for great discussion going forward.

Now lastly, if you've happened to made it all the way to the end here with me, the live shows where I'm doing Generator live on Wednesday nights.

If you're interested at all in being a guest and talking about what it is that you do as a creator, please please please hit me up in the comments.

Send an email to matt stonetreecreative.com something get in touch with me, let's talk about it and we'll see if you can bring you on the show.

I've got a lot of things planned for this year.

Panels and webinars and live shows and collaborations and all sorts of stuff coming down the line.

I'm super excited about it all.

But for my predictions, you saw them.

I'm so glad that you were here with me.

I think that's about enough for the day.

About an hour and a half.

Save those first couple of minutes where I didn't even have my mic on.

This has been an awesome hour.

Thank you for listening to me for so long.

I'm going to be back next week.

I know that I'll be doing a show Wednesday night and I'll be doing a show on Friday of next week, but maybe I'll be doing something else in the meantime as well.

If you have any input.

Good bad.

Otherwise, let me know if you think people would get some use out of what I'm saying.

Send them over to the channel to like and subscribe now.

If all things go well, YouTube is going to suggest another video for you to watch.

So I'd appreciate if you went and did that.

Maybe you click a like here and there and get notified when I go live.

But thanks guys.

I will see you next time.

As always, I appreciate you all and I'll get at you next week later.