It seems like a fairly simple question — who is your ideal client? How hard could it be to think about who needs your services and why? Yet, most small business owners underestimate the effort it takes to understand their ideal client, and as a result, they restrict the potential of their business.

A common question here at creativeLIVE is “If I’m a portrait photographer, shouldn’t anyone looking to get their portraits taken be an ideal client?” The short answer to that question is absolutely not. 

According to best-selling author and founder of Duct Tape Marketing John Jantsch, “most business owners don't think narrowly enough when it comes to their ideal client.” What business owners need to do is look in the mirror, find out about themse

lves and with whom they really want to work. If you are passionate about working with couples but can’t stand working with children, then you need to be very careful about where you market yourself and services. “I always advise people (business owners) to think about clients they don't want to work with,” says Jantsch. “Most can identify with this idea and once they start doing this, they can dial their marketing messages and decisions in to attract only ideal clients.” 

Announcing Marketing and Promotion with Sue Bryce May 22 on creativeLIVE!

Today, Brooke Shaden begins her 3-day Fine Art Portraits course dedicated to teaching you how to add that fine art sensibility to your portfolio through live, instructional shoots and lessons. Through the use of her creative techniques, Brooke is going to show you how to transform mundane images into dramatic, eye-catching works of art. Intended for motivated beginners and experienced pros alike, this course will walk you through everything you need to know to create jaw-dropping images and have them hanging on gallery walls in no time.

Have you ever had an amazingly vivid dream you wish you could bring to life?

Here at creativeLIVE, we love to see great dreams come to life, no matter how big or small. We encourage you to chase them, live them, and share them with the world. Last week, during a project for Samsung, our co-founder Chase Jarvis had the perfect opportunity to live out one of his recurring dreams — while floating in picturesque clouds of color!

When Samsung approached Chase about collaborating on a project, they had one clear instruction: That he make a “colorful expression of a dream to prove out the color quality on the Samsung Premium Monitor 9 series to see the results.” Chase immediately knew what he’d make. “I’ve had this recurring dream where I’m floating in a sea of insanely vividly colored clouds. You know those flying dreams… well, this is similar, except more floating than flying or falling,” Chase explains on his blog.

Check out this video to see the amazing results. As for making your dreams come true, Chase recommends taking a Photshop class. 

Also, if you have brought one of your dreams to life, share it with us in the comments section below.

Last week, we asked photography bloggers watching Kelly Brown’s Newborn Posing course to write a little something about it. We received some great posts in English, French and even Dutch! Read all about them below.

(Are you watching Scott Robert Lim’s course? Write something about it on your blog and we will feature you on our blog next week. Send a link to your blog to: editors@creativelive.com)

Here are the top blogs from last week’s Newborn Posing workshop:

1) This French blogpost highlights the creativeLIVE experience and what you can learn on our platform. Thanks for sharing Maieva!