From Nothing to Profit: Recent Episodes
Kia Bondurant and Brianna Gamble
Welcome to “From nothing to Profit, a photographers podcast”. Every week Matt Hoaglin and Kia Bondurant interview successful photographers that own profitable portrait studios. The goal is to find out what is working in their business now and see what is making them so profitable. From marketing tips to business secrets, Matt and Kia will ask all the difficult questions so you can take your business from nothing to profit. If you listen to this every week, not only will you have an action plan to grow your business but you will know what the best photographers in the world are thinking about right now. Your competition will have no idea what hit them. You will steal market share and have a list of amazing marketing ideas to use all year long. If you want your portrait studio to supply for your family this is the podcast for you. Stay tuned as we interview the very best photographers in the industry so you can swipe their marketing ideas and business practices.
"Though my muscles may stiffen, though my skin may wrinkle, may I never find myself yawning at life." ~ Toyohiko Kagawa
We think women of every age should be photographed and celebrated. Over the year's we've photographed lots of high school seniors. The world tries to tell us we should look like that 17 year old forever. Although that’s a beautiful age, it’s fleeting, still a child - literally. Striving to look like that is not only wildly unattainable, it does women a disservice. - Aubrey and Kia
Join Aubrey and Kia as they discuss aging, their personal views on it and why they want to change the way we view aging for women. Every woman at every age is beautiful, powerful, valuable and should be celebrated.
Aubrey and Kia chat health and how they maintain a healthy lifestyle during their busy season. They share background on how their unique journeys brought them to value health and share their practical tips that you can start applying to your life today.
Aubrey shares her top 8 tips in her daily schedule including her daily meal plan. We all love a meal plan!
Kia shares the 4 ways that she is working to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into her every day life.
Aubrey and Kia interview Kia's husband, Andy Bondurant. Although he is currently a pastor, his knowledge of photography and business goes beyond being a spouse of a photographer. Andy was the director of a large conference and membership organization for senior photographers, exhibited at every major photography convention and had a set and background company.
Check out his answers to these questions:
-Tell us what you are doing currently and how you got to where you are today?
-Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
-From someone who has watched the photography rather from a far, or up close for the last 20 years, what advice would you give photographers?
-you’ve helped a lot of people through hard situations; When do you know it’s time to walk away from a business or job?
-What would you say to someone who is creating a business for the first time?
Our favorite quotes from the interview:
Consistency compounds - Steve Magnus
It’s not failure, its a moment in time - Andy Bondurant
Click here to go to Andy's website
Andy Bondurant's Instagram
Anytime that we can bring fashion into our businesses, it establishes expertise. Get caught up on the latest trends as Aubrey and Kia talk through their What to Wear Guide for Senior Girls.
Find out what Aubrey and Kia suggest for each of these trends. Want to purchase the template for your studio or business, go here!
- Classic
- Street
- Glam
- Boho
- All-American
- Casual
- Vintage
- Romantic
- Girl Boss - express, H&M
And if you want to check out the pinterest boards for each style, follow this link.
As usual, Kia Bondurant and Aubrey Lauren have completely different perspectives on the speaking world. Aubrey is brand new to the scene with lots that she is excited to share and help other people with. Kia has been a national level speaker in the photography industry for years, even creating the speaking line up for a national event and hiring speakers herself.
Kia and Aubrey share their tips for getting into speaking from both perspectives. If you speak or have something you want to share, this episode is for you.
INC magazine's article on Steve Jobs 5 step presentation process
The Successful Speaker: Five Steps for Booking Gigs, Getting Paid, and Building Your Platform
Toastmasters Speaking Club
Movement coach. Kristi Coaches Communicators. KristiBramlett.com
International Women's Day is March 8 every year and typically goes by without a huge amount of fanfare. This year was different for Aubrey Lauren and Kia Bondurant. They didn't expect to have a lot to say, but this episode interrupted their podcasting schedule with its urgency. As business women who have grown up in a conservative tradition, Kia and Aubrey talk about how they are growing and changing in their view of women's roles in business and in life. Don't be surprised if you are surprised:) They certainly weren't expecting to share as much as they have!
Hashtag Primetime News Article
Did Women Burn Their Bras News Article
Song of Songs 2:10-13
Do you paddle board at your business meetings? If so, it may be why you have trouble making them a priority. Each season, Kia and Aubrey meet to plan for what's coming up in their business. Listen to find out how they organize their meetings, where they hold them and what books they've learned from. If you need direction or tips for creating vision and direction in your business, check this episode out!
Book recommendations
The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 MonthsAtomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Join Kia and Aubrey as they discuss using a marketing formula for each generation. From romantic and traditional boomers to tech savvy gen-z, leverage your knowledge to better serve each client type and communicate more effectively.
Kia and Aubrey share personal experiences working with each different generation type. Since Kia is Gen X and Aubrey is a Millenial, you'll get their different perspectives on interacting with and marketing to each generation.
A fantastic blog about Gen Z
Best Channels for Each Generation Article
Blog for Strategies to Differentiate Your Marketing to Each Generation
One of the best tools to understand your clients and coworkers is knowledge about the different generations. What will motivate a Boomer will completely turn off a Gen Z teen and what will make a Gen X parent skeptical of your product will convince a Millennial parent you know what is going on. Listen to the first of a 2 part series on Kia Bondurant and Aubrey Lauren's approach to social media, buying trends and design direction for each of the generations!
A fantastic blog about Gen Z
Best Channels for Each Generation Article
Blog for Strategies to Differentiate Your Marketing to Each Generation
Are you curious about what actually goes on in a Day in the Life of Kia and Aubrey?
Join Kia and Aubrey as they talk through their daily routines and share what their typical day looks like. They are often asked how they get so much done every day and you will see it takes 2 very different approaches!
Aubrey is part of the 5 AM club and goes through each carefully thought out step of her rigorous morning and evening routines. This keeps her on a path to achieve the goals she sets for each day. Scroll down to see her morning and evening schedules. You may want to add these to your daily plans!
No less productive, Kia is a complete contrast to Aubrey with her love of slow and relaxing mornings and days filled with spontaneity and creativity. It takes all kinds and you'll be encouraged to find new ways of making your days productive and enjoyable with this glimpse into daily studio life with Aubrey and Kia!
5am club book Link
Aubrey's Good Morning Routine 🌞
4:45am - wake up, pray, meditate.
5:00 - make smoothie, get ready for workout
5:10 - work out for an hour
6:10 - straighten up house for cool down; dishes, clean counters, sweep, throw in laundry, plan food for day
6:30 - drink greens and tea; journal, devotional, read Torah/bible
7:15 - work on language
7:45 - read 50 pages non fiction
8:30ish - get ready for work
9:00ish - down in studio
Aubrey's Good Evening Routine 🌙
5:00pm - make dinner
6:00 - free time; go on walk, spend time with fam, call friends, read, bake
8:30 - shower/bath, brush teeth, take off makeup
9:00 - finish non fiction reading for the day.
9:45 - plan the next days schedule and to do’s, review current day wins/losses
10:00 - quiet time. Pray, meditate
10:30 - sleep
In this extra special BONUS episode of the Instagram series, Kia and Aubrey share how they use their personal Instagrams for their every day lives, rather than for business or promotion.
In the first half of this podcast Aubrey shares how Instagram has become a type of dating app! She gives great tips on what does and doesn’t work for finding that significant other on Instagram. Be prepared to find out the best ways to slide into someone's dms and how to set up your feed to come across as someone truly dateable.
The second half of the episode Kia shares her top tips for keeping Instagram enjoyable as a parent and gives some fun advice on creating your own personal "Mommagram". If you are a mom, you probably aren't a digital native so it's nice to hear another parent's perspective on what to share and not to share on social media.
This episode was recorded before the holidays so feel free to get a little nostalgic when Aubrey and Kia both share about their seasonal bucket lists!
Aubreys butternut squash recipe from Pinterest
Want to know how to use Instagram when you don't have a business but work as an employee?
Listen to this episode for the top 5 tips on using Instagram to get and keep your Dream Job!
In this podcast episode, Kia and Aubrey discuss how they use instagram as an advantage in their jobs and practical tips on leveling up your social media. They also discuss how a few simple social media changes can protect you from missing out on potential job opportunities!
Listen until the end to hear a great bonus tip on how to get directly in touch with your dream employer!
In the first episode of season 4, Kia Bondurant and Aubrey Lauren share their top 10 tips for Instagram for business. Both Aubrey and Kia have built their personal instagrams and two business accounts to convert clients, generate leads and inspire other business owners.
Helpful Links:
Download our social media guide here
Donald Miller podcast on brand clarity
The value of emojis article
How to create an instagram aesthetic
Our favorite app to plan ahead: Planoly
We invited Bo Nelson on as our first ever guest who is not involved in the photography industry. As a local business owner and entrepreneur in the Kansas City area, Bo has been pioneering new ways of selling coffee. His philosophical and creative concepts are an inspiration to any business. Listen in to Bo's thoughts on the next economy that encompasses memory, vibe and experience. Get ideas from the concepts he is using in his business as a living laboratory to get immediate feedback and figure out how to create the Heartbeat and SOUL that your brand needs! More about Josiah "Bo" Nelson: Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters is at the heart of a Kansas City movement driven by innovation and craft. Every day, artists, entrepreneurs, government leaders, non-profit and startup leaders connect over coffee at Thou Mayest, fueling their passion to advance their city. Co-owner/majority stakeholder Bo Nelson is a big reason why. Bo is a homegrown Kansas Citian, whose blend of rural and urban life experience reflects the city he serves. Bo grew up on a farm, working his family’s 10-acre nursery where he honed horticultural skills, learned business basics, and developed a hard work ethic that is evident in everything he does. Bo traveled the world, but felt the call back home, inspired to put his mark on the culture of the city he loves. Bo started Thou Mayest Coffee Roasters in 2012, built upon the idea that communities grow through connections and conversations over a good drink. Thou Mayest is named in reference to a passage from John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, and the shop’s design/atmosphere is equal parts Jacques Cousteau, Frank Zappa and the Boy Scouts of America. One visit and it’s evident that Bo has created a magnetic space that is itself alive, gathering people of all backgrounds and interests to have a drink and foster collaboration. Links: https://thoumayest.com/ (Thou Mayest) https://www.cafeequinox.com/ (Cafe Equinox)
You'll love our interview with Tara Rochelle! Follow along as we uncover the surprising journey of Tara Rochelle's senior imagery. When you see Tara Rochelle’s work, there is nuance and depth that is unusual in senior portraits - even senior portraits with such a fashion influence. After talking with Tara, it all begins to make sense. The layers of her experience - from her classical training to photographing weddings for years, time shooting model portfolios and now, senior portraits. More about Tara: Tara Rochelle is a senior photographer who infused fashion and editorial elements into her photography and has established a signature style that is known throughout the industry. She is located outside of Los Angeles, CA and has been photographing since high school. She has photographed celebrity weddings and celebrities, but now focuses on the high school senior market. Tara also loves to teach other photographers and has been a speaker at workshops and is always highly requested to be a keynote speaker at industry conferences! Links: https://tararochelle.com/ (Tara's Website) https://www.instagram.com/tararochellephoto/ (Tara's Instagram) https://tara-rochelle-photography-design.myshopify.com/ (Tara for Photographers)
You'll love the energy and inspiration from this interview with Emil! Before her career as a photographer, Emil Rodriguez-Powell was a social worker in child welfare. It was great to be able to talk through some tough issues with Emil with her viewpoint as a photographer and a woman of color. You can see her creative work on https://www.instagram.com/sliceoflimephoto (@sliceoflimephoto) (lime - Emil) get it? And her new businesses at https://www.instagram.com/sourcethespace/ (@sourcethespace) ad https://www.instagram.com/sourcecreativehouse/ (@sourcecreativehouse). With only 3 years in the business full time, Emil has skyrocketed to success. Can’t wait to see where she takes her penchant for GROWTH next! A little more about Emil: Emil is the Lime in Slice of Lime (no really, it’s her name, backwards!) Located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Emil has built a senior photography brand on the belief that “We all Shine Differently” and pushes herself to create images for her seniors that capture the spirit of who they are while giving them a memorable experience that they want to shout about from the rooftops. When not behind the lens, Emil can be found adding to her plant collection, listening to records with her hubby, Jason, and cuddling with her rescue dogs PODCAST: http://certifiedmadness.com/ (http://certifiedmadness.com) http://www.instagram.com/sliceofseniorstyle (www.instagram.com/sliceofseniorstyle)
Getting to do an interview with Carissa has been on Kia's list for a while now because Carissa's work is so bright and energetic. The great thing is that Carissa adds in so much meaning to her work with the charities and special projects that she supports with her business. If you are wanting to add more creativity and meaning to your photography and your business, this podcast episode is for you! Carissa Davis is a High School/Tween and Kids photographer and national educator. She is known for her bright, bold, fun imagery and her rep team known as the "Flamingos". As a mom of two girls , and working with a predominantly female client base , promoting “girl power” is top priority. Her business empowers young girls to be strong contributing members of society and encourages breaking barriers of competition amongst other women, all while building self confidence and growth. She is also an animal rights and Special Needs advocate pairing with organizations such as Emily’s Legacy and Night to Shine. https://www.facebook.com/emilyslegacyrescueinc (https://www.facebook.com/emilyslegacyrescueinc) https://www.timtebowfoundation.org/ministries/night-to-shine (https://www.timtebowfoundation.org/ministries/night-to-shine)
What a fantastic interview with Ronan Ryle of https://3xmsolution.com/#welcome (3xm Solutions) and https://paykstrt.com/20230/73405 (BSA Academy)! Ronan is a certified business coach with Profit First and Storybrand - both of which we love and have adopted for our business. He had so much wisdom to share about how to look at your business from a philosophical and a profit viewpoint. The best way to find out more is to join the https://paykstrt.com/20230/73405 (Business Success Academy 14 day Challenge.) Kia has done it, loved it and booked lots of sessions during the slow time of her year. When you click on the link, you’ll get 30 days membership for free! It’s an affiliate link so if you use it, Kia will get helped out as well! A little more about Ronan: Ronan as CEO of Infinity Group (3XM, Business Success Academy & Photovalue) has made it his mission to help Photographers Realize the difference their work makes to creating a healthy society in mind, body & spirit. By doing so, Photographers start to Respect themselves which is an essential first step to bridging the value gap with consumers. Only when these two pillars are achieved will Photographers get properly Rewarded for the important work they do. Ronan’s mission is to help photographers Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Understood by the consumer not for what they do but for the difference they make to the consumers life. That is how we bridge the value gap with the consumer. That is how we amplify the creation of a healthier society through photography. Photographers who become BSA Online Marketing Wizards are filing their studios all year round with higher paying clients while amplifying the creation of a healthier society through photography.
Even though we are already well into the first quarter of 2021, there is still a lot of time to make things happen. Listen in as Matt and Kia discuss their personal and professional plans for this unprecedented year. And find out Kia's word of the year. It's only 2 letters. Can you guess it?
We didn't see a lot of things coming in 2020 and this was definitely one of them. But unlike many of 2020's surprises, Matt becoming a financial planner is very exciting. Check out this podcast to find out what prompted Matt to switch careers again. If you didn't know, Matt started out as a high school math teacher, became a photographer and is now on to one of his dream jobs - helping people manage their futures. Matt shares his financial planning advice for photographers in this episode. Be sure to check it out! If you want to connect with Matt to find out more about planning your financial future, go to https://www.oxfordfp.net (https://www.oxfordfp.net) or email matt@allisonragsdalephotography.com. Disclosure: This material has been distributed for informational purposes only. All investments carry certain risk and there is no assurance that an investment will provide positive performance over any period of time. They are not intended to constitute legal, tax, securities or investment advice or a recommended course of action in any given situation. The projections discussed regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not guarantees of future results. Matt Hoaglin is an Investment Advisor Representative with Dynamic Wealth Advisors dba Oxford Financial Planners. All investment advisory services are offered through Dynamic Wealth Advisors
In this first episode of 2021, we are taking a look back at the crazy time last year when we stayed at home and worked a photography business. Kia tried a bunch of new strategies with her business during that unprecedented time. Some were big successes. Others didn't work that well. Listen in to hear what worked and what didn't with Kia's Top Ten Take-Aways. Here's a link to a blog all about Taking Back Happy. https://www.kiabondurant.com/ (Kia's website) https://www.instagram.com/kiabondurant/ (Kia's Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/bondurantstudios/ (Bondurant Studios Instagram) https://www.instagram.com/stylemusemagazine/ (Style Muse Magazine Instagram) https://www.facebook.com/kia.bondurant (Kia's Facebook)
Today on the podcast, we have Chelsea Taylor, from Kansas. She runs a luxury portrait studio in a small town. She gave us real talk about social media today and made us rethink what we are doing. When titling this episode, Matt wrote down “Small Town, Big Goals”. This is a must listen to episode.
Today on From Nothing to Profit, we have Nicki Hufford. We loved getting to know her. She is a major go-getter and is alway on the front edge of our industry. If you are looking for new ideas or want help making movement on an idea you have had for a while, this episode is for you. We also ask Nicki a lot of questions about her amazing volume softball business. Such amazing insights in this episode.
Today on the podcast, we interview Kay Eskridge, from Phoenix AZ. Kay is the perfect person to have on the podcast right now because we have gotten a lot of feedback from photographers wanting help with making changes in their business. Kay has done it all. She owned a small studio and giant studio, a high end studio and now runs a business out of her house. So she knows the pros and cons of all the models. Listen in to hear what she has to say.
Julia Woods is not only one of the best known photographers in our industry but also an amazing coach. Ever wanted a business coach for just a few minutes? Listen in to this one and you will feel uplifted and inspired to go do great work. This episode is about real talk and it will help you get moving again.
This episode with Sarah Smith is maybe the best feel good episode we have had yet. She reminds us of what is important and helps get us pointed in the right direction. If you feel a little lost, listen in because there are a lot of gems in this episode.
Sean Brown teaches us how he has created a system to run a youtube channel, an instagram and a tiktok account, all from one piece of content. If you are worried about there being to many platforms and how you handle it all, this is for you. When you are done listening you will see the light to the next level of social media and video.
Allison Rodgers is not just a photographer but also a graphic designer and that comes across in every part of her business. She gives us some great insight into how we should be viewing the products we create for our clients. If you are looking to grow your physical product side of your business this year, this is the episode for you.
Today on the podcast we talk to Lisa Staff. As a photographer and a social media master, she has some amazing insight into instagram and other social media. When it comes to changing our ways, we want to learn from the best and Lisa is top tier. Our favorite quote from this episode is “Start by Starting”. You are not going to want to miss this episode.
In this episode, Matt and Kia interview Allison Ragsdale; Matt's wife. Get the real story on who runs the business and why they are so successful. And guess what? Matt is not calling all the shots. Learn some inside knowledge of their photography world as well the fun story on how Matt and Allison created such a successful business.
In this episode Matt and Kia interview Aubrey Johnson. Aubrey is Kia's studio manager and we get the real scoop of what is happening in the business. When you want to know the secrets to success sometimes you just have to ask the person in charge. Learn how to manage employees and get some inside knowledge.
Looking for a fun yet powerful conversation? This episode with Nathan Loker is one you need to hear today. Learn all about Loker, from the fact he is a stay at home dad as well as a BBQ master. Oh yeah, we talk a lot about what makes him successful in photography as well.
In this episode, we get a rare look into Dan McClanahan's genius. Many believe he is one of the best photographers right now. Listen in to hear what makes him tick and what he is thinking when he creates all this art.
Today on From nothing to Profit, Matt and Kia interview the mother-daughter team of Marci and Christy. If you are looking for insight into working with family or just all around great advice about the senior portrait industry, this is for you.
Looking for a more positive outlook on the coronavirus and how it will effect your business? If so, this is the interview for you. Rod is such a fresh breath of air in the time of doom and gloom. He has been in the industry for a long time and has been through hard times before. This recording couldn't have come at a better time.
In this crazy time we wanted to hear what Amanda Holloway is thinking and doing during this time when photographers are not working and bills are still coming in. She has some great insights and as always, a very honest view of the world we live in.
On this episode of the podcast, Matt and Kia interview maybe the most popular photographer in the industry right now, Thomas Nguyen. Learn how he has become such a household name in the industry and his mindset to create unique and beautiful photographs. Such a great interview and it is amazing to see the heart of such a great person.
In today's episode we cover what Kia is doing in her studio during the Covid 19 virus outbreak. See what she is doing to stay afloat and what plan she has put in place. If you are looking for help during this time this episode is for you.
Matt Hoaglin and Kia Bondurant discuss what Matt's studio (Allison Ragsdale Photography) is doing during the Covid 19 virus outbreak. Colorado is currently shut down. So what are Matt and Allison doing to make money, save money and stay focused on the future? Tune in to find out.
On this episode of From Nothing to Profit, Matt and Kia interview Sarah Petty, who is a huge name in the industry. Sarah also runs The Joy of Marketing. Sarah started as a marketer. You don’t want to miss how Sarah transitioned into being a high end boutique photography studio. Listen in to hear Sarah’s puzzle metaphor and advice about finding a coach/mentor. Sarah teaches, but also shoots, so she can stay relevant and understand her students’ challenges. You want to hear Sarah’s marketing tactics based around educating her clients. Sarah is fired up right now about ditching the digitals. The best advice Sarah ever received is to take advice from the people who are where you want to be. She recommends all Seth Godin, his blog and new book, “This is Marketing”, the book “You are a Badass” and of course her own book, “Worth Every Penny.”
Joyofmarketing.com/marketingchecklist (free resource)
On today’s podcast, Matt & Kia interview Vickie Black, who is the owner of Senior Style Guide. Vickie started out photographing everything, then fell in love with photographing seniors. Senior Style Guide started out as a blog in 2011. It grew into a magazine in 2012. Right now the Hot 100 submissions are happening, which is a huge image contest. This year, Vickie is opening up the contest to 25 people’s choice winners too. Vickie is starting to travel for meet ups and is getting ready to announce Push, her annual conference. Push will be in a new location and in November in 2020. Vickie just wants to bring everyone together. Don’t miss what Vickie is fired up about in the industry, the good and the bad. Vickie recommends podcasts and becoming part of a FB group community.
Thepushconference.com
Seniorstyleguide.com
seniorstyleguide
@seniorstyleguide
Selessa is a senior portrait photographer in Michigan. Want to hear a great laugh? Listen to this podcast! She had her own advertising and design business before going full time photographer. She specializes in senior portraits and has great insight into senior model teams. Selessa is excited about seeing video and fashion inspired sessions in the industry. You’ll want to listen to how Selessa balances keeping things fresh and also photographing something your clients will purchase. You’ll also get the inside scoop on mirrorless cameras. And don’t miss Selessa’s “why” and the best advice she ever received, which will also be some of the best advice you’ve ever received! Don’t miss a great conversation about parents shooting cell phone pics during the session and how to handle that.
@Selessastudio on instagram
Today’s awesome podcast is with Isaac Coffey, who specializes in senior portraits in a very small rural town. He is the only one in his area offering the full experience to his clients. He is also 25 years old. You’ll want to hear about Isaac’s mental shift to thinking about his business as a business. Isaac has a hair/makeup artist, a style closet and does in-person sales. Listen in to hear how Isaac started building his style closet and specific stores/pieces he recommends. Don’t miss what Isaac is fired up about in the industry and how he got started in photography. You’ll love what Isaac recommends you do and don’t spend money on. Isaac is a huge fan of automation so don’t miss out on the resources he uses and recommends to help your business.
@coffycreations on Instagram
Today’s podcast is with Randy Coleman. Kia and Randy met via Instagram DM and Kia credits Randy with influencing her business in a positive, profitable way this past year. Randy says he’s known as the fun studio. He and his team keep their clients laughing the whole time, while also keeping things high end and professional. His love language is words of affirmation, in case you were wondering. Randy does a brand ambassador program and you don’t want to miss how he runs it! Make sure to listen in to how Randy uses boomerangs on instagram stories. Randy is excited about the push to print these days and says to make the printing/ordering process and easy and fun as possible. Listen in to hear all of Randy’s tips and tricks about selling both prints and digital images.
On today’s podcast, Matt interviews Christine about her new project, Instalocal. They’ve known eachother for years, via FB blogger group, in which Matt claims they haven’t been kicked out yet because they behave themselves. Christine had been working as a digital strategist for years and started her own photography business in 2007. She was successful, 6 figures gross, in her first year and people wanted to know how she did it. Don’t miss her story and how she looks at using Instagram. You’ll want to listen in to hear how to get off the content treadmill. Listen to why you should have a personal and a business account and how you should use hashtags. Christine says the more information you put out there, the better. Put out things that connect on an emotional level or educates your potential clients. Christine is also speaking at WPPI 2020 so come see her!
Instagram: @ChristineTremoulet
Photographers Innercircle
instalocal.biz
Matt has known Beth Teutschmann for years via the internet. Beth has a degree in geology but when her internship ended early, Beth went to work for her friend, and fellow photographer, Molly. She started retouching for Molly and now run an outsourcing company for photographers to send out their retouching. You won’t want to miss Beth’s stories about her lizard, etc, etc!
https://starboardediting.com/ (Home)
Today’s podcast is an interview with Corey Potter. Corey photographed weddings for years and also worked with websites and SEO since he was 15. Once Corey had kids, he and his wife decided 40 weddings a year and homeschooling was too much. Corey says SEO is important but shouldn’t be your only priority. Make sure you have a Google MyBusiness listing and make sure your business name and phone number, etc is consistent across the internet. Listen in to get all of Correy’s tips and tricks for making your website rank well. Corey has a guide on his website you can download and read to get started. Design and aesthetic of your website has far less impact than an offer for your client. It doesn’t need to be pretty or different, it just needs to work. Think outside the box, writing articles for your blog (and others) that provides value to your potential clients. Corey also has an ebook with action items and also a course on learning to do this yourself versus hiring someone else.
https://www.fuelyourphotos.com/ (Home)
Matt and Kia are officially in Season 2 of From Nothing to Profit!! And this episode is with Scott Wyden, who is this podcast’s first repeat guest too! Scott tells us that 35% of websites are powered by wordpress. NextGenPro is Imagely’s plugin for WordPress that now offers auto print fulfillment. What’s so great about this is that your client’s don’t have to leave your site to order their prints. This podcast is not sponsered by Imagely, Matt and Kia just wanted to share this new option because Imagely supports our industry. So check it out!
http://www.nextgen-gallery.com/295-0-3-12.html (http://www.nextgen-gallery.com/295-0-3-12.html)
On today’s podcast, Matt interviews Justin Lofton, who is not a photographer. Justin works in marketing, SEO, Facebook ad agencies and coaching. Justin’s passion lies in helping entrepreneurs skip some of the challenges we face. Listen in to see what he says about your energy. Delegate or delete things that drain your energy. Do more of the things that you enjoy and that you are still excited about doing when you go to bed at night. Listen to your body to avoid burnout and stay connected to your passions. You don’t want to miss how serving yourself first lets you serve others at your highest level. 80/20 your relationships. Observe what got you where you are and what you need to focus on to get you where you want to go.
Contact with Justin 80/20 Business – 8020business.com – free strategy call
Zenfusion.com – Facebook ads help
Read Full Transcript
[00:00] This is Justin Lofton and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:04] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:19] Hey everybody. Well, I’m going to podcast. So as you heard in the introduction, I have Justin Lofton on today and you’re probably thinking Justin Loften photography. I don’t know who that is. Well actually he’s not a photographer and he’s somebody that I’ve ran in the same circle with for years. And Justin, we met years ago at icon, which is infusion site was, it was Infusionsoft’s like annual conference for their users and Yup. And for people that don’t know, Infusionsoft is a CRM that we use in our business. But you had some businesses there I think when we first met, when you were doing syncsumo. Yep. And um, and so to that, tell us a little bit about like kind of what you do and stuff like that. And then I’ll tell, I’ll tell my audience kind of why we have you on the podcast.
[00:57] Yeah, of course. So you know, I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was a kid and I really owe the last, call it 12 to 18 years. I’ve been doing a lot online selling products and I’m doing marketing. I’ve done a ton of SEO, search engine optimization, manipulating Google’s algorithm. And I’ve, I’ve run, you know, tons of Facebook ads. I’ve probably spent over 15 million now on Facebook’s ad platform. And so I’ve done it all in terms of running an agency, which I still have syncsumo, which is a software as a service company that connects CRMs like infusion soft with a Facebook ad platform to sync up those contacts. So I’ve got multiple e-commerce brands now. Like I said, I’ve got zen fusion, which is a Facebook ads agency. And then, you know, really my passion project is one on one coaching, helping entrepreneurs and business owners accelerate the growth of their business through the use of the business acceleration lifecycle, which I’ve developed over the last 20 years.
[01:55] That’s awesome. Yeah. And so that’s kind of how we ended up here. So I’m interested enough, like I literally reached out to you yesterday afternoon after I saw a post on Facebook that you’d post, cause we’re obviously friends on Facebook and it comes from, you know, your, Your 80 20 coaching branch of, of your world now. And you were talking about, and I just want you to share this with the audience. And so you were talking about this concept that I’m going to butcher, but if the idea is that it’s all about an energy game, right? And it’s like, so talk more about exactly what you mean by that and how you look at business now.
[02:29] Yeah. And just like your listeners, you know, I’ve been through this, I’ve fallen on my face so many times over the...
Today, Matt and Kia discuss work life balance, specifically with a family/children. When Kia first started work as a photographer, she worked 60 hours a week and that didn’t stop when she had her first two children. You don’t want to miss Kia’s story after a life changing event occured. Kia says you’ll never be perfectly balanced or perfectly comfortable. Shoot for work life integration, versus balance. It doesn’t have to be 50/50. Matt talks about how parkinson’s law affects our lives. You don’t want to miss this all the great advice in this podcast!
Read Full Transcript
[00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:17] All right, welcome everybody to the podcast today. Matt and I have a very interesting conversation topic that we’re going to be discussing and one that is super close to my heart. So Matt, you had a question the other day. What was your question?
[00:31] Well, so a lot of people send me messages all the time because I do some coaching and stuff and they talk a lot about worth like more. I can’t even speak now, work life balance. And so I feel like I can help them. But there’s been a few that I couldn’t help lately and it’s because it’s based around like family. And so I just thought you could answer this better because you got children and what work life life balance work looks like for somebody that is raising kids and has kids and soccer and stuff like that.
[01:00] Yeah, yeah. Oh you mentioned soccer. Absolutely. So work life balance is something that I have definitely struggled with over the years and had, I’ve, I’ve made a lot of different decisions, tried things, a lot of different ways to figure out how I can be in a comfortable position. And so, uh, just to go back a little bit, I started as a photographer right out of college. So I was married and 22 and uh, working in a family business and I was working 60, 70 hours a week. And then I had my first daughter when I was 25. And so I continued to work 60 or 70 hours a week and just brought her to work with me and then my second daughter was born and continue to work that much and they both would come to work with a nanny and then they were both in a car wreck and they were winning.
[01:52] Yes. My girls and the nanny were in a car wreck. She, uh, she took them to the city. We, uh, lived in a city in a small town about 20 minutes outside of the big city, and she took them to the city to get lunch for everyone and was late coming back. Uh, and some of my, someone had said to me, well, she’s late getting back. And I was like, yes, with my children, I don’t care about lunch, I’m worried about my children. And then we got a phone call and, uh, what had happened is she, her car had, um, my car actually had a hit, a, a piece of metal that had been dropped off the road right in front of her, so other cars and had had swerved and she wasn’t able to. And so it had rolled and it was just crazy.
[02:38] Like it was the grace of God truly, truly the grace of the car. The car rolled, the car rolled multiple times. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And so you don’t know the story, Matt. That’s great. Obviously don’t, so yeah. So the paramedics came up on the scene, saw all of the, she had actually also gone to the store and bought some like children’s toys. Um, this photo session. So there were all these children’s toys strewn out all across the road. The car was hanging upside down air, the other car was upside down and they pulled up and they were just sure that they were going to come across a horrific scene. And, uh, they, my five month old daughter and my two and a half year old daughter and the nanny were in the car, they were all perfectly...
Today, Matt and Kia, talk about how to communicate your value to your potential clients. Kia suggests starting with yourself. Reflect on why you value photography. To Kia, it’s a matter of life and death. Photographers are often the first call when someone loses a loved one. We produce art. Digital files should have a printed counterpart because in the long run, who knows if the digital images will be accessible. Listen in to hear Matt’s advice about dealing with head trash and price conversations versus value conversations. Build that relationship with your client and be the expert so they know, like and trust you.
This is a list of the things we suggest to do:
Value it yourself
Have confidence
Have examples
Start the conversation a different way
Say the hard things
Relationship
Read Full Transcript
[00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Okay. Hey,
[00:16] good morning everyone, or good afternoon or good evening I guess depending on when you’re listening to this. Welcome to the podcast. Today we are talking about how to communicate your value to your customers or how to let them see your value. And Matt and I have some different strategies that we want to share with you today. And my first thought on this is it okay if I start off Matt? Yeah, no, go right ahead. Jump right in. My first thought on this is that sometimes you need to start with yourself and figure out how to communicate to yourself the value of what you do. And having been in this 20 years and seen all the changes throughout the industry and you know, kind of my own journey, I’ve come to some times when I have had to rethink things and had to really reevaluate how I view photography.
[01:09] And so starting out, I had never been to a professional photographer before, so obviously we didn’t necessarily see the value in it and we didn’t really understand what a professional photographer could do. So I learned the value of professional photography by actually doing it. And by being a customer of know, by being a photographer, because you came, you know, from your family business, I was, it was my family business. And so I didn’t know about photography except that when I looked back on any professional photographs that we’d had taken as a child, they were all film and color and they were all fading. And so we didn’t have beautiful portraits of us as children. My mom started dabbling in photography when I was in sixth grade. And so from sixth grade on is when I actually had any, you know, photographs that weren’t just fading and we’re creative or something like that.
[02:02] And so I think first off, you have to think of why you value photography and why it’s important to you. And then it’s a lot easier to communicate to your clients. So as a mom with four kids, I have a hallway that I walked down every time I leave my bedroom to go to any other part of the House that is full of pictures of my kids have diff at different points in their lives. All of them and when they’re seven or eight months old naked crawling around two when they’re all four or five years old. And uh, the first ones are black and white and then I have sepia head shots of their profiles and then I have them all dressed as angels. And so, which reminds me that they are actually angels. When I’m leaving my room to go, y’all, I leave my room to go yell at someone.
[02:47] But for me photography is not just a luxury and it’s not just something that’s like a piece of furniture or some kind of fun thing. It’s really a matter of life or death in my opinion. Because if when something happens to a loved one, the first person that they call a lot of times is us to...
In this episode, Matt tells Kia about something new he’s doing and basically just lets you in on their private conversation. Over the previous 30 days, Matt did (at Sam’s suggestion), Russell Brunson’s 30 day challenge, One Funnel Away. Matt explains what a funnel is and how they work for your business. Everyday Matt would wake up excited to watch the newest video and implement the next step. Listen in to hear about “who” not “how”. Don’t miss the steps to building an irresistible offer for your clients. You’ll also want to hear the storytelling tips Matt learned. Want to know what the “Dream 100” means? This podcast is for you!
https://onefunnelaway.com/challenge?cf_affiliate_id=508722&affiliate_id=508722 (One Funnel Away Link)
https://matthoaglin.krtra.com/t/KzmNdg31jeoQ (Kartra Link)
Read Full Transcript
[00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak, where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:17] Hey, everybody, welcome to the podcast. So this week I decided to do a little bit different or a podcast. I wanted to tell Kaya about something that I just did. And instead of just telling her like we would not normally call her and tell her, I decided that I would record this conversation because I think it would be super useful for you guys as well. So are you ready to hear about my new thing that I just did?
[00:38] Yes. I’m, I’m excited. And it is funny, before you even gave your introduction, I thought, you know, we should tell them that we would be having this conversation one way or the other. And so we’re letting them in on our own little conversation of, uh, something new that Matt’s doing that Kira wants to know,
[00:55] right? So basically what I would do is I just pick up the phone right now and I just be like, [inaudible] guess what? And then we would just start those exact conversation. Okay. So what I did over the last 30 days is I did Russell Brunson’s one funnel away challenge. So let me give you a little bit of backstory. So Russell Brunson is an online marketer, he’s really smart. I’ve, he’s been in my email box for like almost five years, but I feel like in the last like maybe two years, he’s like really hit a stride. He owns a company called Click funnels, which helps you build landing pages and stuff like that. But he does, he does a lot of the education around this, this type of stuff. So anyway, so my buddy Sam Marvin, who’s been on our podcast, sent me this link and he’s like, Hey, you should do this one funnel away.
[01:38] Challenge with me and yeah, and we’ll just do it together and it’ll be really fun. So I was like, all right, fine, I’ll do it. Right. And I literally like Kinda just like didn’t want to do it. But then I ended up doing it and it was so cool. So let me tell you kind of how it works and then I’ll tell you what I got from it. So basically like it’s a 30 day challenge where every morning he sends you a video that it’s all done like in Facebook and he sends you a video and then you watch it. And so he takes you through like building a marketing funnel for your business so you can build whatever you want, but he takes you through. So like the first week is believing that it’s going to work. And then the second it gets more and more tactical as it goes.
[02:13] And I’ll explain all that. So he does that. And so you’ve got a video and was so cool. It’s like, you know, like normally you wake up in the morning and you look at your phone anyways and you’re going get online. It was so cool to open up my phone and be able to go to Facebook and actually watch something that felt like it was getting my day going. And you know, was a lot of value to me. Which was really...
If you’re a regular listener, you already know some of Matt and Kia’s favorite books, as well as have a long list recommended by all of their guests. In this podcast, listen in to hear their all time top 5 must read books and why. Don’t miss Matt and Kia’s “cliffsnotes” so you know which books you want to read first! And they couldn’t resist mentioning a bunch of other awesome books you’ll want to add to your list as well, including, of course, Profit First by Mike Michalowicz.
Matt:
Book Yourself Solid – Michael Port (https://amzn.to/2MG3DNp)
Hug Your Customers – Jack Mitchell (https://amzn.to/2Xn64oQ)
Purple Cow – Seth Godin (https://amzn.to/2JUxm2I)
Customer Mania – Ken Blanchard (https://amzn.to/2WC4QsI)
High Performing Habits – Brendon Burchard (https://amzn.to/2JWpu0K)
Kia:
The Secrets of World of Mouth Marketing – George Silverman
Blue Ocean Strategy – W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne (https://amzn.to/2MBHBeG)
Getting Stuff Done – David Allen (https://amzn.to/2If1Fho)
StrengthsFinder 2.0 – Tom Rath (https://amzn.to/2MrpQhK)
Boundaries – Henry Cloud and John Townsend (https://amzn.to/2MmTx3t)
Love Does – Bob Goff (https://amzn.to/2XppnxB)
Read Full Transcript
[00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:15] Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. Today’s episode is gonna be kind of fun. As you know, probably from listening to the podcast, Kai and I are big book fans and so we wanted to kind of share our top five books for each, I guess just top five bucks. So kind of do you have your top five bucks? Are you ready?
[00:31] I do. Now I kind of have a top five books in lots of different categories into books. So I tried to make this one my business top five, so yeah.
[00:43] And that’s what I kind of did too. So these will be, what’s interesting is I think there’ll be business books, but there’s so much like kind of this self help in there and just about like getting rid of head trash and stuff like that. So, but I think, yeah, the minor definitely business centered for sure. So
[00:55] yeah. Yeah, I always do books that like has kind of shaped my life because I do have certain authors that I feel like their viewpoint on the world has helped me figure out who I want to be. Like Madeleine L’Engle or Anne McCaffrey, which are not really, people don’t really read those very much, but I felt like for this podcast I want him to be pretty specific and do things that are going to help people straight up in their business. So I’m a cyber fraud.
[01:21] That’s where I’m at too. Cool. So do you want me to start? I’ll start. It doesn’t work. Yeah. Yeah, you do your first one. Okay, so the first book, this one I’m doing first because it was one of the first books that we read that actually launched our business and helped us and it’s actually book yourself solid by Michael Port. Have you read that one yet? No, I haven’t. Okay, so it’s a, it’s a general business book. It kind of talks about like basically he has likes on some philosophies in there like a red rope policy, which is basically like not everybody can do business with you kind of thing. And that was really good for us so that he starts to make you think like, okay, you have the small set of people that you’re marketing to and that you’re working with and you don’t need to work with everybody. So it’s just a really kind of a general book about business, but it’s, it’s super good and really comprehensive. It’s a pretty easy read. He’s entertaining and he’s got, he’s got some other ones...
Today’s podcast is with Melanie Anderson, who is constantly teaching and giving back to the industry. She has a retail studio space that is full service, including portrait work, extreme volume and commercial work. Listen in to hear Melanie talk about re-inventing herself every few years and how important that is for the mentality of creatives. She’s fired up about the leadership in education in our industry right now. You don’t want to miss Melanie talk about the importance of print. Melanie also talks about grace, body rhythm, being the best version of your authentic self and fully understanding the 5 love languages. Melanie talks about starting every day with what she’s grateful for and with the perspective of being open to serve however she’s called. This a podcast you’ll want to listen to over and over again!
Resources: https://www.danijohnson.com/ (https://www.danijohnson.com/)
Books: The Bible
Go for No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There (https://amzn.to/2Q8CikW (https://amzn.to/2Q8CikW))
The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Chapman (https://amzn.to/2Q7ddGS (https://amzn.to/2Q7ddGS))
Connect with Melanie: http://melanieandersonworldwide.com (http://melanieandersonworldwide.com)
Read Full Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey everyone, this is Melanie Anderson and you’re listening. Two from nothing
[00:00:06] to profit. Welcome to from nothing to profit of photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:00:23] Hey everybody, thanks for joining us again this week. So I have my friend Melanie Anderson this week. Um, Kaya and I have known Melanie for years and years and years and uh, we run cross paths all the time. I’m a nice Melany ass on you some a couple of times this year. I saw you at sink this year. We’re going into each other in North Carolina all over the place. So, um, you’re always doing your best to give back to the industry and travel around and, and just for indoor industry. And so first of all, I want to say thank you for doing that, but I’m also, I’m excited to have you on the podcast because you have a lot to share with our audience for sure. So
[00:00:58] yeah, thanks guys. I am so excited for this. So I really appreciate it and it’s a huge honor. So thank you for your time.
[00:01:05] So Kaia when was the first time you met Melanie? Do you remember?
[00:01:09] Oh goodness, this might not be fair. I what I remember is, uh, your video, you are doing video. So that’s what I remember the most about. Um, we started doing video for sync. So
[00:01:21] yeah, I think that’s like when I got to know Melanie as well.
[00:01:24] Yes. So that was several years at what, probably about four or five years ago. Uh, through the relationship of sync and dirty. We just sort of said, hey, we need these videotape, we need behind the scenes and we want to create that for you. And that was one of the first things we’d ever done that big of a deal video wise. So that was kind of cool. And like you said, that was an opportunity for us to all meet.
[00:01:47] Yeah. That’s awesome. Okay. So then I saw you at North Carolina and you spoke on volume, sports and then I saw you at sync. You did a Miller’s thing alongside of me. And you did a lot about how to like implement ideas from a conference. So you don’t just go home with this list of stuff to do and never accomplish anything, which everybody, everybody loved. And I know you’re like a workbook and all kinds of stuff. So I know you talk about a lot of stuff. So kind of tell me, tell our audience if they don’t know who you are, like you know what you do on the photo side and all everything cause you do so much.
[00:02:19] Sure. Um, yeah, that’s a lot. It’s like you almost go, okay, how much...
On this podcast, Kia and Matt interview Shannon Atchley, who is known for her lighting skills. She teaches lighting at the Modern Senior Imagine Conference and is teaching at SYNC next year. Shannon is a photographer in a very small town and says word of mouth is so important. You have to set, and then exceed, expectations. Shannon is fired up about how good people are in our industry and how willing everyone is to help. Shannon didn’t go to conferences until a couple of years ago, but she did participate in online forums (I Love Photography). Shannon would either save the 1k for a Sigma Art 105mm, or spend it on sales education. Or a Denny’s background. You’ll have to listen in to get that inside joke. Don’t miss the best advice Shannon ever “received” and the advice she has to share.
Resources from Shannon: Pictocolor (plug in)
YouTube
Books: Lindsay Adler posing book
Follow Shannon: Instagram/FB: atchleyphotography
http://www.atchleyphotography.com/ (http://www.atchleyphotography.com/)
Read Full Transcript
[00:01] They said, Shannon, actually from actually photography and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:06] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:22] Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. So I’m really excited. I have my friend Shannon Ashley on from northern Alabama and we have a really cool story where we met, I mean it was I guess over a year ago now. We met at after dark, um, and we’ve been fast friends ever since. And so we hung out at sink this year and next year we’re speaking together at sync. And in some aspects I think like you’re like my soulmate of a friend because you’re hilarious and you always make my day brighter and make me laugh pretty hard. So thanks so much for being on the podcast.
[00:57] Well thank you for asking me.
[00:59] Yeah. So Shannon, we are, I’m excited to have you too.
[01:03] Oh, you guys are both great. I’m excited to be here.
[01:06] Yeah. So here’s, let me tell you a little bit more. So it’s kind of, this is how, this is how I met Shannon. So I was, I went to after dark and I was doing like this walk about with Marcy, Marcy and Christy and Shannon was there and I hadn’t met her at all, but she wasn’t, she was there and um, I was talking to Marcy and Marcy is like, yeah, you know, like we’re okay, but have you seen Shannon’s work? And I was like, no, I don’t know who Shannon is. So like as we’re walking around downtown in the middle of Wisconsin, I’m like looking at her Instagram and like dialed lighting, you know, like I would say you’re probably one of the better photographers, Shannon. I’ve ever seen it off. Um, off camera lighting for sure.
[01:41] No. Well thank you. Yeah, I didn’t even realize that. Didn’t realize you were looking at me at after dark except, but they are now. Yeah. But I did not realize that. So that’s, that’s really awesome because you’re so good. You’re in Cape Cod is it’s caught. Yes.
[01:58] Hi. Yes it is fine.
[02:00] Okay. You guys are both great. So that is a huge compliment coming from you. Yeah.
[02:06] Well thanks. Um, okay, so let’s just kind of jump into the questions and kind of go from there.
[02:10] Yeah, yeah, for sure. Huh. So Shannon, we’re going to start at the beginning here. And so, um, can you share a little bit of, uh, like your expertise or what you feel like you’re known for?
[02:22] I feel like I’m acting, I am known for lighting. Um, you mean in the photography world or with the Bobbitt yes, yes. In the photography world. Yeah. I would say it’s sliding. I actually teach lighting at the...
Matt & Kia interview Chris Scott in this episode. He is based in Colorado Springs and he and his wife specialize in helping shoot and burn photographers transition to in person sales and printing. Chris and his wife started out as shoot and burn photographers and switching to in person sales changed their life. Virtual/remote in person sales is a great solution to not having a sales space or working with out of town clients. We just need to educate our clients on what they can do with their pictures. The selling happens in the planning meeting. Don’t miss what Chris would and wouldn’t spend his $1k on – if you’re a consistent listener to this podcast, you’ll be surprised! You definitely want to listen to hear the best advice Chris every received and his mantra for daily life.
Chris’s Favorite Resources Manychat – chatbot for FB messenger
10x Marketing formula (https://amzn.to/2YyfG01 (https://amzn.to/2YyfG01))
https://theprintmakersystem.com/ (https://theprintmakersystem.com/)
http://Printmakerpodcast.com (http://Printmakerpodcast.com )
Read Full Transcript
[00:01] Hey, this is Chris Scott and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit of photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:21] Hey everybody, so super excited about this episode. So my friend Chris Scott is on, it’s going to be a little bit different, um, than some of the other podcasts where, where you’ve interviewed photographers because Chris, uh, and his wife actually don’t live very far from me and Carl or Colorado Springs, but they own a swift galleries as well as um, in Chris. You can tell me more about this, but you also have this whole mission right now where you’re trying to move people from shooting burn to in person sales, right? Yup,
[00:50] Yup. Absolutely. So we, we run, um, it’s a, the printmaker system, which is kind of our education side of things and a swift galleries, which is the tool itself that helps people, uh, well people helps photographers show their clients with their photos, will look like on their walls at the right size and then walks them step by step through an entire in person sales meeting. And we really kind of specialize in helping those shoot and burn photographers make the switch from shooting burden over to in person sales. That’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And we do that through the podcast too, which is called the print maker podcast.
[01:23] Perfect. And Chi, you’ve never met Chris before, right?
[01:26] No, but I’m super excited when you told me what he was talking about. I just feel like that, um, Chris that, you know, I want to, what I, one of the things I want to learn is why you decided to make that, you know, one of your main things is teaching people how to do in person sales. But from my viewpoint, I just feel like that is a way to really change photographers lives and change it from something that they do on the side to something that they can do full time. So that’s what I’m guessing you’re gonna say, but I’m curious. So,
[01:55] Ooh, interesting. Cause I might come at it from a different, a slightly different angle. So the reason that this is so, uh, that we’re so passionate about this is because Adrian and I did run our own photography business for a number of years and we started out at a shoot and burn photographers. We made about $150 on average per session. And in our first year of switching to in person sales, we went from those hundred $50 average is $220,000 in that first year. And it was absolutely life changing for us. You know what I mean? It sounds overly dramatic. Like it changed her life. Snow. It did. There is, it’s a completely different life when, um, you...
Matt and Brianna originally met at Seniors Ignite and just reconnected at SYNC. Brianna is in Northern California and is most well known for her destination sessions with her high school seniors and her model program. Last year, Brianna brought on 3 associate photographers, to help her photograph her hundreds of clients and bridge the gap between tweens and seniors. Brianna’s favorite part of her photography business is running the business. Brianna decided what she wants her life to look like, then worked backwards from there to make sure her business could provide that. You’ll want to listen in to how Brianna runs her underclassmen program. Brianna’s team does a retreat every year to plan the year based on their mission statement and core values and also their financial goals so they know what to try and whether it’s working. This podcast is full of amazing tips and advice – this is one you’ll want to listen to again and again.
Internet Resources Megan Dipero’s FB group – Rise to the Top – actionable tips
Books Profit First
Clockwork
Connect with Brianna: Instagram @briannagamblephoto
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
[00:01] This is Briana Gamble and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak. We’re each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:21] Hey, welcome everybody. Another week, another podcast. I hope you really enjoying these this week we have my friend Brianna gamble from northern California and she sent me a bio but I don’t know if I really need to use it but because we have, we met years ago at seniors ignite and just, you know, had some conversations and I’ve always followed you on social media and your work is top, top notch in the senior world. And so yeah. And we reconnected. Where do, where do we reconnect? Just a few weeks.
[00:50] Um, we were at the sink. At the same conference.
[00:52] Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I’m sorry I’m been to so many conferences lately. I can’t even keep track. I’m like, why would I have seen you in Minnesota? But, um, yeah, so we saw each other at the sink and we talked and you told me what was going on and it sounded like you had, you know, your business is doing great and you’d have some associate photographers and so we can talk about any of that stuff that you want to talk about. But what I guess what our audience needs to know is that, you know, you have an awesome, fun, youthful style around senior portraits and you live in northern California. Um, and you’re probably best known, you know, for your model program and your destination session. So, um, go ahead, cover whatever I missed. Okay.
[01:24] So, um, thank you for the intro. So yeah, my studio is in northern California, so we are kind of writing between Sacramento and San Francisco. So we do a lot of beach sessions and we are probably most locally known for our destination sessions where we take a group of girls and we go out on, um, some trips. You’ve gone to Palm Springs, Vegas, La. Last year we went to Disneyland and Portland, Oregon. Probably the most memorable trip was to Hawaii. And then this year we’re going back to palm springs cause it’s probably my favorite place to shoot. And our senior model team also is something we’ve been doing for the past seven years and people have been following our senior model team locally. And so now we kind of have girls who they’ve been following us maybe since freshman year. And so when they get invited into the CDO, they’re already really excited.
[02:14]...
Matt’s pumped to interview Molly of Boudie Shorts with Kia on this episode of, From Nothing to Profit. To make a long story short: Molly started with photographing weddings, had a client request a boudoir session, she fell in love and switched to boudoir photography full time, and now teaches boudoir; referring her client inquiries to her certified students. Don’t miss how Molly uses Facebook Live! Molly is fired up about attitudes in the (boudoir) industry and practicing what you preach. It’s about empowering women. Listen in to hear how Molly would recommend you spend (or save) that $1k. Routine is something that really contributes to Molly’s success and she “plans tomorrow, today” – you want to hear how to do this! Don’t miss the important conversation about burnout and depression on this podcast episode. And as Molly says, if you want to become the best you can be, quickly, get a mentor to learn from someone who has already done it so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Internet Resources: www.boudieshorts.com/blog
Subscribe to Molly’s email list while on the blog
App: Talkspace (therapist on your phone)
Read Full Transcript
[00:01] Hey, this is Molly Kaiser and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kaia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:22] Hey everybody. So welcome to the podcast. I’m really excited today because we have my friend Molly Kaiser and you guys may know her from her Boudreaux work as well as booty shorts, but Molly and I have been friends for years and she’s been on some of my summer nights and I’ve done some work with her and stuff so it’s really excited to actually have this conversation with her. But if you guys don’t know Molly, so Molly, like I said, lives it and the Boudreaux hour, I can’t even say that word correctly. I’m going to fumble it all day long, but that’s okay. Through the associates does all that, you know, by using like appropriate marketing and sales and pricing. And she really focuses on customer experience where she took her business from 81 cents to six figures a year, which is, which is amazing, but like I said, now I know her really well through the fact that she helps other photographers build their business and years just like such an open book to our industry in terms of, you know, your business strategy is you’re shooting your lighting and your pose in your clients’ experience, all that stuff. So, um, thanks so much for being on this. And um, yeah, just tell our audience, you know, a little bit more whatever I missed and go from there.
[01:27] Thank you so much for having me on this is, it’s always a blast to talk with you. Uh, so yeah, basically I always loved photography. I’m sure a lot of you listening, you can totally relate to that. You know, the whole young with the camera story. Right. But I remember in high school I would always get like notes to get out of my boring classes. I would call them like science and math because I want it to go play in the dark room. And so I always kind of knew that I wanted to pursue photography full time. I just didn’t always maybe believe that I could make money with a career in photography. So I interned with some photographers. I ended up going to college to study art and photography. And what I’ve kind of learned in college was it was a lot more about, you know, showing an art galleries and things like that.
[02:15] There really wasn’t a structured, uh, major, if you will, in the UWU system, at least that, you know, taught me how to be a professional portrait photographer. So I actually told myself, I kind of gave myself an ultimatum, like, if you can book x amount of portraits and...
Matt’s last interview from SYNC is with Carla Lynn and you need to listen to this one! Carla is bilingual and hearing impaired. She is from Bolivia and came to the US (Nashville, TN) at 18 years old with her new son. She worked 3 jobs and met her husband at one of them. You DO NOT want to miss Carla’s inspirational story. Carla photographs 140 seniors a year and is bummed the rules don’t allow her to go to prom with her street team (model program). Authenticity is what is working for Carla in her business. We should never stop learning, we don’t ever know everything. Carla’s husband is her tech guy, payroll department, etc – just like Matt is to Allison. Make sure you buy a leaf blower (you have to listen to find out why). Rachel Martin taught Carla at Texas School and that was the turning point in her business. Don’t miss what happened next in Carla’s story.
Online Resource: Creative Live
Books: Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done – Jon Acuff (https://amzn.to/2XY1ai3)
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World (https://amzn.to/2GRrVis)
Love Does – Bob Goff (https://amzn.to/2GTrdkQ)
Follow Carla @carlalynn (instagram)
https://www.carlalynnphotography.com/ (https://www.carlalynnphotography.com/)
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
[00:01] This is Carla Lynn and you’re listening from nothing to pop it.
[00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit of photographers podcast with Matt and Kaia. We’re each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:22] Hey everybody. So Matt Hogan here, um, one, I think this will be the final interview from sync. Um, I’m with my friend Carla Lynn and so I’ll go out with a bang, right? Go ahead and do this. I can go out with a bang. We got that. Okay. So I have to tell you this crazy story. So I met Carla two year, not, not last year, but the year before. And so I was hosting the Millers Lounge and you had come out to hang out with us and we had like free beer or something like that. And we’re talking about pricing and say yes, Joe was there. Yeah. Yes. And so, um, we were talking and you, and you said, you know, I, I, I want, I want to figure out how to sell my albums better when we’re talking about this. And I was like, and you were talking about how good, you know, just like what you were doing.
[01:06] And I was like, well, sounds like you’ve got all figured out. And then I said, how many albums do you sell? And you said, you said, I don’t know. I saw him to like 80% of my clients. And I was like, why aren’t you talking to me about cells of your selling your albums to 80% of the clients? You probably should be teaching everybody here. But anyways, um, I do remember that. And so as one of those things that I just think, yeah, obviously you guys do really well and your business and I think you’re more humble than then you probably should be. Cause I know you guys really kicked butt. So anyway, so I just, thanks for being on this interview. I, I’m so excited. I know. And, and Carlos says she’s never done a podcast like this. So I’m just going to Mike, I feel like I’m a big time person, but this guide, okay, I’m just going to throw curve balls that are left or right.
[01:43] It says that she thinks it’s just doesn’t know it’s coming anyways. Okay. I introduced you. I don’t, I know you from here, but tell us like, tell us about your studio, where you’re from, all that stuff too. Okay. So, um, I guess I will start with, I’m from Bolivia, South America and I have lived between both countries. My hose, I, I am...
Another incredible podcast from SYNC with Matt and Nate Peterson. Nate is a photographer in Wisconsin, with his home, wife, and french bulldog in the same commercial building as his studio. Nate is also a speaker, teaching about business mostly. You don’t want to miss Nate’s hockey reflection trick. Nate tells us about his all inclusive album collection that works so well with his senior clients. You’ll want to hear his story about how life changing what we do can be. He’s optimistic about the level of professionalism coming back. What held Nate back from becoming a full time photographer was not being certain he could make a living. He’s proof that you can and you’ll want to hear what he recommends you spend that money you’re making on. Stay away from the “as seen on TV” products. Nate highly recommends understanding pricing and not undercutting the market or yourself.
Online Resources: Nate is a Convention Junkie
Pro Edu: https://proedu.com/
Front Row (https://learn.watchfrontrow.com/)
Books: Worth Every Penny – Sarah Petty (https://amzn.to/2X5f2X0)
Follow Nate: @npdesignphoto
http://www.npdesignphotography.com
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
[00:01] This is Nate Peterson and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:04] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:21] Hey everybody. So this is Matt with another interview from sync and I’m sitting down with Nate Peterson right now and Nate and I actually met at after dark. I know that was like, I don’t know, a year ago. It wasn’t a year ago, it was like a couple months ago. I don’t know, I can’t remember. It all bleeds in all ways to go. We were in Wisconsin in the middle of nowhere and Nate was speaking at after dark and I sat down with them for awhile and talk to him about what he was doing with his sports and volume and all that stuff. And I was really inspired and he has some really amazing stuff going on. So give us a little introduction about who you are and what you do and all that stuff. So, so I don’t butcher it. All right. Well I’m Nate Peterson. I’m a portrait photographer from new Richmond, Wisconsin.
[01:03] Um, we specialize in high school seniors and their families. And then as you mentioned, I also do volume sports and then some corporate work as well. And my wife Teresa and I live in our studio. It’s kind of a commercial building that we built an apartment with and we have our French bulldog curly there and that’s awesome. I, so I’ve always wanted an English bulldog, but, um, I would take any bulldog right now to be honest with you. So is there anything in particular that you would want us to know about you? You know, it would be maybe just spent not looking at your website or whatever. Sure. With my clients are in my area, I guess I’m known for Edgy sports images, but I think more so what I’m finding out is we’re really known for telling the story of every senior we work with.
[01:47] So we take it to a deep level, not just create pretty pictures of them but kind of put their legacy and do an album. Um, on a business level or on a photographer to photographer level. I’m a big proponent of projection sales and sustainable business practices. So if you’re seeing me speaking somewhere, that’s usually what it’s about. Yeah. That’s awesome. Cause I know you spoke at imaging last year. Well I guess it would whatever a couple of yeah and we can’t keep track of dates now like 14 months ago or whatever. And I...
Matt interviews Jessica Robertson while at SYNC 2019. Her first career was a high school teacher, which is something Matt and Jessica have in common. They both loved working with that age group and still do. And they both love teaching (and learning), which is why they love to share what they know with the industry. Storytelling and collaborating with clients is what is working for Jessica. Listen in to find out more about how she does that. And don’t miss what she’s excited about in the industry now. You’ll also want to hear how Jessica overcame her fears when she first started… and how she stays in business now. Jessica’s advice on what to spend money on is based on where you are in your career, which is great. The best advice she ever received she uses on a daily basis and you’ll want to too.
Book: Rachel Martin: What to Say
Online Resources: http://www.jessicarobertson.com/ (http://www.jessicarobertson.com/)
http://www.jessicarobertson.com/for-photographers (http://www.jessicarobertson.com/for-photographers)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/630336874012039/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/630336874012039/) – Shoot it Straight with Jessica Roberton
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
[00:01] Hi, this is Jessica Robertson and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kaia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:21] Hey everybody. So Matt here and I’m going to, I’m recording another podcast from sync without Kaia. Maybe next year we can all convince Kaia to come back here. She comes every year, which didn’t come this year. And so go ahead and just send her an email and let her know she has to come next year. Anyways, I’m, my guest today is Jessica Robinson, so I don’t know much about you because we don’t run in the same, I know we don’t, we don’t, we don’t, we don’t run in those same circles. We should. We should. We will. We will from now. But I just saw Jessica speak at sink and I was blown away by what you guys are doing. So I don’t want to steal your flame cause you already liked did your speech and so you can just tell everybody those slides again if you want. But I’m going to do it from start to beginning. Sure. Um, so tell, tell us real quick about your studio, what you guys are doing and all that stuff.
[01:09] Sure. So our studio was in Ashland, Virginia, just outside of Richmond. We photograph about 200 seniors a year in addition to some families and babies and some corporate work that we do. I started out of my home originally or I started on location really and then to my home. And then we opened our retail space in 2005. Um, our first studio was about 1500 square feet and we lived across the street because the street that you want to be on in our small town. And um, now we have a 3000 square foot studio and that’s been since 2011. I have a fabulous team that works with me. I’m very fortunate to have, um, Karen and Robin support me and help me so that I’m able to really do the thing that I love, which is photography. Yeah.
[01:46] Yeah. And then they’re here this week at sync with you as well. They’re really awesome people. So you are, let me just tell you, you are lucky.
[01:52] Oh, I’m so fortunate. I’m so incredibly wishing. Just have this whole podcast and just talk about them as what we should really, really, I mean it’s not really mean, let’s be honest. I just do what I’m told. I, I say that all the time and it’s DDN again, so you
Another awesome podcast from SYNC! Matt interviews Dan Frievalt, of Frievalt Photography. He photographs 40 seniors a year these days to make sure he and his clients are getting to do what they want. Listen in to hear how Dan found his sweet spot in terms of session fees, average order, and number of clients. He sat down and really hashed out who he really wanted to work with, down to what movies they like and what athletic endeavors they’re into. Dan is so excited about how many new people are coming into the industry and that it pushes and challenges him. Matt and Dan talk about changing hair/makeup trends and how hs seniors are experts themselves now from YouTube. Don’t miss what Dan recommends you should and shouldn’t spend 1k on. The best advice Dan ever received is “believe in yourself”. Know your client hired you, for you. Your client believes in you. Dan gives great advice about what to do with your “no’s” so make sure you listen til the very end!
Internet Resource: Movies/Netflix for creativity
Seniors Unlocked FB page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SeniorsUnlocked/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SeniorsUnlocked/))
Dan does webinars to help people just starting like people did for him
PPA state organizations
Books: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NB86OYE?tag=matthoaglin-20&linkCode=ur1 (Audible)
https://www.blinkist.com/ (Blinkist)
The Purple Cow – Seth Godin (https://amzn.to/2HXekrI (https://amzn.to/2HXekrI))
Contact Info: http://www.frievaltphotography.com/home (http://www.frievaltphotography.com/home)
@danfrievalt
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
[00:01] Hello, this is Dan free vault and you are listening to the podcast from nothing to profit.
[00:06] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak. We’re each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
[00:23] Hey everybody. So Man Hoagland here, I’m recording another podcast while I’m here at sync and I’m with Dan unfree vault here. And this’ll be a fun podcast cause I was just looking at his website. Dan and I don’t know each other well. I mean we’ve ran in circles and been at sink a couple of times with each other, but I wouldn’t say, you know, we’ve had a lot of beers together. So all this’ll be as informative for me as it is for the audience, which will be really cool. So, um, thanks so much for being, being on here.
[00:48] Absolutely. Thanks for having me. We should be cracking beers and we probably should.
[00:52] So this, so let me tell you what I do know about you and then you’re going to tell me the real story of what I should know about you. So I know you’re in Wisconsin and I know that you used to be a graphic designer and now you do a lot of senior work and it seems like you kind of blend that graphic design and senior element together.
[01:11] Is that say absolutely. Yeah. You hit the nail on the head. I was a graphic designer for 12 years and you know, always did photography but never felt like the visions in my head kind of matched what I could do on film. So then when digital started to get more up and rolling, I already had known Photoshop. It just kind of was a perfect timeframe me to merge the two and take the leap.
[01:35] So when you were doing like Photoshop work and to graphic design world, where are you doing stuff on photos or was it more like like layouts for magazines and stuff like that?
[01:44] Yeah, that’s a good question. It was, it was completely different. I actually, I called myself a graphic artist, which is like a cool name, right. But really is a, I took a lot of other people’s...
On this episode, Matt interviews David Beckham, while they attend and teach at SYNC. David talks about his senior focus and how he wants people to look at his work and ask, how did he light that? David talks about posting his best work, always. David gets fired up and is excited about new photographers wanting to give and meet new people and how fast they’re growing their social media following. Listen in to hear about David wanting to “be good enough” when he was first starting his business. Don’t miss what David would and wouldn’t spend 1k on. And you definitely want to hear what David thinks about his Sony equipment. David also spills about what he’s up to next and you want to be in on that!
http://www.davidbeckhamphotography.com/ (http://www.davidbeckhamphotography.com/)
Askdavid education site – on FB too: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2124880937744490/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2124880937744490/)
Read Full Transcript
David: [00:01] Hey, this is David Beckham and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit of photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:22] Hey everybody. Matt here. Uh, I have a really awesome guest today, David Beckham. I’m actually here at sync in Florida and we’re actually sitting in my condo and David and I message back and forth and I was like, you got to come over and record a podcast cause if you guys don’t follow him online, you need to, his senior photography is probably some of the best in the industry. And David, we met probably I’d say five years ago, five, six years ago at sea at seniors ignite and we’ve been following each other ever since. So, um, obviously I know you for your senior photography, but share with the audience, you know, kind of what they wouldn’t know about you by following you or you know, where you’re from and stuff like that as well.
David: [01:02] I’ve got a studio that I opened in 2009 in Pickerington, Ohio, which is right outside of Columbus, Ohio. Go Bucks. I had to say that when I opened it, I was doing every kind of photography possible cause I was trying to eat. Now I do just seniors and I say Jess seniors and I do some other things, but seniors is all I market. My website, my, my, uh, social media is all seniors. I focus on a fashion styled of senior photography. So it’s kind of cutting edge as far as that goes. And I found that that separated me from the locals and allowed me to be profitable in and have a good time doing it.
Matt: [01:46] Yeah. So when I look at your photography, what I think of as I see, uh, like just good lighting. You know, I think your lighting stands out and I think that’s what pushes you above the market. You know, like you said, you know, it may be like a little edgy, I don’t even know if the word the word is edgy or not, but um, you know, definitely the lighting. So that looks, it looks modern and current. Um, and definitely doesn’t look like a mom talk type.
David: [02:09] I hate, I hate, uh, too much flash. So I developed even before the high speed sync and the cool technology they have now, I was using alien bees and using them at the lowest power possible with filters on my soft boxes so that I could control the light as low as possible so that I could shoot with a great depth of field a long time ago. And now that the new technologies out there, it makes it even easier. But I want to make all of my photos look like perfect ambient light, not like flat.
Matt: [02:45] Yeah. And I can see the flash and your photography because I see the catch light. I see some of the shadows, you know, and how you’re lighting, you’re using loupe light and stuff like that. But I wouldn’t say it looks
This is a podcast episode you definitely want to hear! Matt and Kia interview True Moua, who is a photographer and educator, based in Wisconsin. She shoots only natural light and has a love for Iceland. You don’t want to miss True’s “all seasons session” and how she does that. You also want to listen in to why she doesn’t do a model program anymore and still does a destination session every year. True talks about how to do Instagram stories. She also talks about how she structured her pricing when she first started out and how to do what she says, not what she did. Listen in to hear how True would and wouldn’t spend $1k – you’ll be surprised! Curious which lens is True’s go to? You might want one too! True says, “Dig deep to find what makes you different and stop following every trend”. Keep hustling.
Online Resources – Google, YouTube, CreativeLive, Sue Bryce, Instagram TV
Certified Madness Podcast
https://truemoua.com/ (https://truemoua.com/)
@truemouaphotography
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
[00:01] This is true and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
[00:04] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster
[00:21] from everyone. We are super excited to have true. And how do you say your last name? So it’s [inaudible]. Okay. True. Moolah here today and uh, I have seen her work online for the last couple of years and she is a phenomenal photographer and I’ve seen that she’s does a lot of education and so we’re super excited to have her here today to share with us about her business. And I’ve only seen you’re shooting in natural light. Um, she’s based in western Wisconsin and specializes in creative fine arts senior portraits. And you have a love for Iceland to, is that correct? I do, yes. Well thank you guys. Thanks so much for having me here. I’m super excited to be here, but yes, I am just, I just shoot natural light. I do have like studio equipment, but it’s just isn’t a demand, at least in my area. Uh, so yeah, everything I do is as natural light.
[01:18] That’s awesome. Yeah. I’m excited to have you on here because you’re one of the, one of the first interviews were Kaia and I both didn’t really know you’d be helped before this podcast. You know, typically I’m like, you know, people that we, I say Chi, we should in a reasons person kind of like, I don’t know that person. I’m like, well I do and it’s perfect, you know? But you’re my first people that like both of us are going to be learning from you right now while you’re doing your interview, which I’m really excited about.
[01:40] Oh good. Well, I hope you learn something. I don’t know. I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’m excited to be here.
[01:46] So anything else that you want to share? I mean, so, so I kind of said you’re from Wisconsin. Natural light photographer. Okay. Any other things that you would want to share, your family, anything like that?
[01:57] Well, you know, I, I’m actually before photography, I worked in dental for actually 16 years and was actually not looking for, you know, a new career or anything like that. And our son was approaching his senior year actually. And so I kind of fell into this kind of fell into photography. Really. I just, you know, we purchased this camera and I’m Craig’s lists and like, you know, everybody else, it doesn’t really understand photography. He was saying like, you’re going to buy this amazing camera and
Matt & Kia discuss high school senior model programs on this episode of the podcast. They compare the way they each do their programs and how they’ve changed the programs over the years. Seniors are busy these days and want to be part of something fun. Kia talks about making it as easy and simple and as stress-free as possible. Kia shoots with a wider lens for her fun mini sessions so the seniors have a different look than their senior pictures. Make sure to listen in to hear the fresh ideas discussed.
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Matt: [00:01] Hey everybody, this is Matt and Kaia and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:06] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:22] Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. So kinda here’s the deal. Okay. I want to ask you some questions and I mean at first I just thought this would be a really good episode for our audience and then I realized that actually a really good episode for me. So in terms of high school, senior model programs, we’ve been doing one for a long time. We’d been doing work for like eight years and I’m, I don’t, I feel like it’s unsuccessful, but here’s the catch. I actually know when I look at my numbers, it’s not unsuccessful. I think I’m just really bored with it. And so I don’t really know what I just want, just like, I don’t know if I even want fresh ideas, but just I kind of want to go through some do’s and don’ts and just to see if I’m actually still doing like what I’m supposed to be doing and I just think it’d be good for our audience to hear us have this conversation. A little bit about model programs.
Kia: [01:09] Okay. So let me ask you a couple questions about yours. Like when you say you’re bored, are you bored? Like you’re like, ah, I don’t want to have to promote it. I feel like I’m saying things that are kind of uninteresting. Like your you board from the promotion side or from the photography side or what? What are you worried about?
Matt: [01:27] I think a little bit of both. Like I just, I’m just like kind of tired of the grind of like launching the model program for another year. And then on top of that I also like, I’m just like, are they even into this? And I just, I, it’s hard for me to realize like, am I not into this? Are they not into this? And I know what I mean, they have been talking about high school kids but they seem to be booking. So I guess they are into it.
Kia: [01:51] So have you started launching it? Yeah. And we’ve got a couple, we’ve got a couple of kids to sign up. Yeah. Okay, great. And so how do you do it? Do you do a, like an application and then you choose from that? Or do you like say you know, send specific invites or,
Matt: [02:06] well yeah, so what we do is we get a list of names from our previous models and seniors and then we send an Instagram DM to them and invite them. And then yeah, they go to our website and they fill out just a, just basically name information, just their contact information. And then they schedule a meeting to sit down with us. And we do individual meetings now. We used to do a group meeting, but we, we’ve, we’ve moved to individual meetings a couple of years ago and then we basically just tell them and their parent about, about the program and I guess kind of hope that they sign up and see like I can just hear myself being bored in this whole
Kia: [02:41] process, like as I’m...
Leslie Kerrigan is the creator of Seniorologie and also has her own podcast. Leslie has run her own senior portrait studio for 10 years and started Seniorologie to educate herself and also share what she is learning. Conference 12, put on by Seniorologie, is in Nashville this year. You don’t want to miss this podcast episode! Listen in to hear what is working for Leslie these days in her business and what she’s fired up about in the industry. Leslie gives great social media advice you won’t want to miss. Camera brands, education and business are hot topics in this podcast.
Internet Resources: Find somebody amazing to learn from in marketing or business, not even in the photography industry.
Seniorologie FB group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SeniorologieCommunity/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/SeniorologieCommunity/))
http://Seniorologie.com (Seniorologie.com)
http://www.conference12.com/ (http://www.conference12.com/)
Books Work Party by Jacelyn Johnson (https://amzn.to/2C9ibgJ (https://amzn.to/2C9ibgJ))
Nasty Galaxy by Sophia Amoruso (https://www.amazon.com/Nasty-Galaxy-Sophia-Amoruso (https://www.amazon.com/Nasty-Galaxy-Sophia-Amoruso))
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-Transform-Business-Remarkable (https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Cow-Transform-Business-Remarkable))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Leslie: [00:01] This is Leslie care again and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:06] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hello guys,
Kia: [00:23] we are so excited to have Leslie Kerrigan with us today. As you can hear, she is great on the podcast already. She does her own podcast and she is the founder of see neurology it, which has a great Instagram account. And uh, I think you do, um, conventions and that type of thing. And so we’d love to hear more about you and your history and senior photography. Leslie.
Leslie: [00:46] Yeah, thanks for having me. And Yeah, so I started senior photography and my own personal business, Leslie Kerrigan photography, Gosh, probably about nine or 10 years ago. And right around the same time I was trying to find information and learn about senior photography, um, and it wasn’t really finding what I was looking for. So I created senior urology to help other people as I learned. So I kind of used it as a learning platform for myself, but also to share what I’ve learned with others cause I thought, well maybe they need to learn as well. So I started seeing urology and it started out as just a blog that interviewed other photographers and shared inspiration from other photographers. And then it quickly grew into in person workshops. And then that grew into what we have now, which is a conference once a year called conference 12 yeah, that looks really fun.
Matt: [01:44] And where’s that?
Leslie: [01:46] So the conference conferences in a different city every year. And this year it’s in Nashville, Tennessee.
Matt: [01:52] Oh, awesome. That’s really cool. Yeah, I’ve, I’ve been to Nashville for gungy conferences. It’s a really like conference friendly city. I really liked it. Yeah.
Leslie: [01:59] Right. Yeah, it’s a great city. It’s not too far from me. Uh, but you know, we actually had conference 12 in Denver, which was one of our most popular ones. So Denver was a great place to,
Matt: [02:10] yeah, I think I, that’s where I grew up. I don’t live there anymore, but yeah, Denver so centrally located. And sometimes I think it’s just...
Today, Matt interviews Sam Marvin Photography, while in Idaho speaking at their convention. Sam is an amazing high school senior photographer in Boise, Idaho. Sam is all about encouraging self confidence and self worth. You don’t want to miss what is working for Sam in his business and how he uses his model program. Sam talks about change and how senior clients are literally different every year. Listen in about how much social media has changed and is still changing. Matt and Sam talk about snapchat vs instagram. Fear of failing and being in our own way is what holds us back. You don’t want to miss what Sam would and wouldn’t spend $1k on. Sam recommends looking for just one nugget in books and conversations. Sam’s parting guidance includes making sure to find your why
Book Recommendations: Book: Start with Why, Simon Sinek
Clockwork & The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz (https://amzn.to/2Er5u2l (https://amzn.to/2Er5u2l) & https://amzn.to/2IwWHzS (https://amzn.to/2IwWHzS))
Find Sam Here: CIC Pro labs – print company https://cicprolab.com/ (https://cicprolab.com/)
Samuelmarvin.com
@sammarvinphotography
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Sam: [00:01] This is Sam Marvin and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kaia where each week they talk to photographers. I wrote what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:22] Hey everybody, Pat Flynn here. Hey, today I have an awesome episode. I’m actually in Boise, Idaho with my friends Sam Marvin. Um, I actually spoke at the PPA Idaho Convention this week and while I was here I was staying with Mark Lewis, Sam and having a really good time seeing what he’s doing in his studio. So we thought while we had a minute before his model meetings has senior model meetings tonight, we would do a quick podcast. So for, if you guys don’t know who Sam Marvin is, he’s obviously in Boise, Idaho and he has an amazing, amazing business up here with high school seniors. Um, does a really good job. So you should definitely check out his, his websites, stuff like that. But we’ll definitely ask him some tough questions today. So, so besides being my friend Sam, what else do we need to know about your studio? Or what is something that people wouldn’t know about you by just looking at your website?
Sam: [01:13] I would guess that the most, the one thing that people wouldn’t get just out of my website is how passionate I am about really encouraging self confidence and individual worth amongst our teenagers. And um, that’s, that’s kind of, I think the one hardest thing that I try really hard to convey. But it may not come across as well.
Matt: [01:36] Yeah, no, and I think that’s why your business is so successful up here. And you know, we didn’t even get a chance to go to grocery stores without be running into clients and people that wanted to stop and talk to you. So obviously you’re doing a good job of making those relationships with your customers. So I want to kind of jump right into it and the, the segment may be a little bit longer than normal, but I want to talk about like kind of what’s working now in your business. Like, what do you think being a high school senior photographer, like what would you tell other photographers that they need to be focused on besides, you know, making those relationships with their clients and building self worth? But besides that, like what do you think working right now really well in your business?
Sam: [02:11] In my business, I think, uh, the thing that really does work is, well, I mean the,...
In this episode, Kia interviews Allison Tyler Jones (http://atjphoto.com), all by herself, while Matt teaches at PPA Idaho. This is Allison’s first podcast, but she’s a veteran speaker and has been a photographer for 14 years. Kia was blown away the first time she heard Allison teach. Allison says her photography business was never just for fun, it has always been to support her family. She shoots exclusively in the studio, specializing in family and kids. Listen in to hear the 3 pillars that are working now in her business. Allison is excited that our industry overall is starting to become more positive. You don’t want to miss what Allison would and wouldn’t spend $1k on. You’ll love Allison’s take on the Oscar Wilde quote about being yourself, as everyone else is taken. You also don’t want to miss Allison’s personal habit that contributes to her success or her parting guidance.
Resources Internet Resource: Audible (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NB86OYE?tag=matthoaglin-20&linkCode=ur1 (Get two free book here))
Books: Essentialism by Greg Mckeown (https://amzn.to/2XgFWMR (https://amzn.to/2XgFWMR))
The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz (https://amzn.to/2Er5u2l (https://amzn.to/2Er5u2l))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Allison: [00:01] This is Alison Tyler John’s and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:06] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kaia. We’re each week they talk to photographers and what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Kia: [00:23] This is Kiah today and I am interviewing Alison Tyler Jones all by myself. Matt is speaking at a convention today and so this is a first for me to do a solo interview and I think it’s at first for you Alison to do a full podcast.
Allison: [00:40] It is. I’m excited.
Kia: [00:43] Yeah, we’re so excited to have you here. Uh, although this is a first for Alison to do a full podcast. She is a veteran speaker and has been a photographer for uh, Gosh, how many years?
Allison: [00:56] Um, I think 1414
Kia: [00:59] years. Okay. I know it’s, it’s hard to know how long when you get our bios. So I first saw Alison at actually the national convention and I had not known who she was and I sat in her program and was blown away by how professional she is by how well she knows how to run a business and by how great her photography is. And what I loved about it is that she had come into photography, not from like a mom’s of the camera, which is, you know, very typical for women and also not from a, uh, like, uh, you know, like a big corporate job or something and wanting to do something else. She came at it from already being in the artistic industry. Uh, and so Alison, do you want to tell us more about yourself and your expertise?
Allison: [01:46] Sure. Am I, as Kaia said, I came into this industry a little bit sideways. I had a, on my own retail store. We were the first scrapbooking store outside of Utah. And I had that business for about 12 years in the late nineties, early two thousands. And, um, when we were selling that business off, I thought, well, I’ll just take six months off and I’ll just do a little bit of photography and tell I decide what it is that I’m going to do. But one thing is for sure I’m not going to make another hobby into a business. And so 14 years later, another hobby was made into a business. But I came from that aspect of when I had my scrapbooking store, the intention always was to make a profit that it had to support my family. And so when I came into a photography, uh, even though I started thinking that I would just do it for a little bit of time, the...
This is an episode you do not want to miss. Gary Box is on the podcast today. Kia has known Gary since the first conference she attended. Gary is starting his 30th year of being a full time professional photographer. Matt says Gary’s Facebook group (link?) is the best photographer FB group. Gary thinks basic lighting fundamentals is missing from the education world. Gary is excited about the new technology like hi speed sync. Listen in to hear how Gary got into photography. Hear what Gary suggests you do and do not spend your $1000 on. Make sure you pay close attention to the best advice Gary received. Gary’s personal habits that lead to his success include being a recovering workaholic. He works hard and is hard on his work.
Recommendations: Texas School PPA- https://www.texasschool.org/ (https://www.texasschool.org/)
Godox lighting
FB group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/insidetheboxphotogroup/ (https://www.facebook.com/groups/insidetheboxphotogroup/)
Inside the box hacks (Kia recommended)
Books – Audible The Storybrand by Donald Miller (https://amzn.to/2RUcYTW (https://amzn.to/2RUcYTW))
Seth Godin (https://amzn.to/2TlElmy (https://amzn.to/2TlElmy))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Gary: [00:01] This is Gary box and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Kia: [00:21] Hello everyone. We are so excited to have our friend Gary box here today on the podcast. And I have to tell you that I have known Gary probably from actually the very first photography conference I attended. Gary was there. I brought pictures of a high school senior doing ballet or dance or something in a CPA background. And we talked about it. He was speaking at it and for some reason, Gary, you wore, you had some teeth, like some, some, uh, like main mangy nasty teeth that you put on as a joke. Billy Billy Bob Teeth. Yeah. And so, uh, so I have known, yeah, over 20 years. And Gary, you have been such an amazing influence to the photography industry as a whole. And then just, you know, seeing what you do as a photographer over the years with high school, senior photography and then sharing and how much you shared. So I’m super excited to have you on here today because I think you’re a great example of creating profit in the photography industry over all kinds of changes. And so I think you have a lot to add to us today.
Gary: [01:35] Thank you, Kai. I’m really glad to be here. I have been in the industry for quite a while. I’m starting my 30th year professional full time and you know, I’ve run the gamut of things. I’ve gone from high volume. We were doing 1100 sessions a year at one point with nine employees to medium volume and mid priced and you know, now I’m doing a lower volume and a higher price. So I’ve Kinda got a little bit of a experience with, with all three business models.
Matt: [02:03] That’s awesome. So here’s Gary, here’s how I know you. So years and years ago I was in the pro form and you were really active in that. And uh, I didn’t really know you at the time and I, it’s interesting, we’ve gone circles wrench on them, we don’t really know each other that well even today. And then I kinda lost track of you and then about a year ago someone was like, you need to be in Gary Boxes, facebook group. And I was like, okay. So I just was like, request and you approve me. And it is like the best I. and I’ve said this before, not when you were here, I said this...
You don’t want to miss this podcast! Matt is teaching at PPA Idaho in Boise, so he bounces ideas off of and asks for Kia’s perspective on social media so get prepared for his program. They start with goals, like brand awareness and how you measure that. Matt runs Facebook and Instagram ads to current customers, in addition to new potential and repeat customers. Listen in to find out how and why. Matt suggests you audit the platforms you use to make sure the voice matches your brand. They also get into retargeting. If someone goes to Allison Ragsdale Photography, once they leave the website, Matt can set things up where they’ll see ads on Facebook and Instagram to download our free guides. Which leads them to discussing lead magnets. Kia brings up how actually creating the lead magnet or the content creation can be the stop so Matt suggests using templates and writing prompts. Then you have to make a plan and schedule your posts. Last, but before you start, figure out how you’re going to track your results.
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Matt: [00:01] Everybody, this is Matt Hoagland and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:21] All right guys, so here’s the deal. This is going to be a little bit of a different podcast and hopefully people give us feedback whether they like these kind of random conversations. You and I have an or if they definitely want us to do many, many more interviews with people, but I was putting together this outline because I’m speaking at pep a Idaho and they actually gave me a huge time slot to talk about social media. So I put together an outline and I kind of want to just some of your feedback to see how you think about some of these things as well. So yeah, if I can bounce ideas off of you, that would be awesome because I think people, people will definitely get a lot from this. Okay. So the first big idea that I wanted to talk about is like kind of goal setting for social media and here’s, here’s how I think about that.
Matt: [01:07] Your social media goals need to be aligned with your company goals. So there’s kind of three types of types of goals that I think about. Like one of them is just brand awareness goals, like you’re just trying to get seen. Then there’s the goal of getting new leads and customers are. Then there’s the goal of retaining existing customers. So there’s icing. I think there’s only three I can think of, but what I see a lot of people do with their goals around social media as they, their goals only live in social media. So like they’re like I want 10,000 likes, that’s a social social media goal and they don’t necessarily connect that to a business goal. Does that make sense?
Kia: [01:45] Yeah, I think that’s really good because like right now I’m working on putting together my goals for the year and I. and so we’ve been discussing the fact that most of our goals are like achievement goals. Like, you know, like you said, 10,000 followers or likes or you know, booking this many sessions and they’re all like achievement goals and we don’t get rewarded very quickly with that. And so I would definitely like to know, like how, what are other ways of like evaluating what you’re doing to see if it’s working for you or other ways of looking at it to see if it’s working for you. So yeah, that’s good. I like that.
Matt: [02:26] Yeah. And I mean because at the end of this program I
Ready to shake things up? Today, Matt and Kia interview Grant Andrew, Matt’s friend and business coach. Listen in to hear them talk about how important the message is you’re putting out to your ideal client. The person running the business, is the message. Who are you, what do you have to offer, what do you love? Then, who does that work for? Who are you excited to work with and photograph? Grant suggests you try a lot of things, see what works, then do more of that. When you’re first starting out, it’s a discovery process. Recognize when something “sparks joy”. And it’s a living process as you grow and evolve. Be careful who you are accepting advice from to begin with. Seek out voices you resonate with on a bigger plane. “Detect your purpose” – Stephen Covey Ask your employees, family, friends – what do they see you enjoying and also avoiding? Embrace the great exchange.
Book Recommendation: The Greatest Salesman in the World (strange read, but 10 great nuggets in the middle): https://amzn.to/2B8FC98 (https://amzn.to/2B8FC98)
Reach out to grant: grant@grantandrew.net
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Grant: [00:01] Hey, this is grant Andrew and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:20] Hey everybody. Welcome to from nothing to profit with Matt in Kenya. So this week we have a really amazing guests. He’s actually one of my friends and he also does some business coaching for me. His name is grant Andrew and the reason grant is on here as Kaiser actually never met him. Kyle just met him like 30 seconds ago when we jumped on this recording but I wanted to meet him because he helps me a ton but we had this really interesting conversation and grant I’ll try to just summarize it real quick and then kyle and I can kinda. You can Kinda, you can tell your version of the story and then Chi and I can kind of ask you additional questions. But grant and our grant, I were having this conversation where he we’re talking about, I’m speaking at a PPA, Boise, well I guess it’s Pdpa Ppa, I Idaho and a couple of weeks and he was asking, well what are you going to talk about?
Matt: [01:06] And I said, well, you know, talk about marketing and stuff like that. And then I was making this joke about how every time you go to a marketing seminar they spend like half of their talk talking about like avatars are, who your ideal client is and you know, I said, you know, I’m not going to spend all this time just spending the time making people who figure out who their ideal client is because I feel like, again, joking that everybody in the photography industry thinks their ideal client is people with millions of dollars. And that’s, you know, whenever like who, who’s your ideal client? I don’t know, somebody that’ll spend eight grand with me and you know, they have a billion dollars in grant money. This really interesting comment. And we had a very short conversation. But then I cut them off because I wanted to continue the conversation here at the podcast and he’s in cramped, correct me if I’m wrong, but you basically said that the message you put in front of somebody is more important than the actual avatar of the person because again, I want to see, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but you said something along the lines, like, your ideal client can be a millionaire that’s willing to spend $8,000 with you, but if you don’t know how to talk to that person, it’s kind
On this episode, Kia and Matt talk about social media strategies, specifically Instagram. Businesses are more accepted on Instagram than on other platforms. They talk about finding the best platform to connect with your clients. Kia did an experiment comparing results from a print catalog versus an Instagram ad. 59% of internet users use Instagram and 80% of those follow businesses.
The aesthetic of your profile is important, making sure your pictures are cohesive. Consistent editing style can give you cohesiveness. Kia’s aesthetic is bright, colorful, fun and playful. Kia suggests if you want to add something new into your aesthetic, make it a part of every shoot so you have a bunch of new, different images to sprinkle into your social media.
Kia explains top 9, you’ll want to listen to this! Kia doesn’t think IGTV is going to catch on. While snapchat isn’t a natural fit for Kia’s business, Matt is interested in the ad side of snapchat. Kia’s images do the advertising for her. The fun you see is authentic and something you want to be a part of.
Downloads https://www.kiabondurant.com/ (Kiabondurant.com) – download for top 5 things to know about instagram
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Kia: [00:01] Hi there, this is Kiah bonderant and you are listening to from nothing to profit with Matt and Kaya,
Speaker 2: [00:08] welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hey guys,
Kia: [00:24] excited today. Matt asked me to talk about some social media and instagram strategies and we were having a side conversation and we wanted to bring it to you guys to share it with you. So Matt, tell everyone what you were thinking.
Matt: [00:40] Yeah. So where were you? Just where the conversation we’re just having that was so interesting is you were talking about how like businesses are accepted on, on instagram and people follow businesses naturally on instagram versus like you don’t follow a lot of businesses on facebook and stuff like that. Well people in general don’t. And then you were showing me some stats where it was like the amount of likes that a business. If a business posts on instagram, the amount of likes they get versus if they were to post that on, on, on facebook. So I don’t remember the stats. Like I remember one of them being like Victoria secrets or something like that that you’re showing me. And it was like, you know, they post something on facebook and they get like 2000 likes, but then they post them on instagram and they’ve got like 200,000 likes. Yeah,
Kia: [01:25] you’re a, you’re a math person, Matt. That’s exactly right. It’s from a, I found on the Internet it was a news whip is the name of it. And uh, yeah. So I think the thing is when you think about social media, and I kind of put all of this together when I was speaking to a group of photographers and I wanted it to be really start really simple because I think when photographers are looking at what they do for social media, they just get confused. Like, where do I go? What do I do? Am I on Pinterest? Am I on facebook? Am I on Linkedin? Google plus? Like, where do I spend my time, what do I grow? And so I was just looking at what works for me and also, you know, doing some research online and the biggest thing I found was that instagram is a place where businesses are more accepted than anywhere else where people follow businesses, they want to see what businesses say and they reward businesses with likes. And so like, just like you were saying, that stat is you’re going to get, I don’t know...
You don’t want to miss this podcast when Kia and Matt interview Teri Fode (@terifode)! Teri has been a professional photographer for 15 years. She also owns and operates Voice Your Brand. Teri specializes in photographing seniors and their families. What’s working great for Teri now is telling the story of her brand on her Instagram stories and going deeper than just sharing behind the scenes. Teri believes our industry is missing the fact we need to market like influencers. We are the face of our brand. But be intentional about it. What is it in your life that people can connect with? Listen in to see what Teri recommends you purchase to help move your business forward. You also don’t want to miss the best advice Teri ever received and uses to this day. Learn about Teri’s personal habits of focusing on the top 3 things she wants to get done and spending 60 minutes a day moving the needle forward/working “ON” her business.
Teri’s Online Recommendations: http://SocialMediaexaminer.com (SocialMediaexaminer.com)
Book Recommendations: Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller (https://amzn.to/2VXZwg6 (https://amzn.to/2VXZwg6))
Why Simple Wins – Lisa Bodell (https://amzn.to/2Mfqs6C (https://amzn.to/2Mfqs6C))
Teri’s Free Branding Resource: http://Brandmybizstory.com (Brandmybizstory.com)
http://voiceyourbrandgifts.com/brandstatementguide/ (http://voiceyourbrandgifts.com/brandstatementguide/)
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
This is Teri Fode
and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hi everyone.
We are so excited to have terry on the podcast today. Terry, he is someone that I really look up to. She is like one step ahead of me in life and so I’m always watching what she’s doing next. She just had a kid get married and how she approaches everything with wisdom and grace. I love seeing what she does in her personal life, but we have her on here today to also talk about a not she can talk about her personal life if she wants to, but also to talk about photography and the business of photography and Terry has been a professional photographer for 15 years with a really strong consistent marketing strategy and authentic storytelling and she photographs stylized seniors families and personal branding. She’s also the creative, the creator of voice, your brand, which is a brand that teaches photographers how to engage authentically, connect consistently and voice their brand message to the world with style, typically black and white and gold style, I think. Right Terry?
Well that’s my style, but that may not be yours to all about color, which I love.
That’s fun. So Terry, we’re really excited to have you on here and we’re excited to hear about the different things that you’re doing. And uh, Matt, did you have a one to start off and asked Terry a little bit about herself or do we want her to just do it an intro of what she’s, what she’s about.
Terry, just kind of share with us whatever else you know you’re up to or anything else you want to add above what [inaudible] just said about you?
Well, uh, I, like she said, I’m, I’m known for photographing seniors and their families, uh, and I’ve been in business for 15 years. I started a, seems like a coon’s age. Now I’m dating myself, but back then we didn’t even have facebook. So that’s been, you know, for those of us who’ve been around a while, we’ve had to learn how to navigate our businesses and grow our...
On today’s episode of From Nothing to Profit, Kia and Matt talk about money. Listeners wanted to know how to choose what to sell and how to price those things, what to spend money on and what not too, and more, so Matt and Kia answer those questions in this podcast. Kia is always looking for new ways to hang client’s images on their walls, like super ornate frames or acrylics. Matt is always testing different versions of products to see which sells best. Make sure to take notes about how Matt and Kia markup their products to make sure their costs are covered and make a profit. Matt and Kia both keep a list of things they want to be able to purchase and things they wants to invest in, with that profit. Education is always high on that list, as well as large wall displays for their studios. You’ll also want to listen in to what Kia and Matt buy that they shouldn’t. Kia uses StudioCloud and Quickbooks, doing her own books and payroll. Matt used to use Successware, then switched to a bookkeeper with Quickbooks. Matt cautions losing visibility into your numbers when you start outsourcing your books. Know your numbers.
Books: Profit First (https://amzn.to/2Ri24Gj (https://amzn.to/2Ri24Gj))
Good to Great (https://amzn.to/2GFAz5l (https://amzn.to/2GFAz5l))
Resources: Digit (https://digit.co/r/-ksipC9aI-?wn (https://digit.co/r/-ksipC9aI-?wn))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Speaker 1: [00:01] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:16] Hey everybody, welcome back to from nothing to profit. So today’s gonna be a little bit different because Kira and I have gotten some feedback and some of you listeners wanted to hear a little bit more from us. So Kira and I came up with a theme today, what we’re calling the money talk because there’s been a lot of questions sent to us about this. So we’ll kind of go back and forth on these questions. But real quick, let me tell you guys the questions that people have asking so I’ll just run through them real quick. So what do you guys decide to sell or how do you guys decide to sell certain things? Um, how do you price items and how do you deal with markup now that you’ve made money, how do you know what to spend it on? What’s lead into questions like what are some really smart things to buy or use your money on and then what are some dumb or irresponsible things to buy? What do you buy a lot of and shouldn’t and should not buy. So that’s like what our, what our guilty pleasures that were like really bad about buying. And then how do you do your bookkeeping because in some previous episodes we talked about bookkeeping. Um, so how do you do bookkeeping it? And then there was a lot of questions around some more questions around profit first and what that’s done for our business. And then also some Dave Ramsey questions. So Kaya, I’m excited for this one. This should be definitely a good one.
Kia: [01:34] Yes. Yes. I’m so excited to be here and I think this is a, a, you know, a question that works in great with the, you know, the whole point of a from nothing to profit is, you know, what do you do with that profit and how do you create it? So I’m excited to be answering these questions today. I think it’s going to be great.
Matt: [01:52] Yeah. And I think it’s interesting that people wanted to hear a little bit more from us because, you know, we kind of designed it as this interview thing, but as we’ve been doing it for awhile now we realize like, well yeah, I guess we do have a lot to offer as
Make sure you listen in, as on this podcast, Matt interviews Everardo Keeme, who is a certified professional photographer and also a professional snorer. Everardo got into photography on accident. He was working a corporate job, loved it, won a trip to Greece and didn’t have a camera. Since he didn’t have any pictures from that trip, he bought a camera, started photographing cycling events, applied to photograph the Phoenix Open (having never been or photographed golf), got the job and has been a photographer ever since. He got into senior portraits when his daughter got into high school, hence Twelve Year Senior Portraits. He wanted a studio for senior pictures, hence Photo Fusion Studio. Everardo is very passionate about education and is excited about all of the conferences and workshops available now. Overall, photographers are very good about sharing information with each other. He’s also excited about technology and how that’s only going to keep making us better.
Internet Resources: Steer away from FB groups – doesn’t want to learn from other strugglers
Podcasts – Stacey Brown Randall, Steph Crowder, Everything is Alive
Books: 5 core ways of getting referrals – Stacey Brown Randall (https://amzn.to/2LAMfVV (https://amzn.to/2LAMfVV))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Speaker 1: [00:01] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:16] Hey everybody. Welcome to from nothing to profit so today will be a little bit different because kyle is not able to join us today because she’s got a sick kid at home. But I’m with my good friend Everardo Akimi. He has a really fascinating story. So I think you guys will be interested to know what he does. First of all, he’s a corporate event and headshot photographer. If you guys follow them online, that’s what you’d probably see. Um, I know he’s also a certified professional photographer. Um, I know that because him and allison both did that kind of at the same time. And then he’s been the official photographer of the Phoenix Open from since 2010, which I think is the most interesting part because I’m a sports guy and that’s always fascinating to every week when you get it every year for a week when you get to do that.
Matt: [01:01] But then you’re the owner of photo fusion studios and the twelfth and twelfth year senior portraits. So welcome man. I appreciate you being on the show. Yeah, of course, man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. So I have to tell everybody a little bit of a backstory about when we went to sync together and I’ll throw you under the bus and totally embarrass you. But that’s how we, that’s how we start every podcast around here is we try to handle it. I’m a big boy so we all stayed. Joy verts has a condo down by where sync is hosted. So um, every year we go down there and we tend to stay at her, her condo, and you know, some people can make it every year, some people can’t or whatever. So at the last minute a bunch of people said they could go and enjoy, had already kind of filled up the condo. So what happened is that we started like having to like move people around a little bit and Everardo and I were the only two guys that were staying at the condo that day because I think mentioned Shaylon will actually, we’re staying in a different condo and uh, so we ended up having to share a room. So we had two twin beds and shared a room together. And I’ll tell you what, man, you’re the loudest store I’ve ever, I’ve ever hung out...
In this episode of from Nothing to Profit, A Photographer’s Podcast, Matt and Kia interview Jamie Swanson, who is really leading the personal brand photography market. Jamie is actually starting a new podcast about building a personal brand so make sure to listen in. She also has a Facebook group for personal brand photography you should go join now. In the beginning, 2011, Jamie really focused on wedding photography. Then Jamie really focused on Moderntog, helping other photographers grow their businesses, in all genres. Now, Jamie focuses solely on personal brand photography and growing her client’s following, through Moderntog. She offers a 6 week course on how to transition to personal brand photography. Jamie also offers a membership for photographers who have taken her 6 week course. This started because Jamie was looking for an ongoing personal brand photographer for herself and she couldn’t find one. So she decided to train them up. Client’s are willing to invest in their business and they need your work on an ongoing basis. This gives you steady and consistent income as well. Jamie also talks about goal setting, starting with her yearly goals, then breaking them down into quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily steps to reach those goals.
Resources:
Link to Jamie’s class: https://www.personalbrandphotography.com/ (onekweekend.com) or https://www.personalbrandphotography.com/ (https://www.personalbrandphotography.com/)
Book:
Start with Why – Simon Sinek (https://amzn.to/2BGuArv (https://amzn.to/2BGuArv))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Speaker 1: [00:01] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:16] Hey everybody. Welcome to from nothing to profit with Matt and Kaya. So today we have a really awesome guest that I’ve, Jamie Swanson, who I’ve been friends with kind of via the Internet for a couple of years now, but we, if you guys listened to some earlier shows and people have referenced Jamie because Jamie’s really leading the personal brand photography movement and I know she believes that that’s the future of the industry. So I’m excited to talk to her about it. But she’s both an online entrepreneur and a photographer and you may know our because she founded modern tog or the modern tog back in 2011. So you may have been part of her community. Um, but you know her, what she kind does is help photographers and you know, live their life of being a, being a photographer. I know Jamie personally because we’re in a facebook group that’s called like photographer blogger group and it’s like, it, it ranges in size, but it’s anywhere from like 40 to 50 people have a bunch of people that put together resources for photographer. So we’ve been in that together for a number of years and you just announced the other day and in that group that you actually have a new podcast coming out as well. So do you want to take a quick second and plug your pro, your new podcast and tell us anything else we need to know about you?
Jamie: [01:33] You’re the sweetest thing. Sure. Um, so my new podcast is called the personal brand journey with Jamie m Swanson and basically since 2011 I’ve focused on growing the modern tog brand because I didn’t want to have to be the face of my business. I think a lot of us, you know, don’t want to have to be like the person, but I’m seeing more and more that the way to get ahead is to really build those personal connections. And so it’s basically chronicling my journey of starting a...
If you love Kia Bondurant, you’ll love this podcast episode! Matt interviews Kia about her New Year’s tradition. Kia chooses a word of the year, every year. Kia tried it first with her best friend in 2011, then her husband, Andy and the first time was totally off the cuff. Her first word was “create”. Her second year/word was “stewardship” to step up her care of things. Listen in to hear more of Kia’s words for each year and how she looks back on how her words changed her life. In 2015, Kia also picked a word for her studio, in addition to her personal life. In 2018, Kia’s personal word was “words”, which she expected to be about writing and reading. But 2018 is the year Matt and Kia started this podcast! Kia’s word for the studio was “double” and this year she is purchasing her studio building and doubling her square footage. The word you pick in January might mean something completely different or new in December. Kia has 6 action points to pick your word of the year, so make sure to take notes!
Pick a word (pray about it – don’t overthink it)
Have faith (your word is going to be important throughout the year)
Look for signs
Take action (tell people about it)
Be creative (putting the word into your life)
Be disciplined
Celebrate how the word made your life better (Bonus)
Link to Andy’s writing/blog about word of the year: http://andybondurant.com/2017/01/18/word-year-2017-whats-word/ (http://andybondurant.com/2017/01/18/word-year-2017-whats-word/)
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Speaker 1: [00:01] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:16] Hey everybody. Welcome back to from nothing to profit. So if you are a big fan of Kaia, this will be your show because this is our new year’s show and if you’re listening to this. When it first came out it came out on New Year’s eve and I wanted to interview Kayak because she does this really cool thing and I’m going to give her the floor to kind of explain it. But her and her husband did this thing every year where they, they come up with a word of the year to kind of focus their business and she told me this a couple of years ago and it kind of just blew my mind when she told me about it. But. And I’m not very good about it, but this is going to be the year I’m going to do it. And so part of the show is to teach you guys all what she’s doing, but also to hold me accountable. So I actually do this year. So Kaya, I’m gonna pass the floor to you. Tell us about this whole a new year’s thing that you do with the word and all that stuff.
Kia: [01:06] Okay. Well, I’m super excited to share this because it’s been something that was a really unexpectedly positive and you know how sometimes you’re like, okay, know I need to do this. It’s going to be so good for me. Especially with the new year. You’re like, I’m gonna lose weight. I’m going to start exercising. I’m going to give up pop, you know, whatever or soda, whatever that type of thing is. And this was actually just something totally off the cuff that we started doing. And I had read it. I, I’m, I’m definitely not the first person to do this at all. I actually knew one of my employees, uh, probably 15 or 20 years ago told me that her mom had her do this every year and what she would do is choose a word and then make a collage out of magazine images that describe to that word and then put it on the wall and look at that all year long.
Kia: [01:58] And I thought, oh,...
Today’s podcast features Jeff Richardson (https://www.instagram.com/richardsonstudio/ (@Richardsonstudios)), who has been in the industry for 24 years and considers himself a maverick. Listen in to learn about Jeff’s upbringing and how that’s translated to his business, such as how being homeschooled caused him to question everything. He’s all about attention to detail and creating extremely good, high end content; including content for ourselves. We need to show what we do, tell our story too. Make sure you catch why Jeff thinks there won’t be a photography industry in the next 24-36 months. Jeff also says it’s important to start and end the day right and he uses the 5 minute journal, morning and night. Jeff’s parting advice is to find one thing to improve, then get after it. Then you can move onto the next thing.
Resources: 5 minute journal (https://amzn.to/2EC872C (https://amzn.to/2EC872C))
App: We Croak (https://www.wecroak.com/ (https://www.wecroak.com/))
Book: Jordan Peterson – 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos (https://amzn.to/2EC89rg (https://amzn.to/2EC89rg))
E-Myth (https://amzn.to/2S8Ulr9 (https://amzn.to/2S8Ulr9))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Matt: [00:01] Hey guys, this is Jeff Richardson and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:06] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Welcome to
Kia: [00:23] from nothing to profit. We are so excited today to be interviewing one of my very closest friends in the photography industry. I feel like he’s kind of my brother Jeff Richardson and Jeff and I met many years ago, probably 20 years ago when we were like probably just out of college and I remember an image that he had photographed and it was at the national senior photographers convention and it was a couple standing on in front of a railroad and they were just draped all over each other super provocative image and jeff was dressed very conservatively and I was like, oh my gosh, I have to get to know this guy. And so anyway, we’re excited to introduce jeff to you. He would call himself a maverick in the photography industry. He’s been a photographer for 24 years and I know he did that. He specializes in luxury portrait photography. So Jeff, we are so excited to have you here today.
Jeff: [01:21] I am pumped to be here. This is super exciting. And Are you hearing me right now?
Matt: [01:26] Yeah, you’re coming through just fine. So I have known each other for a number of years as well. We spoke at some conferences together and uh, yeah, he’s an amazing person to be around and I don’t. Jeff, I don’t know if I’ve ever. If I ever appreciate you while I’m with you, that’s amazing actually. But I know I appreciate you when you’re not around me because the mental game that you cause when I’m not around you, like from conversation, like we’re having a conversation at a conference and I’m like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I leave and my mind is going a million miles an hour. Is this still weird?
Jeff: [02:05] You’re like, wait, what did he say? Oh crap. Oh my God. Yeah, that’s A. Oh, I would say we have a very rich history in the photography industry would be put in it. We put it mildly. Right, right. I’m, uh, I’m, I’m very passionate about our history. I think it’s fantastic and lots of good things in the future, that’s for sure. So yeah, I’m pumped to be on this with you guys. I see what you guys are doing. It’s very cool. The consistency is already...
In this podcast, Kia interviews Matt about goal setting. He compares goal setting to creating a road map so you know what opportunities to take throughout the year. He recommends brainstorming everything you want to accomplish for 5 minutes, dreaming huge and small. Think about where you want to be 3 months, 3 years, and a lifetime from now to give you short term and long term goals. Listen in to learn more about SMART goals. Matt also has specific questions he uses to reflect on the past to help shape the future; you’ll want to take notes! Then Matt explains how he turns his goals into action plans so he can accomplish them.
Resources – Questions Matt uses to reflect What was the best part of 2018? What was the lesson learned from that? What was the most challenging part of 2018? What was the lesson learned from that? Who & How did you positively influence someone in 2018? Who made you laugh most in 2018? Who or what were you most grateful for in 2018? What still feels incomplete to you? What will you do to handle it? What would you change about how you managed your stress in 2018? What do you wish you would have done differently this year? What are you most proud of in regards to your finances in 2018? Where did you find the most peace and calm in 2018? What advice would you give yourself at the beginning of 2018? What will you do less of in 2019? What important relationship do you want to improve the most next year? What do I most want to be thankful for 1 year from now? What do I want to become an expert in the next year? What are you most excited about for the next year?
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Speaker 1: [00:01] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Hello everyone.
Kia: [00:18] Welcome to from nothing to profit. Today is our goal setting show and I’m Kia bonderant and I am going to be interviewing Matt Hoagland about how he sets the goals throughout the year and I’m super excited because I have some ways that I do goal setting, but it’s not my main thing that I do where we have our new year’s show. We talked about word of the year and that’s really my way of starting the year. So Matt, I’m super excited to hear what you have to say about goal setting.
Matt: [00:50] Yeah, it’s really fun. This is something I felt like I kind of thrive in. I would love to know what my wife and employees think, whether I thrive in it or not, but it definitely helps me a lot and I feel like it moves our business forward in a major way. So yeah, I’m excited to share what I have to offer.
Kia: [01:06] Okay. So tell us about like what you do when you set goals.
Matt: [01:10] Yeah, so I think it’s important to set goals every year because it’s kind of like, for me it’s like a roadmap, you know, it’s really hard to know where you’re going unless you have a map to kind of tell you where to go. So it, it goal setting starts as the start of the process of figuring out what the roadmap is for the year. But, and part of the reason that happens in the roadmap happens is because you’re establishing priorities as soon as you say these are my goals and there’s actually I think a bigger part than goals which is called, which I call an action plan, but we’ll get to that in a second. But it establishes your priorities so that you can start looking at the world, your business, whatever it is, through a certain lens and decide like, okay, all this stuff coming at me. Like what actually, what do I need to pay attention to? Because you know, as
Today’s podcast we talk with Shalem Kitter, who owns The Studio in Anchorage, Alaska. He and his husband, Mitch, also started, and are continuing, the Love is Love Project. Shalem specializes in senior portraits with fashion projects on the side. He tells us about how he doesn’t think he’d still be in business (due to being in year four of a recession) without the strong systems they’ve built. They’ve made desk manuals (they call them the Studio Bible) for their staff to ensure their clients get a consistent and positive experience, every time. They make sure their clients never leave a touch point empty handed – you’ll want to hear about this!
Shalem also tells us about how they made sure to pay themselves first and how important that is. He recommends we stop looking at other photographers work and focus on making our clients evangelists for our studios.
Online Resource: http://Creativemarket.com (Creativemarket.com) – weekly freebies
Book: Emyth by Michael Gerber – https://amzn.to/2S7zt3k (https://amzn.to/2S7zt3k)
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Shalem: [00:00] This is Shalem Kitter and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:20] Hey everybody. Welcome to back to the podcast. So today we have shamed kitter who was one of my good friends that lives in Anchorage, Alaska on the show. So let me just give a quick introduction if you guys haven’t seen him, seen his work or follow him. So Shalan and his shame and his husband live in Anchorage, Alaska and they do some really, really amazing work. They mostly specialize in senior portraits, but they’ve been in publishing and tons of magazines and like legit magazines like cosmo girl on American Salon and stuff like that. And then they’ve also. They’ve also been featured on the Huffington Post, buzzfeed and advocate because they did this amazing project called the love is love project. I guess it’s still an active project. [inaudible]. You guys still work on it regularly, so it’s called the love is love project. And it was an, it was like a nationwide photo project promoting equal rights and marriage and equality, but Shannon and I have been friends for awhile. We, um, we met years ago speaking together and we’ve kept in touch ever since. We actually text each other quite often. And so I was really excited to have you on the podcast and so you can tell us exactly what’s working now for you guys and what’s going on in Anchorage.
Kia: [01:31] I’m so excited that you’re here and I am assuming we’ll hear a little bit of it, but I feel like you and I’ve always kind of shared a love of like trends and fashion and that type of thing. And so, um, yeah, I’m super excited to hear all of it. I’m excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Very good. So, uh, our first question for you is to share a little bit about what your area of expertise is, what you’re known for, I kind of thing
Shalem: [01:57] then this winding journey for me in the industry, I’ve kind of gone to a lot of different portions of portrait photography, but now I’ve really settled into senior portraits and I kind of differentiate myself by doing some fashion projects as well to kind of build a, a unique brand.
Matt: [02:16] So you and you did a bunch of pro, uh, when you say fashion, you did a bunch of hair stuff for awhile. I don’t know if you’re still doing that, but I know you used some of your fascia...
This week, we talk to Darty Hines, co-owner of SYNC, Senior & Youth National Conference (See Below for a Discount Code). Both Kia & Matt attended Darty’s classes back when they were first starting their businesses. Darty has been in the industry for 25 years. 15 years ago, he was known for doing cool sets with high school seniors. In more recent years, he’s known for social media marketing education.
What’s working right now for Darty, is listening to his clients. He says we’re quick to jump on a trend, without asking if that’s what our clients want. Darty uses Survey monkey to find one or two things to really make the experience better the next time.
Darty and his wife Michelle are fired up about the hope in the industry right now. Listen in to hear the best advice Darty ever got, including “The next person to speak, loses.” and “The last dollar spent is the most important one.” and how he implements this advice.
Darty also talks about not getting on FB first thing in the morning and bookmarking groups so you don’t get distracted by your timeline. Darty says to remember to post something uplifting and positive.
That is just a few of the tips from this interview. Listen in for all the knowledge that Darty handed out.
Online resources: Instagram scheduler “Later” (https://later.com/ (https://later.com/))
Books:
struggle by Craig Groeschel (https://amzn.to/2TEkBee (https://amzn.to/2TEkBee))
Content Inc – Joe Pulizzi (https://amzn.to/2SdlBoa (https://amzn.to/2SdlBoa))
https://photopodcast.co/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/45633469_10160865616410198_5853321988088528896_o.jpg ()
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Darty: [00:01] This is Darty Heinz and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Welcome everybody. We are so excited today
Kia: [00:23] to be interviewing Darty Heinz and Heinz is the co owner of the senior portrait conference sync, which is. Oh Gosh, what is it? Seniors
Darty: [00:37] Senior and Youth national conference. Be original player. Okay.
Kia: [00:40] So sync. And it was originally senior and youth national conference and it is a actually right now my favorite conference to go to every year. Uh, I love photographing high school seniors and spending time with photographers that have been in it for awhile or are very, uh, are new, but they’re very committed to their photography business and Darty and his wife Michelle run that has a social and media marketing expertise with his multiple businesses and he lives in Pennsylvania and I know Darty from when he won. The senior photographers have senior photographer of the year nationally. Um, I don’t know how many years ago that was, but I was very impressed with him and actually I just thought of this, my first class that I ever attended for photographers to you were there and I wasn’t even a photographer yet at the time.
Matt: [01:34] Let me, let me tell my story.
Kia: [01:36] Okay, sorry. Sorry. Okay. Matt, you go.
Matt: [01:38] So the first class I ever attended and the industry was Darty and Coleen’s a three day jumpstart class before imaging like 11 years ago. So we had just gotten to the industry, we’re in there maybe like three months and using like our startup money to figure out what we’re doing. And we’re like well we need to go to imaging. And I was like, well we should do these econ classes so we can go there as long as possible. And so I signed up for three days with you guys and you were the, you were the first real, like...
Today Vicki Taufer tells about what is working now in her business. Vicki has been in the industry almost 20 years now. She focuses on artistic portraiture, located in Morton, Illinois (pumpkin capital of the world). Vicki teaches internationally and values work life balance. Work life balance constantly changes and just being aware of trying to be balanced is important. She went from 300 sessions/year, 9 employees, to Vicki being the only full time employee and being more hands on. Now Vicki goes into the client’s home and does design work, producing some of their highest sales over the past 20 years.
“I’m working smarter, not harder”
Vicki is hopeful about our industry as she’s getting higher sales than ever, offering full service experiences clients aren’t getting elsewhere. Doing things you can’t duplicate with snapshots on phones gives clients things they are willing to pay for.
Vicki tells us about what it was like starting their business 20 years ago, and what to do and not do. She received the advice “hire slowly, fire quickly” and highly recommends following that advice. She also talks about how much more profitable in person sales are than online sales and not leaving money on the table as the client doesn’t know what their images will look like large on their walls if you don’t show them.
Resources: WHCC Podcast by Jed Taufer “This Conversation” https://conversation.whcc.fm/ (https://conversation.whcc.fm/)
WHCC card editor – https://www.whcc.com/products/cards (https://www.whcc.com/products/cards)
WHCC inspiration guides: https://www.whcc.com/inspiration (https://www.whcc.com/inspiration)
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Vicki: [00:00] Hey, this is Vicki Taufer and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Good morning everyone.
Kia: [00:22] We are so excited that you are here. It may not be morning where you are, but it is where we are and we are interviewing one of my favorite people in the world today. Her name is Vicky topher and she has been involved in the photography industry for almost 20 years now. She focuses on artistic portraiture and loves to photograph people, pets and she does a lot of commercial shoots as well. She is located in Morton, Illinois right now, although she shoots all over the country and she has a passion for people. Her camera journey has taken her all over the world and if you follow her you’ll see that she’s taught internationally, traveled internationally, and her goal right now is a healthy work life balance and I bet you that that’s something that we’re going to talk quite a bit about.
Matt: [01:14] Well, awesome. Welcome Vicky. So tell me a little bit more. So where do you live in Illinois is like more like central Illinois. It’s a suburb of Chicago.
Vicki: [01:21] Tell me more. Yeah, yeah, we are in central Illinois and the small or smaller town that both my husband and I grew up in. You know, we’ve moved around a little bit but have ended up back here. It’s about 17,000 people a couple of hours south of Chicago, a couple of hours north of St Louis.
Matt: [01:39] Awesome. Yeah, I, when I was in college, my buddy, his parents moved to decatur and so we every break we have, we would drive out to the cater like and like 16 hours on had all the way out there. It was, it was actually a lot of fun, but I probably wouldn’t move to decatur, but it was, it was a cool experience to have in common.
Vicki: [01:57] Right. And that’s about an hour from...
In this episode, we talk to Heather Bookout. She specializes in story themed session experiences. You may have heard about the Santa experience but she does something similar to it all year long and at a whole other level. She has a really unique way of making sure she has quality clients as well as quantity, don’t miss it. She also has the most amazing way of dealing with the stories we tell ourselves. If you have ever told yourself that you are not good enough or struggle with self-doubt when you are not busy, listen up because Heather has got it figured out.
She also teaches photographers how to get organized. Here is a link to a free resources that will get you started: Top 10 ways to optimize your photography business http://bookoutstudios.com/coach (http://bookoutstudios.com/coach)
Internet Resource: Guided Meditations by Summer McStravick – overnight riches: https://flowdreaming.com/shop/overnight-riches-meditation-playlist.html (https://flowdreaming.com/shop/overnight-riches-meditation-playlist.html)
Book: The Big Leap: Conquer your hidden fear… by Gay Hendricks (https://amzn.to/2RUoASk (https://amzn.to/2RUoASk))
Read Full Transcript
Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Heather: [00:00] This is heather bookout and you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Welcome to from nothing
Kia: [00:21] profit. We are so excited today because we are talking with heather bookout from Huntsville, Alabama and she and her husband Ben Own bookout studios and they have been in business for the past 17 years. What I’m so excited about with heather is she’s probably one of the most creative photographers I know and whenever you look on like social media and Instagram, I feel like it’s just like regurgitation over and over and over of the same thing and whenever I see what heather’s doing, it’s just out of the box. Totally different but still so connected to what’s in style and really works with her clients. And so we’re excited to hear what heather has to say about being profitable and I hope that she’ll add in about being creative as well.
Matt: [01:10] Yeah and heather, I didn’t know much about you before, you know, Kinda brought you to my attention and you do some really, really amazing stuff. I mean on instagram and stuff like that. And then I, as you and I were talking leading up to this, we’ve talked over the last couple of weeks and I realized like how much of an operation you really have going, like when you guys are doing huge amounts of sales and it’s, it seems like it’s very planned but it’s very high in volume. I don’t even know how to describe it so I’m going to let you describe it, but it seems like you got really an amazing business in Alabama for sure.
Heather: [01:41] Thank you so much. We are, I’m so excited to be here. Um, that is something that I love, that I’m super passionate about is being creative and being profitable. So I am excited to talk about both of those things. I think it’s gonna be great.
Matt: [01:53] All right. But before we jump, go too far, tell us about your new puppy.
Heather: [01:57] Okay. So we just adapted a Beagle, uh, this weekend.
Matt: [02:02] So they have a southern, doesn’t have a southern accent yet.
Heather: [02:04] Well possibly. And we did name her rosie and we already have another dog that’s a Jack Russel Beagle mix and her name is barley. So we have a barley and rosie now and, and they are just so
In this episode, we talk to Lori Nordstrom. Lori started her first business at 16 years old. She’s been a photographer for over 20 years and recently intentionally began to downsize her photography business and start teaching/coaching more. However, she discovered a hole that needed to be filled, which is personal brand photography. Awesome to have her perspective on this niche in addition to Scott’s last week.
You’ll love this episode because Lori is fired up about the widening gap between “everybody is a photographer” and the “luxury photographer” and talks about how to step up and serve.
She also has some amazing tips on how to stay business focused and talks how important planning is. She says, “You do have to wear that business hat a lot of the time, 80/20 rule. 80 percent of the time you have to think like a business owner, not an artist.”
She talks about her morning routine and how the people she watches and learns from all have morning routines. Kia and Matt add some comedy and good advice.
Resources from Lori Nordstrom: https://www.simplyblessed.life/ (Simplyblessed.life) – freebie download
https://www.facebook.com/SimplyBlessedBiz/ (Lori’s FB group) – Simply Blessed Life – live on Wednesday’s
https://fundydesigner.com/ (Fundy Designer) – album & wall designer
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/first-5/id997457664?mt=8 (First Five App) (5 minutes bible study)
Books that Lori Recommends: Miracle Morning – Hal Elrod (https://amzn.to/2PVI88s (https://amzn.to/2PVI88s))
Millionaire Habits (https://amzn.to/2PQDU1I (https://amzn.to/2PQDU1I))
Millionaire Morning (https://amzn.to/2D0UNE4 (https://amzn.to/2D0UNE4))
Other Resources Additional Free Resources at http://www.matthoaglin.com (MattHoaglin.com)
Read Full Transcript
TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Lori: [00:00] Hi, this is Lori Nordstrom and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:05] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Matt: [00:20] [inaudible] everybody. Welcome to from nothing to profit. So on today’s show we have Lori Nordstrom and I’m really excited to have Laura on the show because Laura has been in the photo industry for more than 20 years and recently she’s actually made a pretty big pivot in her business and she’s moved on to some coaching stuff and sold her business. And I just think it’s a real, it’s gonna be a really interesting conversation to see what her business has become because 10 years ago when I got another business, Laura was really big in the industry. She was onstage all the time. Allison, I learned a lot from her in the law, you know, last five years we’ve worked with Laurie more on a personal basis and really got some great nuggets of information from her. Um, but it’ll be interesting to see where she thinks the industry is going, see where her journey’s taken her, see how her coaching stuff is going and I’m just super excited. So welcome Lorrie.
Lori: [01:09] Thanks. Thanks for having me. And Hi Kai.
Kia: [01:13] We’re excited that you’re here, Lori, you, I think the wonderful thing about you is that you’ve been in kind of all parts of the photography business and I think you can speak to people on all levels and so I think this is really going to be fun to hear what you have to say. So I think, Matt, where are you going to ask Laura to share with us just a little bit more about herself and her areas of expertise?
Matt: [01:36] Yeah, I think I just, I want to know more about...
Today we interview Scott Wyden Kivowitz. Learn about his story of working full time at Imagely, the wordpress photography people (https://www.imagely.com/ (https://www.imagely.com/)) and part time as a photographer. It is important for Scott to continue to love photography, which is why he keeps it part-time.
Scott is starting to shift his business to personal brand photography, a fast growing genre. He says, “There’s the potential for a personal brand photographer to make the same, or more than, a wedding photographer. There’s actually a lot less time away from the family and you gain your weekends back.” The opportunities here are limitless.
Scott also uses lead generation to find the clients he wants to work with and refers the rest out. Some really great tips here.
You can follow Scott on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/scottwyden/ (https://www.instagram.com/scottwyden/) and also on his website https://scottwyden.com/ (https://scottwyden.com/)
Books that Scott Recommends: All Gary Vaynerchuck Books, especially:
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook (https://amzn.to/2D2LBiL (https://amzn.to/2D2LBiL))
Ask Gary Vee (https://amzn.to/2PQs1Zs (https://amzn.to/2PQs1Zs))
Resources from the show: Scott has podcast – wordpress photography podcast – about websites and using them for business. Check it out here: https://www.imagely.com/podcast (https://www.imagely.com/podcast)
Scott’s Lead Generation class: https://scottwyden.com/lead-generation-course (https://scottwyden.com/lead-generation-course)
Coupon: FNTP for 20% off
Coupon is valid until 12/31/18
Jamie’s Swanson Personal Brand info: https://www.personalbrandphotography.com/ (https://www.personalbrandphotography.com/) Additional Free Resources at http://www.matthoaglin.com (MattHoaglin.com)
Read Full Transcript
TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Scott: [00:01] This is Scott Wyden Kivowitz and you are listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:04] Welcome to from nothing to profit a photographers podcast with Matt and Kayak where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Welcome
Kia: [00:20] to go from nothing to profit hosted by Matt Hoagland and Kira bonderant. We are so excited to welcome Scott Wyden Kivowitz today, and here we go.
Scott: [00:32] Scott is a father, photographer, blogger, and educator from New Jersey. A storyteller. What? The camera growing up, he was always photographed by his parents and his grandparents while playing in bands. He started photographing bands that played at the same event he decided years ago to document the lives of others so that they can enjoy and be cherished forever. Scott offers family portraits, cakes, mass essence headshots and personal brand photography to his local clients. He’s also the chief community officer at imagely, the photo press photography people. He’s also the chief community officer at imagely, the wordpress photography people. So welcome Scott. Thanks for having me. So is there anything else after reading your bio that we kind of missed about you, that you wanted to include? I mean, do you want to say a little bit more about imagery or anything like that? Sure. Um, so, so I am a part time professional photographer.
Scott: [01:20] I decided years ago to, to not go full time with it, uh, for various reasons, which I’m sure we’ll get into. But I am working, I do work full time frame. Actually imagely makes plugins and themes for photographers, turnkey sites for photographers, things like that basically were just, uh, we call ourselves the wordpress photography people for a reason. We are just anything that our photographer needs and wordpress, that is...
Ever sold an iPhone picture in an album? Maybe you should. John Pyle explains why…
In this episode, we talk to John Pyle. John Pyle specializes in senior portraits, lifestyle photos and model work. He’s been a photographer for over 10 years and recently became a licensed drone pilot.
You’ll love this episode because John has a psychology Masters degree and has some really fascinating views on human interaction.
He also has some amazing tips on how to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to pop culture (important for senior photographers) and how to keep your photographs fresh and on point.
John talks about how he uses different mediums to photograph a senior such as his DSLR, his iPhone, a mirrorless camera, a go pro, and a drone. He also talks about some of the companies he uses for his albums and products. Plus how to make great money in the senior portrait industry using social media.
Resources from this episode: Finao Albums (https://www.finao.com/ (https://www.finao.com/))
Flipboard app (https://about.flipboard.com/ (https://about.flipboard.com/))
Joe Rogan’s Podcast (http://podcasts.joerogan.net/ (http://podcasts.joerogan.net/))
Books that John Pyle Recommends: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos By Jordan Peterson (https://amzn.to/2NQimQX (https://amzn.to/2NQimQX))
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles By Steven Pressfield (https://amzn.to/2SarHqi (https://amzn.to/2SarHqi))
Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink (https://amzn.to/2q2UHDz (https://amzn.to/2q2UHDz))
Additional Free Resources at http://www.matthoaglin.com (MattHoaglin.com)
Read Full Transcript
TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
John: [00:01] Hey, this is John Pyle, you’re listening to from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: [00:04] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster.
Kia: [00:20] Welcome everyone to from nothing to profit with Matt Hogan and Kia Bonderant. Today we are interviewing John Pile and we’re looking forward to a very entertaining and educational interview. John Pile is an award winning professional portrait model and lifestyle photographer in Columbus, Georgia and he specializes in senior portrait experiences and you will love his lifestyle work too as well. You can check him out on instagram and you’ll see a lot of great work under John d pile and we’ll talk about that later. John has been a photographer for over 10 years and I have to tell you that I’m pretty sure that he talked on the phone to my husband about starting his photography business at the very beginning. So I’ve seen John grow in the industry to be in one of the best photographers out there and he is also a licensed commercial drone pilot. And he is married to Sally Ann and has two little girls who are nine and five. Oh my gosh. They’re really grown up John.
John: [01:24] No.
Matt: [01:26] And there’s one more thing we can talk about. John, how about those bulk? How about those bulldogs? They look real good, don’t they?
John: [01:32] We look awesome but we haven’t been tested
Matt: [01:36] so we’ll see. But
John: [01:39] Lsu away. Huge. We will say, but we look great right now. I don’t mind that.
Matt: [01:44] Right, exactly. And by winning by a lot. So
John: [01:47] yeah, I’ll try.
Matt: [01:48] Awesome. Anything else you want to share with us, John, about, about yourself or we can even just jump right in and you can kind of tell us what your expertise is and what people should be watching.
John: [01:58] Yeah, maybe...
Today we interview Rose Coleman. Learn about her story of growing up in the industry and after years, switching from a boutique photography studio model to a volume studio based on club sports. She said no to overhead and yes to profit.
It is important for Rose and her husband to stay debt free. She shares some great ideas on how to have less debt and more profit. As Rose says in this episode, it is all about the money you keep not the money you make.
Rose is known for photographing athletes, sports, dancers, and gymnastics. Where she makes piles of cash is photographing 11 club teams in one night. Listen to her explain why this is such a profitable business model.
You can follow Rose on Instagram at @RoseColeman or @centerstageportraits and also on her website https://www.centerstageportraits.com/ (https://www.centerstageportraits.com/)
Books from the Episode Strength Finders 2.0 https://amzn.to/2PwMIcJ (https://amzn.to/2PwMIcJ)
Brendon Burchard https://amzn.to/2CkdlxW (https://amzn.to/2CkdlxW)
Girl Wash Your Face https://amzn.to/2NH87hH (https://amzn.to/2NH87hH)
Other Resources Matt’s Ant Farm YouTube side note:
https://www.youtube.com/user/AntsCanada (https://www.youtube.com/user/AntsCanada)
Additional Free Resources at http://www.matthoaglin.com (MattHoaglin.com)
Read Full Transcript
Rose: https://www.temi.com/editor/t/ghCVUCynedX9jYw5dL401Tqr1lliRs_K85g618EMxKS1Sh-l2kGpq8-V1Ea3j6eoftN6D-39W7ArfsdYIFRb3AU_HEk?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=1.02 ([00:01]) This is Rose Coleman and you’re listening from nothing to profit.
Speaker 2: https://www.temi.com/editor/t/ghCVUCynedX9jYw5dL401Tqr1lliRs_K85g618EMxKS1Sh-l2kGpq8-V1Ea3j6eoftN6D-39W7ArfsdYIFRb3AU_HEk?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=3.98 ([00:03]) Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Today
Kia: https://www.temi.com/editor/t/ghCVUCynedX9jYw5dL401Tqr1lliRs_K85g618EMxKS1Sh-l2kGpq8-V1Ea3j6eoftN6D-39W7ArfsdYIFRb3AU_HEk?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=20.11 ([00:20]) we are going to be interviewing Rose Coleman and rose has been part of the photography industry for over 18 years. I’m going to say more than that because she’s actually grown up in the industry and I’ve known her for forever it seems like, and I’m so excited to have her on here. She’s a as, as I said, she’s grown up in the industry and been a part of it, but what she’s done as a business owner, after her second child was born, she left behind the boutique studio business model and created a fast paced sports photos, photography company with her husband in 2015. She is known for her clean, beautiful work with dancers, gymnastics and athletes. And if you follow her on Instagram, you’ll see some of that amazing work. And just recently she and her husband purchased a five acre homestead that they are going to live on with their three darling children and they plan to create their dream studio there. So I’m assuming it’s going to go back somewhat to the boutique business model but still incorporate her love of sports photography. Is that true rose?
Rose: https://www.temi.com/editor/t/ghCVUCynedX9jYw5dL401Tqr1lliRs_K85g618EMxKS1Sh-l2kGpq8-V1Ea3j6eoftN6D-39W7ArfsdYIFRb3AU_HEk?loadFrom=DocumentDeeplink&ts=91.66 ([01:31]) Yes. We have been looking for a piece of commercial property and rent is very expensive and so kind of our business model has a lot to do with just our financials, like kind of more more of our decisions as we’ve kind of grown and evolved has been majority focused on like is this profitable enough? Like when we were in the large studios space, um, a lot of it went to general expenses and employees and overhead and upkeep of things. And as we continue to kind of move forward and we...
http://www.matthoaglin.com (www.matthoaglin.com)
http://www.allisonragsdalephotography.com (www.allisonragsdalephotography.com)
@allisonragsdale
In this episode Matt Hoaglin talks about how running paid instagram, Facebook and Snapchat ads is making a huge difference in his business. Tune in to learn how he is converting these ads into paying customers.
Here is a free video on what he is doing: https://get.matthoaglin.com/get-clients-now-video/
Matt also talks about how he is seeing some photographers go back to a 9-5 job and why that is good and bad for you.
Resources:
Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University (https://www.daveramsey.com/fpu)
Books to Read:
Profit First: http://a.co/d/7sj5fEq (http://a.co/d/7sj5fEq)
Book yourself Solid: http://a.co/d/5ojewWv (http://a.co/d/5ojewWv)
Never eat alone: http://a.co/d/1K3CUtH (http://a.co/d/1K3CUtH)
Online Resources
DigitalMarketer.com
Digit App: http://a.co/d/1K3CUtH (http://a.co/d/1K3CUtH)
Read Full Transcript
TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Intro: [00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia, where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Okay. Welcome back everyone.
Kia: [00:17] Two from nothing to profit. This is Kia Bondurant and I’m going to be interviewing my cohost, Matt Hoaglin today. Hi Matt. How are you? Very good. So I, uh, we already recorded my interview and I didn’t know if I would like this as much, but I think I like being the boss better. I’m like, Ooh, now I’m in charge, so I get to talk about you.
Matt: [00:42] That’s, that’s perfect. You can be in charge of whatever you want, like we talked about in your interview. I can outsource everything to you.
Kia: [00:51] That’s funny. No. So I’m Matt, you and your wife Allison Ragsdale, photography and drink. Oh, Colorado. And that supports both of you and allison. Uh, even though she’s not on this, we’ll talk about her. She’s fantastic. She never wanted to do anything besides be a photographer. So she started out being a photographer from the very beginning. Is that right?
Matt: [01:13] Right from the very beginning she went to college and got her degree in photography and we started the business like the week she got out of college
Kia: [01:19] and so you’re more like me. You actually, we both have education degrees, although yours is a high school math and you managed a camera store and now you run the marketing and the operations of your photography studio.
Matt: [01:33] Yeah, exactly. So Alice and I actually met at that camera store, her part time job when she was so cool. Was that the camera store? So we met there and started dating and then eventually moved to Durango and got married and built. Built a business and stuff together. But yeah, so I taught high school math for awhile, which was really awesome. But I’m really glad I stopped doing that at the same time. Yeah. Now I just run like, like you said, operations and marketing for our business. So make sure that the phone rings in the calendar, gets booked so that she can go out and photograph.
Kia: [02:01] Yeah. And you’re able to build your life around what you love to do.
Matt: [02:05] So one of my passions, just total side note, one of my passions is fly fishing and so what I love about the business that we’ve built as I’m a I, I fly fish at least one day a week if not more. That’s awesome because I can do it on a random Wednesday when there’s nobody else on the river and I love the business that we built and the...
In Episode 001 we interview Kia Bondurant. Kia Bondurant has been a full time professional portrait photographer for over 20 years. With her experience of owning a large successful business and recently starting a new portrait studio from scratch, she wants to share HOPE for the photography industry!
One of the first things we talk about is what seniors are looking for today. You may be surprised at what she is seeing.
A really neat thing Kia does each year is she has three words for the studio. This helps guide her in decisions for what she is going to do each year. Listen in to hear what three words she picked for 2018. This is such a simple task that you can do to grow your business.
Next, we talk about why you should and should not copy other photographers. Tune in to see what Kia thinks is the difference.
If you are new to the industry, Kia talks about how new photographers should value their work and time. Some really great tips here.
If you have had a business for a while, listen as Kia talks about what it takes to hire people and why it is important.
Books Kia Recommends:
EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey (https://amzn.to/2zApvAU (http://a.co/d/iwLnXkV))
E-Myth by Michael Gerber (https://amzn.to/2Qhdmqh (https://amzn.to/2Qhdmqh))
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life by Cloud and Townsend (https://amzn.to/2R2o6tT (https://amzn.to/2R2o6tT))
Link Kia’s Giveaway
Coming Soon
Read Full Transcript
TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Intro: [00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Everybody. Welcome to episode one,
Matt: [00:17] Kia Bondurant. Today Kia Bondurant has been a full time photographer for 20 years. She has experience in owning a very large studio and recently starting a new brand new portrait studio from scratch and I know from speaking with her in the past that she’s always trying to bring hope to the photography industry and I know she will today. One of the first things we talked about is what are seniors looking for today and I think you’ll be surprised what she’s seen and she has some really great tips if you’re new to the photography business and you want to figure out how to value your work and your time, and she also has some great tips for people that have been around for awhile in terms of hiring new people and why it’s important to have a staff. So let’s jump right in it.
Kia: [00:56] Yeah, I thank you Matt for asking me to do this. I have wanted to share more often and in a more structured way, like a podcast for quite a long time and I just was too nervous to make it happen myself. So when you asked and gave me the opportunity, I was super excited. There’s so much that we can give back to the industry and to help make the industry better in the future and so I can’t wait. Can’t wait.
Matt: [01:22] Sure, I agree. I mean you’ve been in the industry for 20 years and I’ve been in the industry for 11 years and I just think there’s so many photographers out there that, you know, feel alone and really could use some expertise from people that have kind of been through what they’re going through now and just kind of maybe give them the shortcut or just given us some really solid advice on what they should be doing in their business. So let’s jump right in real quick. So if I were to introduce you to somebody, how would you, what would you say you would be? You’re known for in the industry or you know, what are people, when they think of your brand,...
In this Episode, Matt and Kia tell you a little about why they started the podcast and what to expect.
Read Full Transcript
TRANSCRIPTION: Transcription was done by Temi.com which means it’s an AI generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar and other errors, and is not a substitute for watching the video.
Intro: [00:00] Welcome to from nothing to profit, a photographer’s podcast with Matt and Kia where each week they talk to photographers about what is working in their business now so you can swipe those ideas and grow your business faster. Alright, welcome everybody to episode zero.
New Speaker: [00:16] This episode, me and Kia is going to be telling the story about where we come from and why we created this podcast. Kia, real quick, do you want to tell a quick story about where about your story and where you come from and stuff?
Kia: [00:27] Yes. I am super excited to do this. I have been a full time professional portrait photographer for over 20 years and I feel like the industry really needs people to inject hope into it and to give people ideas of how to make it a viable business.
Matt: [00:44] No, and I completely agree with that. I. That’s exactly why I’m doing this as well. So my wife Allison and I have owned a studio in Durango, Colorado for 10 years, I guess almost 11 years now and doing it full time as well. And I reached out to you about doing this podcast because I just thought, excuse me, I thought you were someone that you know, runs a studio full time that has been on the, you know, through the grind of running a business and could really help me, like you said, it bring hope to the industry as well. So yeah. Why, why me? Why should the audience be listening to us?
Kia: [01:16] Well, I think it’s interesting that you talked about why you reached out to me to do this and I would have to say I feel like we bring different things to the table whereas I have the experience and I’m the actual photographer in the business. I feel like you bring the ability to look at things from a technical aspect and figure out how to make it go more smoothly.
Matt: [01:39] Yeah. It wasn’t. Just to give a little bit of background on that, my wife Alison does all the shooting. I mean I, I go on a few weddings a year with her, but we’re mostly a senior portrait studio and she does all the shooting. So my job is to get the phone to ring and make sure that the calendar is booked. You’re right. Like while she’s out on a shoot, thinking about lighting and stuff like that, I’m more like figuring out systems to make us run more efficient so we have time off.
Kia: [02:01] Yeah. Yeah. And I have been. My roles in the business have definitely included the advertising and the marketing, but I definitely look at the photography business as a, as a whole more so. And I look at it definitely more visually that would, that’s the way that I think is more from a visual aspect. I’m excited because I feel like when you take both of our experience and you bring in the people that we’ve met throughout the years in the industry, I think we’ll be able to bring a lot of great, really practical steps that people can do to make their business better.
Matt: [02:35] Right. And that’s exactly what my goal too is like you and I have so many friends in the industry, we, we speak from the same stage very often, you know, like I’ll, I’ll fly into town into. You’ll be able to speak in the morning, I’ll be speaking the afternoon and stuff and we have so many friends that offer so many great things for businesses, but I don’t know if there’s. There’s really a great outlet right now to let people know like those, those little nuggets of what makes your business work right now. So kind of my goal was to bring one of our friends or somebody from the industry, maybe even somebody...